Page 12
History of Orange County
Town of Montgomery
Page 12
Charles continued to reside during his life on the spot selected by his father. Capt. William Jackson of the Revolution, and the father of Capt. William Jackson of Neelytown, and Dr. Samuel Jackson of the Navy, married a daughter of Charles Booth. George, the other son, made a new location on the original purchase and built a house on the farm owned by William Booth of the last generation, just east of the thread of woods separating the lands of Mrs. George Conning from the Booth estate, and about the fourth of a mile south west from the late residence of William Booths deceased. This, however, was worn out half a century since. The largest part of this one thousand acres is still held by the Booth family, where it has been for 120 years. At early period in the history of the town, Mr. George Booth was an active member of the community, and we find his name on the Records as early as 1770, discharging the office of a Justice of the Peace. The Booth family emigrated first to Long Island, and from there to this town. The first and second generation of this family were large and very tall men, far more so than those of the present.
Bookstaver.—Among the early settlements we mention the one made on the farm now owned by Mr. David Bookstaver, a mile or two north of the Dutch Church. At this locality, Jacob Bookstaver, Frederick Sinsabaugh and Johannes Youngblood, in 1735, purchased a tract of 800 acres of William Sharpus, of the city of New York. The land cleared up by these individuals is said to have been among the first disrobed of its native woods in this vicinity. If this was so, they must have taken possession and made clearings before the date of their purchase; for the German Reformed Church in the immediate vicinity of this settlement was organized in 1732, three years before, and, of necessity, there must have been other clearings previous to the date of the deed, made by the then members of this congregation. To support the truth of this tradition, we are forced to adopt the supposition above expressed. It was a common everyday occurrence with the early settlers to locate and procure the title afterwards.
The first crop put in was wheat, and they committed it to the virgin soil, broken up and dug over by a hoe only, and then left to be taken care of and nourished by the rains of autumns and the vernal sun.
"Be gracious, Heaven! for now laborious man
Has done his part. Ye fostering breezes, blow!
Ye softening dews, ye tender showers, descend!
And temper all, thou world-reviving sun."
These individuals were from Germany, and, on arriving in the country, came to this town. In the history of the German Reformed Church of this town, it will be found that Johannes Youngblood (then spelled Jong Bloet,) was the first Elder and Jacob Bookstaver, (then spelled Booch Staher,) the first deacon. This church was built and congregation formed as early as 1732. Some of the land then purchased by these individuals is still in the ownership of their descendents, of whom Mr. Bookstaver, the gentleman above mentioned, is one in the third degree from his ancestor, Jacob Bookstaver. Some of the descendents of these early settlers are now of the fifth generation.
This class of emigrants was similar to the Germans who now come to the country, and are disseminating themselves over the Western States. They had means sufficient to bring them here, and pay for a few hundred acres of new land beside. This was all they absolutely needed; for, being nationally thrifty. frugal and industrious, the first crop, would supply their wants for the table, and their own hands could erect the log cabin to shield them from the heat of summer and protect them from the cold, rude blasts of winter. The climate of the region they came from in Europe was, perhaps, nearly as rigorous as this during the cold season of the year, and, therefore, this class of emigrants experienced but little danger in this respect; though, doubtless, they were subject to the fevers incident to all new countries, and which prevailed in this vicinity through half a century of early cultivation. When these men came to this new location, the land was covered by a dense and unbroken forest, the season so far advanced, and the winter would be so soon upon them, that they were forced to protect themselves as best they could. To erect even a log cabin was out of the question:—their neighbors, few and far between, and but little better off than themselves in facilities to accommodate them—like the inhabitants of the regions of the North, and the earlier settler, Johannes Miller, on the hill at the Walkill, hereinafter mentioned; they concluded to excavate a resting place for the winter in the side of a hill, and abide there till Spring, with its genial influences, should dissolve the snow drifts, and permit them to go abroad and bestow some labor upon family comforts. This location was in the side of a gravelly hill, just east of the Brick Church, and a north of the present Newburgh and Cochecton turnpike: and there, in that humble dwelling, lowly as the Saviour's birth place, the first born of Mr. Bookstaver was permitted to see the light of heaven and hear the howlings of the winter’s storm.