Fishkill (town), New York

Fishkill is a town in the southwest part of Dutchess County, New York, United States. It lies approximately north of New York City. The population was 22,107 at the 2010 census. Fishkill partly surrounds the city of Beacon.The town of Fishkill contains a village, which is also named Fishkill. The name derives from the Dutch vis kill, meaning "fish creek."The location of Fishkill was known as Tioranda by the Native American peoples. The name means "The place where two waters meet".HistoryIn 1683 New York City merchants Francis Rombouts and Gulian Verplanck purchased 85000acre in Dutchess County from the Wappinger confederacy of Native Americans for a quantity of goods including rum, powder, and tobacco. Neither ever lived on the land, intending to use it only for fur trading. The first white settlers were Rombout's daughter, Catharyna, and her husband, Roger Brett, who built a mill at the mouth of Fishkill Creek as it flows into the Hudson River.Fishkill played an important role in the American Revolutionary War when a huge military encampment was established one mile (1.6 km) below the village to guard the mountain pass to the south. Signal fires lay in readiness on tops of the surrounding mountains. The Fishkill encampment became the main supply depot for the northern division of the Continental Army. The first copies of the New York State Constitution were printed at Fishkill in 1777.