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 Monroe
is a town in Orange County. The population was 31,407 at the 2000
census. The town is named after President James Monroe. The Town of
Monroe contains two villages: Monroe and Kiryas Joel, as well as the
majority of the Village of Harriman, which it shares with the Town
of Woodbury. The town was part of the "Cheesecocks
Patent." It was created in 1799 as the Town of Cheesecocks. The
name became "Monroe" after 1818. According to: William H.
Belcher The Belcher Family in England and America (1941) “The
Cheesecocks Patent dated to December 20, 1702, was confirmed on
March 25, 1707 by Queen Anne of England, and was the name that the
Algonquin Indian had originally given to that territory of hills and
mountains west of the Hudson River, more commonly known as The
Highlands – Chis meaning High, and Kauk meaning Land ... The
territory comprising the present town of Monroe is part of the
Chesekook Patent granted in 1707. The town was set off from the
precinct of Goshen in 1764 and named Chesekook. This name continued
until 1801, when it was changed to Southfields. On April 6, 1808, it
took its present name of Monroe.” So that it would seem as though
the town of Monroe started out as simply being called Cheescocks or
the Cheesecocks Patent area, which remained largely wild prior to
the Revolution. Then parts of it began to be named after the
earliest landowners such as the Smith's Clove area, which was named
after William Smith, and then Galloway's, which was named after the
settler who errected the log cabin that Washington temporarily
called his home. Then in 1801, the town's name was changed to
Southfields, and then in 1808 the name of Munroe, which apparently
was changed to Monroe in 1818 to honor the President of the same
name. The town is the birthplace of Velveeta Cheese. Each year a
cheese festival is held to honor this noble history.
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