USA > New York > Washington County > Washington county, New York; its history to the close of the nineteenth century > Part 3
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WASHINGTON COUNTY : ITS HISTORY.
choicest hunting grounds for the Iroquois. Indeed, it was the bountiful supply of every variety of game that this county afforded, which was one of the causes of the enmity and jealousy that had existed for centuries between the Algonquins and Iroquois.
In giving, moreover, in this sketch the history of " William and Mary's war 1681-97 ; Queene Anne's war," 1708-13 ; the "Old French war," 1744-50 ; the French war, 1754-63 ; and the Revolutionary war, 1775-83 so far as they relate to Washington County-it will be necessary, in order to present the several campaigns in their entirety, and that a thoroughly comprehensive view may be obtained, to lay some of the scenes necessarily in contiguous counties. With this explanation the following sketch is offered to the reader.
To Washington county belongs the exclusive honor of having been the first soil of the original thirteen colonies to receive the pressure of a white man's foot. It is true, that it has been stated, that as early as 1598, a few Hollanders, in the employ of a Greenland commercial com- pany were in the habit of resorting to New Netherland ( i. e. New York Island,) not with the design of effecting a settlement, butt merely to secure shelter during the winter months. This statement is involved in much obscurity and is exceedingly doubtful ; whereas the fact which I have mentioned above is well authenticated.
CHAMPLAIN'S EXPEDITION.
I refer to the expedition of Sieur Samuel de Champlain. He was a catholic gentleman of Saintonge, born in 1567, at the little sea- port of Brouage on the Bay of Biscay. He was a captain in the Royal navy; and his means being small, though his merit was great, Henry the Fourth, out of his own slender revenues, had given him a pension to maintain him near his person. But, being a true hero after the chivalrous mediaeval type, and his character being dashed largely with the spirit of romance, he soon chafed under such a passive and unevent- ful existence ; and being withal earnest, sagacious and penetrating after various attractions in the West Indies, Mexico, and Nova Scotia, in 1608, he sailed up the St. Lawrence and founded the city of Quebec ; the first permanent French settlement in Canada. Five years previously he had explored the St. Lawrence as far as; the rapids above Montreal and the spot he now chose for what afterwards became the City of Quebec, he thought would be a true site for a settlement or, rather a
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HISTORICAL TREATMENT.
fortified post whence "as from a secure basis the waters of the vast interior might be traced back toward their sources and a western route discovered to China and the east." He thought, too, that for the advan- tage of the fur-trade the innumerable streams that flowed into the St. Lawrence, might all be closed against the foreign intrusion of a hostile force by a single fort on the brow of the mighty promontory which is now the " citadel of Quebec," and made tributary to a rich and perma- nent commerce ; while-and this was nearer his heart ; for he had often been heard to say that " the saving of a soul was worth more than the conquest of an empire."-countless savage tribes, in the bondage of Satan, might, by these same avenues, also be reached and redeemed. Thus, almost from the time of his first landing, he began to cultivate the friendship of the Indians, both of those living in his vicinity and as far west as the Great Lakes. Nor was it long, before the savage tribes had become so drawn towards him that they were led to solicit his services in making war upon their hereditary enemies. At that time, and as far as can be ascertained from original aboriginal tradition, the Adirondacks-Champlain's neighbors, and a powerful division of the Algonquins, Hurons, Wyandots and other western tribes-had been engaged in a savage and perpetual war with the Iroquois, or as they afterwards came to be called, "The Six Nations." When, seventy years previous to Champlain's first arrival, viz ; in 1603, Cartier had ascended the great river and had discovered what is now Canada, he found the Mohawks, (a tribe of the Six Nations) living near the present city of Montreal. On Champlain's present visit, however, he found that that tribe had been driven by the Adirondacks south of the St. Law- rence and into the interior of the present State of New York ; and he also discovered that, for this reason, the tribe was in mortal fear, lest the Mohawks would return in large numbers and inflict dire revenge upon them. Accordingly, when in 1509 (the year after Champlain's arrival among them) some of the chiefs requested him to accompany them on an expedition against their hereditary foes, he consented to do so ; being influenced in his decision, both by the fact that he wished to explore for himself a country regarding which he had heard various marvelous accounts, and for the further reason, that by aiding them as an ally he thought he would be obtaining a still further hold on their consciences which would eventually work for their spiritual good.
Yielding, therefore, to these persuasions, Champlain, accompanied by several hundred Hurons and Adirondacks and twelve Frenchmen, the
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WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
latter like himself, armed with arquebuses-something like our modern carbines, embarked on the long contemplated expedition. When, however, the war-party reached the site of the present town of Sorel, the Indians quarrelled among themselves ; and many of them, together with ten of the Frenchmen, returning home, Champlain was left with sixty Hurons and two of his countrymen who had refused to desert him.
At length, on the second of July, Champlain and his two companions embarked with the Indians in twenty-four canoes and that day proceeded up the river to a point about nine miles above the Island of Theresa, where they encamped for the night. The next day, they continued on as far as the lake which they entered the following morning (the 4th of July,) eleven years before the landing of the Pilgrims and sixty-six years. before King Phillip's war. "The lake," Champlain with pardonable pride says, in his journal "I named Lake Champlain." "Cumberland Head " was soon passed, and he, then from the opening of the great channel between Grand Isle and the main, looked forth on the " Wilder- ness sea." Parkman in his inimitable and picturesque style, has depicted the scene as presented at this critical moment as follows :
" Edged with woods, the tranquil flood spread southward beyond the sight. Far, on the left, the forest ridges of the Green Mountains were heaved against the sun, patches of snow still glistening on their tops ; and on the right rose the Adirondacks, haunts in these later years of amateur sportsmen from counting-rooms or college-halls, nay of advent- urous beauty, with sketch-book and pencil1. Then the Iroquois made them their hunting ground ; and beyond, in the valleys of the Mohawk, the Onondaga and the Genesee, stretched the long line of their fire cautious and palisaded towns.
"At night they were encamped again. The scene is a familiar one to many a tourist and sportsman ; and perhaps, standing at sunset on the peaceful strand, Champlain saw what a roving student of this gene- ration has seen on these same shores, at that same hour-the glow of the vanished sun behind the western mountains, darkly piled in mist and shadow along the sky ; near at hand, the dead pine, mighty in decay, stretching its ragged arms athwart the burning heaven,2 the crow
1 Had Parkman written this a few years later he would probably have added the Kodak to. the list of the fair one's outfit.
2 Nor, is this an exaggeration on the part of Mr. Parkman. There is now (1899) in the Adiron- dacks-and within sight of Mr. Parkman's vision, a stump of a pine tree-the top of which, four feet from the ground is fully twelve feet in diameter. I, myself, from a count of its rings, two sum- mers ago, estimated that it must have been quite a tree at the beginning of the Christian era.
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HISTORICAL TREATMENT.
perched on its top like an image carved in jet ; and aloft-the night- hawk, circling in his flight, and with a strange whizzing sound driving through the air each nioment for the insects which he makes his prey."
Continuing on their voyage, they coasted along the west shore of the lake until they came within two or three days journey of the place, where they expected to meet the enemy. After this they traveled only by night, each morning retiring into a barricaded camp to pass the day. The party advanced with the utmost caution, keeping their canoes close together and making no noise which might be heard by the enemy should they happen to be in close proximity. During the whole journey they used no fire and lived upon dried Indian meal soaked in water.
In his account of this expedition, Champlain refers particularly to the superstition of the Indians, and the importance they attached to dreams. Whenever he awoke they would, he says, eagerly inquire whether he had dreamed or seen their enemies. Greatly to their chagrin, however, night after night passed without Champlain's dream- ing. At length, one day, while the party lay concealed near Crown Point, Champlain fell asleep and thought he saw one of the Iroquois drowning in the lake within sight of the encampment. On awaking he revealed his dream to the Indians, which, he says "gained such credit among them that they no longer doubted but that they should meet with success. That same night, about ten o'clock of the 30th, while proceeding cautiously along they suddenly met a war party of the Iroquois who were passing down the western bank of the lake in canoes. The exact location of the spot where this meeting took place is still in dispute ; but it seems probable that it was on one of these spurs of land which put out into the lake in the towns either of Dresden or Putnam.
The Iroquois, on their part, upon discrying so unexpectedly their ancient enemies made all haste to erect a palisade by cutting down trees with their stone hatchets1 ; and as it was mutually understood between the opposing parties that hostilities were not to begin until day-break, the remainder of the night was spent by both sides in inter-
1 As Champlain, in his journal states that the Iroquois used stone and other hatchets, a number of writers have vainly endeavored to speculate if these "other" hatchets do not mean made of steel or iron, some arguing that this fact shows that the Iroquois had of themselves advanced to proficiencies in making use of iron. The true explanation would seem that these iron hatchets had been taken from the Algonquins in their forays-which hatchets in turn had been given to the Algonquins in trade by Champlain on his first landing in 1603.
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WASHINGTON COUNTY : ITS HISTORY.
changing the vilest and coarsest epithets with each other, intermingled with singing, dancing and painting their bodies.
" You Huron dogs are cowards," the Iroquois would shout from their barricade of logs. "How dare you come against the Hedonosaune ? Have we not whipped you often before ? "
"We will show you Mingo squaws what we are," the Hurons would reply. "You have beaten us sometimes when you had two to one ; but you dare not fight us man to man ; and now we will whip you even if you have the most."
"The scalps of the Hurons hang thick in our lodges : our squaws and our children play with them every day. Soon they will play with yours; you cannot stand before our arms."
"Oh, ho !" would a Huron yell out in reply, "your arms will be worth- less before these which we have. We have weapons you have never seen before. You will fall before them as if the Great Spirit had stricken you with his lightning."
" And thus with boasts and taunts, with shouts and screams, with plentiful repetitions of their epithets of 'dog' 'coward' 'slave' and 'squaw' the summer night passed swift, away." "Indeed " says Champlain, " this commerce of abuse, sarcasmn, menace and boasting gave increasing exercise to the lungs and fancy of the combatants- much like the beleaguers and beseiged in a beleaguered town."
The fact that all Indians give great weight to dreams was an additional impetus to the bravery of the Hurons in the coming conflict as all doubt on their part as to the result of the impending conflict was laid aside. Hence, as soon as the dawn began to shed its light over the placid lake, the Hurons were, so to speak, believing as they did that this dream showed " he was twice armed who had his quarrel just," rushed into the fray with avidity. They were, however, met by the Iroquois with equal enthusiasm ; and Champlain himself in his Journal is compelled, with genuine admiration, to pay a glowing tribute to their robust, athletic forms, the exceeding gravity of their deportment and the confidence with which, emerging from their extemporized barricade, they took up their position. The Iroquois were led by three chieftains each of whom were distinguished by three feathers upon the top of his head, larger than those worn by the other warriors. These chiefs were considered so formidable by his Indian allies that they beseiged Cham- plain, at all hazzards to bring them down with the "white man's
WASHINGTON COUNTY :
ITS HISTORY TO THE CLOSE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
CHAPTER I.
ERECTION OF CHARLOTTE COUNTY - CHANGES IN AREA AND BOUNDARIES - NAME CHANGED TO WASHINGTON - GEOGRAPHY - MOUNTAIN RANGES - LAKES AND WATER COURSES - GEOLOGY - AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS, POPULATION, LAND GRANTS AND TITLES - EARLY PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS - HISTORICAL TREATMENT.
At the first General Assembly, held pursuant to the instructions of the Crown to Governor Dongan, toward the close of the reign of Charles II in the 24th year after the Restoration, it was enacted by the Govern- or, Council and Representatives of the Province of New York, that the Province should be divided into twelve counties. The statute that con- tained this enactment was passed November 1, 1683, and provided that the county of Albany should contain "the town of Albany, the county of Renslaerswyck, Schonechteda, and all the villages, neighborhoods and Christian Plantacons on the east side of Hudson's River, from Roe- lof Jansen's creeke, and on the west side from Sawers creeke to the Sarraghtoga." This act was substantially re-enacted October 1, 1691, at the first assembly held in the third year of the reign of King Wil- liam and Queen Mary.
Afterward, in the twelfth year of George III, A. D. 1772, the Pro- vincial Legislature passed an act in which, after reciting that the lands within the county of Albany were more extensive than all the other counties of the colony taken together, and mentioning the inconven- iences resulting from the "enormous extent" of the county, it proceed- ed to divide the territory of the county into three parts, restricting the name of Albany to one of these subdivisions and bestowing upon the others the names of Charlotte and Tryon respectively. This act, passed March 12, 1772, provided that the northern bounds of Albany county, as newly constituted, should be "a west line drawn from Fort George,
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WASHINGTON COUNTY : ITS HISTORY.
near Lake George," and the continuation of such line "east until it intersects a north line drawn from that high Falls on Hudson's River, which lays next above Fort Edward; thence south to the said Falls; thence along the east bank of Hudson's River to a certain creek called Stoney Creek; thence east five hundred and ten chains; thence south to the north bank of Batten Creek; thence up along the north bank of said creek until the said creek intersects the south bounds of Prince- Town; thence along the same to the southeast corner thereof; thence east to the west bounds of the county of Cumberland; thence south- erly and easterly along the west and south bounds thereof to Connec- ticut River." The act further provided that so much of the former county of Albany as lay within the colony, to the northward of the county of Albany as restricted by the act, and to the eastward of a line drawn from the intersection of the north bounds of Duanesburgh ex- tended with the Mohawk River, north, until it intersected the west line drawn from Fort George, previously mentioned, should be one separate and distinct county, and be called and known by the name of the county of Charlotte.
At the same session, an act was passed providing for the election of town and county officers in the new county of Charlotte and their quali- fication, and imposing a penalty upon persons refusing to act in the offices for which they might be chosen.
The following year provision was made for surveying and marking the boundary lines between the two counties of Charlotte and Tryon.
The old lines established by these acts are still traceable in existing county lines and natural boundaries. The line running north from the Mohawk is co-incident with the present western boundary of Saratoga, Warren and Essex counties, and extended on the same course to the Canadian boundary.
Charlotte county, as thus constituted, included a wide extent of ter- ritory stretching northward a hundred miles to Canada, having a width of more than fifty miles and including more than five times the present area of Washington county. It comprised the present counties of War- ren, Essex, Clinton, parts of Washington and Franklin, and a consid- erable portion of the State of Vermont.
The name of the county which had been given to it in honor of Prin- cess Charlotte, the eldest daughter of George III, was changed to Wash- ington county by the legislature of the State of New York on the 2nd of April, 178.4.
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HISTORICAL TREATMENT.
magical weapons of war." The result of their solicitations is thus given by Champlain in his account of the ensuing engagement.1
" The moment we landed they [ the Algonquins and Hurons] began to run about two hundred paces towards their enemies who stood firm and had not yet perceived my companions, who went into the bush with some savages. Our Indians commenced calling in a loud voice, and opening their ranks, placed me at their head about twenty paces in advance, in which order we marched until I was within thirty paces of the enemy. The moment they saw me they halted, gazing at me and I at them. When I saw them preparing to shoot at us I raised my arbequebus and aiming directly at one of the three chiefs two of them fell to the ground by this shot, and one of them received a wound of which he afterwards died. I had put four balls in my arbequebus. Our party, on witnessing a shot so favorable to them, set up such tremendous shouts that thunder could not have been heard, and yet there was no lack of arrows on one side or the other. The Iroquois were greatly astonished at seeing two men killed so instantly, notwithstanding they were provided with arrow proof armor woven of cotton and thread and wood ; this frightened them very much. While as I was reloading, one of my companions in the bush fired a shot which so astonished them anew, seeing their chiefs slain, that they lost courage, took to flight, and abandoned the field and their fort, hiding themselves in the depths of the forest, whither pursuing them I killed some others. Our savages also killed several of these and took ten or twelve prisoners. The rest carried off the wounded. Fifteen or sixteen of our party were wounded by arrows, but they were promptly cured."
Three hours after the combat, the victors were on their way back to Canada. On their return, Champlain was greatly disgusted with the tortures to which his allies subjected their prisoners and, finally, unable to endure the sight longer, especially of one whose agonies were particularly aggravating, he seized his arbequebus and put an end to his sufferings. In Champlain's remonstrance against this torture he says he had told them that the French never so used their prisoners. "Not indeed," says Parkman, "their prisoners of war ; but had Champlain stood a few months later in the frenzied crowd on the Place de la Gréve at Paris-had he seen the regicide, Ravaillac, the veins of his forehead bursting with anguish, the hot lead and oil seething in his lacerated
1 Voyages de la Nouvo France.
[3]
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WASHINGTON COUNTY : ITS HISTORY.
breast, and the horses vainly panting to drag his strong limbs assunder- he might have felt that Indian barbarity had found its match in the hell-born ingenuity of grave and learned judges."
The victors made a prompt retreat from the scene of their triumph. Three or four days brought them to the mouth of the Richelieu1 But when they entered the St. Lawrence River, the allies became alarmed with fears that their enemies were in pursuit of them and notwithstand- ing Champlain's encouragement, loosing all their courage, they fled down the stream at the rate of thirty leagues a day. The Hurons and Algon- quins made for the Ottawa-their homeward route-and also for the purpose of putting as much space between them and the Iroquois as they could-each with a share of prisoners for future torments. However, they all parted with Champlain highly pleased ; and from this time onward, their several tribes became firmly attached to the French and their interests.
I have dwelt at length upon this expedition of Champlain, not only because it was the first conflict in New York on the Canadian border between the whites and the aboriginals, but also of the momentus consequences which this sally of Champlain entailed upon American civilization. Indeed, as it has been well and most justly said, "Thus did New France rush into collision with the redoubted warriors of the " Five Nations." Here was the beginning, in some measures doubtless the cause, of a long suit of murderous conflicts, bearing havoc and flame to generations yet unborn. Champlain had invaded the tiger's den ; and now, in smothered fury, the patient savage would lie biding his day of blood."
CHAPTER III.
WILLIAM AND MARY'S WAR, 1681-1697 - QUEEN ANNE'S WAR, 1702-1713 - THE OLD FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR, 1744-1748 - CAPTAIN JOHN SCHUYLER'S JOURNAL, 1790.
For nearly one hundred years after Champlain's raid, nothing of stirring interest occurred in the county, it being for that length of time merely a war-path used by predatory bands of Indians, Dutch and French troops as they, each in turn, made their forays, either upon the Canadian or Dutch frontiers.
1 Also called the St. John and the Sorel Rivers. See note ante.
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WILLIAM AND MARY'S WAR.
The result of the alliance between Champlain and the Adirondacks, as before hinted, was a most bitter hostility on the part of the Iroquois towards the French, which continued, without intermission, until after the conquest of New York from the Dutch in 1664. During that long period even the artful Jesuits failed to make any considerable impres- sion upon them-especially upon the Mohawks, at whose hands three of their number (Fathers Joques, Brebœuf and Lallemand) suffered martyrdom with the spirit of primitive apostles. More than once, likewise, before and after that date, the Iroquois swept over the French settlements with the torch and tomahawk, tracking their paths in blood and carrying consternation even to the gates of Quebec. At length, with a view of putting an end to these forays, M. de Courcelles, Governor of Canada, thought to administer a staggering blow to the Mohawks by invading their villages, thus carrying the atrocities of war to their very doors. Accordingly, in the winter of 1666, that Governor despatched under a French officer, M. de Tracy, a party, consisting of some five hundred French troops and two hundred Canadians, .which proceeded up Lake Champlain on snow-shoes and thence by way of the site of Fort Edward, through the forests to the vicinity of Schenectady. The expedition, however, was a total failure; for, owing to their ignorance of the country and the intense cold of an unusually severe winter, by the time its destination was reached, the party had nearly perished. To add, moreover, to its discomfiture, some Mohawks, taking advantage of its deplorable condition, ambushed and killed a number of M. de Tracy's command ; whereupon the remainder of his force, after sufferings that seem almost incredible, finally reached Canada.
Meanwhile, the Revolution of 1687, which brought William and Mary upon the throne, having been followed by war between England and France, the Colonies were of course involved in the conflict ; and . as a consequence, the Iroquois-especially the Mohawks and Onon- dagas .- being supplied with arms by the Government of New York, rekindled their war-fires, painted their faces anew, and became, to the Canadian border, a greater terror than ever. In the latter part of 1687, a band of Mohawks destroyed the village of Chambley, bringing a number of their captives who had escaped the tomahawk to Albany. Again, two years afterward, in August, 1689, fifteen hundred Indians landed upon the Island of Montreal and slew every man and beast that they found.
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