|
 Washingtonville
was first settled in 1731. Growth was slow for the next seventy-five
years. In 1809 John Jacques, a boot and shoemaker, set up his shop
in this tiny settlement of nine houses then known as Little York.
Jacques would later establish Americans Oldest Winery in 1839.In its
earlier years, Washingtonville was called Matthews Field, even
before it became known as Little York. Apart of the Rip Van Dam
patent, it was sold to Vincent Matthews in 1721. Matthews,
reportedly, was the second settler of the region although the first
white settler. Its earliest inhabitant was an Indian by the name of
Moringamus, whose wigwam or tepee was once pitched in back of where
the Coleman bottled-gas plant is located now. Samuel Moffat built a
trading post on the village square in 1811 at the junction of the
New Windsor and Blooming Grove Turnpike with the Goshen Road. The
hamlet began to prosper with a tannery, grist and plaster mills. A
hotel was needed and Samuel Moffat built his Washington Tavern in
1818. The same year Samuel and John Jacques bestowed the village
with a new name, Washingtonville, in honor of the late general-first
president of the United States who we are told came through and
watered his horse at the trough, which had been located under the
big tree in
the center of the village. Washingtonville grew after the
New York, Lake Erie and Western Railway built its branch through the
village in 1850. Even though the railway the railway tracks have
been removed, the remains of the railroad building is located behind
the present day Agway Store. Incorporated in 1895, the Village had
become an important dairying center with two creameries, Borden's
(presently known as bus garage) and the Farmers Cooperative Market
(South Street), groceries, a bank, feed and lumber dealers, wagon
shops, furniture makers and a hub shop prospered. Its greatest
growth in that time occurred in the seventh and eighth decades. C.R.
Shons opened up a cooperative on Depot Street, where the old red
building still stands, and he also had a large orchard on Goshen
Avenue. Thomas Fulton's grist mill, now the site of Agway, was
destroyed by fire in the early 1900's. Hugh Lunney had his
slaughterhouse on Goshen Avenue, near where the Spear Printing
Company plant is today, and he also had a large icehouse beside the
point to Coopers Creek, harvesting ice from the pond in the winter
for commercial use. Borden's Creamery maintained a bottling plant
and its refrigerator cars, loaded with milk, were shipped to
Greycourt (Harriman) on either the Erie freight or passenger runs.
This firm cut its ice from the small pond south of its creamery,
storing it in the ice house on the east side of the plant.
|
