Blooming Grove

Geographic position

41.4333° N, 74.1667° W

Sources

Booth, Malcom. A Short History of Orange County, NY. Sears, Thomas. "Town of Blooming Grove." http://history.rays-place.com/ny/ora/blooming-g.htm. Accessed 9/29/14. "Town of Blooming Grove, NY." http://www.townofbloominggroveny.com/. Accessed 9/29/14. "History of the Town of Cornwall." http://www.cornwallny.com/About-Cornwall/History/History-of-Cornwall. Accessed 9/29/14. Geo coordinates at https://www.google.com/#q=geographic+coordinates+of+blooming+grove+ny.

General note

Blooming Grove is a town in New York's Orange County, on the western bank of the Hudson River north of New York City. The area was originally inhabited by the Minisink Indians, an Algonquian-speaking part of the Lenni-Lenape Nation, before colonists pressured them to sell their lands in the 17th and 18th centuries. By 1765, only 750 Minisinks remained in Orange County. When Henry Hudson sailed up the Hudson River in 1609, he dropped anchor near what would become Cornwall, NY. Blooming Grove was an area of the town of Cornwall until 1799, when it separated to form its own town. In his journal for 1775, Occom records a visit to Blooming Grove, which had a Presbyterian Church and, thus, an interested populace, as part of his preaching tour. He stayed with John Brewster, the Cornwall town clerk, and preached to the townspeople. In another undated journal entry, Occom fondly recounts a past visit to Blooming Grove during which he gave a young girl a book, and his later encounter with this woman as an adult while visiting near Fort Hunter, NY.