USA > New York > Ulster County > The history of Ulster County, New York > Part 2
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The Rondout has its rise in the Town of Denning, but soon gets
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THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.
beyond the Ulster line into Sullivan County. After making a wide cir- cuit in that county, it re-enters Ulster across its southern boundary just at the western base of the Shawangunk Mountains and flows northeast- erly along their base discharging into the Hudson at Rondout. The pres- ent name of the stream is from Dutch Rondhout, "standing timber," the reference being to the palisaded "Fort" which Stuyvesant erected at Ponckhockie, which the English called a Redout.
The Wallkill, or more properly the "Waalkil," has its rise in New Jersey, flows thence north through eastern Orange County on a course almost due north along the foot of the eastern slope of the Shawangunk Mountains, and westward of the ridge of bluffs which border the Hud- son, empties into Rondout Creek a few miles above its mouth.
There are a great variety of smaller streams tributaries to those above mentioned. Of these the more historic are the ancient Peakadasink, so called in 1684, now the Shawangunk, which skirts the mountain base through Orange County, and becomes a tributary of the Wallkill in Shawangunk. The Zandberg, the Fantine * Kill, the Wawarsing, the Plattekill, Sawyer's Kill, Green Kill, Mother (Modder, "Mud") Kill, the Little Esopus, Old Man's Kill, Rochester Creek (the ancient Mombac- cus), etc. The principal falls on the Rondout are Honk Falls, near Ellen- ville, and High Falls in Marbletown. The former descend two hundred feet of which sixty is in a single cataract; the latter has a fall of about fifty feet ; and are supposed to have been "the Second Fall," so named in the treaty deed of 1677; to which reference will be made in a subsequent chapter. There are five principal ponds which the Dutch called Binnen-water (inland water). A small lake in the town of Rochester retains the name of Mombaccus. In the town of Woodstock a small body of water now bears the unattractive name of Shues Lake, illustrating what an English speaking people can do with a Dutch name when they get fairly hold of it. The original Dutch was Schoon Meer, a very pleasant name. It means "a fine, handsome, clear, pure lake." The vulgar "Shue" should be obliterated from maps. The overflow of the lake goes to the Esopus. On Old Man's Kill, where it unites with the Hudson in Marlborough, is a picturesque waterfall and
* The name is from Fontaine (French) meaning "a spring of water." There seems to have been two springs and two streams bearing the name, one on the hills near Mamakating, the Fan- tine Kill of local history, and the other near the Catskills which formed the head of Sawyer's or Sawkill. The former is referred to.
25
LOCATION AND TOPOGRAPHY.
ravine. Coxing Kill, in Rosendale, has one of the most remarkable Indian names of the series - Koghksuhk-sing, "Near a high place." On map of U. S. Geological Survey the stream is marked as the outlet of Minniewaska Lake, which lies in a basin of hills 1650 feet above the level of the Hudson. Other local streams will probably be noted in town histories. Generally speaking the water of the principal streams is pure, and limpid, and to its excellence is attributed in a great measure the remarkable longevity and the uniform health of the people of this region.
The land was originally covered with forests, except strips of low- land along the streams where the Indians planted their maize and other crops. These were kept clear of new growths by fires which were set by the natives after harvesting the crops in the fall.
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The trees with which the land was covered were remarkable for their great variety. A writer of that period names among others Oak, Hickory (Nutwood), White and Yellow Pine, Chestnut, several kinds of Beech (among them Water-beech, which grows very largely along the streams, larger than most of the trees of the country - evidently meaning the Buttonwood), Maple, Whitewood-which grew very large, two kinds of Ash, Birch, Linden, and some others. Of the fruit bearing trees there are given as growing wild the Mulberry, Wild Cherry, several kinds of Plum, Juniper and Apple (bearing small fruit, but of several varieties). Of the fruits there are mentioned, in addition to those named, Hazel Nuts, Black Currants, Gooseberries, Blue Indian Figs, and Strawberries (which ripen continuously from "half May until July") Raspberries, Black Caps, etc., with Artichokes, Ground Acorns, Ground Beans, Wild Onions, Leeks, and several others.
Among the most prolific and plentiful of the vegetable growths found in the county by the early settlers, were the endless varieties of grape vines. They are said to have grown everywhere. The woods were full of them, their great stems denoting great age "being often as thick as a man's leg," and their long vines climbing through and over trees in their search for sunlight. The fact that the fruit, while beautiful to look upon, was "sour, harsh, fleshy, and strong," was attributed solely to the fact that neither the growing grapes nor the roots of the vines were ever visited by the sun's rays, the former being shaded by the foliage of the trees, and the latter by the density of the forest growth.
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THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.
In some parts of New Netherland, in the early days of settlement, cut- tings were brought from Holland of some of the finest varieties of grapes, and at the proper season grafted into some of the old stems and properly trained and cultivated with more than satisfactory results. There do not seem to be any verified instances of this, however, in Ulster County, though it is very probable that it was done, as the early population was composed of persons above the average in intelligence and education.
Among the native flowers were the sunflower, red and yellow lillies; mountain lillies, morning stars, red, white and yellow maritoffles and several species of bell-flowers. The very earliest Dutch settlers brought an almost infinite variety of flowers, which grew and still grow luxuri- ously in almost every portion of the county, but the above named are the native ones, found growing spontaneously.
Of the garden vegetables, it is difficult to determine in many instances which are native and which of European origin. Among those which seem to be purely native are the different varieties of squashes (the cucurbita) which are described as being delicious in flavor, easy to digest, and nutritious. Tomatoes, also, are said to be indigenous to the soil, as are some varieties of beans.
Melons of several varieties were found here by the Dutch settlers, also cucumbers; but Indian legend traced them to Spanish or Portuguese origin, seeds having been brought from the south by migratory savages. The soil accommodated itself so readily to every sort of garden vegetable that in the very earliest years of the settlement every variety known to Holland was grown here.
The maize or Indian corn, or Turkey wheat, which the first traders found here growing in abundance, and forming one of the principal food staples, has long been supposed to be native. It was cultivated on the benches and along the creeks of what is now Ulster County, and grew "to great heighth, and with enormous bearing." Investigation seems to show, however, that instead of being primogenial here, it was trans- planted from a foreign shore. The oldest Indians stated that neither their fathers nor grandfathers could remember when it was not grown, but that there were old legends which indicated that it came from the south - handed from tribe to tribe as the years succeeded each other - and was changed from what may have been an original Spanish corn by the variation of soil and climatic conditions.
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LOCATION AND TOPOGRAPHY.
Wheat, barley, oats and buckwheat grew profusely when planted by the early settlers, but care had to be used in selecting the proper location for various crops, as otherwise the strength of the soil would produce such enormous growths of stalk as to practically destroy the value of the crop. Some of the grains, however, like rye and barley, would pro- duce enormously, "with stalks six or seven feet tall."
Of the wild animals at the date of the first settlement of the county, (the Esopus Valley) they do not vary from the general rule in this climate in America. That there were lions here was proven by the fact that the Indians had lion's (probably panther's) skins, and brought them for sale. Bears were plentiful, but always the black species, which were not dangerous unless attacked; there were also buffalo, and even at the early date of 1652 efforts were made to cross them with domestic cows, brought from Holland bred animals. The plan does not seem to have been successful. There were deer in abundance, moose, wolves, wild cats, foxes, raccoons, mink, hares and rabbits. The latter were easily tamed. There were beavers, otters, muskrats, lynxes, squirrels, etc., and the streams were filled with fishes of many different varieties.
The feathered tribe, the birds of native origin were numerous, and some of them gorgeous in the coloring of their plumage. The birds of prey, like the eagle, the hawk, the crow and others seem to have decreased with the advance of civilization, but are still found. Swans were abundant in all the coves of the Hudson. One early writer states that they were white with them. From their presence about Kingston, in 1673, the name of that settlement was changed to Swanandale.
Ulster County is bounded, according to the revised statutes of the State of New York, as follows:
"Beginning in the middle of Hudson's River, opposite to the north end of Wanton Island, and running thence in a direct line to the said north end; then north forty-eight degrees west four hundred and forty- five chains, to the west bounds of the patent granted to Johannes Hollen- beck; then along the same south eight degrees west seventy-one chains to or near the end of a stone wall in the forks of the road between the houses now or heretofore of Hezekiah Wynkoop, and Daniel Drum- mond; then north eighty-nine degrees west, eighty-seven chains to stones
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THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.
near a chestnut tree cornered and marked, being the corner of lots num- bered one and two in the subdivision of great lot number twenty-six of the Hardenburgh patent; then along the division line between the said lots north fifty-nine degrees and thirty minutes west, seventy-eight chains to a rock-oak tree, being the corner of the land now or heretofore of Gilbert E. Palen and Jonathan Palen; thence south twenty-four degrees west four hundred and eleven chains to the line run by Jacob Trumpbour in the year one thousand eight hundred and eleven, for the division line between the counties of Ulster and Greene; thence along the said line until it intersects the northeasterly bounds of Great lot number eight in said patent; then along said bounds to the easterly bounds of the county of Delaware; then along the same southwesterly to the bounds of the county of Sullivan ; then southeasterly along the same to the county of Orange; then easterly along the northerly bounds of the county of Orange to the middle of Hudson's River, and then up along same to the point of beginning." The area included in these limits is 1,204 square miles, or 760,560 acres.
W T Bother NY
as staples
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THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE.
CHAPTER II.
THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE.
T HE aboriginal people of Ulster differed in no essential respect from their contemporaries in other parts of the once great wilderness. Untouched by demoralization from contact with rude European civilizations, they were a fine people. In speaking of them reference must, in justice, be had to their character and personal appearance at the time of the discovery of the continent. Verazzano, who sailed along the coast of North America in 1524, wrote of those whom he met in the bay of New York as being of middle stature, broad across the breast, strong in the arms, and well formed; that in clothing they were "dressed out with the feathers of birds of various colors." Among those who came on board his vessel in Narragansett Bay he noted particularly "two Kings more beautiful in form and stature than can possibly be described. One was about forty years old, the other about twenty-four." "They were dressed," he added, "in the following manner : The oldest had a deer's skin around his body, artificially wrought in damask figures, his head was without covering, his hair was tied back in various knots; around his neck he wore a large chain ornamented with many stones of different colors." The young man was "similar in his general appearance." The persons described were types of the race. The former was possibly the historic Sachem Caunounicus, and the latter his nephew Miantunnomu, the men who welcomed Roger Williams as a friend. The visitors who accom- panied the chiefs, he writes, "in size exceeded us; their complexion tawny, inclining to white; their faces sharp, their hair long and black, their eyes black and sharp, their expression mild and pleasant, greatly resembling the antique." The women were "of the same form and beauty, very graceful, of fine countenances and pleasing appearance in manner and modesty." They wore no clothing "except a deer skin ornamented like those of the men." Some had "very rich lynx skins upon their arms, and various ornaments upon their heads, composed of braids of hair which hung upon their breasts on each side." The older and the
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THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.
married people, both men and women, "wore many ornaments in their ears, hanging down in the oriental manner." In disposition they were generous, giving away whatever they had; of their wives they were careful, always leaving them in their boats when they came on ship- board, and their general deportment was such that with them, he says, "we formed a great friendship."
Similar is the picture drawn by Hendrick Hudson, in 1609, of those whom he met on the waters of the stream now bearing his name. "This day," he wrote, "Many of the people came abroad, some in mantles of feathers, and some in skins of divers sorts of good furs. Some women also came to us with hemp. They had red copper tobacco pipes, and other things of copper they did wear about their necks."
These pictures are good to look upon in contrast with those of which many have been drawn of the Indian in later years, the civilization which he had wrought out for himself turned back in the presence of the new civilization which had been thrust upon him - his ancient lessons worth- less, his new lessons a mystery -
"His heraldry a broken bow; His very name a blank;" a man - a wreck.
Notwithstanding the efforts of theologians to connect the race through Adam with other races, the fact remains that they were a native people ; a creation of the Quartenary Age, or age of man, that indefinable period which we dismiss with a name; a race that was wholly indigenous, had borrowed nothing - absolutely nothing - from either Europe, Asia or Africa; a race as distinct in type as any other race and from its isolation probably the purest of all native races in its social traits.
When they were discovered the race had wrought out unaided a development far in advance of any of the old barbaric races of Europe. They were still in the age of stone, but entering upon the age of iron. Their implements were mainly of stone and flint and bone, yet they had learned the art of making copper pipes and ornaments. This would rank their civilization as about with that of the Germans in the days of Tacitus (about the year 200 A. D.) They had, unaided by the civilizations of Europe - for to the Europeans they were never known prior to Colum- bus - made great progress. They had learned to weave cloth from wild hemp and other grasses; had learned to extract dyes from vegetable.
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THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE.
substances; how to make earthen pots and kettles; how to make large water casks from the bark of trees, as well as the lightest and fleetest canoes; had passed from the cave to the dwelling-house; had established the family relation and democratic forms of government; their wives were the most faithful, their young women the most brilliant in paint and garments of feathers and robes of furs; they carved figures on stone and wrote the story of their lives in hieroglyphics of which some of the finest specimens in America are preserved in the Senate House in Kingston, and most remarkable of all, and that which carries their chronology back to a period that cannot be defined, they had developed spoken languages that were rich in grammatical forms, differing radically from any of the ancient and modern languages of the old hemisphere, languages which were surely indigenous and of which it .was said by the most expert philologists of Europe that they were among "the most expressive languages dead or living." A native race than whom no superior was ever discovered; a race pure from creative hands, unmixed, original, and which may well command our reverence, and lead us to more careful study. They were savages, or barbarians as you may please to call them, men who wrote their vengeance in many scenes of blood, the recital of which around the firesides of the pioneers became more terrifying by repetition; nevertheless they were representatives of a race whose civilization, though it was twelve hundred years behind our own, had no faults greater than were found in the races from which we boast our lineage.
As the aborigines came to be classed from language, at a later date, they were included in two general divisions known as the Algonquins and the Iroquois, terms conferred by the French in Canada as the languages were there met by the Jesuit missionaries especially. The Algonquins were by far the most numerous and were mainly seated on the Atlantic coast, including eastern Canada, Maine, the New England States, east- ern New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Vir- ginia, etc. The Iroquois occupied particularly central and western New York, where they had their principal seat, including the Mohawk River, the head waters of the Delaware, the Great Lakes, and the St. Lawrence, and were known as the Five Confederated Nations. The most eastern nation was the Mohawk, called by the Dutch Maquas, a branch of which on the lower Delaware was called the Minquas. Of the same linguistic
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THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.
stock were the Tuscaroras of North Carolina, who later removed to New York, and became the sixth nation of the Confederacy, and the Cherokees and some other southern people. The Algonquins, whose principal seat was on the lower Delaware at Philadelphia, called themselves Lenape, or "original people" and came to be known familiarly as the Delawares. Both the Lenape and the Iroquois were divided in totemic tribes, as the tribe of the Turtle, the tribe of the Turkey, and the tribe of the Wolf, among the Delawares, and the tribes of the Turtle, the Bear, and the Wolf among the Mohawks. These tribes were again divided in sub-tribes or families each with a principal head, father or founder of a family. A number of these families combining for mutual defense and interests, the several sachems or heads of families elected one of their number as chief sachem, and was regarded as a nation, i. e. a political division that made its own laws, treaties, etc., and engaged in wars with other nations similarly constituted, but mainly with antagonistic Iroquoian stocks. The nations were not necessarily composed entirely of one primary totemic tribe; on the contrary they were mixed more or less. In the Delaware combinations the Minsi, or Wolf tribe, and the Unalachtigo, or Turkey tribe, spread over New Jersey, eastern New York and eastern Pennsyl- vania, and extended in sub-tribes or nations north along the Hudson to the Katskills, those dwelling between the Dans Kamer and Zager's Kil, appearing of record first, in 1614-16, as the Waronawanka, "People of the cove or bay," which became local at what is now the cove or bay south of Kingston Point, "where a creek comes in, and the river becomes more shallow," as described by De Laet, but contemporaneously, from a companion term on the same map record, as Esopus, from Sepuus (generic Alonquin), "A small river," or small by comparison, from which it was extended to the people in occupation as the Esopus Indians, by which they were known and are still known historically, who repre- sented a combination of four sub-tribes or families whose names are of record as the Amangarickan, the Kettyspowy, the Mahou, the Katatawis, whose Chief Sachem was Sewakenamo, successor of Pruemaker, "the oldest and the best" of the Esopus Chiefs, who gave deed to the English government, April 27, 1677, for all the lands between the mouth of the Esopus (now Saugerties) Creek and the mouth of the Groot Esopus (now Rondout) Creek, as defined in general terms, thence west to the Blue Hills, including the sites of the forts called Kahanesing, and Shaw-
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THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE.
angunk, which they admitted in previous treaty with the Dutch (1664) to have been "conquered" by the "sword" - a belt of country running from the Hudson west to the Rochester hills. The precise district which each of the families named occupied cannot now be ascertained, if they were ever known to the Dutch or to the English authorities. It is only known that their forts or palisaded villages were amid the mountains on the west, that their fields included the Esopus Valley, and to a certain point the Wallkill Valley, that their war dances were held on the Dans Kamer, and their blazing brands waved over the most fertile fields of our now 'Ulster County. No doubt their territory was much larger, as represented by other families in the combination, but the particular territory which the families named, owned and occupied, and which they admitted to have been "conquered by the sword," was the Esopus Valley. Whatever strength the Esopus combination had outside of the families immediately interested as owners was made up of recruits from kindred families, particularly the Minnisinks on the Delaware, and from the Wappingers on the east side of the Hudson. The Katskill Indians on the north were Mohicans in alliance with the Dutch at Fort Orange and hence neutrals - the Tappans on the south were their intercessors, the grantors of the New Paltz lands were classed as Esopus Indians, the grantors of lands up to the south line of the Katskills were classed as Esopus Indians. The only break in the chain is in Dongan's purchase, in 1684, from the Murderers' Creek Indians who certainly were not on the Esopus watershed.
While it may be conceded that the aborigines on Hudson's River or some of them, may have seen European ships and Europeans sent to American waters for trade during the hundred years that preceded Hud- son's explorations, we know certainly that they visited Hudson's ship at several points where he anchored, particularly in what is now known as Newburgh Bay, in part primarily in the original limits of Ulster, on the evening of September 14th, 1609, on his upward course, and again on the 29th of September on his return, and that "the people of the moun- tains" visited his ship. Of certain date also is it that a Dutch trading vessel was at Kingston Point in 1613, and that Dutch traders left there some boats in 1621-22. While other nationalities may have had part in the early trade, it is clear that the Dutch traders conducted traffic along the river, and particularly at the mouths of creeks which were the path-
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THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.
ways of aboriginal commerce, and on which Indian families lived. Kingston Point obviously became a permanent trading post contempor- aneously with that at Manhattan and at Tawalsontha, our present New York and Albany. From that point, or perhaps more particularly from the cove on the south side of the point, which the Dutch called Punthoekje, meaning "Point of a small hook," now corrupted to Ponk- hockie, radiates the aboriginal history of Ulster County.
No trouble with the aboriginal owners of the trading posts is of record, nor is any manuscript prior to the advent of a colony of settlers who came down from the Manor of Rensselaerswyck in 1652, under the lead of Thomas Chambers, an Englishman by birth, and began permanent occupa- tion, presumably by consent or by purchase of farms. No doubt whatever can there be that the traders of the previous years had made the aborigines familiar with intoxicants, nor that they had through that medium fully inaugurated the work of their demoralization, when Chambers and Kit Davids, and their comrades pitched their tents on the Groot Esopus "about a league west of the Hudson," and one Jacob Andrieson located at the Strand now Rondout. Although the Dutch authorities had for- bidden the sale of brandy and other liquors to the aborigines, Chambers reported to Director Stuyvesant, May 28, 1658, that "great trouble" had occurred at the Strand "through the fearful intoxication of the bar- barians." They had obtained "an anker of brandy" (about five gallons), and, lying under a tree at the tennis-court, had, in their "madness," fired at and killed one "Harmen Jacopsen, who was standing on the yacht of William Maer, and during the night had set fire to the house of Jacob Andrieson, so that the people were compelled to fly." The cause of the outbreak was no doubt correctly stated by Chambers - "fearful intoxi- cation" - men crazed by the "strong water" which the settlers or the traders had supplied, or as one sachem said in an interview with Director Stuyvesant, "they sold the boison that is brandy, to his people," and were consequently responsible for the result. The trouble did not end here. Under the same influence the Red Men became quarrelsome and compelled the settlers, under threats of arson, to plough their lands for them, killed some hogs and a horse or two that seemed to have strayed on their plantations, and used "great violence every day" in the estimation of their white neighbors.
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