| The following article appeared in a special local history supplement of The River Reporter on January 1, 1998. |
By Bert S. Feldman
The River Reporter
Thursday, January 1, 1998
Sullivan County is growing up! Several of our 15 towns will be celebrating their bicentennials in 1998, and the parties that are being planned sound like humdingers!
As that old song goes, let’s turn back the hands of time, all the way back to 1743, in the capital city of Kingston, in the Royal Colony of New York. Ulster County was one of the earliest subdivisions in the colony -- all bearing royal names, from Kings, Queens, New York, Richmond, and, up the Hudson, Westchester, Dutchess (always misspelled), and on to Ulster and Albany.
The problem was simple. What to do with the unmapped wilderness south of the heights of the Catskill Mountains.
Only a handful of people, trappers, Indian traders and the like, inhabited this gloomy, dense hemlock forest. So, the colony’s General Assembly said, let us give that area a sort of semi-autonomous status, and call it the Mamakating Precinct. (The various spellings of that named place were as varied as could be.)
This vast tract, established by a vote of the general assembly, became, on December 17, 1743, a precinct -- a word and a concept of government which are very obscure.
Out of this unwanted so-called precinct, came Sullivan County, Orange County’s Town of Deerpark, which connected Orange County to the Delaware River, and part of the Town of New Hope in the area of present-day Cuddebackville and Otisville.
After the American Revolution, the New York State Legislature declared Mamakating to be a town, on March 7, 1788.
As settlers began coming into the new area, either up the Delaware River, the Mine Road (today’s Rt. 209), and through the Catskills from Ulster County, the legislature noted two things that needed to be done. On March 16, 1798, in order to create an even north boundary for the precinct, Ulster County released another piece of land, which became known as the Neversink tract. And, because the entire area was too large to handle easily, they split the Mamakating Precinct in half, along the lines of the Mongaup River. The new half, for obvious reasons, was named Lumberland.
As the area became more populated, more subdivisions became necessary.
Mamakating, on March 19, 1803, was cut north/south. The new section was named Thompson.
Lumberland was the next to be cut with an east/west slash. March 13, 1807, saw the creation of the Town of Liberty.
The interior of the county-to-be was made easier for access as New York State cut a road across the wilderness connecting the Delaware and Hudson Rivers, the two great arteries of travel. The new toll-road, named after its terminals, was called the Newburgh-Cochecton Highway. Today that highway bears the routes numbered 17B, 17, and 17K. Now, settlers poured in.
The result of this mass influx of people resulted in the establishment of a new county. Sullivan County was created by the legislature on March 27, 1809.
Practically twins, Rockland and Bethel became towns only seven days apart. The Town of Neversink became unwieldy to manage, so on March 20, 1808, it was divided, the Town of Rockland being the new town to the west of Neversink. And, on March 27, 1809, the same day as Sullivan County was established, Bethel was taken from Lumberland.
Now new towns were established in rapid order. March 9, 1826, saw Thompson and Neversink yield land to make the Town of Fallsburg; Cochecton was taken from Bethel on March 15, 1828.
Forestburgh was next in line, when on May 2, 1837, Mamakating and Thompson gave up more land for the new town.
Liberty was next to lose territory as the Town of Callicoon came into being on March 30, 1842. Then, seven years later, Callicoon was divided on March 27, 1842 with the establishment of the Town of Fremont.
Next were a pair of twins: Highland and Tusten. Both were created on December 17, 1853, offspring of Lumberland.
And, on March 1, 1869, Lumberland ceded land for Delaware, the last and only post-Civil War town.
There they are, 15 great towns to make up a greater body: Sullivan County.
