September 18th, 2002 we arrived in Patterson, New York, the former home of our 6-great grandfather, William Hearns in the 1700’s. What a feeling that was! My imagination took over as I saw in my mind’s eye William and Elizabeth walking the very ground that we now walked. However, reality bites. There were no motels or hotels to be had in Patterson. It is now a very small village where, in the surrounding countryside, it appears the wealthy of New York City have made their homes. Not to be discouraged, we found a motel in the nearby community of Brewster, which was only a short drive away, and turned out to be ideally suited as the historic society was not too far away.

Once settled in at the motel, we headed back to Patterson to look around. We located the “little red schoolhouse” which is a restored one-room schoolhouse dating back to 1816. This structure, interestingly enough, was originally located at Atkins Corners and was moved by the Patterson Historical Society to its present location on the grounds of the Carmel School District Offices on South Street. This schoolhouse would have been built long after our ancestors died or left the area but was interesting to see, nonetheless.

We visited the Presbyterian Churchyard, that dated back to the early 1800s but there were no surnames “Hearns” that we could see. The headstones are very old and very difficult to read. Again, this churchyard would have come into existence long after our ancestors had left the area.

The area of Patterson at one time fell into the area known as the “Oblong”. Its proximity is so close to the Connecticut border that one could see how there was a dispute in the 1700s with regard to which state this area belonged: New York or Connecticut. There was no information to be found in the actual Village of Patterson in regard to genealogy research prior to the 1800s, or much else for that matter.

On September 19th, 2002 we headed for the nearby town of Carmel, New York as we had been told that the County Clerk’s office in Carmel might be able to give us some assistance. We went to there and found out that any land records or deeds prior to 1812 would be located in Poughkeepsie. A very helpful clerk helped us to locate, approximately, the three acres of land that William Hearns purchased from Ebenezer Sturgis so long ago (1700s). The location of this land being the area of where Aikens (Atkins) Corners is now. He also provided us with the name and telephone number for the county historian, Sally Sypher in Brewster. That afternoon, we visited the small office of the county historian in Brewster and spent two hours pouring over old books and maps of the area. Still we did not find anything in writing on William Hearns being in the area. However, they did have copies of Pelletreau’s book for sale, so Laurie and I both bought a copy.

After leaving the county historian, we again visited Patterson, New York.

Using information obtained from the county clerk’s office, we managed to narrow down the location of William Hearns three acres would have been. Now standing on the ground where William would have lived in the mid 1700s is a gas station and a small plaza on one side of the road (to Patterson) and very small, crowded antique store with swampland behind it, on the other side of the same road.

Further down the road, a short distance, on both sides of the road, is marshland and swampy ground known as Bear‘s Swamp or Burr‘s Swamp. We took pictures of the area as a keepsake.

Unbelievably, we were unable to find one single souvenir of,Patterson that had its name on it, nothing! We asked about this at a number of place and were told that souvenirs just do not sell. The area surrounding the village, as I stated earlier, now contains the residences of families who commute to, and from, New York City every day. The road has only two lanes and poor pity you if you are on the road when the commute is on. The traffic is something to behold. However, one can see why people choose to commute to the Patterson area rather than live in New York City. It is peaceful with rolling hills and beautiful scenery. We visited a couple of old cemeteries out in the countryside, almost into Connecticut, but could not determine where William or Elizabeth were buried. We were told that back in the 1700s, it was not uncommon to bury the dead somewhere on their own property. This may have been the case, but we still do not know anything more than we knew before we left Canada, about William and Elizabeth Hearns at this point.