USA > New York > Sullivan County > Gazetteer and business directory of Sullivan county, N. Y., for 1872-3 > Part 18
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"The Art of rers elected were: Herman M. Hardenbergh, Supervisor ; Richd. .. Reading. Town werk : Joun Crawford, James Brown and Cornelius D. Eller, Areas "+ , Hadley R. Ludington. Henry Stirner and John Eller, Commissioners of Highway", Elnathan 9 Mart. Thomas Lawrence and John Hill, Commissioners of Com". : Schools; Henry Mead and Howgh bpay. Overseers of the Poor; Warren Barlow. . ... lector : Warren Harker. Philip C. Ludington, Daniel Couch and Alex. C. Skat, etibide ; and Thenuse K. Hantenlargh, Wm. Hill and Julius I. Starr, Inspectors uf Conmmnon Schools.
*Tartine was formerly one of the leading branches of industry, but it has now Again Strong and Palen & Adams, beger tantity tome what were considered large establishment. wto) kidles; but now the large ones can tan : 5.0004. at Falsch, wes discontinued about ten year- 220, want of baix : and on Monday Harting, Nov. 6, 1871, the tannery at Sandburge was burned sud wLl probably not be rebuilt. At present there are no tanneries in opera !.... in Fallsbaryb.
*The Neversink has a fall of twenty-three feet at this village : sud Is epanued hr x stone bridge of one arcb, and of seventy feed chord .- Gordon's Gazetteer, S. V. I .. . .
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GAZETTEER OF TOWNS.
WOODBOURNE, (p. v.) situated on the Neversink, two miles north of Fallsburgh, contains two churches, (Reformed and Catholic,) one store, one district school, one hotel, a cheese fhetory, a cabinet shop, two shoe shops, one tin shop, a harness shop, a wagon shop, two blacksmith shops, and 140 inhabitants .*
· HASBROUCK (p. v.,) is situated on the Neversink, in the north part of the town, three miles north from Woodbourne, and five from Fallsburgh. It contains two district schools, a grist mill, t two saw mills, two stores, two blacksmith shops, a wagon shop, a shoe shop, and about ninety inhabitants.
DIVINE'S CORNERS is a hamlet, located in the north-west corner, and is one and three-fourths miles north from Loch Sheldrake, about five miles east from Liberty, and six miles north-west from Woodbourne. It contains one district school, one store, one wagon shop, a blacksmith shop, and forty inhabitants.
LOCH SHELDRAKE, (p. v.) three miles west from Wood- bourne, at the foot of Sheldrake Pond, contains two hotels, two shoe shops, one grocery, one blacksmith shop, and forty inhabitants.
CENTERVILLE STATION, (p. o.) a little south-east of the center, is a station of the N. Y. & O. Midland R. R., and contains one store, a school house, and about a dozen houses.
SANDBURGH (p. y.) is situated in the south-east corner of the town, on the Sandburgh Creek, and is a station on the N. Y. & O. Midland R. R. It contains one church, (M. E.) two district schools, one store, two blacksmith shops, a wagon shop, three saw mills, a turning shop, one hotel, and a stone quarry. The village is mostly in the valley of the creek, but the church, one school house, and about a half dozen houses are one mile south from the post office.
Isaac Wood's Saw Mill, two miles west from Sandburgh, on the Sandburgh Creek, has facilities for manufacturing about 800,000 feet of lumber per annum.
FALLSBURGH STATION, near the west border, is a station on the N. Y. & O. Midland R. R. It contains Carley's Hotel.
*M. T. Morss of Woodbourne has a tannery at Morrston Mills, which tans abont 30,000 sides annually, consime shout 3,000 cords of bark, employs from 25 to 30 men, And uses principally South American hides. He has also a tannery at Black Lake, in this town of Bethel of a little .arcer capacity, but which tans also the same quantity of hidiea. Mr. Morss owus several farms, two of which are devoted mainly to the raising Of crops, but the larger portion of them are devoted to dairying. Ile has an extensive Interest in the Inisbering bieiners.
+The Hasbrouck Custom Mill, located at Hasbrouck, of which T. & H. Misner are props., contains two runs of stones, for flour and feed, and is capacitated to grind 200 bushels of grain per day.
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GAZETTEER OF TOWNS.
HURLEYVILLE STATION, on the N. Y. & O. Midland R. R., is near the west border.
The N. Y. & O. Midiand R. R. recently opened through the town, enters it- near the south-east corner, and extending in a general north-westerly direction, and passing through a tunnel one thousand feet long, about equi-distant from the points where it enters and leaves the town, leaves it near the center of the west border. The tunnel is ent- through solid rock, the stratification of which is so even that the roof is nearly per- fectly smooth. The railroad crosses the Neversink on a bridge elevated sixty feet above the water. It is approached by trestle work. The united length of trestle and bridge is about 1,700 feet.
The settlement of this town was commenced, it is believed, pre- vious to the Revolution, by Germans, who were driven off during that war." Soon after peace was declared, three brothers by the name of Baker located in town and commenced the first per- manent settlement. Thomas Rawson came in 1787 or '88. Thomas Grant came in 1989 to view the country, and was so well pleased that he induced his father, Joshua Grant, (who was formerly from Scotland, but for some time a resident of Con- necticut,) to move west. The following year Mr. Grant, with his wife and three of his sons, Joshua Jr., Ephraim and Nathan, settled at Hasbrouck. They first stopped at Thunder Hill, in a house in whose construction not a board was used, it being made of logs and slabs. Ilis son William came in 1796.} Samuel, Thaddeus and Obediahi Brown, and James Hill settled & little north of Fallsburgh, and James Nicoll, Peter Ferden and Mr. Brush on the site of the village. Peter Van Leuven built a grist mill near Woodbourne in 1793. Seth Gillett built a saw mill at Hasbrouck the same year. The first store at the Falls was kept by Hermon Ruggles and Henry Reed, in 1808, and a grist mill in 1803. Archibald Jarr kept an inn at Dennistons Ford in 1997. An extraordinary and destructive flood occurred in this valley in 1790 or '97, which swept away the crops and compelled the inhabitants to flee to the hills.§ Among the early settlers were Abram Warring, from Westchester Co., Stafford D. O'Neill, from Ireland, John Tapping, from Dutchess Co.,
*Fruit treea planted by theen settlers are said to be still standing.
+Mra theer redet wieiler in har pocket, come apple seeds, which she planted productohar abura time and now a faire number of large trees are scattered over the feli.
:Obedish Brown, who was & Revolutionary soldier, is reputed to have been a despe- rato Bigbang chars ter. And bir company deems to have been uncongenial to the carly seitlere, fer they paid him to move away.
fJamies E. Quintan's statement.
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and Timothy Childs, all of whom came previous to 1809, Henry Misner, now 87 years old, Dr. Waterhouse and Capt. Isaac Rundall. Abner Seeley and his son Oliver came in 1809. Mr. Seeley was a millwright and miller, and came for the purpose of building the mills. He was the first miller, and was succeeded by his son Oliver, and his grandson Horace, the present incum- bent of the Fallsburgh Mill. With the exception of one year, when the office was performed by a man named Dickinson, they are the only millers who have been employed in this mill. In 1797, the nearest mill was at Napanoch, (UlsterCo.,) and for many years the nearest market was Newburgh. Peter Misner came from New Jersey in the spring of 1787, and settled about one mile north of Woodbourne. He had at that time thirteen children, (and one was subsequently born to him,) one of whom, Henry, is now living on the old farm, aged 87, the oldest man living in town. His second wife is now 81 years old. She came from Ballston, Saratoga County. Major Josiah Depuy, from Rochester, (Ulster Co.,) settled in this town on lot 3 of the Hardenburgh Patent, in 1793. Ilis son, John H., who was then two years old, is still living near Thunder Hill. Mr. Depuy bought out
John Gorton. Brushes, Misner, Henry Osterhout, Clark, and Aaron and Garrett Van Benschoten, from Dutchess County, settled near Woodbourne, previous to 1793. Joseph Divine, from Plattekill, (Ulster Co.,) settled near Divines Corners in 1795. He was formerly from Connecticut, and served during the French war, as private, under Gen. Am- hurst. Daniel Perry, from Redding, (Fairfield Co., Conn.) now 89 years old, settled in the south part of the town, near the Neversink, in 1805.
Col. Seely, who struck the first blow in the woods in the village of Fallsburgh, at the falls of the Neversink, used to tell a great many stories of "old Boz," a dog owned by Uriah Hill, one of his neighbors, among which is the following :* While the Colonel was walking one December day in the woods, near the river, he heard Boz barking and coming towards him. Looking in the direction of the noise, he saw two deer, closely followed by the dog. They passed him in the direction of the river, and the barking soon ceased. While he deliberated what was best to do, he heard the dog coming again, preceded by two more deer, which he chased to the same place as the others. Hearing a deer bleat, the Colonel made his way through the thicket to the river, and there found four deer lying dead within a few rods of each other.
*The substance of this and the following incident are extracts from the writings of J. V. Morrison.
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GAZETTEER OF TOWNS.
During the early settlement of the town, bears and other wild animals abounded in large numbers. To rid the country of these uncongenial neighbors and not unfrequently as a direct means of self-preservation, the early settlers often displayed much ingenuity in devising means to aid them in accomplishing this. Many were very successful in catching bears in pens, which were made square, and constructed of logs, on the side of a hill. The entrance was on the upper side, and the trap was so arranged that it could only be set and opened on the outside. When the trap was baited the door hung open, so as to admit the entrance of the animal; and when the bait was disturbed the door closed and effectually secured whatever was inside. Col. Seely fixed one of these bear pens near the falls of the Neversink, in Fallsburgh. One morning he found in it a cub, which he shot, and setting his gun against a tree, he opened the trap and entered it to eject the young bear, in doing which he accidently touched the lever connected with the bait, and imprisoned himself with his game. At this instant the old bear made its appearance, and raged furiously. She caught hold of the logs with her powerful fore-paws and tried to pull them apart, at the same time biting off large mouthfulls of bark and wood. Failing in this, she thrust her powerful paws through the crevices and tried to reach the terrified Colonel. As often as the Colonel changed his position, with a view to putting as much distance as was possible between himself and the enraged bear, she made a corresponding change, and by this means worried him almost to death. In the meantime the Colonel made good use of his lungs and was heard by Philander Warring, who hastened to his assistance, and shooting his vigilant sentinel, released him from his prison. When the Colonel regained his freedom, he said, " Well, Phelan, I think I know how a mouse feels in a wire trap, when a cat 's watching it."
About 1835, Maj. John D. O'Neill, (now of Monticello,) then about 25 years of age, owned a powerful bulldog, with whose, and his (O'Neill's) younger brother's (who was fifteen years of age,) and he captured & bear. Coming to the house for dinner one day, the family reported that a bear had just passed up the road. The trio started in pursuit. The dog soon bounded off at right angles into the woods, thus in- dicating the direction taken by the bear. Following, the Major soon saw the dog bound over a fallen hemlock and im- mediately a fight ingan. The dog had closed with the bear, and when the Major and his brother arrived, he bad him firmly held by the throat. After two or three minutes the bear seemed to give up, when the Major seized him firmly behind
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the ears, while his brother choked off the dog. The bear now tried to turn upon the Major, who opposed the idea, and, as he desired to secure him alive, he lifted him in his arms, retaining his hold, and carried him home, about half a mile, carrying him eight or ten rods at a time, and resting, alternately. The bear was a yearling. It died after a few days from injuries in- flicted by the dog.
'The first church (Ref. Prot. D.) was built at Hasbrouck. It was burned in 1837, and rebuilt at Woodbourne. One of the earliest preachers in the town was Stewart.
The First M. E. Church of Fallsburgh, located at Fallsburgh village, was organized with from twelve to fifteen members, but at what date is not known. The first pastor was Zephan- iah N. Lewis; the present one is Rev. Joseph Whitaker. The first and present house of worship, which will seat 300 persons, was erected in 1845, at a cost of $2,000. Its present value, together with Church property, is $3,000. The present num- ber of members is ten.
The Holy Trinity (German Catholic,) Church, located at Woodbourne, was organized in 1860, with thirty-two members, by Rev. John Ranfeisen, assisted by Anthony Metz and John Schmitt. Rev. John Ranfeisen was its first pastor; Rev. P. Droste is the present one. The first house of worship was erected in 1847, at a cost of 81,000; the present one, which will seat 150 persons, was erected in 1860. The present value of Church property is $2,000, The present number of mem- bers is seventeen. The membership bas diminished in con- sequence of the decline in the tanning business and the withdrawal of many of the persons engaged in it to other localities.
The Sandburgh M. E. Church, located at Sandburgh, was or- ganized by Rev. Horace Weston, its first pastor, with five mem- Bers. The first and present house of worship, which will seat 200 persons, was erected in 1850, at which time there were about eighty members. The present membership is thirty ; and the present pastor Rev. C. H. Reynolds. The original cost of the church edifice was 81,434; the present value of Church property is 82,000.
The New Prospect (Union) Church, located one mile west of Loch Sheldrake, was organized in 1860, by the different denom- inations. The first and present house of worship was erected the same year, at a cost of $960. It will seat about 250 per- cons. The present value of Church property is $1,000. The present pastor is Rev. J. Napier Husted, of Liberty, and the membership, abont twenty-five.
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The Glen Wild M. E. Church, located at Glen Wild, was organized about 1807, with three or four members. The first and present house of worship was erected in 1866, at a cost of $3,000, and will seat 200 persons. The present value of Church property is 83,400. It has fifty members, and Rev. Chas. H. Reynolds for its pastor. 1_
FORESTBURG II was formed from Thompson and Mamakating, May 2, 1837 .* It lies principally upon the high ridges between the Neversink and Mongaup rivers, and has a broken surface and an average elevation of 1,200 feet above tide. In this town are several small lakes, the principal of which are Ruddick's Pond in the north-west, Beaver Pond in the south, and Panther Pond in the center. The streams are the Never- sink River, which flows through the east part of the town; the Mongaup River, a wild and romantic stream, which forms the west boundary, and furnishes a succession of excellent water privileges ; Black Brook, which is a tributary to the Mongaup ; and Bushkill Creek,t which is tributary to the Neversink.t The town still retains the character implied by its name.
The Mongaup Falls, on the Mongaup River, are situated about one and one-half miles south-west of Forestburgh village, in the heart of the forest. Above the falls the river is about four rods wide, but at the falls the rushing waters are confined within less than one-third that space by huge rocks which rise about thirty feet above them. Below the falls the stream again widens. The waters, compressed within their narrow limits, rush with great force through the rocky chasm to their first descent, about twenty feet, where they form a small whirl- pool, after which they make three leaps in quick succession. The total fall is about sixty feet. Below the last fall the water is very deep. In the rocks over which the water pours, are very
*The first town meetley was heldl May 30, 1837, at the house of Robert Palmer, which stood where E. Hartwill's "owe how is. The following officers were elected by uplifted bande: Wwwrriser, Wm. F. Brva itrad : Torn Clerk, Robert R. Palmer ; Justices of the Pende, John S. Williame, Marshal Parry, Ira R. Drake and Jonathan B. Ketchum ; Assessors, Archibalt Mots, Moers Read and James R. Drake; Overseers of the Pour, Zephaniah Drake and Ar Med Mh4; Commissioners of Highways, Edward Carpenter. Nathaniel Green And Stryben D'. brake; Commissioners of Common Schools, Archibald Mills, John K. Willian, 4 sad Robert R. Pshiner ; Inspectors of Common Schools, Wm. F. Brendhead, Archibald Mil and John K. Williams; Collector, Nathaniel Green ; Con- c'ables, Pollo Potter, Joe. Norris ond Androw M. Tagget. At that meeting it was resolved that the collector's fees for the ensuing year be tive per cent.
+This stream is spr; sent by few. If any of Its size, in the State for its capacity to proper mit einery of a. The volume of water is abundant for this purpose « (4 entreit is runid, and its bed broken by numeros. cascades and waterths, ador ling any power desired. - Hand Book of Frie R. R., 1-1.
*All the ponds and streamss were formerly well stocked with tront, but in most of them they have disappeared zinco the advent of the tanneries. Pickerel and pike are quite abundant in the Pondtx. they bavica been stocked with those ilsh about thirty-dve . years ago, since which there they have lucreased largely.
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deep holes, called " kettle holes."* Overhanging the falls, and one hundred feet above them, is a large rock called "flat rock," from the point of which is obtained a splendid view of nature's wildness and grandeur.t
*Two hunters once extricated a deer which they found in these rocks. When released it sprung from them, and falling into one of these holes, disappeared and was never more seen by them. Saw logs are sometimes caught in them, and, by the action of the water, are ground to a point, as if in a turning-lathe. There are also one or two very sharp rocks, on which saw-logs sometimes strike, and are split in two.
t These falls are graphically described in the Poems of Alfred B. Street, Vol. 1, p. 96, from which we extract the following :
" Struggling along the mountain path, We hear, amid the gloomt, Like a roused giant's voice of wrath, A deep-toned, eullen boom ; Emerging on a platform high, Barst sudden to the startled eve Rocks, woods, and waters, wild and rude,- A scene of savage solitude.
Swift as an arrow from the bow, Headlong the torrent leaps. Then tumbling round, in dazzling snow And dizzy whirl it sweeps ; Then, shooting through the narrow aisle Of this sublime cathedral pile. · Amid its vastness, dark and grim, It peals its everlasting hymn.
Pyramid on pyramid of rock Tower upward wild and riven, As piled by Titan bands to mock The distant smiling heaven. And when its blue atreak is displayed, Branches their emerald not work braid So high, the eagle in his flight Seems but a dot upon the sight.
Here columned hemlocks point in air Their conc-like fringes green ; Their trunks hang knotted, black and bare, Like spectres o'er the scene ; Here, lofty craz and deep abyss, And awe-inspiring precipice ; There, grottos bright in wave-worn gloss, And carpeted with velvet moss.
No wandering ray e'er kissed with light This rock-walled sable pool, Spangled with foam-gemis thick and white, And slumbering deep and cool ; But where yon cataract roars down, Set by the sou. a rainbow crown Is dancing; o'er the dashing strife .- Hopo glittering o'er the storm of life.
Beyond, the smooth and mirrored sheet so gently steals almg. The very ripples, murtouring sweet, Scarce drown the wild bear's Bong ; The violet from the grassy side Dips ite blue chalice in the tide; And, gliding o'ur the leafy brink, The deer, unfrightened, stoops to drink."
144 GAZETTEER OF TOWNS.
Lumbering, tanning, quarrying and dairying constitute the principal employments of the people. Nearly the whole length of the Bushkill Creek, "the mountains on either side are up- held by the finest, most easily developed, and inexhaustible quarries of flagging, curbing and building stone, any where to be found on the globe. In variety, texture and quality, they exceed the famous quarries of Kingston, Rondout, Saugerties, along the Hudson River, which, having enriched the communi- ties where they exist, are becoming exhausted, and their opera- Kors are purchasing quarry territory on the line of this deposit"* The opening of the Monticello & Port Jervis R. R., which en- ters the town on the north border and extends through it in a southerly direction, along the valley of Bushkill Creek, run- ning through the heart of this rich deposit of stone, must stimulate the development of this vast source of wealth, which has lain comparatively dormant in the absence of an adequate means of transportation. The lumbering and tanning interests, which are extensive along this creek, must also be largely stim- ulated by the additional facilities thus afforded for transporting their valuable products to market.
This town has an area of 33,306 acres, of which, according to the census of 1865, 3,994 were improved and 29,312, unim- proved.
The population of the town in 1870 was 916. During the year ending Sept. 30, 1871, it contained seven school districts, and employed six teachers. The number of children of school age was 291 ; the number attending school, 211; the average attendance, 83 ; and the value of school houses and sites, $825.
Again, ou page 286 of the samo volume:
. ¢ e "we pause at the brink of a pool dark as night,
And scattered with low circling spangles of white. A deep gorge winds upward, and forth with a bound The catarseD'e pitch rhakes ita thunder around ; It comes from :: s shadowed and prison-like glen With a leap and e r. sr. like a lion from den ; Wild Ar-trees, contorted as fred in some apasm,
And tall betting ; ince adding gloom to the chasm,
Ono grim mnaet of gloomi, webbed below with a screen, The cataract casting w bite flashes between, As though & mad monster in torments beneath
Wero now and then grasping the boughs with his teeth. ¢
*
The torrente white planges, bold leap upon leap, 4 when sweep
First winding, Bien hounding, once more and once more, TheAND we're is N'est in OLD agony-roar. * *
* Andree , fileson the white torrent bas kiesed, Sweet & thea teambow is spanned over the mist ; The dord seriws &a fette springing at us, then lost In a high foaming bihlock convulsively tossed."
*Hand-Book Erie R. R., 1571,
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FORESTBURGH, (p. o.) located in the west part of the town, on a small stream which rises in Panther Pond, is a hamlet. It contains a church, (M. E.,) school house, store, blacksmith shop, wagon shop, shoe shop, saw and lath mill, eight houses and about fifty inhabitants.
FOREST GLEN is a hamlet in the west part, located on Black Brook, and contains a grist and saw mill, hotel, wagon and blacksmith shop, eight houses and about thirty inhabitants.
HARTWOOD (p. v.) is situated on the Bushkill, and is the principal station in the town on the M. & P. J. R. R. It con- tains a store, saw mill, turning and planing mill, fifteen dwell- ings and eighty inhabitants. Hartwood, with 3,600 acres of land surrounding it, is owned by Thomas Clapham of Long Island. On this land aro valuable deposits of stone, but as yet no attempt has been made to utilize it. The inhabitants are principally engaged in lumbering, and the industries growing out of it. About 200,000 feet of lumber are annually manufac- tured. In the turning mill are manufactured fringe boards, ribbon and belt blocks and warp rolls for the use of silk factories.
GILLMAN'S STATION, (p. o.) on the M. & P. J. R. R., near the north part, contains a store, a new school house, thirty-two houses, Gillman's steam saw mill, the most extensive one in the town, (which has a gang of twenty-two saws; employs from eighty to two hundred men ; receives timber from a four thousand acre tract of land owned by Mr. Gillman; and annu- ally manufactures from three to four million feet of lumber, which is shipped to New York,) and about one hundred inhab- itants. A tannerv is soon to be erected here.
OAKLAND (Oakland Valley p. o.) is located at the confluence of the Neversink and Bushkill, in the south-east corner, and is a station on the M. & P. J. R. R. It contains a church, (M. E.) a store, two saw mills, a grist mill, a tannery, two blacksmith shops, a wheelbarrow manufactory, a lath inill, a toll bridge across the Neversink, (owned by the Oakland Bridge Co.,) thirty-five houses and about one-hundred and ten inhabitants.
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