Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook Vol 064 1979

THE COOK MILLS A CENTURY OLD On the inside of the upper half door the eastern en-• trance of the mill is deeply engraved the figures 1786, the date of the erection of the mill, which is therefore one hundred years old. As in the life of every person there are three epochs, his birth, marriage and death, when he is especially the subject of conversation, so in every building when it is erected, burned or torned down, or becomes of age at one hundred years. I proposed therefore giving a short history of the building, the ground on which it stands and its successive owners as probably being of some little interest to your readers.

In tracing back the title I find the land on which it stands was asubject of controversy between Chancellor Livingston and Zachariah Hoffman the elder, which controversy was finally settled by a suit at law, the Chancellor being his own attorney and Alexander Hamilton the Attorney for Hoffman. The suit was tried in the old Manor church, since taken down, which stood about a half a mile north of the Riverside Hotel in Germantown, and near to where the old graveyard now is. It resulted in the success of Hoffman and exemplified even in that day according to a descendants recollection of the family tradition the later saying that a lawyer is one who saves the estate from your opponent and keeps it himself.

The Indian deed to Robert Livingston (the lord of the Manor) is dated July 18th, 1683, and a Patent issued therefor by Lieutenant Governor Tho. Dongan on the 4th day of November 1684, which grant however did not include Taghkanic, which deed from the Indians to Livingston is dated August 10th, 1685, and confirmed by patent of Dongan to Livingston on the 20th day of August 1685. In the Patent the bounds are given as commencing opposite the Catskill Creek, and running in many directions easterly, until it reaches the supposed line of the Province of Massachusetts thence southerly along that line by different courses then turning westerly finally reaches to "a straight Line Drawne from thence to the southermost Bounds or Bowcht of Roeloffe Jansens* kill and from thence by a straight Line to a place on the River (Hudson) side called Sanskahampka which lyes over against the Sawyers Creek, and on the West by Hudsons River.

In the Indians deed to Livingston the sawyers creek is spelled "Sagerties" and the claim of Hoffman was that the Sawyers Kill was a small creek that empties into the Hudson River between Saugerties and Malden and which was proved to have had a saw mill once upon it. The suit going against Livingston he was obliged to commence opposite this small stream having no visible outlet into Hudson River and run to the southermost bend of Roeloffe Jansens Kill while Hoffman commenced opposite the mouth of Saugerties Creek and run to the same place on the Roeloffe Jansens and took the land between these two lines. I hence conclude that Hoffman got this much land from the Manor of Livingston. When a few years ago I was ordered to make my South line the North line of the village of Tivoli, I found by running it through it came out exactly opposite the Saqgerties Creek and the same line can be distinctly traced through the swamp. On a part of the land so located the mill was built. The title therefore is 90