The History of Orange County New York

by Unknown

The Chesekook's patent, confirmed by letters patent of Queen Anne, which embraced this district, was granted March 25, 1707, by Manngomack and other Indians, whose names are unpronounceable, and who signed by their marks, representatives of the sub-tribes of the Minsis, whose totem was the wolf, a branch of the Lenni-Lenapes, whose totem was the turkey, a branch of the great Algonkin or Algonquin tribe, or nation, which held sway over them.

This deed was dated December 30, 1702, and recorded in the Orange County clerk's office, June 1, 1736. The original patent, bearing Queen Anne's seal, is in the possession of the Sterling Iron and Railway Company. Sterling and Greenwood Lake are now embraced in the sixth election district of the town of Warwick.

Charles Clinton surveyed this patent for the owners in common, beginning April 1, 1735, and ending December 13, 1749. He mentions in his field book, as early as 1745, that iron works were in operation at Sterling, but to what extent is not stated. The old furnace at Sterling, now in ruins, is said to have been built in 1751, and from it was drawn the iron from which the great chain was made to cross the Hudson River in Revolutionary days from West Point to Constitution Island. This chain was built by Abel Noble & Co., Peter Townsend signing the contract for said firm for its construction February 2, 1778, to be finished by April 1, 1778. This chain was drawn across the river April 30, 1778. A bronze tablet commemorating the building of Sterling furnace was unveiled at the foot of the furnace on June 23, 1906. Iron mining is still in active operation, a shaft extending diagonally under Sterling Lake a distance of over 2,000 feet, but the ore is all shipped to other furnaces. The iron industry created a need for charcoal, and from Revolutionary times until about 1865 cutting wood and burning charcoal was an industry extending all over this section, and through the mountains of Greenwood Lake and Sterling is a network of wood roads and many foundations where formerly stood the dwellings of collieries. Sterling Mountain rises about 600 feet above the surface of Greenwood Lake, which is about nine miles long and 700 feet elevation above sea level.

The map of this section made by Robert Erskine for General Washington gives it the name of Long pond. About midway on the west side and about 300 feet from the shore of Greenwood Lake stands an old furnace on the furnace brook, which was built about seventy-five years ago by William Noble of Bellvale. The furnace was a failure from the start, as the stream of water furnished insufficient power for the blast. About 1845 Wanaque Creek, at the outlet of Greenwood Lake, was crossed by a dam, which raised the lake about eight feet, resulting in the overflow of about a mile of low land at both the north and south ends of the lake, forming a reservoir for the use of the Morris and Essex Canal, nine miles long and a mile wide. The New York and Greenwood Lake railroad reached here in 1876. The terminal station at the line between New York and New Jersey on the east shore, called then "State Line" (now Sterling Forest), was accessible by boats only, there being no public road until 1889, when one was built by the town of Warwick, the contract being taken by Conrad Diehl of Goshen. The steamboat Montclair, capable of carrying 400 passengers or more, was built and launched in 1876, to accommodate travelers from the railroad. Smaller boats had been previously built, first the Pioneer, a sail boat, then the Sylph, then the Montclair, and later the Anita, and at present several small steamers and naphtha launches without number are in use.

Prior to the completion of the railroad visitors reached here by stage from Monks on the south or from Monroe on the north. Religious services were held in a log schoolhouse one mile north of Greenwood Lake prior to 1850, when under the pastorate of Rev. J. H. Haunhurst, the first Methodist church of Greenwood Lake was built, where services were regularly held until 1898, when the settlement concentrating about two miles farther south, it was deemed expedient to build a new Methodist Episcopal church on land donated for the purpose by M. V. Wilson, opposite the new schoolhouse, which for the same reason was built about two and one-quarter miles south of its former site, and now has an attendance of sixty-three pupils. The school at Sterling mines has about the same number of pupils, children of the miners, religious services being held in the schoolhouse under Methodist supervision.

The new Methodist Episcopal church of Greenwood Lake was built under the supervision of Pastor Cranston, and now in 1907 Rev. J. H. Calyer is pastor. For fifty-seven years the church has never been without a pastor in charge of regular services.

In about the year 1880 a summer school of Christian philosophy, under the supervision of William O. McDowell, was begun in a fine auditorium erected for the purpose at Warwick Woodlands on the west shore of the lake, and, for the accommodation of visitors, an encampment hotel in connection with the Greenwood Lake Association clubhouse was under the supervision of Lyndon Y. Jenness. Dr. Charles H. Deems, Dr. Lyman Abbott and many other speakers on religious, social and philosophical themes, spoke to the assembled multitudes. This club house for a time was Greenwood Lake's center of interest, but for lack of support financially it was finally abandoned to the uses and amusements of excursionists. In 1906 the dilapidated building was demolished.

About 1880 a movement took form to inaugurate a church on what was known as the lime rocks, and under the management of Rev. Mr. Bradford, of Montclair, assisted by local friends, a tent was erected here where services from time to time were held. Now a stone church occupying this most picturesque spot is under construction and the supervision of E. G. Lewis, of New York City, representing the Episcopal church.

Civilization's onward march is taking strong form here, and over the old Indian camping grounds, where numberless arrow heads, spear points, stone axes and beautifully ornamented fragments of pottery bear testimony to the race that has departed, leaving only here and there a name that claims relationship, stand to-day spacious hotels, towering churches, palatial homes, and the last society formed for their protection is the Pioneer Fire Company of Greenwood Lake, which was formed May 3, 1907.