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300 Years of History in the Heart of
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Early Families
New Paltz is unique in the Hudson Valley. While there are many towns in the region that can trace their founding to the Dutch, it was a small group of French-speaking Walloons that founded New Paltz. Their purchase of this land marked the end of a journey that had last for two and, in some cases, three generations for these unique families. By 1675, there was a small but lively group of Walloons living in the two neighboring towns of Nieuw Dorp and Wiltwyck. They had arrived in the New World over the previous fifteen years and were eager to strike out on their own. In 1677, they began negotiating with the Lenape Indians to purchase a large tract of land about fifteen miles south of their current homes. It must have been an exciting time. Louis DuBois, Christian Deyo, Abraham Hasbrouck, Andries LeFevre, Jean Hasbrouck, Pierre Deyo, Antoine Crispell, Abraham DuBois, Hugo Freer, Isaac DuBois and Simon LeFevre gathered together in congress with the Lenape, hoping that they could at last attain a place of their own. They were successful and in 1678 they began cultivating the rich flood plains that hugged the small, winding river they dubbed the Wallkill after Wallonia, the region on today's French-Belgian border from which their families originated. Up the hill, on an expansive plateau, they built modest dwellings and staked their claim to an impressive 40,000 acre patent. While New Paltz remained French at its core in those early years, others soon joined the Walloons (who we know today as the Huguenots). Jan Elting, a Dutch man, witnessed the agreement between the Lenape and the Walloons. His family soon joined his friends in New Paltz. Other Dutch families such as the Schoonmakers and the Terwilligers soon married into Walloon (or Huguenot) families or moved into the village, becoming part of the rich tapestry that made up early New Paltz. |
