7 government, Dutchess militia, and later land acquisitions, Peter proved himself to be a leader among the Dutch population of Fishkill, though by ancestry a Frenchman. As the village’s Dutch Reformed worshippers prepared to build a sanctuary there in the latter 1720s, Peter became its Elder, and led construction efforts in 1731 for the building which partially stands today. In his mid-life, Peter possessed hundreds of acres of land south of Fishkill in the settlement that would become the villages of Fishkill Landing and Matteawan—modern Beacon. On the west side of Sprout Creek, a tributary of Fishkill Creek and at a location three and a half miles from the village, in 1710 he built a stone house. The Dubois home, referred to as the “Old Homestead,” formed part of massive land tracts Peter distributed to his heirs—land that continued down towards Breakneck Mountain and the Hudson’s confluence with the Fishkill Creek. His attainment of 460 acres, west and east of the Sprout Creek, he left in his will to sons Jonathan, Abraham, and John, though he had other children. The existing DuBois land incentivized Peter’s grandson, Peter DuBois (1739– 1814), to acquire more in the vicinity. On March 15, 1768, Matthew DuBois, jr. of “Rumbouth precinct & Dutches County & province of New York” sold land on the south side of the Fishkill Creek to Peter, then a resident of Poughkeepsie, for 130 pounds. For 253 pounds in 1783, he purchased 293 ⅓ acres from Roger Morris that extended down along the base of Breakneck to Philipstown, draped over the border of Dutchess and Putnam counties. Peter and his wife Hannah Silbernagel (1753–1813) had numerous heirs, among them Peter C. Dubois (1783–1869) and Freelove DuBois, wife of Robert Van Amburgh. 5 It is likely the positioning of his father-in-law’s lands that led Van Amburgh to purchase acreage from his relative John in May 1798 for 351 pounds. In early 1800, John Van Amburgh sold land on the river for $1,250 to Joshua Van Amburgh. The transfer, “Beginning at a Black Oake Saplin marked standing on the east bank of Hudson’s river” was witnessed by Peter Dubois and his son-in-law Robert Van Amburgh, who encouraged Joshua to farm the land with his wife
