Article
Number 29 - The Loveridge Patent No. 10 -
The Van Orden Family
Originally published in the Catskill Examiner by Henry Brace between the years 1876 and 1879. Article 29 was published on March 22,1879. Extracted from the microfilm copies of the Catskill Examiner located at the Vedder Research Library. Transcribed by Barbara Bartley.
LOCAL SKETCHES, No. 29. History
of the Town of Catskill To the Year
1783. By Henry Brace
William, the oldest son of William Van Orden and Temperance Loveridge,
spent a quiet and uneventful life in the Inbogt. In a deed of indenture which I
have seen, he is described as a weaver, but even if this be a true description
of his trade, I doubt whether he ever worked at it. His wants were few, and
these were easily supplied from his farm of one hundred and twenty-four acres.
The house in which he lived was built by himself about 1742, after his marriage
with Sara Dubois, and stood for nearly one hundred and thirty years. It had two
rooms over the cellar or basement and stoops both in front and rear. The larger
addition to this cottage which many of us remember as the home of Mistress
Angelica Overbagh, was built by William Van Orden at the request of his son
Hezekiah. The father proposed tearing the old house down and building a new one
of stone upon dryer ground on the west side of the Saugerties road. But the son
wanted a “Yankee house,” as he called it, that is to say, a house built of
wood, and of this material the addition was made.
By his wife Sara Dubois, William Van Orden had three children:
First, Temperance, born in 1743, married Johannes Burhans of Bethlehem, died Sept. 1815, aged 72 years.
Second, Hezekiah, born in 1749, married Feb. 15, 1778, Engeltje, daughter of Coenraad Loeck (Luke) of Bethlehem. (2,) June 9, 1782, Elizabeth, daughter of Tennis Van Vechten, died Aug. 13, 1796, aged 47 years.
Third, Annaatje, baptized at Kaatsbaan, Feb. 3, 1753, married, about 1780, James Milliken, died about 1825.
In one of the letters which passed between the Ten Broecks of Kingston and the Ten Broecks of Rocky Hill, in New Jersey, the writer mentions the betrothal of his niece, Elizabeth Van Vechten, to a young man of some estate and of unblemished character. The young man was Hezekiah Van Orden. During the War of the Revolution, he, like his uncles John and Ignatius, and his cousins William and Benjamin, was an ardent Whig. He was a member of the Military Committee of the Groote Inbogt District, kept close watch upon the Tories of the neighborhood, took his turn in patrolling the roads, shouldered his musket and joined the yeomen, who, in October, 1777, flocked to Green Point and Maqua’s Hoek to oppose the British in their progress up the Hudson. In 1781, being thirty-two years old, he was a justice of the peace, an office, at that time, of considerable honor, and usually conferred upon older men.
His sister Annaatje, a handsome and willful girl, made an unfortunate marriage. Her love was won by James Milliken, who had been a private in the Continental army, and who had come into the neighborhood an entire stranger and without credentials.
The Van Ordens opposed the match, but without effect. The pair were married, and were put by William Van Orden upon a tract of land upon the Katerskil, nearly opposite the house of David Abeel. Milliken, though quick-witted, turned out a shiftless and intemperate man, and Annaatje passed her life in seclusion and in poverty.
John, the second son of William Van Orden and Temperance Loveridge, had seven children by his wife Tryntje Dubois. These children were:
First, William, born Feb. 15, 1754, died unmarried, Oct. 23, 1777.
Second, Benjamin, born Aug. 27, 1756, married, Oct. 16, 1779, Elizabeth Vandenburg, died in Coxsackie, Sept. 17, 1837.
Third, Catryntje, born March 11, 1752, married Benjamin Post, of Albany, died---.
Fourth, Sara, born Aug. 18, 1758, married about 1781, Samuel Van Vechten, died Dec. 12, 1824.
Fifth, Peter, born Sept. 19, 1761, married, July 15, 1784, Elizabeth (or Neeltje,) daughter of Jan Baptist Dumond. (2) Nov. 17, 1793, Rebecca, daughter of Peter Freligh. (3)---1803, Mary Crocker, widow of Zebulon Carbine, died July 15, 1841.
Sixth, John, born Sept. 20, 1763, married Feb. 2, 1789, Catharine, daughter of Jacobus Person, died Sept. 9, 1833.
Seventh, Margery, born Sept. 1, 1769, died Sept. 26, 1773.
John Van Orden, the father of these children, lived, after his marriage with Tryntje Dubois in 1751, in a cottage, upon the foundations of which the stone house called the Hospital was afterwards built. During the War of the Revolution, he was too old to become a soldier, but none of his neighbors was more zealous than he in the cause of the colonies. I read in the manuscripts at Albany that in May, 1775, he and David Abeel were in that city, as the committee from the Groote Inbogt, to aid in the election of deputies to the Provincial Congress. In 1776, he was chairman of the military committee of which Gozen Van Schaick and Hezekiah Van Orden were members; and in the autumn of that year was brought before him his own nephew, who had been a second lieutenant in Col. Anthony Van Bergen’s regiment, charged with inciting men to join the British forces, when “they should be near.” The offense was proved by the evidence of Peter Porkert and Solomon Schut. The young man was found guilty and fined ten pounds, to defray the expenses of the committee in convening for the trial, and was ordered to give a bond for his future good behavior.
William, the oldest son of John Van Orden, joined the northern army, fought at Stillwater and Saratoga, was taken ill of fever, and on his way home died at the house of Teunis Van Vechten. Benjamin, the second son, was commissioned quarter-master, with the rank of ensign of the eleventh regiment of New York volunteers, and served with honorable fidelity until the close of the war. In later days, between 1790 and 1800, he was master of the sloop Catharine, plying between Catskill and New York. He was also a grocer in the village and dealt, as I learn from his advertisement in the Catskill Packet of January, 1797, in rum, imported direct from Jamaica, in salt from Turks Island, and in sole leather of approved quality, all kinds of country produce, and especially flax seed, being taken in exchange. His “store” and his dwelling were in the long and hip-roofed building still known as the Arcade--a building which he himself erected, and which, at the time, was almost a wonder because of its size and cost. About 1809, he bought from Peter I., one of the heirs of Hubartus Dubois, the farm which is now owned by Isaac Rouse. From Catskill, Benjamin Van Orden removed to Coxsackie and died there in 1837.
Sara, the second daughter of John Van Orden, learned to read and write English in a school house which stood by the side of the road to Saugerties, between the house of Jan Baptist Dumond and Johannis Sax.* [*In later days, about 1800, when Frederick Overbagh was a boy, the school was kept by one Macomber, who would not allow Dutch to be spoken in his hearing during school hours.] The master was a Scotchman, John Tattersall. After her marriage with Samuel Van Vechten, she received a large silver spoon from her teacher as a token of regard. It is now in the possession of one of her sons, and is marked. “J.T. to S.V.V.” Of this lady my father used to speak to me in terms of high respect. Her manners were gentle, she was friendly, hospitable, kind to the poor, fond (but without demonstration) of her children and nieces. Her married life was a life of ease. When she had grown old, my father often found her knitting in the west room of her husband’s ancient house, and teaching a reluctant negro girl by her side to knit also.
Peter, the third son of John Van Orden, though but a stripling, was, during the War of the Revolution, the captain of a company enrolled for the protection of the Inbogt, and having in its ranks many of the young men of the neighborhood. His duties were chiefly those of a scout. On one occasion he led his men down the Schoharie nearly to Brakabeen. On another occasion he patrolled the rude path which had been cut through the forest in the Valley of the Kiskatom from the Shinglekil to Wynkoop’s grist-mil near what is now known as Drummond’s Falls. But Peter Van Orden is chiefly remembered as an innkeeper on the Windham Mountain. About the year 1797, he left the Inbogt and built a tavern in the woods west of the site of the Grand View House, upon the road which a few years after became the Susquehanna Turnpike. Sixty-five years ago, a great traffic passed by this inn. Immigrants from Connecticut were making their way into the Valley of the Susquehanna and its branches. Rough backwoodsmen--many of them on foot--were returning from Baltimore and Philadelphia, after taking their rafts of lumber down the rivers in the May freshets. Teamsters were hauling goods to northern Pennsylvania and to Owego, Bainbridge, Norwich and Unadilla. Peter Van Orden being a reserved man, was, perhaps, not a popular landlord, but he was known to be rigidly honest and upright, and his inn had a full share of patronage.† [†During the first quarter of the century, when in the Windham valley, the price of eggs was eight cents a dozen, of butter twelve to fifteen cents a pound, of beef six dollars a hundred weight, the usual charge for lodging was a York shilling, or twelve and a half cents, for dinner twenty-five cents, for a quart of cider five cents.] The competition, however, was great. Between Catskill Landing and Windham Centre there was a tavern for every mile of the road.
My next paper will be devoted to an account of Ignatius Van Orden and the Dumonds.
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