Delaware River ferries were important transportation link
Recent newspaper releases announced that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio seeks to expand ferry service in the Manhattan area with the subhead adding that “de Blasio wants to give New Yorkers the ability to reach far-flung posts.”
By way of explanation the article said that “a distance of mere miles can take an hour or more in travel time for residents in the remote area, who have limited access to bus routes and no subway stations in the immediate vicinity. A plan from de Blasio would give them, and New Yorkers in some other waterfront neighborhoods, another option — ferry service.”
It's difficult to imagine but when ferry service was first established in the Sussex County area, King George II was king of England. Sussex County ferry service was in effect for more than two centuries and provided an important transportation link, especially during the days of turnpikes and stagecoach routes.
Old-timers like Ollie Treible are among those who actually rode on the ferry with the family car. Treible recalls that he was a little boy when the family visited an aunt and uncle in Shawnee, Pa. His uncle, Benjamin Rosenkrans, owned and operated the Rosenkrans Ferry on the Delaware River. Rosenkrans used cables to guide the ferry with a boat motor used for power. When someone on the Pennsylvania side wished ferry service they would ring a bell. Treible said that ferry boats were all private enterprises; there were no federal monies involved and users paid a toll.
The Rosenkrans Ferry only held one good-sized car. When Treible was born at home, the family doctor came from Stroudsburg, Pa., to deliver him. According to Treible, because of the ferry, Stroudsburg was actually closer than Newton. Treible laments that people today don't realize how important the ferries were, and he expresses the wish that ferries would once again ply the Delaware River.
Unlike the ferries proposed by de Blasio, which would be financed by the city — which would spend an initial $35 million for a ferry system that would start with three routes in 2017 and add two more in 2018 — ferries, turnpikes and stagecoaches of the past were privately owned and operated. However, they required a royal grant or legislative approval to operate.
According to Frank T. Dale, in his book “The Ferryboat Business on Our Delaware River,” the first ferries on the Delaware were simple rowboats. “When the horse, that had transported the traveler overland and was accompanying the traveler over water, was tied to a rope held by the owner and in this way, the horse swam alongside the small craft while the boat was rowed across the river.”
Dale explained that “this method soon changed as not all horses like to swim the Delaware, and that is why specially designed ferryboats came into existence.”
According to Dale, “In the later 1700s, ferryboats were modernized and in lieu of rowing across the river, an overhead cable was stretched across it. The ferryboat was hooked up to the cable with either cables or ropes with one attached to the front of the boat and the other to the back. With the boat held at an angle to the downriver current, the ferry was pushed quickly across the river by the current, with little or no manpower required.” Dale adds that “it required little or no manpower, caused no fumes or other dangers from burning power sources, and, if the current was normal, it was capable of a quick trip, under normal circumstances, a few minutes, and the fuel cost was zero.”
The first known ferry to operate in Sussex County was the Dingman Ferry that is guessed to have started about 1735. This ferry, started by Andrew Dingman, operated between Pike Country, Pa., and Sandyston. It remained in operation for nearly one century, when it was replaced by a toll bridge in 1836. But each time a flood destroyed the bridges the ferry resumed operations.
The Daniel Decker Ferry is best known as having ferried several regiments across the Delaware. On May 9, 1779, 1,000 soldiers led by Lt. John L. Hardenbergh marched down the Old Mine Road, stopped for dinner near the Van Campen Inn and then marched to Decker's Ferry, where they camped for the night and then crossed over on the ferry. That same month, Col. Philip Van Cortlandt, who commanded the 2nd N.Y. Reg't in the Continental Army, traveled down the Old Mine Road with his troops en route to Stroudsburg to cut the road for Gen. John Sullivan's army that was quartered at Easton. They, too, used the Decker Ferry to cross the Delaware River.
The Decker Ferry was purchased by the Rosenkrans family in 1860, and in 1898 it was moved up the river to their property. Montague historian Alicia Batko says that this ferryboat, the last one operating on the Delaware River, basically went out of business on May 4, 1945, when a student pilot from Stewart Air Force Base, N.Y., accidentally cut the cable while practicing maneuvers in the area.
Batko, assisted by Richard Stevens and Jim Wright, tried to find all the deeds for ferries that existed in the Montague area. Their research reflects that among the known ferries to operate in Montague was the Crawford Ferry, established by Moses Crawford in 1824. This ferry was of short duration as it was replaced by the Delaware River Bridge that connected Milford, Pa., and Montague on Nov. 17, 1826.
While one local historian places the Foster-Armstrong Ferry as established during the 1790s, Batko guesses that it was in operation from about 1812 to 1835. Like the Crawford Ferry, the ferry went out of business after the construction of several bridges in the area.
The Wickham's Ferry was established by Seth Wickham around 1800. Like its counterparts, this ferry was of short duration as it, too, was replaced by bridges. Another ferry that was located in Montague was owned by several persons over the years and subsequently went by the name of its various owners. This ferry, established by members of the Wells family about 1780, was sold to John Kittle in 1804. This ferry also went out of business due to the construction of bridges. But it was revived again after bridges were wiped out with a flood in 1846. Ferry service was revived by Samuel Detrick and continued for 10 years until yet another bridge was completed. That bridge collapsed after four years and again ferry service resumed. The next owner to operate this ferry was Moses Detrick. But once again a bridge collapsed and this time ferry service was renewed by Martin V. Westbrook, John Detrick and Jacob Hornbeck with the ferry operating until 1890, when yet another bridge was built.
There may have been several other ferries that operated for only a short period, as Batko says that an 1821 deed between Aaron Fredenburgh and James Van Auken mentions James Van Auken's ferry lot and a lane to the Upper Ferry, likely located near Cadoo Road. Another deed relating to William Holbert's land also mentions the Upper Ferry in 1828. On Nov. 13, 1845, Charles Probasco advertised a rope ferry across the Delaware to Milford, located 10 rods above the site of the old bridge.
Among the other ferries that operated in Sussex County was the Smith's Ferry, which was established by Daniel S. Smith in Flatbrookville and continued in operation until 1903. The Ennis Ferry, located in Sandyston, was founded by Joseph Ennis and went out of business in 1834.
One individual who was too impatient to wait for a ferry to get across the river was Dr. J. N. Miller of Layton. William F. Henn, in “The Story of the River Road,” wrote that “for some crossing on the ferry was time consuming, even after the ferryman was roused by tolling the bell on the opposite shore. Old-timers recalled how Dr. Miller overcame irksome delays by ingeniously pulling himself across the river in a basket, which was suspended from the overhead ferry cable.”
As author Dale explained in “Bridges over the Delaware River,” “ferries on the Delaware River were there first and, at their beginning, were adequate. But as traffic between the states increased, problems arose. Often the ferries were not large enough to carry a traveler and his coach and horse and certainly not large enough to handle two or three at a time. The same was true of wagons carrying goods.”
Dale observed that “another problem was that ferries were slowed down or stopped entirely at times due to high water or when the river froze over, or at spring thaw when the river was filled with large chunks of ice. And as other traffic on the river increased, especially the huge unstoppable timber rafts, crossing the river by ferry became extremely hazardous.”
Just how de Blassio's plan to introduce additional ferry service in the New York City area will develop remains uncertain, but for more than two centuries ferry service here in Sussex County was alive and well. There are those, like Treible, who recall when ferries provided the prime means of crossing the Delaware and wish that ferries would once again return to the Delaware River and to Sussex County.
Jennie Sweetman is the history columnist for the New Jersey Herald. She may be contacted at email@example.com.