According to the Sullivan County Historical Society, the northern part of the town of
Fallsburg was settled by Europeans in the 1780s, many of whom migrated from
Ulster County in search of cheap, fertile land. In 1830, a man named Gabriel Ludlum (or Ludlam) relocated his law practice from the nearby hamlet of Hasbrouck, and named the area Woodbourne. Some time after 1831, Mr. Austin Strong, in partnership with Medad T. Morss would establish a tannery, which burnt down in 1866. Woodbourne benefited from being the closest settlement in Sullivan County to
Ellenville, which was located along the
Delaware & Hudson Canal. The decline of the tanning industry, which resulted from the decline in the
hemlock forests in Sullivan county, and the arrival of the
New York, Ontario and Western Railway in the early 1870s led to a decline in Woodbourne's importance, as the railway became the main driver of commerce in the region. ==Landmarks and places of interest==