It Happened Here -- A Man of "Public Usefulness"

 and "Private Worth"

The headstone of Jedediah Peck displays the epitaph, "The annals of the State bear record of his public usefulness, and the recollection of virtues bear testimony of his private worth."

Jedediah Peck was born on a family farm in 1748 in Lyme Connecticut and learned to read and write from his mother and during brief attendance to a local common school when he was a child. He went to sea in his late teens or early twenties, returning in 1771 to discover both parents and two brothers and a sister had died in his absence.   Deeply depressed, Peck threw himself into the study and memorization of large parts of the bible, becoming an eloquent, if unpolished, writer, orator, and unaffiliated evangelical preacher. He enlisting for four years in the Continental Army, and in 1790 he moved to Burlington, New York, in Otsego County.  Peck's outspokenness  soon brought him to the attention of Judge William Cooper, founder of Cooperstown and a major landowner/developer in Otsego. Peck became the first Town Supervisor of Burlington and soon after, Cooper supported his appointment as an associate Judge in the Court of Common Pleas of Otsego County.  (In the early days of the Republic, formal legal training counted for less than confidence that the men who were candidates for judge-ships possessed good morals, intelligence, and abundant common sense.)

NYS 80, west of Salamacha Rd., Burlington

While the American Revolution had been a triumph for democracy, the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation pointed to the need for greater centralization and power in a national government that would be outlined by the Constitution. Those supporting this movement became known as Federalists. Both Cooper and Peck saw themselves as Federalists, but over time, this would change for Peck.

A continuing  legacy of British rule was the notion that the higher offices of government should be dominated by "gentlemen," men of "good breeding" whose manners, successful accumulation of wealth,  formal educations, and connections to other "gentlemen" would guarantee they would be good and judicious rulers. The common man's roll in this was to choose between "gentlemen", then defer to their "superior judgment" once they were in office.  Federalists, by in large, supported this contention, and some federalists, like William Cooper struggled mightily to aspire to the ranks of "gentlemen."

Between River & Prospect Sts., Rte 20, Richfield Sprs.*

Elected to the State Assembly in 1798, Peck found himself at increasing odds with the Federalists and his mentor, William Cooper. As attacks from the "gentleman" legislators, who looked down Peck as a common man, (small farmer, carpenter, surveyor, millwright and preacher) multiplied, Peck increasingly cast himself as the friend of the common man. Unlike his gentlemanly enemies who pretended to be aloof from the "degrading business" of electioneering, Peck actively campaigned for public office. Instead of campaigning through a host of surrogates, Peck campaigned in person and door to door--activities that dovetailed nicely with his profession/calling as an evangelical preacher.  Instead of promoting himself as an honorable gentleman in whose hands the electorate could responsibly leave matters of governance, Peck advocated specific issues and positions he would promote as a legislator that would favor the farmer and the tradesman.  Instead of writing private letters to surrogates, coyly revealing the gentleman-candidate's character and dispositions, meant to be shared by his surrogates to members of the public,  Peck boldly wrote letters and position papers and published them in local papers. Through them he attempted to portray himself not as a "father" to his constituents as Cooper did, but as a "servant" of the people.  Proudly acknowledging his roots, he signed many of them, "the Plough-Jogger.**" Jedediah Peck became one of a new group of politicians, practicing a new kind of politics, that would sweep into power in the 1790's, and become known as the Democratic-Republicans.

In 1798 as the revolutionary government in France became more radical and aggressive toward other nations and it appeared that the United States was drifting into an undeclared war with Jacobin France, the Federalists worried that political dissension would hamper the Country's efforts to defend itself.  Congress passed the Sedition Act of 1798. Following its passage many critical newspapers were forcibly closed and several outspoken critics of the Adams presidency were arrested.  Jedediah Peck reacted by writing and circulating a petition calling for Congress to repeal the law.  Judge Cooper had him arrested under the act and he was brought to to New York City (then capital of N.Y.) for trial. The five day spectacle of this small, humble and aging man being brought in chains for attempting to petition his government helped galvanized opposition to the law and helped sweep Thomas Jefferson into power. Peck was released, and the law was allowed to expire in 1800.

Burgeoning success!  Rte 443, Berne at High School

Peck was a member of the New York assembly from 1798 to 1804 and the New York State Senate from 1804 to 1808. He sponsored bills to divide the state into election districts to facilitate the election of state Senators by the people, rather than by the legislature, and for the popular election of presidential electors. Ahead of their time, the measures died in the Senate. Another bill to do away with debtors prison for those who fell behind in their debts, except in cases of fraud was successful. But Peck's most important legacy was legislation that established the common school system. Peck declared-- 'Knowledge in the people is absolutely necessary to support Representative Government, but ignorance in them overthrows it.'  Putting forth unsuccessful bills in 1800, 1803 and 1804 it would not be until 1811, after Peck retired, that Governor Daniel Tompkins asked the Burlington farmer to head a commission to draft a law to facilitate public education. The Public Education Act of 1812 divided each township in New York into school districts and established a public fund to support each school district based on population, requiring local governments to match state monies. Local school boards would hire teachers and create facilities. It became his proudest achievement.  A year and a half before he died, the 72 year old "Plough-jogger" asked a new friend, and up-and-coming politician, Martin Van Buren, about the health of his state education fund and it effectiveness.

*This NYSHM paraphrases a quote of Levi Beardsley, Reminiscences; Personal and other Incidents; Early Settlement of Otsego County. (New York, 1852)
**A plough-jogger was a farmer who walked behind his plow, wrestling it to the left or right to avoid rocks and to keep it plowing a straight furrow.

Sources: Taylor, Alan.  William Cooper's Town:  Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic.
                         New York, 1995
               Wilder, Throop.  "Jedidiah Peck, Statesman, Soldier, Preacher." New York History,  vol. 22, no. 3, July 1941. 
                         pp. 290-300.

Marker of the Week --   Dependent on the Kindness of Strangers  

Many, if not most NYSHMs were erected 40 to 80+ years ago so many, if not all, the people who researched them, planned them, fund raised and erected them have passed on or at least are no longer active members of their communities, so when an accident or act of vandalism happens to these markers there is often no ready community to see that they are replaced/restored. Instead, they are dependent on the "kindness of strangers." Recently (7/28/16)  I passed the Leesville NYSHM whose picture I had taken on 7 /27/13.  Sadly,  it had suffered the fate of so many other NYSHMs. Hopefully it will find a community of strangers willing and able to restore it.                                                                    

It Happened Here--Lost Towns of the Revolution

Wars almost inevitably result in the disruption of lives, the destruction of towns and the mass displacement of peoples.  The American Revolution was no exception and nowhere was this disruption, destruction, and  displacement greater than on the frontier of  revolutionary New York and in Iroquoia.

 Early in the war the Iroquois maintained an uneasy neutrality toward what they viewed first as a "war between brothers"; but as the stakes and tempo of the war escalated in the summer of 1777 with the Burgoyne invasion of New York, the Iroquois nations succumbed to the blandishments of the King's and Rebel Indian agents.  Seneca and Mohawk forces became major combatants in an ambush of a rebel relief expedition headed toward Fort Stanwix, while a large contingent of Oneida warriors  accompanied General Herkimer's rebel force and became embroiled in the vicious fire fight that became known as the battle of Oriskany.

The following spring Mohawk Joseph Brant led the first small raids against the farming communities of Manheim and Ephrata in western Tryon county. Homes and farms were burned and a dozen captives were spirited away. From this, a pattern would develop in which  Tory raiders and their Indian allies would raid frontier farming communities, destroying farms and crops destined to feed Continental Armies, terrorizing the inhabitants to drive them in from the frontier, and obtaining a supply of captives that could provide leverage in dealings with the Rebel governments.  (As the war progressed, large numbers of prominent Tory sympathizers were rounded up and imprisoned, as well as an entire British army captured at Saratoga. Obtaining their release would become a major priority for the Crown.)

The summer of 1778 saw a raid in Cobleskill and farms burned in Broadalbin. On June 18th and
19th, Joseph Brant destroyed the villages of Springfield,  and Andrustown. Tory leader John Butler staged a major raid against the settlements in the Wyoming valley of Pennsylvania  on July 3d.  In September, Brant and (son) Walter Butler devastated the prosperous town of German Flatts, on the Mohawk. Sixty three houses, fifty nine barns and three grist mills were burned. Two hundred and thirty five horses, and ninety three oxen, two hundred and twenty nine "horned cattle", two hundred and seventy nine sheep were taken or killed.  Though the property loss was significant, only two lives were lost, thanks to the warning provided by scout John Adam Helmer that enabled the population of German Flatts to shelter in Forts Herkimer . (see my post of 3/24/13)  Though they were destitute,  the population was spared, and they began rebuilding almost immediately;  the following year planting resumed.

Andrustown Monument, Co. Rte 167, North of Jordanville

For Springfield and Andrustown reestablishment was less  certain. Springfield struggled on for years, becoming firmly re-established only with the arrival of the Great Western Turnpike (now U.S. 20) chartered in 1799.

Andrustown, in the rolling hills, eight miles south of German Flatts was settled by seven families of German Palatines. Its name, if you credit traditional sources, resulted from the corruption/distortion of its original name Hendersontown, named for its original patentee, a British Army surgeon named Henderson.  Several residents of the hamlet had fought in the battle of Oriskany.  After the battle, the seven families moved to the relative safety of German Flatts, but they continued to work their farms, going up from the Flatts, sometimes with armed escorts. Joseph Brant, his Indians and a force of Tories struck on a day when a group of farmers and their families were unescorted.  At least nine settlers were killed, including five who headed households and two women. Most were scalped. At the Bell farm, Frederick Bell Sr. was shot by an Indian through a window as he reached for his musket where it was hung on the rafters, while his son Frederick Bell Jr. was shot as he ran to catch a horse. His grandson, Frederick Bell III, age 8, was carried into captivity, where he was adopted by an Indian family. Ten years later he was returned to his surviving family, but by then had become so acculturated that he had great difficulty adapting to "civilized" life. He was said to have died at an early age from "melancholy".  Every house, barn and out-building was burned.  The lands continued to be farmed by the survivors and their descendants,  but Andrustown was never rebuilt, and passed into history.

Hicks Rd. (112) off of Co.Rte.167, cor. of Williams Rd., North

South of Paul Crim House,  Willams Rd., N.

 The Indian/Tory raids of the spring/summer of 1778 led to a retaliatory raid on two towns on the Susquehanna river, in what became south/central New York. Unadilla was a frontier town mostly populated by white settlers who held Loyalist sentiments. Ouaquaga (Onaquaga)* was an Indian town occupied by a mix of Indian peoples. Originally settled by Oneida Indians, it became home to Tuscarora, Shawnee, Mahican and Delaware peoples but was dominated by Mohawks. No primitive hamlet of mere bark wigwams and long houses, Ouaquaga was a town of 700, stretching across the Susquehanna.  American Lt. Col. William Butler declared Onaquaga, 'the finest Indian town I  ever saw' with more than forty 'good houses' of hewn logs, good floors, shingled roofs, stone chimneys, and "improvements" like those in European frontier settlements, along both shores.
                                                                                     


                    This cabin, Mary Jemison "White Woman of the Senecas",
                         (Letchworth State Park) built for her daughter, ca 1800.
                        The Ouaquaga houses must have looked much like this.
                   

 In the spring of 1777 Joseph Brant had settled his volunteer corp of Tories and Indians into Ouaquaga to establish it as a base for supply and recruitment.  In the end of May 1777 Brant, with seventy five of his men moved on Unadilla issuing an ultimatum to the inhabitants. They could either stay and declare their loyalty 
to the Crown and "volunteer " any supplies his troop required or they must go within eight days, taking with them only the provisions they could carry.  At the end of the eight days Brant's men ransacked the properties of those who had fled, and burned their buildings to the ground. 

Brant's Volunteers continued to use these towns as a base of operations until after their devastating raid on German Flatts.  With pressure building on General Washington to strike back, he ordered Lt. Col. William Butler of the 4th Pennsylvania Continental Regiment, garrisoned in the forts along the Schoharie Valley to attack the towns in October.  Indian scouts prevented  surprise and the towns' populations fled but Joseph Brant's forces, out on the warpath, were unaware of the attack until they returned to find their towns, their houses, mills, barns and store houses in ashes. The next year General James Clinton followed up with another attack that destroyed the buildings missed in the previous raid, and the buildings being rebuilt.

In the years following the Revolution Unadilla re-emerged as a town.  Some patriot families returned.  Newcomers arrived, and as nearly everywhere across New York, Tory properties were condemned by local governments to be resold or auctioned off.  Good farmland, and a strategic position on a small but important waterway, the Susquehanna,  favored Unadilla's survival. 

A NYSHM in Mayfield, Fulton Co. refers to a local commission for condemning Tory owned property and reselling it.

Riceville Rd., Mayfield

Ouaquaga, however, would not. After the war, many Indian families were reluctant to try to return to an area that was becoming populated by their former enemies, and where they knew they would not be welcomed.  But unlike former Tories, Indian peoples were legally considered sovereign, and could not be condemned as traitors and subject to forfeiture of their lands. So until treaties were negotiated and New York could arrange to buy the titles for their land, then sell it to land speculators (land wholesalers) who would in turn sell it to individual farmers--Ouaquaga languished  in a state of semi-abandoned limbo. Eventually the lands around Ouaquaga passed into the hands of individual farmers, and three settlements that developed became collectively  known as "Old Oquaga" but virtually all traces of the village and its former inhabitants had vanished. A state kiosk details the history of the area, but on a local NYSHM  created to mark an historic bridge, the Ouaquaga Bridge, the Indian town is mentioned only as an "Iroquois camp".

Doolittle Rd. south of
Rt. 79. south of Harpursville.
Broome County 

The fate of Ouaquaga was a fate shared by many Indian towns across the heart of Iroquoia. The month after the burning of Ouaquaga and Unadilla, Brant and Walter Butler retaliated by a brutal attack on Cherry Valley resulting in widespread destruction and the deaths of over thirty civilians. Over the winter George Washington and his generals would plan a massive invasion of Iroquoia that Washington hoped would knock  Britain's Iroquois allies out of the war or at least severely cripple them and force them into dependency on the British. The two armies of John Sullivan and James Clinton would meet at Tioga between the Chemung and Susquehanna rivers.  Their combined force of over 3000 would range north through Iroquoia sweeping all before it, burning every town and mill, orchard and field crop it came to. In less than two months over forty Indian villages were destroyed. Most would never be rebuilt, or re-inhabited.

By the mid 18th century, the largest, most powerful Iroquois people were the Seneca. One of their largest, most politically important Seneca towns was Kanadesega, also known as Seneca Castle.  Over forty well-built houses were surrounded by corn fields and orchards along the Kanadesega creek, a short distance from the foot of Seneca Lake, in the Finger Lakes. The British had fortified the town during the French and Indian War, and British agents made frequent visits to the town. Home to Sayenqueraghta, the second most influential war chief, after Joseph Brant, Kanadesega became a forward base for Maj. John Butler and his Rangers. After the Onondaga towns were destroyed, the Iroquois council fire, symbol of Iroquois unity, was moved to Kanadesaga. 

As the Sullivan/Clinton expedition approached Kanadesega in the first week of September 1779,  Indian and Tory forces in the town debated whether or not to make a stand at the town.  As Sullivan's Continental troops began to deploy around the town it became apparent to all of their overwhelming strength. When the Continental army entered the town they found their enemy had fled. Kanadesega, like so many Iroquois towns before it, was burned to the ground.

In 1788 a treaty transferred ownership of lands between Seneca Lake and the Genesee River from the Senecas to a partnership of Massachusetts investors (Phelps and Gorham). The properties passed through several hands and gradually the village of Geneva developed on the shore of Seneca Lake, eventually absorbing the abandoned Kanadesega.

From time to time groups and individuals in the 20th century remembered the town and left markers and monuments (including this NYSHM) to commemorate its existence. But, for the most part, the remains of Kanadesega slumber unnoticed underneath the cornfields, suburban housing, shopping malls, storage lockers and convenience store parking lots of suburban Geneva.

                             (All)   Co. Rte 4, near Preemption Rd, Geneva (Note the stone marker, behind the dumpster.)


*Because of the diversity of dialects of its inhabitants and because the Indian peoples living there had no written languages of their own, the town became known by a wildly confusing number of variants. According to Wikipedia, Ouaquaga was called Oneaquaga, Oughquagy, Onoaughquagey, Ononghquage, Auquauga, Anaquaga, Oughquogey, Anaquegha, Onaquaga, Aughquagee, Ochquaga, Aughquagey, Oquaca, Oguaga, Anaquaqua, Oquage, and Okwaha. Washington called the town Anaquaga.  Brant himself, called it Oghuago, and later Oghwage!

Marker of the Week --                                  

NY 414, near Hector

For a while the New York Highway Department, predecessor of the DOT,  joined in the enthusiasm for identifying historical sites with signs. Copies of this marker appeared in several locations, along with a couple other historical themed signs along other State roads.  Not to nit-pick, but it might seem that the Highway Dept. might have benefited from consulting an historian. Three years after the Declaration of Independence declared "That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States" many in Sullivan's army might have taken issue with their bodies politic being still called "colonies".  And while we are at it, since the Oneida Nation became and remained a faithful ally of the American rebels, it is hardly precise to speak of "War with the Six Nations".

It Happened Here--"Jemima said she had Died..."

Jemima said she had died when she emerged from the fever that had suddenly struck her during a local epidemic in 1776, in Cumberland, Rhode Island, where she lived with her father and twelve siblings.  But stranger still was her assertion that her soul had gone to heaven and her body was reanimated by the holy spirit and returned to earth to save souls in a dying world that would soon face the Apocalypse. Within a few weeks Jemima Wilkinson began preaching and traveling around southern New England and promoting her message of personal redemption and forgiveness of sins for all who renounced sin and asked for forgiveness. Her message was not unique, but rather an amalgam of Quaker theology, the religion she had been raised in, and  the "New Light" movement that was sweeping Revolutionary America, at this time*.

 While the message was not unique, the messenger certainly was.  Jemima refused to answer to her old name, maintaining she was now a new being, of neither male or female gender, to be called now the "Public Universal Friend". The "Friend," as she called herself, or sometimes, the "Comforter" began to dress in clerical garb -- usually a black clerical gown,  with  white facings, in the manner of   an Episcopal minister.  She wore her hair long, parted in the middle, in ringlets about her shoulders, as was the fashion of most ministers of the day; and never wore any sort of close linen cap, the almost universal convention of colonial women, who were not of the upper class. When she went outside she usually wore a low, broad-brimmed hat, typically worn by Quaker men. 

Within a couple years the Friend had gained a sizable following, including several wealthy New Englanders, one of who provided him/her and some of her/his brothers and sisters and closest followers with a large residence in Little Rest (Kingston), R.I. 

In 1782 the Friend began the first of a series of extended visits to Philadelphia and surrounding areas.The Comforter had had the most success attracting Quakers and former Quakers in Southern New England, so it was natural she/he would look to Pennsylvania, a fountainhead of American Quakerism for potential followers. Though large crowds were attracted to the Friend's early meetings, often a majority were curiosity-seekers attracted not so much by her/his message as by his/her appearance and the implied flaunting of gender-norms. Soon the local press was filled with a fierce public debate about the Friend and his/her group. Charges of impropriety, fraud, blasphemy and even crimes** were bandied about. 

By the mid 1780's the Friend had turned her major efforts from proselytizing to finding a "New Jerusalem" sanctuary for her/his flock and was looking to the New York frontier. An area west of Seneca Lake was chosen. 

Unfortunately, the New York frontier was not a sanctuary but a maelstrom of competing land claims, beginning with the fact that western New York had been granted to Massachusetts by colonial charter in 1628/9. The Massachusetts' claim was not settled until 1788 when an arbitration board ruled that the Bay State retained the "Pre-emptive right" to buy the land from the Indians to sell it to any speculators/developers but that New York had the right to govern the territory and, once developed, could tax improvements made on it. First to come forward was a partnership of Oliver Phelps and Nathan Gorham who bought 6 million acres of Iroquois land, promising to pay Massachusetts $300,000. But then, another group of investors, led by John Livingston arranged to lease 18 million acres from the Senecas, Cayuga, Oneidas and Onondagas in a 999 year lease. The first complication was that the  Phelps/Gorham purchase and the Livingston and Associates leases overlapped! The two groups of speculators worked this difficulty out by Livingston et.al.  giving Phelps and Gorham cash payments to buy more Indian land and to help meet their payments to Massachusetts.  Then New York Governor George Clinton and the NYS Assembly stepped in to put an end to the Livingston et. al. leasing scheme (which was in fact an infringement on Massachusetts pre-emption rights.) Payments to Phelps/Gorham stopped, settlement lagged and the partners could not meet their obligations to Massachusetts. Bankruptcy inevitably followed.

PREEMPTION LINE
BOUNDARY DRAWN BETWEEN
MASSACHUSETTS AND NEW YORK
DECEMBER 16, 1786
CAUSE OF LONG CONTROVERSY
IN WESTERN NEW YORK
Location: ON US 20 & NYS 5 AT WESTERN EDGE OF THE CITY (sign not found)

 

Several roads that follow the Pre-Emption
lines are named for that line. This one runs
along the western side of Geneva.


 As if these were not troubles enough, the Friend's followers built their settlement along the west shore of Seneca Lake, assuming the Pre-emption line, when surveyed, would run up the center of the lake.  To their horror they discovered, when it was surveyed, it ran several miles west of the lake, through their community, cutting off houses,  a new grist mill  and saw mill they had just constructed!  Then, the demise of the leasehold scheme left the Livingston partnership with clear title to only four townships that Phelps/Gorham had sold them outright. The Universal Friend's followers discovered that instead of a 999 year lease to 14,000 acres, they actually owned only a strip of land 6 miles long and 92 rods wide! James Parker, the Friend's Congregation's agent appealed to the state and in 1791 they were given a grant allowing them to purchase the land for a shilling an acre. But then questions about the accuracy of the pre-emption line began to arise. The old line had been drawn by chain and mariners compass, and conveniently left the town of Geneva in New York and under the Livingston Lessee's control. A new transit created survey put the line farther east, giving part of the settlement back to Massachusetts, on land New York had no right to grant to the Universal Friend's followers!  Fortunately, the business agent of the new owners of the Massachusetts' land, Charles Williamson***, of  Pulteney Associates was sympathetic but some members of the Friend's Congregation ended up paying for their land a third time!

Hewitt Rd., Dresden

By now many of the Friend's settlers had become weary of the battles that ensued over their land.

To make matters worse, the land they had pooled their money to purchase had been doled out in proportion to the money they put in.  With settlement it had increased in value many times over and the bigger land owners, especially, were drawn by profit to sell to whoever (members or non-members) were anxious to meet their price.

By 1794 the Friend had had enough of the willfulness independence of several of the (male) large landholders in her community and moved west with a number of his/her loyal followers, leaving behind the Friend's Settlement  to develop a new settlement near  Keuka Lake, that the Friend called Jerusalem. Unlike the Comforter's original settlement, of which she/he had not owned any part, the Universal Friend in 1791 began making payments to his/her agent who had secured the land from Phelps and Gorham at the time his/her other agent had been securing their Livingston lease. By 1795 the Universal Friend owned 4,480 acres. Starting again with his/her faithful adherents, the Friend built a second community, from the wilderness. She/he was joined by a score of other families, both from the old settlement and the congregations in Southern New England and Pennsylvania. A succession of three large houses was built for the Comforter and a number of her/his followers, male and female, who had chosen his/her preferred lifestyle of celibacy. The last of these, built about 1809, still stands.

For the next decade the Universal Friend held sway over a restive community until 1819 when she died. Lack of a charismatic leader to continue her work led the community to gradually dissolve until by mid-century the properties passed into the hands of individuals who had not been members of the sect.

Friend Hill Rd., off of Rte 29, Branchport

                                                            (This date appears to be in error)

The Universal Friend's 3d and final residence

*Under assault was the Calvinist/Puritan notion that some people were predestined for heaven while the majority were predestined for hell and that an individual's only recourse was to eschew sin and pray for a sign that would confirm their salvation. So too was the notion that clergymen must have formal theological education, to be replaced by the notion that divine inspiration was sufficient to empower an individual to become a preacher.

**In one incident, a new follower of the sect came into disagreement on the interpretation of an event with several older members of the sect. Afterwards she thought she observed a conversation of looks and gestures between older members, and that night awoke in terror, feeling she was being strangled.  No formal reports or investigations were made, and perhaps the incident was dreamt by the girl, but reported in the press it became more grist for the anti-Friend's mill.

***In a future post we will look at the remarkable Charles Williamson.



--A major source of information for this post is from the just published, The Public Universal Friend, Jemima Wilkinson and Religious Enthusiasm in Revolutionary America, by Paul B. Moyer, 2015.


 Marker of the Week -- You just never know where a NYSHM might turn up. In addition  to new markers created daily by both the William G. Pomeroy Foundation and dozens of local organizations, with and without local government affiliations, now and then you come across a marker that has escaped any public listing. Although the New York State Museum Historical Marker List was pretty comprehensive for its time, the list was compiled decades after the State began underwriting markers proposed/applied for by local historical groups and groups of interested citizens. The State Education Department, not having kept its original records appears to had to go back to the County governments to ask their help in compiling its list, with, not surprisingly, mixed results. Though the Albany County listing appears to have been pretty complete, even here are surprises. In Westerlo, a short distance from my home is Lobdell Mills Rd.  Along part of it runs Basic Creek and where the creek crosses the road is this sign. 

To the best of my knowledge, nowhere is this sign listed. 

It Happened Here-- "Big Water"

 

Any discussion of the development of industrial power technologies in the United States often seems to have the adjective “Big” attached to it. Thus, our gasoline/ diesel fueled segments of our economy are dominated by “Big Oil” while much of the power for our electric grid is the product of “Big Hydro-Electric” and throughout most of the later 19^th and 20^th centuries the steam engines that propelled our transportation and industrial sectors were fueled by “Big Coal.”  I believe there are two aspects to this.The first, which we are more accustomed to thinking of, is the political/ economic dimension whereby the production of power becomes concentrated in the hands of a few big producers (think Standard Oil's role in the creation of “Big Oil”.) But the more fundamental second, is the technological dimension, whereby the utility of the power source blossoms with all sorts of new uses for it, inspiring ways to produce and distribute the power more efficiently. (Imagine Standard Oil's fate, without the advent of the internal combustion engine—had petroleum remained just a lubricant and a fuel for oil lamps!) 

 

Before steam power, fueled by coal, became dominant, I believe we can look to an era when waterpower became “Big,” in the second sense– was engineered in ways that greatly increased its power, utilized in many more ways to achieve much greater potential, and even distributed to greatly extend its reach. Evidence of this development is manifest here across New York State and is documented in its NYSHMs.

Main St., near Allen St., Catskill

   Waterpower, harnessed through waterwheels is an ancient technology used for millennia to drain mines, grind grain and saw wood. Watermills were often among the first structures built in the settlement of America, to handle the laborious chores of turning a millstone, or dragging a saw, via a crankshaft, back and forth over a log to render it into planks or squared timbers.
 

Montcalm St., Ticonderoga

(Before Lotbiniere built his fort, he first constructed a sawmill to provide lumber for barracks and other support structures to be located within and near the fort.)                

But with the first stirrings of the industrial revolution in America, the power of waterwheels began to be used in more diverse, creative ways. By the use of belts, pulleys and shafts the motive power of the turning waterwheel was conducted around factories to power all sorts of machinery*. Turning pawls pumped bellows in refineries and trip hammers worked pig iron into wrought iron and steel, while other machines bent and shaped pieces, boring and cutting them. 

Rte 156, Berne

Machines in carding and fulling mills worked and combed wool while water-powered spinning and weaving looms turned cotton, flax and wool into fabrics, and sewing machines enabled workers to turn them into clothing.

Rte 4, Schuylerville, at the Bridge

And water power turned lathes, band saws and jigsaws to make furniture, wagons and intricate architectural pieces for early Victorian homes.

Valleys with a good flow of water filled with mills, and entrepreneurs sought ways to extract the most power from the downward flow. 

 

Rte. 5, Elbridge

Turnpike Rd. (10B), Throop

In 1851 Henry Burden built the world's most powerful waterwheel in Troy.  Sixty two feet in diameter, it was twenty two feet wide and could produced 500 horsepower.

Cor. Mill St., Burden Ave, Troy

           

 

Others filled or surrounded

their mills with combinations

of waterwheels.

Reservoir Hill Rd., Hammondsport

In 1837 Peter Harmony built his first textile mill at the Cohoes falls and twenty-nine years later his sucessors built Harmony Mill #3, the worlds largest cotton mill, with state of the art technology-- five water-powered Boyden turbines, beneath the mill, each delivering to all five floors motive power via belts and shafts to power some 2,700 looms.

Mill #3, Mohawk Ave, Cohoes

*It is easy to forget that until the last decades of the 19^th century (and well into the 20^th) motive power in factories was centralized, whether it was supplied by a turning waterwheel or a central steam engine. Belts, pulleys and shafts transferred power around the factory to individual machines, making factories noisy, dangerous places to work. It would not be until factories were electrified and small AC motors were connected to individual machines that the motive power in factories was decentralized.

 

 Marker of the Week -- Well, it finally happened.  For over two years now, my wife has been accusing me of dragging her all over "Hell's half acre" to chase down and photograph NYSHMs. This summer on a vacation trip to the western Finger Lakes and the Genesee Valley we finally, actually, got there.

Rte 5 & 20, cor. of Half Acre Rd., west of Auburn

A Final Note-- I'm baaack! From the last half of September, until now I have been unable to publish any new posts. I returned from two weeks vacation with a bug that layed me low for two weeks. I think I was finally able to get rid of it by giving it to my wife for another week.

After getting things back together I'm looking forward to resuming my more-or-less-weekly posts. Over the summer I was able to photograph a great number of signs and I look forward to returning to regular postings.

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