In 1787 Stephen Van Rensselaer III had William Cockburn survey his land in
the Helderbergs. The purpose was to force leases on the squatters who had
been living there rent free, some of them for almost half a century, and to
mark 160 square acre lots on the vacant land prior to seeking renters. 

Near the site of the present day Pine Grove Park residential area, in what
is now the Town of Berne, Cockburn's survey notes for lot 582 say, "This is
a Middling good Lot, Well Watered by the foxen Kill on which is a fine
Sawmill, with a gang of Saws. The Werners & See's [Zehs] are the Chief
proprietors of it. Chiefly Pine & Oak Timber."

The mill was said to have been constructed in 1765. The location on the
Foxenkill would not have allowed the construction of an overshot wheel, so
the sawmill would have been powered by either an undershot wheel or a breast
wheel. Were breast wheels common in a frontier community in upstate New York
in 1765? 

I am told that the "gang of saws" mentioned in the Cockburn survey notes was
most certainly a set of long saw blades set in a frame and caused to move
vertically by a pitman arm driven by a waterwheel.  Apparently they were
fairly common in 1787. I found an illustration of a single blade water
powered saw at
http://www.afrc.uamont.edu/pattersond/Coursework/Undergrad/sawmills.htm 

Considering that there was not a great deal of waterpower during most of the
year, how many blades would the gang of saws probably have? Can anyone help
me find an illustration of a gang of vertical blade saws? 

The 1787 survey shows a wagon road passing close to and above the mill (the
current Helderberg Trail, State Rte. 443). However, in 1765 there would not
have been a wagon road, but rather just a trail for horses. How would the
trees most likely have been gotten to the mill, taking into consideration
that there is not much water in the creek except during the spring runoff
and after a heavy rain? 

Harold Miller
Berne Historical Project www.Bernehistory.org