Major Abraham Fort

According to: Dutch Houses in the Hudson Valley Before 1776 by Helen Wilkinson Reynolds [Introduction by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Published under the auspices of the Holland Society of New York by Dover Publications Inc. NY - originally published 1929 - Reprint by Dover 1965] this home is described this way. House of Johannes A. Fort Town of Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York The house on the east side of the state road (formerly King's Highway), about 4 miles south of the city of Poughkeepsie and now owned by Frank Dickerson, was known years ago as the Fort homestead. The land it stands on was sold in 1759 by Christopher VanBommel to Johannes Abraham Fort ("late of Ulster County") and was built either by the Van Bommel Family between 1742 and 1759 or by Johannes A. Fort about 1760. The walls are of stone, the west front being faced with brick and the gable filled with the same. While the dormers and the porch are recent the interior still contains early wood-trim. The original floor plan consisted of two rooms on either side of the central hall but the two on the north are now thrown into one. A pane in one of the windows of the dining-room is cut: Jane Fort 1778, and another pane bears the inscription: Henry Dawkins, engraver. The Fort family was established in upper Albany County by 1700, where the name occurs as Laford, La Fort, Fort and VanderVort. Johannes Fort, born at Niscayuna, drifted down to Kingston and married there in 1749 Rebecca Ostrander. He it was who in 1759 removed to this farm of three hundred acres in the precinct of Poughkeepsie. Johannes Fort's son ABRAHAM (b. 1750 d. 1822) who was locally prominent in the War of the Revolution, succeeded his father in the house. And it was MAJOR ABRAHAM FORT'S wife, Jane, daughter of Peter Monfort of Sprout Creek, who cut her name on the window pane. On the hillside across the road from the house is the Family Burying ground, where Major Fort and his wife are buried. For more information on Major Abraham Fort and his homestead in Poughkeepsie visit: http://www.geocities.com/ginnyflies/saveforthomestead.html