USA > New York > Schoharie County > History of Schoharie county, and border wars of New York > Part 46
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John Snyder, known after the war as "Schoharie John," and Peter Mann, of Foxes creek, were captured in the morning by Crys- ler and party, as the former were returning from Beaver-dam; Mann was however liberated in Kneiskern's dorf. The enemy proceeded from the estuary of Cobelskill and the Schoharie, up the former stream.
On the following day in the present town of Cobelskill, George Warner, jun., who was engaged in shifting horses from one field to another, was captured by Crysler and his destructives, who di- rected their course from thence to the Susquehanna. Warner in- stantly recognized as one of the master spirits among his captors, the Schoharie chief Seth's Henry, who still carried upon his arm the indellible evidence of Sawyer's ' strike for liberty,' when a captive in his hands. The second day after leaving Cobelskill, the whole party were obliged to subsist on horse flesh without bread or seasoning of any kind. Warner, who communicated these facts to the author, said he ate on the way to Niagara, of a deer, a wolf, a rattlesnake, and a hen-hawk, but without bread or salt. The two captives, Zimmer and Warner, were lightly bound, and generally fared alike while on their journey. They had for some days contemplated making their escape, and complaining that they could not travel on account of their cords, they were a little loosened, which favored their plan. They concluded they ought, in justice, to communicate their intention to their fellow prisoner, although he was not bound, and give him a chance to es- cape with them, if he chose to embrace it. But a short time after their intention was communicated to a third person, the conspi- rators for liberty were more firmly bound then ever, and were af- terwards continually watched until they arrived at Niagara.
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Nights they were pinioned so tight that they could not get their hands together ; and were secured by a rope tied to a tree or pole, upon which rope an Indian always laid down.
On their way, the party passed several rattle-snakes, which the Indians avoided disturbing ; and at the narrows on the Chemung, which was barely wide enough for a road, they, with no little dif- ficulty, made a circuit to pass one. The New York Indians had a superstitious notion, that to harm a rattle-snake was ominous of evil, and they never did it, unless to use the reptile for medicinal purposes, or prevent starvation. While on their journey, Snyder, from some cause, had angry words with one of the savages, and the latter several times twirled a tomahawk over his head, and drew a scalping knife round the crown threateningly : but they made up friends and renewed their march. The Schoharie pri- soners also passed on their way, another party of Indians, who were killing a prisoner in a singular manner. His captors had tied his wrists together and drawn them over his knees, after which a stick was passed under the knees and over the wrists, and a rope tied to it between them, and thrown over the limb of a tree. His tormenters then drew him up a distance and let him fall by slacking the rope; continuing their hellish sport until the con- cussion extinguished the vital spark.
Soon after the party passed the outlet of Seneca lake, Captain Crysler told the prisoners, tauntingly, how soon the King would conquer the rebels. Warner listened with impatience for a time, and being unable to restrain his feelings, replied, " I do not be- lieve the King will ever conquer the colonies : in the French war Great Britain and America united were hardly able to compete with France ; and now, since France and America are united, I do not believe it possible for England to conquer them." This conversation took place in the evening, and Warner observed, while speaking, that a frown rested upon the brows of the dusky warriors and their lawless captain. Warner soon after heard the tory give orders in the Indian tongue, which he understood, to have his bands tightened. In the morning, he expostulated with Crysler for so doing ; who was very angry and declared, that
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" for those cursed words he should hang at noon." Accordingly a noose was made in a rope, and the rest of it coiled and placed around his neck, which he was compelled to wear. As may be supposed, he traveled the forest with a heavy heart : still he looked upon the gallows with no little indifference, as it would end his bodily torments, and relieve him from the treatment of an unfeeling royalist. About 10 o'clock, A. M., the party halted, as Warner supposed, to anticipate the time of his execution ; but, contrary to his expectation, the rope was taken off without any explanation.
Warner and Zimmer, on arriving at the Indian villages in western New York, were subjected to the cruelties their customs inflicted on captives. The first treatment of the kind they re- ceived was from a gad in the hands of Molly Brant, (former housekeeper of Sir William Johnson,) who embraced every op- portunity during the war to insult and injure captive Americans. Soon after Molly had vented her spleen upon the two bound cap- tives, they arrived at an Indian castle, where they had to run the gantlet. When the lines were formed, an Indian chief called Abraham, who recognized Warner, stepped up to him and asked him, in German, where he was from. He replied, Schoharie. " Do you know George Warner of Cobelskill ?" continued the Indian. " He is my father," replied young Warner. This Indian, as Warner afterwards learned, had often partaken of his father's hospitality before the war. Said the Indian, " When you start to run, the boys will get before you, but you must run over them or push them one side ; they will not hurt you any the more for it, and when you get through, run to a wigwam and you will not again be hurt." Their fellow prisoner was not compelled to run, and as it happened, Zimmer started first. As the Indian had an- ticipated, the boys ran before him and he was receiving a severe castigation, when Warner, forcing his way past him, ran down several of the living obstacles, and was near the end of the lines almost untouched : where stood a large boy, who, as he bounded along, dealt him a blow upon the back of his head, which felled him senseless to the ground. Zimmer, who had not heard the
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conversation between Warner and the Indian, and feared to harm the boys, followed his companion closely in the path he had opened, and arrived at the goal of delivery, without having sustained any serious injury.
On arriving within half a mile of Niagara, Peter Ball, who had removed at the beginning of the war to Canada, from the vi- cinity of Schoharie, saw and recognized Warner, and led him away from the squaws and young Indians, who were besetting him at every step with some missile. Zimmer saw on the journey, his brother's scalp, with those of the other similar trophies of Crysler's invasion, stretched upon hoops to dry ; and on arriving at Niagara, saw them deposited, with bushels of similar British merchandize, made up of the crown scalps of both sexes and all ages. There were about two hundred prisoners confined at Ni- agara when Warner and Zimmer were there, many of whom fared hard, and several of whom died for want of food and pro- per treatment. Among the prisoners confined at Niagara there were nearly one hundred Virginia riflemen, some of whom, to say the least, feared nothing in this world.
Warner, for a considerable time during his captivity, worked for a man living near Niagara, as did also Christian Price, a spi- rited Virginian. In the latter part of the war, several Indians were found dead at different times, early in the morning, but the author of those midnight mysteries, although the prisoners were often accused of them, were never discovered, nothwithstanding numbers were sometimes in the secret. Among the victims who were thus sacrificed in revenge of the cruelties and indignities me- ted to the American prisoners, was a young Indian, sixteen or seventeen years old, known about the fort as William Johnson. He was a half-breed, said to have been a son of Sir Wm. Johnson, after whom he was called, by a squaw. This namesake of the Baronet, who was one among numerous evidences of his rakish propensity, was one morning discovered in a barrel of rain water, under the conductor of a house, into which he had unaccountably fallen head first and drowned. Several prisoners were sus- pected of being accessory to the death of this Indian, but free
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masonry was then at its zenith. The tories on one occasion gave a stump to the prisoners to wrestle. Price, who was a muscular, athletic fellow, accepted the challenge and walked into the ring to wrestle with the acknowledged bully. The prisoner, with ease, threw the braggadocio in a very feeling manner, and the sport was soon ended. Warner was retained a prisoner until after peace was proclaimed, and with twenty-three others ran away from Ni- agara one Sunday night. They halted at Oswego, purchased pro- visions of the British soldiers, and made the best of their way home through the forest. Zimmer returned home a short time before Warner, on parole. Snyder, on arriving in Canada, en- listed into the British service, as his friends have stated, to afford him an opportunity to desert and return home.
If the American prisoners at Niagara usually fared hard, they occasionally had an hour of merriment, as the following anecdote will show.
A Tory Wedding .- Among the tories who removed from Scho- harie county to Niagara, in the beginning of the war, was a man named Cockle, who had a pretty daughter called Peggy. On a certain occasion an Irishman named Patrick Tuffts, who worked much in Col. Butler's garden, and who was a dissipated, simple fellow, was made the butt of no little pleasantry. The farce was set on foot by a British officer, and the matter princi- pally conducted by him. Tuffts was induced to make love to the charming Peggy, who, agreeably to previous arrangements, re- ciprocated the sentiment, and at an appointed time, agreed to marry him. Christian Price, the Virginian previously mentioned, who in features somewhat resembled the fair toryess, was in the secret, and on the evening appointed, changed dresses with her, so that, to use the words of a guest, " Peggy was Price and Price was Peggy." At the hour appointed, the guests, who were nu- merous, for many of the prisoners were invited, assembled at the house of an influential tory. Stephen Secutt, a sergeant, a shrewd fellow, acted the ministerial part. The couple stood up before Secutt, who, with no little sang-froid, performed the marriage ceremony ; at the close of which he received from the happified son
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of Erin a silver dollar-a rarity in those days-to compensate for his official services.
Ample provision had been made by the officers and soldiers, and when the knot was pronounced tied, wine sparkled in many a cup. After the party had been drinking for some time, and the groom and bride had received many happy salutations, the tones of a violin greeted the ear, and the party prepared for a dance. The bride, who had been sitting a while in the lap of Tuffts, who was at least " half seas over," arose to dance with a guest as partner-the groom never having visited France, unless it were to-" lend us your grid-iron." In the midst of the dance Mistress Tuffts allowed her partner certain liberties, which the groom, be- ing told by a guest was very improper, arose to resent. Bound- ing into the figure with a rash oath, he changed it into a reel by knocking down his wife. Mistress Tuffts sprang from the floor and ran out of the room to doff the petticoat and gown; and soon after returned as Christian Price, to bathe a black eye with a glass of wine. Tuffts, poor fellow, was soon to be seen stagger- ing amid the delighted company, inquiring for his wife. At length he inquired of Warner if he had seen her. "You have no wife," was the answer. "Yes I have-eh," said Tuffts ; " I am lawfully married-eh. Did I not pay a silver dollar to be mar- ried-eh ?" " Yes, you are married," said Warner, "to Chris- tian Price." This was a poser, and he could not at first credit the story of his deception ; but after being ridiculed by the whole party, and jeered until nearly sober, he withdrew from the scene of merriment made at his expense, to mourn over the result of his precipitate marriage, which had wedded him to a man, and taken from him his only dollar. Had he ever seen the Latin line so of- ten quoted, he would no doubt have exclaimed, on counting over his beads and retiring to rest-O Tempora ! O Mores ! !- George Warner.
About the 1st of September, 1781, a party of twenty or thirty of the enemy, mostly Indians, by whom led I have not been able to learn, entered the lower part of the Cobelskill settlement, which took in that part of the town now known as Cobelskill village,
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or The Churches. The enemy, on entering the settlement, sur- prised and killed George Frimire, and captured his brother, John Frimire, with George Fester, Abraham Bouck, a boy, John Nich- olas, and Nicholas, Peter, and William Utman, brothers. After plundering and burning the dwellings and out-buildings which had eseaped the enemy's visitation four years previous, they pass- ed in the afternoon near the fort, then feebly garrisoned. As there was but little ammunition in the fort, few shots were fired upon the enemy, who did not incline to attack it. The dwelling of Ja- cob Shafer was picketed in, and a little distance outside the in- closure stood two large barns owned by him. Two Indians, with fire-brands, approached these barns, whereupon Shafer, declaring " My property is as dear as my life !" with gun in hand, left the fort, followed by Christopher King, a young man of spirit. As they advanced towards the barn-burners they gave a savage war- whoop, drew up their guns, and fired ; and the Indians, abandon- ing their design, showed their heels in rapid flight. That night the enemy stayed at the house of one Borst, which they burned in the morning, and soon after again passed near the fort, upon which several of them then fired, without, however, doing any injury. The enemy then disappeared, probably pursuing the usu- al southwestern route to Niagara. The treatment those prisoners received has not come to the knowledge of the writer, but it was undoubtedly of that character usually experienced by captives among the Indians-suffering from exposure, possibly torture, hun- ger, and the gantlet .- Capt. George Warner, (this old hero died April 4, 1844, aged 863 years,) and Mrs. Elizabeth, wife of Tu- nis Vrooman, before named, who was in the Cobelskill fort when invaded.
The reader will remember that when Brant desolated the upper part of Cobelskill in 1778, the log house of the elder George Warner was spared from conflagration, as was then supposed, to afford an opportunity to capture a committee man. Feeling too poor to erect a frame dwelling upon the ashes of his former one, he took up his winter residence in his old log dwelling. Seth's Henry, and six other Indians, who had traversed the forest from
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Niagara to Cobelskill, at that inclement season, (a distance, by their route, of at least three hundred miles,) for the sole purpose of capturing Warner, who was known to be an influential whig, arrived in the vicinity of his dwelling on Sunday, the 11th day of December, 1782. On the same day Nicholas Warner, his oldes son, went from one of the Schoharie forts to the paternal dwel- ling in a sleigh, accompanied by Joseph Barner, to get a lumber- sleigh owned by the former, for the winter's use of which the lat- ter had agreed to pay him one dollar-a dollar being as valuable in the then impoverished state of the country as half a dozen would be at the present day. When Warner and Barner were fastening one sled to the other, one of their horses broke loose and ran into the woods, and while they were recovering the animal the enemy arrived. On surprising old Mr. Warner, one or two shots were fired to intimidate him, which, as it snowed very fast, were unheard by his son and companion. Catching the stray horse, they returned and fastened the team to the sleds. As they drove past the house they discovered the Indians, three of whom attempted to take them. In making a little circuit to avoid the enemy, the horses were driven partly into the top of a fallen tree, when the friends attempted to cut loose the back sleigh. At this time two of the Indians fired upon them, the third reserving his fire. The horses ran partly over a log concealed in the snow, and the hindmost sleigh, not running true, struck a sapling and drew the box off, and Warner under it. Barner, having the reins, was drawn over the box, and remained upon the sleigh bottom. When Warner regained his feet, he observed that the Indian who had reserved his fire, had advanced to within some twenty paces of him, with a steady aim upon his person,-and conscious of the danger he must encounter to regain the sleigh, he abandoned the attempt, and told his comrade, still holding his restive steeds, to secure his own flight if he could, and leave him to his fate. He then drove off, and Warner became a prisoner. Soon after, one of the Indians, who knew him, enquired if he could shoot as good as he once could? His reply was, " I can, on a proper occasion."
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Mrs. Warner and a daughter who chanced to be at home, were left unharmed. After plundering the house of such articles as they desired, and securing a quantity of meat and flour to afford them subsistence for several days, the Indians, with their prison- ers, some time in the afternoon, set off up the creek, pursuing the most direct route to the Susquehanna. The snow was then near- ly knee deep, and receiving copious accessions: the party, there- fore, could not travel very rapidly. They proceeded about six miles and encamped, when they boiled a portion of their meat in a stolen teakettle-sad perversion of its use, as the tidy house- wife will say-for their supper. When cooked, an Indian cut it as nearly as possible into nine equal parts ; then a second Indian turned his back, and a third gave owners to each mess ; as fisher- men and hunters often do, by " touching it off:" which is done by pointing at a portion, unobserved by another individual, with the familiar demand, who shall have that ?- whose reply gives it a lawful owner.
When captured, the younger Warner had on " Dutch shoes"- brogans. Observing that, the Indian who claimed him as prison- er (who could speak Low Dutch, which he partially understood,) asked him if he would trade a pair of mocasons with him for his shoes-taking them off, and making known by signs what he could not fully communicate in Dutch. Said he to the Indian, " I am your prisoner, and if I freeze my feet and cannot keep up with you, you will kill me : I now look to you for protection as to a father, and will try to love you as such." The Indian compre- hended enough of what his prisoner had said to arrive at his meaning, and made the exchange. Warner then put on the mo- casons, which were made with leggins, and buttoned his breeches over them ; when the Indians, to use his own words, " Looked wild at one another." He thought they exchanged very significant looks, and fearing they suspected his intention, already conceived, of making his escape, he moved about a little and rubbed his legs, as if the better to adjust his new disguise, and then seated himself before the fire, with his hands clenched across his knees. Instead of allaying, his last movement had a tendency to increase the sus-
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picion and vigilance of his dusky captors; observing which, he took off the mocasons, folded them up with care and put them in- to the bosom of his shirt ; which lulled all suspicion. Said War- ner, at our interview in 1837, "To relate what took place on the night I was a prisoner with the Indians, now makes the cold chills run over me." The party laid down early to sleep, but the young- er Warner, intent upon escaping, did not close his eyes; and about midnight, thinking all were slumbering, he arose and ran off-directing his footsteps homeward. He had hardly started, as his father afterwards informed him, when his escape was discov- ered, and four of the enemy were in pursuit ; but as it was still snowing fast, and dark as the rotunda of Gebhard's cavern, they could not catch a glimpse of, much less follow him. He took a circuitous route in his flight, conjecturing that if pursued it would be on the back track, which was in fact the case. The Indians ran but a short distance and abandoned pursuit, fearing they might be troubled to retrace their steps to their own camp. Warner ran several miles with one hand before him, to prevent striking the trees. He crossed the creek six times in his flight, which he was as often conscious of, and arrived at Fort Duboise, nine miles from his captor's encampment, just at daylight. There was an old body of snow on the ground which was stiff, and the falling snow being damp readily packed upon it, otherwise he must have worn out his stockings and frozen his feet.
The elder Warner did not attempt to escape, but was watched with vigilance night and day. He must have suffered much from cold, but little from hunger ; as one of the party was an expert hunter, and usually supplied plenty of food of some kind. Nim- rod was however ill a few days and the party did not fare as well ; but when others brought in game, he usually took good care to fill his meat basket, and soon recovered. An Englishman pre- fers going into battle upon a full stomach, and an Indian being sick upon the same allowance. It was considered an honorable affair to capture an influential whig, besides entitling to a very lib- eral reward; and as Warner was one of the most noted in the Schoharie settlements, his captors were anxious to deliver him in
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Canada, and he was treated with greater forbearance and kind- ness on his way, than was any other captive who went from the Schoharie settlements during the war. The flour taken from War- ner's was boiled in the teakettle, and usually eaten by the Indians, who gave the prisoner meat ; reversing the usual treatment of captives in their anxiety to deliver him safely in Canada. Af- ter the escape of his son, five of the Indians usually kept watch over Warner in the early part of the night and two in the latter part. One of the Indians treated the captive committee man with the kindness of a brother all the way to Niagara. On arriving at the Indian settlements in western New York, this Indian took him by the hand and led him unhurt outside the lines which had been formed for his reception, to the displeasure of those, who had from infancy been taught to delight in tortures and cruelty. A prisoner being led by his captor outside the gantlet lines, was an evidence of protection and exemption from abuse seldom ever violated.
While Mr. Warner was a captive he frequently sung a hymn in German. The young Indians almost invariably would begin to mock him, but if the name of the Deity was introduced, they usually understood it, and if so it never failed to produce their si- lence ; such reverence had those unlettered sons of the forest for the Great Spirit of the Universe. Indeed, the Indians of the Six Nations had no words in their dialect by which they could pro- fane the name of Jehovah, and if they did so, it was in the lan- guage of their white neighbors .* Soon after his arrival in Canada, Mr. Warner was sent to Rebel Island near Montreal, where he was given parole liberty.
After an absence of about cleven months, Mr. Warner was ex- changed, and being sworn to secrecy, returned home by the north eastern route, coming through Hartford, Conn .; and what was unusual, was better clad on his return than at the time of his cap- ture. Had all the captive Americans been treated with the kind- ness and forbearance of George Warner, sen., the horrors of our
* A fact communicated by Joseph Brant, to a friend of the author.
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border wars had been greatly mitigated, and the suffering, which in the aggregate was most astounding, rendered comparatively trifling .*
Gen. Washington, while at Albany in the summer of 1782, was invited by the citizens to visit Schenectada .; He accepted the invitation, and in company with Gen. Schuyler, rode there in a carriage from Albany on the 30th of June ; where he was re- ceived with no little formality by the civil and military authorities, and escorted some distance by a numerous procession, in which he walked with his hat under his arm. Abraham Clinch, who came to America as drum-major under Gen. Braddock, then kept a tav- ern in Schenectada, and at his house a public dinner was given. Having previously heard of his sufferings, one of the first persons Washington enquired after, was Col. Frederick Fisher, who was then residing in the place. He expressed surprise that the colo- nel had not been invited to meet him, and agreeable to his request a messenger was sent for him. He was a man of real merit, but modest and retiring in his habits. On this occasion, he was found
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