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History of Orange County
Towns of Goshen, Hamptonburgh and Chester
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Beaver Dam.-This is a small but durable stream: it rises in the town of Montgomery, runs South, draining in its course all the meadows through which it passes, and empties into the Otter Kill, near Campbell's Hall. Not one inch of the course of this stream is through upland. Its head water is a spring of several yards in diameter and of unknown depth. It is surrounded by a quagmire and difficult as well as dangerous to approach at some seasons of the year. We have seen a pole fifteen feet long pitched into this spring, and after being submerged for some time, return end foremost to the surface. The water of the stream is fit to drink at all seasons of the year, through its whole course. It obtained its name from the beavers which frequented and tenanted its waters in the early settlement of the country. A dam made by the beavers on this brook, at a time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, we have seen within ten years. It is on the farm of Gen. John McBride, near Campbell's Hall, where it enters the Otter Kill; and if any member of this Association should happen to be in the neighborhood, and have nothing more interesting to engage him, we would recommend that he take the trouble to inspect it.-True, there is no dam across the stream there now, and we never knew or heard when there was, but the wings are there, gravelled up and paved on both sides of the brook as perfectly as a street, and as far as known, they have always been there. The wings are directly opposite and paved with cobble stone. The beaver may be considered as extinct in the county. The stream is three yards wide.
Otter Kill-This stream rises in the town of Goshen, and till it reaches Decker's Mills is known by the name of Otter Kill; from that place, or from about the village of Salisbury till it enters the North River, it is known by the name of Murderer's Creek. Before it loses the name of Otter Kill, it. receives, the Beaver Dam from the North, and Greycourt Creek from the South, and becomes quite a large and important stream, and furnishes some water power in that portion of its course.
At Lagrange it is within a mile of the Walkill, and there is but a foot or two difference in their elevations. Indeed the stream you pass at Lagrange and which runs into the Otter Kill, at high water in the Spring, sheds some of its water into the Walkill. The Otter Kill derives its name from the number of otters which frequented its waters at the early settlement of the county. This stream runs through the town of Bloominggrove, and is known by the name of Big Creek.
Campbell's Hall.--A place on, the Otter Kill, where it is crossed by a bridge, on the public road leading to Goshen. It was formerly the residence of Col. Campbell, and hence its name, in the English style of naming a residence. Col. Campbell was a Scotchman, the father of Mrs. Margaret Eustace, who was the mother of General Eustace of the Revolutionary army of France, both of whom, we believe, died in, or in the vicinity of, the village of Newburgh, 30 or 35 years since. When the writer was a small lad Mrs. Eustace resided at Campbell Hall. For dignity of manner, good sense and lady-like deportment she had few equals at the time in that part of the country. Doct. Eustace, her husband, was from the South, and she resided there with him for many years.-There was a family secret, which we never fully understood, and which deeply embittered the last years of the life of Mrs. Eustace and that of her son the General. De mortuis nil nisi bonum.
SNAKE WITH FEET.
The phenomena of. Nature, their motion and laws, action and reaction, power and design, exhibited in the order of Providence, is the greatest of all miracles, (at least with the writer it is,) whether we extend our news to the wide range of the larger spheres of existence, or attend to the mere common occurrences of life, in the vegetable and animal systems.- Their organization in the order of sex, evidently designed for the regeneration of the species, is equally astonishing.-Independent of all the attacks of infidels, still “Man's enough to wonder and adore.”
On Friday, the 22d inst. about nine o'clock in the morning, my neighbor, when out at work, (as he informed me,) was surprised by a Black Snake, of that species commonly called Racers, which came at him with open mouth, his head elevated from the ground, his neck bent in the form of and about as high as a common goose; in the surprise he was obliged to give back a few steps, when he made a stand, thinking it was in vain to retreat any farther, when the snake seemed to parley, and eyeing each other attentively it soon made off to its harbor or den. He then provided himself with proper weapons, and when the snake advanced again he had fortitude enough to dispatch it. But what appeared most extraordinary, was, it had two legs issuing from each side of the body, at that part where the tail commences. On the Saturday following, about sunset, I had the pleasure of seeing this serpent, though with some regret that I bad not seen it sooner in order to have preserved it, for it had been nearly two days in the sun and was offensive.-However I conceived the feet or hoofs were worth preserving, which were about the size of a large pea, into which the legs stuck, fastened at the bottom, and had somewhat the appearance of a shoe or bootee, of a dark color. The legs were of a flesh color, without any bone and of a membranous substance of an elastic quality, which might be extended to some length, and when let go, would spring back to its former position; the foot upon the leg could be turned in any direction with all ease. I cut off the feet with a small chisel, which adhered to the chisel when they were off, occasioned by the glutinous matter that issued from the leg, of a whitish color, streaked with blood.
Now if this be a true figure or image of the Old Serpent, who has done so much mischief in the world, it is an error to say he had cloven hoofs; but claws he must have had in abundance, for I counted, upon one of these little hoofs, upwards of sixty claws, white like bone, and so strong that I lifted the snake from the ground by hooking them to a piece of a chip.- The snake was four feet eight inches long and about five quarters of an inch in diameter. It is impossible to know all the uses of these feet; trifling as they may appear, it is evident that these claws were designed for the purpose of assisting this serpent (when so disposed) to climb trees like a squirrel, and even to climb up a plane ceiling like a worm.
There are not less than twelve persons who have seen this snake when the feet were to it, who can have no interest at present, to betray the truth; and the barrenness of all artificial, vocal or written language, to describe the truth about what we do not know, seems hard to explain, and even about what we actually know: Therefore the feet of this serpent are at present at the house of the subscriber, for the inspection of the curious.
PETER BULL Purgatory, May 25, 1818. (Republican.