Round Top — Cherry Valley mountains — Canajoharie creek, falls and gorge — The "boiling pot" — Shaper pond, where Brooklyn Bridge stone was quarried — Roads to Sharon Springs, Cherry Valley, Otsego Lake, Cobleskill, Schoharie River and Catskill Mountains — Clinton's road — Beech-Nut Packing Company — Arkell and Smiths — Canajoharie Library James Arkell memorial building — East and west hills in Canajoharie — Palatine Bridge and "Grand Street", the Mohawk Turnpike — First settled by Hendrick Frey in 1689 — Hendrick Schrembling settles in Canajoharie in 1730 — Fort Frey, 1739 — Van Alstyne house built, 1750, favorite meeting place of the Tryon County Committee of Safety — Washington visits Canajoharie August 1, 1783 — Village incorporated in 1829 — Susan B. Anthony, a Canajoharie teacher, 1848-1850 — Sack industry founded by Senator James Arkell in 1859 — Sketch of "One Hundred Years of Canajoharie — 1829-1925", by Harry V. Bush, the Canajoharie historian.
Canajoharie and Palatine Bridge are separate villages but form one community, connected by a bridge over the Mohawk. Palatine Bridge lies on the north shore, on the New York Central Railroad and the Mohawk turnpike, which forms its main thoroughfare. Canajoharie is on the south shore, at the mouth of Canajoharie Creek, and on the West Shore Railroad and South Shore highway.
Canajoharie is the terminus of a bus line running through the valley from Little Falls (nineteen miles west) over the Old Mohawk turnpike, and the valley end of the Sharon Springs (eleven miles south) bus line.
Here is a Barge Canal lock and dam, with an eight-foot rise from a water sea level elevation of 286 feet below to 294 feet above the dam. This is Lock No. 14 and Dam No. 10, Erie Division, Barge Canal, known also as the Canajoharie lock and dam. This level runs westward over three miles to above Fort Plain. A terminal dock is located at Canajoharie.
The packing of food products and the manufacture of paper and cotton bags are the chief industries of Canajoharie.
At Canajoharie en route from New York to Buffalo you enter a canned food belt which extends westward to Buffalo, furnishing a great part of the canned vegetables and milk supply of the country. A food packing establishment at Canajoharie is the second in size in the state. Its model factories produce a great variety of food products. This is the Beech-Nut Packing Company, established in 1891, with over 800 workers in 1923.
The Beech-Nut Packing Company began operations here in 1890, under the name of the Imperial Packing Company, which was later changed to its present famous title. The Beech-Nut factories are open to the public and visitors are invited to inspect America's most hygienic and scientific food products workrooms. Many of the employes here come daily back and forth from Canajoharie's sister village of Fort Plain, three miles westward in the Beech-Nut buses. Canajoharie-Palatine Bridge and Fort Plain-Nelliston are sister communities (with a 1920 combined population of 6,076 and a 1925 estimated population of 6,500), between whom there have always existed close business, commercial, social and educational connections, with enough competition to make the relationship interesting.
The Beech-Nut Company also owns and operates Hotel Wagner along modern metropolitan lines. The officers of the Beech-Nut Packing Company, in 1925, were: Bartlett Arkell, president; Frank E. Barbour, vice-president; J. S. Ellithorp, treasurer; W. C. Arkell, secretary.
Arkell & Smith's paper bag factory was founded by Hon. James Arkell in 1859. It is one of the finest bag making and printing works in the world.
The village of Canajoharie in 1915 set a fine example in forestry to all the towns along the New York Central main line. In that year it set out 100,000 saplings to reforest the watershed of its water supply system. This example has since been followed by many Mohawk River towns.
[Photo: Canajoharie-Palatine Bridge Airplane View]
[Photo: The Arkell Home, Canajoharie [Arkell Hall]]
Both Canajoharie and Palatine Bridge, located in the heart of the Mohawk Valley, are picturesque, progressive American villages of the highest type. Palatine Bridge residents claim that their half mile of elm-shaded Old Mohawk turnpike, which forms its Grand street, makes their little village the prettiest place in the valley. Canajoharie is situated mainly on what are known as East Hill and West Hill, divided by the Canajoharie Creek. It is a handsome, clean, well-ordered town, showing the possibilities of a harmonious combination of beauty and utility in an up-to-date American industrial community and farming center. Canajoharie and Palatine Bridge have many large and handsome residences with attractive grounds made doubly so by the very sightly location of the town. Arkell Hall, built of stone by Senator and Mrs. Arkell, stands on East Hill in a setting made beautiful by the skill of the landscape gardener. The Lipe home, on West Hill, is another large residence in an attractive setting. The different views of Canajoharie here printed (particularly the aeroplane view) give a fine idea of the picturesque location of Canajoharie and Palatine Bridge.
Round Top
[Photo: From Round Top, Looking North]
[Photo: From Round Top, Looking East]
[Photo: From Round Top, Looking West]
The highest point close to Canajoharie is "Round Top" (800 feet sea elevation and 514 feet above the Mohawk), one mile southwest, on the Seebers Lane road. The highest Palatine Bridge neighborhood point is one mile northeast, 821 feet sea elevation, and 535 feet above the Mohawk.
Round Top is one of the most sightly elevations along the Mohawk. The visitor gets a view northward into the Adirondacks, southward to the Cherry Valley Mountains, foothills of the Catskills, as well as eastward and northward along the Mohawk River, which runs north northwest from above Canajoharie to Palatine Church. A twelve-mile stretch of the river and its fine farmlands is in full view from this lordly height.
Mohawk Valley South Central Plateau
A broad and fertile upland plateau covers the southern central Mohawk Valley, extending from the hills bordering the west shore of the Schoharie River, westward to the Fall Hill ridge, at its first rise west of the Nowadaga at Indian Castle. It has a length of about twenty-five miles east and west and varies in width from about twelve miles (in the Canajoharie-Fort Plain-St. Johnsville section), southward to the Cherry Valley Mountains, to about eighteen miles (in the Fonda-Fultonville neighborhood) south to the Schoharie Mountains along the Cobleskill. A small section of this plateau lies north of the Mohawk from Canajoharie-Palatine Bridge and forms the Stone Arabia section (mainly in the township of Palatine, Montgomery County).
This plateau (on both shores) is reached after a climb up the river hills of from 400 to 500 feet. It is one of the best dairying, haying and general farming sections of New York State and a great stretch of it is in view from Round Top.
Canajoharie has always been a main market town and trading center for this plateau and is an important milk shipping point for the fine dairying country hereabout.
From the edge of this plateau, southeast of Canajoharie, Mr. Edward Gay painted the picture, "Farm Slopes of the Mohawk." It was nearby that A. H. Wyant made the studies from which he made his unusual painting showing the forest covered valley and the river of prehistoric days. This picture appears in the foreword.
A number of farmers from the West have located on this plateau in recent years, a part of the remarkable immigration of Western farmers to the fertile Eastern lands near the great Eastern population centers.
Roads to Cherry Valley and Otsego Lake and to Sharon Springs and the Schoharie
From Canajoharie roads run southwest, south and southeast to Cherry Valley (nineteen miles), Otsego Lake, Sharon Springs (eleven miles), Cobleskill (twenty-three miles), the Schoharie River and thence through the Catskills to the Hudson River at Catskill.
The mineral waters and baths at Sharon Springs are not surpassed by any of a similar kind in the United States. In the early and middle nineteenth century this Mohawk Valley upland village was a fashionable watering place. On clear days, from Sharon Springs and vicinity, one may look eastward far into the Adirondacks.
Canajoharie Library, James Arkell Memorial Building
In 1924 and 1925, the Canajoharie Library James Arkell Memorial Building, was erected by Mr. Bartlett Arkell as a memorial to his father, Senator James Arkell, who was the originator of the present important manufacturing interests of the village. The handsome building is in the Colonial Dutch style of architecture and stands on the west side of Church Street, about opposite the center of the main Beech-Nut plant. The grounds about the latter are to be parked and beautified as well as the Library surroundings and the section will form one of the beauty spots of the Mohawk Valley, doubly so because in full view of the New York Central Railroad and the Mohawk Turnpike. The new Library utilized the stone of the fine old building which stood up to 1924 close to the Beech-Nut plant entrance. It was in this place that Hon. James Arkell made his first paper bags in 1859.
The James Arkell Memorial Building will contain an art gallery for the exhibition of paintings and drawings of Mohawk Valley subjects. Up to 1924 this was the first art gallery, present or projected, in the valley.
The Canajoharie Library was first organized in 1884, through the initial efforts of Rev. F. S. Haines, pastor of the Reformed Church of Canajoharie.
Clinton's Road
The road to Sharon Springs and Cherry Valley runs along and through the Cherry Valley Mountains. The road to Otsego Lake branches off at Ames to Sprout Brook and runs to East Springfield and Otsego Lake. This is one of the earliest valley roads, probably following an original Indian trail. It was the historic route followed from Canajoharie by the left wing of General Clinton's American army in its invasion of the Seneca country in 1779.
The main body of General Clinton's army followed the road from Seebers Lane and the junction of the Happy Hollow Road due southwest to Salt Springville and East Springfield. This is Clinton's road or the Continental road.
Cherry Valley Mountains, 2,301 Feet High
From any of the middle Mohawk River uplands, the Cherry Valley hills to the southward are a commanding feature of the landscape. These peaks and their foothills afford magnificent valley views. This group of curiously rounded summits has given its name of Cherry Valley hills to the central southern ridge of the Mohawk watershed. The western peak (about one and one-half miles northeast of Cherry Valley) is 2,185 feet above the sea. The central peak is 2,301 feet high, and the eastern summit is 2,273 feet, the latter height being located three miles southwest of Sharon Springs. The highest peak is 2,003 feet above the Mohawk at Canajoharie.
Cherry Valley Mountains were called "Brimstone Hills" in Colonial days because of the sulphurous waters at Sharon Springs. The Cherry Valley hills form part of the Helderberg Escarpment (as it is known to geologists), which forms the southern divide of the Mohawk Valley, except in the Schoharie River region.
A Gateway to the Schoharie
Canajoharie forms the western gateway to the Schoharie Valley and the Catskill Mountain road reaching the Hudson, 100 miles distant at Catskill. The eastern valley gateway to the Schoharie is at Schenectady. The Canajoharie-Catskill route runs to Sharon Springs, eleven miles; Cobleskill, twenty-three miles; Middleburg, thirty-five miles; Breakabeen, forty-three miles; Prattsville, sixty-two miles; Catskill, ninety-eight miles. At Cobleskill is a New York State Agricultural College, and important hydraulic cement works, with Howe's Cave a few miles distant. From Middleburg south the route is through the wild forest mountain Catskill country. This route to Catskill is ten miles longer than that by way of the Mohawk turnpike, Albany and the Hudson west shore highway. The Catskill trail meets the Schenectady-Binghamton road at Cobleskill.
In 1834 the Catskill & Canajoharie Railroad was projected and built some distance from Catskill but never completed.
Canajoharie Creek, Falls and Gorge
The Canajoharie Creek rises at the foot (1,680 feet sea elevation) of Shankley Mountain, about two miles northwest of Cherry Valley, and about eleven miles airline distance (west by south) from its outlet into the Mohawk here. The Tekaharawa, a headwater stream, rises in a picturesque glen, one mile northeast of Cherry Valley, which village lies a fraction of a mile on the Susquehanna side of the Susquehanna-Mohawk divide. Cherry Valley Creek (one of the headwaters of the Susquehanna) rises three-quarters of a mile southwest of the source of the Tekaharawa (meaning "little cascades", from its small falls in the wild ravine where it rises).
A mile from the source of the Canajoharie is Salt Springville, where is located the only salt spring in the Mohawk Valley.
The east branch of the Canajoharie rises in Sharon Springs and runs as a tiny rivulet past the springs and bath houses.
[Photo: Canajoharie Falls in Winter]
The Canajoharie generally flows as an open brook over the moderately level plateau of Canajoharie Township. About one and one-half miles south of its outlet into the Mohawk, the creek makes a forty-five-foot drop into a deep pool, which forms the picturesque Canajoharie Falls. The stream then flows for a mile through a narrow miniature canyon, with steep walls, 100 feet and more high. Canajoharie Falls and gorge are picturesque but rather inaccessible except in midsummer. Simms, the historian, says the Mohawks here did their courting. However that may be, the modern Canajoharians certainly here do their picnicking, bathing and (some of) their courting.
A large painting of Canajoharie Falls, by Edward Gay, hangs in the lobby of the Hotel Wagner.
Canajoharie Gorge is the result of erosion, like all the deep gullies and ravines of the tributary streams of the Mohawk. At the outlet of the gorge is the Canajoharie "swimming hole", a fine pool in the solid rock bed of the creek stream.
The Canajoharie shale which outcrops in the gorge is most important geologically and has been extensively studied. The creek and the gorge are much resorted to by geologists for the study of its geology and the collection of fossils. (See "Chapter 1 — Mohawk Valley Geology" for description of the Canajoharie shale.)
The Canajoharie is remarkable for its salt spring, its remarkable mineral springs, its gorge and falls and its unique pothole.
Canajoharie, "The Pot That Washes Itself"
[Photo: "Canajoharie" Pothole]
At the western village limits of Canajoharie, the creek flows from its picturesque gorge. A short distance above is located a giant pothole, about ten feet in width, worn by the action of water and pebbles in the limestone bed. This is the original Canajoharie, which Brant, the Mohawk chieftain, defined as meaning "the pot that washes itself". It is also locally called "the boiling pot".
The Iroquois (like all Indians) had a keen eye for unusual landscape features and this curious "Canajoharie" gave its name not only to the stream, in the bed of which it lies, but to at least four of their castles (of different periods and different locations) and to the entire river district from the Noses (between Sprakers and Yosts) to Fall Hill (east of Little Falls).
Because the name Canajoharie was applied to so many points in this section, the loose use of the name has given rise to many historical errors. In Revolutionary times the Canajoharie was known as Bowman's Creek.
Shaper's Quarry or "Brooklyn Bridge Pond"
On West Hill, Canajoharie, is a stone quarry, known as Shaper's Quarry or Shaper's Pond, because it is unused and is now filled with clear spring water, making it a picturesque pond in summer and a good skating rink in winter. It might well be called "Brooklyn Bridge Pond", because here was quarried the stone which was used in the building of the Brooklyn bridge; this stone having been shipped from Canajoharie to Brooklyn by Erie Canal boats. Much early Erie Canal construction and the stone used in building many famous New York City buildings, of the middle nineteenth century, were taken from the Shaper Quarry, which has been unworked since about 1900. The stone is a calciferous sandrock of the Lower Silurian era, belonging generally to the Trenton limestone period. It is known locally as limestone. This fine building stone has outcrops on the north side, as at Frey's Quarry, and many of the old Colonial stone houses of this valley section — such as the Van Alstyne house (1750) in Canajoharie and Fort Frey (1739) in Palatine Bridge, were built of it, as well as the later houses and buildings of Canajoharie. It merits a general use for house and building construction today — in fact, Canajoharians are proud of this splendid stone and of their fine stone buildings, which give their town an architectural distinction above most other valley communities.
Canajoharie — Historical
In 1634 the Mohawk castle of Canagere was located to the east of present Canajoharie, while, between here and Fort Plain, on the south shore, the tribe had its middle castle of Sochanidisse. There was a small group of Mohawk cabins on the banks of the creek here when the site of present Canajoharie was settled about 1730.
Sochanidisse, Middle Mohawk Castle of 1634
On the southern Mohawk shore, in the Happy Hollow section, a mile or so west of Canajoharie, on a high hill overlooking the river, the Mohawks had their castle of Soch-an-i-dis-se in 1634. This was their great middle castle and had thirty-two houses. John Fea, the historian, locates Sochanidisse on the Brown farm. All the high ground between Happy Hollow brook westward to Prospect Hill, Fort Plain, was called Tsi-dros-o-wen-gen by the Mohawks and the Hog's Back by the white settlers. It is thickly covered with Mohawk remains, indicating a considerable Indian population and long occupancy.
Hendrick Frey, 1689 — First Settler in the Middle Valley
Hendrick Frey, a Swiss, came up the Mohawk in 1689, made friends with and bought lands of the Mohawk Indians and settled in present Palatine Bridge, where he built a log house. He was an intrepid pioneer who located in a wild, unbroken wilderness, peopled by savage red men and the wild animals of the Adirondacks. The nearest settlements were those of the Holland-Dutch in the Schenectady neighborhood, thirty miles eastward. Frey was an Indian trader and "kept store" in his log cabin, as did his grandson, in Fort Frey, which was also a famous frontier general store. A ferry was located here across the Mohawk and during the Colonial and Revolutionary period Palatine Bridge was known as "Frey's".
Fort Frey — 1689-1739
Just west of Palatine Bridge and a few yards north of the railroad in an open field, stands Fort Frey, a quaint stone house built in 1739, on the site where Hendrick Frey lccated in the wilderness in 1689. This is a typical Mohawk Valley house of its time. It suggests vividly the times when the hardy Mohawk Dutch farmers, clad in buckskin and homespun and with guns, bayonets and knapsacks, gathered here and at scores of other vicinity centers on the alarm of "To arms, to arms", given by some neighborhood rider. The Frey property is still held by the Frey family (1924). For a time Fort Frey was palisaded and garrisoned by British troops during the French and Indian war of 1701-1713, known as Queen Anne's war. The history of this interesting house is practically the history of civilization along the middle Mohawk Valley.
The Queen Anne's war fort here located consisted of the first Frey log house palisaded and fortified. Present Fort Frey, erected in 1739, was a British army post, at least during the early part of the French-Indian war of 1754-60. Both Fort Frey and the present Frey mansion are built of the native calciferous sandrock, which outcrops at the Frey Quarry here and at the Shaper Quarry on West Hill, Canajoharie. The old fort has an interesting cellar, with strong stone fireplaces, which well served the Freys of Colonial and Revolutionary days in the mighty cold winters of the pioneer days in the wilderness, for those hardy pioneers lived much of the time in the cellars of their stone houses during the worst of the winter, or, as one of their descendants puts it, "they would not have lived at all". Present stone Fort Frey is loopholed for defense.
The name fort applied here has been questioned, but as it is the site of an earlier fort and probably had such use later, as aforementioned, the term is justified.
Major John Frey (1740-1833) was a member and chairman of the Tryon County Committee of Safety and brigade major of the Tryon County Brigade of American Militia. He fought at Oriskany, where he was captured by the enemy and, as a captive, narrowly escaped death at the hands of the Indians and his own Tory brother who fought on the enemy side. Major Frey succeeded the Tory White as the sheriff of Tryon County under American rule. The major was a historian and assisted Campbell in the preparation of "Annals of Tryon County" [i.e., William W. Campbell, Annals of Tryon County; or, The Border Warfare of New York, During the Revolution], published 1831, which was the first Mohawk Valley history. Major Frey was born in Fort Frey in 1740 and died in the Frey (1808) mansion in 1833, at the age of ninety-three, he being one of the last surviving Revolutionary Mohawk Valley officers.
During the World war, New York Guardsmen occupied (1917) Fort Frey for a time, while guarding the Barge Canal here. The Frey property today is in the possession of the eighth generation from Hendrick Frey, who located (1689) here, 235 years prior to this writing (1924). Mr. S. Ludlow Frey, who died in 1924, was a historian who has been the valley's greatest authority on Mohawk Indian history.
In the early months of the preparation of this work, Mr. Frey served as honorary chairman of its Board of Advisory Editors, and to him the editor of this work is much indebted for assistance in its preparation. With Gen. John S. Clark, Mr. Frey did a great work in studying and locating Mohawk village sites in the valley.
The larger stone Frey house was built in 1808. However, it is a true type of Colonial architecture and one of the Mohawk River's most interesting homesteads. It stands on a sightly river slope in a grove of locust trees to the west of Fort Frey.
Fort Frey stands close to the Central Railroad because, when it was built in 1739, the King's highway from Palatine Bridge to near St. Johnsville generally followed the present railroad bed. In later turnpike construction, this section of the Mohawk turnpike was located as at present, on higher ground northward from the railroad.
Hendrick Schrembling, Canajoharie's First Settler, 1730
About 1730, Hendrick Schrembling, a Palatine German, and Marte Janse Van Alstyne bought of Cadwallader Colden 775 acres at Canajoharie. Schrembling settled on the east side of the creek, while his brothers, George and John, located on the west bank. In 1750 Schrembling sold the east side property to his partner, Van Alstyne, who then came to live here. Schrembling moved to the west bank farm, where he kept a tavern, store and mill. The Schremblings left Canajoharie and the valley at the close of the Revolution.
Gose Van Alstyne built another grist mill on the creek about 1760. Col. Hendrick Frey built a grist mill and a house here about 1772, and the Van Alstyne, Schrembling and Frey families were the residents here prior to the Revolution. In 1778 Johannes Roof came to Canajoharie and bought out Schrembling and conducted the inn. He had lived at Fort Stanwix, where his property was burned during the siege of the fort in 1777.
About 1775 Gose Van Alstyne, son of Martin Janse Van Alstyne, built a stone house near the present (1924) Martin Smith house on Front street. This was stockaded about 1780 and became the Fort Van Alstyne of the Revolution, with which the Van Alstyne house of today has been frequently confused. After the Revolution the Gose Van Alstyne house was torn down and its stone used for building material, some of which is said to have been used in the present Hayes house.
The Van Alstyne House, 1750 — Meeting Place of the Tryon County Committee of Safety
During the Revolution, Marte Janse Van Alstyne here lived in the Van Alstyne house, which he had built in 1750. It was not palisaded but must have been considered as a strong defense, otherwise even its central Mohawk Valley location would not have made it the favorite meeting place of the Tryon County Committee of Safety, which is known to have here held sixteen meetings. Fort Frey, across the river, was not palisaded, but it also was considered a strong defense and neither was ever attacked.
As related later, General Washington reached Canajoharie August 1, 1783, and here he was a guest at the Van Alstyne house of Colonel Clyde and Mrs. Clyde, as well as of the Van Alstynes. The General and his staff took dinner here and some of them also lodged here — as many as the house could accommodate. This is one of perhaps four valley houses now standing which were visited by Washington on this trip. The others were probably the Shoemaker house in Mohawk, the General Herkimer house at Fall Hill, and the Volkert Vrooman house at Randall. General Washington also visited Fort Herkimer Church, then Fort Herkimer.
Many distinguished men and women of Colonial, Revolutionary and American days have visited the Van Alstyne house. Among them was the Irish poet, Tom Moore, who stopped here on a trip from Canada to New York. He is said to have here begun his famous poem, with the following opening lines:
From rise of morn till set of sun,
I've seen the mighty Mohawk run.
Moore continued writing the verses on board a river boat in which he made the trip from Canajoharie to Schenectady, where he finished the poem. Another version is that Moore wrote this poem at Cohoes Falls.
A handsome ballroom stone addition has been built on the rear of the house, in harmony with the architecture and masonry of the original structure. The Fort Rensselaer Club has furnished the place in Colonial style and it is one of the most artistically appointed club houses on the New York to Buffalo highway. It houses interesting historical collections and the nucleus of a splendid art gallery. Besides the painting of Washington by Stuart, here is a series of paintings by Wyeth illustrating Stevenson's "Treasure Island", all of these important works of art being the gift of Mr. Bartlett Arkell. The Washington portrait by Stuart is one of the finest examples of the artist's work in existence.
Canajoharie and Palatine Districts of Tryon County, 1772
The Mohawks called the river region between the Noses and Fall Hill (present Little Falls) by the name of Canajoharie, and so did the pioneers from 1662 until 1772, the year of the formation of Tryon County.
When the great county of Tryon was created, in 1772, it was divided into five districts. From the present Schenectady County line westward to the Noses was called the Mohawk district, including in it Tribes Hill, Fort Hunter, Johnstown, Caughnawaga.
Between the Noses and Fall Hill the region south of the Mohawk was created the Canajoharie district, and that on the north shore the Palatine district. West of Fall Hill, the south shore settlements became the German Flatts district, and the north shore the Kingsland district. These districts continued during the Revolution and the creation of this Canajoharie district has caused much historical confusion.
At the beginning of the Revolution the houses hereabout suited for defense were Fort Ehle (one mile south of Canajoharie), the Van Alstyne house, Fort Frey and Fort Keyser, north of Palatine Bridge. All were stone houses and formed a refuge for neighbors in time of valley raids.
1779 — General Clinton's Army at Canajoharie — Portage March to Otsego Lake
In 1779 General Washington directed that an American expedition be sent against the Iroquois country on account of the outrages committed by these Indians along the New York and Pennsylvania frontiers — particularly at Wyoming, Pennsylvania, and Cherry Valley, New York. The army was under the command of General Sullivan and General James Clinton, was directed to proceed up the Mohawk River with the New York detachment of the army (2,000 men) and cross over to the headwaters of the Susquehanna and down that river, combine with Sullivan's army and together march against the Iroquois. Clinton's men assembled at Schenectady and marched up the Mohawk to Canajoharie. After a week of preparation at Canajoharie, General Clinton (June 17, 1779) left the Mohawk and marched across country to Otsego Lake, about twenty-five miles, carrying his 200 batteaux and supplies on carts and wagons. Clinton and Sullivan's American armies combined and decisively defeated Indians and Tories near Elmira, August 29, 1779, after which the Americans thoroughly devastated the country of the Six Nations. At Canajoharie, two Tory spies, Lieutenant Newberry and Sergeant Hare, were hung by General Clinton's orders, in spite of the pleas of their wives for mercy.
Both men had been guilty of atrocities in Mohawk Valley warfare and their fate was well merited. The capture of Sergeant Hare by a fifteen-year-old Revolutionary "boy scout", Francis Putman, is mentioned elsewhere, under Amsterdam.
Clinton's army consisted of the Third, Fourth, Fifth (with artillery) New York, Fourth Pennsylvania, Sixth Massachusetts Line (regulars) regiments, with a force of Tryon County and Schenectady militia, attached to the Third New York. The center Third New York (Colonel Gansevoort) and Fourth Pennsylvania (Lieut.-Col. Wm. Butler) convoyed the wagon train, consisting of 220 batteaux loaded on eight horse team wagons and ox carts, and other supply wagons, on the twenty-five-mile portage from the Mohawk at Canajoharie to Otsego Lake. The Fourth New York (Colonel Weissenfels) formed the left wing. The Fifth New York (Colonel Dubois), with artillery, formed the right wing and was deployed over the Otsquago trail near Summit (Mud) Lake to guard the center from expected attack from the west. (See Fort Plain.) The Sixth Massachusetts (Major Whiting) marched from its post at Cherry Valley to the lake. Camps were made on the march at Buel, Sprout Brook, Starkville, Browns Hollow and Springfield. General Clinton reached the head of Otsego Lake July 2, and on the 4th of July, 1779, all the American troops there camped held a great celebration of the third Independence day. Clinton dammed the lake outlet and the expedition sailed in its batteaux and marched down the Susquehanna, August 9, 1779, and joined General Sullivan at Tioga, August 22.
John Fea, the Amsterdam historian, who has made a fifty-year study of this portage — one of the most remarkable American army feats of the Revolution — says that the center went from Canajoharie over the Happy Hollow road, the left wing over the Cherry Valley road (built 1773), and the right wing over the Otsquago trail. All these roads were then in existence and only short stretches were cut and made by the troops. The Third New York was camped on the flats at Canajoharie, and the Fourth Pennsylvania on the flats between the Third and the Happy Hollow road. Regiments numbered about 250 each. Clinton's force on the portage numbered about 2,500, including batteaux men, artificers, and about 200 Mohawk Valley farmers, who with their horses and oxen assisted in this historic and famous portage march.
A monument in the Canajoharie public square marks the beginning of Clinton's wilderness march. It was erected by Canajoharie Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution.
See "Chapter 67 — 1779, Clinton's Portage March From the Mohawk to Otsego Lake," by John Fea of Amsterdam.
Fourteen miles south of Canajoharie is Cherry Valley, where occurred the terrible Indian-Tory massacre of November 11, 1778. Five miles southeast is Currytown, which was raided by Tories and Indians July 9, 1781. The enemy raiders were defeated by Americans under Colonel Willett at the battle of Sharon on July 10, 1781. See Chapter 66 of this work for the Cherry Valley massacre, and Chapter 70 for the Currytown raid and battle of Sharon.
Washington at Canajoharie, August 1, 1783
In the summer of 1783, General Washington made a tour of the Mohawk Valley, with a military escort, westward from Schenectady to the site of Fort Stanwix (burned in 1781), at present Rome. Washington made this trip in connection with one to Crown Point and the battlefields where Burgoyne and the British cause met defeat.
General Washington went west to Fort Stanwix from Schenectady, probably following the Mohawk turnpike on the north shore a great part of the way. On his return east, Washington dined at Fort Plain (Fort Rensselaer) July 31, and, in the afternoon, rode to Cherry Valley, where he spent the night.
On August 1 the party rode to Otsego Lake and, from thence, passed over the route taken by General Clinton's army in his Canajoharie-Otsego march of 1779. Colonel Clyde then commanded Fort Plain (officially known as Fort Rensselaer). At the close of hostilities he brought his family up to Canajoharie and installed them in the Van Alstyne house. Here General Washington and his staff dined with Colonel and Mrs. Clyde on the evening of August 1, 1783, and here the General remained over night, while his staff took quarters in the Roof tavern. On August 2 Washington and his party rode eastward down the valley.
See "Chapter 75 — 1783, Washington's Journey Through the Mohawk Valley," for details of that portion of his tour covering Fort Plain, Cherry Valley, Otsego Lake and Canajoharie.
Canajoharie-Palatine Bridge, 1783-1920
After the Revolution the settlement here known as Roof's Village, and also as Canajoharie, numbered about a dozen houses.
The first merchants to settle in Canajoharie after the Revolution were the Kane brothers, who located in the Van Alstyne house about 1790, later removing to Van Alstyne's Ferry, one mile east. Others soon followed. Historical Canajoharie dates of interest follow:
In 1790, first turnpike mail stages run from Albany through Schenectady and Johnstown to Canajoharie; later extended to Utica and Geneva; 1800, Great Western turnpike (parallel route to Mohawk turnpike, ten to fifteen miles south) connects at Canajoharie with turnpike stages; 1800, about twelve houses here; 1803, bridge built across Mohawk; 1817-1825, Erie Canal construction booms village; 1818, Union (first) Church built; 1829, village incorporated; 1859, manufacture of paper bags begun by James Arkell; 1867, Palatine Bridge incorporated as a village; 1882, West Shore Railroad line run through Canajoharie business section; 1891, food packing industry started; 1916, silk industry started in Palatine Bridge.
Susan B. Anthony, a Canajoharie Teacher in 1848
In 1848, Susan B. Anthony, the later suffrage leader, was a preceptress or lady principal and teacher in Canajoharie Academy. In the history of women's suffrage, Canajoharie takes a prominent place, as it was while living here in Canajoharie that Miss Anthony became interested in the anti-slavery cause and later in that of women's political rights. Susan B. Anthony finally gave up teaching in 1850, left Canajoharie and joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton at her home in Seneca Falls, where Mrs. Stanton was already advocating women's suffrage. Together these two intellectual leaders made a strong plea for their cause, which might not have succeeded without their united strength. As Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a native of Johnstown and there developed her ideas of women's political and legal rights, and, as Miss Anthony became interested in the same subjects here in Canajoharie — the Mohawk Valley may truly be said to be the cradle of the cause of women's suffrage and of women's political rights — progressive politics and political ideals which have become the political creed of women the world around.
Miss Anthony was born in 1820 and died in 1906, aged eighty-six years, at a time when many of the Western states had adopted women's suffrage.
Webster Wagner's Sleeping and Parlor Car Inventions, 1858
Palatine Bridge was the home of Webster Wagner (1817-1882), a prominent railroad man of the mid-nineteenth century. Mr. Wagner manufactured one of the first practicable sleeping cars made in America. In 1858 Mr. Wagner formed a company and four cars were produced, which began running over the New York Central Railroad, September 1, 1858. Finding the cars' occupants suffered from defective and insufficient ventilation, Mr. Wagner in 1859 invented the elevated car roof, placing ventilators in the elevation. In 1867 Wagner produced the first drawing room coach or palace car. Pullman introduced a similar type in Europe and about 1890 the two companies producing the Wagner and Pullman cars were merged into one concern under the name of the Pullman Palace Car Company.
Hon. Webster Wagner (state senator from this district) was burned to death in one of his palace cars in the Spuyten Duyvil railroad accident of 1882.
In 1878 Senator Wagner built the Wagner House in Canajoharie, one of the first modern hotels in the Mohawk Valley.
Birth of New York Central Freight Traffic at Palatine Bridge in 1836
In the fall of 1836 (the year of the opening of the Utica & Schenectady Railroad) the freight carrying business of the New York Central had its inception at Palatine Bridge.
At this time the idea of carrying freight was not entertained. The charter forbade it, consequently no preparations for the transmission of merchandise had been made by the company. The occasion for handling freight, however, of course, arose on the closing of the canal in 1836. On the very day that frost stopped navigation in that year, a German family, wishing to convey their effects from Palatine Bridge to Schenectady, were permitted to ship them on a car, and this, it may be said, was the beginning of the way freight business of the Central Railroad. The conductor in this case, having no tariff of rates to guide him, made the rather exorbitant charge of $14. The Legislature, in 1837, authorized the company to carry freight and subsequently made the regulation allowing passengers to have a specified amount of baggage carried free of charge.
The foregoing covers the growth of Canajoharie and Palatine Bridge from the settlement of Palatine Bridge by Hendrick Frey in 1689, and that of Canajoharie by Hendrick Schrembling, about 1730, up to the incorporation of the village of Canajoharie as a village in 1829 — 140 years since the first white settlement in the two villages, and almost exactly 100 years since the first settlement within the limits of present Canajoharie village. The celebration in 1929 will cover the centennial of the village, the bicentennial of its settlement and the sesquicentennial of Clinton's 1779 overland portage march from the Mohawk to Otsego Lake. This will make it not only a triple anniversary event of importance to the people of Canajoharie, but to all students of history in the Mohawk Valley. The people of Fort Plain should be doubly interested in the sesquicentennial of Clinton's march. While the left wing and the center went southwest from Canajoharie, Clinton's right wing marched from Fort Plain over the Otsquago trail to Springfield in this interesting and important military movement of the Revolution.
A Hundred Years of Canajoharie, by Harry V. Bush
The following historical sketch of Canajoharie from 1829 to 1925 was written by Mr. Harry V. Bush, the historian of Canajoharie, and was printed in "Bon Jour", a publication issued in Canajoharie on the occasion of a fair of the Reformed Church in 1924 was written by Mr. Harry V. Bush, the historian of Canaturer on Valley historical subjects, which he vividly illustrates with his own photographic views. Mr. Bush's account of Canajoharie from 1829 to 1925 follows:
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With the completion of "Clinton's Ditch", from Rome to the Big Nose in 1824 and the final opening in 1825 of its entire length the small hamlets along the Mohawk Valley began to see the dawn of prosperity and expansion. Canajoharie was that kind of a hamlet, straggling over the downtown section of the present village. Let us stop a moment and consider it.
The canal of that time was considerably different from its successor, built in 1835.
This canal was forty-one feet wide on top and twenty-eight feet wide at the bottom, and it was only four feet deep.
The channel differed somewhat from its successor as far as the village was concerned, lying a little further south, beginning at the dry dock and crossing the Canajoharie Creek with a dam and two guard locks, one on the west and the other on the east.
This made a pool that backed the water up to the present Montgomery Street bridge and allowed boats to be floated as far up as where the Spraker Bank now stands.
Continuing westward from the creek crossing, the channel ran under some of the present Beech-Nut Company buildings and swinging southwest at a point about where James Shults' office now stands, ran south of the malt house (Lape's Garage) and almost under the West Shore Railroad freight house, then followed the Fort Plain road westward.
A wooden covered bridge crossed the creek at Little Mohawk street, about where the railroad bridge crosses now, and connected the village with the Sprakers Basin road.
Mohawk Street joined the Fort Plain road near the foot of Walnut Street (Granny Wiles' Hill), and Main Street ended at the canal near Shults' office.
A few wooden stores, dwellings, blacksmith and carpenter shops and a great many vacant lots, with poor roads and no sidewalks to speak of; such was the village of 1824 that greeted the coming of the Erie Canal.
John A. Ehle had a sawmill and storehouse near the dry dock; these buildings burned in 1849.
Herman I. Ehle had opened a store in 1821, and in 1824 built a brick store on the bank of the canal; in later days it was called the Knapp Building and was torn down to make room for some of the Beech-Nut buildings.
Henry Lieber also had a store, malt house and brewery, and in 1826 he built the fine canal boat, Orange Prince, which was launched near where Plank's sales stables now stand. Canajoharie had a considerable Erie Canal boat building industry for a number of years (up to 1890).
Gibson, Johnson and Ehle had a foundry, making castings and plows. The building, built about 1826, is still standing (slaughter house) on the east bank of the creek.
On April 30, 1829, the New York State Legislature passed a bill incorporating the village, and on July 14, 1829, a meeting of the citizens was held and five trustees were chosen. These were Henry Lieber, Herman I. Ehle, George Spencer, David Sacia and John A. Ehle. Edward Winans was chosen treasurer, and Malachi Kittle collector, and at a subsequent meeting of the board Henry Lieber was named president, and Samuel Caldwell clerk, and a budget was voted on. This budget was for $250, divided as follows: One hundred dollars for current expenses and $150 toward the purchase of a fire engine; the hand pumping engine of that day.
In looking over the minutes of these early meetings we find that most of the business transacted was in regard to repairing the roads, that is, filling up the mud-holes and low spots and laying new sidewalks.
Every property owner was ordered to lay stone sidewalks and grade the road in front of his property at his own expense.
There was an official wood measurer appointed to measure every cord of wood sold to the villagers, and who exacted two cents per cord for his fee.
In 1831 a contract was made with Herman I. Ehle for a cemetery, and for a great many years afterwards the village owned the hearse which carried the remains of its citizens to their final resting place.
During this same year the village was finally able to purchase the fire engine authorized in 1829, but they had to give a note for the balance of the funds necessary. With the purchase of the engine a fire company was organized, having fifteen members appointed by the Board of Trustees and under their direction at a fire.
In 1834 the following resolution was passed and became a village law: "Every house, store and shop shall be provided with fire buckets at the owners' expense. Also every member of the fire company shall furnish himself with an oilcloth coat and a leather hat at his own expense."
The fire company was ordered out at least ten times a year for practice with its hand pump engine, the hose of which was made of leather and must be kept oiled to prevent hardening.
In 1834 the canal was enlarged and its channel changed to its present location, but with the filling of that canal with the sand and gravel of the Barge Canal channel dredging operations, the old channel will soon be obliterated and only a memory left.
The first disastrous fire was on November 19, 1840, and practically all the buildings on both sides of Church Street, and some on Mohawk Street, including the wooden bridge crossing the creek, in all sixty buildings, were lost and forty families were made homeless. The property damage amounted to $150,000. It was after this fire that the stone building just taken down by the Beech-Nut Packing Company was built. This building was built for Loucks & Grey and was used by them for a grain forwarding business, Canajoharie being a great grain center at that time. The fall of the year saw the streets crowded with wagons bringing grain from as far south as Oneonta to be shipped on the canal by the forwarding companies here.
Benjamin and Adam Smith afterwards kept a store in this same building, and in 1859 the first flour sacks were made there by James Arkell and were taken around the corner to Levi Backus' printing shop to be printed.
The firm of Arkell & Smiths was organized and moved up the creek, where a mill was built for the manufacture of the sacks.
This mill was burned and another now stands in its place, turning out sacks by the millions. This was the first of Canajoharie's really successful industries.
Among other buildings built soon after the 1840 fire were the Spraker Bank (Caldwell's store in 1840) and the building that now houses the Canajoharie National Bank. And so building continued until April 29, 1877, when another big fire swept the village and burned all the buildings from Main Street to the canal and from near the present telephone office to the creek, with but a few exceptions. This section is all rebuilt now with substantial brick and stone structures which are an ornament to the business part of the town.
It was after this fire that the fire limits were established which have been the safeguard against the construction of inflammable buildings in the congested districts.
In the early days the village was a great center for stage coach lines, which ran to Catskill, Cherry Valley, Utica and Schenectady.
The National Spraker Bank was established as the Spraker Bank in 1853. It was reorganized and incorporated under the national banking act of 1865. Its capital is $100,000. The Canajoharie National Bank was first organized as a state bank in 1855 and became a national bank in 1865, with a capital of $100,000, which has been increased to $125,000.
The taverns and stage houses begin with Roof's tavern, which stood a little west of the foot of the Academy hill and which was closed in 1826, when Reuben Peake built a new hotel in front of it. After that we have, on the same site, hotels kept by Elisha Kane Roof, George Murray, Morgan L. Harris and others and in 1878 the Hotel Wagner was built on the same site by Webster Wagner. Today it is owned and operated by the Beech-Nut Packing Company and is one of the best known hotels in the state.
On the Mohawk Hotel site we have had the Hiller House, Adams' Hotel, Kirby House, Nellis House and lastly the Mohawk Hotel, which discontinued operations a few years ago.
On April 21, 1830, the Canajoharie and Catskill Railroad was incorporated. Only twenty-two miles of road was ever built however, but its charter contained some restrictions which should be mentioned in these days of speeding trains, as follows: "The speed of trains on the Canajoharie and Catskill Railroad is not to exceed twenty miles per hour and five miles per hour at crossings. Fifteen minute stops to be made at stations."
In 1883 the West Shore Railroad was completed and while we must have railroads we are being convinced more and more as the years go by that another location would have been better both for the railroad and the village.
The Canajoharie Academy was built in 1824 and incorporated in 1826.
This building stood just south of the stone academy built in 1849; both of these were taken down to make way for the present school building, which was put up in 1892. In 1850 the school house on East Hill was built; this was torn down after the consolidation of the schools in the new building.
During the Civil war a great many men went out from the village, many never to return, and among the organizations represented were the 115th, 153rd, 43rd, 32nd Volunteer Infantry, and the 16th Heavy Artillery. Some of the regiments had whole companies recruited here and there were men serving in a great many other units.
Again, 1917 saw young men leaving for service in the army and navy, almost three hundred and again some of them never came back. Their memory is honored by the citizens of this community.
The newspaper history of this hundred years is varied, beginning with the Telegraph, Henry Houghkirk, 1825; Sentinel, Samuel Caldwell, 1827; Republican, Bloomer, McVean and Sacia, 1828; Montgomery Argus, Bloomer, 1831-32; Telegraph, S. N. S. Gant, 1836; The Investigator, Andrew Calhoun, 1833-36; The Mohawk Valley Gazette, W. H. Riggs, 1847; Montgomery Union, W. S. Hawley, 1850-53; The Radii, edited by Levi Backus, a deaf mute, in 1837, was removed to Fort Plain after the 1840 fire and from there to Madison County. It returned to Canajoharie by James Arkell in 1863, then owned by Arkell & Allen, in 1866 by Mathewson & Allen and Plank & Allen, in 1887 by Hazelton & Allen and in 1889 by L. F. Allen, continuing until 1911, when it was sold to Scott & McLaughlin and was discontinued in 1919. The Canajoharie Courier, owned by Cook & Bowen in 1879, and by W. F. Cook in 1880, by Cook & Forman in 1889, then by Forman & Bullock, and now by W. B. Forman. The Hay Trade Journal, founded by Willis Bullock as a trade paper in 1892 and being published by his son Willis at the present time.
The first bridge across the river was built in 1801 and fell in 1807. Another was built in 1808 and was taken away by flood in 1833. The bridge erected in its place stood until 1901, when on the 10th of January of that year, it was burned.
These bridges were all wooden structures and until 1859 were toll bridges; after that time they were free.
In 1859 a great celebration took place on the occasion of the removal of the toll gates. These were placed on wagons and paraded all over Canajoharie, Palatine Bridge and Fort Plain and then were taken to the square and burned.
In 1901 after the burning of the bridge a modern steel bridge was erected.
The first waterworks were built in 1852 and extended in 1876. In 1881 a rival company also built waterworks and for a few years the fight between the companies was the talk of the town.
In 1889 the companies combined and became the Consolidated Water Company. They afterwards sold to the Johnson & Gring Company, who constructed water mains throughout the entire corporation and opened the system in 1902. Later the village acquired land and water rights some fourteen miles to the north and we now have one of the finest water systems in the state, with an unlimited supply of fine spring water with plenty of pressure for fire purposes.
In 1818 a Union Church stood near the present macaroni building of the Beech-Nut Company. The minister was the Reverend Miller, afterwards president of Hartwick Seminary. This building was purchased by the Lutherans in 1839, under the leadership of the Rev. W. N. Scholl, first pastor of the congregation. In 1869 the present church was built. Its pastor, the Rev. W. M. Baum, D. D., is now serving his forty-second year.
In 1827 the Dutch Reformed Church was organized by the Rev. Dow Van Olinda. The present building was erected in 1842 and the present pastor is the Rev. E. W. James, who came to the congregation about a year ago.
The Methodist Church was dedicated in 1842, but had been organized in 1828 in Palatine Bridge. The stone church was rebuilt and enlarged in 1863. It burned in January, 1915, and was rebuilt the same year. Rev. Frank Love is now the pastor.
St. John's Church was organized in 1835 and the first minister was John Eisenlord. Services were held in the academy until 1848, when a church was built. The present church was built in 1871 and has been recently remodeled, but at present the congregation is without a pastor, but only for a short time, as the Rev. Stolz has been called and has accepted.
In 1852 the Episcopal Church was organized by the Rev. Townsend and in 1873 the present church was built by the White family and presented to the diocese. There are no services held there at present.
The Catholic Church was erected in 1862 and the first priest was Father Clark. The late Father Bloomer served there for nearly forty years and his place was taken by Father J. H. Ready.
The industries of the intervening years have been many and varied. There has been a sorghum molasses factory, saw mills, grist mills, malt houses, distilleries and breweries, planing, shoe, shirt and refrigerator factories, a seed company and a time globe works, stone quarries and wagon shops and a host of others. Of all these Arkell & Smith's sack factory stands out as a successful business for over sixty years. The history of the Beech-Nut Packing Company is known to all who dwell in our midst, having grown from a small beginning to the mammoth proportions of today in only a few years. Its products are known the world over and its benefactions to this community have been many and varied.
A little over a year ago (in 1923) Mrs. P. Schenck, and her brother, John White, presented the family home to the village to be used as a city hall and community center. This building, known as the White House, will increase in usefulness to the people of our village as the years go by and will stand as a memorial to a family that has had the welfare of the village at heart.
One could go on and on in the affairs of the village during its existence but space forbids.
It is a long way from the dim kerosene street lights to the electric lighted streets and homes of today; from the mud holes to the brick and concrete roads; from the town pump to the two hundred and fifty thousand dollar water system; from a budget of two hundred and fifty dollars to one of twenty-eight thousand dollars; from the old grey horse to the automobile and the stately Shenandoah, which sailed so majestically over our village in the summer; from the leather fire bucket and the hand pump engine to the fine combination pump and chemical auto fire engine which was presented to the village by the fire department on last Memorial Day. In another five years we will celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of our village and we should have a fine celebration at that time. We must all do our share and be prepared to make some sacrifices to make our village one of the best in the land.
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Four miles north of Palatine Bridge lies Stone Arabia, first settled by Palatine Germans in 1712. Here are the Stone Arabia churches — the Reformed, built in 1788, and the Lutheran, built in 1792. The Reformed Church has been the scene of many historical gatherings and here was held the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the granting of the Stone Arabia patent in 1723. On August 27th, 1774, the Palatine district Committee of Safety was formed at the tavern of Adam Loucks in Stone Arabia. This was the first one of the district committees of the Tryon County Committee of Safety (organized 1775). The Tryon County Committee met more frequently at the Van Alstyne house in Canajoharie during the Revolution than elsewhere. The sesquicentennial anniversary of the formation of the Palatine Committee was held in the ballroom of the Fort Rensselaer Club in the Van Alstyne house in Canajoharie, August 27, 1924.
On October 19, 1780, Sir John Johnson devastated Stone Arabia in his great raid of the Schoharie and Mohawk Valley. In an endeavor to repel this invasion of 700 Indians and Tories, Col. John Brown, with 140 soldiers and militia, attacked them in a field about one and one-half miles northeast of present Palatine Bridge. The Americans were defeated with a loss of 50 killed, including Brown. The survivors fled to Fort Paris, the chief Revolutionary army post of the section. The Canajoharie Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, have erected a memorial shaft in front of the Stone Arabia Reformed Church, which is dedicated to the memory of the fifty Revolutionary soldiers who lie buried in the neglected graveyard in the rear of the church.
The road north from Palatine Bridge to Stone Arabia is (1925) being continued to Ephratah and eventually will be improved to the Canada lakes section, making it an important route to the southern central Adirondack region.
All the foregoing summarized historical subjects are treated at length in the chapters assigned to these matters.