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tradition says that when they reached the toll gate, funds were low. It is said that Elizabeth paid the toll keeper with a fancy lace handkerchief.

The land they came to, high in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains was owned by Stephen Van Rensselear III under the old patroon system. In the patroon system, the Dutch settlers in New York who on certain conditions as to colonizing enjoyed manorial rights over their lands. This system flourished in New York state from the early 1600’s until it was finally abolished in 1852. Since the area was scarcely populated, the Van Rensselaer. Manor established a program of colonizing, that is giving homesteads on a "lease" basis. The pioneers were told to select a homestead, occupy it for seven years and then they would be given a wheat lease clause. At the end of seven years, however, the tenants were given the right to an "incomplete sale "on these terms; the farmer was to pay 10 to 14 bushels of wheat per year and 4 fowl; one days work with himself and team; he was to pay all taxes and could use the land exclusively for farming. he could sell the property, but only his contract of " incomplete sale". If he sold, the landlord could also collect one quarter of the sale price. This was little more than the old European "feudal system" and it is unthinkable that this was done legally to men who had just fought for and won free enterprise type of government.

Peter Decker selected his homestead on 105 acres on the south ½ of lot 31 in the town of Bleinheim, Schohaire County. This land now lies in the town of summit, having been split off from Bleinheim in 1819. The land was surveyed by James Creasy and leased to Peter by Judge John Lansing Jr. It is said that Judge Lansing paid a shilling an acre for this land in 1798. Peter was guided in his selection by knowledge of the timber that grew on fertile soil., but in Dutch Hill this was not the case. The soil was poor on that mountain top, a thin layer of top soil over a deposit of gravel and rock. To homestead this poor soil, Peter first had to clear away the forest with only an axe and a team of oxen. Then came the backbreaking job removing the rock before crops could be sown. To attest to the rocky soil are miles and

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