EARLY CRAGSMOOR: There were three families, namely Gonzalus,
Ferguson and
Lilly, living in Cragsmoor when the Mances and Coddingtons came shortly before the Revolutionary War.
At that time pioneers were moving and claimning land wherever they found it unsettled, even though much of it might have been granted to a British subject by the King of
England. Not until after the War that freed the colonists, did the John
Mance family obtain a legal deed to a large tract of land. Mance earned title to the land he had settled a quarter century earlier by surveying for the party who had obtained a legal title after the war. Others also purchased land to obtain a deed, but it appears that "Old Josie" Joseph
Coddington held his land by squatters rights and deeded it off to his four sons.
When the Mances, Coddingtons and others came to the mountain around 1770, they came not for hunting and trapping but to harvest the lush, virgin forests. They were soon followed by Saegers,
Evans,
Williams, Deckers, Fosters,
Wooden and others. The Mances being the most numerous, it soon became known as the
Mance Settlement. (John Mance-then
Mentz and wife Annatye
Mack of Wawarsing had 10 sons and daughters between 1778 and 1798 and this was only one of the
Mance families living there.)
By the 1800s Ellenville had become a growing community and opened a new market for good produced on the mountain. The
Mance Settlement prospered and there was no problem in supporting the large and ever growing families who lived there.
About 1820 John
Mance (1795-1862) built a sawmill on the South
Gully stream. This provided a much needed and more convenient place to work up lumber harvested on the mountain.
Jacob
Mance had a little furrier shop which was called the "Hat Shop". Mance dressed the furs himself and made them up into caps. Most of his stock was soldin Newburgh. This was in the 1820s and '30s.
Also in the early 1800s Mance's barn was built on the edge of the present county road behind the house nmow standong on the corner of Sam's Point Road. Part of the old foundation still remains.
Mance's
Barn was a busy place. The upper floor was used for a weaving room where linens and carpets were made. The lower floor was a carpenter and blacksmith shop. Wagons, sleighs and all manner of articles were made here, including coffins for the village of Ellenville before there was an undertaking establishment there.
After the Civil War, the old barn became known as the "
Barracks". A few young menof the mountain, veterans of the war, organized a fife and drum corp and Mance's
Barn became their meeting place.
Although there were no churches in
Mance Settlement, religion was important to the families there. It was not at all unusual for wagons or sleigh loads of worshipers to travel as far as Wawarsing of the Shawangunk Church to attend services. Methodist camp meegings were held in Mance's
Grove.
One occasion in particular has been told of a camp meeting in 1845, promoted by William
Rhodes Mance and others, which lasted for a week. There were more than a dozen tents and the average daily attendance was about 200 people.
Really unique, however, was the
Gully Sunday School. It was the result of joint efforts of families from the
Goldsmith Settlement on the north side of the
Gully and the people from the
Mance side. With the completion of a road between the two places and a jointinterest in the
Mance sawmill already built by the stream, about halfway between the two, it waa decided to build by the
Gully Brook to serve both communities.
The building was erected in 1835 and for the next 20 years William
Rhodes Mance held Sunday School classes for the children of the mountaineers.
All in all it was a good life, albeit hard, and a relatively contented community thrived for many years. The economy changed, however, with the growth and expansion of other communities around them.
The markets for their goods and services diminished and the mountain top could no longer support the large families and the number of people who lived there. When it became necessary to take in boarders and look for other means of livelihood the younger generation started leaving the mountain to settle elsewhere. It was the end of a pioneer settlement and the beginning of a whole new life of summer boarders, summer homes and eventually Cragsmoor, the artist colony.
