USA > New York > Ulster County > The history of Ulster County, New York > Part 3
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On appeal to Director Stuyvesant for assistance he went up from Man-
John B. Alliger.
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THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE.
hattan to the scene of disturbance, and, after looking over the ground, told the settlers that the time was not favorable for engaging in war on account of the murder of Jacopsen and "the burning of two small houses"; that the alternative of war had better be "deferred to a better time and chance"; that the first business of the settlers should be to gather their scattered dwellings in one place and enclose them in palis- ades. Reluctantly the settlers consented, and the Director marked out for them the site of a village on the north part of the Groot Plat, to which he gave the name of Wildwijk, now the oldest part of the City of Kingston. The Red Men were not altogether pleased, and complained that the land which had been taken had not been paid for. Stuyvesant talked with them and accused them of many breaches of good neighbor- hood, and the sachems finally came forward and gave him the land "to grease his feet with, because he had made such a long journey to come and see them." So it was that Wildwijk marked the first aggressive step for the occupation of the fertile fields of the Groot Plat by the Red Men called Atkarkarton by some translators and Atharhacton by Dr. E. H. Corwin.
1146130
On the 15th October following Stuyvesant held another conference with the sachems of Esopus at Wildwijk, with a view to ascertain what they were willing to do in regard to the land which he wanted. He restated to the sachems the complaints which had been made to him against them "or their tribe," and asserted that "the land from the Esopus" as far as he had viewed it, was demanded "for the expenses and troubles incurred" by him in visiting the settlement. The doctrine of indemnity was new to the sachems, and they withdrew for consulta- tion. On the 16th they returned and submitted to the Director the counter-proposition that they would "desist from their claims for pay- ment as to one half of the land." The conference closed without definite result beyond an exchange of prisoners, but on the 28th the sachems visited Jacob Jansen Stoll, an early settler, whose name is frequently met in the narrative, who reported to Stuyvesant that "the Esopus sachems or right owners" of the "certain piece of land, namely the large tract" which the Director coveted, they proposed to give to him (Stoll) one half "in recompense" for any wrong that they had done. "Then," wrote Stoll, "we went, three of us, to the land, and, on the 20th had them show us how much and which part they intended to keep for themselves";
.
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THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.
that "there were some plantations, but of little value"; that it was "a matter of one or two pieces of cloth, then they (the owners) would sur- render the whole piece and remove." The parties who had visited the land were Jacob Jansen Stoll, Thomas Chambers and Derick Smith, Ensign, the latter the commander of the Dutch guard. No payment in cloth was made, but arrangements were considered for forcing the owners to give up possession, and for the employ of "some allied savages" on Long Island to assist in the subjugation of "the rightful owners."
Matters drifted along with more or less friction until the 29th of September, 1659, when a party of eight (not eighteen) "Esopus Sav- ages" who "had broken off corn for Thomas Chambers," were "at dark," given some brandy by him. They went with it "to a place at no great distance from the fort," i. e., where the guard was stationed, and sat down and "drank there until about midnight." When the supply of brandy became exhausted they "began to yell, being drunk." One of the number went for more brandy, and obtained it from a soldier. Asked where he drank the brandy, they replied "close by, near the little Kil," presumed to have been the small stream known later as the Twaalfs Kil. The debauch continued. In the midst of it Ensign Smith, the command- ant of the guard, sent out a company of eight men with a view to suppress the boisterousness and "get the savages into the fort." The sergeant in command of the company sent back one of his men who reported "that a crowd of savages was there." Jacob Jansen Stoll came to the Ensign saying, "I will go, give me four or five men." "He thereupon took," says the narrative, "four or five men, namely Jacob Jansen van Stouten- burgh, Thomas Higgens, Gisbert Philips, Evert Pells, Jan Artsen and Berent Hermsen," who with himself (Stoll) constituted a force of seven men who are all classed as "inhabitants" in the record. Certain "soldiers" are named as having "all been with the sergeant and Jacob Jansen Stoll," namely, Martin Hofman, Gillis de Necker, Abel Dircksen, Dirck Hendricksen, Michael Vreegh (Ferch), and Jooris Metser. The "crazed savages" were fired upon; the fire was returned; one Indian was killed; Jacob Jansen Stoll was wounded; the Indians ran away with the excep- tion of one who was found asleep near the fire, and was awakened by "a cut into the head with a sword or hanger," when he "jumped up and ran away," and the posse "ran back to the fort," which seems to have been the guard-house in the northeast corner of the palisaded village.
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THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE.
The attack upon the "drunken savages" was cowardly and unpro- voked .* Retaliation followed quickly. The account of what followed is a little confused in the dates, one writer giving the occurrence of the attack on the Indians as on the night of September 20th, and the capture of a company of Dutch as occurring on the afternoon of the same day, and another writer giving the date as the 21st, which is probably correct. Whatever the precise fact, the substance of the narrative is that the Indians immediately set on fire Stoll's grain-stacks and barn, and com- mitted other devastations. "Jacob Jansen Stoll and Thomas Chambers went to the strand and hired a yacht to go up the river to make their report. Returning to the fort the party numbered thirteen "the sergeant, Andries Laurens, with five men, Thomas Chambers, Jacob Jansen Stoll (Jacob Hal), a carpenter Abraham by name, Pieter Dircks and his man, Evert Pells' boy, and Lewis the Frenchman," who, "at the tennis court near the Strand" supposed to be at about the site of the present City Hall, "allowed themselves to be taken prisoners. Thomas Chambers was exchanged for a savage, one soldier escaped during the night and ten are still in captivity." What became of them? Schoonmaker writes that they were compelled to "run the gauntlet and that those who survived the ordeal were burned alive." Sergeant Laurens, one of the number, sent a letter by one of the Indians, apparently written three or four days later, in which he wrote: "I am a prisoner with nine men. Jacob Jansen is dead with three others." Another writer says: "Thomas Chambers is free again; five have been cut in the head; one has been shot dead; the sergeant is still living with two others." The Jacob Jansen spoken of was Jacob Jansen Stoll, not Jacob Jansen Stouten- burgh, as has been stated by a local writer. Stoutenburg' was living and in service in 1663, while Stoll was certainly dead prior to January 25th, 1661, as appears by an affidavit quoted in a subsequent page. The only prisoner who is known to have escaped was the son of Evert Pells, who was saved from death by an Indian maiden, in accordance with the Indian custom so frequently quoted in the rescue of Captain John Smith by Pocahontas. Pells and the maiden were married, and later he refused to be exchanged. We shall meet him again.
The occurrences narrated inaugurated the Esopus War of 1659-60.
* The question of the responsibility for the attack upon the Indians gave rise to a heated discussion. The narrative places it on Stoll, but Ensign Smith was certainly guilty of permitting Stoll to go out with his posse of "burghers" for whose acts he became responsible.
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THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.
"The savages besieged and surrounded the place during twenty-three days; fired with brand-arrows one dwelling house and four grain stacks"; killed and wounded a number of the settlers and took others prisoners as already quoted. The record narrative of the events of the period is complete in Colonial History, Volume XIII, which is available to every one who may be interested. The student especially should not be guided by any other relation.
Peace was concluded July 15th, 1660. By its terms the Esopus sachems "promised to convey as indemnification all the territory of the Esopus, and to remove to a distance from there, without ever returning again to plant." In other words, they promised to give up the Groot Plat which Director Stuyvesant wanted, and which the settlers hoped to obtain with- out paying for it. On that Plat a settlement was soon commenced which was called the Nieuw Dorp, or New Village, about three miles west of Wildwijk, or the Old Village. The sachems protested. They "were willing to allow the erection of dwellings," but would have no fortifica- tions made, and claimed positively "that the second large piece of land was not included in the treaty of peace made with them in the year 1660," and they would not, therefore, allow it to be plowed, sowed, planted or pastured, "before they were paid for it," with many threats to burn and destroy what had been done. The two large pieces of land spoken of in the narrative are supposed to have been east of and at what is now known as Old Hurley. They were obviously clear, open river bottoms or meadows.
The storm broke on the settlements on the morning of the 7th of June, 1663. The "barbarians" as they were called, attacked the New Village when the male settlers were at work in the fields, "burned twelve dwelling houses, murdered eighteen persons (men, women and children), and carried away as prisoners ten persons more." "The New Village has been burned to the ground," continues the narrative, "and its occupants are mostly taken prisoners or killed, only a few of them have come safely to this place," i. e., to Wildwijk. The disaster did not stop here. The attacking "barbarians" had planned the destruction of both villages, had penetrated the Old Village ostensibly for trading and at a given signal struck down inhabitants and set dwellings on fire. Eighteen set- tlers were killed, eight wounded, and twenty-six made prisoners. Total destruction by fire was averted by a change in the wind, and by the
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THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE.
rallying of men who were in the fields by whom the invaders were driven out. Within its palisades and around its ruined homes the settlers gathered when night came on and kept mournful watch.
Now began the Esopus War of 1663. Martin Kregier was placed in command of the Dutch forces, and with the aid of sixty-five Marsapequa Indians from Long Island, carried sword and cannon into the heart of the Esopus country, burned the Indian villages in the more immediate vicinity of Wildwijk, crossed the hills and destroyed the Indian palisaded towns of Kerhanksen and Shawangunk, killed a large number, and destroyed wigwams and plantations. Peace came May 15, 1664. In the Council Chamber at Fort Amsterdam Esopus sachems and sachems of friendly tribes assented to the terms which Stuyvesant proposed. All the land which had been previously given to the Dutch in compensation of damages, as well as that over which the Dutch forces had passed and possessed themselves of "as far as the two captured forts," was sur- rendered to the Dutch as having "been conquered by the sword." Of the beautiful Esopus valley was left to them permission to plant around their former forts for one year. Amid the many fertile fields of the Blue Hills many of them found new homes, while others remained on adjacent lands that had not been surrendered.
With the advent of the English Government in 1665, a different policy than that which had been pursued under Director Stuyvesant was inau- gurated. On the 7th of October of that year a new treaty of peace and friendship was made with the Esopus sachems. The lands which the Dutch had conquered by the sword remained in the possession of the English, but the sting of conquest was removed from it by the payment for it of forty blankets, twenty pounds of powder, twenty knives, six kettles, and twelve bars of lead. Whatever criticism may be made on the action of Director Stuyvesant in the manner of obtaining, it remains a fact that ultimately all the lands in Ulster County were paid for, and no title is handed down to-day tainted by unjust primary acquisition. For several years, or until 1674, when the Court of Sessions of Ulster County was given charge, the treaty of 1665 was renewed annually at Fort Amsterdam (New York). In 1732, the original manu-
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THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.
script and the treaty belt by which it was accompanied in 1665, were passed over to the Court of Sessions and are now carefully preserved in the office of the Clerk of Ulster County. The treaty belt is the oldest treaty belt that has been preserved in any part of this broad land - a belt, the touch of which awakens in the thoughtful a narrative of untold ages, a romance of history of more interest than any which has been written by man or woman. With the deepest interest we trace the footprints of the perished race, mindful ever that they are marked by barbaric excesses, but nevertheless a race of many virtues, its enemies being judges.
Crushed and broken by the war of 1663, and by later conflict with the Senecas, as allies of the Minquas, we hear little more of the "Esopus Indians." As rapidly as they could they sold their unconquered lands and fell back to the East Branch of the Delaware where they were known as the Papagoncks, while others became incorporated with the Minnisinks, whose battle cries as Monseys were heard in the Great West. Except in stone implements and in spear and arrow points, many of which were thrown away when they became possessed of fire arms, no trace of them remains other than in records written by their enemies of an opposing civilization and in the singularly quaint but expressive geographical names which have come down to us badly mangled in orthography in the course of their transmission. While not remarkable in significance-while only an approximation to the sounds of the names as originally spoken-there is that about them that attracts and invites study and preservation as the only names that are strictly American. Esopus, Waronawanka, Atkarkarton, Kahankson, Shawangunk, Mo- gonck, Magaat, Ramis, will remain with us indelibly blended with the history of our own race-indelibly sharing the geographical terms of a Dutch ancestry-as a priceless inheritance.
Eugene R. Durkee.
4I
PIONEER SETTLEMENTS AND PATENTS.
CHAPTER III.
PIONEER SETTLEMENTS AND PATENTS.
P IONEER history is eminently a history of individuals, the periods of their immigration, their privations, sacrifices, and accomplish- ments, and the results following their footsteps. In the aboriginal history of the county we have been introduced to the conditions under which early settlement was made, and to many of the pioneers, who located on the banks of the Groot Esopus, and have learned something of their baptism of blood. It seems to be clear from official records that the resident settlement dates from 1652, when Thomas Chambers came down from Troy, presumably accompanied by servants, obtained lands from the Indians and located his "Bowerie" on the north side of the Groot Esopus about three miles - the record says "about one league" --- inland from the Hudson .* He was of English birth, and came to this country as a farmer under the first Patroon of Rensselaerswyck and had a farm where the City of Troy now stands. He was young, unmarried, and ambitions, and presumably his removal to the Esopus country was under the charter of "Freedoms and Exemptions" of 1640, which gave to certain classes of immigrants the rank of "master colonists," and the privilege of holding for ten years without tax two hundred acres of land, which was about the extent of his first holding. He was soon joined in his new home by Mattys Hendricks, to whom there is no patent record, and by Johan de Hulter (1604), who made purchase from the Indians of five hundred morgens (a little over one thousand acres) of land adjoining Christopher Davidson, on the south side of the Groot Esopus. Christopher Davids (Davidson), who had first located at Rens-
* The deed to Thomas Chambers bears date June 5th, 1652, and recites the conveyance to him by "Kawachhikan and Sowappekat, aboriginees of this country living in the Esopus, situated on the North river," empowered by other Indians whose names are given in the deed, "Certain parcels of land situated in the Esopus above named, extending southwest and northeast, named Machstapacick, Naranmapeth, Wiwisowachkick, with a path from the said lands to the river." The sale was confirmed by one "Anckrup, an Indian, called then in this Bill of Sale Kawachij- kan" (Kawachhikan). Anckrup was still living in 1722, when he gave testimony of the Paltz Patent boundmark. He was then "a very old man," certainly.
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THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.
selaerswyck, was granted in 1656 a patent for about seventy acres on the south side of the Groot Esopus "opposite the farm of Thomas Chambers"; by Jurian van Westphalen, who was in the same neighborhood in 1657; by Evert Pels van Steltyn, who sailed a yacht but was a brewer by occupation, and had lived at the Mill Creek, Greenbush, and by Jacob Jansen Hap, otherwise known as Jacob Jansen Stol, who had been ferry master at Beaverswyck, and who had purchased from Christopher Davids his farm, sold by Davids in August, 1657, in consequence of the death of his wife .* The man of wealth among the pioneers was Johan de Hulter. His father was at one time a director in the West India Company, while he himself was the holder of one-fifth share of the common stock of the Killian Van Rensselaer Company, which came to him from his wife, Johanna de Laet, daughter of Captain Johannes de Laet, whose explor- ations of the Hudson in 1625 are historic. Dying in 1657, he is not par- ticularly known in Esopus history beyond his purchase and later resi- dence, and the experiences and residence of his wife, who later became the wife of Johannes Ebbinck, a Shepen of Manhattan and a man of sub- stantial character. Previous to her marriage with Ebbinck she had estab- lished by proof in 1659, that her husband had purchased five hundred morgens of land, November 5th, 1654, and asked and was granted a patent for it. The official record in this and in the patents of Christopher Davids, and Jacob Jansen Stoll, supply evidence of the first location of the permanent settlement as distinguished from a trading post. There were two contemporary residents in the vicinity of "the landing," pre- sumably Ponkhockie as now written. They were Jacob Andrieson and Andries van der Sluys, whose dwellings were burned by the Indians in 1658. To the enumeration must be added Cornelius Barentse Slecht, an immigrant of 1655. Others names which appear in 1658 are Peter Dircksen, Jan Broersen and Jan Jansen.
In response to an appeal for help in the trouble with the Indians in 1658, Director Stuyvesant visited the settlement May 28th, of that year, and in reply to his advice the colonists agreed to concentrate their dwell- ings at one place and enclose it with palisades. The consent was signed by Jacob Jansen Stoll, Thomas Chambers, Cornelius Barentsen Slecht,
"Stoll was a leading spirit in the colony. In his notes of his visit to the Esopus in 1658, Director Stuyvesant wrote: "Jacob Jansen Stoll's house, which is the nearest to most of the habitations and plantations of the savages, where we had appointed to meet the Sachems, and where on Sundays and the other usual feasts the Scriptures are read."
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PIONEER SETTLEMENTS AND PATENTS.
William Jansen, Pieter Dircksen, Jan Jansen, Jan Braersen, Dirck Hend- rickson Graaf, and Jan Lootman. Stuyvesant marked out a site for en- closure by palisades of about two hundred feet square, and gave to the inchoate village the name of Wildwijk, "Wild retreat" or refuge, now anglicised to Wiltwyck, and for additional protection directed the con- struction of a Rondhout, substantially a palisaded Redout at Ponkhockie. Soldiers who had accompanied Stuyvesant aided the settlers in the work of removing their log houses and in palisading the village, and within its limits were gathered under the first assignment of lots the dwellings of sixteen families, viz: Lot No. I, Thomas Chambers; 2 Evert Pels; 3 Balthasar Laser; 4 The Dominie's House (or lot for it, it had not been built) ; 5 Mrs. Johanna de Hulter *; 6 Jacob Hap's little bowery (printed Jacob Grovier by Schoonmaker ) ; 7 Jacob Hap's second bowery (printed Jacob Jansen by Schoonmaker and otherwise as Jacob Jansen Stoll) ; 8 Henry Zewant Ryger (printed Hendrick Sewan Stringer by Schoon- maker) ; 9 Andries, the weaver; 10 Jan, the Brabanter; II Jan Brou- wersen (Broersen) ; 12 Michael the first; 13 Michael Verre; 14 Jan, the smith (printed Jan Depuit by Schoonmaker) ; 15 Andries van der Sluys, precentor and schoolmaster (printed Annetje Vandersluys by Schoonmaker) ; 16 House and lot of Ger (printed "Gertwig" by Schoon- maker). No assignment was made for a church; there was none; what religious services there were were at the house of Jacob Jansen Stoll; the "Dominie's House" after it was built, was the church and the public building. Some of the residents were given the name of their occupa- tion - "Jan the Smith," was probably a blacksmith; "Henry Sewant Ryger," was a stringer of Sewan, the Indian shell money, which had more value when strung on cord - "strings of wampum," they were called. "Jan, the Branabter" should perhaps read Jan Janse Van Oster- houdt," who was sometimes called Brabanter." (Schoonmaker.)
Director Stuyvesant soon learned that he had not made the enclosure of the village sufficiently large, and on the 5th of May, 1661, went up to Esopus and marked out an additional number of lots, the receivers of which were required to enclose "with good, stout and dutiable palisades" the full breadth on the outside. The addition was over double the size of the first enclosure, thirty-one lots being numbered and assigned: No. I Hendrick Jochemsen (Hendrick, the smith) ; 2 Hendrick Mastersen; 3
. "Johannes Ebbinck, and his wife, the widow of Honorable Johan de Hulter." April 16, 1660.
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THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.
Harmen Hendricksen (Harmanus Hendrix Bleu) ; 4 Jan Jansen Tim- merman (Jan Jansen, carpenter) ; 5 Jacob Barentsen (Slecht) ; 6 Jan de Backer (Jan, the baker, otherwise entered "Jan Lootman, the baker at the Esopus); 7 Jan Joosten (Jacob Joosten); 8 Willem Jansen (William Pauli) ; 9 Pieter van Alen; 10 Mattys Roeloffsen; II Jacob Boerhans (Burhans) ; 12 Gerrit van Campen ; 13 Anthony Cruepel (Crispel) ; 4 Albert Gerretsen (wheelwright) ; 15 Meerten Gysbert (Dr. Gysbertsen van Imborch); 16 Dirck Adriaen (Floriaen) ; 17 Mattys Capito; 18 Jan Lammersen; 19 Carsten de Noorman (Caster the Norman) ; 20 Barent Garretson (Brandy distiller) ; 21 The Church Yard (i. e. Burial ground as shown by the proceedings of the Commis- sioners) ; 22 Jan Barensen; 23 Not assigned (Schoonmaker wrote "the Church." It may have been the lot on which the first church stood later, but the evidence is not clear) ; 24 Albert Hymansen Roosa; 25 Jurian Westval; 26 Nicholas William Stuyvesant; 27 Albert Gysbertsen (Gysberts) ; 28 Tejerick Classen (de Witt) ; 29 Aert Jacobsen (Peter) ; 30 Jan Schoon (Jan R.); 31 Aert Pietersen Tack (Evert Petersen). "Jan Schoon" may stand for Jochem Schoonmaker, who had been appointed Lieutenant under Captain Thomas Chambers .* Quite a village had Wildwijk become in 1663. It had a minister, physician, a skilled midwife, a precentor or schoolmaster, a smith, a weaver, a wheelwright and thrifty farmers.
Pending the development of the village other immigrants had pushed
* Some of the names are uncertain. In May, 1662, Jan Thomassen and Volckart Jansen leased No. 4 to Gerrit Toocke, or Tocken, and Jan Gerritsen, the latter identified by "from Olden- burgh." One Jan Jansen's may have been Jacob Jansen van Stoutenberg, who was a subscriber in 1661 to the minister's salary. Schoonmaker may have been at the Rondhout. Judge Clearwater, in his introduction to "Anjou's American Records," writes: "A novice always experiences diffi- culty in tracing the ancestry of Dutch families in examining documents signed by Dutchmen, and in following the proceedings of Dutch Courts in America, arising from the fact that while the French invariably used their surnames, the Dutch as a rule were indifferent about this, and usually are designated by their Christian names even in important legal documents, and proceed- ings. This answered every purpose in primitive and small communities where every one was known, but now leads to much confusion. For instance, Lambert Huyberts always is Lambert Huyberts Brink; Tirick Classen is Tjrick Classen de Witt; Jan Wilhelsen is Jan Wilhelsem Houghtaling; Jan Mattys is Jan Mattys Jansen; Teunis Jacobse or Jacobsen is Teunis Jacobsen Klaarwater (Clearwater); Peter Cornellis is Peter Cornellis Lowe; Albertse Heymans is Albertse Heymans Roosa; Hendrick Jochemsen is Hendrick Jochemsen Schoonmaker; Aert Jacobsen is Aaert Jacobsen Van Wagonen." Frequentiy all of these names appear in' Ulster records, but where there are several apparently of the same name other identification is necessary in tracing genealogies. Identification by occupation was very frequent, and in many cases the occupation became the surname, and so of the name of the place from which the immigrant came, of which the instances are not infrequent.
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