History of Montgomery and Fulton counties, N.Y. : with illustrations and portraits of old pioneers and prominent residents, Part 46

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 46
USA > New York > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery and Fulton counties, N.Y. : with illustrations and portraits of old pioneers and prominent residents > Part 46

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Another Revolutionary veteran, once resident in this town, to which he came in 1784, was Ralph Schenck. He took part in the battle of Mon- mouth, shooting a British trooper who charged on him and riding away with his horse. In his eighty-first year he went to New Jersey, to obtain support for his daim to a pension, which he was enabled to do by accident- ally meeting with the captain under whom he served.

One of the original German inhabitants was Michael Stollers, who, on

coming to this country, settled on the farm now occupied by his grandson, John R. Stollers, who was born on the place in 1812.

Henry Coolman, grandfather of Peter Coolman, was another Geraimn immigrant, and was also a patriot soldier in the Revolution. At the dish .. trous Stone Arabia fight, in which Col. Brown was killed, Mr. Coolman shot one of the Indians who pursued the retreating provincials, and his grandson has the musket with which it was done.

Another of the German pioneers was Richard Schuyler, who settled in 1817 on the farm where his son, Thomas, who was born in the town of Florida in 1815, has lived since the former date.

John and Vit tor Putman were early settlers at Tribes Hill, where the latter died at the age of ninety-seven, a veteran of the Revolution. There Fisher Putman was born in 1793. learning the harnessmakers' trade, he went, while a young man, to Sackett's Harbor to sell some of his product He arrived there in time to be drafted for the defence of the port, then threatened by the British. He died at Tribes Hill in 1870, where he had been postmaster since 1831. He had collected many valuable relics of the Revolutionary period, which were unfortunately lost by the burning of the house the year after his death. His son, G. F. Putman, now a resident of Fonda, has a cannon used on a hill near that place at a gathering in 1776, which celebrated the Declaration of Independence.

REVOLUTIONARY EVENTS.

This town was the theatre of many stirring events during the war for independence, but some of them were so connected with movements of a more general character that it has been necessary to mention them in the history of the county at large, while others are inseparably associated with the family histories given herewith.

The affair in which Jacob Sammons received the first wounds in the great struggle in the Mohawk valley, when the Johnson party resisted the raising of a liberty pole at Caughnawaga, has thus been related elsewhere, but the exact scene of the encounter was not there given and may here be pointed out. It was for a long time forgotten and unknown, but has re- cently been identified by Mrs. Elizabeth Foster, a daughter of Jacob Sam- mons, and grand-daughter of Johannes Veeder. It was at the latter's mill that the patriot gathering occurred. The building was a heavily-timbered structure, and served during the war as a block-house. It stood on ground now partly covered by the Central Railroad tracks, and about opposite the carriage shop of Wood & Peek. The water that worked it was taken from the creek on its western side, some distance above the bridge, and con- veyed in a covered raceway along the base of the hill, partly on the line ot the Fonda, Johnstown and Gloversville Railroad, passing under the wagon road where the carriage shop referred to stands, and reappearing in an open Alume below. This was, doubtless, the building referred to in the following " order for Flour on Mr. Veader, block House:"

"FORT HUNTER, OUtr 16th 1781 "Stk: Yesterday, when I was at your house, you mentioned that ! might have some more Flour, but I neglected to enquire whether it was bolted or not; if it be not, let it be done as soon as possible, to the amount of four barrels if you can spare so mich, which I shall send barrels to put a in, or if you can send it in baggs, you would much oblige

" Sir, yours,

"THU' LINUSAS "Send me an answer as soon as possible if not the Flour "Mr. VrAUFk "

The skirmish that grew out of the pole-raising occurred in the spring .! 1775. In the autumn of that year, Frederick Visscher, who had inen commissioned colonel by Congress, assembled his regiment for training near Peggy Wempde's tavern at Caughnawaga. Sir John and Lady Johr .. son, riding through the village, found what was going on, and the Baronet had his carriage driven to the spot. On reaching it, he alighted and inr. quired of the colonel why he had called the regiment together. Being told that they were gathered for parade and review, he directed them to di- perse. The colonel ordered them to keep their ranks, and Sir John, eu- raged at this contempt for his assumed authority, raised a heavy sword- cane to strike him. Visst her grasped the cane, and a struggle ensued, m which the sword was drawn, the colonel holding the scabbard. Johnson threatened to stab him, and was tokt to act his pleasure. Gaining nothing by this attempt at intimidation, he stepped to his carriage, and procuring

137

MOHAWK IN THE REVOLUTION-OLD CAUGHNAWAGA.

his pistols, demanded the dismissal of the rebel regiment, threatening to shoot the colonel if he did not so order. The latter again told the irate Baronet to act his pleasure. He might have executed his threat had not a young frishman in Visscher's command sung out: " If ye offer to lift a finger against my master, I'll blow ye through!" The tory, wrathy but helpless, could only mount his carriage and ride away. Incidents like this, occurring before assemblies of citizens and soldiers, taught them to defy the representatives of British power, and nerved them for endurance and achievement not surpassed in the thirteen colonies by an equal population.

Col. Visscher was at Albany in 1777 when a boat load of American soldiers, wounded at Bemis Heights, arrived from Stillwater. With them were the drummer boy Nicholas Stoner, afterward the famous trapper, and Peter Conyne, who lived near Caughnawaga. The latter and Peter Graff, from the same town, were teamsters with Gates' armny, but followed Arnold in his impetuous attack on the enemy's camp, in which Conyne was wound- ed. The colonel being on his way home, took young Stoner with him, and thence so Johnstown. Stoner lived with the Visschers during part of the war, when about fourteen or fifteen.

Among the early settlers of the town was John Butler, who, with his son Walter, the former as colonel and the latter as captain in the British service. won such an infamous notoriety in the guerilla warfare waged against the noncombatants of the Mohawk valley during the Revolution. The Butler house is still standing, being now owned by Mr. Henry Wilson, and is believed to be the oldest building in the town, having been ere ced, it is thought, about the same time as Johnson Hall and the Caughnawaga church. Its site is a commanding position about a mile northeast of Fonda Though rather rudely, it is, as might be supposed, very strongly built, being heavily timbere dwith oak. The walls, instead of being plastered, were ceiled with pine. The chimney bricks were imported. Butler was at the beginning of the war lieutenant-colonel of the battalion of Tryon county militia, of which Jelles Fonda was major. The disreputable character of his military operations during the Revolution made him always unpopular with the British regular officers, but he received from the crown a pension of $1,000 after the war, and the Indian superintendency, which had heen held by Guy Johason, and to which appertained a salary of $2,000. He spent his last years in Canada, where he died in 1800.

There was at Tribes Hill, during the Revolution, says G. F. Putman. a family of Indians, including five brothers. They took no active part in the war, but two of them were killed. The survivors, believing that Victor Putman was the slayer, resolved to have revenge on him. Meeting him at an ancient tavern a mile and a half west of Tribes Hill, they challenged him to wrestle, as he was famous at that sport. Fearing treachery, he re- fused, and they set upon him openly. He fled up stairs and hid behind a large chimney. One of the Indians followed, and while he was searching for Putman in the darkness, the latter escaped by a window. The In- dian who had followed him was killed when descending, by one of his brothers, who mistook him for Putman. On the following day, when the two warriors were about burying their dead brother, they seated themselves on a log, in which position they were both 'shot dead, and all three were buried in one grave.

Foremost among the heroines of the Revolution in this region was the widow Margaret (commonly called Peggy Wemple. She was a Fonda, and the patriots of that name had no reason to be ashamed of her. De- prived of her husband, Barney Wemple, in 1771, she was left with unusual cares and responsibilities, which she met with remarkable energy and hero- Isın. She kept an inn beside the creek on the old road to Johnstown, and opposite the site of Geo. F. Mills's house in Fonda, and also managed a Krist-mill, with the help of her boy Mina. Having occasion to go to the mill one winter evening during the Revolution, she was a little startled at finding herself confronted by an Indian, but was soon relieved hy discos- , ring that a was a dead one, told and stiff, placed in her way by some mis- · hievous persons to test her nerves.

Like all the patriots of the neighborhood, she suffered by the foray of Sir John Johnson in May, 1760. The Indians captured her boy, and shut- ting her up in her tavern, set fire to it. Her cries brought help and she was rescued. The boy Mina was released at Johnstown, and allowed to find his way back to Caughnawaga. Mrs. Wemple's house was destroyed. and probably her mill, but undismayed she built again, and in the winter of 1780-1, she ground and bolted 2,700 skipples 2.025 bushels of whent at the order of the Tryon county committee, for the use of the colonial wildiers at Forts Ticonderoga, Hunter, Plank, and Stanwix.

DUTCH CAUGHNAWAGA.

Before the Revolution a Dutch village had succeeded the Indian hamlet of Caughnawaga. It stood chiefly on the site of that part of Fonda east of the street leading to Fultonville, and extended in a rambling way from the hills at the foot of which stood the church and parsonage, down to the river. Douw Fonda, the founder of the branch of the Fonda family in prominent in this neighborhood from his day to the present, may be con- sidered the founder of this village also. The fair ground of the Mont- gomery County Agricultural Society, covers part of the site of old Caugh- nawaga, and when the ground was fenced and the race course was laid out and graded, some interesting relics of the old village were discovered Among them were the remains of persons buried in the ancient graveyard. which were removed to the modern one on the neighboring hills. Some, not interfered with by the necessary excavation and building, were left un- disturbed. Several wells, partly filled up, were found on the premises, and traces of the cellars of a number of the old Dutch houses, including that of Douw Fonda. This house is spoken of as " a large stone dwelling with wings," and served as an inn.

Douw Fonda came from Schenectady and settled at this point in the middle of the 18th century. The tombstone of his wife (which, with those of other members of the family, Major Giles Van Horne had remov. ed from the old graveyard on the fair ground bears the date 1756, and an epitaph in Dutch, and is believed to have been made in Holland. Douw Fonda is thus referred to in a letter from Colonel Glen to Sir William Johnson, dated "Schonectady, 23rd March. 1765:"

" Sir I have Received your favor last Night. I have this Morning Sent by Charley Breeson in Two Battoos seventeen Barrills of Pork and four Do of Flowir, for the use of the Indians. I have directed it to be Left at Mr. Dow Fonda at Cognawage as Soon as they Return I shall Send Them again, If you think four Battoo Load will not do I beg Please To let me know and I will Immedietly Send you more. I have acquainted Mr. Duncan of the Battoos Sent and will let him know when i send the others,"

The death of this venerable pioneer at the hand of one of Johnson's savages in 1780, has been mentioned. The details of the butchery have been preserved from oblivion by Mr. Simms, who makes the following statement :

" When the alarm first reached the family, Penelope Grant, a Scotch girl living with him, to whom the old gentleman was much attached, urged him to accompany her to the hill whither the Romeyn family were fleeing: but the old patriot had become childish, and seizing his gun, he exclaimed. ' Penelope, do you stay here with me-I will fight for you to the last drop of blood !' Finding persuasion of no avail, she left him to his fate, which was indeed a lamentable one ; for soon the enemy arrived, and he was led out by a Mohawk Indian known as One-armed Peter he having lost an arm) toward the bank of the river, where he was tomahawked and scalped. As he was led from the house he was observed by John Hansen, a prisoner, to have some kind of a hook and a cane in his hand. His murderer had often partaken of his hospitality, having lived for many years in his neighborhood. When afterward reproved for this murder, he replied that as it was the intention of the enemy to kill him, he thought he might as well get the bounty for his scalp as any one else. Mr. Fonda had long been a warm personal friend of Sir William Johnson, and it is said that Sir John much regretted his death and censured the murderer

* With the plunder made at Douw Fonda's, were four male slaves and one female, who were all taken to Canada."

The most prominent of the early members of the Fonda family was Jelles Gelles or Giles, born in 1727, one of the three sons of Donw Fonda, who, with their venerable father, vigorously espoused the cause ot the colonies at the opening of the Revolution. He was a very extensive landholder and trader, dealing chiefly with the Indians, but also supplying Forts Schuyler, Stanwix, Niagara and Schlosser, and the post at Oswego. To the savages he sold blankets, ammunition, trinkets and rum ; and his purchases consisted of Aour, ginseng and potash. Many of his papers are in the possession of his great-grandson, Major Giles Il F. Van Horne. Among these are faded and antique ledgers, displaying in a clear manner his business transactions. Before the Revolution his books showed debts in his favor equal to more than gro,ooo in the Indian country. In one of them may be found the following debit against Sir William Johnson, as the party responsible for the payment :

"To burying Sacorias [Zachariah], a Mohawk Inchan, i large blanket,

138

THE HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

a large shirt, 17 lbs. pork, z galings of rum, 17 lbs. flower The sachem spoke to me and said he was very poor, and that it wa- yuseful at a funnel of a grown person to have provisions."

This distinguished merchant's trade was carried on at the edge of the fats, a little below Caughnawaga, where he had a large store and residence At the opening of the Revolution he was building a house, ashery, and other structures, on the river, six miles farther west, which were finished in time to be burned, with nearly all the other buildings on the north bank of the river from the Nose to Tribes Hill, at the time of Sir John John- son's first descent on the valley. Fonda amassed great wealth by his mercantile operations, and possessed a corresponding influence in the community. His capital was to a considerable extent invested in lands. l'art of his large estate is now in the possession of the Van Hornes of Fonda.

Jelles Fonda was a lieutenant under General Johnson in the French wat . A picture of him in this connection is afforded by the following report to his superior, which is more amusing to the reader than it could have been to the writer:

"CAMP AT LAKE GEORGE 14 Octr 1755.

" A Report of the Scout under my Command being in number 1 Sergint and 12 Men-Agreeable to orders Came op first with the party Com- manded by Lut: Van Shaick who was on the return back to this Camp and asked the Reason why they returned so soon or why they had not proceded as an accident had happened to one of their men he sayd he was sick and unfit to proced on which I left him and Came up with the party Commanded by Capt" Syms, who was waiting for orders on which I then gave him the orders I Received from gen" Johnson Aid De Camp to March forward upon which all Excepting - Refused to proced and then I asked my party to go and take their Blanketts and provisions which they Denied Except with their own Officers and I then Called and said all vou that are Cowards Come and Ile take y' names Down and they Come so thick that I Could see But 10 or 12 Left of the whole party & they mostly Consisting of New Yorkers and then I asked the Commander what he woud do or whether he understood me that he was to go forward he said he believed he would Come back and so we returned to this Camp. "JELLES FONDA."

At the opening of the Revolution, Lieut. Fonda, rejecting attractive offers of service in the British army, promptly took up arms for the Col- onial cause, and during the war served as captain and afterward major of militia, having since been commonly spoken of by the latter title. In the autumn of 1779. he was in charge of Fort Paris during the temporary ah- sence of Col. Visscher, who commanded the post. A part of the garrison took this opportunity to mutiny and desert. Ignoring Capt. Fonda's order to remain, they left the fort. when that officer ordered the garrison to fire on them. This was done, and one of the mutineers, named Jacob Valen- tine, was mortally wounded. Capt. Fonda was court martialed for this affair, but was honorably acquitted.

In the darkest days of the war, when all the men in the valley liable to military service under ordinary circumstances were defending the outposts, and hardly hoping, with all they could do, to keep the savage enemy from their homes, the old men, who. in any other state of things would have been spared the toils and alarms ot war, were formed into companies to defend the women and children at points where they gathered for safety. One of the companies of exempts performing this highly important service was commanded by Capt. Fonda, himself now over fifty years of age. A record of the number of days each man served at various points in 1778 15 still preserved, and is appended:

Chas. H. Van F.pps, ensign 3 days with Lieut. Hansen.

13 at Bowman's Hill. (6 days at Caughnawaga. 3

Crownidge Kinkead. 3 " Johnstown. Cherry Valley. 9 " Johnstown. 4 1 5 days at Johnstown.

Henry Boshart 1 6 1779

George Shank. 6 days 1779 at Johnstown, with Lieut. Hansen.

1 7 days at Johnstown.

Cornelius . Van Alstine 4 4 days at Johnstown.

Stephen Manibout 7 14 " Cherry Valley.

John Hall. 7 days at Johnstown with Lieut. Han en.

Richard Collins 7 days at Johnstown.

9 days at Johnstown.

Matthew Van Dusen. I

Warning. ( 3 " at Cherry Valley.

7 days at Johnstown with Lieut. Hansen =

John Wilson. 9

Barent B. Wemple 3

14 ..

Jacob Kits. : 5 16

Evert Van Epps. 5 days at Johnstown with Lieut. Hansen

Sampson Sammons, ensign 7

" Sacondaga.

Cornelin- Smith. + " Bowman's Hill. 2

" Bowman's Hill.

" " Cherry Valley.

"Hendrick Wampil, 30 days at different times, at sundry places, agree able to the account."

" Johannes Nare, corporal at three different times, 14 days, Johnstown " Cornelius Putman, 7 days at Johnstown.

" John McDonal, says he has Bin out att all times."

" Jacob Shew, 13 days at Fort P'lank in Jolinger's place."

Jeremiah Crowley, 7 days at Johnstown, with Lieut. Hansen.

John Vechte,

( 7 days at Johnstown With Lieut. Hansen

John Huber

" Cherry Valley, with Capt. Fond. 7 days at Johnstown, with Lieut. Hansen. 7 13

Major Fonda, having become wealthy in trade, furnished his house mote elegantly than was the rule of the day. It supplied all the richer plunder to the Indians of Johnson's command, when they swept up from Tribe- Hill on that May morning which saw such deeds of blood and rapine alon- this part of the valley. The owner was fortunately absent from home, and his wife and his son Douw had warning in time to escape across the river The house was fired, and it is said that while it was burning, a music bus. connected with a clock in the building, began to play a tune. The savage, took the sound for the voice of a spirit, with more reason than the modern spiritists have for so interpreting a monotonous series of raps. Like the latter, the Indians put a favoralle construction upon the ghostly commun. cation. A mirror was the most prized of the booty here obtained, at les -! the most fought for among the plunderers

Major Fonda built, after the war, on the high ground in what is now the village of Fonda, the house at present occupied by Mr. Peter Lasher. H. was a judge of old Tryon county, and was a member of the Assembly at the time of his death, which occurred June 23, 1791. His sword is in the hand- of one of his great grand-children, Mr. Edward Schenck, of New York city.

Although the old village lay mainly to the eastward of what is now Fonda, there were buildings also on the site of the modern town. 1h. Veeder mill, on the Cayadutta, has been referred to. Alexander White, thi last sheriff under the crown, who so hastily vacated his office through the persuasions of a mob at Johnstown, lived on the site of the court-house. and John Fonda occupied the house after White's removal. Adam Fond. also lived near the creek Jacob Graff came from Hanover about 176 and settled as a farmer in what is now the village of Fonda. Here Peter Graff was born about 1763. He saw service during the Revolution, beim. present at the surrender of Burgoyne. He was afterward a farmer and gunsmith. His brother Philip belonged to the rangers mentioned in Stone's Life of Joseph Brant. Cornchus Smith and Johannes Veeder hoved a little west of the creek and near the river.

Conrad Cratsenberg. 7

= " Cherry Valley, with Capt. Fonda.

Adam Rupert. ! 7 days at Johnstown with Lieut. Hansen 7 = 2 days at Johnstown.

| 5 days at Johnstown.

Hendrick Fluperd - 6

139

THE OLD DUTCH CHURCH AT CAUGHNAWAGA.

THE OLD CAUGHNAWAGA CHURCH.

THE OLD CAUGRYAWAGA CHURCH.

The most interesting feature of old Caugh- nawaga remained up to 1868, namely, the Reformed Dutch church, the first built in the town and one of the first in the valley, it hav- ing been erected in 1763. We are enabled by the courtesy of Harper Brothers to present an engraving of the old church, which appear- ed in Lossing's " Field Book of the Revolu- tion," published by that eminent house. It stood on the western side of the lot on which stands the house of James Lansing Veeder. F.s.j., which was built about the beginning of this century, and was the parsonage up to 1842, succeeding the original one, which stood further back on the same lot. The church

was a massive stone building, about square, with a curh roof. On the north end stood agraceful little open belfry, with a bell-shaped canopy, supported by a circle of posts, and sending up from its apex a slender spire. This structure was added to the building in 1795, and in it was suspended what had been Sir William Johnson's dinner-bell, which weighed over one hundred pounds, and was among the confiscated property of Sir John. Two windows, arched at the top. admitted the light on each side. In the gable toward the road, close to the ridge of the roof, was a little circular opening in the wall, while half way down from this to the tops of the windows, were two oval ones, a trifle larger, inclined toward each other at about the same angle as the sides of the roof opposite them, after the fashion common in the ecclesiastical architecture of the age. The entrance was a double door in the middle of the eastern side, round-arched like the windows, but having the part within the arch closed up, the doors not ex- tending up to the keystone. Over the latter, and just below the eaves, was an oval tablet of stone, bearing. in Dutch, the inscription, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the 1.ord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths." The pulpit stood against the western wall, and a gallery ran around the other three. The church was seated with the square pews of the period, excepting a space at the north end where were placed benches for Indians and negroes. The pew at the left in entering is said to have been sometimes occupied by Sir William Johnson, who contributed liberally toward the erection of the building. In 1842 the church and parsonage, with the glebe of thirty acres, were turned over to the pastor, Rev. Jacob D. Fonda, in payment of $1,300 arrearage of salary. Two years later he sold the property to Rev. Douw Van O'Linda, with the condition that the society might redeem it for $1,300. The church was old-fashioned by this time. however ; the star of population was taking its way westward, toward where the court- house, the depot, and the great hotel had been built ; and the members of the society, who had built a new church in the fashionable quarter, never availed themselves of the privilege of recovering their ancient house of worship. Rev. Mr. Van O'Linda opened an academy in it in the latter part of 1844, with Jacob A. Hardenberg, a Rutgers graduate, as principal: but it was kept up only a year or two, and after it had been given up, the building was used as a dwelling. About 1860, it was bought by Henry Veeder. and in 1868 the old church, which Sir John Johnson's barbarians had spared, "was taken down, the stones being used for ordinary build- ing purposes." "It is said that people wept as they beheld the demolition of this sacred edifice, but as they had nothing better than tears to give, tears could not purchase back the property, and therefore it was gone forever."

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History of Montgomery and Fulton counties, N.Y. : with illustrations and portraits of old pioneers and prominent residents, Part 46

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