Martial Rosen Hulce (known familiarly as M.R. Hulce) wrote a series of ‘sketches’ about the history of Delaware County. The ‘Sketches’ were published in the Delaware Gazette over a nine-month period, starting at the end of 1873, concluding in October 1874.
At the start of the Sketches, Hulce wrote: “Before offering for publication the ‘Sketches,’ the writer would state, they are not intended to be mere fancy- pictures embellished by the creations of the imagination, but plain narrations and delineations of facts, derived in part from personal cognizance, though in much the greater part from intercourse with the old pioneers, with almost all of whom he was well acquainted.”
Born in 1804 in Deposit, Hulce wore many hats. He was a surveyor and civil engineer in Deposit. He also was the founder of the Deposit Courier. His obituary noted that he “served the community as Postmaster and Justice of the Peace [and] served on many boards and councils. He was a historian and philanthropist.” Hulce died in Deposit in 1896.
Sketch Number 32 was published on July 29, 1874 and focused on Bovina. [One confusing issue about these articles is when they were written. The latter sets of the articles, published in 1874, are dated 1863 and 1864. I thought it might be a typo, but several of the articles have dates at the end. Though published 150 years ago, this sketch of Bovina might date from a decade earlier.]
SKETCHES —No. 32.
Whyles owre a linn the burnie plays
As thro the glen it wimpl’t:
Whyles round a rocky star it strays;
Whyles in a wiel it dimpl’t;
Whyles glitter’d to the nightly rays,
Wi’ bickering, dancing dazzle;
Whyles cookit underneath the braes,
Below the spreading hazel.
Unseen that night.—Burns.
Having heretofore given a short account of the formation and early settlement of several of the towns in Delaware county it is proposed to add whenever convenient a similar notice of the others.
These statistical details may be dry to some readers but will interest most of those who desire to be familiar with local matters connected with Delaware county and continuous sections of the State.
In pursuance of this plan Bovina will next occupy our attention. This town is situated east of and adjoining Delhi and contains an area of about twenty-five thousand acres of land, three-fourths of which has been reclaimed from the forest and put under cultivation. It was formed from Delhi, Stamford and Middletown, Feb. 27 th, 1820, and received its name from Gen. Erastus Root, who, anticipating its future adaptability to grazing, gave it a name from the Latin, indicating a cattle region.
Like most of the towns in the county, it is hilly and mountainous, interspersed with small rapid streams, which in the course of long ages have carried away the rock and soil, forming deep valleys and steep ravines. The names of the principal streams are Little Delaware River,(which runs in a westerly direction nearly through the centre of the town, passing into Delhi and entering into the Mohawk, or west branch of the Delaware, a mile below the county seat.) Bush Creek, which drains Teunis lake, Coulter, Grant, Maynard and Mountain Brooks. The sides of these streams are often rocky and steep rising to great heights, some of the elevations being 2,500 feet above tide water.
Two small lakes are found nestled in the mountains. The waters are pure and sparkling and abound with the finest trout and other fish. Teunis Lake is situated in the south part near the foot of Mount Pisgah, and Landon’s Lake, in the west part of the town. A portion of this lake is in the town of Delhi. Near the sedgy and muddy sides of the former was the residence and wigwam of a kind Indian, named Teunis by the early Dutch settles, to whom the inhabitants of Middletown were indebted, as related in a former sketch, for timely information and warning that saved them from massacre and captivity when about to be attacked by hostile Indians and Tories in 1778.
He continued to live there for several years after the war, and the whites named the lake after him. This will embalm the memory of one of nature’s noblemen who in performing a good and merciful action dreamed not of fame.
The general face of the country is quite uneven and stony, with a soil of clayey loam, producing the finest and sweetest grasses in great luxuriance.
Brushland, one of the two villages in the town, was named after Alexander Brush the first settler and proprietor of the location. It is situated on the Little Delaware, about a mile west of the centre of the town, and contains a post office, tannery, grist mill and clothing works. —This place is named on the late map of Delaware county, Bovina Centre, though its postoffice designation is still Brushland. The changing of original names, unless for obvious reasons as in the case of the other village, Bovina, is undesirable and should not be encouraged. The old aboriginal names will soon be nearly all that will be left of the language of the first inhabitants of our hills and valleys. A few relics and names are all that remain.
Bovina, the other village, has also a postoffice, and is situated at the confluence of Maynard and Mountain Brooks, three miles east of Brushland. It has about one hundred inhabitants and is better known in the vicinity by the name of “Butt End,” by which name it has long been distinguished.
The town was first settled in 1792, by Elisha B. Maynard, and within the next five years a considerable number from Connecticut and from Scotland settled in the valleys and intervales. The names of some of these settlers were Francis Coulter, Levi and Jacob Mabie, James Kedzie, (the writer is informed Mr. Kedzie’s first name was Adam, ancestor and grandfather of Adam and Andrew Kedzie, Esqs. of Sanford, Broome county.) Andrew Chisholm, James Ray, Thomas Liddle, A. Nichols, Samuel Davis, and Rev. James Ritchie who conducted the first religions services in 1795. Tho first church formed was United Presbyterian. There are, as reported in the last census, three churches in the town, viz: Methodist Episcopal, Associate Presbyterian and Reformed Presbyterian.
The first birth was that of Elisha H. son of Elisha B . Maynard, Aug. 26.1793. In 1799, James Russell and Nancy Ritchie were married, the first wedding in town. The first death was that of Hezekiah David, in 1798. No schools were established till 1798, when one Edwards first “taught young idea how to shoot.”—
The first one was opened at the Hook, by James Wetmore, and the first store at Brushland, by Robert Hume. Stephen Palmer built the first mill, in 1798, for Gov. Lewis, and the first factory was erected by John Jerome. The inhabitants of this town are chiefly engaged in dairying and sheep raising, in which they excel. They are industrious and thrifty. The finer grains cannot be cultivated to advantage at so great on elevation above the sea, the average height being about two thousand feet.
This town has the least number of inhabitants of any in the county, and its territory is smaller than that of any other, except Harpersfield. It is not densely inhabited, there being only about two hundred and fifty families in the town, and at present about 1400 inhabitants, nearly one-third of whom are children that attend the common schools, which like nearly all others in the county under the supervision of capable and efficient Superintendents, are of a high order and constantly improving in the charge of teachers whose qualifications are such as to ensure confidence and success.
Like most of the eastern towns of the county a majority of the people are of Scotch descent and retain many of the Caledonian characteristics and an ardent remembrance and passionate love of the banks and braes of bonny Scotland.
Deposit, January 9,1864. M. R. H.
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