The Town of Callicoon was one of the surrounding towns that was a part of the Town of Lumberland when it was formed in 1798. The following is about the first settlers in the town:

Near the county highway leading from Jeffersonville to Callicoon Center, on the corner where the town road leads past Andrew von Bergen's, is a little cemetery in which grow some big pine trees. The cemetery is surrounded by a stone wall and there is no indication to a passer-by that it is a cemetery. Some tombstones are in it, but can hardly be seen from the highway. The name of Quick Cemetery could properly have been given to this burial spot, but so far as [Mr. Schwarz] knows, there is no name associated with it, although it is likely that it is the first cemetery established by white settlers within the Town of Callicoon.

Jacob Quick came to the town from Milford, Pa., early in 1830, and started a saw mill just below the village reservoir. [Mr. Schwarz] believes Quick's dam across the stream was at the same point where the dam for the first village reservoir now stands. The immediate vicinity around Quick's saw mill became quite a settlement. On the lands now owned by Andrew von Bergen, four or five houses stood, while others stood on other lands in that immediate area. The growing up of a settlement at this point was the result of the old road from Liberty to the Delaware River that crossed at this point. Some few years later, the nucleus of the present village of Jeffersonville came into existence and attracted settlers that followed and the little settlement around Quick's saw mill failed to grow and eventually became smaller.

For more than 10 years after the settlement at Jeffersonville began, the only way to get out was to first go to the corner at Quick's saw mill to reach the main road. Early in the 1850's, a turnpike was built from Youngsville through Jeffersonville to Cochecton on the Erie Railroad. With the coming of this turnpike, a man could pass over it, if he could pay the toll, instead of going to Quick's corners to reach the old road to Youngsville.

The name Jacob Quick is a name as intimately associated with the early history of Sullivan County as any other family name. James E. Quinlan immortalized the name by writing an account of the life of Tom Quick, in which he essays his activities as an Indian slayer. Probably all of you have heard of Tom Quick and may have read Quinlan's "Town Quick."

Town Quick was primarily a hunter and trapper, and as such, roamed all over Sullivan County and must often have been in Callicoon. Tradition states that Tom remained over night at Cogger's tavern on the Neversink, where he had his own cup from which he drank his ale. Upon leaving the tavern, he hid the cup, to get it out again on his next visit.

Tom Quick never married and had no descendants, but his brothers and sisters did. Jacob Quick, who came to Callicoon, was a brother's son and Tom's nephew. [Mr. Schwarz] has been anxious to learn what [he] could about Jacob Quick's family in this town. So far as [he] can learn, he had several children. Before coming to Callicoon, he was a justice of the peace in Pennsylvania. He was elected to the same office in this town when it was organized.

The name Quick was very common in the Town of Callicoon 70 or 80 years ago. [Mr. Schwarz] had assumed that all the Quicks here then had descended from Jacob Quick, but such is not the case. Apparently some of his relatives followed from Pennsylvania.

D.D. Quick established the first hotel at Youngsville and also began the saw mill on the Callicoon stream. Theodore Quick, son of D.D., practiced medicine at Youngsville. He attended a medical school in Philadelphia after making a trip on a raft down the Delaware River to the Quaker City, passed his examinations, and returned to Youngsville, a full-fledged doctor with a certificate to prove it.

In the family of Quicks who lie buried there, the Town of Callicoon holds the bones of the ablest family of pioneers this county has known.

Source:
Frank V. Schwarz, Historian
Lumberland: A Gem with Many Facets
Bicentennial Pamphlet, 1998