USA > New York > Ulster County > History of Ulster County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers. Vol. I > Part 3
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# See Historical Sketches of Northern New York and the Adiron- Jack Wilderness, by N. B. Sylvester, p. 45.
16
HISTORY OF ULSTER COUNTY, NEW YORK.
as " cloves." One of these is the Plattekill Hollow, which opens southward from the Schoharie Creek into Ulster County.
The geologien! structure of the Catskills will be briefly considered in the succeeding chapter of this work. It is enough to say here that such is their rocky structure that they can never claim much regard for the value of their mineral productions. The chief interest of the Catskills lies in the variety and beauty of their mountain scenery. Of limited extent, easy of access, lying along one of the most crowded thoroughfares in the world, they present to the traveler, to the artist, and to the lover of nature a multitude of beautiful and picturesque objects entrancing beyond the power of the pen to describe. Wonderful are the hues and tints and shades of color which there wuoun- tains assume with the varying seasons of the year and with the daily changes of the weather, as the sky becomes bright and clear or dark and overcast. The two highest summits of the Catskills are Round Top and High Peak. The elevation of these suunnits is about three thousand eight hundred feet above tide.
The towns situate in the southeasterly half of Ulster County are filled with the masses of the SHAWUNOUNK MOUNTAINS. These mountains extend in a southwesterly direction from near the centre of the county on the lud- sou to the southwest corner of the county. They are see- ond in interest only to the Catskills, and present many features in common with them. These two mountain ranges, and the deep intervening vaileys between them, give to Ulster Conuty an extremely rough and broken character.
II .- WATER COURSES. THE HUDSON.
The Hudson River for more than forty miles of its course sweeps along and washes the eastern border of Ulster County. The Hudson is fed by a systemu of forest brauches that spread over the whole mountain belt of the Adirondack wilderness. One of the principal easteru branches of the Hudson is the Hoosac, which in much of its career runs through Rensselaer County. The Mohawks called the Ilndson Ska-nek-ta-de, meaning " the river be- yond the open pines." To the Vol rerks, when going across the carrying-place from the Mohawk River at Schenectady to the Hudson at Albany, the latter river was hterally " the river beyond the pines," and thus they so called it in their language. Its Algonquin name, however, was Ca-ho-ta-ti-a, meaning " the river that comes from the mountains lying beyond the Cohoes Falls." Henry Hudson, its first white explorer, translating its Algonquin name, called it the " River of the Mountains."
The early Dutch settlers on its banks sometimes called it The Nassau, after the reigning finvily of Holland, and sometimes The Mauritus, in honor of the stadtholder, Prince Maurice. But it was not called The Hudson until the English wrested it from the Dutch in 1664, when they so namned it in honor of their countryman, its immortal dis- coverer an i first explorer.
The Hudson is literally a " river of the mountains." It is born among the clouds on the shaggy side of Most
Melutyre, and in the mountain meadows and lakelets near the top of Mount Marey, almost five thousand feet above the level of the sea. The infant Hudsou is cradled in the awful chasms of the Panther Gorge, the Gorge of the Dial, and in the Indian pass called by the Indians Da-ych-je- ga-go, " the place where the storm-clouds meet in battle with the great serpent."
Near the centre of this wondrous chasm of the Indian pass, high up on the rugged side of Mount MeIntyre, two little springs issue from the rocks so near to each other that their limpid waters almost mingle. From each spring flows a tiny stream. The streams at first interlock, but soon sep- arate and run down the mountain side into the chasm, which is here two thousand nine hundred and thirty-seven feet above tide. After reaching the bottom one runs south- erly as the head-waters of the Hudson, the other northerly into the St. Lawrence.
Upon the south side of Mount Marcy is a little lake called " Summuit Water" by the old guides, and by Ver- planck Colvin, in his " Adirondack Survey," " Tear of the Clouds." This little lakelet is four thousand three hundred and twenty-six feet above tide-water. It is the highest lake- source of the Hudson.
After thus rising upon its highest mountain peaks, the Hudson in its wild course down the northern slope of the wilderness crosses four of the mountain chains, which all seem to give way at its approach as if it were some wayward child of their own.
After bursting through the Palmertown range, its last. wilderness mountain barrier, it encounters in its more placid course to the sea the Appalachian system of mountains, and seems to rend them from top to bottom. Or, rather, from the natural head of tide-water, some two miles above Waterford, in Saratoga County, the Hudson virtually ceases to be a river, and becomes an estuary or arm of the soa, in which the tide throbs back and forth, and on whose peaceful bosom now float the navies and the commerce of the world.
Along the forty miles of the castern border of Ulster County which is washed by the waters of the Hudson, the river in many places broadens into a wide expansion, which greatly heightens the effect of the fine mountain scenery presented by the Catskills and Shawangunk Mountains.
THE ESOPUS KILL.
The Esopus Kill takes its rise among the Catskills, in the northwestern part of the county, and flows first south- easterly to near the centre of the county in Marbletown, and then turns northeasterly through Hurley, Kingston, and Saugerties, finding the Hudson near the northeast corner of the county.
THE RONDOUT KILL.
The Rondout Kill eaters the southwesterly corner of Ulster County in the town of Wawarsing from Sullivan County, and runs northeasterly along the northern base of the Shawangunk Mountain range, through Wawarsing, Rochester, Marbletown, Rosendale, and between the town of Esopus and the city of Kingstou to the Hudson at Rondout.
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GEOLOGICAL OUTLINES.
THE WALL KILL.
The Wall Kill enters the southern border of Ulster County from Orange County in the eastern part of the town of Shawargunk, and runs'a northerly course, bearing to the east, through the towns of Gardiner and New Paltz and between the towns of Rosendale and Esopus, until it emp- ties into the Rondout Kill about six miles from the Hudson.
There are numerous other streams in the county, which find mention in the histories of the towns through which they flow.
CHAPTER IV.
GEOLOGICAL OUTLINES.
No part of the territory of the State of New York pre- sents a more interesting field to the student of geology than that comprised within the county of Ulster. In the rocky groundwork which underlies the county of Ulster almost the whole American system of geological nomenelature ranging below the coal measures of the Carboniferous age finds ample representation. In the southeasterly half of the county are to be found the upheavals, the contortions, and the dislocations of strata characteristic of the great Appalachian system, while in the northwestern half may be seen the more or less regular lying beds of the great central valley system of rocks. But it is not within the province or scope of this work to enter much into the de- tails of this interesting subject. We can give scarcely more than an outline of the geology of Ulster County.
Geology has been defined as the science of the earth's structure. It aims to show not only what that structure is, but to explain its origin. It is eminently a historical science, and it seems to unfold to us to some extent the profound mysteries of the world's creation.
The earth itself, like the plant or animal it sustains on its surface, is a thing of growth, of development out of the original chaos, when " it was without form and void," into its present wonderfully complicated and varied structure. The different periods of this growth are more or less dis- tinctly marked upon the earth's rocky structure by the various fossil forms of vegetable and animal life found imbedded there.
These fossil forms of organic nature seem to rise succes- sively from the dawn of life, to be found in the oldest rocks, up through all the wondrous chain of being to the present age of man, the crowning life of all. In this view of the case every rock marks a period in the earth's growth, every group of rocks an age, and still larger groups of rocks, called geologie systems, mark great eras of geologic time.
Geologists classify all rocks as belonging to one or other of five great eras, and to seven ages marked by various Periods :
I. ARCH.EAN ERA, including Azoic and Eoroic ( The
Dairn of Life) : Ist. The Laurentian Age, -- Upper and Lower. 11. PALEOZOIC ERA (Old Life) :
20. The Silurian, or Age of Mollusks.
3d. The Devonian, or Age of Fishes.
Ith. The Carbouiferous, or Age of Coal- Plants. C
III. MESOZOIC ERA (Middle Life) : 5th. The Reptilian Age.
IV. CENOZOIC ERA (Recent Life) : 6th. The Age of Mannnals.
V. PSYCHOZOIC ERA ( Era of Mind) : 7th. The Age of Man.
The formations of Ulster County are all included in the Silurian and Devonian ages of the Paleozoic Era and in the Cenozoic Era. The Mesozoie Era and the Carbonifer- ous age of the Paleozoie Era find no expression in Ulster County.
The Lower Silurian age is divided into (beginning with the lowest) the Potsdam and caleiferous rock or Primordial period, the Trenton period, and the Hudson River period. The Upper Silurian age is divided into the Niagara period, the Salina period, and the Lower Helderberg period. The Devonian age is divided into the Oriskany period, the Upper Helderberg period, the Hamilton period, the Chemung period, and the Catskill period. It will be seen that the rocks in Ulster County stop just short of the Carboniferous age, or age of coal-plants. Indeed, overlying the Catskill formation, on the highest peaks of the Catskill Mountains, is a thin stratum of the white, pebbly conglomerate which always underlies the coal measures. In the Pennsylvania region this white conglomerate dips towards the west, and in the basin formed by this dip lie the coal fields. On the Catskills, however, the white conglomerate lies quite hori- zontal, and the coal fields, if they ever existed, have been carried off by glacial action. Had the Catskill Mountains been a few hundred feet higher, coal would doubtless have been found upon them. The Quaternary age of the Ceno- zvie era includes the glacial or drift period, the Champlain or terrace period, the recent alluvial deposits, and the age of mammals and of man.
The following paper, prepared for this work by Hon. James G. Lindsley, of Rondout, presents in an able man- ner the main geological features of Ulster County :
MR. LINDSLEY'S PAPER.
The more ancient rocks in Ulster County -- those which underlie the Quaternary, and are covered by drift and allu- vium-belong to the Silurian and Devonian ages, and follow each other in the respective series from the sonth- east to the northwest across the county. Therefore we shall find the oldest of them in the town of Marlborough, which in all probability belong to the Canadian period. The limestone is highly magnesian, and may belong to the Calciferous or the Chazy epoch. Some of its layers when burned and pulverized set up quite rapidly, and perhaps would make a fair quality of cement, but so far they have not been worked for that purpose. The towns of Lloyd, Plattekill, Shawangunk, Gardiner, New Paltz, and Esopus are mostly of the Hudson River slates or the Cincinnati epoch, except that Shawangunk, Gardiner, and New Paltz are skirted on their northwest sides by the lower rocks of the Niagara period, and Esopus, on its northwest, contains some of the upper layers of the Niagara, and of the Lower Helderberg. The sandstones in these towns afford excellent quarries of building stone, and have been worked exten-
18
HISTORY OF ULSTER COUNTY, NEW YORK.
sively at Crum Elbow and at other points for use at Albany and other places along the river.
The rocks throughout all this region are turned up in varions directions and very much faulted ; but they have a more general inclination to the east, whereas the rocks lying to the northwest of them have a dip generally to the northwestward, so that ranging along the northwest of the towus of Shawangunk, Gardiner, New Paltz, and Esopus we find the rocks of the Niagara period lying unconform- ably on the slates of the Hudson River. The first of these is the Oneida conglomerate, here known as the Shawangunk grit. It forms a large part of the mountains of that name, and is much used for millstones. A large trade in these stones has been one of the industrial features of the county for a long time. They are known as Esopus millstones, but the town of Rochester has been the chief point of their production. This formation does not extend farther east than the town of Rosendale, where, decreasing in thickness, it finally dies out. The Ellenville lead-mines belong to this formation, and there are other like deposits of ore. The overlying Medina sandstone is not found in many places, but there are points about fligh Falls, in the town of Mar- bletown, where it shows a considerable thickness. Above these in some places there are found roeks which no doubt belong to the Clinton epoch, but they are not thoroughly identified. Rocks representing the Niagara epoch are those coralline liwestones lying above and below the stone known as dark cement stone, and of which it also constitutes a part. They lie above and conformably to the Medina and Clinton as far east as the town of Rosendale, through the southeasterly portions of the towns of Wawarsing, Roches- ter, and Marbletown, but to the north and east of this, through the town of Ulster, city of Kingston, and town of Saugerties, they lie upon and anconformably to the Hudson River slates. The layers of these rocks suitable for making cement are quarried extensively for that purpose, the principal points being at High Falls, in the town of Mar- bletown, through the whole length of the town of Rosen- dale, and at Rondont, in the city of Kingston. Alove these Niagara rocks and conformiably to them are the water limestones of the Lower Helderberg. The rocks of the Salina are not found in the county. These water lime- stones, known as light cement, also form an important part of the material in the manufacture of cement, and for a long time it was used exclusively for that purpose, but it is wow added in due proportion to the dark cement of the Niagara. Rising above the water lime we find nearly or quite all of the series of the Lower Helderberg running the whole length of the county, the first being the ten- taculite, which is a fine building stone, and also makes a fair quality lime, having been extensively quarried for that purpose in the past, but is not at present in request. It is crowned by rocks known as the Stromatopora limestone, -- a very coarse stratum of corals and sponges.
Above this comes the Lower Pentamerons limestone, a heavy blue limestone, which has also been much used for making lime in former years. Then we have the Catskill or shaly limestone, the Enerinal limestone, and the Upper Pentamerous limestone. This latter contains a layer of very excellent fossiliferous limestone, much used at present
in waking lime and in fluxing iron. Quarries of it are . worked at Wilbur, South Rondout, Kingston, and Sauger- ties, at various points along the Rondout Creek and Hudson River. This series of rocks of the Lower Helderberg can be recognized at almost all the points where cement stone is quarried, but notably at the Vleight-Bergh, at Rondout, the F'ly Mountain, at Eddyville, and the Yoppeu-Bergh, in Rosendale. The last of the rocks of the Silurian age, known as the Oriskany sandstone, is not extensively known in the county, as it is not inuch exposed, but it can be seen at Glen Erie, along the bank of the Rondout, between Ron- dout and Wilbur, and at the fourth and fifth Binnewaters, in the town of Rosendale. The rocks of the Devonian age all lie to the northwest of these we have described, and the lower series of them extend through the towns of Wawarsing, Rochester, Marbletown, Hurley, Kingston (city and town), Ulster, and Saugerties. The first of them is that known as Cauda Galla grit. It is a rather soft shale, and where exposed crumbles by action of the weather. It is generally called slatestone, but it is no true slate. The high ridge lying above Roudout, coming to the ereek at McCausland's ship-yard and extending northward to Sau- gerties, is of this formation. The Lucas turnpike, running southwest from Kingston, passes over this roek much of the way, although souie of these rocks may belong to the overlying Schoharie grit, which is somewhat similar in appearance. The Corniferous limestones, lying above these grits, are a marked feature in the county, extending as they do through its entire length, and often very much exposed. They have been quarried extensively in Kingston for lock- stones, and for the Brooklyn Bridge and other works re- quiring great solidity. The Second Reformed church in Kingston is built of this stone, as well as those ancient structures that suffered from the fires of the Revolution, and many fine mansions that grace the road along the Eso- pus Creek. The Marcellus shale rises in a bluff along the left bank of the Esopus Creek, in its northeast course through Marbletown, Hurley, Ulster, and Saugerties. The lower layers are soft and friable. It makes good top-dress- ing for roads where the travel is light. Some of its hyers have the appearance of coal and will burn if put in the fire, but it cannot be depended upon for fuel. The Hamilton beds, lying above the Marcellus shale, is the formation from which the product known as bluestone is obtained, and the quarrying and shipping of which is one of the most in- portant industries of this and some of the adjoining coup- ties. Quarries of this stone are worked iu the towns of Hurley, Kingston, Ulster, Saugerties, Woodstock, Shanda- ken, Olive, Marbletown, Rochester, and Wawarsing, and no doubt could be found in Denning and Hardenburgh.
The rocks of the Chemung period do not present them- selves to view in this county,-at least so far as the investi- gations have been extended,-and there have been those who doubted the presence of any of the Catskill, but it is now conceded that the higher layers of the mountains belong to that period, with traces of the Subcarboniferous on some of the loftiest peaks. Coming down to the later deposits belonging to the Quaternary age, we find in this county long stretches of alluvial beds bordering the streams which flow beside or make their course through it. The high
19
GEOLOGICAL OUTLINES.
banks along the Hudson and the Esopus, like that upon which the older part of Kingston is built, are fair repre- sentatives of the higher benches, while the fertile inter- sales which border the Wallkill, the Rondont, and the Esopt- are as fiur specimens as can be met with anywhere of the lower terraces of this formation; while all the hillsides are covered with the drift of the glacial period, and there are many evidences of the action of the glaciers abounding in the erosion and scratching of the surface of the rocks where the drift has protected them from the effects of the atmosphere.
ECONOMIC GEOLOGY.
Loud, Silver, Coal .- The Shawangunk Mountains have always been regarded as possessing great mineral wealth if the right veins could ouly be found; indeed, there is a legend that the Indians and hunters of former days knew of a vein of lead so rich that they used to cut out the ore with their hatchets and welt it for bullets. Such traditions, it is said, led to the discovery of the mines at Ellenville, Redbridge, and Wurtsboro'. The Ellenville mile is within half a mile of the village. The muine was first opened about forty years ago, but after working it for a time it was given up. Recently work has been recommenced, and considerable lead has been found, with small quantities of silver. Whether it will yield enough to pay remains to be seen. Quartz crystals of great size and beauty are found in the vein. The Wurtsboro' or Shawangunk mine was regarded as being promising by Prof. Beck. It is sit- nated two miles northeast of Wurtsboro'. At one time tonsses of galena eight hundred, one thousand, and four- teen hundred pounds weight, free from other ores, are said to have been taken from this wine. Prof. Beck said : The advantages of this mine are-first, contiguity to water transportation and nearness to market ; second, great depthi to which it may be drained without machinery ; third, abumlance and cheapness of fuel for smelting. The disad- vantages are more or less intimate misture of the galena and blende, silicious nature of the gangue, and the uncer- tainty of the quantity of ore. The disadvantages seem to have outweighed the advantages, for, notwithstanding that lead and zine were both found in considerable quantities, the mine has been abandoned and its movable property sold. In the town of Rochester, near the base of the Shaw- angmuks, a small excavation has been made in what was supposed to be a silver-mine, but which was only pyrites, and even that not in sufficient quantities to warrant any expenditure to prepare it in the manufacture of copperas. Several sulphur springs have been discovered near the base of the mountains,-one at Springtowu, near New Paltz, and another at Rosendale. The sulphur held in solution by the water is derived from the pyrites, which is sulphuret of iron. In 1871 a maine was opened in Walker Valley, in what was supposed to be a rich coal-field, but no trite coal is to be found anywhere in the Shawangunk range. Professors Mather, Emmons, and Vanuxet, late cologists of the first, second, and third districts of New York, Prof. Hall, present State geologist, and Prof. Dana, ": Vale College, all unite in saying that the Hudson River slate and Shawangunk grit are below the formation con-
taining eoai. Our miners are digging in the wrong dirce- tion. They should dig up instead of down. That which is found, and deceives so many with its glittering black surface, is a slate containing fucoids and other marine plants. Coat is formed of vegetation.
Ulster County Heat- Enduring Stone .- The State geol- ogist of Vermont, who is investigating the fire-resisting qualities of building stones at the instance of the Under- writer, of New York, has made a report upon the class of stones variously called brown, freestones, and sandstones. They are the stones which are so much in favor of build- ing residences in that city, and they vary in color from the light-gray of the stone in the Times building to the dark- brown of Dr. Hall's church. Some are very porous, absorb- ing nearly ove-sixth of their weight of water, but the porous and deuse stones vary very little in their quality of resisting the destructive power of fire. The water in the porous specimens does, however, much increase the time necessary to heat the stone to a higher temperature, but in practice any benefit derived from this quality would be counterbalanced by the tendency of such stones to crumble under frost. Of the twenty-three specimens tested, not one was injured at 600°, and only three were slightly injured at 800°. At 900° the effects of the heat were very gener- ally and seriously shown, but so many as seven varieties were reported as " standing well" temperatures even 1000° Fahrenheit. In comparison with granite, this seemingly much less compact and enduring stone proves, in faet, to be a much better heat-resister by an average of some 200°. " Montrose stone," from Ulster Co., N. Y., is one of those which stood the test of 1000°.
The following is from the Rondout Freeman, April, 1SS0 :
" HUSSEY HILL GOLD.
" Mr. Floyd Mckinstry was in town yesterday, and has now gone to New York accompanied by a barrel of Hussey Hill gold-mine stone. Mr. Mckinstry said yesterday, ' I have heard a vast amount of talk about this Hussey Holl gold, and I am determined to see what there is in the stuff. So I have obtained some very fair sam- ples of the rock quarried from the mine, and I am going to have it assayel. And what's more,' continued the man from Gardiner, 'I am going to keep that barrel of rock under my eye all the way through. They won't have the chance to salt it. This is a square deal, and I ani determined to see that the assay is made on the square. This will settle whether there is any bottom to this Ulster gold business.'
" The ' gold rock' taken by Mr. Mckinstry was taken up promis- cuously froin a pile containing upwards of two hundred tons that bas "been quarried from Hussey Hill. It was not 'picked,' but taken up hit-and-miss, without regard to appearance. Mr. Louis I. Patehin, who is not interested in the wine, and who does not expect to be, vonebed for this fact, and he joins with Mr. Mckinstry in averring that this is : "fair deal.' Much interest is felt in certain quarters as to the probable result of the assay which Mr. Mckinstry will have made."
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