USA > New York > Schenectady County > Schenectady > A history of the Schenectady patent in the Dutch and English times : being contributions toward a history of the lower Mohawk Valley > Part 30
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Fortifications aud Garrisons.
311
Map of Schenectady in 1695 .- Rev. John Miller.
(Original in British Museum.) 2 W
The Fort of Scanecthade.
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7
7
2
J
12
7
7
6
Explanation.
I.I. Block houses.
2.2. Rivers running beside ye Fort.
3.3. Indians Wigwams.
4. Flag staff.
5. Centry box.
6. Spy loft.
7 .7.7. Sties for hogs.
8. The block house designed for a church.
9.9. Those and others like them houses.
10. A great barn.
II.II. The treble stockadoes.
12.12. The Fort Gates.
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I
312
History of the Schenectady Patent.
The renewal of the stockadoes, which being made of pine logs lasted but five or six years, became very burthensome to the inhabitants of the village after its destruction in 1690. Having built a new fort in 1690 they were ordered to renew the palisades in 1695. On this occasion Reyer Scher-
known as the church ? Only occasional services were held at Schenectady from 1690 to 1704, and in a place which besides falling to decay was "not a fit and proper place dedicated to the service of God, as represented in petition to Governor Nanfan .- See chapter on Church History].
At the massacre the town was destroyed, but few houses being unburnt-the site was practically abandoned and only the strenuous efforts of government and Indians induced the return of the major portion of the people. A large number of Mohawks established themselves there and the following summer they gathered the crops which had been planted-[winter wheat ]. Miller's 'map shows their two large " long houses" inside the walls. The triple stockade was probably built by, or with the aid of the Indians, and in their fashion, of light poles or saplings-and not the regular hewn stockade of civilized peoples.
Miller's map shows twenty-eight houses within the stockade in 1695.
In 1698, the population of the township from Niskayuna to Hoffman's Ferry was 50 men, 41 women and the 133 children. (Alb. Annals, IX.)
Of these the Glens, Schermerhorns, De Graafs and others lived at a distance from the village, so that if the 41 women represented nearly as many families, which is probable, twenty-eight houses would suffice for the inhabitants - the soldiers barracking in the blockhouses.
The " Fort of Schanecthede " doubtless contained all there was of the village, save a few houses on the Albany road and on the bouwlands, and was the whole occupied town west of Ferry street.
Miller indicates two gates - one at the south end of State street, where its location protected it from sudden attack and where the ancient church covered, or in military parlance traversed it. The writer believes, after careful study of the site and the history of the town, that this south gate located at twenty eight feet south of State street, was the early outlet of the town.
On passing out of the gate the road to Albany via Normans kil, (the oldest road,) lay across the bouwlands and via Schermerhorn mills over the hills. Later to avoid the hill and the sand, the road up Albany hill was traveled. It was for a century a mere trail, in common with others equally poor but occasionally used, - this road led from the gate along the hill side under the guns of the south-east blockhouse and above the 'mill. (In digging cellars and foundations of Vrooman's hardware store, stone McAdamizing or pavement was found 75 feet south of State street, as also at other houses along the same block at other times).
It was improbable that any man with a military eye would locate a blockhouse back from the steep bluff bank of mill creek - it would be placed on the crest so that the guns of the blockhouse could fully command the whole slope. Again a road along under such a slope would be in proper position for its protection but very wet and muddy in spring, or in wet weather - hence it was paved very early but abandoned for the higher level where State street now is, probably not long after the Queen's Fort was built in 1704. When the road was moved, the gate was moved, and the English army topographers at the time of the " old French war " locate the road as State street now is, and open a gate at its crossing of Ferry street.
Miller indicates another gate at the west side (on present lot of Jay Westinghouse probably), which opened to the Binnè kil, which was a canoe harbor,-to the ferry,- to the Great Island, and also on the old river road on the Mohawk country. There had been
313
Fortifications and Garrisons.
merhorn refused to cut and draw his proportion of the logs, it may be because living at the mills he thought himself exempt from this burthensome service, or that his quota was too large. Thereupon Justice Johannes Sanderse Glen fined him twelve shillings,* and continuing contumacious Gov. Fletcher on the 9th of April, 1698, directed the sheriff of Albany county to bring him before the Council in New York to answer for his conduct. On the 30th he appeared before the council and " stood upon his vindication," whereupon he was " committed to answer at the next Supreme Court & Col. Courtlandt was desired to take bond with sureties for his appearance and that he be of good behaviour in the mean time."
In the winter of 1695-6 the garrison at Schenectady consisted of a de- tachment under command of Lt. Bickford, from the companies of Captains
a gate at north end of the town, but after 1690 it was not rebuilt, as the small garrison had enough to do to guard the south end of the town, which contained the mill, guard- house and gardens and the roads to the bouwlands and Albany. The whole tendency seemed to be to concentrate force at the State street side of the town, and new build- ings clustered about the neighborhood. Besides, settlements were neither near nor numerous along the Mohawk, and the Indian incursions made roads there very unsafe. As the need for them arose, and their safety was assured, new gates were opened.
The building of the Queens fort, called for reopening the north gate, which it com- pletely protected. Likewise, when the original four blocks of four lots each, included in the stockade, afforded insufficient area, the walls were moved to include them, notably when the west Rondweg was made into the present Washington Avenue, by moving the stockades to the Binné kil, and the north Rondweg was converted into part of the present Front street and partly into an open space or parade ground by moving the pickets toward the Mohawk, as in map of 1750, where the line of pickets is decidedly irregular and has a number of blockhouses as flankers to protect it from assault from straggling small parties of Indians, while the comparatively strong citadel on the highest ground the site afforded dominated the whole fortress and the open approaches by land or ice, and its cannon pointed up Front and Green streets on the direct route to Canada, whence attack was a constant probability .- M'M.]
* " William by ye grace of God of England, Scotland, france & Irelande Kinge defender of ye faith, to John Mebee & Dirack Brat Constables of Scanectedy, yu are in his Majestyes name to requier & commande Ryer Jacobse Schermerhorn to pay ye sum of twellve shillinges for ye Disobayinge my formur warande in not adinge & assistinge ye rebuelldinge, of ye forte of Scanectedy, wh. are for his Majestyes sarvis & ye Publick good : I do fourder commande yu yt with in fouer dayes from ye dayte of thes presants yt yu leed & bringe ye complyment of Stockades as I have given yu formur notis as is Aloted yu for yr share & yt yu do mount & fix ye sd Stockades answerabell to ye rest of ye inhabitants at yr parill as yu will answer ye neglect. given under my hande ye furst day of Novbr in ye seventh yeare of his majestyes reane Anno dom : 1695. JOHANNES SANDERSE [GLEN],,
Justes."
t Council Min. VII. 183, 188.
40
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History of the Schenectady Patent.
James Weems and William Hyde, stationed at Albany. "On the 10th Jan., about 12 of the Clock at night deserted the whole guard except one & others, to the number of sixteen broak through the north west Block house next the water side." [Binne kil].
"They drew the guns of both powder & Shott. The Lieutenant about two o'clock discovering their desertion, notified by express Col. Richard Ingoldsby at Albany, and with ten volunteers of the inhabitants and eleven soldiers started in pursuit. The serjeant & seven red coats soon gave out and were left behind. At four in the afternoon the lieutenant and his 14 men came up with the 16 diserters ; ordering them to lay down their arms, they answered with a volley and both sides continued to fire until five of the deserters were killed and two wounded when the remainder sur- rendered."
These facts were stated by Lieut. Bickford in his account of the affair to Governor Fletcher, of March 9th. In closing his dispatch he says, "Here is a strong and regular Fort built by the inhabitants with foot works and a stone magazine fitt for this garrison." The following were the volun- teers from Schenectady who accompanied Lt. Bickford in his hazardous enterprise ; " Harmen Van Slyck, ensigne of the trained bands of Schen- echtide and Gerryt Simons Veeder, Peter Simons Veeder, Albert Veeder, Gerryt Gysbert [Gysbertse Van Brakel], Jan Danielse Van Antwerpen, Dirck Groot, Jonas De Roy, John Wemp, Daniel Mutchcraft [Mascraft] & Thomas Smith."
At a court martial held in Schenectady April 21, the survivors of the de- serting party were accounted guilty and condemned to be shot .*
The commander of the garrison who succeeded Lieut. Bickford in the spring of 1696 was Lt. Daniel Hunt from the garrison at Albany.
He reports in relation to the military stores and effectiveness of the mili- tary force at Schenectady as follows:
"In July, 1696, and in ye beginning of April '96 I was commander on ye frontieers at Schonactady, when ye French Indians destroyed Onondage & Oneide, when all ye news that arrived to mee concerning the enemy, I did
4 [In the petition of Lieut. Abraham Bickford for reimbursement for his extraordinary expenses in pursuing and re-capturing deserters from time to time "more Particularly in January, 1696-6, when the whole Guard spikt the great Gunns and Deserted from his Majestys fort at Schenectady all with their Arms and in the Dead of night;" he says "yey were Tryed at a Court Marshall condemned and one of the Chiefe Leaders Executed the Rest being Pardoned having obtained his Majtys Mercy."
From this it would appear that the hardships they endured were considered as extenua- ting their crime .- M'M.]
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Fortifications and Garrisons.
from time to time by express Signifie to Col. Ingoldesby then Comander in Chiefe of ye frontieers, who as his letter makes appeare did truly acquaint his Excel: Coll: Fletcher, who did after ye enemy was gone come up to Albany without any forces : - when I came up to ye garrison at Schonec- tady and where ye enemy was marching towards us, I had but part of a barrel of powder and but little shott, but I writt to Col. Ingoldsby who sent me a one barrel of powder with 6 cannon balls.
Daniel Hunt."
" An account of what stores of Warr was in the frontieer garrison at Schonectady when commanded by Lieut. Daniel Hunt, in June, July, Aug. 1696, being the time when Count Frontenack the French governor of Canada destroyed the habitaçons and castles of ye Onondgoes and Oneides Viz:t
8 Pieces of Ordinance,
4 Pattararoes, whereof one unserviceable,
28 Shott 11b weight each.
6 Shott 41b weight each,
1 Barrel of Cannon powder.
Part of a barrel of small powder not good,
1 Runlet & of musquet ball, Part of a Schaine of match,
10 Linstocks, 2 Priming horns,
9 Sheets of Cartharidge paper, 8 flints,
32 Cartharidges for ye ordinance,
11 baggs of musquett ball, viz*, partedges,
1 Ax, 1 Flagg,- 1 pr. of Shackles,
2 Buckets, 4 Iron potts, 4 Canns.
The forces in ye Garrison was one Lieut, one Serjt, ore drum and thirty of his Maty Soldiers and no more.
Witness Daniel Hunt."*
After the second fort had been occupied about 15 years, 1690 to 1705 the blockhouses were abandonedt and " Queens new Fort " was built at the east angle of the stockade. This was the " Old Fort " about which all the traditions of the people cluster.
It was at first simply a double or triple stockade 100 feet square, with bastions or blockhouses at the angles. In 1735 it was rebuilt in a more substantial manner of timbers on a stone foundation.t The four curtains
* Col. Doc., Iv, 431.
t [Abandoned as barrac'cs only .- M'M.]
# Col. Doc., VI, 120; Smith's Hist. N. Y.
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History of the Schenectady Patent.
were "about 76 ft. each and the four bastions or blockhouses 24 ft. square."
In 1754 at the beginning of the French war, it contained one 6 and one 9 pounder on carriages but no "Port holes in the curtain to fire them."
The following petition gives an account of the condition of the fortifica- tions of the village in 1754.
" To the Honorable James De Lancey Lieut. Governor and Commander in Chief in and over the Province of New York and the Territories depend- ing thereon, &c., &c.
" The Humble petition of the Officers of the four Companies of Militia at Schonechtady and also the Magistrates and Principal Inhabitants thereof.
" Most Humbly Sheweth that the security of this place as well as the preservation of the Lives of our Wives and children greatly depends on the strength of Fort Cosby as the only place of refuge in case of an Attack or surprize. The Hostilities committed by the Indians on our Neighbours and the Daily Expectation of their Attempts upon us also; Induces us most humbly to represent to your Honour the state of the said Garrison which Consists of 4 Curtains of about 76 feet each and four Bastions or block- houses 24 feet square, the superstructure built with timbers on a foundation of a stone wall about two feet above the surface of the earth .*
*[Description of the country between Oswego and Albany, 1757]. Extract.
. " From Fort Hunter to Chenectedi or Corlar is seven leagues. The public carriage way continues along the right bank of the Mohawk river. About 20 or 30 houses are found within this distance separated the one from the other from about a quarter to half a league. The Inhabitants of this section are Dutch. They form a company with some other inhabitants of the left bank of the Mohawk river about 100 men strong.
Chenectedi or Corlar, situated on the bank of the Mohawk river is a village of about 300 houses. It is surrounded by upright pickets flanked from distance to distance. Entering this 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 itself. 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 2 or 300 men. There are some pieces of cannon as a battery on the rampart. It is not encircled by a ditch. The entrance is through a large swing gate raised like a drawbridge. By pene. trating the village in attacking it at another point, the fire from the fort can be avoided."- Paris Document, XIII.
" After the Earl of Loudon had resigned to Genl. Abercrombie the command of the Army which had reduced Oswego, my father, then a young man, was called to Schen- ectady by sudden business.
A PLAN of SCHENECTADY, About 1750-F: + Incl. Was Situated Lat. 43 . Long . 74.30 .
100 200 100
600 Soli 1000yds
LAKE
Photo Fina fr "TUY Machitarra !!
Glans .8: ..
H Degrave
........
........ ...
..
by
Road
C
D.
.....
..
the Woods".
....
...
Road
from Mohawk Country
F. Part ofa live of an Encampment theownup and a fucile Battery to sheri how such works are Constructat .. ... -
Road into the Woods.
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G Barracks, or Sheds where part of . Ray were lodged last Winter ...... The Boundary on each side of the River is prety nearly on a Level- Except where i's mark'd otherwise on the Draught ....... [ The date of this map is unknown probably a tout 1750-60."
Photo Jing. for Major Mac Murray U.S. A. by VI. Wild. Albany.
RIVER
River' ..
..
MOHAWK
..
A. Schenectady - B. Wooden fort with four Block houses for flankers: ..... ......
C.Block houses lo defend the Stockades ..
D. Stockades planted round the Town. E. TheNearesthigh Ground to & Town which is about Soo Y. " from y Stocke
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Fortifications and Garrisons.
"On the Parade stands one Nine Pounder and one six pounder on car- riages rotten and unfit for service. Nor is there any Embrasure or rather Port-Hole in the Curtains to fire them.
" Above is a sort of Gallery Loophold but of little or no service. In each of the Bastions or Block houses Chambers* stand of three or four pounder, mettle, very insignificant, Should the enemy make a lodgement in any part of the town; Nor is there Powder or any other Military Stores in the Gar- rison ;- Garrisoned with only an Officer, a corporal and sixteen Private men.
" And we further beg leave to represent to your Honour the Ruinous and Defenceless condition of this town ;- the Block houses in Decay and the town open and exposed; and that the number of Indians passing & repass- ing is a daily burthen to us, too heavy to be borne to which add the Ex- penses of frequent Indian Expresses makes the weight still more grevious as there is no Allowance or Publick fund to Reimburse and we still groan our Losses, sufferings and fatigue in the Late War as well as heavy Debt then contracted.
"To expatiate on the value of this town as a frontier of the Province would be troublesome, your Honour well knowing it to be the Key of a Large Country and of the greatest Consequence to the Metropolis as well as to the province in General you have the Honour to command.
" Your Petitioners therefore most humbly entreat your Honour will be pleased to take the premises into your Serious Consideration and Grant us two Nine Pounders for each curtain and a Nine Pounder for each Bastion & that you would be pleased to give orders that the Port Holes be made to open and shut as in a Man of War, and to grant us a proper supply of Military stores, and such other assistance as you in Your great Wisdom shall think meet.
"And your petitioners as in duty bound shall ever Pray.
" Schenectady, ¿
31 Aug., 1754. 5
" Jno. B. V. Eps, Justice. " John Visger, Justice. " Nicolaas Groot, Jacob Glen, Arent Bratt, and thirty others."t
" That place was then fortified. It had the shape of a parallelogram, with two gates, one opening to the eastern the other to the northern road and was garrisoned by 50 or 60 soldiers."-Recollections of a Sexagenary.
[Manifestly the petitioners refer to the citadel or fort within the walls of the town. The description by the French officers shows both existed. The Sexagenarian seems to have considered the wall as the strong part of the town's defences. Besides the guns were probably on top of the work as they should have been .- M'M.]
* [Chambered Cannon-such as Mortars or probably Howitzers .- M'M.]
+ Col. MSS .. LXXIV. 20.
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History of the Schenectady Patent.
On the 15 Oct., following, the inhabitants of Schenectady again petitioned the Governor to build a fort in the village, signed by Daniel Campbell, Arent Bratt, Abm. Glen, and others .*
The open space on which this fort stood at the junction of Ferry, Front and Green streets was about 264 feet by more than 200 feet,-extending from the Episcopal church yard to Green street.
The fort was built nearly in the centre of this plat, the south wall ex- tending aoross Ferry street, three feet south of the north corner of the parsonage house.
The well of the fort was in the middle of the street, three feet south of the north corner of Mr. James Sanders' house.t
GARRISON AT SCHENECTADY. Whilst the Province remained under the Dutch rule a small body of soldiers was stationed in Fort Orange,-after the English occupation in 1664, there was seldom less than one full com- pany there,-sometimes two; and Schenectady was garrisoned by a detach- ment therefrom of 20 to 40 men under command of a lieutenant.
In times of alarm and war as in the ten years war between England and France-1688-1698, the regulars were supplemented by the militia of the town or from Connecticut.
Hardly a year passed that the importance of having Schenectady better fortified and garrisoned was not recognized either by the Governor and Council, the Legislative assembly or the ruling powers in the mother country. In 1671, Governor Lovelace wrote as follows to Capt. Delavall in command at Albany, "upon rumor that the French were coming to invade us " * * * " It will be necessary that in ye first place a good and careful correspondence be maintained between Albany and Schanechtidee for I look on that [Schenectady ] as a Frontier; and that ye Inhabitts of that place putt themselves into some posture of Defence by keeping out Schouts
* Col. MSS., LXXIV, 60.
+ Mr. Nicholas Veeder, who died in Glenville in 1862, aged 100 years, said that this fort was about 20 feet high and built of hewn timber,-that it was taken down in the Revolutionary war and the timber used in the frame of soldiers barracks built on land of Johannes Quackenbos, at the south corner of Union and Lafayette streets. The village then had an armament of iron cannons and swivels,-the largest of which were the " Lady Washington "and the " Long nine Pounder," which were placed in the streets so as to command the gates. In digging trenches for water pipes in 1871, the south wall and well of the fort were discovered. See also Mortgages, 1784, v, 102.
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Fortifications and Garrisons.
and making some Block house weh may give some Check to ye Enemy, in case hee should p' sume to advance into his Royall Highness Dominions: * *
* That out of each Squadron [of horse] one be constantly sent to schout between you and Schanechtide, to bring dayly Intelligence, and they from Schanechtide to doe ye like further into ye Country, & that these Schouts be constantly relieved."*
N. York, July 6, 1671.
In accordance with the spirit of the above letter Capt. Thomas De Lavall chief officer at Albany, on the 15th of July, ordered all the inhabitants of Albany and Schenectady over 15 and under 60 years to provide themselves with guns, side arms, two pounds of powder and four pounds of lead each under a penalty of 100 guilders,-all within 14 days. The year following this order was renewed at a meeting of the chief officers of Albany and Schenectady, those of the latter place being Ensign Jacob Sanderse Glen and Ensign Sweer Teunise Van Velsen.t
In 1687 Major Brockholes being in command at Albany reported to the Governor and Council assembled at Fort James July 19, the condition of things at Albany and Schenectady,-that " he is now come from Albany to Schanectade with Instructions ffrom the Government to bring up there with all convenient Speed a certain number of men & some Provisions."
Whereupon it was "ordered that sixty men he reysed in & out of ye Citty & county of New York & fifty men out of Queens County."
" It being now plaine that ye French are Resolved to do all the Prejudice they can to the Kings subjects of this Government it is for ye Prevention thereof ordered that ye People of ye Citty and county of Albany Do Cutt Pallysade and by ye five & twentieth day of March cart them to ye Citty, and ye town of Schanectade to fortify the place in the spring,-that in the meantime they keep a careful Watse and that this order be sent to ye Justices of the peace of ye County who are to take care that it be put in execution."}
The same order was again made by the Council on the 7th Sept., 1687, and Maj. Chambers was directed to " march his company of militia on horse- back to Albany and Schenectady."§
In anticipation of an immediate attack upon the frontiers, the mayor, Common Council of Albany, military officers and justices of the peace of the county, met in convention at Albany, on the 4th of Sept., 1689, as a com-
* Court of Assize, IL + Not. Papers, II.
# Council Minutes, v, 195, 203.
§ Orders in Council, VI, 7-12.
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History of the Schenectady Patent.
mittee of safety and after deliberation resolved to send an express to Capt. Leisler of New York for one hundred or more men, "a Recrute of six hundred weight of Powder and foure hundred Ball, viz. 200 Two pounders and 200 foure pounders with some match and one hundred hand Grenadoes."
In November, 1689, there were two companies of militia stationed at Albany-one from Connecticut commanded by Capt. Jonathan Bull,-the other from New York under Capt. Jochim Staats, an adherent of Leisler. The convention before mentioned, being desirous of having the out-posts at Schenectady, Canastagioene & Half Moon, garrisoned, appointed a committee of five to arrange with two captains for this duty. After much higgling it was finally agreed that Capt. Bull should send his Lieutenant, Enos Talmadge, with 24 men to hold the post at Schenectady, the magistrates of which were Anti-Leislerian.
The people however were divided and party spirit ran so high that their sense of safety was lost in the bitter strife.
The period from 1688 to 1698, was the most trying and critical in the history of Schenectady. First there were alarms and apprehensions of an attack by the French and their Indian allies, the destruction of the village, the slaughter and the captivity of a large part of its inhabitants and lastly the departure of many of the remainder to Albany, New York and other places of safety. The town was in danger of being depopulated in spite of stringent ordinances against removal and the encouragement of the Mohawks to stay by the post, fortify and maintain a vigorous warfare against their enemies.
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