GENERAL HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
CHAPTER I.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION - GEOGRAPHY, TOPOGRAPHY-SOIL-WATERS-GEOLOGY.
GREENE COUNTY lies on the west side of the Hudson River, centrally distant 130 miles from New York, and from the State capital 35 miles.
The boundary lines are very irregular; that on the north, which is the old south boundary of Rensselaer Manor, being the greatest length of straight line (a distance of about 30 miles) to be found in its perimeter.
It contains 686 square miles.
The longest line that can be drawn in the county - a diagonal from northeast to southwest - is about 43 miles, while the average length is 32 miles, and the average width 20 miles.
Its greatest width is about 25 miles, and it has a front on the river of the same length.
The southern part is mountainous, comprising the celebrated Catskill Mountains, which reach a height of nearly 4,000 feet, and can be seen from a great distance.
Other parts of the county are very hilly.
From the main range a spur of mountains extends through the county in a northeasterly direction, its peaks ranging from 2,500 to 3,000 feet high.
This range forms a natural boundary, dividing the county into two nearly equal parts and separating the towns of Windham, Jewett and Hunter on the west from those of Durham, Cairo and Catskill on the east.
The eastern slope of these mountains, as well as of the mountains of the county generally, is steep and wall-like, while the western side falls away by a more gradual slope, and in spurs of smaller mountains and hills.
The north sides of these spurs are rocky and bare, while their south sides are covered with vast deposits of drift, indicating that a great current of water once swept over them from the north.
In the western part of the county a spur of mountains runs across, entirely hedging off the town of Halcott from the other towns.
The valley on the west of this spur is drained by the Bush Kill; that lying between these mountains and the central range, above referred to, by the Schoharie Kill and its branches, while the country on the east of the latter range is drained mainly by the Katskill and its branches.
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THE HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY, NY
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GENERAL HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY, continued ...
CHAPTER I.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION - GEOGRAPHY, TOPOGRAPHY-SOIL-WATERS-GEOLOGY, continued ...
Clefts between the mountains, through which these streams find their way are called "cloves." *
These in some cases amount to wide valleys, while in others they are narrow ravines, the steep sides of which sometimes rise nearly perpendicularly 1,500 feet or more above the streams flowing through them.
The must important of these are Kaaterskill Clove, Bush Kill Clove, Stoney Clove, Mink Hollow and Plattekill Hollow, all in the southern part of the county.
The principal mountains lie at the nearest point about seven miles from the river.
In front of them is a series of lesser mountains called the Little Catskills, (also known as Hooge-bergen or High Hills), which rise from 500 to 700 feet, and lie four or five miles back from the river.
Between these and the river there are several ridges between which stretch parallel fertile valleys.
The most strongly marked and important of these ridges is the Kalkberg, which lies two or three miles from the river and rises in a precipitous wall from 100 to 150 feet.
The soil of the county is for the most part a heavy shaly loam with local variations to sand and gravel.
Along the valleys of the creeks there are numerous flats of heavy, fertile soil.
On the rough and elevated portions the soil is so stony as to render cultivation difficult if not impossible.
This is particularly the case in the towns of Lexington and Hunter.
Some years ago Horace Greeley was addressing the farmers of this county and enlarging upon the possibilities of development by the aid of the sub-soil plow and other things, when he was interrupted by a farmer from the region mentioned who asked what he would do on those farms, where, by his description, he showed that Greeley's methods were ridiculously impracticable; upon which Greeley simply raised his eyes and replied "raise sheep," and went on with his address.
The soil is well adapted to raising hay and grazing.
* From the Dutch word kloof- cleft, gorge.
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CHAPTER I.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION - GEOGRAPHY, TOPOGRAPHY-SOIL-WATERS-GEOLOGY, continued ...
Clefts between the mountains, through which these streams find their way are called "cloves." *
These in some cases amount to wide valleys, while in others they are narrow ravines, the steep sides of which sometimes rise nearly perpendicularly 1,500 feet or more above the streams flowing through them.
The must important of these are Kaaterskill Clove, Bush Kill Clove, Stoney Clove, Mink Hollow and Plattekill Hollow, all in the southern part of the county.
The principal mountains lie at the nearest point about seven miles from the river.
In front of them is a series of lesser mountains called the Little Catskills, (also known as Hooge-bergen or High Hills), which rise from 500 to 700 feet, and lie four or five miles back from the river.
Between these and the river there are several ridges between which stretch parallel fertile valleys.
The most strongly marked and important of these ridges is the Kalkberg, which lies two or three miles from the river and rises in a precipitous wall from 100 to 150 feet.
The soil of the county is for the most part a heavy shaly loam with local variations to sand and gravel.
Along the valleys of the creeks there are numerous flats of heavy, fertile soil.
On the rough and elevated portions the soil is so stony as to render cultivation difficult if not impossible.
This is particularly the case in the towns of Lexington and Hunter.
Some years ago Horace Greeley was addressing the farmers of this county and enlarging upon the possibilities of development by the aid of the sub-soil plow and other things, when he was interrupted by a farmer from the region mentioned who asked what he would do on those farms, where, by his description, he showed that Greeley's methods were ridiculously impracticable; upon which Greeley simply raised his eyes and replied "raise sheep," and went on with his address.
The soil is well adapted to raising hay and grazing.
* From the Dutch word kloof- cleft, gorge.
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GENERAL HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY, continued ...
CHAPTER I.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION - GEOGRAPHY, TOPOGRAPHY-SOIL-WATERS-GEOLOGY, continued ...
The county is well supplied with small streams, which find their way down from the rocks and mountains, and, after winding many miles among the irregular barriers with which nature has opposed their direct progress, reach the smoother waters of the Delaware or the Hudson.
The largest of these, the Katskill - properly Kats Kil - which rises in a swamp in Schoharie county, called by the Dutch Eckerson Vly, and flows through this county, across the towns of Durham, Cairo and Catskill, forms for short distances the dividing line between Durham and Greenville and between Catskill and Athens, and empties into the Hudson after following its devious channel a distance of about 40 miles.
Its principal tributary on the north is Potick Creek, which rises in Albany county, and coming down across the northeast corner of Greenville and the west end of Coxsackie, forms the dividing line between Cairo on its west bank and Athens on its east, joins the Katskill about five miles above its mouth.
About two miles from its mouth the Katskill is joined by the Katerskil, its principal tributary on the south, which rises in the lakes on South Mountain and flows through a serpentine channel down one of the grandest gorges in all this mountain region.
As it descends it makes several falls and cascades of rare beauty and grandeur.
The most noteworthy of these are Haines's Falls, where the waters of the West Branch of the Katerskil dash over a precipice 150 feet high, and the Katerskil Falls where the east or main branch of the stream comes over two falls a few yards apart, the first being 175 feet high and the second 50 feet.
Inspired by its beauty William Cullen Bryant many years ago wrote the poem which is so frequently quoted as not to require repetition here.
Though the distance from its source to its junction with the Katskill is not over nine miles, this stream probably flows 25 miles to gain it.
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GENERAL DESCRIPTION - GEOGRAPHY, TOPOGRAPHY-SOIL-WATERS-GEOLOGY, continued ...
The county is well supplied with small streams, which find their way down from the rocks and mountains, and, after winding many miles among the irregular barriers with which nature has opposed their direct progress, reach the smoother waters of the Delaware or the Hudson.
The largest of these, the Katskill - properly Kats Kil - which rises in a swamp in Schoharie county, called by the Dutch Eckerson Vly, and flows through this county, across the towns of Durham, Cairo and Catskill, forms for short distances the dividing line between Durham and Greenville and between Catskill and Athens, and empties into the Hudson after following its devious channel a distance of about 40 miles.
Its principal tributary on the north is Potick Creek, which rises in Albany county, and coming down across the northeast corner of Greenville and the west end of Coxsackie, forms the dividing line between Cairo on its west bank and Athens on its east, joins the Katskill about five miles above its mouth.
About two miles from its mouth the Katskill is joined by the Katerskil, its principal tributary on the south, which rises in the lakes on South Mountain and flows through a serpentine channel down one of the grandest gorges in all this mountain region.
As it descends it makes several falls and cascades of rare beauty and grandeur.
The most noteworthy of these are Haines's Falls, where the waters of the West Branch of the Katerskil dash over a precipice 150 feet high, and the Katerskil Falls where the east or main branch of the stream comes over two falls a few yards apart, the first being 175 feet high and the second 50 feet.
Inspired by its beauty William Cullen Bryant many years ago wrote the poem which is so frequently quoted as not to require repetition here.
Though the distance from its source to its junction with the Katskill is not over nine miles, this stream probably flows 25 miles to gain it.
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CHAPTER I.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION - GEOGRAPHY, TOPOGRAPHY-SOIL-WATERS-GEOLOGY, continued ...
The Schoharie Kill rises in the southern part of the town of Hunter and flows north westerly across Jewett, Lexington and Prattsville, draining nearly half the county, and taking a northerly course empties into the Mohawk , and thus its waters, after making a circuit of 175 miles, pass down the Hudson within 10 miles of their starting point.
The principal branches of this stream are the Batavia Kill which rises in the eastern part of Windham and flows through that town and Ashland joining it in Prattsville; and the West Kill which rises in the southern part of Lexington, and, flowing north, joins the Schoharie from the west.
The Bush K ill, which with its branches drains the town of Halcott, flows westward into the Delaware.
The rock formation of this county furnishes an exceedingly interesting field for the study of the geologist.
As we begin to investigate the character of this formation we learn that it is entirely the result of oceanic processes.
The section contains no igneus or volcanic rocks.
The existence of coal below the surface here is also proven to be a scientific impossibility, since the rocks that crop out here are part of strata that lie a great distance below the coal formation.
Upon the bottom of the great primitive ocean, composed as that bottom was of the hypogene rocks, granite, gneiss, mica slate and the like, there were formed by the depositing of sediment successive layers of material which became rock.
To these successive layers that had their period of formation before that of the rocks of this section, geologists have given names corresponding for the most part with the localities where the different layers respectively appear.
These are, in order from the bottom, 1, Potsdam sandstone; 2, calciferous sandrock; 3, Black River and Trenton limestones; 4, Utica slate; 5, Hudson River group; 6, grey sandstone and conglomerate; 7, Medina sandstone; 8, Clinton group; 9, Niagara group; 10, Onondaga salt group; 11, Helderberg lime stones, including grits and sandstones; 12, Hamilton group, including Marcellus shale and Tully limestone; 13, Portage group, including Genesee slate; 14, Chemung group and old red sandstone, or Catskill group.
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GENERAL DESCRIPTION - GEOGRAPHY, TOPOGRAPHY-SOIL-WATERS-GEOLOGY, continued ...
The Schoharie Kill rises in the southern part of the town of Hunter and flows north westerly across Jewett, Lexington and Prattsville, draining nearly half the county, and taking a northerly course empties into the Mohawk , and thus its waters, after making a circuit of 175 miles, pass down the Hudson within 10 miles of their starting point.
The principal branches of this stream are the Batavia Kill which rises in the eastern part of Windham and flows through that town and Ashland joining it in Prattsville; and the West Kill which rises in the southern part of Lexington, and, flowing north, joins the Schoharie from the west.
The Bush K ill, which with its branches drains the town of Halcott, flows westward into the Delaware.
The rock formation of this county furnishes an exceedingly interesting field for the study of the geologist.
As we begin to investigate the character of this formation we learn that it is entirely the result of oceanic processes.
The section contains no igneus or volcanic rocks.
The existence of coal below the surface here is also proven to be a scientific impossibility, since the rocks that crop out here are part of strata that lie a great distance below the coal formation.
Upon the bottom of the great primitive ocean, composed as that bottom was of the hypogene rocks, granite, gneiss, mica slate and the like, there were formed by the depositing of sediment successive layers of material which became rock.
To these successive layers that had their period of formation before that of the rocks of this section, geologists have given names corresponding for the most part with the localities where the different layers respectively appear.
These are, in order from the bottom, 1, Potsdam sandstone; 2, calciferous sandrock; 3, Black River and Trenton limestones; 4, Utica slate; 5, Hudson River group; 6, grey sandstone and conglomerate; 7, Medina sandstone; 8, Clinton group; 9, Niagara group; 10, Onondaga salt group; 11, Helderberg lime stones, including grits and sandstones; 12, Hamilton group, including Marcellus shale and Tully limestone; 13, Portage group, including Genesee slate; 14, Chemung group and old red sandstone, or Catskill group.
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GENERAL HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY, continued ...
CHAPTER I.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION - GEOGRAPHY, TOPOGRAPHY-SOIL-WATERS-GEOLOGY, continued ...
The Hudson River shales and sandstones occupy a belt one to two miles in width along the river.
This group was formed in that long ago time designated by geologists as the Lower Silurian period.
It contains but very few if any fossils.
Following this formation there appears to have been a long period of suspension in the process of depositing material for rock making here.
During this time the process was going on in other parts, but no rocks that have been discovered were formed here until the Upper Silurian period, when the materials of the Helderberg group were deposited.
Just above the limestones of this group a very monotonous formation of shales is found, from one to three hundred feet in thickness.
This is a formation of the Devonian age, to which geologists have given the name Caudagalli, because of a sea-weed imprint of "cock-tail" form which appears on some of the beds.
The fossils in this formation are few, except the apparently vegetable remains which give its name.
Another layer of limestone follows this, and is called Corniferous from the circumstance of its containing chert or hornstone scattered in irregular nodules through it.
It contains but few fossils.
Next above this appears the Marcellus shale of the Hamilton group.
This has a thickness of about one hundred feet, is black and sometimes glazed, and containing indications of bitumen it has led to the belief that coal existed below, and thus investigations have been pursued in search of that formation, but always without reward.
This rock contains fossils.
Its texture is soft, so that its line of outcrop has been worn away, and is now hidden beneath the glacial deposits that have since been made.
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CHAPTER I.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION - GEOGRAPHY, TOPOGRAPHY-SOIL-WATERS-GEOLOGY, continued ...
The Hudson River shales and sandstones occupy a belt one to two miles in width along the river.
This group was formed in that long ago time designated by geologists as the Lower Silurian period.
It contains but very few if any fossils.
Following this formation there appears to have been a long period of suspension in the process of depositing material for rock making here.
During this time the process was going on in other parts, but no rocks that have been discovered were formed here until the Upper Silurian period, when the materials of the Helderberg group were deposited.
Just above the limestones of this group a very monotonous formation of shales is found, from one to three hundred feet in thickness.
This is a formation of the Devonian age, to which geologists have given the name Caudagalli, because of a sea-weed imprint of "cock-tail" form which appears on some of the beds.
The fossils in this formation are few, except the apparently vegetable remains which give its name.
Another layer of limestone follows this, and is called Corniferous from the circumstance of its containing chert or hornstone scattered in irregular nodules through it.
It contains but few fossils.
Next above this appears the Marcellus shale of the Hamilton group.
This has a thickness of about one hundred feet, is black and sometimes glazed, and containing indications of bitumen it has led to the belief that coal existed below, and thus investigations have been pursued in search of that formation, but always without reward.
This rock contains fossils.
Its texture is soft, so that its line of outcrop has been worn away, and is now hidden beneath the glacial deposits that have since been made.
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GENERAL HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY, continued ...
CHAPTER I.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION - GEOGRAPHY, TOPOGRAPHY-SOIL-WATERS-GEOLOGY, continued ...
Above this black shale the rock becomes of lighter color, and runs through a gradation to a sandy composition, still containing fossils.
This stratum appears in the hills which lie three to four miles back from the river in the southern part of the county. The various strata of this group are interspersed with a few thin calcareous bands.
Upon this rests a series of shaly sandstones and shales known as the Chemung group.
The material of this group is wanting in calcareous matter, and, except perhaps in the very lowest strata, it is destitute of fossils.
This group with the next, the Catskill group, forms the great mass of the mountains.
The two groups taken together are more than three thousand feet in thickness.
The latter consists of red shales and sandstones, from the decomposition of which the soil forms a reddish clay.
The various strata of the rocks we have noticed, which at first lay horizontally, were, while in a plastic condition, compressed into wrinkles or folds by the action of some unknown and immeasurable force of nature.
These folds lie nearly parallel with each other and with the river.
Near the river they are sharply bent, so that their sides become parallel, but farther away their acuteness decreases.
It is supposed that the pressure which produced them was exerted from the direction of the river, pushing the great mass of material in a direction a little north of west.
The rock strata have an average south-southeasterly dip of forty to seventy degrees.
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CHAPTER I.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION - GEOGRAPHY, TOPOGRAPHY-SOIL-WATERS-GEOLOGY, continued ...
Above this black shale the rock becomes of lighter color, and runs through a gradation to a sandy composition, still containing fossils.
This stratum appears in the hills which lie three to four miles back from the river in the southern part of the county. The various strata of this group are interspersed with a few thin calcareous bands.
Upon this rests a series of shaly sandstones and shales known as the Chemung group.
The material of this group is wanting in calcareous matter, and, except perhaps in the very lowest strata, it is destitute of fossils.
This group with the next, the Catskill group, forms the great mass of the mountains.
The two groups taken together are more than three thousand feet in thickness.
The latter consists of red shales and sandstones, from the decomposition of which the soil forms a reddish clay.
The various strata of the rocks we have noticed, which at first lay horizontally, were, while in a plastic condition, compressed into wrinkles or folds by the action of some unknown and immeasurable force of nature.
These folds lie nearly parallel with each other and with the river.
Near the river they are sharply bent, so that their sides become parallel, but farther away their acuteness decreases.
It is supposed that the pressure which produced them was exerted from the direction of the river, pushing the great mass of material in a direction a little north of west.
The rock strata have an average south-southeasterly dip of forty to seventy degrees.
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Re: THE HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY, NY
GENERAL HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY, continued ...
CHAPTER I.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION - GEOGRAPHY, TOPOGRAPHY-SOIL-WATERS-GEOLOGY, concluded ...
The Hudson River group, which received the bulk of this pressure, is covered by varying depths of blue and yellow clays, through which, at frequent intervals, its distorted and ragged folds break out.
Besides the one just mentioned there have been other agencies, very powerful ones, at work to change the shape and appearance of the original formations that we have noticed.
These were the erosion following the great upheaval of the former ocean bed into dry land, and the movements of those great sheets of ice glaciers across the face of the continent, grinding down one place and filling up another with the earth and rocks they had stolen from some far-off region.
Of all the rock formations we have noticed the Helderberg group occupies the greatest part of this county, and is of the most importance.
Its thickness is from two to three hundred feet.
The lower strata subdivided into five sections may be briefly described, with the fossils peculiar to each, as follows:
The Waterlime: fine-grained, even, thin bedded, light-colored; weathers whitish; dips to the west; thickness about seventy feet; fossils, Leperditia and Tentaculite.
The Lower Pentamerus: a hard, blue rock, in knotted layers, often containing blue chert; thickness about eighty feet; dips to the west; fossils, Pentamerus, Atrypa, Rhynchonella and others.
The Catskill Shaly Limestone: dull dark blue when freshly broken but weathering brown or gray; even-bedded, thin splitting; thickness about one hundred feet; dips to the west forty to twenty degrees; resists erosion effectively; fossils, Spirifer, Hemipronites, Strophomena, Avicula, Dalmernites and others.
The Encrinal Limestone: hard, coarse crystalline, frequent reddish tinge, with dull green partings between its heavy layers; layers about horizontal; contains numerous crincidsterns and other fossils.
The Upper Pentamerus: a hard, blue, crystalline limestone; thick-bedded; largely composed of shells; strata lying flat; thickness, by itself undetermined, but in connection with the preceding, with which it is closely joined, about 120 feet; fossils, Pentarnerus, Spirifer, Orthis and Rhynchonella.
In the foregoing paragraphs on the geology of this county, we have been largely assisted by facts given by William Morris Davis, of Cambridge, Mass., in "Appalachia," and in Van Loan's Catskill Mountain Guide.
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CHAPTER I.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION - GEOGRAPHY, TOPOGRAPHY-SOIL-WATERS-GEOLOGY, concluded ...
The Hudson River group, which received the bulk of this pressure, is covered by varying depths of blue and yellow clays, through which, at frequent intervals, its distorted and ragged folds break out.
Besides the one just mentioned there have been other agencies, very powerful ones, at work to change the shape and appearance of the original formations that we have noticed.
These were the erosion following the great upheaval of the former ocean bed into dry land, and the movements of those great sheets of ice glaciers across the face of the continent, grinding down one place and filling up another with the earth and rocks they had stolen from some far-off region.
Of all the rock formations we have noticed the Helderberg group occupies the greatest part of this county, and is of the most importance.
Its thickness is from two to three hundred feet.
The lower strata subdivided into five sections may be briefly described, with the fossils peculiar to each, as follows:
The Waterlime: fine-grained, even, thin bedded, light-colored; weathers whitish; dips to the west; thickness about seventy feet; fossils, Leperditia and Tentaculite.
The Lower Pentamerus: a hard, blue rock, in knotted layers, often containing blue chert; thickness about eighty feet; dips to the west; fossils, Pentamerus, Atrypa, Rhynchonella and others.
The Catskill Shaly Limestone: dull dark blue when freshly broken but weathering brown or gray; even-bedded, thin splitting; thickness about one hundred feet; dips to the west forty to twenty degrees; resists erosion effectively; fossils, Spirifer, Hemipronites, Strophomena, Avicula, Dalmernites and others.
The Encrinal Limestone: hard, coarse crystalline, frequent reddish tinge, with dull green partings between its heavy layers; layers about horizontal; contains numerous crincidsterns and other fossils.
The Upper Pentamerus: a hard, blue, crystalline limestone; thick-bedded; largely composed of shells; strata lying flat; thickness, by itself undetermined, but in connection with the preceding, with which it is closely joined, about 120 feet; fossils, Pentarnerus, Spirifer, Orthis and Rhynchonella.
In the foregoing paragraphs on the geology of this county, we have been largely assisted by facts given by William Morris Davis, of Cambridge, Mass., in "Appalachia," and in Van Loan's Catskill Mountain Guide.
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GENERAL HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY, continued ...
CHAPTER II.
THE INDIANS - THEIR HISTORY AND LEGENDS.
ONE OF THE first inquiries that suggests itself when we consider the history of a locality is in regard to its primitive occupancy.
Who were the people that lived here before our ancestors gained a home on the soil; and how did they live?
What was their condition, and what became of them when the white settlers took possession of their lands?
Amid the obscurity which surrounds the early history of this locality we find but little positive data from which to construct satisfactory answers to these questions.
The aborigines reared no enduring monuments to perpetuate to civilization the record of themselves and their work.
When the first European settlers came, the land now occupied by Greene County was occupied by sub-tribes of the great Algonquin nation.
Indications of their existence are not wanting.
We see them in the traces of their once frequented villages, their burial grounds, their stone arrow-points and instruments of various kinds, but in these there is little upon which to found a definite account of their history or themselves.
In the early part of the seventeenth century the banks of the Hudson were occupied by sub -tribes of the two great Indian nations, the Lenni Lenapes, or Delawares as they were afterwards called, and the Mahicans.
The former occupied the west side of the river from its mouth up as far as the Katskill, and west to the head waters of the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers, while the latter occupied all the east side of the river, and the west side from an undefined point in the northern wilderness down to the Katskill, and west as far as Schenectady.
The wolf was the totemic symbol of the representatives of both these nations upon the territory of Greene County.
The chieftaincy of the Lenni Lenapes that extended up the river to this point was the Minsis, which had six subdivisions.
One of these sub-tribes was the Catskills, and they inhabited the region from Saugerties northward to the Katskill, and perhaps, beyond that stream.
Definite boundaries to their jurisdiction were unknown.
There are evidences that indicate that their claim to lands as far north as Coxsackie Creek was admitted.
It appears, however, that they held no lands beyond the ridge of the Katskill Mountains, the Schoharie Valley being the ground of the Mohawks.
The Catskill Indians were spoken of by Hudson as a "loving people," and otherwise seemed to have the reputation of a very peaceable clan.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
CHAPTER II.
THE INDIANS - THEIR HISTORY AND LEGENDS.
ONE OF THE first inquiries that suggests itself when we consider the history of a locality is in regard to its primitive occupancy.
Who were the people that lived here before our ancestors gained a home on the soil; and how did they live?
What was their condition, and what became of them when the white settlers took possession of their lands?
Amid the obscurity which surrounds the early history of this locality we find but little positive data from which to construct satisfactory answers to these questions.
The aborigines reared no enduring monuments to perpetuate to civilization the record of themselves and their work.
When the first European settlers came, the land now occupied by Greene County was occupied by sub-tribes of the great Algonquin nation.
Indications of their existence are not wanting.
We see them in the traces of their once frequented villages, their burial grounds, their stone arrow-points and instruments of various kinds, but in these there is little upon which to found a definite account of their history or themselves.
In the early part of the seventeenth century the banks of the Hudson were occupied by sub -tribes of the two great Indian nations, the Lenni Lenapes, or Delawares as they were afterwards called, and the Mahicans.
The former occupied the west side of the river from its mouth up as far as the Katskill, and west to the head waters of the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers, while the latter occupied all the east side of the river, and the west side from an undefined point in the northern wilderness down to the Katskill, and west as far as Schenectady.
The wolf was the totemic symbol of the representatives of both these nations upon the territory of Greene County.
The chieftaincy of the Lenni Lenapes that extended up the river to this point was the Minsis, which had six subdivisions.
One of these sub-tribes was the Catskills, and they inhabited the region from Saugerties northward to the Katskill, and perhaps, beyond that stream.
Definite boundaries to their jurisdiction were unknown.
There are evidences that indicate that their claim to lands as far north as Coxsackie Creek was admitted.
It appears, however, that they held no lands beyond the ridge of the Katskill Mountains, the Schoharie Valley being the ground of the Mohawks.
The Catskill Indians were spoken of by Hudson as a "loving people," and otherwise seemed to have the reputation of a very peaceable clan.
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GENERAL HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY, continued ...
CHAPTER II.
THE INDIANS - THEIR HISTORY AND LEGENDS, continued ...
In 1663, their Chief was known as Long Jacob; and their sachem in 1682 was Mahak Niminaw.
The Warranawonkongs, another sub-division of the Minsis, and the most numerous of all joined them on the south.
The particular chieftaincy of the Mahicans that occupied the valley of the Hudson was divided into five or more sections or sub-tribes.
Of these the Mechkentowoons occupied the territory "above the Katskill and on Beeren or Mahican Island."
Of the few legends that are preserved concerning them, we have only room for the following, which is the substance condensed from recollections of a recital of it made forty years ago by a descendant of the old Dutch settlers:
We have little evidence to show that the Indians of this territory played a very conspicuous or active part in the wars between the Mohawks and the Mahicans that waged for many years during the period of European discovery and settlement.
The Catskill Indians were no doubt associated with the other sub-tribes of their nation in resisting the Mohawks.
A tradition comes down to us that once upon a time, the representatives of the two great powers - Iroquois and Mahicans - met in great numbers upon the island now called Rogers Island, * and there engaged in bloody conflict for the supremacy over the river.
The result, as the tradition goes, was a victory, complete and lasting for the former, or more definitely the Mohawks, they being the particular tribe of the Iroquois confederation engaged in this conflict.
The Mohawks, whatever may have been their triumphs, never laid claim to the lands bordering the river here.
The history, habits, manners and religion of the Indians who occupied this ground were the same generally as those of the nations to which they belonged.
They selected for their habitations the rich flats bordering the streams, and probably seldom ventured upon the mountains.
The fish in the river and its tributary creeks and the game with which the forests of the plains and lesser hills abounded, together with the products of the fertile of the soil which they cultivated gave them an abundant livelihood, and there was little in the waste of rocks and inaccessible steeps to attract them thither.
* Wanton Island, several miles below Catskill, has also been made the scene of this battle.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
CHAPTER II.
THE INDIANS - THEIR HISTORY AND LEGENDS, continued ...
In 1663, their Chief was known as Long Jacob; and their sachem in 1682 was Mahak Niminaw.
The Warranawonkongs, another sub-division of the Minsis, and the most numerous of all joined them on the south.
The particular chieftaincy of the Mahicans that occupied the valley of the Hudson was divided into five or more sections or sub-tribes.
Of these the Mechkentowoons occupied the territory "above the Katskill and on Beeren or Mahican Island."
Of the few legends that are preserved concerning them, we have only room for the following, which is the substance condensed from recollections of a recital of it made forty years ago by a descendant of the old Dutch settlers:
We have little evidence to show that the Indians of this territory played a very conspicuous or active part in the wars between the Mohawks and the Mahicans that waged for many years during the period of European discovery and settlement.
The Catskill Indians were no doubt associated with the other sub-tribes of their nation in resisting the Mohawks.
A tradition comes down to us that once upon a time, the representatives of the two great powers - Iroquois and Mahicans - met in great numbers upon the island now called Rogers Island, * and there engaged in bloody conflict for the supremacy over the river.
The result, as the tradition goes, was a victory, complete and lasting for the former, or more definitely the Mohawks, they being the particular tribe of the Iroquois confederation engaged in this conflict.
The Mohawks, whatever may have been their triumphs, never laid claim to the lands bordering the river here.
The history, habits, manners and religion of the Indians who occupied this ground were the same generally as those of the nations to which they belonged.
They selected for their habitations the rich flats bordering the streams, and probably seldom ventured upon the mountains.
The fish in the river and its tributary creeks and the game with which the forests of the plains and lesser hills abounded, together with the products of the fertile of the soil which they cultivated gave them an abundant livelihood, and there was little in the waste of rocks and inaccessible steeps to attract them thither.
* Wanton Island, several miles below Catskill, has also been made the scene of this battle.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: THE HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY, NY
GENERAL HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY, continued ...
CHAPTER II.
THE INDIANS - THEIR HISTORY AND LEGENDS, continued ...
They lived in circular wigwams, generally in single families.
These wigwams, ten or twelve feet across them, were formed of poles set up in circular form and the top drawn together, after which the framework was covered with barks and skins.
They had a custom of setting the woods and meadows on fire in autumn, at "Indian summer" time.
Their strongholds were circular forts, built upon commanding elevations at important points.
These forts were usually enclosures, containing about an acre, surrounded by palisades 12 or 15 feet high, and within were filled with wigwams.
The hoes with which they planted and cultivated their corn were made of the shoulder-blades of the deer or moose, or clam shells, fastened to a handle.
It is said that they sometimes used fish as a fertilizer, (though we do not see the necessity of that), and that their cornfields were often several acres in extent.
Besides corn, they also raised squashes, tobacco, beans and sunflowers.
Swiftly and surely they faded out, before the poisonous breath of civilization and "firewater," and there is nought left to speak of their existence but the ashes of their homes, their own decaying bones and the fragments of their stone implements that here and there protrude from the disturbed soil.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
CHAPTER II.
THE INDIANS - THEIR HISTORY AND LEGENDS, continued ...
They lived in circular wigwams, generally in single families.
These wigwams, ten or twelve feet across them, were formed of poles set up in circular form and the top drawn together, after which the framework was covered with barks and skins.
They had a custom of setting the woods and meadows on fire in autumn, at "Indian summer" time.
Their strongholds were circular forts, built upon commanding elevations at important points.
These forts were usually enclosures, containing about an acre, surrounded by palisades 12 or 15 feet high, and within were filled with wigwams.
The hoes with which they planted and cultivated their corn were made of the shoulder-blades of the deer or moose, or clam shells, fastened to a handle.
It is said that they sometimes used fish as a fertilizer, (though we do not see the necessity of that), and that their cornfields were often several acres in extent.
Besides corn, they also raised squashes, tobacco, beans and sunflowers.
Swiftly and surely they faded out, before the poisonous breath of civilization and "firewater," and there is nought left to speak of their existence but the ashes of their homes, their own decaying bones and the fragments of their stone implements that here and there protrude from the disturbed soil.
TO BE CONTINUED ...