USA > New York > Sullivan County > Gazetteer and business directory of Sullivan county, N. Y., for 1872-3 > Part 14
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. Lumberland.
Billings Grant, do
1854
do
Tusten.
1855 Aaron Fraser
Callicoon.
A. Grant Childs,
1856 O. B. Wheeler ..
Forestburgh. .Melvin S. Wells,
1857 John R. Kilbourn .Liberty Wm. M. Ratcliff,
155S Daniel M. Brodhead
Bethel. B. L. Ludington,
1959 Robert Y. Grant. Liberty. .S. C. Agnew,
1860 N. C. Clark. Neversink.
do
1861 Jas. D. Decker . Lumberland. N. C. Clark,
1-62 John C. Holley
Thompson
.David G. Starr, do
1864 Billings Grant.
Liberty do
1865 Jas. D. Decker
Lumberland.
do
1866 do
do
do
1867
do
do
Wm. B. Niven,
186S
do
do
do
1869 do
do
do
1870 E. HI. Pinney.
Callicoon.
do
1871 Frank Buckley
Fremont
J. M. Maybee.
-
-
1842
do
do
1808 do
do
106
GAZETTEER OF TOWNS.
GAZETTEER OF TOWNS.
BETHEL was formed from Lumberland, March 27, 1809. Cochecton was taken off in 1828. It lies upon the high ridges which form the watershed between Delaware and Mongaup rivers, a little south-west of the center of the County. Its sur- face is broken and hilly, and many of the declivities are steep and rocky. It is drained easterly by the West Branch of the Mongaup and several smaller streams which are tributary to that river, and westerly by the Callicoon Creek and a branch of the Ten Mile Creek. The Mongaup forms its eastern boundary. Its surface is dotted by many small lakes, which form a beautiful and romantic feature of the landscape. White Lake,* near the center, named from its white sandy shores and
*On page 67, in the 1st Vol. of the Poems of Alfred B, Street, this lake ie noticed by the name of "Kau-un-onp-ga," which, he says, means literally ">two wings,'" because " it Is in the form of a pair of huge wings expanded." James K. Quinlan, however, arserto on the authority of Street, that this definition is merely the result of the latter a poetic fancy. We make the following extract from the poem on this lake, which appears in the same work :
"Pure at their parent springs ! how bright The allvery watere stretch away, Reposing in the pleasant light Of June's moet lovely day. "Curving round the the eastern eide, Rich mirsdowy slope their banks, to meet, With fringe of stars and fern, the tide Which sparkles at their feet. . . ฿ " The ploughman sees the wind-winged deer Dart from his covert to the wave, Aud fearless in ita mirror clear fils branching antlere lave.
" Here, the green headlandy seem to meet So scar, a fairy bridge micht cross ; There, aprea :s the bread and limpid sheet In stvoth, caradted gloss.
" Arebed by the thicket's screening leaves, & Thed harbor lurks below. Where on the sand each ripple weaves Ita meltin; wreath of snow."
Rev. J. B. Williams, pastor of the Reformed Presbyterian Church at White Lake. forniebies the following interesting particulars respecting this lake and the surrounding country, which we copy verbat.ci ;
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GAZETTEER OF TOWNS.
bottom; is noted for the beauty of its scenery, and is becoming a favorite summer resort. Several large boarding houses have been erected on its banks for the accommodation of visitors.
"WHITE LAKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS.
"This is the deepest lake in Sullivan County. By actual measurement, James E. Munger found the northern end 80 feet deep, and the narrows 70 feet. Formerly the lake contained the largest trout in the world. These trout had carmine spota, which is nnusual for lake trout. (Salmo Confinis.) In the winter of 1832, Charles Fenno Hoffman, an anthor whom none will dispute, saw & trout taken from White Lake which weighed six pounde. In Feb'y 1843, Lewis Piatt caught one which weighed eight pounds fourteen oz. A sketch of this fish was drawn on s board at the old Lake House. It was the same year that James B. Finlay employed an Indian to take black bass from Lake George and put them in White Lake, from which they have been distributed to other lakes and ponds . "AS A SUMMER RESORT.
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" The old Lake House stood upon the ground now occupied by Harold Henwood for a private residence. It was built for the accommodation of travelers and was occasion -. ally a place of resort for those who wisbed to spend a few days in fishing and hunting fifty years ago. In the year 1846, Mr. Finlay built the first hotel for enminer boarders. It was kept by Simon M. Jordan, George R. Wooldridge, Stephen Sweet and others. The business did not pay until the Mansion House was built by a club of wealthy New Yorkers, who made an arrangement by which D. B. Kinne became proprietor, after- wards.
"In the year 1856 the Grove Hotel was erected and occupied by George Wooldridge. Two years later. Capt. Wmn. Waddell constructed 'Sanny Glade' Boarding House. In none of these houses is kept any bar for the sale of intoxicating drinks, as the design is to accommodate the better class of boardere. Since the opening of greater facilities of access to the metropolis by newly constructed Railroads, it is sometimes difficult to accommodate the increasing number of summer visitors.
"COTTAGES AND PRIVATE RESIDENCES.
"Napoleon Wooldridge, of the Detective Police, N. Y., bas just finished & beautiful cottage on the southern chore of the lake, and his example is about to be followed by some of his friends. Rev. Mr. Williams has also completed a hooded building accom- modated to the scenery on the side of the lake. Newcomb Mapes, in his humble way, has just completed & snug home for his family. Time and space would fail to tell of Mercer and Munger and Corley and Potte and Gregory and Vanorden, who, like the philosopher, have sought a place to put down & lever and 'move the world,' and have obtained their design by securing a home for their families.
" ATTRACTIVE ACENERY.
" The supposed name of this beautiful body of water is 'Konaongs.' Frequented no doubt it wss by the Indians, for the purpose of fishing, and possibly, at some remote period, the blood of battle moy bave crimsoned its surface, ze the number of darts found at its northern extremity world seem to indicate. But the trail of the red man of the forest has faded from the memory of living men in the vicinity, yet the natural lovelt- ness of the place occupies in more cultured society the pen of the poet and the pencil of the artist.
"Mount Wilder rises south of the lake with gentle declivity, and recedes from the shore about 800 feet, where it reaches a point of more than sixteen hundred feet above tide water on the fladson. If's magnificent view is sought for, this eminence will suit the purpose.
" Siumbering beneath, lies the lake, fed by internal springe and not by rivalets. Its waters wash a shore of pebbly white sand, and when the rhododendrons blossom, at the end of June, the whole winding confines look like enchantment. Let the surface be dotted with boats in gay colore, and a view is presented in summer months which one never tires of seeing. Away to the north you see eloping farms, framed in groves of natural beauty, up to the very summit of Mount Sherwood, as it looms up into the serene heavens. A spur of the Catskills makes a show back of Shandaken hills. Then on the right, 'the smoky range of the shawangunk' is lost in the glades and forests of the Neversink. As the eye sweeps the distant scenery, it detects an almost unbroken chain of mountains Iving around the whole circle of the horizon, including undefined summits back of Port Jervis, and also the Snequehanna range in Pennsylvania.
" There is not the bold confporation of Newburgh Bay and the richly laden vessels of commerce, nor the island which Hadley calls 'a child of adjacent hills,' but there Is more of the repose which attracts mostly those who relish retirement from the active ¿cunes of busy life.
.. To crowu all. there is an atmosphere as pure as any on the face of the globe. The bottom of the lake is rock and sind, and the surface lying so high, no minematic quat- ities will ever infect the air. The region is that of bemlock, pine and balsam, exhaling life-giving qualities; but here the locust never lives. Physicians frequently send here invalids to recover health. Instances almost incredible might be furnished of restoration. So those who wish to combine rare scenery and healthfulness, find a sojourn here during the warm summer months eminently desirable."
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GAZETTEER OF TOWNS.
The other principal lakes are Birch Ridge Pond in the north- west, Horse Shoe and Pleasant Ponds in the north, Mallory Pond in the west, Indian Field Pond in the south, Big and Wells Ponds on the south line, and Chestnut Ridge Pond, Black Lake and Lake Superior near the center. The soil is a sandy and gravelly loam, intermixed in places with clay, and resting on slate. It is of a pretty good quality and is well adapted to grazing. The settlements are comparatively new, and the people are chiefly engaged in stock raising, dairying, lumbering and tanning, the latter being the principal business. Large quan- tities of butter and beef are annually sent to market. There are at present in the town three Presbyterian and two Methodist churches, three tanneries, three flouring mills, fourteen saw mills and nine stores.
The town has an area of 53,472 acres, of which, according to the census of 1865, 17,406 were improved and 36,066, unim- proved.
The population of the town in 1870 was 2,736. During the year ending Sept. 30, 1871, the town contained fifteen school districts and employed fifteen teachers. The number of children of school age was 1,157; the number attending school, 892; the average attendance, 368; and the value of school houses and sites, $3,011. The schools of this town will com- pare favorably with those of any other in the County.
MONGAUP VALLEY, (p. v.) situated on the Mongaup River, and Newburgh and Cochecton Turnpike, near the center of the east line of the town, is a flourishing village and contains two churches, (Associate Reformed Presbyterian and M. E.,) two stores, one hotel, one large tannery,* one grist mill, one saw
*This tannery, of which W. Kfersted .& Co. are proprietors, is situated on the Mon- gaup River, by which stream Ite motive power is furnished, and is admitted to be the model tannery in the County. Perhaps it would not be extravagant to say this of it in respect to the whole country, for its internal arrangement and the various processes employed in the manufacture, sro characterized by such nearness, fitness and con- venience as is consistent with the business, and in striking contrast with most estab- listigenta of the kind. So marked are these features in this establishment that we deem it worthy of especial notice, and we have, through the courtesy of the gentle- inanly proprietors, been permitted to inspect critically the departments of their works, and have been furnished by them with statistics, which are descriptive, not only of the manufacture of leather in general, but of this tannery in particular. This was the first tannery erected in the town. On the eth of August, 1847. Wynkoop and John Kiersted entered into a contract with John C., Richard M., J. Howard, Margaret M., Maris L., Cornelis R. and itobert L. Tilloton, securing to them the hemlock bark on a tract of lacd of about ten thousand keres, known As the Tillotson Tract, it being Great Lot 15 of the Hardenburgh Patent, which coutriet with its renewal embraces a term of thirty yrare. In 195, Wynkoop and John Hiereted, and John W. Swan, who coinpore the firin of W. hasied & C't, erated the the Monganp Tannery ; the main building being Wordt door and i feet wide. The lower story embraces the Beam Money and Yard. The Beats figur company fons sets of Hide Mills, for softening and cleansing hides, time large waty for roswing hales ; and eight underground rooms-16 feet long, 8 feet wide and 12 feet high -- built with stone and covered with a heavy body of earth to keep them of eren temperature. In these the hides, after being cleansed and softened, are suspended ou hooke until putrefaction advances far enough to loosen the hair, when they are taken out and cleansed in the Hide Mills, after which they are worked over the Beam-a process which consists of shaving off the loose desh and auy
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GAZETTEER OF TOWNS.
mill, three blacksmith shops, one shoe shop, one wagon shop, one harness shop, an excellent high school, and about 300 inhabitants.
BETHEL, (p. v.) located a little west of the center, on the Newburgh and Cochecton Turnpike, contains three stores, one hotel, one wagon shop, three blacksmith shops, two shoe shops, a tin shop, and about thirty dwellings and 150 inhabitants.
BUSHVILLE, (p. v.) situated on the Mongaup River, in the north-east part, contains one store, one tannery,* one black- sinith shop, one saw mill, seventeen dwellings and about eighty inhabitants.
WHITE LAKE (p. o.) is situated at the south-east extremity of the lake from which it derives its name, on the Newburgh and Cochecton Turnpike, and contains one church, (Reformed Presbyterian) one store, one school house, five boarding houses, twelve dwellings and sixty-seven inhabitants. The location of White Lake, in the midst of a region of great natural beauty,
remaining hair ; they are then paesed into the handlers, which contain thirty-two vats, 8 feet long, 4X feet wide and 5 feet deep, in which they are colored and plumped, and from which they are passed into the yard, which contains 163 layaway vats, 8 feet long, 7 feet wide and 5 feet deep, where they are packed away with bark sprinkled between them, and submerged with tan liquor. This operation is repeated every two to four weeks until the hides are tanned, which requires from four to five months. When tanned, the sides of leather are passed through the scrubbing machine, (which consists of a rapidly revolving cylinder, containing brushes, over which water is kept running,) and cleansed from all fifth. They are next passed into the second story, where they are suspended ou sticks until dry. when they are sprinkled with water, and, after becoming sufficiently softened. are passed under a brass roller, subjected to heavy pressare, tiutil they become Arily set and highly polished, after which they are passed to the third story, where they are again dried, and are then ready for market. The Leach House is 160 feet long. In it the bark is ground by one of the celebrated Palen & Avery Dark Mille. From the mill the ground bark is raised by means of elevators into & loft, from which it is run into the leaches. The Leach House contains five circular leaches, sixteen feet in diameter, and six and one-half feet deep, which are filled with ground bark and hot wesk hqaor, or water passed thereon by means of Allen & Warren's Rotating Sprinklers. the water being heated by steam in a box through which it passes on its way to the sprinklers. The Steam House is fifty by thirty feet, and contains a ten horse power steam engine, and three thirty-two feet, thirty inch boilers, and the same number of eight feet, thirty inch boilers for generating steam for lesching the bark. The Bark House is 400 feet long and 22 feet wide. Permanent employment is given to fifty men, and during the bark peeling season about ninety additional laborers are employed. About fifty teams are employed in hauling during the winter. Connected with the establishment are fifteen double dwellings for the ac- commodation of the families of the workmen. From the time the Tannery commenced operations, in Oct., 1448, up to Jan. 1. 1372, there has been manufactured here into borplock sole leather 444,922 hides, weighing 10,044.506 pounds, costing $1,966.602.60, making therefrom 8-9, 44 sides of leather, weighing 14,975.127 pounds, and selling for $3,334,169.30. There was consumed in the manufacture 99.856 cords of bark, which cost $327,562.87; and the cost of labor during this period was $272, 754.42.
*The Erst tanvery on the site of this one was built in 1851, by A. P. Bush & Co. It was burned in 1-63, sad rebuilt by E. Fobes. It was burned again in 1867, and was again rebuilt by E. Fobes, who continoed its proprietor until 1871, when it paseed into the hands of the present proprietors, David Clemente and Lucas Fobes. The present taunery is situated on the west side of the Mongaup, and with it is connected & saw mailland store. The main building is 300 feet long and 40 feet wide. The leach house is 133 feet long and "feet wide. The engine house is 30 feet long and 24 feet wide. The leach bouse contains four leaches, one junk and 128 vats. An engine of twenty horse power is used ; 2,300 cords of bark are annually consumed ; and 20,000 sides ard manned.
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constitutes it a place of unusual attractiveness to the seekers of pleasure and recreation. It is distant only eight miles from Monticello, the County Seat, and the northern terminus of the Monticello & Port Jervis R. R., and possesses advantages unattainable in any other direction, within similar distance from New York.
The White Lake Mansion House is located at the south-west extremity of the lake whose name it bears, and is attracting that attention from those who seek a short respite from the tedium of sedentary pursuits and an opportunity to inhale generous supplies of pure country air, to which its merit entitles it.
NORTH WINTE LAKE is a hamlet, beautifully situated at the foot of the lake which gives it its name, one mile north of White Lake. It contains one hotel, one store, one grist mill, one saw mill, a blacksmith shop, a wagon shop, a school house, ten dwellings and forty inhabitants.
The grist mill at this place stands on the sight of the first grist mill built in the town .* It is the third one that has been erected thereon. It has three runs of stones, the motor for which is supplied by a thirty feet fall of water, which is con- sidered one of the best and safest water powers in the State. It has a grinding capacity of 75,000 bushels of grain annually. The saw mill at this place has facilities for sawing 300,000 feet of lumber annually. The motive power for this is also furnished by a thirty fect fall of water.
Harold Henwood, a gentleman residing in Jersey City, has made large purchases of lands around this (White) lake, which he is improving and beautifying.
BLACK LAKE is a hamlet situated at the outlet of the lake of the same name, two miles south of White Lake, and contains one store, one tannerv, one saw mill, one blacksmith shop, one shoe shop, one school house, fifteen dwellings and a population of 120.
BRISCOE, (p. o.) located near the north line, west of the cen- ter, on the Monticello and Jeffersonville Turnpike, is thirteen and one-half miles from the former place, and three and one- half miles from the latter, and contains one hotel, one saw mill, a blacksmith shop, a school house, seven dwellings and forty- eight inhabitants.
"The first mill was erected in 1803. br John K. Beekman, and was used for the wan- ufacture of four and haen thread. The machinery for making thread was captured by the British during the war of 1:12. It- original cost was $28,000. Mr. Beckman also built the dret eaw mill in the town at this place.
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The Briscoe Saw Mill is located on a small stream tributary to Callicoon Creek, from which its motive power is supplied by an eleven feet fall of water. The mill has a circular saw and is capable of sawing 7,000 feet of lumber per day. It was built in 1851, by Otis Segar, who sold it in 1869 to his son.
STEVENSVILLE (p.o.) is on the north line, in the town of Liberty ; for description see that town.
The settlement of this town seems to have commenced sub- sequent to the Revolutionary war. As early as 1798, John, George and Peter, the three sons of Adam Pintler, an old man then living in Deckertown, New Jersey, came into this town by the way of Carpenters Point, thence following up the Delaware and Mongaup rivers and Black Lake Brook, by a line of marked trees made by hunters and trappers, who in those early times, visited the lakes and ponds in the vicinity for the purpose of trapping and hunting. The three young Pintlers located on a tract of land lying west of White Lake, not know- ing to whom it belonged, or that it belonged to any one, and commenced making improvements thereon by clearing the land and putting in crops. They returned when their work was done, and the two following years came to gather their harvest and make further improvements. At that time the country between Mamakating Hollow (now Wurtsboro) and west to the Delaware River was an almost unbroken wilder- ness, the nearest settlement east being twenty-one miles dis-
tant. In 1800 a road was opened through this desert from Mamakating to Cochecton, passing through Bethel, on the south side of White Lake. This road, when opened, could be traveled by no carriage better than an ox sled, and by such conveyance the early settlers had to migrate to their western homes, and to carry their grain to the mill at Bloomingburgh to be ground, a distance of twenty-five miles. The same year the Pintlers built a log house on their farm, and moved their father and family to their new home. In 1804, John K. Beek- man* of New York City, who owned Great Lot 16 of the Har- denburgh Patent, sent his agent, William Peck, to make im- provements on his property at the outlet of White Lake. Peck built a saw mill, and then one or two dwelling houses and a grist mill. At this time the Pintlers learned that they were living on Beekman's land, which they bought and paid for.
*See page 110 for further mention of Beekman's operations.
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لي لتهما
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GAZETTEER OF TOWNS.
George and Peter are yet living and own and occupy the same farm .*
In the same year Graham Hurd moved into the town from Connecticut and settled in what has since been known as the Hurd Settlement ; and while preparing for and building a house, his family lived in a room or cave in the rocks, which is still known as the Rock Cabin. At or about the same time, Chauncey Hurd settled a short distance south of Graham. Abijah Mitchell, who came in 1804, was killed by the fall of a tree, and is supposed to be the first man buried in the Bethel Cemetery. In 1805 James Fulton bought a tract of land in the north-east part of the town and moved his own and his son's family on the tract, which is known as the Fulton Settle- ment. David Jackson came from the town of Woodbury, Litchfield Co., Conn., and located in the Hurd Settlement, on the farm now owned by Hugh Townsley, in 1805. His son, Isaac, came in the previous year and cleared about three acres, which he sowed to rye; so that his father would have something to eat on his arrival. David Jackson Jr., son of David Jackson above referred to, is now living in Cochecton. From 1805 to 1810 additional settlements were made in different parts of the town by Elias Sandford, Stephen Northrup,; James Luckey, Joseph Pinkney, John Ramsay, William, Robert and James Frazer.
*French, in his Gazetteer of the State of New York, on page 643, says that "Adamı and Eve Pentlet" settled " Dear Bethel." Our informant, from whom we have obtained much of the information given in regard to the carly settlement of the town, is Wm. Gillespie, Surveyor and Convayancer, who has been a resident of the town for sixty years and has held several town and county offices ; who was County Superintendent of the Poor, Member of Assembly, and Loan Commissioner ; who bas been a Justice of the Peace about twenty-five years, in which capacity, also that of Loan Commis- sioner, he is now acting, and is sixty-nice years old.
+Stephen Northrup, who is supposed to be the oldest person now living in the County, was born in Sept., 17:0, and came to Bethel from Salisbury, Coun., in May, 1807, with an ox team, having to ford the Neverwink. After searching for a favorable place to locate, he returned, and on the way met Zalmon Hawley, a friend of his, who was then moving with his family, consisting of his wife and two children, to Bethel, and who induced him to go back with him. They met on the east side of the Neversink. The water in the river at that time was very high, aud rendered it necessary to transfer the household goods to the west bank by means of a log canbe. The wagon was taken apart and conveyed across in the same insaber. while the horses and cows swam across. The second day after they had crowded the Neversink, having crossed the West Branch of the Mongsop, they were overtaken by a heavy thunder storm, from which they pro- tected the woman and children by means of blanbete suspended on a pole, which was supported by two crotched stakes driven foto the ground ; but as this did not provide a shelter sufficiently large to protect alldre, the men were obliged to stand in the rain. The following day they proceeded as far as a clearing on the Fulton Settlement, on which was erected & log cabin which was used by Fulton to sleep in while clearing his land. In this cabin they pashed the night. The next day Northrup retraced his steps eastward and returned in about three weeks with his family. Joseph A. North- rup, sonof Stephen, from wort the Legion was obtained, was born Ost, 14. 1997. . and was the second ionly child born in the town. In December, 1807, Stephen moved bis family on the place It dow otropiee. He was always a man of temperate habite. In 1816 he joined the Presbyterian Church, and for the last fifty years bo has been a member of the Church at Liberty. When ho first rettled, the nearest post office was Kingston, Ulater Co.
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