Town of Fremont - History page 6

Douglas City Records Preserved

The record book of Douglas City is now in the hands of Arthur N. Meyers of Narrowsburg, who acquired it from Frank S. Bury, who saved it from a fire at Fremont Center. When the incorporated city of Douglas City was dissolved, the records were placed in the office of the town clerk of Fremont for safe keeping. The papers on file in the town clerk’s office had become so bulky that the space in the clerk’s office was overtaxed. The town board sought to solve the difficulty by authorizing the burning of odd papers no longer of value. Among the papers marked for burning was the record book of Douglas City. Frank Bury, then a boy, was curious about the old book, consigned to the fire over which he had been placed in charge. He took it home and thus was saved whatever records remain of the only city Sullivan County has known.
When the new city of Douglas City was organized, the state was set for the growth and prosperity its promoters anticipated. To further this end, a proposal was made to dam the Delaware River to create a power plant and promote manufacturing. The Long Eddy Hydraulic and Manufacturing Company was organized in 1867 with a capital stock of $25,000. Of this, $10,000 was raised by bonds issued by Douglas City, $11,000 by residents of Long Eddy, another $2,000 by non-residents. The balance of $2,000 was never issued. Visions of a flourishing manufacturing city were common. The contract for constructing the dam was awarded to a man without skill or experience.

Dam Built and Washed Away

Objection to the dam was made by the lumbermen all along the river above the dam who claimed the dam would interfere with rafting operations and prevent them from getting their goods to the market and threatened to demolish it as a nuisance to their pursuit of business. A flood in the meantime did what the raftsmen threatened to do - demolished the dam and carried it down the river. Benjamin Buckley of Fremont Center had a claim against the company and obtained a judgment and then bought the company at the foreclosure sale. The residents of Long Eddy - many of them - still had faith in the dam enterprise and got permission to rebuild it in 1871. An ice freshet in the spring of 1872 carried away the new dam - or what had been constructed of it. Thus was carried down the river the hopes and aspirations - and the 440,000 they had invested - for a great future for Douglas City.
The lands of Fremont, being the last in the county to be settled, remained the favorite resort of hunters. The noted hunters of Rockland - who wrote of their hunting expeditions - found Fremont a wilderness where they could find deer, bear, panther and wolves. Even elk inhabited Fremont long after it could no longer be found in other parts of Sullivan County. The town records in Callicoon show that bounties were paid in 1855 for the killing of