Mary Smith Hill

[Jay H]

This may be a Mark Schaefer question, but does anybody know the history of Mary Smith Hill which is somewhat west of the town of Lew Beach in the western parts of the catskills? I just did a 2 day backpack of the snowmobile trails from Morton Hill Road over Campbell, Brock, Mary Smith Hill, among a few more all under 3000ft and all mostly over marked snowmobile trails and those that weren't were wishing they were! (underused and overgrown!).

Anyway, we ended on Mary Smith Hill, most likely that and Brock on the CAT200 list due to their relatively high elevation, but as always, I am interested in the history of the name. Anybody know?

Jay

 

[Mark Schaefer]

I responded at ADKHighPeaks, but I will repeat here as it may spark a clue from someone else.

Good question. None of my gazetteers or history books offer an immediate clue.

Searches from the USGS GNIS database for Mary Smith Hill and Mary Smith Brook do not offer any clues. Most likely Mary Smith was a local land owner. The Hill summit is just over the Delaware County line from Sullivan County. The Brook enters into the Beaverkill in Sullivan County. I am not sure which name (hill or brook) originated first. So Mary Smith may have been from either county.

The Delaware County History site lists a cemetery on Mary Smith Hill, but Mary nor any other Smith is buried there (that would have been too easy). There are four "Smith, Mary" entries here. It would take some other searches on the Delaware County History site to determine if any is a possibility.

There is no search engine on the Sullivan County history website. It will be a bit more difficult looking for a Mary Smith in that county.