UNION VALE: A Brief History

First published by the Union Vale Historical Society in 1975 as part of the Bicentennial activities and in preparation for the town’s 150th anniversary, March 6, 1977. Revised in 1989 for the 20th anniversary of the Union Vale Historical Society.
Compiled by Julia Gustafson and Irena Stolarik.

WANTED IMMEDIATELY

A steady person will find employment for the season as moulder in the furnace of the subscriber in the town of Union Vale, Dutchess County.
- Alman White

This advertisement was published in the Poughkeepsie Journal

Wednesday April 4, 1827. It was apparently the first time the name of the new Township appeared in local print.

The Town of Union Vale was formed from parts of Beekman and Freedom, now LaGrange, on March 6, 1827. We have no information as to who named the Town, when or why. The land, a mass of hills and valleys lying southeast of the center of Dutchess County, was included in the Patent of Henry Beekman, originally granted in 1697. The terms of the Patent were improved in 1703 and Henry Beekman conveyed to his son, also named Henry, one thousand acres of land in this locality. Widely separated settlements were undoubtedly begun within a few years of this conveyance.

PEOPLE AND PLACES

Clove Valley extends north and south through the center of the Town. Six miles long and one mile wide, it is pocketed between the flanking ridges of East Mountain and West Mountain which rise to an altitude of one thousand feet. It derives its name from the cleft or clove in the mountains at its northern end. Teaghpacksinck, Momkating, Valley Foghpacksinck are Indians names appearing on maps and old deeds of Clove. Otherwise very little is known about the Indian inhabitants. Early settlers were Palatines, New Englanders and people of English descent from Long Island.

NICHOLAS EMIGH HOUSE

The oldest house in Town is a story and a half structure of stone, located five and a half miles from where North Clove Road leaves Route 82 at Verbank, barely visible on the right, down in a valley. This house was built in 1740 by Nicholas Emigh, a Palatine, who was listed as a taxpayer in the Beekman Precinct from 1739 to 1761. The house, outwardly little changed, was unoccupied for many years and badly in need of repair.

Former owners, Mr. and Mrs. E. Peter Krulewitch, completely restored it, thus saving a historic landmark for the town and nation. Near this homestead is also the famous Clove Spring located on property now owned by the Clove Valley Rod and Gun Club, which itself was a factor influencing the early settlement of the valley. Seventy five feet across, this spring is suppose to discharge several hundred gallons of water per minute.

Nicholas Emigh is often referred to as an original settler and father of the first born white child in Dutchess County. More recent research does not substantiate these reports.

James Andrew's farm house was built by Colonel Henry Uhl, also a Palatine. It was purchased in 1917 by Gordon Schuyler Vincent Andrews from David V. Knapp, son of Dr. Knapp who was the only physician in the Clove for many years. Gordon S. V. Andrews, a breeder of Holstein stock, was born and grew up on the Andrews farm on Clapp Hill Road. This farm house is believed to be the second oldest home in Union Vale.

The Hall-Christie house, a landmark of the Clove dating back to 1747, was dismantled in 1983 and removed to Quaker Hill, Pawling, where it was reconstructed. A historic sign to mark the site was erected in 1986 by the Union Vale Historical Society. John Hall was the ancestor of five or more generations of Hall and Christie families who made the house on the banks of the Fishkill Creek their home. Unoccupied in recent years, the house was sold out of the family in 1981. Until its removal it was owned by the Clove Valley Rod and Gun Club.

Other early settlers of the town were Vails, Elsworth, Abel, Fowler, Reed, Kline, Crouse, Coe, Morey, Mosher, Duncan, Moore, Williams, Baker, Vincent, Potter, Wilkinson and Skidmore. The last named was quite an extensive land owner who built a mill at an early date near Crouse's store, now Tymor Forest. The mill was still grinding flour as late as 1925 but has since been torn down.

The Skidmore house was built in the early 1800's. It is an example of nineteenth century Georgian architecture, surrounded by spacious lawns and formal gardens set among beautiful trees; a red brick wall separates it from the highway. The house was at one time the home of Glenn Ford McKinney and his wife Jean Webster, author of Daddy Long Legs and the Patty Books.

Jean Webster was a niece of Mark Twain; her father was Mark Twain's publisher. She graduated from Vassar College in 1901. Jean and Ralph Connor, the daughter and son in law, inherited the farm and in 1971 donated five hundred acres of land to the people of Union Vale to be used as a park and recreation center. The deed of Tymor farm is from Catherine Rutsen Pawling, daughter of Henry Beekman.

SETTLEMENTS

Union Vale has always represented the rural life, even today having only the village of Verbank, a handful of homes mostly converted into apartment houses, around a green, and the only industry being a retail petroleum plant at the far end. The Post Office, garage, appliance store and tavern stretch along Route 82 on the outskirts of the village proper. Except for a few homes this village was not settled until about 1870 when the Duchess and Columbia Railroad was completed between Dutches Junction near Beacon and Millerton, and a freight station and depot were established here. A milk factory and ice house followed. A Post Office, grocery store, hardware store, blacksmith shop, coal and feed store developed, soon replacing in activity in the original or Old Verbank known as Verbank Village.

The freight house is now a storage building for electrical appliances, the milk factory is a private home and the other buildings have been demolished over the years.

Verbank Village had been settled in the later part of the eighteenth century, and derived its name from the surrounding verdant hillsides, well wooded with ash and hemlock. For years Verbank Village was the center of a tanning and charcoal industry. Hemlock trees were felled and stripped of their bark for the tanning yards, while the logs were burned into charcoal.

There were several small dams along Sprout Creek, the first one belonging to the sawmill near the easterly approach to the village. Then for nearly a quarter of a mile the principal road or street ran along the north side of the narrow mill pond, which fed the great wooden waterwheel of the red grist mill. Down the rocky gorge below the grist mill dam were other ponds.

One supplied power for the running of the woolen factory, where fleeces of wool from the farmer's sheep were first made into rolls which were taken away and spun into yarn in the homes of the owners. This operation brought into play the large and small spinning wheels. The yarn when returned to the factory was woven into cloth for clothing. A machine shop, with water power from another pond, was run by Morris Germond and his son. The village of that date, aside from the factories and the mills was composed of many dwelling houses, a hotel, two stores, a shoe and boot making shop, and a blacksmith shop.

There was also an establishment for the making of wagons and sleighs. The tailor plied his trade at his shop which was just across the bridge over the Sprout Creek. By the middle of the nineteenth century the need for commercial machinery powered by water had diminished. This contributed to the decline of Verbank Village. The construction of Route 82, which bypassed the village resulted in its remaining much as it was in the 1800's.

The mills no longer exist, but the natural beauty of the area surrounding Sprout Creek and the colonial architecture are timeless reminders of this early settlement.

On the ridge east of Verbank, the Brothers of Nazareth had a trade school, a school for secular and religious education, a hospital and a house for inebriates, known as Priory Farm. This consisted of about three hundred and seventy-five acres. It was assembled from many farms among which were the Platt and Jay Hall and the Boyce and Burns places. Later it became the Watts de Pester Home for Invalid Children.

Greer School, previously called Hope Farm, was a not-for-profit organization founded in 1906 by the late Bishop Greer of New York which provided a home for disadvantaged children and existed until January 1983.

The 1200 acre holding known in the 1970's as the Greer-Woodycrest Children's Services also housed Haitian refugee children in the 1980's.

About 1980 it became clear that a decade of change in public social policy no longer required these programs in Dutchess County, seventy-five miles from New York City where the majority of the children had come from. The governing board studied its finances, facilities, land, skills, management and decided to establish a retirement community known as Greer Crest. This collection of apartments, cottages and activity centers, some new and some old buildings which were renovated opened in 1986 and attracted many new residents to this area.

There are certain localities in the township that are now sparsely populated but which once were social and economic centers of definite influence and importance. One such neighborhood was Oswego. Oswego is an early Dutchess area place name, which once used to cover a large portion of the present towns of Union Vale and LaGrange.

It is an Indian word, Oswegatchie, which means "Pouring Out Place". The high land which extends from Billings to Clove is Oswego Ridge. An important road, probably built on an Indian trail, ran from near the meeting house down to what is now Noxon Road, over Titusville Road and on to the Hudson River.

So to the Indians, Oswego or the Pouring Out Place was apparently a slope, the place where the high country gave way to a lower area.

EARLY CHURCHES

At Clove on the west side of the main road past the circle, next of the old Denton farm, once stood a church know as the Old Union Church. The congregation probably lived its life between 1800 and 1850. The building was finally removed and used as a barn.

The plot of land at Potters Corner, next to the Vail Century Farm on East Noxon Road, was acquired July 24, 1797 by the town of Beekman and members of the Methodist Episcopal Church - "to erect thereon a house or building of worship". It is not known when the church was built, but on December 22, 1821 a meeting was held at the church to organize the congregation. In 1827 when this section became the town of Union Vale, the church added Trinity to their name. The church stood on a rise west of Potters Corners or Hollow Burying Ground until 1866 when it was moved to LaGrangeville. The original foundations are still visible in the churchyard. Reverend Cornelius Cook, one of the first preachers of the Gospel of the Methodist Church in the United Stated was buried at the cemetery in 1789.

On July 2, 1827 the Verbank Methodist Episcopal Church was organized and the second Methodist Episcopal Church in the Town of Union Vale was erected on half an acre of land obtained from Stephen B. Trowbidge on the site of the Verbank School, now a private home on the corner of Verbank Road and Route 82. Fifty one years later collections were begun for a new church which was dedicated December 5, 1878 and still serves the parish. A membership of fifty-eight existed in 1877. The old church was sold and removed to the premises of Henry Bostwick of Verbank Village Road where it still stands. The Verbank cemetery was incorporated in 1870 and plots sold for twenty-five dollars each.

The grounds were laid out on land donated from the Vail and Duncan farms, in addition to that formerly known as the Vail Burying Ground, which included many neighborhood names like Losee and Vincent. In 1965 this was enlarged more by the purchase of a strip of land on the east towards the Vail house to be developed, fenced in and maintained according to the New York State Cemetery Association rules.

The Clove Methodist Episcopal Church, called and denominated the Ebenezer Church, was built in 1832. The first trustees of this church were Peter A. Emigh, Abraham Cline and Jonathan Vincent. These trustees with William Coe acted as a building committee when the building was erected.

The cost exclusive of labor was about $800.00. The Verbank Methodist Church shared ministers with the Clove Methodist church. Services were held there until the autumn of 1944. According to a stipulation in the original deed, the church owned the property as long as church services were held in the edifice. When they were discontinued, the property reverted to the owner of the land, at that time Judge John E. Mack. The building is still standing. In the nineteen fifties and sixties it was used as an inside riding ring. The Union Vale Grange #887 was organized at the Clove Methodist Church in 1900 and held their meetings there until 1905 when they built the Grange Hall in North Clove.

The Clove Christian Church, dedicated in 1826, was located at first about two miles further up the valley opposite the Coe homestead in the Clove.

Henry Emigh gave the land and Colonel Henry Uhl donated the timber and furnished a large share of the board for the workmen engaged in its construction. Soon after the Civil War some of the members of the Clove Cemetery Association, which has been formed November 8, 1858, discussed the expediency of having a church at the entrance to the cemetery. They proposed that the Christian Church be moved. After receiving approval of its members it was relocated on its present site across form the Clove cemetery in 1871 through 1872. An addition was built to the church and a large bell and steeple were added. The building was framed in native chestnut and the interior trimmed with local black walnut.

In 1977, Reverend George W. Crook resigned from the pastorate because of declining health, whereupon the congregation decided to affiliate with the Christian Missionary Alliance Church (denomination) which took place on November 9, 1977. The newly reorganized church then called Alan Warner and his new bride Debbie to lead the church. After serving a couple of years, Pastor Warner was formally ordained on August 29, 1980. In 1981, the Clove Christian Church affiliated with the United Church of Christ denomination, was deeded over to the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination.

The congregation eventually outgrew this little county church which could seat one hundred people under the leadership of Reverend Warner and then Reverend Robert Ridpath. A new church building that would hold about two hundred fifty people was constructed about a quarter mile south on a nine acre plot of the parsonage. It was completed in April of 1990 with the first service being held Easter Sunday, 1990. The old Clove church was then used by the church's youth group for its meetings. However, the aging furnace was malfunctioning and the water pipes frequently froze creating much frustration for the youth leader and the young people, so the youth began meeting in the new building, and the trustees put the old church up for sale for $60,000. Prospective buyers quickly lost interest when they learned that the church property did not have a clear, marketable title. In November of 1992, Reverend Ridpath approached Reverend Wickstead, pastor of the Valley Bible Fellowship Church and asked him, "Would you take the old church if we gave it to you for a dollar."

The Valley Bible Fellowship Church, organized January 26, 1975, formerly held services at the Union Vale Grange but the space proved to be insufficient for their needs and had been trying to save up money to purchase their own property. Over a number of years the congregation has saved up about $12,000, but land was selling for about $40,000 and acre so the proposition from Reverend Ridpath was very appealing to Pastor Wickstead. After discussing the matter, the congregation unanimously decided to accept the gift and asked the children to contribute a nickel each to come up with the dollar to buy the church.

"Nickel Sunday" was designated and the children came forward to put their nickels in a jar. Two mothers put in nickels on behalf of their newborns but they were still a nickel short so the treasurer James Billups saved the day by finding a nickel in his pocket and contributing to the fund. An album with the twenty nickels and a thank you note signed by each member of the congregation was presented to the Clove Alliance Church at a special Sunday evening service. After much cleaning, painting and repair work, the Valley Bible Fellowship Church had their first Sunday worship service in the old Clove Christian Church building on May 30, 1993 with a formal public dedication service held on October 3, 1993.

The Methodist Episcopal Church on Chestnut Ridge situated in the Town of Union Vale and Dover was organized some years prior to 1849, in which year a church building was erected. The land was granted by Thomas Taber, Robert S. Van Wyck and Jonathan G. Vincent. The trustees of this church in 1849 were James L. McCord, R. S. VanWyck and J. G. Vincent. Other early members were: Isaac Benton, Mrs. R. Van Wyck, Mrs. James McCord, Catherine Tompkins, Catherine Shears White, George Van Wyck and wife, Mariette Hustus (Hustis?). The pastors, as a rule, have ministered to the church from Verbank and Dover Plains. The church building is gone and the burying ground which surrounded it is badly overgrown.

A Catholic Church, Our Lady of Mercy was built in 1883 in the Clove opposite Pray's as an outlying mission of the Sylvan Lake Church. The land for the building was purchased from John Ross for fifty dollars. Services were held there at stated intervals. The building is now used as a private home.

OSWEGO MEETING HOUSE

Members of the Society of Friends began to take up wild land in Beekman Precinct, now the Town of Union Vale, prior to 1750. They came chiefly from New England. In 1751, a purchase of two acres of land had been made by Jesse Irish, Nathaniel Yeomans and Allan Moore, Friends of the Oswego area, for their meeting house and cemetery located at the intersection of Oswego Road and North Smith Road, a little over one mile east of Moores Mills. The first meeting at Oswego was held in June 1758. The log meeting house gave way in 1828 and the present rectangular structure, double entrance doors leading to separate men's and women's sections, a basic design free of ornamentation, in keeping with the simplicity of the Quaker beliefs, was built. It stands on a hillside overlooking the burial ground which is still in use. Some of the dwellings built by the first settlers still stand but the thriving village which once surrounded it with its dozen homes, two stores, Post Office and a boarding school - Oswego Village Academy for boys and girls - have since disappeared.

The Oswego Friends Meeting House and cemetery are being considered by the State Review Board for nomination to the National and State Registers.