Historic Pelham: Native American Tales of Early Pelham Days Published in 1899

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Pelham and the surrounding region likely have been inhabited for more than 10,000 years. Indeed, though we seldom take time to observe, there is evidence of Native American habitation all around us. Indeed, I have written on many occasions of the Native Americans who inhabited Pelham before Thomas Pell acquired the lands. Immediately below are links to a few recent examples with a more extensive list at the end of today's article.

Mon., Feb. 01, 2016: Did the Native Americans Who Sold Land to Thomas Pell in 1654 Understand the Nature of the Sale?

Tue., Sep. 15, 2015: Should the Siwanoy Elementary School Should Be Renamed?

Wed., Apr. 02, 2014: 17th Century Record Identifies One of the Native Americans Who Signed Pell's 1654 Deed as a Wiechquaeskeck, NOT a Siwanoy.

Wed., Jan. 29, 2014: There Were No Native Americans Known as Siwanoys.

Today's Historic Pelham article transcribes the text of a newspaper article that appeared in the April 16, 1899 issue of The Brooklyn Daily Eagle about Native American tales of the early days of our region. It is a brief but fascinating look at 19th century views of local Native Americans who preceded today's Pelhamites as residents of the lands that became the Manor of Pelham.

Thomas Pell's Handwritten Copy of the So-Called

"Indian Deed" by Which Native Americans Sold Him

the Lands That Included Today's Pelham on June

27, 1654. A Transcription of the Handwritten Text of

the Document Prepared by the Author of this Article

Appears Near the End of this Article. NOTE: Click

on Image to Enlarge.

Munsee Family Like Wiechquaesgecks Who Once

Inhabited the Region Including Today's Pelham

and Sold Lands to Thomas Pell on June 27, 1654.

NOTE: Click on Image to Enlarge.

* * * * *

"STRUGGLES OF EARLY SETTLERS
-----
Tales of Indian Warfare in Which the Borough of the Bronx Abounds -- Its Revolutionary History.
-----

'They call themselves Manettas; they are the devil himself!' That was what an early Dutch settler thought of the Indians he found in what is now the Bronx borough of New York City. And he was about right. Nowhere do we read of a more extensive Indian population, nowhere were there fiercer contests between the red and the white man than in the borough of the Bronx.

In 1626 the whole of Manhattan Island was purchased from the Indians for -- $24 in beads and trinkets. The Governor has been accused of driving a sharp bargain, but he was, like the Irishman, 'buying a pig in a poke.' If that sum had been put out at compound interest on May 6, 1626, at 6 per cent, how much would it amount to now? That is a query.

The first Indian to feel the effects of alcohol secured it in the cabin of the Half Moon, as she lay in the Hudson, below Yonkers. Recovering from their astonishment at the sight of the strange craft, they ventured aboard. When they tried to leave Hudson detained two of their number, 'putting red coats on them.' He acknowledged that he first broke faith with them. On his return down the river the Half Moon found a most warlike fleet of canoes ready for a fight. At Spuyten Duyvil a volley of arrows greeted the voyagers, 'in recompense whereof six muskets replied and killed two or three of them.' At Fort Washington 'a falcon shot killed two and the rest fled.' The Half Moon then 'hurried down the bay and escaped in safety.'

Long as it is since the red men departed from the Bronx the residents are still finding more and more evidence of their presence. Occupying the greater portion of Westchester County were the Sewanoes. They even extended into portions of Connecticut, or Quinnehtukqut, as they called it. Anne Hutchinson, the noted refugee, came fleeing to Pelham Neck, where she settled and lived on the best of terms with the Sewanoes. One day, however, down came a party of hostile Weckquaesgeeks, from near Yonkers. They burned her house, they slew her and all her family, except her little granddaughter, whom they carried off into captivity. This was the beginning of a series of almost unparalleled Indian atrocities in this whole region, terminated by a treaty of peace that was signed at the home of Jonas Bronck, the first white settler on the Westchester shores, who lived near the present Gouverneur Morris mansion, in the southern portion of Bronxland.

Among the wilds of Pelham Neck the Sewanoes had a well fortified settlement and a burying ground. Many Indian relics are constantly being discovered in that part of the park, such as old pottery, banner stones, and Indian skulls. On Hunter's Island, close to the shore, two famous Indian sachems, Ranaque and Taekamuck, lie buried. They were the very last to die of the great and powerful tribe of Sewanoes.

Many wonder at the signboard reading, 'The Indian Field of Van Cortlandt Park.' On this site lies buried a brave band of Stockbridge Indians, who died fighting on the side of the colonists after a gallant battle in what is now Van Cortlandt Park. Among the slain were the Indian chieftain Nimham and his son. The old sachem refused to flee, saying he 'was old, and would die there.'

There is an Indian shell heap on the west bank of the Harlem, just below the Century House. On this spot the red men for countless ages had a settlement and ate their favorite oysters, and piled the shells close to the river in a heap. They are there yet.

Prior to European settlement the most prominent tribe of Indians which inhabited this territory was the Weekquaesgeeks. Their hunting grounds were south of an irregular line drawn east and west from the Hudson River to Long Island Sound, passiving through the head waters of the Potantico, Nepperhan and the Bronx Rivers. Their settlements are attested by mounds, shell beds, stone hatchets, spear heads and arrow heads found on the shores, hummocks and uplands which extend from the mouth of the Pocantico, at Tarrytown, to the rocks bearing indian inscriptions on Hunter's Island, in Pelham Bay Park. Their actions in this region are recorded in history by mention of the first treaty made between them and the Dutch in 1642, at the house of Jonas Bronck, or Bronx, which stood near the outlet of Mill Brook near the present terminus of Brook avenue, at Harlem Kills; their massacres and destruction of farms, in violation of that treaty, about 1655, of Vanderdonck's colony in what is now Van Cortlandt Park; the celebrated Annie Hutchinson's murder near the split rock in Pelham Bay Park, and the driving away of Throckmorton and his associates from Throgg's Neck. Land titles in the Bronx begin with deeds from members of that tribe, preceding or supplementing Dutch ground briefs and patents and grants, borough and manorial charters granted by the English.

The colonial history of this region abounds with tales of Indian warfare; the famous John Underhill of Pequod fame came over from New England to help the Dutch. Controversies arose as to lands and jurisdictions, the establishment of ferries over the Harlem and Spuyten Duyvil so as to meet the two main thoroughfares of the province, ledaing respectively to Albany and Connecticut, the portion now Westchester being for a short time under the jurisdiction of Long Island, while the most westerly and southerly had in it the three manors of Phillipsburgh, Fordham and Morrisania with their courts leet and appellate tribunals at Harlem or before the Mayor of New York. In 1691 Westchester County was erected, which brought all this region under the one jurisdiction but with separate representatives for the borough.

At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War the Vanderdonck's land was vested in Van Cortlandts by the female line descendants of the Philipses, and a Phillips was collecting toll at Kingsbridge. The ferry at Harlem, which had its landing at a place on the north side of One Hundred and Twenty-fifth street, near First avenue, and on the Morris estate on the Bronx side of the river, led to a road corresponding somewhat to Third avenue and Boston Road, as it is now known, and thence to DeLancey's mill at West Farms and the Kingsbridge road as it now runs from West Farms to the Farmer's bridge.

The Fordham road ran from the Kingsbridge rod to Harlem River, then called Fordham or Berrian's Landing, and the road now called the Macomb's Dam road ran then, as now, to where it joins Jerome avenue and thence to a point in Highbridgeville near the Anderson property, on the western slope of Cromwell's Creek. Such was the 'lay out' of the north side at the opening of hostilities with Great Britain.

The personnel of its inhabitants had changed somewhat from the beginning of the English colonial period. The Vancordtlandts held most of what had been 'Vandoncks land,' some of them royalists, others brave soldiers in the continental regiments; parts of the Fordham and West Farms patents and parts of the Turner High Bridge holding had been purchased as 'addicional' land by the Morris family, lords of the adjoining Manor of Morrisania, which had also taken in Bronxland. The men of this family took up the American side of the controversy. Lewis the elder, Lord of the Manor, was a member of the Continental Congress and signer of the Declaration of Independence; Gouverneur, his brother, represented the county in the Provincial Congress of New York, and Richard of Fordham, a royal commissioner of the Court of Admiralty, resigned his lucrative post, and as a reward had his house and farm at Fordham destroyed by the British, took refuge in the American lines, and with his brother Gouverneur helped make the first state constitution and served as senator from this region. The other parts of the Fordham and West Farms, Turneur and Westchester patents ahd, by sale and inheritance, passed into other hands."

Source: STRUGGLES OF EARLY SETTLERS -- Tales of Indian Warfare in Which the Borough of the Bronx Abounds -- Its Revolutionary History, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Apr. 16, 1899, p. 42, cols. 4-5 (NOTE: Paid subscription required to access via this link).

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Thursday, April 19, 2018

Native American Tales of Early Pelham Days Published in 1899

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