Part 21

[FN] The word _Chippe_ or _Shappa,_ means not only separate, "The separate place," but was employed to describe a future condition--Chepeck, the dead. As an adjective, _Chippe_ (El.) signifies separated, set apart. _Chepiohkomuk,_ the place of separation. The same word was used for 'ghost,' 'spectre,' 'evil spirit.' (Trumbull.) The corresponding Delaware word was _Tschipey._ It is not presumed that the word was made use of here in any other sense than its literal application, "A separate place." Bolton assigns the name to a Laurel Swamp, but with doubtful correctness.

Aspetong, a bold eminence in Bedford, is an equivalent of _Ashpohtag,_ Mass., "A high place," "A height." (Trumbull.) See Ishpatinau.

Quarepos, of record as the name of the district of country called by the English "White Plains," from the primary prevalence there of white balsam (Dr. O'Callaghan), seems to have been the name of the lake now known as St. Mary's. _Quar_ is a form of _Quin, Quan,_ etc., meaning "Long," and _pos_ stands for _pog_ or _paug,_ meaning "Pond." The name is met in _Quin'e-paug,_ "Long Pond." The pond lies along the east border of the town of White Plains.

Peningo, the point or neck of land forming the southeastern extremity of the town of Rye, [FN] was interpreted by Dr. Bolton, with doubtful correctness: "From _Ponus,_ an Indian chief." The neck is some nine miles long by about two miles broad and seems to have been primarily a region of ridges and swamps.

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[FN] Rye is from Rye, England. The derivative is _Ripe_ (Latin), meaning, "The bank of a river." In French, "The sea-shore."

Apanammis, Cal. N. Y, Land Papers; Apauamis and Apauamin, Col. Hist. N. Y.: Apawammeis, Apawamis, Apawqunamis, Epawames, local and Conn. Records, is given as the name of Budd's Neck, between Mamaroneck River and Blind Brook, Westchester County. Dr. Trumbull passed the name without explanation. It is written as the name of a boundmark.

Mochquams and Moagunanes are record forms of the name of Blind Brook, one of the boundary streams of the tract called Penningo, which is described as lying "between Blind Brook and Byram River." (See Armonck.)

Magopson and Mangopson are orthographies of the name given as that of De Lancey's Neck, described as "The great neck." (See Waumaniuck.) The dialect spoken in eastern Westchester seems to have been _Quiripi_ (or Quinipiac), which prevailed near the Sound from New Haven west.

Armonck, claimed as the name of Byram's River, was probably that of a fishing place. In 1649 the name of the stream is of record, "Called by the Indians _Seweyruck._" In the same record the land is called _Haseco_ and a meadow _Misosehasakey,_ interpreted by Dr. Trumbull, "Great fresh meadow," or low wet lands. _Haseco_ has no meaning; it is now assigned to Port Chester (Saw-Pits), and _Misosehasakey_ to Horse Neck. Armonck has lost some of its letters. What is left of it indicates _Amaug,_ "fishing place." (Trumbull's Indian Names.)

Eauketaupucason, the name written as that of the feature in the village of Rye known by the unpleasant English title of "Hog-pen Ridge," is, writes Mr. William R. Gerard, "Probably an equivalent of Lenape _Ogid-ápuchk-essen,_ meaning, 'There is rock upon rock,' or one rock on another rock." Topography not ascertained.

Manussing--in will of Joseph Sherwood, _Menassink_--an island so called in the jurisdiction of Rye, may be an equivalent of _Min-assin-ink,_ "At a place of small stones," _Minneweis,_ now City Island, is in the same jurisdiction.

Mamaroneck, now so written as the name of a town in Westchester County, is of record, in 1644, Mamarrack and Mamarranack; later, Mammaranock, Mamorinack, Mammarinickes (1662), primarily as that of a "Neck or parcel of land," but claimed to be from the name of an early sachem of the Kitchtawanks whose territory was called Kitchtawanuck. [FN] Wm. R. Gerard explains: "The dissyllabic root, _mamal,_ or _mamar,_ means 'To stripe;' _Mamar-a-nak,_ 'striped arms,' or eyebrows, as the name of an Indian chief who painted his arms in stripes or radiated his eyebrows," a custom noted by several early writers. There is no evidence that the Kitchtawanuck sachem had either residence or jurisdiction here, nor is his name signed to any deed in this district. The reading in one record, "Three stripes or strips of land," seems to indicate that the name was descriptive of the necks or strips of land. (See Waumaniuck.)

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[FN] "Mamarranack and Waupaurin, chiefs of Kitchawanuck." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 17.) The Kitchawan is now known as Croton river. It has no connection whatever with Mamaroneck.

Waumaniuck and Maumaniuck, forms of the name of record as that of the eastern part of De Lancey's Neck, or Seaman's Point, Westchester County, as stated in the Indian deed of 1661, which conveyed to one John Richbell "three necks of land," described as "Bounded on the east by Mamaroneck River, and on the west by Gravelly or Stony Brook" (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 5), the latter by the Indians called Pockotesse-wacke, came to be known as Mamaraneck Neck, otherwise described as "The great neck of land at Mamaroneck."

Pockotessewacke, given as the name of what came to be known as "Gravelly or Stony Brook," and "Beaver-meadow Brook," [FN] has been translated by Wm. R. Gerard, from "_Petuk-assin-icke,_ 'where there are numerous round stones'"; a place from which the name was extended to the stream, or the name of a place in the stream where there were numerous round stones, _i. e._ paving stones or "hard-heads." _Esse (esseni)_ from _assin,_ "stone," means "stony, flinty."

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[FN] Pockotessewacke and Beaver-meadow Brook. (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers.)

Manuketesuck, quoted by Bolton (Hist. West. Co.) as the name of Long Island Sound and interpreted, "Broad flowing river," was more correctly explained by Dr. Trumbull: "Apparently a diminutive of _Manunkatesuck,_ 'Menhaden country,' from _Munongutteau,_ 'that which fertalizes or manures land,' the Indian name for white fish or bony fish, which were taken in great numbers by the Indians, on the shores of the Sound, for manuring their corn lands."

Moharsic is said to have been the name of what is now known as Crom-pond, in the town of Yorktown. The pond is in two parts, and the name may mean, "Where two ponds meet," or come together. _Crom-pond_ is corrupt Dutch from _Krom-poel,_ "Crooked pond."

Maharness, the name of a stream rising in Westchester County and flowing east to the Sound, is also written _Mianus_ and _Mahanus,_ in Dutch records _Mayane,_ correctly _Mayanno._ It was the name of "a sachem residing on it between Greenwich and Stamford, Ct., who was killed by Capt. Patrick, in 1643, and his head cut off and sent to Fort Amsterdam." (Brodhead, i, 386.) Dr. Trumbull interpreted, "He who gathers together." _Kechkawes_ is written as the name of the stream in 1640.

Nanichiestawack, given as the name of an Indian village on the southern spur of Indian Hill (so called) in the town of Bedford, rests on tradition.

Petuckquapaug, a pond in Greenwich, Ct., but originally under the jurisdiction of the Dutch at Fort Amsterdam, signifies "Round Pond." It is now called "Dumpling Pond." The Dutch changed the suffix to _paen,_ "soft land," and in that form described an adjacent district of low land. (See Tappan.)

Katonah, the name of a sachem, is preserved in that of a village in the town of Bedford. The district was known as "Katonah's land." In deed of 1680, the orthography is Katōōnah--oo as in food.

Succabonk, a place-name in the town of Bedford, stands for Sagabonak-ong, "Place of ground nuts," or wild potatoes. (See Sagabonock.)

Wequehackhe is written by Reichel ("Mem. Moravian Church") as the name of the Highlands, with the interpretation, "The hill country"--"People of the hill country." The name has no such meaning. _Weque_ or _Wequa,_ means "The end," and _-hackhe_ (hacki) means "Land," not up-land. In other words, the boundary was the end of the Highlands.' [FN]

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[FN] "_Hacki,_ land; _Len-hacki,_ up-land." (Zeisberger.) "When they speak of highlands they say _Lennihacke,_ original lands; but they do not apply the same name to low lands, which, being generally formed by the overflowing or washing of streams, cannot be called original." (Heckewelder.)

Mahopack, the modern form of the name of a lake in Putnam County, is of record _Makoohpeck_ in 1765, and _Macookpack_ on Sauthier's map of 1774, which seem to stand for _M'achkookpéeck_ (_Ukh-okpeck,_ Mah.), meaning "Snake Lake," or "Water where snakes are abundant." (See Copake.) In early years snakes were abundant in the region about the lake, and are not scarce in present times. [FN] The lake is ten miles in circumference and lies sixteen hundred feet above the level of Hudson's River. It contains two or three small islands, on the largest of which is the traditionally famous "Chieftain's Rock."

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[FN] A wild, wet region among the hills, where the rattlesnake abounded. They were formerly found in all parts of the Highlands, and are still met frequently.

Canopus, claimed to have been the name of an Indian sachem and now preserved in Canopus Hollow, Putnam County, is not Indian; it is Latin from the Greek name of a town in Egypt. "_Can'pus,_ the Egyptian god of water." (Webster.)

Wiccopee is of record as the name of the highest peak in the Fishkill Mountains on the south border of East Fishkill. It is also assigned to the pass or clove in the range through which ran the Indian path, now the present as well as the ancient highway between Fishkill Village and Peekskill, which was fortified in the war of the Revolution. An Indian village is traditionally located in the pass, of which "one Wikopy" is named as chief on the same authority. The name, however, has no reference to a pass, path, village or chief; it is a pronunciation of _Wecuppe,_ "The place of basswoods or linden trees," from the inner bark of which (_wikopi_) "the Indians made ropes and mats--their tying bark par excellence." (Trumbull.) "_Wikbi_, bast, the inner bark of trees." (Zeisberger.) In Webster and The Century the name is applied to the Leather-wood, a willowy shrub with a tough, leathery bark.

Matteawan, now so written, has retained that orthography since its first appearance in 1685 in the Rombout Patent, which reads: "Beginning on the south side of a creek called Matteawan," the exact boundmark being the north side or foot of the hill known as Breakneck (_Matomps'k_). It has been interpreted in various ways, that most frequently quoted appearing in Spofford's Gazetteer: "From _Matai,_ a magician, and _Wian,_ a skin; freely rendered, 'Place of good furs,'" which never could have been the meaning; nor does the name refer to mountains to which it has been extended. Wm. R. Gerard writes: "_Matáwan,_ an impersonal Algonquian verb, meaning, 'It debouches into,' _i. e._ 'a creek or river into another body of water,' substantially, 'a confluence.'" This rendering is confirmed by Albert S. Gatschet, of the Bureau of Ethnology, who writes: "Mr. Gerard is certainly right when he explains the radix _mat--mata_--by confluence, junction, debouching, and forming verbs as well as roots and nouns." _-A'wan, -wan -uan,_ etc., is an impersonal verb termination; it appears only in connection with impersonal verbs. (See Waronawanka.) Matteawan is met in several forms--Matawa and Mattawan, Ontario, Canada; Mattawan, Maine; Matawan, Monmouth County, N. J.; Mattawanna, Pa.; Mattawoman, Maryland.

Fishkill, the English name of the stream of which Matteawan is the estuary, is from Dutch _Vischer's Kil._ It was probably applied by the Dutch to the estuary from _Vischer's Rak_ which the Dutch applied to a reach or sailing course on the Hudson at this point. De Laet wrote: "A place which our country-men call Vischer's Rack, [FN] that is Fisherman's Bend." (See Woranecks.) On the earlier maps the stream, or its estuary, is named _Vresch Kil,_ or "Fresh-water Kil," to distinguish it from the brackish water of the Hudson. From the estuary extended to the entire stream.

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[FN] Rack is obsolete; the present word is _Recht._ It describes an almost straight part of the river.

Woranecks, Carte Figurative 1614-16; _Waoranecks,_ 1621-25; _Warenecker,_ Wassenaer; _Waoranekye,_ De Laet, 1633-40; _Waoranecks,_ Van der Donck's map, 1656--is located on the Carte Figurative north of latitude 42-15, on the east side of the river. De Laet and Van der Donck place it between what are now known as Wappingers' Creek and Fishkill Creek. De Laet wrote: "Where projects a sandy point and the river becomes narrower, there is a place called Esopus, where the Waoranekys, another barbarous nation, have their abode." Later, Esopus became permanent on the west side of the river at Kingston. It is a Dutch corruption of Algonquian _Sepus,_ meaning brook, creek, etc., applicable to any small stream. From De Laet's description, [FN] there is little room for doubt that the "sandy point" to which he referred is now known as Low Point, opposite the Dans Kamer, at the head of Newburgh Bay, where the river narrows, or that Esopus was applied to Casper's Creek. On Van der Donck's map the "barbarous nation" is given three castles on the south side of the stream, which became known later (1643) as the Wappingers, who certainly held jurisdiction on the east side of Newburgh Bay. The adjectival of the name is no doubt from _Wáro,_ or _Waloh,_ meaning "Concave, hollowing," a depression in land, low land, the latter expressed in _ock (ohke),_ "land" or place. The same adjectival appears in _Waronawanka_ at Kingston, and the same word in _Woronake_ on the Sound at Milford, Ct., where the topography is similar. The foreign plural _s_ extends the meaning to "Dwellers on," or inhabitants of. (See Wahamenesing and {Waro?}nawanka.)

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[FN] . . . "And thus with various windings it reaches a place which our countrymen call Vischer's Rack, that is the Fisherman's Bend. And here the eastern bank is inhabited by the Pachimi. A little beyond where projects a sandy point and the river becomes narrower, there is a place called Esopus, where the Waoranekys, another barbarous nation, have their abode. To these succeed, after a short interval, the Waranawankconghs, on the opposite side of the river." (De Laet.)

"At the Fisher's Hook are the Pachany, Wareneckers," etc. (Wassenaer.)

Mawenawasigh, so written in the Rombout Patent of 1684, covering lands extending from Wappingers' Creek to the foot of the hills on the north side of Matteawan Creek, was the name of the north boundmark of the patent and not that of Wappingers' Creek. The Indian deed reads: "Beginning on the south side of a creek called Matteawan, from thence northwardly along Hudson's river five hundred yards _beyond_ the Great Wappingers creek or kill, called Mawenawasigh." The stream was given the name of the boundmark and was introduced to identify the place that was five hundred yards north of it, _i. e._ the rocky point or promontory through which passes the tunnel of the Hudson River R. R. at New Hamburgh. The name is from _Mawe,_ "To meet," and _Newásek,_ [FN] "A point or promontory"--literally, "The promontory where another boundary is met." The assignment of the name to Wappingers' Falls is as erroneous as its assignment to the creek.

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[FN] _Nawaas,_ on the Connecticut, noted on the Carte Figurative of 1614-16, is very distinctly located at a point on the head-waters of that river.

_Neversink_ is a corruption of _Newas-ink,_ "At the point or promontory."

Wahamanesing is noted by Brodhead (Hist. N. Y.) as the name of Wappingers' Creek--authority not cited and place where the stream was so called not ascertained. The initial W was probably exchanged for M by mishearing, as it was in many cases of record. _Mah_ means "To meet," _Amhannes_ means "A small river," and the suffix _-ing_ is locative. The composition reads: "A place where streams come together," which may have been on the Hudson at the mouth of the creek. In Philadelphia _Moyamansing_ was the name of a marsh bounded by four small streams. (N. Y. Land Papers, 646.) Dr. Trumbull in his "Indian Names on the Connecticut," quoted _Mahmansuck_ (Moh.), in Connecticut, with the explanation, "Where two streams come together." The name was extended to the creek as customary in such cases. The Wahamanesing flows from Stissing Pond, in northern Duchess County, and follows the center of a narrow belt of limestone its entire length of about thirty-five miles southwest to the Hudson, which it reaches in a curve and passes over a picturesque fall of seventy-five feet to an estuary. From early Dutch occupation it has been known or called Wappinck (1645), Wappinges and Wappingers' Kill or creek, taking that name presumably from the clan which was seated upon it of record as "Wappings, Wappinges, Wapans, or Highland Indians." [FN-1] On Van der Donck's map three castles or villages of the clan are located on the south side or south of the creek, indicating the inclusion in the tribal jurisdiction of the lands as far south as the Highlands. From Kregier's Journal of the "Second Esopus War" (1663), it is learned that they had a principal castle in the vicinity of Low Point and that they maintained a crossing-place to Dans Kamer Point. Their name is presumed to have been derived from generic _Wapan,_ "East"--_Wapani,_ "Eastern people" [FN-2]--which could have been properly applied to them as residents on the east side of the river, not "Eastern people" as that term is applied to residents of the more Eastern States, but locally so called by residents on the west side of the Hudson, or by the Delawares as the most eastern nation of their own stock. They were no doubt more or less mixed by association and marriage with their eastern as well as their western neighbors, but were primarily of Lenape or Delaware origin, and related to the Minsi, Monsey or Minisink clans on the west side of the river, though not associated with them in tribal government. [FN-3] Their tribal jurisdiction, aside from that which was immediately local, extended on the east side of the river from Roelof Jansen's Kill (south of opposite to the Catskill) to the sea. At their northern bound they met the tribe known to the Dutch as the Mahicans, a people of eastern origin and dialect, whose eastern limit included the valley of the Housatonic at least, and with them in alliance formed the "Mahican nation" of Dutch history, as stated by King Ninham of the Wappingers, in an affidavit in 1757, and who also stated that the language of the Mahicans was _not the same_ as that of the Wappingers, although he understood the Mahicani. Reduced by early wars with the Dutch around New Amsterdam and by contact with European civilization, they melted away rapidly, many of them finding homes in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, others at Stockbridge, and a remnant living at Fishkill removing thence to Otsiningo, in 1737, as wards of the Senecas. (Col. Hist. N. Y., vii, 153, 158.)

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[FN-1] "Highland Indians" was a designation employed by the Dutch as well as by the English. (Col. Hist. N. Y., viii, 440.)

[FN-2] The familiar historic name _Wappingers_ seems to have been introduced by the Dutch from their word _Wapendragers,_ "Armed men." The tribe is first met of record in 1643, when they attacked boats coming down from Fort Orange. (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv, 12.) A map of 1690 gives them a large settlement on the south side of the creek. There is no _Opossum_ in the name, as some writers read it, although some blundering clerk wrote _Oping_ for _Waping._

[FN-3] The relations between the Esopus Indians and the Wappingers were always intimate and friendly, so much so that when the Mohawks made peace with the Esopus Indians, in 1669, and refused to include the Wappingers, it was feared by the government that further trouble would ensue from the "great correspondence and affinity between them." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 427.) "Affinity," relationship by marriage, kinship generally.

Gov. Tryon, in his report in 1774, no doubt stated the facts correctly when he wrote that the "Montauks and others of Long Island, Wappingers of Duchess County, Esopus, Papagoncks, &c., of Ulster County, generally denominated River Indians, spoke a language radically the same," and were "understood by the Delawares, being originally of the same race." (Doc Hist. N. Y., i, 765.)

Poughquag, the name of a village in the town of Beekman, Duchess County, and primarily the name of what is now known as Silver Lake, in the southeast part of the town, is from _Apoquague,_ (Mass.), meaning, "A flaggy meadow," which is presumed to have adjoined the lake. It is from _Uppuqui,_ "Lodge covering," and _-anke,_ "Land" or place. (Trumbull.)

Pietawickquassick, a brook so called which formed a bound-mark of a tract of land conveyed by Peter Schuyler in 1699, described as "On the east side of Hudson's River, over against Juffrou's Hook, at a place called by the Christians Jan Casper's Creek." The creek is now known as Casper's Creek. It is the first creek north of Wappingers' Kill. Schuyler called the place _Rust Plaest_ (Dutch, Rust-plaats), meaning "Resting place, or place of peace." The Indian name has not been located. It is probably a form or equivalent of _P'tukqu-suk,_ "A bend in a brook or outlet."

Wassaic, a village and a creek so called in the town of Amenia, Duchess County, appears in N. Y. records in 1702, _Wiesasack,_ as the name of a tract of land "lying to the southward of Wayanaglanock, to the westward of Westenhoek creek." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 58); later, "Near a place called Weshiack" (Ib. 65), "and thence northerly to a place called Wishshiag, and so on about a mile northwest of ye Allum rocks." [FN] (Ib. 75.) The name seems to have been applied to the north end of West Mountain, where is located the ravine known as the Dover Stone Church, about half a mile west of the village of Dover Plains. The ravine is 20 to 25 feet wide at the bottom, 1 to 3 feet at the top, 30 to 40 feet long, and 40 to 50 feet high, hence called a church. The Webotuck, a tributary of Ten Mile River, flows through the ravine. Dr. Trumbull ("Indian Names in Connecticut") wrote: "_Wassiog,_ (Moh.), alternate _Washiack,_ a west bound of the Mohegan country claimed by Uncas; 'the south end of a very high hill' very near the line between Glastonbury and Hebron," a place near Hartford, Conn., but failed to give explanation of the name.

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[FN] _Wallam_--the initial _W_ dropped--literally, "Paint rocks," a formation of igneous rock which, by exposure, becomes disintegrated into soft earthy masses. There are several varieties. The Indians used the disintegrated masses for paint. The name is met in some forms in all Algonquian dialects. (See Wallomschack.)

Weputing, Weepitung, Webotuck, Weepatuck (N. Y. and Conn. Rec.), given as the name of a "high mountain," in the Sackett Patent, was translated by Dr. Trumbull, from Conn. Records: "_Weepatuck,_ 'Place of the narrow pass,' or 'strait.'" (See Wassaic.)

Querapogatt, a boundmark of the Sackett Patent, is, apparently, a compound of _Quenne,_ "long," _pog_ (paug), "pond," and _att_ locative--"Beginning at the (a) long pond." The name is met in _Quine-baug,_ without locative suffix, signifying "Long Pond" simply.