Community

Three railroads, a canal, dozens of industries, and hundreds of hotels have come and gone since Sullivan County was formed on March 27, 1809. In the ensuing 200 years, famous stars of sport and screen have worked and played here, and some of the nation's most infamous and despicable gangsters have lived and died here. The movie-making industry, now headquartered in chic and glamorous Hollywood, first came of age here. Woodstock, the so-called event that defined a generation, took place within our borders. Our history is rich and colorful, and that history deserves to be examined and celebrated as we mark our Bicentennial, because as Professor Edward Johnson once noted, "If you don't know history, you don't know anything. You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree."

The Twin Villages

In the beginning, the land we see around us was the home of the Lenni-Lenape tribe, a branch of the Delaware Indians. They lived off the land, hunting and fishing, and raising corn.

Nanismos was a chief who arranged the sale of land (for 149lbs, 16 shillings) that was granted to Johannes Hardenburgh from Queen Anne in 1709. By 1749, Hardenburgh had lost most of the patent tract and Robert Livingston had acquired more than half of the original tract. That included what is now Orange, Ulster, Greene, Delaware and Sullivan counties. Our area is Great Lot #4.

There were many trails in this wild paradise. Names like Mary Smith Trail, Beaverkill Trail, Berry Brook Trail, and Cross Mt trail are familiar because of the roads that bear their names. The most important trail, was the Sun trail that was traveled by Jehiel Stewart and his family on their way to settling this area back in 1789. The possible origin of the name, Sun trail, was because the trail ran east to west (much like Rt 17). The theory is that an Indian runner could start at sun-up and by running all day could reach the other end by sun-down. It ran from the Hudson to the East Branch of the Delaware. It was on this trail that the Indians massacred Lt. Graham and his men at Grahamsville in the Battle of Chestnut woods. It was this trail that Jehiel Stewart and his family traveled to settle in Westfield Flats.

Jehial and his wife Rachael left their home in Blandford or Middletown, Massachusetts after his service in the Revolutionary War. They settled for about a year in Warwarsing before starting out again. Jehiel, his very young family, his brother Luther and an ox sleigh of household goods worked their way down the Beaverkill, crossing it about 25 times. A sleigh was used because this was only a trail. A wagon with wheels could never make such a journey. When the runners wore out on the rocks, he cut some more out of the woods. The big flats, at the junction of the and the Beaverkill, was where they settled about 1789. The area was referred to as Big Beaverkill Flats. Jehiel built his first home of bark and poles. He later built the first wooden house, a mill and then an inn. The house is presumed to be at the site of Dot Haynes home. Rachael Stewart became known as an herb doctor and traveled among the new settlers on horseback to attend their needs. The Stewarts had 15 children. Luther Stewart built a sawmill near the forks of the rivers.

Samuel Darbee came to Big Beaverkill Flats in 1790. He established a mill for processing wool. Wool was transported form long distances as homegrown wool was spun and knit. Settlers sent the woven wool to Darbee for cleansing and pressing before it was dyed. This mill was near the site of the Palen Mill and operated until 1826. There was also a tannery in this area. (There was a great need for leather during the Civil War and some of it was provided from the Sullivan county area.)

Robert Cochran also came in 1790 and built a sawmill at the site of the Palen Grist mill. Water power was readily available from the Beaverkill. The area around the mill started to grow.

Some of the families that settled soon after the Stewarts were the Dodges, the Mortons, and the Williams, names that are familiar to us today. The Dodges built many homes on Rockland Road. The house on the corner of Palen St and Rockland Rd. is one. Another very impressive building is the Dee Bryztwa house on upper Rockland Rd. This house is a center hall colonial that has a similar exterior style as the Palen St house. The house where I grew up, was built by the Dodges in 1885 (the basement wall has a date of October 10, 1885. The property where the Methodist Church stood was donated by Austin Dodge. The Church was built in 1869 and burned January 26, 1901 and rebuilt again.

Originally the town was part of the town of Rochester, Ulster County. In 1798 it became a part of Neversink. In the early days the area was known as Lower Westfield (Roscoe) to distinguish it from Upper Westfield (Livingston Manor). A bill to take Rockland from Neversink was introduced in the Legislature in 1809 and made into law on the 29^th day of March of that year. It provided that the new town should have an existence on the first day of April 1810 and the first meeting would be at the house of Isaac Worden. Israel Dodge was the first town supervisor. The first Postmaster was Samuel Darbee and the Rockland Post office was established in 1826.

The first store in the area was opened in 1820 by William Sprague and Hezekiah Loveland and it was located about a half mile east of Roscoe.

The first school house was built near the Darbee Brook. About 1849 the district was divided. District #1 built a new school house on Darbee knoll. District #7 built the building that is now used by the Twin Village Golf course. There is a picture hanging in the building that has the students attending around the turn of the century. My Grandfather and Great Uncle are in that picture.

As the area grew, the land was cleared of timber and farming became an important way of life. Grain had to be ground into flour for bread. The Rockland Grist Mill was built around 1850 after the original saw mill burned. According to Dot Zane, there are about 5 or more house foundations on the Island behind the mill. These were believed to have belonged to the factory and used by the factory workers. The Mill was built by a man named Diamond Joe Reynolds. He sold the mill to the Palen Family and left this area to head to the “Wild West”. The last letter received from Diamond Joe was from around Iowa. His trade mark signature was the name Joe with a Diamond drawn around it. He donated the bell that was in the Methodist Church in Rockland. It had his trademark signature and the date 1869.

The Rockland Mill, as it was known in the 1800’s was an “undershot mill” and had water turbines, making it very unique for its time. In the 1800’s people bartered for flour. Mrs. Fannie (Palen) Umpshnieder told me she remembered my Grandfather and Great Uncle as children, coming to the mill with their mother to trade eggs for flour. The Post Office was where the former Cains Antiques store was until it was moved to the home of Clara Weiss.

The tall grey apartment building was the Plumbing and Heating shop owned by Fred Dickman. Cains antiques was owned by Knices then Wrights. The Fairway Inn was a general store that was nick-named “Just out John’s”. The Yellow house below the Fairway was a beautiful home owned by Trempers, then later by George and Winnie Temple. Past the Fairway Inn, the large white house was a boarding home. The Methodist church, where there were suppers held in the basement, was a couple of doors up and the parsonage was right next to it (the Schulte house). The Meola Apartment building, was the Reed Furniture store and Funeral parlor. Funerals were usually conducted in the homes of the deceased.

The Blacksmith shop was located where Spiro’s parking lot is now. Dot Zane’s house was a hat shop. There was a commercial fish hatchery on Hatchery Rd. (near Johnston’s house.) When the hatchery closed that 3 story building was rolled down through the fields on logs to become the firehouse for many years.

The trout fishing in this area has been famous for 200 years. An interesting story about the Hatchery and the Palen Mill…. There was a huge trout that lived in the mill pond. Many fishermen had tried to catch it but to no avail. It hadn’t lived this long without being fairly clever (for a fish). The Hatchery wanted that fish to use as breeding stock. Some of the men at the mill decided the only way to catch the fish was to open the millrace and drain the mill pond. While the water was draining, the Great Trout tried to escape through the gate, only to be tackled by someone and wrestled out of the water. He was dumped into a wooden nail keg. After all this, the Great Trout did not survive. The Hatchery had him mounted and displayed him on the wall until they closed. They gave the fish back to the Palen’s where it still rests today. The trout weighed 9 ¼ pounds.

This area has appealed to tourists for many years. The Rockland house was built by Jay Green around the turn of the century. He owned all the land where the golf course is now. That was a vegetable farm that supplied food for the hotel and also shipped produce on the railroad to NYC. In 1909, a Rockland house ad boasted “Accommodates 100. Spring water protected by Up to date concrete work. Vegetables from our 100 acre farm. Poultry served 2 or 3 times a week. Long distance telephone. Lighted by gas.” He decided later to build the golf course and hired young men like Ray Pomeroy and Paul Temple to pick rocks. There were several boarding houses in the area. The village of Rockland prospered until the Railroad went through Westfield Flats. The center for development shifted toward the Railroad for convenience.

The Railroad station at Roscoe was known as Westfield Flats from 1873 to about 1884, then as Rockland to about 1900 because telegraphers often confused Westfield Flats with Westfield in the western part of the state. Roscoe was the name chosen after Roscoe Conkling a US Senator got a Post Office for the new town. At the time the Rail road was built, there were only 28 houses in the Roscoe area. The Rail road changed things dramatically. And so did the demise of the Rail road.

The Following was submitted by Darlene Beers. Darlene grew up in Roscoe and has spent her entire life here and has enjoyed researching the history of the area. With our Bicentennial next year I though it would be interesting to share with our residents some of her research.