Some time ago I wrote about ancestral and near-ancestral homes, in an entry titled – unsurprisingly — #34, A Collection of Ancestral Houses. I’m happy to report that two more have come to light.
The first is the Bevier House Museum, located in Marbletown, NY, near Kingston. It was stated in a 2013 Landmark Designation Application, that in 1666, our direct ancestor Cornelis Barentsen Slecht purchased the underlying land in Wiltwijck [now Kingston] from Menachamochqueu, a native woman. He farmed it, and is thought to have built upon it a stone dwelling that today is the core of the Bevier House.
By successive sales beginning in 1672, the house passed through the Van Leuven and Gonsalus families until, in 1715, it was purchased by Louis Bevier. It was held by the Bevier family until 1938 when it was donated to the Ulster County Historical Society, which today uses it as a headquarters and museum. Through the centuries it has been much altered by additions [1].
Wall of the Bevier House Museum, Marbletown, NY
The second house is the Bevier-Elting House, located on Huguenot Street in New Paltz, NY. Although both were Bevier houses, our connection to the second is through the marriage of Cornelis Barentsen Slecht’s daughter Jacomijntje to Jan Elting in Kingston in 1672. Their eldest son Roelif moved to New Paltz in the early 1700s, and it was his son Josiah Elting who purchased the Bevier home, in 1760 [2].
Thus this ancestral connection is more remote, pertaining to a second cousin several generations removed. But it still provides a good excuse to visit Huguenot Street, a National Historic Landmark District with many period homes, on the way to or from the Bevier House Museum. In both cases check first, of course, to see whether they are open during the COVID outbreak and during possible renovations.
The Bevier-Elting House, New Paltz, NY
We descend from the Slecht (Slack) family of this article through the Foster and Ellis families. It, and many intermarried families, are covered in the new 4th edition of The Omnibus Ancestry: 785 Documented American and European Lines(2020). The book is available through this link to Lulu.com. There is also a related post on this site: 1. John Slack of Mason County, Kentucky: Poverty Hiding a Glittering Past.
Notes:
[1] Information retrieved from https://www.marbletown.net/sites/g/files/vyhlif4666/f/uploads/bevierhouse_landmarkapplication.pdf (2020).
[2] Information retrieved from https://www.huguenotstreet.org/bevier-elting (2020).
Picture credits:
The picture “the bevier house” by thefleeg is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
The picture “Bevier House on Huguenot Street Historic District in New Paltz New York USA.JPG” by Swampyank is licensed under CC BY 3.0.
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