Name/Title
Hillhold article -Thomas Bull house Oct 15,1964Entry/Object ID
001835Tags
Orange County HistoryScope and Content
Orange may add 189 acres to park
By TOM PRAY
GOSHEN — Orange County’s 414-acre park in Hamptonburgh could be made half again as large as the result of a request in the will of an 80-year-old attorney who died Sept. 13.
In his will admitted for probate in surrogate court, Robert McLeod Jackson directs that Hill-Hold, his 189-acre estate, go to his sister, Margaret Eleanor Jackson of Campbell Hall.
At the same time, he requests that she eventually deed the property to the county as "The Thomas Bull Memorial Park" for a local memorial or as an addition to the county park across the road . . . provided the county is willing to accept the tract.
The tract, together with a stone residence, a tenant farmhouse, and a barn is opposite the present county park on Route 416 about 2 miles from its juncture with Route 207.
That will adds, however, that the sister not be restricted if she wishes to dispose of the property in some other fashion besides deeding to the county if the need arises.
Jackson provides his sister with an outright bequest of $25,000 and an income for life from a trust fund to be set up and administered by the County Trust Company of White Plains.
Among more than two dozen other beneficiaries are the William Bull and Sarah Wells Family Association, $3,000; the First Presbyterian Church of Hamptonburgh in Campbell Hall, $5,000; the Hamptonburgh Cemetery Association, $5,000; the Goshen Hospital, $5,000; and a niece, Susan Colter Wilson of Chaduttesville, Va., $10,000.
Other relatives shared more than $11,000 in varying amounts.
The County National Bank of White Plains is named sole executor at the request of Miss Jackson, who asked that she be relieved of the duty of acting as co-trustee.
Should the tract be offered to the county and accepted, the county would have 603 acres of park. The addition would be consistent with the county’s policy of leasing or purchasing park land for future use as recreation area.
The county expanded its park from 307 to 414 acres during the summer and was considering plans to purchase part of the Bull Farm on the opposite side of the Wallkill River as well as another tract somewhere else in the county.
Land for the park was purchased under the state's park and recreation land acquisition act in which the state pays 75 per cent of the cost and the county pays 25 per cent as well as the cost of development.