Dutchess' rich heritage reflects growth of nation

We are cities, towns, villages and hamlets, many of more than passing historic note. We are a world-renowned river that flows our length from north to south. We are farms of which there were once many more. And home to a giant computer company that until recently was much larger.

What we are is: Dutchess County, established through passage of the Colonial Assembly Act as one of the 12 original counties formed in New York Province. It took its name from Mary Beatric de Este, the Duchess of York and later Queen of England.

Our heritage is Dutch. Native American. African-American. Italian and Irish, too, to name a few. Two of our native sons are in baseball's Hall of Fame: Dan Brouthers of Wappingers Falls and Eddie Collins of Millerton. Two of our nation's most respected journalists … Lowell Thomas and Edward R. Murrow … were neighbors in Pawling. Two of their neighbors opposed each other in the 1944 presidential race … Thomas E. Dewey of Pawling and Franklin D. Roosevelt of Hyde Park. Remarkable when you think about it.

No more remarkable, perhaps, as how famous the Smith Brothers became because of the cough drops produced at their City of Poughkeepsie factory. You bet George Washington slept here. More than a few times. Also the Vanderbilts. And kings and queens. Paul Newman must have slept over at least once while filming a movie.

Timothy Leary lived in Millbrook at the height of the psychedelic 1960s. One of his neighbors was Jimmy Cagney, the "Yankee Doodle Dandy'' man. One of the first domestic airliner hijackings ended with a sharpshooter's bullet on the tarmac of Dutchess County Airport.

The county consists of 805 square miles. The topography generally can be divided into two areas bounded by the Taconic State Parkway and Interstate 84. Land west of the Taconic and west of the interstate is dotted with low hills. Much of the rest of the county features taller, rounded hills and low mountains.

In southern Dutchess, Mount Beacon rises 1,602 feet above sea level. But the highest peak is Brace Mountain just north of Millerton, at 2,311 feet. Major waterways include the Wappinger and Fishkill creek and the Ten Mile River in eastern Dutchess. The Wappinger Creek and its tributaries drain more than one-quarter of the county. The Ten Mile draws about another one-quarter. Freshwater wetlands cover 6.4 percent or 33,000 acres.

There are those who would say that Dutchess County is not what it once was. Nor, it might be argued, as great as it will be.