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 64
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123 | Part 124 | Part 125 | Part 126 | Part 127 | Part 128 | Part 129
II .- NATURAL FEATURES.
The Hudson river is upon the castern border. A range of high rounded and sometimes terraced hills extends north and south through the central and western parts. These hills rise, sowie of them, to the height of four hundred and
fifty feet, and slope in every direction. Narrow alluvial flats, bordered by high clay bluffs, extend along the Hudson.
Saratoga Jake forms a portion of the west boundary. Fish creek, the outlet of the lake, flowing through the north part of the town, is the principal stream, and upon it are several fine mill-sites. The other streams are small brooks. Three mineral springs, known as Quaker springs, issue from the Iludson river slate, in a ravine a little southeast of the centre of the town.
They contain lime, magnesia, and iron, with carbonie gas and salts of soda.
III .- EARLY SETTLEMENT.
Around the Su-rugh-to-ga of the long colonial period, but now Schuylerville on the Upper Hudson, there lingers a wealth of strange and mystic story. It is at Sa-ragh-to-ga. that the river hills begin to crowd down to the banks of the stream on either side, thus giving rise to the significance of the name, which means, in the Indian tongue, " the hill-side country of the great river." It was at Old Saratoga that there was a crossing and divergence of the old Indian war-trails, which led through the great northern valley. That is to say, in coming down the Hudson it was here that the lateral trails left the river, and the one on the west ran up the Fish creek and around Saratoga lake towards the Dutch settlement at Schenectady, and the other on the cast ran up the Batten Kill and over the eastern mountains towards the English settlements in the valley of the Connec- ticut. It will quite readily be seen that this crossing of the war-trails at old Saratoga, making of it as it were a wilder- ness " four corners," is what gave the place its stragetical importance in forest warfare, and is the reason why forts should have been built there.
It was at Old Saratoga that, as early as the year 1687, Governor Dongan attempted to induce a band of Christian Iroquois, that the French missionaries had led to Cach-na- oua-ga, on the St. Lawrence, to return and settle under English protection, in order that they might form a barrier between the then frontier town of Albany and the hostile French and Indians of the ever-frowning north.
It was here, in the month of February, 1690, that Lieu- tenant Le Moyne de St. Helene with his band of snow-shoed savages left the Hudson, and taking the western trail up the Fish creek, over Lake Saratoga, and so on across the frozen wilderness, swept down upon the sleeping inhabitants of Schenectady with indiscriminate slaughter.
It was here, in the opening summer of the same year, 1690, that Major Peter Schuyler, then mayor of Albany, in command of some Dutch troops, being the advance corps of the first great army of Canadian invasion, halted to await the approach of General Fitz John Winthrop with the main
259
260
HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
body of the troops, and clearing a little spot in the mighty virgin forest, built a block-house for his military stores, and gave this spot the local name Saratoga, after the old hunt- ing-ground and patent of which it formed a part.
It was here that nineteen years later, in 1709, Peter Schuyler, now a colonel in the service, and in command of the advance-guard of the second great army of northern in- vasion, again halted his troops and built a stockaded fort on the cast side of the river. This old fort, of which slight remains now exist, was situate on the east side of the river on the high bluff a hundred rods below the mouth of the Batten Kill, now forest-crowned, upon which General Fel- lows planted his cannon before Burgoyne's surrender. This old fort at Saratoga stood for nearly forty years with the varying fortunes of the old wilderness warfare, until it was finally abandoned and burnt by the retiring English troops, in the autumn of 1747.
In attempting to write the story of pioneer settlement in the valley of the Upper Hudson, we are confronted at once with the necessity and the difficulty of going back in our investigations more than a hundred and fifty years to a pe- riod of which history has preserved few traces, as far as the minor incidents of early settlement are concerned. It is true that in entering this valley we stand face to face with some of the grandest facts of general history. It is the very spot where empires struggled for supremacy. Along this line, in part at least, French discovery, sustained by French soldiers and French diplomaey, won from the Indians a magnificent domain, embracing in its wide sweep the valley of the St. Lawrence, the basins of the Great Lakes, and the head-waters of the Mississippi. Over this same route from Albany to Montreal marched and counter- marched the armies in the war of 1756, that transferred all this vast territory to the English crown. Nor even yet was the historic significance of this valley complete. Again, in the War of the Revolution, an empire was lost and won, not only in this valley and in this county, but, as to the crisis of the campaign, within the actual limits of the town of Saratoga. In such a town the importance of national history overshadows that of the local. It is easier to deter- mine the man who commanded here in a great battle than it is the man who cleared an opening in the primeval forest and erected the first log house ; easier to find the field of a fieree contest than the field first sowed with grain. And yet when general history seeks to settle the details of its own grand work, it is often involved in the same obscurity that overhangs pioneer settlement.
Bartel Vroman seems to have been the pioneer settler of Old Saratoga. He was there as early as the year 1689. At a convention held at the city of Albany on Sept. 4, 1689, among others, it was
" Resolved, That there be a fort made about the house of Bartel Vroman at Sarachtoge, and twelve men raised out of the two companies of the city and two companies of the county, to lie there upon pay, who are to have twelve- pence a day, besides provisions, and some Indians of Skach- kook to be there with them, to go out as scouts in that part of the county."
Upon the Saratoga patent purchased in 1684 it is prob- able there were other settlements made soon after the year
1700. It is supposed that mills and other buildings were erected by the Schuylers on the south side of Fish creek, near the present house of George Strover, in 1709 or 1710. General Schuyler, of Revolutionary fame, was born in Al- bany in 1731, and it is inferred that the Schuyler family themselves were not living here before that date but came not long after. We have no information that at this early period there were any openings in the forest or any pioneers in the town back from the river, nor have we the names of any at the river. If mills were built in 1709 or 1710, somebody must have lived at that point, and there, beyond all question, was the place of the first settlement. The workmen that built the mills, the men that carried them on, whoever they were, were nearly or quite the first settlers.
Old Fort Saratoga was erected on the heights east of the river and south of the Batten Kill in 1709. Under its protection a few early settlers, no doubt, came about the time or soon after the mills were built. In 1745 the his- torians speak of a village of thirty families that were at- tacked, and killed, captured, or driven away. This settle- ment was called Saratoga, and it is believed that most of these thirty families were on the west side of the river, at the Schuyler mills, and such dwelling-houses as had gath- ered around them. This destruction of the village of Saratoga, Nov. 17, 1745, was one of the fearful scenes of border warfare. History gives us no details, but the imag- ination easily supplies them. The sudden attack; the struggle for life ; the fieree fight ; the burning buildings ; the hasty retreat with the weary captives, were all here in this now peaceful and pleasant valley. A whole village destroyed ; thirty dwellings burned; their very sites un- known, save that of the Schuyler house; and the names of the dead and the captured alike lost. Captain Peter Schuyler fought bravely, but was killed in his own house.
Whether the fort was garrisoned at this time, or whether the attack was too sudden and too soon over for relief from it, is somewhat uncertain. The history of border warfare gives a few subsequent items relating to this vicinity. May 13, 1746, William Norwood was killed by the Indians while fishing in the river near the fort; whether he was a settler or one of the garrison is not stated. December 15, the Indians attacked a small party near the Schuyler place, killed four and took four prisoners. October 12 of the same year a party of Americans guarding some wagons south of Fish creek were attacked and sixteen killed.
The next spring, April 7, a skirmish oeenrred near the Schuyler place between a company under Captain Trent and Lieutenant Proctor and about two hundred Indians ; eight of the Americans were killed. June 15 of that year the fort itself was attacked by French and Indians, but resisted successfully until relief came from Albany. During this perilous period of eighteen years, from 1745 to 1763, existing settlements were broken up, and it is not probable that any new settlers attempted to face the privations, siek- ness, and hardships of a new country, and the dangers of war at the same time. The peace of 1763 between France and England removed, to a great extent, all fear of further trouble from the Indians, and left this town open for set- tlement. The true pioneer period of Saratoga commences
RESIDENCE of C. W. MAYHEW, SCHUYLERVILLE, N. Y.
RESIDENCE OF J. H. DILLINGHAM, SCHUYLERVILLE, N.Y
261
HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
at this point ; at least that of which we can gain some tol- erably accurate information. The Schuyler house and mills were rebuilt soon after peace was declared. The new grist-mill was erected on the north side of Fish creek, on the site of the present mill of D. A. Bullard & Sons. The old Schuyler mansion, which the French and Indians burned, stood cast of the " old lilacs." In widening the eanal a few years ago the cellar was opened, and many relics obtained. The new house erected at the close of the French war was placed about twelve rods west of the " old lilacs," and exactly south of the present Schuyler mansion, belonging to George Strover. The lilac-bushes themselves are venerable enough to be objects of curiosity. They were undoubtedly planted either in the time of the first or the second Schuyler house, and must certainly be more than one hundred years old, perhaps one hundred and forty. They are evidently vigorous enough to last till the second centennial of the republic. During a period of twelve years, from 1763 to 1765, quite a number of settlers appear to have made their homes within the limits of the present town of Saratoga.
Abram Marshall came from Yorkshire, England, and settled on the place now owned by William H. Marshall, in the year 1763 or 1764. Ife was present at the sur- render of Burgoyne. He died Nov. 30, 1811, aged eighty- one. Mr. Marshall and family, taking the stock owned by them, went to Albany for safety on the approach of Bur- goyne. Ile has a large number of descendants living in this vicinity. William H. Marshall, a great-grandson, oc- cupies the old homestead. Abram Marshall, a grandson, lives in Northumberland. The widow of another grand- son, Mrs. William Marshall, owns the house, which is a famous relic of war times, north of the village of Schuy- lerville.
Thomas Jordan was a son-in-law of Abram Marshall. Hle was in the American bateau service. His place was the present farm of Frank Marshall. From Alonzo Welch, of Schuylerville, we learn that his grandfather, Joseph Welch, settled, between 1765 and 1770, on the place now owned by his grandson, Lorenzo D. Welch. He was a lieutenant in the American army, was taken prisoner, and detained three years in Canada.
Thomas Smith moved from Dutchess county to Saratoga about the year 1770, and bought the place now owned by Stephen Smith. Ile first built a log house, and afterwards a frame house. This last was below the present barn, half- way down the hill, near the road, and was used until 1808. Mr. Smith died in 1801. He left one son, William T. Smith, who built the present house, and was the father of seven sons and three daughters, eight of whom are still living.
Before or about 1770, John Strover purchased the farm now owned by James Bailey, Jr., but probably did not settle here till after the Revolutionary war, in which he did valuable service as a scout, going through great perils in that dangerous employment. He was an orderly sergeant. 1Te died in 1836. His son, George Strover, abont 1839 or 1840 bought the old Schuyler place, and is still living there at an advanced age. Ile had heard his father say that he was present at the execution of Lovelace the traitor. He was hung on the Gravel hill, Hear the Schuyler place,
and was buried in a standing position by an oak-tree. George Strover himself saw the oak stump dug out when the Gravel hill was ent away, and the bones were found in accordance with the statement of his father. The skull is preserved as a relic at Mr. Strover's house.
Ilezekiah Dunham also settled in this same period, just before the Revolutionary war, upon the hill where Iliram Cramer now lives. Ile was a man of nerve and daring, an active patriot during the war, and one of the captors of Lovelace.
James {. Brisbin was also an early pioneer upon the farm now owned by George W. Smith. Of Mr. Brisbin and another pioneer, George Davis, the story is related that they swapped horses on one occasion, and endeavored to be honest and fair in the transaction. But after returning home and thinking it over Mr. Brisbin concluded that he had the best of the bargain by about five dollars, and that he ought to pay over that sum. Mr. Davis, too, was going through the same process of conviction, and concluded he had the best of the bargain and ought to pay over five dollars to Mr. Brisbin. They each concluded to ride to the other's house and do this act of justice. They met about half-way, but just how they explained the matter and how they settled it history leaves no record. This transaction was not probably the model after which subse- quent horse-trades have generally been made in this town. Another pioneer of nearly the same name, James Brisbin, settled upon the farm now the residence of his grandson, James C. Brisbin.
The founders of the Friends' monthly meeting are also among the first settlers before the Revolution. Gabriel Leggett and Isaac Leggett settled within the present limits of Stillwater, and were prominent men in the new settle- ment, as well as in the society of Friends. Thomas Wil- bur and Fones Wilbur settled in the vicinity of the Basin, since known by their name, within the limits of the present town of Stillwater. David Shepherd's pioneer home was upon this place, owned ever since by his descendants, now the property of his grandson, David Shepherd. John Walker also settled in the southern part of the town, near the line of Stillwater. On the authority of Joseph A. Sweet, of Moreau, it would seem that the Van Olindas were in this town before the Revolution, on the Bennett farm, and also the Davenports; but this is not verified by inquiry sufficient to state their location at the time of their settlement.
Tibbett Soule, from his connection with the society of Friends, as related by Andrew Dorland, must also be counted an early pioneer before the Revolution. George Davis is the one spoken of in the account of Mr. Brisbin, and his place is still known as the Davis farm. He was very likely the earliest blacksmith.
Albert Clemons, who came with his father from Dutchess county, in 1789, and was then eight years old, remembers Mr. Cross, Mr. Webster, and Daniel Guiles as old residents then ; supposed they were here before the war. He heard Mrs. Webster relate stories of the war times; that the sol- diers came and took meat from their smoke-house. Mr. Cross' place was near the present one of Mr. Shearer ; and Mr. Guiles lived where Victory village is now situated.
262
HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
Mr. Patterson, living south of Victory, states that his grandfather, Sherman Patterson, was here before the Rev- olution, and settled in the north part of what is now Schuylerville, on the place owned by Alonzo Welch. He gives a definite statement of the tradition which has always existed around Schuylerville, that the British army buried some property and even specie just before the surrender.
This report has never seemed to be sustained by any very decisive authority. But Mr. Patterson states it in this form: a trench was dug straight up the hill from the river on the Patterson farm and somewhat south of the present North cemetery ; and after burying whatever they designed to, the British drew a rope the whole length, tied their horses to it, and fed them there, that the ground might be trampled and the burial of property concealed. Some of the stories of buried property have no doubt grown out of the fact that the British buried their dead in this place, and parties were seen digging, no doubt for that purpose, about the time of the surrender. This would be near the position held by the Germans,-the left wing of the British army, as stated by General Mattoon. This view is corroborated by the fact that Alonzo Welch, in opening a trench a few years ago, found the remains of six bodies. The " Hessian burying-ground," from which General Mattoon attempted to recover a gun after the surrender, was very likely at this point, though it may have been farther down the river, in the vicinity of the principal battle-fields.
Doubtless there are still other names belonging to this period between the French war and the Revolution. In 1777 a man named Swart is stated to have lived south of Coveville, near Van Buren's ferry. Colonel Van Vegh- ten, the father of Herman and Cornelius Van Veghten, was an early settler at Coveville. His name is prominent in tradition as a pioncer before the Revolution, and he was extensively connected with public affairs in that part of the country.
Conrad Cramer also settled upon the farm now occupied by John Smith, about three miles southwest of Schuyler- ville, as early as 1763.
Conrad Cramer married Margaret Brisbin. Their children were Elizabeth, who married Thomas Whiteside; James, who married Sally Payne; George, who married Anna An- derson ; Conrad, who married Laura Lawrence ; John, who married Hannah Close. The children of James Cramer were Margaret, James P., Eunice, Payne, Thomas, Sarah Anne, and lliram. The children of George Cramer were William, Philip, Conrad, James, Mary, John (2d), and Sarah. The children of Conrad Cramer were George C., James L., and John L. (twin brothers). The children of John Cramer were Mary, Eliphalet, George II., William, John C., Charles, and Harriet.
Ilenry Wagman, who has given much attention to the early history of this country, and is excellent authority, mentions three brothers by the name of Denney, who came to this town as early as 1770, and built three log houses on the present farm of John McBride. John Woeman was here, also, before 1765, and lived near Coveville. William Green settled about 1765. His sons were Samuel, John, and Henry.
At this point in the local history we cannot omit to state
briefly something of the Schuyler families, whose name's are so intimately associated with this town, who were identified with the pioneer openings in the forest, by their mills furnishing supplies to the garrisons of the fort, and to the very earliest settlers. They shared in the Indian wars, the French war, and the War of the Revolution. If any place was ever rightly named in all this broad land, it is Schuylerville.
THE SCHUYLER FAMILY.
Philip Pieterson Schuyler came from Amsterdam, Hol- land, in 1650. According to Lossing he married the same year, December 12, Margaret Van Slechtenhorst, daughter of the agent or director in charge of the Rensselaer Manor. His sons were Guysebert, Pieter, Brant, Arent Philip, Jo- hannes. The daughters were Gertrude, who married Ste- phanus Van Cortlandt ; Alida, who married Rev. Nicholas Van Rensselaer, and after his death Philip Livingston. The pioneer aneestor, Philip Pieter, died March 9, 1684. The second son, Pieter, was, for many years, one of the most prominent men in the province. Ile was mayor of Albany from 1686 to 1694. John, the youngest of the original family, was the grandfather of General Philip Schuyler.
When the French and Indians destroyed Schenectady in 1690, he asked for a captain's commission, being then twenty-two years of age. With a force hastily recruited of twenty-nine whites and one hundred and twenty Indians, he penetrated Canada by way of Lake Champlain, and re- turned in seventeen days, having taken many prisoners and destroyed much property. This Captain John Schuyler married Elizabeth Staats, widow of John Wendell, in April, 1695. The captain died in 1747. His eldest son John, born in 1697, lived the quiet life of a gentleman of leisure, having married Cornelia Van Cortlandt. He left five children, dying in 1741, only forty-four years of age. He was buried at the "Flats," now Watervliet, in the family burying-ground of his cousin. His oldest son, Philip, was the general of Revolutionary fame. He was born in the family mansion at Albany, November 20, 1733.
The Schuyler who settled at the mouth of Fish creek, built the mills and the first Schuyler mansion, was an uncle of the general. He was killed at the destruction of the village of Saratoga, Nov. 28, 1745.
The time when General Philip Schuyler came into the possession of the estate at Fish creek, is not given by his historians, nor when he commenced residing there. In 1767 he ereeted a flax-mill there, the first in the American colo- nies. The mansion at Fish ereek was his summer residence, the winters being mostly passed by the family in Albany.
William Smith, urging him to be a candidate for the Assembly in 1768, writes, " If you will serve one session more, I will promise to leave you in full possession of your wolves, foxes, snow, a small sailing-vessel with fish and lands at Saratogue, and give you no further disturbanee while the remaining sands run out."
And this promise of rural quiet was just before the long and stormy Revolutionary career in which the name of Schuyler was to become illustrious for all time.
The story of the pioneer settlement is thus brought down to the time of the Revolution. The opening of the war
RESIDENCE OF JAS C. BRISBIN, SARATOGA , NEW YORK.
RESIDENCE OF HIRAM CRAMER , SARATOGA , N. Y.
263
HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
no doubt put a stop to further emigration. To hold terri- tory already settled became the necessity of the times rather than to secure more.
The years succeeding the surrender of Burgoyne were still troublous times. It was not till the peace of 1783 that the settlement of the town continued.
General Schuyler with characteristic energy had his new house raised in seventeen days after the declaration of peace. This was the one now known as the Schuyler mansion, the property and the residence of George Strover.
It is a venerable building,-interesting for its historie associations as well as for its antique and eurious furniture, and the ancient relics carefully preserved and courteously shown to visitors by Mr. Strover and his family. During the period of seventeen years from the close of the war up to 1800, the number of new settlers increased rapidly.
They came to found for themselves and for their children homes in this beautiful valley, and ou the fertile slopes of the hills that environ it. Remnants of the orchards they planted are seen here and there in the venerable trees still bearing fruit in the same fields with those of later years. The sites of many early log houses are still visible,-though in some cases concealed beneath the fine buildings of the present time.
Jesse Mott was au carly settler south of Dean's Corners. Of himself he writes for his children in 1844: "I left Dutchess county March 14, 1783, sixty-one years ago. I was then twenty-four years of age. I first bought one hun- dred acres all new. I made a home the first year with a family who had got in the year before. I cleared some land, and in the fall I built a log cabin and caught a little wife. She was in the seventeenth year of her age.
" We lived together seventeen years. She was the mother of thirteen children, and we had collected a good property. When I first began I paid $250 towards my land. This was one-half of the purchase price. The debt of $250 cost me many a sleepless night after a hard day's labor. At that time I had no expectation of seeing the country appear as it uow does. But my days are nearly spent, and I must leave others to manage. When I left Dutchess my friends thought it very doubtful whether I should make out to live, or starve, and return a beggar. The latter I felt to despise, and within twenty years would not have been willing to have exchanged with them."
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.