ST B J^ iP .^ ^ c ^ l-fi. , t * a V' ^*^ 'i^' ^ ^ * ®,» O, ■T1*i^W<, V^' *'!»'** 1 HISTORY SCHOHARIE COUNTY, BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK; CONTAINING ALSO A SKETCH OF THE CAUSES WHICH LED TO THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION ; INTERESTING MEMORANDA OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY; TOGETHER WITH MUCH OTHER HISTOxlICAL AND MISCELLANEOUS MATTER, NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED. ILLUSTRATED WITH MORE THAN THrRTY ENGRAVINGS. BY JEPTHA H. SIMMS. Sleep soldiers of merit, sleep gallants of yore, The hatchet is fallen, the struggle is o'er, — While the lir tree is green and the wind rolls a wave. The tear drop shall brighten the turf of the brave. — Uphmi ALBANY; MUNSELL & TANNER, PRINTERS 1845. Entered according to an Act of Congress, in the year 1845, by JEPTHA R. SIMMS, In the Clerk's Office of the Northern District of New York. Fi-L-j TO THE YOUNG MEN OF THE SCHOHARIE AND MOHAWK YALLEYS, Classic Grounds for the Antiquarian, This volume is respectfully dedicated. And should the young be interested in its perusal, and its scenes of blood tend to increase their love of country and hatred of tyranny inspiring them with gratitude towards the heroes of the Revolution, — a spirit to emulate their daring deeds, and a desire to become familiar, not only with the stirring events which have been enacted near their own domestic altars, but a perfect history of their whole country — her institutions and the manner of preserving them ; then will his desired reward be attained. THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. Comparatively few persons ever read the preface of a book, although every one should who would peruse the contents of the latter understandingly : for as a door serves us to enter the dwelling of our neighbor, so a preface is given by the writer of a volume as its entrance. That individual who does not read what an author says of his own book, can never fully appreciate its merits or demerits. Says Phillips in his Million of Facts : "Let us garner up our notices of past ages, and preserve them in the archives of the country : we shall please and instruct ourselves by so doing, and make posterity lasting- ly indebted to us for the deed. To transmit the honors of one age to another is our duty ; to neglect the merits of our fathers is a disgrace." Actuated by corresponding motives, I com- menced collecting historic matter in 1837, with the view of making it public. From the lips of many hoary-headed persons of intelligence then living, whom I visited at their dwellings at no little sa- crifice of time, the matter presented in the following pages was taken down ; which individuals could say of numerous impor- tant transactions — I was au actor in, or I witnessed them. The collection of materials for this volume began just before it was publicly announced, that Col. Stone's forthcoming Life VI PREFACE. of Brant would serve up many border transactions, but rightly conjecturing that not a few would escape that writer's notice, par- ticularly of a personal character, which might prove highly in- teresting to the general reader, I continued my gleanings ; with what success the following pages will show. This volume does not profess to contain a detailed narrative of all the tragic scenes enacted on the frontiers of New York; for the reader is aware that several large books filled with such matter have already been published. I have aimed, therefore, to present incidents which have escaped the knowlege of previous waiters, or trans- actions to which I could add new facts, generally noticing in their place, however, the most important events published by other authors. When writers are obliged to rely principally on oral testi- mony for what they publish, they are liable, from the treachery of memory in some, and the fondness for the marvelous in others, to imposition, to be practised in turn upon their readers. Aware of this, in matters of importance I have principally confined my inquiries to individuals sustaining a character of conscientious regard for the truth. More than this, I have had the same stories related by as many different persons as possible, often stranp"ers to each other ; and then, on carefully examining their testimony, have been enabled to arrive, as I believe, very sa- tisfactorily at the truth. These antiquarian researches should have been made at an earlier day, but the stale maxim, " better late than never," will surely hold good in this instance if any. When I commenced collecting materials for this work, I had not designed to make it so extended, but incidents of real in- terest coming to my knowledge, which transpired in sections remote from the Schoharie settlements, where those researches began ; I resolved to enlarge it so as to garner up as many PREFACE. VU unpublished events as possible, particularly of the Revolution ; in pursuance of which plan I visited not a few aged persons in the Mohawk valley. To render the book generally useful, believing it would fall into the hands of some who might never read an elaborate history of the American Revolution, I con- cluded to incorporate from the most authentic sources, a brief sketch of the principal causes which brought about that Revo- lution, adding to it the Declaration of our Independence, a do- cument, which, though now in the possession of comparatively few, should be in the hands of every American citizen. Since the subject matter of the volume has taken a wider range than was at first anticipated — in truth, not a few novel and important facts have come to hand since a prospectus was issued for it, the author has thought seriously of changing the title because too local ; but as often has the question of the poet arisen — "What's in a name?" and not fastening on anyone more satisfactory, it has been retained. That portions of the volume may be found obnoxious to criticism, I do not doubt, as it has mostly been written in the midst of the family circle and domestic cares. Indeed, had it been penned under more favor- able auspices, I am not quite certain it would have been pro- nounced a very classic production; for, having been bred be- hind a counter, much of my early life was devoted to merchan- dising instead of letters. A friend who has often seen me in my studio, surrounded by my family, has wittily suggested the propriety, not inaptly I must confess, of dating this volume in the kitchen, and dedicating it to my better-half. The reader may expect to discover some little repetition, and a want of smoothness and harmony in its parts, since portions of this work have been added as new light has been cast upon them, long after others were written : besides, some of it has VIU PREFACE. undergone a hasty abridgement to bring it within the volume, which now by far exceeds its intended limits. Care has been taken to correct several errors into which previous writers have fallen, from their not sufficiently authenticating what they publish- ed j and it is very possible with all my pains-taking, that I have fallen into some. If an essential one should become apparent to any reader, he will confer a favor on the author by pointing it out ; as also he will by transmitting ancient writings, or in- teresting unpublished facts to his address. A true history of the Revolution cannot be written until the epitaphs of all the actors in that great struggle for civil liberty shall have become moss- bound ; for as the several parts of a body serve to make up its whole, I conceive it necessary to bring together those scattered parts before it can be pronounced complete. Frequently do historic facts spring into life on the death of a scarred veteran, when, perhaps, for the first time his old papers fall under the observation of individuals who can appreciate their worth. Although apprised by some of my pioneers in book-making that local histories soldom quit cost, and urged by timid friends long since to abandon the whole enterprise, still I have perse- vered in presenting the volume, such as it is, to the public, feeling conscious, whether deceiving myself or not, that I was discharging a duty I owed my country ; and if I have brought into the general store-house any new materials for the future historian, then has my labor not been in vain. That portions of matter in the following pages may be thought by some readers of too little importance to merit a place ; or that other passages are too minutely detailed — too prolix to suit fastidious tastes, I do not doubt. What pleases one will not always please an- other, and that which some readers would be most desirous to retain, would possibly be the first rejected by others. The mi- PREFACE. IX nuteness with which our countrymen Stephens, Brooks, Clark and other gifted writers have described what they saw and felt, is the charm which renders their writings peculiarly acceptable to most readers. As seasoning in food renders it more agree- able to the palate, so small incidents, trivial in themselves, if not tedious, may give zest to a published event. I would here acknowledge my indebtedness to all such per- sons as have in any manner aided me, by communicating in- formation either by letter or otherwise j and while I do so, take pleasure in expressing my especial obligations to my friends, Mr. Allen V. Lesley, a young gentlemen of much promise, who sketched with accuracy the principal views with which the volume is embellished; to my engravers, particularly to Messrs. V. Balch and E. Forbes, who have done most of the engraving, for the skillful manner in which they have executed their trust, and to the Rev. John M. Van Buren for taking some pains unsolicited, to bring the work into favorable notice. So much imposition has of late been practised in the sale of books by subscription, that I should not forget to signify my gratitude to those who have conditionally agreed to purchase this book, as they have secured to me the means of its publication. Persons of little reading are incredulous when told that in- teresting facts of by-gone days remain unpublished, but my in- vestigations have been sufficient to satisfy me, that thrilling in- cidents of an unique character may yet be brought to light, and I cannot refrain from indulging a hope, that other writers will enter the field to glean where yet they may. And now, in closing my introduction and offering this humble effort to the public, to seek its share of popular favor, I cannot refrain from observing, that I am induced to do it, more from a desire to be- come useful than conspicuous. J. R. SIMMS. Fultonville, JV. Y. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Origin and signification of Schoharie — Schoharie tribe of InJians, how formed and distinguished — Location of Mohawk Castles — Indian Confederacy of New York and policy of the Albanians — Course of the Confederates in the Revolution — Arts of the aborigines — Mysterious pit — Indian customs and worship — Proper use of tobacco — Indian villages — Residence of Karighon- dontee — Indian Castle at the Wilder-Hook — Indian name of mountains — Number of Schoharie Indians — Their coat of arras — Their foot-paths — North America peopled by religion — Policy of Queen Anne towards Ger- man emigrants — Schoharie settled by Germans — Their passage from Eu- rope — Encamp on the Hudson — Arrive at Albany — Distinction between German and Dutch — Messengers sent to Schoharie — Party remove thither — Incidents on the way — Origin of the word Helleberg — Location of Schoha- rie settlers — Their names — Probable number. - - - Page 21 CHAPTER H. Poverty of Schoharie Germans — Birth of four children — First wheat sown in Schoharie — Milling done at Schenectada — Industry and Bravery of the women — Physicians and Ministers — First horse — Settlement in Vrooman's Land — Indian titles at that place — Murder of Truax — Its object how re- vealed — Arrival of Bayard — Nature of his visit mistaken — Attempts to capture him — He escapes to Schenectada — Schoharie lands sold at Albany to seven partners — Foot race at Weiser's dorf — Battle between Captain Hartman and his Indian neighbors — Puts a spell upon their guns — Smoking of the calumet — Sheriff Adams arrives at Weiser's dorf — Rides upon a rail — Returns to Albany — Delegates sent from Albany to England — Are committed to the Tower — Tlieir return home — Weiser and others remove to Pennsylvania — Origin of Cook-house — Horses return to Schoharie — In- stances of brute instinct — Justice Garlock removes to the Mohawk valley — Evidence of his justice. 51 CHAPTER HI. A.ncient apple trees — First grist-mill in Schoharie county — Cobel's mills — In- dian name of Cobelskill — Old mill-stone — ^Introduction of bolting-cloths — Schoharie fashions — Profitable women — Buttons — Dandies — Long beards — First cider made in the county — First wheel-wright — First German school in America — Schools in Schoharie — First black-smith in Schoharie — Do- mestic beer — Dutch pride and prejudice — Introduction of slaves and their treatment — ^Farming utensils — Mode of threshing ^^ith horses — Shoe- makers — Tailors — Hatters — Abundance of fish — How exterminated — Wild animals — A German killed by a bear — 'Anecdote of the bear-catcher — A bear killed by a German — Hunt on Fox's creek — A tartar caught — Promi- nent hills east of Middleburgh — A panther story — Beavers and their dams — Doct. Moulter kills a wild-cat — First distillery in Schoharie — Fate of its owner — An Indian shoots six deer with arrows — Rattle snakes — How de- stroyed — Indian courtship — Schoharie Indians sell lands — Ancient bond — Purchases of Indians how legalized — Royal permit to purchase of Indians — Xll CONTENTS. Sale of lands in New Dorlacli — Reservations to government — Sales made in presence of Sir William Johnson — Certificate of Thomas Bradstreet— Certificate of Mayor of Albany respecting sale of slaves — The King's highways, how obstructed — First merchant in Schoiiarie — Anecdote of his marriage — His portrait — The second merchant — His will — A cannon, to whom presented and when used — Origin of Punchkill — Anecdote of John J. Lawyer — Liquor drank at funerals — Indian murders — Savage act of a father — An Indian marries his prisoner. .... Page 79 CHAPTER IV. Groat family settle in the Mohawk valley — Erect a gristmill — Highland troops arrive at Fort Johnson — Lewis Groat captured in the French war — Incidents on his way to Canada — His return home — Murder of Mrs. Van Alstyne and captivity of her daughter — Sir William Johnson — His birth — Is agent for Sir Peter Warren — Establishes himself at Warren's Bush — Becomes an Indian agent for the British government — Obtains a house- keeper — His marriages — Is created a Baronet — Erects Fort Johnson — Builds mansions for his sons-in-law — Removes to Johnson Hall — Sir John Johnson — His marriage and subsequent conduct — Sir William's death — Guy Johnson succeeds him as Indian agent — Johnson mansions by whom occu- pied in the Revolution — Their confiscation — Commissioners for selling con- fiscated personal properly in Tryon county — Confidential slave of Sir John Johnson — His recovery — Sale of Johnson Hall — Spook stories — Sir William Johnson a great land-holder — His fondness for women — Lives with Molly Brant — Pleasing anecdotes of the Baronet — Notices of him from the Gen- tleman's Magazine — His coffin made into bullets — Place of his burial — His portrait — Old King Hendrick — Dreams with Sir William Johnson — Com- missioners of the colonies and Chiefs of the Six Nations meet at Albany — Speeches of Hendrick and other chiefs — Capt. John Scolt erects Fort Hunt- er — Queen Anne's Chapel and Parsonage — Indian war dan.:es, how ob- served at Lower Mohawk Castle — Rev. John Stuart removes to Canada — Sells a slave — Scott's Patent — Marriage of Ann Scolt — An Irish colony — Jelles Fonda an early tradesman on the Mohawk — A match at boxing — Smoking at funerals — Boating on the river — Names of rapids — Little Falls — Gen. Schuyler constructs inland Locks — Evidence of his prudence — Durham boats on the river — Difficulties to encounter — Accidents — First bridges in the Mohawk valley — Eaily merchants at Canajoharie — A duel — The Yankee Pass — Caughnawaga Church — Indians obtain a church bell at the Upper Mohawk Castle — Location of Forts Herkimer, Dayton and Plain — Land speculations — Tragic adventure at the Devil's Hole — Ancient tax-lists — Large bill of rum — First Court held in Tryon county — Herkimer county organized — Public punishment — Changes in Western N. York. 105 CHAPTER V. Strengtli of the Vrooman family — A load of wheat — Women go to market and work in the field — Dutch fondness for horses — Feats of strength — Trial of strength and speed — Charitable act of Miss Vrooman — Weddings how celebrated — Gifts to intended brides — Horning at weddings — Playing cards — Fiddlers — Frolicking — Female ball dress — Dancing fifty years ago — Anec- dote of Judge Brown — Supawn how eaten — Dutch eat their plates — New Year's day how observed — Christmas, Paas and Pinkster — Early farming — Dutch butter — Sour-crout how made — Dutch dishes — More witchcraft — How to get rid of rats — Schoharie invaded in the French war — An Indian treaty — A jubilee — Riding on horseback — Sparking — Why Americans de- generate — First Schoharie lea-party — Causes of the American Revolution — Ignorance of the British ministry — Opposers of British tyranny — Freedom of opinion by whom established — English policy for raising a revenue — Debt of England — Tax imposed — Gov. Bernard issues a pamphlet — Stamp duties — Virginian boldness — Franklin in England — Perseverance of Gren- ville— Earre's reply to Townsend — Sayings of Franklin — Friends of Stamp Act how treated— Virginia resolves — Continental Congress — Death and re- surrection of libertj' — Sons of liberty — Patriotic ladies — Speech of Fitt — CONTENTS. XUl Franklin interrogated — Repeal of Stamp Act — Popularity of Gov. Ber- nard — Domestic looms resumed — India tea rejected — British troops sent to New York and Boston — Dickinson's Essays — Gov. Bernard returns to Eng- land — Convention at Annapolis — Troops at Boston fire on the citizens — Event how celebrated — Extract from Dr. Warren's Oration — Tax on tea retained. Page 155 CHAPTER VI. A contest approaches — Burning of the Gaspee — Gold versus liberty — Predic- tion of Patrick Henry — Espionage of Gov. Hutchinson — Town Committees organized — Franklin sends home letters — East India Company in trouble — It sends tea to America — Its destruction at Boston — Unwise acts of the British government — Predictions of Gov. Johnson and Gen. Conway — Just views of Bishop Shipley — Effect of Boston Pert-Bill — Call for a Congress — Patriotic mottos — Proceedings of Congress — Allan's comment on the abili- ty of that Body — Warm discussions in Parliament — Speech of Lord Chat- ham — Expedient of Lord North — Origin of the terms Tory and Whig — Cod-fishing prohibited — Battle of Lexington — Its effect on the country around — Capture of the northern military posts — Ethan Allen's authority — Preparations for war — Washington is appointed to command the array — Battle of Bunker's Hill — Death of Warren — Anecdotes of the battle — Ar- rival of Washington — Proceedings of Congress — Post-office established — Gov. Penn interrogated by the House of Lords — Hessian troops employed — American flag — Colonial Governors — Boston evacuated — Defence of Fort Moultrie — Intrepidity of Jasper and McDonald — 'Their dying words — Ar- gument for education — Mrs. Elliot — Story of Jasper and Newton — Com- missioners sent to Canada — Declaration of American Independence. 182 CHAPTER VH. Committees formed in frontier settlements — Indian treaty in Schoharie — Bra- kabeen Castle — Contagious disease — Schoharie Indians go to Canada — Death of granny Warree — A matricide — Schoharie Council of Safety — Ball family divided in politics — Organization of Schoharie militia — Resolution of New York Committee of Safety — Oath of allegiance — Record of Judge Swart — His personal services — Chairman Ball's sons perform extra labor — Accident on the Hudson — Anecdotes of Ball — Attempt to take his life — Character of Col. Vrooman — Attempt to capture him — Designs upon Wash- ington — Commissioners sent to France — Events of 1776 — Anecdote of a piquet guard — Washington's retreat from Long Island — Battles of Trenton and Princeton — Sufferings of Washington's army — His remarks to Colonel Reed — A singular requisition — Plan of the enemy for 1777 — Arrest of Col. Huetson — Tories in Schoharie — Brant at Unadilla — Interview between Gen. Herkimer and Brant — Affidavit of Col. Harper — Particulars of the inter- view from Joseph Wagner — False impression of Herkimer's character cor- rected — Harpersfield exposed — Cherry Valley threatened^ — Rangers to be raised — Letter from Chairman Bail to New York Congress — Reply of that Body — They write to the Albany Committee — Geographical ignorance of State Council — Frontier how protected — Albany Committee write General Schuyler — Same Body censure New York Council — Schuyler writes Alba- ny Committee — His apprehensions — New York Council of safety write Al- bany Committee, evincing warmth — Girls murdered at Fort Schuyler — Glance at the enemy's movements — Letter from Albany Committee to New York Council — Schuyler to same Body — Schoharie messenger — New York Council to Gov. Clinton — Albany Committee write the Council — Clinton's letters ordering troops to Schoharie. ...... 206 CHAPTER YHI. McDonald invades Schoharie — Patriotism of Henry Hager — Messengers dis- patched to Albany — Col. Harper visits Schoharie — Starts for Albany — Is visited in the night — Next day is pursued by Indians — Escapes ft om them and reaches Albany — Notice of his arrival — New York Council forward XIV CONTENTS. letters to Col. Pawling — Harper obtains a company of Cavalry — Captain Mann how concealed — Barracks how constructed — Troops bait at Sny- der's — Effect of music — Death of an Indian — Novel confinement — Madam Ktaats — Battle of the Flockey — Citizens accompany McDonald in his flight — Concealment and surrender of Capt. Mann — Chairman Ball to Scho- harie Committee — Mann's property not confiscated — Col. Harper writes Council of Safety — Reply of that Body — Extract from Journal — Commis- sioners of Tryon county how instructed by New York Council — Remarks of Rev. Daniel Gros — Expedition to Norman's-kill — Advertisement (,by Chairman Ball — Citizens of Schoharie transport provisions to Stillwater — Anecdote of the Patroon — New Dorlach — Money buried in Albany — Bur- goyne's surrender how celebrated in Albany — Anecdote of Evert Yates — Incident of the French war — A spy in Burgoyne's camp — Death of Gen. Eraser — By whom killed— Retreat of Burgoyne how cut off — Anecdote to show skill of Morgan's riilemen — Anecdotes of the Oriskany battle — Death of Gen. Herkimer — Indians in a cellar — Corps of Invalids — British enter Philadelphia — Sufferings of the American army at Valley Forge — Anec- dote of Washington — Acts of Gov. Tryon — Arrival of Lafayette — Con- spiracy against Washington — A female spy and Maj. Tallmadge — Scho- harie Forts when and how constructed. .... Page 237 CHAPTER IX. Interesting incidents now lost — Fortune how fickle — Last effort of Chatham — Acts of Parliment rejected — Treaty with France — Its effects — Settlement on Cobelskill — Organize a militia compan)' — Lieut. Borst shoots an In- dian — Cobelskill battle — Death of Capt. Patrick — Names of Cobelskill mi- litia engaged — Escape of Belknap — Escape of Henry Shafer — Burial of the dead — Subsequent celebration — Designs on Cherry Valley hov/ thwart- ed — Destruction of Wyoming — Dastardly act of a Tory — Invasion of the German Flats — Walter Butler imprisoned — Escapes and leads the enemy to Cherry Valley — Pleasing anecdote of Brant — England declares war against France— Battle of Monmouth — Capt. Molly— Col. William Butler goes to Schoharie — Heroic Soldiers — Fate of a Scout — Capt. Long inter- cepts and kills Capt. Smith — Death of Christopher Service — His confisca- ted property recovered — His remains how honored — Lower Fort garri- soned — Col. Butler destroys Indian towns on the Susquehanna — Col. Du- boise winters in Schoharie — Gerard arrives in the States as Minister from France — Dr. Franklin goes to France as American Minister — Price of Am- erican scalps — British possess Georgia — Washington's winter quarters — Jay chosen President of Congress. 272 CHAPTER X. Captivity of Cowley and Sawyer — Escape from their enemies and return to Schoharie — Murder of Durham and his wife — Capt. Hager on the Dela- ware — Mohawk river settlements invaded — Anecdote of Cornplanter and his Father — Contemplated invasion of the Indian settlements — Execution of Hare and Newbury — Signification of Caughnawaga — Arrest of the Spies — Burial of Hare — Clinton's army at Cooperstown — Moves doxvn the creek — Industry of Beavers — Death of a Deserter — Anecdotes of Colonel Rigne — Col. Butler leaves Schoharie — The Boyd family— Lieut. Boyd and his sweet-heart — She invokes a Curse upon him — Marriage of her Daugh- ter — Elerson surprised by Indians — Kills one and escapes — Brown's Mills why not burned — His house plundered while he is in it — A wedding — Source of water how discovered — Anecdote of a Sentinel in a tree — Battle of New- town — Sullivan's signal guns — Rescue of a Prisoner made at Wyoming — Destruction of Indian property — A Child found — Its Death — Scout under Lieut. Boyd — Death of an Oneida — Two of Boyd's party set out for the Camp — Murphy shoots an Indian — Scout surrounded by the Enemy — Cap- ture of Boyd and Parker — Escape of Murphy and two others — Death of Boyd and Comrade — Fate of Han-Yerry — Indians die of Scurvy — Justice to Boyd's memory — Schools in the Revolution — Delegates from Tryon County to State Convention — Invasion of Ballston — Capture of Col. Gor- CONTENTS. XV don — He escapes with others and returns home— Command of Col. Fish- er — Capt. Fonda shoots a deserter — Is tried and acquitted — John Jay sent as Minister to Spain — Attack of the Americans and French on Savannah — Death of Count Pulaski — Gov. Tryon burns several towns in Connecticut — Stoney Point stormed by Wayne — Acts of Paul Jones — Winter quarters of Gen. Washington and sufferings of his army. - - - Page 291 CHAPTER XT. The enemy moving — Death of a Tory named Cuck — Imprisonment of Van Zuyler — Sugar makers frightened — Lieut. Harper and friends captured by Brant at Harpersfield — Harper saves the Schoharie settlements by duplici- ty — Tory consultation — Harper's word doubted — March begun — Harper confronted by a Tory — Murder of an aged prisoner — Efficacy of rattle- snake soup — Enterprise to Minisink — Schoharie captives in danger of be- ing murdered — Are saved by an Indian who escaped from Van Campen — Party feast on horse flesh — Boast of Tories — Ashes used for salt — A run- ner sent to Niagara — Kind object of Brant in forwarding a messenger — Running the gantlet — Prisoners before Col. Butler — Price of American blood in Canada — Condition of prisoners at Chamblee — Attack on the Sa- condaga block-house — Letter of Col. Fisher — Indians pursued and killed by Solomon Woodworth and party — Public officers in Schoharie — Second invasion of Cherry Valley — Captivity of Moses Nelson— Fort Orange re- built— Willet's attempt to take it — Letters to Col. Fisher showing an ex- pected invasion — Enemy enter Johnstown — Murder of the Putmans and Stevens — Fate of two Tories — Fisher family — Troops arrive in Johns- town — Death of Capt. Hanson — Signification of Ca-daugh-ri-ty — Course of the enemy — Attack on the Fisher dwelling — Fortunes of Col. Fisher and fate of his brothers — Fonda brothers— Sheriff White and his neighbors — Furniture destroyed in Maj. Fonda's dwelling— Murder of Douw Fonda — Pleasing incident — Acts of the party under Johnson — Escape of George Backer- Johnson's confidential slave— Boys liberated near Johnstown — Invaders return to Canada — Escape of young Hanson, - - 321 CHAPTER XH. Captivity of William Hynds and family at New Dorlach — An Indian attempts to surprise a sentinel at the Upper Schoharie Fort — Captivity and rescue of William Bouck and others— Seth's Henry in Vrooman's Land — Is at a spring— Resentment of the Indian William — Indians in the dwellings of the pioneers — Captive negroes liberate themselves — Attempt to capture Capt. Richtmyer — Mohawk valley invaded — Schoharie scout fall in with the enemy — Alarm guns how fired — Brant invades Vrooman's Land — Fate of the settlement- Character of Col. Vrooman — Indian grudge — Infant smiles save a father — Escape of Pull-foot Vrooman— Names of captives — Several citizens escape in a wagon— Number of houses burnt — Judge Swart's horse by whom rode — War-club of Seth's Henry — Escape of the Hager family— Old gentleman throttles his dog — His capture and treat- ment—Burning of Crysler's mill — Mill-stone recovered — Two Tories join the enemy — Hager family reach the Fort— Burial of the dead — Singular presentiment— Fate of the Vrooman infant— Brant releases part of the prisoners — Destructives assemble at Oquago — Prisoners divided — Boyd's scull— Lieut. Vrooman about to be murdered — Henry Hager insulted — Efficacy of tobacco — Prisoners run the gantlet— Attempt to fire the maga- zine at Quebec — Negro prisoners adopt the Indian's life — Loss of British ship Seneca — Schoharie prisoners lodged at South Rakela — Their return home — Particulars from whom derived. ..... 365 CHAPTER Xni. Romantic courtship and marriage of Timothy Murphy — The bride's first in- terview with her mother— The reconciliation— Duty of Rangers — Their music when on a scout— Dancing at the Middle Fort— Rival dance of the soldiers— Ballstou settlement invaded— Attempt to capture Maj. Mitchell — XVI CONTENTS. Enterprise of Jo. Bettys — Absence of a Schoharie scout protracted — Sir John Johnson leaves Niagara to invade the frontiers of New Yorlc — Names of hills — Johnson's army discovered — A pack horse taken — Torch of de- struction first applied— Volunteers meet the enemy — Daring of Murphy — Burning of Middleburgh Church— Powder how sent up from Lower Fort — Volunteers under Capt. Lansing — Escape of Elerson— Stand made by the enemy— Mrs. Richtmyer frightened to death- How to start a bachelor — A flag of truce how attended— Is fired on by Murphy — Conduct of Major Woolsey — Surrenders his command to Col. Vrooman— Firing renewed — Loss of the Americans — Wilbur scalps an Indian — A dead Indian is found in the woods — Enemy move down the valley — Anxiety at the Upper Fort — A heroine — Lower Fort how garrisoned — Scout from that Fort meet the enemy— Death of Van Wart — Fate of Anthony Witner— Firing heard ia Cobelskill — Preparations to defend Lower Fort — Salute from a grass-hop- per — An ancient apple tree — War's beverage — A presumptuous Indian — Adventure of Enders — An Indian killed at a well — Fate of a deer — Mor- tar abandoned— A Tory arrives at the Fort. - ; - Page 388 CHAPTER XIV. Schoharie militia pursue the enemy— Schoharie fires seen at Fort Hunter — Cadaughrity destroyed — Enemy encamp near the Nose — Americans encamp in Florida — Battle of Stone Arabia — Death of Col. Brown— His remains honored— Pleasing anecdote of an Indian and a colt— Skirmish near St. Johnsville — Cowardly conduct of Gen. Van Rensselaer — Climax of his management— Anecdote of Capt. Vrooman — Willing captives— Schoharie horses recovered— Novel manner of carrying bread — Incidents from John Ostrom — Grain how saved — Maj. Woolsey leaves Schoharie — Death of a spy — Invasion of New Dorlach — Death of Michael Merckley and his niece Catharine— Murder of John France and providential escape of his brother Henry — Burial of the dead— A reason for Merckley's death — Number of buildings burnt in Schoharie county — Extract of a letter from James Madi- son — Continental money — Charleston captured— Kniphausen invades New Jersey — Arrival of French troops — Retreat of Gates and death sf DeKalb — Treachery of Benedict Arnold. - - 421 CHAPTER XV. Mutiny at Head-Quarters — Erection of block-houses — Fort Duboise — Cap- ture of Jo. Bettys and two associates — Col. Livingston's regiment in the Mohawk valley — Conduct of Maj. Davis — His death — Brant surprises a party of wood-choppers near Fort Schuyler — Americans pursue and recov- er shoe-buckles — Prisoners go through the manual exercise to gratify Brant — Boys captured near Fort Herkimer — Invasion of Curry Town — Escape of the Tanner family — Death of Jacob Moyer and son— Prisoners made in the settlement — Capt. Gros sent to New Dorlach — Discovers the enemy's trail and sends word to Willet— Sharon battle — American loss and death of Capt. McKean — The captive Jacob Dievendorf — A religious meet- ing broken up — Murder of Hoffman and wife — Capture of William Bouck and other citizens of Schoharie in a wheat field — Indians eat a hedge- hog — Escape of Lawrence Bouck — Fare of prisoners on their journey — Their return home — Ulster county invaded— Troops sent to Schoharie— Capture of Lt. Borst an 1 others in Myndert's valley — Death of Borst — Capt. Wood- worth and company surprised on West Canada creek and most of them killed — Incidents in the vicinity of Fort Dayton. - - - 450 CHAPTER XVI. Invasion of Maj. Ross — Death of Myers of Curry Town — Other citizens captured — Village of Fultonville — Escape of a prisoner — Willet pursues the enemy — Battle near Johnson Hall — Incidents of the battle — Retreat of Maj. Ross — Manner of crossing creeks— Death of Walter Butler — Captiv- ity and return of prisoners — Brant again invades Vrooman's Land — Death of Adam Vrooman — Enemy are pursued— Fate of Richard Haggidorn — CONTENTS. XVll Murphy fortune's favorite — A dead Tory— Capt. Hager pursues the ene- my — A rum-keg how guarded— Battle of Lake Utsayantho— Cowardly conduct of Capt. Hale— An incident which followed— Fruitless expedition of several Tories— Unexpected meeting of Capt. Eckler and Brant— For- mer escapes by flight -How concealed— A prisoner captured near Fort Plank — Escapes in the night — Is concealed and nearly suffocated in a log — Events of 1781 — Military enterprises in the Southern States— Abortive plan to capture Arnold — Siege of York Town— Capture of Cornwallis and his army — Event how celebrated — British standards to whom delivered — Anec- dotes of stealing in the Revolution— Arnold destroys New London— Death of Ledyard and Montgomery — Conduct of Col. Gallup — Massacre in the Fort and attending incidents — Anecdote of a petticoat. - - Fage 470 CHAPTER XVIL Predatory warfare continued in 1782 — Murder of the Dietz family — Captiv- ity of Capt. Dielz and the Bryce boys — Captivity of McFee's children — Character of Gen. Herkimer and others— Murder of Adam Vrooman — In- vasion of Fox's creek — Murder of Young Zimmer and capture of his brother — Death of a Hessian — The Becker family— John Becker how killed— Escape of Jacob and Wm. Becker— Indians discovered by boys — Attack on the Becker house— Eccentricity of Shell — Attempt to fire the building — Ingratitude of a Tory — Capture of several prisoners— Novel torture— Virginian spirit — A Tory wedding— Cobelskill again invaded — Several citizens killed or captured — Capture of the elder George Warner and son Nicholas — Escape of Joseph Earner — Meat how cooked and divid- ed — Escape of Nicholas Warner — Kind treatment of George Warner — Indian reverence of a Deity — Warner returns home — Gen. Washington vi- sits Schenectada— Burning of that place by the French and Indians — Wash- ington's treatment of Col. Fisher — His letter to the officers of Schenecta- da — Anecdote of his visit— Murphy takes a prisoner who escapes with his rifle — A Tory how concealed — Anecdote of Murphy and his cow — Notices of Timothy Murphy — Inscription on his tomb-stone — Incident at Fort Du- boise and death of a calf. 490 CHAPTER XVm. Ratification of Peace — Gen. Washington resigns his Commission — Lands for- feited — Tories return to the States and boast of their deeds — Indians return to Schoharie — Fate of Seth's Henry — Attempt to kill Abram — He disap- pears at a Bee — Indians become alarmed — Beverages drank in the war — Incidents in the life of Capt. Eben Williams — Conduct of Col. Vose in Gates' campaign — Anecdote of Col. Scammel — Gen. Montgomery's widow how^ honored — Army at Budd's Huts — Duty of Col. Laurens at York Town — Anecdote of an Irish Lieutenant— Incidents of the siege— Officers killed in duels — Celebration at West Point — Cincinnati Societies organized — Habits of Capt. Williams— Military Journal of Maj. fallmadge — Incident in the river Bronx — Tallmadge commands a squadron of horse— Corresponds with Washington— Loses his horse— Enterprise against Lloyd's Neck — Surprise and capture of Fort St. George — Washington's letter respecting it — How noticed in Congress — Capture of Fort Slongo — Enterprises how thwarted— London trade an incident o — An English Sloop captured in the Sound — Society of the Cincinnati how organized— Spies in New York how protected — Order in which the Americans entered New York after its eva- cuation by the British — Last interview of Gen. Washington and his offi- cers — Maj, Tallmadge returns home — Marries and settles for life. • 528 CHAPTER XIX. Capt. Thomas Machin — Battle of Minden — The Duke of Bridgewater's Ca- nals — Machin arrives at New York — Locates in Boston— Is one of Boston Tea Party — Plans fortifications near Boston- Is sent by Gen. Washington to the Highlands of the Hudson — Cooperates with Gen. Clinton — Request of Gen. Schuyler — Putnam's Rock — Council of Safety recognize acts of XVIU CONTENTS. Capt. Machin — Orders to be observed by artificers — Washington's letter to Gen. Knox— Kingston how fortified — Correspondence showing the prepara- tions making to receive the enemy — Machin a recruiting officer — Attack on Fort Montgomery— Death of Capt. Milligan— Letters of Gov. Clinton — Expense of Iron used in obstructing the Hudson — Capt. Machin writes N. York Council of Safety — Officers above their business — Letter from Gen. Parsons about fortifying West Point — Col. Hughes' letter respecting cord- age — Gen. Clinton wants fish— Gov. Clinton's letter relating to lead mines — Gen. Parsons wants timber— Capt. Machin writes Gen. McDougal about river chain — Gov. Clinton will purchase a phaeton — He certifies to the acts of Capt Machin — Chain of what iron wrought— Statement showing who fortified the Highlands and obstructed the river — Letter from Doct. Free- man — Letter from Peter Woodward — Machin's private expenses— Dis- burses large sums of money— Importance of the works— Importance of se- curing the Hudson— Expedition of Col. Van Schaick to Onondaga — A plan tor supplying Albany with wafer — Machin in Sullivan's expedition — Letters from Doct. Young — Letters from Henry Rutgers, jr. — Death of Kayingwaurto, a Seneca Chief— Receipt for scalps — Capt. Greg and his dog— Surrender of a Wyoming Fort — Table of distances in Western New York — Letter from Gen. Clinton — Cupid in the camp — Letter from Henry Rutgers respecting sufferings of the army — Doct. Young writes on the same subject — Ezra Patterson writes from Fort Pitt — Instructions to a Committee of Officers sent to the Legislature — Letter from Lt. Bradford showing condition of the army — Capt. Hubbell wants money — Difficulties attendant on recruiting service— Capt. Machin at York Town — Maj. Pop- ham parts with his sword — Letter from W. Morris — Machin about to mar- ry — Recruiting orders from Gen. Washington — Extract from Parker's let- ter — Machin is slandered — A messenger sent to Boston— Machin marries Miss Van Nostrand— Popularity of Machin— Gen. Clinton out of money — Correspondence of Joseph Wharton respecting lands at Cooperstown — Value of Western lands — Letter from Gov. Clinton about land — Machin settles at New Grange — Order of Timothy Pickering — Certificate of Gen. Clinton — Extent of Machin's business — Great copper-firm — Machin re- moves to Montgomery county — His patrons and friends — He is a Freema- son — Obtains a pension — His death. ....•- Page 550 CHAPTER XX. Schoharie County when formed and how bounded — Its towns — Ne«' era in its history — First Attorneys — Neatness of Schoharie women — Want of taste among the Germans and Dutch— Out buildings in New England how adorned — Statistics of the county— Schoharie Judges — Lime-stone and fos- sils — The county interesting to Geologists — Turnpike roads — Canajoharie and Catskill Rail-Road— Congressional and Senatorial Districts — Sources and outlet of the Schoharie— Extent and formation of Schoharie fiats — Public executions — Trial of Van Alstyne — Establishment and history of the Lutheran Church— Singular incident in the life of Domine Sommer — Some notice of the Reformed Dutch Church — A faithful church officer — Ministerial fees — Churches when first warmed — Tidingraen and their au- thority — Blenheim — Statistics of the town — Jacob Sutherland once a resi- dent — Statistics of Broome — David Elerson — How he obtains a carriage and horses — His death — David Williams — Notice of Gen. Shays — Indian war-path — Statistics of Carlisle — Town by whom settled — Its rocks and caverns — Indian's cave — Statistics of Cobelskill — Incidents in the life of Gen. Dana — Gen. Wm. Eaton — Anecdote of Gen. Lee — John Redington — Monumental inscriptions — Statistics of Conesville — Statistics of Fulton — Bouck's Falls — Ex-Governor Bouck — Abraham A. Ke)'ser — Statistics of Jefferson — Statistics of Middleburh — The Vlaie — County Poor-house — Statistics of Schoharie — Indian mound — Gebhard's Cavern — Otsgaragee Cavern — Nethaway's Cave — Schoharie minerals — Monumental inscrip- tion — Statistics of Seward — New Dorlach — Monumental inscription — Sta- tistics of Sharon — New Rhinebeck — Sharon Springs — Analysis of water — Rare mineral— ThePavilion — Statistics of Summit — Lake Utsayanlho. 601 CONTENTS. XIX CHAPTER XXL Ancestry of David Williams — His biography — Capture of Maj. Andre — Cow boys — Courtship of Williams — How he chanced to be one of the captors — The object of the captors' expedition — Incidents attending the arrest of Andre — A singular dream — Congress how apprised of Andre's capture — Resolution of that Body on the subject — Marriage of Williams — He parti- cipates in a celebration at New York — How honored — His death — Obitua- ry notice of his death — His burial — Incidents connected with the arrest and execution of Andre — Instructions of Sir Henry Clinton — Papers found on Andre's person — Conduct of Col. Jamieson — Extract from the Journal of Maj. Tallmade — Joshua H. Smith is suspected and tried — Board con- vened to try Andre — Manner of his execution — Champe's attempt to arrest Arnold — Capt. Nathan Hale — Bold exploit of his— His arrest and execu- tion — ^Confession of Cunningham — Fate of Andre and Hale contrasted — Andre's remains taken to England — Character of Andre over-rated — Proof of his character — His poem called the Cow-Chase — Somewhat phophelic — Arnold how respected in England — An acrostic to his fame — Monuments to Paulding and Van Wart — Efforts to obtain a monument for Williams. 646 EX TO POST OFFICES IN SCHOHARIE COUNTY. Pag:e. .Argusville, 643 Barnerville,.. 619 Blenheim, 615 Brakabeen, 623 Bynville,... 623 Carlisle, 618 Central Bridge, 632 Charlotteville, 645 Cobelskill, 619 Cobelskill Centre 619 Conesville, 623 Esperance, 632 Franklinton, 630 Fultonham , 623 Gallupville 632 Gardnersville, 642 Gilboa, 615 Hunters Land, 630 Page. Hyndsville, 642 Jelferson, 630 Lawyervilie, 619 Leesville,.. 643 Livingstonville, 615 Middleburgh, 630 Mossville, 630 North Blenheim, 615 Punchkili, 619 Richmondville, 619 Schoharie Court House, 632 Sharon, 643 Sharon Centre, 643 Sloansville, 632 Smithton,. , 615 Summit Four Corners, 645 Waldensville, 632 ERRATA. On page 117, under cut, instead of North read South view. It is the view of Guy Park as seen from the Erie canal. On page 182, for the remotest parts, read their remotest fart. On page 194, for fighting a just cause, read fighting in a just cause. On the same page, for messenger of death, read messengers of death. On page 195, fourth line from top, for Bunker, read Yankee. On page 374, first line, after neighbor insert a comma. On page G15, under post oflices in Broome, for Livingston, read Living- slonvilh. HISTOEI OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY. CHAPTER I. The border wars of New York, in the great struggle with Eng- land for American nationality, originated some of the most thrill- ing incidents that ever did or ever can stamp the page of history. Many of those transpired in that part of Albany county now known as Schoharie; while events of no less interest were enact- ing in Tryon, and other frontier counties. Some of them have already been published, but there are not a few, especially of those which occurred in the Schoharie settlements, that have either not been presented to the American reader at all, or if they have, but partially and inaccurately so. Schoharie is the present name of a county, a town, a village, and a river, in the state of New York. The geographical posi- tion of the county, its division into towns, &c., will be given in a subsequent chapter of this work. The word Schoharie, is abori- ginial, and signifies, agreeable to published definitions, driji, or flood-wood. The author has spared no little pains to arrive at the origin and true meaning of this word. The word Schoharie, or the word from which that was derived, when originated, not only signified ^ood-woorf, but a certain body of flood-wood. At a dis- tance of about half a mile above the bridge which now crosses the Schoharie in the present town of Middleburgh, two small streams run into the river directly opposite each other. The one on the west side, coming from a north-west course, was formerly 3 22 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, called the Line kill, being the northern boundary line of the first Vrooman Patent — which instrument embraced that part of the town of Fulton, now called Vrooman's Land. The other stream is called Stony creek, and runs into the Schoharie from a south- east course. John M. Brown, Esq., in a pamphlet history of Schoharie, published in 1823, attributes to this stream, which he calls the httle Schoharie, the origin of the latter w^ord. The two streams mentioned, falling into the Schoharie at that place, pro- duced in the latter a counter current, which caused a lodgment of drift-wood at every high water, directly above. The banks of the river there were no doubt studded at that period with heavy growing timber, which served as abutments for the formation of a natural bridge. I judge so from the fact, that between that place and the bridge below, on the west bank, may now be seen a row of elm stumps of gigantic growth. At what period the timber began to accumulate at that place, is unknown; but it was doubtless at a date far anterior to the settlement of the Scho- harie valley, by the aborigines of which we have any certain knowledge. At the time the Indians located in the valley, who were the owners of the soil when the Germans and Dutch first set- tled there, tradition says there were thousands of loads of wood in this wooden pyramid. How far it extended on, the flats on ei- ther side is uncertain, they being at that place uncommonly wide: but across the river it is said to have been higher than a house of ordinary dimensions, and to have served the natives the purposes of a bridge ; who, when crossing, could not see the water through it. One tradition says Schoharie signifies to take across or carryover; while another tradition, from an equally creditable source, gives its literal meaning to be, the meeting of two waters in a third — both referring, beyond doubt, to the drift-wood in question, and its locality. This mausoleum of the forest sugar- tree, gnarled oak, and lofty pine, was called by the Indians who dwelt in its immediate vicinity, to-wos-scho-hor* the accent falling • I give the orthography of this word as it sounded when spoken by Mrs. Susannah, widow of Martin Van Slyck. At an i-iterview in 1837, I found Mrs. Van Slyck quite intelligent, and possessed of a very retentive memory. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 23 on the third and fourth syllables. From that word has been de- rived the present word Schoharie, the first two syllables having been entirely dropped, while another has been added in its Angli- cisement. Several years ago I saw an ugly shaped glass bottle in Schoharie, said to have been imported from London by John Lawyer, the first merchant among the German settlers. His name and the place of his residence were stamped upon the bottle in English letters, the latter being there spelled Shoary. Many of the old German people of that county, at the present day, pronounce it Shuckary, which, it will be perceived, differs nearly as much from the sound of the word as now written, as that does from the sound of the word here given as the original. At what period the aborigines located who were occupying the Schoharie flats when the Germans and Dutch first settled upon them, is unknown. Judge Brown, in the pamphlet to which I have alluded, informs us that the first Indian settlement was made by Ka-righ-on-don-tee,* a French Indian prisoner, who had taken She formerly dwelt in Vrooman's Land, near where the bridge of drift-wood had been — could once converse with the natives in their own dialect, and still retains many of their words. She gave the word to which the note re- fers, as the name by which they called the natural bridge — by whom she had often heard it spoken. The author is indebted to the kindness of this lady and her tenacious memory, for several interesting facts tradition has pre- served, relating to the early settlement of Vrooman's Land by the whites, she being a granddaughter of the first Vrooman settler ; and also for several incidents worthy of record which transpired during the revolution. • At a personal interview with the venerable patriot Brown, in Sept. 1837, he pronounced this word as though written Kar-eek-won-don-tee. I adopt his written orthography, however, with the diflerence only of ending it ee, believing it to be sufficiently correct. At this interview he assured the au- thor that on the 5th of the following November, he would be ninety- two years old. Although his faculties, mental and bodily, were failing him, still we are indebted to his good humor and hospitality for some explanations of his pamphlet, and for much other matter not contained in that. Reading his pamphlet to him, and questioning him about customs which were in vogue in his earlier years, he seemed almost inspired with new life — his spirits, ani. mation and memory revived, and he was enabled to relate many anecdotes, which, to use his own words, '' he had not thought of in fifty years before." Mr. Brown and his amiable consort were both sociable and urbane, and I spent nearly a day very agreeably with them. Brown was married at twenty- Eve to a Miss Hager, of Brakabeen, Schoharie county, with whom he lived 24 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, for a wife a Mohawk squaw ; that his father-in-law gave him a part of those flats to remove him from the presence of the Mo- hawk Indians, by whom he had been made prisoner, as they bore a deadly hatred to the Canada Indians, and in a drunken frolic might kill him; that families from the Mohawk, Mohegan, Tuscarora, Delaware, and Oneida tribes there joined him, so that a new tribe, of which he was principal chief, was formed, num- bering at one time about three hundred warriors. Karighondontee was probably a Canadian chief of some cele- brity, who had been taken prisoner by the Mohawks in one of the bloody wars, which the animosity existing between the Ca- nadian Indians and the Five Nations was continually originating. As speculation alone can furnish any thing like a beginning to the first settlement of Schoharie by the natives known as the thirty-eight years. He had nine children by that marriage, and several of them are now settled near him in Carlisle. Mrs. Brown, his present wife is, if memory serves me, twenty- two years younger than her husband. She was a Van Arnein from below the Helleberg, and has been married about twenty-six years. Her father was a captain of militia in the continental service. Brown had no issue by his second wife. He was among the first settlers in Carlisle, and, in common with the pioneers of that day, endured his full share of privations and hardships. He was a firm patriot, and a captian of the Tryon county militia in the revolution; he received a cut in one knee with a drawing-knife during the war, from which he ever after went very lame. Subsequent to receiving the injury mentioned, he sent a messenger to Gov. G. Clinton, informing him of his lameness; at the same time signifying a wish to resign his commission. He received in return a very civil letter from His Excellency, in which he expressed much regret at his misfortune; assuring him also that his services could not be dispensed with, or his commission returned; but that if he could not walk to command his company he, (the governor,) would send him a horse that he might ride. When Otsego county was organized. Brown was one of the commission- ers for laying out several public roads in that county; and when Schoharie county was formed, he was again called on to discharge the same duties. The commissioners associated with him in Otsego county, were Mr. Hudson and Col. Herrick, who together laid out twenty-seven public roads. Mr. Brown was appointed by the governor and council of appointment, third judge of the first bench of the Schoharie county courts. He was three times a candidate for member of assembly, and once lost his election by only two votes. Considering his limited opportunities in early life, he was an intelligent man. That he never obtained a pension while many others less deserving did, was to him a source of no little mortification and grief. Judge Brown died in the fall of 1838 or 39. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. ^ Schoharie tribe, save what has been ah'eady related ; I trust the reader will indulge me in carrying it a little farther. The revo- lution in England in the latter part of Lhe seventeenth century, which placed William and Mary upon that throne, was followed by a general war in which several nations of Europe were en- gaged. Nor were the colonies of America idle spectators of the tragedy. From Europe the grand theatre of that war, the crim- son art was brought into the wilds of North America. The Ca- nadas, then French colonies, with the Algonquin Indians within their own territory, were fiercely engaged with the British co- lonies and the Five Indian Nations then their allies, along the borders of New England and New York. The Mohegans,* who, as we have already seen, made a part of the Schoharie tribe, it is not improbable were engaged in considerable num- bers with the people of New England, and at th6 close of the war or soon after joined Karighondontee : as I suppose that chief to have been made prisoner in that war. The Mohegans, to whom war or the chase may have discovered the Schoharie valley, finding it to be a country sparsedly settled — equal in beauty to the banks of the Thames in Connecticut, from whence they emigrated — where game was plenty, and where, too, they would not be surrounded by the " pale faces" and amenable to their laws, may have been induced to settle there ; or they may there have sought an asylum from motives not dissimilar to those which brought hither the Mohawk. I suppose the time of Karighondontee's settlement to have been within about twenty years of the first German settlement in Schoharie ; and conclude so from the fact that the tribe was not then more formidable in numbers ; for the Tuscarorasf could not have joined it until about the time the Germans located, as they did not leave Carolina in numbers till near that period. • A part of the Mohegan and Stockbridge Indians, migrated and joined the Five Nations before the revolution — Morse's Gazetteer. t This tribe came from North Carolina about 1712, and joined the confede- racy of the Five Nations, themselves making the sixth. See Lewiston, where they still have a village. — Spafford's Gazetteer of N. Y. 26 HISTOEY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, It may not perhaps be improper to say a few words respecting the Six Nations of Indians. At the time our pilgrim fathers first landed in America, a confederacy existed between the five most powerful Indian Nations then living in the state of New York. They were called by the French the Iroquois ; by the English the Confederates, or Five Nations ; by the Dutch, more particu- larly those in the Mohawk valley, the Maquaas ; and by them- selves, Aganuschioni, or United People. Their govejnment in many respects was republican. At what time and for what pur- poses this confederacy was formed, is unknown. It may have originated in conquest, the weaker nations in turn being subdued by the most powerful one; or, from a natural desire to resist and conquer a common foe, that existed from the alliance of other powerful nations. Whatever may have originated this union of Indian strength, it must have existed for a great length of time j for when the Europeans came here, it is said the Confederates all spoke a similar language. The Mohawk, Oneida, Onondagaj Cayuga and Seneca nations formed the confederacy — the Tusca- roras joining them, as has been shown, at a subsequent period. Says the historian Trumbull, " Each of the Five Nations was sub- divided into three tribes or families. They distinguished them- selves by three different ensigns, the Tortoise, the Bear, and the Wolf Whenever the sachems, or any of the old men, signed any public paper, they traced upon it the mark of their respective fa- mily." The same author, giving Roger Williams for authority, says the word Mohaivk imports cannibal, and is derived from the word moho, to eat. This is undoubtedly a popular error. The Mohawk nation took its name from the river along which it dwelt, called the Mohawk's river — as the Dutch have it, the Ma- quaas' river — which signifies, in plain Englisli, the muskrat's ri- ver. Many ancient Indian land titles have so called the stream in English, writing it in the possessive case; and to this day muskrats are numerous along its shores, hundreds being killed in the valley at every spring freshet. The Mohawk, which was the most eastern of the Five Nations^ had in the latter part of its existence as a nation, three castles — AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 27 all of which were on the south side of the Mohawk river. The lower, or eastern castle, was at Icanderago,* afterwards called Fort Hunter, near the junction of the Mohawk and Schoharie rivers ; the central or Canajoharie castle, as then called, stood on the brink of the prominence at the east end of the present village of Fort Plain ; which hill was called by the Indians Ta-ragh-jo- res, signifying hill of health yf and the upper and most western was in the present town of Danube, not far distant from St. Johns- ville. The Caughnawagas, who resided at the Tribes' hill, oppo- site Icanderago, and the ancient village which still bears their name, were a family of the Wolf tribe of Mohawks. When the Dutch first located at Albany, they courted the friendship of the Confederates; and by furnishing them with fire arms and ammunition to war against their northern enemies, they secured their trade and friendship — the latter proving of most es- sential service to the colony of New York, in her subsequent wars with Canada. At the beginning of the American revolution, a majority of the Confederates, owing in a great measure to the un- bounded influence of the Johnson family over them, remained true to the British interest, removed to Canada with the Johnsons and Butlers, and fought for Britain — proving a terrible scourge to our frontier settlements. Most of the Oneidas, however, and a part of the Tuscaroras, either remained neutral or sided with the Americans; rendering them, as guides and runners, very important services ; on which account lands have been re- served to them in the state. The Oneida Reservation is in Ver- non, Oneida county, and the Tuscarora in Lewiston, Niagara county, where they still have villages. Their numbers are fast • McAuley, in his History of New York, gives this as the Indian name for the estuary of the Schoharie river. t Peter J. Wagner, Esq., who learned the site of this castle, the name of the hill and its signification, from Col. John Frey, an early settler in the valley, who spoke the Mohawk dialect well. A territory extending from Spraker's Basin to Fort Plain, a distance of six miles, was originally called Canajoha- rie ; indeed the town of Canajoharie now covers nearly the same extent on the river, and the castle stood on land still within the extreme limits of that town. 28 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, diminishing, and their national character departing ; and the time is probably not very distant when it will be said of this once powerful confederacy, which often led to victory its thousands of warriors — it has been, yet is not. If such a writer as Washing- ton Irving would write a history of the North American Indians, the world would owe him a debt of gratitude. Surely such a work would not detract from the merited literary fame of the au- thor of Coluinhus, to say nothing of the well-emptied saddle-bags of that splenetic old gentleman, Sir Deidrich Knickerbocker. The Schoharie tribe of Indians seems to have been made up of the fractional parts, or refugees from different nations, some of which may have been compelled to flee from the council fires and hunting grounds of their fathers ; and perhaps might not have been inaptly termed by other nations, a tribe of refuge, since it corresponded in some degree to the cities of refuge established by Moses, among the tribes of Israel. That Schoharie was settled if only for indefinite periods to suit the convenience of the na- tives for hunting and fishing, long before its settlement by Ka- righondontee, there can remain no doubt; for to this day are found many flint arrow-heads, and not unfrequently other relics of savage ingenuity, which the contiguity of the whites at the time he settled was calculated to obviate the necessity of their re- taining in use; for Schenectada and Albany were both within thirty miles of his location by the paths then traveled. It is true, bows and arrows were still used by some of the Indians after the Germans arrived there, but many of them possessed fire-arms and well knew how to use them long before. It is astonishing to what perfection the aborigines of the United States had carried the manufacture of their wooden and stone in- struments for defence and domestic utihty, before the Europeans found their way hither ; since history informs us that they were not the possessors of even a knife, or any instrument of iron. To look at a flint arrow-head, see the regularity of its shape, and to what delicate proportions it has been wrought from so hard and brittle a substance, it seems incredible that it could have been formed by art, without the aid of other implements than those AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 29 of stone. One would almost suppose the Indian to have been capable of softening the flinty rock by some chemical agent, previous to its being wrought into such beautiful forms. The ca- hinet of the antiquarian will exhibt them of various dimensions and a variety of colors ; pipes, hatchets, wedges, and culinary vessels, all ingeniously formed from different kinds of stone, are likewise often found at the present day near the site of ancient Indian villages — giving additional evidence of the perfection to which necessity will carry certain arts. The abundance of Indian relics formerly found there, the small- ness of the tribe and its comparatively brief existence, are facts on which I predicate an opinion, that the Mohawks and Delawares, in times of peace, dwelt in and about Schoharie. This conclusion seems not only plausible but very probable, as the former, who were called the true heads of the Confederacy, lived along the Mohawk valley, and the latter inhabited along the Delaware — the Schoharie valley being to them the natural route of inter- communication. Some twenty-five years ago, there might have been seen nearly a mile north of the Schoharie Court House, a deep pit, in which was observed a heavy, upright, wooden frame. Its location was on a knoll, in an old apple orchard upon the farm now owned by John L. Swart : which orchard seems, at least in appearance, to merit an existence coeval with the first German settlements. For what purpose that frame was there sunk, or by whom, tradition breathes not even a whisper. Judge Brown said he remembered having seen it, but assured the author that persons then living in the vicinity much older than himself, could give no clew to its ori- gin. This artificial cavern, which is said to have been apparent- ly fifteen or twenty feet deep, by those who looked into it, was discovered at the time alluded to, by the accidental caving in of the earth near one corner of it. The opening has long since been closed, without an interior examination of the pit. Its origin must be left entirely to conjecture. It may have been an under ground place of refuge ; or, it may have served as a depository for treasures; or, — but I leave to the curious the solving of its mysteries. 30 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, Indians have generally believed in the existence of a God or Great Spirit, and a future state. They worshiped a plurahty of imaginary deities, such as the heavenly bodies, fire, water and the like — indeed any thing mysterious or superior to themselves. In New England, says Trumbull, although they believed in one su- preme God, or a being of infinite goodness, still they paid most of their devotion to the evil spirit, whom they called Hobom- ocko : thinking, no doubt, that if they made peace with their enemy, they were safe. Little is known of the Schoharie tribe of Indians until the Ger- mans came into their midst. Their general customs and habits were as similar to those of neighboring tribes, as the multigener- ous nature of their own would allow. The customs of the Caro- lina, Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania Indians, from which the Schoharie tribe was principally composed, no doubt differed as much, perhaps more, than would those of an equal number of the present white population, if collected from the same sections of the Union. The refugees from some of the tribes lived together when their numbers would admit, and they doubtless kept up in a measure their own national character. Time is required in all cases, where people from distant countries form a settlement, to sink into one general custom or habit, the diversified manners of their native land. The Mohegans settled near the mouth of the Little Schoharie kill in the present town of Middleburgh, and were living separate from the main body of the tribe, long after Conrad Weiser and his German brethren lo- cated in their immediate vicinity. One good reason for this, was the fact that they spoke a different language from the principal part of the tribe. They also had a small castle near the preseat residence of Henry Mattice. It is said by historians that Indians arc invariably born white : if so, I must presume this freak of nature found its way to the Schoharie tribe. " Indian lovers generally live together on trial before marriage :" and I have no reason to believe it was other- wise here. Among the Five Nations, history assures us, polyga- AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 31 my was not customary, but the Indians In general, Solomon like, kept many concubines — and never thought they had too many women. As the Schoharie tribe was deficient in numbers, I readily conclude it placed as much dependence on women to in- crease the number of its warriors, as did any of the Six Nations. In Virginia, it is said, the Indians had altars of stone whereon they offered a sacrifice of blood, deer's suet and tobacco. Now I dare not suppose that Karighondontee or any of his tribe were equally religious ; but I may say, I have never heard that any people ever appropriated tobacco to a much better use — surely it were far better thus to burn, than masticate it : while its fumes, I do not scruple to believe, would ascend to heaven with as grate- ful odor — if neatness and health are called in question — as from the lips of that individual, whose taste is so perverted as to smoke it. That the Schoharie Indians had many customs and habits in common with other nations, the author has obtained satisfactory proof: such as the burial of treasures with the dead — holding councils when on the eve of some momentous undertaking — cele- brating victories — face painting — (from whom some modern la- dies have possibly borrowed the disgusting habit) — scalping the fallen foe — wearing trinkets about their persons — compelling their women to do the drudgery — requiting hospitality with kind- ness, and secretly revenging insult with the tomahawk. What civilized people call society was rarely ever found among the ab- origines of the United States. Unless engaged in war or the chase, their favorite employ — they led lives of indolence and in- activity. A custom once prevalent among the Indians of New England and New York, was that of burying the dead in a sitting posture facing the east : it was also customary among the In- dians of eastern New England, for such as had taken prison- ers, to kill as many of them as they had relatives or friends killed in battle. — See Drake's Church's life of Benjamin Church. Besides the village of the Mohegans already located, the Scho- harie tribe had several others : one of which was on the farm formerly owned by Alexander Vrooman — on the west side of the 32 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, river. Nearly opposite that, on the other side of the river, they had another ; and a distance of several miles farther up the val- ley, on the farm of the late Peter P. Snyder, a third. At each of the tvsTo former they had a small castle ; and at the latter, where they dvi^elt for many years after the two northern villages were abandoned, they had a burying ground. Those villages were all within four miles of the present site of the Court House. With- in the recollection of some now living, twenty-one wigwams were yet standing upon the Snyder farm ; and a few old apple trees still to be seen there, are supposed to have been planted by the natives. Near this orchard many burials are said to have been made at their place of sepulture : nor, indeed, were the manes of nature's children without companions, to share the pot- age* taken along at their death ; as a portion of the consecrated ground was set apart, for the defunct slaves of the early Germans. The fifth, and most important village of the tribe, where dwelt Karighondontee and his principal chiefs, was in Vrooman's land : where they had a strong castle, and a place of burial. This cas- tle was built by John Becker, who received from Sir William Johnson, as agent for the British government, eighty pounds for its erection. It was built at the commencement of the French war, and constructed of hewn timber. The Indians held some four hundred acres of land around it, which they leased for sever- al years. Contiguous to this castle, along both sides of the river, could have been counted at one time seventy huts ; and relics of savage ingenuify are now often plowed up near its site. An an- gle of land, occasioned by a bend in the river, on which this cas- tle stood, was called the Wilder Hook, by the Dutch who settled near it, and signified the Indian^s Corner. Among the old people in that vicinity, it is still known by the same name. The Indians gave names to most of the mountains and promin- * It was not only customary for the aborigines of this country to bury the implements of war, and treasures of the warrior with his body ; but also a kettle of food, such as beans or venison, to serve him on his journey to the delectable hunting grounds, whither he believed himself going. There he expected to find plenty of wild game, handsome women, and revel eternally in voluptuousness. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 33 ent hills in the county, among which were the following: On the west side of the river, directly opposite the hrick church in Middleburgh, is a mountain rising several hundred feet, and covered with timber of stunted growth. The traveler will readily notice this, as being the highest of the surrounding peaks, which hem in the river and valley for a considerable distance on either side. This mountain the natives called Ou-con-ge-na, which sig- nified, Rattle-snake Mountain, or Mountain of Snakes. It was literally covered with rattle- snakes in former times. The next peak above on the same side of the river, which has a very bold termination towards the valley, they called O-nis-ta-gra-wa, and spoke it as though written 0-nis-ta-graw-z^a«g/i .' It signifi- ed the Corn Mountain. Between that and the river was the Wilder Hook : at which place the flats are well adapted to the cultivation of Indian corn. It was this consideration which gave to this mountain its significant name. The next hill above the Onistagrawa, now known as Spring Hill, the Indians called To- wok-now-ra — its signification is unknown. At Middleburgh, two valleys meet; the one through which the Schoharie wends its way, and the other, through which the Little Schoharie kill runs some distance before, it empties into the former. Consequently, on the south-east side of the river as it there courses, the mountain ridge which confines the river to its limits on the eastern side, suddenly terminates, and again ap- pears east of Middleburgh village. The termination of the hill alluded to, which lies south-east of the Onistagrawa and distant perhaps two miles — was called by the Mohegans who dwelt at its base, the Mo-he~gon-ter, and signified Falling Off, or Termin- ation of the Mohegan Hill. It served not only to designate the locality, and preserve the name of the Connecticut Indians, but, like many of their words which have a twofold meaning j it de- noted a hill terminating at a valley. A fraction of the Stock- bridge tribe of Indians, who emigrated from Massachusetts, also dwelt near the Mohegans. I have no data by which to estimate the whole number of Schoharie Indians, except the statement in Brown's pamphlet, 34 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, which sets down the number of warriors at about three hundred. Now by supposing that each of those warriors, on an average, had two women, that there were two children to each woman — that there were fifty men unfit for warriors from age or infirmity, and as many old women ; the tribe would then number two thou- sand two hundred souls. This estimate may be thought too large ; but if so, the reader has the same right and means to lessen its numbers, that I have to increase them. And whether he is a Yankee or not, he may guess at their numbers with impunity ; although it is hardly a supposable case, still there may have been here and there a warrior to whom Cupid had not revealed Ovid's art; there 2ixe Jew of nature's children who are strangers to love. The coat of arms, or ensign of the Schoharie tribe, was a turtle and a snake. Figures representing those animals, they were careful to place on all deeds or writings — which were to prove an evidence oi faith. Nor were they confined to placing them on paper or parchment ; for whenever they deeded land, trees servins: as bounds or land-marks, bore the characteristic emblem of the tribe. Brown enumerates the five following foot-paths as being in use by the Schoharie Indians, when the whites first settled among them. The^r5/ he mentions began at Catskill, and followed the kill of that name up to its source at XheVlaie, from whence it continued down to Middleburgh. Over a part of this palh now runs the Loonenburg turnpike. The second began at Albany and led over the Helleberg, down Foxes creek valley, and terminated in Schoharie. By this path the Germans traveled, who first set- tled Schoharie. The old road, as now called, from thence to Albany, follows very nearly the route of that path. The third commenced at Garlock's dorf, and led to Schenectada through Duanesburgh. By this path, the Dutch who first settled in Vroo- man's Land, proceeded from Schenectada. This path was much used for several years by the Schoharie Germans, who went to that ancient cily with grists upon their backs to get milling done ! The fourth led from Kneiskern's dorf down the Schoharie to Sloansville, from thence through the towns of Charleston and AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 35 Glen to Cadaughrity and ended at Fort Hunter. This path was much traveled by the natives, who went from the Mohawk to the Susquehanna valley. The fifth led from Kneiskern's dorf north-west to Canajoharie. This path, says Brown, was much traveled by the early Germans, who often went to visit relatives at the German Flats. It continued in full use, he adds, until af- ter the year 1762, at which time Sir William Johnson reviewed a brigade of militia, of which he was general — near the upper Indian castle of the Mohawks. Besides those enumerated, the Indians must have had other paths, perhaps of less notoriety, leading in different directions from Schoharie. One traversed not a little by the Indian hunter, led directly up the Schoharie to near its source, and from thence to the Susquehanna and Genesee valleys. While another of some importance to the hunter, must have led up the Cobelskill to it source, and from thence to Otsego lake. It may justly be said, that religion has peopled by the whites, the greater part of North America; for many of the first Eu- ropean immigrants came to this goodly heritage to find a place where they could worship Jehovah as seemed to them proper and desirable. True, the prospect of realizing the desires of Ortugal, induced many to settle in Spanish America ; but Catholicism was the handmaid of lucre, and aided not a little in conquering and civilizing Mexico, so far as that country has been civilized; it must be acknowledged, however, that civilization has advanced tardily in all Spanish America. This is owing no doubt to two obvious reasons : the general indolence of the inhabitants, (their wealth being derived directly from the precious metals instead of agriculture,) and the fact that the Catholic religion is less fa- vorable to civilization, than is the Protestant. After the throne of England had been vacated by the death of William and Mary, Queen Anne ascended it, and as her pre- decessors had done, she tolerated the Protestant religion. It was often the case in former times, that when one form of religious worship was tolerated in a kingdom of Europe, and laws were enacted to compel all to conform to it, many who had scruples about 36 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, adopting it, at the sacrifice of judgment and feeling, fled to other countries where their own rehgion prevailed. It was bigotry and Catholicism, which drove the ancestors of General Marion from France to South Carolina. The grandfather of Marion was a French Protestant : by the authorities of France he was banish- ed to 'perpetual exile, and notified by letter, that if found in the kingdom after ten days from the date had transpired, his life would be forfeited, his body consumed by fire, and the ashes scattered on the winds of heaven. I have mentioned this case to show the reader the nature of the persecution, which tended in a great measure to people the United States. The Puritans, as the Plymouth, Massachusetts, pioneers were called, fled with their pastor, the Rev. John Robinson, in the year 1607, from England to Amsterdam in Holland ; from thence they soon after removed to Leydon. From the latter place, in the year 1620, they went to Southampton in England, from whence they embarked for America on the 5th day of August of the same year, and after a long, tedious voyage, anchored in Cape Cod harbor, on the 10th day of the following November. The colony which European persecution there planted, although se- veral times on the eve of annihilation, was the means of peopling all New England. Queen Anne, who received the crown of England in the year 1702, knowing that the Germans were in general peaceable, loyal subjects, and lovers of liberty from principle — anxious to increase the population of her American colonies, held out strong inducements to this hardy and industrious race of people to become British subjects. She oflTered to give them lands, if they would set- tle on the frontier of certain colonies, and furnish them at the be- ginning with necessary tools, provisions, &c. What added to the inducement, they could there practice their own form of religious worship. There is a charm in the word liberty, that converts a desert wild into a paradise, and severs the cords of the fraternal, social circle. The generous oflfers of Queen Anne induced thousands to bid a final farewell to the land of their nativity — cross the foam- AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 37 ing Atlantic, and erect their altars of worship in the wilds of America, thousands of miles from the luring places to which they were known in childhood. Schoharie, with the exception of its Indian inhabitants, was first settled by the Germans and Dutch, and to religion and the love of liberty is that settlement mostly to be attributed. In saying Schoharie, I allude to all the settlements first made in . Schoharie county, without distinction of towns ; as a territory of many miles in extent, now making a part of several towns, was, at first, known by no other name than that of Schoharie. I find it somewhat difficult to harmonize the contradictory statements, tending to fix the precise year in which the Germans first arrived in that valley. Brown says " they sailed on new year's day in the year 1710, from some port on the Rhine, down that river to Holland from whence they sailed to England ; that being there further provided, they sailed for America ; and after a tedious voyage in which a great many died, they landed at New York on the 14th day of June, 1712 ; having been one year five months and several days [over two years,] on their journey ; that they were then sent up the Hudson river to East and West Camp, (so called from the circumstance of their having encamped there,) where they wintered in ground and log huts. — That from there the spring following, they went to Albany, from whence some found their way to Schoharie, after a journey of four days by an Indian foot path, bearing upon their backs tools and provisions with which they had been provided by agents of the queen." Brown is doubtless in error about the time the emigrants were comnig from Germany to New York; it could not have been upwards of two ymrSy as it would seem by his data. Many of the aged people with whom I have conversed on this subject, agree in fixing the date of their departure from Leyden in Holland, as early as 1709, while some others name that year as the traditionary one in which they first reached Schoharie. A record in the Lutheran church at Schoharie, states that Abraham Berg, from Hessen, came to America in 1709, but the record was made many years subsequent to that date, and may be in- 4 38 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY accurate ; recording the time of arrival here, instead of departure from Hessen. From a comparison of all the evidence collected on the subject, I believe they left Germany late in 1709, arrived at Nev? York in 1710, and the following year v^^ent to Schoharie. Smith's history of New York informs us, that General Hunter, who had been appointed governor of the province, arrived at New York on the fourteenth day of June, 1710, bringing with him near three thousand Palatines, who, the year before, had fled to England from the rage of persecution in Germany. That " many of these people seated themselves in the city of New York, where they built a Lutheran church ; others settled on a tract of several thousand acres, in the manor of Livingston, where they still have a village called the Camp, which is one of the pleasantest situations on Hudson's river ; right opposite, on the west bank are many other families of them. Some went into Pennsylvania, and by the favorable accounts of the country, which they transmitted to Germany, were instrumental to the transmigration of many thousands of their countrymen into that province. Queen Anne's liberality to these people," he adds, " was not more beneficial to them than serviceable to this colony. They have behaved themselves peaceably, and lived with great industry. Many are rich ; all are Protestants, and well affected to the government : the same may be said of those who have settled amongst us, and planted the lands westward of Albany. We have not the least ground for jealousy with respect to them." It will be observed, that the arrival at New York of the Ger- mans by whom Schoharie was undoubtedly settled, was on the same day of the same month, two years earlier than the date given by Brown, as the one on which they arrived. There can remain little doubt, that the time of their arrival as given by Smith is correct. Another writer, Spafford, in his Gazetteer of Jfew York, speaking of Livingston's manor, says: "In the year 1710, agreeably to an arrangement with Queen Anne of Eng- land, the proprietor conveyed a tract of six thousand acres ad- joining the Hudson, from the south-eastern part of the manor, to a AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 39 number of Palatines, who had served in her armies, and were now driven from Germany by the French army. The same writer, speaking of Germantown, Columbia county, in which town is the village of East Camp, says : " In June, 1710, seventy families of poor Palatine soldiers who had served in tlie army of Queen Anne, by whom they were hired of the Electorate of the Palatinate, arrived at New York, the most of whom soon removed to these lands, then included in Livingston's manor," The reader will here understand why these people were called Palatines. Palatine is a term which was formerly given to a prince, and probably is still, in some parts of Germany. He was invested with royal privileges to preside over a certain territory, called a Palatinate ; hence emigrants from such coun- tries in Germany, as are subject to the government or direction of a Palatine, have been called Palatines or Palatinates. " In 1725," continues SpafTord, " according to an arrangement of King George I. with the proprietor, letters patent were granted to certain persons belonging to the settlement of East Camp, as it was then called, as trustees for the whole, conveyino- the rio-ht of soil in perpetuity for the use of said inhabitants. And the grant seems to have been well devised, with the whole condi- tions on which it was made. Forty acres were directed to be appropriated to the use of a church and the maintenance of a school, and the residue to be equally divided among the inhabi- tants, which was faithfully performed by the trustees. This lit- tle colony received many marks of the kindness, care and bene- ficence of Queen Anne, under whose special patronage it was first planted. The country was then wholly wild, and the first encampments were distinguished by local names. Hence came East Camp, a more general name of three httle lodges in this town ; and West Camp, the name of a similar settlement on the opposite side of the river, now in Saugerties, Ulster county. The settlements first commenced by three small lodges of tem- porary huts, each of which was placed under the superintendance of some principal man, from whom they took their names, with the addition of dorf^ a German word for village. Hence Weiser's 40 HISTOKY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY dorf, Kneiskern's dorf, names now disused, except by a very few of the ancient Germans." According to Spafford's account it would appear as though the first settlers at the Camps, had been hired by Queen Anne to serve in her wars. But the other published accounts, and tradition, which seems not to have slumbered on this subject, unite in ascrib- ing their emigration from Germany chiefly to religious oppression. It is nofl^mprobable that some of the most warlike of those Ger- mans, may have aided the colonies and Iroquois in the war they were then waging with Canada ; — a distinguished historian does indeed say that some of them were so engaged; {See Bancroft's U. S. vol. iii, p. 221) — but that those who tarried at the Camps left their native land for that purpose, seems hardly admissible, from the fact, that male and female, old and young, great and small were included in this group of immigrants ; the major part of which would have been sorry materials for an army. He must be in error about the number of the first settlers, unless two different parties arrived at the Camps during the same year, which is not improbable ; as more than seventy families, which he gives for their whole number there, removed to Schoharie ; at which time many families settled along the Mohawk river. It is highly probable, that of those who arrived, seventy families at least remained at the Camps, and became permanent settlers. Few incidents worthy of notice, in the long journey of these emigrants, have been preserved. They are said to have embarked from Plymouth, a port somewhat celebrated for the embarkation of Europeans to this continent. While the ship was lying at an- chor some distance from the shore, awaiting for a fair wind or sailing orders, with the emigrants on board, six of them went to land in a boat to make some necessary purchases. Only one name of the six is now remembered, that was Becker. He was a relative of the ancestors of the Beckers, who now live on Fox's creek, in the present town of Schoharie. After making purchases, they put off to regain the ship ; but having a gale of wind to encounter, which had sprung up while they were on shore, the boat capsized and its crew were all buried in the raging bil- lows. With this unhappy commencement, it is but natural to AND BORDER WAR OF NEW YORK. 41 suppose their surviving friends anticipated a voyage across the Atlantic, fraught with difficulty and danger : indeed such it proved ; for it was protracted by adverse winds to a length of months, and rendered truly appalling, when, as provisions began to fail them, they saw grim death, through all the horrors of starvation, staring them in the face. Before they reached New York, crumbs were sought for by the half starved children in every nook and corner, and when fortune thus discovered to them the scanty object of their search, no matter how filthy or stale, it was considered a God-send and greedily devoured. Several pas- sengers died on the voyage : one old lady, who had been ill of consumption for some time, died and was consigned to the deep at the Narrows, below New York. If several died on the jour- ney, it is not certain that the whole number of the emigrants was less at their final debarkation, than it was when they left the land of their fathers, as I have to record the fact, that the rule of ancient arithmetic, which subtracts one from one and leaves two, was not unfrequently exemplified during the passage. By the by, that is a valuable rule in peopling all new countries. Soon after they landed at New York, they Avere sent up the Hudson to the Camps ; (with the exception of those who became permanent settlers in the city, and those who went to Pennsylva- nia ;) where they made a temporary location. As they did not arrive at New York until the middle of June, it will be observed that the season had too far advanced to allow those who intended to become frontier settlers, or citizen farmers, to select an ap- proved location, and raise their sustenance for that season : they therefore went into quarters to await the return of Spring. They erected temporary huts, settling in seven sqilads or messes, each with a head man or commissary, through whom they received their provisions from an agent of the Queen, until they were per- manently located. Conrad Weiser, Hartman Winteker, John Hendrick Kneiskern, Elias Garlock, Johannes George Smidt and William Fox were six of the number ; and as John Lawyer be- came one after their arrival at Schoharie, he may have made the seventh. The several settlements over which they presided, were 42 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, called dorfs, signifying towns. Each of the said "list men," as Judge Brown termed them, (from the fact, that each had enrolled on a list or schedule, the names of every man, woman and child belonging to his beat ;) was obliged to make careful report, from time to time, to the royal agent, of all changes in his dorf; of its approaching wants, etc. How these honest, good natured, simple people, spent the greater part of a year at the Camps, this depo- nent has been unable to learn ; but as they possessed the charac- teristic good nature of their mother country, — were fond of ath- letic exercises, not to the exclusion of fumigation however, he supposes, as the Queen's punctual agent did not allow them to anticipate much care or concern about their temporal affairs, that they " drove dull cares away," by what their descendants term frolicking : and that although they were in a strange land, they resolved it should be to them a land of social enjoyment. The reader is ready to ask, what means the term frolicking in this place % It means, as I have been assured by the descendants of those virtuous and happy people, the indulgence of certain pro- pensities of the human heart to seek pleasure. They fiddled, they danced, they ran foot races ; and groups were not unfrequently seen among them, jumping, wrestling, &c., in summer : while winter found them skating, or playing various kinds of plays, such as now sometimes make part of an evening's entertainment at a village party, in which bussing, that delectable finale to which they generally tend, bears a conspicuous part. Some se- date mortal, on w^hom life hangs heavily, may be ready to ex- claim, " strange that a people who left their native land on ac- count of religious persecution, should have allowed their children or any of their numbers, to indulge in such foolish propensities !" It is indeed strange ; but no less strange than true, if they lived at the Camps as they afterwards did in Schoharie. One fact how- ever, might be urged in mitigation of their wickedness, if such the reader terms it. Not a particle of hypocrisy, that ingredient so necessary in making up the human character at the present day, dwelt in the hearts of these people. The reader will re- member, that I have not called them a fashionable people. Na- AND BORDER WAR OF NEW YORK. 43 turally honest themselves, they supposed others so, and had im- bibed liberally those true German principles of nature, founded on a belief, that " there is a proper time for every purpose ;" which bade them not look to the morrow, for that which rightly be- longed to the present day ; or anticipate the troubles to which man is heir, and which are so profusely scattered along his path. That there were many among those emigrants who lived pious and exemplary lives, not approving the course of their fellows, there can be no doubt. At what time in the spring of 1711, those who had not chosen to remain at the Camps, moved up the river to Albany, is uncer- tain. It must have been as early as circumstances would allow. On their arrival at that Dutch city, they sent several individuals of their number into the Mohawk and Schoharie vallies, to spy out a good location for their permanent settlement. Perhaps it may be well to say a few words in this place, in explanation of the term Dutch. Emigrants from the German circles, were ori- ginally called Germans or High Dutch ; and indeed continued to be so called, long after their emigration to this country ; while those from Holland or the United Provinces were called Dutch : or, in contra-distinction of the term High Dutch given the Ger- mans, Low Dutch. Many persons of the present day, unacquaint- ed with the geography of Europe, express surprise to hear the distinction of the terms German and Dutch made, supposing them synonymous. The German circles or states, and Dutch provinces, are as distinct countries, as are England and Scotland, perhaps more so ; . and their languages as little alike, as were formerly those of the latter countries. Nor indeed are the former under the same government, which is the case with the latter ; and yet people express no surprise to hear the distinction of English and Scotch emigrants made, when those countries are in question. When the historian tells us that the Dutch settled at Albany, which was by them called Willemstadt, where they built Fort Orange ; and at New York, then called JYew Amsterdam, in or about the year 1614, nearly one hundred years previous to the settlement of Schoharie ; he dees not intend to be understood that 44 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, those places were settled by Germans, but by Hollanders or Dutch. As the sections of the United States, originally peopled by the Dutch and Germans, received additional settlers from other coun- tries, and conformed to the English language, — the whole assimi- lating by gradual process to new characteristics, as their old were reluctantly absolved ; the sectional appellatives of all, whether English, Scotch, or Irish — Dutch, German, or Swiss, yielded to two simple terms, Yankee and Dutch. The German messengers, with whom we parted company a short time since, deputed to Schoharie, were conducted by an Indian guide over the Helleberg*, and on the second day they gained a commanding view of the flats along Fox's creek. They proceeded down that stream, until from one of the hills which skirt its lowlands, they gained a prospect of the Schoharie valley, at the place where Fox's creek runs into the Schoharie. There their vision was delighted by one of the most beautiful and pic- turesque scenes, with which nature has decorated the earth. They beheld the green flats of Schoharie, spread out before them like a beautiful, though neglected garden. To the west, directly oppo- site the mouth of said creek, their view was obstructed by a ro- mantic mountain rising several hundred feet, and terminating in a bold cliff towards them. I regret that I have been unable to learn the original Indian name of that mountain : the Germans called it the Clipper berg, meaning the rocky mountain. I take the liberty of giving to it, the name of Karighondontee, intending by so doing to perpetuate the name of the Schoharie Indian tribe. On the summit of the Karighondontee, is a cultivated farm for- merly ov/ned by Henry Flamilton, Esq., an excursion to which often rewards the rambler in the summer season, with one of the • On arriving upon this mountain, which is a spur of the Catskill mouD- lains, those emigrants halted on several eminences to enjoy the rich prospect thus afforded. Helle — signifies light or clear, and berg — hill or mountain. Hence the appropriate name they gave it — Helleberg, Prospect Hill or Sight- ly Mountain. Helderberg, the Dutch orthography for this word, has, within a few years, very improperly gained place ; its original German name being far more poetic and soft. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 45 most enchanting views imaginable. Off to the right hand of the deputation, as they stood on the summit of the hill, near where it descends into the two valleys, on the north side of Fox's creek ; they were enabled to catch a view of the great bend in the river, where it takes a more easterly course,- immediately after receiving Cobel's kill. They did not long tariy to contemplate on the richness of the prospect, which the union of those three valleys, beautified as they then were by luxurious spring, was calculated to create. Perhaps there was no Mozart present, to catch inspi- ration from the wanton carol of the countless feathered musicians, by which they were surrounded : or Spurzheim to forestal the virtues, — perchance the hidden wealth, of the hilly protuberances which rose in romantic grandeur, on which side soever they gazed. The hill on which I have supposed the pilgrim messen- gers to have stood, and from which they caught a view of " the promised land," the Indians called Oxt-don-tee. After taking this hasty glance of the country before them, which they no doubt did with eyes and ears, if not mouths, open ; they returned speedily to Albany, and reported progress to their anxious breth- ren. Would kind reader, I could serve you with the maiden speeches of those honest spies, who were among the first white men known to have trod upon Schoharie soil : but in the absence of such an intellectual treat, your own fertile imagination must create them. They were delivered before the immortal seven, who were the sanhedrim of the multitude, and one thing is cer- tain : they w^ere fraught with a prevailing argument against the entire Mohawk valley, which was not even allowed a hearing ; and nearly the whole caravan,* loaded' down like so many pack horses with provisions and tools, without a vehicle of any kind, started forthwith for Schoharie. The interval lands which the deputies had visited, were, at that time, to a great extent cleared or timberless, and presented • As the German settlements along the Mohawk were commenced about the same time with those of Schoharie, it is not improbable, that the relatives of the messengers sent up that river, awaited their return at Alba- ny, and on their bringing a favorable report of the country, removed thither. 46 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, the appearance of a limited prairie : and few were the native in- habitants, who then dwelt upon them. These two considerations, no doubt, greatly influenced the hasty decision of the colonists. Gentle reader, you, who ride perhaps in a gilded carriage, and think elliptic springs and a good road scarcely endurable, must not be offended when informed, that your great-great-grand- mothers, (I am now speaking to the fair sex, of the uncontami- nated descendants, of the primogenial pilgrims to the happy val- ley, not of Rasselas, but Schoharie;) clad in hnsey-woolsey of limited length, bearing each in their arms an heir apparent, and each on their back a sack of provisions or unmentionables ; set out on foot to make this long journey, upon an intricate Indian foot path.* Would you ask why their husbands did not carry the burthens, thus imposed upon their amiable consorts ? I have already said they had not a vehicle of any kind ; nor indeed had they the aid of even a single horse ; consequently the husbands and all the children able to bear burthens, were heavily laden. They left Albany on Thursday, and as may be supposed, their progress was necessarily very slow. Nights they slept in the open air, after having built fires to keep off the wolves, which thickly infested the forest through which they were journeying. Nothing remarkable happened during the first two day's journey. On Saturday they reached the present site of Knoxville, which appears to be the summit level between Albany and Schoharie, where they halted and assembled together. Some misunderstand- ing having arisen, a contest ensued, in which many of the party were engaged, from which circumstance the place has since been known by the older inhabitants, as Fegt berg, or fighting hill. * This journey of thirty odd miles, is looked upon at the present day as a small matter, since a stage rattles over it every day ; hut it was lar other- wise at that period. Many were the tears of sympathy shed in Albany, at the departure of these good people, because they were going so far from any other settlement. What changes time brings. Where is now your sympathy, O ye Albanians ! for the comely looking Swiss maidens and their forlorn mothers, who are now in motley groups, lingering not unfrequently a few days with you, ere they commence a western journey, which may number thousands of miles ? AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 47 What gave rise to this quarrel, I have been unable to learn. It is not improbable that the " green eyed monster" was the direct or indirect cause, originating in a spirit of emulation to direct the movements of the party. No one seems to have been very seri- ously injured by this unlooked for trial of strength ; the insurgents were overpowtred, good order again restored, and the line of march resumed. On Sunday, (probably in the latter part of April,) a day of seven, dedicated to cleansing and decorating the outward man of the civilized world, having arrived at a small brook, which descends from the hills on the north side of Fox's creek, and runs into the latter near the present residence of Sam- uel Stevens, and within sight of the Schoharie valley, the party halted and resolved on having a general purifying. Says Brown, " while washing, the lice were swimming down the hrook ; which is called Louse kill to this day." Tradition corroborates this sto- ry. I may have occasion hereafter to speak of the cleanliness of the descendants of these people. There can be little doubt, but that the washing adventure, may prove a mirror to many parties of emigrants, who have been long journeying. It is not difficult to account for the fact, that the most negligent of the number, (for I cannot believe all were so) should have become filthy. They were poor, had not changes of apparel ; of course, the clothing they wore, without much pains-taking to keep it clean, must have become dirty : add to this the fact, that they had been for a great length of time, either journeying or dwelling in rude huts, in either case greatly crowded, without any conveniences for private ablution ; and we have a plausible reason to believe the story a true one. Poor people, although cleanly, find it difficult at times, to exhibit evidences of their neatness, especially while traveling. The Schoharie flats to which they were journeying, and upon which they arrived on the day of their purifying, had been pur- chased of the natives by an agent of the Queen, to prevent future hostilities between them and the Germans. The tract of land thus purchased, began on the little Schoharie kill in the town of Middleburgh, at the high water mark of the Schoharie river, at 48 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, an oak stump burned hollow, which stump is said to have served the Mohegan and Stockbridge Indians, the purposes of a corn mill ; and ran down the river to the north, taking in the flats on both sides of the same, a distance of eight or ten miles, contain- ing twenty thousand acres. By the side of this stump was erect- ed a large pile of stones, which was still standing since the year 1800. Upon this stump was cut the figures of a turtle and a snake, the ensign of the Karighondontee tribe, the Indian seal of the contract. Having arrived in safely, the Germans settled along the Schoharie on the land provided by the queen, in sever- al villages or dorfs, as they called them, under the direction of the seven individuals, who acted at the Camps as their captains or commissaries. Prudence, no doubt, dictated the necessity of set- tling near together, that they might be the better prepared to an- ticipate any hostile movement of their Indian neighbors. Weiser's dorf, (so called after Conrad Weiser the founder,) was the most southern village, and occupied part of the present site of the vil- lage of Middleburgh. This dorf contained some forty dwellings. They were small, rude huts, built of logs and earth, and covered with bark, grass, &c. They were built on both sides of a street, which ran nearly east and west, and may have been called Weiser street. Hartman's dorf was the next settlement down the river, and was about tv/o miles north of Weiser's dorf This was the only one of the settlements called after the christian name of its founder or patroon : his name having been Hartman Winteker. This flekken,* (if the largest village in seven merited the name,) is said to have contained sixty-five dwellings, similar in construc- tion to those spoken of in the dorf above. The Germans, (as is the custom of their descendants,) built their ovens detached from their dwellings : and thirteen are said to have answered all the good house-wives of Hartman's dorf, the purposes of baking. Like the former, this village was built along one street ; and I am gratified to think I can inform the reader precisely where it • Dorf means a compact farmer's town or small village ; flekken a larger village than a dorf and less than a city ; and stadt, an incorporated city.— Brown. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK, 49 was situated. Every man who has traveled from Schoharie Court House to Middleburgh will remember, that having proceed- ed about three miles, and crossed two brooks, the most southern of which was called, in former days, the Wolfs kill, he came to two angles in the road, between which, he perceived his course changed from south to west for the distance of, perhaps, a quarter of a mile. He will also remember, no doubt, how straight and level that part of the road was, gently descending to the west ; and, too, that he expressed surprise to his companion, or, if he had no more sensible person with him, to himself, that the road had never been straightened. Now, since I have traced the lo- cation of Hartman's dorf by tradition, to the immediate vicinity of this knoll or table-land, upon which the two angles in the road appear, and have too much charity to believe, that that part of the road would not have been straightened, had the commission- ers who laid it out not had some noble object in view, I have come to the conclusion, and doubt not the good sense of the read- er will bear me out in it, that that part of the road which runs, east and west, between the angles spoken of, was once Hartman's street, and that upon each side of it once stood the unpretendmg dwellings of Hartman's dorf. The next village north, was in the vicinity of the court-house, and was called Brunnen or Bruna dorf, which signified the town of springs. There are several springs in this vicinity ; and a liv- ing one, which issues from beneath the rocks a little distance south-east from the court-house, supplies most of the villagers with excellent water. The principal or most influential man among the first settlers at this place, was John Lawyer. Some of his descendants, as also those of some of the ShaefFers and Ingolds, who were also among the first settlers, still reside near the location of their ancestors. The next settlement was in the vicinity of the present residence of Doctor C. H. Van Dyck, about a mile north of Bruna dorfj and consisted of Johannes George Smidt, (or Smith in English,) with a few followers of the people, for whom he had acted as commissioner at the Camps. Smith is said to have had the best house in Smith's dorf, which 50 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, was thatched with straw. I am not certain that any of his clan are now represented in that section. It is probable, however, that the Sn^'ders who reside there, may be descended from the first settlers. Fox's dorf was next to Smith's, north, and took its name from William Fox, its leading man. He settled about a mile from Smith, in the vicinity of Fox's creek, so called after him. The Snyders, Beckers, Zimmers, Balls and Weidmans, now residing along, and near that stream, are regular descendants of the first settlers. Elias Garlock, with a few faithful followers, who, doubtless, adhered to him on account of his great wisdom, which remains to be shown, located about two miles farther down the river, near the present residence of Jacob Vrooman. This was called Garlock's dorf The Dietzes, Manns and Sternbergs, were among the first settlers at Garlock's dorf, whose descend- ants still occupy the grounds. The last and most northerly set- tlement, was called Kneiskern's dorf, after John Peter Kneiskern, its leading man. It was two or three miles fi'om the last men- tioned settlement, and was made along the east side of the river, opposite the mouth of Cobel's kill. The Kneiskerns, Stubrachs, Enderses, Sidneys, Berghs and Houcks, residing in that vicinity, are descendants of the original settlers. This, and Bruna dorf, are the only ones of the seven settlements, in which the descend- ants of the list men or founders, dwell at the present day. The sectional names of Kneiskern's and Hartman's dorf, are still in use ; while the other five have sunk into oblivion. Among the first settlers at these seven dorfs, were some whose descendants still reside in the county, their first location in but few instances being now traceable. It is presumed many of them settled at the two most southern, and important villages. The Keysers, Boucks, Rickards, Rightmyers, Warners, Weavers, Zim- mers, Mattices, Zehs, Bellingers, Borsts, Schoolcrafts, Kryslers, Casselmans, Newkirks, Earharts, Browns, Settles and Merckleys, were doubtless among the first settlers. The whole number of Germans who located in the Schoharie valley in 1711, must have been between five and seven hundred. (51 ) CHAPTER n. Having located the pioneers of Schoharie according to their several inclinations, let us see how they were to live. More or less land was found at each settlement cleared, and with little pains, it was fitted for cultivation. It has been already shown that their effects were conveyed in such a manner, that we must presume they possessed very little of this world's gear. Their all, no doubt, consisted in a few rude tools, a scanty supply of provisions, a meagre wardrobe, and a small number of rusty fire arms : they had to manufacture their own furniture, if the apolo- gy for it, merited such a name. Bedsteads, they for some time dispensed with. From logs they cut blocks, which answered the purposes of chairs and tables ; sideboards, sofas, piano fortes, ot- tomans, carpets, &c., were to them neither objects of family pride, convenience or envy. They endeavored to foster the friendship of their Indian neighbors, and from them they received corn and beans, which the latter kindly showed them how to cultivate. Within one week after their arrival, four children were born ; a fact I think very worthy of record in the annals of this people. Their names were Catharine Mattice, Elizabeth Lawyer, Wilhel- mus Bouck and Johannes Earhart. In preparing ground for plant- ing, which was done in the absence of plows, by broad hoes, they found many ground nuts, which they made use of for food, the first season. I have no account of their having been furnished with provisions by the Queen's agent, after they left Albany, and suppose they were left to live on their o^n resources, and what the country afforded. , The want of grist mills, for several years, they found to be a source of great inconvenience. The stump mentioned in the pre- 52 HISTORY OF SCHOHAEIE COUNTY, ceding chapter, which served as the southern bound of the first Indian purchase, not only answered the Indians, but the first Germans, the purpose of a corn mill. By the side of this hollow stump, an upright shaft and cross-bar ^ere raised, from which was suspended a heavy wood, or stone pestle, working on the principle of a pump. Their corn for several years, they hulled with lye, or pounded preparatory to eating it. Brown says, the first wheat was sowed in Schoharie in the fall of 1713, by Lambert Sternberg, of Garlock's dorf. As I have shown the arrrival of the Germans to have been two years ear- lier than the time stated by him, I suppose the first wheat to have been sown in the fall of 1711. As Schenectada was nearer the Schoharie settlements than Albany, for such necessaries as they required the first few years, they visited the former place the most frequently. Those who possessed the means, bought wheat there at two shillings a spint, (a peck,) or six shillings a skipple, had it ground and returned home with it on their backs, by a lonely Indian footh-path, through a heavy forest. It was thus, Sternberg carried the first skipple of wheat ever taken to Schoharie in the berry. He re- sided near the present residence of Henry Sternberg, a descend- ant of his. On the west side of the river, opposite Garlock's dorf, had been an Indian castle, which was abandoned about the time the Germans arrived ; the occupants having removed up the river, to the Wilder Hook. On the ground within the dilapidated inclosure, the wheat was sowed, or rather planted, (as they then had no plows or horses,) over more than an acre of ground; it was planted within this yard, because it was a warm, rich piece of ground with little grass on it, and being inclosed, would remove the danger of having the crop destroyed in the fall or sprino-, by deer, which were numerous on the surrounding moun- tains. This wheat, which rooted remarkably well in the fall, stood so thin, from having been scattered over so much ground, that it was hoed in the spring like a patch of corn ; and well was the husbandman rewarded for his labor. Every berry sent forth several stalks, every stalk sustained a drooping head, and AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 53 every head teemed with numerous berries. When ripe, it was gathered with the greatest care ; not a single head was lost, and when threshed, the one yielded eighty-three skipples. In these days, when the weevil scarcely allows three, to say nothing of the eighty, bushels to one; this statement would perhaps be look- ed upon as incredible, were not all the circumstances known. Many procured seed from Sternberg, and it was not long before the settlers raised wheat enough for their own consumption. For several years, they had most of their grain floured at Schenectada. They usually went there in parties of fifteen or twenty at a time, to be better able to defend themselves against wild beasts, which then were numerous between the two places. Often, there were as many women as men in those journeys, and as they had to encamp in the woods at least one night, the wo- men frequently displayed when in danger, as much coolness and bravery as their liege lords. A skipple was the quantity usually borne by each individual, but the stronger often carried more. Not unfrequently, they left Schoharie to go to mill, on the morn- ing of one day, and were at home on the morning of the next ) performing a journey of between forty and fifty miles, in twenty- four hours or less, bearing the ordinary burden ; but at such times, they traveled most of the night without encamping. It is said, that women were not unfrequently among those who performed the journey in the shortest time — preparing a breakfast for their families, from the flour they had brought, on the morning after they left home. Where is the matron now to be found, in the whole valley of the Schoharie, who would perform such a jour- ney, in such a plight 7 As may be supposed, many of the first settlers in Schoharie were related. Hence has arisen that weighty political argument sometimes heard, " he belongs to the cousin family." Owing to the industry and economy of the colonists, and the richness of the soil, want soon began to flee their dwellings, and plenty to enter; and as their clothes began to wax old, they manufactured others from dressed buck-skins, which they obtain- ed from the Indians. A file of those men, clad in buck-skin, 5 54 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, with caps of fox or wolf-skin, all of their own manufacture, must have presented a formidable appearance. It is not certain but the domestic economy of the male, was carried into the female department ; and that here and there a ruddy maiden, concealed her charming proportions beneath a habit of deer-skin. It is said that physicians accompanied the first Germans to Schoharie ; and that for many years, ministers, or missionaries, under pay from the British government, labored in the different German settlements in the country. They visited the people; married those whose peace of mind Cupid had destroyed ; preached to, and exhorted all. Their audiences usually occupied some convenient barn in the summer season, and the larger dwell- ings in the winter. The want of horses and cattle at first, was much felt by the settlements. By whom cattle, swine and sheep v/ere first intro- duced, I have been unable to learn. The first of the horse kind they possessed, was an old gray mare. She was purchased at Schenectada for a small sum, by nine individuals of Weiser's dorf ; and it is said they kept her moving. Who the nine were, who o-loried in owning this old Rosinante, is unknown ; but there can be little doubt that Weiser, the patroon, owned an important share. It may be asked, whether the people of those settlements, who resided too close together, to admit of lands for cultivation lying between them, did not live as do the shakers ; who make all their earnings common stock. With a mutual under- standing, each labored for his own benefit, and in order to prevent difliculty, lands were marked out and bounds placed, so that every one knew and cultivated his own parcel. Not long after the Germans settled in Schoharie, the Dutch be- gan a settlement in Vrooman's Land, on the west side of the river, two or three miles above Weiser's dorf. Adam Vrooman, a citizen of Schenectada — a farmer of considerable wealth, and somewhat advanced in life, took a royal patent for this land, from which cir- cumstance, it was called Vrooman's Land : by which name it is still distinguished. This patent was executed August 26, 1714. Previous to obtaining the royal title, Vrooman had received Indian AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 55 conveyances for portions of the land as gifts. One of two deeds, which have escaped the fate of most of Col. Peter Vrooman's papers, contains the names of eighteen Indians, inserted in the following order : " Pennonequieeson, Canquothoo, Hendrick the Indian, [probably King Hendrick of the French war,] Kawna- wahdeakeoe, Turthyowriss, Sagonadietah, Tucktahraessoo, Onna- dahsea, Kahenterunkqua, Amos the Indian, Jacob the Indian, Cor- nelius the Indian, Gonhe Wannah, One.edyea, Leweas the Indian, Johanis the Indian, Tuquaw-in-hunt, and Esras the Indian, all owners and proprietors of a certain piece of land, situate, lying and being in the bounds of the land called Skohere." The title is for two hundred and sixty acres of land near the hill " called Onitstagrawa ;" two hundred of which were fiats, and sixty acres wood-land. The instrument closed as follows : " In testimony whereof, we, the three races or tribes of the Maquase, the Turtle, Wolf and Bear, being present, have hereunto set our marks and seals, in the town of Schenectady, this two and twentieth day of August, and in the tenth year of her Majesty's [Qiieen Anne's] reign. Annoque Domini, 1711." Eighteen wax seals are at- tached to the conveyance^ in front of which are arranged, in the order named, the devices of a turtle, a wolf and a bear, the form- er holding a tomahawk in one of its claws. The other deed alluded to, is dated April 30, 1714, and con- tains the eight following names : " Siuonneequerison, Tanuryso, Nisawgoreeatah,Turgourus, Honodaw, Kannakquawes, Tigreedon- tee, Onnodeegondee, all of the Maquaes country, native Indians, Owners and proprietors, &c." The deed was given for three hun- dred and forty acres of woodland, lying eastward of the sixty acres previously conveyed, " bounded northward by the Onitsta- grawa, to the southward by a hill called Kan-je- a-ra-go-re, to the westward by a ridge of hills that join to Onitstagrawa, extending southerly much like unto a half moon, till it joins the aforesaid hill Kanjearagore." This instrument closes in the manner of the one before noticed, except that each Indian's name is placed be- fore a seal to which he had made his mark. The ensigns of the three Mohawk tribes, are conspicuously traced in the midst of the 56 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, signatures. One of the two witnesses to both deed? was Leo Stevens, a woman who acted as interpreter on the occasion of granting each conveyance. Both deeds were duly recorded in the secretary's office of the province. March 30lh, 1726, Adam Vrooman obtained a new Indian ti- tle to the flats known as Vrooraan's Land, executed by nine indi- viduals of the nation, " in behalf of all the Mohaugs Indians." Some difficulty had probably arisen, in consequence of his hold- ing more land than the first deeds specified. The new title gave the land previously conveyed with the sentence, " let there be as- much as there v/ill, more or less, for we are no surveyors ;" and was executed with the ensigns of the Mohawk nation — the turtle, wolf and hear. Vrooman's patent was bounded on the north by a point of the Onitstagrawa and the Line kill, and on the south by the white pine swamp, (as a little swamp near the present residence of Samuel Lawyer was then called) and a brook running from it, and em- braced a good part of the flats between those two bounds from the hill to the river, excepting the Wilder Hook : where dwelt many of the natives, and where, as before slated, was their strong- est castle. This patent was given for eleven hundred acres, more or less. It is said to have contained about fourteen hundred acres : than w'hich very little better land ever was tilled. He had not designed to settle on this land himself, but made the purchase for a son. Peter Vrooman, for whom it was bought, settled on it soon after the purchase. He had quite a family, his oldest son, Bartholomew, being at that time fourteen or fifteen years old. He had a house erected previous to his moving there, and other conveniences for living. The fu-st summer, he employed several hands, planted considerable corn, and fenced in some of his land. In the following autumn, he returned with his wife and children to Schenectada to spend the winter ; leaving a hired man by the name of Truax, and two blacks, Morter, and Mary his wife, to take care of the property ; of which he left considerable. Not long after Vrooman returned to Schenectada, Truax was most cruelly murdered. The circumstances attending this murder, are AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 57 substantially as follows. The evening before his death, Truax returned from the pleasing recreation of gunning, with a mess of pigeons, which he told Mary to dress and prepare for breakfast. Being fatigued, he retired to rest earlier than usual, and soon for- got his cares and dangers, in a grateful slumber familiar to the sportsman. Mary cleansed the pigeons, and after having done so, she unconsciously put the knife into a side pocket still bloody, intending, but forgetting to wash it. Morter was absent from home during that evening and most of the night. Mary arose betimes in the morning, with no small pains prepared the savory dish, and waited sometime for Truax to rise. Observing that he kept his room unusually late, she went to his door and called to him, but received no answer. She tried to open the door and found it locked on the inside. As may be supposed, she felt the most lively apprehensions that all was not right. She could, from some position outside the house, look into his window. Thither she with trepidation went, when her suspicions were more than realized, and she learned too well the reason he had not risen at his usual hour. She quickly communicated intelli- gence of her discovery to the Indians, her nearest neighbors : who, on their arrival at the house, burst open the door of his room. Horrible indeed was the sight then disclosed. Poor Truax lay in his -bed, which he had sought without the least sus- picion of danger, cold and stiff in his own gore ; with his throat cut from ear to ear. Indian messengers were immediately dis- patched to Schenectada, to communicate the tragic affair to Peter Vrooman. About the same time, the bloody knife was discovered in the pocket of the weeping Mary. On the evening of the same, or early the following day, the messengers returned with Vrooman, and proper officers to arrest the murderer, or whoever might be suspected. Suspicions were fixed upon the two blacks; and when the fact of finding the bloody knife in the pocket of Mary, and the circumstance of Morter's being absent from home were known, both were arrested, and hurried off to Albany for trial. The day of examination soon arrived, and the prisoners were 58 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, brought to the bar. The trial proceeded, and the testimony of the Indians, to whom Mary had first communicated her suspicions of the murder, was heard. No unsettled difficulty was shown to have existed between the murdered and the accused : indeed, lit- tle appeared at the trial to criminate the blacks, more than is al- ready known to the reader. When the facts, that the throat of Truax had been cut, that a bloody knife was found on the person of Mary, and that Morter had sullenly refused to answer questions during his arrest and confinement, were known to the court, cir- cumstantial evidence was deemed sufficiently strong and lucid to fix guilt upon them : and as the murder had been an aggravated one, the prisoners were sentenced, as tradition says, to be burned alive. When interrogated by the Judge, before passing his sen- tence, whether they had aught to say why sentence of death should not pass upon them, Mary boldly and firmly declared her innocence, and her ignorance of the real murderer : stating, in a feeling manner, all she knew of the aflfair ; how the knife had been heedlessly put into her pocket after cleansing the pigeons, and forgotten; how much she respected the deceased, and how much she lamented his untimely death ; and ended by an appeal to the great Judge of the universe of her innocence of the crime, for which she stood accused. Morter, on being interrogated, re- mained sullenly silent ; and after receiving the sentence, both were remanded to prison. On the day of their execution, which had not been long delayed, the condemned were taken west of the city a little distance, where had been previously prepared, a circular pile of pine faggots of a conical form. In the centre of the pile the victims were placed, and the fatal torch applied. Mary, still protesting her innocence, called on the Lord, whom she trusted would save her ; and prayed that he would, in the heavens, show to the spectators some token of her innocence. But alas ! the day of miracles had passed ; and as the flame surrounded her, she gave herself up to despair. She expired, endeavoring to convince the multitude of her innocence. Her companion met his fate, with the same stoic indifference he had manifested from the hour of his arrest. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK, 59 After the execution of this unhappy couple, one of whom, as will be seen hereafter, expired innocent of the crime for which she suffered, the affair died away, and nothing further was dis- closed for several years. Facts then came to light revealing the whole transaction. At the time the murder was committed, a man by the name of Moore resided at Weiser's dorf. The Ger- mans at that settlement, which was distant from the dwelling of Vrooman about two miles, it was supposed, envied Vrooman the possession of the fine tract of land he had secured ; and by com- pelling him to abandon, hoped to possess it. It is not probable, however, that any one of them, except Moore, thought of getting it by the crime of murder. He conceived such a plan, and con- spired with Morter to carry it into execution. Moore thought if Truax was murdered, Vrooman would be afraid to return for fear of sharing a like fate, and would then dispose of the land on reasonable terms ; when he might secure to himself a choice par- cel. Morter was promised, as a reward for participating in the crime, the hand of Moore's sister in marriage. It is not likely the girl herself, had the most distant idea of the happiness her brother had in store for her. Amalgamation to Morter appeared in enticing garments. To pillow his head on a white bosom, and bask in amalgamated pleasure, would, he thought, amply com- pensate for becoming the tool of Moore. He therefore resolved to aid him, and it was agreed the deed should be executed in such a manner as to throw suspicion on Mary his wife : who, he in- tended, should prove no obstacle in the way of realizing his sen- sual desires. The circumstance of his wife's having pigeons to dress, seemed to favor the design. Perhaps he had seen her put the bloody knife into her pocket : at all events, the present seemed to them a favorable opportunity, and they resolved to accomplish the foul deed that night. Accordingly, at midnight, the murder- ers approached the house in which slumbered their innocent vic- tim. Finding his door locked, they found it necessary to devise some plan to gain admission to his room without breaking the lock, and, if possible, without alarming Mary, a victim they in- tended the law should claim. By some means they gained the 60 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTYj top of the chimney, which was not very difficult, as the dwelling was but one story, and sliding carefully down that, they soon found themselves in the presence of their still slumbering victim. Which of the two drew the fatal knife is unknown ; it is supposed one held him, while the other, at a single stroke, severed the jugu- lar vein. The nefarious deed accomplished, the assassins left the room, and away they sped from the dwelling, fearful alike of theiv own shadows. The light of the morrow's sun disclosed this damnable deed. When the commotion and anxiety of the next day followed dis- covery, Moore feigned business from home, and kept out of the way until after the arrest of his hardened accomplice. Not long after this murder was committed, a disturbance arose among the Germans, through ignorance, as will be seen, and many of them left the Schoharie valley and sought a residence elsewhere, Moore was among those who went to Pennsylvania. He lived a life of fear for some years in that state, but at length a sum- mons from on high laid him upon a bed of languishing. As dis- ease preyed upon his vitals, the worm of torment gnawed his con- science. Sometimes in his broken slumbers, he was visited (in fancy,) by the ghost of a man struggling upon a bed ; and as he heard the rattle of his throat as the breath left his body, he saw the fearful gash and the flowing blood. At other times he saw two persons, whom the crackling flames were devouring ; and, as the appeal to heaven for a token of the innocence of one of them rang in his ears, he often awoke with exclamations of horror. Being past the hope of recovery, and so grievously tormented, in order to relieve in some measure his guilty conscience, he dis- closed the facts above related. Truax was the first white man murdered in Schoharie county ; and may be said to have fallen a victim to the unholy cause of amalgamation. The Germans had not been long in possession of the Schoharie flats, and were just beginning to live comfortably, when Nicholas Bayard, an agent from the British crown, appeared in their midst. He put up in Smith's dorf, at the house of Han-Yerry (John George) Smith, already noted as being the best domicil in the AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 61 settlement. ■ From this house, (which was in fact the first hotel in Schoharie, and might have been called the half-way house, as Smith's was the central of the seven dorfs,) Bayard issued a no- tice, that to every house-holder, who v/ould make known to him the boundaries of the land he had taken ; he would give a deed in the name of his sovereign. The Germans, ignorant though honest, mistook altogether the object of the generous offer, and supposing it designed to bring them again under tyrannic land- holders, and within the pale of royal oppression, resolved at once to kill Bayard, whom they looked upon as a foe to their future peace; and by so doing, establish more firmly the independence they had for several years enjoyed. Consequently, early the next morning, the nature of the resolve having been made known the evening before, the honest burghers of Schoharie, armed with guns and pitch-forks; with many of the softer sex, in whom dwelt the love of liberty, armed with broad hoes, clubs and other missiles ; surrounded the hotel of Smith, and demanded the per- son of Bayard, dead or alive. Mine host, who knew at that ear- ly day that a well managed hotel was the traveler's home, posi- tively refused to surrender to his enraged countrymen, his guest. The house was besieged throughout the day. Sixty balls w^ere fired by the assailants through the roof, which was the most vul- nerable part, as that was straw : and as Bayard had, previous to his arrival, been by accident despoiled of an eye, he ran no little risk of returning to the bosom of his family, if fortunate enough to return, totally blind. Bayard was armed with pistols, and oc- casionally returned the fire of his assailants, more, no doubt, with the design of frightening, than of killing them. Having spent the last round of their ammunition, hunger beginning to gnaw, and the sable shades of evening to conceal the surrounding hills, the siege was raised, and the heroes of the bloodless day dispersed to their homes, to eat their fill and dream on their personal ex- ploits — the invulnerability of their foe, and the mutability of princely promises. The coast again clear, Bayard left Schoharie, and under the cover of night, traveled to Schenectada. From there he sent a message to Schoharie, offering to give, to such as 62 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, should appear there with a single ear of corn — acknowledge him the regal agent — and name the bounds of it, a free deed and last- ing title to their lands. No one felt inclined to call on the agent, whose life they had attempted to take, and after waiting some time, he went to Albany and disposed of the lands they occupied, to five individuals. The patent was granted to Myndert Schuyler, Peter Van Brugh, Robert Livingston, jr., John Schuyler and Hen- ry Wileman, the purchasers, and was executed at Fort George, in New York, on the third day of November, 1714, in the first year of the reign of George L, by Robert Hunter, then Governor of the province, in behalf of the King. The date of this con- veyance, I think, goes far to prove the settlement of Schoharie to have been as early as the time previously given ; as the settlers had been upon their lands several years, and were beginning to live comfortably, previous to the arrival of the royal agent. This patent began at the northern limits of the Vrooman pa- tent, on the west side of the river, and the little Schoharie kill on the opposite side, and ran from thence north ; taking in a strip on both sides of the river : at times mounting the hills, and at others leaving a piece of flats, until it nearly reached the present Montgomery county line. It curved some, and the intention was, to embrace all the flats in that distance. Patent was taken for ten thousand acres. Lewis Morris, jr., and Andrus Coeman, who were employed by the purchasers to survey and divide the land ; finding the fiats along Fox's creek, and a large piece at Kneis- kern's dorf, near the mouth of Cobel's kill, were not included in that patent ; lost no time in securing them. Those several pa- tents often ran into each other, and in some instances were so far apart, as to leave a gore between them. The patent taken to se- cure the remainder of the fiats at Kneiskern's dorf, began at a spring on the west side of the river, near the bridge which now crosses that stream above Schoharie Court House, and also ran to, or near the Montgomery county line. Between that and the first patent secured, M'hich were intended to embrace all the flats, was left a very valuable gore, which Augustus Van Cortlandt after- wards secured. Finding much difficulty in dividing their lands, AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 63 they so often intersected, the first five purchasers and their sur- veyors, Morris and Coeman, whose right in the Schoharie soil was proportionably valuable, agreed to make joint stock of the three patents. Since that time they have been distinguished as the lands of the seve7i partners Patents and deeds granted at subsequent dates, for lands adjoining those of the seven partners, were, in some instances, bounded in such a manner as to infringe on those of the latter, or leave gores between them. As may be supposed, evils were thus originated, which proved a source of bickering and litigation for many years. Suits for partition, were brought successively in Schoharie county in 1819 — 25 — 26 — 28 and 29 : at which time they were finally adjusted. The latest difficulties are said to have existed between the people of Duanes- burg and Schoharie. After the seven partners secured their title to the Schoharie flats, they called on the Germans who dwelt upon them, either to take leases of, to purchase, or to quit them altogether. To neither of these terms would they accede, declaring that Queen Anne had given them the lands, and they desired no better title. The read- er will bear in mind the fact, that those people had no lawyers among them, except by name, on their arrival — that they livecj in a measure isolated from those who could instruct them — that they spoke a language different from that in which the laws of the country were written, which laws they were strangers to ; and that they placed implicit confidence in the promises of the good Queen, that they should have the lands free ; and he will be less surprised at their stubbornness. Their faith in the promises of the Queen, had not been misplaced, as the intention of the crown to give them free titles by Bayard clearly proves. The great diffi- culty proceeded from their ignorance of the utility, and manner of granting deeds. The patent taken by the five partners was dated in November, 1714 ; and it was not until the first of August of that year, that Queen Anne died. It is therefore very probable, Bayard was an agent commissioned by her ; if not, by George I., who intended in good faith to carry into effect the design of his predecessor. Whether royal agents were sent to the other Ger- 64 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, man settlements in the United States for the same charitable put- pose or not, I am unable to say. At this period of the history, several incidents transpired wor- thy of notice. I have already remarked that the Germans were fond of athletic exercises. After their location, such sports as were calculated to try their speed and strength, were not unfre- quentlj indulged in. In the summer of 1713 or '14, a shwip was given by the In- dians to their German neighbors at Weiser's dorfj to run a foot race, offering to stake on the issue, a lot of dressed de^^r-skins against some article the Germans possessed ; possibly, tlieir old mare. The challenge was accepted, and a son of Conrad Weiser was selected, to run against a little dark Indian, called the most agile on foot of all the tribe. On a beautiful day the par- ties assembled at Weiser's dorf to witness the race. The race- course was above the village, and on either side the Germans and Indians took stations to encourage their favorites. About indi- vidual bets on the occasion, I have nothing to say. The couple started, a distance of half a mile or more from the goal, at a giv- en signal, and onward they dashed with the fleetness of antelopes, amid the shouts and huzzas of the spectators. The race was to terminate just beyond the most southern dwelling of Weiser's dorf. They ran v.'ith nearly equal speed until their arrival at the dwell- ing mentioned, sometimes fortune inclining to the white, and sometimes to the red skin ; when an unexpected event decided the contest in favor of the German. They had to run very close to the house, and Weiser, being on the outside as they approached it side by side, sprang with all his might against his competitor. The sudden impetus forced the Indian against the building, and he rebounded and fell half dead upon the ground. Weisor then easily won the race, amid the loud, triumphant shouts of his coun- trymen. Whether the victor found his strength failing him, and adopted the expedient of disabling the Indian from fear ot losing the wager, or whether, confident of superior pedestrian powers, he gave the Indian a jog with malicious intent, is unknown to the writer. The Indians, and their defeated champion, were terribly AND BOEDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 65 enraged at first, and positively refused to give up the forfeit : but Weiser, who had ah'eady learned much of the Indian character, and knew the danger of trifling with their misfortunes, with a grave-yard countenance, appeased their wrath, by satisfying them that the whole difficulty proceeded from accident — that he stum- bled upon some obstacle which rendered it unavoidable, and was very sorry it had happened. With this explanation their anger was appeased, and they delivered up the skins ; from which it is but fair to conclude, the whole Weiser family were clothed. This is the only dishonest trick I have heard related of the first Germans, and with the exception of Moore, they seem to have been strangers to crime. Foot races were often run by those people : at times, fifteen or twenty entering the course together. It has been already remarked, that the Germans settled in clusters or dorfs, to be the better able to repel Indian invasion, and it now remains to be shown that such caution was rewarded, if tradition speaks the truth. The privilege the writer claims, he allows to the reader, to wit : that of believing as much of the fol- lowing story as he pleases. When related to him, the author thought it too good to be lost. At the foot of the hill south of where stood Hartman's dorf, which is the descent from a table land to the river flats, as the road now lies, may be observed on one side a kind of marsh, through which runs a brook, receiving in its course the waters of several springs. At the period to which I allude, this marsh was thickly covered with alders and other swamp timber, and aiforded a safe covert for no inconsiderable force. Early upon a certain day, in a certain year, Karighondontee and many of his warriors were assembled at this swamp, to give battle to the good people of Hartman's dorf, distant half a mile from the encampment. If the reader desired to know the cause of difficulty, or in what pre- cise year it arose, I should be unable to inform him ; it must have been previous to the arrival of Bayard. It being rumored through the place that it was besieged, great was the commo- tion through its one important street. By times, the brave Cap- tain Hartman had taken a public station, and around him a mul- 66 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, litude were soon gathered. The tactic skill of the Captain re- quired little time in marshaling his brave followers — his tender care about their temporal affairs at the Camps being still remem- bered — who waited with impatience the march to glory. What other officers assisted Captain Hartman on this momentous occa- sion, is of no consequence at this late period. Various were the weapons with which the dangerous looking corps were armed- Few lire-arms might have been seen, but forks, shovels, broad hoes, axes, poles, clubs, hand-saws, and the Lord knows what other missiles, gleamed threateningly in the sun. Indeed, the care-worn and trusty swoid of the Captain, when drawn, added not a little to the warlike appearance of the troop, to say nothing of its multiform, military garb. " What a fine martial array," thought he, as his eye ran along the ranks, and he gave the com- mand to " face towards the river and march !" Each individual of the brave band cast a furtive, speaking glance at the front stoop of his own dwelling, where stood the domestic circle weep- ing or encouraging, or that of his lover, who was leaning upon the half opened door, with an arm across her face to conceal the gushing tear, or her pouting, nectareal lip ; and to the enlivening sound of the violin, their favorite and only music, set forward with a firm step, determined to conquer or die. Two-thirds of the distance from the village to the rendezvous of the enemy al- ready in his rear, the Captain ordered a halt, to communicate to his troops some necessary instructions about the plan and manner of prosecuting the attack. Some of his men now hesitated about assaulting ihe enemy, as they were mostly armed with un- erring rifles. The misgivings on this score soon became general, and then was called forth all the donnant eloquence their brave leader was so noted for possessing. Stepping upon a stump, from which position his commanding person and cheerful counte- nance were truly conspicuous, he addressed his followers. He directed their attention to the time when they were persecuted in Germany — to the perils they had overcome by sea and land. He assured them that although the enemy had rifles, yet not one of them should discharge. He conjured them not to sully, by cow- AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 67 ardice, their national character. He reminded them of their so- cial relations which were jeopardized — of the love of their wives, their parents, their children, and lastly of their plighted. He ac- companied the latter part of his pathetic speech, with a signifi- cant flourish of his sword towards their village, a part of which was still in view. The appeal was irresistahle, and with one voice the whole corps, in true German, responded — " Fuehret an !" Lead on ! Fearlessly he did lead on, and thus was he followed. Faith is the vital principle by which every successful effort of man is put forth, and without it, the sinews of war are powerless. Indeed, faith is no less requisite in war than religion, and no bat- tle ever was won without it. So thought the daring Hartman, and so had he instructed his followers to think. When they came to the wood in which the enemy had taken a position, the Ger- mans, following the example of their Captain, rushed furiously upon the wary foe. They met, as had been anticipated, his lev- eled guns, but no sound, save their repeated clicks, was heard : no death-telling report rang through the valley, and the whoops of the savages, as they noted the failure of their rifles, gradually died away on the morning air. The confidence of the colonists was increased, on beholding the prophecy of their Captain veri- fied, in the click of non- discharging fire-arms, and true to their leader, they seconded all his movements. The red man fell back abashed, and ere he could discover the cause of his ill luck, the sturdy German was upon him, the sight of whose weapon was enough to carry terror to his heart's warmest blood, and he was compelled again to flee. " An !" shouted the immortal Captain, " An !" The charge was too impetuous to be withstood, and the Indians fled in terror, uttering, as they left the swamp in posses- sion of their enemy, the death yell. Well might they have sup- posed, from the clashing of missiles coming accidentally in con- tact with their fellows, or with obtruding trees, and now and then with the head or shoulders of their comrades, that the carnao-e was terrible, and the reason for the death yell obviously augment- ed. What a cruel, bloody art, is war. The troops of Captain Hartman belabored the natives lustily with fork and hoe, as may 68 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, be supposed, in their retreat. Here, some were seen hobbling off from the field of battle with bruised shins ; there, others M'ith el- bows or fingers disjointed — all amazed at the manifest prowess of their German enemies, and still more dismayed that their rifles gave no report. If any there were among them who fought on that m.emorable occasion with bows and arrows, and doubtless there were some, it is highly probable the thick buck-skin gar- ments of the colonists arrested the further progress of their arrows 5 else the fate of the day might still have been different, and I now had to record the success, instead of the defeat, of the stout Ca- nadian Chief, Karighondontee. The little army of Harttean were soon left complete masters of the bloodless field, (as it would have been, had not the careless wielding of the missiles brought them occasionally in contact with a nasal organ ;) and the re- peated German huzzas of the conquerors, reverberated along the Oucong€7ia. The enemy fairly ousted and the field gloriously won, the victors returned again to their homes to a still more en- livening air than the one with which they had left them, the whole length of the bow being given it ; where awaited them the cheers and smiles of their fair ones. It is but reasonable to suppose, that a messenger had been sent forward to apprise the villagers of the great success and triumph of the German arms, without loss of life or limb, since I must believe, that had the good matrons been expecting to see any of the corps borne home on a litter, they would not have made the welkin ring with their shouts. Thus ended the first regular battle of the Germans in the valley of Schoharie, no less gloriously than did the siege of Smith's hotel, already before the reader, on which occasion they com- pelled their supposed enemy to flee by night. One thing, how- ever, remained to be done, the pipe of peace was yet to be smoked. Accordingly, on an appointed day, soon after the battle, the parties met in the shade of a majestic oak, not a mile from the battle field, which had buffeted the storms of several cen- turies, and may be still standing, and well and faithfully did the Germans smoke the calumet. They are a people extremely fond AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 69 of fumigating, and the opportunity to show their Indian neigh- bors their patience and skill in the art, as may be supposed, was heartily embraced. Nor is it improbable, that their countrymen at Weiser's dorf were guests on so important an occasion. The Indians were again compelled to accord to their (now) friends of the pipe, superior skill. ThcvVirginia weed all burned, the par- ties dispersed. Well would it be if all battles ended, like the bat- tle of Hartman's dorf, in nothing worse than smoke. Perhaps thou art amazed, kind reader, while perusing the sim- ple narrative of this battle, to find that the fire-arms of the In- dians did not discharge. The days of witchcraft are now happi- ly passed forever ; but the time has been, when it was no uncom- mon thing for a spell or enchantment to extend to the lock of a rifle : so says tradition. — George Warner. We have seen how Bayard, the royal agent, was treated, when he visited Schoharie to execute deeds to the German land-holders • that in consequence, the land was disposed of, and it now remains to be shown what effect that sale had on the tenant. Being called upon by the partners to lease or purchase, they declared they would do neither. Finding lenient measures of no avail, they re- solved to obtain justice by the strong arm of the law. Accord- ingly, a sheriff from Albany, by the name of Adams, was sent to apprehend some of the boldest of the trespassers, as they had now become, and frighten others into proper terms. The Albanians greatly underrated the character and bravery of those people, who had not only compelled an agent of the crown to flee, but had, in fair fight, victoriously battled their Indian neighbors. It is possi- ble they had never heard of that terrible conflict. Adams, con- scious of his own honorable intentions, passing through a part of the valley, made a halt at Weiser's dorf. He had no sooner discovered his business and attempted the arrest of an individu- al, than a mob was collected, and at that early day the lynch law was enforced. The women of that generation, as has been shown by their journeys to Schenectada, possessed Amazonian strength and constitutions, if not proportions ; nor, indeed, were they lack- ing in Spartan bravery. A part of those well-meaning dameSj, 6 70 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, remembering the promises of Queen Anne, and sharing with their husbands the belief that they were objects of oppression, — that the intention was to compel them to pay for lands they al- ready considered their own ; under the direction of Magdalene Zeh, a self appointed captain, took the sheriff into their own hands and dealt with him according to his deserts, of which the captain was judge. He was knocked down by a blow from the magistrate, and inducted into various places in that young village where the sow delighted to wallow. After receiving many in- dignities in the neighborhood of Weiser's dorf, some of which he was conscious of receiving and some not, he was placed upon a rail, and rode skimington through most of the settlements. He was exhibited at Hartman's, Bruna, Smith's and Fox's dorfs to his discomfiture ; and finally deposited on a small bridge, made of logs, that had been placed across a stream on the old Albany .road, a distance from the starting point of between six and seven miles ; no ordinary journey for such a conveyance. This stream was formerly called Mill brook, — why, remains to be seen, — and cross- es the road a short distance west of the residence of Peter Mann, in Fox's creek valley. The captain then seized a stake, which she carelessly laid over his person, until two of his ribs made four, and his organs of vision were diminished one half. She then, with little ceremony and less modesty, bathed his temples in a very unusual, though simple manner, to the great annoyance of the uninjured eye — poor fellow, he could not resist the kindness — and called oflf her compatriots, leaving him for dead ; or rather to die if he chose. He saw fit to do no such act, in such a plight, and after such a nurdng ; and as soon as consciousness returned, how long after Mistress Lynch had left him is unknown, he gath- ered himself together and departed for Albany. What strange thoughts must have occupied his mind, while homeward bound. He must have been conscious, when the faculties of his mind re- newed their action, that whether his knowledge had increased or not, his humps assuredly had. His progress must necessarily have been very slow, thus bruised and maimed, and it was not until the third day after he had been on the rail-roJe, that he reached Ver- AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 71 re-herg, a hill seven miles west of Albany, from whence he was taken to the city in a wagon. As there were no public houses, and few Samaritans on the road at that time, he was exposed nights to the carnival of wild beasts, and by day, to danger of perishing with hunger. His arrival at Albany, wounded and /lalf blind as he was, and maul-treated as he had been, prognosti- cated no good for the people of Schoharie. The leading facts in the foregoing statement, were published by Judge Brown, who assured the author that he received them from Sheriff Adams, vi- va-voce — from his own lips. The word berg, as we have shown, signifies a hill or mountain. At the period of which I write, before public houses were estab- lished between the two places, the people of Schoharie, who had occasion to go to Albany to make disposals and purchases, went in squads and encamped out over night. The most important bergs and creeks on the road, were th^ the guides by which they knew the route, distance, &c., and served the traveler in lieu of mile-stones. The first important stopping place, after leaving Schoharie, was at the Long-berg, east of Gallupville. There, if the wayfarer left the valley late, he tarried over night : to it was therefore called the first day's journey. The Beaverkill, which is a branch of Fox's creek, was also a guide : then came the Feght- berg, Supawn-berg, Lice-berg, Helle-berg, Botte-Mentis-berg, and lastly Verre-berg. All these names had some significant meaning, which continued to remind the traveler of their origin, long after the road, which was then little more than a rough foot path, and hardly admissible for any kind of wagons, became a public one, properly laid out. Long-berg signified the long hill. Feght-berg, the fighting hill, the origin of which has previously been given. Supaan is the name among the Germans and Dutch, by which Indian pudding, usually called mush or hasty pudding among the English, is known. Why that name attaches to a hill, the writer has not been informed. The origin of Lice-berg and Verre-berg are also among the mysteries. A hill was called Bot- te-Mentis-berg from the following circumstance. A man, whose given name was Botte Mace,— or Bartholomew in English — was 72 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, passing along in the evening and fell into a pit, where he was obliged to remain until morning : to the nearest hill was given bis name, by which it was long after known. ^ As may be supposed, the people of Schoharie, after dealing with poor Adams in the manner they had, became cautious about visiting Albany, where several of tiie partners resided. There was, in fact, little intercourse between Schoharie and Albany for some time : the people of the former viewing those of the latter place, in a light of lively apprehension. In civilized life, it is happily ordered that one community shall not live entirely inde- pendent of all others. There were some necessaries which they must have, and v/hich they could not well procure vdthout going there. The men, therefore, sent their wives after salt ; which was one of the indispensables ; saying, in effect, they will rever- ence them : and if they did venture to Albany themselves, they were sure to do so on the ISabbath, and equally mindful of leav- ing the same evening. What a profanation of the Lord's day !— but let us not anticipate a judgment. By remaining silent in the mean time, and not appearing to heed their coming or going, the real owners of the Schoharie soil, lured the occupants into a be- lief, that all the malicious acts extended to Sheriff Adams, not forgetting the last act of Magdalene, were entirely forgotten : and that there was no longer any need of caution about entering that good city. It was indeed presuming much on the charity of the partners, whose agent had been so harshly treated : but no matter, such was the fact. With the vigilance of the sentinel crow, were the people of Schoharie watched, who began to be looked upon as being no better than they should be, — as women are wont to say of frail sisters, — and preparations were matured for seizing some of them. It was not long after suspicion was lulled, before quite a number of them entered the city for salt, when the partners, with Sheriff Adams and posse, arrested and committed them to jail. The most notorious of the party were placed in the dungeon, among whom was Conrad Weisei", jr., of running memory. As soon as news of this arrest and impri- sonment reached Schoharie, her citizens were horror stricken 7 AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 73 " Wliat shall we do V — was the interrogatory on the lips of one and all. How sadly, thought they, have we realized our Euro> pean dreams of American happiness. Desirous of remedying in future the evils to which they were subjected, it was, at a meet- ing of the citizens, resolved to get up a petition setting forth their grievances, persecutions, &c.; and delegate three of their number to lay it, with all due humility, at the feet of King George; praying, at the time, for his future protection against their ene- mies, the Albanians. This petition, which is said to have been drawn by John Newkirk, was entrusted to the elder Conrad Wei- ser, one Cassleman, and a third person, name not known, for pre- sentation. Looking through grates and living on bread and water, had a wonderful effect on the spirits and temper of the incarcerated ci- tizens of Schoharie. They therefore made a virtue of necessity, and resolved to comply with the requisitions of the law, by taking leases and agreeing to pay rent for, or to purchase the land. Be- fore releasing the prisoners, the partners drew up a statement of the abuses to Bayard and Adams, when in the discharge of their official duties at Schoharie, and required them to be witnessed un- der hand and seal. This last requisition complied with, they were allowed to depart for their own homes. The importance with which the colonists viewed this matter may be conceived by the delegation to England : for, surely, no trifling consideration would induce three men, who loved retire- ment, to make such a journey at such a time. We should look upon it at the present day, as being a great undertaking — saying nothing of locomotives, rail-roads and steam- packets, which were then unknown. No delay was allowed after procuring the duly attested evidence of the proceedings of Judge Lynch : it was for- warded immediately to the King. It is highly probable, that the same ship bore the Schoharie ambassadors and the swift witness against them, to the British throne. The petition was presented about the year 1714 or '15. The ship in due time arrived in Eng- land, and the Schoharie delegation, wishing to make a respecta- ble appearance among the ybreigw ambassadors, -were subjected to 74 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, some little delay, in arranging their wardrobe, exchanging their buck-skin garments for cloth, &c.: in the mean time, the message of the partners was under the consideration of the King. On presenting their petition, how were Weiser and his friends as- tounded, to find the King and his ministry in possession of all the late transactions at Schoharie. Had the ghosts of Bayard and Adams appeared before them, they would hardly have been more horror-stricken, than they were to hear their own misdemeanors told them from such a source. Their confusion betrayed their guilt, and established, beyond a doubt, the truth of the charges prefercd against them and their neighbors. The King and his advisers, supposing the evil deeds of the Schoharie people result- ed from had hearts instead of ignorance, the real parent of all their difficulties, without listening to what they might say for themselves, ordered them to close confinement in the tower. How much the present difficulty of these well meaning people argues in favor of an education, and a knowledge of the world and its transactions. Had they been better informed, they would have been less suspicious ; for suspicion and distrust are the hand- maids of ignorance. The liberal minded, is generally the well informed man. But, as already remarked, there were some good reasons for their not advancing rapidly in their knowledge of men and things. They spoke not the general language of the coun- try : which circumstance prevented, in a measure, that intercourse with the world, so necessary to the expansion of the human un- derstanding, and the removal of national or local prejudices. They were accustomed to transact most of their own business without pen, ink or paper ; and, agreeable to the knowledge they had, and their own method of doing business, they considered a promise made in good faith, as valid as a bond, for such in fact it was with them, and never dreamed of the possibility of their be- ing mistaken about the object of Bayard's mission ; or that any thing farther was necessary from the British crown to establish their legal title to the lands, than the mere promise of the Queen that they should, without money or price, possess them. During the confinement of the disappointed trio, many of the AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 75 people of Schoharie, convinced that they stood in their own light, and that they had wholly mistaken the intention of Bayard, too late indeed to obtain a legal title to their lands free of charge, be- gan to purchase of the partners, who granted them liberal terms. At length, Weiser and his comrades were discharged from the tower, and proceeded home with all possible haste : and had the former only been by name in the positive degree on his arrival in England, he assuredly would have been by nature in the compa- rative on his return to Schoharie ; as he had become in fact much wiser. The return of the embassy, whose mission had resulted in effecting nothing but disgrace for themselves ; and tended only to disclose the general ignorance of their constituents, created no little excitement in the valley. Conrad Weiser was, by nature, a proud, high-spirited man, and could not brook the mortification his own ignorance had originated. Soon after his return, he re- solved to leave Schoharie forever, and had little difficulty in per- suading many of his countrymen to join him. Accordingly, with as little delay as possible, about sixty families packed up and set forward with all they possessed for Pennsylvania. The want of horses and cows, which was so seriously felt by the Germans when they first located at Schoharie, was, at the time I now speak of, a source of little inconvenience, as they then owned a goodly num- ber. The disaffected party passed up the Schoharie river, piloted by an Indian. Brown says, they arrived, after a journey of five days, at the Cook-house,* where they made canoes, in which they went down the Susquehanna. Here is a trifling error in his * I make the following extract from a letter from the Hon. ErastusRoot, of. the New York Senate, in answer to several inquiries, dated Albany, April 11th, 1843. " You ask whence originated the name of Cook House. Vari- ous derivations have been given, but the most natural and probable one is this — That on the large flat bearing the name, being on the way from Cochec- ton, by the Susquehanna and Chemung to Niagara, there was a hut erected, where some cooking utensils were found. It had probably been erected by some traveler who had made it his stopping place and had cooked his provi- sions there. It has been stated to me as a part of the tradition, that the hut remained many years as a resting place to the weary traveler, and that the rude cooking utensils were permitted to remain as consecrated to the use of succeeding sojourners." General Root went to reside in Delaware county in 1796. 76 HISTOEY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, pamphlet, as the Cook-house is on the Delaware river. As he says, they passed down the Susquehanna, preparing their canoes for that purpose, near the mouth of the Charlotte river. Nicho- las Warner, one of the oldest citizens of Schoharie county, in the fall of 1837, assured the author that he had seen the stumps of the trees on the Charlotte branch of the Susquehanna, which Weiser and his friends felled to make the canoes from, in which they floated down the river. Their cattle and horses were driven along the shore, and were frequently in sight of the water party, until the latter left their canoes. Weiser and his followers settled at a place called Tulpehocken, in Berks county, Pennsylvania, on the north side of a creek of that name ; where, it is said, he be- came a distinguished and useful citizen.* The party probably settled near their countrymen who emigrated from Germany at the time they did, and located in that State. Most of the fami- lies which followed the fortunes of Weiser, were from Weiser's and Hartman's dorfs. Hartman Winteker removed at the same time to Pennsylvania. Whether they had to purchase lands in Tulpehocken, I cannot say. Few of Weiser's party ever revisited Schoharie : several old men did, however, nearly fifty years after. A singular circumstance is said to have transpired, showing the instinct of the horses which accompanied the emigration to Penn- sylvania. Twelve of those noble animals left their master's cribs, and after an absence from them of a year and a half, ten of them, in good condition, arrived at Schoharie : a distance through the wilderness of over three hundred miles. It is possible they re- membered the sweet cloverf of Weiser's dorf, and longed again to munch it. Two instances of brute instinct, not dissimilar to the one rela- * In 1744, one Conrad Weiser was Indian interpreter for the colony of Pennsylvania, who was, doubtless, the swift-footed son of the one named in the context. t The land through which the little Schoharie kill, in Middleburgh, runs to the river, is to this day called the clauver W7j, which signiGes the clover pas- ture. When the Schoharie valley was first settleii, the land along that stream was thickly covered with clover, which was seen in few other places aboat the Schoharie : hence the appropriate namco AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 77 ted, were told the author by Mrs. Van Slyck. About the year 1770, the Bartholomews removed from New Jersey to the Char- lotte river. Soon after their arrival there, three of their horses disappeared, and after much unsuccessful searching for them, it was concluded they had strayed away and become a prey to wild beasts. Judge the surprise of the owners to learn after some time, that one of them had been taken up within two, and another with- in five miles of their former residence. The third was found by them near Catskill. The other story is perhaps the most singular of the two, as the horse has given numberless instances of remarkable sagacity. Not many years from the period above cited, Ephraim Morehouse removed in the spring from Dutchess county to the vicinity of the Charlotte river. He passed through the Schoharie valley on his way, and tarried over night with Samuel Vrooman, father of my informant, with whom he was acquainted. He drove with his cattle a large sow with a bell on. As Morehouse approached the end of his journey, the sow disappeared. After considerable delay in a fruitless search for her, he proceeded on his way. In the following autumn he revisited the place of his former resi- dence, and on his return again tarried over night with Vrooman. He then related the circumstance of losing his sow, and again finding her. She had returned to the old stye in due time, to the great surprise of the neighborhood. W^hether she retraced her way by the same path or not is unknown ; but to reach her for- mer place, had been compelled to swim the Hudson, and peiform a solitary journey of one hundred miles. About the time Weiser and his friends left Schoharie, there were others among the dissatisfied, who, not choosing to follow his fortunes, sought a future residence in the Mohawk valley. Elias Garlock, the founder of Garlock's dorf, removed to the Mo- hawk, accompanied by several of his neighbors. Some of -the party had relatives or friends there who located at the time the Schoharie settlements were begun, which induced them to remove thither. They settled in and about Canajoharie, at Stone Ara- bia, or upon the German Flats. 78 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY. Tradition has preserved but little in the life of Justice Garlock, the most noted of the Schoharie Germans, who removed to the Mohawk valley. He is said, while there, to have been the only justice of the peace in the Schoharie valley. The name of the shrewd constable who aided him in administering the few laws by which they were governed, has been lost. Only one important decision of this sage justice is known to the author. His sum- mons was usually delivered to the constable viva voce, and thus by him to the transgressor of the law. If the justice wished to bring a culprit before him, he gave his jack-knife to the constable, who carried it to the accused, and required him at the appointed time to appear with it before the justice. What it meant he well understood. If two were to be summoned at the same time, to the second he gave the tobacco-box of the justice, and as that usually contained a liberal supply of the delectable narcotic, the consequences of a failure to return it in person to the justice, in due time, were dangerous in the extreme. The decision of Justice Garlock alluded to, terminated so happily for those most interested, that I cannot withhold it from the reader. A com- plaint having been entered before him, the knife was issued, and the parties assembled forthwith. The plaintiff told his story, which appeared simple and true. The defendant, with more zeal and eloquence, plead his cause — ^quoting, if I mistake not, some previous decisions of his honor — and made out, as he thought, an equally good case. After giving the parties a patient hearing, the justice gave the following very important decision. " Der blandif an derfendur bote hash reght ; zo I dezides, an pe dunder, der knonshtopple moosh bay de kosht." ( 79 ) CHAPTER III. After the removal of Weiser and others from Schoharie, the difficulties to which the ignorance and suspicions of the people had subjected them, were soon quieted, and they once more be- came a happy community. They were careful afterwards to se- cure legal titles to their lands, and thereby remove the danger of troubles in future, from a cause which had already tended greatly to decrease their numbers, and harrass their feelings. There were, as I have been informed, several apple trees stand- ing on the flats near the present dwelling of John Ingold, at the time the Germans arrived, supposed to have been planted by the Indians. One of these antiquated trees, at least 140 years old, was still standing in 1842, and very fruitful. Other trees of the same planting were yet bearing fruit in 1837. The trees from which the first apple orchards in Schoharie were derived, were procured, as Judge Brown assured me, in the following manner. One Campbell and several other individuals went from the Scho- harie valley to New York, to be naturalized, a few years after the settlement was commenced. Their business accomplished, they started for home on board of a sloop ; but not having money enough to pay their passage to Albany, they were landed at or near Rhinebeck, and traveled from thence on foot. Crossing the Rhinebeck flats, each pulled up a bundle of small apple trees in the nurseries they passed, from which the first orchards in Scho- harie were planted. The second season after the murder of his agent Truax, in Vrooman's Land, Peter Vrooman returned to that place and es- tablished a permanent residence. He planted an apple orchard, 80 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, which is yet standing, near the dwelhng of Harmanus Vrooman. Some of the Swarts, Eckers, Zielleys, Haggidorns, Feeclcs, and Beckers, with perhaps some other Dutch families, settled in that vicinity about the same time. There were few regular mechanics among the first settlers, on which account the native genius of ail was more or less taxed. We have seen to what inconvenience and labor they were sub- jected for the want of mills. The first grist mill in the county was erected by Simeon Lara way, on the small stream called Mill brook, from that circumstance, which runs into Fox's creek near Waterbury's mills. Upon a bridge which crossed this brook. Sheriff Adams was left, after having had occular demonstration of the prowess of Magdalene Zeh, in the first anti-rent war. Some part of the race-way of this mill is still to be seen. Before the erection of Simeon's mill, as usually called, several hand mills, like the one at Weiser's dorf, were in frequent use. In the course of twenty or thirty years after Weiser and his friends left, several other mills were established in and about Schoharie. One Cobel erected two of those.* One of them was built on a small brook in a ravine on the south side of the road, a few rods distant from the river bridge, one mile from the Court House. The other mill he greeted about the same time on Cobelskill, which took its name from that circumstance. It stood near the mouth of the kill. It was not until about the near 1760, that bolting cloths were used in Schoharie. Henry AVeaver, who owned a mill near where Becker's now stands, on Foxes creek, was the first who introduced them. At almost as late a period as the revolution, the colonists pro- * This creek took its name after the paternal name of the mill-wright, as Judge Brown assured me. I find the name written Cobels kill in many of the old conveyances, and in all the early Session laws, of the state. It is, in truth, the correct orthography of the word. In writing Fox's and Cobel's kill, I shall in future omit the apostrophe and hyphen, for reasons obvious to the reader. The Indians called Cobelskill the Ots ga-ra-gee which signified the hemp creek. When first setlled by the whites, an abundance of wild hemp grew along; its banks. The natives often visited them to procure it, making froni it fish uetS; and ropes to aid them in transporting their portable wealth. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 81 cured most of their shoes at Albany, or East Camp ; and one pair was the yearly allowance for each member of the family. They were repaired by traveling cobblers. Those unaffected Germans were not votaries to fashion, of course they were not very particular about receiving their male fashions from England, or their female from France. The good wife and daughters generally cut and made the rude apparel of the family, and thought it no disgrace. The settlers manufactured most of their own buttons, and often the same garment had on those of very different sizes, of wood, horn, bone or lead. Not having been accustomed to luxuries from childhood, they were contented with simple fare and uncouth fashions. Their clothes, as may be supposed, did not set out a good form to very fascinating advantage. Those useless bipeds denominated dan- dies, noted for their mustaches, idleness and empty pockets, were unknown in the Schoharie valley at that day ; indeed, they are strangers there at the present time. Of course, other considera- tions than mere dress, or a display of jewelry, could create, influ- enced their choice of a partner for life. They had little to be proud of, consequently many of the men did not shave oftener than once or twice a month. A Dow or a Matthias would hard- ly have been distinguished from them, had they appeared at that day. Habituating themselves to do men's work, many of the wo- men were, from exposure, sun-burnt and coarse featured, and in some instances it became necessary for them to clip an exuberant growth of beard, which was done with scissors. Lawrence Schoolcraft, one of the first settlers in Schoharie, at the residence of Peter Vrooman, made the first cider in the coun- ty. The manner of making it being unique, was as follows. The apples were first pounded in a stamper similar to the Indian corn stamper before mentioned. After being thus bruised, the pumice was placed in a large Indian basket previously suspended to a tree, beneath which was inserted a trough, made by fastening to- gether the edges of two planks, which served to catch and carry the juice compressed by weights in the basket, into some vessel placed for its reception. In the year 1752, one Brown, the father 82 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, of Judge Brown, removed from West Camp to Schoharie. He was then a widower, and soon after his arrival married a widow, who possessed ten acres of land and about one hundred and ten pounds in cash ; which enabled him to establish and carry on his trade successfully. He was a wheel-wright, and the first who prosecuted that business in the county. The people had manu- factured a kind of rude wagon before his arrival, with which they transported light loads to and from Albany, performing the journey in about five days. This Brown, in 1753, made the first cider-press ever used in the county. The same process which pre- pared the pumice for Schoolcraft did for Brown, as he purchased the same pounder. The press was first used at Hartman's dorf, where he resided. John Mattice Junk, or Young in English, the grand-father of Judge Brown, on the Mother's side, is said to have taught the first German school at the Camps, ever taught in America. This was about the year 1740, Schools began to be taught in the Schoharie settlements shortly after ; one Spease kept the first, and one Keller the next. German teachers were employed in the German settlements, while at Vrooman's land a school was taught in Dutch. About the year 1760, English instruction was introduced into those schools, and in some instances the English, German and Dutch languages were all taught by one teacher, in the same school. Little attention was then paid to the convenience or comfort of the scholars. Barns, in some instances, became school-houses as well as churches, in the summer ; and if schools were continued in the winter, some rude log dwelling be- came a witness to the child's improvement. Stoves, in those days, were unknown. The settlers had mammoth fire-places, however, and plenty of wood ; and in numberless instances, a fearful pro- portion of a cord was seen ignited in the same fire. Few horses were shod for many years after the settlement be- gan ; and those persons, who required any kind of smith-work their own igenuity could not create, were obliged to go to Alba- ny or Schenectada to get it done. John Ecker is said to have AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 83 been the first black-smith in the Schoharie valley, and he was a self instructed one. The Germans formerly brewed a kind of domestic strong beer, and most of those in Schoharie brewed their own. From the fact, that the Dutch, who settled in Vrooman's Land, , / were more wealthy than their German neighbors located below them, a kind of pride or distant formality, was manifested by the former towards the latter for many years. When prejudices of any kind are allowed to gain a place in the human breast, it often requires generations to eradicate them. The prejudices alluded to ■ as havinof existed between the Dutch and Germans, tended for many years almost wholly to prevent inter-marriages between them. The former, therefore, who did not choose to marry cous- ins — most of those settlers being related — went to Schenectada or Albany for wives. As Cupid is now and then a very mischievous boy, there may have been individual instances, in which the irre- sistible passion of love, aided by stratagem, trampled paternal prejudices under foot, and united the sturdy German and amorous Dutch maiden. But we must suppose such cases extremely rare, as the law which still requires in some parts of New England, the publishing of the bans for several Sabbaths preceding the nuptials, was then in force in New York. The Germans, when they located at Schoharie, owned no slaves, * nor, indeed, did they for several years ; but these accompanied the Dutch on their arrival as a part of their gear. By industry, and a proper husbanding of what the earth produced, the wealth of the former increased rapidly, and it was not long before they, too, possessed them. The manner in which the slaves of Schoharie were generally treated by their masters, is not inaptly described by Mrs. Grant, in her Memoirs of Albany. They were allowed freedom of speech, and indulged in many things, which other members of the family were, whose ages corresponded to their own ; and to a superficial spectator, had the color not interfered, they would have seemed on an equality. Individual instances may now be cited where blacks would be much better off under a good master than they now 84 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, are, or, indeed, than thousands of the operatives of England are — still, no one can from moral principle, although he may from motives of expediency, advocate the continuance of the evil as just and proper in any country. The existence of slavery in the United States, is the greatest stain upon their national escutcheon. This I believe to be a fact generally conceded, by all the good and virtuous in the land. The question then, which naturally arises, is, or rather it should be, what is the best and most proper man- ner of obliterating the stain "? Let reason and common sense, not fanaticism and malice, reply. Many of the tools used in husbandry in former days, were both clumsy and uncouth. Rakes used in Schoharie, were made with teeth on both sides. Hay forks were made of wood, from a stick having a suitable crotch for tines, or by splitting one end of a straight stick and inserting a wedge. The improvement made in plows since that time, is perhaps as great as that made on any one implement of the cultivator. The wagons seen in Schoharie before the year 1760, had no tire upon the wheels. Grain was then thrashed, as it is at the present day by the de- scendants of those people who have no machines for the purpose, by the feet of horses. The process is simple, and as it is fast giv- ing place to the buzzing of machines, it may be well to relate it In the center of the barn floor, which is roomy, an upright bar is placed, previously rendered a pivot at each end, to enter a hole in the floor below, and a corresponding one in a beam or plank over head. Through this shaft, at a suitable height from the floor, a pole is passed, to which several horses are fastened so as to travel abreast. Sometimes a number are fastened to each end of the pole, and in some instances, a second pole is passed through the shaft at right angles with the first, to which horses are also at- tached. A quantity of sheaves being opened and spread upon the floor, the horses are started at a round trot, thus trampling the grain from the straw. The upright, when the horses move, turns upon its own pivots. Persons in attendance, are constantly em- ployed in turning and shaking the straw with a fork, keeping the horses in motion, removing any uncleanness, &c. The outside AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 85 horse travels, as may be supposed, much farther in his circuits than the inside one, for which reason they are occasionally shift- ed. Grain is broken less if thrashed with unshod horses. Some use a roller to aid in the process. This is a heavy, rounded tim- ber, worked much smaller at one end than the other, with square pins of hard wood inserted at proper distances the whole length. The smallest end of this roller is so fastened to the shaft as to pre- serve the horizontal motion of one, and the perpendicular motion of the other, at the same time. To the heavy end of the roller, horses are fastened, drawing it on the same principle, that the stone wheel in an ancient bark mill was drawn. In threshing with horses, the roller is a great assistance. Fanning-mills, for cleaning grain, were unknown in former times, it being separated from its chaff by fans, or shoveling it in the wind. As I have already stated, much prejudice existed at Schoharie in former days, between the Germans and Dutch. These nation- al antipathies were manifested in nothing more clearly at first, than in matters of religion. The early Germans were, almost without exception, disciples to the doctrines of Martin Luther ; while the Dutch, collectively, subscribed the Calvinistic, or Dutch Reformed creed. Time, however, the great healer of dissensions, aided by intelligence, the champion of liberality, by degrees less- ened, and has now almost entirely removed those prejudices. While they existed, they tended to prevent that friendly inter- change of good feeling — that reciprocity of kindness, so necessa- ry to the prosperity and . happiness of an isolated people. As Judge Brown remarked, at our interview, " the Low Dutch girls formerly thought but little of the High Dutch boys," and the -young people of both settlements kept separate companies for many years. In a few instances, elopement took place, but they were rare, as distant ministers were cautious about uniting a cou- ple who could not produce a certificate of publication, although occular demonstration might convince them of the genuineness of their affection, and demand their union. Among the first shoemakers who worked at the trade in Scho- harie, was one William Dietz. Few, if any, boots were then 7 86 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, worn. Men wore low, and women high heeled (called French heeled) shoes. A specimen of the latter may now be seen in the Cabinet of John Gebhard, jr. Esq., at Schoharie Court House. Shoes were then fastened with buckles, which, like those worn at the knees, were made of silver, brass or pewter. Caleb Cosput and John Russeau were the first tailors. They worked, as did the first shoemakers, by whipping the cat — from house to house. Breeches and even coats were made of deer-skins, and in some instances, of blankets, in their day : the former being fastened to striped hose at the knees with huge buckles, of silver, if attain- able, if not, of brass or pewter. One Delavergne was the first hatter, and is said to have been well patronized. Cocked, or three cornered hats were then the tip of fashion. To see an exquisite of the present, dressed in the costume of that day, with hair long-cramped before, and terminating at the neck in a braided cue, or if not braided, wound with black rib- hon or an eel-skin, the whole head being finely pov/dered and sur- mounted with a cocked hat ; with a blanket coat on, of no ordi- nary dimensions, ornamented with various kinds of buttons ; breeches of deer-skin, too tight for comfort, and kept up without braces by a tight band above the hips, allowing the nether gar- ment to appear between them and the vest, and fastened at the knee with large bright buckles to a pair of striped silk hose ; the whole of the fabric described, resting upon a pair of pedestals cased in pen-knife pointed shoes clasped with daring buckles ; the hero with a pipe in his mouth, the bowl as large as a tea-cup — would be worth far more to the spectator, than to visit a menage- ry and see half a dozen country girls mounted upon the back of an elephant, or a fool-hardy keeper enter a cage with the most ferocious animals. Fish are said to have been very plenty formerly in most of the streams in Schoharie county. For many years after the Revolu- tion, trout were numerous in Foxes creek, where now there are few, if any at all. From a combination of causes, fish are now becoming scarce throughout the county. In many small streams, AND BOEDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 87 they have heen nearly or quite exterminated by throwing in lime. This cruel system of taking the larger, destroys with more cer- tainty all the smaller fish. Such a mode of fishing cannot be too severely censured. The accumulation of dams on the larger streams, proves unfavorable to their multiplication. Fine pike are now occasionally caught in the Schoharie, as are also suckers and eels. Some eighty years ago, a mess of fish could have been taken, in any mill-stream in the county, in a few minutes. Wild animals of almost every kind found in the same climate, were numerous in and about Schoharie, for a great length of time after the whites arrived. Bears and wolves, the more gregarious kinds, often appeared in droves numbering scores, and in some in- stances, hundreds ; and were to the pioneer a source of constant anxiety and alarm. Deer, which were then very numerous, the mountainous parts affording them, as all other animals, a safe re- treat, are still killed some winters in considerable numbers, in the south part of the county. But few incidents, worthy of notice, relating to wild animals, have come to my knowledge. One of the first German settlers was killed by a bear, between the resi- dence of the late Cyrus Swart (near the stone church,) and the hill east of it. He had wounded the animal \vith a gun, when it turned upon, and literally tore him in pieces. The Indians hunt- ed them for food, and not unfrequently had an encounter with them'. Nicholas Warner assured the author, that when a boy, he saw an Indian, called Bellows, returning from a hunt, holding in his own bowels with his hands. He had, after wounding a large bear, met it in personal combat, and although so terribly lacerated he slew it. Jacob Becker informed me, that there was an Indian about Foxes creek in his younger days, called The-bear-caicher, who received his name from the following circumstance. He was hunting — treed a large bear and fired upon it. The beast fell and a personal rencounter ensued. The Indian, in the contest, seized with an iron grasp the lower jaw of Bruin, and a back-hug was the consequence. He succeeded in holding his adversary so firm- ly that the latter could not draw his paws between their bodies. Bruin had, however, in the outset, succeeded in drawing one of 88 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, them obliquely across the breast of the red man, scarifying it in a fearful manner. While thus situated, holding his adversary at bay, he called to a son, who was hunting in the woods not far off, for his assistance. The latter repaired hastily to the spot, and al- though he might at times have approved of a fair fight, in the present instance paternal affection demanded his immediate inter- ference. Placing the muzzle of his rifle between the extended jaws of the bear, he discharged it, to the great relief of his father, who had been so affectionately embraced. The followingadven- ture was related by Andrew Loucks. One Warner, who was among the first settlers at Punch- kill, went out towards evening to seek his cows. He met in his path a large bear, having cubs, which instantly pursued him. He ran for safety behind a large tree ; round which himself and madam Bruin played bo-peep for some time — neither gaining any advantage. At length Warner seized a hemlock knot, and with it, Sampson like, slew his shaggy pursuer. The following story was also told me by Jacob Becker, the scene in which is said to have been enacted near Foxes creek. John ShaefFer and George Schell went hunting. Shaeffer had a dog which treed a bear, and he being near at the time, instantly fired upon it. Bruin fell, though not passively to yield life. The dog attacked him, but was so lovingly hugged, that his eyes seemed starting from their sockets, and he cried piteously. Shaef- fer thought too much of his canine friend to see him fall a 'vic- tim to such affection, and endeavored to loosen one of the bear's paws : but as he seized it, it was relaxed and quicker than thought thrown round again, so as to include in the embrace his own arm. ShaefFer might as easily have withdrawn his hand from a vise. When he found he had caught a tartar, or, rather, that the bear had, he hallooed like a loon for his companion to come to his as- sistance and reach him his tomahawk. Many of the white hunt- ers, in former times, were as careful to wear tomahawks as their Indian neighbors. The missile was handed very cautiously at arms' length, and ShaefFer buried the blade of it in the brains of his game, to the relief of his other arm and the resuscitation of the dog. Bruin, as may be supposed, did not rehsh the interfer- AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 89 ence of the master, when he was evincing so much of the world's genuine love for Carlo. The three most prominent hills east of Middleburgh village, are] called the Fire-berg, the Amos-berg, and the Clipper-berg. The first named is the most southern, and took its name (as Geo. Warner informed the author) from the following circumstance. A tar barrel having been raised to the top of a tall tree on that hill, it was, at a particular hour of a certain night, set on fire, to ascertain if the light could be seen from the residence of Sir William Johnson, in Johnstown, at whose instigation it was done. Whether it was seen there or not, tradition does not inform us, but the eircumstance was sufficient to originate a name for the hill. Amos-berg, the nexi one north, signifies the ant-hill, or hill of ants ; it having been, in former times, literally covered with those insect mounds. Clipper-berg, directly north of Amos- berg, signifies the rocky-hill, or hill scantily covered with vegeta- tion. The following story was related to me by Maria Teabout. She with several other individuals, was on the Fire-berg before the revolution, when a loud scream like that of a child was heard some distance off, to which she made answer by a similar one. She was told by the men to keep still, that it was a painter, and by answering it they would be in great danger. " A painter !" she exclaimed, "what then is a painter?" Being young and heedless, she continued to answer its cries, until her companions, alarmed for their own safety, had taken to flight, and she found herself alone. As she was part native she felt little fear, until the neai' approach of the animal struck terror upon her mind. She had not time enough left her to secure a safe retreat, but in- stantly concealed herself in a hollow tree. The animal approach- ed so near that she saw it from her concealment, but as that did not see her, it went back in the direction from whence it came. In the meantime, those who had fled on the panther's approach, went home and reported Maria as slain in an awful manner. A party, consisting of Col. Zielie, with half a dozen of his neighbors, and a few Indians, all mounted on horseback and armed with 90 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, guns, set out to seek and bring whatever of Maria might be left, after the panther had satiated his appetite. Leaving their horses near the entrance, they went into the woods and 'L^egan to call to her. She heard the voice of Col. Zielie, and came out from her hiding place. The Indians then declared they would soon have the panther. After fixing a blanket on a tree so as to present a tolerable effigy of one of their party, they all fell back and con- cealed themselves behind trees. An Indian then began to call, and was soon answered by the animal, which approached stealth- ily. "When it carne in sight, it fixed its eye on the effigy, and crawling along with the stillness of a cat, it approached within a few paces, from whence, after moving its tail briskly for a few seconds, it bounded upon it with the speed of an arrow. In an instant the blanket was torn into strings, and as the disappointed animal stood lashing its sides furiously with its tail, looking for the cause of the voice, (panthers having no knowledge or belief in ghosts) and its deception, a volley of rifle balls laid it dead on the spot. The skin was taken off, and some slices of the critter, as Natty Bumpo would call it, were taken home by several of the Indians to broil. Thus ended the panther, and thus did not end my informant. Few panthers have been killed in the county since the remembrance of any one living in it. One of the last was shot near the residence of John Enders, on Foxes creek. The sagacious beaver was a resident of this county on the ar- rival of the Germans. They were numerous along Foxes creek, and at a place called the Beaver-dam, on that stream, which is now in the town of Berne, Albany county, they had several strong dams. Wild-cats were numerous in Schoharie formerly. The follow- ing anecdote is related of old Doctor Moulter, a sort of physician who lived on Foxes creek, and flourished about the time of the Revolution. He awoke one night from pleasant dreams, to hear an unusual noise among his setting geese. Without waiting to dress, or seize upon any weapon, he ran out to learn the cause of alarm. On arriving at the scene of action, although his prospect was yet sombre, he discovered the cause of disturbance in the ap- AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 91 pearance of an unwelcome animal, that was paying its devoirs to the comely neck of the mistress of a polluted bee-hive. He ran up and seized it by the neck and hind legs, and although it strug- gled hard to regain its liberty, he succeeded in holding it until his boys, to whom he called for assistance, came and killed it. The reader may judge his surprize as well as that of his family, when, on taking it to the light, it proved to be a good sized wild-cat. Had he caught hold of it otherwise than he did, it is highly pro- bable that in his state of almost native nudity, he would have re- pented his grasp, if not lost his life. Many anecdotes are told of this same Dr. Moulter. When he located at Schoharie, he was afraid to ride on horseback, unless some one led his horse by the bridle. Those who led his nag for him, grew tired of gratifying his whims, and would occasionally let go his reins, and leave him to shift for himself. This kind of treatment soon taught the old Doctor the skill of horsemanship. He is said to have doc- tored for witches, and promulged the superstitious doctrine of witchcraft. Nor was he wanting in believers, as no dogmas, however doggish they may be, need much preaching to gain prose- lytes. Francis Otto, who is said to have established the first distillery in the county, (which was for cider-brandy, and stood perhaps half a mile east of the present site of the Court House) was also a kind of doctor. In fact, he was one of that useful class, who can turn their hand to almost anything ; being a brandy-maker, a doctor, a phlebotomist, a barber, a fortune-teller, etc., as occa- sion required. He too, believed in witchcraft. His death took place just before the Revolution, in the following manner. He had spent the evening at the house of Ingold, where now stands the dwelling of John Ingold ; and left there to go home, with the bosom of his shirt, his general traveling store-house, filled with apples. He may, to have kept off the chill of the evening, and increase his courage, tasted a potation of his own distilling, of which he was very fond. On the following morning he was found in a bruised state, having fallen off the rocks not far from his own dwelling. He was alive when found, but died soon af- 92 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, ter. As he was much afraid of witches, and the like evil genii, it was confidently asserted and generally believed, that witches had thrown him off the rocks. Thus ended the first distiller, poor Otto, of bewitching memory. Deer, it has been remarked, were numerous in and about Scho- harie formerly. Jacob Becker related the following story, which he had learned from his father. An old Indian, who lived in Gar- lock's dorf, was very skillful in the use of the bow and arrow. This Indian stationed himself one day, at a run-way the deer had on the north side of Foxes creek, not a great distance from Beck- er's mill. It was at a place where there is a small stream of wa- ter descends from the hill, affording a kind of path from that to the flats below. At this place this Indian was concealed, when a noble deer came leisurely down the declivity. An arrow from his bow pierced the heart of the unsuspecting victim, when it bounded forward a few paces and fell dead. Scarcely had he time to draw from his quiver an arrow, before another deer de- scended. A second arrow sped, and a second bleeding victim lay stretched near its fellow. Another and another descended to meet a similar fate , until six were, in quick succession, bleeding upon the ground. There were times, when, like the one named, the arrow was as trusty as the rifle ball. The distance must not be great, however, and the bow must be drawn by a skillful war- rior. The arrow giving no report to alarm the following deer, the Indian was enabled, by his masterly skill, to bring down six? when a single discharge from a rifle, woukl have sent the five hindmost deer, on the back track. The arrow, however, would not tell upon a distant object like the rifle ball, and great muscu- lar strength was required to send it, even at a short distance, to the heart of a bounding buck. Rattle-snakes were very numerous formerly, along the north side of Foxes creek, and the west side of the Schoharie. Hun- dreds were often killed in a single day at either place. Neigh- borhoods turned out in the spring about the time they came from their dens, in the latter part of April, or early part of May, to destroy them, and by thus waging war against them, they were AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 93 nearly exterminated. There are a few remaining now at both places. It was not uncommon, in raising a sheaf of wheat from the ground, on the flats near the hills, which afford their favorite haunts, as early as the revolution, to find one or more of those venomous serpents under it. They were but little dreaded then, especially by the Indians, for if they could get at the wound with their mouth, suction, with their other applications, generally saved the bitten. The Indians, said Andrew Loucks, rubbed their legs vyith certain roots, to avoid being bitten by rattle-snakes, and made use of several kinds of roots and plants, in effecting a cure for the bite of those reptiles. The knowledge they had of botany, although limited, was of a practical nature, and enabled them not unfrequently to effect a cure, when a similar application of a sci- entific mineral compound, would have destroyed. This country, undoubtedly, affords an herb for almost every disease of the climate, and more attention should be paid to the study and medical appli- cation of Botany. Rattle-snakes diminish rapidly in numbers, if hogs are allowed to run where they infest. They will eat them invariably, with the exception of the head, whenever they take them. There are individuals, in fact, who eat those venomous reptiles, and pronounce them palatable. The late Major Van Vechten, of Schoharie, formerly ate them, and at times invited his friends to the banquet. On one occasion, he had several young gentlemen to partake wdth him, who, as I suppose, were either ambitious to be able to say they had eaten of a " sarpent," or de- sired to rattle a little as they went through the world. Did they taste exceedingly flavorous, one would suppose the idea of eating a rattle-snake would sicken the eater, save in extreme cases of approaching starvation. The following Indian custom was humorously told the author by George Warner. When Cupid has destroyed the red man's peace of mind, he provides himself with a quantity of corn, and seeks the presence of the ruddy squaw. He then commences snapping kernels at the coy maid he wishes to woo. If she snaps them back, the contract is considered firmly made. If she does not, the lover is led to conclude she " don't take," and leaves 94 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, her presence somewhat mortified. If matters proceed favorably and a contract is made, she takes off one garter, and after the marriage ceremony is performed, he probably takes off the other —if, by the b}', she has ever had any on. The SchohEiie Indians, says Brown, claimed the lands lying about Schoharie, and made some sales, but were interrupted in those transfers of lands by the Mohawks, who proved that the land given to Karighondontee's wife, at the time her husband set- tled, was to be no more than would be required to plant as much corn as a squaw could hold in her petticoat; which, he adds, would be reckoned about a skipple. A squaw's petticoat neither has great length or breadth ; but the reader will understand that the grain was carried in the garment in the man- ner of a sack. But a few years after the Schoharie Germans had their diffi- culties with Bayard, the royal agent, and Sheriff Adams, they be- gan to secure land not only of the seven partners, but also of the natives, and made transfers among themselves. A bond in the writer's possession, given for what is unknown, by " John Andrews of Scorre, [Schoharie] to John Lawer [Law- yer,] for twenty-six pounds three shillings, corrant money of New York. Dated the 3d day of May, in the fifth year of our Sove- raign Lord George [L] king of Great Britain, France and Ire- land, and in the year of our Lord God, 1720; shows the earliest date of any paper I have met with, that was executed between the early settlers in the Schoharie valley. This date is within ten years of their first arrival. The bond is written in a fair, legible hand, and most of the orthography is correct. In the early conveyances, lands in the vicinity of the Schoharie Court House, were located at " Fountain's town, Fountain's flats, and Brunen or Bruna dorf." Some of the old deeds bound those lands on the " west, by the Schoharie river, and on the east, on the king's road." The road then ran near the hill east of the old Lutheran parsonage house, which is still standing ; leaving nearly all the flats west of it. In ancient patents, the brook AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 95 above Middleburgh village is called the Little Schoharie ; vphich name I have chosen to continue. Many of the Indian sales of lands in Schoharie county, were legalized by the governor and council of the colony. The fol- lowing paper, which is copied verbatim et literatim, will shovy the usual form of a royal 'permit : " By His Excellency the Hon. George Clinton, Cap- ta!in-General and Governor in Chief of the colony of New L. S. York, and Territories thereon depending in America, Vice Admiral of the same and Admiral of the White Squadron of his Majesty's Fleet. "To all to whom these presents shall come or may concern, Greeting : — " Whereas Johannes Becker, jr., Johannes Schafer, jr., Hendrick Schafer, jr., and Jacobus Schafer, by their humble petition pre- sented unto me and read in Council this Day, have prayed my license to purchase in his Majesty's name, of the native Indian proprietors thereof, six thousand Acres of some vacant Lands, Situate, Lying and being in the County of Albany, on the North side of the Co- belskill, and on the East of the Patent lately granted to Jacob Borst, Jacob C. Teneyck and others near Schoharie : in order to obtain His Majesty's Letters Patent for ^e. same or a proportionate quantity thereof I have therefore thought fit to give and grant, and I do by and with the Advice of his Majesty's Council, hereby ^iye and grant unto the said Petitioners, full Power, Leave and iycense to purchase in his Majesty's Name of the Native Indian Proprietors thereof, the Quantity of Six thousand Acres of the vacant Lands aforesaid. Provided the said purchase be made in one year next after the Date hereof, and conformable to a report of a Committee of His majesty's Council of the second day of De- cember, 1736, on the Memorial of Cadwallader Colden, Esq., representing several Inconveniences arising by the usual Method of purchasing Lands from the Indians. And for so doing this shall be to them a sufficient Iycense. " Given under my Hand and Seal at Arms, at Fort George, in the City of New York, the sixteenth Day of November, one thousand seven hundred and fifty-two. " By his Excellency's command, G. CLINTON." " Geo. Banyar, B, Sec\j." A conveyance made in December, 1752, of fifteen thousand acres of land in " New Dorlach," now in the town of Seward — bounds it on " West creek" — west branch of the Cobelskill be- ginning at a bank called in an Indian conveyance, " Onc-en-ta" 96 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, dashe." This I suppose to have been the Indian name of the mountain south of Hyndsville. When the county of Tryon was organized, it took in "New Dorlach," which was embraced in Otsego county on its organization ; and subsequently became a part of Schoharie county. The parties to an indenture, made November 30th, 1753, were Johannes SchefFer, Christ Jan Zehe, Johannes Lawyer, Michael Borst, Johannes Borst, Johan Jost Borst, Michael Hilkinger, William Baird, Jacob Borst, Michael Bowman, Johannes Brown, Barent Keyser, Peter Nicholas Sommer, Johannes Lawyer Ser, Hendrick Heens, and Wilham Brown." It was a purchase of fifteen thousand acres of land on the north side of the " Ostgarrege or Cobelskill, about seven miles westerly from Schoharre." The author has in his possession, a parchment copy of letters patent, dated March 19, 1754. It was granted in the reign of George IL, under the administration of George Clinton as gover- nor, and James De Lancey lieutenant-governor, to John Frederick Bauch, [now written Bouck,] Christian Zehe, Johannes Zehe, Michael Wanner, [Warmer,] and Johannes Knisker, [Kneiskern,] " For a certain Track of Land lately purchased by them of the Native Indian proprietors thereof, situate, lying and being in the county of Albany, to the westward of Schoharry, and on the south side of a creek or brook, called by the Indians Ots-ga-ra- gee, and by the inhabitants Cobelskill, containing about /o?. flogging, and took it, and he's got the gal." Johnson obtained the girl in the precise manner he had assured his friend he would proceed. This German girl was the mother of Sir John Johnson, and the wives of Col. Guy Johnson, an Irish relative of Sir WilUam, and Col. Daniel Claus. Henry Frey Yates, Esq., in a communication to his son, Ber- nard F., in which he notes several exceptions to sayings of Col. Stone, in the Life of Brant, which memoranda have been kindly placed in the hands of the writer by the son since the above was written, quotes from the first volume of that work, page 101, a re- mark that " the mother of Sir John Johnson was a German la- dy," and thus discourses : — " Mr. Stone has been misinformed as to the history of the mother of Sir John ; she was not a German lady. She was a German by birth." After naming William Harper, a former judge of Montgomery county, and his brother, Alexander, as authority for what he says, he thus continues : — " The facts with respect to the mother of Su- John are, that she AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. Ill was a poor German girl, who, on her arrival in New York, was sold for her passage over from Germany. That was then the uni- versal practice, and the only method that the poorer class of Ger- man emigrants had, when they wanted to emigrate to this coun- try. They were obhged, before they embarked on ship-board for America, to sign articles by which they bound themselves to the captain, that, on their arrival here, they should be sold for their passage money, for one, two, three, or £our years, as the captain could make a bargain with the purchaser, the captain being ob- liged to board them, &c. Whenever a ship arrived, it was imme- diately advertised that she had brought so many male and female immigrants, who were to be sold for their passage." They were usually sold into servitude, to such persons as would take them at the shortest period of services, and pay the captain, in advance, his charges for their passage and contingent expenses. Purchasers were bound, on their part, to treat those servants kind- ly, and release them at the expiration of their time. This custom continued for some twenty-five years after the close of the Ame- rican Revolution, and numbers who proved valuable citizens, avail- ed themselves of this method of crossing the Atlantic. When passengers were advertised for sale, says Mr. Yates — " The wealthy Germans and Low Dutch, from various parts of the country, would then repair to New York and make their purcha- ses. Sometimes one would purchase for a number of families. In this way it was, that the mother of Sir John was purchased for her passage across the Atlantic by a man named Philips, re- siding about twelve miles above Schenectada, on the south side of the Mohawk ; and nearly opposite Crane's village on the north side of the river. Sir William, seeing the young woman at the house of Mr. Philips, and being pleased with her, bought her of him and took her to his dwelling at the old fort. Sir WilHam had three children by her. Sir John, Mrs. Guy Johnson and Mrs. Col. Claus. Sir William never was married to her, until on her death bed, and then he did it only with a view to legitimize [legitimatise] his children by her. The ceremony was performed "by Mr. Barkley, the Episcopal minister residing at Fort Hunter, 112 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, where he officiated in a stone church built Ly Queen Anne for the Mohawk Indians." At page 387, vol. 1, of Stone's Brant, Molly Brant, a sister of that chief, is spoken of as the wife of Sir William Johnson. With reference to this woman, says the memoranda of Yates — " It is true that Sir William was married to Molly according to the rites of the Episcopal church, but a few years before his death. The Baronet, feeling his life drawing to a close, and abhorring living longer in adultery, to quiet his conscience, privately married Molly to legitimize his children by her, as he had done those by the Ger- man girl, who was the mother of Sir John and his sisters." Among the few who witnessed the ceremony of the Baronet's second marriage, the memoranda names Robert Adams, a mer- chant of Johnstown, and Mrs. Rebecca Van Sickler : to the last mentioned he accredits his authority. Mrs. V. S., as the manu- script continues, " was always received into all the respectable fa- milies in Johnstown as a welcome guest, and was very fond of re- lating anecdotes of Sir William. Molly was a very exemplary woman, and was a communicant of the Episcopal church. Among all the old inhabitants on the Mohawk, Molly was respected, as not only reputable, but as an exemplary, pious, christian woman. The care that she took of the education of her children, and the manner in which she brought them up, is at once a demonstration of the depth of the moral sense of duty that she owed her off- spring." As early as the summer of 1746, C olden, in his Indian history, speaks of Mr. William Johnson (afterwards Sir William John- son) as " being indefatigable among the Mohawks." " He dressed himself," says that v.'riter, " after the Indian manner, made frequent dances according to their custom when they excite to war, and used all the means he could think of, at a considerable expense, (which His Excellency, George Clinton, had promised to repay him,) in order to engage them heartily in the war against Cana- da. [The same writer, noticing the efforts made by Johnson to engage the Mohawk Nation in the British interest against the French, in a war then existing, says that with a part of the Mo- AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 113 hawks then residing principally in the vicinity of the Lower Cas- tle^ he went to Albany to attend a treaty.] " That when the In- dians came near the town of Albany, on the 8th of August, Mr, Johnson put himself at the head of the Mohawks, dressed and painted after the manner of an Indian war-captain; and the In- dians who followed him were likewise dressed and painted as is usual with them when they set out in war. The Indians saluted the Governor as they passed the fort, by a running fire, which his Excellency ordered to be answered by a discharge of some cannon from the Fort. He afterwards received the sachems in the fort- hall, bid them welcome, and treated them with a glass of wine." Sir William was a military man of some distiction in the colony, and during the French war, held a general's commission. Soon after the signal defeat of Baron Dieskau, in 1755, by the troops under Gen. Johnson, in the northern wilds of New York, the title of baronet was conferred upon him, with a gift of parliament to make it set easy, oi five thousand pounds sterling, nearly twenty thousand dollars — in consideration of his success. His fortune was now made, and he was the man to enjoy it. Previously, he erected Fort Johnson, a large stone mansion on the north side of the Mohawk, about three miles west of Amsterdam, where he resided for nearly twenty years. This building, which was a noble structure for the middle of the last century, is pleasantly situated near the hill on the west bank of a creek, on which the Baronet built a grist mill. This dwelling, which was finished in- side in a then fashionable style, is said to have been fortified from the time of its erection, until the conquest of Canada and termination of the French war. This place, (now owned by Dr. Oliver Davidson,) is called Fort Johnson to this day. At a latter period he erected dwell- ings for his sons-in-law, Guy Johnson and Daniel Claus. That occupied by the first named, a large stone dwelling, is still stand- ing one mile above Amsterdam, and was formerly called Guy Park. Previous to its erection, he occupied a frame building standing upon the same site, which was struck by lightning and consumed. 114 HISTOBY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, -?,-i-o-C^''^,'^'"ft-'!?J^i\T®Jp' ,';S, " i^. p"^/ f ^ SOUTH VIEW OF FORT JOHNSON. The mansion of Col. Claus, which was about centrally distan between Fort Johnson and Guy Park, was also constructed of stone, and was large on the ground ; but being only one and and a half stories high, it presented a less imposing appearance than did the other Johnson buildings. The cellar of the latter house is still to be seen. Each of those dwellings had a farm attached to it of one square mile, or six hundred and forty acres. About ten years before his death, Sir Wm. Johnson erected Johnson Hall, a large wood building with detached stone wings, situated one mile west from the village of Johnstown; and on his removal to that place, (at present owned and occupied by Mr. Eleazer Wells,) AND BORDER Y/ARS OF NEW YORK. 115 Fort Johnson became the residence of his son, who, during a visit to England, had also been gifted by royalty with a title to his name ; and an annual stipend of jive hundred -pounds for the honors of knishthood. Sir John married a Miss Watts of New York city. He was also on terms of intimacy for several years with Miss Clara Putman of the Mohawk valley, by whom he had several children EAST VIEW OF JOHNSON HALL. The following notice of the Baronet is from the September No. ( 1755) of the London Gentleman's Magazine. The article was an extract from a journal written in America. " Major General Johnson, (an Irish gentleman) is universally esteemed in our parts, for the part he sustains. Besides his skill and experience as an old officer, he is particularly happy in ma- king himself beloved by all sorts of people, and can conform to all companies and conversations. He is very much of the fine gen- tleman in genteel company. But as the inhabitants next him are mostly Dutch, he sits down with them, and smokes his tobacco, drinks flip, and talks of improvements, bears and beaver skins. Being surrounded with Indians, he speaks several of their lan- guages well, and has always some of them with him. His house is a safe and hospitable retreat for them from the enemy. He takes care of their wives and children when they go out on par- ties, and even wears their dress. In short, by his honest dealings with them in trade, and his courage, which has often been suc- cessfully tried with them, and his courteous behaviour, he has so endeared himself to them, that they chose him one of their chief sachems or princes, and esteem him as their common father," 116 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, Sir William Johnson lived in comparative opulence from the time of his knighthood to the day of his death, which occurred suddenly at Johnson Hall, on the 24th of June, 1774. He died at the age of nearly sixty years. It was supposed by many of his neighbors at that time, that he found means to shorten his days by the use of poison. Col. Stone, in his Life of Brant, ex- presses a different opinion ; but several old people still living, who resided at that time, and have ever since, but a few miles from Johnson Hall, believe to this day that he took the suicidal drauo-ht. There were certainly some very plausible reasons for such a conclusion. As the cloud of colonial difficulty was spreading from the capital of New England to the frontier Eng- lish settlements, Sir William Johnson was urged by the British crown to take sides with the parent country. He had been taken from comparative obscurity, and promoted by the government of England, to honors and wealth. Many wealthy and influential friends around him, were already numbered among the advocates of civil liberty. Should he raise his arm against that power which had thus signally honored him? Should he take sides with the oppressor against many of his tried friends in a thousand perilous adventures 1 These were serious questions, as we may reasonably suppose, which often occupied his mind. The Baronet declared to several of his valued friends, as the storm of civil dis- cord was gathering, that " England and her colonies were ap- proaching a terrible war, but that he should never live to witness it" Such assertions were not only made to Lewis Groat, but also to Daniel Campbell and John Baptist Van Eps, of Schenec- tada, and to some of them repeatedly. At the time of his death, a court was sitting in Johnstown, and while in the court house on the afternoon of the day of his death, a package from England, of a political nature, was handed him. He left the court house, went directly home, and in a few hours was a corpse. The fore- going particulars are corroborated by the researches of Giles F. Yates Esq. The excitement of the occasion may have produced his death without the aid of poison ; but as he died thus suddenly, his acquaintances believed he had hastened his death. The three AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 117 individuals named, being together after the event, and speaking of the Baronet's death, agreed in their opinion that his former declarations were prophetic, and that he was a man sufficiently determined to execute such design if once conceived. Col. Guy Johnson succeeded Sir William at his death,as the superintendent of Indian affairs for the colony of New York. In 1775, Guy Johnson abandoned his situation on the Mohawk, and, with Joseph Brant and a formidable number of the Six Na- tions, went to Canada. Whether Colonel Claus accompanied Guy Johnson or Sir John to Canada, is uncertain ; but sure it is, he also left his possessions in the valley and removed thither. Sir John, violating a compact of neutrality made with General Schuyler, set out for Canada in the month of May, 1776, ac- companied by about three hundred followers, mostly Scotch settlers in and around Johnstown. After a march of nineteen days through an almost unbroken wilderness, suffering severely for the want of provisions, they reached Montreal. The wife of Guy Johnson died a short time after her removal to Canada. NORTH VIEW OF GUY PARK. Guy Park, which was just completed when its owner left it, was occupied during the war by Henry Kennedy; Fort Johnson by Albert Veeder ; and the Claus' house by Col. John Harper, until it accidentally took fire from a supposed defect in the chim- ney, and burned down. A tavern was afterwards erected near 9 118 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, its site, and was for years known as the Simons place. These buildings, and the lands of their owners, with Johnson Hall and the lands belonging to it, were confiscated to the United States j as was also the property of Col. John Butler, one of the King's justices for Tryon county, a man of influence and wealth, who re- moved at the beginning of the war from the same neighborhood to Canada. The commissioners appointed March 6th, 1777, for disposing of confiscated personal property in Tryon county, were Col. Fre- derick Fisher, Col. John Harper, and Maj. John Eisenlord. The latter was, however, killed in the Oriskany battle, early in August following, and his place supplied by one Garrison. When the personal property of Sir John Johnson was sold, which was some time before the sale of his real estate, his slaves were disposed of among the " goods and chattels." Col. Volkert Veeder bought the confidential one with whom the Knight left his plate and valuable papers, who buried them after his former master left. He kept the concealment of those valuables a secret in his own breast for four years, until Sir John visited the Mo- hawk valley in 1780, and recovered them and the slave. The commissioners for selling real estates in Tryon county, were Henry Otthout and Jeremiah Van Rensselaer. They sold Johnson Hall, with seven hundred acres of land, to James Cald- well of Albany, for .£6,600 — who soon after sold it for .£1,400. Caldwell paid the purchase in public securities, bought up for a song, and said he made money in the speculation, although he disposed of the property for -£5,200 less, " on paper," than he gave for it. This transaction will serve to show the state of American credit at that period — probably in 1778 or '79. Tradition says that a black ghost appeared several times dur- ing the Revolution, in a room in the north-west part of Fort Johnson, while occupied by Veeder. In one of the rooms at Guy Park, a female ghost resembling the then deceased wife of Guy Johnson is said to have appeared, to the great annoyance of the credulous Kennedy family. Even in the day time, they were more than once alarmed. About this time a German, a stranger AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 119 to the family, called there, and inquired if the lady of its former proprietor had not been seen ; and when answered in the affirma- tive, he requested permission to tarry over night in the haunted room. It was readily granted, and he retired at an early hour. In the morning before his departure, he told the family they need be under no further apprehension, that the ghost would not again appear ; and in truth she did not. The mystery of the visits to those dwellings, which was a favorite theme on the tongue of the marvelous for many years, has never been revealed, and some of the old people living in the vicinity still believe that the visitants were supernatural beings, or real ghosts. The truth probably is, that the black ghost seen at Fort Johnson, was not the ideal, but the flesh and blood person of the confidential slave of its former proprietor ; who, by showing his ivory to some purpose, took ad- vantage of the fears of the family to bear off some valuable arti- cle secreted in some part of the building by its former occupants. Nor is it unlikely that a similar mission prompted some female to visit Guy Park — for ghosts never travel by daylight — that she could not find the article sought for, and that consequently a man, a stranger to the family, whose agent she may have been, know- ing she had failed to obtain the treasure, visited the house, and by gaining access to the room, found the object desired, and could then tell the family confidently that the ghost would not reap- pear. Many valuable articles were left behind by tories in their flight, who expected soon to return and recover them ; and when they found the prospect of their return cut off, or long delayed, they then obtained them by the easiest means possible — and sure- ly none were easier than through the mystery of superstition. From the great facility of Sir William Johnson to obtain lands, he became a most extensive land -holder. He was remarkably fond of women; and is believed to have been the father of several scores — some say an hundred children ; by far the larger number of whom were part native, some by young squaws, and others by the wives of Indians who thought it an honor to have them on intimate terms with the king's agent ; and would even bring them a great distance to prostitute them to his insatiable 120 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, lust. The Five Nations, says Colden, carried their hospitali- ty to distinguished strangers so far, as to allow them their choice of a young squaw, from among the prettiest in the neighborhood, (washed clean and dressed in her best apparel) as a companion during his sojourn with them ; who performed all the duties of a fond wife. Of this custom, which was in vogue when the Baron- et settled among them, he availed himself. He had a rich scar- let blanket made, and bound with gold lace, which he wore when transacting business with the Indians, and it being a par- tial adoption of their own style of wardrobe, it pleased them very much. He often boasted of the pleasurable scenes of which that blanket was the sole witness. He erected buildings at a place called the Fish House, on the south bank of the Sacondaga river, some twelve or fifteen miles north-east of Johnstown, where he kept two white concubines, by the name of Wormwood. After the death of the mother of Sir John Johnson and his two own sisters, the Baronet took to his bosom Molly Brant, with whom he lived until his death. She was the mother of seven of his children. Many pleasing anecdotes are related of Sir William Johnson, who perhaps exerted an unbounded influence over a greater num- ber of Indians, than it was ever the lot of another white man to obtain in North America. His general character was rather happily elineated by Paulding in his Dutchman'' s Fireside. When he had trinkets and other presents to distribute among the Five Na- tions, and they assembled around Fort Johnson, and afterwards Johnson Hall, his tenants and neighbors were invited to be pre- sent. He was extravagantly fond of witnessing athletic feats, and on such occasions was gratified. On those festivals, not only young Indians and squaws, but whites, both male and female, were often seen running foot races, or wrestling for some gaudy trinket, or fancy article of wearing apparel. Men were some- times seen running foot races for a prize, with a meal-bag drawn over their legs and tied under the arms. The ludicrous figure presented by the crippled strides and frequent tumbles of those competitors, was a source of no little pleasure. Not unfrequent- AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 121 ly a fat swine was the prize of contention. Its tail being well greased, the whole hog was given its freedom, and the individual who could seize and hold it by the tail became its lawful owner. It required a powerful gripe to win, and many a hand did such prizes usually slip through. An old woman is said to have seized on one, amid the jeers of the laughing multitude, after it had es- caped the grasp of many strong hands, and firmly held it. The secret was, she had prepared herself with a handful of sand. On one occasion, half a pound of tea was awarded to the individual who could, by contortion of feature, make the wryest face. Two old women were sometimes heard scolding most vehemently, the successful one to be rewarded with a bladder of Scotch snufF. The erection of a straight pole, after it had been peeled and well besmeared with soft-soap, with a prize upon its top worth seek- ing, — and after which the young Indians, in a state of nudity, would climb, was an oft repeated source of amusement. Children were sometimes seen searching in a mud-puddle for coppers Sir William had thrown in. His ingenuity was taxed for new sour- ces of merriment, and various were the expedients adopted to give zest to the scenes exhibited on those gala days. He was also a man of considerable taste, and discovered not a little in the culti- vation of shrubbery around Fort Johnson. As the Johnsons were extensive land-owners, and preferred leas- ing to selling land, their disaffection to the American govern- ment, and its final confiscation, was a good thing for the country, as it became subsequently occupied by freeholders. The confis- cated lands of the Johnson family, must have yielded no in- considerable sum to an impoverished treasury. The following anecdote is related of Sir William Johnson, who preferred retaining in himself the right of soil to his landed pos- sessions. He one day visited a tenant who was engaged in chop- ping wood for him. After some little conversation, the chopper described a certain one hundred acre lot in Albany bush, (now the eastern part of Johnstown,) and asked the Baronet what he would take for it, and execute him a deed. The latter, supposing the man had very little money, named a sum which was about the 122 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, real value of the soil. " / will take it" was the quick and em- phatic reply of the laborer ; and he began counting out the mo- ney to his astonished landlord, upon the very stump the last fallen tree had left. " I would rather not have sold it for twice that sum," said Sir William, " but since you have fairly bought it, you shall have a title to it ;" and taking the money, he executed a deed to him. He was the patron of many laudable enterprises, and I must suppose him to have aided in establishing Queen's College, N. J., as he was the first trustee named in the charter. In the summer of 1764, says the Gentleman'' s Magazine, pub- lished soon after, " Sir William Johnson, with a body of regular and provincial forces, to which more than one thousand friendly Indians have joined themselves, has lately marched to visit the forts of Oswego, Niagara, Detroit s, Pittsburg, ^c, in order to strike terror in the Western nations, and to reduce them to reason ; many of these nations are unknown to their brethren, and some have already of- fered terms of peace ; the Shawnese are the most formidable of those who stand out : And the friendly Bidians express great eager- ness to attack them. Since the march of these troops, the back settlements have enjoyed perfect tranquility ; and the Senecas have sent in a great number of English prisoners, agreeable to their en- gagement." In the May number of the same Magazine, for 1765, 1 find the following additional notice of the Baronet : " Sir William Johnson at his seat at Johnson Hall, in North America, has had a visit lately paid him by vipwards of a thousand Indians of different tribes, all in friendship ; greatly to the satis- faction of his Excellency, as tending to promote a good understand- ing with those nations, for the good of his Majesty's subjects." Before his death. Sir William Johnson willed to his children by Miss Brant, the valuable lands known as the Royal Grant, which he obtained so easily from the celebrated warrior Hendrick. Af- ter death, his remains v/ere placed in a mahogany coflfm, and that inclosed in a leaden one, previous to being deposited in a vault beneath the Episcopal Church ; which building was erected m Johnstown about the year 1772. At some period of the Revolu- tion, lead being very scarce, the vault was opened and the leaden coffin taken by the patriots and moulded into bullets. The coffin AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 123 containing the body having become somewhat broken, a new one was made after the war closed, and the Baronet's remains trans- ferred to it. The Hd of the first coffin, which bore his name in silver nails, was afterward suspended in the church. Not many- years ago, the edifice was fitted up at considerable cost, at which time the vault was filled up with sand. In a destructive fire which subsequently visited Johnstown, the church was burned down; and on its being rebuilt, the site was so altered as to leave the grave of Sir William* outside its walls. — Alexander J. Comrie. HENDRICK, GREAT CHIEF OF THE MOHAWK NATION. " The brave old He7idric/i, the great Sachem or Chief of the Mohawk Indians, one of the Six Nations now in Alliance with, and subject to the King of Great Britain." * A portrait of Sir William Johnson was owned in Johnstown until about the year 1830, when it was purchased by a member of the CoL Claus family for a small sum, and taken to Canada. — Mrs- W, S. 124 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY. At the bottom of the picture is the preceding explanation. This celebrated warrior, commonly called King Hendrick, was, for a time, the most distinguished Indian in the colony of New York. For the picture from which the above was engraved, I would here acknowledge my indebtedness to John S. Walsh, Esq., of Bethlehem. This interesting relic of the Mohawk valley, around which cluster associations of classic interest, connected with the colonial history of the state, was sold in the revolution among the confiscated property of Sir John Johnson, went into the Cuyler family for a length of time, and subsequently into that of Mr. Walsh. The tradition in the latter family is, that Hendrick visit- ed England in the evening of his life, and that while there was presented, by his Majesty, with a suit of clothes richly embroid- ered with gold lace, in which he sat for his portrait. As he is represented in full court dress, it is highly probable the tradition is correct. The original picture is a spirited engraving — colored to life and executed in London, but at what date is unknown ; probably about the year 1745 or '50. He visited Philadelphia some time before his death, says the historian Bwight, at which time his likeness was taken ; from which a wax figure was made, said to have been a good imitation of his person. King Hendrick was born about the year 1680, and generally dwelt at the Upper Castle of the Mohawk nation, although for a time he resided near the present residence of Nicholas Yost, on the north side of the Mohawk, below the Nose. He was one of the most sagacious and active sachems of his time. He stood high in the confidence of Sir William Johnson, with whom he was en- gaged in many perilous enterprises against the Canadian French ; and under whose command he fell in the battle of Lake George, September 8th, 1755, covered with glory. In the November number of the Gentleman's Magazine, for 1755, is the following notice of his death : " The whole body of our Indians were prodigiously exasperated against the French and their Indians, occasioned by the death of the famous Hendrick, a renowned Indian warrior among the Mo- hawks, and one of their sachems, or kings, who was slain in the battle, and whose son upon being told that his father was killed, AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 125 giving the usual Indian groan upon such occasions, and suddenly putting his hand on his left breast, swore his father was still alive in that place, and stood there in his son." The tract of land owned by Sir William Johnson, and called the Royal Grant, which contained nearly one hundred thousand acres of choice land, now mostly situated in the county of Herki- mer, was obtained from Hendrick in the following manner. Be- ing at the Baronet's house (Fort Johnson) the sachem observed a new coat, richly embroidered with gold lace, which the former intended for his own person ; and on entering his presence after a night's rest, he said to him, "Brother, me dream last night." " Indeed," responded the royal agent, " and what did my red brother dream?" "Me dream," was the chief's reply, "that this coat be mine !" " Then," said the sagacious Irishman, " it is yours, to which you are welcome." Soon after this interview. Sir William returned his guest's visit, and on meeting him in the morning said to him, " Brother, I dreamed last night !" " What did my pale-faced brother dream?" interrogated the Sachem. " I dreamed," said his guest, " that this tract of land," describing a square bounded on the south by the Mohawk, on the east by Canada creek, and on the north and west by objects familiar to them, " was all my own !" Old Hendrick assumed a thoughtful mood, but although he saw the enormity of the request, he would not be outdone in generosity, or forfeit the friendship of the British agent, and soon responded, " Brother, the land is yours, but you must not dream again !" The title to this land was con- firmed by the British government, on which account it was called the Royal Grant. — Henry Frey Yates, Esq. In the summer of 1754, a plan of colonial alliance was pro- posed in the American colonies, to resist the encroachments of the Canadian French and Indians, in furtherance of which the chiefs of the Six Nations of New York met the commissioners of the several governments at Albany on the 2d of July ; when those Sachems were addressed by James De Lancey, then lieu- tenant governor of the colony. Hendrick, whose speeches are said to have been correctly reported for the London Magazine, in 126 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, .which I find them, was the principal speaker; and as those speeches will compare for reasoning and pathos with those of modern statesmen, indeed, would not have disgraced a Demos- thenes, and will serve to introduce the young reader to an almost extinct race of men, I insert them. Abraham, Sachem of the Upper Castle of the Mohawks, rose up and said — " Brethren, You, the governor of New York, and the cohimis- sioners of the other governments, are you ready to hear us ! The governor replied, they were all ready. " Then Hendrick, brother to the said Abraham, and a Sachem of the same castle, rose up and spake in behalf of the Six Na- tions as follows : " Brethren, just now you told us you were ready to hear us ; hearken unto me. " Brother Corlaer, (a name given to the governor of New York by the Indians long ago,) and brothers of the other governments, Saturday last you told us that you came here by order of the great king our common father, and in his name to renew the antient chain of friendship between this and the other governments on the continent, and us the Six United Nations : And you said also, there Avere then present commissioners from Massachusetf s Bay, New Ha?npshi7'e, Connecticut, Rhode Islajid, Fensylvania, and ■ Maryland ; and that Virginia and Carolina desired to be con- sidered also as present : We rejoice that by the king's orders, we are all met here this day, and are glad to see each other face to face ; we are very thankful for the same, and Ave look upon the governors of South Carolina and Virginia as also present, [a belt. " Brethren, We thank you in the most hearty manner for your condolence to us ; we also condole all your relations and friends who have died since our last meeting here. [g^^e three strings of wampum. " Brethren, (holding the chain belt given by his honor and the several governors in his hand,) We return you all o^xc grateful acknowledgements for renewing and brightening the covenant- chain. " This belt is of very great importance to our united nations and all our allies. We will therefore take it to Onondago, where our council-fire always burns, and keep it so securely, that neither thunder nor lightning shall break it. There we will consult over it, and as we have lately added two links to it, so we will use our endeavors to add as many links more as it lies in our power : And we hope when we shew you this belt again, we shall give you reason to rejoice at it, by your seeing the vacancies in it filled up (referring to his honor's explanation of it in his general speech). In the mean time we desire that you will strengthen yourselves, and bring as manv into this covenant as you possibly can. We AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 127 do now solemnly renew and brighten the covenant-chain with our brethren here present, and with all our other absent brethren on the continent. " Brethren, As to the accounts you have heard of our living divided from each other, it is very true, we have several times attempted to draw off those of our brethren who are settled at Oswegatie, but in vain; for the governor of Canada is like a wicked deluding spirit ; however, as you desire, we shall persist in our endeavors. " You have asked us the reason of our living in this divided manner ; the reason is, your neglecting us these three years past ; (then taking a stick and throwing it behind his back) You have thus thrown us behind your backs, and disregarded us ; whereas, the French are subtle and vigilant people, ever using their utmost endeavors to seduce and bring our people over to them. [a belt. " Brethren, The encroachments of the French, and what you have said to us on that article on behalf of the king our father ; as these matters were laid before us as of great importance, so we have made strict enquiry among all our people, if any of them have either sold or given the French leave to build the forts you mention, and we cannot find that either sale has been made or leave has been given ; but the French have gone thither without our consent or approbation, nor ever mentioned it to us. " Brethren, The governor of Virginia and the governor of Canada are both quarrelling about lands which belong to us, and such a quarrel as this may end in our destruction. They fight who shall have the land ; the governors of Virgi?iia and Peniisyl- vania have made paths through our country to trade, and built houses Avithout acquainting us with it ; The}'" should have first asked our consent to build there, as was done when Oswego was built. [§"^"^6 a belt. " Brethren, It is very true, as you told us, that the clouds hang heavy over us, and it is not very pleasant to look up, but we give you this belt [giving a belt] to clear away all clouds, that we may all live in bright sunshine, and keep together in strict union and friendship ; then we shall become strong, and nothing can hurt us. " Brethren, This is the antient place of treaty where the fire of friendship always used to burn, and it is now three years since we have been called to any public treaty here ; 'tis true, there are commissioners here, but they have never invited us to smoke with them (by which they mean, the commissioners had never invited them to any conference), but the Lidians of Canada came frequently and smoked with them, which is for the sake of their beaver, but we hate them (meaning the French Indians) : We have not as yet confirmed the peace with them : 'tis your fault, brethren, we are not strengthened by conquest, for we should have gone and taken Crown Poifit, but you hindered us : We had concluded to go and take it ; but we were told it was too late, and 128 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY that the ice would not bear us. Instead of this you burnt your own fort at Saraghtogee and run away from it ; which was a shame and a scandal to you. Look about your country, and see you have no fortifications about you, no, not even to this city. 'Tis but one step from Canada hither, and the French may easily come and turn you out of doors. " Brethren, You desired us to speak from the bottom of our hearts, and we shall do it. Look about you, and see all these houses full of beaver, and the money is all gone to Canada; like- wise your powder, lead, and guns, which the French make use of at the Ohio. " Brethren, You were desirous we should open our minds and our hearts to you ; look at the French, they are men ; they are fortifying every where ; but we are ashamed to say it ; you are like women, bare and open, without any fortifications." At the close of the above speech, Abraham, a brother of Hen- drick, rose up and said : " Brethren, We should let you know what was our desire three years ago, when Col. Johnson [he was promoted to Major General in 1754] laid down the management of Indian affairs, which gave us great uneasiness ; the governor then told us, (governor of New York) it was in his power to continue him, but that he would con- sult the council of New York ; that he was going over to England, and promised to recommend our desire, that Col. Johnson should have the management of Indian affairs, to the king, that the new governor might have power to reinstate him. We long waited in expectation of this being done, but hearing no more of it, we em- brace this opportunity of laying this belt [and gave a belt] before all our brethren here present, and desire that Col. Johnson may be reinstated and have the management of Indian affairs ; for we all lived happy whilst under his management ; for we love him, and he us ; and he has always been our good and trusty friend. " Brethren, I forgot something ; we think our request about Col. Johnson, which governor Clinton promised to carry to the king our father, is drowned in the sea ; the fire here is burnt out ; and turning his face to the New York commissioners for Indian affairs in Albany there present, desired them to notice what he said." On the same day, Hendrick, in the name of the Mohawks of the Upper Castle [Connejohary) in a private audience, delivered the following speech — in the presence of several sachems of each of the other nations, to the governor of New York : " Brother, We had a message some time since to meet you at his place when the fire burns ; we of Comiejohary, met the mes- senger you sent with a letter at Col. Johnson's ; and as soon as we received it we came running down, and the Six Nations are now here complete." AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 129 The Governor replied — " Brethren of the Six Nations, you are welcome. I take this op- portunity, now you are all together, to condole the loss in the death of your friends and relations since you last met here ; and with this string of wampum I wipe away your tears, and take sor- row ffom your hearts, that you may open your minds and speak freely." [a string of wampum. Hendrick continued — " Brother, We thank you for condoling our loss ; for wiping away our tears that we may speak freely ; and as we do not doubt but you have lost some of your great men and friends, we give you this string of condolence in return, that it may remove your sor- rows, that we may both speak freely : [gave a string.] (Then Hen- drick, addressing himself to the Six Nations, said,) " That last year he attended Col. Johnson to Onondago to do service to the king and their people ; that Col. Johnson told them, another gov- ernor was expected soon, and they Avould then have an opportu- nity of seeing him, and laying their grievances before him. — That the new governor arrived soon after, and scarcely had they heard of his arrival, but they had an account of his death : and that now he was glad to see his honor, to whom he would declare his grievances. " Brother, We thought you would wonder why we of Connejo- hary staid so long ; we shall noAv give you the reason. Last sum- mer we of Connejohary were at New York to make our complaint, and we thought then the covenant chain Avas broken, because we were neglected ; and when you neglect business, the French take advantage of it ; for they are never quiet. — It seemed so to us, that the governor had turned his back upon the Five Nations, as if they were no more ; whereas the French are doing all in their power to draw us over to them. We told the governor last sum- mer, we blamed him for the neglect of the Five Nations ; and at the same time we told him the French were drawing the Five Na- tions away to Oswegechie, owing to that neglect which might have been prevented, if proper use had been made of that warning ; but now we are afraid it is too late. We remember how it was in former times, when we were a strong and powerful people : Col. Schuyler used frequently to come among us, and by this means Ve kept together. " Brother, We, the Mohawks, are in very difficult circumsran- ces, and are blamed for things behind our backs which we do not deserve. Last summer, when we went up with Col. Johnson to Onondago, and he made his speech to the Five Nations, the Five Nations said they liked the speech, but that the Mohawks had made it. We are looked upon by the other nations as Col. Johnson's counsellors, and supposed to hear all the news from him, which is not the case ; for Col. Johnson does not receive from, or impart much news to us. This is our reason for staying behind, for if we had come first, the other nations would have said that we made the 130 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, Governor's speech ; and therefore, though we were resolved to come, we intended the other nations should be before us, that they might hear the Governor's speech, which we could hear afterwards. " There are some of our people who have large open ears, and talk a little broken English and Dutch, so that they hear what is said by the Christian settlers near them, and by this means we come to understand that we are looked upon to be a proud nation, and therefore stayed behind. 'Tis true and known we are so ; and that we, the Mohatolcs, are the head of all the other nations. Here they are, and must own it. But it was not out of pride we Conne- joharies stayed behind ; but for the reason we have already given." A speaker followed Hendrick, in behalf of all the Six Nations. After expressing his joy at the renewal of the ancient covenant- chain hetween all his Majesty's governments on the continent and the Six Nations ; for the promises on the part of the New York Governor of future protection ; and the danger he thought they v/ould be in, if Col. Johnson left off the management of Indian af- fairs^ — observing, if he fail us, we die, — he alluded to w^hat the Governor of Pennsylvania, through Mr. Weiser, his interpreter, had said on the day before, respecting a new road from Pennsylvania to Ohio. " We thank the Governor of Virginia,^' said he, " for assisting the Indians at the Ohio, who are our relations and allies ; and we approve of the Governor of Pennsylvania not having hitherto intermeddled in this affair. He is a wise and prudent manj and will know his own time." He closed as follows : — " Brethren, We put you in mind in our former speech of the de- fenceless state of our frontiers, particularly of the country of Che- nectady, and of the country of the Five Nations. You told us yes- terday you were consulting about securing both yourselves and us. We beg you will contrive something speedily: you are not safe from danger one day. The French have their hatchet in their hands both at the Ohio and in two places in Neio Ertgland. We don't know but this very night they may attack us. One of the principal reasons why we desire you to be speedy in this matter is, that since Col. Johnson has been in this city, there has been a French Indian at his house, who took measure of the wall round it, and made a very narrow observation of every thing thereabouts. We think him {Col. Johnson) in very great danger, because the French will take more than ordinary pains either to kill him or take him a prisoner, upon account of his great interest among us, being also one of the Five Nation." {Col. Johnson is one of their Sachems.) [Gave four strings of wampum. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 131 The Governor replied — " I have now done speaking to you ; but before I cover up the fire I must recommend to you to behave quietly and peaceably to all your brethren and their cattle, in your return home." Hendrick responded — " Your honor told us you now covered up the fires, and we are all highly pleased that all things have been so amicably settled ; and hope that all that has passed between us may be strictly ob- served on both sides. " Brethren of the several governments, We hope that you will not fail in the covenant-chain, wherewith we are mutually bound, and have now so solemnly renewed and strengthened ; if we do not hold fast by this chain of friendship our enemies will laugh us to scorn. " Brethren, We wish you would all contribute to make some provision for us in our return home, which will eifectually prevent our people from killing the inhabitants' cattle ; and we desire you will provide some wagons for us to go to Chenectady. We think this expense will fall too heavy upon our province, as we have the presents from all to carry up. We beg we may take all care of the fire of friendship, and preserve it, by our mutual attention, from further injuries. We will take care of it on our sides, and hope our brethren will do so on theirs. We wish the tree of friendship may grow up to a great height, and then we shall be a powerful people, " We, the United Six Nations, shall rejoice in the increase of our strength, so that all other nations may stand in awe of us. " Brethren, I will just tell you Avhat a people we were formerly. If any enemies rose against us, we had no occasion to lift our whole hand against them, for our little finger was sufficient ; and as we have now made so strong a confederacy, if we are truly earnest therein, we may retrieve the ancient glory of the Five Nations. " Brethren, We have now done. But one word more must we add : If the French continue their hostilities, the interpreter will want assistance — three or four to be joined with him ; but this matter we submit to the Governor. We have now fully finished all we have to say." The following speech, delivered at the same convention by one of the River or Stockbridge Indians, is too full of figure and me- lancholy truth to be omitted in this place : "Fathers, We are greatly rejoiced to see you all here; it is by the will of Heaven that we are met here, and we thank you for this opportunity of seeing you all together, as it is a long while since we had such a one. 132 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, " Fathers, who are here present, We will give you a short rela- tion of the long friendship which has subsisted between the white people of this country and us. Our forefathers had a castle on the river : as one of them walked out he saw something on the river, but was at a loss to know what it was ; he took it at first for a great fish ; he run into the castle and gave notice to the other Indians ; two of our forefathers went to see what it was, and found it a vessel with men in it ; they immediately joined hands with the people in the vessel, and became friends. The white people told them they should not come up the river any further at that time, and said to them they would return back from whence they came, and come again in a year's time, and come as far up the river as where the old fort stood. Our fathers invited them ashore, and said to them " Here we will give you a place to make you a town; it shall be from this place up to such a stream, (meaning where the petteroon mill now stands,) and from the river back up to the hill. Our forefathers told them, though they were now a small people, they would in time multiply, and fill up the land they had given them. After they were ashore some time, some other Indians, who had not seen them before, looked fiercely at them ; and our forefathers observing it, and seeing the white peo- ple so few in number, lest they should be destroyed, took and shel- tered them under their arms ; but it turned out that those Indians did not desire to destroy them, but wished also to have the same white people for their friends. At this time which we have now spoken of, the white people were small, but we were very numer- ous and strong ; we defended them in that low state : But now the case is altered ; you are numerous and strong, but we are few and weak ; therefore we expect that you will act b)^ us in these cir- cumstances, as we did by you in those we have just now related. We view you now as a very large tree, which has taken deep root in the ground, whose branches are spread very wide. We stand by the body of the tree, and we look round to see if there be any one who endeavors to hurt it, and if it should so happen, that any are powerful enough to destroy it, we are ready to fall with it. [gave a belt. " Fathers, you see how early we made friendship with you ; we tied each other in a strong chain : That chain has not yet been broken : We now clean and rub that chain to make it brighter and stronger ; and we determine on our parts that it shall never be broken ; and we hope that you will take care, that neither you nor any one else shall break it ; and we are greatly rejoiced, that peace and friendship have so long subsisted between us." — Gen- tlemen's Magazine. The three Castles of the Mohawk Nation, says C olden, were all surprised and captured by a party of six or seven hundred French and Indians, on the 8th of March, 1693. The Lower AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 133 Castle was bravely defended by the few warriors who chanced to be in it, until they were overpowered by numbers. In the reign of Queen Anne of England, and about the year 1710, a frontier military post was established at the junction of the Schoharie and Mohawk rivers, on the east bank of the form- er, and near the eastern Mohawk Castle. Captain John Scott, an English officer, erected a small fort of hewn timber at this place, and called it Fort Hunter, in honor of Robert Hunter, then governor of the colony ; which fort was intended to protect the natives against the hostile French, and secure their trade. About the same time a small church was built near the fort, and called Queen Jinne's Chapel. It was erected by the Queen, whose mu- nificence endowed it, says Colden, " with furniture, and a valuable set of plate for the communion table." It was a substantial stone edifice, somewhat resembling in appearance the one afterwards erected at Caughnawaga, and was for a great length of time un- der the management of an Episcopal Society in England, for p'ropagating the gospel in foreign parts, which society supported a minister ai this place as a missionary among the Mohawk In- dians. The entrance to the chapel was on its north side near the centre. The pulpit, which was provided with a sounding board, stood at the west end, and directly opposite were two pews fin- ished for the occupancy of Sir William Johnson and the minister's family ; the floor of which was elevated. Johnson's pew was also furnished with a wooden canopy. Moveable benches served the rest of the congregation with seats. Fort Hunter was a place of no little importance in the early history of the Mohawk valley ; and at that post were doubtless planned some important enterprises against the Canadas. Speak- ing of the Indian " war dances," Colden says : " An officer of the regular troops told me, that while he was commandant of Fort Hunter, the Mohaivks on one of these occa- sions, (that of a war dance,) told him, that they (the Indians) ex- pected the usual military honors as they passed the ganison. The men presented their pieces as the Indians passed, and the drum beat a march ; and with less respect, the officer said, they would have been dissatisfied. The Indians passed in single row one af- 10 134 HISTOKY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, ter another, with great gravity and profound silence ; and every one of them, as he passed the officer, took his gun from his should- er, and fired into the ground near the officer's foot : They marched in this manner three or four miles from their Castle. The women on these occasions follow them with their old clothes, and they send back by them their finery in which they marched from the Castle." The ruins of old Fort Hunter were torn down at the beginning of the Revolution, and the chapel enclosed by heavy palisades. In the corners of the yard were small block houses mounting can- non. This place, which continued to be called Fort Hunter, was garrisoned in the latter part of the war, and Capt. Tremper, from below Albany, was its commandant. The chapel was torn down about the year 1820, to make room for the Erie canal. QUEEN ANNE'S CHAPEL PARSONAGE. Queen Anne's chapel was early provided with a small bell, ' which is now in use on the Academy in Johnstown. A glebe or farm of three hundred acres of good land was attached to it, which was conveyed at some period by the natives to Dr. Bar- clay, and by him to the society alluded to, on their reimbursing AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 135 him moneys expended upon if. The parsonage house, said to have been built about the time the chapel was, is still standing in Flo- rida, half a mile below the Schoharie, and a few rods south of the canal, from which it is visible. It is a stone building, some twenty-five by thirty-five feet on the ground, two stories high, .with a quadrangular roof, presents a very ancient appearance, and is possibly the oldest house west of Schenectada in the Mo- hawk valley. The chapel farm was disposed of some years ago, and part of the proceeds, nearly fifteen hundred dollars, were laid out in erecting the Episcopal Church at Port Jackson, in the same town ; and the residue, an equal sum, invested in the Epis- copal Church of Johnstown. — Spafford's Gazetteer, Peter Put- man, J. L. Groat, A. J. Comrie, and others. The chapel parsonage at Fort Hunter, is now owned and oc- cupied by Nicholas Reese. The last occupant under the patron- age of the Missionary Society, was the Rev. John Stuart, who was officiating there at the beginning of the revolution. He re- moved, with the Indians under his charge, to Canada — they choos- ing to follow the fortunes of the Johnsons and Butlers. I have in my possession a bill of sale from Mr. Stuart to John Conyn, who returned to the Mohawk after the revolution, of a male slave called Tom Doe, who went from Fort Hunter with his master to Canada. The sale was for $275 in specie, and was dated at Montreal, November 19, 1783. At the close of the war, Mr. Stuart settled on Grand river, and resumed his ministerial labors. In 1720, Captain Scott took a patent for the lands extending from Aurie's creek to the Yates and Fonda line, near the present village of Fultonville. Aurie is the Dutch of Aaron, and the creek was so called after an old Indian warrior named Aaron, vt^ho lived many years in a hut which stood on the flats now owned by J. C. Yost, on the east side of the creek. The adjoin- ing village was named after the stream. Early in the eighteenth century, three brothers named Quack- enboss emigrated from Holland to the colony of New York ; one of them locating at New York city, and the other ttvo at Albany. Peter, one of the latter, settled on Scott's patent, only two or 136 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, three years after it was secured. He resided near Aurie's creek at the now 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 occa- sion to suggest his partiality for herself. The maiden, who had conceived an attachment for Quackenboss instead of the young subaltern, shrewedly 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 settle- ments some distance above. Captain Scott had one son who be- came a general officer. — John Scott Quackenloss. About the year 1740, a small colony consisting of sixteen families of Irish immigrants was planted, under the patronage of Wm. Johnson, afterwards baronet, on lands now owned by Henry Shelp, a few miles south-west of Fort Hunter, in the pre- sent town of Glen. Several years after they had built them- selves rude dwellings, cleared lands, planted orchards, and com- menced their agricultural labors, a disturbance arose between the Indian Confederacy of New York and the Canadian Indians, which the colonists conceived endangered their domestic tranquili- ty ; in consequence of which the settlement was broken up, and the chicken-hearted pioneers, then numbering eighteen or twenty families, returned to the Emerald Isle. Traces of their residence are visible at the present day. — John Hughes and Peter Putman. The first merchant in the Mohawk valley west of Schenectada, was Maj. Jelles (Giles) Fonda, a son of Douw Fonda, an early settler at Caughnawaga. For many years he carried on an ex- AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 137 tensive business for the times, at the latter place — trading with the white citizens of the valley, and the natives of western New York ; the latter trade being carried on at old Fort Schuyler, now Utica; Fort Stanwix, (called in the revolution Fort Schuyler,) now Rome, and Forts Oswego, Niagara and Schlosser. An ab- stract from his ledsfer shows an indebtedness of his customers at one time just before the revolution, amounting to over ten thou- sand dollars. Many of his good he imported directly from Lon- don. To his Indian customers he sold blankets, trinkets, ammu- nition and rum ; and received in return, peltries and ginseng root. The latter was at that time an important item among the ex- ports of what was then, Western New York ; and the two named added to the article of pot-ash, almost the only commodities pur- chased in a foreign market. The following anecdote is believed to be true. In the employ of Sir William Johnson a few years before his death, was an Irishman named McCarthy, by reputation the most noted pugil- ist in Western New York. The baronet offered to pit his fellow countryman against any man who could be produced for a fist fight. Major Fonda, tired of hearing the challenge, and learning that a very muscular Dutchman named John Van Loan, was living near Brakabeen, in the Schoharie valley, made a journey of some forty or fifty miles, to secure his 'professional sevices, for he, too, was reputed a bully. Van Loan readily agreed to flog the son of Erin, for a ten pound note. At a time appointed, numbers were assembled at Cauo;hnawao;a to witness the contest between the pugilists. After McCarthy had been swaggering about in the crowed for a while, and greatly excited public expectation by his boasting, inducing numbers to bet on his head, his competi- tor appeared ready for the contest — clad for the occasion in a shirt and breeches of dressed deer-skin fitted tight to his person. A ring was formed and the battle commenced. The bully did his best, but it was soon evident that he was not a match for his Dutch adversary, who slipped through his fingers like an eel, and parried his blows with the greatest ease. Completely ex- hausted and almost bruised to a jelly. Sir William's gamester was 138 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, removed, looking if not expressing — peccavi. — Ahraham A. Van Home, who obtained the facts from a son of Van Loan. I have spoken in the preceding chaper, of the custom of pro- viding refreshments at funerals ; a practice which continued in vogue in some degree for at least one hundred years, and until about the year 1825. Smoking was an attendant on the prevail- ing habit, as the following order from Col. Dl. Claus, will show. " Sir — I have sent the bearer for four dozen of Pipes and a few pounds of Tobacco, for the burial of Mr. Raworth's child wh please to charge to me. " Monday, 27th Aug., 1770. D. CLAUS." " To Maj'rJelles Fonda." The trade with the Indians along the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence, was carried on by the aid of boats propelled from Schenectada up the Mohawk at great personal labor, in con- sequence of their being several rifts or rapids in the stream. The first obstruction of the, kind was met with six miles above Schenectada, and was called Six Flats' rift; proceeding west came in course similar obstructions known as Fort Hunter rift ; Caughnatvaga rift ; Keator''s rift, at Spraker's, the greatest on the river, having a fall of ten feet ; Brandywine rift, at Cana- joharie, short but rapid ; EhWs rift near Fort Plain ; Kneiskeni's rift, a small rapid near the upper Indian castle, a little above the river dam; sind the Little falls*, so called as compared with the Cahoes on the same stream near its mouth. At the Little Falls, a descent in the river of forty feet in half a mile, boats could not be forced up the current, and it became a carrying place for them and merchandise, which were transported around the rapids on wagons with small wide rimmed wheels, the water craft re- • The village of Little Falls, so romantically situated on the Mohawk, al- ready has a population numbering some three thousand inhabitants, and is rapidly increasing. It seems destined to become the largest place between Albany and Utica in the Mohawk valley. A manufactory for woolen goods has recently been erected here, and an academy, a large stone edifice, con- structed of masive granite from the vicinity, recently completed, was opened in November, 1844, with a male and female department : the former under the charge of Merrit G. McKoon, A. M., and the latter under the superin- ^endaace of Miss Amanda Hodgeman, a young lady of real merit. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 139 launched and and re-loaded to proceed onward. On such occa- sions one of the party usually staid with the goods deposited above, while the team returned for the boat. Small batteaus, known in early times as three-handed and four-handed boats, were in use on the Mohawk, which carried from two to five tons each; and so called because three or four men were required to propel them. There boats were forced over the rapids in the river with poles and ropes, the latter drawn by men on the shore. Such was the mode of transporting merchandize and Indian commodi- ties to and from the west, for a period of about fifty years, and until after the Revolution. A second carrying place in use at an early day was near Fort Stanwix, from the boatable waters of the Mohawk to Wood creek. Passing into Oneida lake, the batteaus proceeded into the Oswego river, and from thence to Oswego on lake Ontario. From Oswego to Niagara, a place of much im- portance, merchandize was transported in the same boats or on sloops. Major Fonda, as his papers show, had much to do with the navigation of the river in the French and American wars with England. — Joseph Spraker. After the Revolution, the tide of emigration was " Westward Ho ! " and a corporate body, known as the " Inland Lock Navi- gation Company," constructed a dam and sluice to facilitate busi- ness at Wood creek, and built several locks at Little Falls, so that boats might pass and repass without unloading. These locks were constructed under the supervision and direction of Gen. Philip Schuyler, whose memory, for services rendered his country in her most trying period, will ever be held in grateful remembrance by the citizens of New York. The locks at Little Falls were com- pleted in 1795. The following original paper, given by Gen. Schuyler to a namesake, and son of the Rev. Mr. Schuyler, of Schoharie, will show at what time the business was most actively prosecuted. To Mr. Philip Schtjylek : " By virtue of the powers vested in me by the directors of the Inland Lock Navigation Companies in this state, I do hereby ap- point you an Assistant Superintendent, to superintend, direct and 140 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, command the mechanics and labourers, and their respective over- seers, already employed in the service of the said companies, hereby requiring the said overseers, and others so employed, in all things to pay due obedience to all your lawful requisitions and directions. " Given under my hand, in the county of Herkimer, this eighth day of May, 1793. "PH: SCHUYLER, ^'■President and Superintendent.'''' In June following, Gen. S. gave his namesake the annexed ve- ry flattering testimonial, which shows the usual caution of that great man in guarding against accidents : Falls, Jime 22, 1793. "Dear Sir : — I experience so much satisfaction from your at- tention, and the readiness with which you comprehend the hints given by me for the construction of the works, that I consider it as a duty to give you this written testimony of my perfect satis- faction of your conduct, and to evince my sense of it by a pecuni- ary reward. Your compensation, from the original time of agree- ment, will be two dollars per day ; this, however, I do not wish you to mention, least others should conceive that I made a discrimina- tion unfavorable to them, although in reality I do not, for their ser- vices are by no means as important to the Lock Navigation Com- pany as yours. " Least an accident should happen to me, which might deprive you of the benefit of the above mentioned allowance, you will keep this letter as a testimony thereof. " I am. Dear Sir, " Your friend and humble servant, "PH: SCHUYLER, " Preside7it of the Board of Directors. " To Mr. Philip Schuyler." After the locks were built at Little Falls, business on the river greatly increased, and apples and cider were then among the com-^ modities sent west. The clumsy batteau, which had for half a century usurped the place of the Indian's bark canoe, — the little craft which had danced on the bosom of the Mohawks' river for many ages, — soon gave place to the Durham boat, carrying from ten to fifteen tons, and constructed, in shape, not unlike a modem canal boat. Few of them were decked over, except at the ends, but all were along the sides, where cleets were nailed down to give foothold to boatmen using poles. Boating, at this period was at- tended with great personal labor : the delay of unloading at Lit- AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 141 tie Falls had been obviated, but it was found more difficult to force large than small craft over the rapids. Several boats usually went in company, and if any arrived first at a rift, they awaited the ap- proach of others, that the united strength of many men might aid in the labor before them. Those boats were often half a day in proceeding only a few rods, and not unfrequently were they, after remaining nearly stationary on a rapid for an hour, when the strength of numbers was united with poles and ropes in propel- ling, compelled to drop below the rift and get a new start. Twen- ty hands, at times, were insufficient to propel a single boat over Keator's rift. When boat's crews were waiting at a rapid for the arrival of their fellows, they usually did their cooking on shore. Poles used on those boats had heads, which rested against the shoulder, which was often calloused or galled, like that of a col- lar-worn horse. Black slaves, owned by settlers in the neigh- borhood of rapids, both male and female, were often seen assist- ing at the ropes on shore, when loaded boats were ascending the river. Accidents sometimes occm-red to boatmen, though seldom at- tended with loss of life. A three-handed boat once struck a rock in Keator's rift, upset, and a negro was drowned. At Fort Hun- ter rift, a three handed boat upset, when Wm. Hull and Kennedy FaiUng were drowned, — the third person in the boat, a son of Abraham Otthout, of Schenectada, swam ashore. One of the last accidents of the kind on the river, occurred while the Erie Canal was building, to a Durham boat, one of the best of that class of river craft, called the Butterfly. It w^as descending the river, then swollen, laden with flour, when it became unmanage- able, swung round, and struck its broadside against a pier of the Canajoharie bridge, and broke near the centre. The contents of the boat literally filled the river for some distance, and a hand on the boat was drowned. His name was afterwards ascertained to be John Clark. His body was recovered twelve miles below, and was buried on the river bank, in the present village of Fulton- ville. His bones having been disclosed by the spring freshet of 1845, they were taken up and buried in the village burying- 142 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, ground. The owner of the boat, a Mr. Myers, had its fragments taken to Schenectada and rebuilt, after which it entered the ca- nal, (the eastern sections being completed,) and from thence he transported it into Cayuga lake. "While there engaged, his boat sunk laden with gypsum, and he was drowned. Thus ended the Butterfly and its owner. Boats managed by skilful hands some- times sailed down the rapids at Little Falls when the river was high, but it was always attended with danger. Several row-boats, constructed expressly to carry some twenty passengers each, from Utica to Schenectada, and tastefully curtained, were in use on the Mohawk some forty years ago. They were called river packets. — Myndert Starin. The first bridge of any importance in the Mohawk valley, was built by Maj. Isaiah Depuy, a resident of Glen at the time of his death (1841), and was erected across the Schoharie at Fort Hun- ter. It was commenced in October, 1796, and on the 4th day of July following, the anniversary of Liberty was celebrated upon it. The next bridge worthy of note in the valley, was an elliptic or arched one over the Mohawk at Schenectada. It was begun in 1797, and when nearly completed, the winter following, was up- set by the wind, taken down, and rebuilt on piers. While this bridge was building, an incident of no little interest occurred. Af- ter the string pieces had been laid, and before they were planked, a young son of the contractor walked unobserved over the middle of the stream. A workman discovering the urchin upon the tim- bers, directed the attention of the father that way. With feelings of deepest anxiety he beheld his darling boy in a position from which a misstep would inevitably launch him into eternity. Pru- dence dictated silence, and after the little fellow had surveyed the premises to his satisfaction, he returned to the shore, to the great relief of his agitated parent, who gave him a good basting for his motherly curiosity. A bridge was begun at Canajoharie before the Schenectada bridge was completed. This was also an elliptic, and required to be taken down at the end of a year or two, when it was placed on three piers. Some years previous to the erection of this bridge, AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 143 a ferry was established at Canajoharie, and owned by the Messrs. Roseboom, who traded where the ferry was located, one mile east of the village. At an early period, a good bridge was built over the east Canada creek, which afforded a pattern for one construct- ed at Caughnawaga — where, for many years, there had also been a ferry. The last mentioned bridge was put up in the summer and completed by the following winter, so as to be used on one track, but the first spring freshet carried it off. Afterwards, the Mohawk Turnpike Company erected another, some thirty rods farther up the river, which is still standing. A bridge was stretched across the river many years ago, a little below the Nose, but it was soon after swept away by the ice and never rebuilt. Bridges have also been erected over the Mohawk at Cahoes Falls, Am- sterdam, Fort Plain, Little Falls, Herkimer and Utica. Archibald and James Kane, brothers, established themselves in the mercantile business on the Mohawk about the year 1795 ; lo- cating between the Rosebooms and the present village of Cana- joharie, where one of their buildings, having an arched roof, is still to be seen. The Kanes were, for a time, the heaviest deal- ers west of Albany. At this period there was much gambhng and horse-racing in the Mohawk valley. Indeed, there continued to be until about the year 1825. Intemperance, the parent of many vices and miseries, was an attendant, and to such an extent did it stalk abroad for thirty or forty years, that numerous churches were seriously affected by it, their ministers often setting the ex- ample, then prevalent in New York and New England, not only of placing the headed liquid before friends, but of drinking with them at taverns. On a certain occasion in 1797 or '98, when a party were playing cards (a game of lieu) at Canajoharie, with stakes upon the table amounting to some five hundred dollars, Archibald Kane became indebted to Barney Roseboom for nearly one hundred dollars, and another of the gamesters becoming the debtor of Kane for about the same sum, a difficulty originated in trying to reconcile the liability of the parties to each other, and Kane gave Roseboom a challenge to personal combat. It was supposed that the challenge would not have been given, had the 144 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, challenger believed his antagonist would have accepted it, the lat- ter having a lovely wife and several interesting children ; but it was accepted, ground paced off, and shots exchanged with a brace of trooper's pistols. Kane was wounded in his left arm, and with the wound his bruised honor was healed ; the combatants be- came as warm personal friends as ever, and thus ended an affair which created no little excitement for a time, in Western New York. A few years after the transaction above related, Archibald Kane went to Hayti, |married into the family of the governing nobility, and died there. A pleasing story was originated when the Kanes were trading at Canajoharie, about an imposition practised by a shrewd Yan- kee, upon an honest Dutch justice of Herkimer county, who had arrested him for journeying on the Sabbath. According to the story, the Yankee was stopped, but • as his business was urgent, the man of equity agreed to give him a written permit to proceed for a nominal sura. The justice, requesting the traveler to write it, is said to have set his hand unconsciously to an order on the Messrs. Kane for some fifty dollars, instead of a permit to travel ; which, when presented for payment, he pronounced the tarn Yan- kee pass : but James Kane, who now resides in Albany, pronoun- ces the whole narrative a hoax. The Caughnawaga church, a land mark of former days, is a stone edifice, and was erected in 1763, by voluntary contribu- tions. Sir William Johnson gave liberally towards building it. The steeple was placed on it in 1795. Of this church and con- gregation, the Rev. Thomas Romeyn was the first pastor. He died, and was succeeded in June, 1795, by the Rev. Abraham Van Horn, one of the earliest graduates of Queen's College, New Jersey. Mr. V. H. was settled in Ulster county five years previ- ous to taking charge of the congregation at Caughnawaga, and married, during his whole ministry, about ffteen hundred cou- ple — more, perhaps, than any clergyman now living in the Unit- ed States. He died suddenly at an advanced age, January 5, 1840. This church was without a bell until the confiscated property AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 145 of Sir John Johnson was sold in the revolution, when the former dinner-bell of his father, Sir William, was purchased by several male members, conveyed to it on a pole by friendly Indians, and placed upon it. On the bell is the following inscription — " S R William Johnson Baronet 1774 Made by Miller and Ross in Eliz. Town." It weighs something over one hundred pounds. CAUGHNAWAGA CHURCH. This edifice, now under the management of the Rev. Douw Van OLinda, who has fitted it up for a classic school, is hereafter to be known as the Fonda Academy; the first term of which in- stitution commenced with flattering prospects in the latter part of 1844, under the tuition of Mr. Jacob A. Hardenbergh, a gradu- ate of Rutger's College, New Jersey. At an early period, a small church was constructed of wood 146 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, near the Upper Mohawk Castle, at which place the missionary minister, resident at Fort Hunter, sometimes officiated. This church was provided with a small bell, similar to the one on Queen Anne's chapel, and after the revolution, the Indians who had removed from its neighborhood, made application to obtain it. Being denied their request, they succeeded in getting it down in the night ; and in a canoe paddled up the Mohawk with it un- molested — transporting it as best they could to Canada. — Joseph Wagner. Churches were erected by Lutherans at Stone Arabia in 1770, in the western part of Palatine in 1772, and at the German flats before the revolution. The two latter were of stone. The last named was situated in the valley, on the south side of the river, four miles westward of Little Falls. Some ten rods west of this church stood the parso7iage, a stone dwelhng (torn down to give place to the Erie canal) which was inclosed with palisades hav- ing block-house corners, and known in the revolution as Fort Herkimer.* Fort Dayton, another military post of the Mohawk valley, was situated in the western part of the present village of Herkimer. In going from the former to the latter fort, the rivef was crossed at a rapid one mile above Fort Herkimer. Fort Plain, a military establishment of great importance in the border transactions of the Mohawk valley, stood eighteen miles eastward of Fort Herkimer, and within the present thriving village which bears its name. Forts Plain, Herkimer and Dayton were all three erected as early as 1776, and in their vicinity many thrilling events transpired, which characterised the war of the revolution on the frontiers of New York ; not a few of which have gone down to oblivion. There was much speculation in new lands in the interior of New York, between the French and American wars with Eng- land, and thousands upon thousands of acres changed owners for a mere song — land now valued at millions of dollars. Among • Some writers have stated that Fort Herkimer stood near General Herki- mer's house — not so : although called after him, it was six miles westward of his residence. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 147 the speculators were Sir William Johnson, Governor Tryon, Ma- jor Jelles Fonda, and Colonel John Butler. Lands on the Sacon- daga river were brought into market at this period. FORT PLAIN. Above is a view of this Fort as it was seen in the revolution, except that it was inclosed by strong palisades. The httle church seen in the right of the picture, was burned down by the Indians during the war. The following sketch of a transaction not generally known, is no doubt the most authentic account of it ever obtained. It is drawn, by permission, from notes of a journey to Niagara, made by a friend in 1806. In the summer of 1759, Sir William Johnson landed with a bo- dy of troops at the mouth of a creek four miles from Niagara, since called Johnson's creek, and took possession of forts Niagara and Schlosser, posts of much importance, on the east side of Nia- gara river, as they commanded the trade of the upper lakes. In 1760, Mr. Stedman, an Englishman, contracted with Sir William to construct a portage road from Queenston Landing, now Lewis- ton, to Fort Schl9sser, a distance of about eight miles. The road having been completed, on the morning of the 17th Sept, 1763, 15 wagons and teams, mostly oxen, under an escort of 24 men, com- manded by a sergeant, and accompanied by the contractor, Sted- man, and Capt. Johnson, as a volunteer, set out from Fort Niagara, 148 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, with stores, &c., intended for the garrison at Fort Schlosser. Arri- ving something over two miles from the top of the mountain above Lewiston, and ten or twelve from Niagara, the escort and wagons halted about 11 o'clock, on a little savanna of green sward to rest and take refreshments, beside a gulf called in Indian and English, the DeviPs Hole. This is a semi-circular precipice or chasm of some two hundred feet diameter up and down the river on the summit, but less at the bottom. A little distance from the brink of the hole is a kind of natural mound, several feet in height, al- so of cresent shape ; and sixty feet from the top issues a fine spring, which dashes down through the underbrush to the river. A small brook in the neighborhood, called the bloody-run, now runs into the chasm. The Seneca Indians continued in the French interest at this period, and fearing a hostile movement on their part, a detachment of volunteers consisting of one hundred and thirty men, uuder the command of Capt. Campbell, marched from Queenston to strengthen the escort. Just as the troops under Capt. C. reached the spot where the escort had halted, about five hundred Indians, who had been concealed behind the mound, sprang from their covert with savage yells, and like so many ti- gers began an indiscriminate slaughter of the troops, who were thrown into the utmost confusion. Resistance against such odds did not long continue, and those of the party who were not killed or driven from the precipice with their teams, attempted their es- cape by flight. In the midst of the conflict, Stedman sprang up- on a small horse, and giving the faithful animal a slap on the neck with his hand, it bore him over the dead and dying, and through the thick ranks of the foe, who discharged their rifles, and hurled their tomahawks in vain at his head. Of those who jumped directly down the precipice in front, some seventy or eighty feet, which has an uneven surface below, only one escaped with life. This was a soldier named Mathews, from whom these particulars were obtained by the tourist. He was then living on the Canada shore, near Niagara, and familiarly called Old Brittania. Several trees were growing from the bottom of the hole, the tops of which reached near the surface of the ground. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 149 Into one of these trees Corporal Noble leaped and hung, in which position eleven bullets riddled his body. Captain Johnson, of the escort, was killed, and Lieut. Duncan, of the relief, a native of Long Island, and a promising young officer, was wounded in the left arm, of which he died. The whole number of troops and teamsters was about one hundred and seventy-five, of this number only some twenty-five escaped with life, and all of them, except Stedman and Mathews, did so below or near the north end of the hole, at a little sand ridge, which served to break the fall. Of Capt. Campbell's command, only eleven escaped with life. The loss of the enemy was inconsiderable compared with that of the British. A short time after this horrid affair, the Indians, who considered Stedman a charmed man, gave him as a reward for his daring feat, a large tract of land, which embraced all that he rode over in his previous flight. He returned to England, taking along this favorite horse, and never afterwards would he allow it to be saddled or harnessed. My friend T., in whose journal I find the above facts, first visit- ed the Devil's Hole, with a relative, August 10th, 1806, at which time he entered it by descending a tree, to search for evidences of the event related. In the bottom of the chasm he found the sculls of several oxen " mouldering and covered with moss," a piece of a wagon, and the small part of a horn ; which latter relic he took from the place, and after retaining it in his possession thirty-eight years, kindly presented to the author. The close of the French war left the colony of New York deeply in debt, and resort was had to direct taxation to sustain the government. The assessment was levied "By virtue of three acts of General Assembly of the Colony of New York ; the first for the payment of the second .£100,000 tax, the second for the pay- ment of the .£60,000 tax, and the third, for the raising and col- lecting the arrears of several acts therein mentioned." The com- missioners of the county, who set their hands and seals to the war- rant sent "Mr. John Fonda, Collector for Mohawks," were " Rens. Nicoll, Marte Halenbeck, Abraham Douw, and Cornells Van Schaack." The warrant was dated at Albany, July 17th, 11 150 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY 1764. The tax on the citizens of the Mohawk valley amounted to ^6242, 17 6—1607 19, and was collected, except $2 81 bad debts, and receipted by John Stevenson, in Albany, the 11th of October following. Were not part of this tax list gone, I would present it to the reader. The following are some of the largest sums taxed to individuals on the portions of the manuscript re- maining : Valuation. Assess. Valuation. Assess Sir Wm. Johnson, £167 £20 17 6 Peter Young, £13 £1 12 6 Margrit Flipse, 24 3 00 John Nukerk, 13 1 12 6 Marte Van OLinda, 21 2 12 6 Hans Klyn, 13 1 12 6 Lewis Groat, 20 2 10 Daniel Clas, 10 1 5 Davit Pruyn, 20 2 10 Guy Johnson, 10 1 5 Isaac D. Graf, 18 2 5 John Have, 10 1 5 Hans Antes, 17 2 2 6 Jacob Potman, 10 1 5 James McMaster, 16 2 CJas D. Graf, 9 1 2 6 Harme Vedder, 16 2 Harmanis Mahe, 9 1 2 6 Wouter Swart, 16 2 Cor's Potman, 9 1 2 6 John Johnson, 16 2 Cor's Nukerk, 9 1 2 6 The following tax list will show the names of many of the ci- tizens living in and near that part of the Mohawk valley now embraced in Montgomery county, and their comparative wealth at that period. The manuscript, which has been preserved among the papers of the late Maj. Fonda, is without date: it is written in a fair, legible hand, and must have been executed a few years prior to the revolution. " A List of the persons that arc assessed above jive 'pounds, with the sums they are to pay, and the number of days they are to work upon the King's highways, annexed. PERSONS NAMES. O" I« o in > < rn >, OS CS D q CI s < iz; PERSONS NAMES. J^ (S ^ o < m a 05 a Q < o 15 John Eleven, Abraham Hodges, John & Evert Van Eps, Wm. & Woulter Swart, Martinus Van OLinda, Mary Phillipse, Abraham Phillipse, "William Allen, John Souts, £ 6 si (16 4 10 1 6 4 15 3 5 10 1 6 4 17 3 5 17 3 5 6 1 6 4 15 3 5 6 1 6 4 Christian Earnest, John Waters, Christopher McGraw, James Phillipse, William Snook, Samuel Pettingall, Patrick McConnelly, John Van Dewake, Peter Young, £13 s3 d 12 3 9 6 10 6 8 6 8 6 8 6 10 6 10 6 AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 151 PERSON'S NAMES. C? ,^' o ^ < CO t^ UJ a « < o fe5 PERSONS NAMES. ID / 278 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, Zeh, John Bouck and John Shell ; (the latter owned by Law- rence Lawyer,) in all, ten, with the barns and other out-houses ; making, as stated in the record of the Lutheran Church at Scho- harie, " twenty buildings burned.'^ The two militia-men who took shelter in the house of Warner, were Martinus Fester and John Freemire. The remains of Fester fell into a tub of soap in the cellar, and were known by his to- bacco-box ; and those of Freemire were identified by his knee- buckles and gun-barrel. Jacob Shafer was wounded in one leg early in the action, and was carried by his neighbor, George War- ner, jr., to a place of temporary safety, who agreed to get a horse and take him to the fort. As the battle terminated unfavorably, he was left to his fate — was discovered next morning by the ene- my and killed. The remains of John Fester were not discovered, until a piece of wheat was harvested, into which he had fallen- Jonas Belknap, one of Patrick's men, received a ball in his right hip and was borne out of the battle by Lawrence Lawyer, as the latter assured the author. The following additional facts respect- ing this soldier, who died a few years since at Gorham, Ontario county, were told the author by EzeJdel Howe, a nephew of said Belknap. After having been " carried one side," to use the words of Lawyer, Belknap discovered a hollow log into which he crept. The next day he backed out of his resting place cold and stiff, and while seated upon a fence, reflecting on the events of the last twenty-four hours, he discovered two Indians laden with plunder approaching him, having two dogs. Unobserved by them, he let himself fall into a bunch of briers. The Indians halted near him, and their dogs placed their paws on the fence and growled. He supposed himself discovered, but soon one of them took out a bottle, from which both drank, and he had the satisfaction of see- ing them resume their march, without noticing the irritation of their canine friends. Casting his eyes along the beautiful valley and surveying the ruins of the preceding day, he discovered the old house of Warner, on the west side of the creek, still standing, to which he made his way. He found it unoccupied, but victuals were on a table, and after eating, he laid down, faint and sad, up- AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 279 on a bed which the house also afforded. In the afternoon, two men came and conveyed him to the Schoharie fort, where his wound was properly drest and he recovered. Henry Shafer, mentioned as being wounded in this engagement, received a ball in his thigh which brought him to the ground. The bone was not fractured, but the limb was benumbed. He regained his feet but fell the instant his weight came upon the wounded limb. Disencumbering himself of his gun and powder- horn, after several unsuccessful attempts to run, action returned to the limb and he fled. He directed his steps toward Schoharie, and on the way fell in with Peter Snyder, his brother-in-law. They traveled nearly to Punchkill together, when Shafer, too weak to proceed, concealed himself and requested his comrade to inform his friends at the fort where he might be found, desiring them to come after him. His fellow-traveler went to the fort, but instead of doing the errand as desired by his wounded rela- tive, he reported him dead. Shafer tarried beneath a shelving rock until Monday morning, when, by great exertion, he arrived at the house of a friend in Kneiskern's dorf. As he was much exhausted, he was very prudently fed gruel until he revived, when he was taken to the fort and cured of his wound. — From Petevy son of Henry Shafer* The night after the Cobelskill battle it rained, and a dreary one it must have been to the surviving citizens of the Cobel- skill valley, many of whom were in the forest to which they had fled from their burning dwellings, exposed to the mercy of wild beasts — foes less to be dreaded than those left behind. The wife of Lawrence Lawyer, with several other persons, was in the woods three days, and finally came out near the mouth of the Co- * Mr. Shafer lived to become a verjr useful citizen. He was for many years a justice of the peace — frequently represented Cobelskill in the board of sur pervisors — for several years was a member of the state legislature — and was for a great length of time a judge of Common Pleas ; which several stations, considering his early opportunities, he discharged with credit to himself and fidelity to the public. He was remarkably punctual in the performance on his official duties. He died on the 15th of April, 1839, in the eighty-second year of his age. 280 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, belskill. Scouts were sent out to reconnoitre and look after the wounded, and absent members of families, but it was several days before tbe dead were buried. Some day in the course of the week following the engagement, Col. Viooman with part of the Schoharie troops, and Col. Yates with a detachment of Schenec- tada militia, wx'nt to perform the last sad duties to those martyrs to the cause of liberty. As the weather had been wet and cool, the bodies were found to have suffered but little change. A pit was dug near where George Warner's house had stood, into which several boards were laid : the charred remains of the three soldiers taken from the cellar, and the mutilated remains of those near, were then buried within it. Pits tvere also dug so as to re- quire as little moving of the bodies as possible, in which Captain Patrick and the other soldiers were deposited. None can realize at a period of nearly seventy years after it transpired, the solem- nities of that burial. Several of the deceased left wives and chil- dren to mourn their untimely fate ; while all left friends who had centered on them hopes of future usefulness and aggrandizement. This blow was a most severe one for the little settlement of Co- belskill. Peaceful be your rest brave warrior ! for " When j'e sank on )'oiir bed of death, No gentle form hung over yen ; No fond eye caught your parting breath, Or shrunk in anguish from the view ! But o'er you, in that hour of fate, Bent the dark" Indian's " vengeful form ; And the stern glance of ruthless hate Gleamed dreadful, 'mid the hurrying storm. No mourning dirge did o'er you swell, Nor winding sheet your limbs inclosed ; For you was tolled no passing bell ; No tomb was raised where you reposed. Your bed of death — the battle ground, 'Twas there they heaped your funeral mound, And all unhallowed was your grave. Save by the ashes of the brave,'' — Lines on Waterloo. On the knoll where stood the house of George Warner, which was burnt in the Revolution, as before stated, the patriotic citizens of Cobelskill celebrated the anniversary of our national indepen- AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 281 dence, on the 4th day of July, 1837. An appropriate oration was dehvered on the occasion by Demosthenes Lawyer, Esq. How proper, after so long a time, to assemble on that day, on ground consecrated by patriofs blood, and water it with the tear of gratitude. A few days previous to the irruption of the enemy into Cobels- kill, they were in the vicinity of Cherry Valley. Brant had his destructives there with the intention of laying waste that place. He secreted them on Lady hill,* about a mile east of the fort, to await a favorable opportunity to strike the fatal blow, and slayor capture some of its influential citizens. A company of boys happened to be training, for boys then caught the martial spirit, as Brant, like the eagle from its eyry, was looking down from his hiding place upon the devoted hamlet. Mistaking these miniature soldiers for armed men, he deferred the attack for a more favora- ble opportunity. After killing Lieut. Wormwood, a promising young officer from Palatine, who had left the fort but a few min- utes before on horseback, and taking Peter Sitz, his comrade, pri- soner,! Brant directed his steps to Cobelskill. On the 4th day of July, 1778, the beautiful valley of Wyoming in Pennsylvania, fell a prey to the savage cupidity of the British, Tory and Indian forces under Col. John Butler ; and its inhabit- ants were either killed, carried into captivity, or escaped by a most appalhng flight. The poem entitled " Gertrude of Wyo- ming," from the pen of the English poet Campbell — founded up- on the tragedies of that massacre — is doubtless familiar to most of my readers. Many of the most unfeeling and inhuman acts of cruelty committed on the fleeing inhabitants and soldiers of this ill-fated place, were committed by tories. On this occasion, a to- ry found a brother secreted, who had been an American militia- man, but had fled, abandoning his gun. On recognizing his brother, the tory said to him, " So it is you, is it .*"' The unarmed * This hill was enxbraced in a patent owned by a rich lady in England, from which circumstance it was formerly called Lady Hill. — Moses Nelson. t For the death of Lt. Wormwood and capture of Sitz, see jlnnals of Try on County. 282 fflSTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, man approached his kinsman, fell upon his knees and besought him to spare his life ; promising, if he would, to live with him and become his servant. " All this is mighty fine" replied the human fiend, " hut you are a d — d rebel /" At the close of this sentence, he leveled his gun and sent the death-telling ball through his body. — Chapman'' s History of Wyoming. About the first of September of this year, the enemy destroyed several of the western settlements on the south side of the Mo- hawk. In a letter written at one of the frontier posts, by Col. Klock to Gov. Clinton, and sent by " Col. Fisher and Zep. Batchellor, Esq.," probably in September (it being without date,) he thus observes — " I beg leave to represent to your Excellency the most deplora'- ble situation of this country. The enem}'' have from time to time desolated and destroyed the settlements of Springfield, Andreas- Town, and the German-Flats; by which at least one hundred and fifty families are reduced to misery and distress. People who were in flourishing circumstances are thus, by one wanton act, brought to poverty. " Nothwithstanding I have repeatedly wrote our situation down and asked relief, we have obtained none except Alden's regiment, which is stationed at Cherry-Valley, where they remain in garri- son. Woful experience teaches us that the troops in Cherry-Val- ley are by no means a defence for any other part of the country. [After speaking of the ungovernable spirit that influenced the con- duct of some of the settlers, the desertion of a part of the militia to the enemy, and the necessity of immediate succor, he adds] — From the information we are able to collect from prisoners and otherwise, we learn that the enemy when at the German-Flats were 500 or upwards strong, commanded by Capt. Caldwell — that they intended soon to make another incursion, and that a reinforce- ment of 5 or 600 was on its march to join the enemy." During the invasions above noticed, nearly 1000 horses, cattle, sheep and swine were killed or driven away. The settlers at the German-Flats, by receiving timely notice of danger, with one single exception, fled into the neighboring forts and escaped the tomahawk. The loss of so many dwellings, with most of their furniture, and barns well filled with the recompense of the hus- bandman's toils, must have been a most serious one to this district Capt. Walter Butler was a son of Cob John Butler, a justice of AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 283 the king's court for Tryon county, who resided, at the commence- ment of the war, about a mile from the ancient village of Caugh- nawaga. He went with the royalists who left the county in 1775, to Canada. In the summer of 1778, he returned to the Mohawk valley — was arrested, and confined in the Albany jail. Under the pretence of ill health he was removed to a private dwelling, from which, aided by treachery, he escaped. Burning with re- venge for his imprisonment, on his arrival in Canada he obtained command of a part of his father's regiment of tories called But- ler^ s Rangers ; and with them directed his steps towards the fron- tier settlements of New York. On his way he met Brant return- ing to Canada from his Mohawk river expedition, who reluctantly joined him in his enterprise. Their united forces were 500 In- dians, and 200 tories, worse than Indians. On the morning of Nov. 11th, they surprised Cherry-Valley, killing 32 of the in- habitants and 16 continental soldiers, among whom was Col. Al- den, the imprudent commander of the garrison, who is said to have been a man of intemperate habits. Nearly all the dwellings and barns in the settlement — just filled with an abundant harvest, were burned, and — House-less were those who from the wood returned, The fate of relatives to mourn ; While other friends to living death, they learned, By human fiends, were captive borne. The enemy, making between 30 and 40 prisoners at Cherry- Valley, passed down the Susquehanna to its junction with the Tioga — up the latter to near its source, thence along the Seneca lake to the Indian castle at Kanadaseago, near the present village of Geneva ; where a division of the prisoners took place. The day after the massacre, 200 militia arrived at Cherry-Valley, and buried the dead.* The sufferings of the prisoners on their way to Canada, must have been very severe : many of them were women and children, illy fitted to endure the fatigues of a journey of three or four hundred miles, at that inclement season. • For a more minute account of the destruction of this place, see Campbell's Annals of Tryon County. 284 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, The following anecdote was related by Joseph Brant after the Revolution, to John Fonda while at his house near Caughnawa- ga. Brant, on being censured by Fonda for his cruelties at Cherry-Valley at the time of its desolation, said the atrocities were mostly chargeable to Walter Butler. He then stated that among the captives made by him at that place, was a man named Vrooman, with whom he had had a previous acquaintance. He concluded to give Vrooman his liberty, and after they had pro- ceeded several miles on their journey, he sent him back about two miles, alone, to procure some birch bark for him ; expecting of course to see no more of him. After several hours Vrooman came hurrying back with the bark, which the chieftain no more wanted than he did a pair of goggles. Brant said, he sent his prisoner back on purpose to afford him an opportunity to make his escape, but that he was so big a fool he did not know it ; and that consequently he was compelled to take him along to Cana- da. — Mrs. Evert Yates, a daughter of John Fonda. The English government on being officially informed of the treaty of alliance between France and the United States, declar- ed war against the former ; and thought it prudent to concentrate its forces. On the 18th of June, the British troops under Sir Henry Clinton evacuated Philadelphia, and set out for New York. Gen. Washington hung upon his rear, watching a favorable op- portunity to give him battle. On the 2Sth of that month, the battle of Monmouth was fought. Both armies were flattered during the day by alternate success, and encamped in the evening on the battle ground. Washington slept in his cloak after the fatigues of that day, in the camp of his brave men. In the night, Clinton silently withdrew, thus conceding the victory of the pre- ceding day to the spangled banner. The loss of the Americans in this engagement was from two to three hundred in killed and wounded ;. arid that of the enemy about cne thousand, nearly half of whom were killed. The day on which this action was fought was extremely hot, and the suffering of both armies was very great for the want of proper drink. Says the Journal of Col. Tallmadge, " Many died on both sides from excessive heat and AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 285 fatigue, the day being oppressively warm, and the troops drink- ing too freely of cold' water." James Williamson, a soldier who assisted in burying the dead after the battle, assured the writer that he saw around a spring in a grove not far from the battle- field, the dead bodies of twelve soldiers, supposed to have been vic- tims of cold water. American historians have recorded few instances of female pa- triotism and bravery, which rival the following : In the battle of Monmouth a gunner was killed, and a call was made for an- other, when the wife of the fallen soldier, who had followed his fortune to the camp, advanced and took his station ; expressing her willingness to discharge the duty of her deceased husband, and thus revenge his death. The gun was well managed and did good execution, as I have been informed by an eye witness. After the engagement. Gen. Washington was so much pleased with the gallant conduct of this heroine, that he gave her a lieutenant's commission. She was afterwards called Captain Molly. — Capf. Eben Williams. A short time after the battle of Monmouth, Lieut. Col. Wm. Butler, with the 4th Pennsylvania regiment, and three companies of rife men from Morgan's corps under Maj. Posey, commanded by Captains Long, Pear and Simpson, was ordered to Albany, and from thence to Schoharie. While there he commanded the Middle Fort. The command of the Schoharie forts devoled on Col. Peter Vrooman during the war, when no continental officer of equal rank was there. Amono; the rifle men who went to Schoharie at this time, were some most daring spirits — men whose names should live forever on her fairy mountains and in her green valleys. We do not be- lieve it necessary, although it is a fact too generally conceded, that glittering epaulets are indispensable in forming a hero. Of the brave soldiers sent to aid the Schoharie settlers in their de- fence, and guard from savage cruelties the unprotected mother and helpless orphan, whose names I would gladly chronicle could I collect them, were Lieut. Thomas Boyd, (whose tragic 286 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, end will be shown hereafter,) Timothy Murphy, David Elerson,* William Leek,t William Lloyd, a sergeant, John Wilber,| Tufts, Joseph Evans, Philip Hoever,§ Elijah Hendricks, John Garsaway, a very large man, and Derrick Haggidorn. Nor should we forget to name several of the native citizens who encountered many dangers in the discharge of their duty ; of the latter were Jacob and Cornelius Van Dyck, Jacob Enders, Bar- tholomew C. Vrooman, Peter Van Slyck, Nicholas Sloughter, Yockam Folluck, Joackam Van Valkenberg,|| Jacob Becker, and Thomas Eckerson. There were no doubt others equally merito- rious, whose deeds are unknown to the writer. The following facts, relating to the attempted arrest and death of Christopher Service, a tory of no little notoriety, living on the Charlotte river, were communicated by Judge Hager, Mrs. Van Slyck, and David Elerson. The people of Schoharie had long suspected Service — who re- mained with his family entirely exposed to the enemy — of clan- destinely affording them assistance. Captain Jacob Hager, who was in command of the Upper Fort, in the summer of 1778, sent Abraham Becker, Peter Swart, (not the one already introduced,) and Frederick Shafer, on a secret scout into the neighborhood of Service, to ascertain if there were any Indians in that vicinity, and to keep an eye of espionage on the tory. They arrived in sight of his dwelling after sundown, and concealed themselves in the woods, intending to remain over night. After dark the mus- quitoes began to be very troublesome, but the party did not dare • He was married in Schoharie during the war, and became a permanent resident of tlie county. He was a ranger for several years, and, as he stat- ed to the writer, an extra price was set on his own and Murphy's scalps by the enemy. He was 95 years old at our interview, at which time he was boarding with Dr. Origin Allen, near the Baptist church in Broome, of which the old hero was a member. t Went west after the war, and died in Cayuga county. X Was from Reddington, Pa. He was a carpenter by trade, married a Miss Mattice and settled on Charlotte river. § Remained in Schoharie county after the war. li Killed in battle near Lake Utsayuntho, in 1781. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 287 to make a fire to keep them off. Becker told his companions he was well acquainted with Service, having lived near him for some time ; said he would go and reconnoitre, and if there were none of the enemy abroad, he would inform them, in which case all agreed to go to the house and tarry over night. Becker, after a short absence, returned with the assurance that the " coast was clear," and that he had made arrangements for their accommodation; whereupon all three went to the dwelling. As they approached the door, the light was extinguished, but Becker went in, followed by his friends. They advanced to the centre of the room, at which time one of the family re-lit the candle, the light of which show- ed Swart and Shafer their real situation. Along the wall, upon one side of the room, were arranged a party of armed savages, who instantly sprang upon, and bound them. The two pri- soners were kept there until morning, when they were hurried off to Canada. Becker, who had not been bound, was suffered, after giving the Indians his gun and ammunition, to depart for home. He returned to the fort, and reported that the scout, near Charlotte river, had fallen in with a party of Indians in ambush, from whom they attempted to escape by flight ; that he was in advance of his comrades, who were both captured ; that he came near being over- taken, when he threw away his gun and equipage, and thus re- lieved, made his escape. Shafer, who remained in a Canadian prison until the war was closed, returned to Schoharie and made known the above facts. Swart never returned to Schoharie. He was taken by distant Indians, as his friends afterwards learned, be- yond Detroit, where he took a squaw and adopted the Indian life. From the commencement of the border difficulties. Service had greatly aided the enemies of his country, by sheltering and victual- ing them, in numerous instances. He was comparatively wealthy, for the times, owning a well-stocked farm and a grist- mill. When the tories and Indians from Canada were on their way to destroy the settlements, they always found a home at his house, from whence, after recruiting, they sallied forth on their missions of death. Several attempts were made to take him be- fore the Schoharie committee, previous to his joining Brant in h is expedition against Cobelskill. 288 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, Soon after the return of Becker with his hypocritical narrative, Col. Butler sent Capt. Long with some twenty volunteers in the direction of Charlotte river to reconnoitre, and if possible discov- er some traces of the enemy. One object of the expedition was, to arrest Service and take him to the Schoharie forts, or to slay him in case of resistance. Arriving near the head waters of the Schoharie, Capt. Long unexpectedly took a prisoner. On his per- son he found a letter directed to Service, and on opening it, learned that Smith, its author, a tory captain who had enlisted a company of royalists on the Hudson near Catskill, was then on his way to the house of Service, who was desired in the letter to have every thing in readiness to supply the wants of his men on their arrivaL Learning from their prisoner the route by which Smith would ap- proach, the Americans at once resolved to intercept him. Some fifteen or twenty miles distant from the Upper fort, while proceed- ing cautiously along the east side of the river. Smith and his fol- lowers were discovered on the opposite bank. Capt. Long halted his men, and proposed to get a shot at Smith. It was thought by some of the party an act of folly to fire at so great a distance, but the captain, accompanied by Elerson, advanced and laid down be- hind a fallen log. Some noise was made by this movement, and the tory chief stepped into an open piece of ground a little dis- tance from his men to learn the cause of alarm, and thus fairly exposed his person. At this moment the rifles were leveled. Capt. Long was to fire, and in case he missed his victim, Elerson was to make a shot. At the crack of the first rifle, the spirit of Smith left its clay tenement to join kindred spirits ; but where — God on- ly knows. The scout then advanced and poured in a volley of balls, wounding several, and dispersing all of the tories. Thus unexpectedly did justice overtake this company of men, whose zeal should have led them to serve their country instead of her foes. Capt. Long and his companions then directed their steps to the dwelling of Service. On arriving near, proper caution was taken to prevent his escape, and Murphy and Elerson^ were deputed to arrest him. They found the tory back of his house, making a AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 289 harrow. On the approach of the two friends, Mrs. Service, sus- pecting the object of their visit, came out and stood near them, when they informed her husband the nature of their visit. Ser- vice called them d — d rebels, and retreating a few steps, he seized an axe and aimed a blow at the head of Murphy. But the man who could guard against surprise from the wily Indian, was not to fall thus ignobly. Elerson, who stood a few feet from his com- panion, as he assured the author, told Murphy to shoot the d — d rascal. The wife of Service, seeing the determined look of Mur- phy, caught hold of his arm and besought him not to fire. He gently pushed her aside, and patting her on the shoulder said, " Mother, he never vyill sleep with you again." In another in- stant, the unerring bullet from his rifle had penetrated the tory's heart. Capt. Long and his men now advanced to the house, in which was found forty loaves of fresh bread, proving that some notice had already reached there, of Smith's intended visit. Many have supposed that injustice was done to Service. The author has taken considerable pains to inform himself on this point, and finds proof most satisfactory to his own mind, that from his ability and willingness to supply the wants of the enemy and his retired residence, he was a very dangerous man to the cause of liberty. An old tory, who returned after the war, and died a few years ago in the town of Mohawk, was accustomed, when intoxicated, to " hurrah for king George." At such times he often told about being in person at the house of Service, who, as he said, " lived and died a tory, as he meant to." Had not Service made an at- tempt on the life of Murphy, he would probably have been con- fined until the war closed, and then liberated, as was the case with several wealthy royalists. The property of Service was confiscated in the war. Not many years ago, a son of his suc- ceeded in recovering the confiscated property of his father, and thus came into the undivided possession of an estate amounting to eight or ten thousand dollars. The fortune thus obtained, how- ever, was soon dissipated. In the latter part of August, 1778, the Lower Fort, but recent- ly completed, was commanded by Lieut. Col. John H. Beeckman. 290 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, ETC. Early in October, Col. Butler proceeded from Schoharie with the troops under his command, to Unadilla and Oquago, Indian towns on the Susquehanna, which they effectually destroyed, with large quantities of provisions. The troops under Col. Butler, in this excursion, among whom were several volunteers from the Schoharie militia, suffered in- credible hardships. " They were obliged to carry their provi- sions on their backs ; and, thus loaded, frequently to ford creeks and rivers. After the toils of hard marches, they were obliged to camp down during wet and chilly nights without covering, or even the means of keeping their arms dry." — Dr. Ramsay. After an absence of sixteen days, they were greeted with a hearty wel- come at the forts in Schohnrie. A regiment of New York state troops, under Col. Duboise, went into winter quarters at Schoharie, in the fall of 1778. Adjt. Dodge, Maj. Rosencrans, Capt. Stewart, and Ensign Johnson, of Duboise's regiment, were quartered in the kitchen of Chairman Ball's dwelling.— Pe^er Ball. On the 6th of August of this year, M. Gerard was publicly re- ceived by the United States government as minister of the king of France On the 14th of September following, Dr. Franklin was appointed minister to France, the first American minister delegated to a foreign court. " The alliance of France gave birth to expectations which events did not fulfil ; yet the presence of her fleets on the coast deranged the plans of the enemy, and induced them to relinquish a part of their conquests." — Hale. The reward paid by English agents for the scalps of the Ame- ricans, eight dollars each, excited the avarice of both Indians and tories ; and many innocent women and children were slain not only in this, but in the several years of the war, to gratify the cupidity of a merciless and unfeeling enemy. Late in the fall, the army under Washington erected huts near Middlebrook, in New Jersey, and went into winter quarters. In December of Ih's year, Mr. Laurens resigned his office as presi- dent of Congress, and John Jay was chosen in his place. ( 291 ) CHAPTER X. Early in the spring of 1779. two men named Cowley and Sawyer, were captured near Harpersfield, by four Schoharie In- dians ; Han-Yerry, who escaped from the Borsts the day before the Cobelskill engagement, Seth's-Henry, Adam, a sister's son, and Nicholas, also a relative. One of the captives, was a na- tive of the Emerald Isle ; and the other of the green hills of Scotland. They were among the number of refugees from Har- persfield, who sought safety in Schoharie at the beginning of difficulties. The prisoners could not speak Dutch, which those Indians un- derstood nearly as well as their own dialect ; and the latter could understand but little, if any, of the conversation of those Anglo- Americans. When surprised, they intimated by signs as well as they could, that they were friends of the king ; and not only evinced a willingness to proceed with their captors, but a desire to do so. An axe belonging to one of them was taken along as a prize. The prisoners set off with such apparent willingness on their long journey to Canada, that the Indians did not think it necessary to bind them. They were compelled to act, however, as " hewers of wood and drawers of water," for their red masters. They had been captives eleven days, without a favorable op- portunity to mature a plan for their escape, which they had all along premeditated. On arriving at a deserted hut near Tioga Point, the captives were sent to cut wood a few rods distant. On such occasions, one cut and the other carried it where it was to be consumed. "While Cowley was chopping, and Sawyer waiting for an armful, the latter took from his pocket a news- paper, and pretended to read its contents to his fellow ; instead of doing which, however, he proposed a plan for regaining their 292 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, liberty. After carrying wood enough to the hut to keep fire over night, and partaking of a scanty supper, they laid down in their usual manner to rest, a prisoner between two Indians. The friends kept awake, and after they were satisfied their foes were all sound asleep, they arose agreeable to concert, and secured their weapons, shaking the priming from the guns. Sawyer with the tomahawk of Han-Yerry — who was thought the most desperate of the four — took his station beside its owner ; while Cowley with the axe, placed himself beside another sleep- ing Indian. The fire afforded sufficient fight for the captives to make sure of their victims. At a given signal the blows fell fatal upon two ; the tomahawk sank deep into the brain of its owner, giving a sound, to use the words of an informant,* like a blow upon a pumpkin. Unfortunately, Sawyer drew the handle from his weapon in attempting to free it from the skull of the savage, and the remainder of the tragic act devolved upon his companion. The first one struck by Cowley was killed, but the blows which sent two to their final reckoning, awoke their fel- lows, who instantly sprang upon their feet. As Seth's-Henry rose from the ground, he received a blow which he partially warded off by raising his right arm ; but his shoulder was laid open and he fell back stunned. The fourth, as he was about to escape, received a heavy blow in his back from the axe. He v\?as pursued out of the hut — fled into a swamp near, where he died. The liberated prisoners returned into the hut, and were resolving on what course to pursue, when Seth's-Henry, who had recovered and feigned himself dead for some time, to embrace a favorable opportunity, sprang upon his feet — dashed through the fire — caught up his rifle, leveled and snapped it at one of his foes — ran out of the hut and disappeared. The two friends then primed the remaining guns, and kept a vigilant watch until daylight, to guard against surprise. They set out in the morning to return, but dared not pursue the route • Lawrence Mattice. The adventures of Cowley and Sawyer were princi- clpally derived from Mr. MaUice and Henry Hager, who learned the particQ- Iar3 from the captives themselves. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 293 they came, very properly supposing there were more of the enemy not far distant, to whom the surviving Indian would communi- cate the fate of his comrades. They recrossed a river in the morning in a bark canoe, which they had used the preceding afternoon, and then directed their course for the frontier settle- ments. The first night after taking the responsibility, Cowley was light headed for hours, and his companion was fearful his raving would betray them ; but when daylight returned, reason again claimed its tenement. As they had anticipated, a party of Indians thirsting for their blood, were in hot pursuit of them. From a hill they once descried ten or a dozen in a valley below. They remained concealed beneath a shelving rock one night and two days, while the enemy were abroad, and when there, a dog belonging to the latter, came up to them. As the animal ap- proached, they supposed their hours were numbered; but after smelling them for some time, it went away without barking. On the third night after their escape, they saw fires lit by the enemy, literally all around them. They suffered much from ex- posure to the weather, and still more from hunger. They ex- pected to be pursued in the direction they had been captured, and very properly followed a zig-zag course ; arriving in safety after much suffering, at a frontier settlement in Pennsylvania, Avhere they found friends. When fairly recruited they directed their steps to Schoharie, and were there welcomed as though they had risen from the dead, among which latter number, many had supposed them. Sawyer is said to have died many years after, in Williamstown, Mass.; and Cowley in Albany. At the time Cowley and Saw- yer returned from their captivity, the upper Schoharie fort was commanded by Maj. Posey, a large, fine looking officer, who, as an old lady of Schoharie county once declared to the author, was the handsomest man she ever saw. Friendly Indians were sometimes in the habit of taking up a winter's residence in the vicinity of American frontier posts. In the spring of this year several Indians, who pretended friendship, left the Johnstown fort, where they had for some time been a tax 20 294 HISTORY OP SCHOHARIE COUNTY, on the charity of its officers ; but they had gone but a few miles north of the garrison when they halted and murdered an old gen- tleman named Durham and his wife, whose scalps they could sell in an English market. — James Williamson. The manuscript furnished the author by Judge Hager, states that in the year 1779, probably in the spring, a rumor reached the Schoharie forts that Capt. Brant, on the evening of a certain day, would arrive at some place on the Delaware river with a band of hostile followers. Col. Vrooman thereupon dispatched Capt. Jacob Hager with a company of about fifty men to that neighborhood. Hager arrived with his troops after a rapid march, at the place where it was said Brant was to pass — thirty or forty miles distant from Schoharie; and concealed them amidst some fall- en timber beside the road. This station was taken in the afternoon of the day on which Brant was expected to arrive, and continued to be occupied by the Americans until the following day between ten and eleven o'clock, when, no new evidence of Brant's visit being discovered, Capt. Hager returned home — thinking it possi- ble that Braut was pursuing a different route to the Schoharie settlements. Capt. Hager afterwards learned from a loyalist, in whose neigh- borhood he had been concealed, that he had not been gone an hour when the enemy about one hundred and ffty strong — In- dians and tories, arrived and passed the fallow where he had been secreted. On being informed that a company of Americans had so recently left the neighborhood, prepartions were made to pur- sue them. When about to move forward, Brant enquired of a tory named Sherman, what officer commanded the Americans, and on being informed that it was Capt. Hager, whose courage from a French war acquaintance was undoubted, he consulted his chiefs and the pursuit was abandoned. Brant, on learning that Schoharie was well defended, seems to have given up the idea of surprising that settlement, and directed his steps to more vulnerable points of attack. Several settlements were entered simultaneously by the enemy along the Mohawk river early in the season — directed no doubt by this distinguished AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 295 chief. Apprised of Sullivan's intended march to the Indian coun- try, he hurried back to prepare for his reception. A party of Indians under the celebrated chief Cornplanter, ap- peared in the vicinity of Fort-Plain at this time, and after burning a small church not far from the fort, among other depredations, captured John Abeel an old inhabitant. They had traveled but a few miles before they discovered that he could talk their own language nearly as well as themselves. This discovery soon led to another of a more singular character, but truly fortunate for the captive, for on enquiring his name, Cornplanter knew at once he stood before his own father. Abeel had been a trader among the Indians some twenty-five years before in Western New York, and in one of his visits became enamored with a pretty squaw. The graceful warrior " John,'' called among his race Cornplanter^ now before him, was the fruit of this libidinous, wayward affection. The chief had learned the history of his parentage from his mother, who called him by the christian name of her lover. A pleasing recognition followed, the father was instantly set at liberty, and conducted in safety to his own home. — P. J. Wagner, Esq. Cornplanter visited his relatives at Fort-Plain, who were among the most repectable citizens in the Mohawk valley, several times after the war ; and was treated with the civilities his dignified and manly bearing merited. The repeated assaults along the whole frontier of New York and Pennsylvania during the preceding year by the enemy, arrest- ed the attention of Congress, which resolved to send an army into the Indian country in the summer of 1779, and retaliate their at- trocities by a destruction of their settlements. Accordingly, an ar- my was assembled under Gen. Sullivan, at Tioga Point, at which place he was met by Gen. James Clinton, who marched from Ca- najoharie, on the Mohawk, with a division of the army. As a preliminary movement to the invasion of the Indian country by Gen. Sullivan, Col. Van Schaick went from Fort Schuyler, under the instructions of Gen. James Clinton, with detachments of his own and Col. Gansevoort's regiment, and destroyed the possessions of the Onondagas. 296 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, While Gen. Clinton was waiting at Canajoharie for his troops and supplies to assemble, and also for the construction of bateaus, two tories were there hung, and a deserter shot. The following letter from Gen. Clinton to his wife, dated July 6th, 1779, briefly narrates the death of the two former : " I have nothing further to acquaint you of, except that we ap- prehended a certain Lieut. Henry Hare, and a Sergeant Newbury, both of Col. Butler's regiment, who confessed that they left the Seneca country with sixty-three Indians, and two white men, who divided themselves into three parties — one party was to attack Schoharie, another party Cherry-Valley and the Mohawk river, and the other party to skulk about Fort Schuyler and the upper part of the Mohawk river, to take prisoners or scalps. I had them triep by a general court martial for spies, who sentenced them both to be hanged, which was done accordingly at Canajoharie, to the sa- tisfaction of all the inhabitants of that place who were friends to their country, as they were known to be very active in almost all the murders that were committed on these frontiers. They were inhabitants of Tryon county, had each a wife and several children, who came to see them and beg their lives." The name of Hare was one of respectabihty in the Mohawk valley, before the revolution. Members of the Hare family were engaged for years in sundry speculations with Maj. Jelles Fonda, who, as already observed, carried on an extensive trade with the Indians and fur traders at the western military posts ; his own re- sidence being at Caughnawaga* Henry Hare resided before the war in the present town of Florida, a few miles from Fort Hunter. At the time he left the valley with the royalist party to go to Ca- nada, his family remained, as did that of William Newbury, who * All the territory on the north side of the Mohawk, from The Nose to Tribe's Hill, a distance of nearly ten miles, was called Caughnawaga — an In- dian name, which signified Stone in the ivater. Some writers have given as its signification, " The coffin-shaped stone in the water." Tradition has handed down from a family which early settled on the bank of the river near this stone, the interpretation first given. This Indian name, we must suppose, originated long before this state was settled by the whites: of course the abo- rigines could have known nothing about cofiins — they had no tools by which they could possibly make them. When the revolution began, Maj. Fonda was erecting buildings for the prosecution of business, six miles westward of his Caughnawaga residence, on a farm since known as the Schenck place. At a later day he built the dwelling now owned by C. McVean, Esq., so pleasant- ly eiiuatcd on the hill in Fonda, where he died June 23d, 1791, aged 64 years. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 297 lived about 3 miles from Hare, toward the present village of Glen. If Hare had rendered himself obnoxious to the whigs of Tryon county, Newbury had doubly so, by his inhuman cruelties at the massacre of Cherry-Valley, some of which, on his trial, were pro- ven against him. Hare and Newbury visited their friends, and were secreted for several days at their own dwellings. The form- er had left home before daylight to return to Canada, and was to call for his comrade on his route. Maj. Newkirk, who resided but a short distance from Hare, met a tory neighbor on the afternoon of the day on which Hare left home, who either wished to be con- sidered one of the knowing ones, or lull the suspicions resting upon himself, who communicated to him the fact that Hare had been home — and supposing him then out of danger, he added, " per- haps he is about home yet." He also informed him that Newbu- ry had been seen. Hare brought home for his wife several arti- cles of clothing, such as British calicoes, dress-shawls, Indian mo- casons, &c., and on the very day he set out to return to Canada, she was so imprudent as to put them on and go visiting — the sight of which corroborated the story told Newkirk. The Major noti- fied Capt. Snooks, who collected a few armed whigs, and in the evening secreted himself with them near the residence of Hare, if possible, to give some further account of him. Providence seems to have favored the design, for the latter, on going to New- bury's, had sprained an ankle. Not being willing to undertake so long a journey with a lame foot, and little suspecting that a friend had revealed his visit, he concluded to return to his dwelling. While limping along through his own orchard, Francis Putman, one of Snook's party, then but 15 of 16 years old, stepped from behind an apple tree, presented his musket to his breast, and or- dered him to stand. At a given signal, the rest of the party came up, and he was secured. They learned from the prisoner that Newbury had not yet set out for Canada, and a party under Lieut. Newkirk went the same night and arrested him. They w^ere ena- bled to find his house in the woods by following a tame deer which fled to it. The prisoners were next day taken to Canajoharie, where they were tried by court martial, found guilty, and execut- 298 fflSTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, ed as previously shown. The execution took place near the pre- sent village of Canajoharie.* The influence exerted by the friends of Hare to save him would have been successful, had he declared that he visited the valley solely to see his family. He may have thought they dared not hang him ; certain it is, that when he was interrogated as to the object of his visit, he unhesitatingly said that he not only came here to see his family, but also came in the ca- pacity of a spy. A deserter, named Titus was shot at Canajoha- rie about the time the spies were hung, as I have been informed by an eye witness to all three executions. — James Williamson. Deserters were shot for the first, second, or third offence, as cir- cumstances warranted. Newbury and Titus were buried near the place of execution, and the bones of one of them were thrown out at the time of constructing the Erie Canal, by workmen who were getting earth for its embankment.f The bo- dy of Hare was given to his relatives for interment. Previous to burial the coffin was placed in a cellar-kitchen, before a window, in w^hich position a snake crawled over it. This circumstance gave rise to much speculation among the superstitious, who said ^Ht was the Devil after his spirit."" The troops under Gen. Clinton opened a road from Canajoha- rie through the town of Springfield, to the head of Otsego lake, where they launched their fleet of bateaus and floated down its placid waters nine miles to its outlet — now the location of the ro- mantic and tastefully built village of Cooperstown. This passage down the lake was made on a lovely summer's day, and the sur- rounding hills being covered with living green, every dash of the oar throwing up the clear, sparkling water, a thousand delighted warblers greeting them from the shores as the response of the martial music from the boats — the whole being so entirely novel — the effect must have been truly enchanting and picturesque. On arriving at the foot of the lake, the troops landed and remained several weeks, until it was sufficiently raised by a dam constructed at the outlet, to float the boats. When a sufficient head of water 'John S. Quackcnboss and Mrs. E. Gardinicr. \ Daniel Spencer, a ■worthy pensioner, now living at Canajoharie. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 299 was thus obtained — the boats having been properly arranged along the outlet and filled with the troops, stores and cannon — the dam was torn away, and the numerous Jieet of small fry, (two hun- dred and eight boats) floated off in fine style, and passed down the tributary into the winding Susquehanna. (This is an aboriginal word, said to signify, ihe crooked river.) It is said that prepara- tory to opening the outlet of the lake, a dam made by the saga- cious beavers on one of the larger inlets, which flooded considera- ble ground, was ordered to be destroyed to obtain the water. It was partially so served, but the night following it was, by the in- dustrious animals, again repaired. A more effiectual destruction followed, and a guard of men was stationed all night, to prevent its being again built by its lawful owners. While the army were quartered at ihe outlet of Otsego lake, two men were tried for desertion, and both were sentenced to be shot. The youngest of the two, whose name was Snyder, was pardoned by Gen. Clinton. The other man was ?i foreigner, who had previously deserted from the British, and having now desert- ed from the American flag, and persuaded Snyder to desert, Clin- ton said of him — " He is good for neither king or country, let him be shot." The order was executed on the west side of the outlet, not far distant from the lake. Not a house had then been erected where Cooperstown now stands. — Williamson. The company to which Williamson belonged, was attached in Sullivan's campaign to the second New York regiment, command- ed by Col. Rigne, a French officer. He was a large, well made, jovial fellow, of whom Mr. Williamson related the following an- ecdote. Among the men who aided in our glorious struggle for independence, was a regiment of blacks, who generally proved to be good, faithful soldiers. That they might readily be distin- guished, they wore wool hats with the brim and lower half of the crown colored black — the remainder being left drab or the native color. While waiting for Otsego lake to rise, the troops were drilled every day. As Col. Rigne was thus engaged with his own and parts of several other regiments, among whom were one or two companies of black soldiers, one of the latter men, from 300 fflSTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, inattention, failed to execute a command in proper time. " Hal- loo !" said the colonel, " you plack son of a b h wid a wite face ! — why you no mind you beezness ?" This hasty exclama- tion in broken English so pleased the troops, that a general burst of laughter followed. Seeing the men mirthful at his expense, he good humoredly gave the command to order arms. " JVbw;," said he, " laugh your 'pelly full all .'" and joining in it himself, hill and dale sent back their boisterous merriment. In the summer of 1779, Col. Wm. Butler received timely or- ders to move from Schoharie and join the forces under General Clinton at Canajoharie. Among Col. Butler's men, who had ren- dered good services in Schoharie during their sojourn, were Lieut. Thomas Boyd,* Timothy Murphy and David Elerson. Murphy was a native of Pennsylvania, of Irish parentage, and Elerson a Virginian, of Scotch descent. While Col. Butler was in Springfield, in the month of June, as- sisting to open a wagon road for the transportation of the boats, David Elerson obtained permission of his captain to proceed about • Lieut. Boyd was a native of Northumberland county, Pennsylvania. He was about the usual height, and was a stout built, fine looking young man ; being very sociable and agreeable in his manners, which had gained him many friends in Schoharie. While there, he paid his addresses to Miss Cornelia, a daughter of Bartholomew Becker, who gave birth to a daughter after his death, of which he was the reputed father. This child, named Catharine, grew up a very respectable woman, and afterwards became the wife of Mar- tinus Vrooman. While the troops under Col. Butler were preparing to leave Schoharie, Miss Becker, in a state of mind bordering onphrensy, approached her lover, caught hold of his arm, and in tears besought him by the inost earnest entreaties, to marry her before he left Schoharie. He endeavored to put her off with future promises, and to free himself from her grasp. She told him " if he went ofi' without marrying her, she hoped he would be cut to pieces by the Indians !" In the midst of this unpleasant scene, Col. Butler rode up and reprimanded Boyd for his delay, as the troops were ready to march — and the latter, mortified at being seen by his commander, thus im- portuned by a girl, drew his sword and threatened to stab her if she did not in- stantly leave him. She did leave him, and anticipating future shame, called down the vengeance of heaven upon him. Her imprecation was answered, as will hereafter be seen, to the fullest extent : a fearful warning to those who trifle with woman's affection. Such was the last interview of Lieut. Boyd with the girl he had engaged to marry. — Josias E. Vrooman, who wit- nessed the parting scene. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 30 1 a mile from the camp to a deserted house, and gather some mus- tard for greens. While thus engaged early in the day, he heard a rusthng in some rank weeds near, and on looking in that direc- tion, discovered to his surprise, nearly a dozen Indians cautiously advancing to capture him. He sprang and seized his rifle, which stood against the house, at which instant several tomahawks were hurled at him, one of them nearly severing a finger from his left hand. He dropped his haversack of greens and fled. In starting from the house, his foes ran so as to cut off his flight to his friends. He had to pass over a small clearing between the house and the woods, and on arriving at the farther edge of the former, he found his progress obstructed by fallen trees. He plunged in among them, when his pursuers, fearing he might escape, dis- charged their rifles at him. The volley rattled the old timber harmlessly about his head. Driven from the direction of the American camp, he fled, not knowing whither. After running for several hours, and when he began to think he had eluded the vigilance of his pursuers, an Indian appeared before him. As he raised his rifle the savage sprang behind a tree. At that instant, a ball fired from an opposite direction entered his body just above the hip — making a bad flesh wound. He then changed his di- rection, and renewed his flight. Descending a steep hill into a valley, through which coursed a small stream of water, he reached the level ground much exhausted ; but the moment his feet struck the cool water his strength revived, and scooping some up in his hand, which he drank, so invigorated him, that he gained the summit of the opposite hill with comparative ease. He had pro- ceeded but a little way further, however, when he found himself again growing faint ; and stepped behind a fallen tree just as an Indian appeared in pursuit. Not doubting but his hours were numbered, he resolved not to die unrevenged, and instantly raised his rifle to shoot him. Too weak and excited to hold his gun, be sat down upon the ground, rested it upon his knees, fired, and the Indian fell. He had barely time to reload his faithful piece, be- fore several other foes came in sight. His first thought was to bring down another, but as they gathered around their fallen 302 fflSTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, chief, and began their death yell, the hope of escape again re- vived. While they were lingering around their comrade, Elerson darted off into the forest. He followed the windings of a creek for some distance, and finding in a thicket of hemlocks a large hollow tree, crawled into it, and heard no more of the Indians. It was near night, and being greatly exhausted, he soon fell into a sound sleep. On the following morning he backed out, found it rained, was lost, and again entered his gloomy shelter. As it continued to rain, he tarried in the log three nights and two days, without food or having his wounds dressed. He then crept from his concealment, cold, stiff and hungry, mi able at first to stand upright. He was enabled, by the sun's welcome rays to direct his course, and came out at a place in Cobelskill, known in former days as Brown's Mills, distant about three miles from where he had been concealed, and at least 25 from the place where he had first been surprised. Capt. Christian Brown, the owner of the mills, was acquainted with Elerson, treated him kindly, and sent him to the Middle Fort, ten miles distant, where his wounds were properly dressed, and he recovered. The writer saw, at his interview with this old soldier in 1837, when he ob- tained these facts, the scars from the wounds above noticed, and also other similar marks of honor. Captain Brown, (a brother of Judge Brown,) is the officer mentioned as having been engaged under Captain Patrick the summer before, in the Cobelskill battle. His mills — a grist-mill and saw-mill, were among the first erected in that part of Scho- harie county, and were not burned during the war, because a tory named Sommer, who owned lands not far distant, expected if Brown's place was confiscated to the British government, to obtain it. To gratify him the buildings were spared. Brown's house, a small one story dwelling, now covered with moss, is still standing. At the time the lower part of Cobelskill was burnt, a party of Indians plundered it. Captain Brown, learning that the enemy were in his vicinity, hurried his family into the woods^ and then returned to secure some of his effects. While thus engaged, he saw from a window a party of Indians approaching, AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK, 303 and as he could not leave the house so as to avoid being seen by them, he secreted himself in some part of it. The enemy enter- ed and supposing it entirely deserted, plundered and left it, after which Capt. Brown sought his family, and with them fled to a place of greater safety. — James Becker. At the house of Capt. Brown, (said George Warner,) during the absence of the former, and in the time of the Revolution, a wedding was consummated. The groom and bride were Brown's hired man and servant girl. The Cobelskill soldiers vfere invited guests, and of course attend- ed — for who does not attend a wedding when they can ? After the lovers were united, the party as abundantly served with good pork and sour-crout / and being the best the bride could provide, they were received with as much gratification as would have been the rich dainties of a modern festival of the same cha- racter. The parties were poor, and the friends knew it, and made themselves merry. The wedding was in truth a good one, for certainly " Jill 's well that ends well.''' Brown's mills were situated on a road now leading from Barnerville to the village of Cobelskill, about two miles from the latter place. They were erected on a stream of water a few rods from a deep pool, whence it issued. It was unknown for many years where the water came from, until a saw-mill was erected at Abraham Kneiskern's in Carlisle, on a stream of water, which, near the mill, sank into the earth and disappeared. After this mill began to operate, saw-dust made its appearance in the pool near Brown's mills, three miles distant. This mill-stream runs into the Cobelskill at Barnerville. Several mill-streams in Car- lisle and Sharon, sink into the earth, and re-appear at considerable distances from the place of entrance. While Gen. Sullivan, with his army, was at Tioga Point, he was much annoyed by small parties of Indians, who crept up in the long grass on the opposite side of the river, and fired upon his men, killing or wounding them in repeated instances ; and he devised a plan to intercept them : the execution of which was committed to Lieut. Moses Van Campen. The following is Van 304 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, Campen's own account of his manner of proceeding, as publish- ed in a small volume entitled, Sullivan's Campaign. " Major Adam Hoops — " An aid-de-camp to Gen. Sullivan, presented to me my instructions, with a sheet of white paper folded up, a leaden weight Avithin, and a twine-cord about twenty feet long fastened to it. I was to get as near the enemy's camp as was prudent, and to select one of the shady oaks, conceal my men in the bush, and place my sentinel in the top of the oak, with the paper and twine- cord — to give the signal if he discovered a party of Indians — to sink the paper down the tree as many feet as they were in num- bers — if passing to the right or left to give the signal accordingly. " It was one of the warm days in the latter part of August, I marched as near to the enemy's camp as I was directed. I se- lected my tree — my sentinel ascended twenty or twenty-five feet, and my men were concealed. We laid in watch about an hour. Every eye was fixed on the sentinel. At length the paper drop- ped down about four feet. I spoke to my men, saying, 'My good fellows, we shall soon have sport.' The paper continued to drop to ten feet. I observed again, ' We shall have somethimg more to do.' The paper continued to drop to fifteen feet. 'Now, my good fellows, we shall have enough to do — fifteen to twenty of us. Let every shot make their number less." Behold ! the fel- low had fallen asleep — let the twine-cord slip through his fingers — lost his balance — and came down like a shot head foremost. He was much bruised by the fall. I make my report to the general, &c., &c. Gen. Clinton joined Gen. Sullivan at Tioga, August 22d, and four days after, the army, then five thousand strong, moved for- ward. All the Indian huts discovered on the route from Tioga westward, with the fields of growing corn, beans, &c., were de- stroyed by the American troops. At Newtown, now Elmira, the enemy under Cols. Butler and Johnson, and the chieftain Brant, collected a force, threw up a breastwork, and prepared to dispute the further progress of the invaders of their soil. On the 29th of August the troops under Sullivan reached the fortifications of the enemy, and a spirited action followed. The enemy evinced great bravery, but being overpowered by numbers, they abandoned their works with considerable loss. Gen. Sullivan had a morning and evening gun fired daily while proceeding to and from the Indian country, for which he has been much censured by some chroniclers. His object in doing it was, AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 305 to notify the numerous scouting parties which were daily kept out, of his position. Several pleasing incidents owed their origin to the signal guns. In one instance a large party of Indians were in ambush to sur- prise an advanced guard when the signal gun was fired from ele- vated ground not far distant. The Indians — who ever dread the sound of cannon, supposing the gun fired at them, scampered off like frightened sheep. Upon the firing of a signal gun after the battle of Newtown, a white woman came into the American camp. Knowing Col. John Butler, whom she supposed could give her some account of her red husband, she enquired for Col. Butler, and was immediately introduced to Col. William Butler. On coming into his presence and finding him a stranger — the truth flashed upon her mind — she was in the American camp, and in the presence of those who would protect her. She stated that she was a native of Danbury, Connecticut ; had been married several years, and was living at Wyoming the year before, when that delightful country was devastated by the enemy — at which time she was made a prisoner. Her husband had been killed among the numerous victims of savage cruelty. She further stated that at the time she was captured she had three children — two small boys and an infant child at the breast. The boys were given to different Indians, and the brains of the infant were dash- ed out against a tree ; after which she was compelled to live with an Indian as his wife. W^hen she thus providentially entered the American camp, she had an infant child — the fruit of her late un- happy connection. This child died not long after, and it was suspected that an American soldier, from sympathy to the woman, had given it poison. As the Indian country had been invaded, this woman had been obliged to follow the fortunes of her master, and having been separated from him by the discomfiture of the enemy, Sullivan's cannon, which she supposed fired in the British camp, directed her course. On the return of the army, she went back to her friends in Connecticut. — James Williamson. After the battle of Newtown, Gen. Sullivan sent back to Tioga much of his heavy baggage, and pushed forward in pursuit of the 306 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, enemy — fully executing in the destruction of the settlements the orders of the Commander-in-chief. The country of the Cayugas and Senecas, where the Indians had many flourishing settlements and several well built villages of good painted frame-houses, were entirely destroyed — together with the fields of growing corn and beans. Fruit trees, of which the Indians had an abundance, laden with green apples, peaches, and pears, were cut down. Ears of corn were found in that country full eighteen inches long, showing the exceeding fertility of the soil. It seems indeed lamentable that stern necessity should require the destruction of fruit trees, the growth of many years — but when we consider that they aflforded the enemy an important item of his annual food, we must admit that the measure as one of retaliation, was justifiable. At the Indian village of Kanadaseago, situated a little distance west of Geneva, a white male child was found by the American army. It was not more than three or four years old, and when discovered, was naked, with a string of beads about its neck. This child, which had been abandoned by the enemy in their pre- cipitate flight, was supposed to have been among the captives made the year before, on the frontiers of New York or Pennsylva- nia. He was found before the door of a hut playing with small sticks, and when accosted could only say, sago — how do, and a few other Indian words ; having been captured too young to give the least clue to his paternity. — James Williamson. In addition to the above, I learn from the son of Capt. Machin, respecting this probable orphan child, that it found in that officer, (an engineer in the army,) a god-father, and was christened Thomas Machin — that it was nearly famished when found, and could not have been kept alive, had not the Americans providen- tially taken a fresh-milk cow which had strayed from the enemy — that the milk of this cow, which was driven with the army on the return march for that purpose, afforded its nournishment — that the little unknown was taken in the fall to the house of Maj. Logan at New Windsor, where it took the small-pox in the hard winter following and died, without any information ever being disclosed as to its birth-place or parentage. AND BOEDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 307 Major Paar commanded the rifle corps which accompanied Sul- livan in his expedition. When the army, which had met with little opposition from the enemy after the battle of Newtown, ar- rived at the inlet of Conesus Lake, a scout was sent out early in the evening, under Lieut. Thomas Boyd,* one of which was Timothy Murphy. Says Major Hoops, in a letter I find in Sulli- varHs Campaign — " I was in the General's tent when he gave his instructions to Lieut. Boyd, which Vvere very particular — verbal, of course. The country before us was unknown. We had heard of an Indian Castle on the river Genesee, which, by our reckoning, might be a few miles ahead of us. The term Castle was taken from Chateau — the French having long before magnified Indian villages into Chateaux, afterwards rendered literally into English. There were the Oneida Castle, perhaps at or near to Utica, — the Seneca Cas- tle, near to the present village of Geneva, as well as some others. The Castle Lieut. Boyd was detached to discover, consisted, pro- bably, of a few Indian huts, near Williamsburgh, a few miles above the present village of Geneseo. " The evening before Lieut. Boyd was detached by Gen. Sulli- van from the inlet of the Kanaghsas Lake, a log bridge was begun and finished in the night, or early in the next morning, over the inlet. Boyd, not having returned by daylight, the General was very uneasy ; particularly from finding that, to the six riflemen he meant Boyd's party should consist of, tioenty-two musketmen had been added." The bridge alluded to was constructed by a strong covering party, sent in advance of the main army to open a road through a marshy piece of ground, and erect the bridge. The object of the scout was, to reconnoitre the ground near the Genesee river, at a place now called Williamsburgh, at a distance from the camp of nearly seven miles. The party were guided by Han Yerry — John George — a faithful Oneida warrior. In a skirmish which took place the afternoon previous to the surprise and massacre of Boyd's command, between Sullivan's advance guard and the enemy, the latter captured two friendly Oneidas, who had, from the beginning of the war, rendered the Americans constant service, and one of whom was then acting as *Some published account has erroneously stated the given name of this njai) to have been William. 308 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, Gen. Sullivan's principal guide. This Indian had an older broth- er engaged with the enemy, who, as they met, is said (in Stone's Brant) to have addressed him as follows : " Brother ! You have merited death. The hatchet or the war- club shall finish your career. When I begged of you to follow me in the fortunes of war, you were deaf to my entreaties. "Brother! You have merited death, and shall have your deserts. When the rebels raised their hatchets to fight against their good master, you sharpened your knife, you brightened your rifle, and led on our foes to the fields of our fathers. " Brother ! You have merited death, and shall die by our hands. When those rebels had driven us from the fields of our fathers to seek out new houses, it was you who could dare to step forth as their pilot, and conduct them even to the doors of our wigwams, to butcher our children and put us to death. No crime can be greater. But though you have merited death, and shall die on this spot, Trnj hands shall not be stained with the blood of a bro- ther. Who will strikeV In an instant the tomahawk of Little Beard was twirled with lightning rapidity over his head, and in another the brave Oneida, the friend of America and of humanity, lay dead at the feet of the infuriated chief. When we contrast the conduct of this Indian, who declared that his hands should not be stained with the blood of a brother; with that of the fratricide, who sought out his brother among the fleeing inhabitants of Wyoming, and shot him while in the act of begging for his life ; with that of William Newbury, at the mas- sacre of Cherry-Valley, who, finding a little girl by the name of Mitchell among the fallen, in whom the spark of life was re- viving, with the blow of his hatchet, in the presence of her con- cealed father, laid her dead at his feet ; with that of a tory named Beacraft, who was with the desolaters of Vrooman's Land ; and other instances of no less savage spirit — we shall find that of the unlettered Indian to rise in the scale of our just estimation, as that of his more savage allies, sinks them to abhorrence and contempt. One mile and a half from Sullivan's camp, the Indian path di- vided, one branch leading to Canasaraga, in the direction of Wil- liamsburg, and the other to Beard's Town. Boyd advanced cau- tiously and took the Canasaraga path. On arriving at the latter AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 309 place, he found it deserted, although the fires of the enemy were still burning. As the night was far advanced, he encamped near the village, intending to seek out on the morrow, the location of the enemy. This was a most hazardous enterprise. Twenty- eight men, seven miles from their camp — a dense forest interven- ing — and a thousand foes besetting their path to cut off their re- treat. But danger was what the party courted. Before day break, Boyd dispatched two of his men to SuHivan's camp — in- tending to push forward still farther into the wilderness — but as they never reached it, it is quite probable they were intercepted by the enemy and slain. — S. Treats Oratiori, in Sullivan's Campaign. Before they were put to death, the enemy no doubt learned from them the exact situation of Boyd's command. Just after day- light, Lieut. B., accompanied by Murphy cautiously crept from his place of concealment. Near the village of Canasaraga, they dis- covered two Indians coming out of a hut, fired at' them, and a ball from Murphy's rifle sealed the fate of one. The other in- stantly fled. Murphy, as was his usual custom when he killed an Indian, took off his scalp, and as he had on a good pair of moca- sons, he transferred them to his own feet. After the escape of the Indian fired upon by Boyd, he rightly supposed his visit would soon be made known, and he resolved to return immediately to the American camp. Boyd was advised by Han-Yerry to pursue a different route back, which commendable advice he did not choose to follow. — James Williamson. About the time Murphy shot the Indian in the morning, an in- cident of interest occurred near the main army, which is thus re- lated by Maj. Hoops. " Early in the morning, Mr. Lodge, the surveyor, proceeded to chain from the west side of the inlet, where there was a picquet posted, and ascended a little way from the foot of the hill, outside the sentinels, in advance from the picquet, and was noting his work, when he was fired on by a single Indian who had crept up near him. Leaving his Jacob-staff standing, he made the best of his way toward a sentinel — the Indian almost at his heels, toma- hawk in hand. It is probable the Indian had not seen the senti- nel till he raised his piece and (when Mr. Lodge had passed him) fired, bringing him down, perhaps not mortally wounded. The 21 3 1 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, whole picquet immediately advanced, strongly supported ; and as- cending the hill, found a line of packs." Lieut. Boyd and his followers pursued their back track with the most zealous caution, with Han-Yerry in front and Murphy in the rear, to guard against surprise. It is not improbable that the two messengers sent forward by Boyd a few hoars before, had fallen into the hands of the enemy contiguous to the American camp, and that they had left their packs to intercept the returning scout, which were found soon after Mr. Lodge was fired upon. Not the rustling of a leaf or spear of grass escaped the observa- tion of the returning scout. Nearly two-thirds of the distance "was overcome — less than two miles intervened between them and the camp — and the party were beginning to breathe freely, when they were surprised by 500 Indians under Brant, and 500 Royal- ists under Butler. The enemy were secreted in a ravine through which they rightly conjectured Boyd would approach. — Statement of John Salmon, in Sullivan- s Campaign. What could 28 men do, when opposed by 1000, or nearly forty to one. Discovermg the enemy to be concealed in great numbers, Boyd resolved on at- tempting his escape by cutting through his thickly opposing ranks. In the first onset, not one of his men fell, although their fire told fearfully upon the enemy. A second and third attempt was made, and seventeen of the Americans had fallen. — Salmon. At the third onset of the brave scout, the ranks of the enemy were broken, and Murphy, tumbling a huge warrior in the dust who ob- structed his passage — even to the merriment of his dusky com- panions — led his thus liberated comrades. — Treat's Oration. Boyd, supposing if any one escaped with life it would be Mur- phy, determined to follow him, but not being as fast a runner, he was soon taken, and with him one of his men named Parker. Murphy, as he found the path unobstructed, exclaimed of himself, in hearing of the enemy, " Clean Tim. hy G — d ,'" shaking his fist at the same time at his pursuers. — Treat's Oration. After Murphy had been pursued for some time, he observed that he had distanced all his blood-thirsty followers except two, a tall and a short Indian. Several times as they neared him, Murphy would AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 311 raise his rifle, which was unloaded, and they would fall back. He found as he ran, that his mocasons began to prove too tight, ow- ing to the swelling of his feet.* He opened a pocket knife, and while running (at the hazard of cutting his shins) he slit the tops of his mocasons, which afforded relief. Shortly after, he entered a piece of swale, and his feet becoming entangled in long grass and rank weeds, he fell. The place proved a favorable one for concealment, and he did not immediately rise. As his pursuers broke over a knoll so as to gain a view of the grass plot, not dis- covering him, although he did them, they altered their course. Murphy then loaded his rifle, and cautiously proceeded on his way to the camp. He knew from the beginning of the melee, should he be taken prisoner, what his fate would be, having the scalp of an Indian in his pocket, and his mocasons on his feet. Shortly af- ter Murphy again set forward, he discovered himself to be head- ed by an Indian in the woods : which discovery was mutual and both took trees. After dogging each other for some time. Mur- phy drew his ramrod, placed his hat upon it and gently moved it aside the tree ; when the Indian, supposing it contained a head, fired a ball through it. The hat was thereupon dropped, and run- ning up to scalp his man, the Indian received the bullet of Mur- phy's rifle through his breast ; exclaiming, as he fell backwards, « 0-wahI" Murphy, Garret Putman of Fort Hunter (afterwards a captain,) and a French Canadian, were all of Lieut. Boyd's command who regained the American camp. The two latter secreted them- selves early in their flight under a fallen tree, around which was growing a quantity of thrifty nettles, and escaped observation ; although several Indians passed over the log in pursuit of Mur- phy. John Putman, a cousin of Garret, also from the vicinity of Fort Hunter, was killed in Groveland. At his burial it was supposed he had been shot in the act of firing, as a ball and • It has been stated, and is now believed by many, that Murphy skinned the feet of this Indian and put the green hides on. It was not so ; and had he been disposed to have done it, which I cannot possibly admit, he could not have had time on that morning. 312 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, several buck-shot had entered the right arm-pit, without injuring the arm. — Peter, a brother of John Putman, corroborated by James Williamson. A soldier named Benjamin Custom, who joined Gen. Sullivan with the troops from Schoharie, attempted to follow Murphy, but was overtaken and slain in Groveland. — Geo. Richtmyer. When Murphy reached the camp, and told the sad fate of his companions, Gen. Sullivan declared it was good enovghfor them, as they had disobeyed his orders ; possibly in advancing farther than he intended they should. — /. Williamson. "When Boyd found himself a prisoner, he obtained an inter- view with Brant, who was a freemason. After the magic signs of a brotherhood were exchanged, the dusky warrior assured the captain he should not be injured. Soon after their capture, Boyd and Parker were hurried off to the vicinity of Beard's Town, now in the town of Leicester, ten or fifteen miles distant from the bat- tle-field. Brant was called off on some enterprise not long af- ter, and the prisoners were kept in charge of one of the Butlers, probably Walter, the destroyer of Cherry-Valley; who began to interrogate them about the future instructions of Gen. Sullivan, threatening them, if true and ready answers -were not given, with savage tortures. Boyd, believing the assurance of Brant ample for his safety, too high minded to betray his country on the ap- pearance of danger, refused, as did Parker, to answer Butler's questions ; and the latter, executing his threat, gave them over to a party of Seneca Indians. Little Beard and his warriors, seized the helpless victims, and having stripped, bound them to trees. They then practised their favorite pastime for such occa- sions, of throwing their hatchets into the tree just over the heads of their victims. Becoming wearied of this amusement, a single blow severed Parker's head from his body. The attention of the tormentors being undivided, they began to tax their ingenuity for tortures to inflict on his surviving comrade. Making an in- cission into the abdomen, they fastened his intestines to a tree, and compelled him to move round it, until they were thus all drawn out. He was again pinioned to a tree, his mouth enlarged — his AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 313 nails dug out — his tongue cut out — his ears cut off — his nose cut off and thrust into his mouth — his eyes dug out, and when sinking in death, he was also decapitated, and his disfigured head raised upon a sharpened pole. To those Indian cruelties we must sup- pose Butler was not only a witness, but that they were rendered the more inhuman, in the hope of gratifying his revengeful dis- position. Thus fell the brave Lieutenant Thomas Boyd, at the age of twenty-two years. On the arrival of Murphy, Gen. Sullivan ordered Gen. Hand forward to relieve Boyd and party. At the spot where the en- gagement had taken place, he discovered several Indian blankets, and an Indian's corpse, which had been accidently left among the fallen Americans ; but returned to the main army, ignorant of the fate of Boyd. — Oration of Treat. Poor Han-Yerry, who had performed prodigies of valor in the conflict of Oriskany, and who had rendered the American cause much real service, fell literally hacked in pieces. The army, as it moved on towards the Genesee river, buried the bodies of those who fell in the present town of Groveland. On the following day, Generals Clinton and Hand, with about two thousand troops, were sent across the Genesee river to Beard's Town, to destroy the dwellings, crops, &c. of the Senecas. — Treafs Oration and Letter of Van Camp en. Mr. Sanborn, a soldier who was on the extreme right wing of Clinton's army, discovered the headless bodies of Boyd and Par- ker. The rifle company of Captain Simpson, of which Boyd had been lieutenant, performed the melancholy duty of burying the mutilated remains of their comrades, which was done under a wild plum tree, and near a stream of water. — James Williamson. Beard's Town, one of the largest Indian villages in the Gene- see valley, was effectually destroyed, as were several other Indian towns on the west side of the Genesee, by the troops under Gen. Clinton, together with every growing substance found, that the enemy would eat. While this destruction was in progress, oflS- cers Poor and Maxwell proceeded along the east side of the river and destroyed the villages of Canawagtcs and Big Tree. Three 314 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, days being thus occupied in this vicinity, in the work of devasta- tion, Sullivan commenced his return march to Tioga Point. As the American troops approached the western Indian villages, the women and children fled from them to Niagara, while the Indians and their tory allies prowled about the forest, watching the move- ments of their foes, and seeking a favorable opportunity to strike an effective blow. During the winter following, the Indians be- came a tax upon the British government, and as the weather was intensely cold, and they were fed on salt provisions, to which they were unaccustomed, they died in fearful numbers by the scurvy. — Treat's Oration. It is gratifying to know, that justice has now been done to the memory of Boyd and his companions. In the autumn of 1841, sixty-two years after their massacre, their remains were taken up, through the commendable zeal of the citizens of Rochester, re- moved to that city and deposited at Mount-Hope cemetery. On the delivery, by the citizens of Livingston county, of the bones of Boyd and Parker, which were found near the junction of two creeks, hereafter to be known as Boyd's creek and Parker's creek, and those of that unfortunate lieutenant's command who fell in Groveland, to the receiving committee of Monroe county, an appropriate oration was delivered at Geneseo, by S. Treat, Esq. of that place, to an audience, estimated at Jive thousand persons. When the procession arrived at Mount-Hope, near Rochester, and had deposited the sarcophagus and urn in their final resting place, a patriotic address was delivered by his Excellency William H. Seward. Several old soldiers took part in the ceremonies, among whom were Maj. Moses Van Campen, who had, in early life, been a near neighbor of Boyd, and Mr. Sanborn, who discovered the remains of Boyd and Parker the day after they were killed. The proceedings were highly creditable to the enterprise and patriotism of Monroe and Livingston counties, and will forever be hailed as a bright page in the history of Western New York. The place of their burial at Mount-Hope, is set apart not only to receive the remains of those brave men, but of any other soldiers of the revo- lution that may desire a burial there. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 31o To a State Convention, called to devise measures "for appre- ciating the currency, restraining extortion, regulating prices, and other similar purposes,''^ Frederick Fisher, John Frey, Christopher W. Fox, Crowneage Kincade, John Petrie, and Werner Deygert were elected by the people of the Mohawk valley, as certified to by Jacob G. Klock, chairman of Tryon county committee. Da- ted, Committee Chamber, August 16, 1779. In October of this year, the enemy, about two hundred strong, under Major Monroe, consisting of British regulars, tories, and In- dians, entered the Ballston settlement. Most of the early settlers of Saratoga county were from New England, and were good li- vers. An invasion had been anticipated, and two hundred Schen- ectada militia were sent to aid in protecting the settlement. A church, called afterwards the red meeting-house^ was being erected at the time, and opposite and near it, a dwelling owned by a Mr. Weed was inclosed in pickets, at which place the Schenectada troops were stationed. About the same time, the Ballston mili- tia, thinking the troops sent to aid them were not sufficiently cou- rageous, erected a small defence on Pearson's Hill, afterwards called Court House Hill, nearly two miles in advance of the stock- ade named, and where the invaders were expected to enter. The little fortress on the hill was guarded for several nights, but as the enemy did not appear, it was abandoned. The second night (Sunday night) after the Ballston troops dis- persed, the enemy broke into the settlement. They made their first appearance at Gordon's Mills, situated on a stream called the Morning kill, entering the public road at the foot of the hill no- ticed. Col. James Gordon, who commanded the Ballston militia, and Capt. Collins, an active partizan officer, living near him, were both surprised at their dwellings, and borne into captivity, with nearly thirty of their neighbors. On the arrival of the enemy at the house of Capt. Collins, Mann Collins, his son, escaped from it, and gave the alarm to John and Stephen Ball, his brothers-in- law. The latter mounted a horse, and rode to the house of Maj. Andrew Mitchell, (Major under Col. Gordon,) who, with his fa-, mily, fled into the fields, and escaped. The Balls also communi- 316 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, cated intelligence of the enemy's proximity to the Schenectada troops at the Fort. At Gordon's Mills, one Stowe, his miller, was captured on the arrival of Monroe's party, and, for some reason, soon after libera- ted. Feeling himself obligated to Col. Gordon, he thought it his duty to inform him of his danger, and afford him a chance of es- cape. Crossing a field with that laudable intent, he met an In- dian, who, seeing a fugitive, as he supposed, attempting to escape, thrust a spontoon through his body, and instantly killed him. Great numbers of cattle and hogs were driven away at this time, or killed, several dwellings and out-buildings burned, and the whole settlement greatly alarmed by the invaders, who pro- ceeded directly back to Canada by the eastern route. Among the dwellings burned were those of one Waters, one Pearson, several Spragues, and several Patchins. Two dwellings, a little north of the present residence of Judge Thompson, owned at the time by Kennedys, escaped the torch, as the}'' had a friend among the in- vaders. The troops assembled in the neighborhood were on their trail by daylight on Monday morning, and followed some distance ; but meeting a liberated captive, who bore a message from Col. Gor- don advising the Americans to abandon the pursuit, it was given over. Why the message was sent, I am not informed, but pre- sume he either thought the enemy too strong to warrant it, or the prisoners in danger of assassination if a hasty retreat was neces- sary. Col. Gordon was an Irishman by birth, and a firm patriot. He was confined in a Canadian prison for several years, and was one of a party of six or eight prisoners, who effected their escape in the latter part of the war, and after much suffering succeeded in reaching home. Henry and Christian Banta, Epenetus White, an ensign of militia, and several others, neighbors of Col. G,, and captured subsequently, also escaped with him. Procuring a boat, the fugitives crossed the St. Lawrence, and from its southern shore directed their steps through the forest, coming out at Passama- quoddy Bay, in Maine, where they found friends. Before reach- ing a dwelling the party were all in a starving condition, and Col. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 317 Gordon crave out, and was left, at his request, by his friends, who proceeded to a settlement, obtained assistance, returned, and bore him in a state of entire helplessness to a place of safety, where he recovered. While the party were journeying, they agreed that if either of them obtained any thing to eat, he should be permitted to enjoy or distribute it as he chose. In the forest, to which the trapper had not been a stranger, one of the number found a steel-trap, in which an otter had been caught, and suffered to remain. It was mostly in a state of decomposition. The leg in the trap was whole, how- ever, and a sight of that, Col. . Gordon afterwards assured his friends, looked more inviting to him than the most savory dish he had ever beheld ; but pinching hunger did not compel a violation of their agreement — his mouth watered in vain, and the finder ate his dainty morsel undisturbed. When the fugitives arrived at a house, and asked for bread, the woman told them she had not seen a morsel in three years. After crossing the St. Lawrence, two Indians accompanied them as guides, but under some pretext left, and finally abandoned them. The party, after suffering almost in- credible hardships, all reached their homes in Ballston to the great joy of their friends. — Charles and Hugh, sons of Major Mitchell. In the fall of 1779, several stockades in the vicinity of the Mo- hawk river were under the command of Col. Fr. Fisher, as ap- pears by a journal of that officer's military correspondence, placed in the hands of the author by his son Maj. Daniel Visscher. Col. Fisher established his head quarters at Fort Paris. The following facts are gleaned from the memoranda. His first -patrol for the several garrisons was " Washington," and countersign " Sulli- van." Subject to his direction were the troops stationed at the Johnstown Fort, Fort Plank, and the block-houses at Sacandaga, and Reme Snyder's bush. The last named was a little distance northeast of Little Falls. About the 10th of November, as reported to Gen. Ten Broek, then commanding at Albany, Col. Fisher mentions the burning of a dwelling in the back part of Mayfield. The owner, Harmanus Flanke, suspected of disaffection to the American cause, was then 818 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, living in Johnstown. The house was supposed to have been de- stroyed by some one from the block-house at Sacandaga. The roof of another house, the owner of which was of similar politics, was torn off, such was the spirit of party animosity. In a letter to Maj. Taylor, then commanding the Johnstown Fort, dated November 27, Col. Fisher states that he is under the necessity of convening a court martial on the following day, and that he, the Major, should attend, bringing with him another offi- cer, also to act as a member. The same letter states that an ac- cident happened at that fort the same morning, by which two men were wounded — one mortally. The nature of the accident is perhaps explained in a letter from Col. Fisher to Gen. Ten Broek, dated the 28th instant. In it he states, that during his ab- sence to visit Fort Plank, a detachment of men from. Col. Stephen J. Schuyler's regiment mutinied, and expressing a determination to leave the fort, charged their pieces with ball, in presence of the officers. They were at first persuaded to unsling their packs and remain until Col. Fisher returned, but seeing Captain Jelles Fonda, (known afterwards as Major Fonda,) then in temporary command of the garrison, writing to Col. F., the mutineers again mounted packs, and knocking down the sentinels in their way, be- gan to desert in earnest. Capt. Fonda ordered them to stand, but not heeding his command they continued their flight, when he or- dered the troops of the Fort to fire upon them : the order was obeyed, and Jacob Valentine, one of the number, fell mortally wounded, and expired the next morning. The letter does not so state, but I have been advised that the deserters considered their term of enlistment at an end. The court martial, I suppose, con- vened to try Capt. Fonda, as I have been credibly informed that he was thus tried for a similar offence, and honorably acquitted. Early in December, as the season was so far advanced that an enemy was unlooked for, and provisions were becoming scarce, it was resolved, at a meeting of Colonels Fisher, J. Klock, and Lt. Col. B. Wagner, with the sanction of Gen. Ten Broek, to dismiss the three months militia from further service ; and some of the gar- risons were for a time broken up. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 319 The early and energetic measures adopted in 1779, agjainst the enemy, prevented the sallies of the latter upon most of the fron- tiers of New York, and that year was one in which the pioneers suffered comparatively but little, from the tomahawk and scalping knife. At this period of the contest the states were beginning to gain favor in Europe. Early in 1779, the king of Naples opened his ports to the striped bunting of the United States ; and in the course of the season Spain declared war against England. John Jay was appointed by Congress, of which he was then a member, a minister to the court of Spain. Although no great enterprises were achieved to the United States during this season, if we except the destruction of the In- dian possessions in western New York ; still many events oc- curred in the length and breadth of the land, to raise and depress the hopes of the Americans. The south became the theatre of some of the most important events. An attempt was made by the American troops under Gen. Lincoln, and the French under the Count d'Estaing, to take Savannah; and notwithstanding the allied forces displayed great bravery, they were repulsed with a loss of 1000 men. Several good officers were killed in this un- fortunate attack, among whom was the noble and generous Pole, Count Pulaski, then a brigadier-general. Although several brilliant exploits were performed at the south by the American troops, still the year closed without any event transpiring to greatly accelerate the close of the contest. In the course of the season, Gen. Tryon and Gen. Garth wantonly de- stroyed much property along the coast of Connecticut. After sacking New Haven, they laid Fairfield and Norwalk in ashes, committing numerous outrages upon the helpless citizens. As the militia turned out promptly on those occasions, the British sought safety on shipboard. While the enemy were thus en- gaged in Connecticut, Gen. Wayne most gallantly stormed the fortress of Stony Point in the Highlands of the Hudson. It was also in the autumn of this season that Com. John Paul Jones, a meritorious and distinguished naval officer in the Ameri- 320 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, ETC. can service, alarmed several towns in Scotland, and in an en- gagement off that coast, took the British frigate Serapis, after one of the most bloody battles ever fought upon the ocean. Both ships were repeatedly on fire, and when the enemy struck his co- lors, the wounded could scarcely be removed to the conquered vessel, which was also much crippled, before the Bon Homme Richard, Jones's ship, went down. At the close of the season, part of the northern army went into winter quarters under Gen. Washington a second time at Morris- town, New Jersey, and the remainder in the vicinity of West Point. Owing to the almost valueless currency of the country, which would not buy provisions, a want of proper management in the commissary department, a lack of suitable clothing, and the extreme severity of the winter, the American troops suffered in- credible hardships. But this suffering was endured, for their be- loved commander suffered with them, and the object for which the soldier had taken up arms, had not yet been accomplished. ( 321 ) CHAPTER XI. If the Indians had been severly chastised in New York in 1779, and had been obliged to seek out new habitations for their fami- lies, and consequently were not very troublesome that season ; they were early treading the war path the succeeding year, to revenge the lasting injuries done them. The following incident transpired in the spring of 1780, in the Mohawk valley. The facts were related to the author by John S. Quackenboss, and Isaac Covenhoven, the latter one of the ac- tors : George Cuck, a tory who had become somewhat notorious from his having been engaged with the enemy at Oriskany, Cherry-Valley, and elsewhere, entered the valley of the Mohawk late in the fall of 1779, with the view of obtaining the scalps of Capt. Jacob Gardiner, and his Lieut. Abraham D. Quackenboss, (father of John S.,) for which the enemy had offered a large bounty. Cuck was seen several times in the fall, and on one oc- casion, while sitting upon a rail fence, was fired upon by Abra- ham Covenhoven, a former whig neighbor. The ball entered the rail upon which he sat, and he escaped. As nothing more was seen of him after that event, it was generally supposed he had returned to Canada. At this period, a tory by the name of John Van Zuyler. resided in a small dwelling which stood in a then retired spot, a few rods south of the present residence of Maj. James Winne, in the town of Glen. Van Zuyler had three daughters, and although he lived some distance from neighbors, and a dense forest intervened between his residence and the river settlements, several miles distant, the young whigs would occa- sionally visit his girls. Tory girls, I must presume, sometimes made agreeable sparks, or sharkers, especially in sugar time. 322 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, James Cromwell, a young man who lived near the Mohawk, went out one pleasant summer evening in the month of March, to see one of Van Zuyler's daughters. Most of the settlers then made maple sugar, and Cromwell found his fair Dulcinea, boiling sap in the sugar hush. While they were sparking it, the term for courting in the country, the girl, perhaps thinking her name would soon be Mrs. Cromwell, became very confiding and com- municative. She told her beau that the tory Cuck, was at their house. Cromwell at first appeared incredulous — " he is surely there," said she, " and when any one visits the house, he is secret- ed under ihejloor." The report of his having been seen in the fall instantly recurred to his mind, and from the earnestness of the girl, he believed her story. Perhaps Cromwell was aware that the girl when with him was inclined to be whiggish — be that as it may, he resolved instantly to set about ascertaining the truth or falsehood of the information. In a very short time he com- plained of being made suddenly ill, from eating too much sugar. The girl whose sympathy was aroused, thinking from his motions that he was badly griped, finally consented to let him go home and sMo-ar 0^ alone. Away went Cromwell pressing his hands upon his bowels, and groaning fearfully until he was out of sight and hearing of his paramour, when the pains left him. Taking a direct course through the woods, he reached the dwelhng of Capt. Jacob Gardinier, some four miles below his own, and with- in the present village of Fultonville, about 12 o'clock at night, and calling him up, told him what he had heard. Capt. Gardin- ier sent iramediatly to his Lieut. Quackenboss, to select a dozen stout hearted men and meet them as soon as possible at his house. The lieutenant enquired what business was on hand — the mes- senger replied — " Capt. Gardinier said I should tell you that there was a black hear to he caught.''^ In a short time the requisite number of whigs had assembled, and the captain, taking his lieutenant aside, told him the duty he had to perform. He de- clined going himself on account of ill health, and entrusted the enterprise to his lieutenant. He directed him to proceed with the utmost caution, as the foe was no doubt armed, and as his AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 323 name was a terror in the valley, to kill him at all hazards. The party well armed, set off on the mission. The snow yet on the ground was crusted so hard, that it bore them, and having the advantage of a bright moon-light night, they marched rapidly forward. Halting a quarter of a mile from Van Zuyler's house, the lieutenant struck up a fire, and as his men gathered round an ignited stump, he addressed them near- ly as follows : " My brave lads ! It is said the villian Cuck, is in yonder house, secreted beneath the floor. The object of our visit is to destroy him. He is a bold and desperate fellow — ■ doubtless well armed, and in all probability some of us must fall by his hand. Those of you, therefore, who decline engaging in so dangerous an undertaking, are now at liberty to return home." " We are ready to follow where you dare to lead !" was the re- sponse of one and all. It is yet too early, said the lieutenant, and while they were waiting for the return of day, the plan of attack was agreed upon. At the stump was assembled Lieut. Quackenboss, Isaac and Abraham Covenhoven, twin brothers, John Ogden, Jacob Collier, Abraham J., and Peter J. Quacken- boss, Martin Gardinier, Jaraes Cromwell, Gilbert Van Alstyne, Nicholas, son of Capt. Gardinier, a sergeant, Henry Thompson, and Nicholas Quackenboss, also a sergeant. It was agreed that the party should separate and approach the house in different directions, so as not to excite suspicion. The appearance of a light in the dwelling was the signal for moving forward, and se- lecting Ogden, Collier, and Abraham J. Quackenboss to follow him, the lieutenant led directly to the house. As they approach- ed it, a large watch dog met them with his yelping, which caus- ed the opening of a little wooden slide over a loophole for ob- servation, by a member of the family ; but seeing only four per- sons, the inmates supposed they were sugar-makers. On reach- ing the door and finding it fastened, the soldiers instantly forced it — the family, as may be supposed, were thrown into confusion by the unexpected entrance of armed men. " What do you want here ?" demanded Van Zuyler. " The tory George Cuck !" was the lieutenant's reply. Van Zuyler declared that the object of 324 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, their search was not in his house. The three daughters had al- ready gone to the sugar-works, and their father expressed to Lieut. Quackenboss, his wish to go there too. He was permitted to go, but thinking it possible that Cuck might also have gone there, several men then approaching the house, were ordered to keep an eye on his movement. Abraham Covenhoven was one of the second party who entered the house. There was a dark stairway which led to an upper room, in which it was thought the object of their search might be secreted. Covenhoven was in the act of ascending the stairs with his gun aimed upward, and ready to fire, as Abraham J. Quackenboss, drew a large chest from the wall on one side of the room, disclosing the object of their search. Discharging a pistol at Nicholas Gardinier, the tory sprang out before Quackenboss, who was so surprised that he^stood like a statue, exclaiming, " dunder! dunder! dunder P' The wary lieutenant was on his guard, and as Cuck leaped upon the floor from a little cellar hole, made on purpose for his secre- tion, he sent a bullet through his head, carrying with it the eye opposite. He fell upon one knee, when the lieutenant ordered the two comrades beside him to fire. Ogden did so, sending a bullet through his breast, and as he sank to the floor. Collier, placing the muzzle of his gun near his head, blew out his brains. Thus ended the life of a man, who, in an evil hour, had resolved to imbrue his hands in the blood of his former neighbors and coun- trymen. When the first gun was fired, Covenhoven said the report was so loud and unexpected that he supposed it fired by Cuck him- self, and came near falling down stairs. Had the party not divi- ded into several squads, the peep from the slide window would have betrayed the object of their visit, and more than one would doubtless have fallen before the villain had been slain, for he had two loaded guns in the house, and a brace of well charged pistols, only one of which he had taken into his kennel. They also found belonging to him, a complete Indian's dress, and two small bags of parched corn and maple sugar, pounded fine and mixed to- gether, an Indian dish, called by the Dutch quitcheraw — intended as food for a long journey. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK, 325 After his death, it was ascertained that Cuck had entered the valley late in the fall — that he had been concealed at the house of this kindred spirit, who pretended neutrality in the contest, whose retired situation favored the plans of his guest, and was watching a favorable opportunity to secure the scalps mentioned, and return to Canada. The making of maple sugar he had sup- posed would favor his intentions, as an enemy was unlooked for so early in the season, and the persons whose scalps he sought, would probably expose themselves in the woods. He had intend- ed, if possible, to secure both scalps in one day, and by a hasty flight, pursue the nearest route to Canada. As the time of sugar- making had arrived, it is probable his enterprise was on the eve of being consummated ; but the goddess of liberty, spread her wings in his path, and defeated his hellish intentions. Van Zuyler was made a prisoner by the party, and lodged in the jail at Johnstown ; from whence he was removed not long af- ter to Albany. When they were returning home with Van Zuy- ler in custody, as they approached the sugar hush of Evert Van Epps, near the present village of Fultonville, one of them, put- ting on the Indian dress of Cuck, (which, with the guns and pis- tols were taken home as trophies,) approached the sugar makers as an enemy, which occasioned a precipitate retreat. The fugi- tives were called back by others of the party, when a rope being provided, their prisoner was drawn up to the limb of a tree sev- eral times by the neck ; but as he had been guilty of no known crime, except that of harboring Cuck, although suspected of burn- ing Covenhoven's barn in the fall, his life was spared and he was disposed of as before stated. Cuck was a native of Tryon county, and was born not many miles from where he died. On the 2d day of April, 1780, a scout of fourteen individuals, commanded by Lieut. Alexander Harper, (not Col. John Harper as stated by some writers,) were sent from the Schoharie forts by Col. Vrooman into the vicinity of Harpersfield, to keep an eye on the conduct of certain suspected persons living near the head wa- ters of the Delaware, and if possible to make a quantity of ma- ple sugar. The party were surprised after being there a few days, 22 326 msTORY OF schoharie county, by a body of Indians and tories under Joseph Brant, and hurried off to Canada. The scout consisted of Lt. Harper, Freegift Pat- chin,* Isaac Patchin his brother, Ezra Thorp, Lt. Henry Thorp, Thomas Henry, afterwards major, and his brother James Henry, Cornehus Teabout, one Stevens and five others. About the time they arrived at their place of destination, a heavy snow fell, and not anticipating the approach of a foe, they began their sugar manufacture. The preceding winter has justly been designated in the annals of mercury as the cold winter, and the spring was ve- ry backward. They were busily engaged in sugar making — which can only be done while the weather thaws in the day time and freezes in the night — from the time of their arrival until the 7th, when they were surprised by forty-three Indians and seven tories. So unlooked for was the approach of an enemy, and so com- plete was their surprise, that the Americans did not fire a gun. Two of them were shot down, and eleven more, who were in the sugar bush, surrendered themselves prisoners. Poor Stevens, who was on that day sick in bed, and unable to proceed with the pri- soners, was killed and scalped in cold blood. Brant, on recognis- ing Harper, approached him. " Harper /" said he, " / am sorry to find you here!" " Why?" — asked the latter. " Because" re- plied he, " / must kill you, although we were once school mates!" The ostensible object of Brant's mission had been, to lay waste the Schoharie settlements. Confronting Harper, with his eyes keenly fixed upon him, he enquired — " Are there any troops at Schoharie ?" Harper's anxiety for the settlers prompted the ready answer — " Yes, three hundred continental troops from the eastward, arrived at the forts but three days since." The intelligence — false, although the occasion justified it — was unwelcome to the great chief, whose countenance indicated disappointment. The eleven prisoners were then pinioned, and secured in a hog-pen. Several tories were stationed to guard them during the night, among * Mr. Patchin was a fifcr during ihe war, and a general of militia after its close. He was a very worthy man, and once represented his county in the Legislature. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 327 whom was one Beacraft, a notorious villain, as his after conduct will show. The Indians built a large fire near, and were in consultation for a long time, about what disposition should be made with the pri- soners. Harper could understand much of their dialect, and ov- erheard several of the Indians and tories urging the death of the prisoners, as they did not consider the enterprise sufficiently ac- complished. The opinion of Brant, which was that the party re- turn immediately to Niagara, finally prevailed. Often during the night, while an awful suspense was hanging over the fate of the prisoners, would Beacraft comfort them with this and similar salu- tations — " You d — d rebels ! you 'II all be in hell before morning" Lieut. Harper discovered, while the enemy were consulting the preceding evening, that his word was doubted by many of the par- ty, and early in the morning he was ordered before an Indian council consisting of Brant and five other chiefs. He was told that his story about the arrival of troops at Schoharie was unbe- lieved. The question as to its truth was again asked, while the auditors — tomahawk in hand — awaited the answer. Harper, whose countenance indicated scorn at having his word thus doubt- ed, replied that what he had before told them was true, and that if they any longer doubted it, they should go there, and have their doubts removed. Not a muscle of the brave man's countenance indicated fear or prevarication, and full credit was then given to the statement. Fortunate would it be if every falsehood was as productive of good, for that alone prevented the destroyers from entering the Schoharie valley, when it was feebly garrisoned, and where they intended to strike the first effectual blow in revenge of the injuries done them the year before, by the armies under Van Schaick and Sullivan. The rest of the prisoners were now let out of the pig-stye, when Brant told them in English that the intended destination of the party was Schoharie, which he had been informed was but feebly garrisoned — that his followers were much disappointed at being obliged thus to return — that it had been with difficulty he and his chiefs had restrained the desire of their comrades to kill the pri- 328 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, soners and proceed to the Schoharie valley — that if they would accompany him to Niagara, they should be treated as prisoners of war, and fare as did their captors. The latter expressed a wil- lingness to proceed. They were compelled to carry the heavy packs of the Indians^ filled with plunder taken at the destruction of Harpersfield but a few days before, and all set forward for Ca- nada. They were still bound, and as the snow was several feet deep, they at first found it very difficult to keep up with the In- dians, who were provided with show- shoes. Some ten or fifteen miles from the place of capture, the party halted at a grist-mill, upon the Delaware river, owned by a tory. This royalist told Brant he might better have taken raore scalps and less prisoners ; and his daughters, sensitive creatures, even urged the more gene- rous chieftain to kill his 'prisoners then, lest they might return at some future day and injure their family. The enemy obtained of this tory about three bushels of shelled corn, which was also put upon the backs of the prisoners, and they resumed their march. They had proceeded but a few miles down the river, when they met Samuel Clockstone, a tory well known to Brant and most of the prisoners. When Brant made known to him the intended ex- pedition, and its termination from what Lieut Harper had told him, Clockstone replied — " depend upon it, there are no troops at Schoharie — I have heard of none." With uplifted tomahawk Brant approached Harper, who was confronted by Clockstone. " Why have you lied to me V — asked the Indian, with passion de- picted in every feature and gesture. Harper, apprised of what the tory had said, in his reply, thus addressed the latter. "I have been to the forts but four days since, the troops had then ar- rived, and if Capt. Brant disbelieves me, he does so at his peril.'* Noble, generous hearted fellow, thus to peril his own life to save the lives of others. He had alone visited the forts after the party were at the sugar-bush, which Clockstone happened to know, and the latter admitted that possibly troops had arrived. Brant was now satisfied that his prisoner had not deceived him, and the march was resumed. In the vicinity of Harpersfield the Indians made prisoners an AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 329 aged man named Brown, and two little boys — his grand-sons. On the day after the party met Clockstone, as the traveling was very bad, Brown, having also a heavy pack to carry, found himself unable to keep up with the company, and begged permission of his captors to return ; telling them that he was too old to take any part in the war, and could not injure the king's cause. On his making this request, the party halted and the old gentleman's pack was taken from him. Knowing the Indian character, he read his fate in the expressive gestures of his silent masters, and told his grand-sons, in a low voice, that they would never see him again, for the Indians were going to kill him. He took an affect- ing leave of the boys and was then compelled to fall in the rear, where he was left in the charge of an Indian, whose face, painted black, denoted him as being the executioner for the party. In a short time this Indian overtook his comrades with the hairless scalp of the murdered prisoner, hanging at the end of his gun. The party proceeded down the Delaware river to the Cook- house flats, from whence they directed their course to Oquago. Constructing rafts, they floated down the Susquehanna to the mouth of the Chemung. The prisoners were unbound when on the raft, but rebound on leaving it. The Indians, capable of enduring more fatigue than their pri- soners on a scanty supply of food — being provided with snow-shoes, and having little baggage to carry, would probably have wearied out most of their prisoners, whose bodies, like that of poor Brown, would have been left to feast wild beasts, and their bones, like his, to bleach upon the mountains, had not Brant providentially fallen ill of fever and ague, which compelled the party for a time to lay by every other day on his account. They had been jour- neying about a fortnight, and were approaching a warmer lati- tude, when a rattle-snake, which had left its den in a warm spot, was kdled, and a soup made of it, a free use of tvhich effecte^a cure for the invalid. ^ The corn obtained near the head of the Delaware, was equally distributed among the whole party, by an allowance of about two handfuls a day, which was counted out by the berry to deal jus- 330 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, tice. This is a noble trait of the Indian character. He never grudgingly gives a scanty allowance to his prisoner, and satiates his own appetite, but shares equally his last morsel with him. The corn was boiled in small kettles carried by the Indians pre- paratory to eating. While in the vicinity of Tioga-Point, the prisoners came near being sacrificed, to gratify the savage disposition to revenge, even on the innocent, an injury done to a friend. While the Indians were on their way down the Chemung, Brant detached ten of his warriors, mostly Senecas, to a place called Minisink,* an old frontier settlement on the borders of New York and Pennsyl- vania, in the hope of making prisoners and plunder. They ar- rived in due time at the place of destination, and succeeded in ob- taining several scalps and five prisoners, three men and two small children. The following particulars of their capture and escape, I find in a note subjoined to Treafs Oration, delivered at Genesee in 3841, on exhuming the remains of Lieut. Boyd and his com- mand. " The father of Major Van Campen was thrust through Avith a spear ; and whilst the red warrior was, with his foot on the breast of his victim, endeavoring to extricate his spear, another savage had dashed out the brains of Moses Van Campen's brother with a tomahawk, and was aiming a blow at Moses' head. He seized the Indian's arm, and arrested the descending blow. Whilst thus en- gaged, his father's murderer thrust his spear at his side. But he avoided the Aveapon, being only slightly w'ounded. At this mo- ment the chief interfered, and his life was spared. " After several days' march, the party of Senecas above men- tioned, arrived near Tioga point, with Lieut, (now Major) Van Campen ; a Dutchman by the name of Pence ; Pike, a robust Yankee; and two small children. During the day, these prison- ers marched Avith the party, bearing the baggage ; and at the eve- ning halt, AA'ere made to carry the Avood for the fires. " Van Campen had, for some time, urged upon the two men, prisoners Avith him, to make an attempt to escape during the night, by tomahaAA'king the Indians AA'hilst sleeping. He depicted to them the horrors of a long captivity, and of the agonizing tortures to Avhich they Avould probably be subjected. His companions, hoAA'ever, AA^ere at first alarmed at the danger of a contest Avith ten Avarriors. During the afternoon preceding the eventful night of • This word signifies, as I have been told, " Tkc water is gone.". AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK, 331 their delivery, he succeeded in persuading them to join him in the meditated blow, before they crossed the river and their retreat was thereby cut off. He advised them to remove the Indians' rifles ; and with the head of the tomahawks, dash out their brains ; for if the edges of the weapon were used, the time required to extricate the hatchet after each blow, would prove a dangerous delay. He was over-ruled by his comrades ; and after some discussion among them, that plan was adopted, which was finally acted upon. " At evening, the savages, according to their custom, lighted their fires, and bound the arms of the captives behind their backs. They then cut two forked stakes for each side of the fire, and placed between them (resting on the forks) two poles, against which they could lean their rifles. During the evening meal, one of the savages, after sharpening a stick on which to roast his meat, laid down his knife in the grass, near the feet of Van Campen, who saw it, and so turned his feet as to cover it, hoping the Indian would forget it before going to rest. After the meal was finished, the ten Indians having first examined their prisoners to ascertain if they were fast bound, lay down to sleep. Five were on each side of the fire — their heads under the poles, and his rifle standing at the head of each, ready to be grasped at the instant. " About midnight. Van Campen sat up and looked around, to learn if all were asleep. Their loud snoring told him the hour to strike had arrived. He then, with his feet drew the knife within reach of his pinioned hands. Rising cautiously, he roused his companions. Pence cut the bands from Van Campen's arms, and the latter then cut loose his two comrades. There had been a slight fall of snow, which had frozen among the leaves, and ren- dered every footstep fearfully audible. But they succeeded in re- moving all the rifles to a tree at a short distance from the fire, without awaking one of the warriors. During the afternoon, sev- eral of the rifles had been discharged in killing a deer, and, through forgetfulness, left unloaded. The plan proposed was, that Pence, who was an excellent marksman, should lie down on the left of one row of Indians, with three rifles ; and, at the given signal, fire. They supposed the same ball would pass through at least two sav- ages. In the mean time. Van Campen should tomahawk three of those on the other side and Pike, two. Then there would be but three Indians remaining, and each of the captives was to fasten on his foe — Van Campen and Pike with their tomahawks, and Pence with one of the undischarged rifles. Fortunately, for their safety, Pence had taken the two unloaded rifles. " All things being ready. Van Campen's tomahawk dashed out the brains of one of the Indians at a single blow ; but Pence's ri- fle snapped without discharging. At the noise, one of the two as- signed to Pike's charge, with a sudden " ugh .'" extended his hand for his rifle. Pike's heart failing him at this awful crisis : he crouched to the ground and stirred not. But Van Campen saw the Indian starting to his feet ; and, as quick as thought, drove the 332 msTORY OF schoharie county, tomahawk through his head. Just as the fifth blow of Van Camp- en had despatched the last savage on his side of the fire, Pence tried the third rifle, and the ball passed through the heads of four. The fifth on that side, John MohaAvk, bounded to his feet, and rushed towards the rifles. Van Campen darted between him and the tree, and Mohawk turned in flight. Van Campen pursued him, and drove the tomahawk through his shoulder. Mohawk imme- diately grappled his adversary ; and, in the struggle, both fell — Van Campen undermost. Each knew his life depended on the firmness of his grasp ; and they clung to each other with unre- laxed nerve, and writhed to break free. Van Campen lay under the wounded shoulder, and was almost suffocated with the Indian's blood which streamed over his face. He eagerly stretched his hand around Mohawk's body to reach the knife of the latter; fox the tomahawk had fallen from his hand in the struggle. But as they fell, the Indian's belt had been twisted around his body, and the knife was beyond his reach. At length they break away, and both spring to their feet. Mohawk's arms had been round Van Campen's neck, and the arm of the latter over the back of the former. As they gained their feet, Van Campen seized the toma- hawk and pursued the again retreating Indian. His first impulse was to hurl the hatchet at his foe ; but he saw at once the impru- dence of the course. If it missed its object, it would be turned in a moment against his own life ; and he therefore gave over the pursuit, and one alone of the ten Senecas escaped. " On returning to his comrades, he found Pike on his knees beg- ging for his life, and Pence standing over him with loaded rifle, ready to fire. Pence answered V. C.'s inquiry into his conduct, by saying, " De tam Yankee bee's a cowart, and I musht kill um." With difficulty Van Campen prevailed upon the Dutchman to spare the frightened and dastardly Pike. They then scalped their victims ; and, taking their riffes, set forward with the two boys, on their return home, which they reached in safety. Among the scalps which were strung to the belt of one of the warriors, were those of Van Campen's father and brother." Mohawk, the sachem "who had escaped from Van Campen, was occupying a little hut near Tioga Point, where the Minisink party were to await Brant's arrival, endeavoring to cure his wound, when he returned with his prisoners. As the party under Brant drew near that place, the war whoop was sounded, and was soon answered by a pitiful howl — the death yell of the lone Indian. The party halted in mute astonishment, when the Indian, with the nine pairs of mocasons, taken from the feet of his dead comrades, came forward and related the adventures of himself and friends, and the terrible disaster that had overtaken them. Instantly, the AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 333 whole band under Brant seemed transformed to so many devils in- carnate, gathering round their prisoners with frantic gestures, and cutting the air with their weapons of death. At this critical mo- ment, when the fate of the prisoners seemed inevitable from the known rule of Indian warfare, Mohawk threw himself into the midst of the circle, and made a signal for silence. This Indian knew most of the prisoners, having lived about Schoharie before the war. He told his attentive auditors, that the prisoners were not the men who had killed his friends, and that to take the lives of innocent men to revenge the guilt of others, could not be right : he therefore desired them to spare their lives. The storm of pas- sion which seemed ready but a moment before to overwhelm the prisoners, now yielded to the influence of reason, and the toma- hawks of the savages were returned to their girdles. The company again moved forward, the prisoners grateful to the Almighty for their deliverance from such obvious perils. On arriving near Newtown, the whole party, Indians as well as prisoners, were on the point of starvation, when an unusual number of wolf-tracks arrested their attention. They led to the half-devoured carcase of a dead horse, supposed to have been a pack horse, left by accident the fall before by the army under Gen. Sullivan. The under side of the animal, frozen, and buried in snow, was found in a good state of preservation. It was in- stantly cut up, and equally distributed, even to the fleshless bones, among the whole party. Fires were built — the meat cooked — and the nearly famished travelers feasted upon the remains of this horse, with far more satisfaction than would the epicure upon his most dainty meats. In the present county of Steuben, the prisoners saw the " Painted Post," which had been erected by the Indians, to com- memorate some signal battle fought upon the spot. Leaving the route of SulUvan on the Chemung, they proceeded farther north. On their journey, the tories, Beacraft,* and Barney Cane, boast- * Priest states, that Beacraft boasted at this time of killing a Vrooman boy in Schoharie. He had no lack of evil deeds at that period, but that writer must have misunderstood Gen. Patchin in that part of the narrative. 334 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, ed of the acts of cruelty each had then perpetrated during the war. The party descended to the Genesee river nearly famished, and there met a company of Indians that had arrived to make preparations to plant corn. The latter had brought with them from Niagara, a fine looking horse, which Brant instantly order- ed killed, and distributed to his again starving men and prisoners. No part of the animal, not even the intestines were suffered to be lost. They roasted the meat, using white ashes as a substi- tute for salt. They also found upon the Genesee flats, small ground nuts, which they roasted and ate with their horse flesh. From this place, Brant sent forward a runner to Niagara, a distance of eighty miles, to announce the result of his expedition, the number of prisoners, and their character. Brant was in pos- session of a secret which he kept in his own breast, that doubt- less operated as an incentive for him to save the life of Lieut. Harper and his men. Among the prisoners taken at the massa- cre of Cherry-Valley, in the fall of 1778, was Miss Jane Moore, whose mother was a sister of Harper. Not long after her arrival at Niagara, she was courted, and became the wife of Capt Powel, a British officer of merit.* Beacraft did kill a boy named Vrooman in Schoharie in the manner there de- scribed, but it was not until the 9th day of the following August, as will be shown. He also boasted of the act after it was committed. He was a no- torious villain, and partial justice was awarded him subsequently. • " In person, Brant was about the middling size, of a square, stout build, fitted rather for enduring hardships than for quick movements. His complex- ion was lighter than that of most of the Indians, which resulted, perhaps, from his less exposed manner of living. This circumstance, probably, gave rise to a statement, which has been often repeated, that he was of mixed origin. [The old people in the Mohawk valley to whom he was known, generally agree in maintaining that he was not a full blooded Indian, but was part white.] He was married in the winter of 1779, to a daughter of Col. Croghan, by an Indian woman. The circumstances of this marriage are somewhat singular. He was present at the wedding of Miss Moore from Cherry-Valley, who had been carried away a prisoner, and who married an officer of the garrison at Fort Niagara. " Brant had lived with his wife for some time previous, according to the Indian custom, without marriage; but now insisted that tlie marriage cere- mony should be performed. This was accordingly done by Col. Butler, who was still considered a magistrate. After the war he removed with his na> AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 335 Brant suggested to his runner to the' fort, that Capt. Powel should send the warriors from both Indian camps contiguous, down the lake to the Nine Mile Landing — there to await his arrival with the prisoners. Having obtained permission from Col. Butler to do so, Powel gave the Indians a quantity of rum to aid, as they supposed, in their celebration, and away they went. The danger Brant justly apprehended, was, from the im- possibility of restraining the violent acts of many of the Indians, while the prisoners were running the gantlet, knowing that re- lations of the Minisink party would be present burning with re- venge, and all were smarting under the chastisement they had received the preceding year. He knew that no act, however atrocious, would be considered by many of his warriors, too se- vere to inflict at this time on the prisoners. That Harper was a relative of Mrs. Powel, Brant concealed from every individual of his party. Four days after the messenger had been sent forward, they ar- rived near Niagara, when the tories began to tantalize the prison- ers, by telling them that in all probability few of them would sur- vive running the gantlet. On arriving at the first encampment the prisoners were as happily disappointed to find that the lines through which they were to pass were composed of old women and children, who would not be likely to inflict much injury, as were the tories to find the revengeful warriors all absent. Most of the prisoners escaped with little injury, except Freegift Patch- in. He was approached by an old squaw, who, as she exclaim- tion to Canada. There he was employed in transacting important business for his tribe. He went out to England after the war, and was honorably received there." — Memoirs of Dr. Wheelock — see N. Y. Hist. Coll. Joseph Brant died on the 24th November, 1807, at his residence near the head of Lake Ontario, in the 65th year of his age. Not long before that event, the British government refused, for the first time, to confirm a sale of lands made by that chief, which mortified him very much. The sale was afterwards confirmed, at which he was so much elated, that he got into a frolick, that is said to have laid the foundation for his sickness, and re- sulted in his death. The wife of Brant, who was very dignified in her ap- pearance, would not converse in English before strangers, notwithstanding she could speak it fluently. 336 ffiSTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, ed "poorshild" gave liira a terrible blow upon the head. As the prisoners drew near the second encampment, they were grati- fied to perceive that, through the policy of Capt. Powel, a regi- ment of British troops was thrown into parallel lines to protect them. When Patchin had arrived within a few rods of the gate- way, an Indian boy ran up and gave him a blow on the forehead with a hatchet, which had nearly proven fatal. A soldier stand- ing by, snatched the weapon from the hand of the young savage and threw it into the lake. The unexpected meeting of Harper "with friends among the enemies of his country, was no doubt very gratifying. On arriving at the fort, the prisoners were brought before- seve- ral British officers, among whom sat Col. John Butler as presiding officer. The colonel put several abusive questions to the pri- soners, and addressing Freegift Patchin, who stood nearest his seat, he asked him " if he did not think that by and by his In- dians would compel a general surrender of the Yankees'?" Smart- ing under his wounds, he replied that " he did not wish to answer for fear of giving offence." The unfeeling officer insisted on an answer, and the young American, whose patriotic blood was ri- sing to fever heat, replied — " If I must answer you, it is to say, JYo — you might as well think to empty the adjoining lake of its •waters with a bucket, as attempt to conquer the Yankees in that manner." Butler flew into a passion, called Patchin " a d — d rebel" for giving him such an insolent reply, and ordered him out of his sight. At this instant, a generous hearted British officer in- terfered. Said he to Col. B., "the lad is not to blame for an- swering your question, which you pressed to an answer : he has no doubt answered it candidly, according to his judgment." Ex- tending a glass of wine to Patchin, whose spirit he admired — " Here, my poor fellow," said he, " take this glass of wine and drink it." Such unexpected kindness received his grateful re- membrance. The examination of the prisoners having ended, Mrs. Nancy Bundy,* who was also a prisoner at the time, prepared •This woman staled to Freegift Patchin, " that herself, her husband, and two children were captured at the massacre of Wyoming, and brought to the AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 337 as speedily as possible, a soup made of proper materials for them. The captors received as their reward for the delivery of the Schoharie party eight dollars per head. This it is believed was the stipulated reward for American scalps or prisoners, to he paid for by Col. John Butler,* the British agent for that business, dur- ing the war : but it was often the case that the delivery of a com- mittee-man's scalp or his person, or that of an officer or noted sol- dier, entitled the possessor to a larger sum. From Niagara, the prisoners, except Harper, were sent from post to post, and finally lodged in prison at Chamblee. Here they remained in irons nearly two years, suffering most acutely for the necessaries of life. Free. Patchin was reduced to such a state, as to be unable to rise from the floor without the aid of one of the Thorps. Doctor Pendergrass, a physician who had the care of the prison- ers, totally neglected to require into their real condition, the con- sequence was that some of them became objects of loathing, even to themselves. Of the latter number was Free. Patchin. A wor- thy physician at length succeeded Pendergrass in his station, and the sufferings of the prisoners was at once mitigated. On his first visit to the prisoners confined in the room with the Palchins, Steele, the commanding officer of the fort, accompanied him. The doctor proceeded to examine the prisoners singly. Ashamed Genesee country. There she had been parted from her husband, the Indians carrying him she knew not where. She had not been long in the possession of the tribe with whom she had been left, when the Indian who had taken her prisoner was desirous of making her his wife ; but she repulsed him, say- log, very imprudently, she had one husband, and it would be unlawful to have more than one. This seemed to satisfy him, and she saw him no more for a long time. After a while he came again, and renewed his suit, alleging that now there was no objection to her marrying him, as her husband was dead, ' for,' said he, ' I found where he was, and have killed him.' She then told him, if he had killed her husband he might kill her also, for she would not marry a murderer. When he saw that his person was hateful to her, he tied her, took her to Niagara, and sold her for eight dollars. The fate of her chil- dren she did not know. — Priest." * This man, who died some years after the war near Niagara, partially re- ceived punishment in this life for his cruelties in the Kevolution, for he was tix weeks dying — or rather continued to breathe in the most acute suffering for that length of time, every hour of which it was thought would prove his last. A. fact communicated by a friend who was in Niagara at the time. 338 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, of being seen, Free. Patchin was occupying the darkest corner of the room, and had thrown an old blanket around him, to hide his naked limbs. The doctor at length approached him. " Well, my lad," he asked, " what is the matter with you ?" " Nothing, sir," was the reply. " Then get upon your feet," added the doc- tor. " I cannot do it," replied Patchin. The former then thrust the end of his cane under the blanket and removed it, discovering his pitiful condition. The doctor possessed a humane heart, and his sym- pathy for the prisoner was instantly aroused. Turning to Steele, with a look that denoted surprise and anger, he demanded to know why this prisoner had been so cruelly neglected, ordering his shackles instantly removed. The language and treatment of this medical officer was so unexpected, and so diiferent from what he had previously experienced, that Patchin could not refrain from weeping like a child. With proper treatment his health was soon improved. From Chamblee the prisoners were taken to Rebel Island where they remained nntil peace was proclaimed. From that place they were sent to Quebec, via Montreal, and put on board of a cartel ship bound for Boston : where they arrived after many perils at sea. They then directed their course to Albany, and from thence to Schoharie, where they arrived nearly three years after their capture. Gen. Patchin was married after the war, and settled in Blenheim, Schoharie county, where he resided until the close of his life. His widow assured the writer, that Mr. Patchin's constitution received a shock while a prisoner, from which he never entirely recovered. A large body of the enemy having been seen in the latter part of March, in the vicinity of Putman's creek, as stated in a letter from Col. Van Schaick, of Albany, to Col. Fisher, the former re- commended sending a reasonable force to the Sacandaga block- house. Col. Fisher accordingly despatched to that post one-third of his regiment, and ordered Lieut. Col. Veeder to repair thither, and take the command. The remainder of the regiment was or- dered out, and stationed at Fort Johnson and other commanding points near the Mohawk, until the 1st of April, and then dispers- AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 339 ed. The enemy, however, had lingered about the settlements, as the following letter will show : Caughnawaga, 3(? April, 17S0. " Sir — On Tuesday night last, the block-house [at Sacandaga] was attacked by a scouting party of Indians, to the number of se- ven, as near as could be ascertained, [proved to be five] and en- deavored to set it on fire in two different places, which they would have effected had it not been for the activity of one brave man who lived there, named Solomon Woodworth, who, although alone, sal- lied out and extinguished the fire. Whilst he was doing it, five shots were fired at him, one of which only touched him. On his return into the house he fired at them, one of whom he wounded in the thigh, on which the rest fled and took the wounded Indian with them. The reason of the block-house being without men at that time, was through the neglect of one of the militia officers, which I have taken notice of already in a particular manner. I immediately sent out a party after them, who returned without success for the want of snow shoes. Seven volunteers [six, as sta- ted in a subsequent letter] turned out on last Thursday, and came up with them on Saturday about 12 o'clock, when five of the In- dians fired upon my men, and the whole missed, upon which the brave volunteers run up and fired upon them with buck-shot and wounded every one of them, took, and killed the whole, and brought in all their packs and guns without ever receiving the least hurt. This intelligence I just received from Col. Veeder, by express from the block-house, where he commands sixty men. " You'll please order up some rum and ammunition for the use of my regiment of militia, being very necessary as the men are daily scouting. Your commands at any time shall be punctually obeyed, by " Your most humble servant, "FREDERICK FISHER, Colonel '* Col. Goshm Van Sckaick — sent by express." In a letter from Col. Fisher to Col. Van Schaick, dated April 13th, the names of the volunteers in the above enterprise are gi- ven, and are as follows : Solomon Woodworth, John Eikler, Pe- ter Pruyn, David Putman, Rulf Vores, and Joseph Mayall. The Indians were overtaken and killed about forty miles north of Sa- candaga. At this period of the war, Marcus Bellinger was supervisor, and William Dietz, a Justice of the Peace for Schoharie. Agreeable to an act of Congress, passed Feb. 12, 1780, assessors were ap- pointed in the frontier districts to ascertain, as nearly as possible, 340 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, how much grain each family might need for its consumption, that the remainder of the stock might be in readiness for their less pro- vident neighbors or the army. Bellinger gave written certificates to the requisite quantity for each family in his district, and Dietz gave written permits to such as had not a supply, to draw one. The following particulars were narrated to the author in 1841, by Moses JYelson, then a resident of Otsego county. He stated, that on the morning Cherry-Valley was destroyed, in the fall of 1778, he, then in his 14th year, was at the fort j that when the alarm was given of the enemy's approach, he ran home — some half a mile distant — and, with his mother, then a widow with whom he was living, fled to Lady hill, east of the village ; where they remained concealed until the enemy had left. Nelson had four half-brothers at the time, older than himself, who were all in the service of their country. In the month of March following, he enlisted in the bateau service, for a term of ten months, on the Hudson river, rendezvousing at Fishkill. After the time of his enlistment expired, he again returned to Cherry-Valley, and was living with his mother at that place, where a few daring spirits still continued their residence, when, on the 24th of April, 1780, a party of seventy-7iine hostile Indians and two tories, broke in upon the settlement. One of the latter, named Bowman, a former resident of the Mohawk valley, was the leader of the band. They had previously been to the vicinity of the Mohawk, where they had made several prisoners ; and passing along Bowman's creek — called at its outlet the Canajoharie creek — they captured several more, among whom were two persons named Young. This party killed eigld individuals and took fourteen prisoners in this expedition, and among the former was the mother of my in- formant, whose bloody scalp he was compelled to see torn off, and borne off as & trophy. This band of furies consisted of warriors from various tribes ; and among the number were two Stockbridge Indians, one of whom claimed Nelson as his prisoner. The route pursued by the enemy, after completing the work of destruction at that doomed place, was down the Cherry- Valley creek : and from Otsego lake, AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 341 down the Susquehanna to the Tioga, and thence westward via the Genesee flats to Niagara. The enemy while returning to Canada, separated into small parties, the better to procure the means of subsistence. The two Stockbridge Indians with whom he journeyed, made a canoe from a bass-wood tree, in which, with their prisoner, they floated down the Susquehanna. At Indian villages, the party usually assem- bled. At two of those, Nelson had to run the gantlet, but he escaped with little injury. One of the prisoners, an aged man, who ran with a heavy pack on his back, was nearly killed. When Nelson was about to run, his master, who was called Capt. Da- vid, took off" his pack to give him a fair chance for his life ; and on one accasion placed himself at the entrance of a wigwam to which the prisonesrs were to flee, to witness the feat. Owing to his fleetness, he was not much injured. Said his master as he approached the goal, you did run well. Many of the party — and among the number was his master David, tarried nearly two weeks to plant corn, in the Genesee valley — at which time he was sent forward with David's brother to Niagara, where he ar- rived after a journey of eighteen days from his captivity. As one of the Stockbridge Indians was an excellent hunter, Nelson did not suffer for the want of provisions, such as they were. The party, on their start from Cherry-Valley, took along several hogs and sheep, which were killed and then roasted whole, after burning off" the hair and wool. On his arrival at Niagara, Nel- son was told by his master that he was adopted as an Indian, and was at liberty to hunt, fish, or enlist into the British service. Not long after this he was sold into the forester service of the enemy, the duties of which were " to procure wood, water, &c., for the garrison, and do the boating ;" being attached to what was called the Indian department. He was sent on one occasion with a party to Buffalo. He was for a while, with several other captives whose situation was like his own, in the employ of Col. John Butler. More than a year of his captivity was spent in the vici- nity of Niagara. In the spring of 1782, when the enemy set about rebuildmg 23 342 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, Fort Oswego, three officers, Capt. Nellis, Lieut. James Hare, and Ensign Robert Nellis, a son of the captain, all of the forester ser- vice, had charge of the Indians there employed. Nelson and two other lads, also prisoners, accompanied this party, which was con- veyed in a sloop, as waiters. About one hundred persons were employed in rebuilding this fortress, which occupied most of the reason. The winter following, Nelson remained at this fort, and was in it when Col. Willet advanced with a body of troops in Feb- ruary, 1783, with the intention of taking it by surprise. The en- terprise is said to have proved abortive in consequence of Col Willet's guide, who was an Oneida Indian, having lost his way in the night when within only a few miles of the fort. The men were illy provided for their return — certain victory having been anticipated, and their sufferings were, in consequence, very severe. This enterprise was undertaken, says Col. Stone, agreeably to the orders of Gen. Washington ; but it certainly added no laurels to the chaplet of the brave Willet. Col. Willett, possibly, may not have known that Fort Oswego had been so strongly fitted up the preceding year, and conse- quently the difficulties he had to encounter before its capture — be that as it may, the 'probahility is, that had the attack been made, the impossibility of scaling the walls, would have frustrated the design, with the loss of many brave men. The fort was surrounded by a deep moat, in the centre of which were planted heavy pick- ets. From the lower part of the walls projected downward and outward, another row of pickets. A draw-bridge enabled the in- mates to pass out and in, which was drawn up and secured to the "wall every night, and the corners were built out so that mounted cannon commanded the trenches. Two of Willett's men, badly frozen, entered the fort in the morning, surrendering themselves prisoners, from whom the garrison learned the object of the en- terprise. The ladders prepared by Willett to scale the walls, were left on his return, and a party of British soldiers went and brought them in. The longest of them," said JVelson, " when pla- ced against the walls inside the pickets, reached only about two thirds of the way to the top." The post was strongly garrisoned, AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 343 and it was the opinion of Mr. N. that the accident or treachery which misled the troops, was most providential, tending to save Col. Willett from defeat, and most of his men from certain death. While Nelson was with the two Indians on his way from Cher- ry-Valley to Niagara, David, his owner, afterwards told him that the other Indian wanted to kill him. He said he replied to his brother — " You must first kill me, then you will have two scalps and be a big man.^' On their route to Canada, they passed the body of a white man, who had been killed by some other party. Peace was proclaimed in the spring of 1783, and Nelson, with many other prisoners — none however, who were taken when he WEis — returned home via Ticonderoga and Fort Edward. Previ- ous to his return he visited Montreal, where he was paid for labor done in the British service the year before. Several times in April, of this year, the Mohawk river settle- ments were alarmed by anticipated invasions, but those alarms died away and were not renewed until near the middle of May. The following correspondence addressed to " Col. Fisher, at Caughna- waga," gives the earliest reliable testimony of the enemy's ap- proach. " Fort Paris, May 15th, 1780. " Sir — I have intelligence which I believe is very certain, that the enem)'' are on their way, and will attack in four different places in this county within a few days. I hope you will exert yourself to discover them, and make every possible preparation to defeat their design. " It is expected that they will come by the way of Sacandaga. •' I am your hble servt. " JACOB IvLOCK, CoV Bearing the same date, Col. Fisher received an anonymous let- ter written at Caughnawaga, stating that an invasion of the ene- my under Sir John Johnson was hourly expected, adding as a cor- roborating circumstance, that a number of his near neighbors, five of whom were named, had gone away the night before to join the invaders. The writer added, that he had written some days pre- vious what he suspected, and that the enemy would be very strong. Among the Fisher papers on this subject I also find the following- 344 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, Schenectada, 17th May, 1780. " Dear Sir — Just this moment returned from Albany, Col. Van Schaick has requested of me to write to you, requesting you to send me by the bearer, Serg-t. Carkeright, an account of all the persons that have gone to the enemy from your county, with their names, which request I wish you to comply with ; also let me know if any thing of the alarm has turned up. " I am, dear sir, your friend, " H. GLEN." " Col. ViSGER." Nothing more was heard of the enemy until Sunday night the 21st day of May, when Sir John Johnson, at the head of about five hundred troops, British, Indians and tories, entered the Johns- town settlements from the expected northern route. The objects of the invasion doubtless were, the recovery of property concealed on his leaving the country, the murder of certain whig partizans, the plunder of their dwellings, and the capture of several indi- viduals as prisoners : intending, by the execution of part of the enterprize, to terrify his former neighbors. About midnight the destructives arrived in the north east part of the town, from which several of the tories had disappeared the day before, to meet and conduct their kindred spirits to the dwellings of their patriotic neighbors : for when Johnson was censured for the murder of those men, he replied that " their tory neighbors and not himself were blameable for those acts." A party of the ene- my proceeded directly to the house of Lodowick Putraan, an hon- est Dutchman, living two miles and a half from the court house. Putman had three sons and two daughters. On the night the en- emy broke into his house, two of his sons were fortunately gone sparking a few miles distant. Old Mr. Putman, who was a whisf of the times, and his son Aaron who was at home, were taken from their beds, murdered, and scalped. While the Indians were plundering the house and pulling down clothing from hooks along the wall, Mrs. Putman snatched several articles of female apparel, such as gowns, petticoats, &c. from the hands of a large Indian, tellino- him that such and such things she must and would have for her daughter. The fierce looking savage, whom few women of the present day would care to meet, much less to contend with, AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 345 offered some resistance to her gaining several garments, and they jerked each other about the room ; but seeing her determination to possess them, he finally }'ielded to her entreaties and prowess, and with a sullen " Umph /" let go his hold. After the enemy had been gone sometime from the house, Mrs. Putman and her daugh- ter Hannah, afterwards the wife of Jacob Shew, Esq., leaving the mangled remains of their murdered friends, proceeded to the Johns- town fort, where they arrived about sun-rise. The jail was pa- lisaded, and, with several block-houses built within the inclosure, constituted the Johnstown fort. At this period, one of Putman's daughters was married to Ama- sa Stevens, also a whig, living in the neighborhood. While some of the enemy were at Putman's, another party approached the dwelling of Stevens, and forcing the doors and windows, entered it from different directions at the same instant. Poor Stevens was also dragged from his bed, and compelled to leave his house. Mrs. Stevens, in the act of leaving the bed, desired a stout savage, or a painted tory, as she afterwards supposed, not to allow the Indians to hurt her husband. He forced her back upon the bed with her terrified children, a boy, named after his grandfather, two and a half years old, and an infant daughter named Clarissa, tell- ing her she should not be hurt. A few rods from the house Ste- vens was murdered, scalped and hung upon the garden fence. Af- ter the enemy had left the dwelling, Mrs. Stevens looked out to see if she could discover any one about the premises. She had supposed her husband taken by them into captivity ; but seeing in the uncertain star-light the almost naked form of a man leaning upon the fence, she readily imagined it to be that of her husband. In a tremulous voice she several times called "Jimasaf Amasa P^ but receiving no answer she ran to the fence. God only knows what her mental agony was, on arriving there and finding her hus- band stiffening in death. With almost supernatural strength she took down the body and bore it into the dwelling, (which, with Putman's, had been spared the incendiary torch from motives of policy,) and depositing it, sprinkled with the scalding tears of blighted affection, she snatched the two pledges of her early love 346 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, and sought safety in flight to the fort ; where she found her sur- viving relatives. The amorous Putman brothers set out on their return home to- wards day-hght, from what is now called Saramons' Hollow, and discovering the light of the burning buildings at Tribes' Hill, they hastily directed their steps to the fort, meeting at the gate-way their mourning relatives. Stevens had just finished planting when murdered, and the next week purposed to have journeyed eastward with his family. The Putmans were killed on the farm now owned and occupied by Col. Archibald Mclntyre. They were both buried in one grave in a single rough box ; and while their neighbors were perform- ing the act of burial, they were once alarmed by the supposed ap- proach of the enemy and left the grave, but soon returned and filled it. — Clarissa, relict of Joseph Leach, and daughter of Amasa Stevens. Dividing his forces, Col. Johnson sent part of them, mostly In- dians and tories, to Tribes' Hill ; under the direction, as believed, of Henry and William Bowen, two brothers who had formerly lived in that vicinity and removed with the Johnsons to Canada. These destructives were to fall upon the Mohawk river settlements at the Hill, and proceed up its flats, while Johnson led the remain- der in person by a western route to Caughnawaga, the appointed place for them to unite. The Bowens led their followers through Albany Bush, a tory settlement in the eastern part of the town, where, of course, no one was molested, and directed their steps to the dwelling of Capt. Garret Putman, a noted whig. Putman, who had a son named Victor, also a whig, had been ordered to Fort Hunter but a few days before, and had removed his family thither ; renting his house to WiUiam Gault, an old English gar- dener who had resided in Cherry-Valley before its destruction, and Thomas Plateau, also an Englishman. V^^ithout knowing that the Putman house had changed occupants, the enemy surrounded it, forced an entrance, and tomahawked and scalped its inmates. The house was then pillaged and set on fire, and its plunderers knew not until next day, that they had obtained the scalps of AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 347 two tories. In the morning, Gault, who was near eighty years old, was discovered alive outside the dwelling, and was taken across the river to Fort Hunter, where his vt^ounds were properly drest, but he soon after died. Among the early settlers in the Mohawk valley was Harman Visscher, who died before the Revolution, leaving an aged widow, three sons, Frederick a colonel* of militia, John a captain, and Harman; and two sisters, Margaret and Rebecca. Frederick the elder brother, who was born on the 22d of February, 1741; was married and resided a little distance below the paternal dwelling, which stood nearly on the site of the present residence of the Hon. Jesse D. De Graff. The other Fisher brothers were unmarried, and, with their mother and sisters, lived at the home- stead. The Fisher family was one of much influence, and warm- ly advocated the popular cause. The following anecdote will show the position of the elder brother, at an early period of the contest. Soon after the difficulties commenced at Boston, a meet- ing of the citizens along the Mohawk valley was called at Tribes' Hill, on which occasion Col. John Butler was present, and harrangued the multitude on the duties of subjects to their sovereign, &c., and then proposed a test for his hearers, some three hundred in number. Having formed a fine, he desired those who were willing to oppose the king, to remain standing, and those who favored royal pretensions to advance a few paces forward. The result was, Frederick Fisher stood alone, as the only avowed opposer of the British government. — David, his son. A few days before the invasion of Johnson, a bateau from Schenectada was seen opposite Col. Fisher's, taking in his most valuable effects; and his neighbors, living along the south side of the river, among whom was Nicholas Quackenboss, crossed over to learn the cause of his removal. On his arrival, the neighbor enquired of Col. Fisher if an enemy was expected, that • Some of the family write this name Visscher, and others Fisher. The original Dutch name was Visger. Harman Visscher's son Frederick, the colonel, wrote his name Fisher until just before his death, at which time he desired his children to spell the name as in the context. Fisher is the Eng- lish of Visscher. 348 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, he "was thus preparing to move his family and effects? The colonel replied that he knew of no hostile movement unknown to his neighbors. After a little conversation of the kind, and when about to recross the river, said Quackenboss, clenching his fist in a threatening manner and addressing him playfully in Low Dutch, " Ah, colonel ! if you know something of the enemy and don't let us know it, I hope you '11 be the first one scalped !" Having sent his family to Schenectada, Col. Fisher went to the homestead, thinking himself and brothers would be the better able to defend themselves, if attacked by an enemy. On Sunday evening, about eight o'clock. Captain Walter Vrooman, of Guilderland, arrived at the Fisher dwelling with a company of eighty men, on his way to the Johntown fort. He had intended to quarter his men over night at Fisher's, for their own comfort and the safety of the family ; but the colonel, ob- serving that himself and brothers could probably defend the house if attacked, forwarded the troops to Johntown, knowing that that place was feebly garrisoned. After the murder of Gault and Plateau, the enemy proceeded up the river to the dwelling of Capt. Henry Hansen, which stood where John Fisher now resides.* On reaching the dwelling of Hansen, who was an American captain, the enemy forced an en- trance — and taking him from his bed they murdered and scalped him. His sons, Victor and John I., then at home were captured. Margaret, a daughter, was hurried out of the house by an Indian, who told her it was on fire. She asked him to aid her in carry- ing out the bed on which she had been sleeping, and he did so. Depositing it in an old Indian hut near by, and learning that her mother was still in the burning building, finding access through the door too dangerous, she broke a window in her room and * Henry Hansen was a son of Nicholas Hansen, who with his brother Hendrick, took two patents, each for one thousand acres of land along the north side of the Mohawk, above Tribes' Hill. The patents were executed by Gov. Hunter, and dated July 12, 1713. The brothers settled on those lands soon after, and Henry Hansen was the first white child born on the north side of the Mohawk west of Fort Hunter, and east of the German settlements, many miles above. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 349 called to her. As may be supposed, the old lady was greatly terrified and bewildered at first ; but recovering, she groped her way to the window, and was helped out by her daughter, who assisted her to the hut — from whence, after day light she was conveyed to a place of safety. The enemy made no female scalps or captives at this time, and offered indignities to but few of the sex. In the garret of Hansen's dwelling was a keg of powder, which exploded with terrific effect. Proceeding west along the river, the enemy next halted at the dwelling of Barney Hansen, which stood where Benj. R. Jenkins now lives. Hansen, who chanced to be from home, had a son about ten years of age, who was then going to school at Fort Hunter. On Saturday evening preceding the invasion, Peter, a son of Cornelius Putman, of Ca-daugh-ri-ty,* about the same age as young Hansen, went home with the latter, crossing the river in a boat, to tarry with him over Sunday. The lads slept in a bunk, which, on retiring to rest on Sunday night, was drawn before the outside door ; and the first intimation the family had of the ene- my's proximity, was their heavy blows npon the door with an axe, just before daylight, sending the splinter's upon the boys' bed, cau- sing them to bury their heads beneath the bedding. An entrance was quickly forced, and the house plundered. The boys were led out by two Indians, and claimed as prisoners, but owing to the ear- nest entreaties of Mrs. Hansen that they might be left, a British officer interfered, saying that they were too young to endure the journey : they were then liberated. This house was built and owned by Joseph Clement, a tory , who was supposed to have been present ; consequently, it was not burned. From the house of Barney Hansen, the enemy proceeded to that of Col. Fisher, where Adam Zielie now resides, and where, too, they were disappointed in not finding any of the family : plunder- *Ca-daugh-ri-ty, is an Indian word, and signifies The Steep Bank, bach wall, or perpendicular wall .' In the southeast part of Glen is a high bank on the Schoharie, a mile or two from its mouth or the ancient Fort Hunter, occasion- ed by an extensive slide at least one hundred years ago, the Indian name for which originated at the time. 350 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, ing and setting it on fire, they hastened onward to the Fisher homestead, where they arrived just at daylight. Among the plun- der made at Hansen's, was the clothing of young Putman, and as the Indians threw away such articles as they considered useless, he followed them at a distance, recovering and putting on his ap- parel as fast as rejected. He obtained the last of it near the dwellino- of Col. Fisher — entering which he discovered it to be on fire. Looking for pails he found several which the enemy had broken, but a further search discovered a tub of sour milk : this he drew near the fire, and throwing it on the flames, with his hands extinguished them — not, however, until a large hole had been burned entirely through the floor. This house was consumed in October following. About twenty of the enemy first arrived at the old Fisher place, and attempted to force an entrance by cutting in the door, but be- ing fired upon from a window by the intrepid inmates, they re- treated round a corner of the house, where they were less exposed, the main body of the enemy, nearly three hundred in number, ar- rived soon after and joined in the attack. The brothers defended the house for some length of time after the enemy gained entrance below, and a melee followed in the stairway, on their attempting to ascend. Several balls were fired up through the floor, — the lower room not being plastered over head, which the brothers avoided by standing over the large timbers which supported it. At this period the sisters escaped from the cellar-kitchen, and fled to the woods not far distant. They were met in their flight by a party of savages, who snatched from the head of one, a bonnet ; and from the bosom of the other a neckerchief — but were allowed to escape unhurt. Mrs. Fisher, about to follow her daughters from the house, was stricken down at the door by a blow on the head from the but of a musket, and left without being scalped. The brothers returned the fire of their assailants for a while with spirit, but getting out of ammunition their castle was no longer tenable ; and Harman, jumping from a back window, at- tempted to escape by flight. In the act of leaping a garden fence, a few rods from the house, he was shot, and there killed and scalp- AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 351 ed. As the enemy ascended the stairs, Col. Fisher discharged a pistol he held in his hand, and calling for quarters, threw it behind him in token of submission. An Indian, running up, struck him a blow on the head with a tomahawk, which brought him to the floor. He fell upon his face, and the Indian took two crown scalps from his head, which no doubt entitled him to a double re- ward, then giving him a gash in the back of th« neck, he turned him and attempted to cut his throat, which was only prevented by his cravat, the knife penetrating just through the skin. His broth- er, Capt. Fisher, as the enemy ascended the stairs, retreated to one corner of the room, in which was a quantity of peas, that he might there repel his assailants. An Indian, seeing him armed with a sword, hurled a tomahawk at his head, which brought him down. He was then killed outright, scalped as he lay upon the grain, and there left. The house W'as plundered, and then set on fire, (as stated by Wm. Bowen, who returned after the war,) with a chemi- cal match, conveyed upon the roof by an arrow. Leaving the progress of the distructives for a time, let us follow the fortunes of Col. Fisher. After the enemy had left, his con- sciousness returned, and as soon as strength would allow, he as- certained that his brother John was dead. From a window he discovered that the house was on fire, which no doubt quickened his exertions. Descending, he found his mother near the door, faint from the blow dealt upon her head, and too weak to render him any assistance. With no little effort the colonel succeeded in remov- ing the body of his brother out of the house, and then assisted his mother, who was seated in a chair,* the bottom of which had al- ready caught fire, to a place of safety ; and having carried out a bed, he laid down upon it, at a little distance from the house, in a state of exhaustion. Tom, a black slave, belonging to Adam Zielie, was the first neighbor to arrive at Fisher's. He enquired of the colonel what he should do for him 1 Fisher could not speak, but signified by signs his desire for water. Tom ran down to the * This chair is preserved as a sacred relic by the De Graff family, at the Visscher house. 352 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, Da-de-nos-ca-ra* a brook running through a ravine a little distance east of the house, and filling his old hat, the only substitute for a vessel at hand, he soon returned with it; a drink of which restored the wounded patriot to consciousness and speech. His neighbor, Joseph Clement, arrived at Fisher's while the colonel lay upon the bed, and on being asked by Tom Zielie what they should do for him, unblushingly replied in Low Dutch, " Laat de vervlukten rabble starven!" Let the cursed rebel die! Tom, who possessed a feeling heart, was not to be suaded from his Samaritan kindness, by the icy coldness of his tory neighbor, and instantly set about relieving the suffering man's condition. Uriah Bowen arrived about the time Tom returned with the wa- ter, and assisted in removing the dead and wounded farther from the burning building. Col. Fisher directed Tom to harness a span of colts, then in a pasture near, (which, as the morning was very foggy, had escapped the notice of the enemy,) before a wagon, and take him to the river at David Putman's. The colts were soon harnessed, when the bodies of the murdered brothers, and those of Col. Fisher and his mother, were put into the wagon, (the two latter upon a bed,) and it moved forward. The noise of the wagon was heard by the girls, who came from their concealment to learn the fate of the family, and join the mournful groupe. When the wagon arrived near the bank of the river, several tories were pres- ent, who refused to assist in carrying the Fishers down the bank to a canoe, whereupon Tom took the calts by their heads, and led them down the bank ; and what was then considered remarkable, they went as steadily as old horses, although never before har- nessed. The family were taken into a boat and carried across the river to Ephraim Wemple's, where every attention was paid them. When a person is scalped, the skin falls upon the face so as to dis- figure the countenance ; but on its being drawn up on the crown of the head, the face resumes its natural look ; such was the case with Col. Fisher, as stated by an eye witness. • Da-de-nosca-ra or Dada-nus-ga-ra, " means literally, bearded trees, or tress with excrescences or tufts to them." (Giles F. Yates. Esq.) Lands ad- joining this stream were originally timbered with hemlock an! black ash, •which orisrinated the significant name. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 35-3 Seeing the necessity of his having proper medical attention, Col. Fisher's friends on the south side of the river, sent him for- ward in the canoe by trusty persons, to Schenectada, where he ar- rived just at dark the same day of his misfortune. There he re- ceived the medical attendance of Doctors Mead of that place, Stringer, of Albany, and two Surgeons, belonging to the U. S. army. His case was for some time a critical one, and he did not recover as was anticipated ; but on turning him over, the reason why he did not was obvious. The wound inflicted by the scalping knife in the back of the neck, had escaped the observa- tion of his attendants, and the flies getting into it, and depositing their larva, had rendered it an offensive sore, but on its being pro- perly dresesd, the patient recovered rapidly. At the time Col. Fisher received his wounds, Nicholas Quackenboss previously mentioned, happened to be at Albany, purchasing fish and other necessaries, and on learning that his neighbor was at Schenectada, called, on his way home, to see him. On enquiring of Fisher how he did, the latter, placing his hand on his wounded head, replied in Dutch, " Well, JYicholas, you've had your wish .'" The reader must not suppose, from what took place between Fisher and Quackenboss, at the two interviews named, that the former at the time of remov- ing his family, was in possession of any intelligence of the enemy unknown to his neighbors. It was then notorious in the valley that an invasion was to be apprehended. Several attempts were made to capture Col. Fisher during the war, which proved abortive. After he recovered, he gave the faithful negro* who had treated him so kindly when suffering un- der the wounds of the enemy, a valuable horse. Gov. George Clinton, as a partial reward for his sufferings and losses in the war, appointed Col. Fisher a brigadier general ; but refusing to equip himself, his commission, which was dated February 6, 1787, was succeeded on the 7th of March following, by his ap- • Tom afterwards lived in Schoharie county, where he was much respect- ed for his industrious habits, and where at a good old age he died. After his removal to Schoharie, he usually paid Col. Fisher a visit every year, when he received substantial evidence of that patriot's gratitude. 354 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, pointment of first judge of the Montgomery county common pleas. After the war was over, a party of Indians on their way to Albany halted a day or two at Caughnawaga, among whom was the one who had tomahawked and scalped Col. Fisher, in 1780, leaving him for dead. This Indian could not credit the fact of his being still alive, as he said he had himself cut his throat } and was desirous of having occular demonstration of his exist- ence, and possibly would have been gratified by the family, but information having reached the ears of the colonel that his tor- mentor was in the valley, a spirit of revenge fired his breast, and himself and John Stoner, then living with him, who, in the mur- der of his father, had some reason for not kindly greeting those sons of the forest; having prepared several loaded guns, the friends of the family very properly warned the Indian and his fel- lows, not to pass the house within rifle shot distance ; which hint was duly taken, and serious consequences thus avoided. Judge Fisher — a living monument of savage warfare — was an active and useful citizen of the Mohawk valley for many years, and died of a complaint in the head — caused, as was supposed, by the loss of his scalp, on the 9th day of June, 1809. His widow, whose maiden name was Gazena De Graff, died in 1815. Some years after the Revolution, Judge Fisher, or Visscher, as it is now written by several of the family, to whom the homestead reverted on the death of his brothers, erected a substantial brick dwelling over the ashes of his birth place, where he spent the evening of his days amid, the associations of youthful pleasure and manly suffering. This desirable farm residence, a view of which is shown in the plate opposite, is pleasantly situated on a rise of ground in the town of Mohawk, several miles east of Fonda, Montgomery county. It is given the Indian name of the adjoin- ing creek, in the hope of preserving that name. Between the house and the river, which it fronts, may be seen the Mohawk turnpike, and the track of the Utica and Schenectada railroad. The place is now owned and occupied by Mr. De Graff, who mar- ried a grand-daughter of its former patriotic proprietor. a o n < en on O X n 1] > z O ^l2U /) ) ji A,J^^ "•mU- ii^s,SJ*wm . AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 357 From this digression, let us return to the war-path of the ene- my. They captured three negroes and a wench belonging to the Fisher family ; burnt Fisher's barn, and in it, as supposed, their own dead, killed by the brothers ; from whence they proceeded to the dwelling of Barney Wemple, a little farther up the river — which was rifled and burnt with the out-buildings attached. Wemple had sent a slave, before daylight, to catch horses, who, hearing the firing, and discovering the light of the burning build- ings down the valley, ran to the house and gave the appalling in- telligence that a sleepless foe was near. Thus alarmed, the fami- ly fled, almost naked, into a small swamp, just in time to escape the tomahawk. Wemple erected a dwelling on the site of his former one, soon after it was burnt, which shared a similar fate during Johnson's invasion of the valley the following October. In their course up the river, the enemy also burnt the out-build- ings of Peter Conyne, the dwelling of John Wemple, and possi- bly one or two others. Arriving at Caughnawaga, the destruc- tion of property was renewed. Douw Fonda, who removed from Schenectada and settled at that place, about the year 1751, (the same year in which Harman Fisher settled below,) was an aged widower, and resided, at the time of which I am writing, with a few domestics, in a large stone dwelling with wings, which stood on the flats between the present turnpike and the river, a few rods east of the road now leading to the bridge. It had beeu the in- tention of the citizens to fortify this dwelling, and it was partially surrounded by strong pickets. Fonda's three sons, John,* Jelles, and Adam, also good whigs, were living in the neighborhood. • At the commencement of hostilities, he had some difficulty with Alexan- der White, sheriff of Tryon county, about their hogs and cattle breaking in npon each others premises, which resulted in a quarrel, in which White called Fonda a d — d rebel ; and the latter, provoked to anger, did not scruple to give his majesty's peace officer a severe caning: the result was, White took Fonda lo the Johnstown jail. The citizens in a mob soon after proceeded to the jail and liberated Fonda, and attempted to secure the person of the sheriff, then at the village inn kept by Mattice. Armed with a double-barreled gun, White fired several times on the assailants from an upper window, and then gecreted himself in a chimney, where he remained while the patriot party, who had forced an entrance, were in the house. Soon after, sheriff White, 358 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, Jelles Fonda* resided a short distance below the Caughnawaga church, owning a large dwelling and store, which stood where C. Hempsted now resides. At the time of this invasion, he was ab- sent on public business. About a week previous, he sent part of his family and effects in a bateau to Schenectada, to which place they were accompanied by the wife and children of John Fonda. The wife of Major Fonda and her son Douw, were at home, how- ever, on that morning. Hearing the firing at Fisher's, and dis- covering the light of the burning buildings below, Mrs. Fonda and her son fled to the river near, where there was a ferry. Re- maining in the ferry-boat, she sent Douw to get two horses, and being gone some time, her fears were excited lest he had been captured. As her apprehensions for her son's safety increased, she called him repeatedly by name. He returned with the horses and they began to cross the river, but had hardly reached its cen- tre, when several of the enemy, attracted to the spot by her voice, arrived on the bank they had left. A volley of balls passed over the boat without injuring its inmates, and leaving it upon the south shore, they mounted their horses, and directed their course towards Schenectada, where they safely arrived in due time. Adam Fonda, at the time of Johnson's invasion, resided near the Cayadutta creek, where Douw Fonda now does. Arriving at Adam Fonda's, the enemy made him a prisoner, and fired his dwelling. Margaret, (Peggy, as she was called,) the widow of Barney Wemple, lived near Fonda, and where Mina Wemplenow whose official authority was now at an end, was smuggled from Johnstown in a large chest by his political friends ; and his wife shorUy after followed his fortunes to Canada. The dwelling vacated by White, was owned at his death by Sir Wm. Johnson, and stood on the present site of the Montgomery county court house in Fonda : this dwelling was occupied by John Fonda af- terwards. — Mrs. Evert Yates, daughter of John Fonda. • Mr. Fonda had seen service in the French war under Sir Wm. Johnson, had for many years been extensively engaged in merchandising, was a cap- tain and afterwards major of militia in the Revolution ; and was much of that period in the commissary department. He was a man of wealth, influence and respectability, and at the beginning of colonial difficulties, had the most flattering inducements offered him to side with royalty, which he promptly rejected. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 359 lives, at which place she then kept a public house. The enemy making her son, Mina, a prisoner, locked her up in her own dwelling and set it on fire. From an upper window, she made the valley echo to her cries of murder and help, which brought some one to her relief. Her voice arrested the attention of John Fonda, who sent one of his slaves round the knoll which former- ly stood west of the Fonda Hotel, to learn the cause of alarm ; but hardly had the slave returned, before the enemy's advance from both parties was there also, making Fonda a prisoner, and burning his dwelling. The eastern party, on arriving at the dwelling of Maj. Fonda, plundered and set it on fire. There were then few goods in his store ; but his dwelling contained some rare furniture for that pe- riod, among which was a musical clock, that at certain hours per- formed three several tunes. The Indians would have saved this house for the great respect they had for its owner, but their more than savage allies, the tories, insisted on its destruction. As the devouring element was consuming the dwelling, the clock began to perform, and the Indians, in numbers, gathered round in mute astonishment, to listen to its melody. They supposed it the voice of a spirit, which they may have thought was pleased with them for the manner in which they were serving tyranny. Of the plunder made at this dwelling, was a large circular mirror, which a citizen in concealment saw, first in the hands of a squaw, but it being a source of envy it soon passed into the hands of a stout Indian — not however without a severe struggle on her part. The Indians were extravagantly fond of mirrors, and it is not unlikely this costly one was broken in pieces and divided between them. Among the furniture destroyed in the house, was a marble table on which stood the statue of an Indian, whose head rested on a pivot, which, from the slightest motion was continually — " Niding, nodding, and nid, nid nodding." Neither the parsonage, which stood a little north of the present one, or the church at Caughnawaga, were harmed. Dr. Romeyn, then its pastor, was from home. Mrs. Romeyn, as she was flee- 24 360 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, ing up the hill north of her house with her family, carrying two children, was seen by the Indians who laughed heartily at the ludicrous figure she presented, without offering to molest her, un- less possibly by an extra whoop. When the alarm first reached the family of Douw Fonda, Pene- lope Grant, a Scotch girl living with him, to whom the old gen- tleman was much attached, urged him to accompany her to the hill whither the Romeyn family were fleeing ; but the old patriot had become childish, and seizing his gun he exclaimed — " Pene- lope, do you stay here with me — / will fight for you to the last drop of blood /" Finding persuasion of no avail, she left him to his fate, which was indeed a lamentable one ; for soon the enemy arrived, and he was led out by a Mohawk Indian, known as One Armed Peter (he having lost an arm) toward the bank of the river, where he was tomahawked and scalped. As he was led from the house, he was observed by John Hansen, a prisoner, to have some kind of a book and a cane in his hand. His murderer had often partaken of his hospitality, having lived for many years in his neighborhood. When afterwards reproved for this murder, he replied that as it was the intention of the enemy to kill him, he thought he might as well get the bounty for his scalp as any one else ! Mr. Fonda had long been a warm personal friend of Sir William Johnson, and it is said that Sir John much regretted his death, and censured the murderer. This Indian, Peter, was the murderer of Capt. Hansen, on the same morning. With the plunder made at Douw Fonda's were four male slaves and one female, who were all taken to Canada. Several other slaves were of the plunder made in the neighborhood, and doubtless be- came incorporated with the Canada Indians.* An incident of no little interest is related by an eye witness from the hill, as having occurred in this vicinity on the morning • The preceding facts relating to this invasion were obtained from Daniel Visscher and John Fisher, sons of Col. Fr. Fisher ; Mrs. Margaret Putman, a sister of Col. Fisher; Angelica, daughter of Capt. Henry Hansen, and widow of John Fonda ; Catharine, daughter of John Fonda, late the wife of Evert Yates; Peter, a son of Cornelius Putman ; Volkert Voorhees ; Cornelius, on of Barney Wemple ; David, son of Adam Zielie ; and John S. Quackenboss, AND BOEDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 361 of this invasion. A little distance in advance of the enemy, a man was seen in a wagon which contained several barrels, urging his horses forward. Despairing of making his escape with the wa- gon, he abandoned it, and mounting one of his horses he drove to the river, into which they plunged and swam across with him in safety. On reaching the wagon, the barrels were soon found to contain rum, which had been destined to one of the frontier forts. Knocking in the head of a cask, the Indians were beginning to drink and gather round with shouts of merriment, when a British officer dressed in green came up, and with ^ tomahawk hacked the barrels in pieces, causing the liquor to run upon the ground, to the mortification of his tawny associates, who dispersed with evident displeasure. — Mrs. Penelope Forbes. Her maiden name was Grant. The enemy, led by Col. Johnson in person, on their way to Caughnawaga, plundered and burned the dwellings of James Da- vis, one Van Brochlin and Sampson Sammons. — Mrs. John Fon- da. Sammons with his sons, Jacob, Frederick and Thomas, were captured, but himself and youngest son, Thomas, were set at lib- erty : the other two were carried to Canada. For an account of their sufferings, see Life of Brant. Cornelius Smith, who lived two miles west of Major Fonda, on the morning of Johnson's invasion, was going to mill,* and called just after daylight at Johannes Veeder's. The latter was then at Schenectada, but his son, Simon, (afterwards a judge of Mont- gomery county,) who resided with him, was at home, and had arisen. On his way to Veeder's, Smith had discovered the smoke of the Sammons dwelling, but being unable to account for it, continued his journey, and was captured just below. Mr. Veeder, who had accompanied Smith toward the road from hearing the dis- charge of musketry down the valley, soon after his neighbor was out of sight, beheld to his surprise a party of Indians approach- ing him from that direction ; upon which he ran to his house, • A small grist mill, which stood near the present site of the district school house iti Fonda. This mill was inclosed by palisades in the latter pan of the war, to serve the purposes of a fort. 362 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, (which stood a little distance above the present village of Fonda, where a namesake now resides,) pursued by them. He alarmed his family, which consisted of Gilbert Van Deusen, Henry Vroo- man, a lame man, and James Terwilleger, a German ; and seve- ral women and slaves. The three men snatched each a gun and fled from a back door, Vrooman with his boots in his hand ; and as Veeder, minus a hat, was following them with a gun in each hand, the enemy opened the front door. They leveled their guns but did not fire, supposing, possibly, that he would be intimidated and surrender himself a prisoner. As Veeder left the house, the women fled down cellar for safety. The fugitives had to pass a board fence a few rods from the house, and as Veeder was leaping it, several of the enemy fired on him, three of their balls passing through the board beneath him. One of his comrades drew up to return the fire, but Veeder, fearing it might endanger the safe- ty of the women, would not permit him to. The house was then plundered, and after removing the women from Ihe cellar, an act, I suppose, of an Indian acquaintance, the house was fired, and with it several out buildings. The dwellings of Abraham Veeder, Col. Volkert Veeder, that of Smith already named, and those of two of the Vroomans, situated above, also shared a similar fate, and became a heap of ruins. — Volkert, a son of Simon Veeder. At this period, George Eacker resided w^here Jacob F. Dock- stader now does, just below the Nose. Having discovered the fire of the burning buildings down the valley, he sent his family into the woods on the adjoining mountain, but remained himself to secure some of his effects. While thus busily engaged, several of the enemy arrived and made him prisoner. As they began to plunder his house, they sent him into the cellar to procure them food. On entering it, he discovered an outside door ajar ; passing which, he fled for the woods. As they thought his stay protract- ed, the Indians entered the cellar, and had the mortification to see their late prisoner climbing the hill, beyond the reach of their guns. Finding his family, he led them to a place of greater se- curity in the forest, where they remained until the present danger was past, and their buildings reduced to ashes. — David Eacker, first judge of Montgomery county at his death. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 363 The enemy proceeded at this time as far west as the Nose, de- stroying a new dwelling, ashery, &c., just then erected by Major Jelles Fonda. — Mrs. John Fonda. When Sir John Johnson removed from Johnstown to Canada, a faithful slave owned by him, buried, after he had left, his most valuable papers and a large quantity of silver coin, in an iron chest, in the garden, at Johnson Hall. Among the confiscated property of Sir John sold at auction, was this very slave. He was bought by Col. Volkert Veeder, and no persuasion could in- duce him to reveal any secrets of his former master. This slave was recovered by Johnson on the morning of his invasion ; and returning to the Hall with his first owner, he disinterred the iron chest, and the contents were obtained. Some of the papers, from having been several years in the ground, were almost destroyed. This slave, although well treated by Col. Veeder, was glad of an opportunity to join Col. Johnson, (who had made him a confidant,) and accompany him to Canada. — Mrs. Fonda. Several boys were captured along the river, who were liberat- ed at Johnson Hall, and returned home, among whom were James Romeyn, and Mina Wemple. The latter, hearing the proposi- tion made by Sir John, to allow the boys to return, who was rather larger than any of the others, stepped in among them say- ing, me too ! me too ! and was finally permitted to accompany them off; and returned to the ashes of her inn, to console his mother. Thomas Sammons, Abraham Veeder, and John Fonda, (and possibly some others) were also permitted, on certain condi- tions, to return home ; the latter, and his brother Adam, casting lots to see which should be retained a prisoner. The captives thus liberated, were given a pass, by Col. Johnson, lest they might meet some of the enemy, and be retaken. They had not proceeded far when Veeder, (who was a brother of Col. Volkert Veeder,) halted, to read his pass. " Well," said his companion, Fonda, in Low Dutch, " you may stop here to read your pass, if you choose, but I prefer reading mine when out of danger of them red devils of Sir John's." — Evert Yates. Colonels Harper and Volkert Veed6r, collected, as speedily as 364 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, ETC. possible, the scattered militia of Tryon county, to pursue the inva- ders, but being too weak successfully to give them battle, they were permitted, almost unmolested, to escape with their booty to Canada. John J. Hanson, captured at Tribes' Hill, after journey- ing with the enemy two days, effected his escape, and arrived half-starved, at the dwelling of a German, living back of Stone Arabia, who supplied him with food, and he reached Fort Hunter in safety. — Mrs, Evert Yates. ( 365 ) CHAPTER XII. The following facts were obtained in 1837, from Henry Hynds, a son of William Hynds, who was one of the few whigs living in New Dorlach, in the Revolution. On the evening of July 4th, 1780, a party of the enemy, consisting of seven Indians, a squaw, and one white man, Capt. Adam Crysler, arrived in the settle- ment and put up, as was afterwards learned, at the house of Mi- chael Merckley. The ostensible object of their visit was, to cap- ture Bastian France, as a son of the latter informed the author; but as he chanced to be from home, at the suggestion of the Merckley family, they concluded to seize upon some other whigs in the vicinity. As there was but little intercourse among distant neighbors in that busy season of the year, and William Hynds was living in quite a retired place, it was suggested to Crysler, that if this family was carried into captivity, and the house not burned, they might be gone a week, and no one else know of their ab- sence. The suggestion was received with favor, and the next day, as the family of Hynds were at dinner, they were surprised, and taken prisoners. As the captors approached the dwelling, they fired a gun in at an open door, to imtimidate the family ; and en- tering secured Mr. Hynds, his wife, daughters Catharine, and Ma- ry, who were older than my informant, and four children, younger, Elizabeth, William, Lana, and an infant. The Indians then plun- dered the house of whatever they desired to take along. Henry was compelled to catch four horses belonging to his father, obedi- ence to which command several of the party stood with ready ri- fles to enforce, and prevent his escape. Upon the backs of three horses was placed the plunder made in the dwelling ; and upon the fourth, on a man's saddle, Mrs. Hynds, with several of her youngest children, was permitted to ride. The party moved for- 360 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, "ward about 2 o'clock, and traveled that afternoon to Lake Utsay- antho, and encamped near the Champion place, seven miles dis- tant from the dwelling of Hynds. The second night they en- camped in an orchard near ColHer's. Among the plunder taken from the dwelling of Hynds, was a quantity of ham and pork, ■which the Indians ate ; giving the prisoners flour, which they made into pudding. Mr. Hynds was bound nights, and a rope laid across his body, each end of which was tied to an Indian. The party were three weeks going to Niagara ; and killed on the route one deer, sev- eral muskrats, otters, &c., which served for food. In lieu of salt, they used ashes, and the family continued well until they reached Niagara. The large children went barefooted nearly all the way to Canada. Soon after they started, the squaw took from Henry, his shoes, which, as she could not wear them, she threw away. While journeying, they built fires nights, around which they slept upon the ground. Soup was their usual supper. On passing Indian villages, the prisoners were much abused by squaws and children ; and on one occasion, Mr. Hynds was knocked down by a blow upon the head with an empty bottle. Soon after their arrival at Niagara, Mr. Hynds and all his fa- mily, except Henry, took the fever and ague, of which William, a promising lad, died. The prisoners were at Niagara w^hen the troops under Sir John Johnson, destined to ravish the Schoharie and Mohawk valleys, set out on their journey. The tories from Schoharie and New Dorlach, who accompanied the army, often boasted to the prisoners, that Albany would soon be taken by the British, when themselves were to possess certain choice sections of the Schoharie flats. Mary, then fourteen or fifteen years of age, was separated from the rest of the family at Niagara, and taken to supply a vacancy in an Indian family, occasioned by the death of one of its members. Some time in the fall, the prisoners were re- moved to Buck's Island, where Elizabeth, the child next older than William, also died. From the Island, they were removed to Montreal, where Lana, the youngest child but one, died. Mrs. Hynds, whose constitution was undermined by the accumulating AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 367 load of her mental and bodily sufferings, with her infant child soon after followed her other three children to the grave ; reduc- ing the family from nine to four. In the winter following his capture, Henry had a severe attack of fever and ague, and was removed from the guard-house to the hospital; where he was properly treated and soon recovered. About two years and a half after their capture, Mr. Hynds, his son Henry, and daughter Catharine, with nearly three hundred other prisoners, returned home by the usual route down the Hud- son river. Mary was detained nearly three years longer in Ca- nada, but finally returned home. As was surmised, the whigs of New Dorlach knew nothing of the capture of Mr. Hynds and his family until they had been gone three or four days. The greater part of the month of July, 1780, Seth's Henry, and a few other Indians, were secreted about the Schoharie set- tlements, in the hope of killing or surprising some of the princi- pal settlers, as he stated after the war. One dark night, this Indian, says Josias E. Vrooman, visited the upper fort, in the hope of surprising a sentinel. He commenced climbing up at one of the sentry-boxes, with a spear in his hand, but before he was within reach of the sentinel, who chanced on that night to be Frederick Quant, the latter heard his approach, and gave the usual challenge. The Indian then dropped down upon the ground, and threw himself under one of the farm wag- gons which usually clustered around the outside of the pickets. A ball from the rifle of Quant, fired in the direction he ran, entered a waggon near his head, but the Indian made his escape. For the following particulars the author is indebted to the ma- nuscript of Judge Hager, to Col. J. W. Bouck, and the memory of Dick, a former slave belonging to the Bouck family. About the 25th of July, William Bouck, an elderly man, the one mentioned as the first white male child born in Schoharie, went from the upper fort to his dwelling, situated where Wilhel- mus Bouck now resides, (nearly two miles distant from said fort,) to secure his crops, taking with him a girl named Nancy Latti- more, a female slave, and her three children, two sons and a daugh- 368 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COtJNTY, ter. As the family were making preparations in the evening to retire to rest, Seth's Henry and three other Indians entered the house and captured them, securing the little plunder it chanced to contain. The leader was disappointed in not jfinding either of Mr. Bouck's three sons at home. Dick Bouck, the youngest of the slaves, as the enemy entered the house, sprang behind a door which stood open, and escaped their notice. The other prisoners were taken out, and as they were about to start on their journey. Master Dick, afraid of being left alone in the dark, made some noise on purpose to attract their attention, and one of the Indians re-entered the house and " hus- tled him out." Speaking of his capture, Dick said, " 1 made a noise, like a tarn fool, and de Ingens took me dar prisoner." The party then set forward, and the captor of Dick (then eight years old) took him upon his back, and carried him as far as the resi- dence of the late Gen. Patchin, a distance of seven or eight miles, where they encamped. The enemy expected to be pursued the following day, when it would undoubtedly become known that Mr. Bouck had been captured, and before daylight the march was resumed. After sunrise, Dick had to travel on foot with the other prisoners ; and on the following night encamped at Harpersfield. At this place lived a Scotch tory, named Hugh Rose, who made jonny-cake for the Indians, which the latter shared with their pri- soners. " Dis, said Dick, " was de fus food de gabe us fore we lef home." While on their way from the Patchin place to Har- persfield, the party, for obvious reasons, avoided the beaten road, but Dick, who said " de hushes hurt him pare feet," embraced re- peated opportunities to steal into it, and sometimes traveled seve- ral rods in it, before his violation of their commands was ob- served. He often was cunning enough to leave the road just in time to avoid detection, but repeatedly he was caught in "the for- bidden path," when he was put upon a new trail, with a threat or a slap. Rose furnished provisions for the enemy to subsist on a part of the way to Canada, and they left his house about 8 o'clock the next morning. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 369 William Bouck, Jr. was out on a scout from the upper fort at the time his father's family was captured. The scout consisted of Bouck, John Haggidorn, Bartholomew C. Vrooman, (the first hus- hand of Mrs. Van Slyck before mentioned,) and Bartholomew Haggidorn. They were sent on the errand which had led so ma- ny scouts in that direction — to anticipate, if possible, any hostile movement of the enemy. The Indians, with their prisoners, had been gone but a very short time from the house of Rose, before the scout named entered it. They enquired of Rose if there were any Indians in that vicinity. " Yes," he replied, " the woods are full of them." They desired to know in what direction they were from his house, when, instead of sending them from, he directed them towards the enemy. The footsteps of the scout arrested the attention of the Indians, who halted, leveled their rifles, and wait- ed the approach of the former. The Indians were on a rise of ground, and as Bouck looked up he saw Nancy, waving her bon- net, with fear depicted in her countenance, which signal he right- ly conjectured was intended to warn him of danger, and direct his flight in another com-se. He instantly divined the reason of her being there, and apprising his comrades of their peril, he turned and fled in an opposite direction. At that instant the Indians fired, and John Haggidorn was wounded in the hip, and a ball passed through the cravat of Bouck, which was tied around his neck. Haggidorn fell, but instantly sprang up and followed his companions. Had they known that there were but four of the enemy, they would no doubt have turned upon them and rescued the prisoners. The scout returned to the house of Rose, and as Haggidorn was too severely wounded to proceed, he was left by his friends, who assured the tory that if harm befel their wounded friend, or he was not well taken care of, his own life should be the forfeit. As was anticipated, Bouck was missing in the morning, and as soon as information of the fact reached the fort, Capt. Hager des- patched about twenty men, under the command of Lieutenants Ephraim Vrooman and Joseph Harper, in pursuit of the captors. They rightly conjectured the enemy would take the usual route to- 370 fflSTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, wards Harpersfield, and after proceeding in uncertainty until they discovered the track of Dick in the path, which they at once sup- posed left the impression of his heel, they pushed forward rapidly. The scout had gone but a few miles towards the fort, when they fortuately fell in with the pursuing party, and instantly joined it. After arriving at the place where Haggidorn had been wounded, they soon struck upon the trail of the enemy, which ascended the high grounds near. The Indians had gone but a mile or two be- yond where the scout saw them, and halted to rest upon a narrow plain near the top of the mountain, where three of them remain- ed with the prisoners, while Seth's Henry ascended to the summit, which afforded a most extended prospect, to reconnoitre. The In- dians left with the prisoners, feeling themselves secure, had laid down their packs, and were in the act of mending their mocasons, as the Americans were cautiously winding their way up the ac- clivity. Seth's Henry, from his elevated position, completely overlooked his approaching foes, and feeling satisfied that they were now safe, he had just returned to his companions and told them they were out of danger from pursuit, as the Americans gained a view of them within rifle-shot distance. The lives of the prisoners being endangered, several of whom were nearest the Americans, prevented the instant discharge of a volley of balls, but as Leek had a fair aim upon an Indian, he snapped and his rifle unfortu- nately missed fire. Hearing the click of this lock, the Indians instantly sprang to their feet, seized their weapons, and leaving their prisoners and packs, giving a whoop and exclaiming Yan- kees, fled barefooted down the mountain in an opposite direction. The prisoners were then unbound, grateful for so unexpected a deliverance, and the party descended the hill, and proceeded to the dwelling of Rose. A kind of litter was there prepared, on which Haggidorn was carried by his friends to the fort, where, under proper treatment, he recovered. If Seth's Henry, was foiled in taking Mr. Bouck and his family to Canada, it did not discourage him from making other attempts to surprise some of the Schoharie citizens. Familiar as he was AND BOEDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 371 with every hill, dale, ravine, and cluster of shrubbery along the river, he was enabled often to approach the very dwellings of the settlers, without being observed. He told Mrs. Van Slyck, after the war, that on Tuesday, one week before the destruction of Vrooman's Land, and about a week after his capture of William Bouck, himself and two other In- dians, one of whom was called William, his sister's son, lay con- cealed near a spring, in an angle of a fence, by the thick shade of a sassafras tree, not far from her father's dwelling, when she with a pail went to the spring for water — that Williapa wanted to shoot her, but he would not let him. Mrs. Van Slyck stated, that on the day referred to, her father, Samuel Vrooman, was at work, with several others, in a field of grain not far from his house, where a small party of riflemen from the fort were in attendance to guard them; and that she was at home alone to prepare their dinner. W^hen she had it about ready, she went with a pail to the spring mentioned for water. As she approached it she saw the mocasoned track of an In- dian, which she at once recognized as such, but recently made in the soft earth near it. In an instant she was seized with the most lively apprehension ; and the first thought — as she felt her hair move on her head — was, that she would turn and run ; but this would betray to the enemy her knowledge of their supposed proximity ; whereas, if she did not pretend to notice the track, if her scalp was not what the foe sought, she would doubtless es- cape. She therefore walked boldly up to the spring, dipped her pail, with little caution about roiling the water, and walked back to the house. She expected, -at every step, to hear the crack of a rifle discharged at herself, and passing several stumps on the way, this, and this, thought *she, will shield me for the moment. On arriving at the house, she set down her pail, and ran to the field (leaving several gates open) to tell her friends what she had seen at the spring. The soldiers visited it and saw the Indian foot-marks, but the makers, observing their approach, had fled. Seth's Henry pretended, after the war, that nothing but his friendship for her saved informant's life at the spring, but the fear 372 fflSTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, of pursuit from the riflemen near, was, perhaps, the real cause of her escape. William, who leveled his rifle at her, and was pre- vented firing by the caution of his leader, had, for many years, held a grudge against her. Being often at her father's house be- fore the war, she one day accused him of stealing geese eggs, which he resented, although perhaps guilty, drew his knife and struck a bio w at her, the blade of which entered the right thigh, leaving an indellible evidence of his resentment. The same day that those Indians were concealed at Vrooman's spring, they werq, discovered elsewhere by some person in the settlement. Seth's Henry told Mrs. Van Slyck, that the night preceding his visit to the spring, he, with his companions, had entered the kitchen of Ephraim Vrooman's dwelling, and finding a kettle of supawn, made use of it for their suppers. Two Ger- mans lodged in the house that night ; a fact unknown to the In- dians, as was to the former the nocturnal visit of the latter. Af- ter procuring food at this house, they went to the barn of Samuel Vrooman, where they tarried over night. Thus were an armed and savage foe often prowling about the very dwellings of the frontier settlers of New York, without their knowledge. Seth's Henry, at his interview, also stated to Mrs. Van Slyck, that some time in the summer of 1780, seven Indians (of which number, was the Schoharie Indian, William,) went into the vici- nity of Catskill to capture prisoners. That they visited a small settlement where the whites were from home, and soon succeeded in capturing seven lusty negroes. The latter generally went so wilhngly into captivity that they were seldom bound in the day- time. After traveling some distance, the party halted upon the bank of a spring to rest : when the Indians, leaving their guns behind them, descended to drink. The favorable moment was seized by the prisoners to liberate themselves, and snatching up the guns, they fired upon their captors, four of whom were killed : the other three fled, and William was the only one who recovered his trusty rifle. The negroes, with the six guns, returned home in due time, without further molestation. Capt. Richtmyer, who resided near the Middle fort, was told AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 373 by Joseph Ecker, (a tory who returned to Schoharie after the war,) that on a certain day, four tories, a Shafer, a Winne, a Mil- ler, and another person he would not name, (supposed by Captain R. to have been Ecker himself,) were secreted all day near his meadow, not far from the present site of the county poor house, in the hope of making him their prisoner. The grass was cut, and they expected the captain would be there to cure it, but for- tunately Col. Zielie ordered him to superintend the making of cartridges at the fort, and next day several soldiers were sent from the fort to guard the workmen. Thus was the design of the enemy frustrated. Four places of concealment were made and occupied by the tories near the field, by setting up green twigs, which were afterwards noticed by the citizens. — George, a son of Capf. Richtmyer. On the second and third days of August, 1780, the settlements in and around Canajoharie were laid waste by a body of Indians under Brant. Sixteen of the inhabitants were killed, between fifty and sixty made prisoners ; over one hundred buildings burnt, and a large amount of property destroyed. This happened at a time when the Tryon county militia were mostly drawn off to Fort Schuyler. See letter of Col. Clyde to Gov. George CUnton, da- ted, " Canajoharie, August 6th, 1780 ;" first published in the An- nals of Tryon County. At this time a party of the enemy appeared in the vicinity of Fort Dayton. Two Indians had the temerity to approach a barn, in which two men were threshing, on whom they fired. The flail- stick in the hands of one was nearly severed by a bullet, but the young farmers escaped to the fort. It was well garrisoned, and a party of Americans being then mounted, pursued and killed both the Indians. The enemy succeeded, however, in capturing the wife of Jacob Shoemaker, and her son, a lad some ten years old, who were in a field picking green peas. On their arrival in Canada, Sir John Johnson, paid seven dollars to ransom the mother, who, leaving her son in captivity, arrived at Albany some time after, from whence she was carried to Schenectada in a wagon, by Isaac Covenhoven, and from thence she accompanied 374 fflSTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, one Walradt, a former neighbor to Herkimer. — Isaac Covenhoven, who was at Fort Dayton during the invasion. It is probable the Schoharie settlers had been notified of the misfortunes of their friends in the Mohawk Valley, and were anx- ious to guard against surprise. The Schoharie forts were feebly garrisoned at the time, but small parties of soldiers were constantly engaged during the day, to guard the more exposed inhabitants while harvesting an unusual growth of wheat. Early on the morning of the 9th of the same month, a scout, consisting of Coonradt Winne, Leek, and Hoever, was sent by Capt. Hager, from the Upper fort to reconnoitre in the western part of the present town of Fulton. The scout was instructed to return immediately to the fort without firing, if they saw any of the enemy, and were not themselves discovered. In that part of Fulton, now called Byrnville, or Sap Bush Hollow, some five or six miles distant from the Upper fort ; the scout seated themselves upon a fallen tree, near the present residence of Edwin M. Dexter, to eat their breakfast j and while eating, a white man, painted as an Indian, made his appearance within some fifty yards of them. Stooping down as nature prompted, he became so good a mark, that Leek, who was a dead shot, not seeing any one else, could not resist the temptation to fire, and levelling his rifle, the tory was instantly weltering in his gore. As surgical instruments were af- terwards found upon his person, he was supposed to have been a surgeon, in the employ of Brant. A small stream of water near, which took its name fi-om the killing of this man, whose carcase rotted by it, has been called Dead Man's creek, ever since. Leek had not had time to reload his piece, before the enemy appeared in sight. The scout fled, hotly pursued by a party of In- dians, who passed their dying comrade without halting. Hoever had to drop his knapsack, containing some valuable articles, to outrun his pursuers, which he afterwards recovered, the enemy supposing it contained nothing more than a soldier's luncheon. They were so closely followed that they were separated, Leek fly- ing towards the fort, while Hoever and Winne were driven into the woods, in an opposite direction. The two latter afterwards AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 375 saw, from a place of concealment near the Schoharie, in the pre- sent town of Blenheim, their foes pass up the river with their pri- soners and plunder. Leek reached the fort in safety, after a race of nine or ten miles, but not enough in advance of his pursuers, to have a seasonable alarm given to warn the citizens of impending danger. The single discharge of a cannon was the usual signal ; if the discharge was repeated, it was considered hazardous to ap- proach the fort, while a third successive discharge served to as- sure the citizen that he could not possibly reach the fort, without encountering the enemy. The invaders, consisting of seventy-three Indians, almost naked, and ^yc tories — Benjamin Beacraft, Frederick Sager, Walter Al- let, one Thompson, and a mulatto, commanded by Capt. Brant, approached Vrooman's Land in the vicinity of the Upper fort, about ten o'clock in the morning. They entered the valley on the west side of the river, above the Onistagrawa in three places; one party coming down from the mountain near the present resi- dence of Charles Watson : another near that of Jacob Haines, then the residence of Capt. Tunis Vrooman ; and the third near the dwelling of Harmanus Vrooman, at that time the residence of Col. Peter Vrooman, who chanced to be with his family, in the Mid- dle fort. Capt. Hager, h^d gone on the morning of that day, to his farm, attended by a small guard, to draw in some hay nearly seven miles distant from the Upper fort, the command of which then de- volved on Tunis Vrooman, captain of the associate exempts. Al- though the citizens of Schoharie had huts at the several forts where they usually lodged nights, and where their clothing and most valuable effects were kept during the summer, the female part of many families were in the daily habit of visiting their dwellings to do certain kinds of work, while their husbands were engaged in securing their crops. On the morning of the day in question, Capt. Vrooman also returned home to secure wheat, ac- companied by his family, his wife to do her week's washing. The command of the garrison next belonged to Ephraim Vroo- man, a lieutenant under Capt. Hager, but as he went to his farm 25 376 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, soon after Capt. Vrooman left, it finally devolved on Lieut. Wil- liam Harper, who had not a dozen men with him in the fort. The wife of Lieut. Vrooman also returned home to do her washing.* Capt. Vrooman, who had drawn one load of wheat to a bar- rack before breakfast, arose on that morning with a presentiment that some disastrous event was about to happen, which he could not drive from his mind ; and he expressed his forebodings at the breakfast-table. Four rifle-men called at his house in the morn- ing and took breakfast with him, but returned to the fort soon af- ter, to attend the roll-call. Capt. Vrooman's family consisted of himself, wife, four sons, John, Barney, Tunis and Peter, and two slaves, a male and female. After breakfast, Capt. Vrooman and liis sons drew another load of wheat to the barrack : and while it was unloading, he stopped repeatedly to look out towards the sur- rounding hills. The grain had not all been pitched from the wag- on, before his worst fears were realized, and he beheld descend- ing upon the flats near, a party of hostile savages. He descend- ed from the barrack, not far from which he was tomahawked, scalped, and had his throat cut by a Schoharie Indian named John : who stood upon his shoulders while tearing off his scalp. Many of the old Dutch dwellings in Schoharie (the outside doors of which were usually made in two parts, so that the lower half of the passage could be closed while the upper remained open,) had a kitchen detached from them : and such was that of Capt. Vrooman. His wife was washing in a narrow passage be- tween the buildings, where she was surprised and stricken down. After the first blow from a tomahawk, she remained standing, but a second blow laid her dead at the feet of an Indian, who also scalped her. The house was then plundered and set on fire, as was the barn, barracks of grain, hay, &c.; and the three oldest boys, with the blacks, made captives. Peter, who fled on the first alarm and concealed himself in some bushes, would probably have escaped the notice of the enemy, had not one of the blacks • Mrs. Vrooman said to her frienJs as she left the fort, "This is the last morning I inteni to go to my house to work." Her worJs were truly pro- phetic. — Andrew Loucks. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 377 made known his place of concealment : he was then captured and taken along a short distance, but crying to return, he ran to a fence, to which he was pursued by the tory Beacraft, who caught him, and placing his legs between his own, bent him back and cut his throat ; after which, he scalped and hung him across the fence.* Vrooman's horses were unharnessed and given to the boys to hold, as were several more, while the Indians were plun- dering, killing cattle and other animals, and burning buildings. While the Indians were shooting hogs in the pen, a ball went through it and lodged in the calf of John's leg ; which instantly brought him to the ground : the horses then ran towards the river, and two of them were not recaptured. The party which entered the valley at the dwelling of Colonel Vrooman, were led by Brant in person, who hoped to surprise a rebel colonel ; but the services of that brave man were to be spared to his country. His family were also at the Middle fort.f From the dwelling of Col. Vrooman, which was a good brick tenement, and to which was applied the torch of destruction, Seth's Ffenry (with whom the reader has some acquaintance,) led several of the enemy to the dwelling of Lieut. Vrooman; which stood where Peter Kneiskern now lives. His family consisted of himself, wife Christina, sons Bartholomew and Josias E., and * Of the murder of this Vrooman boy, Beacraft took occasion repeatedly to boast, in the presence of the prisoners, while on his way to Canada j as also he did on several subsequent occasions : and yet he had the impudence to return, after the war closed, to Schoharie. His visit becoming known, a parly of about a dozen whigs one evening surrounded the house he was in, near where the bridge in Blenhein now stands, and leading him from it into a grove near, they stripped and bound him to a sapling ; and then inflicted fifty lashes, with hickory gads, upon his bare back, telling him, at intervals of every ten, for what particular offence they were given. He was then un- bound, and given his life on condition that he would instantly leave that val- ley, and never more pollute its soil with his presence. He expressed his gratitude that his life was spared, left the settlement and was never afterwards heard from by the citizens of Schoharie. — Captivity of Patchin, corroborated. t From V hat has appeared in several publications, a belief has gone abroad that Col. Vrooman was a cowardly, weak man. The impression is very erroneous, he was far otherwise, as the author has had indubitable a7.d repeated evidence. 378 HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, daughters Janett (four years old,) and Christina, (an infant,) two Germans, Creshiboom and Hoffman, (captured at Burgoyne's sur- render,) and several slaves : the latter, however, were at work near the river and escaped. On hearing the alarm, Vrooman ran to his house, caught up his infant child and fled into the corn-field, between his dwelling and the Onistagrawa, followed by his wife leading her little daughter ; said to have had long and beautiful hair for a child. He seated himself against the trunk of a large apple tree, and his wife was concealed a few rods from him in the thrifty corn. The road is now laid between the orchard and mountain, but at the period of which I speak, it passed over the flats east of the dwelling. His family would, no doubt, have re- mained undiscovered, had Mrs. Vrooman continued silent ; but not knowing where her husband was, and becoming alarmed, she rose up and called to him in Low Dutch — " Ephraim, Ephraim, where are you : have you got the child ?" The words were scarcely uttered, when a bullet from the rifle of Seth's Henry pierced her body. When struggling upon the ground, he ad- dressed her in the Dutch tongue, as follows : " Now say — what these Indian dogs do here ?"* He then tomahawked and scalped her. While Seth's Henry was killing and scalping Mrs. Vrooman, the tory Beacraft killed her little daughter with a stone, and drew ofl"her scalp : in the mean time a powerful Indian directed by her call to her husband's place of concealment, approached him and thrust a spear at his body, which he parried, and the infant in his arms smiled. Another pass was made, was parried, and the child again smiled. At the third blow of the spear, which was also warded off*, the little innocent, then only five months old, laughed aloud at the supposed sport ; which awakened the sympathy of •This Indian had held a grudge against Mrs. Vrooman for many years. She was a Swart before marriage ; at which time, and just after the ceremo- ny was performed, she entered the kitchen of her father's dwelling, and see- ing se\ eral young Indians there, she imprudently aslfed a by slander, in JJutch, what do these I'ldian dogs do here ? He remembered the expression, und his resentment led him directly to her residence, to revenge the insult. — Mtt, Van Slyck. AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK. 379 the savage, and he made Vrooman a prisoner. His sons and the Germans named, were also captured. i