The Old School Baptist Church at Slate Hill deserves more than a passing notice. Built over 100 years ago it stands there to-day as it was built, but its congregation has nearly melted away. We give it a more extended notice elsewhere. The Methodists have a chapel in the village and conduct services weekly. The Presbyterians have purchased a site for a church in the village and it is only a question of time when an edifice will be built upon it. Millsburg on Boudinot's Creek, and Gardnersville on Rutger's Creek, are shorn to a great extent of their former glory. The Manning Company has feed and saw mills at the latter place, while in the former place the mills of Frank Mead are its distinguishing features.
The first town meeting held in the town after its organization was at the hotel of D. C. Hallock in Brookfield-Slate Hill in the spring of 1850. This was in the building now occupied by Kinney Skinner as a store. The other hotel, then kept in the place, was on the opposite corner now owned by Dr. F. D. Myers as a private dwelling. That hotel was then kept by William Bell. There was then no fence in the space between the hotels and the square was often the scene of lively scraps in the good old days.
An Indian, Keghgekapowell, one of the granters of the Evans patent under Governor Dongan, was commonly called by the whites "Jo-Gee." After signing away his rights to the lands under that patent he moved to the foot of the hill, about a mile and a half west of what is now Brookfield-Slate Hill, and resided there for some years. The hill in the rear of his wigwam became known as "Jo-Gee" from that circumstance. A spring by his wigwam furnished him water, and an apple tree which he is said to have set there, bore fruit for several generations after his departure. The fruit was of a peculiar variety and excellent. He is reported to have been a good old man and kept up his friendship for the whites until a party of his tribe came on a visit and coaxed him to go away with them, which was the last seen of him in this town.
The manufacture of pot and pearl ashes was an important industry in the early history of the town. Benjamin Smith was engaged in it during and after the Revolution.
Tanneries were once of much importance in the industries of the town. There were at least two in Greenville at one time, one in Minisink, and a large one for those times, in Brookfield-Slate Hill, in the eighteenth century. The one in Slate Hill was where Elijah Cock now has his Creamery and where Samuel Hornbeck resides. The last proprietor of it was Holloway W. Stephens. He was a justice of the peace in 1851.
In those early days it took a full year to tan a cow skin, an art now performed in a few days.
There is not a tannery in existence in this locality now.
Besides tanning, previously mentioned, two other important industries have passed out of existence in these towns—milling and distilling. When the white settlers first invaded this country they did as the Indians did, pounded their corn and grain into flour by means of wooden mortars and stone pestles which the Indians taught them to use; but in a short time grist mills were erected and a little later milling grew to be a great part of the work of part of the population. Large mills were at one time in Gardnersville, Dolsontown, Waterloo Mills, Unionville, Brookfield, and Millsburg. Old millers remembered were: The Gardners, Christian Schultz, Peter Kimber, John Racine, James C. and Adirondam Austin. The course of trade has now caused all the flour to be purchased of western millers, and the old mills are now closed or simply used to grind cow and horse feed. Frank Mead's, at Millsburg, is now the only flouring mill in the town. In those first days whiskey was a common beverage in almost every family, and when visitors came it was considered a breach of hospitality to neglect to set out a glass of it for the guests. It sold then, as we find from old account books, at about seventy-five cents a gallon. Distilleries abounded everywhere. But there came a time when taxes were laid heavily on distillers, and the price of liquor was put up by the action of the taxes. In consequence the distilleries dropped out one by one, until now only one remains in Wawayanda, near Centreville; and one in Minisink, near Johnson's.
WAWAYANDA CHURCHES.
The Baptist church of Brookfield (now Slate Hill) executed a certificate of organization at the house of Lebbeu Lathrop, which, we have been informed, was then in the village, December 15, 1791. Isaac Finch, John Fenton and Benjamin Smith were the trustees. Previous to that date several members had, in July, 1783, stated to the Warwick church, in an application, that they lived west of the Wallkill and desired to be set off as a separate church. August 28, 1783, Elder Benedict, of Warwick, with two brethren named Sillshee, came west of the Wallkill, baptized seven members, and constituted the church. A brother named Clark was ordained the next day to preach for the new church. The meetings of the congregation were held at private houses and in barns to suit convenience until 1792.