PHYSICAL FEATURES.
The surface of this town is varied by the long range of Schunnemunk Mountains, forming the eastern boundary, with its level ridges reaching to the height of about 1,600 feet, and the beautiful foothills of Woodcock, Round Hill, Mosquito, Raynor and Peddler. The last two have deposits of magnetic iron ore, which mixed with the ores from other parts of the county was used in making the Parott guns during the War of the Rebellion. The cultivated land is also broken and rolling, some upon quite high hills, whose sides were not cultivated, and are covered with luxuriant blue grass pastures, and along the streams and the lower lands are beautiful natural meadows, which bring their annual tribute of hay into the barns, and add very much to the beauty of the scenery.
The Greycourt or Cromeline Creek runs from Walton Lake by the base of Goose Pond Mountain, through the Greycourt meadows and the picturesque falls at Craigville, through Farmingdale and Hulsetown, and is joined near the Hamptonburgh line by the Otterkill; near Washingtonville by the Tappan or Schunnemunk Creek, flowing from Sattterly's Mills; also by the Silver stream draining a portion of Blagg's Clove, and furnishing at the old Coleman Mills, the excellent water supply of Washingtonville. The united stream is called Murdner's or Murderer's Creek, to which N. P. Willis gave the more poetical name of "Moodna," where it entered the Hudson near Idlewild. These streams have along their bank beautiful natural meadows dotted with fine old trees, and the hill-tops are covered in places with sugar maple and chestnut trees, making in the early spring time a beautiful picture of varied green, and in the autumn a glorious variety of colors, which, together with the fine apple orchards crowning the hillsides, justifies the name of Blooming Grove.
EARLY SETTLERS.
Vincent Mathews seems to have been the first settler according to the record. He bought the Rip Van Dam Patent, August 22, 1721, and built a grist mill at the place since known as Salisbury. He named this estate "Mathewsfield." Thomas Goldsmith came next, about ten years later, and he took the Mompesson Patent. He built a house on the north bank of the Otterkill, now known as the "Walnut Grove Farm," near the present Washingtonville. Edward Blagg also settled upon this tract, known as "Blagg's Clove" about this time. Mathews sold his mill to John J. Carpenter, which was turned into a powder mill under a State contract in 1776, when under the kindling fires of patriotism the demand for powder became very active.
In 1753 Jesse Woodhull settled in Blagg's Clove, although he seems to have purchased the Richard Van Dam Patent upon which the Moffatt family afterward settled. Mr. Mathews, the original settler, was an attorney, and took an active part in the early history of the town. He sold 1,500 of his acres to Louis Du Bois, of New Paltz, who built a tavern upon it which was kept by Zachariah Du Bois in Revolutionary times.
Prior to 1764 the territory of this town was a part of the Goshen precinct. From that time to 1799 it formed a part of the town of Cornwall. The other prominent settlers of the town are believed to be included in the following list:
John Brewster, Edward, Francis, Isaac, Jesse and Nathan Brewster, Daniel Brewster, George Duryea, Richard Goldsmith, Benjamin Gregory, John Hudson, Henry Hudson, William Hudson, Archibald Little, Timothy, James and Solomon Little; James Mapes, and his sons Wines, Jesse, Robert, James, Barney, David, William and Thomas; Elihu Marvin, a member of the Committee of Safety in 1775, also judge of the county in 1778; Seth, Nathan, James, Jesse and John Marvin; Samuel Moffatt; James and Fletcher Mathews, sons of Vincent Mathews, who was a colonel in the Revolution and a leading citizen; Thomas Moffatt, member of the Committee of Safety from 1778 to 1794; Josiah, Samuel, Jacob, Stephen and Peter Reeder; Israel, Thaddeus, John, Jesse, Josiah and Samuel Seely; Bezaliel Seeley; Selah Strong, the first supervisor of the town; Major Samuel and Captain Nathan Strong; Nathaniel Satterly, member of Committee of Safety in 1775, and proprietor of Satterly's Mills in 1765; John and Selah Satterly; James, Nathaniel and John Sayer; Nathaniel Strong, member of Committee of Safety, who was shot at his door by Claudius Smith, October 6, 1778; Captain Jesse Woodhull, delegate to the first Provincial Convention, and member of the State Convention that revised the federal constitution in 1778; Abner Woodhull, George and Benjamin Whittaker; Silas, Reuben and Birdseye Young; Stephen Mathews, Gilbert, Zachariah and John Du Bois; Hezekiah, Isaiah, Stephen, Isaac, Paul, Zepheniah, Charles, Aaron, Silas and Jeremiah Howell; Benjamin and Thomas Goldsmith; David Coleman, Caleb, Joab, Asahel, Micah, Silas, Richard and Jeremiah Coleman; Thomas, John, Francis and Richard Drake; Nathaniel Coleman; Daniel Curtis; John Chandler; Henry and Oliver Davenport.
Among other family names recorded are those of Carpenter, Moffatt, Owens, Gregg and Wooley. It is said of the Woodhull family that its ancestry is distinctly traced to the individual who came to England from Normandy with William the Conqueror in 1066.
CIVIL ORGANIZATIONS.