History
If you think taxes are high here in the valley...be Glad you were not living back in the day. I wonder what "Low Dutch' sounds like.
An account of a voyage taken in 1769 by the proprietor of a wide tract of land called Smith's patent, in the middle of New York State, gives some interesting facts concerning the Manors and the Manor life along the upper Hudson, form an observer's standpoint. It says:
"May 8th.--We went on shore to Two Stone Farm House on Beekman Manor in the County of Dutchess, the Men were absent and the Women and children could speak no other Language then Low Dutch, our Skipper was interpreter. One of the Tenants for Life, or very long Term, or for lives (uncertain which) pays twenty Bushels of Wheat in Kind for 97 acres of cleared Land, and liberty to get Wood for necessary Uses anywhere in the Manor--12 eggs sold here for six pence, Butter 14 d per pound and 2 shad cost 6 d. One Woman was very Neat, and the Iron hoops of her pails scowered bright, the Houses are mean. We saw one Piece of good meadow [page 237] which is scarce hereaway, the wheat was very much thrown out, the Aspect of the Farms rough and hilly like all the rest and the Soil a stiff Clay. One Woman had Twelve good countenanced Boys and Girls all clad in Homespun both Linen and Woolen, here was a Two-wheeled Plow drawn by 3 horses abreast, a Scythe with a short, crooked Handle and a Kind of Hook both used to cut down Grain, for the Sickle is not much known in Albany County or in this part of Dutchess."
An account of a voyage taken in 1769 by the proprietor of a wide tract of land called Smith's patent, in the middle of New York State, gives some interesting facts concerning the Manors and the Manor life along the upper Hudson, form an observer's standpoint. It says:
"May 8th.--We went on shore to Two Stone Farm House on Beekman Manor in the County of Dutchess, the Men were absent and the Women and children could speak no other Language then Low Dutch, our Skipper was interpreter. One of the Tenants for Life, or very long Term, or for lives (uncertain which) pays twenty Bushels of Wheat in Kind for 97 acres of cleared Land, and liberty to get Wood for necessary Uses anywhere in the Manor--12 eggs sold here for six pence, Butter 14 d per pound and 2 shad cost 6 d. One Woman was very Neat, and the Iron hoops of her pails scowered bright, the Houses are mean. We saw one Piece of good meadow [page 237] which is scarce hereaway, the wheat was very much thrown out, the Aspect of the Farms rough and hilly like all the rest and the Soil a stiff Clay. One Woman had Twelve good countenanced Boys and Girls all clad in Homespun both Linen and Woolen, here was a Two-wheeled Plow drawn by 3 horses abreast, a Scythe with a short, crooked Handle and a Kind of Hook both used to cut down Grain, for the Sickle is not much known in Albany County or in this part of Dutchess."
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