What Happened to 7,000 People

When hostilities broke out in 1775, the effects of the war began to intrude on the political isolation in the valley. Tryon County, which then encompassed most of the Mohawk River Valley, formed a Committee of Safety, as did other counties throughout the colonies. The committee was charged with maintaining civil order and raising a militia. In 1776 and 1777, the committee was also charged with determining which men in the valley supported the revolution and which remained loyal to the crown. This “sorting out” was accomplished by a requirement that the men sign an association supporting the Continental Congress:

“Whereas the grand jury of this county, and a number of the magistrates, have signed a declaration, declaring their disapprobation of the opposition made by the Colonies to the oppressive and arbitrary acts of Parliament, the purport of which is evidently to entail slavery on America; and as the said declaration may, in some measure, be looked upon as the sense of the County in general, if the same be passed over in silence; we the said County, inspired with a sincere love for our country, and deeply interested in the common cause, do solemnly declare our fixed attachment and entire approbation of the proceedings of the grand Continental Congress held at Philadelphia last fall, and that we will strictly adhere to, and repose our confidence in the wisdom and integrity of the present Continental Congress; and that we will support the same to the utmost of our power, and that we will religiously and inviolably observe the regulations of that august body. [sic]” 2

via What Happened to 7,000 People.

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Visit for much more detail.

– CAA

 

King’s Highway

The King’s Highway

“The Kings Highway” is a legendary term that has been used to describe any of the country roads out of colonial Albany that may have been built by the British army during the French and Indian War. Albany to the VerberghHowever, it most often refers to the main route through the “Pine Bush” from Albany to Schenectady.

This overland thoroughfare connecting the Hudson and the Mohawk was in existence from the earliest days of the community and was first used by Native American hunters bringing their furs to Beverwyck and then Albany.

Until the mid-18th century, the Kings Highway was little more than a path through the woods. the Kings Highway But it was improved dramatically by British and provincial soldiers during the last of the colonial wars. After the war, many new settlers were travelling west from Albany over this road. By that time, the western parts of it were maintained under contract with the Albany city government.

On the Albany end, the Kings Highway began at the Schenectady gate of the stockade and continued uphill and into the pine barrens along the route of today’s Washington Avenue.

via King’s Highway.

 

Schenectady Massacre

* From Tales of Old Schenectady by Larry Hart, Chapter 8, Page 37-40

The fate of Schenectady was sealed in the middle of January, 1690, when 114 Frenchmen and 96 Sault and Algonquin Indians, most of whom had been converted by the Jesuits, started from Montreal to attack English outposts to the south. It was part of a master plan of Count Frontenac, governor to Canada, to fulfill the commission of French King Louis XIV to “build a new empire in America.”

They came down across the frozen reaches of the St Lawrence and over the ice of Lake Champlain and finally, in about six days, down to a point at what is now Fort Edward, where the French officers held council on the plan of attack. It was here that they began to compromise with the Indian leaders on the feasibility of attacking Schenectady instead of the original objective, Fort Orange (Albany).

Another journey of about 17 days down to the Mohawk Valley brought the war party scarcely two miles from the fur-trading post beside the Binnekill on Feb. 8. It was about 4 o’clock in the afternoon and a blizzard came howling down from the north-west, icy winds swirling snow about the would-be attackers as they huddled in a final council near what is now Alplaus.

The French leaders, Lts. Le Moyne de Sainte Helene and Daillebout de Mantet, ordered Indian scouts to cross the Mohawk River and see what precautions the Dutchmen had made against enemy attack. The French were well aware that attack warnings had been posted in the valley communities and they did not know how well the Schenectady stockade might be garrisoned.

The Dutchman’s fireside on that night of Feb. 8, 1690, glowed with the radiance of humble content. Within the raftered room, its floor and ceiling reflecting Holland cleanliness, he warmed himself before the crackling logs. He was smugly certain that his house was safe from attack – on a night such as this, even the foolhardy Frenchmen would not be expected from the frozen north regions.

via Schenectady Massacre.

 

Schenectady, New York – City Map 1750

citymap1750_250.jpg (JPEG Image, 1204×917 pixels) – Scaled (58%).

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Detailed map from 1750

– CAA

 

Schenectady, on Mohawk River, New York

Schenectady

The village and then town of Schenectady emerged from a patent to farm on the Great Flats of the Mohawk River originally granted by the Dutch in 1661. It was located beyond the western border of Rensselaerswyck.

Over the next decade, Schenectady was settled mostly by former Beverwyck residents who sought less competitive opportunities farther away from the community that became Albany in 1664. The complete list of patentees is the subject of some discussion. Union College librarian and historian Jonathan Pearson has compiled a useful list.

Over the next twenty-five years, the original patentees and their descendants built a stockaded town on the south side of the Mohawk River about eighteen miles west of Albany. Schenectady asleep on February 9, 1690 By 1680, a Dutch Reformed church had become established in the community. As part of his initiative to “royalize” the colony, Governor Thomas Dongan granted Schenectady a town patent in 1684 and a community economy began to develop on the Albany model but with a more direct connection to the farms of its immediate environs. Land north of the Mohawk also was deeded and settled. It would be known as “Scotia” (today’s village of Scotia in the town of Glenville – both commemorating the original landholding families).

All this came crashing down when French and Indian raiders destroyed the town on the night of February 9, 1690. The settlement was in shambles with its people killed, captured, or sent fleeing as refugees to the safety of the Albany fort. The Schermerhorns and others temporarily set up homes in Albany. The so-called “Schenectady Massacre” still is one of the “great,” mythical events of the community’s heritage and has been embellished in print, song, and tradition!

via Schenectady.