The North Mountain Historical Society

Meeting: August 2002

August 19, 2002

August 19, 2002, "The History of the Greystone Building."

The History Buffs met at the Brass Pelican on Monday, August 19. Mr. Charles Kocher returned thanks for the meeting and our time together; Jim Vance chaired the meeting and asked each one to tell who they were and where they were from. There were 50 present.

Jim then introduced Mr. Bob Maynes who spoke to us on the history of the Greystone building and Coles Mills that was associated with it.

Mr. Maynes began by giving us a short history of the area at the time just preceding the settling of the upper Fishing Creek valley. The settlers at that time were engaged in the Penamite War- a war resulting from the fact that King Charles I of England had given the colony of Connecticut land in this area - then had given the same land to the family of William Penn. Moses Van Campen was a commanding officer in that war. He retired at the close of the war in 1782 and returned to his home at Fort Wheeler, a Fort near the mouth of Fishing Creek that he had founded. The name is familiar to local people as the name of the Hotel Moses Van Campen that was located on Main Street in Benton.

In 1791 a group of men including Ezekiel Cole came to settle in the area. Ezekiel Cole claimed land and settled in the area where Coles Creek joined Fishing Creek. In that same year a daughter was born to Mr. and Mrs. Cole, the first child born in the area north of Orangeville. In 1794, Ezekiel had built a dam and by 1802 had established a grist mill on Fishing Creek. This was the first successful mill north of Bloomsburg.

In 1806 the building we know as Greystone was built. It was to be the home of some member of the Cole family until 1916. In 1960 the land, including Greystone was bought by the Columbia County Council of Boy Scouts and Camp Lavigne was established. For a while the building was used as housing for Camp Staff but then it required major repairs and that was discontinued. Vandalism got to be a problem. The house was leased to the Columbia County Historical Society for $1.00 a year but they, too, could not afford the major repairs needed and in 1990 regretfully the decision was made to have it torn down. A bulldozer was brought in and in just a few hours it was pushed down and the debris buried.

Mr. Maynes had a wealth of information to share and numerous charts and maps to illustrate his history of the Greystone building.

Our thanks to Mr. Maynes for a most interesting and informative presentation.

The next meeting will be held September 16 at the Brass Pelican. The Speaker will be Jane "Salty" Ferguson who will speak on the history of Women in Baseball.