The greater proportion of the able-bodied men and boys were, in some way, connected with the coal business. Another village, the offspring of the same trade, and of very recent origin, stands just below the mouth of the Rondout Creek. It was built entirely by the Pennsylvania Coal Company. From that village, laid out in 1851, and containing a population of about 1,400 souls, a large portion of the coal brought to the Hudson on the canal was shipped in barges for the north and west. It is called Port Ewen, in honour of John Ewen, then president of the company.

Placentia is the name of the beautifully situated country seat of the late James Kirke Paulding, a mile above the village of Hyde Park, and seven north from Poughkeepsie. It stands upon a gentle eminence, overlooking a pleasant park of many acres, and commanding an extensive prospect of a fertile farming country on both sides of the river. Almost opposite Placentia is the model farm of Robert L. Pell, Esq., whose apples, gathered from thousands of trees, are familiar to those who make purchases in the American and English fruit markets. Placentia has no history of special interest. It is a simple, beautiful retreat, now consecrated in memory as the residence of a venerable novelist and poet -- the friend and associate of Washington Irving in his early literary career- They were associated in the conducting of an irregular periodical entitled " Salmagundi," the principal object of which was to satirise the follies and foibles of fashionable life. Contrary to their expectation, it obtained a wide circulation, and they found many imitators throughout the country. It was brought to an abrupt conclusion by the refusal of the publisher to allow them any compensation. Paulding and Irving were personal friends through a period of more than fifty years.