USA > New York > Forts and firesides of the Mohawk country, New York : the stories and pictures of landmarks of the pre-Revolutionary War period throughout the Mohawk valley and the surrounding country side, including some historic and genealogical mention during the post-war period > Part 2
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This country, like a healthy young child, had reached its maturity but its parent England did not realize this. Had England's colonial policies of that day been
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THE MOHAWK VALLEY
similar to those she professes today, it is questionable if the War of the Revolution would have been fought.
When Sir William Johnson died in 1774, England lost a powerful influence. His son, Sir John, never measured up to his father although it is true the Mohawk Indans remained loyal to him and the Johnson name. Their fighting force moved tu Canada to fight beside him in his coming raids on the Valley.
War was declared in 1776. Sir John and his Tories surrendered without a battle at Johnstown to 3,000 men under General Schuyler. Sir John gave his parole to remain neutral. This he broke and fled to Canada, many of his retainers going with him.
As in the French and Indian War, so it happened again that the major battles took place elsewhere than in the Valley. Nevertheless, the bloodiest battle of the Revolution occurred at Oriskany in 1777. This was fought by an army composed of British, Hessians and Canadians, supported by Sir John and his Mohawk Valley Tories and their Indian allies.
General Herkimer was in command of the Colonial troops composed almost entirely of men from that neighborhood. After a fearful five hours of hand to hand combat, the enemy retired to their positions before Fort Schuyler (Stanwix) and seventeen days later fell back to Oswego. The Fort was saved and the invasion via the old War Trail definitely checked.
But there was no cessation of hostilities. The next year the settlements of Springfield, Andrustown and German Flatts were raided. Later in the same year Cherry Valley on the southern slope of the Mohawk was totally wiped out.
Retaliatory measures were taken in July of 1779. The Clinton-Sullivan expedition marched through the heart of the Indian country doing untold damage, completely destroying entire villages, fields and orchards. The Indians never recovered from this blow. Niagara was to have been taken by this same expeditionary force and because it was not, it continued, a haven for Tories and Indians from the Valley; a hive from which they swarmed time after time, to carry on their merciless raids.
The Indians were "savages" before this effective expedition yet their losses added immeasurably to their spirit of revenge! Sir John Johnson turned loose the venomous, blood thirsty lot in July of 1781 at Minden (southwest of Canajoharie), Caughnawaga (Fonda) and Stone Arabia with disastrous effect. Again they came on
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FORTS AND FIRESIDES OF THE MOHAWK COUNTRY
October 25th of the same year and were defeated at Johnstown but managed to cover their retreat through the Adirondacks. This was the last engagement of the war, and strangely enough was fought after the surrender of Cornwallis which occurred on the 19th of October. It was during this retreat that Walter Butler, the famous (or infamous) Tory, was killed at a ford on West Canada Creek. In the eyes of the Valley folks, this was a belated act of justice.
It is not difficult to understand why, after a century of such raiding and burning, the homes of some ten thousand inhabitants were almost totally destroyed. The exceptions were the stone houses not so easily obliterated and the few frame houses which were the homes of Tory sympathizers. From Tribes Hill, just west of Amsterdam, easterly down the Valley toward Schenectady, the country was not subject to the Johnson raids and in this section instances of pre-Revolutionary structures are more numerous.
1
John J. Vrooman-1947
Bronck Houses West Coxsackie
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THE BRONCK HOUSES
1 The Bronck Houses
THOUGH these houses are located 20 miles south of Albany at West Coxsackie, they are of interest in connection with the history of the Mohawk Valley, not only because they are typical early Dutch houses, but because of the fact that Arent Van Curler, so prominent in the history of the Mohawk, married at Albany in 1643, Antonia Slaghboom, the widow of Jonas Bronck and the mother of Peter Bronck.
The original Bronck settler was Jonas, born in Holland, who came with his family to America in 1639. In 1641 he bought land from the Indians along the Harlem River and there he died in 1643. The "Bronx" perpetuates his name. His son Peter moved to Albany as early as 1642 where he built a tavern in 1651. He later owned a brewery which he mortgaged to buy a tract of about 350 acres (on which the surviving houses described are located) from the Indians for the sum : 150 guilders, on January 13th, 1662. Having thus assured himself of his farm be sold :-
"his brewery and the dwelling house in front with the mill house and horse stable, together with the well and the lot attached lying in the said village of Beverwyck in breadth in front on the street three rods eight feet to the north of Reendert Philipsen (Coyn) length of eleven rods, eight feet which is a part of the patent by the Heer Director General and council of New Netherlands to him the grantor given of date the 25th of October A. D. 1653" (and other property).
He presumably moved to his farm at once. We are able to fix the Suite of the first house fairly accurately by a notice of his death entered in the books «: the Albany Dutch Church in January 1669. This entry is to the effect that his wikw settled for his pall with two skipples of wheat. The property has remained through the generations in the Bronck family.
In 1738 Leander, grandson of Peter, built a brick building alongside the original stone house. Both structures have the characteristic steeply pitched roof but the stone building with its brick rimmed loop holes and iron beam anchors is particularly interesting. The brick of the second house is laid in the wall in English bond and along the eaves in a succession of triangular patterns, to better withstand the weathering. The gable ends are reinforced with iron beam anchors. Both
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FORTS AND FIRESIDES OF THE MOHAWK COUNTRY
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houses are maintained in excellent condition for the Greene County Historical Society and are open to the public. A member of the Bronck family deeded the property to the Society and created an endowment fund to care for it. They are located just west of the road and south of the east and west intersecting road at West Coxsackie.
The Bronck family have long been prominent. John L. Bronck was recommended for a Major's commission in the Colonial Army; Leonard (Leendert) Bronck was a Second Lieutenant in a Company of which his brother Philip Bronck was Captain; Richard, another brother, served on his local committee of Safety which was a branch of the Albany Committee of Safety and which operated throughout the period of the war.
The description of the land as it appears in the original deed from the Indians to Peter Bronck, bounds the lands by the River on the east and the "Katskill" path on the west, and between a Kill (or creek) on the north and another Kill on the south, the latter being mentioned as the "Stonekill."
The location of the first house, so far back from the River, is very unusual in water front properties but is, perhaps, explained by the words of the deed:
"the cleared land being a parcel away in the woods."
Doubtless, Peter located his house close by this clearing where his first farming operations. would be carried on. It is quite probable that the Indians themselves did the clearing, for the land could scarcely have lain low enough or have been close enough to the river to be flooded and swept clear of timber growth by the force of the current, as was the case with so much of the earliest arable land.
John J. Vrooman-19$2
Taurusentha (The Normanskill)
Albany
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1
TAWASENTHA
Tawasentha
LONG the valley of this stream ran an Indian trail which also came to serve the Dutch and English in their settlement of the Mohawk country. The source of the Normanskill is close to the present village of Duanesburg - flowing thence eastward, passing four to five miles south of Schenectady and emptying into the Hudson just south of Albany. To the eastward of Schenectady the Normanskill trail divided, one branch leading slightly northwest into Schenectady and the other slightly southwest, leaving the Normanskill, to enter Fox's Creek Valley and so on to Schoharie Creek at the Junction of these two streams.
The name "Normanskill" is derived from Albert Andriese Bratt De Noorman (Norseman) who had an early settlement in Beverwyck near the mouth of this Creek. Along its lower banks were Indian settlements and later some of the earliest of the Dutch settlements. It was known to the Indians as "Tawasentha" and as such is familiar to everyone. who has read Longfellow's poem, "Hiawatha":
"Should you ask me whence these stories? Whence these legends and traditions,- I should answer-I should tell you I repeat them as I heard them From the lips of Nawadaha The musician, the sweet singer In the vale of Tawasentha In the green and silent valley By the pleasant water courses Dwelt the singer Nawadaha There he sang of Hiawatha."
On its banks was signed the treaty of Tawasentha between the Dutch and the Iroquois which cemented their mutual friendship and assured the Dutch a powerful ally throughout the troublesome times to come. This treaty was ratified thirty nine times between its signing in 1618 and 1799 when the Clinton Sullivan Expedition broke the backbone of the Iroquois Confederacy.
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FORTS AND FIRESIDES OF THE MOHAWK COUNTRY
One of the first Indian deeds conveying land in the "Vale of Tawasentha" was to a Dutchman named Jan Hendricks van Bael; it was ratified by Governor Lovelace on August 21st, 1672. There seems some doubt that van Bael ever settled on the land but by 1686 it was owned in two separate parts by Simon Volkertse Veeder and Jan Hendricks Vrooman, both of Schenectady. Some of the Veeder and Vrooman descendants still own parts of the original tract. An old family cemetery containing the graves of early Veeder settlers is a short distance southeast of Guilderland and just west of the road leading to Vorheesville. The Veeder farmhouse nearby was probably built in the early eighteen hundreds. The cemetery lies north of it at the top of the hill, smothered in a young forest growth. The earliest dates on the remaining stones seem to be soon after the year 1800.
The Vrooman settlement was to the westward along the Cherry - Valley turnpike near the present Watervliet reservoir where state markers indicate the home sites.
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John J. Vrooman-1911
Fort Crailo Rensselaer
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"CRAILO"
"Crailo"
THIS is the nucleus of what was perhaps the most famous of all the Manors of the Hudson Valley. It was the spot selected by the first Patroon, Killiaen Van Rensselaer, the rich jewel merchant of Amsterdam, Holland, on which to found his colony. His agent was his cousin, Arent Van Curler, who came over in 1637, a lad of 18 years, to represent the Patroon in the administration of this vast estate, which in extent conformed quite closely to the present boundaries of Rensselaer and Albany counties and contained some 700,000 acres extending southward from the mouth of the Mohawk along both banks of the Hudson, a distance of 24 miles.
In August of 1630 the Patroon's title was confirmed to him by patent, although the actual purchase had been made from the Indians a few years previous, and a start had been made toward a settlement when Van Curler arrived. Fortunately a great many of the original records and much of the correspondence concerning the administration of this estate have been preserved and translated from the Dutch, making it possible to follow the development of the Manor almost from its inception to its end, when the title expired with General Stephen Van Rensselaer in 1839.
A French Jesuit priest, Father Jogues, wrote after his visit to Rensselaer in 1643:
"This colony is composed of about a hundred persons who reside in some twenty. five or thirty houses built along the River, as each found most convenient. In the principal house lives the Patroon's agent; the minister has his apart in which service is performed."
"Crailo" seems to have been built for the first minister to the Colony, Domine Megapolensis, whom the Patroon employed for a period of six years. The Domine came over in one of the Patroon's ships in June, 1642, bringing his wife and four children, at a stipulated salary of 1000 Florins per annum for the first 3 years and 1200 Florins (about $480.00) for the last 3 years. His contract called for a "fit dwelling to be erected for him on the east side of the river near the 'Groene Bosh' (Green Bush)." With him from Holland came a supply of coal and brick.
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FORTS AND FIRESIDES OF THE MOHAWK COUNTRY
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Doubtless these brick went into the building of "Crailo." While this was being constructed, his instructions were to stay with Van Curler. In a letter to the Patroon, dated June 16, 1643, Van Curler says:
"The house which I had planned for Do. Megapolensis did not suit I have laid it aside (meaning the sawn framework). That which I intend to build this summer in the pine grove will be 34 ft. long by 19 ft. wide. It will be large enough for the first three or four years to preach in and can always be used as a (residence for the sexton for a school)."
A stone in the cellar wall of Crailo is inscribed "K. V. R. 1642" (Killiaen Van Rensselaer, 1642) and on an opposite stone is "Do. Megapolensis." Additions or improvements were made to the house in 1644 although it would seem the greatest changes, enlargements and additions were made in 1790 and 1800. However, after the building was presented to the State in 1933, it was at once remodeled to conform with its condition at a pre-Revolutionary period. It is now a museum,
open to the public. The settlement was originally known as "Green Bush," after the dense growth of pine which was found there when the Dutch first set eyes upon it. It is now the city of Rensselaer and "Crailo" is but a few blocks south of the business section, facing the river. The detail picture of the front of the house shows two of the loop holes in this wall.
What vicissitudes this old structure has witnessed! And what varying purposes it has served! Originally, the simple and primitive home of a Dutch Domine, it later became a Fort, surrounded with palisades. It was one of the
first strongholds in the Colony. As the settlement across the river increased in size, a Fort was built there, and "Crailo" no longer functioned as such. At the time the British Army under Ambercrombie lay encamped here it served as his headquarters while awaiting Colonial reinforcements from New England. When these reinforcements arrived, they were such a motley crew, with such a wondrous assortment of guns, clothes and uniforms, that Dr. Richard Shuckburg, a surgeon in the British Army, composed the verses of Yankee Doodle as a satire on these troops. The tune, an old and catchy one, swept through the colonial ranks, and fittingly enough was sung with a gusto at Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga by this same "rabble at arms" which to the English had seemed such an immense joke a few years previous.
While the Domine lived here, and probably up to 1647, the building also served as a Church. We find at this date, a storehouse at Fort Orange, across
Front Entrance. Fort Crailo
John J. Vrooman-1931
١٣٢١٩٣٧٦٠٠
اث نتسبارك
HOPIT
1
-
العب
الباحة :
الرسم
٢٠٠٨٠
اسباج عـ
أو مؤسستهن هـ
٠٠
طبا خقدة
ما بيالغيد
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"CRAILO"
the River, which was made to serve thereafter as a Church. As it was a part of his contract to labor with the "savages," we may be sure that there were many of them in attendance at services here in Crailo. The Domine wrote a pamphlet, grave of the Indians and of the country in the Colony, which was published in And :: 1644. From it the following lines are quoted :-
"The country here is like Germany, very mountainous, partly soil, partly rock,
with elevations so high they appear to almost touch the sky."
He then describes the forest with "the finest fir trees the eye ever saw" and mentions :- luxuriance of the grape vines and "the excellent quality and sweetness of the \"," as well as their size, "as big as plums." He says, "If the people would
ate the vines they could have as good wine as Germany or France." He peaks of pressing out a boatload of grapes and says, "As long as the wine was new :: tasted better than any French or Rhenish must." And of the abundance of guine he says, "There are many turkeys as large as in Holland. In the forest are a great plenty of deer which in autumn are as fat as any Holland cow can be. 1 Liwy had them with fat more than two fingers thick on the ribs." Of the ; w es he says, "They fly together in thousands and sometimes even as many as 50 :fr killed at one shot." He also speaks of lions, bears, wolves, foxes and many
His description of the falls of the Mohawk is also interesting by comparison , present day condition, it now being possible at times to walk across the brink " dry shod because of the diversion of water through the mill races. He eye the "Mohawk River is 500 to 600 paces wide coming out of the Mahakas (ostry about four leagues north of us" and "flowing between two high rocky banks and falls from a height equal to that of a church with such noise that we can 4.cases hear it here with us (at Albany). The water is as clear as crystal and :: ch as milk :. " Referring to the fishing he says, "My boys have caught in an
!or ffty, each a foot long." He describes the summers as being "pretty hot" and the winters "very cold." He says "the rivers usually freeze over in December and stay so until March."
In describing the Indian language the Domine speaks of the difficulty he has had in learning it, saying the same word is pronounced differently. Of the Indians themselves, he says they have-
"well formed features, bodies and limbs, black hair and eyes and yellow skin. In summer they go naked 'having only their private parts covered with a patch.' The children to 14 years go stark naked. In winter they hang about them
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FORTS AND FIRESIDES OF THE MOHAWK COUNTRY
undressed skins, sometimes sewn together. They go bare headed. Women with long hair tied together a little and hanging down the back. The men have a lock hanging down either or both sides, but from forehead to neck, a band the breadth of two or three fingers shortened to about two or three fingers long, standing on end like a cock's comb. They paint their faces red or blue and look like the Devil himself. They smear their head with bear's grease, they say, to make their hair grow better and to prevent their having lice. When they travel they carry maize, a wooden bowl, kettle and spoon, and, when hungry, they forthwith make a fire and cook. They get fire by rubbing two pieces of stick together and get it very quickly."
Referring to their family life he speaks of their moral laxity as they "generally live without marriage." As to their hardiness he says the women after delivery "go about immediately and wash the young and themselves in the river or the snow, be it ever so cold. They will not lie down for they say if they do they would soon die. The men have great authority over their concubines, so that if they do anything which does not please and raises their passion they take an axe and knock them in the head and there is an end of it." In speaking of their cruelty, he mentions the treatment accorded the Jesuits saying, "They killed one but the Jesuit (whose left thumb was cut off and all the nails and parts of his fingers were bitten) we released and sent him to France by a yacht." Their houses are made "very close and warm of the bark of trees and they kindle their fire in the middle of them. They make large canoes to accommodate as many as 14 persons, from a hollowed log." He says, "they have set times for going to catch fish, bears, panthers, beavers, and eels. In the spring they catch vast quantities of shad and lamphreys, which are exceedingly large here, lay them on the bark of trees in the sun and dry them thoroughly hard, which they keep for the following winter. Their corn they put in deep pits and preserve it the whole winter."
From these quotations, one is helped immensely to get a picture of the colony at the time of the earliest settlers. The letters of the first Patroon are also helpful in understanding the difficulties he experienced in administering his holding through the eyes of others at such a great distance and with so unreliable and infrequent sailings as were common then. In one of his letters we find him directing Van Curler to make copies of his letters and send them along by another boat in the event the first boat is lost. At that time the voyage was considered long and hazardous.
In 1646 the old Patroon died. His son, John or Johannes, became the second Patroon and visited the colony on one or two occasions. The manor was
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"CRAILO"
administered by Barent Van Slichtenhorst until 1652, to be succeeded by Johannes' half brother, Jan Baptiste, who directed it until 1658.
He was followed by Jeremias who became director and proprietor and i moved in charge until his death in 1674. He was an amiable, active, and a !! !!!!. jed manager. When the English captured the colony he took the oath of Space to Charles II and James. His son, Killiaen, born in 1663, was a minor .: the ume of his death and the Manor was governed by his Uncles as well as his NA ther, Maria Van Courtlandt Van Rensselaer (1645 - 1689). Killiaen became Lector in 1684 and was the first Patroon to reside in the Manor, although his father, Jeremias, had lived for a time at the "Flatts," then considered the best farm. This was the farm that had been selected and improved by Arent Van Curler when he was governing.
Previous to the time when the English captured the Colony there had been " bitter disputes as to who really owned Beverwyck (Albany), the Dutch West India Company (under whose partial control the Patroons had existed) or the Van Rensselaers themselves. But the English settled the question in favor of the Patroon. The English Governor, Dongan, was instructed to so advise the Van Rensselaers. But wisely, Governor Dongan secured a release "to the town and sixteen miles into the country for a commons, to the King." Kiliaen's mother, Maria Van Courtlandt V'an Rensselaer, lived at the "Flatts" at least a portion of the time. She was there from June, 1677 to June, 1683. During much of this time she also had a house en Jonker (now State) Street, in Albany, where she also lived. About this time "Craflo" was leased to tenants, but later was again occupied by the Van Rensselaers :'enalves. Hendrick, a full brother of Kiliaen 2nd, inherited "Crailo" and the ! wer Manor at Clavarack. In the line of descent from both the brothers, Kiliaen 2.J and Hendrick, are many illustrious names. Their wives came from the prominent :. a.dies of the time, the Schuylers and the Livingstons. Their daughters intermarried !!! these same families as well as with the Gansevoorts and the Ten Broecks.
Of their earlier homes, we have remaining "Crailo," "The Flatts," "The Meadows" and the "Lower Manor House" at Clavarack. The several other Manor houses built along the River have been brushed away by the hand of time.
à
John J. Vrooman-1949
"The Meadows" (Schuyler Mansion) Albany
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"THE MEADOWS"
"The Meadows"
HIS, the name of the Schuyler estate is pitifully incongruous as one looks at it today. When built, the house was surrounded by lush lawns and fields stretching eastward toward the River, while to the northward, perhaps a half mile away, lay the city of Albany with its few prim streets flanked by Dutch houses and Fort Orange crumbling into disuse at the middle of what is now the State Street hill.
In its more than three centuries of growth, Albany has completely engulfed "The Meadows," leaving the house perched on one corner of a small city block. This site, because it did not conform to subsequent grading plans, is left high above adjacent streets and set apart by a heavy stone wall which seems, fittingly enough, to place it on a pedestal.
One must close his eyes to these incongruities to picture the place as it looked when its illustrious owner, Major General Philip Schuyler, built it in 1761 - 1762. No doubt a great deal of the charm of the house and the details of its architecture are traceable to "Sweet Kitty Van Rensselaer," the General's wife, under whose watchful eye the greater portion of the building was done, since business kept the General abroad during its construction. . He made the trip for the British General Bradstreet, who at that time found it impossible to leave. In her supervision Madam Schuyler was ably assisted by General Bradstreet.
The house is of brick, some sixty feet square with a double hip roof surrounded by a Chippendale railing. The main entrance is from the east through a vestibule (of later date) into a dignified hall, twenty feet wide. A feeling of spaciousness is due perhaps to the height of the ceiling which is no less than twelve feet. The walls are panelled to a height of about five feet. Beyond, at the rear, its upper portion seen through a beautiful fan window, is the famous staircase with its hand carved balustrade, executed in three different patterns of the "rope" design. In the hand rail is a deep notch made by an Indian tomahawk thrown at the General's daughter, Margaret, as she fled up the stairs with a baby sister in her arms.
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