Town of Washington Carmine di Arpino Historian, Town of Washington
I
n 1788 the Town of Washington was a collection of hamlets seemingly scattered at random over the landscape, interspersed with farms quite recently wrested from the wilderness. However, the locations of these settlements were not as haphazard as it seemed but had been determined by the nature of the terrain and the available approaches to it. The future town was originally a wilderness on the heights. Its eastern end was a wall of very steep hills rising out of the Harlem Valley. The wall was broken by an occasional cut or cleft almost as steep as the hills themselves. In each of them a stream flowed, or tumbled, down toward the valley. Later some of these gaps would be called by such names as Deep Hollow and Butts Hollow. Of course there were no roads, only animal trails shared by Indians who hunted the area. The ascent to the top was far more formidable than we can possibly imagine looking back from the 20th century. Can we, for example, appreciate the problem of getting ox carts or horse drawn wagons to the top? The approach from the west would certainly be easier. But here the prospective settlers tended to choose the lands closest to the river first. The arrival of the first settlers was facilitated by two events: the subdivision of the lands of the Nine Partners Patent (1734-1741) and the laying out of a road from Dover to Poughkeepsie, which occurred at about the same time. The first arrivals were nearly all children of the Protestant Reformation. They came from other parts of the English colonies rather than directly from Europe. The largest number were Friends, more familiarly known as Quakers. They came from inland New England, from Nantucket, Long Island and coastal areas between the two, and from Westchester. Most of them came overland passing through the Oblong settlements, or up the Harlem Valley from the south. They made their way up the steep hills. All wagons used the crude road; some undoubtedly made the trip on foot along the same road or by the trail in the "Butts Hollow" cleft. They settled at the eastern end of the first open valley. I would venture a guess that they were the ones who named the place "Little Rest." Others moved on over the crest of the hill and started a settlement on its western slope. This became the locus of the Nine Partners Meeting. Another wave came from the Hudson River and settled on the western edge of the first level valley they came to. They called the little settlement "Pittsberry." These were a mixed lot, religiously speaking, of Presbyterians, Dutch and German Reformed, and a sprinkling of Friends. Those with a preference for farm moved on eastward— north and south. Some of those who spread out into the Canoe Hills soon discovered the gorge through which flowed the east branch of the Wappingers Creek. They were quick to see the potential water power and settled there. This was the beginning of the future Hartsville or Harts Village. The migration continued in a northeasterly direction and another hamlet came into being about two miles beyond Harts Village—the Mabbetsville of our own day. The northeastern area of the future town was settled by people who came through, and from, the Amenia and Wassaic area. They were mostly Anglican and Separatists. Some came up the "Deep Hollow" cleft and settled on the open and rolling land at the top of it. Their settlement straddled the rough road which wound its way up the 65
