History of Montgomery and Fulton counties, N.Y. : with illustrations and portraits of old pioneers and prominent residents, Part 20

Author: Beers, F.W., & co., New York, pub
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: New York : F.W. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 664

USA > New York > Fulton County > History of Montgomery and Fulton counties, N.Y. : with illustrations and portraits of old pioneers and prominent residents > Part 20
USA > New York > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery and Fulton counties, N.Y. : with illustrations and portraits of old pioneers and prominent residents > Part 20

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A young Johnstown patriot named William Scarborough, who was among the garrison at the fort at the time of this action, left it with another soldier named Crosset, to join Willett's force. They fell in with the enemy on the way, and Crosset, after shooting one or two of the latter, was him- self killed. Scarborough was surrounded and captured hy a company of Highlanders under Capt. McDonald, formerly living near Johnstown. Scarborough and the Scotch officer had been neighbors before the war, and had got into a political wrangle which resulted in a fight and the beating of the Highland chief. Henceforward he cherished a bitter hatred toward his adversary, and finding him now in his power, ordered him shot at once. His men refusing the butcherly office, MleDonald took it upon himself, and cut the prisoner to pieces with his sword.

McDonald was not the only one with whom Scarborough quarreled about the political situation. He once so abused an old man whom he met at a grist-mill in Johnstown that the miller called a number of soldiers from the fort to witness their comrade's conduct. They rebuked Scar- borough for misusing the poor old man, whereupon he turned his attention to them, and having provoked a fight, got a severe drubbing. A man named Yockum Follork, who lived in the neighborhood of Johnstown, and was killed at the battle near the Hall, "was found with a piece of meat placed at his mouth, as supposed, by the Indians in derision." Be- side these incidents connected with the engagement, Mr. Simms relates the following:

"In the Revolution a hedge fence ran eastward from Johnson Hall, and the men under Willett were upon one side of it and those under Ross the other. After a few shots the Americans retreated in confusion, but were rallied, returned to the field, and acting in concert with troops in the

enemy's rear, gained a signal victory. When the Americans first retreated, Wagner [Joseph, who told the story, ] was the last man to leave the ground. Seeing an officer genteelly clad spring over the fence near, he fired and brought him down. In an instant a hundred guns were leveled at his own person, and he fled in safety amid their discharge. After the battle was over and Willett's men had encamped, Wagner, attended by several of his friends, visited the field to learn the fate of the handsome officer he had fired at. He found him on the ground near where he had fallen and ad- dressed him much as follows: 'My dear sir, I am the man who shot you in the afternoon, but I have a fellow feeling for you; permit me and 1 will take you to our camp, where you shall receive kind treatment and good care.' 'I would rather die on this spot,' was his emphatic reply, 'than leave it with a d-d rebel "' The young officer, who was very good-look- ing, with long black hair, was left to his fate. By dawn of day the Ameri- cans were put in motion, and Wagner saw no more of the warrior named; but on the approach of several Oneidas in the morning, he observed in the hands of one a scalp, the hair of which resembled that of his.

"Capt. Andrew Fink, a native of the Mohawk valley, who possessed a spirit suited for the times, was also in the Johnstown battle. * * * During the action near the Hall the British took from the Americans a field-piece, which Col. Willett was anxious to recover. He sent Capt. Fink with a party of volunteers to reconnoitre the enemy, and if possible get the lost cannon. Three of the volunteers were Christian and Myndert Fink, brothers of the Captain, and George Stansell. While observing the move- ment of the enemy from the covert of a fallen tree, Stansell was shot down beside his brave leader, with a bullet through his lungs, and was borne from the woods by Hanyost Fink. Strengthening his party of volunteers, Capt. Fink again entered the forest, soon after which he picked up a British knapsack containing a bottle of French brandy and a cocked hat. The cannon was soon after recaptured, and it being near night Willett drew off his men and quartered them in the old Episcopal church in Johnstown, gaining entrance by breaking in a window.

"Most of the Scotch settlers in and around Johnstown either went to Canada with the Johnsons at the beginning of difficulties, or if they re- mained were more the friends of the British than the American govern- ment. Duncan McGregor, who resided several miles north of Johnson Hall, was an exception. At the time of Ross' invasion several Indians and a tory entered this pioneer's house in the evening, who left it as they were approaching, unobserved by them. He gained the rear of his log dwelling. and through a cranny, watched the motions of the party. He was armed with a gun and a sword, and resolved if any injury or insult was offered to his wife, to shoot the offender and flee to the woods. Mrs. McGregor detected a tory in one of the party by observing his white skin, where the paint had worn off. This white Indian inquired of her if she could not give them something to eat. She replied that she had some johnny-cake and milk. 'That will do,' said he, and soon they were eating. As they rose from the table one of them espied a handsomely-painted chest in one corner of the room, and asked what it contained 'It contains books,' said she, 'and other articles belonging to a relative in Albany.' 'Ah,' said the speaker, 'he belongs to the rebel army, I suppose ?' She replied that he did, and her countenance indicated no little anxiety as he exclaimed, with a menacing gesture. 'Be careful you do not deceive us !' One of the in- truders with a tomahawk instantly split the cover, and the books and sun- dry articles of clothing were thrown upon the floor. The clothing was added to their stock of plunder, and soon after the warriors departed."

The morning after the battle, Colonel Willett started in pursuit of the invaders, halting at Stone Arabia, and sending forward a detachment, with orders to proceed by forced marches to Oneida Lake and destroy the enemys boats, which he was informed had been left there. Willett remain- ed for a day at Stone Arabia, thinking the guerrillas might attempt to plunder that neighborhood, and then renewed the pursuit, meeting on the way his advanced party returning from Oneida Lake, without having accom- plished anything. The enemy, having taken the direction of west Canada Creek, Col. Willett followed them thither, his force being increased by the arrival of about sixty Oneida warriors and some white troops. Several of the maranders were killed, and others captured in skirmishes with their rear guard before the creek was reached. Having crossed the stream, Wal- ter Butler tried to rally his followers and contest the passage of the Ameri- cans. While thus engaged he was recognized and shot down by an Oneida Indian, His men thereupon fled, and the Oneida marksmen crossing the creek with tomahawk and scalping knife, made a fitting end of the blood-

ROSS AND BUTLER'S RAID-PERFIDIOUS TORIES.

thirsty tory who directed the Cherry Valley massacre.

The pursuit was shortly after relinquished, and Col. Willett returned to Fort Dayton, having lost but one man since the Johnstown engage- ment, while the loss of the enemy in their flight was considerable. Col. Willett, reporting to Governor Clinton said, that the number of British and savages killed in the several encounters, "the fields of Johnstown, the brooks and rivers, the hills and mountains, the deep and gloomy marshes through which they had to pass, they alone can tell, and perhaps the officer who detached them on the expedition."

The body of Butler was left unburied where he fell. He was one of the greatest scourges of his native county. Of him, Lossing thus speaks : " Tender charity may seek to cloak his crimes with the plea that par- tisan warfare justified his deeds ; and lapse of time, which mellows such crimson tints in the picture of a man's character, may temper the asperity with which a shocked humanity views his conduct ; yet a just judgment founded upon observation of his brief career, must pronounce it a stain upon the generation in which he lived."

CHAPTER XV.

PEACE ON THE MOHAWK-RESULTS OF THE WAR-THE NAMING AND SUCCESSIVE BOUNDARIES OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

The foray of Ross and Butler was the last serious incursion that afflicted the Mohawk valley during the Revolution. The unhappy inhabitants were not, however, permitted to relax their anxious vigilance, for small scalping parties still hovered about the more exposed settlements. As. late as the summer of 1782, a band of seven Indians came down through the northern wilderness to kill or capture any prominent whigs they might be able to surprise. Henry Stoner's name was mentioned to them by Andreas Bow- man, a tory, living east of Johnstown, and taking Bowman with them, os- tensibly as a prisoner, but really as a guide. the savages repaired to Stoner's place, at Fonda's Bush. The old patriot was hoeing corn when the Indians were discovered by him, and he tried to reach his house where his rifle was kept ; but he was overtaken, and in his defenceless condition fell an easy prey to the tomahawk. Securing his scalp the savages went to his house, which they plundered and burned. Mrs. Stoner escaped injury, and saved one of her dresses by throwing it from a window. The house having been destroyed, she sought shelter at that of a neighbor named Harman. He with several others went to Stoner's farm, and searching the fields, found the owner still alive, though near death. On taking a draught of water he expired. The Indians had taken prisoners Stoner's nephew, Michael Reed, and a man named Palmatier. The former, a mere lad, was taken to Canada, where he became a drummer for Butler's Rangers, but Palmatier escaped the first night after his capture. On his return to his friends he reported the course of Bowman, who had also returned after helping the savages carry off their plunder to a hiding place near the Sa- condaga. The tory was seized and thrown into the Johnstown jail. There he was visited by a party of whigs, who by way of making him confess his share in Stoner's murder, hung him by the neck for a very brief period. Nothing was learned from him, however, and after some em- phatic warnings, he was released. How Stoner's famous son Nicholas, the trapper, avenged his father's death, is narrated on another page.

Reference having been made to the Johnstown jail, another affair with which it was connected may be here related. Among the tory refugees in Canada was John Helmer, a son of Philip Helmer, who lived at Fonda's Bush. Having returned to that settlement, he was arrested and imprisoned at Johnstown. The sentinel at the jail one day allowed Helmer to take his gun in hand to look at, as the prisoner seemed much pleased with it. The inevitable consequence is thus stated by Mr. Simms : "The piece had hardly passed out of the young guard's possession ere his authority was set at defiance, and its new owner took it to a place nf retirement to inspect its merits, which were not fully decided upon until he had safely arrived in Canada." Helmer had gotten off so easily that he was em- boldened to venture again into the neighborhood of his home on a recruit- ing mission. His presence becoming known, he was captured by Benja- min De Line, Solomann Woodworth and Henry Shew, and committed to the Johnstown jail. Fortunately for the venturesome tory, a sister of his had a lover among the garrison stationed at the jail, which was then also a fort ; and he, more true to his sweetheart than to his country, not only released Helmer, but together with another soldier, set out with him for

Canada. Swift justice fell upon the deserters, who were both shot dead by a pursuing party. Helmer, severely wounded by a bayonet thrust, escaped for a time, but being subsequently found half dead in the woods, was returned once more to the jail. His wound having healed he again escaped, and this time reached Canada, having undergone almost incredi- ble sufferings, which he related in an interview with Nicholas Stoner, who met him after the war in Canada, where he remained.

We have said that the raid of Ross and Butler was the last serious in- vasion of the Mohawk valley. There was little left to tempt further in- cursions. The patriots of Tryon county had passed through a terrible ordeal. Those who now live in peace and plenty on the lands once so often trodden by relentless foes, cannot comprehend the sufferings of their forefathers, and their brave and patient endurance. Especially diffi- cult would it be to realize the amount of painful anxiety, hardship and self-denial, to which the wives and daughters of the Revolutionary heroes were subjected, while fathers, husbands; and brothers were away fighting for their country's freedom. All through the long struggle the lives of these brave women were made burdensome by incessant toil and watching. Not only had they household duties to perform, but it fell to their lot to cultivate the farms for their subsistence. The slow and toilsome reaping with the sickle having been accomplished, and the grain garnered, they had to carry it miles, often on foot, to mill, exposed to the attack of the wily Indian or the treacherous tory ; or if the mill was too distant, had to pound the grain in a wooden mortar at home. Those who had live stock were under the necessity of watching it night and day. The housewife and daughters had to weave the cloth from which the garments of their family were made, for few could afford to buy, even had well stocked stores been always at hand. But severe toil was a less hardship than the con- stant exposure to being attacked by the Indians, which made it part of their daily work to be on the look-out for the lurking foe, familiar with all the footpaths and liable to appear when least expected, seldom sparing the innocent and helpless. but leaving blood and flame as the evidence of his stealthy visit. The terrible experiences of the Revolution were impartially shared by the wives and daughters of the patriot soldiers, and their trials and endurance can never be fully portrayed.

Toward the close of the war, Col. Willett sent to Gen. Washington a lengthy statement of the condition of affairs in Tryon county, from which it appears that, whereas at the opening of the struggle the enrolled militia of the county numbered not less than 2,500, there were then not more than 800 men liable to bear arms, and not more than 1,200 who could be taxed or assessed for the raising of men for the public service. To account for so large a reduction of the population, it was estimated that one-third had been killed or made prisoners ; one-third had gone over to the enemy ; and one-third for the time being had abandoned the country. No other part of America of the same extent had suffered so much; no where else had the patriot population been so nearly at the mercy of the Indians and tories. Overrun again and again by savage hordes bent on murder, booty and ruin, this region presented at the close of the war a heart-sickening desolation.

The sufferings of the unfortunate inhabitants of the Mohawk valley were the measure of the delight with which they hailed the return of peace. The dispersed population returned to the blackened ruins of their former hab- itations, rebuilt their houses and again brought their farms under cultiva- tion. With astonishing audacity the tories now began to sneak back and claim place and property among those whom they had impoverished and bereaved. It was not to be expected that this would be tolerated. The outraged feelings of the community found the following expression at a meeting of the principal inhabitants of the Mohawk district, May 9, 1783:

"Taking into consideration the peculiar circumstances of this county relating to its situation, and the numbers that joined the enemy from among us, whose brutal harbarities in their frequent visits to their old neighbors are too shocking to humanity to relate:

"They have murdered the peaceful husbandman, and his lovely boys about him unarmed and defenceless in the field. They have, with a ma- licious pleasure, butchered the aged and infirm; they have wantonly sport- ed with the lives of helpless women and children, numbers they have scalped alive, shut them up in their houses and burnt them to death. Sev- eral children, by the vigilance of their friends, have been snatched from flaming buildings; and though tomahawked and scalped, are still living among us; they have made more than three hundred widows and above two thousand orphans in this county; they have killed thousands of cattle

THE HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

and horses that rotted in the field; they have burnt more than two millions of bushels of grain, many hundreds of buildings, and vast stores of forage; and now these merciless fiends are creeping in among us again to claim the privilege of fellow-citizens, and demand a restitution of their forfeited estates; but can they leave their infernal tempers behind them and be safe or peaceable neighbors ? Or can the disconsolate widow and the bereaved mother reconcile her tender feelings to a free and cheerful neighborhood with those who so inhumanly made her such ? Impossible! It is con- trary to nature, the first principle of which is self-preservation. It is con- trary to the law of nations, especially that nation which, for numberless reasons, we should be thought to pattern after; since the accession of the House of Hanover to the British throne five hundred and twenty peerages in Scotland have been sunk, the peers executed or fled, and their estates confiscated to the crown for adhering to their former administration after a new one was established by law. It is contrary to the eternal rule of reason and rectitude. If Britain employed them, let Britain pay them. We will not; therefore,

" RESOLVED, unanimously, that all those who have gone off to the enemy or have been banished by any law of this State, or those, who we shall find, tarried as spies or tools of the enemy, and encouraged and harbored those who went away, shall not live in this district on any pretence whatever; and as for those who have washed their faces from Indian paint and their bands from the innocent blood of our dear ones, and have returned, either openly or covertly, we hereby warn them to leave this district before the twentieth of June next, or they may expect to feel the just resentment of an injured and determined people.

"We likewise unanimously desire our brethren in the other districts in this county to join with us to instruct our representatives not to consent to the repealing any laws made for the safety of the State against treason, or confiscation of traitor's estates, or to passing any new acts for the re- turn or restitution of tories.

" By order of the meeting, " JOSIAH THROOP, Chairman."

In the treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States no provisions were made by the former power in behalf of its Indian allies. At the beginning of the war the Mohawks were still in possession of a large extent of territory, and were induced to abandon it and take up the hatchet for the king, under a promise from the Governor of Canada that when the contest was over they should be restored to the same position as before it at the expense of the English government. The extinction of the British power throughout most of the country was not dreamed of. Such being the result of the war, the Mohawks could have no more hope of regaining their lands than the tories with whom they had fought, and scalped, and plundered and burned. At their urgent solicitation, a tract of land in Canada was finally granted to them, and such others of the Six Nations as chose to remove to it. The Oneidas and Tuscaroras, having remained friendly to the Americans, were secured in the possession of their lands. All the other members of the confederacy having taken up the hatchet against the United States, night, as conquered peoples, have them dispos- sessed, and driven over the established boundary into the domains of their British employers; but after considerable negotiation the United ' States gave them peace on their relinquishing a large share of their terri- tory.

During the Revolution, the English official in honor of whom Tryon county was named rendered his name ochous by a series of infamous acts in the service of the Crown ; and the Legislature on the end of April, 1784, voted thit the county should be called MosteustRy, in honor of General Richard Montgomery, who fell in the attack on Quebec, early in the war. At the beginning of the Revolution, the population of the county was estimated at about ten thousand At the close of the war it had probably been reduced to one third ot that number, but so inviting were the fertile land, of the county that in three years after the return of peace 1786 it had a population of fifteen thousand.

The boundaries of the several counties in the State were more minutehy defined, March 7. 1788, and Montgomery was declared to contam all that part of the State bounded east by the counties of Ulster, Albany, Wash- ington and ('linton, and south by the State of Pennsylvania. What had been districts in Tryon county were, with the exception of Old England. made towns of Montgomery county, the Mohawk district forming two towns, Caughnawaga, north of the river, and Mohawk south of it. The Palatine originally, Stone Arabit , and Canajoharie districts were organized as towns, retaining those names.

The war of the Revolution had made the people of the other States familiar with New York. Sullivan's campaign, in particular, had revealed the fertility of the western part of the State, and a tide of emigration thither set in at the close of the war. This led to the formation from Montgomery, January 27, 1789, of Ontario county, which originally included all of the State west of a line running due north from the "82nd mile- stone " on the Pennsylvania boundary, through Seneca Lake to Sodus Bay on Lake Ontario. On the 16th of February, 1791, the county of Mont- gomery was still further reduced by the formation of Tioga, Otsego and Herkimer. The latter joined Montgomery on the north as well as the west, the present east and west line between Fulton and Hamilton, con- tinued westward, being part of their common boundary, and another part of it a line running north and south from Little Falls, and intersecting the former "at a place called Jersey-fields." Of the region thus taken from Montgomery county on the north, the present territory of Hamilton was restored in 1797, only to be set apart under its present name, February 12, 1816. April 7, 1817, the western boundary of Montgomery was moved eastward from the meridian of Little Falls to East Canada Creek and a line running south from its mouth, where it remains. The line between Montgomery and Schenectady has always been part of the boundary of the former, having originally separated it from Albany county. The form- ation of Otsego county, February 16, 1791, established the line which now separates it and Schoharie from Montgomery. The latter took its northern boundary and entire present outline on the formation of Fulton county, in 1838.

CHAPTER XVI.

IMMIGRATION FROM NEW ENGLAND-PIONEER LIFE-NEW ROADS AND BRIDGES -- STAGING ON THE MOHAWK TURNPIKE.

Prior to the Revolution, the inhabitants of the Mohawk valley, as has been seen, were for the most part the Germans, who came over from the Palatinate, and the Dutch, who tardily extended their settlements westward from Schenectady, together with some Scotch and Irish. But after that eventful period, people from New England, no less industrious and enter- prising, came flocking in and took possession of the confiscated lands of the tories, ohtaining their title from the State, or pushing into the unbroken wilderness, brought new farms into cultivation.

Now pioneer life was lived on a larger scale. The settlers' log cabins more thickly dotted the wilderness, and the clearings about them en- croached more rapidly upon the surrounding forests. Everywhere was heard the ring of the woodman's axe and seen the smoke from whirlwind- of flame that were consuming the trees earlier felled and dry enough to burn. The first burning, which destroyed limbs and boughs, left the ground strewn with blackened trunks. To pile these together so that another firing would consume them was the rough and dirty job of " log- ging up." It was largely done by "bees," to which the willing-hearted ind ready-handed frontiersmen rallied in numbers adequate to the heavy work to be done. Severe as that was, an afternoon at it left the young men with vim enough for a wrestling match, after they had rested long enough to devour the generous supper with which the housewife feasted them.

The grain grown on the fields thus laboriously cleared was threshed with the flail or by driving horses over it, and winnowed by dropping it through a natural draft of air instead of the artificial blast of the fanning mill. When ready for market it was mostly drawn to Albany, some three days being required for the journey. Rude lumber wagons or ov-cart -. or wood-shod sleighs, were the common vehicles for all occasions.

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History of Montgomery and Fulton counties, N.Y. : with illustrations and portraits of old pioneers and prominent residents, Part 20

Author: Beers, F.W., & co., New York, pub Publication date: 1878 Publisher: New York : F.W. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 664

Author: Beers, F.W., & co., New York, pub
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: New York : F.W. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 664