History of Ulster County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers. Vol. I, Part 7

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894. cn
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 758

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$ Davies IL., 65, 146; Brodhead's N. Y., i. 102.

THE PLANTING OF WILTWYCK.

This was a hard accusation in those days. Andrew Marvel, contrasting the liberal spirit of Fatherland with the intoler- ance of his own England, wrote,-

"' Hence Amsterdam, Turk, Christian, Pagin, Jew, Staple of scots and mint of schi-m grew ; That bank of conscience, where not one so strange Opinion but find- credit and exchange; In vain for Catholics ourselves we bear, -- The Universal Church is only there.'

" The sturdy yeomen of such a country never left it in any number under such circumstances. Much of the ' seum' of society did. These were easily satisfied, and soon lapsed in the ' let good-enough-alone' state. Other colonies were planted by men who came for an idea. Constant trial for, and thought on, this idea created a restlessness which bred enterprise and ambition. We shall see there were a few of the respectable families of Holland who came here. These, and their descendants, have ever held their own with the most enterprising of all nationalities.

" Some of these, with some English and French Walloons, soon became dissatisfied with the affairs of their landlords. This was especially so at Beaverwyck, or Rensselaerwyck. The management of the affairs of the patroon of that see- tion had been given to Brandt Van Schlectenhorst, 'a per- son of stubborn and headstrong temper.' This man was very earnest in defending the rights of his lord against the power and influence of the Governor and the West India Company. Stuyvesant claimed a jurisdiction over a certain tract about Fort Orange, and that the patroon was sub- ordinate, and not equal to the government of the colony. Van Schleetenhorst denied both. and disputed the former's right to proclaim even a fast in his jurisdiction. To insure allegiance, the patroon pledged the tenants not to appeal from his courts to the Governor and Council. The dispute ran so high that orders were issued for all tenants to take an oath of allegiance to the lord of the manor. These pro- "edings the Governor called ' a crime.' The people in all ages of the world take sides on questions involving the rights of others as quickly as those involving their own. Some of the settlers, true to the old ways of their race, siled with the Governor, and others with the doughty Van Steelrenhorst. The dispute grew so warm that they came to blows.

" While these troubles about proprietary rights were going on, Thomas Chambers, Mattys Hendrix, Christopher Davis, and some others, tired of a quarrel they had no. interest in, and disappointed iu the means promised for cultivation of soil, stung by the whims of the landlord or his commissary, 'who treated them as slaves,' victimized by covetous officers, began to look out for a new settlement, · where they could work or play as seemed good unto them.'

" Thomas Chambers, an Englishman by birth, with red hair, tall and leau, a carpenter by trade, was the man of most character among them. He, in connection with some others, purchased the Indian title to the land about the city ! Troy. They had scarcely begun to clear and cultivate it before they were dispossessed by Van Rensselaer, he having possession of it by his patent. He now organized a " mpany to emigrate down to the Esopus, having heard there was good land there, and that the savages desired Christians

among them. Legend says they landed at Saugerties, at the mouth of Esopus Creek, and journeyed up until they reached the flats at Kingston. Here Chambers received a ' free gift' from the natives, and patented it Nov. 8, 1653. This grant included thirty-eight morgen, or about seventy- six aeres. Major Peter Van Gaasbeeck had the original deed for it, in which it was described as 'a tract of land lying in a place called by the Indians Esopus, and bounded easterly and westerly by the woods and running northerly and southerly along the kill.' This was lost in the surro- gate's office. In the confirmatory title of 1667 it is de- seribed as ' lying and being in Esopus, abutting with the west side on the land belonging to his wife's children by her former husband, with the north and east side likewise on the land belonging to the said children, and going further is bounded on the north and west sides by the creek or kill ; and on the south side with the wood land hereto- fore belonging to the West India Company.'

" There may have been other patents prior to this of Chambers, bat no record is left of them. There are cer- tainly no grounds on which to predicate anything else than that this was the first tract in Ulster for which ' an instru- ment' in writing was given. About the same time, Davis also settled on some land bought of the native proprietors. This was not patented until three years afterwards.

" Petrus Stuyvesant, director-general of New Nether- land, Curagoa, Bonaire, Aruba, and d: pendencies thereof, ou behalf of the Noble, High and Mighty Lords, the State- General of the United Netherlands, and the Hou- orable Directors of the incorporated West India Company, together with the Council, acknowledge and declare that we, on the day underwritten, have given and granted unto Christoffel Davids a parcel of land, containing six-and- thirty morgen, lying inland in the Esopus not far from one mile from North River, on the West side of the great kill opposite the land of Thomas Chambers, runing South- West and North-East to the half of a small binnewater, in the corner of a fly, which is the division between this parce! of land, and that of Mr. Johan De Hulter, deceased, togetler with so much meadow (hay land) as shall be measured pro rata to the other farmers, on the express conditions and reservations, ete. Done in Fort Amsterdam in the New Netherland, the 25th September, 1636.'

" The traet of De Halter, referred to above, was bought of the Indians, 1654, and patented by his widow, March 27, 1657, and is described as 'containing in farm, pasture, and wood land, five hundred morgen (one thousand acres), bounded on the North by the land of Thomas Chambers and Christoffel Davids, where the division is a great kill, and is also divided on the North by a little kill which separates it from the land where Juriaen Van Westphalen now lives.' This traet lay on both sides of the creek, and included the site of the village of Kingston. Westphalen's land was on the west side, adjoining the old homestead of the Houghtel- ings. He was afterwards farmer on the Company's Bouwers, hear the Hurley line. I infer he came here as their servant. Cornelius Barentsea (' Slecht') was at that place as early as 1655, when his wife was licensed .as a mid-wife for Esopus.' "The same year the excise for Fort Orange ( Albany ) and Eso- pus was farmed out for two thousand and thirteen guilders."

HISTORY OF ULSTER COUNTY, NEW YORK.

CHAPTER IX.

THE LAYING OUT OF WILTWYCK, NOW KINGSTON-BUILDING OF THE STOCK- ADE .*

I .- THE CONCENTRATION AT WILTWYCK.

IN the year 1655 almost all the Indian tribes ou both sides of the Hudson made a bloody war with the Dutch of New Amsterdam and vicinity. When the news of the commencement of hostilities reached Esopus, the inhabit- ants all tled, leaving their stock, dwellings, and crops to the merey of the savages. Living here and there on their farms, without even a block-house for defense, and two miles from the river, froin whence assistance must reach them, this panie was but true cautionsuess, although they do not seem to have been molested. When they were gone their empty houses and unprotected grain and stock were inviting prey to the Indians, who seem to have appro- propriated much and destroyed more. As a commentary on the authenticity of history, I must state neither docu- ments nor legends tell us what the loss of the locality was. There is not one tradition of it.

The Albany records, however, incidentally mention that as soon as peace was conelnded-and that was made in the fall of the same year-the farmers returned to Esopus and reoccupied their old homes. Experience had now taught the whole colony of New Netherland that it was too hazard- ous to live outside stockaded villages; yet the inhabitants did not profit by in. The directors of the West India Company, solicitons for the welfare of so promising a place, ordered! a fost built for it- protection, and that the people should collect together and forin a village.

This injunction was not obeyed. The savages lived all around the farmers, cultivating neighboring maize and bean patches. The hoge, cows, and horses of the whites, pasturing on the untilied flats, destroyed these crops of the Indian women, which male them and the men mad. They complained bitterly of it, but still the stock roamed over the commons. Now and then a pig was found dead with an arrow or bullet in it. This incensed the Christians. Then again the temptation to make money by bartering liquor and trinkets for corn and peteries, which the savage ofered at an enerroots profit, was too strong for their con- sciences. They took the gain 'and the chances of destrue- tion which it entailed. Man will ever risk his neck for a fortune.

Thus time rolled on, trespass, theft, cheating, and rum breeding trouble. In April, 1658, Jacob Jausen Stol, who seems to have been an agent or farmer for the Governor, sent him one hundred and fifty sebepels of wheat, and wrote: " The people of Fort Orange sell liquor to the Indians, so that not only I, but all the people of Great E-opus, daily see them drunk, from which nothing good, but the ruin of the land, must be the consequence.'

On the 10th of May a party of savages who were down along the creek, at the Strand obtained omn anker ( ten -gallon key) of rum, and drank of it until they were mal. During this drunken kintekoy or spree one of the party fired a

* This entire chapter is taken from Mr. Hasbrouck's unpublished history of Ulster.

gun, the ball from which struck and killed Harmen Jacob-, alias Bamboes, who was standing on the yacht of William Moore. Some others applied a firebrand to the dwellings of Jacob Adrianee and Andries Van der Sluys, who lived. at what is now Ponekhockie. These depredations caused a general panic. Fear ruled the whites, while it embold- ened the Indians.

The former begged Stuyvesant for assistance. " The savages compel the whites to plow their maize land, and when they hesitate threaten, with firebrands in their hands, to burn their houses. They say they can always pay for the killing of a Christian with sewant, and tease them by calling out, 'Ye dogs.' The chief's have no control over their men. We are locked up in our houses, and dare not move a limb." They further urged they had nine hun- dred and ninety schepels of grain in the ground, and asked that " this beautiful country may be saved, which, if well settled, would supply all New Netherland with victuals. It would be sinful to abandon it. They have sixty or seventy people, who support a reader (Voorleezer) at their own expense, and have religious exercise on all holy days. It is vain to cover the well when the calf is drowned." Notwithstanding such earnest appeals for assistance, they warued the Governor " to be slow to declare war," for they had promised to bring in the murderer.t

The fact is, the whites were greater siuners than the red men. Yet many of these people were pious. They wrote : "Christ did not forsake us; He collected ns in a fold. Let us, therefore, not forsake one another, but let us soften our mutual sufferings."

On the 28th of May, immediately after the receipt of the news of the troubles in Esopus, the Council ordered the director-general " to go there with sixty or seventy men to guard his person, and to do what the interests of the company demand." He accordingly sailed up the river with about fifty soldiers and Govert Loockermans to the seat of the disturbances. When near the entrance of the kill he ordered all the boats except his own to lie be- hind, and come up as if nothing warlike was intended. Sailing on with his yacht, it grounded of the cutrance of the creek, when he sent Loockermans ashore in the long- boat, to speak with some Indians who lived in two huts standing near the kill at Pouckhockie, and ask them to send two or three on board, also to notify the savages of "our coming to find who is guilty."

They soon returned with two natives, Thomas Chambers. and the reader, Andries Van der Sluys, who had been " lu ed to the Strand by their longing for the expected and requested succor." These men retold the old story of suf- feriug. The other yachts having arrived, the troops were ordered ashore withont noise. The director coon followed thein, having first sent the savages to their chiefs, with a request to meet him next day at the house of Jacob Janseu Stol. That night the whole party marched to the fart of Chambers, where they eneamped.

The next day, Ascension Thursday, they marched to Stol's, " being the last dwelling in contignity," where they held their readings. The people having assembled, as was

Albany Rec. xxi. 5, 6-8; O'Callaghan's N. Y. ii., 357-353; Brod- head's N. Y., 1. 617.

THE LAYING OUT OF WILTWYCK.

their custom, to hold religious exercise, Stuyvesant told them to remain after the service, or come in, in the after- 1: 0, to consult over what " was best to be done."

They accordingly met again after dinner, when he stated he had come at their earnest request, and wished to know what was to be done. He did not think it expedient to war for one life and the burning of two insignificant dwell- ings ; besides, in fortuer days, they had suffered greater af- fronts and massacres, when they had an opportunity to take fill revenge, but passed it by, as it was the safest and best way to refer to it a more proper time. " You know very well it is now summer-time, and there is an appearance of a rich harvest, thus by no means a proper season to cause, possibly, greater losses to obtain damages for smaller ones ; at least to render such a dreadful situation possible by pre- cipitate rashness. Notwithstanding the orders of the com- fany, and our renewed warning, you still live so scattered that it is impossible to protect all." " fle therefore recom- mended them to form at onee a village, which could be easily fortified, and thereby afford every one complete pro- tretion from the surrounding barbarians."

The people were at first unwilling to aet on these sng- gestions. They urgel they had spent all they had in build- ing. and would be poor indeed if they abandoned their houses, as they did three years before. At that particular season, when the crops were in the ground and harvest at find, they could not very well remove; it would be difficult to agree on the site of a village, for every one would pre- fer the place which he had selected for his own resilence ; that if they did agree on this it must be palisaded, which they could not do until the crops were gathered. They therefore wished the matter postponed until this was done, and that the troops might remain until that tine.

To this the director answered there was no security as they then lived ; that they must either concentrate or re- move to Fort Orange or the Manhattans, otherwise give him no trouble. Still hesitating and parkying, he told ilem peremptorily " to do one or the other," and promised, if they agreed at once to concentrate, he would stay until the work was complete.

The settlers were. however, unable to agree. Hlad there been the danger which some claimed, they no doubt would finally have taken any course to protect their lives and property ; but many of the dangers talked of seem to have beca imaginary, or, more properly, but the result of a Irolie. Drunken white men afterwards did far worse in the same neighborhood. The Indians had promised to bring in the murderer before the director arrived, and, now that he had come, no resistance was offered by them. There were, doubtless, considerations not mentioned in the imperfect report of these proceedings, which made the boors obstinate in their opposition to the propositions of Stuyvesant. They Enally asked until the next day for deliberation.

In the mean while, towards evening of the first day's conference, ten or twelve savages, with two of their sachems, wany in and said some of their people were struck with "or for the soldiers, but that muore were to follow. Stuy- Wewant assured them no harm should befall them, when they cheered up and answered they would communicate this to the other savages.

The next afternoon, May 30th, about fifty warriors, with a few squaws and children, appeared near Jacob Jansen Stol's, and " collected under an old tree about a stone's throw from his gate." Accompanied by only two men and the interpreter, Stuyvesant boldly went out to them. When he was seated, according to custom, on the ground, one of the chiefs arose and made a long harangue, interpreted, as a detail of the events before the time of Stuyvesant, -- the war with Kieft, how many of their tribe had been mur- dered, and how they had cast, all these things from their hearts and forgotten them.

To this the director answered he was not to blame for that, because it happened before his time; that they had commenced that war by murdering some Christians, of which " we are now unwilling to renew the recollection, since when we made peace it was all obliterated and thrown away." "He then asked them if any injury had been done to them in life or property since his arrival in the country." To this the Indians made no answer, but " hung down their heads." Theu he told them, through the in- terpreter, of all the murders they and other savages had committed sinee he came. Their " overbearing insolence to the people of Esopus was as well known to them as to us. Ile did not come to make war, but to find the guilty party, nor did he wish to punish the innocent, provided the murderer was given up and damages paid. The Dutch never asked the sachems, but they us many, many times, to settle in the Esopus. We have not had a foot of your land, and we do not want one without paying for it. Why, then, have you murdered this man ? Why burned the houses, killed the hogs, committed sundry other injuries, and continually threaten inhabitants of Esopus ?"

" They answered but little, but let their heads fall and looked on the ground." After this panse, one of the chiefs arose and spoke: "The Swannekins sold our children boisson (drink), and they were thus the cause of the In- dians being : eacheus;' that is, iresome, mad, which was the cause of all this mischief. The sachems could not always control the young men, who would often fight and wound. The murder was not committed by one of their natives, but by a Minnesinck, who skulked among the Haverstrawcs, or in that neighborhood. The savage who fired the two small dwelling houses ran away, and dared not cultivate his own soil. For ourselves, we can truly say we did not commit the act, neither are we actuated by malice, nor do we want to fight, but we cannot control the young men."

This address, which bears the marks of fraukuess and truthfulness, Stuyvesant answered with the boldness of a conqueror : " If any of your young men wish to fight, let them now step forth ; I will place man against man, -- ay, I will place twenty against thirty or forty of your hot- heads. Now, then, is your time. But it is not manly to threaten farmers, and women and children, who are not warriors. If this be not stopped, I shall be compelled to retaliate on old and young, on wowsen and children. This I can now 'do by killing you all, tikmg your wives and little ones captive, and destroying your maize land. But I will not do it. You, I expect, will repair all damages, seize the murderer if he comes among you, and do no far-

HISTORY OF ULSTER COUNTY, NEW YORK.

ther mischief. The Dutch are now going to live together in one spat. It is desirable that you should sell us the whole of the Esopus land, as you have often proposed, and remove farther into the interior, for it is uot good for you to reside so near the Swannekins, whose cattle might eat your maize and thus eause frequent disturbance." The Indians promised to take counsel on these watters and departed.

The next day, Saturday, the first day of June, they returned and begged Chambers and Stols to intercede in their behalf. They again urged the damage was done by a drunken Indian. Then, offering six or seven fathoms of sewan, they said, in the name of all the Esopus savages : " We are much ashamed of what is passed, especially that you have challenged our young warriors to a combat and they dare not accept it. We beg this may not be spread abroad. As for ourselves, we now throw away all rancor, and will offend no one in the future."

Presenting them with two pieces* of cloth and two of frieze, the Governor said: " I throw away my rancor against your nation in general, but the savage who killed the man minst be surrendered, and a compensation made the wien whose houses were burned." To this the Indians demurred with great justice, for they said : " The murderer is a stranger, roving through the land,-now here, how there,-therefore they could not bring him in; that the damage should be paid by the person who did it. If he did not return, he had a house and land, which they could take." Stuyvesant, however, would not modify his terms, wherefore the savages accepted them rather than war. Concession here might have been politie: it would have been equity. The savages departed with a demand for more land in their eiss. Peace again reigned in Esopus, but it was a bollow one. The whites had not given the natives a single bead or sewan for their fields. They were but squatters. Yet, not satisbed, they must hold a whole tribe accountable for two men's acts. A dreadful retribution awaited them.

In the mean time, on Friday. the last day of May, 165S, the people, having fully considered the proposition of the director " to avoid poverty," subscribed to an agreement, drawn up by Himself; to wit :

"Wy onderges, gesamentiyele Inwoonders vande Esopus, van tydt tot tydt door seer Droevige Exempelen ge-experiencerrt, cude tot onser alle schade geveert, en bevonden hebbende de entrouwe and onverdraegelycke stoutijheit vande wilde barbarische natovi- len-hoe ouzeker ap hunne belofte to steunen -- bou peryeulues ende zorgelijke zoo separant calle wyt van Malkanderen onder soo trouw- loose ende mostwillige natio to wooten, hebben top de gedanne propositie undle toe segginge van de Directuur Generael, de heer, Petrus Stuyvesant om ous met een savantegarde te reteudeeren, on by volgende noodt mit mirerder hulp te Assisterren) met Malkanderen geresulveert, tut onser, onzer vrouwen en kinderen toeurder eh beeter verecekkering motzakelycke geordert onse separante woonnings dadelycke, mas de undertryekeninge dese, op de gevoegelgekste maniere af te brecken, ende ons op de plaets by den Dr. Generael aengewece, by Malhandleren in te trecken, de selve pluiets, met mal- kenderen en met de hulp daer toe van den heer Dr. Generacl omen ibet palisaden van belwoorlycke lenghte af te setten, om door dien tillelen daer toe der allen goeden Godt, alvooren, sijn segen gelieven te verleenen, ous ende bet onse tegens de Scheygelveken overal van Wilden to beter te Conuen Beschaermen, naert Godt, en de af Bid

" A piece was three ells.

dinge vun synen Godtlycken zegen, over geoorloofdle middelen onz- zelven met Malkanderen verbinderen, het geene vooz, is cenpaerly ... zonder eenige tegenstellige, dadelyek by der hant to neemen, ende : spoedig, als mogelyek is, te volbrengen, op cen Amende van Duysen .: gul, Bij de gerne te verburen ten beboer : van de by-eenwooning ... die deen, in woorden ofte wercken, nae mails mocht comen to op- poseeren. In meerden verzekering van het welche, hebben deser. tet presentie van den welgedachten, d'heer Dr. Generael en br. Govert Loockermans out sebepen der ateede Amsterdam in Nieuw Nederlandt, mat eergen banden onderteyekent. Actum den laestea Macy An. 165S.

"Signed, Jacob Jausen Stol, Thomas Chambers, Cornelis Barense Slecht, mark of William Jansen, Peter Dereksen, Jan Jansen, Jas Broersen, Direk Hendricksen Graef, Jan Looman."t

The population of Esopus was now about seventy, men. women, and children, with thirty of the former sex. Oaly nine of these signed the articles of union. I am in doubt as to the reason why such men as Jurien Westphal, the schoolvaster, and some others did not; but the greater number were only kurchts, or laborers, who followed the fortunes of their employers, therefore had no voice in the matter.

As soon as the agreement was signed, Stuyvesant pro- ceeded to select a spot for the village. This was no satis- factory job, for each one wished it where his own house stood to be clear for building another. To such importu- nities, however, he paid no attention, rather following his own judgment, which led him to fix on the flat near Stol's house, -- " a very proper place for defense." Before woon he had traced the lines for the stockade and fixed the local- ity for gates. It was " in circuit nearly two hundred at ] ten reds, and capable of being surrounded by water ou three sides."

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History of Ulster County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers. Vol. I, Part 7

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894. cn Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 758

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894. cn
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 758