Part 6
[FN-1] Williams wrote in the Narraganset dialect _Qussuck,_ stone; _Qussuckanash,_ stones; _Qussuckquon,_ heavy. Zeisberger wrote in the Minsi-Lenape, _Ksucquon,_ heavy; _Achsun,_ stone; _Apuchk,_ rock. Chippeway, _Assin,_ stone; _Aubik,_ rock. Old Algonquian, _Assin,_ stone. Eliot wrote in the Natick (Mass.) dialect, _Qussuk,_ a rock; _Qussukquanash,_ rocks; _Hussunash,_ stones; _Hussunek,_ lodge or ledge of rocks, and for _Hussimek_ Dr. Trumbull wrote _Assinek_ as an equivalent, and _Hussun_ or _Hussunash,_ stones, as identical with _Qussukqun,_ heavy. Eliot also wrote _-pick_ or _-p'sk,_ in compound words, meaning "Rock," or "stone," as qualified by the adjectival prefix, _Onap'sk,_ "Standing rock."
[FN-2] Literally, "A meeting point," or sharp extremity of a hill.
[FN-3] Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 1039. The heap referred to by Rev. Hawley was on the path leading to Schohare. It gave name to what was long known as the "Stoneheap Patent." The heap is now in the town of Esperance and near Sloansville, Schohare County. It is four rods long, one or two wide, and ten to fifteen feet high. (French.)
Ahashewaghick and Ahashewaghkameck, the latter in corrected patent of 1715, is given as the name of the northeast boundmark of the Manor of Livingston, and described as "the northernmost end of the hills that are to the north of Tachkanick"--specifically by the surveyor, "To a heap of stones laid together on a certain hill called by the Indians Ahashawaghkik, by the north end of Taghanick hill or mountain"--has been translated from _Nash-ané-komuk_ (Eliot), "A place between." Dr. Trumbull noted _Ashowugh-commocke,_ from the derivatives quoted--_Nashaué,_ "between"; _-komuk,_ "place," limited, enclosed, occupied, _i. e._ by "a heap of stones laid together," probably by the surveyor of the prior Van Rensselaer Patent, of which it was also a boundmark. The hill is now the northeast comer of the Massachusetts boundary line, or the north end of Taghkanick hills.
Taghkanick, the name of a town in Columbia County and primarily of a tract of land included in the Livingston Patent and located "behind _Potkoke,_" is written _Tachkanick_ in the Indian deed of 1685; _Tachhanick_ in the Indian deed of 1687-8; "Land called _Tachhanick_ which the owners reserved to plant upon when they sold him _Tachhanick,_ with the land called Quissichkook;" _Tachkanick,_ "having the kill on one side and the hill on the other"; _Tahkanick_ (Surveyor's notation) 1715--is positively located by the surveyor on the east side of the kill called by the Indians _Saukhenak,_ and by the purchasers Roelof Jansen's Kill. Of the meaning of the name Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan wrote: "_Tachanûk,_ 'Wood place,' literally, 'the woods,' from _Takone,_ 'forest,' and _ûk,_ 'place'"; which Dr. Trumbull regarded as "the least objectionable" of any of the interpretations that had fallen under his notice, and to which he added: "Literally, 'wild lands,' 'forest.'" It would seem to be more probable that _Tachk, Taghk, Tachh, Tahk,_ etc., represents _Tak_ (Taghk), with formative _an, Taghkan,_ meaning "wood;" and _ek,_ animate plural added, "Woods," "trees," "forest." Dr. O'Callaghan's _ûk_ (ook), "Land or place," is not in any of the orthographies. The deed-sentence, "When they sold him Tachanick," reads literally, from the name, "When they sold him the woods." The name was extended to the reserved field, to the stream and to the mountain. [FN] The latter is familiar to geologists in what is known as the Taconic rocks. Translations of the name from Del. _Tuphanné,_ "Cold stream," and _Tankkanné,_ "Little river," are without merit, although _Tankhanné_ would describe the branch of Roelof Jansen's Kill on which the plantation was located.
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[FN] The purchasers claimed but the Indians denied having sold the mountain. It was heavily wooded no doubt. Livingston claimed it from having bought "the woods." The Moravian missionaries wrote, in 1744, _W'takantschan,_ which Dr. Trumbull converted to _Ket-takone-wadchu,_ "Great woody mountain."
Wichquapakat, Wichquapuchat, Wickquapubon, the latter by the surveyor, given as the name of the southeast boundmark of the Livingston Patent and therein described as "the south end of the hills," of which Ahashawagh-kameck was the north. _Wichqua_ is surely an equivalent of _Wequa_ (_Wehqua,_ Eliot), "As far as; ending at; the end or extreme, point." [FN] Now the southwest corner on the Massachusetts line.
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[FN] Robert Livingston, who wrote most of the Indian names in his patent, was a Scotchman. He learned to "talk Dutch" in Rotterdam, and picked up an acquaintance with the Indian tongues at Fort Orange (Albany). Some of his orthographies are singular combinations.
Mahaskakook, a boundmark in the Livingston Patent, is described, in one entry, as "A copse," _i. e._ "A thicket of underbrush," and in another entry, "A cripple bush," _i. e._ "A patch of low timber growth"--Dutch, _Kreupelbosch,_ "Underwood." Probably the Indian name has, substantially, the same moaning. _Manask_ (Del.), "Second crop"; _-ask,_ "Green, raw, immature"; _-ak,_ "wood"; _-ook_ (_ûk_), locative. The location has not been ascertained.
Nachawawakkano, given as the name of a creek described as a "creek which comes into another creek," is an equivalent of _Léchau-wakhaune_ (Lenape), "The fork of a river," a stream that forks another stream. Aupaumut, the Stockbridge Historian, wrote, with locative suffix, _Naukhuwwhnauk,_ "At the fork of the streams."
Mawichnauk--"the place where the two streams meet being called Mawichnauk"--means "The fork place," or place where the Nachawawakkano and the Tawastaweka came together, or where the streams meet or flow together. In the Bayard Patent the name is written Mawighanuck and Wawieghanuck. (See Wawighanuck.)
Shaupook and Skaukook are forms of the name assigned to the eastern division of a stream, "which, a little lower down," was "called Twastawekah," known later as Claverack Creek. It may be translated from _Sóhk,_ Mass., "outlet," and _ûk,_ locative, "At the outlet" or mouth of the stream.
Twastawekah and Tawastawekah, given, in the Livingston Patent, as the name of Claverack Creek, is described as a place that was below Shaukook, The root is _Tawa,_ an "open space," and the name apparently an equivalent of Lenape _Tawatawikunk,_ "At an open place," or an uninhabited place, a wilderness. _Tauwata-wique-ak,_ "A place in the wilderness." (Gerard.)
Sahkaqua, "the south end of a small piece of land called Sahkaqua and Nakawaewick"; "to a run of water on ye east end of a certain flat or piece of land called in ye Indian tongue, Sahkahka; then south . . . one hundred and forty rods to . . . where two runs of water come together on the south side of the said flat; then west . . . to a rock or great stone on the south corner of another flat or piece of low land called by the Indians Nakaowasick." (Doc. Hist., iii, 697.) On the surveyor's map Nakaowasick, the place last named, is changed to Acawanuk. From the text, _Sahkaqua_ described "Land or place at the outlet or mouth of a stream," from _Sóhk,_ "outlet," and _-ohke,_ "land" or place. The second name _Nakawaewick_ (Nakaouaewik, Nakawasick, Acawasik) is probably from _Nashauewasuck,_ "At (or on) a place between," _i. e._ between the streams spoken of.
Minnischtanock, in the Indian deed to Livingston, 1685, located the end of a course described as "Beginning on the northwest side of Roelof Jansen's Kill," and in the patent, "Beginning on the other side of the creek that runs along the flat or plain land _over against_ Minnisichtanock, and from thence along a small hill to a valley," etc. The name has been interpreted "Huckleberry-hill place," from _Min,_ "Small fruit or grain of any kind"; _-achtenne,_ "hill"; _-ûk,_ locative.
Kackkawanick, written also Kachtawagick, Kachkawyick, and Kachtawayick, is described in the deed, as "A high place to the westward of a high mountain." Location has not been ascertained. From the map it seems to have been a long, narrow piece of land between the hills.
Quissichkook, Quassighkook, etc., one of the two places reserved by the Indians "to plant upon" when they sold Tachkanik, is described in the deed as a place "lying upon this (_i. e._ the west) side of Roelof Jansen's Kill" and "near Tachanik," the course running "thence along a small hill to a valley that leads to a small creek called by the Indians Quissichkook, and over the creek to a high place to the westward of a high mountain called by the natives Kachtawagick." In a petition by Philip Schuyler, 1686, the description reads: "Quassichkook, . . . lying on the east side of Roelof Jansen's Kill," and the place as a tract of woodland. The name was probably that of a wooded bluff on the east side of the creek. It seems to be from _Kussuhkoc_ (Moh.), "high," and _-ook,_ locative--"At, to or on a high place"--from which the stream and the plantation was located. (See Quassaick.)
Pattkoke, a place so called, also written _Pot-koke,_ gave name to a large tract of land patented to Johannes Van Rensselaer in 1649. In general terms the tract was described as lying "South of Kinder-hook, [FN-1] east of Claverack, [FN-2] and west of Taghkanick" (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 617), and also as "Lying to the east of Major Abraham's patent of Claverack." [FN-3] Specifically, in a caveat filed by John Van Rensselaer, in 1761, "From the mouth of Major Staats, or Kinderhook Kill, south along the river to a point opposite the south end of Vastrix Island, thence easterly twenty-four English miles," etc. (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 307. See also, Wachanekasaik.) It was an immense tract, covering about eight miles on the Hudson by twenty-four miles deep, and became known as "The Lower Manor of Rensselaerswyck," but locally as Claverack, from its frontage on the river-reach so called. The name was that of a particular place which was well known from which it was extended to the tract. In "History of Columbia County" this particular place is claimed to have been the site of an Indian village situate "about three (Dutch, or nine English) miles inland from Claverack." (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv, 84.) The record does not give the name, nor does it say "village," but place. The local story is, therefore, largely conjectural. The orthographies of the name are imperfect. Presumably, they may be read from Mass. _Pautuckoke,_ meaning "Land or country around the falls of a stream," and the reference to some one of the several falls on Claverack Creek, or on Eastern Creek, its principal tributary. Both streams were included in the patent, and both are marked by falls and rifts, but on the latter there are several "cataracts and falls of great height and surpassing beauty." "Nothing but a greater volume of water is required to distinguish them as being among the grandest in the world," adds the local historian. The special reference by the writer was to the falls at the manufacturing village known as Philmont, nine miles east of the Hudson, corresponding with the record of the "place" where the Indians assembled in 1663-4. _Pautuck_ is met in many forms. It means, "The falls of a stream." With the suffix, _-oke_ (Mass. _-auke_), "Land, ground, place, unlimited"--"the country around the falls," or the falls country. (See Potick.)
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[FN-1] Kinderhook is an anglicism of Dutch _Kinder-hoek,_ meaning, literally, "Children's point, angle or corner." It dates from the Carte Figurative of 1614-16, and hence is one of the oldest names on Hudson's River. It is supposed to have been applied from a gathering of Indian children on a point of land to gaze upon the ship of the early navigator. It could not have been a Dutch substitute for an Indian name. It is pure Dutch. It was not an inland name. The navigator of 1614-16 did not explore the country.
[FN-2] _Claverack_--Dutch, _Claverrak_--literally, "Clover reach--a sailing course or reach, so called from three bare or open fields which appear on the land, a fancied resemblance to _trefoil_ or three-leaved clover," wrote Jasper Dankers and Peter Sluyter in their Journal in 1679-80. Presumably the places are specifically located in the patent to Jan Frans van Heusen, May, 1667, on which the city of Hudson now stands, which is described as "A tract of land which takes in three of the Clavers on the south." From the locative the reach extended some miles north and south and to lands which it bounded. It is still preserved as the name of a creek, a town and a village. Of record it dates back to De Laet's map of 1625-6, and is obviously much older. It is possible that the "three bare places" were fields of white clover, as has been claimed by one writer, but there is no record stating that fact. Dankers and Sluyter, who wrote only fifty-four years after the application of the name, no doubt gave correctly the account of its origin as it was related to them by living witnesses. If interpreted as were the names of other reaches, the reference would be to actual clover fields.
[FN-3] "Major Abraham" was Major Abraham Staats, who located on a neck of land on the north side of "Major Staats' Creek," now Stockport Creek. (See Ciskhakainck.) "West of Taghkanick," probably refers to the mountains now so known. It means, literally, however, "The woods." (See Taghkanick.) There was a heated controversy between the patroon of Rensselaerswyck and Governor Stuyvesant in regard to the purchase of the tract. It was decided in 1652 in favor of the former, who had, in the meantime, granted several small leaseholds. (See Brodhead's Hist. N. Y., i.) The first settlement by the patroon was in 1705 at Claverack village.
Ciskhekainck and Cicklekawick are forms of the name of a place granted by patent to Major Abraham Staats, March 25, 1667, and to his son in 1715, described as "Lying north of Claverack [Hudson], on the east side of the river, along the Great Kill [Kinderhook Creek], to the first fall of water; then to the fishing place, containing two hundred acres, more or less, bounded by the river on one side and by the Great Kill on the other." Major Staats had made previous settlement on the tract under lease from Van Rensselaer. His house and barn were burned by the Indians in the Esopus war of 1663. In 1715, he being then dead, his son, Abraham, petitioned for an additional tract described as "Four hundred acres adjoining the north line of the neck of land containing two hundred acres now in his possession, called Ciskhekainck, on the north side of Claverack, on ye east side of Hudson's River." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 118.) The petition was granted and the two parcels consolidated. The particular fall referred to is probably that now known as Chittenden's, on Kinderhook (now Stockport) Creek, a short distance west of Stockport Station. It may be called a series of falls as the water primarily descended on shelves or steps. It was noted as remarkable by Dankens and Sluyter in 1679-80. [FN] Claverack Creek unites with Stockport Creek just west of the falls. In other connections both streams are called mill streams. In the Stephen Bayard patent of 1741, the name of the fall on Stockport Creek is noted as "A certain fall . . . called by the Indians _Kasesjewack_" The several names are perhaps from _Cochik'uack_ (Moh.), "A wild, dashing" stream. _Cochik'uack,_ by the way, is one of the most corrupted names of record.
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[FN] "We came to a creek, where, near the river, lives a man whom they call the Child of Luxury (_t'kinder van walde_). He had a sawmill on the creek or waterfall, which is a singular one. The water falls quite steep in one body, but it comes down in steps, with a broad rest sometimes between them. These steps were sixty feet or more high, and were formed out of a single rock."
Kesieway's Kil, described in an Indian deed to Garritt van Suchtenhorst, 1667-8. "A certain piece of land at Claverack between the bouwery of Jan Roother and Major Abraham Staats, beginning at a fall at the kil called Kesieway's Kil." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 51, 57.) The tract seems to have been on Claverack Creek south of Stockport "Jan Roothers" is otherwise written, "Jan Hendricksen, alias Jan Roothaer." _Roth_ (German) means "red," _-aer_ is from German _Haar_ (hair). He was known locally as "Jan, the red-head." The location of the fall has not been ascertained. _Kashaway_ Creek is a living form of the name in the town of Greenport, Columbia County. On the opposite side of the Hudson the same name apparently, appears in Keesieway, Kesewey, etc., as that of a "chief or sachem" of the Katskill Indians. (See Keessienwey's Hoeck.)
Pomponick, Columbia County. (N. Y. Land Papers.) _Pompoenik,_ a fort to be erected at "about the barn of Lawrence van Alen." (Doc. Hist. N. Y., ii, 90.) _Pompoen_ is Dutch for pumpkin. The name is also written as that of an Indian owner--"the land bought by Jan Bruyn of Pompoen." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 545.) Pompoeneck is the form of the signature to deed.
Mawighanuck, Mawighunk, Waweighannuck, Wawighnuck, forms of the name preserved as that of the Bayard Patent, Columbia County, described as a place "Lying to the northwest of Kinderhook, about fifteen miles from Hudson's River, upon Kinderhook River and some branches thereof, part of which tract is known by the Indian name of Mawighanuck." The particular "part" noted has not been located, but it seems to have been where one of the branches of Kinderhook Creek united with that stream. (See Mawichnauk.)
Mogongh-kamigh, a boundmark of the Bayard Patent (Land Papers, 245), is located therein, "From a fall on said river called by the Indians Kasesjewack to a certain place called by the natives Mogongh-kamigh, then up the southeast branch," etc. The name means, probably, "Place of a great tree."
Kenaghtiquak, "a small stream" so called, was the name of a boundmark of the Peter Schuyler Patent, described, "Beginning where three oak trees are marked, lying upon a small creek, to the south of Pomponick, called by the Indians Kenaghtiquak, and running thence," etc. It probably stands for _Enaughtiqua-ûk,_ "The beginning place."
Machachoesk, a place so called in Columbia County, has not been located. It is described of record as a place "lying on both sides of Kinderhook Creek," and may have taken its name from an adjacent feature.
Wapemwatsjo, the name of a hill in Columbia County, is a Dutch orthography of _Wapim-wadchu,_ "Chestnut Hill." The interpretation is correctly given in the accompanying alternate, "or Karstengeberg" (Kastanjeberg, Dutch), "Chestnut Hill."
Kaunaumeek, an Indian village sixteen miles east of Albany, in the town of Nassau, Rensselaer County, was the scene of the labors of Moravian missionaries, and especially of Missionary Brainerd. It was long known as Brainerd's Bridge, and is now called Brainerds. The name is Lenape (German notation) and the equivalent of _Quannamáug,_ Nar., _Gunemeek,_ Len., "Long-fish place," a "Fishing-place for lampreys." The form, Kaunaumeek, was introduced here by the Moravian missionaries.
Scompamuck is said to have been the name of the locality now covered by the village of Ghent, Columbia County, perhaps more strictly the head of the outlet of Copake Lake where an Indian settlement is located on early maps. The suffix, _-amuck,_ is the equivalent of _-amaug,_ "fishing place." _Ouschank-amaug,_ from _Ousch-acheu,_ "smooth, slippery," hence eel or lamprey--"a fishing-place for eels."
Copake, the modern form of the name of a lake in Columbia County, is of record _Achkookpeek_ (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii. 628), meaning, literally, "Snake water," from _Achkook,_ "Snake," and _-péek,_ "Water place," pool or pond. Hendrick Aupaumut, the Historian of the Stockbridge-Mahicans, wrote: "_Ukhkokpeck;_ it signifies snake-water, or water where snakes are abundant." On a map of the boundary line between Massachusetts and New York an Indian village is located at the outlet of the lake, presumably that known as Scompamuck.
Kaphack, on Westenhook River, a place described as "Beginning at an Indian burying-place hard by Kaphack," probably means "A separate place"--"land not occupied." The tract began at "an Indian burying-place," and presumably took its name therefrom. _Chépeck,_ "The dead;" _Chépeack,_ "Place of the dead." (See Shapequa.)
Valatie, the name of a village in Columbia County, is Dutch. It means "Vale, valley, dale, dell," and not "Little Falls," as rendered in French's Gazetteer. _Waterval_ is Dutch for "Waterfall." _Vallate,_ Low Latin for "valley," is the derivative of _Valatie,_ as now written.
Schodac, now covered by the village of Castleton (Schotax, 1677; Schotack, 1768), was the place of residence of Aepjin, sachem, or "peace chief," of the Mahicans. [FN-1] It has been translated from _Skootay,_ Old Algonquian (_Sqúta,_ Williams), "fire," and _-ack,_ "place," literally, "Fire Place," or place of council. It was extended to Smack's Island, opposite Albany, which was known to the early Dutch as "Schotack, or Aepjen's Island." It is probable, however, that the correct derivative is to be found in _Esquatak,_ or Eskwatak, the record name of the ridge of land east of Castleton, near which the Mahican fort or palisaded village was located, from which Castleton takes its name. _Esquatak_ is pretty certainly an equivalent of _Ashpohtag_ (Mass.), meaning "A high place." Dropping the initial _A,_ and also the letter _p_ and the second _h,_ leaves Schotack or Shotag; by pronunciation Schodac. Eshodac, of which Meshodack [FN-2] is another form, the name of a high peak in the town of Nassau, Rensselaer County, has become Schodac by pronunciation. It has been claimed that the landing which Hudson made and so particularly described in Juet's Journal, was at Schodac. [FN-3] The Journal relates that the "Master's mate" first "went on land with an old savage, the governor of the country, who carried him to his house and made him good cheere." The next day Hudson himself "Sailed to the shore, in one of their canoe's, with an old man who was chief of a tribe consisting of forty men and seventeen women," and it is added, "These I saw there in a house well constructed of oak bark and circular in shape, so that it had the appearance of being built with an arched roof." Presumably the house was near the shore of the river and in occupation during the fishing and planting season. The winter castle was further inland. The "arched roof" indicates that it was one of the "long" houses so frequently described, not a cone-like cabin. The "tribe" was the sachem's family.
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[FN-1] Aepjin's name appears of record first in 1645 as the representative of the Westchester County clans in negotiating a treaty of peace with the Dutch. In the same capacity he was at Esopus in 1660. He could hardly have been the "old man" whom Hudson met in 1609. In one entry his name is written "Eskuvius, alias Aepjin (Little Ape)," and in another "Called by the Dutch Apeje's (Little Ape's) Island." He may have been given that name from his personal appearance, or it may have been a substitute for a name which the Dutch had heard spoken. Eliot wrote, "_Appu,_ He sits; he rests, remains, abides; _Keu Apean,_ Those that sittest," descriptive of the rank of a resident ruler or peace chief, one of a class of sachems whose business it was to maintain the covenants between his own and other tribes, and negotiate treaties of peace on their behalf or for other tribes when called upon. From his totemic signature he was of the Wolf tribe of the Mahicans. (See Keessienway's Hoeck.)
[FN-2] The prefixed _M,_ sometimes followed by a short vowel or an apostrophe (M'), has no definite or determinate force. (Trumbull.)