Orange County, New York

“ In the western part of the county, in what is now the town of Deerpark, the first settlers were Dutch and Huguenot families, who came from Kingston and New Paltz. In the eastern part the settlers came up the Hudson River and consisted almost entirely of English speaking people from New York and the Long Island towns. In fact, so close was the association with New York, that for some years the New York reports included Orange and our county had no independent county government. ”

“ Not only has Orange County sent forth many lawyers whose names have become famous throughout the world, but Orange County is the Mecca to which many of the country's ablest lawyers repair to spend their declining years, attracted by its beauty and invigorated by its atmosphere. Benjamin F. Tracy, once secretary of the navy and long one of the leading advocates of the bar of Brooklyn and New York, now spends much of his time upon his beloved farm near Goshen. ”

“ Orange Lake, in Newburgh, covers about 100 acres. But all the lakes and ponds of Orange are too many to be named. They are almost as interesting a feature of the county as its streams.
Orange County is richer in alluviums than any other in the State, as they cover about 40,000 acres. The "Drowned Lands," as they were formerly called, include about forty square miles, and are partly in New Jersey, but mostly in New York, extending in Orange from Cheeunk Outlet in Goshen through Wawayanda and Minisink to the New Jersey line, and covering about 17,000 acres. ”

“ The patriotic services of the people of Orange County in the four-years' Civil War of 1861-5 were as praiseworthy as those of their ancestors in the two wars with Great Britain, which founded the Republic upon a lasting basis of unparalleled prosperity and progress. It was as necessary for the continuance of that prosperity, and as a lesson of our republican experiment to the world, to defeat the efforts of the slave-holding States to rend the Union in twain, as it had been to compel the kingly power across the ocean to let us establish it. ”

“ The reason that the sons and successors of the lawyers of that day have, to some extent, lost touch with the interests of the soil is that the farmers of that day were not able to persuade their sons to become their successors. The saddest change that has overtaken Orange County in the last forty years is not in the character of its professional men, but in the character of its farming population. ”

“ The decrease in the rural population of Orange County homes is smaller than most other counties of the State, and the depreciation of farm lands is not so apparent. In fact the general property valuation of the county seems to be increasing something like two and one-half million dollars per year, being rated at $43,804,861.40 for 1907.
The population of the county, according to the State enumeration of 1905, was 107,267. This was an increase over the report of the national census for 1900 of 3,408. Of this number, 41,014 lived in the cities of Newburgh and Middletown. ”

“ While it is true that many unforeseen conditions must always unite in determining the destination of this coveted prize, there still seems to be one inexorable condition to which all Orange County aspirants must conform. They must not reside in the interior of the county. ”

“ The early part of the last century was marked by the rise in Orange County of an able and progressive bar, whose courage and public spirit contributed to keep alive the fires of exalted patriotism. Jonathan Fisk, who removed to Newburgh in 1800, became one of the most influential citizens of the county, being elected twice to congress and being appointed twice United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. ”

“ The four precincts named were the political divisions of the county until after the Revolution. In 1788 the towns of Warwick and Minisink were erected from Goshen, and in 1791 the towns of Clarkstown and Ramapo were erected from Haverstraw. In 1797 the name of the town of New Cornwall was changed to Cornwall.
In the southern towns of the County of Ulster, afterward transferred to Orange, changes were made in 1709. The precincts of Highlands and Shawangunk were attached to New Paltz, and the present Orange County towns of Montgomery, Crawford and Wallkill were then embraced within its limits. ”

“ From the accessible records it seems that the "art preservative" entered Orange County by way of Goshen in 1788. It appeared next in Newburgh in 1895, {sic} at New Windsor in 1799, at Montgomery in 1806, New Vernon in 1833, Slate Hill in 1834, Middletown, in 1840, Port Jervis in 1850, Warwick in 1845, Pine Bush in 1868, Walden in 1869, Cornwall 1871, Monroe 1882, Cornwall-on-Hudson in 1888, Chester 1888, Highland Falls 1891, Washingtonville 1899. ”

“ Of course, the reputation which towers above that of any man ever born in Orange County is that of William H. Seward, who studied law in Goshen with John Duer and Ogden Hoffman. This is not because he was a greater lawyer than either of his preceptors but because his career as a United States senator in the period of excitement before the Civil War, his valuable services as Secretary of State in the crisis of our national life and his farseeing statesmanship in acquiring the territory of Alaska, have written his name large upon the roll of everlasting fame. ”

“ This is one of the younger towns of Orange County, only those of Tuxedo and Woodbury having been born later. It is, in fact, only about thirty-five years old. But for scenic beauty and native charm it easily outranks every other town in this county, if not all others on the Hudson River. The fame of the Hudson River Highlands is worldwide, and it is in this little town that the culmination of this native grandeur and picturesque beauty is reached. No one who has ever sailed up or down the Hudson, and who has not, will spend a moment wondering why this township was thus named. ”

“ The Orange County Home for Aged Women is located at No. 27 South street, in the city of Middletown, and like the Children's Home, is not limited to the city of Middletown with regard to the territory from which its inmates are received. It was incorporated in 1884, the idea emanating from the fertile brain of Dr. Julia E. Bradner. The home now has become a well-known institution, not only in the city of Middletown, but in the county of Orange. ”

“ The narratives of the lives of men and their acts constitute all there is of history. If it be true that all that our county shows in the way of growth and development, is entirely due to the men and women who originally peopled this region, and worthily performed those parts allotted to them in the general scheme of life, during their existence here, it is equally true that their successors who still abide with us, took up the burden where it fell from the hands of the fathers, and most signally continued the work, and carried it forward to success. ”

“ A public meeting was called, and thirty-five young men responded, each promising to give five dollars. In a few days nearly $700 was secured, and Messrs. Titus, Wiley and John McClean went to New York to see what could be obtained for their money. Steamers had been introduced into the New York and Brooklyn districts, so they found an article that suited them in Engine Goodwill 4 of Brooklyn and it was bought and shipped on the Orange County for Cornwall. ”

“ Orange County's pioneer journalists have been gathered to their fathers. Of the second generation there remains one—as if to link the memories of the first with the fast-reclining activities of the third generation of newspaper workers. And that one relic of the dead past is a woman, now in the sunset of life. Dr. Lydia Saver Hasbrouck is with us yet; a landmark in Orange County journalism—honored by those who know her best, beloved by kindred, respected by all. ”

“ Human nature is very much the same here and in England; very much the same, in its manifestations, among judges and among lawyers.
Judge William D. Dickey ascended the bench in 1896, one year before Judge Brown's retirement from it. The second judicial district, of which Orange County then formed a part, was for many years democratic and it was not unusual for the republican conventions to endorse the democratic nominations. ”

“ With its location, financial ability, numerous business enterprises, its many social, benevolent, charitable and religious associations and institutions, its splendid school system, and with the enterprise, energy and business ability of its citizens, the Middletown of to-day is only a beginning of the greater Middletown which will occupy this central part of Orange County in the years to come. ”

“ The Shawangunk Mountains are a spur of the Alleghenies stretching northeast across the western angle of the county. They are less broken than the Highlands, and not so high as the Catskills, but of the same general formation. The western side is precipitous, but the eastern is sloping, and some of its lands are very fertile, producing sweet grasses from which much of the famous Orange County butter has been made. The peaks rise from 1,400 to 1,800 feet above tide water. This range was the original dividing line between the Wawayanda and Chesekook patents. ”

“ The better days are now and the good times have come at last. The new generation of lawyers now entering upon their active career has reason for gratification that the facilities for the orderly, deliberate, tranquil trial and hearing of their causes, with the prospect that even and exact justice will be rendered in them, are greater to-day than at any previous period in the history of the county. There never was so good an opportunity for a young, ambitious, able advocate to win fame at the bar of Orange County as there is to-day. ”

“ Politically the Dispatch is democratic, and is recognized as the most influential exponent of democracy in this section of the State. For a dozen years its editor has been chairman of the democratic county committee, during which time the influence of the Dispatch has been markedly shown in shaping the policy of the party in Orange County, and in the favorable results achieved for its candidates at the polls, although the county has a normal republican majority. ”

“ Aside from the pursuit of farming and lumbering, this town has never been able to boast of any very important industries. Nearly every citizen was engaged in the cultivation of the soil during its early history at least. As already noted, the town was famed for its production of the choicest grade of Orange County butter. In later years, under the changed condition of transportation facilities, the manufactured products of the dairy were almost entirely discontinued and gave way to the natural product of milk, which was shipped to the New York markets in large quantities. ”

“ The Orange County Bar has contributed to the bar of the State many gifted sons of whom it has been, indeed, proud—Ogden Hoffman, William H. Seward, William Fullerton and others—but it has never contributed one of whose character, ability and fame it is more justly and universally proud than it is of the character, ability and fame of Lewis E. Carr.
Henry Bacon is now, indisputably, the leader of the Orange County Bar. His career has been marked by a singleness of devotion to his profession rarely equaled. ”

“ There were still many hundred acres and those were divided into large farms where cattle, horses and small stock were raised in great quantities. Orange County milk and butter had become famous and Cornwall contributed her full share. Not only the products of our own neighborhood but those of the other counties reached New York by the way of Cornwall landing. ”

“ John B. Kerr, of the Newburgh bar, is another lawyer of whom Orange County is indeed proud, though he has now been separated for some years from its personal associations and activities, having accepted the position of general counsel for the New York, Ontario & Western Railroad Company. In this responsible position he finds unusual opportunity to exercise and develop those qualities of sound judgment, rare foresight, steady poise and intellectual grasp in which he so excels and of which his early career at the bar gave abundant promise. ”

“ It is not strange that one who was born to the heritage of such a name should have sought to add, as indeed he has added, to its luster in a succeeding generation.
It was while Charles F. Brown was district attorney of Orange County that John W. Lyon became an official of the county through his appointment to the office of assistant district attorney. The career of the Lyons, father and son, now covers a practice of sixty-one years in Port Jervis, the longest period of continuous practice at the bar carried over from father to son, in Orange County. ”

“ This mingling in Judge Seeger's character of the sterner and softer elements, of courage and tenderness, manliness and simplicity, firmness and forgiveness, has inspired in the people of Orange County a respect and affection such as rarely attends upon a public man. ”

“ This continued until the autumn of 1906 when, John C. R. Taylor, having been elected to the Senate, the firm of Taylor, Royce & Royce was formed.
Mr. Royce has greater capacity for public business than any lawyer who ever practiced at the bar in Orange County. His mind grasps readily, his tastes run naturally to, every phase and variety of town, county and municipal relations, improvements and enterprises, with all the important questions involved in them in respect to the proper distribution of public burdens. ”

“ Ormsbee farm on the State road midway between Newburgh and the village of Montgomery, was born in New York City, and engaged in business there for many years. He married Miss Maggie Urey and they have two sons, James B., Jr., born January, 1905, and John Robert, born March, 1908. Mr. Love and his family, like many retired New Yorkers, enjoy the freedom of rural life in Orange County. ”