[2] He was a manufacturer and investor in steamboats and railroads during the immense boom in transportation in the mid 1800s along the Hudson which linked New York City to the rest of the country.
Ten children out of eleven from their marriage survived to adulthood, including seven daughters, and their home, called Cedar Grove, which burned to the ground in 1857, was remembered as a center of culture in the Mid-Hudson Valley, through which traveled the Marquis de Lafayette, and celebrated artists, poets, and political leaders of the day.
DeWindt had substantial business enterprises and real estate holdings in Fishkill Landing and Newburgh but was especially interested in transportation and shipbuilding.
[8] The DeWindts were Unitarians in keeping with the beliefs of Caroline Amelia’s grandmother, Abigail Adams, who was influenced by the sermons of William Ellery Channing.
He and his friend Warren Delano, the grandfather of FDR, helped build a Unitarian church on Liberty Street in Newburgh.