The following excerpt is from Old Orange County Houses by Mildred Parker Seese:

"This house appears to be an early Italianate Victorian design dating from about 1860, but it is actually much older. The land was given to Catherine Wilson by her father William Wisner. She and her husband, John R. Wilson, probably built the original rear section which includes the basement fireplace. In 1845 some of the land was sold to Samuel Stuart, but the Wilson family owned the house as late as 1859. By 1875 the place had been sold to Captain Nicholas Ryerson who was probably responsible for the large Italianate section added in the front. "

The Rising Star newspaper states(page 13) that Catharine and John R. Wilson sold their property about the time of the start of the Civil War and moved to Brooklyn, NY. He enlisted as a captain in a Brooklyn calvalry regiment and soon after died at a camp in Washington D.C. Catharine returned to Bellvale and spent her remaining years at her brother William's home till she died in about 1873.