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Twenty-Four, Cannon Street, Poughkeepsie
firewood for the Schollers he Subscribed for, to supply the Schoul Convenient with Fire wood Unto which we Enterchaingaby Set Our hands and the number of Schollers or order to Be Set Abraham Adriance 2 Schollers Henry Wiltse 2 Scollers Isaac Adriance 2 Schollers 1/2 Pet( ? ) asi( ? )an.sen 3 Schollers Gore Storm 1 Scholler Gerret Storm 3 Scholler Jurrey Emoch 2 Schollers Joseph Horton 2 Schollers Johannes Wiltse 1 /2
Document endorsed on outer side: "the Articals of the Schoull to be kept by Derick Hagomans in that Schoull House."
When Dutchess County was first set up it was made dependent upon Ulster for civil administration. Ulster had been in existence as a civil unit for some time and had the machinery of government in running order and the connection between the two counties lasted until 1713, when Dutchess had acquired sufficient population to make it possible for her to conduct her affairs for herself.
This state of dependency of Dutchess upon Ulster has frequently been emphasized in published accounts of the two counties but always without the companion fact that, some years after the connection was severed, Dutchess forged ahead of Ulster in population and became in 1771 the second county in the Province of New York. The omission has left behind an implication of inferiority that is untrue to fact and which in justice (not in contention) should be corrected.
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The actual groWth and development of Dutchess in the eighteenth century is reflected in the several censuses taken by the provincial authorities and extracts from those official records are appended below. The figures supply interesting material for the student, raising as they do the question as to what the causes were for the increase in the population of Dutchess and the static condition across the river in Ulster. In the brief space now available in these pages only one of the possible causes can be suggested. That one was the difference in the topographical character of the two counties.
Ulster County consists of mountainous ridges, running north and south, parallel with the Hudson. Settlement was made in the valleys between the ridges. Settlers were closely confined to their homes because inter-communication was difficult. Travel was chiefly north and south, with its principal outlet on the Hudson at the mouth of the Rondout. Ulster was a hive, from which many swarmed out and carried Ulster names far and near, but it received no distinct waves of immigration.
Dutchess, on the other hand, has but one dominant ridge north and south (and that in the extreme eastern portion of the county) . It is rolling country in the main: streams with meadow flats, arable uplands, some woodland. Its outlook is on the Hudson and roads lead from the interior to the river the whole length of its river-frontage. In the eighteenth century the river was the key to the prosperity of the farmer and the farms were swarmed in upon from New England, Long Island, New Jersey and Westchester County.
If the quotations cited below are read in the light of this partial explanation they may take on a life which mere statistics are not supposed to possess. In each census ten counties were listed, except in 1746 when Albany was omitted "because of the Enemy" and in 1771 when twelve were recorded. The figures indicate that from 1723 to 1737 Ulster and Dutchess both grew, with Ulster leading; from 1737 to 1746 both grew but with Dutchess ahead; in 1749 both had declined (perhaps the census-takers were inefficient) ;
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