USA > New York > Oneida County > Utica > Historical fallacies regarding colonial New York : an address delivered before the Oneida Historical Society, Utica, N.Y., at its second annual meeting, January 14, 1879 > Part 13
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" Ah ! never shall the land forget, How gushed the life blood of her brave; Gushed warm with hope and courage yet Upon the soil they fought to save."
COL. MARINUS WILLETT.
THE HERO OF MOHAWK VALLEY.
AN ADDRESS BEFORE THE
Oneida Historical Society.
BY DANIEL E. WAGER.
JA
HISTORIC
NI3NO
THE
OCIETY
.
1876.
FOUNDED
UTICA, N. Y. PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY, BY THE UTICA HERALD PUBLISHING COMPANY. 1891.
1951. 6 8
[From Utica Herald. January 27, 1891.] ONEIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Standing Committees Appointed - Bejies to be Sent to the World's Fair.
A regular meeting of the Oneida his- torical society was held last evening at its room, in the city library building, with a fair attendance.
The meeting was called to order by , Chairman Charles W. Hutchinson at 7:45.
A list of the donations to the society, which included a large number of books and pamphlets, was next read, and a vote of thanks was extended to the donors.
A communication was presented. in which Thomas L. Benham offered to con- te $1.000 Toward the new building for the society.
General C. Darling said: A
communication is before
in- dicating that
the officials at Chi- cago charge of arrangements for the world's fair desire information as to the prehistoric and Indian relics which have been found in the Mohawk valley and in other parts of central New York. «: It is in our power to furnish the commit- tee with some valuable information on this subject, and also to loan it numerons Indian relies in the possession of residents and corresponding members of the Oneida historical society.
It was decided to furnish the informa- tion and loan the relies.
The following standing committees for 1891 were amnoneed:
Finance-C. W. Hutchinson ex-officio, P. V. Rogers, William M. White, R. S. Williams
Library-Rev. Daniel Ballon, P. C. J. De Angelis, John E. Brandegee.
Donations-Hon. James S. Sherman, E. Prentis Bailey, Thomas I. Bonham.
Addresses-Rev. Dava W. Bigelow Dr. William H. Watson. N. Curtis White.
Publications of Society-Alexander Seward, Joseph R. Swan, Rees G. Will- iams.
Geological and Natural History -- Rev. Albert P. Brigham, Colonel Edward Cantwell. Theodore Deceke.
Biographical and Material-Dr. M. M. Bagg. George C. Sawyer, Thomas F. Baker.
Membership-General Charles W. Darl- ing. Donald Melntyre, Dr. Smith Baker.
Statistics-Hon. Alexander T. Good- win, Nicholas E. Kernan, Dr. G. Alder Binmer.
Oriskany, Fort Schuyler and Whites- town Monuments-Alexander Seward, Charles W. Hutchinson, Henry Hulit, William M. White, W. Stewart Walcott.
Early Utica Publications-Henry Hurl- burt. Dr. M. M. Bagg, George Austin Clark.
The committee on building was dis- charged. and the following new one was appointed: William M. White, C. W. Darling, H. D. Pixley, Daniel Batche- lor. II. J. Wood.
The committee reported in favor of amending article XVI of the constitution, so that the day of meeting shall be on the second Tuesday of each month. The re- port was accepted and adopted.
Upon motion of Mr. Seward, the by- laws were so amended that the honr of meeting shall be 4 P. M. instead of 7. This amendment was adopted.
Changing the hour of meeting to four in the afternoon is a return to the hour when the society formerly met during its most flourishing period, and when the meetings were most largely attended; when not only members from the city were present, but many from Little Falls, Herkimer, Trenton and other surround- ing towns conld attend and return to their homes on the evening trains.
Rev. Dana W. Bigelow moved that a series of popular lectures be given under the anspices of the society during the coming lenten season, the lectures to be upon such subjects as history, literature, popular geology, &e. Adopted.
The names of Rev. R. Fisk of Water- town, corresponding secretary of the Jef- ferson county historical society. and Pro- fessor W. J. Andrews of Chapel Hill, N. C., secretary of the North Carolina historical society, were proposed as cor- responding members.
Hon. W. A. Courtenay of Charleston, S. C., was unanimously elected as a cor- responding member.
The name of Frank Sumner Swift was proposed as a resident member. Ad-
journed.
As the constitution and by-laws now stand the next regular meeting will occur Tuesday, February 13, at 4 P. M.
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COL. MARINUS WILLETT.
Among the objects and purposes for which the Oneida Historical Society is organized, are the collection and preservation of materials relative to that part of New York formerly known as Tryon county. Within the scope of this organization is the gathering of seant and scattered materials, and weaving them into a narrative relative to the lives of those who have been prominent and foremost in the important and critical period of the existence of the county, and by their valor, patriotism and masterly activity, made the valley of the Mohawk historic ground, and given to it a national importance in the history of the country. Of all the persons who have contributed to this grand result, I think I am safe in saying no one stands out more conspicuously than Col. Marinus Willett. It may be considered a fortunate conclusion that the gathering of materials for a sketch of his life should be no longer postponed, for it is evident that each year's delay lessens the chances and increases the difficulties of obtaining information not already recorded in the well known histories of the times, especially facts which can now be found only in unpublished manu- scripts, or in the memory of living witnesses.
In my correspondence and inquiries for facts I luckily ascertained, what is probably known to but a comparatively few, that two sons of Col. Willett are yet alive, the one eighty-six and the other nearly eighty-eight years of age, with bright minds and unclouded intellects, who were able to impart much valuable information concerning their father, which but for their retentive memories and timely aid might have soon passed into hopeless oblivion.
Aside from the " narrative " of Col. Willett, written or dictated mainly, if. not entirely by himself after he had attained his seventieth birthday, and published in 1831, the next year after his death, by the elder of the two sons aforementioned, there is no authentic sketch of his life extant. That " narrative " makes no mention of his civil career, which was quite a prominent one in New York, after the close of the revolutionary war, but has reference mainly to some of the more important military events with which he was connected; and even as to those, with the
116172
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COL. MARINUS WILLETT.
becoming modesty of a true soldier, but a brief narration is .. given.
But a few copies of that " narrative" are in existence, and those very difficult to be obtained. The details are too scant and meager to satisfy the longings of those who wish to know more of Col. Willett's life and character-specially those of Tryon county, wherein he achieved his greatest victories, and won his grandest triumphs. So, too, the histories of the stirring times in which Col. Willett lived have not the space to do more than to mention incidentally, or briefly narrate the more prominent events of the stormy period of his life. Hence, it has been no easy matter, though to me a very pleasurable occupation, to glean from the various and widely separated fields of his active labors materials for a paper that will be full and accurate, and do justice to his merits and memory, and worthy of preservation in the archives of this society.
Thomas Willett, the first one of that family name who crossed the Atlantic to make his home in this western world, was born in England, where his father and grandfather had been ministers of the gospel. He came in the good ship Lion in 1632, when he was but twenty-two years of age, and settled in the Plymouth colony, not far from the State line of Rhode Island. The records in that colony frequently mention his name, and furnish evidence that he became a person of wealth and prominence. In his young man- hood he was a surveyor of highways, captain of a military com- pany, and held other similar positions. He engaged in mercantile pursuits; was interested in sea-going vessels; owned large tracts of land, one of which was formed into a township by the name of "Swansea." In 1650, while a merchant of Plymouth, he was appointed by Peter Stuyvesant, then the Dutch colonial executive of New York, one of the boundary commissioners, to settle the disputed line between the English and Dutch. That line was adjusted, and has passed into history as the "Hartford boundary treaty of 1650." After the English came into power in New York, Capt. Willett was appointed one of the councilors of that colony, and held that office from 1665 to 1673. In 1667 he was appointed by the English governor, Richard Nichols, the first English mayor of New York, from which it would appear he had, in the meantime, become a resident of the metropolis. When the Dutch, in 1673, regained ascendancy in New York, the property of Thomas Willett was confiscated; he died the next year, at the age
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ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER.
sixty-four years, and his remains were buried at East Providence, in Rhode Island. At page 59 of Lossing's history of the Empire State, a fac simile of Thomas Willett's signature can be found. Ile was the great grandfather of Col. Marinus Willett, whose name and fame are so closely and dearly associated with the history of Tryon county, during the stormy period of the revolu- tionary struggle.
Edward Willett (the father of Col. Willett,) was a Quaker and a farmer of moderate means, near Jamaica, on Long Island; at that homestead Marinus was born on July 31, 1740, (old style.) He was the second son and child in a family of thirteen children --- the same number that was born unto his great grandfather afore- mentioned. That father died in 1794, at the age of ninety-four years, and, although he belonged to a denomination that was on principle, opposed to war, yet he was destined to see two of his sons, before they were eighteen, enter the military service of their country, and the one to become a prominent leader; the other to be a lieutenant on an English privateer, and the vessel on which he was engaged swept away in a hurricane in the French war of 1758, and all on board lost at sea. Marinus, until he was nearly eighteen years of age, pursued the quiet and peaceful pursuits of a farm life at his father's homestead. About that period of his life, he was moved by a spirit of self-reliance to leave the paternal roof and provide for himself. With a resolute will and a determined spirit, and with only twenty shillings in his pocket, ho crossed over to New York to seek in that great city. employment, and, if possible, make his fortune. It was about the time of the French war of 1758, when the colonists were greatly excited by reason of raising of troops, and the activity of the contending forces. In the early spring of that year, three English expeditions were being fitted ont, with a view to attack the French at different points, and drive them out of this country. One of those expedi- tions, and in which New York took the greatest interest, was under the command of General Abercrombie, and to be led by him from Albany to lakes George and Champlain to attack Fort Ticonderoga, then garrisoned by 4,000 troops under Montcalm, a a field marshal of France. Here were to be raised in the vicinity of New York three battalions of 900 men each, to be under the command of Col. Oliver DeLancey, a brother of the acting governor of New York.
It required no great effort to raise the requisite number of
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COL. MARINUS WILLETT.
troops, for the whole country was in commotion, and the people running over with enthusiasm. Young Willett caught the prevail- ing spirit of the times and, following his own ambition and the example of others, he enlisted in the army and raised a company of soldiers on Long Island among his neighbors and acquaintances. Through the influence of friends, he was appointed second lieu- tenant of his company, and, although not then eighteen years old, he was as full of patriotism and spirit as those of maturer years. In his " narrative " is the following description of the uniform he wore on receiving his commission as lieutenant, viz. : " Green coat trimmed with silver twist; white under clothes and black gaiters, a cocked hat with large black cockade of silk ribbon, with silver button and loop." The three battalions were raised, and the first week in May the troops left New York in sloops, ascended the Hudson to Albany, thence marched overland to Schenectady, and for two weeks were employed in patroling the Mohawk to watch the settlements and prevent an attack from the French, if one should be made in that quarter. Orders then came to march to Lake George, where they arrived the fore part of June, and found that active preparations were there going forward to cross the lake. The last of the month Gen. Abercrombie arrived, but the soul of the expedition and the idol of the army was young Lord Howe, then thirty-four years of age; young Willett has left on record his high appreciation of the ability and soldierly qualities of that gallant officer. Soon after daybreak on Sunday, July 5th, the whole army, 16,000 strong, embarked in 1,000 boats, to cross Lake George, from its southern extremity, to its northerly shore. The day was bright and clear, the soldiers were clad in their scarlet coats, and as this armament floated upon the glassy surface of this inland sea, accompanied by martial music, while ensigns and banners floated in the breeze and glittered in the sunbeams, it Jooked more like a holiday occasion than an army going to battle.
At dawn the next morning, the troops landed at the north end of the lake, some four or five miles from Fort Ticonderoga, and while reaching the shore, had a slight skirmish with the occu- pants of a French outpost at that point, in which a couple of Frenchmen were killed. A few of the Stockbridge tribe of Indians accompanied this expedition, and as soon as they saw the two dead soldiers they rushed forward and secured their scalps. This was young Willett's first experience in witnessing the scalping process, but those scenes became familiar to him later in life. The country
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ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER.
between Lake George and Fort Ticonderoga was covered by a dense forest and tangled morasses; the troops formed in good order, and commenced marching by columus through the woods. Lord Howe led the advance guard, near whom was the regiment in which young Willett marched, moving forward to exposed points of danger and expecting every moment to fall into an am- bush or to be met by a strong French force. The eve of battle is always one of breathless anxiety, especially to those who have never been in an engagement or witnessed one. This was Willett's first experience, and he has left an account of his feelings on this occasion ; he states that he did not at this time, nor ever subse- quently in his life, experience the slightest degree of fear, but on the contrary he was quite elated, and his spirits highly exhilarated as the crisis approached. The troops had not proceeded two miles before an ambush was discovered near where young Willett was marching. A sharp engagement ensued and Lord Howe was soon to the front rallying and cheering his men, when he was struck by a bullet and instantly killed. The French were dispersed, but the sudden death of Howe threw his troops into confusion and disorder. There then seemed to be no leader or any one to issue orders. The troops wandered about following incompetent guides, crossing each other's track, and firing at their own friends, mistaking them for the foe. While thus moving Willett and his companions accidentally fell in with Gen. Abercrombie, who stood under a ' huge tree, with a large cloak wrapped about him, while two regi- ments of regular troops were drawn up around his person to guard and protect him from harm. He issued no orders and the troops continued to wander the rest of the day, lost and bewildered in the woods. As night overtook them, they halted and rested until morning; on awaking it was found that most of the men had encamped near the spot where they had landed from the boats the morning before.
It was afternoon before the army was again in motion for Fort Ticonderoga, and when three miles from the fort, they halted and passed another night in the woods. The next day, which was the 8th of July, the army again started on its march for the fort, and about noon was re-enforced by six hundred Indians under the command of Sir William Johnson. But the want of a leader and competent guides had not been supplied. The same confusion, disorder and bewilderment prevailed, and before the troops were aware of it, or knew the danger they were in, they became en-
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COL. MARINUS WILLETT.
tangled in a network of fallen trees, and found they were directly under the enemy's breastworks, and exposed to a murderous fire. For four or five hours the battle raged, to the great disadvantage of the British troops, and it was not until sunset the firing ceased, and the latter retired to spend another night in the forest, expect- ing to renew the attack the next day, before daylight.
The next morning Lient. Willett was awakened from a sound sleep and told that the army was rapidly making its way to their boats, with a view to recross the lake. About eight that morning the troops re-embarked, and, although there was no enemy near, great confusion and disorder prevailed, and this expedition, which, three days before, came with such pomp and splendor, returned in disgrace, leaving behind it, killed and wounded, some two thousand of its members. No doubt Geu. Abercrombie felt much safer when he had put thirty-eight miles of Lake George between him- self and Montcalm.
In that expedition were two other persons prominent in the history of New York, and who have been more or less connected with affairs in Tryon county. The one was Gen. Philip Schuyler, whose name was given to Fort Stanwix during a portion of the revolutionary war; the other, Gen. John Bradstreet, a prominent officer in the colonial service, and who was, for years, part owner of Cosby's manor, which includes the site of Utica, and whose 'widow, by another marriage, was grandmother to that Martha Bradstreet who made her name famous, not only by reason of her legal and other abilities, but by the long, tedious and expensive litigation which, over half a century ago, she inflicted upon Uticans and others, regarding their land titles. Gen. Bradstreet was but . a major in that expedition, yet he burned with indignation because · of its shameful failure. At a council of war held at the head of the lake the very evening the troops returned from Ticonderoga, he urged the adoption of measures that would tend to wipe out or relieve the disgraceful blunder. Ile suggested an expedition against Fort Frontenac (now Kingston,) and offered to lead it. Some looked upon such au undertaking as wild and chimerical, and its successful execution improbable, for it was considered a strong fortress for those times, well supplied with men, cannon and ammunition; but Bradstreet urged his offer with so much earnestness that Gen. Abercrombie at last reluctantly consented to commission him to go and take with him three thousand troops. Among the number was young Willett and the regiment to which
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER.
he belonged. The destination was kept secret from all but the leading officers. They started the next day and were moved with greatest rapidity to Albany, thence to the Mohawk, and they "fairly flew," as it is said, up the river in boats, to the " Oneida carrying place," now the site of Rome. And here let me add, by way of parenthesis, that besides Schuyler and Willett, who accom- panied Gen. Bradstreet to Fort Frontenac, were many others who subsequently became noted in the history of this country. Among them Nathaniel Woodhull, then a major, subsequently a general in the revolutionary army, and the first president of the provincial congress. Horatio Gates, then a captain and in the revolutionary war a brigadier general, and who captured Burgoyne and his army; Col. Charles Clinton, then stationed at Fort Herkimer, and near seventy years of age; also his two sons, James Clinton, then a captain and twenty-two years old, afterward a general, and his brother George, then nineteen years old, and afterwards for twenty-five years governor of New York; the great war governor of the infant State. Although Gen. Bradstreet moved his men up the valley with great celerity, yet it took two weeks' time for the men to pole the boats up the river to the "carrying place." On reaching this portage, Gen. John Stanwix was found with six thousand troops, having been previously ordered there to erect a formidable fort in the place of Forts Williams, Craven and Bull, destroyed two years before. The first two named forts had stood . upon the banks of the Mohawk, below the bend of that river, a little further down stream than the present railroad bridge. Fort Bull was upon the lower landing of Wood Creek, some two or three miles to the westward of Forts Craven and Williams. Across this portage Bradstreet transported his men, boats and munitions of war and stores. A dam was constructed across Wood. Creek, at the upper landing near the late United States arsenal, to raise the water of that stream, to aid in floating the loaded boats to Oneida Lake. Two weeks' time was occupied in making these preparations, and in removing the fallen trees and other obstruc- tions from the creek. These movements indicated to the troops the direction of the expedition. The troops started August 14 and in six days Oswego was reached; after resting there for a few hours to repair the boats, inspect the arms and accoutrements, the troops were again on their way passing over the lake, but keeping near shore. On the third day after leaving Oswego, the troops landed on the evening of the 25th, about two miles from the fort,
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COL. MARINUS WILLETT.
and the next day commenced active preparations to take it by storm. The fort was a square one, fifteen feet high, built of stone. and nearly three-fourths of a mile in circumference, and well pro- tected by cannon; the garrison had no intimation of the approach' of an enemy, until the British troops appeared before the fortress .. Breastworks were erected to protect the assailants, and Willett was much of the time in exposed points of danger, and one entire- night he and his men were under a constant fire of grape shot and musketry. The siege was continued for three days, and on the 29th of August the garrison surrendered; the capture included sixty cannon, sixteen mortars, a vast amount of small arms, a large quantity of powder and balls of all sorts, nine vessels and about one hundred men. The magazine was blown up, the buildings destroyed, and the whole fortress reduced to a heap of rubbish. 'The captured vessels were used to transport the stores to Oswego,. and there burned to the water's edge. The capture of this fort was considered at the time, as one of the greatest blows inflicted upon the French in America, considering the consequences, as that fort was the storehouse from which other forts to the south werd supplied. It reflected great credit upon Bradstreet and his men, although it involved incessant toil, great fatigue and hardship, and a great sacrifice of human life. When Oswego Falls (now Fulton) was reached by the troops on their return from Oswego, it took the men three days to drag the boats and stores over that portage of a mile, and so excessive was the labor, and so great the fatigue and exposure of the men in the whole expedition that near one hundred deaths occurred at that point, and when Fort Bull was reached half of the men were unfit for duty. It required four days to transport the boats and stores from Wood Creek across the portage at Rome, to the Mohawk, and by that time the men were completely exhausted. Smith's Colonial History of New York says that five hundred men died and were buried at this "carrying place." The cause of these deaths and sickness, is attributed to the stagnant water of Wood Creek, the exposure and fatigue of the men, and the haste in cooking the food.
The expedition on its return, reached Fort Stanwix September 10, and that very night young Willett was taken ill and confined to his tent nntil November by a dangerous illness. As before stated, that was the season Fort Stanwix was constructed. The work was commenced August 23 and completed November 15, 1758. It was a square work, bounded by what are now Dominick,.
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ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER.
Spring and Liberty streets, and was about 20 rods westerly from the Mohawk. It was surrounded by a deep, wide ditch, with long pickets in the center, sharpened at the top, and a row of horizontal ones projected from the embankment. It was among the most formidable structures of the times and cost the British govern- ment over $266,000.
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