History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 75: Washington's Visit., continued ...
We see, from the foregoing letters of Washington, that at Fort Plain [Fort Rensselaer] the commandant of the army of the United States engaged "a gentleman whose name is Cassaty" as his personal emissary to Detroit to observe the conditions at that important post on the lakes, preparatory to its American occupation.
So that it becomes evident that two messengers at Washington's orders, left Fort Plain in 1783 on momentous errands for the British lake posts of Oswego and Detroit.
Washington's emissary, Colonel Thomas Cassaty, was arrested by the British commandant at Fort Oswego.
Cassaty escaped and returned to Fort Plain without being able to accomplish his mission.
Colonel Thomas Cassaty married Nancy, a daughter of Peter Wormuth and a sister of Lieut. Matthew Wormuth, who was shot by Brant near Cherry Valley in 1778.
Cassaty was living near or at his father-in-law's when Washington stopped there (in Palatine near Fort Plain) during his valley tour of 1783.
This probably readily led to his engagement in the service mentioned.
Colonel Cassaty as a boy and young man was stationed at the British post of Detroit, where his father, James Cassaty, was a captain in the English service.
At the outbreak of the Revolution the two Cassatys, both American born, sided with the colonists.
The commandant of Detroit denounced Capt. James Cassaty and in the altercation young Thomas Cassaty, then a youth of seventeen, shot down the British officer.
He then fled into the Michigan woods and escaped.
He lived with the Indians and there is one report which says he was the father of the noted chief, Tecumseh.
Toward the end of the war he appeared in the Mohawk Valley.
Colonel Cassaty died at Oriskany Falls, Oneida County, 1831, aged about 80 years, leaving two sons and five daughters.
After the Detroit affray, Capt. James Cassaty was confined in a Canadian dungeon for three years.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 75: Washington's Visit., continued ...
It will be noted that Washington speaks of Fort Plain as "Fort Rensselaer", this being the name it bore in the last four years of the Revolution - it being named for the Gen. Van Rensselaer, whose conduct was so dubious when there at the operations of 1780, ending at Klock's Field.
As previously shown, at the court-martial of Gen. Van Rensselaer in Albany for dereliction in the campaign of 1780, witnesses referred constantly to "Fort Rensselaer or Fort Plain" or vice versa.
Dr. Hough published some years ago an account of the Klock's Field campaign and the subsequent court-martial of Gen. Van Rensselaer, showing that the latter officer writing from Fort Plain - a name which had been established for years - dated his papers at "Fort Rensselaer"; anxious, as it would seem, to have this principal fort take his own name.
It is believed that never before that time had it ever been called by any other name than Fort Plain.
About three years later General Washington was here and dated his correspondence from "Fort Rensselaer," and others probably did so, unaware that the name of the fort had been changed.
The following document, from the papers of the late William H. Seeber, shows how the vanity of the inefficient soldier had temporarily affected the name Fort Plain:
"By virtue of the appointment of his Excellency, George Clinton, Esq., Governor of the State of New York, etc., etc."
"We do hereby, in pursuance of an act entitled an act to amend an act, entitled an act to accommodate the inhabitants of the frontier, with habitations and other purposes therein mentioned, passed the 22d of March, 1781 - Grant unto William Seeber, Peter Adams, George Garlock and Henry Smith, license and liberty to cut and remove wood or timber from the lands of John Laile (or Lail), George Kraus, John Fatterle, John Plaikert, Wellem (William) Fenck, George Ekar, John Walrath and Henry Walrath, lying contiguous to Fort Plain, being a place of defense, for fuel, fencing and timber for the use of the first above mentioned persons."
"Given under our hands at Canajoharie, this 8th day of November, 1782."
"Christian Nellis,"
"M. Willett,"
"Commissioners."
This instrument was drawn up in the handwriting of Squire Nellis and taken to Col. Willett to sign.
In the handwriting of the latter and with the ink of his signature, Willett crossed off the word "Plain" and interlined the name "Rensselaer". Simms says: "It seems surprising that Col. Willett, who so disapproved of changing the name of Fort Stanwix, should have connived at changing the name of Fort Plain; and it can only be accounted for by presuming that he was thereby courting the influence of wealth and position".
The foregoing quotation does not coincide with Willett's sturdy character, and it seems entirely probable that Van Rensselaer had succeeded in having his name adopted, at least for the time, as the official designation of Fort Plain.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 75: Washington's Visit., continued ...
It will be noted that Washington speaks of Fort Plain as "Fort Rensselaer", this being the name it bore in the last four years of the Revolution - it being named for the Gen. Van Rensselaer, whose conduct was so dubious when there at the operations of 1780, ending at Klock's Field.
As previously shown, at the court-martial of Gen. Van Rensselaer in Albany for dereliction in the campaign of 1780, witnesses referred constantly to "Fort Rensselaer or Fort Plain" or vice versa.
Dr. Hough published some years ago an account of the Klock's Field campaign and the subsequent court-martial of Gen. Van Rensselaer, showing that the latter officer writing from Fort Plain - a name which had been established for years - dated his papers at "Fort Rensselaer"; anxious, as it would seem, to have this principal fort take his own name.
It is believed that never before that time had it ever been called by any other name than Fort Plain.
About three years later General Washington was here and dated his correspondence from "Fort Rensselaer," and others probably did so, unaware that the name of the fort had been changed.
The following document, from the papers of the late William H. Seeber, shows how the vanity of the inefficient soldier had temporarily affected the name Fort Plain:
"By virtue of the appointment of his Excellency, George Clinton, Esq., Governor of the State of New York, etc., etc."
"We do hereby, in pursuance of an act entitled an act to amend an act, entitled an act to accommodate the inhabitants of the frontier, with habitations and other purposes therein mentioned, passed the 22d of March, 1781 - Grant unto William Seeber, Peter Adams, George Garlock and Henry Smith, license and liberty to cut and remove wood or timber from the lands of John Laile (or Lail), George Kraus, John Fatterle, John Plaikert, Wellem (William) Fenck, George Ekar, John Walrath and Henry Walrath, lying contiguous to Fort Plain, being a place of defense, for fuel, fencing and timber for the use of the first above mentioned persons."
"Given under our hands at Canajoharie, this 8th day of November, 1782."
"Christian Nellis,"
"M. Willett,"
"Commissioners."
This instrument was drawn up in the handwriting of Squire Nellis and taken to Col. Willett to sign.
In the handwriting of the latter and with the ink of his signature, Willett crossed off the word "Plain" and interlined the name "Rensselaer". Simms says: "It seems surprising that Col. Willett, who so disapproved of changing the name of Fort Stanwix, should have connived at changing the name of Fort Plain; and it can only be accounted for by presuming that he was thereby courting the influence of wealth and position".
The foregoing quotation does not coincide with Willett's sturdy character, and it seems entirely probable that Van Rensselaer had succeeded in having his name adopted, at least for the time, as the official designation of Fort Plain.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 75: Washington's Visit., concluded ...
S. L. Frey says, in his interesting paper on "Fort Rensselaer", (published in the Mohawk Valley Register, March 6, 1912):
"In 1786 Capt. B. Hudson was in command of the place, taking care of the stores and other government property."
As this is the last time that 'Fort Rensselaer' is mentioned as far as I can find, I give a copy of an old receipt:
Fort Rancelair, Aug. 22d, 1786.
State of New York, Dr.
To John Lipe, Senior.
For Timber Building the Blockhouse, for fire wood, Fancing & Possession of the Place by the Troops of the United States Under the Command of Colonel Willet one hundred & fifty Pounds, being the amount of my Damage.
John Lipe.
X his mark
Witness Present
B. Hudson.
From this it will be seen that Johannes Lipe had not been paid for his timber, used in the blockhouse six years before.
Following this receipt is a note by Rufus Grider, the former antiquarian of Canajoharie:
"Copy of a paper found and obtained on the Lipe Farm, where Fort Plain and Fort Rensselair was located."
"The present owners are descendants of the Lipe who owned it during and after the Revolution; the ownership has not gone out of the family.
"R. A. Grider.
June 17, 1894."
Mr. Frey continues:
"We thus have a continuous mention of 'Fort Rensselair', as another name for Fort Plain, from September 4, 1780, to August 22, 1786."
"It would be well if the old Revolutionary families in the vicinity would examine any paper they may have relating to that period; possibly we might find that 'Fort Rensselair' is mentioned after 1786."
Thus we are able to trace the history of the Fort Plain fortifications through a period of ten years of important service.
Although the fort and blockhouse probably stood for some years after 1786, reference to Fort Plain, after that date, implies the Sand Hill settlement (which took its name from the fort) and the later village which thus became known during the construction of the Erie canal.
The name has thus been in existence for a period of almost 140 years.
How long Fort Plain or Fort Rensselaer continued to exist as an army post after 1786 is not now known.
* * * * *
It is a fitting place here to refer to the difficulty experienced in the foregoing Revolutionary chapters in naming, as a whole, the forces invading the valley.
They are generally spoken of as the "enemy" "destructives" or the "raiders" or some such term, for the simple reason that they cannot be referred to as "English" or "British," because they were composed of such varying elements.
British, Tories, Indians and Germans composed the army under St. Leger and under Sir John Johnson at Stone Arabia and at Klock's Field, and in almost every other case of battle and invasion.
The Americans looked upon the British use of Indians in the conflict as a brutal, uncivilized proceeding and England's employment of hired Hessian troops was a still further cause of the just hatred of our countrymen against Britain.
True, America had many friends in England but the ruling party countenanced the savagery referred to and brought about a deplorable state of affairs in the relations of the two countries for a period of nearly a century, following the Revolutionary War.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 75: Washington's Visit., concluded ...
S. L. Frey says, in his interesting paper on "Fort Rensselaer", (published in the Mohawk Valley Register, March 6, 1912):
"In 1786 Capt. B. Hudson was in command of the place, taking care of the stores and other government property."
As this is the last time that 'Fort Rensselaer' is mentioned as far as I can find, I give a copy of an old receipt:
Fort Rancelair, Aug. 22d, 1786.
State of New York, Dr.
To John Lipe, Senior.
For Timber Building the Blockhouse, for fire wood, Fancing & Possession of the Place by the Troops of the United States Under the Command of Colonel Willet one hundred & fifty Pounds, being the amount of my Damage.
John Lipe.
X his mark
Witness Present
B. Hudson.
From this it will be seen that Johannes Lipe had not been paid for his timber, used in the blockhouse six years before.
Following this receipt is a note by Rufus Grider, the former antiquarian of Canajoharie:
"Copy of a paper found and obtained on the Lipe Farm, where Fort Plain and Fort Rensselair was located."
"The present owners are descendants of the Lipe who owned it during and after the Revolution; the ownership has not gone out of the family.
"R. A. Grider.
June 17, 1894."
Mr. Frey continues:
"We thus have a continuous mention of 'Fort Rensselair', as another name for Fort Plain, from September 4, 1780, to August 22, 1786."
"It would be well if the old Revolutionary families in the vicinity would examine any paper they may have relating to that period; possibly we might find that 'Fort Rensselair' is mentioned after 1786."
Thus we are able to trace the history of the Fort Plain fortifications through a period of ten years of important service.
Although the fort and blockhouse probably stood for some years after 1786, reference to Fort Plain, after that date, implies the Sand Hill settlement (which took its name from the fort) and the later village which thus became known during the construction of the Erie canal.
The name has thus been in existence for a period of almost 140 years.
How long Fort Plain or Fort Rensselaer continued to exist as an army post after 1786 is not now known.
* * * * *
It is a fitting place here to refer to the difficulty experienced in the foregoing Revolutionary chapters in naming, as a whole, the forces invading the valley.
They are generally spoken of as the "enemy" "destructives" or the "raiders" or some such term, for the simple reason that they cannot be referred to as "English" or "British," because they were composed of such varying elements.
British, Tories, Indians and Germans composed the army under St. Leger and under Sir John Johnson at Stone Arabia and at Klock's Field, and in almost every other case of battle and invasion.
The Americans looked upon the British use of Indians in the conflict as a brutal, uncivilized proceeding and England's employment of hired Hessian troops was a still further cause of the just hatred of our countrymen against Britain.
True, America had many friends in England but the ruling party countenanced the savagery referred to and brought about a deplorable state of affairs in the relations of the two countries for a period of nearly a century, following the Revolutionary War.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 77: The Mohawk Valley After the Revolution.
1784-1800 — After the Revolution — Constructive period — Montgomery County and its divisions — Towns and their changes.
The Revolutionary struggle had well-nigh destroyed the one-time prosperous farming community along the Mohawk and in its adjacent territory.
This section had been more harried, by the enemy and their red allies, than any other part of the Thirteen Colonies.
Raid after raid had swept down from Canada over the fair valley, burning, plundering, and murdering.
Stoutly had the sturdy people fought their dreadful foe.
The savage enemy had been again and again beaten back from the Mohawk, but the bloody contest had left the population greatly depleted and the farm land in ruin and rapidly going back to the wilderness from which it had been wrested.
Those of faint heart and of Tory leanings had fled the country and the patriot families who were left were often sadly broken.
Numbers of defenseless women and little children had been struck down by the savage tomahawk and the bones of the men of Tryon County whitened the fields where battle and skirmish had been bitterly fought.
The bravery of the women, and even the children, of the patriot families, amid the bloody scenes of the Revolution, was often remarkable in the extreme.
Terrific as had been the murderous destruction, along the Mohawk, yet a wonderful rejuvenescence and rapid growth were to follow.
The years ensuing were ones of great development of the farmlands, increase of population and steps, for the furtherance of transportation and commerce, which were eventually to make the Mohawk Valley one of the greatest arteries of trade and traffic of the entire world.
Toward the close of the war, Colonel Willett sent to General Washington a lengthy statement of the condition of affairs in Tryon County, from which it appears that, whereas at the opening of the struggle the enrolled militia of the county numbered not less than 2,500, there were then not more than 800 men liable to bear arms, and not more than 1,200 who could be taxed or assessed for the raising of men for the public service.
To account for so large a reduction of the Tryon people, it was estimated that, of the number by which the population had been decreased, one-third had been killed or made prisoners; one-third had gone over to the enemy; and one-third for the time being had abandoned the country.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 77: The Mohawk Valley After the Revolution.
1784-1800 — After the Revolution — Constructive period — Montgomery County and its divisions — Towns and their changes.
The Revolutionary struggle had well-nigh destroyed the one-time prosperous farming community along the Mohawk and in its adjacent territory.
This section had been more harried, by the enemy and their red allies, than any other part of the Thirteen Colonies.
Raid after raid had swept down from Canada over the fair valley, burning, plundering, and murdering.
Stoutly had the sturdy people fought their dreadful foe.
The savage enemy had been again and again beaten back from the Mohawk, but the bloody contest had left the population greatly depleted and the farm land in ruin and rapidly going back to the wilderness from which it had been wrested.
Those of faint heart and of Tory leanings had fled the country and the patriot families who were left were often sadly broken.
Numbers of defenseless women and little children had been struck down by the savage tomahawk and the bones of the men of Tryon County whitened the fields where battle and skirmish had been bitterly fought.
The bravery of the women, and even the children, of the patriot families, amid the bloody scenes of the Revolution, was often remarkable in the extreme.
Terrific as had been the murderous destruction, along the Mohawk, yet a wonderful rejuvenescence and rapid growth were to follow.
The years ensuing were ones of great development of the farmlands, increase of population and steps, for the furtherance of transportation and commerce, which were eventually to make the Mohawk Valley one of the greatest arteries of trade and traffic of the entire world.
Toward the close of the war, Colonel Willett sent to General Washington a lengthy statement of the condition of affairs in Tryon County, from which it appears that, whereas at the opening of the struggle the enrolled militia of the county numbered not less than 2,500, there were then not more than 800 men liable to bear arms, and not more than 1,200 who could be taxed or assessed for the raising of men for the public service.
To account for so large a reduction of the Tryon people, it was estimated that, of the number by which the population had been decreased, one-third had been killed or made prisoners; one-third had gone over to the enemy; and one-third for the time being had abandoned the country.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 77: The Mohawk Valley After the Revolution., continued ...
Beers' history [F. W. Beers, History of Montgomery and Fulton Counties, N.Y.] says:
"The sufferings of the unfortunate inhabitants of the Mohawk Valley were the measure of delight with which they had hailed the return of peace."
"The dispersed population returned to the blackened ruins of their former habitations, rebuilt their houses and again brought their farms under cultivation."
"With astounding audacity, the Tories now began to sneak back again and claim peace and property among those whom they had impoverished and bereaved."
"It was not to be expected that this would be tolerated."
The outraged feelings of the community found the following expression at a meeting of the principal inhabitants of the Mohawk district, May 9, 1783:
"Taking into consideration the peculiar circumstances of this county relating to its situation, and the numbers that joined the enemy from among us, whose brutal barbarities in their frequent visits to their old neighbors are too shocking to humanity to relate:"
"They have murdered the peaceful husbandmen, and his lovely boys about him unarmed and defenceless in the field."
"They have, with malicious pleasure, butchered the aged and infirm; they have wantonly sported with the lives of helpless women and children, numbers they have scalped alive, shut them up in their houses and burnt them to death."
"Several children, by the vigilance of their friends, have been snatched from flaming buildings; and though tomahawked and scalped, are still living among us; they have made more than 300 widows and above 2,000 orphans in this county; they have killed thousands of cattle and horses that rotted in the field; they have burnt more than two million bushels of grain, many hundreds of buildings, and vast stores of forage; and now these merciless fiends are creeping in among us again to claim the privilege of fellow-citizens, and demand a restitution of their forfeited estates; but can they leave their infernal tempers behind them and be safe or peaceable neighbors?"
"Or can the disconsolate widow and the bereaved mother reconcile her tender feelings to a free and cheerful neighborhood with those who so inhumanly made her such?"
"Impossible!"
"It is contrary to nature, the first principle of which is self-preservation."
"It is contrary to the law of nations, especially that nation which for numberless reasons, we should be thought to pattern after."
* * * * * *
"It is contrary to the eternal rule of reason and rectitude."
"If Britain employed them, let Britain pay them."
"We will not; therefore, Resolved, unanimously, that all those who have gone off to the enemy or have been banished by any law of this state, or those, who we shall find, tarried as spies or tools of the enemy, and encouraged and harbored those who went away, shall not live in this district on any pretence whatever; and as for those who have washed their faces from Indian paint and their hands from the innocent blood of our dear ones, and have returned, either openly or covertly, we hereby warn them to leave this district before the 20th of June next, or they may expect to feel the just resentment of an injured and determined people."
"'We likewise unanimously desire our brethren in the other districts in the county to join with us to instruct our representatives not to consent to the repealing any laws made for the safety of the state against treason, or confiscation of traitors' estates, or to passing any new acts for the return or restitution of Tories."
"'By order of the meeting."
"'Josiah Thorp, Chairman."'
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 77: The Mohawk Valley After the Revolution., continued ...
Beers' history [F. W. Beers, History of Montgomery and Fulton Counties, N.Y.] says:
"The sufferings of the unfortunate inhabitants of the Mohawk Valley were the measure of delight with which they had hailed the return of peace."
"The dispersed population returned to the blackened ruins of their former habitations, rebuilt their houses and again brought their farms under cultivation."
"With astounding audacity, the Tories now began to sneak back again and claim peace and property among those whom they had impoverished and bereaved."
"It was not to be expected that this would be tolerated."
The outraged feelings of the community found the following expression at a meeting of the principal inhabitants of the Mohawk district, May 9, 1783:
"Taking into consideration the peculiar circumstances of this county relating to its situation, and the numbers that joined the enemy from among us, whose brutal barbarities in their frequent visits to their old neighbors are too shocking to humanity to relate:"
"They have murdered the peaceful husbandmen, and his lovely boys about him unarmed and defenceless in the field."
"They have, with malicious pleasure, butchered the aged and infirm; they have wantonly sported with the lives of helpless women and children, numbers they have scalped alive, shut them up in their houses and burnt them to death."
"Several children, by the vigilance of their friends, have been snatched from flaming buildings; and though tomahawked and scalped, are still living among us; they have made more than 300 widows and above 2,000 orphans in this county; they have killed thousands of cattle and horses that rotted in the field; they have burnt more than two million bushels of grain, many hundreds of buildings, and vast stores of forage; and now these merciless fiends are creeping in among us again to claim the privilege of fellow-citizens, and demand a restitution of their forfeited estates; but can they leave their infernal tempers behind them and be safe or peaceable neighbors?"
"Or can the disconsolate widow and the bereaved mother reconcile her tender feelings to a free and cheerful neighborhood with those who so inhumanly made her such?"
"Impossible!"
"It is contrary to nature, the first principle of which is self-preservation."
"It is contrary to the law of nations, especially that nation which for numberless reasons, we should be thought to pattern after."
* * * * * *
"It is contrary to the eternal rule of reason and rectitude."
"If Britain employed them, let Britain pay them."
"We will not; therefore, Resolved, unanimously, that all those who have gone off to the enemy or have been banished by any law of this state, or those, who we shall find, tarried as spies or tools of the enemy, and encouraged and harbored those who went away, shall not live in this district on any pretence whatever; and as for those who have washed their faces from Indian paint and their hands from the innocent blood of our dear ones, and have returned, either openly or covertly, we hereby warn them to leave this district before the 20th of June next, or they may expect to feel the just resentment of an injured and determined people."
"'We likewise unanimously desire our brethren in the other districts in the county to join with us to instruct our representatives not to consent to the repealing any laws made for the safety of the state against treason, or confiscation of traitors' estates, or to passing any new acts for the return or restitution of Tories."
"'By order of the meeting."
"'Josiah Thorp, Chairman."'
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 77: The Mohawk Valley After the Revolution., continued ...
Notwithstanding these sentiments of the Whigs, numbers of Tories did return and settle among their old neighbors.
The Mohawk lands, which were considerable before the war, were confiscated and the tribe were granted homes in Canada, as has been stated in the sketch of Brant.
The Tories were not allowed to return without vigorous protests.
Peter Young of the town of Florida, living at Young's Lake (a small pond near Schoharie Creek), was an ardent patriot.
He married a Serviss girl, whose family were Tories.
At the close of hostilities two of Young's brothers-in-law made Mrs. Young a visit.
Young came in on them and ordered them back to Canada at the point of a musket and they promptly took up their return journey.
There are several instances of Tories having been whipped and beaten when they tried to return to their former homes among their patriot neighbors, whose homes they had burned and whose relatives they had murdered.
One mighty Cobleskill farmer-patriot became so enraged at the boastings of two drunken Tories after the war, that he overpowered them, tied them together with a rope around their necks and whipped them up and down the street in front of a delighted audience.
Considering the bloody deeds of the Tories of the Mohawk Valley, it is a wonder that many of them were not killed when they tried to return to their former homes.
They had not conducted warfare.
They had been organized bands of cowardly murderers who killed more women and little children than American soldiers.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 77: The Mohawk Valley After the Revolution., continued ...
Notwithstanding these sentiments of the Whigs, numbers of Tories did return and settle among their old neighbors.
The Mohawk lands, which were considerable before the war, were confiscated and the tribe were granted homes in Canada, as has been stated in the sketch of Brant.
The Tories were not allowed to return without vigorous protests.
Peter Young of the town of Florida, living at Young's Lake (a small pond near Schoharie Creek), was an ardent patriot.
He married a Serviss girl, whose family were Tories.
At the close of hostilities two of Young's brothers-in-law made Mrs. Young a visit.
Young came in on them and ordered them back to Canada at the point of a musket and they promptly took up their return journey.
There are several instances of Tories having been whipped and beaten when they tried to return to their former homes among their patriot neighbors, whose homes they had burned and whose relatives they had murdered.
One mighty Cobleskill farmer-patriot became so enraged at the boastings of two drunken Tories after the war, that he overpowered them, tied them together with a rope around their necks and whipped them up and down the street in front of a delighted audience.
Considering the bloody deeds of the Tories of the Mohawk Valley, it is a wonder that many of them were not killed when they tried to return to their former homes.
They had not conducted warfare.
They had been organized bands of cowardly murderers who killed more women and little children than American soldiers.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 77: The Mohawk Valley After the Revolution., continued ...
One of the first murder trials in the Johnstown Court House after the war was that of John Adam Hartmann, a Revolutionary veteran, for killing an Indian in 1783.
They met at a tavern in the present town of Herkimer, and the savage excited Hartmann's abhorrence by boasting of murders and scalpings performed by him during the war, and particularly by showing him a tobacco pouch made from the skin of the hand and part of the arm of a white child with the finger nails remaining attached.
Hartmann said nothing at the time and the two left the tavern on their journey together, traveling a road which led through a dense forest.
Here the savage's body was found a year later.
Hartmann was acquitted for lack of evidence.
He had been a ranger at Fort Dayton.
On a foray, in which he killed an Indian, at almost the same instant, he was shot and wounded by a Tory.
Hartmann was a famous frontiersman and had many adventures.
He was a fine type of the intrepid soldiers in the tried and true militia of Tryon County.
During the Revolution the English governor, in honor of whom Tryon County was named, rendered the title odious by a series of infamous acts in the service of the Crown, and the New York Legislature, on the 2d of April, 1784, voted that the county should be called Montgomery, in honor of Gen. Richard Montgomery, who fell in the attack on Quebec, early in the war.
At the beginning of the Revolution the population of the county was estimated at 10,000.
At the close of the war it had probably been reduced to almost one-third of that number, but so inviting were the fertile lands of the county, that in three years after the return of peace (1786) it had a population of 15,000.
Doubtless many of these were people who had deserted their valley homes at the beginning of hostilities and who now returned to settle again among their patriot neighbors who had borne the brunt of the struggle, and who had so nobly furthered the cause of American rule.
By 1800 the population of present Montgomery County can safely be estimated at 10,000, almost entirely settled on the farms,
The boundaries of the several counties in the state were more minutely defined, March 7, 1788, and Montgomery was declared to contain all that part of the state bounded east by the counties of Ulster, Albany, Washington and Clinton, and south by the State of Pennsylvania.
What had been districts in Tryon County were, with the exception of Old England, made towns in Montgomery County, the Mohawk district forming two towns, Caughnawaga north of the river and Mohawk south of it.
The Palatine and Canajoharie districts were organized as towns, retaining those names.
Thus after an existence of sixteen years, principally during the Revolutionary period, the old Tryon districts experienced their first change.
The presence of the warlike Mohawks and their use as allies on the frontier had saved the valley savages their lands until about the year 1700.
Notice has been made of Dutch, German and British immigration after that date into the Mohawk Valley.
With the virtual breaking down of the Iroquois confederacy on account of the Revolution, their wide lands were thrown open for settlement and, after 1783, another and greater tide of immigration set in along the Mohawk.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 77: The Mohawk Valley After the Revolution., continued ...
One of the first murder trials in the Johnstown Court House after the war was that of John Adam Hartmann, a Revolutionary veteran, for killing an Indian in 1783.
They met at a tavern in the present town of Herkimer, and the savage excited Hartmann's abhorrence by boasting of murders and scalpings performed by him during the war, and particularly by showing him a tobacco pouch made from the skin of the hand and part of the arm of a white child with the finger nails remaining attached.
Hartmann said nothing at the time and the two left the tavern on their journey together, traveling a road which led through a dense forest.
Here the savage's body was found a year later.
Hartmann was acquitted for lack of evidence.
He had been a ranger at Fort Dayton.
On a foray, in which he killed an Indian, at almost the same instant, he was shot and wounded by a Tory.
Hartmann was a famous frontiersman and had many adventures.
He was a fine type of the intrepid soldiers in the tried and true militia of Tryon County.
During the Revolution the English governor, in honor of whom Tryon County was named, rendered the title odious by a series of infamous acts in the service of the Crown, and the New York Legislature, on the 2d of April, 1784, voted that the county should be called Montgomery, in honor of Gen. Richard Montgomery, who fell in the attack on Quebec, early in the war.
At the beginning of the Revolution the population of the county was estimated at 10,000.
At the close of the war it had probably been reduced to almost one-third of that number, but so inviting were the fertile lands of the county, that in three years after the return of peace (1786) it had a population of 15,000.
Doubtless many of these were people who had deserted their valley homes at the beginning of hostilities and who now returned to settle again among their patriot neighbors who had borne the brunt of the struggle, and who had so nobly furthered the cause of American rule.
By 1800 the population of present Montgomery County can safely be estimated at 10,000, almost entirely settled on the farms,
The boundaries of the several counties in the state were more minutely defined, March 7, 1788, and Montgomery was declared to contain all that part of the state bounded east by the counties of Ulster, Albany, Washington and Clinton, and south by the State of Pennsylvania.
What had been districts in Tryon County were, with the exception of Old England, made towns in Montgomery County, the Mohawk district forming two towns, Caughnawaga north of the river and Mohawk south of it.
The Palatine and Canajoharie districts were organized as towns, retaining those names.
Thus after an existence of sixteen years, principally during the Revolutionary period, the old Tryon districts experienced their first change.
The presence of the warlike Mohawks and their use as allies on the frontier had saved the valley savages their lands until about the year 1700.
Notice has been made of Dutch, German and British immigration after that date into the Mohawk Valley.
With the virtual breaking down of the Iroquois confederacy on account of the Revolution, their wide lands were thrown open for settlement and, after 1783, another and greater tide of immigration set in along the Mohawk.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 77: The Mohawk Valley After the Revolution., continued ...
The war had made people of other states and of other sections of New York familiar with Tryon County.
Sullivan and Clinton's campaign, in the Iroquois country, had particularly revealed the fertility of the western part of the state, and a tide of emigration thither set in at the close of the war, mostly by way of the Mohawk Valley.
The river had been the first artery of transportation and traffic.
Now it began to be rivaled by turnpike travel.
Later water travel was to resume first place after the digging of the Erie Canal, afterward to be again superseded by land traffic when the railroads began to develop.
All of these were to make eventually the Mohawk Valley the great road and waterway it is today.
Immigration to western New York led to the formation from Montgomery, January 27, 1789, of Ontario County, which originally included all of the state west of a line running due north from the "82nd milestone" on the Pennsylvania boundary, through Seneca Lake to Sodus Bay on Lake Ontario.
This was the first great change in the borders of Tryon or Montgomery County (which had been of larger area than several present-day states) since its formation seventeen years before.
Other divisions were to come rapidly.
In 1791 the county of Montgomery was still further reduced by the formation of Tioga, Otsego and Herkimer.
The latter joined Montgomery County on the north as well as the west, the present east and west line, between Fulton and Hamilton, continued westward, being part of their common boundary, and another part of it a line running north and south from Little Falls, and intersecting the former "at a place called Jerseyfields."
Of the region thus taken from Montgomery County on the north, the present territory of Hamilton was restored in 1797, only to be set apart under its present name, February 12, 1816.
April 7, 1817, the western boundary of Montgomery was moved eastward from the meridian of Little Falls to East Canada Creek, and a line running south from its mouth, where it still remains.
This divided the territory of the old Canajoharie and Palatine districts between two counties, after this region had formed part of Tryon or Montgomery County for a period of forty-five years, which was undoubtedly that of its greatest growth as well as covering the thrilling Revolutionary period.
It also, for the first time, made an unnatural and artificial demarcation of the Canajoharie region, known as such north and south of the Mohawk since the dawn of history.
The line between Montgomery and Schenectady has always been part of the boundary of the former, having originally separated it from Albany County.
The formation of Otsego County, February 16, 1791, established the line which now separates it and Schoharie from Montgomery.
The latter took its northern boundary and entire present outline on the formation of Fulton County in 1838, which will be considered later.
Thus the present Montgomery is the small remainder of a once large territory and bears that region's original name.
It also contains the greater part of the territory immediately along the river, of three of the five districts which originally composed Tryon and Montgomery County.
These three districts were Canajoharie, Palatine and Mohawk, and are all names of present-day townships of the county, which were portions of the original districts.
It is in the lands along the Mohawk River, contained in these old districts, where the principal part of the population was gathered at the close of the Revolutionary War.
The three towns of Montgomery which formed part of the Canajoharie districts were set apart on the following dates: Minden 1798, Root 1823 (formed partly from the old Mohawk and old Canajoharie districts).
Canajoharie, part of the original district of that name set apart in 1772.
The town of Palatine is the remaining portion of the original Tryon County district of that name.
The town of St. Johnsville was set apart on the formation of Fulton County in 1838.
In 1793 Caughnawaga was divided into Johnstown, Mayfield, Broadalbin and Amsterdam, and Mohawk into Charleston and Florida, their dividing line being Schoharie Creek.
In 1797 Salisbury, now in Herkimer County, was taken from Palatine, and in 1798 part of Canajoharie went to form Minden.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 77: The Mohawk Valley After the Revolution., continued ...
The war had made people of other states and of other sections of New York familiar with Tryon County.
Sullivan and Clinton's campaign, in the Iroquois country, had particularly revealed the fertility of the western part of the state, and a tide of emigration thither set in at the close of the war, mostly by way of the Mohawk Valley.
The river had been the first artery of transportation and traffic.
Now it began to be rivaled by turnpike travel.
Later water travel was to resume first place after the digging of the Erie Canal, afterward to be again superseded by land traffic when the railroads began to develop.
All of these were to make eventually the Mohawk Valley the great road and waterway it is today.
Immigration to western New York led to the formation from Montgomery, January 27, 1789, of Ontario County, which originally included all of the state west of a line running due north from the "82nd milestone" on the Pennsylvania boundary, through Seneca Lake to Sodus Bay on Lake Ontario.
This was the first great change in the borders of Tryon or Montgomery County (which had been of larger area than several present-day states) since its formation seventeen years before.
Other divisions were to come rapidly.
In 1791 the county of Montgomery was still further reduced by the formation of Tioga, Otsego and Herkimer.
The latter joined Montgomery County on the north as well as the west, the present east and west line, between Fulton and Hamilton, continued westward, being part of their common boundary, and another part of it a line running north and south from Little Falls, and intersecting the former "at a place called Jerseyfields."
Of the region thus taken from Montgomery County on the north, the present territory of Hamilton was restored in 1797, only to be set apart under its present name, February 12, 1816.
April 7, 1817, the western boundary of Montgomery was moved eastward from the meridian of Little Falls to East Canada Creek, and a line running south from its mouth, where it still remains.
This divided the territory of the old Canajoharie and Palatine districts between two counties, after this region had formed part of Tryon or Montgomery County for a period of forty-five years, which was undoubtedly that of its greatest growth as well as covering the thrilling Revolutionary period.
It also, for the first time, made an unnatural and artificial demarcation of the Canajoharie region, known as such north and south of the Mohawk since the dawn of history.
The line between Montgomery and Schenectady has always been part of the boundary of the former, having originally separated it from Albany County.
The formation of Otsego County, February 16, 1791, established the line which now separates it and Schoharie from Montgomery.
The latter took its northern boundary and entire present outline on the formation of Fulton County in 1838, which will be considered later.
Thus the present Montgomery is the small remainder of a once large territory and bears that region's original name.
It also contains the greater part of the territory immediately along the river, of three of the five districts which originally composed Tryon and Montgomery County.
These three districts were Canajoharie, Palatine and Mohawk, and are all names of present-day townships of the county, which were portions of the original districts.
It is in the lands along the Mohawk River, contained in these old districts, where the principal part of the population was gathered at the close of the Revolutionary War.
The three towns of Montgomery which formed part of the Canajoharie districts were set apart on the following dates: Minden 1798, Root 1823 (formed partly from the old Mohawk and old Canajoharie districts).
Canajoharie, part of the original district of that name set apart in 1772.
The town of Palatine is the remaining portion of the original Tryon County district of that name.
The town of St. Johnsville was set apart on the formation of Fulton County in 1838.
In 1793 Caughnawaga was divided into Johnstown, Mayfield, Broadalbin and Amsterdam, and Mohawk into Charleston and Florida, their dividing line being Schoharie Creek.
In 1797 Salisbury, now in Herkimer County, was taken from Palatine, and in 1798 part of Canajoharie went to form Minden.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 77: The Mohawk Valley After the Revolution., continued ...
Following is a short sketch of the Revolutionary patriot for whom Tryon County was renamed in 1784: Richard Montgomery was born in the north of Ireland in 1737.
He entered the British army at the age of twenty and was with Wolfe at the storming of Quebec.
Although he returned, after the French war, he had formed a liking for America and, in 1772, came back and made his home at Rhinebeck, on the Hudson, where he married a daughter of Robert B. Livingston.
He sided with the patriots at the outbreak of the Revolution and in 1775 was second in command to Schuyler in the expedition against Canada.
The illness of Schuyler caused the chief command to devolve upon Montgomery, and in the capture of St. John's, Chambly and Montreal and his attack on Quebec, he exhibited great judgment and military skill.
He was commissioned a major general before he reached Quebec.
In that campaign he had every difficulty to contend with — undisciplined and mutinous troops, scarcity of provisions and ammunition, want of heavy artillery, lack of clothing, the rigor of winter and desertions of whole companies.
Yet he pressed onward and in all probability, had his life been spared, would have entered Quebec in triumph.
In the heroic attack of the Americans on this stronghold, December 31, 1775 (during a heavy snowstorm), Montgomery was killed and his force defeated.
Congress voted Montgomery a monument, by an act passed January 25, 1776, and it was erected on the Broadway side of St. Paul's Church in New York.
It bears the following inscription: "This monument is erected by order of Congress, 25th of January, 1776, to transmit to posterity a grateful remembrance of the patriot conduct, enterprise and perseverance of Major-General Richard Montgomery, who, after a series of successes amid the most discouraging difficulties, fell in the attack on Quebec, 31st December, 1775, aged 37 years."
In 1818 his remains were brought from Quebec and buried under this memorial.
His aged widow sat on the piazza of their former Hudson River home, when the remains of her young hero husband, on a steamboat, passed down the river.
Mrs. Montgomery fainted under the stress of her emotion.
General Montgomery left no children, but his widow survived him more than half a century.
A day or two before he left his home at Rhinebeck for the Canadian campaign, the general was walking on the lawn in the rear of his brother-in-law's mansion with its owner.
As they came near the house Montgomery stuck a willow twig in the ground and said, "Peter, let that grow to remember me by."
Lossing says it did grow and that when he visited the spot (in 1848) it was a willow with a trunk at least ten feet in circumference.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 77: The Mohawk Valley After the Revolution., continued ...
Following is a short sketch of the Revolutionary patriot for whom Tryon County was renamed in 1784: Richard Montgomery was born in the north of Ireland in 1737.
He entered the British army at the age of twenty and was with Wolfe at the storming of Quebec.
Although he returned, after the French war, he had formed a liking for America and, in 1772, came back and made his home at Rhinebeck, on the Hudson, where he married a daughter of Robert B. Livingston.
He sided with the patriots at the outbreak of the Revolution and in 1775 was second in command to Schuyler in the expedition against Canada.
The illness of Schuyler caused the chief command to devolve upon Montgomery, and in the capture of St. John's, Chambly and Montreal and his attack on Quebec, he exhibited great judgment and military skill.
He was commissioned a major general before he reached Quebec.
In that campaign he had every difficulty to contend with — undisciplined and mutinous troops, scarcity of provisions and ammunition, want of heavy artillery, lack of clothing, the rigor of winter and desertions of whole companies.
Yet he pressed onward and in all probability, had his life been spared, would have entered Quebec in triumph.
In the heroic attack of the Americans on this stronghold, December 31, 1775 (during a heavy snowstorm), Montgomery was killed and his force defeated.
Congress voted Montgomery a monument, by an act passed January 25, 1776, and it was erected on the Broadway side of St. Paul's Church in New York.
It bears the following inscription: "This monument is erected by order of Congress, 25th of January, 1776, to transmit to posterity a grateful remembrance of the patriot conduct, enterprise and perseverance of Major-General Richard Montgomery, who, after a series of successes amid the most discouraging difficulties, fell in the attack on Quebec, 31st December, 1775, aged 37 years."
In 1818 his remains were brought from Quebec and buried under this memorial.
His aged widow sat on the piazza of their former Hudson River home, when the remains of her young hero husband, on a steamboat, passed down the river.
Mrs. Montgomery fainted under the stress of her emotion.
General Montgomery left no children, but his widow survived him more than half a century.
A day or two before he left his home at Rhinebeck for the Canadian campaign, the general was walking on the lawn in the rear of his brother-in-law's mansion with its owner.
As they came near the house Montgomery stuck a willow twig in the ground and said, "Peter, let that grow to remember me by."
Lossing says it did grow and that when he visited the spot (in 1848) it was a willow with a trunk at least ten feet in circumference.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 77: The Mohawk Valley After the Revolution., continued ...
Valley homes and life after the war are vividly pictured in the following from "Beers' History (1878)."
This was written of the town of Florida, Montgomery County, but applies equally well to the other Mohawk Valley towns:
"With the opening of the nineteenth century we seem to come a long step toward the present."
"It seems a great milestone in history, dividing a fading past from the fresher present."
"The long, doubtful struggle with England had resulted in a dearly bought, dearly prized peace, with its beautiful victories."
"Local tradition has not yet lost the memory of the suffering that followed the infamous raid of Butler and Brant through this neighborhood in 1780; and still treasures tales of hairbreadth escapes of families that found darksome homes in the cellars of their burned dwellings, of the fearful hushing of children, lest their voices should betray the places of concealment, of the hiding of plate and valuables, tea kettles freighted with spoons being hid in such haste as to defy future unearthing."
* *
"But at last 'the land had rest.'"
"The red man, once sovereign lord, had disappeared; the powerful Johnson family was exiled, its homes sequestered and in other hands."
"Sturdy toil and earnest labor won their due return and thrift and competency were everywhere attested by hospitable homes and well stored barns."
"Albany was the main market for the products, wheat forming the most considerable item."
"School houses and churches now dotted the landscape, and busy grist and saw mills perched on many streams."
"The Dutch [and German] language was much spoken, but many Connecticut and New England settlers never acquired it, and theirs [eventually] became the common tongue."
"Not alone have the 'blazed' or marked trees and saplings, which indicated the lines of roads or farm boundaries, long since decayed, but 'Blockhouse' and log cabin have also disappeared, and it may be doubted if five specimens of these early homes can now be found within the bounds of Florida."
"Yet still there live those who can remember the old-fashioned houses."
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 77: The Mohawk Valley After the Revolution., continued ...
Valley homes and life after the war are vividly pictured in the following from "Beers' History (1878)."
This was written of the town of Florida, Montgomery County, but applies equally well to the other Mohawk Valley towns:
"With the opening of the nineteenth century we seem to come a long step toward the present."
"It seems a great milestone in history, dividing a fading past from the fresher present."
"The long, doubtful struggle with England had resulted in a dearly bought, dearly prized peace, with its beautiful victories."
"Local tradition has not yet lost the memory of the suffering that followed the infamous raid of Butler and Brant through this neighborhood in 1780; and still treasures tales of hairbreadth escapes of families that found darksome homes in the cellars of their burned dwellings, of the fearful hushing of children, lest their voices should betray the places of concealment, of the hiding of plate and valuables, tea kettles freighted with spoons being hid in such haste as to defy future unearthing."
* *
"But at last 'the land had rest.'"
"The red man, once sovereign lord, had disappeared; the powerful Johnson family was exiled, its homes sequestered and in other hands."
"Sturdy toil and earnest labor won their due return and thrift and competency were everywhere attested by hospitable homes and well stored barns."
"Albany was the main market for the products, wheat forming the most considerable item."
"School houses and churches now dotted the landscape, and busy grist and saw mills perched on many streams."
"The Dutch [and German] language was much spoken, but many Connecticut and New England settlers never acquired it, and theirs [eventually] became the common tongue."
"Not alone have the 'blazed' or marked trees and saplings, which indicated the lines of roads or farm boundaries, long since decayed, but 'Blockhouse' and log cabin have also disappeared, and it may be doubted if five specimens of these early homes can now be found within the bounds of Florida."
"Yet still there live those who can remember the old-fashioned houses."
TO BE CONTINUED ...