Trappers of New York, or, A biography of Nicholas Stoner & Nathaniel Foster; together with anecdotes of other celebrated hunters, and some account of Sir William Johnson, and his style of living

Front matter

MAJOR NICHOLAS STONER,

A8 ACCOUTRED FOR THE FOREST.

OR A BIOGRAPHY OF

Chapter I. •

Parentage of Nicholas Stoner — Description of his person — His trapper's dress — His schooling — First s'^ttlement of Fonda's Bush — Signification of the name — First settlement at Fish House — Some account of Sir William Johnson — His style of living at Johnson Hall — His household — First school-house in Johnstown — School children how treated — Manners taught — Anecdote of Jacob Shew at school — Schools of former days in New England and New York — Johnson's Fish House when built — Its site — Fonda's Bush — Plank-roads and stage routes — Village of Northville — Its first settlers — First settlers at Denton's Corners - - - . Page 17

Chapter II

Reasons for Sir Wm. Johnson's locating in Johnstown — Scenery between the Mohawk and Sacondaga rivers — The great Sacondaga Vlaie — Vlaie Creek — Its source and Indian name — Origin of the marsh — Singular discovery of a lake — Stacking-ridges — Cranberries — Johnson's cottage on Summer-house point — His carriage road — Nine mile tree — Sacondaga Patent — Summer-house how built and painted — Its garden — Creeks entering the Vlaie — Origin of their names — Summer-house point in freshets — Wild game — Visit to the Point in 1849 30

Chapter III

Signification of Sacondaga — Its great angle — Name for Daly's creek how originated — Residence of Henry Wormwood — Intimacy of Sir William Johnson with his daughters — His signal for a housekeeper — Four in a bed at the Fish House — Disposal of Wormwood's family — Sale of Fish House and its farm — Cost of Sacondaga bridge — Summer House point fortified — Fate of Johnson's cottage — Willie Boiles drowned — Sale of Summer House point — Mayfield settlement — Its first mill — First mill on the Kennyetto — Anecdotes of Sir Wm. Johnson — Dunham family ----- 42

Chapter IV

Nicholas Stoner's boyhood — He enters the army — Gen. Arnold's device to raise the seige of Fort Stanwix — Evidences of the Oriskany battle — Gen. Arnold in the battle of Saratoga — Stoner and Conyne how wounded — Three Stoners on duty in Rhode Island — Anecdote of a theft — Stoner a prisoner — Capture of Gen. Prescott — Attempt to capture Stoner and others near Johnson Hall — Signification of Cayadutta — A prisoner from necessity 55

Chapter V

Baker for Johnstown Fort — Singular incident at his house, and dangerous situation of Stoner — Residence of Jeremiah Mason — His daughter Anna — The Browse family — Stoner pigeon hunting — He takes his captain on a hunt — Hunters how Alarmed — Browse family remove to Canada — Maj. Andre's gallows how constructed — Stoner eats pie near it — How he got two floggings — How the British army surrendered at Yorktown — Errors in pictures — Stoner's first day at the seige — First fire on the British works — Nicholas Hill finds many friends — Henry Stoner le ives the army — Is murdered by the Indians — Treachery of Andrew Bowman — His treatment at Johnstown fort — Prisoners made at Johnson Hall 70

Chapter VI

John Helmer in jail — Escapes from it three times — Stoner in New York at the close of the war — Is one of the band performs at Washington's leave taking — Stoner and his stool pigeon before Col. Cochrane — His return to Johnstown — First marriage of Anna Mason — Her husband how slain near Johnson Hall — Stoner's marriage — Is deputy sheriff — The Stoner brothers again in the army — British invasion of New York — Battle of Beekmantown — Anecdote of Maj. Wool — Battle of lake Champlain and death of Commodore Downie — Gen. Macomb fires a national salute — Burial of his remains

— Mourners at his grave — Celebration at Plattsburg in 1842

— Stoner again leaves the army . . _ » gg

Chapter VII

Maj. Stoner becomes a hunter — Hunter's law — How accoutred for the forest — Intemperance an attendant on war — De Fonclaiere keeps a tavern in Johnstown — How his horses ran away — Indian hunters at his house — Stoner obtains an earjewel — An Indian boasts of killing his father — Is branded with a fire-dog — The Indians leave the place — Stoner in jail

— How liberated — His celebrity in Canada - - 111

Chapter VIII

Stoner's bear-trap — Precaution in its use — Bait for beaver — Season for hunting — Accident to Capt. Jackson — Dunn in Jackson's place — Hunters' lodges how constructed — - Their larder how supplied — Johnstown hunters meet Indian trappers — Fierce quarrel at Trout lake — An Indian falls upon the shore — Dunn transfixed to a canoe — Stoner in the enemy's camp — Trophies he there obtained — Hunters return home — Stoner and Mason hunt together — Mason discovers bear's tracks — Stoner seeks an interview with Bruin — Discovers him on a log over the Sacondaga — A rifle is heard and the bear falls into the river ----- 123

Chapter IX

Stoner annoyed by a bear in his wheat and corn-fields — How he loses one leg of his pantaloons and kills the bear — A deer hunt — Hunters swamped at Stoner's island — Have a gloomy night — Frederick's gratitude toward Stoner for saving his life

— Stoner and Mason on a long hunt — Food how cooked — A peep at a hunter's camp — Out of provisions the hunters seek a settlement — Stoner almost shoots another blanketed bear — Mason arrested in Norway as a spy — Is liberated — Hunters return to the woods — They meet two Indians — Stoner mistaken for the hunter White — A quarrel — Aii Indian's deathyell — His comrade takes leg-bail — Johnstown hunters return home with three guns — Stoner suspected of smuggling merchandise — Anecdote of Green White - - - - 134

Chapter X

Hunter's Moccasons how made — Stoner hunts with Griswold — A dog eats a moccason for Griswold — The loss how repaired

— Stoner hunts with Capt. Shew at the Sacondaga Vlaie and there shoots a wolf — Stoner and Foster on a hunt trap an eagle — Different trappers with whom Stoner is associated — With an Indian partner visits the head of Grass river — There met a white hunter with a squaw — Stoner makes a map for him to go to Johnstown — Hunts with the Indian Gill — Latter spears the beaver — Stoner hunts with Obadiah Wilkins who encounters an Indian — Magic of Stoner's name — Stoner's last difficulty with Indian hunters — How he loses a trap and

CONTENTS.

fur — How he gets his trap and pay for the fur — The Sabbath how regarded by hunters — Admonition of a young Indian — Stoner's dog in trouble — Spirit of Mary Stoner - - 146

Chapter XL

Major Stoner a widower — His voluntary marriage — Again a widower — His last marriage — His present residence — Garoga and Fonda plank road — Chase's Patent — Foolish expression of Capt. Chase — Stoner a pilot for surveyors — Signification of Piseco — Goes to a settlement for food — Has a warm job of it — Law students in the forest — Ice discovered — Fourth of July how celebrated — Stoner skins a hedge-hog — Description of the country — Prospective view of it — Newspaper notice of Lake Byrn — Sundry other lakes — Lake Good-luck, why so called — Water privileges of Hamilton county — Description of the country, by Dr. Emmons — Stoner and others discover a dead man near Jesup's river — Importance of preserving Indian names - - - 160

Chapter XII

Birth place and marriage of Nathaniel Foster — Settles in Salisbury — Description of his person — His success the first year in hunting — Large game killed by him — Anecdotes of his wolf killing — Supplies museums with moose skins — Is near being shot — His rifles — A tussle with a deer — A wolf for a pet— Where Foster learned to write — Brown's tract of land — Source of Mill stream — Brown attempts to settle his lands — His death — HerreshoflT goes there — His birth place and person — Clears up land — Builds a forge — Expends large sums of money — Becomes discouraged and commits suicide — Time of his death — Inquest — Place of burial — Inscription to his memory — Cost of his iron — His taxes — Brown's tract when and by whom surveyed — Its townships — Survey of roads — Moose lake — Indian clear ing — Distance from Boonville to forge — Huckleberry lake — Surveyor kills a hedge-hog — Anecdotes of Herreshoff 175

Chapter XIII

Benchley's description of Brown's tract — Usual route to it — Use of drays — Size and power of Moose river — Present condition of early improvements on the tract — Its ore — Effect of erecting a dam — Lakes how numbered — First lake — Dog Island — Second lake — Foster's Observatory — Third lake — Grass island — Fourth lake — Line between Hamilton and Herkimer counties — Extent of tract — Respect for the Eagle — Description of the Indian Foster killed — Effect of liquor — Foster's vision — Five echoes — North Branch lakes and outlet — Fifth and Sixth lakes — Carrying place — Foster at sixty — Prospective use of a lock — Seventh lake — Beautiful view — Character of Green White — His tragic fate — His success in hunting — The hunter Williams — Place for trout — Pitch pine grove — How Foster shoots a deer — Why he would kill a doe — Eighth lake — Racket inlet — Grave of Foster's victim — Floating for deer — Jerseyfield lake — Jock's lake — Little Salmon and Black River South lakes — Physical outline of this region of country, by Lardner Vanuxem ------- 191

Chapter XIV

Brown's tract tenantless — Is a resort for hunter's — Premises leased — Lease assigned to Foster who moves there — Indian Peter Waters or Drid — A debt — Drid threatens Foster's life — Goes to his door to shoot him — An interview — Indian attempts his life — Foster before a peace officer — Apprehensions of Foster's family — Last interview between Foster and his foe — Their threats of vengeance — Foster on Indian's point — Drid's approach — His death — Foster aids in getting his body home — Foster is arrested — Note explaining cut 208

Chapter XV

Foster is arraigned before Judge Denio — Is tried and acquitted How he receives the verdict, and leaves the court room — His acquittal how received by the public — Anecdote of Joseph Brant 218

Chapter XVL

Foster's answer to Gen. Gray — Stoner's opinion of Foster's and his own skill as marksmen — How Drid's friends received his death — Advice to Foster's family — Drid's wife returns to the St. Lawrence — -Foster removes to Pennsylvania — Returns to Boonville and dies there — The Indian Hess — Importance of a country tavern — How Foster and Hess meet and part — Running fight with a moose bull — Sudden appearance of Hess — He threatens to kill Foster — Falls from a log over his own grave — Mysterious sayings — How he shot eighteen otters — His eye-sight improved by venison — Signification of Oswegatchie — How Foster carried bullets — Anecdote of his rapid firing — How he made his camp in the woods — How he accoutred for the chase - - . 241

Chapter XVII

Incidents in the life of Jock "Wright — His birth, habits and appearance — Is a soldier — Captures British oflicers — How he parts with one of them — He scalps a British ally — Visits his former prisoner in Boston — Again a hunter — The rattle snake hunter — A snake fight — Death of a panther — "Wright removes to Norway — His family — How he lost and found his jug — The hunter Nicholas — His stock in trade — A reason wanted for his habits — He hunts with "Wright — Finds lead ore — His death — Jock's lake — Crookneck the hunter — How he almost caught a deer, and got caught himself — How Uncle Jock kills two moose — His opinion of a certain

*5 CONTENTS, prayer — Gets sick and prays himself — Crookneck on snow shoes — Beaver's meat — Uncle Jock draws a pension — When he made huts — His death 253

Chapter XVm.

Some account of the beaver — Peculiarity of its flesh — Its food — Bait used for its capture — Its social habits — Its dams and dwellings how constructed — A beaver community how forewarned of danger — Habits of the otter — Its food — Form of its feet — Its sagacity in preparing its burrow— The musk-rat — Not easily exterminated — Its fate in freshets — Habits of the pine marten — Its size — The wolverine — How it annoys hunters — Its great strenth - - - 272

Appendix, p. 281.

TRAPPERS OF NEW YORK.