History of Orange County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 9

Author: Ruttenber, Edward Manning, 1825-1907, comp; Clark, L. H. (Lewis H.)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1336

USA > New York > Orange County > History of Orange County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 9

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The Warwick series begin with Stirling Lake in the southeast, covering about sixty acres of land. At its outlet was established, in 1751, by Ward & Colton,

the Stirling Iron-Works, which have been continued since that time. Gen. William Alexander, Lord Stirling, was interested in the works prior to the Revolution, and from him the works and the lake take their name. The outlet of the lake flows into New Jersey. Cedar Pond, No. 2,* lying southeast, unites its waters with the waters of Stirling Lake, above Stirling works. Wiekham's Pond, in the north, covers an area of about eighty-five acres. Its outlet is a tributary of Wawayanda Creek. Greenwood Lake is the largest body of water in the town or county. It is about nine miles long and one mile wide; extends into New Jersey, and is used as a feeder for the Morris Canal. Its original name, Long Pond, although descriptive of its shape, was long enough in use; its present title is the offspring of more cultivated taste.

* The figures inserted after the names of ponds are to distinguish then from others of the same name, of which there are several in the county. The poverty of the language is so great that the donors of these names were probably forced to repetition.

+ This line is the old east-and-west line of the original counties of Orange and Ulster. New Windsor and Cornwell are also divided by this line.

HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Big Pond, in Deerpark, is about one mile long and half a mile wide. Its outlet, known as Shingle Kill, passes south and enters the Delaware at Hones- ville. Little Pond, in the same town, lies southeast from Big Pond, and is about one-quarter of a mile in diameter. Its outlet passes south and forms Old-dam Brook, a tributary of the Neversink.

Washington Lake, in New Windsor, covers seventy- six acres, or, including overflowed swamp, one hundred and seven acres. Its outlet, for some distance, is sub- terraneous, disappearing at the Swallow-hole and emerging at the Trout-hole,-a fall of forty feet. The Newburgh water-works take its waters. For years it was known as Little Pond, and is still so called by many.

Orange Lake, in Newburgh, covers some four hun- dred acres of land, and is quite deep in places. At different times it has been known as Binnenwasser (by the Germans), Moose's Pond, Machin's Pond (from Capt. Thomas Machin), and Big Pond, the latter giving place to its present title. The Algonquin name was Qussuk,-now rendered Quassaick and ap- plied to its outlet. It is fed by two small streams in addition to strong springs in its bed. The mill-owners on its outlet use it as a reservoir, and during the most severe droughts the supply has never been exhausted.

The whole country is remarkably rich in the lacus- trine and marsh alluvions; indeed, they are more abundant than in any other county in the State, there being probably forty thousand acres .* The principal districts are the Drowned Lands, the Gray-court Meadows, Big Swamp in Newburgh, Great Swamp in New Windsor, Long Swamp in Warwick, Tamarack

and Purgatory Swamps in Hamptonburgh, Cedar Swamp in Goshen and Warwick, Pakadasink Swamp in Greenville, Grassy Swamp in Deerpark, Pine Swamp in Crawford, Barton's Swamp in Cornwall, and the Black Meadows in Chester and Warwick.

The Drowned Lands extend from the Chechunk outlet in Goshen, through Warwick, Wawayanda, and Minisink, into New Jersey, and cover in the towns named about seventeen thousand acres. They are full of islands of great fertility, some of them of considerable area. Their names are Pine, Great, Pel- let's, Gardner's, Merritt's, Cranberry, Black-walnut,

Fox, and Seward. An arm of the lands, known as Cedar Swamp, extends east to near Orange farm, in Goshen. Quaker Creek passes through this arm on the north, and Mounts Adam and Eve adjoin it on the south. The reclamation of the lands has been gradual, and is mainly effected by an outlet, con- structed many years ago, by which a rocky ridge in the bed of the Wallkill was avoided. This outlet has worn its way through the soil until from a simple ditch it has come to contain the principal flow from the lands. Pochuck Creek, Rutgers' Creek, Quaker Creek, and the Wallkill pass through the lands, the

latter for their entire distance in this county. The aboriginal name of the district may well have been Pochuck,-" a large area of land and water." It is presumed, however, that the Indians had no general name, but gave specific titles to different portions of the tract, of which Pochuck and Woerawin only have been preserved. The latter appears in a deed to Dr. Samuel Staats, in 1703, for a tract not located, but described as having been found on examination to be "altogether a swamp." The inference from the term itself, is that "many good lands" were intended to be conveyed,-probably the islands already named, which then appeared to be worthless.

The Gray-court Meadows extend from near Craig- ville, in Blooming-Grove, into the northern part of Chester, and embrace about five hundred acres. They are now mainly under cultivation and very fertile. Their name is that originally given by Daniel Crome- line to his tract in the first division of the Waway- anda Patent,t of which they are a part. Cromeline Creek passes through and drains these meadows.

The Black Meadows extend through Chester on the northwest and into Warwick east of Thompson's Pond. They embrace an area of one thousand acres, through which runs the Black-meadow Creek.

The Long Swamp, in Warwick, southwest from Edenville, covers about one thousand acres, and is drained from the south into New Jersey.

The Tamarack and Purgatory Swamps, in Hamp- tonburgh, are of considerable extent, and are drained by a small sluggish stream. The latter is represented as having been originally a dismal swamp, from which fact Mr. Peter Bull, its owner, gave the name, bestow- ing at the same time upon his own residence that of Paradise.#

The Grassy Swamp, in Deerpark, extends from Sul- livan County to the Mongaup. It is a low, wet swamp, overgrown with long, coarse grass. Grassy-swamp Brook passes through it. .

The Big Swamp, in Newburgh, takes its name from Big Pond (Orange Lake), which it adjoins. It stretches from the Ulster County line to the lake, and was probably originally an extension of the lake to the north as well as south of its present borders, which, if all under water, would add three times to its present length. Bushfield Creek passes through the swamp to the lake.

The Great Swamp, in New Windsor, lies in the northwest part of the town, near Coldenham. The Arackhook or Tinn Brock passes through it.

The Great Pine Swamp commences near Howell's, on the Erie Railroad, and extends northward and eastward seven miles in the town of Wallkill, having in its area many oases and cultivated farms. Part of

+ Three of the original divisions of the patent retain the names be- stowed by their proprietors, viz. : Goshen, Warwick, and Gray-court. It is perhaps needless to say that the story of an iun, a sigo, and a court is . pure fiction.

# Eager's "Orange County," 511.

* Beach's "Cornwall," 175.

GEOGRAPHICAL NOMENCLATURE.

its overflow passes into the Shawangunk Kill, south of Bloomingburgh.

The Little Pine Swamp lies east of Thompson Ridge and Pine Bush, in Crawford, extending north- ward into Ulster. Its surplus waters assist in swell- ing the volume of the Dwaars Kill.

The Pakadasink Swamp, in Greenville (on lands of Isaac M. Seybolt and others), is the head of the Big Pakadasink or Shawangunk Kill, as that stream was formerly known and deseribed. The Little Binnen- water Swamp, also in Greenville, lies directly south from the village of Mount Ilope. A small stream flows from it southwesterly and conneets with the out- let of Binnenwater Pond, the latter uniting with Rut- gers' Creek.

The Barton Swamp, in Cornwall, is inconsiderable in size, compared with the others named. Peat of a fair quality is taken from it.

Marl and peat beds are found in several localities, from which portions and in some cases entire skele- tons of the mastodon have been exhumed. The first exhumation of record was in 1794, the second in 1800, the third in 1803, the fourth in 1805, the fifth in 1838, the sixth in 1844, the seventh in 1845, the eighth in the same year, the ninth in 1872. The skeleton of 1845, exhumed from a marl bed near Coldenham, was complete and weighed nineteen huudred and ninety-five pounds. It is now in the Boston Mu- seum. The one exhumed in 1872, in the town of Mount Hope, was also complete. Its weight was about seventeen hundred pounds. It is now in the New Haven Museum.

The bonndary streams of the county are the Hud- son on the northeast, the Delaware and Mongaup on the west, and the Shawangunk on the northwest. Of the first, the Hudson, it is not necessary to speak. Its aboriginal name, Mahicanituk, was that of a partieu- lar division rather than of the entire stream. The principal harbor on it, within what may be called the waters of Orange County, is at Newburgh, where it expands into a bay one mile and a quarter in width, sheltered by the Highlands from " all winds save an east-northeast wind," as Hudson wrote in 1609. For the convenience of commerce, principal landing- places or wharves have been established at New- burgh, Cornwall, and West Point, and for more local trade at Hampton, New Windsor, Cozzens', Fort Montgomery, etc. The water-front of the city of Newburgh is without a rival on the river, the channel being abrupt and the depth ample to float the largest vessels.

The Delaware, on the west, touches the county for only a short distance. Like the Hudson, it had no general aboriginal name,-Lenapewihituk being ap- plied to it at Philadelphia, while above and below Port Jervis it was known and called by the Indians Minising,-literally "a river of islands."* Beyond

rafting it has no commeree at this point, and is crossed by railroad and foot bridges.

The Mongaup River, the dividing line between Orange and Sullivan, is properly in Sullivan County, the line of Orange running "to" and "along" its course. Mr. Quinlan, in his "History of Sullivan County," says it was originally known as the Min- gap-ach-ka. Mongawping or Mingwing is better au- thenticated,-implying a plurality of streams, com- prehending the three branches of which it is com- posed. Its present name, as already stated, is presumed to be Dutch. It appears in the early records, Mon- gaap.

The Shawangunk Kill, on the northwest, has its head in Pakadasink Swamp, in the town of Green- ville, passes through the town of Mount Hope, and . upon the line between Ulster and Orange, running a northeast course to the Wallkill, in Ulster County. Its present name has already been explained. Like other streams,-and, it may be said, all streams, moun- tains, ete.,-it had no general name, but was specifi- eally divided, Achsinink being recorded in one loeal- ity and Pakadasink in another. In the deed to Gov- ernor Dongan it is described as "the river called Peakadasink," and in the act of 1762, dividing Wall- kill Precinct, the line is described as extending "to the Pakadasink River or Shawangunk Kill." In another paper of nearly the same date, it is said, as well understood evidence, "Nothing could more plainly point out where that pond lies ( Maretange) than the river Pakadasink, which takes its rise oppo- site to the said pond and extends along the foot of the said hills from a place called Pokanasink, and from that place to the head of the said river, and nowhere else, the said river is called by that name."

Ilow the river lost a name so well established is explained by the papers relating to the bounds of the Minisink Patent. Having succeeded in spreading their line, the proprietors of that patent found it necessary to obliterate its old landmarks. A general change of names ensued : Maretange Pond was lo- cated on Sam's Point ; the Big and Little Pakadasink Kills (the latter now called the Little Shawangunk Kill) were shifted to the same vicinity, and to make the whole apparently and entirely consistent, two small streams in Crawford received the names respec- tively of Big and Little Pakadasink, that it might not be missed in its ancient neighborhood. The original name contained equivalents signifying "swamps," and being generic, may be applied wherever the corre- sponding topography exists.t

The principal streams passing through or entirely

* Minnis and Minsis are entirely two different words,-the first signi- fying island, the second wolf. Some writers confuse the terms and give

the latter as the derivative of Minisink. The explanatory tradition that either name originated from the breaking through of the waters at the Delaware Water Gap is not well founded.

t It will be observed by those familiar with the district that the to- pography in this case corresponds almost precisely. It is not assumed that the name is in itself improperly applied to its present locations; it is strictly correct.

HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY, NEW YORK.

included in the county are the Neversink, the Wall- kill, the Otterkill or Murderer's Creek, and the Ram- apo.

The Neversink receives its head-waters from north- western Ulster and northern Sullivan. It runs sontlı and southeast into the town of Deerpark to near Cuddebackville, and thence turns south and south- west until it joins the Delaware near Carpenter's Point, where it is about two hundred feet wide. It is a never-failing stream. Its name has been explained in another connection. Its principal tributaries are Basha's Kill and Old-dam Brook (Ouwe- dam Kill). The former rises in Sullivan County, and is about seventy feet wide. Its name is from an Indian squaw- sachem called Basha Bashiba, who lived on its banks, near Westbrookville .* Old-dam Brook is the outlet of Little Pond. Its name is from an old dam erected upon it by Indians or beavers, which caused its waters to overflow a large tract of land. About half a mile above its junction with the Neversink, it falls over six hundred feet in the course of a mile, and is called Fall Brook.

The Wallkill rises in Wantage, Sussex Co., N. J., flows through the Drowned Lands into Orange, where it forms the dividing line between Warwick and Min- isink, Goshen and Wawayanda, Hamptonburgh and Wallkill, passes through the town of Montgomery into Ulster County, and thence to the Hudson River at Rondout. Its course is northeast, the plane of ele- vation upon which it runs being from Sussex County in New Jersey, descending gradually to near Esopus in Ulster. It is a durable stream, and furnishes ex- tensive hydraulie power throughout its course. Its current is not rapid, except at Walden, where it passes over a fall of about forty feet.t Its aboriginal name is not known, but the presumption is in favor of Warranawonkong. Its present name is unquestion- ably from the Huguenots or Walloons who settled New Paltz, it being repeatedly entered in the records as " the Walls or Paltz River."# Its principal branche¿ are the Long-house-Wawayanda-Warwick-Pochuek Creek, Quaker Creek, Rutgers' Creek, Tinn Brock, MeCorlin's Kill, Muddy Kill, and Dwaars Kill. Long-house Creek rises in New Jersey, and runs north until it receives the outlet of Wickham's Pond ;

from thenee it forms the Wawayanda or Warwick Creek, and flows southwest through the village of Warwick into New Jersey, where it becomes Pochnek Creek, returns to the county, and unites its waters with the Wallkill in the Drowned Lands. The names which it bears are explained in other connections, with the exception of "Long-house," the European title for the peculiar dwellings which the Indians oe- cupied, one of which stood upon its banks .? Quaker Creek has its principal head in Thompson's Pond. It flows west, forms the boundary line between Goshen and Warwick, receives several small tributary streams, and unites with the Wallkill in the Drowned Lands. Rutgers' Creek has its extreme western head in the town of Greenville, flows thenee southeasterly to Waterloo Mills, in Minisink; thenee northeast to Rutgers' Place, where it unites with its northern head. The latter rises in Wallkill, flows thence south to Millsburgh, receiving in its course the outlet of Binnenwater Pond and Binnenwater Swamp, and Boudinot's and Tunkamoes (" small stream") Creeks, iu Wawayanda and Minisink. From Millsburgh it is the boundary line between Wawayanda and Minisink. It enters the Wallkill at Merritt's Island. Its name is from Anthony Rutgers, | one of the proprietors of the Wawayanda Patent, from whom also Rutgers' Place (the residence of the late Dr. M. H. Cash ) takes its name. Boudinot's Creek," its largest afflu- ent, flows through Greenville to the southeast corner of Mount Hope, thence southeast to its junction in Wawayanda. Monhagen Creek flows southeast through Middletown and enters the Wallkill north- east from New Hampton. It is now the source from which Middletown is supplied with water. McCor- lin's Kill, or MeNeal's Kill, ** rises in Crawford, flows south, passes through Mechanictown, aud enters the Wallkill one mile and a half above Stony-ford bridge. Dwaars Kill has its rise in the town of Wallkill, flows northeast through Crawford, and enters the Wallkill in Ulster County. Its name is Dutch (origi- nally Dwaars Stroom), and means "a stream that

* Quinlan's " Ilistory of Sullivan County," 423. In the Swartwout Patent the stream is called the Assawaghkemeck, from " wassa," light or foaming, and " eck," rocks,-literally, the " light waters," reference being made to the fall. " Basha's Kil" is Dutch. "Basha'e land" was one of the boundaries of the Minisink Patent, 1704. She was not a mythical character.

+ The fall at Walden was called Hasdisch by the Indians,-a term in which " dangerous" is expressed.

# This explanation of the origin of the same by the Rev. James Il. Wilson, D.D., is fully sustained by the records discovered since he wrote.

It may he added that, although now written Wallkill, the name is strictly two words, walle and kil. In this work the local orthography has been followed in Wallkill, Otterkill, etc., as heing too firmly established to suffer correction. The word "creek," applied to a stream of water, is quite as incorrect as " kill ;" yet Webster admits its nse to be estab- lished "in some American States."

¿ These dwellings were formed by long, slender hickory eaplings set in the ground in a straight line of two rows, as far asunder as they in- tended the width to be, and continued as far as they intended the length to he. The poles were then bent forward in the form of au arch and secured together, giving the appearance of a garden arbor. Split poles were then lashed to the sides and roof, and over these bark was placed. Rarely exceeding twenty feet in width, these dwellings were sometimes six hundred and fifty feet long, and were occupied by an indefinite uum- ber of families.

| There is not the slightest foundatien for the statement (Eager, 418) that Rutgers " is an English corruption ef Rutkys, the Indian namie." The latter is a corruption of the former, and a very hald one. Rutgers was a member of the Assembly, 1726-27.

[ Mr. Eager enters the name " Bandegot." It now appears ou the maps " Indigot." The correct orthography is Boudinot, from Elias Boudinot, a proprietor of the Wawayanda Patent. Boudinot would not have deemed it possible his name could be so transposed.

** Mr. Eager (34G) gives the name "McCormick's Kill," and (354) " McCorlin's Kill." The latter has been entered on the maps of the county. We are informed that the stream was knowa years ago as " McNeal's Kill," from John McNeal, who had a grist-brill on it as early probably as 1760, McCorlin is a mythical person.

GEOGRAPHICAL NOMENCLATURE.

runs across" or unites "with another."* The Tinn Brock was called by the Indians Arackhook or Akh- gook, the Algonquin term for snake, the reference no doubt being to its extremely sinuous course, which resembles the contortions of a snake when thrown upon a fire. Its present name is from the Saxon words Thynne, " thin or small," and Broc, "running water less than a river,"-a small brook. It rises in New Windsor, south of Coldenham, but does not take | its name until after it crosses the Cochecton turnpike, runs north and west, and enters the Wallkill half a mile below Walden. Muddy Kill (Dutch, Modder Kil,-literally, Muddy Kill) flows from the eastern slope of the Comfort hills and runs south to the Wall- kill above Montgomery. The mischievous chorogra- pher now writes its name "Mother Kill."

The Otterkill rises in the north part of Chester, and passes through the East Division of Goshen into Hamptonburgh, where it was called Denn Creek,t from Christopher Denn, one of the proprietors of the Wawayanda Patent. At La Grange it flows upon nearly the same level with the Wallkill, the two streams being within a mile of each other at this point. Through Hamptonburgh it runs around the base of the hills in the form of a half circle; thenee into Blooming-Grove, and in a serpentine course through Washingtonville to Salisbury Mills, where, meeting the mountain ledges, it passes over a fall into a deep chasm, which it follows through rocks and crags and continues to the Hudson. Its name is pre- sumed to have been bestowed from the otters which were found in it at the early settlement of the county. Its largest tributaries are Cromeline Creek, Gold- smith Creek, Colemantown Creek, Beaver-dam Creek, Schunemunk Creek, Woodbury Creek, and Canter- bury Brook. Cromeline Creek receives its principal head-waters from Little Long Pond, No. 2, in Mon- roe; flows thence through Chester and the western part of Blooming-Grove to its junction with the Ot- terkill in the northwest part of the latter town. Schunemunk Creek rises in the southeast part of Blooming-Grove; flows northwest and northeast around the hills, and joins the Otterkill above Wash- ingtonville. On some maps it is called Satterly's Creek. Woodbury Creek has its principal head in Hazzard's Pond, in Monroe. It receives the outlet of Sutherland's Pond; flows northeast through Wood- bury Clove, and enters the Otterkill at Orr's Mills, in Cornwall. Canterbury Brook rises in the Cornwall Highlands; flows northeast through the village of Canterbury, and enters the Otterkill (under the name

of Idlewild Brook) near the Hudson. Goldsmith Creek rises in Little Britain and runs south to the Otterkill above Washingtonville; Colemantown Creek also flows south and enters above the same place. Beaver-dam Creek rises in Montgomery, and passes south through low meadows from near Goodwill Church to its junction at Campbell Hall. Its head- water is a spring of several yards in diameter and of unknown depth; its name is from an old beaver damt near Campbell Hall. From its junction with Cromeline Creek east to the Hudson, the Otterkill loses its name and is called Murderer's Creek and the Moodna, the latter a Willisian designation. To the early Dutch traders it was known as the " Waora- neck ;" subsequently, as the "Martelaer's Rack Creek ;" after 1656, as " the Murderer's Creek." It is assumed by some writers that the latter was derived from its immediately preceding title, signifying a baffling, struggling reach or course in the navigation of the Hudson, bounded on the north by this creek and on the south by Martelaer's Rock, opposite West Point ; by others, that it was bestowed as a memorial of some act of hostility by the Waoranecks during the early Indian wars; but superior, in local estima- tion, to philology or probability, is the explana- tion given by Paulding in his beautiful tradition of Naoman, his faithfulness and his fate, pointing un- waveringly to Maringoman as the author of a horrid massacre .?

Quassaick Creek is composed of the outlet of Orange Lake and of the Fostertown and Tent Stone Meadow Creeks. It flows southeasterly through the western part of the town of Newburgh, and forms the bound- ary line between the city of Newburgh and the town of New Windsor. Its name (Quassaiek) signifies stony brook. Its water-power is very durable and is largely employed. Fostertown Creek rises in Ulster County, and flows southerly through the central part of the town of Newburgh. It is called Fostertown Creek until it reaches Gidneytown, when it takes the latter name. Tent Stone Meadow Creek rises in a large swamp in Ulster County, known many years ago as the Tent Stone Meadow. It flows southerly and empties into the Quassaick at the Powder Mills. Bushfield Creek, one of the feeders of Orange Lake, and necessarily of Quassaick Creek, rises in a swamp in Ulster County, known as the Stone Dam Meadow. Its original name was Beaver-dam Creek.

* " The Dwaars Stroom unites with or flows across the Wallkill; hence the namne indicates that fact or circumstance, and becomes the character- istic of the river."-Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan. The tradition given by Eager (334), that the name is from an Indian chief, has no other foundation than the possibility that there was an Indian nicknamed Dwass.

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History of Orange County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 9

Author: Ruttenber, Edward Manning, 1825-1907, comp; Clark, L. H. (Lewis H.) Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1336

Author: Ruttenber, Edward Manning, 1825-1907, comp; Clark, L. H. (Lewis H.)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1336