USA > New York > Schoharie County > History of Schoharie county, and border wars of New York > Part 9
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HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY,
ter. As he was much afraid of witches, and the like evil genii, it was confidently asserted and generally believed, that witches had thrown him off the rocks. Thus ended the first distiller, poor Otto, of bewitching memory.
Deer, it has been remarked, were numerous in and about Scho- harie formerly. Jacob Becker.related the following story, which he had learned from his father. An old Indian, who lived in Gar- lock's dorf, was very skillful in the use of the bow and arrow. This Indian stationed himself one day, at a run-way the deer had on the north side of Foxes creek, not a great distance from Beck- er's mill. It was at a place where there is a small stream of wa- ter descends from the hill, affording a kind of path from that to the flats below. At this place this Indian was concealed, when a noble deer came leisurely down the declivity. An arrow from his bow pierced the heart of the unsuspecting victim, when it bounded forward a few paces and fell dead. Scarcely had he time to draw from his quiver an arrow, before another deer de- scended. A second arrow sped, and a second bleeding victim lay stretched near its fellow. Another and another descended to meet a similar fate , until six were, in quick succession, bleeding upon the ground. There were times, when, like the one named, the arrow was as trusty as the rifle ball. The distance must not be great, however, and the bow must be drawn by a skillful war- rior. The arrow giving no report to alarm the following deer, the Indian was enabled, by his masterly skill, to bring down six, when a single discharge from a rifle, would have sent the five hindmost deer, on the back track. The arrow, however, would not tell upon a distant object like the rifle ball, and great muscu- lar strength was required to send it, even at a short distance, to the heart of a bounding buck.
Rattle-snakes were very numerous formerly, along the north side of Foxes creek, and the west side of the Schoharie. Hun- dreds were often killed in a single day at either place. Neigh- borhoods turned out in the spring about the time they came from their dens, in the latter part of April, or early part of May, to destroy them, and by thus waging war against them, they were
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nearly exterminated. There are a few remaining now at both places. It was not uncommon, in raising a sheaf of wheat from the ground, on the flats near the hills, which afford their favorite haunts, as early as the revolution, to find one or more of those venomous serpents under it. They were but little dreaded then, especially by the Indians, for if they could get at the wound with their mouth, suction, with their other applications, generally saved the bitten. The Indians, said Andrew Loucks, rubbed their legs with certain roots, to avoid being bitten by rattle-snakes, and made use of several kinds of roots and plants, in effecting a cure for the bite of those reptiles. The knowledge they had of botany, although limited, was of a practical nature, and enabled them not unfrequently to effect a cure, when a similar application of a sci- entific mineral compound, would have destroyed. This country, undoubtedly, affords an herb for almost every disease of the climate, and more attention should be paid to the study and medical appli- cation of Botany. Rattle-snakes diminish rapidly in numbers, if hogs are allowed to run where they infest. They will eat them invariably, with the exception of the head, whenever they take them. There are individuals, in fact, who eat those venomous reptiles, and pronounce them palatable. The late Major Van Vechten, of Schoharie, formerly ate them, and at times invited his friends to the banquet. On one occasion, he had several young gentlemen to partake with him, who, as I suppose, were either ambitious to be able to say they had eaten of a " sarpent," or de- sired to rattle a little as they went through the world. Did they taste exceedingly flavorous, one would suppose the idea of eating a rattle-snake would sicken the eater, save in extreme cases of approaching starvation.
The following Indian custom was humorously told the author by George Warner. When Cupid has destroyed the red man's peace of mind, he provides himself with a quantity of corn, and seeks the presence of the ruddy squaw. He then commences snapping kernels at the coy maid he wishes to woo. If she snaps them back, the contract is considered firmly made. If she does not, the lover is led to conclude she " don't take," and leaves
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her presence somewhat mortified. If matters proceed favorably and a contract is made, she takes off one garter, and after the marriage ceremony is performed, he probably takes off the other -if, by the by, she has ever had any on.
The Schoharie Indians, says Brown, claimed the lands lying about Schoharie, and made some sales, but were interrupted in those transfers of lands by the Mohawks, who proved that the land given to Karighondontee's wife, at the time her husband set- tled, was to be no more than would be required to plant as much corn as a squaw could hold in her petticoat; which, he adds, would be reckoned about a skipple. A squaw's petticoat neither has great length or breadth; but the reader will understand that the grain was carried in the garment in the man- ner of a sack.
But a few years after the Schoharie Germans had their diffi- culties with Bayard, the royal agent, and Sheriff Adams, they be- gan to secure land not only of the seven partners, but also of the natives, and made transfers among themselves.
A bond in the writer's possession, given for what is unknown, by " John Andrews of Scorre, [Schoharie] to John Lawer [Law- yer,] for twenty-six pounds three shillings, corrant money of New York. Dated the 3d day of May, in the fifth year of our Sove- raign Lord George [I.] king of Great Britain, France and Ire- land, and in the year of our Lord God, 1720; shows the earliest date of any paper I have met with, that was executed between the early settlers in the Schoharie valley. This date is within ten years of their first arrival. The bond is written in a fair, legible hand, and most of the orthography is correct.
In the early conveyances, lands in the vicinity of the Schoharie Court House, were located at "Fountain's town, Fountain's flats, and Brunen or Bruna dorf." Some of the old deeds bound those lands on the " west, by the Schoharie river, and on the east, on the king's road." The road then ran near the hill east of the old Lutheran parsonage house, which is still standing; leaving nearly all the flats west of it. In ancient patents, the brook
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above Middleburgh village is called the Little Schoharie ; which name I have chosen to continue.
Many of the Indian sales of lands in Schoharie county, were legalized by the governor and council of the colony. The fol- lowing paper, which is copied verbatim et literatim, will show the usual form of a royal permit :
" By His Excellency the Hon. George Clinton, Cap- tain-General and Governor in Chief of the colony of New
L. S. York, and Territories thereon depending in America, Vice Admiral of the same and Admiral of the White Squadron of his Majesty's Fleet.
"To all to whom these presents shall come or may concern, Greeting :-
"Whereas Johannes Becker, jr., Johannes Schafer, jr., Hendrick Schafer, jr., and Jacobus Schafer, by their humble petition pre- sented unto me and read in Council this Day, have prayed my license to purchase in his Majesty's name, of the native Indian proprietors thereof, six thousand Acres of some vacant Lands, Situate, Lying and being in the County of Albany, on the North side of the Co- belskill, and on the East of the Patent lately granted to Jacob Borst, Jacob C. Teneyck and others near Schoharie: in order to obtain His Majesty's Letters Patent for the same or a proportionate quantity thereof. I have therefore thought fit to give and grant, and I do by and with the Advice of his Majesty's Council, hereby give and grant unto the said Petitioners, full Power, Leave and lycense to purchase in his Majesty's Name of the Native Indian Proprietors thereof, the Quantity of Six thousand Acres of the vacant Lands aforesaid. Provided the said purchase be made in one year next after the Date hereof, and conformable to a report of a Committee of His majesty's Council of the second day of De- cember, 1736, on the Memorial of Cadwallader Colden, Esq., representing several Inconveniences arising by the usual Method of purchasing Lands from the Indians. And for so doing this shall be to them a sufficient lycense.
" Given under my Hand and Seal at Arms, at Fort George, in the City of New York, the sixteenth Day of November, one thousand seven hundred and fifty-two.
" By his Excellency's command, G. CLINTON."
" GEO. BANYAR, D. Sec'y."
A conveyance made in December, 1752, of fifteen thousand acres of land in "New Dorlach," now in the town of Seward- bounds it on " West creek"-west branch of the Cobelskill be- ginning at a bank called in an Indian conveyance, " Onc-en-ta-
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dashe." This I suppose to have been the Indian name of the mountain south of Hyndsville. When the county of Tryon was organized, it took in "New Dorlach;" which was embraced in Otsego county on its organization ; and subsequently became a part of Schoharie county.
The parties to an indenture, made November 30th, 1753, were Johannes Scheffer, Christ Jan Zehe, Johannes Lawyer, Michael Borst, Johannes Borst, Johan Jost Borst, Michael Hilkinger, William Baird, Jacob Borst, Michael Bowman, Johannes Brown, Barent Keyser, Peter Nicholas Sommer, Johannes Lawyer Ser, Hendrick Heens, and William Brown." It was a purchase of fifteen thousand acres of land on the north side of the " Ostgarrege or Cobelskill, about seven miles westerly from Schoharre."
The author has in his possession, a parchment copy of letters patent, dated March 19, 1754. It was granted in the reign of George II., under the administration of George Clinton as gover- nor, and James De Lancey lieutenant-governor, to John Frederick Bauch, [now written Bouck,] Christian Zehe, Johannes Zehe, Michael Wanner, [Warner,] and Johannes Knisker, [Kneiskern,] "For a certain Track of Land lately purchased by them of the Native Indian proprietors thereof, situate, lying and being in the county of Albany, to the westward of Schoharry, and on the south side of a creek or brook, called by the Indians Ots-ga-ra- gee, and by the inhabitants Cobelskill; containing about four thou- sand eight hundred Acres, and further bounded and described as by the Indian purchase thereof, bearing date the Ninth day of November last, might appear." The Patent grants among other things, Fishings, Fowlings, Hunting and Hawking ; re- serving at the same time Gold and Silver mines, and " All trees of the Diameter of Twenty-four Inches and upwards at twelve Inches from the ground, for Masts for our Royal Navy. And also all such other trees as may be fit to make planks, knees, and other things necessary for the use of our said Navy :" with the privilege of going on and cutting the timber thus reserved, at any time or in any manner. The following singular sentence appears in the patent. The purchasers, after being individually
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named, were, with their heirs and assigns forever, “ To be holden of us, our heirs and successors in fee and common socage, as of our Mannor of East Greenwich, in the County of Kent, within our Kingdom of Great Britain, yielding, rendering and paying there- for yearly, and every year forever, unto us our heirs and succes- sors, at our Custom House in Our City of New York, unto our Collector or Receiver General there for the time being, on the feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Mary, commonly called Lady day, the yearly Rent of two shillings and six pence for each and every hundred acres of the above granted Lands, and so in proportion for any lesser quantity thereof." Within three years after the date of the patent, the purchasers whose interest was equal, were required " to settle and effectually cultivate at least three Acres of every fifty Acres, of the land capable of cultiva- tion." The conveyance was to be invalidated by the wanton burning of the growing timber.
About the year 1760, says Brown, the Mohawks began to sell large tracts of land around Schoharie, through Sir William John- son, who was a royal agent of Indian affairs for the six nations of New York, and liberally paid by the British Government. These conveyances to be legal, he adds, were required to be made in his presence, he usually taking good care to secure a valuable interest to himself.
Land was considered of little value among the pioneer settlers of New York, and large tracts were often disposed of for an in- considerable sum. The following certificate, found among the papers of the late Philip Schuyler of Schoharie, will serve to show from its vague limits, the value set by the owner on a large tract of now valuable land.
" I do hereby certify to have sold to Messrs. Philip Schuyler and Abraham Becker, and their associates, the Flats of the Cook House with an equal quantity of upland near the path going to Ogwage [Oquago.]-And I hereby permit them to take up or mark off any quantity of land they may farther think proper, on the west side the said Cook House branch, granted to me, the sub- scriber, by the Governor and Council of this province of New York.
Albany, 19th June, 1773.
TH. BRADSTREET."
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HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY,
Attached to this certificate is an affidavit made by George Mann in 1818, before Peter Swart, a Judge of the court of com- mon pleas for Schoharie county, which states that in the month of June, 1773, being then at the Indian village of "Orgquago," he saw " Philip Schuyler pay to the Chiefs of the Indian tribe of the same name, in behalf of John Bradstreet, the sum of one hun- dred dollars, which he understood to be money received by them in consideration of a deed for a certain tract of land given by the said Chiefs to the said Bradstreet, and which land was situated on the west branch of the Delaware river, commonly called the Koke- house branch .* He adds that Alexander Campbell, John H. Becker and David Becker, were also present at the time.
I have before remarked that the Schoharie people owned slaves. Many of them were either purchased in the New England states, or of New England men. A certificate of the sale of a black girl about thirteen years of age, given on. the 7th day of July, 1762, by " John McClister of Connecticut, to Jacob Lawyer of Schohary," for the sum of sixty pounds, [$150,] New York cur- rency, will probably show the average value of female slaves at that day. At a later period, able bodied male slaves often sold as high as $250. When slaves were purchased out of the Colo- ny, a duty was required to be paid on them, as the following cer- tificate of the Mayor of Albany will show.
" Theas are to Certify, y Nine negro men and women has been Imported Into ye County of Albany from New England, and ac- cording to an Act of yª Governor, ye Council, and the generall As- sembly ; William Day has paid ye Duty for said negro men and women : witness my hand this twentieth Day of Aug. 1762. VOLKERT Pr. DOUW, Mayor."
Five of the above mentioned slaves were sold at Schoharie.
While New York was a British province, public roads were called " The King's Highways," and were kept in repair by a tax levied by officers under the crown. Individuals were not compelled at that period to fence in their lands along the high- ways, but where the line fence between neighbors crossed them,
· Koke is the Dutch of cook-to prepare to eat.
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they placed gates. This was a source of constant vexation to the traveler, who often complained that more obstructions of the kind were stretched across the road, than necessity required. Ac- cordingly, to remedy the evil, a legislative act was passed, by which those obstructions could only be placed across the King's road by a legal permit ; signed by several of his Majesty's Jus- tices of the peace. The traveler was annoyed by gates across the highway in thickly settled communities in the Mohawk and Scho- harie valleys, for many years after the American revolution.
John Lawyer, named in the bond of 1720, and the father of one of the first white children born in Schoharie, was one of the principal settlers at Bruna dorf: and was the first merchant among those Germans-trading near the present residence of An- drew Beller, half a mile south of the Court House. He is said to have been a flax-hatcheler in Germany : and we must suppose, from the state of his finances on his arrival in the Schoharie val- ley, that he commenced a very limited business. The natives were among his most profitable customers; as he bartered blank- ets, Indian trinkets, calicoes, ammunition, rum, &c., with them, for valuable furs, dressed deer-skins, and other commodities of the times. He was one of the best informed among the Germans who settled the county ; and before his death became an extensive land-hold- er. He was quite a business man and a useful citizen, aiding ma- ny who purchased land in making their payments; and acquired the reputation of a fair and honorable dealer.
He became a widower when about eighty years old, and mar- ried a widow in New York city. Arriving at Albany he sent word to have one of his sons come after him: but they were so offended to think he should marry at that age, that neither of them would go. One Dominick took the happy couple to Schoharie; where, we take it for granted, they spent the honey- moon. It has been stated that Lawyer had several children by this late marriage. Judge Brown assured the author he had indeed, but that they were many years old when he married their mother. A well executed family portrait of this father of the
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Lawyers, in the fashion of that day, is now to be seen at the dwelling of the late Wm. G. Michaels, near the Court House. It was painted in New York, and tells credibly for the state of the fine arts at that period.
A second John Lawyer, who usually wrote his given name Johannes (the German of John), a son of the one mentioned above, succeeded his father in the mercantile business. He be- came a good surveyor, and surveyed much land in and around Schoharie county. He was also an extensive land-holder, own- ing at least twenty-five thousand acres of land, and his name appears in very many conveyances made in that county before the year 1760.
I have before me a copy of the will of this man, which was dated March 10th, 1760: by which it appears he was then a merchant. He had three sons and two daughters, and his will so disposed of his large estate, as to be equally distributed on the death of his widow, to the surviving children and the lawful heirs of the deceased ones.
Few parents at the present day in Schoharie county, imitate the commendable example of this wealthy man, and divide their property equally between sons and daughters. The latter, who are by nature the most helpless, are frequently unprovided for, and while a son or sons are enjoying the rich inheritance of a " wise father," a worthy daughter is sometimes compelled, on the death of her parents, either to marry against her own good sense and inclination, a man unworthy of her; or feel herself really dependant on the charity of those from whom she should not be compelled to ask it.
Johannes Lawyer was succeeded by a son, his namesake, in the mercantile business. He was also a surveyor, and transacted no little business. Lawrence Lawyer, one of his sons, who was still living in Cobelskill in 1837, informed me that some person in New York presented his father with a small cannon while in that city purchasing goods, a short time previous to the French war : and that during that war, whenever the Schoharie Indians,
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who were engaged with the Mohawks under General, afterwards Sir Wm. Johnson, returned home with the scalps of ten or fifteen of the enemy, this cannon was fired for joy. Thus we perceive that the very cruel Indian custom of scalping, condemned in the savages during the Revolution about twenty years after, the whites had approved in the French war, and demonstrated that approval by the discharge of cannon. Can we blame the un- lettered savage for continuing a custom his fathers-indeed we ourselves have taught him to think fair and honorable, by our own public approval and celebration ? Ought we not rather to pity the degraded, injured Indian ; and amid blushes, censure ourselves for encouraging his love of cruelty instead of tender mercy ?
I learned from this old patriot, who was one of the early.set- tlers of Cobelskill, the origin of the name Punch-kill. His grand- father took a patent of lands adjoining this stream : and on running out the lines in making a survey, punch was made and freely drank on the premises, on which account the brook was called Punch-kill, and has been so called ever since. This kill is in the northeast part of the town, and falls into the stream of that name.
John I. Lawyer, who was a nephew of the second Schoharie merchant, was learned out, according to a phrase of the times, having received a share of his education in Boston, and proved a very correct surveyor. He was rather eccentric, and perhaps was not in all respects as happily married, as it is the good for- tune of some men to be. An anecdote related of him which tends to show his character, is as follows : He had been accus- tomed for a long time to occupy a high chair at the table while eating. A grandson of his coming home after a long absence, who was a great favorite with his grandmother, she insisted on his having the high chair at the festive board. The old gentle- man put up with the treatment for a few days, but at length growing impatient at such improper favoritism, he entered his dwelling as the table was setting, with a saw, and before any one
8
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HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY,
could stay proceedings, he raised the table and sawed off its legs. " Now," said he to his wife, " your favorite can have the high chair. The old lady cast her eyes on the sorry picture which the dishes in fragments on the floor presented, and began to storm- but it was of no use-the husband kept his temper. His voice was not for war. He went directly and procured a new set of dishes, and ever after he had no difficulty in occupying such a seat at his own table as he chose.
It was formerly customary, not only in Schoharie, but in almost every county in the state, to provide refreshments at funerals. Indeed, within twenty years, the custom of providing liquor on such occasions has been in vogue, and the bearers and friends of the deceased were expected to return to the house of mourning after the burial, and drink. Neither was it at all uncommon for people in those days to go home from a funeral drunk : but the barbarous and unfeeling custom of passing the intoxicating bowl on such occasions, has yielded to a better spirit. It is said that John Lawyer, the second one mentioned in this chapter, kept a barrel of wine for several years before his death to be drank at his funeral ; that it was carried out on that occasion in pails, freely drank, and many were drunk of it. Cakes were carried round at such times in large baskets, and in some instances a fu- neral appeared more like a festival than the solemn sepulture of the dead. The old people give a reason somewhat plausible for the introduction of such a custom in this county. Its inhabitants were sparsedly settled over a large territory, and many had to go a great distance to attend funerals,-and as all could not be ex- pected to eat a regular meal from home, those extra provisions were made for friends present from remote sections. A custom of that kind once introduced, even if at the time justifiable, it is easy to perceive might be continued in after years, until it became ob- noxious to sympathy and highly reprehensible.
The following is the copy of a receipt, evidently in the hand writing of the second mentioned John Lawyer, his name being written as the contraction of Johannes. It was doubtless given as it purports, for liquor drank at a funeral.
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" Scoherie, March 29, 1738.
" Then Received of John Schuyler the sum of Twenty Shilings for the five galing [gallons] of Rum at the Bearing [burying] of Maria Bratt. Recd by me. JOHS. LAWYER."
The Schoharie Indians had but few serious difficulties with the early white settlers. Judge Brown mentions in his pamphlet that a squaw once shot a man on the sabbath, while returning from Church. The Indians often had personal broils among themselves, and generally settled them in their own savage way. Brown also states that in his time he saw one William, a son of Jan, stab and kill another Indian at the house of David Becker, in Weiser's dorf. An eye-witness of the act informed the author, that the Indian killed was called John Coy. David Becker then kept a public house, which stood on the present site of the par- sonage house belonging to the brick church in Middleburgh. John had a child in his arms in the bar-room, and was asked by William, another Indian, to drink with him. The former de- clined drinking, and walked out of the room upon a piazza iu front of the house. William soon after followed him out and bu- ried the blade of a long knife in his back-which he did not at- tempt to draw out-and departed. John died almost instantly. The cause of this assassination informant did not know : it is doubtless to be attributed to the red man's curse-alcohol.
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