Name/Title
94th Bull Picnic August 23, 1962 " THE MIDDLETOWN TIMES HERALD RECORD"Entry/Object ID
000525Tags
Bull PicnicScope and Content
Thursday, August 23, 1962 THE MIDDLETOWN TIMES HERALD RECORD
Sarah Wells painting to be shown at outing
HAMPTONBURGH - A pictorial interpretation of Sarah Wells, matriarch of the Bull family of Orange County, arriving in Goshen in 1712 has been loaned
to the Bull Family Association by Elizabeth Sharts, official Goshen historian.
[Illustration of Sarah Wells arriving in Goshen 1712, with Indian guide.
The water color will be displayed at The Stone House, the family
home since its completion in 1727, during the 94th annual Bull Family
Picnic Saturday on the farm where Bulls have lived since William
and Sarah were married in 1718. The picture is an enlarged and
colored copy by Esther English Bach, Goshen Central art instructor, of a small sketch by Wesley Dennis, famed delineator of dogs and horses, for Land o' Goshen the Sharts book which came out two years ago. Mrs. Bach added
to the Dennis picture a bit of the Otterkill and distant mountains.
Miss Sharts arranged for the enlargement and loan as a mark
of recognition of the 250th anniversary of the arrival of the first
white woman as permanent settler in the Goshen area. Extensive research by her in preparation for that part of the book established the reason for Sarah's dispatch from Staten Island to Orange County under difficult circumstances by her foster father, Christopher Denne. Miss Sharts showed that Denne might have lost his share of the Wawayanda Patent if it were not immediately claimed and settled.
Although Sarah lived in the immediate neighborhood among hundreds of her descendants until she died at 102 in 1796, there is no likeness or description of her and much of the Wells story is tradition by showing a girl on a
horse led by an Indian, in accordance with the story that friendly
Indians guided her and a couple of white men in the Denne employ
from their Hudson River landing place at Moodna to a hillside over-
looking the Otterkill. A tablet in a roadside stone fence on the John
Zwart farm on the Sarah Wells Trail marks the place of encampment. The Dennes built nearby.
The old highway from Blooming Grove to Goshen, roughly Sarah's
route to the interior, was named Sarah Wells Trail about forty years
ago. Goshen had not yet been applied to the area when Sarah
came. The Bulls named Hamptonburgh for William's place of origin
in England.
The Bull picnic, which annually attracts between 200 and 300 family
at noon and association meeting. Many also bring their supper. In
fair weather the day is spent under old trees on the rolling
lawn surrounding the tall stone house completed by William, a
stone mason, with aid of Sarah about 1727.
Clipping 2 (Right)
Annual Bull Family Picnic At Stone House Saturday
HAMPTONBURGH - The 94th annual family reunion and pic-
nic of the Bull Family of Orange County will be held at the Stone
House this Saturday. The program includes a basket lunch at
noon and a Bull Family Association meeting in the afternoon.
A water color pictorial interpretation of the family matriarch, Sarah Wells, will be hung in The Stone House during the reunion. Although she lived in
the immediate neighborhood, among hundreds of her descendents, there is no likeness or description of Sarah Wells available. She died in 1796, at the
age of 102.
Picture on Loan
The picture is on loan to the Bull Family by Miss Elizabeth
Sharts, Goshen town historian, and author of a book, Land O'
Goshen. The enlarged and colored picture is a copy of a small
sketch by Wesley Dennis, illustrator of the book. The copy was
made by Mrs. Esther E. Bach,
Farm Rentals
A study is being made by Cornell agricultural economists of
rental rates and rental arrangements on farms in five counties
of Central New York,
[Column 2]
Goshen Central School art instructor.
For his sketch, Dennis figuratively drew on tradition in depicting a girl on horseback being led by a friendly Indian. As the story goes, the girl, and men in the employ of her foster father, William Denne, were guided to
a Hamptonburgh hillside, overlooking Otterkill Creek, by friendly natives.
In her book, Miss Sharts reveals Sarah Wells left Staten Island for Orange County on behalf of her foster father, when it was deemed possible he would
lose his share of the Waywayanda Patent if the area were not
immediately claimed and settled.
Route Marked
A tablet in a roadside stone fence, on the John Zwart farm,
marks that first encampment site. The old highway, leading
from Blooming Grove to Goshen, roughly followed the girl's route
from the Hudson River landing at Moodna to the interior,
and was named the Sarah Wells Trail some 40 years ago.
William Bull and Sarah Wells were married in 1718 and The
Stone House at Hamptonburgh was completed in 1727. Hamptonburgh was named after William Bull's place of origin in England.