In the southern towns of the County of Ulster, afterward transferred to Orange, changes were made in 1709. The precincts of Highlands and Shawangunk were attached to New Paltz, and the present Orange County towns of Montgomery, Crawford and Wallkill were then embraced within its limits. These divisions continued until 1743, when they were changed to three precincts--Wallkill, Shawangunk and Highlands. There was also the precinct of Mamakating west of the precincts of Wallkill and Shawangunk, the northern part of which was made a part of Deer Park in 1798 by the law annexing the Ulster County towns. In 1762 the precinct of Highlands was divided into the precincts of Newburgh and New Windsor, and in 1772 the precinct of Newburgh was divided so as to form another precinct on the north, named New Marlborough. The same law divided the precinct of Wallkill so that its northern section became the precinct of Hanover. In 1782 the name of this precinct was changed to Montgomery by permission of the Provincial Convention of the State. By the general act of 1788 the Ulster County precincts which have been named were erected into the towns of Newburgh, New Windsor, New Marlborough, Shawangunk and Montgomery. In the winter of 1797, after much opposition to plans for changing the boundaries of Orange and Ulster Counties, two bills were agreed upon by a Convention of Delegates from the several towns interested, and these were presented to the Legislature and passed. One of them set off from Orange the present County of Rockland, and the other annexed to Orange County the towns of New Windsor, Newburgh, Wallkill, Montgomery and Deer Park, then the southern section of the county of Ulster. In 1801 a general law dividing the State into counties fixed the then somewhat undefined boundaries of Orange, and another law adopted the same year fixed the boundaries of its towns as they now are, with the exception of Woodbury and Tuxedo, into which Monroe was separated in 1890. The first Board of Supervisors of the present county, which met in Goshen in 1798, was composed as follows: John Vail, Goshen; Francis Crawford, New Windsor; Reuben Tooker, Newburgh; Anselem Helme, Cornwall; Jacob Post, Warwick; Nathan Arnont, Minisink; James Finch, Deer Park; David Gallatin, Montgomery; Andrew McCord, Wallkill. Since that time the three towns of Greenville, Wawayanda and Highlands have been erected. [Illustration: Washington's Headquarters, Newburgh] CHAPTER II. EARLY INDIAN CHARACTER AND CONDUCT. Among the surprises experienced by Columbus and the explorers who sailed up and down the coast of North America soon after his great discovery, were the characteristics of the newly-found race of native Indians. Their tribal differences were comparatively slight, and although uncivilized, many of them exhibited traits which indicated a remote ancestry above savagery, and caused speculation which has not yet ceased.