NAMES AND PLACES IN THE TOWN OF LAGRANGE Edmund Van Wyck
During a conversation with some fellow residents of the Town of LaGrange I happened to mention some area by names familiar to me. Promptly came the query, "Now where in the world is that place?". So that the new friends of our Town will know what we old timers are talking about, I have located a few of these "places" geographically. Freedom Plains. This is the name by which the broad, flat lands on either side of Route 55 were called after the formation of the Town of Freedom in 1821. Sprout Creek runs the length of the area, but the name today is more or less localized in the vicinity of the Presbyterian Church. The name continued after the town became LaGrange in 1826. Titusville. The Titus family established a woolen mill along this section of the Wappingers Creek in 1825. The "vine" consisted of four proprietor's houses, five or six multiple family frame dwellings which housed the mill hands, a school house and a chapel. The mill burned just before 1900, the workers' houses soon fell in disrepair and were torn down, the school was abandoned and the chapel was moved to Manchester. Sprout Creek, Noxon. The little piece of highway between the north end of Robinson Lane and the bridge over the Sprout on the present Noxon Road was known at various times as "Sprout Creek" and "Noxon". It boasted a tavern, the building now owned by the artist Emile Walters, a store, a post office and a doctor. "Noxon" derives its identify from the Noxon family which lived there until the early 1900's. Manchester Bridge. This name originally referred to the complex of brick houses below the road just west of Route 55 which recently have been demolished. When the Bradbury, Priestly and Robinson paper mill was in operation, there was a two story four-family stone house on the opposite side of the old road. Also there were two frame houses on the bank of the head race behind the brick houses and two more on the lane that led to the mill on the south. A bell in the cupola of the boiler room was rung every day at twenty minutes past eleven o'clock so that the wives would know when to put .the potatoes on for dinner. It was known, of course, as the "potatoe bell". The mill burned down on December 29, 1880, and the name has now migrated eastward to include a commercial area in LaGrange and still further eastward a mile or two to "Manchester Heights". Meddaugh Town, Overlook. Meddaugh Town was the name of the settlement around the junction of the present Overlook and Cramer Roads. Formerly the name was pronounced "Meddick", then about fifty years ago it began to be called "Overlook". "Domine" Phillips lived in the house on the 65
