USA > New York > Delaware County > History of Delaware County, and border wars of New York, containing a sketch of the early settlements in the county > Part 14
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Before the erection of Dickinson's mill, the settlers were obliged to go to Minisink, distant nearly one hundred miles,
* This stream took its name from the circumstance that large quantities of trout were annually caught in wooden troughs prepared for the purpose, and placed immediately behind the sheet of water falling over Dickinson's dam. The trout, in attempting to make their way up the falling sheet to the dam, fell through in great numbers into these troughs.
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to get their grain ground. The river was for many years the only highway, and people and produce were conveyed up and down the same on " Durham boats," or batteaux.
Passing in chronological order, from year to year, we note that in 1790, Martin Hulse came from Goshen, Orange county, and settled at Deposit. He was the grandson of the brave General Herkimer, whose lamented death is recorded by Campbell, in his narrative of the battle of Oriskany. The place upon which he settled is at present occupied by his grandson, Marshal R. Hulse, Esq., near Deposit village, which place was then and for many years afterward, known as the Cook House .* His brother Joseph came in the same year,
* Cook House is the corruption of the Indian appellation of Coke- ooze, signifying or imitating the hooting of owls. Its pronounciation is like the English coo-coo, the emphasis being placed upon the last syllable. In the early settlement of the country there were two places thus appellated, the other being about three miles below, on the Pennsylvania side, and which was distinguished from the former, as " Coke-doze-Sapoze," or " Little Owl's Nest." The name doubtless originated from the mountain south of the Laurel Hill Seminary, - which is wooded with thick hemlock, giving it a dark and dismal appearance, and from which at frequent intervals, is emitted the hal- looings of the hoot-owl. The place did not take the name Deposit until 1814, when the village was laid out and incorporated. It had for many years been a point to which the neighboring mills drew their lumber and deposited it for rafting, and hence the latter name.
Simms, in his History of Schoharie, thus refers, to the orthography of the Cook House : " I make the following extract," says the author, " from a letter from the Hon. Erastus Root, of the New York Senate, in answer to several inquiries, dated Albany, April 11th, 1843. 'You ask whence originated the name of Cook House ? Various derivations have been given, but the one most probable is this: That on the large flat bearing the name-being on the way from Cochecton, by the Susquehanna and Chemung to Niagara-there was a hut erected, where . some cooking utensils were found. It had probably been erected by some traveller who had made it his stopping place, and
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and took up the lot on which the present village is principally built, but after examining the lot, he concluded to abandon his contract, and the same year returned to Orange county.
In 1813, Henry Drinkert caused the village to be surveyed, and sold lots (as appears from an old record of the matter, which has fallen under our observation,) to the amount of $844, and which lots have since increased in value over five hundred per cent. ; and the succeeding year, Silas Crandall, William Wheeler and William Butler, purchased lot No. 43, of the Evans patent, adjoining the above, and. caused it to be laid off into lots, which they offered for sale upon reasonable terms, to those disposed to build upon the same.
Among the many inconveniences to which the carly settlers were obliged to submit, was their great distance from mechan- ics and tradesmen, being compelled to endure a journey to Minisink, to purchase even the smallest article of merchandise. The journey usually employed a week. The first merchants in Deposit were Captain Conrad Edict and Captain John Parker; the next store was owned and occupied by Henry M. Gregory and Abel Downs, (afterward of Colchester;) and the third was owned by Silas Crandall and Peter Butts, as the firm of " Crandall & Butts." This latter store is still stand- ing; it is owned and occupied by M. R. Hulse, Esq., near the Deposit bridge.
The first school established in Deposit was in 1794, in which a few urchins were instilled in the rudiments of a com- mon education, by Hugh Compton. The school-house is said to have been constructed of slabs, in the most uncouth manner.
who had cooked his provisions there. It has been stated to me, as part of the tradition, that the hut remained many years as a resting- place to the weary traveller, and that the rude cooking utensils were permitted to remain, as consecrated to the use of succeeding sojourn- ers.' Gen. Root went to reside in Delaware county, in 1796."
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Charles Knapp, Esq., an estimable friend and a highly re- spectable citizen of Deposit, has favored us with the following incidents. He says :-
The following authentic accounts are extracted from the Cabinet of Natural History, and will convey a good idea of the manners and habits of some of the wild animals in the middle States. Both these events transpired in Delaware county.
On the day of the present hunt, I was joined by a very particular friend and a great huntsman, and we took with us, for our day's sport, nine dogs, and two men to assist, leading the dogs. Five of these animals were experienced and well broken, but the other four were young, and about, for the first time, to range the forest after a bear.
It may, perhaps, be worthy of remark, for the information of those who know but little of these animals, that old bears seldom tree, to clear themselves of dogs, if there is any pos- sibility of escape without it; and when necessity compels them to this course, they will, on the approach of a human creature, in despite of every obstacle which may oppose, de- scend to the ground and take to flight ; young bears, however, will climb trees immediately, and often suffer hunters to ap- proach beneath them and shoot them. Knowing the present animal to be an old and formidable antagonist, and judging from the noise of the dogs that he was in a tree, my compan- ion thought it most advisable to destroy him at once, lest he should kill more of our dogs, as by this time he had killed one and disabled two others; he accordingly approached with much caution, until within about eighty yards of the tree in which the bear had taken refuge, when, with much delibera- tion he fired at his head, and being a first-rate shot, I felt confi- dent that the animal would have fallen dead; but to our great surprise the shot did not take effect, owing to the ball having struck and glanced from a small dead limb, which was imme-
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diately in front of the bear's head, but completely unnoticed by my friend. At the report of his rifle, the bear descended backwards for about ten feet, then doubled himself in the form of a hoop and fell to the ground.
It is well known among hunters, that should an old bear be surprised on a tree, he will never descend by sliding down, but, like this bear, roll himself up and fall, sometimes from a most astonishing height, even forty or fifty feet ; in which case he always alights on his rump, and when on the side of a hill, will roll like a hoop to the bottom. I have, in several in- stances, shot them after such falls, and found the extent of injury received, was a few slight bruises near the root of the tail. Experienced dogs are well aware of this stratagem of the bear, and so soon as he lets go his hold, they will run from under the tree to avoid his fall. This plan, also, the bear adopts to clear himself of dogs, as he knows that should he descend the tree gradually, he must encounter a host of ene- mies the moment he reaches the ground. In the present instance the dogs knew the character of their antagonist, and run so far from under the tree, that the bear had recovered from his fall and ran three hundred yards, ere they could overtake him.
-. The battle now began to rage most furiously, and we were alarmed for the fate of our dogs, and endeavored to shoot him, but found it impossible to do so, without endangering some of the dogs. He then laid on his back, and would frequently drag some of the dogs to him, in order to squeeze them to death, but being broad across the chest, failed to effect his purpose. This the old dogs knew well, and the moment he would seize them, they would close in with his breast and slip out backwards from him.
Our presence excited the dogs to fight with the utmost ferocity and exeeding courage, for half an hour, but the bear was an overmatch for them, and we were fearful that he would,
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bite them in pieces, and escape at last without our being able to get a ball in him. Amongst our dogs was a favorite old one, we called "Drive," and without exception, the best dog to hunt, I ever saw, and withal the most courageous. He had been our companion in toil and pleasure for several years, and his encounters with wild animals were so numerous, that often has been the time we have carried him from the field of battle helpless and mangled, for miles to our houses ; but always, on recovering, he was anxious to engage in deadly strife with any monster of the forest. This old dog, in the present battle, had seized the bear by the back of the neck with so firm a hold as to disable him, in some measure, from injuring the other dogs. The bear, however, endeavored to rid himself of . " Drive" in every possible way, but to no effect; thinking now it would be a good opportunity to dispatch him, I resolved to try the virtue of my hunting-knife, and approached him with a view of stabbing him; but the bear immediately broke away from the dogs, and then threw himself on his back again, and when in this position I set my rifle against a tree, and attempted to make the fatal stroke. The bear anticipated my intention, and met my blow with a stroke of his paw, with so much force as to knock the knife from my hand to the distance of thirty feet, and then arose and made a bold push at me, but I showed him a light pair of heels, and being again seized by the dogs, he was deterred from any farther pursuit.
We then thought of other means, and commenced cutting large clubs ; but whilst engaged at this, the bear, disrelishing his new enemies, cleared himself of the dogs, which were so disabled by this time that they could scarcely fight any more, and made off at full speed : I seized my rifle, and just as he was springing over an old hemlock log I fired at him, and being afraid of shooting the dogs, I shot too high, and only cut him across the rump, as he pitched over the log. This put him to a stand, and he ascended a tree, to the height of
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about forty feet, when I approached and shot him through the heart.
The following is a part of an account given of a wolf, which was run down by some hunters who resided in the village of Deposit, in Delaware county, New York. This animal had lost three toes from one of his feet, and on this account was called the " three-legged wolf." He was particularly famous for his depredations among the sheep, and had been frequently pursued, but from his great sagacity had hitherto escaped. No less than forty-five persons had originally started in the chase on the present occasion, but it was now the third day, and two only had sufficient perseverance to continue the pur- suit.
By this time it was fairly light-we were at the spot where we had left the wolf the night previous, and we had not proceeded more than three hundred yards up the hill, before we found his bed. This he had left of his own accord, and walked to the top of a hill, which was about half a mile distant, and then took to another road which led direct to Walton, and continued till he came close to Judge Pine's farm, a distance of fifteen miles, where he had a few weeks previous killed so many sheep, and there, at the foot of another hill, he had reposed the remainder of the night. We soon aroused him, and he took directly up the hill, which was exceedingly steep, but up which we clambered with slow pro- gress until we had gained the top. We had walked fifteen miles, and as I was first on the summit of the hill, I looked down, and saw W- about thirty yards from me. The wolf kept his course on the brow of that hill for three miles, and then left it, and crossed the road which" leads from Walton to Franklin, on the Susquehanna; here I stopped and waited for my companion ; W- - was immediately by my side. The wood before us was open for six miles, and gradually ascend- ing, but not so much as to prevent our taking rapid strides ;
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as I neared the top, I waited for W- to come up. "Now," says W-, "if the wolf keeps this course, we will have a regular descent of nine miles."
I then started at full speed, guarding always against jump- ing into holes, in which case, probably, my legs would have been broken, until I came within two miles of the foot of the hill, when I saw the rascal about three hundred yards ahead, and he saw me at the same time. We now had it as hard as we could lay to, and I saw that I gained on him but slowly, and being within one hundred and seventy-five yards of me, I fired just as he was quartering on me, but he kept his course, and rose a high mountain before us. I reloaded and proceeded, and found that he had dropped in the snow so often as to evince the greatest fatigue, and nothing but his very life stimu- lated him on. On this mountain were many wind-falls, and . other difficult places, almost impassable for man ; and had we been in pursuit of any other animal beside the " three-legged wolf," the number of difficulties at this time, would have dis- heartened us; but we were intent on victory, and our infatu- ation blinded our difficulties, and made us callous to suffering.
Our antagonist kept his course on this hill for seven miles, but it being covered with underbrush we could not gain on him; the sun was gliding behind the western hills, and the wolf having so much start of us, we concluded to look out for quarters for the night; we accordingly ascended a high point on the mountain, and in a valley, two miles distant, we saw a house, whither we proceeded, and were immediately recognized by a young man, an inmate of the dwelling : he inquired of us, what brought us there in our hunting-dress, and with our rifles ? We told him we " were after the three-legged wolf." " Ah !" says he, "I know him well. I hope you will not leave him here, for only three weeks since, he killed eleven sheep in one night for us, and last winter he killed eighteen others for us : has he not lost a part of his fore-foot ?". We told him we
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were satisfied he knew him, as that was his description, and that we should never give him up until we had destroyed him, unless a snow should fall so as to obliterate his track. This was fifty-two miles from our homes in a direct line, and I have no doubt we had run that day sixty miles, as we were then near Delhi, in the upper part of the county.
We were treated with great hospitality by this family, whose name was Wilson, and every thing was done to make us and our dogs comfortable, that could be devised. After drinking some tea, and eating but little, we found that sleep was more desirable than anything else, and we retired to rest. Our dogs did not reach the house for some time after our arrival, and then they were in a wretched condition; but the family exercised great humanity towards them, especially the children, who had taken them into the parlor, and were rubbing them with dry napkins. When we arose, we found a repast prepared for us, with some dough-nuts to eat through the day. This, generally, was our daily food, and for drink, we could catch up a handful of snow, not allowing ourselves sufficient time to quench our thirst at a brook.
Before light we started, and tracked our way up the moun- tain; and I can confidently say, I never felt better than at that time; my spirits were buoyant, and I trod with lighter foot- step than any day previous; this was the fourth day of our hunt. I asked Capt. W- how he felt; he said, " I feel well; victory to-day ; to-day the wolf must die." But we felt keenly for our dogs, for although they had been so well used, yet they could not move a step, scarcely, without crying; and thus they continued yelping till they had followed us some miles. We would have left them at the farm-house, but they howled so terribly, we were obliged to let them follow us.
About light we got on the wolf-track again, and within three hundred yards, found he had lain down, but had risen again in the night, voluntarily, and walked not more than ten yards,
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before he made another bed in the snow. It was evident his time was drawing to a close, for in the last bed he had laid until we surprised him in the morning. His former plan was, after we had ceased chasing him, to run a few hundred yards, then lie down for half the night, and rising again, travel off fifteen or twenty miles into the neighborhood of his depre- dations, and then rest preparatory to the next night's havoc among the sheep ; but now it was pretty certain that we had tired him too much to waste any time after sheep, and that he did not possess power to travel much farther.
When we aroused him this time, he led right off from home, but we cared not whither he went, so long as he left a track for us to follow him; but this mountain was covered with underbrush, and he appeared to be well acquainted with every inch of ground he ran over, therefore, we could not push him to the extent we desired; this he was well aware of, and he would choose the most dense and difficult part of the wood ; but he omitted it now, making his usual circuits about the wind-falls, as he had no time to spare, and could not continue his course direct. We followed him with renewed speed for about seven miles, when he left the mountain and directed his course across a valley six miles, to another mountain. Through this valley was clear open wood, and we pressed him so hard that he began to lengthen his jumps, and made no more beds in the snow, until he reached the above mountain, where he had opportunities again to rest, as the side on which he ran was so perpendicular that we made but slow progress. We found that he would drop himself to rest every five minutes, and just keeping so far ahead as to keep out of our sight, although we were confident he saw us continually. On arriv- ing at the top of the mountain, we found he had made a start for a thicket, on the same mountain, before we could overtake him ; but the course he was going was a gradual descent for about fifteen miles, until it terminated at the foot of another
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mountain, which was in that range, called Pine Hill, on the head waters of the West Branch of Delaware River.
I started off at full speed down this side of the mountain, making long jumps; I never felt better, and with ease to my- self, I could run a mile in five minutes; my limbs felt invigo- rated, and my speed was superior to any of the former days. I continued so for nearly thirteen miles, and then came within sight of the wolf. He was then but two hundred yards in advance of me, and he had yet two miles farther to go before he could reach the mountain, and this through open wood. He used every effort to quicken his pace, but in spite of his exertions I gained on him. I had run but a mile since I got sight of him, and when I was within forty yards of him, he looked behind at me, and seeing no possible chance of escaping, dropped his tail between his legs and stopped; I ran within twenty yards, and shot a ball immediately through his body,- he fell and rose again,-crack went Captain W.'s rifle, and down he dropped dead. In a moment my foot was on his neck, but we were at a loss to express our joy. We were in the midst of an extensive forest, and we knew not where; we charged our rifles, and gave four rounds in commemoration of the four days' chase. Our difficulties were not yet at an end, for we were determined to take him home; we accordingly took a small stick, and twisting one end, fastened it to his upper jaw, and while one carried the rifles, the other dragged him on the snow.
It appeared, on examining the wolf, that I had struck him on the flank the day previous, when I fired at him, to about the depth of the ball, cutting the flesh, but not so as to retard his progress. We continued dragging him, and followed down a small branch, which we were convinced would lead us to the Delaware or Susquehanna. After proceeding about eight miles, we came to a farm-house occupied by a Mr. Sawyer; he soon recognised us, and seeing us dragging a wolf, asked if we had
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the "three legged wolf?" and when we answered in the affirmative, says he, " I will hold a day of rejoicing, for I have but few sheep left from last winter, as he then killed nine, and eight of them were my best ewes, and I suppose he came here for more mutton. Tell me," continued he, "what I can do' for you, and it shall be done." We asked him if he would take us in his sleigh towards home, or until we could find some one of our neighbors who would take us the balance of the way. We were then eighty miles from the village of Deposit, in a direct line, and he without hesitation agreed to do so.
The number of persons assembled at Walton, out of curiosity, to see the result of the chase, was about one hundred, as every farmer appeared to be deeply interested in the destruction of this wolf; and making a calculation, we found the number of persons assembled there alone, had sheep destroyed by him to the amount of one thousand dollars. When, therefore, they saw our success, it appeared as though they could not do too much for us; they escorted us home with fifteen sleighs, a distance of thirty miles, and our fame resounded through the whole country.
There were but few Indians remaining along the Delaware as late as 1784, having principally emigrated to the hunting- grounds of the Susquehanna, or still farther to the west.
There was an aged scion of the Tuscarora tribe, however, who remained for a number of years in the vicinity of Deposit, by the name of "Old Abram." His hut was on the bank of the river, between the village and the present residence of Benj. Whitaker, near by a large cold spring, which raftsmen to this day call " Old Abram's Spring."
Among those who remained on the hunting-grounds of the Delaware, were Canope, whose tragical end I am about to relate, and Huycon, or Ben Shanks. The following account of the transaction, is taken from the Republican Watchman, of Sullivan county.
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Previous to the war, they had been frequently at Minisink, · particularly Canope, who was a fine specimen of his race, and had been highly esteemed by his white neighbours.
Ben Shanks, it is said, was the tallest Indian ever seen on the Delaware, and probably from this circumstance received his name. During hostilities, they had taken an active part in favor of King George, and had accompanied several of the ruthless expeditions of the tories and savages against the whigs of Warwarsing and Minisink.
Huycon, as has already been shown, was bold, crafty, and cunning; and, on one occasion, had penetrated Warwarsing, and nearly succeeded in taking prisoner Colonel Jansen, a noted patriot. Shanks was distinguished for his barbarous murders, and was very obnoxious to the whigs, on account of the part he had taken in the murder of John Mack, and the two young ladies who were killed on the Shawangunk.
At the time the circumstances detailed below occurred, the few white families who had located themselves in Cochecton previous to the war, had returned, and again lived on their farms. Some of them were old acquaintances of Canope and Huycon. The Indians stopped on their way down to renew the friendly relations which had existed previous to the late troubles. One of the men they called to see was Joseph Ross, who lived near the mouth of the Calicoon, and some of whose descendants still reside in Cochecton. Ross appears to have been an honest and humane man, and now that hostilities had ceased, felt no longer unfriendly to the Indians, notwithstand- ing their cruelties during the war. He advised Canope and Shanks to go no farther, and told them it was dangerous to go · below, as there were some desperate characters there-Tom Quick among the number,-who would rejoice in an opportu- nity to kill them : Mr. Josiah Parks gave them the same r advice.
The two chiefs. were experienced and brave warriors, how-
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ever, and knew not what fear was. They had lurked about the houses of the whigs when war existed, and they imagined it would now be cowardly to turn back through fear. Saying that it was " peace time," and that they did not think the whites would hurt them, they went to the ponds in the vicinity of Handsome Eddy, where they fished and hunted, but care- fully avoided the settlers and others. While they were thus engaged, they were discovered by a man named Ben or Ben- jamin Haines, who lived at the Eddy. He professed to be friendly, and told them if they would go with him to the river they might make his house their home. They declined at first, but he promised to protect them, and finally they were induced to accompany him.
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