many of the states, and the development of families in almost every State in the Union.

The emigrant and the frontiersman of the early generations have been succeeded by the farmer, the merchant and the mechanic; later, by those in every branch of human activity and industry. A people of high ideals, honest, intelligent, home-making and law abiding, have ever been exerting an influence uplifting and for the preservation of liberty and freedom.

Much of this early history is derived from the writings of Peter E. Gumaer. Much of the subsequent history was given me by my father, Elting Cuddeback, whose remembrance of these people was accurate, extensive and reaching back to the times of Peter E. Gumaer. Local records have been searched. Also those in Kingston, Albany and New York and Central New York counties. Records have been obtained from the writings of W. H. Nearpass, while extensive family records have been furnished by Mrs. Jennie Titsworth Wright of Sussex, N. J., Mrs. Mary V. Lawton of Skaneateles, N. Y., Mrs. Jane Cuddeback Johnson of Port Jervis, N. Y., Dr. Samuel Outwater of Lockport, N. Y., Mrs. Simeon Cuddeback of Milford, Pa., Mr. and Mrs. Egbert Cuddeback of Skaneateles, N. Y., and Mrs. Martha M. Griswold of Adrian, Michigan.

I deem myself fortunate to have known and learned from those of earlier generations many facts pertaining to the early history of the family. A physician comes to know the country, the people and the families with an intimacy unknown in other relations.

Forty-one years of the practice of my profession among neighbors, relatives and friends of my boyhood have impressed me with the desirability of a record of our people and of our family. Families scatter. Homes disintegrate. Houses disappear. Among the saddest of my experiences are visits to localities where there is now little or no vestige of the lives or of the drama of life enacted in the old homesteads of bygone years. Many, many times in this study, I have been impressed with the truth of the verses, Psalms 103, verses 15 and 16: "As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth: For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more."

As a heritage for those who may hereafter bear the name Cuddeback, for allied families, and for all who may note the development of American families, this ideal development of free men in a free country is presented. These interminglings of people of various nationalities—these Americans, will everywhere be a mighty force for the uplifting of the nation.

That such a people may be enabled to turn to a record of ancestors, and to delight to know from whence they came is sufficient compensation for many hours and days of investigation and collaboration.

William L. Cuddeback, M.D.

Port Jervis, N. Y.

PIONEER KNOLL-HOME OF THE FIRST SETTLER

Between the ranges of the Appalachian Mountains as they extend northward into New York State, lies the Valley of the Neversink river and of the Bashas Kill. From these the water flows into the Delaware River at Port Jervis.

The Kitatiny mountains of New Jersey becomes the Shawangunk range in New York and form the southeastern border of the valley. The Blue Ridge mountains of Pennsylvania extend northeasterly into New York, form the northwesterly border of the valley, and extend into the foot hills of the Catskills. Between these mountain ranges lies the valley of the Neversink, the Meckheckemeck of the early days, two hundred to four hundred feet below their crests. It is from one to two miles wide. It is said to have been part of the bed of a vast lake extending to the Hudson before the erosion of the mountain which resulted in the formation of the Delaware Water Gap. At a point near the junction of the Neversink with the Bashas Kill there is a level tract of land extending the width of the valley for about three miles.

The early settlers trailed down the valley from Kingston and came upon this flat land covered with a tall heavy grass (Rheet Grass) about 1690 and tarried there. About 1696 they purchased these lands from the Indians, and settled among them. On Oct. 14th, 1697, a patent for 1200 acres covering this fiat land was granted to Jacob Caudebec, Peter Gumaer, Thomas, Bernarbas, and Anthony Swartwout and their associates. This "Cuddeback" patent is described as "at Maghakameck, beginning at the west bounds of lands called Napeneck, etc., . . . to a small run of water called by the Indians 'Assawaghkemeck,' etc., (a small stream flowing into east side of the Neversink opposite Huguenot) and so along the said run of water and the lands of Mansjwor, the Indian."

This included the level fertile low lands from near Cuddebackville to Huguenot, and was later called the "Peenpack flats." Near the center of this "Caudebec patent" there is a knoll extending longitudinally of the valley, which tradition gives as the location of the homes of the first settlers. It is oval, about three hundred yards long, fifty yards wide, and elevated above the surrounding low lands approximately twenty feet.

This pioneer knoll, today grass-grown and a pasture, gives evidence of its former occupancy. Depressions indicate the location of these log houses. At its most southerly point, a larger, longer depression surrounded by fragments of a stone foundation now covered by earth and sod, indicates the location of an old fort erected at a later date. About twenty yards east of this knoll is a large brook of the clearest spring water, while on its eastern slope is located the remnant of the spring which furnished them water. The accompanying maps and views show these points, and also show that these pioneers built their houses in the most approved manner of their day. The depressions indicative of their cellars are near each other on different sides, on the brow of the knoll. Between them is the slightly elevated rounded top of the knoll. Access to and communication with neighbors from houses thus located could have been easy, quick and continuous.

DEEDS, LAND, PAPERS ETC.

The following transcripts from the public records at Kingston, New York and Albany are of value as records of the life and the struggles of these early colonists. The deeds from the Indians covering a large acreage, extending in the Meckheckemeck valley from Naponeck nearly to the Delaware, was made to others besides those named in the Caudebec patent. This was a cause of differences between owners of adjoining patents and led to disturbances between the Indians and the pioneers.

(1) Deed of lands from the Indians.

(2) Petition: Jacob Caudebec and others to Col. Benjamin Fletcher, Governor, for patent for 1200 acres at Waghkomack, which was granted October 14th, 1695.

(3) Petition: dated