Land deed The Fort Hunter land, approximately 80 acres on both sides of the mouth of the Schoharie, was deeded in 1697 to
Jan Peterse Mabee. He had an advantage because his wife, Anna Borsboom, apparently of mixed race, was "something related to the Indian castle". The deed was signed by Sachem Rode of the Wolf Clan. In order to build the fort, there was a land swap, with the Mabee family receiving land further south on Schoharie Creek. Copies of the deed are held both in the Albany State Archives and at the shrine of Saint
Kateri Tekakwitha in nearby
Auriesville, New York.
Palatine settlement The future site of Fort Hunter was on
Schoharie Creek, near the easternmost of the two primary
Mohawk settlements of the time. It was in part for defense of the nearby Mohawk village against the French and their Indian allies. The Mohawk name for their village was rendered variously in English as
Tionondoroge,
Teantontalago,
Thienderego,
Tionondorage, and
Tiononderoga. The European colonists also called it the Lower Mohawk Castle, referring to its relative position near the Mohawk River, which flows east.
Canajoharie, the other primary Mohawk village, was known as the
Upper Mohawk Castle and was located further west upriver, also on the south side of the river. By the
Dongan Charter, the city of
Albany acquired the right to own at the Lower Mohawk Castle.
Hendrick Tejonihokarawa of the Wolf
Clan, a Mohawk
sachem also known by the English as Hendrick Peters, was one of the "
Four Mohawk Kings" who went to London in 1710 to meet with
Queen Anne. The chiefs asked her for Anglican
missionaries to help offset French Catholic influence in the
Iroquois Confederacy, as well as for defenses against French soldiers. In 1711, the Crown authorized the construction of Fort Hunter near Tionondorage for such defense. The fort contained a
chapel and mission house.
Queen Anne donated a set of
communion silver and sent two missionaries to the colony. In return, she asked Tejonihokarawa for help in settling Palatine Germans, Protestant refugees then working at English camps in the
Hudson Valley in present-day Dutchess County. They had left the Palatine because of French invasions related to religious wars. Through Governor Hunter, the sachem made some Mohawk land available to settlers near Schoharie Creek, where some of the Palatines eventually settled.
Fort Hunter Fort Hunter was constructed by English colonists in 1712. In 1723, some 100 heads of German households were granted land in what was known as the Burnetsfield Patent, west of the rapids at
Little Falls. They were a buffer between the French and Iroquois, and the English settlements. A log cabin was erected for use as a chapel, and at one time there were 30 houses for Mohawk within the fort. The log structure was replaced with a stone church in 1741 and a parsonage was later built outside the fort; it still stands. The fort was used by area residents for defense in the
French and Indian War, and during the
American Revolution.
Erie Canal In 1820, the fort and church were taken down to make way for construction of the
Erie Canal, which dramatically increased trade and traffic through the valley. == Today ==