USA > New York > Ulster County > The history of Ulster County, New York > Part 34
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* This deed I have in my possession. It conveys for the consideration of eighteen shillings current money of the province of New York a small parcel of land. It is signed by Awanna- mock, the Indian, and is witnessed by Jacob Hoornbeek, Dyrk Hoornbeek and Wishela, the Indian .- AUTHOR.
J.J. Scorulby Eastgate MQ).
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TOWN OF WAWARSING.
of the highest authority, gives the reading of Wawarsink as from 'Wa- wa,' meaning winding around, turning in and out, twisting as an eddying current or repeated bends. The second word he reads as 'Naw'as-ink," from Nawa's, a point of promontory, and 'ing,' location at (or in or near ) , where paths or boundaries come together." Mr. Ruttenber adds: "The" place took its name from a topographical feature in the proximity. Noth -- ing is more frequent in Indian names than the dropping of an initial' syllable and the changing of initials arising from the speech of the Indian in throwing the voice forward to the penult. Another peculiarity is the dialectic exchange of 1, n and r. There are many examples to be quoted in Ulster County." Another necessary result of the work of the early scribes was the effort to make an Indian word somewhat resemble the general sound, just as one would spell a German or Russian name "by ear." This reading of the word plainly indicates the locality which gave the name to Wawarsing. It is at the Lost Corner, north of the bend in the Rondout just below the Humiston house between Napanoch and Wawarsing. The promontory is there, with the high ridge leading to it (through which the highway is cut), thrust directly in the path of the Rondout, which for a distance, flows as straight as an arrow, directly striking the high promontory, some seventy-five feet in height, then turn- ing to the right at a degree more than a right angle against a large rock, which juts into the stream from the left bank. The stream then flows for a short distance in shallow water to a point where it turns sharply to the left toward Wawarsing. Here in the stream is the "winding around," "the turning in and out," here are the "repeated bends," and here is the "eddying and twisting current," caused by the great rock, which juts nearly athwart the stream. Here was the ford which the Indians used to enter the mountain trail, which led up to the Topatcoke spring and across to the new fort on the east side of the Shawangunk. All these physical features were more pronounced two and a half centuries ago, when the Indians marked these topographical features of earth, rock and water, at a period when the water flowed throughout the year near flood-tide and the contiguous hills had not been denuded by the erosions of over two centuries. The map of the Anna Beake patent deed shows that the Rondout in 1685 bent sharply to the northeast at the east side of the Lost Corner promontory and flowed to the junction of the VerNooy Kill at a distance of several hundred feet west of its present channel, giving it
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then a long curve toward the hills on the west as it passed the present road to Wawarsing railroad station.
TOPOGRAPHY.
The topography of the town of Wawarsing is quite unlike that of any other town of the county. It is without mountain peaks, yet it has but little low lands, these being a narrow strip through the town along the Rondout and Sandburgh streams. The range of the Shawangunk Moun- tains occupies about one-fifth of the town's acreage. It lies on the east side, and the great section of the mountain is wholly within the town excepting its steep eastern incline. The range here rises to its greatest height. It is very unique as a mountain elevation, as its escarpment ter- minates abruptly in a broad plateau or tableland, one to three miles wide. This presents a rugged area of cliffs, rocky slopes, broad levels, high ridges, lakes, swamps, dark ravines and soilless face. In places, however, there is tillable land, while streams traverse it, with several waterfalls, one being sixty-four feet high. Sam's Point rises to a height of 2,200 feet, and this and other points give a widely extended view, covering the Hudson and Wallkill valleys and the Catskill mountain regions. The mountain lakes of Mohonk, Minnewaska, Awosting, Maratanza and the Mud Pond are all near, lying near the level of the mountain top, and all but Mohonk and Minnewaska are within the town. The Coxingkill, Peterskill, Sanderskill and Stonykill streams rise in this section, and flow northward beyond the boundaries of the town into the Rond- out. Several small streams, rising near the eastern slope of the mountain, fall in beautiful cascades down the steep incline and enter the Shawangunkill. Natural ice caves are caused by the freezing of water and lodgment of snow in the deep crevices and ravines in the mountain top and near Sam's Point. From the west bank of the Rondout near Napanoch down the valley, and above that place along the Sandburgh, and at other points not characterized by intervening lowlands, start the foothills which rise among the highest peaks of the Catskill Mountains some twenty miles away. These ridges, often broken, rocky and serrated, enclosing intervening valleys traversed by streams, rise to a height of nearly two thousand feet within the town, on either side of the lower ridges of the VerNooy Kill and Lackawack neigh- borhoods. Amidst these elevations the sources of the Sandburgh, Green-
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field, Good Beerkill, Fantinekill and VerNooy Kill streams have their origin, and all flow in nearly parallel lines with the Rondout, which enters the town from Sullivan county at the northwest border. Streams deemed worthy of mention by early surveyors, flowing into the Rondout and Sandburgh from the west slope of the Shawangunk Mountain, have ceased to exist except in seasons of high water. The town has an area of about 60,000 acres. It borders on Sullivan county on two sides, and touches the towns of Denning, Rochester, Gardiner and Shawangunk. Not over one-third of the acreage can be called improved land. Over one-half is wooded, mostly with small second growth. Most of the ridges are of rock formation, with high ledges, and the lower lands are made up mostly of hills, which are largely moraines and deposits of the glacial and drift periods. Flag stone abounds generally on the west slope of the town. From a period as early as 1730, lead has been known to exist in the moun- tains near Ellenville, and veins of lead and zinc have been worked at different periods for over sixty years at Ellenville, but without profit. Iron ore of an inferior quality is found in considerable veins in the ridge on the west side of the State road leading from Ellenville to Kerhonkson. The water of the town is excellent, and that flowing from the west slope of the Shawangunk is exceptionally pure, owing to the siliceous character of the rock preventing the solution of mineral substances. Many beauti- ful waterfalls and glens abound along the streams, and the whole town- ship is rich in natural features of great beauty. The landscape is gener- ally exceedingly picturesque, and the elevations afford wide views of unsurpassed variety and grandeur. In many respects, the town is unsur- passed in unique and charming natural scenery.
FIRST WHITE SETTLERS.
With the settlement of Hurley in 1662, it is probable that whites as hunters or prospectors, found their way up the valley of the Rondout. At that period, the table lands south of Hurley had been largely denuded of trees by the burning of the forests by Indians, and extensive corn fields and orchards had taken their place. The first recorded white persons to be at Wawarsing were the prisoners taken there after the burning of Wiltwyck in 1663, and later rescued by Capt. Creiger's command of Dutch soldiers. The glowing accounts of the country he had invaded, as given by this officer, on his return to Fort Orange (Albany), excited the speculative interest of several merchants, who soon afterward made
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considerable purchases of lands of the Indians in Mombaccus, Wawar- sing and Mamakating. Among these purchases were Jocham Staets and William Petersen Beake, to whom deeds were given later by the Governor of the Colony. The deed of the Beake purchase was given to his widow in 1685. These two patents covered the central portion of Wawarsing, north of the Rondout at Napanoch and beyond Wawarsing village. These grants were soon followed by the Knightsfield patent and the DeGrootin transport patent. It does not appear that these original white landowners did anything toward the settlement of their purchases. They later sold to others, the new purchasers being residents of Ulster. On September 15, 1705, Louis Bevier, one of the New Paltz patentees, purchased of Col. Jacob Rutsen, of Marbletown, several hundred acres of land located at Napanoch, and about the same time Col. Rutsen conveyed to Cornelius Ver Nooy, a Hollander, a tract of land which had been patented to Anna Beake in 1685, which covered the site of the present village of Wawar- sing. Cornelius VerNooy later occupied his purchase and erected on the VerNooy Kill the first grist mill within the present territory of the town- ship. This mill was brought from Holland by the pioneer himself. Louis Bevier settled one or more of his sons at Napanoch in 1720. By his will, he conveyed to his five sons, share and share alike, all his lands, tene- ments, etc., at Napanoch. It appears that a considerable settlement must have grown up at this period, but the exact date of the arrival of the first resident of the town is not known. At the end of the first quarter of the eighteenth century the line of settlers had reached Leurenkill and Mamacotting, and the trail to Mahackamack (Port Jervis) had become the mine road known later in military operations of the Federal govern- ment.
Besides the Beviers and VerNooys, among the earliest names of the Wawarsing pioneers were those of Hoornbeek, DeWitt, Low, Har- denbergh, Kettle, Nottingham, Kortright, Helm, Van Vleit, Middagh, Benton, Heesel, Rogers, Simpson, Turner, Terwilliger, Denniston, Rut- sen, Ten Broch, Bettle and Osterhoudt. Up to the period of the Revolu- tion, the settlements were confined to the valley, with the exception of a few houses up the VerNooy-kill. As late as 1786, but eight settlers were on the Rondout above Napanoch, and these nearly all were in the district south of the stream above Honk Falls. In 1799, no road had been opened up the Good Beerkill or Greenfield streams, and the field notes of State
W T Bather, NY
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surveyors on file at Albany, at that period refer to but one settler along the Sandburg above the Homowack neighborhood.
The first settlers were mostly of Dutch and Huguenot extraction. They had not come to their new homes in a spirit of adventure nor as soldiers and traders, but as men seeking homes for high conscientious purposes and to escape tyrannical religious influences which they abhorred. They met at first in family worship, but later was erected at Wawarsing Cor- ners, about 1745, the first church edifice in the town. Here the Dutch language was at first used in the service, but later, as the English-speaking settlers increased, the Dutch and English tongues were used alternately.
COLONIAL PERIOD.
For a period of forty years after Captain Creiger had made his victori- ous march to the heart of Magowasinghinck, the Indian remained in undisputed possession, kindled his council fires, and danced his corn dance in peace. During this period, land speculators, excited by Captain Creiger's glowing description of the valley of the Rondout, no doubt obtained by purchase from the Indians much of the land from the Kahan- sinck creek on the north to Mamacotting on the south, and from the blue hills in the east to the "great Hill" (probably the Peekamoose) in the west. These lands were later patented to persons who purchased rights of the speculators. From the first settlement at Wawarsing Corners, about 1706, up to the period of the Revolution, the sturdy, homespun pioneer forefather and foremother, on foot and on horseback, extended this line of settlement along the great trail from Esopus to Peenpack. Their log and stone houses were builded near and around the central palisaded house-fort, for safety and defense when needed. Within these rude homes the wide, open fireplace gave cheer, and the fertile lands and forest and stream afforded abundant grain and game for their use. The flax field and the home flock met the demand for household needs of wearing apparel, fashioned by domestic skill. Social life was free and unfettered in an atmosphere of equality and neighborly sympathy. The first grist mill being at Wawarsing Corners, it became for that reason the more important business center. Occasional loads of surplus grain, with furs, hides, etc., were sent to Wiltwyck, to barter for molasses, powder, rum, metals, and other necessities. The increased value of land gave increased property value, and the bringing of negro slaves added to the more thorough development of the farms, and increased produc-
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tion .* Certain men became leaders, by sheer force of ability, in each neighborhood. The settlers were largely farmers, and both men and women were prudent, economical and industrious, and beyond doubt happy in their unostentatious lives. They were as a community strongly religious. The early citizenship was stirred with the politics of change from Dutch to English rule, as the colonial government slipped from the hands of its original founders. These conditions remained much the same up to the throwing overboard of the cargo of tea in Boston harbor by the Massachusetts patriots.
THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
News of the battle of Lexington probably reached Rochester about May, 1775, having been received in New York April 25 of that year. Electrified by the intelligence, the patriotic burghers began the work of preparation for the inevitable conflict. They zealously followed the leadership of their distinguished fellow citizen, the patriotic George Clin- ton, and kept in close touch with the independent movement which cen- tered at Kingston.
Two hundred and twenty-eight of the male inhabitants of the town of Rochester, which at the time included Wawarsing, signed in 1775, the articles of association adopted by "The Freemen, Freeholders and Inhabi- tants of the City and County of New York," which articles were sent to each county in the State. When these articles reached Ulster, its citizens were almost unanimous in endorsing them, and it is not recorded that a single male inhabitant of the town of Rochester refused to sign and so to pledge his life, fortune and honor in support of representative and independent government.
Andres DeWitt, Jacob Hoornbeek, Johannes Schoonmaker, Joachim Schoonmaker, Jacobus Van Wagenen and Andrew Bevier represented Rochester at the Revolutionary Convention held in New Paltz in May, 1775. Two of these patriots lived within the present territory of Wawar- sing.
Officers and soldiers from the present Wawarsing territory took part in the battles of Saratoga, White Plains and the defense of Forts Clinton
* I have in my possession the original vendue list of sale of personal effects of Cornelius Bevier, dec., of Napanoch, held June 3, 1790, at which sale two negro slaves were sold, also inventory of estate of Tjatie Dubois, dec., naming as part of her personal property three negro slaves named Tone, Peit and Beaty. Also permits for slaves to visit for a day from their homes, and leases of slaves for hire .- AUTHOR.
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and Montgomery at West Point. The territory west of the valley of the Rondout and Mamakating was termed in the military annals of the Revolution " the Western Border," and it received the especial care and supervision of General Washington, as commander-in-chief. He speedily discovered that an attempt would be made to assist the plan to effect a junction of the British forces of Clinton and Burgoyne on the Hudson, by an expedition of Tories and Indians, into the central Hudson Valley from the west, through Ulster county. The Indian raid at Pine Bush, below Kerhonkson, September 5, 1778, warned the people of the Rondout valley that war was at their very doors. The massacre of the ill-fated command of Lieutenant Graham, with nineteen men, at the Chestnut Woods (Gra- hamsville) immediately followed. At this time there was a military en- campment above Honk Falls .* This was undoubtedly situated on thé flats on the east side of the present power-plant lake. Here Colonels Van Cortland, Pawling and Cantine, in turn, commanded during the Revolu- tion. The massacres at Fantinekill and Minnesink, in 1779, were due to the attempt of the British to frustrate the contemplated expedition of General Sullivan. Governor Clinton at once took steps to stop the Indian raids, and directed the erection of forts from the Esopus to the Delaware. One fort was to be erected at Leghweck (Lackawack). On May 22, 1779, Colonel Pawling wrote Governor Clinton that, "owing to the heavy rains, little has been done at Leghweck." This fort was to be a "block-house inclosed by a breastwork proof against musketry, with an abattis redoubt. The works are to be of such size and so constructed as to be defensible with one hundred and fifty men or two hundred men." On May 16, 1779, Governor Clinton wrote General George Clinton: "I have ordered the levies to rendezvous at Leghweck and Shandeacon," a small "part of them having already been at these places, and others are on the march." Colonel John Cantine wrote Governor Clinton under date of
"Rochester, May ye 15th, 1779.
"Dear Sir:
"I have met this day with the Inhabitants of this town in order to get carages and tools to Begin the Works at Lackawack, with which they have cheerfully fur- nished me."
Colonel Clinton also reported the troops at "Honk" at that time as III, of which 27 had been assigned to Mamacitting (the block-house was at
* Original Indian name Hoonck. The Peter Low deed of 1708 says the bounds began at the fall called Hoonck. This word stands Haueck, "a rapid river," an adjectival prefix probably being lost-Keht-Haueck, a strong stream or great stream, descending rapid slopes .- RUTTENBER.
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the present location of Wurtsboro), twenty to guard the stores at Brown's, in Wawasinck, and the balance being available for the march to Lackawack. On May 29, 1779, Major Van Benschoten reported fifty men at Lackawack. There was maintained at this time a regular horse guard patrol between the Lackawack fort and those at Peenpack and Shandaken, through the woods over the Peekamoose trail and the Neversink trail, each being through forests without a settlement for a distance of over twenty miles. The center of all these operations was in Wawarsing, and the locality became of the same strategic importance in the revolutionary war that it had been in the councils of the Esopus Indians a century be- fore.
In 1780 a small force of Indians came over the Neversink trail and committed depredations in the Lackawack and Wawarsing vicinity. The last raid was in 1781, at Wawarsing Corners, when several houses were burned and the old Dutch church injured.
When the British were attempting the conquest of the Hudson valley, Governor Clinton ordered the removal of the State papers from Kingston to Rochester. They were in part placed in the old store-house erected in 1762, now standing one-half mile south of Kerhonkson on the Rondout. It was occupied by that great patriot and leading citizen, Johannes F. Hardenbergh.
On December 17, 1777, the State Council of Safety, in session at Hur- ley, took this action :
"WHEREAS, The public records of this State are now placed at Nape- nagh (Napanoch), in Ulster County, under a guard subject to the direc- tion of Hendrecus Hoornbeek and Johannes Hardenbergh and Comfort Sands, Esquires, in which situation they are for the present esteemed in a place of safety ; and from the condition of the roads and uncertain state of the weather at this season of the year, it is unpractical to remove said records at present to any place of safety,
Resolved, That the said records of this State remain in their present situation under guard as aforesaid, etc."
During this period a body of British prisoners was quartered near Napanoch, removal from Kingston being made before the burning of that place.
During the winter of 1780-81, when Washington's army was suffering from lack of food and clothing at Valley Forge, the New York legisla-
Eng by E G Willams I. E . AT-
Dwight Divine
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ture passed an act authorizing the military authorities of the State to issue certificates in payment for supplies to be sent to the army at Valley Forge. These certificates were to be receivable at full value for taxes. Dirk Wyncoop, of Kingston, was appointed agent in Ulster county to receive supplies and issue the certificates. The people in Wawarsing valley contributed liberally to this purpose, supplies being received at Johannes G. Hardenbergh's, who distributed the certificates. Many of the receivers of the certificates never applied them for tax payments, but made their value a patriotic contribution to the continental cause .*
Circumstances warrant the belief that General Washington passed through Wawarsing valley one or more times to meet Governor Clinton, who was his strong right arm in the operations of the northern army. On his visit to Kingston, 1783, it is very probable that he took the Delaware- Mamakating-Rondout Valley route, as he passed the night before he reached Kingston at the Lounsbery mansion in Stone Ridge.
It must have been owing to the familiarity of the people of Wawarsing with the stirring military operations around them, as well as with the great revolutionary characters of the time, that they exercised so little care in preserving either traditions or permanent records regarding the sites of forts or defences of the revolutionary era, or erected physical marks for the benefit of posterity. They even neglected to hand down many of the high honors belonging to some of the active patriotic families of that day, and whose descendants still reside in the town.
BUSINESS HISTORY.
History does not record any especial business enterprise or effort on the part of the early settlers of the section of Wawarsing. Up to the Nineteenth Century, the scattered neighborhoods, so far inland, had but little encouragement for enterprise in trade, depending as it did on long and heavy transportation outlay. Surplus farm produce and furs were the chief articles of trade. The communities were practically self-sus- taining. Enterprise and labor were directed to clearing new lands and promoting settlement. The local blacksmith and wagonmaker were at every center of population. The traveling cobbler made his annual visit to each family. At distant intervals a local tannery and cloth mill was
* I have in my possession Certificate No. 6,212, issued to Margaret Ver Nooy for wheat and corn to the value of £4 Ios. and Certificates No. 6213-14, issued Cornelius Bevier, value £7 12s., neither of which were applied in tax payments .- AUTHOR.
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established, to meet the neighborhood needs in the manufacture of leather and home grown wool. The house linen was spun and woven in nearly every family from home-grown flax. Wawarsing Corners was the busi- ness center for a period of over one hundred years. Here Cornelius Ver Nooy, the pioneer, erected the first grist mill, which he brought from Holland. Here also was built the first church, and the first roads pro- jected into the western wilderness were here started up the VerNooy Kill and towards Lackawack. The supremacy of Wawarsing Corners as the center of business, social, religious and political activity, remained un- challenged for nearly one hundred years in the progress of the colonial and early State development of the territory comprising the present town- ship of Wawarsing.
The formation of the town of Wawarsing from the town of Rochester, in 1806, and the inauguration of its own civil government, marked the beginning of a new era in settlement and development. New roads were at once built and needed bridges erected, opening the Greenfield and Drowned Land sections, with their wealth of hemlock and pine. Ellenville was settled at this period and began to grow rapidly, as it drew to it the trade of the then growing neighborhoods of the Good Beerkill and Green- field streams, as also those of the Leurenkill and Mamacotting to the south.
At the period of town organization, Wawarsing's families comprised the following representative names : Allen, Akerly, Addison, Bruyn, Bur- ger, Botsford, Bevier, Barber, Broadhead, Belew, Besley, Brown, Boggs, Black, Crossman, Cantine, Cristle, Chambers, De Witt, De Puy, Doll, Devens, Devoe, Douglass, Davis, Demarest, Divine, Evelin, Freer, Fair- child, Fair, Gere, Gilbert, Grey, Hardenbergh, Himrodt, Hawley, Hoorn- beek, Helm, Holmes, Heermance, Hixon, Hook, Hassock, Johnson, Kort- right, Kettle, Kimball, Knox, Kellock, Lemly, Le Fevre, McKnight, Mitchell, Mullen, Newkirk, Oostrander, Payne, Pride, Price, Schouten, Skidmore, Shaver, Sarles, Sheely, Turner, Tompkins, Tyrrell, Thompson, Van Wagener, Ver Nooy, Van Gorder, Wodin, Washburn, Woods and Wilson.
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