USA > New York > Orange County > Deerpark > A history of the Minisink Region : which includes the present towns of Minisink, Deerpark, Mount Hope, Greenville, and Wawayanda in Orange County, New York. > Part 9
USA > New York > Orange County > Mount Hope > A history of the Minisink Region : which includes the present towns of Minisink, Deerpark, Mount Hope, Greenville, and Wawayanda in Orange County, New York. > Part 9
USA > New York > Orange County > Minisink > A history of the Minisink Region : which includes the present towns of Minisink, Deerpark, Mount Hope, Greenville, and Wawayanda in Orange County, New York. > Part 9
USA > New York > Orange County > Greenville > A history of the Minisink Region : which includes the present towns of Minisink, Deerpark, Mount Hope, Greenville, and Wawayanda in Orange County, New York. > Part 9
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of those early times, one of the principal forts for de- fense against the Indians being located at his house. He brought the first fanning mill to Minisink ever seen in this section, about 1750 or 1760. He married a Miss Swartout, and had seven children-six daughters and one son. This son, Peter, was born November 15, 1708. He married Charity De Witt, daughter of Jacob De Witt, of Rochester, Ulster county. They had four sons and two daughters-Peter, born February 19, 1732; Jacob, born December 12, 1739; Ezekiel, born December 29, 1742; Elias, born January- 22, 1748; Esther, born Jan. 2, 1730; Margaret, born May 12, 1736; Mary, born July 16, 1745; and Elizabeth, born Dec 5, 1750, but who died at the age of two years. Of these, Ezekiel married Naomi Low, daughter of Abraham Low, of Rochester, Ulster county, in the year 1770. They had but two children, both sons: Abraham, born October 3, 1783, who died at the age of twelve years, and Peter E., born May 28, 1771, now living. Peter E. Gumaer, Esq., married Esther Cuddeback, October 10, 1813, and has had seven children: Morgan, born January 27, 1815; Ezekiel, born May 10, 1817; Jacob C. E., born October 18, 1820; Peter L., born January 29, 1827; Naomi, born January 29, 1830; Andrew J., born November 4, 1833, and Esther H., born August 30, 1835. This venerable gentleman gave us these particulars personally a short time since. As will be seen by the date of his birth, he is verging on toward a longevity of life seldom equaled, almost a century of years having passed over his head. His eye is still bright and his voice clear and strong. He remembers the Indians that frequented the valley before the Revolutionary war; one in particular, named Scott, who made him a bow and arrows at the fort at his father's, when he was a little boy. He saw the peo-
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ple going to the battle of Minisink, and recollects one John Waller, about whom great uneasiness was felt by his friends, he being absent some two or three days after the battle; but who finally returned safe and sound, with several deerskins on his back, he having been hunting on his way home. The same individual stood close by Capt. Cuddeback in the battle. A bullet came whistling through his coat, at which the Captain re- marked, "John, hadn't you better stand a little back ? They shoot d-d good." " No," he replied, " I want to get a chance at them." Captain Cuddeback's advice to the settlers on pursuing the Indians, was to attack them secretly in the night, but not being used to that mode of warfare they were afraid of shooting each other in the dark. They finally determined toattack them while crossing the river. This plan might have succeeded had not Captain Tyler's gun accidentally went off, thus apprising the Indians of their being pursued. Mr. Gumaer recollects Captain Cuddeback's narration of his escape after the battle. He says Cuddeback was a powerful man physically, one of his feats of strength being the raising of a fifty-six pound weight attached to each finger and thumb of his right hand, making in all two hundred and eighty pounds, at arm's length. He was Captain of the fort located at his father's for some time.
Mrs. Gumaer, also living, has been her husband's com- panion in the bonds of conjugal felicity fifty-three years, and like him, remembers back to a time when the principal implements used in agricultural operations were rudely fashioned and mostly of wood; when the clothes were altogether of home manufacture; when the men wore their hair long, and had it powdered and tied up in queues like the Chinese; and when the grain intended
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for bread had to be pounded in a stone mortar with a round stone about eighteen inches in length and three or four in diameter, by hand-a work mostly performed by the women; having, as she said, " many a time pound- ed corn till her hands were blistered." Her memory is full of old-time incidents, one of which, relating to the naming of Bashus' kill, is as follows: An old squaw by the name of Bashee, and her husband, lived for many years by this stream. They were very friendly to the whites and lived in content long after their tribe had gone west. The old chief was a good hunter, and was fre- quently accompanied by his wife, who carried the game on such occasions. During one of these excursions he shot a large deer, and tying the two legs fast to a stick, old Bashee took it on her shoulder and started home- ward, he following slowly along the path. Her way was over the stream, which was crossed by a log reaching from bank to bank. In crossing, she slipped from the log, and the stick caught her fast by the neck so that it was impossible to free herself. Her husband shortly found her dead, with the deer hanging across the log- and that is the way it came to be called Bashus' kill, or more properly Bashee's kill.
CUDDEBACK .- This name was at first spelled Code- back, but English usage soon changed it to Cuddeback. Jacob Cuddeback, the ancestor of the family, was a countryman of Gumaer's, and came with him to America. They first landed in Maryland, and being short of funds, labored for a time till they procured the wherewithal to enable them to emigrate to Minisink. They were partners in almost all transactions; and either in the city, or in one of the counties on the east side of the Hudson, (says Eager,) both entered into the interesting state of matrimony with the daughters of a Dutch family
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named Swartout. Three members of the Swartout fam- ily accompanied their newly-made relatives to the Min- isink Region. These were Thomas Swartout, Bernardus Swartout and Anthony Swartout, all of whom were concerned in the purchase of the Peenpack Patent. Cuddeback built the first grist mill erected in the pres- ent limits of the town. He was much noted for the part taken in the New Jersey boundary dispute. He is said to have been well educated, of extensive historical knowledge, and so well versed in the Scriptures that theological questions were always left to his decision. He was the one selected to go to the Governor to pro- cure the patent on behalf of the purchasers in 1697, which mission he successfully accomplished. He lived to be about one hundred years old, and his faculties were good to the day of his death. His descendants are quite numerous, and have always occupied conspicuous places in the history of the Minisink Region, the scene of their daring ventures, hair-breath escapes, and perils untold of the Indian wars and Revolutionary struggle, and of their prosperity in the better times since then.
SWARTOUT .- The ancestors of this family were of Dutch origin, and came to this town with Gumaer and Cuddeback in 1690. They were all three interested in the Peenpack Patent, but Eager says that but one of them kept his share. Whether it was Thomas, Antho- ny, or Bernardus, that refused to sell, we are not inform- ed. They were said to be all large, powerful men, and well fitted for the hardships of a pioneer's life in the wilderness. One of them in 1730 was major of the militia of Orange county. He resided on the disputed territory between New York and New Jersey, and was once dispossessed by the Jersey claimants; an affair that called out all his neighbors in order to reinstate him, as
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related in a previous chapter. Cornelius Swartout and Gerardus Swartout, a son of the Major, were at the capture of Fort Montgomery by the British, but es- caped. This family bore an important part in all the struggles and hardships of those troublous times, and their descendants may well point proudly to the record. This family, nearly all, we believe, now spell their name Swartwout.
VAN INWEGEN .- Nothing of the nationality of this ancient family is known, but as most of the early settlers in the Minisink Region were German, and the name sounds like those of that derivation, we may safely set it down as coming from that nation. Harmanus Van Inwegen we first find mentioned as becoming part owner of the twelve hundred acre patent, doubtless the buyer of the shares sold by the Swartouts. Eager says he married a daughter of one of the Swartouts. He is represented as being a powerful man, so much so that the strongest Indians were unable to cope with him. He took a very prominent part in the border war with New Jersey, and became a member of the committee of safety organized in the Minisink Region in 1777. A young man named Gerardus Van Inwegen was killed at the capture of Fort Montgomery, but whether he was a son of Harmanus or not we do not know. The citizens of Deerpark by that name, are doubtless mostly descend- ants of his.
WESTBROOK .- We know but little of the origin of this family. The original ancestor of the family in this town was John Westbrook, whom we first find men- tioned in the old annals as keeping a store where West- brookville now stands, which was a celebrated resort for the Indian trade previous to and during the old French war of 1755. Major and Johannes Westbrook, relatives
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of his, are said by Eager to have been captured by the Jerseymen, at the old Mahackemeck church, during the border troubles, about 1764 or 1767, and confined for some time in the old Jersey Colony prison, but was soon released. They appear to have been men of some importance in those times.
DECKER .- The progenitor of this family settled in what was known as the " lower neighborhood," about the same time, or shortly after the settlement of the Peenpack Patent by Gumaer and Cuddeback. His name was John Decker, and he kept a store or tavern for some years before and after the French and Indian war. It was near his house that Tom Quick is said to have killed Mushwink, the Indian. This was after the close of the war. Mushwink was among the Indians who returned to the settlement, (Quinlan's Life of Tom Quick, p. 46), and one day happened to be at Decker's tavern pretty drunk, and boasting of his exploits. Quick was present, and in order to irritate him the savage gave an account of his helping to kill Thomas Quick, Sr., and exhibited the silver sleeve buttons worn by the victim when killed. This aroused Quick's feel- ings, and catching a loaded musket from its place over the mantle, he ordered the Indian to leave the room. The Indian saw he was in earnest, and obeyed with a crestfallen air. Quick followed him toward Carpenter's Point about a mile, when he exclaimed, "Indian dog, you'll kill no more white men," and instantly shot him in the back between the shoulders. The savage leaped two or three feet in the air and fell dead. A fort was located at Decker's by the committee of safety in 1778. It was captured by the Indians under Brandt in 1779. Major John Decker, according to Eager, had a narrow escape from the same body of Indians; and his wife and
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children fled to Mr. James Finch's, east of the Shawan- gunk, for safety.
DE WITT .- There were four brothers of the name, who first emigrated from Holland. (Eager, p. 396.) One settled in the town of Hurley, one in Rochester, and one in Napanoch, Ulster county; the fourth is supposed to have settled in Duchess county. Jacob R. De Witt, who settled in this town, was a son of the one who settled at Napanoch. Miss Mary De Witt, sister of Jacob R., mar- ried Gen. James Clinton, of New Windsor. They had four children. De Witt Clinton, the illustrious states- man, was one of them; and Eager says Deerpark is enti- tled to the honor of giving him a birthplace, owing to the following incident:
" In February, 1769, James Clinton, with his lady, came to the fort at DeWitt's, on a visit to see her brother, Capt. Jacob Rutson DeWitt. A violent snow storm came on which lasted some days, and when it abated Mrs. Clinton was found to be in such an inter- esting situation as to make it imprudent to return home. They remained at the fort six weeks, and during the interval De Witt Clinton was born."
Moses De Witt, Jacob R. DeWitt's eldest son, was a person of very agreeable manners, and well liked by the Indians, who deeply lamented his death. He surveyed the boundary line between New York and New Jersey in 1787.
VAN AUKEN .- The first resident of this town by the name, is believed to have been Abraham Van Auken, but from whence he came and the date of settlement is unknown. A fort was erected at the house of Daniel Van Auken, one of his descendants, in the "lower neighborhood," by order of the committee of safety in 1778. Jeremiah Van Auken, doubtless a member of the
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same family, was killed during Brandt's invasion of Mini- sink in 1779.
MILLS .- This family is very ancient, and it is proba- ble that the persons of that name throughout Mount Hope, Wawayanda, Deerpark and other towns, are branches of the same family, though in many cases the connection has been lost. In an old copy of The Gazette (if we mistake not) mention is made of the death of a citizen named Mills, in Connecticut, in the year 1726, aged ninety-five years, and " who was born in America." This would place the date of his birth at 1631, just eleven years after the landing of the pilgrims at Ply- mouth; so we may conclude his parents to have come over in the Mayflower. In 1656, " Thompson's History of Long Island " mentions the names of a number of persons from Milford, (Connecticut, we presume,) who signed a petition to Governor Stuyvesant asking leave to settle at a place called Jamaica, L. I. This was granted and the settlement commenced. One of the petitioners was named George Mills. Timothy Mills, a few years afteward removed from Jamaica, and settled at a place called Mills' Pond, Suffolk county, L. I. By his first wife he had two children, and by his second, eleven children. Of these Jonathan was born October 23, 1710. He mar- ried Ruth Rutgard, by whom he had six children. Of these Jacob was born December 23, 1746. He married Catherine Denton, daughter of Samuel Denton, of Long Island, by whom he had twelve children. He came from Mills' Pond to Little Britain in Orange county, where he followed the business of a tanner for some time, and from where he removed to the town of Wall- kill, near Scotchtown, at a very early date. One of his children, William Wickham Mills, afterward married the only daughter of Wickham Denton, Esq., of L. I.
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Another, Samuel Mills, married Miss Elizabeth Stitt, by whom he had fourteen children. Of these, Rev. Samuel W. Mills, of Port Jervis, is the ninth. One of the daughters (lately deceased) married Theodore J. Den- ton, Esq., of Wawayanda.
CLAUSON .- This family originally settled at an early date in the town of Minisink; but has become so scatter- ed that we believe it has few if any of the name at present in the town. Aaron Clauson, grandfather of George Clauson, Esq., of Port Jervis, came from Newark, N. J., and settled near Unionville in 1793-4. In 1797 he purchased a farm of Daniel Myers at that place. On this farm his son, Elias Clauson, lived for seventy years, or until his death, which occurred a few years ago. This gentleman was possessed of numerous incidents concerning Daniel Myers; who, it will be recollected, was a great hunter and Indian slayer. On one occasion he was at the house of Mr. Myers, who was then an old man, but still an unerring marksman with the rifle. A bird of curious shape was seen flying through the air overhead, and old Mr. Myers brought out his rifle, re- marking that he would find out what it was. It was so high as to look about the size of a man's hat, but, so true was the old man's aim, that the crack of his rifle brought it whirling to the ground, when it was found to be an eagle of the largest size. The Indians on another -occa- sion surprised the old man while splitting rails. He acknowledged himself a prisoner, but requested them to help open a log before taking him off. This they agreed to, knowing he could not get away. So they ranged themselves on both sides of the log and took hold to pull it apart while he drove the wedges. No sooner had they signified their readiness, than a well directed blow knocked out the wedge and the log closed together,
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catching every one by their fingers. He then leisurely knocked them in the head with the axe one by one. (Some say this was Tom Quick, but we believe Daniel Myers to be the man.)
VAN ETTEN .- Anthony Van Etten is the first resident of the town of whom we have any account. He resided in the "lower neighborhood," near Decker's, in 1779. He was a man of much note among the early settlers. Thomas Van Etten, Jr., represented western Orange in the legislature with ability, some years.since.
VAN VLIET (or VAN FLEET.)-James Van Vliet is the first resident of the town, of the name, and narrowly escaped from the Indians with his family during Brandt's invasion, 1779. John Van Vliet for a long time owned the land afterward owned by Michael Van Vliet and Solomon Van Vliet.
WESTFALL .- The first record of this family shows it to have been located in the "lower neighborhood " in 1755, when a fort was erected at their residence to protect the settlers from the Indians. It was an important po- sition, and the Indians tried many times to surprise the place. This family was the first attacked by Brandt in 1779, where one man was killed. (Eager, p. 386.)
Henry Cortright, Solomon Davis, Benjamin DuPuy, Solomon Cole, William Cole, Peter Cuykendall, Abra- ham Low and Evert Hornbeck were old settlers, many of whose descendants are still comprised in the enter- prising population of the town. The citizens of Port Jervis may well remember with gratitude the liberality of Col. Samuel Fowler, of later days, who may well be con- sidered a patron of the place and a great promoter of its prosperity. Some of the finest buildings in the vil- lage were built by him.
I will notice here, as it may not be out of place to
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record the notice of a personage so well known to the early inhabitants of this section, Ben Shanks, a native Indian chief; in person tall, slender and athletic, in fact said to be the tallest Indian ever seen on the Delaware; from which circumstance he probably derived his Eng- lish name, his true name being Huycon. His hair was jet black and clubbed behind, his forehead high and wrinkled, his eyes of a fiery brown color, and sunk deep in their sockets, his nose pointed and aquiline, his front teeth remarkably broad, prominent and white, his cheeks hollow and furrowed; in a word, Ben Shanks, when ar- rayed in all the warlike habiliments of his tribe, pre- sented one of the most frightful specimens of human nature that the eye could rest upon. (Quinlan's Life of Tom Quick.) He was well known throughout Orange and Ulster, and dreaded for his cruel and bloodthirsty disposition in time of war. The most cruel murder he was concerned in, was perpetrated near the close of the Revolutionary war. Colonel Johannis Jansen, a noted patriot, whom Shanks had often worked for when a boy, lived in the north-eastern part of the town of Shawan- gunk, Ulster county. Christopher Mentze, his nearest neighbor, was a German inhabiting a comfortable log house three-quarters of a mile distant in a westerly di- rection. His son, John Mentze, had married a daughter of John George Mack, who lived on the other side of the mountain. A few months before the tragedy, a young lady named Hannah had come from New York and was visiting at Mr. Mentze's, who was her uncle. She is described as being about eighteen years of age, and a most decidedly lovely and interesting young lady. Being of an industrious disposition, she had been hired to spin for Col. Jansen's family, spending her Sab- baths at her uncle's.
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One Monday morning in September, Colonel Jansen, while going to a barrack near his barn, was surprised by two Indians who attempted to take him prisoner. He managed to escape from them, and ran for the house shouting murder, pursued by one Indian who got so near him that he tried to catch hold of him. The Colonel got inside the door first and shut it, but did not have time to bolt it. The Indian endeavored to push the door open, but in the struggle the Colonel proved the stronger, and the attempt failed. The savage then' attempted to break open the door with a broad-axe which was lying on the porch. The Colonel frightened him away by calling loudly for his musket and pistols. These his wife brought, and the Colonel determined to defend the house at all hazards. His wife raised a win- dow sash for the purpose of closing the blinds so as to darken the room, but was frightened away by a man disguised as an Indian, but whose blue eyes at once revealed the Tory. The Colonel then retired to the upper part of the house with his family, and the assail- ants soon broke into the lower rooms. The Colonel's three female slaves were captured and placed near the door under charge of Ben Shanks, while the Tory and three other savages searched for valuables. Just at this time one of the slaves saw Hannah coming through the gateway near the barn, to resume her spinning at the Colonel's. The slave motioned to her in the most forcible manner to go back, that she was in danger and must not come to the house; but the poor girl not un- derstanding her meaning, walked leisurely into the kitchen. When she comprehended her danger, her terror was extreme. She wrung her hands in agony, and with one of the slaves uttered the most moving en- treaties for life. But the unfeeling monsters compelled
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her with the uplifted tomahawk to take a place with the slaves. Then gathering up the spoils, they ordered their prisoners to advance, one of them leading the way across the fields toward the mountain, and leaving Col. Jansen in possesion of his house.
While these events were taking place, Mr. Mack, with his daughter Elsie, a young lady of eighteen, had been to visit his son-in-law, John Mentze, and to take back their winter clothing which they had been in the habit of leaving at Mr. Mentze's when not needed, as Mack's dwelling was more exposed to Indian and Tory depre- dations. They were now on their way home across the mountain, accompanied by John Mentze, following an Indian path through the woods, the nearest habitation over the mountain being nine miles. After going about. four miles they reached the foot of a precipitous ledge near the summit of the mountain, and stopped to rest, Mack remarking to his son-in-law, as he sat down to light his pipe, that he had gone far enough and might return. While they were talking, Elsie climbed to the summit of the precipice to enjoy the view, which com- prised a large portion of Orange and Ulster counties. Suddenly their horses seemed frightened at something in the bushes not far from where they had been tied. They looked round for the cause, and the old man see- ing them first, cried out, " They are Indians." Mentze raised on tiptoe, and looking over the laurels, replied, "No; it is a Tory with negroes." Almost as soon as he spoke however he saw the frightful visage of Shanks, with the three negroes behind him, creeping toward them under cover of the laurel bushes, while the Tory and otlier Indians had gained the path below them to cut off their retreat. Being unarmed, lie saw there was no safety but in flight, and immediately fled toward the
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horses, running under the neck of one of them, and toward the bank of a brook. As he turned down the bank of the brook, he heard Elsie give a heart-rending shriek, but knew he could do nothing to aid the doomed girl, and not daring to waste his time, he leaped into the brook, a distance of some fifteen feet, in doing which he severely sprained his ankle. Unheeding the pain he threw off his now water-soaked shoes, and fled down the rocky bottom of the brook and across the fields to Mr. Thomas Jansen's, a brother of the Colonel. Seeing persons passing, he halloed loudly and was heard. A party of friends quickly volunteered, and Mentze pro- curing his faithful rifle, led the way regardless of his bruised and swollen ankle. On arriving at the place of the attack a bundle of clothes was found, but nothing could be seen of Mr. Mack or his daughter. Tracks were found leading in a westerly direction, toward the aforementioned brook. They were followed, and on ascending about ten paces up a gentle declivity on the other side of the brook, the objects of their search were exposed to view. At the foot of a rock oak tree, the old man lay upon his hands and knees, dead, and scalped in the most horrible manner. From his position it was evident he had struggled long in the agonies of death. His head hung down between his shoulders, and his hands were clenched and filled with leaves. About five feet further up lay his daughter, stretched at full length upon the bank, her clothing properly arranged, and her inanimate form scalped in the same terrible manner. A rude bier was constructed, and their remains tenderly and mournfully carried home for proper interment. Mentze was so overcome by the affecting scene that he had to be supported homeward by the strong arms of his sympathizing friends. He remembered that Han-
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