TOWN OF CHESTER.
By Frank Durland.
Chester is one of the interior towns of Orange County, situated on the main line Erie Railroad, which together with the Newburgh branch, Lehigh and Hudson and Orange County Railroads, make up the chief commercial outlets to the ports on the Hudson and Delaware Rivers.
It consists of over sixteen thousand acres of fine farming land and is a noted dairy and stock farming section of the Empire State. Considerable enterprise has been shown in recent years in the culture of onions, celery and lettuce on the Greycourt meadows, which are among the most fertile of all the alluvial deposits of the country.
The title of most of the land of the township is from the famous Wawayanda patent, which covered the land deeded by the twelve native Indian proprietors, who signed a deed, March 5, 1703, for all the land from the high hills of the Hudson to the Shawangunk Mountains and the Jersey line. The highest points of vantage in Chester township, from which magnificent views may be obtained of the whole Wawayanda country, are Sugar Loaf Mountain, 1,220 feet elevation, and Goose Pond Mountain, 826 feet above the sea level. From these pinnacles may be seen the Catskills, which are much higher and further removed than the Shawangunk range of mountains.
The elevation in Chester village at Durland Square is 485 feet, and on the ridge back of the Presbyterian Church, extending toward Craigville, may be obtained extended views of a large portion of Orange County, spread out in every direction.
The H. W. Wood hills at East Chester, the T. S. Durland ridge at Greycourt, and the Guy Miller gravel hill, each have a magnificent outlook over a large scope of the country from Schunnemunk to Shawangunk. In the valleys between these ridges are the old highways following in some instances, Indian trails. It is but natural that along these roads the present village should have grown up.
The road from Newburgh through Chester to Trenton and Morristown, N. J., is often spoken of in the Clinton papers and in more recent years it has been known as the King's Highway. It has been a noted road since Colonial days, having often been used by General Washington during the Revolutionary War. It is the natural avenue for intercourse between Newburgh and New Jersey. Crossing this road at Durland's Square is the old Albany and New York stage road, which enters the town of Chester at the Goshen line and to the metropolis continues its course southward near Greycourt. Leaving this old stage road at Nanowitt Park, which has been recently donated to the town of Chester by Rev. E. T. Sanford, pastor of the North Baptist Church of New York City, is the old Indian trail, which became a popular road during the Colonial days and leads to Greenwood Lake and to the ancient Sterling Iron Works. This road was traveled by Peter Townsend, one of the owners of the Sterling Iron Works, who lived in Chester during the Revolution, and whose descendants continued to reside here for many years.
There is also the new State road, No. 600, following quite closely the old Albany and New York road, excepting the course from Monroe to Chester is changed from the east to the west side of the Erie Railroad. The famous Glenmere Lake, formerly known as Thompson's Pond, is partly in the town of Chester, and is noted for its pickerel and bass fishing. Its area is about 400 acres.