In The Beginning...

As Early as 1669, requests were made for grants of land to the "blue hills".  There were no exact locations until Anne became Queen of England.  Through her agent, Viscount Cornbury , she gave the Marbletown Patent on June 25, 1703.  Three trustees elected annually would administer the grants until 1808.

This Patent included the future Town of Olive, which was also composed of a small portion of the Hurley Patent Woods: the Hardenbergh Patent and some of the land of the Livingstons, who had bought into the Hardenbergh Patent.

On October 15, 1704, the following petition was presented: "Charles Brodhead, Richard Brodhead, Joris Middagh, Thomas Jansen, and Cornelius Bogart desire each 100 acres of land upon the Esopus Creek or Kil about the chestnut brush near a place called Ashocan by the Indians"

This grant, now under the upper basin of the Ashokan Reservoir, was on both sides of the Esopus Creek including the fertile acres about West Shokan and Shokan. Part of this grant became Brodhead Bridge and was in the Brodhead Family for over 200 years.  This was the earliest conveyance of land above the lowlands of the valley radiating from Kingston.

In the succeeding years many grants were given out in an area known as Ashokan and Tongore.

- Vera Sickler’s “History of the Town of Olive"