288 THE FRENCH BLOOD IN AMERICA 



lowed iu his footstej)s. That he was treated with the 

 greatest liberality is evidenced by the followiug deed of 

 gift which the citizens bistowed upon him 5 this docu- 

 ment also throws a strong light on the character of the 

 men who made up the colony and the ideals they had in 

 mind in regulating its growth : 



A Gift to the We the undersigned gentlemen, resident proprietors of the twelve 



Schoolmaster , , , .,, „ ^^ ^^ ,. -, , „ ,^. 



parts of the village of New Paltz, a dependency of Kingston, county 



of Ulster, province of New York, certify that of our good will and to 

 give pleasure to Jean Cottin, schoolmaster at said Paltz, we to him 

 have given gratuitously a little cottage to afford him a home, situated 

 at said Paltz, at the end of the street on the left hand near the large 

 clearing extending one " lizier " to the place reserved for building the 

 church and continuing in a straight line to the edge of the clearing, 

 thence one " lizier " to the extremity of the clearing, and we guarantee 

 the said Cottin that he shall be placed in possession without any 

 trouble and we allow said Cottin to cut wood convenient for his pur- 

 pose for building and he is given the pasturage for two cows and their 

 calves and a mare and colt. We the proprietors at the same time 

 agree among ourselves, for the interest of our own homes to request 

 said Cottin that he will not sell the above mentioned property to any 

 one not of good life and manners, and we are not to keep said Cottin 

 as schoolmaster longer than we think fit and proper. 



Progress and By Steady toil and exercise of thrift the descendants 

 Prosperity ^^ ^^^ patentees raised themselves to a comfortable degree 

 of prosperity. Within a few years after the building of 

 the town, the original wooden houses gave way to spacious 

 and solid structures of stone, many of which are standing 

 to-day, still occupied by direct descendants of the build- 

 ers. This is one of the marks of the town, that the fami- 

 lies of the founders still cling to the locality. The hurry 

 and bustle of modern American life is not felt to any 

 great degree in New Paltz, and men may be seen tilling 

 the fields that their great-great-grandfathers tilled before 

 them. 



For many years one of the Huguenot descendants, Mr, 

 Ralph LeFevre, of New Paltz, has been gathering facts 

 concerning the families which trace their origin to the 



