1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Haverstraw

HAVERSTRAW, a village of Rockland county, New York, U.S.A., in a township of the same name, 32 m. N. of New York City, and finely situated on the W. shore of Haverstraw Bay, an enlargement of the Hudson river. Pop. of the village (1890), 5070; (1900) 5935, of whom 1231 were foreign-born and 568 were negroes; (1905, state census) 6182; (1910) 5669; of the township (1910) 9335. Haverstraw is served by the West Shore, the New Jersey & New York (Erie), and the New York, Ontario & Western railways, and is connected by steamboat lines with Peekskill and Newburgh. The village lies at the N. base of High Tor (832 ft.). It has a public library, founded by the King’s Daughters’ Society in 1895 and housed in the Fowler library building. Excellent clay is found in the township, and Haverstraw is one of the largest brick manufacturing centres in the world; brick-machines also are manufactured here. The Minesceongo creek furnishes water power for silk mills, dye works and print works. Haverstraw was settled by the Dutch probably as early as 1648. Near the village of Haverstraw (in the township of Stony Point), in the Joshua Hett Smith House, or “Old Treason House,” as it is generally called, Benedict Arnold and Major André met before daylight on the 22nd of September 1780 to arrange plans for the betrayal of West Point. In 1826 a short-lived Owenite Community (of about 80 members) was established near West Haverstraw and Garnerville (in the township of Haverstraw). The members of the community established a Church of Reason, in which lectures were delivered on ethics, philosophy and science. Dissensions soon arose in the community, the experiment was abandoned within five months, and most of the members joined in turn the Coxsackie Community, also in New York, and the Kendal Community, near Canton, Ohio, both of which were also short-lived. The village of Haverstraw was originally known as Warren and was incorporated under that name in 1854; in 1873 it became officially the village of Haverstraw—both names had previously been used locally. The village of West Haverstraw (pop. in 1890, 180; in 1900, 2079; and in 1910, 2369), also in Haverstraw township, was founded in 1830, was long known as Samsondale, and was incorporated under its present name in 1883.

See F. B. Green, History of Rockland County (New York, 1886).