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

History of Montgomery and Fulton Counties, NY
F. W. Beers & Co. 36 Vesey Street, 1878

THE HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

CHAPTER XII.

A FRUITLESS COUNCIL WITH THE IROQUOIS AT JOHNSTOWN- -INDIAN HOSTILITIES-SIR JOHN JOHNSON'S FIRST RAID.

Early in 1778 the people of the Mohawk Valley were alarmed by the report that the western Indian tribes were about to unite with the Mohawks, Cayugas, Onondagas and Senecas, in a war upon the frontier, instigated by Johnson, Claus and Butler, and managed by Brant. Congress, in view of the outlook, ordered a council held with the Six Nations of Johnstown between the i5th and zoth of February, and appointed Gen. Schuyler and Volkert P. Douw to conduct it, together with a special commissioner to be designated by Gov. Clinton. The Governor named James Duane. The Indians showed little interest in the conference, and delayed their coming, until it was the 9th of March before the council could be opened. There were then present more than seven hundred of them, mostly Oneidas, Tuscaroras and Onondagas, with a few Mohawks, three or four Cayugas, but not one of the Senecas, whose warriors outnumbered those of all the other Iroquois. Instead of attending the council the last-named tribe had the audacity to send a message expressing great surprise that they were asked to do so while the Americans' " tomahawks were sticking in their heads, their wounds bleeding, and their eyes streaming with tears for the loss of their friends," meaning at the battle of Oriskany.

The proceedings were opened by the reading of an address from Congress charging the Indians with ingratitude, cruelty and treachery, while the conduct of the United States towards them had been true and magnanimous. The Oneidas and Tuscaroras were excepted from the charge, applauded for their fidelity, and assured of friendship and protection. An Onondaga chief then spoke for his tribe, hypocritically bewailing their conduct, and exculpating himself and brother sachems by saying that the young and headstrong warriors would not listen to them, but were misled by the seductive artifices of the tories. The Mohawks had nothing to say for themselves. An Oneida chieftain answered eloquently in behalf of his nation and the Tuscaroras. He lamented the degeneracy of the hostile tribes, and predicted their extinction in consequence. He concluded with'the solemn assurance that the United States could rely on the abiding friendship and the assistance of those for whom he spoke. The government commissioners closed the conference by extolling the faithfulness and courage of the two friendly nations, and dismissed the others with a warning that the cause of the Americans was just, and the savages who opposed it must look well to their ways, else the strong arm of the United States would reach with vengeance even to the remotest villages of the Senecas. The inhabitants of Tryon county were gratified with the proceedings of the Council, hoping it might have a good effect upon the Indians ; but it was a sanguine expectation, for the conference left the most important tribes, with Brant for their leader, brooding over their losses at Oriskany and their failure at Fort Schuyler, and intent on vengeance. The Marquis de Lafayette, who was temporarily in command of the northern department, was present at the council, and, before leaving Johnstown, learning of the comparatively defenceless condition of the New York frontier, he ordered forts built at Cherry Valley and in the Oneida country ; the three on the Schoharie garrisoned and armed with a small brass cannon a-piece, and other border fortifications strengthened. These and far more efficient precautionary measures were necessary, for it was but too evident that the Johnsons and their adherents would make extraordinary efforts to recover the Mohawk valley, in which they had so large interests at stake. Their scouts and spies were watching every movement in this quarter, and at the very time when the council was in progress at Johnstown, no less a personage than Col. Guy Carlton, nephew of the Governor of Canada bearing that name, was lurking in the neighborhood to ascertain and report the disposition of the chiefs. Efforts were made for his arrest, Lafayette himself offering a reward of fifty guineas for his apprehension.

Early in the spring, Brant again appeared at Oghkwaga, where he organized scalping parties to fall upon the settlers' habitations and cut them off in detail. To guard against these marauders, the utmost vigilance was necessary. Not only by night was it needful to be on the alert for the stealthy approach of the mortal enemy, but the laborers in the fields had to be protected by sentinels standing on guard. Such was the trying situation of the dwellers in Tryon county to the end of the Revolutionary contest. In June, it having been reported that Brant was fortifying a position at Unadilla, Capt. McKean was sent by the people of Cherry Valley, with a few volunteers, to reconnoitre the chieftain's encampment. On his way, McKean learned that Brant was out with a considerable force, and fearing that his little party might be surprised and overwhelmed he thought it prudent to return. In the course of his march McKean injudiciously wrote a letter to Brant reproaching him for his predatory system of warfare ; intimating that he was too cowardly to show himself in honorable conflict, and challenging the Mohawk to meet him in single combat or with an equal number of men. The letter concluded by sayincr, that if the murderous chief would come to Cherry Valley he would be changed from a brant to a goose. This letter was fastened to a stick, and being placed in an Indian path, soon found its way to its destination. Brant was stung to rage by its receipt, but forbore an answer until he conveyed it in the Cherry Valley massacre of a few months later.

Early in the summer of 1778 a party of about a hundred tories, who had fled to Canada, made their appearance, collected their families, and departed, strange to say, unmolested by the Tryon county militia, though they were men in the active service of the enemy. They not only escaped with their families, but committed hostilities on the way. Starting from Fort Hunter when their arrangements were completed, they proceeded, via Fonda's Bush, to Fish House, now in the town of Broadalbm, in Fulton county, taking eleven prisoners on the route; and at the last named place captured Solomon Woodworth and Godfrey Shew, with his three sons, and burned Mr. Shew's buildings. The tories then repaired to their canoes, which were moored on the Sacondaga, and floating down that stream to its mouth, crossed to Lake George and continued their voyage to Canada. Woodworth, however, escaped the day after his capture, and four of the other prisoners soon after reaching Canada.

A party of four or five hundred Indians appeared on the Cobleskill on the 2nd of July, and on the upper branch of that stream killed or captured half of a force of fifty-two regulars and militia who had engaged them. Several dwellings were burned by the savages in that vicinity, and they slaughtered the cattle and horses which they did not drive away. The Wyoming massacre occurred two days later ; in July the little settlement of Andrustown, six miles southeast of German Flats, was plundered and destroyed by Brant, the people and the live stock being slaughtered or driven away, and in September, the German Flats settlement itself underwent the same fate, except that the inhabitants were warned barely in time to save themselves by fleeing to forts Dayton and Herkimer. Three or four hundred militia pursued the enemy on their retreat, but accomplished nothing. Col. Wm. Butler's Pennsylvania regiment, and part of Morgan's rifle corps, which had been stationed on the Schoharie after the Cobleskill conflict, made an expedition down the Susquehanna and destroyed the Indian village of Oghkwaga with its provisions. In November, Brant and Walter Butler (who had, by feigning sickness, obtained a transfer from the jail at Albany to the house of a tory, intoxicated his guard and escaped,) with two hundred tories and five hundred Indians, fell upon the Cherry Valley settlement, killed thirty-two peaceable inhabitants and sixteen soldiers of the garrison, burned all the buildings, destroyed or took away all the moveable property, and dragged into captivity most of the surviving inhabitants. The women and children were soon allowed to return, except three women one of whom was murdered in a day or two, and their children. Previous to the flight of Sir John Johnson from Johnstown to Canada, he buried his own and his father's most valuable papers in an iron chest on his premises. Late in the fall of 1778, at the request of Sir John, the Canadian Governor-General, Haldimand, sent forty or fifty men on a secret expedition to Johnstown to recover them. The chest was found to have been an insufficient protection from dampness, and the papers had become mouldy and illegible. Intelligence of this expedition was obtained from a man named Helmer, who was one of the party. He was among the tories who fled with Sir John. Being disabled by an injury to one of his ancles on this trip after the Baronet's iron chest, he was left at the house of his father when the party retired. There he remained concealed until the next spring, when he was arrested, tried as a spy by a court martial at Johnstown, convicted and sentenced to death.

In April, 1779, the settlements in the Mohawk valley were once more: alarmed by the appearance of scalping parties at different points, menacing them with the fate of Cherry Valley. On the south side of the river a party fell upon a small community, captured three prisoners and some horses, and drove the inhabitants into Fort Plain. At the same time another party made a descent upon Stone Arabia. Having killed a man and burned two houses, they attacked 'that of Capt. Richer, occupied by himself and wife, two sons and an old man. The last and one of the sons were killed and all the others wounded, but the Indians having lost two of their number gave up the attack and retired. On the same day a party of Senecas appeared at Schoharie, drove the people into the forts, plundered their houses, and carried two men away prisoners

These simultaneous attacks threw the whole valley into a panic. The Palatine committee wrote immediately to General Clinton for assistance, which was promptly rendered, and a timely check given to the marauders. Three hundred Onondagas, however, now took the war path to avenge the recent destruction of their villages, and death and capture of part of their warriors, which had been visited upon them for their treachery. They advanced upon the Cobleskill settlement, which a detachment of troops had been sent from Schoharie to defend. These were drawn into an ambuscade and part of them killed. The rest with the people of the settlement fled to Schoharie. Seven of the soldiers, however, to check the pursuit and save the non-combatants, took post in one of the deserted houses and defended themselves desperately till the building was fired by the savages, when these heroic men perished in the flames. The settlement was then plundered and destroyed. Brant was meanwhile harrassing the borders of the lower Hudson river counties, and the trials of the frontier neighborhoods, hourly exposed to rapine and murder, were extreme. The only means of protection seemed to be to carry the war into the country of the savages, and on this theory was executed the devastating campaign of Gen. Sullivan through the territory of the western nations of the State, which is elsewhere recounted. Gen. Sullivan having been misinformed in regard to the actions of the friendly Mohawks remaining at the lower castle, most unfortunately ordered Col. Gansevoort to take them prisoners and destroy their dwellings, The first part of the order was executed, and the second would have been had not the white inhabitants needed the houses for their use, their own having been destroyed. As soon as the matter came to the knowledge of Gen. Schuyler, the prisoners were released.

For a considerable time after Sullivan's campaign, the Mohawk valley enjoyed comparative repose, only disturbed by occasional alarms incident to border settlements always liable to invasion ; but it was the calm prophetic of a storm. The lower section of the valley had for the most part escaped the fortunes of war, having suffered more from frequent and harrassing alarms than from actual hostilities. The men of this region had repeatedly gone forth to participate in the common defence, and their number had thus been diminished by death or capture ; while the means of self-protection on the part of the lower Mohawk settlements were by no means increased by the influx of defenceless people driven from their homes further up the river. The time had now come when the inhabitants of the eastern part of Tryon county were to be afflicted with terrible visitations at their own doors.

On the 21st of May, 1780, near midnight, Sir John Johnson entered Johnstown at the head of five hundred British troops, tories and Indians. He had crossed the country from Crown Point to the Sacondaga, a quarter from which an invasion was least expected, and stolen upon the settlement so quietly that the patriot inhabitants were first warned of the enemy's presence by the beginning of the work of murder and destruction in their midst. The resident tories, who were in the secret, assisted the savage invaders and were, of course, exempted from injury. On nearing Johnstown the Baronet's forces were separated into two divisions, one of which he himself led directly to Johnson Hall, and thence through the adjacent village down to the mouth of Cayadutta creek, there to join the other division, which was to take a more easterly route, strike the Mohawk in the neighborhood of Tribes Hill, and thence proceed up the valley. This latter detachment, consisting chiefly of Indians and tories, is believed to have been commanded by two brothers named Bowen, refugees from this vicinity, who had followed the Johnsons to Canada.

The whole course of Sir John's raiders was murderous and disgraceful. The first house visited by the midnight assassins composing the eastern division was that of Lodowick Putman, two or three miles from the village of Johnstown. The family consisted of Mr. Putman and wife, three sons and a daughter. Two of the sons were fortunately absent. The other and his father were murdered and scalped. The wife and daughter were allowed to escape to Johnstown. While Mr. Putman's household was being broken up, a party of the savages proceeded to the residence of his son-in-law and neighbor Amasa Stevens, whom they dragged out and murdered in the most brutal manner, leaving his wife to seek refuge where she might. The settlers at Albany Bush, being tories, were passed without molestation, and the scalping party went on to the house of Gerret Putman, a staunch whig, who had been marked as a victim. Putman and his son had lately removed and rented the house to two Englishmen, who were tones. Ignorant of this fact, the depredators broke into the building and killed and scalped the inmates before they could reveal their true character. The house of Henry Hansen was next assailed, the owner butchered and his .sons carried away prisoners.

At the house of Col. Visscher, the marauders met with some resistance from the inmates. A few days previous, the colonel had sent his wife and children to Schenectady, His two brothers were with him, and now that the enemy were upon them, the three men resolved to defend themselves to the last extremity. As the savages tried to break into the house they were fired upon, but their overwhelming number enabled them to force an entrance, and the brothers retreated to the chamber, fighting desperately on the stairway. They were at length overpowered, stricken down and scalped, and the house set on fire. Col. Visscher was knocked on the head with a tomahawk, and had his scalp torn off ; but, although left for dead, he recovered and survived for many years. He is mentioned elsewhere in this work by the name of Fisher, that spelling having been adopted by some of the family.

Having completed their work at the Visscher place, the enemy proceeded up the river, destroying everything belonging to the whigs ; but the alarm was getting abroad, and the people were given some chance to escape.

The division led by Sir John, on leaving Johhson Hall, passed through the village of Johnstown undiscovered by the occupants of the fort, which consisted of a stockade about the jail and several block houses. On their way to Caughnawaga they surrounded the house of Sampson Sammons, whom they captured, together with his three sons, Jacob, Frederick, and Thomas. Mr. Sammons was well known to Sir John and was respected by him, insomuch that the Baronet would not give him and his household over to the Indians ; but the family were too prominent and influential patriots to be left at large, and it had been decided to take the father and sons to Canada. They were accordingly marched away from their plundered dwelling, to witness the desolation of their neighborhood. Johnson's forces having united at the mouth of Cayadutta creek, proceeded up the valley, burning every building not belonging to a tory, carrying off all attractive portable property, slaughtering sheep and cattle, and leading away the horses. They carried their devastation only a few miles above Caughnawaga, and returning to that place in the afternoon burned every building, but the church and parsonage. At this place a venerable old man, named Douw Fonda, had been killed and scalped by a party of Indians in the morning ; he was one of nine aged men, four of them over eighty, who were slaughtered during Sir John's raid. From the ashes of Caughnawaga, Johnson and his ruffianly followers returned to Johnson Hall, pausing by the way to burn the Sammons buildings and take away the seven horses on the place, leaving the females of the family houseless and destitute.

Sir John remained several hours at the Hall on his return. Here he regained possession of about twenty negro slaves, left behind when he fled from the country. Among them was one called William, who had been entrusted with the secretion of the Baronet's plate and some other valuables, which he buried in the cellar. Under the Act of sequestration, the Tryon county committee had taken possession of the Hall and estate, which they leased to Jacob Sammons. The latter bought the slave William, but that faithful servant kept the secret of the concealed treasures until he now pointed them out to their owner. Previous to their distribution among the soldiers for conveyance, they filled two barrels. Toward night the militia from the surrounding country began to gather at Johnstown under Col. John Harper, and Johnson deemed it advisable to resume his homeward march. He accordingly set out for the Sacondaga, accompanied by a considerable number of tories, who had joined his ranks. The whigs about Johnstown, who had been too completely surprised and panic-stricken to resist his advance, did not recover in time to harass his retreat. The militia who had assembled were in too small numbers to attack him, but Capt. Putman and a few others followed the enemy and observed their movements for several miles. Col. Van Schaick, indeed, went in pursuit with eight hundred militia, but too late to overtake Sir John and his guerillas.

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