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Fort Decker

New York, US

Fort Decker

"Fort Decker" is a stone house built in 1793 from the remains of the fort of that name. It is located on West Main Street in Port Jervis, New York, United States, the oldest building in that city, which it predates by several decades. The original Fort Decker was built by a Frederick Haynes, a Dutch

settler, sometime before 1760, during the French and Indian War, as an unofficial defense and trading post. It was one and a half stories high, built of stone and overlapping logs. Haynes left the area for New Jersey around 1775, leaving the fort to his wife's family, the Deckers. The fort is named for Lt. Martinus Decker, great grandson of Jan Gerritsen Decker, the first Decker to live in the Minisink Valley. On July 19, 1779, during the Revolutionary War, when the settlement was known as "Peenpack", the fort was burned during a raid by pro-British Native American leader Joseph Brant. When survivors brought news of the disaster to Goshen, the Patriot attempt to retaliate led to a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Minisink, the only major engagement of the war in the upper Delaware Valley. The current house was built from the remains of the fort in 1793. In 1826, it would house engineers...

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