August 6th marks the anniversary of the 1777 Battle of Oriskany. Fought as an American relief column marched to aid the besieged Fort Stanwix, about 800 Tryon County militiamen and 60 allied Oneida warriors under Brigadier General Nicholas Herkimer were ambushed by British, Loyalist, and Indigenous forces (including Mohawk and Seneca warriors). [Read more…] about August 6th Marks 1777 Battle of Oriskany Anniversary
Fort Stanwix
George Washington’s Lands in Oneida County
America’s first President George Washington owned 316 acres of land in today’s Town of Kirkland, Oneida County, NY, in partnership with New York State’s first Governor George Clinton.
The Oneida Indian Nation lived in what is now Oneida County, even after the area’s settlement by Europeans, which started in the 1600s. The French traveled through the area in the 1500s. [Read more…] about George Washington’s Lands in Oneida County
Two Kettles Together: Sarah Martin Tyonajanegen
Tyonajanegan, who Europeans called Sarah Martin Tyonajanegen or Two Kettles Together, was a mother of four who took up arms alongside her husband as their Oneida Nation chose to support the colonists in the American Revolution.
Almost nothing is known about her early life, although at least one family historian reports that she was “taken prisoner with her sister Katy from the Shawanoes, & remained with the Mohawks.”
However, she and her husband and his family had significant roles in early New York history. [Read more…] about Two Kettles Together: Sarah Martin Tyonajanegen
Treaties Between the Six Nations and the United States
Immediately following the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783), states in the newly created United States competed for control and settlement of Indigenous lands. This included much of Western New York, which was within Indian lands designated by the 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix, which set the boundary line between the colonies and native nations.
The Treaty of Paris of 1783 did not include the allied Native nations, leaving their legacy treaties with different European parties unresolved and their future to be determined through separate treaties with the new American government. [Read more…] about Treaties Between the Six Nations and the United States
Pontiac’s Uprising: The American Indian War for Independence
In April 1763, the American Indian War for Independence (1763-1766) — also called Pontiac’s Rebellion or Pontiac’s Uprising for the Ottawa Nation leader who organized a coalition against European colonial powers — started with the siege of Fort Detroit.
In July 1764, an English colonial force that included 500 Native fighters departed from Oswego for operations against Pontiac’s forces to the west. Attacks by Native forces spread east and south as a result of continued European colonists’ trespassing and settlement on Native lands. [Read more…] about Pontiac’s Uprising: The American Indian War for Independence
Fort Rickey: On The Edge of Empires at Oneida Carry
Fort Rickey was a small palisaded fortification that was initially constructed in ca. 1759 to support the British occupation of the Oneida Carry.
This strategic location at the confluence of the Mohawk River and Wood Creek was an important British military outpost that guarded the western end of the carry to Oneida Lake. It was the northern point of the Fort Stanwix Treaty Line of 1768. [Read more…] about Fort Rickey: On The Edge of Empires at Oneida Carry
Lafayette’s Visits to the Mohawk Valley
In 1824 and 1825 Marquis de Lafayette, the French nobleman who volunteered and became an invaluable leader during the American Revolution and was then the war’s last surviving major general, toured the United States in a celebrated “Farewell Tour.”
He visited several sites in the Mohawk Valley, his third time there. [Read more…] about Lafayette’s Visits to the Mohawk Valley
The Old Mohawk Turnpike: New York’s Road West
The old Mohawk Turnpike between what are now Albany and Rome, NY, was originally an Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) trail used frequently by Mohawk and Oneida people in particular, but many others as well.
For the first two hundred years of European settlement it was the only major link between the Hudson River and the Great Lakes. It became an important national transportation connection. [Read more…] about The Old Mohawk Turnpike: New York’s Road West
Early Settlers Near Rome, NY
Johannis Rueff (later anglicized as John Roof) was born in Durlach, a district in what is now Karlsruhe, in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, on January 9, 1730. He married Annie Mira Leonardo of Heildelberg on January 13, 1759. They migrated to the American colonies and landed in Philadelphia in October 1759 and moved north to Fort Stanwix on the New York frontier.
There he traded with Indigenous People, most likely the Oneida and other Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) he encountered, and the few traders moving over the portage known as the Great Carry or Carrying Place, which connected Wood Creek with Oneida Lake, at what is now Rome, NY. [Read more…] about Early Settlers Near Rome, NY
The Shawnee-Dunmore War, 1774
After the Seven Years’ War (1754-1763, known as the French and Indian War in North America), Great Britain instituted the Proclamation Line of 1763. The Line sought to create a lasting peace in British North America by limiting British colonial settlement east of the Appalachian Mountains.
In 1768, colonists and British Indian agents negotiated the Treaties of Fort Stanwix and Hard Labour to extend the boundary line further west. In 1774, the Shawnee-Dunmore War (also known as Lord Dunmore’s War) broke out as colonists attempted to push further west. [Read more…] about The Shawnee-Dunmore War, 1774
Defending Fort Stanwix: The New York Frontier in the American Revolution
In Defending Fort Stanwix: A Story of the New York Frontier in the American Revolution (Cornell University Press, 2024), William L. Kidder tells the dramatic story of “the fort that never surrendered” and the crucial role it played in the American War for Independence.
After a series of military defeats over the winter of 1776–1777, British military leaders developed a bold plan to gain control of the Hudson River and divide New England from the rest of the colonies. [Read more…] about Defending Fort Stanwix: The New York Frontier in the American Revolution
Mohawk Valley Preparations for the American Revolution
Samuel Adams, using the pseudonym “Valerius Poplicola,” wrote to the Boston Gazette on October 5, 1772: “Let Associations & Combinations be everywhere set up to consult and recover our just Rights.”
A few weeks later he presented his plan to oppose Britain’s “Plan of Slavery” at a meeting in Boston organized for that purpose. This was the birth of the “Committees of Correspondence” or “Committees of Safety” which spread throughout the colonies in early 1773. [Read more…] about Mohawk Valley Preparations for the American Revolution
Bill the Butcher: A Nativist ‘Know Nothing’ Movement Martyr
Reconstructing the biography of a building is a way of obtaining information about the activities and beliefs of previous generations of inhabitants. The approach differs from archaeological research.
In a “building biography,” the structure is seen as the frame around which a family, group or institution is investigated in order to gain an insight into socio-economic or cultural conditions of a certain period. [Read more…] about Bill the Butcher: A Nativist ‘Know Nothing’ Movement Martyr
Albany’s Peter Gansevoort, “The Hero of Stanwix”
Peter Gansevoort Jr. was born into the Dutch aristocracy of Albany to Harman Gansevoort (1712–1801) and Magdalena Douw (1718–1796). His younger brother Leonard Gansevoort, was politically active, serving in the state assembly and senate, as well as the Continental Congress.
Gansevoort is also remembered today as the grandfather of author Herman Melville.
[Read more…] about Albany’s Peter Gansevoort, “The Hero of Stanwix”
The Battle of Oriskany, One Of The Bloodiest of the Revolution
A significant turning point in the American Revolution, the Battle of Oriskany was fought on August 6th, 1777, and is considered one of the bloodiest battles of the war. [Read more…] about The Battle of Oriskany, One Of The Bloodiest of the Revolution
The Downstate-Upstate Life of Marinus Willett
This week on The Historians Podcast, New York City correspondent Jim Kaplan discusses the life of Marinus Willett. Willett is well known to Upstate New York historians because of the work he did during the American Revolution in the Mohawk Valley. [Read more…] about The Downstate-Upstate Life of Marinus Willett
Marinus Willet, Tammany Hall & The Treaty of New York
Every year in October the Lower Manhattan Historical Society holds its Saratoga/Yorktown celebration in Trinity Churchyard to celebrate the American victories at the Battles of Saratoga and Yorktown.
At that ceremony wreaths are lain on the graves of Revolutionary War figures associated with those battles — Horatio Gates, Alexander Hamilton and Marinus Willett. [Read more…] about Marinus Willet, Tammany Hall & The Treaty of New York
Video Tour Tracks British Troops at Fort Stanwix in 1777
The Rome Historical Society (RHS) has released The British Lines, a digital tour reviewing the movement of British troops during the Siege of Fort Stanwix in 1777. [Read more…] about Video Tour Tracks British Troops at Fort Stanwix in 1777
General Peter Gansevoort’s Map
A sculpture of Brigadier General Peter Gansevoort stands in a city park named in his honor at Rome, Oneida County, NY. This bronze, dedicated November 8, 1906, was created by Emilio F. Piatti. It presents the General in dress uniform grasping his sword and holding what is perhaps one of the most impactful tools (or weapons) ever devised – an accurate map. [Read more…] about General Peter Gansevoort’s Map
Fort Bull Archaeological Survey Interim Results Presentation
The Rome Historical Society’s auditorium Archaeologists from Binghamton University’s Public Archaeology Facility (PAF) are set to present the interim results of their archaeological investigations of Fort Bull on Saturday, September 28 at 11 am.
As part of Archaeology Day at Fort Stanwix National Monument, PAF archaeologist Brian Grills, will give a 20-minute PowerPoint presentation on the ongoing archaeological research at the Society’s Fort Bull site. Following the presentation, the audience will be invited to see some of the latest archaeological finds which have been recently recovered from the battlefield. [Read more…] about Fort Bull Archaeological Survey Interim Results Presentation