Beekman

By Thom Usher

In the later half of the 19th century, the town of Beekman experienced an industrial boom. Iron ore beds were discovered in the hamlets of Sylvan Lake, Beekman, and Clove Valley. Mining boomed until the 1890s, and many of the small ponds scattered about town today were originally open ore pits. The mining industry brought the railroad and a second influx of immigrants, mostly from Ireland. The arrival of these immigrant families created an entirely new culture in the town. In 1911, an 839-acre site in the hamlet of Green Haven was acquired by the state. Camp Whitman opened there in 1915 and was used for training soldiers in preparation for the invasion of Mexico and pursuit of Pancho Villa.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Sep 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781439624197

Thom Usher

Thom Usher is the Beekman town historian, director of the Friends of History, and past president of the Beekman Historical Society. He has collected, researched, and studied the history of Beekman for the past 10 years.

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Society.

INTRODUCTION

The town of Beekman is located in the southern portion of Dutchess County and is bordered on the east by the towns of Dover and Pawling, on the west by East Fishkill, on the north by Union Vale, and on the northwest by the town of LaGrange. With the exception of East Fishkill, at one time all of these towns were part of the Beekman Patent.

The town has no major commercial business other that Green Haven Correctional Facility, and the area is known as a bedroom community. Townsfolk pride themselves on the recreation and sports programs that are provided for local children.

Within the present town borders is a pristine lake formed in the ice age by a glacier. Archaeological digs that were undertaken in two caves around and very close to the lake uncovered artifacts that date back to 600 BC. Sylvan lake has been an important part of the culture of the town. The area around Sylvan Lake has been supported by iron ore mines, youth camps, and a summer camp for a Jewish community of New York City. Now, Camp Kinder Ring and a soccer academy are on one side of the lake. On the other side of the lake is a housing complex called Chelsea Cove.

Beekman has a number of hamlets, including Beekmanville on Beekman Road (which is also known as the Upper Road), Poughquag hamlet, and Green Haven hamlet. During the early days, Beekmanville boasted the area’s only doctor, along with a blacksmith, freight office, stagecoach depot, and hotel that became an entertainment center for thousands of musicians in the 1970s and 1980s. American folk singer Pete Seeger was the first act to perform on the stage of the hotel, called the Town Crier. The hamlet of Beekmanville never consisted of more than 18 houses, as it is today. At one end of the hamlet is the Baptist church, located on Beekman-Poughquag Road, and at the other end of the road is the Methodist church. Acting like a pair of bookends, both churches have cemeteries, but only the burial ground near the Methodist church is still active. Along the middle of Beekman-Poughquag Road is the Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. House, built in 1812, and the old mill, which was built in 1749 and served both the Beekmanville and Poughquag hamlets.

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. House is primarily used as the Dalton Farm Homeowners Association’s community center. The association redesigned Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr.’s office to appear as it did from 1949 to 1985, when he was a congressman, candidate for governor, and held other public offices.

The old mill has been a gristmill and a grain storage building serving the area since before the Revolutionary War. Records show that George Washington’s army received bushels of grain and cornmeal on numerous occasions as they traveled by on the Upper Road. The town has provided the old mill building to the Friends of History to use as a town museum that displays artifacts of Beekman.

The Poughquag hamlet—which takes its name from the Indian word Apoquague meaning round body of water, in reference to Sylvan Lake—is home to town hall, the seat of Beekman’s town government, and the last building constructed by Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration.

Col. James Vanderburgh of the 5th Regiment of the Dutchess County Militia lived in the Poughquag hamlet. His farm supported the largest house in town, at which he entertained Gov. George Clinton, Martha Washington, and Gen. George Washington on a number of occasions, as outlined in George Washington’s diaries. The large house also served as an ammunition depot as well as home to Vanderburgh’s 16 children, one of whom became a renowned doctor and another of whom was a general in the War of 1812. The family burial ground on the Vanderburgh farm is just off Route 55, a state road that was built through the farm. Vanderburgh and his second in command, Capt. John Brill—both veterans of the Revolutionary War—lie at rest in the burial ground. The cemetery has recently been restored, and the stones were reset. Farther up the road, at Locust farm, Vanderburgh’s son Gen. George Vanderburgh is buried in his own family cemetery.

At the junction, of Pleasant Ridge and Gardner Hollow Roads are some of the area’s oldest surviving homes. On Pleasant Ridge is the Hoag residence, built in the early 1700s, and on Gardner Hollow Road is the Stowe/Sweet farm from 1749 and the Gardner home from 1805. In the Hollow village were a school, church, store, blacksmith, post office, and Quaker meeting hall, as well as a cemetery with 120 stones that represent many of area’s family ancestors. As time passed, Poughquag gained a stagecoach stop at the halfway house, which later became a seminary and still stands today. Some of the houses in the hamlet today have their origins as hat shops, a fulling shop, a butcher, a violin maker’s business,