EASTERN NEW YORK STATE TIMELINE - 1750 - 1754

1750

January                       

Three Lutheran ministers, including Reverend Wilhelm Christoph Berkenmeyer, travel to Rhinebeck and forcefully depose the confrontational Reverend John Christopher Hartwick. He moves on to Pennsylvania.

May 2                       

Major John André is born in London to a Swiss merchant and his wife.

May 3                       

Trader Evert Wendell dies in Albany at the age of 69.

May 6

The 8,000-acre Rightmeyer’s Patent, in Schoharie and Greene counties, is granted to Ury Rightmeyer and others.

May 10                       

English-Iroquois go-between William Johnson writes to New York governor George Clinton, to complain of the French governor, the Marquis de la Joinquière, who is offering rewards for the heads of traders George Croghan and Hugh Lowry.

Jun 18                       

De la Joinquière receives a letter from Clinton protesting the French presence at the Niagara River portage and demanding its removal.

Sep 29                       

John Burnet notes that Governor George Clinton has replaced him as coroner with Anthony Rutgers over a disagreement with Burnet’s pursuit of Abigail Stibbin’s English

murderers, which Clinton opposed for political reasons.

Dec 17                       

William Johnson writes to Clinton, resigning his post as Indian agent.

Dec 31                       

Iroquois chiefs arrive at Canajoharie to bemoan the loss of William Johnson as liaison with the British.

State

The approximate date Peoria is founded, in Albany County.    **    A few German families settle the future Albany County town of Bern. About this date some families begin moving into the western end of Ulster County.    **    The approximate date settlement of the Cobleskill area begins.

1751

Jun 15

Abbé François Piquet leaves northern New York's Fort Présentation (Oswegatchie) for Toronto, heading for the western end of Lake Ontario, seeking Indian converts.

July                       

Iroquois chief Tyanoga (known to the British as Hendrick) speaks to delegates from

Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and South Carolina, in Albany, asking colonial governor George Clinton to have William Johnson reinstated as Indian

agent. Johnson will not reconsider.

Jul 8                       

The Iroquois depart from Albany.

State

Swedish scientist Peter Kalm's Travels into North America is translated into English, bringing a new interest in Niagara Falls.    **    Indian agent Sir William Johnson buys land surrounding Onondaga Lake from the local tribe for $15,000.

1752

Jan 1                       

Great Britain and the colonies officially adopt the Gregorian Calendar, making January and February the beginning months of the year, rather than the final months.

Feb 21

The 18,000-acre Turloch Patent, in Schoharie County, is granted to Jacob Borst and others.

Apr 13                       

The 2,324-acre Herkimer’s Patent, in Herkimer County, is granted to Joost Johan Herkimer and others.

Jul 29                       

British naval officer and Mohawk Valley landowner Sir Peter Warren, uncle of William Johnson, dies in Ireland in his late forties.

Aug 25                       

The 14,000-acre Yong’s Patent, in Herkimer County, is granted to Theobald Young and others.

Oct 11                       

Young’s Patent, in Otsego and Schoharie counties, is granted to Frederick Young.

State

Troy’s first house is built.    **    The approximate date Palatine German settlers build Fort Herkimer Church, named for the fortified home of Johan Jost Herkimer.

1753

Feb 6                       

The 2,640-acre Lawyer’s Patent, in Schoharie County, is granted to Johannes Lawyer and others.

Apr 14                       

The 4,000-acre Banyar’s Patent, in Oswego and Schoharie counties, is granted to Goldsbrow Banyar and others.

Jun 16                       

The New York provincial council meets with a delegation of Mohawk at Albany. Chief Hendrick (Theyanoguin), angered at being cheated of 750,000 acres of land by the Kayaderosseras Partners speculators, breaks off relations with Governor George Clinton.

Jun 23                       

The 20,000-acre Kingsborough Patent, in Fulton County, is granted to Arent Stevens and others. The 6,000-acre Lansing’s Patent, in Herkimer County, is granted to Jacob Lansing and others.

October

George Clinton is replaced as Royal Governor of New York, by Sir Danvers Osborne.   

State

The French build a wagon road across the southern tier, along the future path of Route 17.    **    The maximum amount of land permitted in an individual's grant is reduced from 2000 acres to 1000.    **    Naturalist Jane Colden has catalogued and described 142 plant specimens.    **    Indian mission school founder Gideon Hawley and Lebanon, Connecticut, Indian school founder Eleazer Wheelock, both visit Sir William Johnson at Fort Johnson.

1754

Jan 2                       

The 20,000-acre Lyne’s Patent, the second, in Herkimer County, is granted to John Lyne,  and others.

Jan 30

Albany mayor John Ten Eyck Lansing is born there to gunsmith and merchant Gerrit Jacob Lansing and his wife Jannetje Waters Lansing.

Mar 19                       

The 6,000-acre Becker’s Patent, in Schoharie County, is granted to Johannes Becker and others.

Apr 19

Massachusetts provincial governor William Shirley writes to colonial officials Samuel

Welles, John Chandler, Thomas Hutchinson, Oliver Partridge, and John Worthington

inviting them to a meeting in June in Albany New York, with representatives of the Five

Nations, making them presents and confirming their good relations with the colonials                       

and to discuss colonial confederation. This gathering will become known as the Albany Congress.

May 1

Connecticut governor Thomas Fitch names William Pitkin, Roger Wolcot Jr. and Elisha Williams as delegates to the upcoming Albany Congress.   

May 30                       

Connecticut governor Thomas Fitch writes to local colonial commissioners William Pitkin, Roger Wolcott Junior and Elisha Williams, assigning them to attend the colonial meeting in Albany, New York, on June 14th, to plan for the defense of the colonies and use the use of allied Indians in common defense against those allied with the French.

Jun 3

New Hampshire colonial governor Benning Wentworth declares he has assigned Theodore Atkinson, Richard Wibird, Meshech Weare and Henry Sherburne as delegate to the congress to be held in Albany, to represent his colony, in discussions regarding the Six Nations of New York Indians.

Jun 19                       

25 delegates from seven colonies, including Pennsylvania’s Benjamin Franklin, hold the Albany Congress  at city hall to discus confederation. Other representatives have come from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and Maryland. Franklin advises the formation of a series of land companies as a barrier against the French.

Jul 10           

The Plan of Union is tentatively adopted by the Albany Congress.

Jul 11                       

The Albany Congress adjourns.

Sep 29                       

John Burnet is reappointed coroner for the City of New York. Since he now lives out of town he is replaced by Dutchess County lawyer Bartholomew Crannell, currently maintaining offices in Manhattan.

October                       

The marquis du Duquesne meets in Québec with an Iroquois delegation from Onondaga, come to repair relations with the French.    **    English secretary of war Henry Fox announces that officers appointed to command in America should report to their posts and that colonial governors should collect funds from their assemblies for use of the commander in chief.

Dec 21                       

The 16,000-acre Klock’s Patent, in Montgomery County, is granted to  George Klock and others.

Dec 22                       

Former city of New York coroner John Burnet is named a notary public.

State

Scots-born Charleston, North Carolina, doctor-botanist Alexander Garden moves to Coldengham, New York, near the estate of his friend, politician Cadwalladar Colden. Naturalist John Bartram, collecting in the Catskills, visits the two men.    **    Dutch settlers arrive in the Berlin area of Albany County under the Van Rensselaer patroonship.    **    Lutheran minister John Christopher Hartwick, with the aid of Indian agent Sir William Johnson, buys close to 21,500 acres of land between the Susquehanna River and Otsego Lake, from several Mohawk sachems, promising to pay £100.

© 2012 David Minor / Eagles Byte

VERPLANCK SHOPPING SPREE

Continued from February 23, 2012

The Mr. Verplanck that the Stuarts met in late September 1829, helping his hired hands spread manure from the back of a wagon, would have been a Mr. Philip Verplanck. One of several with the same given name, his family had owned Verplanck's Point since the 1680s when Dutch fur trading partners Gulian Verplanck and Francis Rombout purchased 85,000 acres of land from the Wappinger Indians in today's Dutchess County. Around this time Verplanck also bought a point of land at the northern end of the Hudson's Haverstraw Bay, which he passed on down the byways of the family tree. Philip Verplanck had inherited the land last year as well as some land at Stony Point, across the Hudson. Since then he had been making improvements to the property, perhaps with an eye to a future sale.

Learning the Stuarts were visiting from Britain he left the manure wagon to the hands and accompanied his drop-in guests over to the river bank, inviting them to park on the wide lawn in front of the large house. The property contained close to twenty outbuildings, many used as offices. After a brief visit the Stuarts left him to his work, headed back to the main road and headed north again. They stopped for their midday meal at Peekskill, Stuart topping it off with a brandy. He notes that most inns they stopped at had a small library. Always interested in what people found important, he noted here an eclectic mix of the ever-popular Pilgrim's Progress, the works of Byron (very fashionable in these few years after the poet's death in Greece), two English prayer books and Nathan Smith's recent "Practical Essays on Typhus Fever".

It was early evening when they arrived at Phillipstown, in today's Cold Spring, after spending nearly four hours in the coach, traveling east of Anthony's Nose through orchard-strewn hillsides. After a simple late supper of coffee, bread and butter, grape and peach jelly, and cheese at an apparently indifferent hostelry, they were off to bed. The next morning as they headed out, Stuart learned that had they gone just another mile further they could have stayed at Horseborough's house, a splendid home that had once belonged to the loyalist Beverly Robinson. (Beverly being a more common man's name in that century). Forty-nine years earlier George Washington had arrived late for a meeting here with the then current resident Benedict Arnold, busy escaping across the river on his way to becoming a household name.

The Stuarts waited until they got to Fishkill to have breakfast. By the time they arrived at the four-year-old Mansion-house at Fishkill, the other lodgers had already eaten, but the kitchen quickly put together, "one of the best breakfasts I ever saw". For once he didn't provide the gustatory details. Now they were in true Verplanck country, Fishkill being part of the original purchase of 1683. The actual Verplanck family mansion, Mount Gulian, was in nearby Beacon, closer to the river. Last year, about the time the Stuarts were steaming up the Hudson to Albany, another traveler arrived at Mount Gulian. 35-year-old escaped Maryland slave James Brown had fled to New York City and found employment as a coachman and waiter for the Verplancks. They shipped him up to the family country house and hired him to work as head gardener. When he was recognized by a guest this year, the family arranged to purchase his freedom. He would live on at the estate, soon purchase his wife's freedom, and keep a journal until after the Civil War, thus providing the site's most detailed chronicles.                                                                       

© 2012 David Minor / Eagles Byte

From New York History Blog - Civil War Talks

Schoharie Crossing State Historic site's Enders House (adjacent to the Visitor Center at 129 Schoharie Street, Fort Hunter, NY, five miles west of Amsterdam, off Route 5S) will host a series of lectures on the Civil War, Wednesdays in April, 7:00 pm.

On April 4, the lecture series will begin with Montgomery County Historian Kelly Farquar, who will discuss “The Abolitionist Movement in Montgomery County,” a topic of her latest publication. The series continues on April 11 with Bob Arnold, an instructor at the College of St. Rose whose talk is entitled “New York State and the Civil War.” Arnold is also the former Albany County Historian. On April 25 the lecture series concludes with Matt Zembo’s talk on “Civil War Weapons and Strategy.” Zembo is an instructor at Hudson Valley Community College and is a military reenactor.

The fees for these lectures are $3.00 adults, $2.00 seniors and $1.00 for children under 16. Please contact Tricia Shaw at Tricia.Shaw@parks.ny.gov or 518-829-7516 for more information.

NEW YORK CITY TIMELINE / 1777

January

New York State Loyalist John Cumming goes into New York City to discover how to handle his delicate political situation, refuses a commission in the British army.    **    New York rebels fire a cannon on British troops from a hill in the Bronx, with little success.    **   Patriot general William Heath recaptures the land owned by blacksmith Isaac Valentine, near the future Reservoir Oval in the central Bronx, from British and Hessian forces. One of his ensigns and a militiaman are killed.

Jan 2                 

Cornwallis heads south out of New York.

March

John Cumming is arrested and jailed by New York as dangerous to the rebellion.

Mar 4                 

The Reverend Samuel Auhcmuty, rector of New York’s destroyed Trinity Church, dies at the age of 55.

July

George Clinton takes office as New York State's first governor.

Jul 23                 

Admiral Richard Howe sails from New York to capture Philadelphia.

September

John Cumming escapes and is recaptured.

Oct 3                 

General Henry Clinton moves north out of New York City to attack forts Montgomery and Clinton up in the Hudson valley three days later.

November        

American rebels cross the Hudson from New Jersey one night and attack the home of Loyalist Oliver DeLancey in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Mrs DeLancey runs out of the house and hides. The rebels set fire to the house, beat and terrorize daughter Charlotte and her friend Elizabeth Floyd. The two girls flee and hide in a nearby swamp. An older daughter also escapes but gets lost trying to locate a British encampment. The raiders return to the west side of the river.

Nov 1                 

New York City’s African Free School is opened.

City

The Council of Appointment is formed, to appoint the city’s mayors.    **    In the Lower Manhattan gardens of Burns’s Coffee House Royal Navy captain Tollemache and Coldstream Guards aptain Penington fight a duel with swords. Tellemache is killed and will be buried in Trinity Churchyard.    ** General Howe assigns the position of second assistant manager of the Court of Police to Upper West Side mansion owner Charles Ward Apthorp.   

Bronx

The Hadley family, in the future Riverdale section, uses their two-story home on the Boston Post Road as a garrison for patriot volunteers.    **    The British complete Fort Number 8, on the east side of the Harlem River, the future New York University Fordham campus.

Paris

Benjamin Franklin hires sculptor Jean-Jacques Caffiéri to create a monument to American general Richard Montgomery, killed in December of 1775 at Québec. The work will be installed in ten years on the front façade of Lower Manhattan’s St. Paul’s Chapel.

© 2012  David Minor / Eagles Byte

SEAPORT UPDATE 3/2012

1. We’ll start with the most exciting news: a second anonymous donor has stepped forward and raised the matching grant for the Lettie G. Howard 100×100* Fund to $12,000.

(*Can we say 100×120? It loses something in translation, but the more the merrier!)

…And we’re halfway there! Check the thermometer on our blog and you’ll see that we have reached $6,017 in pledges (and that will be doubled!). Please keep the donations coming, and be sure to specify that you’re donating by way of SOS so that the matching grant applies.

2. Next, we have Saturday Maintenance. Beth Childs reminds us to please RSVP, and passes on this message from Jay Amster:

“Just wanted to let you know that we’ll be focusing our efforts this Saturday on final preparations for Pioneer to go to the shipyard and preparing the Ambrose for the “South Street Seaport Springs Forward” party that’s this Monday the 12th.

Pioneer will leave this Saturday afternoon for the shipyard, and attached are some notes (scroll down) from Capt. Richard Dorfman about that, as well as directions to the shipyard.

In other news, NEXT WEEK we will run an Intro to Navigation Class.

Thanks very much,

Jay”

PDFs: Transit Details  Tottenville Directions

VOICE FROM THE PAST


Any one interested in seeing some of my very early essays and radio scripts - on a variety of topics - can find them at my old web site (no longer updated in the past ten or eleven years).


Essays of my "Odds and Ends" newsletter - 1995-1998
http://home.eznet.net/~dminor/O%26E.html


Earliest Radio Scripts - 1996-2001

http://home.eznet.net/~dminor/radio.html

Enjoy. And I always welcome feedback.

dminor@eznet.net

David

EASTERN NEW YORK STATE TIMELINE - 1740 - 1749

1740

Feb 9                       

Mohawk Valley landowner William Johnson writes to his uncle Peter Warren, using the address Mount Johnson instead of Warrensburg, at the top.

Jun 8                       

A daughter, Ann, is born to William Johnson and his current mistress Catherine Weisenberg.

Jul 18                       

The 12,000-acre third Schuyler Patent, in Washington County, is granted to John Schuyler and others.

State

George Herkimer builds a church in the village named after his family. ** The approximate date Mohawk chief Atiatoharongwen(Thiathoharongouan, meaning his body is taken down from hanging or one who pulls down the people; also known as Louis Atayataghronghta, Louis Cook, and Colonel Louis) is born in Schuylerville to a black man and a Saint-Francois Abenaki woman.   
  

1741

Aug 18           

The 13,000-acre Ootboudt’s Patent, in Otsego County, is granted to Volkert Ootboudt and others.

Oct 6                       

The 2,000-acre Winne’s Patent, in Herkimer County, is granted to Peter Winne.

Oct 7                       

John Lindsay (and others) receive their third Lindlsey’s Patent - 2,000  acres - in Otsego County.

Oct 10                       

The 4,000-acre Winne’s Patent, in Montgomery County, is granted to Peter Winne and others.

Oct 17                       

The 6,000-acre Northampton Patent, in Fulton County, is granted to Jacob Mase and others.

Nov 4                       

The 17,000-acre Springfield Patent, in Otsego County, is granted to John Groesbeck and others.

Dec 2                       

The 28,000-acre Sacondaga Patent, in Fulton and Hamilton counties, is granted to Fredrick Morris and others.

State

The Montauk Indian population has dwindled to 32 families, about 160 people.

Northeast New York State

The 1741-1742 winter is a severe one.    **    The Reverend James Davenport begins two years of itinerant preaching through Connecticut, Massachusetts and eastern Long Island.

1742

Feb 7

A son, John, is born to William Johnson and Catherine Weisenberg.

Sep 29                       

Iroquois representatives begin arriving at Upper Mohawk Castle (Canajoharie) to meet with William Johnson.

Oct 2                       

Johnson is adopted into the tribe and given the name Warraghiyagey, The Man Who Undertakes Great Things.

State

Future governor John Taylor is born in New York City.

Ohio

New York Mohawk chief Joseph Brant, or Thayendanega (“he places two bets”) is born on the banks of the Ohio River near today’s Akron, as his parents – Nickus (Nicholas) of the Wolfe family and Owandah or Sagetageatat, are on a hunting expedition.

1743

Jul 13                       

The Stony Point Tract, in Rockland County, is granted to Richard Bradley and others.

Aug 4                       

The 4,380-acre Wawieghnunck Patent, in Columbia County, is granted to William and Stephen Bayard. The Mawighhunk Patent in the same county is granted to Stephen and others.

Dec 17                       

Mamakating, named for an Indian chief, is made a precinct by the General Assembly, encompassing Sullivan County and a portion of Orange.

State

Governor George Clinton takes office.

1744

May                       

The New York council orders an overhaul of the city's sanitary laws, going after tanners, hogs owners and starchmakers, and moving them outside of the city. Waste dumping on public property is prohibited.

Oct 14                       

Mary Johnson is born to trader and superintendent of Indian affairs William Johnson and his mistress Catherine Weisenberg, their third child.

1745

Apr 30                       

The 9,400-acre Burnetsfield Patent, in Herkimer County, is
granted to John Joost Petrie and others, It will become known
as German Flats.

May

Esopus Indian sachems complain to colonial officials in

Kingston that they are paying too much for commodities and 

receiving too little in exchange.

Aug 25                       

Hudson Valley colonel Ann (male) Hawks/Hawkes Hay is 

born in Kingston Jamaica.   

Nov 28                       

French military forces out of Canada, accompanied by 220 Caughnawaga Mohawk and Abenaki Indians, attack and burn the English settlement at Saratoga. The 101 inhabitants are either killed or taken prisoner. Albany will be thrown into a panic.  

State

The French raid Fort Edward.    **    Frederick Philipse adds a brick north wing to the Philipse Manor Hall in Yonkers.

Indians

At Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the Six Nations cede their land in the Ohio Valley north of the river to commissioners from New York, Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The Iroquois are given £800 in Pennsylvania cuurency, £300 in gold and control of several southern tribes and passage through the colony to attack the Catawba and the Cherokee.

1746

July

Mohawks gather in war council near Mount Johnson. William Johnson gains their allegiance to the British cause.

Aug 11                       

Johnson, along with Iroquois chiefs Tiyanoga and Wascaugh, at the head a large party of Indians, marches into Albany, the warriors saluting governor George Clinton as they pass the fort.

Aug 15           

A small patrol of Captain Daniel Ladd’s New Hampshire militia is surprised by a war party of pro-French Indians and Canadian voyageurs, in New York near Lake Champlain’s Crown Point. Another patrol arrives to find five mutilated bodies and one survivor, learn that two others were carried off. Ladd heads to his base in Rumford for replacements. He encounters 14-year-old Robert Rogers there.

Aug 19                       

The Albany Indian Congress convenes, with over 700 Indians in attendance. Johnson is dressed in Indian regalia.

Aug 31                       

Tiyanoga returns to Johnson Hall from a journey to Montreal, were he was entertained by French governor Galissonière, who he told what the official wanted to hear, then went on to visit Caughnawaga chiefs, who expressed dissatisfaction with the French. On the way back he and his party killed one French soldier near Crown Point and captured another. Tiyanoga tells Johnson is story then leaves for Canajoharie. 

Nov 25                       

Ten of Johnsons’ scouts and 12 Mohawks arrive at Albany with the scalps of a man, two women and a boy, and eight white prisoners, a French militia captain, two Canadians, two women and three French girls - the Vitry sisters. Johnson will leave on a sloop for New York City with the prisoners later in the day.

December           

William Johnson takes Angélique Vitry as his mistress.

State

Mohawk Indians, stirred up by Governor Clinton, raid into Canada.    **    Lutheran clergyman John Christopher Hartwick emigrates to the U. S. from Germany to serve as a missionary to his countrymen in Rhinebeck.    **    The Iroquois League makes George Croghan a counselor.   **    Over the past 26 years Dutchess County has recorded twenty payments to 14 named Wappinger and other Indians, as bounties on wolves.

1747

Aug 28                       

Indian agent William Johnson leads a force of 650, 350 of them white, the remainder Iroquois, on an expedition against the French at Lac St. Sacrement (Lake George). They will arrive to find the enemy gone.

Sep 30                       

Big Flats pioneer Christian Myneer (Minier) is born in Heidelberg, Pennsylvania, to Johann Georg Myneer and Marie Elizabeth Strunk Myneer.

Oct 10                       

William Johnson learns the Albany militia refuses to serve under him, writes governor George Clinton, warning that their Indians allies will be disappointed if he is not provided with supplies for them.

State

Governor George Clinton promises Mohawk chief Tiyanoga he will put William Johnson in charge of Indian affairs for the colony and terminate the Assembly position of Indian Commissioner.    **   Mohawk Indians, stirred up by Governor Clinton, raid into Canada for a second year. Nichus Brant is captured along with other Mohawks and some British soldiers, and imprisoned by the French.

1748

March           

William Johnson confers with governor George Clinton in New York.    **    Six Mohawks scouting north of Mount Johnson are surprised by a party of Caughnawaga and Abnaki Indians, and French rangers. Two Mohawks (including Gingego) are killed and three captured, including Chief Nichus (father of Molly and Joseph  Brant). The sixth escapes to Teantontalogo but finds an insufficient force to give chase. When they return two days later with William Johnson they find the mutilated remains of the two dead. They later learn the three who were captured were taken to Montreal.

Apr 11                       

William Johnson, Mississaugi chief Tiyanoga, fifty volunteers and 13 Mohawks leave Mount Johnson on a 200-mile swing through Iroquois country.

Apr 23                       

Johnson and Tiyanoga arrive at Onondaga. In council Johnson hears Chief Red Hand’s concern that the British show  no signs of an attack on Canada and that the tribes have neglected their own interests for two years while waiting for action. He promises to reply in the morning.  

Apr 24                       

Johnson tries to convince the chiefs to not travel to Montreal to retrieve their captives, but to let the English government exchange them for French prisoners, even though he has no authorization for such an offer. They promise him an answer the following day.

Apr 25                       

The reply comes from Chief Canassatego. The Iroquois will let Johnson try to exchange French prisoners for their fellow tribesmen.

Apr 26                       

Johnson and Tiyanoga leave Onondaga for Mount Johnson.

Aug 10                       

Johnson writes to governor Clinton, reports the Indians have all left Mount Johnson with the exception of the Seneca Grota Younga, who stayed behind to have an ulcerous leg tended to.

Aug 20

James Dean, missionary to the Oneida Indians, is born in Groton, Connecticut.

State

William Johnson begins building a new Mount Johnson residence along the Mohawk, a mile from the old Mount Johnson, in the autumn.    **   Mohawk Indians, stirred up by Governor Clinton, raid into Canada for the third straight year in a row.    **    French priest Abbé Francois Picquet first visits the mouth of the Oswegatchie River on the St. Lawrence, realizes its strategic possibilities.

Albany

Finnish-Swedish scientist Peter Kalm visits the city, comments adversely on the water supply. He remains in the area into next year.

Indians

The French found a Suplican Mission in the Ogdensburg to woo the Iroquois.

1749

Jan 1                       

Hampshire Grant (Vermont) governor Benning Wentworth creates the township of Bennington, first settlement in the grant, claimed by New York State.

Apr 28                       

William Johnson returns to Mount Johnson after a five-week tour of Iroquois villages, where he found the more western tribes wary of English promises. He dispatches a report to Governor George Clinton.

Jun 2                       

Antoine-Louis Rouillé, Comte de Jouy, French colonial minister, writes to Canadian governor, the Marquis de Galissonière from Versailles, backing his plan to use the natives to destroy Fort Oswego. He then writes to Galissonière’s upcoming successor Jacques Pierre de Taffanel, the Marquis de Jonquière, still in France, encouraging the future use of the Iroquois.

Jun 25                       

Céloron emerges from the rapids of the St. Lawrence, arrives at the mouth of the Oswegathchie River, and visits Fort (La) Presentation (Ogdensburg).

Jun 26                       

Céloron’s forces leave the Oswegathchie, continuing up the St. Lawrence. Two hours after they leave Presentation the fort is burnt in an Iroquois attack.

Jul 31                       

Johnson writes to governor Clinton threatening to resign if held accountable to the New York Assembly. He then sends messengers to Indian villages warning of French incursions into the region.

Oct 21                       

Land agent and politician Oliver Phelps is born in Poquonock, Connecticut, to Thomas and Ann Brown Phelps.

Nov 4                       

Johnson throws a feast for Sacanghtradeya, Tiyanoga, Wascaugh, Nichus and close to 300 other angry warriors. He successfully counters claims that the English and French have made an alliance against the Iroquouis.    **    Céloron’s forces reach La Présentation (Ogdensburg).

State

Suplican father Francis Picquet establishes Fort (La) Présentation (later Ogdensburg), an Indian mission, at the mouth of the Oswegatchie River in the northwestern Adirondacks.

©  2012    David Minor / Eagles Byte