The Wallkill is said by Haines to have drawn its name from some families of Walloons who settled by it, and it has also had various other derivations alleged. Its Indian name is well known. In the very early surveys about Franklin Furnace, N. J., in 1712-15, the surveyors have written the name plainly, Twischsawkin. That this name was not of a mere local application is shown by the fact that on a map accompanying Smith's History of New Jersey, made and published in London, Charing Cross, by Wilham Faden, December 1st, 1777, from surveys made in 1769 by the commissioners who ran the State line, the name Twischsawkin is applied to the stream. On that map there is not a settlement marked from Goshen to Mackhackemeck in this county. In Sussex County the settlement of the Walling brothers, where Joseph Walling kept an inn, now Hamburg, N. J., is marked "Wallins." They were located there somewhere about 1725-1730, and a brother settled in this town of Minisink at about the same time, by the river. We take him to have been the first settler in the town, and mention is made of him later. The true derivation of the name Wallkill is due to their settlements. The name "Wallins" was known far and wide to the stragglers who first came into the neighborhood and the river that ran by their locations, first called by visitors, Wallinskill, about 1750 got abbreviated to "Wallkill." The Walloons spoken of by Haines were undoubtedly "Wallins." The Indian name Twischsawkin has been interpreted to mean "abundance of wild plums." A land abounding in snakes comes nearer its true meaning in our study of the Minsi language.
Unionville village, assumed to be derived from the union of good feelings following the settlement of the line between the States of New York and New Jersey, is near that line, and is believed to have been settled about 1738. It now has three stores, two hotels, coal and feed stores, a system of waterworks owned by a private company, three churches, and other places of business. It was incorporated as a village in 1871, September 26th. Isaac Swift was the first president.
Westtown, a village so named because it was situated at the western limit of the settlements when Goshen was headquarters of civilization in the county, has three stores, two churches, one hotel.
Johnsons, so-named after William Johnson who gave the land for the Middletown, Unionville & Water Gap Railroad when it passed through the town where the depot is now located, has three good stores, two feed and coal stores, one hotel, and Borden's large milk and cream plant, and is a place of considerable business.
Gardnersville, on Rutger's Creek, about two and a half miles southeast of Johnsons, is mostly in the town of Wawayanda, and derived its name from the Gardner family who once owned extensive grist, saw and cider mills there. It is now mainly known from the feed mills of John R. Manning, at present its principal industry. In the early settlement of the country there was a defensive place near, known as Fort Gardner. Its location is not precisely known. In some records it is spoken of as being southward from where Westtown now is. It was most probably at Gardnersville. An old stone building on the late Lain farm is the "Fort Gardner," says one tradition.
Waterloo Mills (derivation of name unknown) since the decline of the milling industry has nothing now to show of its former important grist mills but the ruins.
FIRST SETTLEMENT AND POPULATION.
Of the first settler in the present territory of this county, Patrick Mac Gregorie, whose brother-in-law, David Toshuck, is spoken of in Ruttenber & Clark's History of Orange County (p. 13) as having "closed his earthly career in the bosom of his family at Plum Point," we desire to mention. In New Jersey Archives, Vol. I, p. 460, it says: "David Toshuck, of Moneyweard, partner with James, Earl of Perth, Captain Patrick Mac Gregorie, all sharers in Proprieties," were so mentioned in 1864. In a note on Vol. IX, p. 337, mention is made of the will of Edward Antill proven in New York, April 7th, 1725, wherein he gives his wife all his interest in a "certain proprietorship formerly purchased of David Toshuck, laird of Minnevarre." On p. 338 it is stated that "Edward Antill, Jr., came into the possession of the laird of Minnevarre's broad acres at Raritan landing in Middlesex County where he spent the most of his life." Donald Macquirrish, of Murderer's Creek, is mentioned with David Toshuck, of Minnevarre, Scotland, in a deed dated March 13th, 1687. From all which we have doubts as to the death of the aforesaid David Toshuck at Plum Point.
Governor Dongan bought, October 25, 1684, of three Indians, one of whom was Joghem or Keghgekapowell, for ninety pounds and eleven shillings in goods, all the land from the mouth of Murderer's Creek on the Hudson, to a "water pond upon the said hills called Meretange." The latter is the present Binnewater pond in Greenville. This purchase embraced about thirty by forty miles of the territory of Orange precinct, and a part of the lands in three towns. It lapped on other grants also. September 12, 1694, he sold it to Captain John Evans. In the latter sale went a house on Plum Point, which Captain Mac Gregorie had built there on his land by advice of that very Governor, who also sold the land without any scruple.
Lord Bellomont, in reviewing the transaction afterwards in writing January 2, 1701, to the Lords of Trade, said: