As early as 1670 Hollanders settled here. The first interesting house one meets on entering the village from the south is the old Dutch parsonage which, being of brick, was a tower of strength against the Indians as well as the Devil. The Indians raided this region in 1755 and visited the neighborhood of Kinderhook at a time when the men were away, but their stout-hearted wives and daughters were equal to the occasion; for, donning such male attire as they could find and shouldering the family arms, they made such a brave show in and about the fort that the Indians retired without attempting its capture. A short distance east of this stands another old parsonage-fort, but little or nothing seems to be known concerning its history, though legend mentions its cellar door as bearing the marks of Indian tomahawks. It is said to be a fact that the heavy timbers in some of these old houses were imported from Holland to these heavily wooded banks of the Hudson. [Sidenote: _CENTENNIAL MANSION._] On the pleasantest street of the village stands the Centennial Mansion, opposite the Dutch Church, erected in 1774 by Daniel Van Schaack. The house has been the social centre of the town for more than a hundred years. One of its earliest associations concerns the visit of General Richard Montgomery, when on his way to take command of the army against Canada. Henry Van Schaack, a brother of Daniel, was an intimate friend of the General, they having been thrown together while in the Seventeenth Regiment in the war of 1755. In October, 1777, General Burgoyne, a prisoner of war, was quartered here for a short time, and during the following years a long list of prominent men passed through its hospitable portals: John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, Philip Schuyler, Chancellor Kent and others. After the Van Schaack regime had passed came the Hon. Cornelius P. Van Ness, who in due time became chief justice of the Supreme Court of Vermont, then its Governor, and later was minister to Spain. Washington Irving arouses the ire of the local historian by stating that the Van Ness ancestors came by their name because they were "valiant robbers of birds' nests." The next owner was a merry gentleman whose ghost is said to still haunt the sideboard. Then came Dr. John P. Beekman, whose first wife was a Van Schaack. He added the two wings which adorn either end of the building; and again its doors are opened wide, sharing, with Lindenwald, the honor of entertaining the nation's notables, many of them introduced by Van Buren. Such names as Henry Clay, Washington Irving, Thomas H. Benton, David Wilmot and Charles Sumner head the list. David Wilmot was a notably corpulent gentleman; his introduction by Van Buren to the lady of the house is said to have been put thus wise: "Mrs. Beekman, you have heard of the Wilmot Proviso--Here he is in the body." The house is now occupied by the widow of Aaron J. Vanderpoel, a Van Schaack grand-daughter.