Land Management
As early as 1787, Jonathan Van Wagenen began purchasing land within Lot #5 of the original New Paltz patent. In a series of three deeds he purchases land, described as “A Stone Set in the ground for a Division Between Said - Lot N.5 and Lot N.4 on the Most Northerly Angle of Said Lot Marked N.4 on the West Side- from thence Runing [sic] South fiftyEight Degrees And thirty minutes East Twelve Chains and Seventeen- Links to a Stone Set in the ground for a Division Between Said Lot N.5 and N.6 marked 5. on One Side and 6 on the Other Side...” This very clearly described the land in question to those signing off on the purchase but today there is very little in this description that allows us to know what area of New Paltz is being described.
Deed, Jacob Bevier and Anna his wife to Jonathan Vanwagenen. Jonathan Deyo Family Papers. HHHC.
In 1800 he entered an agreement with George Wirtz to erect a sawmill on the brook that ran through their two properties.
Agreement, George Wirtz and Jonathan Vanwagenen, and assignment, Esther Hasbrouck and Tobias Hasbrouck. Jonathan Deyo Family Papers. HHHC.
Using a combination of the collection’s resources -the 1800 agreement, the deeds from Jonathan’s previous land purchases, and the Krupp Map (the first map to plot the original patent divisions on contemporary maps)- we were able to determine that the sawmill would have been built on Tributary 13, possibly on land now managed by the Millbrook Preserve.
From newspaper clippings about the property, we can glean that the mill was in operation as late as the 1850s and that a dam was also constructed at this site, presumably to operate the sawmill, shaping the land that we see today.