Seat of Kings?

December 2, 2000

Approaching the Wisconsin city of Green Bay, at the southern end of that bay, I can't help wondering if the locals weren't a bit apprehensive. That spoiler of pleasant fictions, DNA. I mean it doesn't rank up there with being tied in the last 13 seconds of a home game, with an inferior team on your twelve yard line, having three downs to go. Nothing like that. But still.

This story begins elsewhere. New York State, actually. In the year 1821 Eleazar Williams, a part French, part Mohawk, Episcopalian preacher began visiting the Oneida in the center of the state. Speaking their language fluently, he began efforts to reunite the two Christian groups of the tribe. He was not successful in these efforts. But he also believed that the tribe needed to move further west and get away from the influence of whites. He turned up in northeast Wisconsin the following year and began negotiating for land with the local Winnebago, Menominee and Ho-chunk. They resisted the idea at first but eventually the Menominee and the Ho-chunk agreed to the sale of over 65,000 acres for use of the Oneida. As several hundred York state Indians resettled near Green Bay, Williams was on his way to his ultimate goal, a new Iroquois Confederacy, west of Lake Michigan, with himself as its leader. It would not happen. Winnebago resistance to the idea continued and the Menominee began having second thoughts. Williams was unable to convince other Iroquois to make the move. He spent the next 25 years futilely waiting for the resurrection of his plans. Then, in 1853, he made one last stab at personal glory, a confession. He announced that in 1841, when France's Prince de Joinville toured the U. S. and visited Green Bay, they had met. According to Williams the nobleman had revealed a secret out of the past. Flashback time.

Late in the evening of July 3d, 1793, Marie Antoinette prepares for bed in her prison cell. Officials of the Revolution arrive suddenly to take her young son, the dauphin, away from her. In spite of her desperate, tearful pleading the boy is removed and set up in another part of the prison. He will spend almost the next two years there before dying miserably at the age of ten, probably of tuberculosis. The Committee of Public Safety decides word of the death must not get out. (If you've ever heard of Anastasia Romanov, read A Tale of Two Cities, or seen movies based on Alexndre Dumas, you know where this is going.) Once news of the dauphin's death is uncovered, the rumors begin flying. He didn't really die. Or someone did, but they had been substituted for the dauphin. It was said he had been spirited off to Yankeeland and was waiting quietly for the restoration. Now, in 1853, according to the preacher, the prince had revealed to him that he, Williams, was the Lost Dauphin. He claimed to have humbly kept his secret for 12 years, until a magazine had revealed the "truth". He died in 1870, his claims unproven. But it's not over yet. Just a year ago French geneticists announced they were going to compare DNA from Louis XVII's heart with that of his mother's hair. Should be interesting.

Script 198

© 2000 David Minor / Eagles Byte

NEW YORK CITY TIMELINE / 1685 - 1689

1685

Feb 6

The Duke of York is crowned as James II. New York becomes a royal province. James becomes owner of the estate between today’s Fulton Street, Broadway, Duane Street, and the Hudson River, to be known as King’s Farm.

Mar 23

Governor Thomas Dongan reconfirms the Flushing, Long Island, grant.

May 1

Mary, the widow of early New Amsterdam settler Gerrit Remmersen moves with her family from Sapochkanika (Greenwich Village) to Gravesend, Brooklyn.

Sep 13

Manhattan blacksmith Myndert Burger Van Evera marries Saertie (Sarah) Theunic Van Huyse.

Nov 7

The New York General Assembly moves the Kings County (Brooklyn) courts from Gravesend to Flatbush.

Nov 20

Dongan confirms the rights of Brooklyn's New Lots settlement.

Dec 15

Governor Dongan directs Leon Beckwith to make a survey of Wall Street’s North Side.

Dec 16

Beckwith carries out the survey, writes his report.

City

Former Dutch receiver general Nicholas Bayard, a nephew of Peter Stuyvesant and a favorite of Governor Dongan, is appointed mayor for the year.

Scotland

The approximate date New York City provincial counciilman Archibald Kennedy is born in Craigoch And Kilhenzie, Ayrshire, to Alexander and Anne Crawford Kennedy.

1686

Apr 20

James II names Alexander Innes clerk to the garrison at New York.

Apr 27

Dongan grants New York City a new charter, confirming and enlarging the city’s municipal powers. The city is given control over vacant Manhattan shore lands extending to the low water mark.

Nov 1

French Jesuit Father Lamberville writes to Chevalier de Callieres, Governor of Montréal, to inform him that New York's governor Dongan had assembled the Iroquois Nations in New York City and told them to keep the French out of English territory and to break off all relations with them.

City

James II bans the first House of Representatives and prohibits printing presses. ** Businessman Stephanus Van Cortlandt is appointed mayor for this and each of the next two years. ** The first member of the Rhinelander family, future sugar and shipping business owners, arrives from Germany. ** Captain John Manning's son-in-law, Robert Blackwell, becomes owner of Minnahannock Island (afterwards Hog, Manning, then Blackwell, Welfare, and eventually Roosevelt) and gives it his name. ** The Kings County (Brooklyn) court house is built at Flatbush. ** French Huguenot Augustus Jay, grandfather of John Jay, settles here permanently. ** A new seal is granted to the city, bearing a beaver, a windmill, a flour barrel, a cross and two Indians. ** A public well system utilizing up to eight wells is established, with the city agreeing to split the cost with the inhabitants. ** The last wolf in the settlement is killed.

1687

Mar 20

Captain John Palmer is granted the Cassiltown Patent, on the northern part of Staten Island.

Mar 31

The 5,100-acre Palmer Patent, on Staten Island (Richmond County), is granted to Captain John Palmer.

May 6

Bentley Manor on Staten Island is granted to Captain Christopher Billop.

Sep 26

Over a five-day period male Dutch residents of King’s County (Brooklyn), New York, sign an oath of allegiance to James II.

City

Flour trade revenue reaches £5,000. ** Gravesend settler Willem Gerrittsen takes an oath of allegiance to the British government.

1688

City

Politician Leonard Lewis marries Elisabeth Hardebnbergh of Kingston. ** Extensive repairs are made to Fort Amsterdam, with Frederick Wessel among the contractors.

1689

Mar 27

Rebecca Idens Van Huyse, daughter of Theunis, marries master weaver Abraham de la Montagnie in Manhattan’s Reformed Dutch Church.

May 16

New York merchant William Kidd marries twice-widowed property-owner Sarah Bradly Cox Oort.

May 31

Following remarks made yesterday by Francis Nicholson, Andros’ Manhattan lieuten ant governor, to a militia officer - declaring he would rather burn the town than have it commanded by the militia, and fearing an invasion from French Catholic Canada, the New Amsterdam militia assumes control of the city's Fort James and chose Captain Jacob Leisler to command.

June

The Committee for the Preservation of Safety and Peace appoints Jacob Leisler as captain of the settlement’s fort.

Jun 3

Leisler issues a proclamation stating that as soon as the expected ships arrive from England with the designated new governor of the province, he will turn over control.

Jun 4

Leisler writes to the Governor and Committee of Safety at Boston explaining recent events. He reports he’s made a survey of the fort’s guns and ammunition and found them in quite poor shape.

Jun 5

Major Nathan Gold writes Leisler from Fairfield, Connecticut congratulating him on his takeover of New York.

Jun 10

Nicholson - gathering depositions for the past four days - sails for the Jersey shore.

Jun 16

Leisler writes to Major Nathan Gold in Connecticut, enclosing a copy of his Jun 3rd proclamation and requesting the Major’s continued co-operation. He mentions the former admnsitration’s “papist collector” is still in office and refuses to leave.

Jun 19

Leisler writes to the governor of Boston from Fort William (formerly Fort James), to update him on events in Manhattan. Leisler has had Jonathan Davids, a Catholic, arrested at his Staten Island home. He is also busy strengthening the fort’s defensives.

Jun 22

An embassy of officials from Connecticut notify Leisler that William and Mary are now proclaimed King and Queen of England, and he announces the news to the city. Meeting with Governor van Cortlandt, he agrees to give over the city’s government if van Cortlandt will declare allegiance to the new monarchs. The governor stalls, hoping to force Leisler into officially seizing power. Leisler adherents claim three fires have been set in Fort George.

Jun 25

Leisler calls an assembly at the fort to authorize a provincial defense force.

August

New York City's wood-lined well just north of the wall is completed and the well inside the fort repaired.

October

New York election results are confirmed by Leisler.

Dec 11

Leisler seizes the entire colony of New York.

City

Peter Delanoy is appointed mayor, this year and again in 1690. ** A smallpox epidemic strikes the city, lasts into next year.

© 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte

Croton Dam, Croton-on-Hudson NY

(c) 2010 David Minor / Eagles Byte

Eastern New York Timeline - 1610 through 1619

1610

The Dutch name the future Hudson River as the Mauritius (Prince Maurice) for their Stadtholder (place holder, or steward) the Prince of Orange. ** Dutch navigators Hendrick Christiaensen, or Corstiaensen, and Adrian Block make a successful trading voyage to the Hudson River.

1613

Apr 21

The Iroquois sign the Treaty of Taagonshi with the Dutch, agreeing to treat each other as brothers. The Two Row wampum belt is made to symbolize the pact.

France

An installment of Champlain's Voyages carries the engraving Defaitte des Yroquois au Lac du Champlain (Defeat of the Iroquois at Lake Champlain).

1614

Mar 20

The Netherland states of Holland and West Vriesland make a joint resolution to give four-voyage monopolies (rather than the six requested) to those discovering new rivers and other trading sites in the New World.

Mar 27

The Ordinance of 1614 is passed. The Dutch Congress promises a trade monopoly to discoverers of new countries.

Oct 11

The United New Netherland Company is chartered by the States-General, giving merchants a three-year fur-trading monopoly.

State

Block settles Fort Van Nassoueen (Nassau, later Fort Orange, then Albany) on Castle Island. ** The Dutch build a trading post at Flatbush, in the future Ulster County.

New Jersey

Dutch explorer Cornelius Jacobsen Mey sails into Delaware and New York bays and names Cape May.

1615

Oct 8

Samuel de Champlain discovers Oneida Lake.

Canada

Champlain, accompanying Etienne Brulé, traces the St. Larwence and Ottawa rivers to Lake Huron, becomes the first white to discover the Great Lakes. He reportedly mets some Ojibwe at a Huron camp. When he returns to the New York area he accompanies a band of Hurons on an attack against the Iroquois near Oneida Lake at Nichols Pond, and is wounded. He winters over with the Hurons.

1616

Adriaen Block publishes his map of New York Harbor and Long Island. ** Dutch explorer Hendrick Christiaensen is murdered while anchored in the Hudson River - near the future Albany - aboard the Swarte Beer, by Orson, an Indian he'd adopted and taken to Holland and back.

1618

Jan 1

The charter of United New Netherland Company expires; they are unable to renew it.

State

After arranging a peace between the Mahicans and the Mohawks, the Dutch rebuild Fort Nassau (later Fort Orange, then Albany) on Castle Island. ** Spring floods destroy the trading post on Castle Island. ** The Dutch acquire land from the tribes around Albany at the treaty of Tawasentha, signed at Norman's Kill.

(c) 2010 David Minor / Eagles Byte

NEW YORK CITY TIMELINE / 1680 - 1684

1680

Apr 16

When his horses bolt unexpectedly while he's plowing his mid-western Manhattan farm the owner, Theunis Idens Van Huyse, becomes positive he’s cursed and he tries to hang himself. Passing missionaries convince him he’s in error, preventing a tragedy. He will live until about 1720.

May

A New York City jury, considering the legality of East Jersey governor Philip Carteret's title, approves his right to rule.

June

Colonial governor Edmund Andros attends a session of the East Jersey assembly, then dissolves it.

Jun 31

New Amsterdam minister Olave Stevens convenes church and local officials at his home to determine methods of raising money to build the new Dutch church recommended by Governor Andros.

Nov 4

John King, captain of the trading vessel Deliverance, is found dead aboard ship in New York City, his head bashed in. The case is never solved.

Nov 11

An inventory is made of the materials on board the Deliverance.

City

William Dyre is appointed mayor for the year. ** Colonial governor Edmund Andros claims that a quarter of the city's houses serve as taverns and tobacco shops. ** West Indian free black Swan Jansen Van Luane purchases a farm in New Utrecht, Brooklyn's future Owl's Head Park. ** The approximate date land-owning Dutch immigrant Egbert Woutersen dies (birth date unknown).

Queens

Additions are made to John Bowne’s 1661 house, a Quaker place of worship.

1681

Aug 5

Five-year-old Dutch boy Richard Churcher dies in Manhattan, is buried on what will later become the site of Trinity Church; its oldest tombstone will mark the grave.

City

The Duke of York's charter for the colony is granted. ** William Dyre is appointed mayor for the second year in a row. ** The flour trade revenue over the past three years totals £2,000. ** A site for a Jewish graveyard, Beth Haim (Place of Rest), is purchased near Chatham Square.

1682

City

Former mayor Cornelius Van Steenwyck is appointed mayor again. He will be reappointed next year as well. ** The city's second Jewish burial ground is established, south of Chatham Square.

1683

Mar 7

New York City petitions the Crown to have East Jersey re-annexed, to fend off a competing colony across the Hudson.

Oct 17

New York holds its first English representative assembly and adopts a charter of liberties.

Oct 30

New York City's first Roman Catholic services are held.

Nov 1

New York's Queens (including Hempstead and Oyster Bay), and Richmond (Staten Island, including Shooter's Island) counties are chartered by Royal Governor Thomas Dongan (Richmond named for the Earl of Richmond). ** Kings County (Brooklyn) is formed, with the towns of Brooklyn, Bushwick, Flatbush, Flatlands, Gravesend and New Utrecht.

Nov 25

Dongan confirms the 1666 letters patent granted for the Queens village of Flushing.

City

The city begins producing commercial grade flour, and is granted a monopoly. ** The city is divided into six wards - Dock, East, North, South, and West, and the Out Ward (north of the wall).

1684

June 16

James II names the Reverend Josias Clarke chaplain to the garrison at New York.

Sep 6

The New York governor and council grant a requested tax exemption for Lutheran Church premises, as is done with other congregations.

City

New and Beaver Streets are paved. The first watch is appointed. A Latin school is opened under the management of a Jesuit priest. ** Gabriel Minvielle is appointed mayor for the year. ** Area Indians sell the last of their Brooklyn lands to the British. ** French Huguenot settler Pieter Praa marries Maria Hay, daughter of the owner of the land in the future Greenpoint area of Brooklyn formerly belonging to Dirck (the Norman) Volckersten.

(c) 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte

Wooden World

September 23, 2000

If you were inland from Menominee, Michigan, on the evening of October 8th, 1871, and you looked eastward toward town, you might see the glow of the setting sun. Wrong direction? Of course. It was the glow of not-distant-enough flames. On this day major fires would begin raging in Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan. The first two (Chicago and Peshtigo) were decidedly deadly. Chicago's flames killed 300 and left 90,000 homeless. Peshtigo's dead numbered somewhat over 1200. Menominee faced the same threat.

The western Great Lakes had seen very little rain since spring. Wood frame houses in the lumber towns lined streets covered in sawdust. The surrounding land was studded with piles of scrap from the sawmills; dust filled the hot, dry air. And then. Deer were erupting out of the woods, as well as wolves, and smaller wild animals. The roads eastward were soon filled with cattle, horses and wagons as those on the small outlying farms headed rapidly toward the town and the waters of Green Bay. The passenger steamer Northern City could be seen off across the waters to the east, headed toward town. Exiles from Peshtigo were making their way into town, as well as escapees from nearby flame-killed villages. The steamer docked and the captain agreed, even as crew members stomped out wind-born sparks, to take women and children aboard. Said he'd stay moored there as long as possible.

There can be moments of humor, even under the threat of annihilation. A drayman unloaded a cargo of furniture destined for one of the mansions on the far side of town. As he moved away from the pier a passer-by told him the house wouldn't survive. He should take the furniture back to the boat. He kept going, telling the advice-giver that the insurance company would pay for the furniture if it went up in flames. But not if it were back on the ship.

The fires could be seen from village now. Men formed into crews and began digging a trench across the road that led into town, beating out flames that leapt the barrier with their shirts, laying face down briefly in the marshy water when waves of scorching heat flowed over their heads. Their efforts paid off. As dawnlight overcame flamelight, they knew they'd saved their town.

There were a two surprises left, non-threatening ones. As women began coming down the steamboats gangplank, some leading children. a few tallish forms kept their faces hidden, struggled with long skirts. A townsman walked up to one of the latter, and with a curse planted a boot firmly in the seat of the skirt and knocked a few other figures to the ground. Seems a half-dozen men of the town were more afraid of fire fighting than they were of cross-dressing. Getting in touch with their feminine side, no doubt. The other surprise? The waters of Green Bay had been lowered a bit by the intense heat. The Northern City was stuck firmly on a sandbar.

Script 189

© 2000 David Minor / Eagles Byte

Eastern New York Timeline - 1000 through 1609

1000

The Indians' planting of beans and maize begins (date highly conjectural).

1535

French explorer Jacques Cartier hears of curative waters to be found in the future Saratoga Springs area, while exploring the St. Lawrence River. He may also hear of a great falls (Niagara) to the west.

1540

Traditional date the French abandon a small fort at what is now Albany.

1569

Belgium

Gerhard Kremer (Mercator) produces a cylindrical-projection map. It portrays the mythical New England land of Norumbega. It also shows the New York State site of Ticonderoga.

1586

Netherlands

The approximate date diamond merchant, land speculator and Dutch West India Company founder-director Kiliaen van Rensselaer is born in Hasselt (some sources say Nijkerk) to soldier Hendrick van Rensselaer and homemaker Maria Pafraet Rensselaer.

1600

Population of Algonkin (Algonquin) tribes is about 6,000. ** The approximate total population of Long Island's Metoac tribes is 10,000. A total of 13 tribes live on the island. ** From now on most kettles traded with the St. Lawrence area Indians are made of brass, rather than copper.

1603

State

Samuel de Champlain, exploring the St. Lawrence River Valley, learns of the Ticonderoga area.

1604

France

King Henry of Navarre grants a favorite all North American lands north of the 40th parallel (New France).

1606

Apr 10

Charters for the London Company and the Virginia Company of Plymouth (Council for New England) are issued by James I, to Ferdinando Gorges and John Popham, to settle the American coast between Cape Fear and mid-Maine. This is the area Henry of Navarre, the French king, had claimed two years previously. The colonies of Virginia and New England are to remain 100 miles apart. The region in between can only be colonized if no other European nation lays claim to it.

1609

Apr 4

Henry Hudson departs from Amsterdam in his three-masted Dutch carrack the Half Moon .

June

Samuel de Champlain and two French companions, along with 60 Indian warriors from various tribes, enters the lake that will bear his name.

Jul 29

Champlain, accompanied by two other Frenchmen, including his teen-aged servant Etienne Brulé, and 60 Algonquins and Hurons, encounter a group of 200 Iroquois in canoes. Everyone agrees to a ritual battle the next day.

Jul 30

Champlain’s party defeats the Iroquois near the future Ticonderoga, beginning a long period of French/Iroquois enmity.

Sep 6

Hudson sends a small crew ashore on Long Island to explore. On their return to the ship they are attacked by two canoes full of natives. Crewman John Colman is killed, two others injured. The survivors can't find the Half Moon in the dark.

Sep 7

The missing men return at daylight.

Sep 13

Henry Hudson anchors his Half Moon off Nappeckamack (today's Yonkers area). They trade with natives for oysters, all the time keeping the Indians off the Half Moon, in their canoes.

Sep 14

Hudson sails past high mountains, anchors off the West Point area.

Sep 15

Hudson arrives in the Kingston area. He predicts the Rondout area, just upstream, will be a prime spot for a trading port. Two Indian hostages taken previously escape and make their way to land.

Sep 16

Hudson arrives in the Hudson area. Indians come aboard and trade Indian corn, pumpkins and tobacco.

Sep 17

Hudson arrives in the Castleton area, location of the Mahican Indian village of Schotak (Schodack). They run aground in the evening, puling themselves off by their anchor, run aground again, but are freed by high tide.

Sep 18

The ship's masters' mate goes ashore with an elderly Indian and is entertained at the man's home.

Sep 19

Hudson arrives in the Albany area. Indians trade grapes, pumpkins, as well as beaver and otter pelts.

Sep 20

The Half Moon attempts to sail further north but runs into shallow water.

Sep 21

A second attempt to sail north again runs into waters too shallow to let them pass. The ship's carpenter goes ashore to construct a new foreyard for their vessel. A party of Indians, including one female, is permitted aboard ship, as a test of their intentions. They are entertained and fed, all with no ensuing trouble.

Sep 22

It's decided it would be pointless to attempt to sail further north.

Sep 23

Hudson leaves the Albany area. They run aground but are freed when the tide rises.

Sep 24

The Half Moon runs aground on Upper Schodack Island in the Castleton area. Before the tide releases them a number of the crew go ashore, gather chestnuts.

Sep 26

They get together with a number of Indians. All goes well.

Sep 27

Further amicable meetings with local Indians. The crew fishes late in the day then their ship sails on into the night.

Sep 30

After further trade with the Indians the ship sails on to the south through the night.

Oct 1

After a failed attempt by the natives to steal from the Half Moon, Indians in Haverstraw Bay attack the vessel. The crew kills two.

Oct 2

Off Spuyten Duyvil Creek the vessel is attacked by local Indians in canoes. Two of the attackers are killed.

Oct 4

Hudson sails for England.

(c) 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte