Part 39

Schenectady, now so written, is claimed by some authorities to be an Anglicism of a Mohawk-Iroquoian verbal primarily applied by them to Fort Orange (Albany), with the interpretations, "The place we arrive at by passing through the pine trees" (Bleecker); "Beyond the opening" (L. H. Morgan); "Beyond (or on the other side) of the door" (O'Callaghan), and by Horatio Hale: "The name means simply, 'beyond the pines.' from _oneghta_ (or _skaneghet_), 'pine,' and _adi_ or _ati,_ a prepositional suffix (if such an expression may be allowed), meaning 'beyond,' or 'on the other side of.' The suffix is derived from _skati,_ side. It was equally applicable to Albany or Schenectady, both being reached from the Mohawk castles by passing through openings in the pine forest." Mr. Hale's interpretation, from the standpoint of a Mohawk term, is exhaustive and no doubt correct, and the correctness of the preceding interpretations may be admitted from the combinations which may have been employed to determine the object of which _askati_ was "one side," as in "_Skannátati,_ de un coste du village," or the end of, as in "_Skannhahati,_ a l'autre bout de la cabane" (Bruyas). The word does not appear to mean "beyond," but one side or one end of anything. Aside from a critical rendering, it would seem to be evident that all the interpretations are in error, not in the translation of the name as a Mohawk word-sentence, but in the assumption that Schenectady was primarily a Mohawk phrase, instead of a confusion of the Mohawk _Skannatati_ with the original Dutch _Schaenhecstede,_ the primary application of which is amply sustained by official record, while the Mohawk term is without standing in that connection, or later except as a corrupt Mohawk-Dutch [FN-1] substitution. The facts of primary application may be briefly stated. The deed from the Mohawk owners of the Schenectady flats, in 1661, reads: "A certain parcel of land called in Dutch the Groote Vlachte, lying behind Fort Orange, between the same and the Mohawk country called in Indian _Skonowe._" _Skonowe_ is the equivalent of the Dutch "great flat," and nothing more. Its Mohawk equivalent is written on the section _Shenondohawah,_ which the Dutch reduced to _Skonowe._ (See Shannondhoi.) Van der Donck wrote on his map (1656), in pure Dutch, _Schoon Vlaack Land,_ or "Fine flat land." It was not continued in application to the Dutch settlement, the proprietors of which immediately (1661) gave to it the Dutch name _Schaenechstede,_ "as the town came to be called." (Munsell's Annals of Albany, ii, 49, 52; Brodhead's Hist. N. Y., i, 691.) Under that name the tract was surveyed (1664), and it has remained apparent in the synthesis of the many corrupt forms in which it is of record. _Schaenechstede_ is a clear orthographic pronunciation of the Dutch _Schoonehetstede,_ signifying, literally, "The beautiful town." The syllable _het_ is properly _hek,_ "fence, rail, gate," etc., and in this connection indicates an enclosed or palisaded town. In 1680, _Schaenschentendeel_ appears--a pronunciation of _Schoonehettendal,_ "Beautiful valley," or the equivalent of the German _Schooneseckthal,_ "Beautiful corner or turn of a valley." The German Labadists, Jasper Bankers and Peter Sluyter, made no mistake in their recognition of the name when they wrote _Schoon-echten-deel_ in their Journal in 1679-80, describing the town as a square set off by palisades. [FN-2] Unfortunately for the Dutch name it was conferred and came into use during the period of the transition of the province from the Dutch to the English, with the probability of its conversion to Mohawk-Dutch, as already noted. Certain it is that the name is not met in any form until after its introduction by the Dutch, and is not of record in any connection except at Schenectady, the statement by Brodhead, on the authority of Schoolcraft, that it was applied in one form, by the Mohawks, to a place some two miles above Albany, as "the end of a portage path of the Mohawks coming from the west," being without anterior or subsequent record, though possibly traditional, and it may be added that it was never the name of Albany, nor is there record that there ever was a Mohawk village "on the site of the present city of Albany," nor anywhere near it. The Mohawks did go there to trade and on business with the government and occupied temporary encampments probably. The occupants primarily were Mahicans. The evolution of the name from the original Dutch to its present form may be readily traced in the channels through which it has passed. Even though clouded by traditional and theoretical rendering, the truth of history will ever rest in _Schoonehetstede_ (Schaenechstede) and in the interpretation which it was designed to express by the intelligent men who conferred it. It is not expected that the correction will be adopted, now that the term has passed to the domain of a "proper name." With the aroma of assumed Mohawk origin and the negative "beyond" clinging to it, it will remain at least as a harmless fiction, although the honor due to a Dutch ancestry would seem to warrant a different result. By ancient measurements Schenectady is "about nine miles (English) above the falls called Cahoes" (1792).

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[FN-1] A considerable number of the early settlers had Indian wives. (Dominie Megapolensis wrote: "The Dutch are continually running after the Mohawk women.") The children, growing up with Indian relatives, among the tribes and with men speaking so great a variety of tongues, built up a patois of their own, the "Mohawk-Dutch," many words in it defying the dictionaries of the schools. Many words are untranslatable save by the context. (Hist. Schenectady Patent, 388.)

[FN-2] Memoirs Long Island Hist. Soc, i, 315.

Shannondhoi and Shenondohawah are record forms of the name of a section of Saratoga County now embraced in Clifton Park, Half-Moon, etc. It is a sandy plain running west from the clay bluffs on the Hudson to the foot of the mountain, and extends across the Mohawk into Schenectady County. The name is generic Iroquois, signifying "Great plain," and as such was their name for Wyoming, Pa., where it is written _Schahandoanah_ (Col. Hist. N. Y., vi, 48), and _Skehandowana_ (Reichel). Scanandanani, Schenondehowe, Skenandoah, and Shanandoah, are among other forms met in application. Skonowe is followed on Van der Donck's map of 1656, by the Dutch legend _Schoon Vlaack Land,_ literally, "Fine, flat land," and for all these years the name has been accepted as meaning, "Great meadow," or "Great plain." The late Horatio Hale wrote: "The name is readily accounted for by the word _Kahenta_ (or _Kahenda_), meaning 'plain'--frequently abridged to _Kenta_ (or _Kenda_)--with the nominal prefix _S_ and the augmentative suffix _owa_ (or _owana_)." "The great flat or plain in Pennsylvania was called, in the Minsi dialect, '_M'chewomink_, at (or on) the great plain.' From this word we have the modern name Wyoming. The Iroquois word for this flat was _Skahentowane,_ 'Great meadow (or plain),' a term which was applied also to extensive meadows in other localities and became corrupted to Shenandoah." (Gerard.)

Quaquarionu, of record, Calendar Land Papers, p. 6: "Bounds of a tract of land above Schenectady purchased of the Mohawk Indians, extending from Schenectady three miles westward, along both sides of the river, ending at Quaquarionu, _where the last Mohawk castle stands._" The deed of same date (1672) reads: "The lands lying near the town of Schenhectady within three Dutch miles in compass on both sides of the river westward, which ends at Kinaquariones, where the last battle was between the Mohawks and the North Indians." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 465.) _Canaquarioeny_ is the orthography in another deed. In Pearson's History of Schenectady: "Lands lying near the town of Schonnhectade within three Dutch miles [about twelve English miles] on both sides of the river westward, which ends at Hinquariones [Towareoune], where the last battle was between the Mohoax and North Indians." The last battle in that section of country explains the text. Father Pierron, in 1669, located the battle "In a place that was precipitous, . . . about eight leagues [French] east of Gandauague" (Caughnawaga), or about sixteen miles English, and modern authorities have added, "A steep rocky hill on the north side of the Mohawk, just west of Hoffman's Ferry, now called Towareoune Hill, east of Chucktanunda Creek, a stream which is supposed to have taken its name from the overhanging rocks of the hill." [FN] Dr. Beauchamp, on the authority of Albert Cusick, an educated Tuscarorian, translated: "_Kinaquarioune,_ 'She arrow-maker,' the name of a person who resided there." Rev. Isaac Bearfoot, an educated Onondagian, especially instructed in the Mohawk dialect, and an educator on the Canada Reservation, supplied to W. Max Reid of Amsterdam, N. Y., the reading: "_Ki-na-qua-ri-one_, 'He killed the Bear,' or, the place where the Bears die, or any place of death. It seems to have been used to denote the place of the last great battle with the Mahicans." The battle referred to occurred on the 18th of August, 1669. An account of it is given in Jesuit Relations, iii, 137, by Father Pierron, the Jesuit missionary, who was then stationed at Caughnawaga. The war which was then raging was continued until 1673, when the Governor of New York succeeded in negotiating peace and by treaty "linked together" the opposing nations as allies of the English government, a relation which they subsequently sustained until the war of the Revolution, when the Mahicans united with the revolutionists.

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[FN] In a deed of 1685 is the entry: "Opposite a place called Jucktumunda, that is ye stone houses, being a hollow rock on ye river bank where ye Indians generally lie under when they travel."

Onekee-dsi-enos is of record in a deed of land purchased by one Abraham Cuyler of Albany, in 1714, "from the native owners of the land at Schohare, on the west side of Schohare creek, beginning on the north by a stone mountain called by the Indians Onekeedsienos." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 110.) The name is probably an equivalent of Bruyas' _Onueja-tsi-entos,_ a composition from _Onne'ja,_ "Stone"; _tsi_ or _dsi,_ augmentative, "Very hard," such as stones used for making hatchets, axes, etc., and _entos,_ plural inflection--"very hard stones," or "where there are hard stones." The location has been claimed for Flint Hill at Klein, Montgomery County, which, it is said, the name correctly describes. Positive identification, however, can only be made from the lines of the survey of Cuyler's purchase. It has also been claimed that the Mohawk castle called _Onekagoncka_ by Van Curler in 1635, and the _Osseruenon_ of 1642, was located at Klein, about eight miles east of Schohare Creek. This claim is based on what is certainly an erroneous computation of Van Curler's miles' travel, but particularly on the location on Van der Donck's map of _Carenay_ directly north of a small lake now in the town of Duane, Schenectady County. Van der Donck's map locations are merely approximative, however, and of no other value than as showing that the places existed. On an ancient map reprinted by the War Department at Washington, the lake and the castle are both located east of Schenectady. The old maps are from traders' descriptions in general terms.

Onuntadass, _Onuntasasha,_ etc., "six miles west from Schoharie between the mountains of Schoharie and the hill called by the Indians Onuntadass" (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers), describes a hill or mountain--_Ononté_--with adjective termination _es_ or _ese,_ meaning "long" or "high." _Jonondese,_ "It is a high hill." The hill has not been located. The name could be applied to any long or high hill.

Schoharie, now so written as the name of a creek and of a county and town, would properly be written without the _i_. The stream came into notice particularly after 1693-4, when the Tortoise tribe retreated from Caughnawaga and located their principal town on the west side of the stream a short distance south of its junction with the Mohawk, taking with them their ancient title of "The First Mohawk Castle," and where its location became known by the name of _Ti-onondar-aga_ and _Ti-ononta-ogen;_ but later from the location on the creek about sixteen miles above its mouth of what was known in modern times as "The Third Mohawk Castle," more frequently called "The Schohare Castle," a mixed aggregation of Mohawks and Tuscaroras who had been converted by the Jesuit missionaries and persuaded to remove to Canada, but subsequently induced to return. "A few emigrants at Schohare," wrote Sir William Johnson in 1763. In the same district was also gathered a settlement of Mahicans and other Algonquian emigrants. From the elements which were gathered in both settlements came what were, long known as the Schohare Indians. The early record name of the creek, _To-was-sho'hare,_ was rendered for me by Mr. J. B. N. Hewitt, of the Bureau of Ethnology, _T-yo^c-skoⁿ-hà-re,_ "An obstruction by drift wood." [FN] In Colonial History, "_Skohere_, the Bear," means that the chief so called was of the Bear tribe. He was otherwise known by the title, "He is the great wood-drift."

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[FN] "Schoharie, according to Brant, is an Indian word signifying drift or flood-wood, the creek of that name running at the foot of a steep precipice for many miles, from which it collected great quantities of wood." (Spofford's Gazetteer.)

Ti-onondar-aga and Tiononta-ogen are forms of the name by which the "First Mohawk Castle" was located after the Tortoise tribe was driven by the French from Caughnawaga in 1693. The castle was located on the _west_ side and near the mouth of Schohare Creek, as shown by a rough map in Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 902, and also by a French Itinerary in 1757, in the same work, Vol. i, 526. [FN-1] For the protection of the settlement, the government erected, in 1710, what was known as Fort Hunter, by which name the place is still known. The settlement was ruled over for a number of years by "Little Abraham," brother of the Great King Hendrick of the "Upper Mohawk Castle," at Canajohare. Its occupants were especially classed as "Praying Maquas," and had a chapel and a bell and a priest of the Church of England. In the war of the Revolution they professed to be neutral but came to be regarded by the settlers as being composed of spies and informers. So it came about that General Clinton sent out, in 1779, a detachment, captured all the inmates, and seized their stock and property. [FN-2] There were only four houses--very good frame buildings--then standing, and on the solicitation of settlers, who had been made houseless in the Brant and Johnson raids, they were given to them. It was the last Mohawk castle to disappear from the valley proper.

_Ti-onondar-ága_ and _Te-ononte-ógen_ are related terms but are not precisely of the same meaning. The first has the locative particle _ke,_ or _acu_, as Zeisberger wrote it, and the second, _ógen,_ means "A space between," or "between two mountains," an intervale, or valley, a very proper name for Schohare Valley. It is a generic composition and was also employed in connection with the "Upper (Third) Mohawk Castle" (1635-'66).

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[FN-1] The settlement included "Some thirty cabins of Mohawk Indians" in 1757. as stated in the French Itinerary referred to, Rev. Gideon Hawley described it, in 1753, as on the southwest side of the creek "Not far from the place where it discharges its waters into Mohawk River." The place is still known as "Fort Hunter," although the fort and the Indian settlement disappeared years ago.

[FN-2] A detachment of one hundred men, sent out for that purpose, surprised the castle on the 29th of October, 1779, making prisoners of "Every Indian inmate." The houseless settlers took possession of the four houses and of all the stock, grain and furniture of the tribe. The tribe made claim for restitution on the ground of neutrality, which the settlers denied. They had come to hate the very name of Mohawk.

Kadarode, of record in 1693 as the name of a tract of land "Lying upon Trinderogues (Schohare) creek, on both sides, made over to John Petersen Mabie by _Roode,_ the Indian, in his life time, [FN] principal sachem, by and with the consent of the rest of the Praying Indian Castle in the Mohawk country" (Land Papers, 61), is further referred to in grant of permission to Mabie, in 1715, to purchase additional land "known as Kadarode," on the _east_ side of the creek, and also lands "adjoining" his lands on the _west_ side of the stream. (Ib. 118.) By the DeWitt map of survey of 1790, Mabie's entire purchase extended east from the mouth of Aurie's Creek to a point on the east side of Schohare Creek, a distance of about four miles, the territory covering the presumed site of the early Mohawk castle called by different writers from names which they had heard spoken, Onekagoncka, Caneray, Osseruenon, and Oneugioure, now the site of the Shrine, "Our Lady of Martyrs." The Mohawk River, west of the long rapids, above and including the mouth of Schohare Creek, flows "in a broad, dark stream, with no apparent current," giving it the appearance of a lake--"a long stretch of still water in a river." The section was much favored by the Tortoise tribe, whose castle in 1635 and again in 1693-4 was seated upon it. The record name, _Kadarode,_ has obviously lost some letters. Its locative suggests its derivation from _Kanitare,_ "Lake," and _-okte_, "End, side, edge," etc. Van Curler wrote here, in 1635, _Canowarode,_ the name of a village which he passed while walking on the ice which had frozen over the Mohawk; it was evidently on the side of the stream. _Carenay_ or _Kaneray,_ Van der Donck's name of the castle, may easily have been from _Kanitare._ The letters _d_ and _t_ are equivalent sounds in the Mohawk tongue. The aspirate _k_ was frequently dropped by European scribes; it does not represent a radical element. The several record names which are met here is a point of interest to students.

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[FN] _Roode_ was living in 1683. An additional name was given to him in a Schenectady patent of that year, indicating that the name by which he was generally known was from his place of residence. He could easily have been a sachem in 1635.

Oghrackee, Orachkee, Oghrackie, orthographies of the record name of what is now known as Aurie's Creek, appear in connection with land patented to John Scott, 1722. In the survey of the patent by Cadwallader Colden, in the same year, the description reads: "On the south side of Mohawk's river, about two miles above Fort Hunter, . . . beginning at a certain brook called by the Indians Oghrackie, otherwise known as Arie's creek, where it falls into Maquas river." (N. Y. Land Papers, 164.) In other words the name was that of a place at the mouth of the brook. Near the brook at Auriesville, which takes its name from that of the stream, has been located the Shrine, "Our Lady of Martyrs," marking the presumed site of the Mohawk castle called by Father Jogues _Osserueñon,_ in which he suffered martyrdom in 1646. [FN] The Indian name, _Oghrackie,_ has no meaning as it stands; some part of it was probably lost by mishearing. The digraph _gh_ is not a radical element in Mohawk speech; it is frequently dropped, as in _Orachkee,_ one of the forms of the name here. Omitting it from Colden's _Oghrackie,_ and inserting the particle _se_ or _sa,_ yields _Osarake,_ "At the beaver dam," from _Osara,_ "Beaver dam," and locative participle _ke,_ "At." (Hale.) This interpretation is confirmed, substantially, by the Bureau of Ethnology in an interpretation of _Osseruenon_ which Father Jogues gave as that of the castle. W. H. Holmes, Chief of the Bureau, wrote me, under date of March 8, 1906, as has been above stated, "The term _Osserueñon_ (or _Osserneñon, Asserua, Osserion, Osserrinon_) appears to be from the Mohawk dialect of the Iroquoian stock of languages. It signifies, if its English dress gives any approximation to the sound of the original expression, 'At the beaver dam.'" This expert testimony has its value in the force which it gives to the conclusion that the castle in which Father Jogues suffered was at or near Aurie's Creek. The relation between Megapolensis' _Assarue_ and Jogues's _Osseru_ is readily seen by changing the initial _A_ in the former to _O._

_Aurie's,_ the present name of the stream, otherwise written _Arie's,_ is Dutch for _Adrian_ or _Adrianus_ (Latin) "Of or pertaining to the sea." It is suggestive of the name _Adriochten,_ written by Van Curler as that of the ruling sachem of the castle which he visited and called _Onekagoncka_ in 1635. The only tangible fact, however, is that the stream took its present name from Aurie, a ruling sachem who resided on or near it.

In this connection the several names by which the castle was called, viz: _Onekagoncka, Carenay_ or _Caneray, Osserueñon, Assarue,_ and _Oneugiouré,_ may be again referred to. As already stated, the "best expert authority" of the Bureau of Ethnology reads _Onekagoncka_ as signifying, "At the junction of the waters," and _Osserueñon,_ in any of its forms, as signifying "At the beaver-dam." Possibly the names might be read differently by a less expert authority, but _Oneka_ certainly means "Water," and _Ossera_ means "Beaver-dam." Add the reading by the late Horatio Hale of _Oghracke,_ "At the beaver-dam," and the locative chain is complete at the mouth of Aurie's Creek (Oghracke). _Tribally,_ the names referred to one and the same castle, as has been noted, and the evidence seems to be clear that the location was the same. There is no evidence whatever that any other than one and the same place was occupied by the "first castle" between the years 1635 and 1667. It is not strictly correct to say that "castles were frequently removed." Villages that were not palisaded may have been frequently changed to new sites, but the evidence is that palisaded towns remained in one place for a number of years unless the tribe occupying was driven out by an enemy or by continued unhealthfulness, as the known history of all the old castles shows; nor were they ever removed to any considerable distance from their original sites.