History of Dover Plains, (Dutchess County) New York United States of America

Our database does not include an historic photo for Dover Plains, (Dutchess County) New York, do you have one you would like to contribute? Contact Us!

Benson John Lossing, historian, was born in Beekman, N.Y., Feb. 12, 1813; a descendant of early Dutch settlers in the lower Hudson valley. His father died in 1814, and he was brought up by his mother in the Society of Friends. He attended school for a short time; engaged in business as a watchmaker in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and in 1835 became an owner and editor of the Poughkeepsie Telegraph, beginning the publication of the Casket, a literary journal, in 1836, continuing his interest in both publications until 1841. In 1838, after studying wood engraving in New York city, he became editor and illustrator of The Family Magazine, the pioneer illustrated periodical in America. In partnership with William Barritt he conducted the largest wood-engraving business in New York city, 1843-68. He conceived and executed (1845-50) "'The Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution," published by Hair & Brothers (30 parts, 1850-52), visiting the historic localities, writing the text for the work, making the drawings on the wood, and doing much of the engraving. In 1868 he retired to a farm near Dover Plains, N.Y., and devoted himself to historical research. He was made an honorary life member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York city, in 1844. He received the honorary degree of A.M. from Hamilton college in 1856 and from Columbia in 1869, and that of LL.D. from the University of Michigan in 1872. Besides numerous illustrated contributions to American and foreign periodicals, chiefly on the history and legends of the Hudson river, he compiled, with Edwin Williams, "The Statesman's Manual" (4 vols., 1868); edited and annotated the "The Diaries of Washington" (1859), and "Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington" by G. W. P. Custis (1860), and is the author of a large number of books, among the more important of which are: History of the Fine Arts (1840); Lives of the Presidents (1847); Seventeen Hundred and Seventy-Six (1847); lives of Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott (1847); The New World (1847); Biographies of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence (1848); History of the United States (1854); Our Countrymen (1855); Mount Vernon (1859); Life of Philip Schuyler (2 vols., 1860); History of the Civil War (3 vols., 1866-69); Home of Washington (1867); Vassar College and It's Founder (1867); The Hudson River (1867); Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812 (1868); Mary and Martha Washington (1868); Two Spies: Nathan Hale and John Andr? (1886); The Empire State (1887). He died at Dover Plains, N.Y., June 3, 1891.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Dover Plains, (Dutchess County) New York

Biographies: