The Town of Tusten was formed from the existing Town of Lumberland by an Act of the Sullivan County Board of Supervisors on Dec. 17, 1852, following a three year campaign to divide Lumberland into three smaller entities (Highland Township being the third part). It was not until March 7, 1854, however, that the first town meeting was held at the home of Jonathan Hawks. Charles S. Woodward, a prominent Lumberland resident and Chairman of the Sullivan County Board of Supervisors, was elected as Tusten's first Supervisor.

Tusten derives its name from Colonel Benjamin Tusten, a 36-year-old Goshen, N.Y. physician and militia colonel who died in the Battle of Minisink on July 22, 1779, as local militiamen fought a combined band of Indians and Tories under the command of Mohawk chieftain "Captain" Joseph Brant.

Although not documented, the first settlement in the township was reportedly located near the confluence of the Ten Mile River and Delaware River in 1751, when a group of Connecticut citizens in the employ of the Delaware Company established residence there. This small group of about 20 souls was massacred in its entirety in April 1763, by an Indian group en route to attack the Cushetunk Settlement near present-day Milanville. The impetus for the attack was the death of Chief Teedyuscung, whose sun, Captain Bull, blamed on white settlers in the Wilkes-Barre area; and as Cushetunk was seen as the gateway for white men onto Indian lands in eastern Pennsylvania, he was determined to eradicate it, along with any other settlements along the way. Unfortunately the Tusten settlement, as it is now known, was along his intended route of destruction.

The Narrowsburg area was believed to have been settled in the early 1770s by Benjamin Hoffman and the area became known as Homan's Eddy, named for the wide expanse of the Delaware at that point. Following the Revolutionary War, the area became further settled and took on the name of Big Eddy. By 1837, the fledging community was known as Narrowsburg, due to the Delaware being at its narrowest point there, just above the eddy. In 1893, the hamlet's post office took the name of Narrowsburg. When Tusten's government was formed in 1854, the township consisted of 6,341 acres of which only 1,087 were listed as improved. The population was enumerated at 1,164 (439 males, 386 females, 315 school children) which made it the least populated town in Sullivan County at that time. Six separate school districts provided formal education to those who could avail themselves of it.

Originally, commerce in Tusten took the form of timber cutting and agriculture as land was improved. The cut timber was formed into large rafts and floated down the Delaware to markets near Philadelphia. Narrowsburg became a convenient stop-over for the raftsmen and soon boasted several hotels to accommodate the transients. Development and settlement continued with the building of the Erie Railroad in the late 1830s to mid 1840s. This construction coincided with the Irish Potato Famine and political unrest in the German States, both of which provided a large workforce of many immigrants who were looking to settle and start a new life. Regular rail service was established in 1848, and the river became less important to commerce. Quarrying a bluestone from Tusten's mountains to be used in burgeoning Eastern cities became a mainstay of the area's economy as did dairy farming and egg production to feed the cities' inhabitants. Later, the area was discovered as an easy train ride into the country from the metropolitan New York area and resorts and boarding houses flourished.

During this period of growth, the Town of Tusten saw several communities form in addition to Narrowsburg. Beaver Brook Mills and Bloomdale (later renamed Lava) were small but distinct communities in their own right. A thriving village called Tusten had also formed along the Ten Mile River where the 1763 massacre had occurred and consisted of at least two stores, a post office, a school, church, several homes, and a grist mill. Today all that remains of this community whose livelihood was tied to the quarries, is a stone arch bridge built across the Ten Mile River in 1896, and the Baptist Church erected in 1856.

In 1927 a transfer of more than 16,000 acres of land in Tusten and its adjoining townships was made to the Boy Scouts of New York City and the area was designated as the Ten Mile River Scout Camps. Over the past 50 years, thousands of young men and women from the New York area have attended or worked at the camps and have seen first-hand the natural beauty of the region.

Ground transportation through Tusten received a real boost in August 1939, when State Route 3A was completed from Port Jervis to Hancock. Renumbered as State Route 97, this scenic highway serves as a major North-South thoroughfare for business and recreation alike.

Today, Tusten and its inhabitants are still linked to the land as were their colonial ancestors. Seasonal sportsmen still flock to the area for fishing and hunting and the Delaware is still used for rafting, albeit a lighter and more maneuverable version of the vessel. The railroad, now over 150 years in operation, still runs daily over the original track bed laid in place by our immigrant forebears, and modest businesses meet the needs of the town.

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