How gallows Hill Road got its name:   
Gallows Hill Memorial Boulder and Plaque                                                                                                                                       
The site of the hanging of Edmund Palmer

Located on Gallows Hill Road, is a large boulder monument with an inscribed plaque, commemorating the site of Gallows Hill. This is the site where Gen. Israel Putnam carried out the execution by hanging of Edmund Palmer, during the Revolutionary war. Edmund Palmer (d. 1777) of Cortlandt Manor, N.Y., was captured near Peekskill on 15 July 1777 after allegedly breaking into the house of a “Mr. Willis” and attacking its occupants. He was tried and convicted of spying and sentenced to death by a court-martial at Peekskill in late July. Although Palmer’s wife appealed directly to Putnam to spare her husband’s life and the British tried to save Palmer by claiming that he held a lieutenant’s commission in a Loyalist regiment and thus should be exchanged as a prisoner of war. 
General Israel Putnam wrote to General Washington, requesting  (See Learn More below) that Palmer be executed. Palmer was hanged at “Gallows Hill” at Cortlandtown on 1 Aug, 1777.

The plaque reads: "Gallows Hill, so named from the hanging of a spy near this spot during the American Revolution by order of Gen. Israel Putnam. Erected by Ada Cunningham Curtis whose father, Edward Cunningham, at the time owned.....the hill and lived for many years in a house nearby.  1937.”   The site was also known as Bald Hill and Drake's Hill after Gilbert Drake, the owner of a local mill.

-Town Supervisor Richard H. Becker, MD 

Gallows Hill Plaque
The Gallows Hill Memorial Boulder and Tablet
Mid-19th Century Van Cortlandtville

Learn more:
Here is the letter written by Major General Israel Putnam to George Washington, 19 July 1777, asking to punish (hang) suspected spy Edmund Palmer at what is now Gallows Hill, on Oregon Road:
Dear Genl;
I have taken one Edmund Palmer, who went to the Enemy some time past, who belonged at Crumpond, has ever Since been lurking about here plundering & driving off cattle to the Enemy, breaking up & robbing houses—he broke Open a house in the Night belonging to an Officer in our Army. He has been about recruiting for the Enemy & Spying our Army—he was taken in arms with a villain who escaped from the Guard house, under Sentence of death, A Question is made, whether he may be Tried by a Genl. Court martial by the articles of war—because he belonged to this State & Owed Allegiance to it. I think, the Speedy Execution of Spy’s is agreeable to the laws of Nature & nations & absolutely necessary to the preservation of the Army & without Such power in the Army, it must be incompetent for its own Safety—Should be glad of your Excellency’s Advice & direction in the premises.