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

The Mohawk Valley and the American Revolution
Published by the State of New York
Nelson A. Rockefeller, Governor
Parks and Recreation
Alexander Aldrich, Commissioner
Historic Trust, Louis C. Jones, Chairman
Albany, NY 1972

Settling The Valley

Long before the grandeur of the Valley impressed European newcomers, aborigines had settled above the waterway they called "the river flowing through mountains." Mohawk Indians had longhouses there. As one of the nations comprising the Iroquois Confederacy, the Mohawks were designated "Keepers of the Eastern Door." They were mobile and aggressive guardians of that flank of the Iroquois League, which occupied much of the heartland of the future New York State.

The fur trade first lured Dutch colonists into the Mohawk Valley. The settlement in 1662 of Schenectady, the first permanent outpost on the river, reflected Dutch interest in New York's early economic treasure.

As the craving for fur increased, trade routes stretched from the Mohawk farther inland. The Mohawk provided passage to Lake Ontario, by way of Wood Creek, Oneida Lake and the Oneida and Oswego River; and from Lake Ontario, routes extended to more distant regions. The Valley became heavily traveled with a nearly endless procession of canoes, bateaux and freightboats laden with furs, trade goods, men and supplies.

But the Valley was not always placid as England and France warred for control of trade and territory in North America. The English attempted to disrupt French trade by establishing a post at Oswego on Lake Ontario and constructing there, in 1755, the first Fort Ontario overlooking the mouth of the Oswego River. They also protected the crucial carrying place between the Mohawk and Wood Creek, in the vicinity of present-day Rome, with a series of forts: Craven, Williams, Newport, Bull and Rickey, with the largest and most lasting of these defense works, Fort Stanwix, constructed in 1758 at a cost of 60,000 pounds.

While furs and trade were motivating many in the Mohawk Valley, the fertile alluvial plains attracted others. Dutch and English pioneers slowly advanced westward, establishing their Valley farms. In the 1720s, great numbers of Palatine Germans settled along the river. Their log and stone houses dotted clearings in the wilderness as far west as German Flatts (now Herkimer). They bore the brunt of French and Indian fury against the intruding frontier, and their descendants suffered from frenzied forays by Loyalists and Indians during the American Revolution. Substantial stone structures afforded refuge to owners and neighbors, alike, at the time of savage raids. With log palisades and, perhaps also, with a small blockhouse, these places later came to be referred to as "fort". Fort Frey (in Palatine Bridge), Fort Wagner (west of Nelliston) and Fort Klock (east of St. Johnsville) are a few of the places that have survived as reminders of sanguinary episodes in Valley history.

Most settlers along the Mohawk were small farmers, but two families succeeded in gathering together vast amounts of Valley land. One of these, the Butlers, from a frame house on a crest above Fonda, accumulated about 4,000 acres. Three generations of Butlers -- "Old" Walter, Colonel John and "Young" Captain Walter -- made Butlersbury one of the largest estates of the Valley. Later, when they supposed the English cause in the American Revolution, the name Butler became one of the most despised throughout the area.

This view of the landscape at German Flatts, east of West Canada Creek and the village of Herkimer, was sketched in 1888 by Rufus Alexander Grider, a drawing teacher in the Canajoharie public school. Born in Pennsylvania in 1817, Grider came to the Mohawk Valley in 1884. Two years later he dedicated himself to designing water color scenes of historic houses, forts and battlefields and to make them resemble the original by obtaining information from local residents who could testify to unchanged details.---->

Mohawk Valley in The Revolution