In Dutchess County: A Pictorial History John and Mary Jeanneney discuss the important role of the ferry to life on the Hudson River:
"Even more than political ties, it was the lines of transportation that drew Dutchess County together and determined much of its destiny during the nineteenth century. The five decades between 1800 and 1850 were the Age of the River, and Poughkeepsie was above all a river town. For manufacturers and farmers alike, freight sloops andd schooners carried their products south to the port of New York. Fishkill Landing and Mattewan (combined in 1913 as Beacon) owed their early manufacturing importance to river transportation as well as the waterpower of Fishkill Creek."
Edgar Mayhew Bacon in The Hudson From Ocean to Source discusses the importance of the ferry crossing at Fishkill Landing during the Revolutionary War:
"Upon the military road of which the Newburgh (to Fishkill Landing) ferry was so important a feature, not only troops, but waggon-trains and artillery, were continually being moved. Most of the material for carrying on the war came through New England, her ports being the only ones then available and was transported by way of Fishkill and Newburgh, and so back of the Highlands on the west shore, and southward."