The story of this remarkable and durable clan goes back to the tenth century when a chieftain held a fortress in the Jura Mountains, and continues to the 1600's when descendants were forced to flee across Europe to avoid martyrdom for Calvinist beliefs. The succeeding flight to America brought new adventures, a unique form of government, treaties with the Indians, and at last refuge in a tiny settlement on the banks of the Wallkill River in the shadow of the Shawangunks.
One of the oldest streets in America with several of the original houses of twelve seventeenth century Huguenot refugees from religious persecution in Europe was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964. The Historic Landmark is located in the middle Hudson valley in the town of New Paltz, New York. Two of the twelve Huguenot refugees were Christian Deyo and his son Pierre. Pierre built the first stone House on Huguenot Street in 1692 and it stood for 200 years in the rural Flemish Style of all the Patentee abodes until it was remodeled into a Victorian mansion in 1894.