Joshua Mulock, of Minisink (now Greenville) was one of the men on deck, and he said that when he first heard the women and children scream in the cabin, he tried to break a grating in the deck to let them out and the boat went down so quick that it carried a part of his vest with it which caught fast. That held him and he went down under the boat. Luckily his vest tore loose, and he floated out from under the boat and came to the surface, where he was rescued. Jesse Green from present Greenville, and a man named Carey from present Wawayanda neighborhood, were also saved. Among those drowned were John Greenleaf, George Evertson, Matilda Helms and William Kelly and child from Minisink. The next year the bodies of Matilda Helms and Mr. Greenleaf were found among others at Cold Spring some distance down the river. They were buried by the coroner of Putnam County. The sloop was afterwards raised by its owners.
Next to the battle of Minisink this disaster furnished the greatest sensation of those early times. Mr. Mulock was a great humorist. On one occasion, a Mr. and Mrs. Lee, of Greenville, made Mr. and Mrs. Mulock an evening visit. When the visitors were seated in their wagon ready to start for home, one of them said to their host and hostess, "Now you must come and see us as soon as you can." "We'll promise to do so, sure!" said Mr. Mulock.
When Mr. and Mrs. Lee had arrived home, and she was in the house with a lighted candle looking at the clock and wondering how they came to stay until after midnight, and he was returning from the stables where he had placed the horse, they were surprised to hear a wagon driving up to the door. How much greater was their surprise when they both went to the gate to see who it was, and saw there Mr. and Mrs. Mulock. "You told us," said the former, "that we must come and see you as soon as we could, and here we are." Then after a laugh at Mr. and Mrs. Lee's apparent discomfiture, they went home, and told the joke round about to their friends. We give it to illustrate the jollity of those times.
From the years 1836 to 1854 the post office regulations for the three towns, under the name of Minisink, were a mail delivery Tuesdays and Fridays of each week. The mail was carried by a contractor, who left Goshen on those days in the morning in a one horse sulky or gig which easily carried the driver and mail bags. He came across the Wallkill at Pellet's Island to Ridgeberry; thence to Westtown, Unionville, Minisink (Greenville) and back through Bushville, South Centerville, Brookfield, Slate Hill, Denton and to Goshen. The trip was made in one day. Sometimes the carrier would have a young woman on the seat with him which invariably made him late and caused lots of grumbling among the people waiting for the mail. Few letters were received, and the only newspapers taken generally were the Goshen Democrat and Independent Republican, of Goshen. Not a daily paper then found its way in this region except at intervals. The rates of postage were, up to 1845, for a letter of a single sheet, not exceeding thirty miles, six cents; over thirty and not exceeding eighty miles, ten cents; over eighty and not over 150, twelve and one-half cents; over 150 and not over 400 miles, eighteen and three-quarter cents; over 400 miles, twenty-five cents. If the letter had two sheets of paper it was charged double, and if three sheets, triple rates; for each newspaper carried not over 100 miles, one cent; to any office in the State where printed, one cent; otherwise over 100 miles, one and a half cents. Pamphlets 100 miles, one and a half cents a sheet; over 100 miles, two and a half cents a sheet; if not published periodically, four and six cents a sheet, as to distance. Everything else was paid at letter postage at a quarter ounce rate. The letters then were sent without envelopes, folded so as to conceal the writing, and sealed with wax usually. The postage was collected on delivery. In 1854 the rates were reduced considerably, but all other features retained. In 1855, the writer, then a boy, was left temporarily in charge of the post-office at Slate Hill, which then paid the postmaster, a storekeeper, about $10 a year percentage. He then kept a store and the keeper of the office was considered a help to the store trade. A woman came in and asked if there was a letter for her. There was. She asked how much postage was due on it. There was eighteen cents. Then she asked to look at it. The verdant young man handed it to her. She opened it, glanced over the contents, then handed it back, saying, "I won't take it. There's nothing in it worth the money." The postmaster when informed of the incident later, said, "Boy, next time don't you hand out the letter till they hand over the money."
In 1852 the postage was reduced and a little later envelopes came in fashion. The Middletown, Unionville and Watergap Railroad was completed from Middletown to Unionville, June 2nd, 1868. That changed mail arrangements throughout the three towns. Slate Hill, Johnsons, Westtown and Unionville got a daily mail. Waterloo Mills, Denton and Bushville were abandoned, and Ridgeberry and South Centerville were supplied from Slate Hill. The railroad is now known as the New York, Susquehanna & Western, under control of the Erie. The increase in the amount of mail matter handled has been wonderful, and the offices which once had their mail matter carried on a two-wheel sulky twice a week easily, would now require a team of horses and a big wagon to move it every day.
The 4th and 5th days of January, 1835, were remarkably cold days and that winter was a terribly severe one. We have no thermometer records for our three towns of those days, but in New York City it was 5 degrees, in Newark 13 and Elizabethtown 18 degrees below zero for both days. In 1857 the 23rd of January was a remarkably cold day, the thermometer standing at 23 below in the early morning, 17 at noon, and 12 at night, when it began to snow and a deep snow came.
Orange County gave 3,541 votes for Van Buren and 2,242 for Harrison for President in 1836.
The local option law in our three towns has resulted in a continual no-license majority for about twenty-five years in Wawayanda; occasional no-license in Greenville and Minisink. The result of the election in 1907 gave no-license a majority in Minisink.
In ancient times elections were held in the spring for local officers, and in the fall for county, State and national officers. All the officers in the State are now elected in November on one day. In 1837, the States held election: Maine, 2nd Monday of September; Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, 1st Monday in August; Delaware, 1st Tuesday of October; Louisiana, 1st Monday of July; Tennessee and North Carolina, 1st Thursday in August; Vermont, 1st Tuesday in September; Georgia and Maryland, 1st Monday in October; New York, 1st Monday in November; Massachusetts, 2nd Monday in November; New Hampshire, 2nd Tuesday in March; Virginia and Connecticut in April; Rhode Island in August; South Carolina, 2nd Monday in October.
During the first early years of our history, where farmers kept large dairies, they made butter, which was the mainstay of their farming. They used a tread-wheel about twelve feet in diameter set at a steep incline, on one side of which a horse or bull climbed to furnish the power for churning. Similar dairies used sheep or calves. About 1834 to 1840 (tradition) George F. Reeve, of near Middletown, invented an endless chain-power on which a good-sized dog would furnish as much power as an animal twice as large.