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 The
early history of the village of Slate Hill, Orange County, New York,
seems to be that of a very peaceful community. The Indians who
inhabited the vicinity had been friendly, and according to
Ruttenber and Clark in their History of Orange County, one
of them, a signer of the Wawayanda Patent resided until about the
beginning of the Revolutionary War on the easterly slope of a hill
now called Jogee, about a mile and a half west of the village.
Upon the patent he gave his name as Keghgekapowell.
About the time of the beginning of the revolution, some of his
people came from the west to see him and when they went away to the
western wilds he went with them and never came back. The early
settlers, for convenience, called him Joghem, and finally Jogee.
Slate Hill was originally known as Brookfield for the brook that
nearly surrounds the community. After the Revolutionary War,
when post offices were being established, it was found that there
had been a post office first established by the name of Brookfield
in Madison County, N.Y., and so another name was given to this one.
At this time the village bacame known as Slate Hill. The first Town
of Wawayanda meeting was held in 1850 in D.C. Hallock's Hotel which
was located on what is now the eastern corner of the intersection of
Routes 6 and 284. The hotel bacame Kinney Skinner's store and
later, W.T. Green's uptown store until he closed it about 1945.
It now contains offices. The hotel on the opposite corner was
purchased by Dr. Frank D. Myers, Sr. about the turn of the century.
It was the office and home of two generations of Myers family
country doctors until it was sold in 1957 to Roy Brundage. It
has remained a private dwelling ever since. In 1881, according to
Ruttenber & Clark's History of Orange County, the
village had a saloon, shoe shop, Castle's Flour, and Feed and
Charles Stickney's general merchandise store. In addition,
at around the same time, the Evans family ran a wagon making shop in
the west end of the village.
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