USA > New York > Schoharie County > History of Schoharie county, and border wars of New York > Part 19
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Georgia. Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton.
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CHAPTER VII.
While the colonists along the sea-board were beginning to realize the horrors of war, most of the frontier settlers were spectators for a while-not idle ones however. There was a restless anxiety which reached the log tenement of the most dis- tant pioneer. Committees of vigilence, whose duty it was to gather information relative to the portending storm, and prepare for the defence of the settlements, were organized in Tryon county as early as 1774. A council of safety was chosen in Schoharie not long after.
At an early period of the difficulties, an effort was made by the Schoharie settlers to get the Indians in their neighborhood to re- main quiet, and let the colonies settle their own quarrel with the mother country. A meeting was held for that purpose at the old council ground in Middleburgh. Brant with several Mohawk chiefs is said to have been present, on which occasion a Mrs. Richtmyer, living in the vicinity, acted as interpreter. The In- dians agreed to remain neutral or join the Americans, says an old citizen who was present at the time; but they were too fond of war to remain inactive, while the British government was urging them at once to take up arms.
Previous to the Revolution, a small castle had been erected for the natives at Brakabeen,* on the west bank of the Schoharie, several miles above Wilder hook, to which many of them re- moved from the latter place. Near it they had a burying ground. A deputation from the Schoharie tribe were present in August,
* Brakabeen is the German word for rushes, and obtained from the unusual quantity of that plant found along the banks of the river at that place.
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1775, when several commissioners met the chiefs of the Six Nations at the German Flats; and it is believed they were at Albany, where a subsequent meeting was held the same year, for the same purpose. At the time the Indians left the Mohawk valley to follow the fortunes of the Johnsons, the Schoharie In- dians, who survived a pestilence, except two or three families, imitated their example, leaving the council grounds and green graves of their fathers.
Brown says, that while the Indians were assembled to treat with the commissioners of the Indian department, a contagious disease-which he calls yellow-fever-broke out amongst them, which carried them off in great numbers. That the survivors superstitiously supposed the Great Spirit was angry with them for not serving their king, or for hesitating about entering his service; and that consequently they joined the royalists and went to Canada.
Warree, an old Cherokee squaw, said to have been 105 years old, usually called the mother of the Schoharies, who was living at Brakabeen at the beginning of hostilities, took the prevail- ing epidemic in 1775, and died with it. This good old squaw who was familiarly called Granny Warrce, was the second wife of Schenevas, a Schoharie chief, after whom Schenevas creek in Otsego county, was called .* For several years before her
. Brown's pamphlet originates the name of this stream from the following circumstance: Two Indians, Schenevas and son, were there in the winter on a hunt-a deep snow fell and they concluded to return home. After tra- veling some distance, they kiadled a fire and tarried over night. The fol- lowing morning they set forward on their journey, but the father became fatigued, and finally returned to the place from whence they had first started. The son, discovering his father had taken the back track, returned also, and found him seated by a fire which he had kindled. The son killed his father with a tomahawk, buried him in the snow and returned to Schoharie, since which time this stream has been called Schenevas creek.
At a personal interview, Judge Brown related the following tradition, which he believed true: A Schoharie chief named Schenevas, whom I sup- pose to have been the one killed at the Schenevas creek, was living in the lower part of Schoharie. His mother, an aged widow, was living with him. She was a quarrelsome old squaw-was very fretful, and often wished her- self dead when in a fit of ill humor. Her son, getting out of patience with her, went to Lambert Sternberg and borrowed a shovel, with which he dug
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death, she used to walk with two canes, a good example for the modern exquisite, while her hair, unconfined and white as the Alpine snow, floated loosely at the sport of the breeze. When she felt the prevailing malady stealing upon her, and witnessed its fatal effects upon many of her tribe, believing her days were numbered, she desired to be carried to the spot where her hus- band had died. She was universally beloved by the whole tribe, indeed by all the white citizens who knew her, and her request, although it subjected them to great inconvenience in their pre- sent difficulties, was readily complied with. She survived the journey but a day and two nights, and "was gathered to her fathers, to enter new hunting grounds." She was buried by her faithful warriors who had carried her the whole distance-fifteen or twenty miles-beside her departed husband, near the present residence of Mr. Collier.
It is a remarkable fact, that while a large part of the Scho- harie Indians died of this contagious disease, not a single white citizen took it.
Who the first chosen council of safety were in Schoharie, 1 am unable to say. Johannes Ball, a thorough going Whig, was chairman of the committee from its organization to the end of the war. It consisted generally of six members, and under- went some changes to meet the exigencies of the times. The following persons it is believed were members in the course of the war: Joseph Borst, Joseph Becker, Peter Becker, Col. Peter Vrooman, who is said to have done most of the writing for the board, Lt. Col. Peter Zielie, Peter Swart, Wm. Zimmer of
a grave, in Sternberg's orchard. He then conducted his mother to it. You have often wished yourself dead, said he, I have prepared your grave-you must die. When she saw the open grave, and realized that she had been takea at her word, she was terrified and began to cry. The savage son told her she must not be a baby-that she was going to the Great Spirit who did not like babies. He then forced her into the grave-bade her lie down- and buried her alive. She struggled hard as the earth covered her, but, re- gardless of her entreaties, he stamped down the earth upon her, and closed up the grave. We could wish for poor human nature that those parental murders were mere fietion; but we have too much reason to believe them true-indeed history furnishes us with abundant evidence of inhuman atro. cities in savage life.
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Brakabeen, Wm. Dietz, Samuel Vrooman, Nicholas Sternberg, Adam Vrooman, George Warner of Cobelskill, and Jacob Zim- mer of Foxes creek.
Mr. Ball, chairman of the Schoharie committee, had two sons, Peter and Mattice-who were both living in 1837, in the town of Sharon-who, with their father warinly espoused their coun- try's cause ; while another son, and his brother, Captain Jacob Ball-a leader among the tories at Beaverdam ; and John Peter Ball, another relative, as warmly advocated that of the oppressor.
As appears by the ancient records preserved in the Secretary's office at Albany, a regiment of militia was organized for the " Schoharie and Duanesburgh districts," as the fifteenth regiment of New York militia, and commissions to its officers were issued and dated October 20, 1775. It was composed at first of only three companies, and as their members were not all well affected toward rebellion, and scattered over considerable territory, the reader will see their need of foreign assistance. The following is a list of officers to whom commissions were at first issued.
" Peter Vrooman, Col. ; Peter W. Zielie, Lieut. Col. ; Thomas Eckerson, Jr. 1st Maj. ; Jost Becker, 2d Maj .; Lawrence School- craft, Adjt. ; Peter Ball, Qr. Master.
" First Company-George Mann, Capt .; Christian Stubragh, 1st Lieut. ; John Dominick, 2d Lieut .; Jacob Snyder, Ensign.
" Second Company-Jacob Hager, Capt. ; Martynus Van Slyck, 1st Lieut. ; Johannes W. Bouck, 2d Lieut. ; Johannes L. Lawyer, Ensign.
" Third Company-George Rechtmyer, Capt. ; Johannes I. Law- yer, Ist Lieut. ; Martynus W. Zielie, 2d Lieut. ; Johannes Lawyer Bellinger, Ensign."
A small company of militia was afterwards organized in Co- belskill, under Capt. Christian Brown and Licut. Jacob Borst, which was possibly attached to the Schoharie regiment.
On the 14th of June, 1776, I find by the Albany records, that Schoharie was represented in the " general committee chamber," by chairman Ball and Peter Becker, of the Schoharie council of safety. At a meeting of the New York State Committee of Safety, convened at Fishkill, October 9, 1776, the following reso- lution was adopted-
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HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY,
" Resolved, That the persons hereafter mentioned, be appointed to purchase at the cheapest rate, in their several counties, all the coarse woollen cloth, linsey woolsey, blankets, woollen hose, mit- tens, coarse linen, felt hats, and shoes fitting for soldiers ; and that they have the linen made up into shirts." [The committee named for Albany county were]-"Capt. John A. Fonda, of the manor of Livingston ; Peter Van Ness, of Claverack ; Barent Van Beuren, of Kinderhook ; Isaac V. Arnum, of Albany : Cors. Cuyler, of Schenectada ; James McGee and Henry Quackenboss, of the ma- nor of Rantselear ; Anthony Van Bergen, of Cocsakie; Henry Oothout, of Katskill; and Johannes Ball, of Schoharie; and that the sum of 100 pounds be advanced to each of them for purchasing the above articles."
The following oath of allegiance was found among the papers of the late Chairman Ball-
" You shall swear by the holy evangelist of the Almighty God, to be a true subject to our continental resolve and Provincial Con- gress and committees, in this difficulty existing between Great Britain and America, and to answer upon such questions as you shall be examined in, so help you God.
" Derrick Laraway appeared and swore the above mentioned, before the chairman and committee, at Schoharie, and signed the association, on the 30th day of June, in the year 1776."
The following papers are copied from a record made by Judge Swart some years before his death. They were obtained through the politeness of the late Gen. Jacob Hager, and although they exhibit personal services, as they will throw some light on Scho- harie affairs in the Revolution, I give them an insertion.
" Names of the Persons that made resistance in 1777, against McDonald and his Party."
The Hager Family .* Peter Zielie, jr. Storm Becker jr.
Peter Vrooman, [Col.] Thomas Eckerson,
John H. Becker,
Jonas Vrooman, Thomas Eckerson jr. John I. Becker,
Peter Swart, [after- [Maj.]
wards judge,] George Richtmyer,
David Becker, Albertus Becker,
Peter A. Vrooman,
Cornelius Van Dyck, Peter Zielie, [Lt. Col.]
Peter Powlus Swart, Tunis Eckerson, Abraham Becker,
Peter Van Slyck,
Cornelius Eckerson, Martinus Zielie,
Hendrick Becker, Peter Becker,
John A. Becker, Storm A. Becker, John Van Dyck,
John S. Becker,
Christian Richtmyer.
. It is a fact worthy of note, that while members of almost every family of distinction in the Scnoharie settlements were found in hostile array, as father
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AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK.
The preceding memorandum embraces few if any names of in- dividuals north of the present limits of Middleburgh ; although there were many patriots about Foxes creek, and the Schoharie valleys farther north, and not a few in the more distant set- tlements. The party named assembled at Middleburgh, and be- gan fortifying the stone house of John Becker, afterwards picket- ed in, and occupied as the middle fort. The record of Swart thus continues :
" I was enrolled in the militia at sixteen years of age ; [this was the lawful age for enrolling at that period] served as a private six months ; then I was appointed a corporal-served in that capacity about one year; then I was appointed sergeant in Capt. Hager's company ; 1778, I was appointed ensign in said company, in the room of John L. Lawyer; 1786, I was promoted to first major of the regiment ; 1798, I was promoted to lieut. colonel com't; 1784 I was appointed justice of the peace without my knowledge; 1796 I was appointed one of the judges of the county, which office I have resigned 1818; 1798 I was elected a member of assembly ; the next election I was solicited to stand again as a candidate, which I utterly refused ; 1806 I was elected a member of Con- gress. I was afterwards again requested to stand as a candidate for Congress, which I refused ; when John Gebhard, Judge Shep- ard, and Boyd were candidates for Congress. Gebhard and Shepard met with their friends at the Court House for one of them to give way; no arrangement could be made ; they both signed a written declaration to give way in case I would accept a nomination, which I also refused. 1816 I was elected a senator. At the expiration of my time I was again requested to stand a can- didate for the senate, which I also refused. I never craved or re- quested an office.
" I was one of the first that signed the compact and association. 1776 I turned out to Stone Arabia to check the progress of the enemy and tories. In the fall of the same year, I turned out to Albany, from thence to Fort Edward, from thence to Johnstown, to check the enemy. 1777, in the spring, I turned out to Har- persfield, from thence to the Delaware to take up disaffected, from there home. Three days home, I went down the Hellenbergh to take tories; after we had together about twenty-five of them, went to Albany and delivered them in jail. A few days after- wards went to Harpersfield ; from thence to Charlotte river to take
against son, brother against brother, &c., all the members of the Hager fa- mily at once united with those who were unfurling to the winds of Heaven. the stars and stripes of freedom. From the number of Beckers on this list, we may reasonably suppose that few of that name were torics.
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HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY,
McDonald, and send him to jail. In August 1777, was one of the thirty-two that made a stand to oppose McDonald and his party. I was one of the two that risked our lives to crowd through the tories' guns to go to Albany for assistance ; was taken prisoner by the Indians and tories ; the same evening I made my escape .* I was one of the six councillors that went from the stone house across Schoharie creek into the woods in a cave, to consult what measures to adopt -secresy at that time was the best policy.t Did not McDonald and his party come down as far as my house, and there encamp till next day, and destroy every thing ? I had left home. The same day McDonald and his party were defeated and fled into the woods, and went off to Canada, and about twenty- six from Brakabeen went with him. What would have been the result if our small party had made no resistance, and had tamely submitted ? McDonald would have marched through Schoharie, and in all probability reached Albany. What was the conse- quence as far as he came down ? Was not the farm of Adam Crysler confiscated ? Also the farm of Adam Bouck and brothers ? Also the farm of Frederick Bouck ? Also the farm of Bastian Becker ? Also the farm of John Brown ? Also the farm of Hen- drick Mattice ? Also the farm of Nicholas Mattice, and a number of others that were indicted ? And a number more that had joined McDonald and fired on our men."
Peter and Mattice Ball, as their father was chairman of com- mittee, were subjected to much arduous duty, and consequently were often pressed into unexpected service. Peter Ball related to the author the following melancholy incident. He had been sent to Ticonderoga with a sleigh load of stores for the army, during the winter preceding Burgoyne's campaign. While re- turning, in company with other sleighs which had been there for the same purpose, the horses attached to one of them, which was driven by a boy and contained six soldiers, took fright at the sound of a drum in one of the sleighs. They were driving upon ice at the time, and if I mistake not, they were on the Hudson,
ยท Swart and his neighbor, Ephraim Vrooman, were sent to Albany for aid, by Col. Vrooman, and started on foot, supposed the day before Col. Harper did, and arrived there almost as soon. They were detained on their way, by coming unexpectedly upon a party of armed royalists ; but finally escaped from them and pursued their journey.
t The stone house to which he alludes, was that of John Becker, after- wards fortified as the middle fort. The cave, or place of concealment, for- merly called " the committee hole," was on the opposite side of the river from Middleburgh, in a ravine between the mountains.
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AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK.
near Saratoga. When the horses started, one of the men took the reins from the boy, who jumped out and escaped ; but the soldiers and horses broke through the ice and were all drowned. Ball assisted in recovering the bodies of the soldiers, and conveyed them to Albany in his sleigli.
Once he carried a load of powder in a wagon to Lake George ; three other loads went at the same time, and all were guarded by military from Albany. On two other occasions, he was sent to Fort Edward with flour from Schoharie, and was pressed to take loads from there to Lake George. On those occasions he had to lie out nights, and suffered from cold.
Chairman Ball resided about half a mile north of the stone church in Schoharie, known, when fortified in the Revolution, as the Lower Fort. His son, Wilhelmus Ball, now resides on the same ground. Peter Ball once playfully remarked to the author, that his father had nine children by his first wife, and only ten by his second.
Several anecdotes of interest are told of Chairman Ball. His neighbor, George Mann, who was a captain of militia, kept a public house where Cornelius Vrooman now lives, and warmly advocated royalty. His house was made the rallying point for To- ries and Indians in the year 1776 and early part of '77, to con- sider the past and plan future operations. The individuals of this stamp who usually met there, neither liked Johannes Ball nor his politics. It was therefore thought best to get him out of the way if possible : indeed, it was afterwards asserted and confidently be- lieved, that five hundred guineas were offered by an agent of the king for his destruction. David Ogeyonda, a subtle Schoharie warrior, who had a hut on the lands of Adam Vrooman, and who had been for some time active for the Tories, doing the duties of a runner, spy, &c., was to be the instrument of his death. Ball was to be invited to the house of Mann, under the pretence of having important business to transact with him, or some one else, when David was to provoke him to a quarrel, and thus have a plausible pretext to kill him. Hostilities had not yet gone so far in Schoharie, that either party felt justified in imbruing their
15
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HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY,
hands in the blood of an old neighbor, without the show of cause. Ball went to the house of Mann, at the appointed time, taking the precaution to go armed with a brace of loaded pistols. He found that the business was of little importance, but that the In- dian, David, was determined to quarrel with him. As the savage not unfrequently seized the handle of a long knife worn in his girdle, he suspected his motive and made good his escape ; keep- ing a chair with one hand between his enemy and himself until he reached the door, while the other hand rested upon a pistol. This transaction took place but a short time previous to the death of this Indian, as will appear hereafter.
It had been the usual custom for ministers of the gospel, to re- member the king in their prayers on the Sabbath, previous to the commencement of difficulties. One Sunday, as Chairman Ball was leaving the stone church, just before the outbreak of hostili- ties, when the excitement of stifled feeling was scarcely controlled, he said to one of his Whig neighbors, who was standing so near old domine Schuyler that the latter could hear the remark, " the domine does not dare to pray for King George any more, and for Congress he will not pray." Schuyler usually preached in Low Dutch at Middleburgh, and in German at Schoharie.
Col. Peter Vrooman, one of the Schoharie committee, was a major of militia before the revolution. He was a captain in the French war, and assisted in erecting fortifications at Oswego. If not as energetic as some officers, he was far from being as pusil- lanimous as represented in the Annals of Tryon County, or Stone's Life of Brant. The old soldiers who served under him, represent him as having been a bold and determined man, and his conduct on several occasions during the war, gave good evidence of that fact. He was very much respected in the coun- ty, and is said to have been nineteen years a member of either the senate or assembly of New York. An attempt was made to take him prisoner during the war. A liberal reward had been offered for his apprehension. A meeting of the council of safety was to take place at his house, and supposing he would remain at home, several of the enemy had secreted themselves, intending
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AND BORDER WARS OF NEW YORK.
to secure his person when the rest of the committee retired. The snow was deep and the enemy expected an easy conquest ; but it became necessary for him to leave home with his guests, and the intentions of the foe were thwarted.
In 1776, a plan was devised by Governor Tryon, aided by the Mayor of New York, to seize the person of Gen. Washington ; some of whose guard were in the plot: but the design of the enemy was seasonably discovered, and those who were conniving with the enemy, executed .- Bancroft's Washington.
In the fall of 1776, Congress sent Dr. Franklin, Silas Dean and Arthur Lee as commissioners to the court of France for aid : and also resolved to build a navy.
The year 1776 closed without any thing remarkable occurring to disturb, unusually, the peace of the frontier settlements. After the Declaration of Independence, events transpired in other places, involving the safety of the republic. In August, the whole of Long Island fell into the hands of the enemy, and in September, the city of New York followed the same fate .*
. The masterly retreat of Gen. Washington with his army across the East river from Brooklyn to New York, is thus related by Major, afterwards Col. Benjamin Tallmadge, in his military journal : "In the face of many diffi- culties, the Commander-in-chief so arranged his business, that on the eve- ning of the 29th, [Aug.] by 10 o'clock, the troops began to retire from the lines in such a manner that no chasm was made in the line, but as one regi- ment left their station on guard, the remaining troops moved to the right and left, and filled up the vacancies, while Gen. Washington took his station at the ferry, and superintended the embarkation of the troops. It was one of the most anxious, busy nights that I ever recollect, and being the third in which hardly any of us had closed our eyes to sleep, we were all greatly fa- ligued. As the dawn of the next day approached, those of us who remained in the trenches became very anxious for our own safety, at which time there were several regiments still on duty. At this time a very dense fog began to rise, and it seemed to settle in a peculiar manaer over both encampments. I recollect this peculiar, providential occurrence perfectly well, and so very dense was the atmosphere, that I could scarcely discern a man at six yards distance. When the sun rose we had just received orders to leave the lines, but before we reached the ferry, the Commander-in-chief sent one of his aidi to order the regimeat back to its former station. Col. Chester immediately faced about and returned to the lines, where we tarried until the sun had risen, but the fog remained as dense as ever. Finally, the second order ar- rived for the regiment to retire, and we very joyfully bid those trenches a
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HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY,
I shall have repeatedly to speak of the difficulty the Americans experienced in procuring a supply of the munitions of war. The following anecdote will show that it extended to small concerns. In the early part of the contest, gun-flints were so scarce, that troops while performing the manual exercise, substituted wooden ones for those of silex. While James Williamson was on duty one moonlight night in 1776, on Long Island off Gardiner's Isl- and, as piquet guard, he saw an armed barge approaching the shore near him from one of the British ships off the Island. He instantly raised his piece and cocked it, when, to his chagrin, he found it had a wooden flint in the lock. The men in the barge, who were sufficiently near to see the leveled musket, ignorant of its harmless condition, shifted their course without attempting to land .- James Williamson.
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