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 71
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
REV. PHILIP WIETING.
Mr. Wieting was born in Minden, Montgom- ery county, N. Y., September 23, 1800, and entered the ministry in 1825, at Le Roy, Jeffer- son county, N. Y., from whence he removed to New Rhinebeck in 1828, to officiate over that church and Dorlach, which position he held for forty years, and brought them from a " fading " shadow to their present high standard by his untiring labors and fervent godliness. Upon the division of the Synod, Mr. Wie- ting and his followers claimed the Rhinebeck
448
HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY.
church property, while the Dorlach charge, which held to the old Synod, commenced litigation to retain it. After many years of legal dispute the courts decided against the new school's (Franck-
ean Evangelic Lutheran Synod) right to the prop- erty and Mr. Wieting and flock found them- selves destitute of a house of worship. Meas- ures were immediately taken, and in 1849 the
ALITTLE
Philips Weling
church of Gardnersville was dedicated but the building was burned soon after-supposed to have been the work of an incendiary. Not daunt- ed the present one soon took its place in which the greatest efforts, in the cause of the Master, of Mr. Wieting's life were witnessed. The con- gregation was large-covering a wide extent of territory, and it became necessary to build a branch at Lawyersville, which was done in the latter part of 1849, and dedicated in Febru- ary, 1850.
Mr. Wieting preached his valedictory sermon on the Ist day of October, 1868-the fortieth anniversary of his pastorate over his charge, in which he said "The aggregate of money raised by these two churches during my ministry is $35,000, or an average of $800 a year." His
last sermon was preached in the new brick Lutheran church at Cobleskill on the 18th day of July, 1869. The fruits of his ministry in the sparsely settled section in which he was placed was, "received to membership, 1,250; baptized, 1,300 ; marriages solemnized, 800, and 1,700 funerals attended." " Fifteen of his spir- itual children," says his memoir, "entered or are about to enter the ministerial calling."
On the 7th of September, 1869, Mr. Wieting died in the sixty-ninth year of his age, and was buried in the " Slate Hill Cemetery " by a large concourse of friends, by whom he was dearly loved. His biographer says, which is true, also of his whole life in all relations-" the secret of his successful ministry was, Earnestness, Fidelity and Perseverance."
APPENDIX.
By repeated solicitations from many of those who have given assistance and encouragement A
in the publication of this work, the author was induced for the purpose of gratifying many friends' desires, to condense material elsewhere and give place to the centennial ceremonies that occurred within the County.
By so doing may they be preserved until another century rolls round. May then a re-
currence of the spirit of honor and patriotism which led to such observances, be aroused in the breasts of our children's children, to again animate "Love of Country," through her early struggles, for a further lease of Liberty and In- dependence, and thus transmit from one cent- ury to another, our national pride and honor, through the silent workings of reverential hearts and not by martial power.
450
HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY.
667 THE purpose of this publication* is to per- petuate the formal part of the ceremonies which occurred at Schoharie on the ninety-sixth anniversary of the capture of Major Andre, and also to record in an enduring form a brief state- ment of the manner in which the people of Scho- harie county and the surrounding country re- sponded to the suggestion, that the grave of DAVID WILLIAMS, one of Andre's captors, should be permanently honored by a monument wor- thy of the historic act with which his name is associated.
" The following extract is taken from a de- scription, in the local press, of the celebration which occurred at Schoharie on the 23d day of September, 1876 :
" Saturday dawned cloudy and cool, but not threatening. The streets were dry but not dusty, and the committee-men in purple ribbons and white ribbons were busily performing the vari- ous duties assigned to them before eight o'clock in the morning. People were coming in from every quarter at that early hour, and no one seemed to think that Old Probabilities, who an- nounced rain, knew any thing about the weather. The cars from either direction were crowded in- side, and even on their roofs.
"At 10 A. M. the steady stream of incoming people was augmented by the arrival of the ex- cursion trains from Albany and Troy, and the day was fairly begun. The Committee of Re- ception was on hand at the depot with carriages for the orator and notables, and mounted mar- shals were also in attendance. As soon as the train stopped, our visitors from Albany and Troy disembarked. First came the Albany Zouave Cadets, Co. A, 10th Regiment, in com- mand of Captain John H. Reynolds, and headed by Austin's Band ; then came the carriages with Hon. Charles Holmes, president of the day ; the the orator of the day, Grenville Tremain, Esq., of Albany ; the poet of the day, Alfred B. Street, of Albany; Daniel Knower, Ralph Brewster,
commissioners ; several descendants of David Williams ; Senator W. C. Lamont ; J. R. Simms, historian, of Schoharie County ; Hon. S. L. May- ham, N. La F. Bachman, Esq., Hon. S. H. Sweet, of Albany, Colonel C. C. Kromer, Prof. S. Sias, Charles Courter, Esq., A. A. Hunt, Esq., Hon. John Westover, and Dr. W. T. La- mont and many others.
" The line of march was up Knower avenue to Bridge street, down Bridge street to Main street, down Main street to the Old Stone Fort, where the exercises of laying the corner-stone were to take place. When the head of the line reached the Stone Fort, the road was full of carriages the entire mile between it and the vil- lage, and others were still coming, and the side- walks were crowded the entire distance with people on their way to the Fort. Only about one-half of the people could get inside the grounds and in the street which passes by the grounds surrounding the Stone Fort, and these were estimated by competent judges to number five thousand. We do not doubt that there were ten thousand people in the village that day. As soon as possible order was restored, and Hon. Charles Holmes, president of the day, announced the following programme :-
Singing of Whittier's Hymn by the Schoharie Musical Association.
Prayer by Rev. WILLIAM H. HANDY.
Singing of the "STAR SPANGLED BANNER " by the Schoharie Musical Association.
Oration by GRENVILLE TREMAIN, of Albany. Music by Doring's Band.
Poem, written by ALFRED B. STREET, of Albany, and read by N. LA F. BACHMAN, Esq., of Schoharie.
Singing of "AMERICA" by the Schoharie Musi- cal Association.
Historical Address by Dr. KNOWER, of Schoharie. Music by Austin's Band.
* The following pages are taken from the published proceedings of the Ceremonies at the Laying of the Corner-Stone of David Williams Monument, at Scho- harie, September 23, 1876.
ORATION
BY
GRENVILLE TREMAIN.
MR. PRESIDENT AND FELLOW-CITIZENS-In that temple of silence and reconciliation where the enmities of twenty generations lie buried, in the tender and solemn gloom of that venerable abbey wherein is gathered the honored dust of England's bravest and best, surrounded by " royal sarcophagus and carved shrine, and by fading banners which tell of the knights of former time; where the Chathams and Mans- fields repose, and where orators and poets lie," is a conspicuous monument, bearing this inscrip- tion :-
"SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF MAJOR JOHN ANDRE, WHO, RAISED BY HIS MERIT AT AN EARLY PERIOD OF HIS LIFE TO THE RANK OF ADJUTANT- GENERAL OF THE BRITISH FORCES IN AMERICA, AND EMPLOYED IN AN IMPORTANT BUT HAZARD- OUS ENTERPRISE, FELL A SACRIFICE TO HIS ZEAL FOR HIS KING AND COUNTRY."
By command of England's king, George the Third, was this monument raised in West- minster Abbey. The sculptor, true to the historical fact, has pictured and perpetuated the singular sense of pain and grief entertained by those who were the foes of him whose name is thus prominently carved in this temple of fame. Contemplating, as it were, with bowed head this rare homage of a great nation to her dead, the spectator is moved to inquire more minutely in- to the events of this life so grandly immortalized.
What has won so much in a career of only twenty nine years ? In this sacred mausoleum of England's mighty dead, where,
Through long-drawn aisle and fretted vault.
sweep memories of those who have enriched the language, ennobled the human intellect, elevated humanity, or perpetuated in immortal verse the emotions and passions of men, on every side are names, the very utterance of which is an era, an army, an anthem, an empire. To associate with these mighty dead, how incalculable the honor ! How indelible the record here engraven ! How immortal the fame here perpetuated !
And yet this man thus wept by his foes and immortalized by his country, was an enemy to American liberty, a foe to republicanism, whose death was ignoble, and whose ashes reposed for forty years under the free soil of our own land, marked only by a tree whose fruit never blos- somed. That monument to the memory of John Andre would never have been raised, no such inscription would ever have been written, and that grim irony would not have marred the greatness of Westminster Abbey, but for the critical act, the crucial conduct and the incor- ruptible honor of him whose name is upon every lip and in every heart here to-day.
The minute details of the story and the life that are brought to mind by the ceremonies of this day will be wrought out by another and
452
HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY.
more competent hand. The expression of the thoughts and emotions suggested by the ac- cepted facts connected with the memorable event of September 23, 1780, and a mere out- line of the occurrence, are more appropriately within the province of the duty assigned to me. In the contemplation of the performance of that duty I am sustained, buoyed and strengthened by a belief in the leniency of judgment and the charitable consideration of those whom I ad- dress.
To us, living when the nation's life has spanned a century, when her greatness and her power are recognized in every clime and upon every sea, when the rich blessings of civil and religious liberty accompany every heart-throb and every breath-to us the page that records the fidelity and the transcendent honor of David Williams, John Paulding and Isaac Van Wart, is serried with lines of the deepest interest, and glorious with letters that can never fade.
We open to-day the book that perpetuates the history of Revolutionary times, that tells how our country was baptized with fire and blood; how, through toils, and labors, and sacrifices, and sorrows, and prayers, this last hope of Republicanism arose; and we know that the "red rain of her slaughtered sines has but watered the earth for the harvest of their gallant sons." We turn to the chapter black_ ened by the only traitor that disgraced the Revolutionary period, to find that his treachery was defeated and the infant nation saved by the providential presence and the memorable act of him to whom we this day erect with pageant and with pride, this monumental tribute.
That Andre's was an important but hazardous enterprise is now more fully appreciated than even when the stirring events of that period were being enacted-nay, than during the first half century of the nation's life. The true nature of that enterprise as well, thanks to the unerring adjustment of time, has become fixed
and certain wherever intelligence and judicial fairness prevail over passion or sentimentality. 1 would not if I could, and certainly I could not if I would, mar the charm of that picture which the character and personality of Major Andre presents. Dissociated from the terrible con- sequences which would have resulted from a successful termination of that enterprise, and independent of the attempt made in certain quarters in England to cast a shade upon the spotless character of Washington, we cannot contemplate the fate of Andre, without emotions of the profoundest pity. Wherever loyalty and valor are respected, wherever steadfastness and manly devotion are admired, wherever youth, ambition, intelligence and beauty combined, command interest and win affection, there will the character of Major Andre be cordially and truly appreciated. But these very qualities of heart and mind were the underlying causes of his connection with the enterprise. Considered with all the surrounding circumstances, how- ever, I have no hesitation in saying that, in comparison with the high noon glory that sur- rounds the distinguished service, lofty firmness and untarnished honor of our own Nathan Hale, the conduct of Andre pales into a glim- mering twilight. He who by corruption and bribery seeks profit and renown, has no place beside him who for love of liberty, considers his own single life but an insignificant offering upon the altar of his country.
The method of Andre's death was an insep- arable accompaniment of the act and of the offense. The laws of war and of nations have inexorably imposed the penalty, and its infamy cannot be lessened in the world's estimation by the fact that his brother was invested with the honors of knighthood. Vattel, the great ex- positor of the laws of nations and of war, while he recognizes such enterprises as not contrary to the external law of nations, denies that they are just and compatible with the laws of a pure
453
APPENDIX.
conscience, and says: "Seducing a subject to betray his country ; suborning a traitor to set fire to a magazine ; practicing on the fidelity of a Governor-enticing him, persuading him to deliver up a place, is prompting such persons to commit detestable crimes. Is it honest to in- cite our most inveterate enemy to be guilty of a crime ? * * *
It is a different thing merely to accept the offers of a traitor, but when we know ourselves able to succeed without the assistance of traitors, it is noble to reject their offers with detestation."
At this distance of time, then, we view the act of Andre with that calmness and repose of judgment that does not err, and which is not warped by
" Titles blown from adulation."
This is the darker side of the picture essential to its completeness ; but there are lighter shades to attract the eye and warm the heart. Let us examine them.
Stand with me upon the historic spot, hard by Tarrytown, in the county of Westchester, where the dark blow that was aimed at the life of the young Nation was arrested. There the zealous Andre sees visions of future glory and honor, kingliest rewards, within his very grasp. There, as he rides along his solitary path beyond the American lines and on the very verge of safety, he knows that his heel is upon the throat of American freedom and independence. Within sight the great artery of trade and commerce flows majestic to the sea, unconscious that on this hapless morn- ing of September 21, 1780, its bosom is vexed by the Vulture ladened with the fate of nations and of centuries. The giant mountains, senti- nels of the centuries, stand and see the begin- ning and the tragic ending of the hellish plot which includes the destinies of the Nation, and the sacrifice of the precious life upon which those destinies hang. Standing at this point of observation, the magnitude of the service of
David Williams is more fully seen, is more fully comprehended. In the rusty garb of a reduced gentleman, the solitary horseman, as he ap- proaches, is now the central figure of our view. And who is he ? Major John Andre, Adjutant- General of the British forces in America. He has left the " Mercuries reclining upon bales of goods, and the Genii playing with pens, ink and paper." Mercantile glories crowd no longer up- on his fancy. An "impertinent consciousness " has whispered in his ear that he is not of the right stuff for a merchant, and the picture of his beautiful and beloved Honora has lost the talis- manic power to enlighten toil and inspire in- dustry. Accomplished in the lighter graces of music, poetry and painting, graceful and cultured in literary expression, fired with a zeal for glory,
" Yearning for the large excitement that the coming years would yield,
Eager-hearted as a boy, when first he leaves his father's field,"
he has turned his glowing nature toward the pro- fession of his heart. In the words of his biog- rapher, few men were more capable than he of winning a soldier's reward. A prisoner at the surrender of St. Johns, we see him clinging to the picture his own hand had painted of the loved Honora ; promoted for merit and fidelity to a position far above his years and experience, winning the confidence and affection of his chief, Sir Henry Clinton, he is now commis- sioned for a service of which the King of Eng- land did not hesitate to say that "the public never can be compensated for the vast advan- tages which must have followed from the success of his plan."
Up to that critical moment, nine o'clock on the morning of the 23d of September, there had been no special lack of discretion on Andre's part. He had been borne along by fates that were propitious, so far as human ken could see, though in fact perils were approaching from
454
HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY.
sources called accidental, perils which to him were entirely unforseen. For more than a year he had, without exposure or suspicion, conduct- ed a clandestine correspondent with the traitor Arnold. The treason had been hidden under the phrases of the mercantile profession. Arnold, under the feigned name of "Gustavus," had communicated much valuable, and often highly important information to Andre, whom he ad- dressed as Jolin Anderson. Sir Henry Clinton, the commander of the British forces, had soon suspected the true rank and person of Gustavus. Several attempts at a personal interview had mis- carried, but the infidelity of Arnold had never been suspected. He had by importunity at last succeeded in obtaining from Washington com- mand of West Point, without causing the slight- est shade of suspicion to cross the sagacious mind of that watchful commander. There his plottings were renewed. Even the overture which had come in response to his communi- cations, and borne by the ominous Vulture up the Hudson to within fourteen miles of Arnold's quarters, near West Point, had been shown to Washington in the presence of LaFayette, with a brazen boldness that extinguished all doubts of Arnold's honor. " I had no more suspicion of Arnold than I had of myself," said the chief in relating this. On the 20th, Andre had board- ed the Vulture in the highest spirits, confident of success. The details of that midnight voy- age of twelve miles, from King's Ferry to Teller's Point, and back front the Vulture to Long Clove, are known to all. With oars carefully muffled in sheep-skins, the flag-boat, so called, beneath a serene and clear sky, approached in silence the place of meeting, where the arch-traitor was hid among the firs.
From this point occur a series of trivial cir- cumstances, insignificant in themselves, but yet big with fate. The refusal of the boatman to return to the Vulture that night, necessitated the journey to the Smith house, some three or
four miles distant, the consequent disguise as- sumed by Andre to escape detection during the return by land, and as well the possession of the papers found under Andre's stockings, which led his captors to the knowledge of his true char- acter. Without that disguise and without those papers, while the conspiracy might not have been defeated, the life of Andre would have been saved. But the memorable act of Colonel Livingston is still more remarkable. At day- break, on the morning of the 22d, the Vulture still lingered with impudent audacity in the vicinity of the American fortifications. Her presence had so outraged the spirit of Livings- tôn and the troops that he had applied, but without success, to Arnold for two heavy guns. Nothing daunted by the treasonable refusal of Arnold, he had carried a four-pounder to Gal- lows Point, a lesser promontory of Teller's, and with but a scant supply of powder, he com- menced so active a cannonading upon her that she was obliged to drop down the river beyond range. In this manner all means of access to her by water was cut off from Andre. But for the American grit and perseverance of Livings- ton, Andre would doubtless have found some means of again boarding the Vulture, carrying with him the instruments for the destruction of West Point and her dependencies. Upon such apparently trivial and accidental incidents does the fate of nations frequently depend.
From the window of Smith's house, Andre saw with impatience the Vulture withdraw, but he knew not that she carried with her all his hopes of future glory and renown. All that morning after Arnold's departure, which occurred at ten o'clock, he chafed with impatience to depart. But the jealous, prying, gossip-loving guide, in whose care Andre had been left, proved too timid, weak and procrastinating for the part as- signed him. Toward the last of that ill-omened Friday, the return was begun, with Andre's spirits sunk deep in gloom and sadness. And
455
APPENDIX.
well might they be. The bargain had been made by which, for gold, an officer, high in the esteem of Washington, had sold his birth-right and his honor. During that long night he had been breathing the foul atmosphere where trea- son was hatched, had been looking into a face wrinkled with perfidy, into the blood-shot eyes of a debauched and worthless traitor. And he, the soul of honor, "the pet of the British army," had been bartering with devilish coolness for the soul of a fellow-man. Involved in that mid- night conference were the lives of men who had never done him injury, and the happiness of in- nocent women and children who had never crossed his path. He, the hero, who had been fired by a desire to win renown by heroic bravery and distinguished service for his country, was skulking inside the enemy's lines like a common thief in disguise, the companion of a petty tool and his negro, and with his stockings stuffed with an ill-gotten booty, bought with the price of another's dishonor. Is it any wonder that his mind settled into gloomy forebodings ?
He crossed King's Ferry at the northern ex- tremity of Haverstraw bay and took his way, under the dictation of his over-cautious com- panion, northward, to disarm suspicion. Here another trivial circumstance interposed itself with unerring fatality. Smith, the willing tool of Arnold, insisted upon remaining over night on the way. Fatal error! In the darkness and silence of that night, there were hidden forces at work, which would block the morrow's path with a wall more impregnable than Fort Put- nam. The honor and incorruptibility of David Williams was a part of its masonry.
All night the restless Andre tossed upon an uneasy bed, side by side with the miserable creature whose easy virtue had yielded to the. persuasions of Arnold. Is it wonderful that both should have been robbed of sleep? Is it strange that at daylight and without breakfast they should hasten on in the path that was to
lead Andre to the feet of his sovereign, to receive a grateful country's homage and reward ?
And now we approach the place and the act in commemoration of which, by the tardy favor and justice of our State, we are assembled here to-day.
The three captors of Major Andre, whose names have become renowned, would in all likelihood have remained unknown to future gen- erations, had Smith, as he agreed, accompanied Andre to White Plains, below Tarrytown. But yielding to his pusillanimons fears, he refused to go further than Pines Bridge.
From this point, then, our solitary horseman approaches the place where we stand. To the west of the road was the river; to the east, the Greenburgh Hills, in whose bosom lies the world-renowned vale of Sleepy Hollow, with its old church founded by the Philipse family, and the ancient bell with its legend, Deus pro nobis, quis contra nos. In front of him as he passes, a few rough logs laid side by side, furnish a passage over a rivulet, which rises in the neighboring swamp and finds its way westward into those . broad waters of the Hudson known as the Tap- pan Zee.
Here on the south and west side of the path, concealed among the bushes, are David Wil- liams, the eldest of the party (he being about twenty-two years old), John Paulding and Isaac Van Wart, yeomen. Not freeholders un- der the rank of gentlemen, but American citi- zens of humble birth, two of whom had already risked their lives in the service of their country and in the cause of the colonies, against whom the breath of slander from sentimental or com- passionate lips, had not yet breathed a shade of suspicion ; representatives of that "Peasant patriotism of America-the conquering power of the revolution-the essential element then, as now, and evermore, of American greatness and American freedom 1"
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.