My Valley - Page 15

My Valley

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White Lake

Pure as their parent springs! how bright
The silvery waters stretch away,
Reposing in the pleasant light
Of June's most lovely day.
Curving around the eastern side,
Rich meadows slope their banks, to meet,
With fringe of grass and fern, the tide
Which sparkles at their feet.

The ploughman sees the wind-wing's deer
Dart from his covert to the wave,
And fearless in its mirror clear
His branching antlers lave.

Here, the green headlands seem to meet
So near, a fairy bridge might cross;
There, spreads the broad and limpid sheet
In smooth, unruffled glass.

Hark! like an organ's tones, the woods
To the light wind in murmurs wake,
The voice of the vast solitudes
Is speaking to the lake.

Alfred B. Street, the Sullivan Co. poet, has written a good deal regarding Sullivan county and its scenery, many of whose poems have been published in a volume now in my possession. Some of his descriptions are very fine although a bit flowery and stilted for this day and age. Lines relating to Mongaup Falls are very good also, but alas, this cataract is no more. When the Rockland Light and Power Co. moved in and built a dam on the lower Mongaup stream this lovely waterfall was entirely obliterated.

The Falls of the Mongaup

Struggling along the mountain path,
We hear, amid the gloom,
Like a roused giant's voice of wrath,
A deep-toned, sullen boom:
Emerging on the platform high,
Burst sudden to the startled eye
Rocks, woods, and waters, wild and rude
A scene of savage solitude.

Myriads of man's time-measured race
Have vanished from the earth,
Nor left a memory of their trace,
Since first this scene had birth;
These waters, thundering now along,
Join'd in Creation's matin-song;
And only by their dial-trees
Have known the lapse of centuries!

Another notable spot in Sullivan Co. is or was the "rocking stone" on the McLaury farm at Maplewood not far from the first settlement of Royces who emigrated from Hartford Co., Conn., headed by Uzzial Royce, in 1805. The following account of this boulder is taken from the Sullivan Co. Directory published in 1872, p. 196-1 quote:

"On the farm of Joseph H. McLaury, located about two and one-half miles west of Monticello, on the Newburgh & Cochecton Turnpike, is a huge boulder, weighing from twenty to twenty-five tons, which is so nicely poised as to be easily set in motion. It is composed of Shawangunk conglomerate, and is doubtless a deposition of the drift period, an epoch in the history of geology, having lain in its present position during the vast interval of time, to excite the wonder and admiration of the curious beholder. It is a period in the world's history written by nature, and a monument revealing the mighty forces which have been at work to fit the earth for the occupancy of man. It is known as the 'rocking stone'."

Among other people important to me was one whose name I never knew. A portrait painter came to the Valley once and spent the summer. His canvasses had already been painted with backgrounds, upon which he superimposed the faces. Everybody that was able to pay the price had his picture painted: The Swans, the Footes, Mr. and Mrs. Kiersted, Grandpa and Grandma, my Mother, Uncle Howard, and Aunt Mary, also a sweet faced child, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Purdy. The painter did not sign his works, but he must have been good, for the portraits of my family not only look just like the daguerreotypes of them, but lack the leathery look so common to many old portraits. Daguerreotypes were fairly common then, photographs were scarce indeed-at least, in our Valley, until the era of the tintype.

To be continued...

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