History of Rockland County, New York : with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Part 4

Author: Cole, David, 1822-1903, ed. cn; Beers, J. B., & co., New York, pub
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : J. B. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 993

USA > New York > Rockland County > History of Rockland County, New York : with biographical sketches of its prominent men > Part 4

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Treasurers: Peter B. Livingston, 1776; Gerardus Bancker, 1778; Robert McClallen, 1798; Abraham G. Lansing, 1803; David Thomas, 1808; Abraham G. Lans- ing, 1810; David Thomas, 1812; Charles Z. Platt, 1813; Garret L. Dox, 1817; Benjamin Knower, 1821; Abraham Keyser jr., 1824; Gamaliel H. Barstow, 1825; Abraham Keyser, 1826; Gamaliel H. Barstow, 1838; Jacob Haight, 1839; Thomas Farrington, 1842; Benjamin Enos, 1845; Thomas Farrington, 1846; Alvah Hunt, 1847; James M. Cook, 1851; Benjamin Welch jr., 1852; Elbridge G. Spaulding, 1853; Stephen Clark, 1855; Isaac V. Vander- poel, 1857; Philip Dorsheimer, 1859; William B. Lewis. 1861; George W. Schuyler, 1863; Joseph Howland, 1865; Wheeler H. Bristol, 1867; Thomas Raines, 1871; Charles N. Ross, 1875; James Mackin, 1877; Nathan D. Wen- dell, 1879; Robert A. Maxwell, 1881, 1883.

Attorneys-General: Egbert Benson, 1771; Richard Varick, 1788; Aaron Burr, 1789; Morgan Lewis, 1791; Nathaniel Lawrence, 1792; Josiah O. Hoffman, 1795, Ambrose Spencer, 1802; John Woodworth, 1804; M. B. Hildreth, 1808; A. Van Vechten, 1810; M. B. Hildreth, 1811; Thomas Addis Emmett, 1812; A. Van Vechten, 1813; Martin Van Buren, 1815; Thomas J. Oakley, 1819; Samuel A. Tallcott, 1821; Samuel A. Tallcott, 1823; Greene C. Bronson, 1829; Samuel Beardsley, 1836; Wil- lis Hall, 1839; George P. Barker, 1842; John Van Buren, 1845; Ambrose L. Jordan, 1847; Levi S. Chatfield, 1849; Gardner Stow, 1853; Ogden Hoffman, 1853; Stephen B. Cushing, 1855; Lyman Tremain, 1857; Charles G. Myers, 1859; Daniel S. Dickinson, 1861; John Cochrane, 1863; John H. Martindale, 1865; M. B. Champlain, 1867; Francis C. Barlow, 1871; Daniel Pratt, 1873; Charles S. Fairchild, 1875; A. Schoonmaker jr., 1877; Hamilton Ward, 1879; Leslie W. Russell, 1881; Denis O'Brien, 1883.

Secretaries of State: John M. Scott, 1778; Lewis A. Scott, 1789 ; Daniel Hale, 1793 ; Thomas Tillotson, 1801; Elisha Jenkins, 1806; Thomas Tillotson, 1807; Elisha Jenkins, 1808; Daniel Hale, 1810; Elisha Jenkins, 1811; J. R. Van Rensselaer, 1813; Peter B. Porter, 1815; Robert R. Tillotson, 1816; Charles D. Cooper, 1817; John Van Ness Yates, 1818-23; Azariah C. Flagg, State Engineers and Surveyors: Philip Schuyler, 1781; Simeon De Witt, 1784; Simeon DeWitt, 1823; Milliman Campbell, 1835; Orville L. Holley, 1838; Nathaniel Jones, 1842; Hugh Halsey, 1845; Charles B. Stuart, 1847; Hezekiah B. Seymour, 1849; Wm. J. McAlpine, 1826; Jolin A. Dix, 1833; John C. Spencer, 1839; Sam- uel Young, 1842; Nathaniel S. Benton, 1845; Christopher Morgan, 1847; Henry S. Randall, 1851; Elias W. Leav- enworth, 1853; Joel T Headley, 1855; Gideon J. Tuck- er, 1857; David R. Floyd-Jones, 1859; Horatio Ballard, 1851; Wheeler H. Bristol, 1853; Henry Ramsey, 1853;

OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

John. T. Clark, 1853; Silas Seymour, 1855; Van R. Rich- mond, 1857; Wm. B. Taylor, 1861; J. Platt Goodsell, 1865; Van R. Richmond, 1867; Wm. B. Taylor, 1871; Sylvanus H. Sweet, 1873; John D. Van Buren, jr., 1875; Horatio Seymour, jr., 1877; Horatio Seymour, jr., 1879: Silas Seymour, 1881; Elnathan Sweet, 1883.

50,824; 1737, 60,437; 1746, 61,589; 1749, 73-348; 1756, 96,790; 1771, 163,337; 1790, 340,120; 1800, 586,756; 1810, 959,049 1820, 1,372,812; 1830, 1,918,608; 1840, 2,428,921; 1850, 3,097,394; 1860, 3,880,735; 1870, 4,382,759; 1880, 5,083, 173

Of the total population there were in 1790, 21,324 The population of the colony and State of New York | slaves; in 1800, 33,343; 1810, 15,017; 1820, 10,088; 1830, was in 1698, 18,067; 1703, 20,665; 1723, 40,564; 1731, 75; 1840, 4.

GENERAL HISTORY OF ROCKLAND COUNTY.

CHAPTER I.

CEOGRAPHY AND TOPOGRAPHY OF ROCKLAND COUNTY.

BY HON. JOHN W. FERDON.

R OCKLAND COUNTY is triangular in form, the Hudson River, the State of New Jersey, and Orange county being respectively its east, southwest, and northwest boundaries. The point of connection with New Jersey on the Hudson is but five miles north of the northernmost line of New York city, and its northern limit on the Hudson is 100 miles from the city of Albany. The three sides of the triangle are about twenty miles each in length, and it incloses 208 square miles. The Ramapo Mountains, extending along the northwest border, are the connecting link between the Blue Ridge of Eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey and the Matteawan Moun- tains of Putnam county, east of the Hudson. They are separated into numerous distinct spurs, ridges and peaks, and occupy more than one third of the entire surface of the county. They are generally steep, rocky, and barren. The look of the country from the Hudson river is forbid- ding to the agriculturist. He sees scarcely anything but naked, precipitous rocks, with a stinted growth of forest trees from the thin soil on their summits, and among the broken debris that form a steep slope at the base of the cliffs. When the slopes are gentle, the soil is rich and productive. The Western and Southern sides of the range are not precipitous as are the Eastern and North- ern, but generally slope off by gentle descents. At the northern termination of the Palisades, in the southeast corner of the county, on the line between New York and New Jersey, the height of the range of hills is 539 feet. Somewhat north of this point, a valley through the rocks gives a passage for a road to Snedens Landing opposite Dobbs Ferry. Two miles north of this, at Piermont, the Sparkill flows through a gorge into the Hudson River, and this is the only stream that divides this range, except the Minisceongo, which flows into the Hudson at Grassy

Point. Through the gorge at Piermont the Rockland county branch of the Erie Railroad finds its way to the Hudson by a grade of sixty feet to the mile, and by a like grade, the Northern Railroad of New Jersey ascends along the hillside to the village of Nyack, four miles above. Between the Palisades and Piermont is a beauti- ful plateau, about 200 feet above the river, dotted with farms and lovely homes. Between the villages of Pier- mont and Nyack, the hills fall back far enough to leave room, on the river bank, for a roadway and a row of beautiful cottages and more pretentious houses. At this point the Hudson expands into the Tappan Zee, which is at least three miles in width. At Nyack the space be- tween the hills and river widens, forming one of the most beautiful locations on the Hudson for a town. Here the hills become once more depressed, so that intercourse is secured with the interior of the county by the Nyack Turnpike. Two miles north of Nyack the range of hills (bends again in a northeast direction to the Hudson, at the north end of Tappan Zee, and forms a bold mural declivity on the shore at Verdrietig Hook (or " Tedious Point "), the southern knob of which is 668 feet, and the northern 640 feet, above the water of the Hudson. The Verdrietig Hook range then sweeps around to the northwest, along the shore of Haverstraw Bay, to within about two miles of Haverstraw, where a deep valley called the Long Clove presents a passage for a road between the Hook and the highest point of the range, called the High Tower (or Spire), which is elevated 850 feet above the river. From the High Tower the range is much broken in outline, consisting of craggy masses of rock, but all connected, sweeping west in general trend to the Little Tower, and thence southwest until it nearly unites with the Highland range of mountains, leaving a passage way however for the Minisceongo, the New York and New Jersey Railroad, and a wagon road which con- nects Haverstraw with the back country by easy grades It is in this basin, surrounded by hills on the north and south, that Haverstraw and Stony Point are located, on Haverstraw Bay. Rockland Lake, a beautiful sheet

GENERAL, HISTORY.

of water, is situated half a mile west of the Hudson and south of the Long Clove. The Verdrietig Hook range intervenes between this lake and the Hudson, and the lake is skirted on the northeast shore by that range. The ridge between the lake and the Hudson river is 640 feet above tide water. The lake is 150 feet above the level of the Hudson. No stream of magnitude is seen to enter it, but it is the source of one of the most considerable branches of the Hacken- sack. Fed from below by mountain springs, it retains a greater uniformity of temperature than is observed in ponds formed by the expansion of rivers in valleys, and remains unfrozen after the Hudson is closed. This must be attributed to its great depth and the warmth of its auxiliary springs. As the waters of the lake are soft and pure and repose on a sandy bottom, no water weeds or swamps are seen on its borders, except at the river's out- let. The neighboring inhabitants are not subject to the fevers and the early fogs of autumn. The waters of the lake remaining colder than the air, morning exhalations do not arise to be condensed.

About two thirds of the county are devoted to agri- culture. The surface is rolling and well watered, and the air laden with health-giving properties. The principal streams running from north to south, with many trib- utaries, contain the clearest and purest waters, which flow rapidly over hard and pebbly beds. In traveling from east to west, we take the Rockland county branch of the New York and Erie Railroad, and by maximum grades of sixty feet to the mile, cross the valleys of the Sparkill, the Hackensack, the Pearl, the Passaic, the Manyan, and the Ramapo at the western extremity of the county. In traveling from the New Jersey border north, if we take the Northern Railroad of New Jersey, we follow the valley of the Sparkill, pass through the gorge at Piermont, where we reach the Hudson, and then run along the mountain side to Nyack; if we take the West Shore Rail- road, we traverse the valleys of the Sparkill and Hacken- sack; if we take the New Jersey and New York Railroad we wind through the valleys of the Passaic, the Pearl, and the Minisceongo to the Hudson at Grassy Point; if we take the New York and Erie, we follow the valley of the Ramapo. The railroads running north and south have maximum grades of thirty feet to the mile.

CHAPTER II.

GEOLOGICAL CHARACTER OF ROCKLAND COUNTY.

BY HON. JOHN W. FERDON.

T HE TRAP ROCKS of New York, except those classed among primary rocks, are confined to Rockland and Richmond counties. They present a bold rocky bluff along the right bank of the Hudson, from near Haverstraw to the New Jersey line. Thence they extend, in an uninterrupted ridge, with a rude, precipi- tous front, called the Palisades, to near Hoboken, op-

posite the city of New York. These rocks overlie the red sandstone, and in some places cut through it and form dikes.

The trap region of Rockland county occupies much less of its surface than one would suppose in passing along the Hudson river. It forms a narrow belt on the shore of the Hudson from the North Jersey line to Haverstraw, where it ranges away to the northwest and west, and finally to the southwest, near the base of the Highlands, where it disappears. A branch of it strikes off, about two miles north of Nyack, in a westerly direc- tion, and extends, with some interruptions, to the High- lands. These ranges of trap rock are narrow, varying from a fourth of a mile to two miles in width. Along the Hudson, and on the north front of the range extend- ing west from Haverstraw, the trap rock forms high, mu- ral, columnar escarpments, varying from three to eight hundred feet in height, with a steep slope of debris which have crumbled off from the cliffs above by the action of the weather and the frost. On the western and southern sides of this range, the trap rock generally slopes more gradually, but in a few places it is more precipitous.

There are several places where valleys pass through the trap range above described, but there is none where this rock is discontinued. The valley at Piermont, through which the Sparkill passes, is perhaps the lowest, but even here the trap is seen at the bottom of the valley.

The trap rock varies, in mineralogical character, from coarse crystalline to a compact greenstone. The steep hills along the west shore of the Hudson present a rude, column-like aspect, without having any regular columnar forins.

The red sandstone (known to geologists as the new red sandstone) which crops out on the eastern decliv- ities of the hills within a few rods of the river between Piermont and Nyack, was at one time extensively quar- ried and exported for building purposes. The old Capitol of the State, at Albany, was built of this stone. So too was the first building erected by Rutgers College at New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1809, which is still in good preservation.

The trap rocks on the shore of the Hudson, two miles north of Nyack, stand in rude, semi-columnar masses, often like castellated ruins. The sandstone is frequent- ly seen on the shore underlying the trap, and in some places can be traced within a foot or two of actual contact with it. Near the point of contact, however, it is much modified in texture.

Near Verdrietig Hook are places where enormous dikes of trap penetrate through the sandstone, from two to six hundred feet wide, and they have altered very much the character of the rock. Sonie of the sand- stone is almost as hard and compact as jasper. Some is purplish red, and some is gray in color, and the trap itself is composed in part of the materials of the sand- stone. In the town of Ramapo, near the southern ex- tremity of the western hook of the trap range, traces of copper have been found, between Ladenton and the outlet of the valley of the Ramapo River, on Smith's

HISTORY OF ROCKLAND COUNTY.

clove leading from the Highland mountains. In the northeast corner of the county are found large quantities of limestone, which has been largely mined by the Tomkins Clove Lime Company, at whose extensive lime works it is manufactured into field lime for agricultural purposes, and broken into fine stone for macadamizing roadways. The West Shore Railroad Co., which runs its road through this tract, has found it to be the very best material for ballasting its road bed, and has used large quantities for that purpose.

CHAPTER III. MINERALOGY OF ROCKLAND COUNTY.

BY WM. G. HAESELBARTH.

I N DESCRIBING the minerals found in Rockland County, brevity will be studied as much as possible. To the mineralogist the county affords a field of exceed- ing interest. The locality of Piermont contains nearly all the minerals found in the trappean ranges of New Jersey. Although the specimens seldom possess the beauty of the latter, they are still sufficiently character- ized. The following list embraces all the known minerals in the county, though doubtless more perfect examina- tions will add yet more to the number.

1. Magnetic Oxide of Iron. Primary form, a regular octahedron. The value and importance of this ore will be properly appreciated from the single remark, that the Swedes iron, so justly esteemed in the arts, is produced entirely from it. Specimens of magnetic oxides of iron, sometimes possessing polarity, are not infrequent in the granitic ranges of this county. In the State Department at Albany there are some fine specimens from the vicinity of Ramapo, which have a specific gravity of 5.019, but this ore has nowhere as yet been found in beds or veins of any considerable extent.

2. Hydrous Peroxide of Iron. Colors, various shades of brown, sometimes yellowish. The mineral is one of the most important of the ores here, and furnishes a con- siderable portion of the iron at present produced in this State. Thin veins of the hematitic ore, probably asso- ciated with oxide of manganese, are found on the banks of the small stream two miles west of Ramapo. Near Haverstraw occurs a dark brown, nearly black, oxide of iron, which deserves to be noticed only from the fact that it was mistaken for the oxide of manganese, in con- sequence of which, the bed of ore was represented as being of great value. When subjected to the action of the blow-pipe, the mineral becomes strongly magnetic.

3. Magnesian Minerals. Several minerals are found, which, in consequence of their containing large propor- tions of magnesia, are grouped together under this general head. At Stony Point is found magnesite or kerolite, of which the composition of 100 parts is as follows-mag- nesia, 41.26, lime, 2.39, water, 13.50, silica, 41. The magnesia contained in this mineral would furnish, by combination with sulphuric acid, upward of 200 parts of |

sulphate of magnesia, or Epsom salts, in the form in which it is ordinarily sold in the shops. Moreover, the sulphate of magnesia, thus obtained, may be decomposed by carbonate of soda or potash, and produce carbonate of magnesia, which, as well as the sulphate, is used for medicinal purposes. By this operation, when serpentine is employed, a large quantity of Venetian red is also pro- cured, as that mineral contains a considerable proportion of oxide of iron. Serpentine, similar in every respect to that found on Staten Island and at Hoboken, occurs in considerable abundance in this county.

4. Marble. About two and a half miles west of Grassy Point there is a beautiful variegated marble, which is susceptible of a fine polish, but it does not ap- pear to be abundant. Associated with this are some- times found epidote, crystallized hornblende, and feld- spar. A quarry of dove colored marble occurs on the banks of the Minisceongo, of which the following is the composition-carbonate of lime, 93.50, insoluble matter (silicate, etc.), 3.75, moisture and loss, 2.75, so that it is sufficiently pure to be burned into lime. There is a quarry of verd antique marble on the immediate bank of the Hudson, about a mile and a half below Caldwell's Landing. It is said that blocks of any reasonable size, free from cracks and flaws, can be quarried here. Near Stony Point a blue limestone is found, which is used for obtaining lime, and contains silica and alumina, 7.25, and carbonate of lime, 92.75.

5. Graphite or Plumbago. This substance, which is also often known by the name of black lead, is justly ranked among the useful minerals. Graphite has a dark steel-gray .color, a metallic luster, and a splendent and metallic streak. The localities of graphite in the State of New York are very numerous, but it is seldom found in quantities sufficient for any useful purpose. The lime- stone of Rockland county abounds with it, sometimes in the form of irregular folia and sometimes in that of regu- lar six-sided plates.

6. Heavy Spar. This comes under the class of alka- line, earthy minerals. Its color, when pure, is snow white. But it is sometimes gray, black, blue, green, yel- low, red, and brown. Heavy spar may be employed for obtaining the other salts of baryta. It is also of consid- . erable value as a paint. When it is of a white color it may be used for ordinary purposes as a substitute for white lead. The white lead of commerce is often adul- terated with it, and it is extremely difficult to detect the adulteration. At Tomkins' quarry, near Haverstraw, minute tabular crystals of heavy spar, having the pri- mary form, are found associated with calcareous spar.

7. Calcareous Spar. This is of the order of lime. The excavations for the New York and Erie Railroad at Piermont have exposed veins of trappean minerals of several kinds. Associated with these are found minute crystals of calcareous spar, which sometimes have the form scalene dodecahedron, and at others nearly ap- proach the cube. At Tomkins' limestone quarry, near Caldwell, several very interesting forms of calcareous spar have been found. Indeed, this promises to become

GENERAL HISTORY.

one of the most important localities. The crystals are often doubly terminated, and vary in size, from being minute to two or three inches in length. They are often highly finished and perfect. Most commonly, however, they are grouped, and exhibit only a single termination. The colors are white and yellowish-translucent to opaque. There are a great many beautiful specimens from that locality in the State Geological rooms at Al- bany.

8. Datholite. From the Greek, signifying turbid. This is another mineral of the order of lime. Color, grayish or greenish white. At Piermont, where the New York and Erie Railroad passes through the greenstone, speci- mens of datholite have occasionally been found. They are highly modified crystals.

9. Nemalite. This is an earthy mineral, of the order of silica. Color, white, grayish, and bluish white. This often found loose on the surface of the ground. Color, mineral closely resembles asbestos, and is found in very thin veins in the greenstone at Piermont.

10. Serpentine. So called from the resemblance it sometimes bears to the skin of a serpent. Color, vari- ous shades of green, particularly leek-green and moun- tain-green-also yellowish-gray and straw-yellow. When compact, and susceptible of a polish, it is highly es- teemed for ornamental purposes. It may also be em- ployed for the preparation of some of the salts of mag- nesia, and it has even been used as a cheap paint. Ser- pentine is found, in grains and small masses, in limestone at several localities in this county. But it is not as yet known that pure serpentine exists in masses of any con- siderable magnitude.

'11. Magnesite. The general name of magnesite in- cludes several minerals, which are essentially composed of silica and magnesia, none of them containing any no- table proportion of the carbonate of magnesia. Color, white, grayish, bluish, yellowish, or reddish-white. Mag- nesite, or kerolite, of various shades of color, as dull white, greenish, or grayish-white, and dark green, is found in narrow veins, seldom above an inch in width, in the top dikes, which pass up the northwestern face of and sometimes straight.

Stony Point. It is associated with other magnesian min- erals, and is often traversed by thin veins of a beautiful silky amnianthus. Some of the specimens can hardly be distinguished from those of deweylite in color and other characters. The following is the composition of the Stony Point mineral-silica, 37.40, magnesia, 32.56, ox- ide of iron, 10.05, water, 14.60, alumina, 5.35, oxide of manganese, a trace. It differs from serpentine, and in- deed from most of the varieties of magnesite, in the larger proportion of oxide of iron. In this respect it is more nearly allied to picrolite than to any other mineral.

12. Pyroxene. From two Greek words, respectively signifying fire and a stranger, because it was found in lava, to which it is considered as not belonging. Color, green, black, and brown, also grey and white. 'At the specimens of the lamellar variety (thin plate) are found, which closely resemble hypersthene.

13. Hornblende. Color, green, white, black, grey, blue,

and brown. Small but imperfect crystals of black horn- blende are common in the trap at Haverstraw, and in other parts of this county. The lamellar variety is abundant at Stony Point, and actinolite, of dark green color, the fibres being radiated, interlaced, and imperfectly crystallized, occurs two and a half miles west of Grassy Point, associated with a kind of serpentine marble. This locality is often known by the name of Montague's mar- ble quarry, but it is of little value except for the cabinet specimens which it affords. Asbestos, or picrolite, is found in thin veins, associated with the soft serpentine, or kerolite, in the trap dike on the north side of Stony Point. It has a greenish color and a high silky lustre, and the fibres are extremely delicate.

14. Feldspar. This word is from the German felds- path, feldspar, probably employed because the mineral is

white, gray, green, blue, red, and brown, sometimes with a pearly opalescence. Some of the varieties of compact feldspar are susceptible of a fine polish, and are esteein · ed by the lapidary. They are also used in the manufac- ture of porcelain. Minute crystals of this mineral are found imbedded in the variegated limestone at Mon- tague's quarry, two and a half miles northwest of Grassy Point. They are also imbedded in the greenstone near Piermont.

15. Staurolite. From two Greek words, meaning a cross and a stone, employed because of the cruciform ap- pearance of its compound crystals. Color, dark, reddish brown, sometimes black. Its form and infusibility dis- tinguish this mineral from garnet, with which it is usually associated. It is a scarce mineral, and the only place in this county where it has been found is in the boulders of mica slate, on the banks of the Hudson near Nyack. 16. Stellite. From the Latin, signifying a star, on ac- count of the star-like arrangement of its crystals. Color, snow-white. It is tough, and has some resemblance to asbestos. This mineral is found in the rifts of green- stone at Piermont. The fibres are sometimes radiated,

17. Stilbite. From the Greek, to shine, on account of its great lustre. Color, white, sometimes gray, yellow or red. It is found in minute crystals in veins, with other zeolitic minerals, in the greenstone at Piermont. Some of the crystals are nearly transparent, and present very highly finished faces.

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History of Rockland County, New York : with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Part 4

Author: Cole, David, 1822-1903, ed. cn; Beers, J. B., & co., New York, pub Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York : J. B. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 993

Author: Cole, David, 1822-1903, ed. cn; Beers, J. B., & co., New York, pub
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : J. B. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 993