On the afternoon of July 14, 1842, Sheriff Felix Kelly fastened a noose around the neck of Cornelius Hardenbergh, and a few seconds later Hardenbergh, a member of what had once been the region’s most prominent family, entered the history books as the first man ever hanged in Sullivan County.

Hardenbergh’s execution was the first of five in the county over the years– four have taken place during the month of July– and the events leading up to his hanging make fascinating reading.

Hardenbergh had been convicted of murdering Anthony Hasbrouck, his relative by marriage, and one of the county’s wealthiest and most powerful men. The case remains, nearly 170 years later, among the strangest in county history.

Cornelius Hardenbergh was the son of Doctor Benjamin Hardenbergh, and the grandson of Gross Hardenbergh, who had himself been murdered near Woodbourne in 1808. His great-great-grandfather, Johannis Hardenbergh, had been the original proprietor of the lands of the Hardenbergh Patent. Cornelius grew up near Stone Ridge, in Ulster County, where he worked as a distiller and teamster and where, according to James Eldridge Quinlan, in his “History of Sullivan County,” “nothing was taught him except family pride.”

At the age of 18, Cornelius discovered that his father, who had become a drunkard, had squandered the family fortune. Cornelius moved to Liberty, where, according to Quinlan, “he indulged in the very vices which he had observed in his father. He not only fell under the influence of evil company and gratified his appetite for rum, but indulged in licentious actions. Through deceptions and falsehood, he succeeded in his warfare upon female virtue, and he followed the practice until he was frightened into a better course by his superstitious fears.”

Writing in his “Life and Confession of C.W. Hardenbergh”, which he scribed while awaiting his execution, Cornelius tells of an apparition he experienced in which one of his young female victims returned “to punish him for his wickedness.”

This nightmare scared Cornelius straight for a time, and before long he was married and living in Rockland with his wife and five children, “holding a contract for seventy-five acres of land, for which he had agreed to pay one hundred and fifty dollars. He was a farmer, hunter, and lumberman, and labored at whatever promised ready money. Although from the highest hills of that region, his eyes could not reach the boundaries of the territory of which his great-grandfather was a joint owner, he was too poor to pay for the few barren acres he occupied.”

His troubles really began when his mother-in-law died, leaving a small estate to be divided among nine heirs. Cornelius had a difficult time collecting his share, which through some round-about maneuvers, had been left in the care of Anthony Hasbrouck.

Hasbrouck was wealthy and powerful. He had been a member of the state Assembly for some years and had run for Congress in 1838, losing to Rufus Palen. He lived in a comfortable stone house in the community named in his honor, and was generally regarded as a warm and generous man.

Hasbrouck had made deals with the other heirs to Cornelius Hardenbergh’s mother-in-law’s estate to purchase some of the property, and he tried to consummate a similar deal with Cornelius. But Cornelius would not sell.

Cornelius wrote later in his memoir that his mother-in-law had appeared to him in a dream and advised him that Hasbrouck was attempting to swindle him, and implored him not to trust the man. Legal wrangling followed over the next several months, along with threats by Cornelius of physical violence if Hasbrouck did not give him what he felt he had coming.

“Hasbrouck ought to be shot. He deserves to die,” he told one neighbor.

Finally, in December of 1840, Cornelius Hardenbergh purchased from various merchants in Liberty a pistol, some powder, and a quantity of lead, as well as a Bowie knife. He went to visit Hasbrouck at his home, taking with him not only these weapons, but a rifle, too. He confronted Hasbrouck in front of his family, the two men struggled, and Hasbrouck was shot in the abdomen. Dying slowly from the wound, he was able to continue the struggle, only to have Hardenbergh hack and stab at him, and attempt to cut his throat, before fleeing.

During a subsequent inquest by coroner Giles Benedict, it was revealed that Hasbrouck had been terribly cut and mangled. “There were some wounds on the head, the chin was cut, there was a cut from the right angle of the mouth around on the neck, which had severed the external carotid artery and jugular vein, there was a stab on each side, and in each arm, the posterior of the left thigh was cut nearly across, the pistol ball had torn open the abdomen near the navel, and lacerated the intestines, and there were other injuries. Several of these wounds were each sufficient to cause death.”

After a sensational trial before Judge Charles Ruggles, during which attorneys Herman M. Romeyn and John Van Buren attempted to prove insanity, Hardenbergh was found guilty of premeditated murder. An appeal to a higher court was unsuccessful, and Hardenbergh was sentenced to “be hung by the neck until he was dead.” The sentence was carried out in the courthouse square.

Cornelius Hardenbergh was buried in Liberty, between his mother’s house and barn, and, at his request, a pair of battered slippers he had worn in prison were buried with him.

John Conway is the Sullivan County Historian and a founder and president of The Delaware Company. Email him at jconway52@hotmail.com.