Highland, Sullivan County, New York
Highland is a town in Sullivan County, New York, United States. The population was 2,530 at the 2010 census. The town's name notes its location on elevated ground north of the Delaware River. The town is in the southwest part of the county.
The town was formed from the Town of Lumberland in 1853. Barryville is named for William T. Barry, postmaster general under President Andrew Jackson. The community grew up around the D&H Canal, which opened in 1828 and operated until 1898. The canal ran through what is today the center of the hamlet, and the canal company operated a number of stores, an office and a dry dock there.
The Delaware River also served as the conduit for timber cut in the area and rafted to Philadelphia for use in the ship building industry. Men made fortunes in the timber business, and when the industry died in the middle of the 19th century, many river communities died with it. In fact, writing in 1899, John Willard Johnston, lawyer, historian, and the town of Highland’s first supervisor, predicted a dire future for Barryville.
"Barryville is a small, poor village now," he wrote, "but at one time supported an active business. The lumber of the region being exhausted, the business of canaling declining and now abandoned, it has for the last 25 years been waning, until now it seems to have reached a bottom of hardpan. Human imagination can hardly reach anything in the future likely to improve it; but it will probably remain indefinitely the small poor place it now is."
The southwest town line, marked by the Delaware River, is the border of Pennsylvania.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 51.7 square miles (134 km2), of which, 50.0 square miles (129 km2) of it is land and 1.7 square miles (4.4 km2) of it (3.25%) is water.
As of the census of 2000, there were 2,404 people, 951 households, and 646 families residing in the town. The population density was 48.1 people per square mile (18.6/km²). There were 1,558 housing units at an average density of 31.2 per square mile (12.0/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 93.93% White, 3.29% African American, 0.29% Native American, 0.42% Asian, 0.37% Pacific Islander, 0.92% from other races, and 0.79% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.95% of the population.
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