George Washington took the oath of office as the first president of the United States on April 30, 1789. Administering the presidential oath on that spring day in New York City was Robert R. Livingston; the same Robert Livingston whose family owned and controlled vast land holdings in the Hudson Valley, including what we now know as Woodstock. Always a bit ahead of the rest of the world, however, Woodstock’s first supervisor, Elias Hasbrouck, was sworn into office two years earlier, on June 5, 1787, following the creation of the town by legislative action in April of that year. Fresh from his role in the Revolution, and as a newly transformed Woodstocker, Hasbrouck convened Woodstock’s first town meeting at his home in Lake Hill with the pressing knowledge that there was much work before him and his new “administration.”
Elias Hasbrouck arrived in Woodstock by way of New Paltz and Kingston. Born in May 1741, Hasbrouck was the youngest of eight sons born to Solomon and Sara Hasbrouck. Like many Huguenots, Solomon’s father, Abraham Hasbrouck, had left France in the wake of ongoing religious persecution. After first going to Germany, Abraham set out for a new life in America in 1675. After marrying the former Maria Deyo in 1676, Hasbrouck and his associates received a land patent in 1677 from then-Gov. Edmund Andros. They would call the newly granted land New Paltz.
In the fall of 1757, a young Elias Hasbrouck was apprenticed to the Livingston family, and, ironically, it would be through his association with the Livingstons and their Woodstock holdings that a young Elias first encountered the land that would, 30 years later, become his home.
According to his apprenticeship papers, as noted in L.H. Zimm’s essay, “Captain Elias Hasbrouck 1741-1791” (Publications of the Woodstock Historical Society, September 1951), Hasbrouck was to “keep his masters secrets, refrain from cards, dice and matrimony and, in return for his work, he was to learn the art and mystery of a merchant.”
By the mid-1760s, Hasbrouck had indeed learned the “art and mystery” of being a merchant and began operating a shop in Kingston, offering such items as snuff, beaver hats, spectacles, teapots, and writing paper. And, while the first shots fired at Lexington and Concord were still a decade away, business conditions were, at best, unstable under British rule for merchants such as Hasbrouck. Underscoring the economic uncertainty of the time, a letter received by Hasbrouck from a business associate in New York, Henry Remsen, offered the following: “Goods of all sorts are rising very fast in England, many articles will certainly be higher in the fall. The parliament have passed an act to prohibit our trading with any of the Neutral Islands, which obliges us to Ship our produce to the English Islands only, & will bring the produce of our Government very low & occasion a great rise in Sugar &c.” (Zimm)
As political and economic conditions between Britain and its American colonies deteriorated over the next few years, speculation of separation soon became reality. In 1775, the promise of war would be fulfilled and, like many in the Hudson Valley, the tentacles of conflict would reach out and ensnare the Kingston shopkeeper directly. Following the outbreak of hostilities at Lexington and Concord, Hasbrouck, along with more than 200 other citizens from New Paltz and Kingston, declared his support for the colonial cause by affixing his signature to the Articles of Association. Derived from the Continental Association, which had been signed earlier by members of Congress meeting in Philadelphia, the Articles of Association expressed the alarm and concern of the signers over the raising of taxes and the “bloody” events being played out in Massachusetts. Vowing never to become “slaves,” the local signers “under the ties of religion, honor and love to our country” pledged “to adopt and endeavor to carry into execution, whatever measure may be recommended by the Continental Congress.”
Despite hopes for reconciliation with England, as also expressed in the Association document, the seeds for revolution had been firmly planted. And, while the Continental Congress was still a year from signing a far more important document, the lives and futures of men such as Elias Hasbrouck had already been fundamentally altered. In June 1775, Hasbrouck received a commission as a captain in the Third Regiment of the Continental Army. Following the recruitment of his own company, Hasbrouck and his men moved north to Albany to join with Gen. Richard Montgomery. Under a plan devised by Washington and approved by Congress, Montgomery and Benedict Arnold were to move north against Montreal and Quebec as part of an ill-fated campaign to invade Canada.
Hasbrouck and his men accompanied Montgomery on the journey north to Montreal, whereupon he returned to Ulster County. Montgomery, in the meantime, went on to join forces with Benedict Arnold and attack Quebec. There, disaster struck the American expedition and Montgomery was killed, while a wounded Arnold retreated to Fort Ticonderoga. Back home, Hasbrouck received another appointment as captain of the Scouts and Rangers, with the duty of protecting and defending the valley’s northern frontier.
As the war went on, Hasbrouck also served in several other positions. He was a quartermaster in charge of supplying troops protecting the Highlands, served on various military courts-martial, sought out spies and conspirators, and transported supplies on the Hudson for American and French troops.
On Oct. 16, 1777, Hasbrouck and other outnumbered colonials acted in defense of Kingston as the British took the war, and their torches, to the heart of Ulster County. The destruction of the city at the hands of the British included the burning of Hasbrouck’s own shop in what is now uptown Kingston. Undaunted, Hasbrouck would eventually rebuild his store and return to the merchant class.
In and around 1785–86, however, Hasbrouck sold the Kingston store and moved to Woodstock. Ironically, in a town that has often had a love-hate relationship with “newcomers,” Hasbrouck would find himself at the center of the town’s creation within just two years of his arrival. With a heritage that traced back to the original French settlers in New Paltz, to his early association with the Livingstons and their land, to his many encounters as a merchant with local traders and customers, to his service to the new nation and the Hudson Valley during the Revolution, Hasbrouck was as respected as any man who might have chosen Woodstock as his home during this era. In researching this article, in fact, the only negative mark against Hasbrouck’s reputation is a complaint made against him by a young military recruit. As discussed by Alf Evers, it appears that Hasbrouck offered a young man, Isaac Davis, several enticing “perks” in exchange for his commitment to serve in Hasbrouck’s company. Like many recruiters, however, it seems that Hasbrouck did not fulfill all his promises. Following a complaint by Davis, Hasbrouck’s superiors found in the young recruit’s favor and provided him with a small reward.
At the time of Hasbrouck’s arrival in Woodstock, the area was beginning to undergo a period of growth. Part of that growth involved efforts to expand and improve the system of roads that led through Woodstock to the mountains and valleys beyond. Not wishing to miss an opportunity, Hasbrouck chose as the site for his new home the area known as Little Shandaken — now Lake Hill. There, with the intersection of a main road that would eventually lead to Shandaken and the Schoharie beyond, Hasbrouck saw the perfect place for a shop and an inn. Unknown to him at the time, however, was the fact that the Mink Hollow home he built for such purposes would also serve as the first meeting place for the newly formed government of the town of Woodstock. At those meetings, he and others would lay the groundwork for those of us who live here today. Their work was decidedly different than that of the “founding brothers” who labored miles away to adopt a constitution and implement an experiment untried in the history of the world. On the local level, the work was more practical: organizing and crafting a town out of the wilderness while grappling with laws to control livestock, govern taverns, raise revenue, and maintain roads and fences. Theirs was the work that would ultimately form the underpinnings that would support the whole and carve a path for a future Woodstock.
Elias Hasbrouck, though elected twice as supervisor, would not see the end of his second term. He died on Oct. 8, 1791. As recounted by Louise Hasbrouck Zimm, it is believed that he “passed away while out hunting and was found sitting against a stump with his gun across his knees.” If the story is true, Zimm wrote, “it was a fitting end for the old warrior-hunter, whose best years had been spent in dangerous service on the frontier where, at least, through their own efforts, he and his brother soldiers were able to settle in peace.” He was 50 years old and was witness to both the birth of a nation and the birth of a small town in the Catskills. His life knew the fire of revolution and the tranquility and blessings of the land; a blessing we should not take for granted.
Editor’s Note: This republished essay is taken from the exhibit booklet for “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Community,” part of the Historical Society of Woodstock’s new exhibit opening July 11 in honor of the nation’s 250th anniversary.
