USA > New York > Saratoga County > Our county and its people : a descriptive and biographical record of Saratoga County, New York > Part 3
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2 Translated means: " People of the long house;" "long house" being intended to describe the home of the Five Nations. They sometimes called themselves the Agannschioni, meaning "United People," and also by a name meaning " real men."
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
and Oneidas, but also by the Adirondacks, a Canadian nation belonging to the Algonquins, and many fierce battles for supremacy occurred among the mountains by succeeding generations of the savages. This region was "the dark and bloody ground " of the ancient Indian tradi- tions.
In the reign of Atotarho XII, one of the kings of the Five Nations, perhaps about fifty years before the discovery of America by Columbus, we are told by an authority on Indian history,1 the Tehatirihokea, or Mohawks, were at war with Ranatshaganha, "supposed Mohegans, who occupied the opposite bank of the river Skannataly, 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 continually to cover their retreat; but after a while the Mohegans ex- poliated the war; the chief of the Mohawks received orders from the king, and invited the two confederate nations, the Oneidas and the On- ondagas, to unite against the common enemy; the band of the com. bined forces immediately crossed the river and ravaged a part of the country, and the enemy were compelled to sue for peace."
It is not positively known where this great Indian Confederacy was established. In David Cusick's history of the Six Nations he relates the Indian traditions relative to the origin of the Confederacy, which was called " a Long House, the Wars, Fierce Animals," etc. He says:
By some inducement 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 pro- ceed toward the sunrise as he guided them and come to a river and named Yenon- anatche, 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 mid- day 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 peo- ple 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 com- pany there was a particular 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-nay-taw-ty (Hudson), the Holder of the Heavens di- rects the first family to make their residence near the bank of the river, and the fam- ily was named Te-haw-re-ho-geh, i. e., a speech divided (now Mohawk) and their
1 David Cusick's " Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations,"
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THE INDIAN OCCUPANCY.
language was soon altered; the company then turned and went towards the sunset- ting, and traveled 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 likewise their language was altered. The company con- tinued to proceed toward 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-non·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-wah, i. e., a great pipe, their language was altered. The company continued to proceed towards the sunsetting. The fifth family was directed to make their residence near a high moun- tain, or rather nole, situated south of the Canandaigua lake, which was named Jen- neatowake, and the family was named Te-how-nea-nyo-hent, i. e., Passing a Door, now Seneca, and their language was altercd. The sixth family went with the com- pany that journeyed toward the sunsetting, and touched the bank of a great lake, and named Kau-ha-gwarah-ka. i. e., A Cap, now Erie, and they went towards be- tween the midday and sunsetting, and travelled considerable distance and came to a large river which was named Ouau-we-go-ka, i. e., a principal stream, now Missis- sippi. 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-hoh, 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-scab-neh, i. e., A Long House, to which are, 1st-Tea-taw-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.
Other authorities state that each nation was divided into eight clans or tribes, named respectively : Wolf, Deer, Bear, Snipe, Beaver, Heron, Turtle and Hawk. One of their rules was that no two of the same clan could intermarry. Each sachem had a permanent name-the name of the office he held-and it descended to his successor. There were two sachemships, however, which forever remained vacant after the death of the original incumbents of the office. These were Daganoweda of the Onondagas, and Hiawatha of the Mohawks.1 The first was the founder of the league and the second was his principal assistant. In honor of the great services, their sachemships were forever held vacant.
Their organization is supposed to have taken place between 1900 and 2000 years before Columbus discovered America, or between 400 B. C.
1 Both were supposed to have been of miraculous birth, and sent to the Indians to teach them the arts of government and peace.
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
and 500 B. C. While this account is purely traditional, it is the most authentic 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 government so remarkable among a savage people was, as we have stated, a 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 attain- ments, such as they might be. The fifty offices created at the organ- ization 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 become a ruler or sachem until elevated to such a place by a council of all the sachems of the 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 had civil authority, he could not be a chieftain in war until 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 this may seem.
The policy of the Iroquois nation in war appears to have been not for the sake of war alone, 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 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 occupied 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 Hoosick 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
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THE INDIAN OCCUPANCY.
history and early tradition, and in and near the county of Saratoga many a bloody battle was fought by the red men of the wilderness.
The Iroquois Indians were the bravest, most hardy, most industrious, most politic, most intelligent on the American continent. At the same time they were the most resolute and desperate fighters when an appeal to arms was made for the purpose of settling a dispute with another tribe or nation. They were generally victorious. In 1650 they invaded the country of the Hurons, to the north and west. The year following they practically annihilated the Neutral Nation, and the next year they ex- terminated the Eries. In 1675 they reduced the Andastes or Conesto- gas, inhabitants of Pennsylvania and Maryland, involved them in war with Maryland and Virginia, when they abandoned their country and fled to the Roanoke, but were finally forced to submit to the Iroquois and return to the valley of the Susquehanna and Chesapeake. They penetrated as far westward as the Mississippi and as far southward as Southern Tennessee, compelling all the tribes inhabiting that region to flee before them. The tribes of New England and the Hudson valley trembled at their name and paid them tribute. Their fury was unbounded when in battle. They rightly deserved the title, " Romans of the West."
Even many years after the first settlement of the country about Fort Orange, bands of the Iroquois, then of the Algonquins, passed through Saratoga county on their way to carry out their plans for laying waste the villages of the enemy. The famous old Wampanoag chieftain, King Philip, once invaded the county in the winter of 1675-76, at the head of a band of 500 warriors bound for the north. His followers en- camped in the northern part of the county and prepared to strike a decisive blow at the Mohawks. In February, 1676, the Mohawks assembled and marched northward over the famous Indian trail leading through the county 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 back across the Hudson River and through the Hoosick valley to the other side of the mountains. The famous old chief, Greylock, of the Waronoaks, the last chief of his tribe, also frequently passed through the county with his band of warriors.
In 1628 the Mohawks declared war against the Mohegans, whose chief village was on or near the present site of Troy, and invaded the country of the latter. Half a century later Uncas and his little body of Mohe-
2
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
gans, now greatly reduced numerically, returned from the Connecticut valley, where they had been driven, crossed the Hudson to the present sites of Albany, Watervliet and Waterford, and slew many of their enemies, the Mohawks. Later on, upon the dissolution of the tribe, some of the Mohegans emigrated westward and joined the Iroquois, some of them even amalgamating with their ancient enemies, the Mohawks.
The Mohawk Indians, many of whom inhabited the region now known as Saratoga county, were the most ferocious nation of the Iroquois Con- federacy. Aside from this characteristic, they were very much like the other nations of the Iroquois. Their most famous hunting-ground, Sa- ragh.to ga,1 was identical with the eastern portion of Saratoga county, and the western part of Washington county. In all probability, the land so called extended no further west than Saratoga Lake.
The Mohawks visited in great numbers the mineral spring at Sara- toga Springs now known as High Rock, and they appreciated the medicinal properties of its waters; for as early as 1767 they induced Sir William Johnson to consent to be carried there from Johnson's Hall at Johnstown on a litter, having persuaded him that his frequently recurring sickness would be cured by frequent and regular drinking thereof. They also came from all over their territory to fish in Sara- toga lake and the Hudson river.
Another famous hunting ground was Kay-ad-ros-se-ra,2 which lay west of Sa-ragh-to-ga. Wild animals came in vast numbers, even from the Adirondacks and the mountains of Vermont, and drank the mineral waters found in Kay-ad-ros se-ra, and the streams were filled with fish.
Little by little the white men encroached upon the domain of the savages, and the latter, finally tiring of continual quarrelings with the intruders and the march of civilization, weakened in numbers and broken in spirit, began the sale of their possessions piecemeal. In 1684 Peter Philip Schuyler, and six other residents of Albany, purchased the ground known as Sa-ragh-to-ga, and the grant was confirmed by the English government. This grant was as follows:3
1 Sometimes said to have been written "Se-rach-ta-gue." Dr. Hough, the historian, says that a Caughnawaga Indian informed him that the original word was "Sa-ra-ta-ke," meaning, "a place where the track of the hecl may be seen."
2 The original for Kayaderosseras, according to Gauthier's map of 1779.
3 This grant is recorded on page 159 of Liber 5 of Deeds and Patents in the office of the Sec- retary of State at Albany. In connection therewith is recorded a map showing the location of the
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THE SARATOGA PATENT.
Saratoga Patent-Thomas Dongan, Lieutenant and governor and Vice Admiral, under his Royall Highnesse James, Duke of York, &c., of New Yorke and its De- pendencyes in America. To all to whom these presents shall come sendeth greet- ing. Whereas these following Maquaise Sachems, bothe of the first and seconde castles, viz., Roode Laggodischquesex, Aihagure and Tuskanoenda, did, in the pres- ence of the Comander and Magistrates of Albany and all the Maquaise Sachems, give and grant unto Cornelius Van Dyke, John Johnson Bleeker, Peter Phillipps Schuyler and Johannes Wendall, together with Dyrick Wessell, David Schuyler and Robert Livingston, who are equally concerned in the purchase of said tract of land.
A certain Tract or Parcell of Land, situate, lyeing and being to the north of Al- bany, on both sides of Hudsons River beginning at the uppermost limitts of the land bought formerly by Goose Garretson and Phillip Peterse Schuyler being a creek called Lioneende houwe, which is the Southermost Bounds of the said lands and from thence up both sides of the River Northerly to a Creeke or Kill on the East side of the River called Dionoon de houwe, the land on said Creeke included. Keeping the same length on the West side of the River and soe Runnes East and West into the woods as farr as the Indians Right and title to the within menconed Land afore re- cited as by a certain writing or Indian Deed bearing Date the 26th Day of July in the thirty-fifth yeare of his Matees Reigne 1683 Relacon being thereunto had doth more fully and at large appeare Now Know Yee that by virtue of the comicon and authority unto me given by his Royall Highnesse, James Duke of Yorke and Albany &c. Lord Proprietor of the Province of New Yorke in consideracon of the Premises and the Quitt Rents hereinafter reserved, I have given, granted, Ratifyed and con- firmed and by these presents doe hereby Give, Grant, Ratifye and Confirme unto the said Cornelius Van Dyke, John Johnson Bleeker, Peter Phillipps Schuyler, Jo- hannes Wandell, Derick Wessells, David Schuyler and Robert Livingston their heires and assigns forever all the before recited Tract and Tracts, Parcell and Parcells of land and islands within the said bounds Together with all and singular Woods, Un- derwoods, Waters, Runnes, Streames, Ponds, Creekes, Meadows, Marshes, Fishing, Hawking, Hunting and Fowling and all other Libertyes, Priviledges, Hereditaments, Appurtts to the said Tract of land and Premises belonging or in anywise apper- taining.
To Have and to Hold the said Tract of Land and Premises with all and singular appurtenances before menconed and intended to be Granted, Ratified and Confirmed unto the said Cornelis Van Dyke, John Johnson Bleeker, Peter Phillipps Schuyler, Johannes Wandell, Derick Wessells, David Schuyler and Robert Livingston their heires and assignes unto the proper use and behoofe of the said Cornelius Van Dyke, John Johnson Bleeker, Peter Phillipps Schuyler, Johannes Wandell, Derick Wessells, David Schuyler and Robert Livingston their heires and assignes forever. To be holden of his said Royall Highnesse, his heires and assignes in free and common Soccage according to the tenure of East Greenwich in the county of Kent in his Matees Kingdome of England, Yielding and Paying therefore Yearlye and every Yeare as a quit rent for his Royall Highnesse use twenty Bushels of Good Merchant-
property in question. This property extended from the mouth of the Battenkill, near Schuyler- ville, southward to Tenendaho creek, at Mechanicville, and from point to point, east and west from the Hudson river, six miles in both directions.
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
able winter wheate at Albany or before the 2th day of March unto such officer or Officers as from time to time shall be appointed to Receive the same.
Given under my Hand and Sealed with the Seale of the Province at Fort James in New Yorke the fourth day of November in the thirty-sixth Yeare of the Raigne of our Sovereign Lord Charles the Second by the Grace of God of England, Scot- land, France and Ireland, King Defender of the Faith, &c., Annoq. Dom. 1684.
THOS. DONGAN.
October 6, 1784, Kay-ad-ros-se-ra was sold to the province of New York, and four years later the entire estate came into the possession of Nanning Hermanse and several other wealthy men of Albany and else- where, by a patent granted by Queen Anne. But it was not until 1768 that the first Indian deed was confirmed by the tribe. This done, and the Indian occupancy of Saratoga county was at an end.
CHAPTER III.
The French and Indian Wars -- The Frequent Incursions of the French from Can- ada Into the Land of the Mohawks-Saratoga County a Bloody Battle Ground-The Iroquois and English Ever on Friendly Terms-Fate of Father Isaac Jogues-The Massacre at Schenectady-Battles in Saratoga County -- The Old Saratoga Massacre -The Final Struggle-Sir William Johnson's Campaign-Fort George, Fort William Henry, Ticonderoga and Crown Point.
The prime cause for the unwillingness of immigrants to establish homes in Saratoga county, and the slow progress made in the develop- ment of this fertile and advantageously situated tract of land by a civ- ilized people, lay in the long and seemingly interminable series of French and Indian wars, as they are known in history. For fully a century the contest for supremacy between the two powers, Great Britain and her colonists in America and France and her colonists, was continued. The early struggles were sporadic and without definite plan or organization on either side, but particularly so with the British. The colonists were anxious, on both sides, to have the question of supremacy settled, but one war followed another without definite re- sults, wearing out the colonists, exhausting their resources and leaving the new country in a most unsettled and wretched condition. Size and population considered, no community suffered more from this long struggle than did the county of Saratoga. Attempt after attempt to
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THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS.
make permanent settlements within its borders was foiled, as has been seen in a preceding chapter, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the pioneers of the county were either killed in battle, taken prisoners and carried to Canada, or massacred. Once Great Britain had driven the French back to Canada, practically deciding the contest; but, to the despair of the wearied colonists, she refused to take advantage of the victory that she had so gloriously won, and made a treaty conced- ing to France all that the English colonists had won for her, after sac- rificing thousands of lives and a vast treasure.
While most histories of the United States, in telling the story of the French and Indian War, refer only to the culminating conflict which began in 1754 and ended in 1763, the series of wars undertaken toward the end accomplished in that struggle began soon after the middle of the seventeenth century. The cause of the final war was the conflict- ing territorial claims of the two nations. It was the existence of this common cause, the integrity of English sovereignty and of the English- speaking people, that impelled the colonies finally to cease, in a meas- ure, their inter-colonial wrangles and act together against a common foe, as they again did in the war of the Revolution. For a long time prejudice, suspicion and mutual jealousy kept them apart; but when they came to understand that the great question was whether they should be subjects of Great Britain or of France, old antagonisms were thrown into the background or allowed to perish utterly, more charit- able sentiments prevailed, and the love for and the desire to protect and advance the interests of the Mother Country predominated.
The sea coast had been colonized by England; the interior had been colonized by France. The Jesuit priests of the latter, from Quebec to Louisiana, had won the Indians by their grand religious rites and taught them to hate the English. Thus England had to defend herself against not only the French but their powerful savage allies as well. La Salle's explorations had done much to strengthen the claims of the French to western territory, and correspondingly to weaken the position of the English. Before the middle of the eighteenth century France
had the English colonists hemmed in their well settled territory along the Atlantic and was well prepared to defend her claims to the great unknown West. Of the North she already felt secure. The knowledge of her successful efforts in the West increased the long-standing ani- mosities between the colonists of the two nations. Finally, when the frontiersmen of the two nations had a conflict over the attempt to col-
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
onize the Ohio valley, in the middle of the eighteenth century, the signal for the general inauguration of hostilities was hoisted and the final desperate struggle for national supremacy on the great American continent began.
When Father Isaac Jogues made his famous journey into the land of the Iroquois, penetrating to the Mohawk valley, he invaded territory over which Holland claimed sovereignty. When, in 1666, the famous expedition headed by Marquis de Tracy, Sieur de Courcelle and Gov. ernor Daniel de Remi passed from the St. Lawrence to the Mohawk, through Saratoga county, over the same trail followed by the martyr Jogues, for the purpose of avenging the death of Tracy's young friend Sieur Chazy, who a short time before had been murdered by a Mohawk Indian at the mouth of the Chazy River, they invaded territory over which the English claimed sovereignty. But this expedition did not seem to bring the English to a realization of the danger that menaced them, for not even a mild remonstrance was made to the French gov- ernment. After the French invaders had pillaged the Mohawk villages, destroying the crops and burning the wigwams, they even went so far, by Tracy's order as to take possession of all the country of the Mohawks, in the name of the King of France. This ended the war of 1666, but it left the sovereignty to the land of the Mohawks in dispute and formed the great entering wedge for the bloody conflicts which were to follow. For both nations could not be supreme on the same territory.
Comparative peace reigned for about twenty years after the expedi- tion of 1666. Then from 1686 to 1695 the Mohawks and the French continued the struggle, which had been renewed by the former in re- venge for the spoliation of their beautiful valley twenty years before. Prior to 1689 Governor Denonville of Quebec had been on unfriendly terms with the Iroquois for a number of years. In the meantime Governor Dongan of New York had become their warm friend and ally. The wrath of the latter was aroused when he heard that the French had invaded the country of the Senecas, seized English traders on the Great Lakes and erected a fort on the Niagara River. Summon- ing representatives of the Five Nations to meet him at Albany he induced them to swear eternal enmity against the French. His next step was to procure from King James II authority to protect the Iroquois as British subjects. This may be said to have been the prac- tical beginning of English participation in the struggle.
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