Dutchess County Men: Philip J. Schuyler

their three sons and their friends spent much of their time here. Mr. Hunt was a member of Congress from New Orleans in 1882 and a distinguished lawyer and professor of law in that city for many years. Born on January first, 1836 he died on August fourteenth 1921 at, New Orleans. His sister Louise had died before him.

Maturin Livingston Delafield had died on the fifth of November, 1917, before Mr. Hunt, so that Montgomery Place passed in August 1921 under Mr. Delafield's will and under the will of Mrs. Barton to his third son John Ross Delafield. He is descended on his father's side from Gertrude wife of General Morgan Lewis and sister of Mrs. Montgomery and of Edward Livingston, and on his mother's side from Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, the brother of Mrs. Montgomery and of Edward Livingston. So the property and all the interesting things it contains are still owned by those as nearly related in blood as can be to the former owners.

With the growing wealth of our country many more magnificent homes have been built in different parts of our country, but the charm of Montgomery Place endears it to those who know it and depends in no small degree on its age and associations.

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AN OLD PARSONAGE

Mr. James Suydam Polhemus of Newark, New Jersey, lias contributed to this issue of the Year Book a picture, taken many years ago, of the house near Hopewell Junction, in which he was born while his father, the Reverend Abraham Polhemus, was pastor of the Dutch church at Hopewell, and which served as a parsonage from 1813 to 1907. The house stands on the east side of the state road that leads :from Hopewell Junction south to Gayhead and in late years many alterations have been made to it so that Mr. Polhemus's gift of the old photograph preserves a record of its appearance in the nineteenth century.

In the early years of its existence the Dutch church at Hopewell shared the services of a domine with other congregations. The Reverend Isaac Rysdyck had joint pastoral charge of the four Dutch churches of Poughkeepsie, Fishkill, New Hackensack and Hopewell from 1765 to 1772 and of the last three, without Poughkeepsie, from 1772 to 1790. For part of that time Mr. Rysdyck presumably lived on a tract of ten acres, which was presented in 1779 by Samuel -Verplanck to the churches of Fishkill, Hopewell and New Hackensack for use as a parsonage. The deed describes the land as lying on the south side of Round Pond, adjoining -Long Pond, and abutting properties of Richard Jackson and John G. Brinckerhoff. Perhaps some of the older residents in the vicinity of Hopewell and New Hackensack can identify the lot. The Reverend Mr. Rysdyck died in 1790 and was buried under the pulpit of the church at New Hackensack.

From 1791 to 1804 the Reverend Nicholas Van Vranken was the pastor of the Dutch congregations of Fishkill, Hopewell and New Hackensack. He lived in a house at Swartwoutville. The house was purchased by the three churches from General Jacobus Swartwout (*hose home it had been for about thirty years) and was probably selected as desirable for the domine's residence because it was eqi-distant in location from the three church buildings.

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In 1806 the church at Fishkill severed connection with Hopewell and New Hackensack and called the Reverend Cornelius D. Westbrook as pastor for itself alone. Hopewell and New Hackensack continued in conjunction and from 1805 to 1810 the Reverend George Barculo was their pastor and occupied the house at Swartwoutville. When Mr. Barcub o left, General Swartwout bought back the 'parsonage as a home for his son. The house is now a semi-ruin but its structural lines can still be traced.

Under date of May 21, 1813, the minutes of the consistory of the Dutch church at New Hackensack record: "The payment for the parsonage was made the 1st of May inst." The entry refers to the purchase, made jointly by the churches of New Hackensack and Hopewell, of the property consisting of seven and three-quarters acres, south of Hopewell Junction, which until 1907 was occupied as parsonageland. It is not known positively whether the house now standing was already built when the churches bought the land or whether the churches erected it. In its architectural features it is ascribable to the first years of the nineteenth century and it was undoubtedly built either shortly before the churches bought the land or by them at the time they made their purchase. It remained the property of the joint congregations of Hopewell and New Hackensack until 1826. In that year the two churches separated and since then each has called its own minister and owned its own parsonage.

Of the occupants of the house shown in the accompanying illustration, the donor of the picture, Mr. Polhemus, writes:

"This house has sheltered a distinguished line of ministers. The Reverend Thomas DeWitt occupied it from 1813 to 1827. He left Hopewell to become a minister of the Collegiate Church in New York City, where he was known as a great preacher and a foremost citizen. Two of his daughters married distinguished residents of New York,—Mr. Theodore Cuyler and Mr. Morris K. Jesup.

"From 1828 to 1835 the Reverend Dr. Whitehead succeeded Dr. DeWitt in the Hopewell parsonage. "The Reverend Abraham Polhemus resided in the house from 1835 to 1857, leaving then for a brief but memorable ministry at Newark, New

Jersey. He was a descendant of the Reverend

Johannes Theodorus Polhemus (who settled on

Long Island in 1654 and organized the first Dutch church in what is now Flatbush). His son, James

Suydam Polhemus has been president of the Holland Society. "The Reverend Oliver Ellsworth Cobb followed

Dr. Polhemus at Hopewell and married his daughter. Thus it happened that all Dr. Polhemus's children and all Dr. Cobb's children were born in the same room in the same house. Dr. Cobb's pastorate extended from 1857 to 1872, When he removed to Flushing, Long Island. A son of his, the Reverend Henry Evertson Cobb, is a minister of the Collegiate Church in New York City and was long president of the board of trustees of Vassar College. Another son, Abraham Polhemus Cobb, is vice-president of the New Jersey Zinc Company and president of the American Zinc Institute. "The Reverend Graham Taylor was Dr. Cobb's successor and resided in the parsonage from 1873 to 1880. He resigned at Hopewell to become a professor in the Theological Seminary at Hartford,

Connecticut. After that he was a professor in the

Chicago Theological Seminary, the founder of the

Commons Social Settlement in Chicago and one of the most distinguished authorities on social conditions in the country."

From the departure of Dr. Taylor until 1907 the parsonage at Hopewell was the home of: the Reverend Cornelius H. Polhemus, 1880-1891; the Reverend Ernest Clapp, 18921903; and the Reverend Addison C. Bird, 1904-1907.

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4

AN INSCRIPTION

On a Dutchess County Window

Between Poughkeepsie and Wappingers Falls on the east side of the former King's Highway and near the point where the road crosses Jan Casper's Kill is an eighteenth century house now owned by a member of the Dutchess County Historical Society, Mr. Frank Dickerson.

The land on Which the house stands was covered by the patent granted in 1688 to Peter Schuyler of Albany; title to it passed from the patentee through several names between 1688 and 1742, in which period the owners all were residents of Albany. In 1742 Christopher Van Bomell bought the site of the house and he it was who probably first lived on the land, which he held until 1759 when he sold it to Johannes A. Fort. One or the other of these two men undoubtedly built the house now standing, either Christopher Van Bomell between 1742 and 1759 or Johannes A. Fort about 1760. The walls are of stone (the front one faced vith brick) and some of the original details of finish still renain. But that which distinguishes this house from other eighteenth century structures in Dutchess is that in one of he front windows is a pane of glass bearing an inscription •:ut wtih a diamond which reads :—Jane Fort 1778 Henry )awkins engraver.

Who Henry Dawkins was has never been learned but in _778 the occupant of the house was Major Abraham Fort (born 1750, died 1822), who had married Jane Monfort, and the name on the window must refer to his wife. Major Abraham Fort was an officer of local troops in the Revolutonary War and he and his wife were buried when they died in a family burial ground just across the road from the stone house.

With some difficulty a photograph has been made of the inscription on the window-pane and the photograph is reproluced on a nearby page. The inscription was cut on the iner side of the window and it was necessary to place the

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camera on the outer side so "Jane Fort 1778" reads backward in the plate. The remainder of the lettering did not come out clearly but, as comparatively few people know of this window with its rare claim to distinction, the Year Book committee takes special pleasure in recording it.

A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE TOWN OF CLERMONT

Under the title: "A Historical Sketch of the Twn of Clermont", Mr. Thomas Hunt of Tivoli, Dutchess County, New York, has published a monograph of one-hundred and forty-nine pages which sets a precedent that might well be followed by other lovers of local history who are residents of old neighborhoods. Mr. Hunt lives just within the northern boundary line of Dutchess County and just over that line in Columbia County is the town of Clermont. The territory in the town of Clermont was originally within the north line of Dutchess but was set off in 1717 to (what was then) Albany County. The thirty-four chapters in Mr. Hunt's book include such headings as: The First Inhabitants, The Manor, The County, The Town, The Village, The Private Estate, The Farms. The Roads, &c, &c, and the text provides in readable style a realistic picture of one of the early communities of the IIudson valley. The volume was privately printed by the Hudson Press, Hudson, New York, and may be obtained from the printer or from E. P. Dutton & Company, 681 Fifth avenue, New York City. It is to be hoped that other volumes such as this will appear from now on to record as delightfully and as correctly as this one the significant aspects of many places in this vicinity about which sentiment and tradition are clustered.

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