207 
 
 V/7V/2 
 
 un 
 cr- 
 
 C\J 
 
 oo 
 

 
 COL. MARINUS WILLETT 
 
 THE HERO OF MOHAWK VALLEY. 
 
 AN ADDRESS BEFORE THE 
 
 / Oneida Historical Society. 
 
 >- * 
 
 BY DAHIEL E. WAGER. 
 
 UTICA, N. Y. 
 
 PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY, 
 
 BY THE UTICA HERALD PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
 1891. 
 
W7VV a 
 
 COL. MARINUS WILLETT. 
 
 ^ Among the objects and purposes for which the Oneida Historical 
 Society is organized, are the collection and preservation of 
 materials relative to that part of New York formerly known as 
 Tryon county. Within the scope of this organization is the 
 .gathering of scant and scattered materials, and weavino- them into 
 a narrative relative to the lives of those who have bee^prominent 
 and foremost in the important and critical period of the existence 
 
 >f the county, and by their valor, patriotism and masterly activity 
 made the valley of the Mohawk historic ground, and 0-iven to it a 
 national importance in the history of the country. Of all the 
 persons who have contributed to this grand result, I think I am 
 safe in saying no one stands out more conspicuously than Col 
 Marim, S Willett. It may be considered a fortunate conclusion 
 that the gathering of materials for a sketch of his life should be 
 no longer postponed, for it is evident that each year s delay lessens 
 the chances and increases the difficulties of obtaining information 
 not already recorded in the well known histories o f the times 
 especially facts which can now be found only in unpublished manu 
 scripts, or in the memory of living witnesses. 
 
 In my correspondence and inquiries for facts I luckily ascertained 
 
 ^ n T u My kn Wn t0 blU a c m P"tively few, that two sons 
 
 Col. Willett are yet alive, the one eighty-six a ,,d the other 
 
 near y eighty-eight years of age, with bright minds and unclouded 
 
 ntellects, who were able to impart much valuable information 
 
 concermng their father, which but for their retentive memories and 
 
 mely aid might have soon passed into hopeless oblivion 
 
 Aside from the "narrative" of Col. Willett, written or dictated 
 
 "Minly, , not entirely by himself after he had Attained hi, 
 
 seventieth birthday, and published in ]831, the next year after his 
 
 leath, by the elder of the two sons aforementioned, there is no 
 
 authentic sketch of his life extant. That " narrative " makes no 
 
 tion of his civil career, which was quite a prominent one in 
 
 New York, after the close of the revolutionary war, but has 
 
 erence mainly to some of the more important military events 
 
 i which he was connected; and even as to those, with the 
 
 ?N 
 
 <*- 
 
2 COL. MA BINDS WILLETT. 
 
 becoming modesty of a true soldier, but a brief narration is- 
 given. 
 
 But a few copies of that " narrative " are in existence, and those 
 very difficult to be obtained. The details are too scant and meager 
 to satisfy the longings of those who wish to know more of Col. 
 Willett s life and character specially those of Tryon county, 
 wherein he achieved his greatest victories, and won his grandest 
 triumphs. So, too, the histories of the stirring times in which 
 Col. Willett lived have not the space to do more than to mention 
 incidentally, or briefly narrate the more prominent events of the 
 stormy period of his life. Hence, it has been no easy matter, 
 though to me a very pleasurable occupation, to glean from the 
 various and widely separated fields of his active labors materials 
 for a paper that will be full and accurate, and do justice to his 
 merits and memory, and worthy of preservation in the archives of 
 this society. 
 
 Thomas Willett, the first one of that family name who crossed 
 the Atlantic to make his home in this western world, was born in 
 England, where his father and grandfather had been ministers of 
 the gospel. He came in the good ship Lion in 1632, when he was 
 but twenty -two years of age, and settled in the Plymouth colony, 
 not far from the State line of Rhode Island. The records in that 
 colony frequently mention his name, and furnish evidence that he 
 became a porson of wealth and prominence. In his young man 
 hood he was a surveyor of highways, captain of a military com 
 pany, and held other similar positions. He engaged in mercantile 
 pursuits ; was interested in sea-going vessels ; owned large tracts 
 of land, one of which was formed into a township by the name of 
 "Swansea," In 1650, while a merchant of Plymouth, he was 
 appointed by Peter Stuyvesant, then the Dutch colonial executive 
 of New York, one of the boundary commissioners, to settle the 
 disputed line between the English and Dutch. That line was 
 adjusted, and has passed into history as the " Hartford boundary 
 treaty of 1650." After the English came into power in New 
 York, Capt. Willett was appointed one of the councilors of that 
 colony, and held that office from 1665 to 1673. In 1667 he was 
 appointed by the English governor, Richard Nichols, the first 
 English mayor of New York, from which it would appear he had, 
 in the meantime, become a resident of the metropolis. When the 
 Dutch, in 1673, regained ascendency in New York, the property 
 of Thomas Willett was confiscated; he died the next year, at the age 
 
ADDTCESS OF D. E. WAGER. 
 
 sixty-four years, and bis remains were buried at East Providence in 
 Rhode Island. At page 59 of Lossing s history of the Empire 
 State, a fac simile of Thomas Willett s signature can be found. 
 He was the great grandfather of Col. Marinus Willett, whose 
 name and fame are so closely and dearly associated with the 
 history of Tryon^ounty, during the stormy period of the revolu 
 tionary struggle. 
 
 Edward Willett (the father of Col. Willett,) was a Quaker and 
 a farmer of moderate means, near Jamaica, on Long Island; at 
 that homestead Marinus was born on July 31, 1740, (old style.) 
 He was the second son and child in a family of thirteen children 
 the same number that was born unto his great grandfather afore 
 mentioned. That father died in J794, at the age of ninety-four 
 years, and, although he belonged to a denomination that was on 
 principle, opposed to war, yet he was destined to see two of his 
 sons, before they were eighteen, enter the military service of their 
 country, and the one to become a prominent leader; the other to 
 be a lieutenant on an English privateer, and the vessel on which 
 he was engaged swept away in a hurricane in the French war of 
 1758, and all on board lost at sea. Marinus, until he was nearly 
 eighteen years of age, pursued the quiet and peaceful pursuits of 
 a farm life at his father s homestead. About that period of his 
 life, he was moved by a spirit of self-reliance to leave the paternal 
 roof and provide for himself. With a resolute will and a 
 letermmed spirit, and with only twenty shillings in his pocket, he 
 crossed over to New York to seek in that great city employment, 
 and, it possible, make his fortune. It was about the time of the 
 French war of 1758, when the colonists were greatly excited by 
 reason of raising of troops, and the activity of the contending 
 forces. In the early spring of that year, three English expedition^ 
 were being fitted out, with a view to attack the French at different 
 points, and drive them out of this country. One of those expedi 
 tions, and in which New York took the greatest interest, was 
 under the command of General Abercrombie, and to be led by 
 him from Albany to lakes George and Champlain to attack Fort 
 Iiconderoga, then garrisoned by 4,000 troops under Montcalm a 
 a field marshal of France. Here were to be raised in the vicinity 
 New York three battalions of 900 men each, to be under the 
 command of Col. Oliver DeLancey, a brother of the acting 
 governor of New York. 
 
 It required no great effort to raise the requisite number of 
 
4 COL. MARINUS WILLETT. 
 
 troops, for the whole country was in commotion, and the people 
 running over with enthusiasm. Young Willett caught the prevail 
 ing spirit of the times and, following his own ambition and the 
 example of others, he enlisted in the army and raised a company 
 of soldiers on Long Island among his neighbors and acquaintances. 
 Through the influence of friends, he was appointed second lieu 
 tenant of his company, and, although not then eighteen years old, 
 he was as full of patriotism and spirit as those of maturer years. 
 In his "narrative" is the following description of the uniform he 
 wore on receiving his commission as lieutenant, viz. : " Green coat 
 trimmed with silver twist; whitg under clothes and black gaiters, 
 a cocked hat with large black cockade of silk ribbon, with silver 
 button and loop." The three battalions were raised, and the first 
 week in May the troops left New York in sloops, ascended the 
 Hudson to Albany, thence marched overland to Schenectady, and 
 for two weeks were employed in patroling the Mohawk to watch 
 the settlements and prevent an attack from the French, if one 
 fihould be made in that quarter. Orders then came to march to 
 Lake George, where they arrived the fore part of June, and found 
 that active preparations were there going forward to cross the 
 lake. The last of the month Gen. Abercrombie arrived, but the 
 soul of the expedition and the idol of the army was young Lord 
 Howe, then thirty-four years of age; young Willett has left on 
 record his high appreciation of the ability and soldierly qualities 
 of that gallant officer. Soon after daybreak on Sunday, July 5th, 
 the whole army, 16,000 strong, embarked in 1,000 boats, to cross 
 Lake George, from its southern extremity, to its northerly shore. 
 The day was bright and clear, the soldiers were clad in their scarlet 
 coats, and as this armament floated upon the glassy surface of this 
 inland sea, accompanied by martial music, while ensigns and 
 banners floated in the breeze and glittered in the sunbeams, it 
 looked more like a holiday occasion than an army going to battle. 
 At dawn the next morning, the troops landed at the north end 
 of the lake, some four or five miles from Fort Ticonderoga, 
 and while reaching the shore, had a slight skirmish with the occu 
 pants of a French outpost at that point, in which a couple of 
 Frenchmen were killed. A few of the Stockbridge tribe of Indians 
 accompanied this expedition, and as soon as they saw the two dead 
 soldiers they rushed forward and secured their scalps. This was 
 young Willett s first experience in witnessing the scalping process, 
 but those scenes became familiar to him later in life. Ttie country 
 
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER. U 
 
 between Lake George and Fort Ticonderoga was covered by a 
 dense forest and tangled morasses; the troops formed in good 
 order, and commenced marching by columns through the woods. 
 Lord Howe led the advance guard, near whom was the regiment 
 in which young Willett marched, moving forward to exposed 
 points of danger and expecting every moment to fall into an am 
 bush or to be met by a strong French force. The eve of battle is 
 always one of breathless anxiety, especially to those who have 
 never been in an engagement or witnessed one. This was Willett s 
 first experience, and he has left an account of his feelings on this 
 occasion ; he states that he did rjot at this time, nor ever subse 
 quently in his life, experience the slightest degree of fear, but on 
 the contrary he was quite elated, and his spirits highly exhilarated 
 as the crisis approached. The troops had not proceeded two miles 
 before an ambush was discovered near where young Willett was 
 marching. A sharp engagement ensued and Lord Howe was soon 
 to the front rallying and cheering his men, when he was struck by 
 a bullet and instantly killed. The French were dispersed, but the 
 sudden death of Howe threw his troops into confusion and disorder^ 
 There then seemed to be no leader or any one to issue orders. 
 The troops wandered about following incompetent guides, crossing 
 each other s track, and firing at their own friends, mistaking them, 
 for the foe. While thus moving Willett and his companions 
 accidentally fell in with Gen. Abercrombie, who stood under a 
 huge tree, with a large cloak wrapped about him, while two regi 
 ments of regular troops were drawn up around his person to guard 
 and protect him from harm. He issued no orders and the troops 
 continued to wander the rest of the day, lost and bewildered in the 
 woods. As night overtook them, they halted and rested until 
 morning; on awaking it was found that most of the men had 
 encamped near the spot where they had landed from the boats the 
 morning before. 
 
 It was afternoon before the army was again in motion for Fort 
 Ticonderoga, and when three miles from the fort, they halted and 
 passed another night in the woods. The next day, which was the 
 8th of July, the army again started on its march for the fort, and 
 about noon was re-enforced by six hundred Indians under the 
 command of Sir William Johnson. But the want of a leader and 
 competent guides had not been supplied. The same confusion, 
 disorder and bewilderment prevailed, and before the troops were 
 aware of it, or knew the danger they were in, they became en- 
 
6 COL. MA KIN US WILLETT. 
 
 tangled in a network of fallen trees, and found they were directly 
 under the enemy s breastworks, and exposed to a murderous fire. 
 For four or five hours the battle raged, to the great disadvantage 
 of the British troops, and it was not until sunset the firing ceased, 
 and the latter retired to spend another night in the forest, expect 
 ing to renew the attack the next day, before daylight. 
 
 The next morning Lieut. Willett was awakened from a sound 
 sleep and told that the army was rapidly making its way to their 
 boats, with a view to recross the lake. About eight that morning 
 the troops re-embarked, and, although there was no enemy near, 
 great confusion and disorder prevailed, and this expedition, which, 
 three days before, came with such pomp and splendor, returned in 
 disgrace, leaving behind it, killed and wounded, some two thousand 
 of its numbers. No doubt Gen. Abererombie felt much safer 
 when he had put thirty-eight miles of Lake George between him 
 self and Montcalm. 
 
 In that expedition were two other persons prominent in the 
 history of New York, and who have been more or less connected 
 with affairs in Tryon county. The one was Gen. Philip Schuyler, 
 whose name was given to Fort Stanwix during a portion of the 
 revolutionary war; the other, Gen. John Bradstreet, a prominent 
 officer in the colonial service, and who was, for years, part owner 
 of Cosby s manor, which includes the site of Utica, and whose 
 widow, by another marriage, was grandmother to that Martha 
 Bradstreet who made her name famous, not only by reason of her 
 legal and other abilities, but by the long, tedious and expensive 
 litigation which, over half a century ago, she inflicted upon Uticans 
 and others, regarding their land titles. Gen. Bradstreet was but 
 a major in that expedition, yet he burned with indignation because 
 of ite shameful failure. At a council of war held at the head of 
 the lake the very evening the troops returned from Ticonderoga, 
 he urged the adoption of measures that would tend to wipe out or 
 relieve the disgraceful blunder. He suggested an expedition 
 against Fort Frontenac (now Kingston,) and offered to lead it. 
 Some looked upon such an undertaking as wild and chimerical, 
 and its successful execution improbable, for it was considered a 
 strong fortress for those times, well supplied with men, cannon 
 and ammunition; but Bradstreet urged his offer with so much 
 earnestness that Gen. Abererombie at last reluctantly consented to 
 commission him to go and take with him three thousand troops. 
 Among the number was young Willett and the regiment to which 
 
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER. 
 
 lie belonged. The destination was kept secret from all but the 
 leading officers. They started the next day and were moved with 
 greatest rapidity to Albany, thence to the Mohawk, and they 
 "fairly flew," as it is said, up the river in boats, to the " Oneida 
 carrying place," now the site of Rome. And here let me add, by 
 way of parenthesis, that besides Schuyler and Willett, who accom 
 panied Gen. Bradstreet to Fort Frontenac, were many others who 
 subsequently became noted in the history of this country. Among 
 them Nathaniel Wood hull, then a major, subsequently a general in 
 the revolutionary army, and the first president of the provincial 
 congress. Horatio Gates, then a captain and in the revolutionary 
 war a brigadier general, and who captured Burgoyne and his 
 army; Col. Charles Clinton, then stationed at Fort Herkimer, and 
 near seventy years of age ; also his two sons, James Clinton, then 
 a captain and twenty-two years old, afterward a general, and his 
 brother George, then nineteen years old, and afterwards for 
 twenty-five years governor of New York; the great war governor 
 of the infant State. Although Gen. Bradstreet moved his men up 
 the valley with great celerity, yet it took two weeks time for the 
 men to pole the boats up the river to the "carrying place." On 
 reaching this portage, Gen. John Stanwix was found with six 
 thousand troops, having been previously ordered there to erect a 
 formidable fort in the place of Forts Williams, Craven and Bull, 
 destroyed two years before. The first two named forts had stood 
 upon the banks of the Mohawk, below the bend of that river, a 
 little further down stream than the present railroad bridge. Fort 
 Bull was upon the lower landing of Wood Creek, some two or 
 three miles to the westward of Forts Craven and Williams. 
 Across this portage Bradstreet transported his men, boats and 
 munitions of war and stores. A dam was constructed across Wood 
 Creek, at the upper landing near the late United States arsenal, to 
 raise the water of that stream, to aid in floating the loaded boats 
 to Oneida Lake. T\vo weeks time was occupied in making these 
 preparations, and in removing the fallen trees and other obstruc 
 tions from the creek. These movements indicated to the troops 
 the direction of the expedition. The troops started August 14 and 
 in six days Oswego was reached; after resting there for a few 
 hours to repair the boats, inspect the arms and accoutrements, the 
 troops were again on their way passing over the lake, but keeping 
 near shore. On the third day after leaving Oswego, the troops 
 landed on the evening of the 25th, about two miles from the fort, 
 
r COL. MAE1NUS WILLETT, 
 
 and the next day commenced active preparations to take it byr 
 storm. The fort was a square one, fifteen feet high, built of ston& 
 and nearly three-fourths of a mile in circumference, and well pro 
 tected by cannon; the garrison had no intimation of the approach 
 of an enemy, until the British troops appeared before the fortress* 
 Breastworks were erected to protect the assailants, and Willett 
 was much of the time in exposed points of danger, and one entire 
 night he and his men were under a constant tire of grape shot and 
 musketry. The siege was continued for three days, and on the 
 29th of August the garrison surrendered ; the capture included 
 sixty cannon, sixteen mortars, a vast amount of small arms, a large 
 quantity of powder and balls of all sorts, nine vessels and about 
 one hundred men. The magazine was blown up, the buildings 
 destroyed, and the whole fortress reduced to a heap of rubbish. 
 The captured vessels were used to transport the stores to Oswego, 
 and there burned to the water s edge. The capture of this fort 
 was considered at the time, as one of the greatest blows inflicted 
 upon the French in America, considering the consequences, as that 
 fort was the storehouse from which other forts to the south were 
 supplied. It reflected great credit upon Bradstreet and his men,, 
 although it involved incessant toil, great fatigue and hardship, and 
 a great sacrifice of human life. When Oswego Falls (now Fulton) 
 was reached by the troops 4 on their return from Oswego, it took 
 the men three days to drag the boats and stores over that portage 
 of a mile, and so excessive was the labor, and so great the fatigue 
 and exposure of the men in the whole expedition that near one 
 hundred deaths occurred at that point, and when Fort Bull was 
 reached half of the men were unfit for duty. It required four 
 days to transport the boats and stores from Wood Creek across 
 the portage at Rome, to the Mohawk, and by that time the men 
 were completely exhausted^ Smith s Colonial History of New 
 York says that five hundred men died and were buried at this 
 "carrying place." The cause of these deaths and sickness, is 
 attributed to the stagnant water of Wood Creek, the exposure and 
 fatigue of the men, and the haste in cooking the food. 
 
 The expedition on its return, reached Fort Stanvvix September 
 10, and that very night young Willett was taken ill and confined 
 to his tent until November by a dangerous illness. As before 
 stated, that was the season Fort Stanwix was constructed. The 
 work was commenced August 23 and completed November 15^ 
 1758. It was a square work, bounded by what are now Dominick,. 
 
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER. 
 
 a 
 
 Spring and Liberty streets, and was about 20 rods westerly from 
 the Mohawk. It was surrounded by a deep, wide ditch, with long 
 pickets in the center, sharpened at the top, and a row of horizontal 
 ones projected from the embankment. It was among the most 
 formidable structures of the times and cost the British govern 
 ment over 8266,000. 
 
 After Lieutenant Willett partially recovered his health and 
 strength he was put in a boat and taken down the river to Schen- 
 ectady; thence overland to Albany where he remained until 
 December 1. The ice in the meantime having left the Hudson, ho 
 went down that river in a boat and reached New York the 7th of 
 December, just seven months to a day from the time he had It ft 
 that city in such good health and high spirits to join Abercrom- 
 bie s expedition. His feeble health and the wishes of his friends 
 prevented his taking any further part in the war. In fact, that 
 war was near its close, for the success of the British arms the 
 next year, the taking of Quebec in September, witnessed the 
 culminating genius and crowning glory of Wolfe, and the valor 
 and heroic death of Montcalm, and practically put an end to 
 French domination on this continent. 
 
 I have not learned the occupation of Col. Willett between the 
 close of the French war and the commencement of the revolution. 
 The eldest son writes me, that he never heard it mentioned, but 
 that when he w^as a lad, a piece of household furniture was 
 pointed out in the dwelling as the workmanship of his father, 
 which leads to the inference that Col. Willett might have been a 
 cabinetmaker in his early manhood ; but nothing further has been 
 ascertained. Certain it is, however, that in whatever vocations he 
 engaged, he was always abreast of the times and kept himself 
 well informed as to politics and the current events of the day, and 
 was ever found arrayed on the side of freedom and the rights of 
 man. 
 
 In 1765 occurred the popular and universal outbreak in the 
 colonies, caused by the threatened enforcement of the odious stamp 
 act; but for the timely repeal of that law, the revolutionary 
 conflict in the colonies, might have been precipitated ten years 
 sooner than it was. In October, 1765, while a colonial congress of 
 delegates was in session in New York city, a vessel arrived in 
 port, bringing the obnoxious stamps. The law was to go into 
 effect November 1. The stamps were unloaded from the vessel 
 and hurriedly conveyed to and lodged in the fort in that city, then. 
 
10 COL. MAKITsUS WILLETT. 
 
 garrisoned by British troops. A body of men called "The Sons 
 of Liberty "were organized and among the prominent leaders, 
 was young Marinus Willett, then twenty-five years old. When it 
 was known the stamps had arrived and lodged in the fort, the 
 whole city was in commotion ; a large and tumultuous assemblage 
 convened in the present city hall park, a gallows was erected and 
 on it was hung an effigy of Gov. Colden. Another effigy of the 
 governor was borne by an excited and exasperated crowd through 
 the streets to the gate of the fort where soldiers were drawn up on 
 the ramparts, but dare not fire. The stamps were demanded of 
 the governor who refused to give them up, whereupon his carriage 
 was seized, his effigy set upon it, the crowd marched to the battery, 
 spiked the cannon and there burned carriage and effigy to ashes. 
 The house of Major James, the commander of the royal artillery 
 was attacked and gutted and the contents destroyed by fire and 
 the colors of the regiment carried off by the populace. The feel 
 ing was so intense and the excitement so great, the collector 
 appointed to sell the stamps was afraid to act and resigned and 
 no one dare use them. The people were appeased by assurances 
 that the stamps should not be used, and in four months that law 
 was repealed, never having been executed in any of the colonies. 
 It was in times like these that young Willett took his first lessons 
 in patriotism and learned to vindicate the rights of the people and 
 prepared himself as an important factor in the revolutionary strug 
 gle which achieved American independence. 
 
 On Sunday, April 23, 1775, rumors spread through the city of 
 New York that there had been a conflict between the people and 
 the troops the Wednesday before at Lexington and Concord. The 
 gale that carried that news over the land was but the slightest 
 breeze of the approaching spirit of the storm. The feeling which 
 incited brave old Gen. Putnam to unhitch his team, in the field 
 where he was at work, leave the plow in the furrow, mount his 
 liorse and tear along the highway for one hundred miles to be 
 leaguered Boston was the same which then spread itself into every 
 hamlet throughout this broad land. The people of Xew York 
 city, as if moved by one impulse, proceeded to the arsenal, forced 
 open the door, took possession of six hundred muskets with 
 bayonets and cartridge boxes and balls, and distributed these arms 
 among the most active of the citizens; they formed themselves 
 into a committee of safety and assumed the control of the city 
 government. They took possession of the custom house and of all 
 
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER. 
 
 the public stores, cut loose two transports at the wharf, emptied 
 the Vessels laden with provisions for Boston of their contents, 
 seized the powder house, attempted to take possession of the maga 
 zine, published a declaration that no vessel should leave the fort 
 for Boston; formed themselves into military companies and paraded 
 the streets, but apparently with no definite object in view. 
 
 In the midst of this general commotion orders came from the 
 British commander for the troops to proceed to Boston. The 
 execution of this order could easily have been prevented, but for 
 the timidity of some who were afraid to provoke a collision. The 
 citizens held a meeting and agreed to allow the soldiers to depart 
 with their own arms and accoutrements, but nothing else. One 
 fine morning news spread like wildfire that the troops were em 
 barking and were carrying off cartloads of chests of arms. Young 
 Willeti, who was one of the most active of the patriots, started 
 out in one direction to notify his friends what was going on; 
 while crossing Broad street he noticed the troops with five cart 
 loads of arms coming down that street; without waiting for aid or 
 advice he proceeded up the street, met the carts, took the foremost 
 horse by the head. This brought things to a halt, and the major 
 in command came forward to learn the cause; soon a crowd col 
 lected, and some of the committee opposed, and some approved 
 the course cf young Willett. Being encouraged and advised by 
 his friends he mounted a cart, made a brief, stirring speech which 
 was loudly cheered. He then turned the head of the forward 
 horse into another street, those behind followed, and all of the carts 
 were driven to a vacant lot and a ball alley on John street, and 
 thus the arms were prevented from leaving the city. Those arms 
 and those taken possession of when the news of the battle of 
 Lexington first reached the city were used by the first troops 
 raised in New York under the orders of Congress. The troops 
 meeting with no other obstacle marched to the wharf arid em 
 barked for Boston amid the hisses of an excited people. This 
 prompt and decided action of the citizens struck dismay to the 
 hearts of the adherents of the crown, gave them a foretaste^ of 
 what might be expected, and at the same time, made the recruiting 
 of troops for the colonies a much easier task. 
 
 By order of Congress, the colony of New York was required to 
 raise four regiments, each to consist of ten companies and each 
 company to be composed of some seventy-two men, making about 
 3,000 troops to be raised in New York. Of this number New 
 
12 COL. MABINU9 WILLETT. 
 
 York city was to raise one regiment. Each regiment was to be- 
 commanded by a colonel, a lieutenant-colonel and a major. 
 Alexander McDougall was colonel of the first New York regiment, 
 and young Willett was appointed second captain. He received 
 his appointment June 28, 1775. He was then in his thirty-fifth 
 year, and as he says in his " narrative," his health, strength,, 
 buoyancy of spirit and enthusiasm were his principal qualifications. 
 His company was one of the first recruited and ready to take the 
 field. Colonel Ethan .Allen, the May preceding, had captured 
 Ticonderoga in "the name of the Great Jehovah and the Con 
 tinental Congress," and this was considered the key to the gate 
 way of Canada, and had much to do in turning the attention of 
 Congress, Washington, General Schuyler and others in this 
 direction, as the proper one for the invasion of that province. 
 There was a garrison of some 500 men at St. Johns on this route 
 to Canada; another force at Chamblee, lower down the river, and 
 some 300 tories and Indians at Montreal, which constituted 
 about all of the effective troops of the British in Canada. It was< 
 believed all of these places and troops could be captured and 
 Canada thereby prevailed upon to link its fortunes with the 
 thirteen colonies. On the 8th of August, 1775, Willett and his 
 men took passage in a sloop up the Hudson, and reached Albany 
 after a passage of four days. They were armed with the muskets 
 which Willett had taken from the enemy, as before stated. At- 
 Albany this company was joined by three other*, and there 
 reviewed by General Montgomery, who was to accompany them.. 
 Their destination was Canada, via Lake Champlain. They reached 
 Ticonderoga in the course of two week?, and were on the same 
 grounds occupied by Willett when he was in the tirst battle 
 seventeen years before. On the 29th of August 1,000 troops 
 under Gen. Montgomery embarked in boats, proceeded clown the- 
 lake, and on the 4th of September they were joined at lie Aux 
 Noix, at the foot of the lake, by Gen. Schuyler. The 6th they 
 proceeded to St. Johns, but found it too well fortified to take it by 
 storm, with the small force and light guns of the Americans, and. 
 the next day they returned to the island. On the 10th of the 
 month Gen. Montgomery, with 1,OUO men, again proceeded to St. 
 Johns, and landed just at dusk two miles from the fort. A 
 detachment of 500 men, with which was^ young Willett, was senfc 
 below the fort to cut oft the supplies of the enemy. This expedi 
 tion, by reason of the bad conduct of the colonel in command, 
 
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER. 
 
 was unsuccessful, and again the troops returned to the island. 
 Here they remained for a week. 
 
 When the American force was augmented to 2,000 men, and 
 -had received an additional supply of ammunition and larger 
 guns, the army again embarked for St. Johns, under Gen. Mont 
 gomery, and late in the day landed at the place where the troops 
 first disembarked. Again a detachment of 500 men was ordered 
 below the fort, and this time Gen. Montgomery accompanied ^it, 
 ttnd it was successful in taking position and planting batteries. 
 The siege slowly continued, large guns arrived and the garrison 
 was severely annoyed. There was a fort at Chamblee, twelve 
 miles from *St. Johns, lower down the River Sorel, and on the 
 route to Canada, garrisoned by about 170 men. A detachment 
 was sent to lay siege to that fort, and in lesfc than two days, on 
 October 18th, it surrendered with 168 men, seventeen cannon, six 
 tons of powder. The colors of the seventh regiment were also 
 -captured and sent as a trophy to Congress. This capture was of 
 great benefit to the besiegers of St. Johns. Nevertheless that 
 garrison held out bravely, but on the 3d of November, after a 
 siege of fifty days, that fort surrendered, and the prize was 500 
 regular troops and 100 Canadians (among whom were some of the 
 French gentry) and a large quantity of military stores. This was 
 indeed a great success and was received by Congress and the 
 country with feelings of delight; and well it might, for the troops 
 were raw and undisciplined, the army supplies scant, the weather 
 old and rainy, the grounds where the troops encamped damp and 
 unhealthy, yet, in spite of all, a great victory was achieved. 
 Capt. Willett was charged with the duty of escorting the prisoners 
 to Ticonderoga, while Gen. Montgomery pushed on with an armed 
 force to Montreal. As soon as the prisoners were safely placed in 
 Fort Ticonderoga, Willett hastened to Montreal, and arrived there 
 November 22, t"en days after Montgomery had reached that place. 
 The. latter ordered Capt. Willett to return to St. Johns and take 
 the command of that fort. This showed the high appreciation in 
 which he was held by his superior officer. Willett remained at St. 
 Johns until in January, 1776, when the term of the enlistment of 
 his troops having expired, he was relieved and again went to 
 Montreal. On the ISth of February, by order of Gen. Mont 
 gomery, he left that place for Albany in charge of British officers 
 and their families, and reached the latter place the last of the 
 month. On the 1st of March he set out on horseback for New 
 York, where he arrived the 5th. 
 
COL. MAKINUS WILLETT. 
 
 The war having now assumed a severer aspect than was supposed 
 fay many it would, it was found necessary to raise more troops 
 with longer terms of enlistment. New York was required in 1776 
 to raise four battalions. Of the Third New York Regiment thus 
 raised, Peter Gansevoort of Albany was appointed colonel and 
 Marinas Willett lieutenant-colonel. The latter received his 
 appointment the latter part of November, 1776, and with his 
 appointment came orders to repair to Fishkill on the Hudson to 
 recruit for his regiment. He was diligently employed there all winter 
 in recruiting, drilling and clothing the men, and getting ready for 
 the coming campaign. At the opening of the spring of 1777, Col. 
 Willitt was ordered to take charge of Fort Constitution, opposite 
 what is now West Point. It was so called because of the measures 
 then being taken to form a state constitution for- New York. 
 During the whole war of the revolution it was a favorite scheme 
 of the British government to obtain control of the Hudson, estab 
 lish a chain of forts along that river and keep open a communica 
 tion between New York city and Canada. As soon as the ice was 
 out of the Hudson, about the middle of March, 1777, sloops loaded 
 with troops, started up that river to capture Forts Clinton and 
 Montgomery and Peekskill. A body of troops landed at the 
 latter place, set fire to the wharf and buildings, and made such a 
 formidable demonstration as to cause the American commander at 
 that port (Col. McDougall) to move the army stores to a place of 
 safety, and his troops to the passes in the highlands, and to send 
 to Col. Willett for help. The express reached the latter on Sun 
 day, March 23, while Col. Willett s men were out parading for a 
 field review. The troops hurried to Peekskill and took post on an 
 eminence that commanded a full view of the surrounding country. 
 The practiced eye of Col. Willett noticed that a detachment of 100 
 men was separated from the main army of the enemy by a ravine, 
 and he conceived the project of cutting them off and capturing the 
 detachment; he took a circuitous route, crossed fences and other 
 obstructions, but, as it was near dark and the detachment fled so 
 precipitately to the shipping, he was unsuccessful. He captured, 
 however, baggage, which had been left, consisting of blankets and 
 cloaks; a blue camlet cloak, captured on that occasion, served 
 afterwards to make the blue stripes to the flag that was first 
 hoisted over Fort Stanwix, as will be hereafter narrated. The 
 enemy were thoroughly frightened and took refuge on board of 
 the ships, weighed anchor, and by the light of the moon, the whole 
 
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER. 15 
 
 squadron swept down the Hudson back to the city. Col. Willett 
 returned to Fort Constitution and there remained until May 18, 
 when he was ordered to Fort Stanwix. Hejpfit out with his regi 
 ment in three sloops, and, in three days, reached Albany, thence 
 up the Mohawk in, boats, and arrived at Fort Stanwix May 29, 
 nineteen years later than his first visit under Gen. Bradstreet. 
 Col. Gansevoort had preceded him in the arrival at that fort, and 
 was chief in command. In 1776 Washington saw the importance 
 of Fort Stanwix, and wrote to Gen. Schuyler, in command of the 
 jiorthern frontier of New York, that Fort Stanwix should be pufc 
 in; repair and in a state of defense, but it seems, however, that but 
 Htyje was done. It was known early in the year 1777 that the 
 ^tish plan of the campaign for that year was for an army to 
 enter New York via Lake Champlain, proceed to Albany, and to 
 meet Gen. Howe, who was to go up the Hudson with his forces. 
 It was. to carry out that plan and to capture the forts on the 
 Hudson that the incursion was made to Peekskill in March, 1777, 
 as before stated. It was a part of the same plan for another force 
 to .proceed from Canada, via Oswego, Oneida Lake and Wood 
 Creek, .capture and garrison Fort Stanwix, proceed down the 
 Mohawk, overrun the settlements of the valley and join the other 
 British troops at Albany. This plan, if successful, would have 
 been the death knell of American independence, as it would have 
 separated the New England colonies from the other provinces and 
 put the settlements of Tryon county at the mercy of the Tories. 
 
 When Col. Willett reached Fort Stanwix he found it was greatly 
 out of repair; the ditch was filled up, the embankments crumbled 
 away, the pickets had rotted down and the barracks and magazine 
 gone to ruin. It is hardly worth while to relate in this connection 
 the difficulties attending the repairs, the inefficiency, if not the 
 culpable heedlessness, of the engineer in charge, a detection of his 
 blunders by Col. Willett, and his arrest and dismissal to Gen. 
 Schuyler at Albany, and the necessity of doing over again much 
 of the work, and how it was not completed when the enemy 
 arrived; all of these have been pretty fully narrated in the general, 
 as well as the local history of the times. About five P. M., August 
 2, batteaux loaded with supplies for the garrison and guarded by 
 200 men, reached the landing place on the Mohawk from down the 
 river, and barely had time .to get within the fort when an advance 
 guard of sixty men of the enemy appeared in the skirt of the 
 woods from the direction of Fort Bull. I^ fact, the captain had 
 
16 COL. MARINUS WILLETT. 
 
 carelessly lingered behind and was taken prisoner. The garrison, 
 .by this 200 addition, consisted of 750 men, with six weeks provi 
 sion, but a scanty supply of powder enough for six weeks if only 
 nine cannon were fired each day. For a flag, this fort was up to 
 that time without one. The garrison heard, doubtless, in due 
 time, in this far-ofF wilderness, the kind of flag Congress, on the 
 14th of June preceding, had adopted as the emblem of the nation 
 that was to be, and, as necessity is the mother of invention, the 
 troops devised the means for making a flag of the regulation style. 
 For the white stripes shirts were cut up; to make the blue, the 
 camlet cloak was used, captured by Col. Wiliett in March before, 
 and for the red, old garments found by the garrison were impro- 
 Tised; some authorities say, the red was made from a petticoat, 
 -captured at the time of the camlet cloak. The army that was to 
 -come by way of Oswego, was under the command of Gen. St. 
 Leger, of the regular army, and under him was Sir John Johnson 
 in command of the Tories, and Brant in command of the savages 
 about 1,000 in all. That force started from Montreal about June 
 21st, proceeded down the St. Lawrence, across Lake Ontario to 
 Oswego, where it arrived about July 25th, and left the 28th for 
 Oneida Lake, reaching the mouth of Wood Creek August 1st. 
 After the troops left Oswego, their progress was closely watched 
 and daily reported to the garrison, by the friendly Oneidas, so that 
 Col. Wiliett knew to a day when the army would arrive at Fort 
 Stanwix. An advance guard of sixty men under Lieut. Bird were 
 gent forward by St. Leger, to formally invest the fort, and t>hat 
 detachment arrived a little after five in the afternoon as heretofore 
 stated. On Sunday, August 3d, the remainder of the enemy 
 reached the upper landing on Wood Creek (the site of the late 
 United States arsenal) and there formed into line, to march with 
 pomp and display over the intervening spaca to the fort. The day 
 was bright and clear, and the pathway over the portage of suffi 
 cient width to enable the troops to show off to good advantage. 
 The garrison were purposely paraded on the ramparts, not to fire, 
 but to view the class of troops they were to meet, and to observe 
 their movements and count their numbers. Not a gun was fired on 
 either side. The garrison simply watched and counted. The martial 
 music was first heard, next came in sight the scarlet uniforms, and 
 then the burnished firearms of the regular soldiers, the glittering 
 tomahawks of the savages, and the wild feathers waving and 
 tossing on their head gear. As they advanced the regular troops 
 
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER. 17 
 
 
 
 ^narched wilh precision and stately tread, deploying to the right 
 .and left, v vwhile the Indians spread out on the flanks, and with yells 
 and war whoops made the forest resound with their reverberations, 
 that drowned the sound of the bugle and the drum. In the midst 
 of all, banners, ensigns and streamers floated to the breeze, and the 
 whole display was intended to strike terror to the hearts of the 
 garrison, but it had the opposite ett ect. They comprehended the 
 situation, and saw the kind of foe they were to meet. St. Leger 
 placed a portion of his troops on the site of the late United States 
 arsenal ; another portion, with cannon and mortar with which to 
 shell the fort, upon the rise of ground now occupied by St. Peter s 
 Church. Sir John Johnson and his toiies were stationed southeast 
 of the fort, near the bend of the Mohawk, below where the railroad 
 bridge now crosses that stream, and out of the reach of the guns 
 of the fort, while the Indian camps were in the woods near the site 
 now occupied by the railroad freight house; the river a few rods 
 easterly, prevented the garrison from escaping in that direction. 
 It will thus be seen how closely the investure was made, and how 
 snugly the garrison was cooped up within the fortifications. Very 
 early on the morning of Monday, August 4, a brisk fire from the 
 rifles of the Indians was commenced, which annoyed the garrison 
 in their work on the parapets. The greater part of the 5th was 
 occupied by both sides in tiring at each other. Soon after dark of 
 that evening the Indians spread themselves through the woods, 
 completely encircling the fort, and almost the entire night kept 
 up terrific yelling, so as to keep the garrison awake and on the 
 qui vlve. Early on the morning of Wednesday, August 6, it was 
 noticed that the Indian and Sir John Johnson s camps were nearly 
 deserted, and that the enemy were stealthily stealing along the 
 dge of the woods, on the south side of the river, toward Oriskany. 
 The reason for this movement was not guessed by the garrison, 
 for the Americans were not then aware that Herkimer was coming 
 to their relief. About eleven in the forenoon two men sent by 
 Gen. Herkimer two days before, succeeded in eluding the vigilance 
 of the besiegers and in getting into the fort. They brought the 
 news of Gen. Herkimer s approach, and it was then evident that 
 the Indians and Tories had gone down the river to intercept the 
 coming troops. Then it was that Gen. Gansevoort resolved to 
 make a sortie and attack the two camps that had been partially 
 deserted. The men within the fort were paraded in a square. and 
 the intelligence of Herkimer s coming was communicated to them. 
 
18 COL. MARLNUS WILLETT. 
 
 Col. Willett, who was to lead the sortie, went down into the es 
 planade and addressed the men substantially as follows: "Soldiers, 
 you have heard that Gen. Herkimer is on his march to our relief. 
 The commanding officer feels satisfied that the Tories and Queen s 
 rangers have stolen off in the night with Brant and his Mohawks 
 to meet him. The camp of Sir John is therefore weakened. As 
 many of you as feel willing to follow me in an attack upon it, and 
 are not afraid to die for liberty, will shoulder your arms and step 
 out one pace in front." Two hundred men obeyt d the impulse 
 almost at the same moment ; fifty more with a three pounder were 
 soon added. A rain storm nearly at that instant came up, which 
 delayed the sortie until three p. M., but as soon as the storm ceased 
 the men issued from the sally port at a brisk pace, and rushing 
 down on Sir John Johnson s camp, near the bend of the river, 
 below the present railroad bridge, carried it at the point of the 
 bayonet, drove the enemy into and across the Mohawk at that 
 point, and captured a large amount of army stores arid a number 
 of prisoners, among whom was Col. Singleton, who was at the 
 battle of Oriskany a few hours before, but had returned to camp 
 in the meantime. He informed Col. Willett, as the latter states in 
 his "narrative," that Sir John was also in camp, and fled across 
 the river. If this was correct information, Sir John must also 
 have returned from Oriskany, for the reliable accounts show he 
 was in that battle. After Sir John s camp was scattered, Col. 
 Willett turned his attention to the Indian camp, on or near the site 
 of the present railroad freight house, and soon drove the Indians 
 into the woods. When St. Leger, at his camp on the present site 
 of St. Peter s Church, learned of the sortie he hurriedly crossed 
 the Mohawk at that point and followed down stream to where 
 "Factory Village " now is, on the opposite side from the fort, with 
 a view to cut off Col. Willett s return. St. Leger had two brass 
 field pieces, and, partly concealed in a thicket on the east side of 
 the river, he opened a brisk fire on Col. Willett s rnen, but the 
 latter returned it so effectively that they soon put St. Leger s force 
 to flight and returned to the fort without the loss of a single man. 
 Col. Willett captured twenty-one wagonloads of supplies, with 
 five British flags, all of Sir John s papers, including his orderly 
 book, and also letters from down the valley, which were being 
 sent to the garrison from their friends, and which had been cap 
 tured from Gen. Herkimer a few hours before, but which the 
 enemy had not opened. The following is what Col. Willett says 
 
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER. 19 
 
 in his "narrative" was done on his return to the fort: "The five 
 flags taken from the enemy were hoisted on the flagstaff, under the 
 Continental flag, when all the troops in the garrison, having 
 mounted the parapets, gave three as hearty cheers as perhaps 
 were ever given by the same number of men." That account by 
 Col. Willett himself establishes the fact that a flag of the regula 
 tion kind, (as he calls it the Continental flag) as adopted by Con 
 gress, was raised on Fort Stanwix as early as August 6, 1777. I 
 have not seen in any historical work that a flag as ordered by 
 Congress was raised within the thirteen colonies prior to that 
 time. 
 
 In the afternoon of Thursday, August 7, a white flag from the 
 enemy approached the fort, accompanied by three officers, with a 
 request they might enter with a message from St. Leger. Per 
 mission was granted, and, according to custom, they were first 
 blindfolded and then conducted into the dining-room, where the 
 windows were darkened, candles lighted, the table spread with 
 some light refreshments, and they were then received by Col. Ganse- 
 voort in the presence of his officers. The bandage was then 
 removed from the eyes of the British officers and the principal 
 speaker (Major Ancram) made known his errand, the purport 
 of which was a demand of the surrender of the fort, accompanied 
 by intimations that if surrendered the prisoners would be treated 
 humanely, but if taken by force St. Leger would not hold himself 
 responsible for the acts of cruelty of the Indians. Col. Willett 
 was deputed to reply in behalf of the garrison and no one had 
 more fire or greater spirit or was better qualified to speak on that 
 occasion. He looked Major Ancram full in the face and with an 
 earnestness and emphasis that admitted of no mistake or equivo 
 cation said in substance : "This garrison is committed to our 
 charge and we will take care of it. After you get out of the fort 
 you may turnaround and look at its outside, but never expect to 
 come in again unless you come a prisoner. I consider the message 
 you have brought a degrading one for a British officer to send and 
 by no means reputable for a British officer to carry. For my own 
 part, I declare that before I would consent to deliver this garrison 
 to such a murdering set as your army, by your own account 
 consists of, I would suffer my body to be filled with splinters and 
 set on fire, as you know has at times been practiced by such hordes 
 of women and children killers as belong to your army." These 
 sentiments were re-echoed with applause by all officers present of 
 
20 COL. MARINUS WILLETT. 
 
 the garrison. A cessation of hostilities for three days was agreed 
 upon. As nothing had been heard from down the valley since the 
 battle of Oriskany the garrison was getting uneasy. They needed 
 more amunition and might soon need provisions. It was discussed 
 within the fort that if Col. Willett, who was very popular in the 
 Try on County settlements, could show himself there a spirit of 
 enthusiasm would be awakened and they would rally to the relief 
 of the fort. Influenced by these considerations Col. Willett 
 agreed to make the hazardous attempt to reach the people down 
 the river. Accordingly, at ten o clock at night, Sunday, August 
 10, he, accompanied by Lieut. Stockwell, a good woodsman, each 
 armed with a spear eight feet long, as his only weapon, with no 
 provisions but crackers and cheese in their pockets and a quart 
 canteen of spirits, no baggage or blankets, stole silently out of 
 the sally port, crossed the river by crawling on a log, and when 
 on the opposite side of the stream, where "Factory Village" now 
 is, it was pitch dark and they in the middle of a thick forest. In 
 rambling about they lost their way and bearings and became 
 alarmed by the barking of a dog not far away. They were near 
 an Indian camp, some of the Indians having taken a position on 
 that side of the river after the sortie of Col. Willett. They stood 
 perfectly still by the side of a large tree, not venturing to move 
 for hours and until the morning star appeared. They then took a 
 northerly course and struck the Mohawk again not far from what 
 is now known as the " Ridge," two miles north of the fort. They 
 kept close to the river, waded in it, and some of the way crossed. 
 over from one side to the other, so as to conceal their trail and not 
 be followed. They pursued this course for several hours and then 
 turned easterly to* strike the settlements down the river. In those 
 days the Indian path was south of the Mohawk and seldom, if 
 ever, was there traveling in the pathless woods north of that 
 stream; nevertheless when night came those two d^re not strike a 
 fire or a light, lest it might attract attention of prowling Indians ; 
 and so they camped in the thicket, without fire, light, blankets or 
 covering. At peep of day they were on their feet, although both 
 "were tired, lame and sore for the day s traveling, and night s chill, 
 and Col. Willett s rheumatism, yet they kept on their journey, but 
 Bteered more southerly, and about nine in the morning they struck 
 a heavy windfall where were growing large patches of ripe black 
 berries. From this luscious fruit and the crackers and cheese 
 and spirits the two had a hearty breakfast. The sun and points of 
 
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGEK. 21 
 
 compass were observed and without other guides they struck Fort 
 Dayton (now Herkimer villagej about three in the afternoon, 
 having traversed a distance of fifty miles through an unknown 
 forest, crossing streams and morasses, climbing hills and sur 
 mounting many other obstacles. The general route those two 
 traveled is indicated as above by Col. Willett s " narrative ;" it 
 must have been northerly of Floyd Corners, through Trenton and 
 into Russia, Herkimer Cbunty. " Simm s Frontiersmen of New 
 York" says that years before the revolution a hurricane began in 
 the westerly part of Oneida County and swept through the forest 
 in an easterly direction across the present towns of Camden and 
 Trenton, entering Elsrkimer County at a place called the 
 " dugway " in Poland, and continued onward through the towns 
 of Russia, Salsbury and Norway extending a distance of fifty 
 or sixty miles in length. Its breadth ranged from 60 to 100 rods 
 and so great was its fury that almost every tree in its course was 
 torn up by the roots. Its traces were visible for more than half a 
 century afterward and a portion of the ground over which that 
 tornado passed is called "the hurricane" to this day. It was 
 doubtless in the track of that tornado Col. Willett found 
 those patches of berries. Jones Annals of Oneida county, state, 
 that in the month of that siege, a hurricane of tremendous power 
 passed through Westmoreland from west to east its ravages 
 extended from Oneida L-ike to Coop^rstown, half a mile and in 
 some places a mile in width, prostrating the entire forest in its 
 sweep ; the severest effects were in that town. If both of those 
 historical accounts of tornadoes are correct, there were two of 
 them, six or seven years apart, passing over this county, one north 
 and the other south of the Mohawk. 
 
 On the arrival of Col Willett and Lieut, Stockwell at Fort 
 Dayton, it was ascertained that Gen. Schuyler had ordered a 
 brigade of Massachusetts troops, stationed some ten miles above 
 Albany, to the relief of Fort Stanwix, and that Gen. Arnold was 
 to be in command. Having rested for one night, Col. Willett and 
 Lieut, Stockwell started early the next morning for Albany, on 
 horseback to meet the troops and interview Gen. Arnold. The 
 troops were met the same evening on their way. It was then 
 learned that the First New York Regiment was also on its way to 
 relieve the fort. On Saturday, August 16, Gen. Arnold and Col- 
 Willett reached Fort Dayton, were the troops were assembled; 
 on the way from Albany, Col. W. stopped to see Gen. Herkimer 
 
22 COL. MARINUS WILLETT. 
 
 at his residence near Little Falls, who that day had his leg am 
 putated by reason of the injury in the battle at Oriskany ten days 
 before; the latter died next day after the anputation. About the 
 time that Col.-Willett started down the valley for assistance, 
 Walter N. Butler, a tory, who was in the battle of Oriskany, and 
 was in the seige of Fort Stanwix, also went down to the Mohawk 
 Settlements to rally his Tory friends. A number of them had 
 assembled by appointment on Friday evening, August 15, at the 
 bouse of one Shoemaker, one of the king s justices of the peace 
 of Tryon county, there to be addressed by Butler. Shoemaker 
 then resided at or near what is now Mohawk village, nearly 
 opposite Herkimer village. The garrison of Fort Dayton received 
 news of the assemblage and a detachment was sent to surround 
 the house and capture the inmates. When Butler was in the 
 midst of his harangue, the detachment swooped down upon the as 
 semblage, and captured the whole posse, consisting of six or eight 
 soldiers, and as many Indians, besides a number of tories, among 
 whom was an ignorant, halfwitted fellow by the name of Han Yost 
 Schuyler. Gen. Arnold at once ordered a court martial to try 
 Butler and Schuyler as spie?, for being found within the American 
 lines. Col. Willett was appointed judge advocate; the two were 
 convicted and sentenced to be executed. Gen. Arnold approved 
 the sentence and ordered the execution to take place the next 
 morning. Through the intei cession of friends, the sentence of 
 Butler was respited and he sent to Albany as a prisoner. Through 
 carelessness or treachery he subsequently escaped and fled to 
 Canada, and for years thereafter was the greatest scourge, by rea 
 son of his temper and cruelties ever inflicted upon the County 
 of Tryon, and his name has been handed down through history, 
 as the worst hated, and" most detested of all the tories of those 
 times. As to Han Yost Schuyler, his brother and widowed 
 mother strongly interceded in his behalf and as he was 
 a well known Tory and regarded by the Indians with a sort 
 of superstition they always entertain toward such unfortunates, 
 Gen. Arnold conceived the idea of using him to frighten away the 
 besiegers at Fort Stanwix. That ruse and its success, have been so 
 often told, that the story need not be repeated here; suffice it to 
 say that by reason of the exaggerated stories Han Yost com 
 municated to St. Leger, of the near approach of an overwhelming 
 relieving force, the siege was abandoned August 22, and the 
 besiegers hurriedly returned by the route they came 20 days be 
 
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER. 
 
 fore, leaving behind the bombadier asleep in the bomb proof, St. 
 Lexer s private writing desk, the tents of the soldiers, provisions, 
 artillery, ammunition, the entire camp equipage, and large quant 
 ities of other stores. 
 
 Han Yost Schuylcr fled with the fugitives as far as Oneida 
 Lake; there he found means to leave them and to return to the 
 fort, and apprise Col. Gansevoort of the ruse. This was the first 
 notice the latter received of Gen. Arnold s approach, and explained 
 why St. Leger had left in such haste. At four o clock of the 
 afternoon of the next day, Gen. Arnold arrived with his men, and 
 with four brass field pieces, banners displayed, drums beating, 
 music playing, they marched into the fort amid the booming of 
 cannon, the discharge of musketry and the cheers of the garrison. 
 The successful defense of Fort Stanwix to which Col. Willett so 
 largely contributed, affixed the seal to American independence. 
 Within two months thereafter, Burgoyne and his army laid down 
 their arms on the field of Saratoga. Ticonderoga was abandoned, 
 the British gave up the control of the Hudson and retreated down 
 the river and New York was redeemed." These victories and 
 others, commencing at that lone fortress in the then far off wilder 
 ness, sent a glow of joy throughout the thirteen colonies, and 
 paved the way for France in less than four months thereafter to 
 acknowledge our independence. The British press spoke in the 
 highest praise of Col. Willett s achievements, of his journey down 
 the river through pathless woods in quest of succor. Congress 
 voted him -a sword, and the next October, one was sent him, 
 accompanied by a copy of the resolution of Congress, and a 
 complimentary letter from John Hancock, president of that body. 
 That testimonial is now in the possession of a descendant of Col. 
 Willett, and a description of it is furnished me as follows: "It is 
 one of ordinary length, rapier kind, running to a sharp point, 
 and of Damascus steel; the handle is gold, platina and other 
 metal, and on it is this inscription, Congress to Col. Willett^ Oct., 
 1777. " After St. Leger s retreat Col. Willett passed several 
 months in comparative inactivity. He completed the unfinished 
 works of Fort Stanwix, and drilled -the troops stationed there. 
 The last of September, Col. Gausevoort having returned to that 
 fort, Col. Willett set out to visit his family at Fishkill, where he 
 arrived October 4, the very day the British captured Forts Clinton 
 and Montgomery, and thereby obtained for a short time, control 
 of the lludfecn. Col. Willett remained for awhile in that vicinity, 
 
COL. MAEINUS WILLETT. 
 
 assisting in the defense of the country about that river. That fall 
 he visited the army under Washington, a dozen of miles from. 
 Philadelphia, and remained there until January, 1778, when he 
 returned to Fort Stanwix. Wearied with this inactive and monot 
 onous life, he set out in June, 1778, to join the army under 
 Washington; on reaching Fishkill, he found there Gen. Gates, and 
 on the 21st of that month, news came that the British had 
 evacuated Philadelphia. As Gen. Gates had important informa 
 tion to communicate to Washington, Col. Willett was sent as the 
 confidential messenger. He remained with the main army, and 
 took part in the battle of Monmouth on the 28th of June, and 
 continued with that army the rest of the year 1778. 
 
 The great campaign for the year 1779, was to be an invasion of 
 the country in the western part of New York, occupied by the 
 Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca Indians. Those tribes had taken 
 sides with the British, and from their territory many of the incur 
 sions into the Mohawk settlements were planned ; their rich agri 
 cultural fields had afforded support to the armies, and to the 
 Indian families, while the war was thus carried on against the 
 colonists. Those tribes possessed large cultivated fields, of great 
 productiveness, also extensive gardens and orchards, and lived in 
 frame houses, and had acquired some of the arts, and were in the 
 enjoyment of many of the comforts of civilized life. They 
 raised in profusion apples, pears, peaches, plums, melons, squashes, 
 grapes, cranberries, beans and tobacco ; corn was raised in large 
 quantities; ears of that grain measured twenty-two inches in 
 length; the first sweet corn ever seen in New England was carried 
 thither from the country of the Six Nations by a soldier in his 
 knapsack, during the war of the revolution. This Indian country 
 included some fifty to sixty towns, all -rudely built for those times. 
 Washington, Schuyler and others and Congress felt that a country 
 which furnished so much aid and comfort to the enemy, should be 
 as thoroughly devastated as had been the valley of the Mohawk. 
 To accomplish that purpose, two armies, one under Gen. Sullivan 
 was to proceed from Pennsylvania, to m* j e,t another under Gen. 
 Clinton at or near the junction of Tioga and Susquehanna rivers, 
 below Newtown, now near Elmira, and thence proceed via Seneca 
 and the other inland lakes into the heart of the Indian country of 
 western New York. In April of that year, and as a part of the- 
 same campaign, some 600 troops, in charge of Cols. Willett and* 
 Van Schaack, were ordered from Fort Stanwix to go down Wood 
 
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER. 25 
 
 Creek and into Oneida Lake to the Onondaga River, and thence 
 into the country of the Onondagas, to lay their settlements waste, 
 destroy their buildings and inflict the same kind of chastisement 
 upon them that had been inflicted upon the white settlements. 
 This expedition started from Fort Stanwix April 18, and was gone 
 six days, traveling 180 miles, and most effectually accomplishing 
 the work it set out to perform. About a dozen villages, extending 
 a distance of some ten miles along the valley of the Onondaga 
 streams, were burned, grain, cattle and other property destroyed,, 
 the swivel of their council house disabled, and the destruction of 
 the settlements rendered complete. Alter this work Col. Willett 
 returned to Canajoharie and then joined Gen. Clinton s army, for 
 its destination to meet Gen. Sullivan. Four weeks Gen. Clinton 
 was occupied in making the needed preparations; in August he 
 and his army went overland to the head of Otsego Lake, the head 
 waters of Susquehanna River, taking 200 boats from Canajoharie, 
 each drawn by four horses, to that lake. The waters of the lake 
 and river were raised by a d?fm, and the loaded boats were 
 launched, to be carried down the river by the rushing waters. For 
 the energy and ability displayed by Col. Willett in the part be 
 took to start that flotilla, Gen. Clinton paid him a high compliment 
 in a letter to Gen. Schuyler. The two armies of Gens. Sullivan 
 and Clinton united, and on the 29th of August was fought the 
 bloody and hotly contested battle of Newtown, in which the Indiana 
 under Brant and the Tories under Sir John Johnson and Col. John 
 Butler were totally routed. The enemy fought with desperation, 
 for they were lighting for their homes, and they knew that defeat 
 meant the desolation of their country and the destruction of their 
 firesides. There was no battle and not much opposition after that. 
 Sullivan s army, 5,000 strong, overran the entire hostile country 
 and laid it waste, leaving hardly a green, living or movable 
 thing on the whole track of the invaders. They found it a garden, 
 but left it a desert. Over forty towns, which included 700 build 
 ings, were burned to ashes, 160,000 bushels of corn were destroyed, 
 elegant gardens laid waste, 1,500 bearing fruit trees leveled to the 
 ground, cattle killed or driven off, and the inhabitants compelled 
 to seek safety in flight. It broke the backbone of the Iroquois 
 confederacy, from which it never recovered. That campaign has 
 passed into history as the " Sullivan s expedition/ The ravages- 
 of the Indian country, made by that expedition, incited those hostile- 
 tribes and the Tories to retaliate in kind and to wreak their 
 
26 COL. MARINUS WILLETT. 
 
 vengeance the next year upon the white settlements of Tryon 
 county. After that expedition Col. Willett again returned to the 
 main army and rendered himself useful in connection therewith. 
 In the winter of 1779-80 he led a detachment of 500 men, and 
 with one field piece, crossed at night on the ice over to Staten 
 Island and captured seventeen wagonloads of stores, which at that 
 particular juncture were of great service tp the troops. The same 
 winter he led another expedition to Paulas Hook, (Jersey City,) 
 captured a redoubt and all of the cattle of the British. It 
 was the celerity of Col. Willett s movements, the fertility of 
 his resources and his untiring activity that rendered him such a 
 valuable aid to the patriot cause and so much dreaded by the 
 enemy. He was in that war to the Americans what Sheridan was 
 to the North and Stonewall Jackson to the South in the recent 
 civil war. Wherever he commanded he inspired the confidence 
 and enthusiasm of his men, and they generally followed wherever 
 he dared to lead. 
 
 During the year 1780 and while the Indians and Tories were 
 committing terrible ravages in Tryon county, Col. Willett was 
 with the main army in Westchester county, but nothing of 
 importance occurred, so far as he was concerned. The County of 
 Tryon during the first six years of the war, suffered more severely 
 than any other extent of territory within the thirteen colonies. 
 Within its borders more campaigns were performed, more battles 
 fought, more people murdered and more dwellings burned than in 
 any other section. The Board of Supervisors of that county, 
 reported to the Legislature in December, 1780, that during the 
 war 700 buildings had been burned, 354 families had abandoned 
 their homes and removed from the country, 613 persons had 
 deserted to the enemy, 197 had been killed, 121 taken captives, 
 and 1,200 farms were uncultivated by reason of the enemy, and 
 this did not include some five or six other settlements. Other 
 statistics show that thousands of horses and cattle had been killed 
 or stolen, millions of bushels of grain destroyed, and that 300 
 women had been made widows, and 2,000 children made orphans. 
 These ravages and misfortunes, earned for the valley of the 
 Mohawk, the title of " the dark and bloody ground," and well nigh 
 extinguished the hopes and crushed out the spirit of the people. 
 The year 178L opened gloomily upon the inhabitants of that 
 valley. In this emergency, Gov. Clinton bethought himself of one 
 who could revive the drooping spirits of the people, whose presence 
 
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER. 2? 
 
 would arouse great enthusiasm and be a tower of strength in the 
 valley. That one was Col. Marinus Willett. At the urgent solicit 
 ation of Gov. Clinton and with great reluctance, Col. Willett 
 consented to leave the main army, and make his headquarters in 
 the valley to take command of the levies assigned to that branch 
 of the State service. His strong sympathies with the suffering 
 people, his acquaintance with Indian methods and modes of war 
 fare, and the assurances of Gov. Clinton that his presence was 
 needed, induced him to undertake the laborious and hazardous 
 service. He has left on record the assertion that one year of such 
 work was more trying and laborious than all of the other years of 
 the war. The fore part of July, 1781, Col. Willett established his 
 headquarters at Canajoharie, and it was not long thereafter before 
 his services were called into requisition. 
 
 In the year 1781 there were twenty-four forts between Schenec- 
 tady and Fort Dayton, (now Herkimer village), into which the 
 inhabitants of the valley sought refuge when pressed by the enemy, 
 or otherwise threatened with danger. Some of these forts were 
 nothing more than dwellings within picketed inclosures; neverthe 
 less they afforded a comparative security against sudden irruptions 
 from the ioe. Early that year the whole northern and western 
 frontiers of New York were threatened with invasions, and the 
 people were weighed down by a deeper feeling of unrest and 
 despondency than at any former period during the war. The 
 country between Albany and Lake Champlain was suffering for 
 want of provisions and in danger of raids from Canada in that 
 direction, while Brant and his dusky warriors were hovering about 
 the valley of the Mohawk, ready to pounce upon any soldier or 
 inhabitant who was unfortunate enough to be caught away from 
 his comrades or the forts. It was in the spring of that year that 
 Brant and his Indians, while prowling around Fort Stanwix and 
 its vicinity, picked up and carried off some thirty of the garrison 
 of that fort. In May of the same year that Fort was so badly in 
 jured by fire and flood that it was abandoned, and the men removed 
 to other quarters. It was in the midst of this deep gloom and gen 
 eral discouragement that Col. Willett consented to take command 
 of the northwestern frontier and make his headquarters in the 
 Mohawk valley. The lore part of July, 1781, he established him 
 self at Canajoharie, where he had one hundred and twenty men; 
 at Fort Herkimer he had about twenty more, at Ballston some 
 .thirty, and at Catskill twenty ; in other parts of the valley were 
 
28 COL. MARINTJS WILLETT. 
 
 less than one hundred more. These did not include the militia 
 nor the new levies soon expected 1o be raised. The country he 
 was to defend was all of New York west of Albany county, 
 and included Catskill and other -exposed points along the 
 Hudson. He was not left long without occupation; even while 
 establishing his headquarters, a force of three or four hundred, 
 mostly Indians, was on its way from Canada to attack the Mohawk 
 settlements. Capt. John Dockstador was a bitter Tory, and, some 
 time before, had fled from that part of the country and collected 
 the above Indians and Tories to return and raid his old neighbors 
 and acquaintances, and in hopes, if successful, of becoming a major. 
 This raiding party took the route from Canada, through the Seneca 
 country, traveled by the "Sullivan expedition" of two years be 
 fore, thence struck off for the head waters of the Susquehanna to 
 the Mohawk valley settlements, in the direction of what is now 
 Sharon Springs. Dockstader and his men, pursued their course 
 with such quietness and stealth, that they reached without being 
 discovered, a dense cedar swamp of some seventy-five acres, about 
 half a mile southwest of what is now Sharon Centre, some two 
 miles east of Sharon Springs. Upon a slight rise of ground 
 within that swamp, concealed from view, those raiders encamped 
 for the first night, and most of them started off the next morning, 
 Monday, July 9th, to attack Corrytown, a small settlement of a 
 dozen houses, six or eight miles distant in a northeasterly direction, 
 in what is now the town of Root, in Montgomery county, three 
 miles south of Spraker s Basin, and about a dozen miles southeast 
 erly from Canajoharie, where Col. Willett was located. It so 
 happened that early on the same morning, that those Indians and 
 Tories left that swamp for Corrytown, Col. Willett, without 
 knowing that an enemy was in that direction, sent out from Can- 
 ajoharie, a scouting party of thirty-five men, under Capt. Gross, 
 to patrol the country around Sh-aron Springs, then a strong Tory 
 settlement known as New Dorlach, and to procure beeves and 
 other supplies for the garrison, also to see if an enemy was near. 
 The fact that New Dorlach was a Tory settlement, was doubtless 
 the incentive for Dockstader, to make that swamp his headquarters 
 and hiding place, for his Tory sympathizers were undoubtedly 
 apprised of his coming, and kept it a secret. The same feeling 
 probably moved Col. Willett to be suspicious oi that locality, and 
 to make it the base of his supplies. Capt. Gross had been gone 
 but a few hours on. his scouting expedition, when the garrison at 
 
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER. 29 
 
 Canajoharie, discovered about noon, fire and smoke in the direction 
 of Corrytown. The Indians had commenced their work of pillage 
 and destruction. Col. Willett at once dispatched to Corrytown, 
 Capt. McKean, with sixteen levies and with orders to collect as 
 many militia on the route, as he could gather, and at the same 
 time he sent a messenger post haste after Capt. Gross to inform 
 him of the tire, and of the probable proximity of the enemy in 
 New Dorlach, with instructions to discover their location. Capt. 
 Gross struck the trail the enemy made, when it left the swamp for 
 Corrytown, and by its width, estimated the number to be three or 
 four hundred ; he sent two or three of his men to follow the trail 
 to its starting place, while he retired to a safe and convenient point 
 of observation, and waited for his men to return; after following 
 the trail about a mile, the men reached the encampment in the 
 swamp, discovered a large number of packs, and that some of the 
 Indians left behind were engaged in cooking, as if expecting the 
 main body to return for the Anight. They, undiscovered, stole a 
 blanket from one of the tents and then hurried back to report 
 to Capt. Gross. The latter at once sent a man on horseback to Col. 
 Willett. In the meantime the latter was busy all the afternoon in 
 collecting the militia and getting ready to start at a moment s 
 notice. Capt. McKean reached Corrytown in time to quench the 
 flames in one or two of the dwellings after the enemy had left, but 
 not in time, nor would he have been able had he arrived sooner, to 
 save the dozen other buildings, which Dockstader and his men burned 
 to the ground, nor to have protected the inhabitants, which were 
 murdered or carried away captives by that superior force. There 
 was a picketed block house in that settlement into which a few 
 hurried and were saved, while others sought safety by hiding in 
 the woods, or by being fleet of" foot. Cattle and horse* were killed 
 or driven away, and, when the Indians left, about 4 p. M., they 
 left behind them a sad and sickening scene of desolation. When 
 . word from Capt. Gross reached Col. Willett it was near night, 
 and he at once set off for the swamp, with orders for Capt. 
 McKean and Capt. Vedder at Fort Paris (two miles northeast of 
 Fort Plain) to follow. It was Col. Willett s intention to reach the 
 camp in the night, surprise and attack it before daylight, but 
 the woods were thick, with no road better than a bridle path; the 
 night was dark, and the guide lost his way. so that it was six in the. 
 morning before Col. Willett and Capts. McKean and Gross reached 
 the camp. In the meantime the enemy had news of the approach. 
 
30 COL. MARINUS WILLETT. 
 
 and had changed their ground to a more advantageous position, 
 about one-eighth of a mile northwest of Sharon Centre, instead of 
 one-half a mile to the southwest, where they encamped. Col. 
 Willett divided his forces into two parallel lines, or in the form of 
 a crescent aud placed them in a ravine and sent a small detachment 
 over the brow of the hill to show themselves to the enemy with 
 orders at the first tire to retreat and draw the Indians into the 
 ravine much like the trap into which Herkimer was caught at the 
 battle of O risk any. The decoy succeeded and the Indians came 
 rushing on, yelling, whooping, hallooing, until they met Col. 
 Willett s men ; there they were checked, the tide of battle 
 turned, and after a sharp fight of nearly two hours, the enemy fled, 
 Col. Willett .following vigorously in the pursuit, calling on his 
 men to follow, while he waved his hat and shouted at the top of 
 his voice, " Come on boys, the day is ours. I can catch in my hat all 
 the bullets the rascals can send," and at the same time, gave orders 
 in a loud tone of voice, as if directing a detachment to reach the rear 
 of the enemy to cut off their retreat. The Indians and Tories 
 were thoroughly frightened and fled in great confusion, leaving 
 behind the plunder and booty taken the day before, killing some 
 of their captives and hurrying off with the rest. They also left 
 behind forty of their own dead and all of their camp equipage. 
 The victory was complete, and produced inspiriting effect upon the 
 Americans. The loss of Col. Willett was five men, among whom 
 was the brave and meritorious Capt. McKean and his son. The 
 captain was shot in the battle, but died after he had reached Can- 
 ajoharie. Dockstader and his men hurriedly left the valley, he 
 without earning the commission of major, which he expected, and 
 that party did not again molest the Mohawk settlements. A brief 
 sketch of some of the incidents attending this invasion will be 
 sufficient to indicate the trials and sufferings the inhabitants of 
 Tryon county passed through during the whole period of the rev 
 olutionary war. The attack upon Corrytown was so wholly un 
 expected the settlers were not prepared for it \ most of them were 
 at work in the fields, and but few had an opportunity to reach the 
 picketed inclosure. Jacob Diefendorf, a pioneer settler, with his 
 two young sons, were at work in the field; one of the sons, 12 or 
 14 years old, was tomahawked and scalped, and after lying 
 several hours insensible, bathed in his blood, he crawled to the 
 picketed enclosure, without knowing what he was doing. On 
 reaching his friends he imploringly raised his hands and besought 
 
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER. 
 
 them not to kill him ; his wounds were dressed, and he recovered 
 and lived for several years thereafter. The other son was taken 
 captive and carried to the cedar swamp, and when the Indians where 
 routed by Col. Willett, young Diefendorf was scalped and left for 
 dead. He covered himself with the leaves of the trees to keep off 
 the flies from his wound, and when discovered, covered and be 
 grimed with blood, he was at first supposed to be an Indian. He 
 was taken back to his friends, his wounds dressed, and, although his 
 head was five years in healing, he eventually recovered and became 
 one of the wealthiest farmers in Montgomery county. He died 
 in 1859 at the age of 85 years. A girl a dozen years old, was 
 also taken prisoner to that cedar swamp, and when the enemy 
 were defeated and found they could not take their young captive 
 with them to Canada, the Indians took her scalp, as they did not 
 wish to lose the bounty the British goverment had offered for 
 scalps. When the -settlers at Corry town saw the enemy approach 
 ing, a husband and father started from his house with his family 
 to reach the picketed block house. He had a small child in one hand 
 and his gun in the other, followed by his wife with an infant in 
 her arms and several children on foot hold of her dress. A savage 
 fired at them, the bullet passed near the head of the child in the 
 father s arms and lodged in the pickets. That was the last family 
 that reached the fort. As before stated, the Indians plundered all 
 of the buildings in the neighborhood and set them on fire, and all 
 where burned except one. 
 
 The news of Dockstader s defeat was received with great joy- 
 throughout the country. The common council of the city of 
 Albany, on the 19th of the month the battle was fought, passed 
 complimentary resolutions in favor of Col. Willett and his officers 
 and men for their bravery and intrepidity in that battle and voted 
 to Col. Willett the freedom of that city. That battle took place 
 on July 10, 1781, and has passed into history as "the battle of 
 Sharon." Its centennial anniversary was observed in July, 1881, 
 by the inhabitants of that part of the State. As I learn from 
 residents of that locality that cedar swamp yet remains, covered 
 with trees, about as impassable as ever, except in very dry seasons 
 or in the coldest of weather, when the grounds and the small lake 
 in the center are frozen hard. Soon after that battle news came 
 to Col. Willett at one o^clock at night that a party of fifty or sixty- 
 Indians were hovering around a settlement five or six miles 
 distant. In an. hour s time he had a captain of militia company, 
 
32 COL. MABINUS WILLETT. 
 
 with seventy men, in pursuit, but the Indians wisely took to their 
 lieels. It was by reason of such promptness and the celerity of 
 Col. Willett s movements, his dash in battle, and his 
 .seeming ubiquity that the Indians had such a dread and fear of 
 Jiim; they believed he possessed supernatural powers; they called 
 him "the devil." 
 
 During that summer the enemy appeared at intervals in small 
 numbers in different parts of the valley, but nothing occurred to 
 dignify it with the name of an invasion or a raid. 
 
 Over three months had passed since the irruption of Dockstader; 
 the farmers had gathered their crops, filled their granaries, and 
 partially settled down into the belief that the year 1781 would 
 pass along without any more formidable invasions of the valley, 
 with its attendant consequences. If such a hope was entertained, 
 it proved illusory, and the expectation was doomed to disappoint 
 ment. In the forenoon of Wednesday, October 24th, a hostile 
 force of 700 men, composed of British, Indians and Tories under 
 the command of Majors Ross and Walter N". Butler was first dis 
 covered in the valley near Argusville in Schoharie county, making 
 its way towards Corrytown. That expedition was organized at 
 Bucks, now called Carleton Island in the St. Lawrence, and thence 
 it proceeded across Lake Ontario to Oswego, thence by the water 
 route to Oneida Lake as far as Chittenango Creek; at that point, 
 the boats were secreted, and the men struck across the country 
 through Onondaga, Madison and Otsego counties, to the vicinity 
 in Schoharie, where first discovered. The enemy proceeded to 
 Corrytown, plundered the dwellings, made prisoners of the 
 inhabitants, but avoided setting fires, lest they might alarm the 
 garrison of Col. Willett, and thereby be frustrated in accomplish 
 ing their undertaking. From that point they proceeded to the 
 Mohawk, followed it down on the south side, to Fort Hunter, 
 where Schoharie Creek empties into the river; they arrived at 
 that point at nightfall, crossed over the creek into what was then 
 called Warrensburgh, now the town of Florida in Montgomery 
 county. Fearing they were going too far to the eastward, they 
 crossed the next morning to the northerly side of the Mohawk, 
 cast of Tribe s Hill, and by a circuitous route went to Johnstown 
 ^nd the old baronial hall of Sir William Johnson, where they 
 arrived at noon Thursday, October 25th. The whole track of the 
 -enemy was marked by the murder or capture of inhabitants, 
 stealing of horses and cattle, plunder of dwellings and destruction 
 
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER. 33 
 
 >of property. Late in the afternoon of the day the enemy was 
 seen moving down the river towards Fort Hunter, the news of 
 their march was brought to Col. Willett; he immediately mustered 
 all the spare forces at hand, sent orders to other points for the 
 militia to follow on after him, while he crossed to the south side of 
 the Mohawk in pursuit. He marched all night, and reached Fort 
 Hunter, some twenty miles east of Canajoharie, in the morning, 
 and was proceeding to cross Schoharie Creek, and follow the 
 enemy into the town of Florida, when he learned that the latter 
 was on their way to Johnstown. The Mohawk was deep at that 
 point and not fordable and Col. Willett was obliged to procure 
 boats or floats to get his men over that river, so that it was noon 
 before he reached the north side. His troops were at once formed 
 in marching order and set off in haste for Johnstown. Col. 
 Willett had 416 men ; the enemy about double that number. They 
 reached Johnstown about the middle of the afternoon. Col. 
 Willett sent a small detachment under command of Major Rowley 
 to the east to attack the enemy in the rear, while he engaged them 
 in front. A sharp engagement ensued, resulting in driving the 
 enemy into the edge of the woods near by, when of a sudden, 
 without any known or explainable reason, Willett s men were 
 seized with a panic and fled from the field, leaving a cannon in 
 possession of the enemy, and some of them seeking refuge in a 
 stone church. The efforts of Col. Willett to rally them were in 
 vain. At that unfortunate time Major Rowley s force came upon 
 the enemy s rear, attacked them with great vigor, throwing them 
 into confusion and driving them from the field. They, however, 
 rallied, and in turn drove back Major Rowley, and the two con 
 tending forces were alternately defeated, and so the fighting 
 continued until sunset. In the meantime Col. Willett succeeded, 
 in gathering his men and returned to the fight. At dark the 
 enemy was totally beaten, driven further into the woods, and 
 sought safety on the top of a mountain, six miles distant to the 
 north. After dark Col. Willett procured lights and buried the 
 dead. His loss was forty killed; he took fifty prisoners, from 
 whom it was learned that the enemy intended to move the next 
 day upon Stone Arabia, in the vicinity of what is now known as 
 Palatine Bridge, with a view to obtain provisions. Col. Willett 
 moved his men to that locality, while he sent a scouting party to 
 follow the enemy and keep track of their movements. By this 
 scouting party he learned that the enemy were moving north- 
 
34 COL. MARINUS WILLETT. 
 
 t 
 
 westerly, nearly parallel with the Mohawk, toward the northerly 
 part of Herkimer county, as if it was the intention to get out of 
 the reach of the Americans, and then strike down to the 
 Mohawk and across the country to Chittenango Creek, where the 
 boats had been left. To prevent such a movement, Col. Willett, 
 on the morning of Saturday, October 27, sent a detachment to 
 destroy the boats while he marched his men to Fort Herkimer, on 
 the south side of the river, some two miles east of Herkimer 
 village, there to await developments, still keeping spies on the 
 trail of the enemy, with orders to send swift messengers to him at 
 every turn of affairs. Majors Ross and Butler marched their men 
 at a slow pace, for they were hemmed in the woods, short of pro 
 visions, and exposed to great dangers. On Monday, October 29, 
 they encamped in a thick wood in the north part of what is now 
 the town of Norway, about half a mile from Black Creek an 
 encampment which has passed down by traditions as "Butler s 
 ridge." Thus it will be seen, by looking on a map of New York, 
 the slow progress that was made after the battle of Johnstown, 
 some forty miles distant. During the four days the enemy was 
 on that route the weather was cold and each man had only one- 
 half pound of horse flesh each day on which to subsist. On the 28th 
 the detachment returned, which Col. Willett had sent to the boats, 
 without having accomplished (for some reason,) the work it was 
 sent to do. Late in the afternoon of Sunday, October 28, Col. 
 Willett received word that the enemy were striking still deeper 
 into the wilderness, as if to make their escape by crossing West 
 Canada Creek miles above Trenton Falls, and thence steer their 
 course through a pathless forest, via the Black River to Carleton 
 Island. To frustrate that move, a short time before dark of the 
 same day, Col. Willett selected 400 of his best troops with sixty 
 Oneida Indians, who bad that day joined his forces, and taking 
 five days provisions, he started out, crossed the Mohawk, and 
 followed up the valley of West Canada Creek and encamped 
 that night in the woods above Fort Dayton (now Herkimer 
 village). 
 
 Early the next morning, Col. Willett and his men were astir, 
 following up the easterly side of the creek, to what is now 
 Middleville, marching in the rnidst of a driving snow storm, and 
 pushing their way in a northeasterly direction, into the north part 
 of the town of Norway, and at dark, encamped for the night in 
 a dense wood, about a mile, as it turned out, from the enemy s 
 
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER. 35 
 
 encampment. A scouting party was at once sent forward to 
 discover the location of the foes, and to ascertain whether Col. 
 Willett was in their front or rear ; that party soon returned with 
 the news of the proximity of the retreating forces, and at first, 
 Col. Willett thought to make a night attack, but as the enemy 
 had a supply of bayonets which his men had not, he concluded to 
 wait until the morrow. At break of day, Tuesday, October 30, 
 the Americans were again on foot, a scout having been sent ahead 
 to learn what the enemy were doing. The main body of the men 
 of Ross and Butler were up as early as the pursuers and on the 
 march, a detachment being in the rear as a guard, and to bring on 
 the baggage and provisions ; that scouting party got in between 
 the advance and rear forces, and one of them was shot while 
 the others hurried back to Willett with the news. The pursuers 
 were hurriedly pushed forward, and overtook the enemy near 
 Black Creek, an engagement ensued, in which the enemy were 
 compelled to retreat; frequent skirmishes took place all the way 
 to West Canada Creek, some two or three miles, the enemy 
 seeming perfectly discouraged and demoralized and only too 
 anxious to get out of reach and harm s way. They reached West 
 Canada Creek, hurriedly crossed, and when on the opposite shore 
 rallied and another sharp skirmish ensued the creek separating 
 the combatants. In that engagement Walter N". Butler was shot 
 and instantly killed, as Col. Willett says, the ball entered his eye 
 and passed out the back part of his head. Accounts differ as to 
 whether Butler was killed by a random shot, or by one taking 
 deliberate aim, and also as to whether he was scalped. The most 
 reliable account is, that he was killed by a stray bullet and that 
 he was not scalped, as Col. Willett makes no mention of it in his 
 narrative, but simply says, " he was shot dead." Thus perished 
 Walter N. Butler, the greatest scourge, the most cruel and in 
 human monster, and the worst hated Tory, who inflicted his 
 presence upon the border settlements of Pennsylvania and New 
 York. His father later on offered a reward for the recovery of 
 the body, but it was never restored to him, nor would the 
 American soldiers accord it a burial; they left it to bleach and rot 
 upon the identical ground where it had fallen. The news of this 
 victory and death spread through the valley, about the time that 
 the tidings came of the capture of the army of Cornwallis at 
 Yorktown: yet that surrender did not give more, if so much, joy- 
 to the inhabitants of the valley, as the assurance that Walter N. 
 
36 COL. MAKINUS WILLETT. 
 
 Butler had passed from earth. After the shooting of Butler the 
 enemy fled in confusion, and at a rapid gait, leaving behind packs 
 and all that encumbered their retreat, and struck off through the 
 dense and pathless wilderness in the direction of the valley of the 
 Black River. After seven days journey, of innumerable suffer 
 ings and untold hardships, they reached Carleton Island, eighty 
 miles distant, in a famishing condition, many of the men who 
 crossed Canada Creek having perished by the way. Col. Willett 
 and his men crossed that stream and followed in pursuit until 
 nearly dark; but as the Americans were getting short of provisions, 
 and as the enemy retreated with such rapidity, it was deemed 
 prudent to return, as the victory was as complete as if the whole 
 of the enemy s forces were captured. On the return to recross the 
 creek, the Americans discovered a five-year-old white girl near a 
 fallen tree, crying piteously. She had been stolen from her 
 parents, but as the Indians did not wish to be further encumbered 
 with her, they left the waif where she was found, near the fallen 
 tree. The little girl was taken in charge and restored to her 
 friends down the valley. The place of the enemy s crossing on 
 West Canada Creek is about five miles up the stream from Gang, 
 or Hinkley s Mills, and nearly double that distance above Trenton 
 Falls. It is near the line between the towns of Russia and Ohio 
 in Herkimer county. At that point the stream is fordable for two 
 or three miles, owing to the rifts and to small and large stones in 
 the channel of the creek. It is now known as " Hess s Rifts," and 
 the crossing place is called by some " Butler s Ford." 
 
 In the pocket of Butler when his dead body was found was the 
 same commission he exhibited on his trial as a spy four years before 
 at the time Col. Willett acted as judge advocate some ten days 
 after the battle of Oriskany. Let me state in this connection and 
 by way of parenthesis that Dr. William Petry (grandfather of 
 Judges Robert and Samuel Earl of Herkimer,) was surgeon general 
 in Col. Willett s regiment, appointed in April, 1781, and was in 
 this expedition ; and was all through the war 1 , and was wounded at 
 the battle of Oriskany four years before. 
 
 The loss of the enemy in this October incursion of Ross and 
 Butler was never known. Col. Willett s official dispatches contain 
 the following: " The fields of Johnstown, the brooks and rivers, 
 the hills and mountains, the deep and gloomy marshes and dense 
 woods through which they had to pass, these only could tell ; and 
 perhaps the officers who detached them on this expedition." Gen. 
 
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER. 37 
 
 Heath, the American commander of the northern frontier, issued 
 a general order in November, 1781, commending Lord Sterling, 
 Gen. Stark and others for their services that year, and mentions 
 the battle of Johnstown, the defeat of Ross and Butler and the 
 death of the latter, and adds: "The general presents his thanks 
 to Col. Willett whose address, gallantry and persevering activity 
 exhibited on this occasion do him highest honor." 
 
 This expedition closed the war in the valley of the Mohawk for 
 that year. In fact, there was no longer much of anything left in 
 that valley for a hostile expedition to destroy; the inhabitants had 
 lost pretty much all, except the soil they cultivated, most of their 
 fine farms had been turned into a wilderness waste, except in the 
 vicinity of the forts, and at times hunger stared the settlers in the 
 face, and famine seemed inevitable. These resistances in the 
 valley, may seem unimportant, because no great battles were 
 fought, and no great victories won; nevertheless they stemmed 
 the tide of the enemy s advance into the interior, and kept them 
 back from the towns of the Hudson, and prevented the establish 
 ment of a chain of forts along that river, which was a favorite 
 scheme and a long cherished hope and object of the British. 
 
 For the year 1782, Col. Willett remained at his headquarters on 
 the Mohawk, but no considerable force of the enemy appeared at 
 any one time, to molest the inhabitants of Tryon county. Small 
 and scattering bodies of Indians appeared at various places, caus 
 ing trouble and creating alarm, but no very serious disturbances 
 occurred. The exigencies of the times required vigilance and 
 alertness on the part of Col. Willett, and the sending of squads 
 of troops in the night, several miles into the wilderness, or into 
 neighboring localities, to drive out the enemy, or to discover if > 
 one was near, yet the campaign of 1782 closed without any 
 important event in Tryon county. The substantial fighting of the 
 war ended with the surrender of Cornwalli?, and negotiations for 
 peace between the two countries were commenced in Europe near 
 the close of the year of 1782. For nearly a year there was an 
 armistice, nevertheless, none of the efforts of the American officers 
 were relaxed, to preserve the discipline of the troops and to keep 
 the country in an attitude of defense. The recruiting of New 
 York State troops had been successful that year, by reason of the 
 legislature offering a bounty of money, instead of a bounty in 
 lands, so that at the close of the year 1782, Col. Willett had a 
 regiment of 400 State troops. Having prepared winter barracks 
 
38 COL. MARINUS WILLETT. 
 
 for his men, inoculated many of them for small pox, and built a 
 log hut for himself, Col. Willett set out the last of November for 
 Albany. Thence he went to Fishkill for his wife, with the inten 
 tion to take her to his winter quarters during the winter of 1782-3. 
 At that time Gen. Washington s headquarters were at Newburgh, 
 opposite Fishkill Landing, and there Col. Willett went to pay his 
 respects to the Commander-in-chief ; he remained to dinner, and as 
 he left the table and arose to depart, Washington invited Col. 
 Willett into the office, and unfolded a secret plan of sending an 
 expedition the then coming winter to surprise and capture Oswego. 
 Col. Willett was asked to lead the expedition. The latter had 
 made arrangements for passing the winter with his wife in com 
 fortable quarters, and it was with reluctance that he hesitated to 
 accept the request of the commander in-chief. He departed with a 
 promise to think of it ? and let Washington soon know the result 
 of his conclusions. A correspondence ensued, and as Gen. 
 Washington desired to keep the matter a profound secret, the 
 correspondence on his part was in his own handwriting. Col. 
 Willett accepted the position. At that time Oswego was one of 
 the most formidable defenses on this continent, and had given the 
 enemy by its possession, and that of Niagara, great advantage 
 during the war. The whole expedition was to be one of secrecy, 
 for upon it depended its success, and the positive instructions of 
 Washington to Col. Willett were, not to attack nor attempt to 
 capture Oswego, except by surprise. On Saturday, the 8th of 
 February, 1783, the troops were suddenly assembled at Fort 
 Herkimer, and a large portion of them supplied with snow shoes, 
 as they had no beaten track to follow, and the snow was from two 
 and one-half to three feet deep. The men thus provided went 
 ahead and made a track for a cavalcade of 200 sleighs that 
 followed, carrying the remainder of the troops and the baggage. 
 The expedition reached Oneida Lake Sunday night, February 9, 
 and crossed it that night on the ice, and arrived at Fort Brewer- 
 ton, at the foot of the lake, where the sleighs were left, and the 
 men followed the river on ice to Oswego Falls (now Fulton) and 
 arrived there about 2 p. M., February 10. There they went into the 
 woods, made ladders and the prospect of stealing unawares upon the 
 garrison and capturing the fort was everything that could be desired. 
 At 10 o clock that night the expedition reached a point of land 
 about four miles from the fort; here on account of the weakness 
 of the ice on Oswego River, men were obliged to take to the land, 
 
ADDRESS OF I). E. WAGER. 
 
 39 
 
 .and pursue the route through the woods. An Oneida Indian, who 
 was considered every way trustworthy and reliable, and supposed 
 to be familiar with the woods and the route, was selected as a guide. 
 Four hours remained before the moon set, the tim3 appointed to 
 attack the fort, then four miles distant. 
 
 The guide took the lead, the men following his track. In two 
 hours time, not discovering an opening in the woods, Col. Willett 
 went to the front to ascertain the cause, and learned the guide was 
 considerably ahead and the men following blindly on the tracks in 
 the snow ; in the course of an hour the guide was overtaken and 
 found standing still, apparently lost and bewildered. The men had 
 been led into a swamp, some in sunken holes and many had frozen 
 feet and one man was frozen to death. The guide had struck 
 other tracks in the snow, which he followed supposing they led to 
 the fort, but instead, they led in another direction down the lake. 
 In this perplexity there was no alternative but to forego the 
 attack on the fort, and to retrace their steps. The men were in the 
 woods three days without provisions, and were gone twelve days 
 on the expedition. Before they left Fort Herkimer peace had 
 been concluded in Europe, but it was not known in this country; 
 while this expedition was on its way to Oswego, the news of peace 
 was received by Congress. After Col. Willett returned to his 
 headquarters he went to Albany and there heard the glorious 
 news proclaimed to the rejoicing inhabitants by the town clerk at 
 the city hall. In Col. Willett s " narrative," the letters to him 
 from Gen. Washington in relation to that expedition, are published, 
 and the one of March 5, 1783, completely exonerates him from 
 all blame and expresses the high sense which the commander-in- 
 chief entertained oi Col. Willett s persevering exertions and zeal 
 on that expedition, and tendered his warmest thanks on the occas 
 ion. 
 
 On Friday, April 11. 1783, Congress issued its proclamation 
 announcing a cessation of hostilities on sea and land, and once again 
 smiling peace prevailed throughout the borders. The thirteen 
 colonies were now a free and independent nation, the armies were 
 disbanded, the soldiers returned to the peacful pursuits of life, ex 
 changed the weapons of war for the implements of husbandry, 
 the scattered population of the country gradually gathered at their 
 firesides, at their old homes, and once more the people of Tyron 
 county rejoiced and smiled through their tears. 
 
 And now was to follow the inauguration of a new government, the 
 
40 COL. MARINUS WILLETT. 
 
 adoption of a new civil polity and the creation of new offices. Old 
 things were to be done away and all things to become new. There- 
 was a general hatred of everything that was English, and a universal 
 feeling that, as far as possible, it should be banished from the 
 land. The name of Kings College was changed to that of Columbia. 
 The county of Charlotte, named in honor of England s queen, 
 the wife of George III, of revolutionary times, was, by an act of 
 the legislature of April, 1784, changed to that of Washington; 
 while by the same act of the legislature, and as a grateful tribute 
 and sense of poetic justice, the county named after the hated and 
 last Tory governor of New york, the county wherein Col. Willett 
 achieved his grandest triumphs, was given the name of the 
 patriot, Montgomery, under whom Capt. Willett won his first 
 laurels in battling for the existence of the infant republic. These 
 are but a few instances of the changes effected. So, too, those who 
 had served faithfully and honorably in the war, were generally 
 remembered and rewarded in the civil appointments in the State, 
 although no law was passed, as there was 100 years later, requiring 
 such appointments to be preferential. Col. Samuel Clyde, a major 
 at the battle of Oriskany, and who had rendered efficient services 
 in the Mohawk valley as an officer in the American army, was 
 appointed the first sheriff of Montgomery county, Col. Colbrath, 
 another officer in the patriot army, and lieutenant in the "Sullivan 
 expedition," was appointed the first sheriff of Herkimer, and later, 
 the first one of Oneicla. Col. Willett was elected to the assembly 
 from New York in 1783, and the next year appointed sheriff of 
 that county for three years. To be " high sheriff" was considered 
 in those times of more importance, dignity and consequence than 
 in these days to be governor of the State. The grandfather of 
 Col. Willett was sheriff of Queens county in 1820, and his ances 
 tors sheriffs of that county as follows: Thomas Willett in 1683, 
 Elbert inl705, Thomas in 1707, Cornelius in 1708 and Thomas in 
 1770. In 1790 Col. Willett was appointed by President Washing 
 ton commissioner to the Creek Indians, on a peace mission, that 
 tribe havino- assumed a hostile attitude. He left in March and was 
 
 O 
 
 absent four months, and was eminently successful in his errand, 
 and war was averted. Col. Willett s thorough acquaintance with 
 Indian character, habits, modes of thought and reasoning, pe 
 culiarly fitted him for such a mission. In 1791 he was again ap 
 pointed sheriff of New York, and held the office this time for 
 four years. Col. Willett was of powerful frame and of great 
 
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER. 41 
 
 physical strength, and, of course, perfectly fearless. It is stated 
 that while sheriff, to quell a riotous assemblage, he collared the 
 ringleader, a brawny, broad shouldered, two-fisted butcher, and 
 laid his prostrate form, on the floor, where he was held as power 
 less as a hoppled sheep. In 1792 Col. Willett was elected one of the 
 directors of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Canal, the object 
 being internal improvements, to connect the waters of the Hudson 
 with Lakes George and Champlain and those of the Mohawk with 
 Wood Creek at Rome. In the same year a general Indian war 
 with the western tribes was apprehended, and Col. Willett was 
 tendered the office of brigadier general in the United States army. 
 This position he declined as he was not in favor of thus dealing 
 with the Indians ; his advocacy of peace policy was adopted and 
 war avoided. In 1807 he was appointed mayor of New York in 
 place of DeWitt Clinton and was, a year later, succeeded by Mr. 
 Clinton. That office in those times of Col. Willett was one of 
 great honor, dignity and emolument, and was sought after by men? 
 of ability and high standing. It is said to have been worth from 
 $10,000 to $15,000 a year, and Col. Willett said that office yielded 
 him a greater revenue during the year he held it, than did the 
 seven years office of sheriff. In 1803 when DeWitt Clinton was 
 first appointed to that office, he resigned the office of United 
 States Senator to accept it, and he had for his competitors Edward 
 Livingston, Morgan Lewis, then Justices of the Supreme Court of 
 the State, and the next year elected Governor. 
 
 The great-grandfather of Col. Willett, it will be remembered, 
 was the first English mayor of New York. In 1811 DeWitt 
 Clinton was the nominee for the office of lieutenant-governor of 
 one branch of his party, and Col. Willett of the other branch. 
 Col. Nicholas Fish, of the army of the revolution, father of 
 Hamilton Fish, afterward governor, was the Federal nominee. 
 The latter received an overwhelming majority in New York city as 
 the opponents of Mr. Clinton, in his own party, voted direct for 
 Mr. Fish, as the surer way of defeating Mr. Clinton. .But the- 
 latter was elected, as he was strong in the rural districts. Ham 
 mond s Political History of New York, in referring to this contest, 
 says that Col. Willett had been an officer of great merit in tha 
 revolutionary war, and in private life was regarded as an amiable 
 and worthy citizen, but he had been somewhat wavering in politics- 
 and, in former day?, had been inclined to support the faction of 
 Aaron Burr. In the war of 1812 an immensely large public wai? 
 
4:2 COL. MARINUS WILLETT. 
 
 meeting was held in City Hall Park in August, 1814, to support 
 that war and approve the measures of President Madison. Col. 
 Willett addressed that meeting and, while standing beneath the flag 
 of the nation, which waved over his head, he made a brief, but 
 telling speech, which awakened unbounded enthusiasm and 
 applause. He said it was a favorite toast in the war of the revolu 
 tion that "May every citizen become a soldier, and every soldier a 
 citizen," and that the time had again come when our citizens must 
 be soldiers. He concluded his brief speech as follows : " In the 
 war of the revolution there was a chorus to a song we used to sing 
 in camp, in days of much more danger, which ran as follows: 
 
 Let Europe empty all her force, 
 We ll meet them in array 
 And shout Huzza, Huzza, Huzza. 
 For life anVl liberty. 
 
 This pithy discourse from an old man, near seventy-five years 
 of age, whose services in behalf of his country were well known, 
 was applauded to the very echo. 
 
 In the Greek revolution of 1823 Col. Willett warmly sympa 
 thized with the oppressed of that country. He was chairman of 
 a committee appointed to aid the Greeks in their struggle for in 
 dependence. A large meeting was held in the park in New York 
 city, which was addressed by Col. Willett. 
 
 In that speech, he referred to the fact that it was in the same 
 place, where he assisted in 1765 in burning effigies of those who 
 aided in the passage of the odious stamp act; the same park, 
 where enthusiastic meetings were held in 1775, in favor of 
 American independence in which he took part; that those were 
 glorious times for him, and that the struggle of the Greeks was 
 not unlike that of the Americans for freedom. He offered to aid 
 the cause of Greece by donating 2,000 acres of -land to which he 
 was entitled by an act of the legislature of New York, passed in 
 March, 1781. He said his labors in defending the frontiers of 
 New York, by which he earned that bounty, were by far the most 
 arduous of any that he performed during the whole revolutionary 
 war; that there was more fatigue, more hazard and more anxiety 
 in one of those campaigns than in seven such as he had served 
 under Washington. Such is Col. Willett a testimony as to his 
 labors in Tryon county. In 1824, presidential electors in New 
 York were appointed by the legislature; Col. Willett was one of 
 the appointees, and was elected president of the electoral college. 
 
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAG-ER. 
 
 TThether he voted for John Quincy Adams, Gen. Jackson, Henry- 
 Clay or William H. Crawford, all them candidates, I have not 
 ascertained. In 1824, President Monroe, pursuant to a resolve of 
 Congress invited LaFayette to become the guest of this nation; 
 he accepted the invitation, but modestly declined the offer of a 
 conveyance to this country in a United Slates ship of the line. 
 He left Havre July 12, 1824, and after a voyage of 34 days, arrived 
 off Sandy Hook quite early in the morning of Sunday, August 15. 
 Forty thousand people crowded the Battery to cheer and welcome 
 his coming. Among the very first to meet and take LaFayette 
 by the hand, was Joseph Bonaparte, then residing at Bordentown, 
 New Jersey, ex-king of Spain, and brother of the great Napoleon. 
 At 9 o clock in the morning, a small vessel steamed up to quaran 
 tine to take LaFayette direct to the city, but as it was Sunday 
 and he was to have a public reception in New York on the mor 
 row he declined to go, but, instead, went straightway 
 to the residence of Vice President Daniel D. Tompkins on Staten 
 Island. It was near forty years since LaFayette had left this 
 country, and when his feet once again touched American soil, the 
 memories of the past, the great changes since his first coming, came 
 rushing to the front in the thoughts of the thronging multitude 
 who witnessed his landing, and the emotions were too great for 
 suppression too great to find utterance, except by salutes from all 
 the ships in the harbor, the ro.iring of cannon, the ringing of bells 
 and the loud acclaim of the people that the illustrious guest of the 
 nation might receive a joyous and universal welcome. Nothing 
 like it had ever before been witnessed on this continent. In the 
 afternoon a vessel steamed over to Staten Island, taking a deputa 
 tion from the common council of New York and a number of offi 
 cers and soldiers of the revolutionary army, who had served under 
 or with LaFayette. Among the number was Col. Willett. 
 Those two became acquainted in 1 778, while with Washington in 
 the Jerseys and at the battle of Monmouth on June 28 of that 
 year. A correspondence had been kept up between them subse 
 quent to the close of the war, and many of LaFayette s letters are 
 now in possession of the youngest son of Col. Willett and are in an 
 excellent state of preservation and show, in their perfect legibility 
 and neatness, the care with which LaFayette s correspondence 
 was always conducted. The English of the letters is faultless in 
 construction and orthography. For the purpose of preservation, 
 and as showing the strong friendship existing between those two 
 
COL. MAEIXUS WILLETT. 
 
 soldiers, I herewith copy the whole of one letter and extracts from 
 others: 
 
 PARIS, July 13, 1822. 
 My Dear Sir : 
 
 I avail myself of a good opportunity to remind you of your old friend and 
 fellow-soldier in whose heart no time or distance can abate the patriotic re 
 membrance and personal affections of our Revolutionary career. We remain 
 but two survivors of that glorious epoch in which the fate of the two hemis 
 pheres has been decided. It is an additional reason to cherish more and more 
 the ties of brotherly friendship which unite us. I find myself again engaged 
 in a critical struggle between right and privilege. 
 
 May it be in my power before I join our departed companions to visit such 
 of them as are still inhabitants of the United States and to tell you person 
 ally my dear Willett, how affectionately I am 
 
 Your sincere friend 
 
 LAFAYETTE. 
 
 Under date of July 1, 1824, a short time before LaFayette^ 
 sailed from Europe he wrote Col. Willett in which he says: "The 
 time most happy to me approaches when I shall embrace my old 
 friend and brother soldiers," and conclude?, " most truly and affec 
 tionately yours, LaFayette." 
 
 Under date of April 12, J826, after his return to Franco, he 
 writes : " Happy I am in every opportunity to renew and to form 
 American connections. In so pleasing company I enjoy those 
 feelings of American home which were never obliterated in my 
 mind. Be pleased dear Willett, to let me hear from you and of 
 the state of your health. Present my affectionate regards tirst in 
 your house, then to your neighbors and to all our military com 
 panions and other friends in Xew York. Ever truly and affec 
 tionately your old friend and brother in arms, LaFayette." 
 
 Under date of April 6, 1828, he writes : " My dear Willett : It 
 is fit I should present to our senior revolutionary comrade a son 
 of the illustrious and unfortunate Marshal Ney, who intends to- 
 visit the United States. I doubly rejoice in every opportunity to 
 hear from you and to offer the best wishes and tender regards of 
 your affectionate brother soldier, LaFayette." 
 
 Under date of Christmas, 1828, he writes again and concludes 
 his letter as follows : 
 
 Be pleased to remember me most affectionately to all our dear comrades in 
 New York and vicinity and to your family knowing me to be forever 
 Your affectionate friend and brother in arms, 
 
 LAFAYETTE. 
 Col. Willett. 
 
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER. 45 
 
 The meeting between LaFayette and Col. Willett, at the house 
 of Vice President Tompkins is described by an eye-witness as 
 extremely affectionate and touching. They embraced and kissed 
 each other over and over again, like devoted lovers, and LaFayette 
 talking to Col. Willett very tenderly. The former was then sixty- 
 seven years old, and Col. Willett eighty-four. During the time 
 LaFayette was in New York he was a frequent visitor at Col. 
 Willett s residence, and the two were as much together as LaFay 
 ette could find time to spare from the receptions and ovations 
 almost constantly awaiting him. On Friday, August 20th, the 
 nation s guest left New York for Boston, in a coach drawn by four 
 white horse?, accompanied by numerous delegations and escorted 
 by the military. That same eye-witness, who describes that visit 
 of LaFayette, says that the cavalcade which escorted him from 
 the city, passed in its route fields of cabbages, and other agri 
 cultural products then growing upon the site now occupied by 
 the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Those yet alive, whose memories go 
 back sixty-five years, may remember LaFayette s tour through 
 this valley in 1825. 
 
 The legislature of New York, by an act passed in October, 1779, 
 attainted fifty-eight persons (three of whom were ladies) of treason, 
 and confiscated their property. Among the number was John 
 Tabor Kempe, the last Tory Attorney General of New York, and 
 then the owner of one-sixteenth of Coxe s Patent, or tract of 
 47,000 acres, which stretches across what are now Rome, Westmore 
 land, Whitestown, Kirkland, New Hartford, Marshall, Paris and 
 Bridgewater, in Oneida county. His wife before marriage was 
 Grace Coxe, one of the patentees and also part owner of that 
 patent. On a subdivision of that patent and a sale of Mr. Kempe s 
 share under that confiscation act, George Washington, Governor 
 George Clinton and Col. Willett became owners of land in the 
 patent. Col. Willett became purchaser, in August, 1784, of over 
 seven hundred acres, part of it not far from Hampton village in 
 Westmoreland. Alex. Parkman, who moved into that town in 
 1790, obtained title to one hundred acres from Col. Willett. The 
 latter was also the owner of two thousand acres, known as " Wil- 
 lett s patent," in the north part of the town of Steuben, in this 
 county, next to the Ava town line; he, with Elias Van Benscoten, 
 owned fifteen hundred acres in the town of Ava, next north of 
 above two thousand acre tract, and called "Willett s small 
 patent." Col. Willett also owned lands in Bayard s patent and in 
 
46 COL. MAKINUS WILLETT. 
 
 Twenty Township tract, Chenango county, hence, it is evident 
 Oneida county people should be farther attracted and drawn 
 toward one who was largely interested in lands in this county 
 and vicinity so soon after the revolution, and fourteen years be 
 fore Oneida county was organized. 
 
 Not long after the close of the revolutionary war, and probably 
 within the last decade of the last century, Col. Willett purchased, 
 for a homestead, a large parcel of vacant ground in what is now 
 the thirteenth ward of New York city, near Corlear s Hook, ex 
 tending from East River to what is now Wiilett street on the west. 
 It is bounded northerly by DeLancey and southerly by Broome 
 street. It was then quite out of the city and far into the suburbs. 
 A long range of hills loomed up between that purchase and 
 Broadway, so that a sight of the then seeming busy city was shut 
 out from the view, and a long space of vacant ground intervened 
 and had to be traversed before schools, churches and the marts of 
 trade were reached from that homestead. The land toward East 
 River was shelving, so that the rushing waters made frequent 
 inroads and gradual encroachments upon the lower portions, to 
 obviate which the dirt from the range of hills in front was, in due 
 time, moved to the rear of the lot next to the river, and in that 
 way the waves were stayed and a fine water frontage created. 
 To improve and make that home pleasant and attractive, Col. 
 Wiilett expended much money and labor, and many years of his 
 life. The grounds were tastefully laid out into a garden, walks, 
 carriageways and arbors, with fruit and shade trees planted upon 
 and around the enclosure. A long row of poplars fringed the 
 garden on one side, while cedar and other evergreens embellished 
 or shaded the walks and other parts of the grounds. These trees 
 were planted some years before the present century, for the eldest 
 son alive of Col. Willett, now eighty-seven, writes me they were 
 full grown at his earliest recollection. Not far from the center of 
 those grounds the owner built a large, commodious and roomy 
 dwelling, and there, for over a quarter of a century, he entertained 
 his numerous visitors and callers, with a welcome and a generous 
 hospitality, that no one knows better, if so well, how to extend, 
 than an army officer who has seen much of the world; there too, he 
 furnished a home and a cordial welcome to dependent relatives, to 
 whom he was all that the most kind and indulgent parent could 
 be. Although not a millionaire, yet he was in comfortable cir 
 cumstances, kept his horses and carriage, lived generously for 
 
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER. 4< 
 
 those times, all of which could be done in those days of frugality 
 and simplicity, on an income of five or six thousand dollars a year. 
 One day last summer that eldest son crossed over from Jersey 
 City to revisit" the scenes of his childhood, that he might give a 
 better description for this paper prepared in memory of his father, 
 of that old homestead and of the grounds where his feet rambled 
 when a boy. But indeed how changed; seven or eight busy 
 streets now cross those grounds, while the site of the garden, the 
 walks, the carriage-ways, the trees, the arbors, is now occupied 
 by solid brick structures like Hoe s Printing Press Works, large 
 Catholic Church, and buildings of that description; yet in his 
 mind s eye he again saw the home as it was early in the present 
 century, the long range of hills, over which he climbed on his way 
 to school, the play ground, the boys of his youth, the fruit trees 
 which yielded profusely, the large favorite cherry tree, capable of 
 holding a small army of boys upon ^its huge and wide spreading 
 branches, stood out a conspicuous figure as he looked back over 
 the vista of years; many an afternoon in summer at the close of 
 school, a hundred boys could be found ensconced in that generons 
 tree, partaking of its seeming inexhaustible supply, with a zest 
 and a relish that no one can enjoy so well as a schoolboy. He of 
 all others, in that great city, was probably the only survivor who 
 could remember, in all its details, those grounds as they were years 
 ago. During Col. Willett s residence there and for years there 
 after that old homestead was widely known as "Cedar Grove" or 
 "The Willett Place." 
 
 In 1783, Col. Willetfc was among the active persons who 
 formed the Society of Cincinnati, having for its object 
 the promotion of brotherly feeling among the officers who 
 served in the war of the revolution. When LaFayette visited 
 this country in 1824, he was the only surviving major general 
 who belonged to that society, so too, Col. Willett was a member of 
 the Tammany society, formed about the same time, more for the 
 purpose, however, of keeping in check the apprehended tendency 
 of the government to monarchy; not until many years later, did it 
 become an organization to promote the success of a political party. 
 
 Col. Willett was three times married. The first marriage was 
 to Mary Pease in April, 1760, before he was quite twenty years of 
 age. By that marriage one son was born, who became a noted 
 surgeon in the United States army, and who died unmarried. 
 Unto the second marriage no children were born. The third wife 
 
48 COL. MA EmUS WILLETT. 
 
 was Margaretta Bancker, married not far from 1800; by her he 
 had four children. The eldest son, Marinus, was a physician, and 
 married and had children ; he is now deceased. William M. was 
 the second son by that marriage ; married and now eighty-seven 
 years old, and living in Jersey City, a retired divine of the Meth 
 odist Episcopal Church ; was a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
 General Conference in 1826; later, an instructor in Hebrew and 
 Biblical literature in Wesleyan University and editor. In 1843 he 
 founded the Biblical Institute in Vermont, of which he was presi 
 dent until 1848. Edward, the other son, is a lawyer by profession, 
 now eighty-six years old, and residing at Brook Green, S. C. The 
 fourth child was Margaretta, who married James H. Ray and died 
 years ago. The widow of Col. Willett died in 1867, at the age of 
 ninety-six. 
 
 Col. Willett was tall, erect, commanding figure, finely propor 
 tioned, with the air and build of a military man. His face was 
 handsome, his eyes blue, his countenance very pleasing and at 
 tractive, and his manners those of a courteous and cultivated 
 gentleman. One of his full length portraits, taken when he was 
 thirty-five years old, in continental uniform, by Trumbull, is now 
 in possession of his youngest son, as are the sword and hanger 
 worn by Col. Willett during the war. A portrait of Col. Willett 
 is shown on page 272 of Lossing s History of the Empire State. 
 Col. Willett was a plain, blunt man, outspoken, perfectly fearless, 
 & hater of all shams and an enthusiastic patriot. His acquaintance 
 and correspondence with the prominent men of his day were ex 
 tensive. His son has dozens of letters to his father from Governor 
 Clinton, Aaron Burr, LaFayette, Lord Stirling, and men of like 
 character. He and Burr were in early times intimate friends, but 
 after the duel with Hamilton, and Burr s trial for treason, they 
 lived to meet and pass each other on the street without recognition. 
 Col. Willett admired the political writings of Thomas Paine, but 
 after the publication of "Paine s Age of Reason" his works were 
 altogether discarded by Willett. He was a faithful attendant at 
 the Protestant Episcopal Church, (St. Stephen s), then located on 
 Christie street, one block from the Bowery, and about a mile from 
 Col. Willett s residence. 
 
 In a foot note in Lossing s Empire State it is stated Col. Willett 
 graduated from King s, now Columbia College. This may admit 
 of some doubt, when it is remembered that Col. Willett entered 
 the army before he was eighteen, and married before he was 
 twenty. Nevertheless he was a person of unusually strong mind, 
 
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGETC. 49 
 
 strengthened by observation and extensive reading. His corres 
 pondence and official army reports are clear and marked with 
 accuracy and precision. As a public speaker he was a model. 
 The fact that Col. Gansevoort deputed him to reply to St. Leger s 
 demand for the surrender of Fort Stanwix, indicates that his 
 ability in that line was recognized by the commanding officer. 
 That speech deserves a place in every history and rhetorical school 
 book in the land, alongside of Patrick Henry s "Give me liberty, 
 or give me death." 
 
 Among the last public acts of Col. Wiliett were, in 1824, while 
 acting as chairman of the Greek committee, presidential elector, 
 and welcoming LaFayette. During the last few years of his life 
 he mingled but little in public affairs and with the outside world; 
 surrounded by his family and immediate friends, he yielded 
 slowly, but not reluctantly, to the gradual progress of decay. 
 He had outlived his generation, and passed his fourscore years; 
 his mind was constantly fixed upon the approaching change with 
 trust and entire resignation; with the greatest humility, but at the 
 same time with the liveliest feelings of piety. A few months 
 before his death he was attacked with paralysis, from which he 
 recovered ; yet his body and constitution were much enfeebled by 
 the stroke; medicine had to be frequently resorted to; the 
 absence of his regular physician, in one of his attacks, induced 
 him to neglect the usual remedies, and he was so severely attacked 
 that his strength wasted rapidly away. 
 
 On Sunday, August 22, 1830, the fifty-third anniversary of the 
 abandonment of the siege of Fort Stanwix, Col. Wiliett passed 
 peacefully away twenty-two days past his ninetieth birthday. 
 
 It is related, that as the shadows of death were curtaining the 
 earthly vision of Stonewall Jackson, he, in the delirium ot his dy 
 ing, Was again in the roar of battle, and amid the clangor of arms, 
 and called out "Order A. P. Hill to prepare for action. Pass 
 the infantry to the front rapidly. Tell Major Hawkes" then he 
 stopped, leaving the sentence unfinished. Presently a smile of in 
 effable sweetness spre.id itself over his wan face, "as if his soul 
 had seen a vision," and then he said calmly and quietly, " let us 
 cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees;" then 
 without pain or a struggle, his spirit passed peacefully away. Col. 
 Wiliett had boon amid scenes of carnage and bloodshed; he had 
 lived in turbulent times, and been exposed to innumerable perils; 
 he had braved dangers, faced death, escaped the hissing bullet, 
 the poisoned arrow, the glittering tomahawk, and the murderous 
 
50 COL. MABINUS WILLETT. 
 
 scalping knife, and survived to the grand old age of 90, to receive 
 the homage and plaudits of a grateful people, and to die at last 
 surrounded by his family and friends. He too, crossed over the 
 river, and rested* under the shade of the trees. His death cast a 
 deep gloom over the whole city, and called forth deep and heart 
 felt expressions of sorrow. The Common Council of New York, 
 the Court of Errors, then in session in that city, the society of 
 Cincinnati, and other public bodies passed suitable resolutions, and 
 resolved to attend his funeral in a body. The military of the city 
 directed that appropriate honors should be paid at the interment, 
 and that minute guns should be fired, corresponding with his age. 
 The public journals of the day, not in New York alone, but 
 throughout the country, paid handsome and well-deserved tributes 
 to his memory. The remains were enclosed in a cedar coffin, 
 which the deceased had prepared ten years before ; at his own re 
 quest the body was habitated in his ordinary dress and with his 
 hat on, as he was accustomed to be seen in the street. The coffined 
 remains were placed in an arbor upon the grounds of the old 
 homestead on the day of the funeral, that all who chose might 
 take a farewell look. It was estimated that over ten thousand 
 persons availed themselves of the opportunity. The funeral took 
 place in the afternoon of Tuesday, August 24, at which officiated 
 Rev. Dr. DeVVitt, a son of an old officer of the revolution under 
 Col. Willett. The procession started at 4 p. M. for the place of 
 burial, and it extended from Broome street to Trinity Church yard, 
 where the remains were to be interred. It was after dark before 
 the grave was reached and by the light of torches all that wis 
 earthly of Cd. Marinus Willett was lowered to his last resting 
 place amid the firing of guns, the strains of martial music and the 
 sorrows of millions of his admiring countrymen. 
 
 Other heroes of the revolution may stand out more prominent 
 ly on the pages of recorded history; other namas may be perpet 
 uated in poetry and song, in flowing numbers and in brighter colors ; 
 other men may be kept alive in the world s remembrance by 
 lettered inscriptions of their heroic deeds emblazoned upon chis 
 eled marble or sculptured monuments, but none who lived in the 
 trying and troublous times of Col. Willett more faithfully or 
 efficiently than he, and certainly none within the county of Tryon, 
 performed the important work assigned to him, which in the re 
 sult worked out the grand problem of his country s destiny. He 
 was a fearless leader, an enthusiastic patriot, a worthy citizen and 
 an uncompromising friend of the rights of man. 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
 !TURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
 r^Tiv 
 
 . 
 
 " 
 
 ^nnz 
 
 REC D LD 
 
 " 1 
 
 r>cn 1 9 1Qt~fl 
 yjrp 16 lop/ 
 
 . >,*" : t 
 
 
 
 
 
 UNIV. OF CAL.-F 
 
 
 HDD. GiiiC3V29 77 
 
 
 
 
 t General Library 
 
 University of California 
 
 Berkeley 
 
Pamphlet 
 
 Binder 
 Gaylord Bros., Inc. 
 
 Stockton, Calif. 
 T. M. Reg. U.S. Pat. Off. 
 
 12295 
 
 M531524