The Hayt and Perry Families of Patterson

by Janet Cassidy

The Hayts (originally spelled Hoyt) like many another early Patterson family moved into the area from Connecticut (in the case of the Hayts, by way of Bedford in Westchester), and then up into Fredericksburgh. One branch of the family settled in the area around the triangle intersection (junction of today's NYS Routes 292 and 311). Stephen Hoyt/Hayt (b. 1730) had at least nine children. Three of his sons Stephen (b. 1760), John (b. 1763) and Samuel (b. 1765) married three of the daughters of Timothy Delavan, who had also moved to Fredericksburgh, from North Salem. (Timothy Delavan was the oldest of ten sons, nine of whom had served in the Revolutionary Army.) The Hayts were active in the Patterson Presbyterian Church. The Hayt farm was along what is now NYS Route 311, and the house later became the de Bourbon mansion.

Another branch of the Hayts, probably third cousins to those described above, are descended from Jachin Hoyt (b. 1761) of Connecticut, who settled a farm along Old NYS Route 22, north of Big Elm Road. He was Overseer of Highways in 1813. His son Timothy is shown occupying the farm on the 1854 O'Connor map.

Further south on (Old) NYS Route 22 was the farm of Simeon Perry (b. 1763), a soldier in the Revolution, and his son Nehemiah. They occupied what is likely the oldest house still standing in Patterson, built about 1720. It is not known who built this house (it predates the Hayts and the Perrys in the area) but it may have been Elijah Tompkins, a tenant of Margaret Ogilvie (a Philipse family heir). Simeon Perry's deed for the land (purchased in 1799) states the farm was "originally laid out for Elijah Tompkins." Nehemiah Perry married Polly Sears, and in 1862, their only child Mary Perry married Timothy Hayt's son, John Hawley Hayt. With John Hawley Hayt farming south of Big Elm, and his brother Daniel R. farming north of Big Elm, the Hayts owned and farmed a considerable stretch of land along NYS Route 22. After J.H. Hayt died, his son Edgar Freeman Hayt continued the farm. He was a member of the Grange and a mason, and died on April 5, 1960 at the age of 91. His son, Frank E. Hayt, was a clerk of the Putnam County Board of Supervisors. Frank Hayt wrote a book about the family farm entitled The Hayt Farm, and died in September 1958. Descendants of the Hayts still live in the area.