A
BRIEF HISTORY
OF
THE
VALLEY OF THE BEAVERKILL
By
Ken Osborn
(written
circa 1950)
based
on the writings
of Charles Campbell
1918
by
Ken Osborn
circa 1950
Fairest
child of
the Catskills;
Queen of
trout water;
from the
forest glades
of Rip Van
Winkle,
you come
down to
us crystal
clear and
alluringly
beautiful.
You are
kind or
cruel, according
to your
mood. For
us there
is no music
like your
song. In
the bleak
days of
winter,
the memory
of happy
hours with
you warms
our hearts
and sweetens
our souls.
May
you always
be pure,
joyous
and unspoiled
by the
blighting
hand of
man, Lady
Beaverkill.
Now and
for all
our days
we pledge
you our
love and
fealty. |
by
CHARLES
CAMPBELL, 1918
To
the Indians, the
Beaverkill marked
a boundary frontier
between warring
tribes. To the white
man, it is a geographic
puzzle, charted
to enter or leave
three different
counties and as
many townships,
all within a little
more than twenty-five
miles of flow.
Strangely,
the choicest pools
and eddies are more
often concealed
from the onlooker
by the high precipitous
banks of the river.
Like seeking the
Edelweiss flowers
of the Alps, approach
to the finest water
while rewarding,
is both hazardous
and difficult.
Hidden
also and difficult
to bring to light
is the Valley History.
The legendary past
is fading away like
the morning mists
rising above the
rapids of the river.
It is an area of
practically no documented
past. No wonder
those who love the
valley have decided
to preserve the
little that remains
known of the Beaverkill’s
earlier days, before
it is erased by
the erosions of
time.
Headstones
in the cemeteries
bordering a few
hamlets, occasional
family plots on
old farms and clearings
now overgrown and
hidden tell of the
passing of those
whose names are
familiar to the
ear, but whose lives
have grown dim in
recollection.
Even
the Indians who
were still here
less than a century
ago, are about to
have submerged beneath
the great Downsville
reservoir at Pepacton,
the burial mounds
of their last earthly
happy hunting grounds.
In
most localities,
Archives of the
past, may be hidden
away in attics,
County Clerk’s offices
or in the back files
of the Town Clerk,
but so far as official
record is concerned,
the valley has been
treated as the proverbial
red-headed stepchild
with neglect and
silence.
To
follow an aboriginal
history of the valley
itself is impossible.
The next best course
is the borderland
history of the Hudson
River Valley, some
thirty miles east
as a bird flies.
In
that nearby vicinity
the first appearance
of the white man
was a one night
stand. In 1609 the
Half Moon of Henry
Hudson paused in
its upward journey
at Newburgh Bay
to inquire of the
Indians what navigation
prospects could
be expected Northward.
Not until 1652 did
the white man appear
again. That was
when Thomas Chambers
came down from Troy,
obtained land from
the Indians and
located his farm
on the North side
of the Esopus Country
about one league
inland from the
Hudson.
The
surrender of the
province of New
Netherlands to the
English in 1664
made little change
in public affairs
except in the manner
of vesting title
to real estate.
Under Dutch administration,
pioneers obtained
from the Indians
by either gift or
purchase, and some
time by assignment
from the local court.
Under the new or
English rule, all
titles, by whatever
authority obtained,
were required to
be surrendered to
the governor.
Purchases
from the Indians
except by license
was forbidden. Presumably
the titles of the
early settlers were
returned to the
governor and renewed,
and new patents
granted. Under this
system, the largest
proportion of immigrants
became tenants,
or made purchases
from proprietors.
Record land papers
were then filed
in Albany.
Among
those filed is the
remarkable Hardenburgh
Patent granted in
three parts by Queen
Anne to a syndicate
of Dutch traders.
It included the
Beaverkill valley
and covered North
Western Ulster and
mainly the County
of Sullivan and
part of Delaware.
The patent was granted
in 1709.
Even
after Nanisinos,
an Indian chief
of the Lenapes,
had sold the valley
to Major Johannes
Hardenburg and he
and his associates
had received the
patent from Queen
Anne, the Indians
refused to permit
the pale-faced proprietors
to visit their property.
But
in 1709, geographically,
there was still
no Sullivan County,
Rockland or Hardenburgh
townships, where
much of the valley
today is politically
located. A century
would pass before
Sullivan County
came into being
after being separated
from Ulster. The
town of Rockland,
so named advisedly,
was sliced away
from the township
of Neversink. The
Town of Hardenburgh,
with its towering
mountain crags and
scattered bits of
valley, and wildwood
and forest primeval,
dimpled over with
beautiful lakes
and thickly threaded
with purling streams
which abound in
trout, was not founded
until 1859. It was
formed by taking
part of two townships
of Ulster; Shandaken
to the east and
Denning to the south
and named after
Johannes Hardenburgh
who was the original
patentee of the
vast mountain tract.
The
settlement in the
area commenced at
the beginning of
the nineteenth century.
Even before this,
a few sturdy pioneers
of the white race
were courageous
enough to enter
the remote valley
of the Beaverkill.
To
orient the period
of time of settlement,
our local history
begins almost coincidentally
when Lieutenant
Zebulon Pike reached
the front range
of the Rocky Mountains
and when the Lewis
and Clark expedition
boated down the
Columbia River to
reach the Pacific
Ocean. One might
say that the entry
into the Beaverkill
Valley in the east,
and the exploits
of Pike and Lewis
and Clark in the
West, completed
occupation of the
United States portion
of North America.
The
white man who gets
credit for making
the first trip through
the Beaverkill Valley
is Jehiel Stewart.
Accompanied by his
family and his brother,
Luther, he made
the trip from Warwasing.
The brothers cut
their way with axes.
The family and household
goods, drawn on
an old ox sled,
followed. The journey,
about twenty-five
miles down the river,
took two weeks.
Before reaching
his destination
on the flats at
Rockland. Steward
was forced to cross
and recross the
Beaverkill river
twenty-five times.
Stewart
had approached the
valley from Lackawack,
fording the Neversink.
He avoided the old
trail of the Indians,
known then as the
Sun Trail and later
to the white men
as the Hunter Road.
In
the old days, the
Sun Trail was beset
with danger. This
foot path over which
the savages traveled,
connected the Esopus
tribe with their
larger reserve store
of maize and beans
at Warwasing and
the Hudson and Delaware
river valley.
Further
up the Beaverkill,
a trail near Turnwood
know as Cross Mountain
Trail, branched
to the North. To
the West was the
Mary Smith trail
and still further
West the Berry Brook
Trail running North
to Pepacton. In
the beginning, the
Beaverkill valley
had only a few ways
leading to it and
once in, only a
few foot paths out.
Along
with Drybrook and
Millbrook, the river
rises in a pocket
guarded by three
high mountains,
each over 3,300
ft. above tide water
area. Waters to
the east are sent
down to the Hudson.
On the west, Graham,
Balsam and Eagle
mountains form the
great divide. The
Delaware is their
destination.
Up
to Stewart’s memorable
long and arduous
trip, the Beaverkill
remaining the last
Indian stronghold
of the mountains.
The tortuous course,
through which the
river raced from
south to north and
then turning from
east to west at
Turnwood, was a
natural barrier.
To the warring tribes
of the great nations
of the Algonquin
and the Iroquois,
it was one and the
same time borderland
and Happy Hunting
ground. Possession
of the almost impenetrable
mountains for trees
was highly prized.
A height difficult
to assail, assured
the possessor of
an abundance of
wild life on which
to subsist to wait
out a siege. In
its natural state
it was a savage
paradise.
It
was a matter of
wonderment how an
area such as the
Beaverkill valley
could be successively
first an Indian
fortress; then a
source of endless
supply of soft wood
to the saw mills
along the river;
still later provide
untold tons of hemlock
bark for the extraction
of tannic acid to
tan raw hides, at
the river tanneries;
and today offer
the City of New
York more than enough
sand and gravel
to line many miles
of tunnel of sixteen-foot
concreted aqueduct
of the city’s water
system. Nor can
fly fishermen who
wade the white waters
of the Beaverkill
cease to wonder
how it came about
that every foot
of the river is
bedded to great
depths with rocks
of all sizes, colors
and shapes.
Modern
geological studies,
popularized in current
publications, go
back a long ways;
back to the earliest
beginnings, in fact,
to account for the
area containing
Beaverkill Valley’s
fantastic terrain,
and that of the
surrounding Catskills.
Originally
up and down the
land, when the floods
came and the earth
cooled, what is
now the Beaverkill
Valley, during the
Devonian Period
was part of the
bottom of the Paleozoic
Sea rimmed by the
Taconic mountains.
Dried up by the
sun, the former
sea bottom emerged
as a desert of sand
and gravel.
Continuing
to cool, the surface
wrinkled. The outer
crust cracked, heaved
and sent huge strata
of rock up through
the surface of the
former sea bottom.
Some of it stood
on end to form mountains.
The sand and gravel
of the desert slid
down the sides into
huge crevices, settling
there to form valleys.
Then
came the glaciers;
four of them. Down
the west slope,
the vast ice masses
slowly ground away
at impediments in
their path.
As
the glaciers melted
and moved, mountain
tops and sides were
bulldozed. Large
furrows were choked
with debris. When
finally the ice
melted away, the
surface beneath
had taken a terrible
beating. The course
of the Beaverkill
River, trenched
to canyon depth,
was filled with
tones and tons of
alluvial. At some
places the sand
stone and gravel
is over eight hundred
feet deep.
The
banks and uplands
were strewn with
rocks; everywhere
were outcropping
of bluestone.
The
land, left in the
wake of repeated
volcanic upheavals
and ice mass cataclysms,
had been thus worked
by nature to yield
huge stands of timber.
The
early pioneers of
the valley, handy
with an axe, supplied
saw mill driven
by the power of
the flowing Beaverkill.
Sawn timber was
used locally and
some drawn overland
to the Hudson Valley.
At times, small
rafts of timber
called ponies were
floated down river
to Callicoon. In
spring high water,
large rafts were
formed of the pony
rafts for delivery
down the Delaware
to Philadelphia.
During the Civil
War, the large rafts
continued the voyage
and were towed from
the Delaware Capes
to the shipyards
at Washington.
Shin
Creek, (now Lew
Beach) became Milltown,
the first in the
Valley in the epoch
of the sawyers.
To
man the tanneries
later, hamlets started
at Turnwood, Beaverkill,
Berry Brook and
Craigie Clair. Mountain
farms had been appearing
on hill tops and
hillsides. In those
days, the scattered
flats were pasture
land. The river,
tame at times, became
a raging overflowing
deluge at others.
The farmers and
dwellers of the
valley preferred
living above flood
waters.
Approaching
the period of the
Napoleonic Wars
and the aftermath,
commerce over the
Atlantic came almost
to a standstill.
The economic effect
was widespread.
Of necessity, it
helped make the
United States an
industrial nation.
Traffic in raw hides
no longer moved
to the tanneries
of England and the
Continent. But since
tannic acid was
essential to tanning,
the tremendous traffic
in hides and leather
gravitated to where
the hemlock was
plentiful. A big
forest was in Sullivan
County, from Wurtsboro
to Beaverkill.
The
early 1800’s found
tanneries established
near Bloomingburg
and Wurtsboro.
As
forests were depleted,
the industry moved
along the ridges
northward. By 1860
the Beaverkill Valley,
because the most
unaccessible and
farthest away, became
the area last to
be tackled. So great
had the business
become, Sullivan
County led the world
as a tanning center.
By
the turn of the
present century,
tanneries and most
of the owners and
workers had disappeared.
A number of home
owners and farmers
remaining took in
summer boarders.
In the winter time,
some were engaged
in cutting second
growth four foot
cord wood for the
acid factories between
hunting and unsurpassed
scenery, brought
vacationists from
far and wide. Hotels
were built and trout
clubs were organized.
Recreation business
now leads farming
and lumbering. Visitors
were more and more
becoming permanent
residents. To overcome
the damage of the
sawyers, the tanners
and acid wood cutters,
the State of New
York has reforested
miles of waste land
and created flood
control areas. Conservation
has restored much
of the valley to
almost the pristine
happy hunting grounds
of the Indian of
the Alleghenies
and the Tuscaroras.
The
latter, the last
of the valleys Red
Men, seeking, it
is said, Nature’s
last sanctuary for
the Indian of the
Alleghenies, chose
the land between
the Beaverkill and
East Branch of the
Delaware, and made
the long trek from
the mountains of
the Carolinas to
the Beaverkill to
take possession.
The last to join
a confederacy of
tribes to halt the
pale face, the Tuscaroras
made a last stand
in the valley.
Some
call the Beaverkill
Valley the Land
of Tunis, because
Tunis, a Tuscarora
youth, forms the
link between the
Red men and the
early white settlers.
First,
driven away from
the white settlement
by the frontiersmen
for daring to propose
marriage to a scout’s
daughter and later
despised as a symbol
of past Indian cruelty,
the lad Tunis became
a lonesome heart-broken
hermit. But when
he discovered a
lead mine, which
he successfully
concealed from settlers,
his extracted product
was much sought
after along the
valley. Now, instead
of being despised,
he was courted;
and on reacquaintance,
found to be a fine
neighbor and friend,
helpful in teaching
his white brother
the crafts of his
forefathers in forest
and stream.
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