'^..^^' 't "-^^0^ <->■ ^''^:: 4 o ► v/> ''/ V-- vt-O^ ^ -y^l^ "A-, ,Hq ^^-V. ^J> .9^ ^m.i^. \ J>^ it r /^-(T^: ■j^ .^' 4 o ^y^o^ /\ -^^ y %^ "^Iw^-- /\ --^v ^^ <^ r^ .<•' ^vi. 0.^ fk.^' :\ t'i/W^V .S5R6 THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. Two Copies deceived DEC a I \iiQ4 Oopyright Entry CLASS Cly XXc, No, /C39y f . COPY,^ A. Copyrighted, ROBSON & ADEE Schenectady, N. Y. Troy Times v Tny, A'. Contents. Chapter Page I. The Settlement, ..... 17 II. Trade, Protection, Customs, 31 III. Calamities, ...... 49 IV. Ancient Dwellings, .... 68 V. Churches, ..... 76 VI. Churches, ..... 101 VII. Free Masonry, ..... 117 VIII. An Historical Bridge, .... 121 IX. Early Transportation, .... 135 X. Glen-Sanders, ..... 155 XI. James Duane, ..... 171 XII. Featherstonhaugh, .... 185 XIII. General William North, .... 205 XIV. Toll, 211 XV. Schermerhorn, ..... 229 XVI. Yates House, ..... 243 XVII. Educational, . . . ■ . 247 XVIII. Hotels, ...... 267 XIX. Reminiscences, . • . . . 273 List of Illustrations. The Old Glenville Bridge, View from Rear of Court House, North-East Corner Ferry and Union Streets, Clute &: Readies Blacksmith Shop on State Street, Site of the Old Fort, .... Plan of the Fort at Schenectady, Plan of the Fort at Schenectady, 1664, A Plan of Schenectady, about 1750, Plan of the Fort at Schenectady, 1768, Abe Veeder's Old Fort, Fluting Iron from the Sanders Mansion, Spinning Wheel from the Sanders Mansion, Eighteenth Century Cut Glass in the Bradt Family, Corner of Washington Avenue and State Street, The Massacre, January, 1690, North Side of State Street, near Washington Avenue, Ravine near the DeGraaf House, Scene of Beukendaal Fight, DeGraaf House, Beukendaal, Present Location Teller & Stanford, Protection Hose No. 1, Burning of First Dutch Reformed C^hurch, Mabie House, .... The Arent Hradt House, Bradt House, .... Miniatures in the Bradt Family, The Original Dutch Reformed Church, A Church" Furnace of 200 years ago. Old Union College Building, State Street, below Ferry, Frontispiece 16 24 32 36 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 51 52 56 58 59 62 64 (i6 69 70 72 73 79 81 84 92 List of Illustrations. Continued. The First Dutch Reformed Church, Present Location Y. M. C. A., St. George's Episcopal Church, An Eighteenth Century Chair, Present Location Reeves-Luffman Co. Showing Construction of Glenvilie Bridge, Bridge Connecting Schenectady and Scotia, City End of Glenvilie Bridge, Showing Interior of the Bridge, Dock Street, .... Another View of Dock Street, The De Witt Clinton Train, . Terminus of Mohawk & Hudson Railway, First Train on Mohawk & Hudson Railway, First Time-table of the Mohawk & Hudson Ra Drullerd's Hotel and New York Central Railw First Railroad Depot at Schenectady, An Old Style Locomotive, The Glen-Sanders Mansion, The Abraham Glen House, Attic of Glen-Sanders Mansion, An Old Cradle, Sanders Tablet in Ailhallows Church, London A Stairway in Glen-Sanders Mansion, Ornate Fire Bellows, Judge James Duane, Christ's Episcopal Church, Duanesburg, A Quit-Claim Deed, Present Location Ellis Mansions, Sarah Duane, General George Washington, James Duane Featherstonhaugh, Fireplace in Featherstonhaugh Mansion, Featherstonhaugh Mansion, Colonial Furniture in Delancey Watkins' Hou I way, y Station, Pag. 96 100 104 115 116 122 126 132 134 136 138 142 144 146 147 148 152 154 156 159 164 165 166 168 170 172 174 176 184 188 190 200 201 203 204 List of Illu St rat ions. — Couiinufd. General William North's Mansion, Indian Spear Heads, Present Location Union Hall Hlock, Maahvyck Farm, Chamber in the roll House, Dining Room in the Toll House, Ravine on the Toll Place, The Toll House, Tea Set in the Toil House, Platter in the Toll House, Present Location Myer's Block, Silver Mounted Pistol in Schermerhorn Pear Tree 150 Years Old, Silver Quart Cider Mug, Daniel Campbell's City House, Governor Yates' House, Entrance to Residence of Hon. A. A. \ Old-time Leather Fire Bucket, The Mohawk Bank, Schenectady Academy, Entrance to Union College Campus, Dr. Nott's Hat and Cane, Union College, Dr. Nott's Stove, Blue Gate, Union College, Bowery Woods, Present Location Edison Hotel, Present Location Vendome Hotel. Ledyard's City Hotel, Givens' Hotel, Original Plan for using Mohawk Rive Dutch Church Paper Money, Mansion a Siiip Canal, POK' 20(5 209 210 2ir, 217 21S 221 222 224 227 228 230 232 239 240 242 245 24(3 248 252 254 2(i0 2(il 263 2(i4 205 266 268 270 272 283 286 FORE-WORD. There are a great many interesting facts, traditions, anecdotes and reminiscences relative to Schenectady, which are buried from the general public in specialized histories, gene- alogies, biographies and in the memories of the older residents. It is the purpose of this book to present such facts, traditions and reminiscences as have been dug out from the dry, if more profound and scholarly, produc- tions of authors who were masters on the subjects upon which they wrote. Schenectady is so rich in such material that it has been possible to treat the subjects only partialh' and casually. That so many pictures of ancient buildings, dwellings and old time views are presented to the readers is entirely due to the kindness of Mr. William A. Wick. This collec- tion of ancient landmarks that have been torn down and of those still standing, has been obtained by Mr. Wick at considerable labor and expense. That the collection is imique is patent to ail who see the pictures. OLD SCHENECTADY. Chapter I. The Settlement. MEAXIXG OF SCHEXECTADY. T IS an odd fact, frequently remarked upon by inter- ested outsiders, that almost none of the descendants of the old Dutch settlers of Schenectady have any knowledge of the origin or meaning of the name of that city. I'.ut if the interested outsider remains in Schenectady long, he soon ceases to wonder at the lack of knowledge for he finds that the rather stolid Dutch mind is little given to speculation (jr investigation ; that with them if a thing is, it is, and that is enough for all pur])oses of trade; trade and the consequent accunmlation of dollars being the chief thought among them. Schenectady no doubt means, "beyond the jiine plains" and "Schonowe," a name given to the locality in the earliest days, before and at the time of the settlement, mean,- "the great tkits." The authority for these definitions is the Rev. ^\'. W. I'.eauchamp. S. I)., an Episcopal clergyman who devoted many }-ears to the lri(|uios, or Five Nations, their language and cus- toms. He was so highly regarded by the Indian survivcM-s of the Five Nations that he was adopted by them and. as a man. bore about the same relation to them that the late Mrs. Converse did as a woman. "Beyond the pine plains" did not api)ly to what is now the site of Schenectad}-, any more than to any other ])lace similarly i8 Old Schenectady. situated ; in fact, it was first applied to Albany. The immediate vicinity of Schenectady on the north and west was extraordinarily fertile river flats wathont trees of any kind. This was described by the Indians as "Schonowe," or "the great flats,'' when trans- lated. Any other great flats wonld have been described by the Indians by the same word. To the cast and south of the great flats were vast sandy plains covered with a forest of immense pines. Between Sche- nectady and Albany was a sandy plain, pine covered, which ended at Albany abruptly and equally so at Schenectady. If an Indian was traveling toward the east over the regular trail, when he arrived at the Hudson, on the site of Albany, he called it Schenectady, that is, "the place beyond the pine plains." Other Indians, traveling west over the trail, finally arrived at Sche- nectady, which was also "the place beyond the pine plains." It was this place beyond the pine plains, at the western end of the trail joining the Hudson and Mohawk rivers, which has retained the descriptive name of Schenectady. Another more poetic meaning is given by Major J. W. AlacMurray, editor of Pearson's History of the Schenectady Patent. The authority he quotes says : "The usual signification attributed to this word, is believed to be erroneous having been derived, not from the Mohawk, but from the Mohegan language. In the former tongue — the Mohawk — he says, 'Gaun-ho-ha' means 'door'; 'S'Gaun-ho-ha' means 'the door' and 'Hac-ta-tie'. means 'without.' These two words combined fonu, 'S'Gaun-lio-ha-hac- ta-tie,' this abreviated and written, 'S'Guan-hac-ta-tie' means 'without the door.' 'S'Guan-ho-ha' appears also in another name given to the town by the Mohawks at an earlier date. * * * * by a conveyance to Van Curler the land is named by the Indians, 'Schon-o-we,' identical probably with 'S'Guan-ho-ha,' in sound and signification." It would seem to require a large supply of Christian Science faith to believe that these two words are the same in sound and meaning. Meaning of Schenectady. 19 To arrive at the idea which the Indians wished to convey by ihe word, "S'Gaun-hac-ta-tie," "without the door," something nuist be known about the Iriquois or Five Nations. The Five Nations occupied chiefly the middle portion of New York. This confederation was composed of the Mohawks, Oneidas. Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas. Their territory ex- tended from the Mohawk river at Schenectady on the east, to Niagara river on the west and was spoken of in their picturesque and figurative language as the "Long house," or, sometimes as tlie "Cabin." The location of the ^lohawks on the river flats between the high hills of what is now Glenville and Rotterdam, was called "The Door of the House." As the Mohawks were the most powerful of the tribes and were the furthest east, it was to them that embassies from other tribes, or the white settlers, were sent. To tlie west of the Mohawks, at about the center of the State, were the Oneidas. Onondagas and Cayugas. while at the extreme west, on Niagara river, were the Senecas. The attention paid to form and ceremony was shown when the Governor of Canada attempted to make a treaty with the Senecas by sending an ambassador to the Senecas directly, instead of by way of the "Door." The Mohawks resented this as an indignity and a slight, so they sent word to the Governor that, while they were "The Door of the House" be had entered by the "Chimney." and he would better look out or be would get smoke in his eyes. It is a tradition that for many generations, perhaps centuries, the site of the chief village of the Mohawks was the spot where Schenectady is and their location being the door of the house, they called their village "S'Gaun-ho-ha." meaning "the door." When their chief village was moved to the west, where Fort Hunter now is, their old site was no longer "the door." but "with- out the door." so "ho-ha" was dropped and "hac-ta-tie." meaning "without," was added to the first syllable making "S'Gaun-bac- ta-tie" — "Without the Door." Danker and Sluytcr, in their journal of 1680. make a very l»retty ])lay upon the word, or else it is a curious coincidence. 20 Old Schenectady. The ininicdiate neighborhood of Schenectady was, and still is very beautiful. The scenery is of the kind which is peaceful and restful and the weary traveler or pioneer must indeed have been impressed, when the pines suddenly ceased, and he beheld the lovely valley. So these old boys in their journal describe the place as, "This Schooneetendeel." which ]:)y a very slight stretch of imagination is similar to the eye and ear to the Indian word. Now in the Dutch, "schoon" means, "beautiful;" eeten," from "achten," meaning, ''esteemed" or "valuable;" "deel," or "del," meaning, "a portion of land," especially a valley ; hence, a beauti- ful, fertile valley. Some of the spellings of Schenectadv show that the early settlers were probably of the same op'inion as was President Andy Johnson who, when called to account for his faulty orthography re])lied, that he regarded a ]5erson as being something of a fool who did not know enough to spell a word in more than one way. The Dutcli found the Indian gutterals hard t(^ j^ronounce and much harder to express in letters, so when the s]5elling had to be done by ear and not by actual knowledge, it was often very much off. Resides the original Indian word and its Indian corruption already given, Arent Van Curler, the i)i()neer of Schenectady and the country roundabout, made it, "Schan-ech-stede." An official document of 1664 gives, both "Sch-augh-stede" and "Sch-auech- stede." It is probably from the former spelling that a local tribe of the Order of Red Men gets, "Schaugh-naugh-ta-da." An Indian deed of 1672 for the township gives, "Schau-hech-ta-de," which was probably as near as the Dutchman who drew the deed could get to the sound of the word when i)ronounced by the Indians. In 1675, Sheriff' Cobes, of .\Ibany, dro])ped the second "h" from the spelling in the deed and strangely enough. Governor Stuyvesant in an order written in 1663 spelled the word exactly as it is now spelled. In 1678, Governor .\ndross, in a proclama- tion prohibiting trade with "Scon-ex-ta-(U'," in the last two syllables followed the spelling of Governor Stuyvesant and made a nuiss of the two first syllables, ]iro1iably through an eft'ort to The Off -Shoot. 21 be plionctic. Morse's C.eog-raphy of 1789 gives '■Skeneclady." Ill 1693, the Rev. jolin .Miller, a man of liberal edueation, gave ■■Scaii-ec-ta-de ;" in i()y5 the in\entory of the estate of I lendrick Gardinier, gives, "Shinii-ectady ;"" Lieutenant llnnt, Commander of the Fort in i6y6, spelled it. ■"Schon-ac-ta-dy," the nearest phonetie s])elling- fotnid ; and in 1802, when the people had beeome well acciuainted with the .Mohawk langnage, it was spelled in a petition. ■"Schon-hec-ta-dy." ( )f the seventy-one ditTerent spellings to be ftinnd in old documents, only once is the word begun with a C and that was done by the Rev. Dr. Johnson who wrote to Archbishop Seeker, of London, in \J^(). about tiie Iniilding of an l^])iscopal Church — St. George \s — in "Chenectedi." THE OFF-SHOOT. It is a good thing to be well born and a l)etter when honest, broad-minded quahties and principles of good citizenship, thrift and independence are inherited with the blue-blood. Of such v/ere the early settlers of Schenectady. The men who settled Schenectady were unicpu' in the Xew World, as settlers. Their largeness of mind was ecpialled by unselfishness; their thrift for the present by their thoughtfulness for those who would come after them. Their pronouns were "We" and "Our," not "1" and "Mine." Schenectady w^as not a child of Albany, notwithstanding the fact that those who settled it were from that i-lace. It was to be rid of Albany and the intolerable monopoly of the Dutch West India Com])any and its self-assumed right to interfere with the mherent rights of individuals, and of the Patroons, men who were granted vast tracts of valuable land for the purpose of colonization, but who in reality became rivals of the West India Company in trade monopoly and oppression of the individual, that the men who ]:)ecamc the Fifteen Original Proprietors of Sche- nectady cut loose from such oppression and formed a new settle- ment where all should have ecpial right to buy and sell and live. 22 Old Schenectady. While their condition was greatly improved, they did not entirely free themselves from the monopoly of Albany till 1727. Led by Arent Van Curler — a man of such honesty, justice and fearlessness that his name became a synonym with the Iriquois and Indians of Canada for all that appealed to them as being the best — they went to Schenectady (the place "Beyond the Pine Plains") and purchased from the Iriquois, or Five Nations, "Schonowe," or the "Great Flats." Here on the site of the present city of Schenectady they built a village and on the great flats they had their farms. The township included 128 square miles and a certain portion of this was given to the original settlers ; the remainder, known as common lands was held in trust for the community then existing and for those who should come after them. These men, of their own will, assumed the titles of Trustees m accord with their idea of "We" and "Our" instead of "Y' and "Mine" and later, when one of them tried to set upon a claim of personal ownership in the common lands, he and his heirs were fought to the end as determinedly as only Dutchmen could fight. This idea of all living for one and one for all was the result of deliberate purpose, not of chance. They wished to establish a settlement in which all should be equal and they realized their wish. Although this first permanent settlement was not made till 1662, V'an Curler was more or less familiar with the locality for twenty years before, for he first saw it in 1642. Even then there were a few daring hunters and trappers who had made homes for themselves widely separated one from the other. There seems to be no record of who they were, where they came from or what became of them. The desire of the settlers to have the land surveyed and their portions allotted was not realized till two years after the settle- ment, for the authorities at Albany were jealous and fearful that some of the profits flowing into their pockets would be stopped at the new settlement. In April, 1662, Van Curler had written his second request that Jacques Cortelyou be authorized to make Location of Proprietors 23 the survc}-. This rccjiiesl was weakl}- denied 1)_\' the Director (icneral on the ground that before the settlement could be formed and the land surveyed, at least twenty families should compose tlie settlement and that they should promise not to trade with the Indians. In May. 1663, Governor Stuyvesant made another excuse for delaying the survey, this time on the ground that he had been informed that some of the settlers had dared to sell liquor to the Indians against his express orders to the contrary. He ordered Cortelyou not to survey land for any one in the new settlement unless he signed a pledge, drawn by the Governor, not to trade in any manner with the Indians. The}' were also to agree to pay, without opposition, should they violate their pledge, fifty beaver skins for the first offence ; one hundred for the second, and for the third to voluntarily forfeit all their lands. This reply was talked over by Van Curler and the other fourteen proprietors and they decided to sign it. Still the Governor delayed. He took on a highly religious and fatherly tone. He feared that the transportation of valuable goods by wagons so many miles from Albany would cause the Indians to attack the wagon trains, kill the settlers and steal the goods and mistreat their women. Finally, after Alexander Lindsey Glen, William Teller and Harmon Vedder presented a petition on April 17, 1664, for a survey, it was granted. LOCATION OF PROPRIETORS. The area laid out as a village by the Fifteen Original Proprietors of Schenectady, included about twenty acres. The streets were broad and were laid out at right angles, with four hundred feet between parallel streets. Each of these blocks was divided into four lots of two hundred feet. This made each lot a corner lot, with frontage on two streets. Besides the village lots, each proprietor was given a farm on the flats or islands ; a pasture to the east of the village ; and a garden to the south of the village. The apportionment of the village lots, according to records, was as follows : Location of Proprietors. 25 Arciit \ an Corlear — or Van Curler — was on the north-east corner of L'^nion and Chin-ch streets, where the oUl Union Classi- eal Institute huilding- — now the Mohawk Chih — stands. PhiHp liendrikse Brouwer was on tiie nortli-west corner of State antl Church streets. He (Hed, leaxint;- no chihh'en ; so the name is extinct. Alexander Lindsey Glen was on the west side of Washington avenue, extending from the northerly line of Union street down toward Front street. Simon Volkertse X'eetler was on the north-west corner of State and Ferry streets, diagonally opposite the Y. M. C. A. liiulding. Ahasueras Tennis \ an \ alscn was on the south side of State street, at its junction with Mill lane. The property extended hack on the lowland toward the canal, and included about twenty- tive acres. He was the miller of tlie community, and as he was killed in the "massacre" of j()yo, without children, the name is extinct. Peter Adrience Van Woggleum, also called Soegemakelyk, was on the south-west corner of L'nion and Church streets, opposite the old Union Classical Institute property. Cornelius Antonisen \'an Slyck's location is not known, lie married a daughter of a Mohawk chief and was adopted by the tril)e. He was held in high esteem by the .Mohawks and by his wdiite associates. His descendants may boast of tine old Holland blood and of much older American blood. The Mohawks were fierce and cruel and the gentlemen of Spain, who managed the Inquisition, were crafty and cruel ; but the former possessed qtialities which, in Europe, made princes and great nobles of those who possessed them. This Indian wife was somewdiat remarkable and was so highly esteemed by the Dutch of her day, that the following paraphrase from Bunker's and Skiyter's journal of 1680, will be interesting. "I was surprised to find so far in the woods" — the place so far in the woods was Schenectady — "a person who showed so much 26 Old ScJiciiccfady. love for God. She told me her story from the beginning and how it was that she became a Christian." Her father and mother were full-blooded Mohawk Indians, who instinctively hated the Christians and their teachings, and her mother would never listen to anything about them. This girl lived with her parents and brothers and sisters. Sometimes she went with her mother to the settlements to trade, and sometimes the people from the settle- ments went to the place, where she lived, to trade. Some of the whites took a fancy to the girl as she seemed to be more of a Christian, in many ways, than an Indian. When they proposed to take her to the settlemerit and bring her up according to white ideas her mother would not hear of it and the little girl was at first afraid. After repeated visits by the settlers and requests to take her to the settlements the little girl discovered that the Christians were not all that her mother had told her they were. She seemed to be naturally drawn toward Christianity, the love of God and of Christ. This caused her family to hate and abuse her. Finally they drove her out and she went to the white settlers, who had been so kind to her. She was gladly welcomed and lived for a long time with a woman who taught her to read and write and household duties. When she had learned the Dutch language she studied the New Testament with such good purpose that she made a confession of faith and was baptized. Gerrit Bancker was on the south-west corner of Union street and Washington avenue, opposite the residence of D. Cady Smith, on Washington avenue. William Teller was on the south-west corner of Union street and Washington avenue. His lot included the lot of Judge Jack- son, on Washington avenue, and of W. Scott Hunter, on Union street. He was the first of the name to come to the Colony from Holland, in 1639, i" the service of the West India Company. He was possessed of ample means and great influence. Bastian De Winter was on the south-east corner of Union and Church streets, where the residence of Franklin McClellan — formerly the property of Richard Fuller — now stands, across Union street from the First Reformed Church. I near [^orated as Boron i^h and City. 27 Arcnt Andrics Uradt was on the nortli-easl corner of vSlate street and Washington avenue, where the apartment house, '"The Alexandria." stands, opposite the Freeman House. As Bradt died before the apportionment, Bastian De Winter's name, as attorney for the widow, appears on the apportionment. Pieter Danelse Van Olinda's location is not known. He married Hillitie, one of the half-breed daughters of Van Slyck. She owned large tracts of land, by gift from the Mohawks. Jan Barentse Wemp— later spelled Wemple— was on the west side of Washington avenue where is now the hotel called the Freeman House. Peter Jacobse Borsboom was on the south-west corner of Front street and Washington avenue, where is now the residence of John Keyes Paige. He was survived by several daughters, luit only one son, who died, unmarried ; so the name is extinct. Jaques Cornelius Van Slyck was on the little public square, between State and Water streets at the place where the bronze tablet stands. He kept one of the two inns of the village. INCORPORATED AS BOROUGH AND CITY. The settlement of Schenectady was due to a desire on the parts of a few men to be rid of the arbitrary power and oppression of the powers in Albany. That they succeeded in makmg a permanent settlement, was ever a cause for jealously on the part of Albany; and the Schenectady settlers and their successors were frequently made to feel in many ways the littleness ot Albanv's spite. ITp to 1665 Schenectady was a part of Albany. In that year. the war with the French being over and the resultmg prosperity l)eo-inning to be felt. Schenectady became the most active and important shipping center north of New York, for it was here, as has been mentioned in another chapter, that the really great trade between the west and east was most felt, Schenectady beutg the river port for it all. This brought a gr '/ SCHFNECTA1)\ '^ V V homes had been finished, only the soldiers and Indians occupied the fort buildings. In case of another attack all the inhabitants of the village would retire to the fort, taking their live stock with them. There were two large buildings for Indians, besides a large barn and numerous out-buildings for live stock during a siege. The buildings for the Indians were provided because, after the massacre, a considerable number of Mohawks lived with the remnants of the little settlement for encouragement and to help the reduced population regain its losses. These Indians helped Ports. 41 build the stockade and fort and grathered tlie crops at tlie first harvest after the massacre. The entire population at this time was less than one hundred adults, including those in the village and those outside, from the line of the town of Xiskayuna to Hoffman's ferry, so the assistance rendered by the Indians was great and much needed. Three years after the date of Mr. Miller's plan of the fort, 1698, the entire i)opulation in the same territory was fifty men. forty-one women and one hundred and thirty-three children. . . 'in 1705, the "Queen's new fort" was built m the vicmity ot the junction of Ferry and Front streets, where the present Indian tZT^^'Z / >" I monument stands. It was one hundred feet square and was surrounded by a double stockade with blockhouses at the corners. In 1735 it was rebuilt upon a stone foundation with the su])er- structure of heavy timber. Its area was increased to one hun.lrod and twenty-four feet, each of the four blockhouses bein- twenty- four feet square. Litstoiiis. 43 The frequent ])etitii)ns for repairs to the existini;- fortitica- tioiis and complaints of their concHtion hy tiie people of Schenec- tady, to the Colonial authorities in Al])any, gives the impression that while Schenectady, being- a frontier post was considered to be the key to Albany and New York, the Colonial authorities did very little for it until actually forced to do so, l)ecause the forts and stockades were rotting. F.ven then nuich of the work and expense had to be done and borne l)y the settlers. CUSTOMS. It was a hard-and-fast custom, even more of a rule than a ctistom, that married women should wear caps. This cap wear- ing by married women obtained from the earliest days well into the nineteenth century. A failure to conform to this custom was considered a very grave offence against i)ropriet_\, as nuich so perhaps, as it would be to-day for a woman to drink at a public bar. One of the first things the young wife did was to make a supply of caps, daint},- or ugly according to the taste of the maker. L'sually the bride's best and finest needle work was put into the making of this badge of respectability, and ruftk's as an adorn- ment were so general that flutmg irons were made for thai esjiecial purpose. As is shown in the picture, there was a base and graceful standard su])porting a cylinder of three-quarters of an inch in diameter and six inches long. This was o])en at one end and cone-shaped at the other. This cylin- der was highly poHshed. The heating device was a solid piece of iron of the same shape as the cyhnder, but smaller so that it would easily rest inside. This heater had a rather long handle. When the wife wished f/,<,/n./™„/™,„ ,/,. ,s«,u/,-rx.w.„.io„. to HtUe her daint\- ca]) she first ])laced the heater in ll 44 Old Schenectady. coals of the open fire and when it was sufficiently hot it was placed in the cylinder and then the fluting was done. If the operator was blessed with pretty.graceful hands, the operation of cap fluting must have been very attractive. In those far-oif and fine old days the women were seldom idle, even when the neighbors "dropped in" for a chat. On such occasions the thrifty wife usually took up the lighter and more dainty of the household duties of which cap fluting was one. The old Dutch had many curious customs, curious according to twentieth-century ideas, but entirely natural and quite proper iu the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. There was marriage, for instance: Many a searcher after family history, or pedigree, has had his or her — especially her — gray matter dislocated by the startling closeness of the marriage ceremony and the first birth, but further investigation reduced the dislocation and the search was continued calmly. The Dutch in the Western Hemisphere considered marriage as a civil contract. When two young persons decided to marry, that decision was in the eyes of the community, marriage. They lived together as man and wife and when the minister made his periodical visit for the purpose of administer- ing the sacraments, they would have their civil marriage confirmed by the religious ceremony. In the early days the visits of the minister were sometimes three months, or even longer apart. In the cases of such ])ersons who lived at a dis- tance from one or another of the small settlements, the difficulty in having the marriage confirmed by a minister was greatly increased. In those early days the conditions required that the community Customs. 45 should l)e nuulc U]) ot faniilirs. W'liilc the inen \\(.T(.' coiiqiicrinj;- Nature and i)lanting- and rca])in^-. or hunlini;- and fisliin,<:^ for food, tlic women were weaving" and making' garments and pre- serving such of the products of the helds and woods, as could he preserved, for the winter, so niarriaj^e was the natural condi- tion. There were no bachelor-girls in the seventeenth century and the re-marriage of widows and widowers would he considered somewhat rapid even in Chicago. Some of the verv odd customs which obtained at funerals continued well into the nineteenth cenlur\. it is a matter of history that Dr. Eliphalet Xott. president of Union College, was the first man with sufficient moral courage to ])reach against, and finally to eliminate locally, the unseemly feasting and drinking which accompanied a funeral. In those days women never went to the gra\e. but after the coffin had been taken from the h.ouse the\" drank s])ice(l wine aii'l nibbled cakes. Before the men re- turned from the grave the women withdrew and the men entered into the feasting with heartiness. Re- sides the cakes and wine they were provided with "Church warden pipes" and tobacco. In these da\s it is the artist-undertaker, or "mor- tuarians" as some of them style- themselves, who reduce the family finances ; in those days it was the Uian who sold wine and tobacco. The cakes were of an especial kind and were called "deadcakes." In the case of a funeral in the family of the rich, or of those high-up in the official life of the Colony, large sums were spent on the wine and it was not unusual for a sn|)pl\ of it to be put i'i the cellar long l)efore the iirst death so that it would be on hand and improving by age. The best rf)om was reserved for funerals and was seldom used for any other purpose, unless Cartifr of Jf'ashingWn Avenue and Slate S Customs. 47 indeed, it was on the rare occasions when tlie dominie made a brief visit. Funerals were only attended Ijy those who were invited. The list would he made out and s^iven to the sexton and he would cU) the invitinj^ verbally. There were tixetl charg-es for the ser- vices of the sexton for delivering- tlie invitations ; for burial ; ringing ihe l)ell, t(^lling it, for use of the great pall or the little ]>all. If ihe deli\-ery of invitations required going out from the settlement, he was allowed to make an extra charge. In regard to the i)alls : They were the ])roi)erty of the church and were two in numljcr — one small the other large. When the coffin was carried from the best room to the front door, it was placed upon a bier and then carried to the grave upon the >hiiul(lers of the bearers; the ])all having been thrown over the bier. Down to 1800. Schenectady did not possess a hearse so. while it was a hardshi]) in stormy weather and nuich more so in ver\- cold winter weather, to carrv the cot^n on the shoulders from the house to the gra\-e in the village, the conditions on outlying farms made it necessary for the family to ha\e a small plot of ground set a])art for burial purposes. In April. 1800. the con- sistory of the First Dutch Reformed Church decided to procure a hearse for the use of the congregation and the ])nblic under certain regulations. In Deceiuber of that year the hearse arrived. It, with the harness, was given into the charge of the sexton and application for its use was maile to him and he was empowered to collect the fees. .\nother curious, and no doubt extremely popular, custom was the generous use of nun on all occasions. If a house was being built, or a clnu-ch. or anv work or occasion of a ])ublic nature there was an item in the bill of expense for rum. ( )n .\pril 28, 1748, Jacob Mynder.se was paid £3-12-2 for rum for the dominie's bee and on the same day of the month in 1751. Isaac A. Truax was ])aid / 1 - 1 3-^' f<>i' sugar and rum for another bee which only goes to show that in those days when preachers were liard up for a subject, or his wife was too busy to write a sermon for him. he could not go to that subject, wliich has been reduced 48 Old Schenectady. to a mere shadow by the preachers of to-day, RUM, for he had not then discovered that the crime of the world was caused by rum. On the contrary, he found that with proper ingredients it was a very acceptable substitute for water from the Mohawk, at one of his bees. Another item which shows how close were the relations of rum and religion in those old days, is from the treasurer's book of the First Reformed Church; July 5, 1814 — "I'aid for liquor when the old spire was taken down, 37 1-2 cents." Chapter III. Calamities. MASSACRE. HE first and greatest calamity was that which took ^1^ place in the night of February 8, 1690. In that part of the geographies, of twenty-five years ago, which was devoted to the State of New York, there was a picture of the event called, "The burning of Schenec- tady in iTxp," but in the Mohawk valley it is always referred to as the Massacre. The conditions which made it possible for the French and their Indian allies to destroy Schenectady was Protestant zeal, bordering u[)on religious hysteria. The Leislerian craze is a matter of State history and will only be referred to for ihe purpose of combating those persons who attribute the inactiv- ity and unj^repared condition of the settlers of Schenectady, to Dutch stupidity and j^hlegm, whereas, as a matter of fact, it was religious hysteria. At the time William and Mary ascended the throne of Great Britain, there lived in New York a merchant i)ossessed of large fortune, who was the political ancestor of the long line of political bosses with which New York has been cursed or blessed, accord- ing to whether one is a citizen or a "grafter." This man, Jacob T.eisler, assumed the control of the Colonial government and was encouraged in so doing by the Protestant extremists, who held that all officials, in office under James, were Papists. T.eisler removed the officials and appointed those who were friends of him- self and his son-in-law, Milborne. Bigotry was rampart to such an extent, that the people of Schenectady would obey only the men appointed by T.cisler. nor would they provide for the soldiers 50 Old Schenectady. sent for their protection. It is tradition, that they feU so safe in their Protestant security that they made snow men at the gates of the fort to act as sentinels instead of placing men of flesh and blood there on that bitter winter's night, when the French Com- mander, Sieur Le Moyne de Sainte Helene, with one hundred and fourteen French and ninety-six Indians, two hundred and ten in all. made their attack upon the unprepared settlement of four hundred inhabitants. When this French expedition set out. it had no definite ending to its journey by woods and water, other than to attack the British settlements in New York. Thev left Montreal in January, 1690, and after a six-days' march through the deep snow in the intense cold, they halted for consultation, when the Indians demanded to know their destination. The French favored an attack ui)on Albany, that being the largest and most important of the settlements, up the river from New York. The Indians, how- ever, seemed to favor attacking Corlear — as Schenectady was called bv the French out of respect to \'an Corlear, the really honest Dutch gentleman — as thev were more familiar with the locality. A jiortion of the Indians who were with the Frencli. were composed of those renegades from th.e Mohawks who had been seduced to Canada and to the adoption of the Roman faith by the Jesuit Fathers, mentioned in a previous chapter. These red fiends who had adopted the faith of the Holy Catholic Church hated those other fiends who had ridopted the faith of their Protestant Dutch friends ; in both cases from ulterior motives, not from conviction, notwithstanding their i)rofessed belief that the murdering, scalp-lifting savage of Canada went directly to l)aradise by way of the rapid transit system of confession and absolution; or that otlier belief, that the diually bloody savages of the Mohawk valley entered heaven over the "straight and narrow path" of Protestant bigotry. The desires of the Indians carried weight with the French, so the expedition kept to the right at Ticonderoga, where the trails for Albany and Schenectadv diverged, and arrived opposite Massacre. Schenectady just 'before ini(lnii;lit. Tliev intended to make the attack early in the inornir.j;- of tlie next day, l)et\veen two and rhree o'clock, hut the cold was so intense it was inijxtssihle to ilelay, as they had. no protection from it and, of course, could not huikl fires, as they would warn ihe ])eo|)le of their presence. The advance was made immediately: the traditional snow sentinels weri. found kee])ini;" i^uard at the ,^'ate which was o])en. as if to invite the murder and desolation which followed. The attack was made, upon si_c:nal, first upon the homes in the village and then upon the fort at stockade around one corner of the the villa_q"e. In this fort were l.ieut. Enos Tal- m a d i.^ e a n d twenty- four men of the C'onnecti- cui soldier y. Lieut, de .Man- tel, the second in mand of the l'"rench. led the J he Massarrr. January, IbW. attack upon the the fort, the i^'ate of which was finally hurst open after ,<;-reat difticult\. the fort set on hre and the defenders killed or captured. l"e\v of the men in the homes of the villag-e made an\- defence. The Mar(|uis de .Monti.i;ny, a volunteer made an attack upon the I'.ome of .\dam \ rooman, hut he defended it with coura.^e and desperation. The mar(|uis w;is wounded twice hy a s])ear in the hands of X'rooman and would have heen driven off but for French reinforcements arri\inL;- just in time. \^rooman's life was spared for various reasons as is told in the chapter on .\ncient Dwellings. Side of State Street, near U'ashingtmi .-lie Massacre. 53 The murder of the settlers continued for two hours and the flames which consumed their lionies continued all night and into the following day. Ahcr the killing was finished, the Indians were Icept busy setting fire to the homes, for the French conniiander, from past experience feared, that should the Indians have nothing to occupy their attention they would hunt up the liquor with which all Dutchmen were well supplied and, becoming drunk, would be unable to fight should assistance be sent to the defence of the village. French sentinels were posted and the other French soldiers obtained some much-needed rest. Of the 40x3 inhabitants, sixty-two were killed, and thirty taken prisoners to Canada. Of the eighty buildings in the village, only two were not burned, one being that of Captain John A. Glen and the other being that of the widow Bradt in which the wounded marquis had been cared for. Of the considerable number of homes outside the stockaded village, only three were not burned. The total loss to the Dutch was estimated by the French at $80,000. At sunrise the French sent some of their men across the river to the Sanders mansion to obtain his surrender, but he had no intention of surrendering to them and was prepared for a defence with his farm hands and some Indians. There was no intention on the part of the French commander to attack Captain Sanders, who, with his wife, were notable in Canada for their goodness to French prisoners who had been captured by the Mohawks. The fact that Major and Mrs. Sanders were staunch Protestants, giving help and comfort to the French Romanists, added greatly to the regard of the French for them. The French began the return journey to Canada with the loss of but seventeen Frenchmen and four Indians and with thirty prisoners — no women nor old men being taken, as they could not stand the march through the snow in the intense cold — and fifty horses; thirty-four of them, however, were killed for food on the way to Montreal. It was on this occasion that Simon Schermerhorn rode to Albany, with a wound in one thigh, to spread the alarm. On 54 Old Schenectady. February lo, two days after the massacre, the Albany authorities sent Captain Jonathan Buh, who vv^as in command of the Connecti- cut troops in Albany, to Schenectady, with five men from each company, to bury the dead. The authorities sent a long letter of appeal to Governor Bradstreet, of Massachusetts, in which the massacre was described and help asked for the destitute. The conditions in the little settlement were awful, for not only were the dead and wounded to be considered, but the living- were without shelter in midwinter. There was danger that the settlement would be abandoned. This was something the Albanians and Indians of the valley did not want. The iAlohawks of the valley were the friends of the Dutch and sympathized with them in their great loss by death and lire. Just after the people were recovering from their dazed contlition and began to return to the scene of the conflagration, they assembled in the little square, where they were met by the Chief Sachem of the Onondaga Tribe, of the Five Nations, who delivered the following poetic and figurative address of sympathy and encouragement. As was their custom, he presented a belt of wampum at the proper stages in his address. "Brethren, the murder of our friends, the white men of Schenectady, grieves us greatly ; as much as if it had been done to ourselves, for we are of the same chain. The French have not acted like brave men, but like robbers with hearts of darkness. But be not discouraged on this account. We give you this belt to wipe away your tears. "Brethren, we do not think that what the French have done can be called a victory; it is only a further proof of their cruel deceit. Five moons ago they sent messengers with the white flag in their hands, and the talk of peace on their lips, but their thoughts were of war, as you now see by woeful experience. This is the third time they have acted thus deceitfully. They did so before at Cadaraqui, and in the country of the Senecas. They have broken open our house at both ends. Once far toward the home of the sun and here, where we now stand. P)Ut we hope Massacre. 55 to have revenge. One hundred brave Mohawks are now upon their track. They are young warriors. Their feet are Hke the elk's feet and very sure. Their shoulders are strong, like the shoulders of the buffalo. Their hatchets are as keen as the sharp north wind, and their eyes are eagles" eyes. They will follow the iM-enchmeii lo iheir very doors. Xot a man in Canada shall dare to cross his threshold for a stick of wood. We now gatlier up our dead to bury them, ])y this second belt. "brethren, the mischief which has befallen us is as great and sutlden as if it had come from heaven. Our forefathers taught us to go with all speed to bemoan and lament with our ])relhren in the same chain, when disaster happens to them. We must watch carefully lest other mischief come upon us. Let us sleep but little ; and when we lie down, let our quivers be full of arrows, our bows all strung, and our hands upon our knives. Take this bill of vengeance, that you may be more watchful for the future. We give you eye-water to make you sharp sighted, with this third belt." "We are in the house where we have often met, to renew our chain; l)Ut the house has blood ui)on its walls and the doorwav is polluted. We have come to wash u]) the blood and clean the walls, by this fourth belt." ''Brethren, we are strong. Our chain is a strong chain, a silver chain and can neither rust nor be broken. We do not mean to forsake you now that you are in trouble. \'ery soon, when the trees begin to bud, and the bark can be parted from the trees. our hunters will return from the far country and then we shall be a great band of fighting men, ready to fight your battles. We are of the race of the Bear, and the Bear, you know, never yields while one drop of blood is left. We nuist all be Bears, as typified by this fifth belt. "Brethren, be i^atient. 'i'his evil which has come upon you is a heavy one, but we shall soon have better times. The sun. which hath been cloudy, will shine again pleasantly. Take courage, courage, courage, brethren, with this sixth belt." 56 Old Schenectady. When the great orator of the Onondagas had finished, all of the other Indians present signified their approval of his remarks by a sharp exclamation and one of the elders of the church expressed the gratitude of the homeless, grief-stricken little com- munity and then the sad duty of burying the dead was begun. BEUKENDAAL FIGHT. There is no prettier miniature valley scenery in Schenectady County than is to be found where the fight with the Indians took place in July, 1748, known historically as "The Beukendaal Massacre." "Beukendaal" means "beechdale," the fight having started in a charming little dale well filled with beech trees. "Massacre" is a misnomer, for it was anything but that. For a fact, it was an out-and-out, stand-up fight with the settlers the attacking party. the DeGraaf House, called Beukendaal. This "beechdale" is about two miles west of Scotia, on the northerly side of the New York Cen- tral railroad, at Hardin's Crossing and a glimpse of it may be had from the trolley or steam cars as they pass, the red brick school house not far from the tracks on the north side being the landmark of the place from the view point of the cars. "Beukendaal" begins just behind the school. There is another brook, or "kill" as the old Dutch called Beukcndaal l-ight. 57 it, running- through an even more charming and romantic httlc dell, a quarter of a mile west of "heechdale"" and parallel with it. The stream which runs through it flows over a flat bed of rock. In places it flows between miniature cliffs well wooded and is broken up into numerous little falls. It was between these two charming dales that Abraham De Graaf built the home which was temporarily turned into a fort by the white men, when the attack of the Indians became too strong for them. . The fight with the Indians began with the shooting of Cap- tain Daniel Toll, by a party of Indians from Canada, at the upper end of "Beukendaal," where he, Dick Van Vorst, and a negro had gone to look for some strayed horses. They heard, as they sup- posed, the horses stamping in an open space beyond the trees and bushes. When they emerged into the open, they were horrified to find a party of Indians. Mr. Toll was killed, \an X'orst was captured, and the negro fled to Schenectady, a distance of three miles, to give the alarm. The firing was herd by Adrian Van Slyck at his farm, "Alaalwyck," — now known as the Toll farm, about a mile out of Scotia on the River road toward Amsterdam— and he too sent word to the town for help. He did not know surely that the shooting meant Indians, or that any one had been killed, but he did know that Mr. Toll, Mr. Van Vorst and the negro were out in that neighborhood looking for strayed horses. Four parties of armed men responded to the summons. The first was composed of Lieutenant Darling, of Connecticut, and his men who were stationed at the fort in the town. The second was in command of Auckes Van Slyck ; the third was led by Adrian Van Slyck, of Maalwyck, with some of the New York levies; while the fourth party was in command of Col. Jacob Glen, Jr., and Albert Van Slyck. These four parties, numbering 60 men, did not go to "Beukendaal" at the same time, there being an hour or more between the arrival of the first and last parties. The first of the volunteers to arrive, saw Mr. Toll sitting — alive as they supposed— with his back to a fence and in front of him was a crow, flying at short distances from him, but not away 5« Old Schenectady. from him. This strange sight of a crow remaining near a man excited their curiosity; the Indians intended it should, and when those in advance rushed forward to find an explanation of the strange sight, it was given them in the form of balls from Indian muskets. The crow was tied with a thong so that it was a com- panion of the dead man against its wdll. These men were immediately aware that they were in ambush. Before they could recover from their surprise and horror, many of them were killed and several cap- tured. The sur- vivors retreated as best they could and were supported by the arrival oi the second party under Auckes Van Slyck. When Adrian Van Slyck arrived with his New York levies, the sight of the Indians and the dead lying about was too much for them. They turned and fled, fairly pushing the earth from them and burning the wind in their haste to reach the safety of the town. Albert Van Slyck, brother of Adrian, wdio lead the levies, in writing to Colonel William Johnson — afterwards Sir William — stigmatized them as cowards. Finally, all the four detachments from the town had arrived, and the fight becanie as awful and furious as only a hand-to-hand boe:ck£mdaal 174 a of Beiikendaal Fight Hcukciulaal I'ii^lit. 59 lii;hl with Indians could hecome. It was knife, lonialiawk, clubbed musket and tigbt Rnger-<;rii)s of throats, wilb the settlers ever strivincj to reach the DeOraaf house. This was tinallv accomplished and the doors and windows were l)arraca(led. The settlers went uv stairs and, makini;- loop- holes just under the eaves by pullin,<;- away the boards, made thin-s so hot for the Indians that they ke])t out of ranoe ,»f the muskets, for they well knew that the men in tlie house were all sharp-shooters and that each boom of a smooth bore and crack of rifle meant a "good Indian." \an \orst, who was captured at the time Mr. DeOraaf was killed, was in charge of two youn-' l)ucks who were so greatly interested in the f^ght that they neglected their prisoner ; he there- fore managed to cut his bonds and escape. When Colonel Jacob Olen arrived with the Schenectady militia, tlu- Indians retreated <-md started for Can.ida. The killed were. Jacob (^len, Jr., Cai.lain iXaniel Toll. I'rans Van der I'.ogert. J. I'. \'an Antweri). .\( C\.ndc. Adrian \an 6o Old Schenectady. Slyck, John A. Bradt, Johannes Vroonian, Daniel Van Antwerpen, Cornehus Viele, Jr., Nicolas DeGraaf, Lieutenant Darling and seven of his men. The prisoners, who were taken to Canada, were : Harman Veeder, Isaac Truax, Albert J. V'eeder, Frank Connor, J. S. Vrooman, Lewis Groot, John Phelps and six of the Connecticut soldiers under Lieutenant Darling. HISTORIC FIRES. 1690. The only enemy more dreaded by pioneers in the early days, than the Indian, was fire, and in the winter of i6yo, the brave little pioneer settlement of Schenectady suffered from a combina- tion of both enemies, at the same time; for the historical event pictured in the geographies of thirty years ago, as "The Burning of Schenectady" and which is known in Schenectady historically, as "The Massacre," took place in that intensely cold winter, when the French and Indians, with musket, knife and tomahawk, killed sixty of the inhabitants; and with fire, destroyed all but two of the eighty odd buildings within the stockade. Fire was also used on the living bodies of some of the wounded, and thirty men and youths were taken, as prisoners, to Canada. The two houses spared were the ones into which the wounded French officer, de Montigny, had been carried; and the other was that of Major Glen. Such wholesale destruction of homes and public buildings by fire was, in those days, a far greater calamity than would be the wiping-out of Schenectady to-day. To-day there would be immediate help by public subscription ; those of means sufficient to rebuild could soon obtain the material for so doing; but, in 1690, the material had to be slowly and laboriously cut down in the forest and hewn into timbers ; and in the meantime, as all the men were thus employed, there was no one to provide food from the forest and the river. That the people remained to repair their loss, instead of, broken in spirit, going to other settlements, showed the "stuff"' of which the old pioneer settlers were made. Schenectady was slow in those days ; it is slow to-day, when com- pared with other places; but now, as then, Schenectady is very tenacious and sure. Historic fires. 6i 1819. The second of Schenectady's great fires was in 1819, and the g-rcatest from the standpoint of territory burned, but not from any other; for the destruction of 1690 nearly annihilated the inhabitants as well as the buildings of the little community. This fire started in a tan-yard, down toward the end of Mill lane, in the vicinity of what is now the continuation of Ferry street, where the long-since disused Conde Mill stands. There was a strong wind blowing from the south and the fire spread with terrific rapidity — the more so, as nearly all of the buildings were of wood, and the method and means of fighting fires in those days were most primitive. In 1819, the law required each inlial)itanl to provide and keep in their houses leathern fire-buckets. pr()])erly marked and luimbered, so that they could be returned to their custodians. As soon as there was an alarm of fire, the people were required to set these fire-buckets out in front of their houses, so that those who composed the volunteer fire department and such other citizens as should give assistance, might find them. The l)est work was then done by a bucket-line, consisting of firemen and citizens, formed in line to the nearest water — whether it was river, cistern or well — when the filled buckets were passed from hand to hand and returned in the same way, empty. So it is easily seen that to stop the progress of so great a fire, forced onward by so strong a wind, with such ]irimitive fire-fighting a])paratus, was impos- sible. Soon, the flames had reached State street and then they turned down toward Washington avenue and through Cluu"ch, to Union and Front streets, not burning every building in its course ; for the buildings were set on fire by flaming brands blown by the wind, .so there were, here and there, buildings which escaped. In 1819, Schenectady was a river-port, the first west of Albany, so that all freights, going west from the Hudson river points, were conveyed to Schenectady in wagons and loaded up on boats for the trip up the Mohawk ; and the reverse was the order, when the products of the western part of the State were Historic Fires. 63 I)cino- shipped east. The shore along the main l>inni Kill that is. I'.iat branch of the river lying hack of Washington avenue, was Hned with great storehouses and mercantile estal)lisliments. In fact, tht wholesale and retail trade of the city was in the vicinil}- of Washington avenue and iM-onl street. Tliere were also, con- siderable l)()at-huilding yards along the Hinni Kill and on the main river hack of Front street. The great hre of iSkj changed all this, for when rebuilding operations began, the business-center of Schenectady moved up town; and up town, in those days, was between Ferry street and the spot where the canal is. The old business-center then became, as it is now and ])robal)l\' will be for manv generations to come, the hnest residential portion of the citv. This is as it should be; for th.-re is not a s(|uare foot of the ground, bounded by I'nion and Front streets and Washington ;!venue and Ferrv streets, about which, at least, one item of historical interest, or old family-anecdote and tradition, ctjuld not hi' written. There is n.ow living in th.is cit\', in 11)04, one resident, who distinctly remembers the fact of this hre of iSio- That is Col. J. Andrew UarliN-dt, of Xo. 7 Ch.urch sireet, who. in his ninety- tirst \tar, recalls the excitement of the year, when he was hut five years old. 1861. In its iMre l)e])artment, Schenectady has ever been foriunate, from the organization of its first conijjany and the fact that its ])er ca])ita loss, by fire, has always been less than in any other city n{ the State. It is evident that Schenectady has had reason lo boast of and to be ])rou(l of its hre-hghters. While the i)icture of I'rotcction Hose I louse, .\"o. 1. ami ihe men who belonged to it is not old, wdien com])arei! with the cit}- and some of its families, it is ancient, as far as the V'nv Depart- ment is concerned, for it was taken in i S^h). in icSfK^, the pers(jns who had the lemerilv to drive, for pleasure, about the streets of the city, were bounced over the old- fashioned cobble-stones, which chiefh came from the farms of Organised in 1800. Hisloric Fires. 65 • ilciuillc. The farmer who hroui^hl 111 a load of these stones, ijl-athered from farm land on the sand plains above the fertile river ilats, was not recjuired to ])ay toll at the bridge connecting Glen- ville with the city. In i860, the !nen wore l)ell-crowned stove] )ipe hats and the women wore "waterfalls" and wide-spread hoopskirts. They drank Mohawk ri\-er water and never guessed that it was not tit for washing in, to sa\' nothing about drinking it ; and the resultant diseases, which fattened the purses of the physicians, were not traced to microbes or germs of the Mohawk. Tn i860, railroads and the telegraph were an established success : but the man with sufficient imagination to suggest the telephone ; the ability to send electrical messages from England to America through the air and to make the wireless system of telegraphing a commercial necessity, woidd have excited the sympathy of his friends and relatives, on account of his sad mental condition. The trolley car. automobile, phonograph : the transmission of power from Niagara and the upper waters of the TTudson over many miles of territory for manufacturing purposes, were not. in t86o. even items of a wine-sui)per nightmare. Tn t86o. Schenectady was the broom-corn center of the world, and the making of brooms was its greatest industry. Had any of tlie men in the grou]) of old-time firemen, been told that broom corn-raising and broom-making woidd dwindle to tiny pro]ior- tions, and that the locomotives works woidd make engines for Janan : that it woidd receive and fill orders for frftv. a hundred, and even two himdred engines from individual railroads. the\ would have expressed their pity for the dreamer in strong terms. TTad some one predicted a iilant in Schenectadv for the manu- facture of engines to be driven by captureuilding on Xott terrace, just .south of the German Church, the men. wlio had been working steadily for hours, were nearly ready to dro]). but they continued and eventually stopped further destruction. Protection Hose-house stood on the south side of State street, the first building from the corner of Center street. The names of the men in the group are as follows : T. W. McCamus, Ephraim Clowe, deceased ; T. R. Brow, decased ; J. J. Spier, J. B. Henry, deceased; George Hardin, deceased; J. E. Taylor, deceased; A Wilhelm, J. J. Giles. Dan Daley, deceased; J- J. Parker, J. W. ^^lais, George Shaible, all deceased; J. B. Mar.sh. Clinton C. P.rown. \\\ Lawrence. Alex. McMillen, A. Ward, J. W. Cleveland. .\. B. Swift. E. Rolft', M. B. \"an Patten. J. Stevens, 1. B.radt. J. W. Sanders, Joseph Case. Charles Wilson, John Bronk, Charles Banna, Marcus .\hreet, D. M. Putnam. David Revnolds, deceased ; E. Fink, Fred Dunbar. J. H. Wheelock, fohn Gow, j. Long, William Ades. J. E. Hill. Wilson Davis. P.hn Wendell. [. 1. C Fort. ( ). S. EutTman. C. W. Sanders. J. Hewis, and the following, all of these deceased; E. W. Lien. John Vedder, Frederick Vedder, 1. \'. Reagles, Giles Marlette, Vedder Van Patten, Jacob DeForest. Isaac Cain. C. P.. Swart. Charles Wallev. Howard Barringer. E. E. Lindley. J. H. Draper. H. X. \'edder. J. A. \an Zandt. Palmer Egleston, and W\ L. Goodrich. Chapter IV. Ancient Dwellings, MABIE HOUSE. F THE very old hovise still standing on the Brandy wine mill property was not built by Adam Vrooman, the hero of the massacre, then the Mabie house, near Rotterdam Junction, is the oldest dwelling standing in Schenectady County. As this point in connection with the Vrooman house, will never be settled any more dehnitely than it is now, it is safe to give to the Mabie house the title of "Oldest." The date of its erection is not known, nor have historians been able to do more than ascertain beyond doul)t that it was standing as early as 1706. The house stands on a bluff on the south bank of the Mohawk river seven miles above the city, on the deepest part of a great curve, so that a grand view up and down the river and across to the charming Glenville hills, may be had. This old house is built of heavy stones c|uarried from the hillside. The walls are laid without mortar, just as a stone wall is built, only the fitting of the stones was much more carefully attended to. The outside is pointed with mortar and the inside plastered. These heavy stone walls are built to the height of one story and then comes the typical Dutch peaked roof with the second story and attic in it. As in all of the old houses and mansions, the timbers are massive. The floor of the second storv is made of thick ]:)lank or hewn timbers with the lower side, which forms the ceiling of the first floor, planed smooth. Even die window frames are made of timl^er. Major MacMurray, the editor of Pearson's History of the Schenectady Patent, who was Mabie House. 69 also an historical mvcstig-ator of repute 011 his own acccMUit. liad reason to believe from the slight hints he was able to obtain from old documents, that this house was built when D. J. Van Antwerp M,lh,r ll',u> received the patent for the farm upon which the old Mabie house stands. This would fix its erection between the years 1670 and ir)8o. Jan Pieterse Mabie was an early settler in the village of Schenectady, his village lot being on Church street next to the lot upon which the First Dutch Church stands, on the north side of it. It included the two pieces of property known as the Washing- ton and I'.enjamin proi)erty, that is, the residences of Mrs. Wash- ington and Mrs. I'.enjamin arc on the old Mabie property, which in his days had a frontage on Church street of 108 feet and a depth of 206. That he lived on this property, before 1690, is shown by a paper confirming his ownership, given by the trustees, l)ecause the original deed was burnt on the night of the massacre, 1 690. The Artnt Bradt House, Surth Side Stale Street near fi^aihinglon .-/i Bradt House. 71 jan .\Ial)ic owned a farm of sixt_\ -throe acres on the south siile of the river where the oKl h.ouse stands. 'Phis he purchased from D. J. \ an Antwerp in i/of) and it is stiU in the Mahie family ahhough not now occupied hy memhers of it. jan Mahie was a considerahle owner of projierty elsewhere. The Ahjhawks gave him land on both sides of Schoharie creek. His wife, Anna i)Orsl)oom. owned property consisting of farm land and a village lot on the south-east corner of Front street and Washington avenue, all of which she inherited from her father, and Mahie owned farm land on the ojjposite side of the river from the old house called Wolf tiat near what is now known as Wolf hollow. Later he became possessed of considerable pasture land between Front street and the river. BRADT HOUSE. The Bradts of Schenectady are descended from .\renl Andriese Bradt who, with his brother Albert settled in Albany, Arent later going to Schenectady as one of the original proprietors, in 1662. He died that year, leaving his wife and six children, three of whom were boys, .Andries, Samuel and Dirk. The first son was a brewer at the time of the massacre when he was killed by tlu- Indians. His son Arent and a daughter sur- vived him. This son was known later in life as Ca])tain .\rent llradt who was one <)f the distingtiished and wealthiest men of his day. He was a brewer like his father and built the old i'.radi house on lowx^r State street, near Washington avenue which wa> standing as late as i8()5. Captain l'>radt was a member of the Provincial .Assembly in 1745 and a trustee of Schenectady for hfty-two years, from 1715 to 17()7, the latter being the year 01 his death. The claim to ownership, instead of trusteeship, has been referre the Rev. Thomas r>rou\ver. his jiastorate Ijeginning in Jul\. 1714- ll<^~ Nvas in charge of the congreo;ation till his death on January 15. 1728. The Rev. Reinhardus Erichzon was the fourth minister, his pastorate beginning on March 30. 1728, and ending- in October, 1736. In his ])astorate the vigorous little clun-ch became greatl\- increased in numl)ers and its finances were so much improved that \Thr Orii^inal Ihitch Reformed Chureh. a reallv i)retentious clun-ch building was erected and this was done without seeking aid from outside. This church buddmg — shown in the picture — was built of stone at a cost ui $2,919.73. 8o Old Schenectady. one-third of that sum having been collected from the people of the valley. This was the third church building. It was situated at the junction of Union and Church streets in the center of the streets, not on a lot. The material was shale-like stone, bear- ing traces of sandstone, and was obtained near the village. The building was eighty by fifty-six feet. In 1732 the work was begun by Hendrick Vrooman who was the "baas," (incidentally, this Dutch word is the origin of modern "boss" and it meant exactly the same thing in Dutch that it does to-day in English), and a considerable gang of workmen under him, seventeen of the whole number being carpenters. The record says that Vrooman received seven shillings and the other workmen from five to six shillings a day, but whether the .-hillings were Sterling or York is not stated. If the former, the pay was good, $1.75 for the boss and $1.25 and $1.50 for the workmen, being higher than is paid to-day, everything considered. This church had a gambrel roof, a bell and clock tower and two entrances, one on the side toward the east facing Union street, and the other on the south end. The former was the main entrance and opposite it, high up against the wall on a single pedestal was the pulpit and directly over it was the sounding board. The arrangement gave the appearance of a gigantic jack-in-the-box when the preacher had mounted the steps to the l)arrel-shaped pulpit and the suspended sounding board resembled tlie lid. The curious old custom of separating the men from the women obtained. The men, being of finer clay ( ?), occupied raised seats along the sides of the church while the mothers, wives and daughters were seated on more lowly resting places in the l)ody of the church, where the men could obtain a good raking view of them, but they could not look at the men without turning their heads. In front of the pulpit was a railed-ofif space where the minister stood when administering the sacrament of baptism. The seats were rented to men for five shillings and to women for four shillings a year. A seat was the property of the person who paid the rent and it belonged to his heirs after First Dutch Reformed Church. 8i his death. Should the rent not be paid, the seat was re-let to someone else, the new occupant paying a fee of twelve shillings in addition to the annual i)ayment. Failure to pay the rent was the only cause of forfeiture. In 1734 there were eighty-si.x men's seats and two hundred and eighteen women's. This causes one to wonder if the women were in that proportion in excess of the men, or if then as now, the women were chiefly the church goers. From the building of the church till fifty- eight years afterward there was no means of heating it in winter save by the old-fashioned foot- warmers, and these were only of good to the in- dividual whose feet A Church -Furnace- of 200 years a^o, in the Sunders Manswn. fCStcd OU OUC. In 1740, the church had a IjcU and a clock in its tower. The bell was in use till 1848 when it was cracked and became useless. On August 3. 1743 the church was chartered. The object of this was to give the congregation corporate ])owers m the matter of its real estate. For more than fifty years the church had been accumulating property, but the church as such could neither hold, sell nor ])urchase, as it had no legal existence, hence the charter. For the four years after the Rev. Mr. Erickzon left, the Church had no settled minister, but the sacraments were administered and the pulpit supplied, by two Albany ministers, the Reverends Van Schie and Wan Dresser. In November, 1736, the Church sent to Holland for a minister, a salary of iioo a year being promised from the time he left Holland but. althcuigh two years were spent in an effort to secure a minister, the representatives of the Clnu-eh were not successful. In November, 1738, Levinus Clarks..n and John Livingston being in Holland, were authorized to make renewed efforts to secure a minister and another two years passed 82 Old Schenectady. without anything being accomphshed. The Church then deter- mined to find a minister at home so, the Rev. Cornells Van Sant- voord was cahed from the Staten Island Dutch Reformed Church, where he had been settled for twenty-two years. The Staten Island Church demanded to be reimbursed for the expense of bringing Mr. Van Santvoord from Holland, the Schenectady Church objected but, finally, the matter was compromised and he came to Schenectady in August, 1740. His wife, who was a daughter of John Staats, of Staten Island, died in 1744, and Mr. Van Santvoord remarried in 1745, his second wife being Elizabeth Toll, of Schenectady. She died in 1747, childless. Mr. Van Santvoord was a man of cultivation and an excellent minister. He was a fluent speaker in the English, Dutch and French languages. In the twelve years he was pastor, the membership was increased by 151 ; 174 couple were married ; 645 children were baptized. His death occurred suddenly, after but a week's illness, on January 6, 1752. Then there was another period in which the Church had no minister, this time for three years, the pulpit being occasionally supplied by the Revs. Theo. Frelinghuysen, of Albany, and Barent Vrooman, of New Platz. The death of the minister, Mr. Van Santvoord, occurred in January, 1752 and from that date till 1755 the congregation was without a minister, the occasional preaching being done by ministers from Albany and other places. In 1753 a new parsonage was built on the same site, now the site of the church, as the former occupied. It was built of brick, two and a half stories high, the brick being made by Jacob \"an Vorst. On November 17, 1754, the Rev. Barent Vrooman was installed as the sixth minister of the church. Mr. Vrooman was born in Schenectady, on December 24, 1725, and was the great- grandson of the original settler of that name. He was the first person born in the Colony and the onh- one born in Schenectady, who became the minister of the church. He was the eleventh child of Wouter Vrooman, who was taken a captive to Canada, by the French, the da}' after the massacre of 1690. first Dutch Reformed Church. 83- ^\r. Vrooman beg;an his theological studies under the Rev. Cornelis \'an Santvoord and finished them inKler _the Rev. Theodore Frelinghuysen, of Albany. In 1751, he went to Holland to continue his theological education, in the University of l^trecht. He received his license to preach in January, 1752, and was ordained by the classis of I'trecht in March, 1753, and scon after returned to America. After a brief visit with relatives in vSchtnectady, be began his duties as minister, in New Platz, in August, 1753. The congregation included Xew Platz, Shawan- guiiiv and Wallkil and the parish extended over a territory of 200 s(|uare miles. The corner stone of the Dutch Reformed Church of Xew Platz was laid by Mr. Vrooman and the building is still worshipped in. In the month following his installation, as minister of the New Platz Church, the First Dutch Reformed Church of Schenectady gave him a call. The official call to Schenectady was a long, complicated, com- plex affair, more like a legal document, drawn for the purpo.se of confusing and impressing the iminitiated, than a sim]-)le invitation from the congregation of a church, to a minister, to come there as its minister. The title of the call alone required forty-five words. The call proper, starts off with the seemingly before unknown fact, that the Supreme Being rules all things as He wills ; that "His adorable good pleasure" — in causing the death of the pastor — is, "our great grief." It then pays several pretty compli- ments to ■Mr. Vrooman and his family and makes the rather ambiguous statement that the call was given to Mr. X'rooman "in fear of the Lord." The full official title of the Church is then given with the names of the members of the Consistory with the statement, that he was to administer his office in accordance with the rules of the Synod of Dordrecht. Thus the call was mailc, but by no means finished, for. then the business part of the tran- .saction was taken up exliaustively. Mis "Reverence" was told what he will be expected to do and when he was to do it : how much bis salary would be and the number and kind of his i)er- quisites. \'ery near the end. he is given the following title. First Dutch Reformed Church. 85 which, if used while introducing several persons, would permit the first introduced to become decrepit before the last person had been presented. The title was : "The Reverend-pious-and-learned liarent Vrooman.'' This by no means ended the complications of so simple a matter as the inviting- of a man to become the minister of a church, for the expenses connected with a call were large. They were borne by the church which gave the call. In the case of the call to the Rev. 15arent X^rooman, the Church paid £225 or $5(33. The items will be of interest as sliowing how really serious a thing it was in those good old days to hire a new minister. Cornelius Van Slyck and Isaac Vrooman were paid £5-12-0 for delivering the call. Joseph R. Yates, for the use of his horse by Philip Reylie, for twelve days, while he was making inquiry in regard to the coming of Mr. Vrooman, was paid i 1-4-0. To Gerret H. Lansing and Joseph R. Yates * * * sent to New York to request Do. Vrooman's dismission by the Coetus there, in the presence of Do. Wooman, which was fruit- less, i6-8-o. The "Skipper" was paid £1-13-0 for bringing Mr. Vrooman's goods from New York to Schenectady. Abraham Mabie and Isaac Vrooman brought the new minister from New Platz to Schenectady and were paid £12-0-0, they having been gone sixteen days with their horses. Claas Van Patten for shoeing a horse, £2-6-0. It required three ministers to dismiss Mr. Vrooman and to write the call and they were paid £10-0-0 for so doing. Now this is probably the secret of the ponderousness of the call, for when three ministers put their heads together, they are apt to think in whole paragraphs. £4-10-0 was paid for the hiring of a sloop to bring some of the new minister's goods up from Sopus. Abraham Mabie's and Isaac Vrooman's traveling expenses were £2-7-2. 86 Old Schenectady. "To £50 in satisfaction of a horse from the churches for Do. Vrooman. £19-14-0 were paid to the Xew Platz church and £66-6-0 to the churches of Shawangunk and Wahkil, and £43-0-0 to the New Platz Consistory, seennngly, because they liad lost their minister. The Rev. Barent Vrooman married Alida, a daughter of David Vander Heyden, of Albany, in January, 1760. Their three children were, David, Maria and Walterus. Mr. \>ooman was a man of commanding presence, being six feet, four and a half inches tall and was broad and finely proportioned. He was a forcible and vigorous preacher, who was so full of his subject and loved it so well, that his sermons were delivered without notes. He was warm hearted, affectionate and, as a preacher, possessed the power of appealing to the affectionate and emotional side of his auditors. In his social relations, he was genial and charming. A call from the dominie was a pleasure in each home of his parish and out of it. Mr. Vrooman's health failed in 1780, and four years later his condition was so serious that the Rev. Dirck Romeyn was called as assistant minister. Mr. Vrooman died in November, 1784, at the age of hfty-nine years. His wife survived him fifty years and died at the great age of 99, in 1823. The successor of the Rev. Barent Vrooman was his assistant, the Rev. Dirck Romeyn, who came to Schenectady in August, 1784, and was the seventh minister. With him came new customs and ideas in the Church and City. In the Church, the Dutch language divided the honors in the service and preaching, with the English language. The minister's salary was considerabh' increased and a second minister was called, as the parish was so large and the parishioners so widely scattered. In the city, great advancement was made in the schools and general educational interests, chiefly through the personal efforts of Mr. Romeyn. Dirck Romeyn was born in that old Dutch village of Hacken- sack. New Jersey. His early education was obtained under the instruction of his older brother, the Rev. Thomas Romeyn, who First DiifcJi Reformed CJiurch. 87 was minister of the Dutch Reformed Churches on the Delaware, and under that of the Rev. Dr. J. H. Goetschius, of Hackensack. With these two tutors he prepared for Princeton College, entered in 1763, and was graduated in 1765. In his seventeenth year he became a church member and decided upon the ministry as his life's work. His examination in theology lasted for two days and resulted in his ordination in May, 1766, by the Revs. J. H. Goetsching and John Schureman, as minister of the united churches of Rochester, Alarbletown and W'awarsinck. He remained there throughout the Revolutionary war. a staunch patriot and fearless champion of the princi])le of no taxation with- out representation. After peace wath the old country had been declared, in 1784, Mr. Romcyn wa« formally called to Schenectady, and a good thing it was for Schenectady that he was called, for Union College- was located in Schenectady through his efforts. His salary was $350, house, pasture for two cows and a horse and seventy cords of fire wood delivered on his premises. The salary was increased to $500 in 1796, and in 1798 to $625, on account of the high cost of living. Mr. Romeyn was large like his predecessor, Mr. Vrooman, stately in manner with a dignified and pleasing presence. Unlike Mr. Vrooman, Mr. Romeyn was governed by his intellect rather than his heart and as a preacher he appealed more to the mind than to the emotions, but at the same time, his elociuence often had a powerful effect upon his auditors. Within a few months after his installation Mr. Romeyn began to devote his great energy to the improvement of the educational interests of the city. That the Schenectady Academy was begun in 1785, was almost entirely due to his efforts. In 1794, the membershi]) of the church was so large, it being the only Reformed Church in the town, and the territory covered by the homes of the members, being so extensive, that one minister could not attend to all of the pastoral duties, so an assistant was called. The pay was a salary- of $500. paslm-e for 88 Old Schenectady. two cows and a horse, or, in lieu $62 yearly, and half the per- quisites of the office. The Rev. Nicholas Van Vranken, of Fishkill, was called but he refused, because a house was not included. Jacob Sickles, a theological student was appointed. He began his duties in October, 1795, and ended them in the summer of 1797. From this year till 1802, Mr. Romeyn was without an assistant. In 1802 Mr. Romeyn's health had so greatly failed that, by mutual con- sent, his salary was reduced to $520 a year and he was only required to preach once on Sunday, in the Dutch language. In the spring of 1802, the Rev. J. H. Meier, of New Platz was called as asH'5;ant. Mr. Romeyn died in 1804, at the age of sixty. His wife, Elizabeth Broadhead, died in 1815, at the age of seventy- four. Their son, the Rev. John B. Romeyn, was pastor of the Cedar Street Church, in New York and their daughter, Catherin, married Caleb Beck, of Schenectady. It has been said, that in Mr. Romeyn's pastorate the church service was in both Dutch and English. In February, 1794, the Consistory resolved, that, so long as there were twenty-five sup- porting families in the Church who understood Dutch better than any other language, the sermon should be in Dutch at one service and in English at the other, and that the weekly evening lecture should be in a different language from the Sunday evening sermon. This was caused by the growing popularity of English. The majority of the younger portion of the congregation understood and spoke English better than they did Dutch. In the Episcopal and Presbyterian Churches the service was, of course, in English and it was feared that that fact would attract the young people. The older members were so intensely Dutch that the English sermon did not give great satisfaction so, five months later, the resolution adopted by the Consistory was changed, so that the sermon should be in English every alternate Sunday at one of the two day services and that the Sunday evening sermon should be in English. First Dutch Reformed Church. 89 In March, 1798, the young people were again flirting with the Episcopal and Presbyterian Churches. This caused the older people to conclude to violate their feeling and ears by listening more frequently to sermons preached in English. The clerk was required to hire an English clerk, at his own expense, to serve on the days when the service was in that language. In 1799, wonder of wonders, Mr. Yates was authorized to purcliase eight English Bibles and half of the service for two successive Sundays was to be in English and on the third Sunday, entirely in Dutch. Those persons who are acquainted with the tenacity of purpose of the descendants of those fine old Dutchmen and women, may guess that the third Sunday was anticipated with as great eagerness as the newly admitted attorney anticipates his first fee. It may be remarked parenthetically, that it is extremely odd that, since their grand, and great-grantl parents were so passion- ately, almost stubbornly .devoted to the mother-tongue, there is not one of their descendants living in Schenectady in 1904 who can read the letters and documents, written in the Dutch language years ago — and there is many a chest full of them in many an attic — or speak the Dutch language of those days. There is a bit of subtile humor in the fact, that the only person in Schenectady, living in the past decade, who was at all proficient in reading the old Dutch, was a Scotchman, the late Alexander Thomson. After the death of Mr. Romeyn, the Rev. John H. ^leier became the minister of the Church. Mr. Meier was born in Pompton, New Jersey, in October, 1774. He was graduated from Columbia College in 1795 and studied theology with the Rev. Dr. Livingston. In 1798, he was licensed to preach and was called to the New Platz Church, New Platz seemingly being a training school for Schenectady ministers. In 1802, he was called to Schenectady, as Mr. Romeyn's assistant and in 1804, he became the minister. His pay was a salary of v$662.50 a year with a house, but nothing was mentioned about pasturage for cows and a horse, nor of wood. Mr. Meier was a young man of agreeable manners, who was 90 Old Schenectady. well liked out of the congreg-ation as well as in it, notwithstanding the fact that he was rather reserved. He was notable for his veneration and sympathy. His death occurred at the end of his second year as pastor, in 1806, at the age of thirty-two. For two years after the death of Mr. Meier the Church was without a minister, the pulpit being supplied by men from other places. In July, 1807, a son of a former minister, the Rev. John B. Romeyn, was called, but he did not accept the call with its house, firewood and $1,000 a year. In 1808, the Rev. Cornelius Liogardus, was called and accepted. Mr. Bogardus was born in September, 1780. He, too, was one of the Rev. Dr. Livingston's students. He was installed as minister of the First Reformed Church, of Schenectady, in November. 1808, that being his first parish. He was a man of fine presence and, although not the equal of some of his pre- decessors as a speaker, he was considered a strong preacher and, had he lived, would probably have become noted. He died in December, 181 2, at the age of thirty-two. It was in his pastorate that the church building was first used for the Fourth of July celebration. This was in 1811. In granting the request for the use of the building, the Consistory stipulated that there should be no instrumental music, nor anything said which would give offence to any political party. The Rev. Dr. Jacob Van Vechten was the next minister, his pastorate beginning in 1815. Up to his coming, there had been no long terms as ministers of the Church, but in his case, it was different, for his pastorate continued for thirty-four years. Mr. Van Vechten was born in Catskill, in September. 1788. He was a descendant of the first settler, Tenuis Dirkse Van Vechten, who came to the Dutch Colony in America, with his wife, one child and two servants, in 1638. In 1648. he owned a farm in Green- bush, opposite Albany. Dr. Van Vechten's early education was obtained in Catskill and later in the Kingston Academy. He prepared for Union College with the Rev. Alexander Miller, a former minister of First Dutch Reformed Church. Qt the Presbyterian Church, in Schonectady. Dr. \au W'chtcn entered Union in 1805, and was graduated in 1809. When he entered college, he intended to study law and so. soon after being graduated, he entered the office of his uncle, Abraham \'an Vechten, of Albany. He gave up the law in a few months and began to study for the ministry, in the Theological Seminary of the Scotch Church, under the Rev. Dr. J. Al. Alason, of New York, and later, in New Brunswick Theological Seminary. In 1814, he was licensed to preach. Mt. Van Vechten was married twice — his first wife was Miss Catherin Mason, a daughter of his preceptor, and the second was. Miss Van Dyck. daughter of Abraham Van Dyck, of Coxackie. Mr. Van \^echten was not robust, as a youth, and as time went on, his health did not improve. In 1823, he went to Europe and was gone a year and returned somewhat improved in health. Williams College gave him the degree of D. D., and in 1837, he was senior trustee of Union College. In 1849. ^lis lack of health caused his resignation. From that time, till his death in 1 87 1, he devoted himself to literature. In 1792 Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas \'an der Volgen presented the Church with several fine, large chandeliers of brass and the same year a great innovation was made in an attempt to heat the church. The attempt was as great a failure as it was great in its novelty. In December of that year two stoves were purchased and placed in the church, not on the floor, but on two platforms as high as the gallery, their knowledge of thermotics being, not only primitive but upside down. They evidently believed that heat waves descended. Th.e result was. that while the boys and negro slaves in the gallery were hot the congregation down on the floor of the church were cold. Finally the stoves were lowered to the floor where they gave satisfaction. In 1797. Mr. and Mrs. \'an der X'olgen again showed their generosity by giving to the Church money for the purchase of an organ. This money was left to accumulate till about 1826 when an organ was purchased from Henry l{rban. of New York, at a cost of $1,000 First Dutch Reformed Church. 93 The duties of the klokhiyer, or sexton, were to ring the bell, as the word klokluyer signifies, to keep the interior of the church in proper order and to dig graves and fill them in after the burial ceremony. The dual office of "voorlezer" and "voorsanger" was united in the person of the clerk. The duties of this person were fixed and defined by the consistory. Generally speaking, he opened the service by reading the commandments, a chapter from the Bible and a hymn or psalm, in >he morning, and in the after- noon substituting the creed for the commandments, otherwise the same form was carried out. In addition, this voor-person had "the right and emoluments of burying the dead of the con- gregation." This could not have been any very great source of Tncome for those old Dutchmen were slow-livers and long-livers and the habit acquired then obtains to-day. The First Reformed Church has ever been the exponent of good music in Schenectady. In 1794 the Consistory adopted a resolution which would have the effect of improving the smgmg and increasing the number of singers. This was to be accom- plished bv Cornelius DeGraaf, the chorister, who should urge parents to send their children to him for instruction, at the rate of thirtv-five cents a month to which would be added an equal sum bv'the Consistorv. Then the Consistory then tacked on to the resolution a "rider" in which was all the meat of the purpose of the resolution. It was that Mr. DeGraaf should try to keep better time and that he should "soften his voice as much as possible. There is a tradition that when Mr. DeGraaf sat on his back stoop expanding the atmosphere by "singing psalms to beguile the evening hours, his voice could be clearly heard two nnles up the river in a straight line." When it is remembered that this volume of sound progressed up the river against a four mile current, the value of such a voice in the person of a twentieth- centurv campaign "orator" nnist be appreciated and the sufferings of his friends and neighl)ors may be guessed at. In 1805. the church, which st.H.d in the midri(lge Company in 1808 and l)y the time the ice was 124 ^^d Schenectady. strong on the river, the work of setting the wooden cables in place was started, and the scaffolding, to support the immense strings of tightly-bolted-togethcr planks and timbers, was built upon the ice. The work was progressing well and the usual crowd, which was attracted by the building-operations, collected whenever work permitted, to watch the greatest undertaking yet attempted in this part of the young State. In those days, the Mohawk was much more to be depended upon than it can be now. The ice formed and broke up and the floods came and went, at times which were more nearly fixed. This was, probably, due to the fact that Nature had not been deranged by the destruction of the forests. They had the effect of holding back the rains and melting the snows, and of allowmg them to gradually run away to the sea, by the way of the Mohawk and Hudson. But the winter of 1809 was an exception. The river rose rapidly, in the January thaw, and the ice went out, taking the work of months and the hope and money of the workers with it. When the people had recovered from their disappointment, they began, again, to plan ; and, this time, they concluded to increase the number of spans to four, by building two other piers between the one in the middle and the abutments. These piers are the two other large ones to be seen to-day, which, with their older fellow, are solid as they were then. Tills four-span wooden suspension-bridge was massive. It was made of plank, 4 by 12 inches and from 12 to 14 feet long, bolted together, forming an immense, flexible cable of wood, 12 inches thick, 3 feet wide and the full length of the river, with the addition of the extra length required for the loops, making the total length of the cables probal)ly 1,100 feet. These cables were braced by many timbers from the abutments and piers, weie .supported by great upright beams and, of course, the whole thing was anchored at the ends. This was practically the bridge; for the driveway had nothing to do with the cables, any more than to be suspended from them. That is to say, flood and ice mi'^ht carry away the driveway and not harm the super-structure. The Oh! Bridge. 125 This plan showed the skill of the man who designed and built the hridse. It was accomplished l)y liani^ino; the driveway from the wooden cables by scjuare. wn.uoht-iron rods, which passed up throuii-h the cables and down thr.ni-h the tloor-tinibers. Instead of fastening- these rods, rigidly, holes were made through tl;e end.s, and pieces of iron, called keys, were passed through these holes, resting on immense washers. The floor timbers were supported in the same manner— only, in this instance, the keys were below the timbers. The result proved to be even more than was hoped for; for the flexible driveway was. often, jwunded and battered by floating ice and debris ; and the very flexibility of it saved it from destruction. On the rare occasions when portions were destroyed or damaged, the work of repair was easy ; for all that was neces- sary was to remove the keys whereupon the damaged part could be slipped out and new parts put in place. Probably, the greatest strain put on the bridge was one spring, many years ago, when the high water brought down a large canal-boat. Its nose struck the suspended floor a terrific blow. It hung, for a few minutes, and then, when the force of the water became irrisistible. the boat turned end-over-end. and went rushing down to destruction, on the rocks along the Xiskayuna shore. For many years, the only covering on the bridge was where the great loops of the cables passed over the upright timbers on the abutments and on the piers. The drop of the caliles was shingled, to protect the cables from the weather. As time went on. the joints of the bridge— unlike those of an ol])orters of a free-bridge: so Mr. Sanders and some of the otiiers went u]) Maiden Lane, a short cut, trom the station to the ("apitol. and made known their ditticnlty. h'riends there a' ranged matters, by having a man, who resembled (lovcr- nor LM.K, in form, to sit in his chair. It so ha])i)ened that not one of the opposition knew the ("Governor, by sight: so, when they were ushered into his room, they stated their case and the man. sitting in the Governor's chair, assured the opposition that he would not sign the bill ; and so thev went home, rejoicing. When Governor Dix returned to Albany, be signed the bill and the opi position went to sec him, in anything but a happy frame of 130 Old Schenectady. mind ; but when they were presented, they found that the man who had made the promise and the man who signed the bill were very different individuals. The success of Mr. Sanders and his free-bridge party and the clever manner in which the town had been forced into advo- cating the greatest good, for the greatest number, that is, free bridges, somewhat roiled the voters. They vowed that they would get even, when election-time came; but again, they had to deal with a man whose political acumen fitted him for state, rather than count}- leadership. (3n election day, all the stores antl the two or three broom- shops in Scotia, were shut down and the men sent to the Town House, to "whoop-it-up" for free-bridges. They arrived upon the scene, with a shout, and everytime that they odw anybody, especially a new comer, the}- shouted for free-bridges and they drank to the success of free-bridges. Every time that the opponents attempted any enthusiasm, they were silenced by the shouts of the others. Finally, the leaders of the opposition got together and decided that, as everybody seemed to be for free- bridges, they did not care to be snowed under, and to be laughed at ; so the majority of them voted the free-bridge ticket, which put Mr. Sanders in the Board of Supervisors. Mr. Van Vranken and Mr. Potter still opposed the sale of the old wooden bridge; so Mr. Sanders asked them to say what they would do about it. Mr. \'an X'ranken said that he would agree to sell for so much a share, the total, amounting to $12,(')00, he, thinking that the extra $600 would kill the whole business. Mr. Sanders, as supervisor, ])aid the $12,000 and the $600 was raised by private subscription in Scotia. When the time came to pay for the old l)ridge, another very clever move was made, which saved the inhabitant-taxpayers of Glenville from paying a cent of the additional assessment for raising the $12,000 and made the non-resident tax])ayers bear the burden of the assessment for the i)urchase of the bridge. I'his was accomplished by the vote, authorizing the using of the '/'lie Old Bridge. 131 accumulated funds, obtained from the old (|uil-i"enls and from the commutation of the (|uit-renls, to pay, for the inhabitant-tax- payers, the extra assessment for the purchase of the brids^r. In (.rder to make this clear, it will be necessary to go back into the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In the earliest da_\s, when the land belonged to the Crown, induceiueuls were offered to Coiu't favorites to go to the Colony, for settlement, so ihat the domain would be greatly increased in value, and, thus, make a resultant increase in royal revenues. Immense tracts of land were granted to these men, by Royal I'atent, the consideration (or price) being tliat they should cause to be settled and worked, a certain i)ortion of the grants. To accomplish this, the Proprietors, or the Patroons, offered inducements to immigrants to settle u])on their lands. These settlers were given farms. var\ing in size, for which no lump-sum in cash wa: i)aid. but a nominal rent, called "(|uit rents," which were to be paid forever. For a century or more, these rents were ])aid in produce of the land. Sometimes, it was a small quantity of wheat and the like ; in one curious contract, the rent was seven- tenths of a board ; a board being twelve feet long, six inches wide and one inch thick. After the people began to be more prosperous and money was not an unusual possessicMi, small sums of money w^ere paid. vSometimes it was a lumivsum yearly; but generally it was so nuich an acre, ten or fifteen cents being the usual rental. While this was so small, in the individual case, the total w\as con- siderable ; for the grants to the Pro])rietors included tens of thousands of acres. Up to 1820, Cdenville was the fourth ward of v'^chenectadv and Rotterdam was the third. In this year, they were set off into towns. Tn order to equalize matters, Cdenville, (for that is the only town we are concerned with), was divided into "Creat Lots" — the town t.nking one and the city the next, and where the valuations did not e(|uaHze, city lots were given to the town. When anyone wished to obtain a farm, from lands belonging to the town, these jiurchasers paid no money, other than the The Old Bridge. 133 annual (juil-renl. Should a man wish to rid liiniscll of the rent, he would pay to the tnw u a sum of mune}-, which would repre- sent the prnicipal ol which the rent would he the interest. For instance; if the rent was $7 a year, the tenant would pay $i(X), that being- the jjrincipal. the interest of w Inch would be $7. The town loaned this mune\- and ])ut it out to interest, in various wa}s; so that, in time, it became a considerable sum. W hen the agreement was made to sell the old l)ridge, a resolution was ado])led, l)y the trustees of the town, to api)l} this accumulated fund on the inhabitant taxes. \n this way, the inhabitant taxpayers of Gleuville paiil only the usual comit\' tax — the excess of assessment for the purchase of the bridije being- paid by the trustees from the quit-rents' fund. Ikit the non- resident taxpayers and the railroads had to pay the full assess- ment. As a matter of fact, they paid for the bridge. The old bridge was sold for $500 and many of its timbers went to build some of the barns and stables wliich are standing- in Scotia and the surrounding country, to-day. When the time came to tear down the old bridge, it was thought that it would l)e an easy job; but it was so strongly built, that the work was really, very difficult. The long square rods, which supported the floor of the driveway and the hundreds of bolts, which held the planks and timbers together, had become so twisted by the strain, when the high water was on and by the blows of debris, which smashed against it, in the flood, that it was impossible to pull them out. The only thing which could be done was to saw the bridge apart; and this was accomplished. A man by the name of Aaron Burr was the architect of the old wooden-bridge, and if his namesake of Revolutionary days, had btiilded as well, his name would now be among those of the honored ones. The contract for the present bridge was given to The Rem- ington Agricultural Co., for $29,993.07. Other expenditures were: Price paid for the old bridge, less th.e price it was sold for, was $11,500: fllling ajjproaches, $400; toll hou.se, ^iC^)./S', 134 Old Schenectady. stoning abutments and piers, $558.75 ; raising and repairing abut- ments and piers. $15,076.23; rip-rap, piles, etc., $3,094.81; stone for approaches, $147.78; filling abutments, $189.75; extras, $634; to the engineer, $1,125, niaking a total of $60,355.34. These figures are not generally known ; for the book in which they were kept was mysteriously lost, by the town official, whose business it was to guard it, on his way home from town-meeting. Interior nf the 'Bridge. Chapter IX, Early Transportation. RIVER NAVIGATION. '^ ^^^ ^ HK earliest means of coinnuinication between settle- Jj nients for travel and espeeially for carrying the pelts 1.^^^ from the wilderness and the inland and Great Lakes, &vP' ^^^^ ^^^^ l)irch-bark canoe of the Indians. These were TAT succeeded b}- batteaux, durham boats and finally l)v ^^^^ canal boats and the railroad for which Air. Feather- ^^^V stonliaugh had worked so man}' years. ^^^^ In the early days the navigation of the Mohawk ^^^-^ was difficult for there were man}- "rifts" or sub- merged piles of river stones and pebbles which had been forced up to near the surface by the idiosyiicrasies of the current or by freaks in the current due to unusually high water in the spring or ice jams. Although some of these "rifis" have changed, or entirely disappeared during generations, they were practically permanent during a lifetime so they were all well known and each had its distinctive name. Schenectady being the easternmost end of river navigation, the "rifts" were all west of Schenectad} . The first of these, a few miles west of the city, was called, "Six tiats rift," then came "Fort Hunter rift," Caughnawaga, Keator, (the worst on the river, there being a fall of ten feet.) lirandywine, at Canajoharie, very rapid but short; l^heler, near Fort Plain, and finally, Little Balls, so called in distinction from the great falls at the mouth of the river near the City of Cohoes. The first freight and passenger vessel, as has been said, was the birch-bark canoe and this was the only means of carrying- freight upon the river up to 1740. Al)OUt that year, several of River Navigation. 1 3 y the great Indian traders, among them heing vSir W'ilham Johnson (as he later hecame), John Duncan, Daniel Camphell, James Ellicc, Charles Martin, having seen the superior qualities of the batteaux of the Canadians, introduced them, and began to use them on the Mohawk. The batteau was longer than the canoe, broader amidship, sharp at bow and stern and nuich more strongly built than the canoe. This latter quality made it i)ossil)le to drag them over shallow places, an operation which the canoe could not stand without serious injury. These boats were forced up the lesser rapids bv means of poles, work at which the rivermen were most skillful. At the stronger rapids they would be towed by ropes leading horn the boats to a number of the "crew" on shore. Where there were falls, as at Little Falls, the loads were carried arcnuul and then the batteau was treated in the same manner. Or. when it was desired to go from one navigable stream to another, as at Fort Stanwix from the Mohawk, to Wood creek, the same laborious carrying was necessary. From Wood creek they continued to Oneida lake, the Oswego river to Oswego, on Lake Ontario, whence they could go to other settlements or trading posts on that lake or down the St. Lawrence river. If they wished to go into the far west to Detroit or Mackinaw, it was necessary to carry around Niagara falls to Chippewa. These batteaux were in use till about 1790. In this century of from forty to eighty miles an hour in express trains, electric trolley cars and steamboats, such a journey does not appeal to the people of to-day. The imagination cannot picture the toil and hardship, the wet, cold and hunger, the danger from natural causes, from wild beasts and wilder men. Perhaps nothing will so strongly emphasize the hardihood of these traders and boatmen as the statement in a letter from the wardens of St. George's Church in Schenectady to the secretary of the Society for the Promotion of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, in London, that it was dif^cult to pledge a fixed salary for the rector because so many of the congregation were Indian traders to the Great 3« Old Schcncctad\. Lakes and did not always return within a year. Besides the hardships and dangers, these men were deprived for months, and even a year, of the society of their faniihes and even the primitive comforts of their homes. Ahont 1790, General Philip Schuyler, who was then Sur- veyor General of the State, organized a company known as The Inland Lock Navigation Co. Among the stockholders were many Schenectadians. This company constructed locks and a short canal at Little Falls and a canal connecting the Mohawk with Wood creek thus doing away with the two carries. The locks and short canals were completed in 1795. In that year began Schenectady's greatest prosperity ; a prosperity, all things con- sidered, which was greater than that of 1904 with the fifteen River Nm-lgation. '39 ,ho.us.uul .n.l.U.yes „1 tl.c General Electric and Aincrican L..c.,n,..- tive Companies and their combined pa,- rolls of $700,000 a .nonth. In 1795 and '96 Jacob S. Glen, Eri Lusher, Jonathan W alton, S N Bayard and other of the great shippers, added to tne already considerable wharfage on the Binni Kill and btnlt additional storehouses of great capacity. Then began the era of the .lurhan, boat, a name wh.ch Major MacMurray, Pearson's edttor, tinnks was derived tro.n the same source as the dorey, whtch .s still the popular s^nall boat of the fisherman of Long Island Sound and the \ew Eng- land coast. The durham boat, if .tot a thing of beauty, was one of c^reat utility. They were in shape sontething hke the modern ca,ral boat but had finer lines fore and aft. the bow an s en, being of a roundtng taper instead of blunt. Ihey had short decks fore and aft and narrow decking along the steles, upon which the boatnten stood or walked back an.d forth whtle pohug up rapids. Th.y were provided with masts near the c.r, er o the boats whici, were rigged with square, or slup sa Is, ad .ere onlv of use when the wind was aft or c,uarter,ng, b af.ng „p the w,nd being tntpossible. These boats were trout tet, tventv tons burthen and had crews of five or -'";-•. greater size an.l weight of the durhant boats made d b ,^ t forcing them up the lesser "rifts" ntttch greate . Ttoe 1 ™g strength in union, it was the custon, for several boats o leave or n company so that the contbined crews of all coul t e more lasilv pull and push each ,near the mansion in Duaneshtn-g was destroyed l)y fire. This loss of the home together with previous deaths in his family so depressed Mr. Featherstonhaugh that he gave up all his large interests to his agents and went to Xew ^'ork city to reside. While it is true that the railroad hetwcen Baltimore and W'asliington was older as a road in actual operation than the .Moliawk & Hudson, the subject of railroads for ])ractical pur- ]ioses originated in v^chenectadv with Mr. Featherstonhaugh. It seems strange that this railroad history should be so generally unknown and that the management of the child of the Moliawk cV- Hudson Railroad, the .Xew ^■ork Central & Hudson River Railroad, should l)e ignorant of it seems stranger still. That it was unaware of these facts is surmised from the con- tents of a folder advertising its St. l.ouis Fair exhibit. The following is (|uoted from a paragraph in the folder: "As long ago as irt in the folloing order: Leave head of plane at Schenectady at So- clock, A. M. and 2 P. M. Head o» Lydms street, Albany, at 10 o'clock, A. M. and .i past .4, P. Passengers talAi I the Carriages at Schenecta- dy at i half past 4 in the mornins, wilt arrive at Albany insensofi for the? o'clock raommg Steam- boats Those leaving at 12 o'clock, in ampi Rea- son for the afternoon SteaM. boats. AI»o, those taking the Locomotive at 2 P. M- will ainveat Albany in .season for (Tie 4 o clock Boats. Passages mny be secured at the office of Messrs. Thorp's fiiSprague's, in Albany and Schenectady. rrKC.indua.ng stage fare^^^ct.^^^^^^. Agent of the H. & M. Raikoad Co. N. B. Passengers who may desire it, will be accommodated at each end of the>Railway with tickets at 50 cents. Transt>ortation at the ends of the Railroad will be fuitirshcd by Messrs. Thorps &. Sprag'ic. 822 tf abU ofihf Mohau-k & Hudson Rail-. since the first year of the road — disbursements each vear in detail — third, cash on hand Mohcla'k' c'r lludsdll R. I\. 149 and assets on Decciul)ci- 31. 1(839 — fourlli, liahililies to same date — fifth, description and valne of personal property — sixth, value of the real estate not recpiired in operating the road — seventh, regulations and restrictions under which the income is kept and dishursed — eiglu, the measures adopted, or proposed, to reduce expenses— ninth, state of repair of the road and rolling- stock and any other important information. Thomas Palmer, the secretary, and John Costigan, the superintendent of the company, took the matter in hand and in January, 1840, submitted their report. In 1832, the year the road began to operate, no account of the number of passengers was kept, but the receipts for carrying them were, $5i.C)00 and the cost, $27,300. Xo freight was carried that year. In 1833, 115,700 first class passengers w^ere earned for $69,300 at an expense of $35,600. The freight from Albany was 2,100 tons and from Schenectady, 870, with receipts of $3,700 and cost of $1,000. In 1834, 135,300 first class and 8,100 second class passengers were carried for $86,200, at an expense of $37,200. The freight from All)any was 5.200 and from Schenectady 11,300 tons; the receij^ts were $12,700 anil the expenses were, $13,600. in 1835 there were 164,100 first class antl 8,600 second class passengers carried for $84,700, at an ex]x'nse of $42,900. The freight from .\lbany was 10,500, and from Schenectady. 19.700 tons; the receipts were, $26,200, and expenses, $23,200. In 1836 there were 152,800 first class and 6.600 second class passengers carried for $103,400, at an expense of $54,800. Tlie freight from Albany was 12,800, an.d from Schenectady, 18.500 tons; the receipts were $28,100, and the expenses. $23,900. In 1837 there were 130.100 first class and 7.900 second class ])assengers earned \cx $97,700. at an expense of $63,100. The freight from All)any was 6,300. and from Schenectady. 10.300 ions; the receipts were $14,400. and the expenses. $19,900. In 1838 there were 134,100 first class and 9,400 second clas.s passengers carried for $101,000. at an exjuMise of $64,900. The freight from .\lbany was 8,900, and from Schenectady, 11.500 tons; the receipts were $19,200. and expenses were $19,200. 150 Old Schenectady. in 1839 there were 153,100 lirst class and 13,600 second class passengers carried for $116,600, at an expense of $59,000. The freight from Albany was 12,300, and from Schenectady 14,000 tons; the receipts were $25,800, and the expenses $25,400. The total receipts for carrying freight for the seven years ending with 1839 were $130,400, and the total expense $126,500. An excess of but $3,900 over the expenses. The passenger busi- ness showed a much better condition of affairs. The total receipts for the seven years, were $692,800, and the expenses $385,000, making the excess of receipts over expenses of $307,800. While everyone knows that vigorous maturity must be preceded by youth and feeble infancy, the public has been accustomed, so long, to think of the New York Central Railroad by the thousand miles and its business by the million dollars that this tiny business of the parent company seems hardly possible. The number of tons of freight carried from Albany in the seven years was 58,300, and from Schenectady 86,500. There was a great variation of fares for the single trip either way. From January 1 to April 12, 1833, it was O2 1-2 cents; to September 6, 75 cents; to March 9, 1834, 2>7 1-- cents; to April 17, 183O, 50 cents; to August 25, 62 1-2 cents; and from August 26, 1836, to January i, 1840, it was 75 cents. A con- cession was made to the citizens of the two cities, as they were sold return tickets for 62 1-2 cents each way. Local passengers in second class cars paid 37 1-2 cents and emigrants from the tow-boats, 31 1-4 cents each. In this same period the freight rates were, from Schenectady to Albany, for freight from the canal Ijoats, 62 1-2 cents per ton, but if a ton of freight was sent by a citizen of Schenectady, he had to pay one dollar a ton and if it was transhipped from the Saratoga Railroad the charge was $1.25 a ton. It was evidently the custom to "soak" shippers when the busy season began, for the report explains the reason for the large freight receipts in November and December, by saying: "This may be attributed to the anxiety of owners and forwarders of Mohawk cr IIiids,>n R. R. 151 produce to gel the same to market before the closing- of naviga- tion, and also to the fact, that a number of canal boats, heavily freighted with liour, etc., were stopped at Schenectady and vicinity, by the sudden closing of the canal and were obliged to discharge their cargoes at that place, which otherwise would have licen carried by canal to Alban}." Then follows the ease of conscience for taking advantage of necessity by over-charging. "In cases of this kind, when the press of business is great, owners and forwarders are willing ( ?) to advance the rate of toll, in consideration of the advantage they expect to gain by expedition, and the loss and risk sustained by delay." The receipts for the year ending December 31, 1839, were $155,531.52. Some of the items were as follows: Rent of tene- ments occupied by employes of the company, $1,186.98; fuel sokl to employes at cost, $467.11 ; sale of horses, harnesses and sleighs to different persons, $531.39; sale of old iron pipe, rope, lumber and iron safe, $910; sale of land in Schenectady, $1,095.42; sale <)i paving stones to Albany, $324.75 ; carrying U. S. mail, $4,688.66, all of which shows that the railroad was not above turn- ing an honest cent in almost any kind of business. Some of the expenses during the same period, were : Labor and material in the machine, blacksmith and woodworking shops, $11,881.91; wages of men at Schenectady inclined plane (this was in the present Xinth Ward, formerly Mount Pleasant ) $2,505.73; the same in Albany, $1,522.98; under the oddly mixed items, of salaries for president, secretary, oil, insurance, etc.. $4,993.76. Of this sum $300 was paid every year to the president and $f,ooo to the secretary and they both survived it. The presi- dency was a fat job in those days. In 1839 the value of the entire ])roperly of the company was $156,137.00. The rolling slock of the road in 1839. consisted of 24 coaches, called "gothic." witli a seating capacity for twenty passengers each. These cost about $800 each. There were fifteen other coaches for passengers of a plainer style. The baggage of the traveling public (drummers were few in those days evidently) l"" '& mm^ ^ L, Molunck c'r Hiulson R. R. '53 was carried in thrcu baggai^-e wagons, while the better class of freight was carried in thirty-five covered wagons. There were forty-six "hulk" wagons, probably the grand-parent of the modern gondola car. fifteen stake wagons, for maintenance of way, now called construction cars : two old baggage wagons and one small freight wagon, and fifteen balance wagons for the inclined plane ni Albany, and seventeen for the plane in Schenectady. This inclined plane was located at the ttjj) of the bluff in Mount Pleasant, and it may be remarked incidentally, that the blufif in 1839 was much more abrupt than it is now^ There were great windlasses at the to]) and bottom of the inclined plane, worked bv a stationary engine. Around them was a great hempen cable, such as was used for ships. There were parallel tracks and on one were the balance wagons, loaded with stone and ^ittached to the cable. On the other tracks was the incoming train, also attached to the cable on the other side. If the train was heavilv loaded, all of the balance wagons were used as a counter poise, if lighter, some of them were left off. the purpose being to have the train a trifie heavier than the loaded balance wagons. When a train was to be raised from the foot of the plane, the balance wagons were a trifle heavier than the train. In this wav the balance wagons being at the top of the plane would descend while the train was ascending. When the train reached the bottom of the plane horses were attached and it was i)ulle(l to the station on the bank of the great basin of the Erie canal. This basin was located somewhere near, and probably on the site ot. Peckham & W^olf's lumber yard and the Mica Insulating Works on Dock street. This great basin was where the canal boats loaded and unloaded from and into the freight wagons of the Mohawk & Hudson and the Saratoga railroads and later the ITica railroad. The freight depot was an immense aflfair. one- half of it belonged to the M. & H. R. R. and was valued at $18,275. The cable used on the Schenectady plane cost $933 •- tbe other in Albany, being longer, cost $1,301. The companv owned nine buildings contaimng tlurteen tenements, at the' top an.l bottom of the i)lane in Schenecta.ly. t54 Old Schciicclady. which were occupied by the superintendent and the working men. They were vahied at $ii,ooo. The company also owned lots adjoining the basin worth $10,000 and on tlie north side of the canal worth, $2,000. The basin cost $18,113. There was an odd confusion in the minds of the management in regard to whether second class passengers were freight or simply human beings. In calling the attention of the stock- holders to the fact, "that the expenses of transporting freight liave absorbed nearly the whole of the income derived from that source, not including second class passengers, which we con- ceive do not strictly belong to freight." This lack of profits from freight is explained by the fact that the Erie Canal, owned by the State, was a powerful opponent, and that in order to com- pete with it, freight charges had to be reduced to those charged by the canal. The profits from freight in 1833 were $2,679.01 ; in 1839, but $455.10. Again is the uncertainty in regard to second class passengers displayed by the statement that : "* * * freight received from and delivered to the Saratoga Railroad, yielded an income to this company in 1838, of $7,122.73, exclusive of sec':)nd class passengers." In 1839 the company's capital was one million dollars and that that sum was considered vast is shown bv the three words l)cing italicized in the report. y marriage with tlie heiress of Sterhng, Sir Alexander lucamc possessed of large estates in Angus and Inverness, one of them being Glensk. This was in the last half of tlie fourteentl. century. vSir lames, the hero of ( )tterbuni, dying without an heir. David, the son of Sir Alexander, became the chief of the famil\- cind. when David married the sister of Robert III, Robert raiseci David to the Plarldom of Crawford, in 1398. While the Glens of Schenectady were not in line for the title, that going by primogeniture to the eldest son, and they being descended from a younger son, they still are of the same blood as the hero of C)tterl)urn. and Sir Alexander Lindsey, who married the sister of Roberc HI and became the Earl of Crawford. The fine old Colonial mansion at the end of the Dike which, with the bridge, joins the pretty suburl) of Scotia to the city of Schenectady, overlooking the Mohawk and bearing on its front the large hand-wrought ir(Mi letters and numerals: "A O 1713." is notable, for man> reasons, to every American who inherits his citizenship from Colonial days. It was built of material taken from the original mansion built by Alexander Lindsey Glen, the founder of the family in Ameriea. who was one of the original Fifteen Proprietors of Schenectady. This original Cden mansiou was the first house built upon the north l)ank of the Mohawk river for ihc entire 135 miles of its length. Its second point of interest is that it was, for many generations, the place of safekeeping of Indian, Colonial and Revolutionary official documents and correspondence, and its third i)oint of interest is that it stands on the property which has been in the family of the original propiietor of the estate for two hundred and forty-six years. The original residence was built about \h^(). on the bank of river, one hundred feet sotUh of the present residence; but the 158 Old Schenectady. land upon which it stood has been entirely eaten away by the river and nothing- of even the foundation now remains. This particular place was a favorite one with the Indians. On a knoll, a little to the east of, and midway between the sites of the two houses, was the spot on which they indulged in the gladsome pastime of burning their prisoners at the stake. The original proprietor, Alexander Lindsey Glen, whom the Hollanders called Sander Leendertse, was born near Inverness, Scotland, about 1610. He was a partisan in the days of Charles I., and was obliged to flee to Holland, where he was warmly received and whence he emigrated with the early Dutch settlers to the Colony of New Netherlands, with his wife, who was Catharine Dongan. Mr. Glen was a man of liberal education, obtained in the land of his birth, a gentleman by birth and a man of large fortune, by inheritance. He was very Scotch in physique and temper and was endowed with a degree of catholicity which made him notable for his broad-minded tolerance for all denominations of the Christian faith and for his untiring efforts for the good, success and safety of others. In 1643, Mr. Glen was agent of the Dutch West India Com- pany, stationed at Fort Nassau, on the Delaware, where he had received a grant of land. In 1646 he was granted land in New Amsterdam, afterward New York, and was jx^ssessed of con- siderable other property, consisting of houses, land and cattle at Graves End, on Long Island. In 1658, he left for Schenectady, and built the stone mansion on the north bank of the Mohawk and named his estate "Scotia," in memory of the land of the thistle, the heather and of hardy manhood. The title to the Scotia estate was held from 1658 to 1665, under title granted by the rightful and original owners, the Mohawk Indians; in the latter year, he obtained the patent to the property from the representative of the Crown. The flats along the river belonging to Scotia — the estate, not the present village — were free from timber and very fertile, for they had been cultivated by the Mohawk Indians for more years Clci! -Sander, »59 /(//( in 1730. now the Residence of Mr. Jan than their traditions could number. The flats east of the residence down to a point near the i)resent Freemans bridge, were known as the "cornfield." and were so designated in the deed from the Indians to Mr. Glen. Mr. ("den's character appealed strongl)- to the Mohawks. They regarded him with respect and admiration, for, while he was kind and just, he was fearless — a quality which the Mohawdhn, came 1 68 Old Schenectady. to New Amsterdam, about 1646. It was the son, John, who married Deborah, the daughter of Colonel Glen. The brothers went to Albany and started, by trading with the Indians, from whom they bought pelts. These were shipped to Europe and, in return, were brought back from across the water, the goods which were needed, or which were luxuries in the colony. Their business grew to immense proportions and, before long, their shipments went to nearly all the great capitals of the world, especially to the Indies. John, son of John and Deborah Sanders, lived in the Scotia mansion — his father and mother having moved to the town resi- dence on Washington avenue. The Indians had always been free guests at the homes in the Mo- hawk valley, and especially was this true in regard to the home of the Glens and San- ders. About the time the War of Independence began, the Oneida Indians were par- ticulafrly-frequent visitors in and about the Scotia estate, and this fact nearly caused the death of young Mrs. San- ders, when two Oneida warriors engaged in a seri- ous quarrel in the Gloi-Sandcrs. 169 kitclicn. Finally, one of the two tried lo l)rain the other with his tomahawk. The attacked one tied out antl around to tlie front of the house and inside the door, lieliind this door was — and still is — a large, shallow coat-closet. The fleeing Indian hid in this closet, just as his pursuer reached the front of the house and just as Mrs. Sanders was going up-stairs. The pur- suing Indian, seeing some one on the stairs, and thinking it was the other Indian, threw his tomahawk, which was somewhat wide of its mark, and struck the baluster-rail, cutting out a chunk which is still plainly to be seen, and is a daily reminder, to the present generation, of the conditions in which their ancestors lived. In those early days, the freighting in the winter, when the ice on the river closed navigation, was done on sleds drawn by horses, between Alban}- and Utica. The number of these sleds ran into scores, daily passing to and from Albany. One day Mr. Sanders — the second John, whose wife escaped the tomahawk — while out driving, met a long line of sleds. He turned out of the beaten track, to let the heavily-loaded sleds pass. Toward the end of the line was a tlriver, who was a great bully and, at the same time, a coward. As he passed Air. Sanders, he struck him a heavy l)low across the shoulder with the long lash of his whip. When the line passed, Mr. Sanders turned and followed it, till it stopped at the first tavern. He entered the bar- room with the crowd and, gaining their attention, told them that one of their number had committed an unprovoked assault upon him — a peaceful citizen, on the highway — a condition of affairs which could not be ])ermitted. He demanded that the guilty man be pointed out to him. No one responded, so Mr. Sanders said: "I am a magistrate of this district; one of you has com- mitted an assault upon the highway, and if he is not delivered up to me, I shall commit you all. Mr. Sanders was well known to the majority of the drivers and the reinitation of himself and his family for doing just what tliey said they would do, resulted in the offender being persuaded to step out and confess. Mr. 170 Old Scliciicctady. vSauders looked at the bully calmly, told him that such doins^s could not and would not be permitted within his jurisdiction; that he purposed to have all travelers on the highway, within his jurisdiction, safe from bullies and brutes. "Now," said he. "you may have your choice of being tried, right here, or of taking a thrashing at my hands. This kind of sport must be stopped." The driver thought a moment ; recalled the load of freight which could not be delivered, should he be placed in "goal" and, riot knowing Mr. Sanders nor his reputation for great strength, he chose the thrashing. Tradition says that he got it ; so warm and heartily did the justice lay it on, that the fame of it traveled far, and, from that time on. wlicn would-be tough drivers had to pass through Mr. Sanders' judicial territory, they metaphorically, wore their Sunday-clothes and a high-church expression of countenance. Nearly all of the okl Dutch families of Colonial days married into the Glen and Sanders families ; so that, to-day, the Living- stons, V^an Rensselaers, Ten liroecks, Douws, Fondas, P>cek- manns, Schuylers, Ten Eycks, Van Dycks, can trace descent from Alexander Lindsey Cden, one of the original proprietors of Schenectadv, and the founder of the family in America. Chapter XI. JAMES DUANE ilE Schenectady Count}' family having- more to du ril with tlie making of the Nation, than any other, was that of Duane. What the Glens had been to the Colony, the Duanes were to the birth of the Nation and the reorganized State of New York. The first of the name in America wa.s Anthony Uuanc, a young man of gentle birth from Cong. County Oal- way, Ireland. When little more than a youth. Anthony Duane was purser in the liritish Navy, with the squadron stationed at New York. He was so well pleased with the New World Colony and the society of New York, as well as with its opportunities for business, that he resigned from the Navy and settled in New York where he was a merchant up to the time of his death. Anthony Duane's second wife — the mother of the Schenectady Duanes— was Miss Altea Kettletas, a daughter of Abraham Kettletas. for many years an alderman of New York and one of its wealthiest merchants. She died in May. 1741. Mr. Duane married again, his third wife being the widow of Thomas I.vncli. of I'lushing. Long Island. Her maiden name was R\\. Ruggles, who, having ])urchased a portion of the Duane farm, dedicated to the public the sixty-six lots, now comprising the park, in 183 1, giving it the name of Gramercy Park. There was but one i)rovision attached to the gift, viz. : that ten dollars a lot should be paid annually forever, for the maintenance for the park. Ti is also of interest, that King speaks of the value of these sixty-six lots, as being two hundred thousand dollars. After the war the residents of New York began to resume their commercial and professional occupations which had been interrupted for i-o many years. To do this was Mr. Duane's James Duane. i8i intention, but those who knew him had other phins for him and for tlieir g^ood. In those days to be mayor of New York was a h\cr\\ lionor, for the man w^as chosen for his worth and integrity. Tlie Common Council of the city petitioned the Governor to a'ppoint Mr. Duane. The jietition was granted and he was api)ointed on h'ebruary 5. 17S4. The reason given in the petition for his selection was : "That no one is better qualified, so none will lie more acceptable to us and our constituents at large than Mr. Duane. Few have sacrificed more or deserve better from their country." This was a busy ol^ce in those days, for the mayor presided over the city, civil and criminal courts and was in the commission of Oyer and Terminer for the county. By request of judge Hobart of the Supreme Court, Mr. Duane. as judge of ( )ver and Terminer, delivered the charge to the first Grand Jury summoned in that court after the war. Mr. Duane was mayor for six years: with the exception of two years he was State Senator, from 1783 to "90, when his a])pointnient to a Federal office made longer service impossible. The appointment to this Federal office was the highest honor he had yet received, for, while the judgeship of the United States District Court is an important and dignified office, the fact that Mr. Duane was chosen by President Washington personally, from all the many sj^lendid men who were available, for the reason •dven bv Washington : * * '•'- "I have endeavored to bring into high offices of its administration such characters as will give stability and dignity to our National Government," was the greatest honor of all. That Mr. Duane fully appreciated the honor of being chosen by Washington for this high office; that it was an entire surprise to him and gave him tlie greater delight on this account, is shown by the following extract from a letter to his wife : ••j received a message that Col. Hamilton wished to speak with me. lie asked me to walk in to a private room and there, to mv surprise, informed me that he was sent by the President to know whetlier 1 would accept the office of District judge of the t82 Old Schenectady. United States. I told him that 1 had never soheited. expected or even wished for an office from the President. On enqniry from Colonel Hamilton these were the circumstances of the affair: Very great interest had been made for Chief Justice Morris and for Mr. Harrison. When the point was to be decided, Colonel Hamilton and Mr. Jay were present. The President observed that he conceived a more responsible appointment than either and named me. Hamilton and Jay declared themselves of the same opinion. I have received an invitation to dine with the President to-morrow and shall then receive my commission, which I owe solely to his regard and good opinion of me." For five years Judge Duane continued as judge of this court, many of the most important cases, involving international ques- tions, coming before him. Finally, after forty years of strenuous labor in the interest of his country and state, on March lo, 1794, Judge Duane resigned as Judge of the United States Court, and as church warden of Trinity. The vestry adopted resolutions expressing their feelings for him and their regret at losing him. This was sent to him by Bishop Provost, in a personal letter, in which the P)ishop expressed his feelings in the matter. Judge Duane went to Schenectady in a few days to remain there till the mansion he intended to erect on his Duanesburg estate should be completed, but his death occurred before the house was ready for occupancy. As an unselfish patriot, he was regarded by Washington with confidence, affection and admiration and as a statesman lie was honored by Washington and the other great men of that day. As a Churchman, he was one of the most active in uniting all the members of the Episcopal Church under one constitution and in obtaining the consecration of the first American Bishop. While he was a staunch Churchman, he was at the same time one of the champions of religious liberty. He was a generous giver to all juiblic and private charities. A striking instance was shown of this characteristic as well as of his wisdom, when appointed Mayor of New York. The city was in a delapidated condition and its James Duaiic. 183 people were in distress from the efil'ects of liritisli occupancy, so, instead of g'i\in^ the cusloniary entertainment when entering- upon the (hities of mayor, he sent a note to the Coniiuon C'ouncil saying-: '■' * '■■■ "\\\\{ wlien I retlect u];on the want and (hstress which are so ])revalent at this season, I tlatler myself that my declining- it (the entertainment) will he justified 1)\- \-our ap])rol)a- tion. Rather permit me, gentlemen, to entreat yon to take the trouhle of distrihuting for me, twenty guineas, toward the relief of my suffering fellow citizens in your respective wards. Wx liherality on so laudahle an occasion, is limited hy the shock which has aiTected my private fortttnes in the progress of the war.*' Mayor Duane's suggestion that the clergy of the city should l)reach .charity sermons and take up collections for the distressed, was carried out and the .Mayor and Common Council attended the Dutch Church, presided over hv the Rev. Dr. Livingston, for the purpose of stimulating the liberality of others by their presence. Jtidge Duane was an honorar\- member and on the committee of corres])ondence of the Order of Cincinnati. He was survived by his son, James C. : his elder daughter, Mary, who married Gen'l W'illiani Xc-rth, and his younger daughter. Sarah, who married George W. Featherstonhaugh. The oil portrait in the City Hall, Xew York, is a copy of the one done by Peal at the close of the Revolution. chanter XI I. FEATHERSTONHAUGH. HE family of Featherstonhaugh is older than the TL'nited Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, for it is a Saxon family of the feudal days, away hack on the borders of dream-time. At the time of the Xorman Conquest, the feudal castle and estate was in Northumberland, on the Tyne. This fine old specimen of feudal days with its massive tower, supported on great arches, stands to-day as it was originally built, with the additions by the succes- sive Featherstonhaughs, in the centuries which followed the one far back in time when the f^rst huge block of stone was put in place, with the exception, that the interior has been refitted and modernized in accord with the present ideas of domestic luxury. It was here that Sir Albany Featherstonhaugh was slam. This foray was mentioned by Scott in his "Marmion." in Canto I. The Castle XIII, where, "The northern harper rude, chanted a rhyme of deadly feud. How the fierce Thirwalls and Ridleys all, Stout Willimondswick, And Hardriding Dick. And Hugie of Hawdon. and Will o' the wall Have set on Sir Albany Featherstonhaugh,^^ And taken his life at the deadman's-shaw." This foray in which Sir Albany was killed is described at greater length in "I'.order Minstrelsy." The last of the name to occupy the castle was Sir Matthew Featherstonhaugh. wh.o sold the estate to Lord Wallace, in 1743 Sir Matthew purchased an estate in Sussex, which he called "Uppark". and built on it a fine baronial residence. This was i86 Old Schenectady. left to his heir. Sir Harry, who (Hed childless, in 1846, the estate going to his wife. Sir Harry and George W. Featherstonhaugh, who bnilt the large mansion on the shore of Featherstonhaugh lake Duanesburg, beside being related, were intimately acquainted, Mr. Featherstonhaugh being a frequent visitor at "Uppark", when he was in England. George William Featherstonhaugh, the founder of the American branch of the family, was one of the most remarkable men of the nineteenth century^ — in a way, perhaps the most remarkable man of that century. Although possessed of wealth which made a life of indolent ease possible, his whole life was devoted to travel for pleasure and investigation ; to the study of geology and exploration for the United .States Government ; to important diplomatic service for his own country — Great Britain — and to the establishment of the railroad in America, as a means of opening the vast territory of the interior and of connecting, for commercial purposes, the great markets of the country. That he was the discoverer of the possibilities of the railroad and tlie actual founder of the present vast railroad systems of this conti- nent and that he worked, single-handed, for fifteen years against ridicule and unbelief, will be shown later. Besides all this, Mr. Featherstonhaugh was the intimate acquaintance and friend of America's greatest statesmen — in the days when statesmen were great and not merely 'iubtile politicians — and the friend of kings. Personally, he was a man of great height, being six feet two inches, of powerful physique, and was possessed of a highly cultivated mind and of a fine spirit. He was a floer of things, from his university days to the day of hi? death, at the age of eighty-six. Mr. Featherstonhaugh was born in London, England, in 1 780, a few months after the death of his father. ( )wing to the unsettled and dangerous conditions surrounding residence in London, because of the Lord George Gordon Riots — which Dickens made familiar to the English speaking world in his "Barnaby Rudge" — Mrs. Featherstonhaugh moved from London lu\it/icrsloiiliau!^Ii. 187 to Scarsboro. in \'c)rksliirc. with lur cliildixii and it was here that Mr. Featherstonhaugh spent his youth and prepared for his university course. He received his university decree at the aj^e of twenty-one and immediately thereafter began to indulge his love for travel and the acquisition of knowledge. He traveled in Italy, Switzerland and France for two years, and at the age of twenty-six. had so far mastered the languages of those countries and of Spain, that he could speak and write them with the same fluency as his native English. He was, later, a fine Greek and Latin scholar and could converse as readily in Latin as in any of the modern languages that he had mastered. He was also an accomplished musician. In the middle of the first decade of the nineteenth century, the Bird of Freedom was doing a deal of screaming. The American people were beginning to lose some of the dignified repose of Washington's day and were beginning to take on national airs and graces and to become proficient performers upon the horn — all of which attracted the attention of Europe toward the lusty young nation. In 1806 Mr. Featherstonhaugh decided to visit the L'nited States for pleasure and to study the people and their institutions. He brought with him letters to many of the more prominent families and spent two years in the cities of the north Atlantic states. When he left England for America, he ])robal)ly had no more idea that he would fall in love with and marry an .\merican girl, than that he would, some day, he king. He did .so, however, and the meeting with his future wife was of a most romantic nature. In 1808 Mr. Featherstonhaugh was in Fhiladelphia and it so happened that Madam Duane, the widow of Judge James Duanc, of \ew York City and Schenectady, was in the city and that her family was with her. Mr. Featherstonhaugh saw one day, a pair of horses, attached to a ])rivate carriage, madly dash- ing through the street, uncontrolled by their driver. The first thought of a young man of his s])irit and courage was to stop 1 88 Old Schcnccfadv. the horses and save those inside the carriag-e from injury and ])<)ssihle death. After he had stop])ed the terrified horses, he went to the assistance of the occu- pants of the carriage and his gaze had no sooner fallen upon the l)eautiful face and dainty person of Sarah Duane, than he lost his heart, and for her mother, the stately Madam Duane. the daughter of Robert Livingston, he conceived the most profound respect and an ad- miration, which later became mu- tual. ( )n her part, Miss Duane saw, in the tall, elegant gentleman, whose courage had saved herself Sarah Una,,,'. aiid licr uiothcr, a man wdio was worth} of her deepest love. The rather formal acquaintance resulting from such inci- dents, in this instance, rapidly ripened into friendship. A few months later, on November 6, 1808, Mr. Featherstonhaugh and Miss Duane were married in St. George's Church. Schenectady, by the Rev. Cyrus Stebbins. besides l)eing beautiful, nature had given her a brilliant intellect which had been so highly cultivated that she was reputed to be the most accomplished girl of her age in the entire country. At the age of but thirteen, she was wonder- fully clever with the paint brush, as may be seen to-day from pictures from her brush at that age — still treasured by the family in the Duanesburg mansion. Especially fine are a water color of West Point, sketched from the opposite side of the Hudson, and an oil, of a hunter in the forest, painted from the imagination. She was also an accomplished musician. Especially was she mistress of the harp. With tastes and accomplishments so similar, it would have been indeed a wonder had they not loved. In the spring after their marriage, 1809, Mr. Featherston- haugh began to build a mansion on the thousand acres willed to his wife by Judge Duane, in Duanesburg, which included what I'callicrshniliair^li. 189 was later called. l-eatherstonhaui;h lake. This residence had a fronta-e of one lunulrcd and forty feet on the lake and was sixty feet deep. It was in the style of architectnre to he fonnd on oentlenien's estates in Enijland. and the acres immediately snr- roundins^ the mansion were laid out as a park. The estate was called Featherstonhangh Park. Mr. Featherstonhaugh was hroad and liheral in his ideas and, at the same time, he was intensely Kno-lish. It was, therefore, hut natur.-d that his American home should he. in a general way. as nearly like his English home as was possible. He then entered upon the most extensive practical and experi- mental farming operations of any man of his day in the State. Houses were built for his steward, or head farmer, and the farm hands ■ barns were built for the harvested crops and stables for the horses and other live stock. The live stock was all thoroughbred and imported from England. Although busily occupied with the administration of his estate and the experimental operations of the farm, Mr. Featherstonhangh took time to begin a correspond- ence with the best known agriculturalists of the day and with geologists— geologv being a subject of which he was fond and upon "which he was an authority. His correspondents Hved in (n-eat r.ritain. on the Continent and in the United States; so the interchange of ideas, theories and of actual results was most ^•aluable. In addition, he began his literary work which, later, included manv subjects. At this time, he published two volumes. of agriculture, based upon the results of his experiments: con- trilnrted, in i)rose and poetry, to the periodicals of the day and. for recreation, translated Dante's Inferno. Respected, and sought after, for his mental attainments by his social and intellectual peers of both Continents; atter his marriage with the beautiful and cultivated Sarah Duaiie. these attractions were increased, and the mansion in Duanesburg became a veritable Mecca for the scientists, authors and statesmen .^f England and America. Among his most intimate acciuanitances and friends were-Iames ^ladison. John Quincy .\dams. Andrew 190 Old ScJiciicclady. Jackson, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoon, John Jay. Henry Clay, Lafayette, Joseph, King of Spain, and his brother Jerome Bonaparte ; Dr. Buckland, dean of Westminster Abbey ; Sir Roderick Murcherson, president of the Geological Society, of London, and Sir John Sinclair, of Edinburgh, at that time the greatest authority on agriculture. The most fre(|uent of the visitors at the Duanesburg mansion was Henry Clay. There is, perhaps, nothing that so strongly emphasizes the oyerpowering influence of commercialism and the greed for dollars of the present day, as the fact, that while the people of Schenectady boast of the prosperity of the citv and are more or less accurately acquainted with the size of the ])ay-rolls of the General Electric and American Locomotive Companies, they know little or nothing of the men of national prominence who lived and visited in Schenectady. The Yankee is as eager for the dollar as the Xew Yorker; l)ut. while watching intently for the main chance, he kee^js the tail of his eye upon the si)lendid past. It is not an unusual thing in Xew England to see a tablet on a house front giving the information that such or such a man was a visitor there, or had passed the night there. It is doubtful if there are fifty Schenectadians who can state, with accuracy, where Washington slept and dined upon the occasions of his three visits to this city. On the contrary, it is stated by a few persons with author- ity, that Washington was the guest of General William North, with Steuben, Herkimer, Schuyler and others, at his home in l)uanesl)urg ; even the room in which he slept is lK)inted out, but as a matter of fact, Washington did nothing of the kind. He did not go to Duanes- f'calhcrsl()ithaiti:^h. 191 Mr. Featherstonhaug'h's ac(|uainlancc with Cicors^e Stephen- son, tlie inventor of the locomotive, liad aroused his interest in the possihiHties of steam railroads: and the more he thought on the sul)ject, the more was he convinced that railroads were entirely l)ractical and ])racticablc. In 181 i. h.e began to write to friends and acquaintances to obtain their ideas on the subject and, in. every instance, his faith in railroads was treated with toleration or ridicule and always without faith. It required more than lack of faith on the jxirts of cnhers to discoiu-age him. His eyes saw into the future and his brain told him. that to shorten the distances between cities, by reducing the time required in traveling from one to another, would be the quickest road to commercial and consequently to national greatness. In 1 812, he began to write articles on the suljject for the periodicals (^f the day. These being more widely read than his letters, only served to provide amusement for a greater mniiber of doubters, whose wisdom told them that to travel upon rails by means of steam at the rate of from six to ten miles an hour was impossible and the idea, the result of a disordered mind. He was ridiculed and laughed at on llie street — behind his back, how- ever—and had he proposed the tele])hone or wireless telegra]:)hy. ])eople could not have thought him more of a wild dreamer than th.ey did. ( )ne Schenectady humorist remarked to some friends on the street, one day. just after Air. Featherstonhaugh had ]tassed : "Did you ever hear of such a wild idea? Why, a train could not be made to go fast enough 1)etween this city and .\lbany to kee]) the mosffuitoes from eating the ]jassengers.'" lUit he ])er- sisted in his faith and in his etYorts to convince some one that railroads were ])ossible. \\y persisting, he became the fatlu'r of the present railroad systems of Xorth .America whicli, in 1904, have 250,000 miles of road : and he, at the same time, gave to Schenectady tlie honor of being the place in which the subject of railroads was tirst broached. The railroad between Haltimore and W'asliington was in operation a few years earlier than was the Mohawk and TTudson. but neither road would liave been litiilt 192 Old Schenectady. when it was built, had not Mr. Featherstonhaugh l:)ecn fighting for them for fifteen years, alone, against the cruelest weapon known to mankind — ridicule. In 1823 he had succeeded in convincing one man — Stephen Van Rensselaer, the last Patroon — and, realizing that the public could not be depended upon, and that some one must take the initiative, on December 26, 1825, he advertised in the Schenectady Cabinet, a notice for application to the Legislature for a rail- road charter. This notice was run for six weeks and created great interest and excitement. The charter was granted on March 26, 1826, and the Patroon and Mr. Featherstonhaugh were the only persons named in the charter as directors, and Mr. Featherston- haugh sailed in the fall with his wife and young son, James, for England, to consult with Stephenson in regard to the motive power for the railroad. They remained abroad for two years, which were spent in traveling all over the Continent and in England. His work and reputation as a geologist had preceded him. Upon his arrival in London, he was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of London. Upon their return to America, in T828, the family went immediately to Duanesburg. A spark from the fire lighted in the gTeat fireplace in the hall, fell upon the roof and the fine old mansion was burnt to the g-round. Before they sailed for England in 1826, Mr. Featherstonhaugh 's two little daughters had died. This, with the destruction of the home so full of memories connected with them, seemed to crush him. He went to New York to reside and never again saw his Duanes- burg estate. The present home of Robert C. Cullings was built upon the wine-cellar of the old Featherstonhaugh mansion. Tn the June following the removal to New York — the house was on the lower end of Broadway — Mrs. Featherstonhaug-h died. From this time he devoted all his efforts to literature, travel and exploration. He became a member of the Philoso]>hical vSocicty and of the Academy of Natural Science, of Philadel|)hiu and of the Lyceum of Natural History, of New York. Fealhcrsloiihaiigh. 193 In 1829, he translated the Repuhhe of Cicero and lectured frequently on j;eoloy\ in Philadelphia and Xew York. Jn 1831. he estahlished and puhlished iIk hrst periodical, on geol()i;y, in America, called "The Monthly American Journal of Geology and Natural Sciences", and as the result of his work, he was spoken of in Europe and America as '"The Father of American Geology." In 1833, he was appointed, hy Congress, the first Government Geologist. The honor of this appoiiUnient will he more fully appreciated when it is known that Air. Featherstonhaugh never hecame a citizen of the I'nited v^tates, hut remained a subject of the King to the day of his death; and it will he shown, later, that his son, James, a citizen of the United States, was appointed hy (".reat I'.ritain to re])resent that government, as one of the two engineers in the north-east boundary disi)tite between Canada and the United States, thus emphasizing the confidence of two Xations in the family. Some of the best fossil specimens in the l^ritisb Museum were obtained bv Mr. Featherstonhatigh and given t' that institution by him. In this year, 1833, he translated tlv. Italian romance by Mauzoni. "1 I'romissi Sposi." famous, at that time. The following year he l)egan that series of ex])lorations, as Government Geologist — the first ever undertaken by the (nn-ern- ment — which resulted in the gathering of most important in- formation regarding the history of the Continent, as read in its locks. His first journey was to Mexico which he reached on horseback and in canoes. .\ great deal of this vast territory had never before been visited by whitt men. The primitive forest was grand; the game and wild animals were ])leiUiful, and adventures fre(|uent. The ad\ennu-es met with would lill a \dhnne. .After his return, he ])ublished an official account ot his research and discoveries for the government, and he married Charlotte Carter, grand-daughter of "King" Carter — so called on account of his vast possessions — of Shirley Hall on the James river. In 1835. he made another journey of exploration for the 194 Old Schenectady. g-overnmeiit on fool, on horseback and in canoes, to the wilderness of the northwest, in Michigan and about the lakes, he being the tirst white man to penetrate that wild region. He explored toward the west to the Mississippi and went up the ]\linnay Sotor river — now called St. Peter's river — in canoes. Numerous bands of Indians were encountered. Mr. Featherstonhaugh's great height and commanding presence caused the Indians to give him a friendly reception. After he had explained the purpose of his presence, they gave him every assistance and extended to him their hospitality, which largely consisted in "scalp dances" in which he sometimes took part, for diplomatic reasons. He also attended their councils and remained for some time with them, to learn their language. He returned to civilization, after being- absent for a year, published the report of the expedition and started for the Cherokee Nation, in Georgia, and was there for a considerable tiiue. studying the Cherokees. the geological strata and formation and natural history These exi)loring and geological trijis were delightful to such a man as Mr. Featherstonhaugh. The weeks and months were tilled with adventure and intenseh' interesting incident . besides great hardshi])s and danger from wild beasts and Indians; so. when he returned to Washing-ton from his sojourn with the Cherokees. he s])ent the succeeding two years (|uietly. devoting liimself to literature, nuisic and societw At the end of the two years, in 1839. he sailed for England, with his family, with the determination of spending the remainder of his life in his native land; l)ut the I'.ritish (jo\ernment delermined otherwise. Mr. I'\'atlierstonhaugh arrived in bjighind at the time when tlie dispute l)etween C.reat Iw-itain and the L'nited v'^tates. over the boundarx- between Maine and Canada, was the most l)itter. I lis arrival al this time seemed most o])ponune; for the govern- ineiit immediateK called u])on him for information in regard to the consil)le from the generaliza- tions of manv other writers upon little known ])eople and lands. Two striking i)rediclions made by Mr. l''eatherstonhaugh, more than half a centurv ago, have been fulfilled in a most striking manner. ( )ne was in regard to Pittsburg: "Pittsburg will, in tune, be the great manufacturing place of America. Here will be sent the iron smelted from the fiu-naces that will soon be erected all over this region of coal and iron ; * * * will soon make it the Pirmingham of America." 'I'he other was, thai the territory lying to the west from the great lakes, woidd become the great granary of the I'nited States. It nuist be remembered, that when the prediction was made, the country was in its primi- tive wilderness. This prediction was based upon the knowledge he had acquired as an experimental and practical agriculturist and upon his faith in the ability of the .\merican people to .see, and then grasp opportunity. Old Schcncctadv. JAMES DUAXE FEATHERSTONHAUGH. James Duane Featherstonhaugh was born on the Duanes- burg estate in 1815 and spent the first eleven vears of his Hfe there, romping in the fields and woods, fishing in the lake and preparing with a tutor for college. His love for travel, inherited from his father, was indulged in his twelfth year, when in 1826, his father sailed for England to consult George Stephenson in the interests of the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad. Two years were spent on the conti- nent hy his parents, young James in the meantime attend- ing school in Yorkshire. After the return to America, in 1828. the home in Duanes- liurg having burnt down, the family lived in Xew York and lie continued his education and prepared for college at Hyde Park. He took his en- trance examinations iov L'nion jnm.> i),uu,r i',u,iiu,^,.,„hau'j,. Collcgc iu 1 830 aucl was grad- uated with the class of '.'4, al the age of nineteen. The three years after graduation were spent in railroad construction. in 1S37. he sailed, alone, io iMighuid for thi ])ur|)ose of seeing tlie coronation of Britain's best and niosl enliglitened ruler, (Jueen Victoria. He remained in England but :• short lime and, return- ing t(j New York, he continued to reside there till his father determined to return to England to live there permanently. It was at this time. 1839, that father and son were appointed, respectively, by the British Government, a commissioner and an engineer of the north-east boundary dispute. The wilderness of Maine and the adjoining territory of Canada was grand with its l'Ctilhcrsh>iihaui::li. 20 1 r„.s,-.T,.«H. pine. ..f s-rcal l.^iKl" -"'^ n,x„u,tc,x,HX- us src. „,,<. a„.l oU,.r hanl w.o.ls .,,.1 its s,,lnMM clars. 1 Ik- «".. U ,„ u,os. ,h.vs w,.u. n.„ lik. .1,0 w Is w. llo swa„,ps w,tl, ga,„e a„.l he,-ee a„i„,als. espee,all. '^ " --->"-^-':-:'L^'-rt:„"r;::::i:;::::.:- ,,f his work, ai.pcalol to him as the juunu.ys to, in the vcars past, to his father. 202 Old Schcnci-tacly. During- the four ^ears he was in the wilderness, he experi- enced hardships, privation, adventures and one of the most horrible experiences imag-inable. Late one autunui, all the men of the surveying party, except Mr. Featherstonhaugh and a French-Canadian, left the camp to go up the St. John's river for the winter's supplies, expecting to return in a few weeks, but a great snow storm prevented it and shut Mr. Featherstonhaugh off from the world for four months. One day, after the great fall of snow, the "Canuck" heard or saw a moose not far from the log house. He started out to shoot it. if possible, for its meat, as they were short of provisions, and for its hide. As the man had not returned to camp at dusk, Mr. Featherstonhaugh went in search of him. After several hours spent without finding the man, he returned to camp for rest and food. In the morning, he renewed the search and found his man not far from the camp lying close to the body of the dead moose between its fore and hind legs. The Canadian was in a shocking condition. His feet, legs, hands and arms, being unprotected from the intense cold, were frozen. The man was carried to the log house and lived in this awful condition for ten days. After his death. Mr. Feather- stonhaugh susi)ended the body by a rope from the ridgepole of the cabin, where it froze stiff' and swayed gentlv for four months, in the wind, which forced its way between the logs. It is difffcult to even imagine wluil it must have been to be forced to sleep and eat in the presence of the swaying corpse ; to go out into the dazzling depths of snow and the sun to hunt for food, oidy to return to the awesome presence of his dead companion. At last, late in the winter, the absent members of the party returned to the cabin on snowshoes and soon after, they and Mr. Featherston- haugh, left the woods and he returned t(^ civilization and his friends. In 1844, his marriage with Miss Fmily Chapman, daughter of General Sidney F. Chapman, of Virginia, took place in Wash- ington, D. C. President Tyler was a guest at the wedding and charming Dolly Madison stood by the side of the bride, during l-cafhciwtonhiiiii'li. 203 the ceremoin-. After a \car sp^'iil in W 'asliin.L;t<)ii. Mr. and Mrs. I'eatherstonhaut^ii sailed for I*'ran<.e Id reside in 1 la\re wlure Mr. Featherstonhaui;Ii's father, C.eor^e W. I'Valherstonhatii^h. was British Consul. Mr. Featherstonhaug-h was present on the nig-ht his father helped the Kin<;- of France to esca]:)e to Ent^land. lie and his wife resided in I lavre till iS^j. wlun they crossed the channel to i'-ugland and li\ed in the suhnrh of ('.reat h'alini;-, till iSt5. when the\- returned to .\nierica, where Air. l'"eatluM-ston- hautiirs presence was necessary to take charge of the Duanesbursj; FeatherstnnhauRh Mansion. Dnanr.h ])ro])erty and niansiori left to him hv his aunt. Thev resided in the Duaneshur.^- mansion, huill by Miss Catherine Fivini;ston Duanc in 1S12, till 1860, when the family moved to Schenectady, only spending;- the snnnner months in Duaneshtu-^-. Mr. h'eather- stonhaugh died in 1899. Mr. James Duane Fcatherstonhaui^h's .gentle hirth and culti- \ate(l mind caused him to treat all persons, irres])ective of position 204 Old Sclu'iicitadw or condition, with friendly courtL-sy. The Inchans anioni;' whom he Hved for the ,s;"reater part of fonr \ears in the Maine forest and across the border in Canada, had the same feehngs of ccMifidence and esteem for him, in their jjrimitive savag'e refinement, as did his social and intellectnal eqnals at home and abroad. Whether in the log- cal)in of the Maine forests or the hosi)ita1)le home of I'ark and Xellie Custis, where he was a freqnent and welcome visitor, he was the same — faith fnl to all his inherited instincts. Chapter XIII. A r.\{\E\<.\\. WILLIAM .\( )LTII. J'.( )["V (iiK'-tliird of mik' c'lsl of the iH-alhersli )nliaui;li inansioii in I )naiK'sl)ur!^-, is liic old Xortli lioiist', Ixiill 1)\ (a'lural William Xorlli in 17S4. wIkii \hv wilder- ness was vast and strand and the woh'es were tierce and nnnierons and so hold, that lhe\ howled ahout the honse al nii^ht. while it was hein-^- hnilt. There is nothing- of the mansion ahont the Xorth house, but it is a fine s])eeinien of the old-time Xew iMii^land home, such as are to he found in the coast- towns of Massachusetts and Maine. This .Xorth house is forty- tive feet scjuare, with lar.ge rooms and lofty ceilings. The l)ase- ment was finished off for the kitchen, i)antries and the apartments for the house-slaves. The side of the Iwsement, fronting- the south, was open : while, at the l)ack and ends, were the usual mason work against the excavation, the sotith side, heing on the l)row of a knoH. was fitted with doors and windows. That i)ortion of the basement, not used for kitchen and living <|uarters, was divide(l into store-rooms for jjrovisions. \egetal)les and the famous Xorth wine-cellar. General Xorth and his fre(|uent visitors. I'.aron Steuben. C.enerals Loi)ham, Schuyler and otlur famous men. wire ])ort- winers of the three-bcjttle variety. They aron Steuben, who was so greatly ])leased with }-oung North that, young as he was, Steuben a])pointed him an aide on his staff. North did his duty as a soldier, well and faithfuUv and. although not ]:)articularly con- s]:)icuous for any one J.ct, was worthy of the confidence and esteem of Washington, Steuben, Herkiiuer and Schuyler. That other patriot and statesman, judge Duane, regarded young North so liighh that he gave him his elclest daughter, Mary, in marriage. As in the case of his other son-in-law. (icorge W. Featherston- haugh, judge Duane gave C.eneral North's wife an estate of one thousand acres in Duanesburg. It has been said that Gent'ral .NOrth found the estate covered by a forest of magnificent trees of ]m^v and hard woods. He attacked Nature with the same vim with which he had attacked Xorlh's Diiaiicibiirg llomr. Built General Jf'illiain Wirfli. 207 the British and finally succeeded in making a very fine place of it. The timber for the frame of the house and the pine and beautiful curly maple for the interior tinish, were cut on the place. The (laylight noise.^ of hammer and .saw were succeeded at night 1)\ ihe howls of the hungry wolves, till the house was finished, when the men had time to devote to hunting. The main entrance is through a vestibule ; thence, directly iiUo the living room, twenty-two feet square. Opposite the door, is the great chimney with its open fireplace. Back of this room, on the opposite side of the great chimney, is a cosey dining room with a fireplace and a trapdoor, leading down to the well-stocked wine- cellar. A hall separates the dining room from a large rcK)m which (leneral North, with his Yankee birth and training. ])n)babl}- called "the best room." or possibly, "a chamber." At the front and adjoining the living room, is the library. The iibrar\' is provided with n bookcase, extending across one side of the room and reaching nearly to the ceiling. It is made of beauti- ful curly maple, which has grown dark with age. Upstairs, over the dining-room was the school-room, and across the hall, the bed-room where Baron Steuben passed many a night, dreaming of port and sherry and cognac, to be assimilated on some future occasion. On the panes of the win.dows in the living room are t(^ be seen, to-day, some initials made with diamonds. l)y (icneral North's famous guests. The most interesting of them all are those of Hannah North, the general's daughter, who. it may be imagined, in her girlish pride in the possession of her first diamond, tried its hardness upon the window-pane, by scratching her name thereon. .\ sam]:)le of the (|uality cf material of those days is to be found in the pa])er on the walls of the li\ing-room. It has a whitish l)ackground ; the i)attern. in light brown, repre- senting minerets and cathedral-like arches. This paper is in as good condition as it was when (jcneral North tKCUi)ied the house. The house stands on the eastern end of one of those "hog- backs" or elongated knolls witli which the Duanesburg hills are 2o8 Old Schenectady. topped, as descri1)e(l in the chapter on Judge Duane. The land falls away at the sides, and in the rear gradually. And on the east or front, is a considerable level. South of the house, some six hundred feet, is a little valley half a mile long, and of irregular width, averaging, perhaps, an eighth of a mile. Through this, in the old days, ran a vigorous little brook which left the valley at the western end, through a narrow gorge six feet wide. Across this General North placed a dam, thus forming a charming lake half a mile long, with winding shores, heavily timbered on the south and cleared fields and the grounds immediately surrounding the house, on the north. The lake was particularly beautiful and added greatly to the charm of the scenery. Thirt\- or forty vears ago the dam was destroyed and the water allowed to run off, l)ecause the bottom of the lake was so valuable for farming pur- ]wses — the rich, black loam being very fertile. Even the brook loses itself, save in wet weather, for the cutting oft" of the forest has caused many of the bubbling springs of those old days to drv up. Thus, man}- lovely spots as well as characters, have been changed into ugliness for the sake of the almighty dollar. A road and stone walk connected the North home with the present Featherstonhaugh mansion — built l\v Miss Catherine Livingston Duane, in 1812 — a third of a mile distant from the North house. This must not be confused with the original mansion, built by George W. Featherstonhaugh, on the shore of Featherstonhaugh lake: but it is the mansion in which his son James Duane Featherstonhaugh lived and in which his grandson, the present George W. Featherstonhaugh, and his family, s^Knid the summer months — the house shown in the picture. For some reason, not known, the granddaughters of General North, Miss Hannah North and Mrs. Weston, the wife of the Rev. Daniel Cody Weston, an Episcopal clergyman, sold the Duanesburg home and built a house in Newport, Rhode Island. The knocker and one of the mantle-pieces of the Duanesburg home were sent to Newport to be used in that house and unless they were removed when Miss North sold the Newport property, thev are still there. General William Norfli. 209 In recognition of his services .-uul al)ilil\ , \\ illiani Xorlli was a|)j)ointe(l by W'ashing^ton, in 1798. inspeclor-j^eneral of the I'nited States armies. (leneral North served from the breaking- out of tlie war till the close at the surrender of Cornwallis at ^'orktl)wn, on which important occasion he was present, in civil life, he was perhaps even more prominent than in nulitary life. He was one of the first Erie canal commissioners : was three times speaker of the Assembly and L'^nited States Senator. General North died in 1836. The beautiful specimens of Indian skill in chii)ping- stone, the arrow and spear heads shown in the picture, were found on the ground which was covered by the artificial lake, by Mr. Hmmett McOuade, of New York citv, a son of the present owner of the North property. Tiesides the symmetry and fine work- manship of the relics, there is the additional interest due to the fact that they were found on the top of a hill of eight hundred feet elevation, three or four miles from the Xorman's Kill and twelve miles from the Mohawk river. It was generally supposed that the Indians did not live on the highlands nor far from a river or lake: but there are evidences, on the North place, of a small Indian cncam])mcnt, possibly of three or four families. hnli»n Spriir Heads, foini,! on GrnI Sorth's I'lac Chapter XIV. TOLL. L'CII a(lniii-al)le historians of Schcneclady County a.> ^ I'carson. his eihtor. Major McMurray and the Hon. John Sanders, state that Karel Haenscr. Toll, the first American ancestor of the Toll famil\, was l)orn in v^weden : hut his great-grandson arrives at the con- clusion, after long and careful investigatit)n, that the family is of Xorwegian extraction. This opinion is strongly sustained hy the spelling of the second name, llaensen, the ending, "sen" heing a t_\i)ical Xorwegian ending; the Swedish ending of the same name would he. "son." This great-grandson. Dr. D. J- Toll, in 1847, wrote a fifty- l)age pamphlet, in his old age, giving anecdotes and reminiscences of the family and of two or three other old families, hased upon tradition which he ohtained hy word of mouth, from old men who were born in the middle of the eighteenth centtu'y and which they obtained from their fathers and grandfathers, who were living before and immediately after the massacre. In other words ; there were, at the most, but two lives between Dr. Toll and llie days of the settlement of Schenectady. This is obtaining the traditional history of the end of the seventeenth and all t)f the eighteenth centuries, in the most direct manner, possible. That Karel Haensen Toll came to Schenectady at all— or, at least, when he did come — was. largely, a matter of chance. That he was a seafaring man is i)robable: for. |)revious to i<')8o. he was captured by the Spanish, off the Spanish Main — as the north coast of South America and the neighboring islands were called — and imprisoned with a companion, probably in the fortress of Porto Cabello. After close confinement for several days. Toll and his companion were given the liberty of the prison-yard, during 212 Old Schenectady. daylight, but were required to be in their ceU at sunset, at which time the keeper visited ah the cehs to look through the peek-hole of the doors to see that the prisoners were in their cots ; and then, to lock doors. While walking about the yard, they, one day, saw a strange ship standing in for the harbor. It remained a day or two and then beat out to sea, only to return a fevv days later. This was repeated several times. It gave the captives an idea for escaping. It was an idea requiring courage and determination, ([ualities which Karel Haensen Toll showed that he possessed, in a high degree, in after years, as a pioneer in Schenectady. Toll and his companion made their plans and one day, they arranged their cots in the cell, to give them the appearance of being occupied. When the keeper made his rounds and glanced through the peek-hole, he thought that he saw the two prisoners, asleep in their cots. They, in fact, were hiding under the shadow of the outer-wall of the fortress. As soon as it was dark enough, they climbed the wall and made for the seashore, where they made a solemn agreement to stick l)y one another and swim to the ship, or die in the attempt. The sea was shallow for a con- siderable distance from land and was clogged with a sea-weed having sharp edges, which cut and scratched their bodies pain- fully, and the salt-water greatly added to their distress. Toll's companion sufifered so greatly that he decided to return to cajv tivity, rather than endure the agony longer. They bade each other good-bye and Toll contiiuied his Right for lil)erty. He soon left the sea-weed and striking dee]) water, began a swim which lasted far into the night, till suddenly his ears were gladdened by the sound of a cock crowing, and then he saw the Hash of a lantern. Looking up, he saw the ship, hailed it and, after giving an account of himself, was takc-n on board. The crew provided him with clothing and in the nu)rning he told his story to the captain, who assured him that he would not be given up to the Spanish, so long as there was powder and shot on the ship. A little later in the day, some ofificers from the fort came off to Toll 213 ihe ship in a l^oat, l)ut the cai)lain denied all knowlcdi^e of ihc escaped prisoner. Toll remained in the ship, which touched at the Island of Curacoa, and arrived in New York City about 1680. 'J'he fact that the last ])ort touched, before arriving at Xew York, was Curacoa, no doubt occasioned the belief that Toll came from that Island, directly to Schenectady, as Pearson and Sanders, in their histories, say that he did. The Indians had a custom of giving; names to other Indians and to white men, which described some particular event or characteristic. Mr. Toll's Indian name was Kingegom or fish, his long swim for freedom being something which appealed strongly to the Indians' love t)f courage and endurance. At the time of his arrival in Xew York, Karel was, probably, about twenty-live years old. Whether he remained in Xew York for a year or two, or proceeded directly to Albany, is not known ; but that he marrieouth. \\ ith such ph) sical strenglli, such energy and courage, as were displayed by Elizabeth loll, there is nothing to wonder at that she and her husband accuiuulated wealth and \ast land possessions, it was no little undertaking to walk the eight miles to the village, for tlotir, ami then to return with three pecks of it, in a sack on her shotilder ; and besides, the journey was not \\ithout its dangers; for wild animals were in the forest and even wolves were numerous a hundred }ears later, in some parts of Schenectady County. So, while Karel and Elizabeth Toll labored and saved for those who would come after them, they were also accumulating qualities and character which would descend, as an inheritance, with their lands and houses, to their posterity. Ill 1712, Karel purchased, from the Clements, the pro[)erty known as " Alaalwyck."" which, with his oilier possessions, gave him the ownership of nearly se\en miles of valuable flats along the north bank of the Alohawk river. This '"Alaalwyck" farm, still sometimes called by that name, l)ut more generally known as "The Ttjll Place." is about a mile from the Sanders mansion, on the river-road to Hoffman's l'\'rry. The purchase of this ])roperty began a new state of affairs for .Mr. and .Mrs. Toll. They ab:mdoned tiieir first luimble home and moved to "Maalwyck." where Mr. Toll ])egan the erection of a more suitable hoiiu'. 'iMiis house was located a little to the west of the ])resent ])rick-house. shown in the picture. This new home was forty 1)\ twenty-five feet, it was built of brick, probably made near the site of the house, one story high and toi)])e.l with the high, steep Dutch roof, in which was another story and abo\e that, a low, large attic. The usual weather-vane was lacking (Oi this house, perhaps because Karel could tell which wa\ the w ind was l)lowing, without de])ending ui)nu a vane, for infonnatii'ii — Toll. 217 he l)eini;' a inarrie'd man. The early Dutch settlers were noted for weather-wisdom; and it was said that this wisdom was derived from gazing for so many hours at the vanes. "'So wise did they hecome, in the matter of the weather, that an exi)erieneed old Dutchman could, almost always, tell when it rained, if he was given a fair chance," says Dr. Toll. The house heing built on a slope toward the sotithwest. had a basement-kitchen, facing that point of the compass and behind it, was the cellar for vegetables and other solid and liquid nourish- ment. On the first floor were two great rooms; one was the kitchen-living room and the other, the best room, used onlv on especial occasions, such as marriages, funerals and visits of the l)astor. (jreat timbers crossed the ceiling which were ])laned smooth, with an occasional deeper cut of th.e ax-l)lade showing; and the ceiling, also the floor of the second story, was of hea\-\- p.lanks, nearly a foot and a half wide, with ihe under, or ceiling- side, also planed smooth and rubbecl to almost a i)olisli. The i8 Old Sclnvicctady. finest specimen of this heavy-timbered ceihng, now to be found in the county, is in the old Abraham Glen house, on Mohawk avenue, Scotia, now the residence of Mr. James Collins, and in the ruins of the DeGrafif house, near Hardin's crossing, where the settlers barricaded themselves in the lieukendaal Indian fight. There are many other houses with the great timbers, but the under- sides have been ceiled up, thus hiding a most impressive feature of old-time architecture. Tlie nice, fine work, done by the old- time carpenters, in mortising and dovetailing the joints of these great timbers with the even larger upright timbers, would be lieyond the skill of the building-carpenters of to-day. The great fireplace in the ^laalwyck house, was two feet deep and eight feet wide, so that a four-foot log would rest iqion the great hand-wrought andirons. The mantel, six feet above the hearth, was ornamented with hand-made fluting and mould- ing and on the shelf, were numerous china liowls. The windows, two 1)\ five feet, were swung on hinges, like a door, and the tinv panes of glass were held in i)lace with sheet-lead, as is the glass 1 Lll ^ I' s> i r ll " '■ ^ ' 1 1 ^^-'»ffli 1 iiliii ■P-^a**^i '" _^ w z^-— - m ihf Din 1,1 1: Rw, Toll. ^ • 9 ill siaiiicd windows. The •■Maalwyck" house was, next to the Sanders mansion, the largest in Schenectady, at the time it was btiilt. The possession of wealth did not change Karel J laensen Toll ; he was, in all respects the same man as when he began m a small and humble manner ; but it did give him the time to devote more of his great energy to the affairs of the Colony, lie was elected one of the three representatives to the Colonial Legisla- ture from Albany County in 1714— of which Schenectady was then a part— and he continued in the Legislature till 1720. His great-grandson, Dr. Daniel Toll. 1 elates an anecdote, in his little pamphlet, illustrative of the old gentleman's sporting- blood and humor. it was on his tirst journey to New York to att>-nd the Legis- lature, that he met an acquaintance on one of the sloops, which made the trip to New York and back to Albany, by way of the Hudson, as regularly as wind and tide would permit. Mr. Toll uas wearing a decidedly old traveling-coat. His ac(|uaiiUance remarked, in a joking way, upon its appearance, and asked if he intended to wear the coat in the presence of the Governor. Mr. Toll saw no reason why he should not do so, as he "was confident that the coat was well-lined ;" whereupon his acquaintance bet a certain stim that he would not have the nerve to d(^ so. '1 his aroused Mr. Toll's sportingd)lo(Kl ; so he said, in the language of the day, 'T'll take you." Arriving in New \<.rk a tew days before tlic opening of the Legislature, .Mr. Toll called uik.u the Governor, without changing his old traveling-coat for one better. After the Governor had greeted him. he remarked t.. .Mr. Toll: "Your coat seems rather threadbare;" to which Mr. T..11 replied: "Yes, your Excellency, but there is a very good lining under it." J le then explained to the Governor that the wearing of the coat was not the result of disrespect for himself, but of a wager; and. turning to the acquaintance who was also present, he demandeigned the petition for the charter granted by (Governor Dougan : that ciiarter which was the foundation of the ninetv vears of law suits, brought by the two Ryer Schennerhorns. grandfather .'ind grandson. This second Karel Ilaensen in Januarv. 17^)8. married a daughter of IMulip Ryley. of .\lbany, brother of James \an Slyck Uilev. who was i).)stmaster and associate judge of the Court of Common I'leas of Schenectady and was freciuenlly in the service of ihr (".overnment. as Indian Commissioner and interpreter, to n.g-otiate treaties with the Indians of the far n..rth-we>l. Ik- was sheriff of Schenectady County, for many years. Karel Toll and his young wife, immediatelv after theu" marriage, went to live in the f^ue old stone house on the lUuken- 224 Old Schenectady. (laal property, where they kept open house and were famous for tlieir liosptiality during- their long married Hfe of sixtv-four years. Mr. Toll was possessed of the family energy and of high l)rinciples. Like his name-sake, he was a man of unchanging Philip Ryley Silver Tea Set in the Toll House. determination ; once his loyalty was given, it remained steadfast as a matter of principle. This quality was shown in the days of the Revolution. His sympathies were with the rebels, but his loyalty to his king, he believed, prevented his taking an active part on the side of the colonists. So, while he felt that to take up arms against the king would be treason, he believed that it was his duty to give his sympathy and what aid lie conscientiously could to his rebelling fellow-countrymen. It required a man of unusual personal magnetism and of undou1)ted honesty of pur- pose to retain the confidence and respect of his Tory friends and rebel countrymen ; l)ut this he did and he died at the great age of eighty-six years, respected and regretted. His admirable wife, Elizabeth Ryley Toll, was a noble woman ; her cliaritv and charities made her name lilessed among the i)eople. The following incident illustrates her gootlness and. at the same time, her high spirit — tempered with gentleness — when she felt she had been ill-treated. One autumn, a family was drivino- to settle in the far-west. A heavv snow-storm overtook Toll. .225 llieni. and when tliev had gone as far on their way as the JJeuken- (laal place, the storm was so severe that they could o-o no further. The doors of Beukendaal were open to them and in the morning-, ii was seen that it would he impossihle for them to contiinie their journey. The house was well-filled hy the family; hut Mrs. Toll insisted upon their remaining till the weather and track through the forest were such that they could continue. Airs. Toll gave them possession of the hasement-a])artments and their horses were well cared-for in the stables. All this was without remun- eration of an\' kind. The family remained through the autumn and winter and in the spring, when the conditions for journeying became favorable, they started. The great covered wagon was drawn up in front of the house. One after another, they mounted the wagon, with never a word of appreciation or of thanks for llie generous old-time hospitality they had received. As they w ere about to start, Mrs. Toll's sense of justice and her righteous indignation found vent in the biting but gentle sarcasm of: "Ciood l)\e, I thank you for the good you have let me do you." .\lthough the French and Indian war was twenty years back, in history, when Karel Toll and his wife went to live at lieuken- daal, there was still intense dread of Indians; and es])ecially fear- some were they to the women, who were generally left alone in the house, while their IuisIkuuIs were in the fields or attending to other business. There was a well near the house in which .Mrs. Toll fre(|uently hid. when alone and when Indians were about; and, on man}' occasions, she and lu'r little ones hid in the great hay-loft of the barn, while the Indians were ])rowling about below. 'J'he well was often shown to her grandchildren by Mrs. Toll, when she told them stories of the occasions uixui which she bad got into it, to hide and it was regarded by them with awe. Karel Haensen and hdi/alnth Ryley Toll were fully aware of the necessity for and the advantages of ;i good education; so they gave it U) their children. Tluir sons. lohn C. and Philip, were both college graduates — the former entering the ministry 226 Old Schenectady. and the latter, the practice of medicine. Phihp. however, became smitten with the "Star of Empire," so deeply, that he abandoned his profession to follow it. in its westward course and to become a pioneer of the far-west — his wife, of course, goin_^ with him. Mrs. Toll was a daughter of Judge Isaac DeGraaf, who was also a major in the Revolutionary War. It was Judge Toll's son and her brother, who provided the means for fitting out Commodore McDonough's fleet, in the war of 1812. In fact, Mr. Toll, her husband, was also an officer in the War of 18 12. he being captain of a company of mounted artillery. Captain Toll's company was selected l)y General Wade Hamjiton. for headquarters guard, on account of its military excellence and its fine appearance. Isaac DeGraaf Toll, a son of Philip Ryley and Nancey DeGraaf Toll, was a brilliant and distinguished general m the Mexican War. He is still living, at a great age, in the west. The Rev. John C. Toll, the elder son of the second Karel llaensen Toll, inherited the Beukendaal property. He studied fer the church, under the Rev. Dr. Solomon Froeleigh. of Hacken- sack. and was ordained a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, on January 31. 1802 and. the following year, was called to the ])astorate of the Dutch Churches of Westerlo and Middletowu, where he and his wife, \ancy. daughter of Barcnt Mynderse. of Guilderland. lived on the farm that he had i)urchased. tdl 1822. They resided there for nineteen happy years, surrounded by their friends and their l)ooks and cultivating the farm successfully — an abilitw inherited from his forefathers, by Mr. Toll. In 1822, the failing health of his father, the second Karel. caused hiiu to resign and return to Beukendaal, where his presence was needed. On account of failing health — the result of a college-illness. Rev. Mr. Toll decided to not ])reach again, regularly. He preached in both English and Dutch. At Beukendaal. the Reverend and Mrs. Toll passed a Toll. 227 pleasant, happx life; happy in their home and their chihh-en ; lie, tuuliiii;- cong-enial companionship anion" the professors of Union College and the pastors of Schenectady. He died in t84() and his wife, in 1859. Their son, Philip Ryley Toll, the second of the name — he heing named for his uncle the j^hysician who went west — inherited Benkendaal, which is still owned by the family. niakino- one hundred and eighty-seven years that it has been in I lie family. Chapter XV. SCHERMERliURN. r a lime so remote that the "Ancient City" of Schcnec- \ latly seems a mere infant in comparison, the village "^^ of Schermerliorn, whence came the Schermerhorns of Schenectady Connt}', existed and Hourished and had its traditions. Schermerhorn is located in the Province of North Holland and lies Ijetween the dry heds of two lakes called, •'lieemter" and "Schermer." These lakes were pumped dry in the seventeenth century, prohably for agricultural purposes. Before this was done, the chief occu- pation of the people of the village was fisliing in these extensive lakes. Now the population is agricultural. Soon after the advent of the year 1400, the people of Scher- merhorn and those of a village across the lakes, were frequently involved in disputes of a serious nature. Finally, when the difficulties seemed to be amicably settled, the people of Schermer- horn were displeased over the interpretation of the agreement between the two villages. They were never satisfied with the rights they had obtained and were continually "burrowing" in t. . the matter in the hope of finding a flaw or, by digging in to the subject more deeply, to find a way out of what they beliewd to be injustice to them. This habit gave them the nickname of "The Burrowers," a designation of which the people were proud, for it showed their unwillingness to be treated with injustice, as well as their persistence and determmation. To perpetuate the memory of this quality, they chose for their emblem a mole, that little animal being the greatest of "burrowers." This emblem was well known early in the fifteenth century, but it was not 230 Old Schenectady. Scheneclaclv. but in the State. recognized as the coat-of-arms of Schermerhorn, by the High Council of the NobiHty, till October, 1817. This High Council is a body appointed by the Crown to keep the records of the nobility of Holland and to authorize and register coats-of-arms of municipalities and of families. The chief object of interest in the modern village of Scher- merhorn, is the beautiful Dutch Reformed Church that was built in 1634. It is of pure Gothic architecture and has very fine stained glass windows. The church was renovated in 1894, one of the largest contributors to the fund for that purpose being- Mr. William Schermerhorn, of New York city. There is a tablet set into the wall of the church when it was built, which shows the mole as the coat-of-arms of Schermerhorn. This shows a shield with a mole, sable, on a natural color, ])robably green. The Schermerhorn family is not only one of the oldest in Jacob Janse Schermerhorn, the first American ancestor, came while still a \oung man, to the Dutch pos- sessions in the New World from Waterland, Holland, where he was born in 1622. He settled in Beverwyck, now Albany County, and started in almost immediately as a money maker, his occupation being that of brewer and Indian trader. His business ability and great prosperity apparently dis- pleased and alarmed the Dutch West India Company, so a charge was preferred against him of selling arms and ammunition to the Indians. It is probable that he did sell to the Indians, for that was a part of the trade with them and was nothing more than the Dutch Company was doing, the trouble being that that com- pany wished to keep all the good things to itself. He was arrested Silver Mounted P, Schcniicrhoiii. 231 by order of Governor Stuyvesant in 1648, and imprisoned in Fort Amsterdam. All of his papers and books were destroyed and he was sentenced to the entire loss of all the wealth which his energy and keenness in business had accimnilated and to banishment from the Colony for a term of five years. It is quite evident from the action taken by them, that his friends and neigh- bors regarded his arrest and punishment, for the crime of making money rapidly, as unjust, as it really was, for many of the most prominent citizens took the matter up. and, although his i)roperty was not restored to him, once it got into the hands of the Colonial authorities, his term of banishment was remitted, it was then that he showed tlie Schcrmerhorn determination — a ([uality which was even magnified in some of his descendants — for instead of being disheartened, or going to some other place or Colony, he remained and began all over again to accumulate a fortune. He died in i68y leaving a fortune of $22,000, as much in those days as five times the sum would be now. Jrlis death occurred in Schenectady where he had lived for several years. ( )f his three sons, ivyer, Simon and Jacob, the tirst was tlie only one who settled in Schenectady permanently. Ryer Schermerhorn (the name in Holland was written, Schermer Home) married the widow of Helmer Otten. She was Ariaantje l>ratt, of Esopus. Mrs. Otten was possessed of con- siderable property, in the Colony and in Holland, from her former husband Helmer Otten. As wa.s the custom in those days before marrying again, she entered into an agreement with the guardians of her children to secure to them their share of their father's property. Although Ryer Schermerhorn was not one of the ( )riginal Fifteen Proprietors of 1662. he was one of the five named in the Schenectady Patent of 1684. The reason for the patent of 1684 from Governor Dongon was this: The Fifteen Original Projirietors had obtained ix)sses- sion of the land by deed from the real owners of it. the Mohawk Indians and if the Colony had remained in the possession of the 212 Old Schenectady. Dutch, any further evidence of right to the land might not have heen necessary. The Colony, however, passed into the possession of Britain and it soon became evident that complications would arise in regard to titles, hence, the necessity for a patent. In 1690 he was a member of the Provincial Assembly and a justice of the Pear Tree 150 Years Old tit. Daughter of Arent UraJt. peace and in 1700, he was appointed assistant Judge of the Court of Common Picas, all of which shcnvs that he was a man of affairs and occupied a prominent place in the community. When the year 1700 opened, Ryer Schermerhorn was the only survivor of the five original patentees. He remained as such till 1714 and this fact gave rise to a heated contest between himself and the ])eople of Schenectady, who accused him of acting in an arbitrary manner over the affairs of the settlement and of high-handedness in refusing to give an account of his domgs to them. The patent of Schenectady included about 80,000 acres, the affairs of which were absolutely in the control of the five patentees and their heirs and successors. In 1700, when Ryer Scheniierhont. ^3^ Schcrnierh.ji-n was the sole surviving;- i^alcnlcc the people objected to being- under tlie control of one man. They said that he dispensed of the pul.Uc lands belonging D the village without giving any account of the transactions, so they petitioned for a new patent in Ucto])er, 1702, which shouUl give them the right to elect five trustees to serve three years, who should be required to render an accounting of their trust to their successors. This ]yAWu[ was granted in l-ebruary of the following year and Colonel J'cier Schn)ler, John iS. Glen, Adam Vrooman and John Wemp were made trustees to serve with Ryer Schermerhorn. I'.ut the Schermerhorn determination asserted itself. Ryer utterly disre- garded the new patent, claiming to be the sole trustee of the village, lie continued to receive the rents and other profits of the town and brought suits in the courts in his own name with- ont giving any account to the people, l^ven the fact that he was suspended 1)v the (Governor made no ditierence with him. He ivW l)ack upon the authority of the I'atent of 1684. which was really binding notwithstanding the granting of the Patent of 1703. He knew that the old patent gave to the five trustees, their luirs and assigns forever, the control of the land and, as survivor, Ik- intended to live up to the rights secured to him in that ])atent. From the standpoint of Ryer Schermerhorn and l)y pre- cedent, he was right. Ihit the germ of that great principle of "government of the people by the pec^de for the people" although not expressed in words till many years later, was beginning to take root, probably without any suspicion of that fact by those most interested. The people, seeing that the determination of Ryer Schermer- horn was based upon solid foundations, petitioned, by two of the new trustees, Col. Schuyler and John S. (Vien. for an annual election of trustees with a more strict provision reciuiring an accounting of their proceedings. This petition was g-ranted and a new charter was given in April, 1705. with Ryer Schermer- born's name not among the trustees. In 1704 the Governor and e'ouncil gave a hearing to Mr. Schermerhorn. . He was suspended 2T,4 Old Schenectady. as a trustee but this mattered little to him. He disregarded the action of the Governor and Council, insisted that he was the only trustee, and persisted in refusing to render an accounting, so in July, 1705, the new trustees began a suit in the Chancery Court against him. This suit was the first of a series brought by both sides for a period of nearly one hundred years, the second Ryer Schermerhorn, a grandson of the first, continuing the contest till his death, in 1795, but not one of them was ever finished. Ryer brought a counter suit against the trustees John S. Glen, Adam Vrooman, Daniel J. Van Antwerp and John l'>. \ an Eps. The trustees, weary with the contest, attempted to affect a com- ]:»romise but without success and an appeal to the Colonial Legis- lature also failed to accomplish anything. In 1714, Schermerhorn, on October 22 and 22,, by lease and release, conveyed his title to William Appel of New York — Appel kept a tavern in that city — with the understanding that he, Appel, should reconvey the lands to Ryer Schermerhorn, Jan Wenip, Johannes Teller, Arent Bradt, and Barent Wemp. This was done on the 25th and 26th of the same month and year. To confirm this conveyance, Governor Hunter granted the fourth charter, on November 14, 1714. This grant was practically the same as that of 1684, the townshij) in both patents being granted to Ryer Schermerhorn and his associates, their heirs, successors and assigns. These conveyances settled for a time the controversy over the management of the common lands. J" 1750 Jan Schermerhorn, a son of Ryer, who died in 1719, claimed that all who were freeholders of Schenectady when the Dongan Patent was granted in 1684, had equal title in the com- mon lands. This meant that only those would inherit who were descerrded from the first settlers in the male line of eldest sons, for at this time the law of primogeniture was in force. There were, when this claim was set up, but twenty-seven eldest sons who were legal heirs. The death of Jan Schermerhorn in 1752, before legal action had been brought, ended this claim. r>ut this death did not end the contest, for Jan left a son, Schcniicrhoni. 235 another Ryer Schernierliorn, who had ah of the devotion t(j purpose and the determination for wliich the family was noted. He began suit against Arent Bradt and others as patentees, in 1755, for his share in the common lands which he claimed were his by inheritance from his grandfather, the first Ryer. For forty-one years he fought for what he believed to be his rights and died in 1795 with the struggle unfinished. So strongly did he feel upon the subject that he willed the contest to his heirs with the penalty of disinheritance should they fail to continue it. This second Ryer retained Judge James Duane, of glorious memory, as his attorney. Judge Duane told his client that a document in the hands of a man by the name of Appel, living in New Vork city, was oi the greatest importance to his case, but for it to be of use, it must 1)e in Albany within eight days. Between Albany and New Vork was nothing but a wilderness with here and there an Indian trail, and the Hudson river. To make the journey to New York and back through the woods, in eight days, was utterly impossible and the river craft were far loo slow. Xo Schermerhorn had yet been beaten by difficidties and this member of the family decided that the journey could and should be made in one of the light and graceful birchbark canoes of the Indians, with his nuiscle and will as the motive power, so he started alone, obtained the document and was in Albany again before the expiration of the eight days. It is a most unfortunate thing for the present generation that Mr. Schermerhorn wrote no account of his trip. As he was a man who did things withoiU talking about them, one of the most interesting journeys of the early days is left to the imagination. Another instance of the irresistible will possessed by these men, was shown in even a more striking manner by Simon Schermerhorn, one of the first Ryer's brothers. Simon and his family lived in the village at the time the French and Indians destroyed it and butchered the greater portion of its inhabitants, that bitterly cold night in the winter of irx>o. Simon was shot through the thigh in the fight and realizing that someone nnist give the alarm to Albany he mounted a horse and rode pellmell, 236 Oid Schenectady. notwithstanding- tiiat every jolt in the saddle caused the greatest agony. He started by the regular path, over what is now the Albany turnpike, but when in the neighborhood of the Stan- ford place he heard what he supposed to be Indians, so he turned off and took the longer way through Niskayuna, fearing that his capture or death would delay the carriage of the news to Albany so long that help from the fort would be too late. The following verses were written by Aaron B. Pratt, of Albany, on the historical ride of Simon Schermerhorn, who, wounded and suffering from the cold of midwinter, rode to Albany, twenty miles, to give the alarm on the night of the Massacre. Silent and cold old Mohawk's tide Swept through the forest, dark and wide. When on her bank, amid the wood, Schenectady's rude hamlet stood. 'Twas midnight in that ancient town ; The drifting snow was coming down, The people all were wrapt in sleep. No sentinel there to vigils keep. The winter's thick mantle was outspread To break the sound of hostile tread. And while they slept, no dream of harm, Like lightning came the dread alarm, More fearful than the shriek of shell Broke on the air a savage yell, With horror, dread, each Dutchman woke To meet alike the deadly stroke. lUitchered and brained, consumed by fire. The heartless horde wreaked vengeance dire ; The French and Indians both allied, To spread destruction far and wide. No age or sex these demons spared But all alike their vengeance shared ; Babes in innocence yet unborn, Were from the womb imtimely torn. Schennerlwrn. 237 One man there was, oh Dutchman brave! Who manag-ed there his hfe to save, And means at hand he quickly found To spread th'alarm the country rouniL He quickly mounts a straying steed By fate provided for his need ; With ne'er a saddle, bridle, rein. The nearest town he seeks to gain. He braveh faced the jaws of death Its sickening glow and sulphrus breath ; And ne'er a rider rode so well As rode he through the gate of hell. Shot through the thigh, he heeded not, The heartless foeman's cruel shot ; His wounded steed made bold essay. To bear his rider from the fra\-. Tho' wounded sore and nearly dead. Each nerve he strained and forged ahead ; And in the forest dread and drear. Rider and horse did disappear. Knee deep the snow, and drifting down. And twenty miles to nearest town ; Old Albany the destined place For which our hero made this race. Ere morning broke he readied the fort And quickly made liis sad report ; Cannon took up the wild alarm. And warning sent o're field and farm. The people all with one accord Fell on their knees and thanked the Lord That he had sent a spirit brave To warning bring, their lives to save. Simon vSchermerhorn, our hero's name Ne'er filled the sounding trumps of fame: Tho' wounded, weak and out of breath, He rode this race of life and death. 238 Old Sdicnectady. Eclipsing Sheriden's famous ride, To check the battle's bloody tide ; Or even that of Paul Revere, That roused the Nation's lusty cheer. As far as is known these are the only verses on Schermer- liorn's ride that have been published. While there are several properties now occupied by lineal descendants of the original owners, the Schermerhorn family is probably unique in that the property has been occupied by the family zmthont change of name for 240 years, the present owners being of the eighth generation. The home of the late Simon J. Schermerhorn. Congressman, is charmingly situated ou a terrace a quarter of a mile l)ack from the Mohawk river and sixty feet above it. at the foot of a bluff rising from the rear of the grounds. The outlook is toward the south-east. Over the river bottoms on the south side of the Mohawk a fine view of the city of Schenectady is had and on the north side of the Mohawk, the view extends over the river bottoms including "Maalwyck." the "Camp" and village of Scotia beyond to the pretty Glenville hills. A little distance further back from the Mohawk, at the foot of the Rotterdam hills, are the residences (>f other members of the family. Had Congressman Schermerhorn not inherited the character- istics of "digging deep" into important matters and of persisting in so doing — characteristics inherited from his remarkable ances- tors, the two Ryer Schermerhorns. grandfather and grandson, which they, in turn, came by naturallv from the village of Schermerhorn, in Holland — Schenectady would not now have the supply of delicious, pure spring water which it has. These wells were dug at the foot of the bluff, near the Mohawk, but this was not done till Congressman Schermerhorn had spent con- siderable time in an effort to convince skeptical city officials and other prominent citizens of the city, that an ample supply of pure ScJieniicrhorn. 239 spring water was waiting" deep down in the ground to make Schenectady famous among cities for its une(|ualled supply of water. SCHERMERHORN-CAMPBELL. Daniel Camphell came to Schenectady in 1754, in liis twenty- third year, with a tiny cash capital and an immense inherited capital, consisting of energy, determination to succeed, honesty and business acumen, all characteristics of his Scotch- Irish descent. Mr. Campbell began his business career with a pack on his l)ack as an Indian trader. The excellent ((uality of his goods, his industry, economy, and honesty gave him patrons which so greatly exceeded his individual efforts that he was soon obliged To increase his capacity to handle it and, at the same time, he increased his operations. When the Revolution broke out. Mr. Campbell was regarded as a man of considerable fortune, .\tter the Revolution, he, with James Ellice, John Duncan and James Phyn, became one of the greatest merchants and wealthiest men of the state. As a merchant in Indian trade, and l)y purchasuig '"soldiers' rights", he amassed a great fortune. He married .Angelica T.radt. a daughter of Arent S. Bradt (or Bratt. as the name was then sometimes spelled) and had one son, David Campbell, who was Iwrn in 1768. David died in June, i8ot, leaving his property to his father. Daniel Campbell, Sclicnncrhorn. 241 Sr., died in the following- year at the age of seventy-one. One- third of his great wealth was left to relatives in Ireland, the remainder g^oing absohitely to his wife. Mr. Campbell and Sir WilHam Johnson were warm and inti- mate friends and upon the occasions when Sir William was in Schenectady in the interests of St. George's Church, or on other business. Mr. Campbell's house was his home for the time being. This house was built for Mr. Campbell by Samuel Fuller, in 1762, on the north-east corner of State and Church streets where it stands now as solid as the year it was built. There have been but few changes made in the house, the chief ones being to the roof. In 1771, Mr. Campbell was one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas of Albany County, of which Schenectady was then a part. Mrs. Campbell, wishing to continue the name in America, left all of her great wealth to Daniel D. Schermerhorn on condi- tion that he take the name Campbell, which he did later by act of the Legislature. Mrs. Campbell died at the age of eighty, in 181 2. Chapter XVI. T YATES HOUSE. HE Abraham Yates house, on Union street, nearly opposite the Court house, is an excellent exami)le of I the substantial buildings erected by well-to-do citizens XiX from 1700 to '50. This house was built by Mr. Yates. j£j[ about 1730, and is in perfect condition, at the present ^^^ time. It is in the best and most aristocratic residential ^^V part of Schenectady. ^g The Yates family is one of the few Anglo-Saxon "99^ families who were among the old settlers. The first of the name to come to America, was Joseph Yates, who arrived soon after the Colony was delivered to the British, in 1664. He worked with M. J. \'an Brommel, in Albany, as a shoemaker. He married Hjbertje Van Brommel. Mr. Yates died in 1730, and was survived by seven children, one of whom. Rol)ert Yates, settled in Schenectady, in 1711, at the age of twenty-three. Robert Yates married Greitje C. DeGraaf, of the "Hoek." just west of Scotia, where he lived and followed his father's trade. He had a village-lot on State street, near Ferry street and a rather extensive tannery on the bank of the pond, at the end of Ferry street, where it joined Mill lane. He had, also, farm-land on the flat, where the General Electric Company's works are, which was part of the Van Curler farm. This he bought in 1741. He died in 1748, leaving his business to his sons, Joseph and Abraham— the latter, selling his interest to the former. The men of the Yates family were prominent in the Revolu- tion and in the practice of law. Robert, a grandson of the first Robert Yates, who settled in Schenectady, in 1711, was born m T738, married Jannetje Van Ness, in Albany, in 1765, where he remained to practice law. This Robert Yates, an ardent patriot, 244 Old Schenectady. was a member of the Committee of Safety in Revolutionary da\s ; a member of the State Constitutional Convention of 1777; of the Federal Convention of 1787; and of the State Convention for ratifying- the acts of the Convention. He finally attained to the distinguished honor of the chief- justiceship of the Supreme Court of New York. He died in 1801. His daughter married James Fairlee, who was an aid-de-camp to Baron Steuben, in the Revolu- tion. His son, John Van Ness Yates, was Secretary of State, from i8i8-'26. Robert N. Yates, a grandson of the original Yates ancestor, was born in 1789. He was lieutenant in the Rifle Regiment in the Regular Army in the War of 1812, in which he was killed. Christopher Yates, born in 1737, a son of the original Albany Yates, was a captain, under Sir William Johnson and a colonel in the Revolution. He married in 1761, Jannetje, a daughter of Andries Bradt. He died in 1785. Colonel Christopher Yates' son, Joseph Yates, was born in 1768. He was the first mayor of Schenectady; State Senator, in 1807; judge of the Supreme Court, in 1808; and Governor of New York, in i823-'24. He died in 1837. Another son of Colonel Yates, Henry Yates, was born in 1791. He was a lawyer; State Senator for several terms, and a member of tlie Council of Appointment. He died in 1854. The Rev. Dr. Andrew Yates, the third son of Colonel Christopher Yates, was born in 1773. He was a graduate of Yale College, in 1793, and studied for the ministry under the Rev. Dr. J. H. Livingston and was ordained a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church. He was professor of Greek and Latin, in LTnion College, in T 797-0 r ; pastor of the East Hartford, Connecticut, Congre- gational Church till 1814, when he returned to LTnion and was professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy, till 1825. He then, accepted the principalship of the Chittenango Polytechnic Insti- tute. He died in 1844. Dr. Yates was married twice. His first wife was Mary Austin and their son, John A. Yates, was born in t8oi. He was professor of Oriental Literature, in LTnion College, from 1823 to his death, in 1844. Professor Yates' son, Yates. 245 J. 15. \'atc.s, was the father of Austin A. Yates, now residing- on Washing-ton avenue, Schenectad}-. and of Commander Arthur R. Yates, U. S. N. Of the several titles to which Austin A. Yates has a right, that of "Major" is the most i)o])ular, with his intimates; for it was as a soldier that the Yates qualities showed themselves most jirominently ; and these were qualities which attracted the affec- tions and atlmir- a t i o n. Hon. Austin A. Yates, like his prede- c e s s o r s men- tioned in this article, with one exception, was a graduate of Un- ion College ; he studied law and was admitted to practice ; was judge of the County Court, and Member of Assembly. I n the Civil War. he was captain of H. Co., One Hundred a n d Thirty-f o u r t h New York Vol- u n t e e r s and, later, he was cai)tain of F. Co., I'niled States Veterans. This F. Co. was famous as being the one cliosen to have custody of the ])ersons and charge of the execution, of the assasins of President Lincoln, lie was, later, promoted to the rank of brevet-major 246 Old Schenectady. of the U. S. V. and, on April 9, 1898, was commissioned major of the Second Regiment, N. Y. N. G., for service in the Spanish- American War. The youngest son of Colonel Christopher Yates, John B. Yates, was born in 1784. This son became the most active man of affairs in the military, political and financial interests of his State of any member of the family, chiefly because the times were propitious for the Yates qualities to appear at the front. After being graduated with honors from Union College, he studied law in Albany, with his elder brother, Henry, and was admitted to the bar in 1805. In the second war with the "old country" — speaking from the standpoint of an Anglo-Saxon — he raised a large company of horse-artillery and was commissioned its captain, by Governor Tompkins. Captain Yates and his com- pany served in the campaign of 1813, under General Wade Hampton, on the northern frontier of New York. Hampton appointed him one of his aids and sent him to relieve Fort Erie, where General Brown was bottled-up by a superior force of British. After the war, in i8i5-'i6, he went to Congress and took as active a part in the civil affairs of the Nation as he had in the military affairs. Mr. Yates was possessed of an extensive estate and great wealth. In Chittenango, his home, he had two thousand acres of land, on which were flour, oil, lime, and saw- mills, a woolen factory, stores and a boat-yard with dry-dock, where boats were built and overhauled. His pay-roll often had one hundred and fifty names upon it. At the time the project for the Welland canal came near to expiring, for lack of the life-giving qualities of money, Mr. Yates stirred up enough enthusiasm, in New York and in England, to carry the project to completion. He showed his faith in the canal, for which he was asking others to subscribe money, by investing nearly $150,000 of his own. He was the first judge of Madison County. His death occurred on his estate in Old-time Leather Fire Buciel -,0^f\ owned by Hon. A. A. Yates, ^^if^- Chapter XVll, Educational. UNION CLASSICAL LXSTITUTI-:. r.UlLDJNC which has sccii more of the ups and A downs of Hfe than any other in Schenectady, was that ■'^^ which the present generation knew as the Union Classical Institute, on the corner of Union antl Church streets, which was recently sold to the Mohawk club. This building- had more endearing associations con- nected with it, for the present generation and its immediate senior generation, than any other in the city, for it was for years tlie scene of scholastic triumphs for one thing, and of scores of good-natured dare-diviltry and school- boy escapades, which are so dear to the memory of the "old- fellows" after they have boys of their own. Besides this, there has been more than one love story started in the class rooms of this old building which has ended happily in the ceremony pre- sided over by the minister. The building as shown in the picture, was erected for the home of the Mohawk bank in 1820. This occupied the first floor, with the upper floors as a residence for the cashier, David Hoyd, who was in his day a man well known in banking circles in and out of the city, as was the bank's paying teller. V'olney Freeman. ATr. Boyd was a short, stocky man with sandy hair and florid complexion who was wedded to his bank. It was his wife, his children ; his work and his recreation, for he was a bachelor, his sisters keeping house for him. It was said that he frequently sat up the greater part of the night waicliing the bank to see thai nothing happened to it or its contents. Union Classical Institute. ^49 The entrance to the bank was on the c.rner; that for the residence was on Church street, and h, those days had the dotible twisting stairway leading to the entrance hah. The bnikhng was soUdly built o£ stone and had in the basement a vault ot n.asonry, which was in tts day burglar proof. This vault rentained as solid the day the building was turned into a club as .t was the day it was built. ' - , After the Mohawk bank had occupied the building for several years it was decided to ntove to new quarters. The locat.on chosen was on State street. When this change was n.ade, Chauncey \ibbard, a man whose varied career was tn keeptng with the building, purchased tt as a residence. Mr. \ .l>l>ard spent a large sum of money in converting the bu.khng mto a luxurious home. During his occupancy the bmkliug e,x,K.r,euce. the first of its great changes, for Vibbard was a h,gh liver and sontethiug of a high flyer a.td although there were no 'beely dinners" known in those days, the high-jinks wh.ch took place n, the hospitable Vibbard residence would furnish the subject for many a modern newspaper sensation. One of the largest robberies ever committed in th,s cuy. so far as the value of the property stolen is concerned was u, the Vibbard mansion. Mr. Vibbard had a house party of st.x vscalth> New Yorkers up for a week's sojourn. This fact becante known in New York, probably through the society colu.nn of one of t he papers, to some clever New York crooks who followeil the par y up to Schettectady and one night burglarized the house and stole several thousands of dollars worth of jewelry. Chauncev Vibbard was a man of strength, who radt (by A. Oothout) R. Mynderse. William Mead, Cornelis \'an Dyke, Isaac \rooman, Xicholas N'eeder, and the Rev. Dirck Romeyn. These names are given, because the twenty-seven were practically, the founders of Union College, as the .Vcademy grew into that institution. ^52 Old Schenectady. The first board of trustees was composed of : The Rev. D. Romeyn, president ; Dirk Van Ingen, secretary ; Abrahm Oothout, treasurer; John Glen, Daniel Campbell, Henry Glen, A. Frey, Claes Van der Volgen, John Sanders, Peter \^rooman. B. Dietz. In April, 1793, the building was made over to the trustee by the Church. In September, 1796, the trustee made over the building to the trustees of Union College, that corporation having been chartered. The Academy building was sold and the money received from the sale was used to erect the first college building. This stood on the property now occupied b\ the Union Schcxil. UNION COLLEGE AND DR. NOTT. xA-lthough Union College had been in existence for nine years before Eliphalet Nott, D. D., became its president, the real life of the College was so entirely due to Dr. Nott as its president for sixty-three years of untiring eft'ort for its good, that the his- tory of the institution and the life of the man are almost identical Union College and Dr. Nott. 253 As has been said elsewhere, Schenectady was very early an educational center. It possessed ^ood and prosperous schools, of a liimli orrade for the times, years before any other colonial settle- ment in this part of the Colony. It was these schools which resulted in the institution of Union in 1795. That the charter for Union College was obtained, was chiefly due to the efforts of the Rev. Dr. Dirck Romeyn. who was pastor of the old Dutch Reformed Church in Schenectady and that this city was chosen as its location, was entirely due to his efforts and those of Cicneral Schuvler. The immediate parent of Union College was the Academy, which was built of stone, in 1785, on the corner of Union and Ferry streets, for, in 1795 Union Colleg-e was begun in this building and continued in it till 1804. In that year the College occupied the fine building which was built for that purpose, on Union street where the Union School now stands. This building was begun in 1796, but because of a lack of money it was not finished till 1804. It was built of stone and cost, with its lot. $rx),c)00, which was a large sum in those days. The building was three stories high and covered a ground space of 150 by 60 feet. It was here where Dr. Nott began his work which placed him on a ])ar with the greatest educators of his day. It is a fact that Dr. Xott, like so many of Schencctadv's ])rominent men. was a New England Yankee. The men and women from the "Old Country" who came to Connecticut and composed the New Haven and later, the Hart- ford Colonies, were of a different stamp from those who had settled the older portions of New England. While the settlers of the older Xew England Colonies were men of strong character, honesty and fearlessness, they were from a more humble class. The families which came to Connecticut occupied good, and a few high, social positions in the "Old Country" and as a rule were i)ossessed of considerable wealth. It was of such stock that the Notts came. Union College and Dr. Nott. 255 John Nott, Dr. Nott's first American ancestor, settled in Wethersfield, which is now a beautiful suburb of Hartford, Con- necticut, in 1640. Sergeant John Nott was a man of note in the affairs of the Colony and of the highest social position. Being possessed of ample means he was naturally a land owner to a con- siderable extent in the Connecticut valley, where the soil is even more fertile than are the Mohawk valley flats. In 1665 and for several years thereafter, he represented the town of Wethersfield in the General Assembly of the Colon} . The two daughters and one son, who survived him, all married well, h^lizabeth married Robert Reeve, who was the ancestor of Judge Tappan Reeve, the founder of the Litchfield Law School : Hannah married John Hale and so became the grandmother of one of the Nation's finest patriots, Captain Nathan Hale, who grieved because he had but t)ne life to sacrifice for the cause and countrv he loved so well, but the youngest child, John, is of greatest interest to us as he was the great-grandfather of EHphalet. John married a widow, Mrs. Faience Miller, on March 28, 1683. They had seven sons and two daughters. The youngest of these children, Abraham, was born on January 29, 1696, and was the grandfather of EHphalet. Abraham Nott was graduated from Yale College with honors in the first class to graduate after the College was moved from Saybrook to New Haven, in 1720. He then studied for the minis- try and was ordained in Saybrook in 1725 and immediately became l^astor of the Second Congregational Church of Saybrook. This was his first and only pastorate, for it lasted till his death in 1759. The Notts were powerful men, physically as well as mentally. There is a tradition in Saybrook that he was able to lift a barrel of cider and drink from the bung-hole and that no man had ever been able to stand against him in wrestling. When Abraham Nott died he left four sons; Stephen, born on July 20, 1728, the second son, was the father of Dr. Eliphalet Nott, for sixty-three years president of ITnion College. Besides leaving enviable reputations, the Notts had left con- siderable fortunes, as they were thrifty and possessed of good 256 Old Schenectady. business instincts which enabled them to increase that which was inherited, but Stephen, the father of Dr. Nott, seemed to lack these qualities or was the victim of what in these days would be called a "hoodoo." Stephen received a good common school education and was regarded as a man of intelligence, but his life was a dismal failure and a continuation of struggles against misfortune, each of which left the family worse off than it was before. At the age of twenty- one, in 1749, he opened a store in Saybrook, with a considerable capital at his command and with bright prospects. He married a daughter of Samuel Selden. of Lyme, and Deborah Selden Nott became the sustaining power of her unfortunate husband and the inspiration of her famous son. Dr. Eliphalet Nott. Deborah was but seventeen at the time of her marriage and was considered to be as lovely in spirit and mind as she was in person. There was something odd about Stephen and from written history and tradi- tion it would almost seem that his associates in business did not regard him as being any too scrupulous. At any rate, they pushed him so hard, as one misfortune after another crippled him, that he was driven to the wall financially and was forced to remain in hiding to avoid incarceration in the debtors' prison. It is quite evident that Dr. Nott inherited the characteristics of his grand- fathers on the Nott side of the house, and of his mother who proved herself a heroine under adversity, rather than from his father. For ten years nothing serious happened to Stephen and then, in 1759, his home and the greater part of its contents were burned. Samuel, a boy of five years was barely rescued by his mother and a minister who was a guest of the family was also rescued with difficulty. The friends and neighbors showed the spirit of those days by helping Stephen to rebuild. Stephen's business was the trading of "store goods" for horses. When a herd had been col- lected, they were driven to New Jersey and sold. Within a year from the burning of his home, while on his way back from New Jersey, where he had received a large sum of money frgm Uiiioti Collate and Dr. Nott. 257 the sale of his horses he was waylaid, knocked from his horse and every penny of the large sum he was carrying in his saddlebags was stolen. Hither Stephen had not l)cen successful in his busi- ness u]) to this time, or he was extravagant, for he was depending upon the money stolen from him to meet his obligations to his creditors. They showed an unwillingness to wait, so his property was seized and his arrest was ordered. Stephen escaped the debtors' ])rison for several months by leaving his home. Finally, when he returned, he was arrested and \n\\. in jail, but a special act, soon after passed in regard to poor debtors, released him. Stephen Nott and his family then moved to East Haddam, where he purchased a small place on credit through the kind offices of a relative and started in the tanning business, which he had learned in his youth. East Haddam was an out of the way place, the business was very small, but the struggle with poverty was very great. Here it was that the grand qualities of his wife, Deborah, were shown. There were long periods, while Stephen was ill, when her work was the support of the family. In addi- tion to her work she educated the children as there was no school within reaching distance. After a struggle lasting several years the family moved to Foxtown on!} to continue the struggle. In 1772. sixty acres of waste land were exchanged for the Foxtown ])]ace in the Town of Ashford. about thirty miles from Hartford, in Windliam County. On this rock-strewn barren land was a poor little house in which Eliphalet was born on June 25, 1773. The childhood of Eliphalet was not particularly different from that of other boys of poor parents, except that the habit of giving a verbal report of the hour-long sermons to his mother, whose lack of health kept her much at home, made him more serious than children of his age would naturally be and laid the foundation for the wonderful memory which exhibited itself in later years and for the unusual power of mental application. A sermon which was ])reached by the Baptist pastor of the church where he sometimes attended, it being near home, while the Con- gregational Church was several miles distant, caused him to tear 258 Old Schenectady. up a iiew-fan,2^1ed headdress belonging to one of his sisters, because the preacher had denounced that kind of head-gear as an invention of the devil. However good his motive may have been, his sister and mother saw it in a dift'erent light and Eliphalet was spanked. At the age of eight, he passed a winter in Hartland with a married sister and in the spring he went to his elder brother Samuel, who was pastor of the Congregational Church in Frank- lin, Connecticut. The Rev. Sanuiel was a typical Congregational- Connecticut minister of that period; good. just, faithful, but with no more conception of the joyousness of childhood and youth than an oyster has of music, so little Eliphalet decided, after t\yo years of restraint and repression, to run away to sea. He was persuaded to give up the idea and to return to his home, to con- tinue his studies with his mother, till her death. When fourteen, be began the study of medicine with the local physician. Dr. Palmer, l)ut his first experience at a surgical operation ])roved his unfitness for the profession, he l)eing over- come by the sight of blood and the suii'ering. and soon after he gave it up. ()n October 24. 1778. his mother died. Besides the relationship of parent and child, Klii)halet and his mother were confidential friends and companions anil, as the great educator said in after life: "Whatever I am is due to my mother." Soon after the death of his mother, Fdi])halet returned to his l)rother Sanuiel's home to continue his studies and, in the mean- time, he helped support himself by teaching in Franklin and the vicinit}' schools. His success as a teacher was so notable that he was api)ointed to the principalship of the Plainfield Academy before he was twenty years old. It was in this school that he conceived that peculiar system of government which many years later was applied with such great success in Union College. This system was based upon an intimate feeling of good will and afifection between the master and pupils ; self respect on the part of the puj^ils and veneration for tlie institution of which they Union College and Dr. Nott. 259 v.ere members. The Plainfield Academy was one of the best schools in Connecticut and included several hundred pupils of both sexes. While teaching: in the Academy, he had continued his studies for the purpose of taking a degree at Brown University and for future studies for the ministry. He took the senior examinations at Brown in the autumn of 1795, and passed, but as he had not been regularly connected with the college classes and so could not receive the usual diploma, he was g-iven a testimonial and an honorar\ A. ^^1. He was examined by the New London County Association and was licensed to preach on June 26, 1796. Several attempts were made to induce him to settle in a parish in Con- necticut, but he refused, his belief being that he could accomplish more g-ood in the thinly settled portion of New York west of the Hudson. He obtained a roving commission from the Domestic Missionary Society of Connecticut as missionary in New York. On July 4. 1796. he married Maria, the eldest daughter of the Rev. Dr. Joel Benedict, minister of the Congregational Church of Plainfield and then started on his journey to the wilderness of New York, leaving his bride in the home of her father till he had made a home for her. His journey took him to Hartford, Springfield and thin l<> Albany where he encountered that suspicion of strangers which was peculiar to the Dutch and which is met with to-day in the more temi)ered form of an utter disregard of any social obligation on their ])arts toward persons, not of Dutch descent, residing among them. He arrived in .\lbany late and stayed at a tavern kept by a Dutchman who could not speak iMiglish and, as his guest could lujt speak Dutch, he naturally took il for granted that Dr. Nott was a suspicious character, so he locked him in his room and kept him in it till he saw fit to let him out in the morning. Dr. Nott's destination was a little way beyond Cherry \'alley, but he was called back to that village by the Presbyterian Church, and two months from the day he first saw Cherry Y'aWqx he was 26o Old Schenectady. its pastor. There he Hved for ahout two years, his wife having joined him. Besides the duties of pastor he had those of teacher too, for it was impossible for him to Uve anywhere without following this loved calling for which he was so eminently fitted. He was loved and resi)ecied l)y the parents and children and his wife held an equal place in their hearts and esteem. Mrs. Nott was possessed of a joyous disposition and unusual refinement and cultivation of mind, which attracted all classes and conditions of persons. Slie entered heart and mind into her husband's work and also devoted herself to the ])eople oi his church. Mrs. Xott's health became imi^aired to such an extent, that in 1798 she was taken to Ballston Springs to take the waters, which were even then celebrated for their beneficial qualities. Her strength was restored but she did not return to Cherry Valley, for her husband was called to the ])astorate of the First Presbyterian Church, of Dr. Xotls Hat and Cane Albany. Dr. Nott accepted and was ordained liy the Presbytery, on October 13, 1798. He was installed at the same time, Presi- dent John Blair Smith of Union College, preaching the sermon. While pastor of this church he was elected a trustee of Union College. Dr. Nott was a prime mover in the founding of the Union Colic i^c and Dr. Matt. 261 Albany Academy in 1813, tlie buildiny of which was begun in 1815 and finished in 1817 at an expense of $100,000. In 1804 Airs. Nott's heahh again became impaired and again she was taken to Ballston in the hope of a cure, but without avail, her death occurring on March i i, 1804. Three years later, on August 3, 1807, Dr. Xott married the widow of Benjamin Tiljbetts, of 'JVoy. One of Dr. Xott's greatest public addresses, prol)ably the greatest, was delivered in the old North Dutch Church in Albany . on the death of Alexander Hamilton, as the result of his duel with Aaron Burr. It was in the summer, after the delivery of this sermon, that he was invited to 1)ecome president of Union College. After giving the subject careful consideration and ol)- taining the advice of friends upon whose disinterestedness he could depend, he accepted on September 14, 1804. In 1804 there were forty students in the college; the largest graduating class numbering seventeen. This was in 1803 and there was no increase till 1808 when there were eighteen who were graduated. In that year the growth of the college under the new president began, for in 1809 there were one hundred students in the four classes and twenty-nine were graduated. In 1813 there were more than two hundred students in the college 262 Old Schenectady. and forty-six received diplomas. The system of raising money by means of lotteries for the College, which was greatly in need of money in 1805, was adopted by the College, by act of the Legislature. This system was not regarded in any other than a perfectly natural way of obtaining the desired end. In fact, it was a popular method with churches as well as with educational institutions and municipalities. It was not till lotteries became a source of private profit that the law makers discovered that they were naughty. As an educator, Dr. Nott was broad in his ideas of instruc- tion as well as of discipline. In regard to discipline, he held in contempt the spirit which prompted the majestic judicial sittings of the faculty to investigate an infraction, by an undergraduate, of one of the many college rules or regulations, with their resultant fines, suspensions or expulsions, should the culprit be convicted of following the instincts of joyous youth to such an extent as to violate anything so awful in its importance, as a rule of the faculty. Dr. Nott felt that the faculty of a college would be much l)etter employed if imparting instruction in the class- room than in spending hours, and sometimes days, investigating as to the hour when a student had put out his light ; retired ; arisen ; or possibly the commission of so heinous a crime as the -punching of a "townie's" head. As a temperance reformer he was actually what that word implies — temperate in his methods of getting rid of the evil — for he was opposed to forcing reform in the use of alcoholic beverages beyond the point for which society was prepared, but at the same time, he believed it the duty of temperance people to never miss an opportunity for educating society up to the point of total abstenance. As a man, he was possessed of a powerful jjhysique ; a happy disposition ; a love of nature and the companionship of his fellow men. That he was determined to do that which he believed he should do, in opposition to the most flattering temptations, was shown by his repeated refusals to accept offers, far more lucra- Union Collate and Dr. Nott. 263 tive and more desirable from a social standpoint, from churches in New York, Lioston. Philadelphia and iVlbany. He believed that his work was in Schenectady as ])resident of Union Collei^e ; neither money nor social advantages counted with him. Dr. .\()tt was a companionable man who delighted in excur- sions with the undergraduates and his interest in their sports was as great as it was in their character building and education. Like W'oolsey. Porter and Dana, of ^'ale. and 13r. Holmes, he never grew old except in body, his spirit and love remained youthful and great to the day, when, overcome l)y the weight of years well spent, he was graduated from the Unviersity of the World intcj Eternity with the God he loved and served so faithfully with the Divine degree of: "Well done thou good and faithful servant." His birth into the reward he had earned occurred on January 29, 1866, at the great age of ninety-three. The subject of Dr. Xott would not be comjilete without some- thing being said about Moses X'iney, who, born a slave, lived the life of a Alan and Christian ; the loved servant and companion of Dr. Xott, who in turn was loved by Moses as no otlier man loved him, for it was the great educator, orator, philanthropist and greater Christian, who received the fugitive slave, paid the price of his servitude, gave him his manhood, treated him as he treated all men, with the added afifection which Moses" devotion and fine qualities called forth. Moses \'ine\' was born in Talbot Count\, Aiaryland, on March 10, 1817, one of a famih of twenty-one children. His master, William Murphy, gave him to his little son, Richard, who was a \'ear older than .Moses, lie was treated with great kindness by the Mur])hy famil}-, so it was the possession of the higher qualities and ambition which caused Moses to ■' ' oth these men attem])tcd to esea])e 1)\- swimming the river, I)ut (.root was shot dead in midstream, while his eompanion eseapetl. After Klans X'iele and the Indians arrived in Canada. Klans was whipped and forced to run the gauntlet, lie was then adopted hy the family of the Indian whom his father had killed and lived with them for fonr years. And so the prophesy was fnlfilled. DOWN HILL. According to tradition, the earl}' settlers did not know any- thing ahont ihat portion of harness called the breeching. The manner of holding a wagon hack on a down grade was by cutting a sai)ling with a large suj^ply of branches and tying it to the back of the wagon to act as a drag. Ever) wagon was supplied with an ax and rope for this purpose. A FORGOTTEN FORT. There was a small fort or blockhouse, ])uilt by the people of Schenectady in 1744, about which little is known. There seems to be no record of it in any of the histories, but Dr. Daniel Toll gives a description of it in an unpublished manuscript. He was born about 1776 and therefore, even if the little fort was not in existence in his boyhood, those who knew all about it and who helped build it were living and gave him an account of it, so he could write with aulb<)rity. This fort was built at a place which the Dutch settlers called, "SchouUen Uosche" which means, "hide in the wood." and is now known as Schermerliorn's mill. It was made of massive timbers covered with plank four inches thick, thus making it proof against any rifle or musket bullet of those rses of wh.eh °y were espeeiaUy pro,,,,. w„„.d have so,„e.hi,t, pa,„ted .u»« Ihe'baeks of t'teir sieig.ts w,„oh the „ei,hh„rs i<„ew was a p,et .e of the favorite horse a„d whieh strangers d,scovered was a horse, because the painting wonld be labelled with that fact. » * * THE ORIGINAL SHIP CANAL. That the parettt of the $101,000,000 tooo-ton barge canal between the Hudson river and the Great Lakes was hon, ,., Schenectady, the conception of the bra.n of a Schencetad.an, ,s as unknown as are the inhabitants of Mars. , , - , ^s early as .8.. Dr. Daniel J. Toll, a deseeu.lant of Karel Haensen Toll, one of the early settlers of Scbenecta. Iv ,n , -M. began to write upon the subject of construcng a canal for sa,l,., ,le,s and later steatrtboats, between the '^"-' ^^^ In . Lake Ontar,o, by way of the Mohawk r,vcr. One.da La e the Oswego river. Dr. Toll's idea as set forth by l'™-"/ ' be easily contprehended by glancing at the reproducfon ot the map never before published. /: .;^-^'' "- u- .»*'' Or,gwal Plan for u.ing the Mohawk Riv, Ship Canal. 284 Old Schenectady. To fully understand Dr. Toll's plan, it iimst be known that the Mohawk in 1821 was broken up by rapids, even more than it is now, at intervals of several miles, in some parts, and of shorter stretches in others. In his description, Dr. Toll says : "The average height of the banks of the Mohawk river above low water is 12 feet and the fall at the rapids is from one to three feet, with a natural basin above the rapids of a depth of six to seven feet. At the head of each rapids construct a dam five or six feet high, which will give a slack-water basin of from 10 to 12 feet in depth, and still leave the banks sufficiently above the surface. The basins above the dams are to be connected with the basins below, by means of short canals starting above the dams and ending just below them in locks." Among the many advantages predicted by Dr. Toll were; "the possibility of journey- ing from New York to the village of Utica in 24 hours, whereas now the usual time of passage between Schenectady and Utica, by canal packet, is from 24 to 28 hours ; great encouragement to agricultural, and manufacturing enterprise by reducing the cost and time of transportation from the farms and villages in the Mohawk valley to the great market of New York City." Dr. Toll was convinced that the Mohawk valley "would be turned into one continuous manufacturing village." It is a rather odd fact that, three score and ten years after Dr. Toll drew his map. the Legislature of the State of New York. appropriated $101,000,000 to carry out his ideas on a much grander scale. AN EARLY LYNCHING. It is a rather odd fact that in 1756, in Schenectady, an Indian, known by the the name of "jerry," was lynched. It was he who had betrayed General Ih-addcK^^; to the French and Indians, at the place of the historical "defeat," near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. This "Jerry" was seen in Schenectady by some one who knew him. An alarm was given and the Indian was chased. He was found Reminiscences. 285 in the evening, hidins^- in the cellar of Harman Van Slyck. He was taken several miles up the river, on the south side, and killed. His head was cut off and exposed on a pole, just outside the stockade along" Ferry street. As soon as ca])tiu'ed, the Indian began to sing his death song and continued to do so till he was killed. WHIPPING POST AND STOCKS. Before the Revolution, one form of punishment by the courts, for minor offences, was the whipi)ing post and another was the stocks. If a man borrowed a neighbor's hen for the purpose of studying ornothological anatomy, he was whipped. If a party of young "bloods" gazed too deeply in the wine cu]), and l)roke windows in the houses of the citizens, as a pastime, they were ])ut in the stocks, where, with their ankles and wrists securely fastened between massive blocks of wood, they were jeered at and pelted with mud by the street urchins. The whipping ix)st and stocks of Schenectady were situated by the "watch-house" which stood on the site of the first Dutch Church, near the bronze tablet, at the junction of State and Church streets. The greater number of culprits were the soldiers who occui)ied the liarracks. It was one of the sights indulged in l)y many citizens, the going to the post to see a soldier whipped. CHURCH MONEY. Just after the J\evolution, about 1790, there was a great scarcity of small change. This was not only an inconvenience, but also materially reduced the rt'ceii)ts wlicn tlie collections were taken up in the First Dutch Reformed Church, the peo])le actually feeling, or making it an excuse, that they had no change and could not afford to give a large ])iece of mone\- or a bill. Now the Dutchman was the onlv rixal of the Yankee in the matter of thrift and was almost the equal of the Scot. So the members of 286 Old Schenectady. the consistory filled and lighted their think-producers and puffed away in silence till one of the number suggested that the people deposit with the deacons of the Church their large bills and coin Paper Money Issued by the Dutch Church in 1790. and that the consistory should issue therefore notes of a value of one, two, three and six pence. The first issue was for £ioo and the notes were printed, or at least some of them, by C. R. and G. Webster, of Albany. ■fi -fi * EARLY BEVERAGES. It is rather odd that in all of the many items of expense found in the old Dutch records, for liquor in Schenectady County, both public and private, not once is a charge for the national drink, "Schnapps" or Holland gin, recorded. The item is generally rum, sometimes wine, and once in awhile brandy. HISTORY OF THE DIKE. The dike connecting Schenectady with the village of Scotia is two or three years the junior of the old wooden bridge which preceded the present decrepit, although not old, iron bridge. Up to 181 T, the road from Scotia to the bridge was across the flat. When the Mohawk river was high and the flats flooded, there was no communication between Scotia and the city. Floods were not Reminiscences. ^^7 so frequent nor so sreat in those clays as they are now, nor did the river fall so low as it does now. Both of these conditions ^vcre due to the forests in the immediate vieinity of the river and up north toward the Adirondaeks and south alono^ Schoharie Creek The woods kept the snow from meltino- as fast as it does now and also held sufficient moisture in the summer months to keep thousands of springs and scores of brooks and larger streams alive which have disappeared, in the case of the springs, and are drv for a part of the vear m the case of the brooks and streams. To return to the dike ; the conditions were such and the traveling so -reat that in 1811, bids were advertised and the contract lei to John Sanders, of Scotia, for $.,500. The earth for the dike was scraped up from the flat land along the dike on both sides and this was topped with gravel. On the river bank, at the toot oi the low bluff upon which the Sanders mansion stands, is a few hundred feet of a dike. This was built before the Revolutu.n^to protect the flat land from being washed away by the river. The dike built by Mr. Sanders was to be two feet higher than the "Deborah Glen dike," as it is known in the Glen-Sanders famih. The dike was fenced on both sides, as the law required all property to be fenced in those days, and for many years thereafter, and on either side was a row of Normandy poplars. Ihe dike was reallv most attractive in the days when these i^ne trees flourished. They were finally cut down as the shade prevented the sun from drawing the frost out of the ground, and m wet weather their shade kept the mud from drying. There was no walk on the dike till 1867. Before that year, persons who crossed on foot walked in the middle of the road except when the mud was deep, then thev skinned along on the fence and m time. boards were pulled from the fence in places to walk iq.on. In 1867 the Rev. Mr. Wilson, pastor of the Scotia Dulch Reformed Church, took up the matter of a plank walk and secure.l sufticient monev for its construction. This walk was on the south side of the dike as was the narrow stone walk which was moved across Ui. dike bv the (V-ncral Electric Company when it built the tn)lley 288 Old Schenectady. line. The dike was a part of the Mohawk Turnpike Company's property, as was also the old wooden bridge, till 1835, when the Schenectady and Utica Railroad was forced to buy it in order to obtain a right of way. The deed required the railroad company to keep the turnpike in repair for its entire length and this, it and its successor, the New York Central, did till about 1880, when the road was abandoned. * * * WASHINGTON IN SCHENECTADY. The two stories of George Washington that are best known are the famous hatchet and cherry-tree story and the other equally famous one of the time when he was commander-in-chief of the Continental Armies, when, tradition has it, according to one his- torian of Schenectady, Washington and an acquaintance were walking on one of the streets of Schenectady, and were met by a negro slave who removed his hat and bowed profoundly. Wash- ington returned the salute in kind and was questioned by his com- l^anion as to the advisability of recognizing a slave, whereupon Washington replied, "I cannot permit a poor negro to be more polite than I." * * * A COLONIAL FESTIVAL. Next to New Year's day. Pans and Pinkster were the most popular and generally observed holidays of the old Dutch. Pans was Easter and Pinkster was Whitsunday. Pinkster was particu- larly a gala day, when young and old gave themselves up to jollity and boisterous fun. The joys of the day began in the morning with s])orts, out-of-door games and contests and ended, late at night, with indoor games and dancing. There was "egg butting," a custom that is observed to-dav at tlic Ca|)ital in Washington, only it is called ''&^g rolling-;" and "riding at the ring." The latter sport was probably a nu'al aclaptation of the tournaments of the days of Chivalry. The necessary arrangements were a cord tied across the road, just above the heads of men on horse- Rciniiiisci-iiccs. ~ ^^ ,,„,, Fro„, .h.s oora was suspcdcl by . sl.ov, string, a finger ,,„.; Each ho,-s.™an was providcl whh a short sbarp-po.ntc A about the size of a meat skewer, wh.eh was held between fir, tger and thnntb. The conrpetitors were obhge. to r,de fnU .all.; tnrder the eord and attempt to thrust the.r lances roth the' r,ng and carrv it o« three times. W- o.te o > contestants bad accomplished this, he was chase.l by al the other t . ,tts. H he sttcceeded in reachtng the goal, ^'^<'^^^2 cartMtt he was the winner. The prize was the paynte t In lu ef contestants of the hi,, for hnnseH and Iris ..st grr, a t,,e dance and s«p|>er to ,,e given in the evenmg. Tf, however he !" a "i 1 e was obhged to foot the bill for his captor atrd h,s ;" . Xr- For a weeK before Pinkster, the inhabitants. ,ack a,,, white began to tnake ready for the festival by erect.ng booths o r ; on \lbanv m from tire most thickly leaved trees and :t -X : ."-' s fre„„ent,y referred to in o,d mannscnpts TZIT^^ :::" im":itorseles, wresthng ...ches :::occaLa,-scra,>s.- ->' ^ ^ -™i:- ^T t!! the fiddle and ,ew s harp, I nrkster was a Itr'^'tiiin^'theywerc granted sua, lihertv ,. ^ovIeLelves according to their own ideas, C.. way .. d^^^^^^ ;;f::^t::t:i;'x:;::eJ:;:::::^. :-/'■'";;:;::" ::ddbea;withpalmandfi,.ersandaf,t,..m., wordless, droning song wh.Ci, as the „,„sc«,ar con- „ecome wild and wierd and was -co.r.,«,n d u - tonions, wagging and twisting of t,,e hca.l and ,olhn. 290 Old Schenectady. eyes. One after another of the slaves would join in the dance, as the spirit moved him or her, to do so, till the musician was surrounded hy a ring of hlack and yellow twisting, wriggling histerical slaves who, for the time, were thousands of miles away in the heart of superstitious Africa. One hy one they would fall to the ground exhausted when their places would be taken by others, who were just beginning to feel the moving of the spirit. It was not unusual for this wild dance to continue through two days. * * * BURNT AT THE STAKE. So far as can be ascertained, only one person was ever executed in Schenectady by being burnt at the stake. This was in 1740, when a slave belonging to Simon Toll, was burnt for the crime of arson. The execution took place on the Albany turn- pike — now State street — at the foot of the hill. THE NOVELTY WORKS. 'JMie remains of the "Old Fort" is as popular a place for a Sunday afternoon walk for the boys and girls of to-day as was "Old Fort" itself for their parents. It was situated about a mik north from the center of the village of Scotia, between the \'h' road and the Central-Hudson railroad. It was originally the home of Clausia Veeder, his wife and son Abe. Clausia was a veteran of the Revolution and a man of good family, he l^eing one of the Veeders of Schenectady County. After the death of liis wife, the house was ])ermitte(l to go to rack and ruin and tlie habits of himself and his son followed the lead of the house. Clausia, the old soldier, was the piece de resislance of the Fourth of July parades for many years. While tlu' ])rominent part he took in the celebration of the Nation's birth-day was a source of l)ride to the old man, it was, at the same lime a ])eriod of distress, for he was alwavs ill after it. The dav before the Fourth the Com- Reminiscences. 291 mittee in charge of the celcliration sent some one to the Fort to give Clausia a scrnhhing for the occasion. As this scrubbing ( iccurred but once a year it was always too much for the old man and he was ill for several days thereafter. After the accumula- tions of twelve months had been removed and the old fellow's face freed from its stubby beard, he would dress himself in his Continental nnifrom and, with his musket wliich had killed "Britishers." would head the procession in a carriage especially provided for him. He died at the great age of 101. During his last sickness a hen belonging to the estate chose one corner of the foot of the old man's bed for a nest in which to raise her brood of chicks. Biddy was undisturbed and a few days after the old man's death she strutted proudly forth with a family of yellow, downy chicks. Abe, the son, was well educated and taught school for a number of years. He was something of a dandy and particu- lar about his manners. His coat and waistcoat buttons were made of silver quarter dollars and dimes polished till they shown. Several years before the death of his father he became eccentric and toward the last of his days he became decidedly "niffy" in person and habits. He prided himself upon his eccentricity and delighted in doing things as no one else ever did them. The idea of the Fort originated with Abe after the death of his father. He banked up the lower story of the house, cut holes in the upper iloor walls to represent loop-holes, filled the house with Revolu- tionary arms and relics and curiosities and called it "The Fort." After the death of the old man he closed the lower floor of the house where he died, as he was afraid of his father's spook. Finally his fear became so great that he would not sleep in the house at all but constructed a hovel partly under ground where he lived. This contained more curiosities and was called by him "The Great American Novelty Works." This hovel was a rendezvous for local bums and tramps trt)m afar whom he induced to stop there to protect him frc^m "Thy father's ghost." These unwashed socialists slept on the ground floor and Abe slept in the attic which he entered by means of a trap-door. This door was 2()2 Old Schenectady. carefully closed down and then Abe made his bed upon it so that the spook guards below could not enter without awakening him. Just before and in the early days of the Civil War a Sunday visit to The Old Fort and The Great American Novelty Works was in vogue. The Central-Hudson ran a special train from the city to the place and later in the day carried them back. Among the sights of the place was the bed upon which his father died and the hen's nest filled with the broken egg shells. On the wall over the bed was daubed the legend ; "The death bed of a hero." Each of the apple trees in Abe's orchard was provided with a long pole so that persons who wished to steal his apples could do so "with- out injuring the fruit or themselves with the stones thrown to dislodge it." In the potato patch were several potato diggers so that those persons who wished to steal his potatoes could "dig a hill clean instead of pulling up the vines and wasting half the potatoes in the hills." C)ne of his fads was worn-out tin ware, specimens of which he annexed, begged or purchased in large (|uantities. As late as 1900 there was a pile of old tin ware five feet high and ten or twelve feet in diameter. Some of this he placed on top of a huge fire which melted the solder. This he gathered and sold and the tin was used to cover the leaking roof. Abe went to the Centennial Expoisition in Philadelphia and remained for a week on a capital of $5. He saw more and could converse more interestingly and intelligently than could half the persons who spent twenty times that sum for a week's visit. Before he went he acquired all possible information in regard to rules and regulations. The Centennial Exposition grounds were not open at night. At a certain horn- signals were sounded when everyone was obliged to leave the grounds. Instead of going with the crowd, Abe secreted himself in a remote part of the grounds and was eventually foimd by one of the policemen and locked up for the night. This was just what he expected and wished for, as it would eliminate the necessity of paying for a lodging. Being a man of good education and giving a straight account of himself, the authorities sized him up as an eccentric Rciuinisccnccs. 29.^ character and so treated him with kiiKhiess and respect. In the morning- he was ^\\Qn an excellent hreakfast and turned loose in the grounds. Thus, for the ])rice of one admission to the grounds he had ohtained two day's admission, a night's lodging and his hreakfast. Abe worked this scheme successfully for two or three times, when the authorities "became wise" and turned him out at night instead of locking him up. Abe was a very cautious man. especially so with respect to the railroad cars, and yet, strangely enough, he was killed by the cars while walking" on the tracks between the city and the Fort, in a dense fog, in 1891. Abe N'eeder was a misfit citizen. He never found the particular niche that was especially hewed out for him in this life. Had he found it he would probably, with his birth and education, have been a l)r()minent and useful citizen instead of a mere eccentric. * -'f :;= ONCE A PRISON. \'an Slyck Island, just above the bridge l)etween Schenectady and Scotia, was once the place of imprisonment for a number of French soldiers who had surrendered to General Prideaux at Fort Xiagara. * * * FREDERICK VISSCHER. Colonel Frederick X'isscher was not an early settler of Schenectady, but he and his family lived in Schenectady while llie Revolution was in progress and after peace hatl been declared. so ( he being a remarkable man in private life and as an officer of the Continental army, possessed of si)lendid courage) Schenectady may claim him as an adopted son. 1 lis life as a soldier was filled with stirring incident and tragedy, lie had many terrible ex- periences and showed such determination and bravery, that some of them are recorded here. The incidents are based upon history, giving a general account of them an.d upon the more detailed verbal account by one of his sisters, man\ \ears ago to a descendant of tlie (dens and \'an Rensselaers. 294 Old Schoiectady. iVt the beginning- of the Revohition Captain Frederick Visscher was in command of a company of mihtia npon which he was expending- his best attention, so that they shonld be well drilled and ready for any emergency. (Jne day. at Caughnawaga, as Captain Visscher was drilling his men, Sir John Johnson was seen driving in his carriage rapidly upon the parade ground, toward the Captain and his men. Sir'John was the degenerate son of fine old Sir William Johnson, who, had he lived, would doubtless have stood by the Colonies, but Sir John and "that infamous JJutler" were Tories, who delighted in torturing and butchering their acquaintances and neighbors. Sir John demanded; "By whose orders are these men assembled here ?" "By mine,"" replied Captain Visscher. Sir John then ordered them to disperse in the name of the King, but Visscher absolutely refused to permit them to do so. Sir John was enraged and, drawing his pistol, pointed it at Captain Visscher's head and shouted: "If you don"t disperse those damned rebels I will blow your brains out." The last word was no more than uttered, than Sir John heard the lock of a rifle click and saw one of the soldiers take deliberate aim at him and then the other members of the company did the same. While Sir John was a bully with the instincts of a blackguard, he was not a coward, but these rifles were too much for him. He put up his pistol and drove away with curses upon the rebels and their cause. When he had been promoted to the command of a regiment. Colonel Visscher was ordered to the relief of Fort Stanwix, later Fort Schuyler and now the city of Rome. After the fight, hearing that the enemy was approaching his home, he sent his wife and children to Schenectady and was making arrangements for moving his mother and two sisters, when the mansion at Caugh- nawaga, was attacked l)y six Indians. The home was so well and hotly defended by Colonel Visscher and his two brothers, that the Indians withdrew. At the break of day they returned in Rciitiiiiscciiccs. 295 r^Teater nunil)ers, Ijrokc down the l)arrica'lc(l door and drove the family, fighting-, to tlie attie where the three brothers fought the Indians hand-to-hand. While this terrific fight was going on, ]\Irs. \'isscher and her two daughters tried to escape down the stairs. ( )ne of the Indians knocked Mrs. \'isscher senseless with the butt of his musket, but the young ladies were allowed to reach the yard unmolested. There, one of them was strijiped of her bonnet and shawl and ordered to "go." She needed no second bidding, but ran to one of the great out-of-doors brick ovens, which were much in use in those days, and hid in it. The other sister hid in some bushes. Soon they saw the Indians leave the house and then one of them returned and re-entered it, and, a moment later joined the others wdio all w^ent away. A few minutes later the sisters saw that the mansion was on fire. To return to the fight in the attic : One of the brothers was killed and the other jumped out of a window and was killed by the fall and later scaljx'd. The colonel was knocked out by two blows from a tomahawk and his scalp was torn from his head. Colonel Msscher was a man of great vitality. He soon regained consciousness and hearing the Indians leaving the house, he raised himself on his elbow, to see what had been the fate of his famil\ . He heard one of the Indians retm-ning up the stairs, so he laid down to feign death, but the agony of his terrible wounds caused a twitching of the muscles. The Indian seeing that he was still alive, drew his knife across Colonel Visscher's throat twice and then joined his companions. This was the Indian whom the xoimg ladies saw re-enter the house. It happened that Cf)lonel X^isscher wore a red and a black neck-cloth, the black one being the outer. Whcu tlie Indian slashed liis tlioat lie tliouglit he saw blood flowing from the wound, so he departed, btit it was this red neck-cloth, the actual wounds from the knife being painfid, but not serious. I)}- the time the Indians had disappeared, the culunel saw that the house was on fire. The operation of scali)ing was a horrible one. A cut was made on a level with the to]) of the ears comi)letely 296 Old Schenectady. around the head, an edge of the scalp was raised and taken between the teeth and torn away from the head. The shock to the nervous system was so great that scalping usually caused death, even when there was no other injury. Notwithstanding his condition Colonel Visscher immediately began to remove the body of his brother from the burning house and to save his insensible mother. He succeeded in getting her into a chair, in dragging it and her to the door of the house, when his agony caused him to faint. By this time help had arrived and they were both saved from the flames, but not till the chair in which Mrs. Visscher laid was on fire. The Colonel, his mother, two sisters and the bodies of his brothers, were taken down the river bv a faithful slave, in a canoe to Schenectady. Incredible as it may seem, the colonel recoverd and lived till 1809. Several years after this frightful event, two Indians on their way to Albany, stopped in Schenectady, one of them being the Indian who had tomahawked and scalped the colonel and, supposedly, cut his throat. This devil had the nerve to try to see Colonel Visscher, as he would not believe that he was still living. When the colonel heard of it, he was with difficulty restrained from killing the Indian, who immediately left for Albany with his com- panion and never returned to Schenectady during Colonel X'isscher's life. The negro slave who took the Visschers in the canoe to Schenectady, was given his freedom and was presented with a handsome horse by his grateful master, Colonel Visscher. NEW YEAR'S GREETING. The old Dutch greeting on New Year's day, translated into English, was "I wish you a happy New Year. Long may you live, much may you give, happy may you die and inherit the King- dom of Heaven by and by." BK197 -78 r^ ^►^'V, %,/ .iv; , ..^\. X , ... . ■<^:.-::--X~-'[r "-^^0^ \'ca^-^Y 4'^^ o V •^>1 \-' >^, "^ .-to