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    Dingmans Ferry
    Dingmans Ferry
    Dingmans Ferry
    Ebook181 pages47 minutes

    Dingmans Ferry

    By Matthew M. Osterberg

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    For over 200 years, the small village of Dingmans Ferry grew along the banks of the Delaware River. This once small town thrived first as a farming community and later as a summer retreat for New York and Philadelphia residents. Dingmans Ferry provides a tour of this fascinating community that was lost in the late 1970s after the area was purchased for the proposed Tocks Island Dam Project. The incredible mills, country churches, one-room schools, and family homes come alive in this grand photo essay. Drawn from the collections of the Dingmans Ferry/Delaware Township Historical Society, Pike County Historical Society, and private collections, these photographs include familiar sights such as Darragh Mill, St. John s Episcopal Church, and the Academy. Famous residents such as Chief Thundercloud and Marie Zimmerman are also highlighted in this photographic journey through an area long forgotten.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 7, 2005
    ISBN9781439616352
    Dingmans Ferry
    Author

    Matthew M. Osterberg

    Historian Matthew M. Osterberg, author of Arcadia's Matamoras to Shohola and Port Jervis, has used historical photographs from the Minisink Valley Historical Society and private collectors to compile this history of a commercial endeavor that helped transform a nation.

    Read more from Matthew M. Osterberg

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      Book preview

      Dingmans Ferry - Matthew M. Osterberg

      me.

      INTRODUCTION

      Traveling along Route 209, south of Milford, is like taking a drive through a country wilderness. It is, in fact, the Delaware Water Gap Recreation Area. But few visitors today realize that just 30 years ago, this route was the main street for the bustling community of Dingmans Ferry, a town of many businesses and beautiful homes. It was a place where families prayed together on Sundays, dogs barked, children played, mothers hung out laundry, and fathers worked. It was a place where neighbors met at local restaurants, tourists bought souvenirs, and children attended school.

      In 1976, Dingmans Ferry residents held a community fair to celebrate the country’s 200th birthday. It was a bittersweet party, though, for many knew this was their final celebration; after 230 years, the small river village of Dingmans Ferry would soon become history.

      Since the 1960s, the United States Army Corp of Engineers had been acquiring property—the family homes, businesses, and farms that comprised Dingmans Ferry—to make way for the proposed Tocks Island Dam Project. The dam was to provide hydroelectric power for the growing New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas, as well as help protect the valley from flooding and create a recreational area for fishing and boating.

      But there was a high price to be paid, as the soul and fabric of this once picturesque village was to be destroyed. All of its beautiful buildings would be lost. Places where families laughed and cried for over 200 years would exist only in cherished memories and old photographs.

      When traveling this route today, it is a good idea to pause and reflect. Take a moment to visualize and understand that what remains is the tranquil natural beauty, not unlike that which drew the first European settlers to the area they named Dingmans Choice, later re-christened Dingmans Ferry.

      Settled in 1732 by Andrew Dingman, this fertile valley was originally the home of the Leni-Lenape Indians, a peaceful tribe who worshiped and respected the land as sacred. The results of the infamous Walking Purchase treaty shocked and betrayed the Leni-Lenape, as most of Pike County was taken from them. They lost the home sites where they had lived and the land they had tilled for centuries. The tribe revered the fertile and ancient Minisink Valley for its hunting and fishing and its spiritual link to their ancestors who lived and died there. Archaeologists have discovered numerous artifacts of great significance, some now protected in New York City museums. This fraudulent treaty was an important factor in turning the natives against the white settlers, who had driven them from their sacred lands and burial grounds.

      Andrew Dingman saw in this area what the Lenape had known and protected for generations: more than just beautiful scenery, but an abundance of natural wealth, including the fertile lands which had already been farmed for centuries and the many streams that eventually powered the many mills that would be built in the area over time.

      Dingman and his family created a village that connected the east to the west, for in the 1700s, the mountain range of Pennsylvania beginning just west of the Delaware was the American frontier. Dingman and other early settlers grasped the pragmatic importance of linking this fertile valley to the markets in New York and other cities on the eastern seaboard. The Dingman family facilitated commerce by establishing the first ferry across this part of the Delaware and building a dependable road from Bethany to Dingmans. The trading with New York and New Jersey increased rapidly over time, and eventually, the first of several bridges was built to span the river. The bridge still in use at Dingmans Ferry, owned by the Dingmans Choice Company, was built in 1900 and is the last privately owned span on the Delaware River, now serving commuters more often then the transport of commercial goods.

      As the town and the region developed, the Dingman family was involved in practically all matters, which impacted Dingmans Ferry’s government, schools, and businesses. Hotels were constructed, and soon visitors from far-off places found this tranquil spot in the foothills of the Pennsylvania Mountains to be a great vacation getaway from city life. Some loved it so much that they moved here permanently to raise their families.

      Even to this day, as Pike County grows at a rapid rate, new visitors are discovering what Andrew Dingman saw more than 270 years ago. Today, the area retains much of its original natural environment, as well as a rich cultural history, with families who have been here for nearly 10 generations, as well as the vibrancy brought by newcomers.

      This book is a photographic essay that attempts to give the reader a sense of life in Dingmans Ferry. In it, you’ll find photographs of the churches where children were baptized and sweethearts were married, and hotels where local residents worked and visitors enjoyed the natural beauty during the summers.

      The first five chapters include images demonstrating how a small American village grew. The story tells

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