Amenia’s Oblong Valley

In the mid-1700s land in the precinct of Amenia could be bought in “large tracts,” said Newton Reed in his “Early History of Amenia” (1985, 4th edition). In 1731 Amenia’s Oblong Valley land acreage was 14,500 acres and had been divided into two tiers of square lots, each 500-plus acres and numbered 43-72. He also tells us that one such buyer was Peter Cline, who in 1760 bought over “one-half of Oblong Lot 49 for $10.50 per acre.” This land began near the east/southeast end of what became Benson Road and continued on easterly past the South Amenia hamlet area first known as Cline’s Corners. A road continued northeast from there to Amenia Union where it made a connection at the Sharon, Conn., town line with the first “New England to the Hudson River” east-west thoroughfare, that in the Amenia precinct “followed through the Oblong Valley to the Steel Works,” wrote Reed. It was a very significant route. In the year 1778 of the Revolutionary War, captured Hessian troops passed through Cline’s Corners and the Steel Works on this route on their way to Fishkill from Massachusetts. Peter Cline was highly regarded by the citizens of Amenia, as “an example of industry, frugality and honesty,” wrote Reed. Both he and his son, John, signed the Roll of Honor of loyalty to the colonies in 1775. Peter was listed as having served as a soldier during the Revolutionary War. John had six children, some of whom remained in the area, wrote Reed. It was John’s son Philo who became the first postmaster of the South Amenia Post Office in 1823. It was located in Cline’s General Store there, according to Roy Ahlquist in his 1992 pamphlet about “Amenia Township Post Office History.” “Vail’s 1870-71 Dutchess County Directory,” published by John Vail, lists a sum total of 932 acres for Albert, Franklin and John H. Cline. Then, in the Dec. 9, 1893 edition of the “Amenia Times” was this: “Mr. E.E. Cline has accepted a position in the Wassaic milk factory. Mr. Cline is a man of marked integrity and was never known to even ‘color’ a statement. Any business responsibility and trust is safe under his charge.” His name was Edward. In 1950, down in the Steelworks section of Wassaic, Stuart (Stewart) Cline, who had had an auto business there, moved it west onto Route 22 (now Cousin’s Mini Market), according to Amenia Historical Society archives. Prior to that he had been a part of J.H. Smith’s & Sons “Everything for the Farmer” store noted Joyce Ghee and Joan Spence in their “Hudson Valley Pathways” pictorial series of 1998. I remember when he lived on North Road (Route 22) across from the Presbyterian Church with his wife, Nan, and sons, Stuart Jr. and Ronald. In the 1940s Ron, as a student at Amenia High School, played basketball and baseball. He was on winning teams that included Joe Kain, Ray Proper, Bud McDonald, Ray McEnroe and Tom Downey Sr. They were coached by Gorman Bonville. Sadly, he was killed in an automobile accident in Amenia in 1956. Arlene Iuliano is Amenia town historian.