Its
deed reads: "THIS INDENTURE made the twenty eight day of
June in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eight
three BETWEEN Joseph Belknap of the Precinct of New Windsor in
the County of Ulster and the State of New York Yeoman of the one
part and Jacob Mills Jacob Wigans and Jeduthan Belknap of the
same place Yeoman of the other part WHEREAS a certain parcel of
ground (part of the Farm of Land belonging to the said Joseph
Belknap) is now laid out with a design to appropriate the same
for the use of a school seminary AND WHEREAS by the contribution
of sundry Persons in the vicinity thereof a Building is now
erecting on the premises for the use aforesaid, The said piece or
parcel of ground to be hereby granted or meant to be hereby
granted for the use aforesaid is situate butted and bounded as
followeth Viz, BEGINNING at a stone sunk in the ground on the
westerly side of the Highway leading to Newburgh twenty one
chains and eighty links on a course north sixty seven degrees
west from the most easterly corner of said Joseph Belknap’s
said Farm…containing thirty six square perches nearly. NOW
THEREFORE THIS INDENTURE WITNESSETH that the said Joseph Belknap
for and in consideration of the sum of ten pounds to him in hand
paid…for the use of School Seminary or Nursery of Learning
for ever and for no other use purpose or design
whatsoever…the Receipt whereof and satisfaction for the same
is hereby acknowledged…"
When it was discovered that Joseph Belknap’s farm was all along the southern boundary of the Square from the southwestern tip to the southeastern, it was clear that the above deed was for the school, which was later called Silver Stream School. The road which was the southern boundary of the Square was the Little Britain to New Windsor Road. There was no causeway across Washington Lake at that time, and the road to Newburgh left the main road and went around the north side of Little Pond, later named Washington Lake. It came to be called Silver Stream Road as far as the north tip of the Square and west on to the Turnpike. The northern half of the road is buried under Stewart Field, and the southern tip of it was moved a bit to the west when the Thruway was built. The side of Silver Stream School is under the Thruway.
Little Britain had five district schools. The other four are still in existence as dwellings, Mr. Airy, the White School, Elmwood and Clinton. But Silver Stream School has neither site nor building to remind us of its early and long importance.
It was know as Silver Stream School for years, but in the New Windsor PRECINCT JOURNAL it is called Square District no. 5, and is described as follows, "bounded on the east by Snake Hill on the west line of the School district no. 1, on the north by the town line of New Windsor and Newburgh, on the west by the road leading from the Newburgh and Cochecton Turnpike to Bethlehem Meeting House including all the inhabitants living on the easterly side of said road and as far southerly so as to include Grant Bowers, and then on easterly course so as to include James Alexander and Hugh McGill and all living on the Little Britain Road to Snake Hill."
Some of these people can be located. Joseph Belknap lived in the second house east of the road now called Square Hill Road. Jeduthan Belknap lived where the Cromes now live. Jacob Mills lived diagonally across from Joseph Belknap in the house recently sold by Miss Ada Brown to Mr. William McCauley. Grant Bowers lived where St. Joseph’s School is. The road to Bethlehem MeetingHouse is now called Jackson Ave. Some of the pupils had a long walk to school, too far, and so a new district was formed a bit later near Pig Lane (Jackson Ave.) to accommodate some from district no. 4, Mt. Airy, and no. 5, Square district.
The early records of the school are lost, and pages 140-159 are missing from the PRECINCT JOURNAL, right in the section about schools. The first building was small, as were all the earliest schools. Four of the district schools of Little Britain built new and better buildings in the 1860’s, Silver Stream School among the. They needed more land for it, just as the other three did. It was not a new location, but an extension of what they already had. The New Windsor farm map of 1864 shows the school on the corner of Little Britain Road and Silver Stream Road. That was the first small building. The new deed is dated June 5, 1867 and records that Daniel Moores and his wife Hannah sold to John S. Wear, James H. Moores and James E. Denniston, trustees of School District no. 5 of the town of New Windsor land at the corner of Silver Stream Road and Little Britain Road. The price was $50.00.
The deed by which Daniel Mores had acquired this land has not been found, but the location and buyer prove it was for the second building for School district no.5. It was probably built right away in 1867. When the building was torn down, the nameplate above the door was broken, but Mr. Nathaniel Brown saved the pieces, but now they to have disappeared. Many people have been asked if they could remember the date on that nameplate they saw so often, but all have forgotten what it said.
We know more about the Silver Stream Sunday school than about the day school. Miss Margarette Moores of Moores’ Hill Road wrote of it to A.V.S. Wallace in 1918, "About the year 1830 a Sabbath School afterwards known as Silver Stream Union Sabbath School was started near Washington Lake in the kitchen of the house of Samuel Lockwood, who was an elder in the Presbyterian Church of New Windsor, for the children of the neighborhood. After a few years it was moved to Silver Stream School-house, then a small one-story building, where it has been maintained ever since…About 1885 the school was large, often seventy five or eighty at its sessions, which were held from the first Sabbath of May until the last of November…William D. Moores was superintendent for more than twenty years. During his time of service the school passed from a summer school to one, which held its sessions all year. After his death his sisters still carry on the work of the school, holding it during the winter months in the parlors of their home, and the rest of the year in the Silver Stream Hall…"
Miss Moores mentions Silver Stream Hall. When the small school was replaced with a brick building, the people of the neighborhood added enough money to have a two-story building, the upper floor being for the Sunday school. It was used also for other community meetings.
The trustees’ book of Silver Stream School, safe in the fireproof file of the New Windsor town historian, dates only from 1914 to 1938. Some of the family names of those years are Merritt, Markey, Flynn, Lahey, Glassey, Lare, Denniston, Clark, Sloan. Most of the earlier teachers of this period taught for only one year, but Mrs. Ethel Crome began teaching in 1926 and continued till 1941 when the school was closed. After that the pupils were sent by contract to Cornwall for twenty years.
On December 4, 1957, a petition was signed by 322 with 24 opposing and 8 not voting to apply to Washingtonville to be a member of that central school district. This petition was accepted effective March 10, 1958. Meanwhile some of the Silver Stream people changed their minds, preferring Newburgh, and drew up a counter petition. As a result, District no. 5 of the town of New Windsor became a part of the Newburgh school system December 14, 1962.
The building was sold at auction, Warren Sloan auctioneer, September 7, 1946 to Robert Smollens of Liberty for $4050, and was converted to a dwelling, the exterior unchanged. When the Thruway was built, Silver Stream School was demolished and its site buried.
NOTE: Please make two corrections in earlier "Big" LITTLE BRITAIN articles.
In the article about the Parshalls of Parshall Lane, Jemima Knapp’s birth date is given as 1738. This was taken from the HISTORY OF THE PARSHALL FAMILY. In THE NICHOLAS KNAPP GENEALOGY it is given as 1754. This is the correct date. In 1738 her father was ten years old. After the Pig Lane article was in print, Miss Martha Corwin said that the wedding story about her father was correct except that the MacGregors had not yet moved to the stone house, which they did a year later, but were living south of her home on what is now called Lake Road.
If other errors are found in these articles about Little Britain, please report them that the record may be corrected.
[Webmaster’s Note: Jonathan and Jemima Parshall’s two eldest sons were born 1762 and 1766, therefore, the 1754 date given in THE NICHOLAS KNAPP GENEALOGY would have made that Jemima too young to be the wife of Jonathan Parshall, however, thus far no Jemima Knapp has been found that was born in 1738 and could have been the wife of Jonathan. Though I have no concrete proof, I believe Jonathan actually married Jemima TERRY, daughter of Jonathan Terry and Jemima Parshall, born March 23, 1738 (the birth date given in the HISTORY OF THE PARSHALL FAMILY.]
Created by Elizabeth Finley Frasier
February 16, 2004
