Article Number 30 - The Loveridge Patent No. 11 -
The Van Orden Family

The Lockerman Patent and the Kiskatom Patent

 Handwritten copy of the article at the Vedder Research Library in the Henry Brace files. The date this article was published in a newspaper, if ever it was, is unknown.
Transcribed by Sylvia Hasenkopf

From 1765 until his death Ignatius Van Orden lived in the house which his father built near the Hudson. In 1778 Ignatius received a commission in Col. Anthony Van Bergens regiment and saw some service. After his death his son Ignatius took the homestead, became intemperate, and about 1844 was found dead in the road near his house. Another son, William, built a (house) cottage for himself on the beautiful knoll known as Green Point, married Catherine, a daughter of Wessels Ten Broeck of Germantown, became a noted sportsman, and at the age of 75, while out for wild ducks was drowned on the Hudson on the flats near his dwelling.

Margaret, a daughter of William Van Orden and Temperance Loveridge, became the wife of Jan Baptist Dumond of the Kingston family of that name. The house which Dumond built in 1761 is now in the possession of his descendants, the Langendykes. During the Revolutions, it was a tavern and the owner and innkeeper was more than once under suspicion of disloyalty to the Confederation. It was his son, it is believed, who, in January 1782 was attainted for treason and fled to Nova Scotia.

Lot No. 5 in the Loveridge Patent, containing 1,215 acres was sol in 1773 by Michiel Van Vechten of Raritan, NJ, to Abraham Person, Hendrick Oosterhout and others. The subsequent divisions of the land are unimportant, but in that year, the lot was owned by Jurry Wilhelm Dietrich, Abram Person and Frederick Martin. Dedrick, as his name is now spelled, was the owner of that portion of Lot No. 5, which lay between the Kaaterskill and the Kings Road. He was a son of Johann Wilhelm, a Palatine, probably from Wurtemburg, was born at West Camp in 1711, was brought up as an orphan by Behr and died in 1786. He was a weaver by trade and his rude loom stood in one corner of the kitchen of the house he built at West Camp. To him the people of the neighborhood were wont to bring their yarn to be woven into cloth, and to buy thread or needles of which he kept a small stock in a cupboard. The thread and needles proved profitable and little by little he enlarged his stock until he became a general trader. In addition, he had an ashery and a blacksmith shop. He was short in stature, rather stout, very active, industrious and thrifty. As his sons grew up, he gave each of them a farm. The gift of his land in Lot No. 5 was to his son Zacharias.

The stone house, which stood on the Dedrick portion of this lot was built by Philip Spaan in 1749 and was torn down in 1849. Upon its site was built a wooden house in which Peter A. Dedrick now dwells. About the time the Abeels were carried into captivity by the Indians, Jurry Wilhelm and his hired man, one Bergmann, were living in the house. An attack by the savages was expected and when their dog barked in an unusual way that night, these men would seize their guns, jump out of the south back window and take refuge in the forest. One day they met a Tory of the neighborhood who told them not to be afraid, as the Indians were after other people. Many a boy has looked at this back window with lively interest, picturing to himself, while he gazed, the loneliness of the place, the lurking savages and the flight of the men.

A quarter of a mile south of this cottage was Wilden-hausje or Indian cabin. This was a camp of the Mohawks before and during the Revolution. Within the memory of men now living, the rocks which formed one side of the encampment were white from the action of fire, and nearby were hollows in the ground where maize had been buried for winter use. Abraham Persons, besides a tract of land on the Kalkberg, owns also the land within Lot No. 5 between the Kalkberg and the Hudson, excepting only the farm of Frederick Martin. His house stood on the site of the house in which Jacob Persen now lives. Upon his death, his son Jacobus took the homestead, his son Abraham took what is now the Abraham Post farm and his son Henry the land of which Kittell, the DeWitts and John Post successively owned.

The Lockerman Patent

Between the south line of the Loveridge Patent and the north line of Ulster County is the tract covered by the Lockerman Patent. Jacob Lockerman came from Turnhout in Holland and with his two brothers was one of the first settlers in New Netherlands. In 1664 he was one of the commissioners to negotiate a peace between the Mohawks and northern Indians. In 1657 he was indicted for assaulting one Hoogenboom, whose face, from the forehead to the upper lip, he split open with a knife, and fined 300 guilders besides being compelled to pay for the surgical attendance upon his opponent, for his board and for his loss in time.

In 1686 Lockerman bought the land in question from the Indians and in November 1695 his title was confirmed by a Patent from Governor Fletcher, The boundaries of his estate are thus described: "Bounded to the north by the lands of William Loveridge, to the south by a kil called Canasenc and otherwise Apomepeck (the Beaverkill) and to the east on the River in the Great Imbought where said Loveridge leaves off called by the Indians Pesquanachqua (De Witt’s Point) and to the westward by a place called by the Indians Quachanock; and said land lying along the Catterskill; containing within the same four or five flats or plains more or less with a Hasell-nut Plain and a Marsh."

Lockerman died the owner of this tract leaving a daughter and heir Catherine who married Wessels Ten Broeck of Albany.

In 1723 Wessels and Catharina made a joint will in which they divided the lands in the patent to their children, Dirck, Jacob, Cornelius, Anna Katherina, wife of Anthony Van Schaick and Christina, wife of David Van Dyck. Cornelius, in 1740, obtained a confirmatory patent for his share in the inheritance.

The Kiskatom Patent

The plain that lies almost at the base of the Catskill Mountain was called by the Indians Kiskatominakauke, that is to say, the place if thin shelled hickory nuts or shag bark. The name, in a corrupted form, first occurs in a deed dated in 1708. This place was bought by Henry Beekman from the Indians in 1717. He received a Patent for a portion of it namely 370 acres. Two years afterwards this Patent was confirmed and the grant enlarged by an addition of 2000 acres. The description in the latter patent is as follows: Known by the name of Kiskatameke, lying under the Blew Hills, beginning at a spruce tree marked with three notches and the letters HB, standing on the east side of the Katerskill being on a straight line 46 chains below where the Kiskatametic Kill waterth into said Katerskill, N 44 degrees E 86 chains, thence N 218 chains, thence W 60 chains, thence S 46 chains, thence south 55 degrees W 70 chains, thence S 28 degrees E 65 chains, thence S 12 degrees W 100 chains, thence S 35 degrees E 84 chains, thence N 30 chains to place of beginning/ This noble grant covered the whole Kiskatom valley excepting such portion as had previously been covered by the Catskill Patent.

The settlement if this valley probably began immediately. The records of the Lutheran Church at Athens show that its minister in 1727 and the following year frequently baptised the infants of the settlers of Becker, Rau, Jung, Schmid and other Palatines. But other details are wanting, and it may be presumed that during the Revolution, fear of the Mohawks caused the valley to be deserted. Whatever history this lovely region has, however, can only be recovered by the patient labor of a summer, in going from house to house to examine ancient deeds and records and to gather the few traditions that remain.

Home         Table of Contents        History of the Towns Home Page