Wilson tavern keeper tribes hill mohawk valley

Roaming through the stately shades of the Mohawk valley, he wrote the name of Jesus on the bark of the trees, engraved the cross, and entered into possession of those countries in the name of God, often lifting up his voice in solitary chant.' 'This living martyr,' says Parkman, 'half clad in shaggy furs, kneeling on the snow among the icicled rocks, and beneath the gloomy pines, bowing in adoration before the emblem of the faith in which was his only consolation and his only hope, is alike a theme for the pen and a subject for the pencil.' Unterrified by the fate of Jogues, three other Jesuit missionaries, one of whom was Father Fremin, came to Caughnawaga in 1667, and the noted De Lamberville in 1675. 'On a hill apart,' wrote Bancroft, 'he carved a long cross on a tree, and there, in the solitude, he meditated on the imitation of Christ. It was here that the Jesuit Jogues* was held captive and suffered such tortures in 1642, and here that he met martyrdom in 1646. The Indian name is interpreted 'Stone-in-the-water.' It stood on the fair-ground of Montgomery County Agricultrual Society on the eastern edge of the village of Fonda. The earliest dwellers, of whom there is any record, on the soil of this town were the clan of Mohawk Indians inhabiting a village called by them Cahaniaga, or Gandaogue by their successors, the Dutch, Kaghnewage, and later Caughnawaga. The reader hardly need be cautioned against confounding it with the original town of Mohawk, which was on. Mohawk was formed from the southern part of Johnstown, April 4, 1837. Such events in the history of Mohawk as were connected with general movements through the county have already been narrated, leaving to be given herein the minor occurences and stiking individual experiences with which the annals of the town abound. This neighborhood was early settled, and all over the present town live the descendants of the pioneers, among whom are represented probably a greater number of families prominent in the Revolution than in any other town of the county.

Armies have repeatedly marched over its territory, marking their course with blood and conflagration. The small town of Mohawk has perhaps been the scene of more events worthy of historic record than any other in the county. The passages below were transcribed by volunteerThomas MacEntee from the classic 'The History of Montgomery County and Fulton Counties, N.Y.' by F.W. History of Town of Mohawk NY, Part 1 HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MOHAWK

Wilson tavern keeper tribes hill mohawk valley