Rockland County, New York

Beginnings [1]

Rockland was formed from Orange County February 23, 1798. It is about 208 square miles, some 105 miles south of Albany. The county seat is New City, a hamlet within the Town of Clarkstown. The first settlers were Dutch who came in numbers from 1690-1710 and located in what is now the southeastern part of the county. Among them were Captain Cornelius Cuyper, Captain Cornelius Harring, Johannes Meyer, Gerhardus Clowes, Derrick Straat, Jacobus Swartnot, Jonathan Ross, Thomas Pulling, John Gaile, Cornelius Smith, Jacob King, William Kurtrack, John Ellison, Rinear Kisarike, Colonel Vincent Mathews, Hendrick Ten Eyck and Guylbery Crom, and others.

Located 15 miles (24 km) northwest of Manhattan, Rockland County [2] is designated as a Preserve America Community, and roughly one-third of the county is parkland. he county has the largest Jewish population per capita of any U.S. county, with 31.4%, or 90,000 residents, being Jewish.

1. French, J.H., Gazetteer of the State of New York: Embracing a Comprehensive View of the geography, Geology, and General History of the State ..., Ira J. Friedman Inc., Port Washington, NY 1860
2. www.ny.gov/counties/rockland, accessed September, 2022.