Nobletown Or Hillsdale - "Seventeen Miles To A Miserable Village"

By

The German column of the Convention Army marched seventeen miles on October 24, 1777, then stopped for the night near "... a miserable village."  It would be their last night in New York (in 1777 at least), or perhaps their first night in Massachusetts.  Their march "on hilly and stony roads" had taken them well into the Taconic Mountains, and to "... Nobletown, a village undeserving of its beautiful name." [1]  Their stay was not pleasant, as: "... we had to sleep in the open air for want of houses; we got so covered with frost during the night that we looked like great sugar dolls." [2]  

The 1797 Hillsdale House in the center of what was Nobletown in 1777
The Germans were not the first or the last Revolutionary War travelers to stop in the village.  Impressions were mixed.  

Several months earlier Lieutenant Samuel Armstrong of the 8th Massachusetts Regiment of the Continental Line had passed through.  On July 21st he noted that he: "... march'd 8 miles to Kenyon's Tavern in Noble Town and Eat dinner of baked Pigg  Walked about 2 Mile and was Catch'd in the Rain, keept on a Mile further and put up at Capt. McKenster's Tavern [w]here we tarried all night."  [3]  Neither tavern operates today, but the Hillsdale House welcomes guests to its 1797 home in the center of town (seen here, but unfortunately not experienced, as it was only open for dinner on the day I passed through the town).

Four days after the German column spent the night, Brigadier-General William Whipple, who was escorting Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne to captivity in Cambridge, Massachusetts, passed through and was not impressed.  While Burgoyne likely spent the night of October 28th somewhere in Nobletown, Whipple continued on, explaining in his journal: "set out from Kendar Hook in the morning arrived at Noble Town about 12 which is 18 miles rained Exceeding hard the whole way but the accommodations being very bad I left the company at 3 o'clock and rode to Barrington". [4]

"Nobletown" doesn't appear on any modern maps of the area.  According to The Historians of Hillsdale, up until 1783 there was a dispute as to whether the town was in New York or Massachusetts.  Today, it is the village of Hillsdale, New York.   

The cemetery of the Krum Church along the roadside in Hillsdale New York
Nobletown may be where the German column received its "apostolic blessing", rather than at either the Reformed Dutch Church in Claverack, or Saint Peter's in Spencertown.  That pastor, one wrote, had been a stocking weaver before he became a minister, something that "...happens in America, I am sorry to say, almost only in the Evangelical Church". [5]  Today, as seen in this photo, the church is gone and only its cemetery remains, just north of the intersection of Harlemville and Wolf Hill Road in Hillsdale.  

In 1777 what was known as "The Reformed Unity Lutheran Church", and is now referred to as the "Krum Church", was was used simultaneously by two congregations.  The Reverend Johannes Schuneman dedicated the building as a Reformed Dutch Church on July 2, 1776.  The Reverend Johan Friederich Reiss dedicated the building as a Lutheran church on July 5, 1776. 

Whether either man was a stocking weaver is yet to be determined. [6]  

[1] Specht Journal, p. 106.
[2] Letters From America, p. 121.
[3] Armstrong, p. 240.
[4] Whipple Journal Transcript, p. 7, available online from the Portsmouth Athenaeum.  Whipple noted that on the 29th "the company", as he referred to his travel companions, arrived in Great Barrington around noon.
[5] Letters From America, p. 120.
[6] Little seems to be known about Reiss (alternately spelled as "Reis" and "Ries").  Schuneman was ordained in the Netherlands, in Amsterdam, in 1753, at age 41.  Weis, Frederick Lewis, "Colonial Clergy Of The Middle Colonies", American Antiquarian Society Proceedings, Worcester, MA, 1956, pp. 298 and 311.



For more on the Convention Army's 1777 march from Saratoga to Boston, see:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

George Washington and Saratoga - "A Matter Of Such Magnitude"

By
Image
February 22, 2023, marks the 291st anniversary of the birth of George Washington, pictured here in a  Library of Congress  print published in Germany in 1777 or 1778.  For more than two centuries Washington's birth has been widely noted, and was a federally recognized holiday from 1885 to 1971.  For the last five decades an all encompassing "Presidents' Day" has supplanted not only a holiday observance on the date of Washington's birth, but the February 12th celebration of the birthday of another truly great American President, Abraham Lincoln. In the fall of 1777 Washington hands were full as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.  While Major-General Horatio Gates defended the upper Hudson River Valley, Washington was responding to British General Sir William Howe's expedition moving not north to support Burgoyne, but south by ship into the Chesapeake Bay and then north by land to Philadelphia.  On September 11th British forces maneuvered to fla...
Read more

The Battle Of Hubbardton - "No Visible Advantage"

By
Image
On July 6, 1777, British and German forces under the command of Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne occupied the American fortifications at Fort Ticonderoga and Mount Independence  and took control of Lake Champlain.  Outnumbered, American troops retired south to Skenesboro, some by boat, others by land southeast on military roads to Castleton, Vermont.  Burgoyne responded by focusing his attention on those fleeing by boat, and left the pursuit of those who traveled by land to the commander of his Advance Corps, Brigadier-General Simon Fraser, "Knowing how safely I could trust to that officers conduct."   [1] British Lieutenant James Hadden of the Royal Artillery noted in his Journal :  "July 6th At daybreak this Morning the retreat of the Enemy was discover'd, and B. Gen'l Frazer, with about 8 or 900 of his own Corps (leaving the rest with the Tents Batteaux's &c &c) pursued them towards Huberton, leaving his Artillery which the Road was not capable o...
Read more

Burgoyne’s Camp Kettle - “Captured October 17, 1777, In The Battle Of Saratoga[?]”

By
Image
A number of museums have displayed items said to be associated with British Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne.  They offer visitors a physical connection to the Saratoga campaign, and serve as a reminder of the American victory in October of 1777, which changed the course of the Revolutionary War.  One of these objects is a kettle described as “Burgoyne’s Camp Kettle” which, up until recently, was on display at the Bennington Battle Monument in Bennington, Vermont. My introduction to Burgoyne’s Camp Kettle came by way of a postcard, as pictured here.  In addition to the painted description on the kettle itself which identified this as “Gen. Burgoyne’s Camp-Kettle”, the back of the postcard indicated that this was “Gen. Burgoyne’s Camp Kettle captured October 17, 1777, in the battle of Saratoga, where Gen. Burgoyne surrendered” .  A caption on the front of the postcard indicated that the picture was taken at the Bennington Battle Monument, a Vermont State Historic Sit...
Read more