History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 8

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 8

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OCCUPATIONS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS .- The first settlers in Westchester, like those who located elsewhere, had many difficulties to overcome be- sides those usually attending the occupation of a new country. Every uative animal and bird was new to

them and every plant unknown. The planting of every crop was an experiment, and the requirements of its successful cultivation were not understood. It is trne that the cereals they brought across the At- lantic succeeded well here, but the climate was uu- certain to them and the seasons differed greatly from those of their native lands.

The maize, upon which the Indians so largely subsisted in winter, was strange to them, and its prep- aration as food had to be learued, while their palates were slow in appreciating its excellence. The heat of summer and the coutinued cold of winter were found most trying. The animals they brought with them were greatly reduced by their long voyages and then had to endure the trials of acclimatization. As there were no mills for sawing lumber, the houses were constructed of stones and logs, while the neces- sary boards were obtained only by tedious hand la- bor. The shingles were riven from straight-graincd chestnut timber and the laths from easy-splitting oak.

The whole country was covered with dense forests, except the parcels cleared by the Indians, and these had become exhausted. of their fertility by continuous cropping with corn, and the settlers had no means of obtaining the necessary manure for their enrichment. After the trees had been removed from fresh fields the soil was generally very stony and dif- ficult to cultivate.

When the settlers had become well established and lived in comfortable homes, their circumstances were rude and their occupations truly primitive. They had no roads other than the tortuous paths that led from one settlement to another, and over these nearly all their transportation was done by oxen, yoked to rude and cumbersome carts. The wheels were con- structed from roughly-hewn oak with strong felloes, upon which pieces of iron were spiked to protect them from wear. They had no continuous tires. Wagons were very rare. Oxeu also performed nearly all the animal labor of the farm. There were but few horses. These were chiefly used under the sad- dle, the women often riding npon pillions behind the men. Until mills for grinding grain were built, the flour was made by hand-grinding in a mortar, and af- terward, the mills being few in number, mnch of the grain was carried long distances upou . the backs of horses. Nearly everything used in the family was raised and manufactured npon the premises. Flax was an important crop and its preparatiou consumed much time and labor. It was dressed, spun and woven at home. During the greater portion of the year the people wore only linen garments and their beds were also furnished with linen coverings. The fleeces of their sheep were scoured, carded, spun and woven by the hands of those who wore the woolen clothes in winter and slept under the blankets they had themselves made. The loom occupied a room in nearly every house. The skins of their animals were tanned and dressed at home, the tan-vat being a nec-

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THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.

essary adjunct to every well-regulated establishment. The people made their own shoes or were supplied from leather of their own making by the itinerant shoemaker, who sojourned with the family till his work was completed. In the preparation and manu- facture of so many articles all the members of the family were employed, and cach home was the scene of busy industries, furnishing all its inmates with a practical education that made them useful and self- reliant.

Their tables were furnished with simple and whole- some food, usually served in one dish, in the centre, from which each person helped himself as he re- quired. Many of the dishes were of wood, but most of pewter, and these were valued heirlooms in the family.

The wealthier houses had dishes of delftware which their owners had brought with them across the Atlantic.

Our fathers knew nothing of ease. Stern necessity kept them ever on the alert. By nature they were active and full of courage. Difficulties never dis- heartened them, but nerved them to greater effort. They manfully overcame the obstacles that beset them; from rough materials they hewed homes of comfort and contentment; they reared their families to virtue and usefulness, and their children rose up to call them blessed.

Those were rich streams that flowed into West- chester County : the Dutch, the Puritan, the Hugue- not and the Quaker. Each fought its battle for civil and religious liberty. Each knew the rights of hu- manity, and, knowing, dared achieve them. Flowing together, they gave to Westchester mote strains of good blood than any other section can boast, and they furnished an unequaled foundation stock for peopling the county and the State.

Bur Wood

CHAPTER IV.

THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF MANORS IN NEW YORK, AND IN THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER.

BY EDWARD FLOYD DE LANCEY, ESQ. Copyright, 1886.

1. The Indian Owners of Westchester.

The Europeans who, it is certain, first beheld any part of what is now the County of Westchester, were Henry Hudson, and his mixed crew of Hollanders and

Englishmen. They sailed up the great "River of the Mountains " in the yacht Half-Moon of Amsterdam, flying the orange white and blue flag of the United Provinces, on the thirteenth and fourteenth days of September, 1609.1

They were the earliest civilized men to gaze enrap- tured on the beautiful land of Westchester. They saw before all others, her lofty hills, rich valleys, and deep magnificent forests, glowing in the transparent air and warm sun of Autumn beneath the bright blue sky of America.2

They sailed up the river as far as the site of Albany and then slowly returned. On the second of October, they anchored at the historic inlet of Spyt-den-Duy- vel, their progress being checked by a strong flood tide. Here, they first met the tawny, well formed, brown eyed, people, clad in skins and adorned with feathers, who then ruled over Westchester; and most unhappily as enemies. The cause was this. While still in the lower bay the Half-Moon, on the 9th of September, was threatened by some canoes full of savages. Hudson therefore detained two Indians as hostages, "putting red coats on them." Six days later, when she had got into the Highlands, the two Indians escaped through a port and swam ashore. When she stopped at Spyt-den-Duyvel on her return, one of the escaped Indians, and others, in a canoe, with some more canoes of Indians, tried to board her. Being repelled, they made an attack with bows and arrows, supported by about a hundred more Indians on shore. The fire-arms of the crew drove them off with a loss of nine or ten killed.3

Such was the unfortunate beginning of the inter- course of white men with the Indians of Westchester. These Indians, as well all the others with whom Hudson came in contact, belonged to a great aboriginal nation, or stock, termed the Lenni-Lenape. This was the name of that great confedera cy of Indian tribes, which, as Heckewelder states, ex- tended from the mouth of the Potomac north- eastwardly to the shores of Massachusetts Bay, and the mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont, and westwardly to the Allc- ghanies and the Cattskills,4 and were afterwards known as the Delawares. Beyond the Lenni-Lenape, still further to the northeast, and extending to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, aud up the magnificent river of that name to the Great Lakes, was a second great nation- ality or confederacy of Indian tribes, that of the Hurons or Adirondacks, sometimes called the Algon- quins. The term "Algonkin" or "Algonquin" is

1 Juet's Journal of Hudson's Voyage, I. N. Y. Ilist. Soc. Coll. Sec- ond Series, 325. These colors were those of William I., Prince of Or- ange-Nassau. The orange bar was changed to red after the death of William II. in 1650. As thus altered the flag of Holland continues to this day. de Jonge, cited in I. Brodhead, 325 n.

2 That any earlier navigator sailed up the Hudson, as has lately been alleged, is, as yet, without sufficient proof.

8 Juet's Journal, I. N. Y. Ilist. Soc. Coll., Second Series, 324, 326, 330. 4 Moulton's IFist. N. Y., 95 and 226.

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

used, however, by many writers to describe all the aborigines east of the Mississippi and south of the St. Lawrence, from the singular and very striking fact, that but one language was spoken throughout this entire region which was styled the " Algonquin" or "Algonkin." All the Indians within these limits understood each other. There were only compara- tively slight local variations. They required no interpreters, except to communicate with white men.

West and northwest of the Lenni-Lenape, extending

---

A SUSQUEHANNA OR DELAWARE CHIEF. (From Smith's "History of Virginia.")

from the western slopes of the Cattskills aud the Helderbergs south of the Mohawk, and north of it, from the banks of the upper Hudson and the waters of Champlain to the shores of Lake Erie, and thence through the region south of that lake to the Missis- sippi, was the dominion of the third, and, perhaps, the most famous of the three great nationalities or races of confederated Indians, the Five (and later Six), Nations or Iroquois, and their affiliated tribes.

These were the three great stocks of aborigines, who were in possession of North America from the

Potomac and Ohio on the south, to Canada on the north, and from the Atlantic Ocean on the east, to the Father of Waters on the west, at the time of Hud- son's discovery of the great bay of New York and the magnificent river which bears his name.

Each of these three confederacies embraced nu- merous distinct tribes, sub-tribes, and smaller tribal divisions, or cantons, and chieftaincies, all having separate names, but united more or less closely by the bond of a common origin. Each tribe, or sub-tribe, possessed its own locality and specific region as its own property, which was never lost, except by voluntary migration or by conquest.

There also existed a distinguishing characteristic of a different nature in all these great Indian con- federations. This was the clan or family distinction. Each confederacy was divided into tribes, families, or clans, designated by the name of some living creature, which they called their totem, or badge, the repre- sentation of which was painted upon their persons and upon their lodges. This tie, as members of the same confederacy, or even of the same totemic family, was not of itself sufficient to prevent them warring with each other in all cases. Like more civilized people they took up the hatchet against a tribe of the same stock, if occasion arose, as freely as against an enemy of another race. Con- flicting claims to lands, disputed boundaries, and the rivalries of neighborhoods, not unfrequently gave rise to enmities and wars. Thus in 1609, the tribes on the western side of the bay of New York and the lower Hudson, and those on the eastern side, were bitter enemies,1 although all were tribes and sub-tribes of the Lenni-L'enape or Delaware stock.

Among the Lenni-Lenape there were but three clans or familics, designated from their totems or badges, as the Unamis, or Turtle (or Tortoise) clan, the Unal- achtgo or Turkey, and the Minsi or Wolf, clans,2 to one, or the other of which, belonged every tribe or minor sub-division of the Delaware stock. The tribes cast of the Hudson, and all the sea coast tribes on both sides of Long Island Sound belonged to the Turkey clan, the tribcs between the Hudson and the Alleghanies to the Minsi (sometimes termed Moncey) or Wolf clan, and those on the Lower Delaware, Lower Susquehanna, and Potomac to that of the Turtle (or Tortoise) clan.

The first writer on New Netherland, was Johan (John) de Laet, a learned man, a native of Antwerp, but a resident of the city of Leyden. He wrote in 1622, and first published in 1625, sixteen years only after the discovery, through the Elzevirs at Leyden a "History of the New World," which contains the first historical account of what is now New York. He was a director of the Dutch West India Company, subsequently one of the first patroons of New Nether-

1 De Laet's New World, I. N. Y. Hist. Society's Coll., 2d series, 297.

2 Ruttenber's Hist. River Indians, 47. Moulton Hist., N. Y., 35.

THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.

land, and a personal friend of Hudson, whose private journal, as he tells us, he had before him when he wrote and from which, the extracts in his pages, are all that exist of Hudson's own account of his great discovery. At that time, de Laet says, the Indians on the west side of the Bay and River were called " Sankhicanni," or Sanhieans, and those on the east, " Mahicanni," or Mahicans, Mohicans, or Mohegans' the latter being Connecticut spelling of the word. The Dutch termed them "Mahikanders," and the natives on both sides of the Hudson collectively, the " River Indians." The Dutch word, however in gen- eral usc, when speaking or writing of them was, "the Wilden," literally the wild men, or the savages.

The Long Island Indians the Dutch ealled Matouwacks. They were Mohicans and were divided into twelve or thirteen sub-tribes or chieftaincies. All bore differ- ent names and possessed distinct, and different, localities. The ruling tribe were the Montauks who possessed the eastern extremity of the island. They owed their supremacy to the abundance of clams in their waters, from the shells of whieli they made the seawant or Indian money. This great abundance of the clam-shells ena- bled them to supply the Indians of all tribes westward almost to the great lakes with scawant, and thus Montank became thic seat of financial power, not only of Long Island, bnt of a region larger even than the Dutch Province of New Nether- land.

All the natives of the main between the Hudson and the Connecticut, from the Sound on the south to the Green, and the White, mountains on the north, were Mohicans, and their great council fire was established on the Hudson, in the present town of Greenbush, nearly opposite Al- bany. The name of the Hudson was " Mahicannituck," or River of the Mahic- ans; just as the Delaware was called by them "Lenape-whi-hi-tuck," or the rapid river of the Lenape; on the right bank of which, near where Philadelphia was afterward built, was the place of the Great Council Fire of the Lenni-Lenapc confederacy.1

The Iroquois name of the Hudson, according to John R. Bleccker, the old Indian interpreter and sur- veyor of the middle and latter part of the last century. was "Cahotatea."? Judge Egbert Benson in his " Memoir" says, on the authority of a Palatine sct- tler on Livingston manor, that the Hudson was also ealled "Shatemuc" by the Indians of that locality.3

The Indians of Westchester County were thereforc Mahicans, or Mohicans, as it is casier to call them, of the Turkey tribe or clan of the Lenni-Lenape, or Delaware, stock of North American aborigines. They were divided into several sub-tribes, eantons, or chieftaineies, each ruled by a Sacchima, as the Dutch called the title, or Sagamore, or Sachcm, and owning its own specifie location.

Upon the island of New York, and in Westchester west of the Bronx, and as far north as Yonkers, were seated the Manahatas, as de Laet calls them, or the Manhattans; those of them in Westchester were also

DELAWARE INDIAN FAMILY. (From Campanius' " New Sweden.")

{ termed the Reckewacks, or Reckgawawancks, their territory, Keskeskick, and their chief village, Nap- peckamak, was situated on the Nepperhaem, now Neperan, or Sawmill river, where it flows into the Hudson, the site of the present city of Yonkers.' The next tribe were the Wickquacskecks, or Wiekquacs- gecks, or Wickerschreecks, so called from their village of that name which De Vries, writing in 1640, thus describes,-" Opposite Tappaen is a place called Wickqnacsgeck. This land is also fit for corn, but too stony and sandy. We got there good masts. The

1 Moulton, 34 and 35.

2 I. N. Y. Hist. Coll., 2, 3.

3 Memoir, N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., 11. series, vol. 2, p. 85.

4 Rut = nber, 78. Il. Col. Hist. N. Y., 2nd Series, 5.

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

land is mountainous." This "place " was the site of the present village of Dobbs Ferry. A few miles further up the Hudson was another town of the same tribe called Alipconck, or place of Elms, now Tarry- town. This tribe seems to have held the centre of the County from the lands of the Siwanoys on the east to the Hudson on the west. Adjoining them on the north were the Sint-sinks possessing two villages, Ossingsing now Sing-Sing, and Kestabuinck, the latter of which was inland and a little south of the Croton river.

From the Kicktawanc, or Croton, extending up the river to Authony's Nose, and what is now the north line of the County, dwelt the Kicktawancks, or Kitchawongs, whose chief village was just above the mouth of the Croton river, on the isthmus connecting Senasqua, or Teller's Point, with the main land, and near the old Van Cortlandt Manor House. East- wardly their lands appear to have extended to Con- necticut and the lands of the Siwanoys. The Indians in the northern part of the county were also called the Tankitekes, which seems to have been a general

DELAWARE INDIAN FORT. (From Campanius' "New Sweden.")

name for all dwellings north of the Wickquaeskecks. These last were said by Tienhoven in 1651, to have extended east to the Sound, but this being in conflict with de Laet's account of 1624, is believed to be an error. From Hellgate along the Sound, including the whole eastern side of Westchester County, and Connecticut, as far as Norwalk and its islands, and inland to the valley of the Bronx and the head waters of the Croton, a single and numerous tribe possessed all the land. These were the Sewanoes, or Siwanoys, as de Laet writing in 1624, the earliest and most trustworthy authority on New Netherland history, distinctly states.1 They had several towns in this territory, some of which were fortified. One of the latter occupied the beautiful height in the township of Westchester overlooking the Sound, on which still stands the old seat of the Wilkins family, which from it has always borne, and still bears, the name of "Castle Hill." A village, and also a burial-place, existed on Pelham Neck, another on Davenport's

Neck in New Rochelle, still another ou Heath- cote Hill and Nelson's Hill, at the head of Mam- aroneck Harbor. A fifth, and a very large one, was on the attractive banks of Rye Lake in the northern end of the town of Harrison. Besides these there were scattered collections of a few lodges in other places chiefly resorted to in the fishing and hunting seasons. Que of these was at Throg's Point, another at the extreme point of Pelham Neck, another on de Lancey's Neck at the narrowest point at the mouth of the Harbour, where a small creek running into the Harbour from the west, and a round field of upland adjacent to it, are still known as the Indian creek, and the Indian field, and the point itself as Indian Point. A fourth existed on Milton Neck, and a fifth on Manussing Island, both iu the town of Rye. This account of the Westchester In- dians is based upon a study of de Laet, de Vries, Vau der Donck, O'Callaghan, Brodhead, Moulton, Schoolcraft, Ruttenber, and an examination of many Indian deeds, and records of councils.

From the Sakimas, Sagamores, or Sachems, of these various tribes, and some of their chief men and womeu, have come by deeds of conveyance the Indian titles to all the lands in Westchester County. There is no part of America of equal area, in which the Indian title was so fully and fairly extinguished. And none where in proportion to its size more Indian deeds have been given, preserved, and recorded.

There was a peculiarity in the customs of the Indians in relation to sales of lands which should always be remembered, and to their observance of which is to be ascribed the discredit sometimes attached to them iu these matters. " Oh ! you are an Indian giver " is sometimes heard, expressive of the idea, of giving a thing and then taking it back, which lıas its origin in this custom. They sometimes sold and deeded the same land more than once, in whole, or in part. This was in pursuauce of a custom which with them was a law. It is thus stated by Ruttenber in his " History of the River Indians," page 80. " Lands held by them were obtained by conceded original occupation or by conquest. If conquered original right ceased and vested in the conquerors; if re-conquered, the title returned to its original owners. This rule they applied also to the sale of lands to the Dutch. [And to the English also.] As ofteu as they sold to the latter and subsequently drove off the settlers, so often was re-purchase neces- sary, and if it was not made, a cause of grievance and future war remained." It was in fact, nothing but the application of their idea of the right of eminent domain. Of course there were instances of fraudulent deeds by Indians who had uo power or right to con- vey, or who were drawn into sales when intoxicated or prisoners by designing whites. And there were some where rival Sachems claimed and deeded the same lands to different parties ; but these exceptions were rare.

1 De Laet's New World, ch. VIII.

THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.

In Westchester County the Indian title was first extinguished by purchase from the Indians pursuant to a lieense from the Duteh or English authorities, then Manors and Grants, by patents were obtained in the manner directed by the Dutch or English laws. And usually in the ease of the Manors and larger patents, deeds of confirmation were subsequently obtained from the Indians, merely as a matter of precaution, notwithstanding the fact that the Indian title had, pursuant to the laws both of the Dutch and the English, been always extinguished by deed or deeds beforehand.

The North American Indians claimed that they sprung from the earth-that they were Antochthoni, produced from the earth itself, and henee they boasted their title to the lands eould never be ques- tioned and was indefeasible. This belief was the underlying foundation of the many curious, grotesque, and absurd, accounts of their origin given by different tribes, and different writers at different times. This is not the place to discuss the origin of the Indians, nor any of the many theories that have been broached to account for it.

But the belief above mentioned, in some form or other, always existed among themselves. Never was it more forcibly, or more eloquently expressed than by the great Tecumseh at the Council of Vineennes held by General Harrison, afterwards the ninth President of the United States, at that place in 1811. The chief of some tribes attended, to complain of a purchase of lands which had been made from the Kiekapoos. The harshness of language used by Teeumseh in the course of the conference eaused it to be broken up in confusion. In the progress of the long "talks," which took place, Tecumseh, having finished one of his speeches, looked around, but see- ing every one seated, while no seat was prepared for him, a momentary frown passed over his countenance. Instantly General Harrison ordered that a chair should be given him. Some person presented one, with a bow, saying, " Warrior your father General Harrison offers you a seat." Tecumseh's dark eyes flashed. "My father !" he exelaimed with indigna- tion, and extending his arm towards the heavens, burst forth "The Great Spirit is my father and the earth is my mother; she feeds and clothes me, and I reeline on her bosom."]

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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 8

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