Laura Tallmadge Hasbrouck

Laura Tallmadge Hasbrouck, the fourth daughter and youngest child of Levi and Hylah Hasbrouck, was born on January 19, 1834. In 1850, Laura attended the Poughkeepsie Female Collegiate Institute where she studied a variety of subjects including mathematics, science, philosophy, and French. In 1873 at the age of 39, Laura married Abraham Varick of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., a widower with three children and a trustee of the Poughkeepsie Female Collegiate Institute. Laura purchased Locust Lawn from her brother Josiah’s widow, in order to keep the homestead and farm from being sold out of the family. She held title to the property until her death in 1925 at the age of 91. Upon her death Locust Lawn passed to the children of her deceased sister Ann B. H. Innis. In 1923 Laura T. H. Varick gave land to the Village of New Paltz to be used as a public park - known today as Hasbrouck Park.

“Mrs. Varick will be mourned by a wide circle of friends who admired and loved her.  She was what used to be called an “old fashioned gentlewoman,” a type rarely found in these days.”

~ Excerpt from obituary of Laura T.H. Varick, New Paltz Times, March 26, 1925