Colonization (1652-1776) The Tannery Brook was just outside the stockade, or wooden fence, built to defend the Dutch colonists against the Native Americans. Colonists built a dam on the brook at North Front St., creating a pond to power their grist mill.
Painting of 1695 Kingston. 2015. L.F. Tantillo. Senate House State Historic Site, Kingston, NY, Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
Plan of Stockade at Kingstowne (Wiltwyck). 1658. City of Kingston Engineering Archives.
Dutch colonists came to what is now Kingston in 1652, and began farming in the fertile lowlands along the Esopus Creek. The Esopus Native Americans had already been farming in these very productive floodplain fields. In 1658, conflicts with the Native Americans led the Dutch to build a dense settlement on a natural bluff enclosed by a wooden fence, or stockade. The settlement, Wiltwyck, was not only surrounded by steep slopes on three sides, it also could have been surrounded by water on those sides. There may have been a moat-like ditch just north of the stockade for extra protection. The Tannery Brook was outside the stockade to the west of Green Street.
The colonists constructed a dam on the Tannery Brook at North Front Street in 1661, creating a mill pond that lasted for about 150 years before it was drained. This was the first major feature to fragment the stream’s course. The Tannery Brook provided power to grind grain, which was shipped via the Hudson River. The grist mill was critical to Kingston’s early economic development. The Tannery Brook also provided water for breweries and distilleries. A bridge over the Tannery Brook at the dam was on the road to Hurley, an important transportation link in the early colony.
Properly disposing garbage was important to the colonists, though they were more concerned about reducing fire risk than protecting water quality. However, in 1669/1670, court records state that, “Pieter Cornelissen (Moolenaer – Miller) complains that many persons stop up his drain or water course by carting dung in the same. The hon. court will take measures concerning the same.”
A Map of the Corporation of Kingston in the County of Ulster. 1771. James Clinton. Ulster County Archives.
“Friday, November 14, 1664... Whereas, experience teaches us the impropriety of throwing out straw and rubbish and of burning the same close by the palisades, wherefore great danger from fire may be expected, the Schout and Schepens therefore order that straw and rubbish shall be carted across the Mill dam by those living near the Mill gate, under the penalty heretofore fixed for that purpose. Further, all inhabitants here are directed to clear the streets, within four days, or straw and rubbish, so that, through the carrying of a light or the blowing out of a pipe of tobacco, a conflagration, such as the one at Amersfort on Long Island (God shield us), may not occur. ”
— New York Historical Manuscripts: Dutch. Volume I: Kingston Court Records, 1661-1667. Translated by Dingman Versteeg. Genealogical Publishing Co, In. Baltimore, 1976.
Map of New Netherland. 1887. The Empire State: A Compendious History of the Commonwealth of New York by Benson Lossing.
A Mapp of New England. 1675. John Seller. NYS Library, Manuscripts and Special Collections.
“Ordinary Session, Tuesday, October 26, 1668… Defendant Matthys Blanchan says that in the year 1663 when Roelof Swartwout was schout, and plaintiff Tierck Claesen magistrate, that he stole ½ anker of brandy of Lowies DuBooys, and lost on account of the same 120 gldrs. Because he, defendant, had furnished the wine to Lowies DuBooys, and that plaintiff ever since that time has hated him and that plaintiff Tierck Claesen has complained to Gov. Nickels that defendant would be obliged to grind for him, and that plaintiff has said that if the mill was on fire, he, plaintiff, would not assist in putting it out… [Plaintiff] absolutely denies that he should always have hated defendant Matthys Blanghan and says that he never made any complaint to the Lord General…
Plaintiff Tierck Claesen further says… “I have once assisted in putting out the fire in the guardhouse, which threatened to damage the mill. If it should happen again, I would not even move a hand in assisting to put it out,” and that the plaintiff and more others have been obliged to take ship to Fort Albany for the purpose of having their grain ground there, through the obstinacy of defendant Matthys Blangan.”
— New York Historical Manuscripts: Dutch. Volume II: Kingston Court Records, 1668-1675 and Secretary’s Papers, 1664-1675. Translated by Dingman Versteeg. Genealogical Publishing Co, In. Baltimore, 1976.
We can compare historic maps to see changes in the Tannery Brook's path through Kingston over time.
The Tannery Brook flows north through Uptown Kingston, toward the Esopus Creek.
