1. |
Prologue
01:04
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Claudius Smith, the most daring marauder, the most merciless cowboy, the most thorough scoundrel that ever met a just fate on the gallows.
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2. |
Cowboys
01:58
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In the time of revolution, led a gang of desperados called the cowboys. They took part in Tory raids with the Mohawk Joseph Brant, ravaged Smith's Clove, Orange County, Ramapo Pass, northern Jersey. They were Tories on the wrong side in the time of revolution.
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3. |
Deeds
01:05
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Claudius Smith and his three sons, his son William, his son Richard, and his son James. Raiding, stealing, burning, killing, horses, cattle, oxen, patriots oxen, patriots.
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4. |
Hideouts
02:03
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At Horse Stable Rock, on Round Mountain, near Wesley Chapel, they rendezvoused. From Man of War Rock onto Clove Road they came rushing to attack. In the den of Claudius Smith they divided all their spoils. Monsey Indians used to use it on their hunting expeditions.
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5. |
Archeology
01:04
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Shards of pottery, also arrowheads, have been found nearby.
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6. |
Geology
03:44
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The den took shape the late Pleistocene as roches moutonnées were pried out of the cliff. The sheepbacks took thousands and thousands and thousands of years to move just a few feet along.
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7. |
Woodhull
03:39
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Colonel Woodhull had a mare that Smith gave out he meant to steal. To prevent this, Woodhull put her in his basement, safe and sound, so he thought. One fine day, as he dined with a friend, Smith slipped in and stole the mare. Spotting Smith steal away, Woodhull's friend took up his rifle, made to shoot. "Stop!" shouted Woodhull. "If you shoot him, he will kill me!" So it was that Smith escaped.
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8. |
Prophecy
01:26
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His mother prophesied "You'll die with your shoes on, like a trooper's horse.”
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9. |
Youngs
01:07
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In the battle of Fort Montgomery, Colonel McClaughry was taken captive. His wife asked the wealthy Abimal Youngs for bail money. He declined. Enraged, the Cowboys swung him up on the well pole, up and down. But he would not relent. Instead they took his papers.
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10. |
Strong
01:57
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One night, the Cowboys broke into the home of Major Nathaniel Strong, who boarded himself in his bedroom. They said, if he gave up his arms, he'd be spared. But as he approached the door to comply, they shot him through a broken panel. He died without a word.
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11. |
Goshen
03:13
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A price was put upon the head of Smith. He fled to Long. A posse was formed. He was captured by candlelight, sent to Goshen, jailed, manacled, chained to a ring in the floor, tried, convicted, and hung.
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12. |
Epilogue
04:47
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A huge crowd saw the hanging, among them Abimal Youngs.
"Where are my papers?" he cried.
Smith said, "This is no place to talk about papers! In the next world I'll tell you of them."
Then he kicked off his shoes
"Why?" asked the hangman.
"To prove," he said, "my mother a liar.”
They buried him in a shallow grave near the scaffold and mounted his skull o'er the door of the court house. The rest of his bones became souvenirs. His son James also was hung; his son William, shot in the mountains, the flesh devoured by wild animals, the bones left to bleach in the sun.
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Denman Maroney Durfort, France
Denman Maroney is known for his "hyperpiano" techniques (playing the keys with one hand and the strings with other using slides and bows of metal, plastic, rubber, and wood) and his “temporal harmonies” (composing and improvising in multiple tempos). He has recorded for Outnow, Porter, Innova, Clean Feed, Nuscope, Kadima, Cryptogramophone, New World, Mutable, Victo, and Erstwhile among others. ... more
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