History of Columbia County, New York. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 6

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 6

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If, by the expression " Levingston and some others," Lord Clarendon intended the implication that the governor and Livingston were confederated in the matter, it would seem to be disproved by a letter, dated Oct. 22, 1711, from Governor Hunter to General Nicholson,t on the eve of the departure of the latter for England. The governor had learned that Livingston had requested Nicholson to make a report to the home government damaging to the admin- istration of Hunter, and upon this subject the latter said,-

" I cannot forbear taking notice of this proceeding of Mr. Living- ston's as a most base and Villainous practice if there be any truth in it, and I hope I have deserved that Justice from you that you will as soone as may he acquaint me with what Mr. Livingston has thought fitt to represent. I know him to be ye most selfish man alive, but I could never have believed that a man who lay under so many obligations to me as he does would take it into his head to make any Representations to my prejudice without aequainting me at least : neither can I be persuaded that after ye manner wee have Liv'd together, and ye mutuall confidence betweene us, you would engage yor Selfe in anything of that nature upon the Suggestions of such a man. I have suffered here by giveing him too much Countenance, And if any Man has any Advantage by ye Palatines here it is he. I beg you'l cleare that matter to me, because hee has too considerable a trust to be continued to him after soe hnse and barbarous a practice."

On the 1st of May, 1711, the whole number of Pala- tines upon the Livingston tract was 1178, and these were in a state of almost open mutiny, having resolved that they would neither continue to work at tar-making nor remain

upon the tract, but that they would remove to Schoharie, and for this purpose would use force if necessary. At this juneture the governor sent to Albany, ordering a lieutenant with a detachment of sixty soldiers to meet him at the manor for the purpose of overawing the Germans, if they could not be conciliated.

Upon his arrival with the troops, demanding to know the cause of their insubordination, he was told that they would rather lose their lives than remain where they were; that they had been cheated in the contraet which they had signed, it being wholly different from that which had been read to them in their own language in England, by the terms of which each family was to have forty aeres of land, to be paid for at the end of seven years in hemp, timber, tar, pitel, or other productions, instead of which it was now designed to make them life-long slaves, as Mr. Cast§ had plainly and insolently told them,-a condition to whicht they would not submit, but were determined to remove to and occupy the lands at Schoharie which the queen bad designed for them.

" Whilst his Excellency was talking with the Deputys, he received Information that there was a great body of men in arms on the other side of the Brook, and having by that time a reinforcement of seventy men more, he marched the detachment immediately, and passed the Brook ; the Palatines were rua home to their houses. His Excelleney marched to the first village, and ordered thein to bring in all their arms, which they did Immediately, except a few. He could go no further that night, but the next morning marched to ye other three Villages on the same side of the River, and disarmed them all, and then returning to Mr. Levingston, sent orders to the Villages on the other side to bring in their arms that day to the Store house, to he transported to him. . . . After his Excellency had disarmed them, be sent back the detachment to Albany, and the sober and better part of the people, being secured from the rage of the hot-headed, un- thinking, and misguided, met together to debate on their former pro- ceedings, and with a general Conseut came to this Resolution, to acknowledge their fanlts, ask his Excellency's pardon, and signify their hearty repentance. Accordingly, all the Villages by their Deputys waited on him, and some of them on their kaces asked his pardon, and promised a thorough Reformation of their behavior, and an entire Resignation to his orders for the future: whereupon his Excellency pardoned them, with this Certification, that the first diso- bedience shall be punished with the utmost rigor the law will allow, which they received with great joy, and now they begin to demon- strate their sincerity by inquiring when they shall be set to work, and show a great desire to make a good beginning on it." ( Letters of Secretary Clarke to the Lords of Trade, May 30, 1711. Doe. Hist. N. Y., vol. iii. pp. 665-667.)

The energetie aetion of the governor had thoroughly cowed the colonists and reduced them to submission. They returned to their distasteful work in the pine woods, but it was done sullenly and with great dissatisfaction. In a letter written by Mr. Cast to the governor in the following July he said, " Mr. Sacket is now busy constructing a Bridge for the conveyanee of the Tar to the river-side. . . . The people, perceiving that the construction of this bridge fore- shadows the manufacture of a large number of Barrels of

# Doc. Hist. N. Y., vol. iii. p. 656.

+ A bill dated Sept. 5, 1711, presented by Peter Willemse Romers for two hundred and fifty coffins furnished for Palatines who died on Nutten island, seems to confirm his lordship's opinion.

Į Doc. Hist. N. Y., vol. iii. p. 675.

¿ Robert Livingston, Juha Cast, Richard Sacket, Godfrey Wal- sen, Andrew Bagger, and Herman Sehureman formed the board of commissioners who had general charge and superintendence of the Palatine settlement. A court for the trial of Palatine cases was nuthorized by Governor Hunter, but with the express condition that of this court " Robert Livingston or Richard Sacket is always to be one." Richard Sacket was the first settler upon the " Great Nine Partners" in Dutchess county, before the coming of the Palatines.

HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Tar, disapprove likewise of its creetion, and say the bridge will rot before it is put to that use : Meaning that they do not intend to remain on Livingston's lands long enough to make use of said bridge. This last opinion does not dis- turb me. The advantage already gained over the people makes me hope to effect a complete victory over them." Such expressions as these show that among these official subordinates of Queen Anne there existed very little of the benevolent pity which had moved her to befriend the help- less Palatine exiles.

During this summer about three hundred of the arms- bearing portion of the colonists volunteered* for service in the expedition against Canada under General Nicholson. From this expedition they returned to find their families in a state approaching starvation.

The result accomplished in the manufacture of naval stores during the season of 1711 was far from satisfactory, and on the opening of the following spring the governor en- forced the strictest regulations to secure subordination and efficient work,-the first and most significant of which was that a lieutenant and thirty soldiers should be ordered from the garrison at Albany to Livingston manor, "there to be posted in such manner and at such places for the better car- rying on the work as Mr. Sacket shall think proper, and that tents be provided for them." The rations both of bread and beer were also reduced, as the governor found it " absolutely necessary to make the Expence for the Palatins as little as possible ;" but, notwithstanding his best efforts in the direc- tion of discipline and economy, the coming of the autumn made it apparent that the "Tarr Work" was a failure, and must be abandoned, though the governor was careful to assure the people that no such thought was entertained. At the same time he notified them that he had exhausted all the money and credit he possessed for their support, and that to prevent their perishing, and the total abandonment of the work, it was his desire that they accept any employment they could secure from the farmers in this and the province of New Jersey. Prior to this they had been threatened with severest penalties if they should dare to leave their villages, and constables were ordered " to forewarne all of their Districts that they do not Harbor any pallatines at their perrill." But now, at the commencement of winter, they were cast adrift and advised to seek for employment (which both they and the governor well knew it was impos- sible for them to obtain) among the farmers.

This heartless abandonment by the authorities, whose duty it was to care for them, "occasioned a terrible Con- sternation amongst them, and particularly from the women and Children the most pityfull and dolerons Cryes and lamentations that perhaps have ever been heard from any persons under the most wretched and miserable circum- stanees ; so that they were at last, much against their wills, put under the hard and greeting necessity of seeking relief from the Indians."

In their extremity some of their people proceeded to Schoharie, where the Indians gave them permission to settle

on their lands, and promised them such assistance and pro- tection as they were able to give. Upon which, with great labor, they cleared a track through the woods, and at the end of two weeks about fifty of their families were on their way to " the Schorie," to them the land of promise. This step provoked the wrath and fierce threats of the governor, but these they could not heed when the alternative was starvation, and before the end of March, 1713, the greater part of the Palatine colonists had left their settlements on the Livingston purchase, and passed across the mountains and through the deep snows to rejoin their neighbors on the frontier. At the commencement of the enterprise it was said and believed that the Livingston traet and the Palatine lands on the west side of the river would "enable the send- ing of Tar and Pitch enough, not only for supplying the Royal, but even the whole Navy of England." It was not Jong, however, before it became apparent that these great expectations were not to be realized. In the absence of visible results the promoters of the project in England wrote Governor Hunter, imploring him at all hazards to " send Tarr, to convince the world of the solidity of the project ;" and in 1712 (Oct. 31) the governor, in writing to the Lords of Trade, mentions that the whole superin- tendency of the work was then in Mr. Sacket's hands, " since Mr. Bridges did so basely desert it." Mr. Bridges was a Massachusetts man, supposed to be an expert in tar- and rosin-making, and was employed as such to teach the art and to superintend the work. From the above it seems evident that he soon saw that the enterprise must fail, and decided to leave it to its fate.

The entire result of the work was the production of less than two hundred barrels of tar, and then the project was abandoned in disaster.

" Such of that people as were sober and industrious," wrote Governor Hunter to the secretary of the board of trade, July 26, 1720, " remain on the Lands where I set- tled them at first, and which I was obliged to purchase for them on Hudson's River for the Ends proposed by those who sent them, vizt., the Manufacture of Naval Stores. These are well enabled to subsist themselves ; the rest have been wanderers." The fact is that about fifty families re- mained, and were allowed to locate on different portions of the tract as farmers, in which vocation it is probable that they became reasonably prosperous.

In August, 1724, it appears that there were about sev- enty families on the tract, of whom sixty heads subscribed their names as being desirous to continue there, while the other ten declined to remain as permanent settlers. The list referred to was prepared by the surveyor-general in obe- dience to an order of council, issued in consideration of the petition of Jacob S. Scherb, Christoffel Hagendorn, and Ja- cob Schumacker, made June 13, 1724, in behalf of them- selves and the other Palatine inhabitants, praying for the issnance of letters patent for the Palatine tract to the peti- tioners and other occupants. The matter was referred to a committee of the council, who, at a meeting held at Fort George, Aug. 27, 1724, reported to the governor that they " Have considered of the same, and are of opinion that your Excelleney may grant to Jacob Sharpe, Johannes feiner, Johannus Kolman, and Christophel Hagendorn, their heirs

This is the term nsed in the ancient documents referring to the matter, but the word drafted would be more appropriate, as thoy went in obedience to a peremptory order for that number of men to be furnished from the Palatine settlements.

HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

and assigns, six thousand acres" (describing it by bounda- ries) ; upon which the grant was made, with certain condi- tions, all of which will be found more fully mentioned in the history of the town of Germantown. Thus, such of the Palatines as remained became eventually proprietors of the lands on which they had settled, and to-day their descend- ants are numerous throughout the county.

From " A List of the Ffreeholders of the City and County of Albany," made pursuant to an order of court, dated June 11, 1720, and directed to Gerrit Van Schaick, high sheriff, we transcribe the names of those then resident within the present limits of the county of Columbia, as fol- lows :

" Kenderhook and part Maunor of Livingston, viz. : Jochim Von Valkenburgh, Isaac Fausburgh, Caspar Rouse, Peter Van Alen, La- mert Huyck, Burger Huyck, Johannis Huyek, Derrick Gardineer, Peter Van Slyck, John Gardineer, Evert Wieler, Derrick Goes, Peter Fausburgh, Peter Van Buren, Jno. Goes, Mattias Goes, Luykus Van Alen, Jacobas Van Alen, Evert Van Alen, Johannis Vandeusen, Cor- nelis Schermerhorn, Johannis Van Alen, Gerrit Dingmans, Bartle- meus Van Valkenburgh, Thomas Van Alstine, Coonrodt Burgaert, Stephanis Van Alen, John Burgaert, Abram Van Alstine, Lawrence Van Schauk, Jurie Klaime, Guisbert Scherp, Lawrence Scherp, Hee- drick Clawe, Lamert Valkenburgh, Melgert Vanderpoel, Lenerd Co- nine.

" In the north part of the Maunor of Livingston : Robert Livings- ton, Esq., Peter Celle, Killian Winge, Jan Emmerick Plees, Hans Sihans, Claes Bruise, Jonat. Rees, Coenrodt Ilam, Coonradt Schure- man, Johannis Pulver, Bastian Spikerman, Nicolas Smith, Baltis Anspah, Jno. Wm. Simon, Ilans Jurie Prooper, Abram Leyke, Broer Decker, Jurie Decker, Nicolas Witbeek, Johannis Uldrigh, Ffitz Mu- zigh, Coenrod Kelder, David Hoeper, Gabriell Broose, Solomen Schatt, Jacob Stover, Johanis Roseman, Nicos. Styker.

" In Claverack : Tobias Teohrocck, Cornelis Malder, Cornilis Es- selstine, Jeremias Mulder, Derrick Hogohoom, Cornelis Huyck, Isaac Vandusen, Jno. Hoose, George Sidnem, Richard Moor, John Har- dyck, Hendr. Van Salsbergen, Jacob Van Hoosem, Kasper Vac Hoo- sem, Jan Van Hoosem, Samuel Ten Brocck, Peter Hogoboom, Rob. Van Deusen, Casper Conine, Frank Hardyke, Johannis Van Hoo- sem, John Bout, Wm. Halenbeck, Johannis Coole, John Rees, Wm. Rees, Johannis Scherp, Andrics Rees, Ghendia Lamafire, Hendrick Whitbeck, Jurie Fretts, Headrick Lodowick, Jacob Eswin, Jurie Jan, Cloud Lamatere."

This is beyond doubt a correct list, and doubtless a very nearly complete one of all the freeholders theu living within the limits of the county of Columbia. There were at that time no freeholders in Germantown, and the eastern part of the county north of Livingston manor was at that time a wilderness.

CHAPTER V.

INDIAN INCURSIONS THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR-THE REVOLUTION.

THE inhabitants living within the bounds of this county never suffered severely from Indian ravages. When Hud- son explored the river he found the natives peaceable, and well disposed towards the whites, and they continued to be so for many years. We find no account of any Indian violence committed against the settlers south of the present line of Rensselaer county until the attack of 1664, to which we have already alluded, in which we are told that they burnt Major Staats' house, and " ravaged the country east of Hudson's river ;" but we are not told what particular

outrages (if there were any besides that at Staats') they committed in this county, or whether any white blood was shed. This inroad, whatever its extent, was, without doubt, the work of other tribes than the Mohicans, for they were at that time too weak in numbers, and too much eowed by years of subjugation, to undertake offensive warfare, unless incited and supported by other and more powerful bands.

But the raid of 1664, whether it was an extensive and bloody one or not, had, undoubtedly, the effect to make the settlers more distrustful, more fearful of Indian hostility, and to cause them to strengthen their houses, and to erect buildings to be used as places of common shelter and de- fense in case of a dangerous outbreak. The Hon. II. C. Van Schaack, of Manlius, N. Y., in his unpublished " Life of Colonel Henry Van Schaack," says,-

" A portion of the old Dutch parsonage still standing in Kinder- hook originally formed a part of a fort, with a stockade as an out- side harrier. Ou one occasion, when the men were all absent, Indians appeared in the vicinity : the women repaired to the fort, and having dressed themselves in men's clothes and hats, they. under the lead of Mrs. Hoes, a brave Dutch matron, paraded with shouldered muskets and made great noises. The Indians, deceived by this appearance of strength, did net venture to attack the feminine garrison. In some of the old Dutch houses, when first erected, there were port-holes in their gable ends, placed there to enable the occupants to defend themselves when attacked by the savages."

The time to which he alludes, however, was probably about 1755, or more than ninety years later than that of which we have written above; and there is no reason to believe that during all that long period the settlers within this county saw any occasion to avail themselves of the defenses which they had prepared.

In Queen Anne's war, in 1704, the Housatonic river was made, by mutual agreement between the Indian bel- ligerents fighting respectively with the French and with the English, the eastern boundary of the neutral ground. In the " Colonial History" (vi. 371) it is stated that " the inhabitants of this province living on the west side of that river* followed all their occupations in husbandry as in time of peace, while at the same time the inhabitants of New England were in their sight exposed to the merciless cruelty of the French and Indians." And this is the ex- planation of the fact that, through the constantly-recurring wars which succeeded, from that time until 1754, the peo- ple inhabiting this section enjoyed entire security from Indian outrage. In the year named, on the 28th of August, about five hundred Indians, who four days before had left Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, on an expedi- tion of rapine and murder to which they were incited by the French, fell upon " Dutch Hoosack," near the Ver- mont line, destroyed the settlement, and massacred many of the inhabitants. This sharpened their appetite for blood. and, although they did not then wholly ignore the line of neutrality, small parties detached from the main body scoured the country to the south and west, and, during all the period of that war's continuance, the settlers at Kin- derhook and in other parts of this county lost their pre-

# The territory of New York was at that time supposed to extend east to the Housatonic (or, as it was then called, the Westenhook) river.

HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

vious feeling of safety ; though it does not appear that any savage incursions were made here except about the year 1755, nor that these were very bloody or destructive, es- pecially when compared with those which so often occurred in Massachusetts and other parts of New England.

From the New York Mercury of July 14, 1755, we extract the following account of an Indian attack which had then recently been made near Kinderhook :

" We hear from Kinderhook that on Wednesday, the 2d instant, as four men, two boys, and a negro were hoeing corn in a field ncar that place, they were surprised and fired upon by six Indians and a Frenchman, which wounded one of the men, a boy, and the negro fellow, when they, with the three others, took to their heels; the seventh, named John Gardineer, ran towards their arms, that were nigh at hand, and having dispatched two of the Indians, a third elosed in upon him, and in the scuffle the Frenchman came up, and seeing Gardincer get the better of the Indian, he knocked him down with his piece and afterwards scalped him, when the Indians made off and carried their dead with them. Some short time after, Gard- ineer came to himself, and with some difficulty reached the fort. He was so stunned with the blow he received from the Frenchman that he was insensible of being scalped until he was informed by the peo- ple, who discovered the blood, but remembered the whole of their proceedings before, and said he could have killed three of the Indians had not the second gun he took up missed fire.

"On the receipt of the above news the sum of twelve pounds was immediately raised by a few gentlemen in this city, and sent to John Gardineer for his gallant behavior, to support his wife and family during his illness, and 'tis to be hoped that those gentlemen who would willingly infuse n martial spirit in the armies now going against our enemies will follow an example so truly worthy of their imitation."

The same paper, in its issue of July 21, narrates the particulars of a subsequent inroad, probably by the same party, and near the same place, as follows :

"We hear that on Monday last another party of French and Indians, consisting of between thirty and forty, appeared at Kinder- hook, and carried off a young boy and wounded a negro man, and that Robert Livingston, Jr., Esq., with about forty men, were gone in pursuit of them."

And again, from the issue of July 27 :

"We learn from Claverack that on Wednesday, the 9th instant, in the morning, a party of Indians came to the house of Joachem Van- derberg and carried off a young woman and two of his children. The man himself, lying on a bed nnobserved by the Indians, went quietly up-stairs, and after loading his gun with shot fired at one of them who remained somewhat longer than the rest in order to carry off his wife, and killed him on the spot, and at the same time wounded his wife, but so slightly that her life was not in the least danger. . . . We are told that on receipt of the above news at Albany, and the cruelties committed by the savages at Kinderhook, one hundred brave New England men were immediately despatched from the army with orders to scour the woods for six days, and, if possible, to inter- cept the Indians on their return to Canada. We have advice from Kinderhook that Robert Livingston, Jr., Esq., with his men, were re- turned, after being out several days in quest of the Indians."

There may have been other Indian forays into this region during the French and Indian war, but we find no account of them, and it will be noticed that those which we have mentioned were but inconsiderable affairs, and could not in any sense be termed massacres. It is very likely that the settlers in this county were protected by their nation- ality, for it is certain that the savages in this province (ex- cepting at Esopus and below that place, on the river) were disposed to be friendly towards the Dutch, as those of New England were correspondingly hostile to the English-speak- ing settlers in that region.

It is not known what soldiers were furnished by this part of Albany county for the French war, but several officers in that conflict had their homes here, among the most prominent of whom was Henry Van Schaack, who served under Sir William Johnson in the expedition against Crown Point, in 1775, being at that time a lieutenant in the com- pany which was commanded by Captain (afterwards Major- General) Philip Schuyler. In the campaign against Niagara he was major, and in both these campaigns he gained great credit for soldierly qualities, and was favorably mentioned by Sir William, in general orders, for his part in the battle of Sept. 8, 1755, at Lake George. His father, Cornelius Van Schaack, served as colonel in the same war.

THE REVOLUTION.

In the revolutionary struggle for independence an earnest and patriotic part was taken by the inhabitants of this por- tion of Albany county.

They heard, as from afar off, the mutterings of discon- tent which arose at the passage of the Stamp Aet of 1764, and the more ominous growling of incipient rebellion, occasioned by the Boston massacre and the forced importa- tion of tea; a growling which deepened into the unmis- takable roar of revolution as it rolled across the country from the barren old Lexington common and from the steep sides of Bunker Hill. Then the patriotic flame burst forth and spread through all the colonies, and it burned as brightly here upon the shore of the Hudson and along the slopes of the Taghkanics as it did on the plain of Benning- ton or the banks of the Brandywine, though here are no historic battle-fields, and the soil has never been pressed by the foot of the invader .*

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History of Columbia County, New York. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 6

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