The following article displayed below, and on the following pages are excerpts of a passage from "Old Orange County Homes" written by Mildred Parker Seese about 50 years ago, which was discovered by Bob Brennan.

     Vinson Clark's little community was on the stage route from Middletown to Bloomingburg, and business was good until, after he had died, the Erie was built through Howell and a new plank road bypassed Clarks' hill.

     In 1824 he was one of the fifteen innkeepers licensed in the Town of Wallkill, but his most certainly was not one of the "tippling houses, dram shops and groceries" against which complaint was directed for years later, when the Town Board was requested to stop licensing those 'whose principal object is to retail intoxicating liquors'. Vinson Clark's tavern not only had 'every accommodation for public entertainment', but it was the central building of a group that included a general store, smithy, cooperage and wagon and shoemaker shops. On his farm hemp and flax were the main crops, and Mrs. Clark braided straw for New York hat makers. On the same hillcrest was a Baptist Church. It is there yet, but separated from the stones in its churchyard...