New Windsor steeped in early U.S. history

By Bond Brungard
For the Poughkeepsie Journal

Originally a part of Ulster County, this Orange County town has 27,000 residents and is home to Stewart International Airport. It also boasts some famous citizens and a military tradition well over 200 years old.

New Windsor-born Dr. Thomas Young helped jump- start the American Revolution as a leader of the Boston Tea Party. His brother, Joseph, wrote the first medical textbook in the United States.

Probably no New Windsor natives are better known than the Clintons -- George, James and his son, DeWitt.

George Clinton became New York's first governor in 1777 when the capital was briefly in Kingston. He later served as the United States vice president.

James Clinton helped command the invasion of Quebec in 1775 and later build fortifications near West Point.

DeWitt joined the U.S. Senate in 1802, but resigned a year later to become mayor of New York City.

In 1817, he became the governor of New York, and helped make New York City a world center of trade by championing the Erie Canal.

New Windsor served as final encampment during the Revolutionary War in the winter of 1782-1783. About 7,500 troops and their families were based at the New Windsor Cantonment. "Cantonment," said Mike Clark, site manager of the New Windsor Cantonment, "basically means encampment."

Troops arrived in the fall of 1782 and started building camp. By spring 1783, a treaty was signed ending the war. Thousands of soldiers soon started getting their final furloughs and returned to their homes and farms.

Today, most of the early farms and forests that popped up after the Revolution have been replaced by residential and commercial development. The original village of New Windsor was located along the Hudson River and once served as a ferry terminal from Fishkill Landing, now Beacon.

The ferry moved north to Newburgh, before the crossing ceased in favor of the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge.

Development accelerated after 1950.

In the Vails Gate area of town, there's a busy cluster of strip malls. Another area known as Little Britain serves as the entrance to Stewart International Airport.

Stewart Field was used for many years to train pilots and became a part of the U.S. Air Force's Strategic Air Command before closing in 1969.

In the early 1990s, Stewart International Airport opened and made air travel much more convenient for residents of the mid-Hudson Valley.