Town of Minisink

THIS is an old, large, populous town, and principally covered by the Wawayanda Patent, the Citizens of which are principally engaged in agriculture. Improvement in this respect, within the last fifteen or twenty years, is really astonishing, and it argues great industry and thrift. This town produces and sends to market a greater quantity of the far-famed Goshen butter than any other in the county.- There is no mountain elevation except Shawangunk mountain, which divides it from Deerpark on the West, within its limits, and no hill of magnitude but Jogee. Still the surface of the town is highly diversified, and the soil of every quality. The Northern, Eastern and Southern portions contain the best land; the West is more broken by hills, while the whole is graceful and undulating. Till within a few years past there was an opinion prevalent in the county that Old Minisink was a hard, broken and mountainous district of country, and comparatively worthless and we were of the same opinion. But having had occasion to pass through it a short time since, and an opportunity to inspect the lands and mode of cultivation, we were most happily undeceived, and corrected in our false and erroneous opinion.

It is a common case for the farmers to keep from twenty to thirty cows, while they raise every variety of other agricultural products. Indeed, we were told of one citizen, Mr. Joshua Mullock, who kept altogether on two or three farms about one hundred much cows. The product of the cows alone of this town when converted into dollars from year to year, must in a brief period ensure large and permanent wealth to their owners, and consequently we find it in process of realization even now. Much of the true and taxable wealth of a town lies in its villages, and we are gratified to state that they are numerous in Minisink, and though not large, many of them are prettily and conveniently located for town accommodation. Every village is a consumer of the products of the earth, and consequently creates a market of greater or less extent for miles around it. This is what the producer wants: he has the articles to vend, and a home market is surer and more profitable than a distant one, whether it be in this or another country.

The Eastern portion of the town is skirted by the Drowned Lands, many hundred acres of which are within its limits. Her streams are neither large nor numerous, and furnish but little hydraulic power. The Walkill lies too low for milling purposes until it reaches the Northern part of the town. The general inclination of the surface of the land is to the Southeast, and as a consequence we find all the other streams, except the Shawangunk kill and Pochuck creek, to run in that direction towards the valley and unite with the Walkill. The only water power of any extent is furnished by the outlet of the two large ponds in the North part of the town near the Walkill line, and called Wawayanda. Though the creek is small, it is controllable and turned to all possible advantage. The mill sites are too valuable for saw mills, of which there are but a limited number, except connected with a gristmill.

As before remarked, the Shawangunk mountain divides this town from Deerpark, on the West side of which runs the Neversink River to the South, while the Shawangunk kill on the East runs to the North, and both pretty close under the base of the mountain. The solution of this physical fact is, one flows along a higher level than the other. In this case the Neversink is the highest. This fact is occasionally seen all over the world: the Hudson and Walkill furnish one example. The Walkill is the highest, and when it has run out its level, empties in the Hudson. The Volga in Europe and Obe in Asia is another notable example on a large scale. They run in opposite directions for hundreds of miles along the base of the Ural mountains. The whole of Northern Asia slopes more to the North than Northern Europe; consequently the Obe runs to the North and the Volga to the South. A good geographer by knowing the general snake of the land, its elevation, mountains and vallies, can tell upon physical principles the origin and directions of its rivers and lesser streams. The principal facts in every department of knowledge are solved and accounted for by the necessary action of a few general principles, which are convenient, and oftentimes very essential for every gentleman to know and be familiar with. A knowledge of general principles is worth more than a knowledge of mere facts, for the latter are within the control of the former.

Minisink.-This name is a corruption of the Indian word Minsies. The tradition of the Indians in this vicinity, at the early settlement of the county was, that their nation lived at Kittanny (now called Blue Mountains) in Warren county, New Jersey, and means “main or chief at an early period there was a difficulty or disagreement of some kind in the nation, and the discontented portion removed to the other or North side of the mountain, upon the low lands along the Delaware. The tradition also was, that long ago, and before the Delaware River broke through the mountain at the water gap, these lands for thirty or forty miles along it were covered by a lake, but became drained by the breaking down of that part of the dam which confined it. When the discontented retired from the nation they settled upon the lands from which the waters had retired, and by others were called the “Minsies,” because they lived upon the land from which the water had gone. The name in the first instance was descriptive of the land from which “the water is gone,” and afterwards was applied to the Indians who lived upon it. We have no doubt but this is the true etymology of Minisink. We have not particularly examined the make and general appearance of the lands or particular localities in this town with a view of forming an opinion of the probable truth of the traditionary fact, whether it was once a lake and covered by water; yet we have been told by very sensible and well informed citizens of the town, that there is a great many physical evidences of the truth of such an hypothesis.

In an old survey of the Van Campen patent in New Jersey, made in 1718, Kittanny or Blue Mountains is called by the name of "Pohoqualin," which signifies “the termination of two mountains with a stream between them,” as at the water gap. The name is certainly very descriptive of the mountain at that locality.

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Table of Contents Town of Minisink Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Orange County AHGP/ALHN New York AHGP/ALHN AHGP ALHN	History of Orange County
	Town of Minisink THIS is an old, large, populous town, and principally covered by the Wawayanda Patent, the Citizens of which are principally engaged in agriculture. Improvement in this respect, within the last fifteen or twenty years, is really astonishing, and it argues great industry and thrift. This town produces and sends to market a greater quantity of the far-famed Goshen butter than any other in the county.- There is no mountain elevation except Shawangunk mountain, which divides it from Deerpark on the West, within its limits, and no hill of magnitude but Jogee. Still the surface of the town is highly diversified, and the soil of every quality. The Northern, Eastern and Southern portions contain the best land; the West is more broken by hills, while the whole is graceful and undulating. Till within a few years past there was an opinion prevalent in the county that Old Minisink was a hard, broken and mountainous district of country, and comparatively worthless and we were of the same opinion. But having had occasion to pass through it a short time since, and an opportunity to inspect the lands and mode of cultivation, we were most happily undeceived, and corrected in our false and erroneous opinion. It is a common case for the farmers to keep from twenty to thirty cows, while they raise every variety of other agricultural products. Indeed, we were told of one citizen, Mr. Joshua Mullock, who kept altogether on two or three farms about one hundred much cows. The product of the cows alone of this town when converted into dollars from year to year, must in a brief period ensure large and permanent wealth to their owners, and consequently we find it in process of realization even now. Much of the true and taxable wealth of a town lies in its villages, and we are gratified to state that they are numerous in Minisink, and though not large, many of them are prettily and conveniently located for town accommodation. Every village is a consumer of the products of the earth, and consequently creates a market of greater or less extent for miles around it. This is what the producer wants: he has the articles to vend, and a home market is surer and more profitable than a distant one, whether it be in this or another country. The Eastern portion of the town is skirted by the Drowned Lands, many hundred acres of which are within its limits. Her streams are neither large nor numerous, and furnish but little hydraulic power. The Walkill lies too low for milling purposes until it reaches the Northern part of the town. The general inclination of the surface of the land is to the Southeast, and as a consequence we find all the other streams, except the Shawangunk kill and Pochuck creek, to run in that direction towards the valley and unite with the Walkill. The only water power of any extent is furnished by the outlet of the two large ponds in the North part of the town near the Walkill line, and called Wawayanda. Though the creek is small, it is controllable and turned to all possible advantage. The mill sites are too valuable for saw mills, of which there are but a limited number, except connected with a gristmill. As before remarked, the Shawangunk mountain divides this town from Deerpark, on the West side of which runs the Neversink River to the South, while the Shawangunk kill on the East runs to the North, and both pretty close under the base of the mountain. The solution of this physical fact is, one flows along a higher level than the other. In this case the Neversink is the highest. This fact is occasionally seen all over the world: the Hudson and Walkill furnish one example. The Walkill is the highest, and when it has run out its level, empties in the Hudson. The Volga in Europe and Obe in Asia is another notable example on a large scale. They run in opposite directions for hundreds of miles along the base of the Ural mountains. The whole of Northern Asia slopes more to the North than Northern Europe; consequently the Obe runs to the North and the Volga to the South. A good geographer by knowing the general snake of the land, its elevation, mountains and vallies, can tell upon physical principles the origin and directions of its rivers and lesser streams. The principal facts in every department of knowledge are solved and accounted for by the necessary action of a few general principles, which are convenient, and oftentimes very essential for every gentleman to know and be familiar with. A knowledge of general principles is worth more than a knowledge of mere facts, for the latter are within the control of the former. Minisink.-This name is a corruption of the Indian word Minsies. The tradition of the Indians in this vicinity, at the early settlement of the county was, that their nation lived at Kittanny (now called Blue Mountains) in Warren county, New Jersey, and means “main or chief at an early period there was a difficulty or disagreement of some kind in the nation, and the discontented portion removed to the other or North side of the mountain, upon the low lands along the Delaware. The tradition also was, that long ago, and before the Delaware River broke through the mountain at the water gap, these lands for thirty or forty miles along it were covered by a lake, but became drained by the breaking down of that part of the dam which confined it. When the discontented retired from the nation they settled upon the lands from which the waters had retired, and by others were called the “Minsies,” because they lived upon the land from which the water had gone. The name in the first instance was descriptive of the land from which “the water is gone,” and afterwards was applied to the Indians who lived upon it. We have no doubt but this is the true etymology of Minisink. We have not particularly examined the make and general appearance of the lands or particular localities in this town with a view of forming an opinion of the probable truth of the traditionary fact, whether it was once a lake and covered by water; yet we have been told by very sensible and well informed citizens of the town, that there is a great many physical evidences of the truth of such an hypothesis. In an old survey of the Van Campen patent in New Jersey, made in 1718, Kittanny or Blue Mountains is called by the name of "Pohoqualin," which signifies “the termination of two mountains with a stream between them,” as at the water gap. The name is certainly very descriptive of the mountain at that locality. 550th