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Warwarsing

• Town of Shawangunk -- New Fort, the second stronghold to which the Esopus Indians retreated with their white captives in the late summer of 1663, is in the town about three miles west of Wallkill village on the Crowell farm. The Dutch captain, Martin Cregier, who led his army there from Wiltwyck, described the fort as a "perfect square with one row of palisades set all around being about fifteen feet above, and three feet under ground." The Indians had, he said, "already completed two angles of stout palisades, all of them almost as thick as a man's body, having two rows of portholes, one above the other; and they were busy at the third angle. These angles were constructed so solid and strong as not to be excelled by Christians."

  Shawangunk settlement by white men began, as related elsewhere, about 1680. It was made a precinct in 1709 and attached to New Paltz. It became a separate precinct in 1743.
  At Bruynswick stands the old Dutch Reformed Church, the walls of which date from 1752. The slave gallery with the outside staircase is unusual in our neighborhood.
  In 1871 the Shawangunk Mountain was the scene of coal mining operations about a mile southwest of Walker Valley. A small vein was found, but the operations were soon abandoned.
  Shawangunk is known for its profitable dairy farms. The Crowell brick mold factory is a prominent one in Wallkill. The Wallkill State Prison, a medium security prison with farm buildings, is located near the village and had 458 inmates in 1940.
  The late William E. Bruyn, of Shawangunk, was one of the most prominent men in the country in the crude rubber industry, and was appointed presidential elector for the second time by the Republican party just previous to his death on October 31,1940.

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