Part 32

Arackook, Kachawaweek, and Oghgotacton are record but unlocated names of places on the east side of the Wallkill, by some presumed to have been in the vicinity of Walden, Orange County, from the description: "Beginning at a fall called Arackook and running thence northwesterly on the east side of Paltz Creek until it comes to Kachawaweek." The petitioner for the tract was Robert Sanders, a noted interpreter, who renewed his petition in 1702, calling the tract Oghgotacton, and presented a claim to title from a chief called Corporwin, as the representative of his brother Punguanis, "Who had been ten years gone to the Ottowawas." He again gave the description, "Beginning at the fall called Arackook," but there is no trace of the location of the patent in the vicinity of Walden.

Hashdisch was quoted by the late John W. Hasbrouck, of Kingston, as the name of what has long been known as "The High Falls of the Wallkill" at Walden. Authority not stated, but presumably met by Mr. Hasbrouck in local records. It may be from _Ashp, Hesp,_ etc., "High," and _-ish,_ derogative. The falls descend in cascades and rapids about eighty feet at an angle of forty-five degrees. Though their primary appearance has been marred by dams and mills, they are still impressive in freshet seasons.

Twischsawkin is quoted as the name of the Wallkill at some place in New Jersey. On Sauthier's map it stands where two small ponds are represented and seems to have reference to the outlet. _Twisch_ may be an equivalent of _Tisch,_ "Strong," and _Sawkin_ may be an equivalent of Heckewelder's _Saucon,_ "Outlet," or mouth of a river, pond, etc. Wallkill, the name of the stream as now written, is an Anglicism of Dutch _Waal,_ "Haven, gulf, depth," etc., and _Kil,_ "Channel" or water-course. It is the name of an arm of the Rhine in the Netherlands, and was transferred here by the Huguenots who located in New Paltz. (See Wawayanda.)

Shawangunk, the name of a town, a stream of water, and a range of hills in Ulster County, was that of a specific place from which it was extended. It is of record in many orthographies, the first in 1684, of a place called _Chauwanghungh,_ [FN-1] in deed from the Indians to Governor Dongan, in the same year, _Chawangon,_ [FN-2] and _Chanwangung_ in 1686, [FN-3] later forms running to variants of _Shawangunk._ The locative is made specific in a grant to Thomas Lloyd in 1687; [FN-4] in a grant to Severeign Tenhout in 1702, [FN-5] and in a description in 1709, "Adjoining Shawangung, Nescotack and the Palze." [FN-6] In several other patent descriptions the locative is further identified by "near to" or "adjoining," and finally (1723) by "near the village of Showangunck," at which time the "village" consisted of the dwellings of Thomas Lloyd, on the north side of Shawangunk Kill; Severeign Tenhout on the south side; and Jacobus Bruyn, Benjamin Smedes, and others, with a mill, at and around what was known later as the village of Tuthiltown. In 1744, Jacobus Bruyn was the owner of the Lloyd tract. [FN-7] The distribution of the name over the district as a general locative is distinctly traceable from this center. It was never the name of the mountain, nor of the stream, and it should be distinctly understood that it does not appear in Kregier's Journal of the Second Esopus War, nor in any record prior to 1684, and could not have been that of any place other than that distinctly named in Governor Dongan's deed and in Lloyd's Patent.

Topographically, the tract was at and on the side of a hill running north from the fiats on the stream to a point of which Nescotack was the summit, the Lloyd grant lying in part on the hill-side and in part on the low lands on the stream. The mountain is eight miles distant. Without knowledge of the precise location of the name several interpretations of it have been made, generally from _Shawan,_ "South"--South Mountain, South Water, South Place. [FN-8] The latter is possible, _i. e._ a place lying south of Nescotack, as in the sentence: "Schawangung, Nescotack, and the Paltz." From the topography of the locative, however, Mr. William R. Gerard suggests that the derivatives are _Scha_ (or _Shaw_), "Side," _-ong,_ "hill," and _-unk,_ locative, the combination reading, "At (or on) the hill-side." [FN-9] This reading is literally sustained by the locative.

The name is of especial interest from its association with the Dutch and Indian War of 1663, although not mentioned in Kregier's narrative of the destruction of the Indian palisaded village called "New Fort," and later Shawongunk Fort. The narrative is very complete in colonial records. [FN-10] The village or fort was not as large as that called Kahanksan, which had previously been destroyed. It was composed of ten huts, probably capable of accommodating two or three hundred people. The palisade around them formed "a perfect square," on the brow of a tract of table-land on the bank of Shawongunk Kill. Since first settlement the location has been known as "New Fort." It is on the east side of the stream about three miles west of the village of Wallkill. [FN-11] In the treaty of 1664 the site and the fields around it were conceded, with other lands, to the Dutch, by the Indians, as having been "conquered by the sword," but were subsequently included (1684) in the purchase by Governor Dongan. Later were included in the patent to Capt. John Evans, and was later covered by one of the smaller patents into which the Evans Patent was divided. When the Dutch troops left it it was a terrible picture of desolation. The huts had been burned, the bodies of the Indians who had been killed and thrown into the corn-pits had been unearthed by wolves and their skeletons left to bleach on the plain, with here and there the half eaten body of a child. For years it was a fable told to children that the place was haunted by the ghosts of the slain, and even now the timid feel a peculiar sensation, when visiting the site, whenever a strange cry breaks on the ear, and the assurance that it is real comes with gratefulness in the shouts of the harvesters in the nearby fields. It is a place full of history, full of poetry, full of the footprints of the aboriginal lords, "Further down the creek," says the narrative, "several large wigwams stood, which we also burned, and divers maize fields which we also destroyed." On the sites of some of these wigwams fine specimens of Indian pottery and stone vessels and implements have been found, as well as many arrow-points of flint.

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[FN-1] "Land lying about six or seven miles beyond ye Town where ye Walloons dwell, upon ye same creek; ye name of ye place is Chauwanghungh and Nescotack, two small parcels of land lying together." (N. Y. Land Papers, 29, 30.)

[FN-2] "Comprehending all those lands, meadows and woods called Nescotack, Chawangon, Memorasink, Kakogh, Getawanuck and Ghittatawah." (Deed to Gov. Dongan.)

[FN-3] "Beginning on the east side of the river (now Wallkill), and at the south end of a small island in the river, at the mouth of the river Chauwangung, in the County of Ulster, laid out for James Graham and John Delaval." (N. Y. Land Papers, 38.)

[FN-4] "Description of a survey of 410 acres of land, called by the Indian name Chauwangung, laid out for Thomas Lloyd." (N. Y. Land Papers, 44.)

[FN-5] N. Y. Land Papers, 60.

[FN-6] Ib. 169. Other early forms are Shawongunk (1685), Shawongonck (1709), Shawongunge (1712).

[FN-7] From Jacobus Bruyn came the ancient hamlet still known as Bruynswick. He erected a stone mansion on the tract, in the front wall of which was cut on a marble tablet, "Jacobus Bruyn. 1724." The house was destroyed by fire in 1870 (about), and a frame dwelling erected on its old foundation. It is about half-way between Bruynswick and Tuthilltown; owned later by John V. McKinstry. The location is certain from the will of Jacobus Bruyn in 1744.

[FN-8] The most worthless interpretation is that in Spofford's Gazeteer and copied by Mather in his Geological Survey: "_Shawen,_ in the Mohegan language, means 'White,' also 'Salt.' and _Gunk,_ 'A large pile of rocks,' hence 'White Rocks' or mountain." The trouble with it is that there is no such word as _Shawen,_ meaning "White" in any Algonquian dialect, and no such word as _Gunk,_ meaning "Rocks."

[FN-9] The monosyllable _Shaw_ or _Schaw,_ radical _Scha,_ means "Side, edge, border, shore," etc. _Schauwunuppéque,_ "On the shore of the lake." _Enda-tacht-schawûnge,_ "At the narrows where the hill comes close to the river." (Heck.) _Schajawonge,_ "Hill-side" (Zeisb.), from which _Schawong-unk,_ "On the hill-side," or at the side of the hill, the precise bound of the name cannot be stated.

[FN-10] Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv, 71, 72, _et. seq._ Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 272, 326.

[FN-11] Authorities quoted and paper by Rev. Charles Scott, D. D., in "Proceedings Ulster Co. Hist. Soc."

Memorasink, Kahogh, Gatawanuk, and Ghittatawagh, names handed down in the Indian deed to Governor Dongan in 1684, have no other record, nor were they ever specifically located. The lands conveyed to him extended from the Shawangunk range to the Hudson, bounded on the north by the line of the Paltz Patent, and south by a line drawn from about the Dans Kamer. _Ghittatawagh_ is probably from _Kitchi,_ "Great, strong," etc., and _Towatawik,_ "Wilderness"--the great wilderness, or uninhabited district. _Gatawanuk_ seems to be from _Kitchi,_ "Strong," _-awan,_ impersonal verb termination, and _-uk,_ locative, and to describe a place on a strong current or flowing stream. The same name seems to appear in Kitchawan, now Croton River. It may have located lands on the Wallkill.

Nescotack, a certain place so called in the Dongan deed of 1684, is referred to in connection with Shawongunk. It was granted by patent to Jacob Rutsen and described as "A tract of land by the Indians called Nescotack and by the Christians Guilford." (N. Y. Land Papers, 29, 30.) Guilford was known for many years as Guilford Church, immediately west of Shawongunk. The actual location of the name, however, is claimed for a hamlet now called Libertyville, further north, which was long known as Nescotack. The district is an extended ridge which rises gradually from the Shawongunk River-bottoms on the east and falls off on the west more abruptly. The name, probably, describes this ridge as "High lands," an equivalent of _Esquatak_ and _Eskwatack_ on the Upper Hudson; _Ashpotag,_ Mass., and Westchester Co. _Esp, Hesp, Ishp, Hesko, Nesco,_ etc., are record orthographies. (See Schodac and Shawongunk.)

Wishauwemis, a place-name in Shawongunk, was translated by Rev. Dr. Scott, "The place of beeches," from _Schauwemi,_ "Beech wood"; but seems to be an equivalent of Moh. _Wesauwemisk,_ a species of oak with yellow bark used for dyeing. _Wisaminschi,_ "Yellow-wood tree." (Zeisb.)

Wickquatennhonck, a place so called in patent to Jacobus Bruyn and Benj. Smedes, 1709, is described as "Land lying near a small hill called, in ye Indian tongue, Wickqutenhonck," in another paper Wickquatennhonck, "Land lying near the end of the hill." The name means, "At the end of the hill," from _Wequa,_ "End of"; _-ateune_ (_-achtenne,_ Zeisb.), "hill," and _-unk,_ "at." The location was near the end of what is still known as the Hoogte-berg (Hooge-berg, Dutch), a range of hills, where the proprietors located dwellings which remained many years.

Wanaksink, a region of meadow and maize land in the Shawongunk district, was translated by Dr. Scott from _Winachk,_ "Sassafras" (Zeisb.); but _Wanachk_ may and probably does stand for _Wonachk,_ "The tip or extremity of anything," and _-sing_ means "Near," or less than. A piece of land that was near the end of a certain place or piece of land. It is not the word that is met in Wynogkee.

Maschabeneer, Masseks, Maskack, Massekex, a certain tract or tracts of land in the present town of Shawongunk, appear in a description of survey, Dec. 10, 1701, of seven hundred and ten acres "at a place called _Maschabeneer Shawengonck,_" laid out for Mathias Mott, accompanied by an affidavit by Jacob Rutsen concerning the purchase of the same from the Indians. At a previous date (Sept. 22) Mott asked for a patent for four hundred acres "at a place called Shawungunk," which was "given him when a child by the Indians." Whether the two tracts were the same or not does not appear; but in 1702, June 10, Severeyn Tenhout remonstrated against granting to Mott the land which he had petitioned for, and accompanied his remonstrance by an extract from the minutes of the Court at Kingston, in 1693, granting the land to himself. He asked for a patent and gave the name of the tract "Called by the Indians _Masseecks,_ near Shawengonck," _i. e._ near the certain tract called Shawongunk which had been granted to Thomas Lloyd. He received a patent. In 1709, Mott petitioned "in relation to a certain tract of land upon Showangonck River" which had been granted to Tenhout, asking that the "same be so divided" that he (Mott) should "have a proportion of the good land upon the said river"--obviously a section of low land or meadow, described by the name of a place thereon called _Maskeék_ (Zeisb.), meaning "Swamp, bog"; _Maskeht_ (Eliot), "Grass." The radical is _ask,_ "green, raw, immature." The suffix _-eghs_ represents an intensive form of the guttural formative, which the German missionaries softened to _-ech_ and _-ck,_ and the English to _-sh,_ and is frequently met in _X._ Heckewelder wrote that the original sound was that of the Greek X, hence Maskex and x in Coxsackie. _Maschabeneer,_ the name given by Mott, is not satisfactorily translatable.

Pitkiskaker and Aioskawasting appear in deed from the Esopus Indians to Governor Dongan, in 1684, as the names of divisions of what are now known as the Shawongunk Mountains south of Mohunk or Paltz Point. The deed description reads: "Extending from the Paltz," _i. e._ from the southeast boundmark of the Paltz Patent on the Hudson, now known as Blue Point (see Magaat-Ramis), south "along the river to the lands of the Indians at Murderers' Kill, thence west to the foot of the high hills called Pitkiskaker and Aioskawasting, thence southwesterly all along the said hills and the river called Peakadasink to a water-pond lying upon said hills called Meretange." [FN-1] Apparently the general boundaries were the line of the Paltz Patent on the north, the Hudson on the east, a line from "about the Dancing Chamber" on the Hudson to Sam's Point on the Shawongunk range on the southwest, and on the west by that range and the river Peakadasank. The Peakadasank is now known as Shawangunk Kill. The pond "called Meretange," is claimed by some authorities, as that now known as Binnen-water in the town of Mount Hope, Orange County. On Sauthier's map it is located on the southern division of the range noted as "Alaskayering Mts.," and represented as the head of Shawongunk Kill. The same distinction is claimed for Meretange or Peakadasank Swamp in the town of Greenville, Orange County. A third Maratanza Pond is located a short distance west of Sam's Point. The name of the hill has been changed from _Aioskawasting_ to _Awosting_ as the name of a lake and a waterfall about four miles north of Sam's Point, and translated from _Awoss_ (Lenape), "Beyond," "On the other side," and claimed to have been originally applied to a crossing-place in the depression north of Sam's Point, neither of which interpretations is tenable. The prefix, _Aioska,_ cannot be dropped and the name have a meaning, and the adjectival, _Awoss,_ cannot be used as a substantive and followed by the locative _-ing,_ "at, on," etc. _Awoss_ means "Beyond," surely, but must be followed by a substantive telling what it is that is "beyond." The particular features of the Shawongunk range covered by the boundary line of the deed are "The Traps," a cleft which divides the range a short distance south of Mohunk, and Sam's Point, [FN-2] about nine miles south of Mohunk. The latter stands out very conspicuously, its general surface covered by perpendicular rocks from one hundred to two hundred and fifty feet high, the point itself crowned by a wall of rock which rises 2200 feet above the valley below.

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[FN-1] Meretange, Maretange, or Maratanza, is from Old English _Mere,_ "A pond or pool," and _Tanze,_ "Sharp" or offensive to the taste. The name was transferred to this pond from the pond first bearing it in the town of Greenville, Orange County, in changing the northwest line of the Evans Patent. (See Peakadasank.) The pond is about a mile in circumference and is lined with cranberry bushes and other shrubbery, but the water is clear and sweet. It lies about three-quarters of a mile west of Sam's Point. Long Pond, lying about four miles north of Maratanza, is now called Awosting Lake. It is about two miles long by possibly one-quarter of a mile wide and lies in a clove or cleft of the hills. Its outlet was called by the Dutch Verkerde Kil, now changed to Awosting. About one mile further north lies "The Great Salt Pond," so called in records of the town of Shawongunk. It is now called Lake Minnewaska, a name introduced from the Chippeway dialect, said to mean "Colored water," which has been changed to "Frozen water." The lake is particularly described as being "Set into the hills like a bowl." It has an altitude of 1,600 feet and a depth of seventy to ninety feet of water of crystal clearness through which the pebbly bottom can be seen. The fourth pond is that known as Lake Mohonk.

[FN-2] Sam's Point is in the town of Wawarsing, about seven miles south of the village of Ellenville and about nine miles south of Mohunk or Paltz Point. It is the highest point on the Shawongunk range in New York State. Its name is from Samuel Gonsaulus, who owned the tract. Gertruyd's Nose, the name of another point, was so called from the fancied resemblance of its shadow to the nose of Mrs. Gertrude, wife of Jacobus Bruyn, who owned the tract. The pass, cleft or clove known as "The Traps," was so called from the supposed character of the rock which it divides. The rock, however, is not Trappean. The pass is 650 feet wide and runs through the entire range. Its sides present the appearance of the hill having slipped apart.

Peakadasank, so written in Indian deed to Governor Dongan in 1684--_Pachanasinck_ in patent to Jacob Bruyn, 1719; _Peckanasinck, Pachanassinck,_ etc.--is given as the name of a stream bounding a tract of land, the Dongan deed description reading: "Thence southwesterly all along said hills and the river Peakadasank to a water-pond lying on said hills called Meretange." The name is preserved in two streams known as the Big and the Little Pachanasink, in Orange County, and in Ulster County as the "Pachanasink District," covering the south part of the town of Shawongunk. The Big Pachanasink is now known as Shawongunk Kill. In 1719, Nov. 26, a certain tract of land "called Pachanasink" was granted to Jacobus Bruyn and described in survey as "on the north side of Shawongunck Creek, beginning where the Verkerde Kill [FN] flows into said river," indicating locative of the name at the Verkerde Branch. In a brief submitted in the boundary contention, it is said that the line of the Dongan purchase ran "along the foot of the hills from a place called Pachanasink, where the Indians who sold the land had a large village and place," and from thence "to the head of the said river, and no where else the said river is called by that name." The evidence is cumulative that the name was that of the dominant feature of the district, from which it was transferred to the stream. It is a district strewn with masses of conglomerate rocks thrown off from the hills and precipitous cliffs. The two forms of the name, Peakadasank (1684) and Pachanassink (1717), were no doubt employed as equivalents. They differ in meaning, however. Wm. R. Gerard writes: "_Peakadasank,_ or _Pakadassin,_ means, 'It is laid out through the effects of a blow,' or some other action. The participial form is _Pakadasing,_ meaning, 'Where it is laid out,' or 'Where it lies fallen.' The reference in this case would seem to be to the stone which had fallen off or been thrown down from the hills." _Pachanasink_ means, "At the split rocks"; _Pachassin,_ "Split stone." In either form the name is from the split rocks.

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[FN] The Verkerde Kill falls over a precipice of about seventy feet. The exposed surface of the precipice is marked by strata in the conglomerate as primarily laid down. The entire district is a region of split rocks. Verkerde Kill takes that name from Dutch _Verkeerd,_ meaning "Wrong, bad, angry, turbulent," etc. It is the outlet of Meretange Pond near Sam's Point. It flows from the pond to the falls and from the falls at nearly a right angle over a series of cascades aggregating in all a fall of two hundred and forty feet. The falls are in the town of Gardiner, Ulster County. (See Aioskawasting.)

The lands granted to Bruyn included the tract "Known by the Indian name of Pacanasink," now in the town of Shawongunk, and also a tract "Known by the Indian name of Shensechonck," now in the town of Crawford, Orange County. The latter seems to have been a parcel of level upland. It was about one mile to the southward of the stream.

Alaskayering, entered on Sauthier's map of 1774, as the name of the south part of the Shawongunk range, was conferred by the English, possibly as a substitute for Aioskawasting. The first word is heard in _Alaska,_ which is said, on competent authority, to mean, "The high bald rocks"; with locative _-ing,_ "At (or on) the high bald rocks." This interpretation is a literal description of the hill, and Aioskawasting may have the same meaning, although those who wrote the former may not have had a thought about the latter. [FN] (See Pitkiskaker.)

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[FN] High Point, the highest elevation in the southern division of the range, is in New Jersey. It is said to be higher than Sam's Point, and to bear the same general description.

Achsinink, quoted by the late Rev. Charles Soott, D. D., from local records probably, as the name of Shawongunk Kill, is an apheresis apparently of _Pach-achsün-ink,_ "At (or on) a place of split stones." Many of the split rocks thrown off from the mountain lie in the bed of the stream, in places utilized for crossing. "There are rocks in it, so that it is easy to get across." (Col. Hist. N. Y., viii, 272.) _Achsün,_ as a substantive, cannot be used as an independent word with a locative. An adjectival prefix is necessary. (See Pakadasink.)

Palmagat, the name of the bend in the mountain north of Sam's Point, regarded by some as Indian, is a Dutch term descriptive of the growth there of palm or holly (_Ilex opaca_), possibly of shrub oaks the leaf of which resembles the holly. _Gat_ is Dutch for opening, gap, etc.