Wappinger, officially the Town of Wappinger, is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an o ...

Dutchess County Dutchess County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 295,911. The county seat is the city of Poughkeepsie. The county was created in 1683, one of New York's first twelve counties, and later or ...

, New York, United States. The town is located in the Hudson River Valley region, approximately north of

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildi ...

, on the eastern bank of the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...

. The population was 28,216 at the 2020 census. The name is derived from the

Wappinger The Wappinger () were an Eastern Algonquian Munsee-speaking Native American people from what is now southern New York and western Connecticut. At the time of first contact in the 17th century they were primarily based in what is now Dutches ...

Native Americans who inhabited the area. Wappinger comprises three-fourths of the incorporated Village of Wappingers Falls, several unincorporated hamlets such as Chelsea, Diddell, Hughsonville, Middlebush, Myers Corners, New Hackensack, and Swartwoutville, and a number of neighborhoods.

History

The Wappinger were a confederacy of Native Americans whose territory, in the 17th century, was spread along the eastern shore of the

. Primarily based in what is now Dutchess County, their territory bordered Manhattan Island to the south, the

Mahican The Mohican ( or , alternate spelling: Mahican) are an Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe that historically spoke an Algonquian language. As part of the Eastern Algonquian family of tribes, they are related to the neighboring Lenape, w ...

territory bounded by the Roeliff Jansen Kill to the north, and extended east into parts of

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the ...

. They spoke an eastern- Algonkian language. Culturally they were closely related to the

Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory inclu ...

people (Delaware Indians) to the west and south of Wappinger lands, and also related to the Mahican people to their immediate north and to the

Metoac Metoac is an erroneous term used by some to group together the Munsee-speaking Lenape (west), Quiripi-speaking Unquachog (center) and Pequot-speaking Montaukett (east) American Indians on what is now Long Island in New York state. The term wa ...

peoples of

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18 ...

. ''Wappinger'' means "easterner" in most Algonkian languages. The town of Wappinger, originally a part of the town of Fishkill, was formed on May 20, 1875, and lies wholly within the limits of the historic

Rombout Patent The Rombout Patent was a Colonial era land patent issued by King James II of England in 1685 sanctioning the right of Francis Rombouts and his partners Stephanus Van Cortlandt and Jacobus Kip to own some of land they had purchased from Native ...

, granted in 1685. The geographical area of Wappinger was first illegally settled in 1659 by members of the

Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as th ...

. Seeking religious freedom, they settled near the mouth of the

Wappinger Creek Wappinger Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed October 3, 2011 creek which runs from Thompson Pond to the Hudson River at New Hamburg in Dutchess County, New York, ...

until Dutch Authorities removed them months later. It wasn't until 1685 when Francis Rombout and Gulian Verplanck were the first to legally purchase 85,000 acres from the Wappinger This would later be known as the Rombout Patent. The patent covered the towns of Fishkill, East Fishkill, Wappinger, the City of Beacon, and parts of

LaGrange Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Luigi LagrangiaPoughkeepsie, these municipalities were once all a part of the Town of Fishkill. Following the Rombout Patent, the first legal land purchase within the Town of Wappinger was in 1714 when Elias Van Benschoten purchased land and settled in the hamlet of New Hackensack. Following him were other families from

Hackensack, New Jersey Hackensack is a city in and the county seat of Bergen County, New Jersey, United States.New Jer ...

.Clapp, Clinton W., "The Town of Wappinger" in Hasbrouck's ''History of Dutchess County
/ref> The Town of Wappinger is made up of many small hamlets and communities and was primarily agricultural, while mills lined the creek in the Village of Wappingers Falls. Once the Town of Wappinger was officially created from the Town of Fishkill on May 20, 1875, it took another year to elect officials. The first meeting was held at the Brower Brother's Wagon Shop on Mill Street. The meetings of Town officials took place in the homes of the elected officials, whose jobs were mostly to maintain roadways and bridges.

Historic districts

* Wheeler Hill Historic District includes 49 contributing buildings, 15 contributing sites, and four contributing structures. It encompasses the estates of Obercreek, Elmhurst, Edge Hill, the former estates of Henry Suydam and William Crosby, and Carnwath Farms that were developed between 1740 and 1940. Also included are two 18th century riverfront commercial structures, the Lent / Waldron Store, and Stone House at Farmer's Landing. Within this district, Wheeler Hill Road was once known as Rives Avenue or Hill, after Francis Rives who purchased the former Willis estate (Carnwath Farms) in 1870. Village of Wappingers Falls

* The Wappingers Falls Historic District is in the center of the village of Wappingers Falls, and was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1984. It is roughly centered along South Avenue, West Main Street and

. It includes Mesier Park and many adjacent residential neighborhoods, roughly bounded by Elm, Park, Walker, Market and McKinley streets. Much of the district was built in the wake of the industrialization of Wappingers Falls in the 19th century, and its styles represent a cross-section of that century. The est and west sides of the village are connected by an 1884 stone arch bridge over the falls that replaced earlier wooden structures.

Hamlets

* Chelsea – A hamlet in the southwestern part of the town near the

, primarily residential. A marina is located on the river. In the northern section of the hamlet, there is a large pumping station used by the

Delaware Aqueduct The Delaware Aqueduct is an aqueduct in the New York City water supply system. It takes water from the Rondout, Cannonsville, Neversink, and Pepacton reservoirs on the west bank of the Hudson River through the Chelsea Pump Station, then into ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

water supply system during droughts to take water directly from the river. Chelsea was originally known as Low Point and derived its name from a low point of land extending into the river. It also served to distinguish it from the next hamlet north on the east bank of the river, once known as High Point, now New Hamburg. The hamlet was called Low Point until the completion of the

Hudson River Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the ...

. At that time it was named Carthage. However, as mail was being misdirected to another Carthage in Jefferson County, it was renamed Carthage Landing. In 1901, when the railroad built a new station, the name became Chelsea. The hamlet's post office was established in 1840 as Low Point. The current post office was the former 1875 district school. * Diddell was a hamlet in the northeastern section of the town, just east of New Hackensack. By the 1800s the Maybrook Railroad, which ran from Pawling to Poughkeepsie, established a station here. This rail line has since become the William R. Steinhaus Dutchess Rail Trail, with a trail-head at Diddell. In 2017

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Andrew Cuomo Andrew Mark Cuomo ( ; ; born December 6, 1957) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 56th governor of New York from 2011 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected to the same position that his father, Mario Cuo ...

announced the creation of the 750-mile

Empire State Trail The Empire State Trail is a multi-use trail in New York State that was proposed by Governor Andrew Cuomo in January 2017 and completed in December 2020. The trail runs from Manhattan north to the Canadian border in Rouses Point near the northern ...

that runs from

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

to Buffalo, which passes through the Diddell hamlet of Wappinger. * Hughsonville – A hamlet situated one mile south of Wappingers Falls and which derives its name from William Hughson, one of four brothers who emigrated from

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. Dr. Walter Hughson was born in Hughsonville on October 31, 1816. He became a successful surgeon in the county and died of consumption on December 9, 1857. The Presbyterian Church of Hughsonville was erected in 1840. A post office was established there in 1847.Smith, James Hadden, ''History of Dutchess County with Illustrations and Biographical Sketch'', Syracuse, D. Mason & Co., 1882
/ref> The Hughsonville Fire Company traces its date of establishment to 1912. * Middlebush, situated approximately one mile south-east of Wappingers Falls, was an early business center. A post office was located there in 1824 that also served residents of Chelsea. The first Baptist church in the town was organized there in 1782. Abm. Van Wyck deeded the Society a piece of land for a site for a church and burying ground. The old cemetery remains, southeast of the intersection of Middlebush Road and Sgt. Palmateer Way (Old Route 9). In 1830, that meeting house became the property of the Methodist church, and was used by them as a house of worship until the present Methodist church in Wappingers Falls was erected in 1869, when it was taken down and the material used in the construction of the barn and sheds connected with that church. During the mid to late 19th century, Middlebush was known as Fowler House, named after Dr. Orson Fowler's

octagon house Octagon houses were a unique house style briefly popular in the 1850s in the United States and Canada. They are characterised by an octagonal (eight-sided) Floor plan, plan, and often feature a flat roof and a veranda all round. Their unusual s ...

that once stood on Route 9. This hamlet has two schools, businesses, housing, and the Wappinger Town Hall. * Myers Corners, at the intersection of Myers Corners Road and All Angels Hill Road was named after John Myers of

Holland Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former Provinces of the Netherlands, province on the western coast of the Netherland ...

and was mostly farm land but had a doctor, a school and a tavern. * New Hackensack – Johannes Schurrie was an early settler in the town. He came from

Hackensack, New Jersey Hackensack is a city in and the county seat of Bergen County, New Jersey, United States.New Jer ...

, ''circa'' 1740, from which the hamlet derives its name. Most of the early settlers were of Dutch and German descent.Turner, David ''Wappinger'', Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, SC, 2011, A portion of NYS route 376 is known locally as New Hackensack Road. The Main Street was present day N.Y.S. Route 376 and had a post office and several stores until the widening of the Hudson Valley Regional Airport in the early-mid-1900s. * Swartwoutville is located at the southeastern section of town. Named after General Jacobus Swartwout. Historically important meeting place during the American Revolution. In 1760, Swartwout purchased 3,000 acres of land from Madam Brett and built his first home after his wedding to Aaltje Brinkerhoff, of Brinkerhoff, New York. 1General

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

was staying in Fishkill in October 1778. The headquarters of the commander-in-chief was then in the home of Captain John Brinkerhoff, father-in-law to Jacobus Swartwout, in a low stone home about midway on the highway between the settlement of Brinkerhoff and Swartwoutville. During this period Prussian-American General, Baron Frederick William Augustus de Steuben, had his headquarters at the neighboring homestead of Colonel Jacobus Swartwout, standing immediately south of his later residence at Swartwoutville. Others who visited and quartered at Jacobus Swartwout's homestead along with General Washington and Baron Von Stueben were, Marquis de Lafayette and, Israel Putnam.

Toponyms

* All Angels' Hill – originally known as Mount Hope and then Underhill Road. In the 1850s, farmer William Marvin owned about between the present Pye Lane and Myers Corners. His daughter Charlotte married New York doctor Anthony Underhill.Turner, David. ''Wappinger'', Arcadia Publishing, In the mid-1800s, the Underhill family built a house on her father's land. Dr. Underhill died September 5, 1889. In 1903 the property was purchased by All Angels Episcopal Church in

as part of its ministry to the poor. The church maintained All Angels' Farm, a forerunner of the

Fresh Air Fund The Fresh Air Fund is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit agency founded in 1877. At sleepaway camps in New York’s Mid-Hudson Valley, visiting volunteer host families along the East Coast and in NYC-based programs, children have new experiences, learn ...

Government

Wappinger is the second largest populated town in

and is governed by a five-member Town Board. The Town of Wappinger has an elected Town Supervisor, who presides over Town Board meetings and is the chief financial and operating officer of the Town. The town is structured as a ward system with Town Council-members representing each of four wards. *Ward 1 includes the Village of Wappingers Falls, northern US Route 9 corridor, Hughsonville hamlet, and Middlebush hamlet. *Ward 2 consists of Chelsea hamlet, Swartwoutville hamlet, and the southern part of the U.S. 9 corridor. *Ward 3 includes the middle of the town, including part of Myers Corners hamlet, Rockingham Farms, Quiet Acres, Wildwood, and Shamrock Hills subdivisions. *Ward 4, which consists of New Hackensack hamlet, Myers Corners hamlet, Hudson Valley Regional Airport, and Edgehill Manor subdivision. The Town of Wappinger has an elected Town Clerk, tasked with maintaining town records and taking minutes of Town Board meetings. The Highway Department is overseen by the elected Superintendent of Highways. The town has two Town Justices.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of th ...

, the town has a total area of , of which is land and , or 5.18%, is water. Part of the western town line is located at the

and borders Orange County. Wappinger's boundaries are Fishkill to the south, East Fishkill across

Sprout Creek Sprout Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 creek located entirely within Dutchess County, New York, United States. It is the largest tributary of F ...

to the east, the town of Newburgh across the Hudson River to the west,

to the northwest, and

LaGrange Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Luigi LagrangiaWappingers Falls, the other section of which is across Wappinger Creek in the town of Poughkeepsie. The highest point in Wappinger is above sea level on a hilltop between Smithtown Road and Cedar Hill Road in the southern part of the town, and the lowest point is

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardis ...

, along the Hudson River.U.S. Geological Survey 7.5-minute topographic map series, Wappinger, NY
/ref>

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 26,274 people, 9,793 households, and 6,992 families residing in the town. The population density was 963.3 people per square mile (372.0/km²). There were 10,144 housing units at an average density of 371.9 per square mile (143.6/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 86.18%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...

, 4.96%

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 0.24% Native American, 4.29% Asian, 0.02%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/ racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...

, 2.44% from other races, and 1.88% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...

or Latino of any race were 7.87% of the population. There were 9,793 households, out of which 34.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.1% were married couples living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.6% were non-families. 23.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.67 and the average family size was 3.17. In the town 25.4% of the population was under the age of 18, 7.6% from 18 to 24, 32.5% from 25 to 44, 24.1% from 45 to 64, and 10.4% were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.2 males. The median income for a household in the town was $58,079, and the median income for a family was $66,273. Males had a median income of $49,007 versus $31,444 for females. The per capita income for the town was $25,817. About 3.2% of families and 4.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.1% of those under age 18 and 4.9% of those age 65 or over.

Education

The

Wappingers Central School District Wappingers Central School District (WCSD) is a school district headquartered in the town of East Fishkill, New York, on Corporate Park Drive. History On November 30, 1937, in the southern portion of Dutchess County, New York, there was a meeting ...

was formed in 1937 and is the second largest school district in the state. It was decided to close all of the one room school houses in the area and condense them into one centralized school. The first school in the

was the Wappingers Falls Junior High School, which was a K-12 school with students from the towns of Wappinger, Fishkill, Philipstown,

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, East Fishkill,

Lagrange Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Luigi LagrangiaPoughkeepsie. There are now 14 schools under the district's control: 9 primary, 2 junior high, and 3 high schools. Within Wappinger there are Myers Corners Elementary School, James S. Evans Elementary School, Wappingers Falls Junior High School, and Roy C. Ketcham Senior High School. The Randolph School is a private school and educates children grades K-6.

Transportation

U.S. Route 9 U.S. Route 9 (US 9) is a north–south United States highway in the states of Delaware, New Jersey, and New York in the Northeastern United States. It is one of only two U.S. Highways with a ferry connection (the Cape May–Lewes Ferry, between ...

, NY 9D,

New York State Route 82 New York State Route 82 (NY 82) is a state highway in the eastern Hudson Valley of New York in the United States. It begins at an junction with NY 52 northeast of the village of Fishkill, bends eastward towards Millbrook, and then ...

and NY 376 pass through the town. Hudson Valley Regional Airport is located in Wappinger's New Hackensack hamlet.

Dutchess County Public Transit The Dutchess County Public Transit is the bus service provided by the Dutchess County Division of Public Transit in Dutchess County, New York. Dutchess County Public Transit provides a variety of bus services throughout Dutchess County ranging fro ...

buses also run through the town.

Metro-North Metro-North Railroad , trading as MTA Metro-North Railroad, is a suburban commuter rail service run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a public authority_of_the__is_a_type_of_Nonprofit_organization">nonprofit_corporation_char ...

's Hudson Line tracks go through Wappinger, with the nearest stop being at New Hamburg.

Notable people

Tyler Adams Tyler Shaan Adams (born February 14, 1999) is an American professional soccer player who plays for Premier League club Leeds United and captains the United States national team. Primarily a midfielder, Adams is capable of playing as a fullbac ...

, American soccer player for Leeds United in the English Premier League and the

United States men's national soccer team The United States men's national soccer team (USMNT) represents the United States in men's international soccer competitions. The team is controlled by the United States Soccer Federation and is a member of FIFA and CONCACAF. The U.S. team h ...

. From the Swartwoutville area. * Big Dan Brouthers, one of the first baseball sluggers, is in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. He was from the village. *

Samuel Cooper Samuel or Sam Cooper may refer to: *Samuel Cooper (painter) (1609–1672), English miniature painter *Samuel Cooper (clergyman) (1725–1783), Congregationalist minister in Boston, Massachusetts * Samuel Cooper (surgeon) (1780–1848), English surge ...

, U.S. Army adjutant general; Confederate general during the American Civil War. From the New Hackensack area *

Alex Grey Alex Grey (born November 29, 1953) is an American visual artist, author, teacher, and Vajrayana practitioner known for creating spiritual and psychedelic paintings. He works in multiple forms including performance art, process art, installation ...

, artist. Lives in the Wheeler Hill Historic District * Ryan Murphy, San Francisco Giants, fifth round draft pick in the 2020 MLB Draft. Lives in the Fowler House area * George Lockhart Rives, United States Assistant Secretary of State, grew up at his parents home Carnwath Farms * Jacobus Swartwout, highest-ranking Revolutionary War general in Dutchess County * Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, lived and had a headquarters at Swartwoutville for a time during the Revolutionary War * John Lorimer Worden, in charge of the ironclad ship ''Monitor'' during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

, lived in Swartwoutville from 1827 to the beginning of the war * Wallace Worsley, actor and director during the

Silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

era.

References

External links

Town of Wappinger official website

Wappingers Historical Society
{{Coord, 41, 35, 10, N, 73, 55, 01, W, display=title, region:US-NY_type:city(26274)_source:dewiki Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown metropolitan area Towns in Dutchess County, New York Towns in the New York metropolitan area New York (state) populated places on the Hudson River Wappinger 1875 establishments in New York (state)