ancestral homes of the Brooks family, descendants of Fletcher Mathews, one of the original settlers, and also the old Nicoll homestead, now occupied by Charles Nicoll. Northwest of Washingtonville is the old Joseph Moffatt homestead, now held by his grandsons, C. R. Shons and S. L. Moffatt, who have beautiful orchards, which, with that of Jesse Hulse, crown the beautiful hilltop and have made "Blooming Grove apples" famous both at home and abroad; also the Walnut Grove farm, upon which the first Goldsmiths settled, and made famous by Alden Goldsmith and his sons, James and John A., now in the hands of the widow of John A. and her husband, Mr. O. B. Stillman; also the home of the late Captain Thomas N. Hulse, so long and so favorably known years ago to all travelers upon the Hudson River, now the home of his niece, Mrs. James A. Knapp, daughter of Benjamin Moffatt. Two and a half miles east of the village of Washingtonville is the village of Salisbury Mills, the oldest settlement of the town, where, on the falls of Murderer's Creek, Vincent Mathews built his mill, which later was owned by Captain Richard Caldwell, by Peter Van Allen, by Isaac Oakly, and is now the Arlington paper mills, owned and operated on a very large scale by Henry Ramsdell. Here in 1803 came John Caldwell, and with him his three sons, John, Andrew J. and Richard. Richard, then a mere lad, had been at the head of a company in the Emmet Rebellion, and through the clemency of Lord Cornwallis his sentence of death was commuted to banishment for himself and his father's family. He came to Salisbury with his father, and in 1808 married a daughter of John Chandler. He had the mill and a store at Salisbury. When the war with England in 1812 became a certainty, Richard Caldwell raised the 25th Co. Infantry of soldiers, was elected their captain, and led them toward Canada, crossing Lake Champlain in open boats, in a severe storm. He divided his extra clothing with his soldiers, and contracted a severe cold, resulting in pneumonia, and he died December 11, 1812, and is buried at Champlain, near Plattsburgh. His name is perpetuated by the beautiful monument erected in Salisbury Mills by his nephew, Richard Caldwell, to his memory and the memory of those who perished with him in that ill-advised and ill-equipped expedition; also to the memory of Captain Isaac Nicoll and those who died with him, in the War of the Rebellion. Captain Richard Caldwell left two children, John R. Caldwell, long well known as a prominent citizen of New Windsor, and Mary, the wife of Marcus Sears, M.D. The old house erected by John Caldwell in 1803 is still standing, long known as the home of Andrew J. Caldwell and his son, Richard Caldwell, both of whom stood firm for righteousness and temperance. In a part of the same grounds was the home of a sister, Mrs. Chambers, now occupied by the widow of Richard Caldwell, and from which still emanates a powerful influence for good to the whole village.