The Catskill Mountains and the region around ... Their scenery, legends and history; with sketches in prose and verse, by Cooper, Irving, Bryant, Cole and others ... Revised edition

Front matter

THE Catskill Mountains AND THE Region Around. Their Scenery, Legends, and History ; WITH SKETCHES IN PROSE AND VERSE, BY Cooper, Irving, Bryant, Cole, and others. BY Rev. CHARLES ROCKWELL, DUTCH DOMINIE OF THE CATSKILLS, AND AUTHOR OF " FOREIGN TRAVEL AND LIFE AT SEA." " This prospect vast, — what is it ? Viewed aright, 'tis Nature's system of Divinity, 'Tis elder Scripture, writ by God's own hand ; Scripture authentic, — uncorrupt by Man." — A kenside. REVISED EDITION. NEW YORK : TAINTOR BROTHERS & CO., 229 BROADWAY. 1867. Entered according to Atfrof >Congrep^ffi(ti>,ejyear 1867, by TAINTOR^K0TME^& CO., In the Clerk's Office of the District'CouWoFJhe United States for the Southern District 0? New York. The New York Printing Company, 8i, 83, and 85 Centre Street. DEDICATION. To the General Reader who may wish through other eyes than his own to look on the beauty and magnificence of nature ; to the inhabitants of the counties of Greene, Ulster, and Schoharie, fond of the history and traditions of their fathers ; to the multitudes who have visited the mountains, and love to read and think of them, and to the thousands who each year visit them, with those who may do so in time to come, this work is respect fully inscribed by The Author.

Preface

. Early in the year 1860, the writer, or more properly, perhaps, the compiler of this work, was led, by profes sional duty, and the healthful climate of the mountains, to make his home in a place of peculiar and romantic beauty, on one of the lower cliffs of the Catskill range, directly in front of the high projection on which the Mountain House stands. Parochial visits, funerals, weddings, and excursions with friends from abroad, led to peculiar familiarity with scenes, objects and events of interest, in and near the mountains, as also with historical and traditionary matter, of permanent value and importance. Events of early Indian and pioneer history were also met with, connected with war, captivity, and patriotic martyrdom, recorded only in early newspapers, manuscripts and pamphlets, rare, difficult to be found, and so worn and torn by long and frequent reading, as to have well-nigh passed away.

So, too, there were aged men, who, with their fathers, were pioneers in the mountain wilderness, some of whom were, like Nimrod, mighty hunters, both of men Preface. VI and beasts of prey; who had fought with and overcome, bears, panthers, Indians, and tories. With these, too, were women, long and late dwellers on earth, some of whom had lived near a century and remembered well the whole of our Revolutionary War, and events earlier than that. What they knew and told ought not surely to pass away and be forgotten. There were also only small and imperfect guide-books to places and objects of interest in and near the moun tains, and a compilation, far from full and complete, of what has been written with regard to them, by authors of high literary and historic fame. In preparing this work, too, the writer has thought, incorrectly it may be, that its historical and traditionary matter, with the glowing record and description of mountain scenery, legends, and history, by some of the most gifted and brilliant writers of our own and other lands, would be of scarcely less interest and value to the general reader than to those who visit the mountains.

It is also true of most of those who go there, that they see but a small part of the most interest ing scenery, and may hence wish to learn what they can of it from the pages of such a work as this. As looked upon, also, from a strictly religious and pro fessional point of view, the author has felt that the time, thought, and labor, which for several years have, as occa sion required, been bestowed upon this work, were not wholly useless and misplaced. God himself reared the everlasting mountains and perpetual hills, as emblems Preface. VII most impressive of Almighty power and endless duration ; thus ever teaching us lessons of humility and awe, which it is well for us to consider ourselves, and to urge upon others. Mountains, too, have ever been the rich store house of heavenly blessings, and the chosen conductors by which the Most High has conveyed to man health and wealth, and has clothed the earth with fertility and beauty.

From mountains come the sources of mineral wealth, and they draw from the clouds the moisture which makes glad the earth. As the Psalmist truly says of God, " He send eth the springs into the valleys which run among the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field. He watereth the hills from his chambers ; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of his works. He causeth grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man, that he may bring forth food out of the earth." Thus, true indeed is it, that The rude mountain, towering to the sky, Whose barren cliffs no food for man supply ; Arrests the moisture ot the passing cloud, Which veils its summit with a sable shroud ; Thus pouring forth through chasms stern and wild, Mid rocks on rocks in lofty masses piled ; The mountain torrent rushes fiercely down, Where towering cliffs in solemn grandeur frown ; Then gently flowing through the lowland vale, Spreads life and verdure where life else would fail.

Mountains too, as rearing their bare and lofty heads to heaven, and pointing thither ; hoary with age, or crowned with glittering whiteness and spotless purity, like those Preface. VIII which cheer and bless the world of life and light on high ; as thus lofty, and thus crowned, they have been the chosen places of the Divine presence and power on earth, and for ever stand as consecrated monuments of the greatness and glory of God, as made known to man in connection with them. The glittering summit of Mount Ararat was the prepared resting-place of man in passing from the old world to the new, and ever reminds us of that great event. Mount Moriah was the altar from which the humble, holy faith of Abraham shone so brightly forth upon the world. On Sinai, God in mighty power descended. On Tabor heavenly visitants came down to cheer our Saviour in view of coming agony and woe ; and from Olivet he ascended in triumph to heaven.

Well, too, has the inspired poet said of the Most High : " Who by his strength setteth fast the mountains, being girded with power. In his hands are the deep places of the earth ; the strength of the hills is his also." While the prophet, in still loftier strains, has spoken of the Lord of all, where he says, " God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. He stood and measured the earth ; He beheld and drove asunder the nations ; and the everlasting mountains were scattered; the perpetual hills did bow. His ways are everlasting." But aside from health, and wealth, and pleasure, as connected with mountains, and their great moral and religious teachings, which may be known and read by all, Preface. IX there is also a direct personal, spiritual lesson, which we may well learn from them, and wisely put in practice.

Augustine, in his Confessions, says : " Men travel far to climb high mountains, to observe the majesty of the ocean, to trace the sources of rivers, while they neglect them selves." Petrarch, having read this passage on the sum mit of the Alps, exclaimed : " Admirable reasoning ! Ad mirable thought ! " " If," said he, " I have undergone so much labor in climbing this mountain, that my body might be nearer heaven, what ought I not to do in order that my soul may be received into those immortal regions." Thus, too, should we all so read the Book of Nature which God has spread out before us, that to us there may ever be " Tongues in trees, sermons in stones, Books in the running brooks, and good in everything. It is further true that the saints of former ages have often found a refuge from the tempest, and a hiding-place from the storm of persecuting cruelty and rage "in moun tains and deserts, in dens and caves of the earth."

In view of such protection and deliverance too, as from lofty mountain heights they have, in safety, looked down upon their baffled foes, far, far below them, how often have they felt as did the old Waldensians, when from the moun tain tops they sang the hallelujah chorus of their noble hymn : " For the strength of the hills we bless thee, Our God, our fathers' God." Preface. X In connection with the name of the author on the title page of this work, he is styled " Dutch Dominie of the Catskills." Some years since Rev. Dr. Murdock, for merly pastor of the Reformed Dutch Church in Catskill, wrote an historical romance with the title above, the hero of which was Dominie Schunneman, who had charge of the Dutch churches in Greene County, east of the moun tains, and resided in Leeds, where he died late in the last century.

As he lived eight miles from the mountains, while the author of this work was pastor of a Dutch church among the mountains, and himself lived there, he has, as a matter of humor or caprice, merely assumed the title in question. The author's early professional labors were, for years, on board a man-of-war in our navy, and he published on his return from sea two volumes, of more than eight hundred pages in all, entitled " Sketches of Foreign Travel, and Life at Sea ; including a Cruise on board a Man-of-War, as also a visit to Spain, Portugal, the south of France, Italy, Sicily, Malta, the Ionian Islands, Continental Greece, Liberia, and Brazil, and a Treatise on the Navy of the United States." It was well received by the pub lic, while the notices of it by the press were much more full and favorable than the author had anticipated.

This is the book referred to on the title-page of the present work. CONTENTS. Page Chapter I Discovery and Early History i Chapter II. Early History continued — Geography and Geology of the Mountains 19 Chapter III. Ulster County __ Chapter IV. Incidents of Revolutionary History 52 Chapter V. Narratives and Adventures of Revolutionary Prisoners 68 Chapter VI. Sufferings and Escapes of Prisoners — Ravages of Tories and Indians 86 Chapter VII. The Osterhout Narrative - Schoharie County 107 Chapter VI 1 1. Early Hunters and their Adventures Contents. XII Page Chapter IX. WMAnimals 139 Chapter X. Legends — Biographical Sketches 148 Chapter XI. The Catskill Mountains, by Irving 16? Chapter XII. Mountain Scenery— Cooper's " Pioneers " — " Rip Van Winkle " 177 Chapter XIII. Sketches, by Willis Gaylord Clark, N. P. Willis, Park Benjamin, Harriet Martineau, Mrs. Ellet, Dr. Murdoch, Bayard Taylor, and Rev. Dr. Cuyler 209 Chapter XIV.

Thomas Cole, the Artist 263 Chapter XV. The Cauterskill Falls, by Cole— " The Dutch Dominie of the Catskills".. 288 Chapter XVI. Autumn and Winter Scenery — Summer Resorts 315 Chapter XVII. "The Cauterskill Falls," by Bryant — Directions for Visiting the Scenes of the Mountains — Conclusion AND THE REGION AROUND.

Chapter I

Hendrick Hudson. — His vessel. — Newark Bay. — Attack by the Indians.— Man killed. — Colman's Point. — Two Indians seized. — Traffic with Indians. — Yonkers. — West Point. — Escape of the Indians. — Catskill Indians. — Hudson. — Schodac. — Castleton. — Visit to an Indian Chief. — Dog-meat. — Albany. — Trade with Indians. — Return to Catskill and New York.- — Voyages of Hudson. — Hudson's Bay and Strait. — Mutiny. — His fate and that of his crew. — Humorous Sketch of Hudson by Irving. — Robert Juet. — Names of the River. — Indians near it. — Fight near Catskill. — Number of Indians there in 1701. — Indians in Schoharie. — Catskill Tories. — Routed by Captain Long. — Murphy and Elerson. — General Morgan. — His Riflemen. — A member of Congress. — Adventures of Murphy and Elerson. — Boyd and Parker. — Their Fate. — Murphy's Escape. — His Courtship and Marriage. — Scouting Party. — Invasion of Johnson and Brant — Flag of Truce. — Major Woolsey. — Indians killed by Murphy. — He shot General Fraser. — Sawyer's Escape from Indians. — Harper and Brant. — Massacre of Indians. — Fate of Harper and his Party. — David Elerson.

WITH a view to give greater fulness and clearness to this work, by casting the light of early events on those of later times, a brief sketch will here be given of the first discovery of the Hudson River, and the country along its banks, by the brave and enterprising old navigator whose name it bears. From the history of the cruise of Hendrick Hudson, in his vessel or yacht, the Half Moon, we learn that on September 7, 1609, while one of his boats was returning to his vessel, then lying in New ark Bay, one of his men, an Englishman, named John Col man, was killed, the boat having been attacked by two canoes full of Indians. He was shot in the throat by an arrow ; and as he had been a companion of Hudson's in his Polar adventures, having buried him on the beach, he named Sandy Hook " Colman's Point," in honor of him.

September 11. — Several canoes full of Indian warriors having come off to his vessel, he seized two of the Indians as hostages, and, putting red coats on them, carried them with him up the river. Having passed the Narrows, In dians came on board, " making shows of love." The next morning, September 12, twenty-eight canoes, made of hollowed trees, and crowded with men, women, and children, came off to the yacht. They were not permitted to come on board, but their oysters and beans were purchased. September 13. — The vessel was anchored just above Yonkers. September 15. — As the morning was misty, they anchor ed near West Point, by the Matteawan Mountains, the Indian name for the Highlands. When the Half Moon was getting under way from there, the two Indian captives leaped from the portholes, and, scornfully deriding the crew, swam ashore.

Running sixty miles up the river, Hudson arrived, near evening, opposite the "mountains which lie from the river's side," and anchored near Cat skill Landing, where he found a "very loving people, and very old men." This latter fact showing the healthful in fluence of the mountain air. September 16. — Friendly natives flocked on board, with ears of Indian corn, pumpkins, and tobacco, which were readily bought for trifles. In the afternoon, they went six miles higher up, and anchored near the marshes in the river, opposite where Hudson now is. September 18. — They anchored between Schodac and Castleton, eighteen miles above Hudson, where Hudson went ashore in a canoe, with an old Indian, who was the chief of a tribe of forty men and seventeen women. There was a house, well constructed of oak bark, circular in shape, with an arched roof.

The Indians had a great quantity of corn and beans. Two mats were spread, and food was brought in red, wooden bowls. Two men were sent to the woods with bows and arrows, for game, who brought back a pair of pigeons. A fat dog was also killed, and skinned in great haste with shells taken from the water. Before Hudson left for his ship, at night, the Indians, thinking that the reason why he would not remain with them until morning was, that he was afraid of their weapons, took their arrows, and, breaking them in pieces before him, threw them into the fire. September 19. — Hudson sailed two leagues farther up, and anchored near where Albany now is. There the In dians came flocking on board, bringing grapes, pumpkins and beaver and otter skins, which they exchanged for beads, knives, and hatchets.

There they remained several days. While Hudson, on his return, was anchored near where the city of Hudson now is, two canoes, full of In dians, came up from Catskill, and two old men, one of whom gave him " stropes of beads," and showed him all the country thereabouts. September 27. — He ran down the river eighteen miles, sailing past the wigwams of the "loving people" at Catskill, who were " very sorrowful " for his departure, and anchored near Red Hook, where some of the crew went ashore to fish. It may be well here briefly to notice the adventures and the tragic end of the brave and enterprising navigator, Henry, or, as it is in Dutch, Hendrick, Hudson. He was a native of Great Britain ; but nothing is known of his birth, education, or early history. May I, 1607, he sailed from Gravesend, England, in search of a northern passage to India, with a small vessel, manned by ten men and a boy ; explored the eastern coast of Green land, as far north as latitude 80 ; discovered the Island of Spitsbergen, and, being stopped by the ice, returned September 15, of the same year.

April 22, 1608, he sought a northwest passage between Spitsbergen and Nova Zembla, failed to find one, and returned in four months. He then went to Holland, entered the service of the Dutch East India Company, and April 6, 1609, sailed in the yacht Half Moon for the northeastern coast of Asia, but driven back by the extreme cold, and turning towards America, reached the coast near Portland, Maine, July 28 ; remained there six days ; his men abused and had trouble with the Indians ; reached Cape Cod August 3d ; the entrance of Chesapeake Bay, the 28th ; discovered Delaware Bay, and from thence went to Sandy Hook, Coney Island, Newark Bay, and up the North River. In April, 1610, he sailed for the northeast coast of America, discovered Hudson's Bay and Strait in June and July, wintered there, after which his crew mutinied, and put him and nine men, who were mostly sick and lame, in an open boat, in Hudson's Strait, abandoned them, and they were never heard of more.

The leaders in this mutiny were killed soon after by the Indians on the coast. Robert Juet, the companion and journalist of Hudson in former voyages, died of hunger on shipboard ; and a small remnant of the crew reached Ireland in a condition of extreme weakness and exhaustion, from hunger and exposure on the sea. The humorous account which follows, of the discoveries of Hendrick Hudson, and of the hardy old navigator him self, is from " Knickerbocker's History of New York," by Washington Irving, Book ii, Chapter I. " In the ever-memorable year of our Lord 1609, on a Saturday morning, the five and twentieth day of March, Old Style, did Master Henry Hudson set sail from Hol land, in a stout vessel called the Half Moon, being em ployed by the Dutch East India Company to seek a north west passage to China.

Henry, or, as the Dutch historians call him, Hendrick, Hudson was a seafaring man of renown, who had learned to smoke tobacco under Sir Walter Raleigh, and is said to have been the first to introduce it into Holland, which gained him much popularity in that country. He was a short, square, brawny old gentleman, with a double chin, a mastiff mouth, and a broad copper nose, which was supposed to have acquired its fiery hue from the constant neighborhood of his tobacco-pipe. He wore a true Andrea Ferrara (a sword so called), tucked in a leathern belt, and a commodore's cocked hat on the side of his head. He was remarkable for always jerking up his breeches when he gave out his orders ; and his voice sounded not unlike the brattling of a tin trumpet, owing to the number of hard northwesters he had swallowed in the course of his sea-faring life.

" As chief mate and favorite companion, the Commodore chose Master Robert Juet, of Limehouse, England. By some his name has been spelled Chewit, and ascribed to the circumstance that he was the first man that ever chewed tobacco. He was an old comrade and early schoolmate of Hudson, with whom he had often played truant, and sailed chip-boats in a neighboring pond, when they were boys ; from whence, it is said, the Commodore first derived his bias towards a sea-faring life. Juet wrote a history of the voyage, at the request of the Commodore, who had an unconquerable aversion to writing himself, from having received so many floggings about it when at school. " Hudson had laid in an abundance of gin and sour-crout ; and every man was allowed to sleep quietly at his post, unless the wind blew.

He acted moreover in direct con tradiction of that ancient and sage rule of the Dutch navi gators, who always took in sail at night, put the helm aport, and turned in ; by which precaution they had a good night's rest, were sure of knowing where they were the next morning, and stood but little chance of running down a continent in the dark. He likewise prohibited the seamen from wearing more than five jackets, and six pairs of breeches, under pretence of rendering them more alert ; and no man was permitted to go aloft, and hand in sails, with a pipe in his mouth, as is the invariable Dutch custom at the present day. They ate hugely, drank profusely, and slept immeasurably ; and, being under the especial guidance of Providence, the ship was safely conducted to the coast of America, where, on the fourth day of September, she entered that majestic bay which, at this day, expands its ample bosom before the city of New York.

When Hud son first saw this enchanting island, he is said to have turned to Master Juet, and uttered these remarkable words, while he pointed towards this paradise of the new world, — ' See ! there ! ' — and thereupon he did puff out such clouds of dense tobacco-smoke, that in one minute the vessel was out of sight of land, and Master Juet was fain to wait until the winds dispersed this impenetrable fog. " The river which emptied into the bay, it is said, was known to the Indians by the name of the Shatemuck ; though we are assured in an excellent little history, published in 1674, by John Josselyn, Gent, that it was called the Mohegan, and Master Richard Bloome, who wrote some time afterwards, asserts the same. This river is also laid down in Ogilvy's Map as Manhattan, Noodrt Mon taigne, and Mauritius River."

It is claimed that the name " Hudson " was first given to the river by the English, at an early date, in honor of their countryman, who first discovered it ; though Irving speaks of it as first given by the Dutch. The Indians who, at an early date, were on the Hudson River, in the present counties of Ulster and Greene, were the Mingua clans of Minnisinks, Nanticokes, Mincees, and Delawares. They came from the upper valley of the Delaware, which the Dutch called " The Land of Baca," and, following the Neversink River and the Great Esopus Creek, reached the North River. They were called, by the Dutch, Esopus Indians, from Seepus, a river. It is said that the Dutch early built a rondout, or fort, near the creek ; and hence came the name of "Rondout," given to the region around the fort. Wiltwyck, which means " In dian village," was near.

The word " Minnisink," as applied to these Indians, came from the word " Minnis," or "island," which was in the upper waters of the Delaware, in the region where the missionary Brainerd so successfully la bored among the Indians. The wigwams of these River Indians extended through Ulster and Greene counties, along the river to Kuxakee, or Coxsackie, which means " place of cut banks," the river there having cut or washed away the banks by a strong flow or current towards the west. The Indians on the east side of the river were called Mohiccans, or, by the Dutch, Mohikanders. Beyond the Minnisinks and other Esopus Indians on the west side of the river, from Castle Island up, were the fierce Maguaas, or Mohawks, northward, to the lake of the Iroquois, or Champlain, west, through the valley of the Mohawk, and south, to the sources of the Susquehanna.

De Vries, in sailing up the Hudson, April 27, 1640, came to " the Esoopus " where a creek emptied, and the Indians had some cleared cornland. In the evening they reached " the Catskill," where there was some open land, on which the Indians were planting corn. Up to this place the river-banks were " all stony and hilly, and were thought " unfit for dwellings. Brown, in his " History of Schoharie," relates as a matter of tradition that the Mohawks and the River Indians be ing bitter enemies, a battle was fought between the Mohe gans, living east of the river, and the Mohawks, on Wan ton Island, near Catskill, with a view to decide which tribe should have the honor of naming or choosing a king from their own number. Having fought a whole day, and the Mohegans getting the advantage of the Mohawks, the latter tribe retired to another island, where they made fires and hung their blankets on the bushes, so as to give them the appearance of men.

The Mohegans attacked the blankets in the night, and being plainly seen by the Mohawks by the light of their fires, they rushed upon and defeated them. A treaty was then made by which the Mohawks were to have the king, and the Mohegans were to reverence them and call them Uncle, as a title of honor. In a petition of the Catskill Indians to Hon. John Nan fan, " Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief of New Yorke, in America, and Vice-Admiral of the same," under date of July 18, 170 1, they say, "We are now two hundred fighting-men, belonging to this County of Albany, from Katskill to Skachkook, and hope to increase, in a year's time, to three hundred." They say also that it was then ninety years since Christians (whites) came amon° them, and speak of the peace there had ever been between the two races there.

Thus, too, it continued to be. It is said that Schoharie was first settled by a French Indian, who had been taken prisoner by the Mohawks, and had married a wife from that tribe ; his father-in-law having sent him to Schoharie, fearing that he might be killed by the Mohawks, when drunk, as they hated the French Indians. Others from the Mohawks, Mohegans, Tuscaroras, Delawares, and Oneidas came to him, until they were three hundred strong, and had chiefs who pre tended to own the whole region around, and sold and gave deeds of it. The tories among the Catskill Mountains in Saugerties, Catskill, Hunter, Cairo, and elsewhere, during the Revo lutionary War, were leaders and guides to the Indians in their expeditions for plundering, burning, taking captives, and murdering in that region, and had supplies of provisions concealed in the forest and among the rocks, on as far as the Delaware, Susquehanna, Chemung, and Genesee rivers, on the pathway of Indians and their captives to Canada.

In 1778, Captain Long, of Schoharie County, met there a company of tories from near Catskill, who had been en listed by Captain Smith for the British service, under Sir John Johnson, then at Niagara, whither they were march ing. Murphy and Elerson, two famous marksmen and Indian-fighters from Virginia, who had belonged to Mor gan's celebrated riflemen, at the South, were with Long. As Smith issued from the woods, in advance of his men, he was shot by Elerson and Long, and his men fled. Smith and his party had intended to spend the night with a prominent tory in Schoharie named Service. Long forthwith led his men there ; and Murphy and Elerson, en tering his house, made Service a prisoner. When coming out of his house he seized an axe, and aimed a blow at the head of Murphy, who quickly sprung aside, and avoided it, and in a moment Service was killed by the rifle of Elerson.

Daniel Morgan, to whose celebrated company of rifle men Murphy and Elerson belonged, was a native of New Jersey, and born in 1737. When eighteen years of age he went to Virginia ; was with Braddock in his expedition in 175; as a wagoner ; retorted an insult of a British officer who then tried to run him through with his sword ; whipped the officer ; was sentenced to receive five hun dred lashes ; fainted when he had received four hundred and fifty, and the officer, convinced of his wrong, apolo gized to him. In 1775 he came to Cambridge, Massachu setts, with his riflemen ; in the autumn of that year was with Arnold in his fearful march of forty days through the forests of Maine and Canada to Montreal ; aided in putting down the Whiskey Insurrection in Pennsylvania in 1794, was chosen a member of Congress in 1799, and served two years.

His riflemen, a part if not all of them, were in Schoharie during part of the Revolutionary War. David Elerson, the companion-in-arms of Timothy Murphy, was at the head of Otsego Lake in 1779, when ten or twelve Indians came suddenly upon him ; seizing his rifle, he ran for his life, they hurling their tomahawks at him, one of which nearly cut off his middle finger. They then pursued him from eleven o'clock until three. An Indian whom he met fired and made a flesh wound in his side. Soon after this, exhausted by the race and by loss of blood, he stopped to drink, when, looking behind him, he saw one of his pursuers rising over the brow of a hill in the rear. Him he shot ; and, having loaded his rifle, he hid himself in a hollow tree, where he remained two days, when, crawling out, he found his way to Cobleskill.