DELAWARE COUNTY. 41 the widow of Philip Yaple, deceased^ resides at present in Plattekill, in the town of Middletown. There was another pioneer who had located in Middletown by the name of Burgher ; of the precise place he occupied I am unable to state definitely, but it lay several miles farther down the river, and within the limits of the town of Andes. This settler, supposing he might remain in safety during the war, by professing to take no part in the issues of the day, was shot by an Indian scout while threshing buckwheat in the • open field. His eldest son, then but a lad, who was at work with the father, was taken into captivity, where he suffered greatly during the remainder of the war. After an absence of several years he was finally permitted to return to the family at Middletown. He was drowned many years after, while attempting to cross the Delaware during a freshet, on horse-back. At the period of the first settlements which were made along the east branch of the Delaware, there were scattered upon that stream several small Indian settlements.* It is not probable, however, that this tribe or tribes made any perma- nent residence on the Delaware, but only visiting it at certain seasons of the year to prosecute their favourite employment of hunting and fishing, which commodities there existed in great abundance ; and it may here be remarked, that beaver were found in abundance along up the river. The first set- tlers found several huge dams which this ingenious animal had thrown across the stream. One of these dams, near the site of the present village of Roxbury, was the circumstance from which it derived its former name of Beaver Dam."-j-
- Vol. I., Documentary History of New York.
f A full-grown beaver weighs from fifty to sixty pounds ; its length is usually about four feet from the snout to the end of the tail. The tail is about five or six inches wide by one inch in thickness, and 4*
