Winegtekonck,1709—Wenighkonck,1726;Wienackonck,1739—is quoted as the name of what is now known as Woodcock Mountain, in the town of Blooming-Grove, It is not so connected, however, in the record of 1709, which reads: "A certain tract of land by the Indians calledWineghtek-onckand parts adjacent, lying on both sides of Murderers' Kill" (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 91), in which connection it seems to be another form of MahicanWanun-ketukok,"At the winding of the river"—"A bend-of-the-river-place." Presumably the reference is to a place where the stream bends in the vicinity of the hill. The name appears in an abstract of an Indian deed to Sir Henry Ashurst, in 1709, for a tract of land of about sixteen square miles. The purchase was not patented, the place being included in the Governor Dongan purchase of 1685, and in the Evans Patent.
Sugar Loaf,the name of a conical hill in the town of Chester, Orange County, is not an Indian name of course, but it enters into an enumeration of Indian places, as in its vicinity were found by Charles Clinton, in his survey of the Cheesec-ock Patent in 1738, the unmistakable evidences of the site of an Indian village, then probably not long abandoned, and Mr. Eager (Hist. Orange Co.) quoted evidences showing that on a farm then (1846) owned by Jonathan Archer, was an Indian burying ground, the marks of which were still distinct prior to the Revolution.
Runbolt's Run,a spring and creek in the town of Goshen, are said to have taken that name from Rombout, one of the Indian grantors of the Wawayanda tract. It is probable, however, that the name is a corruption of DutchRondbocht,meaning, "A tortuous pool, puddle, marsh," at or near which the chief may have resided.Rombout(Dutch) means "Bull-fly." It could hardly have been the name of a run of water.
Mistucky,the name of a small stream in the town of Warwick, has lost some of its letters.Mishquawtucke(Nar.), would read, "Place of red cedars."
Pochuck,given as the name of "A wild, rugged and romantic region" in Sussex County, N. J., to a creek near Goshen, and, modernly, to a place in Newburgh lying under the shadow of Muchhattoes Hill, is no doubt fromPutscheck(Len.), "A corner or repress," a retired or "out-of-the-way place." Eliot wrotePoochag,in the Natick dialect, and Zeisberger, in the Minsi-Lenape,Puts-cheek,which is certainly heard in Pochuck.
Chouckhass,one of the Indian grantors of the Wawayanda tract, left his name to what is now called Chouck's Hill, in the town of Warwick. The land on which he lived and in which he was buried came into possession of Daniel Burt, an early settler, who gave decent sepulture to the bones of the chief. [FN]
[FN] The traditional places of residence of several of the sachems who signed the Wawayanda deed is stated by a writer in "Magazine of American History," and may be repeated on that authority, viz: "Oshaquememus, chief of a village, near the point where the Beaver-dam Brook empties into Murderers' Creek near Campbell Hall; Moshopuck, on the flats now known as Haverstraw; Ariwimack, chief, on the Wallkill, extending from Goshen to Shawongunk; Guliapaw, chief of a clan residing near Long Pond (Greenwood Lake), within fifty rods of the north end of the pond; Rapingonick died about 1730 at the Delaware Water-Gap." The names given by the writer do not include all the signers of the deed. One of the unnamed grantors wasClaus,so called fromKlaas(Dutch), "A tall ninny"; an impertinent, silly fellow; a ninny-jack. The name may have accurately described the personality of the Indian.
Jogee Hill,in the town of Minisink, takes its name from and preserves the place of residence of Keghekapowell, alias Jokhem (Dutch Jockem for Joachim), one of the grantors of lands to Governor Dongan in 1684. The first word of his Indian name,Keghe,stands forKeche,"Chief, principal, greatest," and defined his rank as principal sachem. The canton which he ruled was of considerable number. He remained in occupation of the hill long after his associates had departed.
Wawayanda,1702—WawayandaorWocrawin,1702;Wawayunda,1722-23;Wiwanda, Wowando,Index Col. Hist. N. Y.—the first form, one of the most familiar names in Orange County, is preserved as that of a town, a stream of water, and of a large district of country known as the Wawayanda Patent, in which latter connection it appears of record, first, in 1702, in a petition of Dr. Samuel Staats, of Albany, and others, for license to purchase "A tract of land called Wawayanda, in the county of Ulster, containing by estimation about five thousand acres, more or less, lying about thirty miles backward in the woods from Hudson's River." (Land Papers, 56.) In February of the same year the parties filed a second petition for license to "purchase five thousand acres adjoining thereto, as the petitioners had learned that their first purchase, 'called Wawayanda' was 'altogether a swamp and not worth anything.'" In November of the same year, having made the additional purchase, the parties asked for a patent for ten thousand acres "Lying at Wawayanda or Woerawin." Meanwhile Dr. John Bridges and Company, of New York, purchased under license and later received patent for "certain tracts and parcels of vacant lands in the county of Orange, called Wawayanda, and some other small tracts and parcels of lands," and succeeded in including in their patent the lands which had previously been purchased by Dr. Staats. Specifically the tract called Wawayanda or Woerawin was never located, nor were the several "certain tracts of land called Wawayanda" purchased by Dr. Bridges. The former learned in a short time, however, that his purchase was not "altogether a swamp," although it may have included or adjoined one, and the latter found that his purchase included a number of pieces of very fine lands and a number of swamps, and especially the district known as the Drowned Lands, covering some 50,000 acres, in which were several elevations called islands, now mainly obliterated by drainage and traversed by turnpikes and railroads. Several water-courses were there also, notably the stream now known as the Wallkill, and that known as the Wawayanda or Warwick Creek, a stream remarkable for its tortuous course.
What and where was Wawayanda? The early settlers on the patent seem to have been able to answer. Mr. Samuel Vantz, who then had been on the patent for fifty-five years, gave testimony in 1785, that Wawayanda was "Within a musket-shot of where DeKay lived." The reference was to the homestead house of Col. Thomas DeKay, who was then dead since 1758. The foundation of the house remains and its site is well known. In adjusting the boundary line between New York and New Jersey it was cut off from Orange County and is now in Vernon, New Jersey, where it is still known as the "Wawayanda Homestead." Within a musket-shot of the site of the ancient dwelling flows Wawayanda Creek, and with the exception of the meadows through which it flows in a remarkably sinuous course, is the only object in proximity to the place where DeKay lived, except the meadow and the valley in which it flows. The locative of the name at that point seems to be established with reasonable certainty as well as the object to which it was applied—the creek.
The meaning of the name remains to be considered. Its first two syllables are surely from the rootWaiorWae;iterative and frequentiveWawai,orWaway,meaning "Winding around many times." It is a generic combination met in several forms—Wawau,Lenape;Wohwayen,Moh.; [FN]Wawai,Shawano;Wawy, Wawi, Wawei,etc., on the North-central-Hudson, as inWaweiqate-pek-ook,Greene County, andWawayachton-ock,Dutchess County. Dr. Albert S. Gatschet, of the Bureau of Ethnology, wrote me: "Wawayanda, as a name formed by syllabic reduplication, presupposes a simple form,Wayanda,'Winding around.' The reduplication isWawai,orWaway-anda,'many' or 'several' windings, as a complex of river bends." As the name stands it is a participial or verbal noun.Waway,"Winding around many times";—-anda,"action, motion" (radical-an,"to move, to go"), and, inferentially, the place where the action of the verb is performed, as inGuttanda,"Taste it," the action of the throat in tasting being referred to, and inPopachándamen,"To beat; to strike." As the verb termination ofWaway,"Round about many times," it is entirely proper. The uniformity of the orthography leaves little room for presuming that any other word was used by the grantors, or that any letters were lost or dropped by the scribe in recording. It stands simply as the name of an object without telling what that object was, but what was it that could have had action, motion—that had many windings—except Wawayanda Creek?
[FN] "Wohwayen(Moh.), where the brook 'winds about,' turning to the west and then to the east." (Trumbull.)Wowoaushin,"It winds about." (Eliot.)Woweeyouchwan."It flows circuitously, winds about." (Ib.)
Mr. Ralph Wisner, of Florida, Orange County, recently reproduced in the Warwick Advertiser, an affidavit made by Adam Wisner, May 19th, 1785, at a hearing in Chester, in the contention to determine the boundary line of the Cheesec-ock Patent, in which he stated that he was 86 years old on the 15th of April past; that he had lived on the Wawayanda Patent since 1715; that he "learned the Indian language" when he was a young man; that the Indians "had told him that Wawayanda signified 'the egg-shape,' or shape of an egg." Adam Wisner was an interpreter of the local Indian dialect; he is met as such in records. His interpretations, as were those of other interpreters, were mainly based on signs, motions, objects.Waway,"Winding about many times," would describe the lines of an egg, but it is doubtful if the suffix,-anda,had the meaning of "shape."
The familiar reading of Wawayanda, "Away-over-yonder," is a word-play, like Irving's "Manhattan, Man-with-a-hat-on." Dr. Schoolcraft's interpretation, "Our homes or places of dwelling," quoted in "History of Orange County," is pronounced by competent authority to be "Dialectically and grammatically untenable." It has poetic merit, but nothing more. Schoolcraft borrowed it from Gallatin.
Woerawin,given by Dr. Staats as the name of his second purchase, is also a verbal noun. By dialectic exchange oflforrand giving to the Dutchæits English equivalentüas in bull, it is probably from the rootWul,"Good, fine, handsome," etc., with the verbal termination-wi(Chippeway-win), indicating "objective existence," hence "place," a most appropriate description for many places in the Wawayanda or Warwick Valley.
Monhagen,the name of a stream in the town of Wallkill, is, if Indian as claimed, an equivalent ofMonheagan,fromMaingan,"A wolf," the totem of the Mohegans of Connecticut. The name, however, has the sound of Monagan—correctly,Monaghan,the name of a county in Ireland, and quite an extensive family name in Orange County.
Long-house,Wawayanda,andPochuckare local names for what may be regarded as one and the same stream. It rises in the Drowned Lands, in New Jersey, where it is known as Long-house Creek; flows north until it receives the outlet of Wickham's Pond, in Warwick, Orange County, and from thence the united streams form the Wawayanda or Warwick Creek, which flows southwesterly for some miles into New Jersey and falls into Pochuck Creek, which approaches from the northwest, and from thence the flow is northwest into Orange County again to a junction with the Wallkill, which, rising in Pine Swamp, Sparta, N. J., flows north and forms the main drainage channel of the Drowned Lands. In addition to its general course Wawayanda Creek is especially sinuous in the New Milford and Sandfordville districts of Warwick, the bends multiplying at short distances, and also in the vicinity of the De Kay homestead in Vernon. In Warwick the stream has been known as "Wandering River" for many years. The patented lands are on this stream. Its name, Long-house Creek, was, no doubt, from one of the peculiar dwellings constructed by the Indians known as a Long House, [FN] which probably stood on or near the stream, and was occupied by the clan who sold the lands.Pochuckis from a generic meaning "A recess or corner." It is met in several places. (See Wawayanda and Pochuck.)
[FN] The Indian Long House was from fifty to six hundred and fifty feet in length by twenty feet in width, the length depending upon the number of persons or families to be accommodated, each family having its own fire. They were formed by saplings set in the ground, the tops bent together and the whole covered with bark. The Five Nations compared their confederacy to a long house reaching, figuratively, from Hudson's River to Lake Erie.
Gentge-kamike,"A field appropriated for holding dances," may reasonably have been the Indian name of the plateau adjoining the rocky point, at the head of Newburgh Bay, which, from very early times, has been known asThe Dans Kamer(Dance Chamber), a designation which appears of record first in a Journal by David Pietersen de Vries of a trip made by him in his sloop from Fort Amsterdam to Fort Orange, in 1639, who wrote, under date of April 15: "At night came by the Dans Kamer, where there was a party of Indians, who were very riotous, seeking only mischief; so we were on our guard." Obviously the place was then as well known as a landmark as was Esopus (Kingston), and may safely be claimed as having received its Dutch name from the earliest Dutch navigators, from whom it has been handed down not only as "The Dans Kamer," but as "t' Duivel's Dans Kamer," the latter presumably designative of the fearful orgies which were held there familiarly known as "Devil worship." During the Esopus War of 1663, Lieut. Couwenhoven, who was lying with his sloop opposite the Dans Kamer, wrote, under date of August 14th, that "the Indians thereabout on the river side" made "a great uproar every night, firing guns and Kintecaying, so that the woods rang again." There can be no doubt from the records that the plateau was an established place for holding the many dances of the Indians. The wordKinteis a form ofGéntge(Zeisb.), meaning "dance." Its root isKanti,a verbal, meaning "To sing."Géntgeen,"To dance" (Zeisb.),Gent' Keh'n(Heck.), comes down in the local Dutch recordsKinticka, Kinte-Kaye, Kintecaw, Kintekaying(dancing), and has found a resting place in the English wordCanticoy,"A social dance." Dancing was eminently a feature among the Indians. They had their war dances, their festival dances, their social dances, etc. As a rule, their social dances were pleasant affairs. Rev. Heckewelder wrote that he would prefer being present at a social Kintecoy for a full hour, than a few minutes only at such dances as he had witnessed in country taverns among white people. "Feast days," wrote Van der Donck in 1656, "are concluded by old and middle aged men with smoking; by the young with a Kintecaw, singing and dancing." Every Indian captive doomed to death, asked and was granted the privilege of singing and dancing his Kintekaye, or death song. War dances were riotous; the scenes of actual battle were enacted. The religious dances and rites were so wonderful that even the missionaries shrank from them, and the English government forbade their being held within one hundred miles of European settlements. The holding of a war dance was equivalent to opening a recruiting station, men only attending and if participating in the dance expressed thereby their readiness to enter upon the war. It was probably one of these Kantecoys that Couwenhoven witnessed in 1663.
There were two dancing fields here—so specified in deed—the "Large Dans Kamer" and the "Little Dans Kamer," the latter a limited plateau on the point and the former the large plateau now occupied in part by the site of the Armstrong House. The Little Dans Kamer is now practically destroyed by the cut on the West-shore Railroad. 'Sufficient of the Large Dans Kamer remains to evidence its natural adaptation for the purposes to which the Indians assigned it. Paths lead to the place from all directions. Negotiations for the exchange of prisoners held by the Esopus Indians were conducted there, and there the Esopus Indians had direct connection with the castle of the Wappingers on the east side of the Hudson. There are few places on the Hudson more directly associated with Indian customs and history than the Dans Kamer.
Arackook,Kachawaweek,andOghgotactonare 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.
Hashdischwas 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 fromAshp, 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.
Twischsawkinis 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.Twischmay be an equivalent ofTisch,"Strong," andSawkinmay be an equivalent of Heckewelder'sSaucon,"Outlet," or mouth of a river, pond, etc. Wallkill, the name of the stream as now written, is an Anglicism of DutchWaal,"Haven, gulf, depth," etc., andKil,"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 calledChauwanghungh,[FN-1] in deed from the Indians to Governor Dongan, in the same year,Chawangon,[FN-2] andChanwangungin 1686, [FN-3] later forms running to variants ofShawangunk.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 fromShawan,"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 areScha(orShaw), "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.
Thename 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.
[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.' andGunk,'A large pile of rocks,' hence 'White Rocks' or mountain." The trouble with it is that there is no such word asShawen,meaning "White" in any Algonquian dialect, and no such word asGunk,meaning "Rocks."
[FN-9] The monosyllableShaworSchaw,radicalScha,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 whichSchawong-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,andGhittatawagh,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.Ghittatawaghis probably fromKitchi,"Great, strong," etc., andTowatawik,"Wilderness"—the great wilderness, or uninhabited district.Gatawanukseems to be fromKitchi,"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 ofEsquatakandEskwatackon 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," fromSchauwemi,"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," fromWequa,"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 fromWinachk,"Sassafras" (Zeisb.); butWanachkmay and probably does stand forWonachk,"The tip or extremity of anything," and-singmeans "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 calledMaschabeneer 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 IndiansMasseecks,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 calledMaskeék(Zeisb.), meaning "Swamp, bog";Maskeht(Eliot), "Grass." The radical isask,"green, raw, immature." The suffix-eghsrepresents an intensive form of the guttural formative, which the German missionaries softened to-echand-ck,and the English to-sh,and is frequently met inX.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.
PitkiskakerandAioskawastingappear 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 fromAioskawastingtoAwostingas the name of a lake and a waterfall about four miles north of Sam's Point, and translated fromAwoss(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.Awossmeans "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.
[FN-1] Meretange, Maretange, or Maratanza, is from Old EnglishMere,"A pond or pool," andTanze,"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—Pachanasinckin 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,orPakadassin,means, 'It is laid out through the effects of a blow,' or some other action. The participial form isPakadasing,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."Pachanasinkmeans, "At the split rocks";Pachassin,"Split stone." In either form the name is from the split rocks.
[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 DutchVerkeerd,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 inAlaska,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.)
[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 ofPach-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.Gatis Dutch for opening, gap, etc.
Moggonck,Maggonck, Moggonick, Moggoneck, Mohonk,etc., are forms of the name given as that of the "high hill" which forms the southwest boundmark of the Paltz Patent, so known, now generally called locally, Paltz Point, and widely known as Mohunk. The hill is a point of rock formation on the Shawongunk range. It rises about 1,000 feet above the plain below and is crowned by an apex which rises as a battlement about 400 feet above the brow of the hill, now called Sky Top.MoggonckandMaggonckare interchangeable orthographies. The former appears in the Indian deed fromMatseyay,and other owners, to Louis Du Bois, and others, May 26, 1677, and is carried forward in the patent issued to them in September of the same year.Moggoneckappears in Mr. Berthold Fernow's translation of the Indian deed in Colonial History of N. Y., xiii, 506.Moggonickwas written by Surveyor Aug. Graham on his map of survey in 1709, andMohunkis a modern pronunciation. The boundary description of the tract, as translated by the late Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan, from the Dutch deed (N. Y. Land Papers, 15), reads: "Beginning at the high hill called Moggonck, then southeast to Juffrouw's Hook in the Long Reach, on the Great River (called in Indian Magaat Ramis), thence north to the island called Raphoos, lying in the Kromme Elbow at the commencement of the Long Reach, thence west to the high hill to a place [called] Warachaes and Tawarataque, along the high hill to Moggonck." The translation in Colonial History is substantially the same except in the forms of the names. "Beginning from the high hill, at a place called Moggonck," is a translation of the deed by Rev. Ame Vaneme, in "History of New Paltz." It seems to be based on a recognition of the locative of the name as established by Surveyor Graham in 1709, rather than on the original manuscript. In the patent the reading is: "Beginning at the high mountain called Moggonck," and the southwest line is described as extending from Tawarataque "To Moggonck, formerly so called," indicating that the patentees had not located the name as they would like to have it located; certainly, that they had discovered that a line drawn from the apex of the hill on a southeast course to Juffrouw's Hook, would divide a certain fine piece of land, which they called the Groot Stuk (great piece), lying between the hill and the Wallkill and fertilized by that stream, which they wished to have included in the grant as a whole. So it came about that they hurried to Governor Andros and secured an amended wording in the patent of the deed description, and Surveyor-General Graham, when he came upon the scene in 1709, to run the patent lines, found the locatives "fixed," and wrote in his description, "Beginning at a certain point on the hill called Moggonick, . . . thence south, thirty-six degrees easterly, to a certain small creek called Moggonck, at the south end of the great piece of land, and from thence south, fifty-five degrees easterly, to the south side of Uffroe's Hook." Thereafter "The south end of the great piece," and the "certain small creek," became the "First station," as it was called. Graham marked the place by a stone which was found standing by Cadwallader Colden in a survey by him in 1729, and noted as at "The west end of a small gully which falls into Paltz River, . . . from the said stone down the said gully two chains and forty-six links to the Paltz River." The "west end" of the gully was the east end of the "Certain small creek" noted in Graham's survey. The precise point is over three miles from the hill. In the course of the years by the action of frost or flood, the stone was carried away. In 1892, from actual survey by Abram LeFever, Surveyor, assisted by Capt. W. H. D. Blake, to whom I am indebted for the facts stated, it was replaced by another bearing the original inscription. By deepening the gully the swamp of which the stream is the drainage channel, has been mainly reclaimed, but the stream and the gully remain, as does also the Groot Stuk. This record narrative is more fully explained by the following certificate which is on file in the office of the Clerk of Ulster County:
"These are to certify, that the inhabitants of the town of New Paltz, being desirous that the first station of their patent, named Moggonck, might be kept in remembrance, did desire us, Joseph Horsbrouck, John Hardenburgh, and Roeloff Elting, Esqs., Justices of the Peace, to accompany them, and there being Ancrop, the Indian, then brought us to the High Mountain, which he named Maggeanapogh, at or near the foot of which hill is a small run of water and a swamp, which he called Maggonck, and the said Ancrop affirmed it to be the right Indian names of the said places, as witness our hands the nineteenth day of December, 1722."
Ancrop, or Ankerop as otherwise written, was a sachem of the Esopus Indians in 1677, and was still serving in that office in 1722. He was obviously an old man at the latter date. He had, however, no jurisdiction over or part in the sale of the lands to the New Paltz Company in 1677. His testimony, given forty-five years after the sale by the Indians, was simply confirmatory in general terms of a location which had been made in 1677, and the interpretation of what he said was obviously given by the Justices in terms to correspond with what his employers wished him to say. In the days of the locations of boundmarks of patents, his testimony would have been regarded with suspicion. Locations of boundmarks were then frequently changed by patentees who desired to increase their holdings, by "Taking some Indians in a public manner to show such places as they might name to them," wrote Sir William Johnson, for many years Superintendent of Indian Affairs, adding that it was "Well known" that an Indian "Would shew any place by any name you please to give him, for a small blanket or a bottle of rum." Presumably Ankerop received either "A small blanket or a bottle of rum" for his services, but it is not to be inferred that the location of the boundmarks in 1677 was tainted by the "sharp practice" which prevailed later. It is reasonable to presume, however, that the name would never have been removed from the foot of the hill had not the Groot Stuk been situated as it was with reference to a southeast line drawn from its apex to Juffrouw's Hook.
Algonquian students who have been consulted, regard the name as it stands as without meaning; that some part of the original was lost by mishearing or dropped in pronunciation; that in the dialect which is supposed to have been spoken here the suffix-onckis classed as a locative and the adjectivalMoggis not complete. Several restorations of presumed lost letters have been suggested to give the name a meaning, none of which, however, are satisfactory. Apparently the most satisfactory reading is fromMagonck, orMagunk(Mohegan), "A great tree," explained by Dr. Trumbull: "FromMogki,'Great,' and-unk,'A tree while standing.'" It is met as the name of a boundmark on the Connecticut, and on the east side of the Hudson, within forty miles of the locative here,Moghongh-kamigh, "Place of a great tree," is met as the name of a boundmark.Mogkunkis also in the Natick dialect, and there is no good reason for saying that it was not in the local dialect here. There may have been a certain great tree at the foot of the hill, from which the name was extended to the hill, and there may have been one on the Wallkill, which Ankerop said "Was the right Indian name of the place." It will be remembered that the deed boundmark was "The foot of the hill." It is safe to say that the name never could have described "A small run of water and a swamp," nor did it mean "Sky-Top." The former features were introduced by the Justices to identify the place where the boundary-stone was located and have no other value; the latter is a fanciful creation, "Not consistent with fact or reason," but very good as an advertisement.
Maggeanapogh,the name which Ankerop gave as that of the hill called Moggonck, bears every evidence of correctness. It is reasonably pure Lenape or Delaware, to which stock Ankerop probably belonged. The first word,Maggean,is an orthography ofMachen(Meechin,Zeisb.;Mashkan,Chippeway), meaning "Great," big, large, strong, hard, occupying chief position, etc., and the second,-apogh,written in other local names-apugh, -apick,etc., is from-ápughk(-ápuchk,Zeisb.), meaning "Rock," the combination reading, literally, "A great rock." In the related Chippeway dialect the formative word for rock is-bik,and the radical is-icor-ick,of which Dr. Schoolcraft wrote, "Rock, or solid formation of rock." No particular part of the hill was referred to, the text reading, "There being Ankerop, the Indian, then brought us to the High Mountain which he named Maggeanapogh." The time has passed when the name could have been made permanent. For all coming time the hill will bear the familiar name of Mohonk, the Moggonck of 1677, the Paltz Point and the High Point of local history, from the foot of which the place of beginning of the boundary line was never removed, although the course from it was changed.
Magaat-Ramis,the record name of the southeast boundmark of the Paltz Patent, is located in the boundary description at "Juffrou's Hook, in the Long Reach, on the Great River (called in Indian Magaat-Ramis)." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 15.) Juffrouw's Hook is now known as Blue Point. It is about two miles north of Milton-on-the-Hudson, and takes its modern name from the color of the rock which projects from a blue-stone promontory and runs for some distance under the water of the river, deflecting the current to the northwest. The primal appearance of the promontory has been changed by the cut for the West Shore Railroad, but the submerged point remains. The Dutch name,Juffrouw's Hook,was obviously employed by the purchasers to locate the boundmark by terms which were then generally understood. Juffrouw, the first word, means "Maiden," one of the meanings of which is "Haai-rog"; "rog" means "skate," or Angel-fish, of special application to a species of shark, but in English shad, or any fish of the herring family, especially the female. Hook means "Corner, cape, angle, incurved as a hook"; hence "Maiden Hook," an angle or corner noted as a resort for shad, alewives, etc.: by metonymie, "A noted or well-known fishing-place." The first word of the Indian name,Magaat,stands forMaghaak(Moh.),Machak(Zeisb., the hard surd muteskandtexchanged), meaning "Great," large, extended, occupying chief position. The second word,Ramisis obscure. It has the appearance of a mishearing of the native word. What that word was, however, may be inferred from the description, "Juffrou's Hook, in the Long Reach, on the Great River (called in Indian Magaat-Ramis)," or as written in the patent, "To a certain Point or Hooke called the Jeuffrou's Hooke, lying in the Long Reach, named by the Indians Magaat-Ramis." That the name was that of the river at that place—the Long Reach—is made clear by the sentence which follows: "Thence north along the river to the island called Rappoos, at the commencement of the Long Reach," in which connectionRamiswould stand forKamisorGamis,fromGami,an Algonquian noun-generic meaning "Water," frequently met in varying forms in Abnaki and Chippeway—less frequently in the Delaware. In Cree the orthography isKume.The finalsis the equivalent ofk,locative, as in AbnakiGami-k,a particular place of water. "On the Great Water," is probably the meaning of Ramis. In ChippewayKeeche-gummee,"The greatest water," was the name of Lake Superior. As the name of the "Great Water,"Magaat-Ramisis worthy of preservation.
Rappoos,which formed the northeast boundmark of the Paltz Patent, is specifically located in the Indian deed "Thence north [from Juffrou's Hook] along the river to the island called Rappoos, lying in the Kromme Elbow, at the commencement of the Long Reach." The island is now known as Little Esopus Island, taking that name from Little Esopus Creek, which flows to the Hudson at that point. It lies near the main land on the east side of the river, and divides the current in two channels, the most narrow of which is on the east. Kromme Elleboog (Crooked elbow), is the abrupt bend in the river at the island, and the Long Reach extends from the island south to Pollepel's Island. The name is of record Rappoos, Raphoes, Raphos and Whaphoos, an equivalent, apparently, ofWaboseandWarpose,the latter met on Manhattan Island. It is not the name of the island, but of the small channel on the east side of it from which it was extended to the island. It means, "The narrows," in a general sense, and specifically, "The small passage," or strait. The root isWab,orWap,meaning, "A light or open place between two shores." (Brinton.)
Tawarataque,now written and pronouncedTower-a-tauch,the name of the northwestern boundmark of the Paltz Patent, is described in the Indian deed already quoted: "Thence [from Rappoos] west to the high hillsto a placecalledWarachoesandTawarataque," which may refer to one and the same place, or two different places. Surveyor Graham held that two different places were referred to and marked the first on the east side of the Wallkill at a place not now known, from whence by a sharp angle he located the second "On the point of a small ridge of hills," where he marked a flat rock, which, by the way, is not referred to in the name. The precise place was at the south end of a clove between the hills, access to which is by a small opening in the hills at a place now known as Mud Hook. ProbablyWarachoesreferred to this opening. By dialectic exchange oflandrthe word isWalachoes—Walak,"Hole," "A hollow or excavation";-oes,"Small," as a small or limited hollow or open place. "Through this opening," referring to the opening in the side of the hill at Mud Hook, "A road now runs leading to the clove between the ridges of the mountain," wrote Mr. Ralph LeFever, editor of the "New Paltz Independent," from personal knowledge.Tawarataquewas the name of this clove. It embodies the rootWalakprefixed by the radicalTauorTaw,meaning "Open," as an open space, a hollow, a clove, an open field, etc., suffixed by the verb termination-aque,meaning "Place," or-ákeas Zeisberger wrote inWochitáke,"Upon the house." The reading inTawarataqueis, "Where there is an open space";i. e.,the clove. [FN] The late Hon. Edward Elting, of New Paltz, wrote me: "The flat rock which Surveyor Graham marked as the bound, lies on the east side of the depression of the Shawongunk Mountain Range leading northwesterly from Mohunk, at the south end of the clove known as Mud Hook, near the boundary line between New Paltz and Rosendale, say about half a mile west of the Wallkill Valley R. R. station at Rosendale. I think, but am not certain, that the rock can be seen as you pass on the railroad. It is of the character known as Esopus Millstone, a white or gray conglomerate. I cannot say that it bears the Surveyor's inscription."
It is not often that four boundmarks are met that stand out with the distinctness of those of the Paltz Patent, or that are clothed with deeper interest as geological features, or that preserve more distinctly the geographical landmarks of the aboriginal people.
[FN] The adjectival formative-alagat,or-aragat,enters into the composition of several words denoting "Hole," or "Open space," asTaw-álachg-at,"Open space,"Sag-álachg-at,"So deep the hole." The verb substantive suffix-aque,or-ake(quthe sound ofk), meaning "Place," is entirely proper as a substitute for the verbal termination-at.