Robert H. Houston

His great-grandfather, Rev. Joseph Houston, with his two brothers, John and James, emigrated from the north of Ireland in the beginning of the eighteenth century, and came first to Jamestown, Va. James remained near them, and John settled in Pennsylvania. Rev. Joseph, after preaching a few years at Jamestown, came north, and was the first settled pastor of the Goodwill Presbyterian Church in the Town of Montgomery, Orange Co., N.Y., where he purchased some 600 acres of land, upon which he resided until his death, and upon which his sons, Joseph and James, resided during their lives. He had also four daughters. James occupied the homestead part of the farm, and Joseph removed to the other side of the Otterkill.

James married Anna, the daughter of Rev. George Carr, a Presbyterian minister of Goshen, who bore him the following children: Joseph, George, Thomas, James, John, Samuel, Andrew, Polly, wife of Robert Wilkin; Jane wife of Adam Dickerson.

Of these children, George was for a few months on guard in the Mamakating Valley to protect the whites from the incursions of the Indians during the Revolutionary war, and Joseph was a physician at Amity, and afterwards at Edenville, where he died. All of the children were married and reared families in Orange County.

George, father of our subject, born in 1763, died in December, 1825. His wife was Jane, daughter of Robert Hunter, of Montgomery, who died in 1801, aged about thirty-two, leaving the following children: Ann, wife of Samuel W. Brown, of Scotchtown; John G., James G., Robert H., and George. The latter was a farmer where a part of Middletown now is, the present cemetery being built on part of his farm, and he was afterwards a merchant and justice of the peace in Middletown.

George Houston married for his second wife Julia, widow of Mr. Gale, and daughter of William Thompson, of Goshen, who by her first marriage had one son, William Gale. Of this union were born children, – Anthony and Jane, twins, the latter becoming the wife of Charles Heard, of Hamptonburgh; Henry; Sally, wife of Hector Van Cleft; Samuel and Theodore, died young men; Almira, wife of Orange Horton, of White Plains, N.Y.; Elizabeth, wife of William Church, of Orange, N.J.; and Thomas. Twelve of these children were married, and eleven reared families.

George Houston settled on a farm at Scotchtown in 1787, where he remained until 1805, and during the remainder of his life he was a farmer in the town of Wallkill. He gave land for the church (Presbyterian) and burial-plots at Scotchtown, was one of its founders, and served the church for many years as elder. He was a man of strong force of character, and a promoter of the best interests of society. He was the prime mover in the construction of the Goshen to Bloomingburgh turnpike.

Robert H., son of George and Jane Houston, was born in the town of Wallkill, Aug. 20, 1798. At the age of sixteen he began learning the tanner and currier trade, which he completed at the age of twenty. For six years following he remained at home and had charge of his father’s farm. In 1826 he came to Middletown, and in company with Charles Dill rented the “Anderson” tannery, which they afterwards purchased, located across the street from the Commercial Hotel, and carried on the tanning business under the firm-name of Dill & Houston. After a few years they disposed of it, and built another on the present site of the Orange County Milk Association building, where they continued business until 1846. In 1831they purchased a farm of sixty acres adjoining the village, which they also carried on.

The partnership was dissolved in 1846, Mr. Samuel S. Wickham purchasing an interest in the tannery, which was carried on by Messrs. Houston & Wickham until 1851, when Mr. Houston sold his interest in the business to Mr. Wickham.

In the dissolution of the partnership of Houston & Dill, Mr. Houston retained the farm, which now forms a part of the village of Middletown, and has been laid out by him into lots and streets, and upon which many fine and substantial residences have been erected, forming a desirable part of the village.

To the original purchase he has added contiguous land, and his present farm, of about 100 acres, he still finds pleasure in superintending.

In 1841, Messrs. Houston & Dill donated the land upon which to erect the Wallkill Academy, and during their career together were also engaged for seven years in the lumber business in Sullivan County.

Mr. Houston may safely be ranked among the men to whom much is due for the present prosperous and thrifty village of Middletown, and he has been a liberal contributor in founding many of its present institutions, and forwarding such interests as have tended to the prosperity of the place and the welfare of its citizens. He was one of the men to obligate himself for the extension of the Erie Railway to Middletown after its completion to Goshen, and in the erection of schools, churches, and kindred institutions he has always been found ready with his time and money.

Like his forefathers, he has stood unswervingly a supporter of the Presbyterian Church, which his Scotch ancestors in the mother-country spilled their blood to establish and protect, and both he and his wife have been members of the church at Middletown for many years. He married, May 2, 1829, Mary, daughter of David Dill and Elizabeth Houston, who was born April 6, 1799, was a devoted wife and mother, and died Sept. 11, 1880. Her mother was a daughter of Joseph Houston, and granddaughter of Rev. Joseph Houston, the progenitor of the family in Orange County.

Their daughter, Jane Elizabeth, died at the age of eighteen. Their only surviving child is David Dill Houston, born Dec. 15, 1833, and who married, Aug. 29, 1861, Catherine M., daughter of John K. Moore. He carries on mercantile and milling business and farming at Middletown.