DIBBLEE, Ebenezer, son of Rev. Ebenezer Dibblee, the minister of St. John's Church, Stamford, Conn., fifty-one years, came to Pine Plains 1784. he had been from 1776 to 1781 in business in Sharon, Conn., moved from thence to Salisbury in 1782, to Pine Plains in 1784, then North East Precinct, opened a store in the log house then standing west of Pine Plains corners, on the site of the now Albert Bowman residence, and lived in part of the same house. Augustus Bates, a relative, was for several years a clerk. In 1788 North East Precinct became North East Town, and Mr. Dibblee was elected town clerk, and re-elected four years. In 1793 was Supervisor, in 1795 and 1796 town clerk, and supervisor in 1797 and 1798. Meantime he continued merchandising, and in 1801 his second son Fyler, then twenty-one, became a partner under the firm name Ebenezer Dibblee & Son. July 1, 1803, they purchased the present Ketterer Hotel property of Dr. Asahel Haskins. The bounds of this purchase is south from the corner to Mr. Frank Eno's law office, then easterly about fifteen rods, then northerly on the west line of now Peter Wolven dwelling to Church Street, containing "three acres, one rood and eighteen purchases." This land was a portion of six acres which Haskins that day had bought of Wm. Cromwell. The remainder of the six acres joined this to the east on Church Street. In the spring of 1804, E. Dibblee & Son. Fyler Dibblee being the active man, commenced building the hotel Ketterer on the corner, Ezra L. Barrett, the boss carpenter, taking the contract. The building was completed that year, the painting, not being included in the contract, being done in December 1804 and January 1805 for which Mr. Barrett makes this entry: "To 36 days work at painting $34.31. to 6 weeks boarding while painting, $9.00." Nathaniel Ruggles was its first keeper, but the sign post, and indispensable addendum to tavers, Fyler Dibblee and his father had failed to furnish. So, from necessity, landlord Ruggles had to supply this deficiency which he did in a wise and becoming manner by permitting "Boss" Barrett to give the final stroke. For this nerited honor he records this nodest charge against landlord Ruggles, "Hewing sign post 6s," and if the chroniclers of that time have recorded the height of this sign post, when set, and what sort of a board and name landlord Ruggles placed upon its top, the record nor tradition has not come under our eyes nor into our ears. The next year, 1805, Ebenezer Dibblee and Fyler his son built the "Sostwick store," now Chase store, under the supervision of Mr. Barrett the carpenter. He worked upon it all the year and finished it after E. Dibblee & Son had moved into it in the fall of that year. It was completed January 1806, and Mr. Barrett's bill was $599.28 1/2.
In February, 1808, Fyler Dibblee purchased the now Walter T. Myers house and store lot of Peter Husted for $319.50, and in that year built the brick dwelling thereon, the only brick house in the village. Mr. Barrett did the carpenter work which is still in good condition. In this year, 1808, Ebenezer Dibblee retired from the business firm, and Fyler continued the business alone until 1816, when Reuben W. Bostwick, who had been in his employ as clerk since about 1812-except the year 1815 in Albany-became a partner under the firm "Flyer Dibblee & Co." The next year, 1817, the Red Hook store was started. Fyler Dibblee retired from the mercantil business in 1822 and moved to the Thompson farm "consisting of 810 acres," now C. C. More, about two miles southwest of the village. In January 1825 a notice appears in a Pokeepsie paper that the greater part of the farm will be sold at auction on the 17th of February next at the court house in Pokeepsie. Financial embarrassment was the cause. The farm was sold, and Mr. Dibblee moved to New York and opened an office No. 50 Wall Street for commission business. Two years later, June 11, 1827, he announced that David Z. Wickes was his partner, their office being "at the Railway of the New York Dry Dock Company on the eastern side of the city." he deceased July 13, 1841. He married a daughter of Dr. Wilson, of Clermont, and some of his children were born in the brick dwelling, now W. T. Myers, one of whom William W., of New Jersey, was living two years since at the age of 86. During his residence in Pine Plains he was a prominent citizen in every regard, and favorably and honorably known through out this county and Southern Columbia. he served the town as its clerk first in 1803 and '4, again in 1811 and as Supervisor in 1818 and '19, and in July 1818 was appointed judge of the court of common pleas in this county, having for his associates Daniel C. Ver Pland, Albro Akin and Maturin Liningston. Upon his retirement from the mercantile business in 1822 R. W. Bostwick and Brothers purchased the stock and assumed the liabilities of the firm. It was a heavy indebtedness, but the prudence and wisdom of R. W. Bostwick, principally, the others retiring, disposed of all liabilites in a few years. Ebenezer Dibblee, after his retirement from merchandising, devoted his energies to farming on the lands of George Clark, on which the log house stood, until his decease Feb. 13, 1826, aged 81. His wife, Esther Harvey, deceased July 17, 1843. They were married by his father, Rev. Ebenezer Dibblee, at the residence of Joel Harvey his wife's father, in Sharon, Conn., Nov. 14, 1776, who lived in the brick house (More-house) on the flat between Sharon and Amenia. March 17, 1827, Sally, his only surviving sister, deceased at Catskill, in her 71st year. Sally, a daughter, deceased at Pine Plains Sept. 10, 1821, aged 37. His children were Henry, Fyler, Rhuama Smith, born in Sharon, Conn.; Frederick, born in Salisbury, Conn; Sally, Caty, Richard Harvery, Harriet, Eliza, Maria Ester, Edward Ebenezer, Cornelia Henrietta, Julia Amelia Ann, born in Pine Plains. Harriet married jacob Van Ness of Red Hook. She deceased 1813, and he married 2d Rhuama Smith, (widow Stevenson,) who deceased 1852. Cornelia married Aaron C. Hall, of Catskill, and have descendants in New Haven. Caty, or Catharine, married Egbert Thompson, son of Ezra Thompson, of Federal Square, who with his brother-in-law Edward Ebenezer Dibblee continuing the business there until 1821, and perhaps later. Henry married a Miss Reed of Coxsackie. Fyler and Richard married sister, daughters of Dr. Wilson, of Clermont. Ebenezer Dibblee was an Episcopal churchman, and retained his commection with the church in Sharon, Conn., which had received its first ministrations from his father, and of which his father-in-law, Mr. Joel Harvey, was a leading churchman. But during the Revolutionary war the church there was used as a barrack, and never used afterward for worship. In 1809 the present Episcopal society there was organized, and in 1812 Ebenezer Dibblee, then a resident of Pine Plains (as now orgainized), in conjunction with Reuben Warner of New Milford and Moses Seymour of Litchfield, was chosen to select a site for the church building in Sharon, and the Episcopal church stands upon the site. A little later, 1815, the "Union Meeting House" of Pine Plains was built, in which through the influence of the Debblee family the Episcopalians had a recognized right. He may very properly be called the founder of the Episcopal church in Pine Plains. mr. Ebenezer Dibblee deceased February 13, 1826, as hereinbefore noticed, and March 14th following his real and personal effects were sold at public vendue. These included the lease of the farm west of the village where he lived, then containing one hundred and thirty acres, the site of the now Albert Bowman residence, four wood lots of fifteen acres each, thirty-eight acres of land, "principally grass land," and the "equal undivided half of the hotel, store house, shops, outbuildings and building lots," which comprised the hotel corner property which he and his son Fyler bought as partners in 1803. [Note-Reuben W. Bostwick had become the owner of Fyler Dibblee's half interest of Ebenezer Dibblee to the store property, now Chase store.] At the same time was sold "all the furniture, household utensils, milch cows, young cattle, working horses and colts, hogs, grain on the ground, stacks of hay, farming utensils, &c., of the late Ebenezer Dibblee, deceased. The sale will commence at 9 o'clock in the morninng, and a liberal credit given for good security." A few of the household articles sold at this time are to be found in some dwellings in the town now. This sale was the end of all things animate or inanimate pertaining to the family of Ebenezer Dibblee in Pine Plains.
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