Three Rivers
Hudson~Mohawk~Schoharie
History From America's Most Famous Valleys

Chapter Thirteen, Benton's History of Herkimer County

CHAPTER XIII.

(Typists note: At times the notes at the bottom of the pages were like a second story. To make it easier to distinguish, a different font was used and I tried to group the articles together a bit more. Sorry, but the book is confusing too. It is full of little biographical asides.)

This chapter has been arranged into nineteen sections, that being the number of towns in the county. I have endeavored to make the annexed table useful as a reference. The reader will remark a loss of population, in eleven of the towns, in a time of prosperity as great and healthful as any during the present century. These losses have not arisen from a depression in any branch of husbandry. The increase of population in the river towns and villages, along the canal and rail road, and in the towns having wild lands to settle, overbalances these losses, and gives a small addition in the aggregate, for the last ten years; but not equal to the percentage of births over deaths, in the same period.

For the amusement of the curious, I will remark that, four of the towns in the county, commemorate the names of revolutionary generals; the names of three, are derived from Germany; four, from New England; one, is called after a state in the union, and another, after a county in this state; one, bears the name of an empire, and another, a kingdom in Europe; three, are descriptive of the localities which are embraced within their limits, and one, seems an emanation of fancy.

The county is now divided into the following towns, which are given, with the dates of organization, and the population of each town, in 1845, and 1855:

1. COLUMBIA

Contains that part of the county bounded easterly by a line beginning at a maple tree, which stands a small distance easterly from the dwelling house heretofore or lath of Abraham Lighthall, at the southeasterly corner of Youngs patent, and running thence north twenty-eight degrees east, until it strikes the south line of the town of German Flats, at the distance of one hundred chains, easterly of the northwesterly corner of Hendersons patent, on the north line thereof; northerly, by German Flats, southerly, by the bounds of the county, and westerly, by Litchfield and Winfield.

This town contains the whole of Staleys second tract, except one tier and a half of lots on the westerly bounds, it also contains a small triangular piece, from the northwest corner of Hendersons patent, and the whole of the patent, to Conerad Frank and others, except seven lots on the eastern bounds thereof.

Columbia was settled before the revolution, by several German families from the Mohawk river. The heads of the families, who made one of the settlements, were, Conrad Orendorff, Conrad Frank, Conrad Fulmer, Frederick Christman, Timothy Frank, Nicholas Lighthall, Joseph Moyer and Henry Frink. The place where these families were seated was known as "Coonrodstown," before Columbia was organized, in 1812, and is to this day. A few Germans had also seated themselves at a place then and since called Elizabethtown, to commemorate the name of one or more German matrons among the settlers.

When the new town was about to be set off, and the inhabitants were casting about for a name, some of them desired to have it called Conrad. This was rejected, on account of the Coonish sound it had received, by a mispronunciation. Conrad is quite as euphonious as Columbia, and a more ancient name, by several hundred years, than Columbus, from which the town derived its name. There may have been some influential inhabitants in the territory, who had emigrated from Columbia county, and exerted an influence on this occasion; and, although feeling inclined to honor their native county, they would not hope the new town should be a political copyist of its then prominent namesake. Columbia is purely an agricultural town. The north line of it is about four miles from the canal; without villages, except Cedarville, a portion of which extends into it; it is somewhat elevated; well supplied with water, but the surface can not he called broken. It is slowly losing its population; a strong indication that cheese making engrosses the farmers attention, although hop and grain growing is not neglected. In former times, one hundred acre farm lots seemed to content our people; now, that extent of domain is quite too limited. Nor does a small diminution of population in our agricultural towns indicate, in the least, a lack of prosperity, or a want of wealth among those who remain. There are often those, who may wish to seek new homes for increasing families, and they soon find neighbors ready and willing to purchase their farms.

My informant, who is a most excellent judge of such matters, says he was a good marksman, and a dead shot at fair rifle distance. He would often relate many interesting incidents that happened to the scouting parties he was engaged in. This service suited him much better than the camp. He was very fond of hunting, and while living on his farm, it was not uncommon for him, after game became scarce in his neighborhood, to leave home in the fall of the year, and be absent from it weeks, on hunting excursions.

2. DANUBE

Contains that part of the county bounded northerly by the Mohawk river, easterly by the bounds of the county, southerly by a line commencing at a point in the east bounds of the county, equidistant from the Mohawk river and the south bounds of the county, thence westerly parallel with the south bounds of the county to a line drawn from the easternmost look of the old canal, on the north side of the Mohawk river, at the Little Falls, to the head waters of Lake Otsego, and westerly by the said last mentioned line.

Small portions of the Fall Hill, Vaughns and LHommedien patents, nearly the whole of Lindseys, and parts of J.Vromans, C. Coldens, Van Homes and Lansings patents are within the above boundaries.

This town, although of recent territorial organization, was no doubt one of the earliest settled by Europeans of any in the county, except those portions of it embracing Burnetsfield, or what was formerly known as the German Flats. The date of Lindseys and Van Hornes patents, one in 1730 and the other in 1731, indicate this. It has been elsewhere stated in this work, that the Canajoharie mentioned in the early colonial history of the state, extended as far west as the foot of the Little Falls, in 1772, and probably farther before the German Flats district was set off. The casual reader of disjointed documents and isolated statements might infer that the Canajoharie mentioned in connection with the Mohawk tribe of Indians, was circumscribed in its limits to the town of that name in Montgomery county. This is clearly not the fact. The site of the upper Mohawks castle is in this town, and near the present Indian castle church, now so called, and it has borne that name within the memory of the oldest inhabitants now living, and a uniform and unvarying tradition speaks to the same effect.

The French Itinerary, found in vol. I of the Documentary History of the State, fixes Fort Can-nat-ho-cary at the side of the Mohawk river, on the right bank, and four leagues from Fort Kouari (Herkimer). The writer was no doubt a French spy, sent out from Canada, in 1757, to make a topographical survey of the country, from Oswego to Schenectady and Albany, along the water communications from Lake Ontario to Hudson river. He describes the road on the south side of the river, from Fort Herkimer to the Indian castle; and he says, in his description of the road on the north side of the river, that this fort is opposite to the mouth of the Canada creek.

The fort, so called, was one hundred paces on each side, had four bastions of upright pickets, fifteen feet high, about a foot square, and joined together with lintels. It was not surrounded by a ditch, but was constructed with port holes at regular distances, with a platform or stage all around, to fire from. There were some small pieces of cannon at each of the bastions, and a house at each curtain to serve as storehouses and barracks. There were several Indian families at this time living near this fort.

Sir Wm. Johnson, in Oct., 1772, speaks of having built a church, at his own expense, at the Canajoharees, and laments, that it is in a great measure useless, in consequence of not being able to secure the services of a missionary. I have not been able to fix the period, previous to the revolution, when the first church at the Indian Castle was built. The bell however, was highly regarded by the Indians, and they made an effort, during the war, to carry it off. They took it away in the night and secreted it. This, of course, caused excitement among the German population in the neighborhood, when it became known that the church bell had disappeared. How it was carried off, and what had become of it, engrossed the attention of all, and an immediate and careful search was made for the missing bell, in every direction; but the purloiners knew too well how to cover up and secure their trophy, to prevent a discovery. The search was fruitless, and the inhabitants had nearly given up all hope of its recovery when, one dark night, the sound of the bell was heard in the distance, and the population of the neighborhood were soon in hot pursuit, armed with guns, pitchforks and axes. The bell was recovered. The Indians, after they supposed the search was over, returned, and slung the bell upon a pole, and started with it, but did not secure that unruly member, the tongue or clapper; and the bell and clapper having an unequal momentum in the swing, when carried over uneven ground on a bending pole, came in contact, and by the ding dong sounds led to the discovery.

This town attracts considerable attention, in consequence of its containing the residence of Gen. Nicholas Herkimer; and, if it was not the birth place of the too celebrated Joseph Brant, a considerable number of the early years of his life were spent at the Indian Castle, with the members of his tribe, where an intimate acquaintance was cultivated between him and Gen. Herkimer, when they were young men. This fort must have been built in 1755; early in that year, Sir William Johnson speaks about constructing forts, at the two Indian castles, and notified Governor Be Lancy of his having concluded a contract for their erection. These defenses were made to gratify the Mohawk Indians, who were exposed to the hostile incursions of the French and their Indian allies from Canada. I do not find any account of this fort twenty years afterwards, and if it had not entirely gone to decay before the revolution, it was probably used only as a temporary refuge of the inhabitants, to shield them against the hostile attacks of those for whose protection it was first erected.

In 1722, Governor Burnet, on the petition of the Rev. Petrus Van Driesen of Albany, granted a license authorizing Mr. Van Driesen to build a meeting house in the Mohawk country, for the use of the Indians, on any lands belonging to them. In 1737, a patent for 1000 acres of land was issued to the same gentleman, and it will be noticed that this grant covers lands at the mouth of the East Canada creek, and nearly opposite to the Indian Castle church. The mission at Fort Hunter had been established as early as 1712, and probably before that time, so that Mr. Van Driesens license had no reference to that station.

I do not find any well founded data to change my conclusions that the church at German Flats was the first erection for religious worship in the county. Fort Hendrick is marked on Sauthiers map of the province of New York, published in 1779, as being on the south side of the Mohawk river, opposite the mouth of East Canada creek. The Cannatjoharies are also marked as being located at this point. This establishes the fact that the site of the upper Mohawk castle was at the place above designated. And the name of the fort was a compliment to old King Hendrik, whose principal residence during the latter period of his life was at this place.

It should be observed that the grant of 4000 acres to Isaac Vrooman, and of 4000 acres to Ezra LHommedieu and Nathaniel Platt, in 1786, out of unpatented lands, by the crown, lying in this town and Stark, shows there must have previously existed very strong reasons for not granting these lands, long before the revolutionary war. These reasons are found in the fact, that they were Indian reservations, or rather, that being in the neighborhood of one of the principal seats of the tribe, the Indians would not consent to part with them upon any terms.

The Mohawk Indians having left the country at the commencement of the war, and not returning as did the Senecas, Cayugas and Onondagas and sue for peace, were treated by the state as having abandoned all their rights as original possessors of the soil, and all the vacant lands within the limits formerly claimed by this tribe, were sold by the state without regarding the Indian title.

The only locality in this town called a village, is Newville, about four miles south from the river, on the Nowadaga creek, and at the foot of Ostranders hill, from the top of which, at an elevation of 800 feet above the river, is a broad and extended view to the east and southeast, including the lower valley, of nearly thirty miles.

3. FAIRFIELD

Contains that part of the county beginning on the middle line in Glens purchase, in the west hounds of Manheim, and running thence westerly along the said middle line of Glens purchase to the southwest corner of lot number seven; thence northerly to the northeast corner of lot number five in said. Purchase; thence westerly along the line between lots number five and six, and the same continued to the West Canada creek; thence up and along the said creek, to the town of Newport; then along the bounds of Newport to the southwest corner of Norway; then along the south bounds of Norway, east to the wet bounds of Salisbury; and then south along the same, to the place of beginning.

These bounds have been changed. See subdivision 7, Little Falls, erected in 1829.

This town contains within its limits nearly the whole of Glens purchase lying north of the base or middle line of said purchase, and a portion of the first allotment of the Royal grant.

There was a German settlement in this town before the revolution, upon what has been called in modern times the Top notch, near the Manheim town line, and about four miles north of Little Falls. Among these German families were the Kellers, Windeckers, Pickerts and others, not of the Burnetsfield patentees, but who came up from the lower Mohawk valley, and seated themselves in Glen's purchase, under the patronage of some of its owners. Mr. Cornelius Chatfield arrived within the territory of the present town of Fairfield, with his family, March 24th, 1785, and settled near or at the spot where the village now is. His is supposed to have been the first New Englander who came into the county after the war, for the purpose of settling on the Royal grant. Mr. Abijah Mann, the father of the Hon. Abijah Mann, Jr., arrived in May following, and located a little west of Fairfield village. There was a small Indian orchard upon or near the lands taken up by Mr. Mann, and the Indians, many years after the revolution, would annually cluster around it, as a loved and venerated spot. A visit, perhaps, to the resting place of some distinguished brave, or some relative of the visitants. This duty was performed so long as the Great Spirit required it.

About the year 1770, three families, Maltanner, Goodbread or Goodbrodt, and Shaver or Shaffer, located about half a mile northeast of Fairfield village, in one neighborhood. This place is now called Maltanners creek or spring. These people were sent there by Sir William Johnson, to make an opening upon his Royal grant. They had never been suspected by the Americans of being friendly to their cause; nor could they be charged with disloyalty to the king. In 1779, a party of Indians came to this little settlement, but one of their number being, sick, they kept shy, as an Indian can, about ten days, to allow their comrade to recover, when, with a yell and a whoop, and brandishing their tomahawks, they fell upon Sir John Johnson's tenants, captured two of the Maltanners, father and son, killed a little girl, 16 years old, of the Shaver family, and then burned up all Sir John's houses and buildings in the settlement. The Goodbrodt and Shaver families and some of the Maltanners escaped to tell the sad story of their bereavements and losses to their rebel neighbors. The Maltanners were taken to St. Regis by the Indians, where they remained three years, and returned in 1782. His majesty's officials in Canada might well suppose the two captives, if allowed to return, would not be very hearty and zealous in the royal cause, after such treatment; and therefore concluded to detain them. The elder Maltanner, when he came back, said he met Sir John in Canada, and told him what had happened, whereat the gallant knight was exceedingly wrathful, and fulminated big words and strong language against the d--d savages, for their conduct in killing, taking captive and dispersing his tenants, and burning his houses. He had other tenants on the grant, loyal and true, who might be treated in the same way. Sir John no doubt felt hurt, not because any tender feeling towards his fellow man had been touched, or any law of humanity outraged; but because the same rule of warfare he had applied to others, had been, and might again be, visited upon himself. This was not the first nor the last instance, in that unnatural struggle, in which the Indians made no discrimination in their warfare; and friend and foe alike were made to sink under the hatchet's stunning blow, and feel the knife's keen edge. Kindness and humanity, in conducting that war, might have achieved what hate and cruelty did not. The ancient Roman apothegm, "Quum Deus vult perdere, prius dementat," was as strikingly verified in word and sentiment, as to induce one to think, almost, it was a prophetic enunciation of an actual event, already determined in the councils of heaven.

The ancient Roman apothegm, "Quum Deus vult perdere, prius dementat," was so strikingly verified in word and sentiment, as to induce one to think, almost, it was a prophetic enunciation of an actual event, already determined in the councils of heaven.

The first New England settlers who came into this town at the close of the war, took up lands southwesterly of Fairfield village, except those before noticed, with one or two exceptions. Josiah, David and Lester Johnson came into the town from Connecticut, in 1786; John Bucklin and Benjamin Bowen, from Rhode Island; John Eaton, Nathaniel and William Brown, from Massachusetts; arid Samuel Low, in 1787: David Benseley, from Rhode Island; and Elisha, Wyman and Comfort Eaton, from Massachusetts, in 1788: Jeremiah Ballard, from Massachusetts, in 1789: Wm. Bucklin, the Arnold families, Daniel Venner, Nathan Smith, Nahum Daniels and Amos and James Haile, most of them from Massachusetts, in 1790: the Neelys came in 1792, and Peter and Bela Ward, from Connecticut, in 1791. The Batons, Browns, Hailes, Arnolds, Bucklins and Wards seated themselves at and near the present village of Eatonsville. Some of these people changed their residences after a short sojourn in this town. Jeremiah Ballard located about two miles northeast of Fairfield village. He left his family the first winter after he came into the town, and returned to Massachusetts, where he remained until spring.

My informant says this family had nothing to subsist on during a long and dreary winter but Indian corn and white rabbits, when any could be caught. There being no mills then in the country, and if there had been they could not be reached except by the use of snowshoes and carrying the grist on ones back; the Ballard family resorted to what at this day would be considered a novel method of reducing their corn into a state suitable to be converted into rabbit soup. Having no hand nor other mill to crack or break their corn in, a mortar was the only thing they could resort to, and even this they were destitute of; but when did necessity ever fail to suggest some remedy for surmountable inconveniences. The family procured a large hardwood log, and having no tools suitable to the object, they burned a hole in it, by concentrating the fire to one spot, sufficiently deep to answer their purpose. In this way, my informant says, this great achievement was accomplished. It was an easy task, after this, to make a pestle out of some hard wood, and crack corn to their stomachs content.

By these means the resolved and noble hearted mother carried her family through the winter, while the father was absent, and it should be hoped was detained by sickness at his former home in Massachusetts. There were but a few English or New England families, north of the Mohawk, and between the East and West Canada creek, in 1786; not more than four or five, if as many. Fairfield village, the ancient seat of learning of the county, is located very nearly in the center of the town, about 800 feet above the level of the Mohawk river. A notice of the Medical college and the Academy will be found in another chapter. Middleville, a small village situated partly in this town and partly in Newport, on the West Canada creek, is at the junction of the plank roads leading from Herkimer and Little Falls to Newport. The census marshal of this town did not, at the late enumeration, designate the population within these villages. This is probably the best grazing town in the county, and has for a series of years produced and sent to market, annually, more of the Herkimer county staple, cheese, than any other town within the limits of the county.

We must not draw any conclusions unfavorable to this town--that its soil is not good--or that its population is wanting in energy and enterprise, or is destitute of wealth, because we find a moderate and steady decrease in the total number of inhabitants. To the successful progress of agriculture and the accumulation of wealth, and to no other cause, is to be attributed this gradual loss of population.

4. FRANKFORT

Contains that part of the county, beginning at the south side of the Mohawk river, in the middle of the mouth of a small stream which enters the said river a few rods east of the house now or late of William Dygert, which stream is known as Dygerts mill creek, and running from thence south thirty degrees west, until it meets the southern line of a tract of land granted to Coenrad Frank and others; then westerly along the said southern line to the southwest corner of said grant; then westerly with a straight line to the west bounds of the county; then northerly along the same to the Mohawk river; and then along the river to the place of beginning.

A considerable portion of Cosbys manor, and about one and one quarter of a tier of great lots in Bayards patent, four lots in Burnetsfield, about half a lot in Franks patent, four and a half lots in Staleys, a part of Coldens patent, are in this town.

There were some German settlements along the river in this town before the revolution. It appears there was a grist mill at the creek next east of Frankfort village, which was burned by the French and Indians in 1757. A sawmill on the next creek below was also burnt by the same party. The ante-revolutionary settlements in this town were confined to Burnetsfield and Colden and Willets patents.

Frankfort village, at the east end of the long level on the Erie canal, and of easy access to the New York central rail road, contains a population, by the last census, of 1150 souls, and is an active, prosperous business place, where may be found the usual mechanical establishments of country villages.

The New Graefenbergh hydropathic establishment, erected by Dr. Holland, and opened for the reception of patients in October, 1847, is located in the extreme southwest corner of this town, four and a half miles from the city of Utica, on a stage and post route from that city, through Litchfield and Columbia to Richfield Springs. This establishment has been in operation during the last eight years, and more than one thousand patients in that time have been treated there with satisfactory success. The scenery of this locality is varied and beautiful, and will vie with the most delightful in the state.

The institution will accommodate sixty patients; the rooms are pleasant and comfortably furnished. There is a gymnasium and bowling-alley attached to the house for the amusement and exercise of the patients.

5. GERMAN FLATS

Now contains that part of the county bounded westerly by Frankfort ; northerly, by the Mohawk river; easterly, by Danube and Stark; and southerly by a line beginning at the northeast corner of Litchfleld, and running thence easterly, along the southern line of the tract of land granted to Conerad Frank, and others, until it meets the southwest corner of a tract of land granted to Guy Johnson; and then easterly, along the southern bounds thereof, to the town of Stark.

The eastern and southern bounds of this town, as above stated, have been changed. See sub. 7, Little Falls.

This town comprises a very considerable portion of Burnetsfield patent; nearly all of Staleys first tract; the whole of Franks patent, and a part of Guy Johnsons tract.

This town when erected, in 1788, comprised all that part of Montgomery county, south of the Mohawk river, bounded easterly by Canajoharie, the westerly bounds of that town being the Susquehanna river, Otsego lake and a line from the head waters of the lake to the Little Falls; south, by the north line of the town of Otsego, running from the head the patent granted to George Croghan and others, along the northerly bounds of that patent, to the northwest corner of it, and extending westerly to the river, then called Tienaderha, and along the northerly line of the Edminston patent, and westerly, by the west line of the town of Herkimer, continued south to the town of Otsego, or in other words, very nearly by the present eastern bounds of Oneida county. These limits not only embrace the present towns of Columbia, Frankfort, Litchfield, Warren and Winfield, a part of Little Falls, but extend considerably into Otsego county.

The town when erected comprehended only that part of the German Flats district of colonial organization, south of the Mohawk, east of the present west line of the county, and north of Otsego, as before noticed. That district extended much farther south and west, until the erection of the Old England district, a short time before the revolution, which seems not to have been regarded as a municipal territorial division during the war.

After the peace of 1783, however, it was recognized, and local officers appointed for the district.

The church in this town, was the first erected in the county for the accommodation of European worshipers, and their descendants. An Indian mission church, at the place long known as the Indian Castle, in Danube, may have been built at an earlier date. It is said, the former was erected under the auspices of Sir William Johnson; this is very doubtful, although there may be no question whatever, that the Mission church was built under his agency, if it was erected subsequent to the church at German Flats. In the first place, Sir William was not in the country at the date of either of the deeds, mentioned below, and he~was not appointed general superintendent of Indian affairs, by the crown, until 1757. He had, however, acted as Indian agent under a colonial appointment, from August, 1749; and in the second place, I am not aware that the colonial government were accustomed to build churches, disconnected from the Indian missions, when the people were able to bear that expense themselves.

On the 24^th of September, 1730, Nicholas Wolever made a deed of trust, of a part of lot number 30, in Burnetsfield, to several persons, to hold the same as a church and school lot; and on the 26^th of April 1733, the trustees conveyed the same lot to the church corporation, which had at that time been organized. Nicholas Wolever was one of the original grantees of the patent, and the above lot was awarded to him. I am not aware that there are now in existence, any records showing when the church was erected, on the spot dedicated to that use. Within the church years, near the south side, there is a head stone with this inscription:

CAPT. JOHN RING
Independent Company Provincials
Died September 26, 1755
Aged 30 years

The church had been erected, and formed a part of the stockaded defense, since called Fort Herkimer, put up by Sir William Johnson, or by his directions, in 1756. At this time, the population of the German Flats, embracing the settlements on both sides of the river, had more than quadruped in thirty-five years, and were quite wealthy. The inhabitants did not need, and probably did not require government aid to build a church. At any rate, the probabilities are against any such assumption.

The first regularly settled minister, called by the congregation, was a Mr. Rosecrants, a German Protestant, and probably a Lutheran. The time of his arrival and death are beyond the memory of any one now living, and there are no records or monuments now extant which show these dates.

One of those cold-blooded and not unusual murders occurred in this town during the revolution, at a farmhouse near the site of Rankin's lock on the canal. The heart sickens at the recital of such deeds of horror and the pen becomes wearied in recording them.

Mr. John Eysaman, with his wife, aged people, his son and his wife and an infant child, were living together in one house on the south side of the river, about two miles directly east of Fort Herkimer, on the Mohawk river.

An alarm gun had been fired at the fort to notify the inhabitants who were at their farms or out on business, that danger was apprehended, or a lurking enemy had been discovered; the family packed up their portable goods, and loaded them into a cart, and were about ready to start for shelter and protection at the fort, when the house was surrounded by a party of Indians and Tories. Old Mr. Eysaman and his wife were killed; the wife of the younger Mr. Eysaman, whose name was Stephen, was also killed. Some one of the assailants wrenched the infant from its mothers arms, and holding it by the feet, dashed its head against a tree, and its little limbs quivered in the agonies of death after it was rudely and barbarously thrown upon the ground and scalped. The mother was compelled to witness this horrid scene; and Stephen, who was doomed to captivity, being pinioned and driven a short distance heard the screams of his wife, struck down by a war club.

The enemy having taken four scalps, were content to spare the wearer of the fifth to grace their triumph on their return to Canada. This event took place on the 9th day of June, and as Mr. Eysaman returned from captivity at the close of the war, after an absence of three years and nine months, 1779 may be fixed as the year. He said on his return, the Indians and Tories, among other of his stock driven away, took three horses, one of them a fine stud, often rode on parade by a British officer, who noticed that Eysaman had always regarded the horse when he was mounted, asked him if he had ever seen the horse before. Eysaman said he had, and that the horse was his. The reply was, "Be off, you d--d rebel, you never owned a horse," and this was all he ever had for him.

Mr. Eysaman married again after his return from captivity, and raised a family of children, one of whom, Mr. Joseph Eysaman, now lives on the farm he inherited from his father, the spot where the murders were committed. Stephen Eysaman died at the age of ninety-four years. A remarkable case of longevity is presented by this family. Stephen had one brother and four sisters, one of whom lived to the age of 97 years; none of them died under the age of 85 years. The aggregate of the lives of these six persons, all of one family, was five hundred and forty-one years.

The destruction of the German settlements, on the south side of the river, in sight of Fort Herkimer, in July, 1782, by a party of about 600 Indians and Tories, has not been heretofore noticed by any of the writers upon our border wars, or if it has, my attention has not reached it.

The enemy were first discovered by Peter Wolever, who, with Augustinus Hess, lived about fifty rods from the fort. Both families were aroused, and finally succeeded in reaching the fort without any casualty, except the death of Hess, who was killed just as he was entering the picket gate. There were at this time only a few troops stationed at the fort. The Americans were not strong enough to act offensively. Valentine Starring was taken prisoner in a field, not far from the stockade, and was put to torture with a view of drawing the provincials to his rescue, when they heard, at the fort, his cries for help and lamentations under his tortures; not succeeding in this, poor Starring was tomahawked and scalped. There was a good deal of desultory firing between the assailants and assailed.

The provincials lost four men, two soldiers and two of the inhabitants, killed. It was supposed the enemy's loss in killed and wounded was much greater, as they could not approach the stockade within musket shot, uncovered. All the buildings in the settlement, except George Herkimer's house, were burned by the invaders, and the cattle driven away. This relation was given by Nicholas Wolever, now living, who was at Fort Herkimer at the time, who also says it was reported that Capt. Brant was not in this action. I will here notice, not an isolated case of human endurance and the tenacity of life, although not of frequent occurrence during the revolution. The wife of Mr. Henry Wetherstone, who had incautiously gone into the field for some domestic object, was set upon by a party of Indians, tomahawked, scalped and, as supposed, her dead body left to be looked after and cared for by her friends. She recovered, and lived many years after her long tress of hair had been exhibited as a trophy of Indian courage and inhuman butchery.

The flourishing villages of Mohawk and Ilion are located in this town, about two miles apart, on the canal. Mr. Remington's extensive rifle factory and armory, where thousands and tens of thousands of death-dealing weapons have been fabricated, was first established where Ilion now is. This establishment was the nucleus around which this village took its start, and being favorably located in respect to proximity to the canal and the central rail road; and having roads of easy grade to the southwestern part of this county, and the northwestern portion of Otsego, and the southeastern parts of Madison counties, the village has become the center of a very considerable business and active trade.

Mr. Rosecrants died at his residence on Fallhill, in the present town of Little Falls, at the close of the last century, and was interred by the side of his brother, the former minister, within the walls of the church, nearly under the pulpit.

6. HERKIMER

Contains all that part of the county bounded southerly by the Mohawk. River, westerly by Schuyler, northerly by Newport and Fairfield, and easterly by Manheim.

The easterly bounds have been changed, see sub. 7, Little Falls.

The whole of Winnes and portions of Burnetsfield, Hasenclevers, Coldens and Willetts patents, and some lots of the Royal grant and Glens purchase, lay in this town. The town of Herkimer, when organized in 1788, contained all that part of the county of Montgomery, bounded northerly by the north bounds of the state, easterly by Palatine, then extending to the west bounds of the present town of Manheim, southerly by the Mohawk river, and westerly by a north and south line running across the Mohawk river, at the fording place, near the house of William Cunningham, leaving the same house to the west of said line. This fixed the west line of the town on the present western limits of the county, north of the Mohawk, and covered the area now embraced in the towns of Fairfield, Little Falls, Newport, Norway, Ohio, Russia, Schuyler and Wilmont, besides a respectable portion of the northern parts of the state, outside the present county line. These limits also comprehended all that portion of the German Flats and Kingsland districts, organized under the colonial governments, north of the Mohawk, and east of the now westerly bounds of the county.

These territorial divisions of Tryon county into districts were made by acts of the colonial legislature, and stood in the place of towns, or townships. It will be observed, they were very extensive, and covered territory now embraced in several counties. The Canajoharie district, as an instance, extended from the Mohawk to the south line of the state, including the settlements at Springfield, Cherry Valley and the Harper settlement. There were, however, subdivisions of them into precincts, when required.

At the election for town officers, in March, 1789, the first held after the town was organized, the following persons were chosen: For supervisor, Henry Staring; town clerk Melger Fols; assessors, Melger Fols, George Smith, Melger Thum; collector, George Fols; constables, George Fohs, Adam Bauman; commissioners of highways, Peter F. Bellinger, John Demuth, Jacob N. Weber; overseers of the poor, Henry Staring, George Weber, Jr., Michael Myers; overseers of highways, Marx Demuth, Philip Helmer, Adam Hartman, Hannes Demuth, Peter Weber, Philip Herter, Hannes Hilts, Jr., Hannes Eiseman; pound masters, George Weber, Jr., Peter Barky, Hannes Demuth, Nicholas Hilts, Hannes Schell.

Henry Staring got two offices; Melger Fols, two; George Fols, two; George Weber, Jr., two, and Hannes Demuth, two. A complete Native American High Dutch organization, and nearly every man of them a descendant of the Palatine pilgrims. The voters seem to have excluded every other nationality from their ticket. Did they mean any thing by this? In these times such an act might be thought of peculiar significance.

The town records appear to be perfect since the first organization, and judging from the known characters of the principal officers elected, there must have been some very hard political contests in the town between the federalists and republicans in olden times. Success depended very much upon the vigilance of the parties, and it was alike important to both to carry the county town. The history of the county from 1725 to the close of the revolution, comprises but few incidents which did not take place in this, or the present town of German Flats. When these two towns were erected, Herkimer had been known by no other name for sixty-three years than the German Flats, and it was not intended to make any change, but to give the name of Herkimer to the territory on the south side of the river, where the Herkimer family were first seated, where most of those who remained in the country then lived, and where the general himself was born. The committee, having the matter in charge, not knowing the localities, inquired of some person who did, whether the German Flats lay on the right or left bank of the river, expecting to be answered according to the known rule of designation, which is to start at the source of the stream and pass down, noting the objects and places on the right hand bank and on the left hand bank. Being told the German Flats was on the right bank, the answer misled the committee, and hence arose the mistake and change. The committee acted upon a settled rule of definition, which their informant did not understand.

The Ray. John Spinner emigrated to the United States, from Germany, in 1801, and landed at the city of New York, on the 12th of May, after a long passage of 63 days. He was born at Warback, a market town in the Electorate of Mentz, January 18th, 1768; was early in life dedicated by his parents to the clerical office, and when only 11 years old, entered the gymnasium at Bishopsheim, where he remained three years, and was then transferred to the university of Mentz; remained in that celebrated institution of learning until 1788. In the term of his six years collegiate probation, he passed through a thorough coarse of studies, in philosophy, mathematics, history, languages, ancient and modern, divinity, jurisprudence, medicine. He was then admitted to a Romish clerical seminary, and in 1789 was consecrated to holy orders, in the Roman Catholic church. He assisted in celebrating the funeral obsequies of two German emperors, in accordance with the grand and imposing rites of the Romish communion. The emperor, Joseph II, died February 20th, 1790, and Leopold II, March 1st, 1792. He officiated eleven years as priest, confessor, &c., and about the year 1800, he embraced the Protestant faith and form of worship. On the 18th January, 1801, he married Mary Magdale Fedelis Brumante, a native of Loire on the Maine. She accompanied her husband to this country, and is yet living, at the residence long occupied by the 'venerable and deceased subject of this notice.

Mr. Spinner, soon after he landed at New York, was called to the spiritual charge of the German congregations at Herkimer and German Flats, and commenced his pastoral functions in September, 1801, and his connection with these churches continued about 40 years. He was engaged about 18 months of this period, however, as a teacher in the High school, at Utica. He conformed to the discipline of the Dutch Reformed church, but the first settlers of the valley, and the ancestors of the people, who composed the principal part of his congregations, were German Lutherans.

His services, during the long period of his ministry, were not confined to the two churches, under his special charge; in that time, he preached to congregations in Columbia, Warren, at the Indian Castle, Esquawk, Manheim and Schuyler, in Herkimer county, Deerfield, Oneida county, Manlius, Onondaga county, and Le Ray, Jefferson county, in some of which places, German emigrants had settled, when they first came into the country, and in others, were found the descendants of those Palatines, who had made their first resting place in the Mohawk valley. He was the third minister in permanent succession called to supply these two churches, after their first organization In the German Flats.

His predecessor, Mr. Rosencrants, died a few years before 1801. The Interim was probably supplied with the temporary services of clergymen of other congregations, or by those who were engaged only for short periods. He was tall in stature, dignified in deportment, and polished in his manners, accomplishments, not rarely found among the priesthood of the Romish church. He possessed a. capacious and vigorous mind, which had been embellished by a thorough and systematic education in German schools, under the instruction of learned and experienced masters. With the ancient, and most of the modern European continental languages, and especially the French, Spanish and Italian, be was quite as familiar as with his own native German, but from the slow progress he made in acquiring an accurate and easy pronunciation of the English tongue, in the course of twenty-five years, he must have been unfamiliar with it when he came into the county. The younger members of his charge, were in a rapid state of transition. The German schoolmaster, abandoned his desk and ferule to the English teacher, whose language was spoken by a majority of the people, and in which the business of the courts was transacted.

The Rev. James Murphy was inducted, as associate minister of these two venerable congregations, by many years the oldest in the county, before the Rev. Mr. Spinners connection was dissolved. Dr. Murphy, I understand, has no longer any ministerial charms of them.

John Adam Hartman.--Well, what of him, it may be asked? What office did he hold, under the colonial or state governments, which entitles his name to be placed in this chapter of notables? Reader, I never knew, nor does local tradition tell me, he ever held any other than a voluntary, self-elected place of confidence and trust, among the people of the upper Mohawk valley. Perhaps he was not naturalized, and therefore was ineligible to office under the crown, before the revolution, for he was not born a British subject. But if seven years immersion in the toils and blood of that war, could have made any man a native American, in 1783 ho was one, although born in Edenkoben, Germany, in September, 1743. Born and educated a peasant in fatherland, he was accustomed to the severe exposures of a roaming woodman's life, and the luxury of wealth had in no degree enervated a frame of great muscular power, and almost gigantic proportions, nor touched, with its alluring fascinations, a mind and a will as firm and unyielding, as he believed the cause he was engaged in, was just and good. He required no commissariat waggon to attend him on his excursions, to supply him with rations, while in pursuit of or watching the stealthy movements of the enemy. Mothers were gladdened when they knew Hans Adam was on the lookout, in the bush near by, and the confident prattle of children might be heard in the door yard; and the husbandman too could visit his fields, and attend to his cattle and crops, being assured, if danger approached, a signal from Hartmans well tried musket would announce the fact. Such a man could not fail to find a cheerful welcome and abundant fare at every log cabin in the land, nor were his goings forth on his perilous service unattended by sincere and hopeful aspirations to heaven for his safety and success. The detail of the traditional accounts which have come to us, of his services, encounters and escapes during the perilous period of the seven years frontier conflict, familiar to the reader, would extend this notice beyond any reasonable limit. There is, however, one marked event of his life, yet familiar to the descendants of the revolutionary inhabitants of the county, which may well have place on some more permanent record, than the fading memory of man.

Hartman from some exposure and by personal conflicts with the Indians had become disabled for life so that he could not labor. He was placed on the invalid pension roll, but, shame to my country, the gratuity bestowed was not enough to sustain the shattered remnant of a frame which had been hacked, lacerated and wounded in the service of his adopted country, without additional assistance from the local overseer of the poor. He died at Herkimer and the head stone at the spot where rests his remains, erected in grateful remembrance of his services, is seen in the burial ground surrounding the Brick church at Herkimer, and in full view from the Court house steps, with the inscription cut upon it:

JOHN ADAM HARTMAN,
Born at
Edenkoben in Germany,
A great Patriot in our War for Independence,
Died April 5th, 1836,
Aged 92 years and 7 months.

Fort Dayton was a small stockaded fort, erected in the northerly part of the present village of Herkimer, by Col. Dayton, of the continental service, in the year 1776, for the protection of the inhabitants on the north side of the river; Fort Herkimer, on the south side, being too far off, and too difficult to reach to secure that object as effectively as was desired. A small force of continental troops or state levies, was retained at this post during the war, and it afforded safe protection to the surrounding inhabitants -who sought safety within its pickets, against the marauding parties of the enemy. This spot was for many years before and after the revolution the most populous of any in this part of the country; the public buildings of the county have always remained at the village, and for several years it enjoyed a commercial prosperity unrivaled by any locality in the county; but the opening of the Erie canal damaged its prosperity a good deal. The old church, a wooden structure and a venerable relic of the past, was consumed by fire in January, 1834, when the Court house was burnt. It was soon after replaced by a handsome edifice of brick, which stands on the main street of the village, near the Court house.

Herkimer village is pleasantly situated on a plain near the junction of the Mohawk and West Canada creek, the surrounding country, except in the river and creek valleys, is a little elevated, presenting rich, varied and delightful prospects, not surpassed in the whole Mohawk valley. The large and pretty extended alluvial flat or bottom lands in this town, containing hundreds of acres, have been under cultivation more than 130 years, and still yield abundant crops in requital of the husbandman's toil, and seem to be inexhaustible. The extensive water power of the West Canada creek, which had been long unimproved, was brought into use about the year 1835, by a company of enterprising citizens of the town, and although the results of this experiment may not have fully met the expectation of some of its most sanguine projectors, there can be no doubt of the very beneficial effects to the village, by the construction and operation of mills and machinery and the use of the water power brought out by the company. That the project has not been more remunerative to the proprietors may rightfully be attributed to a nonuse of the property, and not to other causes. Why do not the capitalists in the vicinity devote their means to the erection of manufacturing establishments? They have wealth enough for that purpose. Why do the manufacturing towns in the Eastern states spring up as if by magic ? By using capital. No greater facilities of transport can be required than they now have.

When Capt. Small removed the wounded refugee to Fort Dayton to have his wounds dressed, he performed the act with all the care and humanity he was capable of exerting on that occasion, The welfare of Shell's two little sons carried into captivity by the enemy may have influenced the Americans

in their treatment of the disabled foe; but no matter what the motive may have been, the humane conduct of Capt. Small and his party contrasts favorably with that of their relentless and savage enemies.

Although there was but little active warfare on this frontier during the summer and autumn of 1782, and although Capt. Small had more than five successive years taken his life in his hand and gone forth with his men to beat off and chastise the skulking and savage enemy, and escaped unharmed, he was shot in the apple orchard where he and one or two of his neighbors had gone to gather apples, in the fall of 1783, three days after the definitive articles of peace were signed at Paris between the United States and Great Britain. The formal agreement for the cessation of hostilities between the two powers was not signed until January 20th, 1783, but there had been a virtual cessation after the surrender of Cornwallis, except as to the petty warfare carried on by the Indians, who seemed to have but little respect for a power that would acknowledge itself beaten by its rebellious subjects.

7. LITTLE FALLS

Contains all that part of the county set Off from the towns of Herkimer, Fairfield and German Flats, comprehended within the following boundaries, viz: beginning on the middle or base line of Glen's purchase, at a point where the line between lots number five and six in said purchase unites with said base or middle line, and running thence south along said line to its southern termination; thence on the same course continued to the south bounds of the town of German Flats; thence along the south bounds of said town to the southeast corner thereof; and thence along the eastern bounds of the towns of German Flats and Herkimer, to the southeast corner of the town of Fairfield ; and from thence by a straight line to the place of beginning.

The town covers parts of Glen's purchase, Staley's first tract, Guy Johnson's tract, Vaughn's and Fall hill patent, six lots in Burnetsfield, and small triangular pieces of L' Hommedieu's and Lindsey's patents.

I have in the general history of the county brought Out some, facts peculiarly applicable to this town, and the village which bears the same name, and 1 now refer to them in this connection, There were German inhabitants in nearly every direction around the present village before the revolution, but only one habitable dwelling and a gristmill within the present corporation limits. The present remarks should therefore be taken as a history of the village locality rather than that of the town. The gristmill destroyed during the revolution was located on the river near the bed of the old canal, and was fed by Furnace creek and the river. The dwelling house referred to was occupied by the miller and his assistants, and probably by persons employed at the carrying place. The road or path used for taking boats and their cargoes by the river falls, was located very nearly on the site of the old canal. The red gristmill, to supply the one destroyed, was erected in 1789, and the old yellow house west of Furnace creek, and near the north bank of the old canal, was built a short time before that period. Mr. John Porteous came to this place in 1790, and established himself in mercantile business. He occupied the yellow house, then the only dwelling within the present village limits. Its venerable walls are yet standing, the spared monuments of a destructive age. And the old Octagon, too, that so often attracted the admiring gaze of the traveler by stage, canal and railroad, was erected and enclosed about the year 1796, though not finished so as to be occupied at all seasons of the year as a house of religious worship, until nearly a quarter of a century afterwards, which is shown by the following memorial deposited in the ball of the steeple:

This house was erected in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety-six, under the direction of John Porteous, Abraham Newly, Nicholas Thumb and Henry J. Klock, Estrus., and completed in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, under the superintendence of:
Building Committee
Doct. JAMES KENNEDY.
WILLIAM GIRVAN, and
JOHN DYGERT, Esqrs.,

Master Builders
JOSEPH DORR and
WILLIAM LOVLAND,

Workmen
DAN DALE,
JAMES DOER,
BENJAMIN CARR,
SANDFORD PEARCE,
JAMES SANDERS,
MARTIN EASTERBROOKS,

Apprentices.
ROBERT WHARRY,
WILLIAM HADDOCK

The Revd. HEZEKIAH N. WOODRUFF,
Pastor of the Church and Congregation,
Little Falls, 23d April 1818.

In hand writing of JOSIAH PARSONS."

But where is that old pile of antique device and rustic architecture? Its lofty pulpit, its pews and singing gallery, where are they? Alas! alas! Gone, swept away by the hand of modern improvement. And the venerable Concord society, not always harmonious as its name imported, the trustees of which were seized of the temporalities for the term of their lives, one of which is not yet extinct, what has become of it ? Dead by a nonuser of its corporate franchises, and no longer held in remembrance. I am strongly inclined to perpetrate rhyme, or quote a couplet of poetry, but I repress the feeling. History is much too grave a subject to be mixed up with fabulous tales and poetic fictions.

And the long tin horn used by master Case, to summon the playful and unruly school children to their daily tasks; and on more grave occasions, when God's word was to be dispensed at the village school house, by some itinerant missionary of the cross, then were its notes heard through the confined valley, and echo after echo, in the still Sabbath morning, notified the hour of meeting, on the day of rest, for prayer and praise: that, too, has been nearly forgotten, and few now remain to repeat from memory, the amusing story of the tin horn, which schoolmaster Case used to blow with great dexterity and varied note. This horn or trumpet was about four feet long, and there were but few who could blow it.

The old Octagon church was always regarded as one of the curiosities of the place, and was noticed by the Rev. John Taylor, when on a missionary tour through the Mohawk and Black river countries, in 1802. He made a rough sketch of it, which is preserved in the, Documentary History of the state. He says, "this parish (Little Falls) contains six or seven hundred inhabitants," and "in this place may be found men of various religious sects. They have a new and beautiful meeting house, standing about forty rods back on the hill, built in the form of an octagon." His observations, however, convinced him it was not improved. But I will go back a few years. One of the two lots 12 and 13 Burnetsfield, embracing all the water power on the north side of the river, was owned, before the revolution, by one of the Petrie family, who erected the first grist mill on Furnace creek, and was engaged in the carrying business. The following are the names of some of the persons who settled at this place between 1790 and 1800, and who remained here permanently until death: John Porteous, William Alexander, Richard Philips, Thomas Smith, Joel Lankton, Richard Winsor, William Carr, William Moralee, Washington Britton, Alpheus Parkhurst, John Drummond, Eben Britton, Josiah Skinner.

The construction of the old canal and locks, by the Western inland lock navigation company, gave an impetus to the growth and prosperity of the place, which brought it into notice at an early period; but the paralyzing policy of the proprietor, who was an alien, in limiting his alienations to leases in fee rendering an annual rent, and refusing to make only a few grants of that description, to which he affixed the most stringent conditions and restrictions in the exercise of trade and the improvement of the water power, kept the place nearly stationary, until 1831, excepting that part of the present village on the south side of the river, not subject to the dead weight of nonalienation. Upon the opening of the Erie canal, in 1825, the only erections in that part of the village were a bridge and toll house, at the south end of the bridge; the Bellinger grist mill and a small dwelling, for the miller's residence, and the Vrooman house.

In 1816, there were only two streets, or thoroughfares, in the village. The turnpike, now known as Main street, and the Eastern and Western avenues, which then extended on the present line no farther than to cross Furnace creek, where it turned down east of the yellow house, thence over the old canal, and along between the old canal and river, to the head of the falls. The Western avenue, was not then opened. The other road was what is now called German, Bridge, Ann and Church streets, crossing the river from the south, and leading to Eatonville and Top-notch. There were not over forty dwelling houses in the place at that time. Before Main street was extended west from Ann, the traveled road was down Ann street, across the old canal, and thence along Mill street. At this time, there was one church, the octagon, not finished, the stone school house, two taverns, two blacksmith shops, five or six stores and groceries, and one grist and one saw mill on the north side of the river. This was nearly the state of things until 1828, except the few erections and improvements that had been made on Main and Ann streets, and two or three dwelling houses on Garden street. Ann street, north of Garden, was a pasture. All that part of the village east of Second and south of the lots fronting on Main street, extending to the river, as well as that portion east of the old Salisbury road, was a drear wilderness, thickly covered with white cedar undergrowth.

EDEN and WASHINGTON BRITTON were brothers, and natives of Westmoreland, New Hampshire. Eben settled in the village in 1792, carried on the tanning business many years, and died August 2Sth, 1832, aged sixty years. He survived his brother more than twenty years.

While strolling through the cemetery, north of the village, taking notes from the memorials of the dead, my attention was arrested by a broad headstone of white marble, fall and erect, and I transcribed the affectionate testimonial of the wife, who had consigned to the grave the loved and cherished companion of her long and varied life. These are the words spoken by the widowed and stricken heart.

Died, on the 29th of October, 1842, in the 83d year of his age,
EDWARD ARNOLD
His widow erected this humble
stone, to commemorate his private worth,
but his nobler monuments are the battle
fields of the American revolution, in
letters of blood. These shall perpetuate his
public virtues when this tribute of a wife's
affection shall have crumbled into dust,
and no human hand can point out the
spot where the hero sleeps."

WILLIAM FEETER.-- Feeter was a native of the territory now embraced in Fulton county. His name, before it became Anglicized, was written Veeder or Vedder; and in 1786, when he was commissioned an ensign in the militia, it was written Father. In 1791, he was appointed a justice of the peace in this county, under the name of William Veeder. Although the name he bore at an early day indicated a low Dutch origin, this was not the fact. His father was a native of Wittenberg, Germany, and at the commencement of the revolution, the family was settled in the neighborhood of Johnstown, and was so much under the influence of the Johnsons, that all of them, except William, then quite a young man, followed the fortunes of Sir John, and went with him to Canada.

The colonel, in his youthful ardor, felt more inclined to give young America a trial, than to follow the cross of St. George into the wilds of Canada; and on all occasions when the invaders came into the Mohawk valley, for the purposes of plunder and slaughter, he was ever among the first and foremost to volunteer his services to drive them away. On one occasion, in 1781, when a party of Indians and Tories made a descent upon a settlement in the Palatine district, for the purpose of plunder and murder, the subject of this notice took an active part in punishing the lawless intruders. It appeared that the object of the enemy was to plunder and murder a family related to one of the Tory invaders, which was not quite agreeable to him; he therefore gave himself up, and disclosed the nefarious intentions of the enemy, who, finding themselves betrayed, made a rapid flight to the woods. Col. Willett did not feel disposed to let them off without a severe chastisement; he therefore ordered Lieutenant Sammons, with twenty-five volunteers, among whom was William Feeter, to go in pursuit, and they moved so rapidly, that they came upon the enemy's burning camp fires early the next morning. Feeter and six other men were directed to keep the trail, and after a rapid pursuit of two miles in the woods, a party of Indians was discovered lying flat on the ground. The latter, when they saw Feeter approach, instantly arose and fired; but one of the enemy being grievously wounded by the return fire of the Americans, the whole gang of Indians and Tories fled precipitately, leaving their knapsacks, provisions and some of their arms. The result of this affair was, that three of the enemy were wounded in the running fight kept up by Feeter and his party, and died on their way to Canada; one surrendered himself a prisoner, and the wounded Indian was summarily dispatched by his former Tory comrade, who had joined in the pursuit.

Colonel Feeter seated himself upon Glen's purchase, within the present limits of Little Falls, soon after the close of the revolution, and opened a large farm, which he cultivated with success more than fifty years. He raised a family of five sons and seven daughters, some of whom still survive, and others have gone with him to their final rest. All of his children, with two exceptions, I believe, settled in this county. Colonel Feeter adhered through life to doctrine and mode of worship of the German Lutheran church, which must lead one to believe he had been early and thoroughly educated in the tenets of the great reformer. He died at Little Falls, May 5, 1844, aged 88 years.

His father, Lucus Feeter, stood high in the confidence of Sir William Johnson and the whole family, and because his rebellious boy would not consent to abandon his native country and follow the fortunes of Sir John, he was driven from the paternal roof, and compelled to seek a shelter and a home where he could. The surrounding neighbors being mostly adherents of the Johnson family, arid friendly to the royal cause, the task of finding a kind and sympathizing friend, and one who would advise and counsel him for the best, may have been a difficult matter for young Feeter to surmount. He succeeded, however, in securing a temporary home in the family of Mr. Yauney, a near neighbor of his father. At a proper time, Mr. Yauney presented a musket to his young protege, and told him he would have to rely upon that for defense and protection, until his country's freedom was acknowledged by the British king. The colonel used that musket through the whole war, and it is now preserved as an heirloom in the family of his youngest son. Col. Feeter was born at Stone Arabia, February 2d, 1756.

I now relate the following incident, which shows the cool courage and resolute determination of the man, or I should say, perhaps, of him and his companion. On one occasion, he and Mr. Gray, the father of the Hon. Charles Gray, of Herkimer, had, during the war, been on an expedition up the river, and were returning in a small canoe; when they reached the Little Falls, instead of taking their light craft over the carrying place, or sending it over the falls empty, they pushed into the stream, and safely navigated their frail vessel amid boiling, surging waters, over the rapids. He performed a like feat at another time during the war, when a comrade in another canoe was stranded on the rocks, and barely escaped drowning.

The reader, who knows the locality as it now appears, may think this rather an improbable story. The fact is not only well attested, but we must reflect, that the stream was not then hedged in and confined by dams, arches and artificial structures, and that the flow of water, at an ordinary flood, was much greater than it is at present.

Six of the large lots in Glen's purchase, a part of the fourth allotment of the Royal grant; the whole of John Van Driesen's and Snell and Timmerman's patent, and part of Rev. Peter Van Dreisen's; a part of Vrooman's patent, and some other small grants made by the state, are situated in this town.

The grant of 3,600 acres made in 1755, to Jacob Timmerman and Johan Jost Schnell, commonly known as Snell and Timmerman's patent, is near the central part of the town on an east and west line, and south of the Royal grant. Manheim was settled by German emigrants before the revolution and the date of this patent may be assumed as pretty near the period when that event took place. The Snells and Timmermans, descendants of these patentees, are still quite numerous in the town, owners of the soil through a long line of inheritance, granted to their own persecuted and always patient and toiling ancestors.

Suffrenus, Peter, Joseph and Jacob Snell, four sons of one of the patentees, made a donation of seven acres of land for a church lot and twelve acres for school purposes. But this was not all. They and their neighbors met upon the lands every Saturday afternoon, and worked at the sturdy forest until the lands were cleared and rendered fit for cultivation.

A church was erected on the lot designed for that purpose, and that ancient edifice was replaced by a new one in 1850-1. The school house in the district stands on the donated lot. Eleven and a half acres of the school lot were transferred by an act of the legislature to the church. How could this be done without the consent of the parties interested?

There were nine men of this Snell family, and among them were Peter, Joseph and Jacob, who went under Gen. Herkimer into the Oriskany battle, and only two of them returned, of whom Peter was one; the other seven were killed. An aged and respectable member of this family, now living, states that these three men were very active and zealous in urging Gen. Herkimer to a forward movement on the 6th of August, 1777. They had resolved to fight the enemy, and how fatal was, the consequence!

Henry Remensneider, or Rhemensnyder, and Johannes Boyer were the first settlers on Glen's purchase, a few miles north of the Little Falls. They came on to the tract several years before the commencement of the revolutionary war. John Boyer was born near New York; his father emigrated from Elsos in Germany. John was in the Oriskany battle and lost his team of horses and wagon in that bloody affray. He was the immediate ancestor of the Boyer families, once so numerous in this town. His youngest son, Henry, now 75 years old, is still living, and several of his descendants are found in the county, although emigration has somewhat diminished their numbers. Among other German settlers who had seated themselves in this town before the revolution, were the Keysers, Van Slykes, Newmans, Shavers, Klacks, Adles and Garters, all of whom drank deeply of the bitter cup of the revolutionary struggle.

Palatine, Oppenheim and Manheim, are names significant of the origin of the people who were the first settlers in these towns. Manheim constituted a part of the Palatine district in Tryon county, and the town of that name until 1797, when it was organized into a separate town. The town remains as it was when annexed to the county in the year 1817. The East Canada creek affords a large supply of water at most seasons of the year, and being intersected with many falls has been used to some extent for manufacturing and mechanical purposes. This water power has been brought into use at a village called Ingham's Mills, where there is a tannery, recently erected, and mills and other machinery in operation. The most important village in the town has the post office designation of Brackett's Bridge, and is sometimes known as Wintonville. Mr. D B. Winton erected a tannery at this place previous to 1840.

This establishment was afterwards purchased by an eminent house in the city of New York, engaged in the leather business, by whom it was enlarged and improved, and is now the most extensive manufactory of the kind in the county or in this part of the country. The village is unincorporated. It contains two churches, two stores, several mechanics' shops, also a saw and grist mill, and a stave and barrel manufactory. There are five houses for religious worship in the town, but I am not able to classify the denominations to which they belong.

I should not do justice to the subject in hand, if I omitted all reference to the name of Major Andrew Fink, who settled in this town soon after the close of the war. He was of German descent, and a native of the lower Mohawk valley. He was well educated, and at the commencement of the revolution, although then a young man, had acquired a very considerable knowledge of military science, unusual for a mere provincial of that day.

Mr. Fink was appointed first lieutenant of Capt. Christopher P. Yates's company, raised for special service. The warrants bear date July 15th, 1775. This was the commencement of a military career to which he was attached during the whole revolutionary contest. His constitution was firm, resolution indomitable, and courage undoubted. Major Fink died at a pretty advanced age, and the stone that mark his final resting place may be seen upon a rising ground a little north of the Mohawk turnpike in full view of the spot where rest the remains of the brave and patriotic Herkimer