USA > New York > Schoharie County > History of Schoharie County, New York : with illusustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 40
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Butler, in 1769 and 1771, although small tracts had been obtained from the Indians previous to that time, which Sir William Johnson declared to be void. But a small part of the territory was settled before the Revolution, only that bordering on Breakabeen, as farther up the stream the flats were not broad enough to suit the Germans; besides, the Indians located above after disposing of their lands at and below Schoharie. Upon the close of the Revolution the territory was soon populated, and the town has made progress in the ratio of others, con- sidering the withering feature of lease lands and quit-rents that were early sprung upon the people. Had it not been for the unflinching obstinacy of the first German settlers of Scho- harie and Middleburgh in opposing the schemes of landed autocrats and oppressive officials, a goodly share of the County to-day would have been chained down by yearly rents, and in a continual litigation. We will refer particularly to the rent troubles of this town after dwelling upon the early history of it and the patriotic settlers.
Captain Hager settled upon the farm now occupied by Adelbert West, and was the son of Henry Hager who located upon the present Daniel Zeh farm in the town of Fulton.
The father and son, Jacob, no doubt were the first families that settled south of the present village of Breakabeen. Jacob Schaeffer, of Weiser's dorf, and a Kneiskern family, of Beaverdam, and the Beacraft family soon fol- lowed them, and made a quiet settlement until the commencement of the war. Henry Hager came from Germany when a lad with an uncle, Jacob Frederick Hager, a preacher, who settled at the Camps. Three brothers of Henry also came at the same time, one settling in Hagers- town, Maryland, one in New Hampshire, and one upon the Mohawk. Henry sought the German flats, and in course of time married a sister of Mrs. General Herkimer, and then removed to this town, and at the commencement of the Revolution was surrounded by all the comforts and conveniences enjoyed by the farmer at that day. His family consisted of five sons and one daughter, namely, Joseph, Peter, John, Jacob, David, and Mrs. Judge John M. Brown, The
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father was in service through the French war, and near its close, Jacob arrived at the required age to do military duty, and entered as a Lieu- tenant under Colonel Sternbergh.
Owing to their connection with the " upper fort," it being their especial field of patriotic labor, we refer to his career more particularly in the chapter upon that town. Upon the in- vasion by Crysler, Brant, and Seths Henry, of Vromansland in August, 1780, Captain Hager was upon his farm gathering his harvest, and was apprised of the affair by his brother, John, who mounted a horse upon the arrival of Leek at the fort with the sad news. Captain Hager was unloading hay when his brother came, and quickly throwing it off his wagon, the few in- habitants of that vicinity were taken into it, driven into the woods, and concealed near Keyser's Kill. Henry Hager started with the wagon, when a favorite dog, that began to bark, was caught by him, and fearing it would betray the fugitives, he cut its throat with his pocket- knife.
After proceeding some distance from his house, having forgotten some articles he in- tended to have taken with him, he returned and found it already occupied by the enemy, who made him their prisoner. He was seventy- seven years old, and, as he was known to the enemy to be a firm Whig, his sons (one a cap- tain), and several of his grandsons all being in the rebel army, he was treated with marked severity. They burned all of the Hager build- ings and proceeded on their march to the Susquehanna, and encamped for the night a short distance southwest of North Blenheim, or Patchin Hollow. "The wagon which carried them from their homes," says Author Simms, "was left in one place, the horses in another, and the women and children were sheltered beneath a shelving rock, in a ravine of the mountain stream before named." "After the women and children were disposed of, Captain Hager, taking with him his brother and Law- rence Bouck, Jacob Thomas and several others who composed the guard mentioned, proceeded from Keyser's Kill with due caution, to ascer- tain if the "upper fort" had been captured. It was nearly noon when Brant left the vicinity of the fort, and nearly night when its com-
mandant and his men reached it." "On the following day the women and children were removed to the fort."
Once while upon the journey to Niagara he received kind attention from an Indian. Being old and barefoot it was impossible for Hager to keep up with the party, and often he was found some distance in the rear, for which he was threatened with death each time, and upon the occasion referred to, he saw one of the savages coming on the backward track for the purpose he supposed, of carrying their threats into execution. Approaching him he spoke kindly and gave him something to eat, and after a friendly conversation upon a log by the roadside they con- tinued the march. Hager was gone eleven months, when he was exchanged and returned to his desolated home.
Beacraft, the notorious Tory, who fled to Canada in 1777, and returned several times to different sections for murder and plunder, was a resident of this town. His uncalled for murders and taunting jeers of prisoners taken from their homes by Indian parties, made his name and presence the most distasteful to the patri- ots .* After peace was proclaimed he had the audacity to return to his old neighborhood, among those he had injured all he possibly could, to settle down again. Scarcely had the fact of his returning become known among the patriots than a squad of ten surrounded the house in which he was staying one night, and took the fiend to a grove of hickories a short distance below the Blenheim bridge, where they stripped off his clothing, undoubtedly with- out etiquette, and bound him to a fallen tree. Procuring ten withe hickory whips they sur- rounded him and gave him fifty lashes upon his bare back. At the conclusion of each ten, they reminded him of his infamous acts. The first was for being a Tory; second, for the murder of "that helpless boy, the son of- Vroman, (see Fulton), whom you scalped and hung upon the fence ;" third, "for aiding in the massacre of those who were your neighbors, the Vroman family ;" fourth, "for taunts, jeers and insults when certain persons well-known to you were captives among a savage enemy ;" fifth, "for
* Patchin's Narrative.
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coniing again to the bosom of that country upon which you have spit the venom of hate, and thus added insult to injury never to be for- 'gotten." After thus punishing the villain they unbound and ordered him to " flee the country and never return."
It has been said he expressed his gratitude, after the fiftieth lash had been given, that he had been so gently dealt with, but there was not life enough left in him to say anything about it. He was buried a short distance from the whip- ping grounds, rather privately, where his ashes lie to-day. The reader would naturally ask who it was that meted justice to the murderer ? If General Patchin, and brother, Isaac, Cap- tain Hager, Lewalt Bartholomew and Casper Martin had been asked who the remaining five were, they would not have told, as the facts were to be kept a secret.
No actual engagements occurred in this town during the war, but several of the settlers were made prisoners, and forced to endure untold hardships. We will give space to General Free- gift Patchin's narrative of his captive life, as published by him over sixty years ago. We will here state that his experience was that of nearly all others, but few, too few, of less tor- ture and endurance, and who were constitu- tionally able to survive their hardships. In. 1798, General Patchin settled where Joseph Fink now resides, and built a mill. He was appointed a General of the Militia, and repre- sented the County in the Assembly in 1804, 1805, 1820, 1821 and 1822, being in six sessions, and was elected supervisor several terms. He was a very intelligent man consider- ing his limited opportunities, and died August 30, 1831, at the age of seventy-three years, not having entirely recovered from the shock his con- stitution received while a captive. His children were : Mrs. George Martin, Mrs Saniuel Burns, afterwards Mrs. Nicholas Richtmyer, Lewis, Mrs. Frederick Hager, Charles, and Mrs. Joseph Johnson. Mrs. Martin is the only one living, being ninety years of age.
The Captivity and Sufferings of General Freegift Patchin .- In the year 1780, myself as well as the whole population about the region of old Schoharie, were held in readiness by
Colonel Peter Vroman as minute-men, to be ready at a moment's warning, as the Tories and Indians were a watchful and cruel enemy. Around the region of the head of the Delaware it was suspected there were persons who favored the cause of the British ; a small company of men therefore were sent out as spies upon them, and also if possible to make a quantity of maple sugar, as an abundance of the maple grew there. Of this little company Captain Alexander Harper had the command. Fourteen persons were all that were sent out, among whom were myself, Isaac Patchin, my brother, Ezra Thorp, Lieutenant Henry Thorp, and Major Henry. It was early in the month of April-the second day of the month-when we came to the place of rendezvous, a distance from the forts of Schoharie of about thirty miles. A heavy snow-storm came on, during which about three feet of snow fell, in addition to that which was on the ground before. We were not in the least apprehensive of danger, as the nearest fort of the enemy was at Niagara; know- ing also that Sullivan the year before had scoured the Chemung and Genesee countries, killed or driven the Indians to Canada ; also as it was winter, and the snow very deep, we sup- posed were circumstances of sufficient magni- tude to prevent marauding parties effectually from approaching from that quarter at that par- ticular time. We had tapped, as the sugar making phrase is, a great number of trees, finding the proper utensils at hand, as they had been before occupied in the same way by the inhabitants who had fled to other places for safety. A few hundred pounds of maple sugar would have been a great acquisition, as the in- mates of the forts were in want of all things, having been compelled to flee from their homes to Schoharie and other places of safety. We had proceeded in our enterprise as merrily as the fatiguing nature of the business would per- mit, a few days, when on the 7th of April, 1780, at about two o'clock in the afternoon, we were suddenly beset and surrounded by forty-three Indians and seven Tories. The names of the Tories I forbear to mention, except two or three, of whom the reader will hear in the course of the narrative, the rest I have thought proper not to name, as their descendants are
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not chargeable with the misguided acts of their fathers, and it is not my wish at this time of day to cast reflections and grieve the innocent. So silent had been the approach of the enemy that three of our number lay weltering in their blood before I or any of the rest knew they were among us, as we were scattered here and there busy with our work. I was not far from our captain when I saw the Indians first, who were accosted by Brant, their leader, as follows: -" Harper, I am sorry to find you here." "Why," said Harper, "Captain Brant, are you sorry ? " " Because," he replied, "I must kill you, though we were schoolmates in youth." Then he lifted and flourished his tomahawk over his head ready to execute the deed, but suddenly, as if paralyzed by a stroke of magic, stopped this act of murder, as if some new and important thought had crossed his mind-when he gazed at Harper with an eye as keen and deadly as a serpent, saying, " Are there any troops at the forts at Schoharie ?" Harper per- ceived in a moment, that the answer to this question would either save their lives or procure their instant death; for if he should say no, which would have been the truth, the Indians would have killed them all and then proceeded to old Schoharie, massacreing as they went, and cut off the whole inhabitants before help could have been had from any quarter, and the enemy, as a wolf, when the morning appears, flees with the shades of the night. Accordingly, he an- swered, "There are three hundred Continental troops now at the forts, who arrived there about three days since." But the whole of this state- ment was untrue; yet who will condemn the captain, and say the act would need much repentance ere it should have obtained forgive- ness. On hearing this, the countenance of Brant fell, when he waved with his hand a signal to the chief, stopped the massacre, and called a coun- cil of war ; all of which, from the time Brant had brandished his hatchet over the head of Harper, had been but the work of a moment.
The eleven survivors were seized, pinioned, and turned all together in a hog-pen; where they were kept till the morning. A guard of Tories, with one Beacraft by name at their head, was set over them in the pen-a bloody villain, as will appear in the course of this account.
All night Brant and his warriors, with the Tories, were in fierce consultation whether the prisoners should be put to death, or taken alive to Niagara. The chiefs appeared swayed by Brant, whose influence prevailed over the whole opposition of the murderous crew ; there was a reason for this, as will appear by-and-by. While this question was pending, we could see plainly their every act through the chinks of the pen, as a monstrous fire was in their midst, and hear every word, though none of us understood their language but our captain, whose countenance we could perceive, by the light of the fire, from time to time changing with the alternate pas- sions of hope and of fear, while the sweat ran down his face from the mere labor of his mind, although it was a cold night. And added to this, the sentry, Beacraft, who was set as a guard, would every now and then cry out to us, " You will all be in hell before morning." But there we were, tied neck and heels, or we would have beat the pen about his head. Our captain whispered to us that his word was doubted by the Indians and Tories, who were for killing us, and proceeding without delay to Schoharie. At length the morning came, when Brant and his associate chiefs, five in number, ordered that Harper be brought before them. Here the question was renewed by Brant, who said, " We are suspicious that you have lied to us ;" at the same time he sternly looked Harper in the face, to see if a muscle moved with fear or prevarication.' To which our captain an- swered with a smile, expressive of confidence and scorn, and at the same time descriptive of the most sincere and unvarying honesty, that every word which he had spoken, respecting the arrival of troops at Schoharie, was wholly true. His answer was believed, at which moment not only their own lives were saved, but also those of hundreds of men, with helpless women and children, who have not known to this day, except the few to whom the story has been told, that so great a Providence stepped in between them and servitude, torture and death.
It was extremely mortifying to Brant to be compelled to relinquish, at the very moment when he was ready to grasp the utmost of his wish, in the glory and riches he would have acquired in the completion of his enterprise.
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He had fcd the hopes of his associate chiefs, warriors and Torics with the same prospects ; having calculated, from information long before received, that Schoharie was in a defenseless state, and dreaded no evil, which rendered it extremely difficult to restrain them from killing the prisoncrs out of mere fury at the disap- pointment. A few moments of consultation ensued, when the rest were ordercd out of the pen. Brant now disclosed the whole plan of the expedition in English, expressing his regret at its failure, stating that he and the other chiefs had, with difficulty, saved them from being scalpcd, and that he did not wish to kill them in cold blood now, they had been together a day and a night, and if they chose to go with him to Niagara as captives of war, they might, but if they failed on the way through fatigue or want of food, they must not expect to live, as their scalps were as good as their bodies.
They had no provisions with them, neither had they eat anything as yct while we had been their prisoncrs, except what they had found in our sap-bush, which they had at first devoured with the rapacity of cannibals. We now took up our line of march, with our arms strongly pinioned, our shoulders sorely pressed with enormous packs, our hearts bleeding at the dreadful journey before us, and the servitudc we were exposed to undergo among the Indians, or if bought by the British, imprisoned by land and sea, was our certain fate, at least till the end of the war, if we even survived the journey.
The snow was then more than three feet deep, and being soft rendered it impossible for us prisoners to travel, as we had no snow-shoes, but the Indians had ; a part, therefore, of them went before us and a part behind, all in Indian file, so by keeping their tracks we were enabled to go on, but if we happened to fall down, the Indians would cry out, " Waugh Bostona." We liad traveled about ten or twelve miles, when we came to a grist-mill, situated on the Dela- ware, the owner of which welcomed this band of infernals, and gave them such refreshments as were in his power, but to us, poor prisoners, he gave nothing, while we were made to sit apart on a log beside the road. I shall never forget the cruelty of three or four daughters of this man, whose name I forbear to mention out of
pity to his descendants. These girls insisted that they had better kill us there, for if by any means wc should ever get back, their own lives would be taken by the Whigs; their fatlicr also observed to Brant that he had bettcr have taken more scalps and less prisoners. When we wcrc ready to proceed again, the miller gave Brant about three bushels of shellcd corn, which was divided into eleven different parts and put upon our backs, already too heavily burdened. This corn was all the whole body of Indians and ourselves had to subsist upon from there to Niagara, except that which accidentally fell in our way, a distance of more than three hundred miles, entirely a wilderness. From this mill we traveled directly down the river ; we had not, however, gone many miles, when we met a man who was a Tory, well-known to Brant, by name Samuel Clockstone, who seeing us, the prisoners, was surprised, as he knew us ; when Brant related to him his adventure, and how he had been defeated by the account Captain Harper had given of the troops lately arrived at Schoharie. " Troops," said Clockstone, "there are no troops at that place, you may rely upon it, Captain Brant, I have heard of none." In a moment the snake eyes of Brant flashed murder, and running to Harper, he said, in a voice of unrestrained fury, his hatchet vibrating about his head like the tongue of a viper, " How come you to lie to me so?" Wlien Harper, turning to the Tory, said, " You know, Mr. Clockstone, I have been there but four days since ; you know since our party was stationed at the head of the river, at the sap-bush, that I have been once to the forts alone, and there were troops, as I have stated, and if Captain Brant disbelieves it, he does it at his peril." That Harper had been there happened to be true, which the Tory happened to know, when he replied, “Yes, I know it." All the while Brant had glared in- tensely on the countenance of Harper, if possi- ble to discover some misgivings there, but all was firm and fair ; when he again believed him, and resumed his march.
There was a very aged man by the name of Brown, who had not gone off with the rest of the families who had fled the country. This miserable old man, with two grandsons, merc lads, were taken by Brant's party, and compelled
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to go prisoners with us. The day after our meeting with the Tory, as above described, this old man, who was entirely bald from age, be- came too weary to keep up with the rest, and requested that he might be permitted to return, and alleged as a reason, that he was too old to take part in the war, and, therefore, could do the King's cause no harm. At this request, instead of answering him, a halt was made, and the old man's pack taken from him, when he spoke in a low voice to his grandsons, saying that he should see them no more, for they were going to kill him; this he knew, being acquainted with the manners of the Indians. He was now taken to the rear of the party, and left in the care of an Indian, whose face was painted entirely black, as a token of his office, which was to kill and scalp any of the prisoners who might give out on the way. In a short time the Indian came on again, with the bald scalp of the old man dangling at the end of his gun, hitched in between the ramrod and muz- zle, this he often flapped in the boys' faces on the journey. The place at which this was done was just on the point of a mountain, not far from opposite where Judge Foot used to live, on the Delaware, below Delhi. There he was left, and doubtless devoured by wild animals. Human bones were afterwards found on that part of the mountain.
We pursued our way down the Delaware till we came to the Cook House, suffering very much, night and day, from the tightness of the cords with which our arms were bound. Froni this place we crossed through the wilderness, over hills and mountains, the most difficult to be conceived of, till we came to a place called Ochquago, on the Susquehanna river, which had been an Indian settlement before the war. Here they constructed several rafts out of old logs, which they fastened together with with:es and poles passing crosswise, on which, after untying us, we were placed, themselves manag- ing to steer. These soon floated us down as far as the mouth of the Chemung river, where we disembarked and were again tied, taking up our line of march for the Genesee country. The Indians, we found, were more capable of sustaining fatigue than we were and easily out- traveled us, which circumstance would have led
to the loss of our lives had not a singular Providence interfered to save us! This was the indisposition of Brant, who every other day for a considerable time fell sick, so that the party were compelled to wait for him, this gave an opportunitity for us to rest ourselves. Brant's sickness was an attack of the fever and ague, which he checked by the use of a preparation from the rattlesnake. The rattlesnake he caught on the side of a hill facing to the south, on which the sun shone, and had melted away the snow from the mouth of the den of those serpents, where it appears one had crawled out, being invited by the warmth.
The reader will also observe that about a fortnight had now elapsed from the time of our captivity, so that the season was farther ad- vanced, and added to this, the snow is sooner melted on the Chemung, in Pennsylvania, being farther south by about three degrees than the head of the Delaware, yet in places even there, there was snow on the ground, and in the woods it was still deep. Of this snake he made a soup, which operated as a cure to the attack of the ague. The reader will remember the three bushels of corn given at the mill; this they fairly and equally divided among us all, which amounted to two handsful a day, and that none should have more or less than another while it lasted, the corn was counted as we received them ; in this respect Brant was just and kind. This corn we were allowed to boil in their kettles when the Indians had finished theirs ; we generally contrived to pound it before we boiled it, as we had found a mortar at a deserted wigwam left by the Indians the year before, who had been driven away by General Sullivan. While in the neighborhood of what is now called Tioga Point, we but narrowly escaped every man of us being butchered on the spot ; a miracle, as it were, saved us. - The cause was as follows : At this place, when Brant was on his way down the Chemung on this same expedition, but a few days before, he had detached eleven Indians from his company to pass through the woods from Tioga Point to a place called the Minisink. It was known to Brant that at this place were a few families, where it was supposed several prisoners might be made or scalps taken, which at Niagara
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would fetch them eight dollars a piece. This was the great stimulus by which the Indians in the Revolution were incited by Butler, the British agent, to perpetrate so many horrid murders upon women, children, and helpless old age in this region of country.
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