A town that is said to be rich in history recently got a little richer. Town Historian Mary Carde... Orangetown gets richer in
A town that is said to be rich in history recently got a little richer. Town Historian Mary Cardenas and museum Curator Julie Trumpler said the Orangetown Historical Museum and Archives hit the jackpot when the Historical Society of the Nyacks last week donated 118 rare and valuable documents.
"This is an unusual find," Cardenas said of the papers that included handwritten deeds, wills, letters and tax receipts from some of the town's founding families dating back to the mid-1700s. "It gives us some pieces of Orangetown's history. It gives you a glimpse of their lifestyles."
The documents were collected by Wallace Lydecker, a South Nyack man who lived in the village during the 1920s and 1930s, said Winston Perry Jr., president of the Historical Society of the Nyacks. The papers were passed down for generations, and Lydecker had connections to the Blauvelts, Harings, Perrys and Fowlers — families prominent in the documents.
The collection was given to the village's society early this year by Lewis Herndon of Illinois, a grandson of Margaret Boll, a South Nyack woman who had some connection to the Lydecker family.
"This is the biggest trove of documents — the most valuable — that we've ever received," Perry said. "It's full of little treasures."
The documents tell of the purchase and sale of land and slaves; the transfer of large properties; the confiscation of land owned by those loyal to the British crown; and papers explaining the building of Manse Barn in Tappan and the Orangeburg Railroad.
• A 1767 will of John Perry, a prominent Tappan landowner who was the high sheriff under the British of what became Rockland County. Perry's son, John, built part of what is now known as the Perry-Seth House off Lake Tappan.
• A 1749 deed from Gabriel Ludlow, a merchant from New York City, to Alexander Graham, a tailor from Tappan. The deed gave six acres of swamp and meadow in the County of Orange (now Rockland).
• An 1810 deed of William Graham to John J. Mabie, conveying three parcels between Piermont Avenue and Ferdon's Mill to John Moore, an African-American entrepreneur who ran mills nearby.
Trumpler said the information will be archived and used for research. She said another goal is to put the documents on exhibit and eventually to have it available online.
Cardenas said the artifacts, coupled with others from the town's various historical societies, provided a better perspective of what early life in Orangetown was like.
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