wallkill valley almanac -...

WALLKILL VALLEY ALMANAC

WALLKILL VALLEY ALMANAC2


Almanac Wallkill Valley

Index Arts 20Crawford, Town of 13Gardiner, Town of 13Health 24Historical Societies 26Hotlines 10Libraries 12Maybrook, Village of 13Montgomery Town 13Montgomery Village 14

Museums 28Organizations 26Post Offices 10Schools 18Senior Citizens 26Shawangunk 15Sports & Recreation 31Walden, Village of 14Wallkill, Town of 15Worship 22

Wallkill Valley Almanac is published annually by Wallkill Valley Publications, Inc.Supplement to the Wallkill Valley Times, February 24, 2010

On the cover: Sukie (circa 1900) - Courtesy of Gladys Dubois and HRVH

Wallkill Valley Heritage

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WALLKILL VALLEY ALMANAC 5


By SHANTAL PARRIS [email protected]

This February is Black History Month. The remembrance dates back to 1926, when Harvard

scholar Carter Wilson, whose parents were slaves, organized the first Negro History Week. Taking place during the second week of February, the date was chosen in honor of Frederick Douglass and President Abraham Lincoln, whose birthdays are both celebrated this month. From as early as the 16th Century, until some years after the passing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, which officially ended slav-ery and involuntary servitude unre-lated to crime in the United States of America, approximately 12 million African slaves were brought to the New World. Spanish colonists were the first to begin importing slaves to places like Cuba and Hispaniola (modern-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Shortly after, they brought slaves to Florida – their first destination on the North American continent. The Dutch West India Company began importing African slaves to New Amsterdam in the early 1600’s. It would be more than two centuries before slavery was abolished perma-nently in the state. (A series of eman-cipation laws were passed in New York State beginning the 1770’s, with an “Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery” passing in 1799. By the mid-century, the majority of African Americans living in the state were free.) African slaves settled in cities, on farms and on estates through-out the colony. One local farmstead that owned slaves was the Miller Homestead, slightly south of the Village of Montgomery. Just up the road, to the north of the estate, was

a Lutheran Church, established by German Palatine settlers who, accord-ing to early documents also owned slaves. A 1790 census notes there were “236 slaves and 17 free blacks and American Indians” living in the Town of Montgomery. Former Town Historian Robert L. Williams

explained that both the Miller and Palatine slaves used a cemetery locat-ed on the Miller Homestead property. Now situated roadside along Rt. 416, a large boulder marks the entrance to the “Colored Cemetery.” On it sits dozens of little rocks, charms and Mardi Gras beads, left behind by guests to commemorate

A glimpse of the pastCemeteries uncover local African American history

An unmarked gravestone in the Montgomery Colored Cemetery, located along Rt. 416, south of the Village of Montgomery.


their visit. A plaque affixed to the stone tells the story of the people who are buried there: “Not all of those who arrived in this New World came of their own free will. There were those brought in heavy, iron shackles - victims of the cruel and inhumane institution known as slavery.” Under a thin layer of weathered leaves, dozens of rounded, protruding stones lay in small clumps, sur-rounding trees, in barely dis-cernable rows, along grassy slopes and scattered in a mys-terious pattern laid out over generations of unknowable suffering. Just beyond the quiet cove is a frozen wetland, icy and uninvit-ing, with tall, narrow trees jutting out of the wet ground. The wetland is ironically the reason for the ceme-tery’s survival.

The Miller family graveyard, which was located across the road, overlooking the property from atop a hill for more than a century, was lost to excavation in the 1980’s, precisely because the soil beneath it was worth

money to developers. After becoming abandoned around the Turn-of-the-Century, the Colored Cemetery was rediscovered only by chance after a conversation

Williams had with former Village of Montgomery volunteer fireman Earl Monroe. The man spoke of a brush fire that happened years ago, in back of the Miller Homestead, dur-ing which firemen stumbled across a

group of unmarked graves. So, Williams went to investigate and found scores of unmarked graves at the site. He went to work searching for documents that might tell him more, and found a deed from the sale of the property in 1867. The document described a certain piece of the property as “a lot of land containing about forty-six one hundredth of an acre of land used and occupied by the colored people as a cemetery.” Shortly after the find, Williams

formed a committee to assist the town in restoring the cemetery. An archeo-logical survey of the site was con-ducted by William Sandy. Funds were raised and a fence was erected along

The only marked gravestone in the Montgomery Colored Cemetery.

The man spoke of a brush fire that happened years ago, in back of the Miller Homestead, during

which firemen stumbled across a group of unmarked graves.


the eastern boundary of the cemetery, a bronze plaque and roadside his-torical marker were purchased and placed, and in 1996, the site was added to the National Register of Historical Places. “It’s one of the projects that I’m most proud of,” said Williams. The Montgomery Colored Cemetery is located about a mile from the Riverside Cemetery in the Village of Montgomery, where there is also a section devoted to African Americans. Though the cemetery is not designat-ed as historical, several of the graves have headstones that are marked with names of African Americans who, over the years, have been iden-tified through census records, said Williams. The Colden Estate is also reputed to have a slave cemetery on its grounds, though aside from records of the family owning slaves, there is

currently no above ground evidence of an African American cemetery on the property, said Williams. However, just north of the Town of Montgomery in Gardiner, the remains of several dozen graves and evidence of hundreds more were found at the Ulster County Fairgrounds in the early 1990’s. “We found indirect evi-dence of upwards of 2000 graves,” said Dr. Brian McAdoo, who worked on a project that investigated a rumored poorhouse cemetery at the site from 2000 to 2002. McAdoo, who is a professor of earth sciences at Vassar College, combed the site with ground penetrat-ing radar (GPR), among other tools, with a group of geology students in his Digital Underground class. They found direct evidence of 50 graves, including pelvic bones, a skull and jawbones with teeth. The bones were found in and around, and in some

cases, right up against the Ulster County Pool complex. The location was the former site of the Ulster County Poorhouse. First built in 1827, the facility housed the poor, the unwanted and the mentally ill. McAdoo and his colleagues later found that when the pools were built in 1976, there had been no laws estab-lished at that time pertaining to devel-opment on archeologically sensitive properties. Many of those housed in the poor-house at the time were indeed African American, said McAdoo. “The poor house has death records with race listed on them,” he said. The story of the discovery was written about in the February 4, 2002 New York Times article “Forsaken in Life, Forgotten in Death,” by Claudia Rowe. McAdoo, who has participated in similar projects in Hyde Park and Stormville, where a well-marked slave cemetery has long been recognized, is set to conduct an investigation of another possible African-American cemetery this fall in Rhinebeck. Perhaps the most well-known African-American burial site in the state was discovered during the excavation of the Foley Square Courthouse in lower Manhattan in 1991, where workers came across the remains of more than 400 slaves bur-ied during the 17th and 18th centuries. The site was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993. It is esti-mated that approximately 200 graves lay undisturbed at the site. New York, with its first Dutch settlement established in 1624 at Fort Orange (Albany), ratified the Constitution in 1788, making it one of the oldest states in the country. It har-bors the graves of countless African Americans, both free and enslaved, who were buried during centuries of slavery, in unmarked resting places, destined, for a time, to be forgotten by history. Today, with the help of modern technology, laws to protect archeo-logical and historically important sites and the work of historians and scientists like Williams, Sandy and McAdoo, their stories are now being shared and revered as part of our diverse American heritage. ■

A plaque marks the entrance to the Montgomery Colored Cemetery.


THE VALLEY’S AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE

Ed Johnson, (pictured) lived in the Evert Terwilliger House, located on Rt. 32 south in the Town of Gardiner with his wife Effie. The house is located on the Locust Lawn Esate, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Photo courtesy of Historic Huguenot Street, New Paltz, NY.

Sukie (left) was a likely former slave or servant of Lambert Jenkins, who lived in Gardiner during the late 1800’s. A series of gradual emancipation laws were passed in New York State beginning in 1770’s, which gradually granted slaves and children of slaves their freedom. What is believed to have been Sukie’s Gardiner home, is pictured above. Photos courtesy of Gladys DuBois and HRVH.


Bloomingburg: 733-1831. Zip: 12721.Bullville: 361-5411. Zip: 10915.Circleville: 361-5832. Zip: 10919.Gardiner: 255-1984. Zip: 12525.Maybrook: 427-2395. Zip: 12543.Middletown: 343-1496. Zip: 10940.Modena: 883-6857. Zip: 12548.Montgomery: 457-3777. Zip: 12549.Newburgh: 561-4777 (Newburgh city), 561-5141 (Town of) Newburgh. Zip: 12550.Pine Bush: 744-2146. Zip: 12566.Plattekill: 564-2800. Zip: 12568.Thompson Ridge: 361-1525. Zip: 10985.Walden: 778-5661. Zip: 12586.Walker Valley: 744-2722. Zip: 12588.Wallkill: 895-2161. Zip: 12589.

POST OFFICES

AIDS Related Community Service. 562-5005.County AIDS Task Force. 1-800-832-1200.AZT-AIDS Drug Assistance Program. 1-800-542-2437.Al-Anon or Al-Ateen. 374-7800 (Orange County). For spouses, children of alcoholics. Strictly confidential.Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). 343-1158 (Middletown), 452-1111 (Poughkeepsie), 342-5757 (Orange County). Strictly confidential.Child Abuse & Maltreatment Reporting Center. Toll-free. 1-800-342-3720. Service of N.Y.S. Dept. of Social Services. All calls confidential.Food Stamp Information Hotline. Toll-free. 1-800-342-3710. Service of N.Y.S. Dept. of Social Servicesd.Help Line and Rape Crisis. 294-9355. Service of the Mental Health Association in Orange County. Staffed by trained, listening volunteers 24 hours a day. Don’t know where to turn? Call the Help Line.NYS Insurance Dept. Consumer Services Hotline. Toll-free. 1-800-342-3736.N.Y.S. Senate Bill Status Hotline. Toll-free. 1-800-342-9860. To learn status of any bill before the State Senate.Overeaters Victorious. 564-2079, 778-1461. Christian organization for overeaters who cannot control their compulsion.Pregnancy Counseling, Help. Birthright of Orange County. 343-3121. New Promise Crisis Pregnancy Center. 457-3161, 561-0833.Substance Abuse Problems. 562-8800. Substance Abuse Ministry/DARE. Non-sectarian alcohol and drug abuse referral/resource service of the Archdiocese of N.Y.Teen Hot Line. 343-6906, 294-9445. Service of the Mental Health Association in Orange County. Staffed by trained, listening teens 5-9 p.m. daily.

HOTLINES


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LIBRARIES

GardinerGardiner Library. 133 Farmer’s Turnpike, Gardiner. 255-1255. Director: Peggy Lotvin. Assistant Director: Ken Greene. Hours: Mon. 1- Thurs. 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.; Fri. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Sunday, noon - 4 p.m.

MaybrookGeorge C. Bullis Memorial Library. 101 Main Street and Route 208, Maybrook. 427-2914. Hours: Mon., Wed., Fri., 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.; Tues. & Thurs 10 a.m. - 7 p.m.; Sat. 10 a.m.-1 p.m.; closed Sundays.

Montgomery

Montgomery Free Library. In Village Hall, 133 Clinton Street, Montgomery. 457-5616. Director: Betsy Comizio. Hours: 10 a.m. - noon and 2 - 6 p.m weekdays. 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. Saturday. Closed Sundays.

Pine BushTown of Crawford Free Library. 227 Maple Ave., Pine Bush, 744-3375. Director: Doris Callen. Hours: Mon., Wed. and Fri., 8:30 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sat., 8:30 a.m.-noon. Children’s Reading Room: Mon., Wed. and Fri., 8:30 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sat. 8:30 a.m.-noon.

PlattekillPlattekill Public Library. 2047 Route 32, Modena. 883-7286. Director: John Georghiou. Hours: Mon., 1-6 p.m.; Tues., 1-8 p.m.; Wed., 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Thurs., 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Fri., 1-6 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m.-3 p.m. www.plattekill.lib.ny.us.

WaldenJosephine-Louise Public Library. Municipal Square, Walden. 778-7621. Director: Ginny Neidermier. Hours: 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Mon., Tues. and Thurs.; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Wed. and Fri.; 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sat.

WallkillWallkill Public Library. 7 Bona Ventura Ave., Wallkill. 895-3707. Hours: Mondays and Fridays 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays 10 a.m. - 8 p.m., and Saturdays 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Closed Sundays.


GOVERNMENT

Town of Crawford History: Crawford was first settled by the Thomas Bull family who, appro-priately enough, founded the hamlet of Bullville circa 1760. The hamlet of Pine Bush first came into being circa 1765 when Robert Milliken settled there. The Searsville area was first settled by Johannes Snider circa 1768. But Crawford was not to become an official township until Mar. 4, 1823, when it was formed from the Town of Montgomery. There has been a recent resurgence in the hamlet with work proceeding to upgrade and restore the Main Street area. Most of the growth in the outlying areas has been residential, with horse farms a growing land use in recent years. The town now includes nearly 50 square miles and a population of about 7,875.

TOWN DIRECTORYTown Office: 121 Route 302, Pine Bush, 744-2029.Supervisor: Charles Carnes.Council: Michael Menendez, Daniel Flannick, James Licardi, Larry MarshallTown Board Meetings: Regular meetings the 3rd Thursday at 7 p.m. and work sessions the 2nd Thursday at 7 p.m of every month.Town Clerk: Kelly Eskew, 744-2029Town Justice: Bryan Kulak and Jane Harrington.Planning Board Chairman: Linda Zwart.Planning board meetings: 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month at 7 p.m.ZBA Chairman: William Fee.ZBA meetings: 1st Wednesday of the month at 7:30 p.m. Police Chief: Daniel McCann, 744-5000.Building Inspector: John Calaca, 744-3912.Pine Bush Fire Chief: Timothy Fay, 744-2681.Bullville Fire Chief: William Bacon, 361-3939.Highway Superintendent: Stephen Russell. 361-1375.Assessors: William Fee, Karen Raiti, Robert Kolacz, 744-3721.Tax Collector: Connie Latimer, 744-3522.

Town of Gardiner History: The first settlers were descendants of the New Paltz Patentees and Dutch from the towns of Shawangunk and Rochester. In the later half of the 19th century, Irish families came to settle in Gardiner. The town was formed April 2, 1853 from the nearby townships of Shawangunk, Rochester and New Paltz. It was named for Addison Gardiner, a Rochester resident who was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1844. Ireland Corners was settled in 1763 by Daniel Deyo. Two Irishmen, John and Charles Geirigan, settled there in the 1830s and built a small corner store. The Ireland Corners Hotel was built in the late 1800s. The town’s oldest business is the Tuthilltown Grist Mill, which was built in 1788 by Sela Tuthill and has been in operation virtually continuously since then. In addition to the grist mill, the Wallkill River also provided water power for wood and woolen mills. The first apple orchards began in operation around 1810. Today, the orchards remain a vital part of the Gardiner community. The town population is approximately 5,238.

TOWN DIRECTORYTown Office: Route 44/55, Gardiner, 255-9675.Supervisor: Joseph Katz.Council members: Rich Koenig, Carmine Mele, Warren Wiegand, Nadine Lemmon.Town Clerk/Tax Collector: Michelle Mosher.Town Board Meetings: 1st, 2nd Tuesdays of the month at 7 p.m.Highway Superintendent: Charles Haynes, 255-1381.Planning Board Chairman: Michael Boylan.

Building Inspector: Henry Vance, III, 256-9675.Town Library: Nell Boucher. 255-1255.Town Justices: Bruce Blatchly, John Savago, 256-0017.Assessor: Joyce Mazzetti, 255-9388.ZBA Chairman: Michael Beck.Historian: Carlton Mabee.

Town of Montgomery History: During its earliest settling in the 17th century, it was known as the Precinct of Shawangunk and was originally part of Ulster County. In 1743 it became known as the Precinct of Wallkill and in 1772 the Precinct of Hanover. It received its current name in 1788 in honor of the well-known patriot and soldier, General Richard Montgomery. Montgomery was a Brigadier General in the revolutionary army and died at the storming of Quebec in 1775. The Town of Montgomery includes 3 waterways, the Tinbrook, Muddykill, and The Wallkill River. The later is celebrated as one of the few rivers to flow north in the Eastern United States. These waterways were ideal sites for Indian settlements, and remnants of there inhabitance are still found today. In the early 18th century, a man by the name of Cadwallader Colden set-tled in the area. Colden was named the first surveyor general in 1720, and soon after was named to Governor Burnett’s provincial council. In 1761 he became lieutenant governor of New York. He was one of the most learned men of the colonies and was a frequent correspondent of Benjamin Franklin. Colden, also a physician, contributed substantially to a variety of intellectual and scientific fields. He studied botany, physics and philosophy and was published several times on his findings. The area he settled in was called Coldengham, which is the present Coldenham, located off of 17K.

TOWN DIRECTORYTown Hall: 110 Bracken Road, Montgomery, 457-2660.Supervisor: Mike Hayes, 457-2600.Town Council: Daniel Dempsey, Cyndy Voss, Sheryl Melick, Ron FellerTown Board Meetings: Regular meetings first three Thursdays at 7 p.m., work session 2nd Thursday noon of every month.Town Clerk: Tara Stickles, 457-2660.Town Justices: Fred Gorss and Harry Mills,457-2620.Assessor: Dennis Ketcham, 457-2650.Building Inspector: Walter Schmidt, John Drobysh, 457-2640.Police Chief: Arnold “Butch” Amthor, 457-9211.Highway Superintendent: Charles Woznick, 457-2610Planning Board Chairman: Jeff Crist, 457-2643.Planning Board meetings: 3rd Monday of the month at 7 p.m.ZBA Chairman: John Fallon, 457-2644.Historian: Suzanne Isaksen.

Village of Maybrook History: The Village of Maybrook was incorporated in 1925. A village, literally built by the railroad, the roots of Maybrook actually date back to 1735, when land was deeded for a highway to be extended from the Town of Shawangunk to Goshen, passing in front of the Goodwill Church. For many years, the road which is now Route 208 was called the Walden Road, but in 1950, the portion passing through the village was renamed Homestead Avenue in honor of the early owners of homesteads along this road. In the early 1880s, this valley was first considered ideal for a railroad line and, in 1883, the first surveys were made for a rail line through the Wallkill Valley, from Hamptonburgh to Montgomery, to connect existing Erie and Lehigh and Hudson Lines. In 1887, plans were unveiled for the construction of


the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge, enabling goods from all western portions of the country to be delivered to New England and, in return, expedite the flow of industrial products from the New England states to the western portion of the country. The steel rails were laid in April of 1889 through the settlement of Orange Junction. The name was later changed to Maybrook Junction and, eventually, to Maybrook. In 1908, the Orange County Railroad began to enlarge the existing railroad yards, buying farmland on the east side of the tracks. The enlargement made Maybrook one of the largest freight terminals in the east. In 1968, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad was consolidated with the Penn Central, signaling the beginning of the end of Maybrook as an active railroad town. Lines were diverted and the business began to decline, grinding to a full stop in 1973, when a fire destroyed the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge.

VILLAGE DIRECTORYVillage Office: 109 Main Street, 427-2717.Mayor: Dennis Leahy.Trustees: Gina Bradshaw, Noreen Reynolds, Kevin Greany, Robert Pritchard.Village Board Meetings: 2nd and 4th Monday of each month at 7 p.m.Village Clerk and Treasurer: Valentina Johnson, 427-2717.Village Justice: Philip A. Barnes.Building Inspector: Tim Ippolito, 427-5293.Planning Board Chairman: George Byrne.Planning Board meetings: 1st Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m.Officer-in-Charge: James Barnett, 427-2226.Fire Chief: Charles Woznick, 427-2220.Director of Public Works: Matt Thorp, 427-2222.ZBA Chairman: John Jardine.Recreation Director: Dennis Leahy.

Village of Montgomery History: When James Ward bought a mill on the east side of the Wallkill River in 1740, he built the first bridge across the river and opened up the land for development that would one day become the Village of Montgomery. The village’s history is closely tied in with that of the town when the families of Jacob Bookstaver, Frederick Sinsabaugh and Johannes Youngblood bought an 800-acre tract here in 1735. Before even that date, however, they had journeyed to this area to help found the Brick Reformed Church. What is now the village was called Ward’s Bridge. It was included with the Precinct of Shawangunk in Ulster County until 1743 when it became the Precinct of Wallkill. In 1772, the precinct was divided and that portion contain-ing the village became the Precinct of Hanover. After the Revolutionary War, Hanover became the Township of Montgomery, named in honor of the general who fell at the Battle of Quebec. But it wasn’t until Feb. 17, 1810 that Ward’s Bridge was formally incorpo-rated as the Village of Montgomery. There followed the boom years of the village, with the famous Montgomery Academy growing and many general stores, drug stores, tobacco shops, blacksmiths, carriage shops, newspaper offices and law offices springing up all over. The financial depression that socked the nation in 1830 hit Montgomery as well, and it didn’t really recover until ground was broken for the Montgomery Branch Railroad in 1866. Other rail lines followed, and the village boomed again.

VILLAGE DIRECTORYVillage Office: 133 Clinton Street, 457-9661.Mayor: L. Stephen Brescia.Trustees: JoAnn Scheels, Darlene Andolsek, Andrew Roepe and Michael Hembury.Village Board Meetings: 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month at 7:30 p.m.Village Clerk: Linda Thompson, 457-9661.

Village Justice: David Roepe.Village Treasurer: Heather Benedict.Building Inspector: Bruce Yancewicz Sr., 457-9261.DPW Superintendent: Buddy Nelson, 457-5321.Planning Board Chairman: Kevin Conero.Planning Board Meetings: 4th Wednesday of each month at 7:30 p.m.Acting Officer in Charge: John Luffman, 457-3666.Fire Chief: Robert Reynolds, 457-3205.Historian: Marion Wild.ZBA Chairman: Randy Wilber.

Village of Walden History: The first settlements of the lands surrounding the high falls of the Wallkill occurred in the middle of the 18th century, decades before a wealthy merchant named Jacob Walden found it to his liking. In the mid-1700s, the land was part of the Wallkill Precinct and was the home of a grist mill believed to have been built by James Kidd and his family in a place they called Kiddtown. In 1812, a prosperous New York City businessman, who had made his for-tune as a mercantile trader, visited the area. Jacob Walden and his wife were so impressed, they decided to settle here and bought many of the farmlands along the river, including the old grist mill. The family resided in a stone house at what is now the corner of Wait and North Montgomery Streets, a house that is now the property of the Historical Society of Walden and the Wallkill Valley. The stone house remained in the Walden family until 1856, when it was sold to Edward Wait. Walden set out to encourage manufacturers to locate in the area. The Franklin Company, founded in 1822 by Jesse Scofield and Dr. S.C. Capron, was erected at the site of the original grist mill. The company manufactured cot-ton and woolen goods and by 1934 had become the largest manufacturer of flannel in the U.S. In 1831, E.W. Bridges was commissioned by Walden to plot and map all of his lands and the adjoining area. It was the first map of what was to become, in 1855, the Village of Walden. Through the years, Walden gained a reputation for its knife manufactur-ing industries, with the Alden and the New York Knife Works becoming the major industries of the area around the turn-of-the-century. After the first World War, the knife industry declined and disappeared from the village alto-gether when Schrade Cutlery moved to Ellenville. The current population is 6,164.

VILLAGE DIRECTORYVillage Office: One Municipal Square, 778-2l77.Mayor: Brian Maher.Village Manager: James Politi, 778-2177.Village Trustees: Roy Wynkoop, Midge Norman, Richard Hurd, Bernard Bowen, Susan Rumbold, Ed Leonard.Village Board Meetings: 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m.Village Clerk: Nancy Mitchell, 778-2177.Village Treasurer: Jan Weiner.Village Justices: Raynard Ozman, 778-1632Court Clerk: Gayle Smith, 778-1632.Police Chief: Jeffry Holmes, 778-5595.Fire Chief: Gary Kurtz.Librarian: Ginny Neidermier, 778-7621.Building Inspector: Dean Stickles, 778-2177.Planning Board Chairman: Stan Plato.Planning Board Meetings: 3rd Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. ZBA Chairman: Jim Corbett.Recreation Director: John Howland, 778-2655.


Town of Shawangunk History: Shawangunk was settled officially in 1694, the date of a patent for 1,280 acres from the English king to the Bruyn, Schoonmaker, Decker, VanCamp, Terwilliger and other families. But recently researched history, done by local historian Marc Fried, shows that Shawangunk was settled by Gertrude Bruyn back in 1677 or 1678. In 1682, she received a deed from the Indians for land named Sawankonck. The land she purchased however was, in 1854, to become a part of the Town of Gardiner. The Precinct of Shawangunk was created in the early 1700s, with Shawangunk officially becoming a township on Mar. 7, 1788. With an area of about 57 square miles and a population of about 12,022, Shawangunk has seen the hamlet of Wallkill become the business center of the town. Just outside of the hamlet, the Wallkill and Shawangunk Correctional Facilities are big employers there.

TOWN DIRECTORYTown Office: Central Avenue, Wallkill, 895-2611.Supervisor: John Valk Jr., 895-2900.Council: Brian Amthor, Robert Miller, Adrian Dewitt, Matthew Watkins.Town Board: 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month at 7 p.m.Town Clerk: Margaret Tremper, 895-2611.Town Justice: Timothy McAdam and Kevin Hunt, 895-2111.Building Inspector: George Sawyer, 895-2904.ZBA Chairman: Archie Reid.Police Chief: Frank Petrone, 895-2317.Shawangunk Valley Fire Chief: Chris Budney. Walker Valley Fire Chief: Dan Greer.Wallkill Fire Chief: Craig Ross, 895-2303.Assessor: Curt Schoeberl, 895-2143.Highway Superintendent: Martin Hand, 895-3620.Planning Board Chair: Kris Pederson.Recreation Director: Donna Vandemark, 895-3363.

Town of Wallkill History: William and Thomas Bull were the first settlers of the town, hav-ing settled along the Wallkill River in about 1767. The town’s principal industries are aluminum soft drink and beer cans, custom cabinets, lead reclamation, agriculture, food distribution, shopping centers and Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

TOWN DIRECTORYTown Hall: 600 Route 211 East, Middletown 10941, 692-7800. Supervisor: John Ward.Council members: John King, Kevin Mulqueen, Eric Valentin, Dan Tulp.Town Board: 2nd and 4th Thursday of every month at 7:30 p.m.Town Clerk: Lousia Ingrassia, 629-7826.Assessor: Carol Voss, 692-7811.Planning Board Chairman: Gary Lake, 629-7814.Planning Board Meetings: 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month at 7:30 p.m.Building Inspector: Eugene Jaques, 697-7808.Water and Sewer Department: Lou Ingrassia, Jr., 342-1668.Police Chief: Robert Hertman, 692-6757.Highway Superintendent: John Lippert, 361-1106.Historian: Dorothy Hunt-Ingrassia, 692-7840.Town Justices: Raymond Shoemaker - 692-7821, Bonnie Kraham - 692-7822.ZBA Chairman: Eloise Raffo, 629-7814.

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