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Saturday, November 27, 2010

CENTRAL PARK IMPRESSION


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© 2010 David Minor / Eagles Byte

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

EASTERN NEW YORK Timeline - 1640s


1640

Mar 10

Edward Howell, Daniel Howe, Job Sayer, Edward Farrington and four other new residents of Lynn, Massachusetts, draw up The Disposall of the Vessell, articles of agreement in which the ship they arrived in is turned over to Howe, who agrees in exchange to make six trips over the next two years to convey and supply the others while they settle Paumanacke (Long Island). ** The Earl of Stirling gives Lion Gardiner a grant of Long Island's Isle of Wight (Gardiner's Island).

Apr 7

Lord Alexander's deputy James Farret and the eight Puritans from Lynn formalize their agreement. They may establish a colony of eight miles square on Paumanacke, in exchange for four bushels of Indian corn, the price set by Connecticut governor John Winthop, Jr.

May

The Lynn colonists sail for the western end of Long Island, late in the month, after being interrogated for a few days at New Amsterdam. They are accompanied by a woman and child.

May 13

New Amsterdam governor William Kieft and his council learn that the Lynn group have started building homes and replaced the coat of Dutch arms - fastened to a tree - with a fool's face.

May 15

Kieft sends secretary Cornelia van Tienhoven to Brooklyn to investigate the removal of the coat of arms, and to peacefully bring settlers back to Manhattan to explain their actions.

May 16

Six of the English settlers are brought before Kieft, convince him they did not dishonor the Dutch coat of arms. He orders them to leave the western end of Long Island.

May 27

The Lynn English sail into an inlet (which they name North Sea) toward the eastern end and name the area Conscience Point.

Jun 20

Farrett issues the Lynn pilgrims their grant. They name their settlement Southampton and set up a government.

Dec 13

The Shinnecock Indians sign a treaty with Southampton, deeding part of their land to the settlers and promising food next year, in return for protection from other tribes.

State

Albany's first church (Reformed Protestant Dutch) is built. ** The approximate date the reverend John Youngs, Matthias Corwin, Barnabas Horton, Thomas Mapes, John Tuthill, William Wells, and other church members from New Haven, Connecticut, found the Long Island town of Southold. ** The West India Company relinquishes its monopoly, makes New Netherland a free trading zone.


1641

May

Adriaen van der Donck sails from Leiden (Leyden) for the New World in Den Eyckenboom (the Oak Tree). Wealthy Flemish farmer Cornelis Melyn is a fellow passenger.

August

Dutch wheelwright/schout (sheriff) Claes Swits is beheaded by a Wickquasgeck Indian he's invited into his home on the Rensselaerwyck lands. Fifteen years before the Indian, then twelve-years-old, was the sole survivor of a massacre of fellow tribesmen by Europeans.

Sep 9

A daughter, Elizabeth, is born to Lion and Mary Gardiner on Long Island's Isle of Wight.

Netherlands

Adriaen van der Donck graduates from the University of Leiden (Leyden} with a degree in jurisprudence.


1642

November

Adriaen van der Donck, is sent to Manhattan by his employer, patroon Kiliaen Van Rennselaer, to bring back a runaway female indentured servant. Discovering she's about to give birth, he allows her to remain until the infant's old enough to travel. Van Rensselaer is displeased.

Dec 11

Faced with English settlers in Westchester County and on Long Island, Kieft appoints a special English secretary.

State

The first ordained minister in New Netherland, Reverend Johannes Megapolensis is made pastor of the Rensselaerswyck (Albany) new Reformed Protestant Dutch church. He visits Niagara Falls. ** Dutch-born Arent Van Curler makes his first visit to the site of Schenectady. ** Mahican warriors begin arriving at villages of the Wecquaesgeek (Wappinger) Indians along the eastern bank of the lower Hudson River, seeking tribute, in order to pay for Dutch weapons.

Long Island

Rhode Island Narragansett sachem Miontonimo and 100 warriors visit Metoac villages in the summer to recruit allies for a war against the Mohegan in Connecticut. Governor Kieft misinterprets the Indians' intention, becoming convinced a secret uprising is being organized against Europeans.


1643

May 19

Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven colonies, meeting in Boston, draw up a series of resolves to unite.

June

Arent van Curler writes to his uncle, Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, in Amsterdam, reports that agent Adriaen Van der Donck has been exploring Catskills land west of the patroon's land, probably intends to start a colony there.

September

Siwanoy Indians under sachem Wampage murder Anne Hutchinson and her family in Eastchester.

Sep 8

The colonies that met in Boston form the New England Confederation (United Colonies). Long Island and New Hampshire are included.

Sep 13

Kieft seeks counsel from a new body, The Eight.

State

John Carman and Robert Fordham arrive on Long Island from Stamford, Connecticut, negotiate for a 10-mile-wide strip from the Sound to the Atlantic with the Indians, and start the first English settlement, on the island's Hempstead Plains.

Netherlands

The approximate date diamond merchant, land speculator and Dutch West India Company founder-director Kiliaen van Rensselaer dies in Amsterdam in his late forties (exact dates unknown) never having seen his New World lands.


1644

Feb 25

A number of black New Amsterdam slaves, having worked for the West India company for over 18 years, are granted conditional emancipation.

March

English and Dutch colonists destroy Canarsee, Massapequa, and Merrick villages on western Long Island.

August

The approximate date Adriaen van der Donck's term as law officer at Rensselaerwyck expires.

State

English-Connecticut mercenary John Underhill, along with two companies of 120 volunteers, and Mohegan scouts, hired by Kieft for 25,000 guilders, kills over 120 Indian men, women and children at their fort (Fort Neck) near today's Massapequa. ** Connecticut pioneers, among them John Seren, settle north of Long Island's Hempstead Plains.


1645

Aug 9

The Dutch and the Algonquin establish peace through Mohawk intermediaries.

Nov 24

The Hudson River freezes over for the season at Rensselaerwyck.

State

On a trip up the Hudson River to Fort Orange (Albany) Kieft meets with the local tribes, notices one native interpreter painting his face with a lump of what the governor thinks might be gold.


1646

May 30

French Jesuit missionary Father Isaac Jogues renames the Iroquois' An-Di-A-Ta-Roc-Te (Lake George) Lac du Saint Sacrement, in honor of the Feast of Corpus Christi.

August

Joques and lay brother Jean de Lalande, are sent out from Montréal to found a mission to the Iroquois.

Oct 18

Iroquois Indians in the Mohawk Valley murder Jocques and de LaLande.

December

The patroon system is judged a failure by the Dutch West India Company.

State

A 40-foot-long whale is beached at the mouth of the Mohawk River during Spring floods. Four others will be beached in the area this year.


1648

Apr 29

Sachems of the Montauk, Circhake, Monhansuck-Ahaquazuwamuck and Shinnecock tribes sign a treaty conveying Long Island lands east of Southampton to New Haven governor Theophilus Eaton and Connecticut governor Edward Hopkins, for 20 coats, 24 mirrors, 24 hatchets, 24 hoes, 24 knives and100 awls, retaining the right to fish and hunt on the land.

State

The approximate date the Long Island English buy 30,000 acres of land from the Montaukett Indians, name the resulting settlement Maidstone, sometimes calling it Easthampton. ** The Van Rensselaer family hires Brant van Schlictenhorst to manage their estates.


1649

Mar 16

Over a thousand Senecas and Mohawks attack the Huron villages of Saint-Ignace and Saint-Louis in Ontario.

April

Two Connecticut Pequot Indians kill and scalp Phoebe Halsey in her Maidstone (later Southampton), Long Island, home. The settlers summon sachem Wyandanch of the Montauketts, charge him with finding the killers. Lion Gardiner stays with the Montauketts as hostage. Wyandanch brings back the killers and turns them over to the settlers. Gardiner moves his family into Easthampton.

Jul 28

The Remonstrance of New Netherland is signed. It will be published in Holland later in the year.

Nov 7

Talks are held in Connecticut concerning the possible union of the colony with that of Maidstone (Southampton) on Long Island. Nothing will come of the idea until 1658.

State

The Hurons, Neutrals and Eries are defeated by the Iroquois. ** The first purchase of land from Indians in the future Westchester County town of Greenburgh is made.

Long Island

Settlers on the eastern end plant crops, lay out a road and land boundaries, raise buildings, clear a swamp and establish a cemetery. A government is set up and tradesmen are invited to settle. ** East Hampton proprietors purchase the remainder of the Montauketts' land for £100 Sterling.


© 2011 – David Minor – Eagles Byte

Monday, November 22, 2010

Split-Screen Sky
























© 2010 David Minor / Eagles Byte

New York's Onondaga Valley
November 20, 2010

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Twenty Big Apples

From 1880 right on up through 2004 (and even later), novelists have featured New York City as one of the main characters in their writings. Henry James, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Saul Bellow and Michael Chabon are just four of the authors featured in “20 Defining Novels About New York”, a blog entry from the Best Colleges Online site.

The entry’s creator explains that the list “. . . samples a few that deftly portray the city and its broad spectrum of peoples and places, reflecting its status as one of the hundreds of ‘melting pots in the world.”

View the list at

http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/2010/11/08/20-defining-novels-about-new-york/

Then try one of the twenty. They can be addictive.

Saturday, November 6, 2010