180 THE SHAD STREAMS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

“The three signers just named resided in Walpack township, Sussex 
(now Warren) county, N. J., and the others in Smithfield, Pennsylvania. 
Benjamin Van Campen also resided in Smithfield, at what is now known 
as Shawnee. The place of the fishery is now known as Shoemaker’s 
ferry, five miles above Delaware Water Gap. The Van Campen’s were 
among the early settlers of the Minisink valley—valley of the Delaware 
north of the water gap—as were also the Depue’s, Coolbaugh’s and 
Labar’s.” 
“A few days ago I received from an old friend residing at Deposit, 
N. Y., an interesting letter in answer to my inquiries concerning fisher- 
ies ip the upper Delaware, and he speaks of the primitive method as 
follows:” 
“In my youth immense numbers of shad came up the Delaware 
every spring to and above this place on the west or main branch of the 
Delaware, and shad fishing was a regular business among the early 
settlers, furnishing an abundant supply of food. About the first of 
June some ten or a dozen neighbors would assemble, and selecting a 
suitable place would construct a large wier or pen near the shore, with 
an opening for the fish to enter. From this a brush wing or dam was 
extended diagonally up and across the river to the opposite shore. 
They then went up the river some two miles or more and constructed 
what they termed a ‘brush seine,’ composed of limbs of trees with the 
leaves adhering and reaching from shore to shore. The branches were 
bound together with withes. The men were then placed at regular 
distances in the water, pushing the brush seine and driving the shad 
before them into the pen below. In this way many hundreds and some- 
times thousands were secured. The same process would be repeated 
below, forcing the shad up the river to an opening made in the oppo- 
site side of the pen. * - ss The shad continued to come to 
the headwaters of the Delaware ’till the dam was constructed at the 
mouth of the Lackamaxen. 
“Of some of the early settlers and those participating in fishing for 
shad were the following-named persons: John Silvester and Samuel 
Hulce, Benjamin and John Whitaker, Peter Pine, Elisha Burrows, 
Stephen and James Stiles, Benjamin Carman, John Peters, Gilbert 
Dickinson, Benjamin and William Hawley, Gideon West, Silas Cran- 
dale, William Wheeler, William and Samuel Butler, and Henry Gregory, 
all deceased. 
“T am now eighty-eight years of age; was born and brought up at 
the ‘Cook House, now Veposit, where I have resided ever since. Have 
been largely engaged in the lumber business, sending it down the 
beautiful Delaware. My grandfather, John Hulce, and my father, Sil- 
vester Hulce, were the first settlers of this place. They came from 
Orange county, N: Y., in 1789.” 
With the hope that some of the older people residing on the banks 
