Name/Title
Sarah Wells reenactment August 8, 1966 "THE TIMES HERALD RECORD"Entry/Object ID
000536Tags
Girl ScoutsScope and Content
Monday, August 8, 1966 THE TIMES HERALD RECORD
Sarah Wells returns Text and photos by Carolyn Kinet
BEAR MT.
The establishment of Orange County's first settlement in 1712 by 16-year-old Sarah Wells was recreated Sunday afternoon by girl scouts of the Sarah Wells Council at their camp in Bear Mt. Park.
In a series of five tableaux, the voyage of Sarah was depicted, from her foster home in Staten Island to the New Windsor shore of the Hudson River, the first settlement on the banks of the Otterkill River in what is now the town of Goshen, and ending with the marriage of Sarah Wells to William Bull.
Among the audience at the pageant were some Orange County residents who are descendents of Sarah and William Bull including Mrs. Amy Bull Crist, District superintendent of schools, Mrs. Corinna Bull Brown, Mrs. Genevieve Nave, and Justice and Mrs. Samuel W. Eager.
As each tableaux was presented, a chorus of scouters set the scene by reading excerpts from a book, "The History of Orange County."
The camp waterfront provided the scenes for the departure of Sarah Wells, with three friendly Indians and two carpenters from Staten Island, and for the party's arrival at New Windsor. The wooded area around the camp's council fire area provided the backdrop for the settlement and for the marriage scenes.
[Image 1 - Top Right: Young girls in a rowboat near a wooded shoreline, with spectators watching from the bank.] Young Sarah Wells is helped from her boat by two Indians and becomes the first white woman to set foot in Orange County. The shores of Lower Twin Lake near the [cut-off] Camp Wakoda Girl Scout Camp temporarily become the New Windsor shore of the Hudson River during the pageant.
[Image 2 - Middle Right: A line of seated women and children watching the performance.] Visitors at the pageant included some descendents of Sarah; far right at the rear, Justice Samuel W. Eager, and from right to left foreground, Mrs. Genevieve Nave, Mrs. Corinna Bull Brown, Mrs. Amy Bull Crist, and Mrs. Eager, who is unrelated to the family.
[Image 3 - Bottom Left: Children dressed in historical and Native American attire standing in front of a structure.] Sarah prepares to enter the Indian wigwam that was the first structure erected on the banks of the Otterkill River where her settlement was later established.
[Image 4 - Bottom Right: A girl in a long dress and bonnet stands with others in a wooded opening.] In the final tableaux the marriage of Sarah neighboring settlement, is depicted and William Bull, a stone mason from a [cut-off]