The Houstons: A family's three centuries in Orange County, New York

The omnipresent Houstons of the nineteenth century in Orange County, New York, were descendants of Joseph Houston (1692-1740) and his wife Isabella (1694-1758). Joseph was an Ulsterman, descended from the Protestant Scots whom England encouraged to populate northern Ireland. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland in 1711, and by 1724 had immigrated to America with two of his brothers—John and James. He may have done some preaching in New England, and certainly preached in the tri-colony area of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania from 1724 to 1739. Joseph and Isabella moved to what is now Montgomery, New York in 1739 where he purchased 600 acres of land from the colonial government. He became the first pastor of the Goodwill Presbyterian Church in 1740, and died in October of that year. The church is located on what is now NYS Rte. 208, one-half mile south of its intersection with NYS Rte. 17K at Scott's Corners. The "Founding Couple" had four daughters and two sons. Elizabeth (1720-1802) married Thomas Beatty (1715-1807), Ann married William Stewart, Mary was married to a man surnamed Elder, and Phoebe married a man surnamed Watkins. Joseph (1734-1793) married a woman with the given name of Ann (1736-1819), and his older brother was named James. Both Joseph and James served in the New York State Militia and fought on the side of the Patriots in the American Revolution. James served as a captain in Hardenburgh's Fourth Regiment and received a tract of land from the new government after the war. James (1727-1797) married Anne Carr (1737-1792), daughter of the Reverend George Carr of Goshen. A story concerning those three that was kept in the family by word-of-mouth for 250 years is finally put into print below: "While James was courting Anne," her father asked him to "get more for the dog because the dog had finished the first saucer." James then asked, "What, Mr. Carr? Dog eat saucer?" He had made a triple faux pas. He had failed to address Anne's father as "Reverend," failed to use correct grammar and failed to comprehend that "saucer" was being used as a measure of food—not as food itself. James obviously survived these improprieties, as his marriage to Anne soon followed this incident." James and Anne had two daughters and seven sons. Mary (called Polly) was married to Robert Wilkin, and Jane married Adam Dickenson/Dickerson. James (1769-1849) married Abigail McNeal (1775-1803), and later married Sarah Crawford (1781-1848). John (1773-1813) married Elizabeth Wilkin (1782-1826), Samuel (1774-1830) married Sarah Wilkin (1785-1821), and Thomas (1766-1849) married Sarah Faulkner (1768-1847). George (1763-1825) was married twice—first to Jane Hunter (1769-1801) and later to Juliana Dobbins Thompson (1778- ), perhaps known as "The Widow Gale." Joseph ( -1826) married Nancy Wisner, daughter of General Henry Wisner, and Andrew (1777-1838) married Phoebe Wisner (1784/5-1848). The last will and testament of James Houston, written on Feb. 23, 1797—five days before his death—mentioned all nine of his children, and left the homestead to James and Samuel. Part of the will reads as follows: "Likewise I give unto my said daughter Jane one Negro girl named Hannah to her or to her heirs. It is my will also that my Negro woman named Lill shall at my demise be liberated and go out free with her bed and bedding likewise her wearing apparel." Thomas and Sarah lived in the Town of Wallkill, in or around what is now the City of Middletown, where Thomas served as Inspector of Elections. They had ten children; Ann (1793- ), Harriet (1775- ), Gabriel (1798- ), Adaline/Adeline (1800- ), Catherine (1801- ), Philinda (1802-1883), Jane (1805- ), James (1807 ), Franklin (1809-1881), and Nelson (1813- ). George lived in the same area—Scotchtown and Middletown. He was a farmer, merchant and vice-president of the Middletown Bank. George was elected to the office of Wallkill Town Supervisor and served also as Justice of the Peace. He gave three acres of land in Scotchtown for a church and its burying ground. George and Jane's son Robert (1798-1889) married Mary Dill (1803-1883). Robert was a farmer, owned a tannery on West Main St. in Middletown and donated land for the Wallkill Academy. Joseph became a doctor and lived in Edenville, so named because of its proximity to Mount Adam and Mount Eve. He and Nancy had ten children; Harriet, Susan, Jane, Henry W., Richard, George W., Joseph A., Samuel, Andrew, and John ( -1832). Henry W. Houston married Phoebe Dusenbery (1797-1871). The couple sat for their portraits by Elias V. Cole, one of the first portrait painters in Warwick, in 1837. Phoebe was the daughter of Daniel Coe Dusenbery and Nellie Vandervoort. John Houston married Julia Ann Wheeler in 1816. The couple lived in Edenville and had four sons; John Jr., Nathaniel D., James K., and William Henry (1817-1875). William Henry Houston grew up in Edenville, and the loss of his father when William was fifteen placed a burden of responsibility on him—as he was the eldest of the four children. The same characteristics that in later years commanded influence and won success were developed in this early stage of his life. On Jan. 5, 1842, William married Ann E. Wheeler ( -1879), daughter of William F. Wheeler of Bellvale and granddaughter of Isaac R. Van Duzer of Cornwall-on-the-Hudson. The couple had a daughter, Julia E., who married Manson R. Brown of Washingtonville, and five sons—John H., Joel W., James E., William W., and Frank. William Henry Houston operated a farm located between Edenville and Florida. He was elected to the offices of Warwick Town Supervisor and Orange County Sheriff, and was a delegate to the New York State Constitutional Convention of 1867. He was a Whig, joined the Republican Party at the time of its formation and was especially active in the recruiting service during the U.S. Civil War. The integrity of William Henry Houston won the confidence of the community, and he frequently took on the responsibilities of trustee or guardian in estate settlements. He was, at his death, president of the Goshen and Deckertown Railroad, of which enterprise he was one of the founders. He was a trustee of the Second Presbyterian Church of Florida, and one of its most devout worshipers. Andrew Houston—brother of Thomas, George, and William Henry's grandfather Joseph—lived with his wife, the former Phoebe Wisner, in a house near the hamlet of Stone Bridge, about one mile north of where the Red Gate Farmhouse would be built. The hamlet, named for its proximity to the bridge over the Wawayanda Creek, was often confused with another Orange County community called "Stone Ridge," so a name change was needed. It was called "Wisner" in the twentieth century, and is now defined by its many doctors' offices and the small shopping plaza called Merchants' Square—all on Ronald Reagan Boulevard near the intersection of Kings Highway and Wisner Road. Andrew and Phoebe, having been married in 1799, had a daughter and three sons. Ann E. (1821-1853) married Cornelius Wood, a son named James died in infancy, William W. (1804-1862) married Sarah Thompson, and James Carr Houston (1807-1881) married Annis Board Wood (1810-1900) on Dec. 10, 1829. Annis was the daughter of Capt. John Durland Wood (1788-1834) and Phoebe Board (1787-1873). The captain was the son of Jonathan Wood (1755-1801) and Mary Durland (1756-1832); Phoebe's father was Cornelius Board. Through the instrumentality of influential friends, Andrew secured an admittance for James at the West Point Academy, now the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Phoebe, however, would not be persuaded to let her son go away from home—even though West Point was only twenty-five miles away—so James' seat in the class was given up. James and his wife were known as "James C. and Annis B." and settled around 1840 on a farm that bordered, and was south of, Red Gate Farm. The farmland went from Pumpkin Hill Road to NYS Rte. 17A and beyond. The current address of that farmhouse is 38 Pumpkin Hill Road. The couple soon moved into the Red Gate Farmhouse, becoming the first Houstons to raise a family there. The house was built in 1840 by Adolphus Bradner (1814-1900), husband of Pauline Weymer Bradner (1819-1888). His parents were John Bradner (1781-1831) and Mary Robertson Bradner (1787-1863). Adolphus and his sons built several houses in Bellvale from 1840 to 1890, and Adolphus did the carpentry work for the building of the Bellvale Methodist Church in 1853. Timber for the church building was cut on the farm of William Wisner—husband (or father-in-law) of one of James and Annis' daughters. That church building burned down, and was replaced, in 1940. The new farmland was north of Pumpkin Hill Road on either side of Upper Wisner Road, and the forty-acre Red Gate Farm went into operation at an opportune time. The Erie Railroad was extended to Goshen in 1841, and farmers could sell their milk there for shipment to New York City. James and Annis had seven children, who are recalled by substituting their names for the words of a popular nineteenth-century jingle— Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; Saddle the horse, and I'll jump on. The names of the children were— Phoebe Ann, Mary and Amelia; Andrew, John, Henry and Cornelia. Times got even better in 1862 when the Warwick Valley Railroad came to Warwick. Less carting of the milk meant increased profits. James was one of the founders and first directors of the railroad, later to become the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway. Beautifying the Locust Hill Cemetery on Kings Highway was a favorite pastime for James, and he devoted much time and money to its improvement—including the building of the stone fence that still surrounds both the cemetery and the Belcher Burying Ground behind it. His great-great-grandson, Tony Houston, the current secretary/treasurer of the Locust Hill Cemetery Association, recalls mowing and trimming in the cemetery in the 1950's with his grandfather, Edgar Houston—a grandson of James. James Houston earnestly supported the Union—actively encouraging enlistments and liberally contributing money to the cause. He lived in Bellvale all of his life and died of lingering consumption on his 74 birthday. He had been in declining health for years during which he remained as bright and joyful as a young man in the morning of life. "A friend of the press" wrote the following in a local newspaper soon after his death: "Mr. Houston was peculiarly marked by his remarkable social qualities, and was ever the light of the circle of which he happened to be, and perhaps no man within the circle of your readers possessed such an inexhaustible fund of amusing anecdotes as Mr. Houston. No one has ever spent a social season in his presence but who will recollect his preface to a telling story of "it puts me in mind," and those who heard him would often wonder where they originated, as it seemed they were always original and also peculiarly pointed." James' three youngest children—John, Henry, and Cornelia (known as Nelly)—were students of David Quick in Bellvale at one time or another in the years 1861, 1862 and 1863. James is listed in Mr. Quick's attendance book with regard to tuition for them. The classes were not held in the brick-built Bellvale School extant at 259 NYS Rte. 17A. Cornelia (Nelly) died in early womanhood and Annis Amelia (1836- ) married James N. Bertholf of Sugar Loaf in 1860. Mary Elizabeth (1833- ) was the only one of the seven children to leave the area; she married Edward Francisco of Little Falls, New Jersey in 1858. Phoebe Ann (1831-1884) married William H. Wisner (1822/29-1898) in 1855. They had eight children; James (1856- ), Mary (1857- ), Kate (1860- ), Anna (1862- ), Ella (1864- ), Elizabeth (1866- ), Emma (1868- ), and William (1870- ). Elizabeth (known as Lizzie) married William H. Buckbee (1861- ) and gave birth to several children, including sons Albert W. Buckbee (1888- ) and Wisner Buckbee (1897-1974). Henry, Andrew and John all stayed in Bellvale. Henry inherited the farm his parents operated before they moved into the Red Gate. His milking barn was close enough to the Red Gate Farmhouse to allow folks to holler back and forth between the two buildings. That milking barn is gone, but Henry's hay barn and farmhouse are extant. In 1870, Henry (1847- ) married his first wife—Helen Wilson, daughter of Ananias Wilson and Jane Minthorn Wilson. The names of his second wife and his two sons are not known. Andrew (1839-1892) married three times and had at least eight children. In boyhood he was quick to learn and became an exact and thorough scholar. He was soundly converted in his youth and was ever after a faithful and useful Christian. He served as Sunday School superintendent in the Bellvale Methodist Church for over 25 years, and, as a licensed exhorter, would preach a sermon in the pastor's absence. Andrew purchased a sawmill from Thomas Burt after the Civil War and operated it as one of four mills powered simultaneously by Long House Creek at that time. He died of grippe and pneumonia at the age of 52. Three of Andrew's sons, one from each wife, led adventurous lives from the 1880's through the teen years of the twentieth century. Charles M. Houston (1863/4-1935) was born to Andrew and his first wife, Abbie B.Benedict (1840-1866) whom he married in 1861. He left Bellvale at the age of eighteen and went west from 1882 until 1891. His diaries of that period were edited by two of his nephews—Robert J. and John W.—the youngest children of Charles' half brother Edgar Houston. The editors' work was published in the 1984 booklet entitled "Go West Young Man." The entry for Saturday, May 9, 1885, is reproduced below: "Started out with my rifle to look for a place. Saw 2 quite good ones but they are on R.R. land so I don't like to take it up as there is no telling when I could get title. Shot 2 gray squirrels, it surprised me to see them fall. Called on Mr. Laub. He has a good place and came in here 6 years ago with only 50 cents and a family. Now he has a cow and hogs, etc. The Schoolmarm Miss Blodgett is boarding there. She gets $80 a month for 6 months school, has about 20 scholars. Got back at 5 o'clock, it is warm." Charles came back to Orange County, New York and married Ella L. Case in Little Britain in October of 1892. The couple had four children—Andrew, Claude, Helen and Alice—none of whom had children of their own. The first three were born in Little Briton, and Alice was born in Oroville, California in 1897 after Charles went west again—this time with a wife and children. Claude, listed on The World War [I] plaque in the Warwick Town Hall, became a mechanical engineer and lived for many years in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Soon after Alice was born, the family of six moved back to Warwick and purchased a farm that spanned Kings Highway (Orange County Route 13) between Belcher Road and Four Corners Road. The barn was on the southeast side of the highway, and the farmhouse on the northwest side. Neither building is extant, and the northwest side of the old farm is now a six-home development called Paradise View Estates on Katelyn Court. Fred Houston (1877-1952) was born to Andrew and his third wife, Martha Bertholf. By 1910, Fred had become the foreman for wealthy estate owner Frances Hitchcock—but he wanted a place of his own. In 1911, Fred purchased a 220-acre farm from Charles Cline one mile east-northeast of Red Gate Farm for $10,000. Long House Creek ran through the land, which covered both sides of State School Road; east to Bellvale Lakes Road and west to Lower Wisner Road. The large farmhouse was built around 1800. At about the same time as the purchase of the Cline farm, Fred married Delia Cooke—a teacher at the Warwick Institute. The story of the three generations of Fred Houstons that lived on that farm is told by Fred W. Houston, grandson of the 1911 purchaser, in his 2001 booklet entitled "Tales From A Warwick Farm." The last paragraph of the booklet's first chapter reads as follows: "Fred and Delia's three children all went to college. Ray B. graduated from Haverford in 1934 and then attended Yale Law School. He eventually became a very successful attorney. [Ray enlisted in the U.S. Navy at the beginning of World War II. He served first in the Atlantic and then in the Pacific where he fought in the Battle of Okinawa.] Ruth also graduated from college and became a teacher. Frederick originally intended to become a Methodist minister, but finally decided to major in business and music. In later years he became a proficient drummer, clarinet player and saxophone player. For a while he even headed his own band. In the late 1930's he returned to the farm to assist his father. He was still doing this when , in 1943, he met a certain redhead." That certain redhead was Helen Adelaide Marie O'Brien (1911-1995), daughter of David O'Brien and Mary Randolph. Adelaide—she went by the second of her three Christian names—married Frederick Houston (1916-1988) in 1945, and the couple made their home on the farm. Frederick sold the dairy herd in the 1950's and began raising rabbits, chickens and goats. A few acres of the farm were donated to the Bellvale Methodist Church, and, by the 1970's, he was a successful realtor in Warwick. Frederick and Adelaide's only child, Fred William Houston, was born in Warwick in 1946. He grew up on the farm, earned degrees from Syracuse University, served in the U.S. Navy and worked as both realtor and appraiser. Fred is now a freelance writer and lives in Warwick. John Wood Houston (1842-1905), the brother of Andrew and Henry and the second cousin of William Henry Houston, was just a year removed from David Quick's school in Bellvale when he answered the call of "Father Abraham." At the age of 20, in August of 1862, John joined the 124 Regiment of the New York State Volunteers (The Orange Blossoms) as a second lieutenant in Company D (The Warwick Boys). He saw action at Chancellorsville and was shot through the hip at Beverley's Ford. He fought under General Grant through "The Wilderness Campaign," but John's participation in the U.S. Civil War ended at the "Bloody Angle' in the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse between the armies of Grant and Lee where he was shot through the jaw. He described this second battlefield injury in a speech given to an unknown audience on March 18, 1880— three months before the death of his first wife. The speech began as follows: "Worthy Commander and Comrades. It was the charge of the 12 of May 1864 at Spotsylvania, Virginia that your humble servant received a token of remembrance from the men in gray. Captain J.W. Benedict had been carried from the field severely wounded, and there seemed to be a lull. I rose from behind the works to get the men in some sort of order when a sharpshooter drew most of my back teeth free of charge and cut my tongue nearly off. It felt as though a hot iron had been run through my face." John received a promotion to Captain as an honor prior to his discharge for wounds, returned to Bellvale, and married Julia Helena Baird (1846-1880) on Feb. 6, 1867. Julia was a great-great-granddaughter of Francis Baird ( -1799/1800) and Esther Eagles Baird (1738- ) who built the 1766 Francis Baird Tavern—the stone building at 105 Main St. in Warwick. Julia was also a great-great-granddaughter of Capt. Thomas DeKay who fought on the side of the Patriots in the American Revolution. The captain's father, Col. Thomas DeKay, fought on the side of the British in the French and Indian War (1754-1763), and on the side of the Patriots in the Revolution. The DeKays were Huguenots—members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France established by the religious reformer John Calvin. John and Julia moved into the Red Gate Farmhouse where John grew up. He operated the farm until his death in 1905, thus, he became the second Houston to raise a family on Red Gate Farm. He had four sons—Floyd Reeves (1866-1926), George Baird (1870- ), James C. (1872- ), and Frank Sanford (1874-1960)—and a daughter, Clara (1876-1964), by his first wife. He also had a daughter, Mary, by his second wife, Margaret B. Neely (1859- ), whom he married on Feb. 12, 1892—twelve years after Julia's death. Frank married Charlotte Hutchinson and they had two daughters. May VanAlst Houston (1896-1968) married World War I veteran William V. Crigar (1892-1972), and Clara Houston married August Ferber. After retiring from Public Service Electric Company of New Jersey, Frank lived in a house on the western end of Red Gate Farm and would listen to his hounds bay as they chased foxes along the ridge of Bellvale Mountain. There are clearly defined peaks in the ridge, and he declared at a noon meal in the Red Gate Farmhouse that, "the dogs chased a fox from Spruce to Cobble and from Cobble back to Spruce." Edgar Alonzo Houston (1873-1960) was born to Andrew and his second wife, Sarah Willersdorff whom Andrew married in 1868. Edgar was born in the house currently addressed as 263 NYS Route 17A in the heart of Bellvale. He attended the Centenary College Institute in Hackettstown, New Jersey in 1889 at the age of 16, and later attended Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania where he was a tackle on the football team. The 1893 team defeated Army, Navy and North Carolina, had a record of 7-3, and finished the season ranked fourth in the nation. The high ranking was due to the fact that two of the losses were to Princeton, that year's national champions, and the other loss was to Pennsylvania—national champions in each of the next two years. That junior year proved to be his last, as he did not graduate from the University. That didn't stop him, however, from repeating the following class cheer for the next 66 years to the delight of his children and grandchildren: "Rah, Rah, Ree, Rye; Ninety-Five, Lehigh." Edgar also never tired of telling them about the 1891 game against the Walter Camp-coached Yale team he played in as an 18-year-old freshman. Yale, that year's national champions, won the game 38-0, and their top player was 6'-2" 205 pound lineman Pudge Heffelfinger—a 23-year-old senior and three-time All-American. Edgar told the story the same each time—word-for-word: The first time I up-dumped Heffelfinger, he looked at me kind of funny. The second time I up-dumped him, he looked angry. The third time I did it, I heard him say to his teammates in the huddle, ‘Where in hell did that farmer learn how to play football?'" After attending Lehigh University, Edgar moved out west to Snohomish, Washington. He came back east and married his first cousin, John and Julia's daughter Clara, on March 23, 1904, in Bellvale. The newlyweds then traveled by train back to Snohomish to start a new life and family, but they didn't stay out west for long. With football games a dozen years in the past, his father-in-law (and uncle) recently deceased and infant son Oliver Allen Houston—who was born in 1905—in tow, Edgar's small family returned to Orange County, New York. Edgar and Clara lived on, and operated, a farm in Goshen on the west side of NYS Rte. 17A at its intersection with Reservoir Road, one mile north of the (now incorporated) Village of Florida. James Carr Houston was born to them there in 1908 and Margaret Houston in 1910. It is not known who operated Red Gate Farm from 1905 to 1913. Oliver Houston wrote that he thought Nathaniel Wheeler Baird (1879-1949)—a first cousin of John's first wife—and his wife Lorraine Ackerman Baird (1881-1965) had a hand in it. Also, Edgar, although operating the farm in Goshen, may have spent some time working at the Red Gate. What is known is that Margaret B. Neely Houston, John's second wife (and Clara's stepmother), deeded Red Gate Farm to Edgar A. Houston on March 31, 1913 for the sum of one dollar. A survey taken for the transfer of ownership of the property was made by Edgar A. Houston, surveyor—the purchaser—in March of 1913. Names of owners of some of the surrounding properties were Cline, Vreeland, Fox, Poppino, Crigar, VanDuzer, Buckbee, Wheeler, Dikeman, Bradner, Givens and Quackenbush. Although he had a head start, Edgar became the third Houston to raise a family on Red Gate Farm when five of them moved there from Goshen just prior to the birth of family member number six. Catherine Houston was born in Bellvale in July of 1913. Robert Joffre Houston and John Wood Houston, the last two of Edgar and Clara's six children, were born in Bellvale in 1917 and 1920 respectively. Clara Houston, having grown up in that house herself, would spend all but nine of her 87 years on Red Gate Farm. Oliver Houston often spoke about a ritual that took place nearly every morning at Red Gate Farm. He and James were plenty old enough to help with the farm work by the end of World War I, and both did so until Oliver left for college in 1923. The barn was downhill from the house, and Edgar would get up first to begin the workday. When he was ready for additional hands he hollered up to the house, "Boys down, boys down." Oliver would be at work in the barn within minutes of the call—but not James. After a few more minutes went by, Edgar would holler, "James down, James down." Oliver could not recall a single time when his name had to be hollered out. Young Robert worked some in the 1930's on the short-handed farm three miles east of the Red Gate operated by a Mr. Todd. He returned home one evening and told his mother that he had seen six rabbits on the way down to Todd's. Clara told him to wash up for supper, and asked him how he knew the rabbits were going down to Todd's. Edgar was an accomplished speaker and debater, and ran as the Republican candidate for the office of Warwick Town Supervisor in 1923, losing to Ed Roy. He succeeded his son Oliver as ringmaster of the Bellvale Amateur Circus, which was performed every summer from 1931 through 1954. He was an ardent supporter of his hamlet, often shouting the slogan, "Bellvale Against The World," and repeating the following poem: "Bellvale was Bellvale when Warwick was a pup, "And Bellvale will be Bellvale when Warwick's time is up." Like his father Andrew, Edgar was a "faithful and useful Christian." He and Clara provided for his sisters, Beulah and Cassie, at Red Gate Farm for decades. Prayers were said at mealtime, and prayer and Bible reading always preceded going to bed. Edgar was a lay-leader, and would often preach in the Bellvale Methodist Church. On the last page of the epilogue to "Go West Young Man," Editors Robert Houston and John Houston wrote the following paragraph: In the early 1930's we recall our father, Edgar A. Houston, often referred to in the diaries as "Eddie," saying "Uncle Charlie went to Montana Territory and then homesteaded in California. I worked for three years in the state of Washington. Uncle Fred stayed around Bellvale and bought the Cline farm. Now we three brothers often meet when we take our milk to the station at Stone Bridge." Edgar's illness in the fall of 1943 ended his 30 years of running Red Gate Farm. The herd of cows was sold, and, for the first time since 1840—a period of 103 years—the farm was not in operation. He rented out the pasture land to Press Mabee, who farmed a mile northeast of the Red Gate, and waited for his sons to come home from the war. On Oct. 1, 1958, Edgar was re-appointed by the Warwick Town Board to a one-year term on the Warwick Town Planning Board. He was outside for the last time for a family picnic at the Red Gate on Aug. 8, 1959, and died on Feb. 2, 1960 at age 86. Oliver, Robert and John are listed on the World War II plaque in the Warwick Town Hall. Robert was in the 101 Airborne Division. He jumped into France on D-day, and, by the end of the war, had received a Purple Heart, Distinguished Service Cross, Bronze Star and a battlefield commission to the rank of second lieutenant. In 1980, he wrote a book about his experiences in the war entitled "D-Day to Bastogne," published by Exposition Press, Inc. Excerpts from chapter 17 describe action during the Battle of the Bulge on Dec. 19, 1944 in Wardin, near Bastogne. The battle pitted Robert's Company I [i] of the 501 Regiment against seven tanks and a battalion of infantry from the German 901 Panzer Regiment: "They saw me and began firing, but luckily there was a little swell in the ground between us, so the bullets went over me as I flattened myself to the ground…In a few minutes our second platoon hit them from the other side, and that took attention away from me. As I went back toward the farmhouse, [ ] a tank left the road and started to turn toward me. There wasn't time to get behind the building, so I pounded on the front door. A man let me in, and just as he closed the door, a [German] shell hit the wall behind us…The explosion [of an American shell] put a hole in the lower part of the tank, and we picked off the crew as they scrambled out…Another tank came up and pushed the one we had knocked out off the road. There seemed to be only three moving around now, which meant I Company had knocked out four of them." John joined the Army Air Corps, became a bomber pilot, flew B-24s and B-32s over the pacific, and received the Distinguished Flying Cross and an Air Medal. One of Warwick's most remembered days of World War II was in the summer of 1944 when John was home on leave between assignments. He told his friends and family the date he was to fly a B-24 from Newark, New Jersey to Orlando, Florida, and, shortly before takeoff, called home to reveal his estimated time of arrival over Warwick. He flew from Newark to Monroe, then turned and flew southwesterly on the northwest side of Bellvale Mountain, down the Warwick Valley over Bellvale and the Village of Warwick. He turned around over New Milford, flew back up the Valley over the Village of Warwick and Bellvale, on back to Monroe and then south to Orlando. John said, "We flew straight and level at a speed of 140 MPH and an altitude of 800 feet above the ground." He could clearly see the people on the ground, including his mother waiving her apron from the Red Gate Farm's well on Pumpkin Hill Road. His seven-year-old niece, Catherine's daughter Tavy, said, "I could see the men up in the airplane." Efford Benedict, who farmed two miles east of the Red Gate Farm, said, "He buzzed the barn." This was a typical utterance at the time, as what seemed like a majority of Warwick's population said, "He flew right over my house," or words to that effect. Edgar and Clara's younger daughter, Catherine, married Enea Biafora and had three children—Tavy, Tony and John Marco. Catherine died of cancer in 1946, and Enea was unable to care for the children. Tavy was raised by her grandparents at the idle Red Gate Farm, living there from 1946 to 1961. Thus, she became the only one of her generation to grow up there. She received degrees from Orange County Community College and Barnard College, and held the position of Chemist at Horton Memorial Hospital in Middletown. In 1985, as the Republican candidate, she was elected to the first of two four-year terms in the Orange County Legislature. Tavy now lives out west with her husband, Col. Charles Edward Umhey, Jr., M.D.—veteran of both the Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf War of 1991. They met while they were both starring—at age eleven—in the Bellvale Amateur Circus. Charles remembers calling Tavy in the 1950's at the Red Gate's six-digit telephone number—554748. Tavy and Charles have two sons and five grandchildren. All eleven members of the family, including the two daughters-in-law, are now living near Missoula, Montana. Tavy wrote about a piece of furniture in their home: "This table stood for generations in the kitchen at Red Gate Farm where I was raised. It served as the center of activity for the entire household. Every Monday it held the washtubs for the family wash. The rest of the week it was used as a kitchen counter, desk and dinning table for a large family, hired help and visitors. Think of how many loaves of bread were kneaded on this table, how much homework done—by candle, kerosene lantern and then electric light. Now the ‘kitchen table' has been retired from active service and holds a place of honor as a treasured heirloom in our home." Tony was adopted by his uncle, John Wood Houston, and John's wife, Helen Louise DeGraw Houston. Although renamed Edgar Anthony Houston after his grandfather, he has always been known as Tony. He lived at Red Gate Farm for nearly a year during 1949-1950, and for over a year during 1959-1960 while attending Orange County Community College in Middletown. He served three years in the U.S. Army Security Agency, entered politics as a Republican in 1988, was elected to a four-year term as a Warwick Town Councilman in 1989, and elected to the first of four two-year terms as Warwick Town Supervisor in 1993. Tony had avenged his grandfather's defeat of 70 years earlier and became the second Houston to hold the office of Warwick Town Supervisor. John Marco, the brother of Tavy and Tony, was adopted by his uncle, Oliver Houston, and Oliver's wife, Hilda Bleazey. John grew up in Wisconsin and served three years in the U.S. Navy. Unlike his two siblings—more like his ten cousins—he came to Red Gate Farm only periodically for short visits. The bulk of Red Gate Farm was sold to a Mr. Turpac in 1959, and that land is now owned by Peter Oprandy. There are now ten houses on the original Red Gate Farm with fourteen more planned for a development called Apple Ridge Estates. The parcel that includes the farmhouse now consists of the original house, the woodshed—which has been converted into a house—and the cow barn. Neither the tool house nor the horse barn is extant. The three remaining buildings sit on a two-and-one-half acre lot that was passed on to Clara upon Edgar's death in 1960, and to John upon Clara's death in 1964. John was just two years away from retirement from the Air Force then, and his mother willed the house to him because, as a career military man, he had no home of his own. John sold the house to a Mr. Fox in 1966, and the property (Section 44, Block 1, Lot 56) is now owned by Harold L. Calvert. The street address of the Red Gate Farmhouse, located on the northwest corner of Pumpkin Hill Road and Upper Wisner Road, is 130 Upper Wisner Road. John W. and Helen Houston now live on a piece of the land farmed by "James C. and Annis B." in the 1840's—and by their son, Henry Houston, forty years later. Their home, at 51 Miriam Drive, is 400 yards south of the Red Gate Farmhouse. Their son, Tony Houston, and his wife, Sharon Jane Nebel Houston, live at 1 Harvest Circle, 200 yards east of "the old place." Sharon is the daughter of Charles Cecil Nebel (1914-1999) and Shirley Jane Johnson (1915-1978). She worked with her mother in The Calico House at 4 Blooms Corners Road in Edenville from 1963 to 1968. Tony and Sharon's house is on the part of Red Gate Farm that bordered the Wheeler farm and is furnished, in part, by the roll-top desk from the Red Gate—which is as much treasured as Tavy's "kitchen table." Tony and Sharon's older son, Matthew Wood Houston, and his wife, Mary Ann Snyder Houston, live in the Warwick hamlet of Edenville—as did Joseph, John H. and William H. centuries ago. They have a son, Garett Wood Houston, and a daughter, Natalie Jane Houston. Tony and Sharon's only daughter, Jennifer Jane, lives in the Village of Warwick with her daughter—Brittany Jane. Fred W. Houston is the only other Houston living in Warwick. Fred, a great-grandson of Andrew Houston and his third wife Martha Bertholf, wrote "Tales From A Warwick Farm." Aaron Charles Houston, brother of Matthew and Jennifer, lives in Piscataway, New Jersey with his wife, Elizabeth Dharma Veliath Houston. "It puts me in mind" of another sentence written by "a friend of the press" in 1881 upon the death of James Houston—"These [Houston] families, wherever found, are characterized by loyalty to country and friends, industry, economy and frugality." Down through the centuries the Houstons of Orange County, for the most part, were: On matters of religion: Protestant Vocationally: dairymen Politically (from 1775 to present): Patriot/Federalist/Whig/Republican Civically: Seekers and holders of public office Militarily: Participants.