History of Columbia County, New York. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 4

Author: Everts & Ensign; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 648

USA > New York > Columbia County > History of Columbia County, New York. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 4

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In 1695 he visited England to promote certain claims against the crown; and while there he, in company with the afterwards notorious frcebooter, Capt. William Kidd, preferred charges against Gov. Fletcher, who in revenge suspended him from all his offices except that of town clerk. The king, however, reinstated him at the solicitation of Lord Bellamont; and when the latter hecame governor in the following year he called Livingston to his couneil. While in England (Oet. 10, 1695) " Articles of Agreement between the Right Honorable Richard, Earle of Bellamont, of the one part, and Robert Livingston, Esquire, nod Captain William Kidd, of the other part," were entered into for the enterprise of equipping a vessel on shares for their mutual advantage; the said vessel to be used as a privateer, and also "to fight with and subdue Pyrates,"-Livingston furnishing the scheme, Bellamont the necessary funds, and Kidd the requisite nautical skill and fighting qualities. Of the result O'Callaghan snys, " Kidd shortly after deceived his associates, and brought down trouble on all those who had been unfortunately, though innocently, connected with him." Instead of subdning pirates, he himself joined the bloody fraternity.

In 1701 the former ndherents of Leisler, in pursuance of their old grudge, demanded from him an account of a large sum of money which had passed through his hands, and npon his failure to comply the Assembly passed an act sequestrating his property. Upon this he prepared to return to England to lay his ense before the sover- eign ; but before setting out he had the forethought to obtain from the Indians authority to act ns their representative at the court, an act which the Assembly declared to be "contrary to the duty and allegiance he owes to his majesty, and to the pence of this govern- ment." On the 20th of April, 1702, he was suspended from the council. In 1705 he succeeded in obtaining a royal warrant re- storing his offices, notwithstanding which the council refused to vote him any salary, declared his Indian office to be useless, and demanded its abolition. He, however, quietly continued to exercise its func- tions, and in the end scoured full payment for his services. IIe succeeded in being elected representative for Albany, and continued to represent that city from 1709 to 1714. He had become wealthy

first of the Mohican Indians " two hundred acres of good land and eighteen hundred acres of woods," on Roeloff Jansen's Kill, July 12, 1683, and this was confirmed by the government in 1684. Livingston then represented that there was not a sufficiency of arable land in his first purchase, and petitioned for permission to buy another tract of about four hundred acres, but was allowed to buy

from the revenues of his severnl offices, and the profits realized from his varions contracts with the government in furnishing supplies to the troops, the colonized Palatines, etc., and he now set about se- caring for his manor a representation in the Assembly. This he accomplished, and himself took his sent as its representative in 1716. He remained a member until 1726, when he finally retired from public life, and died about 1728.

Hle was a man of rather meagre education, and of no marked talent, except for the acquisition of wealth, in which he exhibited remarkable ability, tact, and enterprise. Of the methods adopted by him in pursuance of this object, the opinions of his contemporn- ries, the Earl of Clarendon, Gov. Hunter, and others, are shown else- where in this volume. The opinions of Guv. Nanfan upon the same subject were plainly expressed in his published reasons for suspend- ing Robert Levingston from the council in April, 1702, namely : “ Sec- ondly, That the Inte Earl of Bellamont, being made sensible that the said Robert Levingston was guilty of great frauds in Management of the Excise of Albany, etc., did, about January, 1701, declare that he would remove him from being of the Council at the meeting of the Assembly, but his lordship's much-Jamented death prevented it. Thirdly, That an Act of Assembly of this province appointed Com- missioners of publick Acc'ts to adjust with all persons concerned in the receipt and payments of the publick revenue; hut the said Robt. Levingston, in contempt of the said Act, never gave any obedience thereto, altho' duely and timely summon'd to that end and purpose, nor would ever render any acc'tts to them of the publick money he had received. Fourthly, That thereupon the gen'll Assem- bly, being well apprised that said Robt. Levingston bad committed great frauds in relation to his Majes'ts revenue, made an Act of gen'll Assembly confiscating his real and personal Estate, unless he should give in A full Account in writeing unto the Commissioners of Acc'tts of all his receipts and disbursements, and the Grounds and Occations of the same, before the 25th day of March Last, which he hath refused or neglected to doe. . .. Sixthly, That I was in- formed by his Mnj'ts Collector that he, the said Robt. Levingston, had received several summs of money of his majestic's Excise and Quit-rents of this Province withont nuy Authority, and of which he had given no Acc'tt to the said Collector."# And for these and other reasons he was suspended.

The tenacity with which he and his descendants clung to public office was surprising. In 1721, after having held office in the prov- ince continuonsly for forty-six years, and during nearly all that period having held several positions at once, he, wishing to retire to the quiet of his manor, petitioned the king to be allowed to turn over his several offices in Albany to his son Philip as his successor. Aod, strange to say, his prayer was granted. The civil list of Columbia county shows, for a period of a half-century, no name but that of Livingston as member of Assembly; the office being held without break from 1716 to 1775, inclusive, by members of the family, viz., Robert (Sr.), Gilbert, Robert (third lord), Robert R., ond Peter R. And everywhere through the lista of local, State, and national officers, during those and subsequent years, the name of Livingston ocenrs with a frequency which is almost wearisome, notwithstanding the exalted character and position of some of those incumbents.

Of one characteristic of this family too much can hardly be said in praise, namely, their intense and inflexible patriotismo. With scarcely an exception they stood steadfastly by the enuse of their country through all her trials; and it is said that the immediate causo of the death of Robert Livingston, the grandfather of the chancellor, in 1775, was the receipt of the news of the battle of Bunker llill, which was first reported as an overwhelming disaster to the patriots. (See biographical sketch of the Livingston family in chapter on distinguished men of Columbia county.)

* Doc. Ilist. N. Y.

HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

but " two hundred acres of good land and four hundred aeres of woods" adjoining. This second purchase was made of what was called Taghkanic, Aug. 10, 1685, and confirmed the 12th of the same month. The whole tract, when surveyed and erected into a manor in 1686, was found to contain the amount before named, one hundred and sixty thousand two hundred and forty acres, by reason of the metes and bonnds given in the Indian deeds, some of which were preserved in the map of the manor, and are as follows: Ahashawaghkiek, a hill in the northeast eor- ner of Massachusetts line ; Acawannk, a flat, or rock, in north part of North East (Dutchess county) ; Kach wa- wyick, a place west of a certain mountain; Kickwa, or Kickpa, one of three plains near Roeloff Jansen's Kill ; Mananosick, a hill in the west part, or near the Massachu- setts line ; Wawanaquasick, stone-heaps on the north line, " where the Indians have laid several heaps of stones to- gether by an ancient custom among them ;"* Mahaskakook, a " cripple-bush" on the south line of the patent ; Mawich- nak, a flat on both sides of a creek, where it joins Roeloff Jansen's creek ; Minmissiehtanoek, a piece of land north of Roeloff Jansen's creek ; Nowanagquasick, on north line of the manor (Sauthier's map); Nachawachkano, a creek tributary to Twastawekak; Nichankooke, one of three plains, near Roeloff Jansen's creek ; Pottkook, patented to Killian Van Rensselaer, south of Kinderhook, and called by the Dutch Claverack; Quisichkook, a small ereek north of Roeloff Jansen's creek ; Saaskahampka, or Swaska- hamaka, a place opposite Saugerties, Ulster Co .; Sac- ahka, on north line of town of North East ; Sankhenak, Roeloff Jansen's Kill; Skaankook, a creek ; Towastawekak, or Twastawekak, a creek ; Wachaisekaisek, a small stream opposite Catskill ereek ; Wahankasick, near Roeloff Jansen's creek (Santhier's map) ; Wawyachtonoch, a place ; Which quo puh bau, southwest corner on Massachusetts line.

The first purchase, called the " Roeloff Jansen's Kill tract," began at Oak hill on the north, and lay along the river to the southern limit of Germantown, a distance of twelve miles, and extended back with the same width to the Taghkanie hills; and for this tract Livingston paid to his Indian grantors the following consideracion : " Three hundred guilders in zewant, eight blankets, and two child's blankets, five and twenty ells of duffels, and four garments of strouds, ten large shirts, and ten small ditto, ten pairs of large stockings, ten of small ditto, six guns, fifty pounds of powder, fifty staves of lead, four caps, ten kettles, ten axes, ten adzes, two pounds of paint, twenty little scissors, twenty little looking-glasses, one hundred fish-hooks, awls and nails, of each one hundred, four rolls of tobacco, one hundred pipes, ten bottles, three kegs of rum, one barrel of strong beer, twenty knives, four stroud coats, two duffel coats, and four tin kettles." This payment was entirely satisfactory to the Indians concerned. in the sale, except one, a squaw, named Siak-a-nochiqni, a cripple bush woman, of Catskill, who, four years afterwards, pushed her unsatis- fied claim, and was bought off with " one eloth garment and

one cottou shift." This was the first litigation of the Liv- ingston manor, and amicably settled, but for nearly, if not quite, two hundred years it was in the law and chancery courts, in some form or other, almost continuously.

In 1710, Robert Livingston, the first lord of the manor, conveyed to Anne, " by the grace of God, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland," six thousand acres of his estate for two hundred and sixty-six pounds sterling, for the oceu- pancy of the German Palatines. This sale was afterwards surveyed (1741) by Cadwallader Colden, surveyor-general of the province of New York, and includes nearly the entire town of Germantown. It was patented to Johannes Haevor, Hagedorn, and others, June 15, 1741, as trustees for the colony of Palatines, and a new patent was issued Nov. 17, 1775.

Iu 1715 the manor was re-surveyed and platted, the lines being as follows :

" Beginning on the east side of Hudson river at a certain place called by the Indians Wahankassek, thence east by south 3º 40' southerly 9} miles to a certain place called ia the fadian language Mawanap- quassek, then cast by south 7º 45' southerly 9} miles and 30 rods to a hill called by the Indians Ahashewaghkamick, by the north end of Taghkanick hills or mountain, thence south 2º W. along said hills 13} miles to Wich qua pu chat, thence E. 2º 50' N. 3 miles and 156 rods to a run of water called by the Indians Sackackqua, theace S. by E. 8º 30' casterly 100 rods to three linden-trees, thence W. S. W. 6° 30' southerly 1} miles to Rock called Nakaowasick, thence W. N. W. 132 miles to southernmost hoacht of Roeliff Jansen's Kill, thenco N. W. 11º westerly 112 miles to Hudson river, thence up said river to beginning."

Thirteen thousand acres of the Livingston manor were set off by the will of the first lord, and formed into the lower manor of Clermont, and given to Robert, grandfather of Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, as a reward for having discovered and frustrated a plot of the Indians for the mas- saere of all the white inhabitants of the province. The es- tate north of Roeloff Jansen's Kill was devised entail, and was thus transmitted through two generations, the eldest son, Philip, and his eldest son, Robert, inheriting the same. Philip was born in Albany in 1686, and succeeded to the manor of Livingston in 1728, on the death of his father, Robert, the first lord. Philip's son, Robert, Jr., was the last lord, the Revolution breaking the entail, and after his death the estate lying east of the post-road from New York to Albany was divided between Walter, Robert C., John, and Ilenry, sons of Robert, Jr., according to the provisions of the will of the latter, the share of cach being about twenty- eight thousand acres. The division was made in 1792. In 1716 the first lord of the manor took his seat in the Gen- eral Assembly, and the manor was so represented until the Revolution.

Walter Livingston conveyed his interest in the estate of his father, April 14, 1792, to Henry Livingston, for twenty- four thousand nine hundred pounds New York currency (about sixty-two thousand dollars) ; the dower of Cornelia, wife of Walter, being reserved. A portion only of this vast estate is now in the Livingston family.

On the 16th of December, 1686, a patent was issued by Governor Dongan to Jan Hendrick de Bruyn, for a certain tract of land which he had purchased eighteen years before (Aug. 14, 1668) from three Indian chiefs, named Pompoe- neck, Taeppchasunen, and Attowanoe. (See fac-simile on

# This is the only one of the interior boundaries of the manor which is now recognizable. It is on the north line of the town of Tagbkanic, and a little east of its most northern corner. The stone heaps made by the Mohicans centuries ago are still visible.

HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

the following page.) This tract was described as being " A certain parcel or tract of land laying on the east side of Hudson's river, or the river of New Albany, beginning from Davidson's creek, which creek lies against Beare island, called in the Indian tongue Pahpapaenpemock, and from the said creek stretching southerly along the river to the saw- kill of Frans Peiters Claver, the creek in the Indian tongue called Pittannoock stretching to the east, and in the woods to the first two lakes or inwaters, which are called by the Indians ' Hithoock and Wogashawachook'."* The consid- eration named in the patent was a yearly quit-rent of " five bushels of merchantable winter wheat, payable on the 20th day of March in every year." A reference to the records in the comptroller's office at Albany will show that the rent was faithfully paid.

Many years afterwards, in the trial of the case of Jackson vs. Frier, Chancellor Kent defined the boundaries of the De Bruyn patent as follows : " The line from David's Hook to the saw-kill is to be drawn between those points along the east shore of the Hudson, and composes the western boun- dary ; a line along the west shore of the Fish lake (Kin- derhook lake) in its whole extent, the eastern boundary; and straight lines from the extremities of the lake to the stations on the Hudson,-David's Ilook and the saw-kill,-the north and south boundaries."

" The great Kinderhook patent," as it was afterwards known, was issued March 14, 1687, by Governor Nicolls to Jan Hendrick De Bruyn and others, freeholders of Kinder- hook, and in actual possession ; the description of the land ratified to them being as follows : " All that tract or parcel of land that lieth on the east side of Hudson's river, begin- ning at a place called Swate Hook, and runs north upon said river four English miles to a certain place called David's Ilook, and then runs east into the woods, keeping the same breadth, to the land of Derick Wessels and Gerrit Teun- nissen and the high hills eight English miles, and then south to the fall of Major Abrams" (Chittenden's falls). The consideration was the payment of a quit-rent of " twelve bushels of good winter marchantable wheat," on the 20th of March in every year.t

The " Powell grant" was a tract located in that part of old Kinderhook which is now Stuyvesant.

A tract of four thousand acres lying on Kinderhook and Claverack creeks, and between Rensselaerwyck and the great patent of Kinderhook, was surveyed to Conradt Burghart and Elias Van Schaack.}

In 1703, a tract was surveyed to Lawrence Van Schaack and Lawrenee Van Alen, "lying south of Kinder hook, north of Potkoke, and east of Claverack."§

Burgar Huyck and others received a patent for six thou- sand acres, Oct. 2, 1731, from Rip Van Dam, president, and Archibald Kennedy and Cadwallader Colden, councillors,

for lands on " both sides of Kinderhook creek, and running north to the south bounds of Rensselaerswyck, and east along that line 70 chains."}|

The Mawighanunk patent was issued Aug. 4, 1743, to Stephen Bayard, Cornelius Van Schaick, John Baptiste Van Rensselaer, Johannes Van Deusen, Barent Vaasburgh, and Jacobus Van Rensselaer, for a "tract lying northeast of Kinderhook, about fifteen miles from Hudson river, and lying on Kinderhook creek, being part of a tract called by the Indians Mawighanunk, bounded as follows: Beginning on the south line of Rensselaerswyek, thence south 40 chains ; thence south 50° east, 220 chains; thence east 120 chains ; thence south 40° east, 260 chains; north 36° 30' east, 166 chains ; north 40° west, 50 chains ; south 82° 30' west, 140 chains ; north 52° 30' west, 80 chains; north 115 chains ; west 242 chains ; containing forty-three hun- dred aud eighty acres."

The Wawieghnuuk patent was issued to William and Stephen Bayard in 1743.T Peter Van Alen received a patent from Governor Nicolls, June 26, 1668, for a tract " east of the kill behind [east of ] Kinderhook and extend- ing south to Nohacktequalsick."

In January, 1767, Abraham Lott and others petitioned for and had surveyed to them a gore of ten thousand one hundred and fifty-two acres, lying between Claverack and Livingston manors. This grant was the basis of a suit at law which was brought by the patentees against John Van Rensselaer, an explanation of which, as well as its result, is given in the following extract from the New York Gazette of Nov. 10, 1768, viz. :

"On Saturday last the great cause between the Crown and Mr. John Van Rensselaer was ended. It was tried by a struck jury, and came on before the Ilon. Justice Jones, on Tuesday, the 25th of Oc- tober, and continued (with evening adjournments by the consent of parties) until the 5th instant. The suit was for intrusion upon the crown lands, to try the limits of that part of the old Rensselaers- wyck manor and estate called Claverack. It was promoted by eer- tain reduced officers, upon a supposition that there was a great unpatented vacancy between the manors of Rensselaerswyck and Livingston and the patents of Kinderhook and Westenhook, and carried on at the expense of the crown. There never was a trial in this colony so solemn, important, and lengthy. The counsel spent about eleven hours in summing up the evidence. Mr. Attorney- General, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Duane, and Mr. Kissam were of the counsel for the crown ; and Mr. Smith, Jr., Mr. Scott, and Mr. Thomas Smith conducted the delense. The judge was clear in his charge upon the construction of the old patent in the Rensselaer family, and the jury in two hours agreed on their verdict for the defendant. . . . This estate was attached upon the same principles by certain petitioners a few years ago; but their petitions were dismissed by the governor and couneil in the administration of General Monckton on the 20th October, 1762."

A tract of seven hundred acres was located by John Van Ness on Kinderhook creek, and surveyed to him on the surveyor-general's warrant, dated March 4, 1788.

Under the act of the Legislature of March 12, 1793, the rights of the State in a tract of land situated in the towns of Hillsdale and Kinderhook, lying south of Canaan and north of the north line of lands claimed by the heirs of Colonel John Van Rensselaer, and also west of Canaan and east of Kinderhook patent, were vested in the persons

# Book 6 of Patents, page 319; also see Plat Book 9, subdivision D, page 197, for field-notes of survey and partition of the Kinder- hook patent, ordered hy James II., 1704, aod by him conveyed to Culonel Peter Schuyler, John De Bruyn, Andries Jaisse, and twenty- eight others. Also suhdivision E, Field Book 21, for the Kinder- hook patent survey, secretary state's office, Albany.

+ Book 6 of Patents, pp. 154, 156, office secretary of state.

# Land Papers, vel. vi. p. 24.

¿ Ibid., vol. iii. p. 124.

| Book 11, Patents, pp. 38,39.

1. Portfolio E, No. 16, surveyor-general's office.

HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

actually in possession, and who were holding the lands in their own right, and not for another. An aet of the same body, passed March 22, 1791, vested the title of the State to lands in Canaan in sneh settlers as were in actual pos- session.

The State of New York confirmed the colonial grants, but abolished the feudal tenures and privileges.

But few leasehold* estates are now held in Columbia county, and those are the property of the daughters of the late IIenry W. Livingston, and situated in the towns of Copake and Taghkanie.

CHAPTER IV.

EARLIEST SETTLEMENTS IN THE COUNTY.

IN regard to the first settlements by Europeans upon the fertile uplands and in the rich valleys and meadows that border the streams of Columbia county, we know beyond reasonable doubt that the earliest of these were made within that region which lies to the north and west of Stockport and Kinderhook creeks; and that the pioneers who first made their rude homes here were principally emigrants from Holland, the frugal but honest and brave descendants of that race of lowland freemen whom all the power and prowess of Rome could never conquer. But, when we pass beyond these facts, we are compelled to deal with suppositions and probabilities alone. There now lives no person who ean tell with certainty the name of the first white man who built his house here, or who ean say in what year or on what spot that first dwelling was erected.

Under the well-known maxim that " property in the soil is the first evidence of settlement," we should give priority to Major Abraham Staats (or Staets), who took out the first land patent in the limits of the present county, and who settled at the mouth and on the north side of the stream now ealled Stockport ereek, but which at that time and in consequence of his settlement there received the name of " Major Abram's creek," by which it continued to be known for more than a century.

The major had come to Fort Orange (Albany) in 1642 with Dominie Melpogensis. He was by profession a sur- geon, and had almost immediately upon his arrival been placed in that capacity in charge of the garrison of the fort. In 1643 he became a member of the eouneil, and was after- wards president of the board, with a salary of one hundred florins. Like nearly all the others of the new-comers, he soon became anxious to participate in the great profits which were then being realized in traffie with the Indians, and so applied for and received license to trade in furs ; and in the prosecution of this new calling we find it recorded that in the year 1657 he sent four thousand two hundred beaver- skins to New Amsterdam, and that at the same time he had " a considerable bowery." He was also for many years the owner and skipper of the sloop " Claverack," which plied between Albany and New York. Probably the sloop

was not run by him in a general carrying trade, but for the prosecution of his own traffie. It seems reasonable to sup- pose that, after engaging in the various pursuits of fur- trading, river-navigation, and agriculture, he must have resigned his place as garrison-surgeon ; but if so we find no record of the date of such resignation.

Ile married Catrina Jochemse, daughter of Jochem Wesselse, and by her had four sons,-namely, Abram (born in 1665, and in later years known as " Abram Staats of Claveraek"), Samuel, Jochem, and Jacob, which last named became, like his father, surgeon to the garrison (1698 to 1708). Also, like his father, he tried navigation, and was skipper of the sloop " Unity," running between New York and Albany ; besides which he was at one time one of the justices of the peace in and for the county of Albany. Abram Staats " of Claverack" married Elsje, daughter of Johannes Wendell, July 3, 1696. It is probable that he was born in the old massive stone building, which is a part of the dwelling now occupied by Mr. Joseph Wild, near the Stockport railroad station. This, however, cannot be the house first built by Major Staats as a dwelling, for we are told by Brodhead that in the year preceding the birth of this child (viz., in July, 1664) the Indians " destroyed cattle at Greenbush, burned the house of Abraham Staats at Claverack, and ravaged the whole country on the cast side of the Hudson river." It is possible that the first house was of stone, and that the Indian burning destroyed only its roof and interior work, which were afterwards rebuilt upon and within the same walls; but it is far more prob- able that the first house was wholly destroyed, and that the great thickness of the walls of the building which still stands (for they are fully three feet thiek ) was given for the double purpose of making them fire-proof and of providing a strong place of refuge in ease of future savage attack.

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History of Columbia County, New York. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 4

Author: Everts & Ensign; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Ensign Number of Pages: 648

Author: Everts & Ensign; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 648