DeJoux House

For the first time in a long time I have had a few hours to spare to investigate the relationship between Maria Deyo, the story of the murders on Springtown Road in 1800, DeJoux House and the Deyo family -  especially now I have both the complete family tree and ownership of the house.    My investigation started with the facts that we knew so far. 1) The document from the Library of congress that documents the murders and the names of the husband (Josiah) and the wife (Maria).   In this news DOCUMENT she is described as killing two children from a previous marriage. Also an infant daughter of 9 months old. (presumably the daughter of Josiah) 2)  The map of 1790 shows the only other Deyo owned house as being owned by C. Dojo 3)  The tax record of 1798  references a stone house, next door to David Deyo's house (Our house) that is "owned by"  Christian Deyo but was being occupied by "Josiah Deyo"  and is described as being "B...

When we arrived at the house we found a package delivered by Lee Reich from across the road.  Michael Clinton the painter had mentioned to Russell Gilmore one of the previous owners that he was working on the house and I think this prompted Russell to hand them on to us...For which we are eternally grateful. The package contained a file of documents relating to the house.  Most of these were the deeds we had already identified as existing but had never seen.   These deeds have the signatures of many of the people we have written about in the history pages this blog but I have never felt this close to them. These documents clarify how the house passed from David Deyo, who was the son of Christoffel, to his wife Rachel and then to Abraham Relyea who is named as the owner in a number of maps in 1800's.   There is also a document that is described as a "Release of Dower" from Abraham's second wife Maria Relyea to Jesse Elting who owned the house from 1862 and ...

In a  Previous Blog story  we were trying to identify the tree in the front of the house. I finally contacted the local Department of Environmental Conservation who were amazing.  I was put in contact with a great guy called Michael Pogue who is a Senior Forrester at NYS DEC who not only looked at several photos but also went to the house and identified the tree as an American Smoketree. "Just got back from your property.  Smoke tree it is.  This is the largest specimen I have seen and the first one I have actually looked at at "close range".  It's out of its native range but obviously quite happy. " I must say I had not expected the support and help that Mike at the DEC provided.  Obviously in the grand scheme of things this is not a big priority for them but Mike not only took an interest but went out of his way to help me learn more about the tree.  If part of DEC's responsibilities is education and garnering community interest in trees an...

We arrived at the house this weekend to meet with the contractors who had poured concrete in the basement on Friday. When we arrived we found a family standing in front of the house taking pictures. Being the friendly types we are, we went over to chat. They told us they were on a haunted house tour and were looking at the house because their daughter had been talking about the ghost at our house for the last couple of days. She had bought a book called "Spooky Hudson Valley" and in it was the story of Maria Deyo and a tragic tale of a mother killing all three children and then killing herself. The family were wonderful and excited to be shown the house. They showed us the book and at the beginning of the story was a picture of our house. The book went on to say that Maria sent the men to the fields and then she slit her daughter's throat and the throat of her other two children...then killed herself. All this happened on September 13 th 1801. There was...