Part 24

[FN-3] The Journal locates the place at Lat. 42 deg. 18 min. This would be about five miles (statute) north of the present city of Hudson. "But," wrote Brodhead, "Latitudes were not as easily determined in those days as they are now; and a careful computation of the distances run by the Half-Moon, as recorded in Juet's day-book, shows that on the 18th of September, 1609, when the landing occurred, she must have been 'up six leagues higher' than Hudson, in the neighborhood of Schodac and Castleton."

Sickenekas, given as the name of a tract of land on the east side of the river, "opposite Fort Orange (Albany), above and below," dates from a deed to Van Rensselaer, 1637, the name of one of the grantors of which is written Paepsickenekomtas. The name is now written Papskanee and applied to an island.

Sicajoock, (Wickagjock, Wassenaer), is given as the name of a tract on the east side of the river extending from Smack's Island to Castle Island where it joined lands "called Semesseeck," Gesmessecks, etc., which extended north to Negagonse, "being about twelve miles (Dutch), large measure." The northern limit seems to have been Unuwat's Castle on the north side of a stream flowing to the Hudson north of "opposite to Rensselaer's Kil and waterfall." _Sicajoock_ (Dutch notation), "Black, or dark colored earth," from _Sûcki_ "Dark colored, inclining to black," and _-ock,_ "land." The same name is written Suckiage (_ohke_) in application to the Hartford meadows, Conn.

Gesmesseeck, a tract of land so called, otherwise entered of record "Nawanemit's particular land called _Semesseerse,_ lying on the east bank, opposite Castle Island, off unto Fort Orange." "Item--from Petanoc, the mill stream, away north to Negagonse." In addition Van Rensselaer then purchased lands held in common by several owners, "extending up the river, south and north" from Fort Orange, "unto a little south of Moeneminnes castle," "being about twelve miles, large measure." Moeneminne's castle was on Haver Island at Kahoes. _Semesseerse_ is the form of the name in deed as printed in Col. Hist. N. Y., vol. i, p. 44, and Gesmesseecks p. 1, v. iv. Kesmesick is another form and perhaps also Taescameasick. (See Patuckquapaen.) The several forms of the name illustrate the effort on the part of the early Dutch, who were then limitedly acquainted with the Indian tongue, to give orthographies to the names which they heard spoken.

Passapenoc, Pahpapaenpenock and Sapanakock, forms of the name of Beeren Island, lying opposite Coeymans, is from an edible tuber which was indigenous on it. [FN] The Dutch name Beeren or Beerin, means, literally, "She bear," usually called Bear's Island. De Laet wrote "Beeren" in 1640.

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[FN] "The Indians frequently designated places by the names of esculent or medicinal roots which were there produced. In the Algonquin language the generic names for tubers was _pen,_ varying in some dialects to _pin, pena, pon,_ or _bun._ This name seems originally to have belonged to the common ground nut: _Apias tuberosa._ Abnaki, _pen,_ plural, _penak._ Other species were designated by prefixes to this generic, and, in the compositions of place names, was employed to denote locality (_auk, auki, ock,_ etc.), or by an abundance verb (_kanti-kadi_). Thus _p'sai-pen,_ 'wild onions,' with the suffix for place, _ock,_ gave _p'sai-pen-auk,_ or as written by the Dutch, _Passapenock,_ the Indian name for Beeren Island." (J. H. Trumbull, Mag. of Am. Hist I, 387.)

Patuckquapaen and Tuscumcatick are noted in French's Gazetteer as names of record in what is now the town of Greenbush, Rensselaer County, without particular location. The first is in part Algonquian and in part Dutch. The original was, no doubt, _Patuckquapaug,_ as in Greenwich, Ct., meaning "Round pond." The Dutch changed _paug_ to _paen_ descriptive of the land--low land--so we have, as it stands, "Round land," "elevated hassocks of earth, roots," etc. (See Patuckquapaug.) The second name is written in several forms--Taescameatuck, Taescameesick, and Gessmesseecks. _Greenbush_ is an anglicism of _Gran Bosch,_ Dutch, meaning, literally, "Green forest." The river bank was fringed by a long stretch of spruce-pine woods. Dutch settlement began here about 1631. In 1641 a ferry was established at the mouth of the _Tamisquesuck_ or Beaver Creek, and has since been maintained. About the same year a small fort, known as Fort Cralo, was constructed by Van Rensselaer's superintendent.

Poesten Kill, the name of a stream and of a town in Rensselaer County, is entered in deed to Van Rensselaer in 1630, "Petanac, the mill stream"; in other records, "_Petanac,_ the Molen Kil," and "De Laet's Marlen Kil and Waterval." _Petanac,_ the Indian name, is an equivalent of Stockbridge _Patternac,_ which King Ninham, in an affidavit, in 1762, declared meant "A fall of water, and nothing more." "Molen Kil" (Dutch), means "mill water." "De Laet's Marlen Kil ende Waterval," locates the name as that of a well-known waterfall on the stream of eighty feet. Weise, in his "History of Troy," wrote: "Having erected a saw-mill upon the kill for sawing posts and timber, which was known thereafter as Poesten mill, the name became extended to the stream," an explanation that seems to bear the marks of having been coined. From the character of the stream the name is probably a corruption of the Dutch _Boosen,_ "An angry stream," because of its rapid descent. The stream reaches the Hudson on the north line of Troy. (See Gesmessecks.)

Paanpaach is quoted by Brodhead (Hist. N. Y.) as the name of the site of the city of Troy. It appears in 1659 in application to bottom lands known as "The Great Meadows," [FN-1] lying under the hills on the east side of the Hudson. At the date of settlement by Van der Huyden (1720), it is said there were stripes or patches within the limits of the present city which were known as "The corn-lands of the Indians," [FN-2] from which the interpretation in French's Gazetteer, "Fields of corn," which the name never meant in any language. The name may have had an Indian antecedent, but as it stands it is Dutch from _Paan-pacht,_ meaning "Low, soft land," or farm of leased land. The same name appears in _Paan-pack,_ Orange county, which see.

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[FN-1] Weise's Hist. of Troy.

[FN-2] Woodward's Reminiscences of Troy.

Piskawn, of record as the name of a stream on the north line of Troy, describes a branch or division of a river. Rale wrote in Abnaki, "_Peskakōōn,_ branche," of which _Piskawn_ is an equivalent.

Sheepshack and Pogquassick are record names in the vicinity of Lansingburgh. The first has not been located. It seems to stand for _Tsheepenak,_ a place where the bulbous roots of the yellow lily were obtained--modern Abnaki, _Sheep'nak._ _Pogquassick_ appears as the name of a "piece of woodland on the east side of the river, near an island commonly called Whale-fishing Island," correctly, Whalefish Island. [FN] This island is now overflowed by the raising of the water by the State dam at Lansingburgh. The Indian name does not belong to the woodland; it locates the tract near the island, in which connection it is probably an equivalent of _Paugasuck,_ "A place at which a strait widens or opens out" (Trumbull), or where the narrow passage between the island and the main land begins to widen. In the same district _Pogsquampacak_ is written as the name of a small creek flowing into Hoosick River.

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[FN] "Whale-fishing Island" is a mistranslation of "Walvish Eiland" (Dutch), meaning simply "Whale Island." It is related by Van der Donck (1656) that during the great freshet of 1647, a number of whales ascended the river, one of which was stranded and killed on this island. Hence the name.

Wallumschack, so written in return of survey of patent granted to Cornelius van Ness and others, in 1738, for lands now in Washington County; _Walloomscook,_ and other forms; now preserved in Walloomsac, as the name of a place, a district of country, and a stream flowing from a pond on the Green Mountains, in the town of Woodford, near Bennington, Vermont. [FN-1] It has not been specifically located, but apparently described a place on the adjacent hills where material was obtained for making paints with which the Indians daubed their bodies. (See Washiack.) It is from a generic root written in different dialects, _Walla, Wara_ etc., meaning "Fine, handsome, good," etc., from which in the Delaware, Dr. Brinton derived _Wálám,_ "Painted, from the sense to be fine in appearance, to dress, which the Indians accomplished by painting their bodies," and _-'ompsk_ (Natick), with the related meaning of standing or upright, the combination expressing "Place of the paint rocks." [FN-2] The ridges of many of the hills as well as of the mountains in the district are composed of slate, quartz, sandstone and limestone, which compose the Takonic system. By exposure the slate becomes disintegrated and forms an ochery clay of several colors, which the Indians used as paint. The washing away of the rock left the quartz exposed in the form of sharp points, which were largely used by the Indians for making axes, lance-heads, arrow points, etc. Some of the ochre beds have been extensively worked, and plumbago has also been obtained. White Creek, in the same county, takes that name from its white clay banks.

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[FN-1] Vermont is from _Verd Montagne_ (French), meaning "Green Mountains," presumably from their verdure, but actually from the appearance of the hills at a distance from the color of the rocks reflected in the atmosphere. To the Indian they were Wal'ompskeck, "fine, handsome rocks."

[FN-2] An interpretation of the name from the form Wallumscnaik, in Thompson's Hist. Vermont, states that "The termination _'chaik'_ signifies in the Dutch language, 'scrip.' or 'patent.'" This is erroneous. There is no such word as _chaik_ in the Dutch language. The _ch_ in the name here stands for _k_ and belongs to _'ompsk._

Tomhenack, Tomhenuk, forms of the name given as that of a small stream flowing into the Hoosick from the north, [FN] takes that name, apparently, from an equivalent of _Tomheganic,_ Mass., _Tangamic,_ Del., a stone axe or tomahawk, referring to a place where suitable stones were obtained for making those implements. (Trumbull.) (See Wallumschack.)

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[FN] "At a creek called Tomheenecks, beginning at the southerly bounds of Hoosick, and so running up southerly, on both sides of said creek, over the path which goes to Sanckhaick." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 194; petition of John de Peyster, 1730.)

Tyoshoke, now the name of a church at San Coick, Rensselaer County, is probably from an equivalent of _Toyusk,_ Nar., "a bridge," and _ohke,_ "Place"--a place where the stream was crossed by a log forming a bridge. It was a well-known fording place for many years, and later became the site of Buskirk's Bridge.

Sanckhaick, now San Coick, a place in North Hoosick, Rensselaer County, appears of record in petition of John de Peyster in 1730, and in Indian deed to Cornelius van Ness and others, in 1732, for a certain tract of land "near a place called Sanckhaick." The place, as now known, is near the junction of White Creek and the Wallompskack, where one Van Schaick made settlement and built a mill at an early date. In 1754 his buildings were burned by Indian allies of the French. After the war of that period the mill was rebuilt and became conspicuous in the battle of Bennington, Aug. 16, 1777. It is claimed that the name is a corruption of Van Schaick. Col. Baume, commandant of the Hessians in the battle of Bennington (1777) wrote it Sancoik, which is very nearly Van Schaick.

Schaghticoke, now so written as the name of a town in the northeast corner of Rensselaer County, and in other connections, is from _Pishgachtigok_ Mohegan, meaning "Land on the branch or division of a stream." The locative of the name was at the mouth of Hoosick River on the Hudson, in Washington County. The earliest record (1685) reads, "Land at _Schautecógue_" (-ohke). It is a generic name and appears in several forms and at several places. _Pishgachtigok_ is a form on the west side of the Housatonic at and near the mouth of Ten-Mile River. It was the site of an Indian village and the scene of labor by the Moravian missionaries. In some cases the name is written with locative, "at," etc., in others, with substantive meaning land or place, and in others without suffix. Writes Mr. Gerard, "The name would probably be correctly written _P'skaghtuk-uk,_" when with locative "at." [FN] Although first of record in 1685, its application was probably as early as 1675, when the Pennacooks of Connecticut, fleeing from the disastrous results of King Phillip's War in which they were allies, found refuge among their kindred Mahicans, and later were assigned lands at Schaghticoke by Governor Andros, where they were to serve as allies of the Mohawks. They seem to have spread widely over the district and to have left their footprints as far south as the Katskill. It is a tradition that conferences were held with them on a plain subsequently owned by Johannes Knickerbocker, some six miles east of the Hudson, and that a veritable treaty tree was planted there by Governor Andros in 1676-7, although "planting a tree" was a figurative expression. In later years the seat of the settlement seems to have been around Schaghticoke hill and point, where Mashakoes, their sachem, resided. (Annals of Albany, v, 149.) In the French and Indian war of 1756, the remnant of the tribe was carried away to Canada by the St. Francis Indians, an organization of kindred elements in the French service. At one time they are said to have numbered six hundred warriors. (See Shekomeko.)

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[FN] The root of the name is _Peske_ or _Piske_ (_Paske,_ Zeisb.), meaning, primarily, "To split," "To divide forcibly or abruptly." (Trumbull.) In Abnaki, _Peskétekwa,_ a "divided tidal or broad river or estuary"--_Peskahakan_ (Rale), "branche." In the Delaware, Zeisberger wrote _Pasketiwi,_ "The division or branch of a stream." _Pascataway,_ Md., is an equivalent form. _Pasgatikook,_ Greene County, is from the Mohegan form. _Paghataghan_ and _Pachkataken,_ on the east branch of the Delaware, and _Paghatagkam_ on the Otterkill, Vt., are equivalent forms of _Peskahakan,_ Abnaki. The Hoosick is not only a principal branch, but it is divided at its mouth and at times presents the appearance of running north in the morning and south at night. (Fitch's Surv.)

Quequick and Quequicke are orthographies of the name of a certain fall on Hoosick River, in Rensselaer County. In petition of Maria van Rensselaer, in 1684, the lands applied for were described as "Lying on both sides of a certain creek called Hoosock, beginning at ye bounds of Schaakook, and so to a fall called Quequick, and thence upward to a place called Nachacqikquat." (Cal. Land Papers, 27.) The name may stand for _Cochik'uack_ (Moh.), "Wild, dashing" waters, but I cannot make anything out of it. The first fall east of Schaakook (Schagticoke) Patent is now known as Valley Falls, in the town of Pittstown (Pittstown Station).

Pahhaoke, a local name in Hoosick Valley, is probably an equivalent of _Pauqna-ohke,_ "Clear land," "open country." It is frequently met in Connecticut in different forms, as in Pahqui-oke, Paquiag, etc., the name of Danbury Plains. The form here is said to be from the Stockbridge dialect, but it is simply an orthography of an English scribe. It has no relation whatever to the familiar Schaghticoke or Scat'acook.

Panhoosick, so written in Indian deed to Van Rensselaer in 1652, for a tract of land lying north and east of the present city of Troy, extending north to nearly opposite Kahoes Falls and east including a considerable section of Hoosick River, appears in later records as an apheresis in Hoosick, Hoosack, and Hoosuck, in application to Hoosick River, Hoosick Mountains, Hoosick Valley, Hoosick Falls, and in "Dutch Hossuck," an early settlement described in petition of Hendrick van Ness and others, in 1704, as "land granted to them by Governor Dongan in 1688, known by the Indian name of Hoosack." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 27, 74.) The head of the stream appears to have been the outlet of a lake now called _Pontoosuc_ from the name of a certain fall on its outlet called _Pontoosuck,_ "A corruption," wrote Dr. Trumbull, "of _Powntucksuck,_ 'falls of a brook,' or outlet." "_Powntuck,_ a general name for all falls," according to Indian testimony quoted by the same writer. "_Pantuck,_ falls of a stream." (Zeisb.) Several interpretations of the name have been suggested, of which the most probably correct is from Massachusetts _Pontoosuck,_ which would readily be converted to Hoosick or Panhoosick (Pontoosuck). It was applicable to any falls, and may have had locative at Hoosick Falls as well as on the outlet of Pontoosuck Lake. Without examination or warrant from the local dialect, Heckewelder wrote in his Lenape tradition, "The Hairless or Naked Bear": "_Hoosink,_ which means the basin, or more properly, the kettle." The Lenape or Delaware _Hōōs,_ "certainly means, in that dialect, 'a pot or kettle.' Figuratively, it might be applied to a kettle-shaped depression in land or to a particular valley. _Hoosink_ means 'in' or 'at' the pot or kettle. _Hoosack_ might be read 'round valley land,' or land with steep sides." (Brinton.) Of course this does not explain the prefix _Pan_, nor does it prove that _Hōōs_ was in the local dialect, which, in 1652, was certainly Mahican or Mohegan. Still, it cannot be said that the tradition was not familiar to all Algonquians in their mythical lore.

Heckewelder's tradition, "The Naked or Hairless Bear," has its culmination at a place "lying east of the Hudson," where the last one of those fabulous animals was killed. "The story," writes Dr. Brinton, "was that the bear was immense in size and the most vicious of animals. Its skin was bare except a tuft of white hair on the back. It attacked and ate the natives and the only means of escape from it was to take to the waters. Its sense of smell was remarkably keen, but its sight was defective. As its heart was very small, it could not be easily killed. The surest plan was to break its back-bone; but so dangerous was it that those hunters who went in pursuit of it bade families and friends farewell, as if they never expected to return. The last one was tracked to Hoosink, and a number of hunters went there and mounted a rock with precipitous sides. They then made a noise and attracted the beast's attention, who rushed to the attack with great fury. As he could not climb the rock, he tore at it with his teeth, while the hunters above shot him with arrows and threw upon him great stones, and thus killed him." [FN]

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[FN] "The Lenape and their Legends."

The Hoosick River flows from its head, near Pittsfield, Berkshire County, in Massachusetts, through the Petersburgh Mountains between precipitous hills, and carries its name its entire length. Fort Massachusetts, in the present town of Adams, Mass., was on its borders and in some records was called Fort Hoosick. It was captured by the French and their Indians in 1746. The general course of the stream is north, west, and south to the Hudson in the northwest corner of Rensselaer County, directly opposite the village of Stillwater, Saratoga County. There are no less than three falls on its eastern division, of which the most considerable are Hoosick Falls, where the stream descends, in rapids and cascades, forty feet in a distance of twelve rods. Dr. Timothy Dwight, who visited it in the early part of the 19th century, described it as "One of the most beautiful rivers in the world." "At different points," he wrote, "The mountains extend their precipitous declivities so as to form the banks of the river. Up these precipitous summits rise a most elegant succession of forest trees, chiefly maple, beech and evergreens. There are also large spots and streaks of evergreens, chiefly hemlock and spruce." Though, with a single exception, entered in English records by the name of "Hoosick or Schaahkook's Creek," it was, from the feature which especially attracted Dr. Dwight's attention, known to the Iroquois as the _Ti-oneenda-howe,_ or "The river at the hemlocks." [FN]

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[FN] See Saratoga. _Ti-oneenda-howe_ was applied by the Mohawks to the Hoosick, and _Ti-ononda-howe_ to the Batten Kill as positive boundmarks, the former from its hemlock-clad hills (_onenda_), and the latter from its conical hills (_ononda_). The late Horatio Hale wrote me: "_Ti-ononda-howe_ is evidently a compound term involving the word _ononda_ (or _ononta_), 'hill or mountain.' _Ti-oneenda-howe,_ in like manner, includes the word _onenda_ (or _onenta_), 'hemlock.' There may have been certain notable hills or hemlocks which as landmarks gave names to the streams or located them. The final syllables _howe,_ are uncertain." (See Di-ononda-howe.)

Cossayuna, said to be from the Mohawk dialect and to signify "Lake of the pines," is quoted as the name of a lake in the town of Argyle, Washington County. The translation is correct, substantially, but the name is Algonquian--a corruption of _Coossa,_ "Pine," [FN] and _Gummee,_ "Lake," or standing water. The terms are from the Ojibway dialect, and were probably introduced by Dr. Schoolcraft.

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[FN] It is of record that "the borders of Hudson's River above Albany, and the Mohawk River at Schenectady," were known, in 1710, as "the best places for pines of all sorts, both for numbers and largeness of trees." (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 656.) Mass. _Kowas-'ktugh,_ "pine tree." The name is met in many orthographies.

Anaquassacook, the name of a patent in Washington County, and also of a village and of a stream of water, was, primarily, the name of a boundmark. The locative has not been ascertained. _Anakausuk-ook,_ "At the end of a course," or as far the brook.

Podunk, a brook so called in the town of Fort Ann, Washington County, is met in several other places. (See Potunk, L. I.) Its meaning has not been ascertained.

Quatackquaohe, entered on Pownal's map as the name of a tract of land on the south side of a stream, has explanation in the accompanying entry, "Waterquechey, or Quatackquaohe." Waterquechey (English) means "Moist boggy ground," indicating that _Quatackquaohe_ is an equivalent of _Petuckquiohke,_ Mass., "Round-land place," _i. e._ elevated hassocks of earth, roots, etc. The explanation by Gov. Pownal may supply a key to the translation of other names now interpreted indefinitely.

Di-ononda-howe, a name now assigned to the falls on the Batten Kill below Galeville, Washington County, is Iroquoian and of original application to the stream itself as written in the Schuyler Patent. It is a compound descriptive of the locality of the creek, the reference being to the conical hills on the south side of the stream near the Hudson, on one of which was erected old Fort Saratoga. The sense is, "Where a hill interposes," between the object spoken of and the speaker. The late Superintendent of the Bureau of Ethnology, Prof. J. W. Powell, wrote me: "From the best expert information in this office, it may be said that the phonetic value of the final two syllables _howe_ is far from definite; but assuming that they are equivalent to _huwi_ (with the European vowel values), the word-sentence Di-ononda-howe means, 'There it has interposed (a) mountain,' Written in the Bureau alphabet, the word-sentence would be spelled Ty-ononde-huwi. It is descriptive of the situation of the creek, but not of the creek itself, and is applicable to any mountain or high hill which appears between a speaker and some other object." (See Hoosick.)