History of Saratoga County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers., Part 17

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 780

USA > New York > Saratoga County > History of Saratoga County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers. > Part 17

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).

As they proceeded towards the main road, where Gor- don's miller-Isaac Stow-lived, he came running towards them, exclaiming " Col. Gordon, save yourself! the In- dians !" Ile turned and ran a short distance, when he was intercepted by an Indian, who pierced him in the side with his spontoon, and Stow fell. The Indian then dispatched him with his tomahawk and took off his sealp.

In the mean time, a party had proceeded to the house of Capt. Collins, across the Mourning Kill. They broke open his door and captured him and his female slave. His son -Mannasseh-escaped through an upper window and ran to the fort, a mile and a half distant, and gave the aların. The enemy then proceeded up the Middle Line road and made prisoners of Thomas Barnum, John Davis, Elisha Benedict and his three sons,-Caleb, Elias, and Felix,- and Dublin, his slave,-Edward A. Watrous, Paul Pierson and his son John, a boy, John Higby and his son Lewis, George Kennedy, Jabez Patchin, Josiah Hollister, Ebene- zer Sprague and his sons John and Elijah, Thomas Ken- nedy, Enoch Wood, and one Palmatier, living near what is now known as Milton Centre, and who was the last one taken. But one man lived north of Palmatier. Being a Tory, he was unmolested. Several houses and barus were burned.

Between Higby's and George Kennedy's, about fifty under the command of Lieut. Frazer, a refugee from the vicinity of Burnt Hills, left the main body and advanced to the dwelling of George Seott. Aroused from sleep by the violent barking of his wateh-dog, he, with his musket in his hand, opened the door and saw the column advancing in the moonlight. He heard some one exclaim, " Scott,

throw down your gun, or you are a dead man !" Not hastening to obey, he was felled to the floor by three tom- ahawks simultaneously thrown at him by Indians of the party, who rushed up to take his scalp. They were pre- vented by Frazer and Sergeant Springsteed, another refugee and formerly Scott's hired man, who, with their swords, kept the savages at bay. The party pillaged the house and left Scott, as they believed, in a dying condition,-so they informed Colonel Gordon, his brother-in-law, but he recovered.

The enemy crossed the Kayadrossera, at what is now Milton Centre, about daylight, and soon came to a halt. Each prisoner was placed between two of the enemy in Indian file. Their hands were tied, some of them were barefooted, and most of them but partly dressed. George Kennedy was lame from a cut in his foot, and had no clothing but a sheet. Munro thereupon addressed his men. He said he expected they would be pursued, and that on discovering the first sign of a pursuit, even the firing of a gun, each man must kill his prisoner. In this order the march was resumed; the prisoners expecting that the troops from the fort would overtake them, and that each moment would be their last. Another source of appre- hension was that some Indian would fall back and fire his gun for the purpose of having the order carried into ex- eeution,-a reward for scalps having been offered. For this inhuman order, Munro was afterwards dismissed from the service.

The first man in front of Gordon was a British regular, a German, who was next behind Capt. Collins and had charge of him. Gordon was the prisoner of a ferocious savage immediately in his rear. He heard the soldier say to Capt. Collins, " I have been through the late war in Europe, and in many battles, but I never before have heard such a bloody order as this. I can kill in the heat of battle, but not in cold blood. You need not fear me, for I will not obey the order. But the Indian in charge of Gordon is thirsting for his blood, and the moment a gun is fired Gordon is a dead man."

On arriving at the foot of the Kayadrossera mountain, they halted for breakfast, and slaughtered the sheep- and cattle which they had driven along on their retreat. In the afternoon they struck the trail up the mountain by which they had descended, and halted for the night about two miles beyond Lake Desolation. Munro here discharged Ebenezer Sprague and Paul Pierson, both old men, together with John Pierson and George Kennedy. Gordon had privately, by some means, sent back a message, advising that all attempts at a rescue should be abandoned. The messenger met Capt. Stephen Ball with a detachment of militia from the fort, at what has since been known as Mil- ton meeting-house, and they returned. The enemy, with their prisoners, on the 24th day of October, arrived at Bul- wagga bay, and there, joining Carleton's party, they all pro- ceeded down the lake to St. John's and thence to Montreal. The prisoners were at first lodged in the Recollet convent, and afterwards confined in a jail. Gordon was bailod in the sum of £3000 by James Ellice, with whom he had formerly been connected in business in Schenectady. After a few months, for what reason he never knew, he, alone of

HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

all the prisoners, was removed to Quebee and kept there in prison for about two years, when he was transferred to the Isle of Orleans.

III .- JOE BETTYS.

In May, 1781, the notorious Joe Bettys,* with the aid of about thirty refugees under his command, made a raid into the Ballston distriet and captured Consider Chard, Uri Tracy, Ephraim Tracy, Samuel Nash, and Samuel Patchin. They were all taken to Canada excepting Nash, who eseaped near Lake Desolation. At the same time Epenetus White, Captain Rumsey, two brothers named Banta, and some others on the cast side of Long lake, were taken by a Tory offieer named Waltermeyer, and marched off to Canada.

When Gordon was removed to the Isle of Orleans he there found White, Higby, Enoch Wood, the two Bantas, and other Ballston prisoners. They contrived to escape from the island by means of a fisherman's boat, and landing on the right bank of the river, they made their way into the wilderness. Their provisions soon gave out, and for several days they subsisted upon nothing but berries and a species of mussel found in the streams. Arriving at the head-waters of the St. John, they, with their hatchets, constructed a rude craft, upon which they floated down the river for a considerable distance, and then struck across to Passamaquoddy bay. This was in 1783, and there they learned for the first time that hostilities had ceased. They proceeded to Halifax, and were brought from thence to Boston by a cartel.

Nero, one of Munro's prisoners, after his capture, had attempted to escape. A few rods south of the north line of the " Five-mile square," where James Allison now lives, he suddenly broke from the ranks, and sprang headlong down a ravine. His head coming in contact with a sap- ling, he was retaken. At Montreal he was sold to Capt. Laws, a British officer. The other slaves captured by Munro were also sold. In a short time, Nero and Capt. Benedict's " boy" Dublin contrived to escape. They came by the west shore of Lake Champlain to Ticonderoga, and there swam across the lake, and found their way to Rich- mond, Mass. There they remained until the close of the war, when they returned to Ballston, and voluntarily sur- rendered themselves respectively to their former owners.

Joe Bettys, to whom allusion has been made, was the son of respectable parents residing in the Ballston district. His father, Joseph Bettys, during and subsequent to the war, kept a tavern below what is known as the Delavan farm, upon the farm now occupied by Mr. Lewis Trites. The old man's gravestone may be seen in the cemetery at Burnt Hills. The career of Joseph Bettys, Jr., is an important item in the early history of Ballston. His name, for several years towards the close of the war, was a terror to its inhabitants. The following account of Bettys is mostly compiled from Simms' " Border Wars," and a statement of Col. John Ball :

Col. Ball, a son of Rev. Eliphalet Ball, as early as 1776, held a lieutenant's commission in a regiment of New York forces commanded by Col. Wynkoop. Being acquainted with Bettys, and knowing him to be bold, athletic, and

intelligent in an uncommon degree, he succeeded in enlist- ing him as a sergeant. Bettys was soon reduced to the ranks by reason of some insolence to an officer, who, as he alleged, had wantonly abused him. To save him to the cause, Ball procured him a sergeantey in the fleet com- manded by Gen. Arnold on Lake Champlain, in 1776. Bettys was in the desperate fight between the British and American fleets on the lakes, and being a skillful seaman, was of signal service during the contest. He fought until every commissioned officer on board of his vessel was killed or wounded, and then himself assumed command, and eon- tinued to fight with such reckless courage that Gen. Water- bury, who was second in command under Arnold, pereeiving that the vessel was likely to sink, was obliged to order Bettys and the remnant of the erew on board of his own vessel.

Ile stationed him on the quarter-deck by his side, and gave orders through him, until the vessel having become disabled, and the crew nearly all killed, Gen. Waterbury wounded, and only two officers left, the colors were struck, and the remnant made prisoners. They were soon dis- charged on their parole. Gen. Waterbury afterwards in- formed the Rev. Mr. Ball that he never saw a man behave with such deliberate desperation as did Bettys on that occa- sion, and that the shrewdness of his management was equal to his courage.

For some reason his gallant serviees were not recognized to his satisfaction, and this neglect his proud spirit and un- governable temper could not brook. He afterwards went to Canada, joined the loyalists, and receiving an ensign's com- mission in the British army, became a spy, and proved him- self a most dangerous and subtle enemy. He was at length captured and senteneed to be hung at West Point, but the entreaties of his aged parents, and the solicitations of in- fluential Whigs, induced Gen. Washington to pardon him. But it was ill-directed clemency. He was more vindictive than ever, and the Whigs in this part of the State, and especially in Ballston, soon had occasion to regret the lenity they had unfortunately caused to be extended to him. He recruited soldiers for the king in our very midst, planned and guided many of the raids from the north, and was at the same time in the employment of the king's officers as a most faithful and successful messenger and cunning and in- telligent spy. There had been many attempts to apprehend him, but he eluded them all.

In the early spring of 1782, in the present town of Clifton Park, about a mile west of Jonesville, one Jacob Fulmer was engaged in waking maple-sugar in the woods, and after remaining there as usual overnight, was relieved in the morning by his daughter while he went to his break- fast. The morning was very foggy, and she, without being observed, saw a man upon snow-shoes, bearing a pack and a gun, pass near by and proceed toward the house of a widow named Hawkins. This house was upon the farm now belonging to L. W. Crosby. The girl immediately informed her father, who at once suspected the stranger might be Bettys. Calling upon two of his neighbors, Perkins and Corey, and all being well armed, they stealthily approached the house, and suddenly burst open the door. They discovered Bettys, with his back towards them, eating

# See Judge Scott's address.

THE

COUNTY OF

SARATOGA,

By David A Basi

Published by the SURVEYOR GENERAL purswant toan det uf the Lestature .

STONE & CLARK. REPUBLISHERS, ITHACA, N.Y. 1840.

Gleis

falls

Bakers

Dam

falls

Twenty Fifth

Livingston

1 20

Jesuis FO Lundin

199

INBURG H

- 2

Allotment

110

+ 67

.37

Third GREAU

WASHI

RATOGA

PO.3

- -

crush House

Falls

Miller

Popes

GREK FIELD

19 |10 |11 |

SZ Port Miller Falls

Dan

N47 1146

obarkersllallows

RockCity

Spruk's

OG A

Staf fords WEG

. A

ELTON

Theeling

ALWAY

Villa

Academy

&Galwan

7 10

11019

27 Comment

FORK

Reight

Trans Heightho

1 h

STILLWATERO

RITO

Mole

klotmen 7

Maltaville

Stillwater Falls

Chartion pu.

Merlumnicsvitle

whatesville

17058

123

PAR

SHAL PAIOON

Barfor& Flats

EXPLANATIONS

Villages

Schenectady

WATERFORD

Eric Canal

Scale of' Ahles

Falls

Cohes

39 40 4

Rive

Day po. Sacando ya

Hadleypo.

West Day l'!

30 27 25 29 24

18 10

Paris

Allotment

WG TON RR.

Fort Edwar

l' Renssela

henssein.

Havingstone

106

Sontlorinthe

Palmertown

Wilton PP.V. 113 €

PROP

Fort 0

Parters Corners lo

ROVIDENCE

atwent

TOTT TOT

Schauterville

Twenty

Lake lie sola tiniz

V.Galwayo

Mallolvient

Stau son Corners

ON. BattleGround

EdyecombsCorners

- 13

SARATOGA TAKE

OPO

AVIS

HUDSON RIVER

SCHENECTADY

10197

SARATOGA E TROY R.R

Malta

Fixa

| FALLSTO

7 Stillwatgły

Ballstown Center

Square

GA & SCHENECTADY

L.Ipple

Fourth AXLot un

Pittetat

2 Half Moon

1.5

Waterford

Ferry

. Lyondsnet final or hifinement onfotonh

.S HADLEY

DAY'

Yates and

Glen

Hudson River

4 5

32 93 34 35!

Division

43 144 45

Hidd te

Pure

1547 48 49150

hiver

‘Labriskie

Corin th

CORINTH

HadleysFalls

Fort Ville I'Mf.

13h

10 2

Tie

Allot ute u

leuter PO.

125

oJanesville

+ 7

Alot mient.

Twenty

Karthampton o

Toute Cile 14-68

Suratog

Coparty Poor House

Bully du Spy.

VINHE Moment

Anthonys Kill

COUNTY

Mohawk River

Erie Canal

Manufactories Foryrs Saw Mills Clairchies

UTICA & SCHENECTADY R R

SARATOGA

Seven iliAllotment

MALTA

HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

his breakfast, with his rifle by his side. Ile seized it, but not having taken the precaution to undo the deer-skin cover that protected the lock, was unable to discharge it. They seized him and tied him securely. He asked leave to sinoke, and was partially unbound to afford him the oppor- tunity. He went to the fireplace to light his pipe, and took something out of his tobacco-box and threw it into the fire. Corey noticed this and immediately snatched it out with a handful of coals. It was a small leaden box about the eighth of an inch in thickness, and contained a paper in cipher, which afterwards proved to be a dispatch to the British commander in New York, and also contained an order on the mayor of New York for £30 sterling, in case the dispatch should he safely delivered. Bettys begged for leave to burn the papers, and offered one hundred guineas for the privilege, but his captors refused. He then despairingly said, " I am a dead man." He was taken to Albany, tried by a court-martial, and convicted and hung as a spy, to the great relief of the Whigs in this section of the State.

CHAPTER XVIII.

EARLY LAND-GRANTS-1684-1713.

I .- LANDED INTERESTS.

THE readers of this history, if haply any there shall be, are doubtless by this time weary of the long, long story of the old wilderness warfare that so often empurpled the soil of Saratoga County with the blood of the slain, and will turn with a sense of relief to the story of her social and in- dustrial progress, which will form the burden of the re- maining chapters.

And if Old Saratoga has become a high historic name in consequence of the heroic deeds of her warfare, she has won scarcely less of world-wide fame by reason of her material development in her time of peace. Of her it may be truly said, in Milton's immortal language,

" l'eace hath her victories No less renowned than war." SONNET XVI.

In the following pages the principal early land-grants of Saratoga County will be briefly described, and in most cases will be given a copy of the warrant issued to the patentees containing the original description of the patent. These papers have been transcribed from the original land papers on file in the office of the Secretary of State at Albany ex- pressly for this work.

II .- THE SARATOGA PATENT.

In the earlier years of the colonial period the old Indian hunting-grounds lying within the boundaries of the county of Saratoga were purchased one after another from their aboriginal owners, and thereafter became known in history as land-grants or patents. The most famous of these old patents still retain their old Indian names, -the patents of Saratoga and Kay-ad-ros-se-ra.

The patent of Old Saratoga, which grew out of the old hunting-ground of the river hills from which the county

and the springs derive their name, was among the earliest purchases made of the Indians in Saratoga County. It was purchased of the Mohawks as early as the year 1684, but the Indian deed was not confirmed by the colonial govern- ment and the warrant for the patent issued till the year 1708, as will appear by the following copy thereof. The Saratoga patent is shown on the map facing this chapter.

" WARRANT FOR SARATOGA PATENT.

" By his Excellency, Edward, Vivement Cornbury, Captain-General and Governar-in-Chief of the Provinces of New York and New Jersey, und territories depending on them in America, and Vice-Admiral of the same, etc., in council this 25th day of October, 1708.

" To Major Bickley, Esq., Attorney-General of the Province of New York :

" You are hereby required aud directed to prepare a draft of a patent of confirmation for Colonel Peter Schuyler, Robert Livings- ten, Esq., Direk Wessels, Esq., Jao Jan Bleecker, Esq., Johnones Schuyler, Esq., and to Coruelins Vau Dyck, the grandchild and heir- at-law of Cornelius Van Dyck, deceased, for a certain tract of land situate and being to the northward of the city of Albany, on both sides of the Hudson river, formerly granted unto some of them and others, under and from whom the rest do at present hold and enjoy by patent from Colonel Tomas Dengan, sometime Governor-in-Chief of the province of New York, the limits and boundaries of which land are to be ascertained in the manner, that is to sny : Beginning at the south side of the mouth of a certain creek on the west side of Hnd- son's river, commonly called by the Indians Tionoondchows, aud by the Christians Anthony's Kill, which is the uppermost bounds of the land formerly purchased hy Goosie Gerritson and Philip Peterson Schuyler, and from theuce descending westerly into the woods by the said ercek, on the south side thereof, as it runs six English miles; and if the said creek do not stretch su far into the wood, then from the end thereof east by a straight line until it shall be six miles dis- tant from Hudson's river, upon a measured straight line; and from thence northerly by a line parallel to the course of Hudson's river, until it come opposite to and bear east from the south side from another creck's mouth on the east side of Hudson's river, called Tionoondehows, which upon Hudson's river is computed to be dis- tant from the month of Tionoondehows aforesaid about twenty-two English miles, be it more or less, and from the left termination by a straight line to be drawn east to the north side of the mouth of the said ercek, Tionoondehows; and from thence continued east six miles into the woods on the east side of Hladson's river, and from thence by a line southerly parallel to the course of the said Hudson's river, and six miles distant from the same, so far sootherly uutil it come opposite to and bear east six miles distant from the north side of the mouth of Schardhook Kill, which is the boundary of Schard- hook patent, late belonging to Henry Van Rensselaer, to hold it thence, in manner following : that is to say, for so much thereof as by the former untents had been divided for arable land to Peter Schuyler, lot No. 1, and one half the lot No. 6, to and for the use of the said Peter Schuyler, and of his heirs and assigns forever, to Robert Livingstou ; his lot, No. 5, and one half the lot No. 5, to aod for the sole use to Direk Wessels; his lot, No. 3, to and for the sole use to Jau Jaas Bleecker; his lot, No. 2, to and for the sole use to Johannes ; his lot, No. 4, to and for the sole use also to Caroline Van Dyck, the grandchild and beir-at-law of the said Caroline Van Dyck, deceased : the lot No. 7 in trost, nevertheless, to and for the use or uses for which the farm is devised by the last will and testn- ment of his said grandfather, deceased ; failing which use or ases, to the use of himself, and his heirs and assigns forever, and for so much as remains undivided necording to the heir's use of, positively, that is to say : to Peter Schuyler and Robert Livingston, to each of them three-fourteenth parts ; and to each of the others two fortecuth parts of the whole undivided land contained in the said pateut, the farm being divided in fourteen equal parts, at nnd under the yearly quitrent of twenty bushels of winter wheat; and for your so doing this shall be your sufficient warrant. CORNBURY."

Dated as above.#

* Land Paper, v. 4, p. 165.

HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

III .- THE KAY-AD-ROS-SE. RA PATENT.

By far the largest and most important land-grant made in colonial times, any part of which lay within the bounds of Saratoga County, was the patent founded on the old Indian hunting-ground of Kay-ad-ros-se-ra. This large tract includes the greater part of Saratoga County, and runs also on the north into Warren county, and on the west into Montgomery and Fulton.

Kay-ad.ros-se-ra, " the country of the lake of the crooked stream," as "has already been seen in these pages, was the favorite hunting-ground of the Mohawk branch of the Iroquois or Five Nations of central New York. The Indian deed was obtained of the Mohawk chief in the year 1703, but the patent was not granted till the year 1708, and the Indians did not ratify the purchase till the year 1768. This patent was, therefore, disputed ground for more than sixty years.

The first attempt made to obtain a grant of any part of Kay-ad-ros-se-ra was made in the year 1693. On the 1st day of April, 1693, Robert Livingston, Jr., and David Schuy- ler petitioned for a part of Kay-ad-ros-se-ru lying north of the Saratoga patent up as far as the Little Carrying-Place, and running as far back into the wood as the Indian prop- erty gues. In the year 1702, on the 26th of August, the Indians granted this tract to Livingston and Schuyler, de- scribed as aforesaid. This was the first Indian deed of any part of Kay-ad-ros-se-ra. When the proprietors of the whole patent acquired their title, they obtained a release from Livingston and Schuyler of their interest.

The first paper on file in the office of the Secretary of State, at Albany, in relation to the patent of Kay-ud-ros- se-ra, is the following petition :

PETITION FOR KAYADROSSERA.

" To his Excellency, Edward, Viscount Corubury, Captain- General and Governor-in- Chief in and orer the Province of New York und Ter- ritories depending thereon in America, and Vice- Admiral of the same, etc., in council.

" The humble petition of Sampson Shelton Broughtou, Esq., Attorney- General of the said Province, in behalf of himself and Comp. Must humbly sherreth ;

" That your petitioner being informed of a certain tract of vacant and unappropriated land in the County of Albany, called or known by the Indian name of Kayarossos, adjoining to the north hounds of Schenectady, on the east side thereof, to the west bounds of Saratoga, on the north side thereof, and to Albany river on the west side thereof. "Your said petitioner most humbly prays your Excellency that he may have a license to treat with the native Indians, present posses- sors and owners of the said tract of land, for the purchase thereof, and to purchase the same

" And your petitioner humbly, as in duty bound, shall ever pray, etc.#

" SA. SH. BROUGHTON."

The prayer of this petitioner was not at first granted, and Sampson Shelton Broughton, the petitioner, dying, his widow, Mary Broughton, presented the following petition :

MARY BROUGHTON'S PETITION.

" To his Excellency. Edward, Viscount Cornbary, Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief in and orer Her Majesty's Proriner of New York and Territories adjoining thereon in America, and Vice-Admiral of the same, etc., in council.

" The humble petition of Mary Broughton, widow and relict of Sampson Shelton Broughton, deceased, late Attorney-General of the said Proviner, in behalf of herself aud company. Most humbly shewith :

# Land Papers, p. 122, v. 3.

" That your Excellency's petitioner's late husband in his lifetime obtained of your Excelleney in council, for the benefit of himself and company, a license to purchase of the native Indian proprietors a certain tract of vacant and nnappropriated land in the county of Al- bany, called or known by the Indian name of Kayaderosses, adjoin- ing to the north hounds of Schenectady patent, together with the vacancies that lie between the Ael place down along the river abont one mile more or less, on the east side thereot to the west hounds of Saratoga patent, on the north side thereof to Albany river, and on the west side thereof to the native Indians and proprietors thereof, for their improvement, the north hounds running along the said river of Albany thereof; said tract of land your said petitioner's late hus- band in his lifetime did purchase from the native Indians, proprietors, on the 6th of October, 1704, in pursuance of your Excellency's license for that purpose, obtained on the 2d day of November, 1704, for the use and benefit of your said petitioner's late husband and company, as by the said receipted license and Indian deed of purchase now ready to be produced to your Excellency, will more at large appear ; and whereas your said petitioner's late husband in his lifetime did petition your Excellency for a grant of the said land for himself and company, David Schuyler and Robert Livingston, Jr., then in this city, did oppose the granting thereof, and entered a caveat against the same ; your Excellency upon a full hearing of the parties on both sides, on the 6th day of November, 1704, being the day appointed for that purpose, was pleased to declare then in council that the pretence of the said David Schuyler and Robert Livingston were groundless and frivolous, chiefly since the purchase was they provided to have made of formed parts of the said tract of land was made (if made it was) without any license from your Excellency for that purpose, and ordered therefore, that your caveat then so entered should be dis- missed and also referred the said petitioner to further consideration.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Saratoga County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers., Part 17

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894 Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Ensign Number of Pages: 780

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 780