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History of Orange County
Town of Minisink
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      Denton Family.-We enter upon a little detail in honor of the old and virtuous “Pilgrims.”  Rev. Richard Denton, the ancestor of all of the name here and on Long Island, was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1586, graduated at Cambridge 1623, and settled as minister of Coley Chapel, in Halifax, England; but in consequence of the restrictions placed upon the independents and non-conformants, emigrated to Boston with Governor Winthrop in 1630.  He preached in Watertown, Massachusetts, and subsequently at Weathers-field and Stamford, Connecticut.  In 1644 he emigrated with a portion of his congregation and commenced the settlement of Hempstead, Long Island, returned to England and died in 1662, aged 76 years.
     His sons were Richard, Samuel, Daniel, Nathaniel and John. Nathaniel and Daniel removed to Jamaica in 1656, and were instrumental in settling the place. Daniel in 1670 published the first history of the colony of New York.  John removed to Orange county, and is the immediate ancestor of those of that name here.
     James, a son of one of the brothers, had four sons-Amos, John, William and Thomas.  William and John settled in Orange county, but William returned to Long Island, near Beaver Pond, and died there.  John located on the old Carpenter farm in the village of Goshen.  He had three wives and fourteen children.  His first wife was Jane Fisher of Long Island; the second, Elizabeth Wisner, daughter of Henry Wisner Esq., the ancestor of Henry B. and Henry G. Wisner, Esqs.; the third, Mary Gale, daughter of Hezekiah Gale, who lived near what is now called Lagrange.
     One of the daughters of Thomas married Jason Wilkin who resided at the place last named.  Catharine, a daughter of Samuel of Long Island, married Jacob Mills, Esq. of Walkill, and had twelve children; one of whom, William Wickham Mills, married the only daughter of Wickham Denton of Long Island, and is the wealthiest man probably in Suffolk county.
     Mr. Richard Carpenter was an early settler at this location and owned one hundred acres, now owned by Thaddeus B. and Henry W. Denton.  Carpenter lived in a log cabin on the hill, made potash, and farmed it a little.  After him the farm was owned by Elisha Eldridge from New England, who was the first man who kept a store and set up a tavern at the place.  This was about the commencement of the Revolution.
     Dolsantown.-This is some two miles west of Denton.- Before the French and Indian war in 1756, an individual by the name of Isaac Dolsan came from Fishkill, Dutchess county and settled there.  He purchased 700 acres which is now owned by Theophilus Dolsan, James Post, James Aldridge and Mr. Swezey.  Dolsan was a millwright, and married Polly Huzzy of an English family in New Jersey, and died in 1795.
     His children were James and Isaac; James married Phoebe Mecker.  Their children were James, Asa, Samuel, Polly and Abby-all of whom are dead but Samuel, who is eighty-two years of age.  Isaac never married.  This family is Dutch and very old in the State.  There is a family tradition that the first male child born in New Amsterdam (New York) was a Dolsan.
     On the farm of *Asa Dolsan, the grandfather of Samuel, there was a block house erected as a protection against the Indians in the French war of 1756.  Dolsan lived first in a log house, loop-holed for musquetry, and afterwards and before the war, built a stone house, into which the inhabitants used to flee for safety as well as into the block house.
     Daniel Cooley settled on one hundred acres adjoining Isaac Dolsan at about the same time Dolsan located.  This is now owned by Mr. Nathaniel Evertson.
     David Cooley also located on two hundred acres in the vicinity about the same time.  This is owned at present by James Post.
     During the French war the Indians came and killed a man in Dolsan's meadow, by the name of Owens, and he then removed to Goshen where he staid till the war was over.  The Indians did not come in great numbers to this settlement, but only a few at a time, who secreted themselves in the woods of the neighborhood, and as opportunity served sallied out to rob and to murder.  On one occasion three of them chased a man who ran and crept under the weeds and brush at the root of a tree which had been blown down; the Indians came, stood upon the tree, looked all around, yelling most savagely, but fortunately did not find him, and they left.
     In old times it was customary to build ovens to bake in, in the vicinity of the house, and at the time we speak of a woman in the family of Mr. Cooley was engaged in baking, when some Indians passing at the time shot her while going from the oven to the house.
     On the farm of Mr. Samuel Dolsan there was an Indian settlement in the meadow near his present residence, and their burying ground was on the dry land in the vicinity.  The graves were shallow: a plough passing over them would tear up their bones.  At the settlement of the place, the Indians had an apple orchard, one of the trees of which is still standing in this meadow and bears a large sour apple.
     During this old war the Indians did not dare to go out as far as Goshen, but occasionally crossed the kill, and on one occasion went over, and killed a Mr. Webb on a Sunday morning.  They boasted much of having killed the “big man"  of the town of Goshen.
     Isaac Finch located 100 acres in this vicinity.  Mohagan creek ran through it and he built the first flour and saw mill that were erected at the settlement.  William Little now owns the land.  Corwin's Factory is on this stream, and it enters the Walkill below George Phillips's.
     Grahamville.-There is no village at this place, but the location is quite densely settled.  Just before the revolution about 1773 Gilbert Walsworth located a tract of land in this vicinity when there was not a log house from Shawangunk mountain to Dolsantown.  Abraham Harden, Richard Jones and Henry Devoe, were also early settlers.  Harden married a Dolsan.  The Grahams, from whom the place takes it name, came in afterwards.  The family is Irish, and the individuals of the name residing there, industrious men and capital farmers.
     Stephen W. Fullerton.--This gentleman is the son of William Fullerton and Mary Whittaker.  The father of William was William, who was the first settler of the name in the town.  He came from Dublin, Ireland, and died in 1786.
     He married Sarah Cooley and their children were
William, born March 3, 1765;
Samuel,    do     June 2, 1769;
Sarah,       do     April 11, 1773;
Daniel, born March 21, 1767;
Phineas, do July 5, 1771;
Jane,       do Dec'br 23, 1775.
     William Fullerton, jun., died Feb. 21, 1817, aged 51 years.  His children were William, Daniel, Stephen W. and Elizabeth.
     Stephen W. Fullerton married Esther Stephens, daughter of Holloway Stephens.  Their children are Daniel, Elizabeth, William, Mary, Holloway S., Stephen W., Peter P., Benjamin S., John H., Elsay T., Esther I. and Francis E.
     We were informed by Mrs. Stephen W. Fullerton from whom we procured these notes, that she was of opinion ten dollars would cover the amount expended for medicine in raising their twelve children, the youngest of which is now nine years old.  The family stock must have had robust and firm constitutions, uninjured by disease and medicine.  We have no doubt, that one of the best and wisest methods to injure children and impair their general vigor of constitution is to dose them with medicine on every occasion when their parents think them not very well.  Children may be killed as well by excessive kindness us by downright cruelty, and it is a misfortune frequently to have a Physician too near our residences.  The administration of a sensible mother in all the little ailments to which children are subject, not unfrequently check and cure disease as surely, and more safely than the contents of the shops.  Attention, care, nursing, are the great curatives with children.  Permit nature to operate and do her part and little medicine is absolutely needed for them.
     Mary Whittaker, the wife of William Fullerton, jun., as previously remarked, was born April 20, 1766, and died two or three years since at an advanced age.  She was the daughter of Benjamin Whittaker who lived on the farm now owned by Roswell Mend, Esq.  He removed to Susquehanna two or three years before Wyoming was taken by the Indians in 1778.  At that time Mary was about twelve years old.  Before the attack, the settlers went into the fort which had been erected there.  The occupants could not hold it against the assault, and agreed to surrender under the promise of being protected and saved.  No sooner had the Indians entered than they commenced a general massacre and very few escaped.  Mary and her father were in the fort and both were saved.  Brant took her by the hair of the head and held her up by one hand and painted her face with red paint with the other, and then let her go telling her “that was the mark of safety."
     When the fort was surrendered the Indians flocked in, the settlers laid down their arms and the women and children fled and huddled themselves into one corner in expectation of instant death.  John Finch, a little boy, the son of John Finch, of stouter heart than some others, laughed at the odd and grotesque appearance of the Indians, and one raised his tomahawk to strike him down.  Brant saw the motion of the Indian, seized and ordered him not to injure the boy.
     Mr. Whittaker returned back to Minisink and settled on the farm afterwards owned by Abraham Bennett, but after peace was established removed and located at the Cookhouse, on the Delaware.  Mary in the mean time married Mr. Fullerton and remained in the town.
     It would seem that some escaped the Indian massacre at Wyoming to encounter the same danger from the same quarter at Minisink the ensuing year.  When the Indians invaded Minisink in 1779 under Brant they scowred the settlement, distroyed all the property of a movable character, burnt the houses and murdered all who come in their way. Among others they visited the premises of Mr. Whittaker and the inmates fled elsewhere for safety.  Mary hid herself in an old potatoe hole in which there was some straw covered with boards.  The Indians searching around came and stood on the boards and so near her that she could have touched their feet with her hand, but they did not suspect her or any one to be hid there, they left and she escaped. We are told that.  Mary at all times in after life entertained the most cordial hatred for the Indians, and could not, down to her death, converse about them without being greatly excited.  We do not wonder at this: she saw what they achieved at Wyoming and Minisink, and the horrid spectacles were deeply en-graven upon her young and sensitive mind, so that no lapse of time could efface them.  We should wonder if she had felt otherwise towards them.
     Ridgeberry.-This village is pleasantly situated upon a long low ridge running North and South, which was noted for the number and variety of the berries which grew on it; and at the erection of the Presbyterian church it received the name of Ridgeberry, in allusion to the facts above stated.- The village as it grew up took its name from that of the church.  Benjamin Dunning came to this place in 1809 from Walkill where he was born.  He is the son of John Dunning, and the grandson of Jacob, one of the first settlers in the town of Goshen, in west division.  The family is English. Some of the early settlers at and near this locality were Benjamin Howell, James Hulse, John Dunken, Benjamin Smith, Isaac Decker, Jonathan Bailey, Richard Hulse, John Hallock, Sen., Nathaniel Bailey, Israel Hallock, Moses Overton, Noyes Wickham, Richard Ellison and Charles Durling.  John Dunken was killed at the battle of Minisink.
     Up to 1800 the population was sparse and improved spots few and far between.  The present plot of the village was owned by Benjamin Dunning, Jonathan Bailey, Benjamin Howell, Isaac Decker and others.
     John Hallock, Sen.-This individual came from England to Mattatuck, on the east end of Long Island, at an early period.  The family tradition is that two emigrant ships came over at the same time and the passengers located on the Island-that the settlers staid but a short time, being driven off by the Indians-that they left and a majority of them returned to England-that in a short time they came back to the Island and located the second time.  The names of some of the families were Hallock, Wells, Case and Horton.  During the war of the Revolution John Hallock, Sen. removed from the Island to Oxford in this county, and during its continuance performed various services in guarding the passes in the Highlands.  Before leaving the Island he performed military service there, and left when taken possession of by the English.  His brother Daniel acted as his substitute at Fort Montgomery when taken in 1777 and escaped.  In 1783 he purchased two hundred acres of John Scott, south of the village, a part of which is still in the possession of his descendents-the land extended west and Brookfield is situated on the purchase.  He gave the lot on which the Baptist Church stands in that village.  When he was building his log cabin he fell short of nails, and in order to raise funds traded off a good new hat for one of less value and with the difference purchased the nails to finish the building.
     John Hallock, Jun.-This gentleman inherited his paternal estate, and was an active patron of the village for many years.  Mr. Hallock was pleasant and agreeable in his manners, lively and social; with a good share of ready off-hand talent which made him a very useful man in his town.  This brought hint into public notice, and being of the dominant party in town, county and state, he had a controlling influence in the politics of the county.  His town was strong and held the balance of power, and “As Minisink went so went the county.”  Offices of every grade, from that of a Justice of the Peace, through a Judgeship to a member in Congress were in turn held by him, in all of which he acted his part with fidelity and great purity of motive.  We never heard that his conduct in that respect was questioned at any time, and he deserves to be well and long remembered by his native town.  He possessed great good humor and a pleasant vein of wit, which would occasionally flash and gleam out in spite of all exertions to restrain it.
     Daniel Dunning, a great grandson of Michael Dunning of Goshen, shortly after the Revolution removed, when young, with his stepfather, to this town.  His uncle Benjamin Dunning was killed at the battle of Minisink, being shot while crossing the Delaware at the close of the battle.
     We should like to be more particular, but the necessity imposed on us to curtail our paper to a given number of pages forbids it.

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      *Errata read Isaac Dolsan