Name/Title
August 31, 1972 Bull PicnicEntry/Object ID
000558Tags
Bull PicnicScope and Content
ADVERTISER PHOTO NEWS Thursday, August 31, 1972
Bull family holds reunion BY GEORGE FLEMING
HAMPTONBURGH -- With a pageant reminiscent of the early
1700's, a descendant of Sarah Wells and William Bull staged
an evening of entertainment for over one hundred relatives near
and distant of Orange Counties first citizens. The Bull Family Stone House
occupied by Mitchell and Betty Brown, descendants of the Bulls
of course, is like stepping back in to the pre-revolutionary days.
The old four poster bed, the wedding dress worn by Sarah
Wells when she married William Bull August 25, 1718, The old stone quarters still there but used for storage space. Cases of bric-a-brac and a collection of
old relics that would be the envy of an antique collector and a joy to a museum. As the old timers tell it, Sarah Wells, an orphan was "bound
over" to Christopher Denn, a carpenter of Staten Island who was part owner of the original Wawayanda Pageant. After making a trip to the area
which is now Hamptonburgh, Campbell Hall, and Goshen the generous Denn established a friendly relationship with the indians and asked young eighteen
year old Sarah to go to the area and start the first home to be built by white men in the territory. Being assured of the friendliness of the Indians, Christopher Denn sent his pretty, young charge along with two Indians
and a pair of carpenters. They set sail in a sloop for New Windsor
in May of 1712. From New Windsor she and her companions traveled on horseback to a river now known as the Otterkill Covering twenty
miles of virgin forest and dense undergrowth in one day. A wigwam was erected and according to Indian customs Sarah was made to enter first to insure good fortune. The charm must have worked because while preparing the evening meal the next day the Denns concerned about their young
adopted daughter, rode up having traveled up the Ramapo Valley
by saddle. Having built her wigwam the day before Sarah Wells became
the first white woman in Orange County and Madame Denn became the second. In 1716 Daniel Cromline who was making a settlement in the
patent was in need of workmen and heard of a ship in port with workmen available. A young stone mason named William Bull was one of those aboard but without sufficient funds, $10 pay for his passage and was informed
by the captain that he would be "bound out" to pay for the balance.
William was prepared to return to Ireland from whence he came
preferring "to be a slave at home rather than be bound in servitude in a heathen land." Cromline impressed with young William Bulls' independence paid the balance on his passage. While living with the Cromlines who were good friends and neighbors of the Denns a romance blossomed between Sarah and William. As a reward for Sarah's services to the Denns and members of the company, Denn gave her one hundred acres of land, but
William Bull chose land he could call his own taking one hundred acres on the southeast side of Denns property naming it Hamptonburgh in honor of the place of his birth, Weaver-Hampton in England. Here he erected a log
cabin in about 1719. Then Bull and a partner named Gerrard obtained another patent and here Bull built with his own hands the present Bull Family
Stone House in 1722 - It still stands as a monument to his skill and integrity after two hundred and fifty years. The old house shaken by earthquake and
shot by thunder bolts "shall not be moved." From the union of William Bull
and Sarah Wells came twelve children, five boys and seven girls, and at Sarah's death in 1796, there were ninety-eight grandchildren, 212 great grand-
children and thirteen great-great-grandchildren. Where else but in America can an orphan girl and an immigrant boy rise to become the first citizens
of Orange County?
Photo Caption "CHOW AND POW WOW"