Early Amenia Ann Linden Member, Amenia Historical Society
A
s one comes over Delavergne Hill today and views the panoramic valley surrounding Amenia, it is easy to understand why Dr. Thomas Young, an 18th century settler named the town from the Latin amoena meaning "pleasant"1 or "pleasing to the eye"2. Even before the early settlers arrived from New England, the indigenous Pequot Indians were aware of the beauty of the area, calling Ten Mile River (Webutuck Creek) beautiful hunting ground.3 For nearly half a century after the issuance of the Great Nine Partners Patent (Amenia) remained only sparsely settled. It was not until the 1740-1750 decade when land was more available for purchase in units of from two hundred to three hundred acres at a dollar and a half an acre, that a large number of people were encouraged to settle there. In those years many families migrated from New England to take up land that appeared that it might lend itself to the successful pursuits of agriculture.4 Wheat was the first agricultural crop to be sold for cash. It was transported westward to Poughkeepsie or other Hudson River landings. Wheat farming was near its peak around 1788 but subsequently declined due to the ravages of the Hessian fly and black stem rust long before the Erie Canal opened up the competition of Western wheat. The real boom of the iron industry in Amenia came in the 1800's, but even before the American Revolution the high grade ores of the Amenia open pit mine west of the present village were already being worked. The mill site which later became known as Leedsville was an important manufacturing center by the standards of the times. During the Revolutionary period, when commercial ties with England were severed, steel was produced nearby at the "Steel Works" near Wassaic. Pig iron ingots, the primary material from which the steel was produced, were brought down from the Livingston Furnace in Ancram. However, steel manufacture there was no longer viable once hostilities ceased and English imported steel became available again.5 Eventually the Steel Works site was adapted to wool processing when John Hinchclfffe in 1803 set up the new mechanical carding equipment which replaced hand methods for combing and cleaning wool prior to spinning.6 The dangers of maritime commerce during the Napoleonic Wars, which embraced our War of 1812, led to a short-lived venture in full-scale woolen cloth production at the mill site now known as Leedsville. After the restoration of peace the mechanical weaving business failed, but the factory continued to be used for textile finishing. During this time the hamlet was dubbed Leedsville by an Englishman from Leeds who identified it with that textile center of his homeland? The present day village of Amenia at the junction of Routes 22 and 44 did not exist in 1788. It developed as a stop along the Dutchess Turnpike which was completed in 1805, but it did not gain its present name and any great importance until 1851 when the previously known hamlet of Ameniaville became the site for a station on the Harlem Division of the New York Central Railroad. Amenia had for some years been 39
