USA > New York > Rensselaer County > Landmarks of Rensselaer county, New York, pt 1 > Part 2
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CHAPTER IL.
Early Indian Occupancy -- The Mohicans the Aboriginal Inhabitants of Rensselaer County-The Five Nations. Their Organization and Development-Warfare Between the Mohicans and Mohawks-Uncas and Miantonomoh-Origin of the Schaghticoke Indians.
The Mohican Indians 1 were the aboriginal inhabitants of a tract of land embracing what is now Rensselaer county and a portion of the States of Vermont and Massachusetts. They were one of the most conspieuons tribes of the great Algonquin family, which occupied the greater part of Canada and nearly all that portion of the United States east of the Mississippi and north of the thirty-seventh parallel of lati-
' Also spelled Mohegan.
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THE MOHICAN INDIANS.
tude. One of the principal villages of the Mohieans was in the county of Rensselaer, covering a portion of the site of the present city of Troy. At the time when our first knowledge of them begins they were already beginning to decay, and when the white settlers made their appearance the decadence of all the tribes of the family was accelerated.
In the reign of Atotarho XII, one of the kings of the Five Nations, perhaps about fifty years before Columbus discovered America, we are told by an authority on Indian history 1 that the Tehatirihokea, or Mo- hawks, were at war with Ranatshaganha, "supposed Mohegans, whooecu- pied the opposite bank of the river Skaunataty or Hudson. The warfare was maintained by small expeditions; the Mohawks would cross the river and attack the enemy; the canoes were kept in the river contin- ually to cover their retreat ; but after a while the Mohegans expoliated the war; the chief of the Mohawks received orders from the king, and invited the two confederate nations, the Oneidas and the Onondagas, to unite against the common enemy ; the band of the combined forces immediately crossed the river and revenged a part of the country, and the enemy were compelled to sue for peace."
In the centre of the great expanse of territory occupied by the Al- gonquins, and entirely cut off from communication with other nations, except in the event of war, lived the powerful nations called the Iro- quois and the Hurons. By some these two families were called one nation, the Iluron-Iroquois.
The Iroquois Indians, or the Five Nations as they were called by the French (subsequently, by the amalgamation with them of the Tusca- roras, becoming the Six Nations), occupied practically all the territory now known as New York State when the first white man penetrated the wilderness through which they roamed. The English called them the Confederates; the Dutch, more particularly those who settled the Mohawk valley, called them the Maquaas; and the Indians called them- selves the Agannschioni, meaning " United People." They also called themselves the llodenosaunee, meaning "the people of the long house," all their houses being low, narrow and as a rule very long. They also likened their confederacy, stretched for 200 miles along a narrow valley, to one of the long wigwams containing many families. =
The Five Nations were composed of the Mohawks, on the cast; next
1 David Cusick's Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations.
" Credit is due George S. Conover, the well-known authority on Indian history, for much of the information contained in this chapter.
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LANDMARKS OF RENSSELAER COUNTY.
west being the Oneidas, then the Onondagas, the Cayugas and the Sen- ecas. When the Tuscaroras, from the Carolinas, joined the Confeder- acy which existed among those nations they became amalgamated with the Oneidas and gradually lost their identity. It is not positively known when the Confederacy was established. In David Cusick's his- tory of the Six Nations he relates the Indian traditions relative to the origin of the kingdom, which was called "a Long House, the Wars, Fierce Animals," etc. He says:
By some indueement a body of people was concealed in the mountain at the falls named Kuskehsawkich (now Oswego). When the people were released from the mountain they were visited by Tarenyawagon, i. e., the Holder of the Heavens, who had power to change himself into various shapes; he ordered the people to proceed toward the sunrise as he guided them and come to a river and named Yenonanatche, i. e., going round a mountain (now Mohawk), and went down the bank of the river and come to where it discharges into a great river running towards the midday sun ; and Shaw-nay-taw-ty, i. e., beyond the pineries (now Hudson), and went down the bank of the river and touched bank of a great water. . . The people were yet in one language; some of the people went to the banks of the great water towards the midday sun, but the main company returned as they came, on the bank of the river, under the direction of the Holder of the Heavens. Of this company there was a par- tieular body which called themselves one household; of these were six families and they entered into a resolution to preserve the chain of alliance which should not be extinguished in any manner. The company advanced some distance up the river of Shaw-na-taw-ty (Hudson), the Holder of the Heavens directs the first family to make their residence near the bank of the river, and the family was named Te-haw- re-ho geh, i. e., a speech divided (now Mohawk) and their language was soon altered ; the company then turned and went towards the sunsetting, and travelled about two days and a half, and come to a creek, which was named Kaw-na-taw-te-ruh, i. e., Pineries. The second family was directed to make their residence near the creek, and the family was named Ne-haw-re- tah-go, i. e., Big Tree, now Oneidas, and like- wise their language was altered. The company continued to proceed towards the sunsetting; under the direction of the Holder of the Heavens. The third family was directed to make their residence on a mountain named Onondaga (now Onondaga) and the family was named Seuh-now-kah-tah, i. e., carrying the name, and their language was altered. The company continued their journey towards the sunsetting. The fourth family was directed to make their residence near a long lake named Go- yo-goh, i. e., a mountain rising from the water (now Cayuga) and the family was named Sho-nea-na-we-to-wali, i. e., a great pipe, their language was altered. The company continued to procced towards the sunsetting. The fifth family was directed to make their residence near a high mountain, or rather nole, situated south of the Canandaigua lake, which was named Jenneatowake and the family was named Te. how-nea-nyo-hent, i. e. Passing a Door, now Seneca, and their language was altered- The sixth family went with the company that journeyed towards the sunsetting, and tonehed the bank of a great lake, and named Kau-ha-gwa-rah-ka, i. c., A Cap, now
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THE GREAT IROQUOIS FEDERATION.
Erie, and then went towards between the mid-day and sunsetting, and travelled considerable distance and came to a large river which was named Ouau-we-yo-ka, i. e., a principal stream, now Mississippi. The family was directed to make their residence near Cau-ta-noh, i. e., Pine in water, situated near the mouth of Nuse river, now in North Carolina, and the family was named Kau-ta-noh, now Tuscarora and their language was also altered. . The Holder of the Heavens returns to the five families and forms the mode of confederacy which was named Ggo-nea-seab- neh, i. e., A Long House, to which are Ist-Tea-kaw-reh-ho-geh; 2d -- New-haw-teh- tah-go; 3d-Seuh-nau-ka-ta; 4th-Sho-nea-na-we-to-wan ; 5th-Te-hoo-nea-nyo-hent.
This organization is supposed to have taken place between 1900 and 2000 years before Columbus discovered America, or between 400 B. C. and 500 B. C. While this account is purely traditional it is the most authentie in existence.
When the white intruders first discovered that such an alliance ex- isted, all that was known of the organization of the form of govern- ment so remarkable among a savage people was, as we have shown, mere tradition Each nation of the Confederacy was independent of every other in all matters of a local character, and in the councils no sachem was superior to another, except by reason of higher intellectual attainments, such as they might be. The fifty offices created at the organization of the Confederacy were distributed among the nations according to their numerical strength. Of these offices the Mohawks had nine, the Oneidas nine, the Onondagas fourteen, the Cayugas ten and the Senecas eight. Although these offices were hereditary, no one could became a ruler or sachem until elevated to such a place by a council of all the sachems of this original American Confederacy. The sachems who, in council, constituted the legislative body of the union were also the local rulers of their respective nations. While a sachem or chief had civil authority, he could not be a chieftain in war intil elected to that position. Every sachem went on the warpath as a common warrior unless he had been doubly honored and made a military leader as well as a civil officer. The Iroquois nation then was practically a Republic, founded on much the same lines as the United States of America, marvelous as it may seem.
The policy of the Iroquois nation in war appeared to have been not alone for the sake of war, but for conquest and the extension of the nation's power and influence. Instead of trying to exterminate their foes the Iroquois strove to subjugate and adopt them, and as far as they could in their weak way, to enlighten them. So successful were they in their efforts that at the end of the seventeenth century they 2
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LANDMARKS OF RENSSELAER COUNTY.
dominated a very large portion of what is now the United States: The Iroquois of New York and the Algonquin tribes of New England were perpetually at war. The Mohawks and Oneidas oceupied the Mohawk valley mainly, and the three nations west of them were compelled to pass through this region when starting out upon the eastern warpath. The most natural and convenient pathway for them to traverse was from the Mohawk valley eastward, leading them up from the Hudson to the valley of the Hoosiek river, then across the Berkshire hills or the southern spur of the Green mountains to the valley of the Connecticut river. Over this trail the Five Nations marched on many occasions, according both to history and early tradition, and in and near the county of Rensselaer many a bloody battle was fought by the red men of the wilderness.
At the time the Dutch first ascended the Hudson the war against the Mohicans was earried on mainly by the Mohawks. " The Mohe- gans ocenpied its banks, and the Mohawk villages were no nearer than Schoharie creek. The Dutch at first took sides with the Mohegans and were defeated, but afterwards were friends of their opponents. The Mohegans made their last invasion in August, 1669, unsuccessfully attacking a Mohawk town. The Oneidas and Onondagas joined the Mohawks and invaded the Mohegan country in return, with even smaller results, but it led to peace. The Mohegans were called Loups, or Wolves, this being the meaning of their name. They were of Algonquin stock, and kindred to the Delawares. "1
Even many years after its settlement by the Dutch bands of the Iro- quois, then of the Algonquins, passed through it on their way to carry out their plans for laying waste the villages of the enemy; but forth. nately for the colonists of the manor of Rensselaerwyck but few of these savage contests occurred after the foundation of the colony. The famous old Wampanoag chieftain, King Philip, once invaded the county, in the winter of 1625-26, at the head of a band of 500 warriors bound for the north. His followers encamped about fifty miles north of Albany and prepared to strike a decisive blow at the Mohawks. In February, 1676, the Mohawks assembled and marched northward and, by reason of superior numbers and a better acquaintance with the field of the campaign, succeeded in driving the brave old chieftain and his band baek through the Hoosick valley to the other side of the moun- .
' W. M. Beauchamp's notes on David Cusick's Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Na tions.
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EARLY INDIAN WARS.
tains. The famous old chief, Graylock, of the Woronoaks, the last chief of his tribe, also frequently passed through the Hoosick valley with his band of warriors.
In the Connecticut valley there was a band called the Paeomptucks. During an invasion they wandered down the valley of the Hoosick, ac- companied by straggling members of the Wampanoags, the Narragan- setts and the Nipmneks, and settled about the junction of that river with the Hudson. They evinced a friendly disposition, frequently visited the white settlers, traded more or less with them and were known among the Dutchmen of the manor as the Schaghticoke Indians.
The Mohegan or Mohiean Indians, who occupied the east side of the Hudson, had a fortified village on the present site of the city of Troy, and as a rule were friendly with the whites. Tradition says that in this village Uncas, the famous Mohican chief, who went down when his tribe was exterminated, was born. The original central home or capi- tal of the Mohicans was mainly the southern part of Rensselaer county, of which they were complete masters until 1628. The northern part of the county, in the valley of the Hoosick, was the original home of the Horicons. Beside the village on the present site of Troy the Mohicans had a still larger village in the present town of Schodack. They de- voted much time to agriculture, their principal erop being corn. The flat lands in the river valley produced great quantities of this grain an- nnally. The Indian name for Troy, "Paanpaack, " means " The field of standing eorn "
Three years before Killiaen Van Rensselaer's colonists sailed up the Undson the Mohicans and the Mohawks declared war, the principal scenes of their hostile demonstrations being abont Fort Orange and the present site of West Troy, and the Mohican village on the east side of the river. For nearly two years the war continued. The Mohawks were the more powerful nation and they pursned their foes relentlessly. In the spring of 1628 they captured the castle of the Mohicans and drove the few remaining members of that tribe to the valley of the Connecticut. As late as fifty years afterward, according to tradition, Uncas and his little body of Mohicans, now greatly reduced numer- ically, returned to their aboriginal home and even crossed the Hudson to the present sites of Albany, West Troy and Waterford, where they succeeded in slaying many of their old enemies among the unsuspect- ing Mohawks. Later on some of the Mohicans emigrated westward
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LANDMARKS OF RENSSELAER COUNTY.
and joined the Five Nations, some of them amalgamating with their old enemies, the Mohawks; others finding a new spot in the Schoharie valley, where they established villages.
The Iroquois, as we have said, were constantly at war with the Al- gonquin tribes, and usually for the purpose of conquest. The Mohi- cans suffered greatly at their hands. After driving the Mohicans from their home into the Connecticut valley, in 1628, they continued to an- noy them in many ways. The Mohicans appeared to be the especial target for their spite. After this tribe was driven out of the way the Iroquois turned their attention to the Hurons on the north, completely overrunning the country of the latter. The next year, 1651, they de- stroyed the Neutral nation, and the year after that they made war against the Eries, practically wiping them out of existence. Eleven years later they marelied over into the Connecticut valley, presumably in search of the remnant of the Mohicans, and laid waste the country of the Squakheags and the Pacomptucks. Most of these expeditions were led by the Mohawks, whose name was dreaded by every tribe in the Algonquin family. When on the war path their fury knew no bounds. They were relentless when once a campaign had been begun, and even in the dead of winter, when the members of most tribes would be found hugging the wigwam fire, the Mohawks often would start out on an expedition against the foe, traveling hundreds of miles through the snow and returning at the season of the year when progress was even more difficult on account of melting snows. Every tribe of the Algonquin within easy marching distance of the Mohawks paid tribute to the latter. The title, "Romans of the West," was one which they justly deserved.
When, in 1628, nearly two years before the founding of the colony of Rensselaerwyck, the Mohicans were driven by the Mohawks from their ancestral home into the Connecticut valley, they located near the mouth of the Connectieut on its east bank, with the Pequods, their friends, as neighbors on the east. The Pequods were exterminated by the whites a few years afterward-the tribe ceased to exist in 1637-and the Mohicans on the west and the once powerful Narragansetts on the east occupied that portion of the former Pequod territory not appro- priated by the whites. Uneas, who fled with the Mohicans from the aboriginal home in Rensselaer county, was still their chieftain.
For many years the Mohicans and Narragansetts had been enemies. Their hatred was intensified upon the destruction of the Pequods by
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UNCAS AND MIANTONOMOH.
the whites. The Pequod captives were divided among the other two nations, but the former home of the extinct tribe was a subject for much quarreling. In 1643 the two tribes engaged in war, the Mohicans still being under the leadership of Uncas and the Narragansetts under Miantonomoh, Hostilities were begun by the latter, who gathered his braves and started across the territory the possession of which was in dispute. Uncas learned of the contemplated invasion, and mustering his forces started eastward to intercept his enemies.
When the rival tribes met they were in the centre of the old hunting ground of the Pequods. That meeting and the subsequent develop- ments form one of the most romantic and at the same time one of the most tragie scenes in Indian history. The tribes halted within sight of each other and the two brave chieftains advanced to within speaking distance. In the brief conference that followed Uncas, in full confi- dence of what he believed to be his superior prowess, demanded that his rival should fight him, man to man, and that the victor should be- come the chieftain of the braves of the vanquished leader. The pro- posal was haughtily scorned by Miantonomoh who declared: "My braves are here to do battle, and they shall fight." No sooner had these words left the mouth of the Narragansett chief than Uncas, with- out a word, suddenly fell to the ground. His act was a signal previously agreed upon, Hardly had he become prostrate before the Mohicans, with a wild war-whoop, sprang over his body and savagely attacked the Narragansetts. After a brief but fierce struggle the latter were van- quished and Uncas made Miantonomoh a prisoner. The latter, as haughty as ever, refused to ask for quarter, but Uncas held him a cap- tive and handed him over to the English authorities at Hartford. His case was brought before the colonial commissioners and it was ordered that the old chieftain should die, and at the hands of his captor. The English claimed a protectorate over both nations and their verdict was taken as final. Miantonomoh was returned to the field of battle and one of the braves of Uncas buried a hatchet in his brain,
The Schaghticoke Indians, who occupied the northern part of Rens- selaer county near the junction of the Iloosick river with the Hudson, were, as we have said, fugitives from New England tribes, who were driven from their hunting grounds by the whites at the close of King Philip's war in 1676. They were made up for the most part of strag. glers from the remnants of the once powerful Wampanoags, or Poka- nokets; the Narragansetts, the Nonotneks and the Pacomptucks. The
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LANDMARKS OF RENSSELAER COUNTY.
history of King Philip's war is well known. Throughout the greater portion of the years 1675 and 1676 it wrought ruin on all sides. It was practically a war of extermination between the white settlers and the Indians. At the close of King Philip's first summer campaign, in 1675, he and some of his followers visited Saratoga and Washington counties and, as has been related, war was waged against them by the angry Mohawks. In February, 1676, Philip and his band were driven back into the Connecticut valley by the Mohawks, and soon afterward he resumed the struggle for supremacy with the whites. Being routed on all sides, those who were left of his tribe-the Wampanoags-with some of the braves from the three other tribes mentioned, moved up to the fer- tile valley of the Hudson, and the Mohawks, having nothing to fear from them, consented to their ocenpancy of the land about the mouth of the Hoosick river. Having no name they became known to the white settlers as the Schaghticokes. They remained in Rensselaer county for over of years when, in 1753 or 1754, they moved to the lower end of Lake Champlain, near the Canada and Vermont line, and joined the Woronoaks, their former neighbors, who had settled there at the close of King Philip's war, under their old chieftain, Graylock.
CHAPTER III.
Killiaen Van Rensselaer, Founder of the Manor of Rensselaerwyck -- The Famous Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions . Jealousy Over the Patroon's Large Grant -- Early Administration of the Colony- Collision Between the Colony and the Province -The Early Trade in Furs -- First White Settler in Rensselaer County.
Killiaen Van Rensselaer, a wealthy merchant of Amsterdam, Hol- land, was a member of the famed Dutch West India company, the greatest trade organization and monopoly of its day, which was per- haps more closely identified with the early history of the colony of New York, and particularly of the region of which Fort Orange or Albany was the centre, than any other single influence which affected the career of the infant colony. He was the founder of the colony of Rensselaerwyck, which formed the major part of the territory now known as Rensselaer county. In 1630, the year in which the West
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THE CHARTER OF FREEDOMS AND EXEMPTIONS.
India company made its great offer to its members, the attention of Killiaen Van Rensselaer was directed to the rich region, as yet totally undeveloped, of the valleys of the Hudson and the Mohawk rivers. The offer which this great trade organization had made was one well calculated to tempt such capitalists as he.
The charter of the company provided, among other things, that any member who, within four years, should found a colony of fifty adults in any part of the New Netherlands grant, excepting the island of Manhattan, or " Mannatans," should be acknowledged as a Patroon and accorded powers similar to those granted lords under the estab- lished feudal system of Europe. An American Patroon, while he con- tinued as such in the full enjoyment of the powers accorded him, was just as much a landed lord as those of England or Germany or France, with the exception that he was not a member of his country's parliament. But this was of trifling importance from the standpoint of the wealth-seeking Hollander, for a Patroon in America en- joyed commercial advantages and many opportunities for amassing wealth that were entirely unknown in the Old World. He was the feudal lord of the territory he colonized and the main profit from the development of its resources went into his own private purse, unless he happened to be unselfish and publie-spirited to a degree that was seldom known in the days of the Patroons of the New Netherlands.
To arrive at a correct understanding of the circumstances which in- duced the early colonists to accompany Killiaen Van Rensselaer to America, and of the conditions which surrounded them and shaped their lives, and which have left an indelible impress upon their numer- aus descendants in and about Rensselaer county, it is proper and neces. sary to notice the principal features of the Dutch West India com- pany's famous Charter of " Freedoms and Exemptions" for the coloni- zation of the New Netherlands under its great feudal system. These, in brief, were as follows:
The head of each colony might select lands extending sixteen miles in length, if confined to one side of a navigable river. If both sides were occupied eight miles was the limit ; but they might extend inland from the river as the situation of the colonists would demand or permit. This provision applied to colonies comprised of fifty adults. The limits described might be proportionately enlarged upon the addi- tion of a sufficient number of immigrants.
Each Patroon was to receive the free title to his lands by inheritance, with testa- mentary rights. He was first in command of his manor, with exclusive privileges as to fishing, hunting and agriculture. In the event of the development of his little
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LANDMARKS OF RENSSELAER COUNTY.
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