Three Rivers
Hudson~Mohawk~Schoharie
History From America's Most Famous Valleys

This was part of an advertisement by Lou D. MacWethy, owner of the St. Johnsville Enterprise & News. His granddaughter, Peg Davis, has permitted articles by her grandfather to be used on the Fort Klock web site.

From the beginning men have separated into groups. Indeed this is true of the lower animals. The object. . . . . family solidarity, mutual protection and cooperative endeavor.

We have tribes, sects, clans, breeds, baronys, satellites, provinces and sovereign nations.

Thus it is but natural that there should be distinguishing marks of identification. The American Indian had but to glance at an arrow to identify the tribe from whence it originated.

In ancient warfare the practice of implementing the man behind the shield to protect his from assault by his friends came into being. Later this was carried further and became a coat of arms. Thus the beginning of our present heritage. Way back down the aisles of time your progenitor laboriously carved a design on his shield. It might have been a cross a bend, a fess, a pale, a bar, or a chevron. Whatever it was, it was a symbol of a certain individual and so became known to his companions. And likewise it became know and adopted by succeeding generations.