The town of Mamakating was organized on March 7th, 1788 and was the first township of Sullivan County. The first county seat was Bloomingburgh; incorporated in 1833. According to historical records Johanis Hardenburgh, a resident of Kingston, N.Y., purchased a large tract of land known as the Hardenburgh patent. This land and another patent known as the Minisink patent were what is now most of Orange and Sullivan Counties. On December17th, 1743 a precinct was formed called Mamakating. Some say it was called Mamacotten.  It included what is now all of Sullivan County but was still a part of Ulster County.

During the early and middle 1700`s the construction of forts all along the old mine road (Route 209) was necessary to protect the settlers from hostile Indians. There were three forts built in Mamakating. Fort Westbrookville was built in 1750 on what is now the Sullivan and Orange county border and until several years ago it was a restaurant. In 1757 a fort was built north of the village of Wurtsboro and it was called Fort Devans. A building was later added to make it larger and it is now the home of the Barone family, the owners and operators of the Wurtsboro airport. Another fort was built on the east side of the Bloomingburgh Mountain. It was called Fort Roosa and was built in 1731. It is still standing and is considered the oldest building in Sullivan County. Many people traveling the old mine road from Kingston found land that was good for planting crops, plenty of game to hunt, streams filled with fish, and virgin trees to build homes. They decided that it was a good place to settle down and raise a family.

In 1788 Mamakating was reduced to its present size with the forming of Deerpark, Orange County in 1788. Lumberland was formed from Mamakating in 1798, Thompson in 1803 and part of Forestburgh in1837.

In 1788 the first school in Sullivan County was built in Bloomingburgh. In 1825 two brothers by the name of Wurts decided to build a canal.

The Town of Mamakating town board asked me if I would care to form a historical society in the town of Mamakating. They took ownership of the old school building in Summitville and completely renovated it. I eagerly accepted the offer and today we have an archive room, a great meeting room with many pictures and histories of all the areas of Mamakating and many artifacts of our area. We have165 members and we are growing fast. I hope to someday have a web page for Mamakating keep tuned. John Masten Co-Historian.