USA > New York > Schoharie County > History of Schoharie county, and border wars of New York > Part 55
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Fearing detection, Van Alstine clandestinely left home on the evening of the 16th, and on the 17th, a great number of men having assembled from different parts of the county, his pre-
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mises were strictly searched, which resulted in discovering traces of blood in the barn, and on several fences leading towards a plowed field, 400 yards from the house; and, finally, in finding the body of Huddleston in that field, where the accused had been harrowing on the day after the murder, although he had sown no grain. A further search in the barn brought to light the papers of the sheriff concealed in the hay, among which were the exe- cutions against Van Alstyne, not endorsed ; and under a sill a heavy oak stake was found bloody, and with hair upon it; the spectacles of the sheriff were also found on the premises. In a swamp, some distance from the barn, a place was observed where a horse had been fastened some days, and under a log near was found part of a sheep skin used by Mr. Huddleston upon his sad- dle, while the saddle was found beneath a small bridge by chil- dren pursuing a squirrel.
No doubt was entertained but what Van Alstyne was the mur- derer, and had fled with Huddleston's horse. Accordingly, a re- ward of $250 was offered by Governor De Witt Clinton, and $100 more by Sheriff Keyser, for his apprehension. The Governor in- creased the whole reward to $500. It was shown on the trial that the prisoner was seen at Trenton and Lowville, in possession of Huddleston's horse, making his way towards Canada. Arri- ving at Buffalo, he took passage on Saturday, the 14th of Nov., on board of the Com. Perry, Capt. Johnson, a vessel bound for Detroit, assuming the name of John Allen, and accompanied by a suspicious person calling himself Isaac Page.
On board the Com. Perry Elias W. Slocum, who was remov- ing with his family from Jefferson county to some part of Ohio, had also taken passage, to be landed at Sandusky. On Monday morning the vessel was at anchor at Long Point, where, in conse- quence of a strong gale having arisen, she parted her cable, and was obliged to put back to the harbor at Black Rock, from whence she had sailed. While on the lake, Slocum had some conversa- tion with Van Alstyne, who betrayed, as he thought, evidence of criminality ; and having a newspaper which contained the pro- mised reward for the apprehension of Huddleston's supposed mur-
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derer, with a description of his person, he at once suspected his fellow passenger, whose personal appearance and clothing ans- wered the description, and, on arriving at Black Rock, he appre- hended and lodged him in Buffalo jail. When arrested, he denied that his name was Van Alstyne, or that he had ever known a man named Wm. Huddleston, but was soon after identified by several persons who knew him, and he was removed to Schoharie.
The conduct of Page, after Van Alstyne was arrested, in con- nection with the fact that he had an over-coat of the prisoner in his possession, increased the suspicion of Slocum as to his true character, and it was only by the threat of his arrest as an ac- complice that he could get rid of him, he evidently being intent on aiding the prisoner in an escape. What became of the horse rode off by Van Alstyne was never known at Schoharie. The trial was conducted by Henry Hamilton Esq., the District Attor- ney, assisted by M. J. Cantine Esq. ; and the prisoner was defend- ed by Jacob Gebhard and T. J. Oakley Esquires. Nine jurors were set aside as having pre-judged the case. The cause was ably managed, and resulted in finding the prisoner guilty of the crime for which he was indicted. In pronouncing his sen- tence, Judge Spencer depicted in glowing colors the enormity of the prisoner's offence,-warning the numerous assemblage against the indulgence of crime. Van Alstyne was publicly executed on the hill, where Casler had previously suffered a similar death, March 19th, 1819; and there would seem to have been a most signal interposition of Providence in bringing him to punishment. Circumstances, over which human action could have no control, urged on the car of Justice and sealed his untimely fatc. On board of a vessel bound to a distant port, he felt comparatively safe from pursuit ; but instead of gentle breezes wafting the vessel to her place of destination, a furious gale broke her fastenings, and compelled a return to the starting point to deliver up the offender. The result of this man's trial, for a crime witnessed by no human eye, should deter all persons from the perpetration of any offence against law, committed in the hope that, because unscen by man, they will escape detection, for it is not in man that walketh to di-
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rect his steps. The love of money, or free indulgence of passion, may cause man to violate wholesome laws; but vengeance is mine, and I will repay the guilty, saith the Lord of Hosts.
The Lutheran and Dutch Reformed Churches were organized in the Schoharie settlements at an early period. The following brief history of the Lutheran Church was mostly taken from a sketch of its establishment and progress which appeared in the Lutheran Magazine in 1827, prepared by Rev. Dr. G. A. Lintner.
Soon after the Germans located at Schoharie, they formed a church, and had preaching occasionally as before stated. On the 7th of September, 1742, the congregation gave a call to the Rev. Peter Nicholas Sommer, a native of Hamburgh, Germany, who was ordained in that city as pastor of this church on the 21st of the same month. He arrived in the field of his labors May 25th, 1743, and on the 30th preached his introductory sermon. The first officers were Abraham Berg, and Michael Freymaurer, el- ders ; Henry Schaeffer and Peter Loewensteen, deacons. The first vestry meeting was held on the 8th of June, 1743, at which it was resolved to commence erecting a parsonage house for the minister, which dwelling was to serve the present purposes of a church. On the 3d of July following his arrival, Mr. Sommer first publicly administered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper in Schoharie, when the communicants participated. On the 12th of September, the same year, public worship was held in the new parsonage, and continued to be for several years. Early in 1750, preparations were commenced for erecting a church ; on the 10th of May the corner stone of the foundation was formally laid by the pastor ; and the edifice, which was built of stone from an ad- joining field, having been completed, it was solemnly dedicated on Whitsuntide, May 6th, 1751.
Mr. Sommer, who appears to have been much esteemed by his people, was a faithful laborer, and for many years not only preach- ed in his own church, but at stated periods in the German settle- ments of Stone Arabia, Little Falls, in and near the Mohawk val- ley ; Rhinebeck, East and West Camp, Claverack, and Loonen- burgh, on the Hudson ; Hoosick Road, in Rensselaer county ; and
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Albany, Helleberg, and Beaver-dam, in Albany county. The congregations in the three first-mentioned places, the nearest of which was twenty-four miles from Schoharie, were for a time in- cluded in his pastoral charge ; but the Rev. Johan Frederick Ries became their minister in December, 1751.
In December, 1758, Mr. Sommer preached for the first time in Cobelskill, and there administered the sacrament ; after which pe- riod his services were mostly confined to the Schoharie settlements. In 1768 he became suddenly blind, and was led to church by An- drew Loucks, for many years its clerk and chorister, continuing to discharge most of the official duties with the infirmity .* Old age obliged him to retire from the ministry early in 1789. From Schoharie he went to reside with relatives in Sharon, where he died about the year 1795 ; and his bones now repose on the farm of Judge Robert Eldredge, the grave being identified by a frag- ment of coarse sandstone placed at its head, on which are rudely engraved the initials of his name in the following order, N. S. P., the last letter being now hardly intelligible. If the Lutheran churches he was instrumental in organizing in Schoharie county, would remove the bones of this faithful old laborer in their ser- vice to the Schoharie burying ground, which is located on the site of the church in which he ministered, and erect a suitable monu- ment over them, they would do a laudable act, and discharge a duty they owe to his memory.
In 1791, the Rev. Anthony Theodore Braun took charge of the Lutheran church in Schoharie, and continued its pastor until 1794. He was succeeded by the Rev. Frederick H. Quitman in 1795. In 1796 the congregation erected the brick edifice it now
ยท After having been totally blind nearly twenty years, he awoke one Sab- bath morning, to his great surprise, with his vision restored. His wife had previously risen, and calling her into his room, he exclaimed, " I can see as well as ever I could ""' She was at first terrified, supposing him deranged ; but he continued, " Be not alarmed-my sight is restored !" " What can you see ? his wife, still trembling, interrogated. " I see you-see every object in the room-see yonder trees !" said he, pointing to several large trees visible from a window. He left his bed with feelings few can realize, put on his clothes, and from that time to the hour of his death, his perception of objects was restored to its former condition.
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occupies. Mr. Quitman left his station in 1798. In 1799 Mr. Braun was recalled to the pastoral duties of this church, but again relinquished them in 1801. The church was without a pastor un- til 1805, when the Rev. Augustus Wackerhagen entered upon those duties. In 1815, he accepted a call from Columbia county.
The four pastors named were men of good classic attainments, -were fine German scholars,-usually preached in the German language,-and were very much respected. In 1816, the Rev. John Molther became pastor of the congregation ; but on account of his dissipation he was removed by the Lutheran Synod in 1818.
In 1819, the Rev. George A. Lintner was called to preside over this congregation, and the church has prospered ever since, he still being its pastor. This institution, which had to contend with ma- ny trials in its early existence, known only in border settlements, was evidently of Divine origin. It struggled through scenes of difficulty and danger in the early history of the settlement, shed- ding the light of Christian benevolence around the footsteps of the pioneer. It was threatened by the perils of the French and In- dian wars : and Domine Sommer preached a proper discourse and administered the sacrament to a company of volunteers, who marched from Schoharie in 1746, to join an expedition against Canada. In the American Revolution, religious service was most- ly discontinued in border settlements-and this congregation knew from experience the horrors of a civil war-a condition of things much at variance with the doctrines of Christianity.
During our last war with Great Britain, many individuals and associations sent out small notes, usually denominated shin-plas- ters, and this church issued them. The following is a blank copy of one :
" THE CONSISTORY OF St. Paul's Church, IN SCHOHARIE, PROMISE TO PAY THE BEARER, ON DEMAND, TWO CENTS. Nov. 16, 1914. Secretary."
At what period the Reformed Dutch Church was established in Schoharie, I am unable to show ; it is believed, however, to have been nearly as early as was the Lutheran Church. The church records were consumed in the parsonage some years since, which
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misfourtune deprives me of data necessary to show its organiza- tion and early history. I, however, gleaned from one of its old- est male members, that the first house of worship stood several rods northeast of the old stone church; was constructed of wood; was built after the model of the Dutch Church in Albany, with a steeple over the centre ; that it was provided with a small bell, the rope of which came down in the middle of the building ; and that it was razed at the time the stone edifice was erected in 1772. The clergyman who preached in Schoharie at an early day, offi- ciated in the German language in Schoharie, and in low Dutch, at Weiser's dorf, where a Dutch church was erected nearly as ear- ly as was the one in Schoharie. The Dutch Church had similar difficulties to surmount in its early history to those which usually attend the planting of churches in a new country.
Judge Brown, as he assured the writer, was clerk and chorister of the Schoharie Church, or fore-singer, as then called, before the Revolution, and used often to go from his residence in Carlisle, on Sabbath mornings, to church on foot, a distance of fourteen miles, and be there in time for the service; returning home after it in the same manner. Is there a man in the county now, would go that distance to church every Sabbath, if he could be driven there in an easy chair? If there is, let him declare it, " for him have I offended."
The Rev. Mr. Schuyler, long a pastor of this church, died du- ring the Revolution, and I am not able to show who have been his successors in regular order. I have in my possession a blank call for a minister to take charge of the Dutch churches in Scho- harie, written in German, from which I learn that he was to re- ceive, for every person baptised, a fee of one shilling ; for every couple married, a fee of eight shillings; that his salary was to be paid half in cash and half in wheat ; that his fire-wood was to be furnished scot-free; and that he was to have four Sabbaths in a year to himself.
Until about the year 1820, not only the Schoharie churches, but those in other parts of New York and New England, were nearly all destitute of stoves, or any convenience for warming them in the
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winter ; and the families in attendance usually carried small foot- stoves to church on the Sabbath, supplying them with a few coals, buried in hot embers, at the dwellings nearest the sanctuary. Al- though the health of numbers was endangered by attending di- vine service before the introduction of the box-stove, still the churches were in general well filled with attentive hearers. Be- tween the morning and afternoon service, that part of the con- gregation living remote from country churches, at the period un- der consideration, usually depended on the hospitality of the good people living near, at whose dwellings they not only received the benefit of a warm fire, but frequently were served with a luncheon of fried cakes, cheese, and apples, and a glass of good cider. The intermission, which was seldom over an hour, was often spent in discussing some religious topic, to the edification of numbers present.
In former times, the churches of New England and New York were provided with tiding-men-persons appointed to keep or- der in the galleries, having authority to change the position, or even impose corporeal punishment, on such as in any manner dis- turbed the congregation. Cornelius Van Schaack, who was for a long time sexton of the old Dutch Church in Albany, and during the Revolution, was much of the time its tiding-man. Often might this efficient officer have been seen during the service to enter the gallery with a hickory-gad, and lay it over the backs of mischievous children, or noisy half-grown boys, if they did not see him coming and escape punishment by creeping under the benches, which was not unfrequently the case .- (James Lansing.) Tiding-men were continued in many of the New England church- es to as late a period as the year 1825.
Before the Revolution, constables in Albany were required, as a part of their duty, if they saw children at play on the Sabbath, to correct them-and those guardians of order were often seen to enter the door-yard of a rich man, and flog his peace-disturbing boys, regardless of what parents or guardians might say or do .- J. Lansing.
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BLENHEIM,* a town in the south-westerly part of Schoharie county, is centrally distant 44 miles south-west from Albany ; 20 west of south from the county seat ; and 35 north of west from Catskill. It is bounded north by Fulton, east by Broome and Conesville, south by Delaware county, and west by Jefferson. Population 2,726.
Most of the early settlers in the south part of this town were from New England, and their descendants are engaged in the dairy business. A large tract of land, embraced in Scott's Patent, is located in Conesville, Broome, and southerly part of this town. Much of the tract is now owned by the Livingston family, and leased to tenantry. The prevailing strata of rock is graywacke and red-sand, the latter affording, in several quarries, a good building material. In it are also found some fossils. This town contains 2 post-offices -- Blenheim and North Blenheim-and 4 churches-2 Methodist, 1 Baptist, and 1 Reformed Dutch.
BROOME (name changed from Bristol, April 6, 1818,) is about 35 miles south-west of Albany, 15 south of the county seat, and 30 from Catskill. It is bounded north by Middleburgh, east by the county of Albany, south by Conesville, and west by Blenheim- somewhat resembling a boot in its shape. Population 2,404. Its early settlers were mostly from New England. It has 3 post-offi- ces-Livingston, Smithton, and Gilboa-and 6 churches-2 each Presbyterian and Baptist, and 1 each Methodist and Chris- tian.
Chancellor Lansing once owned a valuable tract of land in this town. In 1818, Jacob Sutherland Esq., who had married a daughter of the chancellor, went to reside at a romantic place in North Blenheim, to look to his own and the possessions of his father-in-law ; about which lime he was appointed Dis- trict Attorney for the U. S. District Court. While a resident of the county, he was appointed one of its judges ; and when the convention met in 1821 to alter the constitution, he was sent, with Olney Briggs and Asa Starkweather, to represent Schoharie county in the convention, and proved an efficient mem- ber. Soon after the adoption of the new constitution, Mr. Sutherland was elected a state senator, but a seat being offered him on the bench of the Su- preme Court, he declined the former, accepted the judgeship, and remov- ed to Albany. Some years since, he resigned the office of judge, received that of clerk of the same court, and removed to Geneva. He died at Albany May, 13, 1845, aged about 58 years.
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One of the first settlers in the interior of this town was David Elerson, who located in 1793. Previous to the Revolution he was engaged in the Indian wars of Virginia, in which he received a bullet through his left shoulder. Several Indians having secreted themselves behind a fallen tree, were doing fearful execution in the ranks of the colonial troops, and Elerson determined, at the peril of his life, to punish them. While crawling towards a cov- ert for that purpose, he received the ball as described, but soon had the satisfaction, by one or two effective shots, of driving the enemy from their position.
He was in the Monmouth battle, under Col. Morgan, and es- caped unhurt. Col. Morgan hung upon the rear of the British army some distance in their retreat. Arriving near Middletown, Elerson, Murphy, Wilbur, and Tuffts (all of whom were after- wards on duty in Schoharie,) obtained permission to leave the ranks, with the caution of extreme vigilance from their command- er, and pursue the enemy towards Raritan Bay. Having separa- ted from liis companions, Elerson found himself in sight of his foes. The army had embarked at Gravelly Point, and effected a landing on Staten Island by the boats of the enemy's fleet, then in the bay to cover their retreat. Nothing remained on the Middle- town shore except 40 or 50 horses, several baggage-wagons and a phaeton, supposed to belong to Sir Henry Clinton. This pro- perty he perceived was guarded by only two sentinels, one of whom stood on the beach near the water. Arriving unperceived within a few yards of the two soldiers, one of whom was a mount- ed trooper, he leveled his rifle and shouted to them to surrender themselves prisoners. The man on foot was so surprised that he let his gun fall into the water, wetting its powder. The dragoon rode into the water, with the intention of swimming his horse to the island, but the tide compelled him to return. In the mean time, Elerson ordered the other man to harness a span of good horses before the carriage, and compelled, with leveled rifle, his immediate compliance. Returning to the beach, the trooper was evidently intent on getting a pistol shot at Elerson, when the lat- ter ordered him to leave his presence or surrender himself a
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prisoner. Elerson did not wish to fire, as the British army and fleet were in sight, and would doubtless turn their artillery upon him ; but the sentinel, drawing a pistol, did not heed his threats, and he sent a ball through his heart. The rifle's report had hardly ceased its echoes, when a cannon shot plowed up the sand near his feet; and just as the second ball lodged in the loose soil near him, having reloaded his piece and observed that his carriage was ready, he bounded into it, and, with his prisoner for driver, soon left the Middletown hills, and rode in safety to the American camp. This daring hero, as he assured the author, sold his car- riage and horses for $187.50, and sent the money to his poor father in Virginia. As was the case with many other brave spi- rits of the Revolution, Elerson could neither read or write. He died in 1838 or '39.
David Williams, one of the captors of Major Andre, removed from South Salem, Westchester county, 1805, to this town, and settled on the farm of the late Gen. Shays,* near Livingstonville,t where he resided to the time of his death. For a sketch of his life, the capture and execution of Andre, &c. see the succeeding chapter.
CARLISLE, formed in 1807, from parts of Cobelskill and Sharon, is about 8 miles long from east to west, and nearly 7 wide : situ-
* This Gen. Shays was the man who headed an insurrection against the government of Massachusetts in 1786: the malcontents were dispersed in 1787, by State troops under Generals Shephard and Lincoln. This transac- tion has since been called Shays' Rebellion. Not long after becoming thus celebrated he removed to Schoharie county, from whence after a residence of some 15 years, he went to reside at Cayuga, N. Y., where he died in 1821. He drew a pension of $240 a year ; a captain's pay for services in the Revo- lution. Shays was a man of noble and commanding figure, fine martial appearance, and pleased with the title of General, with which he was usually saluted .... W .W. Murphy. }
f A war path in the Revolution led from Kingston to Schoharie. Follow- ing up the Catskill through the towns of Durham and Rensselaerville, it proceeded onward through Broome to Middleburgh. At Livingstonville in Broome, directly on this path, lived Derick Van Dyck, who settled there be- fore the war ; and often did Timothy Murphy partake of the hospitality of this pioneer when on his secret expeditions into that neighborhood, and regale himself with a good draught of buttermilk ; a beverage of which it is possible the Indian also partook in the absence of his destroyer .- Judge Murphy.
1
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HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY,
ated 10 miles northwest of the county seat, and 40 from Albany. It is bounded north by Montgomery county, east by Schoharie, south by Cobelskill, and west by Sharon. Population 1,850. It has 1 post-office, called after the town ; and 3 churches, 1 Presby- terian, 1 Methodist, and 1 Union church, the latter built by seve- ral denominations. The two first named churches are at Carlisle, the principal village in the town, which is situated on the Western Turnpike ; the other is at Grosvenor's Corners, a small hamlet in the south part of the town. Near the latter place is an interesting locality to geologists, of fibrous sulphate of barytes ; the fibres being from half an inch to two inches in width. Near the barytes is a layer of fibrous carbonate of lime, or arragonite.
A part of this town was embraced in the local settlement deno- minated New Rhinebeck, its pioneers having removed there about the year 1760, from Rhinebeck, on Hudson River. The four families which first located were those of Andrew Loucks, Con- radt Engle, Philip Kerker, and Peter Young. The late Judge Brown settled near them soon after.
Its substratum is limestone, which is filled with indubitable evidence of former conditions of this region, since which change has passed over it, and drawn her petrifying finger in calcarious lines around its mundane existence. In the rock are numerous caverns, a few only of which have been visited. Young's and Selleck's caves are the most extensive of any as yet explored, and they have only been but partially so. The latter, first visited in 1841, by George Shibley and J. C. Selleck after whom it is called, is said to be roomy, affording the visitor fine specimens of spar.
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