Person:Hugh Rose (1)

Hugh Rose, Sr., was born, bred and married in Scotland, where he was a farmer until his emigration to America. No record of his birth or marriage to Marjorie Clark was found in the parish church of Ballinuran, where his children were christened, so his parents' are still unknown.

He located in New York, first in the Catskills, then in Delaware County. His death date is uncertain; one account gives 1824, another, 1828. He lived either to 86 or 90, depending on which account you accept.

A description survives of Hugh Rose: a man of medium height and of a stocky, squarish build, sandy-haired, with gray or light blue eyes. He was of muscular strength beyond the normal, and of a peaceable temperament, sociable, and a man of strict religious ideas.

In 1777, he bought 600 acres of timbered land from the Six Nations. He amazed the Indians by offering them what he would have paid a white man, and forever after was held in close friendship by the Onondago. The chief Col. Joseph Brant would visit Hugh Rose whenever he was in the neighborhood.

Hugh built a saw and grist mill at the mouth of Rose's Brook. His business proved profitable. The closest competing mill was at Schoharie, so people came from all over to do business with him. The family moved into the mill soon after it was built; their original home was a small log cabin. Hugh became a man of substance and importance in the community. He was Justice of the Peace for 25 years, and Associate Judge for many years.

The family may have come to New York earlier, returning to Scotland at the outbreak of the Revolution (daughter Ann was born in New York in 1771, so they were here then; whether they went back to Scotland is debatable — why would they return in the middle of the war?). Hugh was known to be a loyalist, and was imprisoned for a brief time in 1779 for his British sympathies. It was during this time that his young son Alexander was kidnapped by Indian allies of the British. Marjorie Rose, Hugh's first wife, is said to have died of grief over her son, who returned to the family later.