The Frontiersmen of New York, continued ...
by Jeptha R. Simms
Albany, NY
1883
Volume I, continued ...
Funerals.
It was formerly customary, not only in Schoharie, but in nearly every county in the state, to provide refreshments at funerals.
Indeed, as late as 1825, the custom of providing liquor on such occasions was in vogue, and the bearers and friends of the deceased were expected to return to the house of mourning after the burial, and drink.
Neither was it at all uncommon for people in those days to go home from a funeral drunk: but the barbarous custom of passing the intoxicating bowl on such occasions, has become obsolete.
It is said that John Lawyer, the second one mentioned in this connection kept a barrel of wine for several years before his death to be drank at his funeral: that it was carried out on that occasion in pails, freely drank, and many were drunk of it.
Cakes were carried round at such times in large baskets, and in some instances a funeral appeared more like a festival than the solemn sepulture of the dead.
The old people give a plausible reason for the introduction of such a custom in this country.
Its inhabitants were sparsedly settled over a large territory, and many had to go a great distance to attend funerals,-and as all could not be expected to eat a regular meal from home, those extra provisions were made for friends present from remote sections.
A custom of this kind once introduced, even if at the time justifiable, it is easy to perceive might be continued in after years, until it became obnoxious to sympathy and reprehensible.
The Palatines brought this habit of funeral feasting from the fatherland.
The following is the copy of a well written receipt, in the hand writing of the second mentioned John Lawyer, his name being there written as the contraction of Johannes.
It was doubtless given as it purports, for liquor drank at a funeral.
"Scoherie, March 29, 1738."
"Then Received of John Schuyler the sum of Twenty Schillings for five gating [gallons] of Rum at the Bearing [burying] of Maria Bratt."
"Reed by me."
"JOHS. LAWYER."
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THE POT BELLY STOVE ROOM
Re: THE POT BELLY STOVE ROOM
The Frontiersmen of New York, continued ...
by Jeptha R. Simms
Albany, NY
1883
Volume I, continued ...
Indian Characteristics.
The Schoharie Indians had but few serious difficulties with the early white settlers.
Judge Brown mentions in his pamphlet that a squaw once shot a man on the Sabbath, while returning from church.
The Indians often hid personal broils among themselves, and generally settled them in their own savage way.
Brown also states that in his time he saw one William, a son of Jan, stab and kill another Indian at the house of David Becker, in Weiser's dorf.
The eye-witness of the act informed the author, that the Indian killed was called John Coy.
David Becker then kept a public house, which stood on the present site of the parsonage house of the brick church in Middleburgh.
John had a child in his arms in the bar-room, and was asked by William, another Indian, to drink with him.
The former declined drinking, and walked out of the room upon a piazza in front of the house.
William soon after followed him out and buried the blade of a long knife in his back --which he did not attempt to draw out--and departed.
John died almost instantly.
The cause of this assassination informant did not know: it is doubtless to be attributed to the red man's curse - alcohol.
Mrs. Van Slyck related the following traditionary story, which serves to illustrate another phase of Indian character.
At a house which stood on the farm owned by Henry Vrooman in 1845, and contiguous to Wilder Hook, about the year 1750, one Indian stabbed another on the threshold of the door to the entrance into the upper part of it.
The deed was committed in the evening, and was the result of a former quarrel.
The tribe took little notice of the act, but when the corpse of the murdered man was about to be lowered into the grave, the father of the murderer required his son to get into it to dig one end deeper.
He did so, and while standing there, the father sunk a tomahawk into his brains.
He was laid down in the narrow house with his implements of war beside him - the other victim placed upon the body of his murderer, and both buried together.
Thus bodies which in life were rendered so hateful to each other by the savage spirits which controlled them, mingled into one common earth after death, by the fiendish act of a father; who, by endeavoring to punish the believed wrong of a son, became himself the most guilty of the two.
However unnatural an act like this may seem, it was by no means uncommon among the unlettered sons of the forest.
The father often assumed the responsibility of punishing the son, and the son the father, for misdemeanors which might have a tendency to disgrace the avenger, even to the taking of life.
The following anecdote will show another peculiarity of the Indian character.
One of the Schoharie chiefs, named Lewis, is said to have gone to battle-in a French Canadian war, scalped a squaw, taken her home as his prisoner, and afterwards made her his wife and the mother of his children.
The Indians were in the annual habit, to considerable extent, of taking up a temporary residence near a corn field-when the corn became eatable - proving unprofitable neighbors to the whites, as they often destroyed more than they carried away.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by Jeptha R. Simms
Albany, NY
1883
Volume I, continued ...
Indian Characteristics.
The Schoharie Indians had but few serious difficulties with the early white settlers.
Judge Brown mentions in his pamphlet that a squaw once shot a man on the Sabbath, while returning from church.
The Indians often hid personal broils among themselves, and generally settled them in their own savage way.
Brown also states that in his time he saw one William, a son of Jan, stab and kill another Indian at the house of David Becker, in Weiser's dorf.
The eye-witness of the act informed the author, that the Indian killed was called John Coy.
David Becker then kept a public house, which stood on the present site of the parsonage house of the brick church in Middleburgh.
John had a child in his arms in the bar-room, and was asked by William, another Indian, to drink with him.
The former declined drinking, and walked out of the room upon a piazza in front of the house.
William soon after followed him out and buried the blade of a long knife in his back --which he did not attempt to draw out--and departed.
John died almost instantly.
The cause of this assassination informant did not know: it is doubtless to be attributed to the red man's curse - alcohol.
Mrs. Van Slyck related the following traditionary story, which serves to illustrate another phase of Indian character.
At a house which stood on the farm owned by Henry Vrooman in 1845, and contiguous to Wilder Hook, about the year 1750, one Indian stabbed another on the threshold of the door to the entrance into the upper part of it.
The deed was committed in the evening, and was the result of a former quarrel.
The tribe took little notice of the act, but when the corpse of the murdered man was about to be lowered into the grave, the father of the murderer required his son to get into it to dig one end deeper.
He did so, and while standing there, the father sunk a tomahawk into his brains.
He was laid down in the narrow house with his implements of war beside him - the other victim placed upon the body of his murderer, and both buried together.
Thus bodies which in life were rendered so hateful to each other by the savage spirits which controlled them, mingled into one common earth after death, by the fiendish act of a father; who, by endeavoring to punish the believed wrong of a son, became himself the most guilty of the two.
However unnatural an act like this may seem, it was by no means uncommon among the unlettered sons of the forest.
The father often assumed the responsibility of punishing the son, and the son the father, for misdemeanors which might have a tendency to disgrace the avenger, even to the taking of life.
The following anecdote will show another peculiarity of the Indian character.
One of the Schoharie chiefs, named Lewis, is said to have gone to battle-in a French Canadian war, scalped a squaw, taken her home as his prisoner, and afterwards made her his wife and the mother of his children.
The Indians were in the annual habit, to considerable extent, of taking up a temporary residence near a corn field-when the corn became eatable - proving unprofitable neighbors to the whites, as they often destroyed more than they carried away.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: THE POT BELLY STOVE ROOM
The Frontiersmen of New York, continued ...
by Jeptha R. Simms
Albany, NY
1883
Volume I, continued ...
A Glance at Passing Events.
From the time the several white settlements were planted in the Schoharie and Mohawk valleys, although there were jealousies and rivalries between the English and French nations as to which should weave the strongest chain of friendship among the Iroquois, and secure their fur trade: those pioneer settlers were very little disturbed in their homes down to 1754, or the period denominated the old French war.
There were, however, several occasions in which the colonists of New England and New York took a part in invading Canada.
David Kerth - written by English writers Kirk - captured Quebec by shipping, July 19, 1629, just 130 years before its final conquest by Gen. Wolfe.
It was again restored to France, by treaty, March 17, 1632.*
It would have saved England and her American colonies a world of trouble, had Canada never been ceded back by treaty, and Central New York would probably have been civilized nearly an hundred years earlier.
Again, after many mutations and vicissitudes in the colonial affairs of England and France, they found themselves in l746 -114 years after England had restored Canada to France - in more complicated difficulties than ever; when an expedition was undertaken to conquer the Canadas, Gov. Shirley, of Massachusetts, having much to do with the enterprise.
In this year, said the historian Smith [page 482], the French and Indians had become so elated with success, that marauding parties of them were frequently seen within a little distance of Albany, laying in wait to take prisoners.
An Indian called To-mon-wil-e-mon was celebrated for such adventures.
The programme laid down was much as follows: Captain, afterwards Admiral Sir Peter Warren, with a British fleet, was to take on board at Louisburg what troops were sent from England, with 5,300 colonial troops furnished by the then four New England colonies, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, and ascend the St. Lawrence to attack Quebec; while 3,900 troops, raised in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, were to assemble at Albany and march thence against Crown Point and Montreal; and Gov. George Clinton, of New York, was to secure the co-operation of the Six Nations with the western army.
The colonies, loyal to the crown, and anxious to see Canada wrested from France, and a source of frequent alarm upon the frontiers effectually removed, readily furnished their quotas of the troops.
* Holmes' Am. Annals, vol. 1, pp. 251, 265.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by Jeptha R. Simms
Albany, NY
1883
Volume I, continued ...
A Glance at Passing Events.
From the time the several white settlements were planted in the Schoharie and Mohawk valleys, although there were jealousies and rivalries between the English and French nations as to which should weave the strongest chain of friendship among the Iroquois, and secure their fur trade: those pioneer settlers were very little disturbed in their homes down to 1754, or the period denominated the old French war.
There were, however, several occasions in which the colonists of New England and New York took a part in invading Canada.
David Kerth - written by English writers Kirk - captured Quebec by shipping, July 19, 1629, just 130 years before its final conquest by Gen. Wolfe.
It was again restored to France, by treaty, March 17, 1632.*
It would have saved England and her American colonies a world of trouble, had Canada never been ceded back by treaty, and Central New York would probably have been civilized nearly an hundred years earlier.
Again, after many mutations and vicissitudes in the colonial affairs of England and France, they found themselves in l746 -114 years after England had restored Canada to France - in more complicated difficulties than ever; when an expedition was undertaken to conquer the Canadas, Gov. Shirley, of Massachusetts, having much to do with the enterprise.
In this year, said the historian Smith [page 482], the French and Indians had become so elated with success, that marauding parties of them were frequently seen within a little distance of Albany, laying in wait to take prisoners.
An Indian called To-mon-wil-e-mon was celebrated for such adventures.
The programme laid down was much as follows: Captain, afterwards Admiral Sir Peter Warren, with a British fleet, was to take on board at Louisburg what troops were sent from England, with 5,300 colonial troops furnished by the then four New England colonies, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, and ascend the St. Lawrence to attack Quebec; while 3,900 troops, raised in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, were to assemble at Albany and march thence against Crown Point and Montreal; and Gov. George Clinton, of New York, was to secure the co-operation of the Six Nations with the western army.
The colonies, loyal to the crown, and anxious to see Canada wrested from France, and a source of frequent alarm upon the frontiers effectually removed, readily furnished their quotas of the troops.
* Holmes' Am. Annals, vol. 1, pp. 251, 265.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: THE POT BELLY STOVE ROOM
The Frontiersmen of New York, continued ...
by Jeptha R. Simms
Albany, NY
1883
Volume I, continued ...
The readiness having been made on the part of the colonies, they awaited with anxiety, month after month, for the British transports to arrive with the promised troops and a General to command them, until in a consultation between Admirals Warren and Pepperell and Gov. Shirley, it was judged that the season was too far advanced to execute the designs against Quebec; but it was still thought practicable, with the troops that could be assembled at Albany, and the friendly Indians of the Six Cantons, to prosecute the enterprise against Crown Point.
At this juncture a French fleet consisting of 40 ships of war, besides transports bearing nearly 4,000 troops - the most powerful naval armament ever then seen in American waters - under command of D. Anville, arrived at Nova Scotia.
Its main object was supposed to be not only to operate against the English fleet on the coast, but to recapture Louisburg, take Annapolis, destroy Boston, and break up the settlements on the eastern coast, if not in fact to conquer all New England, then the most thickly settled of the colonies.
All was for a time consternation in this country, and especially along the frontiers of New England and New York.
After a few weeks, however, this great anxiety was relieved by the intelligence that the French fleet had been scattered and greatly crippled by a storm which wrecked many of the ships with an immense loss of life.
Other disasters befell the French.
Four ships of war expected from Hispaniola to join the fleet had failed to connect; while a pestilential fever had prevailed among the French troops, and, added to this, intercepted letters led them to expect the arrival of an English fleet.
These adverse circumstances produced a division of sentiment among the French officers, and caused the sudden death of D' Anville, either by an apoplectic fit or poison; while D' Estournelle who succeeded to the command, was so excited by the rejection of his plans in a council of his officers, who were for returning immediately to France, that his agitation brought on a fever in which delirium succeeded, and he fell upon his own sword and expired.
The French, however, resolved to make an attempt to capture Annapolis, but scarcely had they sailed with this intent, when they were overtaken by a terrible tempest near Cape Sable, and what ships escaped fatal disaster, were so demoralized, that they at once returned singly to France.
Thus by a combination of unlooked for events beyond human control, were the plans of the French thwarted and the country saved from much blood shed and desolation.
"A more remarkable instance of preservation seldom occurs," and had it been otherwise, one could hardly conjecture what the result might have been.*
It was in the midst of the preparations making for the contemplated attempt to capture Canada, which resulted so remarkably for the English colonists, that Gov. Clinton secured the services of Wm. Johnson, the young Mohawk valley tradesman, to take the Indian agency of the six nations, and render them as far as possible, available for a demonstration against Crown Point and Canada.
Here and thus began the public career of this remarkable man, who afterwards became possessed of such unbounded influence over the Indians of New York.
It seems surprising that his name did not thus early get into Holmes' Annals of the events of 1746, but it is no doubt because at that period those events found their chroniclers in New England.
* Holmes' Annals, vol. 2, pp. 168-172.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by Jeptha R. Simms
Albany, NY
1883
Volume I, continued ...
The readiness having been made on the part of the colonies, they awaited with anxiety, month after month, for the British transports to arrive with the promised troops and a General to command them, until in a consultation between Admirals Warren and Pepperell and Gov. Shirley, it was judged that the season was too far advanced to execute the designs against Quebec; but it was still thought practicable, with the troops that could be assembled at Albany, and the friendly Indians of the Six Cantons, to prosecute the enterprise against Crown Point.
At this juncture a French fleet consisting of 40 ships of war, besides transports bearing nearly 4,000 troops - the most powerful naval armament ever then seen in American waters - under command of D. Anville, arrived at Nova Scotia.
Its main object was supposed to be not only to operate against the English fleet on the coast, but to recapture Louisburg, take Annapolis, destroy Boston, and break up the settlements on the eastern coast, if not in fact to conquer all New England, then the most thickly settled of the colonies.
All was for a time consternation in this country, and especially along the frontiers of New England and New York.
After a few weeks, however, this great anxiety was relieved by the intelligence that the French fleet had been scattered and greatly crippled by a storm which wrecked many of the ships with an immense loss of life.
Other disasters befell the French.
Four ships of war expected from Hispaniola to join the fleet had failed to connect; while a pestilential fever had prevailed among the French troops, and, added to this, intercepted letters led them to expect the arrival of an English fleet.
These adverse circumstances produced a division of sentiment among the French officers, and caused the sudden death of D' Anville, either by an apoplectic fit or poison; while D' Estournelle who succeeded to the command, was so excited by the rejection of his plans in a council of his officers, who were for returning immediately to France, that his agitation brought on a fever in which delirium succeeded, and he fell upon his own sword and expired.
The French, however, resolved to make an attempt to capture Annapolis, but scarcely had they sailed with this intent, when they were overtaken by a terrible tempest near Cape Sable, and what ships escaped fatal disaster, were so demoralized, that they at once returned singly to France.
Thus by a combination of unlooked for events beyond human control, were the plans of the French thwarted and the country saved from much blood shed and desolation.
"A more remarkable instance of preservation seldom occurs," and had it been otherwise, one could hardly conjecture what the result might have been.*
It was in the midst of the preparations making for the contemplated attempt to capture Canada, which resulted so remarkably for the English colonists, that Gov. Clinton secured the services of Wm. Johnson, the young Mohawk valley tradesman, to take the Indian agency of the six nations, and render them as far as possible, available for a demonstration against Crown Point and Canada.
Here and thus began the public career of this remarkable man, who afterwards became possessed of such unbounded influence over the Indians of New York.
It seems surprising that his name did not thus early get into Holmes' Annals of the events of 1746, but it is no doubt because at that period those events found their chroniclers in New England.
* Holmes' Annals, vol. 2, pp. 168-172.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: THE POT BELLY STOVE ROOM
The Frontiersmen of New York, continued ...
by Jeptha R. Simms
Albany, NY
1883
Volume I, continued ...
Other Frontier Settlements.
Here and there a small settlement sprang up, from time to time, in the early period of Western New York, around the few already mentioned, which deserve our notice.
August 18, 1738, John Lindsay took a patent for 1,965 acres of land, and on the same day, with Jacob Roseboom, Leonard Gansevoort and Sybrant Van Schaick, also secured a patent, beside the first, for 7,050 acres, both tracts containing 9,015 acres of land.
Those lands were situated mostly in the present town of Cherry Valley, and consolidated, became known as the Cherry Valley patent.
On May 24, 1739, John Lindsay, took a patent for 500 acres on the Cherry Valley creek, which he found the previous grants did not embrace.
The head waters of the Cherry Valley creek - one of the sources of the Susquehanna - ran through these lands.
The Canajoharie creek also rises near the former creek, and flows in an opposite direction to the Mohawk.
On the latter stream, only two or three miles from Cherry Valley, is a gorge in which is a waterfall, called, on the De Witt map of 1790, by the Indian name "Tu-ay-on-na-ron-wa Fall."
But a short distance from this little cascade, Lieut. Matthew Wormuth was killed in 1778, as will be shown.
In modern times this cascade has been called the Te-ka-har-o-wa, but on what authority I cannot say.
Mr. Lindsay, who was a Scotch gentleman of substance, also secured a patent August 24, 1736, with Philip Livingston, for 3,000 acres in the present town of Danube, bounded northeasterly by the Mohawk; and August 22, 1738, he patented 460 acres of land now in Greene county, and was possibly interested in other land purchases.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by Jeptha R. Simms
Albany, NY
1883
Volume I, continued ...
Other Frontier Settlements.
Here and there a small settlement sprang up, from time to time, in the early period of Western New York, around the few already mentioned, which deserve our notice.
August 18, 1738, John Lindsay took a patent for 1,965 acres of land, and on the same day, with Jacob Roseboom, Leonard Gansevoort and Sybrant Van Schaick, also secured a patent, beside the first, for 7,050 acres, both tracts containing 9,015 acres of land.
Those lands were situated mostly in the present town of Cherry Valley, and consolidated, became known as the Cherry Valley patent.
On May 24, 1739, John Lindsay, took a patent for 500 acres on the Cherry Valley creek, which he found the previous grants did not embrace.
The head waters of the Cherry Valley creek - one of the sources of the Susquehanna - ran through these lands.
The Canajoharie creek also rises near the former creek, and flows in an opposite direction to the Mohawk.
On the latter stream, only two or three miles from Cherry Valley, is a gorge in which is a waterfall, called, on the De Witt map of 1790, by the Indian name "Tu-ay-on-na-ron-wa Fall."
But a short distance from this little cascade, Lieut. Matthew Wormuth was killed in 1778, as will be shown.
In modern times this cascade has been called the Te-ka-har-o-wa, but on what authority I cannot say.
Mr. Lindsay, who was a Scotch gentleman of substance, also secured a patent August 24, 1736, with Philip Livingston, for 3,000 acres in the present town of Danube, bounded northeasterly by the Mohawk; and August 22, 1738, he patented 460 acres of land now in Greene county, and was possibly interested in other land purchases.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: THE POT BELLY STOVE ROOM
The Frontiersmen of New York, continued ...
by Jeptha R. Simms
Albany, NY
1883
Volume I, continued ...
I shall give the reader a brief account of the first settlement of Cherry Valley, drawn chiefly from Campbell's Annals of Tryon County.
Thinking a life among the wild cherries would be romantic and pleasant, in 1739 Mr. Lindsay obtained an assignment from his three partners to the largest Cherry Valley tract for himself and Gov. Clark - who, as Governor, had first granted it - and they had it surveyed and laid out in lot.
In the spring of 1740, Mr. Lindsay removed his family from New York city upon one of the best farms in his Cherry Valley purchase, and the locality became known as Lindsay's Bush.
There may possibly have been here and there a settler within a few miles of him; but if any such there were nearer than those contiguous to the Mohawk valley, a dozen miles distant, it is now unknown.
On going into their country and upon their hunting grounds, Mr. Lindsay - as did all similar adventurers - found it necessary to cultivate the friendship of the Indians.
A family from refined life, isolating itself in the woods among Indians and wild beasts, could reasonably have expected to find only a life of very severe romance, and such an one proved that of the Lindsay family the first season; for in the winter following its arrival, not having made ample provision for its wants, it became straitened for food; and there being a great depth of snow on the ground, its necessities were only to be relieved by the kindness of an Indian, who, upon snow-shoes, went to the Mohawk river settlements and returned with a supply of necessaries upon his back.
Thus were the whites often befriended into successful homes and colonies by the natives, whose lands and country they were slowly but surely robbing them of.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by Jeptha R. Simms
Albany, NY
1883
Volume I, continued ...
I shall give the reader a brief account of the first settlement of Cherry Valley, drawn chiefly from Campbell's Annals of Tryon County.
Thinking a life among the wild cherries would be romantic and pleasant, in 1739 Mr. Lindsay obtained an assignment from his three partners to the largest Cherry Valley tract for himself and Gov. Clark - who, as Governor, had first granted it - and they had it surveyed and laid out in lot.
In the spring of 1740, Mr. Lindsay removed his family from New York city upon one of the best farms in his Cherry Valley purchase, and the locality became known as Lindsay's Bush.
There may possibly have been here and there a settler within a few miles of him; but if any such there were nearer than those contiguous to the Mohawk valley, a dozen miles distant, it is now unknown.
On going into their country and upon their hunting grounds, Mr. Lindsay - as did all similar adventurers - found it necessary to cultivate the friendship of the Indians.
A family from refined life, isolating itself in the woods among Indians and wild beasts, could reasonably have expected to find only a life of very severe romance, and such an one proved that of the Lindsay family the first season; for in the winter following its arrival, not having made ample provision for its wants, it became straitened for food; and there being a great depth of snow on the ground, its necessities were only to be relieved by the kindness of an Indian, who, upon snow-shoes, went to the Mohawk river settlements and returned with a supply of necessaries upon his back.
Thus were the whites often befriended into successful homes and colonies by the natives, whose lands and country they were slowly but surely robbing them of.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: THE POT BELLY STOVE ROOM
The Frontiersmen of New York, continued ...
by Jeptha R. Simms
Albany, NY
1883
Volume I, continued ...
In the spring of 1741, Mr. Lindsay made the Rev. Samuel Dunlap, of New York, the gift of a good farm to settle upon his tract, which he accepted, and used his influence to induce others to go with him, among whom were David Ramsey, William Gallt, James Campbell and William Dickson - known at the time as Scotch-Irish - in all about 30 souls.
Mr. Dunlap, who was from the Emerald Isle, returned thither after a short residence at Cherry Valley, to fulfil a marriage contract, and returning with his wife he became a permanent settler, and the first minister of that place.
He was a liberally educated man, and taught the first grammar school, as believed, to the westward of Albany; and among his pupils were not a few from the Mohawk valley settlements, some of whom were representative men in the Revolution.
Among the settlers making accessions within a few years to the Cherry Valley settlement - so named, because of its numerous wild cherry trees - was John Wells, of New York, an Irishman, who later in life became a justice of the peace, and a very useful citizen.
Mr. Lindsay, knowing little about farming, and his family, no doubt, tiring of a forest life, at the end of a few years abandoned his sylvan enterprise and returned to New York.
For the credit of the Cherry Valley colonists, I may observe that hardly were they comfortably established ere they had erected a school-house and a church - both of the pioneer's building material, unhewn logs.
The Cherry Valley colony increased, though not rapidly, in numbers for the next 30 years, in the latter part of which period other small settlements were made in its neighborhood.
One of them, in the present town of Middlefield, was known at the beginning of the Revolution as Newtown Martin, so called after Peter Martin, an owner of lands there.
The late Mrs. Matthias Becker, the mother of Mrs. William A. Haslet, of Fort Plain, and the late Jeremiah Martin, of Glen, were children of this Martin, who was a Montreal tradesman at the beginning of hostilities, when this settlement was broken up.
In 1762, five families settled in Springfield, being those of John Kelley, Richard Ferguson and James Young, in the eastern part of the town, and those of Gustavus Klumph and Jacob Tygart [Dygert] at the head of the lake.
Dygert had two sons, John and Jacob, captured at the destruction of Cherry Valley.
The last two were, no doubt, Germans from the Mohawk valley.
A Spalsbury family, and that of Capt. Thomas Davy, are also known to have become residents of the town before the Revolution, and the latter, with others from Springfield, was in the sanguinary field of Oriskany,* where he was killed, leaving three sons, James, Jeremiah and Harvey.
Other families are known to have located near Mud lake, and in other parts of the town, at the period named.
Several families are said to have pushed out as far westward as the Little lakes - now in Warren, though then called Springfield, and, it is not improbable that the family of George Knouts was of the number.
* Memorial discourse of Rev. P. V. Sanborne, delivered July 16, 1876.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by Jeptha R. Simms
Albany, NY
1883
Volume I, continued ...
In the spring of 1741, Mr. Lindsay made the Rev. Samuel Dunlap, of New York, the gift of a good farm to settle upon his tract, which he accepted, and used his influence to induce others to go with him, among whom were David Ramsey, William Gallt, James Campbell and William Dickson - known at the time as Scotch-Irish - in all about 30 souls.
Mr. Dunlap, who was from the Emerald Isle, returned thither after a short residence at Cherry Valley, to fulfil a marriage contract, and returning with his wife he became a permanent settler, and the first minister of that place.
He was a liberally educated man, and taught the first grammar school, as believed, to the westward of Albany; and among his pupils were not a few from the Mohawk valley settlements, some of whom were representative men in the Revolution.
Among the settlers making accessions within a few years to the Cherry Valley settlement - so named, because of its numerous wild cherry trees - was John Wells, of New York, an Irishman, who later in life became a justice of the peace, and a very useful citizen.
Mr. Lindsay, knowing little about farming, and his family, no doubt, tiring of a forest life, at the end of a few years abandoned his sylvan enterprise and returned to New York.
For the credit of the Cherry Valley colonists, I may observe that hardly were they comfortably established ere they had erected a school-house and a church - both of the pioneer's building material, unhewn logs.
The Cherry Valley colony increased, though not rapidly, in numbers for the next 30 years, in the latter part of which period other small settlements were made in its neighborhood.
One of them, in the present town of Middlefield, was known at the beginning of the Revolution as Newtown Martin, so called after Peter Martin, an owner of lands there.
The late Mrs. Matthias Becker, the mother of Mrs. William A. Haslet, of Fort Plain, and the late Jeremiah Martin, of Glen, were children of this Martin, who was a Montreal tradesman at the beginning of hostilities, when this settlement was broken up.
In 1762, five families settled in Springfield, being those of John Kelley, Richard Ferguson and James Young, in the eastern part of the town, and those of Gustavus Klumph and Jacob Tygart [Dygert] at the head of the lake.
Dygert had two sons, John and Jacob, captured at the destruction of Cherry Valley.
The last two were, no doubt, Germans from the Mohawk valley.
A Spalsbury family, and that of Capt. Thomas Davy, are also known to have become residents of the town before the Revolution, and the latter, with others from Springfield, was in the sanguinary field of Oriskany,* where he was killed, leaving three sons, James, Jeremiah and Harvey.
Other families are known to have located near Mud lake, and in other parts of the town, at the period named.
Several families are said to have pushed out as far westward as the Little lakes - now in Warren, though then called Springfield, and, it is not improbable that the family of George Knouts was of the number.
* Memorial discourse of Rev. P. V. Sanborne, delivered July 16, 1876.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: THE POT BELLY STOVE ROOM
The Frontiersmen of New York, continued ...
by Jeptha R. Simms
Albany, NY
1883
Volume I, continued ...
Settlements were also successfully planted several years before the Revolution in Unadilla, Otego, Laurens, Butternuts, Harpersfield, and in what are now several other townships.
On the organization of Tryon county, all the settlements named, to the west and southwest of Cherry Valley, except Harpersfield, became known as the Old England District; hence we may infer that a majority of those pioneer settlers spoke the English language.
Cherry Valley and Harpersfield were embraced in the Canajoharie district.
I have already stated that it was long after a Dutch colony was established at Schenectada, before the whites ventured any great distance to the westward of that place.
A few families did venture across the river, however, and the Schenectada Reflector of October 24, 1878, tells us that a certain Mabee family settled in Rotterdam, six and a half miles west of that old town about 200 years ago, to which fact I have already alluded.
One of the earliest Low Dutch families to push up the Mohawk as far, was that of Philip Groat, of Rotterdam, who in 1716, made a purchase of lands near Cranesville, in the town of Amsterdam, 13 miles west of Schenectada.
When removing to the latter place, Mr. Groat was drowned in the Mohawk, not far from Schenectada, by breaking through the ice.
He was in a sleigh accompanied by a woman who was also drowned.
His widow and three sons, Simon, Jacob and Lewis, the last named being then only four years old, with several domestics, made the intended settlement.
In 1730, the Groat brothers erected a grist-mill at their place, believed the first one ever built on the north side of the Mohawk.
This mill when first erected, floured wheat for citizens who dwelt upon the German flats, some 50 miles distant.
The first bolting cloth in this mill, was put in by John Barns, a German, in 1772.
Prior to this the settlers lived on what is now known as Graham bread, bread, made from unbolted flour, unless they sifted it in hand sieves.*
* Facts obtained In 1841, from Mr. John L. Groat, a son by his second wife of Lewis Groat named in the context, who lived and died at the old homestead below Cranesville, where he was long and favorably known as an inn-keeper. He was an agreeable companion on all matters connected with his early life, as he had a good memory, well remembered Sir William Johnson, with whom his father was on intimate terms, and knew well many of the baronet's associates. Mr. Groat might very properly have been called a Yankee Dutchman, for his social and Inquisitive nature made him familiar with the pedigree of more families in the Mohawk valley, than was any other man with whom I ever conversed. He died In January, 1845, aged about 90 years.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by Jeptha R. Simms
Albany, NY
1883
Volume I, continued ...
Settlements were also successfully planted several years before the Revolution in Unadilla, Otego, Laurens, Butternuts, Harpersfield, and in what are now several other townships.
On the organization of Tryon county, all the settlements named, to the west and southwest of Cherry Valley, except Harpersfield, became known as the Old England District; hence we may infer that a majority of those pioneer settlers spoke the English language.
Cherry Valley and Harpersfield were embraced in the Canajoharie district.
I have already stated that it was long after a Dutch colony was established at Schenectada, before the whites ventured any great distance to the westward of that place.
A few families did venture across the river, however, and the Schenectada Reflector of October 24, 1878, tells us that a certain Mabee family settled in Rotterdam, six and a half miles west of that old town about 200 years ago, to which fact I have already alluded.
One of the earliest Low Dutch families to push up the Mohawk as far, was that of Philip Groat, of Rotterdam, who in 1716, made a purchase of lands near Cranesville, in the town of Amsterdam, 13 miles west of Schenectada.
When removing to the latter place, Mr. Groat was drowned in the Mohawk, not far from Schenectada, by breaking through the ice.
He was in a sleigh accompanied by a woman who was also drowned.
His widow and three sons, Simon, Jacob and Lewis, the last named being then only four years old, with several domestics, made the intended settlement.
In 1730, the Groat brothers erected a grist-mill at their place, believed the first one ever built on the north side of the Mohawk.
This mill when first erected, floured wheat for citizens who dwelt upon the German flats, some 50 miles distant.
The first bolting cloth in this mill, was put in by John Barns, a German, in 1772.
Prior to this the settlers lived on what is now known as Graham bread, bread, made from unbolted flour, unless they sifted it in hand sieves.*
* Facts obtained In 1841, from Mr. John L. Groat, a son by his second wife of Lewis Groat named in the context, who lived and died at the old homestead below Cranesville, where he was long and favorably known as an inn-keeper. He was an agreeable companion on all matters connected with his early life, as he had a good memory, well remembered Sir William Johnson, with whom his father was on intimate terms, and knew well many of the baronet's associates. Mr. Groat might very properly have been called a Yankee Dutchman, for his social and Inquisitive nature made him familiar with the pedigree of more families in the Mohawk valley, than was any other man with whom I ever conversed. He died In January, 1845, aged about 90 years.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: THE POT BELLY STOVE ROOM
The Frontiersmen of New York, continued ...
by Jeptha R. Simms
Albany, NY
1883
Volume I, concluded ...
In 1713, Henry and John Hanson, father and son, whom I suppose of Holland descent, as already stated, secured 2,000 acres of land upon the north side of the Mohawk, extending westward from a point opposite the mouth of the Schoharie creek, to the westerly bank of the Da-da-nas-ka-rie creek, which enters the river at the De Graff place several miles above.
Capt. John Scott, then in command of Fort Hunter, in 1722, secured a tract of land laying along the Mohawk, and extending westward from Aurie's creek * in the town of Glen; and in 1725 he purchased another tract of land adjoining the first on its westerly side, the two it is said extending nearly to the present village of Fultonville.
Early in the eighteenth century, three brothers named Quackenboss emigrated from Holland to the colony of New York; one of them locating at New York city, and the other two at Albany.
Peter, one of the latter, settled on Scott's patent, only two or three years after it was secured.
He resided near Aurie's creek at the old Leslie Voorhees' place.
Mr. Quackenboss had several children grown up when he arrived in the country, and David, his elder son, after a somewhat romantic courtship, married Miss Ann, a daughter of Captain Scott, and settled on Scott's Patent, where the Montgomery county poor house now stands.
A young officer under the command of Captain Scott, requested young Quackenboss, then in the employ of the captain to speak a good word for him to Miss Ann, which he readily promised to do.
While extolling the good qualities of her admirer, he took occasion to suggest his partiality for herself.
The maiden, who had conceived an attachment for Quackenboss instead of the young subaltern, shrewdly asked him why he did not make advances on his own account.
He had not presumed on so advantageous a match; but the hint was sufficient to secure his fortune and happiness.
His son John, a fruit of this connection, born about the year 1725, was the first white child born on the south side of the Mohawk-west of Fort Hunter, and east of the German
settlements some distant above.
Captain Scott had one son who became a general officer, says John Scott Quackenboss, a descendant.
As appears by the De Witt map of 1790; in 1726 Hermanus Visscher took a patent for lands adjoining and next adjoining Visscher-along on the river in the order named, also in 1726 - patents were secured for small parcels of land by H. Ten Eyck, Archibald Kennedy, Robert Livingston, William Burnett, David Prevost and Johannes Roseboom, the last and most westerly seeming to have equalled in quantity the three preceding grants.
But who settled upon these several land purchases, or what other families came into this neighborhood at so early a period, cannot now be shown, unless their descendants can post the historian from old papers or reliable traditions.*
* Aurie or Arie, is the Dutch of Aaron. The creek was so called after a warrior of that name, who lived near It.
* Doc. His., vol. 1.
by Jeptha R. Simms
Albany, NY
1883
Volume I, concluded ...
In 1713, Henry and John Hanson, father and son, whom I suppose of Holland descent, as already stated, secured 2,000 acres of land upon the north side of the Mohawk, extending westward from a point opposite the mouth of the Schoharie creek, to the westerly bank of the Da-da-nas-ka-rie creek, which enters the river at the De Graff place several miles above.
Capt. John Scott, then in command of Fort Hunter, in 1722, secured a tract of land laying along the Mohawk, and extending westward from Aurie's creek * in the town of Glen; and in 1725 he purchased another tract of land adjoining the first on its westerly side, the two it is said extending nearly to the present village of Fultonville.
Early in the eighteenth century, three brothers named Quackenboss emigrated from Holland to the colony of New York; one of them locating at New York city, and the other two at Albany.
Peter, one of the latter, settled on Scott's patent, only two or three years after it was secured.
He resided near Aurie's creek at the old Leslie Voorhees' place.
Mr. Quackenboss had several children grown up when he arrived in the country, and David, his elder son, after a somewhat romantic courtship, married Miss Ann, a daughter of Captain Scott, and settled on Scott's Patent, where the Montgomery county poor house now stands.
A young officer under the command of Captain Scott, requested young Quackenboss, then in the employ of the captain to speak a good word for him to Miss Ann, which he readily promised to do.
While extolling the good qualities of her admirer, he took occasion to suggest his partiality for herself.
The maiden, who had conceived an attachment for Quackenboss instead of the young subaltern, shrewdly asked him why he did not make advances on his own account.
He had not presumed on so advantageous a match; but the hint was sufficient to secure his fortune and happiness.
His son John, a fruit of this connection, born about the year 1725, was the first white child born on the south side of the Mohawk-west of Fort Hunter, and east of the German
settlements some distant above.
Captain Scott had one son who became a general officer, says John Scott Quackenboss, a descendant.
As appears by the De Witt map of 1790; in 1726 Hermanus Visscher took a patent for lands adjoining and next adjoining Visscher-along on the river in the order named, also in 1726 - patents were secured for small parcels of land by H. Ten Eyck, Archibald Kennedy, Robert Livingston, William Burnett, David Prevost and Johannes Roseboom, the last and most westerly seeming to have equalled in quantity the three preceding grants.
But who settled upon these several land purchases, or what other families came into this neighborhood at so early a period, cannot now be shown, unless their descendants can post the historian from old papers or reliable traditions.*
* Aurie or Arie, is the Dutch of Aaron. The creek was so called after a warrior of that name, who lived near It.
* Doc. His., vol. 1.
Re: THE POT BELLY STOVE ROOM
HISTORY OF ALBANY COUNTY
by W. DENNIS DUGGAN
ALBANY COUNTY FAMILY COURT JUDGE
ACTING JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT (Ret.)
Published 2021
Albany County sits at the navigable headwaters of the Hudson River just south of where the Mohawk River enters from the west.
It is this geographical feature, along with beavers and spices, which set the trajectory of this county’s history.
Spices were the defining motive for its discovery, as Henry Hudson was searching for a northwest passage to Asia.
Beaver pelts made it rich.
Scientists estimate that upwards of twenty million beavers populated the Hudson River Valley in 1600.
For example, in November 1624, the Nieu Nederlandt sailed from Fort Orange with 1,500 beaver and five hundred otter skins.
Albany County was organized in 1683 but its current geographical shape was not finally determined until 1809 when a portion was carved out to create Schenectady County.
It occupies 530 square miles (about the size of fifteen Manhattans) with a population now in excess of 300,000.
Seventy-five percent of its population n is located on 25% of the county in the northeast corner.
Native Americans first populated it several thousand years ago, then the Dutch in the 1600’s, the English in the 1700’s with a smattering of Irish, French and German across this period.
There would be huge migrations of Germans and Irish in the 1800’s and Italians in the 1900’s.
The Capital District of New York State, in which Albany County is centered, has a current population of about 1,200,000.
Albany County has ten towns (Berne, Bethlehem, Coeymans, Colonie, Green Island, Guilderland, Knox, New Scotland, Rensselaerville, and Westerlo); six villages (Ravena, Altamont, Colonie, Menands, Green Island, Voorheesville); and three cities (Albany, Watervliet, Cohoes.)
The towns of Albany county were created at various times.
Green Island is unique in that its town boundaries are co-terminus with its village boundaries.
Watervliet was organized in 1788.
Rensselaerville (1790), Bethlehem (1793), Coeymans (1791) and Guilderland (1803) were all taken from Watervliet.
Berne (1795) was taken from Rensselaerville.
Westerlo was carved out of Coeymans in 1815.
New Scotland was taken from Bethlehem in 1832.
Knox was carved out of Berne in 1822.
The Town of Colonie was created from Watervliet on June 7, 1895.
When the Dutch arrived in 1609, the environs of Albany County were occupied by the Mahicans whose capital was at Schodack, about thirty miles south of Albany.
To the west were the Mohawks and further west, the five tribes of the Iroquois Nation.
To the north were the Algonquins.
Some sources hold that the Mahicans called the area Scagh-negh-ta-da, roughly translated as “the end of the pine woods” and now transliterated to Schenectady.
The first record of Europeans in New York is from April 1524, when Giovanni Verrazano, sailing under French flag, entered New York harbor.
French fur traders followed a few years later.
In 1540, they erected a fortified trading post on Castle Island, at the approximate site of the present Port of Albany.
That post was washed out in the next spring’s floods (called “freshets” in the old books) and the site was abandoned.
Castle Island was renamed Van Rensselaer Island and then Westerlo Island.
It has now been filled in and no island exists.
It gained fame about four hundred years later as the location of the first municipal airport in America.
On May 29, 1910, famed flyer Glenn H. Curtiss flew from Albany to Governor’s Island in New York in two hours and fifty-one minutes, making the first sustained flight between two major American Cities.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by W. DENNIS DUGGAN
ALBANY COUNTY FAMILY COURT JUDGE
ACTING JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT (Ret.)
Published 2021
Albany County sits at the navigable headwaters of the Hudson River just south of where the Mohawk River enters from the west.
It is this geographical feature, along with beavers and spices, which set the trajectory of this county’s history.
Spices were the defining motive for its discovery, as Henry Hudson was searching for a northwest passage to Asia.
Beaver pelts made it rich.
Scientists estimate that upwards of twenty million beavers populated the Hudson River Valley in 1600.
For example, in November 1624, the Nieu Nederlandt sailed from Fort Orange with 1,500 beaver and five hundred otter skins.
Albany County was organized in 1683 but its current geographical shape was not finally determined until 1809 when a portion was carved out to create Schenectady County.
It occupies 530 square miles (about the size of fifteen Manhattans) with a population now in excess of 300,000.
Seventy-five percent of its population n is located on 25% of the county in the northeast corner.
Native Americans first populated it several thousand years ago, then the Dutch in the 1600’s, the English in the 1700’s with a smattering of Irish, French and German across this period.
There would be huge migrations of Germans and Irish in the 1800’s and Italians in the 1900’s.
The Capital District of New York State, in which Albany County is centered, has a current population of about 1,200,000.
Albany County has ten towns (Berne, Bethlehem, Coeymans, Colonie, Green Island, Guilderland, Knox, New Scotland, Rensselaerville, and Westerlo); six villages (Ravena, Altamont, Colonie, Menands, Green Island, Voorheesville); and three cities (Albany, Watervliet, Cohoes.)
The towns of Albany county were created at various times.
Green Island is unique in that its town boundaries are co-terminus with its village boundaries.
Watervliet was organized in 1788.
Rensselaerville (1790), Bethlehem (1793), Coeymans (1791) and Guilderland (1803) were all taken from Watervliet.
Berne (1795) was taken from Rensselaerville.
Westerlo was carved out of Coeymans in 1815.
New Scotland was taken from Bethlehem in 1832.
Knox was carved out of Berne in 1822.
The Town of Colonie was created from Watervliet on June 7, 1895.
When the Dutch arrived in 1609, the environs of Albany County were occupied by the Mahicans whose capital was at Schodack, about thirty miles south of Albany.
To the west were the Mohawks and further west, the five tribes of the Iroquois Nation.
To the north were the Algonquins.
Some sources hold that the Mahicans called the area Scagh-negh-ta-da, roughly translated as “the end of the pine woods” and now transliterated to Schenectady.
The first record of Europeans in New York is from April 1524, when Giovanni Verrazano, sailing under French flag, entered New York harbor.
French fur traders followed a few years later.
In 1540, they erected a fortified trading post on Castle Island, at the approximate site of the present Port of Albany.
That post was washed out in the next spring’s floods (called “freshets” in the old books) and the site was abandoned.
Castle Island was renamed Van Rensselaer Island and then Westerlo Island.
It has now been filled in and no island exists.
It gained fame about four hundred years later as the location of the first municipal airport in America.
On May 29, 1910, famed flyer Glenn H. Curtiss flew from Albany to Governor’s Island in New York in two hours and fifty-one minutes, making the first sustained flight between two major American Cities.
TO BE CONTINUED ...