Arthur Adams tells us in his Hudson River Guidebook that the town of Milton was once called Milton Ferry and that it was "the center of a Quaker intellectual colony." The East bank terminus to the ferry at the mouth of Spring Brook just below Poughkeepsie. In The Hudson From the Wilderness to the Sea, Benson Lossing tells us that during the Revolution, a blacksmith by the name of Theophilus Anthony forged the first great chain in his workshop here.Lossing also says that the Milton Ferry was one of two on the Hudson in 1860 propelled by horse-power. The other was at Coxsakie.
Lossing describes the village of Milton:
"Opposite Spring Brook is the village of Milton, remarkable, like its sister, Marlborough, a few miles below, for the picturesque beauty of the surrounding country and the abundance of Antwerp raspberries produced in its vicinity every year. There and at some places on the eastern shore, are the chief sources of the supply of that delicious fruit for the city of New York; and the quantity raised is so great, that a small steamboat is employed for the sole purpose of carrying raspberries daily to the city. These villages are on high banks, and are scarcely visible from the river. They have a background of rich farming lands, terminating beyond a sweet valley by a range of lofty hills that are covered with the primeval forest. They are the resort of New Yorkers during the heat of summer."