[Cochecton,] the name of a town and of a village in Sullivan County, extended on early maps to an island, to a range of hills, and to a fall or rift in the Delaware River, is written Cashieghtunk and in other forms on Sauthier's map of 1774; Cushieton on a map of 1768; Keshecton, Col. Cortlandt, 1778; Cashecton, N. Y. Land Papers, 699; Cushietunk in the proceedings of the Treaty of Easton, 1758, and in other New Jersey records: Cashighton in 1744; Kishigton in N. Y. records in 1737, and Cashiektunk by Cadwallader Colden in 1737, as the name of a place near the boundmark claimed by the Province of New Jersey, latitude 41 degrees 40 minutes. "On the most northerly branch of Delaware River, which point falls near Cashiektunk, an Indian village, on a branch of that river called the Fish Kill." (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv, 177.) In the Treaty of Easton, 1758, the Indian title to land conveyed to New Jersey is described: "Beginning at the Station Point between the Province of New Jersey and New York, at the most northerly end of an Indian settlement on the Delaware, known by the name of Casheitong." Station Point, called also Station Rock, is about three miles southeast of the present village of Cochecton, on a flat at a bend in the river, by old survey twenty-two miles in a straight line from the mouth of Maghaghkamik Creek, now Carpenter's Point, in the town of Deerpark, Orange County. Cochecton Falls, so called, are a rocky rapid in a narrow gorge covering a fall of two or three hundred feet, the obstruction throwing the water and the deposits brought down back upon the low lands. The Callicoon flows to the Delaware a few miles northeast of the falls. Between the latter and the mouth of the Callicoon lies the Cochecton Flats or valley. The precise location of "Station Point or Rock," described as "At the most northerly end" of the Indian village, has not been ascertained, but can be readily found. The late Hon. John C. Curtis, of Cochecton, wrote: "Our beautiful valley, from Cochecton Falls to the mouth of the Callicoon, was called, by the Indians, Cushetunk, or low lands," the locative of the name having been handed down from generation to generation, and an interpretation of the name which is inferentially correct. There is no such word as Cash or Cush in the Delaware dialect, however; it stands here obviously as a form of K'sch, intensive K'schiecton (Len. Eng. Dic.); Geschiechton, Zeisberger, verbal noun, "To wash," "The act of washing," as by the "overflow of the water of a sea or river. . . . The river washed a valley in the plain"; with suffix -unk (K'schiechton-unk—compressed to Cushetunk), denoting a place where the action of the verb was performed, i. e. a place where at times the land is washed or overflowed by water, from which the traditionary interpretation, "Low land." [FN-1]
The Indian town spoken of was established in 1744, although its site was previously occupied by Indian hunting houses or huts for residences while on hunting expeditions. In Col. Mss. v. 75, p. 10, is preserved a paper in which it is stated that the Indians residing at Goshen, Orange County, having "Removed to their hunting houses at Cashigton," were there visited, in December, 1744, by a delegation of residents of Goshen, consisting of Col. Thomas DeKay, William Coleman, Benj. Thompson, Major Swartwout, Adam Wisner, interpreter, and two Indians as pilots, for the purpose of ascertaining the cause of the removal; that the delegation found the residents composed of two totemic families, Wolves and Turkeys; that, having lost their sachem, they were debating "Out of which tribe a successor should be chosen"; that they had removed from Goshen through fear of the hostile intention on the part of the settlers there, who "Were always carrying guns." Later, a delegation from the Indian town visited Goshen, and was there "Linked together" with Colonel De Kay, as the representative of the Governor of the province, in their peculiar form of locking arms, for three hours, as a test of enduring friendship. [FN-2] It was the only treaty with the Indians in Orange County of which there is record.
Aside from its Indian occupants the town is historic as the point forming the old northwest boundmark of New Jersey (Lat. 41 degrees 40 minutes), as recognized in the Treaty of Easton. (See Pompton.) From its association with the history of three provinces, the story of the town is of more than local interest. The lands were ultimately included in the Hardenberg Patent, and most of the Indian descendants of its founders of 1744 followed the lead of Brant in the Revolution. They probably deserved a better fate than that which came to them. They are gone. The long night with its starless robe has enveloped them in its folds—the ceaseless wash of the waters of the Delaware upon the beautiful valley of Cochecton, hymns their requiem.
[FN-1] Probably the same name is met in Sheshecua-ung, the broad flats opposite and above the old Indian meadows, Wyoming Valley, where the topography is substantially the same.
[FN-2] A belt was presented by the Indians to Col. De Kay, but what became of it neither the records or tradition relates.
Here we close our survey of the only monuments which remain of races which for ages hunted the deer, chanted songs of love, and raised fierce war cries—the names which they gave and which remain of record of the hills and valleys, the lakes and waterfalls, amid which they had their abiding places. Wonderfully suggestive and full of inferential deductions are those monuments; volumes of history and romance are linked with them; the most controlling influences in making our nation what it is is graven in their crude orthographies. Their further reclamation and restoration to the geographical locations to which they belonged is a duty devolving on coming generations.