TELLER HOMESTEAD

by

Resource: Literature obtained by Arnold and Marion Hook during tour of Madame Brett House

The Teller Homestead at Beacon is a symbol of the whole neighborhood's history. In 1654, Frances Rombout, a Huguenot born at Hesselt in Flanders, sailed as supercargo on a ship bound for New Netherland. A mere lad at the time, after faithfully discharging his duties, he had to sue the captain for his wages. That he did so was indicative of his character--his energy, determination and love of justice. As a New York merchant he prospered, bought a valuable property on Broadway and built himself a substantial stone house, surrounded by an orchard and garden. He was evidently a main of taste, as well as an energetic merchant and man of affairs, for he is said to have imported for his own satisfaction the first table linen used in America.

Besides diligently managing his mercantile interests, he was an active member and elder in the Dutch Reformed Church, and found time to serve the city in sundry public offices--as Schepen under Dutch rule, and afterwards under English rule as Alderman. At the Dutch recapture of New York he was continued in office and, in 1679, after the restoration of English control, he was Mayor, succeeding Stephanus Van Cortlandt in that post.

In 1682 Francis Rombout and Gulian Verplanck jointly filed a petition for a land grant and permission to buy from the Indians a fertile tract on the east bank of the Hudson extending from Fishkill almost to Poughkeepsie, later known as the Rombout Patent or Precinct. The same year Governour Dougan licensed this purchase, which was peaceably and honestly carried out. They say that Rombout bargained with the Indians for "all the land he could see"; he thereupon climbed to the top of Mount Beacon to extend his outlook. Tradition also says that during the bargaining the future Patentees sat at one side of a table while the Wappinger chiefs sat opposite. A round sum of Royals--a Royal equaled a half-sovereign-was laid on the board as the purchase price. This the Indians repeatedly pushed back, saying "More, More!" until the bargain satisfied them. The deed of sale, dated 1683 was then duly drawn. witnessed and executed. In 1685, soon after accession of King James II, came the confirmation or "exemplification" of the grant. Prior to this, Gulian Verplanck had died and his widow had married Jacobus Kip, now substituted as representative for the interests of Verplanck's children. Stephanus Van Cortlandt had also been admitted to a third share in the purchase, so the exemplification was issued in the names of Rombout, Kip and Van Cortlandt.

By his third wife, Helena Teller Van Ball--daughter of William Teller, one of the Patentees of Schenectady--Francis Rombout had a daughter Catheryna, born in 1687. To her he willed his house in Broadway and "his land in the Wappins"--his third share in the Rombout Patent. Catheryna, destined to become famous as a colonial dame of pre-eminent character and pioneer achievement, in November 1703 married Roger Brett, of Somersetshire, a young Lieutenant in the British Navy who had accompanied his friend Lord Cornbury, when Queeen Anne sent out that eccentric cousin of hers to govern the Province of New York. Determined to live in the country and develop her land in the Rombout Patent, Madame Brett and her husband, in the summer of 1708 mortgaged their city house "for 240 pounds current money." In 1707 the Rombout Patent had been partitioned in "three long narrow parcels, each containing a stretch of river front, and water privileges by adjointure to the two creeks, the Fish Kill and Wappingers." Lot Number One, in the drawing, fell to Madame Brett, while the Verplanck heirs got Lot Number Two, just to the north of them, on the river and on Wappingers Creek in the middle"; the third or northernmost Lot, on the river and upper part of Wappingers Creek, went to the Van Cortlandts.

By this division, the Bretts possessed the fertile valley of the Fish Kill, a broad stretch along the river, and "the north side of Wappingers Creek from its mouth to beyond the present site of Wappingers Falls." On the banks of the Fish Kill, which gave them a valuable water power, they built a mill and a dwelling, presumably with the proceeds of the mortgage on the town house. The following year, 1709, "Roger Brett of the Fishkills in the County of Dutchess, Gentleman, and Catheryna, his wife," sold to William Peartrie the mill, dwelling and 300 acres of land adjoining. It was in 1709, upon selling the mill and mill house, that the Bretts built the house now called Locust Grove or the Teller House. After selling the mill property to her kinsman, Abraham de Peyster, she managed the enterprise with energy and success. For many years the people of Dutchess and Orange Counties depended largely "upon this mill for their daily bread." At one time all roads thereabouts seemed to lead "to Madame Brett's Mill," and it was customary to quote distances and directions "From Hackensack to Madame Brett's Mill, " "From Wiccopee to Madame Brett's Mill," and so on.

The Bretts had three sons, Francis, Robert and Rivery, the last so named because he was born on the Hudson River when his parents were coming home from New York in their sloop. In 1726 Lieutenant Brett met a tragic death; returning from New York, the boom of his boat knocked him overboard just as he was entering the mouth of the Fish Kill. Thence onward, all the burden of developing and administering a large estate fell on the shoulders of Madame Brett, aided only by her sons. She was fully equal to the task, however. In addition to her other sterling qualities, she was clear-headed and possessed business acumen and indomitable energy. She is said to have ridden daily on horseback over her lands, directing her slaves and superintending her varied affairs. A woman of peculiarly dynamic character, she was a power in the development of the whole region and left the impress of her personality in many quarters. Activity and locomotion seemed inseparable from the story of her life. She not only journeyed back and and forth to New York by sloop and made the daily rounds of her farm in the saddle but, in 1710, when the first place of worship was established in the neighborhood-the Lutheran church of the German Palatines at Newburgh-she was accustomed to canoe across the river on Sundays to attend service. Sometimes she mad her progresses in a manner fully befitting a lady of quality. In his Local Tales and Sketchers, H.D.B. Bailey describes her arrival at the wedding of the Dutch pastor who served the two congregations of Fishkill and Poughkeepsie:

Prior to her death, in 1764, she devised her property to her son Francis, and the children of her son Robert, predeceased--Rivery had died in early life--and in that part of her will touching her slaves she directed that if they were sold, certain of them should have the right to choose their own masters. Francis Brett and his wife, Catherine Margaret Van Wyck, with their eight children continued to occupy the house and in due time their daughter Hannah married Henry Schenck, who became a major in the Continental Army. While he was Quartermaster, the ample cellar of the house was stored with rations for the soldiers, and once a detachment of exhausted men was ranged in rows on the floor of the east room to sleep off their fatigue. In 1791 Major Schenck was a member of the Assembly and up to the time of his death he fulfilled the duties of a useful and public-spirited citizen.

General Washington and Abraham Yates, while attending the Fishkill Convention, were entertained by the Major and Mrs. Schenck and later, when the Commander-in-Chief had his headquarters at Newburgh, he was a welcome guest at Locust Grove. The Marquis de la Fayette likewise enjoyed the hospitality of the Schenck household, as did also Baron von Steuben, who had his headquarters at Mount Gulian nearby.

In 1790 Alice Schenck married Isaac de Peyster Teller and they began housekeeping in the large brick house on the fish Kill, built by Abraham de Peyster in 1743, when he bought the mill property from Madame Brett. This Mr. Teller had inherited from his great uncle Abraham. There they lived for several years until they moved up to Locust Grove. After Major Schenck's death, Mr. Teller bought the homestead from the "doweress," as Madame Schenck was called, who thereafter continued to live with her daughter and son-in-law. "With the genius of wise farming," Isaac Teller "developed the property until it became locally renowned for its grain and other farm products." The economic system of slave labour, however, apparently did not wholly commend itself to him. Once, when the old Dutch Dominie came to call, Mr. teller was just setting forth on his accustomed rounds of the farm and took the Dominie along with him. As they came back to the house the Dominie, much impressed by what he had seen said,

The Honourable Isaac de Peyster Teller, as a member of Congress and a country squire, was highly esteemed and beloved. Kindly and generous by nature, he was especially considerate of the poor who lived on the mountain lands.

Wen there was no Episcopal church nearer than Fishkill village, Miss Hannah Teller, aided by her sisters, established a mission in the "long room"--the dining room--of the house. To get a clergyman in winter Mr. teller would drive on the ice to West Point to fetch the Reverend Mr. Hackley, then Chaplain of the Post. later on, as the mission grew, a corner of the orchard was given for the purpose and a chapel built. the mission was put in charge of the Reverend Robert Boyd Van Kleeck, son of Dr. Baltus Linvingston Van Kleeck of Newburgh. This young parson found a wife in Miss Margaret Teller. Their daughter's descendent still lives in this old house of many memories. In the spring of 1939 the National Society of Colonial Dames of the State of New York placed upon the outer wall of the Homestead a bronze tablet in honour of Madame Brett. "In grateful recognition of her service to the Community."

In 1792, when he and Mrs. Teller had moved to the Teller Homestead, Isaac de Peyster sold the Abraham de Peyster House on the creek to William Byrnes, who took into partnership Cyrus Newlin of Wilmington, Delaware. Until 1811 Mr Byrnes and Mr. Newlin conducted the mill property together; then Mr. Newlin bought Mr. Byrnes's interests. Cyrus Newlin did not live in Fishkill, but his sons, Robert and Isaac, lived in the de Peyster house and, as the newlin family occupied it for a long time, it was often called the Newlin house. It is now in a dilapidated state.

The homestead was built in 1709 by Catherrna and Roger Brett who came here to manage the large land-holdings which Madam Brett had inherited from her father, Francis Rombout, a New York City merchant and one of the three patentees of this part of Dutchess County.

Widowed early, Madam Brett managed herself, not only her vast properties, but also her mill on Fishkill Creek which was so important to the early settlers that it was commonly said that "all roads lead to Madam Brett's mill."

At the time of the American Revolution, Madam Brett's granddaughter and her husband, Major Henry Schenck, lived in the homestead. major Schenck was connected for at least part of the war with the commissary department of the army. Fishkill was prominent at this period as headquarters for the entire Hudson Valley quartermaster operation as well as because it was on the main line of communications and supply from New England to the southern colonies. Tradition connected with the house says that commissary supplies were stored in the basement and that the house hosted many of the important men of the period including George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, and the Baron von Steuben.

Major Scheneck's daughter, in 1790 married Isaac De Peyster Teller who named the homestead "Teller's Villa" and developed the property to agricultural prominence, witht he result that the house was known until recently as the "Teller House."

Margaret Teller married the Rev. Robert Boyd Van Keeck, and their daughter, Agnes married the Rev. Dr. Robert Fulton Crary. Both Mr. Van Kleeck and Dr. Crary were Protestant Episcopal clergymen. Dr. Crary was a grandson of Robert Fulton of steamboat fame and was an artist of some talent who painted many of the pictures still hanging in the homestead. Several notable features of the construction of the house are the handmade scalloped shingles, the sloped dormers, and the native stone foundation. Also noteworthy are the wide board floors, the hand-hewn beams and the old kitchen fireplace.

The house is considered by historians to be of particular value because of its age and of inestimable value because of the fact that it was owned and occupied by only one family, seven generations of which lived here until it was purchased by Melzinga, S.A.R., in 1954 to be preserved as an important part of the historical heritage of the Hudson Valley.