Page 15
History of Orange County
Town of Montgomery
Page 15
A short time after the erection of this mill, Mr. Stephen Gilbert erected one on the same side of the stream, but lower down, and where the bridge now crosses it. We cannot state the date of this erection. Gilbert parted with it to Leonard D. Nicoll and Thomas Palmer; they, to Silas and Daniel Woodruff; they, to John V. Brevoort, who owned it in 1799, with 106 acres of land adjoining: be parted with it to Schoonmaker, who owned it in 1804; and he to Mr. Jas. Galatian, who owned it until his death, and is now known as Galatian’s mill.
This is a valuable mill site, and not expensive in the maintenance of the dam. The ice is broken up by the falls above, which might otherwise endanger its safety. It is in the midst of a grain-growing district, and there is no other one in the immediate vicinity to do the ordinary country work.
We are not well informed of the name of the early settlers at this locality and vicinity, yet, in addition to those previously named we mention, Francy Cane, Hugh Milliken, Jacob Bodine, his sons Charles and Lewis, Jonathan Low, Peter Bodine, Conrad Moore, William Bodine, Robert Kidd, Thomas Clineman and William Erwin. The Millikens and Kidds were Irish; the Bodines, Huguenots; and Moore, Dutch. Some of these individuals we find on the town records as early as 1768:—the families had, no doubt, been there twenty years or more before that time.
This location is beautiful and romantic, but there is not enough of poetry and fancy about us to do it justice. The reader must be content with our cold historic gravity, and go and see for himself. When we began to write this paper, we promised not to exceed the truth knowingly, and, to ensure mere matter of fact, threw away all our poetry, and clipped close off the wings of imagination to the very bone. But, standing as we now do on the elevated bank of the stream the vicinity of the falls, we cannot do less than inform the reader what we see.
The neat little village, as it lies almost embosomed in evergreen and other forest trees, on both sides of the stream, is spread out before you, so that you see every house. The Walkill—rich, at this vicinity, in hydraulic power—like a foaming steed, comes on from the South, and, as if chafed by the slightest impediment at the head of the falls, bursts away, then leaps with maddened fury the fearful height, and, roaring, plunges into the eddying gulf beneath. Then recovering, but, as if stunned by the sudden and long descent, groans, and with heaving breast decked with snow white foam, glides off to the North, never again to repeat the leap. The mass of the buildings, being of recent construction, appear neat and beautiful, make a favorable impression on the spectator, and impart life and animation to all around. The dwellings are of every grade and size, from the neat little cottage with its cultivated garden, to the stately mansion which graces some gentle knoll, or looks down in gentlemanly grandeur from a more elevated height. Though the village is situated on high land, yet it is made to appear comparatively low by the higher and more elevated lands by which it is surrounded. From all these heights in every direction around, the village is distinctly seen, as it lies like a snow drift in the midst of a forest. These elevations are occupied by the residences of Messrs. William Smith, Cornelius Neaffie, the old venerable mansion of William Erwin, of Charles Bodine and others on the west; and by that of Jesse Schofield, Esq., the Presbyterian Church, Seth Capron, George Schofield, Augustus Schofield and others on the east. Directly at your side, and on the same line, are the falls, clad either in beauty or grandeur as they may strike the spectator. Close in and under the falls, and nestling as it were for safety from the eternal vibration that shakes its foundation, stands the cotton mill, fed from a canal which taps the dam from above. Off runs the stream to leap the dam at Galatian’s, but ere leaves, and as if in boyish sport and frolick, hurls in one continuous round the wheels of that ancient mill. There is now seen a horseman drawing up his steed at one end of the bridge, to wait an instant till the honest farmer, with his load, shall have passed over. He moves, and before the sound of his horse’s hoofs have died away, we hear the merry laugh and pleasant voices of the girls and boys in chattering groups, returning from the school house. Reader! what more do you wish to be added to the scene?
The banks of the stream are studded throughout this locality by evergreens, and its sides walled in by the ever-enduring rocks. Hark! the busy sound of industry is heard as it comes on the balmy softness of the evening air. Manhood and youth are yet busily engaged before partaking of the evening meal, and retiring to that repose which virtuous industry can alone enjoy. Here and yonder over the stream stand the factory crowded and alive with children, with intelligent machines that work with the power and skill of men. The view from this locality is not of a limited character but extensive and fine. At the west the Shawangunk mountains lift up their long line of azure blue as they extend to the north—far, in that direction, the elevated peaks of the Catskills raise aloft their massy heads till they seem to lean and rest against the canopy of the sky; while at the east and south the bold and broken eminences of the Highlands as they gird the country round in those directions, and approximate the Hudson, are distinctly within the line of vision. Though the locality in fact is in an elevated situation, yet, being thus surrounded by the broken links of a mountain chain, it seems to be at the bottom of a shallow geological basin.