Trappers of New York

Front matter

Qass Book.

MAJOR NICHOLAS STONER,

A8 ACCOUTUEI) I'OK THE FOREST.

Chapter I

Parentage of Nicholas Stoner — Description of his person — His trapper's dress — His schooling — First settlement 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 1S49 „ . 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 pomt 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 ------ 65

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 leaves 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 Piattsburg in 1842

— Stoner again leaves the army - - - _ §6

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 Lo 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 ^ooked — 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 — An 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 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 hedgetog — 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 — Herreshoff 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 — Sun' ' if ox kills a hedge-hog — Anecdotes of Herreshoif 175

Chapter XIII

Bench l«y's description of Brown's tract — Usual route to it — Vse 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 |us 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 XVI

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 — Importarfle 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 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 XVIH.

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 - - . 373

Appendix, p. 281.

TEAPPERS OF NEW YORK.

Chapter I

Incidents of greater or less interest occur in the lives of almost every member of the human family, which only need be known to be justly appreciated, or subserve some good and wise purpose; but occasionally an individual crosses the broad landscape of life, whose career may be said to consist of a bundle of incidents — the greater part of whose existence is in fact so full of novelty, as to claim, for at least a portion of it, a record for the benefit or amusement of mankind. Of the latter class is Major Nicholas Stoner, some of the most romantic and daring of whose adventures are presented in the following pages.

To say that a man lived through the American Revokition and participated in its perils, is alone a sufficient guaranty that he can, if at all intelligent, recount unique and thrilling scenes as yet untold in history; but when we meet with one who has not only been exposed to the perils of an eight year's war, but has shared in the dangers and hardships of a second war — one, in truth,

whose life has been checkered with a thousand hazard-

2* ous exposures between and subsequent to those wars; we may expect, almost as a matter of course, to learn n om him not a little that will prove acceptable to the general reader, nourishing

" The seeds of happiness, and powers of thought."

The facts here given of this celebrated warrior, were noted down by the writer from his own lips at personal interviews; not a few of which have been corroborated by the testimony of others. It is the fortune of very few individuals to pass through a long life surrounded by such a variety of perils, without receiving more personal injury.

Henry Stoner, the father of Nicholas, emigrated from Germany to the American colonies, as is believed, nearly twenty years before their emancipation from British tyranny. He landed at New York, and after a short residence in that city removed to the colony of Maryland, where he married Catharine Barnes, by whom he had two sons, Nicholas and John.

Nicholas Stoner, who was about a year the senior of his brother, was born Dec. 15, 1762 or '63: which year is not now known with certainty, the family record having been burned with his father's dwelling in the Revolution. He is five feet eleven inches high, of slender but sinewy form; and though his light brown hair is now ( 1848) silvered by the frosts of fourscore winters, and his body is a little bent, yet his step is still firm without a cane, and his intellect vigorous. He has from boyhood worn a pair of small rings in his ears.

His complexion, owing to his mode of life, is now swarthy. In his younger days he must have been a man of uncommonly prepossessing personal appearance; for his acquaintances of forty years' standing, speak of him " as one of the likeliest looking men they have ever known." His walk — indeed, almost every motion — betrays his forest life, for he moves with the caution of a trapper and the stillness of a panther: added to which he becomes impatient and vexed at restraint.

The frontispiece, which gives a good likeness of him at the age of about eighty three, exhibits him accoutred as a trapper. He usually wore a fur cap when hunting, and a short coat, or cloth roundabout. A belt encircled his waist, at the foot of which was fastened a bullet pouch, and beneath which upon the left side were thrust a hatchet and knife ; while under his right arm swung a powder horn of no mean capacity. When trapping for beaver, he was often loaded with a bundle of doublespring steel traps; which were suspended beneath the left arm. The frontispiece was engraved from two daguerreotype likenesses, one of which was taken in the village of Johnstown, on the 10th of Sept., 1846; and as there was a militia general training in the village on that day, the old hero was not only accoutred with little trouble to visit the artist; but was greeted at every turn by numerous friends and acquaintances, all eager once more to grasp his hand and give him a friendly salutation. The other miniature, although it does not exhibit the old trapper in his forest garl), was taken subsequently at his place of residence, and is by far the best likeness. A borrowed cap seen in the picture, conceals much of his intelligent brow.

New York city again became the residence of Henry Stoner while his children were quite young, during which Nicholas w^ent to school and learned to read. He was sent to school by John Binkus (if I have the orthography correct), a man of wealth, who had married Miss Hannah Stoner, a sister of the young student's father. During the Revolution, this Binkus became a refugee officer in the famous corps of Gen. De Lancey. Henry Stoner, who had been a kind of trafficker or speculator in a small way since his arrival in the colonies, after a second residence in New York of a few years, resolved to become a pioneer settler, and rem'oved with his family to Fonda's Bush, a place in the Johnstow^n settlements, so called after Maj. Jelles Fonda, who took a patent for the lands. The place is sittiated about ten miles north of east from the village of Johnstown, and the same distance west of north from Amsterdam.

Fonda's Bush signifies the same as if it were called Fonda's Woods, a dense forest covering the soil at that early period — bush being the usual term for woods on the frontiers of New York. Indeed, the Sugar Bush is the present appellation given to woods from w^hich maple sugar is made. At the time of Stoner's arrival, Johnstown, though but a small village, w^as becoming known abroad; as it w^as the residence of the Baronet, Sir William Johnson (after w^hom it was called), who.

as Indian agent for the Six Nations, and as a militaryman of repute, was notorious in what was then Western New York.

As Stoner was the first settler at Fonda's Bush, he left his family in Philadelphia Bush, while he was erecting a log dwelling four miles distant. The last mentioned place, now in the town of Mayfield, obtained its name from the fact, that one or more of its first inhabitants were from Philadelphia, or the vicinity of that city. Some two years after Stoner fixed his residence in the wilderness, Joseph Scott, and about the same time Benjamin De Line, also located in his neighborhood. I say neighborhood because they were the nearest neighbors of the Stoner family; although from one to two miles distant. His residence was still on the wild-wood side of his pioneer brethren. The next man w^ho fixed his residence in the vicinity of Stoner, was Philip Helmer, who drove the wild beasts from their haunts and broke ground two miles to the eastward of him. Andrew Bowman, Herman Salisbury, John Putman, Charles Cady, and possibly one or two others, also settled in and about Fonda's Bush before the Revolution. Cady, who married a daughter of Philip Helmer, was one of the first settlers at the West village. He is believed to have gone to Canada with Sir John Johnson.

It must have been about the time of Stoner's location in Fonda's Bush, that Godfrey Shew, a German, made the first permanent location near Sir William Johnson's fishing lodge, denominated the Fish House; and situated on tLe Sacondaga river, eight miles north-east of Stoner's dwelling. Before Shew planted himself at the Fish House, several families of squatters had been there, who had gone " to parts unknown," and desirous of getting a wholesome citizen to remain there, the Baronet held out liberal inducements to Mr. Shew, of which he accepted.

In my History of Schoharie County, etc., I have given some account of Sir William Johnson, with several anecdotes of him — described his stately mansions, and told the manner of his death &c., &c.: but at the time of publishing that work, I was not aware that he had a more celebrated summer residence in the latter part of his life, than that denominated the Fish House. From conversations held within the past year ( 1849) with the aged patriot Jacob Shew, who is a son of Godfrey Shew named above, I am enabled to garner up some more incidents in the life of this gentleman, and authentic memoranda of the classic grounds under consideration, which can not fail to prove interesting to future generations, even though they are little appreciated by the present.

Sir William Johnson, after establishing himself at his Hall, in Johnstown, no doubt lived in greater affluence, or more in the style of a European nobleman of that day, than ever did any other citizen of New York. His household was quite numerous at all times, and not unfrequently was much increased by distinguished guests. He had a Secretary named LafFerty, a good lawyer who did all his legal business. He had a Bouw-master, an Irishman named Flood. Bouw is a German word signifying harvest — or as here used, an overseer of the laboring interest of the Hall farm. From ten to fifteen slaves usually worked the farm, who were under the direction of the bouw-master. The slaves lived across the Cayadutta creek from the Hall, in small dwellings erected for them. They drest much as did their Indian neighbors, except that a kind of coat was made of their blankets by the Hall tailor. His household Physician, John Dease, was a favorite nephew — being a sister's son. Dr. D. was a very companionable man, and often accompanied Sir William in his pleasure excursions. He had a Musician, a dwarf some thirty years old, who answered to the name of Billy.* He played a violin well, and was always on hand to entertain guests. He had a Gardener, who cultivated a large garden, and kept that and the grounds about the Hall as neat as a pin.f He had a Butler named Frank, an active young German, who was with him a number of years, and who made himself very useful to his master. Frank remained about the Hall until the Revolution began, when he went to Albany county. He had a Waiter named Pontiac,! a sprightly, well disposed lad of mixed blood, negro and Indian, who was generally w^ith him when * See Appendix A f Ibid. B. J Ibid. C.

from home. He had a pair of white, dwarfish-looking Waiters, who catered to his own and his guests' comfort: their surname was Bartholomew, and they are believed to have been brothers.

The secretary, physician, bouw-master, and all the waiters remained, after the death of Sir William, with his son. Sir John Johnson, until the Revolution began, ard then followed his fortunes to Canada. The Baronet had also his own mechanics. His Blacksmith, and his Tailor, had each a shop just across the road from the Hall. They did very little work for any one out of the royal household. Sir William was a large, welllooking and full-favored man. " Laugh and grow fat," is an old maxim, of which his neighbors were reminded, when they beheld this fun-loving man. He was well read for the times, and uncommonly well versed in the study of human nature. Near the Hall he erected two detached wings of stone, the west one of which was used by his attorney LafFerty, for an office, and the other contained a philosophical apparatus, of which he died possessed. The room in which the apparatus was kept, was called his own private study. On seeing him enter it, Pontiac used to say — " J\^ow massa gone into his study to tink oh somesin me know not what.^^

Sir William erected a school-house in Johnstown on locating there, and established, it is said, the first free school in the state. The building was oblong, and stood on the diagonal corner of the streets from the county clerk's office. At which time, to begin a village, he also erected at the same time six dwelling-houses in the vicinity of the school-house. They were each some 30 feet long fronting the street, by 18 or 20 feet deep— were one and a half stories high, with two square rooms on the floor. Those dwellings, and the school-house were all painted yellow. One of the earliest if not in fact the first teacher of this school, was an arbitrary Irishman named Wall, who taught only the common English branches. An Episcopal church was also erected in Johnstown under the patronage of Sir William, several years before his death.

In the street in front of the school-house, public stocks and a whipping-post were placed, the former of which were a terror to truant boys, whose feet not unfrequently graced them. Before Godfrey Shew removed to the Fish House, he resided a mile west of the Hall, at which time his children, with those of a neighbor or two, Avent to school. In the vicinity of the Hall were usually to be seen a dozen or more Indians, of whom the children were afraid; and the fact coming to the knowledge of Sir William, he spoke to a chief in their behalf, and then assured the little urchins, w^ith whom he liked to chat, that they need borrow no more trouble about their red neighbors.

He had six children at that time by his handsome brown housekeeper, Molly Brant; and the three oldest, Peter, Betsey and Lana, went to school — George and two little girls being thought too young to send. Wall was very severe with most of his pupils, but the

Baronet^s children were made an exception to his severity — they being ever treated with kind partiality and pointed indulgence. He observed the most rigid formality in teaching his scholars manners; a very important branch of education, and quite too much neglected in modern times. He required his pupils, however, not so much to respect age and intellect in others as in himself. If a child wished to go out, it must go before him with a complaisant— p/ea^e master may I go out ? accompanied with a bow, a backward motion of the right hand, and drawing back upon the floor the right foot. On returning to the school-room, the pupil had again to parade before the master, with another three-motioned bow, and a very grateful — thank you sir !

The lad Jacob Shew, on becoming initiated into the out-and-in ceremony, accompanied his first bow with a scrape of the left foot. Tak the other fut^ you rascal! was roared with such a brogue and emphasis by old Pedagogue, as to confuse him, and he flourished the left foot again. Tak the other fut, I tell ye! came louder than before, attended with a stamp that carried terror to the boy's heart. Comprehending the requirement, he shifted his balance — scraped w^ith the right fut — heard a surly that HI doh ! and went on his way rejoicing though trembling.

In nearly every school of New England and New York twenty-five years ago, the scholars on entering and on leaving the school-room during the hours of school, had to make their manners — the boys to bow — gracefully if they could, but at all events to bow, and the girls to courtesy, genteelly of course. Nor were the manners of the children confined to the school-room; for on meeting any sober person in the street, they had to make their obeisance, and learned to take pleasure and pride in so doing. It was then a very pretty spectacle to pass a country school-house at njoon, or when the children were out at play, and see them parade as if by military intuition, and give the traveler a united evidence of good breeding. This sight is occasionally seen at the present day, where female teachers are employed.

Traversing the forest in the French war, from Ticonderoga to Fort Johnson, his then residence, no doubt first made Sir William Johnson familiar with the make of the country adjoining the Sacondaga river; and soon after the close of that war he erected a lodge for his convenience, while hunting and fishing, on the south side of the river, nearly eighteen miles distant from his own dwelling. The lodge was ever after called The Fish House. It was an oblong square framed building, with two rooms below, and walls sufficiently high (one and a half stories) to have afforded pleasant chambers. Its site was on a knoll within the present garden of Dr. Langdon I. Marvin, and about thirty rods from the river. It fronted the south. Only one room in the building was ever finished; that was in the west end, and had a chimney and fire-place. The house was never painted, and in the Revolution it was burnt down, but by whom or whose authority, is unknown. The ground from where the building stood, slopes very prettily to the river. No visible trace of this building remains.