The Legend of Masthope
The legend of Mast Hope has been a part of Pike County folklore for over a century. The story is about the search for a tall tree to serve as the mast for the U.S.S. Constitution.
The village of Masthope is located adjacent to the Delaware River, slightly south of Masthope Creek. Formerly called Sim's Point, it was named after Simon Westfall, an early settler in the region, who began his life there.
In the late 1700s, men from the Philadelphia Navy Yard were seeking a tall pine.
The Upper Delaware had been providing huge timbers to Philadelphia for years, so the men traveled up the Delaware in search of a mast tall enough for a man-of-war they were constructing.
After having no luck in finding a tree suitable for their purpose, they arrived at Simon Westfall's homestead in present day Matamoras. He told them of a tree tall enough.
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They were nearly discouraged, having come so far without success, and accompanied Mr. Westfall up the Delaware as a "last hope."
Upon arrival in the present day village of Masthope, they found a pine, which, by digging down to the roots and cutting close to the ground, was tall enough for their purpose.
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The tree was carefully cut and floated down the Delaware River to Philadelphia, then shipped to Boston for use as the main mast for the U.S.S. Constitution, known as “Old Ironsides” for its heroism in the War of 1812.
The “last hope” for the mast became Mast Hope, and so, according to legend, the village was named.
The U.S.S. Constitution was launched on October 21, 1797 and has had a distinguished naval career for over 200 years. In the War of 1812 Old Ironsides sunk three British Ships.
There may be some truth to this legend. The Pennsylvania forests directly along the river furnished pine and hemlock for spars and masts. The timber was made into rafts and in the mid-18th century these rafts navigated the Delaware River to the naval shipyards in Philadelphia. In 1764, Daniel Skinner was the first to set rafts of timber down the river. In 1828 it is reported that one thousand rafts containing fifty million feet of lumber descended the Delaware during rafting season.
The Holbert family was the first to settle in the Masthope (Mast Hope) area. William Holbert Sr., a senator from Connecticut, purchased land at Mast Hope and Holbert Bend (believed to be the tract of land between Westcolang Lake and the bend in the Delaware River at Westcolang Creek.) His farm was one of the oldest in the township. The Holbert family established a successful enterprise of lumbering, tanning, farming and even hotel-keeping. One of William's two sons, Benjamin, settled at Holbert Bend, where he continued a successful farming and lumber business. His wife, Mary Rider, had thirteen children, one of whom was Joseph G. Holbert. Joseph built the first house of logs on the family property at Lackawaxen and rafted logs down the Delaware to Trenton. He also maintained a store and blacksmith shop on the farm.
This 1872 map shows the area of what is believed to be Holbert Bend.
William Holbert, eldest son of Joseph (and the great grandson of William Holbert Sr.) was born on the homestead on August 12, 1829. He obtained his early book education in the neighborhood schools and at the nearby Milford Academy. At the age of twenty, he engaged in mercantile business at Lackawaxen. Three years later, he relinquished that business and engaged in farming and lumbering at Masthope. In 1857, he moved to Berlin Township in Wayne County, where he continued his farming and lumbering interests on a more extensive scale, and cleared off a very large farm. 12 years later, he moved to Equinunk, where the firm of Holbert & Branning engaged extensively in the tanning, lumbering and merchandise business. He finally returned to his native place, Lackawaxen, where he kept a summer hotel until his death. He is the founder of Holbert Cemetery, located off of Masthope Plank Road.
Portrait of William Holbert, born 1829.
Masthope's History
Early Settlers
The Railroad Arrives & A Town is Born
Mast Hope was an important hamlet in the mid-19th century, where the focus was on lumbering the great virgin forests and mining bluestone. In 1848, the first portion of the Erie Railroad was completed. This railroad linked New York City to Lake Erie and provided rail passenger service to the Delaware River Valley from New York City. Plank-lined roads led from Mast Hope to Honesdale and Hawley, which offered these neighboring towns access to a depot (before the railroad expanded into those areas.)
It was the construction of the railroad that led David Selden to purchase property on the Delaware River in and around Mast Hope. David Selden set up his son James and his wife Mary Chapel Baldwin to come to Mast Hope and pursue an enterprise of building a village, a hotel, and establishing blue stone quarries.
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Here in Mast Hope, the Seldens built a forty-room manor house modeled after their Georgian style family home in England. The Selden Manor was furnished with marble fireplaces in every room, mahogany stairs, grand porches, "indoor plumbing," furniture shipped on rail from New York, and the best in linen, art and china. Remains of the manor house are still visible today, especially huge pieces of Pennsylvania bluestone that were used for the foundation and walkways.
As shown on this 1872 map, the village was laid out in a grid of 16 blocks and streets, bordered by the Delaware River on the east and Mast Hope Creek to the north. Only seven of these blocks were shown to have structures, with ample room for growth. There was a post office, store, school, 40-room hotel and railroad depot.
In the late 1800s, mules and carts would haul bluestone from quarries to the railroad depot in the village, where it was then shipped off. James Selden leased these quarries, and the mined bluestone was used extensively in the construction of buildings and city sidewalks. Bluestone mining was an important part of the economy during the much of the nineteenth century.
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Mast Hope cemetery is also located in the village. Tombstones date back to the early 1800s. Victims of a terrible train wreck that occurred nearby in July, 1869 are said to be buried here. It is also poignant to see the tombstones of young children and realize the frequency of death in children before the age of antibiotics.
Postcard of the Selden Manor House
The Post Office at Mast Hope
The Rail Station at Mast Hope