Fishkill NY Real Estate encompasses the city of Beacon and the village of Fishkill, is the southernmost Town in Dutchess County, bordered on the south by Putnam County, the west by the Hudson River, the north by the Town of Wappinger and the east by the Town of East Fishkill. The population of the Town of Fishkill was 22,107 at the 2010 census.
Fishkill NY History
In 1683 New York City merchants purchased 85,000 acres in Dutchess County from the Wappinger Indians for a quantity of goods including rum, powder, and tobacco. Neither ever lived on the land, but the first white settlers were Rombout’s daughter, Catharyna and her husband, Roger Brett, who built a mill at the mouth of the Fishkill Creek as it flows into the Hudson. Their house, built about 1709, still stands in Beacon, and is the oldest continuous residence in Dutchess County. The name Fishkill is derived from two Dutch words: Vis (fish) and Kill (creek or stream).
In 1714, Dutch immigrants settled in the area. The village of Fishkill was a significant crossroads in the overland transportation network in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Kings Highway, connecting Albany to New York City, intersected with a major overland route from New England to the Hudson River.
By 1716 the settlers wanted their own Dutch Reformed church so they would not have to cross the river to Kingston or New Paltz to worship. A congregation was established and the church building was finished in 1731. The first Dominie (minister) who arrived from the Netherlands in 1731 served churches in Poughkeepsie and Fishkill. The church was used as a military prison during the American Revolution. The fourth New York Provincial Congress met in the church in 1776, making Fishkill the state capital, until the Congress moved to Kingston in 1777.
Fishkill NY Real Estate Today
Fishkill played an important role in the Revolutionary War when a vast military encampment was established one mile below the village to guard the mountain pass to the south. Signal fires lay in readiness on tops of the surrounding mountains. The Fishkill encampment became the main supply depot for the northern division of the Continental Army. The first 1,000 copies of the New York State Constitution were turned out on Samuel Loudon’s press at Fishkill in 1777. Trinity Episcopal Church became a hospital for soldiers recovering from smallpox, and the Dutch Reformed Church was used as a military prison.
During the 19th century mills and factories sprang up in Glenham and Matteawan. The Glenham Woolen Mill, which brought an influx of skilled weavers from the British Isles, made the hamlet of Glenham a busy industrial center. The healthy economy enjoyed by the mills came to an end in the post-Civil War depression and the once thriving factories fell into decay. New life came in 1931 when Texaco purchased the old woolen mill site and established a research center there. Today, the town’s industry is technology based and the farmland has been converted to residential housing. But the beauty of the area continues to attract new people, diversified businesses and tourists.
Fishkill is the site of Camp Mariah, a camp that enables inner-city youth to embrace the arts, and introduces them to career opportunities. The camp is named after co-founder musician Mariah Carey
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