in 1738, near Montreal, and described as a remnant of "A nation the most
warlike, the most polished, and the most attached to the French." Their
armorial bearing, or totem, was an evergreen oak. (Doc. Hist. N. Y., i,
16.) It is claimed that they were principally Ottawas, residing on the
Ottawa River. (Schoolcraft.) The primary location of the language is
only measurably involved in the first application of the name, the honor
being claimed for the Chippewa, the Cree, and the Lenni-Lenape. The
Eastern Algonquins substituted for the Iroquois Adirondacks,
_Mihtukméchaick_ (Williams) with the same meaning.
[FN-2] The bark of the chestnut, the walnut, and of other trees was
dried, macerated, and rolled in the fat of bears or other animals, and
probably formed a palatable and a healthful diet. Presumably the eating
of the bark of trees was not confined to a particular tribe.
[FN-3] "_Coughsaghrage,_ or the Beaver-Hunting Country of the Confederate
Indians. The Confederates, called by the French Iroquois, surrendered
this country to the English at Albany, on the 19th day of July, 1701;
and their action was confirmed the 14th of September, 1724. It belongs
to New York, and is full of Swamps, Lakes, Rivers, Drowned Lands; a Long
Chain of Snowy Mountains which are seen. Lake Champlain runs thro' the
whole tract. North and South. This country is not only uninhabited, but
even unknown except towards the South where several grants have been
made since the Peace."
So wrote Governor Pownal on his map of 1775. There is no question that
Coughsaghraga means "Winter." It may also mean "At the Beaver-dam," or
"In the country of Beaver-dams." _Kohseraka_ may be a form of _Hochelaga_
or _Ochseraga._ _Osera_ means "Beaver-dam" as well as "Winter," wrote
Horatio Hale. (See Saratoga.) In explanation of _Canagariachio_ Mr. Hale
wrote: "_Kanagariarchio_ is a slightly corrupted form of the Iroquois
word _Kanna'kari-kario,_ which means simply 'Beaver.' It is a descriptive
term compounded of _Kannagare,_ 'Stick' or club, _Kakarien,_ To bite,'
and _Kario,_ 'Wild animal.' It is not the most common Iroquois word for
Beaver, which, in the Mohawk dialect is _Tsionuito,_ or _Djonuito._ That
the word should be understood to mean 'The Beaver-Hunting Country,' is
in accordance with Indian usage."
* * * * *
On the Mohawk.
Mohawk, the river so called--properly "the Mohawk's River," or river of
the Mohawks--rises near the centre of the State and reaches the Hudson
at Cohoes Falls. Its name preserves that by which the most eastern nation
of the Iroquoian confederacy, the Six Nations, is generally known in
history--the Maquaas of the early Dutch. The nation, however, did not
give that name to the stream except in the sense of occupation as the
seat of their possessions; to them it was the _O-hyoⁿhi-yo'ge,_ "Large,
chief or principal river" (Hewitt); written by Van Curler in 1635,
_Vyoge_ and _Oyoghi,_ and by Bruyas "_Ohioge,_ a la riviere," now written
_Ohio_ as the name of one of the rivers of the west, nor did they apply
the word Mohawk to themselves; that title was conferred upon them by
their Algonquian enemies, as explained by Roger Williams, who wrote in
1646, "_Mohowaug-suck,_ or _Mauquawog,_ from _Moho,_ 'to eat,' the
cannibals or men-eaters," the reference being to the custom of the nation
in eating the bodies of enemies who might fall into its hands, a custom
of which the Huron nations, of which it was a branch, seem to have been
especially guilty. To themselves they gave the much more pleasant name
_Canniengas,_ from _Kannia,_ "Flint," Which they adopted as their
national emblem and delineated it in their official signatures,
signifying, in that connection, "People of the Flint." When and why they
adopted this national emblem is a matter of conjecture. Presumably it
was generations prior to the incoming of Europeans and from the discovery
of the fire-producing qualities of the flint, which was certainly known
to them and to other Indian nations [FN-1] in pre-historic times. When
the flint and steel were introduced to them they added the latter to
their emblem, generally delineated it on all papers of national
importance, and called it _Kannien,_ "batte-feu," as written by Bruyas,
a verbal form of _Kannia,_ "a flint," or fire-stone, the verb describing
a new method of "striking fire out of a flint," or a new instrument for
striking fire, and a new emblem of their own superiority springing from
their ancient emblem. The Delawares called them _Sank-hikani,_ [FN-2] or
"The fire-striking people," from Del. _Sank_ or _San,_ "stone" (from
_Assin_), and _-hikan,_ "an implement," obviously a flint-stone implement
for striking fire, or, as interpreted by Heckewelder, "A fire-lock," and
by Zeisberger, "A fire-steel."
The French called them _Agnié_ and _Agniérs,_ presumably derived from
_Canienga_ (Huron, _Yanyenge_). The Dutch called them _Mahakuas_, by
contraction _Maquaas,_ from Old Algonquian _Magkwah_ (Stockbridge,
_Mquoh_), Bear, "He devours, he eats." As a nation they were Bears,
tearing, devouring, eating, enemies who fell into their hands. Bruyas
wrote in the Huron dialect, "_Okwari_, ourse (that is Bear);
_Ganniagwari,_ grand ourse" (grand, glorious, superb, Bear), and in
another connection, "It is the name of the Agniers," the characteristic
type of the nation. They were divided in three ruling totemic tribes,
the Tortoise (_Anowara_), the Bear (_Ochquari_), and the Wolf (_Okwaho_),
and several sub-tribes, as the Beaver, the Elk, the Serpent, the
Porcupine, and the Fox, as shown by deeds of record, of which the most
frequently met is that of the Beaver. On Van der Donck's map of 1656,
the names of four tribal castles are entered: _Carenay, Ganagero,
Schanatisse,_ and _t' Jonnontego._ In the recently recovered Journal of
a trip to the Mohawk country, by Arent van Curler, in the winter of
1634-5, the names are _Ouekagoncka, Ganagere, Sohanidisse,_ and _Tenotoge_
or _Tenotogehooge._ In 1643, Father Isaac Jogues, in French notation,
wrote the name of the first, _Osseruehon,_ and that of the last,
_Te-ononte-ogen._ Rev. Megapolensis, the Dutch minister at Fort Orange,
wrote, in 1644, the name of the first _Assarue,_ the second _Banigiro,_
and the last _Thenondiago._ On a map republished in the Third Annual
Report of the State Historian, copied from a map published in Holland
in 1666, the first is called _Caneray_ (Van der Donck's _Carenay_), and
the second, _Canagera._ [FN-3] The several names refer in all cases to
the same castles tribally, in some cases, apparently, by the name of a
specific topographical feature near which the castles were located, and
in some cases, apparently, by the name of the tribe. Cramoisy, in his
Relation of 1645-6, referring to the visit of Father Jogues to the
Mohawks, wrote: "They arrived at their first small village, called
_Oneugiouré,_ formerly _Osserrion._" (Relations, 29: 51), showing very
clearly that those two names referred to one and the same castle. What
_Oneugiouré_ stands for certainly, cannot be stated, though it seems to
read easily from _Ohnaway_ (Cuoq), "Current, swift river," indicating
that it may have referred to the long rapids. [FN-4] Chief W. H. Holmes,
of the Bureau of Ethnology, wrote me: "According to our best expert
authority, an Iroquoian, _Onekagoncka_ signifies 'At the junction of the
waters,' and _Osserueñon, Osserrion, Assarue,_ etc., signifies 'At the
beaver-dam.'" Accepting these interpretations, the particular place where
the two names seem to come together is at the mouth of Aurie's Creek
"where it falls into Mohawk's river." (See Oghracke.) As generic terms,
however, they would be applicable at any place where the features were
met and would only become specific here from other locative testimony,
which we seem to have.
The first castle or town was that of the Tortoise tribe; the second, that
of the Bear tribe; the third, that of the Beaver (probably), and the
fourth, that of the Wolf tribe. On Van der Donck's map there are four,
and Greenhalgh, in 1677, noted four. In a Schenectady paper of the same
year the names of two sachems are subscribed who acted "for themselves"
and as "the representatives of ye four Mohock's castles." The French
invaded the valley in 1666, and burned all the castles of the early
period, and the tribes retreated to the north side of river and
established themselves, the first at Caughnawaga; the second about one
and one-half miles west of the first; the third, west of the second, and
the fourth beyond the third, in their ancient order as Greenhalgh found
them in 1677. The French destroyed them again in 1693, [FN-5] and the
tribes returned to and rebuilt on the south side of the river in proximity
to their ancient seats. After the changes which had swept over the
nation, three castles are noted in later records--the "Upper" at
Canajohare, the "Lower" at the mouth of Schohare Creek, and the "Third"
on the Schohare some sixteen miles inland.
While the early castles were known to the Dutch traders prior to 1635,
and their locations marked, approximately, on their rude charts which
formed the basis of Van der Donck's and other early maps, it was not
until the recovery and publication in 1895, of Van Curler's Journal
[FN-6]that much was known concerning them prior to 1642-44, when the
Jesuit missionaries and the Dutch minister at Fort Orange, Rev.
Megapolensis, went into the field. Van Curler's Journal, supplemented by
the Relations of the Jesuit Fathers and Rev. Megapolensis's notes,
enables us now to almost look in upon the early homes of the "barbarians,"
as they were called.
The Mohawks were the most important factor in the "Five [Six] Nations
Confederacy," particularly from the standpoint of their proximity to and
relations with the Dutch and the English governments, primarily in trade
and later as alliants offensive and defensive under treaty of 1664 and
more definitely under treaty of 1683. (Doc. Hist. N. Y., i, 576.) Their
written history is graven in no uncertain colors on the valley which
still bears their name, as well as on northeastern New York, marred
though it may be by claims to pre-historical supremacy which cannot be
maintained. When Van Curler visited them the nation was at peace, and the
occupants of the towns and villages engaged in the duties of home life.
He wrote that "Most of the people were out 'hunting for deer and bear";
that "the houses were full of corn and beans"; that he "saw maize--yes,
in some of the houses more than three hundred bushels." He added that he
was hospitably entertained, was fed on "pumpkins cooked and baked,
roasted turkeys, venison and bear's meat," and altogether seems to have
fared sumptuously. Rev. Megapolensis wrote of them, that though they were
cruel to their enemies, they were very friendly to the Dutch. "We go with
them into the woods; we meet with each other, sometimes at an hour's walk
from any house, and think no more of it than if we met with Christians."
The dark side of their character may be seen in a single quotation from
Father Jogues's narrative, as related by Father Lalemant: "Happily for
the Father the very time when he was entering the gates, a messenger
arrived who brought news that a warrior and his comrades were returning
victorious, bringing twenty Abanaqois prisoners. Behold them all joyful;
they leave the poor Father; they burn, they flay, they roast, they eat
those poor victims with public rejoicings." Gentle and affable in peace,
with many evidences of a rude civilization, they were indeed "Demons in
war."
Faithful in their labors among them were the Jesuit Fathers. They were
men who were ready to suffer torture and death in the propagation of
their faith, as several of them did. The conflict of those heroes of the
Cross in the valley of the Mohawk, inaugurated by the capture and
martyrdom of Father Jogues and his companion, Rene Goupil, in 1646, did
not deter them; the wars of the nation with the French aided them. So
successful were they that many of the nation were drawn off to Canada
and became zealous partisans of the French and a scourge to English
settlements, especially emphasized in the massacre at Schenectady in
February, 1689-90. Those who remained true to the English became no
longer "barbarians" in the full sense of that word, but "Praying Maquas."
The subsequent story of the nation may be gleaned from the pages of
history. At the close of the Revolution the integrity of the Six Nations
had been effectually broken, and the castles of the Mohawks swept from
the valley proper. The history, of the latter nation especially, needs
to be studied, not in the wild glamour of fiction, but in the realm of
fact, as that of an original people, native to the soil of the New World,
clasping hands with the era of the origin of man; a people who, when they
were first met, had borrowed nothing, absolutely nothing, from the
civilizations or the languages of the Old World--the _Ougwe-howe,_ the
"real men" of the Mohawk Valley.
The locations of the castles or principal towns of the nation, as noted
in Van Curler's Journal, has given rise to considerable discussion,
particularly in regard to the location of the first of the series and
its identity under the different names by which it was called. Van Curler
was not an "ignorant Hollander wandering around in the woods," as one
writer states; on the contrary, he was an educated man and one of the
best equipped men then in the country for the trip he had undertaken,
and instead of "wandering around in the woods," he was conducted by
Mohawk guides. He wrote that he left Fort Orange in company with
Jeronimus la Crock, William Thomasson, and five Mohawks as guides and
bearers, "between nine and ten o'clock in the morning," December 12,
1634, and after walking "mostly northwest about eight miles" (Dutch),
stopped "at half-past twelve in the evening" (p. m.) "at a little
hunters' cabin near the stream that runs into their land, of the name
of Vyoge." His hours' travel and his miles' travel to this point were
either loosely stated in his manuscript or were misread by the
translator. [FN-7] A Dutch mile is one and one-quarter hours' walk and
the equivalent of three and one-half English miles and a fraction over.
Van Curler no doubt estimated his miles by this standard and not as
correct measurements of rough Indian paths. He certainly did not walk
eight Dutch miles in three hours. Twenty-four English miles would have
taken him to a point northwest of the later Schenectady stockade, which,
in 1690, was counted as twenty-four English miles from Fort Orange by
the road as then traveled. The "little hunters' cabin" at which he
stopped and which he located "near the Vyoge," he explained in his notes
of his second day's travel, as "one hour's walk" from the place where he
crossed the stream, which would have taken him to a crossing place west
of Schenectady, noted in a French Itinerary of 1757 as about one and
one-quarter leagues west of the then fort at that settlement, and,
presumably, by the canal survey of 1792, as at the first rift west of
the beginning of deep water one and one-half miles (English) east of the
rift referred to, from which point the survey gave the distance "to the
deep water at or above the mouth of Schohare creek" as twenty-five miles.
In going to, or from, the crossing-place he "passed Mohawk villages"
where "the ice drifted fast," and gave his later travel as "mostly along
the kill that ran swiftly," indicating very clearly that he passed along
the rapids. Why he crossed the Mohawk when there was a path on the south
side, is explained by Pearson's statement (Hist. Schenectady) that the
path on the north side "was the best and most frequently traveled path
to the Mohawk castles," and held that reputation for many years. It was
a trunk line from the Hudson with many connecting paths. In considering
his miles' travel the survey of 1792 may be safely referred to. [FN-8]
His miles' travel, which he wrote as "eleven" (Dutch) he wrote on his
return as "ten," which, counted as standard Dutch, would have been about
thirty-five English miles; if counted by General John S. Clark's average
of shrinkage, about thirty, which would have taken him from the hunters'
cabin to a point two or three miles west of the mouth of Schohare Creek.
Referring particularly to his Journal: On the morning of the 13th, at
three o'clock, he left the "little hunters' cabin" where he passed the
night, spent one hour in walking to the crossing-place, crossed "in the
dark," resumed his march on the north side "mostly along the aforesaid
kill that ran swiftly," and after marching ten miles arrived, "at one
o'clock in the evening" (p. m.) "at a little house half a mile" (Dutch)
"from their First Castle." When he stopped he was so exhausted by the
rough road that he could scarcely move his feet, and hence remained at
the "little house" until the next morning, when he recrossed the Mohawk
to the south side "on the ice which had frozen over the kill during the
night," and "after going half-a-mile" (Dutch), or say one and one-half
English, arrived "at their First Castle," which he found "built on a high
mountain." It contained "thirty-six houses in rows like streets." The
houses were "one hundred, ninety or eighty paces long," and were no doubt
palisaded as he called the castle a "fort." The name of the castle, he
wrote later, was _Onekagoncka._ The crossing was the only one which he
made to the south side of the Mohawk in going west. _Where,_ aside from
a fair computation of his miles' travel, _did he cross?_ Certainly he did
not cross on the ice which had frozen over the rapids east of the mouth
of Schohare Creek, for they were never known to freeze over in one night,
if at all. Certainly he did not cross east of the rapids, for they
extended three and one-half miles east of the mouth of the creek.
Obviously, if he crossed Schohare Creek on the ice and "did not know it,"
as one writer suggests, he must have crossed it in _going to the castle,_
which would surely locate the castle _west_ of the stream. There is not
the slightest notice of the stream in his Journal, nor is there any place
for it in the harmony of his narrative. The tenable conclusion, from the
comparison of his miles and from the natural facts, is that he crossed
"on the ice" which had frozen over the deep water "at or above the mouth
of Schohare Creek"; that his march took him to the vicinity of Aurie's
Creek, or substantially to the castle which Father Jogues called
_Osseruenon,_ the site of which is now marked by the Society of Jesus
with the Shrine, "Our Lady of Martyrs," whether that castle was east or
west of Aurie's Creek, evidences of Indian occupation having been found
on a hill on the west side of the creek as well as on a hill on the east
side. [FN-9] These evidences, however, prove very little in determining
the location of a particular castle three hundred years ago; they only
become important when sustained by distances from given points or by
natural features of record.
The locative conclusion stated above is more positively emphasized by
counting Van Curler's miles' travel and his landmarks in going west from
_Onekagoncka,_ and by the natural features which he noted in his Journal.
Leaving _Onekagoncka,_ he wrote that he walked "half a mile" (Dutch) "on
the ice" which had frozen over the kill, or say one and one-half English
miles, and in that distance passed "a village of six houses of the name
of _Canowarode._" It was near the river obviously. Walking on the ice
"another half mile" (Dutch), he passed "a village of twelve houses named
_Senatsycrossy._" After walking "another mile or mile and a half" on the
ice, he passed "great stretches of flat lands" and came to a castle which
he first called _Medatshet,_ and later _Canagere,_ which he denominated
"The Second Castle." His distances traveling west "on the ice" were
evidently more correctly computed than they were on his march on the
rough path "along the kill that ran swiftly." His miles from _Onekagoncka_
to _Canagere_ are given as two and a half (Dutch) or about nine miles
English. The actual distance is supposed to have been about eight. He
found the castle "built on a hill without any palisades or any defence."
He located it east of Canajohare Creek, a stream which has never lost its
identity. When Van Curler visited the castle it contained "sixteen
houses, fifty, sixty, seventy or eighty paces long."
Detained in this castle by a heavy fall of rain which broke up the
streams--the "January thaw" of 1635 in the Mohawk Valley--Van Curler
resumed his journey on the 20th, and "after marching a mile" (Dutch),
came to Canajohare Creek which he was obliged to ford. After crossing
and walking "half a mile" (Dutch), he came to what he called the "Third
Castle of the name of _Sohanidisse,_" later written by him _Rohanadisse,_
and by Van der Donck _Schanatisse,_ suggesting the name of the hill on
which it stood, which Van Curler described as "very high." It contained
"thirty-two houses like the others"; was not palisaded. The very high
hill, and the flat lands which he referred to, remain.
On the 21st, _before_ reaching the second stream which he noted later
as having crossed, he wrote that "half a mile" _west_ of Canajohare Creek
he came to a village of "nine houses of the name of _Osquage,_" which
gave name to the stream now known as the _Otsquage,_ which he also called
_Okquage_ and _Okwahohage,_ "Wolves"--a village of the Wolf tribe. On the
23d he forded the Otsquage, and after going "half a mile" (Dutch) _west_
of that stream, came "to a village named _Cawaoge._" It had fourteen
houses and stood "on a very high hill." On his return trip he wrote the
name _Nawaoga;_ on old maps it is _Canawadage,_ and has since 1635 been
known as the _Nowadage_ or Fort Plain Creek. _He did not cross this
stream,_ but after stopping at the village for a short time moved on "by
land," presumably inland either north or south, and "going another mile"
came to the "Fourth Castle," which he called _Tenotoge_ and _Tenotohage,_
and Father Jogues called _Te-ouonte-ogén,_ and also "the furthest castle."
It was no doubt the principal castle of the Wolf tribe, strongly palisaded
to defend the western approach to the seat of the nation, as was
_Onekagoncka_ to guard the east. It was, he wrote, composed of fifty-five
houses like the others. It stood in a valley evidently, probably on the
bank of the creek, as he wrote that the stream (Otsquaga) which he had
crossed in the morning "ran past" the castle; that he saw on the opposite
(east) "bank" of the stream "a good many houses filled with corn and
beans," and also extensive flat lands. Further than this topographical
description the location of the castle cannot be determined. [FN-10] Van
Curler's miles to the castle from _Onekagonka,_ as nearly as can be
counted from his Journal, were about six Dutch or about twenty-one
English, or as General Clark counted Dutch miles, about eighteen English.
As Van Curler traveled "on the ice" for the most considerable part of the
way from _Onekagoncka,_ and followed necessarily the bend in the river
and diverged at times from the shore line, exact computation of his miles
cannot be made. General Clark located the castle at Spraker's Basin,
thirteen miles by rail west of Aurie's Creek. Van Curler located it _on
the west side of Otsquage Creek._ On Simeon DeWitt's map of survey of
patents in 1790 (Doc. Hist. N. Y., i, 420), the direct line from the west
side of the mouth of Otsquage Creek to the west side of the mouth of
Aurie's Creek is fifteen and three-tenths miles; following the bend in
the Mohawk, as Van Curler did, it is seventeen and one-half miles.
Granting that the lithographic reproduction of the map may vary from the
original, it nevertheless shows conclusively that _Onekagoncka_ must have
been located at or near Aurie's Creek, The suggestion that it was located
on a hill on the east side of Schohare Creek is untenable, as is also the
suggestion that it was at Klein, eight miles east of Schohare Creek.
There may have been villages at a later date at the places suggested, but
never one of the ancient castles. Counted from the east or from the west
there is no location that meets Van Curler's miles, or Father Jogues'
"leagues," so certainly as does Aurie's Creek. (See Oghracke.)
In addition to the locations of the ancient castles, Van Curler's notes
supply interesting evidence of the strength of the Mohawks when the Dutch
first met them, which was then at its highest known point in number and
in the number of their settlements, namely: Two hundred and twenty-five
"long houses" in castles and villages, without including villages on the
lower Mohawk "where the ice drifted fast," which he passed without
particular note, and those in villages or settlements which he did not
see. Two hundred and twenty-five houses were capable of holding and no
doubt did hold a very large number of people, packed as they were packed.
Father Pierron reported, in 1669, after the French invasion of 1666, that
he visited every week "six large villages, covering seven and one-half
leagues distance," around Caughnawaga where he was stationed. In almost
constant wars with the French, and with the Hurons and other Indian
tribes as allies of the French, their number had dwindled to an estimate
of eighty warriors in 1735. The story of their greatness and of their
decay is of the deepest interest. No student of American history can
dispense with its perusal and be well-informed in the events of the
pioneer era.
* * * * *
[FN-1] Arent Van Curler, in 1635, in his "Journal of a Visit to the
Seneca Country," wrote: "I was shown a parcel of flint-stones with which
they make a fire when in the forest. These stones would do very well for
flint-lock guns."
Roger Williams wrote of the Narraganset Indians in 1643: "I have seen
a native go into the woods with his hatchet, carrying a basket of corn
with him, and stones to strike a fire." Father Le June wrote, in 1634:
"They strike together two metallic stones, just as we do with a piece
of flint and iron or steel. . . . That is how they light their fire."
The "Metallic stones" spoken of are presumed, by some writers, to have
been iron pyrites, as they may have been in some cases, but the national
emblem was the flint.
[FN-2] "_Sankhicani,_ the Mohawk's, from _Sankhican,_ a gun-lock."
(Heckewelder.) The name appears first on the Carte Figurative of 1614-16,
in application to the Indians of northern New Jersey (Delawares), who
were, by some writers, called "The Fire-workers." They seem to have
manufactured stone implements by the application of fire. Presumably
they were "Fire-strikers" as well as the Mohawks. Certainly they were
not Mohawks. Were the Mohawks the discoverers of the fire-striking
properties of the flint?
[FN-3] State Historian Hastings writes me: "The map of which you
inquire, appeared originally in a pamphlet published at Middleburgh,
Holland, at the Hague, 1666. It was first reproduced by the late Hon.
Henry C. Murphy in his translation of the 'Vertoogh van Nieu Nederland,'
etc. His reproduction gives _Canagere,_ as the name of the second
castle, and _Caneray_ as the name of the first, precisely as they appear
in order in our reproduction in our Third Report."
[FN-4] _Oneongoure_ is a form of the name in Colonial History. In the
standard translation of Jesuit Relations it is _Oneugiouré._ _Oneon_ is
a clerical error. The letters _u_ and _ou_ represent a sound produced
by the Indian in the throat without motion of the lips. Bruyas wrote it
8{_sic_ ȣ?}; it is now read _w-Onew._ Adding an _a,_ we have very nearly
M. Cuoq's _Ohnawah,_ "current," "swift river"; with suffix _gowa,_
"great," the reference being to the great rapids near which the castle
was located. The omission of the locative participle shows that it was
not "at" or "on" the great rapids.
[FN-5] "Their three castles destroyed and themselves dispersed." (Col.
Hist. N. Y., iv, 20, 22.) The castles referred to Caughnawaga, Canagora,
and Tiononteogen. A castle on the south side of the Mohawk, said to have
been about two miles inland, escaped. Presumably it was the village of
the Beaver family, but we have nothing further concerning it. The attack
was made on the night of Feb. 16, 1693. The warriors of the first two
castles were absent, and the few old men and the women made little
resistance. At the third, the warriors fought bravely but unsuccessfully.
The three castles were burned; that at Caughnawaga was given to the
flames on the morning of February 20, 1693.
[FN-6] Journal of Arent van Curler, of a visit to the Seneca country,
1634-5 O. S., translated by General James Grant Wilson, printed in "The
Independent," N. Y., Oct. 5, 1895. Republished by National Historical
Society.
[FN-7] General Wilson wrote me that the Journal was translated for him
by a Hollander, now (1905) dead, and that the manuscript had passed out
of his hands. The question of hours and miles is not important here. On
his return travel he gave the distance from the little hunters' cabin
(which in the meantime had been burned), as "A long walk," which will
not be disputed. It may be added that it is not justifiable to count
his two days' travel as one, and count the two as thirty-two English
miles from Fort Orange. The two days' travel are very distinct in the
Journal.
[FN-8] Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 1087.
[FN-9] Father Jogues noted in his narrative a "torrent" which passed
"At the foot of their village"--a brook or creek which was swollen by
rains into a torrent, and from which, on the later recedence of the
water, he recovered the remains of the body of his companion, Rene
Goupil, who had been murdered and his body thrown into it, probably with
the expectation that it would be carried down into the Mohawk, "At the
foot of their village," or at the foot of the hill on which the village
stood.
[FN-10] In the town of Minden, four miles south of Fort Plain, on a
tongue of land formed by the Otsquaga Creek and one of its tributaries,
are the remains of an ancient fortification, showing a curved line two
hundred and forty feet in length, inclosing an area of about seven
acres. The remains are, of course, claimed as belonging to the age of
the mound-builders, but with equal probability are the remains of the
ancient fort which Van Curler visited.
[Illustration: The Mohawk River]
* * * * *
Kahoos, Kahoes, Cohoes, Co'os, forms of the familiar name of the falls
of the Mohawk River at the junction of that stream with Hudson's River,
has had several interpretations based on the presumption that it is from
the Mohawk-Iroquoian dialect, but none that have been satisfactory to
students of that dialect, nor any that have not been purely conjectural.
One writer has read it: "From _Kaho,_ a boat or ship," commemorative of
Hudson's advent at Half-Moon Point in 1609. Beauchamp repeated from
Morgan: "A shipwrecked canoe," and, in another connection: "From _Kaho,_
a torrent." Another writer has read it: "Cahoes, 'the parting of the
waters,' the reference being to the separation of the stream into three
channels at its junction with the Hudson." The late Horatio Hale wrote
me: "Morgan gives, as the Iroquois form of the name, _Gä-hŏ-oose_ (in
which _ä_ represents the Italian _a_ as in father), with the signification
of 'ship-wrecked canoe.' This, I presume, is correct, though I cannot
analize the word to my satisfaction." The obvious reason for this
uncertainty is that the name is _not_ Mohawk-Iroquoian, but an early
Dutch orthography of the Algonquian generic _Koowa,_ "Pine"; _Koaaés,_
"Small pine," or "Small pine trees"; written with locative _it,_ "Place
of small pine trees"; now applied to a small island. On the Connecticut
River this generic is met in _Co'os_ and _Co'hos._ The "Upper Co-hos
Interval" on that stream (Sauthier's map) [FN-1] was a tract of low small
pine trees, between the hills and the river, corresponding with the
topography at the falls on the Hudson. The Dutch termination _-hoos,_
meaning in that language, "Water-spout," may have given rise to the
interpretation "The Great Falls," but if so the reading was simply
descriptive. The presumption that the name was Mohawk-Iroquoian was no
doubt from the general impression that the falls were primarily in a
Mohawk district, but the fact is precisely the reverse. The Hudson, on
both sides, was held by Algonquian-Mahicans when the Dutch located at
Albany, and for some years later, and the Dutch no doubt received the
name from them, as they did others. What few Mohawk names are met in this
district are of later introduction. It may be noted that there is no
element in the name in any dialect which refers to falls. [FN-2] When the
falls were first known they were regarded as the most wonderful in the
world, and even as late as 1680 they were so called by visitors. In early
days the stream poured a flood nine-hundred feet wide and eight feet deep
over a rocky declivity of seventy-eight feet, of which forty feet was
perpendicular, in addition to which are the rapids above and below. The
roar of the falling waters, and in the breaking up and precipitation of
ice, was very distinctly heard at Fort Orange, nine miles distant, and
the hills on which Albany now stands trembled under the impact. Primarily
the falls were much higher than they are now, the stream having cut its
way through one hundred feet of rock which rises on either side in
massive wall. Below the falls the water separates in four branches or
"Sprouts," the northerly and the southerly one reaching the Hudson five
miles apart, at Waterford and West Troy respectively.
* * * * *
[FN-1] "L. Intervale-Cowass or Kohas (Coas) meadows." (Pownal's Map.)
[FN-2] The name having been submitted to the Bureau of Ethnology for
interpretation, the late Prof. J. W. Powell, Chief, wrote me, as the
opinion of himself and his co-laborers: "The name is unquestionably
from the Algonquian _Koowa._"
Wathoiack, of record as the name of "The Great Rift above Kahoes Falls"
(Cal. Land Papers, 134, etc.) is also written _Wathojax, D'Wathoiack,_
and _DeWathojaaks,_ means, substantially, what it describes, a rift or
rapid. The cis-locative _De_ locates a place "On this side of the rapid,"
or the side toward the speaker. The flow of water is between walls of
rock over a rocky bed, and the rapids extend for a distance of
thirty-five or forty feet. (Ses Kahoes.)
Niskayune, now so written as the name of a town and of a village in
Schenectady County, is from _Kanistagionne,_ primarily located on the
north side of the Mohawk, _Canastagiowane_ (1667) being the oldest form
of record. The locative description reads: "Lying at a place called
_Neastegaione,_ . . . known by the name of _Kanistegaione._" West of
Schenectady the Mohawk is a succession of rapids. At or below Schenectady
it makes a bend to the northeast in the form of a crescent, around which
the water flows in a sluggish current. At the north point of the crescent
was, and probably is a place called by the Dutch the Aal-plaat
(Eel-place), marked on maps by a small stream from the north which still
bears the name, and which formed the eastern boundmark of the Schenectady
Patent. In Barber's collection it is stated that there was an Indian
village here called _Canastagaones,_ or "People of the Eel-place."
Naturally there would be fishing villages in the vicinity. The location
of the Aal-plaat is particularly identified in the Mohawk deed for five
small islands lying at Kanastagiowne, in 1667, and by the abstract of
title filed by one Evart van Ness in 1715. (Cal. Land Papers.) The name
is from _Keantsica,_ "Fish," of the larger kind, and _-gionni,
"Long"--tsi,_ "Very long"--constructively, "The Long-fish place," the
Aal-plaat, or Eel-place, of the Dutch. The suggestion by Pearson (Hist.
Schenectady) that the name "was properly that of the flat on the north
side of the river," is untenable from the name itself. The reading by
the late Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan: "From _Oneasti,_ 'Maize,' and _Couane,_
'Great'--'Great maize field'"--is also erroneous. The generic name for
the field or flat was _Shenondohawah,_ compressed by the Dutch to
_Skonowa._ In the vicinity of the Aal-plaat was the ancient crossing-place
of the path from Fort Orange to the Mohawk castles, in early days
regarded as the "Best" as it was the "Most traveled." The path continued
north from the crossing as well as west to the castles.
Schenectady, now so written, is claimed by some authorities to be an
Anglicism of a Mohawk-Iroquoian verbal primarily applied by them to Fort
Orange (Albany), with the interpretations, "The place we arrive at by
passing through the pine trees" (Bleecker); "Beyond the opening" (L. H.
Morgan); "Beyond (or on the other side) of the door" (O'Callaghan), and
by Horatio Hale: "The name means simply, 'beyond the pines.' from
_oneghta_ (or _skaneghet_), 'pine,' and _adi_ or _ati,_ a prepositional
suffix (if such an expression may be allowed), meaning 'beyond,' or 'on
the other side of.' The suffix is derived from _skati,_ side. It was
equally applicable to Albany or Schenectady, both being reached from the
Mohawk castles by passing through openings in the pine forest." Mr.
Hale's interpretation, from the standpoint of a Mohawk term, is
exhaustive and no doubt correct, and the correctness of the preceding
interpretations may be admitted from the combinations which may have
been employed to determine the object of which _askati_ was "one side,"
as in "_Skannátati,_ de un coste du village," or the end of, as in
"_Skannhahati,_ a l'autre bout de la cabane" (Bruyas). The word does not
appear to mean "beyond," but one side or one end of anything. Aside from
a critical rendering, it would seem to be evident that all the
interpretations are in error, not in the translation of the name as a
Mohawk word-sentence, but in the assumption that Schenectady was primarily
a Mohawk phrase, instead of a confusion of the Mohawk _Skannatati_ with
the original Dutch _Schaenhecstede,_ the primary application of which is
amply sustained by official record, while the Mohawk term is without
standing in that connection, or later except as a corrupt Mohawk-Dutch
[FN-1] substitution. The facts of primary application may be briefly
stated. The deed from the Mohawk owners of the Schenectady flats, in
1661, reads: "A certain parcel of land called in Dutch the Groote
Vlachte, lying behind Fort Orange, between the same and the Mohawk
country called in Indian _Skonowe._" _Skonowe_ is the equivalent of the
Dutch "great flat," and nothing more. Its Mohawk equivalent is written
on the section _Shenondohawah,_ which the Dutch reduced to _Skonowe._
(See Shannondhoi.) Van der Donck wrote on his map (1656), in pure Dutch,
_Schoon Vlaack Land,_ or "Fine flat land." It was not continued in
application to the Dutch settlement, the proprietors of which immediately
(1661) gave to it the Dutch name _Schaenechstede,_ "as the town came to
be called." (Munsell's Annals of Albany, ii, 49, 52; Brodhead's Hist.
N. Y., i, 691.) Under that name the tract was surveyed (1664), and it
has remained apparent in the synthesis of the many corrupt forms in which
it is of record. _Schaenechstede_ is a clear orthographic pronunciation
of the Dutch _Schoonehetstede,_ signifying, literally, "The beautiful
town." The syllable _het_ is properly _hek,_ "fence, rail, gate," etc.,
and in this connection indicates an enclosed or palisaded town. In 1680,
_Schaenschentendeel_ appears--a pronunciation of _Schoonehettendal,_
"Beautiful valley," or the equivalent of the German _Schooneseckthal,_
"Beautiful corner or turn of a valley." The German Labadists, Jasper
Bankers and Peter Sluyter, made no mistake in their recognition of the
name when they wrote _Schoon-echten-deel_ in their Journal in 1679-80,
describing the town as a square set off by palisades. [FN-2] Unfortunately
for the Dutch name it was conferred and came into use during the period
of the transition of the province from the Dutch to the English, with the
probability of its conversion to Mohawk-Dutch, as already noted. Certain
it is that the name is not met in any form until after its introduction
by the Dutch, and is not of record in any connection except at
Schenectady, the statement by Brodhead, on the authority of Schoolcraft,
that it was applied in one form, by the Mohawks, to a place some two
miles above Albany, as "the end of a portage path of the Mohawks coming
from the west," being without anterior or subsequent record, though
possibly traditional, and it may be added that it was never the name of
Albany, nor is there record that there ever was a Mohawk village "on the
site of the present city of Albany," nor anywhere near it. The Mohawks
did go there to trade and on business with the government and occupied
temporary encampments probably. The occupants primarily were Mahicans.
The evolution of the name from the original Dutch to its present form
may be readily traced in the channels through which it has passed. Even
though clouded by traditional and theoretical rendering, the truth of
history will ever rest in _Schoonehetstede_ (Schaenechstede) and in the
interpretation which it was designed to express by the intelligent men
who conferred it. It is not expected that the correction will be adopted,
now that the term has passed to the domain of a "proper name." With the
aroma of assumed Mohawk origin and the negative "beyond" clinging to it,
it will remain at least as a harmless fiction, although the honor due to
a Dutch ancestry would seem to warrant a different result. By ancient
measurements Schenectady is "about nine miles (English) above the falls
called Cahoes" (1792).
* * * * *
[FN-1] A considerable number of the early settlers had Indian wives.
(Dominie Megapolensis wrote: "The Dutch are continually running after
the Mohawk women.") The children, growing up with Indian relatives,
among the tribes and with men speaking so great a variety of tongues,
built up a patois of their own, the "Mohawk-Dutch," many words in it
defying the dictionaries of the schools. Many words are untranslatable
save by the context. (Hist. Schenectady Patent, 388.)
[FN-2] Memoirs Long Island Hist. Soc, i, 315.
Shannondhoi and Shenondohawah are record forms of the name of a section
of Saratoga County now embraced in Clifton Park, Half-Moon, etc. It is
a sandy plain running west from the clay bluffs on the Hudson to the foot
of the mountain, and extends across the Mohawk into Schenectady County.
The name is generic Iroquois, signifying "Great plain," and as such was
their name for Wyoming, Pa., where it is written _Schahandoanah_ (Col.
Hist. N. Y., vi, 48), and _Skehandowana_ (Reichel). Scanandanani,
Schenondehowe, Skenandoah, and Shanandoah, are among other forms met in
application. Skonowe is followed on Van der Donck's map of 1656, by the
Dutch legend _Schoon Vlaack Land,_ literally, "Fine, flat land," and for
all these years the name has been accepted as meaning, "Great meadow,"
or "Great plain." The late Horatio Hale wrote: "The name is readily
accounted for by the word _Kahenta_ (or _Kahenda_), meaning
'plain'--frequently abridged to _Kenta_ (or _Kenda_)--with the nominal
prefix _S_ and the augmentative suffix _owa_ (or _owana_)." "The great
flat or plain in Pennsylvania was called, in the Minsi dialect,
'_M'chewomink_, at (or on) the great plain.' From this word we have the
modern name Wyoming. The Iroquois word for this flat was _Skahentowane,_
'Great meadow (or plain),' a term which was applied also to extensive
meadows in other localities and became corrupted to Shenandoah."
(Gerard.)
Quaquarionu, of record, Calendar Land Papers, p. 6: "Bounds of a tract
of land above Schenectady purchased of the Mohawk Indians, extending from
Schenectady three miles westward, along both sides of the river, ending
at Quaquarionu, _where the last Mohawk castle stands._" The deed of same
date (1672) reads: "The lands lying near the town of Schenhectady within
three Dutch miles in compass on both sides of the river westward, which
ends at Kinaquariones, where the last battle was between the Mohawks and
the North Indians." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 465.) _Canaquarioeny_ is the
orthography in another deed. In Pearson's History of Schenectady: "Lands
lying near the town of Schonnhectade within three Dutch miles [about
twelve English miles] on both sides of the river westward, which ends at
Hinquariones [Towareoune], where the last battle was between the Mohoax
and North Indians." The last battle in that section of country explains
the text. Father Pierron, in 1669, located the battle "In a place that
was precipitous, . . . about eight leagues [French] east of Gandauague"
(Caughnawaga), or about sixteen miles English, and modern authorities
have added, "A steep rocky hill on the north side of the Mohawk, just
west of Hoffman's Ferry, now called Towareoune Hill, east of Chucktanunda
Creek, a stream which is supposed to have taken its name from the
overhanging rocks of the hill." [FN] Dr. Beauchamp, on the authority of
Albert Cusick, an educated Tuscarorian, translated: "_Kinaquarioune,_
'She arrow-maker,' the name of a person who resided there." Rev. Isaac
Bearfoot, an educated Onondagian, especially instructed in the Mohawk
dialect, and an educator on the Canada Reservation, supplied to W. Max
Reid of Amsterdam, N. Y., the reading: "_Ki-na-qua-ri-one_, 'He killed
the Bear,' or, the place where the Bears die, or any place of death. It
seems to have been used to denote the place of the last great battle with
the Mahicans." The battle referred to occurred on the 18th of August,
1669. An account of it is given in Jesuit Relations, iii, 137, by Father
Pierron, the Jesuit missionary, who was then stationed at Caughnawaga.
The war which was then raging was continued until 1673, when the Governor
of New York succeeded in negotiating peace and by treaty "linked
together" the opposing nations as allies of the English government, a
relation which they subsequently sustained until the war of the
Revolution, when the Mahicans united with the revolutionists.
* * * * *
[FN] In a deed of 1685 is the entry: "Opposite a place called
Jucktumunda, that is ye stone houses, being a hollow rock on ye river
bank where ye Indians generally lie under when they travel."
Onekee-dsi-enos is of record in a deed of land purchased by one Abraham
Cuyler of Albany, in 1714, "from the native owners of the land at
Schohare, on the west side of Schohare creek, beginning on the north by
a stone mountain called by the Indians Onekeedsienos." (Cal. N. Y. Land
Papers, 110.) The name is probably an equivalent of Bruyas'
_Onueja-tsi-entos,_ a composition from _Onne'ja,_ "Stone"; _tsi_ or
_dsi,_ augmentative, "Very hard," such as stones used for making
hatchets, axes, etc., and _entos,_ plural inflection--"very hard stones,"
or "where there are hard stones." The location has been claimed for Flint
Hill at Klein, Montgomery County, which, it is said, the name correctly
describes. Positive identification, however, can only be made from the
lines of the survey of Cuyler's purchase. It has also been claimed that
the Mohawk castle called _Onekagoncka_ by Van Curler in 1635, and the
_Osseruenon_ of 1642, was located at Klein, about eight miles east of
Schohare Creek. This claim is based on what is certainly an erroneous
computation of Van Curler's miles' travel, but particularly on the
location on Van der Donck's map of _Carenay_ directly north of a small
lake now in the town of Duane, Schenectady County. Van der Donck's map
locations are merely approximative, however, and of no other value than
as showing that the places existed. On an ancient map reprinted by the
War Department at Washington, the lake and the castle are both located
east of Schenectady. The old maps are from traders' descriptions in
general terms.
Onuntadass, _Onuntasasha,_ etc., "six miles west from Schoharie between
the mountains of Schoharie and the hill called by the Indians Onuntadass"
(Cal. N. Y. Land Papers), describes a hill or mountain--_Ononté_--with
adjective termination _es_ or _ese,_ meaning "long" or "high."
_Jonondese,_ "It is a high hill." The hill has not been located. The name
could be applied to any long or high hill.
Schoharie, now so written as the name of a creek and of a county and
town, would properly be written without the _i_. The stream came into
notice particularly after 1693-4, when the Tortoise tribe retreated from
Caughnawaga and located their principal town on the west side of the
stream a short distance south of its junction with the Mohawk, taking
with them their ancient title of "The First Mohawk Castle," and where its
location became known by the name of _Ti-onondar-aga_ and
_Ti-ononta-ogen;_ but later from the location on the creek about sixteen
miles above its mouth of what was known in modern times as "The Third
Mohawk Castle," more frequently called "The Schohare Castle," a mixed
aggregation of Mohawks and Tuscaroras who had been converted by the
Jesuit missionaries and persuaded to remove to Canada, but subsequently
induced to return. "A few emigrants at Schohare," wrote Sir William
Johnson in 1763. In the same district was also gathered a settlement of
Mahicans and other Algonquian emigrants. From the elements which were
gathered in both settlements came what were, long known as the Schohare
Indians. The early record name of the creek, _To-was-sho'hare,_ was
rendered for me by Mr. J. B. N. Hewitt, of the Bureau of Ethnology,
_T-yo^c-skoⁿ-hà-re,_ "An obstruction by drift wood." [FN] In Colonial
History, "_Skohere_, the Bear," means that the chief so called was of the
Bear tribe. He was otherwise known by the title, "He is the great
wood-drift."
* * * * *
[FN] "Schoharie, according to Brant, is an Indian word signifying drift
or flood-wood, the creek of that name running at the foot of a steep
precipice for many miles, from which it collected great quantities of
wood." (Spofford's Gazetteer.)
Ti-onondar-aga and Tiononta-ogen are forms of the name by which the
"First Mohawk Castle" was located after the Tortoise tribe was driven by
the French from Caughnawaga in 1693. The castle was located on the _west_
side and near the mouth of Schohare Creek, as shown by a rough map in
Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 902, and also by a French Itinerary in 1757, in
the same work, Vol. i, 526. [FN-1] For the protection of the settlement,
the government erected, in 1710, what was known as Fort Hunter, by which
name the place is still known. The settlement was ruled over for a number
of years by "Little Abraham," brother of the Great King Hendrick of the
"Upper Mohawk Castle," at Canajohare. Its occupants were especially
classed as "Praying Maquas," and had a chapel and a bell and a priest of
the Church of England. In the war of the Revolution they professed to be
neutral but came to be regarded by the settlers as being composed of
spies and informers. So it came about that General Clinton sent out, in
1779, a detachment, captured all the inmates, and seized their stock and
property. [FN-2] There were only four houses--very good frame
buildings--then standing, and on the solicitation of settlers, who had
been made houseless in the Brant and Johnson raids, they were given to
them. It was the last Mohawk castle to disappear from the valley proper.
_Ti-onondar-ága_ and _Te-ononte-ógen_ are related terms but are not
precisely of the same meaning. The first has the locative particle _ke,_
or _acu_, as Zeisberger wrote it, and the second, _ógen,_ means "A space
between," or "between two mountains," an intervale, or valley, a very
proper name for Schohare Valley. It is a generic composition and was also
employed in connection with the "Upper (Third) Mohawk Castle" (1635-'66).
* * * * *
[FN-1] The settlement included "Some thirty cabins of Mohawk Indians"
in 1757. as stated in the French Itinerary referred to, Rev. Gideon
Hawley described it, in 1753, as on the southwest side of the creek "Not
far from the place where it discharges its waters into Mohawk River."
The place is still known as "Fort Hunter," although the fort and the
Indian settlement disappeared years ago.
[FN-2] A detachment of one hundred men, sent out for that purpose,
surprised the castle on the 29th of October, 1779, making prisoners of
"Every Indian inmate." The houseless settlers took possession of the four
houses and of all the stock, grain and furniture of the tribe. The tribe
made claim for restitution on the ground of neutrality, which the
settlers denied. They had come to hate the very name of Mohawk.
Kadarode, of record in 1693 as the name of a tract of land "Lying upon
Trinderogues (Schohare) creek, on both sides, made over to John Petersen
Mabie by _Roode,_ the Indian, in his life time, [FN] principal sachem,
by and with the consent of the rest of the Praying Indian Castle in the
Mohawk country" (Land Papers, 61), is further referred to in grant of
permission to Mabie, in 1715, to purchase additional land "known as
Kadarode," on the _east_ side of the creek, and also lands "adjoining"
his lands on the _west_ side of the stream. (Ib. 118.) By the DeWitt map
of survey of 1790, Mabie's entire purchase extended east from the mouth
of Aurie's Creek to a point on the east side of Schohare Creek, a distance
of about four miles, the territory covering the presumed site of the
early Mohawk castle called by different writers from names which they had
heard spoken, Onekagoncka, Caneray, Osseruenon, and Oneugioure, now the
site of the Shrine, "Our Lady of Martyrs." The Mohawk River, west of the
long rapids, above and including the mouth of Schohare Creek, flows "in
a broad, dark stream, with no apparent current," giving it the appearance
of a lake--"a long stretch of still water in a river." The section was
much favored by the Tortoise tribe, whose castle in 1635 and again in
1693-4 was seated upon it. The record name, _Kadarode,_ has obviously
lost some letters. Its locative suggests its derivation from _Kanitare,_
"Lake," and _-okte_, "End, side, edge," etc. Van Curler wrote here, in
1635, _Canowarode,_ the name of a village which he passed while walking
on the ice which had frozen over the Mohawk; it was evidently on the side
of the stream. _Carenay_ or _Kaneray,_ Van der Donck's name of the
castle, may easily have been from _Kanitare._ The letters _d_ and _t_ are
equivalent sounds in the Mohawk tongue. The aspirate _k_ was frequently
dropped by European scribes; it does not represent a radical element. The
several record names which are met here is a point of interest to
students.
* * * * *
[FN] _Roode_ was living in 1683. An additional name was given to him in
a Schenectady patent of that year, indicating that the name by which he
was generally known was from his place of residence. He could easily
have been a sachem in 1635.
Oghrackee, Orachkee, Oghrackie, orthographies of the record name of what
is now known as Aurie's Creek, appear in connection with land patented
to John Scott, 1722. In the survey of the patent by Cadwallader Colden,
in the same year, the description reads: "On the south side of Mohawk's
river, about two miles above Fort Hunter, . . . beginning at a certain
brook called by the Indians Oghrackie, otherwise known as Arie's creek,
where it falls into Maquas river." (N. Y. Land Papers, 164.) In other
words the name was that of a place at the mouth of the brook. Near the
brook at Auriesville, which takes its name from that of the stream, has
been located the Shrine, "Our Lady of Martyrs," marking the presumed site
of the Mohawk castle called by Father Jogues _Osserueñon,_ in which he
suffered martyrdom in 1646. [FN] The Indian name, _Oghrackie,_ has no
meaning as it stands; some part of it was probably lost by mishearing.
The digraph _gh_ is not a radical element in Mohawk speech; it is
frequently dropped, as in _Orachkee,_ one of the forms of the name here.
Omitting it from Colden's _Oghrackie,_ and inserting the particle _se_ or
_sa,_ yields _Osarake,_ "At the beaver dam," from _Osara,_ "Beaver dam,"
and locative participle _ke,_ "At." (Hale.) This interpretation is
confirmed, substantially, by the Bureau of Ethnology in an interpretation
of _Osseruenon_ which Father Jogues gave as that of the castle. W. H.
Holmes, Chief of the Bureau, wrote me, under date of March 8, 1906, as
has been above stated, "The term _Osserueñon_ (or _Osserneñon, Asserua,
Osserion, Osserrinon_) appears to be from the Mohawk dialect of the
Iroquoian stock of languages. It signifies, if its English dress gives
any approximation to the sound of the original expression, 'At the beaver
dam.'" This expert testimony has its value in the force which it gives
to the conclusion that the castle in which Father Jogues suffered was at
or near Aurie's Creek. The relation between Megapolensis' _Assarue_ and
Jogues's _Osseru_ is readily seen by changing the initial _A_ in the
former to _O._
_Aurie's,_ the present name of the stream, otherwise written _Arie's,_ is
Dutch for _Adrian_ or _Adrianus_ (Latin) "Of or pertaining to the sea."
It is suggestive of the name _Adriochten,_ written by Van Curler as that
of the ruling sachem of the castle which he visited and called
_Onekagoncka_ in 1635. The only tangible fact, however, is that the
stream took its present name from Aurie, a ruling sachem who resided on
or near it.
In this connection the several names by which the castle was called, viz:
_Onekagoncka, Carenay_ or _Caneray, Osserueñon, Assarue,_ and
_Oneugiouré,_ may be again referred to. As already stated, the "best
expert authority" of the Bureau of Ethnology reads _Onekagoncka_ as
signifying, "At the junction of the waters," and _Osserueñon,_ in any of
its forms, as signifying "At the beaver-dam." Possibly the names might be
read differently by a less expert authority, but _Oneka_ certainly means
"Water," and _Ossera_ means "Beaver-dam." Add the reading by the late
Horatio Hale of _Oghracke,_ "At the beaver-dam," and the locative chain
is complete at the mouth of Aurie's Creek (Oghracke). _Tribally,_ the
names referred to one and the same castle, as has been noted, and the
evidence seems to be clear that the location was the same. There is no
evidence whatever that any other than one and the same place was occupied
by the "first castle" between the years 1635 and 1667. It is not strictly
correct to say that "castles were frequently removed." Villages that were
not palisaded may have been frequently changed to new sites, but the
evidence is that palisaded towns remained in one place for a number of
years unless the tribe occupying was driven out by an enemy or by
continued unhealthfulness, as the known history of all the old castles
shows; nor were they ever removed to any considerable distance from their
original sites.
Van Curler's description of the castle has been quoted. He did not say
that it was palisaded, but he did call it a "fort," which means the same
thing. Rev. Megapolensis wrote, in 1644: "These [the Tortoise tribe] have
built a fort of palisades and call their castle _Assarue._" It was not
an old castle when Van Curler visited it in 1635, or when Father Jogues
was a prisoner in it in 1642, but in its then short existence it had had
an incident in the wars between the Mohawks and the Mahicans of which
there is no mention in our written histories. On his return trip Van
Curler wrote that after leaving _Onekagoncka_ and walking about "two
miles," or about six English miles, his guide pointed to a high hill on
which the immediately preceding castle of the tribe had stood and from
which it had been driven by the Mahicans "nine years" previously, _i. e._
in 1627, when the war was raging between the Mohawks and the Mahicans of
which Wassenaer wrote. It was obviously about that time that the tribe,
retreating from its enemies, rallied west of Schohare Creek and founded
the castle of which we are speaking, and there it remained until it was
driven out by the French under De Tracey in 1666, when its occupants
gathered together at Caughnawaga on the north side of the Mohawk, where
they remained until 1693 when their castle was again destroyed by the
French, and the tribe found a resting place on the west side of the mouth
of Schohare Creek. The remarkable episode in the early history of the
castle, the torture and murder of Father Jogues in 1646, is available in
many publications. The location in Brodhead's and other histories of the
castle in which he suffered as at Caughnawaga, is now known to be
erroneous. Caughnawaga was not occupied by the tribal castle until over
twenty years later.
* * * * *
[FN] The site of the Shrine was approved by the Society of Jesus mainly
on examinations and measurements made by General John S. Clark, the
locally eminent antiquarian of Auburn, N. Y., who gave the most
conscientious attention to the work of investigation. The data supplied
by Van Curler's Journal, which he did not have before him, may suggest
corrections in some of his locations.
Senatsycrossy, written by Van Curler, in 1635, as the name of a Mohawk
Village west of _Canowarode,_ seems to have been in the vicinity of
Fultonville, where tradition has always located one, but where General
John S. Clark asserts that there never was one. It may not have remained
at the place named for a number of years. Villages that were not palisaded
were sometimes removed in a single night. Van Curler described it as a
village of twelve houses. It was, presumably, the seat of a sub-tribe or
gens of the Tortoise tribe. Its precise location is not important. A gens
or sub-tribe was a family of the original stock more or less numerous
from natural increase and intermarriages, and always springing from a
single pair--the old, old story of Adam and Eve, the founders of the
Hebrews. The sachem or first man of these gens was never a ruler of the
tribe proper. They did sign deeds for possessions which were admitted to
be their own, but never a treaty on the part of the nation.
Caughnawaga, probably the best known of the Mohawk castles of what may
be called the middle era (1667-93), and the immediate successor of
_Onekagoncka_ of 1635, was located on the north side of the Mohawk, on
the edge of a hill, near the river, half a mile west of the mouth of
Cayuadutta Creek, in the present village of Fonda. The hill on which it
was built is now known as Kaneagah, writes Mr. W. Max Read of Amsterdam.
Its name appears first in French notation, in Jesuit Relations (1667),
_Gandaouagué._ [FN] Contemporaneous Dutch scribes wrote it _Kaghnawaga_
and _Caughnawaga,_ and Greenhalgh, an English trader, who visited the
castle in 1677, wrote it _Cahaniaga,_ and described it as "about a bowshot
from the river, doubly stockaded around, with four ports, and twenty-four
houses." The most salient points in its history are in connection with
its wars with the French and with the labors of the Jesuit missionaries,
who, after the murder of Father Jogues and the destruction of the castle
in which he suffered and the peace of 1667, were very successful, so much
so that in 1671 the occupants of the castle erected in its public square
a Cross, and a year later a very large number of the tribe under the lead
of the famous warrior Krin, removed to Canada and became allies of the
French. The members of the tribe who remained occupied the castle until
the winter of 1693, when it was captured and burned by the French, and
the tribe returned to the south side of the river and located on the
flats on the west side of Schohare Creek, where they were especially
known as "The Praying Maquaas," and where they remained until 1779, when
they were dispersed by the Revolutionary forces under General Clinton.
_Caughnawaga_ is accepted as meaning "At the rapids," more correctly "At
the rapid current." It is from the Huron radical _Gannawa_ (Bruyas),
for which M. Cuoq wrote in his Lexicon _Ohnawagh,_ "Swift current," or
very nearly the Dutch _Kaghnawa_; with locative particle _-ge_ or _-ga,_
"At the rapids." It is a generic term and is met of record in several
places. As has been noted elsewhere, the rapids of the Mohawk extend at
intervals fifteen in number from Schenectady to Little Falls, the longest
being east of the mouth of Schohare Creek. The rapid or rift at
Caughnawaga extends about half a mile.
* * * * *
[FN] The letters _ou,_ in _Gandaouaga_ and in other names, represents
a sound produced by the Mohawks in the throat without motion of the
lips. Bruyas wrote it 8. {_sic_ ȣ?} It is now generally written
_w--Gandawaga._
Cayudutta, modern orthography; _Caniadutta_ and _Caniahdutta,_ 1752.
"Beginning at a great rock, lying on the west side of a creek, called by
the Indians Caniadutta." (Cal. Land Papers, 270.) The name was that of
the rock, from which it was extended to the stream. It was probably a
rock of the calciferous sandstone type containing garnets, quartz and
flint, which are met in the vicinity. "The name is from _Onenhia,_ or
_Onenya,_ 'stone,' and _Kaniote,_ 'to be elevated,' or standing" (Hale).
[FN] Dr. Beauchamp translated the name, "Stone standing out of the
water." The meaning, however, seems to be simply, "Standing stone," or
an elevated rock. Its location is stated in the patent description as
"lying on the west side of the creek." The place is claimed for Fulton
County. (See Caughnawaga.)
* * * * *
[FN] The same word is now written as the name of the Oneida nation. Van
Curler's trip, in 1635, extended to the castle of the Oneidas, which he
called' _Enneyuttehage,_ "The standing-stone town." (Hale.)
Canagere, written by Van Curler, in 1635, as the name of the "Second
Castle" or tribal town, was written _Gandagiro_ by Father Jogues, in
1643; _Banigiro_ by Rev. Megapolensis; _Gandagora_ in Jesuit Relations
in 1669, and _Canagora_ by Greenhalgh in 1677. The several orthographies
are claimed to stand for _Canajohare,_ from the fact that the castle was
"built on a high hill" east of Canajohare Creek. It was, however, the
castle of the Bear tribe, the _Ganniagwari,_ or Grand Bear of the nation,
and carried its name with it to the north side of the Mohawk in 1667.
_Ganniagwari_ and _Canajohare_ are easily confused. The creek called
_Canajohare_ gave a general locative name to a considerable district of
country around it. It took the name from a pot-hole in a mass of limestone
in its bed at the falls on the stream about one mile from its mouth.
Bruyas wrote "_Ganna-tsi-ohare,_ laver de chaudiere" (to wash the cauldron
or large kettle). Rev. Samuel Kirkland, the noted missionary to the
Oneidas, wrote the same word "_Kanaohare_, or Great Boiling Pot, as it is
called by the Six Nations." (Dr. Dwight.) The letter _j_ stands for
_tsi,_ augmentative, and the radical _ohare_ means "To wash." (Bruyas.)
The hole was obviously worn by a round stone or by pebbles, which, moved
by the action of the current, literally washed the kettle. Van Curler
described the castle as containing "sixteen houses, fifty, sixty, seventy,
or eighty paces long, and one of five paces containing a bear," which he
presumed was "to be fattened." No matter what may be said in regard to
precise location, this castle was _east_ of Canajohare Creek.
Sohanidisse, a castle so called by Van Curler, and denominated by him as
the "Third Castle," is marked on Van der Donck's map _Schanatisse._ It
is described by Van Curler as "on a very high hill," _west_ of Canajohare
Creek, was composed of thirty-two long houses, and was not enclosed by
palisades. "Near this castle was plenty of flat land and the woods were
full of oak trees." The "very high hill" west of Canajohare Creek and the
flat lands remain to verify its position. It is supposed to have been the
castle of the Beaver tribe--a sub-gens.
Osquage, Ohquage, Otsquage, etc., was written by Van Curler as the name
of a village of nine houses situated east of what has been known since
1635 as Osquage or Otsquage Creek. The chief of the village was called
"_Oguoho,_ that is Wolf." Megapolensis wrote the same term _Okwaho_; Van
Curler later wrote it _Ohquage,_ and in vocabulary "_Okwahohage,_ wolves,"
accessorily, "Place of wolves." From the form _Osquage_ we no doubt have
_Otsquage_ or _Okquage._
Cawaoge, a village so called by Van Curler, was described by him as on a
"very high hill" west of _Osquage._ On his return trip he wrote the name
_Nawoga;_ on old maps it is _Canawadoga,_ of which _Cawaoge_ is a
compression, apparently from _Gannawake._ For centuries the name has been
preserved in _Nowadaga_ as that of Fort Plain Creek.
Tenotoge and Tenotehage, Van Curler; _t' Jonoutego,_ Van der Donck;
_Te-onont-ogeu,_ Jogues; _Thenondigo,_ Megapolensis--called by Van Curler
the "Fourth Castle" and known later as the castle of the Wolf tribe, and
as the "Upper Mohawk Castle," was described by Van Curler as composed of
fifty-five houses "surrounded by three rows of palisades." It stood in a
valley evidently, as Van Curler wrote that the stream called the Osquaga
"ran past this castle." On the opposite (east) side of the stream he saw
"a good many houses filled with corn and beans," and extensive flat
lands. It was undoubtedly strongly palisaded to defend the western door
of the nation as was Onekagoncka on the east. _Te-onont-ogen,_ which is
probably the most correct form of the name, means "Between two mountains,"
an intervale or space between, from _Te,_ "two"; _-ononte,_ "mountain,"
and _-ogen,_ "between." The same name is met later at the mouth of
Schohare Creek. General John S. Clark located this castle at Spraker's
Basin, thirteen miles (railroad) _west_ of Auriesville and three miles
_east_ of Nowedaga Creek. The correctness of this location must be
determined by the topographical features stated by Van Curler and not
otherwise. General Clark did an excellent work in searching for the sites
of ancient castles from remaining evidences of Indian occupation, but the
remaining evidence of names and topographical features where they are met
of record must govern. In this case the creek that "ran past the door of
this castle," is an indisputable mark. The French destroyed the castle in
October, 1666. In the account of the occurrence (Doc. Hist. N. Y., ii,
70) it is described as being surrounded by "A triple palisade, twenty
feet in height and flanked by four bastions." The tribe did not defend
their possession, only a few old persons remaining who were too feeble to
follow the retreat of the warriors and kindred. The tribe rebuilt the
castle on the north side of the Mohawk under the name of _Onondagowa,_
"A Great Hill." The French destroyed it again in 1693, and the tribe
returned to the south side of the river and located on the flat at the
mouth of the Nowadaga or Fort Plain Creek, where the government built,
in 1710, Fort Hendrick for its protection, and where it became known as
the Upper or Canajohare Castle.
Aschalege, Oschalage, Otsgarege, etc., are record forms of the name given
as that of the stream now known as Cobel's Kill, a branch of Schohare
Creek in Schohare County. Morgan translated it from _Askwa_ or _Oskwa,_
a scaffolding or platform of any kind, and _ge,_ locative, the combination
yielding "At or on a bridge." Bruyas wrote _Otserage,_ "A causeway," a
way or road raised above the natural level of the ground, serving as a
passage over wet or marshy grounds. Otsgarage is now applied to a noted
cavern near the stream in the town of Cobel's Kill.
Oneyagine, "called by the Indians _Oneyagine,_ and by the Christians
Stone Kill," is the record name of a creek in Schohare County. J. B. N.
Hewitt read it from _Onehya_ (_Onne'ja,_ Bruyas), "stone"; _Oneyagine,_
"At the broken stone," from which transferred to the stream.
Kanendenra, "a hill called by the Indians Kanendenra, otherwise by the
Christians Anthony's Nose"--"to a point on Mohawk River near a hill called
by the Indians Kanandenra, and by the Christians Anthony's Nose"--"to a
certain hill called Anthony's Nose, whose point comes into the said
river"--"Kanendahhere, a hill on the south side of the Mohawk, by the
Christians lately called Anthony's Nose"--now known as "The Noses" and
applied to a range of hills that rises abruptly from the banks of the
Mohawk just below Spraker's. The name is an abstract noun, possessing a
specialized sense. The nose is the terminal peak of the Au Sable range.
The rock formation is gneiss, covered by heavy masses of calciferous
limestone containing garnets. "Anthony's Nose," probably so called from
resemblance to Anthony's Nose on the Hudson.
Etagragon, now so written, the name of a boundmark on the Mohawk, is of
record "_Estaragoha,_ a certain rock." The locative is on the south side
of the river about twenty-four miles above Schenectady. (Cal. N. Y. Land
Papers, 121.) The name is an equivalent of _Astenra-kowa,_ "A large
rock." Modern _Otsteara-kowa,_ Elliot.
Astenrogen, of record as the name of "the first carrying place," now
Little Falls, is from _Ostenra,_ "rock," and _ogen,_ "divisionem"
(Bruyas), literally, "Divided or separated rock." The east end of the
gorge was the eastern boundmark of what is known as the "German Flats,"
which was purchased and settled by a part of the Palatine immigrants who
had been located on the Livingston Patent in 1710. The patent to the
Germans here was granted in 1723. The description in it reads: "Beginning
at the first carrying place, being the easternmost bounds, called by the
natives _Astenrogen,_ running along on both sides of said river westerly
unto _Ganendagaren,_ or the upper end [_i. e._ of the flats, a fine
alluvial plain on both sides of the river], [FN] being about twenty-four
miles." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 182.) The passage between the rocks, now
Little Falls, covered a distance of "about three-quarters of a mile" and
the rapids "the height of thirty-nine feet," according to the survey of
1792. The Mohawk here breaks through the Allegheny ridge which primarily
divided the waters of the Ontario Basin from the Hudson. The overflow
from the basin here formed a waterfall that probably rivaled Niagara and
gradually wore away the rock. The channel of the stream was very deep and
on the subsidence of the ice sheet, which spread over the northern part
of the continent, became filled with drift. The opening in the ridge and
the formation of the valley of the Mohawk as now known are studies in the
work of creation. The settlements known as the German Flats were on both
sides of the river. The one that was on the north side was burned by the
French in the war of 1756-7. It was then composed of sixty houses. The
one on the south side was known as Fort Kouari and later as Fort
Herkimer. The district shared largely in the historic events in the
Mohawk Valley during the Revolution. There are very few districts of
country in the nation in which so many subjects for consideration are
centered.
* * * * *
[FN] _Ganendagraen_ is probably from _Gahenta_ (Gahenda), "Prairie."
* * * * *
On the Delaware.
Keht-hanne, Heckewelder--_Kittan,_ Zeisberger--"The principal or greatest
stream," _i. e._ of the country through which it passes, was the generic
name of the Delaware River, and _Lenapewihittuck,_ "The river or stream
of the Lenape," its specific name, more especially referring to the
stream where its waters are affected by tidal currents. In the Minisink
country it was known as _Minisinks River,_ or "River of the Minisinks."
At the Lehigh junction the main stream was called the East Branch and the
Lehigh the West Branch (Sauthier's map), but above that point the main
stream was known as the West Branch to its head in Utsyantha [FN-1] Lake,
on the north-east line of Delaware County, N. Y., where it was known as
the Mohawk's Branch. It forms the southwestern boundary of the State from
nearly its head to Port Jervis, Orange County, Where it enters or becomes
the western boundary of New Jersey. At Hancock, Delaware County, it
receives the waters of what was called by the Indians the _Paghkataghan,_
and by the English the East Branch. The West Branch was here known to the
Indians as the _Namaes-sipu_ and its equivalent _Lamas-sépos,_ or "Fish
River," by Europeans, Fish-Kill, "Because," says an affidavit of 1785,
"There was great numbers of _Maskunamack_ (that is Bass) and _Guwam_
(that is Shad) [FN-2] went up that branch at Shokan, and but few or none
went up the East [Paghkataghan] Branch." [FN-3] In the course of time the
East or Paghkataghan [FN-4] Branch became known as the Papagonck from a
place so called. The lower part of the stream was called by the Dutch the
"Zuiden River," or South River. In early days the main or West Branch was
navigable by flat-boats from Cochecton Falls to Philadelphia and
Wilmington. Smith, in his "History of New Jersey," wrote: "From Cochecton
to Trenton are fourteen considerable rifts, yet all passable in the long
flat boats used in the navigation of these parts, some carrying 500 or
600 bushels of wheat." _Meggeckesson_ (Col. Hist. N. Y., xii, 225) was
the name of what are now known as Trenton Falls, or rapids. It means,
briefly, "Strong water." Heckewelder's _Maskek-it-ong_ and his
interpretation of it, "Strong falls at," are wrong, the name which he
quoted being that of a swamp in the vicinity of the falls, as noted in
Col. Hist. N. Y., and as shown by the name itself.
The Delaware was the seat of the _Lenni-Lenapé_ (_a_ as _a_ in father,
_é_ as _a_ in mate--_Lenahpa_), or "Original people," or people born of
the earth on which they lived, who were recognized, at the time of the
discovery, as the head or "Grandfather" of the Algonquian nations. From
their principal seat on the tide-waters of the Delaware, and their
jurisdiction on that stream, they became known and are generally met in
history as the Delawares. In tribal and sub-tribal organizations they
extended over Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, and
New York as far north as the Katskills, speaking dialects radically the
same as that of the parent stock. [FN-5] They were composed of three
primary totemic tribes, the _Minsi_ or Wolf, the _Unulachtigo_ or Turkey,
and the _Unami_ or Turtle, of whom the Turtle held the primacy. They were
a milder and less barbaric people than the Iroquoian tribes, with whom
they had little affinity and with whom they were almost constantly in
conflict until they were broken up by the incoming tide of Europeans, the
earliest and the succeeding waves of which fell upon their shores, and
the later alliance of the English with their ancient enemies, the
confederated Six Nations of New York, who, from their geographical
position and greater strength from their remoteness from the
demoralization of early European contact, offered the most substantial
advantages for repelling the advances of the French in Canada. Ultimately
conquered by the Six Nations, and made "Women," in their figurative
language, _i. e._ a people without power to make war or enter into
treaties except with the consent of their rulers, they nevertheless
maintained their integrity and won the title of "Men" as the outcome of
the war of 1754-6. Their history has been fully--perhaps too
favorably--written by Heckewelder and others. The geographical names
which they gave to the hills and streams of their native land are their
most remindful memorial. While western New York was Iroquoian, southern
New York was Lenni-Lenape or Algonquian.
* * * * *
[FN-1] Also written _Oteseontio_ and claimed as the name of a spring.
The lake is a small body of water lying 1,800 feet above tide level, in
the town of Jefferson, Schohare County. It is usually quoted as the head
of the West Branch of Delaware River.
[FN-2] "_Guwam;_ modifications, _Choam, Schawan._ The stem appears to be
_Shawano,_ 'South,' 'Coming from the south,' or from salt water."
(Brinton.)
[FN-3] Affidavit of Johannes Decker, Hist. Or. Co. (quarto) p. 699:
"Called by the Indians Lamas-Sepos, or Fish Kill, because they caught
the shad there." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 698, _et. seq._)
[FN-4] _Paghkataghan_ means "The division or branch of a stream"--"Where
the stream divides or separates." The Moravian missionaries wrote the
name _Pachgahgoch,_ from which, by corruption, _Papagonck._ The
Papagoncks seem to have been, primarily, Esopus Indians, and to have
retreated to that point after yielding up their Esopus lands. (See
Schaghticoke.)
[FN-5] Two slightly different dialects prevailed among the Delawares,
the one spoken by the Unami and the Unulachtigo, the other the Minsi.
The dialect which the missionaries Learned, and in which they composed
their works, was that of the Lehigh Valley. We may fairly consider it
to have been the upper or inland Unami. It stood between the Unulachto
and Southern Unami and the true Minsi. (Dr. Brinton.) The dialects
spoken in the valley of Hudson's River have been referred to in another
connection.
Minisink, now so written and preserved as the name of a town in Orange
County, appears primarily, in 1656, on Van der Donck's map, "Minnessinck
ofte t' Landt van Bacham," which may be read, constructively, "Indians
inhabiting the back or upper lands," or the highlands. [FN] Heckewelder
wrote: "The Minsi, which we have corrupted to Monsey, extended their
settlements from the Minisink, a place named after them, where they had
their council seat and fire," and Reichel added, "The Minisinks, _i. e._
the habitation of the Monseys or Minsis." The application was both
general and specific to the district of country occupied by the Minsi
tribe and to the place where its council fire was held. The former
embraced the mountainous country of the Delaware River above the Forks
or junction of the Lehigh Branch; the latter was on Minnisink Plains in
New Jersey, about eight miles south of Port Jervis, Orange County. It was
obviously known to the Dutch long before Van der Donck wrote the name.
It was visited, in 1694, by Arent Schuyler, a credited interpreter, who
wrote, in his Journal, Minissink and Menissink as the name of the tribal
seat. Although it is claimed that there was another council-seat on the
East Branch of the Delaware, that on Minisink Plains was no doubt the
principal seat of the tribe, as records show that it was there that all
official intercourse with the tribe was conducted for many years.
Schuyler met sachems and members of the tribe there and the place was
later made a point for missionary labor. Their village was palisaded.
On one of the early maps it is represented as a circular enclosure. In
August, 1663, they asked the Dutch authorities at New Amsterdam, through
_Oratamy,_ sachem of the Hackinsacks, "For a small piece of ordnance to
use in their fort against the _Sinuakas_ and protect their corn." (Col.
Hist. N. Y., xiii, 290.) In the blanket deed which the tribe gave in
1758, to their territory in New Jersey they were styled "Minsis, Monseys,
or Minnisinks." _Minsis_ and _Monseys_ are convertible terms of which the
late Dr. D. G. Brinton wrote: "From investigation among living Delawares,
_Minsi,_ properly _Minsiu,_ formerly _Min-assin-iu,_ means 'People of the
stony country,' or briefly, 'Mountaineers.' It is the synthesis of
_Minthiu,_ 'To be scattered,' and _Achsin,_ 'Stone.' according to the
best native authority." Apparently from _Min-assin_ we have Van der
Donck's _Minn-essin;_ with locative _-k, -ck, -g, -gh, Minn-essin-ks,_
"People of the stony country," back-landers or highlanders.
Interpretations of less merit have been made. One that is widely quoted
is from Old Algonquian and Chippeway _Minnis,_ "Island," and _-ink,_
locative; but there is no evidence that _Minnis_ was in the dialect spoken
here; on the contrary the record name of Great Minnisink Island, which
is supposed to have been referred to, was _Menag'nock,_ by the German
notation _Menach'hen-ak._ Aside from this _Minnissingh_ is of record at
Poughkeepsie, in 1683, where no island is known to have existed, and in
Westchester County the same term is met in _Men-assink_ (_Min-assin-ink_),
"At a place of small stones." The deed description at Poughkeepsie
located the tract conveyed "On the bank of the river," _i. e._ on the
back or ridge lands. (See Minnis-ingh.) The final _s_ which appears in
many of the forms of the name, and especially in _Minsis,_ is a foreign
plural.
* * * * *
[FN] "Minnessinck ofte t' Landt Van Bacham," apparently received some
of its letters from the engraver of the map. _Ofte_--Dutch and Old Saxon,
_av_--English _of_--was probably used in the sense of identity or
equivalency. Bacham--Dutch, _bak;_ Old High-German, _Bahhoham_--describes
"An extended upper part, as of a mountain or ridge." In application to
a tribe, "Ridge-landers," "Highlanders," or "Mountaineers." On the
Hudson the tribe was generally known as Highlanders. The double _n_ and
the double _s,_ in many of the forms, show that _e_ was pronounced
short, or _i._
Menagnock, the record name of what has long been known as "The Great
Mennissincks Island"--"The Great Island of the Mennisinks"--is probably
an equivalent of _Menach'henak_ (Minsi) meaning "Islands." The island,
so called, is a flat cut up by water courses, forming several small
islands.
Namenock, an island so called by Rev. Casparus Freymout in 1737, is
probably an equivalent of Naman-ock and Namee-ock, L. I., which was
translated by Dr. Trumbull from Mass. _Namau-ohke,_ "Fishing place," or
"Fish country"--_Namauk,_ Del, "Fishing place." Perhaps it was the site
of a weir or dam for impounding fish. Such dams or fishing places became
boundmarks in some cases. The name was corrupted to _Nomin-ack,_ as the
name of a church and of a fort three or four miles below what is now
Montague, N. J. On Long Island the name is corrupted to _Nomin-ick._
(See Moriches.)
Magatsoot--A tract of land "Called and known by the name of Magockomack
and Magatsoot"--so entered in petition of Philip French for Minisink
Patent in 1703, is noted in petition of Ebenezer Wilson (same patent),
in 1702, "Beginning on the northwest side of the mouth of Weachackamack
Creek where it enters Minisink River." The creek was then given the name
of the field called Maghaghkamieck; it is now called Neversink.
_Magatsoot_ was the name of the mouth of the stream, "Where it enters
Minisink River," or the Delaware. It is an equivalent of _Machaak-sók,_
[FN] meaning, "The great outlet," or mouth of a river. Although specific
in application to the mouth of the river, it is more strictly the name
of the stream than that which it now bears. (See Magaat-Ramis.)
* * * * *
[FN] _Machaak,_ Moh., _Mechek,_ Len.; "Great, large"; _soot, sók, sóhk,
sauk,_ "Pouring out," hence mouth or outlet of a river.
Maghagh-kamieck, so written in patent to Arent Schuyler in 1694, and
described therein as "A certain tract of land at a place called
Maghaghkamieck," which "Place" was granted, in 1697, to Swartwout,
Coddebeck, and others, has been handed down in many orthographies. The
precise location of the "Place" was never ascertained by survey, but by
occupation it consisted of some portion of a very fine section of
bottom-land extending along the northeast side of Neversink River from
near or in the vicinity of the junction of that stream and the Delaware
at Carpenter's Point to the junction of Basha's Kill [FN-1] and the
Neversink, in the present county of Sullivan, a distance of about eleven
miles. In general terms its boundaries are described in the patent as
extending from "The western bounds of the lands called _Nepeneck_ to a
small run of water called by the Indian name _Assawaghkemek,_ and so along
the same and the lands of Mansjoor, the Indian." It matters not that in
later years it was reported by a commission that the patent "Contained
no particular boundaries, but appeared rather to be a description of a
certain tract of country in which 1,200 acres were to be taken up," the
name nevertheless was that of a certain field or place so distinct in
character as to become a general locative of the whole, as in the Schuyler
grant of 1694. It may reasonably be presumed that the district to which
it was extended began at Carpenter's Point (Nepeneck) and ended on the
north side of Basha's Kill. (See Assawaghkemek.) The same name is met in
New Jersey on the Peaquaneck River, where it is of record in 1649,
"_Mechgacham-ik,_ or Indian field" (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 25); noted
as an Indian settlement in the Journal of Arent Schuyler, in 1694, giving
an account of his visit to the Minissinck country, in February of that
year, in which the orthography is _Maghagh-kamieck,_ indicating very
clearly that the original was _Maghk-aghk-kamighk,_ a combination of
_Maghaghk,_ "Pumpkin," and _-kamik,_ "Field," or place limited, where
those vegetables were cultivated, and a place that was widely known
evidently. [FN-2] The German missionaries wrote _Machg-ack,_ "Pumpkin,"
and Captain John Smith, in his Virginia notes of 1620, wrote the same
sound in _Mahcawq._ No mention is made of an Indian village here. If
there was one it certainly was not visited by Arent Schuyler in 1694,
as is shown by the general direction of his route, as well as by maps of
Indian paths. To have visited Maghaghkamik in Orange County would have
taken him many miles out of his way. Maghaghkamik Fork and Maghaghkamik
Church lost those names many years ago, but the ancient name is still
in use in some connections in Port Jervis, and most wretchedly spelled.
* * * * *
[FN-1] Basha's Kill, so called from a place called Basha's land, which
see.
[FN-2] _Kamik,_ Del., _Komuk,_ Mass., in varying orthographies, means
"Place" in the sense of a limited enclosed, or occupied space;
"Generally," wrote Dr. Trumbull, "An enclosure, natural or artificial,
such as a house or other building, a village, or planted field, a thicket
or place surrounded by trees"; briefly, a place having definite
boundaries. _Maghkaghk_ is an intense expression of quality--perfection.
Nepeneck, a boundmark so called in the Swartwout-Coddebeck Patent of
1697--Napenock, Napenack, Napenough, later forms--given as the name of
the western or southwestern bound of the Maghaghkamick tract, is
described: "Beginning at the western bounds of the lands called Nepeneck."
The place is presumed to have been at or near Carpenter's Point, on the
Delaware, which at times is overflowed by water. It disappears here after
1697, but reappears in a similar situation some twenty miles north at the
junction of the Sandberg and Rondout kills. It is probably a generic as
in _Nepeak,_ L. I., meaning, "Water land," or land overflowed by water.
"_Nepenit_ 'In a place of water.'" (Trumbull.) Carpenter's Point or
ancient Nepeneck, is the site of the famous Tri-States Rock, the boundmark
of three states.
[Illustration: On The Delaware, Tri-States Rock Port Jervis, N.Y.]
Assawaghkemek, the name entered as that of the northeast boundmark of
the Swartwout-Coddebeck Patent, and described therein, "To a small run of
water called Assawaghkemek . . . and so along the same and the lands of
Mansjoor, the Indian," is known by settlement, to have been _at_ and
_below_ the junction of Basha's Kill and the Neversink, from which the
inference seems to be well sustained that "the lands of Mansjoor, the
Indian" were the lands or valley of Basha's Kill, which the name describes
as an enclosed or occupied place "beyond," or "on the other side" of the
small run of water. The prefix _Assaw,_ otherwise written _Accaw, Agaw,_
etc., means "Beyond," "On the other side." The termination _agh,_ or
_aug,_ indicates that the name is formed as a verb. _Kemek_ (Kamik) means
an enclosed, or occupied place, as already stated. The translation in
"History of Orange County," from _Waseleu,_ "Light, bright, foaming," is
erroneous, as is also the application of the name to Fall Brook, near the
modern village of Huguenot. In no case was the name that of a stream,
except by extension to it.
Peenpack, (Paan, Paen, Pien, Penn) is given, _traditionally,_ as the name
of a "Small knoll or rise of ground, some fifty or sixty rods long, ten
wide, and about twenty feet high above the level of" Neversink River,
"on and around which the settlers of the Maghaghkamik Patent first
located their cabins." It has been preserved for many generations as the
name of what is known as the Peen-pach Valley, the long narrow flats on
the Neversink. Apparently it is corrupt Dutch from _Paan-pacht,_ "Low,
soft land," or leased land. The same name is met in _Paan-paach,_ Troy,
N. Y., and in _Penpack,_ Somerset County, N. J. The places bearing it
were primary Dutch settlements on low lands. (See Paanpaach.) Doubtfully
a substitution for Algonquian from a root meaning, "To fall from a height"
(Abn., _Paⁿna;_ Len. _Pange_), as in Abn. _Panaⁿk'i,_ "Fall of land,"
the downward slope of a mountain, suggested by the slope of the Shawongunk
Mountain range, which here runs southwest to northeast and falls off on
the west until it meets the narrow flats spoken of. The same feature is
met at Troy.
Tehannek, traditionally the name of a small stream on the east side of
the Peenpack Knoll, probably means "Cold stream," from _Ta_ or _Te,_
"cold," and _-hannek,_ "stream." It is a mountain brook.
Sokapach, traditionally the name of a spring in Deerpark, means, "A
spring." It is an equivalent of _Sókapeék,_ "A spring or pool."
Neversink, the name quoted as that of the stream flowing to the Delaware
at Carpenter's Point, is not a river name. It is a corruption of Lenape
_Newás,_ "A promontory," and _-ink,_ locative, meaning "At the
promontory." The particular promontory referred to seems to have been
what is now known as Neversink Point, in Sullivan County, which rises
3,300 feet. The name is generic and is met in several places, notably in
Neversink, N. J. (See Maghaghkameck.)
Seneyaughquan, given as the name of an Indian bridge which crossed the
Neversink, may have its equivalent in "_Tayachquano,_ bridge--a dry
passage over a stream." (Heckewelder.) The bridge was a log and the
location said to have been above the junction of the stream with the
Mamacottin.
Saukhekemeck, otherwise _Maghawam,_ so entered in the Schuyler Patent,
1697, apparently refer to one and the same place. The locative has not
been ascertained. The patent covered lands now in New Jersey. The tract
is described in the patent: "Situated upon a river called Mennissincks,
before a certain island called Menagnock, which is adjacent to or near a
tract of land called by the natives Maghaghkamek." (See Menagnock.)
Warensagskemeck, a tract also conveyed to Arent Schuyler in 1697,
described as "A parcel of meadow or vly, adjacent to or near a tract
called Maghaghkamek," is probably, by exchange of _r_ and _l_ and
transpositions, _Walenaskameck; Walen,_ "hollowing, concave"; _Walak,_
hole; _Waleck,_ a hollow or excavation; _-ask,_ "Grass"; _-kameck,_ an
enclosed or limited field; substantially, "a meadow or vly," [FN] as
described in the deed.
* * * * *
[FN] _Vly_ is a Dutch contraction of _Vallei,_ with the accepted
signification, "A swamp or morass; a depression with water in it in
rainy seasons, but dry at other times." A low meadow. _Walini,_
(Eastern), hollowing, concave site.
Schakaeckemick, given as the name of a parcel of land on the Delaware
described as "lying in an elbow," seems to be an equivalent of
_Schaghach,_ meaning "Straight." level, flat, and _-kamick,_ a limited
field. The tract was given to one William Tietsort, a blacksmith, who had
escaped from the massacre at Schenectady (Feb. 1689-90), and was induced
by the gift to settle among the Minisinks to repair their fire-arms. He
was the first European settler on the Delaware within the limits of the
old county of Orange. He sold the land to one John Decker, and removed
to Duchess County. No abstract of title from Decker has been made, and
probably cannot be. Decker's name, however, appears in records as one of
the first settlers, in company with William Cole and Solomon Davis, in
what was long known as "The Lower Neighborhood"; in New Jersey annals,
"Cole's Fort." The precise location is uncertain. In History of Orange
Co. (Ed. 1881, p. 701), it is said: "It is believed that further
investigation will show that Tietsort's land was the later Benj. van
Vleet place, near Port Jervis." In Eager's "History of Orange County"
(p. 396), Stephen St. John is given as the later owner of the original
farm of John Decker. Decker's house was certainly in the "Lower
Neighborhood." It was palisaded and called a fort.
Wihlahoosa, given, locally, as the name of a cavern in the rocks on the
side of the mountain, about three miles from Port Jervis, on the east
side of Neversink River, is probably from _Wihl_ (Zeisb.), "Head," and
_-hōōs,_ "Pot or kettle." The reference may have been to its shape, or
its position. In the vicinity of the cavern was an Indian burial ground
covering six acres. Skeletons have been unearthed there and found
invariably in a sitting posture. In one grave was found a sheet-iron
tobacco-box containing a handkerchief covered with hieroglyphics probably
reciting the owner's achievements. Tomahawks, arrow-heads and other
implements have also been found in graves. The place was long known as
"Penhausen's Land," from one of the grantors of the deed. The cavern may
have had some connection with the burial ground.
Walpack, N. J., is probably a corruption of _Walpeék,_ from _Walak_
(_Woalac,_ Zeisb.), "A hollow or excavation," and _-peék,_ "Lake," or
body of still water. The idea expressed is probably "Deep water." It was
the name of a lake.
Mamakating, now so written and preserved in the name of a town in Sullivan
County, is written on Sauthier's map _Mamecatink_ as the name of a
settlement and _Mamacotton_ as the name of a stream. Other forms are
_Mamacoting_ and _Mamacocking._ The stream bearing the name is now called
Basha's Kill, the waters of which find their way to the Delaware, and
Mamakating is assigned to a hollow. The settlement was primarily a trading
post which gathered in the neighborhood of the Groot Yaugh Huys (Dutch,
"Great Hunting House"), a large cabin constructed by the Indians for their
accommodation when on hunting expeditions, [FN-1] and subsequently
maintained by Europeans for the accommodation of hunters and travelers
passing over what was known as the "Mamacottin path," a trunk line road
connecting the Hudson and Delaware rivers, more modernly known as the
"Old Mine Road," which was opened as a highway in 1756. The Hunting House
is located on Sauthier's map immediately south of the Sandberg, in the
town of Mamakating, and more recently, by local authority, at or near
what is known as the "Manarse Smith Spring," otherwise as the "Great
Yaugh Huys Fontaine," or Great Hunting House Spring. [FN-2] The meaning
of the name is largely involved in the orthography of the suffix. If the
word was _-oten_ it would refer to the trading post or town, as in
"_Otenink,_ in the town" (Heckewelder), and, with the prefix _Mamak_
(_Mamach,_ German notation), root _Mach,_ "evil, bad, naughty" (_Mamak,_
iterative), would describe something that was very bad in the town; but,
if the word was _-atin,_ "Hill or mountain," the name would refer to a
place that was at or on a very bad hill. Presumably the hill was the
objective feature, the settlement being at or near the Sandberg. There
is nothing in the name meaning plain or valley, nor anything "wonderful"
about it. Among other features on the ancient path was the wigwam of
_Tautapau,_ "a medicine man," so entered in a patent to Jacob Rutzen in
1713. _Tautapau_ (Taupowaw, Powaw), "A priest or medicine man," literally,
"A wise speaker."
* * * * *
[FN-1] Indian Hunting-houses were met in all parts of the country. They
were generally temporary huts, but in some cases became permanent. (See
Cochecton.)
[FN-2] _Fontaine_ is French--"A spring of water issuing from the earth."
The stream flowing from the spring is met in local history as Fantine
Kill.
Kau-na-ong-ga, "Two wings," is said to have been the name of White Lake,
Sullivan County, the form of the lake being that of a pair of wings
expanded, according to the late Alfred B. Street, the poet-historian,
who embalmed the lake in verse years before it became noted as a
fashionable resort. (See Kong-hong-amok.)
"Where the twin branches of the Delaware
Glide into one, and in their language call'd
_Chihocken,_ or 'the meeting of the floods';" [FN-1]
The "Willemoc," [FN-2] and "The Falls of the Mongaup," are also among
Street's poetical productions.
* * * * *
[FN-1] "Formerly Shohakin or Chehocton." (French's Gaz.) In N. Y. Land
Papers, Schohakana is the orthography. Street's translation is a poetical
fancy. The name probably refers to a place at the mouth of the northwest
or Mohawk Branch of the Delaware, and the northeast or Paghkataghan
Branch, at Hancock, Del. Co.
[FN-2] _Willemoc_ probably stands for _Wilamauk,_ "Good fishing-place."
There were two streams in the town, one known as the Beaver Kill and the
other as the _Williwemack._ In Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 699, occurs the
entry: "The Beaver Kill or Whitenaughwemack." The date is 1785. The
orthography bears evidence of many years' corruption. It may have been
shortened to Willewemock and Willemoc, and stand for _Wilamochk,_ "Good,
rich, beaver." It was, presumably, a superior resort for beavers.
Shawanoesberg was conferred on a hill in the present town of Mamakating,
commemorative of a village of the Shawanoes who settled here in 1694 on
invitation of the Minisinks. (Council Minutes, Sept. 14, 1692.) Their
council-house is said to have been on the summit of the hill.
Basha's Land and Basha's Kill, familiar local terms in Sullivan County,
are claimed to have been so called from a squaw-sachem known as Elizabeth
who lived near Westbrookville. "Basha's Land" was one of the boundmarks
of the Minisink Patent and Basha's Kill the northeast bound of the
Maghaghkemik Patent. Derivation of the name from Elizabeth is not
well-sustained. [FN-1] The original was probably an equivalent of
_Bashaba,_ an Eastern-Algonquian term for "Sagamore of Sagamores," or
ruling sachem or king of a nation. It is met of record Bashaba, Betsebe,
Bessabe, Bashebe, etc. Hubbard wrote: "They called the chief rulers,
who commanded the rest, Bashabeas. Bashaba is a title." "Chiefs bearing
this title, and exercising the prerogatives of their rank, are frequently
spoken of by the early voyagers." [FN-2] (Hist. Mag., Second Series, 3,
49.) The lands spoken of were the recognized territorial possession of
the chief ruler of the nation or tribe. The "squaw-sachem" [FN-3] may
have held the title by succession or as the wife of the Bashaba.
* * * * *
[FN-1] Basha's Kill was applied to Mamcotten Kill north of the village
of Wurtsboro, south of which it retained the name of Mamacotten, as
written on Sauthier's map. Quinlan, in his "History of Sullivan County,"
wrote: "The head-waters of Mamakating River subsequently became known
as Elizabeth's Kill, in compliment to Elizabeth Gonsaulus. We could
imagine that she was the original Basha, Betje, or Betsey, who owned the
land south of the Yaugh House Spring, and gave to the Mamakating stream
its present name; but unfortunately she was not born soon enough.
Twenty-five years before her family came to Mamakating, 'Basha's land'
was mentioned in official documents." It appears in the Minisink Patent
in 1704.
[FN-2] A. S. Gatschet, of the Bureau of Ethnology, wrote me: "The Bashas,
Bashebas and Betsebas of old explorers of the coast of Maine, I explain
by _pe'sks,_ 'one,' and _a'pi,_ 'man,' or person--'First man in the
land.'"
[FN-3] _Squaw,_ "Woman," means, literally, "Female animal." _Saunk-squa_
stands for "Sochem's squaw." "The squa-sachem, for so they call the
Sachem's wife." (Winslow.)
Mongaup, given as the name of a stream which constitutes in part the
western boundary of Orange County, is entered on Sauthier's map,
"Mangawping or Mangaup." Quinlan (Hist. Sullivan County) claimed for it
also Mingapochka and Mingwing, indicating that the stream carried the
names of two distinct places. _Mongaup_ is a compression of Dutch
_Mondgauwpink,_ meaning, substantially, "At the mouth of a small, rapid
river," for which a local writer has substituted "Dancing feather," which
is not in the composition in any language. _Mingapochka_ (Alg.), appears
to be from _Mih'n_ (_Mih'nall_ plural; Zeisb.), "Huckleberry," and
_-pohoka,_ "Cleft, clove or valley"--literally, "Huckleberry Valley."
Street, writing half a century ago, described the northern approach of
the stream as a valley wreathed (poetically) in whortle berries--
"In large tempting clusters of light misty blue."
The stream rises in the center of Sullivan County and flows to the
Delaware. The falls are said to be from sixty to eighty feet in four
cascades. (Hist. Sul. Co.) Another writer says: "Three miles above
Forestburgh village, the stream falls into a chasm seventy feet deep,
and the banks above the falls are over one hundred feet high."
Meenahga, a modern place-name, is a somewhat remarkable orthography of
_Mih'n-acki_ (aghki), "Huckleberry land" or place.
Callicoon, the name of a town in Sullivan County, and of a stream, is
an Anglicism of _Kalkan_ (Dutch), "Turkey"--_Wilde Kalkan,_ "Wild
turkey"--in application, "Place of turkeys." The district bearing the
name is locally described as extending from Callicoon Creek to the mouth
of Ten Mile River, on the Delaware. Wild turkeys were abundant in the
vicinage of the stream no doubt, from which perhaps the name, but as
there is record evidence that a clan of the Turkey tribe of Delawares
located in the vicinity, it is quite probable that the name is from them.
The stream is a dashing mountain brook, embalmed poetically by the pen
of Street. (See Cochecton.)
Keshethton, written by Colonel Hathorn in 1779, as the name of an Indian
path, is no doubt an orthography of Casheghton. In early years a
trunk-line path ran up the Delaware to Cochecton Falls, where, with other
paths, it connected with the main path leading to Wyoming Valley, [FN]
the importance of the latter path suggesting, in 1756, the erection of
a fort and the establishment of a base of supplies at Cochecton from
which to attack the Indians under Tedyuscung and Shingask in what was
then known as "The Great Swamp," from which those noted warriors and
their followers made their forays. (Doc. Hist. N. Y., ii. 715; Ib. Map,
i, 586.) Colonel Hathorn passed over part of this path in 1779, in pursuit
of Brant, and was disastrously defeated in what is called "The Battle of
Minnisink."
* * * * *
[FN] "The first well-beaten path that connected the Delaware and
Susquehanna Rivers, and subsequently the first rude wagon road leading
from Cochecton through Little Meadows, in Salem township, and across
Moosic Mountains." (Hist. Penn.) It was with a view to connect the
commerce from this section with the Hudson that the Newburgh and
Cochecton Turnpike was constructed in the early years of 1800.
Cochecton, the name of a town and of a village in Sullivan County,
extended on early maps to an island, to a range of hills, and to a fall
or rift in the Delaware River, is written Cashieghtunk and in other forms
on Sauthier's map of 1774; Cushieton on a map of 1768; _Keshecton,_ Col.
Cortlandt, 1778; _Cashecton,_ N. Y. Land Papers, 699; Cushietunk in the
proceedings of the Treaty of Easton, 1758, and in other New Jersey
records: Cashighton in 1744; Kishigton in N. Y. records in 1737, and
Cashiektunk by Cadwallader Colden in 1737, as the name of a place near
the boundmark claimed by the Province of New Jersey, latitude 41 degrees
40 minutes. "On the most northerly branch of Delaware River, which point
falls near Cashiektunk, an Indian village, on a branch of that river
called the Fish Kill." (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv, 177.) In the Treaty of
Easton, 1758, the Indian title to land conveyed to New Jersey is
described: "Beginning at the Station Point between the Province of New
Jersey and New York, at the most northerly end of an Indian settlement
on the Delaware, known by the name of Casheitong." Station Point, called
also Station Rock, is about three miles southeast of the present village
of Cochecton, on a flat at a bend in the river, by old survey twenty-two
miles in a straight line from the mouth of Maghaghkamik Creek, now
Carpenter's Point, in the town of Deerpark, Orange County. Cochecton
Falls, so called, are a rocky rapid in a narrow gorge covering a fall
of two or three hundred feet, the obstruction throwing the water and the
deposits brought down back upon the low lands. The Callicoon flows to the
Delaware a few miles northeast of the falls. Between the latter and the
mouth of the Callicoon lies the Cochecton Flats or valley. The precise
location of "Station Point or Rock," described as "At the most northerly
end" of the Indian village, has not been ascertained, but can be readily
found. The late Hon. John C. Curtis, of Cochecton, wrote: "Our beautiful
valley, from Cochecton Falls to the mouth of the Callicoon, was called,
by the Indians, _Cushetunk,_ or low lands," the locative of the name
having been handed down from generation to generation, and an
interpretation of the name which is inferentially correct. There is no
such word as _Cash_ or _Cush_ in the Delaware dialect, however; it stands
here obviously as a form of _K'sch,_ intensive _K'schiecton_ (Len. Eng.
Dic.); _Geschiechton,_ Zeisberger, verbal noun, "To wash," "The act of
washing," as by the "overflow of the water of a sea or river. . . . The
river washed a valley in the plain"; with suffix _-unk_
(_K'schiechton-unk_--compressed to _Cushetunk_), denoting a place where
the action of the verb was performed, _i. e._ a place where at times the
land is washed or overflowed by water, from which the traditionary
interpretation, "Low land." [FN-1]
The Indian town spoken of was established in 1744, although its site was
previously occupied by Indian hunting houses or huts for residences while
on hunting expeditions. In Col. Mss. v. 75, p. 10, is preserved a paper
in which it is stated that the Indians residing at Goshen, Orange County,
having "Removed to their hunting houses at Cashigton," were there
visited, in December, 1744, by a delegation of residents of Goshen,
consisting of Col. Thomas DeKay, William Coleman, Benj. Thompson, Major
Swartwout, Adam Wisner, interpreter, and two Indians as pilots, for the
purpose of ascertaining the cause of the removal; that the delegation
found the residents composed of two totemic families, Wolves and Turkeys;
that, having lost their sachem, they were debating "Out of which tribe
a successor should be chosen"; that they had removed from Goshen through
fear of the hostile intention on the part of the settlers there, who
"Were always carrying guns." Later, a delegation from the Indian town
visited Goshen, and was there "Linked together" with Colonel De Kay, as
the representative of the Governor of the province, in their peculiar
form of locking arms, for three hours, as a test of enduring friendship.
[FN-2] It was the only treaty with the Indians in Orange County of which
there is record.
Aside from its Indian occupants the town is historic as the point forming
the old northwest boundmark of New Jersey (Lat. 41 degrees 40 minutes),
as recognized in the Treaty of Easton. (See Pompton.) From its association
with the history of three provinces, the story of the town is of more
than local interest. The lands were ultimately included in the Hardenberg
Patent, and most of the Indian descendants of its founders of 1744
followed the lead of Brant in the Revolution. They probably deserved a
better fate than that which came to them. They are gone. The long night
with its starless robe has enveloped them in its folds--the ceaseless
wash of the waters of the Delaware upon the beautiful valley of Cochecton,
hymns their requiem.
* * * * *
[FN-1] Probably the same name is met in _Sheshecua-ung,_ the broad flats
opposite and above the old Indian meadows, Wyoming Valley, where the
topography is substantially the same.
[FN-2] A belt was presented by the Indians to Col. De Kay, but what
became of it neither the records or tradition relates.
* * * * *
Here we close our survey of the only monuments which remain of races
which for ages hunted the deer, chanted songs of love, and raised fierce
war cries--the names which they gave and which remain of record of the
hills and valleys, the lakes and waterfalls, amid which they had their
abiding places. Wonderfully suggestive and full of inferential deductions
are those monuments; volumes of history and romance are linked with them;
the most controlling influences in making our nation what it is is graven
in their crude orthographies. Their further reclamation and restoration
to the geographical locations to which they belonged is a duty devolving
on coming generations.
* * * * *