Notes |
- Benjamin Totten is listed in the 1698 Census of Hempstead.
Benjamin Totten struck up a friendship with Jurgen/Jurrie Springsteen of Bowrie and Fishkill, who was not satisfied with the way Hempstead was becoming crowded and the lack of available land in the area. They decided to seek their fortunes elsewhere. Jurgen and his wife along with Benjamin, who was probably unmarried at the time, packed everything they owned into two wagons and started the long, perilous journey upstate looking for suitable land to start farming. They found it in the highlands, as the early Dutch called the Mattewan area, along Fishkill Creek, presently Beacon, New York, in what later was to become Dutchess County.
It is not known when they reached the highlands but it was probably between 1695 and 1700. Jurgen and Benjamin started working the land, clearing fields and plowing. Benjamin recorded his cattle mark in Hempstead in 1701. Benjamin is listed in the Dutchess County, NY, South Ward census 1729, 1730 and 1740. His Will is listed in the New York Calendar of Wills, page 391.
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