Daniel DuBois House - The Old Fort

Historic Marker Reads:
DuBois House
The Fort Built in 1705
by Daniel DuBois. Site
First Redoubt. There are Port Holes In The Ease End.

The DuBois Family - The Patentees

Louis DuBois

Born in 1626 in France, Louis emigrated as a child with his family to Mannheim. Little is actually known of the origins if the family resulting from the destruction of Huguenot records in France as well as the general reluctance of Huguenots to record their family lineage out of fear of reprisals. But it is believed his family line is one of the oldest in France and a part of the nobility of France.

Louis married in Mannheim and in 1660 the family left Mannheim for the Dutch Colony of New Netherlands. He traveled to New Netherlands in the company of Antoin Crispell, another of the original Patentees of New Paltz.

Within three months of arriving, Louis DuBois received grants of land in Wiltwyck (now known as Kingston) and proceeded north to settle there. Fate would have it that within two months of their arrival in Wiltwyck they were caught up in the Esopus Wars between the Dutch and Esopus Indians. In 1663 the Esopus Indians rose up again against the Dutch at Wiltwyck and captured hostages of women and children and carried them off to the south. Louis' wife and three of his children were among those taken.

Louis DuBois joined a party of Dutch established to rescue the captives. It was on this raid down to what is now the Wurtsboro area that Louis first saw the land of the Wallkill Valley, what is now New Paltz, and determined to establish a Huguenot Settlement on this land.

As the Huguenot with the longest tenure with the Dutch, he became the acknowledged leader of the group and headed the party in their negotiations first with the Indians and then with the new English Government that had taken over the colony in 1664.

Louis DuBois moved to the new settlement and resided there until 1686, when he returned to Kingston to live.

The Sons

Louis had two sons that figure in the future of New Paltz, Abraham and Issac. Both Abraham and Issac were named on the charter as members of the original 12 Patentees despite their young ages of 21 and 18. Abraham married Margaret Deyo, daughter of Christian Deyo, another of the Patentees. Together they had a daughter, Sarah, who later married Roelif Elting and together they purchased the Bevier-Elting House in 1760.

Abraham died in 1731 and is buried in the Walloon Cemetery.

The other son of note, Issac, married Maria Hasbrouck, daughter of Jean Hasbrouck the Patentee. Issac died in 1690 and was survived by his wife and several children, of whom Daniel was the eldest son. Upon Issac's wives death 35 years later, she deeded the family lands to Daniel.

It was Daniel that erected the building now known as "The Old Fort" in 1705. Daniel died in 1752 and is also buried in the Walloon Cemetery.

The home stayed in the hands of the DuBois family continuously until it was purchased by the DuBois Family Association in 1968 for the Huguenot Historical Society.

The House

In granting the Patent of lands to the Huguenots, Governor Andros made certain stipulations, one of which was that they build a "Redoute there first for a place of Retreat and Safeguard upon occasion." Although there is evidence that indeed they did make a token fortification they did not follow the letter of the Grant and build a permanent structure.

The Huguenots belief was that such a structure would be a provocation to the Esopus Indians and be an open display that they no longer trusted them. The history of acquiring the lands of New Paltz started with the Huguenots negotiating directly with the Indians and making a contract for the land.

Unlike the Dutch and English of the time, their agreement was clearly negotiated not for hunting rights and their later ursupation of ownership of the land, but outright purchase of the land itself. The chiefs of the tribe understood this agreement clearly, and it was approved by all family heads of the tribe. In exchange, the Huguenots paid a very tidy some for those days and purchased the land outright.

They had learned the lessons of mistakes by the Dutch and determined not to repeat them. As proof of their success, they never had cause for concern from the Indians of the area.

But the Governor "insisted", so in 1705 Daniel DuBois constructed his home to comply with the requirements of the government.

What its exact configuration was at the time of construction is now impossible to tell. It was most likely similar in layout to the other homes of New Paltz, but incorporated certain features qualifying it as the fort. The only remaining features of the building obviously included for this purpose are the two "gun ports" on the eastern face of the building.

In an old Dutch tradition, and the only one still existing in New Paltz, the exact date of the construction of the house is plainly obvious. In building the house it is necessary to extend iron rods from the ends of the beams into the stone wall to secure them. In the case of this house, they extended those rods on the four corners of the facade out through the walls on the eastern face, the street face, and decorated them with iron work. Each of the four rods end in a number, 1, 7, 0 & 5, plainly saying 1705.

Over the centuries much has been done to this structure masking it's original appearance. At some point a full second story and attic were added and the main entrance moved to the center of the north face of the building. This work was most likely done early in the 19th century as it visually transforms the outside of the house into an approximation of a Federal Period structure, tho unbalanced.

In the 19th century the wood frame addition was put on the western end of the building and housed the kitchen and other domestic spaces. The two porches were added in the 20th century.