USA > New York > Warren County > Queensbury > A history of the town of Queensbury, in the state of New York : with biographical sketches of many of its distinguished men, and some account of the aborigines of northern New York > Part 41
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392
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF QUEENSBURY.
While the Wings and the Merritts, the Joneses, Browns, Put- nams, Seelyes, and other families were toiling in their wilder- ness seclusion, events were rapidly approaching that crisis which ended in severing the ties that bound the colonies to the mother country. Organized bands of the Sons of Liberty were striking terror to the officials of the British government in every city along the seaboard. Within thirty miles of the settlement, at the east, the authorities of New York and New Hampshire were at open variance and collision for territorial supremacy. Benning Wentworth, the governor of New Hampshire, without the least show of justice or title, having issued no less than 138 patents to lands within the jurisdiction of New York, an embittered state of feeling ensued which did not terminate until years after the close of the Revolution, when the disputed territory was erected into a sovereign and independent state. How much or little the sturdy Friends of Queensbury were disturbed by these . questions, tidings of which were borne on to them from time to time by their relatives from Old Dutchess, it is now difficult to say. The time was fast approaching, however, when the seclu- sion of the wilderness afforded no protection to opinions, and the most insignificant were forced to a decision in that first great struggle for our nationality.
establishing the colony, and in 1765, obtained patents for twenty-five thousand acres of land lying on and near the creek. Here he built a stone mansion forty feet by thirty, and two stories and a half in height. In 1770, he erected a large stone building one hundred and thirty feet long, which was used for a military garrison and depot. He also built at this place a stone forge of about the same dimen- sions as his house, where he commenced the manufacture of iron. This was the first forge erected on the borders of the lake. Skene owned a sloop, with which he kept up a regular communication with Canada, and at his own expense he cut a road through the wilderness as far as Salem, a distance of about thirty miles, from which point it was continued by others to Bennington. This road was used during the season when the navigation on the lake was closed by ice. In 1773, Skenes- borough contained a population of 379."- Palmer's History of Lake Champlain, p. 95.
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393
NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANT CONTROVERSY.
CHAPTER IX.
THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANT CONTROVERSY -THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS - THE PATRIOTIC SENTIMENT OF THIS NEIGHBORHOOD - THE SEIZURE OF THE FORTS AT TICONDEROGA, CROWN POINT AND THE HEAD OF LAKE GEORGE - NARRATIVE OF CAPTAIN NORDBERG - BERNARD ROMANS AND DANIEL PARKE - MEETING OF THE PRO- VINCIAL CONGRESS AT ALBANY - DISTURBANCES AT FORT EDWARD.
ST is scarcely to be expected in the history of a town- ship, that a full resumé will be given of the transac- tions and events which contribute to make up the annals of a nation. It will be proper, however, and quite legitimate to the purposes of this narrative, to bear in mind some of the leading events which ushered in the Revolu- tion, as being among the causes which retarded the growth of the settlement, and ultimately resulted in the entire depopula- tion of the patent; with the destruction of nearly all its improve- ments.
As previously stated, the colonial controversy relating to the Hampshire grants, the disputed territory of which, extending to the southern extremity of Lake George,1 had long kept the eastern settlements of New York in a condition of ferment and feverish excitement. Stories of the brutal application of the
1 This assertion is made on the authority of the late Judge Hay. A reference to the documents relating to this famous controversy, contained in the fourth volume of the Documentary History of N. Y., shows that the province of New York, holding jurisdiction under a charter and letters patent granted by King Charles the Second to his brother James, the Duke of York, bearing date the 12th of March, 1663-4 [O. S.], and 29th June, 1674, had the Connecticut river specifically designated as the eastern boundary of said province of New York. Afterward, difficulties having arisen by reason of the imperfect geographical knowledge of the day between that province and the colonies of Connecticut and Massachusetts Bay, joint commissioners were at different times appointed to adjust and determine the boundaries between these several provinces, by whom a line parallel to and twenty miles east of the Hudson river was agreed upon as the determinate bounds of their respective jurisdictions.
The New Hampshire patent issued by George the Second, July 3d, 1741, defines ' its western limits to extend to his majesty's other governments. Presuming, with- out the least letter of justice or show of equity, upon the claims of Massachusetts
50
394
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF QUEENSBURY.
beech seal to certain officials of Albany county, beneath the grim shadows of the Green mountains helped to keep alive a feeling of insecurity all along the line of scattered hamlets to the north of Albany. The air was filled with rumors of approach- ing political disruptions. Already had the prototype of the continental congress held its session at Philadelphia.1 Sons of Liberty had commenced their overt and daring acts of hostility to the crown officials.2 The patriotic associations of New
and Connecticut, " that New Hampshire had an equal right to claim the same extent of western boundaries with those charter governments,"1 Gov. Wentworth pro- ceeded to issue patents and plant colonies upon this debatable ground ; which were, for twenty-five years or more, the fruitful source of acrimonious controversy, and atrocious, lawless outrages, the aggressors and perpetrators being in a large proportion of instances the inhabitants of the grants issued by Wentworth, and known as the Green Mountain boys. The line twenty miles east of the Hudson river following its curves and bends would intersect the eastern portion of the town and strike the southern extremity of Lake George at or near Dunham's bay.
The following is an extract from an order in council made at the court of St. James, the 20th day of July, 1764, fixing the boundary between New York and New Hampshire. * * * " His majesty taking the same into consideration was pleased with the advice of his privy council to approve of what is therein pro- posed, and doth accordingly hereby order and declare the western banks of the river Connecticut, from where it enters the province of the Massachusett's Bay as far north as the forty-fifth degree of northern latitude, to be the boundary line between the said two provinces of New Hampshire and New York."- Doc. Hist. of N. Y., vol. Iv, p. 574.
1 Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, on the morning of Friday, the 17th of June, 1774, proposed in the presence of 129 colleagues of the general assembly, a conti- nental or general convention of delegates representatives from the different colonies to be held at Philadelphia on the first of September then next ensuing. In pursuance of this resolution the delegates convened at Carpenter's hall in Philadelphia on Monday the 5th of September. * * * * * " This congress consisted of fifty-one delegates, representing twelve of the colonies lying along the shore of the Atlantic, from New Hampshire to South Carolina inclusive; the greatest number of delegates for any one colony being seven, and the smallest two. But this disparity in the number of delegates did not affect the votes, as it was agreed that each colony should have but one vote; whatever was the number of its dele- gates. The congress sat with their doors locked, no one was permitted to be pre- sent at their deliberations, and all their proceedings, except those which they thought fit to publish, were kept profoundly secret."- Stedman's Hist. of the American War, vol. I, p. 102.
2 The first liberty pole erected in the Mohawk valley was set up at the German . Flats, in the early part of the year, which Alexander White, the tory sheriff of Tryon county, assisted by a party of loyalists cut down. So strong was the popular indignation against him, in consequence, that he was obliged to flee. Accompanied by a white man named Peter Bone, and two or three Indians, he made a push for the Canada border, but was overtaken at Jessup's landing on the Hudson river, the house where he had taken lodgings surrounded, and the fugitive sheriff taken
1 Letter of Gov. Benning Wentworth to Gov. Clinton, April 25th, 1750.
395
EVENTS PRECEDING THE REVOLUTION.
York city and other sea board towns, found their counterpart on the frontiers; and from the time of the stamp act riots, occasional gatherings of whigs assembled at Fort Edward among whom were numbered such representative and influential names as the Bradshaw, Moss, Baker, and High families of Kings- bury ; the Bitleys, Sherwoods, and Durkees, of Fort Edward, the Paynes, Parkes and McCreas of the yet unnamed district on the west side of the Hudson ; so that when the beacon fires of the Revolution burst forth, the lines of political opinion were sharply drawn and defined, and, it was known at the outset, through a wide range of neighborhood, who were the friends, as well as foes of the general opposition to and uprising against British misrule.
Of the various events standing prominently forth in the history of the times, none was more certainly thoroughly assured and prearranged than the capture of the old French fortress of Carillon, at Ticonderoga. This is so intimately associated with the subsequent seizure of Fort George, that, for a proper under- standing of that affair, a brief narration of the circumstances which led to the former cannot with propriety be omitted. Prior to the commencement of hostilities, Samuel Adams, and Dr. Joseph Warren, as members of the committee of cor- respondence in Boston, sent an agent privately to Canada, to ascertain the feelings of the people of that province in regard to the approaching contest, and to report the result of his ob- servations.1
This agent sent back intelligence from Montreal, and among other suggestions, advised that by all means the garrison at Ticonderoga should be seized as quickly as possible after the breaking out of hostilities, adding that the people of the New Hampshire grants had agreed to undertake the task and that
captive, and conveyed to Albany where he was imprisoned - Vide Stone's Life of Brant, vol. I, p. 106-7.
Tradition states that one of the Jessups escaped being taken prisoner, by jump- ing across the Hudson river, at the narrow gorge just above the Big falls. Men- tion is made in the 1st vol. Revolutionary Papers of the arrest of Sheriff White with three white. men and three Indians at Gilliland's, in what is now Essex county. Whether this refers to the same affair, or is the record of another arrest there is no means within the author's reach, of determining.
1 Of the activity of the revolutionists, something may be judged from the fact that " a correspondence was opened through Mr. Kirkland, even with the Mohawks, by the provincial congress of Massachusetts, before the affair of Lex- ington and Concord."- Stone's Life of Brant, vol. I, p. 55.
396
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF QUEENSBURY.
they were the most proper persons to be employed in it. This hint was given three weeks before the battle of Lexington.
The affair at the last named place occurred on the 19th of April, 1775. Eight days after that event, several gentlemen who were in attendance upon the general assembly at Hartford, concerted a plan for the capture of Ticonderoga.
Benedict Arnold's commission is from the committee of safety at Cambridge, Mass., and bears date May 3d, 1775. It con- ferred upon him the title of colonel and commander-in-chief of an expedition against Ticonderoga and Crown Point. In a communication to the printer, of nearly the same date, it is claimed for Col. Arnold, that on his march to Cambridge in April last, he concerted a plan for the capture of Ticonderoga 1 and Crown Point, which he first communicated to a member of the committee for correspondence for Connecticut, and after- wards by letter to the governor of the province ; and after his arrival at Cambridge to the provincial congress and committee of safety.2
From the authority just quoted,3 we derive the additional information that on the 4th of May, a gentleman in Pittsfield, Mass., wrote to an officer then on duty at Cambridge, stating substantially that the plan for the capture had been concerted by the governor and council at Hartford, Conn., the preceding Saturday, and that Col. Hancock and Mr. Adams, with others from the province of Massachusetts, were present, and parti- cipated in the deliberations. Three hundred pounds were drawn out of the state treasury to defray the expenses of the expedi- tion, which sum was committed to those gentlemen that were here. The letter also states that a number of gentlemen from Connecticut, went from Pittsfield last Tuesday morning, having been joined by Col. Easton, Capt. Dickenson, and Mr. John Brown (a young lawyer of great promise), with forty soldiers (from Berkshire), in an expedition against Ticonderoga and
1 An idea of the dilapidated condition of the barracks at this point may be derived from the fact that on the 29th of Sept., 1773, Gov. Tryon desiring Gen. Haldimand to station 200 men at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, as a protection against the New Hampshire rioters, the latter reports that the state of the buildings at those places is such, that they can't give cover in winter to more than fifty men .- Doc. Hist. N. Y., vol. Iv, p. 855.
2 Force's American Archives, Fourth series, vol. II, p. 1087.
3 Idem, p. 507. This was Col. John Brown, for whom a few recent writers, with very little grounds, claim all the credit of this expedition.
397
SEIZURE OF FORTS.
Crown Point, expecting to be reinforced by one thousand men from the grants above, a messenger having been previously dis- patched to inform Col. Ethan Allen of the design, and desiring him to hold his Green mountain boys in readiness.
In a letter from Capt. Edward Mott1 to the Massachusetts congress, dated Old Shoreham, 11th May, 1775, in which he states that " a number of the principal gentlemen of the assembly at Hartford, on Friday the 28th of April conversing on the dis- tressed condition of the country, fell on the scheme of to take the fortress [Ticonderoga.] I told the gentlemen it might be taken by surprise with few men if properly conducted, on which, they desired me, if I was willing to serve my country in that way, to join Capt. Noah Phelps of Simesbury, and Mr. Bernard Romans (a) on that design, and furnished us three hundred pounds in cash from the treasury.2 The result of this enterprise is
(a) BERNARD ROMANS was a native of Holland, and removed early in life to Eng- land, where he studied the profession of engineer. He was employed in that capacity, in the southern colonies previous to the Revolution, and was a resident of Florida, from 1763 to 1773. Previous to his employment by the state of New York, he had a pension of fifty pounds from the British government as botanist of Florida, and published in 1775, a volume on the natural history of that province. In that year he was employed by the N. Y. committee of safety, to construct defences in the Highlands, with a salary equal to the pay of a colonel. In October following he was superseded.
On the 8th of February, 1776, he was commissioned captain of a company of Pennsylvania artillery, destined for the invasion of Canada as part of the northern army.
In May, 1776, he was sent back from Canada to be tried for misconduct, and on the 27th July, he was again tried for some difficulty with his lieutenant. It is to be presumed that he was honorably acquitted on these occasions, for in November he was deputed by General Gates to inspect the works at Fort Ann and Skenes- boro : In 1778 and 1782, he published at Hartford his Annals of the Troubles in the Netherlands, 2 vols., and in 1779, published in England with Capt. de Brahm a Compleat Pilot for the Gulf Passage. He married 28th January, 1779, Elizabeth Whiting, of Wethersfield, Conn., and continued in the service as an officer until 1780, when he was ordered to South Carolina. On his passage thither the vessel and all on board were captured by the British, and carried to Jamaica, where he was held in captivity until the peace of 1783. He is said to have died on his re- turn passage to this country, though it was the opinion of his friends that he was murdered. He left behind him a high character as a professional man, and an author .- Note by J. Munsell to Ruttenber's Obstructions to the Hudson River.
1 James Easton, Epap. Bull, Edward Mott, and Noah Phelps, in a letter dated at Ticonderoga, 10th May, 1775, state that they are a committee sent from the colony of Connecticut, furnished with money for the purpose of reducing and garrisoning said fort .- Force's Am. Archives, Fourth series, vol. II, p. 556.
2 Force's American Archives, Fourth series, vol. II, p. 558. Thus much by way of showing the estimated importance of these frontier posts, both of which accord- ing to the same authority were much out of repair, and in ruins, and how their
398
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF QUEENSBURY.
familiar history to the world. The Pittsfield expedition joining forces at Bennington with Allen and his Green mountain boys they proceeded with celerity and captured the renowned fortress early on the morning of May 10th.
The following curious version of the affair is given by Sted- man.1 " A volunteer, of the name of Ethan Allen, assembled, of his own accord, about fifty men, and proceeded immediately to the environs of the first mentioned fortress [Ticonderoga], commanded by Captain de la Place of the twenty-sixth regi- ment, who had under his command about sixty men.
" Allen, who had often been at Ticonderoga, observed a com- plete want of discipline in the garrison, and that they even carried their supine negligence to the length of never shutting the gates. Having disposed his small force in the woods, he went to Capt De la Place, with whom he was well acquainted, and prevailed on him to lend him twenty men, for the pretended purpose of assisting him in transporting goods across the lake. These men he contrived to make drunk ; and, on the approach of night, drawing his own people from their ambuscade he ad- vanced to the garrison, of which he immediately made himself master. As there was not one person awake, though there was a sentry at the gate, they were all taken prisoners."
After the close of the French war, or at least as early as the year 1767, the fort at the head of Lake George was partially dismantled, 'and abandoned as a military post; the forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point being of more massive character, were considered an adequate protection on a frontier no longer threatened by the annual incursion of the savages. At the time of which we write, the only occupants of this post, were a retired invalid officer of the British army, Captain John Nordberg and two men supposed also to have belonged to the army, and who were possibly pensioners of the crown. There are reasons for supposing that one of these was John McComb, and the other Hugh McAuley whose name subsequently appears in the town records, and who was the ancestor of the McAuley family of this town.
capture became the simultaneous subject of consideration, and object of efforts by various parties, legislators, statesmen, and military adventurers. It also accounts for the subsequent strife for supremacy in the command, and for the final joint advance of Allen and Arnold side by side past the celebrated postern gate, through the covered way, and out upon the parade ground together.
1 History of the American War, vol. I, p. 131.
399
TRANSPORTATION.
Their duties seem to have been the supervision and care of the fortifications and buildings at that point, and to lend such assistance as might be needed in forwarding messages, the transmission of intelligence, and the expediting of expresses between Albany and Montreal. A person by the name of John Sparding or Sparden resided at the lower end of the lake, who in addition to like duties had the charge and care of a saw mill, on the outlet of Lake George.
On the first of June, 1775, he petitioned congress for the pay- ment of seventeen pounds on a verbal agreement with Col. Arnold for services in transporting troops, etc., through Lake George, and over the carrying place. In this petition he stated that for upwards of six years past, he had provided boats and carriages to convey persons over the Lake [George] and carrying place, and batteaux on Lake Champlain for the convenience of travelers going to Canada. He adds, that his business is entirely arrested by the existing troubles since the 10th of May, the day on which Fort Ticonderoga was taken.1
While the events just recorded were in progress, Capt. Herrick of Connecticut, was instructed to proceed with his company con- sisting of thirty men to Skenesborough at the southern ex- tremity of Lake Champlain; and there taking possession of whatever stores and munitions of war might be found, to pro- ceed down the lake and cooperate with the forces at Ticon- deroga.
In the execution of this plan, Herrick succeeded in completely surprising the little settlement, making a prisoner of Major Skene, (afterwards referred to by Gov. Tryon as Colonel Skene), with twelve negroes, and about fifty leaseholders or tenants on the Skene patent. In addition to a very considera- ble supply of military stores, a schooner and several smaller boats were seized, and all were forwarded immediately to Ticonderoga. These were a valuable acquisition to the infant
1 Force's American Archives, fourth series, vol. II, p. 747. In a communication to the New York congress, May 29th, 1775, Arnold enumerates several wants among which are two flat bottomed boats, to be built at Fort George, forty feet long, twelve feet wide and four deep, with strong knees, well timbered and of four inch plank. " These may be built at Sparden's, where there is timber and a saw-mill handy." * * * Four pairs of strong wheels wanted at Fort George, ten good teams, of four yoke of oxen each, to take up provisions and take down cannon. * * * Signed, Benedict Arnold, colonel and commandant at Ticonderoga .- Id.
400
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF QUEENSBURY.
army of the republic, and afterward contributed to the capture of the small British force on the lake.
Among the military personages to whom the emergencies of the hour gave special prominence, was Colonel Bernard Romans, who at this juncture appeared in Connecticut, and ardently es- poused the cause of the revolutionists. He was a soldier by training, a gentleman by birth and culture, and an accomplished scholar. He was present at Hartford on the 28th of April, 1775, when the plan was framed for the capture of Fort Ticon- deroga. He and the other gentlemen concerned in the expe- dition set forward in different parties, and it is presumed by different routes. Whether he accompanied Capt. Herrick's party 1 from Castleton across to Skenesborough, or came directly up the river to Fort Edward does not appear, the record only showing that he took possession of Fort George on the 12th of May, as shown by the following petition.
CAPTAIN NORDBERG (a) TO THE NEW YORK PROVINCIAL CONGRESS. " The most respectable Gentlemen Provincial Congress in New York. I beg leave to represent to the most respectable con- gress this circumstance.
I am a native of Sweden, and have been persecuted for that I have been against the French faction there. I have been in his Brittannick Majesty's service since January, 1758.
I have been twice shot through my body here last war in America, and I am now 55 years old, reduced of age, wounds, and gravels, which may be seen by Doctor Jones certificate.
[In] 1773, I got permission in Jamaica to go to London, where I petition to be an Invalid officer, but as a foreigner, I
1 Herrick's party reached Castleton, accompanied by the Bennington delegation, on the 7th of May. From this point he was despatched on his mission to Skenes- borough with thirty men .- Force's Am. Archives, fourth series, vol. II, p. 557-8.
(a) " JOHN NORDBERG was appointed lieutenant in the 60th regiment, 28th July, 1758, and went on half pay at the peace of 1763 ; he again joined the regiment 29th March, 1775. He remained a prisoner until December 15, 1775, when it ap- pearing to the provincial congress, that his health was in such a state as that tenderness and humanity demanded his going to Great Britain for the restoration of his impaired constitution, and that he had behaved with the strictest honor to- wards the inhabitants of the American colonies as a soldier and a gentleman, he was permitted, in token of their respect, to proceed to England with such of his effects as he chose to remove, and the people were recommended not to interrupt him. *
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