Wappingers' Creek--authority not cited and place where the stream was
so called not ascertained. The initial W was probably exchanged for M
by mishearing, as it was in many cases of record. _Mah_ means "To meet,"
_Amhannes_ means "A small river," and the suffix _-ing_ is locative. The
composition reads: "A place where streams come together," which may have
been on the Hudson at the mouth of the creek. In Philadelphia
_Moyamansing_ was the name of a marsh bounded by four small streams.
(N. Y. Land Papers, 646.) Dr. Trumbull in his "Indian Names on the
Connecticut," quoted _Mahmansuck_ (Moh.), in Connecticut, with the
explanation, "Where two streams come together." The name was extended
to the creek as customary in such cases. The Wahamanesing flows from
Stissing Pond, in northern Duchess County, and follows the center of a
narrow belt of limestone its entire length of about thirty-five miles
southwest to the Hudson, which it reaches in a curve and passes over a
picturesque fall of seventy-five feet to an estuary. From early Dutch
occupation it has been known or called Wappinck (1645), Wappinges and
Wappingers' Kill or creek, taking that name presumably from the clan
which was seated upon it of record as "Wappings, Wappinges, Wapans, or
Highland Indians." [FN-1] On Van der Donck's map three castles or
villages of the clan are located on the south side or south of the
creek, indicating the inclusion in the tribal jurisdiction of the lands
as far south as the Highlands. From Kregier's Journal of the "Second
Esopus War" (1663), it is learned that they had a principal castle in
the vicinity of Low Point and that they maintained a crossing-place to
Dans Kamer Point. Their name is presumed to have been derived from
generic _Wapan,_ "East"--_Wapani,_ "Eastern people" [FN-2]--which could
have been properly applied to them as residents on the east side of the
river, not "Eastern people" as that term is applied to residents of the
more Eastern States, but locally so called by residents on the west side
of the Hudson, or by the Delawares as the most eastern nation of their
own stock. They were no doubt more or less mixed by association and
marriage with their eastern as well as their western neighbors, but
were primarily of Lenape or Delaware origin, and related to the Minsi,
Monsey or Minisink clans on the west side of the river, though not
associated with them in tribal government. [FN-3] Their tribal
jurisdiction, aside from that which was immediately local, extended on
the east side of the river from Roelof Jansen's Kill (south of opposite
to the Catskill) to the sea. At their northern bound they met the tribe
known to the Dutch as the Mahicans, a people of eastern origin and
dialect, whose eastern limit included the valley of the Housatonic at
least, and with them in alliance formed the "Mahican nation" of Dutch
history, as stated by King Ninham of the Wappingers, in an affidavit in
1757, and who also stated that the language of the Mahicans was _not the
same_ as that of the Wappingers, although he understood the Mahicani.
Reduced by early wars with the Dutch around New Amsterdam and by contact
with European civilization, they melted away rapidly, many of them
finding homes in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, others at Stockbridge,
and a remnant living at Fishkill removing thence to Otsiningo, in 1737,
as wards of the Senecas. (Col. Hist. N. Y., vii, 153, 158.)
* * * * *
[FN-1] "Highland Indians" was a designation employed by the Dutch as
well as by the English. (Col. Hist. N. Y., viii, 440.)
[FN-2] The familiar historic name _Wappingers_ seems to have been
introduced by the Dutch from their word _Wapendragers,_ "Armed men."
The tribe is first met of record in 1643, when they attacked boats
coming down from Fort Orange. (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv, 12.) A map of
1690 gives them a large settlement on the south side of the creek.
There is no _Opossum_ in the name, as some writers read it, although
some blundering clerk wrote _Oping_ for _Waping._
[FN-3] The relations between the Esopus Indians and the Wappingers were
always intimate and friendly, so much so that when the Mohawks made
peace with the Esopus Indians, in 1669, and refused to include the
Wappingers, it was feared by the government that further trouble would
ensue from the "great correspondence and affinity between them." (Col.
Hist. N. Y., xiii, 427.) "Affinity," relationship by marriage, kinship
generally.
Gov. Tryon, in his report in 1774, no doubt stated the facts correctly
when he wrote that the "Montauks and others of Long Island, Wappingers
of Duchess County, Esopus, Papagoncks, &c., of Ulster County, generally
denominated River Indians, spoke a language radically the same," and
were "understood by the Delawares, being originally of the same race."
(Doc Hist. N. Y., i, 765.)
Poughquag, the name of a village in the town of Beekman, Duchess County,
and primarily the name of what is now known as Silver Lake, in the
southeast part of the town, is from _Apoquague,_ (Mass.), meaning, "A
flaggy meadow," which is presumed to have adjoined the lake. It is from
_Uppuqui,_ "Lodge covering," and _-anke,_ "Land" or place. (Trumbull.)
Pietawickquassick, a brook so called which formed a bound-mark of a
tract of land conveyed by Peter Schuyler in 1699, described as "On the
east side of Hudson's River, over against Juffrou's Hook, at a place
called by the Christians Jan Casper's Creek." The creek is now known as
Casper's Creek. It is the first creek north of Wappingers' Kill.
Schuyler called the place _Rust Plaest_ (Dutch, Rust-plaats), meaning
"Resting place, or place of peace." The Indian name has not been
located. It is probably a form or equivalent of _P'tukqu-suk,_ "A bend
in a brook or outlet."
Wassaic, a village and a creek so called in the town of Amenia, Duchess
County, appears in N. Y. records in 1702, _Wiesasack,_ as the name of
a tract of land "lying to the southward of Wayanaglanock, to the
westward of Westenhoek creek." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 58); later,
"Near a place called Weshiack" (Ib. 65), "and thence northerly to a place
called Wishshiag, and so on about a mile northwest of ye Allum rocks."
[FN] (Ib. 75.) The name seems to have been applied to the north end of
West Mountain, where is located the ravine known as the Dover Stone
Church, about half a mile west of the village of Dover Plains. The
ravine is 20 to 25 feet wide at the bottom, 1 to 3 feet at the top,
30 to 40 feet long, and 40 to 50 feet high, hence called a church. The
Webotuck, a tributary of Ten Mile River, flows through the ravine. Dr.
Trumbull ("Indian Names in Connecticut") wrote: "_Wassiog,_ (Moh.),
alternate _Washiack,_ a west bound of the Mohegan country claimed by
Uncas; 'the south end of a very high hill' very near the line between
Glastonbury and Hebron," a place near Hartford, Conn., but failed to
give explanation of the name.
* * * * *
[FN] _Wallam_--the initial _W_ dropped--literally, "Paint rocks," a
formation of igneous rock which, by exposure, becomes disintegrated
into soft earthy masses. There are several varieties. The Indians used
the disintegrated masses for paint. The name is met in some forms in
all Algonquian dialects. (See Wallomschack.)
Weputing, Weepitung, Webotuck, Weepatuck (N. Y. and Conn. Rec.), given
as the name of a "high mountain," in the Sackett Patent, was translated
by Dr. Trumbull, from Conn. Records: "_Weepatuck,_ 'Place of the narrow
pass,' or 'strait.'" (See Wassaic.)
Querapogatt, a boundmark of the Sackett Patent, is, apparently, a
compound of _Quenne,_ "long," _pog_ (paug), "pond," and _att_
locative--"Beginning at the (a) long pond." The name is met in
_Quine-baug,_ without locative suffix, signifying "Long Pond" simply.
She'kom'eko, preserved as the name of a small stream which rises near
Federal Square, Duchess County, and flows thence north to Roelof
Jansen's Kill, was primarily the name of an Indian village conspicuous
in the history of the labors of the Moravian missionaries. [FN-1] It was
located about two miles south of Pine Plains in the valley of the
stream. Dr. Trumbull translated: "_She'com'eko,_ modern _Chic'omi'co,_
from _-she, -che_ (from _mishe_ or _k'che_), 'great,' and _comaco,_
'house,' or 'enclosed place'--'the great lodge,', or 'the great
village.'" [FN-2] We have the testimony of Loskiel that the occupants
of the village were "Mahicander Indians."
* * * * *
[FN-1] The field of the labors of the Moravian missionaries extended
to Wechquadnach, Pachquadnach, Potatik, Westenhoek and Wehtak, on the
Housatenuc. _Wechquadnach_ (Wechquetank, Loskiel) was at the end of
what is now known as Indian Pond, lying partly in the town of North
East, Duchess County, and partly in Sharon, Conn. It was the Gnadensee,
or "Lake of Grace," of the missionaries. _Wequadn'ach_ means "At the
end of the mountain" between which and the lake the Indian village
stood. _Pachquadn'ach_ was on the opposite side of the pond; it means
"Clear bare mountain land." _Wehtak_ means "Wigwam place."
_Pishgachtigok_ (Pach-gat-gock, German notation), was about twenty
miles south of Shekomeko, at the junction of Ten Mile River and the
Housatonuc. It means, "Where the river divides," or branches. (See
Schaghticoke.) _Westenhoek,_ noted above, is explained in another
connection. _Housatonuc,_ in N. Y. Land Papers _Owassitanuc,_ stands
for _A-wass-adene-uc,_ Abn.; in Delaware, _Awossi,_ "Over, over there,
beyond," _-actenne,_ "hill or mountain," with locative _-uk,_ "place,"
"land"; literally, "A place beyond the hill." (Trumbull.) It is not
the name of either the hill or the river, to which it was extended,
but a verbal direction. An Indian village called Potatik by the
Moravian missionaries, was also on the Housatonuc, and is written in
one form, _Pateook._
[FN-2] A translation from the Delaware _Scha-gach-we-u,_ "straight,"
and _meek_ "fish"--an eel--eel place--has been widely quoted. The
translation by Dr. Trumbull is no doubt correct.
[Illustration: The Highlands West From Little Stony Brook]
Shenandoah (Shenandoah Corners, East Fishkill) is an Iroquoian name of
modern introduction here. It is met in place in Saratoga County and at
Wyoming, Pa. (See Shannondhoi.)
Stissing, now the name of a hill and of a lake one mile west of the
village of Pine Plains, Duchess County, is probably an apheresis of
_Mistissing,_ a "Great rock," and belongs to the hill, which rises 400
or 500 feet above the valley and is crowned with a mass of naked rock,
described by one writer as "resembling a huge boulder transported there."
Poughkeepsie, now so written, is of record in many forms of which
Pooghkeepesingh, 1683; Pogkeepke, 1702; Pokeapsinck, 1703; Pacaksing,
1704; Poghkeepsie, 1766; Poughkeepsie, 1767, are the earlier. The
locative of the name and the key to its explanation are clearly
determined by the description in a gift deed to Peter Lansing and Jan
Smedes, in 1683: "A waterfall near the bank of the river called
Pooghkeepesingh;" [FN-1] in petition of Peter Lansing and Arnout Velie,
in 1704: "Beginning at a creek called Pakaksing, by ye river side."
[FN-2] There are other record applications, but are probably extensions,
as Poghkeepke (1702), given as the name of a "muddy pond" in the
vicinity. Schoolcraft's interpretation, "Safe harbor," from
_Apokeepsing,_ is questioned by W. R. Gerard, who, from a personal
acquaintance with the locative, "A water-fall," writes: "The name refers
not to the fall, but to the basin of water worn out in the rocks at the
foot of the fall. Zeisberger would have written the word _Āpuchkìpìsink,_
that is, 'At the rock-pool (or basin) of water.' _Ā-puchk-ìpìs-ink_ is
a composition of _-puchk,_ 'rock'; _ipis,_ in composition, 'little
water,' 'pool of water,' 'pond,' 'little lake,' etc." _Pooghk_ is no
doubt from _ápughk_ (apuchk), "rock." The stream has long been known
as the Fall Kill. Primarily there seems to have been three falls upon
it, of which _Matapan_ will be referred to later.
* * * * *
[FN-1] "This fifth day of May, 1683, appeared before me . . . a
Highland Indian called Massang, who declared herewith that he has given
as a free gift, a bouwery (farm) to Pieter Lansingh, and a bouwery to
Jan Smeedes, a young glazier, also a waterfall near the bank of the
river, to build a mill thereon. The waterfall is called Pooghkeepesingh
and the land Minnisingh, situated on the east side of the river." (Col.
Hist. N. Y., xiii, 571.)
[FN-2] Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 71. There are forty-nine record
orthographies of the term, from which a selection could be made as a
basis of interpretation. _Poghkeepke,_ for example, might be accepted
as meaning, "Muddy Pond," although there is neither a word or particle
in it that would warrant the conclusion.
Wynogkee, Wynachkee, and Winnakee are record forms of the name of a
district of country or place from which it was extended to the stream
known as the Fall Kill "Through which a kill called Wynachkee runs,
. . . including the kill to the second fall called Mattapan," is the
description in a gift deed to Arnout Velie, in 1680, for three flats
of land, one on the north and two on the south side of the kill. "A
flat on the west side of the kil, called Wynachkee" (Col. Hist. N. Y.,
xiii, 545, 572), does not mean that the kill was called Wynachkee, but
the flat of land, to which the name itself shows that it belonged. The
derivatives are _Winne,_ "good, fine, pleasant," and _-aki_ (auke,
ohke), "land" or place; literally, "land." [FN]
* * * * *
[FN] From the root _Wulit,_ Del. From the same root _Winne, Willi,
Wirri, Waure, Wule,_ etc. The name is met in equivalent forms in
several places. _Wenaque_ and _Wynackie_ are forms of the name of a
beautiful valley in Passaic county, N. J. (Nelson.) _Winakaki,_
"Sassifras land--rich, fat land." _Winak-aki-ng,_ "At the Sassifras
place," was the Lenape name of Eastern Pennsylvania. (See Wanaksink.)
Eliot wrote in the Natick (Mass.) dialect, "_Wunohke,_ good land."
The general meaning of the root is pleasurable sensation.
Mattapan, "the second fall," so called in the deed to Arnout Velie
(1680), was the name of a "carrying place," "the end of a portage,
where the canoe was launched again and its bearers reembarked."
(Trumbull.) A landing place. [FN] "At a place called Matapan, to the
south side thereof, bounded on the west by John Casperses Creek." (Cal.
Land Papers, 108.) (See Pietawick-quasick.)
* * * * *
[FN] _Mattappan,_ a participle of _Mattappu,_ "he sits down," denotes
"a sitting down place," or as generally employed in local names, the
end of a portage between two rivers, or from one arm of the sea to
another--where the canoe was launched again and its bearers reembarked.
(Trumbull.) In Lenape _Aan_ is a radical meaning, "To move; to go."
_Paan,_ "To come; to get to"; _Wiket-pann,_ "To get home"; _Paancep,_
"Arrived"; _Mattalan,_ "To come upto some body"; logically,
_Mattappan,_ "To stop," to sit down, to land, a landing place.
Minnissingh is written as the name of a tract conveyed to Peter Lansing
and Jan Smedes by gift deed in 1683. (See Poughkeepsie.) _Minnissingh_
is, apparently, the same word that is met in Minnisink, Orange County.
The locative of the tract has not been ascertained, but it was pretty
certainly on the "back" or upper lands. There was no island there. (See
Minnisink.)
Eaquorisink is of record as the name of Crom Elbow Creek, and
_Eaquaquanessìnck_ as that of lands on the Hudson, in patent to Henry
Beekman, the boundary of which ran from the Hudson "east by the side of
a fresh meadow called _Mansakìn_ [FN-1] and a small run of water called
_Mancapawìmick._" In patent to Peter Falconier the land is called
Eaquaquaannessìnck, the meadow Mansakin, the small creek Nanacopaconick,
and Crom Elbow (Krom Elleboog, Dutch, '"crooked elbow'") Creek.
Eaquarysink is a compression of Eaquaquaannessinck. It was not the name
of the creek, but located the boundmark "as far as the small creek."
The composition is the equivalent of _Wequa,_ [FN-2] "end of"; _annes,_
"small stream," and _ink,_ "at," "to," etc.
* * * * *
[FN-1] "A meadow or marsh land called Manjakan," is an equivalent
record in Ulster County. (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 133.) "A fresh
meadow," _i. e._ a fresh water meadow, or low lands by the side of the
creek.
[FN-2] Enaughqua, L. I.; _Yò anûck quaque,_ Williams; _Wequa, Weque,
Aqua, Ukwe, Echqu,_ etc., "end of." The word is met in many forms.
_Wehque,_ "as far as." (Eliot.)
Wawyachtanock, Indian deed to Robert Livingston, 1685; _Wawyachtanock,
Wawijachtanock, Wawigachtanock_ in Livingston Patent and
_Watwijachtonocks_ in association with "The Indians of the Long Reach"
(Doc. Hist. N. Y., 93, 97), is given as the name of a place--"The path
that leads to Wawyachtenock." In a petition for permission to purchase,
in 1702 (Col. Land Papers, 58), the description reads: "A tract of land
lying to the westward of Westenhoeks Creek [FN-1] and to ye eastward of
Poghkeepsie, called by ye Indians _Wayaughtanock._" It is presumed that
the locative of the name is now known as Union Corners, Duchess County,
where Krom Elleboog Creek, after flowing southwesterly, turns at nearly
a right angle and flows west to the Hudson, which it reaches in a
narrow channel between bluffs, a little south of Krom Elbow Point,
where a bend in the Hudson forms the north end of the Long Reach. The
first word of the name is from _Wawai,_ "Round about," "Winding around,"
"eddying," as a current in a bend of a river. The second, _-tan, -ten,
-ton_ means "current," by metonymie, "river," and _ock,_ means "land"
or place--"A bend-of-the-river place." The same name is met in
Wawiachtanos, in the Ohio country, [FN-2] and the prefix in many places.
(See Wawayanda.)
* * * * *
[FN-1] Westenhoek is Dutch. It means "West corner." It was given by
the Dutch to a tract of land lying in a bend of Housatonuk river, long
in dispute between New York and Massachusetts, called by the Indians
W-nagh-tak-ook, for many years the name of the capital town of the
Mahican nation.(Loskiel.) Rev. Dr. Edwards wrote it Wnoghquetookooke
and translated it from an intimate acquaintance of the Stockbridge
dialect, "A bend-of-the-river-place." Mr. Gerard writes it,
Wamenketukok, "At the winding of the river." Now Stockbridge, Mass.
[FN-2] "Tjughsaghrondie, alias Wawayachtenok." (Col. Hist. N. Y., iv,
900; La Trobe's Translation of Loskiel, i, 23.) The first name,
Tjughsaghrondie, is also written Taghsaglirondie, and in other forms.
It is claimed to be from the Wyandot or Huron-Iroquoian dialect. In
History of Detroit the Algonquin is quoted Waweatunong, interpreted
"Circuitous approach," and the claim made that the reference was to
the bend in the Strait at Detroit at an elevation "from which a view
of the whole broad river" could be had. In Shawano, _Wawia'tan_
describes bending or eddying water--with locative, "Where the current
winds about." The name is applicable at any place where the features
exist.
Metambeson, a creek so called in Duchess County, is now known as
Sawkill. It is the outlet of a lake called Long Pond. The Indian name
is from _Matt,_ negative and depreciatory, "Small, unfavorable," etc.,
and _M'beson,_ "Strong water," a word used in describing brandy,
spirits, physic, etc. The rapidity of the water was probably referred
to.
Waraughkameck--Waraukameck--a small lake in the same county, is now
known as "Fever Cot or Pine Swamp." The Indian name is probably an
equivalent of Len. _Wálagh-kamik,_ an enclosed hole or den, a hollow or
excavation.
Aquassing--"At a creek called by the Indians Aquassing, and by the
Christians Fish Creek"--has not been located. _Aquassing_ was the end of
the boundary line, and may be from _Enaughquasink,_ "As far as."
Tauquashqueick, given as the name of a meadow lying between Magdalen
Island [FN] and the main land, now known as "Radcliff's Vly," is
probably an equivalent of _Pauqua-ask-ek._ "Open or clear wet meadow
or vly."
* * * * *
[FN] Magdalen Island is between Upper and Lower Red-hook. The original
Dutch, Maagdelijn, supposed to mean "A dissolute woman," here means,
simply, "Maiden," _i. e._ shad or any fish of the herring family. (See
Magaat Ramis.) The name appears on Van der Donck's map of 1656.
Sankhenak and Saukhenak are record forms of the name given as that of
Roelof Jansen's Kil (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 612; French's Gazetteer.)
_Sauk-hannek_ would describe the mouth or outlet of the stream, and
_Sank-hannek_ would read "Flint-stone creek." Sauk is probably correct.
The purchase included land on both sides of the creek from "A small kil
opposite the Katskil," on the north, called _Wachhanekassik._ "to a
place opposite Sagertyes Kil, called Saaskahampka." The stream is now
known as Livingston's Creek. [FN]
* * * * *
[FN] The creek was the boundmark between the Wappingers and the
Mahicans. (See Wahamanessing.)
Wachanekassik, Indian deed to Livingston, 1683; _Waghankasick,_ patent
to Van Rensselaer, 1649, and other orthographies, is written as the
name of a small creek which marked the place of beginning of the
northwest boundmark of the Livingston Patent and the place of ending of
the southwest boundmark of the prior Van Rensselaer Patent of Claverack.
The latter reads; ". . . And so along the said Hudson River southward
to the south side of Vastrix Island, by a creek called Waghankasick,
thence easterly to Wawanaquasik," etc. The deed to Livingston conveyed
lands "On both sides of Roelof Jansen's Kill, [FN-1] called by the
Indians Sauk-henak," including lands "along the river's bank from said
Roeloff Jansen's Kill, northwards up, to a small stream opposite
Catskill named Wachanekasseck, and southwards down the river to
opposite the Sagertjes Kill, called by the Indians Saaskahampka." In
the Livingston Patent of 1684: "Eighteen hundred acres of woodland
lying between a small creek or kill lying over against Catskill called
Wachanakasseck and a place called Suaskahampka," and in patent of 1686:
"On the north by a line to be drawn from a certain creek or kill over
against the south side of Vastrix Island in Hudson's River, called
Wachankasigh," to which Surveyor John Beatty added more precisely on
his map of survey in 1715: "Beginning on the east side of Hudson's
River _southward_ from Vastrix Island, _at a place_ where a certain run
of water watereth out into Hudson's River, called in ye Indian tongue,
Wachankassik." The "run of water" is not marked on Beatty's map, nor on
the map of survey of the patent in 1798, but it is marked, from
existence or presumed existence, on a map of the boundary line between
New York and Massachusetts and seems to have been one of the several
small streams that flow down the bluff from the surface, apparently
about two miles and a half north of Roelof Jansen's Kill, in the
vicinity of the old Oak Hill station [FN-2] on the H. R. R., later
known as Catskill station. While referred to in connection with the
boundmark to identify its location, its precise location seems to have
been lost. In early days boundmarks were frequently designated in
general terms by some well known place. Hence we find Catskill spoken
of and particularly "the south end of Vastrix Island," a point that
every voyager on the Hudson knew to be the commencement of a certain
"rak" or sailing course. [FN-3] Hence it was that Van Rensselaer's
first purchase (1630) was bounded on the south by the south end of
Beeren or Mahican Island, and the second purchase by the south end of
Vastrix Island, which became the objective of the northwest bound of
Livingston's Patent. While the name is repeatedly given as that of the
stream, it was probably that of a place or point on the limestone bluff
which here bounds the Hudson on the east for several miles. Surveyor
Beatty's description, "Beginning at a place where," and the omission of
the stream on his map, and its omission on subsequent maps of the manor,
and the specific entry in the amended patent of 1715, "Beginning at a
certain place called by the Indians Wahankassek," admit of no other
conclusion, and the conclusion is, apparently, sustained by the name
itself, which seems to be from Moh. _Wakhununuhkōōsek,_ "A high point,"
as a hill, mountain, peak, bluff, etc., from _Wakhu_, "hill, mountain,"
_uhk,_ "end, point," and _ōōsic,_ "peak, pinnacle." etc. The reference
may have been to a point formed by the channel of the little stream
flowing down from the bluff above, or to some projection, but certainly
to the bluff as the only permanent objective on the Hudson. The
connection of the "small run of water" with the boundmark should
entitle it to more particular description than has been given to it by
local writers.
* * * * *
[FN-1] Named from Roeloff Jansen, Overseer of the Orphan Court under
the Dutch Government. (French.)
[FN-2] Oak Hill station on the Hudson River R. R., about five miles
south of the city of Hudson, was so called from a hill in the interior
just north of the line of the town of Livingston, from which the land
slopes west towards the Hudson and south to Roelof Jansen's Kill.
[FN-3] _Vastrix_ is a compression of Dutch _t'Vaste Rak_ as written on
Van der Donck's map of 1656, meaning, "The fast or steady reach or
sailing course," which began here. The island is the first island
lying north of the mouth of the Katskill. It is now known as Roger's
Island.
Nickankook, Kickua and Weckqashake are given as the names of "three
flats" which, with "some small flats," were included in the first
purchase by Livingston, and described as "Situate on both sides" of the
kill called Saukhenak (Roelof Jansen's Kill). The Indian deed also
included all land "Extending along the bank of the river northwards
from Roelof Jansen's Kill to a small stream opposite Catskill named
Wachanekassik." The names of the three flats are variously
spelled--Nickankooke, Nickankook, etc. The first has been translated
by Mr. Wm. R. Gerard from _Nichánhkûk,_ "At the bend in front."
_Kickua,_ the second, is untranslatable. _Wickquashaka, Wequakake,_
etc., is the equivalent of _Wequaohke,_ "End land" or place. The kill
flows through a valley of broad and fertile flats, but near the Hudson
it breaks through the limestone bluff which forms the east line of the
Hudson, and its banks are steep and rocky.
Saaskahampka, Indian deed; _Suaskahampka_ patent of 1684--the southwest
boundmark of the Livingston Patent, is described as "A dry gully at
Hudson's River." It is located about opposite Sawyer's Creek, north of
the present Saugerties or Esopus Creek. _Sasco,_ or as written _Saaska,_
means "A swamp;" _Assisku_ (Del.), "Mud, clay"; _Asuskokámika,_ "Muddy
place," a gully in which no water was flowing. (Gerard.)
Mananosick--"Along the foot of a high mountain to the path that goes to
Wawyactanock to a hill called by the Indians Mananosick." Also written
_Nanosick._ Eliot wrote, in the Natick dialect, _Nahōōsick,_ "Pinnacle,"
or high peak. The indefinite and impersonal _M'_ or _Ma,_ prefixed,
would add "a" or "the" high peak. The hill has not been located except
in a general way as near the Massachusetts line.
Nanapenahakan and Nanipanihekan are orthographies of the name of a
"creek or brook" described as "coming out of a marsh lying near unto
the hills where the heaps of stones lye." The stream flows to Claverack
Creek. The outlet waters of Achkookpeek Lake unite with it, from which
it is now called Copake Creek. It unites with Kinderhook Creek north of
the city of Hudson.
Wawanaquasik, Claverack Patent, 1649; _Wawanaquassick,_ Livingston
Patent of 1686; _Wawauaquassick_ and _Mawauapquassek,_ patent of 1715;
_Mawanaqwassik,_ surveyor's notation, 1715; now written
_Mawanaquassick_--a boundmark of the Claverack Patent of 1649, and also
of the Livingston Patent, is described in the Claverack Patent, "To the
high woodland called Wawanaquasik," and in the Livingston Patent, "_To
a place_ called by the Indians Wawanaqussek, where the heapes of stone
lye, near to the head of a creek called Nanapenahaken, which comes out
of a marsh lying near unto the hills of the said heapes of stones, upon
which the Indians throw another as they pass by, from an ancient custom
among them." The heap of stones here was "on the south side of the path
leading to Wayachtanok," and other paths diverged, showing that the
place was a place of meeting. "To the high woodland," in the description
of 1649, is marked on the map of survey of 1715, "Foot of the hill,"
apparently a particular point, the place of which was identified by the
head of the creek, the marsh and the heap of stones. The name may have
described this point or promontory, or it may have referred to the
place of meeting near the head of the creek, or to the end of the marsh,
but it is claimed that it was the name of the heap of stones, and that
it is from _Miáe,_ or _Miyáe,_ "Together"--_Mawena,_ "Meeting,"
"Assembly"--frequently met in local names and accepted as meaning,
"Where paths or streams or boundaries come together;" and _Qussuk,_
"stone"--"Where the stones are assembled or brought together," "A stone
heap." This reading is of doubtful correctness. Dr. Trumbull wrote that
_Qussuk,_ [FN-1] meaning "stone," is "rarely, perhaps never" met as a
substantival in local names, and an instance is yet to be cited where
it is so used. It is a legitimate word in some connections, however,
Eliot writing it as a noun in _Môhshe-qussuk,_ "A flinty rock," in the
singular number. If used here it did not describe "a heap of stones,"
but a certain rock. On the map of survey of the patent, in 1798, the
second station is marked "Manor Rock," and the third, "Wawanaquassick,"
is located 123 chains and 34 links (a fraction over one and one-half
miles) north of Manor Rock, as the corner of an angle. In the survey of
1715, the first station is "the foot of the hill"--"the high
woodland"--which seems to have been the _Mawan-uhqu-ōōsik_ [FN-2] of the
text. To avoid all question the heap of stones seems to have been
included in the boundary. It now lies in an angle in the line between
the townships of Claverack and Taghkanic, Columbia County, and is by
far the most interesting feature of the locative--a veritable footprint
of a perished race. Similar heaps were met by early European travelers
in other parts of the country. Rev. Gideon Hawley, writing in 1758,
described one which he met in Schohare Valley, and adds that the
largest one that he ever saw was "on the mountain between Stockbridge
and Great Barrington." Mass. (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 1039.) The
significance of the "ancient custom" of casting a stone to these heaps
has not been handed down. Rev. Mr. Sergeant wrote, in 1734, that though
the Indians "each threw a stone as they passed, they had entirely lost
the knowledge of the reason for doing so," and an inquiry by Rev.
Hawley, in 1758, was not attended by a better result. [FN-3] The heaps
were usually met at resting places on the path and the custom of
throwing the stone a sign-language indicating that one of the tribe had
passed and which way he was going, but further than the explanation
that the casting of the stone was "an ancient custom," nothing may be
claimed with any authority. A very ancient custom, indeed, when its
signification had been forgotten.
* * * * *
[FN-1] Williams wrote in the Narraganset dialect _Qussuck,_ stone;
_Qussuckanash,_ stones; _Qussuckquon,_ heavy. Zeisberger wrote in the
Minsi-Lenape, _Ksucquon,_ heavy; _Achsun,_ stone; _Apuchk,_ rock.
Chippeway, _Assin,_ stone; _Aubik,_ rock. Old Algonquian, _Assin,_
stone. Eliot wrote in the Natick (Mass.) dialect, _Qussuk,_ a rock;
_Qussukquanash,_ rocks; _Hussunash,_ stones; _Hussunek,_ lodge or ledge
of rocks, and for _Hussimek_ Dr. Trumbull wrote _Assinek_ as an
equivalent, and _Hussun_ or _Hussunash,_ stones, as identical with
_Qussukqun,_ heavy. Eliot also wrote _-pick_ or _-p'sk,_ in compound
words, meaning "Rock," or "stone," as qualified by the adjectival
prefix, _Onap'sk,_ "Standing rock."
[FN-2] Literally, "A meeting point," or sharp extremity of a hill.
[FN-3] Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 1039. The heap referred to by Rev. Hawley
was on the path leading to Schohare. It gave name to what was long
known as the "Stoneheap Patent." The heap is now in the town of
Esperance and near Sloansville, Schohare County. It is four rods long,
one or two wide, and ten to fifteen feet high. (French.)
Ahashewaghick and Ahashewaghkameck, the latter in corrected patent of
1715, is given as the name of the northeast boundmark of the Manor of
Livingston, and described as "the northernmost end of the hills that
are to the north of Tachkanick"--specifically by the surveyor, "To a
heap of stones laid together on a certain hill called by the Indians
Ahashawaghkik, by the north end of Taghanick hill or mountain"--has
been translated from _Nash-ané-komuk_ (Eliot), "A place between." Dr.
Trumbull noted _Ashowugh-commocke,_ from the derivatives
quoted--_Nashaué,_ "between"; _-komuk,_ "place," limited, enclosed,
occupied, _i. e._ by "a heap of stones laid together," probably by the
surveyor of the prior Van Rensselaer Patent, of which it was also a
boundmark. The hill is now the northeast comer of the Massachusetts
boundary line, or the north end of Taghkanick hills.
Taghkanick, the name of a town in Columbia County and primarily of a
tract of land included in the Livingston Patent and located "behind
_Potkoke,_" is written _Tachkanick_ in the Indian deed of 1685;
_Tachhanick_ in the Indian deed of 1687-8; "Land called _Tachhanick_
which the owners reserved to plant upon when they sold him _Tachhanick,_
with the land called Quissichkook;" _Tachkanick,_ "having the kill on
one side and the hill on the other"; _Tahkanick_ (Surveyor's notation)
1715--is positively located by the surveyor on the east side of the kill
called by the Indians _Saukhenak,_ and by the purchasers Roelof Jansen's
Kill. Of the meaning of the name Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan wrote:
"_Tachanûk,_ 'Wood place,' literally, 'the woods,' from _Takone,_
'forest,' and _ûk,_ 'place'"; which Dr. Trumbull regarded as "the least
objectionable" of any of the interpretations that had fallen under his
notice, and to which he added: "Literally, 'wild lands,' 'forest.'" It
would seem to be more probable that _Tachk, Taghk, Tachh, Tahk,_ etc.,
represents _Tak_ (Taghk), with formative _an, Taghkan,_ meaning "wood;"
and _ek,_ animate plural added, "Woods," "trees," "forest." Dr.
O'Callaghan's _ûk_ (ook), "Land or place," is not in any of the
orthographies. The deed-sentence, "When they sold him Tachanick," reads
literally, from the name, "When they sold him the woods." The name was
extended to the reserved field, to the stream and to the mountain. [FN]
The latter is familiar to geologists in what is known as the Taconic
rocks. Translations of the name from Del. _Tuphanné,_ "Cold stream,"
and _Tankkanné,_ "Little river," are without merit, although _Tankhanné_
would describe the branch of Roelof Jansen's Kill on which the
plantation was located.
* * * * *
[FN] The purchasers claimed but the Indians denied having sold the
mountain. It was heavily wooded no doubt. Livingston claimed it from
having bought "the woods." The Moravian missionaries wrote, in 1744,
_W'takantschan,_ which Dr. Trumbull converted to _Ket-takone-wadchu,_
"Great woody mountain."
Wichquapakat, Wichquapuchat, Wickquapubon, the latter by the surveyor,
given as the name of the southeast boundmark of the Livingston Patent
and therein described as "the south end of the hills," of which
Ahashawagh-kameck was the north. _Wichqua_ is surely an equivalent of
_Wequa_ (_Wehqua,_ Eliot), "As far as; ending at; the end or extreme,
point." [FN] Now the southwest corner on the Massachusetts line.
* * * * *
[FN] Robert Livingston, who wrote most of the Indian names in his
patent, was a Scotchman. He learned to "talk Dutch" in Rotterdam, and
picked up an acquaintance with the Indian tongues at Fort Orange
(Albany). Some of his orthographies are singular combinations.
Mahaskakook, a boundmark in the Livingston Patent, is described, in one
entry, as "A copse," _i. e._ "A thicket of underbrush," and in another
entry, "A cripple bush," _i. e._ "A patch of low timber growth"--Dutch,
_Kreupelbosch,_ "Underwood." Probably the Indian name has, substantially,
the same moaning. _Manask_ (Del.), "Second crop"; _-ask,_ "Green, raw,
immature"; _-ak,_ "wood"; _-ook_ (_ûk_), locative. The location has not
been ascertained.
Nachawawakkano, given as the name of a creek described as a "creek which
comes into another creek," is an equivalent of _Léchau-wakhaune_
(Lenape), "The fork of a river," a stream that forks another stream.
Aupaumut, the Stockbridge Historian, wrote, with locative suffix,
_Naukhuwwhnauk,_ "At the fork of the streams."
Mawichnauk--"the place where the two streams meet being called
Mawichnauk"--means "The fork place," or place where the Nachawawakkano
and the Tawastaweka came together, or where the streams meet or flow
together. In the Bayard Patent the name is written Mawighanuck and
Wawieghanuck. (See Wawighanuck.)
Shaupook and Skaukook are forms of the name assigned to the eastern
division of a stream, "which, a little lower down," was "called
Twastawekah," known later as Claverack Creek. It may be translated from
_Sóhk,_ Mass., "outlet," and _ûk,_ locative, "At the outlet" or mouth
of the stream.
Twastawekah and Tawastawekah, given, in the Livingston Patent, as the
name of Claverack Creek, is described as a place that was below Shaukook,
The root is _Tawa,_ an "open space," and the name apparently an
equivalent of Lenape _Tawatawikunk,_ "At an open place," or an
uninhabited place, a wilderness. _Tauwata-wique-ak,_ "A place in the
wilderness." (Gerard.)
Sahkaqua, "the south end of a small piece of land called Sahkaqua and
Nakawaewick"; "to a run of water on ye east end of a certain flat or
piece of land called in ye Indian tongue, Sahkahka; then south . . . one
hundred and forty rods to . . . where two runs of water come together
on the south side of the said flat; then west . . . to a rock or great
stone on the south corner of another flat or piece of low land called by
the Indians Nakaowasick." (Doc. Hist., iii, 697.) On the surveyor's map
Nakaowasick, the place last named, is changed to Acawanuk. From the
text, _Sahkaqua_ described "Land or place at the outlet or mouth of a
stream," from _Sóhk,_ "outlet," and _-ohke,_ "land" or place. The
second name _Nakawaewick_ (Nakaouaewik, Nakawasick, Acawasik) is
probably from _Nashauewasuck,_ "At (or on) a place between," _i. e._
between the streams spoken of.
Minnischtanock, in the Indian deed to Livingston, 1685, located the end
of a course described as "Beginning on the northwest side of Roelof
Jansen's Kill," and in the patent, "Beginning on the other side of the
creek that runs along the flat or plain land _over against_
Minnisichtanock, and from thence along a small hill to a valley," etc.
The name has been interpreted "Huckleberry-hill place," from _Min,_
"Small fruit or grain of any kind"; _-achtenne,_ "hill"; _-ûk,_ locative.
Kackkawanick, written also Kachtawagick, Kachkawyick, and Kachtawayick,
is described in the deed, as "A high place to the westward of a high
mountain." Location has not been ascertained. From the map it seems to
have been a long, narrow piece of land between the hills.
Quissichkook, Quassighkook, etc., one of the two places reserved by the
Indians "to plant upon" when they sold Tachkanik, is described in the
deed as a place "lying upon this (_i. e._ the west) side of Roelof
Jansen's Kill" and "near Tachanik," the course running "thence along a
small hill to a valley that leads to a small creek called by the Indians
Quissichkook, and over the creek to a high place to the westward of a
high mountain called by the natives Kachtawagick." In a petition by
Philip Schuyler, 1686, the description reads: "Quassichkook, . . .
lying on the east side of Roelof Jansen's Kill," and the place as a tract
of woodland. The name was probably that of a wooded bluff on the east
side of the creek. It seems to be from _Kussuhkoc_ (Moh.), "high," and
_-ook,_ locative--"At, to or on a high place"--from which the stream and
the plantation was located. (See Quassaick.)
Pattkoke, a place so called, also written _Pot-koke,_ gave name to a
large tract of land patented to Johannes Van Rensselaer in 1649. In
general terms the tract was described as lying "South of Kinder-hook,
[FN-1] east of Claverack, [FN-2] and west of Taghkanick" (Doc. Hist.
N. Y., iii, 617), and also as "Lying to the east of Major Abraham's
patent of Claverack." [FN-3] Specifically, in a caveat filed by John
Van Rensselaer, in 1761, "From the mouth of Major Staats, or Kinderhook
Kill, south along the river to a point opposite the south end of Vastrix
Island, thence easterly twenty-four English miles," etc. (Cal. N. Y.
Land Papers, 307. See also, Wachanekasaik.) It was an immense tract,
covering about eight miles on the Hudson by twenty-four miles deep, and
became known as "The Lower Manor of Rensselaerswyck," but locally as
Claverack, from its frontage on the river-reach so called. The name was
that of a particular place which was well known from which it was
extended to the tract. In "History of Columbia County" this particular
place is claimed to have been the site of an Indian village situate
"about three (Dutch, or nine English) miles inland from Claverack."
(Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv, 84.) The record does not give the name, nor does
it say "village," but place. The local story is, therefore, largely
conjectural. The orthographies of the name are imperfect. Presumably,
they may be read from Mass. _Pautuckoke,_ meaning "Land or country
around the falls of a stream," and the reference to some one of the
several falls on Claverack Creek, or on Eastern Creek, its principal
tributary. Both streams were included in the patent, and both are marked
by falls and rifts, but on the latter there are several "cataracts and
falls of great height and surpassing beauty." "Nothing but a greater
volume of water is required to distinguish them as being among the
grandest in the world," adds the local historian. The special reference
by the writer was to the falls at the manufacturing village known as
Philmont, nine miles east of the Hudson, corresponding with the record
of the "place" where the Indians assembled in 1663-4. _Pautuck_ is met
in many forms. It means, "The falls of a stream." With the suffix, _-oke_
(Mass. _-auke_), "Land, ground, place, unlimited"--"the country around
the falls," or the falls country. (See Potick.)
* * * * *
[FN-1] Kinderhook is an anglicism of Dutch _Kinder-hoek,_ meaning,
literally, "Children's point, angle or corner." It dates from the
Carte Figurative of 1614-16, and hence is one of the oldest names on
Hudson's River. It is supposed to have been applied from a gathering of
Indian children on a point of land to gaze upon the ship of the early
navigator. It could not have been a Dutch substitute for an Indian name.
It is pure Dutch. It was not an inland name. The navigator of 1614-16
did not explore the country.
[FN-2] _Claverack_--Dutch, _Claverrak_--literally, "Clover reach--a
sailing course or reach, so called from three bare or open fields which
appear on the land, a fancied resemblance to _trefoil_ or three-leaved
clover," wrote Jasper Dankers and Peter Sluyter in their Journal in
1679-80. Presumably the places are specifically located in the patent
to Jan Frans van Heusen, May, 1667, on which the city of Hudson now
stands, which is described as "A tract of land which takes in three of
the Clavers on the south." From the locative the reach extended some
miles north and south and to lands which it bounded. It is still
preserved as the name of a creek, a town and a village. Of record it
dates back to De Laet's map of 1625-6, and is obviously much older. It
is possible that the "three bare places" were fields of white clover,
as has been claimed by one writer, but there is no record stating that
fact. Dankers and Sluyter, who wrote only fifty-four years after the
application of the name, no doubt gave correctly the account of its
origin as it was related to them by living witnesses. If interpreted as
were the names of other reaches, the reference would be to actual
clover fields.
[FN-3] "Major Abraham" was Major Abraham Staats, who located on a neck
of land on the north side of "Major Staats' Creek," now Stockport Creek.
(See Ciskhakainck.) "West of Taghkanick," probably refers to the
mountains now so known. It means, literally, however, "The woods."
(See Taghkanick.) There was a heated controversy between the patroon of
Rensselaerswyck and Governor Stuyvesant in regard to the purchase of
the tract. It was decided in 1652 in favor of the former, who had, in
the meantime, granted several small leaseholds. (See Brodhead's Hist.
N. Y., i.) The first settlement by the patroon was in 1705 at Claverack
village.
Ciskhekainck and Cicklekawick are forms of the name of a place granted
by patent to Major Abraham Staats, March 25, 1667, and to his son in
1715, described as "Lying north of Claverack [Hudson], on the east side
of the river, along the Great Kill [Kinderhook Creek], to the first fall
of water; then to the fishing place, containing two hundred acres, more
or less, bounded by the river on one side and by the Great Kill on the
other." Major Staats had made previous settlement on the tract under
lease from Van Rensselaer. His house and barn were burned by the Indians
in the Esopus war of 1663. In 1715, he being then dead, his son, Abraham,
petitioned for an additional tract described as "Four hundred acres
adjoining the north line of the neck of land containing two hundred
acres now in his possession, called Ciskhekainck, on the north side of
Claverack, on ye east side of Hudson's River." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers,
118.) The petition was granted and the two parcels consolidated. The
particular fall referred to is probably that now known as Chittenden's,
on Kinderhook (now Stockport) Creek, a short distance west of Stockport
Station. It may be called a series of falls as the water primarily
descended on shelves or steps. It was noted as remarkable by Dankens
and Sluyter in 1679-80. [FN] Claverack Creek unites with Stockport Creek
just west of the falls. In other connections both streams are called
mill streams. In the Stephen Bayard patent of 1741, the name of the fall
on Stockport Creek is noted as "A certain fall . . . called by the
Indians _Kasesjewack_" The several names are perhaps from _Cochik'uack_
(Moh.), "A wild, dashing" stream. _Cochik'uack,_ by the way, is one of
the most corrupted names of record.
* * * * *
[FN] "We came to a creek, where, near the river, lives a man whom they
call the Child of Luxury (_t'kinder van walde_). He had a sawmill on
the creek or waterfall, which is a singular one. The water falls quite
steep in one body, but it comes down in steps, with a broad rest
sometimes between them. These steps were sixty feet or more high, and
were formed out of a single rock."
Kesieway's Kil, described in an Indian deed to Garritt van Suchtenhorst,
1667-8. "A certain piece of land at Claverack between the bouwery of
Jan Roother and Major Abraham Staats, beginning at a fall at the kil
called Kesieway's Kil." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 51, 57.) The tract seems
to have been on Claverack Creek south of Stockport "Jan Roothers" is
otherwise written, "Jan Hendricksen, alias Jan Roothaer." _Roth_ (German)
means "red," _-aer_ is from German _Haar_ (hair). He was known locally
as "Jan, the red-head." The location of the fall has not been
ascertained. _Kashaway_ Creek is a living form of the name in the town
of Greenport, Columbia County. On the opposite side of the Hudson the
same name apparently, appears in Keesieway, Kesewey, etc., as that of a
"chief or sachem" of the Katskill Indians. (See Keessienwey's Hoeck.)
Pomponick, Columbia County. (N. Y. Land Papers.) _Pompoenik,_ a fort to
be erected at "about the barn of Lawrence van Alen." (Doc. Hist. N. Y.,
ii, 90.) _Pompoen_ is Dutch for pumpkin. The name is also written as
that of an Indian owner--"the land bought by Jan Bruyn of Pompoen."
(Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 545.) Pompoeneck is the form of the signature
to deed.
Mawighanuck, Mawighunk, Waweighannuck, Wawighnuck, forms of the name
preserved as that of the Bayard Patent, Columbia County, described as a
place "Lying to the northwest of Kinderhook, about fifteen miles from
Hudson's River, upon Kinderhook River and some branches thereof, part of
which tract is known by the Indian name of Mawighanuck." The particular
"part" noted has not been located, but it seems to have been where one
of the branches of Kinderhook Creek united with that stream. (See
Mawichnauk.)
Mogongh-kamigh, a boundmark of the Bayard Patent (Land Papers, 245), is
located therein, "From a fall on said river called by the Indians
Kasesjewack to a certain place called by the natives Mogongh-kamigh,
then up the southeast branch," etc. The name means, probably, "Place of
a great tree."
Kenaghtiquak, "a small stream" so called, was the name of a boundmark of
the Peter Schuyler Patent, described, "Beginning where three oak trees
are marked, lying upon a small creek, to the south of Pomponick, called
by the Indians Kenaghtiquak, and running thence," etc. It probably
stands for _Enaughtiqua-ûk,_ "The beginning place."
Machachoesk, a place so called in Columbia County, has not been located.
It is described of record as a place "lying on both sides of Kinderhook
Creek," and may have taken its name from an adjacent feature.
Wapemwatsjo, the name of a hill in Columbia County, is a Dutch
orthography of _Wapim-wadchu,_ "Chestnut Hill." The interpretation is
correctly given in the accompanying alternate, "or Karstengeberg"
(Kastanjeberg, Dutch), "Chestnut Hill."
Kaunaumeek, an Indian village sixteen miles east of Albany, in the town
of Nassau, Rensselaer County, was the scene of the labors of Moravian
missionaries, and especially of Missionary Brainerd. It was long known
as Brainerd's Bridge, and is now called Brainerds. The name is Lenape
(German notation) and the equivalent of _Quannamáug,_ Nar., _Gunemeek,_
Len., "Long-fish place," a "Fishing-place for lampreys." The form,
Kaunaumeek, was introduced here by the Moravian missionaries.
Scompamuck is said to have been the name of the locality now covered by
the village of Ghent, Columbia County, perhaps more strictly the head
of the outlet of Copake Lake where an Indian settlement is located on
early maps. The suffix, _-amuck,_ is the equivalent of _-amaug,_ "fishing
place." _Ouschank-amaug,_ from _Ousch-acheu,_ "smooth, slippery," hence
eel or lamprey--"a fishing-place for eels."
Copake, the modern form of the name of a lake in Columbia County, is of
record _Achkookpeek_ (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii. 628), meaning, literally,
"Snake water," from _Achkook,_ "Snake," and _-péek,_ "Water place," pool
or pond. Hendrick Aupaumut, the Historian of the Stockbridge-Mahicans,
wrote: "_Ukhkokpeck;_ it signifies snake-water, or water where snakes
are abundant." On a map of the boundary line between Massachusetts and
New York an Indian village is located at the outlet of the lake,
presumably that known as Scompamuck.
Kaphack, on Westenhook River, a place described as "Beginning at an
Indian burying-place hard by Kaphack," probably means "A separate
place"--"land not occupied." The tract began at "an Indian
burying-place," and presumably took its name therefrom. _Chépeck,_ "The
dead;" _Chépeack,_ "Place of the dead." (See Shapequa.)
Valatie, the name of a village in Columbia County, is Dutch. It means
"Vale, valley, dale, dell," and not "Little Falls," as rendered in
French's Gazetteer. _Waterval_ is Dutch for "Waterfall." _Vallate,_ Low
Latin for "valley," is the derivative of _Valatie,_ as now written.
Schodac, now covered by the village of Castleton (Schotax, 1677;
Schotack, 1768), was the place of residence of Aepjin, sachem, or "peace
chief," of the Mahicans. [FN-1] It has been translated from _Skootay,_
Old Algonquian (_Sqúta,_ Williams), "fire," and _-ack,_ "place,"
literally, "Fire Place," or place of council. It was extended to Smack's
Island, opposite Albany, which was known to the early Dutch as
"Schotack, or Aepjen's Island." It is probable, however, that the
correct derivative is to be found in _Esquatak,_ or Eskwatak, the record
name of the ridge of land east of Castleton, near which the Mahican fort
or palisaded village was located, from which Castleton takes its name.
_Esquatak_ is pretty certainly an equivalent of _Ashpohtag_ (Mass.),
meaning "A high place." Dropping the initial _A,_ and also the letter
_p_ and the second _h,_ leaves Schotack or Shotag; by pronunciation
Schodac. Eshodac, of which Meshodack [FN-2] is another form, the name of
a high peak in the town of Nassau, Rensselaer County, has become Schodac
by pronunciation. It has been claimed that the landing which Hudson made
and so particularly described in Juet's Journal, was at Schodac. [FN-3]
The Journal relates that the "Master's mate" first "went on land with
an old savage, the governor of the country, who carried him to his house
and made him good cheere." The next day Hudson himself "Sailed to the
shore, in one of their canoe's, with an old man who was chief of a tribe
consisting of forty men and seventeen women," and it is added, "These I
saw there in a house well constructed of oak bark and circular in shape,
so that it had the appearance of being built with an arched roof."
Presumably the house was near the shore of the river and in occupation
during the fishing and planting season. The winter castle was further
inland. The "arched roof" indicates that it was one of the "long" houses
so frequently described, not a cone-like cabin. The "tribe" was the
sachem's family.
* * * * *
[FN-1] Aepjin's name appears of record first in 1645 as the
representative of the Westchester County clans in negotiating a treaty
of peace with the Dutch. In the same capacity he was at Esopus in 1660.
He could hardly have been the "old man" whom Hudson met in 1609. In one
entry his name is written "Eskuvius, alias Aepjin (Little Ape)," and in
another "Called by the Dutch Apeje's (Little Ape's) Island." He may have
been given that name from his personal appearance, or it may have been
a substitute for a name which the Dutch had heard spoken. Eliot wrote,
"_Appu,_ He sits; he rests, remains, abides; _Keu Apean,_ Those that
sittest," descriptive of the rank of a resident ruler or peace chief,
one of a class of sachems whose business it was to maintain the
covenants between his own and other tribes, and negotiate treaties of
peace on their behalf or for other tribes when called upon. From his
totemic signature he was of the Wolf tribe of the Mahicans. (See
Keessienway's Hoeck.)
[FN-2] The prefixed _M,_ sometimes followed by a short vowel or an
apostrophe (M'), has no definite or determinate force. (Trumbull.)
[FN-3] The Journal locates the place at Lat. 42 deg. 18 min. This would
be about five miles (statute) north of the present city of Hudson.
"But," wrote Brodhead, "Latitudes were not as easily determined in
those days as they are now; and a careful computation of the distances
run by the Half-Moon, as recorded in Juet's day-book, shows that on the
18th of September, 1609, when the landing occurred, she must have been
'up six leagues higher' than Hudson, in the neighborhood of Schodac and
Castleton."
Sickenekas, given as the name of a tract of land on the east side of the
river, "opposite Fort Orange (Albany), above and below," dates from a
deed to Van Rensselaer, 1637, the name of one of the grantors of which
is written Paepsickenekomtas. The name is now written Papskanee and
applied to an island.
Sicajoock, (Wickagjock, Wassenaer), is given as the name of a tract on
the east side of the river extending from Smack's Island to Castle Island
where it joined lands "called Semesseeck," Gesmessecks, etc., which
extended north to Negagonse, "being about twelve miles (Dutch), large
measure." The northern limit seems to have been Unuwat's Castle on the
north side of a stream flowing to the Hudson north of "opposite to
Rensselaer's Kil and waterfall." _Sicajoock_ (Dutch notation), "Black,
or dark colored earth," from _Sûcki_ "Dark colored, inclining to black,"
and _-ock,_ "land." The same name is written Suckiage (_ohke_) in
application to the Hartford meadows, Conn.
Gesmesseeck, a tract of land so called, otherwise entered of record
"Nawanemit's particular land called _Semesseerse,_ lying on the east
bank, opposite Castle Island, off unto Fort Orange." "Item--from
Petanoc, the mill stream, away north to Negagonse." In addition Van
Rensselaer then purchased lands held in common by several owners,
"extending up the river, south and north" from Fort Orange, "unto a
little south of Moeneminnes castle," "being about twelve miles, large
measure." Moeneminne's castle was on Haver Island at Kahoes.
_Semesseerse_ is the form of the name in deed as printed in Col. Hist.
N. Y., vol. i, p. 44, and Gesmesseecks p. 1, v. iv. Kesmesick is another
form and perhaps also Taescameasick. (See Patuckquapaen.) The several
forms of the name illustrate the effort on the part of the early Dutch,
who were then limitedly acquainted with the Indian tongue, to give
orthographies to the names which they heard spoken.
Passapenoc, Pahpapaenpenock and Sapanakock, forms of the name of Beeren
Island, lying opposite Coeymans, is from an edible tuber which was
indigenous on it. [FN] The Dutch name Beeren or Beerin, means, literally,
"She bear," usually called Bear's Island. De Laet wrote "Beeren" in 1640.
* * * * *
[FN] "The Indians frequently designated places by the names of esculent
or medicinal roots which were there produced. In the Algonquin language
the generic names for tubers was _pen,_ varying in some dialects to
_pin, pena, pon,_ or _bun._ This name seems originally to have belonged
to the common ground nut: _Apias tuberosa._ Abnaki, _pen,_ plural,
_penak._ Other species were designated by prefixes to this generic, and,
in the compositions of place names, was employed to denote locality
(_auk, auki, ock,_ etc.), or by an abundance verb (_kanti-kadi_). Thus
_p'sai-pen,_ 'wild onions,' with the suffix for place, _ock,_ gave
_p'sai-pen-auk,_ or as written by the Dutch, _Passapenock,_ the Indian
name for Beeren Island." (J. H. Trumbull, Mag. of Am. Hist I, 387.)
Patuckquapaen and Tuscumcatick are noted in French's Gazetteer as names
of record in what is now the town of Greenbush, Rensselaer County,
without particular location. The first is in part Algonquian and in part
Dutch. The original was, no doubt, _Patuckquapaug,_ as in Greenwich,
Ct., meaning "Round pond." The Dutch changed _paug_ to _paen_ descriptive
of the land--low land--so we have, as it stands, "Round land," "elevated
hassocks of earth, roots," etc. (See Patuckquapaug.) The second name is
written in several forms--Taescameatuck, Taescameesick, and
Gessmesseecks. _Greenbush_ is an anglicism of _Gran Bosch,_ Dutch,
meaning, literally, "Green forest." The river bank was fringed by a long
stretch of spruce-pine woods. Dutch settlement began here about 1631.
In 1641 a ferry was established at the mouth of the _Tamisquesuck_ or
Beaver Creek, and has since been maintained. About the same year a small
fort, known as Fort Cralo, was constructed by Van Rensselaer's
superintendent.
Poesten Kill, the name of a stream and of a town in Rensselaer County,
is entered in deed to Van Rensselaer in 1630, "Petanac, the mill stream";
in other records, "_Petanac,_ the Molen Kil," and "De Laet's Marlen Kil
and Waterval." _Petanac,_ the Indian name, is an equivalent of
Stockbridge _Patternac,_ which King Ninham, in an affidavit, in 1762,
declared meant "A fall of water, and nothing more." "Molen Kil" (Dutch),
means "mill water." "De Laet's Marlen Kil ende Waterval," locates the
name as that of a well-known waterfall on the stream of eighty feet.
Weise, in his "History of Troy," wrote: "Having erected a saw-mill upon
the kill for sawing posts and timber, which was known thereafter as
Poesten mill, the name became extended to the stream," an explanation
that seems to bear the marks of having been coined. From the character
of the stream the name is probably a corruption of the Dutch _Boosen,_
"An angry stream," because of its rapid descent. The stream reaches the
Hudson on the north line of Troy. (See Gesmessecks.)
Paanpaach is quoted by Brodhead (Hist. N. Y.) as the name of the site of
the city of Troy. It appears in 1659 in application to bottom lands known
as "The Great Meadows," [FN-1] lying under the hills on the east side of
the Hudson. At the date of settlement by Van der Huyden (1720), it is
said there were stripes or patches within the limits of the present city
which were known as "The corn-lands of the Indians," [FN-2] from which
the interpretation in French's Gazetteer, "Fields of corn," which the
name never meant in any language. The name may have had an Indian
antecedent, but as it stands it is Dutch from _Paan-pacht,_ meaning "Low,
soft land," or farm of leased land. The same name appears in _Paan-pack,_
Orange county, which see.
* * * * *
[FN-1] Weise's Hist. of Troy.
[FN-2] Woodward's Reminiscences of Troy.
Piskawn, of record as the name of a stream on the north line of Troy,
describes a branch or division of a river. Rale wrote in Abnaki,
"_Peskakōōn,_ branche," of which _Piskawn_ is an equivalent.
Sheepshack and Pogquassick are record names in the vicinity of
Lansingburgh. The first has not been located. It seems to stand for
_Tsheepenak,_ a place where the bulbous roots of the yellow lily were
obtained--modern Abnaki, _Sheep'nak._ _Pogquassick_ appears as the name
of a "piece of woodland on the east side of the river, near an island
commonly called Whale-fishing Island," correctly, Whalefish Island. [FN]
This island is now overflowed by the raising of the water by the State
dam at Lansingburgh. The Indian name does not belong to the woodland;
it locates the tract near the island, in which connection it is probably
an equivalent of _Paugasuck,_ "A place at which a strait widens or opens
out" (Trumbull), or where the narrow passage between the island and the
main land begins to widen. In the same district _Pogsquampacak_ is
written as the name of a small creek flowing into Hoosick River.
* * * * *
[FN] "Whale-fishing Island" is a mistranslation of "Walvish Eiland"
(Dutch), meaning simply "Whale Island." It is related by Van der Donck
(1656) that during the great freshet of 1647, a number of whales
ascended the river, one of which was stranded and killed on this
island. Hence the name.
Wallumschack, so written in return of survey of patent granted to
Cornelius van Ness and others, in 1738, for lands now in Washington
County; _Walloomscook,_ and other forms; now preserved in Walloomsac, as
the name of a place, a district of country, and a stream flowing from a
pond on the Green Mountains, in the town of Woodford, near Bennington,
Vermont. [FN-1] It has not been specifically located, but apparently
described a place on the adjacent hills where material was obtained for
making paints with which the Indians daubed their bodies. (See Washiack.)
It is from a generic root written in different dialects, _Walla, Wara_
etc., meaning "Fine, handsome, good," etc., from which in the Delaware,
Dr. Brinton derived _Wálám,_ "Painted, from the sense to be fine in
appearance, to dress, which the Indians accomplished by painting their
bodies," and _-'ompsk_ (Natick), with the related meaning of standing or
upright, the combination expressing "Place of the paint rocks." [FN-2]
The ridges of many of the hills as well as of the mountains in the
district are composed of slate, quartz, sandstone and limestone, which
compose the Takonic system. By exposure the slate becomes disintegrated
and forms an ochery clay of several colors, which the Indians used as
paint. The washing away of the rock left the quartz exposed in the form
of sharp points, which were largely used by the Indians for making axes,
lance-heads, arrow points, etc. Some of the ochre beds have been
extensively worked, and plumbago has also been obtained. White Creek,
in the same county, takes that name from its white clay banks.
* * * * *
[FN-1] Vermont is from _Verd Montagne_ (French), meaning "Green
Mountains," presumably from their verdure, but actually from the
appearance of the hills at a distance from the color of the rocks
reflected in the atmosphere. To the Indian they were Wal'ompskeck,
"fine, handsome rocks."
[FN-2] An interpretation of the name from the form Wallumscnaik, in
Thompson's Hist. Vermont, states that "The termination _'chaik'_
signifies in the Dutch language, 'scrip.' or 'patent.'" This is
erroneous. There is no such word as _chaik_ in the Dutch language. The
_ch_ in the name here stands for _k_ and belongs to _'ompsk._
Tomhenack, Tomhenuk, forms of the name given as that of a small stream
flowing into the Hoosick from the north, [FN] takes that name,
apparently, from an equivalent of _Tomheganic,_ Mass., _Tangamic,_ Del.,
a stone axe or tomahawk, referring to a place where suitable stones were
obtained for making those implements. (Trumbull.) (See Wallumschack.)
* * * * *
[FN] "At a creek called Tomheenecks, beginning at the southerly bounds
of Hoosick, and so running up southerly, on both sides of said creek,
over the path which goes to Sanckhaick." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 194;
petition of John de Peyster, 1730.)
Tyoshoke, now the name of a church at San Coick, Rensselaer County, is
probably from an equivalent of _Toyusk,_ Nar., "a bridge," and _ohke,_
"Place"--a place where the stream was crossed by a log forming a bridge.
It was a well-known fording place for many years, and later became the
site of Buskirk's Bridge.
Sanckhaick, now San Coick, a place in North Hoosick, Rensselaer County,
appears of record in petition of John de Peyster in 1730, and in Indian
deed to Cornelius van Ness and others, in 1732, for a certain tract of
land "near a place called Sanckhaick." The place, as now known, is near
the junction of White Creek and the Wallompskack, where one Van Schaick
made settlement and built a mill at an early date. In 1754 his buildings
were burned by Indian allies of the French. After the war of that period
the mill was rebuilt and became conspicuous in the battle of Bennington,
Aug. 16, 1777. It is claimed that the name is a corruption of Van
Schaick. Col. Baume, commandant of the Hessians in the battle of
Bennington (1777) wrote it Sancoik, which is very nearly Van Schaick.
Schaghticoke, now so written as the name of a town in the northeast
corner of Rensselaer County, and in other connections, is from
_Pishgachtigok_ Mohegan, meaning "Land on the branch or division of a
stream." The locative of the name was at the mouth of Hoosick River on
the Hudson, in Washington County. The earliest record (1685) reads,
"Land at _Schautecógue_" (-ohke). It is a generic name and appears in
several forms and at several places. _Pishgachtigok_ is a form on the
west side of the Housatonic at and near the mouth of Ten-Mile River. It
was the site of an Indian village and the scene of labor by the Moravian
missionaries. In some cases the name is written with locative, "at,"
etc., in others, with substantive meaning land or place, and in others
without suffix. Writes Mr. Gerard, "The name would probably be correctly
written _P'skaghtuk-uk,_" when with locative "at." [FN] Although first
of record in 1685, its application was probably as early as 1675, when
the Pennacooks of Connecticut, fleeing from the disastrous results of
King Phillip's War in which they were allies, found refuge among their
kindred Mahicans, and later were assigned lands at Schaghticoke by
Governor Andros, where they were to serve as allies of the Mohawks. They
seem to have spread widely over the district and to have left their
footprints as far south as the Katskill. It is a tradition that
conferences were held with them on a plain subsequently owned by
Johannes Knickerbocker, some six miles east of the Hudson, and that a
veritable treaty tree was planted there by Governor Andros in 1676-7,
although "planting a tree" was a figurative expression. In later years
the seat of the settlement seems to have been around Schaghticoke hill
and point, where Mashakoes, their sachem, resided. (Annals of Albany,
v, 149.) In the French and Indian war of 1756, the remnant of the tribe
was carried away to Canada by the St. Francis Indians, an organization
of kindred elements in the French service. At one time they are said to
have numbered six hundred warriors. (See Shekomeko.)
* * * * *
[FN] The root of the name is _Peske_ or _Piske_ (_Paske,_ Zeisb.),
meaning, primarily, "To split," "To divide forcibly or abruptly."
(Trumbull.) In Abnaki, _Peskétekwa,_ a "divided tidal or broad river or
estuary"--_Peskahakan_ (Rale), "branche." In the Delaware, Zeisberger
wrote _Pasketiwi,_ "The division or branch of a stream." _Pascataway,_
Md., is an equivalent form. _Pasgatikook,_ Greene County, is from the
Mohegan form. _Paghataghan_ and _Pachkataken,_ on the east branch of
the Delaware, and _Paghatagkam_ on the Otterkill, Vt., are equivalent
forms of _Peskahakan,_ Abnaki. The Hoosick is not only a principal
branch, but it is divided at its mouth and at times presents the
appearance of running north in the morning and south at night.
(Fitch's Surv.)
Quequick and Quequicke are orthographies of the name of a certain fall
on Hoosick River, in Rensselaer County. In petition of Maria van
Rensselaer, in 1684, the lands applied for were described as "Lying on
both sides of a certain creek called Hoosock, beginning at ye bounds of
Schaakook, and so to a fall called Quequick, and thence upward to a
place called Nachacqikquat." (Cal. Land Papers, 27.) The name may stand
for _Cochik'uack_ (Moh.), "Wild, dashing" waters, but I cannot make
anything out of it. The first fall east of Schaakook (Schagticoke)
Patent is now known as Valley Falls, in the town of Pittstown
(Pittstown Station).
Pahhaoke, a local name in Hoosick Valley, is probably an equivalent of
_Pauqna-ohke,_ "Clear land," "open country." It is frequently met in
Connecticut in different forms, as in Pahqui-oke, Paquiag, etc., the
name of Danbury Plains. The form here is said to be from the Stockbridge
dialect, but it is simply an orthography of an English scribe. It has
no relation whatever to the familiar Schaghticoke or Scat'acook.
Panhoosick, so written in Indian deed to Van Rensselaer in 1652, for a
tract of land lying north and east of the present city of Troy,
extending north to nearly opposite Kahoes Falls and east including a
considerable section of Hoosick River, appears in later records as an
apheresis in Hoosick, Hoosack, and Hoosuck, in application to Hoosick
River, Hoosick Mountains, Hoosick Valley, Hoosick Falls, and in "Dutch
Hossuck," an early settlement described in petition of Hendrick van Ness
and others, in 1704, as "land granted to them by Governor Dongan in
1688, known by the Indian name of Hoosack." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers,
27, 74.) The head of the stream appears to have been the outlet of a
lake now called _Pontoosuc_ from the name of a certain fall on its
outlet called _Pontoosuck,_ "A corruption," wrote Dr. Trumbull, "of
_Powntucksuck,_ 'falls of a brook,' or outlet." "_Powntuck,_ a general
name for all falls," according to Indian testimony quoted by the same
writer. "_Pantuck,_ falls of a stream." (Zeisb.) Several interpretations
of the name have been suggested, of which the most probably correct is
from Massachusetts _Pontoosuck,_ which would readily be converted to
Hoosick or Panhoosick (Pontoosuck). It was applicable to any falls, and
may have had locative at Hoosick Falls as well as on the outlet of
Pontoosuck Lake. Without examination or warrant from the local dialect,
Heckewelder wrote in his Lenape tradition, "The Hairless or Naked Bear":
"_Hoosink,_ which means the basin, or more properly, the kettle." The
Lenape or Delaware _Hōōs,_ "certainly means, in that dialect, 'a pot or
kettle.' Figuratively, it might be applied to a kettle-shaped depression
in land or to a particular valley. _Hoosink_ means 'in' or 'at' the pot
or kettle. _Hoosack_ might be read 'round valley land,' or land with
steep sides." (Brinton.) Of course this does not explain the prefix
_Pan_, nor does it prove that _Hōōs_ was in the local dialect, which,
in 1652, was certainly Mahican or Mohegan. Still, it cannot be said that
the tradition was not familiar to all Algonquians in their mythical
lore.
Heckewelder's tradition, "The Naked or Hairless Bear," has its
culmination at a place "lying east of the Hudson," where the last one
of those fabulous animals was killed. "The story," writes Dr. Brinton,
"was that the bear was immense in size and the most vicious of animals.
Its skin was bare except a tuft of white hair on the back. It attacked
and ate the natives and the only means of escape from it was to take to
the waters. Its sense of smell was remarkably keen, but its sight was
defective. As its heart was very small, it could not be easily killed.
The surest plan was to break its back-bone; but so dangerous was it that
those hunters who went in pursuit of it bade families and friends
farewell, as if they never expected to return. The last one was tracked
to Hoosink, and a number of hunters went there and mounted a rock with
precipitous sides. They then made a noise and attracted the beast's
attention, who rushed to the attack with great fury. As he could not
climb the rock, he tore at it with his teeth, while the hunters above
shot him with arrows and threw upon him great stones, and thus killed
him." [FN]
* * * * *
[FN] "The Lenape and their Legends."
The Hoosick River flows from its head, near Pittsfield, Berkshire
County, in Massachusetts, through the Petersburgh Mountains between
precipitous hills, and carries its name its entire length. Fort
Massachusetts, in the present town of Adams, Mass., was on its borders
and in some records was called Fort Hoosick. It was captured by the
French and their Indians in 1746. The general course of the stream is
north, west, and south to the Hudson in the northwest corner of
Rensselaer County, directly opposite the village of Stillwater,
Saratoga County. There are no less than three falls on its eastern
division, of which the most considerable are Hoosick Falls, where the
stream descends, in rapids and cascades, forty feet in a distance of
twelve rods. Dr. Timothy Dwight, who visited it in the early part of the
19th century, described it as "One of the most beautiful rivers in the
world." "At different points," he wrote, "The mountains extend their
precipitous declivities so as to form the banks of the river. Up these
precipitous summits rise a most elegant succession of forest trees,
chiefly maple, beech and evergreens. There are also large spots and
streaks of evergreens, chiefly hemlock and spruce." Though, with a
single exception, entered in English records by the name of "Hoosick or
Schaahkook's Creek," it was, from the feature which especially attracted
Dr. Dwight's attention, known to the Iroquois as the _Ti-oneenda-howe,_
or "The river at the hemlocks." [FN]
* * * * *
[FN] See Saratoga. _Ti-oneenda-howe_ was applied by the Mohawks to the
Hoosick, and _Ti-ononda-howe_ to the Batten Kill as positive boundmarks,
the former from its hemlock-clad hills (_onenda_), and the latter from
its conical hills (_ononda_). The late Horatio Hale wrote me:
"_Ti-ononda-howe_ is evidently a compound term involving the word
_ononda_ (or _ononta_), 'hill or mountain.' _Ti-oneenda-howe,_ in like
manner, includes the word _onenda_ (or _onenta_), 'hemlock.' There may
have been certain notable hills or hemlocks which as landmarks gave
names to the streams or located them. The final syllables _howe,_ are
uncertain." (See Di-ononda-howe.)
Cossayuna, said to be from the Mohawk dialect and to signify "Lake of
the pines," is quoted as the name of a lake in the town of Argyle,
Washington County. The translation is correct, substantially, but the
name is Algonquian--a corruption of _Coossa,_ "Pine," [FN] and _Gummee,_
"Lake," or standing water. The terms are from the Ojibway dialect, and
were probably introduced by Dr. Schoolcraft.
* * * * *
[FN] It is of record that "the borders of Hudson's River above Albany,
and the Mohawk River at Schenectady," were known, in 1710, as "the best
places for pines of all sorts, both for numbers and largeness of trees."
(Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 656.) Mass. _Kowas-'ktugh,_ "pine tree." The
name is met in many orthographies.
Anaquassacook, the name of a patent in Washington County, and also of a
village and of a stream of water, was, primarily, the name of a
boundmark. The locative has not been ascertained. _Anakausuk-ook,_ "At
the end of a course," or as far the brook.
Podunk, a brook so called in the town of Fort Ann, Washington County,
is met in several other places. (See Potunk, L. I.) Its meaning has not
been ascertained.
Quatackquaohe, entered on Pownal's map as the name of a tract of land on
the south side of a stream, has explanation in the accompanying entry,
"Waterquechey, or Quatackquaohe." Waterquechey (English) means "Moist
boggy ground," indicating that _Quatackquaohe_ is an equivalent of
_Petuckquiohke,_ Mass., "Round-land place," _i. e._ elevated hassocks
of earth, roots, etc. The explanation by Gov. Pownal may supply a key
to the translation of other names now interpreted indefinitely.
Di-ononda-howe, a name now assigned to the falls on the Batten Kill
below Galeville, Washington County, is Iroquoian and of original
application to the stream itself as written in the Schuyler Patent. It
is a compound descriptive of the locality of the creek, the reference
being to the conical hills on the south side of the stream near the
Hudson, on one of which was erected old Fort Saratoga. The sense is,
"Where a hill interposes," between the object spoken of and the speaker.
The late Superintendent of the Bureau of Ethnology, Prof. J. W. Powell,
wrote me: "From the best expert information in this office, it may be
said that the phonetic value of the final two syllables _howe_ is far
from definite; but assuming that they are equivalent to _huwi_ (with the
European vowel values), the word-sentence Di-ononda-howe means, 'There
it has interposed (a) mountain,' Written in the Bureau alphabet, the
word-sentence would be spelled Ty-ononde-huwi. It is descriptive of the
situation of the creek, but not of the creek itself, and is applicable
to any mountain or high hill which appears between a speaker and some
other object." (See Hoosick.)
Caniade-rioit is given as the name of Lake George, and "The tail of the
lake" as the definition, "on account of its connection with Lake
Champlain." (Spofford's Gazetteer.) Father Jogues, who gave to the lake
the name "Lac de Saint Sacrament" (Lake of the Holy Sacrament), in 1645,
wrote the Mohawk name, _Andiato-rocte_ (French notation), with the
definition, "There where the lake shuts itself in," the reference being
to the north end of the lake at the outlet. This definition is not far
from a correct reading of the suffix _octe_ (_okte,_ Bruyas), meaning
"end," or, in this connection, "Where the lake ends." _Caniade,_ a form
of _Kaniatare,_ is an Iroquoian generic, meaning "lake." The lake never
had a specific name. _Horicon,_ which some writers have endeavored to
attach to it, does not belong to it. It is not Iroquoian, does not mean
"north," nor does it mean "lake" or "silver water," [FN] The present
name was conferred by Sir William Johnson, in honor of King George III,
of England.
* * * * *
[FN] _Horikans_ was written by De Laet, in 1624, as the name of an
Indian tribe living at the head waters of the Connecticut. On an ancient
map _Horicans_ is written in Lat. 41, east of the Narragansetts on the
coast of New England. In the same latitude _Moricans_ is written west
of the Connecticut, and _Horikans_ on the upper Connecticut in latitude
42. _Morhicans_ is the form on Carte Figurative of 1614-16, and
_Mahicans_ by the Dutch on the Hudson. The several forms indicate that
the tribe was the _Moricans_ or _Mourigans_ of the French, the _Maikans_
or _Mahikans_ of the Dutch and the _Mohegans_ of the English. It is
certain that that tribe held the headwaters of the Connecticut as well
as of the Hudson. The novelist, Cooper, gave life to De Laet's
orthography in his "Last of the Mohegans."
Ticonderoga, familiar as the name of the historic fortress at Lake
George, was written by Sir William Johnson, in 1756, _Tionderogue_ and
_Ticonderoro,_ and in grant of lands in 1760, "near the fort at
_Ticonderoga._" Gov. Golden wrote _Ticontarogen,_ and an Iroquoian sachem
is credited with _Decariaderoga._ Interpretations are almost as numerous
as orthographies. The most generally quoted is from Spofford's Gazetteer:
"_Ticonderoga,_ from _Tsindrosie_, or _Cheonderoga,_ signifying
'brawling water,' and the French name, _Carillon,_ signifying 'a chime
of bells,' were both suggested by the rapids upon the outlet of Lake
George." The French name may have been so suggested, but neither
_Tsindrosie_ or _Cheonderoga_ means "brawling water." The latter is
probably an orthography of _Teonderoga._ Ticonderoga as now written, is
from _Te_ or _Ti,_ "dual," two; _Kaniatare,_ "lake," and _-ogen,_
"intervallum, divisionem" (Bruyas), the combination meaning, literally,
"Between two lakes." Horatio Hale wrote me of one of the forms:
"_Dekariaderage,_ in modern orthography, _Tekaniataroken,_ from which
Ticonderoga, means, simply, 'Between two lakes.' It is derived from
_Tioken,_ 'between,' and _Kaniatara,_ 'lake.' Its composition illustrates
a peculiar idiom of the Iroquoian language, _Tioken_ when combined with
a noun, is split in two, so to speak, and the noun inserted. Thus in
combining _Tioken_ with _Ononte,_ 'mountain,' we have _Ti-ononte-oken,_
'Between two mountains,' which was the name of one of the Mohawk
castles--sometimes written Theonondiogo. In like manner, _Kaniatare,_
'lake,' thus compounded, yields _Te-kaniatare-oken,_ 'Between two lakes.'
In the Huron dialect _Kaniatare_ is contracted to _Yontare_ or _Ontare,_
from which, with _io_ or _iyo,_ 'great,' we get _Ontario_ (pronounced
Ontareeyo), 'Great lake' which, combined with _Tioken,_ becomes
_Ti-onteroken,_ which would seem to be the original of Colden's
_Tieronderoga._"
There is rarely an expression of humor in the use of Indian place-names,
but we seem to have it in connection with Dekariaderoga, one of the forms
of Ticonderoga quoted above, which is of record as having been applied
to Joseph Chew, Secretary of Indian Affairs, at a conference with chiefs
of the Six Nations. (Col. Hist. N. Y., viii, 501.) Said the sachem who
addressed Secretary Chew, "We call you Dekariaderoga, the junction of
two lakes of different qualities of water," presumably expressing
thereby, in keeping with the entertainment usually served on such
occasions, that the Secretary was in a condition between "water and
firewater." Neither "junction" or "quality of water" are expressed in
the composition, however; but perhaps are related meanings.
Caniade-riguarunte is given by Governor Pownal as the Iroquoian name of
Lake Champlain, with the legend, "The Lake that is the gate of the
country." (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 1190.) The lake was the route taken
by the Algonquians of Canada in their forays against the Mohawks. Later,
it became a link in the great highway of travel and commerce between
New York and Quebec, via. Hudson's River, in which connection it was
literally "The gate of the country." The legend is not an interpretation
of the Iroquoian name, however. In the French missionary spelling the
generic word for "lake" is _Kaniatare_ of which _Caniaderi_ is an
English notation. The suffix _-guarûnte,_ in connection with
_Caniaderi,_ gives to the combination the meaning, "A lake that is part
of another lake." (J. B. N. Hewitt.) The suffix is readily confused with
_Karonta,_ or _-garonta_ (Mohawk), meaning "tree," from which, probably,
Fennimore Cooper's "Lake of the Woods." "Lake of the Iroquois," entered
on early maps, does not mean that when Champlain visited it in 1609 it
was owned by the Iroquois, but that it was the route from Quebec to the
Iroquois country.
On Long Island.
* * * * *
Matouwackey, Sewanhackey and Paumanackey, in varying orthographies,
are names of record for Long Island, derived from _Meitauawack_
(_Metaûhock,_ Nar.), the name of the shell-fish from which the Indians
made the shell-money in use among them, [FN-1] called by English _Peag,_
from _Wau-paaeek_ [FN-2] (Moh.), "white," and by the Dutch _Sewan_ or
_Zeewan,_ [FN-3] from _Sewaûn_ (Moh.), _Sueki_ (Nar.), "black." This
money was both white and black (so called), the latter the most rare
and valuable. It was in use by the Europeans as a medium of trade with
the Indians, as well as among themselves, by the Indians especially for
the manufacture of their historic peace, tribute, treaty and war belts,
called _Paumaunak_ (_Pau-pau-me-numwe,_ Mass.), "an offering." [FN-4]
_Meitouowack,_ the material, _Waupoaeek_ and _Sewaûn,_ the colors;
_Paumanack,_ the use, "an offering." The suffix of either term (_hock,
hagki, hackee_) is generic for shell--correctly, "An ear-shaped shell."
(Trumbull.) Substantially, by the corruption of the suffix to _hacki_
(Del.), "land" or place, the several terms, as applied to the island,
have the meaning, "The shell island," or "Place of shells." De Laet
wrote, in 1624: "At the entrance of this bay are situated several
islands, or broken land, on which a nation of savages have their abode,
who are called Matouwacks; they obtain a livelihood by fishing within
the bay, whence the most easterly point of the land received the name
of Fisher's Hook and also Cape de Bay." Van der Donck entered on his
map, "t' Lange Eyland, alias, Matouwacks." "Situate on the island called
by the Indians Sewanhacky." (Deed of 1636.) "Called in ye Indian tongue
Suanhackey." (Deed of 1639.) Than these entries there is no claim that
the island ever had a specific name, and that those quoted were from
shells and their uses is clear. Generically the island was probably
known to the Minsi and neighboring tribes as _Menatey,_ "The island,"
as stated by Dr. Trumbull; smaller islands being known as _Menatan,_ from
which _Manathan_ and _Manhatan._ The occupants of the island were a
distinct group of Algonquian stock, speaking on the east a dialect more
or less of the Massachusetts type, and on the west that known as
Monsey-Lenape, both types, however, being largely controlled by the
Dutch and the English orthographies in which local notings appear. They
were almost constantly at war with the Pequods and Narragansetts, but
there is no evidence that they were ever conquered, and much less that
they were conquered by the Iroquois, to whom they paid tribute for
protection in later years, as they had to the Pequods and to the
English; nor is there evidence that their intercourse with the river
tribes immediately around them was other than friendly.
* * * * *
[FN-1] "_Meteauhock,_ the Periwinkle of which they made their wampum."
(Williams.) "Perhaps derived from _Mehtauog,_ 'Ear-shaped,' with the
generic suffix _hock_ (_hogki, hackee_), 'shell.'" (Trumbull.)
[FN-2] _Wompompeag_ is another form quoted as Mohegan, from which
_Wompum._ "_Wompom,_ which signifies white." (Roger Williams.)
[FN-3] _Seahwhoog,_ "they are scattered." (Eliot.) "From this word the
Dutch traders gave the name of _Sewan,_ or _Zeawand,_ to all shell
money; just as the English called all _Peag,_ or strung beads, by the
name of the white, _Wampum._" (Trumbull.)
[FN-4] An interpretation of _Paumanack_ as indicating a people
especially under tribute, is erroneous. The belts which they made were
in universal use among the nations as an offering, the white belts
denoting good, as peace, friendship, etc., the black, the reverse. The
ruling sachem, or peace-chief, was the keeper and interpreter of the
belts of his nation, and his place sometimes took its name from that
fact. That several of the sachems did sign their names, or that their
names were signed by some one for them, "Sachem of Pammananuck," proves
nothing in regard to the application of that name to the island.
Wompenanit is of record as the name of "the utmost end eastward" of the
Montauk Peninsula. The description reads: "From the utmost end of the
neck eastward, called Wompenanit, to our utmost bound westward, called
Napeake." (Deed of July 11, 1661.) In other papers Wompenonot and
Wompenomon, corrupted orthographies. The meaning is "The utmost end
eastward," _i. e._ from the east side of Napeake to the extreme end.
The derivatives are Nar. _Wompan_ (from _Wompi,_ white, bright), "It is
full daylight, bright day," hence the Orient, the East, the place of
light, and _-anit,_ "To be more than," extending beyond the ordinary
limit. The same word appears in _Wompanánd,_ "The Eastern God"
(Williams), the deity of light. From _Wompi,_ also _Wapan_ in
_Wapanachkik,_ "Those of the eastern region," now written _Abanaqui_ and
_Abnaki,_ and confined to the remnant of a tribe in Maine. (See
Wahamanesing,) Dr. Trumbull wrote: "_Anit,_ the subjunctive participle
of a verb which signifies 'To be more than,' 'to surpass'"; with
impersonal _M_ prefixed, _Manit,_ as in _Manitou,_ a name given by the
Indians, writes Lahontan, "To all that passes their understanding";
hence interpreted by Europeans, "God." It has no such meaning in
_Wompenanit,_ but defined a limit that was "more than," or the extreme
limits of the island. No doubt, however, the Indians saw, as do visitors
of to-day, at the utmost end of the Montauk Peninsula, in its breast of
rock against which the ocean-waves dash with fearful force; its
glittering sun-light and in its general features, a _Wompanánd,_ or
Eastern God, that which was "more than ordinary, wonderful, surpassing,"
but those features are not referred to in _Wompenanit,_ except, perhaps,
as represented by the glittering sun-light, the material emblem of the
mystery of light--"where day-light appears."
Montauk, now so written--in early orthographies _Meantacut,_
_Meantacquit,_ etc.--was not the name of the peninsula to which it is
now applied, but was extended to it by modern Europeans from a specific
place. The extreme end was called by the Indians _Wompenanit,_ and the
point, _Nâïag,_ "Corner, point or angle," from which Adriaen Block
wrote, in 1614, _Nahicans,_ "People around the point," a later Dutch
navigator adding (War Dep. Map) the topographical description, _Nartong,_
"A barren, ghastly tongue." The name has had several interpretations by
Algonquian students, but without entire satisfaction even to themselves.
Indeed, it may be said with truth, "It has been too much translated" to
invite further study with the hope of a better result. The orthography
usually quoted for interpretation appears first in South Hampton Records
in an Indian deed of 1640, "_Manatacut,_ his X mark," the grantor being
given the name of the place which he represented, as appears from the
same records (1662), "Wyandanch, Meantacut sachem," or sachem of
Meantac. The Indian deed reads: "The neck of land commonly known by the
name of Meantacquit, . . . Unto the east side of Napeak, next unto
Meantacut high lands." In other words the high lands bounded the place
called Meantacqu, the suffix _-it_ or _-ut_ meaning "at" that place.
The precise place referred to was then and is now a marsh on which is a
growth of shrub pines, and cedars. Obviously, therefore, _Meantac_ or
_Meantacqu,_ is an equivalent of Mass. _Manantac,_ "Spruce swamp," and
of Del. _Menántac,_ "Spruce, cedar or pine swamp." (Zeisb.) The Abn.
word _Mannaⁿdakôô,_ "cedar" (Mass. _-uɧtugh;_ Nar. _áwtuck_), seems
to establish conclusively that _-ántak_ was the general generic suffix
for all kinds of coniferous trees, and with the prefix _Men, Man, Me,_
etc., described small or dwarf coniferous trees usually found growing
in swamps, and from which swamps took the name. [FN] There is nothing
in the name or in its corruptions that means "point," "high lands,"
"place of observation," "fort," "fence," or "confluence"; it simply
describes dwarf coniferous trees and the place which they marked. The
swamp still exists, and the dwarf trees also at the specific east bound
of the lands conveyed. (See Napeak.)
* * * * *
[FN] The Indians had specific names for different kinds of trees. The
generic general word was _Me'hittuk_ or _M'hittugk,_ Del., _M'tugh,_
Mass., which, as a suffix, was reduced to _-ittuk, -utugh, -tagh,
-tack, -tacque,_ etc., frequently _ak,_ which is the radical. Howden
writes in Cree: "_Atik_ is the termination for the names of trees,
articles made of wood," etc. _Mash-antack-uk,_ Moh., was translated by
Dr. Trumbull from _Mish-untugh-et,_ Mass., "Place of much wood."
_Mannaⁿdakōō_ is quoted as the Abn. word for "cedar;" _Mishquáwtuck,_
Nar., "Red cedar." _Menántachk,_ "Swamp" (Len. Eng. Dic.), is explained
by Rev. Anthony, "with trees meeting above." _Menautac,_ "Spruce,
cedar or pine swamp" (Zeisb.), from the kind of trees growing in the
swamp, but obviously _antac_ never described a swamp, or trees growing
in swamps, without the prefix _Men, Man, Me,_ etc. _Keht-antak_ means
a particularly large tree which probably served as a boundmark. It may
be a question if the initial _a_ in _antak_ was not nasal, as in Abn.,
but there can be none in regard to the meaning of the suffix.
Napeak, East Hampton deed of 1648, generally written _Napeaka, Neppeage_
and _Napeague,_ and applied by Mather (Geological Survey) to a beach
and a marsh, and in local records to the neck connecting Montauk Point
with the main island, means "Water land," or "Land overflowed by water."
The beach extends some five miles on the southeast coast of Long Island.
The marsh spreads inland from the beach nearly across the neck where it
meets Napeak Harbor on the north coast. It is supposed to have been, in
prehistoric times, a water-course which separated the island from the
point. Near the eastern limit are patches of stunted pines and cedars,
and on its east side at the end of what are called the "Nominick hills,"
where was obviously located the boundmark of the East Hampton deed,
"Stunted pines and cedars are a feature," wrote Dr. Tooker in answer to
inquiry. (See Montauk.)
Quawnotiwock, is quoted in French's Gazetteer as the name of Great Pond;
authority not cited. Prime (Hist. L. I.) wrote: "The Indian name of the
pond is unknown." The pond is two miles long. It is situate where the
Montauk Peninsula attains its greatest width, and is the largest body
of fresh water on the island. It would be correctly described by _Quinne_
or _Quawnopaug,_ "Long pond," but certainly not by _Quawnotiwock,_ the
animate plural suffix _-wock,_ showing that it belonged to the
people--"People living on the Long River." [FN] (See Quantuck and
Connecticut.)
* * * * *
[FN] The suffix _-og, -ock, -uck,_ is, in the dialect here, a plural
sign. Williams wrote _-oock, -uock, -wock,_ and Zeisberger wrote _-ak,
-wak._ _Quinneh-tuk-wock,_ "People living on the Long River"--"a
particular name amongst themselves." _Kutch-innû-wock,_ "Middle-aged
men;" _Miss-innû-wock,_ "The many." _Lénno,_ "Man"; _Lénno-wak,_ "Men."
(Zeisberger.) _Kuwe,_ "Pine"; _Cuweuch-ak,_ "pine wood, pine logs."
Strictly, an animate plural. In the Chippeway dialect, Schoolcraft
gives eight forms of the animate and eight forms of 'the inanimate
plural. The Indians regarded many things as animates that Europeans do
not.
Assup, given as the name of a neck of land--"A tree marked X hard by the
northward side of a cove of meadow"--means "A cove." It is an equivalent
of _Aucûp_ (Williams), "A little cove or creek." "_Aspatuck_ river" is
also of record here, and probably takes that name from a hill or height
in proximity. "Aspatuck hill," New Millford, Conn.
Shinnecock, now preserved as the name of an Indian village in the town
of Southampton, on the east side of Shinnec'ock Bay, for many years in
occupation by a remnant of the so called Shinnec'ock Indians who had
taken on the habits and customs of European life, appears in its present
form in Plymouth Records in 1637, in treaty association with the
Massachusetts government. They claimed to be the "true owners of the
eastern end of Long Island," but acknowledged the primacy of Wyandanch,
sachem of the Montauks, who had been elected by other sachems as chief
sachem or the "sachem of sachem" of the many clans. The name is probably
from the root _Shin,_ or _Schind,_ "Spruce-pine" (Zeisb.); _Schindikeu,_
"Spruce-pine forest"; _Shinak-ing,_ "At the land of spruce-pines."
(Brinton); _Schindak-ock,_ "Land or place of spruce-pines." There was
an extended spruce-pine forest on that part of the island, a considerable
portion of which remains in the district south of Peconic River in the
town of Southampton. The present form of the name is pronounced
Shinnec'ock.
Mochgonnekonck is written, in 1643, as the name of a place unlocated
except in a general way. The record reads: "Whiteneymen, sachem of
Mochgonnekonck, situate on Long Island." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiv, 60.)
Whiteneymen, whose name is written Mayawetinnemin in treaty of 1645, and
"Meantinnemen, alias Tapousagh, chief of Marsepinck and Rechawyck," in
1660 (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 58), was son of Mechowodt, sachem of
Marsepingh, and probably succeeded his father as sachem of that clan.
(Col. Hist. N. Y., xiv, 540.) His last possession was Cow Neck, in the
present town of North Hampton, which was given to him by his father; it
may have been the Mochgonnekonk of 1643. De Vries met him in conference
in 1645, and notes him as a speaker of force, and as having only one
eye. Brodhead wrote of him: "Kieft, therefore, by the advice of his
council determined to engage some of the friendly Indians in the interest
of the Dutch, and Whiteneymen, the sachem of Mochgonnecocks, on Long
Island, was dispatched, with several of his warriors, 'to beat and
destroy the hostile tribes.' The sachem's diplomacy, however, was better
than his violence. In a few days he returned to Fort Amsterdam bearing
friendly messages from the sachems along the Sound and Near Rockaway,"
and a formal treaty of peace soon followed. He was elected "sachem of
sachems" by the sachems of the western clans on the island, about the
time the jurisdiction of the island was divided between the English at
New Haven and the Dutch at Manhattan, the former taking the eastern
clans under Wyandanch, and as such appears in the treaties with the
Dutch in 1645, '56--His record name is variously written--Tapousagh,
Tackapousha, etc. It is frequently met in Long Island Records.
_Mochgonneckonck_ the name of his sachemdom in 1643, has not been
identified further than that he was the owner of Cow Neck, now called
Manhasset (Manhas'et), Queens County, the largest neck or point of land
on the coast.
Quaunontowunk, Quannotowonk, Konkhonganik and Konghonganoc, are forms
of two distinct names applied respectively to the north and south ends
of Fort Pond, as per deed for the tract known as "the Hither Woods
purchase," which reads: "The name of the pond is Quaunontowunk on the
north and Konkhonganik on the south." Dr. Tooker translated the former
from _Quaneuntéow-unk,_ (Eliot), "Where the fence is," the reference
being to a certain fence of lopped trees which existed on the north end
of the pond, [FN-1] and the latter from _Kuhkunhunganash_ (Eliot),
"bounds," "At the boundary place." The present name of the pond is from
two Indian forts, one known as the Old Fort, on the west, and one known
as the New Fort, on the east, the latter remaining in 1661, the former
destroyed, the deed reading, "Where the Old Fort stood." Wyandanch, [F-2]
"the sachem of Manatacut,"--later called "The great sachem of
Montauk"--had his residence in the Old Fort. He was the first ruler of
the Montauks known to the Dutch, his name appearing in 1637. (See
Montauk.)
* * * * *
[FN-1] The deed reads: "The north fence from the pond to the sea, shall
be kept by the town; the south fence, to the sea, by the Indians."
Presumably the fences were there when the land was sold.
[FN-2] Wyandach, or Wyandance, is said to have been the brother of
Paggatacut, sachem of Manhas'set or Shelter Island, the chief sachem
of fifteen sachemdoms. On the death of the latter, in 1651, Wyandanch
became, by election, the successor of his brother and held the office
until his death by poison in 1659.
Mastic, preserved as the name of a river and also as that of a village
in Brookhaven, is of uncertain meaning. _Wampmissic,_ the name of
another village, is supposed to have been the name of a swamp--Mass.
_Wompaskit,_ "At or in the swamp, or marsh."
Poosepatuck, a place so called and now known as the Indian Reservation,
back of Forge River at Mastick, probably means "On the other side," or
"Beyond the river," from _Awossi,_ "Over, over there, on the other side,
beyond," and _-tuck,_ "Tidal river."
Speonk, the name of a village in Southampton near East Bay, on an
inlet of the ocean, to which flows through the village a small brook,
has lost some of its letters. _Mas-sepe-onk_ would describe a place on
a broad tidal river or estuary. In the same vicinity _Setuck_ is of
record as the name of a place. It may also be from Mas-sepe-tuck. (See
Southampton Records.) While the English settlers on eastern Long Island
were careful to preserve Indian names, they were very careless in
orthographies.
Poquatuck is quoted by Thompson (Hist. L. I.) as the name of Oyster
Pond in the town of Southold. It is now claimed as the name of Orient,
a village, peninsula or neck of land and harbor on the east side of the
pond. Probably from _Pohqu'unantak,_ "Cleared of trees," a marshy neck
which had been cleared or was naturally open. The same name is met in
Brookhaven.
Cataconoche, given as the name of the Great Neck bounding Smithtown on
the east, has been translated by Dr. Tooker from _Kehte-komuk,_ "Greatest
field," later known as the Old Man's Field, or Old Field.
Yaphank, Yamphank, etc., a village in Brookhaven, is from Niantic
dialect in which _Y_ is used for an initial letter where other dialects
employ _L, N_ or _R._ Putting the lost vowel _e_ back in the word, we
have _Yapehánek,_ in Lenape _Rapehánek,_ "Where the stream ebbs and
flows." The name is written Yampkanke in Indian deed. (Gerard.) The name
is now applied to a small tributary of the Connecticut, but no doubt
belongs to a place on the Connecticut where the current is affected by
the tide. (See Connecticut.)
Monowautuck is quoted as the Indian name of Mount Sinai, a village in
the town of Brookhaven, a rough and stony district on what is known as
Old Man's Bay, a small estuary surrounded by a salt-marsh meadow. The
name seems to be an equivalent of _Nunnawanguck,_ "At the dry land." Old
Man's Bay takes that name from the Great Neck called Cataconche,
otherwise known as the Old Man's Meadow, and as the Old Field. "The two
neckes or hoeces (hooks) of meadow that lieth next beyond the Old Man's
Meadow"--"with all ye privileges and appurtenances whatsoever, unto the
Old Field." Presumably _Man's_ was originally _Manse_ (English),
pronounced _Mans,_ "the dwelling of a landholder with the land attached,"
and called _Old_ because it was the first land or field purchased. (See
Cataconche.)
Connecticut, now so written and of record _Connetquoit,_ etc, is not the
name of the stream to which it is applied, but of the land on both sides
of it. It is an equivalent of _Quinnituckquet,_ "Long-river land," as in
Connecticut. (Trumbull.) _Quinnituk,_ "Long river"; with locative _-et_
or _-it,_ "Land or place on the long-river." The stream is the outlet
of Ronkonkoma Lake, and flows south to Fire-place Bay, where the name is
of primary record. There were two streams to which it was applied; one
is a small stream in Islip, and the other, the largest stream on the
island, as described above. In old deeds it is called East Connecticutt.
Fire-place is now retained as the name of a village on Bellport Bay, and
its ancient locative on the Connecticut is now called South Haven. [FN]
* * * * *
[FN] There were two places bearing the name of Fire-place, one on the
north side of the island on Gardiner's Bay, and one on the south side.
The latter is referred to here.
Minasseroke, quoted as the name of Little Neck, town of Brookhaven,
probably means "Small-stone land" or place--_Min-assin-ohke, r_ and _n_
exchanged.
Patchogue, Pochough, Pachough, the name of a village in the town of
Brookhaven, Suffolk County, on Patchough Bay, is probably met in
Pochaug, Conn., which Dr. Trumbull read from _Pohshâog,_ where two
streams form one river, signifying, "Where they divide in two." The name
was early extended to a clan known as the Pochoughs, later Patchoogues,
who seem to have been a family of the Onchechaugs, a name probably the
equivalent of _Ongkoué_ (Moh.), "beyond," with _-ogue_ (ohke), "land
beyond," _i. e._ beyond the bay. [FN] (See Moriches.)
* * * * *
[FN] Otherwise written _Unquetauge_--"land lying at Unquetauge, on the
south side of Long Island, in the county of Suffolk." Literally, "Land
beyond;" "on the further side of; in the same direction as, and further
on or away than." _Onckeway,_ a place beyond Stamford, on Connecticut
river. (Col. Hist. N. Y.) "_Ongkoué,_ beyond Pequannuc river."
(Trumbull.)
Cumsequogue is given in will of William Tangier Smith as the name of
what is now known as Carman's River, flowing to Bellport Bay. It is
probably a pronunciation of _Accomb-suck-ohke,_ "Land or place at the
outlet beyond." The record name of Bellport is Occombomeck, Accobamuck,
etc., meaning, "Fishing-place beyond," which, as the deeds show, was a
fishing-place at a freshwater pond, now dried up. The name is readily
confused with Aquebogue.
Moriches, a neck of land "lying at Unquetague, on the south side of
Long Island, being two necks called by ye names of _Mariges_ and
_Namanock_" (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 45), is now in the town of
Brookhaven. Namanock seems, from the locative, to be a corruption of
_Nam'e-ohke,_ "Fish-place"--Namanock or Namecock. (Trumbull.) [FN]
_Moriches,_ or _Mariges,_ is a corruption of Dutch _Maritches_ (Morichi,
Mariche), from _Moriche Palmita_ (Latin), meaning, in popular use, any
plant thought to resemble a palm. _Mauritia_ a species of Mauriticæ,
or South-American palm, so called in honor of Prince Maurice of Nassau.
(See Palmagat.)
* * * * *
[FN] _Namaus,_ generic, "a fish"--_Namohs,_ Eliot; _Namés,_ Abn.,
_Namaes,_ Heck.; _Namees,_ Zeisb.; with suffix _-aki, -ohke,_ etc.,
"fish-land," place or country. _Améessok,_ Zeisb.; _Anmesooak,_ Abn.,
_Aumsûog,_ Mass., "small fishes." As a generic suffix, _-ama'ug,_ Mass.,
_-ama'uk,_ Del., "fishing-place." "_Ama'ug_ is only used at the end of
a compound name, where it is equivalent to _Nameaug,_ at the beginning."
(Trumbull.) The final syllable, _-ug, -uk,_ etc., is an animate plural.
On Long Island, _-Ama'ug_ is frequently met in _-amuck;_ in other
places, _-amwack, -amwook, -ameock,_ etc.
Kitchaminchoke, given as the name of a boundmark, said to be Moriches
Island, is interpreted by Dr. Tooker, "The beginning place." The
description (1630) reads, "Beginning at" a place called, _i. e._ an
object or feature which would definitely locate a boundmark--apparently
an equivalent of _Schiechi-kiminschi-aki,_ Lenape, "Place of a soft-maple
tree." The territory conveyed extended to _Enaughquamuck,_ which Dr.
Tooker rendered correctly, "As far as the fishing-place."
Niamug and Niamuck are forms of the name of what is now known as Canoe
Place, on the south side of Long Island, near Southampton. "_Niamug,_ the
place where the Indians haul over their canoes out of the North Bay to
the South Bay." (Deed of 1640.) Dr. Trumbull translated from _Nôe-amuck,_
"Between the fishing places." Local tradition affirms that centuries
ago the Indians made a canal here for the purpose of passing their
canoes from Mecox Bay to Paconic Bay. Mongotucksee, the hero of the
story, was a chieftain who reigned over the Montauks in the days of their
pride and power. The tradition has no other merit than the fact that
Niamug was a place at which canoes were hauled across the island.
Sicktew-hacky (deed of 1638); _Sicketewackey_ (Van der Donck, 1656):
"All the lands from Rockaway eastward to Sicktew-hackey, or Fire Island
Bay"; "On the south coast of Long Island, at a place called Sicktewacky,
or Secontague, near Fire Island Inlet" (Brodhead); Seaquetauke, 1659;
Setauck Neck, the south bound of St. George's Manor, now Manorville; of
record as the name of an Indian clan and village near Fire Island Inlet,
with the Marsapinks and Nyacks for neighbors; now preserved in several
forms of which Setauket probably locates a place near Secontague.
_Sicketeuhacky,_ writes Mr. Gerard, "is the Lenape equivalent of
_Secatogue,_ meaning 'Burned-over land.' Whether the mainland or Fire
Island was the 'Burned-over land,' history does not tell us." Lands were
burned over by the Indians to destroy the bushes and coarse grasses, and
probably some field of this character was referred to by the Indian
grantors, from which the name was extended to the Neck and to Fire
Island, although it is said that fires were kindled on the island for
the guidance of fishermen.
Saghtekoos--"called by the native Indians Saghtekoos; by the Christians
Appletree Neck"--the name of the Thompson estate in Islip--probably
means, "Where the stream branches or divides," or "At the branch,"
referring to Thompson's brook. The suffix _-oos_ evidently stands for
"small." (See Sohaghticoke.) "Apple-tree Neck" is not in the composition,
but may indicate that the Indian owners had planted apple trees there.
Amagansett, the Indian name of what is now East Hampton, was translated
by Dr. Trumbull, "At or near the fishing place"; root _Am,_ "to take by
the mouth"; _Amau,_ "he fishes"; Abn., _Amaⁿgaⁿ,_ "_ou péche lá,_" "he
fishes there," (Rasles); _s,_ diminutive or derogatory; _ett,_ "Near or
about," that is, the tract was near a small or inferior fishing-place,
which is precisely what the composition describes.
Peconic, now so written and applied to Peconic Bay and Peconic River, but
primarily to a place "at the head of the river," or as otherwise
described, "Land from ye head of ye bay or Peaconnack, was Shinnec'ock
Indians' Land" (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiv, 600), is not the equivalent of
_Peqan'nuc,_ "a name common to all cleared land," as translated by Dr.
Trumbull, but the name given as that of a small creek tributary to
Peconic River, in which connection it is of record _Pehick-konuk,_ which,
writes Mr. Gerard, "plainly stands for _K'pe-hickonuk,_ or more properly
_Kĕpehikanik,_ 'At the barrier,' or weir. _Kĕpehikan_ from _Kepehike,_
'he closes up,' or obstructs, _i. e._ 'dams.'" The bounds of the
Shinnec'ock Indians extended east to this stream; or, as the record
reads, "To a river where they did use to catch the fish commonly called
alewives, the name of which creek was Pehickkonuk, or Peconic." (Town
Records.)
Agwam, Agawam, is quoted by French as the name of Southampton, L. I. Dr.
Trumbull wrote: "Acawan, Agawan or Auquan, a name given to several
localities in New England Where there are low meadows--a low meadow or
marsh." Presumably from _Agwu,_ "Underneath, below." Another authority
writes: "_Agawam_ from _Magawamuk,_ A great fishing place." (See
Machawameck.)
Sunquams is given by French as the Indian name of Mellville in
Southampton, L. I., with the interpretation, "Sweet Hollow." The
interpretation is mere guess-work.
Massaback, a hill so called in Huntington, Suffolk County--in English
"Half hill," and in survey (1703) "Half-hollow hill"--probably does not
belong to the hill which the English described as "half-hollow," but to
a stream in proximity to it--_Massabeset,_ "At a (relatively) great
brook." (Trumbull.)
Mattituck, the name of a village in Southold, near the west end of the
town, was primarily written as that of a tract of land including the
present town of Riverhead, from which it was extended to a large pond
between Peconic Bay and the Sound. Presumably the same name is met in
Mattatuck, Ct., written Matetacoke, 1637, Matitacoocke, 1673, which was
translated by Dr. Trumbull from Eliot's _Mat-uh'tugh-auke,_ "A place
without wood," or badly wooded. (See Titicus.)
Cutchogue, Plymouth Records, 1637; "_Curchaug,_ or Fort Neck;"
_Corch'aki,_ deed of 1648; now Cutchogue, a village in Southold, in the
vicinity of which was an Indian fort, the remains of which and of an
Indian burial ground are objects of interest, is probably a corruption
of _Maskutchoung,_ which see. Dr. Tooker translated from _Kehti-auke,_
"The principal place," the appositeness of which is not strikingly
apparent. The clan bearing the name was party to the treaty with the
Massachusetts people in 1637, and to the sale of the East Hampton lands.
Their earliest sachem was Momoweta, who acknowledged the primacy of
Wyandanch.
Tuckahoe, a level tract of land near Southampton village, takes that
name from one or the other of the larger "round" roots (Mass.
_P'tuckweōō_), possibly the Golden Club, or Floating Artmi, a root
described "as much of the bigness and taste of potatoes." (Trumbull.)
[FN] The same name is met in Westchester County.
* * * * *
[FN] Dr. Brinton writes: "They also roasted and ate the acrid cormus of
the Indian turnip, in Delaware _taw-ho, taw-hin_ or _tuck-ah,_ and
collected the seeds of the Golden Club, common in the pools along the
creeks and rivers. Its native name was _taw-kee._" ("The Lenape and
their Legends.") The name of another place on Long Island, written
_Hogonock,_ is probably an equivalent of Delaware _Hóbbenac_ (Zeisb.),
"Potatoes," or "Ground-nuts"; _Hóbbenis,_ "Turnips." (See Passapenoc.)
Sagabonock has left only the remnant of its name to Sag-pond and
Sag-harbor. It is from _Sagabonak,_ "Ground nuts, or Indian potatoes."
(Trumbull.) The name is of record as that of a boundmark "two miles from
the east side of a Great Pond," and is described as a "pond or swamp" to
which the name of the tuber was extended from its product.
Ketchepunak, quoted as the name of Westhampton, describes "The greatest
ground-nut place," or "The greatest ground-nuts." (See Kestaubniuk.)
Wequaganuck is given as the name of that part of Sag-harbor within the
town of East Hampton. It is an equivalent of _Wequai-adn-auke,_ "Place
at the end of the hill," or "extending to the hill." (Trumbull.) The hill
is now known as Turkey Hill, on the north side of which the settlement
of Sag-harbor was commenced.
Namke, from _Namaa,_ "fish," and _ke,_ "place"--fish-place--was the name
of a place on the creek near Riverhead. (O'Gallaghan.) More exactly,
_Nameauke,_ probably.
Hoppogues, in Smithtown, Suffolk County, is pretty certainly from
_Wingau-hoppague,_ meaning, literally, "Standing water of good and
pleasant taste." The name was that of a spring and pond. In a deed of
1703, the explanation is, "Or ye pleasant springs." Supposed to have been
the springs which make the headwaters of Nissequogue river at the
locality now bearing the name of Hauppauge, a hamlet.
Massapeage--_Massapeag,_ 1636; _Massapeague, Rassapeage_--a place-name
from which extended to an Indian clan whose principal seat is said to
have been on Fort Neck, in the town of Oyster Bay, was translated by Dr.
Trumbull from _Massa,_ "great"; _pe,_ the radical of water, and _auke,_
"land," or "Land on the great cove." Thompson (Hist. L. I.) assigns the
name to "a swamp on the south side of Oyster Bay," now South Oyster Bay,
and it is so applied in Indian deeds. There were two Indian forts or
palisaded towns on the Neck. Of one the name is not given; it was the
smallest of the two; its site is said to be now submerged by water. The
second, or largest, is called in Dutch records _Matsepe,_ "Great river."
It is described as having been situated on the most southerly point of
land adjoining the salt meadows. Both forts were attacked by Dutch forces
under Capt. Pieter Cock and Capt. John Underhill, in the summer of 1644
(a local record says August) and totally destroyed with heavy loss to
the Indians. (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv, 15, 16.) In Prime's and other local
histories the date is given as 1653, on the authority of "Hubbard's
Indian Wars," and Capt. Underhill is assigned to the command in the
attack on the largest fort. The official Dutch record, however, assigns
that honor to Capt. Pieter Cock. The year was surely 1644, (Brodhead's
Hist. N. Y., i, 91.) The prefix _Mass,_ appears in many forms--Massa,
Marsa, Marsha, Rassa, Mesa, Missi, Mas, Mes, etc., and also _Mat,_ an
equivalent of _Mas._
Massepe, quoted in Dutch records as the name of the Indian fort on Fort
Neck, where it seems to have been the name of Stony Brook, is also met
in Jamaica Records (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiv, 505) as the name of a creek
forming a mowing boundary or division line extending from a certain place
"Eastward to ye great creek called Massepe." The name is fully explained
by the description, "Great creek." _Massepe-auke_ means "Great creek
(or river) land," or place; _Mas-sepe-ink,_ "At or on the great creek."
The Indian residents came to be known as the Marsepincks.
Maskutchoung, a neck of land so called forming one of the boundaries of
Hempstead Patent as entered in confirmatory deed of "Takapousha, sachem
of Marsapeage," and "Wantagh, the Montauke sachem," July 4th, 1657:
"Beginning at a marked tree standing at the east side of the Great Plain,
and from thence running on a due south line, and at the South Sea by a
marked tree in a neck called Maskutchoimg, and thence upon the same line
to the South Sea." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiv, 38, 416.) "By a marked tree
in a neck called Maskachoung." (Thompson's Hist. L. I., 9, 15, 47.) It
is probably an equivalent of _Mask-ek-oug,_ "A grassy swamp or marsh."
A local interpretation reads: "Grass-drowned brook," a small stream
flowing through the long marsh-grass, to which the name was extended.
Maskahnong, so written by Dr. O'Callaghan in his translation of the
treaty between the Western Long Island clans, in 1656, is noted in
"North and South Hempstead Records," p. 60, "A neck of land called
Maskahnong." It disappears after 1656, but probably reappears as
Maskachoung in 1658, and later as Maskutchoung, which see.
Merick, the name of a village in Hempstead, Queens County, is said to
have been the site of an Indian village called _Merick-oke._ It has been
interpreted as an apheresis of a form of _Namanock,_ written _Namerick,_
"Fish place." (See Moriches.) Curiously enough, Merrick was a proper name
for man among the ancient Britons, and the corruption would seem to have
been introduced here by the early English settlers from resemblance to
the Indian name in sound. The place is on the south side of the island.
The Indian clan was known as the Merickokes.
Quantuck, a bay so called in Southampton, is of record, in 1659,
_Quaquanantuck,_ and applied to a meadow or neck of land. "The meadow
called Quaquunantuck"--"the neck of land called Quaquanantuck"--"all the
meadows lying west of the river, commonly called or known by the name of
Quantuck." One of the boundmarks is described as "a stumpy marsh,"
indicating that it had been a marsh from which the trees had been
removed. The name seems to correspond with this. It is probably from
_Pohqu'un-antack,_ "cleared or open marsh" or meadow. (See Montauk.)
Quogue, the name of a village near Quantuck Bay, and located, in Hist.
Suffolk County, as "the first point east of Rockaway where access can
be had to the ocean without crossing the bay," has been read as a
contraction of Quaquaunantuck, but seems to be from _Pŏque-ogue,_ "Clear,
open space," an equivalent of _Pŏque-auke,_ Mass.
Rechqua-akie, De Vries; _Reckkouwhacky,_ deed of 1639; now applied to a
neck on the south side of Long Island and preserved in Rockaway, was
interpreted by the late Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan: "_Reck_ 'sand'; _qua,_
'flat'; _akie,_ 'land'--the long, narrow sand-bar now known as Rockaway
Beach," but is more correctly rendered with dialectic exchange of R and
L, _Lekau._ (Rekau), "sand or gravel," _hacki,_ "land" or place. (Zeisb.)
"Flats" is inferred. A considerable division of the Long Island Indians
was located in the vicinity, or, as described by De Vries, who visited
them in 1643, "near the sea-shore." He found thirty wigwams and three
hundred Indians, who were known in the treaty of 1645, as Marechkawicks,
and in the treaty of 1656 as Rockaways. [FN]
* * * * *
[FN] The names in the treaty of 1645, as written by Dr. O'Callaghan,
are "Marechkawicks, Nayecks, and their neighbors"; in the treaty of
1656, "Rockaway and Canorise." The latter name appears to have been
introduced after 1645 in exchange for Marechkawick. (See Canarise.)
_Rechqua_ is met on the Hudson in Reckgawaw-onck, the Haverstraw flats.
It is not an apheresis of Marechkawick, nor from the same root.
Jamaica, now applied to a town, a village and a bay, was primarily given
to the latter by the English colonists. "Near unto ye beaver pond called
Jamaica," and "the beaver path," are of record, the latter presumably
correct. The name is a pronunciation of _Tomaque,_ or _K'tamaque,_ Del.,
_Amique,_ Moh., "beaver." "_Amique,_ when aspirated, is written
_Jamaique,_ hence Yameco, Jamico, and modern Jamaica." (O'Callaghan.)
The bay has no claim to the name as a beaver resort, but beavers were
abundant in the stream flowing into it.
Kestateuw, "the westernmost," _Castuteeuw,_ "the middlemost," and
_Casteteuw,_ "the eastermost," names of "three flats on the island
Sewanhackey, between the bay of North river and the East river." The
tracts came to be known as Flatlands; "the easternmost," as "the Bay,"
or Amesfort.
Sacut, now known as Success Pond, lying on a high ridge in Flushing, is
a corruption of _Sakûwit_ (_Sáquik_), "Mouth of a river" (Zeisb.), or
"where the water flows out." The pond has an outlet, but it rarely
overflows. It is a very deep and a very clear body of water.
Canarsie, now so written and applied to a hamlet in the town of
Flatlands, Kings County, is of record _Canari See, Canarisse, Canarise,
Canorise_ (treaty of 1655), _Kanarisingh_ (Dutch), and in other forms,
as the name of a place or feature from which it was extended to an
Indian sub-tribe or family occupying the southwest coast of Long Island,
and to their village, primarily called _Keshaechquereren_ (1636). On the
Lower Potomac and Chesapeake Bay the name is written _Canais, Conoys,
Ganawese,_ etc. (Heck, xlii), and applied to a sub-tribe of Naniticokes
residing there who were known as "The tide-water people," or "Sea-shore
settlers." On Delaware Bay it is written _Canaresse_ (1651, not 1656 as
stated by Dr. Tooker), and applied to a specific place, described in
exact terms: "To the mouth of the bay or river called Bomptjes Hoeck, in
the Indian language _Canaresse._" (Col. Hist. N. Y. xii, 166.) "Bomptjes
Hoeck" is Dutch and in that language describes a low island, neck or
point of land covered with small trees, lying at the mouth of a bay or
stream, and is met in several connections. The point or place described
on the Delaware (now Bombay Hook) was the end of the island, known on
old maps as "Deep Point," and the "Hook" was the bend in the currents
around it forming the marshy inlet-bay on the southwest connecting with
a marshy channel or stream, and the latter on the north with a small
stream by which the island was constituted. Considered from the
standpoint of an Algonquian generic term, the rule is undisputed that
the name must have described a feature which existed in common at the
time of its application, on the Delaware and on Long Island, and it only
remains to determine what that feature was. Obviously the name itself
solves the problem. In whatever form it is met it is the East Indian
_Canarese_ (English _Can'a-resé_) pure and simple, and obviously employed
as a substitute for the Algonquian term written _Ganawese,_ etc., of the
same meaning. In the "History of New Sweden" (Proc. N. Y. Hist. Soc,
2d Ser. v. i.), the locative on the Delaware is described: "From
Christina Creek to _Canarose_ or _Bambo_ Hook." In "Century Dictionary"
_Bambo_ is explained: "From the native East Indian name, Malay and Java
_bambu_, Canarese _banbu_ or _bonwu._" Dr. Brinton translated _Ganawese_
from _Guneu_ (Del.), "Long," but did not add that the suffix--_wese,_
or as Roger Williams wrote it, _quese,_ means "Little, small," the
combination describing Bambo grasses, _i. e._ "long, small" grasses,
which, in some cases reach the growth of trees, but on Long Island and
on the Delaware only from long marsh grasses to reeds, as primarily in
and around Jamaica Bay and Gowanus Bay, on Reed Island, etc. True,
Ganawese would describe anything that was "long, small," but obviously
here the objective product. Canarese, Canarose, Kanarische, Ganawese,
represent the same sound-"in (East) Indian, Canaresse," as represented
in the first Long Island form, Canari See, now Jamaica Bay.
Keschaechquereren, (1636), _Keschaechquerem_ (1637), the name of the
settlement that preceded Canarese, disappears of record with the advent
of the English on Barren Island and at Gravesend soon after 1637-8. It
seems to describe a "Great bush-net fishing-place," from
K'sch-achquonican, "Great bush-net." (Zeisb.), the last word from
_Achewen,_ "Thicket"; from which also _t' Vlact Bosch_ (Dutch), modern
Flatbush. The Indian village was between the Stroome (tidewater) Kil and
the Vresch Kil, near Jamaica.
Narrioch was given by the chief who confirmed the title to it in 1643,
as the name of what is now known as Coney Island, and _Mannahaning_ as
that of Gravesend Neck. (Thompson's Hist. L. I., ii, 175.) The Dutch
called the former Conynen, and the latter Conyne Hoeck--"_t' Conijen
Conine._" Jasper Dankers wrote in 1679: "On the south (of Staten Island)
is the great bay, which is enclosed by Najaq, t' Conijen Island,
Neversink," etc. Conijen (modern Dutch, Konijn), signifies "Rabbit"--Cony,
Coney--inferentially "Small"--literally, "Rabbit, or Coney Island," in
Dutch. The Indian names have been transposed, apparently. _Mannahaning_
means "At the island," and _Narrioch_ is the equivalent of _Nayaug,_ "A
point or comer," as in Nyack. The latter was the Dutch "Conyne Hoeck."
Judge Benson claimed Conyn as "A Dutch surname, from which came the name
of Coney, or Conyn's Island," but if so, the surname was from "Rabbit"
surely.