Wednesday, September 19, 2018






It Happened Here--The Palatines
Part 1, the Tar makers


Robert Hunter must have felt quite pleased with himself as he left Britain to return to America early in 1710.  He had put together a plan to address two of Britain's most pressing problems, successfully presented it to the Board of Trade and gotten the Queen's approval.  One of his major political supporters in America stood to profit significantly from it and hoped to populate his long nearly-vacant manor with tenant farmers.  And Robert Hunter was returning as the new governor of New York--New Jersey.

The two problems Hunter's plan addressed stemmed from two long wars, the "War of the Grand Alliance" and the "War of Spanish Succession" that spanned the period of 1684 to 1713.  During that period German peasants in the patchwork of tiny duchies and principalities along the lower Rhine (known collectively as the Palatinate) were driven first one way and then another by French armies and alliances of German forces, sometimes aided by the British. Crops and towns were burned, suspected partisans were put to the sword, and once prosperous farmers were impoverished by high taxes and the requisitioning of crops and livestock by occupying armies. The chaotic succession of rulers also demanded the populace follow first, Reformed, then Lutheran religious practises and back again, followed by Roman Catholic rites and beliefs.  To add to their difficulties Europe was then in the grip of what today is recognized as the "little ice age" that caused winters to be long, summers to be wet and cold and livestock to perish and crops to rot or freeze.  By early 1709 many desperate peasants had had enough and were on the move, down the Rhine to Amsterdam. At first the government of the Queen looked favorably on these, their Protestant brethren and with government and private charity enabled them to come to England. But soon the stream of refugees became a torrent! Thirteen thousand of the poorest, sickest people poured into southeast England and tent cities sprang up around London. What to do with all these people? A few thousand were transported to Ireland but many soon returned to the London area. Some were transported to the Carolinas, but it was said agents of some of the patent-holders there were making the situation worse by recruiting peasants in the Palatinate. A small group led by Rev. Joshua Kocherthal directly petitioned the Queen and were successfully settled in a town they called Neuberg (Newburgh) along the Hudson. But transportation to America was expensive.   How to pay for it?

NEW BURGH
SETTLED 1709, BY EXILES FROM
RHINE PALATINATE, OUSTED BY
FRENCH, GRANTED LAND HERE
BY QUEEN ANNE; LED BY PASTOR,
JOSHUA DE KOCKERTHAL

--originally on Rte 32, Newburgh

A second problem emerged from the wars. The British Navy burgeoned as demands to protect a growing mercantile fleet grew. Sturdy English oak could provide the ribbing and planking for new British ships.  But tall, straight, strong, supple pine spars and masts could only be obtained abroad, and with them pine tar and "pitch."  Pine tar was an essential waterproofing product used by shipbuilders and mariners.  Mixed with hemp fibers (oakum) it was hammered into the spaces between hull planks to prevent leaks. Coating standing rigging (shrouds, ratlines), it prevented rotting of these essential support components. (Pine tar could be used to waterproof sailors' clothing and "Taring" and caulking were such essential maintenance tasks that British sailors were often called "tars".)  Pitch was a sticky processed pine tar that hardened into a glossy waterproof shell. Collectively these were known as "naval stores." The pine forests bordering the Baltic Sea had been traditional sources of these naval stores but the wars had dramatically increased their cost, and revealed how vulnerable the supply lines were to these areas.

A third problem confronted Robert Livingston, a Hunter supporter in America*. Livingston had been granted a Royal Patent and "purchased" the land from the local Indians. He had hoped to develop a patroonship like the Van Rensselaers,  populated by tenant farmers, paying annual "quit-rents" to him and his family in perpetuity.  But Livingston got few takers. There were other places in New England,  the Jerseys, and the Carolinas where settlers could buy their land out-right, develop it as they saw fit and sell it with their improvements at its' market value. Livingston was not making money on his investment.
Palatine Park Rd., Germantown
Robert Hunter's plan was to transport some 3000 Palatines to the shores of the Hudson River and settle them in two camps. There they would produce tar for the British government and work off the costs of their transportation to America. (As an inducement each family was promised 30 acres of land after they had worked off the costs of the voyage, but in fact no such land was set aside for this payment.)  Robert Livingston sold the project a parcel of land, the "East Camp" and nearby pine stands. Livingston was contracted to be the victualer for the camps, producing daily quantities of bread and "ship's beer" for the workers. He also hoped that while some of the immigrants would continue to work producing pine tar, others could be induced to sign life-leases on his manor.  (German peasants would become American peasants!)  A second camp on the opposite side of the river, "West Camp" was established on land that the colony's assembly had taken back from its original patentee Capt. John Evans.  Rev. Joshua Kockerthal, from the Newburgh settlement became the spiritual leader and spokesman for the West Campers.
  • WEST CAMP (sign missing)
    SETTLED 1710 BY PALATINES
    FROM THE RHINELAND FOR
    PRODUCTION OF NAVAL STORES.
    BUILT CHURCH AND SCHOOL
    DURING FIRST WINTER.
    Location: US 9W AT WEST CAMP
Rte 9W. West Camp
 By coincidence, in 1710, Peter Schuyler, Mayor of Albany and a delegation from New York were in London attempting to appeal to Parliament and the Queen for more support to counter raids by the French and their Indian allies. To garner maximum attention, he brought along three Mohawk and two Mohican sachems (chiefs). Though one died on the voyage, the remaining four, dressed in native costume caused a sensation in London. They were shown around the city, wined and dined, had their portraits painted and got an audience with the Queen. On one of their sight-seeing trips they encountered the "poor Palatines" in one of their tent encampments.  On meeting with the Queen, one of the Mohawk chiefs offered them their hunting grounds in the Schoharie Valley, to which the Queen assented.   The Palatines seized on this as if it were their God-given promised land. Going to "Scorie" became the dream of the first generation of immigrants.**

Rte 30, Middleburgh





About three thousand Palatines set out with Robert Hunter in ten ships. The Palatines, while recovering from the effects of their long, disease-ridden ocean voyage, in which some 470 died, built their settlements--four villages (Dorfs) in the East Camp and three in the West Camp.  They quickly established churches and schools and began learning the trade of tar making.

Rte 9, Germantown

Colony leaders had hired an "expert," John Bridger to teach the Palatines tar-making.  He worked briefly with them, then returned to New England and found excuses not to return to New York, perhaps realizing but not willing to tell authorities that the Hudson pine tar project was likely to fail.
Rte. 9, Germantown





In colonial times, pine tar was made by digging a conical shaped pit, with clay channels at the bottom leading to a collection barrel. It was filled with specially prepared pine trees and branches, stacked to drain into the clay channels. Covered with a layer of soil and mosses, a fire was built on top. Over a period of days, the pine logs would be converted to charcoal and and the pine tar boiled out of them, to be collected in the barrel at the bottom. Too cool or too hot a fire could result in either a disappointing yield, or a flaming disaster. To yield maximum tar,  channels needed to be cut in the logs, through the outer bark into the inner bark, but not into the wood itself, (not unlike traditional techniques for collecting latex from rubber trees.)
Counter intuitively, the most tar could be produced, not from green wood but from trees that had been cut, grooved and seasoned for about two years. Unfortunately,  the Palatine peasants, farmers and vine-dressers knew almost none of this. Disappointments alternated with disasters and after a year almost no pine tar had been produced. Discouragement set in as the Palatines realized what hard, filthy dirty work they were condemned to.  And there was another factor--most pine tar was produced from Pitch Pines and closely related species. The White Pines of Livingston's forests were a poor source for pine tar.

The pine tar project on the Hudson had been almost certainly doomed to failure from its conception. Governor Hunter had to send soldiers to quell the growing dissatisfaction in the camps and to keep the Palatines working. Support dried up with a change of governments from Whig to Tory.  One of Hunter's predecessors, a political enemy who hated Livingston,  Edward Hyde--Lord Cornbury did everything in his power to sabotage the project. Governor Cornbury had been recalled in disgrace to London in 1708,  but after a few years had managed to restore himself to the Queen's favor after inheriting his father's title Earl of Clarendon.  As Secretary of the Treasury he blocked all funding for the Palatine tar making project, denying reimbursement of Hunter's expenses.  By September 1712 Hunter was at the end of his financial resources and was forced to set the Palatines loose to fend for themselves to "accept any employment from farmers and others in this Province or New Jersey, until recalled by Proclamation" to return to the project. (They never were.)

Next week-- The Palatines, Part 2 Diaspora

Addenda--
Back on  12/31/14 I wrote an article It Happened Here -- N.Y.'s Ghost Towns.    Recently I came across another striking example of a "New York Ghost town" a short distance south of Rte  20 in 
   Otsego County.


    




Corner Butternut Rd. and Cemetery Rd.
Richfield Springs





Federal Corners rated not
one, but two NYSHMs 
Federal Corners, today.

*see "It Happened Here--the Tough, Wiley Scotsman and his Diligent Vrouw". New York State Historical MarkersIt Happened Here  6/30/13

**It turns out this Mohawk sachem had absolutely no authority to offer this land.  Domestic issues were the province of the clan mothers, not male warriors and could only be reached by consensus of them all.  Indeed, all matters were reached by consensus/compromise. If an individual/family and the clan were at loggerheads the only recourse was for the dissenters to move away. Throughout Iroquoia there were scattered villages of dissenters, often with peoples from different clans and even different tribes. Onaquaga was one of these. (see "Lost Towns of the Revolution." New York State Historical Markers:  It Happened Here  8/7/16) The Schoharie Valley had at least two. The main one was called Wilder Hook by Dutch settlers and was a village of mainly Mohawk dissenters. Another village was predominantly Mohegan.  Mohawks, Mohegans, Tuscororas, and Delawares could all be found there. The possibly even exists that that the sachem had not even offered Schoharie to the Palatines, but merely cited the Schoharie Valley as an example of how his people dealt with other people who did not fit in. We will probably never know.









































































































        






































Monday, September 3, 2018







It Happened Here--The New York-New Jersey Line War 
   
A Hamlet, SE of Rochester, 1/3 mi. S of I-90!
 Boundary disputes were common between the colonies in early American history. Colonial charters were often the origin of these disputes, as the result of poor maps, calculated deceptions, and the indifference of British monarchs who were ignorant of geographic realities but eager to discharge debts and solidify support among their friends and political supporters by granting them lands in the American wilderness, (never mind the rights of Native-American inhabitants.)  Thus, Connecticut would claim a swath of territory from a line roughly extending from its border with Massachusetts, and from islands in Narragansett bay,  excluding the territory settled by the Dutch in New York, to the South Sea--the Pacific Ocean!  She continued to maintain her rights of ownership within this band in Ohio (called the Western Reserve) until the United States incorporated it in the Northwest Territory.   Massachusetts, similarly, claimed the territory within the parallels of her north and south border, beyond New York settlement, west to Lake Erie. The dispute with New York was settled in the Treaty of Hartford, in 1786 when Massachusetts gave up her rights to govern the territory, but secured her "preemption rights"- the right to sell the land to speculators, once they had negotiated a sale with the Iroquois. William Penn's charter was granted to settle a debt owed by Charles II to Penn's father. It  included a  grant of land west of the New York Colony north to the 43d parallel. The Pennsylvania proprietorship maintained its claim to this area until 1774

The problem was exacerbated by the granting/selling of "patents" to individuals by colonial governors.  A patent was the exclusive right to develop/settle a large parcel of land either by sharing it with partners, retailing it to individual farmers (the New England mode) or settling it with tenant farmers, charged annual "quit-rents" (the Hudson Valley/Dutch/New York mode.) Frequently these patents overlapped. On the New York/ Hampshire Grants (Vermont) border the title to lands were sold by New Hampshire Governor Benning Wentworth, in the same area tenants were being settled on the land by New York's Phillip Schuyler. New England farmers found their properties threatened by New York sheriffs; the New Englanders formed a vigilante force led by Ethan Allen, the "Green Mountain Boys."

The New York/New Jersey border problems originated in the charter given by Charles II to two of his political supporters.  With the cleaving off of east and west New Jersey from New York, a northern border needed to be defined. The King's charter specified a borderline running from where the 41st parallel crosses the Hudson River, to 41 degrees 40 minutes "along said River or Bay (the Delaware) to the northward as far as the northward most branch of the said Bay or River." Unfortunately, there is no northern-most branch of "said River" anywhere near where the 41 degree 40 minute parallel crosses the Delaware.  This gave New Yorkers an excuse to challenge the borderline and for  a succession of New York governors  to aggressively issue patents in the hopes of creating a defacto border favoring New York.

Beginning in 1701 farmers around Mahackemeck (Port Jervis,  today) and the Peenpack valley began increasingly serious squabbles over land.

Rte 209, N end of Port Jervis
In 1719 New York's governor Hunter and the New Jersey legislature agreed to actually survey a line between the Delaware at 41deg. 40min and the Hudson end of the line. After a contentious few months the surveyors reported on their efforts, identifying the western end of the line near the Indian village of Casheightouch (now Cohecton, NY.) but not near any "northward most branch" of any river.

Rte 209 between Huguenot and Port Jervis

Rather than settle the issue, the survey inflamed the situation as competing farmers from New Jersey and New York fought over who had legitimate title to their land.  To make matters worse, farmers found they might be subject to taxes or quitrents from both colonies, and be required to participate in local militias from both Orange County, NY and Sussex County, NJ!  By 1720 the dispute had started to get violent with the families of Thomas and Jacobus Swartwout of New York and John and Nicholis Westfall, of New Jersey regularly getting into fights and burning each other's crops. Men regularly carried arms, and women pitchforks as they went about their daily chores.

Rte 97@line w/Sullivan Co.
Major Jacobus Swartwout, an officer of the Orange County militia, was, according to tradition, a large, bellicose and outspoken man who became a lighting rod for Jerseymen opposition. One night following a period of braggadocios ranting a group of Jerseymen crept up on the Major's house, bodily throwing the major and his family out into the cold while they consumed the Major's beer, spirits and victuals. The Major rallied local Orange County militiamen who retook the house allowing the Major to (literally) kick the intruders out.

Another family legend speaks of a confrontation between Jacobus Swarthwout and  Johannes Westfall in a pumpkin patch. During the escalating argument Swarthwout indignantly turned his back on Westfall.  The Jerseyman grabbed a large pumpkin and sent it crashing down on Swarthwout's head. The surprised and stunned major, lying on the ground, covered in pumpkin "gore" cried out, "I am killed and my brains spilled!"

Rte 209, 1/2 way between Huguenot,Port Jervis
A more serious episode occurred when a large group of armed Jerseymen led by a constable from Sussex County attempted to arrest Harmanus Van Inwegen, brother-in-law of Jacobus Swarthout for his part in the disturbances. An Orange County "spy"among the Jerseymen warned Colonel Swartwout of the armed posse. Swartwout mobilized most of his kin and neighbors forming a battle line near Van Inwegen's house to block the approach of the posse with Van Inwegen commanding the left wing of the line and Jacob Cuddeback commanding the right.  Both the New Yorkers and the Jerseymen had expected to overawe their opponents with their numbers and neither were prepared for deadly combat.  Both sides angrily eyed each other, for an embarrassingly long period of time, with neither side willing to take the first action. Finally a bewildered son of Jacobus Swartwout asked his father, loudly enough so the other side could hear them, should they shoot at them, or over their heads?  The old Colonel bellowed "Kill Them!" The vehemence of his words shocked the Jerseymen whose line broke and they retreated.
Swartwout raced ahead with some of his men, catching the Jerseymen in a ravine. Poorly aimed shots were exchanged with the constable's horse being the only fatal casualty.


Site of the "battle", unmentioned on this sign.
Rte 209, N of Huguenot





For a few years confrontations between neighbors subsided as the French and Indian War descended on the Delware and Peenpack valleys. Half a dozen houses were fortified, some with palisades around them, and designated as places of refuge.



               A Jerseymen's fort in Mahackemeck (Port Jervis)














  The Gumaer Family came to the Peenpack Valley with the Swarthouts, 
 They were neighbors and allies. Rte 209 between Huguenot and Godeffroy






The Westbrooks also came with the Swarthouts
The house is still a private residence. 
Rte 209 @ Westbrook 







Indians attacking the fort in1756 were surprised to find a 
large group of militiamen visiting the house. A vicious hand to hand fight ensued with fatalities on both sides before the Indians fled. Two years later a second skirmish (described) occurred here.
Rte. 209 1/2 way between Huguenot and Port Jervis




As French and Indian fears subsided, tensions between the settler factions increased.  In 1765 the Jersey faction struck the next blow. Their plan was to apprehend Jacobus Swartwout and Capt. Johannes Westbrook as they emerged from church to deliver them to the authorities in Sussex. (Church had become something of a tense ordeal with New Yorkers in some pews, suspiciously eyeing Jersymen in other pews across the aisle.)  The Jerseymen, out of  respect for the Sabbath  carried no arms, hoping their strength in numbers would persuade Swartwout and  Westbrook         that resistance was futile.  When church adjourned for the noonday meal break, they attempted to arrest Swartwout and Westbrook.  A wild melee broke out in the church yard, with no fatalities but much blood shed. Swartwout and Westbrook were eventually arrested and taken to Sussex only to be released a few weeks later.
                                                                                           Maghaghkamik Church, built
                                                                                           1743 on this site, was
                                                                                           burned in raid by Joseph
                                                                                           Brant’s Mohawks and Tories,
                                                                                           July 20, 1779.

                                                                                           E. Main St., by St. Mary's Cemetery
   
News of the donnybrook on the church lawn, on the Sabbath, quickly reached the capitals of both colonies and shocked the legislatures into finally agreeing to settle the dispute. Though more pressing business side-lined the issue until 1767,  joint commissions that included Benjamin Franklin and John Jay, were appointed. Political wrangling, other business and problems in travel would delay the commission's final settlement until 1773 when a new compromise border was established, beginning at the 41 degree line on the Hudson and ending where the Neversink creek enters the Delaware, south east of Port Jervis.
                                                                                        





Maj.Jacobus Swartout marker--mentions the "infamous kodnapping"  
Rte. 209. Deer Park, near town hall






Uncle Sam Park, River St., Troy
Marker of the Week-- Labor day 2018.  For some reason there appear to be few NY historic markers whose subject is historic Labor Leaders or milestones in Labor Progress.  Perhaps this is because of the tendency for Labor history to be made mainly in big cities, where NYSHMs are rare, or made mainly in the 20th century, not commonly the time period focus of NYSHMs, or perhaps it reflects the biases of the creators of historic markers and traditional popularizers of history that relegate "Labor history" to a subordinate role in history.  Whatever the case, "Labor NYSHMs" are pretty hard to come by. So I will bend the "rules", today, to include a monument, not a sign, for a man, a labor leader, a socialist, and an Irish revolutionary who lived briefly in Troy.



















references: wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_–_New_Jersey_Line_War
                   Swartwout, Charles H.  "Keynote Speech, Swarthout 2000 Family Reunion".   swarthoutfamily.org/Reunion/speech2001.htm.   The shortage of readily available information on the "NY/NJ Line Wars"combined with some fascinating detail relayed by someone who has some familiarity with the topic leads me to believe their must be more interesting stories to research and tell, beyond the scope of a weekly blog written many miles away. What, for example, could the 18th century Westfalls tell us about their side of the "war"?