For the rest, acting the role of prophet is not difficult. Wallkill's lines have been cast in pleasant places and will probably so continue to be cast. We anticipate nothing marvelous, look forward to naught phenomenal, expect no revolutions. Our townspeople will pursue the even tenor of their way on their pleasant farms and in their quiet villages; they will know neither the bleak necessities of poverty nor the anxieties of extreme wealth; all will be medium, which is the happiest state of all. We are content with that. Our Wallkill is well beloved; we would not trade it for anything different or more brilliant; we would have it as it has been, not meaning stagnation, of course, yet not longing for the "boom" which newer and less firmly established and less well-grounded communities are forever invoking.
Wallkill, in many ways, realizes one's ideal of a rural township—well governed, knowing neither financial extreme, and with a people contented, and at peace.
[CHAPTER XXIX.]
TOWN OF WARWICK.
By Ferdinand V. Sanford.
The derivation of Warwick, according to Mr. Thomas Kemp, mayor of Warwick, England, who has written a "History of Warwick and Its People," is from the Saxon "Wara" which in that tongue signifies inhabitants, and "wic"—a town or castle, or hamlet, a bank or crook of a river. So that Warawic, or Warwick, signifies no more than the inhabitants of the town or castle upon the bank of the river. Other Saxon forms of the name found are Werhica, Wyrengewyk, Woerincwic, and Weringwic.
The history of our Warwick from the earliest times has been written by Eager and Ruttenber in their publications—that of the last-named writer coming down to the year 1880.
EARLY SETTLEMENT.
The present sketch is intended rather to supplement these earlier accounts than to re-write all of the past history, by recording principally the events which have occurred since 1880.