Conway - Sullivan County: a bicentennial history in images

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2009 by John Conway

All rights reserved

First published 2009

e-book edition 2013

Manufactured in the United States

ISBN 978.1.62584.285.5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Conway, John, 1952

Sullivan County : a bicentennial history in images / John Conway.

p. cm.

print edition ISBN 978-1-59629-646-6

1. Sullivan County (N.Y.)--History. 2. Sullivan County (N.Y.)--History--Pictorial works. I. Title.

F127.S91C67 2009

974.735--dc22

2009014468

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many people have assisted in the preparation of this book, beginning with Jonathan Simcosky and Kate Pluhar at The History Press. Their patience and guidance have been invaluable. The Sullivan County legislature, the countys bicentennial committee and legislative aide Alexis Eggleton provided the initial impetus. Many of my colleagues were helpful in supplying photos, including town historians Mary Curtis of Delaware, Frank V. Schwarz of Lumberland and Carole Smythe of Neversink. Other photos and direction came from Emily Hallock of the Tusten Historical Society; George Ardito and Robert Decker, past president and president, respectively, of the Sullivan County Historical Society; Rita Sheehan, Bethel town clerk; Virginia Lawrence and the Friends of the Beaverkill; Dan Hust and Fred Stabbert at the Sullivan County Democrat; and Yuri and Orest Blanarovich of the Mountain View Resort in Glen Spey. The time and effort they expended on my behalf is sincerely appreciated. Finally, the book would not have been possible without the assistance of my wife, Debbie, who freely and enthusiastically lent her own considerable talent and skill to this project.

Introduction

TIMBER, TANNING AND TOURISM

When Sullivan County was officially formed from Ulster County on March 27, 1809, it was a heavily forested, rocky and rugged region, largely inaccessible to the rest of the world. But the natural beauty of its many lakes, streams and rivers had already made it a very special place to a group of Native Americans who revered such features.

Some archaeologists believe that the Lenape (pronounced len-ahh'-pay and most often translated as original people) first arrived in this area over eleven thousand years ago. While there is no indication exactly what the place was like at that time, oral tradition (the Lenape had no written language) holds that the tribe ultimately controlled a land mass that encompassed from what is today upstate New York to the state of Delaware. They called this land Lenapehoking, or land of the Lenape.

The tribe spent the warm weather months in this heavily forested region, particularly along the major rivers, which they used for transportation. Here they hunted, fished and farmed, growing corn, squash and beans. They held great council fires in the Mamakating Valley and annual corn harvest festivals along the Delaware River at what is today Cochecton.

With the arrival of the EuropeansSwedish, Dutch and then British settlersbeginning in the middle of the seventeenth century, visits by the dwindling Lenape population became fewer and farther between. War and disease had severely diminished their numbers, and friction with the Europeans, who were anxious to purchase land (a concept totally alien to the Lenape), prompted the tribe to look elsewhere to live. By 1730, the Lenape people had left the region for good.

Soon, the area was abuzz with industry. Timber was abundant and in great demand. As early as 1764, a man named Daniel Skinner conceived the idea of floating the tall, sturdy pine trees that grew along the banks of the Delaware River to Philadelphia for use in the flourishing shipbuilding industry in that city. Timber rafting, the first of the countys three great industrieshistorians today call them the three Tswas born.

Brothers Samuel F. and John P. Jones founded the village of Monticello in 1804, and Samuel was instrumental in the construction of the NewburghCochecton Turnpike, the first improved road through the county, and in the erection of the county itself. John P. Jones built the initial home in Monticello, cutting down the first tree himself in September 1804. When the new county was finally chiseled out of the southwestern corner of Ulster County and chartered in 1809, it was named for General John Sullivan, the Revolutionary War officer who had been directed by George Washington to drive the Mohawks and Tories, who had been raiding the settlements along the frontier, out of the region.

The Delaware & Hudson Canal, which opened in 1828 and was initially constructed to carry coal from the Moosic Mountains of Pennsylvania to the Hudson River for shipment to New York City, provided the first great population boom in the county. In fact, in the first twenty years of the canals operation, the population of Sullivan County more than doubled, to more than twenty-five thousand by 1850.

The canal was also instrumental in the growth of the countys second great industrytanning, which began in the 1830s and peaked during the Civil War, when the countys tanneries provided boots and other leather goods for the Union army.

Sullivan County hemlocks produced a peculiar, reddish-hued leather, which was stronger and suppler than that tanned elsewhere. At their height, the countys tanneries employed thousands of men, and Sullivan produced more leather than any other county. Entire communities grew up around these tanning operations, and many immigrants, especially from Ireland, came specifically to work in the trade.

The tanning industry thrived until the hemlock stands were depleted. By the end of the 1880s, all but one of the forty tanneries in the county had vanished, and for the most part, so had the massive fortunes amassed by those who owned them.

When the landscape of Sullivan County had been drastically altered by the timber and tanning industries, the area turned to tourism (the third T) as its principal industry. Beginning in the 1840s, entrepreneurs were building summer hotels to accommodate visitors, who, having learned of the great recreational opportunities here from writers such as Alfred B. Street and Charles Fenno Hoffman and painters such as Henry Inman, came here to fish and hunt.

John Beekman Finlay built the first hotel specifically for summer tourists in White Lake around 1845, and David B. Kinne followed by constructing the Mansion House nearby in 1848. As the end of the nineteenth century approached, small resorts had replaced logging camps and farmhouses had become boardinghouses. With the railroads providing easy access to the county for the first time, the tourism industry really began to grow.

The western side of the county along the Delaware River began to develop first, with the completion of the Erie Railroad in 1850. The railroad embarked on an aggressive promotional campaign, touting the upper Delaware region as a sportsmens paradise, and small hotels played host to those looking for recreation and an escape from the oppressive summer heat of the cities.