Village and Town of Newburgh Records 1803-1838 Contents

Village and Town of Newburgh Records 1803-1838

These records have been transcribed from the original manuscript book now in the possession of the city of Newburgh, New York. Every attempt has been made to replicate the original spelling and punctuation; brackets indicate when a word or number was illegible or doubtful. Bars indicate the original page breaks.

Road Taxes Keeping the roads and bridges in passable condition was considered to be the responsibility of those the roads served. Therefore, road taxes were levied on residents rather than only on landowners - widows, grown sons living at home, hired hands, and renters were all listed in the road tax rolls. The unit of measurement was that of "a day's labor" which could be worked off, commuted to cash, or otherwise abated. Residents with large tracts of land were tallied as owing more days of labor than hired hands or tenants. And someone whose land took in roads in more than one District was listed in all Districts he was considered to have the benefit of.

The town was divided into Road Districts, each with an Overseer responsible for getting the work done and the money collected. These districts are carefully described, because they do not represent areas on a map, but groupings of specific roads; and roads, at this time, were not named. In general, "streets" were laid out and named by surveyors, while "roads" were created by the traffic using them and were described by their destination -- so the Village of Newburgh at this time included "Clinton Street" and "Liberty Street, also known as King Street," but the present Gidney Avenue (which ran through the Glebe, outside the Village) was referred to as "The road to Limestone Hill" or "The road to Gidney's Mill." It can be noted that most of the Village of Newburgh (it was incorporated in 1800) usually comprises only one Road District. The Road Tax records begin with a table showing the responsibilities of the various Overseers, and then proceed to a detailed listing of individuals and a description of the districts. In later years, the table was omitted, and sometimes the only districts to be described were those that had changed.

1803

Road Commissioners Accounts

1804

Accounts

1805

Accounts

1807

Road Districts, Poor Masters Report, Town Meeting, Road Tax Rolls, Election

1808

Road Districts, Town Meeting, Road Tax Rolls, Election, Town Assessor Replacement

1809

Road Districts, Accounts, Town Meeting, Road Tax Rolls