USA > New York > Schenectady County > Schenectady County, New York : its history to the close of the nineteenth century > Part 9
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One of the best known old soldiers of Colonial days was Jellis Fonda, father of the heroic Major Jellis of the Revolution. He was a lieutenant in Mathews Company in 1755. He was major under Sir William Johnson of the Third Regiment of Albany. He was the close companion, comrade and friend of Sir William John- son.
Two of the most ferocious old fighters of Colonial days were Cap- tains Jonathan Stevens and William McGinnis, both killed beside King Hendrick and Col. Williams, founder of Williams College. They both commanded Schenectady companies. Sir William John- son reported officially that McGinnis, Stevens and the Schenectady inen fought like lions. Stevens was killed at the age of twenty- eight, leaving no lineal descendants.
Christopher Yates (known universally in the valley as Col. Stoeffle to distinguish him from Christopher P. and Peter Yates, his cousin, all of them becoming afterwards colonels in the Revolution), was commissioned as captain in the New York Provincial Regiment at Oswego, Thursday, June 15th, 1759. He was promoted while on
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91
DIARY OF LIEUTENANT YATES.
his way to Fort Niagara in command of the rear guard, afterwards of the quarter guard of the army, under Gen. Prideaux, who on his death in the assault was succeeded by Sir William Johnson. Yates had under him a Schenectady company, the roll of which cannot be found.
The French always maintained that Sir William Johnson took the fortress by deceit, treachery and the violation of the laws of civilized warfare. As interestingly illustrative of the means and ways of military transportation of those days, we offer extracts from Yates' diary of the journey. It will be seen that the Frenchman's charge against Sir William is abundantly substantiated by the written state- ment of an officer in the British service.
DIARY OF LIEUT. CHRISTOPHER YATES, AFTERWARDS CAPTAIN IN
THE EXPEDITION AGAINST FORT NIAGARIA IN JULY, 1759.
"A diary of my proceedings from my father's house in Schenec- tady which I left on June Ist, with the last party of our regiment, commanded by Col. Johnson, consisting of about 300 inen with whale boats.
" The first day we went to Claas Vieles. Each night I had the quarter guard. The next day we went to Sir Williams' (Sir William Johnson) and encamped there, and the next day we went to Little Falls and carried over some whale boats. On the same evening came up the artillery batteaux, which went over the falls before 11s, putting our party in great confusion. The next day we were ordered to make fascines to mend the road, which was very bad, and were four days in getting over our boats and provisions.
" From thence we proceeded to Fort Herkimer where we camped and from whence we proceeded to Orisco, which was June 14th, dur- ing which time we heard an alarm by the firing of more guns on the north side of the river, and sent out a party of about eighty or more men who made no discovery. The commanders of the party were Captain Bloomer, Lieutenant Schuyler and Lieutenant Wemple. Proceeded to Fort Stanwix. (Wemple was afterwards colonel in the Second New York in the Revolution).
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SCHENECTADY COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
" When we came there, the 14th and 16th regiments were marched to Canada Creek, part of our regiment to Fort Bull. Next day we tarried at Fort Stanwix, then another part of our regiment went off commanded by Major Roseboom, (afterwards colonel), which was the 15th of June, and Sir William went off from the fort with a great party of Indians. It was a fine sight, the bands of music played upon the ramparts of the fort, when the General and Sir William went off with the Indians.
" Oswego, July Ist, 1759. Upon a Sunday morning our army commanded by General Prideaux, went off from Oswego to Niagara, and in that way until we came to a great covered harbor called Sodom, (Sodus), and encamped there that night, and the next morn- ing, July 2nd, went off from there. At night we came to another cove called Jerundequa.
" July 4th. In the morning we set off and proceeded until about two or three in the afternoon, when we encamped by a mighty great one (cove) where the Geneva river comes out into the lake.
" July 5th. In the morning we went from there and proceeded along until we came to a narrow cove and creek, and there we encamped, and in the morning very early; about three or four o'clock, we set off and proceeded very smartly until we came to a cove about three miles, and there we landed. The same afternoon the Indians went and about three o'clock in the morning cannonaded and took three prisoners and six whale boats almost from under the fort and the general. The whale boats went in order to catch the sloops but the sloops laid under the fort so that they could not catch them. The fort shot several cannons at the boats, shot one man, taking his leg right off.
" The next day, which was the 7th, we prepared our cannons and the sloop played every hour on the lake, firing several cannons, and so they did all next day, which was the 8th. Then we marched about a mile from the fort and made gabions, etc., all that day. Next day went in a flag of truce, which was Monday the 8th. Then we began to intrench, and I was in the entrenches all that night until morning, and then they fired very smart all three cannons but did not do any damage. Then Wednesday, the 11th there went a
93
DIARY CONTINUED.
flag of truce from the Indians, and stayed in the fort a good while, and there was no further firing from them or from us. Before then we entrenched like men, and as soon as the Indians came there was no work all that night, but we did not mind that much, we worked the attack like smoke. They wounded a few men very slightly with their small arms. That night we began to play with four or five howitzers. In the morning we brought a few cannons into the trench. The 12th at night, I went in and they said they saw hot work there, there was one of our men killed and Indian Williams wounded very badly. Then at night we entrenched until within 200 yards of the fort, close by their gabions. Satur- day 13th we began the batteries but did not finish them.
"Sunday the 14th. Went and was in all night, but it rained so hard that we could not work ; that night we finished three batteries.
" The 17th. In the morning the firing was pretty hot, all that day and the next day, the 18th at night, we entrenched.
" The 18th. In the afternoon the schooner came from Garoqua. The same night we entrenched forty yards from their breastwork, but the schooner did not come to the fort.
" The 20th. In the afternoon our colonel was wounded through his leg by a musket shot, and Colonel Johnson was killed by a inus- ket ball as he was laying out the ground to entrench. That night at about ten o'clock the General (Prideaux) was killed by one of our cowhorn (mortars) and Sir William Johnson took command. And so we marched and worked night and day, until the 24th, when we were attacked by about 1500 of the enemy, under the command of Mushur Delanquay about ten o'clock in the morning. But we soon gave them their breakfast, and on the 25th we took the fort."
The Captain's spelling is very phonetic, his pronunciation of French amusing, but as we hear of him in the future he will loom up in the revolution, and after, as an accomplished and cultivated gentleman. He was but twenty-two years of age and yet had fought and been wounded at Ticonderoga. (Col. Records Vol. 10, p. 731, N. V. State Library). Yates obtained prominence from the fact that he took a company from Schenectady to Fort Niagara, but there
94
SCHENECTADY COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
were others of the provincial troops, whose descendants are all around us.
Captain Cornelius Van Dyke commanded a company in 1762, mus- tered at Schenectady. But two Schenectady names appear on the roll of Privates, Peter Prunus and John Dauce. Van Dyck was afterwards one of the most heroic of the Revolution. As colonel of the First Regiment of the line he participated in Monmouth, York- town and almost every battle. His descendants are numerous. Van Dyck was present at the surrender of Colonel Wallace.
Daniel Campbell, Andrew Truax, John Vrooman and Gerrit Lansing were commissioned captains in 1762.
On the roll of Captain Campbell's company appear only the fol- lowing Schenectady names: Philip Truax, Arent Wemple, Barent Wemple, Isaac Jacob Switz, Daniel DeGraff, Isaac I. Swits, Thomas Little, Simon Samuel, John and Joseph Brougham, Dirck and Phillip Van Patten and Robert Shannon, William, James and Matthew Thorton.
Captain Garrit A. Lansing's company was composed of Schenec- tady men. The names are spelled with perfect devotion to Dutch pronunciation, but in absolute contempt of correctness, yet the reader will readily distinguish the familiar titles.
CAPT. GERRIT A. LANSING'S COMPANY.
A list of the officers and mnen in the Second Schenectady company of militia, with the dates of officers' commissions, 1767 :
Capt. Gerrit A. Lansing, 2d day of November, 1754.
First Lieut. John S. Glen, 23d day of October, 1758.
Second Lieut. Abraham Wemple, 23d day of October, 1759, afterwards Colonel of Second N. Y.
Ensign Samuel Van Slyck, 23d day of October, 1759.
Sergt. Harınan Hagadorn, Sergt. Maas Van Vranken,
Sergt. Hendrick Veeder, Sergt. John Fort.
Corporal Peter Sters, Corporal Cornelius Barhydt.
Drummer, Abraham N. Leythall, (Lighthall).
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CAPTAIN LANSING'S COMPANY.
PRIVATES :
Robert Hagadorn,
Peter Veeder,
Wm. Beth (Bath),
John Steers, Abraham Fonda,
Albert Vedder,
Robert Beth,
Takeris Van De Bogart,
Peter Van Vorst,
Phillip Van Vorst,
Bartal, Frederick Clute, John Hall,
Tobias Luypard,
Frederick Luypard,
John S. Van Eps,
Hendrick Charlo,
Cornelius P. Van Slyck,
Abraham Van Vorst,
Cornelius Van Slyck, Jr.,
Teron Barhydt,
Elias Post, Gerrit Tellor,
Petrus Van Der Volgen,
Cornelius Van Guyseling,
Jacob S. Vrooman,
Jacob Van Guseling,
Johannes Bastianse,
Elias Van Guyseling,
Martin Van Benthuisen,
Ryer Schermerhorn,
Gerrit Wendell,
Simon Schermerhorn,
Abraham Groot,
John Schermerhorn,
Rikert Van Vraken,
Carel Scherfer,
John Meb,
John Mercelis,
Richard James,
Jakel Mercelis,
Samuel Bradt,
Nicholas Vedder,
Samuel S. Bradt,
Symon Groot,
Arent Bradt,
Barent Mynderse,
Jacob Bradt,
Johannes Jure Kraft,
Frederick Bradt,
John Dinny,
Johannes Schoenmaker,
Symnon Janson.
John Tellor.
Officers 4, Sergeants 4, Corporals 2, Drummer I, Privates 55. Total 66.
Captain John Duncan's company contains the honored names of Wemple, Wendell and Samuel Fuller, very probably the remainder followed their captain into war. Schenectady was devoted to the King to the day of the revolution.
Jacob Farlie,
Arent Stevens,
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SCHENECTADY COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
Captain Nicholas Groot's company was Schenectady by a large majority. We therefore give the roster of the Schenectady soldiers enlisted under Capt. Andrew Truax :
Capt. Andrew Truax, commissioned Jan. 5th, 1758. Lieut. Isaac Glen, commissioned Jan. 5th, 1758. Lieut. Peter Truax, commissioned Jan. 5th, 1758. Ensign John R. Wemp, commissioned Jan. 5th, 1758.
Sergt. Reuben Horsford, Sergt. John B. Wendell,
Sergt. Jacob V. Sice,
Sergt. John Henry,
Corporal John DeGraff,
Corporal John B. Marcelis,
PRIVATES.
John V. Antwerpen,
John Mebie,
Isaac Marselis,
Zeger V. Stanford,
John J. Vrooman,
Abraham Schermerhorn,
Wm. DeGraff,
Cornelius DeGraff,
Arent Marselis,
Jacob Groot,
Douwe Van Vorst,
Jellis J. Van Vorst,
Wessel Wessels,
Petre Clute,
Jasper Swart,
Symon Van Patten,
Abraham Yates,
Arent Clement,
Jacob Fonda,
Arent Vedder,
James Leythaal,
Albert H. Vedder,
Cornelius Lansing,
John B. Van Eps, Jr.,
Cornelius Vrooman,
Reyer A. Schermerhorn,
Arent Mebie,
Peter Mebie,
Jellis Dirk Van Vorst,
John V. Vrooman,
Gerrit H. Vedder,
Phillip Steers,
John Van Deusen,
Jellis D. Van Vorst,
Thomas Christiaense,
Elias Groot, John Clement,
James Reylie,
Abraham Christiaense,
Nicholas Sixbie,
Phillip Van Patten,
Folckert Vedder,
John D. V. Antwerpen,
Abraham P. V. Antwerpen,
John Sy. Toll, .
John Van Patten,
Phillip Van Vorst,
Jacob Swart,
97
PEACE BEFORE WAR.
Jesse C. DeGraff, John Van Etten,
Frederick Van Patten,
Peter Van Deusen,
Mathew Van der Heyden,
Abraham Truax.
At last the Great Frederic of Prussia condescended to give peace to Europe. All over the continent the seven years' war had lan- guished for two years, men seeming to have become utterly weary of cutting one another's throats. On the 16th of January, 1763, was signed the Treaty of Peace, and as every time the rude artillery of that day growled, the inusketry in America seemed to spit and snap and snarl, blessed rest came to the fighting burgher who, brave and heroic as he was, dearly loved his pipe and his calm, somnolent evenings.
The Yankee began to come, capital began to be attracted to the village, which, though no longer a frontier town, was a prosperous Indian trading post. Einigration began to pour its crowd through the river and hills of Woestina, and the track of the glacier at Little Falls. Ellice and Duncan and Phynn, Mynderse, DeGraffs', the Waltons, the Duanes of the Revolution, the Martins, Craigs and Yates', mostly Englishmen, established storage and forwarding houses. It was about the first real opportunity in her hundred years of life, that the little town had had a chance to grow, and it took advantage of it.
But the rest was destined to be short. Already inarching toward her was the drum beat of another seven years' war, one that was to divide her own household, not between races, but families and kin- dred, between father and sons, brothers and neighbors, drawing sharply defined lines through streets, houses and homes.
The Revolution was at hand, and again the weary town, caring less for the issue involved than almost any portion of the oppressed and tax ridden land, saw the pomp and circumstance of that glori- ous war of which she was long ago heartily sick unto death. A hundred years of its horror had been enough for a people who could fight but did not want to.
98
SCHENECTADY COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
CHAPTER VIII.
SCHENECTADY IN THE REVOLUTION.
The patriotisin of Schenectady was pure, unadulterated and unself- ish. Stamp act and tea taxation worried the burghers less than any other people in America. Stamped papers, checks and drafts, they used, of course, but less of it than the commercial seaports. The Mohawk Dutchman was a strangely unambitious soul of extremely contented disposition. The moment the genuine Hollander acquired that simple revenue which, ridiculously small as it may appear in these days, was sufficient for the modest demands of his quiet home, he was content to sit on his stoop built in youth or maturity for the rest of old age, and watch the procession of the hunters of wealth or power go westward. Schenectady was then, as now, on the very highway of progress, the turnpike laid out by nature, for the journey then beginning from New York around the globe. He saw it all, joined in it rarely, wanted to live his uneventful life, and calmly wait for its peaceful end.
He had never suffered from active wrong done him by the Eng- lishinan as others had. It was the passive injury of her shameful neglect, that had been his worst complaint. No troops of the King were ever quartered upon him in any unwelcome form. The fort had in fact never been garrisoned enough to give him a feeling of security against blood-thirsty white and red men.
All the British officers and men quartered here, seemed always to have iningled with, and been part of the people. They were victims of the horrors of the massacre of February 9th, helped to hunt down the Indian assassins on every occasion, in the chase of the perpetra- tors of the Beukendaal massacre, and did all they could to rescue the captives. Sir William Johnson, ruler of the District, his Majesty's representative was to the manor born, not of their own race but of
99
SIR JOHNSON'S HEADQUARTERS.
their own neighbors in the valley, and in spite of his Mormon ten- dencies and his bold assumption of the divine right of kings, in the matter of morganatic marriages with squaws, was popular, a brave warm-hearted man. Schenectady was often his military headquar- ters. From here came the Fondas, his commissaries, fathers and sons-his officers were largely from here. The Yates brothers, Stoeffel and Jellis, had fought under him, the elder, a lad in his teens, wounded at Ticonderoga and promoted at Sir William's sugges- tion for bravery at Fort Niagara. Campbell, Duncan, the Van Slycks, Bradts, Vielies, Vanderbogarts, Vedders, Veeders, Wemples, Mynderses Barhydts, in fact all the Dutch families of the valley were on the rolls of his battalions and companies. And the loyal element at Schenectady was not made up of unpopular men by any manner of means. The Yankee was not worshipped here, and the Englishmen were not hated. The latter had touched elbows with the early set- tlers in many of the alarmns constantly sent out, until comradeship had become close. Sir William's heart was true. That he stood staunchly by the King who had honored him with a baronetcy, and the command of all his forces west of Albany, from a strict sense of duty, while his heart was divided with love for both, is an open secret of history.
Officers and soldiers of great local renown in Colonial wars dropped off the rolls in the Revolution. Campbells, Duncans and the Glens, with the exception of the staunch old Quartermaster Glen, well and widely known, and others who had fought for the King from a decade to a quarter of a century, did not take up arms for the Colonies. The Sanders' were staunch friends of King George. But these inen could hardly be called by the offensive name of Tory, with the exception of Duncan, and even he was forgiven. As a rule they were allowed to be quiet and silent, and as long as they were so, there was none to molest or make them afraid. Schenectady was, however, intensely loyal without that murderous bitterness that revelled in battle, murder and sudden death. Here our ancestors had not the personal insult of being spurned from the foot of the throne, there was no Boston massacre, no fights like that of Golden Hill in New York, no shooting down of rebels as at Concord and
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SCHENECTADY COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
Lexington. The English garrison had always been welcomed, and its officers and men had always been in comradeship and good favor with the people.
There were full confidence and faith in the great Sir William, his Majesty's viceroy. In his heart, no one doubted in all the stern days that followed, that he would have been in many instances in warm sympathy with his fellow soldiers of other days. There were no battlefields in Schenectady county, no raids on the lovely hill slopes and smiling valleys. More than once, notably in the Burgoyne cam- paign, Sir William sent his cohorts the other way. Always, to the credit of that brave and distinguished officer, whose sad ending has been believed to have been due to a broken heart. He denounced, and when he dared, punished the ruffians who murdered in defiance of the laws of war. The warmest friends and mnost cherished com- rades of the viceroy of the great Georges lived in the little town on the wooded plain. The belief of its people after the Revolution that Schenectady was under that tender watchfulness that survived his death in 1774. It was righteous enough in any brave man's view, that a town that had suffered so much from England's neglect, and had given so many of its best and bravest to die in her cause, in the morning of its first century, should have all the rest and peace that war could permit in that century's close.
In one respect the Tories of the Revolution and the copperheads of 1861 are strikingly similar. They seem to have died childless. No one to-day admits that he is a descendant of a Tory, and we can- not find anywhere about us those who are confessedly possessed of copperhead blood, and if the old soldier of the Civil War will occa- sionally meet in his daily walk his old neighbor, who sympathized with the rebels against the flag for which he fought, he is kindly oblivious to the fact, bestowing the mercy of silence and lets the oblivion of years blot out the stain of treason. There were none of the genuine breed of Tory in Schenectady of whom history, tra- dition, or official record makes any mention, but there were men who had made gallant records in the Colonial Wars, who. while they took no active part in behalf of the nation, and the sovereign to whom
IOI
SUSPECTED TORIES.
they undoubtedly had a loyalty in their hearts, never turned their guns against the scarlet uniform of the King.
Ellice, Phynn, Duncan, Campbell and Morrison were closely watched. They were not Tories, but British subjects, or sons of British subjects. A Tory was the American whom the American patriot hated, but the British loyalist seems to have been treated with indulgence by his fellow citizen. The English born, who remained faithful to an English monarch, was tolerated and afterwards freely forgiven. The Tory's life was safe nowhere. There were others to whom the situation at the outbreak of the war was most distressing. Many of them undoubtedly felt, in their hearts, that it was the battle between inclination and duty that worried the soul of Sir Williamn Johnson.
The Glenns, the Fondas, the Vanderbogarts, the Van Schaicks, the Van Slycks, the Vielies, the Bradts, the Yateses and others had all done service in rank or file, as officers, or as soldiers under King George, and the disruption of the Empire, proclaimed by the Decla- ration of Independence, came upon them as a shock. It was a par- ticularly distressing situation for the Yateses whom King George II had honored with commissions and with grants of land. It was especially painful to the Glens to whom his Majesty's governors had given authority in Schenectady ; to the Bradts and Vroomans who had been official surveyors, and had laid out the territory of the King's dominion, but to the honor of all, or almost all, of the manor born, not one of them but rallied to the standard of George Wash- ington. In fact, the elder Yates was a Member of Congress of '76, his term expiring but six days before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Though lieutenant colonel of Wemple's regiment, his relation with the British officers seems to have been close to the last, for his daughter, shortly after the Revolution, married Johnson Butler, the nephew of the infamous Walter Butler, and Captain Alexander McDonald of the British army. It is a singular fact that the records show that "Col. Stoeffel," as he was often and affection- ately called, loyal enough to fight in the Colonial Wars for the King of England, went at once upon the staff of Schuyler, as Glenn did
8
I02
SCHENECTADY COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
on quartermaster duty, and the records of the Revolution from which the information in this chapter is strictly derived, do not show anywhere that he ever leveled his gun at a Britishı soldier. His younger brother Jellis, however, was a fighter all the way through as private and lieutanant of the line.
The precise situation can best be told in what follows, in the extracts from the records of the Committee of Public Safety. It will be seen that the people fully and thoroughly trusted these men, as ardent as they had been in the cause of England, for it will be seen that they were members of the Committee of Public Safety. In the story of what transpired in the official action of the village authorities, in support of their brave country, the historian is deeply indebted to the Hon. John Sanders, who has in his industrious research and judicious selection collated the interesting facts which follow.
It must, as honest history, be stated as connected with our great revolutionary struggle, that the mass of the inhabitants of Schenec- tady were devotedly the sons of liberty, and intensely in earnest ; but it must be confessed that a few of our most wealthy men were prudent and non-committal, and unexceptionally, from habit, would pray for the King.
The first gun was fired and the first blood flowed at Lexington, on the 19th day of April, 1775, and on the 6th of May following, at a meeting of the freeholders and inhabitants of the township of Schenectady, the following persons were unanimously chosen to be a committee of correspondence, safety and protection for the town- ship:
Rinier Mynderse, James Wilson, Hugh Mitchell, Henry Glen, . Harmanus Wendell, Abraham Oothout, John Roseboom, Christopher Yates, Cornelius Cuyler and Jacobus Teller. Christopher Yates, (father of Governor Joseph C. Yates), was made chairman ; Hugh Mitchell, (grandfather of the late Hon. Thomas B. Mitchell), was made clerk.
A minute book of 162 closely written pages was kept by that com- mittee and their successors, now belonging to the library of Union College, having been presented to that institution as a valuable relic
103
EXTRACTS FROM MINUTES.
of our revolutionary trials by the late Edward Rosa, Esq., and although deeply interesting on each page, a few important items are selected as extracts, to show how patriotic, multiform and extensive were the duties and labors of that committee; and, in the mass of interesting detail, even that selection is difficult.
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