pany of the Tryon county militia, in 1775. Although the lands allotted to the patentees, Apolone and Lawrence Herter, were on the south side of the river, it was not long before one or both of them, or some of their descendants, moved to the north side of the river. Some of the family were at the Great Flats at the time of the French expedition, in 1757, where one of the Herters, who was a militia officer, was taken prisoner, with his wife and family, and carried into captivity, with the other Palatine prisoners, to Canada, where they were detained about twelve months. Mrs. Herter gave birth to an infant daughter, while crossing the St. Lawrence river, in a birch-bark canoe. Humble as was the birth and state, at that time, of the captive's daughter, she was destined, in after life, to fill a large space in society, at Herkimer and elsewhere. She married Michael Myers, a short biographical sketch of whom can be found in another chapter. Mrs. Catharine Myers survived her husband many years, and it seems but as yesterday that I saw the venerable matron walking along our streets. She died September 4th, 1839, aged eighty-one years and four months. The old people now living say that when young and in the prime of life, Mrs. Myers was a lady of rare personal beauty. She was the grand-daughter of one of the patentees. The male members of this family, of the first and second generation from the patentees, have often been spoken of, as a noble looking set of men, tall, well-formed, and full of health and animation. It has been remarked that the female branches of this family, at one or two degrees farther remove from the original stock, have not lost the family pre-eminence of raising handsome children, both male and female, but particularly the latter. Whether all this has been brought about by intermarriages and crossing the blood, or is an inherent quality of this family, the biographer is not required to determine.

Mrs. Nancy Etheridge, the relict of Joab Griswold, who died September 26th, 1840, aged fifty-seven years, a lady of rare personal attractions and graceful carriage, was a daugh

ter of Mrs. Myers. I must beg the reader to note that I am not a professed connoisseur in such matters, and that, if I repeat "common fame," in this case, I am not uttering a fabulous tale.

This family has lost some of its number by emigration to other states, and to other counties in this state; it is still very numerous, and probably the most numerous of any in the county, who are descendants of the primitive Palatine stock.

Some of the family, Nicholas and Philip, emigrated to Deerfield, Oneida county, after the revolution, and settled there. Nicholas died at Deerfield, in the summer of 1855, at the venerable age of ninety-three years. He was quite familiar, personally, with the principal events of the war in the upper valley, and took much satisfaction, in his advanced years, in handling his cane, and showing how Indians and tories were killed.

THE HESS FAMILY.

The descendants of Augustines Hess, the patentee of lot number ten at Little Falls, are yet found in the county in considerable numbers. As there is but one person of that name among the patentees, he was probably a young man and unmarried. From an examination of the church records of the Rev. Mr. Rosecrants from 1763 to the close of the last century, it appears that this family were somewhat numerous at that time in the Mohawk valley.

Augustine Hess, one of the members of the Tryon county committee of safety from the Kingsland and German Flats districts, which first met on the 2d of June, 1775, was a son of the patentee, and a member of the committee some time. From this circumstance he must have held a reputable standing among his neighbors, and been considered a true friend to the country; a fact to which his descendants may refer with pride and satisfaction. I can not ascertain when the family parted with their title to the lot granted to the

THE KAST FAMILY-THE PETRIE FAMILY.

175

patentee, but it must have been so long since "that the memory of man runneth not to the contrary."

Augustines Hess, the elder, who was also one of the patentees of Staley's first and second tracts, was killed in July, 1782, by the Indians near Fort Herkimer, on the south side of the river. He was shot dead while on his way to the fort for protection with his family. He was a very aged man, and among the last survivors of the Palatines.

THE KAST FAMILY.

Johan Jurgh Kast, and his son Johan Jurgh Kast, Jr., were patentees, and each drew a small lot on the Great Flats, and seventy-acre wood lots on the uplands, in the Burnetsfield tract. In 1724, a small grant of eleven hundred acres was made to this family, or rather to the wife and children of the elder Kast, situated in Schuyler and surrounded by Cosby's manor, on which some of the descendants of the family resided many years. The elder Kast had two sons, Johan Jurgh and Lodowick. I do not find any traces of the latter; he may have died young and unmarried. Johan Jurgh, the younger, had two sons, Conrad and Frederick. Conrad was taken prisoner during the French war in 1757, and was taken to England to be exchanged, and after his return to New York he enlisted in the British army and never returned to the Mohawk valley. Some of the descendants of Frederick are still found in the county. The ancestor of this family probably came over with the second company of immigrants in 1710. At an early period in the history of the settlement of the valley, this family were wealthy and prosperous farmers, having pretty large pos

sessions.

THE PETRIE FAMILY.

The genealogy of this family can be traced with considerable accuracy to the parent stock. Johan Joost Petrie was one of the Burnetsfield patentees, and lands were allotted

to him, his wife Gertruyde, and his son Mark, or Marks. This name is found among the volunteers who went with the expedition against Montreal in 1711, under Col. Nicholson. He arrived in New York with the second company of Palatine immigrants in 1710, accompanied his countrymen to the camps on Livingston's manor, where he remained until he removed to the German Flats. He was tall and well formed; even more than "six feet high and well proportioned." From what I have heard of him, he very much resembled, in stature and appearance, the best of the ancient German He and Coenradt Rickert were the leading men of the little colony which first came to the German Flats. He early won the confidence and good will of the colonial government, and it is no doubt owing to this circumstance that he was first named in the license given by Governor Burnet to purchase the Indian title to the lands afterwards granted, and also the first named in the patent. He was selected with others to search out the "promised land." The eighty-six acre lot, then and long afterwards called the Stone Ridge, was allotted to his wife. This lot is described as wood land," lying in the middle of the great flatts." The present village of Herkimer, or the compact part of it, is mostly on this lot. Surrounded by rich alluvial flat land, subject to inundations, there was no other site for the hamlet unless resort was had to the higher lands northerly of the low lands. I think this allotment was made as a compliment to the wife and her husband. When it became known that safe building lots could only be had on this ridge, dissatisfaction was expressed by the other settlers that they were excluded, and Mr. Petrie divided the large lot into smaller parcels, and gave them to the owners of the adjoining low lands. It has been said that no written conveyances were ever made by him and his wife. I have not made any particular inquiries in regard to this fact. It is not probably one of those cases that would come within an anti-rent, roving commission, with the attorney-general at the head, to hunt up some spot to which the state could assert a paramount

title, otherwise the good people at the county seat might be called on to show their papers.

It seems very probable that Mr. Petrie was one of the principal men in the settlement called the German Flats, from the first planting of this little frontier colony, until 1757, or till his death. Up to that time he had been employed by the colonial government, and had accumulated considerable wealth.

When the French and Indians attacked and destroyed the settlements on the north side of the river, 11th November, 1757, the particulars of which are given in a former chapter, all his property, save the land, was taken and destroyed, and he with his family were carried into captivity. He was the individual named in the French account of this affair as "the mayor of the village of the Palatines ;" and in speaking of the losses sustained by the inhabitants, the writer states that "the mayor of the village alone has lost 400,000" livres.

The writer here means the livre tournois of France, equal to eighteen and a half cents in value of our currency; quite a large sum this must have been for those times. This was no doubt an exaggeration. All accounts, however, concur in stating that his private losses were very heavy. He had on hand a very large sum in silver, which was taken by the enemy. Whether this money was a part of his private fortune, or had been placed in his hands to purchase government supplies, is not certain, although family tradition speaks of it as private property. Mr. Petrie was detained some time in captivity, and while in Canada was frequently compelled by the Indians to wear a cap with tassels and small bells, and dance for their amusement; a mark of distinction shown him in consideration of the office he held when taken prisoner. He was one of the copatentees with Philip Livingston and John De Peyster of a grant of six thousand acres of land made in 1740, being six lots in a tract called Henderson's or Petrie's purchase, now in the towns of Columbia and Warren.