History of Montgomery & Fulton Counties by F. W. Beers & Co. Montgomery County, Ch17

THE HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

CHAPTER XVII.

THE MOHAWK RIVER--ITS IMPROVEMENT AS A HIGHWAY BY THE INLAND LOCK NAVIGATION COMPANY.

The Mohawk river seems to have taken its name from the English appellation of the tribe of Indians inhabiting its banks. They were called Maquaas by the Dutch, (who according to Ruttenber learned that name for them from the Mohicans,) and were generally mentioned by that designation during the seventeenth century ; being also spoken of as the Maquas, Makwaes, Maquaes, Maquese, and Maques, and in Courcelle's report of his expedition against them, as the Mahaukes, Mauhaukes and Mohaukes. The French also called them Agniers. They styled themselves Kayingehaga. In the latter part of the seventeenth century they were occasionally mentioned by the title which they subsequently bore, and which was prevalent throughout the last century. Sir William Johnson wrote the name of the nation Mohock, and the tribe are called Mohocks on Guy Johnson's map 1771 of New York, and the adjoining parts of the country whereon, however, the river is called the Mohok. The stream was commonly named the Mohawks' river in the early part of the last century, but during that century the present spelling became universal.

From the early settlement at Albany, and that soon after made sixteen miles north-west, the Mohawk river and valley inevitably became the common route to still further western settlements, and to the magnificent chain of lakes so early explored. To facilitate navigation on the Mohawk by removing obstructions, was therefore an object of prime importance, and plans to this end were proposed as early as 1725, but nothing was done until near the close of the century. The cataract of Cohoes necessitated a portage from Albany to Schenectady ; from there the placid river offered its easier pathway, and the craft called batteaux came into general use. These boats were of much greater capacity than the Indian's birch bark canoe, or the useful, but precarious dugout, which for ages had danced to the gentle breezes on the bosom of the river. They were of different grades and were rated by the strength of their crews as three and six handed batteaux. They were flat bottomed boats of sufficient dimensions to carry several tons, and were propelled by setting-poles, which were kept for sale at convenient points along the shore. With backs to the prow the batteaux men thrust the poles to the river's bed, and bearing hard upon them and walking aft, gained for their craft toilsome headway against the current. A sort of harmony of movement was secured by the captains. " Bowsmen up'. " and "Second men up ! " A tiller oar sufficed for guidance. Such was the mode of transporting merchandise and Indian commodities to and from the West for more than half a century; such, too, the method of conveying munitions of war during the Revolution. Captains in this latter service were, under the pension law of 1832, entitled to the same pensions as captains in the Continental army. A list of them still extant includes the following names : John Vernon, Jacob C. Peak, William Peters, Rynier Van Evera, Tunius Visscher, Cornelius Bartmyst, William Davis, Stephen Ball, Simeon De draff, James Dickinson, and John Leffler. Dennis Flander also ran a supply boat on the Mohawk during the Revolution ; he was ambuscaded by the Indians several times, and fired at, but passed through without a wound.

The earliest boatmen were troubled by the Indians, who took toll for the navigation of their river and seem to have believed in high rates. The navigators thus stated their grievances to the Lieutenant-Governor under date of June i, 1754."

" We, the Traders (or Handlers) to Oswego, most humbly beg leave to remonstrate to your Honour, the many hazzards and Difficulties we are subject to in our passage thither from the ill treatment we meet with from the Indians (;'. c.) in passing the Mohawks and canojohary castles, they Board our Battoes with axes knives &c and by force take what Rum they think proper hooping and yelping as if they had Gloried in their depradations and threatening murder to any that oppose them, and oh our arrival at the great carrying place, the Oneida Indians force our Goods from us at pleasure to carry over, and not content with making us pay a most exorbitant price for each Freight, but rob us of our Rum, stores and other Goods with a great deal of invective threatening language and are generally so Numerous that we are Obliged to submit to those impositions or run the risk of being murdered and Robbed of everything we have ; and to put their schemes the better in Execution they force away the High Germans who generally attend with their Horses, that we may be under a necessity of employing them aid paying whatever they please to demand." The chief obstacles to this primitive and simple means of commerce were the rifts or rapids in the river between Schenectady and Little Falls -so called in contradistinction to the great falls at Cohoes. These rapids were known by such names as Fort Hunter rift, Caughnawaga rift, Keetor's rift (at Spraker's), Brandywine rift, (at Canajoharie), etc. Much labor was required to force the batteaux over these spots, and at such places in the river the crews were assisted by men on shore with ropes. At Little Falls, there being a descent of forty feet in half a mile, a portage became necessary. The goods were transported around the falls on wagons with small, wide-rimmed wheels, and a guard set over them while the boats were brought up in the same way, when the latter were launched and reloaded and proceeded. From Little Falls the river was the commercial artery to Fort Stanwix (Rome), whence another portage to Wood creek gave access to the grand chain of lakes through that stream, Oneida lake and river, and the Oswego river.

After the Revolution public attention was drawn to the consideration of plans for facilitating the navigation of the Mohawk. To this end the Inland Lock Navigation Company was incorporated, March 30, 1792. Gen. Philip Schuyler was elected president. In the same year a committee of the company examined the stream and reported the result of their investigations. In their report the bed of the river, at intervals from Schenectady up, is minutely described, and each rapid or rift laid down. The impediments were found to be many, and for the improvement of the rifts it was suggested by the committee that " several of the rapids might be deepened by erecting small stone dams nearly across the river, leaving a passage for boats; but this, while it would give a sufficiency of water, would so increase its velocity as to render an ascent with a half-loaded boat of a size to carry three or four hundred bushels of wheat extremely difficult without the aid of machinery to draw up the boat, and such machinery it would be difficult permanently to erect, on account of the vast quantity of ice which suddenly descends whenever the Schoharie creek breaks up in the Spring of the year, and which would destroy such machinery. Some of the rapids may be deepened by removing the stones in the bottom; but this can only be successfully executed when the water above the rapid is deep; for if it is not, another rapid is formed immediately above by deepening the existing one. But the improvement of this part of the river, although difficult, yet it is feasible, and would be easily so without any extraordinary expense if the bed of the river was a solid rock; for then four or five dams at proper distances would create a series of ponds covering the immediate rapids, and hence, by means of a lock and guard-gates at each dam, boats would ascend or descend from the one to the other in succession. But to drive piles to secure all the dams from blowing would be so arduous and expensive an operation, that a canal and locks in the adjacent grounds would be infinitely preferable."

It was, moreover, suggested that a more effectual accommodation would be obtained by the erection of a dyke of timber and stone parallel to the north bank of the river, above Schoharie creek, "until it shall descend the river as far as to gain height sufficient to enter the bank below the rocky part, which would be at the distance of about noo yards ; and as the fall then would be about 9 feet, a lock might be constructed there, and thence a canal might be carried through good ground on the low lands, having the uplands on one side until just below dyne's tavern, where it would again enter the river, continued and confined by a dyke or embankment, for about 300 yds, and then again through the low lands, along the foot of the uplands, to the river, near the house of the late Guy Johnson, where it would enter the river with one or more locks."

It was not thought necessary to do more than to remove the rocks and other obstructions from the bed of the river at Caughnawaga and the rifts above. At Little Falls a canal was considered indispensable, and another from Fort Schuyler (Stanwix) to Wood creek. The main part of the work for the improvement of navigation was pu? upon these carrying places. At Little Falls the portage was obviated by a canal with five locks, and a length of 4,752 feet, cut for more than half its extent through solid rock. The work began at this place shortly after the report was submitted, but it was not until late in the autumn of 1795, that the canal was ready for the passage of boats. Portions of this work yet remain, serving as an important feeder for the Erie canal by the substantial aqueduct across the river. The work throughout the whole extent cost $400,000, about one-fourth of which expense was borne by the State.

After these improvements were made the Durham boat was substituted for the clumsy and unwieldly batteaux, which had so long been in use. It was of sufficient capacity to carry from ten to fifteen tons, and had the how sharpened to a cut-water. An oilcloth awning was used when necessary. Along the sides cleats were nailed down for the boatmen to rest their feet upon while propelling the craft with poles. A small caboose was the crew's store-house, and the cooking' was done on shore, where fuel was always at hand.

Although delay occasioned by the portages was obviated, yet the rifts were not so far overcome but that it was found very difficult and required a great amount of labor to force these larger boats over them. It was customary for a number of boats to make the voyage in company, and the one in advance when a rift was reached waited for the others to come up, so that the crews could avail themselves of each others assistance. Often even their united efforts failed, and after a boat had remained stationary for some time upon a rift it would be necessary to let it drift back again and take a new start.

The upward voyage was necessarily slow and tedious; coming down was far easier, a simple sail often aiding the current. It is related that a Captain Larabee left Utica in the morning and arrived at Schenectady in the evening of the same day, which was regarded as quite a feat. Though accidents sometimes occurred by oversetting or otherwise, loss of life seldom happened. A boat, however, was once capsized at the Fort Hunter rift and two of its occupants drowned, the third escaping by swimming. The expense of transportation from Albany to Schenectady was sixteen cents per hundred pounds, from Schenectady to Utica seventy-five cents, and from Utica to Oswego one dollar and twenty-five cents. The great outlay incurred in the improvements made the cost of transportation so much that the enterprise did not prove lucrative, and the company in 1818 relinquished their right west of Oneida Lake, and in 1820 sold out to the State for $152,718.52, In 1822 notice appeared of the building of a steamboat at Schenectady to run between that city and Amsterdam. A second notice mentioned, "unavoidable delay in its completion." Thenceforward there is no record or any traditional knowledge of the enterprise, or the cause of its failure. Mr. David Cady, of Amsterdam, who furnished a large share of our account of the enterprises for the utilization of the Mohawk, finding consolation for their failure in the quiet beauty of the famous river, adds:

"And while at times one could almost regret that our Mohawk is not navigable for even light craft, we mayhap may congratulate ourselves. Commerce with its noisy din, the shriek and scream of the steam whistle, the murky clouds of heavy smoke, would have robbed our wayward river of much of its witching beauty and romance. Tom Moore has sung its praise, Harriet Martineau has admired its gentle flow, and our own Whit tier claims to