The following description of Bellvale was written by Thomas Burt for inclusion in a History of Orange County in 1908. He sent a copy of this to Mr. John Bradner in Bellvale and it is included with the reprints of the Rising Star.

Bellvale village, known in  colonial times as Waywayanda, is situated on the lower rapids of the Long House Creek, which here enters the meadowlands and flows a mile and one half to Stone Bridge Station, where it enters the Waywayanda, which has its source  in Clark’s Lake(Wickham Lake), and then, loses its name when  merged in the smaller stream.  Longhouse Creek has its source in a swamp in New Jersey a short distance east from Waywayanda Lake.  It has a large watershed at an elevation above tidewater of about eleven hundred feet, and in its descent of six or seven miles runs through several fine storage basins and down numerous rapids and falls.  For a distance of 500 feet, options were taken on some of the storage basins by the Ramapo Water Company during its active days with a view of conducting the water into the headwaters of the Ramapo River.

This stream is well adapted for the generation of water power for electrical of manufacturing purposes, and we learn from Colonial History was utilized by Lawrence Scrauley in 1745 to operate a forge or tilt-hammer for a plating and slitting mill.  This was the only mill of its kind in the state of New York and in 1750 was not in operation.  Under the Crown we were not allowed to advance the manufacturing stage of iron beyond the pig and bar iron states.  It seems Scrauley took his chances in this secluded portion of the valley to furnish more convenient sizes of iron to meet the wants of the blacksmiths and builders of that day and thus avoid paying tribute to the manufacturers of the Mother Country.  The ruins of the hearth where the ore was smelted, the raceway and the pit for the wheel that operated the tilt-hammer are still visible, as well as the mudsill of the foundation of the dam.  During the war of 1812, a Mr. Peck had an establishment upon the stream, near the home of W.M. Mann, where he manufactured bridle-bits, stirrups, buckles, and saddle-trees for our cavalry, as well as agricultural implements generally.  The old forge site and the lands along the rapids up to the line of the Cheesecock Patent were bought by Daniel Burt, in 1760 and soon after he built a flouring mill and a sawmill, both of which were washed away by the breaking away of the main dam during a very unusually heavy shower of rain.  The present flouring mill is located near the site of the earlier one.  A sawmill was built in 1812 by John Bradner and Brower Robinson and rebuilt by Thomas Burt, who operated it and a turning shop for about 20 years.  The dam has washed away and the mill is in ruins.  A woolcarding factory was built by Nathaniel Jones about 1810, and subsequently enlarged for the manufacture of broadcloths by Joseph Brooks, but it is not now in operation.  James, the son of Daniel Burt, about 1812 settled three of his sons in Bellvale in the milling and mercantile business.  They established shops for a blacksmith, carpenter, wagon maker, and the manufacture of red earthenware pottery.  Benjamin Bradner had a tannery  before 1812 where the ruins of the old sawmill are situated.  The vats were located where is now the old raceway and the bark was ground in a circular curb upon the flat rock back of the sawmill by rolling a heavy millstone over the bark as at one time apples were reduced to pumice by cider makers.  About 1808, the Bellvale and Monroe Turnpike was built to make a shorter route to the markets along the Ramapo River for the produce of the farmers of Warwick.  It was nine miles long and shortened the distance previously traveled about one half.  The road was maintained about fifty years and the charter then surrendered to the State, and the road divided into districts.  A fund of about $500.00  on hand was spent in putting the road in order before the charter was surrendered to the State.  The stockholders never received any money for their investment.  The massive stone arch bridge over the channel at Bellvale was built in 1832 to take the place of the old wooden one then unsafe for travel.  Recently the old bridge site, as well as nearly all the lands along the Longhouse Creek for four or five miles has passed into the hands of one owner (referring to Miss Hitchcock) as well as for all the hills about 3000 acres of land lying along the stream.  The probable development of waterpower for electrical purposes and an early completion of the state road from Pine Island to Tuxedo promises a brighter future.  Tradition accounts for the name of the stream from the longhouse that stood on its bank near the residence of the late C.R. Cline.  The Indians that settled there built their houses end to end, and as their families became more numerous, a  longhouse was built instead of isolated circular wigwams of many tribes.  That there was an Indian settlement at this place is highly probable from the nearby stream for fishing, swamp and mountain for hunting, and the fertile prairie-like land for their crops.   In the part where the land has been cultivated, plenty of flint arrowheads and large chips of flint with sharp edges have been found.  The flint chips were used by the squaws in cultivating corn and tobacco. 

In 1841  in digging a cellar for an addition to the house the skeleton of and Indian of immense size was found and, if the writer mistakes not, in a sitting posture.  This may have been only one of a great many buried there, and might have been their chief.

-Thomas Burt, Rising Star, 1907