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 42
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That first recorded is in the Indian deed in 1661, to Van Curler for the flats,-Schonowe. In his honor the Iroquois called it Curler or Corlaer, meaning the village of Curler, or Corlaer's village. Similarly the wild Indians of the "plains" speak of the President of the United States as "Wasseeton," and the great dome of the National capitol as " Wasseeton's Campo" i. e., Washington's wigwam or tent.
The French designated the town as Corlaer after they had become ac- quainted with it; though the first map, in which the editor has found the settlement mentioned, is in Jesuit Relations (Madam le Mercier's relation to the Superior of the Society of Jesus, dated Kebec, 1665), where it appears as " Les nouvelles habitations hollandoises."
Doctor Samuel Mitchell in a communication to the New York Historical Society (1, 43), gives the following names which he derived from John Bleecker the old Indian interpreter at Albany:
" CAHOHATATEA = Hudson's River.
"SCHENECTADEA = Albany.
" SCHENECTADEA CAHOHATATEA = Albany River.
" OHONOWA-LANGANTLE* = town of Schenectady.
" Schenectadea (Albany), signified the place the natives of the Iroquois arrived at by traveling through the pine trees."t
.
* Compare first half of this word Ohonowa with Schonowe the name in the deed, and consider that the Mohawk gutterals were unrenderable in Dutch. They are likely to have been identical.
+ Comparing these words with the derivations of Dr. O'Callaghan, we may have with little straining, Ca-ho-hact-at-ea - the river that flows without (or beyond " the cabin.")' Schen-ec-ta-dea Ca-ho-hact-at-ea = the river that flows beyond the town without the door.
437
Schenectady.
Similarly the present town of Schenectady took the name when referred to at Albany, as "beyond the pine plains."
Danker and Sluyter having described the beautiful valley in which it lies, speak of it as " this Schoon-echtendeel." Hon. H. C. Murphy in his trans- lation of their journal, notes this as a play on the words Schoon-echten- deel = beautiful portion.
When the Dutch arrived at the head of navigation of the Hudson's river in 1609, the Mohawks had castles at the mouths of the Norman's kil and the Mohawk river, but the larger portion of the natives first seen were Manhattans, Minguas, Mohegans, Delawares and other river Indians.
These gave names to remoter places, by which they became later known, and the name Schenectady was connected with the Mohegan explanation of its meaning. The Mohawk country was to the north and west of the highest point to which ships could go.
The following hitherto unpublished memorandum by the late Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan presents a different and probably the correct explanation of the term Schenectady as it was variously used.
As it applies to the town on the site of Albany at an earlier date its au- thenticity is.the more probable.
"The usual signification attributed to this word is believed to be erroneous having been derived not from the Mohawk but from the Mohegan language.
" In the former tongue GAUN-HO-HA = door, S'GAUN-HO-HA = the door,
HAC-TA-TIE = without.
" These two words combined form:
S'GAUN-HIO-HA-HAC-TA-TIE, this abbreviated and written
S'GAUN-HAC-TA-TIE = without the door.
"S' Gaun-ho-ha, appears also in another name given to the town by the Mohawks at an earlier date .- The Indian title to the land in the immediate vicinity of Schenectady was extinguished July 27, 1661, by a conveyance to Arent Van Curler. In his deed the land called by the Dutch 'Groote Vlacht,' is named by the Indians Schon-o-we, identical probably with S' Gaun-ho-ha in sound and signification.
438
History of the Schenectady Patent.
" To understand the full import of these terms it should be remembered that the Mohawk tribe was the head of the confederacy called the Five Nations or Iroquois; they claimed the exclusive power to initiate treaties with other tribes and foreign powers; in their figurative language the Mohawks were the door of the cabin, i.e., the confederacy .* All ambassadors to the Five Nations approached the confederacy by the Mohawk tribe.
"On one occasion the Governor of Canada seeking to divide the counsels and strength of the Iroquois sent an ambassador to the Senecas. The Mohawks resented this infringment of their prerogative, and informed the Governor that they were the Door of the Cabin 'but,' say they, 'you enter the Cabin by the chimney, be cautious lest you get smoke in your eyes.'
"It is well known that the present site of Schenectady was early occupied as a Mohawk settlement-probably the chief town of the tribe. What name could then be more significant than Sgaun-ho-ha, - the door ? But when their principal settlement was removed west to Fort Hunter ;- Schon-o-we-the door-would become Sgaun-hac-ta-tie-without the door.
"It should also be remembered that the Iroquois called Albany Schanec- tadea, and very properly according to the above signification of the word, especially whilst our town was occupied by the Indians."t
On a hill on the flatst at the outlet of valley of the Norman's Kil was a town, noted by the early Dutch navigators as Tawas-gaunshee. This, the most easterly castle of the Mohawks, was literally the eastern door of the long house of the confederacy, and here the Five Nations concluded that formal treaty of peace and alliance which never was broken. From
*"The Iroquois consisted of five nations, Mohawks, Oneidas, Cayugas, Onondagas and Senecas, occupying the heart of what is now the State of New York. The Mohawks lay on the river of that name; the Oneidas, Onondagas and Cayugas, successively to the west, near the lakes, and west of all towards the Niagara lay the Senecas. These names, except the first, are corruptions of their own. The Mohawks called themselves Gagnie- guahague, but as the tribe collectively was styled Ganniageari, the She Bear; the neigh- boring Algonquin tribes called them Magua, the Bear, a name which the Dutch and English accepted. These five nations formed a league, and in their idea, constituted a complete cabin, hence the name for the whole was Ho'inousionni, meaning, ' they form a cabin.'"-Dr. J. G. Shea, in note to Gowan's Ed. Miller's N. Y.
+ Based on notes furnished by the late Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan.
Į Prof. Pearson.
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Schenectady.
there along the Tawas-gauntha (Norman's Kil), led the trail* to the valley of the Mohawk river and thence through the gate or gap in the mountains to the Indian castles near and above Schoharie creek.t
It would not be difficult to connect this Sgaunshee or (Sgauntha) with S' Gaun-ho-ha, as derived by Dr. O'Callaghan. The scribes of the time were not skillful in the spellings of their own languages, and were not very likely to render the terms and sounds of an unknown tongue either literally or consistently, the same Indian term being variously spelled and as variously sounded. This is equally true of Dutch words in records of that date.
In the Vrooman map of 1768, it will be seen the Mohawk is designated as the "Schenectady River." Was this the Mohawk name of the river which led through the eastern gate of the Iroquois country ?
In a note to Gowan's Edition of Miller's Description of the Province of New York, the editor, Hon. John Gilmary Shea, says : "Scanectade (Schenectady) is the Mohawk. The name means, beyond the openings. It was given by the tribe to Albany, and retained on the division by the present town."
He does not quote his authorities, but beyond the opening was probably as near to beyond or " without the door" as the limited vocabulary of the Indians could be expected to go. What he means by "retained on the division" is not clear, as the division of Schenectady from Albany occurred in this century.
" The ancient Mohawk village which stood at this place, was called Con- nocharie-guharie, or, as Benson writes it, Oronowaragouhre, in allusion to the vast piles of drift wood which were left every spring on the flats. The term Origoniwoutt appears to have been applied, at a later period to the village at the same place." "it does not appear from any author
* For a century or more this Was the common route from Albany to the present Schenectady.
t Tawas-Schohor was the Mohawk name for Schoharie .- Simm's Pioneers.
The Schoharie creek was a gateway to the Mohawk valley, and after Schenectady was ceded and was without the door, the locality became the real door to the Mohawk country, whether from the south along the Scoharie- the east along the Mohawk or the North Woods. Spelled sgau-hor it would sound the same as Scho-hor, and we are doubt- less indebted to crude ears and cruder recorders for the present soun dand spelling of the name.
440
History of the Schenectady Patent.
that Schenectady - the original Mohawk name for Albany -was applied to it till after the first surrender of the colony to England, four years after the date of the Patent."-Schoolcraft, Notes on the Iroquois .*
It is evident from the "indenture "t prepared to be signed by the "land- holders on the plain called __ "' that Governor Stuyvesant did not know the Dutch name for the place May 5, 1663, probably ignoring the Indian name. Van Curler registered the baptism of the town as Schan- echstede, in the agreement of May 18, 1663,; sent to the Commies at Albany.
In official papers of 1664, the town is designated as Schaneghstede and Schanechstede (egh and ech being used interchangeably).
In the Indian deed for the Schenectady township,§ in 1672, the name is Schan-hech-ta-de, which is very like S' Gaun-hac-ta-tie. This is as recorded by Van Marken, Notary Public. In 1675, Ludovicus Cobes - schout and secretary, writes it in the same manner except the middle h which is dropped, and as if to make up for this, changes Schan into Schaun, thus reverting very positively to Dr. O'Callaghan's derivation.
In Governor Stuyvesant's order of June, 1663, the word is spelled as now, Schenectady, and with slight variation this seemed to be the official orthog- raphy.
In 1802, a petition signed by original settlers, familiar with its history and surroundings, and at a time when the Mohawk language was more or less familiar to all of the inhabitants,-was accompanied by "a list of ye Lands and Income of the township of Schon-hec-ta-dy". The Rev. John Miller, the best educated man who had the visited the town up to 1693-5, spelled the name as he had heard it pronounced, when he visited the town, Scan-ec-ta-de and Scan-ech-ta-de. He may have gotten this spelling from Glen whom he knew, and who during the year 1695, at least, spelled it Scanectady.
In 1696, the commander of the fort, Lieutenant Hunt spelled it Schon-ac- ta-dy.||
Governor Andross orders" Sconextady strictly prohibited all trade," etc., in 1678.
* Introduction, see page 14. + Ibid, 12.
¿ Introduction, page 14.
§ Ibid, page 18.
| Fortifications and Garrisons, page 313.
441
Houses in Ancient Albany County.
HOUSES IN ANCIENT ALBANY COUNTY.
The first settlements in the county were on Castle Island at the mouth of the Norman's Kil. Being a mere trading station, the buildings were simple in design, and probably after the pattern so common for a long period here and still common in the Netherlands. They were built by mechanics brought over for the purpose and it was long before there was need of any others. When the settlement grew in dimensions, houses were scattered along the river bank to suit the needs or convenience of the traders. Doubtless the log or block house was common but the Dutch gothic taste was most pre- valent. They were either of usual Indian pattern or a simple rectangle in plan, from fifteen to eighteen feet wide and two or three times as long. The walls whether after the Indian pattern or of framed timbers boarded,* or brick filled, or partly one and partly the other, or of brick or stone masonry, were usually about eight to twelve feet in height. Across these were laid heavy beams, the covering of which, very heavy plank usually two and a-half to four inches thick, formed floor of upper and ceiling of lower rooms.
On each beam was framed a pair of rafters tied by a hammer beam, thus forming a triangular truss of simple construction and very great strength. The exterior was sheathed with broad heavy planks which in turn were thatched or covered with shingles.
* The dwellings in the Jarseyes are wretchedly constructed, " most of the English, and many others, have their houses made of nothing but clapboards, as they call them there, in this manner ; they first make a wooden frame, the same as they do in Westphalia and at Altona, but not so strong; they then split the boards of clapwood, so that they are like cooper's pipe staves except that they are not bent. These are made very thin, with a large knife, so that the thickest end is about a little finger thick and the other is made sharp like the edge of a knife, they are about five or six feet long and are nailed on the outside of the frame with the ends lapped over each other. They are not usually laid so close together as to prevent you from sticking a finger between them in consequence either of their not being well joined, or the boards being crooked. When it is cold and windy the best people plaster them with clay. Such are most all the English houses in the country except those they have which were built by people of other nations."-Danker and Sluyter, 1679,
56
442
History of the Schenectady Patent.
No masonry save chimneys was used in any house in Albany prior to 1656 when father Jogues described the town of Albany.
The earlier houses of the average traders were built of poles after the fashion of the Indians in the locality, as later houses were erected and sawed lumber was introduced, the houses were framed of timber and boarded on the exterior, as in the description of the ancient commissary's residence at the fort. That they were poor, shabby affairs even as late as 1643, appears from the statement of Father Jogues who describes Fort Orange as a miserable structure of logs. The settlement about it consisted of some twenty-five or thirty houses roughly built of boards and roofed with thatch, scattered along near the river above and below the fort (about the site of the Susquehanna R. R. depot).
While in Albany he was lodged in a large building like a barn, belonging to a Dutch farmer. It was a hundred feet long and had no partition of any kind; at one end he kept his cattle and at the other he slept with his wife, a Mohawk squaw, and his children, while his Indian guests slept on the floor in the middle .* As he is described as one of the principal inhabitants it is clear the civilization of Rensselaerswyck was not very high.t
That the cattle were in the end of the house was not very peculiar, the practice is still common among peasantry of many countries, notably Switzer- land, Germany and Holland; barns were uncommon during the early years of the settlement of this section of country and in transfers of hofstedes they are rarely mentioned, all crops being kept in cellars or under bergen or
* This description implies a long house built after the general plan practiced by the Indians and the easiest thing for the first settlers (all Indian traders) to erect.
"Iroquois and Huron dwellings were fifty yards or more in length and twelve or fifteen wide, framed with sapling poles closely covered with bark, cach containing many fires and many families "-Parkman's Pioneers of France.
+ Parkman.
(1679.) " Their [the Indians'] house was low and long, about sixty feet long and fourteen or fifteen feet wide. The bottom was earth, the sides and roof were made of reed and the bark of chestnut trees ; the posts, or columns, were limbs of trees stuck in the ground and all fastened together. * * * * On the sides, or walls, of the house the roof was so low that you can hardly stand under it. The entrances or doors, which were at both ends were so small and low that they had to stoop down and squeeze themselves to get through them. The doors were made of reed or flat bark."-Danker and Sluyter's Journal, description of Indian house.
443
Houses in Ancient Albany County.
ricks. With woods full of roaming Indians, cattle could not be allowed to stray and they were housed in the end of the domicile or annexed to it under the same roof.
"It is said on New Year's night in 1655, during a controversy between Jean Baptiste Van Rensselaer and Governor Stuyvesant's officers, some soldiers armed with matchlocks sallied from the fort and fired a number of shots at the Patroon's house. Several pieces of wadding settled on the roof which was of reeds and had caused the destruction of the building had not the in- mates been on the alert."-( O' Callaghan's Rensselierswyck).
Johannes La Montagne was appointed commissarie of Fort Orange in 1656. The residence of the commissarie was an old building about twenty- five feet long, one story and a half high with the typical Dutch peaked roof covered with old shingles. At the north end was a room about fifteen feet square and at the south, one about ten by fifteen, into which the door opened and was thus a sort of entry. The second floor was undivided and was under the roof, access being had by a straight ladder through a trap door. There was a cellar under the house.
This was condemned in 1750 and a stone house built, as one of timber would cost as much owing to the distance the timbers had to be hauled. This was to serve as a residence for the vice director as well as for a court of justice. It cost about $3,500 and was the first stone house in Albany.
The new building had a foundation of stone, brought from a quarry four miles distant, three to four feet thick and six feet high, and the cellar was divided into two rooms each twenty feet square. The foundation was carried above the ground to a height of two feet of "baked stones three stones," or three bricks thick [probably about twenty inches] and on this were laid thirty-three floor beams. The walls were carried up, " a stone and a half" thick. On these rested the upper floor beams and nine pairs of raf- ters, of the roof was covered with sound tiles; there was a double chimney (double flued chimney ?) in each gable, masoned of choice bricks and the whole was bound with forty-two iron anchors. The window frames were of white oak.
The first floor was divided into three compartments; in the centre was an entry or vestibule separated from the hall, five feet wide by a four inch brick wall. At the north end was a room about twenty feet square with a stone
444
History of the Schenectady Patent.
chimney, at the south end a kitchen about twenty by fifteen with a chimney, a recess for a bed and pantry.
The upper floor was divided into two rooms about twenty feet square, access was gained by a winding stair which also led to the attic where ammunition and other stores belonging to the fort were stored .*
This building corresponds in description very closely to many old Dutch buildings the writer has examined.
The Bratt house now standing on the hills overlooking the first lock to the west of Schenectady has the central hall, the rooms to correspond with their great fire places, a jutting partition which forms an alcove for a bed on one side and a pantry on the other, the winding stair leading to the upper floor and to the attic. The walls of this house are of bricks; dark colored arch bricks being laid to form diamonds all over the face. In a brick in the front is cut the inscription " A Bradt 1736." The building may have been built some time then.
The following are a few citations from common authorities referring to buildings : (1640.) Ship Houtluyn was freightel with goods for the Colonie (Rensselaerswyck) * * four thousand tiles and thirty thousand bricks.t
* (1645.) The greater number of the houses around forts Amsterdam and Orange, were in those days, low sized wooden buildings with roofs of reeds or straw and chimneys of wood. Wind or water mills were erected here and there to grind corn or to saw lumber.
(1616.) The city [of Albany] contained in 1646 not more than ten houses.
(1646.) Bricks $4.16 per thousand in Albany.
" Conditions and terms on which Juffrouw Johanna De Hultert proposes to sell her brick kiln (Steen bakkerij) as it stands :
" First. The brick kiln shall be delivered to the buyer as it stands fenced and shall be shown to him, in free ownership except that he shall pay as an acknowledgment two guilders yearly to the patroon. The delivery shall be made 8th Nov., 1657," &c.
Adrian Jansen Van Ilpendam bought for 1,100 guilders.
Madam Johanna De Hulter proposes to sell at public sale her tile kiln (pannen backerij) on the same terms as the brick kiln.
* First stone house in Albany .- E. B. O' Callaghan.
+ O'Callaghan's Colony of Rensselacrswyck. :
# Johan De Hulter one of the partners of Rensselaerswyck embarked in May, 1653, from Amsterdam in a vessel called the Graef with different families, taking with them a number of freemen among whom were several mechanics, as one extraordinary potter (Steenbakker), who intended to settle in the colony or any other convenient place .- Albany Records, IV, 93.
445
Houses in Ancient Albany County.
Peter Meese (Vrooman) purchased for three thousand seven hundred and seventeen (3,717) guilders .- Pearson's Albany County Records.
(1658.) A claim for value of pan tiles and bricks furnished for the church .*
[ (1658.) Claim for payment for 12,000 bricks and 1,600 pan tiles .*
(1658.) Claim for 5,500 bricks .*
(1658.) Tjerk Claesson for laying bricks .*
(1658.) Noted,-the Hoogeboom brothers tile makers in van Slechtenhorst's bakery or kiln .*
(1662.) Pieter Jacobse Borseboom de Steenbakker sells his Steenbakkerij prior to moving to Schenectady of which he was one of the first proprietors.
(1671.) Saw mill in Bethlehem.
The Patroon had saw mills prior to this.
(1683.) House sold før 95 beavers (or about $300.00).
(1683.) Tjerk Harmenson Visscher contracts to build a house for Hendrik Roseboom, 18 feet × 10 feet, with a standing gable; a garret and floor. One cross bar window and door case in the front gable. Strips for tiles, likewise a back door and light over the door, a chimney and a mantel, for ten beavers ($32,00).
(1690-1734.) Bricks are quoted at $2.00 to 3.00 per thousand in Schenectady. Albany rates about the same.
(1704.) Wouter Quackenbos bill for 1,300 bricks with carting to the fort, £1-2-0
(1723.) Granted to Lambert Radley and Jonathan Broecks, one acre with the clay in or near the same fit to make bricks to the west of Luykas Hooghkirk's brick kill. (Albany ) (1736.) Granted to Wynant Van De Bergh ground where he makes bricks. (Albany). (1725.) Van der Heyden Palace, erected 1725, demolished 1833.
" Built by Johannes Beekman in 1725." Dimensions 50 × 20 feet, having a hall and two rooms on each floor.
This building stood in Pearl street near State street. It was said to have been con- structed of bricks, etc., brought from Holland.
Munsell's note to this says : " This is a common tradition of all the old houses, yet there were many brick and tile makers here and abundant material for the manufacture of the article. Probably bricks were brought over as ballast in some cases. It is also asserted that the timbers of certain houses were imported from Holland, although the best of timber abounded here which could be had at the mere cost of cutting and hauling.
" Although it had been somewhat modernized internally, the massive beams and braces projecting into the rooms, the ancient wainscoting and the iron figures on the gable ends, carried the mind back to days of old.
" Washington Irving described it in " Bracebridge Hall " as the residence of Heer An- tony Vanderheyden.
" The iron weather vane, a running horse, was placed above the peaked turret of the door at Sunny Side."
* Notarial papers-Magistrate's Court Albany.
446
History of the Schenectady Patent.
(1743.) In contract for a house : prescribed that there should be built : " Stone founda- tion above the ground with lime, new roof of squared white pine boards; to make a chimney and to mason it with hard bricks and lime above the roof."*
(1749) Peter Kalm.
" The houses in the town (Albany) are very neat and partly built of stones [brick ?] covered with shingles of the white pine. Some are slated with tiles from Holland because the clay of this neighborhood is not reckoned fit for tiles.t Most of the houses are built in the old way with the gable end towards the street, a few excepted which were lately built in the manner now used. A great number were built like those of New Brunswick which I have described; the gable end being towards the street, of bricks and all the other wails of planks.
* *
* " The gutters on the roofs reach almost to the middle of the street. This preserves the walls from rain but is extremely disagreeable in rainy weather for the people in the streets."
The street doors are generally in the middle of the houses and on both sides are seats.
(1755.) " The Dutch Chimnies have very small Jambs with 3 or 4 Rows of Tiles, some no Jambs at all. * * * Some Stone Houses many Brick. * * * The Brick houses many of them curiously floured with Black Bricks and dated with the same, the Governour's house has 2 Hearts in Black brick. Houses chiefly but one storey high and Brick ends notched like steps. Window shutters and loop holes in Sellars. On top of the Houses for weather cocks Horses, lions, Geese, Sloops," &c., &c .;
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