The Greatest Highway in the World Part 5

Hiawatha (the word means "he makes rivers") was a legendary chief, about 1450, of the Onondaga Tribe of Indians. The formation of the League of Five Nations, known as the Iroquois, is attributed to him by Indian tradition. He was regarded as a sort of divinity--the incarnation of human progress and civilization. Longfellow's poem "Hiawatha" embodies the more poetical ideas of Indian nature-wors.h.i.+p. In this version of the story, Hiawatha was the Son of Mudjekeewis (the West Wind) and Wenonah, the daughter of Nakomis, who fell from the moon.

142 M. RENSSELAER, Pop, 10,823. (Train 51 pa.s.ses 11:30a; No. 3, 12:02p; No. 41, 4:12p; No. 25, 5:44p; No. 19, 8:53p. Eastbound: No. 6 pa.s.ses 6:00a; No. 26, 6:32a; No. 16, 12:27p; No. 22, 2:07p.)

Rensselaer, originally called Greenbush, lies directly across from Albany. It was first settled in 1631 and the site formed part of a large tract of land bought from the Indians by agents of Killiaen Van Rensselaer. On the lower edge of the town Ft. Cralo,* built in 1642 for protection against the Indians, still stands; the fort has a special interest in being connected with the origin of Yankee Doodle.

Some writers claim that Cralo is the oldest fort still preserved in the U.S. Its white oak beams are said to be 18 inches square; its walls are 2 to 3 ft. thick, and some of the old portholes still remain. According to tradition there were once secret pa.s.sages connecting the fort with the river. About 1770, during the French and Indian Wars, Maj. James Abercrombie had his headquarters here.

Yankee Doodle is said to have been composed at the fort by Dr.

Schuckburgh, a British surgeon, as a satire on the provincial troops, who did not show to advantage among the smartly dressed British soldiers. The Yankees, however, adopted the words and the tune, and less than 20 years later the captured soldiers of Burgoyne marched behind the lines of the victorious Continentals to the same melody.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Albany from Van Rensselaer Island in 1831]

ALBANY TO SYRACUSE

142 M. ALBANY, Pop. 113,344. (Train 51 pa.s.ses 11:32a; No, 3, 12:05p; No.

41, 4:15p; No. 25, 5:46p; No. 19, 8:55p. Eastbound: No. 6 pa.s.ses 5:58a; No. 26,6:30a; No. 16, 12:25p; No. 22, 2:05p.)

Across the river from Rensselaer on sharply mounting hills is the city of Albany. We cross the river by a suspension bridge, pa.s.sing over Rensselaer Island and seeing ahead of us the handsome new freight houses of the D. & H.R.R., and to right and left the boats of the Hudson River Steams.h.i.+p lines lying against the wharves. Once over the bridge the tracks swerve to the right, and soon lead into the Union Station.

Almost under the shadow of the present Capitol, on a meadow to the north, Ft. Orange was built in 1624, when 18 families of Dutch Walloons selected this site for a permanent settlement in the New World. The history of Albany, however is usually dated from ten years earlier when Dutch traders built Ft. Na.s.sau on Castle Island, the present Rensselaer Island.

According to some writers a temporary trading post was established here by the French as early as 1540--80 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. But it is on the date 1614 that Albany lays claim to being the second oldest settlement in the colonies, Jamestown, founded in 1607 by Capt. John Smith and Christopher Newport, being the first. It is interesting to note that the Pilgrim Fathers narrowly missed making a settlement somewhere along the Hudson River. William Bradford, second governor of the Plymouth colony, tells in his history, how, at one point in the _Mayflower's_ voyage, they determined "to find some place about Hudson's river for their habitation." But, after sailing half a day, "they fell amongst dangerous shoulds and roving breakers," and so decided to bear up again for Cape Cod.

During the early days Albany held high rank among American settlements.

As a center of trade and civilization it rivalled Jamestown, Manhattan and Quebec. In 1618 the Dutch negotiated here the first treaty with the Iroquois, which tended to preserve friendly relations with the Indians for more than a century to come.

The territory of the Iroquois, or Six Nations, the most celebrated of Indian confederations, extended from Albany to Buffalo, that is, over just the country through which the New York Central runs. The name is that given to them by the French and is said to be formed of two ceremonial words constantly used by the tribesmen meaning "real adders." The league was originally composed of five tribes or nations--the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Senecas and Cayugas. The confederation probably took place about 1580. In 1722 the Tuscaroras were admitted, the league then being called that of the Six Nations. Without realizing the far-reaching effect of his action, Samuel D.

Champlain (1567-1635), the French explorer, probably changed the entire course of history by joining the Algonquins and Hurons in an attack in 1608 on the Iroquois near the present town of Ticonderoga. The Iroquois never forgave the French for the part they played in this battle and naturally turned first to the Dutch and then to the English for allies. "Thus did New France,"

says Parkman, "rush into collision with the redoubted warriors of the Five Nations. Here was the beginning, and in some measure doubtless the cause, of a long series of murderous conflicts, bearing havoc and flame to generations yet unborn." Parkman estimates that in the period after the Tuscaroras joined the Iroquois, the Six Nations had a population of about 12,000 with not more than 2,150 fighting men. It is a matter of some surprise that so small a fighting force could wield so great a power in the early days. But Theodore Roosevelt, in speaking of the Indians as warriors, says: "On their own ground they were far more formidable than the best European troops. It is to this day doubtful whether the superb British regulars at Braddock's battle or the Highlanders at Grant's defeat a few years later, were able to so much as kill one Indian for every hundred of their own men who fell." Although up to that time they had been loyal friends of the colonists, in the War of Independence the Iroquois fought on the English side, and by repeated battles their power was nearly destroyed. From very early times a silver "covenant chain"

was used as a symbol of their treaties with the Whites, and each time a new treaty was signed the covenant chain was renewed or reburnished. There are perhaps 17,000 descendants of the Iroquois now living in reservations in New York State, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Canada.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Stephen Van Rensselaer

Stephen Van Rensselaer was the eighth patroon and fifth in descent from Killiaen, the first lord of the Manor. He was lieutenant governor of N.Y., an ardent promoter of the Erie Ca.n.a.l, a major general in the War of 1812 (during which he was defeated in the Battle of Queenstown Heights), and represented N.Y. in Congress from 1822 to 1829. In 1824 he founded a school in Troy, which was incorporated two years later as the Rensselaer Polytechnic inst.i.tute.]

In 1629 the Dutch government granted to Killiaen van Rensselaer, an Amsterdam diamond merchant, a tract of land, 24 Sq. M., centering at Ft. Orange, over which he was given the feudal powers of a patroon.

The patroons, under the Dutch regime, were members of the Dutch West India Co., who received large grants of land, called Manors, in New Netherlands. These grants carried with them semifeudal rights, and the patroon could exercise practically autocratic powers in his domain. The first of the patroons, Killiaen van Rensselaer (1580-1645), never came to this country, but he sent over numerous settlers as tenants. The Manor was called Rensselaerswyck, and comprised all of the present counties of Albany and Rensselaer, and part of Columbia.

This was the first manorial grant in New Netherlands and was destined to endure the longest. The colonists sent to this country by van Rensselaer were industrious and the town prospered, although in 1644, it was described by Father Jogues, a Jesuit priest, as "a miserable little fort called Fort Orange, built of logs, with four or five pieces of Breteuil cannon and as many swivels; and some 25 or 30 houses built of boards, and having thatched roofs." On account of its favorable commercial and strategic position at the head of navigation on the Hudson and at the gateway of the Iroquois country and the far west, it maintained its importance among colonial settlements for a century and a half. Its early name, Beverwyck, was changed to Albany--one of the t.i.tles of the Duke of York, afterwards James II.--when New Netherlands was transferred to the English (1644). Albany was granted a charter in 1686, and the first mayor (appointed by Gov. Dongan) was Peter Schuyler, who was likewise chairman of the Board of Indian Commissioners.

Peter Schuyler (1657-1724) was a son of Philip Pieterse Schuyler (d. 1683), who migrated from Amsterdam in 1650. The family was one of the wealthiest and most influential in the colony, and it was closely related by marriage to the van Rensselaers, the van Cortlandts and other representatives of the old Dutch aristocracy.

Representatives of Ma.s.s., R.I., N.H., Conn., N.Y., Pa., and Md., met in Albany in June, 1754, for the purpose of confirming and establis.h.i.+ng a close league of friends.h.i.+p with the Iroquois and of arranging for a permanent union of the colonies. This was the first important effort to bring about a Colonial confederation.

The Indian affairs having been satisfactorily adjusted, the convention, after considerable debate, in which Benjamin Franklin, Stephen Hopkins and Thomas Hutchinson took a leading part, adopted a plan for a union of the colonies on the basis of a scheme submitted by Franklin. This plan provided for a representative governing body to be known as the Grand Council, to which each colony should elect delegates for a term of three years. Neither the British government nor the growing party in the Colonies which was clamoring for colonial rights received the plan with favor--the former holding that it gave the colonies too much independence and the latter that it gave them too little.

At about this time a Swedish naturalist, Peter Kalm, visiting Albany, reported that "there is not a place in all the British colonies, the Hudson Bay settlement excepted, where such quant.i.ties of furs and skins are bought of the Indians as at Albany." Most of the houses at this time were built of brick and stood with gable ends to the street; each house had a garden and a _stoep_, where the family were accustomed to sit summer evenings, the burgher with his pipe and his "vrouw" with her knitting. Well-to-do families owned slaves, but according to Mrs. Anne Grant, an English writer of the day who spent part of her childhood in Albany, "it was slavery softened into a smile."

[Ill.u.s.tration: North Pearl St., Albany (About 1780) Looking North from State St. to Maiden Lane

(_From an old French print in the N.Y. Public Library_)

In the left foreground is the south end of the Livingston house.

Just beyond, with two high gables facing the street, is the Vanderheyden Palace, erected 1725. The square building at the rear, corner of Maiden Lane, is the residence of Dr. Hunloke Woodruff. In the right foreground (on the corner) is the Lydius House, erected in 1657.]

It was here that the English from all the colonies, before and during the French and Indian wars met to consult with the Indians and make treaties with them. It was the gathering place of armies where troops from all the colonies a.s.sembled and the objective of hostile French forces and their Indian allies on several occasions, yet was never taken by an enemy and never saw an armed foe. Even during the Revolutionary War, when its strategic importance was fully recognized by both armies, it remained immune, though at one time the objective against which Burgoyne's unsuccessful expedition was directed.

In 1777 the English general, John Burgoyne (1722-1792), was placed at the head of British and Hessian forces gathered for the invasion of the Colonies from Canada and the cutting off of New England from the rest of the Colonies. He gained possession of Ticonderoga and Ft. Edward; but pus.h.i.+ng on, was cut off from his communications with Canada and hemmed in by a superior force at Saratoga Springs, 30 M. north of Albany. On the 17th of Oct. his troops, about 3,500 in number, laid down their arms, surrendering to Gen. Horatio Gates. This success was the greatest the colonists had yet achieved and proved the turning-point in the war.

In 1797 Albany became the permanent state capital. The election of Martin Van Buren as governor in 1828 marked the beginning of the long ascendancy in the state of the "Albany Regency," a political coterie of Democrats in which Van Buren, W.L. Marcy, Benjamin Franklin Butler and Silas Wright were among the leaders.

Thurlow Weed (1797-1882), the bitterest enemy of this coterie, and the man who gave them their name, declared of them that he "had never known a body of men who possessed so much power and used it so well." Until the election of William H. Seward (the Whig candidate) as governor in 1838, New York had usually been Democratic, largely through the predominating influence of Van Buren and the "Regency." Weed had an important share in bringing about their defeat. He owed his early political advancement to the introduction into state politics of the Anti-Masonic issue; for a time he edited the _Anti-Masonic Enquirer_. In 1830 he established and became editor of the Albany _Evening Journal_, which he controlled for thirty-five years.

The anti-rent war, precipitated by the death of Stephen van Rensselaer (1764-1839), the "last of the patroons," centered about Albany. The final settlement of this outbreak, which began with rioting and murder, and ended with the election of a governor favorable to the tenants (1846), disposed of feudal privilege in New York State which had flourished here until well into the 19th century, though it had disappeared elsewhere.

The anti-rent agitation began in the Hudson River counties during the first administration of Gov. Seward (1839). The greater part of the land in this section was comprised in vast estates such as the Rensselaerswyck, Livingston, Scarsdale, Philipse, Pelham and Van Cortlandt manors, and on these the leasehold system, with perpetual leases, and leases for 99 years (or the equivalent), had become general. Besides rents, many of the tenants were required to render certain services to the proprietor, and in case a tenant sold his interest in a farm to some one else he was required to pay the proprietor one-tenth to one-third of the amount received, as an alienation fee.

Stephen van Rensselaer had permitted his rents, especially those from poorer tenants, to fall much in arrears, and the effort of his heirs to collect them--they amounted to about $200,000--was met with armed opposition. In Rensselaer county a man was murdered, and Gov. Seward was forced to call out the militia. The tenants, however, formed anti-rent a.s.sociations in all the affected counties, and in 1844 began a reign of terror, in which, disguised as Indians, they resorted to flogging, tarring and feathering, and boycotting, as weapons against all who dealt with the landlords. This culminated in the murder of a deputy sheriff in Delaware county. In 1846 the anti-rent a.s.sociations secured the election of Gov. John Young as well as several legislators favorable to their cause, and promoted the adoption of a new const.i.tution abolis.h.i.+ng feudal tenures and limiting future agricultural leases to twelve years. Under the pressure of public opinion the great landlords rapidly sold their farms.

Stephen van Rensselaer was the 8th patroon and 5th in descent from Killiaen, the first lord of the manor. He was lieutenant-governor of New York, an ardent promoter of the Erie ca.n.a.l, a major-general in the War of 1812 (during which he was defeated at the battle of Queenstown Heights) and represented New York in congress from 1822 to 1829. In 1824 he founded a school in Troy which was incorporated two years later as the Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst.i.tute.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ancient Dutch Church, Albany (1714)

(_From an old print in the N.Y. Public Library_)

This church, built of bricks brought from Holland, stood for about 92 years in the open area formed by the angle of State, Market and Court streets. It was erected in less than four weeks. The early Dutch felt that without the church they could not hope to prosper.

The old church was of Gothic style, one story high, and the gla.s.s of its antique windows was richly ornamented with coats of arms.

In 1806 the church was taken down and its brick employed in the erection of the South Dutch Church, between Hudson and Beaver streets, which in turn was later replaced by a newer structure.]

Comparatively few ancient landmarks remain in Albany, though there are some fine specimens of the Dutch and later colonial architecture still standing. Of these the best known is the Schuyler mansion,* built by Gen. Philip Schuyler, in 1760, which, after serving for many years as an orphan asylum, was recently purchased by the state and converted into a museum.

Having served in the French and Indian wars, Philip Schuyler (1733-1804) was chosen one of the four major-generals in the Continental service at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War and was placed in command of the northern department of New York with headquarters at Albany. The necessary withdrawal of the army from Crown Point in 1776 and the evacuation of Ticonderoga in 1777 were magnified by his enemies into a disgraceful retreat, and he was tried by court martial but acquitted on every charge. He was a delegate from N.Y. to the Continental Congress in 1779, and later joined his son-in-law, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and others in the movement for the ratification by New York of the Federal const.i.tution. In 1790 he was elected to the U.S. senate.

"For bravery and generosity" says John Fiske, "he was like the paladin of some mediaeval romance."

The Van Rensselaer manor-house, built in 1765, was pulled down in 1893 and reconstructed on the campus of Williams College, Williamstown, Ma.s.s., where it forms the Sigma Phi fraternity house. In the Albany Academy, built in 1813 by Philip Hooker, architect of the old State Capitol, Prof. Joseph Henry demonstrated (1831) the theory of the magnetic telegraph by ringing an electric bell at the end of a mile of wire strung around the room. Bret Harte, the writer, was born in 1839 in Albany, where his father was teacher of Greek in the Albany College, a small seminary.

Bret Harte lived in Albany until his 17th year. In 1896, lured by the gold rush, he left for California with his mother, then a widow. Once there, the rough but fascinating chaos engulfed him, and from it, at first hand, he drew the stage properties--Spaniards, Greasers, gambling houses--the humor, sin and chivalry of the '49--which color all his stories. After some little journalism and clerking, he was made secretary to the Supt. of the Mint, a position which was not too exacting to allow a great deal of leisure for writing. Later he returned to the East with his family, made his home in N.Y.C. and gave all his time to authors.h.i.+p. Apparently his success somewhat turned his head. He lived beyond his means, pa.s.sing his summers at Newport, Lenox and other expensive places, until his unbusinesslike habits and chronic indebtedness became notorious. In 1878 he accepted a consulate at Crefeld, Prussia. He spent the rest of his life abroad and died in England in 1902.

Modern buildings of interest include the City Hall,* a beautiful French Gothic building; the State Educational Building, with its valuable library; the Albany Inst.i.tute, with its art galleries; the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, built of brownstone, with spires 210 ft.

high; the Cathedral of All Saints, a fine specimen of Gothic architecture, said to be the first regularly organized Protestant Episcopal cathedral erected in the United States (1883), St. Peter's Church, and, most important, the State Capitol.*

[Ill.u.s.tration: The First Pa.s.senger Train in N.Y. State Leaving Schenectady for Albany, July 30, 1831