or Clinton which opposed the plan. The Governor,
in fact, had the majority with him, and when Hamilton and the others
carried the convention by only one vote, it was a greater victory than
the narrow margin would indicate. Poughkeepsie was a "safe harbor" in
which to build ships, and it was here, in 1775-6, that the frigates
Congress and Montgomery of the Continental navy were built under the
supervision of Captains Lawrence and Tudor.

[Sidenote: _HYDE PARK._]

Leaving Poughkeepsie the intervening six miles to Hyde Park are so
park-like that the place seems to come naturally by its name. The road
is of the best, the bordering fields are under a high state of
cultivation, interspersed with groves of beautiful trees, through
whose aisles are to be seen occasional glimpses of the Hudson and, on
a clear day, the distant Catskills that, like low-lying clouds, top
the nearer hills of the middle distance. The place is named for Edward
Hyde, Lord Cornbury, Governor of the Province at the beginning of the
Eighteenth Century. Jacobus Stoutenburg, the first settler, built a
stone house which still stands on the east side of the road in the
southern edge of the village. It has the reputation of having been a
Washington headquarters, and is a fine example of a Colonial farm
house. Only once during the Revolution was there anything approaching
a battle in Dutchess County, and that occurred here during Vaughan's
raid up the river, when he burned the landing and a shop or two. He
was opposed by a small body of Americans whom he bombarded from the
river with no serious results.

James K. Paulding, author, and Morgan Lewis, Revolutionary general and
chief justice of the state, once lived in Hyde Park, as did Dr. Samuel
Bard, Washington's physician, whose dwelling is placed in Christopher
Colles's road book, previously mentioned, as situated on the east side
of the Post Road, between the eighty-eighth and eighty-ninth
mile-stones.

The next ten miles to Rhinebeck through Staatsburg covers a
picturesque country, sometimes too rough for much cultivation, but all
the more attractive to the eye on that very account.

[Sidenote: _STAATSBURG._]

Staatsburg or Pawlings Purchase: The earliest owner of this region
that I find mentioned in local histories was Henry Pawling, who died
in 1695. His heirs sold the property in May, 1701, to Dr. Samuel
Staats, of New York City, and another. This was the son of Major Abram
Staats, of Albany, who