It Happened Here--A Desperate Alarum

 

Frequent in the history of the American colonial wars and revolutionary war are stories of sudden raids and the response to these raids. There are numerous accounts of solitary messengers making desperate flights to warn others of danger or to mobilize forces. Thanks to the 19th century work of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, every schoolchild knows the name Paul Revere. The NYSHM's point to at least three of these incidents in New York State, and unlike Revere all three of these messengers made it! One of these, Adam Helmer,  I related in NYSHMS: It Happened Here  on 3/24/13 .  Here is another.
 

In May 1689 Great Britain declared war on France. While this was precipitated by events in Europe, for some time tensions had been heating up in the area between the New York and New France over their frontiers and throughout Iroquoia,. For decades the trade in beaver pelts had been critical to the relationships between the Indians and the Europeans. Now beaver was becoming scarce. The Iroquois began to pressure and intimidate the less powerful tribes to their west to direct their supply of beaver through them to their Dutch / English markets. English traders had made direct inroads with the Western tribes in the Lake Huron area and even in the Hudson's Bay area, deep within what the French considered was their natural economic domain. The French struck back against the English traders capturing large numbers of them and confiscating over 50.000 beaver pelts. They retaliated against the Iroquois by sending an army to destroy Seneca towns in the heart of Iroquoia. in 1687. While officially neutral, the English Governor promised the Iroquois powder, lead and protection for their families. The traders in Schenectady and Albany continued to support and supply their Iroquois trading partners. For the next year the Iroquois kept up a low level war of attack against individual French traders in the woods, and French colonists on the edges of French settlements. In the summer of 1689 the Iroquois struck back with two major raids against the French villages of Lachine and LaChesnaye near Montreal.

In addition to the economic issues, the Iroquois were upset at the successes of the Jesuit fathers in converting their own people. By ones and twos over the decades Jesuits had been bringing Iroquois to their faith. In 1671 Jesuits had convinced fifteen Mohawk converts to settle among Huron converts near Quebec. A few years later 200 Mohawks had left Iroquoia to build a new town near Montreal. Then, a contingent of "praying Indians" led by their war chief Kryn had actually participated in the attacks on the Seneca towns.

NYS 147, Sacandaga Rd. Glenville

 While this was happening, political turmoil was brewing in the English colonies that would have disastrous consequences for Schenectady. In 1688-89 English protestant forces in England conspired to oust their king, James II and put on the throne a Protestant sovereign from Holland.*  When word of this "Glorious Revolution" reached the English colonies, the Provincial governor Edmund Andros was arrested in Massachusetts and Deputy Governor Nicholson operating in New York City was sent packing back to England as rumors swirled that James II's catholic colonial officials intended to support a counter-revolution and even deliver the colony into the hands of the French. One Jacob Leisler, a wine merchant, rose to the head of an ad-hoc Committee of Safety elected from New York City and the surrounding towns, and was appointed acting Lieutenant Governor. Soon the colony was split by parties who either supported Leisler or who felt his government was illegitimate. At a time when towns on the frontier should have been mobilizing and building up their defenses, more often than not, they were paralyzed by officials appointed under the old governor bickering with Leisler appointees, with townspeople uncertain who was in charge. No where was this more apparent than in the small village of Schenectady.

While confusion and indecision reigned throughout much of the New York colony, the ouster of the pro-Catholic James II also alarmed the French. They began to make ambitious plans to attack Albany and carry their invasion through to New York. But Quebec could not amass sufficient troops or supplies for a full scale invasion. Nevertheless, the raids on Lachine and LaChesnaye demanded a response. Schenectady was selected as a target.

In January a raiding party of 114 Canadians and 96 Indians headed south. Traveling on frozen lakes-- Champlain, Ste Sacrement (Lake George) and Saratoga, then connecting with the trail that led from Saratoga to Albany and Schenectady, they paused at the trail's divide to reconsider whether to attack Albany or Schenectady. Perhaps Albany's larger size or the presence of cannon at Albany were deciding factors. Perhaps Kryn's impassioned speech urging them to attack Schenectady a town he knew gave aid and comfort his Mohawk brothers he hated, swayed the raiders, or perhaps they simply decided to carry through their orders.
 

Cor. Front St. and N. Church St, Schenectady

The last 37 miles was an extremely difficult nine day trek, with warmer weather turning the snow to knee deep slush. As they approached Schenectady the temperature plummeted and a blizzard set in. They intended to wait until an hour or two after midnight but decided to attack sooner, rather than endure the bitter cold any longer. They crossed the frozen Mohawk River and divided into two parties to enter the northern and southern gates. In the darkness and blizzard conditions the southern gate could not be found and the southern attack party rejoined the group outside the north gate. Nineteenth century historians recall traditional stories that the attackers found a sleeping town with the north gate left ajar, guarded only by children's snowmen. In any event, the political dissention of the Leisler rebellion had resulted in a breakdown of authority and Schenectady had failed to follow through with the most rudimentary precautions for their safety, including keeping a guard posted. The raiders filtered in, surrounding the town, placing themselves between the stockade and the houses with about seven attackers per household. With shots and war whoops they burst through doors and fell on the sleeping inhabitants. Only a few households were able to put up any resistance. Some of the younger inhabitants were selected for captivity. Most were put to the sword and the scalping knife. In the darkness and chaos a surprising number were able to escape the stockade and find sanctuary in the wilderness. In a matter of hours all but five of some sixty to eighty buildings lay in ashes. Sixty inhabitants were dead and twenty seven were being lead into captivity. Only one or two French raiders had died, and one was seriously wounded. 

Among those who escaped were the Schermerhorn brothers. In the years before the last decade of the 17th Century, Symon Schermerhorn lived in Schenectady with his brother Reyer, sons of Jacob Jansen Schermerhorrn, one of the most prominent traders at Beverwyck (Albany). Like many other Schenectadians, Symon may have had several sources of income--perhaps he did some farming; perhaps he did some trading in beaver pelts. Though the English extended the monopoly in fur trade to Albany, that the Dutch had given to Beverwyck before them, the prohibition against trading in furs was largely ignored in Schenectady. The little settlement on the Mohawk River continued to have a natural advantage, being the western-most town that Iroquois bringing in their furs would reach first. It was also a natural point of departure for the "boslopers," Dutch hunter/fur traders who ventured far into Indian country to hunt furs themselves and/or contact groups of Indians coming in to trade furs. Giving them presents to entice them, the boslopers acted as agents for fur traders in the towns, steering Indians to their clients/partners, sometimes brokering deals in the woods. So aggressive were their tactics, often, that emissaries of the Iroquois tribes more than once registered complaints with the English authorities that boslopers were forcing goods on fur laden Indians and even beating them if they failed to respond favorably. The fact that Symon Schermerhorn was mentioned in plans by former Governor Dongan to set up trading expeditions with western Indians suggests he may have been actively involved in the fur trade. Whatever the nature of his business, Symon was successful enough that he owned several slaves, three he reported killed in the 1690 massacre.

N. Church St., near Front St., Schenectady

We probably will never know the exact circumstances of Symon Schermerhorn's escape from the burning town. Like many other townspeople, he was able to escape in the snow and the darkness during the mayhem of the attack. Perhaps his three slaves created a diversion that enabled him to mount his horse and escape. Perhaps they unbarred and opened the south gate -- the one the attackers had been unable to find in the dark, through which he probably escaped. We do know, however, he escaped in a fusillade of musket fire and was struck in the hip. His horse was also hit and later died from blood loss and exhaustion. We know that when he escaped the stockade he had two choices before him. He could have taken the more direct cart road (King's Highway) to Albany some 15 miles through the largely unpopulated pine barrens. Or he could have taken the winding River Road, some 20 miles, and alert the families in homesteads along the river. In spite of his and his horse's injuries he chose the longer River Road. As the snows piled up he rode some five hours spreading the alarm along this route, not stopping until he reached the gates of Albany to deliver his warning, before collapsing.
 

NYS 5, State St., Corner of Ferry St.

After the attack, many of the survivors returned to their burned out town. Reyer returned to work his farm, labeled on an early map, as Bouwery Number 4 on the flat lands along the Mohawk in front of Schenectady . He promoted and managed a project for harvesting timber for masts and spars for the King's Navy, hauling the timber to the Mohawk, to float them down the river, over the Cohoes falls and down the Hudson where they were to be taken aboard ship for England. He returned as a member of the provincial assembly from Schenectady and village magistrate, a position he was appointed to, the result of his support of Jacob Leisler's government. He continued as a leader of the pro-Leisler faction in Schenectady, surviving his leader who was hung but later exonerated by Parliament. By the end of his life he had become one of the three wealthiest men in Schenectady with an estate valued at over 100 Pounds. (The average estate was less than 25 pounds.) 
 
Many other survivors, however, did not return. Symon was one of these. Symon survived his wound, and moved to New York City. He became the operator of a sloop on the Hudson, transporting cargo between Albany and Manhattan until his death in 1697.
 

  

 Marker of the Week -- ...so the first Meeting of the "First Ever Temperance 
                                                     Organization" was held WHERE (?!)

NYS 32, Gansevoort

     

It Happened Here-- In Sir William's Footsteps

Part 2 Will Gilliland

William Gilliland, (he preferred to be called Will) was a well educated, charming young man living in Ireland. When his father died,  his family was thrown into difficult, if not dire financial straits.  But it was an affair with a young lady of the Irish nobility that caused him to leave Ireland when her family objected and pressured him, (or worse) to desist.  Will escaped into the British army and served for four years in the 35th Regiment of Foot during the French and Indian War.  The Regiment was garrisoned at Fort William Henry and it was there he undoubtedly learned of Sir William Johnson.

Sir William, an Irishman, of modest means, like himself  had made a fortune in the wilderness, establishing himself on a vast manor surrounded by his tenant farmers, mills and cottage industries.

Discharged in 1758 in Philadelphia, Will found work in a New York mercantile firm, and soon charmed his way into the life of Elizabeth Phagen, an orphan and the ward of one of his senior business associates. He married the 'beautiful and accomplished' Miss Phagen who fortuitously came with an estate of 1,500 Pounds.

 With the end of the French and Indian War came the promise of soldiers land bounties* and the nullification of French land titles on land below the 45th parallel (the present NY/Canada border).  Sometime after his marriage, Gilliland moved his business interests to Albany which had become something of a hot bed for land speculation. By April 1763 he was advertising in the Irish newspapers for farmers to come to America to be his tenants and in September that year he met with Sir William Johnson at Johnson Hall.  Johnson recommended he purchase land along the west shore of Lake Champlain, above Crown Point.  He must have been impressed by the young man for he remained his friend and in 1770  secured for him an appointment as a Civil Magistrate for northern Albany County, which then included the Champlain Valley (!).

Rte. 22, Willsboro

 In 1764 Gilliland applied for and received a land bounty of 2000 acres for himself and soon was assisting other veterans in applying for their land bounties, which he, by pre-agreement, would buy from them. Eventually he would own 50,000 acres. In May 1765, leaving his family in New York, he left with a party of fourteen--a clergyman, carpenters, millwrights, weavers, servants, some of their wives and a slave to build a community on the Bouquet River.  With him he took livestock, and eighty barrels of supplies and building materials. Along the way, in Albany and towns farther north he recruited additional tenants. Known as Milltown at first, Gilliland would later name it Willsborough Falls (after himself) and later it would be shortened to Willsboro.

Rte 9, South of Plattsburgh

Also that year, Gilliland negotiated purchase of the land bounty of Lt. John Friswell who had surveyed his 2000 acre claim around the mouth of the Salmon River, where it empties into Lake Champlain, and the adjacent Stuart patent, a 2000 acre parcel in what would become the Town of Peru. On the Salmon River property he would founded the town of Janesboro, named after his daughter. Another purchase was made on Cumberland head, a promontory north of what would become the city of Plattsburgh. He named it Charlottesboro after another of his daughters. Additional settlements were laid out--Elizabeth, named for his wife and daughter--a town that became Essex; and Bessboro, later Westport, named for his third daughter.

The following year, the first significant threat to Will Gilliland's growing empire occurred. Count Charles DeFredenburgh, a German nobleman with ties to the British royal household received a grant of 30,000 acres around the Saranac river, where he built a house and a mill.  Fearful that DeFredenburgh's claims would override his own, Gilliland gathered a party of workmen, armed them to the teeth and marched north.  In three days they constructed a house, his "Possession House", in the heretofore unoccupied Janesboro and headed to the Saranac where they presented their claims to DeFredenburgh and warned him against trespassing. At the beginning of the Revolution, DeFredenburgh, a Loyalist, retreated with his family to the safety of Montreal.  During the war he returned to find his house and mill in ashes. Shortly after, Defredenburgh disappeared, never to be seen again. It is thought he may have been murdered for the silver plate and valuables he was thought to have hidden before fleeing to Montreal.

FIRST BUILDING
ERECTED IN THIS SETTLEMENT
STOOD HERE IN 1767.
IT WAS THE HOME OF
COUNT CHARLES DE FREDENBURGH
Location: AT INTERSECTION OF BRIDGE AND CHARLOTTE STS.
 PLATTSBURGH

Rte 9, South of Plattsburgh

 

 The war years saw a disastrous decline in Will Gilliland's fortunes.  Hungry rebel forces ransacked his properties for food and clothing and any saleable items and escaping Loyalists, heading north burned houses and mills.  When General Burgoyne's invading army camped on the Bouquet river in the spring of 1777, Willsborough was abandoned.

 Gilliland was an early supporter of the rebellion, active in its early planning stages and claimed to have proposed the attack on Ticonderoga to Allen and Arnold. He also claimed to have suggested a compromise to both men when feuding broke out between them. Present at the attack of Ticonderoga, he was one of the many left behind when sufficient numbers of boats could not be found to carry the American army across to attack the fort. 

But Gilliland was also a friend and confident of Philip Skene, a developer like himself who plotted for the creation of a new colony encompassing both shores of Lake Champlain and lands from the border, to Connecticut on the eve of the Revolution.  Skene became known as an infamous Tory, and Gilliland's association with him undoubtedly hurt him.

 A signer of the 1775 Declaration of Principals, written at Crown Point, Gilliland was one of several signers condemned by the Governor of Canada, and had a $500 reward posted for his capture.

Later the Sheriff of Tryon County with a small group of Tories and Indians would attempt to kidnap him, only to be captured by Gilliland and imprisoned at Crown Point, themselves.

In the summer of 1776, Benedict Arnold improvised a small fleet to try to oppose a British invasion led by Governor Carleton. One of the ships landed in Willsboro and commandeered food and supplies. Gilliland angrily fired off a letter to Arnold and his superiors, denouncing his actions and impugning his character. Arnold fired back accusing Gilliland of being unpatriotic and a Tory sympathizer.  The charges would dog him throughout the war. Condemned by the British and distrusted by the Americans, several times Gilliland would be taken into custody and held for months at a time while his business interests languished and his properties lay wrecked and abandoned.

Will Gilliand survived the war but slid into increasing debt.  When a Massachusetts law firm brought him to court for non-payment of a debt he felt was unjustified, he refused to pay and was hauled off to debtors prison for nearly six years from 1786 to 1791. In 1789, in a curious bit of defiance, he had a portrait painted of himself, while in prison by the well known portrait artist Ralph Earl (also, a former inmate). He gazes out from his portrait, a cultured man, smiling slightly with a trace of wistfullness, a trace of deviousness, a trace of resolve, his hand pointing to a document as if to say "It is what is." 

Rte 9, South of Plattsburgh

By the time he was released some form of dementia had begun to set in. Some of his properties were saved by "gifting" them to his children.  He went to live with one of his daughters in Willsboro, but insisted in taking long walks to examine "his" properties, which in reality, were no longer his. In 1796, on one of his long walks he became disoriented, lost in a snowstorm, and died.

In 1798 residents of Pleasant Valley, Essex County renamed their town Elizabethtown in honor of Gilliland's wife and daughter.

Rte 22, South of Willsboro

 COON MOUNTAIN
NEAR THE NORTHERN BASE OF THIS
MOUNTAIN, WILLIAM GILLILAND,
EARLY PIONEER OF CHAMPLAIN
VALLEY, MET HIS TRAGIC
DEATH IN 1796
Location: ON NYS 22 ABOUT 1 MILE NORTH OF WADHAMS

(NYSHM missing)

















*Land bounties were a way for the Crown to help pay monies owed soldiers and encourage trained soldiers to settle the frontier, organize into militia and protect the colonies from the threat of Indian attack.


 Marker of the Week -- "Mother Lake"

Washington St., next to Riverfront Center, Amsterdam

Her first day on the job Lenora Barry earned $0.11, and that week $0.65, at Pioneer Hosiery an Amsterdam factory where she was paid piece-rate, and often worked twelve hour days. She had been forced to go to work to support her children after her husband, William Barry had died, probably from lead poisoning he had contracted on the job as a painter.  In 1882  she took a manufacturing job because state law forbade her from returning to teaching, as a married woman. Two years later Lenora joined the Knights of Labor. She rose steadily in its ranks becoming a "master workman" representing one thousand workers, then was elected as the "General Investigator" for the Knights of Labor, taking charge of the Working Women's division. She became the first paid woman investigator and organizer; she was on the road continuously, speaking, investigating and writing reports about labor conditions. A direct result of her efforts was the country's first factory inspection law passed in Philadelphia in 1889.  She retired from professional labor organizational activities when she married Obediah Lake, a newspaper publisher in 1890 but "Mother Lake" continued to speak out and give lectures until 1928, at age 78.  Happy Labor Day.