Early Settlers of the Shawangunk Region
On the shore of Pleasant lake, in the town of Thompson, Nehemiah Smith bought a tract of land at the beginning of the present century, built a log house, and constructed barracks in which to store hay and grain. After putting in some winter cereals, Smith returned to Southeast, Putnam county, where his family resided. The following February, he started for his new home in the wilds of Sullivan, accompanied by four of his neighbors and their families. His own household consisted of his wife, two children, and a nephew, a lad of thirteen years.
Nehemiah Smith bought a tract of land at the beginning of the present century, built a log house, and constructed barracks in which to store hay and grain. After putting in some winter cereals, Smith returned to Southeast, Putnam county, where his family resided. The following February, he started for his new home in the wilds of Sullivan, accompanied by four of his neighbors and their families. His own household consisted of his wife, two children, and a nephew, a lad of thirteen years. Crossing the river at Newburgh, they there hired teams to take them to the end of their journey. The Newburgh and Cochecton turnpike was then good as far as Montgomery; beyond that point the roads had no existence except in name. After leaving Montgomery, they traveled the first day as far as the Barrens, where the accommodations were meagre for so large a party-one room and an attic. The next night they reached Thompson's Mills, where was a backwoods tavern. Here the facilities for entertaining travelers were much better. Beyond this point the road was only a line of blazed trees.
The snow was deep, and the path unbroken; had the ground been bare they could not have driven their team over the route on account of its roughness. Up and down ravines, across streams, and under the sombre foliage of hemlocks so dark at times that the sky could not be seen, the party plodded; and they were obliged to look sharp about them to keep the marked trees in view.
Slowly the jaded horses labored through the snow, sometimes sinking almost to their backs, now plunging over the side of a cradle-hole, or stumbling over the trunk of a fallen tree. When the sleigh threatened to upset, then there was a panic among the women and children; but it was quickly remedied when the strong arms of the men came to the rescue. They were obliged to leave one sleigh load in the woods, where the goods remained until the men returned and carried them on their backs to their destination. At this time there was no house in Monticello, nor even a line of marked trees to that point.
The dwellings of these settlers were very primitive structures, built of logs with bark roofs. The floors-as soon as they could afford that luxury-were made by splitting logs in half, and laying the flat side uppermost. The fireplaces were commodious affairs, without jambs, into which a back-log ten feet in length could be rolled. For windows, they at first used paper, previously rubbed with hog's lard-a kind of glazing that shed a most beautiful light when the sun shone on it. The chimneys were made of stones plastered with mud; the same primitive cement was used in stopping up the chinks between the logs. When the room was lighted up of an evening by the glowing fire extending nearly across one side of the house, there was an air of comfort within the interior of that log-cabin that is not to be found in the most sumptuous apartment. And when to the music of the winds in the tall pines that grew by the door, there are added the lonely howl of the wolf and the scream of the panther, while within all was safe and snug, with the children sweetly sleeping in their cots-the picture is complete.
There was no cellar under the floor. Potatoes and other vegetables were stored in holes or dirt cellars close by the house. A mound of earth was heaped over these depositories, and it seems these mounds were a favorite resort for wolves. Fifty years afterwards the wife of Nehemiah Smith used to tell of having seen them there at night, when the moon made them visible. These animals were a source of great terror to the women and children, and their howlings were generally continued long into the night.
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