“The soil was the parent of wealth” - Huntting, History of the Little Nine Partners, 1897
Recognizing Value in Land: Three Centuries of Stewardship Lessons Looking Below, Above and Across the Bean River Valley
October 2025
The Bean River Valley is an isolated, well-travelled crossroads between New England and the westward-growing United States. It is located halfway between New York City and Albany, or more precisely, between the cusp of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mohawk River. It is adjacent to the backbone that grew the Empire State economy: the Hudson River. When the large Patent owners in the 17th century “bought” land from Indigenous peoples, they started a top-down, rigorous architecting of subdivisions that would create a structured pursuit of extracting value from the land below them. With the American Revolution as a backdrop, squatters and tenant farmers started to become freeholders. This unique crossroads offers powerful lessons in our relationship with land: what deserves our careful stewardship, and how we might go about it.
Dutchess County, New York Prepared for Tim & Nina Zagat by Aidan Chisamore, Bill Jeffway, and Melodye Moore. With William P. Tatum, III, Ph.d., Dutchess County Historian. October 2025.