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CONSTITUTION ISLAND
Written for the Historical Society of Newburgh Bay and the Highlands, at
Newburgh, in the County of Orange, New York
BY
STUYVESANT FISH
[Reprinted from the Twentieth Annual Report of the American Scenic and Hiitoric
Preservation Society]
ALBANY
J. B. LYON COMPANY, PRINTERS
1915
o
P4
O
APPENDIX C
CONSTITUTION ISLAND
Written for the Historical Society of Newburgh Bay and the Highlands, at
Newburgh, in the County of Orange, New York,
By
STUYVESANT FISH
Reprinted by permission.
tnn
Antbor
DEC 3 19lS
£ o
5; s
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CONSTITUTION ISLAND^
Written for the Historical Society of Newburgh Bay and the Highhmds, at
Xewburgh. in tlie Connty of Orange, New York.
By STUYVESANT FISH
Mj good friend, ^Ir. David Barclay, has been kind enough to
ask me to write a short article on Constitution Island, that bold,
rocky mass which the Indians called Manahan, meaning " Island."
(See plates 42 and 43.) It has been best described by Capt. E. C.
Boynton, in his History of West Point, published in 1803:
'' The Hudson River, in passing the upper Highlands, flows
south through the gorge between abrupt and lofty mountains for
a distance of nearly eight miles ; the channel then changes east
about one-fourth of a mile, and, thence changing, again pursues
its southerly direction. Projecting half way across the river, and
forming the left bank opposite West Point on the north, between
the two right angles made by the channel, is an island ; its west
and northwestern sides are formed of bold and inaccessible preci-
pices, while on the east is a large flag meadow, partially drained
by ditches recently cut through it. This island, nowhere more than
one hundred and thirty-four feet high, is probably two miles in
circumference, and half a mile in width from north to south."
In this Count}", which received its name five years before the
Prince of Orange became King of England, it may not be amiss to
say a word about the baptismal name of him whom, our fathers
for three centuries called Hendrick Hudson. As the Spaniards
gave to the Genoese, Christoforo Colombo, the name of Christobal
Colon, and the English to the Venetian Zuan Caboto, that of John
Cabot, why may not we persist in calling the Englishman who
* For the benefit of the reader unacquainted with New York State geog-
raphy, it may be stated that the Constitution Island herein referred to lies
in the bend of the Hudson River at West Point and forms a part of the
United States Military Academy Reservation. See 14th Annual Report of
the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, 1909, pp. 88-92. —
Secretary.
576 American Scenic and Historic Pkesekvation Society
commanded the first ship knowu to have exj^lored our river, as
the Hollanders under whose flag he sailed did i When the French
hecome such precisians as to call their great Emperor by his
Italian name of Buonaparte, as it may be seen spelled on coins
still in circulation among them, it will be time for us to consider
calling Hudson '' Henry."
On returning dowm the river, Hudson anchored for the night
at the south end of Xewburgh Bay, for the stated reason that
" The Highlands hath many points and a narrow channel, and
hath many eddie winds." His experience and that of other skip-
pers of Dutch vessels gave to the reach near West Point the name
of Martelaers Rack. While the literal translation of martdaer is
martyr, the name really meant the struggling or contending reach,
having reference to the difficulties which sailing vessels there
met with by reason of varying winds and currents. Dr. Timothy
Dwight, in a letter written March 10, 1778, and reprinted in his
" Travels " speaks of what we still call the Xorth Gate of the
Highlands as " The Wey-gat, or Wind-gate, because the wind
often blows through it with great violence." That name sur-
vives as the Worragat, Werrygut or Warragat. Our neighbor,
Mr. W. E. Verplanck, in his interesting book, '' Sloops of the
Hudson," derives it from the Dutch words Weer, weather and
Gat a hole or gut, while ]\[r. E. M. Iluttenber, to whose " Indian
Geographical Xames " I am indebted for so much of the fore-
going, quotes Dr. Dwight, and derives it from M'arrelgat, Wind-
gate.
Our Island naturally acquired the name of '' Martelaers Rack
Eiland," which the English corrupted into '' Martler's Rock." The
earliest use of that name seems to have been in the deeds passed
in Eebruary, 1754, between the three younger children of Judge
Frederick Philipse, for the partition of Philipse's Upper, or High-
land Patent. That Patent, issued in 1(397, specifically and by
name conveved Polopel's Island, but was silent as to our Island.
The draftsman of those deeds may have coined the tenn Martler -j
Rock, in order to include our Island as part of the mainland
granted in the Patent, and indeed it may then already have become
what it now is, a peninsula rather than an island.
TwKNTiKTir Annual Report 577
The government of the City of IvTew York, hcing in the hands
of a Committee of One Hundred, that Committee, on May 10,
17"75, applied to the Continental Congress, then sitting in Phila-
delphia, through the delegates from the Province of New York,
Philip Livingston, James Duane, John Alsop, John Jay, Simon
Eoerum, William Floyd, Henry Wisner, Philip Schuyler, George
Clinton, Lewis Morris, Francis Lewis and Robert R. Livingston,
for advice " how to conduct themselves with regard to the (British)
troops expected to arrive in Xew York City." Five days later
CongTess referred the matter to a committee consisting of George
Washington, Thomas Lynch, Samuel Adams and the delegates
from Xew York. This is the first mention of Washington in any
act or resolution of Congress. The Committee having reported,
Congress on ]\[ay 25th resolved among other things:
" That a post be also taken in the highlands on each side of
Hudson's River and batteries erected in such manner as will most
effectually prevent any vessels passing that may be sent to harrass
the inhabitants on the borders of said river, and that experienced
persons be immediately sent to examine said river in order to
discover where it will be most advisable and proper to obstruct
the navigation.''
The engineer chosen. Colonel Bernard Romans, arrived at the
Island August 9, 1775, and immediately began the erection there-
on of the first of the fortifications in the Highlands. Official
reports made therefrom in that year are dated " Fort Constitution.'^
The Province of Xew York, unlike most of the other Colonies,
never received a charter from the British Government. In this
Province the AVhigs, or as we prefer to call them '^ Patriots,"
based their contention upon their rights, as free-born Englishmen,
under the British Constitution. The "Association " sent out by
the Committee of One Hundred on April 29, 1775, and so gen-
erally signed in this Province, was in terms made for " preserving
our Constitution and opposing the execution of the several arbi-
trary Acts of the British Parliament, until reconciliation between
Great Britain and America on constitutional principles can be
obtained." The Continental Congress, in a Proclamation issued'
in December, 1775, said: " We oppose the claim and exercise of
unconstitutional powers to which neither the Crown nor Parlia-
19
578 American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society
ment were ever entitled. By the British Constitution, oiir best
inheritance, rights as well as duties descend on us."' So late as
June 18, 1776, " May the strength of the British Constitution
expel the poison of corruption," was one of the toasts dmnk at
an entertainment in New York, ^' given by our Provincial Con-
gress to his Excellency General Washington and his suite, the
General and Staff Officers, and the Commanding Officers of the
different Kegiments in and near this City."
In England also. Lord Shelbume desired to have the war in
America called a Constitutional War. There was in London a
" Constitutional Society " which, on June 7, 1775, sent Dr. Frank-
lin £100 '' to the relief of the widows, orphans and aged parents
of our beloved American fellow-subjects," who had fallen at the
battle of Lexington.
As the fort was built before the Declaration of Independence,
before the adoption in 1777 of the Constitution of the State of
ISTew York, and ten years before the United States adopted theirs,
our Island necessarily takes its name from the British Constitu-
tion. Those who built and named the fort knew no other.
Old maps show a Fort Constitution in Westchester County, on
Gallows Hill north of Peekskill, and Fort Lee on the Palisades
in 'New Jersey was at first so named.
We have seen above that the first mention of Washington in
any act or resolution of Congress was in connection with our
Island. At the end of the Kevolutionary War, after the British
had evacuated New York, and Washington had bidden farewell
to his companions in arms at Fraunces' Tavern on December 4,
1783, it was on Constitution Island that the Commander-in-Chiefs
Body Guard were mustered out of service on Deceanber 20, 1783.
So that in a certain sense we may say that Washing-ton's services
during the Revolutionary War began and ended with Constitution
Island.
Following the taking of Fort Montgomery by the British, Fort
Constitution was abandoned after firing a single ineffective volley.
The British then continued up the river unopposed until they
' received news of Burgoyne's surrender, which Schuyler's skill had
made all but certain and Arnold's impulsive valor altogether so,
whereupon they retired to New York. The Continental forces
Twentieth Annual Report 579
then reoccupied the llighlauds and in the year following West
Point was fortified and thenceforth held. The credit for " having
chosen this rock of our military salvation " has by the I^ew Eng-
land writers, as usual, been claimed for one of their popular heroes,
General Israel Putnam.
The facts, however, are that — although Romans' original plan
submitted to the JSTew York Committee, September 14, 1775, and
by them transmitted to the Continenal Congress, called for a block-
house and a battery at West Point to the north and not far from
the site of what afterward became the principal work there, now
known as Fort Clinton — his plan was at once condemned by the
l^ew York Commissioners, Bedlow, Grenell, Bayard and Lawrence,
as not sufficient; that on ]S[ovember 8, 1775, the Continental Con-
gress appointed Robert R. Livingston, Robert Treat Paine and
John Langdon, a committee on the " fortifications upon LIudson's
River," who reported that it was necessary to occupy and throw
up batteries at West Point. Captain Boynton says, " This is the
first official recommendation to occupy West Point (]^ov. 23,
1775)." On May 21, 1776, W^ashington wrote to Gen. Putnam,
then commanding in jSTew York City, that he feared the fortifica-
tions in the Highlands were in a bad situation and directed him to
send General, erroneously called Lord, Sterling and others " to
see and report such alterations as may be judged necessary.*'
Putnam sent Sterling, Col. Rufus Putnam and Captain Sargeant
on this errand and on June 1, Sterling reported to Washington that
" Every work on the Island is commanded by the hill on the West
Point on the opposite side of the river, within five hundred yards,
where there is a level piece of land of near fifty acres in extent.
A redoubt on this West Point is absolutely necessary not only for
the preservation of Fort Constitution, but for its own importance
on many accounts." Gen. Putnam assumed command in the High-
lands early in May, 1777. On the 1st of July Washington wrote
him : " It appears almost certain to me that Gen. Howe and Gen.
Burgoyne design if possible to unite their attacks and form a
junction of their two annies * * * and I am persuaded if
Gen. Howe is going up the river he will make a rapid and vigorous
push to gain the highland passes." ISTor was this Washington's
only letter on that subject.
580 American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society
Putnam did notliing at West Point. The British fleet, on
October G, 1777, found no difficulty in breaking the chain stretched
across the river at Port ]\Iontgomery. With an overwhehning land
force they then drove Governor George Clinton and his brother,
Gen. James Clinton, out of that position, where Putnam had left
them and some raw militia unsupported, because the British had
deceived him into believing that their main attack would fall on
the east bank of the river where Putnam had stationed and con-
tinued to hold the regular troops of the Continental Line.
Shortly after that disaster and on December 2, 1777, Washing-
ton ordered Putnam to employ his whole force and all the means
in his power for erecting and completing works and obstructions
necessary to defend and secure the river, writing at the same time
to Gov. Clinton. The latter recommended that a " strong fortress
should be erected at West Point opposite Fort Constitution." The
minutes of the Convention of IvFew York show that on January 8,
1778, a committee was, on the application of Gen. Putnam,
appointed to confer with him, and on the next day Gen. John
Moriu Scott, Chairman of that Committee, reported that they
had conferred with Gen. Putnam, Gen. James Clinton and other
military officers; that "there was a disagreement in sentiment
between those gentlemen (arising from certain. dilTerent facts
alleged) as to the place where such works ought to be erected,"
and recommended that Commissioners be appointed to examine the
ground " with the Generals and other officers and advise in fixing
the places where such fortifications should be erected." The Com-
missioners thus appointed, John Sloss ITobart, Robert R. Living-
ston, Zephaniah Piatt, Henry Wisner and John Hathorn, reported,
January 14, " that the most proper place to obstruct the navigation
of the river is at West Point."
While it is true that shortly thereafter, and before Putnam was
relieved from command in the Highlands in March, 1778, the work
at West Point was begun pursuant to the plan recommended by
the above named Commissioners, it nowhere appears that Putnam
had favored West Point as the place for the principal fortress,
and it does appear that Gov. George Clinton had, a month before
his brother. Gen. James Clinton, was consulted by the Commis-
Twentieth Annual Report 581
sioners, recommended a strong fortress at the Point. The most
that can be claimed for Putnam is that in November, 1777, he
had written to Washington that Gen. Schuyler and he were both
of opinion that a boom thrown over at Constituion Island with a
battery on both sides would answer better than at Fort Mont-
gomery. The real work at West Point w\as all done under Put-
nam's successors.
From 1778 on, the Island served principally to hold the farther
end of the great chain stretched across the river from West Point.
Throughout the Revolutionary War it formed part of the estate
of Mrs. Ogilvie and her children by her first husband Philip
Philipse (d. 1768). Of those children, one only, Frederick
Philipse, left issue, a daughter Mary, who married Samuel
Gouverneur.
"Constitution Island continued in possession of the Philipse
family until ITovember 3, 1836, when it was sold by Samuel
Gouverneur and wife to Henry W. Warner, Esq., a lawyer from
Long Island. Upon this island Mr. Warner made his home, com-
mencing improvements on an extensive scale, and erecting a
beautiful country seat, which he named ' Wood Crag '. Constitu-
tion Island has been famous in modern times as the residence of
the well-knowTi authoresses, Susan B. and Anna B. Warner,
daughters of its former o^vner. In 1850 appeared the celebrated
novel ' The Wide, Wide World ', and its popularity has been
exceeded by few works written in America. Over 300,000 copies
of this book were sold and 30 editions were issued in England."
(W. S. Pelletreau's History of Putnam County, 1886, p. 577.)
Miss Anna Bartlett Warner * is now living at West Point, and
it is to her liberality and that of Mrs. Russell Sage that, subject
to Miss Warner's tenancy for life, the Nation is indebted for the
gift of the Island, as part of the West Point Military Reservation.
A recent letter from Miss Warner, beside reminding me that
on April 5, 1776, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase and Charles
Carroll of Carrollton had, as a Committee of Congress, inspected
Fort Constitution, goes on to say :
" Two-thirds of the old chain lies in the depths just by my boat-
house, and at low water many of the timbers to which it was
*Mis3 Anna Bartlett Warner died at Highland Falls, near West Point,
January 22, 1915, in her eighty-seventh _year.
382 American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society
made fast can still be seen. The central valley of the island was —
is still, perhaps, — called by the country people ' Washington's
Parade ground '."
Of the links of the great chain the largest collection is at West
Point. There are several at Kingwood, 'New Jersey, the country
seat of the late Abram S. Hewitt, others at the Redwood Library
in Newport, R. I., two in the museum at Stony Point in Eockland
County, and one was given to the New York Historical Society by
my brother, the late Mr. Nicholas Fish. This last had been be-
queathed by Thurlow Weed to my father, the late Hamilton Fish,
with the statement that his father. Col. Nicholas Fish, had " aided
in stretching the chain across the Hudson River." In support of
Mr. Weed's assertion there is the fact that in the autumn of 1780
Nicholas Fish was Deputy Adjutant General at West Point. As
such it may then have fallen to him to take the chain down for
the winter or possibly to put it in place once more when spnng
came again. South of the chain there w^as placed a boom consist-
ing of massive timbers fastened together with heavy iron bands
and of which the only known portion is presented at the Hasbrouck
House, Washington's headquarters, in Newburgh.
So exact a writer as Captain Edward C. Boynton, in his " His-
tory of West Point," fell into the error of attributing the name
Martler's Rock to a " French family named Martelaire, who re-
sided upon it or in its vicinity about the year 1720," giving as his
authority William J. Blake's " History of , Putnam County."
Blake's statement is:
" From the most accurate information that we have been able
to obtain, this island was called after a Frenchman by the name
of IMartelair, and who, probably, resided on it with his family.
A family bearing that name was early settlers at Murderer's
Creek, in the town of New Windsor in Orange County, and were
murdered by the Indians about the year 1720. It may have been
the same family who previously resided on this island, or a branch
of it."
Blake gives no authority for this statement. He wrote from
Cold Spring and published in 1849, two years after Samuel W.
Eager had published at Newburgh his " History of Orange
County," and at page 206 quotes from Eager's book. Blake and
I
Twentieth Annual Report 583
Eager were close friends and members of their families inter-
married. In a paraiiTapli entitled " ^Fnrderer's Creek," Eager
says (p. GOl) :
"At the original erection of Orange County in 1G83, it was
called ]\Iurderer's or Martler's Creek. When the County was
reorganized in 1688, the name of ^Martler's was left out, and
^Murderer's alone retained, in giving the boundaries. In a patent
as early as 1694 this creek is called by its present name. Tradition
says, at an early period of the settlement of this part of the
Country, there was a bloody incident, which accounts for the
unpleasant and fearful name of this creek."
Eager then quotes at length the touching tradition of "!N"aoman,"
which had been published by Paulding with other tales in 1828,
beginning as follows :
"' Little more than a century ago the beautiful region watered
by this stretm was possessed hj a small tribe of Indians, w^hich
has long since become extinct, or incorporated with some other
savage nation of the west Three or four hundred yards from
where the stream discharges itself in the Hudson, a white family
of the name of Stacy, had established itself."
Paulding's story goes on to describe the fate of the whole Stacy
family, father, mother, and children, and their Indian friend
Xaoman, and ends thus:
" They perished — how it is needless to say — and the memory
of their fate has been preserved in the name of the pleasant
stream, on whose banks they lived and died, which, to this day, is
called ]Murderer's Creek."
Eager then adds:
" If we were disposed to question any part of the story, it would
be the part relating to the name of the white man, Stacy. This
we think is an error, and ought to have been Martelair. In the
earliest mention of the name of this creek, as before remarked,
it is called Murderer's or Martler's Creek. We know of no reason
why it should be called Martler's, unless it was that that was the
name of the white family which was murdered on this occasion ; in
which case, it was very natural to associate his name with th^
stream. We never heard, and enquiry has been made of many
persons, that the white family was named Stacy. Mr. Paulding
does not give the least intimation where he obtained the materials
584 Amkricax Scenic and Historic Preservation Society
of the tradition; if he had, we might have been better able to
judge of its truth in all its parts. As it is we question the truth
of the tradition in the particular above mentioned.
" The rock opposite West Point, on lands that belonged to Mrs.
Ogilvie and children, which was fortified in part by the Americans
in 1775, was then called ' Martelair's Rock Island '. May not this
name have had some connection with the murder ? "
That is to saj. Eager being unable in 1846-7 to find local trace
of a white family named Stacy who had been butchered by Indians
about a century prior to 1828, infers that their name must have
been Martelair, because in 1683 Murderer's Creek had also been
called Martler's Creek, and suggests that the old name of Consti-
tution Island may have had some connection with all this. He, or
his printer, also misstates the name of the Island in 1775, which,
in the correspondence he obviously refers to, is given as " Marte-
laer's Pock Island." (See Force's American Archives, Fourth
Series, III, 902 and 1274.)
Blake (p. 172) gives the name in Pevolutionary times as last
stated. But he adopts and states Eager's hypothesis as fact, fixes
the date as 1720, and evolves a Frenchman, named Martelaer, who
probably lived on our Island with his family.
Boynton in dealing with a minor adjunct to his main theme,
follows Blake blindly, and his well-deserved reputation for accur-
acy has put this erroneous derivation of the name into the records
of the Military Academy and of the War Department, from which
it will be diflicult to dislodge it.
As Miss Estabrook, the Secretary of the Historical Society of
Newburgh Bay and the Highlands, informed me some time ago, the
late Mr. E. M. Puttenber, than whom there can be no higher
authority on local names, wrote in his copy of Bo^^nton's West
Point, opposite the statement about Martelaire, '' Bosh " and
underscored the word.
^'either in the lists of " Xew York Marriages," nor in the
'*' Calendar of Wills " on file at Albany, nor in the twenty
odd volumes published by the Xew York Historical Society,
on "Muster Polls," "Abstracts of Wills," "Tax Lists" and
"Apprentices," nor elsewhere, have I been able to find prior to the
date of the Partition of Philipse's Upper Patent (1754)., a trace
of any person named Martelaij-jjrJ^^h^. without the final " e."
let ^5*9
Twentieth Annual Iveport 585
Mv nearest approach was wlien Dr. E. Hagaman Hall informed
me that the printed " Minutes of the Common Council of the City
of New York, 1675-1776," showed that one Barent Martlers had
confessed to having voted in an aldermanic election, held in 1701,
although under age and an apprentice. As Dr. Hall says, '" There
was ballot box stuffing in the early days of the City."
Our Colonial Muster Rolls, 166-1 to 1775, show that one Peter,
a labourer, born in Germany in or about 1728, enlisted more than
once, in 1758 and later years, in the levies from the counties of
Kings, Queens and Richmond. His surname is variously given
as Martelaer, Martiler, Martler and Mottleir.
In the French language, meurtre means murder, while martyr
has the same meaning as with us, and marteleur signifies " one
who works with a hammer at an anvil," their word for hammer
being inarteau. As marteleur is the equivalent of our smith, it
should have been a common name among the early Walloon and
French Huguenot settlers. Marteleur has, however, in French no
no relation to martvr, nor yet to murder.
S. F.
:N^ew York, Ap-il 30, 1914.
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