USA > New York > Schoharie County > History of Schoharie county, and border wars of New York > Part 33
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At this period, George Eacker resided where Jacob F. Dock- stader now does, just below the Nose. Having discovered the fire of the burning buildings down the valley, he sent his family into the woods on the adjoining mountain, but remained himself to secure some of his effects. While thus busily engaged, several of the enemy arrived and made him prisoner. As they began to plunder his house, they sent him into the cellar to procure them food. On entering it, he discovered an outside door ajar ; passing which, he fled for the woods. As they thought his stay protract- ed, the Indians entered the cellar, and had the mortification to see their late prisoner climbing the hill, beyond the reach of their guns. Finding his family, he led them to a place of greater se- curity in the forest, where they remained until the present danger was past, and their buildings reduced to ashes .- David Eacker, first judge of Montgomery county at his death.
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The enemy proceeded at this time as far west as the Nose, de- stroying a new dwelling, ashery, &c., just then erected by Major Jelles Fonda .- Mrs. John Fonda.
When Sir John Johnson removed from Johnstown to Canada, a faithful slave owned by him, buried, after he had left, his most valuable papers and a large quantity of silver coin, in an iron chest, in the garden, at Johnson Hall. Among the confiscated property of Sir John sold at auction, was this very slave. He was bought by Col. Volkert Veeder, and no persuasion could in- duce him to reveal any secrets of his former master. This slave was recovered by Johnson on the morning of his invasion ; and returning to the Hall with his first owner, he disinterred the iron chest, and the contents were obtained. Some of the papers, from having been several years in the ground, were almost destroyed. This slave, although well treated by Col. Veeder, was glad of an opportunity to join Col. Johnson, (who had made him a confidant,) and accompany him to Canada .- Mrs. Fonda.
Several boys were captured along the river, who were liberat- ed at Johnson Hall, and returned home, among whom were James Romeyn, and Mina Wemple. The latter, hearing the proposi- tion made by Sir John, to allow the boys to return, who was rather larger than any of the others, stepped in among them say- ing, me too! me too! and was finally permitted to accompany them off; and returned to the ashes of her inn, to console his mother. Thomas Sammons, Abraham Veeder, and John Fonda, (and possibly some others) were also permitted, on certain condi- tions, to return home ; the latter, and his brother Adam, casting lots to see which should be retained a prisoner. The captives thus liberated, were given a pass, by Col. Johnson, lest they might meet some of the enemy, and be retaken. They had not proceeded far when Veeder, (who was a brother of Col. Volkert Veeder,) halted, to read his pass. "Well," said his companion, Fonda, in Low Dutch, "you may stop here to read your pass, if you choose, but I prefer reading mine when out of danger of them red devils of Sir John's."-Evert Yates.
Colonels Harper and Volkert Veeder, collected, as speedily as
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possible, the scattered militia of Tryon county, to pursue the inva- ders, but being too weak successfully to give them battle, they were permitted, almost unmolested, to escape with their booty to Canada. John J. Hanson, captured at Tribes' Hill, after journey- ing with the enemy two days, effected his escape, and arrived half-starved, at the dwelling of a German, living back of Stone Arabia, who supplied him with food, and he reached Fort Hunter in safety .- Mrs. Evert Yates.
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CHAPTER XII.
The following facts were obtained in 1837, from Henry Hynds, a son of William Hynds, who was one of the few whigs living in New Dorlach, in the Revolution. On the evening of July 4th, 1780, a party of the enemy, consisting of seven Indians, a squaw, and one white man, Capt. Adam Crysler, arrived in the settle- ment and put up, as was afterwards learned, at the house of Mi- chael Merckley. The ostensible object of their visit was, to cap- ture Bastian France, as a son of the latter informed the author ; but as he chanced to be from home, at the suggestion of the Merckley family, they concluded to seize upon some other whigs in the vicinity. As there was but little intercourse among distant neighbors in that busy season of the year, and William Hynds was living in quite a retired place, it was suggested to Crysler, that if this family was carried into captivity, and the house not burned, they might be gone a week, and no one else know of their ab- sence. The suggestion was received with favor, and the next day, as the family of Hynds were at dinner, they were surprised, and taken prisoners. As the captors approached the dwelling, they fired a gun in at an open door, to imtimidate the family ; and en- tering secured Mr. Hynds, his wife, daughters Catharine, and Ma- ry, who were older than my informant, and four children, younger, Elizabeth, William, Lana, and an infant. The Indians then plun- dered the house of whatever they desired to take along. Henry was compelled to catch four horses belonging to his father, obedi- ence to which command several of the party stood with ready ri- fles to enforce, and prevent his escape. Upon the backs of three horses was placed the plunder made in the dwelling ; and upon the fourth, on a man's saddle, Mrs. Hynds, with several of her youngest children, was permitted to ride. The party moved for-
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ward about 2 o'clock, and traveled that afternoon to Lake Utsay- antho, and encamped near the Champion place, seven miles dis- tant from the dwelling of Hynds. The second night they en- camped in an orchard near Collier's. Among the plunder taken from the dwelling of Hynds, was a quantity of ham and pork, which the Indians ate; giving the prisoners flour, which they made into pudding.
Mr. Hynds was bound nights, and a rope laid across his body, each end of which was tied to an Indian. The party were three weeks going to Niagara ; and killed on the route one deer, sev -. eral muskrats, otters, &c., which served for food. In lieu of salt, they used ashes, and the family continued well until they reached Niagara. The large children went barefooted nearly all the way to Canada. Soon after they started, the squaw took from Henry, his shoes, which, as she could not wear them, she threw away. While journeying, they built fires nights, around which they slept upon the ground. Soup was their usual supper. On passing Indian villages, the prisoners were much abused by squaws and children ; and on one occasion, Mr. Hynds was knocked down by a blow upon the head with an empty bottle.
Soon after their arrival at Niagara, Mr. Hynds and all his fa- mily, except Henry, took the fever and ague, of which William, a promising lad, died. The prisoners were at Niagara when the troops under Sir John Johnson, destined to ravish the Schoharie and Mohawk valleys, set out on their journey. The tories from Schoharie and New Dorlach, who accompanied the army, often boasted to the prisoners, that Albany would soon be taken by the British, when themselves were to possess certain choice sections of the Schoharie flats. Mary, then fourteen or fifteen years of age, was separated from the rest of the family at Niagara, and taken to supply a vacancy in an Indian family, occasioned by the death of one of its members. Some time in the fall, the prisoners were re- moved to Buck's Island, where Elizabeth, the child next older than William, also died. From the Island, they were removed to Montreal, where Lana, the youngest child but one, died. Mrs. Hynds, whose constitution was undermined by the accumulating
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load of her mental and bodily sufferings, with her infant child soon after followed her other three children to the grave ; reduc- ing the family from nine to four. In the winter following his capture, Henry had a severe attack of fever and ague, and was removed from the guard-house to the hospital; where he was properly treated and soon recovered.
About two years and a half after their capture, Mr. Hynds, his son Henry, and daughter Catharine, with nearly three hundred other prisoners, returned home by the usual route down the Hud- son river. Mary was detained nearly three years longer in Ca- nada, but finally returned home. As was surmised, the whigs of New Dorlach knew nothing of the capture of Mr. Hynds and his family until they had been gone three or four days.
The greater part of the month of July, 1780, Seth's Henry, and a few other Indians, were secreted about the Schoharie set- tlements, in the hope of killing or surprising some of the princi- pal settlers, as he stated after the war.
One dark night, this Indian, says Josias E. Vrooman, visited the upper fort, in the hope of surprising a sentinel. He commenced climbing up at one of the sentry-boxes, with a spear in his hand, but before he was within reach of the sentinel, who chanced on that night to be Frederick Quant, the latter heard his approach, and gave the usual challenge. The Indian then dropped down upon the ground, and threw himself under one of the farm wag- gons which usually clustered around the outside of the pickets. A ball from the rifle of Quant, fired in the direction he ran, entered a waggon near his head, but the Indian made his escape.
For the following particulars the author is indebted to the ma- nuscript of Judge Hager, to Col. J. W. Bouck, and the memory of Dick, a former slave belonging to the Bouck family.
About the 25th of July, William Bouck, an elderly man, the one mentioned as the first white male child born in Schoharie, went from the upper fort to his dwelling, situated where Wilhel- mus Bouck now resides, (nearly two miles distant from said fort,) to secure his crops, taking with him a girl named Nancy Latti- more, a female slave, and her three children, two sons and a daugh-
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ter. As the family were making preparations in the evening to retire to rest, Seth's Henry and three other Indians entered the house and captured them, securing the little plunder it chanced to contain. The leader was disappointed in not finding either of Mr. Bouck's three sons at home.
Dick Bouck, the youngest of the slaves, as the enemy entered the house, sprang behind a door which stood open, and escaped their notice. The other prisoners were taken out, and as they were about to start on their journey, Master Dick, afraid of being left alone in the dark, made some noise on purpose to attract their attention, and one of the Indians re-entered the house and " hus- tled him out." Speaking of his capture, Dick said, " I made a noise, like a tam fool, and de Ingens took me dar prisoner." The party then set forward, and the captor of Dick (then eight years old) took him upon his back, and carried him as far as the resi- dence of the late Gen. Patchin, a distance of seven or eight miles, where they encamped. The enemy expected to be pursued the following day, when it would undoubtedly become known that Mr. Bouck had been captured, and before daylight the march was resumed. After sunrise, Dick had to travel on foot with the other prisoners ; and on the following night encamped at Harpersfield. At this place lived a Scotch tory, named Hugh Rose, who made jonny-cake for the Indians, which the latter shared with their pri- soners. " Dis, said Dick, " was de fus food de gabe us fore we lef home." While on their way from the Patchin place to Har- persfield, the party, for obvious reasons, avoided the beaten road, but Dick, who said " de bushes hurt him pare feet," embraced re- peated opportunities to steal into it, and sometimes traveled seve- ral rods in it, before his violation of their commands was ob- served. He often was cunning enough to leave the road just in time to avoid detection, but repeatedly he was caught in "the for- bidden path," when he was put upon a new trail, with a threat or a slap. Rose furnished provisions for the enemy to subsist on a part of the way to Canada, and they left his house about 8 o'clock the next morning.
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William Bouck, Jr. was out on a scout from the upper fort at the time his father's family was captured. The scout consisted of Bouck, John Haggidorn, Bartholomew C. Vrooman, (the first hus- band of Mrs. Van Slyck before mentioned,) and Bartholomew Haggidorn. They were sent on the errand which had led so ma- ny scouts in that direction-to anticipate, if possible, any hostile movement of the enemy. The Indians, with their prisoners, had been gone but a very short time from the house of Rose, before the scout named entered it. They enquired of Rose if there were any Indians in that vicinity. "Yes," he replied, " the woods are full of them." They desired to know in what direction they were from his house, when, instead of sending them from, he directed them towards the enemy. The footsteps of the scout arrested the attention of the Indians, who halted, leveled their rifles, and wait- ed the approach of the former. The Indians were on a rise of ground, and as Bouck looked up he saw Nancy, waving her bon- net, with fear depicted in her countenance, which signal he right- ly conjectured was intended to warn him of danger, and direct his flight in another course. He instantly divined the reason of her being there, and apprising his comrades of their peril, he turned and fled in an opposite direction. At that instant the Indians fired, and John Haggidorn was wounded in the hip, and a ball passed through the cravat of Bouck, which was tied around his neck. Haggidorn fell, but instantly sprang up and followed his companions. Had they known that there were but four of the enemy, they would no doubt have turned upon them and rescued the prisoners. The scout returned to the house of Rose, and as Haggidorn was too severely wounded to proceed, he was left by his friends, who assured the tory that if harm befel their wounded friend, or he was not well taken care of, his own life should be the forfeit.
As was anticipated, Bouck was missing in the morning, and as soon as information of the fact reached the fort, Capt. Hager des- patched about twenty men, under the command of Lieutenants Ephraim Vrooman and Joseph Harper, in pursuit of the captors. They rightly conjectured the enemy would take the usual route to-
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wards Harpersfield, and after proceeding in uncertainty until they discovered the track of Dick in the path, which they at once sup- posed left the impression of his heel, they pushed forward rapidly. The scout had gone but a few miles towards the fort, when they fortuately fell in with the pursuing party, and instantly joined it. After arriving at the place where Haggidorn had been wounded, they soon struck upon the trail of the enemy, which ascended the high grounds near. The Indians had gone but a mile or two be- yond where the scout saw them, and halted to rest upon a narrow plain near the top of the mountain, where three of them remain- ed with the prisoners, while Seth's Henry ascended to the summit, which afforded a most extended prospect, to reconnoitre. The In- dians left with the prisoners, feeling themselves secure, had laid down their packs, and were in the act of mending their mocasons, as the Americans were cautiously winding their way up the ac- clivity.
Seth's Henry, from his elevated position, completely overlooked his approaching foes, and feeling satisfied that they were now safe, he had just returned to his companions and told them they were out of danger from pursuit, as the Americans gained a view of them within rifle-shot distance. The lives of the prisoners being endangered, several of whom were nearest the Americans, prevented the instant discharge of a volley of balls, but as Leek had a fair aim upon an Indian, he snapped and his rifle unfortu- nately missed fire. Hearing the click of this lock, the Indians instantly sprang to their feet, seized their weapons, and leaving their prisoners and packs, giving a whoop and exclaiming Yan- kees, fled barefooted down the mountain in an opposite direction. The prisoners were then unbound, grateful for so unexpected a deliverance, and the party descended the hill, and proceeded to the dwelling of Rose. A kind of litter was there prepared, on which Haggidorn was carried by his friends to the fort, where, under proper treatment, he recovered.
If Seth's Henry, was foiled in taking Mr. Bouck and his family to Canada, it did not discourage him from making other attempts to surprise some of the Schoharie citizens. Familiar as he was
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with every hill, dale, ravine, and cluster of shrubbery along the river, he was enabled often to approach the very dwellings of the settlers, without being observed.
He told Mrs. Van Slyck, after the war, that cn Tuesday, one week before the destruction of Vrooman's Land, and about a week after his capture of William Bouck, himself and two other In- dians, one of whom was called William, his sister's son, lay con- cealed near a spring, in an angle of a fence, by the thick shade of a sassafras tree, not far from her father's dwelling, when she with a pail went to the spring for water-that William wanted to shoot her, but he would not let him.
Mrs. Van Slyck stated, that on the day referred to, her father, Samuel Vrooman, was at work, with several others, in a field of grain not far from his house, where a small party of riflemen from the fort were in attendance to guard them; and that she was at home alone to prepare their dinner. When she had it about ready, she went with a pail to the spring mentioned for water. As she approached it she saw the mocasoned track of an In- dian, which she at once recognized as such, but recently made in the soft earth near it. In an instant she was seized with the most lively apprehension ; and the first thought-as she felt her hair move on her head-was, that she would turn and run; but this would betray to the enemy her knowledge of their supposed proximity; whereas, if she did not pretend to notice the track, if her scalp was not what the foe sought, she would doubtless es- cape. She therefore walked boldly up to the spring, dipped her pail, with little caution about roiling the water, and walked back to the house. She expected, at every step, to hear the crack of a rifle discharged at herself, and passing several stumps on the way, this, and this, thought she, will shield me for the moment. On arriving at the house, she set down her pail, and ran to the field (leaving several gates open) to tell her friends what she had seen at the spring. The soldiers visited it and saw the Indian foot-marks, but the makers, observing their approach, had fled.
Seth's Henry pretended, after the war, that nothing but his friendship for her saved informant's life at the spring, but the fear
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of pursuit from the riflemen near, was, perhaps, the real cause of her escape. William, who leveled his rifle at her, and was pre- vented firing by the caution of his leader, had, for many years, held a grudge against her. Being often at her father's house be- fore the war, she one day accused him of stealing geese eggs, which he resented, although perhaps guilty, drew his knife and struck a blow at her, the blade of which entered the right thigh, leaving an indellible evidence of his resentment.
The same day that those Indians were concealed at Vrooman's spring, they were discovered elsewhere by some person in the settlement. Seth's Henry told Mrs. Van Slyck, that the night preceding his visit to the spring, he, with his companions, had entered the kitchen of Ephraim Vrooman's dwelling, and finding a kettle of supawn, made use of it for their suppers. Two Ger- mans lodged in the house that night ; a fact unknown to the In- dians, as was to the former the nocturnal visit of the latter. Af- ter procuring food at this house, they went to the barn of Samuel Vrooman, where they tarried over night. Thus were an armed and savage foe often prowling about the very dwellings of the frontier settlers of New York, without their knowledge.
Seth's Henry, at his interview, also stated to Mrs. Van Slyck, that some time in the summer of 1780, seven Indians (of which number, was the Schoharie Indian, William,) went into the vici- nity of Catskill to capture prisoners. That they visited a small settlement where the whites were from home, and soon succeeded in capturing seven lusty negroes. The latter generally went so willingly into captivity that they were seldom bound in the day- time. After traveling some distance, the party halted upon the bank of a spring to rest: when the Indians, leaving their guns behind them, descended to drink. The favorable moment was seized by the prisoners to liberate themselves, and snatching up the guns, they fired upon their captors, four of whom were killed : the other three fled, and William was the only one who recovered his trusty rifle. The negroes, with the six guns, returned home in due time, without further molestation.
Capt. Richtmyer, who resided near the Middle fort, was told
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by Joseph Ecker, (a tory who returned to Schoharie after the war,) that on a certain day, four tories, a Shafer, a Winne, a Mil- ler, and another person he would not name, (supposed by Captain R. to have been Ecker himself,) were secreted all day near his meadow, not far from the present site of the county poor house, in the hope of making him their prisoner. The grass was cut, and they expected the captain would be there to cure it, but for- tunately Col. Zielie ordered him to superintend the making of cartridges at the fort, and next day several soldiers were sent from the fort to guard the workmen. Thus was the design of the enemy frustrated. Four places of concealment were made and occupied by the tories near the field, by setting up green twigs, which were afterwards noticed by the citizens .- George, a son of Capt. Richtmyer.
On the second and third days of August, 1780, the settlements in and around Canajoharie were laid waste by a body of Indians under Brant. Sixteen of the inhabitants were killed, between fifty and sixty made prisoners ; over one hundred buildings burnt, and a large amount of property destroyed. This happened at a time when the Tryon county militia were mostly drawn off to Fort Schuyler. See letter of Col. Clyde to Gov. George Clinton, da- ted, " Canajoharie, August 6th, 1780 ;" first published in the An- nals of Tryon County.
At this time a party of the enemy appeared in the vicinity of Fort Dayton. Two Indians had the temerity to approach a barn, in which two men were threshing, on whom they fired. The flail- stick in the hands of one was nearly severed by a bullet, but the young farmers escaped to the fort. It was well garrisoned, and a party of Americans being then mounted, pursued and killed both the Indians. The enemy succeeded, however, in capturing the wife of Jacob Shoemaker, and her son, a lad some ten years old, who were in a field picking green peas. On their arrival in Canada, Sir John Johnson, paid seven dollars to ransom the mother, who, leaving her son in captivity, arrived at Albany some time after, from whence she was carried to Schenectada in a wagon, by Isaac Covenhoven, and from thence she accompanied
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one Walradt, a former neighbor to Herkimer .- Isaac Covenhoven, who was at Fort Dayton during the invasion.
It is probable the Schoharie settlers had been notified of the misfortunes of their friends in the Mohawk Valley, and were anx- ious to guard against surprise. The Schoharie forts were feebly garrisoned at the time, butsmall parties of soldiers were constantly engaged during the day, to guard the more exposed inhabitants while harvesting an unusual growth of wheat.
Early on the morning of the 9th of the same month, a scout, consisting of Coonradt Winne, Leek, and Hoever, was sent by Capt. Hager, from the Upper fort to reconnoitre in the western part of the present town of Fulton. The scout was instructed to return immediately to the fort without firing, if they saw any of the enemy, and were not themselves discovered. In that part of Fulton, now called Byrnville, or Sap Bush Hollow, some five or six miles distant from the Upper fort ; the scout seated themselves upon a fallen tree, near the present residence of Edwin M. Dexter, to eat their breakfast ; and while eating, a white man, painted as an Indian, made his appearance within some fifty yards of them. Stooping down as nature prompted, he became so good a mark, that Leek, who was a dead shot, not seeing any one else, could not resist the temptation to fire, and levelling his rifle, the tory was instantly weltering in his gore. As surgical instruments were af- terwards found upon his person, he was supposed to have been a surgeon, in the employ of Brant. A sınall stream of water near, which took its name from the killing of this man, whose carcase rotted by it, has been called Dead Man's creek, ever since.
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