USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester County, New York, from its earliest settlement to the year 1900 > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66
There is one safe starting point, and only one, for a correctly bal- anced estimate of the Indian. He was essentially a physical being. Believing both in a supreme good deity and an evil spirit, and also in an existence after death, religion was not, however, a predominating factor and influence in his life and institutions. In this respect he differed from most aboriginal and peculiar types. Of a stolid, stoical, and phlegmatie nature, possessing little imagination, he was neither capable of spiritual exaltation nor characteristically subject to super- stitious awe and fear. Idolatrous practices he had none. Among all the objects of Indian handiwork that have come down to ns-at least such as belong to this section of the country,- including the remains of pre-European peoples, there are none that are suggestive of worship. He appears to have had no fanatic ceremonials except those of the " medicine man," which were extemporized functions for immediate
accepted this derivation. The subject of the origin of the name Manhattan is disenssed at length, and with profuse citations of authori- ties for different derivations-which are ex- ceedingly varied - by Mr. William Wallace Tooker. in the " Brooklyn Eagle Almanac" for 1897, pp. 279-28]. Mr. Tooker arrives at the conclusion that the earliest form of the word Manhattan, so far as has been discovered, was
Manahatin, whose correct translation is " the island of the hills." In a private note to the editor of this History he says: " If the deri- vation Heckewelder gives is accurate, Van der Donck would not have written: 'In the In- dian languages, which are rich and expressive, they have no word to express drunkenness. Drunken men they call fools.' "
41
ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS
physical ends rather than regularly ordained formularios expressive of a real system of abstractions. He was a pure physical barbarian. His conceptions of principles of right and wrong, of social obligations, and of good and bad conduct, were limited to experience and customs having no other relations than to physical well being. Thus there was neither sensibility nor grossness in his character, and thus he stood solitary and aloof from the rest of mankind. All sensitive and imagi- native races, like those of Mexico, South America, the West Indies, and the Orient, easily commingle with European conquerors; and the same is irne of strictly gross peoples, like the heathenish native tribes of Africa. Sensibility and grossness, like genius and insanity, are, in- deed, closely allied; where either quality is present it affords the fun- damentals of social communion for cultivated man, but where both are lacking no possible basis for association exists. In these and like re- fections may perhaps he found the true key to the character of the Indian.
As we have indicated, the religion of the Westchester and kindred Indians did not rise to the dignity of a defined institution. By the term, the Indian religion, we understand only a set of elementary be- liefs, unaccompanied by an establishment of any kind. The Great Spirit of the Indians of this locality was called Cantantowit, who was good, all-wise, and all-powerful, and to whose happy hunting grounds they hoped to go after death, although their beliefs also comprehended the idea of exclusion from those realms of such Indians as were re- garded by him with displeasure. The Spirit of Evil they called Hob- bamocko. The home of Cantantowit they located in the southwest. whence came the fair winds; and they accordingly interred their dead in a sitting position with their faces looking in that direction and their valuable possessions, including food for the soul's journey, beside them. The customs and ceremonials attending decease and sepulture are thus described by Ruttenber :
When death occurred the next of kin closed the eyes of the deceased. The men made no noise over the dead, but the women made frantie demonstrations of grief, striking their breasts, tearing their faces, and calling loudly the name of the deceased day and night. Their loudest lamentations were on the death of their sons and husbands. On such occasions they ent off their hair and bound it on the grave in the presence of all their relatives, painted their faces pitch black, and in a deerskin jerkin mourned the dead a full year In burying their dead the body was placed in a sitting posture, and beside it were placed a pot, kettle, platter, spoon, and money and provisions for use in the other world. Wood was then placed around the body, and the whole covered with earth and stones, ontside of which palisades were erected, fastened in such a manner that the tomb resembled a little house. To these tombs great respeet was paid, and to violate them was deemed an unpardonable provocation.
To review the separate aspects of their social life and economy, in- eluding their domestic arrangements, their arts and manufactures, their agriculture, their trade relations with one another, and the like
42
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
incidental details, would require much more space than can be given in these pages. For such more minute particulars the reader is re- ferred to the various formal works on the North American Indian. It will suffice to present some of the more prominent ontlines.
Their houses, says Ruttenber, were, for the most part, built after one plan, differing only in length. They were formed by long, slender hickory saplings set in the ground, in a straight line of two rows, as far asunder as they intended the width to be, and the rows continuing as far as they intended the length to be. The poles were then bent to- ward each other in the form of an arch and secured together, giving the appearance of a garden arbor. Split poles were then lathed up the sides and the roof, and over this was bark, lapped on the ends and edges, which was kept in its place by withes to the lathings. A hole was left in the roof for smoke to escape, and a single door of entrance was provided. Barely exceeding twenty feet in width, these houses were sometimes a hundred and eighty yards long. " In those places," says Van der Donek, " they crowd a surprising number of persons. and it is surprising to see them out in open day." From sixteen to eighteen families occupied one house, according to its size.
Of the manufacture of metals they had no knowledge. All their weapons, implements, and utensils were fashioned from stone, wood. shells, bone, and other animal substances, and clay. Their most note- worthy manufactured relies are probably their specimens of pottery. Mr. Alexander C. Chenoweth draws some interesting deductions as to the processes of pottery manufacture prevalent in early times from his examinations of specimens that he has unearthed. He says :
They could fashion earthen jars with tasteful decorations, manufacture eloth, and twist fibers into cords. They had several methods of mokling their pottery. One was to make a mold of basket work and press the elay inside. In baking, the basket work was burned off, leaving its imprint to be plainly seen on the outside of the jar. Other forms show that a coarse cloth or a net was used for the same purpose. Another method of molding. some- times employed, was to twist elay in long rolls and lay it spirally to form a vessel or jar, the folds being pressed together. This kind of vessel breaks easily along the spiral folds, as the method does not insure a good union between the layers. The vessels range in size from a few inches in circumference to four feet, the depth being in proportion to the diameter. The study of the decoration and method employed reveal the implements used for that pur- pose. The imprint of a finger nail is clearly defined on some of the rudest as a decoration. Others show the imprint of a coarse netting or cloth, while the edge of an scallop shell or clam shell was often used. Pointed sticks, wedge-shaped sticks, and straws were also com- mon implements for decorating with. These people twisted fibers, from which they made eloth.
Their numerous weapons, implements, and utensils of stone-in- «luding mortars and pestles, axes, hatchets, adzes, gouges, chisels, cutting tools, skinning tools, perforators, arrow and spear heads, scrapers, mauls, hammer-stones, sinkers, pendants, pierced tablets, polishers, pipes, and ceremonial stones-of all of which specimens
43
ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS
have been found in Westchester County, were very well wrought, and, considering the extreme difficulties attending their fabrication on ar- count of the entire absence of metal tools, bear high testimony to the perseverance and ingenuity of the Indians as artiticers. They had great art in dressing skins, using smooth, wedge-shaped stones to rub and work the pelts into a pliable shape. They produced tire by rap- idly turning a wooden stick, fitted in a small cavity of another piece of wood, between their hands until ignition was effected. When they wished to make one of their more dur- able canoes they had first to fell a suit- able tree, a task which, on account of the msufficiency of their tools, required much labor and time. Being unable to cut down a tree with their stone axes, they resorted to fire, burning the tree around its trunk and removing the charred por- tion with their stone implements. This was continued until the tree fell. Then they marked the length to be given to the canoe, and resumed at the proper place the process of burning and re- moving.
Their agriculture was exceedingly primitive. They raised only one princi- pal crop-maize, or Indian corn. Quite extensive fields of this were grown. In addition, they planted the sieva bean, the pumpkin, and tobacco. For culti- BELT OF WAMPUM. vating their fields they used only a hoe made of a clam shell or the shoulder blade of a deer. They had no domestic animals to assist them in their agricultural labors and provide them with manure for the refreshment of their exhausted lands and with food products-no horses, sheep, swine, oxen, or poultry; and even their dogs were mere miserable mongrels. It is said that they used fish for fertilizing the soil, but this use must have been on an extremely limited scale.
The extent and character of the trade relations between the Indians of the same tribe and those of different tribes can only be inferred from known facts which render it unquestionable that such relations existed. For instance, tobacco, which was in universal use among the aborigines of North America, had to be obtained by exchange in all localities unadapted by climate and soil to its growth. The cop- per ornaments remarked by Hudson on the persons of the Indians
44
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
whom he met in New York Bay must have been wrought out of metal obtained by barter or capture from distant parts of the country, since no deposits of native copper exist in this region. And Indian relics of various kinds are constantly found which bear no connection to the prevailing remains of the locality where discovered, but on the other hand are perfectly characteristic of other localities.
For purposes of exchange, as well as for ornament, the Indians used wampum, a name given to a certain class of cylindrical beads, usually one-fourth of an inch long and drilled lengthwise, which were chiefly manufactured from the shells of the common hard-shell clan ( Venus mercenaria). The blue or violet portions of the shells furnished the material for the dark wampum, which was held in much higher estimation than that made of the white portions, or of the spines of certain univalves. According to Roger Williams, one of the carliest New England writers on the Indians, six of the white heads and three of the blue were equivalent to an English penny. The author of an instructive treatise on " Ancient and Aboriginal Trade in North America"1 (from which some of the details in the preceding pages are taken) says of the wampum belts, so often mentioned in connec- tion with the history of the eastern tribes:
They consisted of broad straps of leather, upon which white and blue wampum-beads were sewed in rows, being so arranged that by the contrast of the light and dark colors certain figures were produced. The Indians, it is well known, exchanged these belts at the conclu- sion of peace, and on other solemn occasions, in order to ratify the transaction, and to per- petuate the remembrance of the event. When sharp admonitions or threatening demonstra- tions were deemed necessary, the wampmn belts likewise played a part, and they were even seut as challenges of war. In these various cases the arrangement of the colors and the figures of the belts corresponded to the objeet in view : on peaceable veeasions the white color predominated ; if the complications were of a serions character, the dark prevailed ; and in case of a declaration of war, it is stated, the belt was entirely of a somber hue, and, moreover, covered with red paint, while there appeared in the middle the figure of a hatchet exeented in white. The okl accounts, however, are not quite aceordant coneerning these details, probably because the different Atlantie tribes followed in this particular their own taste rather than a general rule. At any rate, however, the wampum belts were considered as objects of importance, being, as has been stated, the tokens by which the memory of remarkable events was transmitted to posterity. They were employed somewhat in the manner of the Peruvian guipn, which they also resembled in that particular, that their mean- ing could not be conveyed without oral comment. At certain times the belts were exhibited, and their relations to former occurrences explained. This was done by the aged and experi- eneed of the tribe, in the presence of the young men, who made themselves thoroughly acquainted with the shape, size, and marks of the belts, as well as with the events they were destined to commemorate, in order to be able to transmit these details to others at a future time. Thus the wampum belts represented the archives of polished nations. Among the Iroquois tribes, who formed the celebrated " league," there was a special keeper of the wam- pum, whose duty it was to preserve the belts and to interpret their meaning, when required.
The civil institutions of the Mohican Indians were democratic, showing but slight modifications of the purely democratic principle.
1 Charles Rau, Government Printing Office, 1873.
45
ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS
" Though this people," says Van der Donck, " do not make such a dis- tinetion between man and man as other nations, yet they have high and low families, inferior and superior chiefs." Their rulers were called sachems, the title usually remaining hereditarily in the family, although the people claimed the right of election. It does not appear that the sachems ever assumed oppressive powers, or, on the other hand, that rebellions or intrignes against their authority were ever undertaken to any noticeable extent. The sachem remained with the tribe at all times, and was assisted in the government by certain coun- selors or chiefs, elected by the people. There was a chief called a " hero," who was chosen for established courage and prudence in war; another called an "owl," who was required to have a good memory and be a fluent speaker, and who sat beside the sachem in council and proclaimed his orders; and a third called a " runner," who carried mes- sages and convened councils. The Indian sachems and chiefs of the Hudson have left no names familiar to the general reader-certainly none comparable with those of Massasoit, Miantonomoh, Uncas, and Philip, of New England, or Powhattan, of Virginia. Even to the local historian, indeed, their names have little importance beyond that at- taching to them from their connection with notable transfers of land and with rivers, lakes, and localities to which they have been applied.
In the geographical nomenclature of Westchester County, as well as of the whole country from the Atlantic to the Pacific, are preserved numerous permanent memorials of the vanished aboriginal race. The following article on the pure or derived Indian names of our county has been compiled specially for this work. It is not, however, pre- sented with any claim to minute completeness.
AMERINDIAN 1 NAMES IN WESTCHESTER COUNTY. BY WILLIAM WALLACE TOOKER.
The Amerindian names of localities in Westchester County represent several dialectical variations of the great Algonquin language. While some are of the Mohegan dialeet and akin to those of Connecticut, others partake more of the Delaware or Lenape characteristics as spoken in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Where either of these have been retained unchanged in their phonetic elements, and without the loss of a syllable or initial letter, the task of identifieation and translation of their components has been comparatively easy. Many, however, that have been handed down colloquially without having been recorded in deed or record, have become so altered that even the Amerind himself, should he reappear from the " happy hunting ground," would be utterly unable to recognize the present sounds of the terms as part of his native speech. Those of the personal names bestowed on places are especially difficult to analyze, owing to their construction and the changes already noted. Many of the place names were translated many years ago by Schoolcraft, Trumbull, and others, some correctly, and others more often incorrectly. Some of the latter were so erro- neous that they have been passed by the writer without notice. The present attempts are based upon the comparative rules of Algonquian nomenclature, and are therefore not the hasty generalization of misapplied Chippeway root terms so often used by Schoolcraft and
1 Recently adopted by the Bureau of Ethnology.
46
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
followed by others. The names mostly are descriptive appellations of the localities where originally bestowed, and as such do not differ from those retained in other parts of the coun- try where the same language was spoken.
Acquehounck .- Var., .Iqueanounck, Achqueehgeuom. Hutchinson's Creek, Eastchester Creek, and a locality in West Farms. The variations of this term are quite numerous. Delaware, Achwowangew, "high bank." See Aquehung, another variant.
Alipkonck .- "A place of elms." This interpretation, given by Schoolcraft in 1844, is probably correct. Allowing for the interchange or permutation of / and w, as well as b and p, occurring in many dialects, we find its parallel in the Otchipwe Anip, Abnaki, anihi, " elm tree," which with the locative completes the analysis.
A pawquammis .-- Var., Apawammers, Aparamis, Epawames. Budd's Neck, in Rye. The main stem of this name. Appoqua, signifies " to cover:" mis, " the stock or trunk of a tree," a generic, hence " the covering tree," possibly a descriptive term for the birch tree, and used as a personal name.
Appamaghpogh .- Var., Apparaghpogh. Lands near Verplanck's Point, also a locality cast of Cortlandt. The main stem of this term is the same as that in the previous name, with the suffix paug, "a water-place " or " pond." "The (lodge) covering water-place," i.e., a place where the cat-tail flag (Typha latifolia) was ent. The Hlags were used for mats and covering wigwams.
Aquehung .- A locality on the Bronx River. The name of Staten Island is the same, Acquehonga, " a high bank or bluff;" also Hockqueunk, "on high."
Apwonnah .- Rye. It means "an oyster," or " the roasted shell-fish."
Armonck .- See Cohamong.
Armenperal .- Var., Armenperai. Sprain River. Probably greatly corrupted. Its mean- ing has not been ascertained. A district on the Schuylkill River, was called Armenveruis (Col. Ilist. N. Y., Vol. I., p. 593), probably the same name, for the e should be p.
Askowaen .- A personal name, meaning not ascertained.
Aspetong .- A bold eminence in Bedford. The main stem or root of this term signifies " to raise up." aspe; Eliot uses it in the form Ashpohtag. " a height," which applies well to the locality.
Asumsowis .- A locality in Pelham ; a personal name probably.
Bissightick .- Var., Bisightick, a " creek." This probably means "a muddy creek," pissiyh-tuck ; Delaware, Assisk-tik.
Be-tuck-qua-pock .- Var., petuquapaen (Van der Donek's map). This was the " Dumpling pond," at Greenwich, Conn. P'tukqua-paug, " a round pond, or water-place." (See Trum- Imll's Names in Connectiont.)
Canopus .- Name of a chieftain.
Cantetoe .- In this Form not a place name, but seemingly from Cantecoy, "to sing and to dance." Variations, Kante Kante, Cante Cante, cte. It may have been derived, however, from Pocantico, which seo.
Catonah .- Var., Katonah, Ket-atonah, " great mountain." Said to be the name of a chief. Cantetoe, by some is said to be a variant of Catonah.
Cisqua .- See Kisco. It does not mean beaver-dam in its present form.
Cohomong .- Var., Armonck, Comonck, Cob-a-mong (?) Hills, also Byram River, the bound- ary between Connecticut and New York. The termination denotes a fishing-place-amaug. As it was a boundary it may represent a survival of Chaubun-kongamaug, "the boundary fishing-place." Byram River may have been an earlier boundary, and, as such, retained to the present day.
Cowangongh .- A locality in West Farms ; a " boundary-place."
Croton .- A personal name: S Schoolcraft suggests Kenotin. " the wind."
{ I prefer the Delaware Kloltin, "he contends."
Euketaupucuson .- Var .. Ekucketaupacuson. "A high ridge in Rye," also applied to Rye Woods. This name denotes a " place where a stream opens out or widens on both sides." i.e., overflows, generally where the stream Hows through low lands.
Gowahasuasing .- A locality in West Farms. A Delaware form signifying "a place of briars," or "a place where there is a hedge," comes from the same elements.
Haseco .-- See Miossehassaky.
47
ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS
Honge .- Blind brook. Probably taken from Acquehung.
Kisco .- See Keskistkonck.
Kitchawong .- Var., Kicktawane, Kechtawong, Kichtawan (Kussi-tchuan). Croton River. denotes " a wild, dashing stream." First suggested by Schoolcraft.
Kekeshick .- A locality in Yonkers. Ketch-auke, " the principal, or greatest place," prob- aldy a palisaded inelosure.
Kitchtawan .- Var., Kightowank. A locality in Sing Sing and in Cortlandt. Probably a variation of Kitchawong.
Keskistkonck .- Var., Kisco, Keskisco, Cisqua. Originally an Indian village situated on the bank of a creek. Massachusetts, Kishketuk-ock, " land on the edge of a creek."
Kestanbnuck .- Var., Kastoniuck (Keche-tauppen-auke). " The great encampment." A vil- lage of the Indians (Van der Donek's map). Schoolcraft was mistaken in deriving Nyack from this term. Nyack signifies " a point of land," and is the equivalent of the Long Island Nyack (Kings County) Noyac (Suffolk County).
Kiwigtignock .- Var., Kewightegnack, He-weghtiquack. An elbow of the Croton River. W'hquae-tigu-ack, " land at head of the cove." Compare Wiq'uetaquock, the cove at Stoning- ton, Con.
Laaphawachking .- Pelham. None of the components warrant a translation " as a place of stringing beads." We would suggest rather "a plowed field or plantation." Lapechwa- hacking, " land again broken up " for cultivation.
Maminketsuck .- A stream in Pelham. "A strong flowing brook," Manuhketsuck. Earlier forms might suggest another interpretation.
Mamaroneck .- A river, so named after Mamaronock, a chief who lived at Wiquaeskeck in 1644. Variations, Moworronoke, Momoronah, etc. (Mohmo'-anock) " he assembles the people."
Manursing .- An island. This form denotes a " little island." Minewits, Minnefords, ete., was so called after Peter Minuit.
Myanas .- Var., Meanau, Meanagh. Meahagh, Mehanos, etc., all seem to be simply varia- tions of the same name-a personal one, " he who gathers together." Mayanne was killed by Captain Patrick in 1643.
Meghkeekassin .- Var., Amackassin, Mekhkakhsin, Makakassin. A large rock. noted as a landmark west of Neperah. Delaware. Meechek-achsinik, "at the big rock."
Mohegan .- The late Dr. D. G. Brinton follows Captain Ilendrick, a native Mohegan. in translating the name as " a people of the great waters which are constantly ebbing and flowing." The tribe would naturally rejeet a term which was first applied by others. 1 agree with Schoolcraft and Trumbull that it denotes the " wolf nation." All the carly maps corroborate it. See Creuxins's map of 1660, for " Natio Lnporii."
Mentipathe .- A small stream in West Farms. Probably a personal name.
Miosse hassaky .- Var., Haseco. "A great fresh meadow or marshy land." The same name ocenrs in parts of New England ; Moshhassuck River, near Providence, R. I.
Mopus .- A brook in North Salem. A variant of Canopus (?).
Mockquams .- A brook in Rye. A variant from Aperquammis (?), or perhaps a personal name from the possessive in s.
Mosholu .- A brook in Yonkers. This looks like a made-up name. or else a greatly cor- rupted one.
Muscoota .- "A meadow," or a place of rushes, sometimes applied to grassy flats bordering rivers.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.