Colonial history Kingston is the traditional home of the
Esopus people. As early as 1614, the Dutch had set up a
factorij (trading post) at Ponckhockie, at the junction of the
Rondout Creek and the Hudson River. They traded European goods with the Lenape and Mohican for the furs their trappers collected. In 1652, the Indians of Ulster County ceded some land to the Dutch in what is now known as Kingston. The first recorded permanent settler in what would become the city of Kingston was Thomas Chambers. He came from the area of
Rensselaerswyck in 1653. The new settlement was called
Esopus after the local Lenape people. In 1654, European settlers began buying more land from the Esopus Indians further west. However, historians believe the two cultures had drastically different conceptions of property and land use, causing tension between the two groups. Common sources of friction between Dutch settlers and the Esopus included settlers' livestock trampling Indian cornfields, disputes over trade, and the adverse effects of Dutch brandy on the Native Americans. Prior to the Europeans' arrival, natives had no experience with liquor. In the spring of 1658,
Peter Stuyvesant, Director-General of New Amsterdam, ordered the consolidation and fortification of the settlement on high ground in what today is
Uptown Kingston. The building of the defensive stockade increased the conflicts. Tensions broke out in the
Esopus Wars. In 1661, the Dutch granted a charter for the settlement as a separate municipality; Stuyvesant named it
Wiltwijck (Wiltwyck). In 1663, the Esopus were defeated in the Second Esopus War by a coalition of
Dutch settlers, and
Wappinger and
Mohawk peoples. When the Dutch ceded their New Netherland to the British in September 1664, the British people worked to settle boundaries and conflict between the Europeans and the Esopus. Ultimately, the Richard Nicolls/Esopus Indian Treaty (1665) resulted in lasting peace between the natives and settlers. According to the treaty, the Esopus "in the names of themselves and theire heirs forever, give, Grant, Alienate, and Confirme all their Right and Interest, Claime or demand, to a certaine Parcell of Land" including the city of Kingston and extending to modern
Kerhonkson. In exchange, the natives received "forty Blanketts, Twenty Pounds of Powder, Twenty Knives, Six Kettles, [and] Twelve Barrs of Lead" and "three laced redd coates" as a gift to the tribal leaders.Further, the British and Esopus designed a system of trade which included a protected trade path for the Esopus to travel unharmed, and a safe house where Esopus could stay when visiting the village.[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/History_of_the_Indian_tribes_of_Hudson%27s_River_-_their_origin%2C_manners_and_customs%2C_tribal_and_sub-tribal_organizations%2C_wars%2C_treaties%2C_etc.%2C_etc._%28IA_ruttenberindians00ruttrich%29.pdf The treaty was respected for generations, as evidenced by records of annual gatherings between the Esopus and local Kingstonians where each exchanged gifts of mutual respect. The treaty is still recognized and celebrated by the City of Kingston and descendants of the Esopus. Many descendants of the Esopus people who inhabited the area became remnant members of several other related, displaced tribes. Some in the diaspora are among the federally recognized
Stockbridge–Munsee Community, who moved from New York to Shawano County, Wisconsin; the
Munsee-Delaware of the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, Canada, established after the Revolution by the Crown for its Iroquois and other Indian allies; and the
Ramapough Lenape Indian Nation (located primarily in the highland of the New York-New Jersey border area). Wiltwyck was one of three large
Hudson River settlements in
New Netherland, the other two being
Beverwyck, now
Albany; and
New Amsterdam, now New York City. With the English seizure of New Netherland in 1664, relations between the Dutch settlers and the English soldiers garrisoned there were often strained. In 1669, the English renamed Wiltwyck Kingston, in honor of the family seat of
Governor Lovelace's mother. In 1777, Kingston was designated as the first capital of the
state of New York. During the spring of 1777, when the New York State constitution was being written in
White Plains, New York City was occupied by British troops. The work was moved to Kingston, which was deemed safer, and the document completed that April 20. It was never submitted to the people for ratification, but the first governor of the state,
George Clinton, was sworn in as the first
Governor of New York on July 30, 1777. The British never reached Albany, having been stopped at
Saratoga, but they did reach Kingston. On October 16, 1777,
the city was burned by British troops moving up river from
New York City and disembarking at the mouth of the Rondout Creek at "Ponckhockie". (One contemporary letter implies the event occurred earlier, but this is widely considered a reporting error.) The residents of Kingston knew about the oncoming fleet. By the time the British arrived, the residents and government officials had removed to
Hurley. The Kingston area was largely agricultural and a major granary for the colonies at the time, so the British burned large amounts of wheat and all but one or two of the buildings. Kingston celebrates and re-enacts the 1777 burning of the city by the British every other year in a citywide theatrical staging of the event that begins at the Rondout. Kingston was incorporated as a village on April 6, 1805. In the early 1800s, four sloops plied the river, carrying passengers and freight from Kingston to New York. By 1829, river steamers made the trip to Manhattan in a little over twelve hours, usually travelling by night. Columbus Point (now known as Kingston Point) was the river landing for Kingston, and stage lines ran from the village to the Point. The Dutch cultural influence in Kingston remained strong through the nineteenth century.
Rondout shipping depot on Rondout Creek Rondout was a small farming village until 1825, when construction of the
Delaware and Hudson Canal from Rondout to
Honesdale, Pennsylvania, attracted an influx of laborers. When they completed the canal in 1828, Rondout became an important tidewater coal terminal.
Natural cement deposits were found throughout the valley, and in 1844 quarrying began in the "Ponchockie" section of
Rondout. The Newark Lime and Cement Company shipped cement throughout the United States, a thriving business until the invention of cheaper, quicker drying
Portland Cement. Workers cut and stored ice from the Hudson River each winter, keeping it in large warehouses of ice near the river. The ice would be cut in chunks and delivered to customers around the city. It was preserved in straw all year and ice chunks served as an early method of refrigeration. Large brick making factories also were built near this shipping hub. Rondout's primacy as a shipping hub ended with the advent of railroads. These lines were built through Rondout and Kingston, with stations in each place. They could also transport their loads through the city without stopping.
Wilbur Wilbur (aka
Twaalfskill) was a hamlet upstream from Rondout, where the Twaalfskill Creek met the Rondout Creek. There was a sloop landing there. The hamlet became the center for the shipment of
bluestone to lay the sidewalks of New York City. Kingston officially became a city on May 29, 1872, with the merger of the villages of Rondout and Kingston, and the hamlet of Wilbur. ==Geography==