The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-02-13
RAMAPo MoUNTAINEERs.
A Strange Race or People IuhnbitiuG tho villa
Hills or Rockland County.

Hills or Rockland County.
People who have never been up in the Ram.
apo Mountains can have little idea OF how
strange q race of people live back In those high
and rocky hills, miles from any village. and with
not q rod of road by which their huts may be
reached BY wagon. In other words. it Is not
generally known that within thirty five miles
Of Broadway there is a community. as curious.
almost, as can be found in the remote noun.
tain recesses of Tennessee or North Carolina.
1t is a sort Of lost tribe. or. rather, an amalga-
nation of two lost tribes. II one can imagine
what sort of beings would result from moro
than q century of intermarrying of American
Indians and Guinea negroes, with an occa-
sional dash of white blood added to the mix
ture, he may form q notion Of the people that
live back in the rugged hills that rise about
Suffern, Ramapo. Sloatsburg, Woodbourne,
Tuxedo, and other:places in the Ramapo Valley.
But it would take a pretty brisk imagination
to picture some of the queer specimens of hu.
mainly that have resulted from this mixture.
Albinos of the milkiest haired and pinkest eyed
variety are common, and the dino museums
recruit their curio halls in that line from
among these mountaineers.a as did the great and
only Barnum before them.
Back IN the last century and during the first
quarter OF the present century slaves were
common in that part of New York State and the
adjacent region of New Jersey. These slaves
were treated no better by their old Dutch mas.
ters than were their fellow bondsmen in the
South. They were worked long and hard, and
the lash was not spared. Consequently run
away slaves were many. These runaways In.
variably sought the Businesses of the surround.
ing mountains. 1t 10 a very difficult thing to
make ones way up and among the Ramapo
Mountains, even st this day, and It was a.
most an impossibility In the sla very days As
a result, when a negro once succeeded In hiding
there he was as safe from recapture as il he had
sEhs 40 and Ss sosnd OF af' no. aaI ne might saas be within
Of runaways IN time peoplcd the Inaccessible
h fbair. a Sna sb In the spots pot. " where ss > they threw up
or found refuge In caves their descendants
The woods had their Indian dwerlers already
and the two races mingled. These are tho
strange people who are seen now and then in
Rockland and The adjoining towns Of Bergen
and Orange counties, and whose homes are far
back IN the hills. A characteristic OF these
people Is that the names of the old Dutch fami-
lies in which the original blacks were slaves
have been retained by them, generation after
race goes by the name of De Groat, but there
are Do Freeses, Van Hoevens and many other
In the summer time you might climb aud
chamber and stumble up the steep sides ana
tains all day and not see q solitary sign Of q
habltation. although there would be many on
all sides OF you. They nIe so deftly tucked in
foliage that only one acquainted with the ways
O. the mountaineers could find them. In, the
fall, when the trees are bare, the huts stand re.
vealed TO. any who may pass TINT way. aud such
are Few, for although there Is no better rudfed
grouse shooting any here than in these noun
tain Businesses, tho weary climbing necessary
TO get to the haunts OF these birds is more than
I tho average sportsman cares TO undergo. There
Is no ground that might grow anything about
any OF these huts; not n chicken nor n fowl OF
any kind; not even a pig. But there doRs with.
out limit monRrel. wolfish.looking dogs, such
as might hang about Indian camps, and always
from one TO half "A dozen halfnaked, eTis. elijah
looking children, who, at sight or sound of
stranger. scAmper to cover in tho hut, in the
brush or among the rocks, disappearing As com.
HOW do these people subsisti They arc tho
game and. trout are abundant all about them.
They hunt and snare grouse and rabbits and.
eatch trout for the market during the season.
The women and children pick berries. For the
products or the forest, streams and berry
patches these people obtain store goods at The
villages. both the Injuries and the nncessariea
the latter being chiefly Wbiskey and tobacco;
the former Hour, meal and cheap dress goods
For their own home providing the 'possum and
the coon are plentiful At their very doors and
the chicken coops OF the outlying farms and vii
axes arc not entirely inaccessible. Now and
then a DE Groat or Van somebody or other will
hire out TO do work by the day. but he is looked
upon ny MS Fellow mOuntaineers as a degon-
crate; Some Of the female children grow 70 DO
extremely handsome and shApely young wo-
among the1e people outaids OF their own race.