New Paltz High School - Huguenot Yearbook (New Paltz, NY)

Page 10 text:

 One of the most interesting of the original settlements in Ulster County, or elsewhere, is the Hugenot settlement of New Paltz. The land on which the Frenchmen and their families settled was not patented to them as trustees, for the benefit of the whole, but to a copartnership of the twelve individuals for their personal use, either as a body corporate or subject to division, presumably in twelve equal shares. “The settlement is one of the earliest after that of Kingston and Hurley, but it is generally supposed that some of the patentees had settled there some years previous to the date of the patent . . .” . . The New Paltz government was the most simple on earth. All there was to it, was for the heads of the families to get together and make regulations and decisions . . .” Page 6

Page 9 text:

Mr. Frederick C. Dippel Supervising Principal Mr. Raymond Buckley High School Principal Mathematics I am very happy that the class of 19(H) has chosen its theme for this book A Year of History.” Just as the past year has been a stepping-stone in the history of our fine state, so will this same year be long remembered by you as an important stepping-stone in your life. You have faced many problems during the past four years and have met them well. You have enjoyed many pleasant experiences that will remain in your memory forever. You will go forth to new problems and new experiences, better able to meet and enjoy them because of the days you have spent here at New Paltz. I congratulate you on your fine record, and as the history of the future is written, I am confident that it will be a history more to be proud of because of your deeds. I am sure that my entire staff and the Board of Education share my feelings when I wish you success and a future filled with happiness. Frederick C. Dippel Principal Pago 5

Page 11 text:

“The Indians make but a small figure in the early history of New Paltz. There is no account of their having ever troubled the inhabitants a particle. This was because the people had honestly paid for the land and treated the Indians kindly. The last remains of the red men in this locality are said to have lived in a village on the south bank of the Plattekill, where it empties into the Wall-kill . . . The few remaining at that time went off with Sir William Johnson, the Tory leader in the Revoluntionary War. Now and then one would come around with baskets to sell. Once a member of such a company was drowned in the Wallkill at Libertyvillc. Then they came no more, saying that the drowned man “spooked” them. One of the very last of the Indians was called Tottoi. He would make maple sugar and trade it off for bread. When he died, he was wrapped in a coffin of bark and buried . . . “It is related that at one time the Indians came near Dashville and cut some timber for baskets. Some of the people started to drive him off, but Ezekiel Eltinge said, ‘Let them alone; they have the right . . .' ” Pago 7