Warwick Valley Heritage: Home

• Warwick Heritage Digital Collection 
  • Includes articles, books, images, audio & video files.
• Dr. Richard Hull's "History Alive Show"
• Other nearby digital repositories & exhibits:
  • Greenwood Lake Public Library
  • Warwick Historical Society exhibits 
  • Virtual Cemetery for Warwick's Revolutionary War Veterans
  • Sugar Loaf Items exhibit by the Chester Historical Society
  • Chester Historical Society Digital Collection
  • Bellvale School Home Page
• Orange County Clerk's Office Historical Records

• Scanned Warwick & Goshen Newspapers
  • Includes Warwick Valley Dispatch 1886-current, Warwick Advertiser 1866-2003
  • Warwick Advertiser 2004 and on, ask at Help Desk [Help Desk Staff Access]
  • Goshen Newspapers 1789-1865 (Incomplete); Warwick had no paper until 1866
• Other Scanned Orange County Newspapers
  • Rights of Man (Newburgh 1803-1805)  Free
  • Goshen Newspapers via AWPL subscription to New York's Historical Newspapers Database (in-house or with AWPL card at home)
    • Goshen Repository 1797-1815
    • Orange County Gazette 1806-1815
    • Orange County Patriot 1811-1821
• Warwick Advertiser Website
• Warwick Valley Dispatch Website
• About Local Newspapers - Tips

• Town of Warwick Unique Sites Inventory
• Village of Warwick Historic District Inventory

Historical Societies, Historians, and Webpages

A CHECKLIST OF SOURCES FOR WARWICK EARLY RESIDENTS:

Download the checklist of "first stop" sources, link below.

A NOTE ABOUT MISSING HISTORICAL RECORDS FOR GOSHEN AREA

Due to two fires in Goshen (April, 1841 and 1843), many of the Goshen Precinct early records were destroyed.  A few are transcribed or extracted, in Ruttenber and Clark's History of Orange County.

• Continental Army Supply Depot at Warwick
• Diverse Documents: Warwick's People of Color
• Great Chain Across the Hudson
• Historical Environmental Movements of Warwick
• John Hathorn's Revolutionary Legacy
• Lydia Sayer Hasbrouck: Women's Rights Activist
• Pulpit Rock History
• Stone Age Warwick (Native American Artifacts)
• Warwick Woodlands: Correctional Facility @ State School Rd.

REGIONAL & TEACHER GUIDES:

• Revolutionary War in the Mid-Hudson: A Guide for Teachers
• Teachers' Guide to incorporating local history into the curriculum
• USA @ 250 and your community: finding local stories

• Buildings and Places
• Maps
• Genealogy
• Other Sources and Links
• Orange County History Web Guide

Use this to search many of the webpages on this site, but it does not search in the Warwick Heritage Digital Collection or the scanned newspapers-- you must search these separately by clicking on the links and following the directions.

TEACHER'S GUIDE to incorporating local history into the classroom curriculum. (Mid-Hudson region).

Video of talk on HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT ("Frank Forester") given by Jerry Kuntz Oct. 15, 2023.

Our Databases:

The library provides commercial databases for AWPL cardholders to assist with historical & family history research.  All except Ancestry Library Edition are available to you from home with your library card.

Access the databases here: http://guides.rcls.org/c.php?g=128571&p=839608

Orange County Clerk's Office Property Records

Scans of the deed and mortgage books and indexes are available on Familysearch.org, a free site.  There is no searchability, you must check the scans of the index volumes to locate Liber and Page.

• First create a familysearch.org account (it is free)
• Then follow the link below to the page that lists all the volumes available.
• https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89WN-M5FG?i=499&owc=M7HG-RTG%3A358136701%3Fcc%3D2078654

The following is a partial list of books about Warwick and Orange County history that are full text and in a PDF format you can download to your computer or device; you can find links to more ebooks and e-documents in the Warwick Heritage Database.

Basics: Short Histories of the Warwick Valley:

• Short History by S. Gardner (2009)
• Warwick Chapter from Ruttenber and Clark's  History of Orange County:(1881)

General Orange County History:

• An Eighteenth Century Journey Through Orange County by Hector St. John de Crevecoeur (1781, translation ci1937)
• History of Orange County by Ruttenber & Clark (1881; entire book)

Warwick  & Sugar Loaf Specific Works:

• Bellvale Rising Star by Thomas Burt (newspaper published 1 year about Bellvale, 1889)
• Black Jacob by A. D. Eddy. The inspiring life story of Jacob Hodges of Sugar Loaf, who was coerced into the murder of Richard Jennings, then reformed.
• History of Orange County by Ruttenber & Clark (1881; Warwick chapter only)
• Memoirs of Hon. Nathaniel Jones U.S. House of Representatives 1837-1841, lived in Warwick, many local anecdotes.
• Report of the Trial of The Murderers of Richard Jennings; pamphlet from the collection of the archive of the Warwick Historical Society (1819; murder occurred in Sugar Loaf)
• Under Old Rooftrees by Eliza Benedict Hornby (1908).  Collection of facts and stories about Warwick Valley life in the 18th and 19th centuries.  Lifestyles, weather, weddings, slaves, folkways, etc.
• Warwick Woodlands  by Frank Forester (Henry William Herbert).  Classic field sports/hunting narrative, 1840s.