USA > New York > Delaware County > Delaware County, New York, history of the century, 1797-1897, centennial celebration, June 9 and 10, 1897 > Part 28
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A history of Harpersfield would necessarily be incomplete without a history of the Harpers. That which follows is taken from records in possession of his descendants. *
CAPTURE OF COWLEY AND SAWYER.
Early in the spring of 1779, St. Ledger Cowley and Isaac Sawyer were captured by four Indians. They were among the refugees from Harperstield who sought safety in Schoharie at the beginning of difficulties: where their families remained in their absence.
The prisoners could speak Dutch, which the Indians under- stood nearly as well as their own language; and the latter could understand little, if any, of the conversation of these Anglo- Americans-Cowley being Irish and Sawyer Scotch. When taken, they intimated by signs as well as they could, that they were
* The sketch of Col. Harper appears in Part I, and was taken from this history.
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
friends of the King; and not only evinced a willingness to pro- ceed with their captors, but a desire to do so. An axe belonging to one of them was taken along as a prize. The prisoners set off with such apparent willingness on their long journey to Canada that the Indians did not think it necessary to bind them; but they were compelled to aet as "hewers of wood and drawers of water" for their red masters.
After being eleven days captive they arrived at. a deserted hut near Tioga Point, and the captives were sent to eut wood a few rods distant. On such occasions one cut and the other carried it to the hut. While Cowley was chopping and Sawyer waiting for an armful, the latter took a newspaper from his pocket and pretended to read it to his fellow; instead of which he was pro- posing a plan of escape. After the Indians were sound asleep the friends arose and secured their weapons, shaking the priming from their guns. Sawyer, with a tomahawk, stood over the most desperate of the Indians, while Cowley, with his axe, placed him- self beside another. At a given signal the blow fell, fatal to the two Indians. Sawyer drew the handle from his weapon in trying to pull it from the skull of his victim, and Cowley had the rest of the tragedy to finish. As another rose to his feet he partly warded Cowley's next blow, which exposed his shoulder, and he fell back stunned. The fourth, as he was about to escape, re- ceived a heavy blow from the axe, fled into a swamp near, where he died. The Indian who was stunned recovered, and while the victors were planning their next course, sprang to his feet, dashed through the fire, caught up his rifle, snapped it at one of his foes, ran out of the hut and disappeared.
Expecting to be followed, the friends took a zig zag course and succeeded in eluding pursuit, though at one time they counted ten Indians in pursuit of them. After suffering much from exposure, and still more from hunger they finally reached their friends .*
Abridged from Simms' Frontiersman.
-
7
Where A exar ler Harper was captured.
C.l. Harper s Monument.
Site of Claxton House.
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TOWN OF HARPERSFIELD.
Sawyer is said to have died many years after in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
St. Ledger Cowley emigrated to America from Dublin, Ireland, about 1769, with his wife, Mary, and two children, Jonathan and Sammel, and settled in Greenbush, near Albany, where he engaged in trade: we would now style him a commercial traveler,-not exactly a peddler, and not exactly a merchant, -- in which he contin- ued several years. Exactly when he removed to this section is not known, but he located near Bloomville, perhaps continuing the same business. After the war he built the first grist mill near Stamford village, the site of which still shows on the west side of the river a few rods above the railroad bridge, below the village. His saw mill stood on the opposite side of the stream, both being supplied by the same dam. His house stood about sixteen rods northwest from the mill.
After his death, his son William moved the mill to a site near the present Stanley mill where it was burned. His children, born in this country, were William, Polly, Martha, Elizabeth, Ann, and Ledger. His will, the first recorded in Delaware county. is dated Sept. 30th, 1796, and bequeaths, among other things. . one thousand feet of pine lumber and ten pounds lawful money to aid in the completion of the Presbyterian church at Harpers- field; it disposes of abont 200 acres of land in Delaware county, and fifty arres and buildings in Greenbush, besides personal, and names his friends, Hon. Joshua H. Brett, Col. John Harper, and his son William as executors, giving to each the sum of seven pounds for services. The will was proved Aug. 7, 1797, before Anthony Marvine, at Kortright-now Delhi. His only descendants of the name now living in town are Wm. A. Cowley and his son John R. Cowley; the former, a great-grandson of St. Ledger, furnished the documents and information for this sketch.
CAPTURE OF THE SUGAR MAKERS.
On the second day of April, 1780, a seouting party commanded by Capt. Alexander Harper, fourteen in all, was sent from Scho-
22
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
harie to Harpersfield for the purpose of making maple sugar, and watching certain disaffected persons in that vicinity. The names of the party besides Harper were, Freegift and Isaac Patchin, brothers, Ezra and Heury Thorp. Thomas, James, and John Hen- dry, brothers, Cornelius Teabout, James Stevens, William Lanh and son William, Dr. Brown, and one other.
Shortly after they arrived at the block-house at Harperstiek] where they deposited their provisions, a heavy snow storm came on during which about three feet of snow fell, in addition to that already on the ground.
After seeing the men fairly engaged in sugar making at the different camps- five in number-Harper went back to Schoharie on some business, and did not return till the 8th.
Among the early settlers was one Samuel Claxton, or Clock- stone, who resided on Lot No. 13, (situated on the road since called Smith street.) He was a Tory and had harbored the In- dians and Tories since the commencement of the war. The house had become so noted in this respect that it was known long after the war as the "Tory house." It was situated about thirty rods from the west line of the lot, and about fifty rods from the present highway. The house stood on the trail from Schoharie to Har- persfield, and when on his return to the camps, Harper arrived near the house, instead of following the trail in a curve past the house be determined to go straight across, both to shorten the distance and avoid observation. Near the large tree in front of the house, while on this route, he stooped to fasten his show- shoes, when Brant and two other Indians came upon him un- awares and took him prisoner, Brant exclaiming as he recognized him: "Ah! Captain Harper, is it you? I am sorry to see you here." "Why," said Harper, "are you sorry to see me here ?" "Because," he replied, "I must kill you, though we were school- mates in youth." Harper replied that it was no use to kill those who submitted peaceably. He was accordingly bound and taken to Claxton's house, where he found the rest of Brant's forces.
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TOWN OF HARPERSFIELD.
amounting in all to forty-three Indians and seven Tories. This was about eight orlock in the morning.
In order to make the surprise more complete, and allow none to escape, the enemy were distributed so as to fall upon all the sugar makers at once, and so well was it carried out that no sig- nal of alarm was given. A company approached the house where Stevens was engaged, which was on Lot. No. 57. He had been up most of the night boiling sap, and towards morning. having boiled all the stock on hand, he laid down in the store trough and fell asleep. The voices of the enemy awakened him, and he sprang up to get his gun. when an Indian came to the door and seeing the movement threw his tomahawk, which Stevens dodged, and catching the Indian threw him head foremost into the coals under the kettle. This he had scarcely done when a second toma- hawk was thrown, killing him instantly, when he was sealped and left. Four years later, when Samuel and Mrs. Sally Hunt Wilcox moved into the house, blood stains were plainly seen on the floor.
A second party proceeded to the camp of Thomas Hendry on Lot No. 37, when he, offering some resistance, was killed and scalped, while his brother John, submitting peaceably, was taken prisoner. Another detachment captured William Lamb and his son William, a boy eleven years of age, on Lot No. 84. Lamb was in the hut when taken. The son was gathering sap, and just coming to the hut, when seeing the Indians he dropped his pails and ran towards the Schoharic trail, but reaching a place where the sun had softened the crust he began to break through and surrendered. James Hendry is supposed to have been killed, and some of the party captured near the highway leading from the school house of district No. 2 toward the Gaylord and May- hard farms. The Patchins and Thorps were taken near the north- west corner of Lot No. 214, now owned by Dr. S. E. Churchill.
After plundering the camps of sugar and other articles, the parties reassembled with their plunder and prisoners, when Brant.
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
demanded of Harper whether there were any troops at Schoharie. Harper saw at once that their lives depended on his answer: if he said "No," which was the truth, they would all be killed, and the enemy would proceed to Schoharie and perhaps ent off the entire settlement. He therefore replied that three hundred con- tinentals arrived there three days before-a righteous lie.
The party then started for Niagara and after proceeding a few miles met Claxton, the tory, who was surprised to see them, as he knew them all. Brant related his adventures, and how he had been defeated by the story of troops at Schoharie.
"Troops!" said Claxton, "There are no troops at that place, you may rely upon it, Captain Brant; I have heard of none." Brant sprang towards Harper and exclaimed: "How came you to lie to me so?" when Harper turned to the tory and said, "You know, Mr. Claxton, I have been to the forts alone, and if Cap- tain Brant disbelieves me he does it at his peril." His going the tory did know, and he answered, "Yes, I know it."
Several miles from the place of capture the party halted at a grist mill owned by a tory, who told Brant he might better have taken more scalps and less prisoners. After a frightful journey during which captors and captives nearly starved, they reached Niagara, where Harper found friends who saved him from much of the suffering endured by his comrades.
After the war Harper and the Patchins and Ezra Thorp re- turned to Harpersfield where they had before resided; after a time Harper and his brother Joseph, with a number of others, removed to Ohio, founding Harpersfield in that state.
Freeegift Patchin after a time removed to North Blenheim, where he became a General of Militia, and Member of Assembly for several sessions. Isaac moved to Jefferson, upon land owned by his wife, and died at about seventy years of age. Ezra Thorp never married, but lived for many years, and died ou what is still known as " Thorp Hill." where also lived another brother, Daniel,
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TOWN OF HARPERSFIELD.
who at the time of this raid was engaged in defense of the coast: probably Connecticut. The latter was father of the late Nelson L. Thorp of this town.
William Lamb, previous to the war, owned the farm where he was captured, and when released, returned there and built a house east of the toll gate, near the Centre, where he died about 1819, aged eighty years. The house has been repaired and en- larged, and is now owned by Joseph Tate. The boy, William. was absent eleven years before he reached the house of an aunt in Schoharie, where his father went to bring him home, William afterwards settled in the western part of the state with a brother Peter. Two other brothers were John and David, the former passing his life in Harpersfield, and leaving a son, William J. who is well remembered. David was an easy, improvident man, who after living awhile in Harperstield removed to Kortright. W'm. R. Stanley, a grandson of Wm. Lamb, is now ninety years old. Of the Hendrys, only John was married, and his wife and a son, four years old, were at Sehoharie when he was captured. He was a carpenter, and the British wished him to go to Ber- muda to work, which he refused to do, and to subdue his "in- chfferent spirit" as they called it, he was confined in a dungeon at Quebec, in which he died. He wrote to his family that they might know why he was so cruelly treated.
The foregoing was related to Sinns by Thomas Hendry, the young son of John, whose widow married a MePherson with whom the boy lived till old enough to learn the trade of ship carpenter. About 1800 he moved to Lot No. 178, which had been owned by his father, and built a small framed house, which was unusual for the first house on a new farm. About the same time he mar- ried Enpha Graham, by whom he had several children, of whom William O. and David B. settled in town, the latter on the home- stend, each leaving one son-James .A., son of William, and Charles M., son of David. Charles now owns the homestead.
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
Of the celebrated tombstones to the memory of the murdered and captured Hendrys in Harpersfield Rural Cemetery, one was erected by Thomas Hendry, inscribed as follows:
SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF THOMAS AND JOHN HENDRY,
WHO WAS SACRIFICED BY THE TORY PARTY APRIL 8TH, 1780, FOR THE CRIME CALLED DEMOCRACY.
WHEN THE BRITISH AND TORIES, O'ER THIS LAND BORE THE SWAY,
A LESS CRUEL INDIAN, MY BODY DID SLAY.
THOMAS HENDRY.
WHEN MY BROTHER WAS MURDERED, I WAS STANDING BY,
BUT IN QUEBECK PRISON I WAS DOOMED TO DIE. JOHN HENDRY. The other stone, much older, is inscribed:
IN MEMORY OF MR. JAMES HENDRY, WHO WAS KILLED BY INDIANS AND TORIES, APRIL 8TH, 1780, IN THE 39TH YEAR OF HIS AGE. WHILE BRITISH TIRANNY OVERSPREAD THIS LAND I WAS SLAIN BY CRUEL HANDS.
William Hendry, a brother of John, James, and Thomas, set- tled on Lots No. 15 and 16, after the war. He married Catharine Hall, from Mohawk. Of his children, William lived in Jefferson, Schoharie county, leaving a numerous family. Catharine mar- ried Clark Bryan, who died young, leaving three sons, of whom William published a newspaper for many years in Hudson, and Clark W. is now publisher of " Good Housekeeping " at Springfield, Mass. Their mother lived to be nearly or quite ninety. Polly married William Buckingham, who was a soldier of 1812, super- visor and justice of the peace of the town, and Lieut. of Cavalry in the Anti-Rent war. They passed their lives on the old farm. He died in 1846, she living many years longer, leaving a large family of children.
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TOWN OF HARPERSFIELD.
As early as 1782 an opinion prevailed among the Tories in this section that a change of residence was desirable, and a hasty removal was the consequence. The following incidents would indicate that their opinions were well grounded:
Among the most cruel and malicious of the Tories was one Beacraft, who was one of the seven with Brant at the capture of the sugar makers. The night of the capture the prisoners were contined in a log pen, and Beacraft, one of the guards, would frequently call to them, "You'll all be in hell before morning," while all through the journey to Niagara he was continually taunt- ing them, and boasting of the numerous cruelties he had committed and particularly of having eut the throat of a little Vroman boy, then scalping him and hanging his body across a fence. This continual boasting and nagging was kept up till the prisoners all hated him with a deadly hate. After the war he had the im- pudence to return to Schoharie. His presence becoming known a party of Whigs surrounded the house he was in, near where the Blenheim bridge now stands, and leading him from it into a grove nearby, whipped him with hickory gads, giving him be- tween every ten lashes the reasons for that particular number: this was continued till he was nearly dead, and some of them out of pity put an end to his sufferings.
Simms recites the story that he thanked them for sparing his life, and was never afterward heard from by the citizens of Scho- harie, and the foregoing explains that although it was a terrible punishment there was a terrible provocation.
Simms relates also that a party from Harpersfield went down the Delaware and gave the miller who preferred their scalps to their persons nearly a hundred lashes; and from thence proceeded to the house of a Tory neighbor and gave him about the same, giving as a reason that they had harbored and fed the enemy on their way to murder their neighbors. The culprits were both admonished to leave the country and never return. One of them, it is supposed, went to Canada and staid there, the other went
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
to Albany county for a time, but was afterwards allowed to ro- turn. The Tory Claxton sold his land to a Capt. James Smith, who had been a soldier in the French war and in the Revolution, and though Claxton was never accused of cruelty to the patriots, his having harbored the enemy made him so diffident of meeting his old neighbors that he came back in the night to get his pay.
Capt. Smith came from Haddam, Conn., and buying Lot No. 12 in addition ent the two lots across into five farms, placing his four sons, Frederick, Nehemiah, Hubbard, and James Jr., on four of them, and disposing of the fifth to a friend, or relative. William Dart. Each farm contained fifty acres, being forty rods wide and two hundred rods long. Frederick and James Jr. had also been soldiers in the Revolution. The reason for Captain Smith's removal to this country was to prevent his sons from be- coming sailors, which was likely to be the case if they remained in Haddam.
David Garmsey was another soldier who settled in the same school district, being on Lot No. 56.
Abijah Baird, also a soldier, settled on Lot No. 32, at the top of the Middlebrook hill, in 1789, his lot cornering ou the south- east with Capt. Smith and on the southwest with Mr. Garmsey. He was the first blacksmith in town. It is said he intended to go further, but looking over the great forest ahead, he was discour- aged, and concluded to stop where he was.
The Harpers came back in 1783 84. The Colonel rebuilt his grist mill, and his wife having died during the war, he married the widow of his cousin, Joseph Harper, by whom he had two daughters, Abigail and Sally. Of his nine children, only Margaret, who married Hon. Roswell Hotchkiss, passed her life in this town.
Tradition says the Colonel bad a saw mill near his grist mill, three-fourths of a mile below the Centre; if so no signs of it re- main; but he built a saw mill on the Middle brook, not far from the school house of Dist. No. 12, one of them being the first saw mill in town. With the Harpers, and following them, came most
Village of Hals mille,
4
Villanie of Kelly's Corners
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TOWN OF HARPERSFIELD.
of the earlier settlers -though some had sickened of hardships and gone back to the older settlements. - followed by many new settlers. Among the first of the new ones was Samuel Wilcox. who, as before mentioned, moved into the house where James Stevens was killed in 1780. He became a prominent man, was Supervisor. Justice, and one of the first Deacons of the Baptist church, when he came near being placed on trial for shooting a wolf on Sunday; the wolf being found prowling around the log pen where the Deacon housed his sheep.
Another settler of 1783 or 1784 was Levi Gaylord. first Deacon of the Presbyterian church, who came with his sons, Levi, Jedediah, and Joel, all of whom became prominent and useful men in town.
The following is a list of the earliest kuown settlers on the various lots in town, revised from a list made several years ago: Lot 2, Aaron Scott; 3, Samuel Southmayd; 4, Daniel Lindsley: 5, Daniel Nichols; 6, John Brown; 7, Amos Barnum; 8. Raymond Starr: 9. Ezra Nichols: 10, William Baird: 12, Capt. James Smith; 13, Samuel Claxton; 14, Hazard and Salmon W. Beardsley: 15, 16, William Hendry; 17. Phinneas Bennett: 18, James Morrison; 19,- 20, Levi Gaylord: 21, Ezra Thorp: 22, Joseph and John Barnum; 23, Edward Evans: 21, 25, Joseph Benson. Nathan Hohnes; 26, Joseph Kitte: 27, Najah Beardsley; 28, Lewis Penfickl; 29, John Lindsley; 30, Eden Hamilton: 31, 32, Abijah Baird: 33, 34. Caleb Gibbs; 35, Stephen Judd; 36, 37. Thomas Hendry; 38, Joel Gay- lord: 39, James Montgomery; 10, Daniel Edwards; 41. Freegift Patchin; 42. Ezra Thorp: 43. Daniel Thorp: 18, Gabriel Gray: 50. 51. Samuel and John Knapp; 52. Matthew Lindsley; 53. James Spencer: 54, Plyment Dayton; 55, Voluntine: 56, David Garmsey: 57, James Stevens; 58, Samuel Wilcox: 59, Richard Bristol: 60. David Lamb: 61, William MeFarland; 62, Thomas Maxon: 63. Syl- venus Graves; 64. Samuel Stevens; 65, John Montgomery: 66. Joshua Drake; 69, Heman Copley: 70, Abel Scley; 72, Benjamin Pierce: 73, 74, Isaac Pierce; 75. Benjamin Owens; 76. James Bryan: 78. --- Daytou: 79, Ezekiel Baird: 80, Zach. Bryan: SI. Presby-
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
terian church; 82, Alexander Harper; 83, John Montgomery; 84, William Lamb; 85, Thelus Hotehkis; 87, Uriah Adams; 88, Asa Warner; 89, Noah Buek; 90, Gershom Davis; 91, Robert English; 95, John Birdsall; 97, Joseph Copley; 98, Perez Pierce; 100, 101, James Campbell; 103, Isaac Dayton; 104, Abel Dayton; 105, Epine- tus Buckingham; 106, Andrus Jerome; 107, Zadoc Osborn: 108, Colonel Harper; 110, Joshua H. Brett; 111, 112, Abram Williams; 113, Richard Stanley; 114, Daniel Peters; 117, Alden Bennett; 119, Jacob Titus; 120, Lemuel Birdsall; 121, John Harper; 123, Samuel Campbell; 124, William I. Harper; 125, Burgoyne Mellvaine; 127, Hugh and John McCullough; 128, 129, Benjamin Morse; 130, Joel Davis: 131, Daniel Prentice; 132, Roswell Hotchkis; 133, Colonel Harper; 136, William MeClure: 137, Martin Kellogg; 138, Elisha Sheldon; 139, Eliab Wilcox; 142, William Butts; 143, 144, Gideon and John Wickham; 145, Ezekiel Woodbeck; 152, Samuel Doane; 153, Joel Hubbard, sen .; 154, Robert Watkins; 155, 156, Samuel and Thomas Loyd; 159, Ransom Packard; 160, James Douglass; 161, Uriah Odell; 164, Eliab Wilcox; 168, Charles MeMullen; 169, Heman Copley; 170, Robert Henderson: 171, Simeon Fuller: 173. James Bell; 174, Abel Seley; 175, Colonel William Harper; 176, James Scott; 178, John Hendry; 179, James Brown; 180, 181, Ros- well Hotchkis: 182, Joel Mack; 184, Robert Hamilton; 185, David Hendry; 188, William Wardwell; 189, John McClelland: 190, Thomas Porter; 195, Robert and John Wool; 196, John Wilson; 197, Daniel Butler; 203, Benjamin Odell: 204, Ruliff Voorhis; 205. 206, David and John Wilcox; 207, Andrew Rickey; 210, Stephen Churchill; 217, St. Leger Cowley; 219, Peter Monfort.
On the northeast corner of the town Benjamin Bartholomew . and his brothers, Thomas, Joseph, James, and John, both before and after the war owned five lots called the Bartholomew tract, or thousand acres; five other lots being north of the Charlotte. They built mills on westerly lots, but which side of the creek is unknown.
On the northwest corner of the town Benjamin and Ebenezer Foster, Daniel Sawyer, and Isaac Cleveland were early settlers.
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TOWN OF HARPERSFIELD.
A large part of what is called Middle brook was settled by people from Danbury, Conn., and for some time was called New Danbury.
Some years ago Mr. John Nichols, then in his ninety-third year, stated that he was four years old when his father, Ezra Nichols, settled on Lot 9, now owned by Isaac P. Nichols. The first work after their arrival was to ereet a log house, which was built of peeled fir poles notched together at the corners, the spaces between the poles being filled with mud. The roof was covered with large pieces of elm bark fastened on with wooden pius. The door was a woolen blanket, and the floor was of sticks, split in halves and hewed as smooth as possible, and called punch- Pons. Mr. Nichols believed that he killed the first skunk ever seen in town: he had set a trap near a dead horse hoping to catch a fox. On going to see what he had caught he found a small spotted animal fast, but busily gnawing at the horse. Upon his trying to loosen the trap he was astonished to find himself in the midst of a terribly disagreeable odor which nearly took away his breath. He killed the animal, however, and was told at home what it was. He sold the skin to a Mr. Montgomery who kept a store at the Centre, and it was there nailed up as a curiosity. Mr. Nichols said also that crows did not appear for some years after their arrival.
As related by Mr. David B. Baird, -a grandson of Abijah, one of these New Danbury settlers, Jehu Knapp, was rather cecentric. and being greatly troubled by the sheep of a neighbor named Day, which persisted in foraging on his crops, Knapp finally caught one of the sheep, and cutting a slit in one hind leg stuck the other leg through it: The sheep hobbled home and the rest stayed away; not long after. Knapp's old sow got down to Day's and came home with her mouth cut open as far back as a knife would go. Knapp " went for " Day for misusing his hog so, and was coolly told that " when that sow got down here, and see how funny that 'er sheep looked with one leg tucked through fother, she just split her mouth laughin'."
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