The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1915-09-21
WHEN new YORK
WAS A WILDERNESS
nousNTIC STORY OF INTREPID
YOUNG GIRL WHO FIRST SET
TIED ORANGE COUNTY.
lived ALONE IN A LOG CABIN

Her Name vas Oe"A S'iA '" NiAS' SNhAU AANA
Marriage to William Bull Was the
FIRST One in All That POpulOus
Part of New York State.
Two hundred years ago now, lack
ing one year, at Dublin, Ireland,
stone bridge, newly constructed, col
,onsad through some defect in tie
material used cor some error of tne
artisan who had charge of the work.
The adtisan was a young man who
had lust begun life as master Of
bis trade. Feeling that his useful
moss in his native land was destroyed
nv this mishap he embarked on an
omigrant vessel for America. His
name was William Bull.
In 1903 Christopher DEM was a
rich merchant in Whitehall street,
New York. Under grant from Queen
Anne of England he held ownership
in vast tract of land lying between
tbe Hudson and the Delaware rivers,
in Orange county, New York. In
1712 DEM had met with financial re-
verses. and his title to the land in
question was about to lapse. He
could only be saved by an actual set
tlement somewhere on the tract.
With the exception of New York
and the settlements at Kingston and
Albany along the Hudson river what
is now the state of New York was
wilderness yet untrodden by the
white man. Living in the family of
DEM was a girl 16 years old, named
Sarah Wells. Failing to induce any
person to leave the town and become
a settler on his land in that wilder
ness, unpeopled save by savages and
wild beasts, Christopher DEM chose
TO place upon the girl, Saran Wells
the responsibility of saving him his
4 landed estate.
In company with two carpenters
4 who were put to work on cabin on
n Dennis wilderness tract, and three
4 Indians, who were brought to act as
a guides, Indians he had brought down
n with him from a trip to the tract,
he sent the girl as his legal repre-
alive to take possession of the land.
8 She was the first white woman to set
n foot in the wild region between the
Hudson and Delaware.
The party went up the Hudson in
4 loop to New Windsor, then about
q 20 miles through the wilderness to
81 Dennis tract. The cabin was built
n and occupied in time to save the last
& Of Christopher Dennis fortune.
Settlers followed this first break
81 ing into the wilderness, among them
IA one Daniel Cromeline, who bought
portion of Dennis tract. Travel was
beginning between the Hudson and
Delaware. Projecting the putting up
II Of tavern along the line of travel
n in 1915 Cromeline went to New York
TO get workmen to build it. A vessel
load of immigrants from England
had just entered the harbor. Among
them Cromeline found young stone
mason, whose bad fortune in the Dub
lin bridge had prompted him to leave
his native land. He was hired by
"a CrOmeline to go up to his place in
M# SANLiSC NOuIIJ duO DullN INC 0bOhS
tavern he had projected. Bull did
the work.
The DEM settlement was but four
"a miles away. William Bull and the
intrepid girl Sarah Wells, met and
M fell in love, and in the summer OF
81 l7l8-August 25-their marriage
was the first one to be performed in
all that now populous part of New
ri York state and New Jersey between
II Newberg and the Delaware river.
81 Judge John Merritt, the second judge
to be appointed by the New York
N colony by Queen Anne, came from
I'll Orangeburg, near the Hudson, so
81 miles through the mountain wilder
h ness, to perform the ceremony.
christopher DEM gave Sarah
III wells for her wedding portion the
III lVO-acre tract of land on which she
mad made the bold and solitary set
uement six years before. William
vi Bull added 100 acres more to it by
purchase, and in 1922 built with his
~ own hands the stone mansion, the
81 HneSt then in all southern New York,
III which stands today just as it was
erected 1913 years ago.
Within the walls of that old build
ing none of a name save Bull and
# meal descendants of William and
sarah have ever lived. Five gener-
NJ 9tIons have lived and married and
@ uIed there. Today there are in the
# country more than 10000 persons
# descended from William and Sarah
nGH The linen gown made by Sa-
ian Wells from fax grown, prepared
aHu woven by herself and in which
SIe was married, is among the many
aeHlooms preserved in the old house
N the town of Hamptonburg, near
GoShen, where the Bull family in
ttlnerlca was founded from all over
oIs country make pilgrimage 70 the
Uiu mansion and celebrate the ami
eISaIy of the wedding of William
anu Sarah in fitting manner.