Bull Stone House

Bull Stone House
The Bull Stone House in 2007
Location Hamptonburgh Road, Campbell Hall, NY
Nearest city Middletown
Coordinates 41°25′51″N 74°15′45″W / 41.43083°N 74.26250°W / 41.43083; -74.26250Coordinates: 41°25′51″N 74°15′45″W / 41.43083°N 74.26250°W / 41.43083; -74.26250
Area 120 acres (48 ha)
Built 1722
Architect William Bull and Sarah Wells
NRHP Reference # 74001287[1]
Added to NRHP July 18, 1974
The Dutch barn, is one of only a few hundred surviving in the New World

The Bull Stone House is located in the town of Hamptonburgh, New York. It is a ten-room stone house built in the 1720s by William Bull and Sarah Wells, pioneer settlers of the area.[2]

Bull, a stonemason, met and married Wells, a fellow immigrant to the Wawayanda Patent (much of the present day towns of Goshen, Hamptonburgh, Minisink, and Warwick) while they were both working for the patent proprietors.

Sarah Wells arrived in the area as the patent's first female settler in 1712. She came there to work as a cook at the age of sixteen.[3][4] She built her own log cabin two years later. In 1715 Bull arrived in North America from Hamptonborough, England and also came to work at the Wawayanda Patent, where they met.

Their marriage in 1718,[5] was the first between European settlers in Goshen.[6] Building the house was a joint effort between husband and wife. They received the land as a wedding gift and began building the house in 1726. Sarah carried the stones to the site and William cut and laid them, while they lived in a pair of temporary log cabins. It took thirteen years to complete, surviving a 1728 earthquake in the process.[6] (Other sources place the date of the house's construction as 1722[2] or 1727).[5] The completed building stands 40 feet square (1,600 sq ft (150 m2)) and has walls 3 ft (0.91 m) thick.[7]

Their descendants dispersed within the adjacent region, with the houses of Thomas (now a county museum) and William III also on the National Register. The family has lent its name to the hamlet of Bullville and Thomas Bull Park.

Sarah Wells survived William Bull, who died in 1755. She remarried and lived to the age of 102, leaving 344 direct descendants.[6] The county government has renamed Orange County Route 8, near the house, to Sarah Wells Trail, in her honor. The local Girl Scouts council was named for her as well.[4]

The house and surrounding property have remained in the Bull family's ownership. Today an eighth-generation descendant lives there as the resident caretaker. Tours are available for the general public for a small fee.[2] Descendants from all over the United States have returned to the house every year since 1868 for a family reunion.[8] The house has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1974.

The 120-acre (49 ha) William Bull and Sarah Wells homestead boasts another historical structure of significance, a Dutch barn.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Staff (2007-01-23). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "The Bull Stone House". Retrieved 2007-07-29.
  3. ↑ Decosta, Benjamin Franklin; Johnston, Henry Phelps; Lamb, Martha Joanna; Pond, Nathan Gillett (January–June 1885). "Gray-Court". The Magazine of American History with Notes and Queries (A. S. Barnes.) XIII: 207. Retrieved 2007-07-31. Denne sent up Sarah Wells to cook for the workmen in his employ, and William and Sarah married |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  4. 1 2 "History". Sarah Wells Girl Scout Council. Retrieved 2007-07-31.
  5. 1 2 French, J.H. (1860). Gazetteer of the State of New York. Syracuse, NY: R. Pearsall Smith. p. 507. Retrieved 2007-07-31. The first marriage was that of Wm. Bull and Sarah Wells, in 1718
  6. 1 2 3 Wilson, James; et al. (1900–1914). The Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: The Press association compilers. p. 268. Retrieved 2007-07-30.
  7. ↑ Green, Harry Clinton; Mary Wolcott Green (1912). The Pioneer Mothers of America. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. p. 407. Retrieved 2007-07-31. The structure was forty feet square, with walls three feet thick on every side
  8. ↑ "Home page". Bullstonehouse.org. Retrieved 2007-07-29.

External links

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