History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 4

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354

USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I > Part 4

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There is much uncertainty regarding the sub- divisions of the tribes in any given district, and if the question of their location were left to the state- ments and maps of the early European settlers, it well might be abandoned as hopeless. Fortunately, the title-deeds given to the settlers supply considerable in- formation, which, though not perfect, enables us to locate the sub-tribes with tolerable accuracy. Yet the boundaries of such tracts as were sold by the aborigines were designated with much uncertainty by the Indian names of rivers, brooks and rivulets, hills, ponds and meadows, which are sometimes diffi- cult to locate. Treaties made between the settlers and the Indians assist us in the undertaking.

The island upon which the city of New York has been built was occupied by the Manhattans. Their territory also extended along the Mahicanituk, or Hudson River, northward to the Neperhan, or Saw- Mill River, and eastward to the Aquehung, or Bronx River. Between the Neperhan and the Pocantico were the Weckquaesgeeks. The Sint Sinks occupied the land between the Pocantico and the Kitchawan, or Croton River. North of the Croton were the Kitchawancs, whose lands extended to Anthony's Nose and the Highlands, and eastward across the northern portion of Westchester County. East of the Manhattans, occupying the territory along the

Sound, were the Siwanoys, who also occupied the southwestern portion of Connecticut. North of the Siwanoys were the Tankitekes, occupying the central and castern portions of the county. The western end of Long Island was occupied by the Canarsees. The Rockaways, Merricks, Marsapequas, Matinecocks, Corehangs, Manhassets, Secatogues, Patehogues, Shinnecocks and Montauks extended eastward, in the order named. West of the Hudson were the Navesinks, Raritans, Hackinsaeks, Tappans and Haverstraws. Above the Highlands, upon the eastern side of the river, were the Nochpeens and the Wappingers. Eastward, in Connecticut, was the large chieftaincy of the Sequins.

That the Indians of Westchester were very numerons is proven by the fact that over fifteen hun- dred warriors were at one time in arms against the whites, and also by the number of their large villages. These villages were located where there were special advantages for fishing, or where a light and easily- worked soil was favorable for cultivation.

The Manhattans had three villages upon Manhattan Island. Their largest village in this county was Nappeckamak, which occupied the site of the present city of Yonkers. At the southern end of the original township of Yonkers, overlooking the Hudson River (Mahicanituk) and Spuyten Duyvil Creek (Papirini- men,) they had a fortress which they called Nipinichsen.

The Weckquaesgeeks had their principal village at the mouth of Wysquaqua, where the village of Dobb's Ferry now stands. It was called by the tribal name. Until recently its site was desiguated by extensive shell-beds. They had another village at the mouth of the Pocantico, on the site now occupied by Tarrytown. This village was called Alipconck. They had another village by the Neperhan, west of White Plains.

The Sint Sinks had a village called Ossing-Sing, where "The Kill" empties into the Hudson at Sing Sing. They had a smaller village at the mouth of the Kitchawan or Croton River.

The Kitchawancs had a large village upon Van Cortlandt's Neck, connecting Croton Point with the mainland. They had here the strongest fortress of any in the county. Like Nipinichsen, it was a heav- ily-palisaded stockade. They had another village npon Verplanck's Point and a larger one called Sack- hoes, where Peekskill now stands.

The Siwanoys were a numerous tribe. They had a village upon Pelliam Neck, in the present town of Pelliam; another on Davenport's Neck, in New Rochelle ; and their largest settlement upon the shores of Rye Pond, in the present town of Harrison. Here was a very extensive burial-ground. There was also a settlement near Rye Beach. They had another village in the southern part of the town of West- chester, near Bear Swamp. They had an important castle upon what is still known as Castle Hill, west of Westchester Creek.

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

The Tankitekes had a village by Wampus Lake, iu the town of North Castle, where the Sachem Wampus resided. They also had a village near Pleasantville, in the town of Mount Pleasant. There was a settle- ment by the Mehanas River, near the present village of Bedford. There was also a village where the Cross River (Peppensghek) unites with the Croton or Kitchawan, near the preseut site of Katonalı. Here are still visible the remains of extensive stone fish- weirs, in the bed of the Croton River, that were built by the Indians. Besides the villages named, there were doubtless many more of whose existence no account has come down to us.

That the Indians occupied this section in great numbers is rendered probable by the character of the country and its surroundings. The whole couuty is remarkably well watered and its soil produced an abundance of rich natural grasses. These conditions caused an abundance of game. The lands bordering the Beaver Dam River in Bedford were called "the deer's delight." The numerous lakes aud streams throughout the county were well stocked with fish. These were takeu with lines and nets, the cordage of which was made of twisted fibres of the dogbane and the sinews of the deer. Hooks were fashioned of the sharpened bones of fishes and birds. Weirs, fish- traps aud spears were also employed. Deer and other game were taken by other means besides hunting with the bow and arrow. The English settlers found in good preservation, in the town of Poundridge, an extensive trap which they called a pound, and from which the township had its uame. It was situated at the south end of the ridge, not far from the present village, and inclosed the spring of water which still flows there. It was built of logs held together by what the English called saddle-stones, was twelve or fourteen feet high, and inclosed an acre or more of ground. From its narrow entrance there extended palisaded wiugs in each direction, so as to cross the valley and run up the adjacent hillsides. The valleys from the south and southwest come together here by the subsidence of the intervening ridges. The Indians in considerable numbers would start in the early morn- ing uiany miles away, and would "beat the bush " with hideous yells, working in the direction of the trap, while parties ran along the ridges on the right and left to prevent lateral escapes, and thus they drove before them the game of every description until they came to the wings of the trap, which led everything iuto the inclosure. Then the entrance was closed and all secured. In this way great numbers of deer and other game were taken.

Important as were the food supplies obtained from the forests and streams, they were greatly increased by those from the surrounding waters. The Hudson River and the Sound make the situation of the county a remarkable one. These waters teemed with fish, which furnished the attraction to the villagers living upon their shores. In seasons of abundauce, like the

running of the shad in the spring-time, quantities of fish were dried and smoked, and thus preserved for future use. Shell-fish were extensively used. Along the Sound the numerous shell-heaps attested the In- dians' appreciation of the oyster. These shell-heaps resemble those of European countries, which, with the " kitchen-iniddens," have received so much attention from archæologists. So extensive were these shell-heaps upon City Island, now forming part of the township of Pelham, that they gave to the surrounding waters the name of "the great bay of the island of shells." Similar heaps were found upon Berrian's Neck, in the township of Yonkers, and at the various village sites along the Hudson. The largest of these were upon Croton Point, where considerable areas are still cov- ered with them to the depth of two or three feet.

This beautiful projection of land was called Senas- qua, one of the softest of Iudian names, and in the adjacent waters of Tappan and Haverstraw Bays great quantities of oysters are still fouud and are taken elsewhere for increased growth. Before the country was settled by the whites and the forests were cleared away, a much greater percentage of the rain-fall evaporated from the surface of the land and less flowed away in the streams. On this account, the water of the Hudson was much more salt than now, and more favorable to the oyster's development. To overlook and protect the important oyster-beds of this wide portion of the river, the fort upon Van Cort- landt's neck was erected. It is an interesting fact that where these shells have remained undisturbed they are nearly all found whole, showing that the Indians opened the oysters without breaking them. It was probably accomplished by exposure to the sun. None of them have been exposed to fire. A remark- able number and variety of stone implements have been found here, and here a place of burial has been recently discovered.

But the aboriginal inhabitants of Westchester did not depend alone upon the food derived from the chase and taken from the waters. They cultivated the land much more extensively than is generally supposed. The European navigators of the Hudson were impressed by the extent of the fields of maize. Suitable lands along the Sound were similarly used, and throughout the interior the early white settlers found their difficulties greatly lessened by the extent of the lands already cleared and prepared for their immediate use.

The Indian's success in the cultivation of land was remarkable, when we consider the disadvantages under which he labored. It must be remembered that he had taught no animal to assist him in his labor. He had uo flock or herd, uor any kind of poul- try. His dog was a worthless creature, resembling a cross between the fox and the wolf, and was only the lazy sharer of his cabin or the playmate of his chil- dren, and was not trained to usefulness in the chase. He had uo iron nor auy other metal, except rare spec-

THE INDIANS.

imens of native copper, brought from the shores of Lake Superior and worn as ornaments, or, perhaps, fashioned into highly-prized spear heads. In the present "iron age," when every required tool is ready- fashioned to our hand, it is difficult for us to imagine such a situation. How could he work the soil? How attack a tree ? How obtain an implement of any de- scription ? In his various operations he had three agents-stone, wood and fire. He sometimes employed the first in the cultivation of his crops, but more often his only implement was a poor hoe made from the sliell of the clam or the shoulder-blade of the deer.

On this account he worked no soils but those that were light and easily stirred. Unfortunately, such were quickly exhausted, and then failed to yield abundant returns for his labor. His only means of restoring fertility was in the use of fish as a manurc. Menhaden were his chief reliance for this purpose, and on this account the corn-fields were most exten- sive near the shores. His most important erop was maize, and upon this he relied, very largely, for his subsistence in winter. It was roasted while young, and when ma- tured and dry was ground into meal by stone pestles and mortars, and when this was moistened with water and baked upon heated stones.the product was called “ nook- hik," from which have come " nocake " and " hoc-cake." The grain was preserved after harvest by being buried in the dryest places under a thatch of coarse grass and boughs. Next in importance to maize was the sieva bean. It was extensively raised and boiled alone or with the green-corn. The latter dish was called " succotash." The boiling was accomplished in bowls of steatite, or in vessels of rude pottery. In addition to these, pumpkins were grown. These were readily baked before the fire. Wild fruits and nuts, in their seasons, also contributed to his support and enjoyment. Tobacco was also grown here, but we cannot learn how exten- sively. With their requirements for food thus met, the Indians here were not destitute of the means of comfortable clothing. The country abounded with fur-bearing animals. Beavers were very numerous. The names of Beaver Meadows, scattered throughout the county, and that of Beaver Dam River, in the upper portion, attest this. Van der Donck, the pa- tron of Yonkers, wrote, in 1656, that eighty thousand of these were annually killed in this quarter of the country. In November, 1624, among the cargo of the first laden vessel from New to Old Amsterdam were 7246 beaver-skins, 675 skins of otters, 48 of mink, 36 wild-cat and various other sorts. In Wassenares' "His- tory of the New Netherlands," it is narrated: "The tribes are in the habit of clothing themselves with ot- ter-skins, the fur inside, the smooth side without ; which, however, they paint so beautifully that at a dis-

tance it resembles lace. When they bring their com- modities to the traders, and find they are desirous to buy them, they make so little matter of it that they rip up the skins they are clothed with and sell them also, returning naked to their homes. They use the beaver-skins mostly for the sleeves and the otter for the rest of the clothes." Their most elegant gar- ments were mantles made of feathers, overlapping each other, as upon the birds themselves. Sometimes these were artistic productions of real beauty. They made leggins and moccasins of deer-skins. The men always went bare-headed, and, in the summer, wore nothing beside a short garment about the loins, called, by the white settlers, "Indian breeches." The womeu dressed their glossy hair in a thick, heavy plait. Their dress usually consisted of two garments, -a leather shirt and a skirt of the same material fast- ened around the waist, with a belt and reaching below the knees. From these various considerations, we can

MORTAR AND PESTLE1 Found near Croton River, in Yorktown. The pestle is 18 inches long.

understand how a large population could exist in comparative comfort in this section.

The Indian houses were made by planting poles in the ground and binding them together at the top. These were covered with bark or thatched with reeds and rushes, so as to be impervious to rain. Their beds were made of evergreen boughs, covered with skins and furs. Their furniture was extremely sim- ple. Besides the before-mentioned pots for cooking, they had wooden bowls for holding their food and wooden spoons for handling it. Mats made of rushes sometimes covered the floors of their huts. They had buckets ingeniously made of birch-bark, so as to be water-tight, and baskets of various sizes, made of

1 The Indian specimens illustrating this chapter are from the interest- ing and valuable private collection of Mr. James Wood, of Mt. Kisco, Westchester County.

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

splints, rushes or grass. Their villages were com- posed of houses elosely huddled together about a eentral space, which was used for the transaction of public business, for ceremonies and amusements. Besides the mannfactures already named there were others that attested the Indian's skill. He made boats of two kinds. One consisted of a light, wooden frame, covered with birch-bark, skillfully and tastefully fast- ened at the seams; this boat was peculiarly valuable on long jonrneys, as its lightness allowed it to be easily carried from the waters of one stream to those of another. The other boat was a mneh heavier affair, fashioned from the trunk of a tree. The wood was charred by heated stones and then seraped away with stone gouges. These boats were sometimes thirty or more feet in length, and were eapable of earrying a considerable number of passengers. In some of the sales of land to the white settlers along the Sound the Indians reserved " the white-wood trees, suitable for making eanoes of."

PARTLY DRILLED PIECE OF STEATITE.1

In nothing was the Indian's skill more strikingly shown than in his manufacture of implements of stone. These were mortars and pestles, axes, hatchets, adzes, gonges, ehisels, entting tools, skinning tools, perforators, arrow and spear-heads, serapers, mauls, hammer-stones, sinkers, pendants, pierced tablets, polishers, pipes and ceremonial stones. Speeimens of all these have been found in Westchester County. The mortars were usnally bowl-like depressions worn into some roek beside the village site, where the wo- men eould conveniently resort to grind the eorn. Sometimes they were made in portable stones. The pestles were from two to three inehes in diameter and from six to twenty inehes in length, and gener- ally of fine sandstone, greenstone or hornblende. Axes were made of varieties of greenstone, syenite,

granite, porphyry and sandstone. They may be de- seribed as wedges, eneireled by a groove near the heavy end. They varied in weight from half a pound to six or eight pounds. The groove was made for seeurely fastening the handle. This was bound with pieces of raw hide, or sometimes a young tree was cleft while yet grow- ing, and the axe, being inserted, was left in the proper position until the growth had elosely formed about it. Adzes, gouges and ehisels were made of tough greenstone and hornblende, and were used in the manufacture of HORNBLENDE AXE. Found in Bedford. their eanoes. The eut- ting tools were leaf-shaped implements made of flint or jasper, finely ehipped to an edge, which eom- bined iu its eutting the principles of the saw and the knife. There were also flakes of obsidian that had sharp eutting edges. Skinning tools, or eelts, were wedge-shaped imple- ments made of many kinds of stone, worked to a fine edge at one end, and gener- ally polished. Perforators were delieately wrought of flint or jasper. Scrapers. were small implements of flint used in -dressing skins. Arrow and spear- POLISHED FLESHER. heads form the best known elass of Indian implements, and have been found here in great numbers. They were made of flint, jasper, ehert, hornstone, quartz and a variety of other stones. The spear-leads were from two to eight and ten inches in length, while thearrow-points were smaller and light- er, and many speei- mens of each were beautifully wrought. Some were worked by blows and some by dropping water upon the heated stone. Oe- casionally thronghout the connty quantities of flint chips are found FLESHER WITH HANDLE. on some Indian village site, where the ancient arrow- maker had his workshop. Manls and hammer-stones were made of several varieties of tough stones. The former were grooved for hafting, and the latter were

1 With black flint drill found in hole. These specimens were found at Croton Point, and Mr. James Wood says they are unique.

THE INDIANS.

eircular or elliptieal, two and a halfinches in diameter, or three in greatest length, and an ineh in thiekness, with slight depressions worked at the middle of the sides for the thumb and finger. They usually show

GROOVED HAMMER, With castle.

POLISHED AXE.

evidenees of wear at the eireumferenee or ends. Large numbers of these have been found along the Hudson. Sinkers were used in weighting the nets, and were simple flat stones, notched at the opposite edges.

HOE OF GREY FLINT, 7} BY 5} INCHES.

Pendants were pear-shaped, pointed at one end and grooved near the other. Piereed tablets were used in twisting the bow-strings or worn as ornaments. Some remarkable speeimens of these, notehed as if kept as

FLINT KNIFE, 814 by 3 inches.

records, have been found here. found in great numbers, but

FLINT KNIFE, 8 by 31/4 inches.

Pipes have not been some of the speei-

mens are very interesting. They are made of green- stone, steatite and sometimes were fashioned of clay. They represent birds, or the heads of birds, turtles and various animals, the beaver more frequently than others. Ceremonial stones were the most finely wrought of all the Indian's stone-work. They were earried as evidenees of rank, or to exeite a supersti- tious reverenee. They were wrought from serpentine

PIERCED RECORD TABLET.1

CEREMONIAL STONE OF GREEN.

or a fine and beautiful striped slate, and were drilled so that they could be earried upon a rod or handle. This striped slate, so far as is known, was nowhere found nearer than Canada. The few specimens of obsidian found here must have come from the Roeky Mountain region. Three or four spear-heads, ham- mered from native eopper, that have been found here must have been brought from the shores of Lake Su- perior, while the flints and jaspers, from which so many arrow-heads were made, must have been brought a considerable distanee. These faets prove that the Mohegans carried on eommeree of exchange with other tribes, and thus obtained articles that had been brought from very remote localities.

Holes were drilled through stones for ornament or use by a drill ot flint, or a reed with water and sand. These were worked by a bow-string.

The bow was an important article of the Indian's outfit, and was his chief weapon in war and in the ehase. It was skillfully fashioned from ash or hiekory-wood, and was strung with the sinews of the deer.

Another important artiele of manufacture was wampum, which was their me- dium of exchange, or money. It was made from the shell of the quohog, or hard-shell elam. It was cylindrieal in form, a quarter of an inch long, and in diameter less than a pipe-stem, drilled lengthwise, so as to be chị Thầu strung upon a thread. The beads of a white color rated at GROOVED HAMMER. half the value of the black or violet, made from the portion where the eontraeting musele of the elam is attached to the shell. They were used for ornament as well as for eoin, and ten thousand or more were sometimes wrought into the belt of some

1 Six by two inches, found in Bedford,

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

great chieftain. The district about Byram Lake was called Cohemong, which meant the place where wam- pum is made.

There have been but few unbroken specimens of Indian pottery found in Westchester County, but

BIRD AND TORTOISE PIPE. Found in New Castle.

DUCKS' HEAD PIPE. Found in Bedford.

numerous fragments, some of considerable size, are in existence. These are all quite rude, although some show attempts at ornamentation. On Crotou Point, where the clay was favorable for this manufacture, a treuch has been discovered containing numerous fragments of earthen vessels, along with charcoal, indicating that here may have been a simple kiln for burning pottery.

In the manufacture of all these various articles, some of which required a great amount of labor, be-

BLACK FLINT KNIFE.

sides the time necessarily taken in hunting and fish- ing and iu the cultivation of their crops, our Indians must have been pretty fully occupied, and we can scarcely believe them to have spent so much time in idleness as is generally supposed.

In their domestic relations the Mohegans were not depraved. The lover courted his chosen maiden with presents of ornaments, and wou the favor of her par- ents with gifts of wampum. The consent of the sachem was obtained to their marriage, and he usu- ally joined their hands together and they went away as man and wife. The man had but one wife, unless he was a sachem or occupied an exceptionally high position. The marriage tie was respected, aud unfaith- fulness was looked upon as a crime. In cases of sepa- FLINT SKIN 'SCRAPER. ration the wife was given FLINT PER- FORATOR. her share of the goods and departed, being then at liberty to marry again. The Mohegans were never charged with licen- tiousness, as were Indians elsewhere. The women were described as modest and coy in their behavior, and they indignantly repelled all improper advances made by the whites. There is no account of any insulting treat- ment having been offered to female white captives. Children were kindly treated, but knew little of pa- rental restraint. The girls were early taught quiet submission to the labors of their position, and the boys were encouraged to independence, and trained to be- come skillful in the chase and in war.

· If anv deformed children were born, they must have

died in infancy, for the European visitors stated that none were cross-eyed, blind, crippled, lame or hunch- backed ; and that all were well-fashioned, stroug in constitution of body, well-proportioned and without blemish. They were kind iu their treatment of the sick. They had learned the mediciual virtues of mauy herbs and of a few other simples. They bound

HAND-MADE AND FINGER-MARKED VESSEL OF POT TE

up wounds with mollifying preparations of leaves. They treated fevers by opening the pores of the skin with a vapor bath ; but their chief reliance in many diseases was upon supernatural cures. Their medi- cine-man, or pow-wow, excited their superstitious susceptibilities and worked upou their imaginations, using, with great solemnity, the cercmouial stones al- ready described to assist in his work. Their reliance upon faith-cures was complete.

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History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 4

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co. Number of Pages: 1354

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354