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

The Story of Old Fort Plain and the Middle Mohawk Valley
by Nelson Greene
O'Connor Brothers Publishers, Fort Plain, NY 1915

(SECOND SERIES 1784-1838)

CHAPTER I.

1784-1838-Mohawk Valley After the Revolution - Constructive Period - Montgomery County and its Divisions-Towns and Their Changes.

The Revolutionary struggle had well-nigh destroyed the one-time prosperous farming community along the Mohawk and in its adjacent territory. This section had been more harried, by the enemy and their red allies, than any other part of the thirteen colonies. Raid after raid had swept down from Canada over the fair valley, burning, plundering, and murdering. Stoutly had the sturdy people fought back their dreadful foe. The savage enemy had been again and again beaten back from the Mohawk, but the bloody contest had left the population greatly depleted and the farm land In ruin and rapidly going back to the wilderness from which it had been wrested. Those of faint heart and of Tory leanings had fled the country and the patriot families who were left were often sadly broken. Numbers of defenseless women and little children had been struck down by the savage tomahawk and the bones of the men of Tryon county whitened the fields where battle and skirmish had been bitterly fought. The bravery of the women, and even the children, of the patriot families, amid the bloody scenes of the Revolution, had been remarkable in the extreme. Terrific as had been the murderous destruction, along the Mohawk, yet a wonderful rejuvenesence and rapid growth were to follow. The years ensuing were ones of great development of the farmlands, Increase of population and steps, for the furtherance of transportation and commerce, which were eventually to make the Mohawk valley one of the greatest arteries of trade and traffic in the entire world.

Toward the close of the war, Col. Willett sent to Gen. Washington a lengthy statement of the condition of affairs in Tryon county, from which it appears that, whereas at the opening of the struggle the enrolled militia of the county numbered not less than 2,500, there were then not more than 800 men liable to bear arms, and not more than 1,200 who could be taxed or assessed for the raising of men for the public service. To account for so large a reduction of the Tryon people, it was estimated that, of the number by which the population had been decreased, one-third had been killed or made prisoners; one-third had gone over to the enemy; and one-third for the time being, had abandoned the country. Beers's history says:

"The suffering of the unfortunate inhabitants of the Mohawk valley were the measure of delight, with which they had hailed the return of peace. The dispersed population returned to the blackened ruins of their former habitations, rebuilt their houses and again brought their farms under cultivation. "With astounding audacity, the Tories now began to sneak back again and claim peace and property among those whom they had impoverished and bereaved. It was not to be expected that this would be tolerated. The outraged feelings of the community found the following expression at a meeting of the principal inhabitants of the Mohawk district. May 9, 1783:

"Taking into consideration the peculiar circumstances of this county relating to its situation, and the numbers that joined the enemy from among us, whose brutal barbarities in their frequent visits to their old neighbors are too shocking to humanity to relate:

"They have murdered the peaceful husbandmen, and his lovely boys about him unarmed and defenceless in the field. They have, with malicious pleasure, butchered the aged and infirm; they have wantonly sported with the lives of helpless women and children, numbers they have scalped alive, shut them up in their houses and burnt them to death. Several children, by the vigilance of their friends, have been snatched from flaming buildings; and though tomahawked and scalped, are still living among us; they have made more than 300 widows and above 2,000 orphans in this county; they have killed thousands of cattle and horses that rotted in the Held; they have burnt more than two million bushels of grain, many hundreds of buildings, and vast stores of forage; and now these merciless fiends are creeping in among us again to claim the privilege of fellow-citizens, and demand a restitution of their forfeited estates; but can they leave their infernal tempers behind them and be safe or peaceable neighbors? Or can the disconsolate widow and the bereaved mother reconcile her tender feelings to a free and cheerful neighborhood with those who so inhumanly made her such? Impossible! It is contrary to nature, the first principle of which is self-preservation. It is contrary to the law of nations, especially that nation which for numberless reasons, we should be thought to pattern after. * * * * * It is contrary to the eternal rule of reason and rectitude. If Britain employed them, let Britain pay them. We will not; therefore, 'Resolved, unanimously, that all those who have gone off to the enemy or have been banished by any law of this state, or those, who we shall find, tarried as spies or tools of the enemy, and encouraged and harbored those who went away, shall not live in this district on any pretence whatever; and as for those who have washed their faces from Indian paint and their hands from the innocent blood of our dear ones, and have returned, either openly or covertly, we hereby warn them to leave this district before the 20th of June next, or they may expect to feel the just resentment of an injured and determined people.

" 'We likewise, unanimously desire our brethren in the other districts in the county to join with us to instruct our representatives not to consent to the repealing any laws made for the safety of the state against treason, or confiscation of traitors' estates, or to passing any new acts for the return or restitution of Tories.'
" 'By order of the meeting.
" 'Josiah Thorp, Chairman.' "

Notwithstanding these sentiments of the Whigs, numbers of Tories did return and settle among their old neighbors. The Mohawk lands, which were considerable before the war, were confiscated and the tribe were granted homes in Canada, as has been stated in the sketch of Brant.

During the revolution, the English governor, in honor of whom Tryon county was named, rendered the title odious by a series of infamous acts in the service of the Crown, and the New York legislature, on the 2d of April, 1784, voted that the county should be called Montgomery, in honor of Gen. Richard Montgomery, who fell in the attack on Quebec, early in the war. At the beginning of the Revolution, the population of the county was estimated at 10,000. At the close of the war it had probably been reduced to almost one-third of that number, but so inviting were the fertile lands of the county, that in three years after the return of peace (1786) it had a population of 15,000. Doubtless many of these were people who had deserted their valley homes at the beginning of hostilities and who now returned to settle again among their patriot neighbors who had borne the brunt of the struggle, and who had so nobly furthered the cause of American rule. By 1800 the population of present Montgomery county can safely be estimated at 10,000, almost entirely settled on the farms.

The boundaries of the several counties in the state were more minutely defined, March 7, 1788, and Montgomery was declared to contain all that part of the state bounded east by the counties of Ulster, Albany, Washington and Clinton and south by the state of Pennsylvania. What had been districts in Tryon county were, with the exception of Old England, made towns in Montgomery county, the Mohawk district forming two towns, Caughnawaga north of the river and Mohawk south of it. The Palatine and Canajoharie districts were organized as towns, retaining those names. Thus after an existence of sixteen years, principally during the Revolutionary period, the old Tryon districts experienced their first change.

The presence of the warlike Mohawks and their use as allies on the frontier, had saved the valley savages their lands until about the year 1700. Notice has been made of the Dutch, German and British immigration after that date into the Mohawk valley. With the virtual breaking down of the Iroquois confederacy on account of the Revolution, their wide lands were thrown open for settlement and, after 1783, another and greater tide of immigration set in along the Mohawk.

The war had made people of other states and of other sections of New York familiar with Tryon county. Sullivan and Clinton's campaign, in the Iroquois country, had particularly revealed the fertility of the western part of the state, and a tide of emigration thither set in at the close of the war, mostly by way o£ the Mohawk valley. The river had been the first artery of transportation and traffic. Now it began to be rivaled by turnpike travel. Later water travel was to resume first place after the digging of the Erie canal, afterward to be again superseded by land traffic when the railroads began to develop. All of these were to make eventually the Mohawk valley the great road and waterway it is today.

Immigration to western New York led to the formation from Montgomery, Jan. 27, 1789, of Ontario county, which originally included all of the state west of a line running due north from the "82nd milestone" on the Pennsylvania boundary, through Seneca lake to Sodus Bay on Lake Ontario. This was the first great change in the borders of Tryon or Montgomery county (which had been of larger area than several present-day states) since Its formation seventeen years before. Other divisions were to come rapidly. In 1791 the county of Montgomery was still further reduced by the formation of Tioga, Otsego and Herkimer. The latter joined Montgomery county on the north as well as the west, the present east and west line, between Fulton and Hamilton, continued westward, being part of their common boundary, and another part of it a line running north and south from Little Falls, and intersecting the former "at a place called Jerseyfields." Of the region thus taken from Montgomery county on the north, the present territory of Hamilton was restored In 1797, only to be set apart under its present name, Feb. 12, 1816. April 7, 1817, the western boundary of Montgomery was moved eastward from the meridian of Little Falls to East Canada creek, and a line running south from its mouth, where it still remains. This divided the territory of the old Canajoharie and Palatine districts between two counties, after this region had formed part of Tryon or Montgomery county for a period of forty-five years, which was undoubtedly that of its greatest growth as well as covering thethrilling Revolutionary period. It also, for the first time,, made an unnatural and artificial demarcation of the Canajoharie region, known as such north and south of the Mohawk since the dawn of history. The line between Montgomery and Schenectady has always been part of the boundary of the former, having originally separated it from Albany county. The formation of Otsego county, Feb. 16, 1791, established the line which now separates it and Schoharie from Montgomery. The latter took its northern boundary and entire present outline on the formation of Fulton county in 1838, which will be considered later. Thus the present Montgomery is the small remainder of a once large territory and bears that region's original name. It also contains the greater part of the territory immediately along the river, of three of the five districts which originally composed Tryon and Montgomery county. These three districts were Canajoharie, Palatine and Mohawk, and are all names of present-day townships of our county, which were portions of the original districts. It is in the lands along the Mohawk river, contained in these old districts, where the principal part of the population was gathered at the close of the Revolutionary war.

The three towns of Montgomery which formed part of the Canajoharie district were set apart on the following dates: Minden 1798, Root 1823 (formed partly from the old Mohawk and old Canajoharie districts). Canajoharie, part of the original district of that name set apart in 1772. The town of Palatine is the remaining portion of the original Tryon county district of that name. The town of St. Johns-(Part of the text is missing in the book. ajb) trict, was set apart on the formation of Fulton county in 1838. In 1793 Caughnawaga was divided into Johnstown, Mayfield, Broadalbin and Amsterdam, and Mohawk into Charleston and Florida, their dividing line being Schoharie creek. In 1797 Salisbury, now in Herkimer county, was taken from Palatine and in 1798 part of Canajoharie went to form Minden.

An eighteenth century writer gives us a good view of the valley during the decade after the Revolution in a "Description of the Country Between Albany and Niagara in 1792," from Volume II, of the "Documentary History of New York." It follows verbatim.

"I am just returned from Niagara, about 560 miles west of Boston. I went first to Albany, from thence to Schenectady, about Sixteen miles; this has been a very considerable place of trade but is now falling to decay: It was supported by the Indian traders; but this business is so arrested by traders far in the country, that very little of It reached so far down: it stands upon the Mohawk river, about 9 miles above the Falls, called Cohoes; but this I take to be the Indian name for Falls. Its chief business is to receive the merchandise from Albany and put it into batteaux to go up the river and forward to Albany Such produce of the back country as is sent to market. After leaving Schenectada, I travelled over a most beautiful country of eighty miles to Fort Schuyler, where I forded the Mohawk. This extent was the scene of British and Savage cruelty during the late war, and they did not cease, while anything remained to destroy. What a contrast now!-every house and barn rebuilt, the pastures crowded with Cattle, Sheep, etc., and the lap of Ceres full. Most of the land on each Side of the Mohawk river, is a rich flat highly cultivated with every species of grain, the land on each side rising- in agreeable Slopes; this, added to the view of a fine river passing through the whole, gives the beholder the most pleasing sensations Imaginable. I next passed through Whitestown. It would appear to you, my friend, on hearing the relation of events in the western country, that the whole was fable; and if you were placed in Whitestown or Clinton, ten miles from Fort Schuyler, and see the progress of improvement, you would believe it enchanted ground. You would there view an extensive well built town, surrounded by highly cultivated fields, which Spot in the year 1783 was the 'haunt of tribes' and the hiding place of wolves, now a flourishing happy Situation, containing about Six thousand people-Clinton stands a little South of Whitestown and is a very large, thriving town."

This writer also says that "after passing Clinton there are no inhabitants upon the road until you reach Oneida, an Indian town, the first of the Six Nations; it contains about Five hundred and fifty inhabitants; here I slept and found the natives very friendly." He also writes, "The Indians are settled on all the reservations made by this State, and are to be met with at every settlement of whites, in quest of rum."

On Dec. 3, 1784, a council was held at Fort Schuyler between the Six Nations and American representatives. Gov. Clinton, Gen. Lafayette and other distinguished men were present. Brant was displeased with the Iroquois situation, their lands having been ceded to the United States by the treaty of peace. Red Jacket was for war with the new nation while Cornplanter was for peace. Under certain conditions, the Six Nations were allowed to retain a portion of their old lands, with the exception of the Mohawks who had permanently settled themselves in Canada. After the multitude of whites and Indians had enjoyed a great feast (due to the wise forethought of Gov. Clinton), a foot race took place, in which each of the Six Nations was represented by one competitor. Gov. Clinton hung up a buckskin bag, containing $250, on a flag staff at the starting point on the bank of the Mohawk. This was a race of over two miles and was won, amid great excitement by a, mere lad of the Oneida tribe, named Paul, who ran the great champion of the Mohawks off his feet and distanced the rest of his competitors. Gov. Clinton presented little Paul the prize and heartily congratulated him. Thus ended the last council of the Six Nations in the Mohawk valley, exactly a century and a quarter after the first held at Caughnawaga between the Iroquois and the Dutch in 1669.

Following is a, short sketch of the Revolutionary patriot for whom this county was named: Richard Montgomery was born in the north of Ireland in 1737. He entered the British army at the age of 20 and was with Wolfe at the storming of Quebec. Although he returned, after the French war, he had formed a liking for America and, in 1772, came back and made his home at Rhinebeck on the Hudson, where he married a daughter of Robert B. Livingston. He sided with the patriots at the outbreak of the Revolution and in 1775 was second in command to Schuyler in the expedition against Canada. The illness of Schuyler caused the chief command to devolve upon Montgomery and in the capture of St. John's, Chambley and Montreal and his attack en Quebec, he exhibited great judgment and military skill. He was commissioned a major general before he reached Quebec. In that campaign he had every difficulty to contend with-undisciplined and mutinous troops, scarcity of provisions and ammunition, want of heavy artillery, lack of clothing, the rigor of winter and desertions of whole companies. Yet he pressed onward and in all probability, had his life been spared, would have entered Quebec in triumph. In the heroic attack of the Americans on this stronghold, Dec. 31, 1775 (during a heavy snowstorm), Montgomery was killed and his force defeated. Congress voted Montgomery a monument, by an act passed Jan. 25, 1776, and it was erected on the Broadway side of St. Paul's church in New York. It bears the following Inscription: "This monument is erected by order of Congress, 25th of January, 1776, to transmit to posterity a grateful remembrance of the patriot conduct, enterprise and perseverance of Major-General Richard Montgomery, who, after a series of successes amid the most discouraging difficulties, fell in the attack on Quebec, 31st December, 1775, aged 37 years."

In 1818 his remains were brought from Quebec, and buried under this memorial.

General Montgomery left no children, but his widow survived him more than half a century. A day or two before he left his home at Rhinebeck for the Canadian campaign, the general was walking on the lawn in the rear of his brother-in-law's mansion with its owner. As they came near the house, Montgomery stuck a willow twig in the ground and said, "Peter let that grow to remember me by." Lossing says it did grow and that when he visited the spot (in 1848) it was a willow with a trunk at least ten feet In circumference.

The following is a summary of the principal Mohawk valley events of the period covered In this chapter (from 1784 to 1838), prepared with especial reference to the Canajoharie and Palatine districts and the five western towns of Montgomery county:

1784, last council of the Iroquois in the valley (with Gov. Clinton at Fort Stanwix); 1789, first cutting up of Montgomery to form Ontario county in 1789; 1790, legislative appropriation of £100 to erect a bridge at East Creek, opening up a period of bridge building in the valley; 1792, incorporation of Inland Lock and Navigation Co. to improve the Mohawk; 1794, Johnstown academy formed; 1795, Union college, Schenectady, incorporated, formerly Union academy, 1785; 1798, Schenectady incorporated as a city; 1800, charter granted for construction of Mohawk turnpike from Schenectady to Utica; 1808, first survey for Erie canal; May and September, 1812, Mohawk valley regiments garrison Sacketts Harbor and take part in repulse of British there in 1813; July 4, 1817, beginning of Erie canal work at Rome, N. Y.; 1819, business part of Schenectady burned; 1S19, first canal boat launched at Rome to run between Rome and Utica; 1821, navigation on the Erie between Rome and Little Falls, canal boats using the river from there to Schenectady; 1823, canal open to Spraker's Basin on the east end; Oct. 26, 1825, start of Clinton's triumphal tour on the completed Erie canal from Buffalo to Albany and from thence, by the Hudson, to New York; 1827, slavery finally abolished in New York state; 1831, building of the Albany and Schenectady railroad; 1836, completion of the Utica and Schenectady railroad; 1836, removal of the Montgomery county court house from Johnstown to Fonda (Caughnawaga); 1838, separation of Fulton from Montgomery county.

The chief national events of the formative period between 1784 and about 1840, which has been treated somewhat locally in the foregoing chapter are as follows:

1787, September, Constitution of the United States framed by state delegates at Philadelphia; 1788, July 26, New York state ratifies Constitution, being the ninth state so to do and putting it into effect; 1789, April 6, Washington inaugurated first president in New York city (then national capital), John Adams, vice president; 1790, Philadelphia becomes national capitol until 1800; 1792, Washington re-elected president, John Adams, vice president; 1795, invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney of Savannah, Ga.; 1796, John Adams elected second president, Thomas Jefferson, vice president; 1799, Dec. 14, Washington's death; 1800, Washington city becomes national capital; Thomas Jefferson elected third president, Aaron Burr, vice president; 1803, cession of French Louisiana territory (1,171,931 square miles) to United States for $15,000,000; 1804, Thomas Jefferson re-elected president, George Clinton (former governor of New York) vice president; 1807, Clermont, first steamer, runs from New York to Albany; 1808, James Madison elected fourth president, George Clinton re-elected vice president; 1812, James Madison re-elected president, Elbridge Gerry, vice president; 1812, June 18, second war (of 1812) declared by congress against England; 1813, British repulsed from in front of Sackett's Harbor, N. Y.; 1813, Harrison defeats British force and Indian force under Tecumseh; 1813, Sept. 10, Perry's American fleet captures British squadron on Lake Erie; 1814, July 25, battle of Lundy's Lane in Canada on the Niagara frontier; 1814, August, British army burns the Capitol and White House at Washington; 1814, September, McDonough's American fleet destroys British fleet on Lake Champlain at Plattsburgh, N. Y., and American force checks British army there preventing invasion of New York; 1814, Dec. 24, peace of Ghent signed; 1815, Jan. 8, defeat of British by Jackson's army before New Orleans, La.; 1816, first tariff, with protection as its aim, enacted; 1819, first ocean steamer, "Savannah," crosses Atlantic from Savannah to Liverpool, England, in twenty-two days; 1820, first struggle between slave and free states over the Missouri Compromise act; 1823, "Monroe doctrine" first propounded by President Monroe in his annual message to congress; 1824, John Quincy Adams elected sixth president, John C. Calhoun, vice president; 1827, first U. S. railway from Quincy, Mass., quarries to tidewater (built to transport granite used in construction of Bunker Hill monument) ; 1828, Andrew Jackson elected seventh president, John C. Calhoun re-elected vice president; 1831, Cyrus McCormick operates first successful mowing machine at Steele's Tavern, Va.; 1832, South Carolina passes Act of Nullification of national (high) protective tariff of 1832; 1832, Andrew Jackson re-elected president, Martin Van Buren elected vice president; 1832, first American sewing machine made by Walter Hunt of New York city; 1830-5, first threshing machine made at Fly Creek, N. Y., not perfected there until 1840; 1836, Martin Van Buren elected eighth president, Richard M. Johnson, vice president; 1836, first model of telegraph instrument made by Samuel F. B. Morse of New York city; 1837-1842, years of financial depression; 1839, first photographs from life made by J. W. Draper of New York city; 1840, Invention of baseball by Abner (afterward General) Doubleday, a schoolboy at Cooperstown, N. Y.