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IN THEIR FOOTSTEPS - 10/05/2008
(by Richard Townsend - OpEd Columnist - October 08, 2008)
Family myth may be plausible
Miss Minnie May Monks (the family that put the Monks in Monksville) printed a small number of books including “Winbeam,” probably her most popular locally published by Knickerbocker Press, and “The End Of The Trail,” which she self-published. The latter work was one of her earliest and tells a tale told to her by her Uncle Dave Miller. I will share some of the story as we follow in the footsteps of one of the Miller family members.
Miss Monks tells the story of one of the early English ancestors in her family who lived in the “English Neighborhood” southeast of old Bergen (Jersey City). He decides to hire a guide and take a hunting trip up the Passaic and Pompton rivers into the Westbrook Valley, which was virtually a wilderness surrounding what is now the Wanaque Reservoir. He and his guide are separated and he ventures off on his own finally reaching the mountains along the Westbrook. Not long into his hunting journey he falls and is injured.
This stranger in the lands occupied by the Munsi Tribe of the local Indians is discovered by the natives and is taken in by them, nursed back to health, but is not released for weeks to come. The natives are planning a council meeting at “Indian Council Rock” along the Wanaque River and are suspicious of this outsider. The young Indian maiden who takes care of him is the daughter of the head of this local tribe.
The young hunter grows fond of his caregiver and she in turn is interested in him. Over time another trapper who is well known by the local Indians arrives and gives a good report of this stranger who has befriended his captors and eventually he is released. He later returns to this tribe and negotiates the right to marry his Indian maiden and settles in the region below the falls that later is known as Miller’s Falls, located just of West Brook Road near where the West Brook enters the Wanaque Reservoir.
Many people dismiss the tales of Miss Monks as folklore. However, if you read her work carefully and dare to follow in her footsteps, you will become convinced, as I am, that her recounting of oral traditions in her family are filled with a great deal of fact. It is true that there were families living along the old roads from Acquackanonk (Passaic) to Pompton and Ringwood. And these families did post signs welcoming travelers providing simple meals and sometimes a place to sleep. You have to read the little book to imagine what this beautiful area was like.
What is unquestionable as fact is that there is, in the holdings of the Bergen County Courthouse, a deed written on birch bark with poke-berry juice as ink, deeding the Miller Tract from the Indians. As you can see from this photograph, the Miller Homestead was nestled against the banks along the Westbrook just below the falls. It is probably one of the oldest homes that existed in the 1700s until the construction of the Wanaque Reservoir.
David Miller lived to see the publication of Winbeam by Miss Monks and to see his home above the falls taken by the water commission along with the original Miller Homestead. He died three months after the publication of the book, which took 10 years to complete. His family tales are still enjoyed as we follow in their footsteps.
| Comments (1) |
On October 14, 2008 Tom said:
Keep the articles coming Rich. Your doing a great job.
TR |
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