USA > New York > Albany County > Cohoes > The history of Cohoes, New York, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 1
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Gc 974.702 C66m 1753103
M. L
REYNOL · I TORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
= ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01151 8682
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1
THE
HISTORY OF COHOES,
N.Y. NEW YORK,
FROM ITS
EARLIEST SETTLEMENT TO THE PRESENT TIME.
A. H. Masten
ALBANY : JOEL MUNSELL. 1877.
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/historyofcohoesn00mast 0
1753103
THE
HISTORY OF COHOES,
NEW YORK.
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INTRODUCTION.
The preparation of a sketch of the history of Cohoes was commenced by the writer at the request of the Hon. D. J. Johnston, mayor of the city, made in ac- cordance with a proclamation issued by the president, calling attention to the following resolution passed by Congress, May 13, 1876 :
" It is hereby recommended to the people of the several states that they assemble in their several coun- ties or towns on the approaching Centennial Anniver- sary of our National Independence, and that they cause to have delivered on such day an historical sketch of said county or town from its formation, and that a copy of said sketch be filed, in print or manuscript, in the clerk's office of said county, and an additional copy, in print or manuscript, be filed in the office of the librarian of congress, to the intent that a complete record may thus be obtained of the progress of our institutions during the first centennial of their ex- istence."
The understanding was that the sketch should be published in one of the city papers in case it was not completed by July 4th. It was found, however, after
vi.
INTRODUCTION.
some progress had been made, that if limited to the length suitable for production in the manner proposed, the history would in many particulars be incomplete and unsatisfactory, and it was accordingly decided to enlarge it to the form in which it now appears.
As the manufacturing interests of Cohoes have always been its most important feature, their history forms in a great measure that of the place and con- sequently occupies a large share of the following pages.
An effort has been made to relate in addition the principal facts in the early history of this locality, and to describe the general progress of the place since the first steps were taken, fifty years ago, towards the development of its resources, giving accounts of its various institutions and of the most important local events.
Great care has been taken to insure accuracy in all re- spects-especially in regard to names and dates, though in a work of this sort, abounding in details, it is of course impossible to avoid a certain number of errors. Whenever it has been necessary to depend for data upon the memory of individuals, the information thus obtained has been verified, if possible, by a comparison of the versions given by different persons, and by reference to such records as are in existence. Ex- cept in the case of chapters I and VIII, an arrange- ment of farts in their chronological order rather than according to subject has been adopted, in the belief
vii.
INTRODUCTION.
that a better idea would thus be afforded of the gene- ral growth and progress of the place. Although this method makes the narrative at times disconnected, it appears preferable on the whole, since its disadvan- tages have been obviated as far as possible by foot notes and the full index at the close of the volume.
The materials used in the preparation of the book, aside from those obtained from private sources, have been for the greater part furnished by the files of the Cohoes Cataract, Cohoes Daily News, Troy Times, and Troy Press. Many facts have also been taken from the valuable publications of Mr. Joel Munsell concern- ing the history of Albany.
The writer would here express his obligations to the many friends who have assisted him in his labors, particularly to his father, James H. Masten, to whom he is indebted for constant aid and advice. Among others to whom acknowledgments are especially due may be mentioned Messrs. Joshua R. Clarke, Lucien Fitts, Henry D. Fuller and Nicholas En Earl of Cohoes; Miss E. Howe and Mr. Isaac I. Fonda of Waterford ; Mr. Timothy Bailey of Ballston ; Mr. Evert Van Der Mark of Lansingburg, Mr. Oliver C. Hubbard of West Troy and Mr. Chas. A. Olmsted of Lockport, N. Y., who have furnished much valuable information which could not otherwise have been obtained.
The writer is also indebted to Messrs. T. G. Young- love, D. J. Johnston and Harvey Clute of Cohoes; Mrs.
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viii.
INTRODUCTION.
Hugh White of Waterford, Mr. A. A. Peebles of Lansingburg, and Mr. Charles Van Zandt of the Van Rensselaer office, Albany, for access to important docu- ments, and to Mr. A. J. Weise of Troy for the use of the cut of the Van Schaick House and other favors.
ARTHUR H. MASTEN. Cohoes, December, 1876.
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1
HISTORY OF COHOES.
I.
EARLY ACCOUNTS OF THIS LOCALITY, FROM THE WRITINGS OF VISITORS TO THE FALLS.
IT is well known that the word Cohoes is of Indian origin, and has been the designation (with varied orthogra- phy) of this locality from the carliest times. Its exact derivation and meaning, however, have not been agreed upon. The different versions of Indian legends all have as their most prominent feature, a canoe carried over the Falls by the current, and this fact has furnished the derivation generally accepted. The signification - " a canoe falling" -- has been given by almost every writer on the subject since Spafford, who wrote in 1813 : "The name is of indiginal origin, and like the most such, has an appropriate allusion. Cah-hoos or Ca-hoos, a canoe falling, as explained by the late learned Indian sachem, Brandt, of illustrious memory." In Morgan's League of the Ho-de-sau-nee or Iroquois is a list of the settlements in the different territories, and under the head of Ga-ne-a-ga-o-no-ga or Mohawk territory, the author gives "Cohoes Falls: In Mohawk dialect Ga-ha- oose, meaning the ship-wrecked eanoe." Many persons, on the contrary, whose knowledge of the Indian dialects en- titles their opinion to respect, give another interpretation to the word, which is stated as follows in an article published in the Schenectady Reflector, in 1857 : " The term in ques- tion is in the Mohegan language ; its signification we cannot express without circumlocution, unless we. use the word pitch or plunge, or coin a new substantive, overshoot. The
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HISTORY OF COHOES.
1642.
Canadian Indians designate by the name cahoos those un- pleasant hollows which occur in roads covered with snow, and which sleigh riders vulgarly call pitch holes or more commonly cradle holes." This derivation seems perhaps the more reasonable, though the other has the sanction of long use and general acceptance. Whatever the meaning of the word, it is certain that the name of our city had its origin in something connected with the Falls. This being so, and since the town has always been more or less associated with the Falls in the public mind, it may not be amiss to give in this sketch some of the earliest references to them.
Though the history of Cohoes as a town of importance commenced barely half a century ago, the spot on which the city stands was well known both abroad and in this country at a very early day. The natural beauties of the locality brought here many of the travelers who visited America in the 17th and 18th centuries. Albany, then one of the most important cities in the country, was one of the first places visited by foreigners, and as the Falls were among the most accessible objects of interest to persons staying there, we find accounts, or at all events mention of them, in a large number of the books of American travel.
Allusions to the Falls are also frequent in the English and French documentary history of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, having reference generally to the navi- gation of the river.
The earliest account of the place which I have been able to find is that of the Rev. Johannes Megapolensis, the first minister of the gospel in Albany, who settled there in 1642. It was contained in a description which he wrote to friends in Holland of the manners and habits of the Mohawk Indians, and is as follows:
" Through this land runs an excellent river about five hun- dred or six hundred paces wide. This river, comes out of the Mahakas country, about four miles north of us. There it
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3
HISTORY OF COHOES.
1656.
flows between two high rocky banks, and falls from a height equal to that of a church, with such a noise that we can sometimes hear it with us. In the beginning of June twelve of us took a ride to see it. When we came there we saw not only the river falling with such a noise that we could hardly hear one another, but the water boiling and dashing with such force in still weather, that it was all the time as if it were raining ; and the trees on the hills there (which are as high as Schooler Duyn) had their leaves all the time wet exactly as if it rained. The water is as clear as crystal and as fresh as milk. I and another with me saw there in clear sunshine, when there was not a cloud in the sky, as we stood above upon the rocks, directly opposite where the river falls in a great abyss, the half of a rainbow, or a quarter circle of the same color with the rainbow in the sky. And when we had gone about ten or twelve rods further downwards from the fall, along the river, we.saw a complete rainbow, or half a circle appearing clearly in the water just the same as if it had been in the clouds, and this is always to be seen by those who go there. In this river is great plenty of several kinds of fish, pike, eels, perch, lam- preys, suckers, cat fish, sun fish, shad, bass, etc. In the spring, in May, the perch are so plenty that one man with a hook and line, can catch in one hour as many as ten or twelve can eat. My boys have caught in less than an hour, fifty, each a foot long. They have a three pronged instrument with which they fish, and draw np frequently two or three perch at once. There is also in the river a great plenty of sturgeon, which we Christians do not eat, but the Indians eat them greedily.' In this river, too, are very beautiful islands, containing, ten, twenty, thirty, fifty and seventy morgens? of land."
The Description of New Netherlands published in Am- sterdam in 1656, byAdriaen Van Der Donck,3 contained some interesting accounts of his explorations in this vicinity, among them the following concerning the Falls :
1 Dr. Mitchill (in Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc., 1, 41), says: " No particular path was selected by the sturgeons. They seem to have swam at large, as they do at present. But they assembled for the propagation of their kind at the bottom of the Cohoes or great falls of the Mohock." John Maude, from whose account a quotation is given further on, stated that the river then (1800) furnished pike, bass and trout.
2 A morgen is about two acres.
3 New York Historical Collections.
4
HISTORY OF COHOES.
1656.
" The other arm of the North River runs by four sprouts as we have related to the great falls of the Maquas Kill (Mohawk River) which the Indians name the Chahoos and our nation the Great Fall, above which the river is again several hundred yards wide and the falls we estimate to be one hundred and fifty or two hundred feet high.' The water glides over the falls as smooth as if it ran over an even wall and fell over the same. The precipice is formed of firm blue rock ; near by and below the falls there stand several rocks, which appear splendid in the water, rising above it like high turf heaps, apparently from eight, sixteen to thirty feet high. . . . .. , The Indians, when they travel by water and come to trade, usually come in canoes made of the bark of trees, which they know how to con- struct. When they come near the falls they land and carry their boats and their lading some distance below the falls and proceed on their voyage, otherwise they would be driven over the falls and destroyed. An occurrence of this kind took place here in our time. An Indian whom I have known accompanied by his wife and child with sixty beaver skins descended the river in his canoe in the spring when the water runsrapid and the current is strongest for the purpose of selling his beavers to the Netherlanders. This Indian carelessly approached too near the Falls before he discovered his danger, and notwithstanding his utmost exertions to gain the land, his frail bark with all on board was swept over bythe rapid current and down the Falls ; his wife and child were killed, his bark shattered to pieces, his cargo of furs damaged. But his life was preserved. . I have fre- quently seen the Indian and have heard him relate the peril- ous occurrence or adventure."
The following version of one of the Indian legends con- corning the Fall, given in the Sentimental American Tru- veller, may have had its foundation in the account of Van Der Donck, above quoted:
"Many years since, an Indian and his squaw, having made too free with the bottle, were carelessly paddling along the Mohawk in their canoe. On a sudden, perceiving themselves drawn by the current and hurried down the stream to the dreadful cataract, looking upon their fate as inevitable, they
1 The correct figures, according to measurements taken by Mr. Gwynn, proprietor of the Cataract House, in 1875 are ; breadth 1, 140 feet, height SU feet.
5
HISTORY OF COHOES.
1656.
composed themselves to die with resolution, in a manner worthy their ancestors. . They drank the last dregs of the intoxicating cup and began the melancholy death song. Occuna was dashed into pieces against the rocks ; his faith- ful consort escaped, but by what miracle has never been known. The Indians of their tribe have preserved this in- cident by faithful tradition, and as often as any of them pass the fatal spot they make a solemn halt and commemo- rate the death of Occuna."
Another form of the legend is the following, which went the rounds of the newspapers in 1857:
" A squaw, being fatigued on a hot summer's day, betook herself to rest in a canoe a short distance above the Falls. She had hardly taken time to lay herself down in the bottom of the canoe before it became loosened from its moorings and the frail bark was hurled on by the current to the brink of the precipice. She gathered her blanket over her head and resigned herself to her fate, expecting to be dashed to pieces on the rocks below. Heaven had however other- wise decreed. Her boat had taken the direction which brought her to that point of the precipice where there was the greatest quantity of water. She was picked up shortly after, some distance below the Falls, senseless through fright but otherwise unscathed."
Van Der Donck said, elsewhere : "I cannot forbear to mention that in the year 1647, in the month of March, when by a great freshet, the water was fresh almost to the great bay, there were two whales of tolerable size, up the river, the one turned back, but the other stranded, and stuck not far from the great Fall of the Chahoos."!
The following account of this occurrence is compiled from O'Callaghan's History of New Netherland:
" The winter which had just terminated, was remarkably
1 Judge Benson, in an article ou the Dutch names of Albany and vicinity (Annals of Albany, vol. 2), quotes this passage and says : " The lands immediately opposite to Albany, and for a distance along and from the river, the Dutch denoted as llet greene bosch, the pine woods, corrupted to Greenbush. The mouths of the Moboch they distinguished as the Spraytes, corrupted to, and which may also possibly pass for a translation, the Sprouts. The larger island formed by the sprouts they called Watrisch Island, Whaie Island." This name, however, does not appear to have been in general use.
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6
HISTORY OF COHOES.
1660.
long and severe. The North River closed at Rensselaerswyck on the 25th November, and remained frozen some four months. A very high freshet, unequalled since 1639, fol- lowed, which destroyed a number of horses in their stables, nearly carried away the fort (Fort Orange, at Albany), and inflicted considerable other damage in the colonie. A certain fish of considerable size, snow white in color, round in the body, and blowing water out of its head,' made at the same time his appearance, stemming the impetuous flood. What it portended, ' God the Lord only knew.' All the inhabitants were lost in wonder, 'for at the same instant that this fish appeared to us, we had the first thunder and lightning this year.' The public astonishment had scarcely subsided when another monster of the deep, estimated at forty feet in length, was seen, of a brown color, having fins on his back, and ejecting water in like manner, high in the air. Some seafaring people 'who had been to Greenland' now pronounced the strange visitor a whale. Intelligence was shortly after received that it had grounded on an island at the mouth of the Mohawk, and the people turned out in numbers to secure the prize, which was, forthwith, subjected to the process of roasting in order to extract its oil. Though large quantities were obtained, yet so great was the mass of blubber, the river was covered with grease for three weeks afterwards, and the air infected to such a degree with the stench, as the fish lay rotting on the strand, that the smell was perceptibly offensive for two (Dutch) miles to leeward."
The journal of Jasper Dankers and Peter Sluyter, two members of the society of Labadists, who came here from Holland to procure a site for a colony of their sect, contains the following, under date of 23d April, 1660:
" Mr. Sanders having provided us with horses, we rode out about nine o'clock, to visit the Cahoos, which is the Falls of the great Maquas Kil (Mohawk River), which are the greatest falls not only in New Netherland, but in North America, and perhaps, as far as is known, in the whole new world. " We rode for two hours over beautiful, level, tillable land along the river when we obtained a guide who was better acquainted with the road through the woods. He rode before us on horseback. In approaching the Cahoos from this direction the roads are hilly, and in the course of half an hour you have steep hills, deep valley's and narrow
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HISTORY OF COHOES.
1699.
paths, which run round the precipices, where you must ride with care, in order to avoid the danger of falling over them, as sometimes happens. As you come near the Falls, you can hear the roaring which makes everything tremble, but on reaching them and looking at them, you see something wonderful, a great manifestation of God's power and sove- reignty, of his wisdom and glory. We arrived there about noon. They are on one of the two branches into which the North River is divided up above, of almost equal size. This one turns to the west out of the highlands, and coming here finds a blue rock which has a steep side as long as the river is broad, which, according to my calculation, is two hundred paces or more, and rather more than less, and about one hundred feet high. The river has more water at one time than another, and was now about six or eight feet deep. All this volume of water coming on this side fell headlong upon a stony bottom, this distance of an hundred fect. Any one may judge whether that was not a spectacle, and whether it would not make a noise. There is a con- tinual spray thrown up by the dashing of the water, and when the sun shines the figure of a rainbow may be seen through it. Sometimes there are two or three of them to be seen, one above the other, according to the brightness of the sun and its parallax. There was now more water than usual in consequence of its having rained hard for several days, and the snow water having begun to run down from the high land."
In 1699, the Earl of Bellomont, who was engaged in examining the country for the best means of procuring naval supplies for the king, wrote as follows to the Lords of Trade, in a report dated Boston, Oct. 20:
"I am glad to find there are pines of eleven and twelve feet about, for either of those sizes is big enough for a first- rate ship, as I am informed, and I am satisfied the trees might be floated down the great Fall (which I have been at) and then they will be the cheapest in the world, for they may be floated all down Hudson's River to the ship's sides that take 'em in to carry them to England. In summer, when there is not a flood in the river, I grant it would hazard the breaking such heavy trees to let them tumble down that great Fall, but in winter I cannot believe there's the least hazard. I stood looking a good while at that
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HISTORY OF COHOES. 1701.
Fall. It is at least six hundred yards broad and in the highest place about fifty foot high. Tis eight miles above Albany due north. The river while I was there was shal- low for about a mile below the Fall, and rocky except just under the Fall which the people that were my guides assured me was six fathom deep, and the mighty and continual fall of water seems to have made the cavity in the rock, for that it was solid rock, I could plainly perceive ; to be sure the season of the year must be watched when there are floods in the river and then I am confident those trees may be safely floated, especially if the water be so deep at the foot of the Fall as I was told, for then the depth of the water will break the fall of the trees, besides there is an art to save one of those great trees from breaking with its fall by bind- ing lesser trees about it."
Another report on the same subject was made May 13, 1701, by Robert Livingston, who wrote from New York:
" As to the production of masts and other naval stores in this province I beg leave to inform your Lordships that I am told those that are already cut are not so large as the dimensions the Earl did notify, but are much less, and are now on ground above the Falls, and cannot be got down until the fall of the leafe, that the rivers are up ; that there is no experiment made of getting any down the Fall. Some are of opinion that the fall will spoil them, some otherwise. It is about forty foot perpendicular and for two miles above it, shelving ; which makes the stream so rapid that none dare come near it with a canoe. I doubt the masts will receive injury in the falling."
In the report made to Queen Anne in 1709, by the Board of Trade, in regard to the settlement of a colony of Pala- tines (afterwards established near Little Falls) the country abont the Mohawk is recommended as being eligible, and, it is added :
"The objection that may be made to the seating of the Palatines on the fore mentioned Mohaques River is the Falls that are on the said river between Schenectady and Albany which will be an interruption in the water carriage, but that may be easily helped by a short land carriage of about three miles at the west."
It was decided on this account to locate the colony else-
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HISTORY OF COHOES.
1711.
where, as appears from a report of Perry, Keill and Du Pré made to the London Board of Trade 11th Dec., 1711, in which it is stated that the country of the Maquaas was not selected "because their lands are distant from the river nearly twenty miles, and Schenectady besides a waterfall of six hundred feet high, hath the same inconveniency upon which account the carriage of anything would cost as much if not more than its worth."
The obstruction afforded by the Falls to navigation is thus noticed in a report dated 1757, found in the Paris docu- ments :
"Going from Chenectedi (Schenectady) to Orange (Al- bauy) there is a Great Fall which prevents the passage of batteaux so that everything on the river going from Che- nectedi to Orange passes over the high road that leads there direct."
In the Memoirs of an American Lady by Mrs. Anne Grant, who was living in Albany between 1757 and 1768, appears the following on the same subject, with reference to the journeys of the traders from Albany into the Indian country :
" There commenced their toils and dangers at the famous water fall called the Cohoes, ten miles above Albany . . . 'This was the Rubicon which they had to pass before they plunged into pathless woods, ingulphing swamps and lakes, the opposite shores of which the eye could not reach. At the Cohoes, on account of the obstruction formed by the torrent, they unloaded their canoe, and carried it above a mile further on their shoulders, returning again for the cargo, which they were obliged to transport in the same manner."
In 1760, the Falls were visited by Gov. Thos. Pownall, a man who held several positions of importance in this country, and was prominent among those Englishmen who at home a few years later, defended the action of the colonies in revolting from the crown. Among several interesting volumes which he published in regard to America was one
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HISTORY OF COHOES.
1760.
(London, 1776), which contained a map of this country, and topographical descriptions of the parts he had visited. In this he describes at considerable length the appearance of the Falls, saying that he had seen them once before when the rocks were almost entirely bare, but at this time, June 25th, the volume of water was immense. After speak- ing of the grandeur and beauty of the sight he says :
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