This being among the newer towns of the county, the specific details of its settlement are so blended with the early history of the old Wallkill precinct and that of the town of Montgomery, from which Crawford was set off, that it is quite impossible to separate them for this place.
The Weller settlement was partly upon this territory. Johannes Snyder started a small settlement in the vicinity of Searsville, where he bought a large tract of land on both sides of the Dwaarskill. He built a primitive log mill there at once, and this is down in the records of 1768 as Snyder's Mill. He seems to have been a man of means and influence, as he also built a log church soon after settling there, which was known as Snyder's Church. This Snyder family was Dutch and made the first settlement here in 1740, if not earlier. All the services in this little church was in the Dutch language, and it is recorded that the church was worn out or outgrown even before the Revolution.
Somewhere about the same time Robert Milliken built a saw mill on the Shawangunk Kill. This is referred to as Milliken's mill in the records of 1768, and this is the earliest mention of a saw mill on that stream in the records. Other mills were built there, however, in later years. First was the old flour mill of Pat. Boice, next below the Milliken mill was the Sear's grist mill, then Abraham Bruyn's flour mill, and finally Cornelius Slott's saw and grist mill combined. The latter was continued by Arthur Slott after the death of his father, and he soon built a small collection of houses there for his employees. This Slott ancestry were among the oldest settlers in the State. The family came from Holland in 1670, as the family record shows. They located first at Hackensack, N. J., and after a few years there they removed to Rockland County, and soon after that they came to Montgomery and settled on the Tinn Brook at a point afterward known as Slott Tow. Cornelius Slott engaged in farming. In 1777, while serving as an orderly sergeant with his military company, in the active defense of Fort Montgomery, he was taken prisoner and confined in the old Sugar House, New York, by the British forces for ten months. In 1785, on regaining his liberty, he sold his farm and lived in New York for the next five years. Then he bought the mill site in Pine Bush and erected his saw mill just below the mouth of the Paughcaughnaughsinque stream. The next year he also built a grist mill. There was no public road leading to his mill at the time, but he soon secured one from Hopewell.
A small early settlement near Graham's Church was made by Abraham Dickerson, an Irishman, John Robinson and Philip Decker. Philip Decker's ancestors came from Holland. When sixteen years old he drove a team from Ward's Bridge to Valley Forge with a load of corn for Washington's army. Dickerson built a saw mill on a small stream near there which was operated successfully for a time and then fell into decay. The portion of the Wallkill valley in this town was the site of the earliest settlement. These old pioneers consisted of Germans, Hollanders and Huguenots. Many of them came from the older settlements in Ulster County, and others were directly from their native land.
Robert Jordan came here from Ireland in 1771. About 1784 he settled at Bullville in this town. His brother John seems to have settled there in 1767, having arrived in this country some years ahead of Robert. Among his neighbors there about that time or a few years later, were Joseph Elder, James Barclay, Samuel Barclay, John Martin and Daniel Bull. Thomas Turner was also a land owner in the Bullville settlement to the extent of 300 acres.
In the Searsville neighborhood William Snider was among the pioneers. He purchased a large tract of land there upon which he lived many years before the Revolution. He seems to have been a man of some wealth, for at the outbreak of hostilities with Great Britain he buried a considerable sum of money in a secret place upon his property, the location of which was known only to a faithful Negro slave. After the war this Negro was awarded by his master with his personal freedom because of his loyalty and faithfulness.
An old apple orchard planted before the Revolution near Bullville, died out long years since. Nathan Johnson was the village shoemaker, going around from house to house with his kit of tools strapped upon his back. This occupation was then known as "whipping the cat" for some reason not very clear at this time. Johnson was an old shoemaker who had been employed making army shoes during the war. It was the custom at that period for those cobblers to go about at stated periods and do the family cobbling and shoe-making for the year.
William Jordan, son of Robert, became colonel of the Shawangunk regiment of militia, and he lived under every President of the United States until his death, having voted the Democratic ticket for 66 years.
Benjamin Sears is mentioned in the records as a remarkable man in many respects among the settlers in that region. Coupled with rare native talent he had a most remarkable memory of details. Nothing ever escaped him when once his mind grasped it. All his accounts were accurately kept in his mind. But his education is said to have been very limited. He served as constable in the town of Montgomery during his early life, where he had five brothers from whom there has been a long line of descendants. He also served as sheriff of Orange County for a time. And the small hamlet of Searsburgh, near the center of the town, on the Dwaarskill stream, was named for him. He established a flour and saw mill there at an early date.
Joseph Elder was of Irish descent and came into this region some years before the Revolution. He lived upon a very stony farm, and it is recorded of him that being a man of giant frame, robust and vigorous, he would gather up these stones in a leathern apron girded about his loins and carry them to the place where they were used for fence walls, instead of carting them in a wagon. Though also scantily educated, he served some years as magistrate of his town with much satisfaction, being a man of strong common sense and good judgment. He seems also to have been a pioneer pedestrian, the original Weston, apparently; for it is recorded that on a certain occasion, missing his sloop at Newburgh, which was already out of sight above the Danskammer Point, running with a fair wind, on the Hudson, on its way to Albany, young Elder started off at a rattling pace, with his musket and knapsack, to join his military company at the Capital in time or be denounced as a traitor. It is said he beat the sloop by several hours, though the precise time made is not given.