USA > New York > Orange County > Deerpark > A history of Deerpark in Orange County, N.Y. > Part 5
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Oldest son, James Davis, married Elizabeth Kater. For their history refer back to their names.
Second son, Daniel Davis, was the strongest man of his time in the present town of Deerpark.
FAMILIES OF WESTFALL AND DAVID COLE
were the first settlers on the present farms of Levi and Thomas Van Etten, Esq.
George Davis and wife, Deborah Schoonnover, had one son, Samuel, who became owner of the ancient grist-mill at T. Van Etten's mill seat.
.
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
77
Very little is now known respecting these four last mentioned ancient families.
Some of the families in the lower neighborhood, who, by marriages had become connected with certain families in the Peenpack neighborhood, are included in the history of the latter and here omitted.
It will be seen by this history of the ancient citizens of the lower neighborhood that they, as well as the others mentioned, were farmers, and they have also ob- tained their livings by the cultivation of the earth (a laborer's business), and not only provided a compe- tency for their respective families, but also a surplus for the markets of our country to support those in other pursuits of life ; but there now are of the pres- ent generations of the descendants of both neighbor- hoods some in nearly all the different occupations of life in our country.
From the length of time which intervened between the first settlement nearest at Peenpack and that made in the lower neighborhood, it appears probable that the latter was prevented by the Indian chief who re- sided on the land now of Levi or Thomas Van Etten, Esq.
LONGEVITY OF THE FIRST AND SECOND GENERATIONS. -
The ages to which the first and second generations arrived, cannot all be correctly ascertained for want of records of the times of their several births and deaths. The only record of which the writer is in possession, is that of the families of the first and second Peter Gumaer, relative to the births of their respective children. These two records are a guide to get into the neighbor- hood of the times of the births of the members of the. other families, and from what I have obtained from in -. scriptions on tombstones and the information I have had relative to the times to which some of them lived, I can correctly determine the ages of some of them and within a few years of others.
It was said of Jacob Cuddeback, by his grandson, Capt. Cuddeback, that he lived to the age of 100 years and retained his faculties good to the end of his life. In 1686, when Peter Gumaer was 20 years old, and he and Cuddeback had to leave France, the latter cannot have been less than 20 or 25 years of age. It appears he lived until after the inhabitants of this neighbor- hood had to buy some land out of Expense lot number two, in the Minisink patent, for a supply of fuel, rail
79
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
timber, &c., which must have been about the year 1766. From all of which it appears that the age of Cudde- back cannot have been less than 100 years, and that . the answer he made to his son William, heretofore mentioned, near the end of his life, shows that his in- tellect was yet good at that time.
AGES OF FIRST - GENERATION.
FAMILY OF. JACOB CUDDEBACK.
Himself. L Benjamin
100
His sons.
James.
66
30
Abraham. 80
His wife, Esther Swartwout 66
80
Maria
100
1 Dinah .
66
74
Daughters
Eleanor 66
70
. Į Else .. 66 70
66
80
AGES OF THE SECOND GENERATION.
FAMILY OF WILLIAM CUDDEBACK.
1st. James . about 80
Sons.
2d. Abraham 66
82
3d. Benjamin . 45
4th. Roolif ( premature) 66
50
Only daughter Sarah.
66 70
. These are all the descendants of the ancient Cudde-
Years.
about 80
William 66
74
Naomi.
80
·
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
back family who remained in the present town of Deer- park.
FIRST GENERATION.
FAMILY OF ANTHONY SWARTWOUT.
His S Samuel Swartwout. about 70
sons James Swartwout (premature) 63
One daughter, wife of John Van Fliet. Unknown.
SECOND GENERATION.
FAMILY OF SAMUEL SWARTWOUT.
Years.
One only daughter, Elizabeth about 60
Her husband, Benjamin Depuy 66 80
FAMILY OF JAMES SWARTWOUT.
Anne Gumaer, his first wife. about 50
His second wife, Anna Westbrook. 90
Son Philip Swartwout (premature) 51 His wife, Deborah 60
His son, James Swartwout. 90
And wife, Jane Hornbeck
66
90
These two last individuals were contemporary with the second generation, though James was of the next descent.
FIRST GENERATION.
FAMILY OF PETER GUMAER.
It is not known to what ages his five daughters ar- rived, but none of them became old. They all lived
81
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
till after married and had children. Two of them had each one child, one had two, another three, and the other four. All their husbands became widowers, and two or more of them had second wives. It is probable that they all died between the ages of 30 and 60 years. It was said that in the days of their youth they labored very hard, both on the farm and to manufacture their cloth and do their housework, and yet had a delicate appearance and very fair skin. It was said of one of them that she would plough a whole week and become very dirty, and on Sunday wash and clean herself and put on clean clothes and appear in their reading meet- ings with skin as fair and white as that of any lady who was kept housed out of the sun's influence. Peter Gumaer, their brother, is the only one of the family I have seen. He also was a fair complexioned man. It was said that the ancient Cuddebacks were also fair complexioned, and that Major Swartwout and his sons, Esqs. Swartwout, were not only fair complexioned, but large and very fine, portly men when young in prime of life, and that the appearance of the Major on mili- tary parades was dignified and noble.
Years.
Age of Peter Gumaer 71
SECOND GENERATION.
FAMILY OF THE SECOND PETER GUMAER.
Years.
1st daughter, Esther Gumaer.
about 70
Son Peter.
66 85
Daughter Margaret 66 30
82
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
Years.
Son Jacob D.
92
His wife, Huldah Decker
66
75
Son Ezekiel.
80
His wife, Naomi Louw 84
Daughter Mary .
80
Her husband, James Devens
:6
70
Son Elias . 66
70
His wife, Margaret Depuy
66
70
FIRST GENERATION.
FAMILY OF HARMANUS VAN INWEGEN.
Years.
His son, Gerardus about 90
Daughter Hannah
80
Ages of the wife and husband. Unknown.
SECOND GENERATION.
FAMILY OF GERARDUS VAN INWEGEN.
Years.
First son, Harmanus.
about
80
His wife, Margaret Cole 66
85
Son Jacob. 66 70
Son Cornelius
66
80
His wife, Eleanor Westbrook. Unknown.
83
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
Years.
Daughter Hannah.
. about
50
Daughter Margaret. 80
Her husband, John Wallace 66 80
HEADS OF FAMILIES.
The ages of the following heads of families of this neighborhood, contemporary with the second genera- tion, were as follows, to wit :
Years.
Jacob R. De Witt . about 60
His wife, Jane Depuy
80
James Davis. . . 66
80
His wife, Elizabeth Kater 66
70
William Geegge. 66
80
His wife, Leah Davis 66
80
SLAVES.
The ages of the following slaves who were in this neighborhood, contemporary with the second genera- tion, were as follows, to wit :
Years.
Capt. De Witt's slaves :
Cuffee . about 100
Frances 66
70
Woman 66
60
Esq. Depuy's :
Man Peter about 80
Woman Dinah. 75
Capt. Cuddeback's : Woman Susanna. *
80
84
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
Years.
Ezekiel Gumaer's :
Man Jack. 80
Esq. Van Inwegen's :
Woman Susanna . 70
James Swartwout's :
Man Anthony 66 70
Woman Jude 70
The first two generations of the four ancient families had the small-pox naturally, without vaccination or dieting and without the attendance of a physician, and generally had it light. A few individuals, it was said, had only light symptoms of the disease and few pox ; yet certain individuals of two families had them hard. A few of the oldest of Depuy's family were considerably pock-marked, and a few of the oldest of Van Inwegen's family. The Cuddebacks and Gumaers were not pock-marked, and the Swartwouts very trifling.
There was in this neighborhood a contagious fever between the years 1750 and 1760, which was here termed " the long fever." - It commenced in one of the summers near the end of harvest time, and was more mortal to the black people than the whites. Depuy lost several slaves, who died of this fever. He said · the cause had been attributed to eating too many pigeons.
The second generation of the four ancient families, with few exceptions, remained healthy. Rheumatism sometimes afflicted the members of the second Gumaer family, but still were able to perform much labor and were strong, though not equal in strength to the Swart-
.
85
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
wout or Cuddeback families. All were men of six feet stature, excepting two of the Gumaer and one of the Van Inwegen family, and averaging near 200 lbs. weight.
LOWER NEIGHBORHOOD.
The following are the ages of the first generation of descendants of this neighborhood who were contem- porary with the second of the other, viz. :
Years.
Wilhelmus Cole died 1829, aged 88
His wife, Leah, died 1820, aged
77
Peter Kuykendal. about 80
Martinus (Martin) Decker died in 1802, aged. 69
Simon Westfall died in 1805, aged 87
His wife. 85
(Sally), wife of his son Simon, died 1837, aged ...
95
Solomon Kuykendall, Esq
Unknown.
His wife, Sarah Cole.
Daniel Van Auken
aged about 80
His wife, Leah. 66 66 80
James Van Fliet.
80
His wife, Margaret Schoonover
80
Anthony Van Etten, Esq. 66
-
His wife, Hannah Decker 66
85
Major John Decker.
66
80
Johannis (John) Decker .. 66
65
His wife, Deborah Van Fliet 66
50
70
His wife, Sarah Hornbeck
86
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
Years.
Capt. Johannis (John) Westbrook
80
His wife, Magdalena.
66 75
POPULATION OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF PEENPACK.
MANNER OF LIVING, ETC., DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY
WAR, AND FOR SOME YEARS THEREAFTER.
The second generation came on the stage of action and were married and had their farms granted to them in the intervening time between the French and Revo- lutionary wars, and commenced their business transac- tions when this part of our country was in a more thriving condition than it ever had been, in consequence of the circulation of a paper currency, which had be- come plentiful, and farmers made money faster than at any previous time ; but when the scale turned by its depreciation, its previous value was lost, which, to- gether with the destruction the enemy made in the war, greatly reduced the property of the inhabitants.
In 1777, three forts were built in this neighborhood : one at the house of Esq. Depuy was vacated the 13th October, 1778, on which day the enemy invaded this neighborhood and burned this house, fort and other buildings of Depuy, in consequence of which all the inhabitants of this neighborhood were collected in the fort at Gumaer's and in Fort De Witt, to wit :
At Gumaer's the following families :
Whole No.
Philip Swartwout's, Esquire, which, after the
death of himself and two oldest sons by the
87
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
Whole . No.
enemy, consisting of his step-mother, his widow, three sons, a son's wife and daughter, two slaves and an insane man ... Capt. Abraham Cuddeback's, which consisted of himself and wife, four sons, two daught- ers, a nephew and brother, and three slaves 13
10
Harmanus Van Inwegen's, Esq., consisted of himself and wife, seven sons, two daughters, a brother and five slaves. 17
Benjamin Cuddeback's were himself and wife, four sons, two daughters, a brother and two slaves.
11
Jacob D. Gumaer's was himself and wife, two sons, five daughters and two slaves .. 11
Peter Gumaer's, himself and wife, two sons and one slave.
5
Ezekiel Gumaer's, his father, himself and wife, a son and one other boy and one slave. . . Thomas White and wife.
6 2
Mathew Terwilliger's, himself, wife, six sons and three daughters. 11
John Wallace's, himself, wife, one son and one daughter. 4
Average number of soldiers during nine months in each year, about. 8
1
12
23
63
-
Amount
98
88
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
Whole No.
Benjamin Depuy, Esq.'s, family were in this fort about one year. It consisted of him- self, wife, three sons, three daughters and seven slaves. 15
Whole number that year 113
At Fort De Witt were the following families : Capt. Jacob R. De Witt's, which were him- self, wife, three sons, six daughters and four slaves. 15
Moses Depuy's, himself, wife, two sons and two slaves. 6
-
Whole number 21
Samuel Depuy's, himself, wife, two sons and one slave. 5
Elias Gumaer's, himself, wife, four sons, two daughters and two slaves. . 10
Abraham Cuddeback's, himself, wife, four sons and one slave. 7
Average number of nine month's soldiers about 12
Jonathan Pierce's family and a few other in- dividuals may have been in this fort 10 in number. 10
- 44 21 -
Amount. 65
89
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
Whole No.
Esq. Depuy's family were in this fort during a part of the year, 15 in number. 15
- -
Whole number. 80
There were some children born in both forts, which are not included.
LOWER NEIGHBORHOOD.
ITS FORTS AND SOME OF ITS WAR OCCURRENCES, ETC.
Previous to the invasion of this neighborhood by the Indians, three forts had been built in it in 1777 or '78 ; one at the house of Major Decker, where George Cuddeback now lives *, one at the house of Daniel Van Auken, near the present brick house of James D. Swartwout, Esq. t, and the other at the house of Peter Decker, in the present village of Port Jervis. The fort at Major Decker's was convenient for the families of Esq. Anthony Van Etten, Sylvester Cortright, Capt. Westbrook, Moses Cortright, Abraham Van Auken, and Schoonhover ; and the fort at Van Auken's was convenient for the families of James Van Fliet, Solo- mon Kuykendall, Esq., Simon Westfall, John Decker, and one or two other families ; and the fort at Decker's + was convenient for the families of Wilhelmus Cole, Martinus (Martin) Decker, Samuel Caskey, James Davis and Utley Westbrook.
* Now (1889) occupied by Henry G. Cuddeback.
1 Now (1889) owned by Ludwig Laux.
# Located upon the present site of the old stone house in Germantown, formerly occupied by Stephen St. John, deceased, and his family.
90
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
On the 20th of July, 1779, Brant, with a corps of Indians and tories, invaded this neighborhood. The occurrences of which and of the battle of Minisink, one or two days afterwards, are contained in Eager's History of Orange County, page 388, &c., relative to the invasion and in relation to the battle see page 490, &c. There were about 18 families in this neighbor- hood who suffered in a greater or less degree the effects of the war, and a great proportion of them lost much property by the plunder and destruction which the enemy made by taking some of the best horses, plun- dering houses of goods and wearing apparel, burning of houses, barns and other buildings. In addition to which a few prisoners were taken, two of whom were slaves and two or more were killed. This invasion caused many of the best citizens of Goshen and vici- nity to volunteer and pursue the enemy. The result of this was a more grievous calamity than the former, the results of which can be obtained as mentioned.
The number of children and domestics of each family in the lower neighborhood I cannot correctly determine, but contemplate the number of children to have been nearly as follows, to wit :
Anthony Van Etten. 15
Daniel Van Auken. 15
Major John Decker.
6
Moses Cortright ..
about
7
Jacob Schoonhover. about
3
Abraham Van Auken
4
Capt. John Westbrook 66
7
John Decker, Sr, 6
Sylvester Cortright. 4
91
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
Decker
4
James Van Fliet.
66
8
Solomon Kuykendall
None.
Simon Westfall.
66
6
Wilhelmus Cole.
4
Peter Kuykendall
66
5
Samuel Caskey
6
Martinus (Martin) Decker.
3
Utley Westbrook .. 2
Whole number. 105
The number of children of those 18 families, ac- cording to my recollections, cannot have been less than 100, and may have been as many as 110. How many of them grew up to years of maturity, or how many died previous thereto I do not know. · Major Decker had two or three children by his first wife, who died young ; and John Decker, Sr., had one or more by his first wife, who also died young before the war com- menced, but all of them after the decease of their re- spective mothers. The loss of a mother will affect the feelings of some children much, and no doubt many a child dies in consequence of the melancholy state of mind produced by such a bereavement. There were two or more premature deaths of boys or young men, and there may have been a few natural deaths in this neighborhood of which I have no recollection.
PEENPACK NEIGHBORHOOD.
The following were the number of children of - each family in it during the war, and of two contemporary
92
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
families who came into it after the war ended, to wit : Children of Esq. Swartwout. 4
Capt. Cuddeback. 6
Esq. Van Inwegen 10
B. Cuddeback. 6
66 J. D. Gumaer 7
66 P. Gumaer 4
66 Ez. Gumaer.
J. Wallace.
66
M. Terwilliger
2 2 9 6 9
66 Esq. Depuy.
Capt. De Witt.
3
66
S. Depuy.
3
66
Eb. Gumaer.
Ab. Cuddeback. 4
Widow Cuddeback 3
Residents after S J. Davis.
7
the war ended. W. Geegge. 2
-
93
M. Depuy
6
84
Of these 93 children a son of Ezekiel Gumaer died at the age of nearly five years, a daughter of Benja- min Cuddeback at the age of about six years, and a son of Esq. Van Etten, aged about 12 years. A son of Benjamin Cuddeback (Levi), died prematurely after he became a man, of a colic, caused by eating too many wintergreen berries, and a son of Abraham Cuddeback, Sr. (Philip), also died prematurely after he had arrived at manhood, of consumption, caused by overheating
93
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
himself to put out a fire in the woods. Both these oc- curred a few years after the war ended. All the others lived until after they were married and had families of their own ; but the greatest part of them did not become as old as their respective parents. The first wife of James Swartwout died in the fort at Gumaer's, of consumption, within about one year after she came into it, aged about 25 years ; and Peter Gumaer died of palsy in this fort, near the end of the war, aged 71 years. There also were five premature deaths caused by the enemy-that of the three Swartwouts in this neighborhood, as has been mentioned-Gerardus Van Inwegen at Fort Montgomery, and Mathew Ter- williger, in the Minisink battle.
The following exhibits a certain number of the children mentioned who became as old, and older, than their respective fathers and of those who did not at- tain to such an age. In this I have excluded those families I could not ascertain, in consequence of hav- ing removed into other parts of our country, and of those untimely deaths not ended by nature's process, which leaves for calculation the following families. The left hand column of figures shows the number of those who became as old, and older, than their respec- tive fathers, and the right hand column the number of those who did not arrive to that age, to wit :
Oldest Youngest Children.
Parents.
Children.
Capt. Cuddeback.
2
4
Esq. Van Inwegen.
2
8
Benj. Cuddeback.
4
2
J. D. Gumaer
0
7
94
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
Parents.
Oldest Children.
Youngest Children.
Peter Gumaer
0.
4
Ez. Gumaer.
1
2
Esq. Depuy
4
4
S. Depuy.
3
Eb. Gumaer.
0
6
J. Davis.
1
6
Wm. Geeggc.
2
J. R. De Witt.
4 .
5
-
-
18
52
This calculation, being as near as I can ascertain the same, in respect of correctness, shows that only about one-quarter of the children of those families became as old as their respective fathers.
This great degeneracy will naturally lead to an in- quiry respecting the cause of the same. To answer which, or to throw some light on the subject in rela- tion thereto, I consider it necessary to state the man- ner and circumstances of life of each generation, as near as I am able to do it, to wit :
THE FIRST GENERATION
Being the children of the first pioneers, who set- tled in Peenpack at a time when there was was no other production in this part of the country for them to live on than the meat they could obtain of the wild animals, fowls and fishes before they raised grain or other productions for their diet, and we have reason to infer that after raising grain they only pounded it fine
95
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
to answer for meat soups and such bread or cakes as they could make of it, to eat with those meats, and that these were their chief or only eatables for some years before they became enabled to have any other diet. They may, in the first instance, have obtained some meal from Rochester or vicinity, but after raising enough for their use it is probable they would rather use it pounded than to take it to the nearest mill, at that time, to get it ground, in which latter case the bran remained in the meal and as they could obtain good pounding stones and blocks from the Indians to pound their grain, and as the bran in grinding as well as pounding would remain in the meal, and as the . nearest mill must have been about 25 or 30 miles from their neighborhood, we have reason to believe that they pounded their grain for soups and bread be- fore mills were erected in this town ; and that the greatest difference between the diet of those families and that of the Indians, was that the former ate a greater proportion of vegetable productions than the latter. The men of this generation of descendants were generally stronger than those who succeeded them,from which it appears their eatables were health- ful and that their drink, which was the best of spring water, also promoted health, and that all other circum- stances which attended them were also of a healthful character, to wit : a pure air of the atmosphere, not impregnated with the exhalations from bad, stagnant waters ; brooks and small streams of clear water run- ning down the mountains into the Neversink, creating a river of clear water passing through this valley ; such log houses as would let the fresh air of the at-
96
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
mosphere pass freely into them towards the large fire they kept up in cold weather, and their continual ex- ercises in their boyhood with the Indian children in hunting, fishing, &c., and in all their sportive exer- cises of running, wrestling, &c., all had a tendency to promote health and strength and fit them for the labor they had to perform as they advanced in growth and after arriving to manhood, in respect to which how- ever some parents were more indulgent than others, and those of the most persevering business character compelled their children to labor harder than those parents who were less persevering.
SECOND GENERATION.
My own recollection reaches no further back thau the time in which all of them had families and when most of their children were small, but I have under- stood that their bread was made of unbolted wheat meal sifted through hand sieves to take out the coarse bran, until after they had grown up to years of matur- ity, and that after bolting meal was first introduced some persons said it was too extravagent to use only the fine flour to eat and to use all the rest for feed. During this time, and until all had families, many deers, bears, raccoons, wild fowls and fishes continued to exist, and the inhabitants were furnished with many meats, in consequence of which they did not make use of as much pork and beef as they did after those wild creatures and fishes became scarce.
As far back as I remember, being from about the year 1774, in my father's family mush made of Indian
97
HISTORY OF DEERPARK.
meal and milk (generally buttermilk), bread and milk, buttermilk pop of two kinds and bread and butter was a very general diet, not only of his family but of all those in the forts during the war and for some years thereafter throughout this neighborhood. It was also very common to have a dinner pot of pork and beef, or either of these boiled together with peeled potatoes, turnips or other sauce. The bread used during this time was rye bread, not as white as we generally now have it. It was very common to have a pot of sweet milk thickened with wheat flour lumps boiled every Sunday morning for breakfast and for a part of the dinner. These were the most general diet during the warm season of the year. In winter, a greater pro- portion of meat, potatoes, turnips and other vegeta- bles, dried apples, pumpkins, beans, &c. were eaten, and less milk diet ; yet the supper generally consisted both summer and winter of mush and milk or buttermilk pop, except in families during a time where cows happened to be all dry. The supper wa's had without any addi- tion except in the long summer days when bread and butter was added. Some buckwheat pancake was generally eaten in winter. Now, in addition to those common diets, they sometimes had as a rarity, wheat flour shortcakes, doughnuts boiled in hog's lard, pan- cakes baked thin in a frying pan, puddings and dump- lings boiled in water and eaten with a palatable gravy, chicken pot-pie, chicken soup, eggs boiled or fried and sometimes used in other different ways ; many apple pies and huckleberry pies were made when these fruits and berries were plenty. They also had for winter rarity sausages of hog's meat, &c.
In respect to the other attendants of air, water and
98
HISTORY OF . DEERPARK.
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