DELAWARE COUNTY. 161 we have stated in a previous chapter, was one of the earliest settlements in the State. From Minisink the settlements rapidly spread up the valley of the Delaware, each new comer overreaching the location of his neighbor. In 1783, Abram . Eusk came up the river with his goods on a flat-hoat, and located a short distance above Equinock, in Pennsylvania; and about the same period William Parks took up Equinock Island. The succeeding year, (1784,) Ezekiel Samson came up the river and pitched his tent a short distance below Che- hocton Cove, and immediately afterward Eichard Jones re- moved with his family to Chehocton Point. In 1786, Squire Whitaker also came up the river, and set- tled at the place where Greorge Debar now lives, about one and a half miles below the rail-road crossing at Chehocton;* and Richard Jones, Travis and Sands, settled in the vicinity the same year. In 1787, Conrad Edict, a single man, came into the settlement and partook of the hospitalities of Squire Whitaker, whose daughter he shortly after married. At the wedding the bride appeared in a linsey-woolsey short-gown, and the bridegroom in a new suit of ^How-cloth shirt and trousers.'^
- Chehocton is of Indian origin, and the meaning it conveys is
both beautiful and appropriate. To give a just idea of the peculi- arity of its location, and of the advantages thence resulting, it is proper to give some account of the place and the surrounding coun- try. It will be perceived, by inspecting the map of the county, that the two branches of the Delaware rise near each other, in the north- east part of the county, and run thence with a very tortuous course, . generally south -westerly, until the West Branch reaches Deposit, (formerly Cook-house,) whence it takes a south-easterly course, until near its affianced bride, at Chehocton Neck ; then more southerly, the twain recede and again approach to their wedding union, one and a half miles below, giving occasion for the Indian appellation of Che- hocton or Shehawkan, which interpreted in English, is " The Wedding of the Waters." 14*
