USA > New York > Nassau County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume I > Part 14
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume I > Part 14
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One engagement, and only one, occurred on Long Island during this second war. Although mentioned in several histories as a battle it was indeed more a raid of several boatloads of British troops from the English fleet which attempted to land at Sag Harbor. They were driven off without casualties on either side when a small battery of Revolutionary cannon, from the crest of Turkey Hill fired upon them.
One of the earliest instances of the use of a so-called submarine occurred in Long Island waters when an under-water craft, said to have been invented by David Bushnell and Robert Fulton, made an unsuccessful attempt to torpedo the British flagship Ramillies as she rode at anchor in Gardiner's Bay. Joshua Penny, keeper of the Cedar Island lighthouse, tried several times to torpedo British ships.
A more glamorous incident of the war occurred on Long Island in the summer of 1814 when Captain David Porter, a national hero who had finally been made a prisoner, escaped with ten of his men in a small boat off Fire Island. Passing through the inlet, Porter's
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party reached Babylon and from there were taken to New York in a whaleboat on wheels drawn by horses. They were acclaimed at every village along the way.
In this war the whaleboat was extensively used by the Corps of Sea Fencibles, among the Long Island members of which were Fred- erick Akerly, John James and Selah Waterbury of Smithtown; Jacob Conklin, Moriches; Amos Cuffy, East Hampton, Joseph Daw, Israel Howell, Charles Smith, William Wickes and John Williams, Hunting- ton; Jacob Elded, Daniel Furman, Benjamin Laurence, Jacob Mason, Lewis Richards, Cornelius Southard, James Stewart and James Wil- liams, Hempstead; Nathan Foster and Henry Howell, Southampton; Adam, James H. and Levi Fowler, Thomas Hannas and Nicholas Mayo, Flushing, and James Hames, Harry Smith and Samuel Thoring- ton, Brookhaven.
Others were Charles Jones, Archibald Ketcham, Martin Smith and John Valentine, Oyster Bay; John C. Murry and Ambrose Terry, Sag Harbor; John Smith, Cow Harbor; John Treadwell, Cow Neck; Charles Tredwell, Jamaica, and listed only as from the island : Charles Corbitt, William Cotton, George Duryee, Edward Flinn, Silas H. Goldsmith, William Grennell, Anthony Hazard, Richard Hyde, Jesse Lewis, another Jesse Lewis, Abraham Moore, Henry L. Onderdonk, Charles Remsen, Stephen Seymour, Andrew Sutherland and Michael Townsend.
As previously stated, this was a naval war and as the United States was without even the semblance of a navy she was forced to depend upon privateers with which to meet the British on the high seas. Many Long Islanders were employed in this service. A number of them served as masters and more than one Long Island vessel became widely known for its exploits against enemy ships and shipping.
Towards the close of the war, following the enemy's burning of the national capitol, it was generally believed that New York might again be attacked through Long Island as in 1776, and frantic haste was made to put in shape some of the former defenses at the west end. Volunteers came from other states to help dig a system of trenches designed to obstruct invasion from the east. Again, it seems, the greater part of Long Island was to be abandoned to the enemy. Fortunately, however, in February, 1815, word reached New York and the island that peace had once more been declared.
Before closing this chapter which has been largely devoted to the two wars with England, it might be well to briefly trace the steps taken by New York in advancing from colony to statehood and finally to membership in the United States. Through this period of develop- ment, Long Island was repeatedly represented by men of outstanding ability and character.
Long Islanders who served in the Continental Congress and under the Articles of Confederation of Perpetual Union from 1774 until the inception of constitutional government were, in their order :
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September 5, 1774, William Floyd, Suffolk County.
May 10, 1775, Simon Boerum, Kings County, and William Floyd.
October 15, 1778, William Floyd.
December 2, 1779, William Floyd and Ezra L'Hommedieu, Suffolk.
July 31, 1781, Ezra L'Hommedieu.
November 23, 1781, William Floyd.
August 28, 1782, Ezra L'Hommedieu.
November 27, 1872, William Floyd.
August 7, 1783, Ezra L'Hommedieu.
January 11, 1785, Zephaniah Platt.
William Floyd was Long Island's first Representative in Congress in 1789, under the constitution. He was succeeded in 1791 by Thomas Tredwell, also of Suffolk, who in turn was succeeded in 1795 by Jona- than N. Havens of Suffolk, who served two terms. John Smith of Suffolk served from 1799 to 1803 when Samuel Riker of Queens was elected. Elphalet Wickes of Queens was elected in 1805, Samuel Riker of Queens in 1807 and Ebenezer Sage of Suffolk in 1809, the latter to serve three terms. With him in 1813 was elected John Lefferts of Kings County and in 1815 George Townsend of Queens.
Beginning in May, 1775, when its colonial government was sus- pended, New York's affairs were administered by a provincial congress of which Richard Woodhull of Suffolk served as president during the first year.
When on April 20, 1777, a convention was held at Kingston to frame a constitution for the State of New York, Kings County sent no delegates, but Queens was represented by Jonathan Lawrence and Suffolk by William Smith, Thomas Tredwell, John Sloss Hobart, Matthias Burnett Miller and Ezra L'Hommedieu. From this date the State government was in operation, the first governor being George Clinton, who served until 1795 and was succeeded by John Jay. In 1801 Jay was succeeded by Clinton and he in 1804 by Morgan Lewis. The governor from 1807 to 1817 was Daniel D. Tompkins.
But although with the inception of a constitutional government for New York, Suffolk County became entitled to five representatives, Queens to four and Kings to two in the State Assembly, owing to these counties then being in the hands of the British and thus com- prising enemy territory, their Assemblymen, together with three Senators were appointed by the convention as follows: Senators Johnathan Lawrence, William Floyd and William Smith; Assembly- men, for Suffolk, Burnet Miller, David Gelston, Ezra L'Hommedieu, Thomas Tredwell and Thomas Wickes; for Queens, Philip Edsall, Daniel Lawrence, Benjamin Coe and Benjamin Birdsall; for Kings, William Boerum and Henry Williams. Not until 1784 did these counties elect their State legislators.
Nine months after the framing of the federal constitution at Philadelphia, September 17, 1787, a State convention assembled at Poughkeepsie (June 17, 1788) to deliberate on its adoption by New
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York. Peter Lefferts and Peter Vandervoort served as delegates from Kings County; Samuel Jones, John Schenck, Nathaniel Law- rence and Stephen Carman from Queens, and Henry Scudder, Jonathan N. Havens, Thomas Tredwell, David Hedges and John Smith from Suffolk.
The three original counties, into which Long Island had been divided under British Governor Dongan in 1683 and which had since functioned as separate units of the province, retained their identity and bounds as the province slowly melded into statehood and finally into the union. Likewise the towns within each county continued to exist pretty much as they had throughout the colonial period. As a matter of fact, the existence of these towns made easier and less frictional the transition of New York from colony to state. Democ- racy, to which the towns had given continuity, was their golden gift to the new sovereignty.
CHAPTER VI The Indians of Long Island JOHN H. MORICE
T NHE arbitrary classification of the aborigines of Long Island into thirteen tribes is usually attributed to Silas Wood in his Sketch of the Settlement of the Several Towns on Long Island and it has been repeated by most of the island's historians. Actually there were only two racial groups on Long Island; these were the descendants of Delaware stock who inhabited the western portion of the island, and a group closely resembling the Mohegans of Connecticut living at the eastern extremity. All subdivisions of these main groups were com- munities, more or less migratory in their habits, each under the leadership of a chief or headman, and having no distinct character- istics. Their villages were small, rarely numbering over one hundred persons. When they grew larger they usually divided and formed a new community. The reason for this was sometimes economic, sometimes due to a fued or a murder, or perhaps to a breakdown in the communal system of government. Through all these parturitions their language stock survived but their loose form of government was not conducive to unity and their alliances were usually of short dura- tion. Thus it happened that no concerted attack was ever made on the white settlers.
The "tribes", so called for convenience, and their locations as they existed when the first Dutch and English settlers arrived were as follows :
Canarsies - They inhabited what is now Brooklyn, part of Jamaica and may have spread over into lower Manhattan Island. Their principal village was located at Flatlands, called by the Dutch Amersfoort, first white settlement on Long Island. This was known to the Indians as Keskaechquerem, meaning "the community"; Canarsie was the descriptive name applied to a portion of their lands indicating that the Indian fields had been "fenced in" to protect their crops. Dutch settlers had planted here long before they bought the land from the Indians.
When the Labadist missionary, Jaspar Dankers, arrived at The Narrows in 1679 he recorded in his Journal his impressions of the Canarsies who came on board the Dutch ship. They were dull of comprehension, slow of speech, bashful, but otherwise bold of person. They wore something in front over the thighs and a piece of duffels, like a blanket, around the body. Their hair hung down in strings, well smeared with fat, sometimes with little beads twisted in it "out of pride". They had thick lips and thick noses, but not fallen in like Negroes; heavy eyebrows and brown or black eyes. The visitors offered them brandy which they drank eagerly and at once vomited. The last survivor of the tribe was said to be "Chief" Joel Skidmore, a familiar figure around Brooklyn, who died in 1908 at the age of
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ninety-seven. He served as Court Officer in the Kings County Court from 1872 until a year before his death.
The Marechkewicks are not usually included among the so-called "thirteen tribes", probably because of their early absorption into the Merricks. They occupied the westernmost part of the island between the present site of Fort Hamilton and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Their totem was the gray goose. The name is of Delaware origin, signifying "at his fortified (palisadoed) house" which probably referred to the residence of the sachem. Their principal village called Marechkewick later be- came the Dutch Wallabout. A trail led from this village to Rockaway, passed through the land of the subject com- munity of Jamecos and continued east- ward into the country of the Marsa- peagues. Among the first to sell their lands to the Dutch, these people moved eastward and were absorbed by the Merricks.
The Rockaways were a small band who were scattered diagonally over the island from Rockaway Beach to Long Island Sound. They occupied part of what is now Jamaica and the whole of Newtown where a minor group called Mespaetches resided at the head of Mas- peth Creek. Here and at Rockaway were their principal villages and their name is derived from rech-qua-akie meaning "sandy land". When David Pietersen de Vries visited the Rockaways in 1643 (Sketch by George R. Avery) Long Island Brave he counted thirty bark huts and esti- mated their number at between two and three hundred persons. A remnant of the Rockaways lived on Hog Island in Woodmere Bay as late as 1685, paying an annual tribute of five bushels of good winter wheat to the English as rental.
Abraham Hewlett whose memory is perpetuated by the town that bears his name, caused a monument to be erected in honor of Culluloo Telewana, "the last of the Rockaway Iroquois Indians". It would have been wise to omit the word "Iroquois" from the inscription as the Rockaways were of Delaware stock. In Munsell's History of Suffolk County (page 19) we find this extraordinary bit of misinfor- mation about the Rockaways: "The first Rockaway sachem known to the Dutch was Cockenoe; Nowedonah was sachem in 1648; Eski- moppas in 1670; Paman in 1685 and Quaquasho, or 'the Hunter', in 1691". This has been frequently repeated although not a word of it is true.
The Merricks were peaceful and their strength greatly reduced when the white men arrived. After they were driven from their old
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homes in what is now Kings County, they moved eastward and paid tribute to their more powerful neighbors, the Marsapeagues, for squatters' rights on their land. Some credulous writers say they were called "merry Indians" but this is more likely a play on the word Merrick. Variously spelled Meroke, Meracock, Merioke and Merricock, the name is derived from merri-auke-ut, "at the barren land", which seems to describe the Hempstead Plains in the early days. The last survivor of the Merricks was Henry January who died in 1809. He married Squaw Betty by whom he had a daughter who married a Patchogue Indian called Tom Strong. Their three children married Negroes and disappeared, leaving the tribe extinct.
The Marsapeagues or Massapequas occupied the south shore from the present Seaford to Islip and extended northward to the middle of the island. Their name derived from massa, "great"; pe, the radical of "water", and auke, "land", indicated "the great water land". Their principal village was at Fort Neck, scene of a famous battle in which the tribe was nearly destroyed by Dutch and English soldiers. In 1639 the sachem Mechowad ceded to the Dutch West India Com- pany a vast tract of land extending from Rockaway to the Secatogue country and from Great South Bay to the Sound, including territory occupied by the Merricks who were subordinate to the Marsapeagues.
Much has been written about the famous Battle of Fort Neck, "the only battle between the English and Indians on Long Island". Such notable historians as Prime and Furman have added to the confusion. Dates have been given varying from 1644 to 1664, the year 1653 being used by most writers. On the present Merrick Road east of Massapequa, a road marker wrongly commemorates the spot "where Captain John Underhill in 1653 overpowered the Long Island Indians". This road sign is undoubtedly an error and should be cor- rected. The date of the fight was discussed at length by the present writer in The Long Island Forum of December, 1942 and by Bernice Schultz Marshall in Colonial Hempstead.
Nathaniel S. Prime, in his History of Long Island (page 96), states that on application (by the Dutch Governor) to the United Colonies of New England, three officers and twenty volunteers and some pieces of ordnance were sent to Long Island under command of Captain John Underhill. "A part of the Marsapeagues assembled in hostile array. Entrenched on the south side of Oyster Bay in a fort fifty by eighty yards, they were attacked by the English. This first and last battle between the Long Island Indians and the English took place in the summer of 1653, though the precise date is not known."
Gabriel Furman, in Antiquities of Long Island (page 93), says: "The most ancient fortification on Long Island is at Fort Neck which was garrisoned by Indians in 1653 and taken from them by the Eng- lish under the command of Captain Underhill. The storming of the fort was the only battle between the English and the Indians on the island."
If these writers and those who have copied them had studied the life of John Underhill more carefully they would have discovered that that worthy was too much concerned with political activities during the busy year of 1653 to leave any time for Indian fighting.
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Tooker in Indian Place Names on Long Island (page 117) makes it clear that the Indian name for Fort Neck was Matsepe and this was the native village destroyed by Dutch and English troops led by Cap- tain Underhill and Counsellor La Montagne in 1644. There were two Indian forts at Fort Neck, differing widely in construction and Furman thought they were built at periods of time far remote from each other. One was described by Samuel Jones as nearly, if not exactly, a square, each side about ninety feet in length. The breast- work or parapet was of earth and there was a ditch or moat about six feet wide. This form of construction was entirely different from any used by the natives at the time of the white occupation. The other was a typically Indian fort, constructed of palisades set in the meadow on the southern point of the salt marshes. Tides and storms have many years ago worn away the land where it stood and the site is now entirely covered by water. No doubt the location of these forts gave to Massapequa its designation of "the great water land".
The wily sachem of the Marsapeagues, Tackapousha, the son and heir of Mechowad, aspired to be the leader of all the descendants of Delaware stock on the island. His ambition was partly gratified when he was chosen "sachem of sachems" by the chiefs of the western tribes at about the time when jurisdiction over the island was divided between the Dutch and English by the Hartford Agreement of 1650. Tackapousha was a notable exception among his neighbors who aban- doned their native dress and sold their tribal lands for a few trinkets. In Munsell's History we may read: "There is something heroic in this chief of the Marsapeagues, clothed in furs, disdaining gew-gaws and tempting finery offered by the whites, standing as a barrier against their encroachments and as far as he could, holding his pos- sessions intact until death took him to the Happy Hunting Grounds. But Owassum, his son, coming into power, soon squandered the Mar- sapeague lands." In spite of this eulogy, Tackapousha was a selfish and turbulent character, constantly making trouble for both Dutch and English who were often obliged to buy his friendship with gifts and money. There is no record of his death or burial but the Annals of Hempstead inform us that on October 17, 1682, he brought to the constable the head of a wolf and was duly rewarded. The lone monument to his memory is the Tackapousha Reserve at Seaford in Nassau County where the animal, plant and bird life of our island is preserved and protected.
The Matinecocks were a powerful tribe which occupied a large territory on the north shore from Flushing Bay to the Nissequogue River at Smithtown. They had important villages at Flushing, Cold Spring, Huntington and Northport. The name derives from matinne- auke-ut, meaning "at the hilly land". After selling their lands around Flushing and Huntington, they moved eastward and in 1645 we find them at Nesinckquehacky between Huntington and Smithtown. Raseokan was sachem in 1646 and in 1653 he sold land to the people of Huntington. After the arrival of the white men their decline must have been rapid, for in 1650 Secretary Van Tienhoven recorded that the tribe was not strong and consisted of about thirty families, whereas there were formerly great numbers of Indian plantations, now wasted
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and vacant. This indicates that the Matinecocks had moved eastward towards Smithtown at an early date.
The Nissaquogues or Nesaquakes inhabited the north shore from the Nissequague River to Stony Brook and extended south to the middle of the island. Their principal village was called Nissequogue and their name indicated "the clay or mud country". Clay deposits suitable for making pottery were plentiful in the neighborhood.
The Unkechaugs, sometimes mistakenly called Patchogues or Poosepatucks, occupied the territory from Patchogue to the present site of Westhampton and may have extended east to Canoe Place where they met the Shinnecocks. Their principal villages were at Patchogue, Fireplace, Mastic, Moriches and Westhampton. Unkechaug means "the land beyond the hill"; Patchogue is derived from pohshaog, meaning "where they divide in two", and Poosepatuck is translated "where the creek flows out" or "bursts forth". A poor remnant of their descendants, largely mixed with Negro blood, still inhabit the Poosepatuck Reservation near Mastic. Wenecoheage was sachem in 1657; he was succeeded by Tobaccus before 1664 and the latter was still selling off the tribal lands to the white men in 1690. In 1791 Thomas Jefferson visited the Unkechaugs and spent a week among them while he recorded a vocabulary of their language. William Cooper, a chief of the tribe, was pressed by a British man-of- war during the War of 1812 but made his escape by swimming to the U.S.S. Constitution while that vessel lay in the English Channel. He was later killed in the action between the Constitution and H.M.S. Java, a noble victim in the cause of his country. Near Mastic in 1832 Elizabeth Job died, aged seventy-two, widow of Ben Job and Queen of the tribe. Only two or three female relatives, old and infirm, survived and at her death the custom of paying a yearly tribute of a handful of rushes to the queen was allowed to lapse. Martha Maynes, one of the few surviving Unkechaugs, died at a great age in 1933.
The Secatogues were nearly extinct when the first settlers arrived. They were fishermen and clam diggers who dwelt in the black or mud country along Great South Bay from Islip to Patchogue, having their principal villages at Islip, Great River and Blue Point. The name is derived from se-qua-auke, meaning "the black or dark colored land". The Secatogues were good sailors and many were employed in the whaling industry.
The Setaukets or Setalcots inhabited the north shore from Stony Brook to Wading River. Their chief village was at Setauket and their name implied "land at the mouth of a river" from set-auke-ut. Their sachem in 1655 was Warawakmy who was succeeded by John Mayhew, who sold his patrimony on the north shore and moved over to Patchogue and continued his operations in real estate along the waters of Great South Bay. He seems to have abandoned the sachem- ship of the Setalcots to Gie who was sachem in 1675.
The Corchaugs inhabited a vast territory extending nearly forty miles from Wading River to Orient Point. They dwelt chiefly at Mattituck, Cutchogue, Aquebogue and Hashamomuk. The name is a variation of Cutchogue and derives from ketch-auke, meaning the
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"principal place"; at Cutchogue they had erected one of the four stockaded forts of the Eastern Confederation, over half an acre in extent and large enough to afford protection for the entire community in time of danger. The fort stood on the east side of Fort Neck on a rise of ground with a spring of water nearby and here dwelt the sachem Momeweta, headman of the Corchaugs when the English arrived.
The Manhansets were a numerous tribe, inhabiting Shelter Island, Ram Island and Hog Island. Their Indian name was manhansack- aha-qua-tu-wamock, signifying "an island sheltered by islands". Although numerous and powerful, the Manhansets paid tribute to the Pequots and Block Island Indians as well as to the English. In the records of the Plymouth Colony it is noted that on September 6, 1644, at Hartford, Youghco, sachem of Manhanset on Long Island, applied to the Court for a certificate whereby his relations with the English should appear and he be preserved from unjust grievances and vexations. A certificate was granted in which it was stated that the Indians of the eastern part of Long Island had become tributaries to the English and had engaged their lands to them. Youghco, who was also called Yovowan and Yoco Unkenchick, was better known as Poggaticut, Grand Sachem of the four eastern tribes when the Eng- lish arrived. He distrusted the English and opposed the policies of Wyandanch of Montauk who was their friend. After the old sachem's death in 1653 most of his people left their homes on Shelter Island and joined the Shinnecocks, Corchaugs and Montauks. Poggatticut was given a funeral worthy of his fame. Tradition tells us that his earthly remains were being carried to the ancient burial ground at Montauk for interment with his forefathers. His bearers rested the bier near the third milestone beside the road leading from Sag Harbor to East Hampton and a small excavation about a foot deep and eighteen inches in diameter was left to mark the spot. Until one hundred and ninety years later when a new road was built, no leaf nor stone was suffered to remain in what was known as "Sachem's Hole". The mark was still visible in 1871 and it was said that no Indian would pass without stopping to pick out a stone or twig or stray leaves that might have fallen because the spot was sacred to them.
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