The Story of Mesier Park

I was all stoked to visit Mesier Park this morning, given my discoveries last night, as added to an earlier post (Hunting for the Wappinger Mill). I had learned some very intriguing history about the origin of Mesier Park, including that the land (Actually 750 acres) was originally owned in 1741 by two Dutchmen (Nicholas and Adolphus Brewer - Ref - http://www.wappingershistoricalsociety.org/mesier.shtml). Adolphus died after being struck by lighting, and was the first to be buried in the Zion Episcopal Church graveyard. The church still stands and I'm looking into visiting Adolphus Brewer's burial site as a future adventure. 

This is where the story gets fascinating. I'll quote from the Wappingers Historical Society site:

"In 1776, a well-to-do loyalist tea merchant from New York City, Peter Mesier, arrived in Fishkill. He bought the 750 acres of land and the homestead from Nicholas Brewer and opened a small store in the homestead. Mesier angered his customers with high prices and in May of 1777, a number of people broke into his store and demanded tea, refusing to pay the high prices asked. For three days, the intruders beat Mesier and his wife and servants, destroyed his property and raided his cellar.

Peter Mesier and his wife, Catherine Sleight, lived peacefully after the incident and together had eight children, three boys and five girls. Upon the death of Peter in 1806, their son Matthew took over the Mesier Homestead. Matthew and his wife had two sons, Henry and Abram and two daughters, Johanna and Maria. These heirs of Matthew were the last owners of Mesier Homestead.

In 1891, Henry Mesier sold the Homestead and five acres of land to the Village of Wappingers Falls for $2500."

Upon arrival, I quickly discovered it was COLD. So frigid was the temperature, that my phone shut down roughly 40 minutes into my adventure (According to TechHive, the minimum operating temperature for the iPhone is 32 deg F - Ref - http://www.techhive.com/article/249134/sub_zero_weather_can_your_smartphone_stand_the_cold_.html). I didn't check the exact temperature (my car guessed ~30 deg F, but this is often affected by engine heat), so I'm guessing it was a degree or two below 30 deg F. I was forced to sit in my car for a bit to warm up the phone enough to turn back on. As a new strategy, I turned on the GPS, which throws the phone into "constant ping" with global position services and makes the phone get hot. Or in today's case, no longer freezing. Beyond this incident,  I was able to explore the site and grab a few shots of the park. I'm very excited about today's learning, because it looks like this park is key for understanding much of the Village of Wappingers history. 

Also, I was able to purchase a better camera for my photography adventures (Nikon Coolpix L330) with some saved money and gift cards! Let's see what 20MP looks like in the new adventures!

To see the full adventure, please see my Flickr feed - https://www.flickr.com/photos/129003675@N04/16060942357/. Thanks for joining in the journey!