Revolutionary War Damage Estimates, 1783, Upper & Lower Smithfield

The treasure trove of 18th century records on the Pennsylvania frontier published by the PA State Archives include this 1783 compilation of damages sustained by the residents of Upper and Lower Smithfield, in then Bucks County, from the soldiers and adherents of Great Britain during the Revolutionary War. The period of time covered by the estimate is 1775 through 1782; the township assessors are not named.  

John Emmons, David Vanauken, George Sallady, Cornelius Dewitt, Elijah Middagh, Simeon Westfal [Westfall], Joseph Shawers.

Joseph Cole, Joseph Ridder [Rider], Zachariah Shenkins, James Vanauken, Esq., Henry Peterson, Abraham Decker, James Shimers [Shimer], Lewis Meid, William McCarty, John McCarty, John Conklin, Israel Wells, Peter Quick, Morgan Deshay, George Heatter [Heater], William Halbert [Holbert]  

 .

 James Rosencrans Osterhoud, Ephraim Ferguson, Thomas Quick, Benjamin Hains [Haines?], James Wells, Benjamin Cartright [Courtright], John Emmons, John Taylor, Elias Decker, Cornelius Decker, John Rosencrans, Andrew Dingman [Jr.], Samuel Decker, John [Johannes Sr. or Jr.?] Vanetten [Van Etten]

  .

 Henry Barnet, Henry Lawall, Peter Trexler, Commissioners of Northampton County

~~~~~

Pennsylvania Archives, Series 1, Vol. 9, Samuel Hazard, 1854.

HathiTrust edition.

Google eBook edition.

  
  

Galen Bennet's 1877 Guided Tour of Laurel Grove Cemetery

 

The Evening Gazette, Port Jervis, N.Y., August 18, 1877:

 

At Laurel Grove 

Galen Bennet's father-in-law, John Conkling

A Visitor's Tour Through Our Beautiful Cemetery.

To the Editor of the Gazette:

...Taking a stroll the other day to Laurel Grove Cemetery I met in there the genial proprietor of Laurel Grove Marble Works who kindly accompanied me through the grounds, showing me the points of interest.  He has grown up with our cemetery, which was begun eighteen years ago.  There were but two monuments on the grounds at that time, one on the lot of Ferguson and the other on the lot of John Conkling. The latter's has been remodeled, and he has erected every enclosure (but three) on the grounds.  My attention was called to a new galvanized bar drooping chain and tassel with marble parts, which must be durable.  One has just been erected around the lot of our friend Ellis Haring, and also one around the lot of James Martin, which stands near the entrance, and makes a fine appearance.  

The Evening Gazette, Port Jervis N.Y., 1888

I find that at least two-thirds of the marble work and granite have come from Bennet's establishment, and that the works of art requiring mechanical skill are from his place. 
I found the grave of an old friend, H. St John, upon the brow of the hill, with a neat stone, and carved upon its face a wreath of the oak and laurel tied together with a ribbon, upon which was inscribed the word "Horace."  As I pronounced the name it seemed as though I might hear him answer.

The Evening Gazette, Port Jervis, N.Y., 1886

Upon the lot of Abram Shimer I found a cottage monument over the grave of Jacob Shimer, showing beauty of design and workmanship.  One of the prettiest lots in our cemetery and always in order is the Lupton lot, in which we find a small monument, and with fluted die finished with a drape urn, and showing conclusively that we have here, in our midst workmen capable of executing anything in that line.

Another fine piece of art is over the grave of Mrs Riddle, designed by Galen Bennet, and executed at his place.  Also a curiosity in the shape of a tree monument upon the lot of the Dorr family.

   

The Evening Gazette, Port Jervis, N.Y., 1888

I went into the manufactory and looked at a handsome design for a Quincy granite monument about 17 feet in height, to be erected upon the lot of the Wickham family.  The design is very pretty and the monument will be an ornament to our cemetery.  Mr. Bennet reports that his sales are largely ahead of last year, showing increased interest by the people in this lovely resting place of the dead.  Surely none of our people can do better than to patronize home institutions.
Yours, Visitor





 
 

Laurel Grove Cemetery, Orange County Art Work, W.H. Parish Publishing Co., 1893

Time and the rivers have taken their toll on the fashionable 19th century landscape where Bennet's marble and granite work is most readily found. In 1907, the U.S. House of Representations received a lengthy Statement, as originally addressed to the Hon. Thomas W. Bradley, from a committee under the auspices of the Broad of Trade of the village, undersigned by: W.H. Nearpass, James Bennet, Merritt C. Speidel, O.P. Howell and Wm F Parshall as addendum to the Corps of Engineers report, An Examination and Survey of Neversink and Delaware rivers.

The Evening Gazette, 1904

The dramatic newspaper account of the ice gorge, A Night of Terror in Port Jervis, written by Mark V. Richards, published on March 9, 1904, details how the Delaware River forced huge quantities of ice up the Neversink destroying the Neversink bridge and damaging the cemetery.

A signed marble tombstone by Galen Bennet 
for Peter Ezekiel Gumaer, 1869

In the 158 years since the cemetery was founded many of the earlier and less durable marble tombstones have fallen prey to beating rain and winter's cycle of freeze/thaw damage. Lichen and mosses thrive in the river mists often obscuring the older marker inscriptions. The monuments of more durable granite remain in relatively good condition except where damaged by falling trees or vandals. The cemetery fencing has been repaired and repainted but of the once elegant iron railing and post enclosures only the posts remain.

"G. Bennet" signature, lower right corner,
Peter E Gumaer tombstone

 Atlas of Orange County, plate 46, A. H. Mueller, 1903, Hudson River Valley Heritage Collection

The list of commissions completed by Galen Bennet's company during his lifetime is too long for this brief exploration of his work.  One cannot walk the quiet pathways in any Tri-state NJ NY & PA cemetery without seeing examples of those efforts though, as marked in the tombstone's lower right hand corner, "G.Bennet".

 

Galen Bennet, 1838 - 1911

Postcard from an 1890s photograph.

Special thanks to Thomas M. Tryniski's www.fultonhistory.com for the newspaper clipping snapshots.

The Town Clerks of Minisink 1734 - 1782

While researching the Ennes family online some time ago an intriguing 1938 Parke-Bernet auction catalog preview for the Manuscript Record Book of the Town Clerk of Minisink appeared in a Google book search.  Recently, a North Carolina book seller kindly confirmed that Lot # 98 was included in the volume, Sale No. 40, which has since arrived:

Parke-Bernet Galleries, 1938, Vol. 40, p 26

HISTORY IN THE MAKING 1676 TO 1920; BOOKS AND AUTOGRAPHS: THE PROPERTY OF J. LAWRENCE BOGGS, NEWARK, N.J. Sale No.40. New York: Parke-Bernet Galleries, 1938. First edition. ... Public & Private Papers of Lewis Morris, Robert Hunter Morris, Robert Morris, William Paterson, Robert Boggs & allied families; relating to The settlement & progress of New Jersey, Franklin & the proprietors of Pennsylvania, French & Indian Wars, American Revolution, the Constitution, The First Supreme Court. -  American Book Exchange, 2013.

The auction, featuring a breathtaking collection of Americana relating to the early history of New Jersey, New York & Pennsylvania, was hailed as one seldom appearing at public sale.  The consignor, J. Lawrence Boggs, was related to many of the notables including Lewis Morris, Colonial Governor of NJ, Robert Hunter Morris, Chief Justice of NJ & Colonial Governor of PA during the French and Indian War, and Robert Morris, Chief Justice of NJ after the Revolution.

No less interesting was the early and unusual Record  Book of the Town Clerk of Minisink for the sheer number of ancestral lines gathered across time in the valley all rubbing file shoulders, as it were, with the Boggs library holdings on Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, John Marshall, Robert Hunter, William Paterson, and numerous members of the Continental Congress.

The Associated Friends of Rutgers University Library would publish The Boggs Sale, in their 1938 newsletter thanking financial contributors and detailing their acquisitions, presently housed among the Library's Special Collections and University Archives.  J. Lawrence Boggs would also gift papers to the New Jersey Historical Society, The Boggs Family Collection, 1737 - 1942.

Additional research led to an online gen group's discussion on a late 1990s discovery of the microfilm of the Minisink Ms at a Family History Center, FHC. Said discussion included an error filled excerpt of the previously published article "The Minisink Chronicles" by Gene Kuykendall, New Netherlands Connections, 1997, Vol 2, # 1.

A quick search of the online FHC catalog found the microfilm, which can be rented, $7.50, and viewed, printed or downloaded at any Family History Center: Town records, 1734-1782; Montague Township (New Jersey).Family History Library US/CAN Film 888797; FHC locator

The first page of the film:

MONTAGUE TOWNSHIP (SUSSEX COUNTY), N.J.
Town Book, 1734-1782

Contents: road returns, 1734-71; earmarks, 1736-82; annual lists of officers elected, 1739-82;

 register of estrays, 1757-76; miscellaneous entries, 1738-67. Until late 1750's, the records were entered as those of the precinct of Minisink [frequently Manisink or Manissink], Sussex County, N.J. (or, in several early entries, Orange County, N.Y.). Microfilmed May 18, 1959, by the Rutgers University Library, from the original volume owned by Charles A. Philhower (Westfield, N.J.), which he intends on presenting to a local historical society. This item was sold in the J. L. Boggs sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, May 11, 1938. 

A selection of freeholders & officers as found in the Ms:

Joseph Barton, Jacob Bogart, Cornelus Brinck, Gerit Brink, Lambert Brinck, Mathewes Brinck, David Cole (also David Cool), William Cole, Daniel Cooley, Jr, Bastoaon (also Basteaen) Cortrecht, Hendrick H Cortrecht, Hendrick Jans Cortrecht, Jacobus Cuddeback, Pieter Cuykondal (also Cuykendal), Salomon Cuykondal, Salomon Davis, Andries Decker, Johannis Decker, Thomas Decker, William Ennes, Benjamin Forgeson, Uriah Forgeson, Eevert Hornbeck, Abraham Low, Joel Quick, Thomas Quik, Jan ? Rosa, Benjamin Sheppard, Abraham Simer, Jacobis Swartwout,  Benjamin Tomson, Abraham van Aken,  Anthony van Etten, John van Fliet (also Jan van Vliet), Harmen van Garden, Johannis van Gardon, Daniel Westfael, Jacob Westfael, Jurryan Westvael, Anthony Westbroek, Jacob Westbroek, Capt. Johannis Westbroek, Joseph Westbroek, Salomon Westbroek.

drawn  by Jacob Hoffman; engraved by John Scoles, New York Magazine, June, 1794, Library of Congress

Two fellow researchers brought to my attention the latest print issue of the Sandyston Journal excerpting a 1960s New Jersey Herald article by C. V. Crane ( then President of the Minisink Valley Historical Society MVHS) which quotes without corrections from the Minisink Ms:

... the following record of a town meeting held in 1740. ...For Constables, Jacobus Cuddeback and Eevert Hornbeck; Suprovisor, Capt. Jacobus Swartwout; Fens Vewers, Jacobus Decker and Lambert Brinck, Stalyon Vewrs, Jacobus Decker and Peter Cuykendal; Pathmasters, Anthony Westbroek and Thos Decker; Poor masters, Johannes Westbroek and Solomon Davis; Waggon Viewers, Cornelus Brinck and David Cool, to see that each wagon within ye p.cinct aforesd be in the inside of y rot four foot and ten Inches of Duch measure in ye penalty of twinty shillings of Currat lawful money of ye province of New York to be Recovered before any of his majesties Justic of y peace within said p.cinct of any Owner or owners of such wagon or wagons as shall be found insufficent :half of which money to y informer and y other half to ye poor of said p.cint, town Clark, William Ennes.

Coincidentally, another entry from the auction catalog adds a footnote on the jurisdiction of the locale:  Lot # 63 Hamilton, John, ... 2 pp., 4to, about 200 words, Amboy, July 6, 1741. To Lewis Morris.  Expressing the wishes of the Council of Proprietors of New Jersey that the Justices of Orange County exercise their authority until the boundary lines between New York and New Jersey were run.
 
Belatedly, a board member informed me that the Minisink Ms was held at the MVHS and will be made available to the general public as a large format scanned copy.  At least two copies of the Gene Kuykendall late 1990s edition of the transcription of the Ms exist - one at the Sussex Co Public Library & one at the MVHS.

Only one mystery remains:  How, when, and from whom did J. Lawrence Boggs acquire the Record Book of the Town Clerk of Minisink?

Delaware & Upper Smithfield Townships 1772 Tax Records

The Pennsylvania Provincial tax records on Ancestry (subscription) are fascinating for the information not available online from the State Archives. In an effort to untangle the sometimes confusing index dates & townships from Ancestry for 1768 - 1801, please note the added text from the Proprietary, Supply, and State Tax Lists of the Counties of Northampton ... for the Years 1772 to 1787,  Google eBook, W. H. Egle, W.S. Ray, State Printer of Pennsylvania, 1897

Proprietary Tax, Northhampton, 1772  Delaware Township records appear to include the area just below the present day Egypt Mills north to just below Milford. The Upper Smithfield records include the area from Milford north to Matamoras. Both sets of records are termed Duplicates, from an unknown date.

Click here to enlarge

Note "Negros & Mulattos" as taxable commodities, i.e. slaves, for the following slave owners: John Brink, 2; Henry Cortright, 1; Benjamin Decker, 1; John Rosencrance, 2; Bernardus Swartwood, 1; Adam ?, 1; John Van Etten, 1; Eli? Vanauken, 1; David Vanauken, 1.

Andrew (Andries) Dingman is not listed, Broer Decker (Brewer Dacker) and Joseph Rider (Joseph Reder) are.  Records for all three of these settlers are scarce. Rider, in 1784, was granted the Patent to the Quick's Mill tract along the Vandermark Creek in present day Milford.

Abbreviations for the State Archives text

 

*Original data:
Tax & Exoneration Lists, 1762–1794. Series No. 4.61; Records of the Office of the Comptroller General, RG-4. Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.