USA > New York > Orange County > Deerpark > A history of Deerpark in Orange County, N.Y. > Part 12
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Of the four first families, who remained permanent residents in this neighborhood,twelve children became married to non-residents of the same and founded twelve families, two of which settled in the lower neighborhood and were among the first settlers in it, five in the State of New Jersey, four in Rochester and its vicinity in Ulster County, and one in Orange County, east of Shawangunk mountain. The other children of those ancients were seven in number, and formed only six families. These remained in the neighborhood until about the year 1790. From this it appears that only half as many families of the first descendants remained in it as what moved out of it, or settled in other places.
192
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
Now, if the 12 families mentioned had become set- tled and remained in the neighborhood, together with the other six, and increased and emigrated, in the same proportion of the Jatter, the amount, after dedueting those of De Witt and Terwilliger numbering 16, would now be 324 emigrated,and 90 of present residents, and the whole amount 411 families.
INCREASE OF POPULATION.
As no accurate calculation can be made of the whole number of families descended from the first four per- manent residents in this neighborhood, I have adopted a rule for obtaining the number of those now in exist- ence as near as the same can probably be arrived at without actual enumeration, by getting a ratio of in- crease of the first, second, and as much of the third, generation as I can ascertain ; also the whole number of these from the time of the commencement of the first to the present time, in manner following, to wit :
The first four families had an increase of 18, and these had an increase of 66 families, and 27 of the latter had an increase of 129. This enumeration is made from a knowledge I have in relation to those ancients. Of these, however, there were two families of the second generation whom I could not determine, but have estimated them at the same average rate of increase as that of the others, and the remaining 39 are estimated to have produced an equal proportion of population, according to their number, as that of the 27, which latter giving an amount of 129,the remaining 39 will give an amount of 186, and both these amount
193
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
to 315 families of the third generation. The average increase of each of these per family is as follows :
First 4 give a ratio of. 44
Second 18 66 . 66 66
3
Third 66 66 66 66
43
These being compounded give an average ratio of about 42 families to one. Now a greater proportion of the fourth and fifth generations have died younger than of the three first, in consequence of which I have reduced the increase of the two former to that of a ratio of three per family, being about one-third lower than those enumerated. This is a great change for the term in which the alteration has occurred ; still, the latter is about the same rate of increase as that of the United States since the year 1790 to the present time. In respect of foreign access of popula- tion the proportion which the former has acquired by intermarriages cannot differ much from that which the latter has acquired by immigration from Europe and by the importation of Africans to enslave them.
The year 1700 I contemplate to be about the med- ium point of time between the births of the oldest and the youngest children of the first four fami- lies, from which to the present time is 161 years and reaches on an average about the beginning of the sixth generation and leaves two unascertained whose increase on a ratio of 3 is as follows, to wit : 315×3= 945×3-2835 families of the present fifth generation ; and exclusive of these there must now be a great pro- portion of the fourth generation in existence, and that the whole of the present families of descendants men-
194
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
tioned cannot be less than 3200 now on the stage of action. The greatest part of these are now widely dis- persed into different parts of our country.
The five generations have had their growth within a. term of 161 years, which gives an average of 32 years for each.
LOWER NEIGHBORHOOD.
Enumeration of families in the time of the Revolu- tionary War, embracing the head of each family, to wit :
Decker.
Jacob Schoonover,
Moses Cortright,
Abraham Van Auken,
Johannis Westbrook,
Johannis Decker,
Jacobus Van Fliet, Daniel Van Auken, Solomon Kuykendall, Simeon Westfall, Wilhelmus Cole, Peter Cuykendall,
Major John Decker,
Sylvester Cortright,
Martinus Decker,
Anthony Van Etten, Esq.,
Samuel Caskey,
Levi Van Etten,
Jacobus Davis,
Of these families, their children and grand-children, the following number of families have removed out of this town:
195
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
NAMES.
No.of parents and children. ~
No. of grand- children.
Decker.
Jacob Schoonover 1
Moses Cortright
1
Abraham Van Auken
3
John Westbrook.
2
John Decker
3
Maj. John Decker
3
6
Sylvester Cortright.
2
Anthony Van Etten, Esq
6
3
Levi Van Etten.
1
4
James Van Fliet.
1
4
Daniel Van Auken
11
5
Solomon Kuykendall's heir or devisee, James Van Fliet, Jr
3
Simon Westfall
4
Wilhelmus Cole.
3
Peter Kuykendall
4
4
Martin Decker.
2
Samuel Caskey
1
James Davis.
6
1
56 30
There may have been a few other families who have removed out of the town whom I have not known.
Of the descendants of those ancients, there now re- main, as near as I can ascertain, about 5 families in this neighborhood.
196
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
These numbers, 56+30+5=91 families.
There now are about 20 families in this neighbor- hood who are of the anterior emigration from the upper neighborhood and are included in in its calcula- tions.
The following is a calculation of the number of fam- ilies of each generation of the lower neighborhood, to wit :
1st generation which was contemporary with the second of this upper neighborhood. 20
2d. 91
3rd, at an increase of three families to one 273
4th, at the same rate of increase .819
The two last 273+819=1,092 families. To this last number add the 3,000 of the upper neighborhood and the amount is 4,092.
There are two of these prior generations who, by deaths, may fall short of these numbers mentioned, but I contemplate that as great an addition of families exists of the succeeding generation of each neighbor- hood as will amount to such loss, and that there now are at least 4,000 families in existence of descendants in some degree of the ancients mentioned.
THOMAS WHITE.
This man's services have been of greater benefit and advantage to the third generation of descendants of our neighborhood than those of any other individual,in consequence of which he ought to be held in remem- brance by our descendants, and he, together with our-
197
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
selves, become incorporated in our history as the first important originator of education in it. In justice to the merits of Mr. White in respect of myself, I will here state that by means of his services I have become enabled to write this history and exhibit to its readers the information it contains ; and in addition thereto the enjoyment of other sources of knowledge for which and all other blessings we have reason to be thankful, not only to the individual from whom we derived the same but also to that Being who is the originator of all our enjoyments.
The benefits we (who were of the generation men- tioned) have derived from him, consisted in the litera- ture he taught us in our childhood and youth at short different periods of time in the schools he kept in our neighborhood, whereby we generally received such a portion of education as enabled each of us to trans- act his own ordinary business in relation to his deal- ings with others, which, in our time, had become more necessary than what it was in the days of our fore- fathers, most of whom kept no written memoranda of their dealings with each other, which in their time (during about ninety years) was unnecessary for the greatest part of them. In addition to these benefits we became more enlightened and enabled to acquire additional knowledge and information by reading, &c. Mr. White and his wife Elizabeth, came to this neighborhood in the autumn of 1776 (as near as I can ascertain) to serve its inhabitants as a schoolmaster and they became residents in my father's house together with his own family, and taught school in one of its rooms during the ensuing winter, and probably until some of the neighbors moved into it and the construc-
198
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
tion of a fort commenced, and notwithstanding the danger to which the inhabitants of our town became exposed by the invasion of the Indians, he continued to live in the house during a great part of the war,and was in it at the time when the fort was attacked.
When the enemy came in sight, he told Capt. Cud- deback that he was a King's man, but would stand by him to help defend the fort against those savages to the utmost of his power. (He was a warm friend of his native country and its laws). Mr. White was in the fort during the hard winter in the time of the war, and kept a diary from which he ascertained that no water had dropped from the roof of the house during a term of forty days in that winter.
I will here, before proceeding further with the his- tory of Mr. White, narrate how the inmates of the fort managed to sustain themselves during the winter. When the Indians burnt the houses of the neighbors, many of the pots were damaged by these fires. These were used for keeping small fires in them in different parts of the fort house. Two large fires were generally kept up in the two front rooms, and a fire in a stove in another, and in the other room a pot with hot coals, supplied from the fire places, was kept up to warm the room for a dwelling of some of the oldest women. On the chamber, against the sides of the chimneys, pots with fire were kept, supplied with hot coals from the fire places, and also with chips and small pieces of wood.
In the northwest corner of the chamber,a small room was partitioned off for a dwelling of Mr. White and his wife, so that in winter time they were out of the great bustle of those who were in the house. A pot with fire
199
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
in it was also kept in his room, and sometimes a small fire was kept in one of the foremost cellar rooms for a few soldiers. After the snow became too deep to get wood from where it was previously got, the men first broke a road to a large hickory tree, which stood in a field, under cultivation, of Benjamin Cuddeback, at about one-quarter of a mile distant from the fort. This was cut up and brought to it. The butt log, about three feet thick in diameter, was cut through and served for a log in each fire place. The next log con- tained all the knots of its large limbs, and could not be cut through nor split with powder, and rem ined there until it became rotten, long after the war ended. Next a road was broke through the snow about the same distance of the first road, to the Neversink river, which (in ordinary winters generally remained open from the mouth of Bashas-kill to the Delaware river, about ten miles distant) was all frozen over with strong ice, so that teams could pass on it.
Along the east bank of the river, trees were cut, so as to fall on the ice,and thereby the men were enabled to get a plentiful supply of wool. In passing to and from the river,a spring brook had to be crossed, which in other winters generally remains open at the place where it was crossed that winter on strong ice. Much snow blew into the brook and coalesced with the water, and all froze together and formed thick, strong ice, so that teams passed over it during the coldest weather in that winter.
I will here resume my history in relation to Mr. White. A few years before he came into the neigh- borhood, a school house had been built in its central part, about twenty-five rods southwest of Capt. Cudde-
200
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
back's residence. Mr. Thomas Kyte had been employed to teach school in this house, but, in consequence of much other business, the school was much neglected and very little education was acquired by those he taught, and after he quit, the neighborhood luckily obtained a good teacher by employing Mr. White. He had emigrated into this country from England where he had received his education, and also acquired the trade of manufacturing ropes. He said that every youth in England (when he was there) had to learn a trade, even the King's son, who was expected to be- come heir to the Crown, had to learn a trade, and that the King, who reigned when he was there, had been taught the trade of weaving silk.
Mr. White was a small, light-built man, very active and quick to perform the business he transacted. The action of his mind was also quick, and more suitable for acquiring a great amount of superficial knowledge than to penetrate and make deep researches into sci- ences which are difficult to be understood, for which a bright mind of slow action is more suitable. He was also a man of uncommon perseverance to transact the business of his trade, the teaching of his schools, &c., and, whenever he was not employed in either of these, he was generally engaged in reading or writing which he would pursue to a very late hour in the night ; and early in the morning, at or before break of day, would be up out of bed, assist his wife to get breakfast, and resume his business. He was very fond of asso- ciation and delighted to give and receive information, which induced him to write a great many letters to his distant friends and acquaintances,in which he was very
201
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
expert and never at a loss for matter to make out a long letter, whenever he felt inclined to do it.
I conclude that Mr. White had been taught in one of the best of common schools in England, and in a very perfect manner as far as he had progressed. He was a very eloquent reader, and could perform the same with an air suitable to the nature of the subject on which the reading treated. I have always consid- ered him to have been equal to the best of readers I. have ever heard. He was also very perfect in orthog- raphy ; arithmetic he did not understand as well as some other teachers we have had since his time. He said he had passed through the greatest part of Dill- worth's arithmetic at school, but had forgotten some of the rules in the. latter part of his assistant, which contained more arithmetic matter than the books now generally used in our common schools. He had some knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages, and as much of the French' tongue as enabled him to inter- pret the French words which were interspersed in different parts of a book I read in school the last year he taught in our neighborhood, and, by much reading, he had acquired an extensive knowledge of the Eng- lish tongue. He said that when at home in his coun- try (which he always called his home) he had free access to a library of books, and that he had read many of them on different subjects, whereby he had received the greatest part of his historical and other information of different kinds.
After his last year's service in our neighborhood he retired to the east side of Shawangunk mountain, into a neighborhood of his former residence, where he con- tinued a few years. During this time, and one or two
202
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
years previous to it, Moses DeWitt, a son of Capt. Jacob Rutsen De Witt, a resident of this neighborhood who had, in his youth, become the best scholar in Mr. White's school, and afterwards received a small addi- tion thereto, became well qualified for a surveyor, and was employed as an under-surveyor, when he was about twenty-one years of age, to run the line between the States of New York and Pennsylvania, and after- wards to survey some Government lands at, and in the vicinity of, Tioga Point, and thereafter he and Maj. Hardenbergh obtained the whole business of survey- ing the military lands in this State. While De Witt was occupied in that business he concluded to locate in the County of Tioga, and induced Mr. White to move into it. The latter, after becoming a resident in it, became its County Clerk. Mr. De Witt's mind be- came changed in respect to locating himself, and he settled in the County of Onondaga. After Mr. White's term of service as County Clerk ended, he removed to the residence of Mr. De Witt, whose health had become impaired by exposure in the pursuit of his business of surveying, and his constitution continued to debilitate until he was taken with a severe sickness, which, after a short duration, ended his days at the age of about twenty-seven years, at which time he had acquired an estate, in wild lands, worth about ten thousand pounds, New York currency. During the time he was confined to his bed, Mr. White was his affectionate and faithful attendant, but his services did not avail to prolong life,and all hopes of enjoying the remainder of his life, together with his friend, were ended.
After a short stay he removed from the place, which had become a melancholy situation to him, into the
203
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
County of Orange and bought a small farm in the westerly part of the town of Wallkill, in the neighbor- hood where his former friends and acquaintances, Elijah and Elisha Reeve, Esqs., Erastus Mapes, H‹ ze- kiah Woodward, Alsop Vail and others, lived, where he not only became so situated as to enjoy the happi- ness of associating with them, but also had access, whenever desirable, to his friends and acquaintances in his former neighborhood on the west side of Shaw- angunk mountain. Mr. White had no children nor any relatives in this country to attract his affections ; these, consequently, became more strongly directed towards those individuals who were the most agreeable to him. He remained in the neighborhood of his resi- dence until death ended his mortal life, and, after his decease, was buried in the graveyard at the Presby- terian church near Otisville. In and · by his last will he made several small bequests to his friends, as· me- morials of his friendship towards them. He also directed the sum of six hundred and twenty dollars, of the avails of his estate, to be kept at interest, payable annually, for the purpose of paying for preaching one sermon in each one of four different Congregations, annually, forever, one of which was the Dutch Re- formed Congregation now in Deerpark, (formerly Ma- hackemeck Congregation), which appears in and by the will to have been intended for the inhabitants of Peenpack, to whom he had become much attached during the different periods of time he resided in it, and consequently also for the benefit of their descend- ants .* He also bequeathed a few other small legacies
* The other three Churches were the Congregational Church at Mid- dletown, and the Episcopal and Presbyterian Churches in Goshen.
204
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
to his best friends in the neighborhood of his last res- idence.
The characteristics of Mr. White exhibited indica- tions of his having been descended from a respectable family in his native country. He possessed very hon- orable and honest principles, also those of morality and piety, which were apparent in his transactions and walks of life, and also in the doctrines he generally advanced when those qualifications became a subject of discourse.
THE END.
CONTENTS.
Page. 7 9
Preface.
Introduction.
Statement by Committee on Publication with
sketch of the Author. * 13
Geographical Formation of Valley. 19
Game, Fowls, Fish, Fruit, &c. 22
Indians. 24
Manufacture of Implements of Iron and Steel. . 27
First Settlers-Who they were and whence they
came 30
Ancient Families of Peenpack . 41
Ancient Families of Lower Neighborhood 68
Longevity of First and Second Generations. . . 78
Lower Neighborhood. 85
Population of Peenpack, Manner of Living, &c.,
during Revolutionary War and later .
86
Forts in Peenpack and Occupants. 86
Forts in Lower Neighborhood, with some of the Occurrences during the War .. 89
Habits and Manner of Living. 96
Use of Cider and Spirits. 101
Use of Spirits at Funerals and Weddings 102
Treating Visitors. 104
No Drunkards among Them for One Hundred Years 107
Physical Strength of First Generation 110
* The statement by the Committee on Publication which appears on pages 13-17 should have preceded both the Preface and Intro- duction. By an oversight not discovered until too late for correction it became displaced and appears out of its proper order.
Page.
Some Prominent Characters - Major James
Swartwout, William Cuddeback, Peter Gumaer, Gerardus Van Inwegen, Samuel Swartwout, Capt. Abraham Cuddeback, Benjamin Depuy, Philip Swartwout, An- thony Van Etten, Cornelius Van Inwegen. Minisink Battle 127
114
Great Changes in Agriculture, Manufacture,
Travel and Improvements of Every Kind .. 137 Scarcity of Physicians in Former Times 144 Birds, Reptiles and Animals. 145
Health, Food, &c. 152
Religious Worship-Organization of Reformed Dutch Church and its Ministers 155
Administration of Justice-First Justice of Peace 165
Prices of Stock, Grain, &c., formerly 170
Currency and Measures 170 Wages 172
Cost of Building a House 173
Business Transactions and Employments of
Ancestors. 175
Christmas and New Year's-Two days devoted to each. 175
Characteristics of some of First Settlers and their descendants 180-1
Emigration from Town of Deerpark. 189
Increase of Population. 192
Thomas White.
RD 23.9. 196
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