I have just finished reading “Becoming German, The 1709 Palatine Migration
to New York" by Phillip Otterness, Cornell University Press, 2004, and found
it very well researched. It provided thoughtful new insight to the so-called
Palatine migration of 1709.
On page 119 and 120 it says: ““As soon as the Mohawks indicated they would
not hinder the Germans´ proposed settlement [in the Schoharie valley], “all
hands fell to work and in 2 weeks time Clear´d a way thro’ the woods of 15
miles long with the utmost toyle and labour, tho’ almost starv’d and without
bread.” [October 31, 1712 letter from Gov. Hunter to the Board of Trade] The
Germans probably traveled halfway along the existing road between Albany and
Schenectady and then headed west about five miles on a well-traveled Indian
path to an area near present-day Altamont where a few Europeans had already
settled. From there they probably widened an Indian trail the remaining
fifteen miles to the Schoharie Valley. [Frank E. Lichtenthaeler, “Storm
Blown Seed of Schoharie," The Pennsylvania German Folklore Society 9 (1944):
35] Fifty families moved immediately to Schoharie, while the others spent
the winter in Albany or Schenectady.""
A map drawn by Lichtenthaeler to illustrate his article shows the
communication routes in 1723. Midway along the wagon route from Albany to
Schenectady (now Route 20), a trail is shown going west to Altamont then on
through what is now the Town of Knox to meet the Foxenkill at site of
Gallupville, then on west to Schoharie. The easterly half of the route
appears to have been along what became the Schoharie Plank Road, and later
State Rte. 146.
Other early sources suggest that the road began near Schenectady. In
Hunter's letter to the Board of Trade quoted above, a preceding sentence
says in part, "some hundreds of them took a resolution of possessing the
land of Schoharee and are accordingly march'd thither have been busy in
cutting a road from Schenectady to that place. . "
Conrad Weiser, the son of one the original Schoharie settlers, much later
wrote a description of the settlement of Schoharie. Walter Allan Knittle, in
his "Early Eighteenth-Century Palatine Emigration: A British Government
Redemption Project to Manufacture Naval Stores" wrote, "If Weiser's Journal
has been read aright, it was in Schenectady that the Indian Quaynant visited
his father and as a result Conrad was sent to live with the Indians about
the end of November [1712]. It also appears that fifty families could not
wait for spring but cutting a rough road from Schenectady to Schoharie in
two weeks, they settled there for the winter throwing up rough shelters."
This also suggests the road began near Schenectady.
On the other hand, in 1816 Judge John M. Brown wrote in "A Brief Sketch of
the First Settlement of the County of Schoharie by the Germans, " published
1823, that the road which the first settlers took went from Albany to
Schoharie over the "Helleberg." So this would have been the road starting
near Altamont. He goes go on to say that he knows of no wagon going thorough
[to Schoharie] before 1750. (This would have been when the road was upgraded
and re-routed in-part to become the Schoharie Plank Road. Judge Brown, who
lived in Schoharie County, was about five years-old.) Brown goes on to say
that there was no other market road suitable for wagons until 1762 when a
new road was opened through Duanesburg to Schenectady.
There is a NYS Historical Marker on Rte. 146 about a mile south of Rte. 20
that was placed to mark the route of the Palatine settlers enroute to
Schoharie.
I want to be sure that historians are in agreement that the fifteen mile
road that was cut to Schoharie in October 1812 began near Altamont. Is that
compatible with Conrad Weiser and Gov. Hunter stating that it went from
Schenectady?
I assume that the families that did not go to Schoharie that winter camped
near the start of the new road. Is there any more specific record of where
their encampment was located?
Harold Miller
Berne Historical Project www.Bernehistory.org
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