Home to a roving cast of early American luminaries, most notably Alexander Hamilton and his wife Elizabeth, and the setting of pivotal junctures in the Revolutionary War, including a plea to make George Washington "King George", this long forgotten dwelling offers new insights into the most crucial stage of American history.
In 1780, in the middle of the Revolutionary War, there were very few houses available. The Depeyster House, built by Abraham Depeyster as his summer home, was vacant since his passing in 1775. The house happened to be in a strategic area directly across the river from Washington's headquarters. Who occupied this house on a hill between the Fishkill Creek and the Hudson river? As a search expert (I have patents in search algorithms that I developed while working at IBM) I started to mine the tens of thousands of data that has recently become available. Using only primary source data; including old maps, original letters, estate wills and journals, I was able to determine who occupied the house. This book is a detailed account of its occupants, the visitors, the correspondence and also what it was like to live in the area.The actual translated letters that are used in this book are verbatim, with no changes made so you will see exactly how they communicated during this period. So watch the house come alive and try to envision what the area was like during the Revolutionary War.
