Wappinger, New York

For the Native American tribe, see Wappinger.

Town of Wappinger, New York
Village of Wappingers Falls
Town of Wappinger, New York Location within the state of New York
Coordinates: 41°35′20″N 73°53′59″W
Country	United States
State	New York
County	Dutchess
Town of Wappinger	May 20, 1875
Government
• Type	Town Council
• Town Supervisor	Barbara Gutzler (R)
• Town Council	Members' List • W1: William H. Beale (R) • W2: Vincent Bettina (R) • W3: Ismay Czarniecki (R) • W4: Micheal Kuzmicz (R)
Area
• Total	28.6 sq mi (74.1 km2)
• Land	27.3 sq mi (70.6 km2)
• Water	1.3 sq mi (3.4 km2)
Elevation	197 ft (60 m)
Population (2010)
• Total	27,048
• Density	Bad rounding here950/sq mi (Bad rounding here370/km2)
Time zone	Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
• Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
ZIP code	12590
Area code(s)	845
FIPS code	36-78157
GNIS feature ID	0979595
Website	Town of Wappinger

The Town of Wappinger is located in Dutchess County, New York. The population was 27,048 at the 2010 census. The name is derived from the Wappinger Indians who inhabited the area. Wappinger's boundaries are Fishkill to the south, Sprout Creek to the east, the Hudson River to the west,and the Wappinger Creek and LaGrange to the north.

History

The town of Wappinger, originally a part of the town of Fishkill, was formed on May 20, 1875, and lies wholly within the limits of the historic Rombout Patent, granted in 1685. The town was first settled around 1659. The Wappinger People were a loose confederation of tribes living from the eastern banks of the Hudson River, from modern northern Dutchess County, south into Westchester County, and eastward into north-central Connecticut into the Connecticut River valley south to the Long Island Sound. They spoke an eastern-Algonkian Native American language. Culturally they are closely related to the Lenape People (Delaware Indians) to the west and south of Wappinger lands; also related to the Mahican People to their immediate north and to the Metoac Peoples of Long Island. “Wappinger” means “easterner” in most Algonkian languages. The town is made up of many historic hamlets that makes up the whole history of Wappinger. The population of the Town of Wappinger was 4,389 in 1900. The town historians of Wappinger are Brenda VonBurg and Joey Cavaccini.

Historic district

Wheeler Hill Historic District is a federally recognized historic district located at Wappinger in Dutchess County. It includes 49 contributing buildings, 15 contributing sites, and four contributing structures. It encompasses the estates of Obercreek, Elmhurst, Edge Hill, Henry Suydam, William Crosby, and Carnwath Farms that were developed between 1740 and 1940. Also included are two 18th century riverfront commercial structures, the Lent / Waldron Store and Stone House at Farmer's Landing.

• Carnwath Farms was originally built in 1850 for William and Lydia Willis, relatives of the Mesier family in nearby Wappingers Falls. Willis was a retired hardware merchant from New York City. He sold the house in 1855 and then built Obercreek. Then the property was Purchased by civil war General G. Barclay then was sold to his son in law Reginald Rives who was elected supervisor of Wappinger in 1900. By the 1920s the Order of the Brothers of Hermits purchased the property and built the dormitory building and chapel in the mid-1980s. The property is now owned by the town of Wappinger as a park, with hopes to restore the Manor House, Carriage House, and other structures on the property.
• Obercreek was built by William H. Willis in 1856 as there new home after they sold Carnwath Farms just down the road. Since the Willis' were related to the Mesiers the estate was passed down to them and finally the Reese family who currently owns the house still to this day.
• Samuel S. Sands built "Elmhurst" in 1865. Sands was a banker and broker in partnership with William Henry Reese and joined the New York Stock Exchange in 1854. He acted as broker for a number of important financial interests, including the Astors. Sands died at the age of sixty-six at his country estate, "Elmhurst", July 26, 1892.
• The brother of artist James Augustus Suydam, Henry Suydam was descended from an old New York merchant family. He started a successful tea business before retiring some time in his 40s to turn to his private interests of writing and art. In 1846 Suydam purchased a farmhouse and a parcel of surrounding land from Job Angel for his country estate. In 1882 he privately published a book detailing the history of his mother's family, the Mesiers, combined with a history of the Zion Episcopal Church.

Hamlets in the town of Wappinger

• Chelsea – A hamlet in the southeast part of the town near the Hudson River, formerly Low Point and later, Carthage Landing. The hamlet's post office was established in 1840 as Low Point. The current post office was the former 1875 district school.
• Diddell – A hamlet in the northeast part of the town. Diddell was on several traders routes for caravans in the 1700s. By the 1800s the Maybrook/Dutchess County Rail Road created a train station here. It is also home to the Robinson Lane/Van Dyme Cemetery, the oldest stone dates back to 1751.
• Hughsonville – A hamlet situated one mile south of Wappingers Falls and derives its name from William Hughson,one of four brothers who emigrated from England. A post office was established there in 1847. It is believed that Captain Kidd's treasure is buried here. The Hughsonville Fire Dept. is the oldest fire company in the town of Wappinger and is now celebrating 100 years of service to the town of Wappinger
• Middlebush situated about a mile south-east of Wappingers Falls, was an early business center. A post office was located there in 1824 that also served residents of Chelsea. The first Baptist church in the town was organized there in 1782. Abm. Van Wyck deeded the Society a piece of land for a site for a church and burying ground. In 1830 that meeting house became the property of the Methodist church, and was used by them as a house of worship until the present Methodist church in Wappingers Falls was erected in 1869, when it was taken down and the material used in the construction of the barn and sheds connected with that church.
• Myers Corner – A hamlet on County Route 93 and 94. Named after John Myers of Holland and is a hamlet of four corners, it was mostly farm land but had a doctor, a school and a tavern.
• New Hackensack – Johannes Schurrie was an early settler in the town. He came, about 1740, from Hackensack N.J., from which the hamlet derives its name. Most of the early settlers were of Dutch and German descent. A portion of state route 376 is known locally as New Hackensack Road. The Main Street was present day N.Y.S. Route 376 and had a post office and several stores until the widening of the Dutchess County Airport in the early-mid-1900s.
• Swartwoutville: A hamlet in the southeast part of the town and it was established in 1775. Named after General Jacobus Swartwout. Swartwoutville once had a main street and several village shops. It is also home to the Swartwout Homestead (1779) and the Swartwout Burial Ground which is one of the oldest cemeteries in Wappinger. Swartwoutville a historic hamlet within Wappinger, is home to several 18th and 19th century homes and remains of former stores.
• Wappingers Falls –In the year of 1741, two Dutchmen, Nicholas and Adolphus Brewer, purchased 750 acres of land around the falls and they built the first stone house in the village near the present Mill Street. In 1742, the Brewers built a mill on the east side of Wappinger Creek. Nicholas Brewer built the Mesier Homestead, which he sold in 1777 to Matthew VanBenschoten, who, in turn, sold it to Peter Mesier, a merchant from New York City. The local waterfall was important for early industrial development. In 1819 a small cotton mill was built in the hollow created by the creek as it descends from Wappinger Lake to drain into the nearby Hudson River. By 1856 it had become one of the largest printworks in the country. A fire that year destroyed the original buildings completely, but they were immediately rebuilt and continued in operation until 1931. The streets on the hillside opposite the mill are lined with frame houses, mostly duplexes, built by the mill for its workers. The two halves of the village are connected by an 1884 stone arch bridge that replaced earlier wooden structures. The Village of Wappingers Falls was incorporated in 1871 and included the adjacent town of Channingville,which was on the west side of the Wappinger Creek. In the late 1700s-mid-1800s the east side was known as Frankilndale. In 1885 the Franklindale Cotton Mill, which employed about 130 people, was destroyed by fire; and later, during President Grover Cleveland’s second administration, the Independent Comb Factory on the corner of Fulton and Prospect Streets was forced to close. The repeal of the tariff made it impossible for the company to compete with German-made combs. In 1909, the Garner Print Works were sold and became the Dutchess Bleachery. The plant, which at times employed as many as 1150 people, stopped printing calico but continued as a bleachery and dye works.
• All Angel's Hill – All Angels Hill was originally known as Mount Hope and then Underhill Road, which is the highest point in the town of Wappinger. During the American Revolution a beacon was placed at the top of the mountain to alert the troops stationed at the Fishkill Supply Depot if the British ever came up this way. Then in the 1850s William Marvin, a farmer, owned about 200 acres between the vicinity of the present Pye Lane and Myers Corners. His daughter Charlotte married New York doctor Anthony Underhill. In the mid-1800s, the Underhill family built a house on her father's land. In 1903 the property was purchased by the All Angels Episcopal Church in New York City as part of its ministry to the poor. To give poor mothers and children a respite from the oppressive city summers, the church maintained All Angels’ Farm, a forerunner of the Fresh Air Fund. The church had used the former Underhill Mansion as a chicken house until it was torn down for safety reasons.

Toponyms

• Wheeler Hill Road was once known as Rives Avenue or hill, after Francis Rives who purchased the former Willis estate in 1870 and named it Carnwath Farms.

Notable people

• Big Dan Brouthers one of the first baseball sluggers, lived in the village of Wappingers Falls and is buried in St. Mary's Cemetery in the village.
• John Lorimer Worden, who was in charge of the ironclad ship the Monitor during the Civil War, lived in Swartwoutville hamlet from 1827 to the beginning of the war.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 28.6 square miles (74 km²), of which, 27.3 square miles (71 km²) of it is land and 1.3 square miles (3.4 km²) of it (4.62%) is water. Part of the west town line is located at the Hudson River, and borders Orange and Ulster Counties.

Transportation

US Route 9 passes through the town. Dutchess County Airport – is located in the New Hackensack part of the town. Also the Dutchess County Bus Transit "Loop" passes through town.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 26,274 people, 9,793 households, and 6,992 families residing in the town. The population density was 963.3 people per square mile (372.0/km²). There were 10,144 housing units at an average density of 371.9 per square mile (143.6/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 86.18% White, 4.96% African American, 0.24% Native American, 4.29% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 2.44% from other races, and 1.88% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 7.87% of the population.

There were 9,793 households out of which 34.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.1% were married couples living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.6% were non-families. 23.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.67 and the average family size was 3.17.

In the town the population was spread out with 25.4% under the age of 18, 7.6% from 18 to 24, 32.5% from 25 to 44, 24.1% from 45 to 64, and 10.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 98.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.2 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $58,079, and the median income for a family was $66,273. Males had a median income of $49,007 versus $31,444 for females. The per capita income for the town was $25,817. About 3.2% of families and 4.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.1% of those under age 18 and 4.9% of those age 65 or over.

External links

• Wappingers Historical Society
• Grinnell Library Association
• Historic Swartwoutville
• Town of Wappinger