Name/Title
Campbell Hall & Ding-Dong DayEntry/Object ID
000839Tags
Campbell HallScope and Content
Ding-dong Day
By Albina S Orlowski
In Campbell Hall
The house is decorated with fireplaces, Bibles, portraits, old letters. Also there is a preserved white wedding gown complemented with flowers and figures. This is the wedding gown that Sarah Wells wore when she married William Bull 254 years ago.
Redecorated
“This year the interior of the Stone House has been completely redecorated and the bathroom redone. Many years have passed since such a project was last done. We still have to repair our water supply. The sewerage systems needs rejuvenation,” said Mrs. Crist.
The founder of the family, William Bull (1689-1755) an English emigre, one of the few professional masons in the area, also was the builder of a number of structures which hbae become historic landmarks in Orange County.
Mrs. Crist’s nephew (Mr. Brown) and James Sorrell, a member of the faculty of the Middletown School system, led the Bull clan in singing a tribute to Sarah Wells to the music of America. It is a musical story of Sarah who came down the Hudson River to marry William Bull 254 years ago. Together, the couple built the stone house in Campbell Hall.
Officers
Andrew Wilson, 2 Overhill road, Scarsdale, N.Y. served as president of the Bull Family Association. Henry P. Bull, 46 Prospect avenue, Middletown, is treasurer. Mrs. Emma J. McWhorter, Rutledge avenue, Highland Mills, is secretary. Others who serve on the committeee are as follows: Mark S. Roe, RD, Chester; Mrs. Dorothy Gray Radzinsky, 123 Monhagen avenue, Middletown, recording secretary; Dr. Frederick N. Bement, Pine Bush, vice president; John G. Thew, Ridge road, Campbell Hall; James Wilson Link, 204 Croton avenue, Mount Kisco.
Yes, it was a ding-dong day at Campbell Hall. Plans were mapped for next year’s party.
CAMPBELL Hall -- It was never like this 250 years ago. It couldn’t have been. Also, it was never like this 105 years ago.
Cameras flashed like one-eyed monsters from the War of the Worlds.
The radio of a passing automobile was blaring its music. Young men directing air conditioned cars. The hemlines of women’s dresses yo-yo from the ground up.
Microphone and telephone cables running up, down and all around the Bull Stone House, Hamptonburgh that took five years to build, beginning in 1722. Over 400 persons came from across the nation.
It was like that, however, Saturday, a date recognized by the Bull Family Association to be the 250th anniversary. Tradition has it that while the house was being completed the Family lived in some nearby log cabin.
Quite A Party
It was quite a party. It was the day the clan got together.
Mrs. Amy Bull Crist, RD 2, Middletown, the Orange County School superintendent, who group up in the stone house, chairman of the ‘72 activity committee for the 105th Bull family picnic, programmed a page that depicted William Bull building a stone bridge in Dublin. Sarah Wels was seen carrying stones in her apron; the earthquake and its effect on the new has, and the completion of the dining room after the house was built.
Members of the Family began to arrive mid-morning. Some came the preceding day and parked their trailers on the grounds. The basket lunch brought by each family was opened at noon, following a blessing.
Almost Continuously
Members of the Bull family have lived almost continuously in the Stone House since it was built in 1722. The date is cut into stone in the front of the house.
Mr. and Mrs. Michael K. Brown are the eighth generation descendants of Sarah Wells and William Bull, and who now live in the house. Mr. and Mrs. Brown are the parents of seven children. They are raising them in the oldest house in Orange County.
“The house is larger inside that it appears from the outside. It dominates 100 acres,” said Mrs. Crist.