Railroads were first introduced in New York State with construction of the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad in 1826. This mechanized travel arrived less than 10 years after construction of the Erie Canal began in 1817. Railroads would forever change the face of travel in the 19th Century just as the automobile and NYS Thruway changed travel in the 20th Century. While the Erie Canal spearheaded westward development in the state and nation, it was the railroads that brought the biggest shift of people and goods westward in the years that followed. Other early New York State railroads, including the Syracuse and Auburn Railroad built in 1837, broadened the impact of rail transport on the region.

Virginia Beauchamp was a graduate of the University of Michigan. After teaching for 20 years in Colorado, she returned home and became the Director of the Syracuse Home Association and the Onondaga Historical Society, Secretary of the Visiting Nurses’ Association, on the Executive Council of the South Side Library Association, and a member of the Syracuse Botanical Society. Virginia died on February 22, 1923. Virginia’s quilt patterns were donated to the library by her sister, Grace B. Lodder in November, 1945.

The Putnam County Historian's Office (PCHO) is located in Brewster, New York, in the lower Hudson River Valley region. Our local government office preserves, interprets, and promotes the history of Putnam County dating back to its separation from Dutchess County in 1812. The Historian’s Office has been collecting historical records, maps, books, photographs, and periodicals since 1953 to support these efforts and assist researchers with genealogical, commercial, agricultural, recreational and cultural history. PCHO provides digital and on-site access to many of their records and is open for public research Monday – Wednesday, 10 am – 2 pm, by appointment.

The Holland Patent Public Square has been a focus and symbol of the village for the two hundred years of its existence. The location of the public square determined the orientation and land use development of the patent, and the character of this plot of land well drained, level and incorporating a segment of the main road leading cast to Barneveld and west to Floyd and Fort Stanwix --befit it for the public ground upon which the community institutions of schools and meetinghouses would stand.

Public Square was established by a June 30, 1798 deed, that reserved 7.5 acres as a public square for the inhabitants of the Holland Patent. The boundaries of the square remains as established, with Main Sreet lying along the northern boundary, Park Avenue situated on the eastern boundary, Park Street located on the southern line with the western boundary lying about halfway down the hill that slopes toward Williard's Creek behind the Presbyterian Church. Before any permanent structures were built, the public square attracted roaming farm animals that created such a nuisance as to cause a fine to be levied on offenders. At a public meeting in April 1801, it was voted to spend $15.00 to build a pound near the public square. The first structure to be constructed on the square was a schoolhouse, which in 1806 stood on the northeast quadrant. This was followed by other meeting houses until 1842 - 1843 when the community organized to reform the design of the square into the open space which exists today. In August 1847, thirty men signed a subscription "to pay... for the the purpose of enclosing a Park on the Public Square... in materials or labor at cash price." In 1991, the area surrounding the public square was listed on the Nartional Register of Historic Places as the Holland Patent Stone Churches Historic District.

While no Revolutionary War battles took place in the village of New Paltz, the fight against the British drastically altered the life of one person: Roelof Josiah Eltinge. Eltingue was born in New Paltz on January 7, 1737. He married Maria Louq in 1760 and fathered eleven children.

His troubles began in 1776, when he refused to accept Continental currency in his storefront at the house we now call Bevier-Elting. According to resolutions passed by the New York Provincial Congress in 1775, those who refused currency issued by either the Continental or Provincial Congress were to be imprisoned and treated as enemies. Eltinge was thus brought before the Ulster County Committee of Safety (charged by the Provincial Congress with suppressing Tories), which imprisoned and then exiled him from Ulster County until the end of the war in 1783.

The Print Club of Rochester, still active today, was founded as an initiative of members of the Memorial Art Gallery Board’s Library and Print Committee in 1930.