USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > The annals of Albany, Vol IX > Part 9
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SCHENECTADY.
[ From Watson's Annals, p. 267. ]
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This place was the earliest settlement inland from Albany, being sixteen miles distant, and was formed at that place by the Dutch, as the nearest proper landing at the foot of the Mohawk navigation. It was the pro- per place of the fur trade, where the Indians brought their skins and received their supplies in return. It was also for numerous years, the proper place of ship- ment of military supplies, going inland up the Mohawk. Even before the settlement of whites at this place, it was the great concentration of Indian population, it having when first known as many as eight hundred war- riors, and as many as three hundred of them lived within the space of what now forms only one farm in the neighborhood. All of the earliest houses were formed like those of Albany after the manner of the Dutch construction. The first Dutch settler at. Sche- nectady was named Corlaer-before 1666. Its name sig- nifies beyond the pine plains.
Being essentially a Dutch town, and far off from city population and city life, they retained their primitive character unaltered for numerous years. They were money-making and frugal in their habits ; familiar and hospitable in their social relations, and being daily in intercourse with the Indians, they were assimilated to them in habits and feelings. Their characteristics have been aptly drawn by Judge Miller, who speaking of them says, that the story of their lives is only by tradi- tion and memory-we know that they had industrious habits, resolute minds, proverbial economy and signal integrity ; they were not men of learning as that term is now understood ; they may not have been polite men in the present acceptation of the word ; and very
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certainly were not fashionable men. None have ever known an old, respectable and sensible Dutchman that had ever been a fashionable, nor has any ever known a young Dutch woman whoever made herself disfigured by her costume, or injured her health for the sake of dis- play. Their raiment as well as their food was plain, necessary and useful, and to this day, the plain, straight coat of the pristine Dutchman, the neat cap, and the ruddy countenance, smiling under the plain sun bonnet of the Dutch woman, give delight in the recollection. But these men and women are seen now no more,-they are gone, and with them their simplicity, and other in- teresting qualities which garnished and beautified men and women in the olden time. To such ancestors and matrons, the present generation owe an everlasting debt of gratitude and respect. They encountered all the dif- ficulties and hardships common to a new country ; they were a stalwart and hardy set of veterans, who made the forest fall before them. If our condition is now . more safe and comfortable, let us remember that these Dutch forefathers have been the instruments and agents of the most of what we now enjoy.
Schenectady as a frontier post and town had its de- fences of stockades and palisades, its gates and its block houses. Prepared for war it was thus enabled to avoid it, even if hostilities had been apprehended. They how- ever had no enemies until they became exposed to the machinations and sinister designs of the French in Can- ada. These with their Indians, becoming desirous of avenging the successful assault of the Iroquois on Mon- treal, undertook a winter surprise in the year 1690, in- tending, if successful here, to pursue their attack upon Albany itself. In managing such a winter expedition through the snow, a party go before in snow shoes, so as to beat a track for those who follow. At night, groups would dig holes in the snow, casting the snow excavated on the side next the wind-then they would collect branches of fir-trees for their flooring, make their fire in the centre, wrap themselves in their fur [ Annals, ix.] 11
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skins, and lay down with their feet toward the fire. In the dead of night of the 8th of February, when the ground was covered with snow, a small expedition of two hundred French and a number of Indians, arrived unapprehended, and entering the guard gates before the inhabitants could be armed for defence, they forced and fired almost every house, butchering sixty persons of every age and sex, and bearing off several prisoners. The rest fled almost naked in a terrible storm and deep snow. Several of them lost their limbs through the rigour of the cold. It was an awful-time ; and long, long was the calamity remembered and related by the few who survived to keep alive the fearful story. Those who most felt for the sufferers, and sighed most for re- venge, had an opportunity in the next year, to join an expedition under the command of Major Peter Schuyler of Albany, "the Washington of his day." He con- ducted about three hundred men, of whom the half . were Mohawks and Schahook Indians ; at La Prare they encountered twelve hundred men under De Collieres, and in several conflicts slew thirteen officers and three hundred men, returning home in safety. This was cer- tainly executing wonders against so superior a force !
It is said to have been a fact that just before the mas- sacre occurred, Colonel Glen tried to convey intelli . gence to the Schenectadians of the approach of the Frenchmen, while they were still on the other side of the river, and that for this purpose, he used the servi- ces of a squaw, who had been in the habit of selling brooms in the doomed village. But when she informed some of the villagers, they were incredulous, as deeming it impossible that such an invasion could be meditated in such an inclement season and from such a distance. Tradition says, that she paid a visit to a certain widow who was regaling the pastor of the place with chocolate, then a luxury. On entering the house, she gave some offence to the widow by shaking off the snow from her moccasin on the newly scrubbed floor, which quickly . sent off the squaw, muttering as she went, " it will be
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soiled enough before to-morrow !" The name of the pastor was Tassomaker, and he was the first ever set- tled in the place. He took the alarm, however, and went away saying nothing ; but following his own fears. He was never seen or heard of afterwards, which led some of the good people to apprehend that he was spir- ited away. The widow, too, somehow made her retreat, and left descendants who used to relate these facts to sub- sequent generations.
A curious memento of the calamity has been singularly preserved in a family of' Albany, being an original manu- script, written by Walter Willie, one hundred and fifty years ago. It is a relic of the olden time in itself ; and if the poetry flows not in Lydian measures, it was prob- ably equal to the poetic standard of the day and place. The writer designed, that it might long survive him, and it is certainly curious, that his wish has been so well ful- filled, to wit :
"A ballad, in which is set forth the horrid cruelties practised by the French and Indians on the night of the 8th of last February. The which I did compose last night, in the space of one hour, and am now writing, the morning of Friday, June 12th, 1690. W. W."
God prosper long our King and Queen Our lives and safties all, A sad misfortune once there did Schenectady befall.
From forth the woods of Canada The Frenchmen tooke their way, The people of Schenectady To captivate and slay.
They marched for two and twenty daies. All thro' the deepest snow;
And on a dismal winter night They struck the cruel blow.
The lightsome sun that rules the day,
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Had gone down in the West; And eke the drowsie villagers Had sought and found their reste.
They thought they were in safetie all, And draampt not of the foe; But att midnight they all awoke, In wonderment and woe.
For they were in their pleasant Beddes, And soundelie sleeping, when - Each Door was sudden open broke By six or seven Men.
The Men and Women, younge & olde And eke the Girls and Boys, All started up in great Affright, Att the alarming Noise.
They then were murthered in their Beddes, Without shame or remorse; And soon the Floores and Streets were strew'd With many a bleeding corse.
The Village soon began to Blaze Which shew'd the horrid sight :- But, O, I scarce can Beare to Tell The Mis'ries of that Night.
They threw the Infants in the Fire, The Men they did not spare; But killed All which they could find Tho' Aged or tho' Fair.
O Christe ! In the still Midnight air, It sounded dismally, The Women's Prayers and the loud screams, Of their great Agony.
Methinks as if I hear them now All ringing in my ear;
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The Shrieks & Groanes & Woeful Sighs, They utter'd in their fear.
But some ran off to Albany, And told the doleful Tale: Yett tho' We gave our chearful Aid, It did not much avail.
And We were horribly afraid, And shook with Terror, when They told us that the Frenchmen were More than a Thousand Men.
The News came on the Sabbath Morn Just att the Break of Day, And with a companie of Horse I galloped away.
But soone We found the French were gone With all their great Bootye; And then their trail We did pursue, As was our true Dutye.
The Mohaques joynd our brave Partye, And followed in the chase Till We came upp with the Frenchmen, Att a most likelye Place.
Our soldiers fell upon their Reare, And killed twenty-five, Our Young Men were so much enrag'd They took scarce One alive, .
D'Aillebout them did commande, Which were but Thievish Rogues, Else why did they consent and Goe With Bloodye Indian Dogges?
And Here I End the long Ballad, The Which you have just redde; And wish that it may stay on earth Long after I am Dead.
WALTER WILIE.
Albany, 12th of June, 1690.
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The Dutch of this land, have always been pre-eminent for their attachment to their church, its ordinances and their " Domines." It is therefore but matter of neces- sary consequence, that we should feel a satisfaction in preserving the little history of their origin and perpetuity. The church records show, that their first pastor was the Rev. Petrus Tasschemaker, from Holland, beginning his charge in the year 1684. Before that time only occasional service could be performed, in private houses, by visitors from Albany, and in the meantime the better Christians made their church visits to the Albany church by going and returning in two days. This honored Domine, as has been told, disappeared misteriously in the time of the massacre, and was succeeded in 1702, by the Rev. Thomas Brower, also from Holland, who continued his . services till 1728, when he died. The Rev. Bernardus Freeman and Rynhard Erkson, also from Holland, served next in order. In 1740, we find the name of Cornelius Van Santvoord, as the settled clergyman, he coming from Staten Island. He died in 1754, and was succeeded by a Domine of the place named Barent Vroomer, who continued till his death in 1782. His successors down to the present time were all Ameri- cans, to wit: the Rev. Derick Romeyn, of New Jersey, the Rev. John H. Myers, also from New Jersey. The Rev. Cornelius Bogardus and the Rev. Jacob Van Vechten, the present pastor.
The first church was built between the years 1684 and 1698. It was located at the south end of Church street near the head of Water street. In 1733 a more com- modious one was erected in the center of the street, where Union and Church streets intersect. This venerable pile was, by innovation, razed in 1814, like a similar church in the street in Albany. Before going down, it fell into secular use, such as a watch house, a school house, and market. The bell of this church was remark- able for its silver tones, said to have been because of a good proportion of that metal in its composition. It is at all events a fact that it gave out a more distant sound,
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than one of twice its size, since used in another and more modern church of another religious denomination.
It is to be told to the honor and good feeling of Mr. Jan Rinkhout, that he made this church a donation of that tract of land now called the "poor pasture," so called because the avails were formerly applied to the use of the poor of the congregation. He reserved. to himself a small spot on which he had his hut, partly under ground, the remains of which are still to be seen. The good man himself is now under ground, and his soul we trust is in heaven.
The first English church, called St. George, was erected under the auspices of Mr. John W. Brown, who came from England sometime preceding the year 1762, when the Episcopal church was founded. Its principal benefactors were Sir Wm. Johnson and John Duncan, Esq. Previous to the Revolution, this church owned a valuable library. This together with the organ and a greater part of the interior work was destroyed by some Indians and a gang of lawless whites. Strange as it may seem these whites were Whigs! of such as were all passion and little sense! It was called and considered " the English church," and as such their rage was against every thing English. They of course thought it was under British influence. They even meditated the de- struction of the pastor's, Mr. Doty's property ; but they knew not his place of abode, and as none would inform them, he escaped their ire. Their first pastor was the Rev. Wm. Andrews, he was succeeded in 1773, by the Rev. Mr. Doty, who left his charge in 1777, probably as a Tory. There was no settled minister again until 1791, when the Rev. Ammi Rogers took the charge, and has since been succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Whitmore, the Rev. Cyrus Stebbins, and the Rev. P. A. Proal.
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DE VRIES IN ALBANY.
[In 1639, David Pieterzoon De Vries, who had pur- chased Staten Island and planted a colony there, visited Albany, and has left the following account of what he saw at that early day. It is copied from the translation published in the Collections of the New York Historical Society, vol. iii, 2d series.]
The 15 of April, I went with my sloop to Fort Orange, where I wanted to examine the land which is on the river. Arrived at Tapaen in the evening, where a large valley of about two or three hundred morgens of clay-soil lies under the moutain, three or four feet above the water. A creek which, comes from the highland, runs through it, on which fine water-mills could be erected. I bought this valley from the Indians, as it was only three miles above my plantation, and five miles from the fort. There was also much maize-land, but too stony to be ploughed.
The 25th opposite Tapaen, lies a place called Wick- quaes-geck, where there is much maize·land, but stony or sandy, and where many fir-trees grow. We generally. haul fine masts from there. The land is also mountain- ous.
The 16th went further up the river. Passed the Aver- stro, where a kill runs out, formed from a large fall, the noise of which can be heard in the river. The land is also very high. At noon passed the highlands, which are prodigiously high stony mountains, and it is about a mile going through them. Here the river, at its narrowest, is about five or six hundred paces wide, as well as I could guess. At night came by the Dance-chamber, where there was a party of Indians, who where very riotous, seeking only mischief, so that we were on our guard.
The 27th we came to Esoopes, where a creek runs in, and there the Indians had some maize land, but it
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was stony. Arrived at evening, as it blew hard, before the Cats-kill. Found the river up to this point, stony and mountainous, unfit for habitations. But there was some lowland here, and the Indians sowed maize along the Cats-kill.
The 28th, arrived at Beeren (Bears') Island, where were many Indians fishing. Here the land begins to be low along the margin of the river, and at the foot of the mountains it was good for cultivation. At evening we reached Brand-pylen's Island, which lies a little below Fort Orange, and belongs to the patroons, Godyn, Rons- elaer, Jan de Laet, and Bloemart, who had also there more farms, which they had made in good condition at the Company's cost, as the Company had sent the cattle from Fatherland at great expense; and these individuals, being the commissioners of New Netherland, had made a good distribution among themselves, and while the Com- pany had nothing but an empty fort, they had the farms and trade around it, and every boor was a merchant.
The 30th of April. The land here is, in general, like it is in France. It is good, and very productive of every thing necessary for the life of man, except clothes, linens, woolens, shoes, and stockings; but these they could have if the country were well populated; and there could be made good leather of the hides of animals, which mul- tiply in great quantities. Good tan could be made of the bark of oak trees. The land all along this river is very mountainous; some cliffs of stone are exceedingly high, upon which grow fine fir trees, which may be discerned with the eye. There are, besides, in this country, oaks, alders, beeches, elms, and willows, both in the woods and along the water. The islands are covered with chestnut, plum, and hazel-nut trees, and large walnuts of different kinds, of as good flavour as they are in Fatherland, but hard of shell. The ground on the moun- tains is bedecked with shrubs of bilberries or blue-berries, such as in Holland come from Veeluwes. The level land, or old maize-land, is covered with strawberries, which grow here so plentifully that they answer for food.
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There are also in the woods, as well as along the river, vines very abundant of two kinds, one bearing good blue grapes, which are pleasant when the vines are pruned, and of which good wine could be made. The other kind is like the grapes which grow in France on trellisses,- the large white ones which they make verjuice of in France ;- they are as large as the joints of the fingers, but require great labor, for these vines grow in this coun- try on the trees, and the grapes are like the wild grapes which grow along the roads in France, on-vines which are not pruned, and which are thick with wood, with little sap in it, for want of being attended to. There was this year, as they told me, a large quantity of deer at har- vest and through the winter, very fat, having upon their ribs upwards of two fingers of tallow, so that they were nothing else than clear fat. They also had this year, great numbers of turkeys. They could buy a deer for a loaf of bread, or for a knife, or even for a tobacco-pipe; at other times they give cloth worth six or seven guilders. There are many partridges, heath-hens, and pigeons which fly together in thousands, and our people sometimes shoot thirty, forty, and fifty of them at a shot. Plenty of fowl, such as belong to the river, and all along the river are great numbers of them of different kinds; such as swans, geese, pigeons, teal, and wild geese, which go up the river in the spring by thousands, from the sea-coast, and fly back again in the fall.
Whilst I was at Fort Orange, the 30th of April, there was such a high flood at the island on which Brand-pylen lived,-who was my host at this time,-that we were com- pelled to leave the island, and go with boats into the house, where there were four feet of water. This flood con- tinued three days, before we could use the dwelling again. The water ran into the fort and we were compelled to repair to the woods, where we erected tents and kindled large fires. These woods are full of animals, bears, wolves, foxes, and especially of snakes, black snakes and rattlesnakes, which are very poisonous, and which have a rattle at the end of the tail, with many rattles, accord-
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De Vries in Albany.
ing to their age. As to what the land produces, the soil, which on the mountains is a red sand or cliffs of stone, but in the low plains, often clay-ground, is very fertile, as Brand-pylen told me that he had produced wheat on this island for twelve years successively without its lying fallow. He also told me that here the Indians put their enemies to death, as horribly as this plate shows, and had for some time past done justice to their enemies in this place. They place their foe against a tree or stake, and first tear all the nails from his fingers, and run them on a string, which they wear the same as we do gold chains. It is considered to the honour of any chief who has van- quished or overcome his enemies, if he bite off or cut off some of their members, as whole fingers. Afterwards, the prisoner is compelled to sing and dance, entirely naked, before them; and finally when they burn the cap- tive, they kill him with a slow fire, and then eat him up; the commoners eating the arms and buttocks, and the chiefs eating the head. When these Indians fasten their enemy to the stake, he is compelled to sing, and accordingly begins to sing of his friends, who will avenge his death. They inflict a cruel death upon him, pricking his body with hot burning wood in different parts, till he is torment- ed to death. They then tear his heart out of his body, which every one eats a piece of, in order to embitter themselves against their enemies. Along this land runs an excellent river, which comes out of the Maquas county, about four miles to the north of Fort Orange. I went there with some Indians, and passed by a farm upon which a boor lived, whom they called brother Cornelis. This river runs between two high rocky banks, and falls over a rock as high as a church, with such a noise that it is frequently heard at the farm, and when I was there it made such a loud noise that we could hardly hear each other speak. The water flowed by with such force, that it was all the time as if it were raining, and the trees upon the hills as high as the dunes at home, have their boughs constantly wet as if with rain. The water is as clear as crystal, and fresh as milk, and appears all the
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time as if a rainbow stood in it, but that arises from its clearness. There are a great many Indians here, whom they call Maquas, who catch many lampreys, otherwise called pricks. The river is about six hundred to seven hundred paces wide at this place, and contains large quantities of fine fish, such as pike, perch, eels, suckers, thickheads, sunfish, shad, striped bass, which is a fish which comes from the sea in the spring, and swims up the river into the fresh water as the salmon does. There are sturgeon, but our people will not eat them ; also trout, slightly yellow inside, which I myself have caught, and which are considered in France the finest of fish. There are several islands in this river, of thirty, fifty, and seventy morgens of land in size. The soil is very good. The temperature is in extremes, in the summer excessively hot, and in winter exceedingly cold, so that in one night . the ice will freeze hard enough to bear one. The summer continues to All Saints' day, and in December it will freeze so hard that if there be a strong current, which loosens it, it will freeze in a night what has run over it in the day. The ice continues generally for three months, and although the latitude is forty-three, it is nevertheless always frozen for that period; for though sometimes it thaws, in pleasant days, it does not continue to do so, but it freezes again until March, when the river first begins to open, sometimes in February, though seldom. The severest cold comes from the north-west, as in Holland from the north-east. The reason of this cold is that the mountains to the north of it are covered with snow, and the north-west wind comes blowing over them, and drives all the cold down. This tribe of Indians was formerly a powerful nation, but they are brought into subjection, and made tributaries by the Maquas. They are stout men, well favoured of countenance, body and limb, but all of them have black hair and yellow skin. They go naked in the summer, except they cover their privy parts with a patch; but the children, and youth of ten, twelve, or fourteen years of age, run entirely mother naked. In winter they throw over them an unprepared deer-skin or
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bear's hide, or a covering of turkey's feathers which they know how to make; or they buy duffels of us, two ells and a half long, and unsewed, go off with it, surveying themselves, and think that they appear fine. They make themselves shoes and stockings of deer-skins, or they take the leaves of maize and braid them together, and use them for shoes. Men and women go with their heads bare. The women let their hair grow very long, tie it together a little, and let it hang down the back; some of the men have it on one side of the head, others have a lock hang- ing on each side; on the top of the head, they have a strip of hair from the forehead to the neck, about three fin- gers broad, and cut two or three fingers long and then stand straight up like a cock's-comb; on both sides of this cock's-comb they cut it off close, except the locks, as may be seen in the plate. They paint their faces, red, blue, and brown, and look like the devil himself. They smear their foreheads with bear's grease, which they carry along with them in little baskets. It would be much better for them to wash themselves, if they only thought so, and they would not be troubled with lice. Whenever they go journeying, they take with them some maize and a kettle, with a wooden bowl and spoon which they pack up together and hang on their backs. When they become hungry, they immediately make a fire and cook it; they make the fire by rubbing sticks together, and that very rapidly.
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