USA > New York > Washington County > Washington county, New York; its history to the close of the nineteenth century > Part 40
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As we wrenched and rocked the big man turned swiftly towards us, and for the moment The Muskrat's scalp was safe, as with great strides the Huron made for me. From one I had quite forgotten
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came my rescue. A growl and a flash, and the great dog was at the throat of the tall Huron, who went over like a falling tree. Then I found my voice, and shouted lustily just as my fellow got his leg inside mine, and tripped me, so that we both fell backwards, I under- neath, he still caught in my grip, coming down with a mighty crash upon a row of well-filled earthen pots that stood by the fire. Though I held the Huron yet, he had now his right arm free from the elbow down. He dropped his tomahawk as we lay there, but clutched the knife that hung by a cord from his neck, and began to slash at me, all hampered as he was, while I kept shouting and yelling with all the breath I had.
THE MUSKRAT TO THE RESCUE.
From all the fires men and squaws came trooping, rubbing every one his eyes in hope to discover the cause of this mighty racket.
Now the big Huron was on his feet again and rushed for the door, knocking down a squaw who came tumbling into his path; but before he could reach the air the dog had him by the leg. The stone hatchet fell, crushing the beast's shoulder, but the dog held on. Again it fell and the dog sank limply to the earth with a moan. The Huron was free only to be banged in the face with a charred log in the hands of an old squaw, and grasped at the same instant by a dozen stout arms which dragged him back, and tied him. All this I did not see, for I was still on the ground wincing as blow after biow of the stone knife cut my leg, and I felt my strength beginning to fail with the loss of blood.
I heard a word of surprise in the Muskrat's harsh voice, and my enemy was pulled off me. I climbed to my feet, and watched the squaws build up the fires till the long house was as bright as day. Our prisoners were bound with deer-skin thongs to the posts of the cabin and stood panting, while the White Partridge mourned over her broken pots, and an old man bound up some bad cuts of the stone knife in my right leg, and wiped me clean of the paste mixed of ashes, blood and hominy with which I was dripping. The Indians made much of me, but the real hero of the night lay dying, his head and shoulder crushed with tomahawk blows.
In the morning our captives talked freely. A large war party had
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gone against Canajoharie, but the omens being bad had returned again. These two, however, had some special longing for scalps, and had lagged behind to hunt for us. They had come very near to being successful. We found their trail, or what the drifting snow had left of it, and it was plain that only these two had come our way, and that the main party was beyond pursuit, even had we the men to fight them. It was decided that Ondessus, the old warrior, should be burnt at Canajoharie ; but before we could take him there he escaped, with two arrows in him, and must have died in the woods, for he never got back to Canada. The young man remained a captive until spring, and then, going with a party to Oneida, was adopted by a squaw in place of her dead son. and finally became an Oneida chief of note.
This night's work made me a firm friend in my adversary, the Muskrat, and, in fact, went a great way towards gaining me the good- will of all the Mohawks, and now that I had fought for them, as a manner of speaking, I had no thought of leaving them. Yet to this day when a pot is broken in the House of the Bear, the squaws will say, 'Peter has been dancing again with the Hurons.'"
ISRAEL PUTNAM.
A sketch of General Israel Putnam is exceedingly appropriate since he filled such a prominent part in the early history of Washington County.
Israel Putnam is often confounded with General Rufus Putnam, who was prominent as an officer of artillery at the Battles of Saratoga and under whose supervision Fort Putnam, overlooking West Point, was constructed some years later. He was born in West Salem, Massachusetts, January 7th, 1718. In 1755, he raised and commanded a company for the "old French War," and has been noted in the course of our narrative, greatly distinguished himself by his courage. He was promoted to Major in 1757, to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1759 and Colonel in 1764. He commanded a Connecticut regiment in the Ex- pedition against Havana and was with Colonel Bradstreet in his mem- orable campaign against the western Indians. After the expiration of his term of service, he was several times elected to various civil offices in Connecticut. In 1773, he went with his second cousin, Rufus Putnam, Thaddeus Lyman, Roger Eno and others to examine
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lands in Florida, that were to be granted to the colonial officers and soldiers who had served in the French War.1 Returning the following year to his home at Pomfret, Conn., he resumed his occupation as a farmer. On hearing of the Battle of Lexington in 1775-the news being brought by a swift messenger who continued on his way to New York, Philadelphia and the southern colonies-he unhitched his horse from the plow and at once rode to the scene of action. Wash- ington, then in supreme command, was only too glad to avail himself of his services. He, thereupon, returned to his home, recruited a regiment among his farmer neighbors, and marched to Cambridge, arriving there in time to take part in the Battle of Bunker Hill. He was commissioned-for his services on that occasion-a Brigadier General by the Assembly of Connecticut, April 26th, 1775, and Major- General by the Continental Congress June 19, 1775. He was in com- mand at Peekskill, when the attack was made by Sir Henry Clinton on Forts Clinton and Montgomery, and has been greatly blamed for not bringing his forces to General George Clinton's relief, which some critics say might have prevented the capitulation of those forts.
General Putnam has been, not only in this instance, but in others severely criticized for his apparent lukewarmness at this time; some even going so far as to intimate that he was in the pay of the British Government to act the part of a traitor. This, however, after a care- ful investigation of the evidence, I do not believe. He was ignorant and, while well versed in Indian warfare, was utterly incompetent to meet and cope with trained soldiers in the field. Still, this is very different from calling him a traitor to his country.
During the years 1778-9, he was engaged in the western part of Connecticut with head-quarters usually at Danbury, co-operating with the force in the Highlands. It was at this time that he made his almost miraculous escape from General Tryon's troops by riding down the stone steps at Horseneck in the town of Greenwich, Ct. When the army went into winter quarters at Morristown in 1779, Putnam made a short visit to his family at Pomfret. On his return, however, to camp, and just before reaching Hartford, he had a stroke of paraly- sis, which of course, incapacitated him from active service. His re- maining years were accordingly spent at home, and he died in Brook- lyn, Connecticut, on the 19th of May, 1790.
1 This must, of course, have been done by some arrangement with Spain- since Florida, at that time, was a Spanish colony.
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WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
GENERAL PHILIP SCHUYLER.
This history has had much to say about General Philip Schuyler, who, indeed, during the Burgoyne Campaign, especially, was on the American side, its central figure. His ancestor, moreover-Philip Pieterson Van Schuyler-the first of the line in America, also occu- pied a prominent place in the " Old French War," having, as it will be recalled, built in 1689 " Old Fort Saratoga," the site of which is on a part of the soil of Washington County, nearly opposite the present village of Schuylerville, N. Y.
For these reasons I have thought that the reader would gladly wel- come the following sketch of the two members of the Schuyler fam- ily who were so distinguished in the early annals of Washington County :
Two hundred and fifty years ago a young Dutchman, Philip Pieter- sen Van Schuyler, came from Holland and settled in the town of Rensselaerwyck, known today as Albany. He represented the best type of Dutch manhood, being brave, intelligent, energetic and relig- ious. He was a pioneer in the best sense of the word and in addition was a commander of men and an organizer of industry. He was, like Sir William Johnson, eminent as a leader, preserving friendly rela- tions with the Indians, directing the conquest of the wilderness, and aiding newly arrived immigrants to obtain a foothold in the valleys of the Hudson and the Mohawk. He married soon after his arrival, and had a numerous family.
Of his children Pieter, the eldest son, was the most conspicuous. With Dutch thrift, he circulated a petition. presented it in person, and obtained a royal charter in 1688 for the city under the new name of Albany. Incidentally with the incorporation came his appointment as Mayor. The Mayoralty was more important in colonial days than at the present time. It had military and legal as well as executive obligations, and in general jurisdiction was almost the equal of the governorship. On account of the exigencies of the time, the Mayor was the Indian Commissioner or Agent.
In 1689 the war broke out between England and France, affording the Mayor the opportunity of proving himself as brilliant a soldier as he was a statesman. From this period up to his death in 1724 his life was one of the chief glories of New York. He was indefatigable; he kept his own property well in hand, organized the people of northern
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New York into military companies, established forts at strategic points, led several expeditions into Canada, then an appendage of the French crown, made treaties with the Puritan colonies in New Eng- land and alliances with the Indian tribes in the Empire State. When affairs were looking dark for the colony. he took a delegation of In- dian chiefs across the sea and presented them to Queen Anne. It is hard to say which produced the greatest sensation at the English cap- ital-the Dutch Mayor or the stalwart Iroquois. They were enter- tained in the lavish style of the old-fashioned hospitality, which, ac- cording to old historians, nearly ruined the Honorable Pieter's diges- tion and half demoralized his redskin colleagues. But it had the effect desired. When the chiefs returned laden with clothing, jewels, arms, toys, watches and baubles they created such a furor among the Iro- quois that from that time on, the Mayor had no difficulty in gathering an Indian army whenever needful. The historians of the time are singularly unanimous; the English, Canadians and Americans pro- nouncing Pieter the best soldier and statesman of his period, while the French chroniclers refer to him as the most ferocious and blood- thirsty enemy of the King of France. The fame of Pieter has ob- scured his brothers Abraham, Arent and John, who were gallant offi- cers and public-spirited citizens, the latter also having been Mayor of Albany. Pieter might have had a title had he so desired, but when knighthood was offered him by Queen Anne he refused the honor. He explained his declination on two grounds: first that it might hum- ble his brothers, who were just as good men as he, and second, that it might make the women of his family vain. Pieter's bravery came as much from his mother as his father. The former, Margarita Van Schlichtenhorst, was living in the fort at Albany when a party of sol- diers came to seize the place. The Colonel, her son, was away at the time, and the men attached to the house were at their wit's ends, but the woman was equal to the emergency. She summoned the men, called them to arms and drove out the assailants.
GENERAL SCHUYLER OF THE REVOLUTION.
In the next generation the most important figure was that of Colonel Philip, Jr., Pieter's eldest son. According to his tombstone he " was a gentleman approved in several public employments." He was a faithful soldier, a shrewd statesman, and a good business man.
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WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
The fourth generation brings upon the boards the greatest of the family. This was Major-General Philip Schuyler, who was born in 1733, and died in 1804. He was a man who could have succeeded in any calling, so well rounded was his mental and moral equipment. Webster pronounced him second only to Washington among the great Revolutionary heroes. At the breaking out of the Revolution, he was practically the head of the Schuyler family. He had wealth, power and culture; he held a commission under the British crown, and could, had he so desired, received knighthood. His interests were bound up in the English cause, and to espouse the cause of the colonies seemed to mean ruin. He was an aristocrat by birth, breed- ing and association. Nevertheless when the conflict came he threw up his commission and gave himself to the revolutionary cause. His superb career during the seven years' war is known to every one, and it is generally conceded that it was his genius which won the battle of Saratoga. After the revolution he took an active part in public affairs, serving as Congressional delegate, and as a United States Sen- ator.
General Schuyler was not covetous of public office. From boyhood he was marked by an equanimity seldom found among the children of the wealthy. He was gentle, and generous to a fault. Under the law of primogeniture, which then prevailed, he was entitled to the major part of the paternal estate. He refused to accept it, however, and shared the patrimony with his brothers and sisters. The first half of the eighteenth century was not an age when education flour- ished. Conviviality and social pleasure engrossed the attention of the higher classes, but young Schuyler made himself conspicuous even then by his studious habits. In this determination he was greatly aided by his mother, Cornelia Van Cortlandt Schuyler. He was a fluent French scholar, had a good knowledge of Dutch, German and Latin, excelled in mathematics, and was more than proficient in civil and military engineering.
The first recognition of his ability came when he was a young man. The Commissary Department of the British army was in a muddled condition, and Lord Viscount Howe, the commander, selected young Schuyler to take charge of a more important branch of the work. There was a protest from many officers who resented the placing over them of what they called a boy. Lord Howe is said to have replied that he did not like to appoint a boy, but when a boy was the only
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one who could do the work properly, he had to appoint him. It was just before this time, September 17, 1755, that Philip Schuyler mar- ried Catherine Van Rensselaer, a noted beauty of the period, daugh- ter of Colonel John Van Rensselaer. The choice was a happy one, as the wife possessed the determination and heroism of the husband. Her daughter wrote concerning her:
"Perhaps I may relate of my mother, as a judicious act of her kind- ness, that she not infrequently sent a milch cow to persons in poverty. * * When the Continental army was retreating before Burgoyne she went up in her chariot with four horses to Saratoga to remove her household articles. While there, she received directions from Gen- eral Schuyler to set fire to his extensive fields of wheat-which she did with her own hands-and to induce his tenants and others to do the same rather than suffer them to be reaped by the enemy. She also sent her horses on for the use of the army, and returned to Albany on a sled drawn by oxen."
Of his chivalry the best witness was his adversary, General Bur- goyne. This British commander in the House of Commons delivered a speech in which he held General Schuyler up to the admiration of Parliament. He said: "By orders a very good dwelling-house, ex- ceedingly large storehouses, great sawmills, and other outbuildings, to the value altogether perhaps of ten thousand pounds, belonging to General Schuyler at Saratoga, were destroyed by fire a few days before the surrender. One of the first persons I saw after the conven- tion was signed was General Schuyler, and when I expressed to him my regret at the event which had happened to his property, he desired me to think no more of it, and said that the occasion justified it according to the rules and principles of war. He did more, he sent an aide-de-camp to conduct me to Albany, in order, as he expressed it, to procure better quarters than a stranger might be able to find. That gentleman conducted mne to a very elegant house, and to my great surprise presented me to Mrs. Schuyler and her family. In that house I remained during my whole stay in Albany, with a table with more than twenty covers for me and my friends, and every other pos- sible demonstration of hospitality." This home in Albany saw all the great men and women of the land. The library was the best collec- tion of books in the colony. The room or den was a favorite resort of Aaron Burr, who came here when a member of the Legislature at Albany to prepare his cases and write his orations. Here he met the
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daughter of General Schuyler, whom he was to make a widow by shooting her husband, Alexander Hamilton. During General Schuy- ler's term in the Senate he displayed great political wisdom and statesmanship. He foresaw the future financial greatness of the country and was among the first advocates of a national bank.
General Schuyler was born at the family mansion in Albany the 22d of November, 1733, and like Dr. Franklin, was baptized on the day of his birth. He died on Sunday, the 18th of November, 1804, nearly seventy-one years of age. The tidings of his death were received with sincere and profound sorrow throughout the United States as well as in Europe, his funeral on the 21st of November being attended by an immense concourse of the citizens of that town and the surrounding county, and his remains were entombed, with mili- tary honor. in the family burial-vault of General Abraham Ten Broeck. They were afterwards removed to the burial-vault of the Rensselaer and Schuyler families, and afterwards, when the tomb gave way to the construction of railways the remains were removed to the Albany Rural Cemetery. A handsome monument-to use the words of Horace-"' plain in its neatness," was erected to the memory of this distinguished soldier of the Revolution, in October, 1871. On the pedestal of the shaft (which is of Quincy granite) are these words:
MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP SCHUYLER,
BORN AT ALBANY
NOV. 22, 1733, DIED NOV. 18th, 1804.
The following sketch of Colonel John Williams, a New York patriot and one of Washington County's most revered sons will, I am sure, be gladly perused by those residents of Washington County who are in- terested in its early beginnings. I take it from the English Post of December 8, 1900. Indeed, a history of Washington County would not be complete without it.
The Fourth of July, 1609, was germinal the Fourth of July, 1776. On that day the first white man entered the territory of New York, and then began that series of events which resulted in the nation's independence. He was a Frenchman, Samuel Champlain. He had founded the colony of Canada, the city of Quebec, and discovered and
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descended the lake to which he gave his name. He was accompanied by two other Frenchmen and sixty Huron Indians. They met and attacked a force of Iroquois, the inveterate enemies of the Hurons, south of historic Ticonderoga. Champlain and his two companions were dressed in gaudy uniforms and armed with arquebuses. The Iroquois, terrorized by the strange-looking beings and the deadly effect of their firearms, retreated after losing several chiefs. This was a fatal victory for the French nation. Champlain made for it endur- ing enemies of the most numerous and powerful tribe of Indians. For a century and a half they were the allies of the English in the three French and English wars in America.
In 1773, John Williams, a young English physician and surgeon, was directed to the town of Salem, then called New Perth. He was born in Barnstaple, Devonshire, in 1752. He was a university grad- tate, with diploma to practice medicine and surgery. He had walked the Hospital of St. John, London, and had served as surgeon's mate on a British man-of-war. He brought a complete case of surgical in- struments, which became of invaluable service to him and his country in the then unforeseen but impending war. On his arrival he found the small-pox prevailing as an epidemic. By his self-sacrificing and successful service he endeared himself to his people. His fame spread throughout the country, and his practice became extensive and lucra- tive. He applied his earnings to the purchase of land, building saw and grist mills, making farms, and in other ways developing the resources and fostering the industries of the county. He then erected a mansion in Salem, which is now known as the "Williams Home."
WILLIAMS DELEGATE TO CONGRESS.
The young physician identified himself with the patriot party in the issues that were then agitating the colonies. Though he was a com- missioned officer of the Government under half-pay, when the conflict opened at Lexington and Concord, he led the people of his county in preparations for war. When the first Provincial Congress was called to meet in New York city, May 20, 1775, he was unanimously elected delegate from the county. He was then only twenty-three years of age. This testimony to the confidence of the people in his ability and wisdom is emphasized by the proximity of the county to Canada and
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the certainty that it would speedily become involved in the war as the highway for the British army. He served in this and all the succeed- ing sessions until their expiration. He was placed upon the most im- portant committees, and assigned special service that required excep- tional knowledge and prudence. He was on the committee to draft the letter to the northern counties concerning invasion from Canada, on that to confer concerning the capture of Fort Ticonderoga, and on that to organize troops and prepare rules and regulations and to devise plans for adjustment of the differences with Great Britain.
He was appointed by the Congress, Colonel of the First Charlotte County Regiment, and surgeon subject to réquisition by the Conti- nental service. When the Provincial Congress was succeeded by the New York Legislature, 1781, he was elected to the Assembly. He had so demonstrated his ability as a legislator that he was elected to the Senate for three terms of four years each, from 1783 to 1795. There is no other similar instance in the records of New York of so young a man serving thus continuously and with such signal ability. He was associated with and frequently opposed by the ablest lawyers, jurists and statesmen of the State. His knowledge of the subjects of legislation and his power as a speaker were an occasion of wonder to his seniors. These were displayed in the New York Constitutional Convention at Poughkeepsie, June, 1788, which ratified the Constitu- tion of the United States and constituted New York a member of the Federal Union. In that convention were such men as John Jay, Richard Morris, Alexander Hamilton, Robert Livingston, George Clinton and Philip Schuyler. Dr. Williams' speech followed Hamil- ton's, which he opposed.
While a member of the New York Senate, 1793. he was chosen to the United States House of Representatives, and re-elected to the next term. Congress was then held in Philadelphia., The great men of the nation were in it; great subjects were before it; internal and international questions and relations were to be settled. Williams was the peer of those who were trained in law and the science of gov- ernment. Melancthon L. Woolsey, an eminent lawyer, a former opponent, wrote to him: "I thank you for the part you have taken in the Federal Legislature on all subjects of national importance." He was the first to secure legislative action providing for canal construc- tion. His resolution in the New York Senate, February 15, 1791, providing for a joint committee of the Senate and Assembly, of which
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he was appointed chairman, contemplated canal communication be- tween the Hudson River and the north and west by the lakes. On February 7, 1792, his bill for the construction of the proposed canals passed, and became a law March 30, 1792. He became a stockholder and director in the Northern Inland Lock Navigation Company for connecting the Hudson with Lake Champlain, and devoted much time and money to its construction. We do not know who first suggested canals in America; but we know from the Record that General Wil- liams was the first to frame and introduce and secure the passage of an act of Legislature for their construction.
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