MAJOR NICHOLAS STONER,

AS ACCOUTRED TOR THE FOREST.

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK,

OR A. BIOGRAPHY OF

NICHOLAS STONER & NATHANIEL FOSTER;

TOGETHER WITH

ANECDOTES OP OTHER CELEBRATED HUNTERS,

AND SOUS ACCOUNT OF

SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON,

AND HIS STYLE 07 LIVING.

BY JEPTHA R. SIMMS,
AVTHOB OF THE HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTT,
AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK.

He lifts the tube, and levels with his eye ;
Straight a short thunder breaks the frozen sky. — Pope

SECOND EDITION.

ALBANY:
JOEL MUNSELL, 58 STATE STREET.
1851.

Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1850, by
JEPTHA R. SIMMS,
In the Clerk's Office for the Northern District of New York.

. . i
***f~ **>> f

MUNSELL, STEEEOTYPEK,
ALBANY.

TO THE
YOUTH OF NEW YORK,
THIS VOLUME
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED,
BY THEIR FKIENC, THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

" To be ignorant of all antiquity," says a popular
writer,* " is a mutilation of the human mind; it is
early associations and local circumstances which give
bent to the mind of a people from their infancy, and
insensibly constitute the nationality of genius." This
is a truism which can not be contravened, and although
the world is now full of books for good or ill, yet I
venture to add another. Well, as this is only a duo
decimo, may I not bespeak for it a little share of
public favor ? For if it is but a small volume, it has
nevertheless required considerable time and care to
collect and arrange its minutiae. The author does
not claim for it a place among classic works, which
sparkle with literary gems; but he does claim for it
the merit of candor. In a work purporting to be one
of truth, he would not impose upon the credulity of
others, what he could not believe himself.
•I. D'lsraeli.
1*

6 PREFACE.
This book has been written with the view" of giving
the reader some knowledge of the peril-enMironed life
of a hunter; in connection with the early and topo
graphical history of a portion of northern New York.
As the forests disappear, the country is settled and
wild game exterminated; that hardy race of indi
viduals which followed the chase for a living will have
become extinct: indeed, those who would have been
called professional hunters, have now nearly or quite
all left the remaining woods of New York, and most
of them sleep with their fathers. Many of their
names with their daring adventures are now forgotten.
How important is it therefore, to place on record
what can still be gathered respecting them, to live in
future story; when some American Scott shall have
arisen to connect their names and deeds forever, with
the rifle-mimicking mountains, the awe-inspiring
glens, the hill-encompassed lakes, and the zigzag-
coursing rivulets — upon, within, around, and along
which they sought with noiseless footstep the bounty-
paying wolf, the timid deer, and fur-clad beaver.
I may remark, that one motive in producing this
book has been, to contribute materials for the future

PREFACE. 7
history of the state. Says an American scholar,*
" The general historian must gather his facts from the
details of local annals, and in proportion as they are
wanting must his labors be imperfect." A small
budget of antiquarian matter, and some interesting
incidents of the American Revolution are here intro
duced; and in connection with this subject, I will
take occasion to say, that I am collecting original
matter of an historical character, with the intention
of publishing it at a future, not distant day. There
are yet unpublished, many reminiscences either of, or
growing out of, our war for independence, both thrill
ing and instructive. Not a few such are now in the
writer's possession. They are generally of a personal
and anecdotal nature, and many of them were noted
down from the lips of men whose heads are whitened
by the frosts of time, or are now laid beneath the
valley-clods. If such an anecdote should still linger in the mind
of a reader of this page, or any old paper of interest
remain in his or her keeping, that individual would
confer a favor by communicating the same to my ad-
* William A. Whitehead.

8 PREFACE
dress. Our Revolution is destined, in its fullness of
benefit, to emancipate the world from tyranny; and
every minute incident relating to that great struggle
is not only worthy of record, but highly important,
for the proper understanding of its cost to the young,
to whose guardianship its principles and advantages
must soon be confided.
The difficulty of preparing a work for the press,
where much of the matter is to be obtained by con
versational notes, is only known to those who have
experienced the task; and such best know its liability
to contain error. The biography of Major Stoner
has nearly all been read over to him since it was
written out, and corrected; I can with confidence,
therefore, promise the reader, as few errors in this as
he will find in any work similarly got up. In con
clusion, I would fain express my grateful thanks to
those individuals who have in any manner contributed
towards making this volume.
J. R. SIMMS.
Ftdtmville, N. Y.

CONTENTS.

Chapter I.
Parentage of Nicholas Stoner — Description of his person — His
trapper's dress — His schooling — First settlement of Fonda's
Bush — Signification of the name — First settlement at Fish
House — Some account of Sir William Johnson — His style
pf living at Johnson Hall — His household — First school-
house in Johnstown — School children how treated — Manners
taught — Anecdote of Jacob Shew at school — Schools of for
mer days in New England and New York — Johnson's Fish
House when built — Its site — Fonda's Bush ¦ — Plank-roads and
stage routes — Village of Northville — Its first settlers — First
settlers at Denton's Corners .... Page 17
Chapter II.
Reasons for Sir Wm. Johnson's locating in Johnstown — Scenery
between the Mohawk and Sacondaga rivers — The great Sa
condaga Vlaie — Vlaie Creek — Its source and Indian name —
Origin of the marsh — Singular discovery of a lake — Stack-
ing-ridges — Cranberries — Johnson's cottage on Summer-
house point — His carriage road — Nine mile tree — Sacondaga
Patent — Summer-house how built and painted — Its garden —
Creeks entering the Vlaie — Origin of their names — Summer-
house point in freshets — Wild game — Visit to the Point in
1S49  30

10 CONTENTS.
Chapter III.
Signification of Sacondaga — Its great angle — Name for Daly's
creek how originated — Residence of Henry Wormwood —
Intimacy of Sir William Johnson with his daughters — His
signal for a housekeeper — Four in a bed at the Fish House —
Disposal of Wormwood's family — Sale of Fish House and its
farm — Cost of Sacondaga bridge — Summer House point for
tified — Fate of Johnson's cottage — Willie Boiles drowned —
Sale of Summer House point — Mayfield settlement — Its first
mill — First mill on the Kennyetto — Anecdotes of Sir Wm.
Johnson — Dunham family .... 42
Chapter TV.
Nicholas Stoner's boyhood — He enters the army — Gen. Arnold's
device to raise the seige of Fort Stanwix — Evidences of the
Oriskany battle — Gen. Arnold in the battle of Saratoga — Sto
ner and Conyne how wounded — Three Stoners on duty in
Rhode Island — Anecdote of *. theft — Stoner a prisoner —
Capture of Gen. Prescott — Attempt to capture Stoner and
others near Johnson Hall — Signification of Cayadutta — A
prisoner from necessity ...... 55
Chapter V.
Baker for Johnstown Fort — Singular incident at his house, and
dangerous situation of Stoner — Residence of Jeremiah Mason
— His daughter Anna — The Browse family — Stoner pigeon
hunting — He takes his captain on a hunt — Hunters how
Alarmed — Browse family remove to Canada — Maj. Andre's
gallows how constructed — Stoner eats pie near it — How he
got two floggings — How the British army surrendered at
Yorktown — Errors in pictures — Stoner's first day at the
seige — First fire on the British works — Nicholas Hill finds
many friends — Henry Stoner leaves the army — Is mur-

CONTENTS. 11
dered by the Indians — Treachery of Andrew Bowman —
His treatment at Johnstown fort — Prisoners made at Johnson
Hall  70
Chapter VI.
John Helmer in jail — Escapes from it three times — Stoner in
New York at the close of the war — Is one of the band per
forms at Washington's leave taking — Stoner and his stool
pigeon before Col. Cochrane — His return to Johnstown —
First marriage of Anna Mason — Her husband how slain near
Johnson Hall — Stoner's marriage — Is deputy sheriff — The
Stoner brothers again in the army — British invasion of New
York — Battle of Beekmantown — Anecdote of Maj. Wool —
Battle of lake Champlain and death of Commodore Downie —
Gen. Macomb fires a. national salute — Burial of his remains
— Mourners at his grave — Celebration at Plattsburg in 1842
— Stoner again leaves the army 86
Chapter VII.
Maj. Stoner becomes a hunter — Hunter's law — How accoutred
for the forest — Intemperance an attendant on war — De Fon-
claiere keeps a tavern in Johnstown — How his horses ran
away — Indian hunters at his house — Stoner obtains an ear-
jewel — An Indian boasts of killing his father — Is branded
with a fire-dog — The Indians leave the place — Stoner in jail
— How liberated — His celebrity in Canada - - 111
Chapter VITI.
Stoner's bear-trap — Precaution in its use — Bait for beaver —
Season for hunting — Accident to Capt. Jackson — Dunn in
Jackson's place — Hunters' lodges how constructed — Their
larder how supplied — Johnstown hunters meet Indian trap
pers — Fierce quarrel at Trout lake — An Indian falls up-

12 contents.
on the shore — Dunn transfixed to a canoe — Stoner in the
enemy's camp — Trophies he there obtained — Hunters return
home — Stoner and Mason hunt together — Mason discovers
bear's tracks — Stoner seeks an interview with Bruin — Dis
covers him on a log over the Sacondaga — A rifle is heard and
the bear falls into the river ..... 133
Chapter IX.
Stoner annoyed by a bear in his wheat and corn-fields — How he
loses one leg of his pantaloons and kills the bear — A deer
hunt — Hunters swamped at Stoner's island — Have a gloomy
night — Frederick's gratitude toward Stoner for saving his life
— Stoner and Mason on a long hunt — Food how cooked — A
peep at a hunter's camp — Out of provisions the hunters seek
a settlement — Stoner almost shoots another blanketed bear —
Mason arrested in Norway as a spy — Is liberated — Hunters
return to the woods — They meet two Indians — Stoner mis
taken for the hunter White — A quarrel — An Indian's death-
yell — His comrade takes leg-bail — Johnstown hunters return
home with three guns — Stoner suspected of smuggling mer
chandise — Anecdote of Green White .... 134
Chapter X.
Hunter's Moccasons how made — Stoner hunts with Griswold —
A dog eats a moccason for Griswold — The loss how repaired
— Stoner hunts with Capt. Shew at the Sacondaga Vlaie and
there shoots a wolf — Stoner and Foster on a hunt trap an
eagle — Different trappers with whom Stoner is associated 
With an Indian partner visits the head of Grass river — There
met a white hunter with a squaw — Stoner makes a map for
him to go to Johnstown — Hunts with the Indian Gill — Lat
ter spears the beaver — Stoner hunts with Obadiah Wilkins
who encounters an Indian — Magic of Stoner's name — Stoner's
last difficulty with Indian hunters — How he loses a trap and

contents. 13
fur — How he gets his trap and pay for the fur — The Sabbath
how regarded by hunters — Admonition of a young Indian —
Stoner's dog in trouble — Spirit of Mary Stoner - • 140
Chapter XI.
Major Stoner a widower — His voluntary marriage — Again a
widower — His last marriage — His present residence — Ga-
roga and Fonda plank road — Chase's Patent — Foolish ex
pression of Capt. Chase — Stoner a pilot for surveyors —
Signification of Piseco — Goes to a settlement for food — Has
a warm job of it — Law students in the forest — Ice discover
ed — Fourth of July how celebrated — Stoner skins a hedge
hog — Description of the country — Prospective view of it —
Newspaper notice of Lake Byrn — Sundry other lakes —
Lake Good-luck, why so called — Water privileges of Hamil
ton county — Description of the country, by Dr. Emmons —
Stoner and others discover a dead man near Jesup's river —
Importance of preserving Indian names ... 160
Chapter XII.
Birth place and marriage of Nathaniel Foster — Settles in Salis
bury — Description of his person — His success the first year
in hunting — Large game killed by him — Anecdotes of his
wolf killing — Supplies museums with moose skins — Is near
being shot — His rifles — A tussle with a deer — A wolf for
a pet — Where Foster learned to write — Brown's tract of
land — Source of Mill stream — Brown attempts to settle
his lands — His death — Herreshoff goes there — His birth
place and person — Clears up land — Builds a forge — Ex
pends large sums of money — Becomes discouraged and com
mits suicide — Time of his death — Inquest — Place of bu
rial — Inscription to his memory — Cost of his iron — His
taxes — Brown's tract when and by whom surveyed — Its
townships — Survey of roads — Moose lake — Indian clear
3

14 contents.
ing - Distance from Boonville to forge — Huckleberry lake —
Sur/ ' fox kills a hedge-hog — Anecdotes of Herreshoff 175
Chapter XIII.
Bencbley's description of Brown's tract — Usual route to it —
Use of drays — Size and power of Moose river — Present
condition of early improvements on the tract — Its ore —
Effect of erecting a dam — Lakes how numbered — First
lake — Dog Island — Second lake — Foster's Observatory —
Third lake — Grass island — Fourth lake — Line between
Hamilton and Herkimer counties — Extent of tract — Re
spect for the Eagle — Description of the Indian Foster kill
ed — Effect of liquor — Foster's vision — Five echoes — North
Branch lakes and outlet — Fifth and Sixth lakes — Carrying
place — Foster at sixty — Prospective use of a lock — Seventh
lake — Beautiful view — Character of Green White — His
tragic fate — His success in hunting — The hunter Williams
— Place for trout — Pitch pine grove — How Foster shoots a
deer — Why he would kill a doe — Eighth lake — Racket
inlet — Grave of Foster's victim — Floating for deer — Jer-
seyfield lake — Jock's lake — Little Salmon and Black River
South lakes — Physical outline of this region of country, by
Lardner Vanuxem ....... 191
Chapter XIV.
Brown's tract tenantless — Is a resort for hunter's — Premises
leased — Lease assigned to Foster who moves there — Indian
Peter Waters or Drid — A debt — Drid threatens Foster's
life — Goes to his door to shoot him — An interview — Indian
attempts his life — Foster before a peace officer — Apprehen
sions of Foster's family — Last interview between Foster
and his foe — Their threats of vengeance — Foster on Indian's
point — Drid's approach — His death — Foster aids in getting
his body home — Foster is arrested — Note explaining cut 208

contents. 15
Chapter XV.
Foster is arraigned before Judge Denio — Is tried and acquitted
How he receives the verdict, and leaves the court room — His
acquittal how received by the public — Anecdote of Joseph
Brant  218
Chapter XVI.
Foster's answer to Gen. Gray — Stoner's opinion of Foster's
and his own skill as marksmen — How Drid's friends received
his death — Advice to Foster's family — Drid's wife returns
to the St. Lawrence — Foster removes to Pennsylvania —
Returns to Boonville and dies there — The Indian Hess — Im
portance of a country tavern — How Foster and Hess meet
and part — Running fight with a moose bull — Sudden ap
pearance of Hess — He threatens to kill Foster — Falls from
a log over his own grave — Mysterious sayings — How he
shot eighteen otters — His eye-sight improved by venison —
Signification of Oswegatchie — How Foster carried bullets —
Anecdote of his rapid firing »- How he made his camp in the
woods — How he accoutred for the chase ... 241
•
Chapter XVII.
Incidents in the life of Jock Wright — His birth, habits and ap
pearance — Is a soldier — Captures British officers — How he
parts with one of them — He scalps a British ally — Visits
his former prisoner in Boston — Again a hunter — The rattle
snake hunter — A snake fight — Death of a panther — Wright
removes to Norway — His family — How he lost and found
his jug — The hunter Nicholas — His stock in trade — A rea
son wanted for his habits — He hunts with Wright — Finds
lead ore — His death — Jock's lake — Crookneck the hunter
— How he almost caught a deer, and got caught himself —
How Uncle Jock kills two moose — His opinion of a certain

*6 contents.
prayer — Gets sick and prays himself — Crookneck on snow
shoes — Beaver's meat — Uncle Jock draws a pension — When
he made huts — His death ------ 253
Chapter XVIII.
Some account of the beaver — Peculiarity of its flesh — Its food
— Bait used for its capture — Its social habits — Its dams and
dwellings how constructed — A beaver community how fore
warned of danger — Habits of the otter — Its food — Form
of its feet — Its sagacity in preparing its burrow — The
musk-rat — Not easily exterminated — Its fate in freshets ->-
Habits of the pine marten — Its size — The wolverine — How
it annoys hunters — Its great strenth ... 279

Appendix, p. 281.

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.

CHAPTER I.
Incidents of greater or less interest occur in the lives
of almost every member of the human family, which
only need be known to be justly appreciated, or subserve
some good and wise purpose; but occasionally an indi
vidual crosses the broad landscape of life, whose career
may be said to consist of a bundle of incidents — the
greater part of whose existence is in fact so full of
novelty, as to claim, for at least a portion of it, a record
for the benefit or amusement of mankind. Of the latter
class is Major Nicholas Stoner, some of the most ro
mantic and daring of whose adventures are presented
in the following pages.
To say that a man lived through the American Revo
lution and participated in its perils, is alone a sufficient
guaranty that he can, if at all intelligent, recount
unique and thrilling scenes as yet untold in history; but
when we meet with one who has not only been exposed
to the perils of an eight year's war, but has shared in the
dangers and hardships of a second war — one, in truth,
whose life has been checkered with a thousand hazard-
2*

18 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
ous exposures between and subsequent to those wars;
we may expect, almost as a matter of course, to learn
from him not a little that will prove acceptable to the
general reader, nourishing
" The seeds of happiness, and powers of thought."
The facts here given of this celebrated warrior, were
noted down by the writer from his own lips at personal
interviews; not a few of which have been corroborated
by the testimony of others. It is the fortune of very
few individuals to pass through a long life surrounded
by such a variety of perils, without receiving more
personal injury.
Henry Stoner, the father of Nicholas, emigrated from
Germany to the American colonies, as is believed,
nearly twenty years before their emancipation from
British tyranny. He landed at New York, and after a
short residence in that city removed to the colony of
Maryland, where he married Catharine Barnes, by
whom he had two sons, Nicholas and John.
Nicholas Stoner, who was about a year the senior of
his brother, was born Dec. 15, 1762 or '63: which year
is not now known with certainty, the family record
having been burned with his father's dwelling in the
Revolution. He is five feet eleven inches high, of
slender but sinewy form ; and though his light brown
hair is now ( 1848) silvered by the frosts of fourscore
winters, and his body is a little bent, yet his step is still
firm without a cane, and his intellect vigorous. He has
from boyhood worn a pair of small rings in his ears.

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 19
His complexion, owing to his mode of life, is now
swarthy. In his younger days he must have been a man
of uncommonly prepossessing personal appearance; for
his acquaintances of forty years' standing, speak of him
" as one of the likeliest looking men they have ever
known." His walk — indeed, almost every motion —
betrays his forest life, for he moves with the caution
of a trapper and the stillness of a panther: added to
which he becomes impatient and vexed at restraint.
The frontispiece, which gives a good likeness of him
at the age of about eighty three, exhibits him accoutred
as a trapper. He usually wore a fur cap when hunting,
and a short coat, or cloth roundabout. A belt encircled
his waist, at the foot of which was fastened a bullet
pouch, and beneath which upon the left side were thrust
a hatchet and knife; while under his right arm swung
a powder horn of no mean capacity. When trapping
for beaver, he was often loaded with a bundle of double-
spring steel traps; which were suspended beneath the
left arm. The frontispiece was engraved from two
daguerreotype likenesses, one of which was taken in the
village of Johnstown, on the 10th of Sept., 1846 ; and
as there was a militia general training in the village
on that day, the old hero was not only accoutred with
little trouble to visit the artist; but was greeted at
every turn by numerous friends and acquaintances, all
eager once more to grasp his hand and give him a
friendly salutation. The other miniature, although it
does not exhibit the old trapper in his forest garb, was

20 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
taken subsequently at his place of residence, and is by
far the best likeness. A borrowed cap seen in the pic
ture, conceals much of his intelligent brow.
New York city again became the residence of Henry
Stoner while his children were quite young, during
which Nicholas went to school and learned to read.
He was sent to school by John Binkus (if I have the
orthography correct), a man of wealth, who had married
Miss Hannah Stoner, a sister of the young student's
father. During the Revolution, this Binkus became a
refugee officer in the famous corps of Gen. De Lancey.
Henry Stoner, who had been a kind of trafficker or
speculator in a small way since his arrival in the colo
nies, after a second residence in New York of a few
years, resolved to become a pioneer settler, and removed
with his family to Fonda's Bush, a place in the Johns
town settlements, so called after Maj. Jelles Fonda, who
took a patent for the lands. The place is situated about
ten miles north of east from the village of Johnstown,
and the same distance west of north from Amsterdam.
Fonda's Bush signifies the same as if it were called
Fonda's Woods, a dense forest covering the soil at that
early period — bush being the usual term for woods on
the frontiers of New York. Indeed, the Sugar Bush
is the present appellation given to woods from which
maple sugar is made. At the time of Stoner's arrival,
Johnstown, though but a small village, was becoming
known abroad; as it was the residence ofthe Baronet,
Sir William Johnson (after whom it was called), who,

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 21
as Indian agent for the Six Nations, and as a military
man of repute, was notorious in what was then Western
New York.
As Stoner was the first settler at Fonda's Bush, he
left his family in Philadelphia Bush, while he was
erecting a log dwelling four miles distant. The last
mentioned place, now in the town of Mayfield, obtained
its name from the fact, that one or more of its first
inhabitants were from Philadelphia, or the vicinity of
that city. Some two years after Stoner fixed his resi
dence in the wilderness, Joseph Scott, and about the
same time Benjamin De Line, also located in his neigh
borhood. I say neighborhood because they were the
nearest neighbors of the Stoner family; although from
one to two miles distant. His residence was still on
the wild-wood side of his pioneer brethren. The next
man who fixed his residence in the vicinity of Stoner,
was Philip Helmer, who drove the wild beasts from
their haunts and broke ground two miles to the east
ward of him. Andrew Bowman, Herman Salisbury,
John Putman, Charles Cady, and possibly one or two
others, also settled in and about Fonda's Bush before
the Revolution. Cady, who married a daughter of
Philip Helmer, was one of the first settlers at the West
village. He is believed to have gone to Canada with
Sir John Johnson.
It must have been about the time of Stoner's location
in Fonda's Bush, that Godfrey Shew, a German, made
the first permanent location near Sir William Johnson's

22 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
fishing lodge, denominated the Fish House; and situated
on the Sacondaga river, eight miles north-east of
Stoner's dwelling. Before Shew planted himself at
the Fish House, several families of squatters had been
there, who had gone " to parts unknown," and desirous
of getting a wholesome citizen to remain there, the
Baronet held out liberal inducements to Mr. Shew, of
which he accepted.
In my History of Schoharie County, etc., I have
given some account of Sir William Johnson, with
several anecdotes of him — described his stately man
sions, and told the manner of his death &c, &c: but
at the time of publishing that work, I was not aware
that he had a more celebrated summer residence in the
latter, part of his life, than that denominated the Fish
House. From conversations held within the past year
( 1849) with the aged patriot Jacob Shew, who is a son
of Godfrey Shew named above, I am enabled to garner
up some more incidents in the life of this gentleman,
and authentic memoranda of the classic grounds under
consideration, which can not fail to prove interesting to
future generations, even though they are little appre
ciated by the present.
Sir William Johnson, after establishing himself at
his Hall, in Johnstown, no doubt lived in greater afflu
ence, or more in the style of a European nobleman
of that day, than ever did any other citizen of New
York. His household was quite numerous at all times,
and not unfrequently was much increased by distin-

TRAPPERS OF NEW-YORK. 23
guished guests. He had a Secretary named Lafferty,
a good lawyer who did all his legal business. He had
a Bouw-master, an Irishman named Flood. Bouw is
a German word signifying harvest — or as here used,
an overseer of the laboring interest of the Hall farm.
From ten to fifteen slaves usually worked the farm,
who were under the direction of the bouw-master.
The slaves lived across the Cayadutta creek from the
Hall, in small dwellings erected for them. They drest
much as did their Indian neighbors, except that a kind
of coat was made of their blankets by the Hall tailor.
His household Physician, John Dease, was a favor
ite nephew — being a sister's son. Dr. D. was a very
companionable man, and often accompanied Sir Wil
liam in his pleasure excursions. He had a Musician,
a dwarf some thirty years old, who answered to the
name of Billy.* He played a violin well, and was
always on hand to entertain guests. He had a Gar
dener, who cultivated a large garden, and kept that
and the grounds about the Hall as neat as a pin.f He
had a Butler named Frank, an active young German,
who was with him a number of years, and who made
himself very useful to his master. Frank remained
about the Hall until the Revolution began, when he
went to Albany county. He had a Waiter named
Pontiac,! a sprightly, well disposed lad of mixed blood,
negro and Indian, who was generally with him when
* See Appendix A t Ibid. B. $ Ibid. C.

24 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
from home. He had a pair of white, dwarfish-looking
Waiters, who catered to his own and his guests' comfort:
their surname was Bartholomew, and they are believed
to have been brothers.
The secretary, physician, bouw-master, and all the
waiters remained, after the death of Sir William, with
his son, Sir John Johnson, until the Revolution began,
ard then followed his fortunes to Canada. The Baronet
had also his own mechanics. His Blacksmith, and his
Tailor, had each a shop just across the road from the
Hall. They did very little work for any one out of
the royal household. Sir William was a large, well-
looking and full-favored man. " Laugh and grow fat,"
is an old maxim, of which his neighbors were reminded,
when they beheld this fun-loving man. He was well
read for the times, and uncommonly well versed in the
study of human nature. Near the Hall he erected two
detached wings of stone, the west one of which was
used by his attorney Lafferty, for an office, and the other
contained a philosophical apparatus, of which he died
possessed. The room in which the apparatus was kept,
was called his own private study. On seeing him enter
it, Pontiac used to say — " Now massa gone into his
study to tinlc ob somesin me know not what."
Sir William erected a school-house in Johnstown
on locating there, and established, it is said, the first
free school in the state. The building was oblong,
and stood on the diagonal corner of the streets from
the countY clerk's office. At which time, to begin a

JOHNSON HALL,
THE FORMER RESIDENCE OF SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON,
AT JOHNSTOWN, NEW YORK.

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 25
village, he also erected at the same time six dwelling-
houses in the vicinity of the school-house. They were
each some 30 feet long fronting the street, by 18 or 20
feet deep — were one and a half stories high, with two
square rooms on the floor. Those dwellings, and the
school-house were all painted yellow. One of the
earliest if not in fact the first teacher of this school,
was an arbitrary Irishman named Wall, who taught
only the common English branches. An Episcopal
church was also erected in Johnstown under the patron
age of Sir William, several years before his death.
In the street in front of the school-house, public
stocks and a whipping-post were placed, the former of
which were a terror to truant boys, whose feet not unfre
quently graced them. Before Godfrey Shew removed
to the Fish House, he resided a mile west of the Hall,
at which time his children, with those of a neighbor or
two, went to school. In the vicinity of the Hall were
usually to be seen a dozen or more Indians, of whom
the children were afraid; and the fact coming to the
knowledge of Sir William, he spoke to a chief in their
behalf, and then assured the little urchins, with whom
he liked to chat, that they need borrow no more trouble
about their red neighbors.
He had six children at that time by his handsome
brown housekeeper, Molly Brant; and the three oldest,
Peter, Betsey and Lana, went to school — George and
two little girls being thought too young to send.
Wall was very severe with most of his pupils, but the
3

26 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
Baronet's children were made an exception to his
severity — they being ever treated with kind partiality
and pointed indulgence. He observed the most rigid
formality in teaching his scholars maimers; a very
important branch of education, and quite too much
neglected in modern times. He required his pupils,
however, not so much to respect age and intellect in
others as in himself. If a child wished to go out, it
must go before him with a complaisant — please master
may I go out ? accompanied with a bow, a backward
motion of the right hand, and drawing back upon the
floor the right foot. On returning to the school-room,
the pupil had again to parade before the master, with
another three-motioned bow, and a very grateful —
thank you sir !
The lad Jacob Shew, on becoming initiated into the
out-and-in ceremony, accompanied his first bow with a
scrape of the left foot. Tak the other fut, you rascal!
was roared with such a brogue and emphasis by old
Pedagogue, as to confuse him, and he flourished the
left foot again. Tak the other fut, I tell ye ! came
louder than before, attended with a stamp that carried
terror to the boy's heart. Comprehending the require
ment, he shifted his balance — scraped with the right
fut — heard a surly that 'll doh ! and went on his way
rejoicing though trembling.
In nearly every school of New England and New
York twenty-five years ago, the scholars on entering
and on leaving the school-room during the hours of

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 27
school, had to make their manners — the boys to bow —
gracefully if they could, but at all events to bow, and
the girls to courtesy, genteelly of course. Nor were
the manners of the children confined to the school
room; for on meeting any sober person in the street,
they had to make their obeisance, and learned to take
pleasure and pride in so doing. It was then a very
pretty spectacle to pass a country school-house at
noon, or when the children were out at play, and see
them parade as if by military intuition, and give the
traveler a united evidence of good breeding. This
sight is occasionally seen at the present day, where
female teachers are employed.
Traversing the forest in the French war, from Ti
conderoga to Fort Johnson, his then residence, no
doubt first made Sir William Johnson familiar with
the make of the country adjoining the Sacondaga river;
and soon after the close of that war he erected a lodge
for his convenience, while hunting and fishing, on the
south side of the river, nearly eighteen miles distant
from his own dwelling. The lodge was ever after
called The Fish House. It was an oblong square
framed building, with two rooms below, and walls
sufficiently high (one and a half stories) to have af
forded pleasant chambers. Its site was on a knoll
within the present garden of Dr. Langdon I. Marvin,
and about thirty rods from the river. It fronted the
south. Only one room in the building was ever finished;
that was in the west end, and had a chimney and

28 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
fire-place. The house was never painted, and in the
Revolution it was burnt down, but by whom or whose
authority, is unknown. The ground from where the
building stood, slopes very prettily to the river. No
visible trace of this building remains.
A village has grown up at this place, containing
several hundred inhabitants, and bearing the historic
name of Fish House, although the post-office is im
properly called Northampton, the village lying mostly
in one corner of that town. The village is built upon
gentle elevations, and a degree of neatness and thrift
pervades it, that agreeably disappoints the visitor.
Among its early influential inhabitants, were Asahel
Parkes, John Trumbull, John Rosevelt, Alexander St.
John, and John Fay. The last one named located
here in 1803, and the others a few years before.
Where the Stoner family settled in Fonda's Bush,
a pretty village has also sprung up. It is built mostly
upon level sandy land, and contains double the popu
lation of Fish House. It is situated in the town of
Broadalbin, and like its sister village, has the misfor
tune to have its post-office called after the town in
stead of itself, a discrepancy that should never exist
where it can be avoided. A plank road went into
operation in 1849, from Fish House to Fonda's Bush,
a distance of eight miles; and another from the latter
place to Amsterdam, a further distance of ten miles,
bringing the three places within a few hours' ride of
each other.

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 29
The villages of Fish House and Fonda's Bush must
grow in importance with their improved facilities for
business — indeed, the travel to those places has been
on the increase for several years. From Edinburgh,
a little hamlet in Saratoga county, six miles down
the river from Fish House, a stage runs twice a week
to Ballston Spa, stopping at Fish House; and another
runs through the place three times a week, from
Northville to Amsterdam. Both are mail routes.
Northville deserves a passing notice in this place: it
is a charming inland village in the town of Northamp
ton, containing two or three hundred inhabitants,
romantically embowered among the hills on the north
bank of the Sacondaga, six miles above the Fish
House, and is fast increasing in importance. A plank
road will ere long connect this place with Fish-House.
The pioneer settlers at Northville were Samuel Olm
sted and Zadock Sherwood*
At a little place about equidistant between Fish
House and Northville, on the south bank of the river,
with a post-office called Denton's Corners, settled
Garret Van Ness, Abel Scribner and John Brown.
They located there soon after the war of the Revolu
tion closed; and as they had all three been participa
tors in its perils, they must often have met of a long
winter evening and fought their battles over. There
is, at this place, a bridge across the Sacondaga.
* Appendix D.
3*

CHAPTER II.
Sir William Johnson was no doubt induced to locate
in Johnstown, partly on account of the greater facili
ties it would afford him for hunting and fishing about
the Sacondaga river, over a residence in the Mohawk
valley, and partly to obtain more favorable grounds
to accommodate the numerous Indians, who at times
came to receive presents from the royal bounty. North
of the Hall was a forest, in which those visitors were
occasionally encamped in great numbers.
The Sacondaga and Mohawk rivers are about twenty
miles apart, from Fish House westward, for some dis
tance. The Mayfield mountain stretches across from
the former river south-easterly to the latter, and there
forms what is called The Nose, while on the north
side of the Sacondaga, mountain ranges of hills tower
ing one above the other, bound the view. The lands,
on gaining the summit level, a few miles north of the
Mohawk, are not mountainous between the rivers,
but gently rolling from the Mayfield mountain, some
twenty miles to the eastward, until they strike what
is denominated the Maxon hill ; the northern termina
tion of which at the river the Indians called Scow-a-
rock-a. The scenery, therefore, to the northward of
Johnstown and Fonda's Bush, is very fine.

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 31
From the residence of Col. John I. Shew, situated
on an eminence one and a half miles from Fonda's
Bush, and on the plank road to Fish House, is afforded
the lover of natural science, in a clear day, one of the
richest landscapes in this part of the state. Here the
eye, looking north, seems to scan rather more than
one-half of an amphitheatre, an hundred miles in cir
cuit, with rich and varied scenery. Within the view
is overlooked the Sacondaga vlaie, a body of from
ten to thirteen thousand acres of drowned lands. This
immense marsh extends east and west about six miles.
A strip at the west end, nearly two miles long, lies
in Mayfield, and the eastern part extends into North
ampton; but the greatest proportion is in Broadalbin,
where it is the widest, being perhaps a mile or more
in width.A fine mill stream, called Vlaie creek, because it
courses through the great marsh, rises in Lake Desola
tion, near the Maxon mountain in Greenfield, Sara
toga county, and making a grand circuit of Broadal
bin, passing in its route through the village of Fonda's
Bush, it enters the Sacondaga at Fish House, not
more than two or three miles from its source; although
some twenty by its sinuous route. The stream is some-
timeS'Called the Little Sacondaga. The Indians called
it Ken-ny-ett-o, says Isaac R. Rosa, of Fonda's Bush,
who saw an intelligent Indian, many years ago, write
the name with red chalk on the door of a grist mill.
The signification of this pretty aboriginal name, after

32 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
which the village and post-office should have been
called, is now unknown.
The origin of this marsh is thus given by Lardner
Vanuxem, in his volume of the Geology of New York.
" The vlie, or natural meadow and swamp which ex
tends along the creek of that name, to near the Fish
House, are the remains of a lake, and show the pre-
existent state of that country; the drainage of which
happened at successive periods, as is beautifully shown,
and the extent of alluvial action also, near where the
upper and lower roads unite, which lead from Cran
berry post-office to the river, near the hill or mountain
side. There four well defined alluvial banks exist,
resembling great steps or benches ranging by the moun
tain side, which form a semi-amphitheatre, changing
by a curve from a north-east to a south-south-east
direction. The upper bank of alluvion rises about a
hundred feet above the river; the next below, about
eighty feet; the third, from thirty to forty feet; and
the lowest, from ten to twelve feet. The upper one
is of sand, the second of blueish clay covered with
sand, and the two lower ones of sand and gravel.
" The vlie, or natural meadows, are numerous in
many parts of the [geological] district; they are the
prairies of the west upon a small scale. Their soil,
being composed of minutely divided parts or fine earth,
is favorable for grass, the rapid growth of which
smothers the germinating tree. This is the primary
cause why trees do not exist where grass is rank; the

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 33
others are but subordinate ones. One and all in the
district show the same origin, having been ponds or
lakes receiving the wash of the country which they
drained, the finer particles of which being diffused
through their waters, have by subsidence formed their
level bottom, and their highly productive soil for
grass." It is by no means an uncommon occurrence for a
pond or lake to become filled up by alluvial deposits,
so as to form dry and tillable land; and at times upon
the surface of a body of water, a soil is formed that is
cultivated without its ever being known to the hus
bandman, that he is toiling over the bosom of a lake.
In confirmation of this I would instance a singular
occurrence of recent date. On the Michigan Central
Railway it became neoessary to carry an embankment
some fifteen feet thick across a piece of low ground,
containing nearly one hundred acres dry enough to
plow. The workmen had progressed with the grading
some distance, when it became too heavy for the soil
to support it, and sunk down into seventy-nine feet
of water. It then became apparent that the low
ground had been a small lake, upon the surface of
which, in process of time, a soil had collected, com
posed of roots, peat, muck, &c, to the depth of from
ten to fifteen feet thick; the surface of which had
become dry. Had it not been deemed necessary to
carry so heavy an embankment over this miniature
prairie of now rich arable land, it would probably

34 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
never have been known that it rested on the bosom
of a lake.
On the northerly side of the vlaie and to the west
ward of the centre, are two strips of hard land bearing
timber. They are called stacking-ridges, from the
fact that many tons of hay cut annually on the low
grounds contiguous, are stacked upon them to be
drawn off in the winter. Blue-joint grass used to
grow, and perhaps does to this day on the dryest bogs.
Formerly, immense quantities of cranberries were
gathered on the north side of the marsh east of the
lower stacking-ridge ; on what is called Cranberry
point. A kind of shovel with fine teeth was some
times used to scoop them up, and nearly a quart could
thus be gathered at once. This mode of picking in
jured the vines however. Cranberries are not as
plenty here as formerly. Opposite Cranberry point
the water in Vlaie creek is said to be very deep.
One of the most interesting features about the vlaie
is the fact, that a little knoll or table of hard land
elevated some ten or twelve feet, extends into it
toward the upper or western end. It is oblong in
shape, level upon the top, and gently sloping all round.
It lies about north-west and south-east; the summit
being some 600 feet long by 150 in breadth; and con
taining in the whole say ten or fifteen acres of very
good land. This tongue of land is called Summer-
house point, from the fact that Sir Wm. Johnson
erected a beautiful cottage in the centre of it in 1772,

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 35
and there spent much of his time in the summer foi
several seasons. From Johnstown to this point, which
is just fourteen miles, the Baronet opened a carriage
road. While the road was surveying, a large tree
was marked at the end of every mile, and numbered
from the Hall. The one denominated Nine-mile tree,
a large pine, was standing within twenty-five years,
and was by the late Gen. Henry Fonda designated to
several persons, who have kept vigilance of its locality
The stump of this tree which has for seventy years
been a landmark, is still standing a little east of James
Lasher's dwelling, in the town of Mayfield.
Summer-house point is approached from the west
erly end, upon a strip of arable land, which in very
high water is covered making an island of the point.
The Sacondaga patent embraced all or very nearly all
of the vlaie. The point which lies in Broadalbin,
was embraced in the Sacondaga patent, which con
veyed 28,000 acres of land, Dec. 2, 1742, to Lendert
Gansevoort, Cornelius Ten Brook, Dow Fonda, Anna
J. Wendell and ten others. Of some of the original
patentees or then owners, Sir William not only bought
the point, but many of the lands in and contiguous to
Fish House, in which village the Northampton and
Sacondaga patents unite.
The cottage erected on Summer-house point, stood
precisely in its centre. It was a tasty one story build
ing, fronting the south, upon which side was its fronl
entrance. The roof sloped north and south. A piazza

36 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
supported by square columns extended around the sides
and east end, with a promenade upon the top nearly
as high as the eavei. It had a gable window at each
end on the first floor, and two windows at each end
on the second. A hall ran across the building in the
centre, with a square room upon each side of it, hand
somely finished, well furnished, and each room lighted
by two front windows. It had a nice cellar kitchen,
the entrance to which was on the west end, which
room was always occupied in the summer season by
Nicholas and Flora, a pair of the Baronet's slaves,
who were there to keep every thing in order, and mi
nister to his comfort during his visits. The cottage
was painted white, with the corners, doors, window-
casings and columns painted green, as was the English
taste of the times — the whole contrasting beautifully
with the wild scenery around.
A large garden was cultivated on the point, two
cows kept there, and when the Baronet was there two
horses also; as he usually rode there in a carriage.
He planted fruit trees there, and two antiquated apple
trees of a dozen or more are still standing. The stone
of which the cellar and well were made, were brouo-ht
from Fish House in a boat, and as stone were scarce
on the sandy lands contiguous, early settlers with
sacrilegious propensity have carried off and converted
them to other uses. The plow has removed all traces
of the well, which was on the verge ofthe knoll south
of the house, and has nearly filled the cellar, a small

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 37
cavity only remaining. A log house and well were
built on the south side of the point toward the west
ern end just after the Revolution, but the dwelling is
now gone, and most of the stone which were used in
that cellar. The nearest house now to the point, is
that known as the Brown place, where Samuel Brown,
an old pensioner, lived and died.
I have said that the Kennyetto courSed through the
vlaie. It enters a narrow strip of it south-west of the
point, and runs along the latter upon its southerly
side; where it is some two rods wide, and usually
three or four feet deep. The Mayfield creek, a mill-
stream about two-thirds as large as the Kennyetto,
runs through that part of the marsh in Mayfield, and
sweeping its north margin, unites with the latter
stream at the extremity ofthe point. , The Brown farm
lies between the two strips of the marsh named, and
near where they approximate. Besides those named,
several other streams enter the marsh. On the north
side at Cranberry point, a mile from Summer-house
point, Cranberry creek runs in, and nearly loses itself
before reaching Vlaie creek, as the stream is called after
it receives Mayfield creek. On the south side two mill
streams run in, in Broadalbin, one nearly opposite
Cranberry creek, called formerly Frenchman's creek,
and the other a mile below called Hans's creek; and
yet so great is the natural process of absorption and
evaporation constantly going on here, that the creek,
where it issues from the vlaie and enters the Sacon-
4

38 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
daga at Fish House, discharges but little if any more
water than passes Summer-house point, in the Ken
nyetto: indeed, it is said by some of the observing
citizens near its mouth, that less water issues from the
marsh than did formerly.
Frenchman's creek is so called, because a French
man named Joseph DeGolier located at an early day
upon its shores^ about two miles from its mouth. It
has since been called McMartin's creek, after Duncan
McMartin Esq., who established himself and erected
mills upon it many years ago. McMartin was a sur
veyor and laid out most of the roads in and around
Broadalbin. He was a man of wealth and respect
ability, and was appointed a judge of the common
pleas in 1818 — was a master in chancery, &c. &c;
and as an evidence of his enterprise, erected a sub
stantial brick edifice upon his farm, some few years
before his death. This same stream has also been
called Factory creek, from the fact that a woolen
manufactory was established upon it near the residence
of Mr. McMartin, as early as 18 12 or 18 14. It is still
in operation. Hans's creek got its name from the
following circumstance: Some few years before his
death, Sir William Johnson and John Conyne were
fishing for trout in the mouth of this stream, when
as Conyne was standing up, an unexpected lurch of the
boat sent him out floundering in the water. He ship
ped a sea or two, as the sailor would say, before he
was rescued by the helping hand of his companion

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 39
from a watery grave. My informant heard the Ba
ronet relate the circumstance at Johnson Hall to a
large circle of friends soon after, with his usual gusto
for such adventures. He not only had a hearty laugh
over it then, but often afterwards when telling how
Conyne plunged into the water to seek for trout. Hans
being the Dutch of John, and the familiar name by
which Sir William called his companion in relating
the incident; hence the name for the stream.
There is now along the sides and lower end of
Summer-house point, a stunted growth of alder and
swamp willow, but when occupied by Sir Willian
Johnson, the bushes were all cut off, and the margin
of the stream kept clean. He had a beautiful boat
there, in which he used to go down to the Fish House,
four miles distant, sometimes with company, for he
entertained numerous distinguished guests, and at other
times attended only by a few servants, or possibly by
his faithful Pontiac, who rowed the boat while he
sat in the stern and steered it. His greatest time for
hunting and fishing, was in the spring and fall. When
the marsh was flooded, a boat would pass over it any
where, the water raising at Summer-house point.
from six to eight feet above low water mark. At
such times the prospect was grand from the promenade
of his cottage, access to which was gained by an out
side stairway, near the hall door. Thousands \_pon
thousands of ducks and "vild geese were then floating

40 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
upon the waters, at which time his double-barreled
gun was in almost constant requisition. Some twenty-
five years ago, ducks used to breed about the vlaie.
They are sometimes caught in nets there, and taken
to market.
In company with Dr. William Chambers, Marcellus
Weston, Esq., my patriotic old friend Jacob Shew,
Col. John I. Shew his son, and little Haydn Shew, I
visited Summer-house point on the 29th day of Au
gust, 1849, and well was I compensated for the jour
ney. It is a most delightful place, divested of all
historic associations, but clothed with them, it is one
of the most interesting spots imaginable. Recreating
in fancy the white cottage with green facings, I could
almost hear the notes of Billy's old fiddle, as his
greatest skill was taxed to please the ear of some fas
tidious city guest; and at some witticism of the happy
host, I seemed, to hear peal after peal of merry laughter,
and now and then an Indian whoop, as in former
days, they rang out upon the gentle breeze. The
fairy craft of some forest son seemed once more to be
gliding along the grass-hidden stream, with its blanket-
clad navigator sitting erect as of yore, and bound
for Sacondaga. Imagination pictured Pontiac caress
ing his favorite steeds, and calling on Nicholas to
aid a black driver in rubbing them dry; and as I
passed the entrance to Flora's department, to look at
the noble animals, I seemed to see upon one side of it

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 41
scores of pigeons and wild ducks, with the saddle of
a deer; and on the other a large heap of golden trout,
to supply the cottage larder and feed its guests.
But I find I am growing visionary, and will dismiss
this subject, with my grateful thanks to the gentlemen
who conducted me to Summer-house point, where I
trust I may again light up " the council fires " of ima
gination — again be surrounded by intelligent friends —
again see some little Haydn hooking perch or sun-
fish — again see the happy hay makers near the upper
stacking-ridge — and again seek for some relic of the
point's first occupancy, if only to be rewarded by the
limb of an old apple tree.

CHAPTER HI.
Sa-con-da-ga is an aboriginal word, which signifies,
as the Indians assured Godfrey Shew, much water.
Capt. Gill, an Indian hunter, said it meant sunken or
drowned lands. It no doubt has particular reference
to the flooding of the vlaie. The Sacondaga shooting
Out from the mountains in Northampton, enters the
semi-amphitheatre in a south-eastern course, and con
tinues that direction in what seems a great basin,
until it gets to Fish House, where, receiving the Vlaie
creek, and striking spurs of the Maxon mountain, its
course is changed to a north-eastern one, thus making
two equal sides of a triangle some twenty miles in
circuit. The vlaie is about as low as the bed of the
river, and when the latter rises suddenly, it sets back
up the creek with a heavy current, so as not unfre
quently to carry bridges up stream, that were over the
streams in the marsh. The Sacondaga continues a
north-easterly course, until it enters the Hudson some
thirty miles from Fish House. A small steam boat
has been plying for two seasons between Fish House
and Barber's Dam, a distance of about twenty miles.
This dam is situated at the head of what is usually
denominated the Horse race, or rapid water, which

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 43
extends from thence to the Hudson. Conklinville, a
small hamlet, with several mills and a leather manu
factory, has recently grown up at the dam.
Daly's creek, a stream running into the Sacondaga
on the east side, and near Barber's dam, got its name
from the following circumstance. Patrick Daly, an
ardent friend of Sir William Johnson, was at the
mouth of this stream with the latter on a fishing ex
cursion, as in days gone by it was a great place for
trout. A little eddy in the water had caught up a
bed of leaves, and the top ones were so curled and
dry, as to lead Mr. Daly to suppose they were quietly
reposing on the top of a small sand bar. It is not
unlikely that Sir William, to please himself or guests
that may have been with them, humored the joke, if
he did not set it on foot. Catching the painter, the
angler sprang out to draw the boat upon the bar —
when lo! he went plump up to his arms in the water.
This incident not only added a yarn to the Baronet's
long budget, which he often spun at his friend's ex
pense, but served to originate a name for the, stream.
Some few years after the above incident transpired,
Godfrey Shew, his sons John and Jacob, and Edmund
Pangburn, were fishing at the mouth of Daly's creek,
when a similar little eddy of crisped leaves attracted
the notice of young Jacob, and to get the wrinkles
out of his legs, he concluded to step out of the boat on
the bar. He did so, and down went the leaves, and
still deeper down the boy to get a handsome ducking,

44 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
and be laughed at by his comrades when again in the
boat. Query: Should not this stream be called Shew's
creek, some part of the time?
Near the mouth of Hans's creek, and about half
way from Summer-house point to Fish House, dwell
before the Revolution the family of Henry Wormwood.
He had three daughters and two sons. The oldest
daughter, whose name is now forgotten, married and
went to Schoharie; the other two, Susannah and Eli
zabeth, lived at home. Susannah, the eldest of the
two, was a beautiful girl, of middling stature, charm
ingly formed, with a complexion fair as a water lily —
contrasting with which she had a melting dark eye
and raven hair. Elizabeth much resembled her sister,
but was not quite as fair. An Irishman named Robert
or Alexander Dunbar, a good looking fellow, paid his
addresses to Susannah, and soon after married her.
The match was in some manner brought about by the
Baronet — was an unhappy one, and they soon after
parted. She however retained as her stock in trade
a young Dunbar. What became of Dunbar is un
known. Sir William was on very intimate terms with both
the Wormwood girls, but the most so with Susannah,
after she became a grass-widow — at which time she
was about twenty years' old. Those girls were often
at the cottage on the point, and not unfrequently at
the fish-house. As the latter place was not fur
nished, when Sir William went down there, intending

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 45
to stay over night, he took down a bed from the point,
which, " as the evening shades prevailed," was made
up on the floor. In passing Wormwood's dwelling,
some half a mile distant from his boat at the nearest
point, if he desired an agreeable companion for the
night, he discharged his double-barreled gun, and the
two shots in quick succession, was a signal that never
failed to bring him a temporary housekeeper. Su
sannah was his favorite, and so pleased was she with
his attentions, that she often arrived on foot at the
Fish House before he did, especially if he lingered to
fish by the way.
Wormwood and his wife sometimes accompanied
one of their daughters to the fish-house, where they
occasionally remained over night. The old man had
the misfortune to break an arm, and by imprudence
he kept it lame for a long time. Early one morning
he called in at Shew's dwelling, situated over a knoll
and perhaps one-fourth of a mile from the fish-house
Rubbing his arm he began to give a sorry picture of
its lameness, in which he was suddenly interrupted
by Mrs. Shew. " Poh !" said she, " you have made
it lame by sleeping on the floor again at the fish-
house." " No I haven't," said he; " I slept on a good bed;
for Sir William brought down from the point a very
nice wide one, which was plenty large enough for
four"— "Four?" quickly interrogated Mrs. Shew, greatly

46 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
surprised at the reply of Wormwood, " pray how did
you manage to sleep four in a bed ?"
" 0, easy enough. Susannah made it up very nicely
on the floor, and then Sir William told us how to lay.
He first directed the women to get in the middle, and
now, said he to me, you get on that side and take
care of your old woman next to you, and I'll get in on
this side and try to take care of Susannah. No, I
didn't make my arm lame by sleeping on the floor last
night." It is unnecessary to add, Mrs. S. did not
question her neighbor any farther.
To dispose of this family in a few words, which
catered for years to pamper the baser passions of an
influential man, liberally endowed with Solomondic
lust; the two sons went to Canada with Sir John
Johnson ; Elizabeth married somebody, and moved
away; Susannah, with an heir, if not two, to the Sa
condaga vlaie — sex unknown — remained about Johns
town with her parents until late in the Revolution,
and then went to Canada. Old Wormwood was seen
at Amsterdam after the war by a former neighbor,
who enquired where he lived ? " Any where," he re
plied, " where I can find a house." Poor weak man,
he has beyond doubt parted with his ' mortal coil'
long since; but his old bones, we hazard a conjecture,
more than once felt the need of Sir William's ' wide
bed,' or some other, before that solemn event.
About the fish-house, Sir William Johnson re
served one hundred acres of land, which was conns-

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 47
cated with his son's estate in the Revolution. When
sold by the sequestrating committee, it was purchased
by Major Nicholas Fish (he was adjutant-general of
militia after the war), for one hundred pounds. Maj.
Fish sold it at the close of the war to Asahel Parkes,
of Shaftsbury, Vermont, who resided several years
upon it. He built a dwelling upon the low ground a
few rods from the mouth of Vlaie creek; and the fol
lowing spring he was driven out of it by some four
feet of water. Traces of this building are still to be
seen west of the road, just above the river bridge.
Parkes sold the Fish-house farm to Alexander St
John. The village has since been built upon it.
The bridge just alluded to crosses the river where
it makes its great angle, and only a few rods below
the mouth of Vlaie cfeek. The Sacondaga at this
place is about two-thirds as large as the Mohawk is
at Fultonville. The cost of this bridge, a covered
one, in Barber & Howe's Historical Collections of New
York, is erroneously stated to have been ' sixty thou
sand dollars.' It cost about six thousand dollars, and
was built by the state's munificence in 1818; at which
time Jacob Shew was in the legislature and advocated
the measure with success. It was supposed the state
would soon realize the funds again, by the sale of her
lands on the north side of the river, a market for
which would be more readily found by improving the
way to them. How profitable the investment has
proved for the state we are unable to say, but the

48 TRAPPERS OF NEW-YORK.
convenience of a free bridge to the public is invalua
ble. The state was soon remunerated. Shew.
Among the unwise measures adopted in the early
part of our struggle for liberty, was that of fortifying
Summer-house point; it being supposed by some that
an enemy from the north, would be likely to approach
the point by water. Part of a regiment of continental
troops under Col. Nicholson was stationed here much
of the summer of 1776. An intrenchment six feet
wide and several feet deep was cut across the eastern
end of the point ; while the cottage in green livery,
as we may suppose, assumed a warlike aspect. The
point as a military post was abandoned at the end of
the summer. The summer-house shared the same
fate as the fish-house, in the Revolution ; as they were
both burnt about the year 1781. We suppose that,
from the fact that this cottage had been occupied by
the Americans as a military post, and that the repos
session of it by Sir John Johnson was now placed
almost beyond a doubt among the impossibilities; he
gave instructions to some hostile invaders to burn that
and the fish-house, that they should fall to the own
ership and occupancy of no one else. All traces of
the fortifications on the point have disappeared, the
ditch having become entirely filled up by deposits
from the marsh.
Just before Summer-house point was garrisoned, a
scout of several men was sent from Johnstown to re
connoitre in its vicinity. From the point thfy crossed

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 49
the marsh to the bank of the Sacondaga, and not find
ing any trace of an enemy's approach, they returned
to the point. When ready to retrace their steps to
Johnstown, they found the boat had been left by some
person on the opposite shore of the Kennyetto. In
attempting to cross the stream and get it, one of the
men, named Willie Boiles, a continental soldier, was
drowned. His body was recovered and buried on the
northerly end of the point, a few rods southerly from
the fence toward the road, and not far distant from the
Mayfield creek. No stone or stake indicates the spot.
Summer-house point was sold by Jeremiah Van
Rensselaer, one of the committee for sequestrations,
to James Caldwell of Albany. Who now owns this
delightful spot I am unable to say. Formerly, when
it became the rallying spot for hay-makers, cranberry-
pickers and fishermen, temporary bridges were made
across the creeks upon its sides, by throwing over
stringers and covering them with brush and hay. The
timber was drawn upon the point in the winter, to be
restored in the summer.
A settlement was begun in Mayfield, some ten miles
to the northward of Johnson Hall, under the patronage
of Sir William Johnson, about as early as Stoner's
location at Fonda's Bush. The first settlers who ob
tained a title from the Baronet to one hundred acres
of land each, were two brothers named Solomon and
Seely Woodworth, Simeon Christie, two brothers
named Reynolds, Jacob Dunham,  Cadman, Jona.
5

50 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
Canfield, Capt.  Flock, a captain when in New
England; and possibly one or two others. Christie
was a Scotchman; the rest of the settlers, or nearly all
of them were enterprising Yankees. The Wood-
worths were from Salisbury, Connecticut; Seely set
tled near the present site of Mayfield Corners, and his
brother about a mile to the westward of him. The
rest of the pioneers were scattered about the wood
man's neighborhood. Perhaps the only descendant of
this early settlement now living upon the homestead,
is Simon, a son of Simeon Christie.
Solomon Woodworth was killed by the Indians in
the Revolution, as I have elsewhere published. The
circumstances attending his death, as related by an
eye-witness, I design to give the public at some future
day, as also the captivity of several of the settlers at
Fish House and Fonda's Bush, and fate of Eikler and
young Shew. Old Mr. Dunham was murdered by the
Indians in the war, as related on page 294 of my His
tory of Schoharie County, etc., where the name is in
accurately printed Durham. His wife was not mur
dered at the time, as there stated. The house was
plundered, but from motives of policy not then burned.
Dunham had a son, a young officer under Capt. Solo
mon Woodworth, who shared the fate of his brave
commander, as will be shown hereafter.
After Shew located at Fish House, and before the
Revolution, John Eikler, Lent and Nicholas Lewis,
brothers, Robert Martin, Zebulon Algar, a family of

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 51
Ketchums and one of Chadwicks, also settled in that
neighborhood. All of them left at the beginning of
difficulties, except Shew, Martin and Algar. These
pioneers at first had to go to Johnstown for their mill
ing. To accommodate them and the Mayfield settle
ment, Sir William Johnson erected a small grist mill
at the latter place, in 1773 or '74, and had the avails
of it during the remainder of his life. It was either
burnt in the war, or rendered nearly valueless by
neglect. The mill property having been confiscated,
it was purchased at the close of the war by Abraham
Romeyn, the oldest son of the Rev. Dr. Romeyn, who
had been an artificer in the Revolution. He rebuilt
the mill again, and put it in operation.
Soon after Romeyn got his mill in operation,
Thomas Shankland — who had been a prisoner among
the Indians — erected a grist mill on the Kennyetto,
in the present town of Providence, to which the Fish
House settlers repaired, as it was a mile or two nearer
than the Mayfield mill, with no intervening marsh.
This mill is now owned by Jonathan Haggidorn. The
bolts in those mills to separate the flour from the bran,
were turned by hand. It was the usual practice for
customers to turn the bolt for their own grist — a task
they were by no means pleased with. After the
country became more settled, and probably as early as
1800, one Van Hoesen erected a mill also in Provi
dence, situated about half a mile east of Fish House,
on a stream which rises on the Maxon mountain.

52 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
Speaking of mills, we are reminded of the follow
ing anecdote of Sir William Johnson. While he was
living at Fort Johnson, he made some alteration in
his grist-mill near by—putting in a new pair of mill
stones. A German named Francis Salts, who was
erecting a mill for Messrs. Philip and Jacob Frederick,
situated on the Schoharie river, some five or six miles
above its mouth, called on the Baronet to purchase
the old grinders. The price was stipulated, and after
some little conversation about the terms of payment,
the quondam owner told his customer to take them
home, get his mill in operation, and if he would sing
a song when the debt was due, that pleased him, he
would exact no other pay.
It was not long ere the buzzing and clitter clatter
evinced the new mill in successful motion. When
pay day for the millstones arrived, Mr. Salts went to
Fort Johnson to cancel the debt. He was quite a
song singer, and had possibly prepared himself with
something new, expressly for the fastidious ear of his
creditor. In the presence of several of the Baronet's
friends, who were, no doubt, invited in expressly to
hear them, song after song was sung, to the evident
amusement of all save the one he desired to please;
but his features remained uncommonly rigid. Having
exhausted his catalogue of German songs, without
discovering any expression of delight on the counte
nance of his creditor, the millwright thrust his hands
into a deep pocket, and drew forth a long pouch of

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 53
the ready, singing in no very good humor as he did
so: ©elbSadf, ©elbSacf, bu mum fierauS,
Der Tlam Wilt bejablt getn.*
" That will do — now put up your money," said Sir
William, at the end of a burst of laughter.
"And are you paid? " asked Salts, with evident sur
prise, as he returned the purse to his pocket.
" Yes, yes," said the now delighted lover of fun,
" that will do— that's the best of the whole." The
songster went home rejoicing, and left the Baronet
and his guests to discuss the merit of his songs over
a bottle of wine, when he was far away. — Col. Peter
Young and Volkert Voorhees.
If Sir William Johnson enjoyed a joke at the ex
pense of some friend, they occasionally got the rig
upon him, as the following anecdote will show. Just
after the close of the French war, in which he had
acted so conspicuous a part, and for which he was
placed on the baronial list, Sir William had occasion
to go to Albany. At that period there were only two
or three dwellings in the whole distance between
Albany and Schenectada, and they were little if any
better than squatter's lodges of more modern times.
There were numerous little swamps and marshes along
the road, and the Baronet returning to Schenectada
on horseback, passed a little marsh, in which he heard,
* Money bag ! money bag ! you must come out !
The man he will be paid !
5*

54 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
as he believed, the voice of a new animal. Nearing
a house just after, he inquired, What animals were
making such a strange noise ? He was answered with
a grin, that they were bullfrogs! He spurred up his
horse, not a little mortified to think he had but just
learned, as his countrymen would say, " what a toad a
frog was."
The family of which he inquired knew him (indeed
that family which did not know him in Western New
York, was behind the times), and soon the nature of
his inquiry reached the ears of his most intimate
friends, who bored him so unmercifully about it, that
he was obliged to own up. He admitted that he
never was so ashamed of having asked a question in
his life, as he was of that about the new animals on
the pine plains below Dorp. — James Frazier.
After the preceding pages were stereotyped, I
learned that the given name of Dunham, mentioned
on page 49, was Jacob: that when he was murdered,
as stated on page 50, which took place April 11, 1779,
a son named Samuel met the same fate. Zebulon,
another son, was made prisoner, but escaped from his
captors while they were engaged in plundering the
house. John, a third son of Jacob Dunham, fell with
Capt. Woodworth, in Fairfield. — Hon. John Dunham,
of Wells, N. Y., a son of Ebenezer Dunham, and
grandson of Jacob Dunham, above named.

CHAPTER IV.
Very little is known of Nicholas Stoner's boyhood,
but from his propensity in riper years we may suppose,
that if he did not play off some wild pranks, it was
only for the want of a butt. With perceptions na
turally quick, his city life afforded him a fine school
for the study of human nature as developed in the
actions of men; but the transition at so early an age
to sylvan shades, where, instead of artificial objects
he might behold nature by the pencil of God adorned,
was genial to his untamed spirit, and he was soon
fitted to enjoy to the fullest extent the life of a wood
man: finding music in the scream of the panther,
growl of the bear and bay of the wolf. *
When a cry from the Boston Cradle announced that
the infant Liberty was about to be strangled by its
pretended nurse; the Gray Forest Eagle,
" An emblem of freedom, stern, haughty and high,"
having plumed his broad wing for a heliocentric
flight, was up —
" And away like a spirit wreathed in light,"
he fluttered over the land of his choice, until he aroused
the patriotism not only of the indweller of city and
village, but of him, who, though isolated his home,
could appreciate untrammeled thought and act.

56 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
The first two years of the war of Independence, the
pioneer inhabitants of New York enjoyed comparative
tranquillity; for the swift-footed Indian had not fully
determined to raise the hatchet of death against un
offending innocence, in a quarrel that did not directly
concern him, and crimson the altar of domestic hap
piness for the golden calf royalty had set up: but
as the portending storm lowered, and it became known
that the red man, having sharpened his scalping knife
and participated in the war dance of his nation, was
then on his way to the frontiers ; exposed settlers who
were inclined to look with favor on the acts of those
who were raising an arm of rebellion along the sea
board, found it necessary to remove to thickly peopled
neighborhoods. Accordingly, the families making up
the small and scattered settlement of Fonda's Bush,
except that of Helmer and Putman, removed early in
the summer of 1777, to Johnstown : soon after which
Nicholas Stoner went to reside with the Fisher bro
thers in the Mohawk valley.* Living with patriots,
* John and Harmanus Fisher. They resided at that period
where the Hon. Jesse D . DeGroff now resides, between the vil
lages of Fonda and Amsterdam, and were both killed and scalped
by the Indians and tories in the summer of 1780 ; at which time
the former was a captain and the latter a lieutenant of militia.
Col. Frederick Fisher (or Visscher, as he wrote his name in the
latter part of his life) , a third brother, chanced to be there at the
time, and was scalped and left for dead, but recovered and lived
many years. For a more particular account of the Fisher family
and their sufferings, see my Border Wars of New York.

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 57
although a lad of only 14 or 15 summers, it is not sur
prising that young Stoner, who had been properly
schooled at home as the removal ofthe family indicates,
should have imbibed the spirit which throbbed in older
hearts, and been ready to stand or fall with the com
mon cause of his country.
Visiting his friends in Johnstown in the summer of
1777, at which time it had become a military post,
Nicholas, for whose ear martial music had peculiar
charms, needed but little persuasion to become a sol
dier, and enlisted as a fifer into a company of New
York troops, commanded by captain Timothy Hughes.
Not long after his brother John, a mere boy, enlisted
under Capt. Wright. Captain W. had been a British
drum-major previous to the Revolution, and being
pleased with John, undertook to perfect him in the
art of ' flammadiddles and paddadiddles — in other words,
in the ability to make a world of noise in a scientific
manner. Henry Stoner, imitating the example of his
boys, soon after enlisted under Capt. Robersham for a
term of three years. The father and sons were all in
the same regiment, so that they not only saw each
other almost daily, but the former could to some little
extent, still exercise the duties of a parent. The re
giment alluded to was commanded by Col. James
Livingston, of which Richard Livingston was lieuten
ant-colonel, and Abraham Livingston captain; the
three Livingstons being brothers. In August 1777,
the troops under Col. Livingston joined the army of

58 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
Gen. Arnold, while on its way up the Mohawk valley,
to succor Col. Gansevoort at Fort Stanwix. Among
the patriotic rangers who left Johnstown at this time
was Jacob Shew, who is still living.
Nicholas Stoner saw the spy, Han Yost Schuyler,
who was captured at Shoemaker's place (where Spen
cer now lives, at the upper end of Mohawk village),
set out on his mission to excite the fears of the enemy,
and thus save his own neck from a halter.* Boats
* This Han Yost (John Joseph) Schuyler and Walter Butler
were fortunately made prisoners near Fort Dayton, about the
time of Arnold's arrival at that post. Butler was sent down to
Albany as a prisoner. Schuyler had entered the Mohawk valley
as a spy — was tried by court-martial and sentenced to be hung, his
coffin being made ready to receive his remains. Gen. Arnold
thought to turn his life to more profitable account than his death,
and agreed to spare him on condition that he would enter the camp
of St. Ledger, and by an exaggerated account of the forces ad
vancing under his command, thus contribute towards raising the ¦
siege of Fort Stanwix, then called Fort Schuyler. Schuyler
accepted the terms for his life; and his brother Nicholas was
retained as a hostage, to suffer in his stead in case of a noncompli
ance. Han Yost entered the enemy's lines, and his known fidelity
to their cause gave his representation of Arnold's forces no little
weight. Probably Schuyler had been sent below to learn whether
American troops were approaching. The camp was thrown into
confusion, and it was resolved to raise the siege. Several shrewd
Oneidas friendly to the American cause were in the secret, and ere
St. Ledger began his retrograde movement, one of them dropped
into the camp as if by chance. He was interrogated as to his
knowledge of the approaching Yankees, and replied mysteriously,
but in a manner to inspire awe. " Are the Yankees numerous?"
inquired a tory officer. The Indian pointing- to the surrounding

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 59
laden with provisions were taken up the Mohawk,
guarded by troops along the shore. As they drew
near the theatre of the brave Herkimer's disasters,
evidences of the terrible onslaught at Oriskany met
them. Near the mouth of the Oriskany creek, a gun
was found standing against a tree with a pair of boots
hanging on it; while in the creek near, in a state
bordering on putrefaction, lay their supposed owner.
In the grass a little way from the shore, lay a genteely
dressed man without coat or hat, who it was supposed
had made his way there to obtain drink. A black
silk handkerchief encircled his once aching head.
John Clark, a sergeant, loosened it, but the hair ad-
forest replied by asking — " Can Oneida count the leaves? Can
white man count the stars?" The siege was precipitately aban
doned, and agreeably to arrangement another and another Oneida
entered the ranks of the foe to add their enigmatic testimony to
that ofthe first. The stratagem succeeded to a charm; and find
ing opportunity to return to the army of Arnold, and thence to
Fort Dayton, Schuyler saw his brother set free and went back to
Canada. Subsequent to the war, Schuyler returned to Herkimer
county where he died. Facts from John Roof, who was on duty
at Fort Dayton, and saw the coffin made for Schuyler, and who
was familiar with the circumstances which led to his arrest and
novel liberation; corroborated by John Docksiader, of Herkimer.
Says the latter, this Schuyler had a brother and two sisters who
were carried captive to Canada in the French war, and were re
tained there until it closed. Herkimer, then called the Palatine's
village, was invaded by the French and Indians in November,
1757, its dwellings, grain, mills, etc., destroyed by fire, and its
inhabitants mostly slain or carried into captivity ; as we may show
at some future day.

60 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
hered to it on its removal, and he left the prize. He
took from his feet a pair of silver shoe-buckles. His
legs were so swollen, that his deer-skin breeches were
rent from top to bottom. Nine dead bodies lay across
the road, disposed in regular order, as was imagined,
by the Indians after their death. The stench was so
great that the Americans could not discharge the last
debt due their heroic countrymen, and their bones
were soon after bleaching upon the ground. A little
farther on an Indian was seen hanging to the limb of
a tree by the heels. He was suspended with the traces
of a harness from a baggage wagon by the Americans,
as believed, after death. Col. St. Ledger having made
a flying retreat towards Canada, Gen. Arnold, after
giving his troops time to rest, left Fort Stanwix and
returned with his command to the army of Gen. Gates
near Stillwater.
At some period subsequent to the action of September
J9th, in which Gen. Arnold was by many thought the
master spirit of the American officers engaged, an
altercation took place between him and Gen. Gates,
supposed by some on account of envy entertained to
wards the former, either by Gen. Wilkinson or Gen.
Gates, and possibly both,* which resulted in his being
deprived of his command. Consequently, in the san
guinary battle which took place on Bemis's Heights,
October 7th, Gen. Arnold had no authority for the
glorious deeds he there performed. Towards evening
* See Neilson's Burgoyne's Campaign, page 150.

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 61
of that day, that daring chief led a body of troops into
the very heart ofthe Hessian camp; carrying dismay
along the whole British line. In this impetuous onset
he was shot through the leg* and would to God the
ball had passed through his heart; and that that fear
less and reckless leader, who, up to that hour had
been one of Liberty's boldest champions, could have
sealed with his life-blood his former deeds of glory !
Yes, would to God that that brave general, who had
faced his country's foes on the snow-clad plains of
Abraham, and been a companion in peril of the gal
lant, warm-hearted Montgomery, could now have
found a grave on those heights, where his own blood
had mingled with that of the foeman ! But alas ! alas !
a sombre destiny awaited him.
Among the death-daring spirits who followed Ar
nold to the Hessian camp, was Nicholas Stoner, and
near the enemy's works he was wounded in a singular
manner. A cannon shot from the breastwork killed a
soldier near Stoner, named Tyrrell. The ball de
molished his head, sending its fragments into the face
of Stoner, which was literally covered with brains,
hair and fragments of the skull. He fell senseless,
with the right of his head about the ear severely cut
* A wounded Hessian fired on Arnold, and John Redman, a vo
lunteer, ran up to bayonet him, but was prevented by his general,
who exclaimed, " He's a fine fellow — don't hurt him .'" The
Hessians continued to fight after they were down, because they*
had been told by their employers that the Americans would give no
quarters . — Stoner. 6

62 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
by portions of the skull bone, which injury still affects
his hearing in that ear. Shortly after, as the young
fifer was missing, one Sweeney, an Irish soldier, was
sent to seek out and bear him from the field ; but a
cannon shot whizzed so near his own head, that he
soon returned without the object of his search. Col.
Livingston asked Sweeney where the lad Stoner was?
" Ja — s! colonel," replied the soldier, " a goose has
laid an egg there, and you don't catch me to stay
there !" Lieut. William Wallace then proceeded to the
spot indicated by the Irishman, and found our hero
with his head reclining upon Tyrrell's thigh, and taking
him in his arms, bore him to the American camp.
When young Stoner was found, a portion of the brim
ofhis hat, say about one-fourth the size of a nine-pound
shot, was observed to have been cut off very smoothly,
the rest of it was covered with the ruins of the head
of Tyrrell, who, to use the words of Stoner, did not
know what hurt him.
Peter Graff, from Switzer Hill, and Peter Conyne
also from the vicinity of Caughnawaga, were at the
American camp as teamsters on the day of this bat
tle, and served as volunteers among the troops led on
by Arnold. Conyne having raised a gun to fire on
the enemy, received a bullet in his arm and breast
Young Stoner and Conyne were taken from Stillwater
to Albany in a boat with other wounded Americans.
Col. Frederick Fisher chanced to be in that city when
they arrived, and took Stoner home with him, from

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 63
whence he carried him to Johnstown. He was under
the care of Dr. Thomas Reed, a surgeon in Livingston's
regiment, and was cured. Conyne also recovered.
In the summer of 1778, the three Stoners were all
on duty in Rhode Island. In an engagement with
the enemy while there, the father was wounded by a
musket ball, which lodged in his head. He was sent
to Providence, where he was trepanned, and recovered.
A piece of silver placed over the wound, it was be
lieved, the Indians who afterwards killed and scalped
him, obtained with their plunder. The relic (an
ounce ball), was preserved by the wounded man, but
was lost when his dwelling was burnt by the hirelings
of Britain.
While the Stoners were serving in Rhode Island,
the following incident occurred in the American camp.
Two soldiers, Williams a Yankee, and Cumming an
Irishman, had a quarrel, in which the former gave the
latter a severe flogging. To revenge his chagrin, the
worsted combatant took a shirt from his own knap
sack, and placed ft in that of Williams, to give it
the appearance of having been stolen, in the hope of
seeing the latter punished. The officers found it ne
cessary to use severe measures for petty theft, as it
was of very frequent occurrence. The missing gar
ment of Cumming having been found in Williams's
possession, the latter was tied up with his coat off to
be whipped. The son of Erin, conscience stricken,
then advanced into the ring, and drew off his coat to

64 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
take the lash. He said he had received one licking
from Williams, and although he had used stratagem
to get him publicly flogged, he would rather receive
the scorpion-tailed cat himself, than see a man pun
ished for a crime of which he was not guilty. So
manly a confession on the part of Cumming, excited
the admiration of the Rev. John Greenough, a baptist
minister, and chaplain of the regiment, who interceded
with Col. Livingston, and he readily forgave them
both. The Americans had several skirmishes with the
enemy in Rhode Island, in the summer and autumn of
1778, in two of which Nicholas Stoner was engaged.
Capt. Hughes was out one night with his command
as a piquet guard on Poppasquash point, opposite
Bristol. The troops having been observed before dark
by a British vessel in the vicinity, a body of marines
and grenadiers landed and made them prisoners. The
enemy having gained the beach in boats, came round
a salt marsh which was separated from a corn field by
a stone wall. Capt. Hughes and his men were on the
marsh side of the wall, and fired on the marines as
they approached. The latter called to them not to
• fire, saying, " we are your own men." As they drew
near, their white belts betrayed them however, and
the Americans attempted their retreat. In endeavoring
to leap the wall, our hero missed his footing and fell
back, at which instant he was seized by the collar by
a British grenadier named John McGaffee. At this

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 65
instant another soldier raised his musket to strike him
down, but was prevented by McGaffee, who exclaimed,
" Vast, shipmate, it is only a child." Daniel Basin,
a Frenchman, who was leaping the wall near Stoner,
was bayoneted and killed. Capt. Hughes and all his
men were made prisoners, except the one killed, and
two who were missing, supposed to have scaled the
fence and escaped; and as the American army was
near, they were hurried into the boats and taken to
Conanicut island. While crossing the marsh to the
boats, the young fifer thought it was best to secure
the rum in his canteen, and accordingly took a long
gurgling swig, which was broken off by McGaffee,
who claimed a share, as being his by the fortune of
war, and he gave the finishing guzzle. As they
neared the beach, Stoner threw the empty casket away.
An officer hearing it strike the water, raised his sword
to punish, as he supposed, an act of treachery, think
ing a prisoner had cast a cartridge-box from him, but
McGaffee, with his tongue now oiled, again inter
posed, and observed that the boy had only thrown away
an empty and valueless canteen.
At daylight the prisoners were paraded and lodged
in the enemy's prison on the island. When aroused
by the morning roll-call, young Stoner, who had been
wofully drunk, from his attempt to swallow the contents
of his own flask the evening before, and whose brain
was still broiling from the effects of the potation, started
up, supposing at first he was required to play the re-
6*

66 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
veille in the American camp, but he was soon brought
to his senses, and to a situation in which he could
get sober at his leisure; in other words, he learned
that others were to pipe while he danced. John Stoner
was at this time a drummer in the American camp,
not far distant from where his brother was a prisoner;
indeed, the spangled banner was floating in sight*
Gen. Prescott,* the British commander on that sta
tion, was captured the summer before Capt. Hughes
was taken. He had gone to pay his devoirs to a
buxom widow, at a little distance from his own camp,
and a slave of the lady found means to communicate
the fact to the Americans. Lieut.-Col. Barton, of the
Providence militia, an officer of spirit, at once con
ceived the bold project of his capture. At dead of
night, in a barge, well manned by stout-hearted volun
teers with muffled oars, he landed and approached
the house in which the general was so happily quar
tered. Feeling quite secure, he had accepted the kind
lady's hospitality, and resolved to tarry all night.
Possibly his arrest was set on foot by the fair hostess,
for woman often proved the champion of freedom.
The general was nabbed in a bed-chamber; and
without allowing the drowsy hero time to collect his
*At the time Gen. Prescott's capture was noted, it had escaped
the writer's recollection that an account of it had ever been pub
lished; and Stoner's narrative of the event was adopted in the
first edition, making it a year later than its occurrence. It took
place July 10, 1777 — five miles from Newport. Col. Barton left
Warwick Neck with 38 men in two boats, surprised the genera]
in bed, and returned with him in safety (Holmes's Jlnnals).

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 67
scattered thoughts, or the war-god to chase the dreams
of love from his mind — or, indeed, what was far more
uncharitable, time to put on his breeches, he was
hurried off to the rebel barge. Passing through a
piece of standing barley, his legs were tickled, as we
may suppose, not in the most agreeable manner. So
silently had the Americans arrived, and so brief had
been their stay, that they were even bending their
oars for their own camp before the general's guard
could be mustered. Great was the surprise among
the British next day, when it became known that their
general had been spirited away. On being apprised
of the fact, some of the soldiers were heard to say,
" The rebels have got the old rascal, and I hope they'll
kill him! " He was a man some sixty years of age,
was a severe disciplinarian, and not very popular. He
was exchanged for Gen. Lee — for which object he was
possibly captured — in April preceding the surprise of
Capt. Hughes. After several months imprisonment,
Capt Hughes' and his command were exchanged.
In the fall of 1778, the several regiments of New
York state troops having become much reduced, a
new organization took place, their number being les
sened, at which time Nicholas Stoner joined the com
pany of Capt. Samuel T. Pell, attached to Col. Cort-
landt's regiment, which marched to Schenectada. The
state troops were sent, during the winter months, to
different frontier stations, and Capt. Pell proceeded to
Johnstown for winter quarters.

68 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
Small parties of the enemy kept the inhabitants
along the frontier of New York, in a state of almosl
constant alarm. While stationed at Johnstown Nicho
las Stoner often went hunting and fishing with other
lads, to provide a dainty morsel for some officer, who
thought more of his palate than of his purse; and con
sequently paid liberally for their success. Young
Stoner, in company with three others, one Charles-
worth, Charles Darby and John Foliard, all nearly of
the same age, went out with guns and fishing tackle,
in the vicinity of Johnson Hall. After they had be
come busily engaged along the Cayadutta,* all at once
Darby, without uttering a word, was seen to start as
if terribly frightened, and run off in the direction of
the Hall. His comrades soon learned the cause of his
alarm, by seeing a small party of Indians emerge from
a patch of hemp not far distant from them, and near
the Hall barn. One of them fired on Charlesworth,
but the boys scattered, fled and all effected their
escape. These Indians, or, as probably some of them
were, tories disguised, had no doubt visited the settle
ment as spies, and were anxious to take back a pri
soner as a proof of having accomplished their mission.
They were sure of their reward, if they could return
• Ca-ya-dut-ta signifies muddy creek, says the Hon. John Dun
ham, of Hamilton county, who had the signification from Indian
hunters. The creek courses in Johnstown through a soil which
gives to the water at most seasons of the year a dirty appearance ;
hence the aboriginal name.

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 69
with occular evidence of having visited the place de
signated by some British or refugee officer in Canada.
Thomas Harter, an inoffensive man, nearly seventy
years old, who resided in Scotch Bush, a few miles
from Johnson Hall, went to his field, bridle in hand,
to catch a horse, and was made prisoner and taken to
Canada, by a small party of the enemy (in the fall of
1778, or spring of 1779), that did not wish to harm
him, but were anxious to prove they had been to
Johnstown. His unaccountable absence from home
greatly alarmed his family, but their apprehensions
were softened by a tory neighbor, who assured them
he was alive, but had been taken prisoner as a matter
of necessity, and would be kindly used. His treat
ment was not as cruel as that meted to most prisoners,
and he lived to return home, to the great joy of his
friends.

CHAPTER V.
Conrad Reed, a baker in New York city, married
Miss Barbary Stoner, a second sister of Henry Stoner,
and removed to Johnstown just before the Revolution.
He dwelt some distance from the fort, but was em
ployed to bake for the garrison. When on duty at
Johnstown, the Stoner boys not unfrequently took
occasion to visit their uncle's family, but those visits
were not approved by their father; who knew that
his kinsman was tinctured with royalty, and he often
cautioned them against going there. Nicholas called
there one evening, and had been but a short time in
the house, when he heard a slight tap upon a window.
Mr. Reed instantly disappeared through a trap-door
into the cellar without a candle, and his wife went
out of the house. There seemed a sprinkling of mys
tery in the affair, but it did not excite Stoner's fears,
and he awaited in silence the issue. After a few
minutes' absence, his aunt came in having in her hand
several gaudy handkerchiefs. She appeared rather
more reserved after the singular interruption of the
family,- and he soon returned to the fort.
Stoner learned subsequently, that a small party of
the enemy, one of whom was John Howell, who dwelt
between Johnstown and Sacondaga, had visited the

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 71
settlement as spies: that they had seen him through
the window, and by a tap on a pane of glass, a signal
she well understood, had called out Mrs. Reed, to con
sult her about making him a prisoner. She told them
that if he was captured there, it would be the ruin of
their family; for her husband would certainly lose his
employ as baker for the garrison, if in fact he was not
imprisoned. They reluctantly withdrew, although
Howell could hardly consent to let so favorable an
opportunity pass for securing certain evidence of
having accomplished their mission. The young fifer
did not know until long after, how near he had been
to a Canadian prison. The handkerchiefs left with
Mrs. Reed were presents, to adorn the necks of several
tory ladies, whose husbands or lovers were in Canada.
About a mile from the Johnstown fort (the jail in
closed by strong palisades), dwelt Jeremiah Mason,
whose family was numbered among those in the
vicinity, as friendly to the . cause of liberty. ' This
Mason had a daughter named Anna, about the same
age as our hero ; who was a maiden very fair to look
upon. Nature had given her charming proportions;
a stature seemly, gracefully jutting out where swell
ings were most becoming, and bewitchingly tapering
where diminution is sought in female form. Her skin
was clear and fair, and her hair and eyes black, the
latter shaded by raven lashes under the control of
muscle, that gave to the organs of love a most melting
expression.

72 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
Some distance farther from the fort, and on the
same road as Mason, dwelt a family named Browse;
the male members of which were in the camp of the
enemy. At home were Mrs. Browse and two beauti
ful daughters. They, too, were in their teens, and
like Anna Mason, they had sparkling black eyes, ruby
lips and cherry cheeks. The war of the Revolution
soon rendered neighboring families distant and formal,
where they looked with diverse favor upon the acts
of the contending parties, even though they had been
intimate before. The resolutions of vigilance com
mittees often tended to such a result.
I have remarked elsewhere, that young Stoner, when
on duty at Johnstown, went hunting in the proper
season. His pigeon hunting often gave him an inter
view with the young ladies named, and not unfre
quently did Anna, as the hunter was about to proceed
farther from the garrison, with some anxiety and a
reproving look, cast a caution in his path from her
father's door, such as " Nicholas, you'll be surprised
yet at that tory house and taken off to Canada: you
had better not go there." If the maiden had not con
ceived some attachment for the young fifer, the reader
will agree with me, that she was possessed of sisterly
feelings. He was then quite partial to Anna, as he
admits, and we think he must have promised her to
limit his future excursions to a nearer range, else why
the caution observed in another visit.
As the young musician usually hunted in the same

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 73
direction, it was suspected by more than one at the
station that he went sky-larking, and James Dunn,
who was possibly in the secret of his destination, one
day told Capt. Pell that " if he did not look out he
would lose his fifer, as he not only went upon danger
ous grounds, but hunted two kinds of pigeons." The
captain, whose inclinations led him to follow all the
fortunes of war, took occasion secretly to catechise
the young hunter ; and the latter, with his usual can
dor, owned up. The consequence was, the commander
ofthe garrison concluded the hunting of pigeons must
be rare sport, especially if they were not too lean, and
soon obtained a promise from young Nimrod to take
him where he could find one nestled.
Arrangements having been made for a hunt, secretly
of course, a garment was thrown over the back of an
old white mare belonging to the widow Shutting,
which sought its living around the fort; and selecting
a propitious evening, the hunter and his pupil — under
cover of a cluster of trees a little distance from the
garrison, mounted their Rozinante and set off. The
reader may be surprised that they started on a pigeon
hunt in the evening, and still more when informed
that they left their shooting-irons behind; but this is
all owing to his ignorance of the policy of war, for
he should know that game is easier taken on the roost
than on the wing.
It was the wish of the master hunter to avoid pass
ing on their way the house of Jeremiah Mason, and

74 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
why, possibly the reader may infer; he says himself,
however, it was from fear a watch-dog might betray
the nature of their errand and thus startle the best
game : consequently a blind and circuitous route was
chosen, some distance from the public highway.
Whether the animal was too heavily loaded or not, we
can not judge any better than the reader (sin is said
to be weighty), but sure it is that in threading an
intricate footpath carpeted by a web of briars and un
derbrush along a ravine, the mare stumbled and went
heels over head, sending her riders far from her, if not
pell-mell, certainly Pell and Nick. Bestowing some
harsh epithets upon the poor beast, which probably
had the worst of the bargain, they did not attempt to
remount; but leaving the old mare to her fate, they
proceeded on foot
On arriving near the hunting-grounds, Stoner went
forward to reconnoitre, and finding the coast clear,
returned and conducted his captain into a neat little
cottage, with two rooms below, and possibly as many
above. The ceremony of an introduction once passed,
the captain soon found himself quite at home. The
time for retiring to rest at length arrived, and as the
old hen roosted in the room they were in, it became
necessary for the hunters to leave it: consequently the
hunter most familiar with the premises, followed the
pullet in its flight to a chamber. The other bird soon
after fluttered past the captain into an adjoining room,
whither he pursued possibly to capture it.

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 75
I do not consider it important to the present narra
tive to stop and inquire of an ornithologist,
" If birds confabulate or no:
'Tis clear that they were always able
To hold discourse, at least in fable;"
and that the genus columba,
Soon are cooing when together
If they meet in coolish weather,
is a fact so well established, it must be obvious to the
reader that pigeon hunting may be rare sport. Some
time after the beautiful birds under consideration had
flown to separate rooms, into which we can not think
of introducing the reader, as the cooing was done
agreeably to the most approved style then in vogue in
western New York, the loud barking of Mason's dog
fell upon the ears of the hunter closeted above. His
apprehension was in a moment on tiptoe; for to be
surprised by a party of the enemy and either slain or
captured with his captain in such a place and at such
an hour, without their having the least means of de
fence, he readily saw must bring scandal if not dis
honor upon the American arms; and he descended
(although his bird attempted with a delicate little
claw to prevent) to take a midnight observation.
It turned out that Mason's sentinel was barking at
the old mare the hunters had abandoned. Having
collected her scattered limbs, she too had concluded to
go browsing, and was, as the reader will perceive, on
the right track. On the return of his pioneer, the

76 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
captain was gratified to learn that there was no real
cause of alarm, and pigeon hunting soon prospered
again. Towards the dawn of day the sportsmen re
turned to the garrison; Capt. Pell exacting from his
musician the most solemn assurances of secresy re
specting his successful and only attempt at fowling
among the Browse, until he should meet with me.
The female and infant part of many families in the
border settlements of New York, whose male members
were foes of the country, removed about this period to
Canada, among which was this Browse family; and
such others as did not go voluntarily, were compelled
to by an act of the state legislature soon after.
In the summer and autumn of 1780, Nicholas Stoner
was on duty in the valley of the Hudson. He was a
fifer of the guard at Tappan, which attended Major
Andre from his prison to his gallows; and witnessed
the execution of that unfortunate man. The gallows
was constructed, as he says, by the erection of two
white oak crotches, with a cross-piece of the same
kind of timber, all with the bark on. Not far from
the gallows was an old woman selling pies,, to whom
Stoner directed his steps. He met at her stand Elijah
Cheadle, then a stranger to him. They paid this
huckstress $100 in continental money, for either an
apple pie, or pumpkin pie, which at first she declined
receiving: she finally concluded to take it, observing
as she did so, " My children, the pie is worth more
than the money, but I will take it that I may be able

TRAPPERS OF NEW -YORK. 77
to say, I sold a pie for one hundred dollars." Mr.
Cheadle settled at Kingsborough after the war, where
he resided at the time of his death, Sept. 23, 1849.
While stationed at Snake Hill, near the Hudson,
young Stoner's inclination to mischief procured for
him a duplicate flogging. There was daily about the
camp a boy named Albright, who had been so un
fortunate as to lose an eye. Stoner, inclined to be
waggish with all, procured the eye of a beef butchered
in the neighborhood, and offering it to Albright, said
to him, " Here, take this and you will then have two
eyes and be somebody." The boy complained to his
mother, an Irish woman, who, stating the matter to
the commanding officer, had the satisfaction of know
ing that he was punished for treating her son so un
kindly. Stoner did not relish the interference of the
mother, as the boy was about his own age, and began
to puzzle his wits for some method of retaliation. A
soldier's agent is powder, although he may be a fifer,
and loading an ugly looking bone with the dangerous
dust, he watched a favorable opportunity when she
was near his tent, and applied the match to it. The
explosion was greater than he had anticipated, and
the scattering fragments not only tore the old woman's
petticoats, but severely wounded her arm. Although
he had improved a most promising occasion to avoid
detection, yet some trivial incident betrayed Stoner as
the artillerist, and he was very severely whipped for
the act. He was served rightly no doubt.
7*

78 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
In the fall of 1781, Nicholas Stoner was on duty at
Yorktown, and when the seige of that place closed, he
saw Gen. O'Hara surrender his sword to Gen. Lincoln*
A part of the time while at Yorktown, our hero
was a fifer under the noble-hearted Lafayette. One
* Several errors have crept into history about this ceremony.
The facts were as follows: In May, 17S0, Gen. Lincoln, then in
command at Charleston, S. C, was compelled to surrender his
sword to Cornwallis. When his lordship found himself obliged to
yield to the allied army, he knew that Lincoln, who was his
equal in rank, was with the conquerors, and as the terms now
meted to him were precisely like those dictated to Lincoln, he
possibly may have conjectured that that officer would be designated
by the great American commander to receive his own polished
blade. Be that as it may, certain it is that instead of appearing
on the occasion, as a man of real courage and generosity would
have done (for that officer lacks moral courage who can not share
defeat with his men), he feigned illness and sent Gen. O'Hara to
do the disagreeable honors ; and that officer very handsomely per
formed the ceremony of tendering his sword to Gen. Lincoln, who
was appointed by Washington to receive it. Capt. Eben Wil
liams, ' who was present assured the writer, that Lincoln received,
reversed, and again restored the hilt of the weapon to its owner,
with a dignity and grace of gesture he could never forget, for he
had never seen it equalled. Several persons who witnessed this
ceremony have corroborated what I have here stated, and an old
soldier (James Williamson) , who received half the British stand
ards, to the question, why did not Cornwallis surrender his own
sword? replied, " J guess he was a little sick at his stomach!'"
In a picture intended to represent this scene, and but recently
got up, Gen. Washington erroneously appears in the act of re
ceiving the resignation from O'Hara, the latter being on foot. The
* This hero died at his residence in Schoharie, July 1, 1847, aged nearly 98
years. He was beloved by all who knew him.

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 7S
Darby, a fifer, having been killed, Stoner was sent as
a substitute to Gen. Lafayette's troops.
Mr. Nicholas Hill, a worthy and intelligent citizen
of Florida, N. Y., was also at Yorktown during its
seige, as a young musician. He informed the writer,
at an interview in the summer of 1846, that the firing
on the British works did not take place until the
Americans had completed a line of redoubts and bomb
batteries, so as to play on the greater part of the ene
my's fortifications at once. The allied army had raised
a liberty pole, and the signal to commence an assault
was given in the evening, by a hand-grenade sent up
near the liberty pole, attached to a sky-rocket. The
gunners stood ready with linstocks on fire, and as soon
as the grenade exploded in the air, they were applied
to the cannon. (Dr. Thatcher, in his Military Jour
nal, says Gen. Washington applied the first match.)
The simultaneous discharge of such an array of ord
nance, was perhaps never heard before; and nothing
general officers present, American, French and British, as several
witnesses have assured the writer, were all mounted. The pic
ture of this scene by Trumbull, a beautiful steel copy of which is
made the fontispiece of Howe's Historical Collections of Virginia,
although painted soon after, presents the British general trudging
along on foot, and without side arms; while Dr. Thatcher, in his
Military Journal, made at the time and published long since,
stated that he was elegantly mounted. Col. Abercrombie, who
commanded the left wing of the British army on this occasion,
was also on horseback. It is to be regretted that more care is not
taken in preparing historical pictures, lest truth be violated, and
the young taught popular errors never to be corrected.

80 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
could in the night exceed the sublimity of the con
cussion. To use the language of Mr. Hill, "It seemed
as though the world was at an end— or that the heavens
and the earth were coming together !" It must have
been the most magnificent salute ever before given in
America. After the first discharge the firing con
tinued as fast as the pieces could be loaded.
At some period of this seige, Mr. Hill was so for
tunate as to obtain eleven guineas from the pocket of
a dead Briton. " While this money lasted," says
Stoner, " we who were so fortunate as to have the
pleasure of his acquaintance, lived like fighting cocks."
The British prisoners made at Yorktown, were sent
to interior military posts; and Col. Cortlandt's regi
ment, to which Nicholas Stoner belonged, on its re
turn march took five hundred prisoners, destined for
Fredericksburg, in charge for some distance. While
the troops were crossing at a ferry, probably York or
Rappahannoc river, Stoner saw a French officer drop
his purse, and lost no time in restoring it to the owner.
The officer grateful for its recovery, although he had
not yet missed it, rewarded him with a half doubloon
($8), numerous bows, and not a few expressions of re
gard, such as — "You pe a grand poy! You pe bon
honest American! You pe a ver fine soldier, be gar! "
and the like. The reception of this money, obtained
through the generosity of a kind hearted stranger, for
an evidence of commendable integrity, afforded young
Stoner more pleasure, as he assured the writer, than

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 81
could possibly the whole amount the purse contained,
had he dishonestly kept it; for to retain that which we
know another has lost, is almost as great a crime as
to purloin it either by stealth or force ; and a " con
science void of offence," allows its possessor to sleep
soundly and have pleasant dreams. The young musi
cian had many friends while his eight dollars lasted,
for come easy, go easy, was the soldier's motto.
Henry Stoner, as elsewhere stated, enlisted for a
term of three years, in the American army. At the
expiration of that time he received his discharge at
Verplanck's point, soon after which he reenlisted at
Groton, for three months, to fill another man's place.
After the time of his second military engagement was
up, he returned home. For about one year he lived
on the farm of Col. John Butler, on Switzer hill, from
which he went to reside near Tribe's hill, not far dis
tant from Fort Johnson. The farm to which he re
moved from Butler's, is now in the town of Amster
dam, and was long known as the Dr. Quilhott place:
the late John Putman, if we mistake not, was residing
on this farm at the time of his death.
In the summer of 1782, a party of seven Indians
traversed the forest from Canada to the Mohawk val
ley, the ostensible object of whose mission was to
capture or destroy William Harper, afterwards judge
(he resided for some years in Queen Anne's chapel
parsonage), John Littel, afterwards sheriff, and such
others as chance might throw in their way. Arriving

82 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
at the house of Dries* Bowman, to the eastward of
Johnstown, the hostile scout learned that Henry Stoner
was a whig of the times; that he had two sons then
in the American army, and that he was living in a
situation from its retirement, exposed to their mercenary
designs. Thwarted in their original plan, they direct
ed their steps, piloted by Bowman, to the dwelling of
Stoner, and on their way captured a man by the name
of Palmatier.
Unsuspicious of danger, Mr. Stoner, accompanied
by a nephew named Michael Reed (son of Conrad
Reed), went early one morning to a field to hoe corn;
it was the first hoeing for the season. Mrs. Stoner
having prepared breakfast, blew a horn to call her
friends, and they were about to leave the corn-field,
as young Reed, a lad then in his teens, discovered
two Indians armed with hatchets approaching them
from adjoining woods, and directed the attention of
his kinsman that way. The latter, who kept a loaded
gun in his house, attempted to gain it by flight, seeing
which, one of his foes ran so as to cut off his retreat
While making an angle in the road, the savage headed
him, by crossing a piece of growing flax.
Whether the victim offered to surrender himself a
prisoner to the British scalper, is not known; it is
very probable he did; but the cry of mercy was un
heeded, and the assassin's keen edged tomahawk de
scended with a crash,through an old fashioned beaver
* Dries is an abbreviation for Andreas, the German of Andrew.

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 83
hat and what resistance the skull offered, and pene
trated the brain. The scalping knife was quickly
unsheathed, and several fingers of a hand the stricken
patriot had laid imploringly upon his aching forehead,
were nearly cut off with the scalp lock — the merchan
dise that would then most readily command British
gold. Some of the Indians now ran to the dwelling,
which was soon rifled of its most valuable contents,
and set on fire. As they approached, Mrs. Stoner dis
covered them near the door, and snatching up a frock,
threw it out of a back window which was open. The
enemy lingered sufficiently long to secure what plun
der they desired, and see the house so effectually on
fire as to ensure its destruction, and then directed
their course towards Canada. No personal injury
was offered Mrs. Stoner, and soon after the destructives
had retired, she obtained the dress cast from the win
dow, the only article she was enabled to save, and
went to the house of John Harman, a neighbor, sup
posing her husband and young Reed were prisoners.
Bowman aided the prisoners in carrying their plun
der to a secret hiding place, near the Sacondaga,
where, beside a log, they had concealed food. Pal-
matier effected his escape on the first night after his
capture, to the great joy of his friends; and the feigned
prisoner, Bowman, was allowed to return home the
night following, From their secret rendezvous, near
the present village of Northville, the party journeyed
with their captive Reed, by the northerly route to

84 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
Canada, where he became a drummer in Butler's Ran
gers and remained until the war closed.
Harman, after the arrival of Mrs. Stoner at his
house, suspected Bowman of treachery, and made
known his suspicions to some of his neighbors, who
went with him to Stoner's premises. Going from the
ruins of his house to the corn field, they found him
where he had been cut down, in or near the road.
He was still alive, and although unable to speak, sig
nified by signs, his desire for water, which was pro
cured in a hat as soon as possible; but on drinking a
draught he expired immediately. He was buried ber
neath a hemlock tree, near which he had been slain.
Thus ignobly perished a brave man, who with scores
of other citizens on the frontiers, of all ages, sexes,
and conditions, found an untimely grave, because the
evidence of their destruction would command a liberal
price in the camp of the enemy. English freemen,
where is thy blush? Where is thy shame for the
deeds of hellish cruelty inflicted by thy hirelings, not
only on brave men, but on unoffending mothers and
smiling infants? Liberty purchased at such a price,
oh, with what jealousy should it be guarded!
When Palmatier returned and made it known that
Bowman had aided the Indians in carrying their stolen
goods, the latter was arrested by patriots and confined
in the Johnstown jail, then fortified. A party of
whigs, among whom were Godfrey Shew and his son
Hemy, John Harman, James Dunn and Benjamin

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 85
DeLine,* assembled, fully determined to make Bowman
confess his evil deeds. Among other devices resorted
to, to make the tory disclose the information desired,
a rope was thrown round some fastening overhead
with a noose upon his neck; and he was required to
mount a barrel. But he was interrogated and threat
ened in vain; and after the patience of his accusers
was well nigh exhausted, Dunn, who partook largely
of the patriotic spirit of the times, swore he should
hang; and kicking the barrel from under him he did
hang — or rather stood very uncomfortably upon air
for a little time ; but was finally taken down, and with
various warnings about his future conduct, was again
allowed his freedom.
At the time of his father's death, Nicholas Stoner
was on duty at King's Ferry.
* At the time of Sir John Johnson's invasion of Johnstown and
its vicinity in the summer of 1780, DeLine and Joseph Scott were
living in Johnson Hall. When Johnson visited there to procure
his concealed property, DeLine and Scott were made prisoners
and taken to Canada. From his having been a hunter and fa
miliar with the forest, DeLine was tightly bound. This was the
second time they were taken to Canada during tne war, and how
long they remained prisoners there at this time is unknown to
the writer. James Jones of Florida composed the followinf
distich, which was often sounded in their ears after the war :
And when they came lo the Hall, the house they did surround,
And Ben De Line and Joseph Scott made prisoners on the ground.

CHAPTER VI.
John, a son of Philip Helmer, named as one of the
pioneer settlers in Fonda's Bush, who remained there
after his patriotic neighbors had removed to Johns
town, accompanied Sir John Johnson to Canada on
his removal from Johnson Hall, early in the Revolu
tion. Returning to the settlement not long after, he
became an object of suspicion; was arrested by the
patriots, and confined at Johnstown. A sentinel was
placed over him who was very green in the service,
and improving a favorable opportunity, the prisoner
took occasion to praise his gun; and closed his adula
tion by requesting permission to look at it, which was
readily granted. The piece had hardly passed out of
the young guard's possession, ere his authority was
set at defiance, and its new owner took it to a place of
retirement to inspect its merits; which were not fully
decided upon until he had safely arrived in Canada.
At a later period of the war, young Helmer again
had the audacity to visit the Johnstown settlements.
He returned late in the fall, and was concealed at his
father's house for some time, intending on the return
of spring, if possible, to take back some recruits with
him for the British service. The nonintercourse so
generally observed between whig and tory families

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 87
favored his design, but by some means his place of
refuge became known to three patriotic neighbors,
Benjamin DeLine, Solomon Woodworth and Henry
Shew, who determined on his capture. Well armed,
they proceeded one night to the vicinity of his father's
dwelling, and concealed themselves at a place where
they had reason to suppose he would pass. They had
not been there long when, unsuspicious of danger, he
approached the trio, who poised their fire-arms and he
yielded to their authority, and was lodged in the Johns
town jail. The entrance to the fort through the pick
eted enclosure, was on the south side.
Helmer had a sister named Magdalene, the Germans
call the name Lana, by this name she was known.
Miss Lana was on intimate terms with a soldier then
on duty at the Johnstown fort; and at an interview
with him after one of several visits to her brother, to
whom she carried such little comforts as a sister can
provide, she got a pledge from him, that when on
sentinel duty he would unlock the prison door and set
the prisoner free. It was in the night time and while
his vigils lasted, that she had found access to the pri
soner. True to his promise, Lana's lover did set her
brother at liberty, and, with another soldier, was se
duced from his duty by the prisoner, when both fled in
his company. When she wills it, what can not wo
man do? A sergeant and five men, Amasa Stevens,
Benjamin DeLine, before named, and three continental
soldiers were soon upon their trail, which they were

88 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
enabled to follow by the fall of a light snow, and taking
with them a lantern that they might travel by night,
they came up with and surprised them in the woods.
The two soldiers were fired upon and killed, but Hel
mer, with a severe bayonet wound in his thigh es
caped: he was afterwards discovered nearly dead, in
some bushes where he had concealed himself, and was
taken to the fort: there he was cured of his wounds
and again imprisoned. By some unaccountable means
he succeeded the third time in effecting his enlarge
ment; fled to Canada, and there remained. He, too,
had been a hunter before the war, and was familiar
with the forest. A part of the preceding facts were
from Jacob Shew. At an interview between Helmer
and Nicholas Stoner, which took place in Canada
subsequent to the war, he told the latter that he suf
fered almost incredible hardships in making his last
journey to that country.
In the last year of the Revolution, Nicholas Stoner
belonged to a band of musicians, which marched into
New York with troops under Col. Willett, on its
evacuation by the enemy. He played the clarionet,
as did also Nicholas Hill. During the stay of Gen.
Washington in that city, an exhibition of fire-works
took place, on which occasion the band alluded to
performed. Stoner also saw Washington enter the
barge at Whitehall on his leaving New York; and to
use his own words, was one of the band that played
him off.

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 89
Mischief lurked in the veins of young Stoner to the
end of the war, and often brought him into difficulty,
from which fortune sometimes extricated him quite as
easily as he deserved to be. The summer of 178.3,
was one of comparative inactivity in the army, as
hostilities had nearly ceased that spring. Stoner was
with a body of troops which were encamped back of
Newburgh, when a little incident occurred which
afforded some momentary amusement. In the camp
was a black soldier, who had frozen off his toes while
under Col. Willett the preceding February, in his
abortive attack on Fort Oswego. In consequence, the
poor fellow experienced such difficulty in walking,
that few could observe his peculiar gait, without
having their risible faculties get the mastery.
As he was waddling along near the young musician,
the latter called him a stool-pigeon. The words were
scarcely uttered, ere the sable patriot, who felt the in
sult sensibly, pursued the offender, armed with a bay
onet, threatening vengeance. A clarionet was a poor
weapon with which to repel an attack, and its pos
sessor fled for dear life, and took refuge in the hut of
Lieutenant-Col. Cochrane, who was then entertaining
several friends. So abrupt an entrance started all to
their feet, little doubting that the enemy from New
York were upon them: but fears of an invasion were
soon at an end, as close upon the heels of Stoner came
tumbling in the infuriated, frost-bitten hero. What's
the matter ? What has happened 1 What means this

90 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
intrusion? several voices were at once demanding, as
the last enterer, almost out of breath, stammered out —
" Massa curnil! dis deblish musiker, he 'suit me berry
bad; I'm lame, can't help it; froze my feet, like to
froze my body too: all under Curnil Will't in de bush;
snow knee deep: dis rascal call me tool pigeon; I no
stand it."
" I comprehend," said Col. Cochrane: "you have
been very unfortunate while in the service of your
country, and it grieves you, as well it should, to have
any one speak lightly of your misfortunes."
"Eezzur!"
" Well, my good fellow, leave the matter to me,
and go to your quarters: I'll punish the impudent
rascal." " Dat's wat I want," said the lame soldier, now re
stored to good humor; " he desarbs it, and I hope you
whip him berry hard, massa curnil; yah-yah-yah — "
" That I will," interrupted the officer.
"Tank you, curnil, cause you my friend;" con
tinued the offended warrior, as he turned to go out,
and restored a care worn drab and black hat to his
bump of pugnacity. While closing the door to leave
the presence of his umpire and friends, a smile of
satisfaction was seen lurking about his under lip, and
he was observed to close his fist and shake it at his
offender, as much as to say — " Ha, de curnil gib it to
you; you get your hide loosened dis time."
While the dialogue lasted, a frown sat upon th«

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 91
brow of Col. Cochranee, and the young culprit began
to feel in imagination the whistling lash his unruly
tongue had invoked ; but no sooner had the complain
ant closed the rough door, than, in spite of all his
efforts to the contrary, he found himself obliged to
join his merry companions and laugh heartily. The
figure of the limping negro, who, if he did not wear
cotton, was amazingly outward-bound, seemed still
before him, and turning to the mischief-maker, he
with no little effort gave him a sharp reproof for thus
imprudently wounding the feelings of one who should
exite his sympathy; and then, not daring to venture
a longer speech, lest he should spoil it with a laugh,
he ordered him from his presence with a threat of
terrible vengeance at the end of a rawhide, if he ever
did the like again.
Bowing his thanks for the easy and unexpected
terms meted to him, young Stoner promised to do bet
ter in future, and as he left the hut to seek his own,
the walls of the rude dwelling behind him shook with
the boisterous merriment of its inmates, at their very
unique entertainment
When the war of the Revolution closed and the
dove took the place of the eagle — when the prattling
infant could nestle in its mother's bosom secure from
midnight assassins — when the warrior once more laid
aside his sword and musket to grasp the hoe and spade
of thrift — when commerce again spread her white
wings without fear of the foeman's fire — when art and

92 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
science again smiled o'er hill and dale, enriched by
the blood of freemen slain — when Liberty, with a
home of her own, invited the oppressed of the earth
to her embrace, extending to the penury-stricken the
horn which needed only his industry to become one of
plenty — then and not till then did our hero, grown to
man's estate, return again to reside in the vicinity of
Johnstown. Where is the hoary-headed warrior that never felt
the melting influence of woman's smiles? If any such
there are, let them come forth while I tell them a brief
love-story of their own time. I have already informed
the reader, that there dwelt at Johnstown in the Re
volution, a soft haired, dark eyed maiden named Anna
Mason ; and have shadowed forth the fact, that a little
intimacy existed between her and our hero in their
youthful days. As no matrimonial engagement had
passed between them, not having seen or heard from
the young pigeon hunter for several long years; and
not informed whether the glory of a dead warrior or
the triumph of a live one were his; in fact, not know
ing if he were alive in a distant colony, but what
some other young heart then beat against his own; it
is not surprising that she looked upon him as lost to
her, however vividly fancy at times may have brought
back his graceful figure.
Among the Johnstown patriots was a young man
named William Scarborough, who answered also to
the name of Crowley. His mother, at the time she

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 93
married Jeremiah Crowley, was a widow Scarborough,
her husband having been killed in the batteau service,
and was already possessed of little Willie, but people
did not always stop to consider his true parentage, and
after a while he almost ceased to be called Scarborough.
On page 477 of my History of Schoharie County, etc.,
where his death is mentioned, he is called Crowley, as
I was then ignorant of his true parentage. William
Scarborough, who was in some respects a very worthy
young man, paid his addresses to the charming Anna
Mason. Now William was a brave youth, and had
been in the service of his country, which Anna hap
pened to know, and on which account she the more
highly respected him; for the women of that period
could and did discriminate between right and wrong;
between liberty and oppression. To cut a long story
short, for wooing is full of mazes and phases, and in
teresting filagree, William found himself enamored
with the bewitching Anna, who, on his making tender
advances, cast a long sigh on the war-path of a cer
tain hunter, blushed deeply and reciprocated ardently
his attachment.
Early in the year 1781, but in what month we can
not speak with certainty, Anna Mason was led to
Hymen's altar, an altar on which have been offered
many pure affections, but few more unsullied than
hers, and became the bride of her heroic William.
Days, weeks, even months passed, and still the young
wife was happy; should she ever be otherwise? for

94 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
she had a kind husband, and was surrounded by those
who loved and respected her.
The green summer flew past, and autumn with her
russet-clad meadows and golden forests arrived, and
still Anna Scarborough was cheerful and happy: but
alas ! a civil war that had raged for years and stained
with life-blood the threshold of many dwellings within
a few miles, was still devastating the land; and
although the war-cry for a little season was removed
to a distance, and no immediate danger was appre
hended, yet the midnight alarm might again break on
the ear, and the most tender ties be sundered in a mo
ment: for
Storms that have been again may be I
The battle-axe if yet on high,
Stained with the blood of martyrs free —
When thought most distant may be nearest by;
And from it fondly cherished may not fly.
On the morning of October 25, 1781, a large body
of the enemy under Maj. Ross, entered Johnstown with
several prisoners, and not a little plunder; among
which were a number of human scalps taken the after
noon and night previous, in settlements in and adjoin
ing the Mohawk valley; to which was added the
scalp of Hugh McMonts, a constable, who was sur
prised and killed as they entered Johnstown. In the
course of the day the troops from the garrisons near
and the militia from the surrounding country, rallied
under the active and daring Willett, and gave the

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 95
enemy battle on the Hall farm, in which the latter
were finally defeated with loss, and made good their
retreat to Canada. Young Scarborough was then in
the nine months' service, and while the action was
going on, himself and one Crosset left the Johnstown
fort, where they were on garrison duty, to join in the
fight, less than two miles distant. Between the Hall
and woods they soon found themselves engaged.
Crosset etfter shooting down one or two, received a
bullet through one hand, but winding a handkerchief
around it, he continued the fight under cover of a hem
lock stump. He was shot down and killed there, and
his companion surrounded and made prisoner by a
party of Scotch troops commanded by Capt. McDonald.
When Scarborough was captured, Capt. McDonald
was not present, but the moment he saw him he or
dered his men to shoot him down. Several refused;
but three, shall I call them men? obeyed the dastardly
order, and yet he possibly would have survived his
wounds, had not the miscreant in authority cut him
down with his own broadsword. The sword was
caught in its first descent, and the valiant captain drew
it out, cutting the hand nearly in two.
Why this cold-blooded murder? Were those hostile
warriors rivals in love? Had the epauletted hero, com
missioned at the door of the infernal regions, sought
the hand of the blooming Anna and been rejected be
cause his arm was raised against his suffering country?
Or must the prisoner be destroyed because in arms

96 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
with his countrymen? A more hellish and malignant
act was not perpetrated, even by the sons of the forest,
on the frontiers of New York* Jeremiah Crowley,
the step-father of Scarborough, was made a prisoner
by the enemy and taken to Canada. Mrs. Scarborough,
who was at her father's on the morning of the action,
fled to the fort with her father, Mrs Mason choosing
to brave the dangers of the day to save her effects.
Mason's house stood a little north of the present site
of John Yost's tavern, and on the edge of the Hall
farm. The action was fought in its vicinity, and thir
teen balls were fired into it, which no doubt kept the
old lady from falling asleep. One of McDonald's men,
* Previous to the war, McDonald and Scarborough were neigh
bors, and in a political quarrel which took place soon after the
commencement of national difficulties and ended in blows, the
loyalist was rather roughly handled. A spirit of revenge no doubt
prompted him to wreak his vengeance on an unarmed prisoner. —
Stoner. Scarborough was overbearing and at times insolent towards those
who differed with him in pblitics. On one occasion during the
war, at the gristmill in Johnstown, Scarborough met an old man
upon whom he heaped a deal of abuse. The young miller, a mere
lad, offended at such unkind treatment, jumped into a sleigh then
at the door, rode up to the fort, and informed the garrison of what
he had witnessed. Several soldiers, determined to see fair play,
returned with the miller; and on their reproving Scarborough for
ill treating the poor old man, he turned upon and began a quarrel
with them. The result was he received a severe castigation for
his temerity, which cooled him down. From James Frazier,
then a boy, who, if I mistake not, witnessed the whole scene at
the mill.

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 97
who had been ordered to fire on young Scarborough and
refused to obey, was so disgusted with his captain for
the act, that he deserted the same evening and joined
the Americans.
On the morning after their death, the remains of
Scarborough and Crosset were taken to the fort on a
wooden-shod sleigh drawn by horses.* Need I stop to
tell the reader how the young bride, Anna Scarborough,
was overwhelmed with sorrow on the day succeeding
the Johnstown battle? How her keenest sensibilities
were on fire, at beholding the mangled remains of her
beloved William; and what mental agony she endured?
But such sufferings are at all times the attendants of a
civil war, in which neighbor is clad in armor against
his fellow, and kinsman against those ofhis own blood.
Some time after the death of her husband, and about
eleven months after the sealing of the nuptial vow,
Mrs. Scarborough was presented with a daughter as a
pledge of her early love, which tended in no measured
degree to reconcile her to the cruel fate war had meted
her. This daughter grew up to woman's estate.
Time and change of circumstances, with the bless
ings of social intercourse returning at the close of a
protracted war, again restored the young widow, who
possesed a buoyant disposition, or a spirit to wrestle
*Yockum Folluck, a soldier killed in the Johnstown battle,
was found with a piece of meat placed at his mouth, as supposed
by the Indians in derision. Folluck resided in the vicinity of
Johnstown. — David Zielie. 9

98 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
successfully with trials, to the enjoyment of society
and the shaded realities of life.
One that has won, again may win ;
and soon after the return of Nicholas Stoner to Johns
town, he came within the pale of the young widow's
charms, which in the military camp had often brought
him to his senses, and shortly after sought and obtained
her hand in marriage. Although her affections had
been chastened by the blight of sorrow, her young
heart was still susceptible of an ardent offering to the
one who had inspired the first budding of love there,
and she proved a boon companion and cheerful wife.
The fruit of this connection was four sons and two
daughters. Three of the sons are still living. The
daughters were Mary and Catharine: the former mar
ried William Mills, and now ( 1847) resides in Fulton
^ county; and the latter died when a young woman.
Nicholas Stoner, the first two years after his mar
riage, lived near Johnson Hall, and then settled at
Scotch Bush, now known as McEwen's Corners, in
the western part of Johnstown, where he resided many
years. John Stoner, whose temperament did not bring
him into trouble often, continued in the army to the
close of the war; after which he was for several years
employed by Col. Frederick Fisher, who built him a
farm-house nearly on the site of his homestead, and
where he had been scalped by the Indians. To the
location of this dwelling, a substantial brick edifice,
I have already alluded. After John Stoner left the

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 99
employ of Col. Fisher, he married Miss Susan Philes,
by whom he had a daughter, Catharine Ann, and four
sons. Soon after the Revolution, Nicholas Stoner was for
three years a deputy sheriff under John Littel, Esq.
He was also a captain of militia, and filled several
town offices at different periods. When we again
came to blows with England, because of her insolence
in searching our ships and impressing our seamen into
her service, the Stoner brothers were once more en
rolled in the American army; John enlisting in 1812,
and Nicholas in 1813. John Stoner, who was a drum-
major in this war, was taken sick at Sacket's Harbor
and died there. Nicholas enlisted at Johnstown into
the 29th New York regiment, of which Melancthon
Smith was colonel, G. D. Young lieutenant-colonel,*
and John E. Wool, major. He joined the company
of Capt. A. P. Spencer, Lieut. Henry Van Antwerp
being the recruiting officer under whom he enrolled
his name. He proceeded to Utica, and from thence
to Sacket's Harbor, where he remained until fall; at
which time he went into winter quarters at Greenbush.
Early the following spring he joined the army at
Plattsburg, going from Whitehall by water.
Lake Champlain and the territory adjoining it, in
in September, 1814, became the theatre of some of
the most important events which characterized the war
•Lieut.-Col. Young was killed in 1817, in the abortive attempt
of Gen. Mina to revolutionize Mexico.

100 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
of that period. The withdrawal of troops from Platts
burg to succor Fort Erie, determined the governor
general of Canada, Sir George Prevost, to attack it
with a force he supposed irresistible ; and for that pur
pose he invaded the territory of the States on the 3d
day of September, with an army some fourteen thousand
strong, well equipped and provided with a splendid
train of artillery. About the same time, so as to make
a clean sweep, Commodore Downie, with a naval
force far superior in number of vessels, guns and men,
made preparations to engage the American flotilla on
Lake Champlain, then under the command of the gal
lant Commodore Thomas McDonnough, who, ten years
before, had so distinguished himself under Decatur in
a captured Turkish ketch before the walls, and under
the very batteries of the bashaw of Tripoli.
Gen. Macomb, at Plattsburg, had only about fifteen
hundred men at his command when the invasion of
Prevost began, but his call on the patriotic sons of
New York and Vermont was promptly obeyed, and he
was enabled to keep a vastly superior force at bay,
until reinforced sufficiently to cope with his adversary.
From the 3d until the llth of September, repeated
engagements took place contiguous to Plattsburg, in
several of which Nicholas Stoner, then a fife-major,
was engaged. He took a musket, however, and per
formed duty at this time as a sergeant, and as he was
a good marksman, several must have fallen before his
deadly aim.

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 101
There was not a little excitement in the American
camp at Plattsburg as the British army was advancing
on that post, and great exertions were made to put it
in a fit state for the enemy's reception. The merit
orious young Trojan, Captain Wool, as a reward for
his daring conduct in storming Queenston heights, in
October, 1812, had been appointed major, of the 29tb
New York regiment, and in the absence of its colonels,
the command of it devolved upon him in September,.
1814. As the enemy were approaching, Major Wool vo
lunteered his services, and repeatedly on the 5th of
September, urged General Macomb to allow him to
meet the enemy and make at least a show of resistance;
as nothing more could be expected against such odds.
The general met his earnest solicitations with some
coolness, and expressed his apprehensions that if he
went out he would be captured. On the evening of
the 5th. the gallant Wool received a reluctant assent
to meet the enemy, but was not allowed to do so until
morning. So anxious was he for active service, how
ever, that long before day light on the 6th, the major
had mustered his corps and was on the Beekmantown
road. Gen, Macomb had assured him Capt. Leonard.
with his company of artillery, should accompany him,
but the latter declined marching without the express
orders of the general, and he moved forward without
him, His own regiment then numbered only 200 men;
to which were added about 50 from other regiments,
9*

102 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
and some 30 volunteer militia: in all nearly 280 men.
Gen. Mooers had been stationed on the Beekmantown
road with a regiment of 700 militia, previous to Maj.
Wool's going there, and the latter was commanded hy
Gen. Macomb to set the militia an example of firm
ness. The enemy on the morning of the 6th were ad
vancing by three roads, the eastern road running
along the western shore of Lake Champlain; the west
ern leading from Chazy to Plattsburg, and called the
Chazy road, and the centre known as the Beekman
town road. Maj. Appling with a body of riflemen
was posted on the eastern or lake road, Maj. Wool on
the centre; while the enemy were allowed to advance
on the Chazy road without opposition. Maj. Appling
directed his attention chiefly to obstructing the road
by falling trees, and fell back in time to join Major
Wool near Plattsburg.
On arriving, just at day light, at Gen. Mooers's camp,
seven miles from Plattsburg, Maj. Wool found the
enemy, 4000 strong, were not far distant on that road,
and already moving. Gen. Mooers made several at
tempts as the enemy drew near, to form his men for
action, but they broke and fled, most of them without
firing. Maj. Wool told him he had better head his
men if possible, and with them make a stand upon the
road, so as to cover his own retreat.
The unexpected flight of the militia, as may be sup
posed, created some copfusion in the infantry, to re-

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 103
cover from which and gain a little time, Maj. Wool
ordered Capt Van Buren with his company to charge
the enemy. The brave captain expressed a doubt
about his ability to do it; fearing his men would de
sert him. " Shoot down the first man that attempts to
run, or I will shoot you /" was the peremptory order
of the enthusiastic major. Van Buren quickly moved
forward to execute the command, but when within a
few rods of the foe, satisfied his handful of men could
hardly be trusted to charge such a billow of animated
matter, he ordered them to halt and fire. The fire
was well directed and told fearfully in the enemy's
ranks, which were sufficiently retarded for Maj. Wool
to dispose of his Spartan band to his mind. That
Capt. Van Buren did good service in his morning sa
lute, is proven by the fact, that twenty of the enemy
were carried into the house of a Mr. Howe, living
near by. Maj. Wool formed his men in three several
double platoons; one occupying the road, and the
others the fields or woods a little in rear of the first,
and on either side of the road with out-flankers. The
British in column continued to advance, and in the
order named the Americans kept up a street fight,
firing and retreating before the enemy: the troops in
the street again forming and deploying in the street
after each fire, a little in the rear of the field troops;
and those in turn forming and deploying in rear of the
platoons occupying the street. Thus did this little
detachment of brave men resist the invader's approach

104 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
step by step for nearly six miles, doing at times fear
ful execution in his ranks, and setting truly an ex
ample of firmness that would have done credit to
veteran troops, with a Buonaparte for a commander.
On an eminence in the road, called Culver's hill,
Lieut.-Col. Willington, of the 3d regiment of British
Buffs, an officer of gallant bearing, was slain, with a
number of his men; while a little farther on, forty of
the enemy, dead and wounded, were borne into the
house of Maj. Piatt, among whom was Lieut. Kings
bury, and possibly some other officers. Learning in
the morning that Capt. Leonard had not accompanied
Maj. Wool, Gen. Macomb ordered him forward to his
assistance. At the junction of the Chazy and Beek
mantown roads, called Halsey's corners, he joined the
infantry with two six-pounders. At this place the
militia, having recovered from their panic, were
brought into action by Gen. Mooers. They were
posted in woods on the right and also in the rear of
the artillery; the infantry being mostly behind a stone
wall along the Chazy road, to the left of the ordnance.
A part of it was stationed so as to conceal the artillery,
however, and as the British advanced, unsuspicious
of receiving such a salute, the v, nr-dogs were un
masked, and several round shot plowed their bloody
furrows the entire length of the enemy's column. At
this moment the Americans observed, says an eye
witness, " one of the finest specimens of discipline ever
exhibited." The gaps in the British ranks were

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 105
closed, as if by magic, and steadily onward was their
march. As the enemy neared the field-pieces, they were
greeted with grape shot, which caused them to halt,
but the British bugles soon sounded a charge, and the
Americans were obliged to retreat, which they did in
good order to Gallows hill,* at which place they
made the last stand on the north side of the Saranac.
Adjutant Boynton, a young officer of great merit, and
whose services to Maj. Wool were invaluable on this
stirring day, was sent by the latter with orders to
Maj. Appling to join him. The order was heroically
executed though one of great peril, as he was exposed
to the fire of many scores of British muskets, and Maj.
Appling joined the invincible 29th near Gallows hill.
After a brief stand at the latter place, the Americans
fell back across the Saranac, and taking up the bridge
in their rear they kept the enemy upon the north
side of the river. In removing the plank of this
bridge, the Americans suffered considerably. Maj.
Stoner assisted in taking up this bridge, and also the
one over Dead creek. The enemy's loss in this long
road fight with the troops under Maj. Wool, in killed
and wounded, was about 240, a number nearly equal
to his entire command during the greatest part of the
action. The American loss was about 45 in killed
and wounded. Maj. Wool had a horse shot under him
* On this hill the Americans erected a gallows and hung a Bri
tish spy upon it.

106 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
during the day. For the masterly manner in which he
acquitted himself on this occasion, he was breveted
lieutenant-colonel ; a promotion he could not that day
have merited, had he not been surrounded by a band
of iron-hearted warriors.
In the action at Gallows hill the following incident
took place. William Bosworth, a Serjeant -major who
had deserted from the British and entered the Ameri
can service, and on the day in question had greatly
distinguished himself, received a musket ball through
his thigh which brought him to the ground. It was
impossible for the Americans to bring off all their
wounded, so closely did the enemy press upon them.
Apprised of the fact that Bosworth was down, Major
Wool, addressing himself to Adjutant Boynton, ex
claimed, " See that the boys throw Bosworth on a
horse and remove him to a place of safety, for if he
falls into the hands of the enemy they will either
hang or shoot him: he is too good a fellow to be used
up in that manner; take him off?" A horse was
quickly provided which Stoner held, while two soldiers
placed the wounded sergeant upon his back, his blood
running down the animal's side. The wounded man
was taken to Plattsburg and afterwards to Burlington,
Vermont, where he recovered. The reader may not
be surprised to learn, that the generous-hearted major,
who was not unmindful of the fate of a poor soldier,
even in a fearful shower of iron and lead, is the illus
trious Major-General Wool, who has been one of the

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 107
brightest stars of that heroic band, which has recently
covered itself with such a blaze of glory in Mexico.
The army of Prevost was kept on the north side of
the Saranac by Macomb until the llth of September,
at which time Downie prepared to engage with Mc-
Donough. Undaunted by the superior naval force of
his adversary, the latter met him with a firmness and
coolness characteristic of the man. It is stated in a
newspaper account of his death, that he engaged the
enemy at this time with a confident trust in the God
of battles for his success. Calling his brave tars
around him on the quarter-deck, as the enemy hove in
sight, upon his knees he commended his cause to Him
who governs the universe. This engagement was
witnessed by both armies, it is reasonable to suppose,
with intense excitement; as upon its result was sus
pended the probable fortune of the land forces. At 9
o'clock the contest began, and in less than two hours
the Confiance, the enemy's flag-ship, had, with two
other vessels, struck her. colors to the Americans, and
several British galleys had been sunk: the rest of the
fleet escaped by flight, the victors being unable to
pursue them, as there was not a mast standing in
either squadron to which a sail could be raised. Com
modore Downie was among the slain.
A pleasing incident attendant on this battle should
be given in its connection. In the midst of the fiery
contest, a hencoop on the Saratoga, McDonough's flag
ship, was shot away, and a liberated rooster flew into

108 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
the rigging overhead and began to crow. The cir
cumstance was ominous, and contributed in no little
degree to inspire the hardy tars with confidence, and
they responded with a round of cheers and renewed
exertions to his Yankee-doodle-do !
The artillery of the land forces was almost con
stantly in play during the naval engagement, but when
the Confiance struck her colors, the army of Macomb
took time to give a huzzaing, that fell on the ears of
Prevost like the knell of death. The army of the lat
ter was in full retreat, early in the evening, for Canada.
That they might have something to remember their
Yankee neighbors by, as they were about to strike
their tents, Macomb fired a national salute, with ball
cartridges, into their camp.
The remains of Commodore Downie, with those of
five of his fellow officers, and the remains of five offi
cers of Commodore McDonough's squadron, were
brought on shore and buried by Gen. Macomb with
the honors of war; on which occasion Maj. Wool was
master of ceremonies and selected the place of burial.
The music which led the procession consisted of some
fifteen fifes and as many drums, the latter all muffled,
and was commanded by Maj. Stoner: the tunes Logan
Water and Roslin Castle, were played during the
ceremony. The bodies were taken to a grove of pines
and arranged side by side in three several rows. Two
stately pines are still standing, one on each side of
Downie's grave. While on that station Maj. Wool

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 109
had the remains of the officers which fell on the Beek
mantown road, removed and deposited beside those
which fell in the naval service. After the war Mrs.
Mary Downie, a sister-in-law, erected a tablet to the
memory of her gallant kinsman.
Some weeks after the above incidents transpired,
Major Stoner conducted several British officers to the
grave of Commodore Downie, where some of them
manifested much feeling, mingling their tears of sym
pathy with the dew-drops of heaven.
When Great Britain became satisfied that her
claims to oceanic rule were not well founded, and the
American army was disbanded, Gen. Macomb offered
Maj. Stoner strong inducements to join the national
army, which he declined.
On the llth of September, 1842, twenty-nine years
after the event, the Clinton County Military Associa
tion celebrated the anniversary of the battle of Platts
burg at that place, in a very commendable manner,
on which occasion monuments were erected to the
memory of all the officers which had been buried near
Commodore Downie. Gen. Wool and his suite were
present by special invitation, to take part in the in
teresting proceedings. Appropriate addresses were
delivered by General Skinner, Col. McNeil and Gen.
Wool. The ceremony of placing a monument at Col.
Willington's grave, was very properly assigned to
Gen. Wool, before whose prowess he had fallen in
battle. 10

110 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
How creditable to the enterprise and magnanimity
of the citizens of Plattsburg, in so just and appropri-
ate a manner to meet and mingle their sympathies
over the remains, not only of their illustrious friends
who had fallen in the service of their country, but
also over those of their gallant and unfortunate foes,
who found a final resting place beneath the pines of a
foreign land. Warrior foes, there gently slumber.

CHAPTER VII.
I have chosen, in this narrative, to present Major
Stoner's military life connectedly, although some of
the incidents which follow, transpired between the
wars. Fond of novelty and adventure, and inured to pri
vations and hardships in the Revolution, which pecu
liarly fitted him for a life so full of excitement and
peril, Maj. Stoner became a celebrated hunter. Nor
was he the only gamester who traversed the then wil
derness of North-Eastern New York: several of his
companions in arms were often by his side, threading
their own intricate foot-paths along a score of crystal
lakes, the greater part of which are now situated in
the present counties of Fulton and Hamilton. There
were other Nimrods, or master spirits, in this particular
avocation, two of whom were Nathaniel Foster and
Green White. The former lived in Salisbury, Herki
mer county, and the latter in Wooster, Otsego county.
The Johnstown sportsmen not only met Foster, White
and other sportsmen associated with them — as they
usually went in pairs for the greater security in case
of sickness, accident or difficulties with individuals of
the craft — but white men' and Indians from the shores
of the St. Lawrence.

112 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
Difficulties sometimes arose between these strangers
of like avocation, and in the absence of any other tri
bunal, might made right. Trouble seldom originated
between the white hunters, however, as the more
noted were not only known to each other, but their
traps readily recognized by some peculiar mark, were
not molested, unless it were to take out game in dan
ger of being lost; in which case some token was left
to apprise the owner who had it, and that it would
be accounted for at a subsequent meeting. Over-
jealous of their rights, the New York and Canadian
trappers did not at all times scruple to avenge an in
jury done them, with the life-blood of the offender, as
I shall have on several occasions to show.
The class of men of whom I am speaking, not only
entered the forest with their traps, their rifles, and a
good supply of ammunition, their hatchet and knife,
and often a jug of rum; but what was all important,
a pocket compass and some sure means of kindling a
fire. Friction matches were then unknown, but fire
was soon enkindled with flint, steel and tinder, or
touch-wood; and now and then when they became
wet, by a flash in the pan of a gun. If trappers
chanced to visit the water courses alone, they almost
invariably took with them a well trained dog. Pack
horses were often employed to carry provisions to the
hunters' canoes, which were usually moored in some
little eddy, contiguous to which the trapping began.
One of the evils if not entailed upon us, at least

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 113
greatly augmented by war, is that of wide-spread In
temperance ; and few who had been served for years
with a daily ration of rum or whiskey, could refrain
from its use in after life: indeed soldiers had not only
to drink with each other after the Revolution, as a
matter of courtesy, but every one esteemed it a privi
lege, nay a duty, to treat a hero who had periled his
life for his fellows: hence many of them who could
not say no when invited to drink, had to become a
walking slop-bowl, and receive flip, kill devil, punch,
or the raw material divested of its lure. Many a
scar-honored veteran filled a drunkard's grave, because
custom compelled him, of all others, to drink; and
not a few more of the same band would have found
such a grave, had not temperance hung her rainbow
along Heaven's blue arch, inscribed — My worthy, it
shall not only be your privilege, but creditable for you
to refrain from the use of that which sets the brain
on fire, destroys domestic happiness, and causes pre
mature death.
Vaumane Jean Baptis'te De Fonclaiere, a French
man who had emigrated to this country in the Revo
lution, married in New England, and after the close
of the war kept a public house in Johnstown for many
years. The first house he occupied is still an inn, and
is yet standing, a few doors iouth of the court house.*
* In 1796, De Fonclaiere erected a tavern stand at Johnstown,
in the forks of the Fonda's Bush and Tribe's Hill roads, which
stand was known for many years as Union Hall, and in which as
10*

114 trappers of new york.
The Canadian hunters, who were familiar with the
forest between Montreal and Johnstown, from having
traversed it repeatedly to obtain American scalps, not
unfrequently visited the latter place when peace re
turned, to sell their furs, where they found a ready
market. A party of seven arrived there in the spring
of the year soon after the Revolution, with a large
quantity of fur, and put up at the inn mentioned; dis
posing of their wealth to John Grant, then a village
merchant. He was enabled to carry on the traffic,
through the agency of Lieut. Wallace, who could
speak the Indian tongue.
¦'mine host," he spent the remainder of his days. This Hall
building is now owned and occupied by Mr. V. Balch as a private
dwelling. The following anecdote of the old Frenchman, who is
still remembered around Johnstown for his extra bows and es
pecial regard for the eon.fort of his custo ers. was witnessed by
the Hon. Aaron Haring.
There stands in Johnstown, on the east side of the street, a
few rods to the southward of the first inn keDt by De Fonclaiere.
an antiquated building with a gambrel roof, owned and occupied
before the Revolution by Maj. Gilbert Tice. The latter building
after the war, was occupied as a tavern stand by Michael Rollins,
a son of the emerald isle. De Fonclaiere kept a span of mettle
some horses, and when a deep snow had spread her white mantle
over the bosom of the earth, and the bells »"id ir-slles began to jin
gle and smile, the restless steads harnessed to a sleigh to give his
ladies an airing, were brought before the door, with their nostrils
snuffing up the wind in the direction of the Mohawk.
Left only un Uetle moment to their own wills, the gay animals
of Mons. De Fonclaiere, either of which would have served a
Ringgold or a May for a charger, abused the confidence of their

TRAPPERS OF NEW-YORK. 115
During the stay of these northern hunters in Johns
town, Maj. Stoner, then a deputy sheriff under Littel,
was there on professional business. A constable whom
he desired to see, he found seated in De Fonclaiere's
kitchen, near a table, on which stood several flasks of
liquor, furnished at the expense of the Indians. About
master, and dashed off at the top of their speed. In front of the
rival inn stood a cow directly in the beaten path, which belonged
on the premises. Strange as it may seem, as the sleigh passe J
the cow, she was thrown upon her haunches, and, as chance
would have it, rolled on her back plump into it. The party in
tending to occupy the seat instead of the kine, came to the door
in time to see the latter drive off in triumph, urging on the horses
by a most doleful bellowing. The horses started in William-
street and ran south to Clinton-street, thence east through Clinton
to Johnson (now Market) street, south up Market to Montgomery
street, west through Montgomery to William street, and down
the latter to the place of starting. The best part of the joke was.
that on turning into William street from Montgomery, at the
next comer above, and only a few rods from where the cow was
taken in, she was, sans ceremony, thrown out again. A war of
words instantly followed this adventure, between the rival land
lords. Said De Fonclaiere, greatly excited — "Keep you tarn
Irish cow out von my sleigh!" " You French booger,'1 retorted
Rollings with an oath, "rfo you kape the like of yeer fancy horses
away from me cow'n This novel incident afforded a fine subject
for village gossip, as the reader may suppose, long after the
excitement it awakened had died away.
Inscriptions from tombstones in Johnstown. — " In memory of
John Baptiste Vaumane De Fonclaiere, formerly a captain in the
Martinique regiment, in the service of His Most Christian Ma
jesty Louis XVI, and for thirty years past a citizen ofthe Unite.!
States, who departed this life 5th January 1811, in the 71st year
of his age.'' " In memory of Achsah, wife of Vaumane De
Fonclaiere. who died Aug. 15, 1831. in the 73d year of her age.,;

116 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
the room were several Indians, and perhaps some fe
male members of the family, as they were preparing
dinner for their red customers. Maj. Stoner, who was
not then altogether free from the maddening influence
of those flasks or some others, observing one of the
strangers near Thompson to be of light complexion,
addressed him in a friendly, perhaps playful manner,
about his origin; and the Indian, not appearing of
fended in the least, replied that he was part white.
At this juncture, up came another of the party, and in
an insolent manner demanded of Stoner in broken
English, Indian and French, what business he had to
interrogate his comrade. "Out, you black booger!"
said the major, who never would take an insult from
an Indian with impunity ; rolling together threaten
ingly at the moment the bones of his right hand.
Liquor is brought forward to cement friendship, yet
it often produces an adverse result, for men influenced
by it need little provocation to fight. Face to face
the two, now foes, grappled to test their physical
powers. The major was too much for his antagonist,
and in the scuffle which followed, threw him head
long upon the table, oversetting it and dashing its
quadrangular, half-filled bottles into scores of angles
never heard of in geometry. Quick as thought, the
red man was upon his feet and leaping the table
had again clenched with his adversary. Cooking
stoves are an invention of the last forty years, and in
the kitchen where this scuffle took place, yawned a

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 117
huge fire-place filled with blazing faggots; while upon
the hearth before it stood a platter of fried pork swim
ming in hot fat, and a dish of wilted sallad, just taken
from a bed of coals by some member of the family,
who was providing dinner for the fur-sellers. Stoner
attempted to cast the Indian into the fire, but falling a
little short of the aim, the latter fell plump into the
dish of gravy, burning his back adown in a most
frightful manner.
The fracas had occupied but a few moments, yet
the whoops and loud threats of the combattants, with
the whys and wherefores of spectators, and screams of
women, had been sufficient to throw the whole house
into one of uproar and confusion. The honest land
lord entered the kitchen trembling between contend
ing emotions of fear and passion, believing that the
character and business of his house would be ruined;
and with numerous threats against sheriff Stoner,
uttered in broken English, as soon as the storm began
to subside, ran off to get a writ of Amaziah Rust,
Esq., then a lawyer of the place. Now Squire Rust, as
it happened, was a particular friend of our hero, and
knowing what an untamed spirit he possessed, and
withal how he felt toward the race who had murdered
his father, he was probably not much surprised to
hear that the major had worsted an Indian; and lay
ing down his pen and assuming a thoughtful mood he
gravely inquired, " Do you not know, sir, that Cap
tain Stoner is apt to be deranged with the changes of

118 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
the moon?" " No, monsieur," replied Fonclaiere, " me
did not know that. 0 ! le diable, vat shall I does
then? me ruined sartain!" With kind assurances
from Mr. Rust (who was less anxious for business
than are some professional men), that all would soon
be forgotten — that Stoner would no doubt make full
reparation for the property destroyed, and that the re
putation of his house would not receive any lasting
injury on account of the morning's frolic; the landlord
was persuaded to go home and overlook the matter.
On returning to his dwelling, how provokingly
wrong did the poor Frenchman find things had gone
in his absence. Leaving the kitchen after his second
encounter with the intrusive Indian, Major Stoner
entered the hall where he almost stumbled upon an
Indian called Captain John, who was lying upon the
floor in a state of beastly drunkenness. Excited by
the strong waters of death, and impassioned by what
had already transpired, he halted beside the inebriate,
in whose ear as it lay up, was suspended a heavy
leaden jewel; the weight of which had caused the
boring to become much elongated. Placing one foot
upon his neck, and thrusting a finger into the slit i»
the ear, the unpolished ornament was torn out in an
instant, and fell upon the floor. Unconscious of the
injury done him, the poor Indian turned over with a
grunt, and Stoner passed into the bar-room: the place
at that period least calculated of all others, to quiet a
raging mind.

STONER AVENGING HIS FATHER'S MURDER.
See page 119'

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 119
The name of Stoner had doubtless fallen upon the
ear of a half-drunk Indian in the bar-room, while the
kitchen scene was enacting, and reminded him of his
for.n^r acts; for he had drawn his scalping-knife to
boast to several by-standers (one of whom was Abra
ham Van Skiver), of the deeds of blood recorded upon
it; handle. Nine marks indicated the number of
American scalps he had taken in the late war; " and
fhis," said he, pointing to a notch cut deeper than the
rest to indicate a warrior, " was the scalp of old Stoner!"
Major Stoner entered the room just in time to hear the
savage boast of scalping his father, and as the brag
gart was dancing before the bar with yells and athletic
gestures, cutting the air with the blade which had so
many times been stained with the crimson torrent of
life: stung to madness by the thought of being in the
presence of his father's murderer, he sprang to the
fire-place, seized an old-fashioned wrought andiron,
and with the exclamation, " You never will scalp
another one!" he hurled it, red-hot as it was, at the
head of the warrior. His own hand was burned to a
blister, even by the top of the iron, which, striking
the object of its aim in the hottest part across the
neck with an indellible brand, laid him out at full
length upon the floor; the register of death dropping
from his hand.
The quarrel having arrived at so dangerous a crisis,
some of the friends of Major Stoner succeeded in get
ting him out ofthe house; while other individuals ran

120 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
for a physician, restoratives and the like. The In
dians of the party who were not disabled or too drunk
to stand up, were boisterous in their threats of re
venge; but being advised to leave town, and possibly
not feeling very secure in their own persons after what
had already happened, they lost no time in preparing
for a departure to the wilderness. A German, named
Samuel Copeland, was employed to carry them in a
wagon to the Sacondaga river, near the fish-house,
where they had left most of their rifles, their squaws
and canoes. It was the opinion of the physician and
others, that the Indian with seared jugular, could not
possibly survive; but he was, with his fried compan
ion, taken along by his fellows. It was never satis
factorily known in Johnstown whether this party of
hunters all reached Canada alive or not, but it was
supposed that at least one of the number died on the
way. Fearing this party of red men might return and re
venge the injuries done them on the settlement, if no
notice was taken of the affair, a person in Johnstown
lodged a complaint against him for the part he had
acted at De Fonclaiere's, and he was arrested and
put in jail.* As soon as it became known abroad that
he had been incarcerated, and only a day or two was
sufficient to spread the news, a large number of men
* The wood work of this old stone building, which served as a
fort in the Revolution, was burned in Sept. 1849. The building
nas since been repaired, and restored to its former appearance.

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 12l
of Revolutionary memory, many of whom had been
sufferers in person, property, or friends, by the midnight
assaults of their country's foes, and who were now
disposed to justify the conduct of their former com
panion in arms, in his attempt to slay the murderer of
his father, assembled around the prison and demanded
his enlargement. Of those congregated were several
of the Sammonses, Fishers, Putmans, Wemples, Fon
das, Vroomans, Veeders, Gardiniers, Quackenbosses,
and a host of others, whose names can not now be re
membered. The jailer was unwilling to liberate the
prisoner without a formal demand, and the mob, pro
vided with a piece of scantling, stove in the door and
brought him out.
At this period one Throop kept a tavern near the
centre of the village, with whom sheriff Littel was
then boarding; and thither the party in triumph di
rected their steps to drink with the liberated hero.
After allowing the mob some time to jollify, the jailer
went down, and getting Stoner one side, asked him
if he was ready to return ! " Yes," he replid, and at
once set out with the turnkey for the jail, some forty
or fifty rods distant. He was soon missed, and the
liberators, learning that he was again on his way to pri
son, once more set the law at defiance, and rescued him
from the custody of the officer; when, to comply with
their wishes, he went home to his anxious family, and
there quietly remained. Thus ended an eventful scene
in the old hero's life. 11

122 TEAPPEES OF NEW YORK.
After the incidents above narrated had transpired,
»nd the Indian trappers returned to their wigwams,
the prowess and fearless acts of the Johnstown warrior
gave him no little celebrity along the water-courses
of Canada; and many a red pappoos was taught in
swaddles, to lisp with dread the name of Stoner.

CHAPTER VIII
" Dark green was the spot, mid the brown mountain-heather,
Where the pilgrim of nature lay stretched in decay,
Like the corpse of an outcast abandoned to weather,
Till the mountain-winds wasted the tenantless clay.*
Walter Scott
We are now to consider a peculiarly exciting por
tion of our hero's life, and may fail to give the reader
but a faint idea of the countless novel incidents fol
lowing the footsteps of a master hunter, although in
fancy full
"Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn,
Brushing with hasty steps the dews away,
To meet the sun upon the upland lawn,"
and thus followed him on to the wood-entangled glen ;
where the growl of an animal caused a startle and
placed the thumb on the fire-lock; the rustle of a leaf
fevered the blood, and the snap of a forest-twig sent
it tingling to his brain.
In trapping, Major Stoner used heavy steel-traps
with two springs for beaver and otter, and occasion
ally single spring traps for muskrat, when their fur
would pay. He had one trap four feet long made like
the former, and designed expressly for bears. The
jaws of this ugly looking customer, are crossed on the
under side by spikes, which, when an animal is en-

124 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
trapped, are driven through the leg and render its
escape impossible, unless it gnaw its own limb off
above the fastening, and thus gain its liberty. To
this trap is attached a chain five feet long, with
two grappling hooks at the end, so shaped as to fasten
either to a tree or the ground, and bring up the game.
The trap and chain weigh nearly forty pounds. It
required two hand-spikes with this trap beside a log,
or in some other favorable position, to set it; on which
account the wary hunter, when the jaws parted, used
the precaution to place a billet of wood between them
while adjusting the pan, lest through accident he
might find the spikes boring his own limbs. Nearly
thirty bears have been taken in this trap, one-third
of them by its owner. On one occasion a bear left its
toes in the trap and escaped. For a view of this trap,
doing execution, see cover of the book.
If hunting with a partner, each carried three beaver
traps, and when traces of game were observed the
traps were set in the water, and to them the animals
were lured by a peculiar kind of bait called castoreum,
or beaver-castor, remarkably odorous and attractive
even in the water. That taken from one beaver was
often the agent for exterminating several of its fel
lows. The usual time of hunting began with cool
weather in the latter part of September, and lasted
about two months, or until the streams and lakes be
came frost-bound and the hunter's paths obstructed by
snow. The avocation was often renewed for several

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 125
weeks with the breaking up of winter, the hunters at
times starting upon snow-shoes.
One of the individuals with whom Major Stoner
sometimes hunted, was Capt William Jackson, a man
of courage and great muscular strength. On one oc
casion they set out for a hunt towards spring, travel
ing on snow-shoes. Arriving at a place where they
had to cross a field of ice, Jackson took off his snow-
shoes. With other indispensables he was carrying a
sharp axe, and by some misstep he slipped and fell
upon it, cutting himself under his chin in a shocking
manner. His companion was two days in getting him
back to the nearest settlement; which was in Chase's
patent, now Bleeker, and about eighteen miles from
where the accident happened. Leaving his wounded
friend well cared for, Stoner retraced his steps to the
wilderness; and Jackson sent James Dunn a few days
after, to supply his place.
Finding an inviting prospect for their business on
the Sacondaga, they began to set their traps. Hunters
erected lodges for their accommodation at suitable
distances from each other. They were small huts
made of bark, peeled for the purpose, hence the ne
cessity for an axe; besides, it was needed in preparing
fuel, and also in making canoes; which they con
structed by digging out a suitable log. Stoner and
Dunn, after building huts, preparing for each a tree-
canoe, and securing the pelts of some six or eight
beavers, left their traps set and came out to the settle-

126 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
ment on Chase's patent for provisions. They left
their canoes in their absence, in a stream running from
Trout lake into the Sacondaga. Their journey to ob
tain food, principally bread, as hunters could generally
supply their larder with fish and wild-game, occupied
only a few days; yet on their return they soon dis
covered that all was not right. The first trap they
looked for was ope that had been set by Dunn, on the
outlet a little distance from the lake; it was gone.
Leaving their canoe in an eddy made by a deposit
of drift-wood, they landed and proceeded with caution
up the creek. Arriving near the lake they heard a
loud halloo ! to which Stoner responded, although his
companion thought it a loon. They now halted and
awaited in silence, to learn what human voices be
sides their own, broke the general solitude ofthe forest
Soon the light dash of a paddle was heard, and im
mediately after an Indian in a bark canoe rounded a
point of land, and a few strokes from his brawny arm
sent his fairy craft into the outlet of the lake, beside,
and very near the white hunters. Scarcely had the
shoal navigator gained the point named, when another
Indian, on foot, rounded the point also, and stood
within a few paces of the pale-faced strangers. At
the feet of the Indian in the canoe lay a rifle and one
of Stoner's traps. The hunter on shore was armed
with a tomahawk, carrying in one hand the shell of
an immense turtle, which the water had drifted upon
the beach. Both parties evinced surprise at the meet-

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 127
ing; but the Canadian trappers, who proved to be St.
Regis Indians, appeared least at ease.
Hunters, as a class, are very tenacious of their
rights, and priority of occupancy usually establishes
a claim to hunting grounds. Some of their traps
had been left along the shore of the lake, in the di
rection from whence the Indians made their appear
ance; and after a most formal meeting, the Johnstown
hunters charged the strangers not only with appro
priating their fur to their own use, but also their traps
in which it had been taken. This was denied on the
part of the accused, notwithstanding one of the traps
was in their possession, and a fierce quarrel of w<Jrds
followed, graced by an exchange of harsh epithets,
until " Revenge impatient rose."
The Indian on shore, who was nearest to Stoner,
and on whom the latter vented not a few wicked say
ings, declared that he had seen the traps alluded to at
some distance above, and that they had not been
molested. The white hunters insisted upon having the
accused go back with them to see if the traps wene
as they had been left; this the other party attempted
with sundry excuses to evade doing. The one on land
then endeavored to gain a little distance under some
pretext, and the other, saying he would go back as
desired after gathering some bark, was observed to
grasp his rifle, abandon his canoe and leap from it to
the shore opposite Dunn.

128 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
At this instant the sharp crack of a rifle was heard,
and in the echo sent back by the hills came a yell
from the quivering lips of the Indian on the lake
shore, not unlike that of a savage in his last mo
ments — the tortoise-shell falling unreclaimed from his
hand. Indeed, human bones might have been seen
on this spot long after the incident here related had
transpired. Dunn was a man of small stature, but
made up in nerve and agility what he lacked in
physical strength; and seeing the Indian leap from
his canoe, he sprung into it in his pursuit, thinking thus
to cross the creek dry-shod and detain him. But the
frail barque would not withstand his weight, aug
mented with his descent from the shore, and he went
through it plump up to his waist in the water. Ob
serving that his antagonist was fleeing, without
waiting to extricate himself from his unpleasant
dilemma, he raised his gun and snapped it, but as the
priming had been wet by his fall, (percussion locks
are an invention of a later date,) the trapper escaped.
Had he looked back and observed the plight of his
pursuer, he would no doubt have halted long enough
to have sent a bullet through his head. Whether
these two Canadians were alone on this hunt is not
known, but their loud halloo would seem to indicate
that they were not.
It was conjectured that the hunter who had just
escaped from Dunn had fled directly to the Indians'
camp; and with his trusty piece well loaded, Stoner

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 129
left his companion at their own canoe to get dry as
best he could, and being set on the opposite shore,
proceeded in search of said camp. To seek this wil
derness lodge alone, without knowing its whereabouts
or how it might be guarded, was, after what had
transpired, one of the most presumptuous and daring
feats any individual could perform, as a concealed foe
might have detected an approaching footstep and
speedily revenged the fall of a friend; but the mission
was just suited to the spirit of the trapper who had
undertaken it, and onward he went, regardless of
peril. In a secluded spot some half a mile or more
from its outlet and not far distant from the lake shore,
he arrived at the object of search. It was a well
built cabin for comfort, constructed principally of bark
and set against a bold rock, so as to make that subserve
the purpose of one wall. It had evidently been aban
doned with precipitation, for it was not only cheered
by a blazing fire, but in it had been left a beautiful
bark canoe, finished and decorated in the most tasteful
Indian style, a trap with one spring, a spear, and a
scalping-knife. The latter instrument had no doubt
been forgotten in the hot haste, attendant on removing
fur, eatables, etc., as so indispensable an article to an
Indian's full equipment for the chase would not have
been left intentionally, unless it re a duplicate. The
articles found in this camp became a lawful prize,
according to the custom prevailing at that period
among trappers, predicated on the rule of might and

130 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
right. The Indians' canoe at the outlet of the lake
was constructed of spruce bark, and made near there,
but the one at their wigwam was of birch or some very
light bark, and had doubtless been transported from
Canada. Launching his trophied craft on the bosom
of the sheen lake, this white forest son returned in it
to his anxious companion.
The Johnstown hunters, reclaiming all their own
traps but one, after continuing their avocation a while
longer with some success undisturbed, indeed
Sole monarchs of those crystal streams,
set their faces towards home, to relieve the solicitude
of their families and engage in cultivating the soil.
After another seed-time and harvest had gone by,
Maj. Stoner, accompanied by William Mason, his
brother-in-law, returned to the same hunting grounds
that himself and Dunn had visited the preceding
spring. Expecting again to renew the exciting avo
cation of a trapper, Stoner concealed his traps in the
spring in some safe place near Trout lake, after
greasing them thoroughly to prevent injury by rust
Loaded with provisions and Mason's traps, having
said the necessary good-byes, the trappers buried them
selves in the dark forest, the one familiar with the
destination acting as pilot,
" Their clock the sun in his unbounded tower."
The Johnstown trappers struck the Sacondaga,
where, discovering signs of a beaver, they set one of

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 131
Mason's traps, and with a vigilant look-out for other
evidences of the desired game, they proceeded on in
the direction of Stoner's traps. Next day Stoner sent
Mason down several miles, to see if the first trap set
did not contain a beaver. He returned with an
assurance that the trap was not sprung, and whether
it had been or not he could not determine; but that
on a log which crossed the river near it, he had noticed
the tracks of a bear. Stoner thought it strange that
a beaver had not sprung that trap, and still more won
derful that a bear should prowl around it; and the
morning after Mason's return they visited it together.
The instant the practiced eye of the senior hunter
caught a glimpse of the foot-print pointed out by his
partner, provoked at his stupidity in not determining
more readily what animal had made it, he demanded
with a look of surprise, in rather ill humor and possi
bly at the end of an oath, if bears wore moccasons 1
Mason, who now rightly divined how the tracks came
there, was almost as much surprised at his dullness of
perception as his companion had been. On examining
the trap, the discriminating eye of the master hunter
also discovered that it was not in the position in which
it had been left two days before, and it was conjec
tured that a beaver had been taken from it and the
trap again set.
Stoner now proposed to Mason that he should re
main concealed and await Bruin's return to obtain an
interview; but the latter, who was a very strong man,

132 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
though timid, refused to remain alone. " Well," said
the former, " then I will lay near the trap and see
what kind of a bear comes to it." He secreted him
self, with the young trapper in his rear, and had been
there about half an hour, when he heard on the oppo
site side of the stream the muffled and cautious tread
of the anticipated bear. At this most exciting mo
ment might have been heard a noise in the morning
stillness, resembling that of one iron slipping suddenly
against another. The delicate ear of the visitant
caught the sound, and listening, with head bent for
ward, surveyed with scrutiny every surrounding object
All was again silent as death, save the murmur of the
rippling rivulet; and reassured that he was alone, and
that the click"which fell upon his acute organs was
made by the leap of a squirrel, or some small animal
that had suddenly broken a dry twig, Mason's bear,
with an eye oft scanning the direction of the trap
under consideration, stealthily approached the fallen
tree, which served as a bridge to cross the limpid river.
The bear, which, as we have already seen, wort
moccasons, was tall, very erect, with long, black
straight hair, and was clad in a smutty blanket,
strongly girdled at the waist. In one of its huge paws
it carried a dangerous weapon sometimes called a
tomahawk, and beneath the bosom of the blanket
above the girdle, peered out the hairless tail and pos
sibly hind legs of a muskrat. A rifle that seldom
required a second poise at the same object, was steadily

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 133
aimed at this old bear from the time of his appearance
until he reached the centre of the log ovei the stream,
when it suddenly exploded, and unable longer to re
tain an upright position, Bruin reeled and fell off with
a death-groan, his life-blood crimsoning the pure
waters of the Sacondaga.
The traps of the Johnstown hunters were not again
disturbed this fall, and at the close of th" trapping
season they returned home bearing a valua ole lot of
fur, among which there was at least on nuskrat's
pelt. The junior trapper, notwithstanding his bear
had met with a fate " which," to use the words of
his partner, " would let the succotash out of his
stomach and the eels in," could not be induced to
visit his traps alone in this excursion after the second
day.

CHAPTER IX.
While Maj. Stoner was living in Johnstown, and
not long after he commenced housekeeping, a large
bear came into his wheat-field, doing no little mis
chief. To destroy this grain destroyer he erected a
staging and watched repeatedly for him, but his vigi
lance was all in vain, and the wheat, when ripe, was
harvested. As the corn began to fill in the ear, Bruin
again thrust himself upon the hospitality of the major.
His bearship soon found, however, as have some more
worthy though less courageous, that the charities of
the world are granted grudgingly to strangers. For
several evenings after his first entrance, the husband
man vainly sought an interview with his unwelcome
guest, with malice aforethought rankling in his breast,
death intent absorbing all his thoughts, and a rifle
loaded with two balls resting in his arms.
At length, in one of his nightly watchings, he heard
his dusky visitant testing the quality of the tender
ears, and although the night was dark, he approached
sufficiently near to gain an indistinct view of him, and
instantly leveled and fired. At the report of his rifle,
agreeably to concert, a large watch-dog confined in
the house was let out by Mrs. Stoner, and as the
Interloper retreated from the lorn, was soon yelling

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 136
at his heels. He leaped a fence into a field where a
lot of flax had been spread, and after pursuing some
distance the dog returned home. In the morning,
blood was observed on the fence where the animal
had crossed, and it was conjectured that if wounded
he would not return. Imagine Stoner's surprise,
therefore, the very next day, when a neighboring
woman came running to his house, near which he
chanced to be at work, to tell him that the bear had
come back, and was then in their orchard, but a short
distance off.
Leaving the dog confined in his dwelling, to be let
out if he fired, armed with his rifle, he ran to the
orchard. He was not long in getting a shot, and soon
the dog was at his side. The bear, badly wounded,
was overtaken by Growler at the roots of a dry tree,
and several times, as the former attempted to ascend,
the latter pulled him back. Without leaving his
tracks after he fired, the sportsman, as' was his cus
tom, lodged another charge in his rifle. To his
chagrin he found that the stopple to his powder-horn
was broken off, and he was obliged to cut a hole in
the horn to obtain a charge of powder. This occa
sioned some delay in loading, and by the time he had
finished, his dog was crying most piteously. Not
pleased with being so unceremoniously drawn back,
the bear turned upon his adversary, and succeeded in
getting a paw of the latter in his mouth.
A dog in distress never fails to bring down the

136 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
vengeance of its owner upon the object causing it;
and hurrying to the tree where was enacting the tug
of war, he thrust the muzzle of the piece into Bruin's
mouth to pry open his jaws and liberate his canine
friend. Not altogether pleased with the interference,
the grain and apple-eater struck a blow at the intruder
with one of his monstrous paws, tearing off one leg
of his pantaloons, and leaving the prints of his nails
on the flesh. The end of the gun being still in the
animal's mouth, he discharged it and blew out his
brains. The yell of the dog attracted the attention
of several neighbors, and just as Stoner fired a second
time, Lieut. Wallace and his hired man, Hulster, ar
rived at the scene of action, armed with pitchforks.
The bear proved to be very large, and had one
white paw. On examining, to learn the cause, it was
found that one of the bullets fired at him in the corn
field, had passed through the centre of a forefoot while
in an erect position, and the animal had sucked it
until the inner part was white as snow.
Major Stoner was not only a trapper, but in the
proper season he indulged frequently in a deer or a
fox hunt; in which he was generally successful. On
a certain occasion many years ago, accompanied by
Benjamin DeLine and Jacob Frederick, he went to hunt
deer around the shores of the Canada lake, since by
some called Fish lake, and by others Byrn lake.
They succeeded in killing two noble deer, and started
toward night to cross the lake in the direction of

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. ' 137
home. Their water-craft, a tree canoe, when they
were all in with their game, was loaded almost as
heavily as she could float; and the wind causing the
waves to roll, made the voyage a dangerous one.
Stoner managed the canoe, while his companions,
seated on its bottom, used the utmost caution to pre
serve its equilibrium: but long before the little barque
neared her destined landing, she began to dip water.
Safety required that his comrades, whose seat became
uncomfortable as the water ran round them, should
keep quiet, while Stoner renewed his exertions at the
paddle to gain the opposite shore. As it became doubt
ful whether the destined haven could be gained, Stoner
steered for the nearest land, which proved to be a pro
jecting point of a small rocky island, which, in the
absence of a better name, I shall call Stoner's island.
The farther they sailed, the more the gale increased,
and as wave after wave left a portion of its crest in
the overloaded canoe; the situation of its inmates be
came one of the greatest peril. DeLine and Frederick,
substituting their hats for basins, used their utmost
exertions to keep the boat afloat by bailing, while
Stoner, urging upon his friends the necessity of cool
ness and a uniform position, sent her forward rapidly.
Still several rods from the land, and already up to his
knees in water, as the canoe was nearly full; DeLine
sprang out and found bottom, although the water was
several feet deep. Fearing that if their craft found
ered they would lose their guns and game, and ob-
12*

138 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
serving that DeLine got on so well, Frederick also
jumped into the lake; but a little distance made quite
a difference in the depth of water, for he found no
bottom. He was unable to swim, and seeing him
sinking below the surface, Stoner leaped out to his
rescue. His hair fortunately was done up in a cue,
wound with an eel-skin, and at this his deliverer made
a successful grab and swam to the shore. All having
gained the land, the canoe, which had been guided
along by DeLine, was drawn up on the beach, its
valuables removed to a place of safety, and its water
emptied out. Frederick, whose powers of suction had
gained him one swell too much, soon disgorged the
contents of his stomach; and when he could again
speak, he broke out with an oath in imperfect English,
" / cross de ocean all safe from Sharmany, and 0,
musht 1 pe trown in dish tarn vrog-pont ."'
Stoner's island, although preferable to the bottom
ofthe lake, was far from affording the weary hunters
a very comfortable night's rest. It had indeed some
trees and wild-wood vines, but nothing like a human
habitation; still, as the gale continued with unabated
violence, and it was now almost night, it was out of
the question to think of proceeding farther that eve
ning: they therefore set about making themselves as
comfortable as circumstances would permit. As not
only their guns and ammunition were wet, but their
materials for kindling a torch, they were obliged to
camp down with their clothes saturated and their

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 139
bodies shivering, without one blazing faggot to dry
their garments or cheer the midnight hour.
The Sun once more came peering o'er the Earth,
sending his light in golden streams through the pri
mitive forest which covered the surrounding hills, to
reflect their mellowed rays on the glassy waters of
Lake Byrn; in the bosom of which Stoner's island
lay reposing, as calmly and as quietly as an infant
nestled to sleep in its mother's arms. The deer-hunters
rose betimes, and although their study of cause and
effect, as we may suppose, had been somewhat limited,
still the contrast of nature's dramatic scenes since the
previous evening had been so great, that they could
not fail to mark the change, and look with an ad
miring eye on the rich and varied scene Heaven had
spread before them. Once more embarked with their
treasures, they gained the lake shore in safety, and
proceeded home without further adventure. For the
kind services rendered him at the lake, said Frederick,
on his arriving at his own dwelling, " Now, Nick,
schurst so long ash I has von cent in de vorld, so long
you shall never ivants for any ting, for bulling me out
from dat tarn vrog-pont mit mine eel-shkin dail."
For saving his life in the manner here related, this
worthy German proved the sincere and grateful friend
of our hero to the hour of his death, just before which
event he urged upon his children as a debt due to
himself, that they should never see his lake savior
want the comforts of life. It is gratifying to observe

140 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
that the Fredericks (a very respectable name in Ful*
ton county) have honored their father, even in death,
by remaining the warm friends of the old trapper,
their father's friend; having ever held themselves re
sponsible for the proper fulfilment, if needs be, of their
parent's unostentatious wish.
On the eve of our last war with Great Britain,
Major Stoner and William Mason entered the wilder
ness with their traps, and were gone over two months.
Their stay was protracted several weeks beyond the
time intended, and their anxious friends, who had heard
nothing from them, began to consider them as lost
forever. Hunters usually carried fishing tackle, and although
they often had to do without bread in long hunts, they
could generally procure a supply of fish or wild game.
Their food frequently consisted of either deer's or
bear's meat, and not unfrequently of squirrels, rabbits,
ducks, partridges, and possibly the flesh of beaver.
Meats were usually roasted before the fire on a spit of
wood, one end of which was planted in the ground.
If the reader will just peep in at the entrance of a
well regulated hunter's camp, he will see at a glance
how the disciples of Nimrod live in their wilderness,
womenless home. He will observe that excitement
renders them not only contented but comparatively
happy, in a little hut, destitute of a chair, table, or
bed. Should the visitor accept an invitation to step
in and dine, he may expect to receive a liberal slice

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK 141
of meat, scorched upon one side and nearly raw on
the other, with a reasonable allowance of salt and a
morsel of stale bread, if not too late in the hunt, served
with a hearty welcome upon the inner side of a clean
piece of bark; while he is seated upon a large stone,
or block of wood. If he tarried over night, for an
evening's entertainment, he would listen to not a few
perilous adventures in unexpected encounters with
wild animals, or novelties attending the chase; and
at early bed-time, he would find himself stretched upon
a hurdle of hemlock boughs in one corner of the lodge,
gathering himself into as small a heap as possible;
with a secret prayer that no hungry wolf would thrust
its nose beneath the blanket or pelt that covered him,
while midnight visions of squaws and beaver-skins
haunted his brain.
Out of provisions and almost out of their reckoning,
Stoner and his friend, having hung up their fur in some
safe place which they could again find, were making
their way to one of the nearest white settlements, when
suddenly they came upon an Indian in the forest, whom
the major mistaking for some other animal, possibly a
bear, was about to fire upon. The Indian, whose name
was Anderly, proved to be one of the Caughnawaga
tribe, from Grand river in Canada. He had with him
a little daughter, his wife having died in the forest.
The sudden appearance of two white men greatly ter
rified this little forest flower ; but her fears were quieted
with an assurance of friendship, and the white hunters

142 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
shared the hospitality of their dusky friends over night
This Indian first communicated to the Johnstown
trappers the fact, that hostilities had commenced be
tween England and the United States. Knowing this
fact, and thinking that possibly the whites were either
spies or foes, was what at first caused the fear ofthe
young wood-nymph. Parting with their new friends,
with whom they were much pleased, Stoner and Ma
son journeyed on, and finally came out in Norway,
Herkimer county; where they obtained provisions,
and where too, they saw several families that were
removing from the Black river country to the Mohawk
valley. They also came in contact with a body of
United States drafts marching to the line between New
York and Canada.
Trappers in their excursions seldom take shaving
utensils with them, and not unfrequently on their re
turn home, they might have been mistaken for the
prototype of Lorenzo Dow, of long-beard memory.
The Johnstown friends had wandered so long in the
forest, that their clothes were much worn ; and Mason,
whose appearance was perhaps the most ragged, was
arrested on suspicion of being a spy, and his gun taken
from him. Stoner having been a hero ofthe preceding
war, was fortunately known to some of the soldiery,
and succeeded in effecting the liberation of his com
rade and the restoration of his gun; and after liberally
replenishing their larder, they again buried themselves
in the moaning wilderness. In this hunt, Stoner car-

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 143
ried his rifle and Mason a fowling-gun with which to
shoot small game for food. On their way back to the
place where they had secreted their fur, and when in
a gloomy, mountain-encompassed dell, they accident
ally fell in with two Indians, who were there on the
same errand as themselves. It seems to be a pretty
true, though stale maxim, that two of a trade can not
agree. The strangers were Canadian hunters, having
very little fur, one of whom was armed with a rifle.
Scarcely had the parties met, when the one last alluded
to commenced a fierce quarrel with Stoner. He took
the latter for Green White, another bold trapper, and
accused him of plundering and then burning their
camp some two years before. Stoner, enraged at the
false charge, retorting the harsh epithets of his accuser,
denied being White ; or having stolen the fur of any
one. The other Indian, who said he had seen White,
told his companion that he was not the hunter before
thern, but this the passionate savage would not admit,
and the dispute continued.
Observing that his partner would not be appeased,
and that the quarrel must prove a serious one, the In
dian without a rifle approached Mason, who, as we
have seen, was a little timorous in such an emergency,
and desired to look at his gun. His object undoubt
edly was to arm himself. This seemingly small favor
would possibly have been indulged, had not a caution
from Stoner, in the Low Dutch tongue, reached his
friend, to beware of a treacherous design. The master-

144 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
hunter could not only understand, but spoke the Indian
dialect very well. Determined to possess himself of
Mason's gun, his antagonist grappled with him to
wrest it from his hands. A shrill rifle-shot now rang
among the towering hemlocks, followed by a yell so
loud and death-like, as to startle the wolf and panther
in their mountain lair. A moment after and the figure
of an Indian was seen receding in the forest with the
fleetness of an antelope, and the click of a gun-lock
fell on the ear; but its priming having been lost in
his scuffle with Mason, it missed fire, and the dark form
vanished in safety and alone.
After this adventure, the Johnstown trappers pur
sued their way, without further molestation, to their fur
and their traps, and ere long they returned home, to
the great joy of their friends; bearing a most valuable
lot of fur, and a spare rifle. It is not improbable that
their store of fur was augmented some in that lone
spot, where they had left a human carcass to return to
its earthly affinity.
Major Stoner was gone so long that a rumor pre
judicial to his character was put in circulation in
Johnstown just before his return. It was reported,
and parhaps by some believed, that he had been en
gaged in the contraband trade of smuggling goods
from Canada to that village, for Cornelius Herring
and Amaziah Rust. He says the accusation was false,
and although he saw goods carrying in the wilderness
at this time, which may have been destined for Johns-

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 145
town; they were in the hands of individuals who were
strangers to him. Squaws generally started with the
merchandise from Canada, and at some designated
place they met and gave it over to men employed to
run it through.
It is not unlikely that Green White, to whom allu
sion is made in these pages, who was a celebrated
and successful trapper, traversing the wilderness from
Otsego county to the shores of the St. Lawrence, had
numerous and sometimes fatal quarrels with rival
hunters. John G. Seely informed the writer that he
once playfully, though ironically, remarked to White,
" he did not like it that he was killing off" all his na
tion." The hunter replied, " D — n them, they must
not search my traps then. The last one I saw was
peeking over the bushes to look into one of my traps, and
soon after my dog was shaking his old blanket .'" Some
further account of this hunter, with his melancholy
fate, is given in another part of this volume.

13

CHAPTER X.
White hunters as well as Indians wore moccasons
on their long hunts; usually making their own from
the pelts of wild animals. Aaron Griswold hunted
with Maj. Stoner on one occasion, and having killed
a bear, as his boots chafed his ancles, he was not long
in making himself moccasons from the raw hide,
with the fur inside; and hanging up his boots in some
secure place, they journeyed on some fifteen miles.
Stoner had a favorite dog with him at the time, and
in the night the animal ate up one of the newly made
moccasons. Griswold was very angry next morning,
and swore he would shoot the dog; but Stoner ap
peased his wrath by cutting the needed garment from
his own blanket, which lasted until the return of
Griswold to his boots; about which time the majoi
shot a deer, and the breach in his companion's ward
robe was repaired from its skin.
Maj. Stoner was on a deer-hunt many years ago to
the Sacondaga vlaie, in company with Captain Henry
Shew. At a suitable place to camp out, he collected
some dry wood and struck up a fire for their comfort,
his companion in the meanwhile, visiting a favorite
crossing place of th* deer. Having started his fire,
he crossed the low ground to the bank of the creek

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 147
which courses through it. He had scarcely reached
the stream, when he saw the tall grass covering the
bog on the opposite shore bending towards him. He
at once recognized in the undulatory motion of the
grass, the probable presence of some wild animal;
which he thought hardly lofty enough in its carriage
for a deer. He remained quiet, and soon the object
made its appearance near the creek. At first sight
he thought it a hunter's dog, but its wild appearance
undeceived him, and he shot it. This was near night,
and the following morning they made a raft of drift
wood, on which Capt. Shew crossed the stream to see
what Stoner had killed. It proved to be a large she
wolf, and a young cub which had just been trying to
obtain nourishment from it, fled on the hunter's ap
proach, (as he had not taken his gun along,) and se
creted its famishing form in the rank grass. Shew
skinned the wolf, and Judge Simon Veeder paid them
twenty shillings, the then legal bounty, for its scalp.
Maj. Stoner shot but one other wolf while hunting,
although he trapped them often. He never killed a
panther, as none were so reckless of life as to cross
his path; but he very often heard their- startling
scream from their mountain haunts. He killed no
less than seventeen bears in two seasons.
The celebrated Nathaniel Foster and Maj. Stoner
were hunting together one fall, when they trapped a
large eagle. They set the trap beside the carcase
of a deer the wolves had killed on the ice upon

148 TEArrERS OF NEW YORK.
Round lake; and the national bird, as a reward for the
low company it kept, was caught in a wolf-trap, and
flew off with it; a heavy clog being attached to its
chain. The following spring one Barrington visited
the place with Stoner, and in searching they found
the trap in the bush beside the lake, where the clog
had become entangled, else the majestic bird would
possibly have soared away to its eyry with its vast
load. It was dead when discovered, and the trap,
which was Foster's, was restored to him.
During the time he was a hunter, a period of forty
or fifty years, Maj. Stoner hunted with very many in
dividuals; among whom were several Indians. He
was out some time with a man named Flagg, of
whom we can say nothing, except that he wore a cu
rious cap, made from the skin of a Joon with its
downy coat on. He hunted one season with a St
Regis Indian, named Powlus, and his acquaintances
wondered that he dared to do it. With this Indian
he explored the head waters of Grass river, which
empties into the St. Lawrence. At this place they
met with a small area of land with a fine growth of
hickory and oak timber. Persons going from Canada
to Johnstown in the summer season, either had to go
by way of the Sacondaga river, or else far to the west
of it, on account of a large territory of drowned lands
in the vicinity of Grass river. The latter district was
traversed with ease in the winter, however, by hunt
ers on snow shoes, when the low lands were frozen.

Trappers of new York. 149
Near the head of Grass river, the Johnstown trappers
met a French Canadian hunter, who had a squaw for
a wife. He was desirous of going as far south as
Johnstown, and Stoner traced a map of the most feasi
ble route for him, upon a piece of birch bark, to en
able him to accomplish the journey. Whether he
ever reached the designated point is not known.
Subsequent to Maj. Stoner's hunting with Mason,
Dunn, and Jackson, who were most frequently his
companions; he hunted two seasons with another St.
Regis Indian, called Capt. Gill; with whom he was
very successful. They caught twenty-six beavers and
five otters, beside considerable other game, in one
spring. Beaver usually sold for about one dollar a
pound ; and good skins would weigh about four pounds
each. Otter skins sold from five to seven dollars the
pelt. Stoner has received one hundred dollars for
peltries taken in a single season.
Gill had his squaw Molly with him while hunting,
and a daughter, or a Molly junior, who, the Indian said,
was not his papoose. Indian Women usually remained
at the camp, and did the cooking for the hunters.
Beavers generally built their dams across the outlets
of the lakes. Gill was very successful in spearing
those sagacious animals in their houses. While to
gether, they once trapped no less than four beavers if!
a single night. This Indian was a catholic, and in
a thunder shower would cross himself repeatedly. He
was in the English service in the war of the RevOlu-
13*

150 TRAPPERS of NEW YORK.
tion, and was present at the destruction of Stone
Arabia; but in the last war he took protection under
the authorities of New York. He entertained no lit
tle fear, and possibly harbored not much love for his
fellow countrymen; and on an emergency, would per
haps have scrupled as little as did his fearless com
panion, to punish their aggressions.
Eben Blakeman, who several times hunted with our
hero, was once on a hunt when the Indians disturbed
his traps; but being joined by Stoner, they left the
hunting grounds sans ceremonie. Obadiah Wilkins,
another lover of the chase, was more than once asso
ciated with Major Stoner in trapping excursions.
Their wives were cousins. On one occasion when
they were hunting in Bleeker, Wilkins, to replenish
their larder, took fishing tackle and seated himself on
a rock in West Stoney creek, a tributary of the Sa
condaga. He had barely gained the position, when
a stout Indian came to him and inquired rather insult
ingly, " What doing here ?" He replied, " I am fish
ing." " Have got gun ?" interrogated the visitor.
" Yes, at the camp," said Wilkins, a little disconcert
ed at the fierce manner of his inquirer. Observing
the advantage he had gained, the red hunter continued,
" This Indian's hunting ground — Yankees no business
here — you must leave him /" As Wilkins made but
little reply to the last remark, the speaker continued,
" Has white man got partner ?" " Yes, at the camp."
" What his name ?" " Nick Stoner."

TRAPPERS of NEW YORK. 151
Had the witch of Endor risen before him, the
forest-son would not have been more disagreeably
taken a-back, and he gave a loud guttural " Umph! "
Observing the magic wrought by the utterance of a
single name, Wilkins became reassured, and invited
the blanketed hunter to go with him to the camp.
" No! Indian go to his own camp ! " he responded,
and soon after disappeared in the wilderness. This
Indian had frightened a hunter, named Wheeler, from
these grounds not long before; but when he heard
that Stoner was in the neighborhood, the air seemed
to oppress his lungs; and hastily collecting his traps,
he broke up his camp and sought afar off k new forest-
home. The reason assigned by Wilkins to his part
ner for being disconcerted at the interrogatories of
this savage hunter was, that the latter was armed with
a hatchet, and himself only with a fishing-rod.
The last difficulty Stoner had with the Indians while
trapping, occurred at Lake Pleasant. Dunning, who
then lived at the Ox-Bow, four miles from Lake
Pleasant, had left his traps in the wilderness where he
had previously hunted, and was afraid to go after them
alone at the return of the hunting season. Obadiah
Wilkins left home with Stoner on this enterprise, and
leaving him to hunt with Dunning's father nearer
home, Stoner and Dunning set out to find and use the
hidden traps. Before reaching them, and about thirty
miles from the settlement, Stoner set two of his own
traps for beaver, one in the stream and the other on

152 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
the shore of a small lake; a little distance further he
set another trap for an otter. Arriving at a pond
which lay in their route, not far from where the last
trap was set, they found a large moose in it fighting
flies, which Stoner, with some twinges of conscience,
drew up and shot They skinned it and sunk the hide
beneath the water, to get the hair off; and two musk-
rat skins they had already secured they hung up in
the vicinity. Not more than one-fourth of a mile far
ther on, they came to a deserted camp, with the
appearance of having been recently occupied. Much
wearied and the day far spent, they tarried over night
at this hunter's lodge.
On the following morning, as the distance was not
very great, Dunning went back to the place where
the nearest trap was set, but could not find it; and
before renewing the journey for his traps, they returned
together, if possible to learn the fate of the one, and
recover the other two traps. The trap set for an otter
was indeed clear gone, and about it were Indians'
tracks, but the other two were safe. In the one left
in the creek a beaver had been caught that proved
wise enough to gnaw its own leg off, and escape by
leaving its foot in the trap; and in the other they
found an otter.
While on their way to obtain their traps, they heard
the report of a gun fired in the distance, which they
thought might possibly tell what direction the lost
property had taken. Recovering Dunning's traps,

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 153
they now went to another stream to hunt, where they
had some success. Visiting their haunts one day, they
found one trap had been robbed of its game; and as
it was a very heavy one, the robber not caring to take
it along had left it suspended by the jaws upon a
stump. On their route home, the hunters halted where
the moose had been slain; and here they found fresh
evidence of intrusion upon their rights. Well was it
for the evil doer that he had not lingered there, else
he might have been mistaken for another of Mason's
bears. The moose-skin had been pulled up and some
of it cut off, and the muskrat-skins had found a new
owner. Arriving at Dunning's Saturday afternoon, they
learned that two Indian trappers had just come in at
the lake settlement, four miles distant, with fur; at
which place there was a tavern, a small grocery,
store, &c. Capt. Wright kept the tavern, and one
Williams the grocery; the latter dealing principally
in such articles as ammunition, blankets, rum, &c, to
sell to trappers and adventurers. Stoner wished to
visit Lake Pleasant to see whether the hunters had
not got his lost trap and stolen fur; but Wilkins de
clined going with him, and the younger Dunning
became his companion.
On their arrival at Wright's they learned that the
Indian hunters were Capt. Benedict and Francis, a
large yellow-skin, and that they were encamped in
the woods about one hundred yards from the inn. As

154 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
it was nearly dark, they concluded to defer a visit to
their place of rest until morning. Some time in the
night, a sister's son of Wright awoke his uncle to
inform him that the dogs of the Indian hunters were
killing their sheep. Stoner got up and accompanied
the young man to the field to drive the dogs from the
sheep, one of which they had already slain. In the
morning Stoner visited the Indians at their fire in the
woods. Near it lay the dogs, and at hand were two
rifles, a basket of potatoes, and a piece of pork. The
rifles were resting one on each side of the basket, while
between his knees Francis held a jug of whiskey, over
which he was singing a huntsman's chorus.
Capt. Benedict, who was a pretty likely Indian,
was well known to Maj. Stoner, and as the latter ap
proached, told his companion who he was. In the
group lay a bundle of traps tied together with thongs
of Stoner's moose-hide, and conspicuously among them
appeared his lost trap. It was known the previous
evening in the neighborhood what the object was of
Stoner's visit to the lakes, and when he went to the
hunter's lodge early in the morning, Wright, Wil
liams, one Peck, and perhaps others who may have
taken a nap the less to enable them to, stole up
behind trees as near as they could without being ob
served, on purpose, as they afterwards said, to witness
the fun they anticipated would follow the interview.
After friendly salutations had passed between Stoner
and Benedict, the former walked to the traps and

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 155
jerked his -up from the rest, enquiring sharply how it
came there ? He would have recognized the trap
among a thousand others : it was made by William
Mann, of Johnstown, and had on it Stoner's private
hunter's mark. When blacksmiths made traps for
hunters, they generally put some peculiar mark on
them their own fancy suggested, never placing the
same device upon the traps of different hunters. Seeing
Stoner about to cut it loose, Francis exclaimed, "No
cut him ! No cut him /" extending his hand to pre
vent the act, at which interference the claimant
raised the whole bundle and knocked the intruder
down with it. Regaining his feet and seeing the
trap already in the possession of its owner, the con
science-stricken trapper said gruffly, " If trap yours,
take him!"
Pay was next demanded for the lost fur, and epi
thets were bandied between Stoner and Francis,
of which passion was the parent. Benedict, who was
evidently ashamed of his company, now interfered,
and to some extent pacified his old acquaintance, who
accepted the jvg of friendship, and drank of its sup
posed healing and cooling, though very fiery waters.
As readily would oil put out a flame, as alcohol have
quieted the storm of human passion. After a little
further conversation with Benedict, not wishing to be
outdone in generosity, Stoner asked the Indians to go
to the tavern and drink with him. The invitation
was readily accepted, and Francis, as the partner of

156 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
Benedict, went along, although at first he pretended
he would not go.
The two friends before the bar soon held each a
tumbler of liquid fire, and Stoner asked Francis to
pour out and drink with them. He declined in a very
insolent manner, whereupon the former smashed the
tumbler he held, liquor and all, against his head. The
Indian, as soon as he could regain a standing posi
tion, enraged at the act, closed with his adversary,
and in the short scuffle which followed, the latter
proved too smart for his yellow antagonist, and pitched
him neck and heels Out of the bar-room door upon
the ground. He had a hard fall, and when he rose
up several gravel stones remained half buried in his
cheek and temples. The fight would no doubt have
become a deadly one, had it not been arrested at this
point by the by-standers, who held the parties asunder
until their ardor and passion had a little time to cool
down. When reason began to assume her throne, Stoner
demanded of Francis either the furs stolen from his
traps or the money for them. The parties now went
to Williams's store, where they found the green bea
ver-skin stolen from the heavy trap, which the Indian
had there sold the previous afternoon. He finally
admitted having taken that skin from the trap men
tioned, but denied having taken the two muskrat
pelts, although several were among the fur he had
sold Williams, saying that probably some young

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 157
Indians who were then hunting in the woods had
taken them. A compromise was now made, and
Francis paid Stoner a certain sum to settle their diffi
culties, a receipt for which was drawn up by Williams,
as dictated by Stoner. About this time the young In
dians referred to, five in number, came in. They had
several marten-skins, but more fully to establish the
guilt of the accused they had not the pelt of a single
muskrat. One of the boys, a likely young Indian,
who answered to the name of Lige Ell, and who was
a son of Benedict, when told that he had been accused
by Francis of having taken Stoner's fur, seemed highly
offended by the insult. The truth was, the traps of
Francis being fastened together by strips of the moose-
skin, near which the lost pelts had been left, if it did
not prove his guilt, was at least strong evidence
against him.
Lige Ell went to the store to buy a pocket-knife,
but did not like any there. He said of all Williams
had, " there wasn't no more fire in 'em than there was
in his nose." Hunters wanted a heavy knife, with
which they could not only skin large game, but one,
the back of which would elicit from flint the spark of
comfort in the wilderness. Stoner handed the lad his
own knife, with which he seemed delighted, and as
the old trapper was rather partial to the boy, he made
him a present of it. The young Indian then, to cap
the climax of his happiness, bought a quart of the
red man's exterminator, rum, and a cake of maple
14

158 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
sugar, got pretty drunk, and with his no less tipsy
companions went to shooting at a mark.
Here is no doubt given a true picture of the manner
in which the Sabbath is too often kept, or rather,
broken, on the outskirts of civilization. Benedict's
son told Francis, after a knowledge of all that had
transpired between him and " Old Stoner," with whom
by repute he was no stranger, that if he desired to
live, he must never show his head in that region again;
as, if he did return, he would certainly be killed. It
is believed he never afterwards intruded on the hunt*
ing grounds of the Johnstown trappers; if he did, he
certainly was cautious. not to disturb either their traps
or their furs.
It was customary some twenty years ago, in the
summer season, for Indian families to come down from
the north and locate themselves for weeks, and some
times for months, in the neighborhood of the Mohawk
river settlements and make baskets, which they ex
changed at the nearest villages for trinkets, gay
calicoes, liquor, tobacco, scarlet cloth, &c. Three
of a party that had taken up their residence one sum
mer to make baskets in Stoner's neighborhood, lodged
in his barn. The major had a large dog at the time,
and his guests a small one. One day when he was
gone from home, his dog, not -pleased with the In
dians' canine friend, which he considered intruding
upon his rights, took him by the neck and gave him
a hard shaking. The owner of the little yelper, armed

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 159
with a knife, set out to revenge the insult with the
death of the offender.
This incident happened when Mary Stoner was in
her teens, and at the time, she and her mother were
at home alone. Hearing an unusual noise, Mary
opened the door, and seeing the Indian in pursuit of
their dog, she called it into the house and fastened
it in. Arrested at the door, he uttered numerous
threats, and several times stuck his knife into it, at
which moment Stoner approached. Seeing an Indian
armed with a long knife, attempting to enter his
dwelling, he ran up and knocked him down, and was
giving him a few hasty kicks, when the other two
Indians came to the rescue of their comrade. Hearing
her father's voice, Miss Stoner looked out, and seeing
two Indians hold of him, she feared they would kill
him, and hastened to place in his hand a heavy fire-
shovel for his defence. The act proved the girl " a
chip of the old block," but he told her to carry back
the weapon, that the Indians would not hurt him.
They did not seek his injury, but to rescue their friend.
The day after this dog difficulty the Indians in the
neighborhood all disappeared, and one of the party
who had borrowed a blanket of Stoner to go deer-
hunting, forgot to return it.
Maj. Stoner was a very successful trapper, and
frequently brought in such large quantities of fur that
many suspected he had obtained it unfairly from other
hunters, but such he declares was never the case.

CHAPTER XL
Maj. Stoner became a widower when he had been
married over forty years; after which he lived be
tween fifteen and twenty years with Mrs. Polly Phye,
and until her death. Her husband, Daniel Phye,
abandoned her, for what reason is unknown. He
died many years ago at the westward.
After Phye had been gone several years, and dark
mystery had drawn her curtain of uncertainty around
his fate; gossip sometimes made Mrs. Phye a grass,
and at others, a hay-widow. At this period Maj.
Stoner paid his addresses successfully, to the supposed
widow; and although she considered herself absolved
from all farther connection with Phye; still, as he
might be alive and possibly return, prudence prevent
ed a ceremonial marriage, which could by law con
sign her to the inner walls of a prison; and they re
solved to unite their stock in trade, and move along
cheerfully if they could, in the great wake of the
human family. Thus they did pass on quietly and
happily until separated by death. They had no chil
dren by this voluntary marriage. Let the stickler for
a rigid adherence at all times to established laws
without reference to their operation, imagine this
case wholly their own, before they feel prepared to

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 161
condemn the course of this couple, or brand their con
duct with the title of crime.
On the 23d day of April, 1840, having been a
second time a widower for several years, Maj. Stoner
married his present wife; who is considerably young
er than himself. Her maiden name was Hannah
Houghtaling, but at the time of their marriage she
was the widow Frank.
At the present time (1846), the old trapper resides
in the town of Garoga, Fulton county; at a settle
ment which has recently sprung up, called Newkirk's
Mills. He owns a comfortable dwelling in which he
lives, draws a pension from the general government,
and from keeping several boarders, who work in the
mills, which the industry of a smart wife enables
him to do, he passes down the evening of his life
very comfortably. Garret Newkirk, the proprietor
here, has an extensive tannery, and a saw-mill in
which two saws are almost constantly rending asun
der the trunks of the surrounding forest. The place
has some fifteen or twenty dwellings, a school-
house, a post-office, (called Newkirk's Mills) &c,
and is situated pleasantly on the outlet of the Garoga
lakes, two crystal sheets of water, each several miles
in circuit, located some twelve or fifteen miles to the
westward of Johnstown. Since the above was writ
ten, a public-house has been opened at this place,
several new dwellings erected, and a plank-road con
structed from thence to Fonda, sixteen miles distant.
14*

162 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
I have somewhere alluded to Chase's Patent. Wm.
Chase, the patentee, was in early life a searcaptain,
and in the Revolution became an American privateer.
He was captured and taken to Europe, and while
there visited France. After the war he removed
from Providence, Rhode Island, to Hoosick, New
York. At the latter place he built a bridge, by con
structing which, ne was enabled to purchase some
12,000 acres of land in the western part of Fulton
county. A large tract of land adjoining his, and
which Chase intended to buy, was subsequently sold
in Albany by auction, and was purchased by Barent
Rleeker, Cornelius Glen, and Abraham G. Lansing.
It was known as Bleeker and Lansing's patent. Fail
ing to secure this tract of land, on which he seems to
have set his affections, Capt. Chase was heard to ex
claim with an oath, " 1 would rather have lost my
right in Heaven, than a title to this soil ! " People
when excited often utter expressions devoid of wit
and common sense, if not, in fact, foolishly wicked.
In most of the surveys of wild land in and adjoin?
ing Fulton county, made since the Revolution, Maj,
Stoner, who was peculiarly fitted for the task by his
familiarity with the forest, and his ability to endure
fatigue, acted as pilot for the parties. At one time
while engaged in exploring lands with Capt. Chase,
the latter lost a gold snuff-box which had been a pre
sent in France, a gift he prized far above its real
value. Stoner, fortunately for the old privateer's

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 163
peace of mind, for he was not a little vexed at the
misfortune, seeing it glitter in the leaves, picked it
up aud restored it to tbe owner, who almost waltzed
for joy. This same Capt. Chase was not a little ec
centric, and usually got up at least once in the night,
to drink and take a pinch of snuff.
When the lands contiguous to Piseco* lake, known
as the Ox Bow tract, were surveyed, a road, " begin
ning eight miles northerly from Johnstown," was laid
out from thence to Ox Bow lake, a distance of 26 miles
and 9 chains. Major Stoner attended the surveyor and
commissioners as pilot, and was thus engaged for two
seasons. Lawrence Vrooman of Schenectada was the
surveyor, and Stephen Owen and James McLalin were
the commissioners on the road, as appears by a map
of the survey, which was filed in the county clerk's
office April 1, 1811. Not a few pleasing incidents
transpired in the wilderness during this time, to
keep the party, which sometimes numbered nearly
twenty, in good spirits. Of the number while laying
out the road, who thus enjoyed a portion of the
novelty attending a trapper's life, and learned how
large mosquitoes will grow in the woods if well fed,
were J. Watts Cady, and Marcus T. Reynolds. At
* Pi-se-co is an aboriginal word, and in their pronunciation,
the Indians speak it as though spelled Pe-sic-o ; giving a hissing
sound to the second syllable. It is derived from pisco, a fish,
and therefore signifies fish lake.— John Dunham.
Piseco, says Spafford in his Gazetteer of NewYork, and which
he spells Pezeeko, is so called after an old Indian hermit who
dwelt upon its shores.

164 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
that time they were young men, possibly with some
" wild oats," but since then they have become legal
gentlemen of no little notoriety.
At one time when the surveying party were near
the Cx Bow, a name significant of the shape of one
of the lakes, and far removed from any human habi
tation; they got out of provisions, and the pack-men,
whose duty it was to go after a supply, were unwil
ling to start, entertaining some doubts about ever
finding their way back. In this emergency Stoner
volunteered to proceed with as little delay as possible
to the nearest settlement, which was Lake Pleasant,
and relieve the necessities of his comrades. Arriving
just at evening at the house of a pioneer, named
Denny, the family baked nearly all night; and early
in the morning, with a sack upon his back, contain
ing nearly a dozen large loaves of bread, and a good
sized cheese to balance, he set out on his return.
Knowing the necessities of his forest friends he did
not tarry to let the bread get cold, and as the
weather was warm, his back was almost blistered on
his arrival. Before he reached the place of destina
tion, he met a messenger despatched by Vrooman to
assist him; bringing a junk-bottle of rum.
Speaking of his experience in surveying in the Pi
seco country, Cady observed of Stoner, that he would
kindle a fire — climb a tree — cook a dinner — empty a
bottle — shoot a deer — hook a trout — or scent an In
dian, quicker than any other man he ever knew.

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 165
The old trapper, as he informed the writer, took some
pains to show the young men named, (who were law
students at the time,) how to catch trout, and in the
north branch of the Sacondaga, Cady, under his
teaching, caught a bouncing one; of which exploit
he was very proud, as in fact he had a right to be;
for it made a meal for the whole surveying corps.
Anxious to get through as soon as possible, the party
laying out a road, continued their labors in some in
stances on the Sabbath. Stoner usually carried a
small flag, and while crossing a mountain in advance
of the men on Sunday, he discovered a mass of ice
between the rocks, and gave a shout that at first ex
cited the anxiety of his comrades, lest some wild
beast lingered in their path. The next day they cap
tured a large turtle on the shore of Piseco lake, and
from it took one hundred and seventy-two eggs, of
which they made egg nogg; cooled before being
served round by ice obtained by letting one of the
corps down between the rocks. About twenty indi
viduals partook of the beverage, among whom were
Seth Wetmore, the state's agent for opening an
intersecting road, and Obadiah Wilkins. The last
named gentleman acted as master of ceremonies in
dressing and cooking the turtle's meat, which afford
ed the party a fine repast. This was on the 4th
day of July, 1810.
At some period of the survey, Stoner shot a hedge
hog, which Vrooman wanted skinned; and besought

166 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
several to do it, but in vain: they did not dare to
handle it. The old trapper volunteered and took off
the bristly pelt; which the surveyor, on his return,
carried home with him,
The southerly portion of country under considera*
tion is hilly and in many places mountainous. The
soil is generally stony, though in many instances,
fertile; but far better adapted to grazing, than the
production of grain. The prevailing rock is of the
primitive order, consequently the shores of the lakes
which sparkle here and there in the glens, abound in
deposifes of beautiful sand; which often afford good
writing sand. The timber is principally beech, birch,
maple, hemlock and spruce. Much of the hemlock is
sawed into fence-boards, and acres of the spruce
annually wrought into shingles or sawed into floor-
plank; all of which find a ready market at the nearest
accessible point on the Erie canal: and since the
Garoga and Fonda plank road is favorable to its re
moval, not a little will find its way to Fultonville,
where considerable quantities were landed before the
plank road was laid out.
Much of this country still has a primeval look, but
its majestic forest lords and advantageous water powers,
must in time invite in the thrifty artisan and hard-
fisted yeoman, to subdue and cultivate it: indeed, the
time may not be distant when this new country shaU
not only " bud and blossom as the rose," but with the
rose. It certainly must be a healthy district; for it

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 167
abounds in waters the most limpid, and breezes the
most invigorating. The lakes and their tributaries
are stored with an abundance of delicious trout j and
if not walled castles, stately mansions may yet rear
their imposing fronts in those glens; to be known
in future ages as the rivals of the far-famed glens of
Scotland; when some Scott or Burns shall rise up, to
picture their Indian legends in story and in song.
The outlets to some of the lakes around which Maj.
Stoner used to trap the sagacious, though too often
confiding beaver, run off in a northerly course to swell
the Hudson, while other lakes send their tribute in a
southerly direction to the Mohawk. The most east-?
em of the latter class are the Garoga lakes, discharg
ing in a creek of the same name, which runs into the
Mohawk in the western part of Palatine. Some
two or three miles to the westward of the Garogas is
a larger lake, known among the early hunters as Fish
lake, though often called Canada lake, because it pays
tribute to the East Canada creek.
An anonymous writer in the Geneva Courier, over
the signature of Harold, has thus pertinently described
this sheet of water and its locality, in that paper,
bearing date, Oct. 28, 1845. " Two and a half miles
from Caroga [Garoga must be the aboriginal word] is
a larger lake, about four miles in length, to which I
gave the name of Lake Byrn. It takes exactly the
form of the letter S. I think this is the most romantic
spot I ever visited. The surface of the ground rising

168 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
back from the shore, is covered with large irregularly
shaped rocks, from five to forty feet in diameter, lying
entirely above ground, and often tumbling together
in mountain masses, lodged and wedged in like drift
wood. Many of these rocks are riven asunder and
the base of each portion thrown outward from the line
of separation, the superior parts resting against each
other, thus forming apartments with a solid stone roof
large enough to shelter a dozen or twenty men. This
I think must have been the work of fire. Strange as
it may seem, all this is in quite a dense forest, and
almost infinite are the shapes taken by the trees in
their turnings and twistings to avoid the numerous
rocks. In some instances the roots of a single tree
have grown astride a huge rock, the base of the trunk
resting on its apex, six or eight feet from the ground.
The appearance is the same as if the rock were forced
up from the ground beneath, elevating the tree with it,
but not a particle of earth attaches to either ; and these
are all living, healthy trees. It is in this neighbor
hood that tradition says large sums of money were
buried by certain Spaniards, in the time of the Ameri
can Revolution; but ' it's sure never a bate o' it did I
find at all, at all !' So said a hard-fisted son of Erin,
relating the story. Near the centre of Lake Byrn, is
a small rocky island, covered with evergreens, birch
and flowering shrubs." This island, the reader will
remember, I have named Stoner's island. The writer
above quoted called on Major Stoner, at the time of

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 169
his visit, and his Chips of Travel contained a brief
summary ofthe old warrior's military life.
A few miles distant from Lake Byrn is a body of
water of nearly the same size called Pine lake, on ac
count of the lordly pines about its shores: it empties
into the former. Two small crystal sheets above Pine
lake are called Stink lakes. Their unpoetic name at
tached from the following incident. Stoner and De
Line were there on a hunt, and discovered many
bushels of dead fish, principally suckers, which had
got over a beaver's dam in a freshet; and which, be
ing unable to return, had died on the recession of the
water, to the great annoyance of those hunters, who
thus named the lakes. Their outlet runs into that of
Pine lake. Several small lakes in the southerly part
of Hamilton county, unite their waters to form the head
of West Canada creek. Lake Good Luck, some ten
or twelve miles in circumference, which lies only a
few miles to the northward of Stink lakes, empties
into the west branch of the Sacondaga, one and a half
miles below Devereux's mills. This lake derived its
name from the following incident. While Vrooman
was surveying near it, and several of his party were
making a large canoe from the trunk of a tree, John
Burgess, his son-in-law, discharged his gun at a loon,
off on the water. The piece burst and scattered its
fragments harmlessly in every direction. The acci
dent terminated so fortunately, that the name the lake
now bears, was entered on the surveyor's field-book.
15

170 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
About two miles below the mouth of the outlet from
Gook Luck, is a small lake called Trout lake. It
abounds in trout, which circumstance originated its
name ; and not a few anglers visit it to replenish their
larder. On the shore of this lake, the reader will re
member, a poor Indian once lost a turtle's and his own
shell. Stoner at different times, killed two moose in the
edge of this lake, while the animals were fighting flies.
Satterlee's mills are located on West Sacondaga, at a
rapid some two miles below the outlet of Trout lake.
From those mills to the outlet of Piseco lake, the
stream is rapid, affording fine mill-seats. At this
rapid was also a carrying place, where the Indian and
other hunters carried their canoes over land to get into
Piseco lake. It is some twelve miles from the inlet of
Piseco lake, to where the east and west branches of
the Sacondaga unite.
The Piseco is the largest of a cluster of lakes in
Hamilton county, which empty into the west branch
of the Sacondaga, and is some nine miles long, and in
places, nearly three broad, or twenty miles in circum
ference. Of the lakes in the neighborhood of Piseco,
are Mud lake, so called because its shores are muddy;
Spy lake, so named by the surveyors, because ap
proached so unexpectedly by them; Round lake, the
name indicating its form; and Ox-Bow lake. The
last mentioned is three or four miles long, though not
very wide, and shaped like the bow of an ox-yoke.
In the territory adjoining, and known as the Ox-bow

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 171
tract, Seth Wetmore, a former sheriff of Montgomery
county, owned some thousands of acres, a consider
able portion of which was received from the state
as compensation for opening a road, the survey of
which I have alluded to, from the shore of Piseco lake
to the Bleeker settlements. Lake Pleasant, another
large and beautiful sheet of water, lies off to the north
east of the Piseco; and its outlet, with other streams,
forms the eastern branch of the Sacondaga: to the
westward of Lake Pleasant, some ten or twelve miles,
is a pretty lake, called Louis's lake, after a Canadian
Indian, who formerly hunted upon its shores.
The land in the Piseco country, though hilly and
often mountainous, is said to be less stony and more
fertile than that of the Garoga and Bleeker territory;
and when New England gets her telescope upon it, it
will beyond all doubt, be thickly peopled by enter
prising inhabitants. Many acres ofthe soil are covered
with a heavy growth of pine and spruce timber, which
only needs an avenue to market richly to reward the
pioneer for the blows of his axe and saw.
From the lakes of Hamilton county, streams run off
in almost every point of compass. Besides the lakes
named, there are numerous others in different parts of
this county; among which are Lake Janet, named
after the accomplished wife of Professor James E. De
Kay, zoologist ofthe state in her late scientific survey;
Lake Catharine, named after a multitude of good
Dutch women, and one in particular ; Racket and Long

172 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
lakes. The two last named are the largest in the
county, being one fourteen and the other eighteen
miles in length. Hamilton county, from her isolated
situation with regard to the export of her products;
being too far removed to warrant a transport by land
to a good market, is mostly in a wild and unsettled
condition; she having only one legal voter to every
twenty-six hundred square acres of her territory; but
could a communication by rail road or canal be opened
to some good market place, it would soon teem with
a busy population. That a connected water commu
nication is feasible, is thus hinted at by Professor
Emmons, in his volume of the New York Geology.
He observes, speaking of the waters of Hamilton
county: " These lakes, together with their bays, inlets
and outlets, and other waters which maybe connected
with them, are capable of forming an extended line
of water communication, by which a large portion of
this section of country may be traversed; and proba
bly the time may not be far distant, when it will be
thought expedient to form and perfect some of the
natural channels of communication which intersect
this part of the state."
In one of his annual reports during the geological
survey, Dr. Emmons thus describes this region of
country. " I have the pleasure of stating that it is
far from being the wet, cold, swampy, and barren dis
trict which it has been represented to be. The soil is
generally strong and productive; the mountains are

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 11 J
not so elevated and steep, but that the soil is preserved
of sufficient thickness to their tops to secure their
cultivation, and most of the marshy lands may be re
claimed by ditching; by this means they will become
more valuable than the uplands for producing hay. In
fine, it will be found an excellent country for grazing,
raising stock, and producing butter and cheese. The
strength of the soil is sufficiently tested by the heavy
growth of timber, which is principally of hard wood,
as beech, maple, yellow-birch, butternut and elm. The
evergreens or pines, are confined mostly to the lower
ranges of mountains. Some of them are of the largest
growth of any in the state, and are suitable for the
main shafts of the largest of the cotton mills. In the
main, the county resembles the mountainous districts
of New England, and like these produces the same
intermixture of forest trees, and has about the same
adaptation for the production of the different kinds of
grain, as wheat, rye, oats, peas, barley, together with
fine crops of potatoes."
Comparatively little is yet known of northern New
York, indeed, a great part of what has heretofore been
known, was only so in error; this is my apology, for
saying so much about it.
In a hunting excursion accompanied by Lieut. Wal
lace and one Coffin, Major Stoner went down to
Jessup's river, some fifteen miles below Fish House;
and in the woods between that river and the Sacondaga,
they found the body of a white man they supposed
15*

174 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
had possibly been insane ; and had strayed into the
wilderness and there died: but he may have been a
hunter and crossed the track of one of like craft, who
revenged with death a real or supposed injury.
The local Indian names Garoga, and Kennyetto, I
have sought in vain to get the English definition of.
If any individual can give the signification of either
of them, they will confer a favor by communicating
the same to my address. It is not only important that
Indian names be preserved, but that their true mean
ing be handed down to future generations, which,
divested of the prejudices that influence the present,
will drop a tear of pity over the wrongs and injuries
done this brave, indeed once noble but now degraded
race; and cherish the significant and purely American
names they once gave to our lakes, rivers, and moun
tains, as they would their household gods.

CHAPTER XH.
Nathaniel Foster, justly celebrated as a hunter and
trapper of northern New York, was a native of Hins
dale, Windham county, Vermont; the town is now
called Vernon. He was named after his father, and
was born about the year 1767. At the age of three
or four and twenty he married Miss Jemima, daughter
of Amos Streeter, of New Hampshire; a year or two
after which, and nine or ten years subsequent to the
close of the Revolution, he removed to the town of
Salisbury, Herkimer county, New York; at which
time the country around his new home wels mostly a
wilderness. In person he was nearly six feet high, erect and
strongly built, with a large muscular frame that seem
ed well fitted for fatigue. His features were com
manding, though not finely marked, and when cheer
fulness lit up his countenance through his keen dark
eye, they were rather prepossessing. His complexion
was sallow, his hair was a sandy brown, but not very
gray to the hour of his death, although he grew bald
in the latter part of his life.
At the time of Foster's emigration to New York,
wild game was so abundant in the northerly part of
Herkimer county, that,with his fondness for the ex-

176 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
citement attending a hunter's life, circumstances com
bined to make him a perfect Nimrod. To adopt the
language of a correspondent, " He was a Leatherstock-
ing of an original stamp, and devoted to a wild-wood
life." He began his pioneer residence in the winter,
and the following spring he took a sufficient quantity
of fur, principally beaver, to purchase a cow and
many articles necessary in housekeeping. He after
wards obtained yearly large quantities of valuable
fur, such as beaver, otter, musk-rat, marten, &c. He
has been known to have three or four hundred musk-
rat traps set in a single season, employing at times
several men to help him tend them.
Deer, bears and wolves were so numerous for years
after Foster made his home on the borders of the
forest, that he slaughtered them in great numbers.
Indeed, it is believed, that he has killed more of
those animals collectively, than any other individual
in the state during the same period; having slain no
less than seventy-six deer in one season, and ninety-
six bears in three seasons. He has also been known
to kill twenty-five wolves in one year; having a line
of traps set for them from Salisbury to the St. Law
rence. These animals were so great a pest among
the sheep-folds when the country was new, that a
liberal bounty was paid for their destruction by the
state; increased at times by the liberality of certain
counties and towns in which they were the most nu-
aerous. The avails of his hunting and trapping

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 177
amounted in one year, when a liberal price was set
upon wolves, to the sum of twelve hundred and fifty
dollars. He occasionally killed a panther.
The bounties paid for the destruction of wild ani
mals, often made the taxes of frontier towns a bur
then; and a wealthy farmer in the neighborhood of
Foster, took a stand one season which prevented the
paying of such a reward for the destruction of wolves
as hunters thought they deserved. The consequence
was, that all the old and young Nimrods in the vi
cinity turned their attention to other game, and pur
posely let the wolves alone; which in a year or two
more were greatly on the increase. Foster told his
farmer friend at the election, he would be sorry for
the manner in which he had voted, and after the
animals had had time to increase, he was not much
surprised, one morning, to hear a most pitiful story
from him, about the injuries he had sustained the
night before by wolves; they had been into his sheep-
fold and destroyed more property in a single night,
than his tax, when the highest bounty was paid for
their scalps, had amounted to in several years. He
soon found, to use a hunter's phrase, he was barking
up the wrong, tree for sympathy, " Well," said
Leatherstocking, with not a little manifest indiffer
ence, " I don't know as I can pity you much. If you
are unwilling to pay me foi protecting your sheep,
you must buy traps and take care of them yourself."
It is perhaps unnecessary to add, the penurious far-

178 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
mer was ready to vote a more liberal bounty than
ever for the destruction of wolves, at the next proper
election. Some winters Foster turned his attention almost
wholly to the killing of deer, disposing of their sad
dles and skins for the eastern market. The visitor to
the Albany Museum will there see the skin of a large
moose which was shot by this hunter, and for which he
received from the proprietor some fifty dollars. There
is the skin of another large moose in a New York or
Philadelphia museum, also killed by this hunter.
The following incident attended the death of one of
those animals. Foster had a favorite dog, as fond of
hunting as was his master. The bay of this saga
cious animal one day called its owner to a retired
spot in the forest, where he discovered Watch
holding a moose by the nose; keeping his own body
between the fore-legs of his adversary, to avoid the
heavy blows aimed at him with the antlers of the
enraged animal, which formidable weapons weighed
together nearly thirty pounds.
On nearing the spot Foster sent a bullet through
the heart of the moose, which in its death-struggle
dashed the dog off with a terrible blow. The print
of the dog's teeth remained upon the nose of the
moose, but both animals appeared to be dead. Foster
took off his coat and laid his canine friend upon it,
at which time a partner in the hunt arrived upon the
ground. With a heavy heart Foster prepared to skin

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 179
the game, when his comrade observed a moving of
the muscles about the dog's neck, and told the former
it would recover, but the old hunter shook his head
doubtingly. After a while Watch raised his head
slowly from the ground to receive the caress of his
master; but as soon as his eye rested upon his fallen
antagonist, he sprang to his feet and seized the life
less moose by the throat, from which he was with no
little difficulty removed. The restoration of his favor
ite dog to life, caused Foster more real joy than could
possibly the killing of a dozen moose.
One or two years after Nathaniel Foster settled in
Salisbury, his father removed from the east with his
family, and located in the same town. He, too, was
something of a sportsman. Nathaniel had two bro
thers younger than himself, who, as they attained
sufficient age, indulged occasionally in hunting deer.
The following incident will show how providentially
the elder brother was once saved from harm. His
brother Elisha having on some occasion borrowed his
gun, sent it home by a young son. The lad as he
neared the dwelling saw his uncle going in at the
door, and to be very smart, as boys sometimes are, he
drew up the piece and snapped it at him. On enter
ing the house he told his kinsman what he had done ;
when the old hunter took the piece from the hand of
his nephew, walked to the door and snapped it,
ind a bullet whizzed through the air from its muzzle.
He remarked as he went to set it away, that he had

180 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
shot seventy-six deer with his rifle that season, and ii
had not before missed fire in a single instance during
the whole time.
The rifle with which Foster usually hunted would
carry two balls as well as one; and when he desired
to render the death of large game doubly sure, he
loaded with two bullets. Foster and Stoner had each
a rifle at one time made after the same pattern, by
Willis Avery, of Salisbury, and called double shotters.
They were made with a single barrel with two locks,
one placed above the other far enough to admit of two
charges, and have the upper charge of powder rest
upon the lower bullet. The locks were made for
percussion pills, and when the pick which crushed
the pill at the first lock was down, there was no dan
ger to be apprehended in firing the lower charge.
These rifles cost about seventy dollars each. That of
Stoner was borne by a soldier into the late Florida
war. The following incident will serve to show one of
the numberless perils to which hunters are exposed
in the forest. Nathaniel Foster and his brother,
Shubael, were on a deer hunt many years ago in St.
Lawrence county, when the former came suddenly
upon two noble bucks trying titles to the soil. To end
the dispute, he drew up and shot one, and as it fell
the other bounded off a few rods, and halted to wit
ness a more novel engagement than its own recent
one. The fallen deer was not killed, but was badly

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 181
stunned by the ball striking it near the back-bone,
and as the hunter ran up to cut its throat, the animal
sprang upon its haunches, and in its own defence
struck furiously at him with its antlers. Quick as
thought, this modern Leatherstocking placed the knife
between his teeth, and grappled the weapons of his
unexpected foe. The struggle for the mastery was
long and fierce, the hunter not daring to let go his
hold; but, as good luck would have it, he got the
head of the deer between two trees, against one of
which a horn was broken, and the worried animal
thrown down. Before it could recover, the hunter
dealt it a blow upon the head with a club fortune had
placed at his command, when he succeeded in cutting
its throat. The tussle lasted more than thirty minutes ;
and when his brother arrived upon the ground, he
found the grass and bushes trampled down for several
rods around. The strength of the hunter was nearly
exhausted in the engagement; while his tattered gar
ments gave evidence, that a visit to his wardrobe
would alone restore his outward man to the condition
it was in an hour before.
On a certain occasion, Shubael Foster visited a
wolf-trap, in eompany with his brother, Nathaniel,
in which a wolf was caught by one of its hind
legs. It crawled under a log on their approach;
and the senior hunter conceiving it would make him
a fine pet, resolved to take the snarler home alive.
With a forked stick he fixed a kind of halter upon its
16

182 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
nose, and loosening it from the trap, he thus led the
captive home. It would go ten or fifteen rods as
quietly as a dog, and then spring at their faces with
all its might. He kept it muzzled and fasting about
the house for several days, much of which time it
concealed itself under a bed. It was finally slain and
a bounty taken for its scalp.
Nathaniel Foster was familiarly called Uncle Nat,
among his intimate friends. His early advantages at
school were limited, as were those of many of the
hardy pioneers of western and northern New York,
who chanced to be boys in the great American con
test for liberty. When he settled in Salisbury, he
could neither read nor write; but, about the year
1810, William Waterman, then a merchant in Salis
bury, learned him to write at his store, as he informed
the author.
The northerly part of Herkimer county was not only
a wilderness when Foster began the life of a hunter,
but much of it is still in a state of nature. It is dotted
with numerous crystal lakes and rivulets, to the shores
of which Foster was invited in his hunting excursions,
as wild game grew scarce nearer his home. About
the year 1793, or 1794, John Brown, a capitalist of
Rhode Island, purchased a tract of two hundred and
ten thousand acres of wild lands about the head waters
of Moose river, a tributary to the Black river. Lying
in the north-east part of Herkimer and the western
part of Hamilton counties, is a connected chain of

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 183
eight small lakes, and their outlet forms one branch of
Moose river. It is known there, however, as the Mill
stream. These lakes, which lie in a line running
nearly east and west, are called in Gordon's Gazetteer,
the Fulton lakes, but why they are so called, does not
appear. Brown did not purchase this land of the govern
ment, as I am informed, but got it of some individual
in payment for a debt, and soon after opened a road
from Remsen to it. It is said to have cost Brown
some thirty cents an acre. He visited the tract in the
winter of 1798 and 1799, and had then, or previously,
several log dwellings, a grist-mill and a saw-mill erect
ed upon it, with the view of bringing it into market
He spent very little time upon the tract, however, and
had not accomplished much in the way of subduing
those wild lands at the time of his death, which took
place in 1806.
Charles F. Herreshoff having married the widow
Francis, a daughter of John Brown, resolved upon
making a permanent settlement upon Brown's tract
(so called since his purchase), and went on to it with
that intent about the year 1812. He has generally
been regarded as a German, but jn answer to an in
quiry, he assured Darius Hawkins, he was a Prussian
by birth. He had a commanding appearance, being
over six feet high and well formed. He was very
gentlemanly in his deportment, though extremely
proud and aristocratic. He is said to have been a

184 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
finished scholar. On entering the forest he declared
with an oath, that he would settle the tract, or settle
himself. Herreshoff spent the greater part of his time on the
tract for several years, but his wife, it is believed, was
never there: she disapproved ofhis seemingly vision
ary operations. Although he was not as well calcu
lated as some men of a less enterprising spirit are to
settle a new country, still, considering the great diffi
culties he had to encounter, which are of a magnitude
people living at ease in cities can hardly conceive, he
had accomplished much towards the fulfilment of his
purpose. He repaired the mills Brown had erected,
and in the course of a few years he had cleared up
nearly two thousand acres of land, the greater part of
which had been heavily timbered, and erected thereon
some thirty or forty buildings. The mills were nearly
three miles from the most westerly lake of the Fulton
chain, and at that place he built a forge for the smelt
ing of iron ore. He also opened several roads to the
nearest settlements.
He had expended, it is said, more than fifteen thou
sand dollars (some persons have named a much larger
sum), with as yet the prospect of its paying little or
no interest, and made a call on his Providence friends
for more money. But alas! for his peace of mind —
the draft was dishonored. Unwilling to survive the
mortification attendant on a failure of his schemes,
and unable to prosecute them any further for the want

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 185
of means, he became disheartened, loaded a pistol, went
into the yard in front of his dwelling, and blew out
his brains; thus effectually settling himself. The re
port of the pistol instantly brought out the inmates of
the house, who found the victim of ambition sitting
upon the ground, where, in a few moments he lay a
gory corpse.
Such was the melancholy and tragic fate of one of
the most enterprising men that ever entered the wild
lands of New York, to subdue them. It would almost
seem as though he had lived before his time. Large
sums of the money he had expended, were exhausted
in searching for iron, where it is very possible, with
the knowledge modern science has at her beck, little
or no expense would have been incurred. That iron '
and perhaps other valuable ores abound in that part
of the state in large quantities, is not unlikely; and
some more fortunate, though less enterprising man
than the first active settler upon Brown's tract, may
yet reap a rich harvest there for his labors.
The death of Herreshoff took place December 19,
1819, at which time he was boarding with Gardner
Vincent, whose family resided on the tract. Herre-
shoif took three hundred merino sheep on to his clear
ing, where he also kept a span of horses. The body
of Herreshoff, after his death, was carried out to Rus
sia Corners, a distance of nearly fifty miles, where an
inquest was held upon it by Henry S. Whiting as
coroner. Several citizens of Boonville were there at
16*

186 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
the time, who requested to take the body to that place,
after the inquest, for burial, and they were permitted
to take it. Says Mr.Henry GravesofBoonville,N. Y ,
in a communication to the writer: " At this place 1
examined the wound of Herreshoff. The ball entered
the right temple and passed through the head." A
few years after his death Herreshoff's friends placed
at his grave, which is near one corner of the village
grave-yard in Boonville, a marble slab with the fol
lowing inscription:
CHARLES
FREDERICK
HERRESHOFF,
Obiit Dec. 19tb,
1819,
Mat 50.
Herreshoff is said, on good authority, to have manu
factured just a ton of iron at his forge, from ore ob
tained on Brown's tract. It was of the very best
quality, and cost, when ready for use, just one dollar a
pound. Says a correspondent, " Black sand found
upon the lake shore, and separated by magnets, was
principally used in making his iron. He, however,
expected to find mountain or rock ore, and in one case
he followed a small vein in the rocks some 200 feet,
at an enormous expense." Some have stated that the
quantity of iron made by Herreshoff was less than is
named above, and a friend writes that " every pound
of iron he made cost him more than an ounce of gold."

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 187
The cost of his iron gives a principal reason why he
committed suicide. The taxes upon the tract were
also heavy for unproductive property. The assessor's
valuation was one shilling an acre. Samuel Giles
went in from Russia two seasons (believed in 1813
and 1814), and collected the tax, which was sixty
dollars each year.
Stephen Smith, 2d, of Russia, was engaged as a
surveyor on Brown's tract, in the years 1815, 16 and
17. He was employed by John Brown Francis, a
step-son of Herreshoff, who has since been governor
of Rhode Island. The tract was divided into eight
townships, numbering from one to eight. Names are
said to have been given to those paper towns, two of
which are believed to have been Economy and Fru
gality: names very proper for any of those town
ships, and indicative of the virtues it would be
necessary to practice, in order to live there.
In 1817, Smith was engaged in laying out a public
road through the tract. It began two miles east of
Boonville, and striking the tract it ran through town
ships number 1, 2, part of 3, and all of 7. From
Herreshoff 's mills it ran up, on the north side of the
lakes, terminating at the Sacondaga state road, lead
ing from Russel, St. Lawrence county, to Lake Plea
sant, in Hamilton county, then being surveyed by
Judge Atwater, of St. Lawrence county, and located
by John Fay, Esq., of Fish House, as commissioner.
This road extended southerly to the town of Wells,

188 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
as I have elsewhere shown. The greater part of it
is now overgrown with trees. The road opened by
Smith was forty miles long, and intersected the Sacon
daga road twenty-seven miles from Lake Pleasant.
Smith was engaged on his road, of which he was also
a commissioner, sixty days, with nine hands. Bridges
and cross-ways were not made by the surveying party.
Moose lake, after which Moose river is called, is
one of the largest and purest lakes on the tract, being
several miles in extent, and very deep. It lies a few
miles south of the western end of the Fulton chain.
Southerly from Moose lake, and farther to the east
ward, heads what is called the South branch of Moose
river. It is three miles from Moose lake to the South
branch; on which stream, and nearly opposite Moose
lake is a small clearing of several acres, called Cana-
shagala, an Indian name. Some suppose this clearing
was made by the Indians, and others that the timber
was destroyed by fire. The stream at this point is a
remarkable spot for fishermen.
The survey for the road was first extended up on
the south side of the Fulton chain, and north side of
Moose lake, to Fifth lake; but as the route was found
impracticable for a good road, on account of the diffi
culties to be overcome in the make of the land, it was
located on the opposite side of the lakes. The road
laid out by Smith, struck the Black river ten miles
from the starting point: from thence to Moose river,
was six and a half miles; from which place to the

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 189
middle settlement, or the Herreshoff dwelling, it was
nearly five miles more, making the whole distance
from Boonville nearly twenty-four miles. The land
on each side of the road was taxed to defray the ex
penses of its survey. Going in from the Remsen
road, Moose river is crossed about one mile south of
tie clearing. Near the road from the middle settle
ment (on the right in entering), is a little lake of
several acres, called Huckleberry lake, those berries
growing on its shore The outlet of this pond runs
into the Mill stream.
Few incidents attending the survey of Brown's
tract are now remembered. A porcupine, one day,
claimed a preemption right to the soil, and evinced
a disposition to dispute the surveyor's title, planting
itself in a bristling posture directly in the road. It
was an ugly customer to handle without mittens, or
rather tongs, and surveyor Smith, acting upon the
forest hunter's rule, that might makes right, wilfully
and maliciously slew the varmint with his compass
staff. Herreshoff was a good feeling man, and at times
rather jovial, liking a little fun withal. On some
occasion, Smith, accompanied by Herreshoff, Vincent
and Silas Thomas, went in a boat to the head of
Fourth lake, to select some pine timber. Passing one
of the islands in the lake, probably Bear island, Her
reshoff desired to be set ashore on a bluff extending
some rods into the lake. As is generally the case

190 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
with foreigners, who find tobacco very cheap in this
country, he was a great smoker, and having lit his
pipe, he concluded to increase the fumigation by also
lighting the grass and dry brush around him. A few
minutes only sufficed, with the breeze then puffing, to
spread the flame over the bluff. The wind drove the
heat toward him, and calling for the boat to come to
his assistance, he gained the extreme point of land,
in the hope of escaping the fire. Before the boat
could get to him, however, the flame drove him out
upon a tree which extended horizontally over the
water. The craft seemed to him to move like a snail, as the
heat and smoke — of which latter commodity he for
once had enough — became more and more insufferable.
He held on to his footing until he saw a sheet of flame
coming directly in his face, when he sprang off into
the water, among the trout. He did not glide along
as noiselessly though as they did in that element, for
he floundered like a porpoise; and for once, if we
mistake not, quit smoking with tobacco still in his
pipe. He was finally rescued by his companions,
though half drowned and half frozen, as he took the
unexpected bath in September, and shivered for hours
to pay for it. This, it is said, was not the only time
he came near being scorched by his great passion for
fire and smoke.

CHAPTER XTfl.
Mr. W. S. Benchley, of Newport, N. Y., who was
well acquainted with Uncle Nat, and who has often
been on Brown's tract with Foster and since his day;
has at my request kindly furnished me by letter with
several incidents in the old trapper's life, and a de
scription of the tract, or a portion of it, which letter I
shall do my readers a favor to present in his own
words; notwithstanding he tells me at the outset he
is " entirely unused to writing other than common
business transactions." I trust he will pardon me for
the liberty I have taken with his name and letter.
" I have long been acquainted with a part of that
region of country called Brown's Tract. At an enor
mous expense, Brown has opened three roads on to
his tract* The route now taken to approach it from
this direction is, to leave the northern turnpike at
Boonville, Oneida county. Taking a north-easterly
direction, you pass the last improvement some eight
miles from Boonville, beyond which the road is im
passable for carriages. Pack-horses, or what we call
drays are used for carrying our provisions, &c, in our
* The road from Boonville surveyed by Smith, in the employ
of Gov. Francis, I suppose to be one of the roads here alluded to.

192 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
hunting and fishing excursions; last September
[1848] I went in with a dray.
" On reaching Moose river, about five miles from
the last settlement, we have to scow our luggage
over; and frequently to swim our horses. Moose
river at this point is twice as large as the West Ca
nada creek, and quite rapid. In fact, the entire length
of the river is one continued fall, or succession of
rapids; making sufficient water-power, if improved,
for the use of the whole state of New York. From
Moose river to the first clearing we reach on Brown's
tract, is eleven miles, over a most horribly rocky,
stony, cold region; though very well covered with
timber, such as spruce, balsam, beech, birch, some
maple and hemlock*
" The first clearing you enter is called Coal hill,
from the fact, I believe, that most of the timber from
this clearing was made into coal for the use of the
iron-works erected by Herreshoff, son-in-law to
Brown. A short distance from this you enter a large
improvement with one framed house, where Herres
hoff used to live. [This is in township number 7.]
In this clearing he expended a large amount of money
in searching for iron ore; blasting and digging at the
base of a rocky hill or mountain running through this
* That much of this tract in an agricultural point of view has
a most forbidding aspect, there can be but little doubt. Judge
Stow, of Lewis county, once observed of it, " that it was so poor
it would make a crow shed tears of blood to fly over it."

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 193
improvement. Failing to accomplish what he ex
pected, he became discouraged: his friends at the
same time refusing to advance him any more funds,
and left alone as he was, to bear the blame of a fail
ure; disheartened and spirit-broken, he died, ' as the
fool dieth,' by blowing out his brains with a pistol.
"Since Herreshoff 's death, the improvements made
by him have been mostly abandoned, except by hunt
ers and fishermen. There is still one settler residing
there, however, a Mr. Arnold, who has a large family.
He accommodates fishermen with boats. He keeps
several cows, horses, &c, and raises a large quantity
of oats yearly, which he draws to market in the win
ter. On leaving this clearing you cross one branch
of Moose river, which is the outlet of eight small
lakes, of which I shall speak hereafter. Passing
through several improvements for two and a half
miles, you reach the spot where once stood the forge,
a saw-mill and grist-mill, with several dwellings ; but
now entirely gone with the exception of one barn-
frame with the roof on, otherwise entirely stripped of
covering. " All the improvements at one time must have cov
ered some two thousand acres, with about forty fami
lies upon them. All the buildings now remaining
are two dwellings, one barn, and two frames of barns
divested of covering. When Foster left the tract
[1833], some remains of the forge, mills, &c, were
still standing. Iron was manufactured at this forge
17

194 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
of a good quality, though said to be at a cost of one
dollar per pound. I have no doubt iron ore abounds
in this region, in inexhaustible quantities, with other
valuable ores, waiting for enterprise to develope them,
after the gold fever has subsided. Where Herreshoff
erected his mills, is one of the best water powers in
the world. A dam some forty feet long is still stand
ing, and when first constructed, raised the water in
the Fourth lake about two feet. This dam is about
three miles below the First lake. [The lake usually
denominated the First lake in this chain, is, in truth,
the last, or Eighth lake; but approached as they
generally are from Moose river, the last is recognized
as the first, and the reader will understand when the
relative numbers of those lakes are given, that they
number upward, or from west to east.] After this
dam was built, it was three months before the water
flowed over it; in fact, search was made supposing
the water had found some other outlet.
" At Herreshoff 's dam we take boats for fishing
excursions, and three miles up the stream we enter
the First lake, a beautiful pond, say one mile by one
and-a-half miles in extent, containing one small is
land, called Dog island; a dog having been found
upon it by an early visitor. About half a mile down
the outlet, and near a point of land now called In
dian's point, Uncle Nat shot the Indian. Leaving
this lake you pass into the Second lake, separated
from the First by sand-bars, with a narrow channel

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 195
some twenty feet wide. This lake is some longer
than the First, but is not as wide, and has no islands.
Along the north shore of Second lake, rises a most
grand and sublime mountain, presenting a front of
naked rock for nearly one mile, at a height of several
hundred feet. On its summit Uncle Nat told me he
had often been, ' that from it he could see numbers of
lakes; and that there he could enjoy himself, and not
be troubled by the d — d Indians.' [This bold pro
montory I shall take the liberty to call Foster's Ob
servatory.] "From the Second you enter the Third lake by
passing through a strait of some ten rods. It is a
pretty, pure, deep pond, about the size of the First
and Second. In this lake is a small island, called
Grass island, because it is well covered with grass,
and has few trees or bushes upon it. Leaving the
Third you pass up a stream some fifty or sixty rods,
and enter the Fourth lake, which is seven miles long,
and from one to two miles wide. It has four islands,
the first of which in ascending is called Deer island,
containing about 100 acres of well timbered land."
Desirous of permanently fastening the names of
the most celebrated Nimrods of this region upon its
scenery, I shall take the liberty to call this island
Benchley's island, after George Benchley; who
shantied at the head of Third lake, but a short dis
tance from the island, and who perished in the wil
derness while following the fortunes of a trapper.

196 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
George and Joseph Benchley (brothers of my cor
respondent), were engaged in trapping in the fall of
1819, in the region of country under consideration.
George, who was the oldest, possessed a roving and
very romantic disposition. For a while he was en
gaged in a sea-faring life, but tiring of its monotony,
he severed the halliards which bound him to the " roll
ing deep," and returned to the home of his childhood.
The pursuit of a forest-hunter seemed well suited,
from its excitement, to his danger-daring tempera
ment. The brothers had a line of marten traps, extending
from the Fulton lakes to some point on the State road,
running from Wells to Russel, not far from Racket
lake, where they had a shantee. The line of traps
extended thirty or forty miles, with several hunters'
cabins on the route. They were engaged in their
pursuits until the last of November, having two men
employed to assist them. They took turns in travers
ing the route, and George was alone on the eastern
end of it, when a heavy fall of snow suspended their
operations. Joseph and the assistants were at the
main shantee, at the head of Third lake, where they
remained several days anxiously awaiting the return
of the senior hunter. As he did not come in, two
unsuccessful attempts were made to seek for him; but
the great depth of snow in that direction prevented
the possibility of reaching him without snow-shoes,
and they had not a pair with them.

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 197
While in a feverish state of anxiety about their
absent friend, not caring or perhaps not daring to
return home without some tidings of him, an old
hunter, named Morgan, arrived at their lodge on
snow-shoes. He had come, he said, directly from
their eastern shantee on the State road, and assured
Joseph that his brother was well, and had gone out to
Lake Pleasant to obtain food. Giving full credit to
Morgan's statement, Joseph and his men returned
home. The winter wore away, and nothing further was
heard from the absent hunter by his friends at New
port; but, as he was a single man, and well weaned
from home, little anxiety was felt about him, as they
supposed him safe at the house of some back-woods
man in Hamilton county. In the spring a message
reached Newport, that the body of a man had been
found by Indian hunters, in a shantee near Racket
lake. The probability was, that Benchley's shantee
was indicated, and his brothers Jenks and William,
anxious to know his fate, made a journey out there,
in company with two other persons. The body, which
had been buried, was exhumed, and their worst fears
were realized — the remains were those of their kins
man. Dark mystery has ever hung over the last moments
of this unfortunate hunter, and suspicion over the
character of Morgan, who was doubtless the last indi
vidual who saw him alive. That hunter was not very
17* ' J

198 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
scrupulous of his acts, as was well known, and it has
ever since been surmised that he seriously injured
Benchley in some manner, took his fur, if he had any,
and left him to perish. The Indians found his gun in
the shantee, but no fur; and, as he had gone over the
whole line of traps, it seemed impossible that he
should have taken none. Morgan had considerable
fur when he left the forest. That Benchley suffered
most acutely in his last hours, there can be no doubt.
He had, with his hunter's knife, evidently cut small
pieces of wood to feed his fire, from the logs of which
part of the hut was built, while he had strength to do
so; but, how long he hungered — how keenly he suf
fered, in body and mind — how many cold, dark and
dreary nights he lay shivering, without an earthly
" eye to pity, or arm to relieve," is only known to
Him to whom no mortal's fate is a mystery.
Joseph Benchley was a musician; and the fall he
was hunting with his brother, he had his violin with
him, and often played it, " to drive dull care away,"
and afford a pastime for the wild animals within its
hearing. Orpheus, a celebrated Greek musician of
lang-syne, is said to have called down the mountains
to listen to the melody he discoursed in the valleys.
It would have troubled him, we opine, to have started
any of those on Brown's tract, as their roots were too
long; and Benchley, aware ofthe fact, very properly
chose his position, not at their base, but upon their
summit

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 199
The hunter Morgan, was a morose and rather petu-
lent fellow, and not very popular among the craft.
He traversed the forest for several years, on and about
Brown's tract, but finally went off to Canada and died
there. He was pretty successful in taking fur, and at
times was accused of getting it unjustly. He was
one of those devil-daring woodsmen of whom the
Indians stood in awe. From this digression I return
to Benchley's description of the country.
" The next island in Fourth lake [above Benchley's
island], contains about one quarter of an acre, is a
pile of bare rocks, and is known by the name of Elba ;
which name can not fail to remind the reader of the
ambitious and unfortunate Buonaparte. It produced a
solitary pine, which for many years was its only object
of attraction. A Vandal hand has lately cut it, to
the deep regret of all sentimental hunters. (App. E.)
" The third island in Fourth lake contains ten or
fifteen acres of land, and is called Bear island, an early
hunter having killed one of those animals upon it.
Near the head of this lake, and some fifty or sixty
rods from Bear island, is a small island called Dollar
island, from its rotundity of shape. There is, in shoal
water, between Elba and Bear island, and about a
mile distant from the former a bare rock, called Gull
rock. This rock is said to be on the line between
Herkimer and Hamilton counties. Brown's tract ex
tends across Herkimer, and into the counties of Lewis
on the west, and Hamilton on the east.

200 ThAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
" On the forest-bound Elba of Fourth lake, I have
shantied several times with Foster. On one occasion,
when there, the Indian (whom he afterwards killed)
and his squ^w, came and spent the night with us,
taking from the take their bark canoe and dried moose-
skin for a shelter. I have spent several days upon
this lake with Foster. He conversed but little, and
his restless, roving eye was never still. With his rifle
beside him, he seemed ever anxious to discover some
thing on shore, worthy of his never erring aim.
" The bald-eagle, which frequents this region, he
would never disturb, for he thought those noble birds
were made to live unmolested by man, ' although,' as
he said, 'thee — d Indians killed them.' He seemed
to feel as though he was lord of Brown's tract, and
that no one else, especially an Indian, had as good a
right there. With the Indian he shot, I was well ac
quainted. He was indeed a noble looking fellow in
appearance. He was of the St. Regis tribe, with a
cross of French blood. [Says Mr. Graves, in a com
munication to the author, " I have often seen the In
dian Foster killed. He was a very friendly, intelli
gent man, and belonged to the St. Regis tribe on the
St. Lawrence."] His wife was slender and very
feminine. She was under the most perfect subjection
to her husband, and was no doubt often ill treated by
him when tipsy: in fact, I believe that his and Foster's
difficulties first commenced when they had both been
drinking.

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 201
" Frequently, when on these waters, Foster would
direct my attention to an object on some distant, grassy
beach, saying, ' See! there is a deer: watch, and you
will see it move.' He was never mistaken; still a man
unacquainted with the wood, would very seldom sup
pose that any thing of the kind was in sight.
" At the head of Fourth lake was formerly a grove
of white pine. [To this grove Herreshoff was going
when he was compelled to take a cold bath.] Five
distinct echoes to the human voice may be heard at
this place, and here I have repeatedly discharged a
gun, to hear mountain after mountain send back its
tardy response, until my rifle's shrill note had been
mimicked by five (as I suppose) mermaid hunters.
" Lying parallel to the Fulton chain, and mostly op
posite Fourth lake, say two miles to the north of it, is
a chain of three small lakes, several miles in extent,
which also discharge their waters into Moose river.
The stream is called the North branch, and the lakes
are known in the forest by the name of North Branch
lakes. " Leaving the Fourth, you pass up the inlet some
half a mile, into the Fifth lake, a small pond of eight
or ten acres. From the Fifth to the Sixth lake, is a
oontinued fall of three-fourths of a mile. Here is a
carrying place ; and Foster, at the age of sixty, would
take his skiff upon his head and shoulders and carry
it from one lake to the other, with but one stop. In
fact, at that age, Foster was known to carry a deer

202 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
three miles on his back. With a single lock between
Fifth and Sixth lakes, a water communication might
easily be obtained the whole extent of the eight lakes.
" The Sixth lake is quite small, and after wading
and pushing up a narrow, rapid stream, say one and a
half miles, you enter the ' Noble Seventh,' as Uncle
Nat called it. The visitor on entering this lake, meets
with a grand and beautiful view. The lake is about
four miles long and two wide, with a nameless island
near its centre, of some fifty acres, covered with rocks
and pine timber. [I have mentioned in these pages a
forest-trapper named Green White, who was often on
the island under consideration. With the reader's
permission, I will call this island White's island.*]
Near this island, on its south shore, we frequently get
* White was rather under the middling stature, with a dark
complexion, and possessing a very keen, dark eye. He was a
man of few words, but celebrated for his shrewdness. He learned
the blacksmith's trade at Schenectada in his early life, and always
made his own hunting-knives and hatchets. He was a very suc
cessful hunter, was extensively known, and by Indian hunters he
was universally feared. The Indians, he said to his friends, never
stole his fur but once. He occasionally crossed the track of Maj.
Stoner, to whom he was well known, but as he hunted to the
westward of Stoner, they did not often meet.
Says il=nry Graves, of Boonville, "I was well acquainted
with Green White, who was a great trapper on and about Brown's
tract. He hunted some in connection with Foster, but they
generally had the separate interest. White, however, was much
the most successful trapper. He would sometimes bring in a
hundred dollars worth of beaver at a time — lay drunk until he

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 203
the salmon trout in 100 feet depth of water. [Another
informant says they are caught here weighing fifteen
or twenty pounds.]
" At the head of Seventh lake is a grove of pitch-
pine timber, which timber is not elsewhere seen in
the district. On entering this lake at one time with
Foster, he discovered a deer feeding upon a grassy
beach, nearly half a mile distant. Said he, ' B., put
me on shore and I will give you some venison for din
ner.' I did so, and then rowed out into the lake, far
enough to see the deer. After remaining some time,
I saw Foster step suddenly from the bushes upon the
beach, some distance from the deer. Almost the very
had spent it all, and then back to the woods. Not so with Fos
ter: he liked a glass, but would be called a temperate man.
" I should think White had been dead some fifteen years. He
with another man was coming in from the tract ; they halted by
the way-side, built them a brush shantee and stopped for the night.
During the night, a small stub of a tree fell across the shantee
and broke White's leg. Early in the morning the man with him
came to Boonville about seventeen miles for help. He was brought
in on a litter ; but before a surgeon could be obtained to amputate
it, the limb mortified and he died."
In the fall of 1815, said the surveyor Smith, White came in
from Brown's tract with three hundred dollars worth of fur, and
as usual on such ocasions, he trained until it was all gone. While
hunting, after the provisions were gone he had taken in from the
settlement, he lived on wild game and fish. This was the usual
fare of hunters in the forest. White is said to have been about
the same age of Foster, and is believed to have followed trapping
about the Fulton lakes a few years earlier than did Foster. There
was a hunter named Williams, on and about Brown's tract in 1815,

204 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
instant the deer raised its head from feeding, I saw
the flash of his rifle and the deer fall. At Foster's
call I went ashore, he not knowing that I had seen
the deer fall. Well, Uncle Nat, said I, have you
killed him? He straightened up like a soldier, with
his head erect, and eyes glistening; and grasping his
rifle in his right hand and holding it above his head,
he said, ' B., he never told a lie. When you hear
him speak, he always tells the truth.' I stepped on
shore and found he had put his ball precisely in the
centre of the deer's forehead. He must have been
full twenty-five rods from the animal, and fired the
instant it raised its head. In a very few minutes he
had a fine piece of venison roasting before a good fire,
and ere long we had a sweet morsel to dine upon.
"At another time, while we sat fishing from our boat,
he discovered an old doe with two fawns, the latter
about as large as lambs at two months old. They
were feeding and playing upon the beach, perhaps a
quarter of a mile distant. Foster was on fire imme
diately. If he could kill the old doe, he said, he could
kill the fawns, and their runnets would bring him fifty
cents each. I remonstrated against killing the little
fellows for so small a gain, and proposed to pay him
the dollar and let them go. But no; nothing would
satisfy him short of a shot. I then rather refused to
row him within shot; but one look from him satisfied
me that I might as well comply. However, I managed
in the operation to make noise enough to frighten the

TRAPPIiRS OF NEW YORK. 205
old doe; but not without strong suspicions on his part,
that it was done intentionally.
" From the Seventh to the Eighth lake is three or
four miles, and the lake is some four or five miles
long. From these eight lakes runs the stream on
which the mills on Brown's tract were erected. A
carrying place from the Eighth lake, some two miles,
brings you to what is called the Racket inlet, running
easterly, down which you can go in a skiff into Racket
lake, and from thence down Racket river to the St.
Lawrence. " The poor Indian Foster killed, was buried on a
point near where the mill dam now stands, and a rude
cross was erected at his head by his friends. Last
September [1848], I looked for the grave, but it was
so overgrown with grass and bushes I could not find
it. When he shot the Indian, he went about five
miles to gain Indian Point before his victim arrived."
The Indian here alluded to, is said to have been
quite successful in killing deer. He often floated for
them. This was done in the night time. In his bark
canoe, behind a few green boughs, he would proceed
as silently as possible along the shore of a lake, and
shoot the timid deer there feeding on grass, or stand
ing in the water's edge to cool, as they gazed in won
der at the torch light in the bow of the craft, which
seemed at times to fascinate them. This mode of kill
ing deer much displeased Foster, and is believed to
have been one cause of difficulty between them.

206 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
Besides the lakes already named in the region of
country under consideration, there are several others
of greater or less importance. The Jerseyfield lake,
a handsome sheet of water some two miles long, and
around the shores of which Foster, in his earlier days,
used to hunt, lies in the easterly part of Salisbury.
Black creek, which is one of the tributaries of West
Canada creek, has its source in the Jerseyfield lake.
Jock's lake, so called after Jock (Jonathan) Wright,
an early trapper upon its shores, is a very pretty lake,
five or six miles long, though not very wide; and is
situated in the north-eastern or wilderness portion of
Herkimer county, some ten miles from a place called
Noblesborough. Its outlet is one of the sources of
the west branch of West Canada creek. Some four
miles south of Jock's lake is a small sheet of water
called Little Salmon lake, and about two miles to the
westward of Jock's lake, is another trout inhabiting
pond, called Black River South lake. Around those
lakes, and along their streams, were favorite haunts
of the trapper Wright.
Of the physical outline of 'Hamilton county and the
northerly part of Herkimer, Prof. Lardner Vanuxein,
thus remarks in his volume of the Geology of New
York. " The most interesting feature of the wilder
ness region is its chain of lakes, placed so nearly
upon a level that but little labor from man is required
to connect those of three counties together. The
lakes of Herkimer and Hamilton are arranged upon

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 207
a line which is parallel with the St. Lawrence river
and Ontario lake, and with the Ohio, &c; appearing
not to be accident merely, but the result of a law
whose operations were in their direction, and on
several parallels. These lakes, were a communica
tion opened from east to west, would be much resorted
to. The beauty of their waters, their elevation, and
the wild scenery which surrounds them, would not
fail to attract visitors."

CHAPTER XIV.
With the death of its proprietor, the Herreshoff
settlement on Brown's tract became tenantless, and in
a short time all the improvements were going to
waste and destruction. Hunters occasionally visited
the place, and when there, camped in the deserted
dwellings. In May, 1830, the premises were leased
for a small sum, and in February 1832, Nathaniel
Foster, who had for years traversed this region, pur
chased an assignment of the lease and moved his
family there; that he might with greater convenience
follow his favorite avocation of a wilderness trapper.
His family, consisting of himself and wife and his
son David and wife, occupied the Herreshoff dwelling
nearest the forge. In a hut not far from Foster dwelt
an Indian hunter named Peter Waters, familiarly
known in the forest by the name of Drid; and in an
other house erected by the original proprietor, resided
three old bachelors, William S. Wood, David Chase,
and Willard Johnson. Johnson first entered the forest
with Herreshoff, to work at his forge. Some part of
the time there were three or four other persons on the
clearing, increasing the population to some fifteen in
habitants, all of whom depended principally upon
hunting and fishing for their support. Johnson, who

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 209
was a man somewhat advanced in life, often hunted
with Foster; and Wood, of whom we know but little
else, would have frozen to death on one occasion, but
for the attentions of Foster.
The condition of the other settlers at this period on
Brown's tract, was rendered the more comfortable by
the family of Foster, whose women were able and
ready to dispense the numerous little comforts the sex
can command. A difficulty arose between Foster and
his Indian neighbor, which, from one of a trifling na
ture, assumed a most serious aspect. A feeling not
the most friendly began to gain a place between
them, and some person, either from motives of mis
chief or terror, took occasion to tell Drid that Foster
was unfriendly to him — that he did not like other
hunters — was a dead shot, and the like. It was a per
son or persons, no doubt, who had had some misun
derstanding with the Indian, and adopted this method
to excite his fears without intending Foster any in
jury; possibly the informer was merely desirous of
intimidating him, by making him feel conscious that,
one man, at least, who did not fear him, had the
ability to punish him; whatever the motive was is
unknown, but the red hunter's worst passions were
now aroused, and ere long he resolved to destroy a
supposed foe, at whatever hazard. On several occa
sions, when intoxicated, he threatened the life of
Foster, and to such a state of feverish excitement had
he arrived, that he only seemed desirous of an oppor-
18*

210 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
tunity for executing his diabolical threat. The hunter
Johnson, on several occasions, accompanied Foster to
prevent a surprise from his avowed enemy.
The Foster family had always been very kind to
that of Drid, and when the latter was gone on a long
hunt, his squaw depended almost entirely upon the
former for the support of herself and children. As
Foster kept a cow, the family of the Indian neighbor
was supplied with milk free of charge; while not a
few necessaries dealt out to them when Drid was from
home, had been carried into the clearing by Foster,
upon his back. Of the latter articles he made a
charge, and embracing some favorable opportunity,
he asked the Indian to pay the account, in amount
about seventeen shillings ; the latter promised to pay
a part of it. Foster now told the Indian that he had
heard of his having threatened his life; this he ad
mitted, said they lived there retired from any settle
ment, where there was no law, and added, " If I kill
you, I kill you ; and if you kill me, you kill me ! "
•Foster told him he would make no such agreement,
that he did not wish or design to injure him, and he
must not harbor such feelings.
One ofthe earliest causes of difficulty between these
hunters originated as follows; nearly a year before
his death, Drid took Foster's boat without permission
and left it in the river a mile below where he had
taken it. He was admonished that he must not re
peat such an act if he would not be punished for his

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 211
temerity, at which just reproof he was very indignant;
and soon after was heard by several persons to say,
"Me got a bad heart, me put a bullet through old Fos
ter." It was about the time of the boat disturbance,
that certain individuals attempted to terrify Drid by
threats of Foster's vengeance.
In July, and about two months before his death,
Drid was returning to the tract in company with a
man named John Carpenter, when, as he drew near
his home, he fired off his rifle, reloaded and carefully
primed it. His companion inquired why he did it 1
saying they would then find no game. The Indian
replied, " Me going to old Foster's, me shoot him else
he.shoot me! " He did go to Foster's dwelling, and
standing at a little distance from the door, he hailed
several times, to draw the object of search to an ex
posed situation. Mrs. Foster came to the door, and
was alarmed to see the threatening attitude of her
neighbor. He inquired for her husband, and being
told that he was not at home, he exclaimed as he
turned to go away, " Me shoot him if he had been ! "
Next morning the family of Drid being out of pro
visions, applied as usual to Foster's family for food.
Informed of the Indian's conduct by his wife and
Carpenter, Foster took some flour and in company
with Carpenter, sought the red man's cabin to relieve
the wants of the family. In the presence of the wit
ness he asked Drid if he had not called at his door
intending to shoot him ? He admitted that he had,

212 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
and assigned as a reason, that he had been told that
Foster had threatened to kill him for talking his boat
" I made no such threat," said the old trapper, " /
said it would not be well for you or any one else, to
take my boat a second time and fasten it a mile from
my landing."
In August following the above incident, Drid re
turned from Racket lake with furs, and halted at
Foster's door, at which were several neighbors; when
the old trapper very civilly asked him to pay his ac
count. " You are d — d liar!" said the Indian, " me
don't owe you cent ! " He raised his tomahawk to
strike the old man, who sprang into the house. He
opened the door with his rifle in hand, when his foe
sullenly fell back and exclaimed, " If you ever go to
Seventh lake, or to Racket lake, me kill you ! " Fos
ter threatened to complain of him before a justice of
the peace, and he replied, " I'll get there soon as you
do — haint no law in woods here ! " The Indian with
many threats then went off to his cabin.
Soon after this encounter with his adversary, Fos
ter went before Joshua Harris, a justice of the peace
in Brantingham, Lewis county, twenty miles from his
own residence, although the nearest one, and com
plained that this Indian had then a third time sought
his life, on which account he demanded his arrest.
The magistrate declined issuing a process against
Drid, saying that if he proceeded against him, the
latter would be as likely to kill him as complainant.

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 213
Failing to get a precept against his dusky antago
nist, some of his acquaintances advised Foster to re
move his family from the forest, but he declared " he
would not be frightened off by an Indian." He was
very malicious, so much so that Aleck Thompson, an
Indian hunter, who had a shantee near his, would have
nothing to do with him, at least, so say the friends of
Foster. The apprehensions of the Foster family were
such all the latter part of the summer, that they sel
dom lit a candle in the evening, from fear that Drid
would fire in at their windows. Indeed, he had threat
ened to enter the house in the night time, and stab
him in his bed. He had even inquired on which
side of the bed Foster slept, that he might make
sure of his victim. When told that so rash an act
would endanger the life of Mrs. Foster, he replied,
" She good woman — me no care to hurt her — but ra
ther kill 'em both, than not kill him ! "
On the morning of Drid's death, Foster was, agree
ably to an arrangement made the evening before, to
accompany Wood and Chase on a hunting excursion
to Fourth lake. The Indian had left his traps and
rifle at Racket lake, some twelve miles beyond the
intended destination of the party, but concluded to
go up with them as far as they went. Foster called
in the morning to see if the bachelors were ready for
a start, and the Indian being present, renewed his
quarrel with the former and attempted his life. He
was a stout young man, between twenty-five and

214 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
thirty years of age, and Foster was upwards of sixty.
He succeeded in getting the old man down upon the
floor, but was foiled in taking his life by the inter
cession of the by-standers, who drew them apart, not
however until the Indian had cut his arm, in the
attempt to thrust a knife into his heart. Thwarted
when he thought his victim sure, he threatened ven
geance, and declared at the end of a horrid oath,
" you no live till Christmas !" Foster, whose worst
passions were now excited, retorted, " you'll do d 
well if you see another moon !"
Foster retired after the difficulty with the Indian,
and did not join the party, increased on its setting
out by several others, who were going a few miles on
a fishing excursion; but well satisfied that his foe
would return and lurk about his dwelling to shoot
him, as soon as he had obtained his rifle, he at once
resolved to destroy the Indian, and thus prevent the
possibility of a future surprise. He accordingly pro
ceeded up the river nearly to the First lake, where,
upon its northern shore, a point of land projected into
the river, now known among hunters and fishermen
as Indian's point. With his rifle carefully loaded
with two balls, Foster obtained a commanding posi
tion on the point, to await the arrival of the party.
After some delay in getting ready they left the dam
at the forge, Drid in a light bark canoe, Wood and
Chase in a large bark canoe, and the fishing party,
consisting of four persons, in a boat.

DEATH OF THE INDIAN TRAPPER.
See page 215.

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 215
The Indian, fearing no doubt from the morning's
encounter and Foster's threat, that his personal safety
was in jeopardy, kept his little craft near that of
Wood and Chase. At length the party neared the
point, at which its present occupant knew the white
hunters must land to get some concealed traps. The
fishing party rowed on as the canoes put in for the
shore, and passing the point they discovered the old
trapper in the bushes, and pointing in the direction
of the bushes, they said to the hunters, " there's old
Foster !" This announcement caused the Indian, who
was then between the other canoe and the shore, to
change his position, and take the lake side of his
companions. The object of Foster's visiting the
point was rightly divined by the white trappers, who
landed and obtained their traps without loss of time,
and put off from the shore, when Drid placed his
canoe along side of theirs, so as to bring himself
about midway between them, if possible to endanger
their lives should a shot be attempted at himself.
Although Foster was several rods distant from the
canoes, still the position of his foe did not secure his .
safety. The Indian's eye caught a glimpse of the
fearful figure in the bushes just as the rifle was poised,
and he threw up his arms in terror at the moment of
the explosion. Both bullets entered his left side near
the arm pit, passed through his heart and went out
just below the right arm. They entered in the same
spot, but left two places of egress opposite. The

216 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
Indian fell backwards, with his head and shoulders in
the water, his feet and legs remaining in the canoe.
He fell so dead that his position continued unchanged,
the fairy craft preserving the cradling motion com
municated to it by his fall, for some length of time
after the spirit of its owner had winged its flight,
" To range the circuit of the sky.''
The party in company with the Indian at the time
of his death, either from fear or some other motive,
did not offer to touch the body, but returned as
speedily as possible to the place of starting. Leaving
their boats, several proceeded directly to Foster's
house, where they found him lying on a bed. The
distance from the dam to Indian's point by water is
greater than by land, and the old trapper having
finished his morning's work, had gained his own
dwelling, wiped out his rifle and prepared it for other
game, ere the messengers arrived there. Foster ex
pressed some surprise at seeing the party return so
soon, and enquired what brought them back. He
was answered, that a dead man was up the lake, the
Indian Drid, and they desired him to go up and aid
in getting him down. Agreeably to the request,
Foster went up with the party to get the body, and
himself took it into the boat, as the rest seemed afraid
to touch it. He also aided in burying it, near the
Indian's former residence. For killing this Indian,
Foster was arrested soon after, by the authorities of

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 217
Lewis county ; but when it was ascertained that the
scene of blood was not within the jurisdiction of that
county, he was removed from Martinsburg to Herki
mer, where he gave bail for his appearance when
required, and returned to his family.
Note, explanatory ofthe engraving. A friend who
made a little drawing of the Fulton chain of lakes,
to give the writer an idea of the position of the
parties, inadvertently placed the point on the south
side of the lake, which led to an error in the cut
representing this scene, as the point is on the north
side. The cut, though an ideal one, is said (by per
sons who have been on the ground) to give a very
striking representation of the point, as Foster came
out between two trees. A row of fir trees are seen
in the distance, said to be more numerous than are
here represented. The cut is rather a spirited one,
and if the reader will imagine the point transposed
to the opposite shore, and the position of the parties
changed accordingly, he will get a good idea of the
tragic scene.

19

CHAPTER XV.
Having been indicted for murder, at a court of
general sessions, in Herkimer county, on the third day
of February, 1834, for killing the Indian Drid, or, as
called in the indictment, Peter Waters; Nathaniel
Foster was arraigned for trial at the circuit court held
in that county on the fifteenth day of September fol
lowing. The trial, which lasted nearly two days, was
one of very great interest, and drew together an im
mense crowd of anxious spectators. Several indi
viduals, some of whom were hunters, were subpoenaed
to prove the quarrelsome disposition ofthe Indian killed
by Foster; but they were not called upon the stand.
The court consisted of his honor, Hiram Denio, cir
cuit judge, and Jonas Cleland, John B. Dygert, Abijah
Osborn, and Richard Herendeen, judges of the bench
of common pleas. After setting aside eleven jurors,
who were challenged on the ground of having pre
judged the cause, the following jurors were impan-
neled: Jacob Davis, John Harder, Henry Ostrander,
James F. Fox, William Bouck, Peter Rickert, Wil
liam Shoemaker, James Shoemaker, Lester Green,
Nicholas A. Staring, Earl Trumbull, and Peter Bell.
From the fact that so great a number of jurors were
disqualified for the reason assigned, we may properly

TKAPPEKS of NEW YORK. 219
infer that the circumstances which induced Foster to
take the Indian's life, were generally known; and it
may be questioned whether any twelve freeholders,
called promiscuously from the county, would have ren
dered a different verdict from that given by the jury
impanneled. James B. Hunt (district attorney), and Simeon
Ford, were counsel for the prosecution. The prisoner
was defended by E. P. Hurlbut, with whom were
associated J. A. Spencer, A. Hackley and Lauren Ford
Mr. Hunt opened the cause by observing that the pri
soner was arraigned for murder, a rare crime in that
county; stating in a brief and pertinent manner, the
facts he expected to show in the progress of the trial.
Having cited from the statute laws what would and
what would not be justifiable homicide, he adduced
the following testimony :
David Chase, sworn. — Was at West Brunswick on
the 17th of September last; there saw Peter Waters;
knows the prisoner; saw him also that morning. Jona
than Tyler, William Tyler, Hiram Thomas, and Nelson
Stimpson, started together in one boat to go up the
lake; Wood and witness were in a bark canoe; Wa
ters was in a canoe [of bark] alone; they started from
the forge in company, and kept up the pond, east,
until they came to a point of land about two miles
from the forge, when they stopped to get their traps;
witness and Wood were going to trap with the Indian
in partnership ; Waters's boat was six feet from wit-

220 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
ness and along side ; the other boat was opposite four
or five rods. At this point of land, First lake com
menced; as Wood stepped out to get the traps, wit
ness heard a rattling in the bushes and looked up the
lake, thinking it was birds; turned his head and kept
watch; saw Foster, he was bent over a little, ap
parently, going sideways; saw him while passing, a
distance of six or eight feet; had no doubt as to the
person. Wood took up a load of traps and brought
them to the canoe; does not know but he went again;
thinks he brought them in two loads; went back out
of sight half a minute; came out very quick; clenched
up the traps and threw them in the boat in a hurry,
and then moved off; Indian, as he heard a rattling in
the bushes, shoved his boat close up to witness; they
shoved off from shore and brought the Indian between
witness and Wood, in his own canoe; the gun thon
was heard to go off upon the shore on the point; wit
ness turned and Indian was falling backwards from
his canoe; made two motions with his hands; his
legs stuck in canoe and thus he died. Witness turned
to shore and saw Foster on shore in the direction of
the report, and where he saw him before ; witness and
Wood had each a rifle; neither of their rifles were
discharged. Witness called to his companions and
said ' here is a dead man.' Waters had no fire-arms;
an hour from leaving forge to that time, he thinks,
but is not certain. Witness examined the body; un
der the left arm, about two inches, the balls entered,

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 221
and came out about six inches below the right arm;
these killed him; gun was very heavily loaded; saw
no other person on shore but Foster; Wood was in
the boat before gun was fired.
Cross-examined. — It was two or three rods from
their boat to where Foster stood; after report saw him
in the same open spot again; did not see any gun in
his hand either way he passed; did not notice any
smoke; was pretty badly frightened.
Nelson Stimpson sworn. — Was present 17th Sept.
last; saw Waters and prisoner; mentions same party
in boat named by previous witness ; Wood and Chase
were in one canoe and the Indian in another alone;
went up two miles; is not acquainted there; thinks it
may have been an hour before the catastrophe ; saw a
wake in the bushes; boat passed along but Wood's
boat had stopped ; witness saw Foster pass ten feet
partly bent over (lurking) in the bushes; witness and
his party were hallooed to at a distance of thirty rods
from this, and after the report of a gun, came back
and found Indian's head and part of his body lying in
the water, and his legs in the canoe; did not see any
gun in Foster's hands; did not examine body; Chase
fired off his gun two charges; it was a double shatter,
and appeared to have been loaded sometime; Wood
discharged his gun; did not see Foster after report of
gun; saw no smoke there.
Williston Tyler, sworn. — Saw Foster on the 17th
of Sept. last at Foster's house; saw Waters at the
19*

222 trappers of new york.
forge same day; went up from forge with party
spoken of; they went up to the point (say two miles)
in company; Wood and Chase together; Waters
alone; all making to this point of land; W. and C.
went a-shore; Stimpson spoke "There goes Foster;"
witness looked and saw a man there that he (witness)
called Foster; they rowed round the point out of
sight of the rest; Foster was walking a little stooped
and sideways; rowed thirty yards, heard report of a
gun; heard Wood or Chase hallo " come back as
quick as you can; " they went back, and Chase said
they had a dead man there; Waters's head and
shoulders were in the water and his legs in the canoe;
did not examine his body; two holes in the shirt un
der one arm ; examined guns of the others and found
them charged as stated by the other witnesses; saw
no gun in Foster's hands; bushes two feet high; was
five or six rods distant when he saw him; witness
and Wood went to Foster's house; found Johnson on
the hill after this in a house occupied by Wood and
Chase carrying in some hay; Johnson lived with
Foster; this was four miles from the place of exe
cution; did not see Foster after report of gun until
at Foster's house same day, four miles from point.
Cross-examined. — Went to Foster's house on the
way from point; found him there lying on the bed;
did not know Foster until the night before; he was a
stranger until then; Foster may have passed eight or
ten feet in witness's sight while they were going

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 223
along in the boat; there were bushes there but not
so high as elsewhere; some were ten feet high; saw
side of his face; judge of him partly from his gene
ral appearance; he was without a hat; was bald-
headed; he was leaning the same way they were
passing; stooped; did not see his hands; Foster was
between two and three rods from the point which was
to the left; when they found Foster he was lying on
a bed; saw his gun in a corner of the room; does
not know whether it was loaded or not; was nothing
peculiar in Foster's dress; witness was not rowing
when he saw Foster in the space; neither saw him
before nor after he was at that point.
Direct testimony resumed. — Foster discharged and
reloaded his gun before he started; this was about
one quarter of a mile from Wood's house; Foster's
house is on the right-hand side of outlet; and he
saw him at the other side of the outlet; the nearest
way to get to that place from Foster's house was to
cross the bridge at the forge; had a conversation with
Foster after he fired the gun and reloaded; witness
inquired " have you shot the deer? " " No, that d — d
Indian," showing on his wrist a scratch and blood;
" have had a squabble with the Indian and he cut this
spot; and if it had not been for Mr. Wood and Chase
the Indian would have killed me; go either forward
or behind; I shall not go fishing."
Cross-examined. — The place called the forge has
not been used in many years; this is about eighteen

224 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
miles from any settlers; the outlet is from ten to fif
teen rods wide; they talked of going to the Fourth
lake; lives in Leyden, Lewis county; the houses were
dwelling-houses erected by some past settlers.
William S. Wood sworn. — Knows the prisoner;
knew the Indian killed; was with Chase; did not see
Foster there [on the point] that day; went ashore to
get traps; heard the report of a gun; the Indian was
killed; saw no person in the bushes; heard no noise;
was very busy; got into the boat about as quick as
usual; was about three or four yards from Waters
when shot; Waters' s boat lying still; witness was in
his boat when the gun was fired ; did not see Foster
at all up there; saw him' at home lying on his bed
after the killing; also before that at my house in the
morning; it was three fourths of an hour from the
time Foster left my house in the morning to the gun
report; not far from 9 a.m. when gun was fired;
about four miles from my house to the point.
For the prisoner. — The counsel for the defence here
offered to show that the premises where the Indian
was killed, were leased on the 4th of May, 1830, by
Caleb Lyon, for himself and as agent, to David and
Solomon Maybee; that the Maybee's went in and oc
cupied under the lease, until the 26th of February,
1832; at which time David Maybee assigned the lease
for the sum of ten dollars, to the defendant, who took
possession and occupied under said lease until the
alleged murder was committed; at which time his

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 225
right had not expired. Judge Denio said that the
defendant was presumed to occupy in his own right;
and rejected the evidence offered as conventional.
William S. Wood recalled. — Has known the In
dian eighteen months; was twenty-eight years old as
he said; was a short able-bodied Indian; have hunted
with him.
Counsel. — Did you ever hear this Indian threaten
to kill Foster?
Counsel for prosecution. — Objected to, on the
ground of irrelevancy.
Counsel for defence. — We urge the evidence, be
cause it is competent, and goes to establish the fact
of " imminent danger," to the life of Foster; and
whether it sufficently establishes that fact is for the
jury to determine.
Judge Denio said the testimony was inadmissible,
and Judge Dygert was ofhis opinion; but when the
whole Bench was appealed to, behold ! the other three
judges were for admitting it; and for the first time
and probably the last time in his official station, his
Honor found himself over-ruled by the Common Pleas
judges. Witness. — Has heard Indian at different times
threaten to kill Foster. " He said Foster was calk
ing his boat (this was in July) and he had a mind to
go up and tomahawk Foster -and throw him into the
the river; but his squaw took hold of his coat and
persuaded him to go to his shantee;" he said he had

226 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
a notion to go back; " If I can not do it now," said
he, " the first time I catch him alone I '11 be the death
of him." This was a year ago last July; Foster
came to witness's house the morning of Sept. 17, to
see how long before witness would be ready to start
up the lakes; witness lives on south side of outlet,
and Foster on the north side; a mile from witness's
to Foster's; one and three-fourths miles from witness's
house to the forge; Foster came to the door, (Chase
and witness were eating breakfast). " How long be
fore you will be ready to go? " asked Foster. " In an
hour or perhaps less," we answered. Foster turned
round to go out; Indian was standing at the fire-place
and said, " What you call me d — m rascal, d — m
Indian, so much for ? " " Because I am a mind to,"
he answered; the Indian sprung upon Foster, took
him by the neck and drew his knife upon him, which
Foster knocked out of his hand upon the floor; Indian
said, " You old devil, I got you now, I kill you;"
witness then sprang and grabbed the Indian, and
Chase secured Foster's rifle; then witness relieved
Foster, who stepped to the door, saying, " Where 's
my rifle." Indian said, " Where 's my tomahawk ?
d — m old cuss ! " Witness said, " You want no toma
hawk; be peaceable; " said Indian after Foster went
out, " Now Foster wont live to see another Christmas !
I '11 kill him, d — m old cuss ! " It was an Indian
hunting knife which he carried by his side; in a
sheath in his belt; knife looked as if it had been a

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 227
case-knife, ground off to a peak and pointed; Foster
was cut across his wrist and face in the flesh; Indian
belonged to the St. Regis tribe, a Canada Indian;
British Indian stout and athletic; after Foster went
out Indian said, " I should have killed him then if it
had not been for Chase and witness;" three-fourths
of an hour after this, Indian was killed; witness was
with Indian about six weeks, and left him.
Cross-examined. — Did not tell Foster the last threat
at witness's house; about a quarter of an hour after
this they started; were about half an hour in walking
up to forge; Waters went with witness and Chase;
were not long at forge; found others at forge; about
twenty or thirty minutes at forge, can't say precisely;
took perhaps twenty or thirty minutes to go to point;
never told Foster of any of the threats • witness and
Chase and Indian were going trapping together;
Chase was not in first partnership of witness and
Indian. Counsel for defence. — Object to evidence of de
fendant's confessions, as opening the case anew after
the prosecution had rested; overruled; witness went
to Foster's house, and Foster went back with them
[to the lake to get the body] ; did not hear Foster
say any thing.
Judah C. Marsh sworn. — Was at Foster's between
the 15th and 20th of August, a year ago; Foster
asked Indian for seventeen shillings, pay for sundry
articles; Indian offered to pay a part but not all;

228 trappers of new york.
Foster said, " I 've let you have articles to keep you
from starving; Indian meal and potatoes which I
have carried on my back seventeen miles; " Indian
offered to pay a part; " why not pay the whole? I've
dealt with you like a brother; I 've heard you threat
ened to take my life; you came once where I was
fixing a boat (I 've been informed) on purpose to kill
me; you came once to my house with your rifle load
ed and called me to the door to kill me;" "yes;"
" why do you want to hurt me ? I never wanted to
hurt you; I would as soon kill a white man as an In
dian; I would not kill you for a million of worlds;"
Indian asked how soon he would come to the Seventh
lake; said " You must never come there; if you do
you never come back again alive; we're now on
Brown's tract and out of the way of all law; if you
kill me you kill me; if I kill you I kill you; " Foster
said, " I agree to no such thing; am afraid of your
sly Indian way of fighting; I have heard that you
threatened to kill several at Lake Pleasant; and a
man by the name of Lyon; I shall complain of you
and have you taken care of; I am afraid of my life;"
Indian said, " Complain and be d — d, me meet you; "
Indian threatened to kill David Foster (son of defend
ant) if he came to the Racket lake; Indian started to
the door, took up his tomahawk; prisoner stepped
into the house, and Indian let his tomahawk drop
after prisoner was out of sight.
Cross-examined. — Is a son-in-law of defendant;

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 229
resides at Auburn; went there last July; don't recol
lect the amount of flour, &c, that Foster called over;
when items were mentioned once he said it was cheap
enough; Indian spoke tolerably good English; some-
broken; witness staid but eight or ten days on tract
after this; David left after October; witness advised
defendant to come away; he said he should come as
soon as he possibly could; for he considered his life
in danger every moment; Seventh lake is some fifteen
miles from Foster's; Indian had a squaw and two
children: squaw went back to St. Regis; defendant
and wife, son and son's wife, witness and his wife,
and Johnson were in the house, and three children,
two of David's and one of witness's.
Direct testimony resumed. — Foster said, " as soon
as I can get the old lady away, I shall go;" she was
rather feeble; she was not able to go with witness;
wanted to wait till sleighing; David's wife was un
well; a numb palsy affection.
Abner Blackman, sworn. — Knew the Indian named
and Foster; Foster was narrating a story about In
dian's coming to his house; he said the " Indian had
loaded his rifle and come to his door to shoot him;
Indian said it was well for him that he was not at
home, as he came to shoot him; he would have put a
bullet through him; he (Foster) would have seen his
God in two minutes;" witness told him that the In
dian had told him the same thing, as to his coming
ao

230 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
to his house to shoot him; has heard the Indian
threaten the life of Foster.
Cross examined. — Had a conversation with Foster;
he said the Indian had threatened to kill him a good
many times; and indifferent ways; he had spoke of
not being afraid of Indian, but he was really afraid,
and looked behind every old log and bush expecting
the Indian ready to kill him; he trembled as he
walked; said he would have been glad to have got
away, if he could conveniently; but his property and
family were there; his son's wife unwell, and could
not be moved then; he said like this, " he had a gun
that had always told him the truth, and he had pushed
a bull off the bridge;" he said they came down to his
house for him to go up; he went, and found Waters
in the canoe; no one dared to take hold of him; he
took hold of him and pulled him up; did not tell him
how the Indian got killed, nor that he killed him;
was talking about hunting and killing deer when he
said he pushed the bull off the bridge; and, perhaps,
about the Indian also; were not talking about the
Indian when he said his gun always told the truth;
has seen Indian at witness's house ; heard Indian say
he belonged to St. Regis tribe ; witness lives in Greig,
Lewis county; conversation in that town on witness's
way to and from Herreshoff's; Greig is nineteen or
twenty miles from Herreshoff place.
Joshua Harris, sworn. — Lives in Grieg, Lewis
county; was a magistrate in September last. The

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 231
defence offered to prove by this witness that Foster
applied to him to get a warrant, and complained that
he was in fear of losing his life; that the Indian had
threatened to kill him repeatedly; had intimated
several times that Indian had threatened to kill him.
Witness. — Has conversed with Indian; has heard
him say repeatedly, he would kill Foster; " if Foster
goes up to Fourth, Fifth, Sixth or Seventh lake again,
he will never return alive if I can catch him there;"
the Indian roused up, " Foster, how many deer you
kill ?" " Don't know." " D— m him, I'll pile him up
with my deer by-and-by;" at another time in harvest,
he said, " I'll serve Foster, d  d old cuss, as I have
a number of the d  d Yankees, I will take his life,
or butcher him;" the threats were often repeated; he
would rave against Foster.
Cross examined. — Indian was there a year ago last
October, and often, until killed, shantied [lived in a
shantee or hut] on witness's farm, forty rods from
house, about two months; was about twenty-eight
years of age; has conversed with Foster since the
death; he intimated as much as though he had killed
the Indian ; said " he was not guilty of shedding inno
cent blood; what he had done was done in his own
defence;" he was talking about his being taken for
killing the Indian, and his trial.
Asa Brown, sworn. — Knows Foster; knew Indian;
has heard the Indian threaten the life of Foster; In
dian came to witness's house in Greig, Lewis county,

232 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
in the fore part of August, a year ago; between the
first and twentieth; he said he did not want to say
much about old Foster; he d  d old cuss; Mrs.
Foster good old woman; he went on and stated how
well she had used him, and squaw, and little pap-
pooses; then he said, after the favors, "old Foster,
d — m old cuss, want to make me pay for it;" he said
he should not; he meant to kill old Foster; "me get
good rifle; me shoot straight; me put ball right
through the heart." I said, " Peter, you must not talk
such language as that, for you are liable to be had up
and confined." " Me care, not a d — m for that; no
law on Brown's tract." Said I, if there is no law on
the tract, there is here, and will put you where the
dogs wont bite you. "Me no care for dat; me kill
d — m old cuss." Witness advised him to peace with
Foster. "Mrs. Foster use me well; good woman;
Foster d — m old cuss; put ball through his heart."
Never saw him alive after that.
Cross examined. — Saw Foster about two weeks
after this, and told him what the Indian said; Foster
replied, "If the Indian would come in sight, and
shoot quicker than he did, then he (Foster) would be
killed; if not, not; he had a rifle that never told a lie;
and said he had heard a great many such threats from
the Indian, and felt in danger of losing his life when
traversing the forest for his traps; he said his eyes
were continually on the watch, for fear the Indian
was skulking about to shoot him;" has seen Foster

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 233
but once since the Indian's death; heard no confession
of killing.
Willard Johnson, sworn. — Knew Foster and In
dian; resided on Brown's tract; has heard Indian
threaten Foster to kill him; the first difficulty was
about a boat; Foster said, " you should not do so; if
you want a boat, ask for it." Indian said, " d — m
old Foster, I'll put the ball there," pointing his finger
in center of his forehead. The next, Foster had let
him have things, and Peter refused to pay ; about two
or three months after, can't say exactly, Foster said,
" this is the usage I get, I backed in these things and
paid my money for them." Waters flourished his
hatchet; Foster went in quick, and if he had not, he
would have struck the hatchet between Foster's
shoulders. Again, the morning before Waters was
shot, witness was at his own place, a mile from Fos
ter's, when he saw Waters; talked -with him; said
"go along with me and make peace with Foster;"
" old Foster I will kill, if I can get him out to shoot
him. I'll butcher him in his bed; I know which side
of the bed he lays; and if you hear anything there,
don't you come nigh, you may get hurt; old woman
is good; I wont hurt her; but you must not come nigh
me." [The Indian requested Johnson to tell Mrs.
Foster to keep her own side in the bed.]
Cross examined. — Thinks he told it to Foster the
night before the killing; every time witness saw Wa
ters, he would enquire when he was going home; and
30*

234 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
witness did not know what to make of it; an Indian
is an Indian; Foster went to swear the peace; Indian
was a crabbed sort of a fellow; had no conversation
with Foster since Indian was killed.
The counsel for the prisoner offered to prove threats
of the Indian to kill Foster, by several other persons,
but was overruled, and the defence rested.
For the prosecution.
Williston Tyler, sworn. — Was at Foster's the
evening before killing ; he said the Indian had threat
ened his life; but he was not afraid of the d  d
black blood, unless it were by secret revenge; he said
if he could catch him out any where, he would put
him where the dogs would not bite him; they were
talking about his complaining against Indian; he said
it would be of no use: he would go into the woods
before they could take him; but if he should catch
him out, he would put him where the dogs wouldn't
bite him; in goin^ bark up to the point where killed,
witness asked the question whether he was standing
or sitting the moment be was shot; Foster replied,
" Sitting down ; why I say he was sitting down is,
that they always did sit down, and never stand up in
a bark canoe;" Foster went to the place where In
dian was killed; they covered up Indian; went back
next morning and re-covered it [the grave] ; might
have been four hours from time witness saw Foster
last to killing.
Cross examined. — Wood told Foster, " I've bad

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 235
news to tell you; Peter's dead;" Foster asked, " Did
he die in a fit ?" Wood informed Foster that he was
shot and at what place, in answer to his inquiry; pre
sumes they generally sit in a bark canoe.
David Chase, sworn. — Don't remember every item
ofthe scuffle; they were fixing to go away that morn
ing; Foster came in his house; said " Good morning;"
witness was busy packing up things to go away;
Foster was eight feet from a small fire place; witness
about ten feet away, packing; Indian spoke, but don't
know what he said ; Foster answered, but don't re
member what; Indian pitched upon him and grabbed
Foster; witness rose up and took Foster's rifle and
set it up side of the house, about twelve feet from
where they clenched ; got back and Indian had thrown
Foster; witness got his right hand, and Wood his
left hand, and told Indian to let loose ; Indian rose up ;
one called for his tomahawk and the other for his
rifle; Foster went out, and witness said stay and get
your things; he did so; witness went into the house,
got his hat and rifle, and gave them to him; after this
Foster said, " How long before you will be along ?"
As witness turned to go back, he saw blood on his
own hand; this was pretty early in the morning; it
was near noon when the shooting happened; between
three and four hours; Indian, Wood and witness were
going trapping.
Cross examined. — Did not see a knife; as they took
them apart, Indian was talking fast; and when he

236 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
came back he was cooled down; Wood got to Indian
and Foster first; had no conversation with Foster
since. Nelson Stimpson, sworn. — Saw the Indian clench
Foster; Foster went into the house and spoke to Chase
and Wood; asked them what time they would be up
the lake; Indian " How many times more will you
call me d  d liar ?" Foster, " Do you want to
pick a quarrel with me this morning, you black son
of a bitch ?" The Indian sprang and clenched him,
and jammed the door too, and witness saw no more of
it; saw Foster as he came out; he told witness to go
down to the forge; four hours from time of scuffle to
killing; had some conversation with Foster coming
from tract next day.
Francis E. Spinner, sworn. There was some con
versation when Foster came down from Martinsburg;
he said something; don't think he said he killed him;
witness advised him to say nothing; he said there
would probably be no dispute about the facts; there
would be proof enough; thinks he said the Indian
suspected something, and put up his hands; he said
he examined the body, and in examination found he
was shot with two balls; he said his rifle never told
a lie; don't know whether this latter observation was
in that conversation; he said they were afraid to take
care of the body, and he went up; found it was a
centre shot; a hole under one arm, close up, and two
on the opposite side; is not clear, but he may have

trappers of NEW YORK. 237
said that his arm must have been thrown up, or the
ball could not have entered there.
The testimony having closed, Mr. Hurlbtjt opened
the defence to the jury, and his associates, Spencer
and Hackle y, summed up. The cause is said, by spec
tators, to have been very ably conducted on both sides.
Judge Denio, who was from another county, a
stranger to the parties and unbiased by the prejudices
which made either for or against the prisoner, deter
mined to try him fairly and impartially. There can be
no greater virtue in any tribunal, than that of impar
tiality in the administration of justice. Indeed, when
other motives influence judicial decisions than those
of equity, and power is warped to favor, rapine and
anarchy stalk the earth unbridled, honesty wears
weeds, and disinterested benevolence folds herself up
in a garment of sackcloth.
The following is a brief memorandum made by Mr.
Hurlbut, of Judge Denio's charge to the jury.
" The court advise the jury, that the law applies to
the region of country where the offence was com
mitted. The law pervades every section of the coun»
try. There is no place where crime is not cognizable.
" In regard to the race of men to which the de
ceased belonged, when the question is, what will
authorize the taking of the life of such an one ? we
answer, no one can take such life without such rea
sons as would authorize the taking of the life of any
other human being.

238 trappers of new york.
" There are two cases of killing whu\i is not mur
der. First, when there is killing in a sudden affray:
it is manslaughter. If, at the time of the rencontre
in the morning, before his passion cooled, the prisoner
had shot the Indian, it would have been manslaughter
unly. But if his passion cooled, and contrivance or
malice was aroused, it would have been murder.
Second, a man has a right to kill another in self de
fence. The court would not abridge that privilege.
If Wood's account be true, if the Indian came with
his knife drawn and offered a fatal blow, and Foster
had not time to retreat, he would have been author
ized to shoot him dead. That would have been a
legitimate case of self defence. The law of this
country is not, when a man is out of immediate dan
ger, but has a secret enemy, that he has a right to
kill him. This would not be a good code of laws if
that were so. In a state of nature, it would have
been morally right to have taken the Indian's life in
this case. The principle of self defence applies only
to the case of present attack upon the accused. If
poster seriously believed he was right and justified,
it makes no difference in law, morally it does.
" These views you have a right to overlook. You
are not bound to pay any further regard to this
opinion, than the superior means of the court of pos
sessing information may entitle it to."
The jury retired.
Before the trial commenced, Mr. Hurlburt received

TRAPPERS of NEW YORK. 239
from Foster the most urgent instructions to convict
him of murder or acquit him altogether. He pro
tested against being found guilty of manslaughter, as
he dreaded imprisonment, even for the shortest term,
worse than death.
The jury, after a deliberation of two hours, returned
into court with a verdict of acquittal. As they entered
and took their seats, the " cloud of witnesses " be
came hushed; the moment was one of intense interest;
and to so great a tension had the feelings of the old
gentleman been drawn by the excitement his preca
rious fate had invoked, that his spirit seemed hovering
between life and death. Says Mr. Hurlbut, " When
the jury came in with their verdict, he was insensible;
and it was with some difficulty he was roused to con
sciousness, so as to understand the verdict. When
the words not guilty, after being two or three times
repeated to him by his counsel, struck his senses
fairly, he rose up, stretched out both hands wide over
the heads of the spectators, and exclaiming, ' God
bless you all ! God bless the people ! ' rushed out of
the court room, and strode home his well known hun
ter's pony."
A murmur of applause ran through the crowd, the
sympathies of which were nearly all enlisted in his
favor, as the old trapper left the court room for the
street, to which he was followed by scores of people
of all ages, anxious to offer their congratulations.
At Little Falls, great was the rejoicing and clapping

240 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
of hands, when the news reached that place that
Foster was free; indeed his enlargement met with
one universal burst of approbation throughout the
county. Not because he had killed a poor Indian,
and been acquitted; but because he was not to be
hung for having killed a man in his own defense, as
they viewed it. There can remain little doubt, when
it is known as a characteristic of the red man that
he never forgives a known or imagined injury, and
seldom a grudge, especially one he has determined to
punish with death, but that he would have killed
Foster "before Christmas," if Foster had not slain
him.* But we leave this case to Him who set his
own mark on the first murderer, Cain; and to whose
mercy Moses was subjected, when he slew and con
cealed his man in the sands of Egypt.
*The celebrated Joseph Brant, once found it necessary to kill
bis own son. The latter had taken umbrage at his parent for
some cause, and on an occasion, pursued him with a knife, bent
on his destruction. Brant retreated to the corner of a room,
armed with a tomahawk ; and satisfied the son would execute his
threats, as he rushed upon him, the father sunk, the fatal toma
hawk in his head. — Isaac H. Tiffany.

CHAPTER XVI.
About the time of Foster's trial, to an interrogatory
from the Hon. Charles Gray, whether he did not con
sider the lives of the white hunters as greatly endan
gered, when he directed the balls between them only
a few feet apart, which penetrated the heart of his
victim? he replied, " No, not at all ! my old rifle
never made so great a miss as that! "
Remarking to Maj. Stoner my surprise, that Foster
should have dared to fire between two white men in
a changing position at a third person, the old Natty
Bumpo replied, "Poh! Foster would have shot the
Indian's eye out had he desired to! The truth is,
either of us could send a bullet just about where we
chose to." At an inanimate and fixed target they
were not so remarkably celebrated as marksmen,
but give them game moving sufficiently to excite
their anxiety, and these two modern Nimrods may be
said to have been a dead shot. At a reasonable dis
tance they would have driven an apple every time
from the head of some young Tell, and scarcely dis
placed a hair, provided the head was moving.
When a sufficient length of time had transpired
after this Indian's death for intelligence of it to go to
his friends near the river St. Lawrence, a brother-in-
21

242 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
law of his, who was a chief of the St. Regis tribe,
and a very likely man, came down to Brown's tract
to remove his sister. He said the deceased was at
times a bad fellow, and had been expelled from their
tribe for some misdemeanor. He had even threatened
the life of this chief more than once; and he did not
express any regret that he was killed; on the con
trary, he said he thought Foster was justifiable in
taking his life under the peculiar circumstances.
Drid's squaw was present when the body was brought
down, but instead of manifesting sorrow she smiled,
and with a pair o! scissors she cut out a piece of his
blanket or shirt, having in it a ball hole, and placed
it carefully away in a work-pocket. Her brother had
the body taken up and interred in Indian style; and
before its reburial he cut out that part of the
blanket having the remaining bullet holes in it;
which he carried home with him. Foster had been
sent to Martinsburg before this Indian arrived; but
previous to leaving the tract, he advised the members
ofthe Foster family still living there, to leave the
place, as they were innocent of Drid's death; and it
was possible some of his blood might attempt to re
venge his death. He took his sister and her children
back with him, that he might provide for their wants.
After the death of Drid, Foster visited Brown's
tract but once. He feared the Indians might catch
him napping; indeed it was said that several were
there in wait for him, but a correspondent who says

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 243
he was there the next season, saw no Indians. Fos
ter removed with his family to Boonville, Oneida
county. From thence he went to reside for several
years in the north part of Pennsylvania, where he
again followed his favorite pursuits. His mind seemed
never at rest after killing this Indian, says a friend,
and he would not, after his return to Boonville from
Pennsylvania, ¦ enture out of doors in the dark. He
died at the house of Mr. Edgerton, his son-in-law, in
the western part of Boonville (now Ava), Oneida
county, in March, 1841; at the age of about 74 years.
His widow died at the residence of her son, Amos
Foster, in Palatine (near Stone Arabia), Montgomery
county, in December, 1844.
It is the belief of very many of Foster's acquaint
ances, that Drid was not the only Indian with whom
he had had a fatal rencontre. The following story
furnished the author by Mr. Frederick Petrie, comes
so well authenticated and corroborated, that there can
be very little doubt of its truth.
Before the American Revolution there dwelt about
two miles from the present village of Little Falls, an
Indian named Hess, who took an active part in that
contest as a hireling of Britain; and who undoubted
ly was one of the most cruel and blood thirsty of his
race. Some ten or twelve years after the war, this
Indian returned to his former hunting grounds, to pro
secute his favorite employment. A country inn at
this period was, for the spread of knowledge to be

244 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
smoked in and watered, a kind of " circulating me
dium," a place where in the absence of our now
thousands of newspapers, the people of the surround
ing country met to learn news from quidnuncs; and
as Little Falls, with possibly her dozen (much scat
tered) insignificant dwellings, was then a place of
some notoriety, on account of her »ie?« inland locks,
and old moss-clad rocks, the bar-roon of the village
one-story tavern became the place where all the clas
sic events of olden time, and all the improvements of
modern days, particularly those which aided the river
sailor in navigating the far famed Mohawk, were,
sans parliamentary forms, freely discussed.
On a certain occasion Foster met the Indian Hess
in the bar-room of the Little Falls tavern, and observ
ing that his dress a-la-mode was that of a hunter, he
attempted to engage him in a conversation. He
feigned ignorance of the English language, however,
until his white competitor in beaver skins oiled his
tongue freely at the bar, when lo! the seal upon his
lips was broken, and he spoke English tolerably well.
The two hunters soon after left the village and tra
veled some distance together, when the conversation
turned upon Revolutionary scenes: boasting of his
individual exploits on the frontiers of New York,
the Indian exhibited a tobacco pouch. "This,"
said the crafty warrior, " me got in the war. Me
kill white woman; rip open belly; find young pap-
poose; skin him some; make pouch!" He also

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 246
opened the box in the breech ofhis rifle, and exhibit
ed some evidence he there carried of the number of
prisoners and human scalps taken by him in the war;
the tally ran up to the almost incredible number of
forty-two. Just before parting, the Indian inquired
of Foster his name, and on hearing it he exclaimed,
" Ha ! Nat Foster ! y m bad man; you kill Indians !"
On the Indian's making the recognition of him,
Foster thought he detected in his look and manner a
lurking devil that seemed to say, " if ever you fall in
my power you -will feel it;" and hearing himself
called an Indian killer, he believed the old hunter, if
opportunity presented, would not scruple to take his
life. The boast of murdered innocence drew a frown
across the sunburnt brow and stern features of the
young hunter, that seemed to send back defiance to
the red man's look of meditated death. They parted
soon after, and if not as friends, certainly not as
avowed enemies ; but each no doubt felt apprehensive,
that a second interview might not terminate so for
tunately for them both ; and certain it is, that one at
' least resolved not to be over-reached by the other.
Not long after the above incidents transpired, Fos
ter was threading the forest alone, in the northerly
part of Herkimer county, in the pursuit of game. In
a secluded spot, he came unexpectedly upon and shot
a moose cow. While securing the noble game, its
mate, a most ferocious bull, attracted to the spot by
the bellowing of the dam, attacked him with great
21*

246 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
fury. In a dodging fight, the hunter was obliged to
make some half a dozen shots in rapid succession.
Foster reloaded his rifle before he ventured to ap
proach an animal that had been so tenacious of life,
although dying (he seldom changed his position in
the woods without a charge in his gun) ; and while
advancing to it, he was startled to hear a footstep
within pistol shot distance of him, and was possibly
not less surprised to find in the person of his new
visitant, the muscular form of the Indian Hess.
Supposing, as is presumed, that Foster's rifle was
unloaded, his recent acquaintance, who now experi
enced no difficulty in " murdering the King's Eng
lish," at the end of a whoop that told credibly for his
lungs and the absence of balsams, shouted aloud,
" Now Foster me got you ! me kill you now ! " Be
tween Hess and his intended victim there was a
marsh, over which was a fallen tree. Mounting the
log to approach the white hunter, with uplifted toma
hawk and death-boding mien, the report of a rifle
again echoed amid the fir-tops of the forest, and up
sprang the Indian high in air from the log. A bullet '
had plowed its way through his heart, and with a
guttural groan, the dark warrior fell dead upon the
marsh. Lest Hess might not be unattended in the
forest, the eagle-eyed marksman, whose rifle had not
only been quickly loaded but q'Jckly discharged,
stamped the carcase of his victim deep into the mud.
Dark mystery hung over the fate of this lone hunter

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 247
for years. Many remembered that his disappearance
was sudden and unexpected; and others that they had
heard Foster say, shortly after his interview with him
at Little Falls, that he had met him once, and only
once after that time. He confidentially communicated,
many years after, to Jacob I. Christman, with whom
he was hunting, the fate of this unfortunate savage,
for whom No solemn bell's metallic tongue
E'er toll'd its death note on the breeze •.
Zephyrs alone his requiem rung-,
Where ivy green her mantle hung
Mid plumed and bowing trees.
Foster, although a man of undoubted veracity,
when speaking of his own exploits, made use of
aphorisms, or such unexplained expressions, as left
them a mystery to his auditors. This was particu
larly the case where legal advantage could be taken
of his sayings and doings; hence, it is impossible to
arrive with positive eertainty, as is believed, at some
of the most interesting incidents in his life. On this
point, says a correspondent, " Foster would occasion
ally tell some of his exploits, but in such a way you
could hardly guess his meaning. For instance, " The
best shot I ever made, I got two beaver, one otter,
and fifteen martin skins; but I took the filling out of
a blanket to do it !' And again, ' I was once in the
woods, and saw an Indian lay down to drink at a
brook; something was the matter; he dropped his faee

248 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
into the water and drowned; I thought I might as
well take his fur, gun, blanket, &c, as leave them
there to spoil.' "
Says the same correspondent, " On his way to jail,
I saw Foster; he said to me, ' Brother B., / am the
man that pushed the bull off the bridge ; I never liked
Indians !' While confined at Herkimer, he was ask
ed how he fared? He replied, " 0, very well, only I
don't like to be stall fed among gentlemen ! "
About the time of Foster's trial, while some friends
were speaking of his success as a hunter and extra
ordinary skill as a marksman, he said the greatest
shot he ever made was at otters, securing eighteen of
their valuable pelts at a single shot. Although the
fame of the (then) old hunter was very great, this
story seemed to stagger the faith of his most confi
dential auditors; and when one ventured to express a
doubt as to the truth of the assertion, he explained as
follows. In a hunting excursion he had once fallen
in with an Indian, who carried upon his back eigh
teen otter skins; that he had no intention of harmino-
the Indian; did not know that he had killed him; but
that he never let an otter skin escape him alive. He
fired; they all fell; he picked them up and came away.
In the latter part of his life, Foster's sight began
to fail him. His brother, Shubael Foster, who is
many years younger than Nathaniel, says he was deer
hunting with the latter, not many years before his
death, in St. Lawrence county, on the Oswegat-

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 249
chie,* in which excursion they killed twenty. Informant
shot several before his brother got any; when they
oame together, the latter procured a good slice of
venison, saying that if he could get a piece of deer into
him, he could see to shoot them. During this hunt,
they one day cornered a flock between them and a
ledge, exposing the innocent creatures to their cross
fire. They drove the terrified animals from one to
the other until they secured five of their number, four
of which fell before the old rifle of the senior hunter.
So much for eating a good steak of venison.
Foster and Stoner were both remarkably expert at
loading their rifles;, but the former most so, at least if
it became necessary to make several shots in hot
haste, and at a short distance. Foster has been known
repeatedly, upon a wager, to commence with his rifle
unloaded and fire it off six times in one minute. This,
to the reader, if a modern marksman* and unaccus
tomed to taking game upon foot, seems incredible,
but it is nevertheless true. While hunting he usually
wore three rifle balls between the fingers of each
hand, and invariably thus in the left hand, if he had
* Os-we-gatchie or Ogh-swa-gatchie, an Indian name, the his
torian James Maoatjlet, informed the author, which signifies
going or coming round a hill. The great bend in the Oswegat-
chie river (or the necessity of it), on the borders of Lewis county,
originated its significant name. An Indian tribe, bearing the
name of the river, once lived upon its banks; but its fate, like
that of many sister tribes, has been, to melt away before the pro
gressive step of the Anglo-Saxon.

250 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
that number of balls with him. He had a large bony
hand, and having worn such jewels a long time, they
had mad i for themselves cavities in the flesh, which
concealed them almost as effectually as they were,
when hid in the moulds in which they were run from
the fused lead. The superficial observer would not
have noticed them.
Foster's quick shooting was in the days of flint
locks. He had a powder flask with a charger, and
with six well pared balls between his fingers, he
would pour in the powder, drop in a ball that would
just roll down without a patch, and striking the
breech of his gun with his hand, it was primed; soon
after which the bullet was speeding to its mark.
These rapid discharges could only be made at a short
distance, as to make long shots it became necessary
to patch the balls and drive them down with a rod,
the latter being dispensed with in the former case.
Foster would make his six shots, so as to kill so
many men, within one minute, at a distance not ex
ceeding ten rods. A regiment of such riflemen, in
close action, would soon decide the fate of a battle.
In the second American war with Great Britain,
the following incident, says Shubael Foster, took
place in Manheim, Herkimer county. A company
of riflemen, under Capt. Forsyth, passed through that
town on their way from the Mohawk valley to the
military lines between New- York and Canada, and
encamped there over night to wash their clothes.

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 251
The celebrity of Foster, as a marksman, coming to
the ears of Capt Forsyth, as the hunter was in the
vicinity, he had him called to the camp. The most
expert rifleman in the regiment was a man named
Robinson, from South Carolina. The colonel was
desirous of seeing whether Foster or Robinson could
make the most effective shots in a mifRite, at a tar
get ten rods off, each commencing with unloaded
rifles. They began to load at a given signal, and
Foster sent six bullets into the target within the
minute; his competitor putting the sixth bullet into
his piece, as that of his own rifle sped to the mark.
The whole regiment was astonished to see their fellow
member — able, as was supposed, to make the most
shots in a given time of any man in the world — fairly
beaten by a New-York trapper. A murmur of ap
plause ran through the ranks, and Foster at once
became a lion in the camp. Surprised at the unex
pected skill of a New-York woodsman, and anxious
to secure his services, Capt. Forsyth offered Foster
thirty dollars a month to join his regiment, with the
complimentary assurance that he should eat at his own
table; but as Foster did not approve of the war, he
could not be prevailed upon to adopt the life of a
soldier. When hunting, Foster would make his camp in
forty-five minutes, where the snow was a foot deep.
He usually set up two crotches, laid a pole across
them, and others from thence to the ground upon the

252 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
sides and one end; covering the whole with hemlock
boughs. In front of the open end, for his own com
fort and security against wild beasts, he built a good
fire. Provisions placed under his head for a pillow
at night, were often frozen hard in the morning. In
cold weather, he carried a blanket, strapped upon his
shoulders as * knapsack. He usually wore a hat, but
at times a cap, and uniformly a coat when hunting;
over his shoulders were strapped a powder horn and
bullet pouch, of sufficient dimensions to warrant a
lengthy hunt. He was always very careful to have
a pocket compass with him when in the forest.

CHAPTER XVH.
Since the preceding chapters were written, Col.
Daniel C. Henderson, of Norway, has kindly furnish
ed me with some interesting memoranda in the life of
Jonathan Wright,, a hunter previously named; and
several incidents worthy of notice, of several others of
like craft, who followed trapping many years ago on
and contiguous to Brown's tract. From Henderson's
manuscript I glean the following facts.
Jonathan Wright, or Jock, as he was called in the
wilderness, was a native of Hinsdale, Cheshire coun
ty, New Hampshire; and of respectable parentage.
He was about five feet ten inches in height, rather
stoutly built, with a sallow complexion. In the latter
part of his life, and when known to my correspond
ent, he had a very stooping gait, and a walk pecu
liarly his own; lifting his feet high as though
treading upon something light. His peculiarity of
motion was no doubt acquired by carrying, as silently
as possible, heavy burthens upon his shoulders in the
forest, such as traps, wild game, provisions, canoes,
&c. He had a keen eye shaded by heavy brows; and
upon the whole was rather good looking. He was a
man of few words, but they were pithy and uttered
with energy. His education was such as the com-
22

254 trappers of new york.
mon schools of New England afforded at that early
day, he being a school-boy just before the Revolu
tion. But little is known of Wright's youthful days, ex
cept that he was rather eccentric; and early evinced
a disposition to be alone in the woods, with his dog
and gun. At the age of eighteen he had, in the pur
suit of wild game and fur, reconnoitred the northerly
part of his native state, knowing more, doubtless, of
its topography than of its improvements. When our
Revolutionary difficulties began, he was found among
the champions of liberty; and five days before the
Bunker Hill battle he arrived at the American camp
near Boston, accompanied by a neighbor named
Moffatt; both armed cap-a-pie for action. He was
a volunteer under the brave Prescott, to aid in forti
fying Bunker hill the night before the battle, in which
he took an active part. When Wright got back to
his quarters in the evening, almost exhausted, he
heard a call for a guard to prevent surprise from the
enemy, " There 's no danger of that," he exclaimed,
" the rascals have enough to do to dress their shins
and wrap up their fingers for the next twelve hours,
without beating up our quarters. I shall sleep for the
next ten hours without fear."
The reveille and tattoo savored too much of re
straint for the tameless spirit of a hunter, and tiring
of camp monotony Wright returned home, and did
not again join the army until Arnold's retreat from

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 255
Quebec to Ticonderoga; when he there enlisted under
Capt Whitcomb; preferring to perform scouting or
other hazardous duty. Capt. W. had been accused
of shooting Major Gordon, a Btitish officer, and rifling
his pockets; of which act General Carlton complain
ed, and demanded his trial for murder. The Ameri
can officer in command did not think the act, which
was one of daring, demanded such a title; but viewed
it as a consequence of war, and soon the matter was
hushed. While on duty at Fort Ticonderoga, Wright and
his captain went on a scout toward the lower end of
lake Champlain, where they unexpectedly fell in with
and captured two British officers well mounted. They
proved to be a pay-master and lieutenant; who, not
expecting a foe so far from the American camp, were
off their guard, and easily secured by their rifle-poised
Captors. The horses could not be taken along, and
they were set free in the road, to return to their mas
ters' former quarters. After the prisoners were dis
mounted and disarmed, they inquired the names of
their more fortunate companions. At hearing the
name of Whitcomb the pay-master turned deadly
pale, and inquired with evident agitation, " Are you
the man who shot Major Gordon? "
" I suppose that I am; " replied the captain.
Wright, who witnessed the effect of this announce
ment, divined that a desperate effort might be made
by the prisoners to escape, and advanced with a

256 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
ready rifle to a commanding position; when he as
sured them they should have good quarters, and not
be injured unless they tried to escape; in which event
they would be sent to oblivion in a hurry ! This assu
rance tended to quiet their fears, and soon the party
were threading a circuitous route for Ticonderoga!
The pay-master chanced to have no funds on his per
son, on which account he may have felt the more
secure. When the captures were made, the scout
were just out of provisions, and early the next morn
ing, as Wright was the best runner, it was settled
that he should proceed to the fort with all possible
dispatch; obtain food, and return to succor the party,
which was to proceed up the lake shore. The adven
ture was carried out as anticipated, and in a few days
all arrived safely at Ticonderoga. Soon after, the
captives were exchanged.
Wright ever spoke highly of this lieutenant, whose
name is now forgotten. Just before they parted, the
latter addressed him as follows, " Wright, you have
been kind to us, and I shall always retain grateful
feelings toward you. We shall be down the next
campaign, and then you may rely on my friendship,
as you must and will be subjugated! "
" You go to the devil! " replied Wright. " If you
come again, death is your portion. You talk of sub
duing the States; when you come again, you fetch
your coffins with you, for you 'll surely want them ! "
He continued with the northern army, acting much

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 257
of the time either as a scout or a spy, until after the
surrender of Burgoyne. Some few days before that
event, being on a scout in the vicinity of the British
army, a violent rain-storm came on, and he sought a
temporary shelter beneath the trunk of a leaning tree;
with his blanket over his shoulders, and his rifle in a
position to be kept dry. While thus situated, his
quick ear detected amid the roaring elements, an ap
proaching footstep; and looking up, he saw a large
wolf just ready to spring upon him. He carefully
raised his piece, and without bringing it to his shoul
der, discharged it, the muzzle being within a few
feet of the animal's head, which was literally blown
off. Thus did he scalp one English ally.
Recollecting his former friend, the British lieuten
ant, Wright sought for him among the vanquished,
and found him an object of commiseration. He had
been wounded, and what with his sufferings and pri
vations, had grown dejected; sick in body and mind;
and did not readily recognize his former captor.
When he did he saluted him with great emotion. In
deed, the meeting was such as caused the better feelings
of both to mingle in a flow of tears. Wright was the
first to regain his self-possession, and broke forth in
a strain between seriousness and jesting much as fol-
lows: — " By  ! you are a lucky devil though. 1
supposed you long since dead, as I told you you would
be at the end of this campaign ; but I rejoice to find
you still alive, and hope you may live to repent of
J 22*

258 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
your sins; but by the heavens, if I ever find you in
arms against the States again, I will surely blow
your brains to the four winds ! "
Wright with no little trouble got his friend in a
wagon and conveyed him to a place of security,
whare he was well cared for, and soon after they
parted, as they supposed, for ever. The winter fol
lowing, the lieutenant W'as retained with many other
prisoners in Boston; and having occasion to visit
that city in the mean time, Wright and his British
friend again met; the latter then in good health and
fine spirits. After several days of social intercourse
the friends finally parted, but not until the lieutenant
had pressed upon the acceptance of his guest numer
ous presents; with an assurance that no consideration
would ever induce him to be found in arms again,
against so brave and generous a people. Wright
said in the latter part of his life, that of all the friends
he ever met, this military foeman gave him the
heartiest welcome."
Wright took no active part in the war after 1777,
but followed his favorite avocation of a hunter in the
northerly part of New Hampshire and Vermont;
which the neutrality of the latter state, then a terri
tory in dispute, enabled him to do. Soon after the
war, he, and a cousin of his, named Belden, who was
usually called the Rattlesnake hunter, began to fre
quent the shores of lakes Champlain and George, and
their inlets; as also the sources of the Hudson, in

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. * 259
quest of fur. Belden bore a deadly hatred to rattle
snakes, and when near their haunts was continually
warring with them; hence his significant appellation.
The following incident attending his snake-killing, I
shall give very nearly in my correspondent's own
words. "One day in early spring, as they were on the
west shore of the lake near fort Ty., and upon a ledge
of rocks; they came to a den just as the snakes had
crawled from their winter slumber, and lay basking
in the warm noon-day sun. Belden was dressed for
hunting, having on a loose woolen frock retiring be
low the knee, with shoes and leggins to match.
Armed with a long stick in one hand, and a short
one in the other, Belden led the way to the snakes;
and Wright followed with his ¦ ompanion's dog and
gun. Belden's eyes flashed fire at the sight before
him, and a smile on his lips betrayed that their
snakeships' quarters would surely be beaten up. He
began the onset striking and dealing death at every
blow, jumping and springing from one to the other,
in fear that some might take shelter in the rocks.
" In his eagerness, his foot slipped as he was aim
ing a blow at a monster that lay in a fighting atti
tude, and he fell forward. He tried to keep himself
off from the dangerous reptile, but without effect, and
it struck his frock near his chin, and hung fast by its
fangs. Both fell down together, rolled off the ledge
and down a declivity, some twelve feet, tumbling

260 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
over and over; the snake coming up at the last roll.
Belden bounded up, seized the snake round the neck,
loosened its fangs, and whipped it to death against
the rocks; as his sticks had been lost in the fight
Wright often said this was the only time he ever saw
Belden either scared or even started by danger; but
the snakes had rest the remainder of the day."
The two friends followed trapping for several sea
sons in the region of country under consideration,
and until beaver began to grow scarce; for the reader
must not suppose that they were sole monarchs there;
Indian hunters were continually crossing their tracks.
As game grew scarce, however, they occasionally
hunted for a season as far eastward as the present
state of Maine. While hunting in the neighborhood
of lake Champlain they u ,ed a light skiff to coast
with, and navigate streams. On one occasion when
they had moored their little barque in some safe nook,
they set off to visit their traps in different directions;
to meet at night at the starting point. Wright re
turned just at sunset much fatigued, and as his com
rade was not there, he deposited his game, laid down
in the boat, and was soon in a sound slumber; from
which he did not awake until it was quite dark.
He was then aroused by what he supposed the
halloo of his companion, and while listening to hear
the voice again, Belden made his appearance, loaded
down with a deer and other game, which he deposited
in the boat. Wright asked him if he had heard a

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 261
human voice, or any thing resembling it, and was
answered in the negative. Wright stepped to the
bow of the boat to loosen it, when he was met by a
loud scream and the glaring eye-balls of a monstrous
panther directly before him. " Well Belden," he ex
claimed starting back, you have brought a fine friend to
supper ! " " Yes," replied the latter, " and just wait
until I give him a polite reception." Snatching up
his rifle he discharged it, almost scorching the ani
mal's head; still it was not hurt or frightened from
its purpose; but stood at the bow and prevented them
from untying. Wright then fired also without effect
Belden had soon reloaded, and with a piece of chalk
carried for the purpose, he whitened the barrel of his
rifle, took a more deliberate aim at the glaring target
and fired again; when a scream and a few scratches
followed, and all was still. Belden then hauled the
animal into the boat, cast it off; and away they
steered for their camp. The panther proved an ex
ceedingly large and old one; its teeth were mostly
gone, and it appeared to have been in the last stage
of starvation.
When the hunting of fur in his former haunts
would no longer pay, Wright removed to the westward.
About the year 1796, he settled in the present town
of Norway, N. Y., at which time he was some forty-
five or fifty years of age. He then had a family,
which consisted of his wife, whom he invariably
called Nabby, a son, named Jonathan, and three

262 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
daughters. He wore, when hunting, a coat, called
at that time a French coat, which fastened tightly
round the waist, and moccasons, or shoe packs, as
then denominated. He was never known to wear
boots or shoes in hunting. When he left home on
a hunt, he was laden with his traps, about fifty pounds
of corn-meal, and his gun; with possibly some few
other fixins. Thus provided he would enter the
forest, and at times be gone for months, subsisting on
his meal and what his gun and traps could provide
him; with the addition of now and then a trout. He
had, as all men of his craft have, to eat many scanty
meals; but on returning to the settlements he made
ample amends for all privations in eating and drink
ing. He became known soon after his arrival in
Norway, by the familiar title of Uncle Jock. Most
people at that day were fond of liquor, and our hero
among the rest.
" Uncle Jock," said a friend one day, "  has
stolen your jug ! " A man who could scent a beaver
in the water, could easily find the course his jug had
taken, and soon he overtook the thief; not, however,
until he had secreted the stolen treasure. He refused
to disclose where it was, and old Nimrod clenched
and threw him upon the ground, where he struggled
manfully, but to little purpose; as his hands were
soon secured, and his conqueror had one to spare.
With an uplifted fist shouted the victor, " Now tell
me what you have done with the rum, or to heaven

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 263
or hell in a moment!" The brief time alloted for
repentance, instantly disclosed the whereabouts of the
jug, and a promise to pay all demands.
Some four or five years before Uncle Jock pitched
his tent in Norway, a singular individual named Ni
chols began the life of a hunter in the forests contig
uous to Norway. He was from some place in New
Hampshire, upon the Connecticut river. He was to
appearance some forty years of age, of middling sta
ture, mild disposition; and in his deportment was
simple, honest and obliging. He lived the most of
his time in the wilderness by hunting and trapping.
He was something of a musician, and kept a fiddle in
his camp, with which to cheer his hermitage. The
only living object of his care was a favorite hound*
imported by Arthur Noble, from Ireland; " Which,"
as my correspondent observes, " was one of no vulgar
blood; but a real Johnny Bull pup!" His fiddle,
hound, rifle and traps, constituted the principal stock
in trade of this secluded hunter.
Nichols was at first an unpracticed hunter, took
bat little fur, and as supposed made a poor living;
for which reason it was thought by the few who now
and then saw him; that he must have some resources
to lean upon, besides the avails of his avocation; as
he was always in funds to pay down for his plain
wearing apparel, and things needed in his isolated
camp. For a long time he avoided society, and was
disinclined to speak of his former residence or pur-

264 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
suits; but before his death it became known that he
was a good mathematician, and a mill-wright of the
first order. From him the carpenters in that part of
Herkimer county first learned to frame by the square
rule, casting aside for ever their scribe rule. He was
looked upon as a man of superior abilities, and what
could have induced him to adopt a wilderness life
was a mystery then, indeed, is to the present day.
When Uncle Jock moved into his neighborhood,
Nichols, to whom he was previously known, became
his partner in the chase, and under his teaching after
wards proved a very successful trapper. It was not
known in Norway until Uncle Jock settled there, that
Nichols had left a good property in land and mills on
the Connecticut river, to which he never returned, or
even looked after. Although it was never satisfac
torily known what induced Nichols to abandon his
property and friends, still it was believed to be solely
attributable to disappointment in love. But whether
some fair daughter of Yankeedom sighed her gentle
spirit away with " hope deferred," or whether Ni
chols plodded his weary way through the wilderness
in fruitless attempts to forget some maiden,
With raven locks and lily skin,
And cheeks with dimples deep within,
can not be told, as the secret died with him.
Uncle Jock and Nichols, together in their trapping
excursions for beaver and other game, became fami
liar with nearly every source of the East and West

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 265
Canada creeks, Black, Racket, and Sacondaga rivers.
They were as familiar with the lakes and water
courses on and contiguous to Brown's tract, as is a hen
with her own chickens. Nichols, in tracing a small
stream that is tributary to the West Canada creek,
obtained upon or near it, a fine specimen of lead ore;
but its locality has been sought for since, as yet in
vain. In the latter part of his life Nichols renewed
his avocation of a mill-wright, and only hunted in the
fall and winter. He was drowned while repairing a
mill, in 1803
In one ofhis rambles after his partner's death, Uncle
Jock discovered a lake that is now called Jock's lake,
to which I have elsewhere alluded. It has for years
been a great resort for trout fishing. He said that
when he first visited it, it appeared to be alive with
fish, and for several years it became known to him
alone. From it he would take loads of trout at al
most any season of the year to the settlements.
Many individuals not hunters, but who were anx
ious to have a hunt, if it were only to be able to say
that they had been in the woods and camped out with
a master hunter; used to urge their company upon
Uncle Jock; indeed, not a few of this sort received
the tuition of Stoner and Foster. In a few of his
trappirg seasons Uncle Jock was accompanied by a
stout i ble-bodied man, named Simmons, who was
usually called Crookneck, probably from some pecu
liar inclination of his head. They were on snow-
23

266 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
shoes in the month of March, hunting marten; or as
called by hunters wan-pur-noc-er. The bait used for
those animals, which are a variety of weasel, is fresh
meat; and as the hunters had taken no gun along,
they had to depend on a dog to run down deer for
marten-bait and their own food; which the crusted
snow enabled them to do.
Their dog one day got a large buck at bay, and
the hunters approached to kill it. Crookneck came
up first, and hurried on thinking to seize the animal
by its antlers and throw it down. As he approached
the worried deer, it made a furious plunge at him.
Falling short of its aim, it drove a hoof through one
of his snow-shoes as Crookneck fell backwards ! and
not being familiar with the use of such broad " un
derstandings," it turned a somerset and fell upon the
top of its antagonist. The newly initiated hunter,
by his loud yells for help, gave evidence that his
lungs were in good condition; and soon the master
hunter was on hand, who drew his hunting knife, cut
the deer's hamstrings, and then easily dispatched him.
As the liberated hunter regained his li. et, Uncle Jock
dryly remarked, " Well Simmons, you are older than
you might have been! If the buck had not fallen a
little short, you would have been in oblivion now! "
At another time during the hunt, the dog started a
large moose, and as the crust cut its legs, it stopped
and kept the dog at bay until the hunters approached.
Uncle Jock wanted his companion to kill it, but

TRAPPERS OF .NEW YORK. 267
nothing could induce him to approach very near it.
The senior hunter then initiated Crookneck into a
new degree in game killing. He cut a pole, tied hi-;
knife to the end of it, and gaining the cover of a tree
sufficiently near, he very dexterously wielded his pole
and hamstrung the animal, when it was easily de
stroyed. To give his comrade a third degree in the
mysterious art of slaughtering large animals in the
forest, without a gun; when the dog called them to
another moose, Uncle Jock fastened his knife to a
long pole, stole up behind a large tree, and plunged
the blade into the heart of his victim.
Uncle Jock was ever a firm believer in a Supreme
Being, and also that earnest and sincere prayer, if
consistent with our circumstances, would readily be
answered by Divine Providence. One day after hear
ing an over-zealous, ignorant preacher pray at great
length, a friend inquired how he liked the prayer?
" How fortunate it was for him," he replied, " that
he was addressing a Being that knew better than he
did what he wanted, or he would have been in h — in
a minute ! and at all events if he told the truth, he
is deserving of a halter or state prison for life ! But
though a fool, I think he is not quite as wicked as he
represents himself."
His own prayers were remarkably brief, and de
livered with great earnestness. They could hardly be
repeated by another, however, without seeming very
profane; and yet there was so much apparent sincerity

268 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
in their utterance by him, as to divest them of the
levity they might create when repeated by another.
One of them, which tradition has preserved entire, I
will insert. He was trapping marten in the month
of March, with Crookneck Simmons again for a part
ner, and was severely attacked with pleurisy. Crook
neck soon became alarmed and wanted to go to the
nearest settlement, some twenty miles off, for assist
ance; much of which distance it would be necessary
to travel upon snow-shoes; but to this proposition
Uncle Jock would not consent. It was in vain for
him to remonstrate, however. In vain he told Crook
neck, that it would take him two days to accomplish
the journey, in which time he must perish with cold,
if not by disease, as he could not keep his own fire
going; but go he would, and start he did.
Simmons had been gone but a few minutes, when
the invalid, conscious that he must soon die, unless
relieved immediately, uttered with great earnestness
the following prayer. " Great God, Jehovah, Jesus
Christ, our Lord! if it is expedient that I should come
in and see Nabby and Jonathan again, let it be brought
to a crisis d  quick !! "
After the utterance of this laconic and eccentric
petition, the sick man said he not only felt greatly
relieved in mind, but also a consciousness that it would
be answered; and in about half an hour Crookneck
returned. " The more haste the less speed," is an
old adage, was verified in his case; for in attempting

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 269
to proceed as fast as possible, he got an improper
angle into his neck, and down he went, breaking one
of his snow-shoes; and not having ingenuity enough
to repair it, he returned to their wigwam, where his
sick friend was still lying upon a hurdle of hemlock
boughs. The latter got him to sharpen his hunting
knife, and also to cord his arm; when he took the
knife and bled himself. Simmons fainted and fell,
and Uncle Jock said " he really thought the d 
fool would die first ! "
After a copious flow of blood, the invalid stopped
it by thrusting a pin through the orifice, and winding
it with a lock of his own hair. In a little while
Simmons got about again, and in their camp-kettle
made a strong decoction of hemlock boughs, of which
Uncle Jock drank freely and laid down, when he ex
perienced, as he said, the greatest relief he ever did
in so short a space of time. He fell into a slumber
which lasted several hours, and when he awoke he
was entirely free from pain. The third day after he
reached a settlement, and the fourth his prayer was
answered, by again embracing his dear Nabby and
little Jonathan.
Uncle Jock, it is believed, never had any serious
difficulty with either Indian or white hunters. He
often spoke of the hind quarters of a beaver, as afford
ing the most dainty morsel an epicure could obtain;
being preferable, as he said, to any other meat or fish,
because it possessed the virtues of both. This wilder-
23*

270 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
ness-explorer seldom said bitter things of any one;
but if insulted, the offender was pretty sure sooner or
later, to feel his dry sarcasm. He received a pension
from our government for Revolutionary services, under
the first pension act; which might with proper econo
my have kept him and his Nabby from want, without
the necessity of his hunting, as his children were
grown up and married; but it only tended to make
him the more independent of the settlements, and
bury himself still deeper among the ever-greens of
the forest, from which he could not be weaned.
It was his usual custom to look up suitable loca
tions for fall hunting in June, when trees would peel
the best; at which time he would build himself com
fortable bark huts for fall and winter use. Hunting
seemed to have become with him a second nature,
and he followed it to the last. When his eye grew
dim and his arm unsteady, so that he could no longer
use his trusty rifle, he would still venture, unattended
even by a dog into the far-off wilderness; and there,
armed only with a hatchet, follow his avocation for
weeks. He often said, that " the howling of the wolf,
growling of the bear, screaming of the panther, and
nightly concert of owls, kept him from being lonesome,
and was music to his ears." Such is man of the
woods ! The comforts of social life afford no enjoy
ment for him.
After a hunt, he came into the settlement with beaver
and other furs, took them to market, returned home,

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 271
sat down at the table to eat, and fell dead upon the
floor without a struggle or groan, we believe in the
seventy-fifth year of his age. He died about the
year 1826.
The following brief notice of a hunter of northern
New York, appeared in the newspapers, in January,
1850. Death of a Nimrod. — The St. Lawrence Mercury
says that Mr. Thomas Meacham, of the town of
Hopkinton, St. Lawrence county, who died a few
weeks ago, and who, for several years, was a resi
dent of the North West Bay road, of what they then
called township No. 10, in Franklin county, on East-
brook, near the bounds of Hopkinton, was something
of a hunter. He kept an exact account of the game
killed by him, which amounts to the following: num
ber of wolves, 214; panthers 77; bears 219; deer
2,550.

CHAPTER XVHI.
Believing that the reader who . has followed the
footsteps of our trappers, would be interested in
knowing something more of the animals they sought
for fur, and of their habits, I here insert a portion of
their history. The full grown Beaver will weigh
from fifty to sixty pounds, and is about four feet in
length from the snout to the end of the tail. The
tail is a foot long, five or six inches wide, by one
inch in thickness; and what is peculiar, although the
body of the animal is so well covered with fur and
hair, the tail is without either, except at its insertion,
and is covered with scales. The fore part of the
beaver has the taste and consistency of land animals,
while the hind legs and tail have not only the smell,
but the savor and nearly all the qualities of fish.
This peculiarity is thought by some to be accounted
for by the habits of the animal, as when in the water
its hind legs and tail are submerged and never seen;
but it appears rather to be a connecting link between
the inhabitants of land and water, its singularity in
this respect being placed by nature beyond the con
trol of mere circumstance. The beaver, when cap
tured young, may easily be domesticated, and when
hungry will ask by a plaintive cry for food. It is not

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 273
very particular about its food, if of some green vege
table kind; but it generally refuses meat.
The bait used to entice beaver to a hunter's trap is
castoreum, as I have elsewhere remarked. This sub
stance is obtained from the glandulous pouches ofthe
male animal, and is often called by hunters barkstone.
It is squeezed by hand into some vessel such as a cup
or bottle; a full grown animal affording several
ounces. Beaver castor is sometimes used by physi
cians in medical practice. Oil, extracted from the
tail of the beaver, is used medicinally by the Indians.
The beaver is found only in cold or northern latitudes.
Its senses are acute. In its habits it is very neat, and
will allow no filth near its habitation.
In its natural or forest life, where undisturbed by
man, the beaver is social in its habits, often number
ing twenty or more habitations in a single commu
nity, containing from two to twenty members each at
some seasons of the year, as circumstances warrant.
The following account of the manner in which those
sagacious animals construct their dams and dwellings,
is from Godman's Natural History.
" They are not particular in the site they select for
the establishment of their dwellings, but if in a lake
or pond, where a dam is not required, they are care
ful to build where the water is sufficiently deep. In
standing waters, however, they have not the advan
tage afforded by a current for the transportation of
their supplies of wood; which, when they build on a

274 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
running stream, is always cut higher up than the
place of their residence, and floated down.
" The material used for the construction of their
dams, are the trunks and branches of small birch,
mulberry, willow, poplar, &c. They begin to cut
down their timber for building, early in the summer,
but their edifices are not commenced until about the
middle or latter part of August, and are not com
pleted until the beginning of the cold season. The
strength of their teeth, and their perseverance in this
work, may be fairly estimated, by the size of the
trees they cut down. These are cut in such a man
ner as to fall into the water, and then floated towards
the site of the dam cr dwelling. Small shrubs, &c,
cut at a distance from the water, they drag with their
teeth to the stream, and then launch and tow them to
the place of deposit. At a short distance above a
beaver dam, the number of trees which have been
cut down, appears truly surprising, and the regularity
of the stumps which are left, might lead persons un
acquainted with the habits of the animals to believe,
that the clearing was the result of human industry.
" The figure of the dam varies according to cir
cumstances. Should the current be very gentle, the
dam is carried nearly straight across; but when the
stream is swiftly flowing, it is uniformly made with a
considerable curve, having the convex part opposed
to the current. Along with the trunks and branches
of trees, they intermingle mud and stones, to give

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 275
greater security; and when dams have been long un
disturbed and frequently repaired, they acquire great
solidity, and their power of resisting the pressure of
water and ice, is greatly increased by the willow,
birch, &c, occasionally taking root, and eventually
growing up into something of a regular hedge. The
materials used in constructing the dams, are secured
solely by the resting of the branches, &c, against the
bottom, and the subsequent accumulation of mud and
stones, by the force of the stream, or by the industry
of the beavers.
"The dwellings of the beaver are formed of the
same materials as their dams, and are very rude,
though strong, and adapted in size to the number of
their inhabitants. There are seldom more than /our
old, and six or eight young ones. Double of that
number have been occasionally found in one of the
lodges, though it is by no means a very common
occurrence. " When building their houses, they place most of
the wood cross-wise, and nearly horizontally, observ
ing no other order than that of leaving a cavity in
the middle. Branches, which project inward, are cut
off with their teeth and thrown among the rest. The
houses are by no means built of sticks first, and then
plastered, but all the materials, sticks, mud and stones,
if the latter can be procured, are mixed up together,
and this composition is employed from the foundation
to the summit. The mud is obtained from the adja-

276 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
cent banks or bottom of the stream or pond^near the
door of the hut. Mud and stones, the beaver always
carries by holding them between his fore paws and
throat. " Their work is all performed at night, and with
much expedition. When straw or grass is mingled
with the mud used by them in building, it is an acci
dental circumstance, owing to the nature of the spot
whence the latter was taken. As soon as any part
of the material is placed where it is intended to re
main, they turn round and give it a smart blow with
the tail. The same sort of blow is struck by them,
on the surface of the water when they are in the act
of diving.
"•The outside of the hut is covered or plastered
with mud, late in the autumn, and after frost has be
gun to appear. By freezing it soon becomes almost
as hard as stone, effectually excluding their great
enemy, the wolverine, during the winter. Their habit
of walking over the work frequently during its pro
gress, has led to the absurd idea of their using their
tail as a trowel. The habit of flapping with the
tail is retained by them in a state of captivity, and,
unless it be the acts already mentioned, appears de
signed to effect no particular purpose. The houses,
when they have stood for some time, and been kept
in repair, become so firm from the consolidation of all
the materials, as to require great exertion, and the
ice chisel, or other iron instruments, to be broken

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 277
open. The laborious nature of such an undertaking
may easily be conceived, when it is known that the
tops of the houses are generally from four to six feet
thick at the apex of the cone."
The tail of the beaver when swimming, serves for
a rudder to aid the animal in its changing and often
rapid movement in the water. Near their habitations,
beavers establish magazines of green bark and soft
wood for food, keeping them well replenished; and
never do the members of one family plunder from the
larder of another. A community of beavers, although
it may consist of several hundred members, is seldom
disturbed by domestic difficulties; peace and harmony
being the bond which cements their union. If an
individual is threatened with danger, it immediately
takes measures to forewarn the whole village; which
is done by striking the water furiously with its tail.
Thus apprised of an enemy's proximity, the animals
take shelter either in the water or their strong dwell
ings, which are very tidily kept in order. The en
trance to a beaver's dwelling is by a small open door
towards the water. The legs of a beaver are short,
the foot has four toes, and what is remarkable, the
hind feet have membranes between the toes to aid the
animal in swimming.
The Otter, which is also hunted for its valuable fur,
resembles the beaver somewhat in size, but very little
in its general habits. It lives a more solitary life,
often changing its habitation, especially in the winter,
24

278 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
when seeking to find unfrozen water. It often travels
a great distance at such times, and if threatened by
danger on the snow, it slides on its belly rapidly,
leaving a furrow behind it. Some suppose it is done
by the animal in an attempt to bury itself in the
snow. This is not the case, but rather a necessity
arising from the shortness of its legs, as proportioned
to its body. The animal has been known, not unfre
quently, to get upon a hill near its own residence,
when covered with snow, and with its fore feet bent
back, slide down the hill for several rods, with great
rapidity. This feat is evidently performed for a pas
time. The otter usually feeds upon fish, frogs, and other
small animals; and when they can not be obtained, it
will eat the tender branches and bark growing in or
near the water, and sometimes grass. They are bad
economists of food, and often annoy a community of
beavers, by destroying their husbanded store of grow
ing eatables. The otter is less numerous than the
beaver, and its fur more valuable. The foot of the
otter has five toes, connected by webs, like the toes
of a duck. It displays considerable sagacity in pre
paring its burrow, which it makes upward under a
bank, the entrance being beneath the water, and that
in a freshet it shall not be drowned, it opens a small
vent to the surface, often concealed by leaves and
bushes. The otter taken young has been tamed, and
taught to fish for its master.

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK. 279
The Musk-rat in its habits much resembles the
beaver, but is small as compared with that animal,
being scarcely one-third as large. It is called the
musk-rat, because it is furnished with a peculiar
matter, of a strong musky odor. The entrance to its
burrow like that of the beaver, is usually made under
a bank beneath the water. Its food, which is similar
to that of the beaver, is usually sought in the night.
Although the latter animal entirely disappears as the
country becomes settled, it is not so with the musk-
rat, it continues its proximity to man's abode, occu
pying marshy lands along the shore of some river or
pond, long after the lands are cleared up and culti
vated to the water's edge. It is an excellent swim
mer, and dives with great celerity. The flesh of the
musk-rat is seldom eaten unless in cases of great
hunger, because of its powerful odor. It is still quite
numerous in and about the Mohawk river, where the
country has been settled for more than a century, and
is destroyed every spring in great numbers, when
driven from its burrows by heavy freshets, at the
breaking up of winter. On such occasions the banks
of the Mohawk are lined with men and boys, watch
ing with eagle-eye to shoot the terrified animals,
which are often slain in the very villages contiguous
to the river. Not unfrequently they are, by freshets,
driven up drains into cellars, where they make great
havoc among cabbage and other vegetables there
stored.

280 TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.
The Pine Marten, or forest weasel, is so called, be
cause of its preference to forests of pine, in the lofty
tops of which it resides. It lives upon small quadru
peds and birds, obtained in the forest, and seldom
approaches the habitation of man. It sometimes
lives in the hollow of a tree, and not unfrequently
takes forcible possession of a squirrel's nest, which it
enlarges and occupies to rear its young. The fur of
the marten is often used in the manufacture of hats,
and in ornamenting winter dresses. The animal is
about eighteen inches in length to the tail, the latter
appendage being about ten inches long. The male
is nearly one-third larger than the female. Trappers
have often found the taking of the marten profitable.
The Wolverine, which annoys the hunter by steal
ing game from his traps, resembles the skunk some
what in appearance. It is about two feet two inches
long from the end of the nose to the origin of the tail,
and the latter, which is quite bushy, is some eight
inches long to the end of the hair. The animal is
very strong for its, size, having very sharp claws and
teeth. It is covered with fur, but not of fine quality.
It is said to be able to defend itself against the at
tacks of much larger animals, not unfrequently over
powering and destroying them.

APPENDIX.

A. — ( page 23). — What finally became of "Billy the
Musician," on the breaking up of the Johnson family,
is not known with certainty. Mr. Shew seems confident
he did not remove to Canada with the Johnstown
royalists. He probably went to New York city.

B. — ( page 23). — Sir William Johnson's Gardener,
who answered to the name of " Old Daddy Savage,"
was very old at the time of the Baronet's death. He
had long been faithful to his trust, and doubtless de
served a better finale to mortality. He remained with
Sir John Johnson until his flight to Canada, when he
was left at the mercy of the winds, or if not, with a
pittance that soon placed him there. He was for se
veral years supported by the charity of the district
until bis death, which occurred back of Johnstown
about the year 1780. He died at the age of nearly one
hundred years.

282 TRAPPERS OF NEW-YORK
C. — (page 23). — As suggested to the writer by an
antiquarian friend, the name of Pontiac was probably
given to his waiter by Sir William Johnson, as a com
pliment to the distinguished Ottawa chieftain of that
name. At the termination of the French war in 1763,
which ended in the conquest of Canada by Great Bri
tain, several western tribes of Indians who had been in
the French interest, and often engaged with the French
against the English and Iroquois, were unreconciled to
British dominion ; and, instigated by Pontiac, their
master spirit, they leagued " in a confederacy, the de
sign of which was to expel the English, and restore
French ascendency."* Under the direction of Pontiac,
the confederates captured several British posts on the
western frontier, and by their bold and atrocious acts
were filling the country with alarm, when Gen. Brad-
street was sent against them in 1765, with a force suf
ficient to subdue and bring them to terms. Sir William
Johnson accompanied the expedition to Niagara, where
he held a treaty, in July, " with the Shawanese, Dela-
wares and Mingos ;" as intimated in a letter from him
to Commissary General Leake, under date of July 18,
1765. | Pontiac and other chiefs in his confidence, not
present at the Niagara treaty, met Sir William Johnson
on behalf of the British government at Ontario, in July
1766 ; when the war hatchet was buried, and peace
restored.^ This latter meeting is barely hinted at on
page 861, Vol. 2 ofthe Documentary History of New-
* Turner's History of the Holland Purchase in Western N. Y.
t Documentary History, Vol. 2, p. 820.
J Correspondence of Lyman C. Draper, of teverington, Pa.

APPENDIX. 283
York, in a letter from the Baronet to Gen. Gage ; but
what seems passing strange, the wary chieftain Pontiac
is not named in the Broadhead papers.

D. — ( page 29). — Samuel Olmsted and Zadock
Sherwood, natives of Ridgfield, Connecticut, located at
Northville about the year 1786, going up the Sacondaga
from Fish- House in a canoe, containing a few necessary
articles ; and after constructing a rude hut, they began
to clear up the forest. Nearly four years after the two
named took up their abode in the wilderness, Caleb and
Daniel Lobdell, brothers, removed thither from Dan
bury, Connecticut. Between the advent of the Lob-
dells, and the year 1794, the Sacondaga settlement had
been increased by the arrival of Joseph Olmsted,
Abraham Van Aernam, Paul Hammond, John Shoe-
craft, Aaron Olmsted, Samuel Price, and possibly one
or two others. The settlers, who had gone through the
hardships and experienced the thousand and one dif
ficulties attending the settling of all new countries, were
at this time living very comfortably on the lands, not a
tew acres of which, on both sides of the river, were
under improvement ; yielding, in their virgin strength,
a rich compensation to the husbandman.
Indian hunters were very frequent guests among the
pioneer settlers of Northville ; and as the latter spared
no pains to cultivate amity with them, the reader may
judge their surprise, when, on some occasion in the sum
mer of 1794 — possibly on the eve of which intimations

284 TRAPPERS OF NEW-YORK.
of savage invasion had been clandestinely put afloat, an
alarm spread through the settlement, that a party of
Indians hideously painted were in their vicinity, only
waiting a favorable opportunity to kill the inhabitants
and bear off their hard earnings. While all was bustle
and confusion at the rude tenements of the settlers,
peal after peal of fire-arms broke the stillness of night,
interrupted occasionally with the whoops and shouts of
the foe, approaching as they seemed to be on the west
side of the river. Every preparation that could be
made on the emergency to resist the invaders was
quickly made ; and the colonists, there being no chicken-
hearted among them, resolved to sell their lives as
dearly as possible. Hour after hour wore away until
morning : the clangor of arms and lungs had ceased ;
still the foeman had not crossed the river.
Some of the settlers, whose mettle had been tried in
the Revolution, crossed the river in the morning, when,
lo ! they found greater evidence of Indian invasion than
did the Windhamites, on the morning after their alarm
by the frogs of their neighborhood in olden time ; for
in a cornfield nearly opposite the Lobdell dwelling,
there were numerous mocasined tracks, and not a few
half consumed gun-wads. One peculiarity was ob
servable, however ; the footsteps did not turn in at the
toes, as those of the red man invariably did. It was
now recollected, that Price and Aaron Olmsted had not
been among the excited inhabitants when counseling for
defense ; and from some impending circumstances, sus
picion rested upon them of having played possum for
some purpose.

APPENDIX. 285
It soon leaked out that the suspicion of the inhabit
ants was well founded ; that the two had undertaken,
as the menials of certain land speculators, to frighten
away the earliest settlers, for which service they were
to receive twenty-five dollars ; the land sharks to get
the improvements the hard-fisted yeomanry had made,
for a very nominal sum. Accordingly they repaired to
the cornfield with pistols and stentorian lungs, to prac
tice the war dance. When the trick was discovered,
the Achans, who had families, were obliged to make a
hasty flight from the country, to escape the vengeance
of their enraged neighbors ; and so precipitate was their
departure, that Olmsted forgot his own, and took along
another man's wife. Thus terminated the only Indian
alarm the pioneers of Northville ever experienced.
(Facts from Nathan P. Lobdell, a son of one of the pioneer
settlers named above.)

E. — (page 199). — The solitary pine formerly stand
ing on Elba island in Fourth lake, which was twelve
or fifteen inches in diameter, says John Stilwell of
Herkimer county, was cut down in the spring of 1831.
In the preceding summer, he adds, the following thrilling
incident occurred there.
A party of fishermen in several boats were engaged
on the lake near the island catching trout, when their
attention was arrested by an unusual noise upon the

286 TRAPPERS OF NEW-YORK.
lake shore nearly a mile distant. Presently a noble
deer was seen bounding along the beach, closely pursued
by a monstrous panther. The timid animal plimged
into the lake and swam for the opposite shore, followed
by its bloodthirsty foe. One of the boats which
chanced to be directly in the deer's course, was rowed
farther out from the island, to give the panting animal
sea-room ; when it came into the allotted space, and
not daring to trust itself upon the sterile island near
which it passed, it swam off to the opposite shore —
adding a second mile to its voyage — and safely dis
appeared in the forest. The deer could swim faster
than its pursuer ; and as the latter approached the
fishermen, they closed in toward the island, upon which
they compelled it to land.
The panther, for its better security, lost no time in
ascending the pine to its branches, where it crouched
with lashing tail ; evidently in no very good humor at
being thwarted in its murderous design. The fisher
men, some of whom were fortunately armed with rifles,
then gave their boats positions affording a good view
of the panther, yet far enough off to ensure their own
safety, should it be wounded and resent the insult. A
rifle was poised by a marksman, and the animal fell
dead at the first fire. It was a very large one, and its
skin, I am told, is now in the Utica Museum. If an
other effort in nature should produce a second pine or
some other forest-tree on this western Elba, we hope
it may be allowed to remain in its sentinel position, if
only to afford a favorable place from which to shoot
panthers.

APPENDIX. 287
Hunters and fishermen about the lakes on Brown's
tract are usually much annoyed in warm weather by
musketoes and punkies. It is a fact worthy of note,
however, that they are not troublesome on this Elba of
Fourth lake : hence a reason why it has long been a
favorite place for sportsmen to take their lunch, or re
main over night. For some years, the chips of the Elba
pine served the temporary occupants of the island as
substitutes for plates, from which not a few hearty
meals have been eaten.

BRAEY, THE AMERICAN BORDERER.
In an account given by a tourist of hisjournay,
to the falls of Cuyahoga, near Lake Erie, and pub
lished in Silliman's Journal of Science, we find
ihe following particulars of 8amuel Brady, a noted
American borderer who flourished about sixty
years ago,
" Brady was over six feet high, with light blue
eyes, fair skin, and dark hair ; he was remarkably
straight, and an athletic and vigorous woodsman,
inured to all the toils and hardships of a frontier
life, arid hail become very obnoxious to the Indians,
from his numerous successful attacks on their war
parties, and from shooting them in his hunting ex
cursions whenever they crossed his path or coma
within reach of his rifle • he was personally er-
irag 'J in more hazardous contests with the savages
than any other man west of the mountains, except.
ing Daniel Boone. He was, in fact, an " Indian
hater," as many of the earlier borderers were.
This class of mon appear to have been more nu
merous in this region than any other portion of
the frontiers ; and this doubtless arose from the
slaughter at Brad Jock's defeat, and the numerous
murders and attacks on defenceless families that
for many years followed that disaster. Brady was
also a very successful trapper and hunter, and took
more beavers than the Indians themselves. In one.
ofhis adventurous trapping excursions to the.wa-
ters of the Beaver river, on Mohoning, which in
early days abounded with the -animals of Ibis spe-
cu-6, that it took its name from this fact, it so hap.
pened that the Indians surprised him in his camp,
and took him prisoner. To have shot or toma
hawked him on the spot would have been but a
small gratification to that of satiating their revenge
by burning him at a slow fire, in presence of all
the Indians of their village. He was therefore
liken alive to their encampment, on the west bank
ofthe Beaver river, about a mile and a half from
its mouth.

After the usual exultations and rejoicings at the
capture of a noted enemy, and causing him to run
the gauntlet, a fire was prepared, near which Brady
was placed, after being stripped naked, and wiih
bis arms bound. Previously to tying him to the
stake, a large circle was formed about him, con
sisting of Indian men, women, and children, danc
ing and yelling, and uttering all manner of threats
and abuse that their small knowledge of the Eng
lish language could afford. Tho prisoner looked
on these preparations for death and on his savage
foes with a firm countenance and a steady eye,
meeting all their threats wiih a truly ravage forti
tude. In the midst of their dancing and rejoicing,
a squaw of one of their chiefs came near him with
a child in ber arms. Quick as thought, and with
intuitive prescience, ho snatched it from her, and
threw it into the midst of the fl joies. Horror struck
at the sudden outrage, the Indians simultaneously
rushed to rescue the infant from the fire. In the
midst of this confusion, Brady darted from the cir
cle, overturning all that orne in his wav, and
rushed into the adjacent thickets, with tho Indians
yelling at his heels. He ascended the ste8p side
of a hill, amidst a shower of bullets, and darted
lown the opposite declivity, and secreted himself
in the deep ravines and laurel thickets that abound
ed for several miles lo the west of it. His know-
ledge of the country and wonderful activity enabled
him to elude his enemies, and reach the settlements
on the south side of the Ohio river, which he
crossed by swimming. The hill near whose base
this adventure is said to have happened still gees
by his.name, and the incident referred to by the
traveller as the coach is slowly dragged up its.
side.

YALE UNIVERSITY

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