DERIVATION OF THE NAME.
The derivation of the name Minisink is undoubtedly from the Delaware valley, which was the "Minisink" country of its Indian owners. They had a large village and castle on the Jersey side of the Delaware River, opposite a large island in the river, both that and the village being known to them and to the early white settlers by the name "Minisink." They were a sub-division of the Lenni-Lenape tribe that somehow became known later by the name of Delaware, from an English lord, who visited the mouth of the river about five minutes once, and left his unmerited name to the river and its valley as well as to the tribe of Indians about it. In truth a most foolish freak upon the part of the white people, who had far more deserving names to give, if they wished to observe and reward more daring explorers. Foolish, too, because the Indian names were just as beautiful, even more so than that of the old lord.
This sub-division of the Lenni-Lenape Indians was called the Minsi (wolf), and they were easily recognized from other tribes by the white people. In 1663 when Wiltwyck (now Esopus or Rondout) was attacked, its white settlers declared that they saw the Munsey (Minsi) Indians among their assailants.
In front of their village on the river flats south of the island lay their great national cemetery covering acres of ground, where many generations of their nation lay entombed. Some of them were buried so close to the river that the sweep of its current often washed away the dirt and exposed their bones as the writer saw them. The early white people in the valley, all German, at first assumed that the name Minsi, pronounced by them "munsey," was derived from the fact that the water had at some time been drained by the Water Gap from the lands in the valley and that the name was derived from "the water is gone." We have never found any corroboration of that theory. The village was the source of the name, but what is meant in the Lenni-Lenape language we probably shall never know. From their village the white settlers applied it to the whole valley.
William Tietsort, whom they induced to settle among them near present Port Jervis, and do their blacksmithing, in 1690, found the name there. Arent Schuyler, who has left on record his diary of the visit he made there to find whether the French spies had been there from Canada, said of it: "1694 ye 6th, Tuesday, I continued my journey to Maghackemeck (Indian name for the neighborhood of the junction of the Neversink with the Delaware) and from thence to within half-a-day's journey of the Minisink." A half-day's journey would about represent the distance to the village and castle of the tribe mentioned, and where he was bound.
The Indians who occupied the territory in these three towns were one of the three divisions of the Lenni-Lenapes. On the first map of the country made they were called Maquas, which was later corrected to Munseys and by the English to Minsies. The name of their headquarters, Minisink, has come down to us from all the various languages spoken by white settlers as Minisink. That corroborates it as an original Indian word. Every clan or sub-division of the tribes used an accent of their own, so that they were easily distinguished, but the difference was not so radical but that the whole Lenni-Lenape people could understand each other. Therefore the name Minisink was a name known over a vast region before the white people came here. Its meaning is a mystery which all linguists can guess at with some probability of nearness.
ORGANIZATION AND BOUNDARIES.
June 23rd, 1664, this region belonged to Holland, at least that country claimed it; but Charles, then King of England, deeded that day, to his brother, James, Duke of York, a tract "to the northward as far as the northernmost branch of the Delaware River in 41 degrees and 40 minutes north latitude, thence in a straight line to Hudson's River, to be called 'Nova Cesaria' or New Jersey." England sent over a fleet and captured the whole country in this vicinity a little later the same year, and that made the Duke's patent valid.
The region under consideration was then a dreary forest, but land speculators soon began to deal in tracts of it, and New York Province claimed that the line, 41.40 latitude north to the northernmost branch of the Delaware River, ran from its beginning on Hudson's River to the mouth of the Lehigh River (which they asserted was the branch of the Delaware referred to in the deed) where is now Easton, Pa.
On the other side the owners of New Jersey claimed that the branch referred to in the deed was a tributary of the Delaware River at what is now Cochecton, N. Y. It will be seen that this disputed territory was of great extent, the apex of the triangle on the Hudson River widening out to a base of near 50 miles from present Easton to present Cochecton. In this triangle was comprised nearly all of what we now call Sussex County, N. J., and, according to the New Jersey claim, taking in the present city of Port Jervis and about all of the present towns of Greenville and Minisink. The great dispute as to the ownership of this triangle lasted for a hundred years and its tales of warfare and contests in courts are of great interest, but not altogether pertinent to our subject. The start upon Hudson's River is thus mentioned in N. J. Archives, Vol. I, page 531, in 1685-6: "Gawen Lawrie of New Jersey, Governor Dongan of New York and others" fixed at a point nigh Colonel William Merrit's house (see mention in first census of Orange County) on the west side of the Hudson River and "marked with a penknife on a beech tree standing by a small run." How different surveyors could locate the degree of latitude from thence to such widely different points was explained in old documents to be the fault of the crude quadrants then used.
In 1704 Queen Anne of England granted 23 persons a patent (deed), for a tract of land which was named "Minisink," because it embraced the land in Minisink along the Delaware River down as far as Big Minisink island, and as far north as Peenpack (a nickname for the Gumaer settlement on the Neversink). March 20th, 1765, Alexander Colden, of New York, said of this patent, Vol. III, p. 988, Documentary History of New York: "It contains not less than 250,000 acres, under the very small Quit-rent of nine pounds current money of this Province."
The Wawayanda patent had been granted the previous year (1703) to 12 men and the Minisink patent lapped upon it, hence we may well conclude that the quarrel between the Provinces of New York, New Jersey, the owners of the Minisink patent and those of the Wawayanda patent made a very mixed question of title. There does not appear to have been any severe contests in the three towns of which we write between individual land owners, except those of the large patents. In 1767 the Provinces of New York and New Jersey appointed commissioners to run out a compromise line settled upon to run from the apex of the triangle on Hudson River to the present station at Tri-states, which was done and that line has since remained as the boundary between the two States. Titles derived from the Minisink patent south of that line were void, but the titles of landholders in the three towns were all derived from the New York patentees, hence there followed no confusion.
During the Revolution there were few changes in county matters, but March 7th, 1788, the legislature of the State enacted that subdivisions of counties should be called towns instead of precincts. By that act Orange County was divided into the towns of Haverstraw, Orangetown, Goshen, New Cornwall, Warwick and Minisink. The southern boundary of the latter was the State line of New York and New Jersey.
The town of Minisink under that formation was bounded on the east by the Wallkill River, northeast and north by the town of Wallkill and the Ulster County line around on the northwest to the Delaware River, and the State line.
In 1798 the town of Deer Park was created and it cut off from Minisink its over-mountain lands, which had belonged to old Minisink and thus cut off the base whence the name had been derived. Since then the town has held to the name, a reminder of its old associations and of being once the home of a part of the Minsi Indian tribe.
In 1825 the town of Calhoun was formed principally from Deer Park and Wallkill, and formed part of the boundary of Minisink on the north. In 1833 the name of Calhoun was changed to Mount Hope.
In 1840 the town of Wawayanda was erected from the northeastern portion of Minisink, and took the place of Wallkill in the boundary of the former.
In 1853 the town of Greenville was taken from the westerly portion of Minisink, and fixed the boundaries of the latter as they now are.
GEOGRAPHICAL.
The line between the States previously referred to on a westerly course has set-offs to avoid great obstacles in some places, but where it bounds Minisink it is a straight line. It crosses the Wallkill a short distance south of Unionville.
Millsburg, is a small village, named from the large mills once located on Bodinot's Creek at that place. Extensive saw-mills, grist, cider, and plaster mills, were for a long time kept there by John Racine, and did a very large business for years after his death. They are now gone. Down stream a short distance were other grist and saw mills, of which one, a grist mill, is still in existence and managed by Frank Mead. A little farther down the stream were once very large woolen carding and fulling mills, where cloth was made of the finest quality. These are now in ruins.
Boudinot's Creek has gone by various names, such as Indegot and Bandegot, but antiquarians have now settled upon the derivation of the name from Elias Boudinot, and the probabilities are that they are right. Elias was a merchant in New York City, and speculated in the lands out in the wilderness, as many others were doing in those times. The records show that he bought, June 10th, 1704, of Philip Rokeby, one-third of his share in the Wawayanda patent; also, August 8th, 1707, a twelfth part of the patent. He soon sold out his interests in the patent and so far as we have been able to find, never saw the creek in question, and he certainly never made a settlement in this county.
Rutger's Creek was undoubtedly named from the circumstance of Anthony Rutger's buying of the widow and son of John Merrit, one-half of the one-twelfth of the Wawayanda patent allotted to Daniel Honan, who had in 1705 sold it to Merrit.
The creek in question rises in the town of Greenville and flows eastward near Unionville, where it takes a northeasterly course through Waterloo Mills, Westtown, Johnson's, and then southerly through Gardnersville to the Wallkill. Its Indian name is not known.
Tunkamoose Creek, a small tributary of the Wallkill near Unionville, has what is claimed to be an Indian name, but we cannot verify it.
The Wallkill is said by Haines to have drawn its name from some families of Walloons who settled by it, and it has also had various other derivations alleged. Its Indian name is well known. In the very early surveys about Franklin Furnace, N. J., in 1712-15, the surveyors have written the name plainly, Twischsawkin. That this name was not of a mere local application is shown by the fact that on a map accompanying Smith's History of New Jersey, made and published in London, Charing Cross, by Wilham Faden, December 1st, 1777, from surveys made in 1769 by the commissioners who ran the State line, the name Twischsawkin is applied to the stream. On that map there is not a settlement marked from Goshen to Mackhackemeck in this county. In Sussex County the settlement of the Walling brothers, where Joseph Walling kept an inn, now Hamburg, N. J., is marked "Wallins." They were located there somewhere about 1725-1730, and a brother settled in this town of Minisink at about the same time, by the river. We take him to have been the first settler in the town, and mention is made of him later. The true derivation of the name Wallkill is due to their settlements. The name "Wallins" was known far and wide to the stragglers who first came into the neighborhood and the river that ran by their locations, first called by visitors, Wallinskill, about 1750 got abbreviated to "Wallkill." The Walloons spoken of by Haines were undoubtedly "Wallins." The Indian name Twischsawkin has been interpreted to mean "abundance of wild plums." A land abounding in snakes comes nearer its true meaning in our study of the Minsi language.
Unionville village, assumed to be derived from the union of good feelings following the settlement of the line between the States of New York and New Jersey, is near that line, and is believed to have been settled about 1738. It now has three stores, two hotels, coal and feed stores, a system of waterworks owned by a private company, three churches, and other places of business. It was incorporated as a village in 1871, September 26th. Isaac Swift was the first president.
Westtown, a village so named because it was situated at the western limit of the settlements when Goshen was headquarters of civilization in the county, has three stores, two churches, one hotel.
Johnsons, so-named after William Johnson who gave the land for the Middletown, Unionville & Water Gap Railroad when it passed through the town where the depot is now located, has three good stores, two feed and coal stores, one hotel, and Borden's large milk and cream plant, and is a place of considerable business.
Gardnersville, on Rutger's Creek, about two and a half miles southeast of Johnsons, is mostly in the town of Wawayanda, and derived its name from the Gardner family who once owned extensive grist, saw and cider mills there. It is now mainly known from the feed mills of John R. Manning, at present its principal industry. In the early settlement of the country there was a defensive place near, known as Fort Gardner. Its location is not precisely known. In some records it is spoken of as being southward from where Westtown now is. It was most probably at Gardnersville. An old stone building on the late Lain farm is the "Fort Gardner," says one tradition.
Waterloo Mills (derivation of name unknown) since the decline of the milling industry has nothing now to show of its former important grist mills but the ruins.
FIRST SETTLEMENT AND POPULATION.
Of the first settler in the present territory of this county, Patrick Mac Gregorie, whose brother-in-law, David Toshuck, is spoken of in Ruttenber & Clark's History of Orange County (p. 13) as having "closed his earthly career in the bosom of his family at Plum Point," we desire to mention. In New Jersey Archives, Vol. I, p. 460, it says: "David Toshuck, of Moneyweard, partner with James, Earl of Perth, Captain Patrick Mac Gregorie, all sharers in Proprieties," were so mentioned in 1864. In a note on Vol. IX, p. 337, mention is made of the will of Edward Antill proven in New York, April 7th, 1725, wherein he gives his wife all his interest in a "certain proprietorship formerly purchased of David Toshuck, laird of Minnevarre." On p. 338 it is stated that "Edward Antill, Jr., came into the possession of the laird of Minnevarre's broad acres at Raritan landing in Middlesex County where he spent the most of his life." Donald Macquirrish, of Murderer's Creek, is mentioned with David Toshuck, of Minnevarre, Scotland, in a deed dated March 13th, 1687. From all which we have doubts as to the death of the aforesaid David Toshuck at Plum Point.
Governor Dongan bought, October 25, 1684, of three Indians, one of whom was Joghem or Keghgekapowell, for ninety pounds and eleven shillings in goods, all the land from the mouth of Murderer's Creek on the Hudson, to a "water pond upon the said hills called Meretange." The latter is the present Binnewater pond in Greenville. This purchase embraced about thirty by forty miles of the territory of Orange precinct, and a part of the lands in three towns. It lapped on other grants also. September 12, 1694, he sold it to Captain John Evans. In the latter sale went a house on Plum Point, which Captain Mac Gregorie had built there on his land by advice of that very Governor, who also sold the land without any scruple.
Lord Bellomont, in reviewing the transaction afterwards in writing January 2, 1701, to the Lords of Trade, said:
"Capt. Evans's great grant of 40 miles one way and 30 another, has but one house on it, or rather a hut, where a poor man lives, built by Patrick Mac Gregorie, a Scotchman, who was killed at the time of the Revolution here, and his widow compelled to sell her house and land to Capt. Evans for 30 or 35 pounds."
The foregoing was not only a concise history of the first settlement in this county, but it was in reality the first census, and shows that then, 1701, there was not a single person in the limits of our three towns as a permanent settler. It may be said in apparent contradiction that a census taken by Bellomont in 1698 showed this county to have in it 29 men, 31 women, 140 children and 19 Negroes. They were all located along the Hudson River, in what is now Rockland County. Yet there was at that time a blacksmith, William Tietsort (Titsworth), in Minisink, near where Port Jervis now stands, who had settled there in 1698 at the request of the Indians to work at his trade for them. In 1703, the county had 268 people in it; in 1712, 439. The Gumaer patent was settled on in the Neversink valley by this time, but there is no record of any settler in our three towns at that time. In 1723 the census showed 1,097 white and 147 colored people in the county. The owners of the big patents used great inducements to get settlers to locate on their land, and it is probable that some were in our territory but not of record. In 1737 there were 2,840; and in 1746, 3,268 people in the county.
Inman Walling was a settler, probably 1725-1730, by the Wallkill, east of present Westtown, and John Whitaker died in 1742 near where Unionville now is, and had been a resident there, no one knows how long. His will on record in the surrogate's office in Goshen, liber A. page 221, mentions his wife Eve, sons Richard, Peter and John, and daughters Jean and Elizabeth. Their descendants are yet residents of the town and of Sussex County adjoining. Those two families were probably the first permanent ones in this town of Minisink. There were others in the limits of what is now Wawayanda at or about the same time.
There were two Smith families early in the precinct of Minisink. One of them, Benjamin, settled near the present Slate Hill village, and the other on the farm now owned by J. Cadigan near Johnsons, where he kept an inn, the place being known as Smith's Village for at least seventy-five years.
Other settlers came in rapidly. William Stenard in 1749; Captain John Wisner from Warwick in 1776; George Kimber in 1750; Caleb Clark in 1800; William Lane in 1760. In an assessment roll made for Goshen precinct in 1775 Godfrey Lutes, Peter Middagh, Daniel Rosencrans, Inman Walling, Peter Walling, Increase Mather, John Whitaker, Jr., and Ebenezer Beers were shown to reside in this town besides the other first settlers mentioned.
The census of the county in 1756 showed it to have a population of 4,446 whites and 430 slaves. In 1771 there were 9,430 whites and 662 Negroes.
The Horton family were early residents of this territory, but we have no positive data of their first advent. October 20, 1764, a line run to divide the county into two precincts was described as "beginning near the new dwelling house of John Manno, and thence on a course which will leave the house of Barnabus Horton, Jr., ten chains to the westward." His house we do not think was in this town. A Barnabus Horton in 1813 lived near what is now South Centerville in Wawayanda. Gabriel Horton, justice of the peace, 1839-1843, lived about a mile and a half west of present Slate Hill in Wawayanda. William Horton in this town was a holder of important local offices, and his son Charles W. Horton, former supervisor, is now one of the leading citizens, as is also his neighbor, Reeves Horton.
In 1835, ten years after the town of Calhoun (Mount Hope) had been set off, the remainder of the territory in old Minisink had 4,439 inhabitants, and the present limits of this town about 1,000.
In 1850 the town of Wawayanda was taken off, and in 1853 the town of Greenville. In 1855, by the first census after their elimination, this town had a population of 1,295.
Since then its limits have remained unchanged. In 1860 its population was 1,266; in 1865, 1,209, a decrease owing to the civil war; in 1880, 1,360, including the incorporated village of Unionville, which had 316; in 1905, the last census taken, 1,354, including Unionville—a gain in 50 years of 59, which may be mainly said to be in Unionville.
The first incorporated company to do business in the town was the Goshen and Westtown Turnpike Company, chartered June 1, 1812, consisting of Reuben Hopkins, Freegift Tuthill, Benjamin Strong, Stephen Jackson, James Carpenter, D. M. Westcott, "and such other persons as they shall associate with them." The purpose was to build a turnpike road from the State line to Rutger's Kill near the mill of Jones & Vancleft (at Gardnersville). Thence it ran to Pellet's round hill and the Goshen and Minisink turnpike.
The Middletown, Unionville & Watergap Railroad Company was incorporated and completed ready for business by June 10, 1868, from Unionville to Middletown. Later it was leased to the Oswego Midland Railway, and still later its 13.30 miles of track were leased by the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad Company, by which it is now operated, under Erie Railroad supervision.
MILITARY.
There appear to have been no conflicts with the Indian owners of the territory of the three towns under consideration, and its white settlers, previous to the Minisink war, or as some historians call it, "The French and Indian War" of 1754-1758. We call it the Minisink war, because the Minsi tribe, at the outset of the war between France and England, which led to the great struggle between Canada for France and the colonies of our country for England, got permission to take up the hatchet against the settlers in Pennsylvania Minisink from their (the Minsis') masters, the Six Nations, to avenge their wrongs in that region. The wrongs were alleged to be that the proprietors of Pennsylvania had cheated the Indian owners of the lands there, and there is now no doubt that the allegation was true. There was no redress to be had for an Indian wrong in those years. Teedyuscung and the leaders of the Indians issued imperative orders that the war should be confined to Pennsylvania and they were pretty generally obeyed. Occasional straggling parties of them, however, in small numbers, disobeyed orders in order to avenge some injury to some person or clan, and passed through east of Shawangunk Mountains on marauding expeditions. They were vagrant Indians who had no standing as warriors in their tribe and they perpetrated wanton murders without the knowledge or sanction of their leaders. Of this class no doubt were the ones who surprised a man named Owens at work in Dolsen's meadow, in what was then Dolsentown, now in Wawayanda, near Middletown, in 1756, and shot him. David Cooley, who is believed then to have had a settlement at what is now the Charles O. Carpenter farm near Pine Hill cemetery, about a mile south of where Dolsen was located, alarmed at the murder of Owens, moved his family to Goshen. The next spring he moved back. That summer a party of Indians, in passing by his place, shot a woman of his household who at the time was passing from the outdoor oven to the house.
A company of militia had been organized in 1738 in the county called the "Company of the Wallakill (Willinskill)"; but none of the 144 names of its members appear to belong to our territory, except it may be those of John Monell, Lieutenant William Borland, Benjamin Haines, James Monell, Johannis Crane and James Davis. John Bayard was its captain.
The murder of the widow Walling in 1758 was mentioned in the PhiladelphiaGazetteand in New York papers in that year and made a profound impression throughout the colonies.
In the Revolutionary War, Colonel Allison's Goshen regiment contained some names belonging to this territory. The officers of its Wawayanda company were: Captain, William Blair; lieutenants, Thomas Wisner and Thomas Sayre, Jr.; ensign, Richard Johnson; of the Drowned Lands company—captain, Samuel Jones; lieutenants, Peter Gale and Jacob Dunning; ensign, Samuel Webb; of the Pochuck company—captain, Ebenezer Owen; lieutenants, Increase Holley and John Bronson; ensign, David Rogers; of Minisink company—captain, Moses Courtright; lieutenants, John Van Tile and Johannes Decker; ensign, Ephraim Middaugh. The latter lived in the township of Wantage in 1764, where he was commissioned as an ensign of Captain Kirkendal's company by Governor William Franklin. The late S. M. Stoddard of that township had and exhibited to the writer the last named commission. Middaugh went with General Hathorn to the battle of Minisink, where he was killed.
MISCELLANEOUS.
The town of Minisink was bonded in 1869, for $75,000 to aid in extending the New York Midland Railroad from Unionville farther south. This has not been paid in full yet. The sum of $3,280 was ordered to be raised by tax on the town of Minisink by the board of supervisors on the 22nd of November, 1907, to pay principal and interest on those bonds.
The first town meeting after the town of Minisink was organized, took place at the house of John Van Tuyl, April 1, 1789. Its territory then covered the three towns, and that house supposed to be the old stone house now in Greenville, on the former Jonathan Van Tuyl farm, later the Hallock house, was a convenient place for the gathering.
August 11, 1864, the present town was bonded for $25,000 to pay bounties for volunteers in the Civil War. It was paid off, principal and interest, in eight equal installments as they fell due.
Hulet Clark bought land in Minisink in 1828 in the present town of Minisink, where he died March 31, 1857. His son, William Harvey Clark, early gave evidence of the good judgment and business ability which his future life carried out. He married Emily Robertson of Wawayanda and they lived on the old homestead near Westtown, where he died in 1907. His son, Robert H. Clark, is the present supervisor of this town, resides on the old homestead, and is establishing a business reputation as popular and able as that which distinguished his father and which will make his name long remembered in local annals.
In March, 1799, the Legislature of the State passed an act for the gradual abolition of slavery. All slaves were to become free at a certain age. As an instance of its working, there was Frank Bounty, a colored man, for whom Joseph Davis of Wawayanda had traded a pair of oxen when Frank was a young man. When the time arrived at which the law gave Frank his liberty he was called up by Mr. Davis and told that he was then a free man. Frank asked him if he could not stay on with him, but Mr. Davis said he could not, for the reason that people would then say that he was being coerced. Mr. Davis gave him some money and told him he must go and do for himself, and Frank told the Writer that was one of the saddest days of his life.
Mr. Davis also gave him the use of a house and lot in Brookfield or Slate Hill which he might, and did, enjoy for life by paying the taxes on it. It was the last house on the west side of the street in the west end of the village at that time. There he raised a large family.
Not all Negroes were so lucky. Some of them were old and worn out and their masters were glad to get rid of caring for them.
In the early history of the town in all its farming communities, the farmers raised sheep, and made a double use of them. The rams were used to churn with on the big wheel and on endless chain churning machines then used, and the wool sheared from all the sheep was carded, sometimes by hand, at other times in factories, and woven or spun into stockings, mittens, and cloth, to furnish wearing apparel. Up to 1850, butter was the chief product of the dairies in the town. Then selling milk came into general practice, and making butter, milling flour for home use, and traveling on horseback went out of fashion.
The farmers universally kept sheep, raised the wool to make the clothes for the members of the family, and at the same time used the large sheep to churn with upon a tread or sweep power. Up to 1850 butter and hogs were the chief products. It is less than 200 years since the first squatters settled in the limits of the three towns of which we write. The first customs to pass away were their friendly associations with the few Indians who clung to their old hunting grounds with death-like tenacity. Then the hostilities engendered by the helplessness of the Indians and the consequent overbearing attitude of the settlers passed by, leaving a trail of traditions and savage memories. Then followed the old logging, stone picking, mowing, husking and quilting bees or frolics in which whiskey was used as a general beverage. Then came the passing of the use of whiskey for the universal medicine and social welcome. Next passed the days when women carded the wool and spun and wove it, and knit everywhere, knit, knit, knit. Next passed the days when the young ladies worked samplers, and helped in the harvest and hay fields, and grew up vigorous, stout and healthy. Next passed the fishing with fikes {sic} and racks and the hunting for wolves and foxes. Now have arrived the days when fish and game are about extinct.
Now are the days when the farmers sell their milk and buy their butter; when they sell little else than milk and have become a great generation of buyers; when social visits are about unknown; when the old time good-natured sports and merriment are frowned upon; when men no longer meet on the streets and argue politics, but bury themselves in a newspaper on the trains or in any resting place and read, read, read; when women no longer knit and spin; when the girls no longer will do outdoor work and dreadfully dislike to do indoor work; when, instead of the big boys and girls going to school a few months in the winter season, they all go away to boarding school. In noting these and other changes which have taken place in the towns as the years have fled, it is noticeable that the people generally live better, even luxuriously, compared with former years, but are their public and domestic relations happier?
The territory comprising the present town of Monroe is part of the Chesekook Patent granted by Queen Anne, March 25, 1707. The Chesekook tract was surveyed by Charles Clinton, father of George and James Clinton, and grandfather of Dewitt Clinton. His field book, the original of which is in the possession of Hon. MacGrane Cox, of Southfield, N. Y. (Mr. Fred J. Knight, Civil Engineer, of Monroe, N. Y., having a copy), contains much information and many interesting incidents of the early history of this section.
The town was set off from the precinct of Goshen in 1764 and named Chesekook. This name continued until 1801, when it was changed to Southfield. On April 6th, 1808, it took the present name Monroe, in honor of James Monroe, the fifth President of the United States.
In 1863, the town (like ancient Gaul), was divided into three parts by the erection of the three towns of Monroe, Highland and Southfield, which division was the same as the present towns of Monroe, Woodbury and Tuxedo, except that the then town of Monroe embraced a small portion of the present town of Woodbury.
In 1865 the three towns were dissolved and the whole original territory restored to the town of Monroe. In 1889 it again underwent the Gaelic operation resulting in the creation of the present towns of Monroe, Woodbury and Tuxedo. Monroe contains an area of 11,500 acres, Woodbury 23,000 acres and Tuxedo 50,000 acres.
The history of this town was written by Rev. Daniel Niles Freeland, who was the beloved and scholarly pastor of the Presbyterian Church from 1847 to 1881, and his volume of two hundred and fifty pages, entitled "Chronicles of Monroe in the Olden Times," is a history of the town up to 1898.
LAKES AND MOUNTAINS.
Monroe has in recent years, because of its rugged beauties, its beautiful lakes and mountain scenery, its high altitude, pure water and healthfulness, and its proximity to the Metropolitan district, become a favorite resort for the people of New York and nearby cities, and has made very rapid growth. It is the lake region of the county and located on the crest of the mountain divide, the village being the highest station except Otisville on the Erie Railroad between Jersey City and Port Jervis. There are four beautiful natural lakes, located from one to three miles from the village, namely, Mombasha, having an area of 340 acres and an elevation of 860 feet, from which Monroe village gets it water supply; Walton Lake, having an area of 125 acres and an elevation of 720 feet, from which Chester obtains its water supply; Round Island Lake, ninety acres in area and 660 feet elevation, upon the eastern bluff of which Mr. W. M. Haight's beautiful Cedar Cliff Inn is located, and Cromwell Lake with an area of fifty-three acres and an elevation of 740 feet. There are a number of smaller lakes which add to the beauty of this region. Among them should be mentioned, the Mountain Lake recently built to the east of the village, with an area of twenty acres and an elevation of 550 feet, and Lake Winape, a most charming mountain lake near Mombasha Lake, with an area of eleven acres and an elevation of 760 feet, just completed by Mr. George R. Conklin. The construction of other lakes is contemplated.
M. N. Kane
The village of Monroe is in the pass on the mountain crest, the waters from the northern part of the village flowing northeast into the Hudson near Newburgh, and from the southern part of the village flowing southeast through the Ramapo, which rises in Round Island Lake, into the Passaic River.
Eager, in his early history of Orange County, with prophetic vision, saw the beauties of this section. He wrote as follows: "These are the Grampian hills of Orange. While this elevated range is severed by many deep glens and valleys, the Alpine heights hold within their rocky crests, ponds and lakes of pure water, which glitter like diamonds in the noontide sun. Rude and forbidding as this region of hills and rocks and mountain crags may at first sight appear to the eye of a superficial observer, yet, to the true lover of nature in the exhibition of her noblest works, and to the practical mind of the really utilitarian, for a thousand purposes, the whole is well arranged and unsurpassed by anything of the kind in the county. Here are found without stint or measure, granite, mica or isinglass stone, and every quality of iron ore, with other minerals, treasures of present and future wealth to the nation. As early as 1778, during the war of the Revolution, the great chain passed across the Hudson at West Point, was made from the mineral of this region. In this respect as regards quality and quantity, the county of Orange stands unrivaled by any other in the State.
"The time will come when these hills, mountains, deep glens and sparkling lakes, shall be the descriptive themes of some native bard, who like Scott or Burns, caught up in spirit and wrapped in poetic fire, will harmoniously weave them, one and all, into the thrilling lays of the lowland and mountain muse. The time will come, when these elevated heights of dreary aspect, these hills overhung and darkened with vines and forest trees, and these lakes of picturesque beauty, unknown to the common mind, decorated with the wildest garniture of nature, and visited by the wing of the wild bird, shall be associated in the minds of our children's children with all that is pastoral, pleasing and heroic. True, Monroe cannot be made equal in agricultural beauty to other more charming localities, and wave with a golden harvest; for though her hills and mountains may be denuded of their vegetable ornaments, they cannot be leveled down nor driven over by the plough-share; yet the time will come, when every nook and corner throughout the broad and variegated mass shall hold a freeman's cottage, teeming with life and highland cheer, whose tenants, honest and hardy, will sleep amidst the thunders which rock them to rest, and the lightnings that play around and gleam up their mountain dwellings."
The Rev. Mr. Freeland in writing of its mountains says: "As the mountains were round about Jerusalem," so are the mountains round about Monroe. On the east are the Highlands, like the mountains of Moab, seen whenever its citizens look toward sunrise. Ten miles of rock ridges, with many a peak, defend them on that side. Only one or two passes give access in that direction—one over Bull Hill, the other up to the Stockbridge Hotel. Either of these could easily be defended against an enemy. On the south are Forshee Hill and the Southfield Mountains. On the west, the Bellvale Mountains and Sugar Loaf, standing like a sentinel, overlooking the valley below. Schunnemunk guards the northwest. It has a bastion on the eastern corner. High Point is a weather signal-tower to the observing. When it wears its night-cap late in the morning, it indicates falling weather; when the cap is early doffed, it betokens a serene day. The black rocks loom up from the mountain-top, and from their summit a wonderful scene presents itself. The eye sweeps the entire horizon, taking in the Catskills, Butter Hill, the Fishkill Hills, Bull and Pine Hills, Mount Bashan, Sugar Loaf, Bellvale and Goose Pond Mountains, with lakes, farms, mines, mills and villages galore. The Devil's Racecourse lies on the northern slope of old Schunnemunk, but the visitor needs none of his counsel or company, for he who climbs these steeps can find sweeter communion nearer to the heart of nature.
"One other landmark is Bald Hill, very dear to us because at its foot we first hung the crane. Here we toiled and studied, and here the sunshine lingers in our memory longest and our children fell asleep. It is the Acropolis of the village."
And in writing of its valleys he says: "Soils of great fertility were laid down here; yes, brought from distant hills to furnish slope and meadow. Here are alluvions of great depth and good grain lands; but the town is best adapted to grazing. The grasses, like those of the Blue Grass region of Kentucky, contain just those elements which yield fattening and milk-producing qualities. Had the mountains of Monroe been only a mass of rock, like some parts of Scotland, they might have been abandoned to the heather and become great solitary sheep-walks; or if they had been only picturesque vales and quiet nooks, there would have been a temptation to some lord of the manor to make it his park and country-seat. Heaven had a better destiny in store for it, hence mingled rocks and soils so as to invite the plow, scooped out the water courses to attract the loom and forge, hid away such materials as would bring hither the herd-man and artisan, the abhorrence of lordly pretension and elegant leisure. Monroe, from its very physical constitution, was predestined to be the home of honest toil and frugal industry. In the vicinity of what was to be the greatest city of the New World, and on the route of its best approaches from west to north, wealth and prosperity ought to be its sure reward, and doubtless will when the wisdom of men is able to master the situation."
MONROE VILLAGE.
But the growth and development of Monroe depends not alone upon its picturesque mountains, beautiful valleys and charming lakes, which attract so many city people, who are fast dotting the available lake and mountain sites with charming villas and country homes, beautiful inns, hotels and boarding houses, for the village itself is becoming one of the most progressive and bustling of modern towns. Its growth during the past five years being much more rapid than any other village of the county.
Monroe village, incorporated in 1894, with a population of 781, now has about 1,200. The incorporation was due in a large degree to a disastrous fire occurring in November, 1892, which showed the necessity of fire protection.
On July 31, 1894, a vote on the question of incorporation was taken, resulting in favor of incorporation 111 for, and 45 against. On August 21, 1894, an election for officers was held. Henry Mapes was elected president; George R. Conklin, Gilbert Carpenter and Henry Morehouse, trustees, and J. Lester Gregory, treasurer. On August 28th the Board organized as a board of water commissioners with Gilbert Carpenter, president. At the election held November 10, 1894, to vote for waterworks, there were fifty-eight for and fifteen against the proposition. The board of water commissioners took the necessary steps to acquire water for the village, and the village of Monroe is largely indebted to this first board of water commissioners for its splendid water plant which is contributing so largely to its development.
The village purchased from the Sterling Iron & Railway Company the right to raise the dam and store additional water at Mombasha Lake. This lake affords one of the purest and finest water supplies to be found in the State. About one mile of 14 inch pipe and two miles of 10 inch pipe bring the water to the center of the village with a head of about 250 feet, and distribution is made with 8, 6 and 4 inch pipes. The water was turned on October 10, 1895. No fire has since extended beyond the building in which it originated. The cost of the works was about $46,000, which is probably about two-thirds of what it would cost at present, owing to the increased cost of labor and material. The works are now not only self-sustaining but are producing a comfortable surplus, and it is estimated that in not many years the plant will pay for itself and will then produce sufficient revenue to light and keep in repair the village streets—a splendid example of municipal ownership of public utilities.
The town of Monroe has no bonded indebtedness and the village none other than its water bonds, except that Union Free School District No. 1, which includes the village, has issued $4,375, on account of the purchase of a seven acre school site on a commanding height overlooking the village.
The Warwick, Monroe and Chester Building and Loan Association has been a potent factor in Monroe's development. It was organized in April, 1890.
Standard Lodge No. 711 F. & A. M., instituted at Chester, N. Y., June 30, 1871, was, with consent of the Grand Lodge, moved to Monroe in 1884, and has a membership of 180.
The Monroe National Bank, U. S. No. 7,563, although in its infancy, is a flourishing institution. It was chartered by the Treasury Department January 18th, 1905 and it was opened for business, March 1st, 1905.
Monroe has a very excellent fire department. The Mombasha Hose Company was organized July 24th, 1895, and the Mombasha Fire Company, April 5th, 1898.
The Orange and Rockland Electric Light and Power Company, which furnishes light and power to the villages and communities in the eastern end of the county, is located at Monroe and is now erecting a very large plant. The Newbury Foundry Company is also located here.
Monroe has a fine telephone system, an athletic association, and is now putting down cement walks in the village, and it is confidently predicted that it will be the leading center of the eastern end of the county within a short period.
A Methodist society existed in the neighborhood of Monroe prior to 1839, the M. E. Church at Oxford (near Quaker Hill) having been built some time before, but in the year above mentioned Matthew B. Sweezy deeded to the Trustees of the recently organized M. E. Church of Monroe the land upon which the church now stands. In the following year, 1840, the church was built. The first board of trustees was the following: Stephen Post, Isaac Compton, Jeremiah Knight, Thomas D. Tannery, John King, Samuel Smith and Peter Ball. Others who served the church in its early history as trustees were Jonathan Mapes, John S. Gregory, Matthew B. Sweezy, Solomon W. Esray, Townsend Mapes, Job Mapes, William Hudson, George K. Smith, William Johnston, Martin Konnight, Daniel Secord, Nathan Strong and Walter Roberts. John S. Gregory was elected trustee in 1843 and served in this capacity until his death in 1905, a period of sixty-two years.
The Rev. Mr. Bancroft is said to have been the first minister. Others who followed him were the Rev. William Van Duzen, Rev. A. C. Fields, Rev. Mr. Newmans, Rev. J. H. Hawkshurst, Rev. Mr. Blake, Rev. Mr. Croft, Rev. N. Messiter, Rev. D. D. Gillespie.
Matthew B. Sweezy was chorister for a time. There was no organ in the early days of the church, but the congregation was frequently led in singing by the violin and the violoncello, though there were some who objected to the use of so ungodly a thing as the "fiddle."
At first the Monroe church was a part of the circuit under the charge of a pastor and his assistants. This circuit in the early days comprised, besides Monroe, the churches at Highland Mills, Washingtonville, Craigville and Turner. Finally, Monroe and Turner comprised the charge, and this relationship was dissolved in 1895.
In 1875 it was voted to enlarge and repair the church, and the pastor, Rev. David McCartney, and Mr. H. H. Lawrence, were appointed a committee to solicit subscriptions for this purpose. Their efforts were successful and the church was remodeled, and stands to-day practically the same as they left it.
The church has reason to hold the memory of Mr. James Smith, Mrs. James Smith and Sara Smith, their daughter, in lasting remembrance, as they respectively left substantial legacies to the trustees of the church, to the Ladies' Aid Society, and to the Sunday school, said legacies to be held in trust for their use.
The church has a Sunday school and Epworth league. The superintendents of the Sunday school during the last twenty-five years or more have been Franklin Bull and Orville Eichenberg, the latter having held the position for the last nineteen years.
The first available records of the schools of the town of Monroe are dated January 7, 1819. These are receipts given by the trustees of several of the school districts for State moneys received from the commissioners of common schools. These moneys were for the benefit of their respective districts and were in all cases small, the apportionments ranging from eight to twenty-five dollars. At this time the town's educational interests were in the hands of three commissioners of common schools. The incumbents of these offices in the town of Monroe in 1819 were Israel Green, Lewis H. Roe and George Wilks.
In 1843 the office of town superintendent was instituted, thus doing away with the board of three commissioners of common schools. The duties of this officer were probably the same as those exercised by the board which he had taken the place of. The first person to hold this new town office was Joseph R. Andrews, who had been a member of the last board of commissioners of common schools. The office of town superintendent ceased to exist in 1857, when the office of school commissioner was created. The new official assumed the powers of licensing teachers, altering school district boundaries, etc., while the care of the school moneys from the State was given to the supervisor of the town. The office of town superintendent was held for a short time by Morgan Shuit, and afterward for a period of about ten years by Archibald Campbell, whose term was concluded in 1857, when the office was abolished.
In 1819, as they did in subsequent years, the commissioners reported the text-books in use. This list varied little for many years and was given in the following order: Webster's Spelling Book, Murray's Grammar, Johnson's Dictionary, Scott's Lessons, English Reader, American Selections, American Reader, Columbian Orator, Daball's and Dilworth's Arithmetic. Later on a new and inexperienced board of commissioners enumerates the above list with one exception, and concludes with the information, "all of which are American selections."
The commissioners of common schools in 1819 rearranged the boundaries of the school districts of the town, and recorded these boundaries somewhat definitely. The number at that time was thirteen, but since that date the number has been changed many times and their boundaries have frequently been altered.
Of the schools of the former town of Monroe four have become union schools, having high school departments, viz: Central Valley, in February, 1895; Monroe, in December, 1896; Turner, in May, 1902, and Tuxedo, in December, 1902.
District No. 1 is the district that includes the village of Monroe. Though it contains practically the territory of District No. 1, as recorded in 1819, its boundaries have been materially changed. The Rev. D. N. Freeland says, in his history of the town of Monroe, that the first mention of a school in this neighborhood is of one held in the Presbyterian church building at Seamanville. After that a log school-house was built just west of the church. The old stone school-house on the road to Mombasha followed, and this in turn gave way to another built a few rods further south. In 1857 a two-story building near the Presbyterian church was constructed and this was made to answer the purpose until 1884, when the building now in use (1907) was erected at a cost of $10,000. This building has now become too small and the people of the district have purchased, during the past year, a new site just north of the Episcopal chapel, containing nearly seven acres, at a cost of $5,000. They have also appropriated the sum of $40,000 for the erection of a suitable building, the foundations of which are at this time completed.
Of the persons serving the district in an official relation the following have rendered the longest continuous service; Henry Mapes, as clerk, thirty-four years; George R. Conklin, trustee, twenty years; A. B. Hulse, trustee, fifteen years.
The school of District No. 1 was admitted as a member of the University of the State of New York December 17, 1896, having been created a union school the preceding year. The following are the names of the trustees appearing upon the certificate of admission as petitioners: Eugene McGarrah, George R. Conklin, L. H. Marvin, Solomon Fairchild.
The present board of education is: Fletcher B. Brooks, Solomon Fairchild, Millard Mapes, Frank F. Griffin, and Clarence S. Knight. In addition to the usual work of a board of education, this board has the additional responsibility of building a modern school-house.
TURNER VILLAGE.
Many changes have to be recorded in the thriving village of Turner, in the eastern part of the town of Monroe. By common consent the name has been changed from "Turners" to "Turner," and this seems to be a most reasonable change.
No longer do the trains of the Erie Railroad Company sweep majestically into the depot, there to stand impatiently while its hungry passengers regale themselves in that famous restaurant founded by Peter Turner. The now common, every-day dining-car attached to nearly every train, has crowded out that famous business. The large brick building was destroyed by fire and the restaurant moved to the wooden building on the opposite side of the track. This property is now owned by the Ramapo Mountain Realty Company, but is fast falling into decay. One end alone is used as a depot. Below the hill stands the famous grist mill which receives its power from the village pond near by. Across the street from the mill stands the old hotel of stage coach days, now renovated into a modern hotel, known as "Silver Fox Inn." This property and the farm connected therewith are owned by the Ramapo Mountain Realty Company.