states. And it
gives me particular satisfaction to remark that the first fruits
of our excellent Constitution appear in a part of this State whose
inhabitants have distinguished themselves by having unanimously
endeavored to deserve them." The court house bell was originally
imported from Holland.

* * *

Pinched by famine and menaced by foe
In the cruel winters of long ago,
They worked and prayed and for freedom wrought,
Freedom of speech and freedom of thought.

_Frederica Davis Hatfield._

* * *

The burning of Kingston seemed unnecessarily cruel, and it is said
that Vaughan was wide of the truth when, to justify the same, he
claimed that he had been fired upon from dwellings in the village.
General Sharpe in his address before the Holland Society says: "The
history of this county begins to be interesting at the earliest stages
of American history: Visited by Dutchmen in 1614, and again in 1620,
it was in the very earliest Colonial history, one of the strong places
of the Province of New York. The British museum contains the report
of the Rev. John Miller, written in the year 1695, who, after 'having
been nearly three years resident in the Province of New York, in
America, as chaplain of His Majesty's forces there, and constantly
attending the Governor, had opportunity of observing many things of
considerable consequence in relation to the Christians and Indians,
and had also taken the drafts of all the cities, towns, forts and
churches of any note within the same.' These are his own words, and
he adds that in the Province of New York 'the places of strength are
chiefly three, the city of New York, the city of Albany, and the town
of Kingstone, in Ulster.' The east, north and west fronts ran along
elevations overlooking the lowlands and having a varying altitude
of from twenty to thirty feet. The enclosure comprehended about
twenty-five acres of land. There were salients, or horn works at each
end of the four angles, with a circular projection at the middle
of the westerly side, where the elevation was less than upon the
northerly and easterly sides. The church standing upon the ground
where we now are, was enclosed with a separate stockade, to be used
as the last resort in case of disaster, and, projecting from this
separate fortification, a strong block-house commanded and enfiladed
the approaches to the southerly side, which was a plain. The local
history is of continued and drama