New York State History

It is five or six miles to Coeymans, with only the village of Selkirk to break the succession of farm lands, and not a brook, under the shade of whose foliage fringe the wayfarer might be tempted to linger,

Coeymans in the original Dutch was something like this- Kojiemans, after which it passed through the various stages of Koeyemans, Koeymans, Koymans, emerging finally as the name is now spelled, a sop to these degenerate times when man has no time for unnecessary letters in the words he uses. Barent Pieterse Koeymans came from Utrecht in 1636 and ran the mills of Patroon Van Rensselaer for some ten or eleven years, finally leasing them on his own account. In 1673 he purchased a large tract of land from the Indians, obtaining a patent from Governor Lovelace, but Patroon Van Rensselaer owned the earth in those days, and any land grant was sure to result in a squabble; the one with Koeymans lasted some thirty years, and finally resulted in the latter's buying peace by purchasing the patroon's claim. A local history gives the impression that the chief industries of the place are picnics and baled hay, though to the casual observer the making of bricks is much in evidence, and there are seasons when it is said the inhabitants cut ice.

Old Peter's dwelling has gone with its master, but his storehouse, down by the mouth of the creek in the northern edge of the village, is still standing, being readily seen from across the stream whose rapid waters plunge down the rocks in a series of beautiful falls and cascades through a gorge that has not had to contend as yet with the improving hand of man. The old house, like many of the region, is built of the flat field stones, graywhack, of the region.

On the southern edge of the village is another stone house of the same construction, with a double pitch in the roof and a riot of vines to soften its stony exterior, a most attractive place to look on. The man who lives within these vineclad walls says they were erected two hundred and twenty-five years ago, and that the Rev. Van Dolson did it. About thirty-five or forty years ago the skeleton of a man was uncovered during the digging of a ditch in front of this house. This revived an old story of two mysterious men who were seen around the village for a short time. One of them, who was plentifully supplied with money, vanished, and his companion gave it out that he had gone South; soon the companion disappeared, and nothing more was heard of either. The village solons made a murder case out of it when the skeleton was discovered, and since then a mysterious light has been occasionally seen by late home seekers hovering over the spot, and sharp ears detect the chink of ghostly money.

A little valley that bounds the southern edge of the village affords an unnamed creek an opportunity to escape to the lowlands; from the sharp rise on its lower bank is to be had a striking view up the river whose foreground is the old storehouse just mentioned, with the brook bordering the garden's edge.

The hills behind which the sun sets in this region are the Helderbergs, a continuation of the Katzbergs. Somewhere among these foothills rises the Hannakrois Creek, which joins the Hudson something less than a mile below Coeymans; the name signifies a crowing cock. It seems that a cloudburst back among the hills filled this little stream to overflowing, and among the debris which came down with the torrent was a barn door, on which perched a rooster, crowing defiance to the elements which had kidnapped him in so unusual a manner. The grotesqueness of the situation fixed the name of the creek for all time.

This is largely a limestone region, and it is no unusual thing for the streams hereabouts to drop out of sight for a short trip through some underground cavern, there to cool their running gear before facing the warm sun in the valleys below

The earliest stage route of which I find any record was established by act of Legislature February i6th, 1803, to run from Albany to the New Jersey line. A wicked trust was formed, to which was granted the exclusive right to run stages over this road, it agreeing to charge not more than five cents a mile and to make a trip at least once each week. The back road, known in those days as the King's Road, was the stage route, but this never gained the importance of that along the eastern side of the Hudson, it being used possibly rather as a means of communication between the various towns than for through traffic. After spending a night with Washington at New Windsor the Marquis de Castellux, on his way north, crossed to Fishkill Landing "to gain the eastern road, preferred by travelers to the western".

New Baltimore is the next river town south of Coeymans. The locality was early settled by Van Der Zees and Van Slycks, who were soon followed by Quakers from Dutchess County. Ebenezer Wicks, a Baptist preacher of the old school, who labored with the saw and plane six days of the week, and with precept on the seventh, came to New Baltimore in 1802 from Rensselaerville. As soon as his house was built he opened it for services, and preached here to his neighbors until he was able to erect a building which served as both school and meeting house for many years. The good man left a fragrant memory which lasted long after he was dust.

New Baltimore started as a fishing village, but early developed a leaning toward trade and obtained a considerable importance which it held so long as the river was the only practical transportation route to New York, but since the advent of the railroad on the farther shore it has gradually faded, until now only the shipyard is left, and that, in these degenerate days, builds flat boats for the ice trade and talks of the days when it produced sloops and even a schooner.

The old Tunis Willemse Van Slyck house, built in 1713, repaired in 1764, and given over to the owl and the bat in 1884, stood on the river bank about a mile and a half below New Baltimore. Tunis was the first of the name in the town; his bible is the oldest printed bible in existence; it was thirty-seven years in the making, 1518-1555. Made in Dordrecht, each letter is printed by hand, and the pictures are handmade. It contains the family record for four hundred years; is now owned by Benjamin F. Van Slyke (modern way of spelling the name) of Saginaw, Mich. The Massachusetts Historical Society once offered $10,000 for the book. The second Van Slyck house, itself old as things go in this country, stands hard by the ruins. In 1666 Tunis W. sends to Holland for his property and buys a farm at Nickayuna. His son Andrew built a stone house near what is now the New Baltimore railroad station, which has disappeared, but the one built by Baltus, son of Andrew, near by, still stands. The fourth generation was represented by Tunis B., the fifth by Ephraim J., and the sixth by Dr. Andrew Webster Van Slyke.

This old Van Slyke house conveys, like many of these ancient houses of simple construction, a comfortable, homelike feeling that brings a smile of sympathy; those old farmer-architects seemed to have had the sense of proportion well developed.

It is seven miles to Coxsackie, and there are two ways of reaching that end: the River Road and the old King's Road. In order to test the capacity of the latter for entertainment I took that way south, but did not find it sufficiently interesting to entice to a second trial.

Something about my appearance must have indicated what I thought of the road, for the first wagon that overtook me drew up with an invitation to ride, and so I bumped some miles over a road which, according to all tradition should have brought up at Dublin. However, there came a crossroad which beckoned toward the river, and I said good-bye and took to shank's mare. This crossroad was quite the roughest bit yet, though according to one who was mending his fences by its side it was in better condition than at any other time this Spring.

The sky looked this morning as though yesterday was a weather breeder, one of the kind that plays tricks on travelers, for there was much uncertainty during the early hours as to what the day would bring forth. Even by 10 o'clock there was considerable dubiousness overhead, but by this time I had found the creek that should be Coxsackie, but which is Sickles. Here, about 1670, Pieter Bronck built a gristmill, which to the day of its death was run by an overshot wheel. Nothing now remains but the rough foundation walls, festooned with vines, which give a touch of the human to the turbulent little stream which comes tumbling down over the rocks after the usual manner of brooks when they fall on stony ground. The steep, wooded banks, most effectively carpeted with moss and ferns, rise abruptly from the water, and what a place it is for the pedestrian to idle away an hour with the squirrels and noise of falling water for company. All this is on the road which takes one into Coxsackie by way of River Street.

Coxsackie means hoot-owl, and various are the ways of spelling it, Kocks-Hacky being the way an old deed puts it, while the original Indian word was Koixhacking, the pronunciation of which is supposed to represent the hoot of an owl.

Pieter Bronck came this way from Albany, and in January, 1662, purchased the land from the Indians; and immediately thereafter came the Van Bergens, Van Loons and others. Jonas Bronck, the first, came to this country, it is said, in his own ship with much silver and many servants, and settled in Westchester County in what is now the Bronx Borough of Greater New York, the name being written Bronx in the possessive rather than Bronck's. Jonas had been here some five or six years when the Indians caught him and skinned him alive. His widow afterward married Arent Van Corlear, commissioner at Rensselaerwyck, and her sons appear to have moved up the Hudson with her.

Pieter Bronck is on record as owning several lots in Bever-wyck (Albany) in 1645, including the brewery which he sold in 1662. He then bought land at Coxsackie and erected the first mill in the town in 1670, on Sickles Creek.

The Bronck Patent extended from the mouth of Sickles Creek to opposite Notan (the spelling in the Bronck Patent of 1662) or Nuten Hook, and went back to the Indian footpath at the base of the limerock range.

Leendert Bronck, son of Pieter, was married at Albany July 14, 1717. Jan Leendertse Bronck, born July 14, 1721. Leonard Bronck, born May n, 1751, married daughter of Robert Van-denberg. This Leonard and his brother-in-law, John R. Van-denberg, were the two principal men in forming Greene County. Leonard was member of Assembly 1786-1798, and State Senator 1800.

Leonard Bronck, ad, born June 29, 1797, died February 3, 1872. Adelaide, daughter of Leonard ad, married Rev. Lewis Lampman. The Leonard Bronck homestead is said to be probably the oldest house standing in Coxsackie. The earliest mention of it is October 8, 1736, when Jan Bronck conveyed to his son Leonard land "opposite to his house". Additions have been made to it at various times, and on one part is the inscription "J. B. J. B. L. B. C. B. 1792.", the initials of Jan, Jonas, Leonard and Caspar, four of the sons of the first settler. On a still older part is the date 1738. This homestead with the large tract of land adjoining, and including the large part of "Bronck's hundred acres" are now the property of Rev. Lewis Lampman.

The one old house in the present village of Coxsackie is situated on the river bank at the upper landing. It was built by William Wells, a New Englander who came to this region some time before the Revolution. Just below, opposite the next house, is the old landing which is uncovered at low water. This dates back to the time when this was "The Landing", and the real Coxsackie was back a mile or so, where now lies West Coxsackie.

There is a theory that the large deposits of brick clay which are found in the Hudson Valley are glacial deposits. If this is so the clay beds at Coxsackie may indicate two glacial epochs. The lowest stratum is thirty feet thick-this is blue; while on top of this is a layer of yellow clay eight feet in depth; above this is another thirty foot layer of blue clay, capped by still another eight feet of yellow clay. Now the yellow clay is merely the blue clay which has been oxidized by the action of light and air, such action penetrating, in the course of time, to a depth of eight feet, and such a layer below the upper stratum of blue is taken to indicate that there was a long period when the sun shone on this surface, while the second layer of blue must mean a second glacial period.

Robert Owen, an English socialist, visited this country during the first quarter of the last century, and coming to Coxsackie in 1824 he founded there the Forestville Commonwealth, for those who believed that all property should be held in common for the general good. The scheme was promptly recognized as a lazy man's paradise, and it soon became rather overloaded with those who did not care to work for anybody's good, the result being that it came to an end with a suddenness that must have given a shock to the non-workers.

About this time the ice industry began to attract experimentalists, and in February, 1828, the first cargo of solidified Hudson River was shipped from Greene County to New York.

The King's Road from Albany to Esopus is supposed to have been laid out about 1710, and naturally the original town grew up in the neighborhood of the highway, and as naturally, when the river traffic began to assume supreme importance, the town drifted down to its banks, but the old houses around which most of the colonial and Revolutionary history clings are back on the Flats, the "Garden of Greene County".

On the bank of the creek in the village of West Coxsackie stands the little stone house built by Pieter Bronck, son of Jan, he who built the mill. The house probably stands to-day as it did in the days of its youth, and in its simplicity and singleness of purpose is more or less typical of the early Dutch homesteads.- In front of this, and close on the road, stands a later Bronck home, built in the usual substantial manner of the Dutch forefathers. In 1704 Jan Bronck and Jan Van Loon entered a petition that their quit rent might be remitted "in consideration of their services during the war".

The Van Bergen homestead stands on the main street of West Coxsackie, where it may be seen of all men. Many years ago it fell on evil days, was fast crumbling to pieces, was supposed to be haunted, the beautiful tiles around its fireplaces were taken out and now adorn the parlors of various neighboring houses, but of late it has renewed its youth and looks good for another hundred and fifty years. On the front facing the road are iron letters P. V. B. I., on the rear 1764; the letters stand for Petrus or Peter Van Bergen, the I being added for the iron band that surrounds it and projects through the wall and is spiked to the fourth beam which holds the house together.

Doctor A. W. Van Slyke, who is the great genealogist of this region, tells me that this Peter was born in Albany, 1694. His father, Marten Gerritse Van Bergen, came to Beverwyck in 1640, being closely related to the patroon. The original log house of the pioneer Van Bergen stood just west of this stone house. It was attacked by Indians one night and Marten Gerritse was wounded and died with the arrow flint in his body at the house now known as the Abbey while being carried to Albany. This house was within sight of the Catskill Path from Canada, and it was an easy matter for a marauding band of Indians to see the smoke from its hearthstone. By this time the local Indians were armed with guns, and the fact that arrows were used in this foray is taken to indicate that the Indians were from Canada, as those were still using the ancient weapon of the savage.

Peter's son, Anthony, who built the stone house just to the northwest across the creek, about 1754, was colonel of the nth Regiment in the Revolutionary War. Peter's son Henry lived in this house with his father. He was captain of the Coxsackie company in the Revolutionary War. Peter, Anthony and Henry lie in the graveyard, about 100 steps to the west.
In 1733 Peter gave the ground upon which the first church south of Albany was built; it adjoined this graveyard. Peter died in 1778 with his old Dutch Bible on his lap. The book, containing much in his handwriting, is now in the possession of Miss Eleanor Heermance, a descendant, who lives in Coxsackie.

The following is told by Dr. Van Slyke as a specimen of the spook stories that were believed in former times. He says: "One evening I was in Catskill, and invited an aged lawyer, native of Coxsackie flats, to ride up with me on the back road. It grew dark and rained heavily as we came along under the high rocks to the west, but let up as we reached the vicinity where my companion had spent the early days of his life, and he began telling spook stories that happened when he was young. The colored driver, true to his race, took a lively interest, and soon brought his horses down to a walk, so that he could give his entire attention to the conversation. There lived a man, a Mr. Short (large of stature), who could not sleep nights because of the funeral processions with which his imagination pestered him, and who had a window cut in his pantry that his ghostly visitants might the more readily get out doors. When the narrator was a small boy this man pushed him out of the road at one time to 'let a funeral procession go by'. The boy could not see it, but this spook seer told him who was about to die, and so it came to pass as was predicted.

"Then he told one of his own experiences, how he had once seen the 'Woman in White' at the bridge over Murderers' Creek. It was supposed that a woman had been murdered and buried under the bridge. He, a young man, was returning at midnight with his brother from the landing, coming down the old King's Road to their home. At the bridge their gentle old mare reared up and would not put a foot on its planks until urged on with the whip, and on crossing, the 'Woman in White' suddenly appeared to them. The frightened horse started to run,
20 and as they glanced fearfully over their shoulders, there sat her ghostess-ship on the empty rear seat of the wagon, so close that they could see the veins in her face. The moon shone bright on her long hair, which hung limp down her back in spite of the furious pace at which they were going, but even as they looked she was gone, vanished into moonshine. This is a true story, told by the man who saw the marvel himself, a college graduate who kept a horse chestnut in his pocket to ward off rheumatism." The "Woman in White" was well known to the inhabitants in the days of Dominie Livingston, whose parishioners going home from revival services were frequently compelled to take another road by this female Horatius.

In the good old times one of that restless, prying tribe of Yankees-this time a schoolmaster-found his way to this land of rich crops and plump daughters. He came ostensibly to teach the Dutch youth of Coxsackie that knowledge which the copybooks say is power. This specimen of the genius seems to have been particularly strong on ciphering, for he soon figured out who was the richest father with a marriageable daughter, and promptly proceeded to business and, in spite of all the good burgher could do, secured the girl, there being no Brom Bones about to dispute possession, as was the case in the love affairs of another of his class further down the river. (For the facts in this case see the writings of Mr. W. Irving.)

No sooner had this interloper from the land of the white-pine ham made secure his position in the family than he began to cipher anew. Now the good Dutchman had other daughters, both of whom secured husbands in the course of time, as rich girls should, and these husbands, it seems, expected to share equally in the vast estate, but nothing was further than this from the intentions of the former schoolmaster, and nothing of the sort happened, for by some hocus-pocus or necromancy that they could never clearly see through, the Yankee son-in-law got most of the land, while the others were largely supplied with a species of brick known to agriculturists as gold, and it is said the descendants of these poor but honest relations even unto this day wrinkle the nose when they pass by.