1772 — Mohawk Valley people and customs — Farming, social and religious life — Sports and pastimes of the days before the revolution — A Schenectady Dutch colonial dame's tea party.
There is a large element of population in the valley today which is descended from what we call the "Mohawk Dutch," for want of a better name. It has strong virtues and like all other strains of humanity certain deficiencies. Both were noted by early writers. However it is difficult to imagine a population better suited to stand the brunt of early hardships and struggles than these same so-called "Mohawk Dutch". They made ideal frontiersmen, as a rule good soldiers, and founders of American institutions and liberty in government, strong in their political and religious ideals. If they are, at that early date, criticised in their farming methods or for the number of the "tippling houses" they supported, the hardships of turning a great forest country into a civilized farming section must be borne in mind. They produced public leaders of integrity with high, unselfish ideals and the quality of their minds, as shown in their acts and writings, proved them men in every sense of the word. Necessarily of bodily strength and vigor, the average of their masculinity and equipment for true men's work was of a standard to be envied by the male population of today. They showed some inclination toward learning which writers say, at the Revolution, had resulted in the establishment of schools in many of their valley settlements.
The name "Mohawk Dutch" was at first applied to the settlers of Holland Dutch blood, who peopled Schenectady and the lower Mohawk Valley. Its later use covered both the Holland Dutch and Palatine German pioneers of the Valley. Both elements along the Schoharie were similarly called Schoharie Dutch.
Both Palatines and Dutch had suffered untold hardships for their religion. In defense of their Reformed faith in their European homes they had been murdered, robbed and persecuted to the utmost limit. The presence of the Palatines in their Mohawk Valley homes was largely due to these facts. Under such circumstances they took their religion seriously. Mostly of the Calvinistic belief, they established Reformed churches and some of the Lutheran faith in the Valley shortly after their settlement. The dominies of that day were frequently men of strong character and fit leaders of the spiritual and intellectual life of their parishioners. The labors of those of the Reformed faith have resulted in making the Mohawk Valley one of the strongest districts of that church.
That early farming methods in the Mohawk Valley were open to criticism is shown by the following letter to the English Society for the Promotion of the Arts by Sir William Johnson, dated Johnson Hall, February 27, 1765. The letter in part follows:
"The state of Agriculture in this country is very low, and in short likely to remain so to the great Detriment of the Province, which might otherwise draw many resources from so extensive and valuable a Country, but the turn of the old settlers here is not much calculated for improvement, content with the meer necessaries of Life, they dont chuse to purchase its superfluities at the expence of Labour, neither will they hazard the smallest matter for the most reasonable prospect of gain, and this principle will probably subsist as long as that of their equality, which is at present at such a pitch that the conduct of one neighbor can but little influence that of another.
"Wheat which in my opinion must shortly prove a drug, is in fact what they principally concern themselves about and they are not easily to be convinced that the Culture of other articles will tend more to their advantage. If a few of the Machines made use of for the breaking of hemp was distributed amongst those who have Land proper for the purpose it might give rise to the culture of it — or if one only properly constructed was sent as a model, it might Stir up a spirit of Industry amongst them, but Seed is greatly wanted, & Cannot be procured in these parts, and the Germains (who are most Industrious people here) are in general in too low circumstances to concern themselves in anything attended with the smallest Expence, their Plantations being as yet in their infancy, & with regard to the old Settlers amongst the Germans who live farther to the Westward, they have generally adopted the Sentiments of the rest of the inhabitants. The country Likewise labours under the disadvantage of narrow, and (in many places) bad roads, which would be still worse did I not take care that the inhabitants laboured to repair them according to law. The ill Condition of Public roads is a Great obstruction to husbandry; the high wages of labouring men, and the great number of tepling houses are likewise articles which very much want Regulation. These disagreeable circumstances must for some time retard the Progress of husbandry. I could heartily wish I had more leisure to attend to these necessary articles of improvements to promote which my Influence and Example should not be wanting. I have formerly had pease very well split at my mills, and I shall set the same forward amongst the people as far as I can. I have Likewise sent for Collections of many Seeds, and useful grasses which I shall Encourage them to raise, and from the great wants of stock, even for home use, & Consumption, I am doing all I can to turn the inhabitants to raising these necessary articles, for the purchase of which, a good deal of Cash has hither to been annually carried into the N. England Collonies.
"Before I set the Examples, no farmer on the Mohock River ever raised so much as a single Load of Hay, at present some raise above one Hundred, the like was the case in regard to sheep, to which they were intire strangers until I introduced them, & I have the Satisfaction to see them at present possess many other articles, the result of my former Labors for promoting their welfare and interests. My own tenants amounting to about 100 Families are not as yet in circumstances to do much."
Pioneer life was as hard as human life could well be. It required the strongest types of manhood, womanhood and even childhood to clear and cultivate this great wooded wilderness. First went up the log house cabins and barns to be followed later by those of stone and sawn lumber. After the sturdy woodman felled the trees they were burned of their limbs and leaves and the ground was left strewn with their blackened trunks. To pile these together, when dry enough, so that another firing would consume them was the dirty job of "logging up." It was largely done by "bees," to which the frontiersmen rallied in numbers adequate to the heavy work to be done. Severe as that was, an afternoon at it left the young men with vim enough for a wrestling match, after they had rested long enough to devour the generous supper with which the housewife feasted them.
The grain grown on the fields thus laboriously cleared was threshed with the flail or by driving horses over it and winnowed by dropping it through a natural draft of air instead of the artificial draft of the fanning mill. When ready for market it was mostly drawn to Albany, some three days being required for the journey. Rude lumber wagons or ox carts, or wood shod sleighs were the common vehicles for all occasions. Much of the grain also went down the river by batteaux to Schenectady from where it was carted to Albany. It was sent from there to New York as grain or it was ground into flour at Albany and from there shipped to New York or the West Indies.
At the beginning of the Revolution, the watershed of the Mohawk was the great wheat granary of the country, a position it continued to hold until its farmlands and farm buildings were generally destroyed by continuous enemy raids directed for that purpose.
A variety of work then went on indoors as well as out, which long ago ceased generally to be done in private houses. Every good mother taught her daughters a broad range of domestic duties, from washing dishes and log cabin floors to weaving and making up fine linen. The home was the factory as well and in it took place the making from flax and wool of the fabrics which the household needed. The houses resounded with the hum of the spinning wheel and loom and other machinery which the housewives used to make the family garments. The entire family were proud to appear in this goodly homespun even at church. Itinerant shoemakers made tours of the farmhouses, working at each place as long as the family footgear demanded, this being known as "whipping the cat." Common brogans were worn for the most part by the settlers. Many of the vegetables cultivated by their Mohawk Indian predecessors were adopted by their German and Dutch successors. Without tea or coffee, they made a drink of dried peas and sweetened it with maple sugar, the procuring of which they learned from the red man.
In regard to Christmas time in the valley the missionary Kirkland wrote as follows in his diary in 1789:
"The manner in wch. ye ppl. in yse parts keep Xmas day in commemor'g of the Birth of ye Saviour, as ya pretend is very affect'g and strik'g. They generally assemble for read'g prayers, or Divine service — but after, they eat, drink and make merry. They allow of no work or servile labour on ye day and ye following — their servants are free — but drinking, swearing, fighting and frolic'g are not only allowed, but seem to be essential to ye joy of ye day."
Schools were located in many of the Tryon County settlements at the beginning of the Revolution. The first pedagogue in Dutchtown, near present Fort Plain, was John Pickard. As showing the early settlers' superstitions regarding sanitation and medical practise it may here be related that after Fort Willett was built he kept school in a hut within the palisade. Toward the close of the war he sickened and died of some disease prevalent in the fort at that time. A lad named Owen, living in the Henry Sanders family, caught a live skunk, which was set at liberty in the fort and "the disease was stayed." After the war, a Hessian named Glazier, who came into the state under Burgoyne, kept the Dutchtown school, instructing in both German and English. Such instruction was probably mostly confined to the three Rs. School punishments were extremely severe and whipping a scholar's hands with a ruler until they bled was no unusual means of correction. One Palatine boy is said to have been so whipped in school on eighteen different occasions.
To show the wilderness state of the country, it is said that wolves were so common in Dutchtown in the town of Minden that sheep had to be folded nights as late as 1773. All the wild animals of the present Adirondack wilderness were numerous about the Mohawk settlements in their earliest days.
That a Tryon County woman could handle a gun is shown by an anecdote of the wife of the brave Captain Gardiner, of Oriskany fame, who lived near Fultonville: "His wife, like many of her sex on the frontier, in an emergency, could use firearms. On some occasion, when her husband was away from home in the service of his country, she saw from her house a flock of pigeons alighting upon the fence and grounds not far off. She resolved to give them a salute and, hastily loaded an old musket, forgetting to draw out the ramrod. She left the house cautiously, gained a position within close gunshot, aimed at the pigeons on the fence, and blazed away. To her own surprise, and that of several of her family, who, from the window saw her fire, seven of the birds sitting upon a rail, were spitted on the ramrod in which condition they were taken to the house."
As befitted frontiersmen, their sports were rough and violent. They included rifle contests, wrestling, foot racing and horse racing. Horse races, on roads and on the river ice, were greatly in vogue in the latter half of the eighteenth century, excepting the war period. The Low Dutch of the eastern end of the Valley were famed for horse racing and even for running their horses from the foot of every hill two-thirds of the way up. Often between Schenectady and Albany were several farm wagons or sleighs trying titles for leadership at the hazard of a serious collision.
There were favorite race-roads in the Valley, near Rotterdam, at Fort Hunter, at Conyne's tavern on the north river side a few miles farther up. At Sand Flats, at Caughnawaga or Fonda was one of the most frequented. In the Canajoharie-Palatine districts there were race-courses at Seebers Lane, on the flats at Canajoharie and at George Wagner's flats in Palatine. Every fall at Herkimer, horse racing was held on the flats at that place and it is not improbable that annual meetings such as these were the nuclei of the later county fairs. Such events were also common in the Schoharie Valley. There was much drinking and gambling at all these races and the crowds assembled like those seen at county fairs.
All these race-courses, before the Revolution, were straightaway and generally consisted of a good stretch of highway. Horse racing in sleighs, on the ice of the Mohawk River, was a favorite winter sport. It continued up to about 1880.
There is every evidence that the men of those days had mighty athletes among them who were developed by the hard life of the day, instead of by modern training methods. Besides the foregoing sports and the usual crude field sports such as jumping, hurling the stone, etc., fighting bouts for purses were not uncommon.
A few years before the death of Sir William Johnson, he had in his employ a fellow countryman named McCarthy, who was reputed the best pugilist in the Mohawk Valley. The baronet offered to pit him against anyone. Major Jelles Fonda, tired of hearing this challenge, unearthed a mighty Dutchman named John Van Loan, in the Schoharie Valley and made a journey of some fifty miles to secure him. Van Loan agreed to enter the ring for a ten-pound note. A big crowd assembled at Caughnawaga to see the contest. There was much betting, particularly on McCarthy. Van Loan appeared in a shirt and tight-fitting breeches of dressed deer-skin. McCarthy tried hard but the Schoharie fighter was too strong and agile and eventually soundly whipped Sir William's pet, who had to be carried from the ring. This was probably one of many pugilistic and wrestling contests witnessed by crowds of settlers. Brutal they were but they were the physical expression of sport among men of iron and should not be judged by the tender standards of a delicate and soft age.
It will, of course, be understood that fishing, trapping and hunting, formed a large part of the vocations of the earliest settlers, who also availed themselves largely of the skins of game for clothing and other purposes, deerskin or buckskin forming a large part of this attire, particularly for sport or work in the woods.
Autumn husking bees and country dances were recreations of the riverside folk and it is easy to see that here was no Puritan community but one which enjoyed the good things of life, after periods of strenuous toil. Barns and dwellings were raised by "bees" in which the neighborhood participated. Sports, dancing and solid and liquid refreshments followed in profusion. The final feast seemed an indispensable part of all social and most religious observances.
As the Dutch were such a considerable portion of the valley population, particularly in the eastern end and were scattered largely through the remainder some idea of their characteristics may be gained from Mrs. [Anne MacVicar] Grant's word pictures of life in Albany in the middle of the eighteenth century, included in her "Memoirs of an American Lady." These things would apply to the Low Dutch of the town of Schenectady or, with a rural setting, to those in other parts of the valley and we must remember that the Dutch influence and customs were very strong in every part of the state in those days, including Tryon County.
Mrs. Grant says that the houses were very neat within and without and were of stone or brick. The streets were broad and lined with shade trees. Each house had its garden and before each door a tree was planted and shaded the stoops or porches, which were furnished with spacious seats on which domestic groups were seated on summer evenings. Each family had a cow, fed in a common pasture at the end of the town. At evening the herd returned altogether of their own accord, with their tinkling bells hung at their necks, along the wide and grassy street, to their wonted sheltering trees, to be milked at their masters' doors. On pleasant evenings the stoops were filled with groups of old and young of both sexes discussing grave questions or gayly chatting and singing together. The mischievous gossip was unknown for intercourse was so free and friendship so real that there was no place for such a creature, and politicians seldom disturbed these social gatherings. A peculiar social custom arranged the young people in congenial companies, composed of equal numbers, of both sexes, quite small children being admitted, and the association continued until maturity. The result was a perfect knowledge of each other and happy and suitable marriages resulted. The summer amusements of the young were simple, the principal one being picnics, often held upon the pretty islands near Albany or in "the bush." These were days of pure enjoyment, for everybody was unrestrained by conventionalities. In winter the frozen Hudson would be alive with merry skaters of both sexes. Small evening parties were frequent and were generally the sequel of quilting parties. The young men sometimes enjoyed convivial parties at taverns but habitual drunkenness was extremely rare.
Slavery was common in the Mohawk Valley and some plantations had a score or more slaves. The price of labor was so enormously high, because of the sparse population, that the importation of negroes had become a prime industrial necessity and they were then very numerous in the province of New York. Mrs. Grant speaks of slavery in Albany and her remarks are pertinent to the valley as well. She says:
"African slavery was seen at Albany and vicinity in its mildest form. It was softened by gentleness and mutual attachments. It appeared patriarchial and a real blessing to the negroes. Master and slave stood in the relation of friends. Immoralities were rare. There was no hatred engendered by neglect, cruelty and injustice; and such excitements as the 'Negro Plots' of 1712 and 1741 in New York City were impossible. Industry and frugality ranked among the cardinal virtues of the people."
These seem to have been negro slave conditions in this section up to 1827, when slavery was finally abolished in New York. The slaves were allowed much liberty and had their full share of celebrations and jollifications such as Christmas and New Year. Many were freed by their owners, for good service or other reasons and in all the local records we find few incidents of cruelty or abuse on the part of the white man to the black.
The people generally were religious. The principal church organizations were the Dutch Reformed, the Lutheran, English Episcopal and the Presbyterian. This was due to the racial elements of the state's settlers which were Dutch, German, English, Scotch, Irish and Huguenot French, and these elements penetrated to some extent into practically all the counties of the province, including Tryon. There was much freedom of thought and action among the people that fostered a spirit of independence. They were not bound hand and foot by rigid religious and political creeds, as were the people of New England, but were thoroughly imbued with the toleration inherited from the first Dutch settlers, and theological disputes were seldom indulged in.
Here and there were men of acute intelligence and fine minds who possessed initiative and the power of expressing themselves simply, clearly and forcefully. These were the leaders who were to be in the van in the impending struggle.
All the foregoing pictures to us the Mohawk Valley people, their lands, customs, manners and play at the period just antedating the war for independence. This account is considered worthy of its length in portraying the men and women who were to be actors in and around this valley frontier in the coming bitter struggle which finally ended in American independence after eight years of bloody warfare which left the Mohawk and Schoharie River sections trails of blackened ruins.
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One of the most delightful bits of writing ever produced in the Mohawk Valley is an ingenuous chronicle, entitled "A Narrative, embracing the History of two or three of the First Settlers and their Families, of Schenectady, interspersed with a few Anecdotal Eccentricities and Antiquities. Together with a Description of the Winter Evening Visits, Recreations and Supper, and of the Tea Parties of Olden Times. By Daniel Toll, M. D., Schenectady, February 25, 1847." Doctor Toll was a descendant of Karel Haensen Toll, one of the first Dutch settlers of Schenectady township. In his own natural, droll fashion, the Doctor of Old Dorp has produced a book which Irving himself would envy in parts. His description of that amusing Mohawk Dutchman, Karel Haensen Toll, and his pen pictures of the old Dutch life of the Schenectady neighborhood are both historical and delightful. The Doctor's description of a Schenectady Dutch Colonial dame's afternoon tea party, is as follows:
"Formerly the common appellation of woman was applied to those that were married, and that of girls and maids, or old maids, to those that were unmarried; they however, nevertheless made excellent wives and housekeepers, with a few exceptions as in all cases. Although they did not consider it necessary to spend their time in idleness, and to play up the lady, they were, however, not altogether destitute of recreation and amusement, but far otherwise; and one of those was in visiting a neighbor in parties, and which was in the following manner. The time and the place being agreed upon, they would leave home at one o'clock, but not at four or five o'clock as our ladies nowadays, and on leaving home the one would take her spinning-wheel, the other with her sowing-basket, and another with her knitting, the remainder with their etceteras; their dress generally, on those occasions, consisted of a pair of French high-heel shoes, blue stockings, with a gore of white on each side of the ankle, a callamanco petticoat, a chintz short gown, and, in high times, a black ribbon around the waist whose ends would generally be of some length and left floating in the air, a check apron and a high crowned cap with a few trimmings, a large side pocket, wrought with rich patchwork, hanging by their side, and containing various necessaries, but to the exclusion of a quizzing-glass. This constituted their going abroad dress. Now, having arrived at the dwelling of their host, they would, after the passing of the usual greetings and compliments with their host, which follows on those occasions, they would set themselves in the room and arrange themselves in the most convenient order and commence their work, and for edification and instruction they would carry on a conversation on housekeeping, weaving and spinning, the making of linen and the art of good cooking, generally and most certainly how to do washing and cleaning house well.
"Now precisely at four o'clock, the tea-table was to be prepared and ready; but if the time could not be ascertained by a house-clock or sun-dial, three or four of the women would step out of doors and stare old Sol in the face and ascertain the precise time, at least as they supposed to their satisfaction, for the table to be prepared. This, by-the-by, was no ordinary undertaking, on account of its magnitude which was a large round table standing against the wall which had facilities of being let down and of being raised up; this was required to be brought to the middle of the room, which took almost as much labor as to move a cider-mill, and which would then be covered with a diaper table-cloth, as white as the driven snow; the teacups and saucers arranged in a circle around the outer edge of the table, and, by the side of each cup and saucer, was placed a large slice of bread, a knife, a lump of maple sugar, and, on high days, a lump of loaf sugar; in the center a large sugar-bowl, a plate of dried smoked beef, elegantly cut with a jack-plane, a tea-saucer, filled with powdered or grated pot-cheese (which, by-the-by, was equal to the best Parmesan cheese Italy produces), and not forgetting a large plate of butter, the remainder of etceteras was made up of krullas, ola kooks, and wauffles, which generally constituted the festive board. Things being all ready, the old matron would invite them to the table, saying
"'Come vrouwlay, sit yully baye.'
"Now, after eating and drinking with a full modicum of chit chat on the excellency of the things on the table, the teacups would become empty; they were then to be replenished but, mind, not with a salver and handed around as now-a-days, but a buxom girl, blessed with rosy cheeks and florid countenance, would get up and, with a tea-pot in each hand — the one filled with the infusion the other filled with hot water — to enable her to let them have it strong or weak according to their taste; thus equipped, she would pour the tea through the intervals or spaces left between the guests setting around the table; but should they be so hustled or crowded together so close as to make this impracticable, she would, under such circumstances, be obliged to pour the tea over their heads and shoulders, and would, on some occasions, have the misfortune of spilling a little hot tea, or of ruffling or bruising one of their caps; then you would hear a vociferation:
"'Hara yate paussyea, up maine mutze yow voordoomda smutz.'
"This would cause a little fluttering around the table, but that difficulty, however, was soon forgot by quaffing and sipping their favorite beverage and partaking of the dainties the tea-table afforded. After finishing their tea, every one set down to her work until near sun-down and no longer, so as to enable her to reach home in good season to manage her own household affairs, as all good house-keepers feel disposed to do. We, however, would not wish to be understood that we had no ladies in former times; so far from it, that, in addition to women and girls, we had some venerable matrons who possessed all the attributes that would properly entitle them to the dignified appellation of ladies, who were richly endowed, possessing a dignified appearance, pleasing manners, a well cultivated mind, and able to trace their pedigree to an honorable ancestry, and, like unto Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus, a Roman nobleman, who would not spend her time in ease and luxury, but be spinning in the midst of her maids, cheerfully portioning out their task. And thus would our matrons instil and infuse the same industrious, frugal and dignified character of her own into their daughters which would likewise entitle them to the dignified appellation of ladies; and, if a likely, spruce looking young man should have the good fortune to obtain the hand of one of them, he would consider her a fortune in her person, independent of her feather-beds, silver mug and spoons, milch-cow and a good many other etceteras that would follow his matrimonial connection."
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Life in the Mohawk Valley in Colonial days was not all one of barbaric hardship. The elements of culture, intellectual life and fashionable society even then were present in our Valley, particularly about Schenectady, Johnson Hall and Fort Johnson. When the Seven Years War ended in 1760, Schenectady was then a century-old city — a city, in fact, in that day. Neither was society along the Mohawk entirely one of crude frontier aspect. The Johnson family formed the local center of a small aristocratic class which, perhaps, outshone in brilliancy any similar modern groups in the Mohawk Valley. The Dutch burghers of Schenectady also had acquired a measure of wealth which gave their more sombre social gatherings an air of quality and honest merit. In intellectual matters the Valley of pre-Revolutionary days was not entirely lacking. Indeed it is the contrast of a high-type of European culture placed against the sturdy roughness of the pioneer's life and the painted, blood-stained savagery of the Indians, which gives Colonial life in the Mohawk Valley its markedly picturesque character. No other section of the American Colonies had these unusual features to such an extent as the border region of the Mohawk river — both the Gateway to the West and the Old New York Frontier.
Because, even the most educated of Mohawk Valley people could not spell correctly, does not argue against the presence of culture in Colonial Valley days. Deficiency in spelling was then a world-wide complaint.
Among the few Mohawk Valley men of marked intellect and culture, was Samuel Fuller of Schenectady. He was a descendant of Dr. Samuel Fuller one of the Mayflower's passengers in 1620. Samuel Fuller first came to Schenectady in 1758, when he was engaged as an army engineer in construction work for General Abercrombie's ill-fated expedition against Ticonderoga. He continued in the service of the British-American army until 1761, when he returned to Schenectady. Mr. Fuller was an architect as well as an engineer and his ability is evidenced by a number of structures of Colonial days now standing along or near the Mohawk. Mr. Fuller designed and built St. George's Episcopal Church in Schenectady, which has had many additions but which still retains its original structure complete. Among Schenectady houses designed and built by Mr. Fuller was the John Glen house at Washington Avenue, where General Washington passed a night in 1775. This house has been greatly injured by additions and so-called "improvements." It is a shining example of the fact that architectural changes are not necessarily improvements. Architect Fuller also designed and built the Daniel Campbell house and the Ten Eyck house, later occupied by Governor Joseph C. Yates.
Mr. Fuller built Guy Park in 1766, which has since suffered marked change; he designed and built the Tryon County Court House in Johnstown in 1772, which is now the Fulton County Court House and stands as originally constructed. It is entirely probable that Samuel Fuller designed Johnson Hall, as its architectural detail is superior to that made by an ordinary carpenter and builder of the time.
One of the most historic and interesting Mohawk Valley structures, designed and built by Mr. Fuller, during the period covered in this chapter, is the General Herkimer Home at Fall Hill, near Little Falls, which now stands exactly as erected in 1764. The detail of its interior woodwork is original in form and shows a master designer's hand.
Although the Valley structures mentioned above are simple in form, they nevertheless are of a superior Colonial style of architecture and reflect the ability of the only Mohawk Valley pre-Revolutionary architect of note. Mr. Fuller located in Schenectady and had a large family. One grandson, General William Kendall Fuller, became a pioneer at Chittenango in 1816, and one of the most prominent citizens of Madison County.