USA > New York > Delaware County > History of Delaware County, and border wars of New York, containing a sketch of the early settlements in the county > Part 8
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weapon, in attempting to free it from the skull of the savage. The first one struck by Cowley was killed, but the blows which sent two to their final reckonings, awoke their fellows, who instantly sprang to their feet. As Seth Henry arose he re- ceived a blow, which he partially warded off by raising his arm, but his shoulder was laid open, and he fell back stunned. The fourth, as he arose, received a heavy blow on his back ; he was pursued and fled into a swamp near by, where he died. The two men returned to the fire, and were resolving on what 1 course to pursue, when Seth Henry, who had recovered, and . feigned himself dead for some time to embrace a favorable opportunity, sprang upon his feet, dashed through the fire, caught up his rifle, levelled and snapped it at his foes, then ran into the forest and disappeared .- Simms' History of Schoharie.
The liberated captives were now masters of the bloody field, and once more free ; but after such an exciting scene, no sleep came to their eyes during the remainder of the night. Their first precaution was to arm themselves with the implements of their fallen foes. They took each a gun, a tomahawk and a scalping-knife, together with all the remaining ammunition, and thus equipped, they anxiously awaited the approach of day. At last the luminous orb raised his head from behind the eastern hills, and its rays peering through the overhanging branches of the forest trees, revealed to their eyes more fully the reality of the sad spectacle, and gave the signal for the commencement of their march.
They conjectured, and with truth, that the escaped savage would communicate the fearful tidings of the massacre of his comrades to the nearest Indians, and, that they would be im- mediately pursued. Deeming it unsafe, therefore, to follow the same trail they had lately passed over, they boldly struck out into the forest in a south-easterly direction, knowing that sooner or later, that course would lead to the settlements of the 8
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whites. They had not proceeded many miles on their jour- ney when the sound of the piercing "war-whoop" saluted their ears, and once during that afternoon, from an elevation they descried a company of Indians in the valley below. They encamped at night without food and without any fire, lest its glaring light should betoken to their foes the place of their concealment-they secreted themselves by crawling under the side of a huge bass-wood tree, which had been blown down, · and covered themselves with leaves, which effectually con- cealed their persons from observation. They had been in this situation but a short time, when an Indian approached and seated himself on the identical log beneath which they lay concealed, and immediately gave a piercing "whoop." The two friends deeming themselves discovered, now gave up all hopes of escape, and prepared to die. Immediately the savage. Indians, who had been scouting the woods in different direc- tions, assembled and seated themselves in a row on the log. They were ignorant of the substance of this Indian council, but heard one of the party, who spoke English in broken accents, propose to build a fire against the log and encamp for the night; but shortly after the party left, following the back track, having given up all hopes of finding them in that direction.
The next day they resumed their course, and the same afternoon Sawyer ventured to shoot a buck, a piece of which they immediately roasted to satisfy the urgent demands of hunger ; and at last, after several days' fatiguing travel, during which Cowley was at times light-headed, they emerged into a frontier settlement near Minisink, where they found friends, and procured assistance, as soon as sufficiently recovered, to return to Schoharie, where they were received with exclama- tions of joyful surprise.
From Schoharie, Cowley went to Albany with a letter to Governor Clinton, and obtained a company of forty men, who
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returned with him to the Delaware, to remove their families to a place of greater security. They removed first to Schoharie, thence to Albany, and afterward crossed the river to Green- bush, where they resided several years. About 1792, he came back to the Delaware near its source, and erected the first grist- mill on that stream, about a quarter of a mile below where the Catskill Turnpike crosses the Delaware. He also purchased a saw-mill situated about half a mile below Lake Ulsayantho. In 1794, he removed his family from Greenbush into a house which he had recently erected near his grist-mill, and where he resided till his death, which took place in 1797 .*
It is a prominent trait of Indian character, to measure out revenge for wrongs, whether real or imaginary : it is indeed a custom they venerate-a vital part of their religion; and many of the fatal examples on record of Indian barbarity and cruelty are attributable to this same source. And accordingly it is presumed that a party of Indians were sent out to revenge the lives of their three brethren who were sacrificed, as the price of Cowley and Sawyer's freedom. Shortly after the fami- lies of those men had been removed to Schoharie, a party of Indians came up the Delaware, and proceeding to near Hobart, followed up a small stream, the outlet of Odell's Lake, where they had been informed a whig by the name of McKee was living, but who had that day gone to Schoharie to learn the 1 news and procure some flour for his family.
It was a dark and dismal night when the war-whoop sounded the death-knell of the inhabitants of that peaceful dwelling. The members of the family rushed out of the house to escape, if possible, the certain doom which awaited them should they remain within. As Mrs. McKee rushed from the house with
* Simms' History gives the place of Cowley's death, as Albany, which is doubtless ascribable to the inaccuracy of his informant. Sawyer died many years afterward at Williamston, Mass.
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an infant in her arms, and attempted to reach an out-door cel- lar, she was shot down. The remainder of the family were butchered and thrown into the flames, with the exception of a girl about 16 years of age. She fled to a swamp near by and concealed her person under a log, and while she thought herself secure from all harm, she ventured to raise her head to look toward the burning buildings, when she saw an Indian of large stature approaching her, wielding a firebrand in one hand and a large knife, smeared with blood, in the other. She immediately sprang from her hiding-place, and with out- stretched arms approached the hideous savage and threw her- self at his feet. That bold act saved her life. She was led back by her captor to the burning buildings, and putting seve- ral pairs of stockings on her feet, they then resumed their course to Fort Niagara.
What must have been the agony, think you, reader, of the husband and father, when the next day he returned, to behold his happy home a heap of ruins, beneath which he found the charred and mangled remains of his family. There was at this time a small fort at Harpersfield, garrisoned by only eight or ten men. By their assistance he collected the remains of the dead, and buried them all in one rude box.
Priest, in his narrative of the captivity of Schermerhorn, and while speaking of his running the gauntlet near Fort Niagara, says : "This dreadful race was also run by a Miss Anne McKee, who was taken prisoner in the town of Harpersfield, New York, during the Revolution, by the Mowhawk Indians under Brant. She was a young Scotch girl, who, during the journey suffered incredibly from hunger, the want of clothes, and other priva- tions. When she came to Fort Niagara, the squaws insisted that she should run the race, in order that the pale-faced squaw might take a blow from the same sex of another nation than her's. It was a grievous sight to see a slender girl, weak from hunger, and worn down with the horrors and privations of
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a four hundred miles' journey through the woods, by night and day, compelled at the end to run this race of shame and suffer- ing. Her head was bare, and her hair tangled into mats, her feet naked and bleeding from wounds, all her clothes torn to rags during her march-one would have thought the heart- rending sight would have moved the savages. She wept not, for all her tears had been shed-she stared around upon the grin- ning multitude in hopeless amazement and fixed despair, while she glanced mournfully at the fort which lay at the end of the race. The signal was given, which was a yell, when she imme- diately started off as fast as she could, while the squaws laid on their whips with all their might; thus venting their malice and envy upon the hated white woman. She reached the fort in almost a dying condition, being beaten and cut in the most dreadful manner, as her person had been so much exposed on account of the want of clothing to protect her. She was at length allowed to go to her friends-some Scotch people then living in Canada-and after the war she returned to the States."
The startling massacres that had been perpetrated the year before in the beautiful and peaceful valley of Wyoming and at Cherry Valley, as well as the almost numberless tragedies similar to the one related above-hardly a week passing but the ears of the public were startled by the tale of cruel murder committed upon the peaceful frontier settler-these, and other important considerations, at last induced Congress to send a sufficient army into their territory to at least cripple the movements of the enemy in future, if not to bring them to terms of peace. The command of this expedition was entrusted to Major General Sullivan. More effectually to carry out the designs of Congress, and to prevent any premature attacks, by clearing the country of the numer- ous parties of savages who were continually prowling in the secure recesses of the forest bordering on the frontiers, ready to spring out when a favorable opportunity presented itself, 8*
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and surprise and capture their victims, and thereby to restore the faltering confidence of the settlers along the frontiers, it was determined to march in two divisions, and unite in the midst of the Indian territory at Tioga Point.
General Sullivan, who commanded the southern division, marched from the Hudson through Warwarsing, in Ulster County, crossing the Delaware, and following it down to Easton, and from thence, by a tedious route across the mountains, to Wyoming, then a desolate and deserted place. From Wyo- ming they conveyed their artillery and stores up the Susque- hanna in 150 batteaux to Tioga Point, where they disembarked their baggage, and awaited the arrival of the division under Clinton, which did not come up with them until nearly half a month afterwards.
Gen. James Clinton, with the 1st and 3rd New York regi- ments, passed up the Mohawk to Canajoharie, from which place a detachment of five hundred troops, under the command of Col. Van Schaick, was sent out to destroy some villages of the Onondagas. They took in this expedition 37 prisoners, and nearly as many were killed of the enemy .*
They were obliged to open a road from Canajoharie to Lake Otsego,¡ a distance of twenty miles, for the conveyance of their baggage, at which place they launched their boats upon the placid waters of that beautiful lake, and passed to its out-
* Annals of Tryon County.
The word Otsego is thought to be a compound which conveys the idea of a spot at which the meetings of the Indians are held. There is a small rock near the outlet of the lake called the " Otsego Rock," at which precise point the savages, according to an early tradition of the county, were accustomed to give each other the rendezvous. In confirmation of these traditions, arrow-heads, stone hatchets, and other memorials of Indian usages, were found in great abundance by the first settlers in the vicinity of the village of Cooperstown .- Chronicles of Cooperstown.
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let, a distance of nine miles. The outlet of this lake proved a formidable obstacle to the egress of their loaded boats, as it was both too shallow and too narrow to permit them to pass out ; but the fertile genius of Clinton was equal to every emer- gency. He ordered a dam to be thrown across the outlet, and when the surface of the lake had risen about three feet, the dam was broken, and the boats passed down with apparent ease to the deeper waters of the Susquehanna. They joined the main army of Gen. Sullivan at Tioga Point, on the 22d of August. While awaiting the approach of Clinton, Gen. Sullivan had erected a fort, after whom it took its name, "Fort Sullivan."
Our limits, even were it directly our province, will not per- mit us to follow this army through the entire campaign. The subject has already been the theme of numerous historians,* orators and poets, who have bestowed upon it time and ardent labor-they wrote, too, when at least a precious few of the aged veterans of that campaign were yet survivors of its dangers and hardships-but who, now, after a lapse of over seventy years, have all been gathered to that " bourne from which no traveller returns,"-their tongues are lifeless and silent-their voices hushed -- and the countenances which would glow with animation when they dwelt upon those scenes, and in imagi- nation,
" Fought their battles o'er again,"
will be seen by us no more for ever. Suffice it to say that this expedition had the desired effect of crippling the future opera- tions of the Six Nations against the Colonies-but it did not entirely silence them, as will be seen from the perusal of the
* For more particular accounts of Sullivan's campaign, see Annals of Tryon County, Simms' History of Schoharie, Stine's Border Wars, Delafield's History of Seneca County, and also an interesting little volume entitled Sullivan's Revolutionary Campaign in Weston, N. Y.
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succeeding chapter, although its successful termination went far toward raising the desponding spirits of the whigs, and restoring their drooping confidence in the final success of our arms. .
One of the most exposed of the frontier settlements during the campaign of 1779, was Minisink, an ancient settlement on the Delaware River. Count Pulaski had been stationed there with an armed force until the February preceding, when he had been ordered to South Carolina, thus leaving the settle- ment without any defence. Of this fact the Indians were aware, and accordingly Brant, on the 20th of July, made a descent upon it with a large body-of Indians and tories.
An interesting and valuable work, entitled the " Pioneers of the Delaware," has afforded us the following interesting account of the attack and massacre of this settlement, and the battle of the Delaware, fought two days afterward .- " This attack was begun before day-light, and so silently and stealth- ily did the crafty Mohawk chief approach his victims, that several families were cut off before an alarm was made. The first intimation which the community received that the sav- ages were upon them was the discovery that several houses were in flames. Dismay and confusion seized upon those who had escaped the first onslaught. They were altogether unprepared to defend themselves. They were without leaders and scattered over a considerable area, although, it is to be presumed they were not altogether unarmed. The first move- ment many of them made was to flee to the woods with their wives and children, thus leaving the enemy to plunder them of their property, or destroy it, as they preferred .* A few of
* Brant made more than one descent upon Minisink. On the 13th of October, 1778, he invaded Peeupack, and the neighboring settle- ments, with about one hundred followers, and murdered several of the settlers. The alarm was given in time for most of the inhabitants of
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the inhabitants gathered into the block-houses, which were not assaulted.
James Swartwout, whose father and brothers were killed the preceding year, as stated in the note, again escaped nar- rowly. He was in a blacksmith's shop with a negro, when he discovered the Indians close at hand. He at once crept up the chimney of the shop, while the negro remained below, not fearing the savages, and knowing probably that they would not harm him. When the Indians entered they commenced throwing things about the premises and selecting such as they fancied. Finally, one of them went to the bellows and began to blow the fire at a rate which proved very uncomfortable to Swartwout, who was nearly strangled with the smoke and fumes of the burning charcoal, and had great difficulty in re- taining his place in the chimney. The Indian became weary of the sport after a little, or was induced by the negro to go at
flee to the block-houses, of which there were three; one known as . Fort Gumaer, another as Fort Dewitt, and the third as Fort Depuy. All who were caught out of the block-houses were murdered. They were pursued through fields and woods and shot or tomahawked. A young man named Swartwout, attempted to escape by swimming in the Neversink. Just as he gained the opposite side he was shot. Three of his brothers and his father were killed. One of the brothers reached a block-house near by and escaped. In Fort Gumaer there were but nine men, and the commander, whose name was Cuddeback, caused the women to put on men's clothes and parade around the fort with their husbands, sons and brothers, when the Indians first made their appearance and were at such a distance that they could not detect the ruse. The natives, in consequence of this stratagem, passed by the block- house at such a distance that the few shots which were fired at them were harmless. Fort Dewitt was not attacked, and the other fort was unoccupied.
Most of the barns in the neighborhood were burnt and the cattle driven off. It is probable that Count Pulaski was stationed there but a few weeks or months at most.
HISTORY OF
something else. After they had gone off, Swartwout came down from his uncomfortable quarters and escaped.
A man named Roolif Cuddeback was pursued some distance into the woods by an Indian, and found it impossible to out- strip his pursuer. When nearly overtaken, he stopped sud- denly, and the Indian hurled a tomahawk at him, which hit- ting a bush, missed its mark. Cuddeback at once grappled with the supple savage, and they had a furious battle with the weapons of nature. Both struggled for a knife which was in the Indian's belt, and which finally fell to the ground. Neither could safely stoop to pick it up, and so they resumed their struggle for life or death in the natural way. Cuddeback was the most athletic of the two; but the savage had besmeared his limbs and body with grease, so that he could slip from Cuddeback's hands whenever the latter laid hold of him. Cuddeback, however, gave the red-skin such a buffeting that, after a while he was glad to beat a retreat. It is said that he never recovered from the rough handling he received from the white man, but died subsequently from the injuries inflicted . by Cuddeback. The latter escaped.
Eager, in his history of Orange County, says, that "The sava- ges visited the school-house, and threatened to exterminate one generation of the settlers at a blow. Jeremiah Van Auken was the teacher, and they took him from the house, conveyed him about half a mile, and then killed him. Some of the boys in the school were cleft with the tomahawk, others fled to the woods for concealment from their bloody assailants, while the little girls stood by the slain body of their teacher, bewildered and horror-struck, not knowing their own fate, whether death or captivity. While they were standing in this pitiful condi- tion, a strong, muscular Indian suddenly came along, and with , a brush dashed some black paint across their aprons, bidding them "hold up the mark when they saw an Indian coming, and it would save them;" and with the yell of a savage
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plunged into the woods and disappeared. This was Brant, and the little daughters of the settlers were safe. The Indians, as they passed along and ran from place to place, saw the black mark, and left the children undisturbed. The happy thought, like a flash of lightning, entered the minds of these little sisters, and suggested that they could use the mark to save their brothers. The scattered boys were quickly assem- bled, and the girls threw their aprons over the clothes of the boys, and stamped the black impression upon their outer garments. They, in turn, held up the palladium of safety as the Indians passed and repassed ; and these children were thus saved from injury and death, to the unexpected joy of their parents."
Col. Stone, in his life of Brant, says :- " No sooner had the fugitives from Minisink arrived at Goshen with the intelligence, than Dr. Tustin, the colonel of the local militia, issued orders to the officers of his command to meet him at Minisink on the following day, with as many volunteers as they could raise. The order was promptly obeyed, and a body of one hundred and forty-nine men, including many of the principal men of the county, met their colonel at the designated rendezvous, at the time appointed. A council of war was held, to determine upon the expediency of a pursuit. Colonel Tustin was him- self opposed to the proposition with so feeble a command, and with the certainty, if they overtook the enemy, of being obliged to encounter an officer, combining, with his acknowledged prowess, so much of subtlety as characterized the movements of the Mohawk chief. His force, moreover, was supposed to be greatly superior to theirs in numbers, and to include many tories, as well acquainted with the country as themselves. The colonel therefore preferred waiting for the reinforcements, which would be sure to arrive, the more especially, as the vol- unteers already with him were but ill provided with arms and ammunition. Others, however, were for immediate pursuit;
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they affected to hold the Indians in contempt, insisted that they would not fight, and maintained that a re-capture of the plunder they had taken, would be an easy achievement. Town- meeting counsels in the conduct of war, are not always the wisest, as will appear in the sequel. The majority of Tustin's command were evidently determined to pursue the enemy, but their deliberations were cut short by Major Meeker, who mounted his horse, flourished his sword, and vauntingly called out, 'Let the brave men follow me, the cowards may stay behind !' It may readily be supposed that such an appeal to an excited multitude, would decide the question, as it did. The line of march was immediately taken up, and after pro- ceeding seventeen miles the same evening, they encamped for the night. On the morning of the 22nd, they were joined by a small reinforcement under Colonel Hathorn, of the Warwick regiment, who, as the senior of Col. Tustin, took the com- mand. When they had advanced a few miles to Half-way brook, they came upon the Indian encampment of the preced- ing night, and another council was held there. Colonels Hathorn, Tustin, and others, whose valor was governed by prudence, were opposed to advancing further, as the number of Indian fires and the extent of the ground they had occu- pied, removed all doubt as to the superiority of their numbers. A scene similar to that which had broken up the former coun- cil was acted at this place, and with the same result. The voice of prudence was compelled to yield to that of bravado."
It was the opinion of some of the officers, that the best way to attack the enemy was to fall upon them at night, while they were encamped and asleep. This project was discussed at the council, but was finally abandoned, because it was thought that in the confusion and uncertainty of a night attack, the Americans would be as apt to destroy each other as to kill the Indians.
" Captain Tyler, who had some knowledge of the woods,
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was sent forward at the head of a small scouting-party, to fol- . low the trail of the Indians, and to ascertain, if possible, their movements, since it was evident that they could not be far in advance. The captain had proceeded but a short distance be- fore he fell from the fire of an unseen enemy. This circum- stance occasioned considerable alarm, but the volunteers never- theless pressed eagerly forward, and it was not long before they emerged upon the hills of the Delaware, in full view of that river, upon the eastern bank of which, at the distance of three-fourths of a mile, the Indians were seen deliberately marching in the direction of a fording-place, near the mouth of the Lackawana. This discovery was made at about nine o'clock in the morning. The intention of Brant to cross at the fording-place was evident, and it was afterward ascertained that his booty had already been sent thither in advance.
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