For about 60 or 70 years the inhabitants of that part of the present town of Deerpark, which formerly was in the town of Mamakating in Ulster County, had no nearer Justice of the Peace than in Rochester, in the same County, which was about 35 or 40 miles distant from the Peenpack neighborhood; and the services of that officer were unnecessary for the inhabitants of that neighborhood during that time, in which they had the honesty and prudence to adjust all matters relating to their mutual dealings. And the inhabitants of the lower neighborhood, who were in the County of Orange, and had settled there about 20 years after the settlement was made at Peenpack, must have resided there about 40 or 50 years before any Justice officiated in that neighborhood.
I presume that Jacobus (James) Van Auken was the first Justice of the Peace in the present town of Deerpark, and that he received his office from the authorities of the State of New Jersey before the line between the States became settled. He resided in the lower neighborhood. It was said that he was entirely illiterate, and that the wife of his son Daniel Van Auken, Leah Kittle, had been educated and could read and write, and did the same for her father-in-law when it became necessary for transacting his official business, in consequence of which she received the name of Justice in his time of life.
Benjamin Depuy and Philip Swartwout, Esquires, officiated as Justices of the Peace for the County of Ulster before the Revolutionary War commenced, and Anthony Van Etten and Solomon Kuykendall, Esquires, officiated as Justices of the Peace for the County of Orange, also before the commencement of the war, how long previous thereto I cannot determine, but think they must have come into office after the French war ended and before the year 1770. After the decease of Swartwout, Van Auken and Van Etten, which occurred, as has been mentioned, in the time of the war, Harmanus Van Inwegen became a Justice of the Peace of the County of Ulster and Levi Van Etten of Orange County. The former was a resident of the old town of Mamakating, and the latter of the former town of Minisink. Afterwards Peter G. Cuddeback became a Justice of the Peace of Ulster County, and officiated until he removed to Cayuga County.
After this time several individuals held the office in succession for the County of Orange, which became so altered, together with an alteration of the towns, as to include the present town of Deerpark in which Cuddeback resided. When the first and second churches of Mahackemeck congregation were built, a bench with a roof over it was made in each of those churches for a seat of such magistrates in time of divine service. [FN] When those civil officers were first introduced into this part of our country they were more highly esteemed than at present, though it did not require as good abilities and as much law knowledge to discharge their duties honorably in former times as at present, in consequence of the great increase of their business and a more general diffusion of law knowledge, also by having become familiarized among the people in a much greater degree than formerly.
[FN] This was very common in the Dutch Churches in this country at that time.
The descendants of the first settlers in the two neighborhoods mentioned have generally settled all their mutual dealings without the process of law, which has so continued to the present time; and before the Revolution the Justices must have had only a mere trifle of business. After the war ended law prosecutions and trials began, and their increase a few years thereafter made a great addition of business for the resident Justices in the towns mentioned, which rapidly augmented until the County of Sullivan was formed and became established out of a part of the old County of Ulster, and a part of the latter added to the old County of Orange, which transferred a great amount of law business from the present County of Ulster into the County of Sullivan.
After the Revolutionary War, the large forests of wild lands then in Ulster County contained a great amount of valuable pine, oak and hemlock timber, both near the Delaware river and for some miles distant from it. This valuable property became an object of enterprise for people to get and convey to market, first generally in the form of logs. Few owners of the land were in this part of the country, which gave people the opportunity to get it where they saw fit, but as the business extended owners were found and many people became engaged in manufacturing the timber into boards, scantling, &c., and into hewed timber, staves and shingles for market. Among these quite a great proportion of the residents in the former and present towns of Deerpark engaged, in which some did a small business, others on a medium scale, and some to a very great extent. This, with few exceptions, was done on a credit system, by running in debt to merchants and farmers for the necessary supplies the individuals wanted for their business, which generally was made payable every ensuing spring and fall, at which time the lumber was run down the river to market. In progressing in this manner many disappointments occurred which caused failures in making payments according to agreements, in consequence of disasters on the river, unsteady prices of lumber and of the produce necessary for that business, wages, &c., and many other causes of failures contributed to make business for justices, and constables of the old County of Ulster, who resided in the former town of Mamakating. As early as 1792 when I was constable and a resident of that town, I had to travel several times a distance of between 15 and 40 miles to serve processes for recovery of debts from persons who resided along the river between Pond Eddy and Cochecton, and who were in poor circumstances to pay debts. These lumbered under great disadvantages in getting round timber from the mountains bordering on the river, which business they had commenced after the war ended.
After the war terminated, boards and other sawed timber were much wanted for building purposes within the present town of Deerpark, where the enemy had burned the buildings of the inhabitants, and these materials were not manufactured in this vicinity at that time. It became necessary to build saw mills to furnish those articles, and three men, Capt. Abraham Cuddeback, Benjamin Cuddeback and Capt. Abraham Westfall, built a saw mill on a brook at that time termed Bush-kill, at or near the present tanning establishment of Mr. O. B. Wheeler, near the bridge across the Neversink river on the Mount Hope and Lumberland turnpike; and three other men, Benjamin Depuy, Esq., Elias Gumaer and Samuel Depuy, built a saw mill on the present premises of Abraham Cuddeback, Esq., on the same brook on which his present saw mill stands.
Near the Bush-kill saw mill at that time was much pine timber, and that mill continued to do considerable business for several years, and the same, and a few other mills west of it, manufactured the greatest part of the boards formerly used for the buildings in Orange County, and the shingles for roofing the same were generally made in the vicinity of those mills. All of which, during a certain period of time, made a great business, and some addition to that of our Justice's courts originated from it.