The names of the fifteen townships that comprise Sullivan County can arbitrarily be divided into six groups; I say arbitrarily because positive information is lacking in many cases. Sometimes, upon investigation, the obvious ceases to be as plain as previously thought.

My six groups are as follows: Biblical 1, Indian 3, descriptive personal names 3, patriotic 1, and debatable 2.

In the first group there is only one town, BETHEL. This is the two Hebrew words (transliterated) beth = house, and El = God. About 12 miles north of Jerusalem, this village is frequently mentioned in the Bible, the place of Jacob's ladder dream being the most familiar. It is surprising that with the New England background of many their penchant for Biblical personal so few of this class appear on the Sullivan County map. The same people settled neighboring Pike and Wayne Counties in Pennsylvania, and there we have, among others, Damascus, Bethany, Promised Land, Galilee and Lord's Valley.

In the descriptive class, which is self-explanatory, the town names are: FALLSBURG, FORESTBURGH, HIGHLAND, LUMBERLAND and ROCKLAND. Whereas the earliest maps show both of the first two names with the Celtic final syllable "burgh," time has eroded the Scotch-Irish suffix to the Germanic "burg" in the case of FALLSBURG. Only the determined efforts of town historian Elsie Winterberger have prevented the town of FORESTBURGH from going the same route. (For an interesting treatment of this subject see Names on the Land, George R. Stewart, New York, 1945, and see how Newburgh and Pittsburgh fought to save themselves from Teutonization!)

Of the three towns that bear personal names, FREMONT, THOMPSON and TUSTEN, we have an interesting cross-section of local heroes.

John Charles Fremont (1813-1890) was born in Georgia of a French father and a FFV mother. A topographical engineer in the U.S. Army, his career was advanced by his marriage to a prominent Senator's daughter. Working with Kit Carson, he mapped what is now much of the northwest United States. His anti-slavery beliefs led to his election as Senator (from California) and nomination as the first Republican presidential candidate. When the Civil War began, Fremont was put in charge of the western department, based on St. Louis. His flamboyant "court" of foreign officers and advocacy of the large German populationon's rights, made him the darling of that segment of the people. hen the town of FREMONT was erected in 1852, the large German population opted to name it for their champion.

William A. THOMPSON (1762-1847) was a native of Connecticut who settled in what is now the town bearing his name circa 1796 where he erected a gristmill. A Yale graduate and lawyer, Thompson had invested in large tracts of land (at a dollar an acre!) in this area, and decided to settle here. In 1802 he was named Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Ulster County, and, in 1803, became the first County Judge of Sullivan County. He built a mansion at Thompsonville, and had hoped that that village would become the county seat. In his later career he became an authority on fossils and was a member of many learned societies. He outlived three wives and was the father of 16 children!

An example of Colonial versatility, Benjamin TUSTEN (1743-1779) was a native of Long Island whose father brought him to the then frontier village physician and was a native of Long Island whose father brought him to the then Goshen in Orange County in 1746. He became a Surrogate of the Orange County courts. In the American Revolution he was named colonel of the Goshen militia, and in that capacity he led his command against the forces of Joseph Brant at the battle of Minisink Ford in Sullivan County. Surrounded by the Mohawks and Tories, Tusten reverted to his role as physician, and was tending the wounded when Brant's men broke through the Patriot lines and massacred most-of the defenders, including the colonel/doctor/judge, Benjamin Tusten.

Of what I call patriotic names, there is only one example, the town of LIBERTY.

The Lenni-Lenape, or Delaware, Indians, who were native to this region, gave Sullivan County three town names -- COCHECTON, MAMAKATING and NEVERSINK. All three towns carry the suffix that is representative of the post-glottal click, and is variously spelled as "unk," "ing," "ink," and similar sounds and spellings. The suffix is translated as meaning "at the place where..."

NEVERSINK is an inspired bit of seventeenth century orthography which was untrammeled, inspired and often phonetic. The Lenape word for a large rock or boulder is "nyah." It appears, without the suffix, in the name Nyack, and in the New Jersey Highlands, with the suffix, as Navasink, the place of the large boulder. Either with deliberate intent, or unintentionally, it appears as early as 1779 on Sauthier's map as Neversink. The boulder referred is presumably Tri-State Rock at Carpenter's Point in Port Jervis, where the Neversink River enters the Delaware.

The etymology of COCHECTON, or, as it was originally spelled Cushetunk, is uncertain. Cushetunk is one of the oldest names in the region. Isaac A. Chapman, History of Wyoming [valley], Wilkes Barre, 1830, mentions a Lenape signer of the Treaty of 1737, named Tishekunk, and elsewhere states that the settlement at Coshutunk ... in 1760 contained thirty dwelling houses, three large log-houses one block house ... one grist-mill and one saw-mill," without giving the exact location of the place other than being in the Wyoming Valley. There is also a large city in Ohio named Coshocton, but none of these places can give the exact meaning of the word, or words.

One of the more amusing names is MAMAKATING, and its origins can get you an argument in Wurtsboro or Bloomingburg anytime. In order to make an adjective e a superlative, the Lenapes reiterated the word. Thus the adjective "bad," which in the Lenape tongue is "ma," is doubled to "ma-ma" to mean "very bad," or even "wicked." Trouble comes with the noun; is it "cottin," or is it "katin"? One means "a hill", and the other is a place, or settlement. Thus Mamakating is either a very wicked place, or a very bad hill. We eschew this argument!

The first of what I choose to call the debatables, is really hairsplitting. DELAWARE, formed after the Civil War and the last of the towns to be established poses a minor question; is it named aft the river which flows on its western boundary, or does it take its name from the Delaware Indians, the name by which the white men knew the Lenni Lenapes?

The residents of the town and village of CALLICOON and Callicoon Center have adopted the wild turkey as their totem because the Dutch word for that wily bird is "kalkoën", and its replica turns in the wind as the weather-vane over the Callicoon railroad station and it picture is painted on the side of the fire truck. But is it really the source of that name? In Dickon Among the Lenape Indians, M.R. Harrington, New York, 1938, the glossary uses the word "kákuhná", or in plural form "kakûná", as meaning the joined leggings or chaps worn by the Lenapes. Now, Callicoon Creek bifurcates (at Hortonville) where the North Branch enters. And looking at the map, that looks mighty like a pair of britches.

See what makes digging through history such fun?

[Feldman Index]