Slike strani
PDF
ePub
[graphic][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]

sufferings and dangers of the earlier settlements, and yet removed from canals and railroads, and every other influence which might have given it a rapid growth or sudden and great prosperity. Left to the steady but slow improvement of an agricultural neighborhood, it presents fewer evidences of increase in wealth or numbers, but is less liable to some of the evils incident to many other places.

There are a few small manufactories along the banks of the outlet of the lake, where about eight thousand spindles are employed in cotton-spinning, and on that of Oak creek, one of the numerous small streams in this county, most of which flow southward into the Susquehannah.

Otsego county is hilly, and in some parts mountainous, being crossed by the Susquehannah and Kaatsberg ranges. There is much good grass land. Limestone is found near Schuyler's lake in Cherry Valley, and iron ore in several places.

Cherry Valley is one of those unfortunate villages which suffered from Indian barbarity in the Revolutionary war; and it may be noticed in this place. It is fourteen miles northeast of Cooperstown, and fifty-three west of Albany, amidst the high and irregular ground which gives rise to Canajoharie creek and several other early tributaries of the Mohawk, with the head stream of that river. Several vales lie between the neighboring hills, which possess a fertile soil; and one of these, with the wild cherry-trees that naturally abounded in the neighborhood, gave to the place its pleasing name.

It happened to lie so exposed and defenceless, in the early years of its history, that it shared in the dangers of the other scattering settlements in the neighboring region, and was finally surprised by a band of Indians, led by the notorious Col. Butler, from Canada, and fell under a general and indiscriminate massacre, in which whole families, men, women, and children, bled under the tomahawk.

The particulars given of this mournful tragedy by Wm. W. Campbell, in his

valuable "Annals of Tryon County," are painful in the extreme, but yet valu.. able to impress future generations with abhorrence of war, and especially that unwarrantable practice, in which several civilized nations have engaged, of hiring savages to exercise their bloodthirsty ferocity upon the innocent and defenceless. The sketch given in that work, of the history of the settlement, and the character of the people, renders their fate the more deeply interesting. We shall here introduce an account abridged from its pages.

The survey was made in 1739, and the ground first occupied by Mr. Lindesay, a Scotch gentleman, of some fortune and distinction. He took with him his wife and his father-in-law, a Mr. Congreve, a lieutenant in the British army. The low ground was then covered with a thick forest of beech and maple, mingled with wild-cherry trees, the highlands with evergreen; and the native wild animals, even the deer, elk, bears, and wolves, undisturbed by civilized man, ranged through the woods, being hunted only occasionally by the Mohawks. The settlers sought the friendship of the wild men, and with success. In the winter of 1745, while the snow lay very deep, and the journey to the nearest neighbors, on the Mohawk river, 15 miles off, was impossible for any of the family, all the provisions were consumed, and nothing but famine and death were in prospect. An Indian, travelling on snowshoes, becoming acquainted with their situation, supplied them with food through the remainder of the season, by bringing, repeatedly, loads upon his back all that distance.

The following year, the settlement was increased, by the addition of several Scotch and Irish families, who removed from Londonderry, in New Hampshire, at the invitation of the Rev. Samuel Dunlop, one of their countrymen, a gentleman of education and travel, who had been induced by the present of a large tract of land, to join Mr. Lindesay. They brought an addition of thirty persons, and the aspect of the place was speedily improved by their industry. A house was built of

[graphic]
[graphic]

woods, and remained concealed until the savages had accomplished their work of destruction, and taken their departure. On returning home, a sad spectacle met his view-the bodies of his wife and four children. The house was burning, but he succeeded in extinguishing the fire. On examining the bodies, he found evidences of remaining life in one of them—his little daughter. He immediately raised her, and endeavored to resuscitate her; but just then, observing some of the enemy approaching, he concealed himself, and, when they came one of them, a tory, named Newbury, strike the innocent little victim with his hatchet, and thus put an end to his last hope. The next day the disconsolate father, wholly unassisted, removed all the corpses, on a sled, to the fort, where the soldiers assisted him to inter them. The same Newbury was executed for his crimes the next year, on the testimony of Mr. Mitchell, having been arr sted when engaged as a spy, in the arı. y of General Clinton, at Canajoharie.

up, saw

Mr. Campbell's house was attacked, and his family were taken into captivity. He was absent; but, although he hastened homeward on hearing the gun fired in the fort, he arrived too late to render any assistance. The number of inhabitants killed was thirty-two, and of soldiers sixteen. A few persons escaped to the Mohawk, and the remainder were made captive. The buildings were all burned, the settlement was laid waste, and abandoned by the survivors, until more peaceful times.

LITTLE FALLS.-This is one of the favorite spots with travellers of taste; and there are but few points at which are assembled, within so narrow a space, such a display of picturesque scenery, with so many works of useful science and art. Here the Mohawk river, having reached the eastern boundary of the rich German Flats, once the bottom of a lake, pours through the descending, rocky channel cut by the current, where the waters, in some long-past age, found an outlet through their ancient barrier. Here, to form an artificial passage for boats arriving at the end of the Long

level on the Erie canal, the rocky shore has been excavated, and lofty walls erected, and sufficient breadth gained, to conduct that noble work, by successive locks, down to the level which extends below. The railroad has since found a path for its more rapid vehicles; and now the roar of the river mingles with the sounds of the locomotive and the bugles of the boatmen.

The accompanying engraving gives an accurate and pleasing view of the natural scenery, and some of the works of art, which stand in such striking contrast in this picturesque and remarkable pass. The village in the distance is that of Little Falls, which takes its name from the continued series of cascades, by which the Mohawk here finds its way to the meadows stretching through the eastern valley. The principal fall on this stream, the Cohoes, near its mouth, makes these comparatively second in importance; and hence the term by which they are distinguished. The channel is in several places divided by rocks and islands, of rough and ragged forms, which bear the appearance of having been worn away by the force of a current far more deep and impetuous than any now ever produced by the river, even at its highest floods; and the descent of the channel is so great as to render the passage impossible, even in small boats.

It is, therefore, doubly interesting to the spectator to observe the triumph of art, with the obstacles of nature which have been overcome, in full view. If passing through this dark, wild, and romantic gorge, in a canal-boat, he glides smoothly along upon the glassy surface of the canal, and here and there is gradually raised or let down, by the locks, from one level to another, without injury or inconvenience, by the same element which is seen, in its natural, untamed state, rushing and raving furiously below. Or, if he is a passenger in one of the cars which pursue the railroad track, from the other side of the river he beholds the same scene, from a different but no less striking point of view, and, in a few moments, makes a rapid transition from one to the other of those

[graphic][subsumed]
« PrejšnjaNaprej »