It Happened Here-- Some Lesser Lights and Supporting Actors

Popular history often focuses on the leaders, the great thinkers, the most important artists that shape  historical periods, but tends to ignore the less than great, the supporting artists and actors and thinkers, and in doing so ignores their contributions to the development of their "greater"contemporaries art, thought or actions. The thoughtful unheralded teacher, critic, supporter are often crucial to the development those people we remember as historically "important". Occasionally a NYSHM will recognize one of these people. Here are three of them.

NY Rte 49, Constantia

George Washington invited him to America and after his retirement corresponded with him regularly about "agricultural economy" as well as farm practices; Benjamin Franklin corresponded with him; Thomas Jefferson discussed via letters his ideas about the "ethical Jesus," independent of the trappings of religion and sought his advise about the consequences of publishing his ideas; John and Abigail Adams considered him a life-long, though distant, friend writing to them from the New York wilderness; and their son, John Quincy Adams valued his friendship, as well.  Dewitt Clinton, governor of New York (1817-1822),  met him by accident.  He was hunting small game when he chanced upon Francis Adrian Van der Kemp and a friend trout fishing near Barneveld in Oneida County. When he came to know the man, he would declare Van der Kemp  "the most scholarly man in the America," and would eventually commission him to translate the archaic colonial Dutch records housed in the state archives in Albany.*

Francis Adrian Van der Kemp was born in Holland in 1752 and educated as a theologian. He became involved in the "Patriot" movement trying to overthrow the Prince of Orange and bring democracy to the people of the Netherlands. The movement was crushed by an invading army from Prussia and other German states and Van der Kemp was imprisoned in 1787.  Ransomed by his supporters, he was given asylum in the United States. He settled outside of Kingston, then moved to Constantia on the shores of Oneida Lake, where he built Kempwyk.  Eventually he moved to Barneveld where he became involved in the creation of a new town and the development of land bought by a group of Dutch investors called the "Holland Land Co."

Dutchess Co. Rte 2, Leedsville Road, Amenia

Myron B. Benton was a farmer and poet who lived and wrote from his family farmstead, an old dutch farm built in 1761 in Dutchess county. A poet of nature and rural country life he became fast friends with John Burroughs.  Together they met Emerson and shared many discussions on his work.  In 1862 Benton wrote a glowingly supportive letter to Thoreau and Thoreau, though dying, wrote him back.  In corresponding with Benton, Burroughs founds a reader who critically appreciated his work and someone with whom he could hone his skills as a critical thinker. Before publishing an essay called "Science and Theology" Burroughs sent Benton a copy, asking him if he thought people might consider it offensive, "Too much nature;" "slighting theology." In Benton he found someone to share his great enthusiasm for Walt Whitman and although he could never arrange a meeting between Whitman and Benton he told Whitman about a camping trip he had with Benton in the Adirondacks and Whitman so enjoyed the story he commented he should 'make a leaf of grass' about it.

NY Rte 9N, Bolton Landing

The last figure may be important enough in her own right that the label of "lesser light" and "supporting actor" may be unfair, but in the sense she was a teacher, critic, and supporter of others she deserves to be associated with the first two subjects of this post. Marcella Sembrich, born
Prakeda Marcellina Kochanska in Poland in 1858 was a coloratura soprano of impressive musical talent who came to America in 1883, after years of struggling in the European opera scene that was marked by fierce competition and nationalistic politics, to join the fledgling New York Metropolitan Opera in its first season.  She continued with the Met until retiring in 1909. Thereafter she founded vocal training programs at both the Curtis Institute and Julliard, teaching and giving recitals, and summering in the Alps.  When World War I prevented her from returning to Europe she turned to the Adirondacks, vacationing in Lake Placid from 1915 to 1921.  In 1922 she came to Lake George, establishing her studio for vocal operatic training, in 1924. The best of a generation of operatic students were tutored by her with several becoming tutors of the next generation of opera stars that would become famous in the latter half of the 20th century.


*Unfortunately, most of Van der Kemp's work was destroyed in the State Capitol fire of 1911.

Marker of the Week -- On June 2, 2013 I wrote a post on the Pillbox industry in the early 1800's in the little hamlet of Knox. This week when I drove through the town I discovered
a new marker had been erected.

NY 156, Knox

It Happened Here -- Blockhouses

    The Stillwater Blockhouse, Rte 4, was built as a Saratoga Battlefield Park visitors center

                                   

A quick glance at Wikipedia will tell you that blockhouses are defensive fortifications that have been around since medieval times and that the original terms comes from their role in blocking access to portages, roads, rivers, etc; not, as I had always assumed, from their "blocky" shape, being usually made of squared timbers, etc.

Because blockhouses small size and typical wood construction made them vulnerable to artillery fire, they had become largely obsolete and uncommon in 17th and 18th century Europe, but in colonial America blockhouses were the most common defensive fortification. In America's interior, few roads and dense forest made attack by artillery unlikely, but blockhouses were a potent defense against musket wielding Indians, or colonial troops.

A blockhouse could be constructed with as few as a half-dozen skilled axemen in a few weeks time and could withstand the assault of hundreds of attackers, if they were unsupported by large cannon.  At the same time it could provide a secure garrison for perhaps a hundred men from which they could patrol or sally forth to attack raiding parties along a trail, or groups of batteaux at a portage. Larger forts could be constructed by building a stockade which utilized three or four or more blockhouses as corner bastions.

French Blockhouse near Ft.Carillon

British Blockhouses

guarding the road

to Fort Edward

                                                                                                                                                            

British Blockhouse

at the Wood's Creek/

Oneida Lake Portage

                                           The Schoharie Valley

                                  Upper and Middle 

                                           Valley Forts                                            Incorporated

                                           Blockhouses into

                                           their Stockades

Square timbers, though more difficult and time consuming to make, were preferred because they provided more uniform protection from musket balls or small cannon fire and were presumably more difficult for attackers to scale. The overhanging sections of the second floor enabled defenders to shoot down  through musket ports in the floor of the overhang at attackers attempting to build fires against the blockhouse wall, or do other mischief.

       Fort Anne's several forts undoubtedly had blockhouses*




 Sir William Johnson  appreciated the symbolism of British Military Power that the blockhouse represented to the Indians with whom he negotiated treaties. He had two stone blockhouses built along side of his baronial mansion in Johnstown. They also provided actual security, incorporated into a stockade surrounding the house during the last French and Indian War.

Rte. 30A, Middleburgh

For much of the American Revolution blockhouses were mainly refuges for
farmers and their families from Indian
raids on the frontiers of New York,
but toward the end of the Revolution
the blockhouse at Fort Plain took on
a new mission.

















 Following the devastating raids
in the summer of 1780 a new unusually
tall three story blockhouse was built.
 
From atop  this blockhouse near the crest of a ridge above the village, the Americans had a commanding view far up and down the valley. Smoke from any house or barn torched by the Indians and Tories along a wide swath of valley could be quickly spotted and militiamen and continentals under Colonel Marinus Willett,   garrisoned at the fort dispatched to oppose the raiders. It was from here that Willet marched to repulse an Indian/Tory/ British Regular attack on Johnstown on October 24, 1781, pursuing them 
to a skirmish at West Canada Creek where Tory leader Walter Butler was killed.

                                                                                                                                                       Concern about Indian attacks on New York's frontiers did not end immediately with the end of the American Revolution. Fur trader Oliver Stephens built his own blockhouse/residence/trading post in 1794 at the outlet to Oneida lake, next to the derelict Fort Brewerton.  Willsboro constructed a blockhouse in 1797 as a place of refuge from Indian raids.

U.S. 11, Central Square, NY

The reconstructed Blockhouse--home
to the Brewerton Historical Society

Essex Co. Rte 22, Willsboro

   

The War of 1812 saw the last use of blockhouses in New York State, although blockhouses would be used in the U.S. on the frontier in the Indian Wars until the 1870's.

Blockhouses at Sacket's Harbor

*This reconstruction, at Fort Anne, built as a gift shop in the 1950's, now occupied by a local bank may have a couple firsts for a blockhouse--a night depository and an ATM machine!



 Marker of the Week--

It started on a presumably hot summer's day in1820 when some of the locals were seeking refreshment, and trying to escape the heat in the old stone tavern at the north end of Schoharie.  It started when some wag made a humorous comment, now lost, at the expense of Josiah Clark, and Phillip Schuyler, the 2nd* roared out a riotous approval of it. As too often happens, the butt of the comment, Mr. Clark, took offense not at the comment or the wag who made it, but at Mr. Schuyler's degree of approval of it. Soon words were being exchanged between Mr. Clark and Mr. Schuyler, hotter than the day that brought the two of them together.  Before anyone could grasp its gravity, a duel was proposed and accepted; "seconds" were drafted among the crowd at the tavern; the rifles were prepared by these seconds; and presumably, the whole tavern emptied out, trooping down to the flats along the Schoharie Creek in back of the tavern.  Distances were paced off and counted as the two duelists marched away from each other, turned and fired. The valley, narrow at this point, echoed with the sound of the two rifles discharging simultaneously.  Clark collapsed, and Schuyler in shock and horror, still tinged with a residue of anger muttered 'He would have it so!  He would have it so!', and beat a hasty retreat from the scene of carnage to find composure in another tavern, in the center of town.  Some time later, from his vantage point in this second tavern, Mr. Schuyler looked out to observe a miraculous sight--Josiah Clark, walking down the street!  It seems that the seconds who prepared the rifles for the duelists had put an ample charge of gunpowder in each, but had neglected to put in lead balls, instead, holding the charges in with generous wads of soft natural paper taken from a wasp's nest.  Mr. Clark had probably been hit, full on, in the chest, with the wadding, and realizing he had received a "mortal wound" had fainted dead away!  Thus ended the Schoharie valley's most famous duel.**

Swart'sTavern,  Rte 30, Schoharie

*Phillip Schuyler, the 2nd was a scion of the venerable Schuyler family and grandson of the famous Revolutionary War general, Phillip Schuyler.


**You will probably not be surprised that this incident was reported in Jeptha R. Simms. The Frontiersmen of New York.
Vol. I, 348.

It Happened Here -- The Mohicans and the Moravians

By 1740 the Mohican village of Shekomeko, in present day central Dutchess county, was hanging on--but its future seemed precarious. Alcoholism/binge drinking, poverty and a host of social problems were rife in the small community. Most of the Hudson Valley Mohican villages had been abandoned and the land sold off to white settlers or land speculators, and it seemed likely the same fate would befall Shekomeko.

Seneca Co. Rte 89, Canoga

In Bethlehem Pennsylvania a religious sect from south eastern Germany, and what is today the Czech Republic had established itself with a mission to bring Christianity to unconverted Native-Americans. The Moravians had already had some success with the Delawares, among whom they lived. They would, in the next decade, send missionaries among the Iroquois. One of their number, Christian Henry Rausch had just landed in New York City when he encountered two drunken Mohican sachems Maumauntissekun (aka. Shabash) and Wassamapah from Shekomeko.  Having spent time in Holland, he could converse with them in Dutch, a language the Indians had acquired from the white settlers living around them. When they sobered up they agreed to allow him to return to Shekomeko and teach them about his religion. The next few years were difficult and sometimes dangerous for Rausch, and as both his hosts and other clan members swung erratically between support and condemnation of this Christian amongst them.

Strever Farm Rd., off Co.Rte 82, Pine Plains

Wassamapah, who took the name Tschoop, or Job, was torn between Rausch and his wife's mother, a clan matron who was the keeper of an ancient leather talisman and defender of the old religion.  White traders spread rumors that he had come to enslave their children, and once a drunken Indian tried to kill Rausch with a tomahawk. For safety, Rausch moved out of the village to the farm of a nearby Palatine settler, but he continued visiting the village, gradually wining over the people and arranging the first baptisms. In 1742 he was joined by Moravians Gotlob Buettner and his wife and Martin Mack; the following year they built their first church in Shekomeko using poles and bark--materials, they felt, the Mohicans would feel comfortable in.

Gradually the missionaries had a positive impact on the village, restoring among the villagers a degree of self reliance, making inroads against binge-drinking habits, and encouraging the Mohicans to avoid the traders and work their way out of debt.

 In 1724 a group of investors called the "Little Nine Partners" had struck up a tentative deal with the Mohicans of Shekomeko for their land, excluding a one square mile tract the Mohicans were to set aside. The Partners applied for a title from Governor William Burnet and he agreed to a meeting with the Indians with payment, to work out the details in the town of Red Hook. With one of the partners, Richard Sackett, the Indians waited in vain for three weeks for the Governor or his agents, and the payment that never arrived.  Sackett supported the Indians while they waited, eventually buying his farm directly from them.


RICHARD SACKETT
FIRST SETTLER OF AMENIA,
ABOUT 1711, HAD FARM HERE                     An Original NYSHM  (missing)
AND IS BURIED ON HILL TO                          Location: NYS 22 AT S. AMENIA                       
NORTH. HE WAS COMMISSIONER
ON PALATINE SETTLEMENT.
 

Twenty years later the Mohicans of Shekomeko began to receive challenges to their title on the land from relatives of the original partners and from others claiming to have bought property from one or another of the partners.  The Moravians, while reluctant to get involved, helped the Indians obtain affidavits supporting their ownership. 

    Buettner's Memorial next to the Shekomeko
 Indian Cemetery--Bethel Cross Rd off Co.Rte 82

 
In 1743 rumors of war with the French, and Indian raids on New England settlements began to circulate. The kinship between Mohicans and the Algonquins of the St. Lawrence Valley made the Mohicans of Shekomeko suspect. The Moravians, too, as outsiders were subject to wild charges that they were in league with the "papist" French.*  And their pacifistic doctrines that prevented them from serving in any militia or swearing an oath of allegiance to King George seemed to confirm their disloyalty.  Fear escalated to a point that the townspeople of nearby Sharon, Connecticut contemplated a peremptory strike against Shekomeko, and the Governor of New York in June 1744 ordered a sheriff's posse to search Shekomeko for weapons and ammunition.  They found nothing, but the missionaries were brought in for questioning.  In November the legislature passed an act requiring 'Moravian and vagrant Teachers among the Indians' to cease preaching and to leave the Colony.**      Some stayed on and were arrested. Others left for the area around Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, encouraging their Mohican brethren to go with them. Emboldened by the new law, gangs of white settlers seized much of the Shekomeko Mohican's land.  Some Shekomeko Indians moved to Wequadnach, near Sharon, Connecticut but the colony of Connecticut was enacting similar legislation. While Sir William Johnson, on behalf of New York was actively courting its Iroquois Indians, only Massachusetts was solicitous of its Mohican population. Wnahktukook (Stockbridge) Indians had been evangelized by Congregational missionaries, so they didn't hold the pacifistic values of the Moravian Mohicans, and declared war on the French, providing scouts for Governor Shirley's expedition. Similarly, in the American Revolution, Stockbridge Indians scouted for and fought with distinction for American armies throughout the war. Upon returning from the war they discovered they were to be removed from their village. They found a home with the Oneida Indians,  but then were moved to Indiana in 1818 and then again to Wisconsin in 1822.    They were joined by displaced Mohicans and Munsees from Connecticut and New York.

Mohican Cemetery on  Co.Rte.56, Turkey Hill Rd.

This Week -- Is something of a milestone--the 100th post of  NYSHMs--It Happened Here.

Though I am finding it kind of difficult to keep up the pace of 1 post per week I look forward to continuing to research and write them. --Tom

 

*Ironically, as an early protestant sect in central Europe, the Moravians had suffered some of the worst persecution during the Counter-reformation.

**p.253 Shirley W. Dunn.  The Mohican World 1680-1750.  This and   Evan T. Pritchard. Native New Yorkers, The Legacy of the Algonquin Peoples of New York are the principal sources of material for this post.