USA > New York > Montgomery County > St Johnsville > Mohawk Valley genealogy and history : [a compilation of clippings, 1948] > Part 25
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55
If you could clear this up in any monner, I would appreciate it. The queries were:
Silas Dorr, Bryant, Hoibrook,
Shephard-Fenno, French-Whitman, Denbar - Howard, Fuller, Pidge, White, Fuller.
Thank you for your co-operation. Sincerely, Mrs. C. D. Townsende
452 South Jenkins St
Centralia, Missouri
SANDERS
Who were the parents of 'Aaron Sanders, who was born about 1761 (where?), and died in the Town of Charlton, Saratoga Co., N. Y. May 12, 1813, aged 51 years, and 6 mos. ? He married (when and where ?) Phebe , (surname unknown), who was born about 1768 (where ?), and died In Charlton, N.' Y,, May 272, 1813, aged 45 years, 3 months and 14 days. They are buried in the Smith Ceme; tery located on the Swaggertown Road in Charlton. Did Aaron and Phebe Sanders have the following children ? w
1. Shermman Sanders, farmer cen-
sus of 1850, born , about 1794 (where ?), died in Chanlton, N. Y., Aug. 26, 1860, aged 66 years, mar- ried (when and where ?) Margaret (surname unknown), born about 1788, died in Charlton, N. Y., Sept. 7, 1853, aged 65 years. They are buried in Pine Grove Cemetery in Charlton. Their known children were: 1, Ever- ett B., born 1823, died 1890. married Sarah E. Tobey, born 1847, died 1928; 2, Louisa, born about 1830.
2. Hulda Sanders, born about 1799, died in Charlton, N. Y. Jan. 1, 1821, aged 21 years and 5 months. Buried Smith Cemetery. -
3. Everett . Birdsey Sanders, car- penter census of 1850, born about 1801 (where?), died in Charlton, N. Y., Oct .. 26, 1881, aged 80 years and 16 days, married Dec. 23, 1824 (where ?), Lucy Lockwood, daugh-
Lockwood of Charlton, born about. 1804 (where?), died in Charlton, N Y., Feb. 28, 1883, aged 78 years, 5 months and 3 days. They are buried! in Pine Grove Cemetery. Their only child Jane Augusta Sanders, born in Charlton Aug .. 18, 1841, was my great-grandmother.
Donald A. Keefer
R. D. 2 Sacandaga Road Schenectady.
FISHER-NEWELL-HARWOOD
Abigail Newell b. Nov. 22, 1792 (where ?) mar. 1810 (where) John Fisher b. Sept. 17, 1780. The latter probably lived in New York State as his son, John W. Fisher had lived in New York, possibly Troy but mov- ed to Bennington, Vt. He was born April 3, 1815, (d.'Geneva, Ohio) mar. Apr. 25th, 1840, Bennington, Vt.
his mill stones by singing for Sir William Johnson. quite a story here Captain Christian Brown in 1770 built a small grist mill on a tributary of the Cobus Kill at present day Bar- nerville in Schoharie County.
Sir William Johnson built a stone grist mill on the Caroga Creek in present day Ephratah in 1770. Stone housed mllls were uncommon in the, first days.
The. Becker-Borst mill at, Davis Ford on the Schoharie River, a' mile and a half abbve present day Scho- harie village was built in 1772. Peter, Borst was the miller and soon ; be- rame the owner. Captain Gray lists this mill on his map as the "Becker Mill." Benjamine "Waldron of Beth- lehem, Albany County was the mill- wright who installed the machinery and later married Peter Borst's sis- ter. Later this mill had a capacity of 1,000 bushels of grain per day ... .
The John Carr mill at Johnson Settlements (Old English District) across the Susquehanna River, from the Indian village of Unadilla, now Sidney, was built in 1772. This mill was used by the Indians and Tories at the beginning of the Revolution. It was destroyed with 4,000 bushels' of grain by troops under Lt. Col Wil- liam Butler of Pennsylvania in Oct- ober 1778. Carr was a Tory and fled to Canada Rey, William Johnson was the first settler here and in 1780 married the famous rifleman, Timo -. thy . Murphy and Mangaret Feeck, when they eloped to Duanesburgh .in Schenectady County. After the Revo- lution Murphy built a grist mill on the Schoharie River that was des- troyed in a flood.
George Palmer built a grist mill at Getchums Corners in. Saratoga Coun- ty some time before 1775.
Alexander Ellis, a Tory, had a grist mill at Little. Falls before the Revolution. The mill was seized by the Continentals, stockaded and fur- nished with a guand in '1775. In 1780 the Tories and Indians' attacked the mill killing Daniel Petrie, taking Christian Redick and Frederick Get- man prisoners, two other soldiers, Cox and Skinner, escaped. The burn- ing of this mill was, a severe loss to the people of German Flats for the mills at Fort Herkimer and Fort Dayton (Herkimer) had been des- troyed two years before .. 4
Scroofs mill on the Charlotte Creek a tributary of, the Susquehanna Riv- er, at present day South Worcester' in Otsego County, was built before the Revolution and is noted on Cap- tạin Gray's map. This mill was used by Christopher Service to grind grain into flour in supplying roving bands of Tories and "Indians with bread. Service was killed by Morgan's Rifle- men when he resisted arrest in 1778:7
There was a grist mill on the Ot- squago Creek at Fort Plain' built be- fore the Revolution, probably about! 1774. Later after the Revolution this stream turned many water wheels.
iWlliam B. Whiney built a grist; mill at Red Rocks, Columbia Coun- ty, before 1775.
Of these sixty odd water powered, orelRevolutionary grist mills not one 's left. Of those built immediately . after the Revolution, and there were nearly three hundred on what was the old New York frontier by , the
Ancestry desired of James Hask- ins, Revolutionary soldier from Ver- mont, and of wife Abigail Mann. Their daughter Altha Fitch Haskins to Charlotte Chase who was b. Sept. time of the Civil War, only one is,
Jane 3.1948
still In operation, that of J. J. Bar- winters' food and helped in the erec- tholomew & Son at Vernon, New tion of the house when not hunting or fishing, or on the war path. Her husbands loafed about the house or took part in games with other idle husbands. York, fifteen miles west of Utica. This mill` was built in 1972 by Ab- ram Van Epps, nine years after the Revolution, when'the state gave Van Epps a land grant on the condition Domestic Utensils that he would build a grist mill and grind the grain of the Oneida In- How did the Iroquois housewife acquire her domestic utensile ? Along dians who had been friendly to the Continentals in the war for indepen- dence. In 1820 Mr. Bartholomew's gomery and Wards, no Sears and Robuck, no Boston Store. When she needed a tool she made it out of such materials as she could find in the forest and in the earth. ancestors purchased the mill and the Bartholomew family have continued its operation, turning out a superior product, including a breakfast food, down to the present. The original She made her kettles of clay and quartz so hard as to take a high de- gree of polish. For a knife or chisel she hunted among the rocks for a knife shaped piece of flint or other hard stone on which she put an edge by rubbing it on a hard, rough rub- bing stone. In the same manner her husband made his axe and toma- hawk, a soft stone was gauged out to make a mortar in which to grind corn with a hard stone. pestle .. Once a set of stone implements were made water wheel was a wooden one, fif- teen feet in diameter, with wooden gears and shafts. For the past fifty years an iron water wheel, sixteen and one half feet in diameter, with iron gears and shafts has driven the mill stones around. The Van Epps mill stones were imported from France. Most of the New York frontier grist mill stones were quar- ried at Esopus in Ulster County where an excellent strata of granite was found ,said to have been sup- erior to any imported from Europe. The surface of this granite was hard and shape being particularly adapt- ed to crushing wheat kernels.
Today there is hardly a man liv- ing who has the know-how of dress- ing mill stones for the grinding of wheat. Such is the march of time. A candle of industry is 'lighted, a change in transportation is made or a new power developed and the candle is' snuffed out and lighted elsewhere. However the many chan- ges the old grist mill sites fixed the locale of most of New York's vil- lages and cites. When steam power came in about 1860 Troy, Oswego, Rochester and Buffalo became great milling centers, and now they have had to give way to the great milling towns of the Northwest.
Much as the pioneers sought wheat flour for breat on their family tables, there was one frontier tavern keep- ers' wife who didn't rate wheat so! high. In James Fenamore Cooper's story "The Chainbearer" this land- lady is made to say:
"Oh! as for bread, I count that as for nothing! We always have bread and potatoes enough; but I hold a family to be in a desperate way, when the mother can see the bottom of the pork-barrel; Game's good as a relish, and so is bread; but pork is the staff of life !! "
Unfortunately many pre-Revolu- tionary mothers were in a desperate way often and saw not only the bottom of the salt pork barrel but the bottomm of the empty flour bag. Not until after the use of the metal plow, the iron cultivator, and har- row and ,the horse drawn reaper, was the fear of food shortages en- tirely removed from the New York frontier: The pushing back of wilder- ness and the founding of the state was not a holiday undertaking. It took a good sized family, all working, to cultivate ten or twelve acres of plow land becore 18300. In the first two hundred years of white settle- ments on the New York frontier, the wheat farmers, and the water powered grist mill operators, played an important part. They were in- despensible. Longfellow was not thinking alone of the West when he wrote:
"Each rude and jostling frag- i ment soon
Its fitting place shall find, - The raw material of a' state, Its' muscle and its mind."
P. S. - The writer of the above
Ropes, Straps and Maple Sugar
From bark were made the rope and strap with which they carried
The Indian was a great lover of maple sugar, which his wife or squaw made in abundance from the sugar maples that were native to all of New York and southern Canada. The Indian sap tub in which to catch and store "maple sap was a unique and handy article said to have sur- passed the sap trough later used by the colonists. Thev made this from a strip of bark about three feet long and two feet wide. The rough bark was left on the bottom and sides, at the joint where the bark was to be turned up to form the ends, the outer bark was removed. The inner rind was then turned gathered together in small folds at the ton and tied around with a slint. This made a receptacle for. both liquid and dry matter, was light and handy and would last for many years."
The Baby Frame
The Indian baby frame was quite different from" the cradle,"baby. bug." gy or bassinet in which the white woman rocks her papoose, It was
The Petries in America
These notes and records of the Johan Jost Petrie' family and de- scendants in America were compil- ed by the late Mrs. Frederick Staeh- la, of Munnsville, N. Y. Her notes been able to do so, and we will try to complete her work.
. Dr. and Mrs. R. C. Petrle, Johnstown, N. Y.
(Continued from last week)
This deponent said that said Dy- gert her husband and deponent re- sided on Fall Hill in the town of Lit- tle Falls in the county of Herkimer and resided there till the month of April 1778, when her sald husband was ordered to Fort Plain in the now county of Montgomery and deponent saith she went there with her hus- band and remained there for about two years and that her said husband was stationed at said fort during said they were carefully kept and handed | time, except when he was ordered down from generation to generation. If the housewife needed an article in which to store corn, roots and other dry food she peeled bark from the red elm and made a barrel. These had a bottom and sometimes a top and went out on duty, and saith she recollects of his going out with some soldiers frequently during said time, and recollects that he was out on duty the time the enemy overran Stone Arabia under Sir John John- and would last many years. A tray on | son and also was out in the socalled which to mix the ingredients of food Van Rensselaer's Battle on the Mo- hawk and in what was called the Bat- tle of Durlock and declarent varily ibelieves that her said husband was during the time they lived at the Fort more than one year in the whole time and while he was not out on duty he was engaged in duties' as such officer in and at the Fort dur- ing said two years. was made out of a piece of bark turned up at sides and ends making a dish, similar to our wooden butter bowl. The Indian house wife made convenient baskets of various sizes out of willow twigs 'splints peeled from white birch, swamp flags and corn husks. Frequently the smaller baskets were ornamented with dif- ferent bright colors. Bottles were woven with small tops and large bot- toms so tight that they would hold salt, corn flour and ground roots.
This deponent saith she also reco !- lects that her said husband'was en- gaged in the Battle of Claseberg in the now town of Minden, county of Montgomery and thinks this battle was in 1778. -
This deponent saith her said hus- band was out at this time several their burdens. Rawhide was often | weeks and further saith that when used but does not seem to have been the Timmermans were murdered by the enemy which deponent thinks was in 1779, he said husband was ordered out with his men to scour that region. of country being what is now called St. Johnsville or Op- penheim in said county of Montgom- ery and that he was about on his duty from four to six weeks. as servicable as those made from bark. The inside bark of the elm or I basswood was secured and boiled in mashes and water. Then it was dried and separated into filaments which were ibraided into various kinds of rope. That made from slippery elm was very pliable and the most dur- able. The burden strap used by the Indian women was often ornamented with porcupine quill work.
This deponent further saith that in the fall of 1780, news came that a party of the enemy had murdered the father of her said husband who had continued to reside at Fall Hilf afore said and that she and her hus- band then removed there till the fol- lowing spring and in the spring of 1780 or 81 her said husband was ord- ered back again to sald Fort Plain and deponent went there with hims, after arriving there her said husband engaged a place for deponent to re- side in the family of Mr. Reesner living on the north side of the Mo- . hawk river nearly opposite said Fort.
This deponent saith she recollects and states that when news came that the enemy had murdered Jacobus: Mabies' family which deponent be- lieves was in 1780 or 81 her said hus- band was ordered out with his com- pany to scour that region of the. country being what is called the Roy- al Grant north of the Mohawk and protect the inhabitants and that Fre was about on this occasion several weeks.
1
" This deponent saith, she made it. her home at said Reeseners' till the close of said Revolutionary War and
the Indian trails there were no Mont- have ibeen checked, so far as we have
lady is made to say:
"Oh! as for bread, I count that as for nothing! We always have bread and potatoes enough; but I hold a mashes and water. Then it was dried family to be in a desperate way, when the mother can see the bottom of the pork-barrel; Game's good, as a relish, and so is bread; but pork is the staff of life !! "
Unfortunately many pre-Revolu- tionary mothers were in a desperate way often and sawv not only the bottom of the salt pork barrel but the bottomm of the empty flour bag. Not, until after the use of the metal plow, the iron cultivator, and har- row and the horse drawn reaper, was the fear of food shortages en- tirely removed from the New York frontier. The pushing back of wilder- ness and the founding of the state was not a holiday undertaking. I took a good sized family, all working, to. cultivate ten or twelve acres of plow land becore 18300. In the first two hundred years of white settle- ments on the New York frontier, the wheat farmers, . and the water powered grist mill operators, played an important part. They were in- despensible. Longfellow was not thinking 'alone of the West when he. wrote:
"Each rude and jostling frag- ment soon
Its fitting place shall' find, The raw material of a state, Its" muscle and its mind."
P. S. - The writer of the above : comment and list of mills wishes to acknowledge the great assistance of Mr. N. Berton Alter of Nelliston in calling attention 'to source records of grist mills and to Mr. John L. Warner of Binghamton for numer- ous newspaper clippings and 'pic- tures of old mills showing the water wheels, wooden gears and wooden shafts with which the frontier mills were equipped. PBM.
(The End)
Iroquois Indians in Mohawk Valley
By W. C. KIMM
(Continued from last week)
The Iroquols Woman
Marriage and the line of descent among children was right the oppo- site that prevail in Tentonic people. When a woman married she took her husband to her home in her own clan, and though the husband lived in the same house hold he was an 'alien . to the clan. No matter how many children he might have or how much property he might have ac- cumulated, he held all at the behest of his wife who, if the husband was dissolute or too lazy to hunt and bring in game, could drive him out of the house and out of the clan with only his few personal belongings.
The females ruled the house, and yet the wife was the slave of the husband. She cultivated the soil with the crudest tools. She did all the household work and assumed the res- ponsibility of caring for the children. the entire world to find a parallel
She tanned the skins out of which she made clothing sh;e stored the
as servicable as those made from bark. The inside bark of the elm or basswood was secured and boiled in
and separated into filaments which were · brsided into various kinds of rope. That made from slippery elm was very pliable and the most dur- able. The burden strap used by the Indian women was often ornamented with porcupine quill work.
The Indian was a great lover of maple sugar, which his wife or squaw made in abundance from the sugar maples that were native to all of New York and southern Canada. The Indian sap tub in which to catch and store maple sap was a unique and handv article said to have sur- passed the sap trough later used by the colonists. They made this from a strip of bark about three feet long and two feet wide. The rough bark was left on the bottom and sides, at the joint where the bark was to be turned up to form the ends, the outer bark was removed. The inner rind was then turned gathered together in small folds at the top and tied around with a slint. This made a receptacle for both liquid and dry matter, was light and handy and would last for many years.
The Baby Frame |
› The Indian baby frame was quite different from the cradle, baby bug"" gy or bassinet in which the white woman rocks her papoose. It was about two feet in length and twelve or fourteen inches through, curved at the front and having a bow ex- tending out ,over the front 'at the upper end. The mother exercised her greaest skill in ornamenting her baby frame.
The baby was wrapped in a soft blanket, placed in the frame and a cover was thrown over the arch at the top when walking the mother fastened this frame to her back. When working in the field she would hang baby and frame from some near by support where both would swing in the breeze. The stolid pa- pose would hang thus for hours with- out making a single complaint. Irosuols Gifts to the White Man
I have already toid how through the conquests of the Iroquois, New York came into possession of the vast territory westward to the Mis- sissippi. There were many smaller gifts which were acquired from the Iroquois that have greatly added to our wealth prestige and comfort. It was from them that we acquired the great level through route from the Hudson River to the Great Lakes. No. where else is there such a pass through the whole length of the Ap- malachian range of mountains. It was this natural highway from east to weet tht contributed to the great- ness of every meonle who have oc- pled this section and did more than any other one thing to make New York the Empire State, richest and strongest state in the union, Over this level route pass thousands of cars, trains, trucks, and boats carry- ing the products of our thriving western states to the eastern sea- board, one would look in vain over
to this.
(To be continued)
the enemy which deponent thinks was, in 1779, he said husband was ordered out with his men to scour that region . of country being what is now called St. Johnsville or Op- penheim in said county of Montgom- ery and that he was about on his duty from four to six weeks.
This deponent further saith that in the fall of 1780, news came that a party of the enemy had murdered the father of her said husband who had continued to reside at Fall Hill afore said and that she and her hus- band then removed there till the fol- lowing spring and in the spring of 1780 or 81 her said husband was ord- ered back again to said Fort Plain and deponent went there with Mint,. after arriving there her said husband engaged a place for deponent to re- side in the family of Mr. Reesner living on the north side of the Mo- hawk river nearly opposite said Fort. This deponent saith she recollects and states that when news came that the enemy had murdered Jacobus: Mabies' family which deponent be- lieves was in 1780 or 81 her said hus- band was ordered out with his com- pany to scour that region of the country being what is called the Roy- al Grant north of the Mohawk and' protect the inhabitants and that he was about "on this occasion several weeks
This deponent saith, she made it her home' at said Reeseners' till the close of said Revolutionary War and saith that her said husband was en- gaged in the public service until the close of the war, as she then be- lieved and was informed, and as she has stated, she recollects of frequent- ly having seen her sald husband out purchasing provisions, clothing and other supplies for the fort and that during the time deponent resided at said Reesener's that her husband spent but a amall portion of his time and that only occasionally with de- ponen't and that she resided at said Reesner's until after the close of the war 'and that during that time de- ponenit was informed and believes he was employed in he public service as such officer at Fort or out with his, men on duty. .
This deponent saith that the said Dygert her husband died the 3rd day of February 1813, and that she mar- ried to John Tockey of the said town of Manheim, on the 12th day of April 1823, and that he died the 27th day of September 1832, and that since hen she has and stili does remain e widow.
Signed: Marillis Tockey (her uncie X) Sworn and subscribed in open court this seventh day of October 1837. J. Dygert, Clerk (Copied from photostat of original, by Frank Dygert Deuel) 9-11-40. E. N.
(To be continued)
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KEMPS BALSAM
MOHAWK VALLEY
GENEALOGY
AND
HISTORY
St. Johnsville Enterprise and News, St. Johnsville, N. Y.
Questions and Answers
A department devoted to the pursuit of knowledge. No charge to regular subscribers. Any reader, whether subscriber or not, is in invited to submit answers. Gives dates, places and sources ..
WANDELL'
Elizabeth Foster b. July 23, 1809, probably in Troy, N. Y. daughter of Abner Foster and Elizabeth Auring- er Foster married ---- Wandenl. They lived in Fulton, N. Y. in the 1860's. What was the given name, of the hus- band of Elizabeth Foster Wandell and who were the descendants of this union.
Jacob Dandell b May 30, 1747, Fishkill, N. Y. married Catherine Stillwell Feb. 8, 1770 died at Hav- erstraw 1827. Who were his brothers. Jane Gesner b Jan. 20, 1800, mar- ried Evert G. Wandell, April 17, 1823. When and where was Evert G. Wan- dell born, Who were his brothers and father .* **** **
Martin Eaton Wandell lived at West Troy (Wateryvliet), N. Y. about 1870. When and where was he born. Who was his father, uncles and grandfather.
Cept. Jacob Wandell + 1779 or 1780 was buried in Sleepy Hollow iel, Samuel b 1822 d 1903 (my grand- father) Sophia.
Cemetery, Tarrytown, N. Y. Jan. 6, 1868. 9Dr-w
1868. Who were his brothers, father, and sons. Lewis A. Wandell Milan, Penn'a.
PIATT
Who was the father of James Al- bert Piatt who was born in . late 1700's? He married Antenisa And- rews. They lived in the Mohawk Val- ley. James had a brother John who lived and died at Waverly, N. Y. His descendants live there at present time. James Albert is descended from John Piatt b. 1713 d after 1760 in Island of St. Thomas, Mar 1739. Frances (Vliet) Wyckoff widow of Jacob Wyckoff through one of their five sons namely;
Cept. John b. 1739 mar. 1 Jane Williamson; 2 Mrs. Beau.
Capt. Abraham b 1741, mar. Anna- belle Andrew dau. James Andrew. Cept. William b. 1743 mar. 1 Jem- ima Quick; 2 Sarah Smith.
Maj. Daniel b. 1745 mar. Catherine Sherrand.
Cept. jacob b: 1747 mar. 1 Han- nah Mccullough; 2 Mrs. Perry. I have reason to believe that my James Albert was the son of Johni D. Platt, who was son of Maj. Daniel Platt .? John D. b. 3-17-1766 enlisted in' Revolution at age of nine years, was in the Battle of Three Rivers Canada at age of. ten years. He served 83 Fifer all through Revolution.
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