Hylah Bevier

Female

1795

1874

New Paltz, NY

Levi Hasbrouck (1821)

Hylah Bevier Hasbrouck was one of seven daughters of Philip Dubois Bevier and Ann DeWitt Bevier to attended Sarah Pierce's Female Academy. She completed her studies in Litchfield around 1811. In 1821, when Hylah was 26, she married Levi Hasbrouck. Levi and Hylah spent the rest of their lives at Locust Lawn, a farm located in Gardner, New York which Levi had inherited from his father, Josiah Hasbrouck, upon Josiah's death in 1821.
Levi and Hylah had seven children, five of whom survived to adulthood. Their first daughter, Sarah Maria, was born in November 1823. A second daughter, Ann Bevier, was born in 1827. A son, Josiah, named for his paternal grandfather, was born in 1825 but lived for only four years; Josiah's death may have been expected for a second son, born in 1828 while his brother ...was still alive, was also named Josiah. The Hasbrouck's had two more daughters, Louisa, born in 1831, and Laura Tallmadge, born in 1834.
Hylah was a member of the Ladies' Mount Vernon Association of the Union, the Foreign Missionary Society and the Ulster County Agricultural Society. The family belonged to the Dutch Reformed Churches at New Paltz and Hurley. Trade cards and invoices indicate Hylah's interest in home furnishings and she often shopped at specialty shops in New York City.
Hylah's husband, Levi, died at home on March 7, 1861, aged 70. Levi left the farm to his son Josiah but provided in his will that Hylah should remain at Locust Lawn and she should also have the use of "the old stone house at New Paltz Village." She was awarded pew 39 at the Dutch Reformed Church in New Paltz. After Levi's death, Hylah remained at Locust Lawn along with her two unmarried daughters, Louisa, then 33 and Laura, 31. Her son, Josiah, nominally supervised the farm but he traveled frequently and actually spent most of his time away from the farm. Hylah died at the age of 79 in 1874 and her funeral was held at Locust Lawn.
The bequests listed in her will reflect her interest in religious organizations. She provided for gifts to the American Bible Society in New York, The American Tract Company in New York, the Foreign Missions Society and the Dutch Reformed Church in New Paltz. There were additional gifts to the Board of Domestic Missions and to the General Synod of the Reformed Dutch Church to be used for the education of "indigent young men preparing for the gospel ministry." The fund was to be known as the Louisa Hasbrouck Scholarship. She provided for other family members including the children of her deceased daughter Sarah, her nieces and her namesakes, who by 1871 numbered five women or girls named Hylah. Also provided was a bequest to the Dutch Church "to be used for paying for the bread and wine at the communion as is necessary to put away the necessity of a collection on that day" for she had "often been so horrified after the solemn scene to hear the rattling of money."
[more][less]

1811,1813

Bevier, Katherine. The Bevier Family. New York: Tobias A. Wright, 1916.

Letter, Julia Ann Crosy to Hylah and Sarah Bevier, 22 October 1813.

Hylah kept a list of fellow student whle attending the Litchfield Female Academy (Locust Grove Estate).