News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-05-06
PHEBE REYNOLDS PLUCK.
QUAKER's DAUGHTER IN NIGHT OF
TERROR.

There is no fairer or richer portion of
Orange county than that lying in the
picturesque vale known as Smiths Glove.
1t is properly the head of the Ramapo
valley. When the locality was still a
wilderness, and the western encarpment
of the Hudson Highlands was an un-
discovered region, family made their
way from Brookhaven, Long Island,
through the trackless area that lay be-
tween the Hudson and the Ramapo, and
became the first settlers in that part of
Orange county. Their name was Smith,
and they gave the name to the Glove,
which it still bears. The date of this
family's coming into the county is un-
known, but when the Revolutionary war
began the head of the family was an old
man, with a number of grown-up sons.
The elder Smith was man of unsavury
reputation, and his oldest son, Claud1us,
inherited his fathers ignoble traits.
The Smiths were rank Tories Claudius
Smith became the leader of gang of
outlaws, and lis name was o terror to
the patriot families who were scattered
about the then frontier in Orange and
Sussex counties. Claudius Smiths cow
bows and their deeds of blood were
shudcringly recounted by the survivors
of those troublous times and their de
scendants for many years after the war
was over, and still afford subjects for
many dramatic tale. Claudius Smith
became known as the scourge of the
Highlands. He was finally captured by
a band of patriot scouts, and was hanged
in Goshen in the public square on the
22d of January, 1879. He was buried
at the foot of the scaffold. and his re-
mains have never been disturbed.
In the ancient and lonely burying
ground at Neversink Flats, one of the
Isolated mountain villages of Sullivan
county, are two graves, long ago over
grown and now almost forgotten. One
contains the remains of Henry Reynolds,
who died in 1880, aged 80 years. The
other is the grave of his daughter, Phe-
be Drake, who died in 1853, aged SO. 1t
is singular fact that the story of Henry
REYNOLDS and his heroic daughter. the
most intensely thrilling and dramatic,
as it is, of all the recitals that have come
down from the times made perilous by
Claudius Smith and his murderous band
of marauders, finds no place of record
in the annals of Orange county, except
brief legendary chronicle, in which a
''Mr. Runnells" is mentioned as having
been made the victim of the cowboys.
The one great story of the lives of Hen
~ Reynolds and his daughter is related
as follows by an old resident of Never
sink Flats, who is spending his declin-
ing days with a daughter in Goshen, N.
Y. He heard it many time from the
lips of the parties themselves sixty
years and more ago.
Henry Reynolds was a Quaker. He
was a native of Westchester county. In
1869 he married a descendant of Henry
Fowler, an original owner of the town
ship of East Chester. Reynolds was
then in the mercantile business in Peeks-
kill. In 1777 he was one of the suffer
ers by the burning of that place by the
British, all his property being consumed.
He escaped with his wife and five chill
dren, and settled IN Smiths Glove, Or
ange county, not far from the present
village of Monroe Although Quak er
he was an ardent defender of the cause
of the colonies, and even so far tres
passed on the requirements of his relig
! ion as to Join the "minute men," AS one
/ OIL lncSc DIdVC ClllLCh 6OluIClS hG PAL VIC
| ipated in the storming of Stony Point
under Gen. Wayne, in 1873. His out
spoken sentiments and active demonstra
tons in behalf of the American cause
| gained for him the bitter enmity of hi
| Tory neighbors, and several attempts
were made on his life during the war b!
Claudius Smith and his gang.
After the execution of Smith at Gosh
en- his followers swore to avenge hi
death by taking the lives of larg
! number of leading Wings, one of whom
was Henry Reynolds. 1t was not unit
| 1882. however, that what was INTENDED
to be the decisive blow against HIM wa
struck. Late one night in July of tina
ear Reynolds was awakened by lout
raDpino at his door. He arose from
bed. and asked who was there.
ga detachment of American troop
looking for deserters, was the reply.
/ Washington's army was encamped i
he Highlands, q few miles from Rey
nold's house, and it was well known tina
a number of deserters were cOnceale,
somewhere in the vicinity. Reynold
hastily dressed himself and opened tn
door to the supposed American soldiers
They entered, and while Reynolds wa
stopping down by the fireplace to ligh
candle, one of the Tories struck hir
with his sword and exclaimed:
"Hurry up, you old rebelw
Reynold knew at once that he ha
been duped by the Tories. He turne
quickly around with the lighted candl
in his hand, and recognized Beniami
Kelly, who lived within half a mile G
him, and Edward Robin, another neigh
Dor, both members of the Claudiu
Smith gang. They were accompanie
by several others. Reynolds dashed pas
them and got out of doors, but stumble
and fell He was seized by the Torie
and dragged back into the house. ii
called loudly to bound boy who live
in his family to run for assistance: A
the boy was hurrying out of the hous
Edward Robin seized him and stoo
him against the wall, and told him ths