History of Rockland County, New York : with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Part 5

Author: Cole, David, 1822-1903, ed. cn; Beers, J. B., & co., New York, pub
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : J. B. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 993

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18. Epistilbite. Color, white, or yellowislı. This min- eral also occurs in the trap rock and greenstone of this county.

19. Apophyllite. So called from its exfoliating or sep- arating in scales before the blow pipe. Color, white, or grayish. At Piermont it occurs in the greenstone, but it has not hitherto been obtained in well defined crystals.

20. Prehnite. So called in honor of its discoverer, Colonel Prehn. Color, commonly green of various shades, Horsenclever iron mine, in the town of Haverstraw, fine but sometimes gray and white. This mineral occurs in rolled masses of greenstone, and is found in the form of thin plates, on that kind of rock, at Piermont.

21. Thomsonite. So called in honor of Doctor Thomas

HISTORY OF ROCKLAND COUNTY.

Thomson, of Glasgow. Color, when pure, snow-white, also brown, and yellowish. In the rifts of greenstone at Piermont there is a mineral which, in its external char- acter, closely resembles some varieties of Thomsonite.

22. Chabasite. Color, white, or grayish. It occurs in the primary form, associated with other trappean mine- rals, in thin veins in the greenstone at Piermont. It is not, however, very abundant.

23. Epidote. Erom a Greek word meaning "to in- crease." Color, green, of different shades, occasionally almost black. This mineral is found in small granular masses, associated with feldspar and actinolite, at Mon- tague's marble quarry, above Grassy Point.

24. Andalusite. So called because it was first found at Andalusia, in Spain. Color, red and gray. Specimens of this mineral have been found in boulders of mica slate near Nyack. These boulders were thought to have been transported from Westchester county. Without doubt, this mineral will be discovered in other localities, along with staurolite and garnet.

25. Zirconite. Color, gray, and hyacinth-red-also white, green, brown, and rarely yellow, blue, and red. In a granite boulder, near Ladenton in this county, perfect crystals of zircon have been found, of a dark brown and black color, with quite brilliant surfaces.

26. Silicate of Iron. In the slag from the furnace for the cementation of steel, at Ramapo, there are often found cavities, lined with short four and six-sided prisms, with dihedral (two-sided) summits. They have an iron black color, and metallic luster, and are slightly mag- netic.

27. Red Copper Ore. This mineral is found in thin seams, associated with green carbonate of copper, in the trap rocks, two miles from Ladenton, mentioned before.

28. Copper Pyrites. Color, brass-yellow. This min- eral is sometimes sparingly disseminated in the trap at Piermont.

29. Green Malachite. From a Greek word, meaning a mallow, because of its color, which consists of various shades of green. This is of the order of copper. It has heretofore been found in this state only as an incrusta- tion, and thus it occurs on copper pyrites in the trap of Rockland.

30. Agate. This mineral is found, in small nodules, in the trap of Ladenton.

31. Peat. This is a combustible material, and on this account may, at some future time, become an article of great importance. The county is well supplied with it. There is one bog about a mile south of the Long Clove, another two miles west of Nyack, containing about 75 or 100 acres, and a third of about 40 acres, a mile south- west of Snediker's Landing. On the mountain near the turnpike leading from the village of Haverstraw to the Monroe Works, are found several bogs of considerable extent, and many others exist in different parts of the county.

32. Galena. From the Latin galena, an ore of silver and lead. Color, bluish gray. About 1845 a party of three gentlemen spent several days upon the western

face of the hills between Nyack and Piermont, looking for indications of coal. In the course of their examina- tions they broke off from the face of the rocks pieces in which were plainly apparent thin veins of lead.

33. Silver. Granular pieces have been found near Haverstraw and Piermont.

CHAPTER IV.

INDIANS OF ROCKLAND COUNTY. Compiled from Brodhead and other well known authors.

BY HON. JOHN W. FERDON.

H ENRY HUDSON, sailing under the auspices of the Dutch West India Company, moored his vessel, the Half Moon, on the morning of September 3rd, 1609, in the river which now bears his name. For a week he lingered in the lower bay off Sandy Hook, admiring the goodly oaks which adorned the neighboring shores, and exchanging visits with the native savages of Mon- mouth in New Jersey, who flocked on board of the Half Moon, clothed with mantles of feathers and robes of fur, and ornamented with rude copper necklaces. On the 11th he passed the Narrows. On the 13th he began to explore the great river which stretched before him to the north, opening, as he hoped, the way to the Eastern Seas. It was at the season of the year when the birchen trees were beginning to glow with autumnal splendor, and at the time of the day when the sky, filled with lazily floating clouds, was already indicating the approach of the evening hour. The savages flocked to the banks and embarked in their canoes to follow the Ship of the Manitou, which, less driven by wind than borne by tide. slowly made her way northward toward the towering Palisades, then casting their shadows down at full length on the bosom of the calm, pulseiess river.

A little below the present Manhattanville, the Half Moon anchored for the night, in sight of a high point of land which " showed out five leagues off to the North."* On the next day the little ship passed along up the river and its crew debarked upon the shores of Tappan Bay.

The early geography of the country is gathered prin- cipally from a map found on the 26th of June, 1841 in the Locket Kas of the archives of the States General of the Hague. The map is supposed to have accom- panied the report of Cornelius Hendrickson, the first explorer of the Delaware River, made on the Ist day of January 1615. It is rude in its character, but sufficiently distinct to locate the different leading tribes along the River Shatemuc, as the Indians called it. The title " River of the Mountains " was given to the Shatemuc by Hudson himself. The Dutch afterwards called it " The Mauritius " in honor of the Prince of Nassau, and " The North River" to distinguish it from the South River (now the Delaware). And later still, it received its

* The anchorage of the Half Moon on the night of the 13th was below Manhattanville instead of belng opposite Yonkers as stated by Brod- head.

GENERAL HISTORY.

present name "The Hudson River," in honor of him who discovered it in 1609.

When Hudson first ascended the valley of the Shate-

muc, it was inhabited chiefly by two aboriginal races of history of the Tappans goes to prove that they were one Algonquin lineage, afterward known among the English colonists by the generic names of Mohegans and Minsies. The Dutch called the Mohegans on the east side of the river Mahicans, and the Minsies on the west Sanhicans. These tribes were hereditary enemies, and across the river which formed the natural boundary between them, war parties frequently passed on expeditions of conquest and retaliation. These were divided into sub-tribes, or minor bands, each of which had a distinct name. Among those on the west side of the river, and located upon the map already referred to, none are so distinctly marked as the Tappans. On the south of them, opposite the Manhat- tans, were the Mechkentowoons. On the north, begin- ning on the other side of the Haverstraw Mountains (so called by the Dutch because they were covered with the wild oat) and extending up to the present Albany, the Warranawankongs were located. There is no vestige of these tribes left, except the Tappans, and these are known only by the preservation of their name. They occupied the open space on the broad bay between those points now known as the Palisades and the Hook Mountain, and their wigwams extended back from Nyack and Piermont far in- to the interior. Brodhead says that an early imperfect map of New Netherland transmitted to Holland, erroneously represents this unexplored territory as an "Effen Veld", or a level open country. Yet we can easily imagine that the first explorers, who climbed these overhanging mountains, and for the first time looked over the basin of country bounded by the Haverstraw Mountains on the north, by the Ramapoes on the west, and the Kil van Kull on the south, would really regard it as an open coun- try. They seem to have been delighted with the sparkling waters of that little stream which takes its rise in the Nyack hills, dashes recklessly down on their western slope, passes through Greenbush, and so on to the ancient and historic Tappan, invites on its way other streams from the Palisades and the neighboring hills to join it as it goes, and flows on until it is lost in the waters of Tappan Bay, where it enters the river at Piermont, and is now known as the Sparkill. Our savage predecessors called it Tappan, said to be derived from Tuphanne, a Delaware word signfying cold water. This word was also adopted by them as a tribal name, which gives ground for the supposition that the Tappans may have been de- scended from the ancient and warlike Delawares.

The Tappans had for their neighbors on the south the Hackensacks, and on the east, across the bay, near the mouth of the Croton (or Kitchawan of the Indians), the Sint-Sings, whose chief village was named Ossining, or the place of stones, evidently from the marble ,veins in the vicinity. Large marble quarries there now belonging to the State, are worked by convicts of the prison, and etray the origin of the name thus given.

The tribes last mentioned have all left behind them names by which they are commemorated. Yet none of

them are located on the ancient map already referred to, not even the Sint-Sings, although they lived on the banks of the river. Everything in connection with the of the foremost tribes .* The bay on which they pitched their tents was the most beautiful of all the bays and in- lets of the Shatemuc. It surpassed all the others in its breadth and grandeur. Its shallows near the shores were just the place for the men to do their river fishing, and for the Indian maiden to paddle her bark canoe, perhaps in a coquettish race with some athletic and swarthy ad- mirer, whose conquest depended upon being first at the goal. The hills on the border of the bay were as pic- turesque as any, and yet did not prove an unbroken bar- rier to the level hunting ground which lay behind them, traversed as it was by the upper Hackensack with its headland lake, and by the Passaic and the Sparkill and their tributaries, in the sparkling waters of which streams the pickerel and the speckled trout sported with others of the finny tribes.

The name they gave both to their wigwam village and to the bay over which admiring generations have passed, is still retained, and has proved a monument more en- during than the marble which crumbles beneath the rude touch of the elements. In that stretch of shore where Haverstraw and Grassy Point seem to have been dropped down among the hills, with the overlooking towns, with their distinguishing names of high and low, and shel- tered on the north from the fierce polar winds by the continuation of the Ramapo Mountains, on the limpid Minisceongo which flows through the valley, one might, in olden times, expect to find the wigwam of the Indian. Here went up the smoke of a little sub. tribe called by the Dutch Haverstroos, but whose aboriginal name has been lost. They took some part in the early wars, but seem to have been absorbed by the Tappans after the supremacy of the English. In a deed to Bel- thasar De Hart in 1666, confirmed to him by letters pat- ent from Carteret and the Council of New Jersey in 1671 (on the supposition that the tract was in the limit of New Jersey), and subsequently by patent from the governor of New York, the tract conveyed is described as " all the land lying on the west side of Hudson's river called Haverstraw, on the north side of the hills called Verdri- tig hook, on the south side of the highlands, on the east of the mountains, so that the same is bounded by Hudson's river and roundabout by the high mountains." By deed to Stephen Van Cortlandt in 1683, they con- veyed a tract further north, described as " lying oppo- site Anthony's nose from the south side of a creek called Sinkapogh, west to the head thereof, then northerly along the high hills, as the river runneth, to another creek called Assinapink-or the stream from the solid rocks- thence along the same to Hudson's river." This deed, among others, was signed by their Chief Werekepes, as was that given to Dongan in 1685, which covers the same purchase.

* Staten Island, by the Indians called Eghquaous, appears to have been owned in partnership by the Raritans, Hackensacks, and Tappans. Deed to Van der Capellen, 1650.

HISTORY OF ROCKLAND COUNTY.

Kieft was governor of New Amsterdam. He seems to have been quarrelsome, irreligious, a disturber of the peace, and an enemy to good order among his own peo- ple, whom he was sent to counsel, advise, and rule over in moderation. The first settled pastor, Dominie Bo- gardus, had his own troubles with the governor, for he complained to the home government that for three years Kieft would not hear God's word, nor partake of the Christian sacraments, and was doing all he could to estrange from the Church all those who depended upon him. During the sermon he allowed the officers and soldiers to practice all kinds of noisy amusements near and about the church, such as nine-pins, bowls, dancing, singing, leaping, and all other profane exercises, and this even to such an extent that the communicants, who came into the fort to celebrate the Lord's Supper, were scoffed at by these blackguards. We shall not be surprised to find that such a governor was dishonest, oppressive, and cruel toward the neighboring Indian tribes with whom he had constant traffic and intercourse, and we naturally conclude that when endurance was no longer a virtue, and the most malignant feelings were aroused in the savage breast, they in turn would visit their white neighbors with fire, rapine, and murder. It is delight- ful to turn from such a man as Kieft to one in many re- spects the opposite, who is closely connected and inter- woven with our history. David Peterson De Vries, an enterprising mariner of Hoorn, in 1624 procured a com- mission from the king of France, and, in partnership with some Rochelle merchants, bought a small vessel for it from the Indians.

doubter, who never had decision of character enough to do anything at the right time, or in the right way, and consequently was always getting himself into intermina- ble broils with his people and their neighbors. Like all men of this character he was pompous, full of conceit and pride, and withal a great coward. In 1639 De Vries began a colony on Staten Island, having brought over with him several emigrants from Holland. This planta- tion, however, languished for the want of proper colo- nists, for whom he had depended upon his partners at Amsterdam, and finding a beautiful situation of full sixty acres of natural meadow land on the river side about five miles above Fort Amsterdam, he went there to live, partly for the pleasure of it, and partly because there was hay enough for two hundred head of cattle, which were a great staple there. As well as the patroon was ac- quainted with the southern and eastern coast of New Netherland, he had never yet gone up the North River. His enterprising nature now led him to visit Fort Orange to see the country there, and his circumstantial journal, the only known narrative of any Dutch navigator except those given by De Laet and Purchas, has left us an in- teresting record of the North River in the year 1640. Sailing from Fort Amsterdam on the 15th of April, in his own sloop, he arrived in the evening at Tappan, where he found under the mountains a beautiful valley of about five hundred acres in extent, through which ran a fine stream, affording good mill seats. Delighted with a spot which was so near Fort Amsterdam he purchased

the purpose of going to the fisheries and to the coast of In the following autumn, that of 1640, De Vries took Canada to trade in peltries. The directors of the West hold in earnest of his purchase of the previous spring at Tappan, and began a colony at his new estate, which he named Vriesendael. It was beautifully situated along the river side, sheltered by high hills, and the fertile val- ley, through which wound a stream affording handsome mill seats, yielded spontaneously hay enough for two hun- dred head of cattle. Buildings were soon erected, and Vriesendael became for three years the home of its ener- getic owner. Early in the year 1641 another colony was established, within an hour's walk of Vriesendael, by Myn- dert Myndertsen Van der Horst of Utrecht: The new plan- tation extended from Achter Kull, or Newark Bay, north- ward toward Tappan, and included the valley of the Hackensack River. Kieft, the governor of New Amster- dam, who has already been referred to, intent on picking a quarrel with his neighbors the Indians, determined to pursue his policy of levying contributions on the river tribes. The Tappans, being the most flourishing, and withal accessible, sloops were sent for the purpose of bringing back their contributions. But the savages de- murred against the novel tribute. They wondered how the Sachem at the Fort dared exact such things from them. He must be a very shabby fellow! He had come to live in their land when they had

India Company, learning these facts, sent a commission to Hoorn and seized the ship, which was lying there ready to sail. The jealousy of the directors was such that they were determined to prevent all vessels except their own from sailing out of Holland to the coast of North America. Although the States General, to whom he appealed, interfered, yet by delays his plans became so deranged that in the end he sold his ship to the Dor- drecht Chamber, and abandoned his intended trip. In 1630 De Vries returned from a three years' voyage to the East Indies, where he had served as supercargo. His good conduct gained him many friends. His old ac- quaintance, Lodyn, who, with others, had purchased on the South River, asked whether he would like to go to New Netherland as under-patroon and commander. De Vries consented, upon condition that he should be made a patroon upon an equality with the rest. He accord- ingly formed a partnership with eight others, one of whom was Van Rensselaer, who afterward located at Fort Orange (now Albany), and was the first in this country of the long line of patroons of that name, at Rensselaer- wick. It is enough for our purpose here to say that the planting of a colony on South River at Swanendael proved unsuccessful. After this De Vries made two or not invited him, and now came to take away their three trips back and forth to Holland, giving valuable information to the States General, and from tinie to time gave good advice to Governor Walter Van Twiller, the corn for nothing. They refused to pay the contribu- tion, because as the soldiers at Fort Amsterdam were no protection to them, they should not be called upon

GENERAL HISTORY.

for their support. They had allowed the Dutch to answered for their safe return, the chiefs went with him live peaceably in their country, and had never de- manded compensation, because when the Hollanders, having lost a ship there, had built a new one, they had supplied them with victuals and all other necessaries,

to Fort Amsterdam. Explaining to Kieft the unhappy occurrence at Hackensack they repeated their offer of " just atonement." The director was inexorable and de- manded the murderer, but the chiefs could not bind them- and had taken care of them for two winters until the ship selves to surrender the criminal. He had gone two days' journey off among the Tankitekes, and, besides, he was the son of a chief. "Why do you sell brandy to our young men?" said they. "They are not used to it. It makes them crazy. Even your own people, who are used knives. Sell no more to the Indians if you would avoid

was finished. As much as we delight to dwell upon the hospitality of the modern Tappans, we doubt if, in times of trouble, misfortune, and distress, their kindly offices would, in extent and fullness, surpass those of their savage predecessors. The Indians argued that the to strong drink, sometimes become drunk and fight with Dutch were under obligations to thein, because they had paid full price for everything they had purchased. mischief." With this they took leave of the director and There was no reason, therefore, why they should now returned to Vriesendael. Kieft soon after sent a per- emptory message to Pacham, the crafty chief of the Tan- kitekes, to surrender the refugee. Before Pacham obeyed the mandate, more serious events occurred. In the depth of winter a party of eighty or ninety Mohawk warriors, each with a musket on his shoulder, came down from the neighborhood of Fort Orange to collect tribute from the Weckquaskecks and Tappans. The river tribes quailed before the warlike Iroquois. No resistance was offered by the more numerous but subjugated Algon- quins, seventy of whom were killed, and many women and children made prisoners. In despair four or five hundred of the cowering savages flocked to Vriesendael to beg assistance and protection. The patroon told them that the Fort Orange Indians were friends of the Dutch who could not interfere in their wars. Finding his house supply the Hollanders with maize for nothing. "We have ceded to you the country you are living in," they said, and now "we remain masters of what we have retained for ourselves." Nothing can be found in the annals of history more dignified, just, and honorable than the reply of these savages to an unjust, selfish, and wicked gover- nor. Our patroon, De Vries, was during all this time the just friend of the Indian, and his friendship was fully reciprocated. As president of the council of twelve men whose business it was to advise with the governor in rela- tion to matters of State, he warned Kieft against the danger of urging his unjust demands, and portrayed the savage storm of vengeance which ultimately would fall upon the devoted heads of the colonists if he persisted in his mad course. Through his influence with the twelve, Kieft was unable to obtain the necessary co-operation to carry out |full of savages, and only five men besides himself to de- his plans at this time, and so the evil day was put off. The patroon, one day, while rainbling with gun on shoulder toward Van der Horst's new colony at Hacken- sack, met an Indian who was very drunk. Coming up to De Vries, he stroked him over the arms in token of friendship. "You are a good chief," said the Indian. " When we visit you, you give us milk to drink for noth- ing, but I have just come from Hackensack where they sold me brandy, half mixed with water, and then stole my beaver skin coat." The savage vowed bloody re- venge. De Vries tried to soothe him, and on reaching Hackensack warned Van der Horst's people against the danger of treating the savages as they had treated the one he had just met. Scarcely had he returned to his own house before some of the chiefs of the Hackensacks and Reckawanks in his neighborhood came to Vriesen- dael. The revengeful savage had kept his vow and had shot one of the Dutch, Garret Jansen Van Voorst, as he rashly resolved to make the savages, as he said, "wipe was quietly thatching the roof of one of Van der Horst's houses. The chiefs hastened to seek counsel of De Vries. They dared not go to Fort Amsterdam, lest Kieft should keep them prisoners, but they would pay two hundred fathoms of wampum to the widow of the murdered man, and that should purchase their peace. This was a

fend it, De Vries went in a canoe through the floating lice down to Fort Ainsterdam to ask Kieft to assist him with soldiers. The director could spare none. The next day a large number of savages, who came down from Vriesendael, encamped near the oyster banks at Pa- vonia, among the Hackensacks, who were full a thousand strong. At this time public opinion at Manhattan was divided in regard to the policy to be pursued toward the savages, and that they were fugitives from the dreaded Iroquois, and felt grateful for the temporary protection of the Dutch. The River Indians could easily be won to a sincere friendship, thought De Vries and a majority of the community. But there were other spirits, active, restive, panting for war, who, though few, were aided by Van Tienhoven, the astute provincial secretary. Their views were in harmony with those of the sanguinary di- rector, who was delighted with the prospect of war, and their chops." As they had unanimously refused to pay the contribution he had imposed, and as he saw himself deprived of this source of revenue, of which he was very greedy, Kieft now busied himself to devise other means to satisfy his insatiate, avaricious soul. The best men protested against the war. Dominie Bogardus, who was invited to the council, warned the governor against this

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History of Rockland County, New York : with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Part 5

Author: Cole, David, 1822-1903, ed. cn; Beers, J. B., & co., New York, pub Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York : J. B. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 993

Author: Cole, David, 1822-1903, ed. cn; Beers, J. B., & co., New York, pub
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : J. B. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 993