A LITTLE HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF LA GRANGE Edmund Van Wyck*
It may be well, for the benefit of those who are not familiar with Dutchess County, to place ourselves geographically and politically. Geographically Dutchess County is situated on the east bank of Hudson's River about midway between Nieu Amsterdam and Fort Orange.—I mean New York and Albany—and was set off as a County by the Duke of York in 1683 and named for his "Dutchess." We were quite a big boy then, but in 1717 a large area of the northern end was attached to Albany County, and that now forms part of Columbia. Then in 1812 Putnam was taken off the southern end, and the County attained its present shape when the Oblong was added to the eastern side in 1731. Politically, from 1717 until 1738, the County was divided into the "North", "Middle" and "South" Wards. In 1737 the "Wards" were done away with and the County re-organized into "Precincts", eight at first and finally in 1768, after various and sundry boundry changes, there were twelve "Precincts", and this arrangement lasted for twenty years. In 1788 the Duke of York and his playmates had been induced to return to England and we here in Dutchess County were in for another recr2-anization, this time into "Townships", nine at that time. Between 1788 and 1875, when the Town of Wappinger was erected, we finally have the township pattern of today. So much for the County. LaGrange is one of the "inland" Towns, south of the center of the County, and its western border is about five miles east of the Hudson River. It is bordered on the north by Pleasant Valley, on the east by Union Vale, on the south by Beekman and Wappinger, and on the west by Poughkeepsie. In size it is about six miles east and west and also north and south. A pleasanter place ycu cannot find! The Town of Freedom was erected in 1821 from parts of Beekman and Fishkill. The name was changed to LaGrange in 1826 when the Post Office Department objected to too many Freedoms and no "Zip" codes. The Town is just about six miles square and is almost square in shape. Its western boundary follows the windings of the Wappingers Creek beginning near 'fed Plass' meadow and ending at the "Ford" near Maloney Road. We let our neighbors frcm the Town of Poughkeepsie on the west come over by means of four bridges, one at Overlook Rcad, two at Manchester Bridge and one at Red Oaks Mill. Many years ago there were fords at Rochdale at Gysbert Paelen's (Overlook Road), at De Groff's Mill (Manchester Bridge), at the Oswego Road (near GreenEdmund Van Wyck, a life-long resident of the Town of La Grange, is a Trustee of the Dutchess County Historical Society and served as President of the Society for several terms. 31
