WILLIAM WALTON, JR. Kini's patentee and a founder of the Ch3mber of Commerce of the State of New York. Walton was named for him. Reproduced from an eithteenth century paintini through the courtesy of the Chamber of Commerce.

'fhe F({J)lllllDldrk

Being an Intimate Historical Sketch of die Making of an American Settlement in the Critical Period Immediately Preceding the Adoption of the Federal Constitution

by

ARTHUR W. NORTH Of/ici4l Local Historian

Author of "The Mother of California," "Camp and Camino in Lower California," "Walton World War History,,, Etc. Copyright 19 2 4

by Arthur W. North Conttentts Page Attestation Preface------Chapter I. Concerning William Walton, Jr., Favored of Fortune; with Mention of Two Long Islanders ______5 Chapter II. Concerning the Last Week in August, l '176 ____ _ 8 Chapter ill. Revolutionary War Days ------12 Chapter IV. From Chaos to a Home in the Mountains ______22 Chapter V. Extending the Circle of the New Home ______31 Chapter VI. Aftermath ------36 Appendix------46 Bibliography ------~------~------51

][Uustrations Page William Walton, Jr. ------Frontispiece Dr. Platt Townsend ------38 The 1779 Map of the Upper Branches of the Delaware _____ 27 William Townsend ------·----- 43 Daniel Pine------30 Frances Townsend Lupton ------37 Samuel North ------32 Walton Today ______· ------28 Map Locating Walton ------Inside back cover

C-0, ~

It • • • ... A[tee§ 1[81CUOn .t'ursuant to authorization heretofore given at · a duly noticed meeting of the descendants of the Founders of Walton, we do here­ by certify that we have examined the manuscript account of the "Founders and Founding of Walton," as prepared by our Local Historian, Arthur W. North, lineal descendant of Robert North and Joshua Pine, and we do certify the same to be in accordance with family records, documents and other original sources. the vast ma­ jority of which are in his possession. Walton, New York, June 10, 1924. (Signed) B. G. NORTH of the Line of Gabriel North. H. B. TOWNSEND of the Line of Dr. Platt Townsend. GEORGIANNA PINE. KNAPP of the Line of Joshua Pine. JPREFACJE The mere fact that on or about the 16th day of May, 1785, five families initiated a settlement by the headwaters of the Delaware River, in the State of New York, would not merit a volume even of the modest size of this booklet. But the date, the purpose and type of the particular settlers have an historic value. Prior to the Revo­ lutionary War and during and after 1786 settlers flocked into the near west; they sought retreats for fur trapping or fertile fields for tillage. Among their numbers the trapper, the axeman and the sturdy farmer largely predominated. But thi~ settlement named Walton was formed prior to the post-Revolutionary rush toward the mellow stretches of Western New York, the Western Reserve and Kentucky. • - ._.. ,. -· - - ,-....~ ~'-~"'- m------...:a T,...._,.,_,.,.,., "'O.;~~ n '.'h..,..;ol Ana t.nese men, oy na.rr1t .1..1.1. • .- r.ic::tt..t.. .1.vw.L.L;::,,;:;.u.u, o1v.:>.u.u.a, .&. ... ~.:., -.;;&.., ...... "' ... North, Robert North and William Furman. were not typical frontiers­ men, more nearly they approximated the highest professional and business type. Back of them stretched generations of culture, ed u­ cation and public service. AccompaniP-d by their families, they sought a peaceful and secluded home rather than a change. for material gain. The clean home atmosphere they created lingers on. Today 86 per cent of the population of their town are second, third and fourth generation white Americans, while in the i.vianhattan they left, scarce 2 O per cent •are so classified. And in their town · the percent. age of illiterates is but one-tenth of what it is in New York City. Altogether, it seems quite worth the effort to bring together the· .half forgotten and w~dely scattered account~ cf these e2.rlier days, weaving therefrom a succinct narrative which may serve- to preser,-:e for later years. a record of the making of a distinctively American home community during a transitory period,- neither .colonial nor yet na.ticna!. for the time was prior to the awakening of national con­ sciousness. Indeed, by sheer force of unified action they wrought so successfully that within a few years after that awakening they pre­ sented the remarkable spectacle of a remote hamlet taking a master hand in the affafrs of a great commonwealth. More than eighty years ago incidents herein related were told an eager listener by two beloved grandmothers, Elizabeth Carter North, daughter of Captain John Carter of Connecticut and widow of Robert ter of Captain Luke Remsen of ~ewtown and widow of Joshua Pine of Hempstead and of Walton. At a later time George Norn·.. (1831- 190·0), the grandson, passed on the heritage of incident to his son, making easy the road toward record research and opening the way to the rare joy of. finding corroboration ·between family tradition and documentary evidence. To my father, therefore. and to his kindly grandmothers, on this, the anniversary . of the coming of the founders, I here make my devoted acknowledgment. Walton, New York, May 16, 1924.· THE AUTHOR. THE JFOUNDJER§ AND FOUNDING OF WAlLTONg No Yet

Concerning William Walton, Jr., Favored of Fortune; With Mention of Two Long Islanders. Whence came Walton's name? The answer is colorful nar­ rative~ well worth the telling. In 1698 Captain William Walton with Mary Santford, his wife, came from Norfolk, England, to New York, where, purahasing lands on the East River front, he· erected shipyards and docks and built up an extensive shipping trade. From the Spaniards at St. Augustine· he presently secured exclusive priv­ ileges which, added to his trade with the West Indies and South America, shortly made him a merchant prince. His sons, William and Jacob Walton, became his successors. They had already made strong alliances by marrying into the Beekman family. In 1752 Will­ iam caused foundations to be laid on Pearl Street, New York, for a family mansion, later known as "Walton House," where he and Cornelia, his wife, entertained in lavish style. With no children of their own. they showed marked attention to Jacob's son. Wi!liam, Jr. (who had been born in 1731).- On the uncle's death in 1 768, under the name of Wm. & .racob Walton & Co., the nephews, William, Jr., and Jacob, succeeded to his vast ship-ping interests and William, :fr., the favored nephew, inherited "Walton House." Already, in 1747, he had won p~werful connections by marrying Mary, daugh­ ter of Lieutenant Governor James DeLancey of New York. Jacob, meantime, had married Mary Cruger, a colonial girl of notable kith and kin. Her grandfather, .John Cruger, had been mayor of New York in 1739-44. Her uncle, also John Cruger, held the same office in 1765, and was also speaker of the colonial general asse:ni_bly. In the heart of New York' City was "Rose Hill," the town residence of her brother, Nicholas Cruger. After :ma:rr}·ing Anna, daughter of Bertram Pierre de Nully, of St. Croix, he maintained a country home in Santa Cruz, West Indies, where began the memo­ rable clerkship of the youth Alexander Hamilton. Nicholas Cruger was the friend of Washington and patron of Hamilton. Another brother, Henry Cruger, served as mayor of Bristol, England, sat in the British Parliament, a colleague of Edmund Burke, and in later years represented New York in the United States Senate. Mary Walton, sister of Jacob and W:illiam, was the wife of General Lewis Morris of Morrisania, New York, later a signer of the Declaration of Independence. 6 TH~ FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON

With the death in 1767 of Mary DeLancey Walton came the first break in this family. One of the surviving four children, Jacob Walton by name, was already an officer in the British navy, the DeLanceys ever keeping close touch with the mother country. The bereaved William Walton now entered into a wider range of pre­ occupying activities. In 1768, with the Crugers and others, he was one of twenty merchants founding the New York Chamber of Com­ merce, an institution absolutely independent -of government super­ vision and the oldest of its kind in the world-for it still prospers. John Cruger was the first president. The meetings were held in Fraunce's Tavern. After serving as treasurer and vice-president, William Waiton, .Jr., succeeded to the p.n~z:;iue.uc_y. Meantime, however, atten~ion was being drawn to new lands in the Indian domain. In the days of the first voyagers, the_ headwaters of the Delaware, the Lenniapihittnek or Great Fish River of the redmen, were in­ habited by a warlike clan of the Lenni-Lenape, or Deiaware Indians. This tribe gradually gave ground before the solid front of the Iro­ quois of the Long House, the great confederacy of the Five Nations which had been perfected about the middle of the fifteenth cen­ tury. Manv of the Delawares were killed in desperate battles, some emigrated,* others were absorbed by the great . confederacy. As a national entity their last anPearance was at the notable Indian conference before Ft. Stanwix in the fall of 17 6 8. The result of that gathering was· a treaty deed, signed by the Indian sacJl,ems­ though not, apoarently. by Killbuck and Turtleheart of the Del­ awares-defining property lines and ceding territory to King George of England. A portion of these bounds was declared to pass tc the junction of the Susquehanna and the Tianaderha (Unadilla) from a point opposite thereto on the Delaware River. Having no base line, the surveyor began at random on the Delaware at the mouth cf the Tewbeaek. or Ouqu3:go: Creek. Coming out four miles awai· from the designated junction of the Susquehanna, the surveyor !)roposed to return to the Delaware. beginning further U"P the same, but the Indians refused to allow him. saYing they could make the bounds correctly without any compass and if he had made a 111is­ take. he must abide the same. Two years later, on the 15th of March, 1770, ·King George gave a patent conveying certain lands south of the Mohawk River and between the SusQuehanna (as a matter of fact. just southeast of the Tianaderha junction just mentioned) and the Cockquago branch of the Delaware to William Walton, Jr., Thomas Walton, Gerard Walton, Anthony Van Dam and others. Another two years and the County of Tryon was created, embracing this new patent.

* Note. Years later some of the scattered tribe rendered valuable service to Fremont in the Rocky Mountains. THE. FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON 7 William Walton, .Tr., the merchant prince and favored of fortune, now appears as a patentee to a vast estate, far removed from the Seven Seas whereon his fortune has been accumulated. What will he do with these new possessions in the wilderness? For fourteen years the answer is to be "Nothing." The redmen will follow the game trails, :fl.nd~ng a living on his domain; across it Brant will lead his fierce war parties and the daring scout Iviurphy will ca.rry important messages to Washington; in October, 1778, a corps of twenty rangers with a detail from the 4th .Pennsylvania under Colonel William Butler, constituting a· detachment from J.\rlorgan's riflemen, will descend two days' march from the head­ waters of the Delaware and thentJe follow the rioges across to the Unadilla; still a few years later, the genial Yankee, Azel Hyde, will come to hunt and trap. But none of these will know William Walton, nor will he know aught of them. But ere this chapter closes let us go back to Walton House, the most costly and magnificent New York mansion of the da:y, with its sculptured portico, its superb mahogany staircase, solid furniture and shadowy recess corners. Here· had been entertained * the elite of the period, . the great colonial families, visiting aristocrats, noted travelers, men and women of distinction and talent. And here, runs the story, was welcomed th.e courtly young physician, Dr. Platt Townsend, son of Micajah and Elizabeth Platt Townsend * of "ys...... :--. ,...,..~-- t""!-..:, ~-,.:,t°":_ T --- Ts1- ..... ~ - ...... ~ s'"'.;,..,,.,..... ,..,,.-.: ""~ ...... ~ v 1..t:.L .Dc:L.)' a.uu. vc:u.a..1. s----v1,a,.1..U.1,1, ~v.1..1.et .1. ,a..1..1.u., a..1..1.u. v.1.v.1.J. v.L. u,.. .uvu- ored line of ancestors, going back to the noble English family of Townsend. In 1750, at seventeen, young Townsend had graduated from Yale, then, crossing the ocean, studied at Edinburgh, for yez.rs the greatest :medical school in the world. R'=turning to New York a trained and licensed physician, the young man at once won a practice and through his culture and geniality a widening circle of friends. Occasionally he made the then rare trip to Europe, \ti.siting fa,rnil~.,. connections and acq_ua.intances m:1.de in Edin- burgh days. For a time he maintained a residence at Stamford. Connecticut, later removing to the adjoining town of Greenwich. It is known that he and William Walton, nigh of an age and of the sam.e . social cl~sy met and bec::i.:me cicse friends during this period. At first, perhaps, the young physician rallied the merchant prince on his wild Indian lands in the remote mountain wilderness. In this pre-Revolution era another open house in old New York was that of the DeMilt family on Bowling Green. In 1623 Antoine DeMilt, * son of. Baron Pierre DeMilt, had settled in New /!- Amsterdam* serving as sh#..9ut, or judge. At the commencement of the eighteenth century Isaac•'l "· DeMilt had married Phoebe, daughter of the Valentine family, whose. residence marked valentine's Hill, by the Bronx Creek. In 1751, Isaac's daughter, Sarah DeMilt, had

*Appendix. 8 THE FOD"NDERS ~"D FOUNDING OF WALTON married Joshua Pine, of ~empstead, Long Island, a great-grandson of James Pine,* or Pyne,\ one of the six Devonshire men who in 1644 secured from the Duke of York a patent to a tract of land including Hempstead, Long Island.) The present Roslyn is situated on what was then a portion of his holdings. Joshua Pine was a business man of unusual ability, and in 1770 he extended his inter­ ests to the Brol'l.x where, in the vicinity of the Valentine home, he entered into partnership with one of the· brilliant DeLanceys, the family into which William Walton, Jr., had married a few years earlier. From the outset the flour business of Delancey and Pine proved most remunerative to the partners. This chronicle has now come to the opening of the last quar­ ter of the eighteenth century ·with three essential characters set firmly against splendid backgrounds: William Walton, Jr., mer­ chant prince and owner of vast mountain estates, Dr. Platt Town­ send, cultured, traveled physician, and Joshua Pine, financier and man of affairs. Surely, before these three able men stretch years of comfort, ease, prosperity and good livi.ng in Old iVIanhattan, unless-but the "unless" of colonial discontent was shortly to crystallize into war, with all its changes and its hazards. CHAPTER· Il. Coacerning the Last "\Veek ill August, 1776. The Battle of Lon2' Island. with the resultant sundering of home ties, was a positive factor in the founding of Walton. That desperate struggle, therefore, must be considered here in detaif. In 1776 Brooklyn was a quiet agricultural town, numbering be­ tween three and four thousand people. Along the shores of the Wallabout * and on to Newtown * w~re scattered substantial farm houses with thrifty orchards, extensive market gardens and choice pasture lands. Though at the outbreak of the Revolution there was a general apathy thereto, by 1775 the names of Whig and Tory began to be used and political sentiment soon diVided families and friends. In Newtown the patriots were especially determined, thti1' town being the only one that yea.1· in Queens CounLy to vote -f!,.,,-.u, ... .,, hl"r .non,,+.;oc:, +n +"ho f"'1n-n+.;.,..,0,....+.., 1 oc,c, "D-..r.c,l'\..--+1..-, +1-." ....__._,. ___ ., -F,.....--- _..._Z::,_..,. ___ ..__ .., .... -- ...... ,_.._..,...,,...... _...._,_..,..__ .... ("'1,...,....,...... _,_.._.._0.__...,.-..>• ... .A...... ,_.._,..,_ ...... '-'~ .., ..,_.&..&.V Whigs formed defense associations, meeting weekly for military drill under the direction of their chosen officers, some of whom had seen service in "the old French War." Muskets, flints and am­ munition were eagerly sought and long fowling pieces, used in ducking, were cut down and fitted with bayonets. Unexpectedly the Wallabout school was closed and the news was passed along that Elijah Payne, the master, had hastened away to join the American Army at Boston. Surely, trouble was at hand. Next came word of the obstinate conflict at Bunker Hill, fol­ lowed quickly by the report that General Washington had evacuated * Appendix. THE FOUNDERS AND FOLTNDING OF WALTON 9

Boston and would soon be in Nev.r York_. He reached the city April 14, 1776, finding Generals Lee and Stirling already on Long Island. During .June and July detachn1ents of the British fleet appeared, bearing the Howes, g_eneral and admiral, and thirty thousand Eng­ lish, Scotch and Hessian troops. The colonial rebels were to be overwhelmed by a decisive pattle on Long Island. Meantime American soldiers to the number of twenty-seven thousand, as­ sembling from New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland, were parcelled out between New York and Brook­ lyn. With every prospect of a great battle to be fought on their soil, the Whigs of Queens County took ~easures for the protection of their wornen and <:hi1dren. while their stock were dL ;ven over Hempstead way and beyond. These proceedings were observed by the watchful eyed Tories of whom there were great numbers, not only among the natives but also among the many refugees flocking over from New York. At sunrise, August 22, 1776, the roar of cannon and dense col­ umns of smoke arising from near The Narrows announced an im­ pending movement of some sort on the part of the British. The next morning, aroused by the lowing of cattle. Queens County chil­ dren awakened to see the roads blocked by cows, horses and sheep slowly movi.ng easterly. The 23rd the woods toward Jamaica were alive with British light horsemen in their scarlet cloaks. The British had effected a landing and General Howe proceeded to establish his headquarters at New Utrecht. Portentous clouds of smoke now darkened the sky and it was said that Col. Hand's Penn­ sylvanians had fired · stacks of hay and whea:t, about to fall into the ha~ds of the invaders. With soldiery now at their doors the in­ habitants straightway placed themselves under British protection, or abandoned their homes, seeking refuge in the American lines about Brooklyn. Presently Flatbush, after a savage resistance from the American riflemen, was occupied by Lord Co1'nwaHis with re­ serves and Col. Donop's corps of Hessian yagers and grenadiers and a field battery. The invading ar~y on Long- Isl:::.nd new nun::.-

regulars supported by a fleet with more than four hundred ships and transports, ten ships of the line and twenty lesser warcraft. The Americans had eight thousand men, mainly volunteers or militia, without cavalry, with a scant supply of ammunition and but a few cannon. To these troops General Washington issued an appeal from New York headquarters. "The enemy have now landed on Long Island," he announced, "and the hour is fast approaching in which honor and safety will depend. Remember, officers and soldiers, that you are freemen, fighting for the blessing of liberty.n

*Appendix. 10 THE FOD"'NDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON

Simultaneously, Gen. William Howe issued a proclamation calling Otl Long lslanders to come to his headquarters and receive his gracious protection. The 24th, visiting the lines, General Washington found things "at loose ends," ,vhereupon he placed the veteran General Putnam in chief command on the Island. General Sullivan, with General Lord Stirling as his lieutenant, had charge of the troops outside the lines at Brooklyn, while General Woodhull, recent president of the New York patriots' convention, commanded the local militia occupied in destroying forage and removi.ng stock to Hempstead. A portion of the Newtown volunteers were with Woodhull. Others under Colonel .Josiah Smith, Ephriam Marvin, as adjutant, had been detailed the 9th instant to guard the ferries and intrenchments at Brooklyn. Hard by, in Colonel Henry Livingston's regiment, was a kinsman, -Matthew l\larvin, later to receive the badge of merit from General Washington. Now, however, by reason of the illness of their brigade commander, Green, they are .under Gen­ erals Sullivan and Stirling. What traditions there are ·to stimulate these men! Tliere is Captain Lawrence, whose ancestor under Richard Coeur de' Leon was the first to plant the banner of the cross on the battlements of St. .Jean d' Acre. There is Howard whose fore bears fought at Hastings. And as ·some of these Newtown pa­ triots are to figure in this Walton history, let us here pause a mo­ ment. There goes lvlajor Remsen with his men, among them his three stalwart brothers and several of the Furmans. And here come the men of the South Beat from Col. .Josiah Smith's regiment. They march quickly by to the shrill notes of a fife, played by a slender blue-eyed iad in his teens, and toward the youthful fifer again and again is turned the troubled glance of Lieutenant Benjamin North, for the lad is Robert North,* the youngest of the family. Now, for an instant, observe the New England troops. Those quiet de­ termined men there a.re the Ninth Connecticut. Note that company captained by Daniel Benedict.* In a few short hours, he will be a prisoner. condemned to the old sugar house and death, and his lieu­ tenant, .John Carter* of New Canaan, will carry on. After a vexatious day on Long Isiand, General vVashing-ton con­ ferred in the evening of the 26th with his staff in New York. Then, as he arose to retire, he remarked, "The same Providence that rules today will rule tomorrow. Gentlemen, good night." For Long Island that tomorrow began before dawn. By noon Sullivan's flank was turned. His troops were caught between strong British and Hessian forces. The battle became a series of disconnected skirmish~s, of heroic but unavailing efforts on the part of the untrained yeomen to maintain isolated positions. Five thousand Americans went into action against fifteen thousand Eng­ lish, Scotch and Hessians and by nightfall half the Americans *.Appendix. THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON 11 were dead. wounded or prisoners. With three of their generals prisoners and hundreds of lesser officers dead on the field, there remain few official, extensive American reports of details. We know that Smallwood's trained ::Marylanders, fighting bravely, were almost annihilated, that Sullivan was taken by Knyphausen's Fusi­ leers, Stirling by De Heist~r•s and that DeLancey•s Loyalists seized Gen. Woodhull, so wounding him after his surrender that he died within a few days. We know that the night of the 29th Long Island was evacuated under cover of a dense fog, General Washington, who for forty-eight hours had hardly been off his horse, embark­ ing with the last troops and then evacuating New York, made his headq_u~rters :1t Harle!!l Heights. But letters and journals of enemy officers fill- the gao in Ameri­ can records and from them the interested may learn what impressions were seared on the minds of the Long Island volunteers who sur­ vived their first battle. In the present chronicle this is material for in later life it was remarked that these were serious men. Thus "The Hessians and our brave Highlanders,., to quote from one of General Frazier's officers, "gave no Quarters. and it was a fine sight to see with what alacrity they dispatched the rebels with their bayo­ nets, after we had surrounded them. We took care to tell the Hes­ sians that the rebels had resolved to give no quarter, to them in par­ ticular." '·The Americans fought bravely," -wrote a ranking British officer. ''and could not be broken until they were greatly outnumbered and taken in fla.~k, front and rear. "The English did not give much qu~er and incited our troops tc de the same/' wrote Colonel von Heeringen to Colonel von Loos­ berg. "These terrible Americans were mostly pierced by the bayo­ nets to the trees." "A few, nerved by their horrible situation, suc­ ceeded in cutting the way through the gleaming wall cf bayonets and sa;bres. The most sanguinary conflict occurred after the Amer­ icans had attempted to retreat." Following closely the retiring Americans, the British took pos­ session of their intrenchments, extending their forces out into the countn.... ln a.n.C. abcuL 1.;e,-vt,.:,.w-11 w~t~ Lv1d Fc~cy, C~~c~~l Sir Wil!­ iam Howe, Lord Cornwallis, the Hessians under Colonel Donop and the noted Royal Highlanders of the 4 2nd. From Newtown. Lord Howe dated his official dispatches announcing the results of the bat­ tle. For seven years, two months and ten days from this time, Long Island and New York City were held by the ·British, and the New­ town company as a unit never came home. But, defeated though they were in t'e_A~ive Battle of Long Island, the rebels were not overwhelmed-;~time was to come when there would be an appeal in the thought of a new home far from surroundings desecrated by British and Hessian soldiery and avaricious Tories. 12 THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON

CHAPTER ID.

Re-volution.ary War DaJ7S.

In 1768 a founder of the great New York Chamber of Com­ merce~ in 1770 an incorporator of the Marine Society, in 1775 a member of the New York Committee of Safety, that brave group of 1 OO patriots who placed their names on record "to stand or fall for the colonies," an outstanding figure observed by all and de­ scribed as "one of the most distinguished people of his time," William Walton, .Jr., faced the Revolutionary War an harassed and sorely troubled man. Iviany of his sociai and business confreres were faithful to the Crown, members of his wife's family were prominent Tories, his son. .Jacob, was an officer in the Royal Navy. Thus circumscribed, after the Battle of Long Island he sought re­ tirement in New Jersey. In that colony, however, his estates were presently confiscated and he returned to New York where he "gave :financial and other aid to the cause of the colonies," and "worked for the amelioration of the American officers and soldiers in con­ finement during the war." And with one of these prisoners this chronicle now concerns itself. From remote generations, ~ ccording to their traditions brought from Devonshire, the Pine family claimed the honor of fur­ nishing a man for the Queen's Body Guard. Perhaps in recogni­ tion of this service record, James Pine received his Long Island es­ tates subject to the unique provision that "All males above the age of sixteen shall be enrolled and be subject to military duty. Each per­ son must provi.de himseif with a good serviceable gun to be kept in constant fitness,· with a good sword, bandolier, and horn, a wormer, a scourer, a priming wire, a shot bag, a charger, one pound of good powder, four pounds of pistol bullets and twenty-four bullets fitted fer the g,..:rn., four fathoms of servicea.. ble match for matchiock gun and four good flints for flintlock gun." These requirements may have heen the germ of the American National Guard system. Preoccupied business man though he had been, throughout the Revolution, Joshua Pine with his children, lived up to their brave heritage. Of his eldest son, John (born in 1752), it is written, "He served as a captain of the Westchester Guides in the American Army with honor and courage." A mere lad in his teens, a younger son, Joshua, Jr., was early listed (".Josh" Pine) in Colonel Hathorn~'s Fourth Regiment of Orange County Militia. Joshua, the father, ag~in and again transported in his own sloop supplies for the American forces when they were surro:iinded on all sides by the _enemy. On one occasion he was seized by a British foraging party, robbed of his pos­ sessions, and taken to New York, where he was thrown into prison. During his detention British officers were quartered in the main por­ tion of his substantial home, crowding the family into a few rooms. T,HE FO1JNDERS A.i.'l"D FOUNDING OF WALTON 13

Here a son, Peter, died of the fever, and. while the body lay covered with a sheet, marauding Tories broke into the room, uncovered t~e dead, smashed a treasured pier glass, snatched the chain from the mother's watch, then sought other plunder. As they stepped outside in their search, Mary, the eldest daughter of the family, a twin of the valorous Captain .John and no less heroic, deftly rolled a log against the door and held it, thus keeping without the miscreants. Small wonder that she was a cripple the balance of her days. Mary Pine, Aunt Mollie as she was later called, was a dark eyed, diminu­ tive little lady with a personality, a mental brilliancy and a charm, the memory of which has been affectionately handed down through th~ gPnPr~.t.ions, If one would learn further what staunch Whigs in Westchester County faced in those trying days, let him turn again to that thrilling Westchester tale of Cooper's, "The Spy." Escaping from prison, .Joshua Pine made his way to Fishkill, where his father was living and. where their good friend and in earlier days rector at St. George's, Hempstead, the Rev. Samuel Sea­ bury, had established a parish chur-:-h named Trinity. Here, for two or three years, .Joshua headquartered, his family joining him, and here, in 1 781, died his father, .John Pi~e. Sometime subsequent to the Battle of Saratoga, J"oshua moved to l\1orrisania, where lived General Lewis Morris, signer of the Declaration of Independence. General Morris had married Mary Walton, sister of William Walton.

heretofore unpublished documents o-f unusual interest are here sub­ mitted. After the seizure of New York by the British, it appears that (young) ".John Pine made his wa;y- to the American lines and from his ft~.-:r1..rn.intance with the ~,,'!.rrounding country: his daring and adventurous spirit was immediately assigned to the secret service as a spy, scoi;.~ and guide, and finally promoted to be captain of Guides. He was called upon and did perform dangerous and important duties. In many instances he was in New York in conference with friends to (of) the American cause who furnished information of value to our army." Letters from another of the Guides, Abraham Dyckman, show that the British offered a reward for the capture of ··sir - - - - . .. ~ .. ._. ·-. - - - - ., .. - . - ,. .J C!l!l, 2.,llt! !l!:::; \'V !lU!~. t.!ci.!ll!.!.tt!. t:.t·e 'I\'. -~l!!V!!~. tl.!.'=' .!l.!.~ll.!. .J..H:~!":-:; ,_,.t !..!!t=... a,,· above-described ..crew" were VanW1rt and ,villiams, captors (Sept. 15, 1780) of Major Andre. In this connection there is particular in­ terest in an order given "by command of M. Genl. Arnold," and dated, "Headquarters, Robinson House, August 19, 1780" (less than a month prior to :Major Andre's capture), empowering and direct­ ing "John Pine and his Guides to get forage when and wherever it is necessary and to be found for their horses." A message dated at Continental Villag-e, iviarch 16, 1780, and addressed to Pine, sets forth: ·•Gen'l Howe ordered me to write you to proceed to the line. Take the most effectual means to collect intelligence of the enemy's 14 THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON

movements and forward them to him without loss of time. Im:prefs a good horse, if you want one for that purpose. By no. means de­ lay. One minute's time must not be lost in doing this business. If the enemy are stirring anywhere you will let him know. All ex­ penses will be paid. If it is more convenient for Mr. Dyckman to go let him do this business, but I would rather you should as I have mentioned you only to the General."

A. pathetic hope of what the superman, .John Pine, might ac­ complish is expressed in the following letter:

"Newburgh, July 17, 1781. Dear Sir: I have one favor to beg of you and by the friendship that has been between (us) I make no doubt but you will oblige me. That is. if our army or any part of it and yourself with them should go to the Town of Westchester, I beg you will make it a part of your busi­ nefs to inquire for Stephen Ryder or his wife, and if you can find either or Both of them that you inquire about my wife and family in New York, and whatever intelligence you can obtain respecting them that you will communicate the same to me by first Conveyance, your Compliance will much Oblige. Your Sincere Friend & Humble Servt. JOSEPH BOWNE."

Did he find them? Even now one cannot but wonder anxiously. The tension of this service may be gathered from the following or­ der:

"Continental Village, Nov. 10, 1780. Sir: I am very certain that the whole of the Guides will be wanted on a short day. Beg therefore you will hold yourselves in the most perfect redyness to move on the shortnest notis. You are not to make this publick. I am Your very humble servant, JOHN CAMPBELL, ~ ~ ,, ..t:1... i.,;,.- Through the generations since the courageous Guide's death, have been preserved his spurs, buckles and sword. The last named, inscribed in French and of French manufacture, was given the young officer by General Lafayette. For the details of this gift one may turn to a life of the General, published nearly a century ago, where­ in it appears that in the spring of 1780 Lafayette "was appointed to command the van of Washington's army. The vanguard was se­ lected from the different corps. * * * Lafayette made this select division the pride of his heart. He formed and drilled them and they were admitted to be equal to any in the army. * * * The officers were armed with espontoons and furnished with short and light sabres, brought from France and presented by Lafayette." On the 17th of November, 1783, from Phillip's House a letter was written by the commander to Pine as follows: THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON 15

"I w ~sh you to come here tomorrow by eleven o' ciock and to bring Edon Hunt with you. The business I want you for is to • point out quarters for the regiments that are to march into New York in a day or two." Following this letter, ".John Pine, chief of the Guides, was- or­ dered to and did conduct the American troops to their quarters on the reoccupation of New York. For that occasion he bought a new uniform and has <;>ften been known to express himself that it was the proudest day of his lif~." Thus far we have seen war bringing distress and partial con­ fiscation to William Walton, the favored of fortune, imprisonment and despoliation to .Joshua Pine, financier and man of affairs. Let us now turn to the third essentiai character of this chronicle, the cultured, traveled physician, Dr. Platt Townsend. Early in the struggle he appears as an examining surgeon in the army and navy of the colonists. There is strong reason to believe that at one time he was stationed at Alexandria, Virginia, where he attended General Washington. Unfortunately, no day by day record of his own writ­ ing exists, but happily the extensive journal of one of his fell ow surgeons (Dr. Thacher) is available and from this volume the con­ ditions under which both professional men labored is readily ascer­ tainable. It appears that in 1775 Dr. Benjamin Church was ap­ pointed surgeon general and director cf the colonial hospitals. Ac­ cused of dealings with the British, he was deposed and in his place was named :r ohn :rvrorgan of Phiiadeiphia. Selected. extracts from Dr. Thacher's journal now follow: ".June 14, 1775. I am prompted to hazard my fortune in this noble conflict with my brethren in the .provincial army. From the critical a.nd embarrassed situation of ou.:r country, numerous and ai- most insurmountable difficulties are opposed to my view. My friends afford me no encouragement, alleging that, as this is a civi.l war, if I should fall into the hands of the British, the gallows will be my fate. The Tories assail me w~th the following powerfui argument: 'Are you sensible you are about to violate your duty to the best of kings, and run headlong into destruction? Be assured this re­ bellion will be of short duration. The royal army is all-powerfut ~nd. .vi11, in a fewv months, n1.arch through the country and bring all to subjection; for they are experienced in war and expert in discipline. Their fleet is able to destroy every seaport town and beat down all our cities. What is your army but an undisciplined rabble? Can they stand against an army of regulars? Where are all your implements of war? Above all, where is your treasure?' Not a small part of their reasoning I feel to be just and true." ".July, 1775. On the day appointed, the medical candidates. six­ teen in number, were summoned before the board for examination. This business occupied about four hours; the subjects were anatomy, ~hysiology, surgery and medicine. It was not long after, that I was 16 THE FOtJNDERS AND FOUNDL.~G OF. WALTON happily reli.eved from suspense. Six cf cur number were privately rejected as being found unqualified. The examination was in a con­ siderable degree close and severe. But it was on another occasion that a candidate under examination was agitated into a state of per­ spiration and, being required to describe the mode of treatment in rheumatism and how he would promote a sweat with his patient, after some hesitation, he replied, 'I would have him examined. by a medical committee.' "I am informed that General George Washington arrived at our provincial camp on the 2nd of the, month, having been appointed, by the unanimous voice of the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, general and commander-in-chief of all the troops raised and to be raised, for the defense of the United Colonies, as they are now termed. General Washington is a native of Virginia, he was in General Braddock's defeat in 1755, and having had considerable ex­ perience -in the vvars with the French and Indians on the frontiers of that colony, in former years, he is supposed to possess ample qualifications for the command of the army and his appointment gives universal satisfaction. Such is his disinterested patriotism, that he assured Congress, on his appointment, that he should receive from the public, for his military services. no other compensation than the amount of his necessary expenses." "Feb. 18, 1776. Since the arrival here of Dr. John lVIorgan, di­ rector general, a new and systematic arrangement in the medical department has taken place; the number of surgeons' mates in the hospital is to be reduced, and vac3:-ncies in regiments are to be sup­ plied. I have received from Dr. Morgan the appointment of sur­ geon's mate to Dr. Townsend." "September 20, 1776. Monthly pay in the army ranges from $6.61 for a private to $75.00 for a colonel. The officers are also allowed a number of rations. One pound of beef or pork; one pound of bread or flour a day; a small quantity of vegetables when to be had; one gill of rum or whiskey a day; a sn1all quantity of vineg·ar, sait, soap, and candles a week constitute a ration." --October 24, 1777. Among lhe most remarkabie occurrences .. _._, ... ,_____ ---- .... -...:i-- ~,- ,...1-,._,... __.,._,4,.;,...... , ..,.,.._- ~_,, ___,: __ =- ..:t------·-- -.s:!> "'l.!..!.\.:11 J.la,\. c; \...,V.LJ..L.\..., \A..I..L'-A,.\...,.&, .1.i.1.. .." '-'11J.::>'-..,.&. .. '""'-'-.1.'-'.1..1." 1.,.1..,L'-,, .LV1.J.V ...... 1..1..1::, J.~ Ut~Cl ~ J.1.15 VJ. particular notice: Captain Greg, while stationed at Fort Stanwix, on the :Mohawk River, went out with two of his soldiers to shoot pi­ geans. A concealed party of Indians shot them all down, tomahawked and scalped them, and left them for dead. The captain, after some time revived, and, though suffering extreme agony from his wounds, made an effort to move. A faithful dog which had followed him, licked his wounds, then ran off about a mile, meeting two men who were fishing. By whining and piteous cries and even taking hold of their clothes by his teeth the animal prevailed on them to follow him to the fatal spot. Captain Greg_ was carried to the fort, his THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON 17 wounds dressed, and he was afterwards removed to our hospitai and put under my care. The whole of his scalp had been removed;· in two places on the forepart of his head, the tomahawk had pene­ trated through the skull; there was a wound on his back with the same instrument, besides a wound in his side and another through his arm by a musket ball. This unfortunate man finally recovered. The Indian mode of scalping their victims is this: With a knife they make a circular cut from the forehead, quite round, just above the ears, then taking hold of the skin with their teeth, they tear off the whole hairy scalp in an instant, with wonderful dexterity. This they carefully dry and preserve as a trophy." ".July 4, 1778. Intelligence has reached us that the Royal Army, under the command of General Sir Henry Clinton, was attacked near l\1onmouth Courthouse on the 28th of June. Intense heat of the weather alone proved fatal to about sixty men of each party. Molly Pitcher, wife of one of the officers, was engaged in bringing water for the men when she saw her husband struck down. Mad­ dened at her loss, lVIoliy rushed forward, and with great activity and courage continued to work the gun. This so strongly enlisted the feelings of the soldiers that they obtained for her an interview with Washington, and her enrollment on the list of half pay officers for .life. On this day General Washington commanded in person, exposing himseif to every danger while encouraging his troops." ".July 20, 1778. Having a number of sheep running at large in the woods belonging to our hospital, and being in want of mutton, I was induced to assist the slaughterers with my gun. I devoted most of the day and a single sheep only was the reward. On my return I was accused of want of skill· and Dr. Prescott challenged m~ to fire at a mark. Aftei: the third fire, we were checked by an unpleasant incident. Several horses were grazing in a nearby field, and one of them, a valuable animal belonging to Brigadier General Glover, received a ball through the body. The skill of the surgeon could ava.H nothing.:: "October, 1778. His excellency, the commander-in-chief, made a visit to our hospital; his arrival was scarcely announced before he presented himself at our doors. Dr. Williams and myself had the honor to wait on r.n1s great and truly good man through the dif­ ferent wards, and to reply to his inquiries relative to the condition of our patients. He appeared to take a deep interest in the situa­ tion of the sick and wounded soldiers, and inquired particularly as to their treatment and comfortable accommodations. Not being ap­ prised of his intended visit in time to make preparation for his re­ ception, we were not entirely free from embarrassment, but we had the inexpressible satisfaction of receiving llis excellency~s ap­ probation of our conduct, as respects the duties of our department. The personal appearance of our commander-in-chief is that of the perfect gentlem~n and accomplished warrior. He is remarkably tall, 18 THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON ...... ,.,, full six feet, erect, and well proportioned. The strength and J::'A.V- portion of his joints and muscles appear to be commensurate with the pre-eminent powers of his mind. The serenity of his countenance and majestic gracefulness of his deportn1ent impart a strong impres­ sion of that dignity and grandeur which are his peculiar character­ istics, and no one can stand in his presence without feeling the ascendance of his mind, and associating with his countenance the idea of wisdom, philanthropy, magnanimity and patriotism. There is a fine symmetry in the features of his face, indicative of a benign and dignified spirit. "His nose is straight, and his eyes inclined to be blue. He wears his hair in a becoming cue and from his forehead it is turned back and powdered in a manner which au.us to t:he fililita.ry air or his appearance. He displays a native gravity, but devoid of all ap­ pearance of ostentation. His uniform dress is a blue coat, with two brilliant epaulettes, buff-colored underclothes, and a three-cornered hat, with a black cockade. He is constantly equipped with an elegant small sword, boots and spurs, in readiness to mount his noble charger. There is not in the present age, perhaps, another man so eminently qualified to discharge the arduous duties of the exalted station he is called to sustain, amidst difficulties which to others would appear insurmountable, nor could any man have more at com­ mand the veneration and regard of the officers and soldiers of our army, even after defeat and misfortune. This is the illustrious chief whom a kind Providence has decreed. a.s the instrument to con­ duct our country to peace and to independence/' ''February, 1779. Our soldiers have been employed six or eight weeks in constructing log huts, which at length are completed, and both officers and sc1die~ are new under ccm.fcrtable cc,rering fer the remainder of the winter. Log houses are constructed with the trunks of trees cut into various lengths, according to the size in­ tended, and are firmly connected by notches cut at their extremi- ties in the manner of dovetailing. The vacancies between the logs are filled in with plastering consisting of mud and clay. The roof is formed of similar pieces of timber, and covered with hewn slabs. The chimney, situated at one end of the house, is made of similar but sm.aller tim.ber, and both the inner and the ou~er side covered. with clay plaster, to defend the wood against the fire. The door and windows are formed by sawing away a part of the logs of a proper size, and move on wooden hinges. In this manner have our soldiers, without nails, and almost without tools, except the axe and saw, provided for their officers and for themselves comfortable and convenient quarters, with little or no expense to the public." "February 26, 1779. Yesterday I accompanied Major Cavil to headquarters, and had the honor of being numbered among the guests at the table of his excellency, with his lady, two young ladies from Virginia, the gentlexr"""' -=-~~ !::::;i.u.pose his family and ~e-;-:::r~l THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON 19 officers. It is natural to ,rie,xr with keen a.ttention the countenance of an illustrious man, with a secret hope of discovering in his fea­ tures some peculiar trace of excellence, which distinguishes him from and elevates him above his fellow mortals. These expectations are realized in a peculiar manner in viewing the person of General Washington. His tall and noble stature and just proportions-his fine, cheerful, open count~nance-simple and modest deportment­ are all calculated to interest every beholder in his favor, and to com­ mand veneration and respect. He is feared even when silent and beloved even while we are unconscious of the motive. The table was elegantly furnished, and the provisions ample. but not abound­ ing in superfluities. The civilities of the table were performed by Colonel I-Iar.u.ilton and the other- gentlcm.en cf the fam.ily, the gen- eral and lady being seated at the side of the table. In conversa­ tion, his excellency's ~xpressive countenance is peculiarly interest­ ing and pleasing; a placid smile is frequently observ-ed on his lips, but a loud laugh, . it is said, seldom, if ever, escapes him. He is polite and attentive to each individual at table, and retires after the compliments of a few glasses. Mrs. Washington combines in an un­ common degree great dignity of manner with the most pleasing affability, but possesses no striking marks of beauty." "April 14, 1 779. At lVIill-Brook I purchased a handsome young bay horse for six hundred dollars. This shows the depreciated value of the pap-er money we receive for pay; the horse could not be vaiued at more than eighty dollars in silver:· "April 26, 1779. Five soldiers were conducted to the gallows for the crimes of desertion and robbing the inhabitants." "July, 1779. Arrived at this place ·the 8th, and had a.n inter­ view with my old fri-end, Dr. Townsend." "October 15, 1780. I have just returned from Orangetown in company with Captain Hunt. We dined with Doctor Townsend at the hospital on our way." "April 30, 1781. Intelligence has just reached us that Brigadier General Peleg Wadsworth. who commanded a detachment of militia at a place called Camden, in the province of Iviaine, having dis- taken prisoner in the night, by a party of British soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Stockton. The General defended himself, in the most daring manner until he received a wound, and except for the intervention of Lieutenant Stockton he would have been killed." "December 15, 1782. Dined with my friend, Dr. Townsend, at the hospital in company with Generals Gates and Howe, and their aides, Dr. Cochran, our surgeon general, and several other officers. Our entertainment was ample and elegant." "November 25, 1782. The British army evacuated New York and the American troops, under General Knox, took possession." 20 THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON

"Tuesday, December 4, 1783. At noon the principal officers of the army assembled at Fraunce's Tavern to take a final leave of their much-loved commander-in-chief. His emotions were too strong to be concealed. Filling a glass he turned to the company and said, 'With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you.' General Knox, who was nearest, turned to him. Incapable of utter­ ance, Washington, in tears, grasped his hand and embraced him." Thus the Revolutionary War days of William Walton, Joshua Pine and his family, and Dr. Platt Townsend, have been briefly out­ lined. And now, since with these more mature characters are to be closely linked the Norths of Newtown, let us for the moment survey the war time viscissitudes of this family. The personal manuscript records of the eldest son, Benjamin, and of the youngest, Robert, are available. Quoting from the latter:

"I, Robert North, was born at Newtown. Queens County, on Long Island, on the 5th day of January, 1759. In the year 1776, the year that the British army captured New York:, there was, a call to the militia of Queens County for a fourth part thereof to guard the coast of Long Island. The class to which I belonged were men of family, except myself. I the--:-ef ore offered to· go for said class, was mustered in a company commanded by Captain Benjamin Coe, of said Newtown, in a regiment commanded by Colonel Josiah Smith of Long Island, and served until the army was withdrawn by General Washington. Colonel Smith then marched his regiment to King's Bridge and discharged them, conceiving his term of serv­ ice had. expired.. I then returned to New York and. joined. a com­ pany in Colonel Lasher's regiment, of city uniform troops, did duty in the same until the retreat from New York when· part of the regiment were captured by the enemy, and part made good their retreat to King's Bridge. Long Island being then in the possession cf the enemy, I could not return home. I met with a kinsman from Poughkeepsie who sailed a sloop in the river. He wished me to accompany him home. I spent part of the winter of '76 and '77 at Poughkeepsie. When the militia of Dutchess County was called out to march down to I{:ing's Bridge (and attack New York as was said) I joined a. company in Poughkeepsie, commanded by Captain Billingen of Colonel Frear's regiment. We marched to the neighborhood of King's Bridge and joined a division from New Eng­ land, the whole commanded by General Heath. Hao some 8kirmish­ ing' with the enemy, but effected nothing unless it were to draw part of the enem.:,~ Ircm. the .:: erse~rs to N e-v.... ·~ erk. \\' e marched back to Dutchess County and were discharged. The next spring I went to Continental Village, near Peekskill, and entered the conti­ nental service as an artificer, under Captain Kinnicut, but after­ wards under a Captain Steele of New York, in which service I re- 1nained until Ji.;ly, 1779, being between two and three years."

The excerpts now following are from the day by day record of Robert's eldest brother, Major North: "Encamped 4th Juiy, 1778, at the Plains where the Declaration of Independence was celebrated with the firing c,f thirteen cannon, the General and field officers were assembled, dined, and drank sev­ eral American toasts." THE FOUNDERS AND FOtrnDING OF WALTON 21 "J'uiy 31. Paid Captain Carter for pasturing my horse twenty­ one nights, one pound, four shillings." "Aug. 21, 1778. This afternoon went to Long Island where we took to the bush for security from our enemies." "Aug. 22, 23d, 24th & 25th. Continued on Long Island concealed with Major Weeks and five others." "26th. Last night I came off from L. I. to Norwalk with Capt. Allen, who came over with a boat of intelligence." "Sept. 1. Last night .A:braha:m. Furman returned from the Is- land." "6th. Was taken very unwell of a fever." "Oct. 19. Have had a severe time of sickness." "Oct. 28. Was informed Gabriel Smith had stepped into a kettle of boiling water and scalded his leg very badly." "20th January, 1779. Set out with Gabriel North in a slay to go to Fishkill." "5th of February. 1 779. Returned to Canaan and found my family well." "6th. Abraham Furman came here from Fishkill to pay us a visit." "13th. Samuel Furman came here from Bedford and Robert North frGm. Continental ·village to pay us a visit." "Canaan, 17th February, 1779. Abraham & Samuel Furman went from here to their places of residence." "25th. Robert North set out for ye village." · "27th. Yesterday we were alarmed that the enemy was come out into the country. They came as far as Greenwich and plundered the inhabitants of Provisions. Household goods, Cattle, etc. By best accounts they were about 1,400, headed by General Tryon. They re­ treated. our Continental troops following. They left three men dead, our loss was only one Lieutenant wounded:·

So reads the terse journal of Benjamin North. In March, 1777, his father, the elder Benjamin, had died in "ye Continental Village," ~,rm.y camp (or near Fishkiil). aged -fifty-six. Still under thirty, Major Benjamin North was now head of the family and was seeing service along with his brothers and their widowed mother's people, the Furmans and many another from old Queens County. Why not! They were intensely loyal to the Colonial · cause and since that frightful week in August, 1776, Long Island was unsafe for patriots. For a visit there Nathan Hale had suffered the death penalty, but Benjamin North records no heroics over risking lif? en lilre

Of the third son, Gabriel North, no personal war account re­ mains. This is the more unfortunate for his iater life proved his unusual ability and especial fitness for leadership. Family tradition relates that Benjamin North, senior, with his sons, two sons-in­ law, and Furman kinsmen of his 'V\-i.fe, participated in the bloody Battle of Long Island, some of the family thereafter going into Dutchess County and others into nearby J.4'airfield County, Connecti­ cut. That Gabriel's service was then recognized is evident from the October, 1780, Journals of the General Assembly of the Governor and Counties of Connecticut, where it is set forth that, "the taxes of 22 THE FOUNDERS ':A.ND --FOUNDING -OF WALTON

Capt. B enJam1n· · -l\tr... arv1n,• n...za..,r1e.. "" · 1 S m1..·+-i...... , ~....T '" B enjamm· · .1:N ort" n., G·aor1e1 · · · North (Adj.), Ephriam Marvin, refugees from Long Island now re­ siding in Norwalk and who left L. I. by reason of attachment to the American cause, be abated." Ere closing this prolonged chapter two further service items­ seemingly irrelevant, but later to be connected up-remain to be chronicled. First, during January. 1777. there enlisted in the Con­ necticut troops one Azel Hyde. Secondly, on January 14, 1779, Eliza­ beth North, youngest member of the sturdy colonial family, was mar­ ried to Charles Witham Stockton{ ~on of Major Richard Witham Stockton, of Princeton. New Jersey. The young girl's militant brothers and brothers-in-law liked the young man personally, but of bis politics they heartily disapproved for he was a stout Tory, serv­ ing along with his father in the King's army.

OHAPrER IV.

From .CJh.....aos to a Home in the ~low1ta.ins.

The Revolutionary War, plus economic conditions immediately following, brought about the settlement of Walton. It is appropriate here, theref ore, to outline those conditions. Though the treaty was not signed until two years later. the surrender of Lord Cornwallis in 1781 virtually ended the long struggle. Peace, while bringing ces­ sation of 'hostilities, also loosened the tie which with need for com­ mon defense had held the colonies together. Chaos followed. Not until 1781 had the formal Articles of Gonfederation been adopted, and even then Congress was merely the deliberative head of a loose ieague. Presentiy Vermont began taking unto herself territory from her neighbors, while in 1784 John Sevier set forth in the southwest to carve from the western rim of the Carolinas a new state to be called Franklin. And though in the same year Thomas Jefferson proposed a portentous plan for partition of the N orthwast Terri­ tory, three years passed before the states were ready for any such unified action. Meanwhile Spain, dissatisfied with the treaty, sent the envoy Gardoq ui to America, announcing the close of the lower

Though the treaty provided for the payment of debts due the English, such accounts were not liquidated. In retaliation Great Britain retained he::r garrisons at the posts along the northwest border, thereby encouraging hostile. tribes and depriving the Americans of the cream ·of the fur trade. Taking advantage of the situation, the Iroquois chiefta-i.n, Brant, visited the tribes, urging a general Indian war against the Americans. In 1785 he was in England, sounding the British government as to its attitude in the event of ~uch a contingency. To enter the rich lands of the Iroquois was to invite, perhaps, the frightful fate of Lieutenant Boyd of Sulliyan's THE FOu""NDERS · AND FOUNDING OF· WALTON 23 army. So the host of settiers, eager for- the mellow stretches of central and western New York. prudently awaited a less dangerous· time. Meanwhile economic conditions were growing desperate. Of the continental taxes assessed in 1783, only a fifth we~e paid by the middle of 1785. In 1784, Robert Morris, the patriotic banker of the Revolution, now a discouraged, heartbroken man, resigned as superintendent of finances. Many of the states began issuing cur­ rency of their own, while most of them enacted individual impost and navigation laws. The coun_µ-y was drained of specie. Paper cur­ rency was depreciated< No national currency was issued uni:il 17 9 3. In New York the shilling sank to one-eighth the dollar. In sheer desperation Washington wrote, "'I predict the worst consequence from a half starved, limping government." There seemed no ave­ nue for prosperity. The Navigation Act and British orders in council virtually shut American ships out of the rich carrying trade to the British West Indies. Of manufacturers there was none, the carry­ ing trade had been stopped and as yet the fisheries had not recov­ ered. Canals, steamboats and railroads were yet to come, roads were mudholes, in the woods only too frequently blocked by fallen trees. Between local impost duties and depreciated currency trade was . strangled. Thus the Connecticut farmers, with W0!)d for New York City, found restrictive duties facing them, while Rhode Island farmers, unable to purchase store goods for paper at face value, '"threw away their milk, used their corn for fuel and let their apples rot on the ground." Even the wonted repose of religion seemed denied the new wor.1.a. In seven of the coio_nies the Church of Engiand and in three the Congregational Church had been the established religion. Up­ heavals quickly followed the war. In opposition to union of church and state, the Presbyterians led the way, securing thereby. the power­ ful aid of .Jefferson and. lviadison. Through thefr efforts in 1785 Virginia enacted the notable statute declaring that "opinion in mat­ ters of religion shall in no wise diminish, enlarge or affect civil ca­ pacities." Meanwhile, by reason of British hostility, American Epis­ copalians were without any bishop~. Finaiiy, in November, 1784, Samuel Seabury, one time rector of Joshua Pine and in New Haven days a college mate of Dr. Townsend, was consecrated at Aberdeen by Scotch bishops. Already, in his own house, at Bristol, England, the great Wesley had set apart Thomas Coke to be "superintendent," or bishop, of the Methodist Church in America. By an odd coincidence on the same day that Samuel Seabury was consecrated, Coke began preaching in Maryland. At this time while in_ all New England there were but 700 Roman Catholics and in New Jersey and New York 1,700, in Maryland there were 20,000. Fittingly, therefore, two years later John Carroll, of the noted Carroll family, was se- 24 THE ~OUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON. lected by the Pope as his apostolic vicar, subsequently becoming archbishop of the United States. Another two years and an alliance lasting half a century, and in a measure induced by mutual opposi­ tion to Unitarianism rising in their ranks, sprang up between the Congregationalists and Presbyterians. Not until the nineteenth cen­ tury, however, were the Congregational Church and the state sep­ arated in New England. In Massachusetts for years a Roman Catholic priest was liable to imprisonment for life. Not only did those who had preserved the government see their institutions thus unsettled, but the very faith and credit of their wartime government now seemed in the balance. With grave reason the soldiery were discouraged. \Vith pay years in arrears. they were clamorous for their due. But not more than forty per cent of the colonial fighting strength had entered the army, so the service men were a minority and there were ungrateful voices opposing their pay. The Cincinnati, the order founded by the officers ere returning to their homes, was the target for vile attacks. By a strange irony the - Continentals and the Tories were both suffering. A ·1arge body of the latter left the country. In September, 1783, two months before the evacuation more than twelve thousand men, women and children embarked at New York for the Bahamas or Nova Scotia, fearing to remain and face hostile legislation with probable confiscation of property and possible banishment. Many of these exiles, though loyaiists, had neve:r been actively hostile to the 4Jolonies. Nor were their fears unfounded. The Tresspass Act was quickly enacted to provide for recovery against those taking over property in war­ time absence of owners. Satisfied cf the injustice of the legislation. Alexander Hamilton opposed it in the test case of Rutgers vs. Waddington with all the force of his intellectual strength. But with the thought of his son in the Royal Navy, the once favored of fortune, William Walton, not unmindful of the confiscation of his New Jersey estates. prudently cast about for a purchaser of his patent on the upper Delaware. Fortunately, by change of title from Tryon to Montgomery County, in 1784, there was erased an hated name which might have turned from his patent possibie '.''.' .n.ig s-etti~r-~. courtly friend, Dr. Platt Tovvnsend. The physician had growing sons whom he might desire to locate upon a large estate. He could survey, too. Then there was Joshua Pine, the man of affairs. He had suffered cruelly during the war. He, too, had sons. Let it suf­ fice, that late in 1784 the three men came together. They were not of a type to haggle. Mutually agreeable terms were early de­ termined. To Townsend and Pine, New York and its environs must have lost· their appeai. Business was at a standstill, friends were scattered, others estranged. Money counted little. Why not get away and live in some remote ;Happy Valley? Washington, retiring to Mount Vernon, had recently said, "My manner of living is plain THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON 25 and I do not mean to be put out of · it. A glass of wine and a bit of mutton are always ready." To Lafayette he had written, "I have not only retired from ail public employment, but I am retiring with­ in myself, and shall be able to view the solitary walk and tread the paths of private life with heartfelt satisfaction.'' Though sharing this philosophy Dr. Townsend and Joshua Pine realized that for a successful settlement in the distant m.oup.tains they must add to their party energetic young men of family. Whom should they choose? For seven years after the Battle of Long Island, the Norths of Newtown had been refugees, their home only to be visited, in the language of the young lv.t:ajor, by "taking to the bush." In 1780, Gabriel had found a capable bride in the person of Deborah Carter, I notable spinner of fine fabrics, daughter or Captain John Carter of New Canaan. With the coming of peace his brother Robert had sought out at New Canaan, Deborah's sister, Elizabeth,. taking her as his bride to Newtown. But after ravishment by the enemy how changed the surroundings! It was written that following the Battle of Long Island, "the fields of Newtown were white with tents, faced with scarlet." There were the headquarters of the British army, with the Hessian mer­ cenaries. Fences had been taken up and burned, boundaries ef­ faced, buildings injured. Even the family house of worship, the Presbyterian * Church, had been used as a. stable for hostile cavalry. and Tories with sardonic humor had sawed through! the steeple, letting it fall. The woodlands, the pride of the community, had been despoiled, each fall so many thousands of cords being assessed for the army. The forest laid low, the brushwood about Newtown had followed, being cut up into twelve-foot bundles and carted away for military fascines. Finally, lacking fuel, the Hessians went out to the head of the vlei or marsh on the farm of William Furman and began digging into the soil. Finding peat, they ripped up the meadows. In vain Furrr1an 1·e111onstra.ted to the Ei"itish officers. Knowing that he was a Whig with relatives in the American army Successful in their S€arch, the Hessians- tore

With a dreary, scarred landscape about, with old neighbors ~raven Tories, with the father dead, what sentiment of other days could linger about the North home? Filled with the sense of some-

* The Presbyterians had been devoted to the Colonial cause. Has­ tening southward from Canada in August, 1776, the great Indian war chief, Brant, had managed to join the British forces at Flatbush, Long Island. There, passing through an orchard with Governor Tryon and Colonel Asgill, Brant bit into a crab apple which he had picked from a low hangin_g branch. "Ough," he exclaimed, screwing up his face and throwing away the apple. "it's as bitter as a Presby­ terian." 26 THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON

thing wanting, with the restlessness, the desire for change and· the excitement which are ever the legacy of war, could young people find solace in this deserted enemy headquarters? Indeed, could any­ thing bring peace to young men with lives so early twisted awry? -~d yet two years later a letter reaches l\'Iajor North, written by his brother, Gabriel, under date of November 14th, 1785, saying: "I have laid the foundation for all the happiness this world can afford!" What had transpired? Briefly, Dr. Townsend, having closed a contract with William Walton, Jr., and secured the co-operation of Joshua Pine and his family, the two mature men had turned to the Norths, inviting them to join in making a settiement. While Major Benjamin North ap­ parently did not favor the proposal, it is not recorded that his brothers_ hesitated over accepting. •Coupled with desolate conditions at Newtown must have been the fa.ct that with the law of primo­ geniture prevailing their rights as younger sons were subordinate to Benjamin's. Furthermore, from their helpmates Gabriel and Robert heard no opposition to a change for, by the death of their mother and their father's remarriage, the old appeal of proximity• to • New Canaan, was gone. Moreover, thrilled in childhood by recitals of the desperate adventures of their forebears in Deerfield days (tales given added reality by a brief, unheralded visit from half civilized Canadian-Huron cousins), and later during the war inured to enemy dangers, these young wives were of the type fitted for heroic parts and able to face the wilderness with: such an heroine as Mollie Pine. And so in March, 1785, when navigation in the Hudson opened and Dr. Platt Townsend and .Joshua Fine with their famiiies as­ sembled at the Battery in New York, ready to set forth for an un­ known home, they were joined by Gabriel North, Deborah his wife, and their two little daughters, Hannah, aged four, a.ad Deborah. two; by Robert North, with his wife and their i::..tant son, Benja­ min; and by William Furman, his wife and two children. Furman was a cousin of the Norths and had served in the war as an en­ sign. Though Joshua Pine and his sons were ready sailors, floating ice and the adverse current so retarded the progress of their sloop that a week elapsed ere they made Esopus Landing in mster County. Here in the warehouse of the owner of the sloop, one Swarte by name, the travelers temporarily stored their goods, receiving at his hands every personal attention themselves. The day following their arrival wagons were put together and were loaded with most neces­ sary articles, then the party began the overland journey to the north­ west. The first day the travelers reached Esopus, the second Marble­ town, and here they could learn something of what stretched be- .;.., ~

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THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON 27 fore them. The only known map of the region, that made by Sauthier for Governor Tryon and p~blished in London during 1779, showed a plain road through the mountains to Pakatackton on the Papactton (the East) Branch of the Delaware. French trappers and Tuscarora Indians had made the Village of Pakatackton prior to "the old French War." Then, in the spring of 1763 Hermonus Dumond and three others from Hurley, a ·vi!lage hard by l\iarble­ town, had taken possession of the site, only to retire a few years later. Probably in military circles John Pine had heard- how Tory spies threaded their way from the H~dson by ~~cret trails to the Delaware, returning with war news gained from Iroquois runners. Probably he further knew that during 1778 a company of American soldiers had reached Pakatackton, inflicting punishment on the Tories and Indians. The 1\1:arbletown people, however, merely warned the newcomers of the deep snow in the mountains before them. Accordingly, securing lodgings, the main party halted to await the coming of spring while certain of the young men, with snowshoes, a tent and their flintlocks, pushed on to see what lay beyond the snowy mountains blocking their way. How these adventurers JilUSt have thrilled to that age old de­ sire to find what lies beyond the distant ranges! Here close up an horizon, huge, abrupt, bulking, now white,. viewed from across the Hudson in their army days, again and again, a distant line of blue. Had they even then thought sometime to glimpse beyond that mysterious blue line! But as with Fremont. years later in the Rock­ ies, mountain pathfinding in winter proved a bitter, disheartening. experience, the "plain road" was found to be a mere sled trail to Shan­ daken. with brush trimmed out in places, and. thence an Indian trail to Pakatackton with occasional blazed trees. But despite its hard­ ships what an adventure this undertaking must have been for the young men! What must have been the effect upon them of the. primeval mountain fastnesses, always so sublime, so pregnan1.: with the might of the Suprem.e Being! _4_nd tc experience them. for tile first time and in intimate companionship with an older man of the culture and background of Dr. Platt Townsend: in his own youth a college mate of two later Signers and in Edin burgh an associate of Oliver Goldsmith and other brilliant youth! After the return of this advance p::3..rty and late in April, the set­ tlers again took the road, Mrs. Pine, her daughter, Sarah, Mrs. Town­ send and her son, Isaac, remaining at Marbletown for the time be­ ing. The others made Shandaken and there. left their two wagons, returning later. John Pine cut a road for them across Pine Hill to the East Branch and from that stream over Colchester Mountain to the West Branch. After a night at Shandaken, the women and children were put on tJae horses with provisions, supplies and even some household goods while the men walked before them. And let it here be recalled that these pioneers were either trained horsemen or 28 TH~ FOUNDERS AND FOl:JNDING OF WALTON the daughters of such. Indeed Deborah and Elizabeth North were each pleased to request that a family rocking chair be strapped b~ck of her sadrt.le. A mother without an easy chair is at a disadvantage. Pakatackton, reached that night, was found -to contain a single family, that of a kindly man named Ackerly. The sight of navigable water encouraged JDshua Pine, and, sending his sons back to the wagons for supplies, he secured from Ackerly a canoe and the promise of more to be constructed. By means of this craft the Pine family the en­ suing day made the river journey to Pepacton, where they caught up with the rest of the party. So far as their map showed, they were now practically due east of the southern extremity, the desired portion, of the Walton pat­ ent. Accordingly the next day, using their compass and taking as a guide one of the few residents of Pepacton, they began the last stage of their journey, blazing trees· and slashing aside brush to make a. passage for the horses. In crossing the watershed they at­ tained an elevation in excess of two thousand feet, then looked down upon the 1\-1ohawk, or West Branch of the Delaware, winding its course a thousand feet lower down. Sixty years later N. P. Willis, viewing the -scene, wrote, "Walton sits on a knee of the Delaware, with mountains folding it in, like the cup of a water lily. The horizon, • scalloped by the summit upon ,tp.e sky, is like nothing so much •as· the beautiful thing I speak of, the rim of the water lily's cup when half blown.'' But as the first settlers ga.zed down into the valley that 16th of May, 178 5, "It appeared to be one · dense mass of pines of gigantic growth, and as they descended the mountain and wound down the valley, grove after grove of these ·huge trees opened to their view.'• "When we reached this branch of the river," states the journal of Mollie Fine, "we felt that we again had a highway. We did not dismount from our horses after we reached the river until we landed on the west side of it. I think it must hav-e been about the mid­ dle of lviay when we reached our destination." Nearing the journey's end Mrs. Furman, who rode with a baby in her· arm.s and another child behind her, be~n singing, ''I'll fol- low my true love wherever he goes." At last out in the open, the women exclaimed joyfully that now they '.?01.1!d ride a. little way without interfering trees · bruising their feet. Everywhere mn~t have been lush grass and budding trees, birds :flitting about, singing merrily home-making lays, and about all an air heavy with the in­ toxication of early spring. Just before the travelers, as they rode along the west bank of the river, stretched a fallen tree while be­ yond a swirling stream (East Brook) hastened toward the river. Glorying in the joy of youth and the novelty of her surroundings, Elizabeth Carter North urged on her horse. "I will be the first to set foot in our new home!" she exclaimed. And springing to the ground, her baby clasped tightly in her strong young arms, she THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON 29 rushed forward to a seat on the fallen tree. · She was the first white woman to touch the soil and she was to be the last of the mothers to be returned to it. The horses were quickly relieved of their burdens and turned loose to browse, the men made a fire and put up tents while .the women prepared their first meal in their new home. "The next morning," to return again to Mollie's narrative, "we were all up at early dawn, the men to fish and replenish :fires, the women to pre­ pare breakfast (which mainly consisted of fried trout) which they ate from pewter plates sitting on a fallen tree in front of the tents, and six tents so near each other they looked very much like a group of Indian wigwams. We were not without our fears of straggling Indians and wild beasts were very numerous. we often heard the wolves howl and saw them, too." With no sources of supply nearer than distant Schoharie, Cats­ kill and Marbletown, the newcomers were grateful for· the abundance of fish and game. "Wild geese and ducks frequently visited .our streams," to quote again from Mollie's narrative, "and innumerable flocks of wild pigeons built their camps in our forests. There were also many animals yielding fur, such as beaver, otter, mink, marten and many small animals. Tp.ere were also many panthers and other ravenous beasts of prey. Many varieties of' birds of prey filled the air, such as eagles, owls and hawks. Cranes and loons waded in the water. Crows, ravens, jays, redheaded woo.dpecke:r-s and other birds frequented the forest among the pines, hemlocks and other large trees.•• Trained to military precision the · men of the party set methodi­ cally to work in their strange surroundings. Dr. Townsend and Will­ iam Furman chose sites for cabins above the river brink and on the west side of what later was to be known as West Brook. The Norths, temporarily occupying a log shack erected the preceding year by timber pirates near the spot where the settlers pitched their first camp in the valley, selected their contemplated holdings and be­ gan clearing small :fields of ground. Later each of them erected an house. Anxious for larger stretches of level land, the Pines trav- TnilP<::l t"ha ... o S'-'l""+-~~- ~- eled down the river, a ,,..oun1°.... -... · • - o-f------, ~------...... ,..., ...... 6 ca..1.1 e-x.L. t.t:a1s1ve . river fl.at and uplands. Here they Ditched their tent, q_1.1.i~k!y- 'b-:.:.:!d.t:~g about it a log cabin, with bark roof· and floor. The work done• .John, Joshua, Jr.. and the father hastening back to Marbletown, returned with the wagon and supplies and the other members of the family to Pakatackton. Here Joshua, Jr., interested in possibilities of shad supply for the Walton settlement, made diligent inquiries of the set­ tlers, ascertaining that while vast numbers ascended the river to Cookhouse (Deposit}-in a single haul the preceding year thirteen hundred shad had been secured-no such quantities went up the Mohawk Branch. While the .others of the family proceeded directly to their new home, the tireless .John Pine, assisted by a woodsman • 30 THE FOUNDERS AND· FOUNDING OF W~T'?N Rosa by name, conveyed in three trips all supplies and goods of . the family, paddling down to the river forks, the Chehawkin of the Indians, and thence by the very sweat of the brow poling up the West Branch to the new home. Not only were :tlour, salt and like necessaries thus conveyed, but also cherished family records and manuscripts, books, chinaware, silver, chairs of an early colonial period and many a precious heirloom, though in deepest apprecia­ tion of rare kindness shown her by an Holland dame in Marbletown, Ivirs. Pine had left with the latter her family Bible (printed long before in the Lowlands) with its DeMilt records. Amid the scenes of earliest activity a figure stands out, brave, amusing were it not pathetic. Daniel Pine, sturdy, sixteen-year-old lad, youngest of the family, had trudged the distance from Shandaken with a crowbar on his shoulder. As he stood squarely on his feet, that bar in hand, fast in the ground were all the millions of tons of stones which since then have been used for foundations of buiid- _ings and roads or are now safely ensconced in stone walls which like mighty arniy corps in single files ascend the hills and mountains about Walton. And Daniel had the on1y crowbar. Poor Daniel! Late in the fall, heralding to the outer world their safety and the new address, Walton, the first letter from the settlers found its way across the mountains to New York. Doubtless started on its journey by the woodsman who had been aiding John Pin~ its re­ ceipt by Benjamin North must have relieved long suspense and aroused a thrill of excitement. Even nO°\v, after generations of increasing higher education with exploration made a science, ~t would be difficult finding a better written or more interesting letter. It is here transcribed verbatim:

.. Walton. 14th November. 1 785. Dear Brother: I am happy to embrace the opportunity to write, it being the first I have had since we have been in this entire wildrenefs. I would inform you we all are in perfect health. for which blefsing I desire to be truly thankful, and hope this may find you and yours enjoying the same.. Would inform you I have built a house and have a good winter's store laid in. I have a very pleasant situation en the side of Pine Hill. The Dela.ware river runs murmuring the south side of my house. I think I have laid a foundation for all the happinefs this vvorld can a:ttorct. .i~ :has been very expensive moving to this new country and expensive and difficult getting pro­ visions, however, I hope the worst is over. We have got four acres of wheat, half an acre of rye, and one of timothy sown. I think I could write you a long story about the beauties of this place, wild and romantic. Fish in great abundance, the finest trout ever was, -pigev:u.s in countlefs numbe_rs. I kept little Joe to drive them off the grain after sowing, but he could scarcely alarm them. Elk and deer are very plenty. I saw fourteen elk in the river a few rods below my house at one time. Wolves were very plenty all around us and would frequently come up to our door and around our tents at night. We had to sleep with our cnildren between us to prevent them be- THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON 31 ing carried off, but Prince, King of Dogs, has killed three of them, and the rest have become more shy. Prince went out one day alone on Pine Hill and brought home a beautiful fawn in his mouth that he had killed. The meat was very fine and quite welcome. We have a variety of wild apples a:hd mandrakes very plenty in the woods, and every kind of wild berries, etc. You say that my friends have expected letters from me. I am sorry to disappoint them. Tell them· I am perfectly satisfied with my situation, and find the country much bet­ ter than I expected. We expect a number of settlers out in th~ spring. We shall be glad to see them aithough we are quite happy. Brother Robert or I will go to New York in .the spring and then will give you all the particulars of our migration to the west. Be pleased to give my best love to all my friends. That you may be happy under every circumstance in life. is the sincere wish of your loving brother, GABRIEL NORTH. :Mr. Benjamin r~ orth, Nevv York."

There is a wonderful modesty about this letter. These people had become frontiersmen of New York. At the west, northwest and north where were to ark,~ the cities of Binghamton, Syracuse and Utica, there was a virgin wilderness. Not hunters, trappers or axemen, with women and nursing babies in their midst, this little group of cul­ tured, highly educated settlers had found ·their way through ninety miles of mountains, making roads for their wagons, forcing their way on horseback through tangled forests, venturing in canoes on untried river channels. And all this they had done without loss of life, accident, injury, or. more remarkab1e still, any dissensic11. Speak­ ing seventy years later at the grave of one who had known intimately these founders, a Walton pastor fittingly said of them: "These pioneers came upon this ground; not for speculation or earthly gain, but for a home, blessed with the toils of industry and the --smiles of religion." To this encomium there is nothing to add.

CHAPrER V.

the New .ttome.

Winter must have come on soon after Gabriel's letter -"-yy Cl,0::, -~=.Lw .l .l t.- +.--·.,c;.L.l. And along the upper Delaware. where mile 11!)011 m!!e t~e mountain ranges rise in every direction, winter comes in earnest with deep snow and a temperature down below zero. But except for .Joshua Pine and his wife and Dr. Townsend, the settlers were young and strong. Age_d fifty-eight, Mrs. Pine was the eldest, as baby Benjami~ North was the most youthful of the settlers. The men traveled about on snowshoes but the women kept their !lpinning wheels busy and did no visiting that winter. During the icy cold of Feb­ ruary while Dr. Townsend was absent a brand new little settler joined the circle and his mother, Elizabeth Carter North, was re- 32 THE FOUNpERS AND -FOUNDING OF WALT.ON minded that Williaµi Walton had promised a tract of land to the first baby boy born in the settlement, provided only that the young grantee receive his name. But the :first of her father's family to come to America was Samuel Carter and with this ancestor's given name the mother was pleased to christen the new settler.

"That when she will, she will, you may depend on it, "And when she won't, she won't, and there's an end on ...... ;..- ,, With the opening of spring chips of wood were noticed :floating down the river. The sight was quite as astonishing to the pioneer~ as the footprints on the sand were to Robinson Crusoe. Riding along the river bank a few miles upstream, Joshua Pine discovered a woodchopper lying unconscious beside a newly falien tree. Wnen resuscitated the woodsman gave his name as David Harrower and said he lived in a log hut near by with his wife an~ two sons. Shortly aftar this occurrence, following a like clue Harrower found an upstream neighbor by the .name of John B. Yendes and from him learned that a man by the name of George Fisher was making a clearing three or four miles further along. Moreover, it seemed that beyond Fisher's and over on Elk Creek one Gideon Frisbee was erecting a cabin. Assuredly, the •mountains were becoming populated. About this time from Brackabeen, or old Sc;hoharie, came still another family. Of these people the record of James McCall re­ lates how "in the spring of 178 6 my father, Benajah McCall, a native of New London, Connecticut, stopping at· Brackabeen, prepared to remove to his own land ,down the river (Delaware) and about six miles above the present Village of Walton. He hired two men and took a canoe in which he stored away a load of provisions and fa1•ming uten.siis. Your father and myself drove the team and a cow through the woods. There was no road so we followed the river. J\1:y father and his men being unskilled in the management of a canoe upset it, wet our provisions and lost some of the tools. How­ ever. we reached our land and built us a. leg cabin ~nd made us a bed of hemlock boughs. Our stock of provisions was low. We had samp and milk for supper. potatoes and mi1k for breakfast and often the same for dinner. • • • There was no mill for grinding grain nearer than thirty miles, so that if we had· wheat bread we had to pound the grain in the mortar. Sometimes we obtained meal for Indian pudding by sifting the hominy. Fish were plenty and we had an occasional haunch of venison. • • • We subsisted two weeks by cutting rye and snubbing out by hand and boiling it. The first bread we had the rye was b:,;ought into the house and rubbed out by hand, dried in a kettle over the fire and then ground without bolting. It seemed the best bread I had ever eaten. Our health was good and our appetites equal to the coarse fare:• THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON 33 In 1786 :0-Hchael Goodrich* reached Vvalton, later erecting the first sawmill and grist mill there. The same year Azel Hyde, Seth Ber­ ray and Alexander Hutanic Nutinock trapped along the East Branch, settling in Walton in 1787. The most picturesque character of Wal­ ton history, this early Leatherstocking Hyde was a Revolutionary War veteran and a native of Connecticut. Of his immediate family noth­ ing is known, except that in some way he was connected with one David Hyde of- Sharon. Litch:fleld County, Connecticut. It was un­ derstood that he had been a scout with General Sullivan during his memorable campaign against the Iroquois. Perhaps he then learned through the noted scout, Tim l\'.Iurp~y. of the hunting region along the headwaters of the Delaware. With rifle, ~~e and copper kettle, powder and iead and a iiitle . salt he was rich, his home was with the redmen and the live things of the forest. In at least two places about Walton he had erected log cabins for winter headquarters, just as decades later trappers in the Rockies had their favored canyon retreats or ..holes," as they were wont to term them. With­ out wife or child, by his kindly ways he won the regard of mothers and children of the settlement and from the men the appointment as their first commissioner of highways. 4 Late in July, 1787, after a long illness, Martha Dickensen Town- send, wife of Dr. Platt Townsend, died in the settlements near the Hudson. Though her talented little daughter, Frances, had doubt­ less already been back and forth with her father from Walton, Mrs. Townsena.·s health had never permitted her reaching the new settle­ ment. This same year there came to Walton Jeremiah Alverson and Samuel Johnson, followed shortly by Joseph Cable, a noted hunter, Ephriam Beers, a useful blacksmith, and by Beebe, Towsley, Stock­ ing, the Bradleys and Joseph Furman. "At this time," said an old writer, .. accommodations were freely given, without money and with­ out price. The newcomers were almost universally men and wo­ men of sober habits, of good health. and inured to labor~ ready a.nd eager to attack the forests and lay the tall trees prostrate." Nor was the radiating hospitality of the log cabins lacking from the frame houses which presently began to take their places. The :first boards were sawed out at a n1il1 near Hobart, mi1es distant, and floated down the river. About the Delaware and toward the Susquehanna other localities were growing. Why not? In England Brant had received no en­ couragement and the warpath now was cold. In 1778 R,ev. William Johnson, after making on the Sidney Plains the first settlement in the upper Susquehanna Valley, had been driven away by Brant and

* In the seventeenth century William Goodrich, first of this fam­ ily, came from County Suffolk, England. to Connecticut, where, in 1648, he married Sarah Marvin. He was a deputy from Wethersfield in May, 1662. 34 THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON

over in the Ouleout Valley, late in 1785, ere his title met their ap­ proval, Sluman Wattles of Connecticut had been compelled to hold council with the redmen, but a few miles from Walton. But now predatory bands no longer roamed the forest clad hills and mountains between the rivers. Quickly, therefore, isolated clearings were be­ coming settlements. Up the Delaware above George Fisher's had come :Matthew Ray, Levi Baxter and Thomas Farrington. The last had been an officer under Putnam at the Battie of Bunker Hill. Their pleasant location was soon to be known as Delhi. Below Walton some miles was arising ambitious Dickinson City, later to be the hamlet of Cannonsville. Here, in 1786, had come a Philadelphia dreamer, J"esse Dickinson. Before his visions were shattered, he had run down the river~ in the wake of one Bo'sun Parks of Equinock way, the first raft of logs from the West Branch, and from New J"ersey had brought a capable milling man, Abraham Ogden, later to be an asset to Walton. Still further, across the Pennsylvania line, there was· a land agent by the name of William Cooper. Pres­ ently he, himself, was to dwell in a mountain settlement to be named Cooperstown and in time to be the shrine of tb e devotees of Feni­ more Cooper, his gifted son. Had knowledge of the cultured Walton settlement given William Cooper an idea? Did Joshua Pine and his son, John, occasionally visit the East Branch? The father might have found interest in discussing milling with one Wiliiam Horton, already erecting large grist mills while John might have reminisced with Abraham Sprague, recent member of the bodyguard of General Washington. Did the talented Dr. Platt Townsend perhaps take a day off and, with Azel Hyde as guide, look up William Johnson over by the Susquehanna? A native of Dublin, .Johnson had graduated from Edinburgh University a few years after Townsend. If they read from their college mate, Oliver Goldsmith, the quaint guide would have been interested, but if they quoted Greek text! Despite hardships these were wonderful days. Early in the winter of 1787, there came a Long Island party especially welcome to the Norths and Furmans. It included Richard Gosline with his recent bride, Iviartha North, and her sister, lviary

Margaret, Mary and Elizabeth. Gabriel Smith, the soldier-husband had recently died. There were others in the group. To quote from an old manuscript: .. Charles W. Stockton and family consisting of his wife and children Mary, Abigail and Richard, his wife's mother, widow Mar­ garet Furman North, also a colored girl about 15, named Tessie, arrived in Walton on the 1st day of December, 1787, lived that winter

* Many of Walton's old families trace descent from these sisters. Abigail became the wife of William Townsend; Margaret of .Joseph Wall; Mary of Alan Mead, and Elizabeth of Elisha Sawyer. THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON 35 with Gabriel North in his log house all in one room. (Stockton's wife Elizabeth was the youngest sister of Gabriel and Robert North.) The next spring he put up a log house on the farm and nearly on the spot where David More * built his house, having purchased 349 ¼. acres of land and all the island opposite of Christopher Tappan of Kingston for the sum of eighty-seven pounds. eight shilling and four pence; he also purchased of the heirs of Johannus Hardenberg a third part of Lot 66 in Great Lot 36, the whole of which lot contains 3,095 ¾ acres, and the island, opposite for five hundred silver dollars." In faded penciling appears this note: "Came by way of the head of the river and crossed the same 32 times in coming to Walton." In the Walton cemetery, among the markers to dead and gone Stocktons stands a plain stone inscribed to Margaret North. Let those who look upon this think of the brave hearted woman who in August~ l 776~ saw the men ~~nd youths mo8t dtc;tr to her, ,,,"J:'usband, sons, sons-in-law, brothers and nephews march out to defend their very firesides, who, rudely exiled from her loved home, was widowed ere peace permitted her ag~in to pass its lintels. And then, before turning away, think of the journey she endured, when past sixty, for the sake of being at home with her own! A well informed man. Stockton doubtless delivered news of the outer world. In September the Federal Convention at Philadelphia had adjourned with a constitution-an organic law effected by com­ promise-ready for submission to the states. Already Pennsylvania was in- throes over the document while his own state, New Jersey, and Delaware were by now probably considering it favorably. In New York. however. there was bitter opposition. Indeed, this mat­ ter had brought about sharp cleavage of parties. In behalf of adoption young Alexander Hamilton was arrayed against Clinton and the field. Among the Walton founders Stockton must have found eager listeners. This constitution might result in a stable centralized government, terminating the chaotic condition. Satisfied though they had been to forget the world when it was topsy-turvy, now that order seemed possible their attention was aroused. By tradition and inheritance, predisposed to public affairs. their educa­ tion and war time experience fitted them for political careers. But what heed would be paid by the Empire State to a small group hid away in the :remote ·~vilde:rness? Though the little settlement, un- cessions, so rare as to be ·events, were aggregating a total, pitiably small. Thus perhaps they reasoned, or perhaps a part in public mat­ ters seemed preposterous and was not considered~ And yet already among them had come one whose visit was an epoch and whose potent voice was to draw crowds to Walton. "Captain Carter of (Fairfield County) Connecticut," records an old manuscript, "the father of the l\'Irs. Norths, said it had been most two years since he

* Appendix. 36 THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON had heard from his daughters, he feared they might be killed by the Indians or devoured by wild beasts, he became so restlefs he could not sleep nights-he therefore mounted his horse and came out to see if he could find them-he found them well and happy-that year the Pines had a great crop of corn on the Island. Carter was invited to make a visit and see the crops before he returned, which he did. Such corn he never saw in Connecticut, he gathered a few specimens, also of wheat and took them home with him-these were exhibited to his friends which, together with his account of the richnefs ·of the soil awakened such a spirit of immigration that we came near having all Connecticut let loose upon us-to these few simple causes are we indebted for so large a New England popula­ tion, retaining their habits and customs." From an old copy of the ".Journal of Family Visitation" in Canaan Parish, Fairfield County, Connecticut, for 1772 are taken these names, closely connected with Walton's growth and which must have been in the mind of the oid chronicler: Weed, Bene­ dict, St. .John, Seymour, Hoit, Eells. Fitch, Olmstead, Hanford, Ray­ mond, Keeler, Kellogg, Wairing, Lockwood and Penoyer. Practically all of these names aiso appea,.r on the Canaan Parish Revolutionary War rosters either of Captain .John Carter's, company or Colonel John Mead's command. Intrepid Puritans of fine endowments, it was these families and their associates that brought early expansion ~o Walton. Others of like type, aroused from their quiet Fairfield County homes by the clarion voice of Captain .John paused on the trail, building up Hobart, Roxbury and Stamford. And now, versed in the great principle of community cohesion, with health, strength and clear vision, with a reputation attracting splendid additions to their numbers~ industriously at work carving homes out of the wiiderness, the founders could say in the words of Gabriel North, "I think I have laid a foundation for all the happi­ ness this world can afford. •t What better foundation for a successful settlement? Ivfeantim.e; in the e~_r!y sum.!!ler of 178 8, the federal constitution was adopted.

-CHAPTER VI.

Aftermath. This chronicle has now arrived at the last days of the eighteenth century with Dr. Platt Townsend still the cultured, traveled physician, with Joshua Pine still the man of affairs and ultimately again the :financier. Environment, only, has changed and to their surround­ ings· these unusual men quickly adapted themselves. Mounted and equipped with his saddle bags, famous for their store of medicines and surgical instruments, Dr. Townsend, the courtly gentleman, rode through the wilderness bringing to the frontier homes his rare a.t- THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALT-ON 3 7 tainments. To. them his proximity was an assurance of security while his presence must have served to attract to the upper Dela­ ware others of highest educational attainments. To Harpersfield came the Rev. Stephen Fenn, Yale 1790, (later) to Delhi, Erastus Root, honor man from Dartmouth College, to Meredith, Samuel Law, with degrees from Yale, Harvard and Columbia, and from Norwalk, Connecticut, to Walton, Peter St. John, not long from ~ale. nifeantim.e, in 1789, Dr. Townsend, the widower, married Ann Gosline. His sons growing to manhood, he found time, co-operating with them, to establish a grist mill, a carding mill and a sawmill. In 1795, he caused to be erected the fine family residence to this day occupied by his descendants. Already his little daughter, Frances, early developing into womanhood with a loveliness and cha.rm which made her generally admired, h_ad left his home the bride of Lancaster Lupton, an accomplished lawyer of excellent English family. Their occasional returns with coach and four, the husband throwing gold coins _to the children, were signal events. Since through her skill in portraiture this little volume is enriched by the likeness of her father and her brother, wn,iam, the reader will be prepared to receive with interest further knowledge concerning . ' this charming girl of long ago. Still in her youth she became a widow. A few years later she was bereft of her only child. Of her it is further written: "She acquired a general knowledge of · natural history, particu­ larly of botany, of which she was very fond and in which she made great proficiency. She spoke French with facility, and was also well versed in the literature of that people. She read Spanish and Italian with ease and had so faf mastered Hebrew as to have perused the Old Testament in that language. She was moreover· learned in the polite literature of her own country; and her knowledge of ancient history was distinguished for its accuracy and extent. Her taste and skill in the fine arts excited universal approbation. "She was an honorary member of the National Academy of D~sign, and executed, during her leisure, many pieces in painting a::1d sculpture, which elicited high commendation from the most competent judges. Ar:::.ong her various pu1·suits she neither over­ looked or despised thP. ()-r-dinary 2.vc~2.tic!!s cf ~~:=- sc::;:. "Her productions in embroidery, needlework, dress and fancy articles, would of themselves, on account of their execution, have justly entitled her to the praise of uncommon industry. In short she attempted nothing in which she did not excel, and in an in­ dustrious and well spent life, there were but few things which she did not attempt. She, however, spent much time in society, and mingled in its enjoyment with alacrity and pleasure. In a word, she was one of those rare and highly· gifted females whose endow­ ments are not only an ornament to their sex, but to human nature. In all the relations of wife, mother, relative and friend, she was all 38 THE FOUNDERS AND FOD"'NDING OF WALTON that duty required, or that affection could desire. She died at the home of one of her relations in Cedar Swamp, Long Island, in 18 3 2." In 1789 occurred the first wedding in Walton, Seth Berray being united with Anna Goodrich. Dr. Townsend performed the ceremony so pleasingly that presently couples came to him over mountain trails and roads from miles away. Distances in this period can be appreciated by considering that in 178 9 three families on their way to found a new settlement required one month from Kingston to Owego and nineteen days thence to their destination now known as Ithaca. On occasional Sundays, sometimes at one Walton home, sometimes at another, Dr. Townsend conducted religious services, reading from an English Book of Common Prayer. With such a Sunday as this in 1791 there is a romantie interest. In ca.re cf her uncle, Richard Gosline. Margaret Remsen, daughter of Capt. Luke Remsen,* of Newtown, ~ntl Abigail North, his wife, was making the journey to Walton to visit her Grandmother North and her uncles and aunts. From Kingston she rode horseback, while her uncle walked. Arriving at Delhi of a Friday evening, the travelers stopped at the home of Col. Farrington, a friend of the Norths, and learned that on Sunday Dr. Townsend would conduct religious services at Uncle Gabriel North's home. But exhausted and ill, Richard Gos­ line was ready to rest over a day or two. Not so twenty year old :Margaret with her new volume of Dr. Watt's "Psalms of David," recently inscribed with her name and "Bought May 14, 1791," let alone. perhaps a new dress. So the next morning uncle, good­ natured though ill, was persuaded to mount the horse while Mar­ garet sturdily wa1ked the seventeen' miles. And it all ended as in a story book. Uncle Gosline did not die until years later, Margaret reached Uncle Gabriel's in time to hear Dr. Townsend read from his prayer book and then give a selected sermon t0 a young man to read, and .Joshua Pine, Jr., was there. Anyway, after Margaret returned home, J'oshua realized that he had not seen Long Island in years and, revisiting Newtown. brought Margaret home with him as his bride. Dr. Townsend long survived the great notables of his early ac­ quaintance. William Walton, Jr., died in 1796, General Washington on his Walton homestead. A short distance further along the course of the Delaware River is another family graveyard where, inscribed on a stone, one may read these words: "Here lies the first proprietor of this soil." The chiseled date is August 19, 1802, and the name is J'oshua Pine. By him sleeps his wife, Sarah DeMilt, who died July 9, 1800. During the period of his life in Walton, Joshua Pine developed an estate of more than seven hundred acres, erected a comfortable home and mills,

* Appendix. THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON 39 bought and sold timber and accumulated means. ,Always a con­ siderate. capable man of affairs, he was enabled not only to develop his own property but more than any of the other early settlers to finance the entire community during its infancy. At that day there were no credit institutions within reach of Walton, and on his aid largely rested the development of the community. He was closely associated with his son, .Joshua, .Jr., of whom it was written, "He built the house long known as the Pine Homestead, almost the counterpart, it is said, of the old North home at Newtown. He engaged largely m. business, as a dealer in both lumber and merchandise, going fre­ quently to Philadelphia, and having an extensive acquaintance throughout the county. He also filled the office of Judge in the Court of Common Pleas, and was considered a man of more than ordinary integrity and business abilit3,~. His death occurred in 1010.·~ There is much of interest in the inventory of the estate of .Joshua Pine, .Tr. The aggregate value of good notes from sixteen merchants and farmers -yvas $6,309.59. Seventy-five good bed blankets were valued at $200. Seventy-five sheep and lambs at $150. 50,000 feet or choice vine boards at $250. In his library were fifty volumes and he possessed surveying instruments and much colonial furniture. Best of all, he left a good name. His brother John. had died the preceding year. Of this brave soldier's splendid military career and rare exertions on the journey to Walton record has been made. . Concerning his · interment there has been handed down a story full of pathos. When family, friends and old comrades in arms had left the grave, his favorite dog re­ mained crouching by the newly raised mound. Deaf to kindly en­ treaties and refusing food, the loving creature remained faithful at his post and died on guard above the remains· of the famous ieader of the Westchester Guides. A cheery help and counsellor to all, Mollie Pine survived her twiri brother seventeen years. The liberal education* which the brother and sister had received from private tutors in Hempstead days ever served to iiiumine their lives. Daniel Pine, youngest of the family, in 1797, married Rachel Robertson, daughter of Daniel Robertson, a veteran fron1 Fairfieid County who had served with Arnold in

interesting reminder of olden days under the patroon system, his lease, still extant, required that he deliver, annually, to .Jacob Tremper of Kingston rental in the amount of "One Pepper Corn." Sarah _Pine, having married .Joseph Furman, removed with him to a neigh­ boring county. In passing, it is to be noted that the William Fur­ man family remained only a short time in Walton. And here let it be recalled that this little book makes no pretense of listing all the * Appendix. 40 THE FOUNDERS. AND FOUNDING OF WALTON early settlers or notables of Walton or of being an index to its industries and potentialities. Its scope has bfl~n limited to estab­ fishing, as far as may be, a reliable record of the actual founding and founders of earliest Walton. In following the later careers of the founders, Gabriel and Robert North. this chronicle becomes immediately involved in public affairs of the period. Education and religious service appear first. Though until April, 1795, New York state enacted no effective legislation concerning education, in Walton Mary North Smith, widow of Gabriel Smith, opened a school as early as 1790. The following year a log building was erected on Mt. Pleasant and here school was held dur­ ing week days and religious service·s on Sundays. This was a union and not a denominational church. Two years later a group of men. meeting at the home of John Eells, came to an agreement on articles of faith and church government. From this grew the local Con­ gregational Church, with David Harrower, Jr., as an early pastor. Three days after this organization was effected, an ecclesiastical so­ ciety was duly established under the name of the "Union Society... Of this body Gabriei North, Michael Goodrich and James· Weed• were trustees. William Townsend served as the first treasurer and for the first quarter century Robert North was its clerk. In 1831, associated with members of the Pine, Gardiner, Gay, Ogden and other families, he helped found Christ's Episcopal Church, the edifice being erected on land given by the Townsend family. Though the first legislation in New York looking toward district libraries was enacted in April, 1835, the founders of Walton, who, with cherished manuscripts and books in their saddle bags had forded the Delaware to their new home, were in many respects decades in advance of their state. With shares at two dollars each, they opened a library irl 1802, shares being taken by the families of Townsend, l?ine, the Norths of Stockton, St. John, Eells, Fitch, Mead, Gardiner, Gay, Ogden, Griswold, Whitemarsh, Raymond and others. In 1792, by legislative enactment, Walton passed from the Town of IIarpersfi.eld to Franklin and from the County cf 1.fontgome:ry to the new County of Otsego. In April, 1795, the new Town of Franklin held its first meeting at the home of Sluman Wattles. electing the latter· Supervisor and Robert North Clerk. A bounty on wolves: tr. the amount of three pounds the scalp was voted, and it was decided to build a road from Joshua Pine's to Dickinson City and to prohibit hogs running at large. Four years later the legislature created the County of Delaware, with Walton one of its seven towns. Robert North was named as its first Supervisor. Thereafter, until the close of his lite, he remained in public service, :filling the offices of Clerk, Surrogate and State Loan Commissioner. The first Judges of the new county were William Horton, Patrick Lamb and Gabriel North. The· last named-was now·fairly started on

* Appendix. THE FOu"'NDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON 41 his long :political career. On the 1st of October, 1801, the Walton post office was established with Gabriel North named as postmaster, a most appropriate choice in view of his authorship of the interest­ ing first Walton letter. The same year he had entered the legis­ lature, thereafter serving in tha:t body for five terms. He also found time to sit as a Judge in the Court of Common Pleas. · With the tremendous advantage of the first choice of lands and a few years' start the founders had opportunity and leisure for public service while later comers were yet clearing their farms. Availing themselves of this opening and co-operating closely, they early per­ fected a marvelous organization. In a. measure these men were com­ munity patriarchs. Hannah and Deborah North, the little girls of 1785, had matured, Hannah marrying Lewis Seymour* and Deborah Caleb Benedict. Benjamin North, the infant of 1785, growing to manhood had allied himself with the family of his father's war time leader, General Heath. To the marriages of the daughters of the sister, Mary North. Smith, reference has been made; the Goslines early removed from Waiton; but sister Elizabeth North Stockton had a large family of unusual ability. A son, Richard W. Stockton, became a physician, a daughter, Mary, married John F. St. John. Viewed with over a century intervening, it would seem as though to Gabriel North, Samuel North, Erastus Root, and Isaac Ogden t were allotted state politics, while Robert North, the schoolmaster and later lawyer, Aaron Clark t and David St. John watched over the local situation and Cyrus North planned and harmonized the moves. As a sidelight on their political methods there is interest in an extract from a letter written August 4, 1818, by Clark to Cyrus North: "I have at length commenced reading again. Cicero's various epistles have employed me. I have ftnished. They are in three iarge volumes. I am clearly of the opinion that any person and every person who means to be a politician should by all means read them once a year critically. They contain much useful and much true

A brilliant young lawYer, Root had married Elizabeth Stockton, niece of the Norths, n.nd been q_uick to discover the unusual talents cf 'he!" ~~u~in, ~~_m1_1P.l North~ first-born in Walton. While still in his teens, this youth had journeyed to Albany where, after acquiring the printer's trade, he had studied law and been admitted to practice by Chancellor Kent. His rare ability quickly won him powerful friends and at twenty-three he was elected clerk of the legislature. A natural organizer, he worked out the now general scheme of party machinery through committees. Thus under date of June 17, 1809, he wrote from Albany to his father: "Our friends here calculate

* Lewis Seymour, Judd Raymond and .Jetur Gardiner were Wal­ ton's first storekeepers. t Appendix. 42 THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON

on adopting a system which shall embrace the whole state, with various modifications, contemplating the establishment of county, town and district committees, for the purpose of dissipating erroneous impressions and enlightening the public mind on the various sub­ jects which have given occasion to so much federal clamor and mis­ representation. * * * The letters of J"ohn Adams which have been published in the Register are all highly important. That which appears in the last Register is peculiarly interesting and valuable. I should think these, if generally read, would be productive of great good and would open the eyes of honest men who have hitherto adhered to the federal party. * * * Make my love ~o all the family. Remember me to my friends and make my particular re­ spects to our old friend Dr. Townsend and his family." About this time David St. J"ohn of Walton was a member of the legislature and doubtless the two neighbors planned many campaigns together. But death was to intervene, and with success in his hands the brilliant young first son of Walton was cut off while still in his twenties. Eis·-younger brother, Cyrus, born 1n 1792, now seems to have come to the front, playing a remarkable part in public affairs. In a letter to Cyrus from Walton under date of March 16, 1816, his father, Robert North, wrote in part: "I regret to learn that .our county is like to suffer amputation, it will injure us much in many- respects­ and I fear hereafter we shall have to be ranked amongst the federal counties. Tell Ogden to labor with all his might to kill it in the Senate. I do not think of anything more to do to defeat it. Leaven­ worth writes that the Assembly will not hear to remonstrance, reason or argument. Our Town Meeting has gone pretty much as usual. Gabriel North and Davi.d St. .John are our Town Committee for the Convention. * * * Mr. I-ieadley * has asked that you- purchase for him certain· books. * * * My regards to Ogden, C~ark and other friends." The reference to Leavenworth calls for a digression. At the opening of the War of 181.2, Henry Leavenworth, then a young Delaware County lawyer, went into service as a captain of infantry.

'0-,.- T,,l-.- "1Q"1A 1-,,._ ....,..,.,S ,_.,... +"I-.,._ r,1,...~,...~: .... ~ ""--- ... :-,,., •··r.r ,~,.-g••- ••· •11 J.J.:, ... , ...... ,., ... V .L f the great Wellington. How heroically they upheld the traditions of their Revolutionary sires may be mutely attested by the fact that their leader was carried from the neld, and of his command but twenty-eight came through unscathed! "Delaware County," it is written, "was clothed in mourning for her slain." After the war Geavenworth represented his county in the legislature, then, entering THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON 43 the regular armY. was dispatched into the !ndia.n .;;ountry. He founded Ft. Leavenworth, and in 1834 died a brigadier general of the Regulars. In these days of conflict the mountain ramparts of Walton were sending their children, too, for a brave part in the struggle. Al­ ready, towering forest monarchs had floated supine down the Dela­ ware, careening madly in the cataracts and spinning in the eddies, finally to raise their heights proudly aloft above the braveiy manned :fighting decks of the "Constitution," l~unched at Boston in October, 179 7. Presently, now, "nine rafts of spars were culled from the heavy growth of pine on Pine Hill, floated to Philadelphia and placed in the frigates 'Brandywine' and 'Franklin 7 4, • thence bearing the Stars and Stripes ~-round the wor1d and to -every port in the Mediterranean." Walton, also, had military officers, in addition to the five officers of the Revolutionary War who comprised its adult male founders. John Eells, at the beginning of the century, was colonel of the 69th, '- and Governor l\'Iorgan Lewis with his staff came to Walton. review- ing the regiment. Dr. Richard V-l. · Stockton, son of Charles W. Stockton, went into the War of 1812 as a surgeon and Gabriel North, Jr., as a captain. At the time of his. early death in 1826, the latter was colonel of the famous 6 9th. Erastus Root, of Delhi, a kinsman of the Norths, was a general i;n the militia. He and Gabriel North served in the legislature together, General Root was speaker during three terms, a state senator fo:r four years, member of Congress nine years and for one term lieutenant governor of New York. Meanwhile, in· 1816, Gabriel North, a founder and resident of Walton, a mountain settlement of less than a thousand people. was chosen by the legislature a presi­ dential elector, and as such in the electoral college cast for James Monroe the twenty-nine votes of New York. It seems amazing that in a great commonwealth like the Empire State one sparsely popu­ lated region should have the clerk of the legislature, presidential elector and, by adding the record of Erastus Root, speaker of the legislature, lieutenant governor and, for nine years, a congressman. .l4'urther, Isaac Ogden, a brother of the Oguen who had come f1•01r.1. senate, was county judge twelve years, then, after winning a silver set awarded his mills for the best woolen products of the state, he served for eight years as U. S. Internal Revenue Collector and was chosen a presidential elector. By this time Walton's population was about one thousand. Prior to the attainment of such numbers .Joshua Pine, Jr., and Will Townsend had each served a year in the legisla­ ture and the latter had been, in 1824, chosen by the legislature as a presidential elector. Ere the close of this decade _A~aron Clark re­ moved to New Yor~ City where he continued active in public affairs, ser,i.ng as mayor of that city. At that same time another Walton 44 THE FOl.TNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON boy, Abram Ogden's son William B., graduating in politics from the postmastership of Walton, became the first mayor of Chicago. A few years after the founding of Walton, Philip Pine, youngest brother of the founder Joshua, had settled near Deposit. In 1828, by popular election, Philip's son, Peter, was chosen presidential elector. Before this, young Selah Hobbie, of Walton, had married the daughter of Senator Root and Elizabeth Stockton, his wife, and had become district attorney. Next he became member of Congress and for twenty-one years was assistant postmaster general. Such massing of public honors does not just happen. It is a question whether American history duplicates the situation, such political honors in so small and remote a region. There must not only have been sheer force of unified action, but also a cool mind of marvelous organizing powers. Who possessed that mind? In 1876, in a local paper appeared the following: "I have never known a more charming society than we had in Walton fifty years ago. When we met our conversation was of books. We read critically, we sang, we sometimes danced, but there was in all. of us a desire for mental improvement, and this stimulant was mainly imparted by one afflicted by total blindness. He was the soul of our gatherings, the ever welcome guest at our firesides, the insinuating spirit to awaken interest in all that tended to improve and elevate the tone of thought and conversation among us. "Looking back upon the real enjoyment and simplicity of those days, and upon the young men and maidens who were wont to as­ semble at Esq. Townsend's, at Judge Pine's, at Judge North's, at Captain North's, at Abram Ogden's and many other places, I can hardly recall a more interesting company. We had fewer novels, newspapers were not daily visitors, and periodicals were almost un­ known, but we read history, poetry and essays. We studied political economy, and were not unsound philosophers. Yet the spinning wheel was a household ornament, and the shreds of our finest fabrics were spun and sometimes woven at the fireside. ~iNeigllborly kindness and hospitality :pievailed, for the pionee1·s of this happy valley had ever a common interest, which their children

T,P.t us go back the half century. to August 24th. 1825: "My friends, it is no common loss we deplore. It is no ordinary man that lies before us in the embrace of death. It is a youth of talents, of education, of usefulness, of upright conduct, of just senti­ ments, of enlarged views, and of generous emotions." In these words, with the fervour of his splendid eloquence Selah Hobbie spoke before the grave of Cyrus North, his revered blind leader. "Blindness had an important agency in lead.ing him from a state of comparative seclusion, to an enlarged and elevated sphere of social intercourse. * * * History, in all its branches, and the science of politics, were favorite subjects of his attention. For works of talent, whether in philosophy, or in the humbler walks of intellectual THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON 45 exertion, or in the attractive garb of poesy or eloquence, he pos­ sessed an avidity and relish. that indicated a happy congeniality of taste and emotion. Wherever Genius devolved her pure and spar­ kling element, he was found slaking his thirst at the delicious current._ There are few books in our language. aside from professional ones, of general access and approved excellence that escaped his perusal. * • • "He spent much of his life where 'many of the interesting events of the times and the distinguished actors in our public scenes fell under his immediate observation-and he profited largely by the situation. He mingled, a respected and courted guest, in the so­ ciety of individuals of acknowledged worth and eminence in the nation, to whose warmest regards, in many instances, his welfare and :r:.e:rnc::-y became u:rrited by the ties of generous · and retJiprocal attachment. He acquired as a necessary consequence great influence of character. His opinions were heard with conviction by the many, and deference by all. No man, in the sphere in which he moved, exercised so just and so extensive a control over the judgments and feelings of others, in matters of taste, in the estimate of conduct and character, and in the graver concerns of public interest. • "" * The time was not distant when his voice would have been heard in our legislative halls, and his wisdom mingled with those councils that dispense law and government to the land. But the sepulchre is interposed between our hopes and their consummation." Ah, yes, already weary steps were patiently awaiting a summons tc the Last Great Adventure in the l\'fountains Beyond! GabMel North died in 1827, Robert a decade later. Deborah'.· Carter North also died in 1837, and on November 11, 1848, last of the mature founders, Elizabeth Carter North, passed away. To his nephew. Benjamin North. of Brooklyn. on March 2nd. 1829. after conveying the sad news of a daughter's death, Robert North had penned these words: "I have now four children in our. church yard mouldering to dust. Why is it that these dear and tender plants are cut down around me. and I. who stand like a dry and withered tree, am. spared ! Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight May we be enabled always to say, in sincerity, Not my will but Thine be done.::

In their youth on the field of battle many of these founders had helped make their nation, with peace assured they had sought out a remote home, clearing the wilderness and placing aloft high ideals of culture, religion and of public service. Their wives had been worthy and heroic helpmates. And now, if the lives of these men and women, exemplifying the very best of the early making of American communities can be inspirations for later generations in Walton. or elsewhere, then the spirit of the founders Will live on, ,throbbing again in the pulse of the nation they helped create. Finis. 46 THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON A]P)]P)endix It is recorded that William Walton "was very hospitable and ·gave, as he could well afford, the most sumptuous entertainments of any person in those plain but· bounteous days. His · table was spread with choicest viands, and a forest of decanters, sparkling with the most delicious wines. The sideboard groaned with the weight of massive silver." Here is one of the household receipts: ·•Take ye fowls Cut them in :pieces and Clean them Season them with Pepper and Salt Little mace nutmeg Cloves some dried time parsley a Little bit of onion when dressed then Let them Lay two Hours then frower them Very well-fry them in Sweet butter make ye butter boiling hott before you put them on-fry them a fine brown, take them out of your pan wash it Clean and put them in a Gain with about a pint of Gravey Let them simer up in Gravey take the Yolks of three Eggs with a little grated Nutmeg a little piece of Lemon two spoonfuls of Wine Put all this in the Pan first mix a spoonful· or two with ye eggs-then shake it over the fl.re till it is as thick Cream then serve it up Garnish your dish with Lemond."

NORTH.

The first of th_is family of whom there appears record was Robert North, of Nottinghamshire, England, who died in · 1471, leav­ ing a son Thomas and a daughter. In the following century another of the name appears under the Earl of Leicester in the Netherland· Wars. Before Zutphen, September 22, 1586, he behaved most bravely. "Though he had before been bruised on the knee with a musket shot, yet leaving his bed, he hastened to this skirmish, one boot on and the other off, and went to the matter very lustily," reported the Earl. About 1650 an admirable Mary North wins this recogni.;. tion: "That lady who beside the advantage of her person, had a superior wit, prodigious memory, and was most agreeable in con­ versation. * * "' She instituted a sort of order of wits of her time and acquaintance, whereof the symbol was a sun with a circle touching the rays and, upon that in a. blue ground wa.s · written a,ntarkes in the proper Greek characters. which her father suggest~n. Divers of these were made in silver and enamel, but in embroidery plenty, which were dispersed to those wittifled ladies who were will­ ing to come into the order." During the third quarter of the seventeenth century a North (not to be confounded with him of another branch, John North of the ship "Ellen and Mary") came to New England. His son Thomas moved from the Providence Plantations to Newtown. Long Island, where, in 1709, he married Abigail Comfort. Of their_ large family mention is here made of but three, Jeremiah, Robert, and Ben'jamin. THE. FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON 47 While serving under the Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim, Lord William. North had his right hand shot away. In 1734 he. died with- out issue, in Madrid, Spain. Robert, learning that the line of the English Norths was broken, went to England to claim title and estate. Being the second son he had no standing in court and returned after a vain journey. l\1eantime either J"eremiah or one of his sons,. had removed to Dutchess County, New York. In 1748, Benjamin, the youngest of the three brothers, married Margaret; daughter of Gabriel Furman and his wife Abigail Howard. Gabriel Furman traced descent from John Furman, doubtless of Wel::1h descent, who came to Massachusetts in 1631, while the Howards had settled in Long Island in 1699. To Benjamin and Margaret North, at their home in Newtown were born seven children: Benjamin, Abigail {m. Luke Remsen), M:ary (ru. ~b1•iel Smith), Gabriel, Robert, Martha (m. ~abett Gosline), and Elizabeth (m. Charles W. Stockton). ~d..,J . .

TOWNSEND.

-~bout 1680 three brothers, Henry, John, and Richard Townsend, came from Norwich, England, landing probably at Lynn, Massa­ chusetts. In 1645, in company with Robert Furman, Thomas Far­ rington, John. Lawrence, ~nd others they obtained from Governor Kieft a patent to what was later the Town of Flushing, Long Island. They were Friends, or Quakers, and, being at variance with the Dutch, removed to Warwick, R. I., where the three brothers were member-s of the Prov'"incial Assembly. In 1656, ob~aining, jointly with others, a patent to what was later Jamaica, Long Island, they settled there. In 1661 they removed to Oyster Bay. Here Henry Townsend managed grist and sawmills, made sur~ veys; and was town clerk. His na.me appears under date cf Septem­ ber 29, 1677, on the p~tent of confirmation from Governor Andros. He had married Ann Coles. His death occurred in 16 9 5. His son, known ~s John of Mill Townsend, married Esther Smith. He was town surveyor for nineteen years. Such was his ability in public affairs and his tact that on March 21, 1689, he was deputed to ap­ pear at York to consult on affairs of the county. He died in 1705, and his wife in 1749. His son Micajah was born in 1699; he mar- three sons, Jotham, Epenetus and Platt surviving him. Micajah and his son .Jotham were ardent Whigs. The latter, inheriting his father's Cedar Swamp property, died October 12, 1815. Epenetus was an Episcopalian clergyman. Platt, the Walton settler, was born July 4, 1733, and died October 11, 1815, one day before his brother Jotham. ·Oyster Bay history tells of the "ancient domain of the Town­ sends," and of "the ancient cemetery of the Townsends, where are deposited the remains of the first settlers of the town, and where 48 THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON is a large granite rock, upon which, in 1672, stood George Fox, t,h.e apostle and founder of Quakerism, while addressing, with impas­ sioned and persuasive eloquence, the assembled multitude which filled the spacious amphitheatre below."

CARTER. Samuel Carter, son of Samuel Carter, was born in London, England, coming to Boston about 1670. In 1686 he settled at Deer­ field, Massachusetts, marrying Mercy Brooks in 1690. On the night of February 29, 1704, a war party of French and Indians attacked the settlement while Carter and many of the other men were absent. His entire family was taken captive. The four older children reached Canada. The wife and th~e younger ones nere slain on the journey. After being a captive for three years Ebenezer (1697-1774) was redeemed and settled with bis father in Norwalk, Connecticut. In 1721 Ebenezer Carter married Hannah St. ..John, member of an old New England family. In 1731 he helped establish Canaan Parish, Fairfield County, Connecticut. In 1737 he was commis~ioned by Governor Talcott, captain of the train band. John Carter, born February 22, 1730, married Hannah Benedict in 1753. She was the daughter of Thomas Benedict and Deborah Waters who were mar..: ried in 1725. Thomas Benedict, first settler, said to have been born in Nottingham. England, in 1617, came to New England in 1638. In 1665 he was at Jamaica, Long Island, where be was a delegate to the first English !egis!ative body in New Yo!'k. to Norwalk, Connecticut. To John Carter and Hannah Benedict was born a large family,. seven daughters and two sons living to maturity. John Carter was Lieutenant and later Captain in the 9th Regiment Connecticut Militia during the Revolutionary War. under General Wooster. Carter's sister Elizabeth married Levi Hanford. A son, Levi Hanford, served under his uncle John Carter at the beginning of the Revolution. Being captured by the British, Han- ford was confined to the old Sugar House Prison, New York. the war Hanford married Mary Mead, daughter of General John Mead, of Connecticut, and settled in Walton. The following extract is from the .report in the French archives submitted from Quebec, Ncvem.oer :r. 7, 1704, by Vaudreuil and Beauharnois to M. de Pontchartrain, concerning the attack upon Deerfield: "We had the honor to report to you last year, My Lord, the reasons which had obliged us to embroil the English with the Abenakis, and the heavy blows which, with that view, we caused Sieur de Beaubassian to strike; shortly after he had retired, the English having killed some of these Indiar a, they sent us word of it, and at the same time demanded assistance. This obU.ged us. My Lord, to send thither Sieur de Rouville, an officer of the line, with nearly two hundred men, who attacked the fort, in which, ·accord- THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON 49 ing to the report of all the prisoners, there were more than one hun­ dred men under arms; they took more than one hundred and fifty prisoners, including men and women, and retreated, having lost only three men and twenty wounded." Such is history from different viewpoints!

Under patent of Governor Stuyvesant delivered in 1652 settle­ ments early were made on the Kil of Mespaechtes, or Newtown Creek, where now stands Elmhurst, Greater New York. The soil was good sandy loam, excellent for vegetable growing and the salt marshes produced a fair quality of hay. In 1670 a Presbyterian Church was erected with Rev. J"ohn l\1ore in charge.

REMSEN.

The original name was Van der Beeck. For reputation in knight service Emperor Frederick Barbarossa granted them a coat of arms i~ 1.162. Rem J"ansen Va_n der Beeck, first settler, emigrated to Fort Orange (Albany) early in the seventeenth century, and there in 1642 married J"anette ';R,apalie, who was born in New Amsterdam in 1629. Her father, Joris J"ansen de Rapalie, proscribed Huguenot from R:ochelle, in France, in 16 2 3, had come with his wife Catalina Trico, i~ the ship "Unity," settling at Fort Orange. In 1626 be re­ moved to New Amsterdam, settling where Pearl Street now is. In 1641, he was one of the "Twelve Men'; chosen to represent Man­ hattan, Breuckelen and Pavonna in the matter of devising measures to punish Indians for murders committed. J"une 16, 1637, he pur­ chased ·of the Indians about 167 morgens (335 acres) of farm lands on the Wallabout Bay, removing thither. His eldest daughter Sarah de Rapaiie, born .June 9, 1625, is credited w;th being the first white daughter born in the colony of New Netherlands. In an old journal left by two early travelers, this account is given of Catalina. in her ;,t, later widowhood: uThe aunt of De La Grage is an old Walloon from V~Jenciennes: seventy years oid. She is worldly" minded, li... i.ng with her whole heart as well as body, among her progeny which now number 145 and will soon reach 150. Nevertheless, she lived alone, having .her little garden and other conveniences, with which she helped herseif/' She has been styled. the ":U.fother of New York:· Her daughter Janette, in babyhood, had been carried by an Indian squaw in a tub from Nutten (Gov~rnor's Island) to Long Island. The sons of Rem and Janette assumed the short name of Remsen. The first of the De Milts also came to New Netherlands in 1621. From a letter written at Amsterdam, Nov. 5th, Anno 1626, by P. Schagen, Deputy of the States General at the meeting of the West India Company, to the Dutch Government at the Hague, announc­ ing the arrival of a ship from New Netherlands, the following is translated: "Report is brought that our people there are diligent, 50 THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF -'\_VALTON and live peaceably; their wives have also borne them children. They have purchased the Island of :O.Ia.nhattes from the Indians for the sum of sixty guilders; it contains 11,000 morgens of land. They ·have sown all kinds of grain in the middle of .May, and reaped in the middle of August. I send you small samples of the summer grains such as wheat, . rye, barley, oats, huck~:!!e2.t, ~a~a.ry seed, beans and flax. The cargo of the ship consists of furs, etc." STOCKTON. The record of this family is traced to David de Stockton who in 1250 lived at Chester, England. In 1650 a Richard Stockton came from England, settling in Flushing, Long Island, whence he remo:ved to Oneanicken (later Princeton), New .Jersey, where he acquired 2.000 acres of land. A later Richard was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. In the middle of the nineteenth century Com­ modore Stockton (for whom the City of Stockton is named), a mem­ ber of this family, :figured largely in the occupation of California during the Mexican War. Still another was a colonel in that war, later receiving an immense tract of land among the Indians of the north~est. Gould in his history states that in 1802, Morton No. 91, first lodge of the F. & A. M. in Delaware County, was organized in Walton. A Stockton was the first master. MORE. Born in Scotland, in 1745, John :lYiore settled with his family near the headwaters of the Delaware River in 1774. Here, on cl?iid born in what later became Delaware County. During the Revolution the family removed to Catskill, where the son David was born. Returning to the mountains in 1786 the family estab­ lished. Moresville. In 1839 David More removed to Walton: where in 1873 he died, leaving a large family. CONNECTICUT F.AJ"'\fll1IES. Weed, Benedict, St. John, Se:rmour, Hoit, Eells, Fancher, Fitch, Olmstead, Seeiey. Hanford. Raym_ond. Keeier, Iviead, Keiiogg: Wair­ ing, Lockwood, Penoyer, Marvin, Gay. These are essentially New England names, practically all dating four or five generations prior to their settling in Walton. Reyn?ld Marvin, progenitor of the Marvih famiiy, settied at Hartford, Connecticut, in 1638. In tne same year Thomas Fitch settled in Norwich, Connecticut, having come from Essex, England. His son became governor of the coloriy. .John Gay, ancestor of William, who settled early in Walton, came from England to Bo~ton in 1630. These are typical. The Barlows were an exception, this family having come to New Brunswick, as late as 1774, from England, where some of its members had served in Parliament. In the first half of the nineteenth century a wave of sturdy, industrious Scotch spr€ad throughout Delaware County. _ THE FOUNDERS AND FOUNDING OF WALTON 51 Bibliography "Adjutant Generai:s Report of Men of Connecticut in the Revolution." "Biographical Review of Delaware County, New York," Boston, 1895. Bishop, "Chronicle of One Hundred and Fifty Years -Ago," New York, 1918. Bolton, "History of Westchester County," New York, 1881. Broadhead, "Documents Relating to Colonial History of New York," Albany, 1857. Bushnell, "Narrative of Levi Hanford," New York, 1863. Fiske, "Critical Period of American History," Boston and New York, 1888. · French, "Historical and Statistical Gazetteer of New York," Syracuse, 1860. "Geneological Chart, Issue of Cruger and Henry Wal­ ton," New York, 1897. Gould, "History of Delaware County," Roxbury (N. Y.), 185'6. Haxtun, "Early Settlers of New Amsterdam," Pamphlet IV, New York, 1903. H_ulce, in the "Deposit Courier," 18 6 3, Historical Sketches. Mather, "Refugees of 1776 from Long Island to Con­ necticut:• New York, 1913. Mun~ell & Co., "History of Delaware County, New York," New York, 1880. North, "Lives of the Norths," London, 1808.

"Pictorial Life of Lafayette," Philadelphia, 1847. Riker, "Annals of Newtown, Long Island," New York, 1851. Scharf. "History of Westch~ster County:" Phi!ade!:phia.. 1886. Sheldon, "History of Deerfield," Deerfield, 1896. Stiles, "History of the City of Brooklyn," New York, 1867. Stone·, "Life of Brant," New York, 1838. Thacher, "American Revolution," Hartford, 1861. Thompson, "History of Long Island," New York, 1918. "Walton Chronicle," 1856. Wilson, "Portrait Gall~ry of the Chamber of Com­ merce," New York, 18 90. Family geneologies, Bibles, journals, letters and like records in the families of Townsend, Pine and the ~ orths and related families.