New York - Dutchess County

Books on County Genealogy and History

Dutchess Co. Concise History

Dutchess Co. GenWeb Project

Dutchess Co. Tourism

First Mention of the County (1609)

History of County Seat: Poughkeepsie

Hudson Valley Historic Sites Map of Dutchess Co. (1895)

Official NY State Website

There had been a very early establishment of trading posts on the island of Manhattan, Fort Orange (Albany) and at Rondout Creek, Esopus (Kingston) which decided the location of the first settlements in the State. But when immigrants began coming in greater numbers, water powers such as those provided by the Fishkill, Wappingers, Fall Kill, Crumb's Elbow and other creeks in the area that is now Dutchess, together with the fine fertile valleys of these streams, led a number to start homes in this region. The Indian titles had, for the most part, been extinguished just before the erection of the county. Nicholas Emigh is credited with being the pioneer, the date of his settlement at the mouth of Fishkill Creek being in doubt, but he was certainly there in 1685. To his wife was born the first white child of the county. The settlements at Poughkeepsie were nearly contemporaneous with those at Fishkill, probably by Peter Lasinck, ancestor of a numerous family which spells its name in many forms, Lansing and Lawson being more usual. There were too few inhabitants of Dutchess at its erection for it to be represented separately in the General Assembly, so that it was provisionally attached to Ulster until 1713. This fact had made it difficult to trace the early settlers of Dutchess. There was no large development of this region until after 1720.

Along the Hudson, the first settlements were predominatingly Dutch, with a few Huguenots, fugitives from European persecution. The eastern part of the county was filled by people of New England, all that side of the State being claimed by the New England colonies. Quakers came in the southern part of Dutchess at an early date, while many of the Irish soldiers who had been stationed along various parts of the Harlem Valley homesteaded after the Revolution. It is said that in early times there were more creeds and denominations with churches in Dutchess than there were races, which is but another indication that Dutchess was one of the most cosmopolitan counties in the colonies.

Source: Historical Collections of the State of New York, Past and Present. Clark Albien & Co. 1851.