About this work
An independent local-history research effort
This site is the independent work of Rob Griffin, a Brewster resident whose research focuses on deed chains, period maps, and primary-source documentation of properties and people in the Town of Southeast and the surrounding area. The project is not affiliated with the Town of Southeast, the Village of Brewster, the Southeast Town Historian’s office, the Putnam County Historian’s office, or any other municipal or county body.
Every historical claim on these pages is traced to a physically reviewed source — a deed, a census, a period newspaper, a map, a federal record, or a verified secondary work. Where the record runs out, the site says so plainly. Confirmed findings, corroborated findings, and inferences are distinguished from each other, and unverified leads are flagged as such rather than asserted as fact.
The work proceeds slowly, one property and one person at a time. It is meant to be read slowly.
Contact
Write in
Corrections, additions, and questions are welcome. The same address handles all of them:
Email
- Ask a question — About anything on the site, or any property, person, or place in the area you’re researching yourself.
- Report a correction — If you spot an error of fact or attribution, a misdated source, a misread name, or a misidentified property line, write in. Corrections are taken seriously and updates are made promptly.
- Suggest an addition — If you have a family photo, a deed, a clipping, a postcard, a story passed down, or a primary source that bears on something on the site, the project is interested in seeing it.
- Point at a source — If you know of a book, map, ledger, or archive the project hasn’t found, mention it.
Replies generally come within a few days. The project does not solicit donations, sell anything, or use mailing-list software; the email address goes to a person.
Methodology
How the research is done
The disciplines that govern the work, written down so readers can see them and so the project can be held to them.
- Primary sources first. Every assertion of fact — a date, an owner, a relationship, a transaction — is traced to a physically reviewed primary document: a deed, a census enumeration, a period newspaper, a map, a tax assessment, a vital record, a federal record. Secondary sources are used to identify leads and for context, not for assertion.
- Three tiers of source. Primary records (deeds, censuses, newspapers, federal records) are the highest tier. Period maps and atlases (Burr 1829, O’Connor 1854, Beers 1867, Reed 1876) are the second tier. Standard nineteenth-century county histories (Blake 1849, Pelletreau 1886, Beers 1897, Haight 1912, Zimm 1946) are the third tier — useful for corroboration and for leads, but their claims must be traced down to primary sources before publication on the site.
- Occupancy and title are independent questions. A family can have lived in a house without ever appearing in its deed chain, and a deed-named owner can be a holding entity that never set foot in the place. The site does not silently collapse these into one another.
- Evidence grading is mandatory. Confirmed claims, corroborated claims, inferences from circumstantial evidence, and unverified leads are labeled differently. Replacing one confident narrative with another confident narrative is an error even when the new evidence is stronger.
- Uncertainty is preserved. Where the record is genuinely thin, the site says so. Open research questions are flagged for what they are, not glossed over.
- Privacy for current residents. Active owners and occupants of currently occupied private residences are not named on the site, and street numbers of currently occupied homes are generally not published. Corporate ownership entities are recorded as such, since they are public registrations. This is a deliberate restraint on what a primary-source research project could otherwise display.
- Corrections are recorded, not hidden. When the site has been wrong and the error is later caught, the correction is made and (where the change is substantive) the prior reading is acknowledged. The project is not interested in pretending it always had the right answer.
Sources
The bibliography under the work
A working list of the substantive sources the project has consulted across all of its current pages. Entries marked “★” are foundational — works that anchor a significant portion of the site’s narrative. This list is incomplete and will grow; individual research pieces and marker pages cite additional sources specific to those locations.
Books & County Histories
Standard nineteenth- and twentieth-century county and regional histories. Used for context and leads; specific claims are traced down to primary sources before publication.
- ★ William J. Blake, The History of Putnam County, N.Y. (New York: Baker & Scribner, 1849). The earliest published history of Putnam County, written within living memory of the Revolutionary generation. Internet Archive:
historyofputnamc00bla. - ★ William S. Pelletreau, History of Putnam County, New York (Philadelphia: W. W. Preston & Co., 1886). The standard nineteenth-century county history; deed-level genealogical detail. Internet Archive:
historyofputnamc00pell. - J. H. Beers & Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Dutchess County, New York (Chicago, 1897). Paid-subscription “leading families” format; Northern Dutchess focus. Internet Archive:
commemorativebio00beers. - Oxford Publishing Co. (Haight et al.), Historical and Genealogical Record, Dutchess and Putnam Counties, New York (Poughkeepsie, c. 1912). Internet Archive:
historicalgeneal01oxfo. - Louise Hasbrouck Zimm (ed.), Southeastern New York: A History of the Counties of Ulster, Dutchess, Orange, Rockland and Putnam (Lewis Historical Publishing, 1946).
- H. L. Barnum, The Spy Unmasked, or Memoirs of Enoch Crosby (1828, expanded 1886). Used for the Enoch Crosby marker page.
- Willis Fletcher Johnson, Colonel Henry Ludington: A Memoir (privately printed, 1907). Used for the Ludington’s March marker page.
- Howes Family Genealogy (1892). Used for cross-checks on the Howes family of Southeast Centre.
- Brewster Through the Years — full bibliographic citation pending.Cited in research notes; on-page citations hedged pending bibliographic verification.
- The Town of Southeast 1788–1988 (bicentennial publication). Not yet reviewed for the project.
- Lake Tonetta: A Guide to the Past, Present and Future (1997). Not yet reviewed for the project.
Newspapers & Periodicals
Local and regional newspaper articles, notices, and obituaries, mostly from the Brewster Standard and Putnam County Courier archives. Where transcribed in full for the project, the transcription is held in the project’s working files.
- “Tone’s Pond” (notice), Putnam County Courier, May 7, 1853. The earliest known dated newspaper reference to Tonetta Lake by its prior name.
- H. H. Roberts, “Historical Sketch” (Centennial address), Putnam County Standard, July 14, 1876. Records the nickname “Tony” for the Tone’s Pond namesake.
- Notice on Lake Tonetta, Putnam County Courier, March 15, 1895.
- Obituary of Orrin Hutchinson, Brewster Standard, c. 1886. Records the maternal grandfather as “Tone Seeley” rather than Anthony Waring — an open-research data point.
- “Thirty Years Ago and Now” (anonymous), Brewster Standard, 1904.
- Laura Voris Bailey, “Historical Sketch of Brewster,” Brewster Standard, March 23, 1944 (eight pages).
- Esther Lobdell Addis, “Social Reminiscences,” Brewster Standard, June 17, 1948.
- Louis S. Patrick, “Secret Service of the American Revolution,” Connecticut Magazine (1907). Used for the Ludington research.
- Roderick Cassidy Jr., “The Hidden History of Tone’s Pond Discovered: The Namesake of a Revolutionary War Hero,” Brewster Bear Facts, February 6, 2024.
- Andrew DiFabbio, “Op-Ed: Perspective On Black History In Putnam County,” Patch, August 27, 2020. Putnam County Historian’s Office PILOT internship piece.
- “Lake Tonetta: Black History,” New York Almanack, February 2024.
Maps & Atlases
Period maps and atlases, used both for property identification and for the cartographic record of place-names over time.
- David H. Burr, Map of the Counties of Dutchess and Putnam, New York (1829, with revisions through 1839). The earliest standard map covering the area as it appears in the Burr State Atlas. Internet Archive:
dr_map-of-the-counties-of-dutchess-and-putnam-new-york-0105034. - ★ John O’Connor, Map of Putnam County, New York (1854). The first dedicated map of Putnam County after Burr; first cartographic appearance of “Tonetta Lake.”
- Sidney & Neff, Map of Putnam County (1854). Companion publication to O’Connor; subscription-based property labeling.
- ★ F. W. Beers, Atlas of New York and Vicinity, Town of Southeast plate (1867). The foundational property-level atlas for the Southeast Centre research; subscription-based household-level labeling.
- Thomas H. Reed, Map of Putnam County, N.Y. (1876). Compiled after the final New York–Connecticut boundary settlement.
- NYC Department of Water Supply, Map 799 of the East Branch Reservoir area (c. 1898–1905). Watershed appraisal map for the East Branch Reservoir condemnation proceedings.
- Putnam County Chamber of Commerce, Map of Putnam County (1931).
Federal & Public Records
Government records consulted directly — physical or scanned — for primary-source verification.
- Putnam County Clerk’s Office, deed liber records (continuous from 1812). The single most-consulted primary source set for the project. Most deeds cited on the site have been physically pulled at the Clerk’s Office in Carmel.
- U.S. Federal Census records for the Town of Southeast, 1810–1950 (accessed via NARA digital collections).
- New York State Census records for the Town of Southeast, where available.
- NARA Revolutionary War Pension Files (Record Group 15) — especially the Anthony Waring pension file (Brewster HS / Citizen Archivist Mission transcription, 2024).
- Putnam County Surrogate’s Court probate records, used where deed gaps run through estate administration.
- Putnam County Real Property Tax Service Agency — current tax map sections (especially 57.17 and 57.18 for the Sodom Road corridor).
Secondary Studies, Reference Works & Online Resources
Modern scholarly and reference works consulted for context and corroboration. Not used as primary attribution.
- Adventures Around Putnam (Steven Mattson, ed.). Regional historical-tourism reference; used for post-Revolutionary lake-history detail and similar narrative-level context.
- Putnam History Museum (formerly Putnam County Historical Society) digital collection on New York Heritage / CONTENTdm.
- David Rumsey Map Collection — primary online repository for digitized period American cartography.
- Internet Archive — primary online repository for digitized public-domain books cited above.
- Library of Congress Geography & Map Division — for federal-level map holdings.
- Wikipedia — used only as a starting reference for well-established broader historical context (e.g., the Siege of Yorktown, the Corps of Sappers and Miners). Never cited as authoritative for any local-history claim.
Suggestions of additional sources are welcome — see Contact above.