WelCome to WalDens 8 th annual loCal history Day Wallkill Valley - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

WelCome to WalDen’s 8 th annual loCal history Day Wallkill Valley Cemetery Digital tour Sponsored by The Historical Society of Walden and the Wallkill Valley, the Josephine-Louise Public Library, and the Village of Walden March 29, 2009

Walden , Orange County, N.Y. 1887. Drawn & Published by L. R. Burleigh Litho. Establishment. (Map--www.LOC.gov) You Are HERE ! Jacob T. Walden House

Former Cemetery belonged to the Dutch Reformed, now First Reformed (“Hill”) Church.

Former Cemetery Section marked in blue belonged to the Walden Methodist Church.

(Previously called Third Street on some maps) now North Street Center Street To Second Street

henry Wileman “WilemantoWn”

Early map from the Library of Congress Website

(Walden ) (Montgomery) Library of Congress web site- www.loc.gov-map collection- 1780

henry Wileman anD early st. anDreWs

Route 208 (toward Wallkill) At Lake Osiris Road

st. anDreWs Cemetery at st. anDreWs & Plains roaD, WalDen

Berea Cemetery

early natiVe neighBors Our area was home to many early indigenous people belonging to the Munsee group of tribes, a division of the Lenape (pronounced Len-a-pea), later Delaware native population of New York. Usually called Munsee Algonquian village drawing, Orange County, A Journey Through Time. today, in earlier times this Orange-Ulster Board of Cooperative Education Services, Goshen 1983 tribe was called Minsi, Minsis, and Minisink. One “ Sachem ” or Chief, Onackatin , made his home here and the name of his land area had the same name. Sometimes spelled “Oghgotacton,” E. M. Ruttenber states “his lands were near the present village of Walden.” [Sources: Indian Tribes of Hudson’s River to 1700 , E.M. Ruttenber, 1872; The Native Americans , First Residents of New Paltz, Larry Hauptman, 1975] Early Walden residents recall finding many arrow heads and seeing burial mounds although exact locations aren’t presently known. One early settlement was along the Wallkill River on Route 208 between Walden and Wallkill; another was on the Albany Post Road between Walden and Montgomery.

early aFriCan ameriCan neighBors Many people don’t realize that New York State was home to a large free black population as well as a large slave population. In 1975 the University of New York at Albany published the following early statistics.* “Total New York State Population Cemetery, Route 416 Year Total Negro Population 1689 18,067 12.0% 2,170 1703 20,665 11.5% 2,466 1723 40,665 15.2% 6,171 1746 61,589 14.7% 9,107” *Reprinted: New York State American Revolution Bicentennial Commission, 1971 , 1975. Stone reads: “I Honor” or “1 Honor”

Sadly there are many unrecorded black cemeteries... We only know of several in our area —one has been documented outside of Montgomery on Route 411; another, not yet officially documented, has been identified on Liberty Street in Walden. Although the NAACP visited Liberty Street some years ago, it was deemed too small. Since then, additional stones were located but are no longer visible due to woods reclaiming the land, and in recent years additional houses were built in the area. This site is mentioned in Charles Bodine’s history news writings of the 1930s. Unmarked stones were noted in the 1970s by local property owners and several articles have appeared in the Citizen Herald and Times Herald Record. African American Cemetery, Route 416 The current owner hopes to have the area scanned with ground imaging equipment.

African-American Cemetery, Route 416