| May 13, 2006
A Westchester County, New York Developer seeks to develop an 8 Acre parcel located in Fishkill, Dutchess County, NY at a historically sensitive site where burials are historically known to exist!
Nothing is sacred anymore! We must stop "get rich quick" developers from possibly destroying our history and perhaps disturbing hallowed ground!
According to a Poughkeepsie Journal May 13, 2006 Article by Craig Wolf entitled "Plaza is proposed in Fishkill":
"A marker at the society's [Fishkill Historical] Van Wyck Homestead Museum, north of the Crossroads site, says Revolutionary soldiers are buried in the nearby fields. The marker was moved in 1976 from near the corner of Route 9 and Van Wyck Lake Road, near the southern end of the proposed development."
See Picture of Markers at the Homestead Below.
If you care about preserving our history for ourselves and future generations - contact the Fishkill Historical Society , ask how you can help, follow this project closely as it weaves its way through the Town of Fishkill planning process and associated State Environmental Quality Review Act Process, attend meetings and voice your opinions.
For more information or to voice your opinion Call, Write or E-Mail the Town of Fishkill Planning Offices:
Call: 845-831-7800 ext. 3326
Write: Town Hall,
807 Route 52,
Fishkill, NY 12524-3110
E-mail: Christopher Colsey, Municipal Planning Director |
Photos by Ginny - May 2003
Melzingah Chapter DAR Monument -Now Located at VanWyck Homestead Site
Monument erected in 1897 by Melzingah Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. During the War of the Revolution there was a military camp at Fishkill where many soldiers died from disease and hardship.
"1776-1783. In grateful remembrance of the brave men who gave their lives for their country during the American Revolution and whose remains repose in the adjoining field."
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Two pictures of Monument Placques on another Marker at VanWyck Site 
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PICTORIAL FIELD BOOK OF THE REVOLUTION - VOLUME I BY BENSON J. LOSSING
1850
Chapter XXIX [29]
The Wharton House [VanWyck Homestead]
Fishkill village lies pleasantly in the lap of a plain near the foot of the mountains, and is a place of much interest to the student of our history. Securely sheltered by high mountains from invasion from below, and surrounded by a fertile country, it was chosen as a place of safe depository for military stores; for the confinement of Tory prisoners and others captured by strategy or in partisan skirmishes upon the Neutral Ground, in West Chester; and, for a while, as the place of encampment of a portion of the Continental army, and the quiet deliberations of the state Legislature. The barracks were about half a mile south of the village, extending along the line of the road, from the residence of Isaac Van Wyck, Esq., to the foot of the mountains. The head-quarters of the officers were at Mr. Van Wyck’s, then the property of a Mr. Wharton. From this circumstance it is known as "The Wharton House." The BURIAL-PLACE of the SOLDIERS is at the foot of the mountains, where a road branches eastward from the turnpike.
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"Signal Fires in the Highlands - A History of Fishkill, NY 1683-1873"
by Willa Skinner
Current [2006]Town of Fishkill Historian
Published by the Town of Fishkill 1981
Page 26
"Soldiers who died at Fishkill were said to be interred in a mass burial ground near the encampment at the base of a mountain and search for this military cemetery continues to the present day." |
Fishkill Ridge Caretaker's WebSite
the 1897 Dedication of the Monument erected by the Melzingah Chapter DAR
All Hail to the Heroes
All hail to the heroes who died for our country
And found at the foot of this mountain a grave!
Their trials and sorrows, their pains and privations,
Were the price of our freedom -- then honor the brave. They came from the hills and the vales of New England,
They came from the north and the sunny southland;
Thus gathered these hardy and honest young yeomen
To fight for the right at their country's command.
They watched and they waited, they fought and they labored,
They suffered privations no tongue can relate.
The valiant and true, by platoon and battalion,
Here closed their sad eyes and surrendered to fate.
The land they so nobly redeemed from oppression,
The fairest and freest in all the broad earth,
Should cherish the treasure their valor has bought us,
Remember their labors, and think of their worth.
Forget not the patriots who died for their country,
Whose forms at the foot of this mountain were laid;
They fought and they suffered with courage and patience,
And grudged not the price which for freedom they paid. |
Click Below - Visit the VanWyck Homestead Museum On-Line
VanWyck Homestead Museum
History of Duchess County - James H. Smith - Published 1882
Chapter 15 - Military History - War of the Revolution - Page 139
Considerable bodies of troops were stationed in Fishkill at different periods. The Wharton House, named from Mr. Wharton, who then owned it, and made memorable by Cooper's story of The Spy, but now the residence of Sidney E. VanWyck, was the head-quarters of the officers. The house stands a short distance south of the village, on the turnpike, near the foot of the mountains. The barracks extended along the road, a half-mile south of the village, in close proximity to the house. Near this residence, "by the large black-walnut trees," says Mr. Brinkerhoff, before quoted, "and east of the road near the base of the mountain, was the soldier's burial ground. * * * This almost unknown and unnoticed burial-ground holds not a few, but hundreds of those who gave their lives for the cause of American Independence. Some fifteen years ago, [about 1861], an old lady who was then living at an advanced age, and who had lived near the village until after she had grown to womanhood, told the writer that after the battle of White Plains she went with her father through the streets of Fishkill, and in places between the Dutch and Episcopal churches the dead were piled up as high as a cord of wood. These were buried there. The wounded of the battle who afterwards died, were buried there. The constant stream of death from the hospitals were buried there. The small-pox, which broke out in the camp, and prevailed very malignantly added many more." The same writer adds, "it is doubtful whether any spot in the State has as many of the buried dead of the Revolution as this quiet spot." Some of the hospitals were located in the barracks, others, in more immediate vicinity of the village. The Episcopal church was used for that purpose when needed; also the Dutch church, though less often. The academy building was likewise used for hospital purposes; and finally the Presbyterian church. |
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