USA > New York > Dutchess County > The history of Dutchess County, New York > Part 2
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21
EXPLORATION OF HUDSON'S RIVER.
not find a good place. They tooke four or five and twenty Mullets, Breames, Bases and Barbils, and returned in an hour. Wee rode still all night.
"The eight-and-twentieth being faire weather, as soon as the day was light, wee weighed at halfe ebbe and turned down two leagues bylowe water. At three of the clocke in the afternoone wee weighed, and turned down three leagues until it was dark; then wee anchored.
""The nine-and-twentieth was dry, close weather, the wind at south and south by west; wee weighed early in the morning and turned down three leagues by lowe water and anchored at the lower end of the long reach,1 for it is six leagues long. Then there came certain Indians in a canoe to us but would not come aboord. Af- ter dinner there came the canoe with other men, whereof three came aboord us. They brought Indian wheat which wee bought for trifles. At three of the clocke in the afternoon wee weighed as soon as the ebbe came, and turned downe to the edge of the mountains and anchored, because the high land hath many points, and a narrow channel, and hath many eddie winds. So wee rode quietly all night in seven fathoms water.
"The thirtieth was faire weather and the wind at southeast a stiffe gale between the mountains. Wee rode still the afternoone. The people of the countrie came aboord us and brought some small skinnes with them which wee bought for knives and trifles. This is a very pleasant place to build a towne on. The road is very near and very goode for all winds, save an east-north-east wind. The mountaynes look as if some metal or mineral were in them. For the trees that grow on them were all blasted, and some of them barren with a few or no trees on them. The people brought a stone aboord like to emery (a stone used by glasiers to cut glass), it would cut iron or steel. Yet being bruised small and water put to it, it made a colour like blackeleade glistening. It is also good for painters colours. At three of the clocke they departed and wee rode still all night.
"The first of October faire weather, the wind variable between the west and north. In the morning wee weighed at seven of the clocke with the ebbe and got downe below the mountaynes which was seven leagues. Then it fell calme and the flood was come, and wee anchored at twelve of the clocke. The people of the mountaynes came aboord us, wondering at our ships and weapons. Wee bought some small skinnes of them for trifles. This afternoone one canoe kept hanging under our sterne with one man in it, which wee could not keep from thence, who got up by our rudder to the cabin window and stole out my pillow and two shirts and two bandeleeres. Our master's mate shot at him and strooke him on the brest and killed him. Whereupon all the rest fled away, some in their canoes and some leapt out of them into the water.
"Wee manned our boat and got our things againe. Then one of them that swamme got hold of our boat, thinking to overthrow it. But our cooke took a
1. The stretches of current between the different points and bends of the shore of the Hudson, were named "reaches" or In the Dutch Vernacular "racks." The Long Reach- also termed Fisher's (Vischer's) Reach- extended from the northern gate of the High- lands to Crom Elhow, a distance of about twenty mlles. This, undoubtedly, is the earliest reference to the reaches of this river that occurs in any European language. [EOITOR.]
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THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
sword and cut one of his hands, and he was drowned. By this time the ebbe was come, and wee weighed and got downe two leagues, by that time it was dark, so we.anchored in four fathoms water and rode well. .
"The seconde, faire weather, at break of day wee weighed the wind being at northwest and got down seven leagues; then the flood was come strong so wee anchored. Then came one of the savages that swamme away from us at our going up: the river, with many other, thinking to betray us, but wee perceived their in- tent and suffered none of them to enter our ship. Whereupon, two canoes full of men with their bowes and arrow's shot at us after our sterne; in recompence where- of wee discharged, six muskets, and killed two or three of them, then about. an hundred of them came to a point of land to shoot at us. There I shot a falcon at them and killed two of them, whereupon the rest fled into the woods. Yet they manned off another. canoe with nine or ten men which came to meet us. So I shot at it also a falcon, and shot it through and killed one of them. Then our men with their muskets killed, three or four more of them so they went their way within a while after wee got. downe two leagues beyond that place, and anchored in a bay, oleere from all danger of them, on the other side of the river where wee saw a very good, piece of ground, and hard by it there was a cliffe, that looked of the colour of a white green as though it were either copper or silver mayne, and I think it to be one of them by the trees that grow upon it for they be all burned, and the other places are greene as grasse, it is on that side of the river that is called Manna-hatta. There wee saw no people to trouble us, and rode quietly all night; but had much wind and rains.
"The third was very stormie; the wind at east-north-east. In the morning in a gust of wind and raine, our anchor came home, and wee drove on ground, but it was ozie. . Then as we were about to have out an anchor, the wind came to the north- northwest and drove us off againe. Then wee shot an anchor and let it fall in foure fathoms water and weighed the other. Wee had much wind and raine, with thick weather, so wee rode still all night.
"The fourth. was faire weather, and the wind at north-northwest, wee weighed and came out of the river into which wee had runne so farre. Within a while after, wee came out also of the great mouth of the great river that runneth up to the northwest; borrowing upon the norther side of the same, thinking to have deepe water; for wee had sounded a great way with our boat at our first going in, and found seven, six, and. five fathoms. So wee came out that way but wee were de- ceived, for wee had but eight foot and a half water, and so to three fathoms and a halfe. And then three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten fathoms. And by, twelve of the clocke wee were cleere of all the inlet. Then wee tooke in our boat and set our main sayle and sprit sayle and our top sayles, and steered away east southeast and southeast by east, off into the mayne sea; and the land on the souther side of the bay did beare at noone west and south foure leagues from us.
"The fifth wa's faire weather and the wind variable between the north and the east. Wee held on our course southeast by east. At noone I observed and found our height to be thirty-nine degrees thirty minutes. Our compasse varied six de- grees to the west.
VIEW LOOKING SOUTH FROM "THE CEDARS,"
23
EXPLORATION OF HUDSON'S RIVER.
"Wee continued our course toward England, without seeing any land by the way, all the rest of this month of October. And on the seventh day of November, stilo nouv, being Saturday by the grace of God, wee safely arrived in the range of Dart- mouth, in Devonshire, in the yeere 1609."
In 1610 a second vessel was sent over by the shrewd merchants of Amsterdam, and a successful trade was opened with the natives along the river.1 Other vessels followed in the three succeeding years, all of which returned with rich cargoes of furs. In 1614 the States General of Holland granted a charter to the merchants engaged in these ex- peditions under the title of United New Netherlands Company, giving exclusive privileges of trade for four years. Foremost in these busi- ness ventures were Captains Hendrick Christiansen, John DeWitt, Adrian Block and Cornelius Jacobsen Mey. Block and Mey directed their explorations along the coasts of Long Island and New Jersey, while Captain DeWitt sailed up the North River and gave his name to one of the Islands near Red Hook. Hendrick Christiansen ascended the stream to Castle Island where he established a trading post. At the expiration of their charter so profitable had the fur trade become, that the States General refused to renew it, giving instead a temporary license for its continuance.
The energies of the Dutch were directed more to commerce than colonization, and up to 1628 no systematic attempt at colonizing was made. Settlements commenced at New Amsterdam, Paulus Hook and adjacent neighborhoods resulted in conflicts and massacres. These hostilities, however, have no direct reference to this County, which had not a single white settler during the whole period of Dutch occupancy.
1. This river was called by the Iroquois the Cohatatea, while the Mohicans and the Lenapes called it the Mahicanituk. The Dutch gave it the name of Mauritius river, as early as 1611, in honor of Prince Maurice of Nassau. The English, in recognition of the work of the explorer, conferred the title of Hudson's River.
24
THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
CHAPTER II.
THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE.
W HEN European explorers penetrated into the valley of the Hudson, they found it peopled by sub-tribes of the great Algonquin nation. The Mohicans occupied the country along the east bank of the Hudson, from a site opposite Albany down to the Tappan Sea, and eastward a distance of ten or fifteen miles along the streams wich formed the pathways of aboriginal commerce. They were, says Rev. John Heckewelder, who spent forty years among the Indians as a Moravian missionary, a branch of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware family, who occupied the west side of the Hudson from its mouth up as far as the Catskill, and westward to the headwaters of the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers.
The territory of the Wappingers,1 a tribal division of the Mo- hicans, covered the major portion of Dutchess County. Their govern- ment scarcely differed from that of the Mohicans and other branches of the Delawares. Each tribe had its sachem and counsellors, who made their own laws, treaties, etc. These, says Loskiel, "were either experienced warriors or aged and respectable fathers of families." Likewise each had its specific device or totem denoting original con- sanguinity. Although the prevailing totem of all the Hudson River cantons was the Wolf, borne alike by Minsis, Wappingers and Mo- hicans,2 the particular symbol of the Wappingers was the opossum, tatooed on the person of the Indian, and often rudely painted on the gable-end of his cabin.
The Wappingers were a peaceful tribe, and manifested a friendly feeling toward the white settlers at Rondout in Ulster County, whom they visited frequently, their canoes ladened with fish and venison,
1. A corruption of wabun, east and acki, land, which as applied by the Indians them- seives, may be rendered Eastlanders. The Dutch historians are responsible for Wapping- ers, perhaps from their rendering of the sound of the original word, and perhaps as expressing the fact that they were, in the Dutch language. wapen, or half-armed Indians. Indian Tribes of Hudson's River, 370-371.
.2. Indian Tribes of Hudson's River, 50.
25
THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE.
which they traded for powder, lead and brandy. They took no gen- eral part in the Esopus wars, except to act as mediators, and to as- sist in effecting a satisfactory exchange of prisoners between the Dutch and the Esopus Indians.
Of the chief sachems of this tribe four names appear in official documents. One is that of Goethals, who was present at a treaty of peace concluded with certain tribes of River Indians, March 6, 1660, by Peter Stuyvesant. At the last treaty con- cluded by Stuyvesant with the Indians, May 16, 1664, Tseessaghgaw, a chief of the Wappingers participated in behalf of that tribe. The name of Megriesken, sachem of the Wappinger Indians, appears in an Indian deed, dated August 8, 1683, for lands embraced in the Rom- bout Patent, while Daniel Ninham, who was made chief sachem of the Wappingers in 1740, distinguished himself not less by his persistent effort to recover lands included in the Philipse Patent, of which his tribe were defrauded, than by his tragic death at the battle of Court- land Ridge, Westchester County where he and some forty of his fol- lowers, including his son, were killed or wounded August 31, 1778, by the British, against whom they had espoused the cause of the Colonists.1
The location of the principal village of the Wappingers tribe is not positively known, but presumably near the falls on the creek which perpetuates their name. Van der Doncks map locates three of their villages on the south side of this stream. From Kregier's Journal of the "Second Esopus War" (1663), it is learned that they had a castle in the vicinity of Low Point, and that they maintained a crossing place to Dans Kamer Point. Tradition locates other villages in various parts of the country.
Their burying ground is a familiar spot to many of the residents of Wappingers Falls. It was just south of the Episcopal church, known as the "gravel bank," the property of the Garner Company. In this bank was recently found a ball of clay containing nine flint spear heads, four of which are in possession of the Roy brothers of that village.
Of the possessions of the Wappingers on the Hudson there is but one "perfect title on record," says Ruttenber, that being for the land in- cluded in the Rombout Patent, dated 1683. This deed, however, covers
1. Simcoe's Military Journal.
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THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
a tract of land secured from the Indians by Arnout Viele in 1680, men- tion of which appears in a subsequent chapter. The Indians parted with their lands for a small, yet an apparently satisfactory, consider- ation, but did not immediately vacate the premises. They continued to hunt and fish, and the squaws to till their fields of corn and beans for at least fifty years after the above deeds had been recorded. Their numbers were gradually diminished in consequence of the introduction of spirituous liquors among them. They became scattered and addict- ed to wandering, removing to different parts, mingling with other nations.
Remnants of different clans chose a hunting ground in the vicinity of the present hamlet of Shekomeko,1 and it was on this spot that the evangelization of the aborigines in Dutchess county was begun in 1740, by that zealous Moravian missionary, Christian Henry Rauch.2 Arriving August 16th of that year, he was received by the Indian chiefs Tschoop and Shabash, whom he had previously met in New York. They announced him as the man they had appointed to be their teacher, and he addressed them on the subject of his mission, and the means of redemption, to which they listened "with great attention." In subsequent exhortations he perceived that his words excited deri- sion, and finally. they "openly laughed him to scorn." He persevered in his efforts, however, and at length his zeal and devotion was re- warded by the conversion of Tschoop, "the greatest drunkard among them." Shabash was soon after awakened "and the labor of the Holy Spirit became remarkably evident in the hearts of these two savages." Such was the success of this missionary that many Indians not only in Shekomeko but other neighboring settlements became convinced of the truth of the gospel.
In January, 1742, Gottlob Buttner, another Moravian missionary, joined Rauch, 'as the spiritual harvest at Shekomeko demanded more laborers. In the summer of the same year Count Zinzendorf visited the mission, baptized a number of converts, and here formed the first con- gregation of Indians established by the Moravians in North America. Other brethren who subsequently arrived to engage in the work were
1. She com eko from she "great' and comaco "house," "the great lodge or village." Dr. Trumbull.
2. See writings of George Henry Loskiel, and Rev. Sheldon Davis. concerning Moravian Missions in New York.
27
THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE.
Martin Mack, Joseph Shaw, Christopher Pyrlaens, Gottlob Senseman and Christian Frederick Post. At the close of the year 1743, the congregation of baptized Indians consisted of sixty-three persons.
The success and peace of the Shekomeko mission was disturbed in 1744 by grave difficulties. Malevolent white settlers who had been accus- tomed to make the dissolute life of the Indians, especially their love for liquor, subservient to their advantage, branded the missionaries as papists and enemies of the English colonists. The civil authorities were urged to interfere. After several examinations before a court in "Pickipsi" the missionaries showed clearly that they had no affiliation with papacy. Thereupon a law was passed by the Assembly, Sep- tember 21st, 1744, forbidding any person "to reside amongst the In- dians under the pretense of bringing them over to the Christian faith, without the license of the Governor and consent of the council." No- vember 27th, 1744, the Governor, directed the Deputy Clerk of the council to write to the sheriffs of the counties of Albany, Dutchess and Ulster, "to give notice to the several Moravian and vagrant teachers among the Indians in their respective counties * * to .de- sist from further teaching or preaching, and to depart this Province."1
December 15th of the same year the sheriff and three justices arrived at Shekomeko, and commanded the missionaries to again appear be- fore the court at "Pickipsi," where they were edified by the reading of the act in question. The brethern decided to remove to Bethlehem, Penn.,-all but Buttner, whose health had become impaired. He died February 23rd, 1745, in the presence of the Indian converts, and was buried at Shekomeko. A monument erected by the Moravian Histori- cal Society, July 11th, 1859, marks the grave of this martyr to the cause of aboriginal salvation.
After the burial of Buttner, although the Indians were without a missionary, they continued for a time to meet as usual. They oc- casionally visited Bethlehem, and ten families comprising forty-four persons finally removed there. Others formed a settlement on the east border of Indian Pond in the town of Sharon, Conn. It seems a harsh condition that the Indian was thus driven from his country, where he had ever been hospitable and friendly to the white pioners.
1. Doc. Hist. III, 1019-1020.
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THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
CHAPTER III.
TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY.
T HE County of Dutchess, in the State of New York, lies upon the east bank of the Hudson along which it extends for a distance of about forty-five miles, thence eastward to the Connecticut line. It is bounded on the north by Columbia county, and on the south by the County of Putnam. The area included in these limits is 474,683 acres.
The surface of the county is generally hilly, presenting in the southern and eastern portions a battlement of mountainous elevations. The Fishkill mountains upon the south border, form the northern ex- tremity of the Highlands, and extend across the southern part of the county. The highest summits, Old Beacon, and North Beacon or Grand Sachem, are respectively 1471 and 1685 feet above tide, and are intimately identified with the military history of the country. They derive their names from beacons placed upon their summits dur- ing the revolution, to flash intelligence to the patriots, and warn them of the approach of the British. A break in the southeast part of these mountains, opening toward the south, is known as Wiccopee Pass, a name applied to a settlement of the Highland Indians. This pass was guarded in revolutionary times to protect military supplies at Fishkill.
The Taconic or Taghkanic mountains, occupy the eastern border of the county. They rise from three hundred to six hundred feet above the valleys, and from one thousand to thirteen hundred feet above tide. These elevations, like the Fishkill mountains, are in many places rocky and precipitous. Other lofty peaks are Clove Mountain in the town of Union Vale, 1,403 feet high; Stissing Mountain in the town of Pine Plains, with a height of 1,380 feet; and Dennis Hill in the town of Dover, rising 1,365 feet above tide. These, with other hills, will be noticed more particularly in the town histories.
. In the western part of the county, between the streams, are rolling
29
TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY.
ridges which terminate abruptly on the river, and form a series of bluffs, from one hundred to two hundred feet in height.
The principal streams of the county, in the drainage arrangement are the Fishkill, Wappinger, Casper, Fall Kill, Crom Elbow, Lands- man and Saw Kill, tributaries of the Hudson, all flowing in a south- westerly direction. Ten Mile river, near the eastern border of the county, receives Swamp river from the south, and discharges its waters into the Housatonic. Croton river has its source in the southeast part of the county, and Roeliff Jansen's Kill flows for a short distance with- in the northern border. There are a great variety of smaller streams, tributaries of those above mentioned, which rise in springs upon the mountain slopes.
Fishkill Creek. The headwaters of this stream, for the most part, drain the western slope of Chestnut Ridge mountains. From a cen- tral point in the town of Beekman, it flows in a southwesterly direction through the towns of East Fishkill and Fishkill, emptying into the Hudson, near the south border of the latter town. It is rapid in the upper and lower parts of its course, but sluggish through the Fish- kill plains. Between Fishkill Village and the Landing, a distance of five miles, it makes a descent of nearly two hundred feet, over slate and limestone ledges, thus affording valuable hydraulic power. In its course it receives many small streams, the principal of which is Sprout Creek, which forms the boundary between East Fishkill and Wap- pinger.
Wappinger Creek, a highly picturesque stream, and the largest in Dutchess, rises in Stissing Pond, in the town of Pine Plains, at an elevation of eight hundred feet above tide, and traverses the county for a distance of about thirty-five miles, in a southerly direction. It passes diagonally through the towns of Stanford and Pleasant Valley, thence it forms the boundary between the towns of Poughkeepsie, La- Grange and Wappinger, flowing into the Hudson at New Ham- burgh. It receives several branches that water the rich agricultural region through which it passes.
Casper Creek. This stream has its source in the southeastern cor- ner of the town of Hyde Park. It flows southerly, through the cen- tral portion of the town of Poughkeepsie, reaching the Hudson some two miles north of the village of New Hamburgh. In early documents
30
THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
it bears a variety of Indian names, and is identified by the statement : "Knowne by the Christians for Jan Casperses Creek."
The Fall Kill Creek rises in the southwest corner of the town of Clinton. In its upper course, for a distance of six miles, it flows rap- idly over a gravel bed, between high and rocky hills, thence passing through swampy and low meadow lands in the town of Hyde Park, it winds its way to the Hudson, through an improved channel within the limits of the city of Poughkeepsie.
Crom Elbow Creek is a crooked stream, some nine miles in length, rising among the hills at the intersection of the towns of Milan, Clinton and Rhinebeck. It flows in a southwesterly direction, forming the bound- ary between Rhinebeck and Clinton. At East Park, it turns in an abrupt elbow to the west, uniting with the Hudson, near the village of Hyde Park.
Landsman Kill which at one time propelled several valuable mills, rises in the northwest part of the town of Rhinebeck. At Fritz mill pond it is joined by the Rhinebeck creek. Just below this junction, the stream descends over a rocky precipice some sixty feet, forming a beautiful cascade, known as Beechwood Falls. It empties into the Hudson at Vanderberg Cove.
The Saw Kill flows through the centre of the town of Red Hook, from Spring Lake or Long Pond, whence it has its source in the northeast corner of the town, reaching the Hudson at South Bay.
Ten Mile River rises by several branches in the east part of the county, and flows south through the towns of Amenia and Dover, to the village of South Dover, where it turns eastward, emptying into the Housatonic between Schaghticoke mountain and Ten Mile hill. Its principal tributaries are Swamp River, Wassaic and Webatuck Creeks. In the central and eastern portions of the county are numerous little lakes, of which Whaley Pond, in the town of Pawling, and Sylvan Lake in the town of Beekman, are the largest.
A mere outline of the rock groundwork underlying the county, so far as it necessarily bears upon the economic interests and historical associations, is all that properly seems to come within the scope of this work.1
In the Highland region, and in a narrow belt along the east bor-
1. Authorities consuited ; Professor William W. Mather and Heinrich Ries.
31
TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY.
der of the county, the metamorphic rocks of the Primary system obtain. Extending thence westerly to Hudson's River and beyond it, are classed the rocks of the Champlain division of the New York system, consist- ing of a series of slates, shales, grits, limestones and siliceous and calcareous breccias and conglomerates. The rocks of the Hudson River group composed mostly of dark brown, blue and black slates and shales, and bluish-grey thick-bedded grits, are remarkably well developed in the county. Together with those of the Champlain di- vision they range through the towns of Red Hook, Milan, Rhinebeck, Clinton, Hyde Park, Pleasant Valley, Poughkeepsie, LaGrange and Wappinger.
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