Mabie House, Rotterdam, N. Y. The oldest house in the Mohawk Valley. Built, in 1680. The Mohawk Valley Its Legends and Its History By W. Max Reid WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY J. Arthur Maney 4- NEW YORK AND LONDON G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS ^be ftntclierbochei; press 1901 Copyright, igoi W. MAX REID Ube ftnicfierbocfier press, Tlew ^otb ^ ^ ^ t TO CHRISTINE WHO HAS GIVEN THE SYMPATHY AND ASSISTANCE IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS VOLUME THAT ONLY A LOVING DAUGHTER CAN OFFER THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED 195303 PREFACE THE Mohawk Valley, with its stirring scenes connected with the French and Indian wars and the War of the Revolution, has been sadly neglected by historians and writers of fiction. Yet within its borders have been enacted tragic events and heroic endeavors that helped materially in crowning with victory the efforts and sacrifices of the patriots of the Revolution. There is no section of pleasant valley-land, of lake-and for- est-dotted wilderness, of rushing streams and cultivated fields, east of the Mississippi, that surpasses in its wealth of scenery this bit of the Empire State, It is natural that such a land should be rich in romance both legendary and historical. From Schenectady to Rome, every town has its romantic story of the early wars; every bit of woodland has its wealth of prehistoric legend. The book, after all, is only a written record of oft-told tales. But such tales hitherto were widely scattered. Some are familiar to every American boy who has read TJic Last of the Mohicans and its companion stories ; some may be heard from the lips of gray-haired citizens of many villages, who retell the tales their grandfathers told them of frontier fights and Indian massacres; and the musty archives of every Valley town have their own story of war and sacrifice and the struggles of early border life. This work deals with the period embraced between the years 1609 and 1780. Many characters of national interest figure prominently in the book, and its illustrations have been vi Preface carefully selected so that the reader may not only read of, but see, the more notable landmarks that remahi. In compiling this work I have become indebted to many individuals and many publications for information received, and take this opportunity to gratefully acknowledge assistance from the following-named persons and documents: Augustus C. Buell, W. M. Beauchamp, A. N. Ruttenber, John Fiske, Prof. E. N. Horsford, Gen. John S. Clark, Gil- bert Wemple, A. R. Grider, Hon. Stephen Sanford, Cyrus B. Chase, Washington Frothingham, Rev. W. E. Grififis, W. L. Stone's Life of Sir William Johnson, Beers's History of Mont- gomery, B. J. l^ossxngs Field-Book of the Revolution, Colonial History of Nezv York, Doctunentary History of Neiv York, Francis Parkman, Gen. James Grant Wilson, Prof. Jonathan Pearson's Schenectady Patent ; J. Wynne, S. J. ; David Hutchi- son, Library of Congress; Reuben Gold Thwaites' Jesuit Re- lations ; Victor Hugo Paltsits, Lenox Library; New York State Library, F. W. Halsey, and a large number of friends that want of space will not permit me to enumerate. W. Max Reid. Amsterdam, N. Y. Oct. 21, I go I. CONTENTS I- II- III- IV- V- VI- VII- VIII- IX- X- XI- -The Mythical City of Norumbega -The Mohawks -Journal of Arent Van Curler -ScHONOWE OR Schenectady . -Immigration and Settlement of the Palatines -Queen Anne's Chapel -Count Frontenac and the Mohawk Valley -Sir William Johnson -Guy Park and Fort Johnson -In the Old Town of Amsterdam . -The Last Battle between the Mohawks AND Mohicans, The Famous Butler Mansion XII — Johnstown, New^ York XIII XIV- XV- -SoME Accounts of the Notorious Butler Family -Legend of Mrs. Ross -The Joseph Brant of Romance and of Fact I 5 19 49 77 84 98 113 123 155 181 193 21 1 240 ^59 viii Contents CHAPTER PAGE XVI — Incidents Rel.\ting to the Early His- tory OF Amsterdam and the Mohawk Valley 275 XVII — Canagera, One of the Mohawks' Castles 298 XVIII — Early Industries 321 XIX — Old Indian Names and Sites— The Legend OF Little Falls 344 XX— Canajoharie — The Hills of Florida . 376 XXI— Oriskany 411 ILL USTRA TIONS. Mabic Ho7ise, Rotterdam, N. Y. . Frontispiece The Oldest House in the Moha^ok J'alley. Built in 1680. The Primitive Mohazvk Valley .... The Rocky Walls of the Canajoharie . O71 the Road, Crauesville, N. Y. ( Ad-ri-21-che ) A Valley By-Road and the Yantaputchabei^g Kinaquarone ( Hoffmans ) ..... Old St. George s Cluirch, Schenectady, ly S9 Interior of Old St. George s, Schenectady, ly^g The Old Glen-Sanders House, Scotia, ijij . Door in the Glen-Sanders House . The De Graaf House, Beukendaal The A rent Bradt House, JVoestyne, i/j6 The fan Mabie House, Rotterdam, 1680 On the Old Mohazuk Turnpike The Old Queen Anne Parsonage, Fort Hunter, iyi2 Queen Anne s Alohazvk Communion Plate, ly 12 Falls on the South Chuctanunda . The Juchtanunda, Amsterdam Sir William fohnson, Bart., I'/i^-iyy^ 7 15 25 31 35 51 55 59 63 67 71 75 79 Sg 95 lOI 105 1^5 X Illustrations A Window in the Old Chui^ch at German Flats An Attic Coi'-ner, Glen-Sanders House, Schenec tady ....... The Attic Window, Old Fort JoJinson . An Old Colonial Mansion, Guy Park, Amsterdam ^7^3 • • Old Fort Jolinsorc, Mount Johnson, Akin, 1^42 A Fireplace of the Olden Time, Old Van Alstyne HoiLse, Canajoharie, ly^o Map of Schenectady in i6g^ Winter on the Evcs-Kil Road, Cranesville . Interior of Old Croot Mill, Cranesville The Dooj'way of Old St. Marys . CiLrious Windoiu, Old Ehle Ho2(,se, Nelliston ^752 On the CJuLctanunda, West Gakuay Old St. Mary s. Blue Corners Sunset in the Mohazvks Land, Tribes Hill . The Butler House on Siuitzer Hill, 1743 Caughnazvaga CJitLrch, Fonda, 176J-1S68 . The Old Stone Fort at Johnson Hall, Johnstozvn lySj ....... Johnson Hall, Johnstown, iy6j . St. Johns ChurcJi and Grave of Sir William Johnson, Johnstozvn, .V. }\ Illustrations xi Page The Old Johnstown Jail, i'/y2 .... 20^ The Court House, Johnstown, ly/z . . . 21^ Along the Mohawk 22 j The Druinm House, Johnstown, ijdj . . . 2j/ The Black-Horse Tavern, Younglove Ho7nestead, Johnstown, lyS — ...... 2§j Joseph Brant ( Thayendanegea ) .... 260 Church at German Flats ..... 26J hiterior of Old Dutch Church at German Flats . 26g The Old Van Alstyne House, Fort Renssalaer, Canajoharie, ly^o ..... 2^/ The Old Academy, formerly a Stage House, called " Globe Hotel,'' Amsterdam, N. Y. . . 28^ The Old Stone Kitchen at Wemfs . . , jo/ The Ancient Burial-Ground at Wemfs . . jo/ The Road through Wolf Hollow .... jiy The Road to Galway ( Hagamans) . . . j2j An Old Deserted Home, West Galway . -331 Tekakwitha Spring, Fonda ..... j^y The Falls of the Cariajoharie .... j^i Adrintha Falls, Cranesville .... j^j Moss Rock at the Foot of the Rapids, Little Falls j6i The Ragged Rocks at Little Falls . . . j6^ On the Tow-Path, Little Falls .... j6(^ xii Illustrations Page The Old Aqueduct, Little Falls .... j/j The Old Frey House, Palatine, lyjg . . . syg The Peter Ehle Ho2tse, Ncllistou, iy^2 . . j8j Brant's Church at Indian Castle, lyOj . . jSy The Home of General Herkimer, Danube . . jgi The Old Scotia Bridge ...... jg^ The Oriskaiiy Monum,ent ..... /fij Oriskany Battle-field, East Side of Ravine . . 421 The Oriskany Battle-field, with Remains of Old Wood-Road in the Foreground . . . 42"/ The Old Pulpit in the Church at German Flats . ^jj The Oriskany Battle-field ..... ^.^g Guard Lock — Site of Queen Annes Chapel . 441 THE MOHAWK VALLEY The Mohawk Valley Chapter I The Mythical City of Norumbega IT may seem strange to readers of a book that purports to be a history of the Mohawk Valley, that the author should go so wide afield as to connect it with a mysteri- ous country a thousand miles away and whose exact locality is unknown to this day. Undoubtedly the mythical city of Norumbega, together with the equally mythical North- west Passage to India, was an incentive to early navigators, to visit the shores of the New World and to explore its eastern coast. Mystery and the marvellous is even now, at the be- ginning of the twentieth century, attractive to the majority of mankind, but how much more so in the sixteenth century, with the imagination quickened by the discoveries of the Spaniards under Cortez and Pizarro and the wonderful treas- ures secured in Mexico and Peru. That the northeast coast of America was visited by Bre- ton (1504) and Basque fishermen, in search of fish for the Cath- olic countries of Europe, before the discovery and naming of the St. Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534-5, is a matter of history, and that they should have made temporary homes on the shores near their fishing grounds seems natural, and that, in some cases, it became necessary to protect their 2 The Mohawk Valley camps by rude forts, more or less strong, seems reasonable. We are therefore inclined to believe that there may be some truth in the traditionary French (Breton) fort, said to have been located on an island near Albany, many years before the voy- ages of Henry Hudson. The land, river, and city of Norumbega seems to have been known to nearly all of the early navigators of the Atlan- tic, and the incentive for many a quest by Verrazano in 1524, Alleforce under Roberval in 1543, Thevet in 1556, and Champlain in 1603-14. And is it a wonder, when such a story as the following was told and believed : An Englishman had left a record of having seen a city bearing the name of Norumbega, and the city was three-quarters of a mile long. This man, David Ingram, a sailor, had been set on shore by Sir John Hawkins in 1568, at Tampico, on the Gulf of Mexico, with some hundred and twenty others in stress for food. He had wan- dered all the way across the country, visiting many large Indian towns, and coming at length, in 1569, to the banks of the Norum- bega. He sailed from the harbor of St. Mary's (one of the earlier names for Boston Bay) a few hours distant from the Norumbega he visited, and ultimately got back to England, where he again met and was kindly received by Sir John Hawkins. He told a story that surpasses belief. He had seen monarchs borne on golden chairs, and houses with pillars of crystal and silver. He had visited the dwelling of an Indian chief where he saw a qicart of pearls; and afterwards increased it to a peck of pearls. He was brought in audience before Sir Humphrey Gilbert, the kinsman of Sir Walter Raleigh. Thevet who had been at Norumbega, on the banks of what he pronounced " one of the most beautiful rivers in all the world," was present and confirmed Ingram in part." Whittier, in his poem " Norumbega," makes the weary 'From monograph by Prof. E. N. Horsford, who claimed to liave found the site of Norumbega City, on the banks of the Charles River at Weston, near Boston, and that the Charles was the Norumbega River. The Mythical City of Norumbega 3 Christian Knight who is dying in his fruitless search for the mythical city, "at shut of day," see a vision like a pipe dream. " I see, he said, " the domes and spires of Norumbega town " — " What sounds are these but chants and holy hymns " — " It is a chapel bell that fills the air with its low tones " — " The Christ be praised — He sits for me a blessed cross in sight " — " I fain would look before I die on Norum.- bega's walls." Pierre Biard, Lescarbot, and other Jesuits, repeatedly speak of Norumbega as being on the Pentegoet or Penobscot River. In fact, La Saussaye, when he sailed from Port Royal (now Annapolis, Nova Scotia), intended to establish the settle- ment of St. Sauveur on the Norumbega or Penobscot, at the place now known as Bangor, Maine, but finally settled on Mount Desert Island. Champlain sailed up the Penobscot in his search for the city of Norumbega, and his map of 1613 shows the name of Nor- umbega on the Penobscot in the vicinity of Bangor. The map of Ortelius, 1570, and Solis's map of 1598, shows the country of the Montagues Indians east of Norumbega. (The country of the Montagnes was between Three Rivers and the Saguenay, in the province of Quebec.) If these maps are correct, it would make the Penobscot the Norumbega River. John Fiske, in his very excellent book called TJic Dutch and Quaker Colonics of America, by very ingenious reason- ing, and with the help of Maiollo's map of Verrazano's discov- eries, 1527, Gastaldi's map of 1550, and Mercator's Duisburg map of 1569, claims that the Hudson was the Norumbega, and that Manhattan Island was the site of the city and that it was located on the border of the collect or pond now marked by the gloomy prison called the Tombs. He suggests that the name may be a corruption of Anormee Berge, which he says 4 The Mohawk Valley means Grand Scarp in sixteenth-century French, and was ap- pUed to the Hudson River by Verrazzano, who describes it as a very broad river running between small steep hills, evidently referring to the Palisades. Fiske says: " What better epithet than Grand Scarp could be applied to those majestic cliffs. It is clear that for a quarter of a century or more after the voyage of Verrazzano (1524) the Hudson River was visited by French fur traders, and that they had block-houses on Manhattan Is- land and at Albany," This was at least a half-century before the voyage of Henry Hudson and the renaming of the Hud- son River. If the Hudson River was the Norumbega, and if a city three-quarters of a mile long, with domes and spires and pil- lars of crystal and silver existed, it must have been known to the Aborigines of the Mohawk Valley, but, so far, we have been unable to find any traditionary evidence of the mythical city having been located within the bounds of New York State. We do not expect, however, to find evidence among the Mohawks, because they are known to have been located at Hochelaga (Montreal) in 1535, and the lower Mohawk Valley was then occupied by tribes of the Algonquin nation, probably the Mohicans, the Abinakas, or the Andastes. Chapter II The Mohawks THE earliest record of the Mohawk Indians, whose ab- original name, as given by the Jesuit priest, Jean Brebeuf, was Agnierrhonons, contracted to Agniers, " the people of the flint," later called Mahaqua by the Algonquins, Maquas by the Dutch, and Mohawk by the English, is derived from Jacques Cartier's account of his voy- age up the St. Lawrence to Hochelaga (Montreal), in 1535. From their traditions, they were driven out of Canada by the Algonquins, probably during the latter part of the six- teenth century, because the large village that Cartier visited in 1535 was deserted and destroyed when Champlain visited this spot in 1608. It is probable that they made their way direct to the Mo- hawk Valley, but, being numerically weak, chose for new homes secluded spots deep in the forest, four or five miles from the Mohawk River, to build their palisaded castles, one of which, but recently discovered, I visited in the month of July, 1899. ^t that season of the year we find men all over the country attacked with a desire for a little relaxation from business or the regular routine of life, and a longing to flee from urban surroundings and spend a season in the fields and forests away from the abode of men, and, with gun and line, provide their daily food. We are apt to call it sport, but is it not, rather, the " old Adam " that is asserting itself, an in- mate longing to return to the primitive condition of man and 5 6 The Mohawk Valley battle awhile with nature for our own sustenance ? It is true that we like to take some of the luxuries of life with us when we go into the forests, but the greatest pleasure of it all is the freedom from care and the feeling that we are providing for our wants with our own hands and by our own exertions. Our thoughts are apt to revert to the time when the hardy pioneer was obliged to live as we are living, with the addition of a great deal of hard work and suffering thrown in. And then we think perhaps of the aborigines. Their mode of life and apparent freedom from cares has a charm for us for the time being, and we imagine we would like to adopt their customs and be forever free from the requirements of society and the fear of protested notes and overdue bills payable, and the un- certainty of bills receivable. But thisdonging lasts only a short season, and education asserts itself and we are glad to get back to the old treadmill, thankful if we can but bring with us re- newed health and strength for our battle with " the world, the flesh, and the devil." Our sojourn in the northern forests, however, lacks one element of the life of the Aborigines; and that is the constant watchfulness against savage enemies and the necessity of selecting for a home some secluded spot which nature and their rude art could make into a fortress. I have in mind such a spot which has lately been discov- ered by accident after having been abandoned for three or four centuries. In the year 1892, George W. Chapin, a woodman residing between Fonda and Johnstown, returning to his home from the latter place through a lonely wood on the bank of the Cayudutta Creek, observed a hole in the ground that had lately been made by a woodchuck. Examining the earth thrown out by the nimble feet of the rodent, he observed a fragment of pottery, which, upon examination, was found to be a piece of decorated earthenware of Indian manufacture. The Mohawks 9 The discovery having been communicated to the late A. G. Richmond, W. M. Beauchamp of the New York State Mu- seum, and others, excavations were made which estabHshed the fact that the site of an ancient Indian fort, hitherto not known or suspected, had been discovered. Many interesting articles of Indian manufacture have been unearthed, some of which have been illustrated by W. M. Beauchamp in the New York State Museum Bulletins, and the spot described by Robert M. Hartley in the Popular Science Nezvs, June, 1896. Within a few weeks I made three visits to this interesting spot with various friends, and must confess that it has a great charm to me; but although the articles brought away were numerous, they were of small value when compared with those secured by earlier visitors. I wish to thank Mr. Charles Gar- diner of Johnstown for his explicit instructions how to find the place. He said: " Get off at the station of Sammons- ville; walk up the track about a quarter of a mile, or until you come to an old stump field; pass through the stump field and the woods adjoining, until you come to a ravine; cross the ravine, and there you are." My first visit was made with Myron W. Reid for a com- panion, but when we arrived at the stump field, he was so charmed by the liquid, jingling notes of numerous bobolinks, that he deserted me for the time being and left me to pursue my quest alone. Thanks to Mr. Gardiner's instructions, the place was found without any trouble. Subsequent visits were made, and each time resulted in interesting discoveries. (I wish to say, however, that previous investigators, undoubtedly were just as succcessful or perhaps more so than I was.) The site of this ancient Indian fort is located on a high, broad point of land, between two ravines, which grow deeper as they approach the bed of the Cayudutta Creek, that flows by its western boundary. Both ravines run in a southerly lo The Mohawk Valley direction and through the easterly ravine flows a small perma- nent stream. The approach to the high ground of the Indian village from the Cayudutta Creek seems to have been through the latter ravine, which becomes a narrow, slaty gorge as it approaches the flats of the Cayudutta Valley, and owing to the dense growth of small trees and underbrush the entrance is not easily seen from the creek below. The gorge itself is quite picturesque, and its present condition suggests a possible method of defence used by the Indians, large trees having been felled and thrown into the bed of the creek, forming a rude breastwork. Even in the present condition of the huge rotten trunks they present an obstacle not easily overcome by the investigator. As you enter the gorge from below, you encounter a series of slaty ledges, over whose moss-covered surface the stream trickles slowly, making a series of slimy steps extending upward for twenty or thirty feet, or to the level of the higher ground of the forest. On the west side of the gorge these slaty steps have been worn smooth and rounded by countless footsteps, up to a point about ten feet from the entrance, where a trail is seen ascending the side of the hill to the plateau above. As the trail or path approaches the top, it is worn in some places from four to six inches deep along the edge of the hill, showing that the place had been occupied for a considerable space of time by a numerous population. The plateau itself extends north to a considerable distance and is well covered with trees of large size and the rotten trunks of many monarchs of the forest. The place suggests seclusion, and its stillness is almost oppressive. The only evi- dence of life observable was the scurry of a solitary partridge chick and the dismal croak of ^ pater faviilias crow, evidently solicitous for the safety of his little family in the top of one of the tall pines. Take it all in all, I would not recommend it The Mohawks ii as a very desirable place for a Sunday-school picnic. This spot has undoubtedly been visited by a number of " diggers," as is seen by the upturned black earth, plentifully sprinkled with small fragments of fresh-water clam-shells and occasional bits of pottery. It is evident that this spot was once an Indian forti- fication, as the line of the palisade is seen stretching across the plateau from ravine to ravine. Although I was unable to secure many relics of intrinsic value, my search was quite suc- cessful and resulted in unearthing a stone axe, a broken stone pestle, a few bone tools, and flint implements, together with forty fragments of as many decorated vessels of Indian pot- tery. One of the most interesting articles that have been un- earthed is a brass or copper bead, about six inches long. This was found by Mr. A. G. Richmond a few years ago, and is valued from the fact that it enables archaeologists to fix the probable date of the occupation of this secluded spot by the Indians. As this is the only article found there that would indicate that the occupants had ever come in contact with white men, it must have been occupied previous to 1609, and subsequent to the discovery of the river St. Lawrence, in 1535. Many archaeologists are of the opinion that the Iroquois were the people whom Jacques Cartier met at Hochelaga (Montreal) and Stadacone (Quebec) on the occasion of his ascent of the St. Lawrence in 1535, and they advance the theory that they were driven out of Canada between that time and 1609, when Champlain found a new people at Stadacone (Quebec) and Hochelaga (Montreal) entirely deserted. W. M. Beauchamp, in a recent communication, says: "I should date the Mohawk Fort (Cayudutta) a little be- fore 1600, and think they had these long brass beads from the French, they are much alike and unquestionably Euro- pean. We are to remember, however, that the Iroquois had 12 The Mohawk Valley villages as far down as Quebec in 1535, and seem to have often visited the mouth of the river where vessels often touched." Parkman says: " In the vocabulary of the language ap- pended to the journal of Cartier's second voyage, Canada is set down as a word for town or village. It bears the same meaning in the Mohawk tongue." " The language of Stada- cone, or Quebec, when Cartier visited it, was apparently a dialect of the Iroquois." You will probably remember that Cartier's first voyage was made in 1534, at which time he struck the mainland at Gaspe,' opposite the island of Anticosta, and that he kidnapped two young Indians. These young savages returned with him in 1535, acting as interpreters, and are said to have been a part of a war party from Hochelaga, speaking a different language from the Indians of Gaspe, at which place they were found by Cartier. There was also a tradition among the Agnies (Mohawks) that their ancestors were once settled in Quebec, and relics found at Montreal correspond with articles found in Iroquois burial-places in western New York. Therefore we think it is safe to assume that the Cayudutta fort was probably one of the earliest settlements of the Iroquois (Mohawks) in the valley of the Mohawk and a place of great historic interest from the prehistoric character of the relics found there. Parkman, in his Pioneers of France in the Nciv World, says: When America was first made known to Europe, the part assumed by France on the borders of that new world was peculiar, and is little recognized. While the Spaniard roamed sea and land, burning for achievement, red-hot with bigotry and avarice, and while Eng- land, with soberer steps and a less dazzling result, followed in the path of discovery and gold hunting, it was from France that those barbarous shores first learned to serve the ends of peaceful commer- cial industry. A French writer, however, advances a more ambitious The Mohawks 13 claim. In the year 1488, four years before the first voyage of Columbus, America, he maintains, was found by a French- man. Cousin, a navigator of Dieppe, being at sea off the African coast, was forced westward, it is said, by winds and currents, to within sight of an unknown shore, where he pres- ently descried the mouth of a great river. On board his ship was one Pinzon, whose conduct became so mutinous that, on his return to Dieppe, he made complaint to the magistracy, who thereupon dismissed the offender from the maritime ser- vice of the town. Pinzon went to Spain, became known to Columbus, told him of his discovery, and joined him on his voyage in 1492, In the year 1535 Jacques Cartier, a Frenchman, sailed from the ancient town of St. Malo, France, and entered the bay of St. Lawrence, as Cartier named it, in August or September of the same year. Having with him the two Indian lads cap- tured in his former visit to these shores, he found them of great assistance in communicating with the natives. They are supposed to have spoken the Mohawk dialect. It is said that the Indian name for the St. Lawrence River was Hochelaga, and that the present site of Quebec was called Stadacona, whose king's name was Donnacona. Cartier says that the country below Stadacona (Quebec) was called Saguenay, and that above, Hochelaga. At Stadacona, Cartier was told of a large Indian town, many days' journey above, which was called Hochelaga, and had given the name to the river and country also. Passing up the river with a small galleon and two open boats and about fifty sailors, on the 2d of October, 1535, they reached the mysterious Hochelaga. Their landing was made just below the present quays of Montreal, and thronging the shores were a thousand or more Indians await- ing the strangers. The next morning they were conducted to the Indians' town, lying under the shadow of the mountain 14 The Mohawk Valley which Cartier named Mont Royal — Montreal; "hence the name of the busy city which now holds the site of the vanished Hochelaga," A later writer, Lescarbot, insists that the country on both sides of the St. Lawrence, from Hochelaga to its mouth, was called Canada, The derivation of the name Canada is un- doubtedly Indian, and not Spanish, and it is a singular fact that in the vocabulary of the language of Hochelaga appended to the journal of Cartier's second voyage, Canada is set down as mean- ing town or village, and that it bears the same meaning in the Mohawk, and both languages are dialects of the Iroquois. Quoting still from Parkman's notes: " That the Indians of Hochelaga belonged to the HuronTroquois family of tribes is evident from the affinities of their language and from the con- struction of their houses and defensive works. This was identical with the construction universal, or nearly so, among the Huron-Iroquois tribes." It is said that in i860 a quantity of Indian remains were dug up at Montreal that evidently be- longed to the Iroquois and not to the Algonquin type. There is said to be a tradition among the Agniers (Mohawks), one of the five nations of the Iroquois, that their ancestors were once settled at Quebec. A tradition recorded by Colden in his his- tory of the Five Nations (Iroquois), that they were formerly settled near Montreal, is of interest. The tradition declares that they were driven thence by (he Adirondacks, which was the distinctive name of the tribes of the Algonquins located in Canada. It is said that when Champlain, in 1603, passed up the St. Lawrence, sixty-eight years after Cartier's visit, " Hochelaga and its savage population had vanished, and in their place were a few wandering Algonquins of different tongues and lineage." Champlain, in 1609, met them again on the shores of Lake Champlain, called by the natives Iroquois Lake. Champlain's ^f^ THE ROCKY WALLS OK JlIK CANAJUUAKIE 15 The Mohawks 17 account of the meeting is so interesting that I will transcribe it in his own words: At nightfall we embarked in our canoes to continue our journey, and as we advanced very softly and noiselessly, we encountered a party of Iroquois, on the twenty-ninth of the month (July, 1609), about ten o'clock at night, at a point off a cape which juts into the lake on the west side. They and we began to shout, each seizing his arms. We withdrew towards the water and the Iroquois repaired on shore and arranged all their canoes, the one beside the other, and began to hew down trees with villainous axes, which they some- times got in war, and others of stone, and fortified themselves securely. Our party, likewise, kept their canoes arranged, the one along- side the other, tied to poles so as not to run adrift, in order to fight all together, should need be. We were on the water about an arrow shot from their barricade. When they were armed and in order, they sent two canoes from the fleet, v/hich consisted of twenty-four canoes and sixty savages, to know if their enemies wished to fight, who answered they desired nothing else; but that just then there was not much light, and that we must wait for day to distinguish each other, and they would give us battle at sunrise. This was agreed to by our party. Meanwhile the whole night was spent in dancing and singing, as well on one side as on the other, mingled with an infinitude of insults and other taunts such as the little courage they had; how powerless their resistance against our arms, and that when day would break they should ex- perience this to their ruin. Ours, likewise, did not fail in repartee, telling them they should witness the effect of arms they had never seen before, and a multitude of speeches as is usual at a siege of a town. After the one and the other had sung, danced, and parlia- mented enough, day broke. My three companions and I were always concealed for fear the enemy should see us preparing our arms as best we could, being, however, separated, each in one of the canoes belonging to the savage Montagnaes. After being equipped with light armor, we took each an arquebus and went ashore. I saw the enemy leave their barricade; they were about 200 men, of strong and robust appearance, who were coming slowly towards us, with a gravity and assurance which greatly pleased me, led on by three chiefs. Ouis were marching in similar order, and 1 8 The Mohawk Valley told us that those who bore three lofty plumes were the chiefs, and that there were but three, and they were to be recognized by those plumes, which were considerable larger than those of their com- panions, and that I must do all I could to kill them. I promised to do what I could, and that I was sorry they could not clearly under- stand me, so as to give them the order and plan of attacking their enemies, as we should undoubtedly defeat them all ; but there was no help for that; that I was very glad to encourage them and to manifest to them my good will when we should be engaged. The moment we landed they began to run about two hundred paces toward their enemies, who stood firm, and had not yet perceived my companions, who went into the bush with some savages. Ours commenced calling me in a loud voice, and making way for me opened in two, and placed me at their head, marching about twenty paces in advance, until I was within thirty paces of the enemy. The moment they saw me, they halted, gazing at me and I at them. When I saw them preparing to shoot at us, I raised my arquebus, and aiming directly at one of the three chiefs, two of them fell to the ground by this shot and one of their companions received a wound of which he died afterwards. I had put four balls in my arquebus. Ours on witnessing a shot so favorable for them, set up such tremendous shouts that thunder could not have been heard; and yet there was no lack of arrows on one side and the other. The Iroquois were greatly astonished seeing two men killed so instantaneously, notwithstanding they were provided with arrow- proof armor, woven with cotton thread and wood; this frightened them very much. Whilst I was reloading, one of my companions in the bush fired a shot which so astonished them anew, seeing their chiefs slain, they lost courage, took to flight and abandoned the field and their fort, hiding themselves in the depths of the forest, whither pursuing them, I killed some others. Our savages also killed several of them and took ten or twelve prisoners. The rest carried off the wounded. Fifteen or sixteen of ours were wounded by arrows; they were promptly cured. After having gained the victory, they amused themselves plunder- ing Indian corn and meal from the enemy; also their arms which they threw away in order to run better. And having feasted, danced and sung, we returned tliree hours afterward with the prisoners. The place where this battle was fought is in forty-three degrees, some minutes latitude, and I named it Lake Champlain. Chapter III Journal of Arent Van Curler CONNECTED with the early history of the colony or province of New York, the names of three men stand out bold and clear for their honesty, energy, and kindly treatment of the Iroquois Indians,^ namely : Arent Van Curler, from 1634 to the time of his death by the overturning of a boat during a storm on Lake Champlaiii in 1667, and who was held in such high esteem by the Mo- hawks that they used liis name when addressing the governors of New York and called them " Brother Corlear, " a fitting tribute to him whom they called " good friend." Peter Schuyler and Sir William Johnson were the two other men referred to. Peter Schuyler seems to have gained the good will of the Indians to the extent that they called him Quiddar," which was as near as they could pronounce the word Peter, as the labials /, b, m, are not to be found in their language. He was the first mayor of Albany, and afterward acting governor of New York for a short period. Like Van Curler, he had unbounded influence over the Indians, b}^ whom he was greatly admired. Sir William Johnson, of our own section of the Mohawk Valley, seems to have succeeded Van Curler and Schuyler in the affections of the Mohawks, and from 1738 until the time of his death at Johnstown, in 1774, used his power to the benefit of the colonists of the Mohawk Valley, and to the 19 20 The Mohawk Valley defeat of the Canadian French and Indians, But at this time it is of Van Curler that we would speak. Professor Pearson says: The acknowledged leader of the little colony at Schenectady, in 1662, was Arent Van Curler. He came over in 1630, as superin- tendent of the Colonic Rensselaerswyck, and continued in office until 1646, besides acting as colonial secretary. In 1643 he mar- ried Antonia Slaagboom, widow of Jonas Bronk, and soon after settled on the " Flatts " above Fort Orange [Albany]. Here he remained until the spring of 1662, when he took up his residence at Schenectady, where he remained directing and furthering the interests of the settlers until his unfortunate death. While yet living in Albany, in 1642, he heard that a Jesuit priest named Isaac Jogues was being shamefully treated by the Mohawks and threatened with death, and on a mission of mercy he penetrated the Mohawk country to the first Castle, and succeeded in saving the life of Father Jogues for the time being, but could not procure the release of the prisoner. Father Jogues afterward escaped and returned to France, where he remained until 1643, when he returned to Canada, and in 1646 to the Mohawk country, to ineet a shameful death by the hands of the Indians, at Os-se-ru-e-non, October 18, 1646. It was after Van Curler returned from his mission of mercy, in 1642, that he wrote to Killian Van Rensselaer, the Patroon, in Amsterdam, Holland, that " a half day's journey from the Colonie, on the Mohawk River, there lies the most beautiful land that the eye of man ever be- held." It was on this land that in 1662 he settled the colony of Schenectady. It has been thought that his journey of 1642 was his first advent into the Mohawk's country; but recent events have brought to light a diary of a journey he made through this locality as early as 1634, and it ante- dates all other records of the Mohawk Valley, between Journal of Arent Van Curler 21 Schenectady and Oneida. In the Independent of October 3, 1895, we find the following: CORLEAR AND HIS JOURNEY OF 1634. A Great Discovery in New York History. The Oldest Record of the Dutch Period. A Notable Visit to the Mohawk Indians. By General James Grant Wilson. The original journal of an expedition to the country of Mohawks and Sennekens [this should read Oneidas], made in 1634-35, by Arent Van Curler — or Corlear, according to the pronunciation of the name in English — is now before the writer. It consists of thirty-two well- preserved pages of foolscap, which have lain perdu in a Dutch garret for two hundred and sixty years. It is of great historical value, antedating as it does any existing document relating to the history of New Netherland, and coming from the pen of one of the leading actors in the early annals of the colony. [The miles spoken of in this journal are Dutch miles, and were equal to about three English miles,] This diary records that Van Curler, with two other white men and five Maquaase Indians, as guides, left Fort Orange December 1 1, 1634, travelling mostly northwest about eight miles, and arrived at half- past twelve in the evening, at a hunter's little cabin, where we slept for the night, near the stream that runs into their [Mohawks'] land, and of the name of Vyoge (?). The land is most full of oak trees, and the flat land is abundant. The stream runs into their land near their [Mohawks'] Castle, but cannot be navigated up stream, on account of the heavy current. Dec. 12. — At three o'clock, before daylight, we proceeded again, and the savages that went with us would have left us there secretly, if I had not perceived that their dogs had eaten our bread and cheese. So we had to be contented with dry bread on which to travel; and after going for an hour we came to the branch [Mohawk River] that runs into our river, and passed the Maquas villages, where the ice drifted very fast. Jeronimus crossed first, 22 The Mohawk Valley with one savage in a canoe made of the bark of trees, because there was only room for two; after that Willem and I went over; and it was so dark that we could not see each other if we did not come close together. It was not without danger. When all of us had crossed we went another mile and a half and came to a hunter's cabin, which we entered to eat some venison, and hastened further, and after another half mile we saw some Indians approaching, and as soon as they saw us they ran off and threw their sacks and bags away, and fled down a valley behind the underwood, so that we could not see them. We looked at their goods and bags, but took only a piece of bread. It was baked with beans, and we ate it. We went further, and mostly along the aforesaid kil [Mo- hawk River] that ran swiftly. In this kil there are a good many islands, and on the sides upward of 500 or 600 morgens of flat land. Yes, I think even more. And after we had been marching about eleven miles we arrived at one o'clock in the evening, half a mile from the first Castle, at a little house. We found only Indian women inside. We should have gone further, but I could hardly move my feet because of the rough road, so we slept there. It was very cold, with northerly wind. Dec. 13th. — In the morning we went together to the Castle over the ice that during the night had frozen on the kil, and, after going half a mile, we arrived in their first Castle, which is built on a high mountain [hill]. There stood but thirty-six houses, in rows like streets, so that we could pass nicely. The houses are made and covered with bark of trees, and mostly are flat at the top. Some are one hundred, ninety, or eighty paces long, and twenty-two and twenty-three feet high. There were some inside doors of hewn boards, furnished with iron hinges. In some houses we saw different kinds of iron chains, harrow irons, iron hoops, nails — all probably stolen somewhere. Most of the people were out hunting deer and bear. The houses were full of corn that they lay in store, and we saw maize; yes, in some of the houses, more than three hundred bushels. They make barrels and canoes of the bark of trees, and sew with bark as well. We had a good many pumpkins cooked and baked, that they called anansira. None of the chiefs were at home, but the principal chief is named Adriochten. He lived a quarter of a mile from the fort in a small house, because a good many savages in this Castle died of smallpox. I sent him a message to come and see Journal of Arent Van Curler 23 us, which he promptly did; he came and bid me welcome, and said that he wanted us very much to come with him. We should have done so, but when already on the way another chief called us and so we went to the Castle again. This one had a big fire lighted, and a fat turkey cooked, which we ate. He gave us two bearskins to sleep upon, and presented me with three beaver skins. In the evening William Tomassen, whose legs were swollen from the march, had a few cuts made with a knife therein, and after that had them rubbed with bear's grease. We slept in this house, ate heartily of pumpkins, bear's meat and veni- son, so that we were not hungry; but were treated as well as they could possibly do. We hope that all will succeed well. They stayed at this castle three days, or until December l6th, when they resumed their journey. Dec. i6th, — After midday, a famous hunter came here, named Sickarus, who wanted very much that we should go with him to his Castle. He offered to carry our goods, and to let us sleep and remain in his house as long as we liked ; and because he was offering us so much I gave him a knife and two awls as a present, and to the chief in whose house we had been, I presented a knife and a pair of scissors; and then we took our departure from this Castle, named Onekagoncka, and after going another half mile over the ice, we saw a village with only six houses, of the name Canowarode; but we did not enter it, because it was not worth while; and after another half mile we passed again a village where twelve houses stood. It was named Senatsycrosy. Like the others, it was not worth while entering, and after another mile, or mile and a half, we passed by great stretches of flat land and came into this Castle, Medashet, about two o'clock in the evening. I did not see much beside a good many graves. This Castle is named Canagere. It is built on a hill without any palisades or any defense. We found only seven men at home, beside a party of old women and children. The chiefs of this Castle, named Tonnosatton and Tamwerot, were hunting, so we slept in the house of Sickarus, as he had promised us; and we counted in his house one hundred pieces of salable beaver skins that he captured with his own dogs. Van Curler continued his journey to the Sinncken (Onei- das) where he arrived on December 30th, and remained with 24 The Mohawk Valley the Indians until the 12th of January, 1635, when he took his departure for Fort Orange, following the same route he had travelled in his outward journey, and arrived at Onekagoncka, the first castle, at sunset, January 19th. January 20th in the morning, before daylight, Jeronimus sold his coat for four beaver skins. We departed at one hour before daylight, and after marching by guess two miles, the savages pointed to a high mountain [hill] where their Castle stood nine years before. They had been driven out by the Mahicans [Mohicans] and after a time they did not want to live there. On January 21st the party reached Fort Orange. This ends the journal. At this time I wish to speak of his journey of December nth, 12th, 13th, 14th, and i6th, or of that por- tion of the journey that brought him in the vicinity of the present city of Amsterdam. It is conceded by good authority that the stream he crossed, which was named " Vyoge " (probably Oioghi, which was the Indian name for river), was the Mohawk River and that he crossed to the north side of the Mohawk (the kil that ran so swiftly) on December 12th, west of Schenectady. On the morning of December 13th he re- crossed to the south side, over the ice, and after going a half mile arrived at the castle of Onekagoncka, which was situated on a high hill, and whose chief's name was Adriochten. It was this name, Adriochten, that suggested the possi- bility of Onekagoncka having been located a short distance below Amsterdam, instead of at Auriesville as suggested by some of the historians of the valley. In Pearson's Schenectady Patent we find record of a deed of land given by the Mohawks, December 16, 1686, to Hendrick Cuyler, of Albany, which is described as " a piece of land situate mostly on the north side of the Mohawk, Adriutha or Adriuche, above Schenectady, beginning on the north side of the river from a white oak tree that is marked with a wolf Journal of Arent Van Curler 27 standing on the west side of a creek (Lewis), to a beech tree, also marked with a wolf, standing on the east side of a small kill or creek (Eva's Kill), and thence over the river on the south side from a great black oak tree, which is also marked with a wolf, together with all the small islands, or banks that lie within said limits, to an old oak tree marked with a bear, wolf and turtle (the arms of the three clans of the Mohawks)." The property described as on the north side is the old Groot place, now in possession of Francis Morris, and that on the south side is part of the settlement now called Kline. Having in mind the similarity of the names Adriochten and Adriuche, or Adriutha, I made strict inquiry among the old settlers in the vicinity of Kline, and found traditions of Indian occupation, and also found that arrowheads and hatchets had been found in the fields and woods. Also a well authenti- cated account of Indian remains, together with a pipe and other articles having been unearthed in this locality, between the canal and the railroad, during the construction of the West Shore Railroad. Inquiring of Mr. Oliver S. Kline, whose ancestors have Hved in that vicinity for about a century, he informed me that on an elevation of land on the homestead farm, about one hundred and fifty feet above the river, and in a field that was covered with woods in his boyhood, had been a clearing of about three or four acres, and in this clearing were several holes about four feet deep and perhaps about three feet wide and six feet long. (These holes were undoubtedly corn pits, and were used by the Indians as storehouses for their grain in winter.) Between this clearing and the edge of the hill that slopes to the flats below on the river side were to be found crystals of flint, attached to much rock, that appeared above the surface of the sod in many places, also chips of flint in the earth near the rocks. With this valuable information I visited 28 The Mohawk Valley this field, of about twenty acres, and found a place, which, with my limited knowledge of Indian sites, seemed to have been an ideal place for an Indian stronghold. The plateau, which I have said had an elevation of about one hundred and fifty feet, was protected on the west and south by a deep ravine whose steep banks were not very easy to ascend, and the bed of a creek that at some seasons of the year and during heavy rainstorms becomes a short- lived torrent. Two ever-flowing springs are located in this ravine and one on the slope towards the river, and an ex- tensive fiat and islands. About a mile west of this point is the Cowilligan Creek, which runs into the Mohawk River. Gen. John S. Clark informs me that the word Canowaroda probably signifies place of canoes from Canowha, canoes, and that the Indians were in the habit of placing their canoes at some nearby creek for safe-keeping. Being in possession of this information, and assuming that Canowaroda — one-half Dutch mile from Onekagoncka — was located at Cowilligan Creek, I proceeded to search for further information in regard to Onekagoncka. From the fact that Van Curler, on December 12th, speaks of travelling eleven (Dutch) miles, which would be thirty-three English miles, I assume that he meant that he had travelled eleven Dutch or thirty-three English miles from Fort Orange (Albany). As the average rate for his whole journey of twelve days' travel was about ten English miles, he could not in one day travel thirty-three English miles over that part of his journey that he describes as being the most difficult. As the distance from Albany to Amsterdam by railroad is thirty-three miles, and to Kline about thirty miles, it seems to me that we should look for the ancient site of Onekagoncka on the south side of the Mohawk River and on a hill near Kline. A journey to the State Library, and an examination of the Journal of Arent Van Curler 29 Vanderdonk map, reveals the fact that Vanderdonk located Carenay, an Indian village of his time (1656) on the bank of the Mohawk River, and directly north of a small lake or pond. (" Vanderdonk resided at Fort Orange from 1641 to 1646. The material for this map was of about the period of 1635, and may have been the map of Lacrock (Lacrois) who accom- panied Van Curler." — Gen. J. S. Clark.) On the Amsterdam section of the topographical map of the State of New York, we find the pond at Mariaville to lie directly south of Kline, and the only lake or pond in that section of the country. Most historians concede that the Carenay of the Vanderdonk map, 1656, and Onekagoncka of Van Curler's jour- nal, 1834-35, are only different names for the same castle site. [" Previous to 1642 the village had been removed to near Schoharie Creek, and became the Osseruenon, of Isaac Jogues, 1642, and where he suffered death in 1646. The sites of In- dian villages were changed frequently, seldom remaining more than ten years in the same place, and frequently not more than six." — J. S. Clark.] Van Curler did not enter Canowaroda, but after going an- other half-mile he passed a village named Senatsycrosy, with- out entering. And after another mile, or mile and a half, they passed by great stretches of fiat land, and came to a castle which he calls Wetdashet ; and immediately after he says: This Castle is named Canagere." " In this Castle are 16 houses 50, 60, 70, or 80 paces long." December 20th we took our departure from the second Castle, and after marching a mile — came to a stream that we had to ]:)ass. This stream ran very fast, besides big flakes of ice came drifting. We were wet up to above our waists. This would seem to be a very good description of the mouth of the Schoharie Creek, and that the site of Canagere must be looked for two or three English miles east of said creek. 30 The Mohawk Valley After passing the creek they travelled about a half-mile (Dutch) and came to the third castle, named Sohanidisse, on the top of a very high hill. This would seem to be the Scha- natissa of Vanderdonk. I do not feel competent, from my limited knowledge of the Indian villages, formerly located in the western part of the county of Montgomery, to follow Van Curler in his journey west of this immediate locality, and therefore will confine my researches to this vicinity, and wait for the acceptance or re- jection of these conclusions by others who are interested in Indian history. On the return journey of Van Curler and party, when they had travelled by guess (?) two miles, his guide pointed to a high mountain (?) where their castle stood nine years before, or in 1625, when they were driven out by the Mohicans. They were undoubtedly travelling on the south side of the river where the high hills to the south could not be seen until they were in the vicinity of Pattersonville, where the high country- called Yantaputchaberg may be seen to the southeast. As the range is very long, and of nearly uniform height, he would be imparting very indefinite information. The hill at Kinaqua- rone on the north, however, and the high hill to the east of it, are said to be rich in Indian relics, the highest point of the eastern hill in particular; and as it is situated about five Eng- lish miles east of the supposed site of Onekagoncka, Carenay, etc., it is very probably the site of the ancient village de- stroyed by the Mohicans. General J. S. Clark, in a letter dated Sept. 5, 1898, saysr " There is no doubt whatever as to the site described by you ; it is certainly the Carenay of the earliest maps, and the Onekagon- cka of Van Curler. Carenay was indicated directly north of a small lake or pond, and there is no other than Maria Pond or Featherstonhaugh Lake anywhere in that neighborhood." Journal of Arent Van Curler 33 A theory of Van Curler's journey is as follows: Van Curler called the first castle of the Mohawks Onekagoncka, in 1634- 35. In 1642 he again visited the Jirst castle on a mission of mercy to rescue Jogues from death. He does not make mention of any change in the site which was near extensive flat lands and fertile islands. The Mohicans had been driven to Connecticut, and as the Mohawks were always the aggressors when at war with the French and Indians, they at least had no great fear of an attack from them at the eastern end of the Iroquois Confederacy. In addition to the above, they were near, and in communication with, the traders at Fort Orange. In 1642 and 1643 Isaac Jogues was a captive at the castle, which he names Osseruenon ; and again in 1646, when, as he says, he was led naked to Gandawague, the place of his for- mer captivity. He also says that the name of the place was changed from Osseruenon to Oneongoure, evidently showing that the names of the Indian castles changed frequently, and not the sites. On the Vanderdonk map of 1656, made from data obtained from Van Curler, " with whom he resided from 1641 to 1646," is an Indian castle called Carenay, located di- rectly north of a pond (Mariaville Pond), and near the Mohawk River, which corresponds with the recently discovered site of Onekagoncka at Kline, or Adriuche. If Vanderdonk obtained his information of the Indian sites from Van Curler in 1656, it is evident that the first castle was then located at Kline and was known by the following names at the periods mentioned : Onekagoncka, 1634-35, Van Curler. Onekagoncke, 1642, Van Curler. Osseruenon, 1642, Jogues. Oneougoure, 1646, Jogues. Carenay, 1656, Vanderdonk. Adriuche, 1686, Hendric Cuyler. Kline, 1898, W. M. R. 3 34 The Mohawk Valley In 1666 two expeditions of French and Indians visited the Mohawk country, in February and in September. In Sep- tember, 1666, they destroyed all three of the Mohawk castles, together with their stores of provisions. It was probably at this time that the Mohawks moved to the flats at Fort Hunter and Auriesville, and beyond, as they had good reasons for changing their location. Vanderdonk says: " The Indian villages changed their location quite frequently; but their castles or fortified places were occupied a longtime," or until they were destroyed by fire or by an enemy. But it is quite evident from the foregoing list that the names of the castles were frequently changed, and from this circumstance a confu- sion of location of sites has probably arisen. Parkman, in speaking of Labatie's account of the murder of Isaac Jogues, says: " He (Labatie) was the interpreter at Fort Orange, and being near the scene of the murder, took pains to learn the facts." This would indicate that Osseuru- non in 1646 was not far from Fort Orange. It is generally conceded that the words Gandawaga, Caha- niaga, and Kanyea-geh are the same, and that their definition is not " At the rapids," but " The people of the flint." Why " of the flint ? " I am aware that the above theory does not conform to pre- conceived ideas of Indian sites that have always, more or less, been mere conjecture, built around some vague statements that in some cases admit of different interpretation; but it is the theory of a student in Indian history, after a careful re- search of available material, and without being hampered by the haze of preconceived theories. The Indian history of the Mohawk Valley is very interest- ing; but the section between Fort Hunter and Hoffmans has received scant consideration from local historians, whose atten- tion has been directed to their immediate locality, and theories Journal of Arent Van Curler 2^1 built up from the later occupation of the valley, which did not extend below Fort Hunter to any great extent. It will be noticed that Van Curler gives two names to the second Castle, located one Dutch mile east of a large stream, " where the flakes of ice drifted fast " (Schoharie Creek). Wetdashet and Canagere, going to confirm the fact that the names of the castles were frequently changed. In locating castle sites, one thing should be taken into consideration, and that is that the Mohawks were, in a meas- ure, an agricultural people, as they raised corn, beans, pump- kins, and tobacco in such quantities that they stored it for winter use. The fertile flats of the Mohawk are not evenly distributed along the river. The bottom lands are quite wide, all the way from Schenectady, on both sides of the river, par- ticularly so on the south side. At Adriuche, or Cranesville, are fertile flats and large islands, and again at Fort Hunter, Auriesville, Fonda, and so on. The river from Cranesville to Schenectady was the home of a large body of Mohawks, owing to the fertile flats situated along the river bottom, and from the fact that navigation practically ended there, and the " carry " over the trail to Albany began. Probably the reader is aware that the French and Indians always spoke of being in the Mohawk country when they arrived at the upper or south- ern end of Lake Champlain and Lake George. Saratoga Lake and vicinity were frequently visited by Mohawk hunting and fishing parties, and all Indian trails from the north, of early date, seem to lead to points between Hoffmans and Albany. Taking all these things into consideration, I am inclined to think that prehistoric sites of Indian castles should be sought for between Sandsea or Zandige Creek, and the Schoharie River, Van Curler's journal seems to indicate that one Dutch mile east from Schoharie River the second Castle of the Mohawks 195308 33 The Mohawk Valley was situated. Some very interesting prehistoric remains and embankments and evidences of Indian occupation have been found on the flats and hills at the Wemple place, near Fort Hunter. One of the earliest and most tragic events that is recorded, of the advent of the Jesuit priests in the Mohawk Valley, occurred in this locality, the massacre of Jogues and Goupil. In all the early expeditions of France and Spain to the coast of America, the priest seems to have been a very neces- sar}^ part of the equipment. Some of them were from the order of the Franciscans or Recolects, and, later, from the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, as the disciples of St. Ignatius Loyola are called. They were found with Cortez in Mexico, Ponce de Leon, Menendes, Narvaez, and the Frenchman, Jean Ribault, in Florida, and Hernando de Soto on the Mississippi. Also with Jacques Cartier when he discovered the river St. Law- rence, in 1535, at which time he visited the Indian villages Stadacone, afterward the site of Quebec, and Hochelaga, named by Cartier Mont Royal, from the mountain in the rear of the Indian village, and now known as Montreal. At an early period in the history of ^^lontreal it was also called Ville Marie. They came again with Champlain in 1603, also in 1609. But among the first of the long lines of French Jesuits who made the conversion of the Indians their life-work, were Fathers Baird and Masse, in 1610, who were joined in 161 3 by Father Ouentin and Brother du Thet, and in 1625 by Charles Lalemant and Jean de Brebeuf. In this age we look with wonder upon the records of the Jesuits of that period and marvel at the zeal and self-sacrific- ing spirit of those pioneers of the Roman Catholic Church in America. Parkman, in speaking of the Jesuits of Canada, says: " No religious order has ever united in itself so much to be admired and so much to be detested." " A fervor more Journal of Arent Van Curler 39 intense, a self-abnegation more complete, a self-devotion more constant and enduring, will scarcely find its record on the page of human history," " In all the copious records of this period, not a line gives occasion to suspect that one of this loyal band flinched or hesitated." The fate of Jean de Brebeuf will illustrate the perils with which they were beset, the ferocity of the Mohawk warriors, and their hatred of the French and the " black-robed " Jesuits. With your permission I will quote from Parkman's Jesuits in North America, to illustrate the fate of many of these de- voted priests. Brebeuf and Lalemant were captured by the Mohawks at the final destruction of the Huron nation on the shores of Lake Huron in 1649. Parkman says: On the sixteenth of March (1649) — the day when the two priests were captured — Brebeuf was led apart, and bound to a stake. He seemed more concerned for his captive converts than for himself, and addressed them in a loud voice, exhorting them to suffer patiently, and promising heaven as their reward. The Iroquois, incensed, scorched him from head to foot, to silence him; where- upon, in the tone of a master, he threatened them with everlasting flames for persecuting the worshippers of God. As he continued to speak with voice and countenance unchanged, they cut away his lower lip and thrust a red-hot iron down his throat. He still held his tall muscular form erect and defiant, with no sign or sound of pain; and they tried another means to overcome him. They led out Lalemant, that Brebeuf might see him tortured. They had tied strips of bark, smeared with pitch, about his naked limbs. When he saw the condition of Brebeuf he could not hide his agita- tion, and threw himself at the feet of his Superior, upon which the Iroquois seized him, made him fast to a stake and set fire to the bark that enveloped him. As the flame rose, he threw his arms upward with a shriek of supplication to heaven. Next they hung around Brebeuf 's neck a collar made of hatchets heated red-hot; but the indomitable priest stood like a rock. A kettle was slung, and the water boiled and poured slowly on the heads of the two missionaries. " We baptize you," they cried, " that you may be happy in heaven, for nobody can be saved without a good baptism." 40 The Mohawk Valley Brebeuf would not flinch, and in rage, they cut strips of flesh from his limbs and devoured them before his eyes. Others called out to him, " you told us that the more one suft'ers on earth, the happier he is in heaven." After a succession of other revolting tortures, they scalped him; when, seeing him nearly dead, they laid open his breast and came in a crowd to drink the blood of so valiant an enemy, thinking to imbibe with it some portion of his courage. A chief then tore out his heart and devoured it. Thus died Jean de Brebeuf, the founder of the Huron mis- sion, its truest hero, and its greatest martyr. It is said that he was a noble specimen of manhood, being of great size and strength, and with noble features, better fitted to be a knight than a priest. As Brebeuf was a martyr of the Huron mission, so Isaac Jogues may be called the martyr of the mission to the Mo- hawks. On the bank of the Mohawk, at the little hamlet of Auriesville, the society of which he was a member has erected a shrine, as a tribute to the memory of that noble, self-sacrific- ing priest. In this age we may smile at his belief, and at some of his methods ; but we cannot help admiring him for his strict obedience to the dictates of his conscience, and his humility and heroism in the discharge of his duties. It is said that he was born at Orleans, of a worthy family, January lo, 1607, and at an early age entered the college of the Jesuits, at his native place, and at the time he was or- dained priest, in 1636, he was an exceedingly well-educated man. He accompanied a fleet that sailed for Canada in April, 1636, arrived at Quebec in July of the same year, and was almost immediately assigned to one of the missions in the country of the Hurons, being one of the companions of Father Brebeuf, spoken of above. For five years he labored among those savages, suffering all manner of hardships and privations among the Hurons, Tobacco Indians, Ottawas, and Chippe- was (Ojibwas) of northern Canada, Returning to the Huron Journal of Arent Van Curler 41 country, from Quebec, in 1642, he was captured by a war party of Agniers. The Agniers, or Mohawks, were located near the Dutch post of Rensselaerwyck (the Albany- of the present time). They were noted for their deadly hatred of the French and the apostles of the Catholic faith, and were contin- ually at war with the Hurons and Algonquins of Canada. In parties of from ten to a hundred, they would leave their vil- lages on the Mohawk and descend Lake Champlain and the river Richelieu to lay in ambush on the banks of the St. Law- rence and attack passing boats, follow the trails of travellers or hunters, or break upon unguarded camps at midnight, and often in large parties attack the palisaded villages of their en- emies. The account of the capture of Father Jogues, Rene Goupil, and Couture, is taken from the Relations of the Jesuits: In the early morning of the second of August, 1642, twelve Huron canoes were moving slowly along the northern shore of the expansion of the St. Lawrence, known as Lake St. Peter, west of Three Rivers. There were on board about forty persons, including four Frenchmen. Jogues sat in one of the leading canoes. His oval face and the delicate mold of features indicated a modest, thoughtful, refined nature. He was constitutionally timid, with a sensitive conscience and great religious susceptibilities. He was a finished scholar, and might have gained a literary reputation; but lie had chosen another career, and one for which he seemed but little fitted. Physically, however, he was well matched with his work; for though his frame was light, he was so active that none of the Indians could surpass him in running. In stature he was the opposite to the majestic Brebeuf. With him were two young men, Rene Goupil and Guillaume Couture — donnes of the mission — that is to say, laymen, who, with- out pay, had attached themselves to the services of the Jesuits, (xoupil was formerly a Jesuit novitiate at Paris, but while in Quebec had been an attendant at the hospital. His surgical skill was of great help to Jogues in case of sickness among the savages. Cout- ure was also a man of intelligence and vigor. 42 The Mohawk Valley The twelve canoes had reached the western end of Lake St. Peter, when from the forests on the bank was heard the dreaded war cry of the Mohawks, mingled with the reports of guns and the whistling of bullets, and several Iroquois canoes, filled with warriors, bore down upon Jogues and his com- panions. The Hurons were seized with a shameful panic, and leaving canoes, baggage, and weapons, fled into the woods, but not soon enough to prevent many being either killed or captured. Jogues and Couture sprang into the bulrushes, and could have escaped; but seeing Goupil in the clutches of the Mohawks, they came out of their hiding-place and gave thein- selves up to their astonished victors, rather than desert a friend. As Couture advanced, five Iroquois sprang forward to meet him, and one of them snapped his gun at his breast, but missed fire. In his confusion and excitement, Couture fired his ow^n piece and laid the savage, who was a chief, dead. The remaining four sprang upon him, tore off his clothing, beat him with clubs and with their fists, and finally tore out his fingernails with their teeth, gnawing his fingers with the fury of famished dogs, and thrust a sword through the offending hand that had fired the shot. Jogues broke away from his guards, and ruslied to the assistance of his friend. He was dragged away and beaten with war-clubs until he was senseless. Goupil was also subjected to the same treatment and his hands and those of Jogues were badly lacerated by the teeth of the savages. The Iroquois started at last, ascending the Richelieu and entered Lake Champlain. On the eighth day they ascertained that about two hundred Iroquois (Mohawks) were encamped on an island in the lake, about one day's distance away. Reaching the island, the captives were forced to run the gauntlet, and were tortured in various ways. Jogues, the last of the line, fell drenched in blood and half dead, but was forced to resume the journey the next morning, and on the loth of August reached Lake George, four days' Journal of Arent Van Curler 43 march from the first Mohawk Castle. The hardships of this march were rendered even more intense by the want of food. The nth of August they crossed the upper Hudson, which they called Oiogue (the river), and on August 15th reached the end of their journey. In a letter to the Provincial of the Jesuits, at Paris, Jogues says: On the eve of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, about 3 o'clock, we reached the bank of the second river (Mohawk), about three-quarters of a mile from their village called Os-se-ru-e-non. Both banks were filled with Iroquois, who received us with clubs, fists and stones. When satisfied with their cruelty, which we thus received by the river side, they crossed the river and led us to their village on the top of the hill. At its entrance we met the youth of all that district awaiting us in line on each side of the road, all armed with clubs, and through this double row of savages the captives were led, single file, Couture in front; because he had killed a chief, after him some Huron captives, then Goupil, then the remain- ing Hurons, and at last Jogues. Some of the prisoners were killed, but the three Frenchmen managed to drag themselves through that line of torture, and were all placed on a high platform in the middle of the village. They were kept on this platform for three days, and were then led in triumph to the second castle, and afterward the third, suffering at each a repe- tition of the former cruelties. Jogues and Goupil were after- ward led back to the first castle, where they expected to be burned at the stake. Couture, according to custom, had been adopted into one of the families and taken to the farthest town, named Ti-o-non-to-guen. About this time the Dutch of Rensselaerwyck, which was not forty miles from this town, having heard of the capture and torture of several Frenchmen, desired to interpose and 44 The Mohawk Valley obtain their deliverance. On September 17th, Arendt Van Corlear, commandant of the fort, Jean Labatie, his interpreter, and Jacob Jansen of Amsterdam, went as ambassadors to the town of An-da-ga-ron, the second castle, and although they made flattering offers and a promise of two hundred dollars, they were unable to obtain the release of the prisoners.' One day, after they had been in the hands of the Mohawks about six weeks, Goupil attempted to make the sign of the cross on some children, but was warned that if he did any- thing of the kind he would be killed. Shortly after, Goupil, in placing his cap on the head of a child, attempted to make the sign of the cross on its forehead. The grandfather of the child detected him, and as Goupil left the cabin said to one of his nephews, a young buck just ready for the war-path: " Go kill that dog of a Frenchman; the Hollanders tell us the sign he has made is not good." The young brave was only too glad of the order, and watched to catch Goupil outside of the pali- sade when he would be at liberty to kill him. Shortly after, as the two captives were returning from, the forest, saying their rosary, they met two Mohawks near the gate. One of them raised a tomahawk and struck it into the head of Goupil, who fell on his face. Jogues fell on his knees and uncovering his head awaited the same fate, but the Indians told him he had nothing to fear, for he belonged to an- other family.' The body of Rene Goupil was dragged through the village by the children to a ravine at a considerable dis- tance, where they flung it in. The next day Jogues instituted a search for the body in the ravine, at the bottom of which ran a torrent. Here Jogues, with the help of an old Indian, his master, found it stripped naked and gnawed by dogs. He ' /\i'latioiis of the Jesuits state that one of tlie men was on horseback — jirobably Van Corlear. ^ The Mohawks were in the habit of giving tlieir prisoners to different families. Journal of Arent Van Curler 45 dragged it into the water and covered it with stones to hide it and save it from further mutilation, intending to return the following day and bury it. He was not able to return until two days after, when he found the stream a rolling, turbulent flood, from a recent storm, and the body nowhere to be seen. I quote his words from the Relations, in a letter to the Provincial : I returned to the spot, I ascended the mount at the foot of which the torrent ran. I descended again and searched the woods on the opposite bank; my search was useless. In spite of the water, which came up to my waist, for it had rained all night, and in spite of the cold (as it was the first of October), I sounded with my feet and with my staff, to see if the current had not carried the corpse further along. The Indians, who are liars by nature, told me it had been carried down by the current to the river near by, which was untrue." They also told him that they had dragged it to the river three-quarters of a mile away, " which I did not know," be- cause no such river existed ; they lied to hirn. It was some young Indians and not the torrent that had borne the body away. In the spring, when the snows were melting in the woods, he was told by some Mohawk children that the body was in the ravine in a lonely spot lower down the stream. There he found the scattered bones and hid them in the earth, hoping that a time would come when he could give them Christian burial. Jogues remained with the Mohawks at Os-se-ru-e-non until July, 1643, when he Avent to a fishing-place on the Hudson about twenty miles below Fort Orang<;. Having learned of prisoners having been burned to death t,t Os-se-ru-e-non, dur- ing his absence, his conscience smote him because he had not been on hand to baptize them, and he urged the Indians to al- low him to return. Reaching Rensselaerwyck, he was advised by Megapolensis, the Dutch clergyman at that post, and 46 The Mohawk Valley others not to return to the Mohawk Castle, as he would surely be killed. Taking their advice, and with their help, he secretly went aboard a vessel bound for Manhattan (New York), and from there was assisted to a passage on a ship bound for France. In 1644 he returned to Canada. In 1645 a treaty of peace was confirmed between the Iro- quois and the French and Algonquins after some reverses to the Iroquois on Lake Champlain, which treaty was broken by the western tribes. The Mohawks were becoming uneasy and it was felt by the governor, General Chevalier de Montmagny, that it would be policy to send an envoy of higher rank than Couture, the former ambassador, to win over the turbulent Mohawks. Jogues was chosen for the task; also to found a new mis- sion, which was named " The Mission of the Martyrs." Jogues for the past two years had been at Montreal, and as soon as he received his orders started for Three Rivers, which he left on May i6th with Mr. Bourdon and four Mohawk de- puties and two Algonquins as guides. Their route to the Mo- hawk country was up the St. Lawrence to the river Richelieu, and Lake Champlain and Lake George. It was on this jour- ney that, having reached Lake George on the eve of Corpus Christi, he named it Lac St. Sacrament, which name it pre- served until 1757. when Sir William Johnson christened it Lake George in honor of King George II. From Lake George, being short of food, they crossed over to Fish Creek, '' where the Indians catch a small fish like her- ring." (Jogues) Borrowing canoes, June 4th, of the Iroquois, they descended the Hudson to Fort Orange. After two days' rest they continued their journey, and reached the first Mo- hawk town on the evening of June 7th, about one day's travel. He says: " We reached the first castle on the evening of June 7th. Its name had been changed from Os-se-ru-e-non to On- Journal of Arent Van Curler 47 e-ou-gou-re." Crowds came from the neighboring Indian vil- lages to gaze on the abused slave, who now came among them as an ambassador of power. A semblance of peace was patched up, but the old hatred of the French still burned sul- lenly, making the prospect of the future very ominous. Hardly had the business of the embassy been finished be- fore the Mohawks (probably the Wolves), urged them to de- part for fear some of the western tribes, who were already preparing for a predatory raid to the St. Lawrence, would lie in ambush and kill their Algonquin guides, if not the French- men themselves. Upon his departure, Jogues left a small chest containing his scanty outfit and a few religious articles, expecting to return soon to the valley and establish the " Mis- sion of the Martyrs " among the savage Mohawks. On the 24th of August he again set out for his dangerous post among the Iroquois (Mohawks). His only companions were a young Frenchman named Lalande, and three or four Hurons. On the way they met some Indians, who warned them not to continue their journey, as a change of feeling had taken place in the Mohawk towns and they would surely be killed if they persisted in going there. The Hurons, becoming alarmed, refused to go any farther, but Jogues and his young companion, Lalande, would not turn back. The reported change had taken place owing to the super- stitious ignorance of the Indians. The small box left by Jogues seemed mysterious to them and they imagined it to contain some secret charm. At this time a contagious disease was raging among them, and many of the Mohawks were dy- ing; besides, the caterpillars had destroyed nearly the whole harvest, and this they ascribed to the little box and the sor- ceries of the Jesuits. The trunk was thrown into the river un- opened, and they were ready to wreak vengeance on the supposed author of all their woes. A war party on the march 48 The Mohawk Valley to Fort Richelieu came upon Father Jogues and Lalande two days' march from their village, and in fury fell upon them, stripped them of their clothes, beat them, and in triumph led them to the first castle. Jogues says: " I was led naked to Gandawague, the place of my former captivity." This place was variously called by Jogues, Os-se-ru-e-non, On-e-ou-gou-re, and Gan-d^va-gue. Here they cut thin strips of flesh from the back and arm.s of Jogues, the crowd shouting, " You shall die to-morrow." Of the three great clans of the Mohawks, the Bear, the Tortoise, and the Wolf, the Bear chiefs were clamorous for his death, but the Wolves especially were more friendly to the captive. However, the Bears prevailed. Francis Parkman describes his death as follows; In the evening — it was the eighteenth of October — Jogues, smarting from his wounds and bruises, was sitting in one of the lodges, when an Indian entered and asked him to a feast. To refuse would have been an offense. He arose and followed the savage, who led him to the lodge of a bear chief. Jogues bent his head to enter, when another Indian, standing concealed within, at the side of the doorway, struck at him with a hatchet. An Iroquois, called by the French Le Berger, who seems to have followed in order to defend him, bravely held out his arm to ward off the blow, but the hatchet cut through it and sank into the missionary's brain. He fell at the feet of his murderer, who finished his work by hack- ing off his head. Lalande was left in suspense all night, and in the morning was killed in a similar manner. The bodies of the two Frenchmen were then thrown into the Mohawk, and their heads displayed on the points of the palisade which enclosed the town. Thus died Isaac Jogues, one of the purest examples of Roman Catholic virtue which this western continent has seen, Le Berger, who tried to save the priest's life, had at one time been taken prisoner and kindly treated by the French. He showed his gratitude by his unsuccessful attempts to defend the life of the French Jesuit. Chapter IV Schonowe or Schenectady THE Mohawk River practically ends at Cohoes, al- though its juncture with the Hudson, through its various deltas, is made at Cohoes, Waterford, and West Troy. The Mohawk Valley of the tourist, however, begins at Schenectady and ends at Rome, N. Y. It is supposed that Henry Hudson ascended the Hudson as far as the mouth of the Mohawk in the small boats of the Half Moon, and that the falls prevented further exploration in that direction. The Cohoes Falls at that period must have appeared grand and beautiful. At that point the Mohawk is more than one hundred yards wide and perfectly rock-ribbed on both sides. The fall is nearly seventy feet perpendicular, in addition to the turbulent rapids below. Before entering the Hudson the river is divided into four mouths by three rocky islands, Peobles, Van Schaicks, and Green Islands, and in those early days formed a scene both beautiful and picturesque. The earliest maps of the valley, made previous to the set- tlement of Schenectady in 1661-69, shows an Indian village at a bend in the Mohawk, about half-way between Schenec- tady and the Hudson River, called Nsarcane (Niskayuna), while Schenectady is designated by the word Schoo, and also by the term Flack-landt; the word Schoo being undoubtedly a Contraction of the word Schonowe, " the gate." In Professor Pearson's very excellent article on the origin 49 so The Mohawk Valley of the word Schenectady we find that it was probably derived from the Indian word Schonowe or S'Gaun-ho-ha, meaning door or gate, and was first appHed to the Indian village for- merly on the site of Albany, meaning the door or gate to the long house (Iroquois) or the Mohawk country. Afterwards it was applied to Schenectady as the Schonowe, or gate. Later, as the Indians retired westward before the advance of the white man, the same name was given to Tiononderoga (Fort Hunter) as being the gate or door to their country, and from it we have undoubtedly the name of Schoharie, being the real door or gate to the Mohawk country. This name, " Schonowe," becomes poetical when we re- flect upon a broader, grander application of the term, the " Gate." The Hudson and Mohawk valleys taken together are the avenue to the great West, although the early settlers did not realize it. First the Indian trail and canoes, then the bateaux and the stage-coach, and then, after long years of waiting, the Erie Canal, reaching from tidewater to the Great Lakes. Then the primitive railroad from Albany to Schenectady, Schenectady to Utica, and then on to Buffalo, Chicago, and so on and on un- til now the iron rails passing through our beautiful valley reach from ocean to ocean. And now we hear of the building of a ship canal in the bed of the Mohawk, and of ocean steamers and possibly ves- sels of war passing through the Mohawk Valley to the Great Lakes, in the near future. In the fifteenth century it was the desire of navigators of the then known world to reach India by sailing west, and it was with this object in view that the expeditions of Christo- pher Columbus, John and Sebastian Cabot, and others were fitted out. After the discovery of America, even up to the OLD ST. GEORGE S CHURCH, SCHEMtCTADY, I759 51 Schonowe or Schenectady 53 voyage of Henry Hudson, the desire of navigators was to dis- cover the " northwest passage to India." When Henry Hudson entered the bay of New York and sailed up the broad river that bears his name, with its tide, he fondly hoped that he had at last found the " northwest pas- sage," little dreaming that a great continent three thousand miles wide lay between him and the Pacific Ocean. The Indians, with their limited knowledge, call the Mo- hawk Valley " Schonowe," the Gate. They little knew how truly it was named. Henry Hudson was right, however. With its two great railways, its Erie Canal, and the promise of a second Suez, with its millions of tons of merchandise, and myriads of tour- ists streaming across the continent to meet the steamers of the Pacific to Asia, the Mohawk Valley may well be called the northwest passage," the Gate to India. Every history of Schenectady begins with a quotation from the letter of Arent Van Curler to the Patroon, Killian Van Rensselaer, when, in 1642, he returned from his unsuccessful journey to Osseruenon to rescue Father Jogues: " dat Schoonste landt " that the eye of man ever beheld. Then we read of Van Curler's efforts to organize a small colony, and of the purchase of the " great flats " from the Mo- hawks in 1661, and its settlement in 1662, also of their troubles with the authorities at Fort Orange, who declined to survey their lands or to give them the right to trade with the Indi- ans, and the final adjustment of the difificulty in 1664. We iind that the settlement was successful from the begin- ning, and that in 1670 additional land was purchased from the Mohawks, making the township up and down the river, six- teen miles long, and eight miles wide, the western limit being the Kinaquarone, or Towereune hill at Hoffmans. The land west of the " irreat flats" was divided into five 54 The Mohawk Valley flats, or farms, on the south side of the river, and eight flats on the north side, reaching up to and adjoining the present townships of Amsterdam and Florida. It is quite interesting to read the names of the original owners, as the names of their descendants may be found in nearly every town in the Mohawk Valley. South side of the river: First flat: Jaques Cor. Van Slyke. Second flat: Jacobus Peek and Isaac De Trieux. Third flat : Simon Mabie, Abraham N. Bratt. Fourth flat: Pieter Vrooman. Cowillegen, or Willow Flat: Pieter Van O'Linda, Chas. Williamse Van Coppernol. Flats on the north side : Claus Graven Hoek — Claus Andrise DeGraff. Maalwyck — Benjamin Roberts. Second flat: Petier Cornelis Viele. Third flat : Jan Janse Joncker. Fourth flat: Lewis Cobes and Johannes Kleyn. Fifth, or Wolfe Flat: Jasaias Swart. Sixth flat : Philip Philipse De Moer. Seventh flat: Carel Hanson Toll, Reyer Schermerhorn. The hardy first settlers saw perilous times from the very beginning, and must have been endowed with an abundance of Dutch grit and persistency to withstand and overcome the dangers and vicissitudes of the early years of their struggle for existence. For more than half a century the frontier town of the great West, and surrounded by the most warlike and ag- gressive of the aborigines of America, who were continually at war with their savage kindred and the French of Canada, this little band of frontiersmen lived in continual alarm, from their dusky neighbors and their neighbor's foes. Protected by a stockade of posts, built after the manner of the castles of Schonowe or Schenectady 57 the Mohawks, which we would think inadequate protection against the wild beasts of the forests, they lived and thrived, and in time made firm friends of the fierce Mohawks, and thereby raised a human barrier against the white and red sav- ages of New France. We can imagine the consternation of these " Dutch Boers " (as Governor Courcelle called them) when one morning in Feb- ruary, 1666, a few Mohawk warriors appeared at the gate of their little palisaded village with the heads of four Frenchmen, and the information that an army of six hundred men, on snowshoes, was at their gates. This alarming news was sent in haste to Albany, and " the next day three of the principal inhabitants were sent to the commander of the troops. Gover- nor Courcelle, to inquire of his intention to bring a body of armed men into the dominions of his Majesty of Great Britain without acquainting the Governor of these parts with his designs." Governor Courcelle replied that he had come to seek and destroy his enemies, the Mohawks, without the intention of visiting the plantations, and that, indeed, this was the first that he had heard that the English were rulers instead of the Dutch. This expedition seems to have been the most foolhardy and aborti\>e of the many raids of the French in the Mohawk Valley. Having suffered from recent incursions of the Mohawks, Governor Courcelle and M. de Tracey organized an expedition of retaliation, consisting of six hundred French and Canadian soldiers, and began their march to the Mohawks' country in mid-winter. Their route was through the Lake Champlain Valley, over the frozen lake, and with snow on the ground four feet deep. The soldiers were all provided with snow- shoes and the provisions were loaded on light sleds, drawn by dogs. The soldiers suffered greatly from cold, and through a 58 The Mohawk Valley mistake of the guides found themselves, on February gth, within two miles of Schenectady instead of the Mohawk castles. A party of Mohawk warriors appearing, Courcelle despatched sixty of his best fusileers after them. These soldiers were drawn into an ambush and eleven killed, a large number wounded, and the balance forced to retreat to the main body. Although the Canadian Governor did not dare allow his soldiers inside of the stockade of the poor village, or, as he said, " within the smell of a chimney corner," he did not hesi- tate to ask that care be given to his wounded, half-starved soldiers, and that he be supplied with provisions for pay. The next day seven wounded Frenchmen were taken to the village, and after their wounds were carefully dressed, were sent on to Albany; while the " Dutch Boers " carried to their camps provisions, such as they had, and were well paid for them. The French, being refreshed and having a supply of pro- visions, put on a bold front and marched away in the direction of the Mohawk castles; but when well out of sight of the vil- lage, " with faces about and great silence and diligence re- turned towards Canada." In October of the same year Governor Courcelle and Tracey, with twelve hundred soldiers, again visited the Mo- hawks' country, and destroyed their castles and their crops, but did not succeed in killing any of the Indians, who, with their families had fled to the wooded hills. The Frontenac expedition of 1690, which resulted in the burning of Schenectady, February 9th, of that year, was organized at Montreal for the purpose of attacking Fort Orange, and consisted of two hundred and ten men, eighty of whom were Caughnawaga, or Praying Indians, un- der Kryn, a noted Mohawk convert to the Catholic religion. Schonowe or Schenectady 6i As in the expedition of Courcelle, just twenty-four years be- fore, they suffered severely from cold and lack of provisions. After having marched five or six days, the Indians demanded of the French their intentions, and were told by the comman- ders, Sieurs La Moyne and De Mantet, that they were going to attack Fort Orange, Kryn, having in mind the disaster of the last year, inquired, " Since when have you become so des- perate ? " It was finally decided, however, to take the route leading to Corlear, or Schenectady, instead of Fort Orange. After a further journey of seventeen days they arrived within two leagues of Corlear at four o'clock P.M., and were harangued by the great Mohawk chief. Shortly after, four squaws were discovered in a wigwam, who gave the necessary information for the attack on the town. At eleven o'clock that night they came wathin sight of the place and resolved to defer the assault until two o'clock in the morning, but the ex- cessive cold admitted of no further delay. The French account says: The town of Corlear forms a sort of oblong, with only two gates — one opposite the road we had taken, the other leading to Orange, six leagues distant. Messieurs de Sainte Helene and de Mantet were to enter the first, which the squaws pointed out, and which in fact was found wide open. Messieurs d'Iberville and de Montesson took the left with another detachment in order to make themselves masters of that leading to Orange. But they could not discover it, and returned to join the remainder of the party. A profound silence was observed until the two commanders, who separated at their entrance of the town for the purpose of encircling it, had met at the other extremity. Within the stockade were about fifty houses, and a small fort or block house with a garrison of ten or twelve men, while the total population is supposed to have been about two hun- dred. Weary with the festivities of the early evening, the vil- lagers were slumbering peacefully, unconscious of danger. 62 The Mohawk Valley Suddenly, and seemingly from every point, on earth and sky, arose the fearful war cry of the savages, mingled with the ex- plosion of firearms, the hoarse shouts of command in a strange language, the crash of timber and the agonizing cries of women and children under the fatal blows of tomahawk and knife. Soon the fitful flames cast a lurid glow on the snow- covered streets, already stained with scarlet splashes and the dark still forms of the unfortunate Hollanders, while the howl- ing, painted warriors dashed hither and thither, plying blazing torch and reeking scalping knife with the zeal of the fanatic and the barbarity of the savage. It is said every house was destroyed but four or five; sixty men, women, and children were killed, about the same number of old men, women, and children spared, thirty men and boys taken prisoners, while many hid themselves in the forests, or fled through the snow to Fort Orange. Adam Vrooman, one of the villagers, saw his wife shot and his child brained against the door-post, but he fought so des- perately that his assailants promised him his life and liberty if he would surrender. His son and negro servant were carried away captives. In the morning a small party crossed the river to the house of Glen. It was loopholed and palisaded, and Captain Glen was prepared to defend it. The French told him they owed him a debt for kindness shown to French prisoners in the hands of the Mohawks, and that no harm should come to him or his kindred. Even two or three houses inside the palisade were saved from the flames because he requested it. The alarm having been given at Orange, fifty young men, under Peter Schuyler, proposed to follow the French in their retreat. Reinforced by a troop of iMohawk warriors, they fol- lowed them nearly to Montreal, when they fell upon the rear- guard, killing and capturing fifteen or more. m UUUK I.N THE GLliN-SANDEKS HOUSE 63 Schonowe or Schenectady 65 After a period of heartrending grief and depression, with true Dutch grit, the pioneers set to work to rebuild their ruined village; and with the help of their neighbors at Orange, and the friendly Mohawks, they again assumed the title of the frontier town of the West, and became the port of entry and departure of produce and supplies by the bateaux and canoes of the Inland Lock and Navigation Company, until the building of the Erie Canal. In 1819 occurred the " great fire," by which disaster the vil- lage — then a city — was again nearly wiped out of existence. The whole west end and business portion was destroyed, in all one hundred and sixty-nine houses. There was little, or no insurance, and it was a long time before Schenectady re- covered from the effects of the great fire. It is said that Arent Van Curler, when in 1642 he returned from an errand of mercy in behalf of some French prisoners in the hands of the Mohawks at Osseruenon, wrote that he had seen " the most beautiful land the eye of man ever beheld." Just one hundred and six years later this " beautiful land " was the scene of a typical Indian fight. Travellers on the New York Central going east, if they sit on the left-hand side of the coach, probably have seen one of the oldest houses in the Mohawk Valley and the scene of the Beukendaal massacre without being conscious of it. About midway between Hoffman's Ferry and Schenectady and about forty rods from the railroad, with nothing to intercept the sight except a thin fringe of trees in front of the building, stands the Toll mansion. In the spring and autumn its dull yellow color shows plainly through the trees which in summer time nearly hide the dwelling from view. We have nothing to do with this dwelling except to use it as a landmark to point out the huinble historic building at the east of it and known as the DeGraaf house. 66 The Mohawk Valley Near the railroad at this point is a substantial brick coun- try schoolhouse, to the west of which is the road that leads past the DeGraaf house and the hollow to the right of the road in which the fight took place. It ought not to be called a massacre, as it was a square stand-up fight with the whites as the attacking party, who on that account suffered more severely than the savages. The following account published in the Schenectady Demo- crat and Reflector, April 22, 1836, was gathered from tradi- tions then floating about among the aged people at that date. In the beginning of the month of July, 1747, Mr. Daniel Toll and his favorite servant, Ryckert, and Dirck Van Vorst went in search of some stray horses at Beukendaal, a locality about three miles from Schenectady. They soon heard what they supposed was the trampling of horses; but the sound they mistook for that made by horses' hoofs on the clayey ground proceeded from the quoits which the Indians were playing. Mr. Toll discovered his danger too late and fell pierced by bul- lets of the French savages, for such they were. Ryckert, more for- tunate, took to his heels and fied. He reached Schenectady in safety and told the dreadful news of the death of his master, and the presence of the enemy. In less than an hour about sixty volunteers were on the march to Beukendaal. The greater part of these were young men, and such was their zeal that they would not wait until the proper authorities had called out the militia. Without discipline or experience and even without a leader they hastened to the Indian camps. Those in advance of the main body before they reached the en- emy were attracted by a singular sight. They saw a man resem- bling Mr. Toll sitting near a fence in an adjoining field and a crow flying up and down before him. On coming nearer they discov- ered it to be the corpse of Mr. Toll with a crow attached to it by a string. This proved to be a stratagem of the Indians to decoy their ad- versaries. The Schenectadians fell, alas! too easily into the snare laid for them, and were in a few moments surrounded by the In- dians, who had been lying in ambush. Thus taken by surprise they Schonowe or Schenectady 69 lost many of their number and some were taken prisoners before they could make good their retreat. They, however, succeeded in reaching the house of Mr. DeGraaf in the neighborhood, which had been for some time deserted. But while retreating they continued to fire upon the enemy. On reaching the DeGraaf house they entered, bolted the doors and as- cended to the second floor. Here they tore off the boards near the eaves and through the opening thus made fired with success at the savages and succeeded in keeping them at bay. In the meantime Dirck Van Vorst, who had been left in charge of two young Indians, effected his escape. The two youngsters were anxious to see the fight and secured their prisoner by tying him to a tree and left him alone. He suc- ceeded in getting his knife from his pocket and cutting the cord with which he was bound. On the approach of the Schenectady militia under Col. Jacob Glen the party in Mr. DeGraaf's house were relieved from their perilous situation and the enemy took up their line of march for Canada, probably along the Sacandaga trail. In this engagement twenty whites were killed and thirteen or fourteen taken prisoners and a number wounded. The bodies of Nicholas A. DeGraaf and Jacob Glen, Jr., were found lying in close contact with their savage antagonists, with whom they had wrestled in deadly strife. The corpses were taken to Schenectady the evening of the massacre and deposited in a large barn of Abraham Mabee, being the identical one now standing on the premises (1883) of Mrs. Benjamin in Church Street. The above account is interesting because it shows what perils the settlers had to undergo before they could establish a peaceful home for their families. The DeGraaf house, as seen from the cars, does not appear any different from many unpainted weather-worn houses to be seen by driving a few miles on any of the country roads that lead from the city except, perhaps, that the roof is higher and more pointed than those erected at a later date. In 1706 a new fort was erected near the site of the old fort, 70 The Mohawk Valley and called the Queen's Fort, and from that time until the com- mencement of the Revolution was garrisoned by British troops. From a Paris document we find the following description of Schenectady in 1757; Chenectedi, or Corlar, situated on the bank of the Mohawk River, is a village of about three hundred houses. It is surrounded by upright pickets, flanked from distance to distance. Entering the village by the gate on the Fort Hunter side, there is a fort to the right which forms a species of citadel in the interior of the village it- self. It is a square flanked with four bastions, or demi-bastions, and is constructed half of masonry and half of timbers, piled one over the other above the masonry. It is capable of holding two hundred men. There are some pieces of cannon as a battery on the ram- parts. It is not encircled by a ditch. The entrance is through a large swing gate, raised like a draw-bridge. By penetrating the village in attacking it at another point, the fire from the fort can be avoided. The greatest portion of the inhabitants of Chenectedi are Dutch. The presence of English soldiers probably suggested the occasional holding of the services of the Church of England for the English-speaking residents, as the Rev. Thomas Bar- clay, an English clergyman and missionary to the Mohawks from 1 708-1 7 1 2, says in 1710: " There is a convenient and well- built church at Schenectady, which they freely give me the use of." (The second building of the Dutch Church.) The natural increase of the English population as the years rolled by, called for a church of their own, but the com- paratively small number of English-speaking people, and the lack of means, delayed this for years, although the foundation was begun as early as 1759. It was not completed, however, until about 1767, and named St, George's Episcopal Church. It is said that the Presbyterians subscribed to its erection with the understanding that it should be used in common by Schonowe or Schenectady 11 both denominations. Sir William Johnson is known to have contributed liberally, and also obtained subscriptions from his friends — at one time sixty-one pounds and ten shillings from the Governors of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. This old stone church is still standing near the site of the Queen's Fort, beautiful and picturesque in its time-worn stone walls and quaint interior decorations. Eight miles above the city of Schenectady, on the south side of the Mohawk River and situated on the easterly half of what was termed the third flat in the original division of land under the Schenectady patent, is seen to-day an old brick house known as the Bradt house, erected in 1736. This house was built of brick, front and sides, and wood in the rear. In 1883 it presented the forlorn appearance of a vacant dwelling with its rotten roof, toppling chimneys, and broken windows, but to-day it presents a scene of rural beauty with its dormer windows and frame additions and general reno- vation, with the aid of paint and putty, together with its set- ting of foliage and flowers. I do not know that it is noted for anything but its antiquity. On the same flat, about a mile to the west of the eastern border of the little but old village of Rotterdam, is another dwelling, called the Mabie house, which holds itself remark- ably strait and prim in spite of its age. It is situated on a bluff on the edge of the Mohawk and at the concave side of a bend commanding a view of the river for a considerable distance in either direction. It is built of stone, with steep roof, which gives it the appearance of being one story on its sides and two stories and attic on its gable front. It still retains its windows with small panes of glass, the heavy exposed timbers in the lower story, and its outside doors in two parts. It is supposed to have been erected about 1680, making it 74 The Mohawk Valley the oldest house in the valley. On its south side, but de- tached from the main building, is a structure built of brick, also bearing the impress of antiquity. From its large brick ovens and appearance of general utility it is probable that it was used as a kitchen and servants' quarters. Professor Pearson says: " In view of the fact that a brick or stone wing across the end would connect the detached building and afford increased space with all modern conveni- ences and yet preserve unaltered this old ' hofstede ' to the Mabie family, and a time-honored landmark in the Mohawk Valley, its destruction would be regretted." wW «H^ m I Mm. Chapter V Immigration and Settlement of the Palatines AMONG the earliest settlers of the Mohawk Valley, after the Dutch Boers, were their kindred from the Palatinate. We call them kindred because they also received the name of Mohawk Dutch and assisted in the construction of that almost untranslatable language called " Mohawk Dutch," a mixture of German, Dutch, and Mo- hawk, making a dialect that when found in public documents proves a puzzle to philologists. The Story of the Palatines, by the Rev. Sanford H. Cobb, dedicated " To the Children of the Palatines, my Old Parish- ioners in the High Dutch Churches of Schoharie and Sauger- ties," is very interesting. While following the records of history strictly, he attempts to correct many impressions that have prevailed in regard to the social status of the immigration to the banks of the Hudson, in 1710. He protests against the term," poor Palatines," and quotes Mrs. Lamb's disparaging remarks by the side of Macaulay's description of the people. Mrs. Lamb says: These earlier German settlers were mostly hewers of wood and drawers of water, differing materially from the class of Germans who have since come among us, and bearing about the same rela- tion to the English, Dutch, and French settlers of their time, as the Chinese of to-day bear to the American population on the Pacific coast. Macaulay justly describes the same people as follows: 77 78 The Mohawk Valley " Honest, laborious men, who had once been thriving bur- gers of Manheim and Heidelberg, or who had cuhivated the vine on the banks of the Neckar and the Rhine, their in- genuity and their dih'gence could not fail to enrich any land which should afford them an asylum." They rather resembled the Huguenots, as they were driven from their homes by the armies of France, who laid waste their lands and destroyed their cities, and the persecutions of their own Palatine princes, who were alternately Calvinists, Lutherans, or Romanists. They came to this country for freedom to worship God, and the Calvinists and the Reformed built their churches side by side on the Hudson and on the Schoharie and Mohawk. The exodus of the Palatines bears some resemblance to the exodus of the children of Israel, from the fact that it seems to have been a movement of nearly the whole people. Some went to Holland, others to north Germany; but the larger number found their way to England, and thronged the streets of Lon- don to that extent that they were lodged in warehouses and barns, and in some instances buildings were erected, while on the Surrey side of the Thames one thousand tents were pitched, and the generous and charitably disposed people were taxed to the utmost to provide subsistence for this destitute army of immigrants. It became evident to Queen Anne and her advisers that something must be done to find employment or new homes for the wanderers. About five thousand were ab- sorbed in various employments within the kingdom, while nearly four thousand were sent over to Ireland, and about ninety-two families, or in the neighborhood of six hundred persons, were sent to the Carolinas in charge of a Swiss gentle- man named Christopher de Graffenreid, a native of Berne, who named the settlement Newberne. While the Palatines were yet in London there came to England an important delegation from the province of New Immigration and Settlement of Palatines 8i York, consisting of Peter Schuyler, then Mayor of Albany, and Colonel Nicholson, one of Her Majesty's officers in America, and five Mohawk sachems. Their mission was to urge the need of more generous measures on the part of the home government for the defence of the province against the French and their allied Indians. " The arrival of the sachems, in their barbaric costume, oc- casioned great observation throughout the kingdom. Crowds followed them in the streets, and small pictures of them were widely sold." The court was in mourning for the Prince of Denmark, and the Indians were dressed in black underclothes, but a scarlet ingrain cloth mantle was thrown over all other garments. The English and the Indians alike vvere delighted with the exhi- bitions. The guards were reviewed for their entertainment, and they were taken to see plays in the theatres. They were given an audience by the queen, to whom they presented belts of wampum, and represented that not only the English, but the friendly Indians needed a more efficient defence against the French. The reduction of Canada would be of great weight to their free hunting. It is said that in the walks of the Indian chiefs about the outskirts of London, they became interested in the homeless and houseless Palatines, and one of them voluntarily presented Queen Anne a tract of his land on the Schoharie, for the use and benefit of the distressed Germans. This was in 1709. The next year a colony of three thousand Palatines under the charge of Governor Robert Hunter, as " servants of the crown," sailed for the port of New York and settled on land provided for them near the Uvingston manor, and on the op- posite side of the Hudson at Saugerties. On this land, and under the direction of Governor Hunter, they attempted the production of turpentine, resin, or pitch, which proved a failure. Becoming dissatisfied with their lot, 6 82 The Mohawk Valley which was only a little less than slavery, they petitioned to be allowed to go to the promised land of " Schorie," which the Indians and Queen Anne had given them. Permission being refused, they rebelled and about fifty families migrated to the valley of " Schorie," as they called it, in the fall of 1712. In March, 1713. " the remainder of the people (treated by Gov- ernor Hunter as Pharaoh treated the Israelites) proceeded on their journey, and by God's assistance joined their friends and countrymen in the promised land of ' Schorie.' " They had hardly got settled in the several settlements, be- fore they found themselves again in trouble, with the " Gen- tlemen of Albany," and various other persons, who claimed the land by earlier grants from the Mohawks. Adam Vroo- man, the surviving hero of the massacre of Schenectady, was one of the settlers who came into conflict with the Palatines, also Lewis Morris, Jr., and Andries Coeymans. There is also an account of their treatment of Sheriff Adams, who at- tempted to serve papers on some of the Germans without a posse. The first attempt brought on a riot, in which the stalwart Palatine women took an active and leading part. Led by IMagdalena Zeh, the women attacked the sheriff, knocked him down and beat him; then they dragged him through the nastiest puddles of their barn- yards, and putting him on a rail, rode him skimmington through the settlements for seven miles or more, and finally left him with two broken ribs, on a bridge well out on the road to Albany. These continual conflicts made life a burden to the Pala- tines in their promised " Schorie," and at last, despairing of receiving justice from the authorities at Albany, a large num- ber of them, in 1722, accepted offers from Pennsylvania to lo- cate in that province. Probably about three hundred remained in the Schoharie Valley, some having already settled along the Mohawk, west of Schoharie River. Immigration and Settlement of Palatines S;^ I have before me a list of some of the Palatines located along the Mohawk and Schoharie rivers, and among them find names belonging to the most respected families, who are doubtless descendants of those sturdy Germans: Becker, Kneiskern, Conrad, Schnell (Snell), Nelles (Nellis), Young, Houck, Angell, Snyder, Wagner, Neff, Newkirk, Klein, Cline, Kline, Planck, Bronck, Timmerman, and a host of others. Chapter VI Queen Ann's Chapel THE delegation spoken of on page 8i was in England in the year 1708. At an audience given them by Queen Anne, among other requests, they prayed that Her Majesty should build them a fort and erect a church at their castle at the junction of the Schoharie and Mohawk rivers, called Tiononderoga. This she promised to do, and when Governor Robert Hunter arrived in New York in 1 7 10 he carried with him instructions to build forts and chapels for the Mohawks and Onondagas. These orders were carried out as far as the Mohawks were concerned and the fort named Fort Hunter, but the Onondaga Chapel was never built. The contract for the construction of the fort was taken October 11, 171 1, by Garret Symonce, Barant and Hendrick Vrooman, Jan Wemp, and Arent Van Patten, all of Sche- nectady. The walls were formed of logs, well pinned together, twelve feet high, the enclosure being one hundred and fifty feet square. Surrounded by the palisades of the fort and in the centre of the enclosure stood the historic edifice known as Queen Ann's Chapel. It was erected by the builders of the fort, being, in fact, part of their contract. It was built of limestone, was twenty-four feet square, and had a belfry. S4 Queen Anne's Chapel 85 The ruins of the fort were torn down at the befrinning- of the Revolution, and the chapel surrounded by heavy pali- sades, block-houses being built at each corner, on which can- non were mounted. It is said that soon after the erection of Queen Anne's Chapel the Dutch built a log " meeting-house " near what was afterwards know as Snook's Corners, but all trace of the build- ing long ago disappeared. The first missionaries to the Mo- hawks of whom we can find any account, who, under the auspices of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, connected with the Church of England, sent out to teach the Indians, were the Rev. Mr. Talbot, in 1702, fol- lowed shortly afterwards by the Rev. Thoroughgood Moore, in 1704. It is said that the Rev, Mr. Moore was driven away from Tiononderoga by the Indian traders and went to New Bruns- wick, Connecticut. He was so scandalized at the conduct of Governor Cornby and the Lieutenant-Governor that he re- fused to allow the Lieutenant-Governor to approach the table of the Lord's Supper, for which act he was arrested and im- prisoned in jail. He succeeded in escaping and took passage in a vessel sailing for England. As the vessel never reached its destination, it is supposed to have foundered in mid-ocean and all on board lost. The Rev. Thomas Barclay, chaplain of Fort Orange, in the city of Albany, was then called. He labored among the Mo- hawks from 1708 to 17 12, and was, in 1712, succeeded by the Rev, William Andrews. The parsonage or manse was built in 1712. The next record we find regarding Queen Anne's Chapel, is the purchase or grant from the Crown of a tract of land con- taining three hundred acres. I'his was called the Barclay tract and was granted to the Rev. Henry Barclay, November 27,1741, presumably for the benefit of Queen Anne's Chapel, and was afterwards known as Queen Anne's Chapel, " glebe," the term 86 The Mohawk Valley glebe being used to denote lands belonging to, or yielding revenue to a parish church, an ecclesiastical benefice. The records say that the Rev. Mr. Andrews was no more successful than his predecessors, and in 1719 abandoned his mission. The most cordial relations existed between the ministers of the Reformed Dutch Church, who also sent mis- sionaries from Albany to the Mohawk Indians, and the Epis- copal Church in their Indian mission work. After the Rev. Mr. Andrews abandoned his mission, the Church of England had no resident missionary among the Mohawks until the Rev. Henry Barclay came in 1735, being appointed catechist to the Indians at Fort Hunter. His stay with them was made very uncomfortable by the French war and the attitude of his neighbors. He had no interpreter and but poor support, and his life was frequently in danger. In 1745 he was obliged to leave Fort Hunter and in 1746 was appointed rector of Trinity Church, New York, where he died. The Rev. John Ogilvie was Dr. Barclay's successor. He commenced his work in March, 1749, and succeeded Dr. Barclay also at Trinity Church, New York, after the latter's death in 1764. Queen Anne's Chapel seems to have been a stepping-stone to the rectorship of Trinity Church. Sir William Johnson and the Rev. Mr, Inglis, of New York, obtained from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in the year 1770, the Rev. John Stuart, as missionary for service at Queen Anne's Chapel and vicinity. The Rev. John Stuart was a man of gigantic size and strength — over six feet high— called by the Mohawks " the little gen- tleman." He preached his first sermon at Indian Castle on Christmas Day, 1770. He had a congregation at the chapel of two hundred persons and upwards. In 1774 he was able to read the liturgy and the several offices of baptism, marriages, etc., to his flock in the language of the Mohawks. Queen Anne's Chapel 87 This practically is the end of our knowledge of Queen Anne's Chapel as a church. When we hear from it again it will be as a ruin. Right here it may be well to give a description of the same, as a church. We already know that it was built of limestone, was twenty-four feet square, and had a belfry. It also had a bell which was afterward placed in an institution of learning at Johnstown and did good service for a number of years until the building and the bell were destroyed by fire a few years ago. The entrance to the chapel was in the north side. The pulpit stood at the west and was provided with a sounding- board. There was also a reading-desk. Directly opposite the pulpit were two pews with elevated floors, one of which, with a wooden canopy, in later times was Sir William Johnson's; the other was for the minister's family. The rest of the con- gregation had movable benches for seats. The chapel had a veritable organ, the very Christopher Columbus of its kind, in all probability the first instrument of music of such dignity in all the wilderness west of Albany. It was over fifty years earlier than the erection of the Episcopal church at Johnstown, which had an organ brought from England, of very respectable size and great sweetness of tone, which continued in use up to the destruction of the church by fire in 1836. Queen Anne sent as furniture for the chapel: A communion table-cloth. Two damask napkins. A carpet for the communion table. An altar cloth. A small tasselled cushion for the pulpit. One Holland surplice. A small cushion for the desk. One larere Bible. 88 The Mohawk Valley Two common pra3'er books. One common prayer book for the clerk. A book of homilies. One large silver salver. Two large silver flagons. One silver dish. One silver chalice. Four paintings of Her Majesty's arms on canvas, one for the chapel and three for the different IMohawk castles. Twelve large octavo Bibles bound for use of the chapels among the Mohawks and Onondagas. Two painted tables containing the Lord's Prayer, Creed, and Ten Commandments, " at more than twenty guineas expense." A candelabrum, with nine sockets, arranged in the form of a triangle, an emblem of the Trinity, and a cross, both of brass, were in the parsonage many years, but, regarded as use- less, were, in our late civil war, melted and sold for old metal. In 1877 the manse was still standing and in a fair state of preservation, though parts of the woodwork showed signs of de- cay. At the present time it has the appearance of a very dura- ble stone building with main entrance to the south. It is two stories high and about twenty-five by thirty-five feet in size. The walls are thick, making the recesses of the quaint old windows very deep, the glass being six by eight and the sash in one piece. The glass for the windows and the bricks for the single large chimney were brought from Holland. On the east end of the building and over the cellar arch the characters ** 1712 " are still legible. In 1888 the late owner, Mr. DeWitt Devendorf, repaired the old parsonage and tore down the old chimney and very thoughtfully presented about fifty of the old Dutch brick to St. Ann's Church, Amsterdam, N. Y. , the lineal descendant f^B^'P'ni'^'W^^f^^^' Queen Anne's Chapel 91 of Queen Anne's Chapel and the principal recipient of the funds derived from the sale of the old glebe farms. On June 8, 1790, Rev. Mr. Ellison preached at Fort Hunter. He says: " The church is in a wretched condition, the pulpit, reading-desk, and two of the pews only being left, the win- dows being destroyed, the floor demolished, and the walls cracked." Except on a few occasions by the Rev. Mr. Dempster, the chapel had not been used for a number of years, when it was demolished about the year 1820, to give place to the Erie Canal. The roof was burned off to get its stone walls, the stone being used in constructing guard-locks for the canal near its site. It is said that at the beginning of the Revolu- tion the silver service, curtains, fringes, gold lace, and other fixtures of the chapel were put in a hogshead by the Mohawks and buried on the side of the hill south of the Boyd Hudson Place near Auriesville, N. Y. At the close of the war, when found by sounding with irons rods, it was discovered that the silver service had been removed and the cask reburied, but by whom or when it was never known. Most of the articles re- maining were so damaged by moisture as to be unfit for use. The question is often asked why was not the old canal con- structed in the same straight line that the new canal follows in passing through Fort Hunter ? At the time the old canal was built, about 1820, there was a bridge across the Schoharie just above the chapel, and the channel was diverted from a straight line, passed through the site of the chapel, and the building destroyed in order to make use of the bridge in towing the boats across the stream at this point, as it was deemed more economical to destroy this historic landmark than go to the expense of building a new bridge. Commenting upon this act at the present time we call it vandalism, but you must remember that in those days there 92 The Mohawk Valley were no churchmen in that locality, and that its roof had been a " refuge from the storm " for the sheep and cattle that were pastured on the land near by. For years the voice of prayer and thanksgiving had been hushed, and instead of the solemn notes of the deep-toned organ within walls that had echoed alike to the song of praise and the war cry of the Mohawks, naught was heard but the lowing of cattle and the plaintive call of the sheep for its young. We condemn this act of vandalism, but are we in our day any more careful to preserve the old land- marks around which cling so many sweet and tender memories. With the assistance of Trinity Church, New York, an Epis- copal church was erected in 1835 at Port Jackson, (the present fifth ward of Amsterdam, N. Y.), and maintained with the assistance of funds derived from the sale of Queen Anne Chapel glebe farms. This church was named St. Ann. The church of Port Jackson seems to have had a hard struggle for existence, probably on account of its locality. During the rectorship of Rev. A. N. Littlejohn (the lately deceased Bishop of Long Island) the edifice was sold and steps taken to erect a stone building on Division Street, Amsterdam, N. Y. The building of this little stone church marked an era in church building in Amsterdam, which previous to its erection were of the plain, unpretentious style of the fore part of the nineteenth century. Even in its unfinished state, no one could look at its gray walls and Gothic arches without seeing its possibilities for beauty when completed. The building of 185 1 was of Gothic style, the nave only being constructed. A wide aisle in the centre led up to the narrow chancel in the north end. The chancel rail enclosed the altar-table with a modest reredos behind it and the reading-desk on the west side of it. Outside of the rail, and a little in advance from it on the east side, stood a small octagonal elevated pulpit. In the rear. Queen Anne's Chapel 93 or south end, of the church and over the vestibule, the choir was located. The first organ, purchased in 1841, was bought in New York City, was second hand, and the name of the maker has been forgotten. A new organ was purchased in 1874 of Johnson and Co., Westfield, Mass., for $1500. This organ is still in use in the new church. The present edifice was repaired and enlarged in 1888 to accommodate a largely increased congregation. The interior is spacious, the whole depth being about one hundred and thirty feet, and width sixty-five feet, with nave, north and south aisles, and choir. It is lighted with numerous windows painted to represent scenes in the life of Christ and emblems of Christianity. All, or nearly all, of the windows are in me- moriam and are beautifully executed. Approaching the church from the east the eye rests on the green, well-kept lawn, with here and there a tall maple or elm springing from its surface in pleasing irregularity. Through their branches we catch a glimpse of the little stone church and tower, which partially hides from view the main body of the edifice. Then we see a portion of the stone pillars of a •Grecian porch with its iron railings and gateway. A few steps more and the panorama is complete and the whole south front of the church is in view. The gray walls of the older portion when compared to the completed church is " as moon- light unto sunlight and as water unto wine." The dull red of the superstructure, the rough ashler of the gray stone walls peeping through the dense foliage of the Jap- anese ivy, the green carpet of the lawn, dotted here and there with trees of venerable age, whose branches " half conceal yet half reveal" the grandeur of the completed edifice, make a picture that no artist can ever reproduce. As the visitor enters the church at the western or main en- trance, the heavy oaken doors and bare stone walls of the 94- The Mohawk Valley vestibule impress one with the idea of soHdity, and the view of the interior after passing the swinging baize doors, is in a de- gree a surprise. The low aisles on each side with slender pillars, and the lofty nave with its graceful arches, with colors of gray and brown, and blue and brilHant tints of the beautiful windows, give a feeling of rest to the beholder; and as the eye wanders and is finally held by the graceful choir, a little som- bre perhaps, in the distance, relieved somewhat by the glitter of lecturn and pulpit, its churchliness impresses one, and the thought of the visitor might well be, " truly this is the house of God." From Oronhyatekha, the Supreme Chief Ranger of the Foresters of Canada and descendant from the Mohawks of Tiononderoga, and from Rev. R. Ashton, the present incum- bent of the Mohawk Church at Brantford, Ontario, Canada, I have received the following information: It appears that the communion service that Queen Anne sent to the Mohawks Vv'as buried on their old reservation at Fort Hunter during the Revolution, and remained there some years or until the Mohawks became settled in the reservation near Brantford (1785), and on the Bay of Ouinte; then a party was sent back, resurrected the plate, and brought it back to Canada. For a period of twenty-two years prior to July, 1897, the plate was safely kept by Mrs. J. M, Hill, the grand- daughter of the celebrated chief, Capt. Joseph Brant, whose mother was the original custodian, having kept it from the time of its arrival in Canada till her death. Of course the custodian was required to take the com- munion plate to the church on communion days. Later the Mohawks were presented with a communion set, after which the Queen Anne plate was only used on state occasions. In 1785 some of the Mohawks settled at the Bay of Quinte Queen Anne's Chapel 97 and the larger body on Grand River, Brantford. The Rev. John Stuart, D.D., who had been their missionary at Fort Hunter and fled to Canada with the Indians and Tories, was appointed to the charge of both bands, and a church was built at both places by King George III, The plate was then divided; it consisted of seven pieces, two flagons, two chal- ices, two patens, and one alms basin. To the Grand River band was given the alms basin and one each of the other pieces, also a large Bible. The Indians at the Bay of Quinte have a flagon, paten, and chalice in the hands of Mrs. John Hill, at Deseronto, Canada, The chalice at Grand River is much bent, the other pieces are in good order, as is also the Bible. Each piece of plate is inscribed: " The Gift of Her Majesty Ann, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, ffrance and Ireland and Her Plantations in North America, Queen, to Her Indian Chappel of the Mohawks." The Bible, printed in 1701, is in good con- dition and bears on the cover, " For Her Majesty's Church of the Mohawks, 1712." This plate has a value aside from its intrinsic value, as ex- plained by Rev. R. Ashton : You are probably aware that all pure silver plate manufactured in England is stamped by the Government, which stamp is called the " hall mark," which indicates that the article is of standard sil- ver or standard gold. From March, 1696, to June, 1720, Britannia and the lion's head erased, were substituted for leopard's head crowned and the lion passant on silver, which both before and since have been in use as the " hall mark." All silver bearing the former mark (and it is plainly seen on every piece of the Mohawk and Onondaga silver), is greatly prized, and is termed Queen Anne silver. Chapter VII Count Frontenac and the Mohawk Valley COUNT DE FRONTENAC, who was twice Governor of Canada, is so closely connected with the history of the Mohawk Valley by his warlike expeditions against the Iroquois and the massacre of the inhabi- tants of Schenectady, that we cannot write the history of the valley without frequent mention of his name. He was born in France in 1620, and in early manhood served in the French army and distinguished himself in a war against the Turks. In 1648 he married Anne de LaGrange Trianon against her father's wishes. She was a favorite com- panion of Mademoiselle de Montpensier, Princess of Orleans, and was one of the beauties of the Court of Louis XV. The happiness of the newly wedded pair was of short duration, as love, on her part at least, soon changed to aversion, and after the birth of a son, the countess left her husband, to follow the fortunes of Mademoiselle de Montpensier. In 1672 Count de Frontenac received the appointment of Governor of all New France. It is said that he accepted the appointment to deliver him- self from the imperious temper of his wife and afford him some means of living. Another story is that he had found favor in the eyes of Madame de Montespan, one of the favorites of Louis XIV., and the jealous King appointed him Governor of New France to get him away from Madame. Frontenac's administration was vigorous and satisfactory. Count Frontenac and the Mohawk Valley 99 but coming in contact with the Jesuits was recalled in 1681, and a new Governor, named La Fevre de la Barre, appointed in his place. The affairs of New France soon going from bad to worse under the new administration of LaBarre, he was also recalled, and Marquis de Denonvi^le assumed the vacant of^ce. The new Governor soon found himself involved in a war with the Iro- quois of such magnitude that the colony of New France was brought to the brink of ruin. He, also, was recalled, and Frontenac again made Governor. It is said that his wife used her influence in having him appointed the second time, in order to get him out of the country. This was in 1689. Frontenac entered into the campaign of 1690 with vigor, and sent three war parties of French and Indians against the Eng- lish, one against Albany, which was diverted, and resulted in the massacre of Schenectady, one against the border settle- ments of New Hampshire, and the third to those of Maine, all of which were successful in murdering defenceless men, women, and children. In 1696 Frontenac organized the famous expedition against the Onondagas and Oneidas, for the purpose of exterminating them, and thereby conquering the Iroquois. On the 4th of July of that year he left Montreal at the head of about twenty- two hundred men, about one-third of whom were Canadian Indians. The result of that expedition is well known to his- tory, and may be called a failure in more ways than one. It is said that the destruction of the Indian villages was secondary to the real object of this expedition. It may be stated here that Frontenac, when he arrived at the Onondaga villages, found nothing but burned and deserted ruins and the Indians* standing crops. These he destroyed and took up his march home again. It is said that the Count was so infirm that he was carried most of the way on a litter. 7 loo The Mohawk Valley Tradition says that in one of the periodical raids of the Mohawks on their foes, the Algonquins, during the absence of Frontenac in France, they secured a number of prisoners, among whom was a beautiful half-breed girl that Frontenac had a paternal interest in, and who had received the rudiments of education by his efforts. Every effort had been made in vain during occasional ces- sations of hostilities between the French and the Mohawks to recover this child. But beyond the report of a wandering Jesuit, that he had seen a Christian captive living contentedly as the wife of a young Mohawk chief, he had not been able to hear from his nut-brown daughter. The real object of the expedition of 1696 was to recover this child, whom he had learned to love. We will now trace this child from her home in Canada to her new home on the banks of the Mohawk River. The usual route of war parties between Canada and the Mohawk and Hudson valleys was by the way of Lake Cham- plain as far as Ballston, where the trail divided, one striking the Mohawk at Schenectady, another through Glenville to Lewis Creek at Adriuche, and another through Galway and down the Juchtanunda Creek. It is probable that the latter route was taken by the party of Mohawks with the half-breed daughter of Count Frontenac, as one of the captives. At that time she was about sixteen years old, of medium height, well developed, and just budding into womanhood ; her black hair and eyes, her erect form and firm step, while on the march, were indicative of her Huron mother and forest training, while the clear complexion, with its dusky hue, and the large, half-closed eyes and dignity of carriage, proclaimed the sin of her father. While encamped near the division of the trail at Ballston the warriors were joined by an Indian hunting party well laden with the spoils of the chase. FALLS ON THE SOUTH CHUCTANUNDA Count Frontenac and the Mohawk Valley 103 The leader of the hunting party, Achawi, a young Indian already noted in his tribe for his courage and skill in battle and his wisdom in council, was a model of savage beauty. His tall, well-proportioned form and well-poised head, his long black hair flowing from under a band of eagle feathers, his piercing black eyes and noble features unadorned with the war paint that marred the faces of his companions, were enhanced by the picturesque costume he wore. Over the short leggings which left his shapely limbs bare half-way above the knee, hung a heavy beaded skirt of buckskin, while depending from the left shoulder, and passing under the right arm, leaving the upper part of the breast bare, was a short robe of otter. Out- side the robe on his right side hung a highly ornamented bow and quiver of arrows, and his feet were covered with beaded moccasins. His name, Achawi (settler of disputes), would indicate that he was a man of more than ordinary ability in the councils of his tribe at Tiononderoga (Fort Hunter). As soon as the identity of the newcomers was established, the party assumed the usual stoical indifference of Indians, al- though their advent, well ladened with fresh venison, was wel- come to the weary and hungry warriors and their captives. Oneta and her female companions were seated near the fire, their forms well covered with blankets, and did not at- tract the attention of Achawi, but out from the folds that covered her head, Oneta gazed with increasing interest on the form of this young warrior, who, compared with her war- stained and painted captors, with their belts decorated with the scalps of her slain friends, seemed like a creature from another world. On the following morning the young maiden was early awake, and hastened to the stieam to wash away tiie stains of travel and pay additional care to the details of her simple toilet. Returning slowly through the forest, her eyes radiant and her cheeks glowing from her ablution, she became I04 The Mohawk Valley aware of the approach of the young warrior. No wonder this untutored son of the forest gazed entranced at the vision that so unexpectedly appeared before him. Her beautiful form, but scantily covered by the simple robe worn by the denizens of the forest, was revealed in all its beauty of outline; her long black hair, bound with a band of silver across her forehead, and the tresses brought forward, half concealed yet half re- vealed the beauty of her naked arm and shoulder. Hastily drawing her blanket around her she returned his gaze of ad- miration with a smile that disclosed her pearly teeth and her delight at the accidental meeting. It was a case of love at first sight and after a few words in the Huron language they returned together to the camp, and found preparation being made for immediate departure for the Mohawk River, where they arrived in a drizzling rain at nightfall and at once found shelter along the shore " under the hanging rocks of the Juchtanunda. Some of the party, however, were soon sent forward to procure boats to convey the captive women to Tiononderoga. In the morning, the canoes having arrived, Achawi was placed in charge of one of the canoes containing the women, one of whom was Oneta, and improved his opportunity by making love to the stranger. Arriving at Tiononderoga it was decided that the canoe of Achawi should continue to Kan- yeageh and that Oneta should be placed in the family of the aunt of Kateri Tekakwitha, who was formerly a Huron captive. Although Oneta pined for her home on the St. Lawrence, the presence of the Jesuit Father De Lamberville and the frequent visits of Achawi made her life on the Mohawk more bearable than if she had been left entirely to the mercy of the fretful aunt of Tekakwitha. Although Indian maids had occupied Achawi's lodge for a Count Frontenac and the Mohawk Valley 107 limited period in experimental marriages, which was made law- ful by custom, he had never met a maiden before that he was willing to take as his wife. It was not long therefore before he gained the consent of Oneta and, with the blessing of Father De Lamberville, and according to the simple rites of his tribe, he took her to his lodge at Tiononderoga. The repeated attempts made by the Count to regain his daughter kept them in constant fear that he would at last suc- ceed, and it was on this account that Achawi removed his lodge to a secluded glen near the Juchtanunda, within the limits of the present city of Amsterdam. This precaution was well taken, for in 1693 Count Frontenac sent an expedition against the Mohawks, destroyed their three castles or villages, and three hundred men, women, and children were taken pris- oners, hoping that among them he might find his lost daugh- ter. This expedition was pursued by General Schuyler and a party of Mohawks, and narrowly escaped destruction. The fleeing Frenchmen reached the Hudson, where, to their dis- may, they found the ice breaking up and drifting down the stream. Happily for them a large sheet of it became wedged at a turn of the river forming a temporary bridge, over which they crossed in safety. Among the border scouts and traders that were scattered along the valley of the Mohawk was a renegade Fleming by the name of Hanyost. In early youth he had deserted from the French ranks in Flanders, came to New France, after- ward made his way down to the Dutch settlements on the Hudson, and later became domiciled among the Mohawks, and adopted the life of a hunter. Up to this time he had been faithful to the interests of the Dutch settlers and the Mo- hawks, and was aware of the presence in the valley of Count Frontenac's half-caste daughter, and of the efforts of the count to recover her. io8 The Mohawk Valley Previous to the expedition of the French against the Onon- dagas, Hanyost had a difficulty with an Indian trapper which had been referred for arbitration to the young Mohawk chief, Achawi (settler of disputes) and had felt aggrieved at the award that had been given against him. The scorn with which the young chief met his charge of unfairness stung him to the soul, but fearing the strong arm of the young savage he had nursed his revenge in secret. Hearing of the presence of Frontenac on the shores of Lake Ontario he deserted his friends and offered his services to the count as guide, at the same time informing him of the where- abouts of his daughter and her husband. Achawi, ignorant of the hostile force that had entered his country, was off with his party at a summer camp near Kon- nediega, or Trenton Falls. Hanyost having informed the com- mander of the French forces that by surprising this party he would be able to recover his long-lost daughter, Frontenac at once detached a small but efficient force from the main body of the army to strike the blow. It is said that a dozen mus- keteers, with twenty-five pikemen led by Baron de Baken- court and Chevalier de Grais, the former having the chief command, were sent upon this duty, with Hanyost to guide them to the village of Achawi. Just before dawn of the second day, the party found themselves in the neighborhood of the Indian village, and at once made preparations for an attack while yet the savages were wrapped in repose. The baron, after carefully examining the hilly passes, de- termined to head the attack, while Chevalier de Grais, with Hanyost to mark out his prey, should pounce upon the chief- tain's wife. The followers were warned not to injure the female captives, but to give no quarter to their defenders. The inhabitants of the fated village, secure in their isolated Count Frontenac and the Mohawk Valley 109 situation, had neglected all precautions against surprise, and were aroused from slumber with the whizzing of hand gre- nades, which set fire to the main row of frail wigwams which formed the little street, and kindled the dry mats stretched over them into instant flames. And then, as the startled warriors leaped, all naked and unarmed from the blazing lodges, they found themselves surrounded by the French pikemen. Waiting only for a volley from the musketeers, the soldiers rushed upon the wretched savages, slaughtering them. Many there were, however, who, with Achawi at their head, acquit- ted themselves like warriors. Snatching their weapons from the flames, they sprang upon the pikemen vv^th irresistible fury. Their heavy war-clubs beat down and splintered the fragile spears of the Frenchmen, while their corselets rang with the blows of tomahawk and knife. De Grais, in the meantime, watched the shrieking forms of the females, expecting each moment to see the pale features of the Christian captive. The Mohawks began now to wage a more successful resistance, and just when the fight was raging hottest he saw a tall warrior disengage himself from the melee and dash upon and brain, with his tomahawk, a French- man who had also separated himself from his party. The quick eye of De Grais caught a glimpse of a lithe female form, with an infant in her arms, in pursuit of whom the luckless Frenchman met his death by the strong arm of Achawi. It was the wife of Achawi fleeing to the hills for safety. De Grais raised his pistol to fire at the chieftain, when the track of the flying girl brought her directly in his line of sight, and he held his fire. Achawi, in the meantime, had been cut off from his people by the soldiers, who closed in upon the space which his terri- ble arm had a moment before kept open. Seeing the hopeless- ness of his position, he made a dash at his foes with his no The Mohawk Valley war-club, fairly cleaving a path to his fleeing wife, and with arms outstretched to protect her from the dropping shots of the enemy, he bounded after her, and before De Grais and Han- yost, with seven others fairly got in pursuit, Achawi, who still kept behind his wife, was far in advance of the pursuing party. Her forest training had made Oneta fleet of foot, and hearing the cheering voice of her loved warrior behind her, she urged her flight over crag and fell, and soon reached the head of a rocky pass which it would take some moments for any but an American forester to climb. Lifting his wife to the ledge above, he placed her infant in her arms, and bade her speed her way to the cavern among the hills. Achawi looked a mo- ment after her retreating form, and then coolly swung himself to the ledge which commanded the pass. His tomahawk and war-club had been lost in the strife, but he still carried at his back his bow and quiver. There were but three arrows in the quiver, and the Mohawk was determined to have the life of an enemy in exchange for each of them. Placing himself behind a rock that partly concealed his form, he strung his bow, and fitting an arrow to the string, he aimed at the foremost soldier that was climbing the crags be- low. With the swiftness of a bullet the arrow took its flight and buried itself in the throat of its victim, who fell, dislodg- ing two of his comrades in his fall, and temporarily checking pursuit. Achawi, waiting until the soldiers were again ad- vancing, sent another arrow in their midst, with almost the same result. Fitting his last arrow to the string, he raised his bow, but before he could fire, a shot from the gun of Hanyost struck his thumb, disablinj? it. Again fleeing, he took a different direction from that taken by his wife, hoping to draw the soldiers in pursuit of himself until she should reach a place of safety. After a while he observed that three of the soldiers were following him, while De Grais, Hanyost, and one of the Count Frontenac and the Mohawk Valley 1 1 1 pikemen were taking a direct route to the cavern, with Han- yost in the lead, who was undoubtedly aware of the situation of this hidden rendezvous, and rightly guessed the ruse of Achawi. The young Mohawk at once saw the object of Hanyost, and quick as thought took a few steps within the thicket to still mislead his pursuers, bounded across a mountain torrent, leaving his footmarks in its banks, and then turned shortly on a rock beyond, re-crossed the stream, and concealed himself behind a fallen tree, until his pursurers had passed by on the false trail. A rocky hillock now only divided him from the point to which he had directed his wife by another route, and to which Hanyost and his party were urging their way. Springing from crag to crag, the hunted warrior at last planted his foot on the roots of a blasted oak, that shot its limbs above the cavern, just as his wife, with her babe clasped to her bosom, sank exhausted within the shadows of the cavern. Looking down, he saw De Grais and his followers making a laborious ascent of the crags below, with Hanyost in advance, and De Grais and the mustketeer close behind. The scout, who had evidently caught sight of the exhausted female at the mouth of the cavern, gave an exultant cry. God help thee, bold archer! the game of life is nearly up; thy quiver is empty. In his agony at the thought of his wife, he raised his bow and became aware that the forgotten arrow was clasped in his bleeding fingers. Although his stiffened thumb forbade its use, Achawi fitted the remaining arrow to the string, prepared to take the life of one more of his enemies if possible. Bracing his knee upon the flinty rock, while the muscles of his body swelled as if all of its energies were em- bodied in this supreme effort, he drew the arrow back with his two fingers, without the use of his bleeding thumb, and aimed at the treacherous scout. The twanging bowstring dismissed 112 The Mohawk Valley his last arrow straight to the heart of Han3'ost. The dying wretch clutched the sword chain of De Grais, and the two went rolling down the glen together; and De Grais was not unwilling to abandon the pursuit when the musketeer, hasten- ing to his assistance, had disengaged him, bruised and bloody, from the rigid embrace of the corpse. Achawi, descending from his cavern, collected the rem- nants of his band and wreaked terrible vengeance upon the murderers, most of whom they cut off before they could join the main body of the French army. Count Frontenac returned to Canada and died in 1698, and the existence of his half-caste daughter was soon forgotten. Chapter VIII Sir William Johnson IN examining the early records of history, particularly the colonial and documentary history of New York, I was impressed with the fact that Sir William Johnson filled a very large place in the history of the colony between 1740 and the time of his death in 1774. We are apt to connect Sir William's life with Johnstown, N, Y., and forget that although he founded and practically created the village that was named for him, he lived there only eleven years, during which time he was occupied in building up the village, erecting churches, court-house, jail, and his own spacious mansion. But in fact twenty-four years of his manhood were passed in this valley, and for twenty of those years he lived in the old stone mansion sometimes called Mount Johnson, and now called Fort Johnson, within a mile of the city of Amsterdam. It was probably here that his wife, Catherine Weisenberg, died, but the date is not known. It was from a Mr. Phillips who lived opposite Cranesville, that he purchased the Ger- man girl who afterward became his wife and the mother of his legitimate children. Sir William came to the valley in 1738, and soon after purchased the German girl Catherine for a housekeeper. They were probably married by the Rev. Dr. Henry Barclay, then the rector in charge of Queen Anne's Chapel at Fort Hunter. In 1742 his son, John Johnson, was born, probably in Warrensbush, as Sir Peter Warren's estate 113 114 The Mohawk Valley of fourteen thousand acres in the present town of Florida was then called. It was in Fort Johnson, built in 1743, that Molly Brant presided as mistress and it was here that most of the confer- ences with the Iroquois were held and here Sir William gained influence over them on account of his kind and strictly honorable treatment of those warlike tribes. It was here that he was made superintendent of the Indians and, in 1746, in- vested by the Mohawks with the rank of a chief of that nation. In Indian costume he shortly after led the tribe to a council at Albany. It was at this house in 1755 that he held a council with the Iroquois which resulted in about two hundred and fifty of their warriors following him to victory over the French at the battle of Lake George. It was from this mansion that most of the letters on col- onial affairs were written by Sir William to His Majesty King George II. and to the governor of the colony and the lords of the board of trade. Here also were born his two daughters, Nancy and Mary. Whatever may be said of Sir William's private life, no one can read those letters without being impressed with the honesty of purpose of the writer. While frauds were being practised on the Indians by the land-grabbing officials at Albany and elsewhere, Johnson, was firm in his desire that the Iroquois should not be cheated but should be dealt with justly. And while fraudulent grants, like the seven hundred thousand acres Kayaderosseras grant, were obtained with ease, he would not claim or occupy any land that was not justly granted to him by his friends the Indians. We remember Sir William Johnson as a loyalist, and as a friend of the savages who a little later spread terror through- out the Mohawk Valley. But we must not forget that Sir SIK WILLIAM JOHNSON, BAKT. , I715-I774 "5 Sir William Johnson 117 William Johnson died in 1774, and that it was Sir John John- son and Col. Guy Johnson and the Butlers who were respon- sible for many of the savage acts of the Indians in the Mohawk Valley and vicinity, and that it was Col. Guy John, son, the founder of Guy Park, who alienated the Six Nations from the colonists. In reading the acts of Sir William and becoming ac- quainted with his character as it shows forth in his letters, I do not hesitate to say that if he had lived and sided with the colonists, his name would have been written on the pages of history side by side with that of George Washington and other heroes of the Revolution. In Frothingham's history of Montgomery County is found the following paragraph : Had Sir William lived it is confidently believed he would have espoused the cause of the colonies against the mother country, in which event one of the most magnificent estates in the country would have been confirmed to him, but his successors, and particu- larly his son John, allied themselves to the British, and as a result the estate was confiscated and sold for the public benefit. Sir John Johnson, who occupied Fort Johnson after Sir William moved to Johnson Hall, Johnstown, in 1763, was a man of different character from his father. He and his brothers-in-law, Guy Johnson and Daniel Claus, were crea- tures of the King, having no sentiment in cominon with the people. " He was a bloodthirsty and relentless enemy, com- bining the worst elements of toryism with the inhuman meth- ods of war only resorted to by savages." Simms says: " He was not the amiable-tempered, social, and companionable man his father was and hence was not the welcome guest in all society that his father had been." In early life, while living at Fort Johnson, he wooed, won, but did not wed Miss Clara Putnam, a very pretty girl of good ii8 The Mohawk Valley family at Tribes Hill, by whom he had two children, a son and a daughter. Miss Putnam was keeping house for him at the old Fort Johnson mansion when he married Miss Mary Watts, of New York City, on June 29, 1773, but before his re- turn from New York Miss Putnam and her children were sent into the town of Florida. The son, when he grew up, was nicely established by his father in some kind of business in Canada, and the daughter, who was said to have been a tall, beautiful girl, and at one time quite a belle in the valley, mar- ried a James Van Home, by whom she had one or more chil- dren. She had dark hair and dark eyes, was brunette in complexion, and was graceful in her carriage. Only a few years after her marriage, while visiting friends at Tribes Hill, she ate too freely of fruit, became sick, and died suddenly, universally lamented. Late in life Sir John Johnson (he was sixty-seven years old) sent word to Miss Clara Putnam to come to Canada at a certain time (which was chosen in the absence of his wife), and he would give her some property. She went in the summer of 1809. He at that time gave her $1200 in money and pur- chased a house and lot for her in Schenectady. She died about the year 1840. In Griffis's Life of Sir William yohnson we find the follow- ing account of " the brown Lady Johnson." After the death of his wife, Catherine, Sir William lived with various mistresses, as tradition avers, but after a year or two of such life, dismissed them for a permanent housekeeper — Molly Brant, the sister of Joseph Brant, the noted Indian chief. According to the local traditions of the valley, Johnson first met the pretty squaw when about sixteen years old at a militia muster at or near Fort Johnson. In jest, she asked an officer to let her ride behind him. He assented, returning fun for fun. To his surprise she leaped like a wild cat upon A WINDOW IN THE OLD CHURCH AT GKRMAN KLATTS 119 Sir William Johnson 121 the space behind the saddle, holding on tightly, with hair fly- ing and garments flapping, while the excited horse dashed over the parade ground. The crowd enjoyed the sight, but the most interested spectator was Sir William, who, admiring her spirit, resolved to make her his paramour. From this time Molly Brant, the handsome squaw, was Johnson's companion. Molly Brant was undoubtedly a woman of ability, and with her Johnson lived happily. She presided over Fort Johnson and later Johnson Hall at Johns- town, and became the mother of a large brood of his natural children, and as " the brown Lady Johnson " she was always treated with respect by the white guests and visitors. While Molly Brant presided over the mansion, and her dusky children attended the manor school, the daughters of Johnson and Catherine Weisenberg, Nancy and Mary, were trained under the care of a governess, who made them ac- quainted with the social graces of London and the standard literature of England.' Nancy, his first daughter, married a son of a German Pala- tine and a noted Indian fighter named Daniel Claus, in July, 1762. Mary married her cousin, Guy, a nephew of Sir Wil- liam, and later Colonel Guy Johnson, in 1763. The mansion now known as Guy Park in the western part of the city of Amsterdam was built for Colonel Guy and his wife by Sir William in 1766, and was occupied by them until their removal to Canada during the Revolution. ' These two daughters, who were left by their dying mother to the care of a friend, were educated almost in solitude. They were carefully instructed in religious duties, and in various kinds of needlework, but were themselves kept entirely from society. At the age of sixteen they had never seen a lady, except their mother and her friend (who was the widow of an English officer), or a gen- tleman except Sir William, who visited their room daily. Their dress was not conformed to the fashions, but always consisted of wrappers of finest chintz over green silk petticoats. Their hair, which was long and beautiful, was tied with a simple band of ribbon. After their marriage they soon acquired the habits of society, and made excellent wives. — Lossi.ng. 122 The Mohawk Valley A mansion not quite as pretentious was built for Colonel Claus and wife about a mile east of Fort Johnson. It was located opposite the present Boulevard Hotel. The house was burned down subsequently, but the ruins of the founda- tion and the old brick oven were to be seen up to within a few years. Subsequently a tavern was erected on the same lot and on part of the old foundation, and was known as the Charley Chase Hotel. All trace of this old building is entirely obliterated. Since writing the above, accident has thrown in my way some new material in reference to the family of Sir William Johnson. The facts were transmitted to me by one of the descendants, a man of undoubted ability and probity of char- acter, and they furnish a missing link between Catherine Weis- enberg and Molly Brant. It seems that Molly Brant had a predecessor in the affections of Sir William, in the grand- daughter or grand-niece of King Hendrick. She bore to Sir William two daughters, and died in childbirth with a third, in 1753. This woman took the English name of Caroline, and her daughters were named Charlotte and Caroline. Charlotte Johnson married Henry Randall, a subaltern in the King's Royal Provincial Regiment, about two years before the war of the Revolution. When the war came on he resigned from the King's service and entered Schuyler's Regiment of Militia, He afterwards joined Clinton's Regiment of Continentals, and was killed at Monmouth Court House. Charlotte accom- panied her husband to Albany, turning her back forever on her kith and kin. She had two children, one named Charlotte Randal], who married George King. They had a daughter, Charlotte King, who was the grandmother of my informant. The other daughter of Sir William Johnson by Molly Brant's predecessor, named CaroHne, is said to have married Walter N. Butler, who was killed at West Canada Creek in 1781. Chapter IX Guy Park and Fort Johnson SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON, when he built Guy Park mansion for his nephew, Guy Johnson, and his wife, Mary, the second daughter of Sir WiUiam, set apart a mile square of his large tract of land to be connected therewith. The easterly line of this farm formerly extended to the sand hole on West Main Street and the westerly line to the creek that runs into the river near Steadwell Avenue in the cit)^ of Amsterdam. He also gave to his daughter Nancy, the wife of Colonel Daniel Glaus, a similar tract of land, extending from said creek west, until it met the mile square of the Fort Johnson farm at Dove Creek, which runs from a ravine through Jacob Lepper's farm, near the brick schoolhouse on the turnpike at Fort Johnson. It is of this ravine that I wish to speak at this time. The mouth of this gorge has, in the course of many years, been widened by the stream spoken of (which at times becomes a furious torrent), leaving a fertile flat of a number of acres, pro- tected from the storms and cold winds by the hills and forests which almost surround it ; but being open to the south, it re- ceives the benefit of the light and heat of the sun, tempered somewhat by cool breezes which blow from the upper ravine in the rear. The hills on the west are at an elevation of about two hundred feet above the Mohawk River, being on the five- hundred-feet level. North of the flat the creek winds through these wooded hills with many an abrupt turn. 123 124 The Mohawk Valley Crossing the creek to the western bank, in a recent visit to this place, we ascended to the highest point of the hills on the west, with " painful steps and slow," and were well repaid for our labor. We found ourselves on a comparatively level plateau, except that at the outer edge of one side is a higher ridge extending north and south, while from the outer edge of this ridge is a very steep declivity to the creek far down below. This ridge has long been known as an Indian burying-ground, on account of the mounds that were scattered over its surface. But instead of mounds we found excavations, and from the nature of the holes we were somewhat in doubt whether to call them graves or cornpits. By cutting into the side of one of the excavations (which was about three feet deep and straight down) we laid bare a strata of discolored earth, mixed with bits of charcoal. The plateau is surrounded by steep de- clivities except at one point, where it connects with the cleared farm land to the west. From the ridge spoken of, there are three separate " hogsbacks " lunning to the west, north, and northeast, and extending to the creek, which makes a sharp turn to the west at this point. Although these ridges are found on nearly every ancient Indian site, with a trail leading from the top of a hill to a ravine below, it is hard to believe that the acclivity of their trails could be more inac- cessible than those spoken of above. The ridges are from ten to twenty feet high, and about two feet broad on top, but are so steep that great danger would attend any attempt to descend from above without flexible shoes or bare feet and a very steady head. Our guide, Mr. Jacob Lepper, informed us that he had been familiar with this spot from boyhood, and that the mounds were plainly discernible the last time he visited this spot, about six years ago. The numerous excavations that we found would seem to indicate that an extended examination ATTIC COKNKR, GLKN-SANUEKS HOUSE, SCHENECTADY 125 Guy Park and Fort Johnson 127 had been made, but by whom, or with what results, I have been unable to ascertain. The cultivated plateau to the west comprises the farms of John and Spencer Sweet. Many relics have been found on these farms, particularly in a field north of the farm buildings. Mr. John Sweet exhibited to me quite a number of pre- historic relics which were the remnants of an extensive collec- tion gathered by his father in the early years of his life, one of which was a half of a gorget, or banner stone, as the cere- monial stones are called. The fragment was about four inches long and two inches wide, of highly polished variegated stone, and when whole must have resembled a butterfly with its wings spread, a hole one-half inch in diameter extending lengthwise through that part which would represent the body of the insect. Numerous arrow-points, drills, and spears of flint were also in the collection. Returning through the wood from the ridge, we passed to a lower level, which has the appearance of having been partly cleared, and were shown a partially walled-up excavation about fifteen feet square, evidently the cellar of a primitive log cabin of some early hunter or pioneer. Near by, in a ra- vine, is an excellent spring, which probably furnished water to this lone resident of the forest. It is known that large numbers of Indians of the Six Na- tions frequently visited Sir William Johnson at Fort Johnson, many of whom undoubtedly found rude shelter on the flats and in the woods around his mansion, but it must be remem- bered that the savage visitors, at that period, had been familiar with firearms and metal tools for more than a century, and the finding of rude flint implements in this locality would seem to indicate a previous occupation. The surroundings are of the character usually chosen by the Mohawks for their vil- lages and hunting-grounds, namely, streams, springs, wooded 128 The Mohawk Valley hills, and extensive flats for their rude husbandry. The only ford across the Mohawk for miles east or west in close prox- imity to the valley of the Kayaderos Creek, together with the extensive flat lands in this vicinity and fertile islands in mid- stream, would also seem to point to this locality as a place of probable occupation by the early Mohawks, although it may or may not have been a palisaded castle. All the land from Steadwell Avenue for six miles along the Mohawk west and for a mile and a half north was comprised in what was called the Wilson and Abeel patent. This patent was one of the earliest transfers of land in the town of Amsterdam, being dated February 22, 1706. This property came into the hands of William Johnson soon after he estab- lished "Johnson settlement" (afterwards Warrensbush) on the south bank of the Mohawk, about one-half mile below the river bridge at Amsterdam, in 1738. It would seem from a letter to his uncle and patron, Sir Peter Warren, dated May 10, 1739, that his purchase was made previous to that date, and that it displeased Sir Peter, who feared he would remove there and neglect the store at the settlement. Johnson wrote to him that he had no design of removing to his new purchase, having made it, he said, for the purpose of securing a valuable water-power, on which he proposed erecting a grist mill. In less than three years, however, Johnson erected the Fort Johnson mansion and removed his family to it. The first covering to the roof of Fort Johnson was prob- ably of shingles, as Johnson did not order the lead covering, which was purchased in London, until the year 1749. When- ever I look at that old stone building, my thoughts revert to the time when, as a young man of twenty-four years, he selected this spot to build himself a home, and I wonder, for Guy Park and Fort Johnson 131 whom did he build it ? Was it for Catherine, his housekeeper, or maid-of-all-work, to whom, at this period, he was not married, or was it for a home for the young girl he loved in the little Irish town which was his birthplace ? In the early years of his manhood he had fallen in love with a pretty Irish girl. History is silent about her name or family. We are merely told that " at the age of twenty-two he fell in love with a young girl whom his parents would not permit him to marry." Sir Peter Warren, his uncle, hearing of his experience, ofTered him the position of agent of his re- cently acquired estate on the Mohawk River, comprising what is now known as the town of Florida. Perhaps this offer came when he was depressed at the thought of never being able to marry the girl of his choice, and in a fit of despon- dency he accepted it as an opportunity to bury himself in the wilds of the New World, and perhaps make for himself a name and a fortune. He is described as being a tall, robust young man, full of animal life and spirits, manly and commanding in his deportment. Arriving at the port of New York, in 1738, he immediately found his way to the valley of the Mo- hawk, and the same year erected a storehouse and dwelling on his uncle's estate, near the present residence of Walter Major, east of the river bridge in the city of Amsterdam. It was to this dwelling that he brought Catherine Weisenberg, whom he had purchased of his neighbor, Lewis Phillips, for sixteen pounds. It is said that at some period before her death he married her, but no record of their marriage has ever been found, although he speaks of her in his will as my beloved wife Catherine. The old building at Fort Johnson stands to-day, a monu- ment to the pluck, energy, and ambition of young William Johnson, and will undoubtedly remain as such after his wooden baronial mansion at Johnstown has crumbled to dust. 132 The Mohawk Valley- Very few historians have given any extended account of his early Hfe at Warrensbush ; in fact, very little is known, except what can be gathered from a few letters from his uncle, Sir Peter Warren. That he erected a storehouse at Warrensbush and engaged in trade with the Indians and white settlers, is well known, and that he also had charge of the estate, and oc- cupied himself in selling lots or farms, and in the arduous labor of clearing the land of the forests, are matters of record. From a letters dated Boston, November 20, 1738, from Sir Peter to William Johnson, we learn that in addition to form- ing settlements for his uncle, he was also clearing land for himself. The letter advises him that, " the smaller the farms, the more land that will be sold, and the better the improve- ment will be. I hope you will plant an orchard in the spring." " As you have great help now, you will girdle many trees." In a note in W. L. Stone's Life of Sir William John- son, the method of gridling trees is described : The operation consists in making a deep circular cut around the trunk of large trees, which draws off the sap and causes the trees to die in the course of a couple of years. The trunks and limbs becoming dry, are readily subject to the action of fire, and the foresters are thereby often relieved of much heavy labor, while by the absence of foliage, the earth has already been partially warmed by the sun, and is in respect of decaying roots, rendered much easier of cultivation. One of the sources of revenue of the colonist was potash, obtained by burning forest trees that were cut down to clear the land, and leaching the wood ashes. An average of two tons to the acre was obtained. A market for the potash was found in Europe, at a fair price. Both W. L. Stone and W. S. Griffis made statements in regard to William Johnson at this period of his life which are not correct. Stone merely quotes from a statement made by Guy Park and Fort Johnson 133 the late Thomas Sammons, but does not endorse it. Sam- mons's statement, which Griffis repeats, was that " young Johnson was wont to ride to mill on horseback to Caughna- waga, distant from Warrensbush fifteen miles." Griffis writes of this period: " That his [Johnson's] eye was keenly open to every new advantage or possibility of progress was seen in his buying, as early as 1739, after one year's residence I'n the valley, a lot of land across the Mohawk [the Fort Johnson property] on which ran a stream of water, the Chuc- tanunda Creek [?],with abundance of potential mill power. To ride horseback with bags fifteen miles to Caughnawaga [?] every time meal was needed, was too much loss of time." The facts are these : Lewis Groot's mill at Cranesville was only two miles from Warrensbush, and was established in 1730. Caughnawaga was only ten miles away, instead of fifteen, and did not have a grist mill until after 175 1, which was the date that Dowe Fonda moved from Schenectady to the place after- wards known as Dutch Caughnawaga. As Johnson erected his grist mill at Fort Johnson in 1744, and Groot's mill, built in 1730, the only grist mill west of the Schenectady patent, was only two miles away, it is plain that Griffis's statements are somewhat mixed. The settlement on the Kayaderos Creek was formerly called Mount Johnson, but when the place was threatened by the French, in 1755, it was fortified, and in 1756 named Fort Johnson. During the last few years the place has been called Akin. While we can appreciate the desire of a family to per- petuate its name, we cannot help a feeling of regret that this old. historic spot, from which Sir William Johnson ruled the savage Iroquois, does not continue to bear the name which he gave it, and by which it was known for a century and a half. It was on these flats that William Johnson first met Molly Brant (whose home was at the Canajoharie Castle). W. L. 134 The Mohawk Valley Stone gives the date of this meeting as 1746, Griffis, 1759. The former date is nearer correct. Stone assumes that Cath- erine was dead at that date, because she was not mentioned in a letter written by Mr. James Wilson, of Albany, dated November 26, 1745, inviting William Johnson to make his home at his (Wilson's) mother's house, until all fears of French invasion were dispelled. Stone says: " The entire silence of this letter in regard to Mrs. Johnson, and the ap- propriation of only a single room for his occupancy, induces the supposition that she must have died previous to the time when it was written. Still this is merely conjectural, and, to say the truth, but little can be ascertained respecting Mr- Johnson's domestic relations for several years of this portion of his life. An examination of the records at the Montgomery County clerk's oflfice at Fonda, in order to ascertain what disposition was made of the lands of Sir John Johnson, Colonel Guy Johnson, and Daniel Claus, reveals the following facts : First, that the Guy Park mile square was formerly the Hoofe patent, granted to Henry Hoofe December 12, 1727, and the Daniel Claus property and the Fort Johnson mile square were parts of the Wilson and Abeel patent, granted to Ebenezer Wilson and John Abeel, the father of the celebrated half-breed Corn- planter who was on General Washington's staff during the Revolution. This patent was granted February 22, 1706, but it is thought that the patentees did not settle on it. The records show that it was subsequently included in the Kings- land or Royal Grant to Sir William Johnson. We are unable to find the name of the purchaser of the Fort Johnson property from the commissioners of forfeiture, but we find that in 1800 the property belonged to Jacob C. Cuyler and John C. Cuyler, who sold to Jeremiah Schuyler on February 22, 1817. Schuyler conveyed to John J. Van Guy Park and Fort Johnson 137 Schaick, January 8, 1820; Van Schaick to George Maxwell, December 14, 1824; Maxwell to George Smith, January 26, 1826. George Smith died intestate August 26, 1828; the property was then divided into nine parcels and all sold be- tween 1836 and 1844. The Fort Johnson mansion and the land adjoining was pur- chased by Dr. Oliver Davidson, and subsequently sold to Almarin Young, who afterwards sold it to the present owner, Ethan Akin. The Daniel Claus property, which embraced about eight hundred acres, was sold by the commissioner of forfeiture to James Caldwell, October 16, 1786. Guy Park was conveyed by the commissioners to John Taylor and James Caldwell, who conveyed to Daniel Miles, July 6, 1 790; Miles conveyed to Sarah and James McGorck in 1 800; McGorck to John V. Henry in 1805; John V. Henry to Henry Bayard ; Bayard to James Stewart in 1845 of 4^- After the flight of the Johnsons and previous to the act of attainder and confiscation in 1779, the Fort Johnson mansion was occupied by Albert H. Vedder, the Daniel Claus residence by Col. John Harper, and Guy Park by Henry Kennedy. Guy Park was built in 1766 and was originally constructed of wood. It is said that this building was burned by being struck by lightning and was replaced with the present stone structure or, rather, the main part of it. In general appearance and construction it was similar to the mansion at Fort John- son, being \jjf 11 built with irregular blocks of limestone and the usual substantial walls, having the deep recessed windows that are so often seen in Colonial buildings. The roof was four square and must have had the same appearance as the former roof of Queen Anne's parsonage at Fort Hunter. The ap- pearance of the front and rear of the house was similar, both having a long, wide piazza. A wide hall ran through the 138 The Mohawk Valley centre of the house, broad, winding stairs leading to the broad hall of the floor above. The rooms were spacious and well finished, with panelled wainscoting, and must have impressed the beholder in those primitive days with the thought of grandeur. We may try as much as we can to imagine that it was constructed on the same general plan as Fort Johnson, still there was something about its proportions that must have made it more pleasing to the eye than that sombre building. Mr. James Stewart must have been a man of taste, and had a proper conception of the fitness of things when he made the necessary changes in the building after purchasing it. While retaining the old building he made such changes and additions to it that to-day it is one of the most attractive and I might say the only colonial mansion in the Mohawk Valley. There are a few other old buildings, but none of them impresses one at once with both age and beauty as this one does. Surrounded as it is by green fields and stately elms, and with a background of the Mohawk with its wooded islands and the hills with their evergreen slopes, one would almost expect to see the birchen canoe of the painted Mohawk gliding by, or hear the war cry of the Algonquin in the woods in the rear, were it not for the rattle and roar and rumble of the Empire State express, while the West Shore on the opposite bank adds to the uproar with shrieks that would make the red man green with envy. J. R. Simms, in Frontiersmen, speaks of a visit to this building and of a conversation with Henry Bayard in 1846, who was then the owner and occupant. " After the revolu- tion it was for years a public house known as a stage house. The front room on the east side of the hall was the bar room. While occupied as an inn the house was literally surrounded by sheds — a custom of the times — to accommodate the large wagons then transporting merchandise and produce." Guy Park and Fort Johnson 139 The building is said to have been built by mechanics from Europe, probably by Samuel Fuller, the architect of Johnson Hall, Johnstown. Tradition says that in one of the rooms at Guy Park a ghost resembling the then deceased wife of Guy Johnson oc- casionally appeared, to the great annoyance of the credulous Kennedy family. Even in the daytime they were more than once alarmed. About this time a German, a stranger to the family, called there and seemed very much interested in the ghost story and expressed a willingness to pass the night in the " spook room," asking if the spook resembled Guy John- son's wife. Being told that it did and receiving permission to occupy the room at night he retired early, saying that he was well armed. Before daylight a commotion was heard in the haunted room followed by the report of a pistol. The family thus aroused procured a light and upon enter- ing the room found the stranger up and dressed. He de- clared he had seen or heard the ghost and had discharged his pistol at it. He concluded that he would not go to bed again, ordered his horse and left before daylight, saying on his departure that the family would not again be annoyed by that ghost, and it never was. The mystery of the ghost has been thus explained. Many valuable articles were undoubtedly left behind by the Tories in their hurried flight to Canada, who expected to soon return and recover them, but when they found the prospect of return cut off they attempted to obtain them through the mystery of superstition. An attempt was made by a female agent, who was thought to be the ghost of Guy Johnson's wife, to obtain possession of family treasures by taking advantage of the credulity of the occupants of the building, but she not succeeding a male agent was employed with greater success. Through Mrs. James Stewart, in 1879, ^'*- Simms, in company I40 The Mohawk Valley with Geo. S. Devendorf, obtained a key to this mystery. On the west side of the hall were two rooms. In the corner room on its west side was a fireplace of the large old- fashioned kind, and on each side of it the room was wains- coted in panels from floor to ceiling. The space over the mantel was also covered with carved panelling. In this ceiling, on each side of the fireplace, were small closets several inches deep and several feet long with a door which closed with a secret spring. In one or both of these, it is supposed, were placed some valuable papers and jewelry, of which the stranger was undoubtedly aware, and was also familiar with the secret spring. Having once gained access to the room and obtaining possession of the treasures he departed, and having no more use for the ghost it departed also. When Mr. James Stewart remodelled that part of the house the chimney was removed and with it the ceiling, not only disclosing but forever destroying those little secret chambers. The floors of this building are all of pitch pine and the house for the period was exceedingly well constructed. It is said that at a subsequent period a quantity of leaden window weights were found buried in the orchard west of the house probably put there to prevent the Whigs from using them to mould into bullets. Mary Johnson, daughter of Sir William, married Lieut. Guy Johnson in the spring of 1763. He was born in Ireland, was a nephew of the baronet and came to live with him early in life. He was long associated with Sir William as his dep- uty; and was made commissioner of the Indians at Sir Wil- liam's death in 1774. He, too, went to Canada prior to the flight of Sir John and his retainers. He died in London March 5, 1788, whither he had gone in straitened circum- stances to petition for relief, in lieu of his forfeited estates in Guy Park and Fort Johnson 141 Tryon County. His wife is said to have died in Canada a short time after she went there. An item in the will of Sir William Johnson defines the wes- tern boundary of the original Guy Park mile square and the eastern and western boundary of Colonel Claus's estate. He bequeaths to " Daniel Claus the tract of land where he now lives, viz., from Dove Kill to the creek which lies about four hundred yards to the northward (westward) of the now dwel- ling-place of Colonel Guy Johnson." (The Guy Park man- sion.) About eight hundred acres. The creek called Dove Kill crosses the turnpike near the residence of Obediah Wilde at Fort Johnson, the other creek spoken of (which had been erroneously called Dove Creek) runs near the dwelling-place of the late Abram Marcellus on the Boulevard. The Fort Johnson tract was originally a mile square and was conveyed as such by the successive owners until after 1836, when it was divided by the heirs of George Smith into nine parcels and sold between 1836 and 1844. At present about twenty acres of land and the stone man- sion is all that is left of the Fort Johnson mile square. It is said that when the stone mansion was built in 1743 it was called Mount Johnson, at which time a grist mill was erected. A portion of the walls of this mill has in late years been incorporated in a part of the Morris mills in the rear of the Fort Johnson building. Harold Frederic's description (in his book In the Valley) of the place in 1757, after it was for- tified, is undoubtedly correct. He makes his hero say: " It could not be seen from the intervening hills, but so important was the fact of its presence to me that I never looked east- ward without seeming to behold its gray stone walls with their windows and loopholes, its stockade of logs, its two little houses on either side, its barracks for the guard upon the ridge 142 The Mohawk Valley back of the grist mill, and its accustomed groups of grinning black slaves, all eyeballs and white teeth, of saturnine Indians in blankets, and of bold-faced traders," to say nothing of squaws and children. There were always plenty of squaws and children at the fort in war time, as Sir William often took care of the families of the warriors when they were on the war path. Did you ever hear of an Indian working ? Can you im- agine an Indian making mortar or carrying a hod or perhaps digging a trench ? An article in one of the daily papers, however, a few days ago, said that Poles and Indians were employed to pick the cranberry crop in Wisconsin. The Indians move their tepees and families, and were liked better as laborers than the Poles, because they took whatever pay was given them without grumbling, but would not begin work before nine o'clock and would quit at four, no matter how pressing the work was, and would pay no attention to the orders of the overseers. Fort Johnson has its ghost story also, although in this case its color was black instead of white, and is now supposed to have been one of Sir John Johnson's slaves, who probably re- turned to obtain valuables that had been left behind at the flight of the household. Mr. Almarin T. Young, who was born at Fort Johnson in 1852, says that the northwest room in the rear of the house upstairs was always called the ** spook room," and as a child he never went inside of it. The interior and exterior are practically the same as when vacated by Sir John Johnson. Of course its stockade of logs that formerly surrounded the building and the two little forts in front were destroyed years ago, probably soon after the last French War, but the house presents the same appearance that it did when erected. The covering of the roof has been re- Guy Park and Fort Johnson 145 placed by one of substantial slate, but the old timbers and the high peak and dormer windows with their small panes of glass have been retained. The size of the building is forty feet deep by sixty feet front and rear, two stories high, with lofty attic. A broad hall extends from front to rear, with large rooms on each side, which, together with the hall, are ceiled with pan- elled wainscoting. The stairs, with their slim balusters and diminutive hand rail of mahogany, would detract somewhat from the spacious hall and the grand room on the west, if we did not know that they were only another evidence of the colonial period. We can easily imagine such a building being presided over by a Dutch matron of colonial days, with snowy cap and ker- chief, but the thought of Molly Brant and her dusky brood and a crowd of her slovenly relatives scattered through these grand rooms seems somewhat out of place. One Sunday morning in December, when the sky was dropping huge flakes of snow, which vanished as they fell on the wet, muddy streets of the city, but emphasized the bright green of the belated spears of grass among which they lodged, I accepted the kind invitation of Mr. Theron Akin to visit the old Fort Johnson mansion left vacant by the family of his father, Mr. Ethan Akin, in its annual flitting to more con- genial quarters in New York City. On such an errand it would have been more in keeping, perhaps, if we had trudged along on foot or horseback, rather than to have taken passage in an electric car of the nineteenth century. Being a very stormy Sunday the little hamlet was quiet, and no human being was visible except ourselves when we passed the gate and up under the bare branches of the aged trees in the grove in front of the house, the gray walls of which frowned upon us as though they were aware of their antiquity. 146 The Mohawk Valley Approaching the front of the house we paused a moment to gaze on the slab of brown stone in front of the main en- trance, the edges of which had been dressed by a carver's chisel into an ovolo moulding, giving the slab the appearance of having been prepared for the top of a small tomb or sarco- phagus such as are frequently seen in old cemeteries. For whom beside Catherine Weisenburg would Sir William have prepared this stone ? The man who discovers her grave (which is supposed to be somewhere near the west side of the build- ing) would deserve and receive the praise of the antiquarians of the Mohawk Valley. We enter the house from the rear or north side, and pass at once into a broad hall which extends from front to rear. We have heard no sound since alighting from the car, except our own voices, the swish of the waters of the Kaya- deros swelled to a torrent, the soughing of the trees, and the dismal drip, drip, drip of the storm without. The closed shutters, the dreary appearance of a house unoccupied, and the antique appearance of the surroundings carry me back a century and a quarter to the flight of the household of Sir John Johnson, and, as I become more accustomed to the dim light, I almost expect to see a scarlet coat with gilt lace and the blanket or moccasin of an Indian, hurriedly left behind. This hall is grand in its proportions, being thirty-five feet long, fifteen feet wide, and perhaps ten feet high, with pan- elled walls and broad oaken stairway with plain mahogany bal- luster and rail leading to the lofty attic above. The large room on the west side of the hall, with its lofty panelled walls and broad, deep windows, seems to have been, and undoubtedly was, a room built for Sir William's use, his reception-room. And I almost expected to see him seated at his desk in the centre, with implements of war and the chase adorning the Guy Park and Fort Johnson 149 walls, giving audience to the rude soldiers and savages of those primitive days. Opposite this room is another room of nearly the same dimensions, but having the appearance of be- ing designed for a parlor or drawing-room. Back of these rooms are two long, narrow rooms whose dimensions seem to have been sacrificed to swell the size of the grand rooms in front. The rooms and hall on the second floor correspond with those below except that the panelling is confined to one end of the room and forms closets on each side of the wide and deep chimney, and seems to suggest some secret recess or closets the same as were found in the Guy Park mansion. In the southeast room is found a quaint addition to the fire- place — a primitive cast-iron heating apparatus which is prac- tically an open iron fireplace, and bears on its face these words: Ross and Bird's Hibernian Furnace, 1783. The two long and narrow rooms in the rear are dreary with their bare, white, plaster walls and low, dark wainscoting of cherry birch. The windows are broad and deep, the sash with small panes of glass, and covered with inside shutters of cherry birch. One of these rooms, the northwest, is the haunted room spoken of before, but what particular antics the ghosts perform I have been unable to ascertain. I found the lofty attic very interesting indeed. Its large size and massive timbers, its two rows of dormer windows and lofty peak, its floor made of broad boards (from twelve to fifteen inches wide), the rough, hand-made wrought nails, the bare chimneys of small Holland brick, and the " lookout " window at the very peak, made a fitting suj^erstructure to the quaint rooms below. 150 The Mohawk Valley The roof was formerly covered with sheet lead, which will account for the heavy timber used in its construction. This lead, together with the window weights, was used for bullets during the Revolution. The lead covering of the roof was re- placed with shingles, but the window weights were never re- placed. Subsequently the shingles were replaced by the substantial slate roof of the present day. From the attic we descended to the cellar. When the building was constructed about one-third of the cellar was used as a kitchen and separated from it by a thick stone wall, making a room of about twenty by thirty feet. On the east side was a massive brick oven and fireplace, used for cooking. The floor of the kitchen was covered with stone slabs and the room was lighted by the door and two small windows about twenty inches high. The four large chimneys are supported by arches about five feet high, four feet wide, and four feet deep. These arches or vaults were closed by massive wooden doors and used for various purposes. At some time, probably when the house was constructed, a narrow room about thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide was cut off from the main cellar and very likely used as a dining-room for the servants. The descent into the cellar was made by a steep, winding stair, and probably was not used very often, as the kitchen was en- tered from the outside. I have often wondered why tradition did not point to some tragedy connected with this old building, but recently I have found one of murder with all its horrors. It comes to me from two sources, both agreeing on the main points. Sometime near the beginning of the present century a building used as a store stood where Mr. Shepard's residence stands now, on the corner east of the creek, about opposite Fort Johnson. This buildinsf was afterwards removed to Amsterdam vil- Ma; bctady in 1695. — ^*^^- John Miller. (Ori^lfltf/ in SriltlA .Mulium. i 2 "W 7-; Explanation. ,... Block house., 8- The block house designed for l 2 River* running Inside y' Fort. a church 3.3. Io