one of the boundmarks of a tract of land in Brooklyn, is probably from
_Koua_ (_Kowaw,_ Williams; _Curve,_ Zeisb.), "Pine"; _Kowawese_
(Williams), "A young pine," or small pine. It was that of a place on a
small stream, the description in the Indian deed of 1639, reading:
"Stretching southward to a certain kil or little low bushes." The land
conveyed is described as being "overflowed at every tide, and covered
with salt-meadow grass." The latter gave to it its value. The claim that
the name was that of an Indian owner is not well sustained. The evidence
of the Dutch description of the bay as Boompje Hoek, meaning, literally,
"Small tree cape, corner or angle," and the fact that small pines did
abound there, seems to establish _Koua_ as the derivative of the name.
Marechkawick, treaty of 1645--_Mereckawack,_ Breeden Raddt, 1649;
_Mareckawick_ and _Marechkawieck,_ Rapelie deed, 1630; _Marechkourick,_
O'Callaghan; _Marechkawick,_ Brodhead--forms of the name primarily given
as that of Wallabout Bay, [FN] "The bought or bend of Marechkawick"--"in
the bend of Marechkawick," 1630--has been translated by Dr. Tooker from
_Men'achk_ (_Manachk,_ Zeisb.), "fence, fort," and _-wik,_ "house"
(Zeisb.), the reference being to a fenced or palisaded cabin presumably
occupied by a sachem and his family of the clan known in Dutch history
as the Mareckawicks. The existence of a palisaded cabin in the vicinity
of "the bought or bend" is possible, but the name has the appearance of
an orthography (Dutch) of _Mereca,_ the South-American name of a teal,
(Mereca Americani) the Widgeon, and _-wick_ (_Wijk,_ M. L. G.), "Bay,
cove, inlet, retreat," etc., literally "Widgeon Bay." "Situate on the
bay of Merechkawick," is entered on map of 1646 in Stiles' "History of
Brooklyn." _Merica_ was the Mayan name of the American Continent. It is
spread all over South America and was applied to many objects as in the
Latinized Mereca Americani. The early Dutch navigators were no doubt
familiar with it in application to the Widgeon, a species of wild duck,
and employed it in connection with the word _-wijk._ Until between 1645
and 1656, the Indians residing on the west end of Long Island were known
as Marechkawicks; after 1656 they were called Canorise. (See Canar'sie.)
Brooklyn is from Dutch _Breukelen,_ the name of a village about eighteen
miles from Amsterdam. It means "Broken land." (Breuk.) On Van der Donck's
map the name is written correctly. A record description reads: "There is
much broken land here."
* * * * *
[FN] Wallabout Bay takes its first name from Dutch _Waal,_ "gulf,
abyss," etc., and _Bocht,_ "bend," It was spoken of colloquially by the
early Dutch as "The bay of the foreigners," referring to the Walloons
who had settled on the north side of the bay in 1625. The first white
child, Sarah Rapelie, born in New Netherland, now the State of New York,
was born here June 17th, 1625.
Manette, so written of record--"near Mannato hill," about thirty miles
from Brooklyn and midway between the north and south sides of the
island--has been interpreted from its equivalent, _Manitou,_ "Hill of
the Great Spirit," but means strictly, "That which surpasses, or is more
than ordinary." (Trumbull.) It was a word in common use by the Indians
in application to everything that was more than ordinary or that they
could not understand. In this instance it seems to have been applied to
the water of a spring or well on the rising ground which they regarded
as of surpassing excellence; from the spring transferred to the hill.
The tradition is that some ages ago the Indians residing in the vicinity
of the hill were suffering for water. They prayed to the Great Spirit
for relief, and were directed to shoot an arrow in the air and where it
fell to dig and they would find water. They did so and dug the well now
on the rising ground, the water of which was of surpassing excellence,
or Manitou. The story was probably invented to account for the name. It
is harmless fiction.
Rennaquakonck, Rinnegahonck, a landmark so called in the boundaries of
a tract on Wallabout Bay, described in deed as "A certain swamp where
the water runs over the stones," and, in a subsequent deed, "At the
sweet marsh" (Hist. of Brooklyn), is an orthography of _Winnegackonck,_
meaning "At the sweet place," so called from some plant which was found
there, or to distinguish the marsh as fresh or sweet, not a salt marsh.
The exchange of R and W may be again noted.
Comac, the name of a village in Suffolk County, is an apheresis of
_Winne-comac,_ as appears of record. The combination expresses, "Good
enclosed place," from _Winne,_ "Good, fine, sweet, beautiful, pleasant,"
etc., and _-komuck,_ "Place enclosed," or having definite boundaries,
limited in size.
Nyack, the name of the site of Fort Hamilton, is a generic verbal from
_Nâï,_ "A point or corner." (_Nâïag,_ Mass., _Néïak,_ Len.) The
orthographies vary--Naywayack, Narrack, Nanak, Narrag, Najack, Niuck,
Narrioch, etc. With the suffix _-ak,_ the name means "Land or place at
the point." (See Nyack-on-the-Hudson.) Dankers and Sluyter wrote in
their Journal (1679-80): "We went part of the way through the woods and
fine, new-made land, and so along the shore to the west end of the
island called Najack. . . . Continuing onward from there, we came to the
plantation of the Najack Indians, which was planted with maize, or
Turkish Wheat." The Nayacks removed to Staten Island after the sale of
their lands at New Utrecht. (See Narrioch.)
Nissequague, now so written, the name of a hamlet in Smithtown, and of
record as the name of a river and of a neck of land still so known, is
of primary record _Nisinckqueg-hackey_ (Dutch notation), as the name of
a place to which the Matinnecock clan removed after the war of 1643.
(Col. Hist. N. Y., xiv, 60.) The English scribes wrote Nesequake (1650),
Nesaquake (1665), Nessequack (1686), Wissiquack (1704), (Cal. N. Y.
Land Papers), and other forms. The Indian deed of 1650 (Smithtown
Records) recites the sale by "Nasseoonseke, sachem of Nesequake," of a
tract "Beginning at a river called and commonly known by the name of
Nesaquake River, and from that river eastward to a river called
Memanusack." "Nesaquauke River" is the entry in patent to Richard Smith,
1665. The stream has its source in a number of springs in the southern
part of Smithtown, the flow of which forms a considerable river.
(Thompson.) The theory that "The tribe and river derived their name from
Nesequake, an Indian sagamore, the father of Nassaconset" (Hist. Suf.
Co.), is not well sustained. The suffix _-set,_ cannot be applied to an
animate object; it is a locative meaning "Less than at." In addition to
this objection, Nassaconset is otherwise written Nessaquauke-ecoompt-set,
showing that the name belonged to a place that was "On the other side"
of Nessaquauke. Neesaquauke stands for _Neese-saqû-auke,_ from _Nisse,_
"two," _Sauk,_ "Outlet," and _-auke,_ "Land" or place, and describes a
place at "the second outlet," or as the text reads, "At a river called
and commonly known by the name of Nesaquake River." The sagamore may
have been given the name from the place, but the place could not have
taken the name from the sagamore. The estuary, now known as Nissequage
Harbor into which the stream flows, extends far inland and forms the
west boundary of Nissequage Neck.
Marsepinck, a stream so called in Queens County, from which extended to
the land which was sold, in 1639, by "Mechowout, chief sachem of
Marossepinck, Sint-Sink and dependencies," and also extended to an
Indian clan known as Marsepings, is no doubt an orthography of _Massepe_
and _-ing,_ locative. It means "At, to or on the great river." _Mas_ is
an abbreviation of _Massa, Missi,_ etc., "great," and _Sepe,_ means
"river." It was probably used comparatively-the largest compared with
some other stream. (See Massepe.)
Unsheamuck, otherwise written Unthemamuk, given as the name of Fresh
Pond, on the boundary line between Huntington and Smithtown, means
"Eel-fishing place." (Tooker.)
Suggamuck, the name of what is now known as Birch Creek, in Southampton,
means "Bass fishing-place." (Tooker.)
Rapahamuck, a neck or point of land so called, is from _Appé-amuck,_
"Trap fishing-place." (Tooker.) The name is assigned to the mouth of
Birch Creek. (See Suggamuck.)
Memanusack and _Memanusuk,_ given as the name of Stony Brook, probably
has its locative "At the head of the middle branch of Stony Brook,"
Which formed the boundmark noted in the Indian deed. The same name is
probably met in _Mayomansuk,_ from _Mawé,_ meaning "To bring together,"
"To meet"; and _-suck,_ "Outlet," _i. e._ of a pond, marsh or river.
The brook was "stony" no doubt, but that description is English.
Cussqunsuck is noted as the name of Stony Brook referred to in
Memanusack. The stream is probably the outlet of the waters of a swamp.
In his will Richard Smith wrote: "I give to my daughter Sarah, 130 acres
of land at the _two_ swamps called _Cutts-cunsuck._" The first word
seems to stand for _Ksúcqon,_ "Heavy" (Zeisb.), by metonymie, "Stone,"
_-es,_ "Small," and _-uck,_ locative, "Place of small stone." _Ksúcqon_
may be employed as an adjectival prefix. Eliot wrote, "_Qussukquemin,_
Stone fruit," the cherry.
Mespaechtes, deed to Governor Keift, 1638, from which Mespath (Brodhead),
Mespat (Riker), Mashpeth and Mashpett (Co. Hist. N. Y., xiv, 602), now
Maspeth, a village in Newtown, Queens County, and met in application to
Newtown Creek (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 25), has been translated by Dr.
Tooker, "From _Mech-pe-is-it,_ Bad-water place," and by Wm. R. Gerard,
"From _Massapichtit,_ verbal describing scattered settlements, as though
the Indians who sold the lands had said, 'We include the lands of those
living here and there.'" [FN] Flint, in his "Early History of Long
Island," wrote: "Mespat Kills, now Maspeth, from the Indian _Matsepe,_
written by the Dutch, _Maespaatches Kiletje_"--long known as "Dutch
Kills." In patent of 1642, for lands described as lying "on the east
side of Mespatches Kil," the boundary is stated: "Beginning at the kil
and the tree standing upon the point towards the small kil." Obviously
there were two streams here, the largest called Mespatches, which seems
to be, as Flint states, a Dutch rendering of _Matsepe-es,_ from _Mas_
(Del. _Mech_), a comparative term--"great," as distinguished from
"small," the largest of two, and _Sepees (Sepoûs, Sepuus),_ "a brook."
_Sepe, Sipo, Sipu,_ etc., is generally applied to a long stream. The
west branch of Mespatt Kill has the record name of _Quandoequareus._
Flint wrote: "The _Canapauke,_ or Dutch Kills, sluggishly winding its
way through the meadows of bronzed grasses." _Canapauke_ stands for
_Quana-pe-auke,_ "Long water-land," or "Land on the long water." The
stream is a tidal current receiving several small streams. (See
Massepe.) Mespatches seems to belong to the stream noted in patent of
1642.
* * * * *
[FN] "_Missiachpitschik,_ those who are or live scattered." (Zeisberger's
Onond. Dic.)
Sint-Sink, of record as the name of Schout's Bay, [FN] also, "Formerly
called Cow Neck, and by the Indians Sint-Sink," was the name of a place
now known as Manhasset. (Col. Hist. N. Y.) It means "Place of small
stones," as in Sint-Sink, modern Sing-Sing, on the Hudson.
* * * * *
[FN] Known also as "Martin Garretson's bay." Garretson was Schout
(Sheriff), hence "Schout's bay." The neck of land "called by the Indians
Sint-Sink," was fenced for the pasturage of cows, and became known as
"Cow Neck," hence "Cow bay" and "Cow harbor," now Manhasset bay. (See
Matinnec'ock and Mochgonneck-onck.)
Manhasset, correctly _Manhanset,_ means, "Near the Island," or something
less than at the island. The locative was long known as "Head of Cow
Neck."
Matinnecock is noted in a survey for Lewis Morris, in 1685: "A tract of
land lying upon the north side of Long Island, within the township of
Oyster Bay, in Queens County, and known by the name of Matinicock," and
in another survey: "A certain small neck of land at a place called
Mattinicock." Extended also to an island and to an Indian clan. Cornelius
van Tienhoven wrote in 1650: "Martin Garritson's Bay, or Martinnehouck,
[FN-1] is much deeper and wider than Oyster Bay; it runs westward in and
divides into three rivers, two of which are navigable. The smallest
stream runs up in front of the Indian village called Martinnehouck,
where they have their plantations. The tribe is not strong, and consists
of about thirty families. In and about this bay were formerly great
numbers of Indian plantations which now lie waste. On the rivers are
numerous valleys of sweet and salt meadows." The name has, with probable
correctness, been interpreted from _Metanak-ok_ (Lenape, _Metanak-onk_;
Abn., _Metanak-ook_), meaning, "Along the edge of the island," or, as
Van Tienhoven wrote, "About this bay." The same name appears on the
Delaware as that of what is now known as Burlington Island. [FN-2] It is
corrupted in New Jersey to Tinnicum, and is preserved on Long Island as
the name of a village in the town of Oyster Bay.
* * * * *
[FN-1] A corruption from "Martin."
[FN-2] Mattinacunk, Matinneconke, Matinnekonck--"having been formerly
known by the name of Kipp's Island, and by ye Indian name of
Koo-menakanok-onck." (Col. Hist. N. Y.) _Koo-menakanok-onck_ was the
largest of two islands in the Delaware and was particularly identified
by the Indian name, which means "Pine-tree-islands place." The name by
which the Island came to be known was transferred to it apparently.
Hog's Island, so called by the early settlers, now known as Center
Island, has the record description: "A piece of land on Martin
Garretson's Bay, in the Indian tongue called Matinnecong, alias Hog's
Neck, or Hog's Island, being an island at high tide." (Col. Hist. N. Y.,
xiv, 435.) "Matinneckock, a neck on the Sound east of Muchito Cove."
(See Muchito.) The island is connected with the main land by a neck or
beach which was overflowed at high tide.
Caumsett is recorded as the name of "The neck of land which makes the
west side of Cow Harbor and the east side of Oyster Bay" (Ind. Deed of
1654), known later as Horse Neck and Loyd's Neck. Apparently a
corruption of _Ketumpset,_ "Near the great standing rock." The reference
may have been to what was known as Bluff Point.
Muchito, the name of what is now Glen Cove, near Hempstead Harbor, is
otherwise written Muschedo, Mosquito and Muscota. It was primarily
written as the name of Muchito Neck. It means "Meadow"--_Moskehtu_
(Eliot), "grass;" _Muskuta,_ "A grassy plain or meadow." (See Muscota.)
Katawomoke, "or, as called by the English, Huntington," is written in
the Indian deed of 1653, _Ketauomoke_; in deed of 1646, _Ketauomocke,_
and assigned to a neck of land "Bounded upon the west side with a river
commonly called by the Indians Nachaquetuck, and on the east by a river
called Opcutkontycke," the latter now known as Northfield-Harbor Brook.
The name is preserved in several orthographies. In deed to Lion Gardiner
(1638), _Ar-hata-amunt_; in deed to Richard Smith (1664), _Catawaunuck_
and _Catawamuck_, and in another entry "Cattawamnuck land," _i. e._ land
about Catawamuck; in Huntington Records, _Ketewomoke_; in Cal. N. Y.
Land Papers, p. 60: "To the eastward of the town of Huntington and to
the westward of Nesaquack, commonly called by the Indians _Katawamake_
and in English by the name of Crope Meadow;" in another entry, "Crab
Meadow," by which last name the particular tract was known for many
years. "Crope" and "Crab" are English equivalents for a species of
grass called "finger-grass or wire-grass," and were obviously employed
by the English to describe the kind of grass that distinguished the
meadow--certainly not as an equivalent of the Indian name, which was
clearly that of a place at or near the head of Huntington Harbor, from
which it was extended to the lands as a general locative. The several
forms of the name may probably be correctly read from _Kehti,_ or its
equivalent. _Kehchi_, "Chief, principal, greatest," and _-amaug,_
"Fishing-place" (_-amuck,_ L. I.), literally "The greatest
fishing-place." The orthography of 1638 is especially corrupt, and
_Ketawamuck_, apparently the most nearly correct, the rule holding good
in this, as in other cases, that the very early forms are especially
imperfect.
Nachaquatuck, the western boundary stream of Eaton's Neck, quoted as the
name of Cold Spring, is translated by Dr. Tooker from _Wa'nashque-tuck_,
"The ending creek, because it was the end or boundary of the tract."
"Called by the Indians Nackaquatok, and by the English Cold Spring."
(Huntington Patent, 1666.) _Wanashque,_ "The tip or extremity of
anything."
Opcutkontycke, now assigned to a brook entering Northfield Harbor, and
primarily given as the name of a boundary stream (see Katawamake), seems
to be a corruption of _Ogkomé_ (Acoom-), "On the other side," and
_-tuck,_ "A tidal stream or estuary." It was a place on the other side
of the estuary.
Aupauquack, the name of a creek in West Hampton, is entered, in 1665,
_Aupaucock_ and described as a boundary stream between the Shinnecock
and the Unchechauge lands, "Either nation may cutt flags for their use
on either side of the river without molestation." Also given as the name
of a "Lily Pond" in East Hampton. Written Appauquauk and Appoquague, and
now Paucuck. The name describes a place "Where flags grow," and nothing
else. [FN] (See Apoquague.)
* * * * *
[FN] Rev. Thomas James, in a deposition made Oct. 18, 1667, said that
two old Indian women informed him they "gathered flags for mats within
that tract." (East Hampton Town Records, 156.)
Wading River, now so called, was also called "The Iron or Red Creek,"
"Red Creek" and "Wading Place," and by the Indians _Pauquacumsuck_ and
_Pequoockeon,_ the latter, wrote Dr. Trumbull, "Because Pequaocks, a
little thick shell-fish was found there, which the Indians waded for;
hence the name 'Wading River,' _Quahaug_ is from this term, and
_Pequaock,_ Oyster Bay." "Iron or Red Creek" explains itself. Wading
River is preserved in the name of a village in the town of Riverhead.
Assawanama--"a tract of land near the town of Huntington called by the
natives _Anendesak,_ in English Eaderneck's Beach, and so along the
Sound four miles, or thereabouts, until [to] the fresh pond called by
the natives _Assaiwanama,_ where a creek runs into the Sound"--describes
"A creek beyond," _i. e._ beyond Anendesak; from Assawa-amhames.
Aquebogue, Aquebauke--"on the north side of Aquebauke or Piaconnock
River" (COl. Hist. N. Y., xiv, 600)--means, "Land or place on this side,"
_i. e._ on the side towards the speaker, as is obvious from the
description, "On the north side," and from the deed of 1648, which
reads: "The whole tract of land called Ocquebauck, together with the
lands and meadows lying on the _other side_ of the water as far as the
creek," the latter called "The Iron or Red Creek," now "Wading River."
The name is preserved in two villages in the town of Riverhead, on the
original tract.
Wopowag, more correctly _Wepowage,_ given as the name of Stony Brook,
town of Brookhaven, describes a place "At the narrows," _i. e._ of a
brook or cove, and usually "The crossing place." (Trumbull.)
So'was'set, correctly _Cowas'sett_ (Moh.), the name of what is now Port
Jefferson, signifies, "Near a place of small pine trees." (Trumbull.)
The name was applied to what was long known as the "Drowned Meadow," but
not the less a "Place of small pine trees" which was at or near the
meadow.
Wickaposset, now given as the name of Fisher's Island, appears to be
from _Wequa,_ "End of," _-paug_ (-peauke), "Waterland," and _-et,_
locative--near the end of the water-land, marsh or pond. The island is
on the north side of the Sound opposite Stonington, Ct., but is included
in the jurisdiction of Southampton.
Hashamomuck, "being a neck of land." (Southold Records.) Hashamomock or
Nashayousuck. (Ib.) The adjectivals _Hash_ and _Nash_ seem to be from
_Nashaué,_ "Between," and _-suck,_ "The mouth or outlet of a brook." The
suffix _-momuck,_ in the first form, may stand for _-komuk,_ "Place"--a
place between. The orthographies are very uncertain.
Minnepaug, "being a little pond with trees standing by it." (Southold
Records.) The name is explained in the description, "A little pond." In
Southampton Records the same pond is called Monabaugs, another
orthography of Minnepaug.
Masspootupaug (1662), describes a boggy meadow or miry land. The
substantival is _Póotapaug,_ Mass., "A bog." The adjectival may stand for
_Mass,_ "Great," or _Matt,_ derogative.
Manowtassquott, or Manowtatassquott, is assigned to Blue Point, in Great
South Bay, town of Brookhaven. The record reads: "Bounded easterly by a
brook or river to the westward of a point called the Blue Point, known
by the Indian name of Manowtatassquott." The name belongs to a place
where Menhaden abounded--Manowka-tuck-ut--from which extended to the
point.
Ochabacowesuck, given as the name of what is now called Pine Neck, stands
for _Acquebacowes-uck,_ meaning, "On this side of the small pines."
Narraganset. _Cówawés-uck,_ "At the young pine place," or "Small-pine
place." _Koowa,_ Eliot; _-es,_ diminutive; _-uck,_ locative. The name of
the tree was from its pointed leaves; _Kous,_ a thorn or briar, or
"having a sharp point." (Trumbull.) _Acqueb,_ "This side."
Ronkonkoma, _Raconkamuck, Wonkonkoamaug, Wonkongamuck, Wonkkeconiaug,
Raconkcamake,_ "A fresh pond, about the middle of Long Island."
(Smithtown Records.) "_Woukkecomaug_ signifying crooked pond." (Indian
deed of 1720.) Obviously from _Wonkun,_ "Bent," and _-komuk,_ "Place,
limited or enclosed." Interpretation from _Wonkon'ous,_ "Fence," and
_-amaug,_ "Fishing-place" (Tooker), has no other standing than that
there was a fence of lopped trees terminating at the pond. The name,
however, was in place before the fence was made. The explanation in the
Indian deed of 1720 cannot be disputed. The pond divides the towns of
Islip, Smithtown, Setauket, and Patchoug.
Potunk, a neck of land on Shinnecock Bay, is written _Potuncke_ in
Smithtown Records, in 1662. "A swamp at Potunk," is another entry. Dr.
Trumbull quoted it as a form of _Po'dunk,_ Conn., which is of primary
record, "Called _Potaecke,_" and given as the name of a "brook or
river." In Brookfield, Mass., a brook bearing the name is said to have
been so called "from a tract of meadow adjoining." In Washington County,
N. Y., is recorded "Podunk Brook." (Cal. Land Papers.) The meaning of the
name is uncertain, but from its wide distribution it is obviously from
a generic--presumably a corruption of _P'tuk-ohke,_ a neck or corner of
land. "The neck next east of Onuck is known by the Indian name of
Potunk." (Local History.)
Mannhonake, the name of Gardiner's Island--"called by the Indians
Mannhonake, [FN] and by us the Isle of Wight"--means, "Island place or
country," from _Munnohhan,_ "Island," and _-auke,_ "Land, ground, place
(not limited or enclosed), country," etc. (Trumbull.) In common with
other islands in Gardiner's Bay, it was recommended, in 1650, as offering
rare inducements for settlement, "Since therein lie the cockles whereof
wampum is made." "The greatest part of the wampum for which the furs are
traded is made there." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xii, 360.) The island was
claimed in the deed as the property of the Narragansetts. Dr. Dwight's
interpretation of the name, "A place where a number of Indians had died,"
is a pure invention.
* * * * *
[FN] _Manchonacke_ is the orthography in patent to Lion Gardiner, 1639.
(Doc. Hist. N. Y., i, 685.) Dr. Trumbull quotes _Manchonat,_
Narragansett.
Manah-ackaquasu-wanock, given as the name of Shelter Island, is a
composition of two names, as shown by the record entry, "All that their
island of _Ahaquasu-wamuck,_ otherwise called _Manhansack._"
_Ahaquasu-wamuck_ is no doubt the equivalent of _Aúhaquassu_ (Nar.),
"Sheltered," and _-amuck_ is an equivalent of _amaug,_ "Fishing-place,"
literally, "Sheltered fishing-place." _Menhansack_ is _Manhansick_ in
deed of 1652, and _Munhassett_ and _Manhasett_ in prior deed of 1640.
(East-Hampton Records.) It is a composition from _Munnohan,_ "Island;"
_es,_ "small," and _et,_ "at" and describes a small island as "at" or
"near" some other island. The compound _Manah-ahaquasu-wanock,_ means,
therefore, simply, "Sheltered-fishing-place island," identifying the
island by the fishing-place, while _Manhasett_ identifies it in generic
terms as a small island near some other island or place. [FN] The island
now bears the generic terms _Manhasett._ Pogatacutt, sachem of the
island, is supposed to have lived on what is now known as "Sachem's
Neck." (See Montauk.)
* * * * *
[FN] Perhaps explained by the entry, "Roberts' Island, situate near
Manhansack." (Records, Town of East-Hampton.)
Manises, or _Menasses,_ as written by Dr. Trumbull, the name of Block
Island, means, literally, "Small island," just as an Englishman would
describe it. The Narragansetts were its owners. Its earliest European
occupant was Capt. Adriaen Block, who, having lost his vessel by burning
at Manhattan, constructed here another which he called the "Onrust" or
"Restless," in 1614. It was the first vessel constructed by Europeans in
New York waters. In this vessel Block made extended surveys of Hudson's
River, the Connecticut, the Sound, etc. Acquiring from his residence
among them a knowledge of the Connecticut coast dialects, he wrote the
names of tribes on the Hudson in that dialect. Reference is made to what
is better known as the "Carte Figurative of 1614-16." There is no better
evidence that this Figurative was from Block's chart than its presumed
date and the orthographies of the names written on it.
* * * * *
Hudson's River on the West.
Neversink, now so written as the name of the hills on the south side of
the lower or Raritan Bay, is written _Neuversin_ by Van der Donck,
_Neyswesinck_ by Van Tienhoven, _Newasons_ by Ogilby, 1671, and more
generally in early records Naver, Neuver, Newe, and Naoshink. The
original was no doubt the Lenape Newas-ink, "At the point, comer, or
promontory." The root _Ne_ (English _Nâï_), means, "To come to a point,"
"To form a point," or, as rendered by Dr. Trumbull, "A corner, angle or
point," _Nâïag._ Dr. Schoolcraft's translation, "Between waters," and
Dr. O'Callaghan's "A stream between hills," are incorrect, as can be
abundantly proved. (See Nyack.)
Perth Amboy, at the mouth of Raritan River, is in part, from James,
Earl of Perth, Lord High Chancellor of Scotland, who founded a settlement
there, and part from _Amboy_ (English _Ambo_), meaning any rising or
stage, a hill or any elevation. A writer in 1684 notes: "Where the town
of Perth is now building is on a shelf of land rising twenty, thirty and
forty feet." Smith (Hist. of New Jersey) wrote: "_Ambo_, in Indian, 'A
point;'" but there is no such word as _Ambo,_ meaning "A point," in any
Indian dialect. Heckewelder's interpretation: "_Ompoge,_ from which
_Amboy_ is derived, and also _Emboli,_ means 'A bottle,' or a place
resembling a bottle," is equally erroneous, although _Emboli_ may easily
have been an Indian pronunciation of Amboy. The Indian deed of 1651
reads, "From the Raritan Point, called _Ompoge,_" which may be read from
_Ompaé,_ Alg. generic, "Standing or upright," of which _Amboy,_ English,
is a fair interpretation.
Raritangs (Van Tienhoven), _Rariton_ (Van der Donck), _Raretans,
Raritanoos, Nanakans,_ etc., a stream flowing to tide-water west of
Staten Island, extended to the Indian sub-tribal organization which
occupied the Raritan Valley, is from the radical _Nâï,_ "A point," as
in Naragan, Naraticon, Narrangansett, Nanakan, Nahican, etc., fairly
traced by Dr. Trumbull in an analysis of Narragansett, and apparently
conclusively established in Nanakan and Narratschoen on the Hudson, the
Verdrietig Hoek, or "Tedious Point," of Dutch notation, where, after
several forms it culminates in _Navish._ Lindstrom's _Naratic-on,_ on
the lower Delaware, was probably Cape May, and an equivalent
substantially of the New England _Nayantukq-ut,_ "A point on a tidal
river," and Raritan was the point of the peninsula which the clan
occupied terminating on Raritan Bay, where, probably, the name was first
met by Dutch navigators. The dialectic exchange of N and R, and of the
surd mutes _k_ and _t_ are clear in comparing _Nanakan_ on the Hudson,
_Naratic-on_ on the Delaware, and _Raritan_ on the Raritan. Van der
Donck's map locates the clan bearing the name in four villages at and
above the junction of a branch of the stream at New Brunswick, N. J.,
where there is a certain point as well as on Raritan Bay. The clan was
conspicuous in the early days of Dutch New Netherland. Van Tienhoven
wrote that it had been compelled to remove further inland on account of
freshets, but mainly from its inability to resist the raids of the
southern Indians; that the lands which they left unoccupied was between
"two high mountains far distant from one to the other;" that it was "the
handsomest and pleasantest country that man can behold." The great
southern trunk-line Indian path led through this valley, and was then,
as it is now, the great route of travel between the northern and the
southern coast. (See Nanakan, Nyack-on-the-Hudson, and Orange.)
Orange, a familiar name in eastern New Jersey and supposed to refer to
the two mountains that bound the Raritan Valley, may have been from the
name of a sachem or place or both. In Breeden Raedt it is written: "The
delegates from all the savage tribes, such as the Raritans, whose chiefs
called themselves Oringkes from Orange." _Oringkes_ seems to be a form of
_Owinickes,_ from _Owini,_ N. J. (_Inini,_ Chip., _Lenni,_ Del.), meaning
"Original, pure," etc., and _-ke,_ "country"--literally, "First or
original people of the country," an interpretation which agrees with
the claim of the Indians generally when speaking of themselves. [FN]
_Orange_ is _Oranje,_ Dutch, pure and simple, but evidently introduced
to represent the sound of an Indian word. What that word was may,
probably, be traced from the name given as that of the sachem, _Auronge_
(Treaty of 1645), which seems to be an apheresis of _W'scha-já-won-ge,_
"On the hill side," or "On the side of a hill." (Zeisb.) Awonge, Auronge,
Oranje, Orange, is an intelligible progression, and, in connection with
"from Orange," indicates the location of a village or the side of a hill,
which the chiefs represented.
* * * * *
[FN] Dr. D. G. Brinton wrote me "I believe you are right in identifying
_Oringkes_ with _Owine_--possibly with locative _k._"
Succasunna, Morris County, N. J., is probably from _Sûkeu,_ "Black," and
_-achsün,_ "Stone," with substantive verbal affix _-ni._ It seems to
describe a place where there were black stones, but whether there are
black stones there or not has not been ascertained.
Aquackanonck, Aquenonga, Aquainnuck, etc.. is probably from
_Achquam'kan-ong,_ "Bushnet fishing place." Zeisberger wrote
"_Achquanican,_ a fish dam." The locative was a point of land formed by
a bend in Pasaeck River on the east side, now included in the City of
Paterson. Jasper Bankers and Peter Sluyter wrote, in 1679-80:
"Acquakenon: on one side is the kil, on the other is a small stream by
which it (the point) is almost surrounded." The Dutch wrote here,
_Slooterdam,_ _i. e._ a dam with a gate or sluiceway in it, probably
constructed of stone, the sluiceway being left open to enable shad to
run up the stream, and closed by bushes to prevent their return to the
sea. (Nelson.)
Watchung (Wacht-unk, Del.) is from _Wachtschu_ (Zeisb.), "Hill or
mountain," and _-unk,_ locative, "at" or "on." _Wachtsûnk,_ "On the
mountain" (Zeisb.); otherwise written _Wakhunk._ The original application
was to a hill some twelve miles west of the Hudson. The first deed (1667)
placed the boundmark of the tract "At the foot of the great mountain,"
and the second deed (1677) extended the limit "To the top of the mountain
called Watchung."
Achkinckeshacky; _Hackinkeshacky,_ 1645; _Hackinghsackin, Hackinkesack_
(1660); _Hackensack_ (1685); _Ackinsack, Hockquindachque; Hackquinsack,_
are early record forms of the name of primary application to the stream
now known as the Hackensack, from which it was extended to the adjacent
district, to an Indian settlement, and to an Indian sachem, or, as Van
Tienhoven wrote, "A certain savage chief, named Haickquinsacq." (Breeden
Raedt.) The most satisfactory interpretation of the name is that
suggested by the late Dr. Trumbull: "From _Huckquan,_ Mass., _Hócquaan,_
Len., 'Hook,' and _sauk,_ 'mouth of a river'--literally, 'Hook-shaped
mouth,' descriptive of the course of the stream around Bergen Point, by
the Kil van Kull, [FN-1] to New York Bay." Campanus wrote _Hócküng,_
"Hook," and Zeisberger, _Hócquaan._ [FN-2] The German _Hacken,_ now
Hackensack, means "Hook," as in German _Russel Hacken,_ "Pot-hook," a
hook incurved at both ends, as the letter S; in Lenape _Hócquoan_
(Zeisb.). Probably simply a substitution.
* * * * *
[FN-1] Before entering New York Harbor, Hudson anchored his ship below
the Narrows and sent out an exploring party in a boat, who entered the
Narrows and ascended as far as Bergen Point, where they encountered a
second channel which they explored as far as Newark Bay. The place where
the second channel was met they called "The Kils," or channels, and so
it has remained--incorrectly "Kills." The Narrows they called _Col,_ a
pass or defile, or mountain-pass, hence _Kil van Col,_ channel of the
Narrow Pass, and hence _Achter Col,_ a place behind the narrow channel.
"Those [Indians] of Hackingsack, otherwise called Achter Col." (Journal
of New Neth., 1641-47, Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv, 9.) . . . "Whether the
Indians would sell us the hook of land behind the Kil van Col." (Col.
Hist. N. Y., xiii, 280.) Achter Col became a general name for all that
section of New Jersey. _Kul_ and _Kull_ are corruptions of _Col._
_Arthur Kull_ is now applied to Newark Bay.
[FN-2] Heckewelder wrote "_Okhúcquan, Woâkhucquoan,_ or short _Húcquan_
for the modern _Occoquan,_ the name of a river in Virginia, and
remarked, 'All these names signify a hook.'" (Trumbull.) Rev. Thomas
Campanus (Holm), who was chaplain to the Swedish settlements on the
Delaware, 1642-9, and who collected a vocabulary, wrote _Hócküng_
(_ueug_), "Hook." This sound of the word may have led the Dutch to
adopt _Hackingh_ as an orthography--modern _Haking,_ "Hooking," incurved
as a hook.
Commoenapa, written in several forms, was the name of the most southern
of the six early Dutch settlements on the west side of Hudson's River,
known in their order as Commoenapa, Aresseck, Bergen, Ahasimus,
Hoboken-Hackingh, and Awiehacken. Commoenapa is now preserved as the name
of the upland between Communipaw Avenue and Walnut Street, Jersey City,
but was primarily applied to the arm of the main land beginning at
Konstabel's Hoek, and later to the site of the ancient Dutch village of
Gamœnapa, as written by De Vries in 1640, and by the local scribes,
Gamœnapaen. [FN] (Col. Hist. N. Y. xiii, 36, 37.) Dunlap (Hist. N. Y.,
i, 50) claimed the name as Dutch from _Gemeente,_ "Commons, public
property," and Paen, "Soft land," or in combination, "Tillable land and
marsh belonging to the community," a relation which the lands certainly
sustained. (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 234.) The lands were purchased by
Michael Pauw in 1630, and sold by him to the Dutch government in 1638.
Although clearly a Dutch name it has been claimed as Indian, from Lenape
_Gamenowinink_ (Zeisb.), "England, on the other side of the sea."
_Gamœnapaug,_ one of the forms of the name, is quoted as the basis of
this claim; also, _Acomunipag,_ "On the other side of the bay." The Dutch
did substitute _paen_ for _paug_ in some cases, but it is very doubtful
if they did here.
* * * * *
[FN] Jasper Dankers and Peter Sluyter wrote in their Journal:
"Gamaenapaen is an arm of the main land on the west side of the North
River, beginning at Constable's Hook, directly opposite to Staten
Island, from which it is separated by the Kil van Kol. It is almost an
hour broad, but has large salt meadows or marshes on the Kil van Kol.
It is everywhere accessible by water from the city."
Ahasimus--_Achassemus_ in deed to Michael Pauw, 1630--now preserved in
Harsimus, was a place lying west of the "Little Island, Aressick;" later
described as "The corn-land of the Indians," indicating that the name
was from Lenape _Chasqummes_ (Zeisb.), "Small corn." _Ashki'muis,_ "Sea
maize." [FN] (See Arisheck.)
* * * * *
[FN] "The aforesaid land Ahasimus and Aressick, by us called the Whore's
Corner, extending along the river Maurites and the Island Manhates on
the east side, and the Island Hobokan-Hackingh on the north side,
surrounded by swamps, which are sufficiently distinct for boundaries."
(Pauw Deed, Nov. 22, 1630; Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 3.) Mr. Winfield
located Ahasimus "At that portion of Jersey City which lies east of
Union Hill, excepting Paulus' Hoeck (Areisheck), . . . generally from
Warren to near Grove Street."
Bergen, the name of the third settlement, is met in Scandinavian and in
German dialects. "Bergen, the Flemish for Mons (Latin), 'a hill,' a town
of Belgium." (Lippincott.) "Bergen, op. Zoom, 18 miles north of Antwerp,
'a hill at (or near) the bank,' or border." The original settlement was
on what is now known as Jersey City Heights.
Arisheck--"The Little Island Aressick" (See Ahasimus), called by the
Dutch Aresseck Houck, Hoeren Houck, and Paulus Houck--now the eastern
point of Jersey City--was purchased from the Indians by Michael Pauw,
Nov. 22, 1630, with "the land called Ahasimus," and, with the "Island
Hobokan-Hackingh," purchased by him in July of the same year, was
included in his plantation under the general name of Pavonia, a Latinized
form of his own name, from Pavo, "Peacock" (Dutch Pauw), which is
retained in the name of the Erie R. R. Ferry. Primarily, Arisseck was a
low neck of land divided by a marsh, the eastern end forming what was
called an island. The West India Company had a trading post there
conducted by one Michael Paulis, from whom it was called Paulus' Hook,
which it retains, Pauw also established a trading post there which, as
it lay directly in the line of the great Indian trunk-path (see
Saponickan), so seriously interfered with the trade of the Dutch post
that the Company purchased the land from him in 1638, and in the same
year sold the island to one Abraham Planck. In the deed to Planck the
description reads: "A certain parcel of land called Pauwels Hoek,
situated westward of the Island Manhates and eastward of Ahasimus,
extending from the North River into the valley which runs around it
there." (Col. Hist. N, Y., xiii, 3.) The Indian name, _Arisheck_ or
_Aresseck,_ is so badly corrupted that the original cannot be
satisfactorily detected, but, by exchanging _n_ for _r,_ and adding the
initial _K,_ we would have _Kaniskeck,_ "A long grassy marsh or meadow."
Hoboken, now so written--_Hobocan-Hacking,_ July, 1630; _Hobokan-Hacking,_
Nov. 1630; _Hobokina,_ 1635; _Hobocken,_ 1643; _Hoboken,_ 1647; _Hobuck_
and _Harboken,_ 1655-6--appears of record first in the Indian deed to
Michael Pauw, July 12, 1630, negotiated by the Director-general and
Council of New Netherland, and therein by them stated, "By us called
Hobocan-Hacking." Primarily it was applied to the low promontory [FN-1]
below Castle Point, [FN-2] bounded, recites the deed, on the south by
the "land Ahasimus and Aressick." On ancient charts Aressick and
Hoboken-Hacking are represented as two long necks of land or points
separated by a cove on the river front now filled in, both points being
called hooks. In records it was called an island, and later as "A neck of
land almost an island, called Hobuk, . . . extending on the south side
to Ahasimus; eastward to the river Mauritus, and on the west side
surrounded by a valley or morass through which the boundary can be seen
with sufficient clearness." (Winfield's Hist. Hudson Co.; Col. Hist.
N. Y., xiii, 2, 3, 4.) In "Freedoms and Exemptions," 1635; "But every one
is notified that the Company reserves, unto itself the Island Manhates;
Fort Orange, with the lands and islands appertaining thereto; Staten
Island; the land of Achassemes, Arassick and Hobokina." The West India
Company purchased the latter lands from Michael Pauw in 1638-9, and
leased and sold in three parcels as stated in the Pauw deeds. The first
settlement of the parcel called by the Dutch Hobocan-Hacking is located
by Whitehead (Hist. East N. J.) immediately north of Hobokan Kill and
called _Hobuk._ Smith, in his "History of New Jersey," wrote _Hobuck,_
and stated that it was a plantation "owned by a Dutch merchant who in
the Indian wars, had his wife, children and servants murdered by the
Indians." In a narrative of events occurring in 1655, it is written:
"Presently we saw the house on Harboken in flames. This done the whole
Pavonia was immediately in flames." [FN-3] (Col. Hist. N. Y., xii, 98.)
The deed statement, "By us named," is explicit, and obviously implies
that the terms in the name were Dutch and not Indian, and Dutch they
surely were. Dr. A. S. Gatschet, of the Bureau of Ethnology, wrote me:
"Hoboken, called after a village on the river Scheldt, a few miles below
Antwerp, [FN-4] and after a high elevation on its north side. _Ho-,_
_hoh-,_ is the radical of 'high' in all German dialects, and _Buck_ is
'elevation' in most of them. _Buckel_ (Germ.), _Bochel_ (Dutch), means
'hump,' 'hump-back.' _Hump_ (Low German) is 'heap,' 'hill.' _Ho-bok-an_
locates a place that is distinguished by a hill, or by a hill in some
way associated with it." Presumably from the ancient village of Hoboken
came to Manhattan, about 1655, one Harmon van Hobocoon, a schoolmaster,
who evidently was given his family name from the village from whence he
came. He certainly did not give his family name to Hoboken twenty years
prior to his landing at Manhattan.
_Hacking_ and _Haken_ are unquestionably Dutch from the radical _Haak,_
"hook." The first is a participle, meaning _Hooking,_ "incurved as a
hook," by metonymie, "a hook." It was used in that sense by the early
Dutch as a substitute for Lenape _Hócquan,_ "hook," in Hackingsack, and
Zeisberger used it in "_Ressel Hacken,_ pot-hook." No doubt Stuyvesant
used it in the same sense in writing _Hobokan-Hacking,_ describing
thereby both a hill and a hook, corresponding with the topography, to
distinguish it from its twin-hook Arisheck. Had there been an Indian
name given him for it, he would have written it as surely as he wrote
Arisheck. When he wrote, "By us called," he meant just what he said and
what he understood the terms to mean. To assume that he wrote the terms
as a substitute for Lenape _Hopoakan-hacki-ug,_ "At (or on) the
smoking-pipe land." or place where materials were obtained for making
smoking-pipes, has no warrant in the record narrative. _Hacking_ was
dropped from the name in 1635.
* * * * *
[FN-1] An ancient view of the shore-line represents it as a considerable
elevation--a hill.
[FN-2] Castle Point is just below Wehawken Cove in which Hudson is
supposed to have anchored his ship in 1609. In Juet's Journal this land
is described as "beautiful" and the cliff as of "the color of white
green, as though it was either a copper or silver mine." It has long
been a noted resort for mineralogists.
[FN-3] Teunissed van Putten was the first white resident of Hoboken. He
leased the land for twelve years from Jan. 1, 1641. The West India
Company was to erect a small house for him. Presumably this house is
referred to in the narrative. It was north of Hoboken Kill.
[FN-4] Now a commercial village of Belgium. The prevailing dialect
spoken there was Flemish, usually classed as Low German. The Low German
dialects of three centuries ago are imperfectly represented in modern
orthographies. In and around Manhattan eighteen different European
dialects were spoken, as noted of record--Dutch, Flemish, German,
Scandinavian, Walloon, etc.
Wehawken and Weehawken, as now written, is written _Awiehaken_ in deed
by Director Stuyvesant, 1658-9. Other orthographies are Wiehacken,
Whehockan, Weehacken, Wehauk, obvious corruptions of the original, but
all retaining a resemblance in sound. The name is preserved as that of
a village, a ferry, and a railroad station about three miles north of
Jersey City, and is historically noted for its association with the
ancient custom of dueling, the particular resort for that purpose being
a rough shelf of the cliff about two and one-half miles north of Hoboken
and about opposite 28th Street, Manhattan. The locative of the name is
described in a grant by Director Stuyvesant, in 1647, to one Maryn
Adriaensen, of "A piece of land called Awiehaken, situate on the west
side of the North River, bounded on the south by Hoboken Kil, and running
thence north to the next kil, and towards the woods with the same
breadth, altogether fifty morgens of land." [FN] (Col. Hist. N. Y.,
xiii, 22.) The "next kil" is presumed to have been that flowing to the
Hudson in a wild ravine just south of the dueling ground, now called the
Awiehackan. A later description (1710) reads: "Between the southernmost
cliffs of Tappaen and Ahasimus, at a place called Wiehake." (Cal. N. Y.
Land Papers, 98.) The petition was by Samuel Bayard, who then owned the
land on both sides of Wiehacken Creek, for a ferry charter covering the
passage "Between the southernmost cliffs of Tappaen and New York Island,
at a place called Wiehake," the landing-place of which was established
at or near the mouth of Awiehacken Creek just below what is now known as
King's Point. Of the location generally Winfield (Hist.. Hudson Co.,
N. J.) wrote: "Before the iconoclastic hand of enterprise had touched it
the whole region about was charming beyond description. Just south of
the dueling ground was the wild ravine down which leaped and laughed the
Awiehacken. Immediately above the dueling ground was King's Point looking
boldly down upon the Hudson. From this height still opens as fair, as
varied, as beautiful a scene as one could wish to see. The rocks rise
almost perpendicularly to one hundred and fifty feet above the river.
Under these heights, about twenty feet above the water, on a shelf about
six feet wide and eleven paces long, reached by an almost inaccessible
flight of steps, was the dueling ground." South of King's Point were the
famed Elysian Fields, at the southern extremity of which, under Castle
Point, was Sibyl's Cave, a rocky cavern containing a fine spring of
water.
The place to which the name was applied in the deed of 1658 seems to have
been an open tract between the streams named, presumably a field lying
along the Hudson, from the description, "running back towards the woods,"
suggesting that it was from the Lenape radical _Tauwa,_ as written by
Zeisberger in _Tauwi-échen,_ "Open;" as a noun, "Open or unobstructed
space, clear land, without trees." Dropping the initial we have _Auwi,
Awie,_ of the early orthography; dropping _A_ we have _Wie_ and _Wee,_
and from _-échen_ we have _-ákan, -haken, -hawking,_ etc. As the name
stands now it has no meaning in itself, although a Hollander might read
_Wie_ as _Wei,_ "A meadow," and _Hacken_ as "Hooking," incurved as a
hook, which would fairly describe Weehawking Cove as it was.
Submitted to him in one of its modern forms, the late Dr. Trumbull wrote
that _Wehawing_ "Seemed" to him as "most probably from _Wehoak,_ Mohegan,
and _-ing,_ Lenape, locative, 'At the end (of the Palisades)'" and in
his interpretation violated his own rules of interpretation which
require that translation of Indian names must be sought in the dialect
spoken in the district where the name appears. The word for "End," in
the dialect spoken here, was _Wiqui._ Zeisberger wrote _Wiquiechung,_
"End, point," which certainly does not appear in any form of the name.
The Dr.'s translation is simply worthless, as are several others that
have been suggested. It is surprising that the Dr. should quote a
Mohegan adjectival and attach to it a Lenape locative suffix.
* * * * *
[FN] A Dutch "morgen"' was about two English acres.
Espating (_Hespating,_ Staten Island deed) is claimed to have been the
Indian name of what is now known as Union Hill, in Jersey City, where,
it is presumed, there was an Indian village. The name is from the root
_Ashp_ (_Usp,_ Mass.; _Esp,_ Lenape; _Ishp,_ Chip.), "High," and _-ink,_
locative, "At or on a high place." From the same root Ishpat-ink,
Hespating. (O'Callaghan.) See Ashpetong.
Siskakes, now Secaucus, is written as the name of a tract on Hackensack
meadows, from which it was extended to Snake Hill. It is from
_Sikkâkâskeg,_ meaning "Salt sedge marsh." (Gerard.) The Dutch found
snakes on Snake Hill and called it Slangberg, literally, "Snake Hill."
Passaic is a modern orthography of _Pasaeck_ (Unami-Lenape), German
notation, signifying "Vale or valley." Zeisberger wrote _Pachsójeck_ in
the Minsi dialect. The valley gave name to the stream. In Rockland County
it has been corrupted to Paskack, Pasqueck, etc.
Paquapick is entered on Pownal's map as the name of Passaic Falls. It is
from _Poqui,_ "Divided, broken," and _-ápuchk,_ "Rock." Jasper Dankers
and Peter Sluyter, who visited the falls in 1679-80, wrote in their
Journal that the falls were "formed by a rock stretching obliquely across
the river, the top dry, with a chasm in the center about ten feet wide
into which the water rushed and fell about eighty feet." It is this rock
and chasm to which the name refers--"Divided rock," or an open place in
a rock.
Pequannock, now so written, is the name of a stream flowing across the
Highlands from Hamburgh, N. J. to Pompton, written Pachquak'onck by Van
der Donck (1656); Paquan-nock or Pasqueck, in 1694; Paqunneck, Indian
deed of 1709, and in other forms, was the name of a certain field, from
which it was extended to the stream. Dr. Trumbull recognized it as the
equivalent of Mass. _Paquan'noc, Pequan'nuc, Pohqu'un-auke,_ etc., "A
name common to all cleared land, _i. e._ land from which the trees and
bushes had been removed to fit it for cultivation." Zeisberger wrote,
_Pachqu (Paghqu),_ as in _Pachqu-échen,_ "Meadow;" _Pachquak'onck,_ "At
(or on) the open land."
Peram-sepus, Paramp-seapus, record forms of the name of Saddle River,
[FN] Bergen County, N. J., and adopted in _Paramus_ as the name of an
early Dutch village, of which one reads in Revolutionary history as the
headquarters of General George Clinton's Brigade, appears in deed for a
tract of land the survey of which reads: "Beginning at a spring called
_Assinmayk-apahaka,_ being the northeastern most head-spring of a river
called by the Indians _Peram-sepus,_ and by the Christians Saddle River."
Nelson (Hist. Ind. of New Jersey) quoted from a deed of 1671:
"_Warepeake,_ a run of water so called by the Indians, but the right
name is _Rerakanes,_ by the English called Saddle River." _Peram-sepus_
also appears as _Wieramius,_ suggesting that _Pera, Para, Wara,_ and
_Wiera_ were written as equivalent sounds, from the root _Wil (Willi,
Winne, Wirri, Waure),_ meaning, "Good, fine, pleasant," etc. The suffix
varies, _Sepus_ meaning "Brook"; _Peake (-peék),_ "Water-place," and
_Anes,_ "Small stream," or, substantially, _Sepus,_ which, by the prefix
_Ware,_ was pronounced "A fine stream," or place of water.
* * * * *
[FN] Called "Saddle River," probably, from Richard Saddler, a purchaser
of lands from the Indians in 1674. (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 478.)
Monsey, a village in Rockland County, takes that name from an Indian
resident who was known by his tribal name, _Monsey_--"the Monseys,
Minsis, or Minisinks."
Mahway, Mawayway, Mawawier, etc., a stream and place now Mahway, N. J.,
was primarily applied to a place described: "An Indian field called
Maywayway, just over the north side of a small red hill called
Mainatanung." The stream, on an old survey, is marked as flowing south
to the Ramapo from a point west of Cheesekook Mountain. The name is
probably from _Mawéwi_ (Zeisb.), "Assembly," where streams or paths, or
boundaries, meet or come together. (See Mahequa.)
Mainaitanung, Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, and _Mainating_ in N. J. Records,
given as the name of "A small red hill" (see Mahway), does not describe
a "Red hill," but a place "at" a small hill--_Min-attinuey-unk._ The
suffixed locative, _-unk,_ seems to have been generally used in
connection with the names of hills.
Pompton--_Ponton,_ East N. J. Records, 1695; _Pompeton, Pumpton, Pompeton,_
N. Y. Records--now preserved in Pompton as the name of a village at the
junction of the Pequannock, the Wynokie, and the Ramapo, and continued
as the name of the united stream south of Pompton Village to its junction
with the Passaic, and also as the name of a town in Passaic County,
N. J., as well as in Pompton Falls, Pompton Plains, etc., and historically
as the name of an Indian clan, appears primarily as the name of the Ramapo
River as now known. It is not met in early New York Records, but in
English Records, in 1694, a tract of land is described as being "On a
river called Paquannock, or Pasqueck, near the falls of Pampeton," and
in 1695, in application to lands described as lying "On Pompton Creek,
about twenty miles above ye mouth of said creek where it falls into
Paquanneck River," the particular place referred to being known as
Ramopuch, and now as Ramapo. (See Ramapo.) Rev. Heckewelder located the
name at the mouth of the Pompton (as now known) where it falls into the
Passaic, and interpreted it from _Pihm_ (root _Pimé_), "Crooked mouth,"
an interpretation now rejected by Algonquian students from the fact that
the mouth of the stream is not crooked. A reasonable suggestion is that
the original was _Pomoten,_ a representative town, or a combination of
towns. [FN-1] which would readily be converted to Pompton. In 1710,
"Memerescum, 'sole sachem of all the nations (towns or families) of
Indians on Remopuck River, and on the east and west branches thereof, on
Saddle River, Pasqueck River, Narranshunk River and Tappan,' gave title
to all the lands in upper or northwestern Bergen and Passaic counties."
(Nelson, "Indians of New Jersey," 111), indicating a combination of
clans. Fifty years later the tribal title is entered in the treaty of
Easton (1758) as the "Wappings, Opings or Pomptons," [FN-2] as claimants
of an interest in lands in northern New Jersey, [FN-3] subordinately to
the "Minsis, Monseys or Minisinks," with whom the treaty was made. The
clan was then living at Otsiningo as ward's of the Senecas, and seems to
have been composed of representatives of several historic northern New
Jersey families. It has been inferred that their designation as
"Wappings" classed them as immigrants from the clans on the east side of
the Hudson. Obviously, however, the term described them as of the most
eastern family of the Minsis or Minisinks, which they were.
* * * * *
[FN-1] _Pomoteneyu,_ "There are towns." (Zeisb.) Pompotowwut-Muhheakan-neau,
was the name of the capital town of the Mahicans.
[FN-2] So recognized in the treaty of Easton.
[FN-3] The territory in which the Pomptons claimed an interest included
northern New Jersey as bounded on the north by a line drawn from
Cochecton, Sullivan County, to the mouth of Tappan Creek on the Hudson,
thence south to Sandy Hook, thence west to the Delaware, and thence
north to Cochecton, lat. 41 deg. 40 min., as appears by treaty deed in
Smith's hist, of New Jersey.
Ramapo, now so written and applied to a village and a town in Rockland
County, and also to a valley, a stream of water and adjacent hills, is
written Ramepog in N. Y. Records, 1695; Ramepogh, 1711, and Ramapog in
1775. In New Jersey Records the orthographies are Ramopock, Romopock and
Remopuck, and on Smith's map Ramopough. The earliest description of the
locative of the name appears in N. Y. Records, 1695: "A certain tract of
land in Orange County called Ramepogh, being upon Pompton Creek, about
twenty miles above ye mouth of said creek where it falls into Pequanneck
River, being a piece of low land lying at ye forks on ye west side of ye
creek, and going down the said creek for ye space of six or seven miles
to a small run running into said creek out of a small lake, several
pieces of land lying on both sides of said creek, computed in all about
ninety or one hundred acres, _with upland adjoining_ thereto to ye
quantity of twelve hundred acres." In other words: "A piece of low land
lying at the forks of said river, about twenty miles above the mouth of
the stream where it falls into the Pequannock, with upland adjoining."
The Pompton, so called then, is now the Ramapo, and the place described
in the deed has been known as Remapuck, Romapuck, Ramopuck, Ramapock,
Pemerpuck, and Ramapo, since the era of first settlement. The somewhat
poetic interpretation of the name, "Many ponds," is without warrant, nor
does the name belong to a "Round pond," or to the stream, now the Ramapo
except by extension to it. Apparently, by dialectic exchange of initials
L and R, _Reme, Rama,_ or _Romo_ becomes _Lamó_ from _Lomówo_ (Zeisb.),
"Downward, slanting, oblique," and _-pogh, -puck,_ etc., is a compression
of _-apughk_ (_-puchk_, German notation), meaning--"Rock."
_Lamów-ápuchk,_ by contraction and pronunciation, _Ramápuck,_ meaning
"Slanting rock," an equivalent of _Pimápuchk,_ met in the district in
Pemerpock, in 1674, denoting "Place or country of the slanting rock."
[FN] Ramapo River is supposed to have its head in Round Pond, in the
northwest part of the town of Monroe, Orange County. It also received
the overflow of eight other ponds. Ramapo Pass, beginning about a mile
below Pierson's, is fourteen miles long. (See Pompton.)
* * * * *
[FN] Dr. John C. Smock, late State Geologist of New Jersey, wrote me of
the location of the name at Suffern: "There is the name of the stream
and the name of the settlement (in Rockland County, near the New Jersey
line), and the land is low-lying, and along the creek, and above a
forks, _i. e._ above the forks at Suffern. On the 1774 map in my
possession, Romapock is certainly the present Ramapo. The term 'Slanting
rock' is eminently applicable to that vicinity." The Ramapock Patent of
1704 covered 42,500 acres, and, with the name, followed the mountains
as its western boundary.
Wynokie, now so written as the name of a stream flowing to the Pequannock
at Pompton, takes that name from a beautiful valley through which it
passes, about thirteen miles northwest of Paterson. The stream is the
outlet of Greenwood Lake and is entered on old maps as the Ringwood. The
name is in several orthographies--Wanaque, Wynogkee, Wynachkee, etc. It
is from the root _Win,_ "Good, fine, pleasant," and _-aki,_ land or
place. (See Wynogkee.)
Pamerpock, 1674, now preserved in _Pamrepo_ as the name of a village in
the northwest part of the city of Bayonne, N. J., is probably another
form of _Pemé-apuchk,_ "Slanting rock." [FN] (See Ramapo.) The name
seems to have been widely distributed.
* * * * *
[FN] _Pemé_ is _Pemi_ in the Massachusetts dialect. "It may generally
be translated by 'sloping' or 'aslant.' In Abnaki _Pemadené
(Pemi-adené)_ denotes a sloping mountain side," wrote Dr. Trumbull. The
affix, _-ápuchk,_ changes the meaning to sloping rock, or "slanting
rock," as Zeisberger wrote.
Hohokus, the name of a village and of a railroad station, is probably
from _Mehŏkhókus_ (Zeisb.), "Red cedar." It was, presumably, primarily
at least, a place where red cedar abounded. The Indian name of the stream
here is written _Raighkawack,_ an orthography of _Lechauwaak,_ "Fork"
(Zeisb.), which, by the way, is also the name of a place.
Tuxedo, now a familiar name, is a corruption of _P'tuck-sepo,_ meaning,
"A crooked river or creek." Its equivalent is _P'tuck-hanné_ (Len. Eng.
Dic.), "A bend in the river"--"Winding in the creek or river"--"A bend
in a river." The earliest form of the original appears in 1754--Tuxcito,
1768; Tuxetough, Tugseto, Duckcedar, Ducksider, etc., are later.
Zeisberger wrote _Pduk,_ from which probably Duckcedar. The name seems
to have been that of a bend in the river at some point in the vicinity
of Tuxedo Pond to which it was extended from a certain bend or bends in
the stream. A modern interpretation from _P'tuksit,_ "Round foot," is of
no merit except in its first word. It was the metaphorical name, among
the Delawares, of the wolf. It would be a misnomer applied to either a
river or a pond. _Sepo_ is generic for a long river. (See Esopus.)
Mombasha, Mombashes, etc., the name of a small lake in Southfield, Orange
County, is presumed to be a corruption of _M'biìsses_ (Zeisb.), "Small
lake or pond," "Small water-place." The apostrophe indicates a sound
produced with the lips closed, readily pronouncing _o_ (Mom). Charles
Clinton, in his survey of the Cheesec-ook Patent in 1735, wrote
Mount-Basha. Mombasa is an Arabic name for a coral island on the east
coast of Africa. It may have been introduced here as the sound of the
Indian name.
Wesegrorap, Wesegroraep, Wassagroras, given as the name of "A barren
plain," in the Kakiate Patent, is probably from Wisachgan, "Bitter," sad,
distressing, pitiable. Ziesberger wrote, "Wisachgak, Black oak," the
bark of which is bitter and astringent. A black oak tree on "the
west-southwest side" of the plain may have given name to the plain.
Narranshaw, Nanaschunck, etc., a place so called in the Kakiate Patent
boundary, is probably a corruption of Van der Donck's _Narratschæn,_
"A promontory" or high point. (See Nyack-on-the-Hudson.)
Kakiate, the name of patented lands in Rockland County, is from Dutch
_Kijkuit,_ meaning "Look out," or "Place of observation, as a tower,
hill," etc. The highest hill in Westchester County bears the same name
in _Kakcout,_ and _Kaykuit_ is the name of a hill in Kingston, Ulster
County. The tract to which the name was extended in Rockland County is
described, "Commonly called by the Indians _Kackyachteweke,_ on a neck of
land which runs under a great hill, bounded on the north by a creek
called Sheamaweck or Peasqua." Hackyackawack is another orthography. The
name seems to be from _Schach-achgeu-ackey,_ meaning "Straight land,"
"Straight along," (Zeisb.); _i. e._ direct, as "A neck of land"--"A pass
between mountains," or, as the description reads, "A neck of land which
runs under a great hill." Compare Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 48, 183, etc.
Torne, the name of a high hill which forms a conspicuous object in the
Ramapo Valley, is from Dutch _Torenherg,_ "A tower or turret, a high
pointed hill, a pinnacle." (Prov. Eng.) The hill is claimed to have been
the northwest boundmark of the Haverstraw Patent. In recent times it has
been applied to two elevations, the Little Torne, west of the Hudson, and
the Great Torne, near the Hudson, south of Haverstraw. (Cal. N. Y. Land
Papers, 46.)
Cheesek-ook, Cheesek-okes, Cheesec-oks, Cheesquaki, are forms of the name
given as that of a tract of "Upland and meadow," so described in Indian
deed, 1702, and included in the Cheesek-ook Patent, covering parts of the
present counties of Rockland and Orange. It is now preserved as the name
of a hill, to which it was assigned at an early date, and is also quoted
as the name of adjacent lands in New Jersey. The suffix _-ook, -oke,
-aki,_ etc., shows that it was the name of land or place (N. J., _-ahke;_
Len. _-aki_). It is probably met in _Cheshek-ohke,_ Ct., translated by
Dr. Trumbull from _Kussukoe,_ Moh., "High," and _-ohke,_ "Land or
place"--literally, high land or upland. The final _s_ in some forms, is
an English plural: it does not belong to the root. (See Coxackie.) In
pronunciation the accent should not be thrown on the letter _k_; that
letter belongs to the first word. There is no _Kook_ about it.
Tappans, Carte Figurative of date (presumed) 1614-16, is entered thereon
as the name of an Indian village in Lat. 41° 15', claimed, traditionally,
to have been at or near the site of the later Dutch village known as
Tappan, in Rockland County. In the triangulation of the locative on the
ancient map is inscribed, "En effen veldt" (a flat field), the general
character of which probably gave name to the Indian village. Primarily,
it was a district of low, soft land, abounding in marshes and long
grasses, with little variation from level, extending along the Hudson
from Tappan to Bergen Point, a distance of twenty-seven miles. Wassenaer
wrote, in 1621-25, _Tapants_; DeLaet wrote, in 1624, _Tappaans_; in
Breeden Raedt, _Tappanders_; _Tappaen,_ De Vries, 1639; _Tappaen,_ Van
der Horst deed, 1651: _Tappaens,_ official Dutch; "Savages of _Tappaen_";
_Tappaans,_ Van der Donck, are the early orthographies of the name and
establish it as having been written by the Dutch with the long sound of
_a_ in the last word--_paan_ (-paen)--which may be read _pan,_ as a pan
of any kind, natural or artificial--a stratum of earth lying below the
soil--the pan of a tap into which water flows--a mortar pit. [FN-1] The
compound word _Tap-pan_ is not found in modern Dutch dictionaries, but
it evidently existed in some of the German dialects, as it is certainly
met in _Tappan-ooli (uli)_ on the west coast of Summatra, in application,
to a low district lying between the mountains and the sea, opposite a
fine bay, in Dutch possession as early as 1618, and also in
_Tappan-huacanga,_ a Dutch possession in Brazil of contemporary date. It
is difficult to believe that Tappan was transferred to those distant
parts from an Indian name on Hudson's River; on the contrary its presence
in those parts forces the conclusion that it was conferred by the Dutch
from their own, or from some dialect with which they were familiar,
precisely as it was on Hudson's River and was descriptive of a district
of country the features of which supply the meaning. DeLaet wrote in his
"New World" (Leyden Edition, 1625-6) of the general locative of the name
on the Hudson: "Within the first reach, on the west side of the river,
where the land is low, dwells a nation of savages named _Tappaans,_"
presumably so named by the Dutch from the place where they had
jurisdiction, _i. e._ the low lands. Specifically, De Vries wrote in
1639, _Tappaen_ as the name of a place where he found and purchased, "A
beautiful valley of clay land, some three or four feet above the water,
lying under the mountains, along the river," presumed to have been in the
meadows south of Piermont, into which flows from the mountains Tappan
Creek, now called Spar Kill, [FN-2] as well as the overflow of Tappan
Zee, of which he wrote without other name than "bay": "There flows here
a strong flood and ebb, but the ebb is not more than four feet on account
of the great quantity of water that flows from above, overflowing the
low lands in the spring," converting them into veritable soft lands.
_Gamænapaen,_ now a district in Jersey City, was interpreted by the
late Judge Benson, "Tillable land and marsh." Dr. Trumbull wrote:
"_Petuckquapaugh,_ Dumpling Pond (round pond) gave name to part of the
township of Greenwich, Ct. The Dutch called this tract _Petuck-quapaen._"
The tract is now known as Strickland Plain, [FN-3] and is described as
"Plain and water-land"--"A valley but little above tidewater; on the
southwest an extended marsh now reclaimed in part." The same general
features were met in _Petuckquapaen,_ now Greenbath, opposite Albany,
N. Y. Dr. Trumbull also wrote, "The Dutch met on Long Island the word
_Seaump_ as the name of corn boiled to a pap. The root is _Saupáe_
(Eliot), 'soft,' _i. e._ 'made soft by water,' as _Saupáe manoosh,_
'mortar,' literally 'softened clay.' Hence the Dutch word
_Sappaen_--adopted by Webster _Se-pawn._" Other examples could be quoted
but are not necessary to establish the meaning of Dutch Tappaan, or
Tappaen. An interpretation by Rev. Heckewelder, quoted by Yates &
Moulton, and adopted by Brodhead presumably without examination: "From
_Thuhaune_ (Del.), cold stream," is worthless. No Delaware Indian would
have given it as the name of Tappan Creek, and no Hollander would have
converted it into Tappaan or Tappaen.
The Palisade Range, which enters the State from New Jersey, and borders
the Hudson on the west, terminates abruptly at Piermont. Classed by
geologists as Trap Rock, or rock of volcanic origin, adds interest to
their general appearance as calumnar masses. The aboriginal owners were
not versed in geologic terms. To them the Palisades were simply _-ompsk,_
"Standing or upright rock."
* * * * *
[FN-1] _Paen,_ old French, meaning _Pagan,_ a heathen or resident of a
heath, from _Pagus,_ Latin, a heath, a district of waste land.
[FN-2] Tappan Creek is now known as the Spar Kill, and ancient Tappan
Landing as Tappan Slote. _Slote_ is from Dutch _Sloot._ "Dutch, trench,
moat." "Sloops could enter the mouth of the creek, if lightly laden, at
high tide, through what, from its resemblance to a ditch, was called the
Slote." (Hist. Rockl. Co.) The man or men who changed the name of the
creek to Spar Kill cannot be credited with a very large volume of
appreciation for the historic. The cove and mouth of the creek was no
doubt the landing-place from which the Indian village was approached,
and the latter was accepted for many years as the boundmark on the
Hudson of the jurisdiction of New Jersey.
[FN-3] Strickland Plain was the site of the terrible massacre of Indians
by English and Dutch troops under Capt. Underhill, in March, 1645.
(Broadhead, Hist. N. Y., i, 390.) About eight hundred Indians were
killed by fire and sword, and a considerable number of prisoners taken
and sold into slavery. The Indian fort here was in a retreat of
difficult access.
Mattasink, Mattaconga and Mattaconck, forms of names given to certain
boundmarks "of the land or island called Mattasink, or Welch's Island,"
Rockland County, describe two different features. _Mattaconck_ was "a
swampy or hassocky meadow," lying on the west side of Quaspeck Pond, from
whence the line ran north, 72 degrees east, "to the south side of the
rock on the top of the hill," called Mattasinck. In the surveyor's notes
the rock is described as "a certain rock in the form of a sugar loaf."
The name is probably an equivalent of _Mat-assin-ink,_ "At (or to) a bad
rock," or a rock of unusual form. _Mattac-onck_ seems to be an
orthography of _Maskék-onck,_ "At a swamp or hassocky meadow." Surd mutes
and linguals are so frequently exchanged in this district that locatives
must be relied upon to identify names. _Mattac_ has no meaning in itself.
The sound is that of _Maskék._
Nyack, Rockland County, does not take that name from _Kestaub-niuk,_ a
place-name on the east side of the Hudson, as stated by Schoolcraft, nor
was the name imported from Long Island, as stated by a local historian;
on the contrary, it is a generic Algonquian term applicable to any point.
It was met in place here at the earliest period of settlement in
application to the south end of Verdrietig Hoek Mountain, as noted in
"The Cove or Nyack Patent," near or on which the present village of Nyack
has its habitations. It means "Land or place at the angle, point or
corner," from _Néïak_ (Del.), "Where there is a point." (See Nyack,
L. I.) The root appears in many forms in record orthographies, due
largely to the efforts of European scribes to express the sound in either
the German or the English alphabet. Adriaen Block wrote, in 1614-16,
_Nahicans_ as the name of the people on Montauk Point; Eliot wrote
_Naiyag_ (_-ag_ formative); Roger Williams wrote _Nanhigan_ and
_Narragan;_ Van der Donck wrote _Narratschoan_ on the Verdrietig Hoek
Mountain on the Hudson; _Naraticon_ appears on the lower Delaware, and
_Narraoch_ and _Njack_ (Nyack) are met on Long Island. The root is the
same in all cases, Van der Donck's _Narratschoan_ on the Hudson, and
_Narraticon_ on the Delaware, meaning "The point of a mountain which has
the character of a promontory," kindred to _Néwas_ (Del.), "A
promontory," or a high point. [FN] The Indian name of Verdrietig Hoek,
or Tedious Point, is of record _Newas-ink_ in the De Hart Patent, and in
several other forms of record--Navish, Navoash-ink, Naurasonk, Navisonk,
Newasons, etc., and Neiak takes the forms of Narratsch, Narrich, Narrock,
Nyack, etc. Verdrietig Hoek, the northeastern promontory of Hook
Mountain, is a rocky precipitous bluff forming the angle of the range.
It rises six hundred and sixty-eight feet above the level of the Hudson
into which it projects like a buttress. Its Dutch-English name "Tedious
Point," has been spoken of in connection with _Pocantico,_ which see.
* * * * *
[FN] Dr. Trumbull wrote: "_Náï,_ 'Having corners'; _Náïyag,_ 'A corner
or angle'; _Náïg-an-eag,_ 'The people about the point.'" William R.
Gerard wrote: "The Algonquian root _Ne_ (written by the English _Náï_)
means 'To come to a point,' or 'To form a point.' From this came Ojibwe
_Naiá-shi,_ 'Point of land in a body of water.' The Lenape _Newás,_ with
the locative affix, makes _Newás-ing,_ 'At the promontory.' The Lenape
had another word for 'Point of land.' This was _Néïak_ (corrupted to
Nyack). It is the participial form of _Néïan,_ 'It is a point.' The
participle means, 'Where there is a point,' or literally, 'There being
a point.'"
Essawatene--"North by the top of a certain hill called Essawatene," so
described in deed to Hermanus Dow, in 1677--means "A hill beyond," or on
the other side of the speaker. It is from _Awassi_ (Len.), "Beyond," and
_-achtenne,_ "Hill," or mountain. _Oosadenighĕ_ (Abn.), "Above, beyond,
the mountain," or "Over the mountain." We have the same derivative in
_Housaten-ûk,_ now Housatonic.
Quaspeck, Quaspeek, Quaspeach, "Quaspeach or Pond Patent"--"A tract of
land called in the Indian language Quaspeach, being bounded by the brook
Kill-the-Beast, running out of a great pond." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers,
53, 56, 70, 82.) The land included in the patent was described as "A
hassocky meadow on the west side of the lake." (See Mattasink.) The full
meaning of the name is uncertain. The substantival _-peék,_ or _-peach,_
means "Lake, pond or body of still water." [FN] As the word stands its
adjectival does not mean anything. The local interpretation "Black," is
entirely without merit. The pond is now known as Rockland Lake. It lies
west of the Verdrietig Hoek range, which intervenes between it and the
Hudson. It is sheltered on its northeast shore by the range. The ridge
intervening between it and the Hudson rises 640 feet. It is a beautiful
lake of clear water reposing on a sandy bottom, 160 feet above the level
of the Hudson.
* * * * *
[FN] The equivalent Mass. word is _paug,_ "Where water is," or "Place
of water." (Trumbull.) Quassa-paug or Quas-paug, is the largest lake in
Woodbury, Ct. Dr. Trumbull failed to detect the derivative of _Quas,_
but suggested, Kiche, "Great." Probably a satisfactory interpretation
will be found in _Kussûk,_ "High." (See Quassaick.)
Menisak-cungue, so written in Indian deed to De Hart in 1666, and also
in deed from De Hart to Johannes Minnie in 1695, is written _Amisconge_
on Pownal's map, as the name of a stream in the town of Haverstraw. As
De Hart was the first purchaser of lands at Haverstraw, the name could
not have been from that of a later owner, as locally supposed. Pownal's
orthography suggests that the original was _Ommissak-kontu,_ Mass.,
"Where Alewives or small fishes are abundant." The locative was at the
mouth of the stream at Grassy Point. [FN] Minnie's Falls, a creek so
known, no doubt, took that name from Johannes Minnie. On some maps it is
called Florus' Falls, from Florus Crom, an early settler. An unlocated
place on the stream was called "The Devil's Horse Race."
* * * * *
[FN] _Kontu,_ an abundance verb, is sometimes written _contee,_ easily
corrupted to _cungue._ Dutch _Congé_ means "Discharge," the tail-race
of a mill, or a strong, swift current. Minnie's Congé, the tail-race of
Minnie's mill.
Mahequa and Mawewier are forms of the name of a small stream which
constitutes one of the boundaries of what is known as Welch's Island.
They are from the root _Mawe,_ "Meeting," _Mawewi,_ "Assembly" (Zeisb.),
_i. e._ "Brought together," as "Where paths or streams or boundaries
come together." The reference may have been to the place where the stream
unites with Demarest's Kill, as shown on a map of survey in "History of
Rockland County." Welch's Island was so called from its enclosure by
streams and a marsh. (See Mattaconga and Mahway.)
Skoonnenoghky is written as the name of a hill which formed the southwest
boundmark of a district of country purchased from the Indians by Governor
Dongan in 1685, and patented to Capt. John Evans by him in 1694,
described in the Indian deed as beginning on the Hudson, "At about the
place called the Dancing Chamber, thence south to the north side of the
land called Haverstraw, thence northwest along the hill called
Skoonnenoghky" to the bound of a previous purchase made by Dongan "Called
Meretange pond." (See Pitkiskaker.) The hill was specifically located in
a survey of part of the line of the Evans Patent, by Cadwallader Colden,
in 1722, noted as "Beginning at Stony Point and running over a high hill,
part of which makes the Stony Point, and is called Kunnoghky or
Kunnoghkin." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 162.) The south side of Stony Point
was then accepted as the "North side of the land called Haverstraw." The
hills in immediate proximity, at varying points of compass, are the
Bochberg (Dutch, _Bochelberg,_ "Humpback hill"), and the Donderberg,
neither of which, however, have connection with Stony Point, leaving the
conclusion certain that from the fact that the line had its beginning at
the extreme southeastern limit of the Point on the Hudson, the hill
referred to in the survey must have been that on which the Stony Point
fort of the Revolution was erected, "Part of which hill" certainly "makes
the Stony Point." Colden's form of the name, "Kunnoghky or Kunnoghkin,"
is obviously an equivalent of Dongan's Schoonnenoghky. Both forms are
from the generic root _Gún,_ Lenape (_Qûn,_ Mass.), meaning
"Long"--_Gúnaquot,_ Lenape, "Long, tall, high, extending upwards";
_Qunnúhqui_ (Mass.), "Tall, high, extending upwards"; _Qunnúhqui-ohke_
or _Kunn'oghky,_ "Land extending upwards," high land, gradual ascent.
The name being generic was easily shifted about and so it was that in
adjusting the northwest line of the Evans Patent it came to have
permanent abode as that of the hill now known as Schunnemunk in the town
of Cornwall, Orange County, to the advantage of the proprietors of the
Minisink Patent. [FN] Reference to the old patent line will be met in
other connections.
* * * * *
[FN] The patent to Capt. John Evans was granted by Gov. Dongan in 1694,
and vacated by act of the Colonial Assembly in 1708, approved by the
Queen in 1708. It included Gov. Dongan's two purchases of 1784-85.
{_sic_} It was not surveyed; its southeast, or properly its northwest
line was never satisfactorily determined, but was supposed to run from
Stony Point to a certain pond called Maretanze in the present town of
Greenville, Orange County. Following the vacation of the patent in 1708,
several small patents were granted which were described in general terms
as a part of the lands which it covered. In order to locate them the
Surveyor-General of the Province in 1722, propounded an inquiry as to
the bounds of the original grant; hence the survey by Cadwallader
Colden. The line then established was called "The New Northwest Line."
It was substantially the old line from Stony Point to Maretanze Pond
(now Binnenwater), in Greenville, and cut off a portion of the territory
which was supposed to have been included in the Wawayanda Patent.
Another line was projected in 1765-6, by the proprietors of the Minisink
Patent, running further northeast and the boundmark shifted to a pond
north of Sam's Point, the name going with it. The transaction formed the
well-known Minisink Angle, and netted the Minisink proprietors 56,000
acres of unoccupied lands. (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 986.) Compare Cal.
N. Y. Land Papers, 164, 168, 171, 172, and Map of Patents in Hist.
Orange Co., quarto edition.
Reckgawank, of record in 1645 as the name of Haverstraw, appears in
several later forms. Dr. O'Callaghan (Hist. New Neth.) noted:
"Sessegehout, chief of Rewechnong of Haverstraw." In Col. Hist. N. Y.,
"Keseshout [FN-1] chief of Rewechnough, or Haverstraw," "Curruppin,
brother, and representative of the chief of Rumachnanck, alias
Haverstraw." In the treaty of 1645: "Sesekemick and Willem, chiefs of
Tappans and Reckgawank," which Brodhead found converted to "Kumachenack,
or Haverstraw." [FN-2] The original is no doubt from _Rekau,_ "Sand,
gravel," with verb substantive _wi,_ and locative _-ng,_ or _-ink_;
written by Zeisberger, _Lekauwi._ The same word appears in _Rechqua-akie,_
now Rockaway, L. I. The general meaning, with the locative _-nk_ or
_-ink,_ is "At the sandy place," and the reference to the sandy flats,
at Haverstraw, where Sesegehout presumably resided. There is no reason
for placing this clan on Long Island.
* * * * *
[FN-1] _Sesehout_ seems to have been written to convey an idea of the
rank of the sachem from the Dutch word _Schout,_ "Sheriff."
_K'schi-sakima,_ "Chief, principal," or "greatest sachem." In Duchess
County the latter is written _t'see-saghamaugh._
[FN-2] Haverstraw is from Dutch _Haverstroo._ "Oat straw," presumably
so named from the wild oats which grew abundantly on the flats.
Nawasink, Yan Dakah, Caquaney and Aquamack, are entered in the Indian
deed to De Hart as names for lands purchased by him at Haverstraw in
1666. The deed reads: "A piece of land and meadow lying upon Hudson's
River in several parcels, called by the Indians Nawasink, Yan Dakah,
Caquaney, and Aquamack, within the limits of Averstraw, bounded on the
east and north by Hudson's River, on the west by a creek called
Menisakcungue, and on the south by the mountain." The mountain on the
south could have been no other than Verdrietig Hoek, and the limit on the
north the mouth of the creek in the cove formed by Grassy Point, which
was long known as "The further neck." Further than is revealed by the
names the places cannot be certainly identified. Taken in the order in
the deed, _Newasink_ located a place that was "At (or on) a point or
promontory." It is a pure Lenape name. _Yan Dakah_ is probably from _Yu
Undach,_ "On this side," _i. e._ on the side towards the speaker.
_Caquancy_ is so badly corrupted that its derivative is not recognizable.
_Aquamack_ seems to be the same word that we have in Accomack, Va.,
meaning, "On the Other side," or "Other side lands." In deed to Florus
Crom is mentioned "Another parcel of upland and meadow known by the name
of _Ahequerenoy,_ lying north of the brook called Florus Falls and
extending to Stony Point," the south line of which was the north line of
the Haverstraw lands as later understood. The tract was known for years
as "The end place."
Sankapogh, Indian deed to Van Cortlandt, 1683--Sinkapogh, Songepogh,
Tongapogh--is given as the name of a small stream flowing to the Hudson
south of the stream called Assinapink, locally now known as Swamp Kill
and Snake-hole Creek. The stream is the outlet of a pool or spring which
forms a marsh at or near the foot of precipitous rocks. Probably an
equivalent of Natick _Sonkippog,_ "Cool water."
Poplopen's Creek, now so written, the name of the stream flowing to the
Hudson between the sites of the Revolutionary forts Clinton and
Montgomery, south of West Point, and also the name of one of the ponds
of which the stream is the outlet, seems to be from English _Pop-looping_
(Dutch _Loopen_), and to describe the stream as flowing out
quickly--_Pop_, "To issue forth with a quick, sudden movement"; _Looping_,
"To run," to flow, to stream. The flow of the stream was controlled by
the rise and fall of the waters in the ponds on the hills, seven in
number. The outlet of Poplopen Pond is now dammed back to retain a head
of water for milling purposes. It is a curious name. The possessive _'s_
does not belong to the original--Pop-looping Creek.
Assinapink, the name of a small stream of water flowing to the Hudson
from a lake bearing the same name--colloquially _Sinsapink_--known in
Revolutionary history as Bloody Pond--is of record, "A small rivulet of
water called _Assin-napa-ink_" (Cal. N, Y. Land Papers, 99), from
_Assin,_ "stone"; _Napa,_ "lake, pond," or place of water, and _-ink,_
locative, literally, "Place of water at or on the stone." The current
interpretation, "Water from the solid rock," is not specially
inappropriate, as the lake is at the foot of the rocks of Bare Mountain.
At a certain place in the course of the stream a legal description reads:
"A whitewood tree standing near the southerly side of a ridge of rocks,
lying on the south side of a brook there called by the Indians
_Sickbosten_ Kill, and by the Christians Stony Brook." [FN] The Indians
never called the stream _Sickbosten,_ unless they learned that word from
the Dutch, for corrupted Dutch it is. The derivative is _Boos,_ "Wicked,
evil, angry"; _Zich Boos Maken,_ "To grow angry," referring particularly
to the character of the stream in freshets.
* * * * *
[FN] Adv. in Newburgh Mirror, June 18, 1798.
Prince's Falls, so called in description of survey of patent to Samuel
Staats, 1712: "Beginning at ye mouth of a small rivulet called by the
Indians Assin-napa-ink, then up the river (Hudson) as it runs, two
hundred chains, which is about four chains north of Prince's Falls,
including a small rocky isle and a small piece of boggy meadow called
John Cantton Huck; also a small slip of land on each side of a fall of
water just below ye meadow at ye said John Cantonhuck." (Cal. N. Y. Land
Papers, 99.) Long known as Buttermilk Falls and more recently as Highland
Falls. In early days the falls were one of the most noted features on
the lower Hudson. They were formed by the discharge over a precipice of
the outlet waters of Bog-meadow Brook. They were called Prince's Falls
in honor of Prince Maurice of Holland. The name was extended to the creek
in the Staats survey--Prince's Kill.
Manahawaghin is of record as the name of what is now known as Iona
Island, in connection with "A certain tract of land on the west side of
Hudson's River, beginning on the south side of a creek called Assinapink,
together with a certain island and parcel of meadow called Manahawaghin,
and by the Christians Salisbury Island." The island lies about one mile
south of directly opposite Anthony's Nose, and is divided from the main
land by a narrow channel or marshy water-course. The tract of land lies
immediately north of the Donderberg; it was the site of the settlement
known as Doodletown in Revolutionary history. The name is probably from
_Mannahatin,_ the indefinite or diminutive form of _Mannahata,_ "The
Island"--literally, "Small island." The last word of the record form is
badly mangled. (See Manhattan.)
[Illustration: Northern Gate of the Highlands]
Manahan, meaning "Island"--indefinite _-an_--is a record name of what is
now known as Constitution Island, the latter title from Fort Constitution
which was erected thereon during the war of the Revolution. The early
Dutch navigators called it Martelaer's Rack Eiland, from Martelaer,
"Martyr," and Rack, a reach or sailing course--"the Martyr's Reach"--from
the baffling winds and currents encountered in passing West Point. The
effort of Judge Benson to convert "Martelaer's" to "Murderer's." and
"Rack" to "Rock"--"the Murderer's Rock"--was unfortunate.
Pollepel Eiland, a small rocky island in the Hudson at the northern
entrance to the Highlands, was given that name by an early Dutch
navigator. It means, literally, "Pot-ladle Island," so called, presumably,
from its fancied resemblance to a Dutch pot-ladle. Jasper Dankers and
Peter Sluyter wrote the name in their Journal in 1679-80, indicating that
the island was then well known by that title. On Van der Donck's map of
1656 the island is named Kaes Eiland. Dutch _Kaas_ (cheese) _Eiland._
Dankers and Sluyter also wrote, "_Boter-berg_ (Butter-hill), because it
is like the rolls of butter which the farmers of Holland take to market."
Read in connection the names are Butter Hill and Cheese Island. The same
writers wrote, "_Hays-berg_ (Hay-hill), because it is like a hay-stack
in Holland," and "_Donder-berg_ (Thunder-hill), so called from the echoes
of thunder peals which culminated there." The latter retains its ancient
Dutch title. It is eminently the Echo Hill of the Highlands. The oldest
record name of any of the hills is _Klinker-berg,_ which is written on
the Carte Figurative of 1614-16 directly opposite a small island and
apparently referred to Butter Hill. It means literally, "Stone Mountain."
The passage between Butter Hill and Break Neck, on the east side of the
river, was called "Wey-gat, or Wind-gate, because the wind often blowed
through it with great force," wrote Dr. Dwight. The surviving name,
however, is _Warragat,_ from Dutch _Warrelgat,_ "Wind-gate." It was at
the northern entrance to this troublesome passage that Hudson anchored
the Half-Moon, September 29th, 1609. Brodhead suggested (Note K, Vol. I)
that Pollepel Island was that known in early Dutch history as Prince's
Island, or Murderer's Creek Island, and that thereon was erected Fort
Wilhelmus, referred to by Wassenaer in 1626. (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 35.)
The evidence is quite clear, however, that the island to which Wassenaer
referred was in the vicinity of Schodac, where there was also a
Murderer's Creek.
Hudson, on his exploration of the river which now bears his name, sailed
into the bay immediately north of Butter Hill, now known as Newburgh Bay,
on the morning of the 15th of September, 1709. After spending several
days in the northern part of the river, he reached Newburgh Bay on his
return voyage in the afternoon of September 29th, and cast anchor, or
as stated in Juet's Journal, "Turned down to the edge of the mountains,
or the northernmost of the mountains, and anchored, because the high
lands hath many points, and a narrow channel, and hath many eddie winds.
So we rode quietly all night." The hill or mountain long known as
Breakneck, on the east side of the river, may be claimed as the
northernmost, which would place his anchorage about midway between
Newburgh and Pollepel Island.
Quassaick, now so written, is of record, _Quasek,_ 1709; "Near to a place
called _Quasaik,_" 1709-10; _Quasseck,_ 1713; "_Quassaick_ Creek upon
Hudson's River," 1714. It was employed to locate the place of settlement
of the Palatine immigrants in 1709--"The Parish of Quassaick," later,
"The Parish of Newburgh." It is now preserved as the name of the creek
which bounds (in part) the city of Newburgh on the south. "Near to a
place called Quasek," indicates that the place of settlement was located
by the name of some other place which was near to it and generally known
by the name. The late Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan read it, in 1856: "From
_Qussuk,_ 'Stone,' and _-ick,_ 'Place where,' literally, 'A place of
stone,'" the presumed reference being to the district through which the
stream flows, which is remarkable for its deposit of glacial bowlders.
The correctness of this interpretation has been questioned on very
tenable grounds. _Qusuk_ is not in the plural number and _-uk_ does not
stand for _-ick._ Eliot wrote: "_Qussuk,_ a rock," and "_Qussukquan-ash,_
rocks." _Qussuk,_ as a substantive simply, would be accepted as the name
of a place called "A rock," by metonymie, "A stone." No other meaning
can be drawn from it. It does not belong to the dialect of the district,
the local terms being _-ápuch,_ "Rock," and _-assin,_ or _-achsûn,_
"Stone." Dr. O'Callaghan's interpretation may safely be rejected. William
R. Gerard writes: "The worst corrupted name that I know of is _Wequaskeg_
or _Wequaskeek,_ meaning, 'At the end of the marsh.' It appears in
innumerable forms--_Weaxashuk, Wickerschriek, Weaquassic,_ etc. I think
that Quassaick, changed from Quasek (1709), is one of these corruptions.
The original word probably referred to some place at the end of a swamp.
The word would easily become Quasekek, Quasek, and Quassaick. The
formative _-ek,_ in words meaning swamp, marsh, etc., was often dropped
by both Dutch and English scribes." This conjecture would seem to locate
the name as that of the end of Big Swamp, nearly five miles distant from
the place of settlement. My conjecture is that the name is from Moh.
_Kussuhkoe,_ meaning "High;" with substantive _Kussuhkohke,_ "High
lands," the place of settlement being described as "Near the Highlands,"
which became the official designation of "The Precinct of the Highlands."
_Kussuhk_ is pretty certainly met in _Cheesek-ook,_ the name of patented
lands in the Highlands, described as "Uplands and meadows;" also in
_Quasigh-ook,_ Columbia County, which is described as "A high place on
a high hill." The Palatine settlers at _Quasek,_ wrote, in 1714, that
their place was "all uplands," a description which will not be disputed
at the present day. (See Cheesekook, Quissichkook, etc.)
Much-Hattoos, a hill so called in petition of William Chambers and
William Sutherland, in 1709, for a tract of land in what is now the town
of New Windsor, and in patent to them in 1712, a boundmark described as
"West by the hill called Much-Hattoes," is apparently from _Match,_
"Evil, bad;" _-adchu,_ "Hill" or mountain, and _-es,_ "Small"--"A small
hill bad," or a small hill that for some reason was not regarded with
favor. [FN] The eastern face of the hill is a rugged wall of gneiss; the
western face slopes gradually to a swamp not far from its base and to a
small lake, the latter now utilized for supplying the city of Newburgh
with water, with a primary outlet through a passage under a spur of the
hill, which the Indians may have regarded as a mysterious or bad place.
In local nomenclature the hill has long been known as Snake Hill, from
the traditionary abundance of rattle-snakes on it, though few have been
seen there in later years.
* * * * *
[FN] "I think your reading of _Muchattoos_ as an orthography of original
_Matchatchu's,_ is very plausible. I think _Massachusetts_ is the same
word, plus a locative suffix and English sign of the plural. It was
formerly spelled in many ways: Mattachusetts, Massutchet, Matetusses,
etc. Dr. Trumbull read it as standing for _Mass-adchu-set,_ 'At the big
hills'; but I learn from history that Massachusetts was originally the
name of a _hillock_ situated in the midst of a salt marsh. It was a
locality selected by the sachem of his tribe as one of his places of
residence. He stood in fear of his enemies, the Penobscotts, and this
hillock, from its situation was a 'bad,' or difficult place to reach.
So Massachsat for Matsadchuset or Mat-adchu-set plainly means, 'On the
bad hillock.'" (Wm. R. Gerard.)
Cronomer's Hill and Cronomer's Valley, about three miles west of the city
of Newburgh, take their names from a traditionary Indian called Cronomer,
the location of whose wigwam is said to be still known as "The hut lot."
The name is probably a corruption of the original, which may have been
Dutch Jeronimo.
Murderer's Creek, so called in English records for many years, and by the
Dutch "den Moordenaars' Kil," is entered on map of 1666, "R. Tans Kamer,"
or River of the Dance Chamber, and the point immediately south of its
mouth, "de Bedrieghlyke Hoek" (Dutch, Bedrieglijk), meaning "a deceitful,
fraudulent hook," or corner, cape, or angle. Presumably the Dutch
navigator was deceived by the pleasant appearance of the bay, sailed into
it and found his vessel in the mouth of the Warrelgat. Tradition affirms
in explanation of the Dutch Moordenaars that an early company of traders
entered their vessel in the mouth of the stream; that they were enticed
on shore at Sloop Hill and there murdered. Paulding, in his beautiful
story, "Naoman," related the massacre of a pioneer family at the same
place. The event, however, which probably gave the name to the stream
occurred in August, 1643, when boats passing down the river from Fort
Orange, laden with furs, were attacked by the Indians "above the
Highlands" and "nine Christians, including two women were murdered, and
one woman and two children carried away prisoners," (Doc. Hist. N. Y.,
iv, 12), the narrative locating the occurrence by the name "den
Moordenaars' Kil," _i. e._ the kill from which the attacking party issued
forth or on which the murderers resided. The first appearance of the name
in English records is in a deed to Governor Dongan, in 1685, in which the
lands purchased by him included "the lands of the Murderers' Creek
Indians," the stream being then well known by the name. The present name,
Moodna, was converted to that form, by N. P. Willis from the Dutch
"Moordenaar," by dropping letters, an inexcusable emasculation from a
historic standpoint, but made poetical by his interpretation, "Meeting
of the waters."
Schunnemunk, now so written, the name of a detached hill in the town of
Cornwall, Orange County, appears of record in that connection, first, in
the Wilson and Aske Patent of 1709, in which the tract granted is
described as lying "Between the hills at Scoonemoke." Skoonnemoghky,
Skonanaky, Schunnemock, Schonmack Clove, Schunnemock Hill, are other
forms. In 1750 Schunnamunk appears, and in 1774, on Sauthier's map (1776)
Schunnamank is applied to the range of hills which have been described
as "The High Hills to the west of the Highlands." 'In a legal brief in
the controversy to determine finally the northwest line of the Evans
Patent, the name is written Skonanake, and the claim made that it was the
hill named Skoonnemoghky in the deed from the Indians to Governor Dongan,
in 1685, and therein given as the southeast boundmark of the lands of
"The Murderer's Creek Indians," and, later, the hill along which the
northwest line of the Evans Patent ran, which it certainly was not,
although the name is probably from the same generic. (See Schoonnenoghky.)
The hill forms the west shoulder of Woodbury Valley. It is a somewhat
remarkable elevation in geological formation and bears on its summit many
glacial scratches. On its north spur stood the castle of Maringoman, one
of the grantors of the deed to Governor Dongan, and who later removed to
the north side of the Otter Kill where his wigwam became a boundmark in
two patents. [FN] The traditionary word "castle," in early days of Indian
history, was employed as the equivalent of town, whether palisaded or
not. In this case we may read the name, "Maringoman's Town," which may or
may not have been palisaded. It seems to have been the seat of the
"Murderer's Creek Indians." The burial ground of the clan is marked on a
map of the Wilson and Aske Patent, and has been located by Surveyor Fred
J. McKnight (1898) on the north side of the Cornwall and Monroe line and
very near the present road past the Houghton farm, near which the castle
stood. The later "cabin" of the early sachem is plainly located.
* * * * *
[FN] Van Dam Patent (1709) and Mompesson Patent (1709-12). The late Hon.
George W. Tuthill wrote me in 1858: "On the northwestern bank of
Murderers' Creek, about half a mile below Washingtonville, stands the
dwelling-house of Henry Page (a colored man), said to be the site of
Maringoman's wigman, referred to in the Van Dam Patent of 1709. The
southwesterly corner of that patent is in a southwesterly direction from
said Page's house."
In the controversy in regard to the northwest line of the Evans Patent,
one of the counsel said: "It is also remarkable that the Murderers'
Creek extends to the hill Skonanaky, and that the Indian, Maringoman,
who sold the lands, did live on the south side of Murderers' Creek,
opposite the house where John McLean now (1756) dwells, near the said
hill, and also lived on the north bank of Murderers' Creek, where Colonel
Mathews lives. The first station of his boundaries is a stone set in the
ground at Maringoman's castle."
Winegtekonck, 1709--_Wenighkonck,_ 1726; _Wienackonck,_ 1739--is quoted
as the name of what is now known as Woodcock Mountain, in the town of
Blooming-Grove, It is not so connected, however, in the record of 1709,
which reads: "A certain tract of land by the Indians called
_Wineghtek-onck_ and parts adjacent, lying on both sides of Murderers'
Kill" (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 91), in which connection it seems to be
another form of Mahican _Wanun-ketukok,_ "At the winding of the river"--"A
bend-of-the-river-place." Presumably the reference is to a place where
the stream bends in the vicinity of the hill. The name appears in an
abstract of an Indian deed to Sir Henry Ashurst, in 1709, for a tract of
land of about sixteen square miles. The purchase was not patented, the
place being included in the Governor Dongan purchase of 1685, and in the
Evans Patent.
Sugar Loaf, the name of a conical hill in the town of Chester, Orange
County, is not an Indian name of course, but it enters into an enumeration
of Indian places, as in its vicinity were found by Charles Clinton, in
his survey of the Cheesec-ock Patent in 1738, the unmistakable evidences
of the site of an Indian village, then probably not long abandoned, and
Mr. Eager (Hist. Orange Co.) quoted evidences showing that on a farm then
(1846) owned by Jonathan Archer, was an Indian burying ground, the marks
of which were still distinct prior to the Revolution.
Runbolt's Run, a spring and creek in the town of Goshen, are said to have
taken that name from Rombout, one of the Indian grantors of the Wawayanda
tract. It is probable, however, that the name is a corruption of Dutch
_Rondbocht,_ meaning, "A tortuous pool, puddle, marsh," at or near which
the chief may have resided. _Rombout_ (Dutch) means "Bull-fly." It could
hardly have been the name of a run of water.
Mistucky, the name of a small stream in the town of Warwick, has lost
some of its letters. _Mishquawtucke_ (Nar.), would read, "Place of red
cedars."
Pochuck, given as the name of "A wild, rugged and romantic region" in
Sussex County, N. J., to a creek near Goshen, and, modernly, to a place
in Newburgh lying under the shadow of Muchhattoes Hill, is no doubt from
_Putscheck_ (Len.), "A corner or repress," a retired or "out-of-the-way
place." Eliot wrote _Poochag,_ in the Natick dialect, and Zeisberger, in
the Minsi-Lenape, _Puts-cheek,_ which is certainly heard in Pochuck.
Chouckhass, one of the Indian grantors of the Wawayanda tract, left his
name to what is now called Chouck's Hill, in the town of Warwick. The
land on which he lived and in which he was buried came into possession
of Daniel Burt, an early settler, who gave decent sepulture to the bones
of the chief. [FN]
* * * * *
[FN] The traditional places of residence of several of the sachems who
signed the Wawayanda deed is stated by a writer in "Magazine of American
History," and may be repeated on that authority, viz: "Oshaquememus,
chief of a village, near the point where the Beaver-dam Brook empties
into Murderers' Creek near Campbell Hall; Moshopuck, on the flats now
known as Haverstraw; Ariwimack, chief, on the Wallkill, extending from
Goshen to Shawongunk; Guliapaw, chief of a clan residing near Long Pond
(Greenwood Lake), within fifty rods of the north end of the pond;
Rapingonick died about 1730 at the Delaware Water-Gap." The names given
by the writer do not include all the signers of the deed. One of the
unnamed grantors was _Claus,_ so called from _Klaas_ (Dutch), "A tall
ninny"; an impertinent, silly fellow; a ninny-jack. The name may have
accurately described the personality of the Indian.
Jogee Hill, in the town of Minisink, takes its name from and preserves
the place of residence of Keghekapowell, alias Jokhem (Dutch Jockem for
Joachim), one of the grantors of lands to Governor Dongan in 1684. The
first word of his Indian name, _Keghe,_ stands for _Keche,_ "Chief,
principal, greatest," and defined his rank as principal sachem. The
canton which he ruled was of considerable number. He remained in
occupation of the hill long after his associates had departed.
Wawayanda, 1702--_Wawayanda_ or _Wocrawin,_ 1702; _Wawayunda,_ 1722-23;
_Wiwanda, Wowando,_ Index Col. Hist. N. Y.--the first form, one of the
most familiar names in Orange County, is preserved as that of a town, a
stream of water, and of a large district of country known as the
Wawayanda Patent, in which latter connection it appears of record, first,
in 1702, in a petition of Dr. Samuel Staats, of Albany, and others, for
license to purchase "A tract of land called Wawayanda, in the county of
Ulster, containing by estimation about five thousand acres, more or less,
lying about thirty miles backward in the woods from Hudson's River." (Land
Papers, 56.) In February of the same year the parties filed a second
petition for license to "purchase five thousand acres adjoining thereto,
as the petitioners had learned that their first purchase, 'called
Wawayanda' was 'altogether a swamp and not worth anything.'" In November
of the same year, having made the additional purchase, the parties asked
for a patent for ten thousand acres "Lying at Wawayanda or Woerawin."
Meanwhile Dr. John Bridges and Company, of New York, purchased under
license and later received patent for "certain tracts and parcels of
vacant lands in the county of Orange, called Wawayanda, and some other
small tracts and parcels of lands," and succeeded in including in their
patent the lands which had previously been purchased by Dr. Staats.
Specifically the tract called Wawayanda or Woerawin was never located,
nor were the several "certain tracts of land called Wawayanda" purchased
by Dr. Bridges. The former learned in a short time, however, that his
purchase was not "altogether a swamp," although it may have included or
adjoined one, and the latter found that his purchase included a number of
pieces of very fine lands and a number of swamps, and especially the
district known as the Drowned Lands, covering some 50,000 acres, in which
were several elevations called islands, now mainly obliterated by drainage
and traversed by turnpikes and railroads. Several water-courses were
there also, notably the stream now known as the Wallkill, and that known
as the Wawayanda or Warwick Creek, a stream remarkable for its tortuous
course.
What and where was Wawayanda? The early settlers on the patent seem to
have been able to answer. Mr. Samuel Vantz, who then had been on the
patent for fifty-five years, gave testimony in 1785, that Wawayanda was
"Within a musket-shot of where DeKay lived." The reference was to the
homestead house of Col. Thomas DeKay, who was then dead since 1758. The
foundation of the house remains and its site is well known. In adjusting
the boundary line between New York and New Jersey it was cut off from
Orange County and is now in Vernon, New Jersey, where it is still known
as the "Wawayanda Homestead." Within a musket-shot of the site of the
ancient dwelling flows Wawayanda Creek, and with the exception of the
meadows through which it flows in a remarkably sinuous course, is the
only object in proximity to the place where DeKay lived, except the
meadow and the valley in which it flows. The locative of the name at that
point seems to be established with reasonable certainty as well as the
object to which it was applied--the creek.
The meaning of the name remains to be considered. Its first two syllables
are surely from the root _Wai_ or _Wae;_ iterative and frequentive
_Wawai,_ or _Waway,_ meaning "Winding around many times." It is a generic
combination met in several forms--_Wawau,_ Lenape; _Wohwayen,_ Moh.; [FN]
_Wawai,_ Shawano; _Wawy, Wawi, Wawei,_ etc., on the North-central-Hudson,
as in _Waweiqate-pek-ook,_ Greene County, and _Wawayachton-ock,_ Dutchess
County. Dr. Albert S. Gatschet, of the Bureau of Ethnology, wrote me:
"_Wawayanda_, as a name formed by syllabic reduplication, presupposes a
simple form, _Wayanda,_ 'Winding around.' The reduplication is _Wawai,_
or _Waway-anda,_ 'many' or 'several' windings, as a complex of river
bends." As the name stands it is a participial or verbal noun. _Waway,_
"Winding around many times";--_-anda,_ "action, motion" (radical _-an,_
"to move, to go"), and, inferentially, the place where the action of the
verb is performed, as in _Guttanda,_ "Taste it," the action of the throat
in tasting being referred to, and in _Popachándamen,_ "To beat; to
strike." As the verb termination of _Waway,_ "Round about many times,"
it is entirely proper. The uniformity of the orthography leaves little
room for presuming that any other word was used by the grantors, or that
any letters were lost or dropped by the scribe in recording. It stands
simply as the name of an object without telling what that object was, but
what was it that could have had action, motion--that had many
windings--except Wawayanda Creek?
* * * * *
[FN] "_Wohwayen_ (Moh.), where the brook 'winds about,' turning to the
west and then to the east." (Trumbull.) _Wowoaushin,_ "It winds about."
(Eliot.) _Woweeyouchwan._ "It flows circuitously, winds about." (Ib.)
Mr. Ralph Wisner, of Florida, Orange County, recently reproduced in the
Warwick Advertiser, an affidavit made by Adam Wisner, May 19th, 1785,
at a hearing in Chester, in the contention to determine the boundary line
of the Cheesec-ock Patent, in which he stated that he was 86 years old
on the 15th of April past; that he had lived on the Wawayanda Patent
since 1715; that he "learned the Indian language" when he was a young
man; that the Indians "had told him that Wawayanda signified 'the
egg-shape,' or shape of an egg." Adam Wisner was an interpreter of the
local Indian dialect; he is met as such in records. His interpretations,
as were those of other interpreters, were mainly based on signs, motions,
objects. _Waway,_ "Winding about many times," would describe the lines
of an egg, but it is doubtful if the suffix, _-anda,_ had the meaning of
"shape."
The familiar reading of Wawayanda, "Away-over-yonder," is a word-play,
like Irving's "Manhattan, Man-with-a-hat-on." Dr. Schoolcraft's
interpretation, "Our homes or places of dwelling," quoted in "History of
Orange County," is pronounced by competent authority to be "Dialectically
and grammatically untenable." It has poetic merit, but nothing more.
Schoolcraft borrowed it from Gallatin.
Woerawin, given by Dr. Staats as the name of his second purchase, is also
a verbal noun. By dialectic exchange of _l_ for _r_ and giving to the
Dutch _æ_ its English equivalent _ü_ as in bull, it is probably from
the root _Wul,_ "Good, fine, handsome," etc., with the verbal termination
_-wi_ (Chippeway _-win_), indicating "objective existence," hence
"place," a most appropriate description for many places in the Wawayanda
or Warwick Valley.
Monhagen, the name of a stream in the town of Wallkill, is, if Indian as
claimed, an equivalent of _Monheagan,_ from _Maingan,_ "A wolf," the
totem of the Mohegans of Connecticut. The name, however, has the sound of
Monagan--correctly, _Monaghan,_ the name of a county in Ireland, and quite
an extensive family name in Orange County.
Long-house, Wawayanda, and Pochuck are local names for what may be
regarded as one and the same stream. It rises in the Drowned Lands, in
New Jersey, where it is known as Long-house Creek; flows north until it
receives the outlet of Wickham's Pond, in Warwick, Orange County, and
from thence the united streams form the Wawayanda or Warwick Creek, which
flows southwesterly for some miles into New Jersey and falls into Pochuck
Creek, which approaches from the northwest, and from thence the flow is
northwest into Orange County again to a junction with the Wallkill,
which, rising in Pine Swamp, Sparta, N. J., flows north and forms the
main drainage channel of the Drowned Lands. In addition to its general
course Wawayanda Creek is especially sinuous in the New Milford and
Sandfordville districts of Warwick, the bends multiplying at short
distances, and also in the vicinity of the De Kay homestead in Vernon.
In Warwick the stream has been known as "Wandering River" for many years.
The patented lands are on this stream. Its name, Long-house Creek, was,
no doubt, from one of the peculiar dwellings constructed by the Indians
known as a Long House, [FN] which probably stood on or near the stream,
and was occupied by the clan who sold the lands. _Pochuck_ is from a
generic meaning "A recess or corner." It is met in several places. (See
Wawayanda and Pochuck.)
* * * * *
[FN] The Indian Long House was from fifty to six hundred and fifty feet
in length by twenty feet in width, the length depending upon the number
of persons or families to be accommodated, each family having its own
fire. They were formed by saplings set in the ground, the tops bent
together and the whole covered with bark. The Five Nations compared
their confederacy to a long house reaching, figuratively, from Hudson's
River to Lake Erie.
Gentge-kamike, "A field appropriated for holding dances," may reasonably
have been the Indian name of the plateau adjoining the rocky point, at
the head of Newburgh Bay, which, from very early times, has been known
as _The Dans Kamer_ (Dance Chamber), a designation which appears of
record first in a Journal by David Pietersen de Vries of a trip made by
him in his sloop from Fort Amsterdam to Fort Orange, in 1639, who wrote,
under date of April 15: "At night came by the Dans Kamer, where there
was a party of Indians, who were very riotous, seeking only mischief;
so we were on our guard." Obviously the place was then as well known as
a landmark as was Esopus (Kingston), and may safely be claimed as having
received its Dutch name from the earliest Dutch navigators, from whom it
has been handed down not only as "The Dans Kamer," but as "t' Duivel's
Dans Kamer," the latter presumably designative of the fearful orgies
which were held there familiarly known as "Devil worship." During the
Esopus War of 1663, Lieut. Couwenhoven, who was lying with his sloop
opposite the Dans Kamer, wrote, under date of August 14th, that "the
Indians thereabout on the river side" made "a great uproar every night,
firing guns and Kintecaying, so that the woods rang again." There can be
no doubt from the records that the plateau was an established place for
holding the many dances of the Indians. The word _Kinte_ is a form of
_Géntge_ (Zeisb.), meaning "dance." Its root is _Kanti,_ a verbal,
meaning "To sing." _Géntgeen,_ "To dance" (Zeisb.), _Gent' Keh'n_ (Heck.),
comes down in the local Dutch records _Kinticka, Kinte-Kaye, Kintecaw,
Kintekaying_ (dancing), and has found a resting place in the English word
_Canticoy,_ "A social dance." Dancing was eminently a feature among the
Indians. They had their war dances, their festival dances, their social
dances, etc. As a rule, their social dances were pleasant affairs. Rev.
Heckewelder wrote that he would prefer being present at a social Kintecoy
for a full hour, than a few minutes only at such dances as he had
witnessed in country taverns among white people. "Feast days," wrote
Van der Donck in 1656, "are concluded by old and middle aged men with
smoking; by the young with a Kintecaw, singing and dancing." Every Indian
captive doomed to death, asked and was granted the privilege of singing
and dancing his Kintekaye, or death song. War dances were riotous; the
scenes of actual battle were enacted. The religious dances and rites were
so wonderful that even the missionaries shrank from them, and the English
government forbade their being held within one hundred miles of European
settlements. The holding of a war dance was equivalent to opening a
recruiting station, men only attending and if participating in the dance
expressed thereby their readiness to enter upon the war. It was probably
one of these Kantecoys that Couwenhoven witnessed in 1663.
There were two dancing fields here--so specified in deed--the "Large Dans
Kamer" and the "Little Dans Kamer," the latter a limited plateau on the
point and the former the large plateau now occupied in part by the site
of the Armstrong House. The Little Dans Kamer is now practically
destroyed by the cut on the West-shore Railroad. 'Sufficient of the Large
Dans Kamer remains to evidence its natural adaptation for the purposes
to which the Indians assigned it. Paths lead to the place from all
directions. Negotiations for the exchange of prisoners held by the Esopus
Indians were conducted there, and there the Esopus Indians had direct
connection with the castle of the Wappingers on the east side of the
Hudson. There are few places on the Hudson more directly associated with
Indian customs and history than the Dans Kamer.
Arackook, Kachawaweek, and Oghgotacton are record but unlocated names of
places on the east side of the Wallkill, by some presumed to have been
in the vicinity of Walden, Orange County, from the description: "Beginning
at a fall called Arackook and running thence northwesterly on the east
side of Paltz Creek until it comes to Kachawaweek." The petitioner for
the tract was Robert Sanders, a noted interpreter, who renewed his
petition in 1702, calling the tract Oghgotacton, and presented a claim
to title from a chief called Corporwin, as the representative of his
brother Punguanis, "Who had been ten years gone to the Ottowawas." He
again gave the description, "Beginning at the fall called Arackook," but
there is no trace of the location of the patent in the vicinity of
Walden.
Hashdisch was quoted by the late John W. Hasbrouck, of Kingston, as the
name of what has long been known as "The High Falls of the Wallkill" at
Walden. Authority not stated, but presumably met by Mr. Hasbrouck in
local records. It may be from _Ashp, Hesp,_ etc., "High," and _-ish,_
derogative. The falls descend in cascades and rapids about eighty feet
at an angle of forty-five degrees. Though their primary appearance has
been marred by dams and mills, they are still impressive in freshet
seasons.
Twischsawkin is quoted as the name of the Wallkill at some place in New
Jersey. On Sauthier's map it stands where two small ponds are represented
and seems to have reference to the outlet. _Twisch_ may be an equivalent
of _Tisch,_ "Strong," and _Sawkin_ may be an equivalent of Heckewelder's
_Saucon,_ "Outlet," or mouth of a river, pond, etc. Wallkill, the name
of the stream as now written, is an Anglicism of Dutch _Waal,_ "Haven,
gulf, depth," etc., and _Kil,_ "Channel" or water-course. It is the name
of an arm of the Rhine in the Netherlands, and was transferred here by
the Huguenots who located in New Paltz. (See Wawayanda.)
Shawangunk, the name of a town, a stream of water, and a range of hills
in Ulster County, was that of a specific place from which it was
extended. It is of record in many orthographies, the first in 1684, of
a place called _Chauwanghungh,_ [FN-1] in deed from the Indians to
Governor Dongan, in the same year, _Chawangon,_ [FN-2] and _Chanwangung_
in 1686, [FN-3] later forms running to variants of _Shawangunk._ The
locative is made specific in a grant to Thomas Lloyd in 1687; [FN-4] in
a grant to Severeign Tenhout in 1702, [FN-5] and in a description in
1709, "Adjoining Shawangung, Nescotack and the Palze." [FN-6] In several
other patent descriptions the locative is further identified by "near to"
or "adjoining," and finally (1723) by "near the village of Showangunck,"
at which time the "village" consisted of the dwellings of Thomas Lloyd,
on the north side of Shawangunk Kill; Severeign Tenhout on the south
side; and Jacobus Bruyn, Benjamin Smedes, and others, with a mill, at and
around what was known later as the village of Tuthiltown. In 1744,
Jacobus Bruyn was the owner of the Lloyd tract. [FN-7] The distribution
of the name over the district as a general locative is distinctly
traceable from this center. It was never the name of the mountain, nor
of the stream, and it should be distinctly understood that it does not
appear in Kregier's Journal of the Second Esopus War, nor in any record
prior to 1684, and could not have been that of any place other than that
distinctly named in Governor Dongan's deed and in Lloyd's Patent.
Topographically, the tract was at and on the side of a hill running north
from the fiats on the stream to a point of which Nescotack was the
summit, the Lloyd grant lying in part on the hill-side and in part on the
low lands on the stream. The mountain is eight miles distant. Without
knowledge of the precise location of the name several interpretations of
it have been made, generally from _Shawan,_ "South"--South Mountain,
South Water, South Place. [FN-8] The latter is possible, _i. e._ a place
lying south of Nescotack, as in the sentence: "Schawangung, Nescotack,
and the Paltz." From the topography of the locative, however, Mr. William
R. Gerard suggests that the derivatives are _Scha_ (or _Shaw_), "Side,"
_-ong,_ "hill," and _-unk,_ locative, the combination reading, "At (or
on) the hill-side." [FN-9] This reading is literally sustained by the
locative.
The name is of especial interest from its association with the Dutch and
Indian War of 1663, although not mentioned in Kregier's narrative of the
destruction of the Indian palisaded village called "New Fort," and later
Shawongunk Fort. The narrative is very complete in colonial records.
[FN-10] The village or fort was not as large as that called Kahanksan,
which had previously been destroyed. It was composed of ten huts,
probably capable of accommodating two or three hundred people. The
palisade around them formed "a perfect square," on the brow of a tract
of table-land on the bank of Shawongunk Kill. Since first settlement the
location has been known as "New Fort." It is on the east side of the
stream about three miles west of the village of Wallkill. [FN-11] In the
treaty of 1664 the site and the fields around it were conceded, with
other lands, to the Dutch, by the Indians, as having been "conquered by
the sword," but were subsequently included (1684) in the purchase by
Governor Dongan. Later were included in the patent to Capt. John Evans,
and was later covered by one of the smaller patents into which the Evans
Patent was divided. When the Dutch troops left it it was a terrible
picture of desolation. The huts had been burned, the bodies of the
Indians who had been killed and thrown into the corn-pits had been
unearthed by wolves and their skeletons left to bleach on the plain, with
here and there the half eaten body of a child. For years it was a fable
told to children that the place was haunted by the ghosts of the slain,
and even now the timid feel a peculiar sensation, when visiting the site,
whenever a strange cry breaks on the ear, and the assurance that it is
real comes with gratefulness in the shouts of the harvesters in the
nearby fields. It is a place full of history, full of poetry, full of
the footprints of the aboriginal lords, "Further down the creek," says
the narrative, "several large wigwams stood, which we also burned, and
divers maize fields which we also destroyed." On the sites of some of
these wigwams fine specimens of Indian pottery and stone vessels and
implements have been found, as well as many arrow-points of flint.
* * * * *
[FN-1] "Land lying about six or seven miles beyond ye Town where ye
Walloons dwell, upon ye same creek; ye name of ye place is Chauwanghungh
and Nescotack, two small parcels of land lying together." (N. Y. Land
Papers, 29, 30.)
[FN-2] "Comprehending all those lands, meadows and woods called
Nescotack, Chawangon, Memorasink, Kakogh, Getawanuck and Ghittatawah."
(Deed to Gov. Dongan.)
[FN-3] "Beginning on the east side of the river (now Wallkill), and at
the south end of a small island in the river, at the mouth of the river
Chauwangung, in the County of Ulster, laid out for James Graham and John
Delaval." (N. Y. Land Papers, 38.)
[FN-4] "Description of a survey of 410 acres of land, called by the
Indian name Chauwangung, laid out for Thomas Lloyd." (N. Y. Land Papers,
44.)
[FN-5] N. Y. Land Papers, 60.
[FN-6] Ib. 169. Other early forms are Shawongunk (1685), Shawongonck
(1709), Shawongunge (1712).
[FN-7] From Jacobus Bruyn came the ancient hamlet still known as
Bruynswick. He erected a stone mansion on the tract, in the front wall
of which was cut on a marble tablet, "Jacobus Bruyn. 1724." The house
was destroyed by fire in 1870 (about), and a frame dwelling erected on
its old foundation. It is about half-way between Bruynswick and
Tuthilltown; owned later by John V. McKinstry. The location is certain
from the will of Jacobus Bruyn in 1744.
[FN-8] The most worthless interpretation is that in Spofford's Gazeteer
and copied by Mather in his Geological Survey: "_Shawen,_ in the Mohegan
language, means 'White,' also 'Salt.' and _Gunk,_ 'A large pile of
rocks,' hence 'White Rocks' or mountain." The trouble with it is that
there is no such word as _Shawen,_ meaning "White" in any Algonquian
dialect, and no such word as _Gunk,_ meaning "Rocks."
[FN-9] The monosyllable _Shaw_ or _Schaw,_ radical _Scha,_ means "Side,
edge, border, shore," etc. _Schauwunuppéque,_ "On the shore of the
lake." _Enda-tacht-schawûnge,_ "At the narrows where the hill comes
close to the river." (Heck.) _Schajawonge,_ "Hill-side" (Zeisb.), from
which _Schawong-unk,_ "On the hill-side," or at the side of the hill,
the precise bound of the name cannot be stated.
[FN-10] Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv, 71, 72, _et. seq._ Col. Hist. N. Y.,
xiii, 272, 326.
[FN-11] Authorities quoted and paper by Rev. Charles Scott, D. D., in
"Proceedings Ulster Co. Hist. Soc."
Memorasink, Kahogh, Gatawanuk, and Ghittatawagh, names handed down in the
Indian deed to Governor Dongan in 1684, have no other record, nor were
they ever specifically located. The lands conveyed to him extended from
the Shawangunk range to the Hudson, bounded on the north by the line of
the Paltz Patent, and south by a line drawn from about the Dans Kamer.
_Ghittatawagh_ is probably from _Kitchi,_ "Great, strong," etc., and
_Towatawik,_ "Wilderness"--the great wilderness, or uninhabited district.
_Gatawanuk_ seems to be from _Kitchi,_ "Strong," _-awan,_ impersonal verb
termination, and _-uk,_ locative, and to describe a place on a strong
current or flowing stream. The same name seems to appear in Kitchawan,
now Croton River. It may have located lands on the Wallkill.