Among the very first settlers were mainly Dutch or Flemish. The motive for their coming to the Esopus was undoubtedly the desire to live as free men and women instead of as feudal tenants of the Patroon Van Rensselaer. Under the leadership of Thomas Chambers they came down the Hudson from the Albany neighborhood in 1654, or thereabouts, a hardy band of men, women and children, and according to local tradition, made their way on foot up the Esopus Creek from the present Saugerties, until they reached the lowlands bordering the creek, in or near the present city of Kingston. Many English came with the conquest in the Duke of York's forces, others arrived shortly after, and there was probably a steady immigration from that country up to the time of the Revolution. The Germans from the Palatinate were the largest band of colonists to arrive at one time, settling in the northern part of the present town of Saugerties. In 1809 a glass factory was established in the hardwood forest on the slopes of Overlook Mountain, Woodstock Township and a road was cut all the way from a shipping dock on the Hudson for some fifteen or twenty miles to the remote section where it was operated.