[Mahaskakook,] a boundmark in the Livingston Patent, is described, in one entry, as "A copse," i. e. "A thicket of underbrush," and in another entry, "A cripple bush," i. e. "A patch of low timber growth"—Dutch, Kreupelbosch, "Underwood." Probably the Indian name has, substantially, the same moaning. Manask (Del.), "Second crop"; -ask, "Green, raw, immature"; -ak, "wood"; -ook (ûk), locative. The location has not been ascertained.
[Nachawawakkano,] given as the name of a creek described as a "creek which comes into another creek," is an equivalent of Léchau-wakhaune (Lenape), "The fork of a river," a stream that forks another stream. Aupaumut, the Stockbridge Historian, wrote, with locative suffix, Naukhuwwhnauk, "At the fork of the streams."
[Mawichnauk]—"the place where the two streams meet being called Mawichnauk"—means "The fork place," or place where the Nachawawakkano and the Tawastaweka came together, or where the streams meet or flow together. In the Bayard Patent the name is written Mawighanuck and Wawieghanuck. (See Wawighanuck.)
[Shaupook] and Skaukook are forms of the name assigned to the eastern division of a stream, "which, a little lower down," was "called Twastawekah," known later as Claverack Creek. It may be translated from Sóhk, Mass., "outlet," and ûk, locative, "At the outlet" or mouth of the stream.
[Twastawekah] and Tawastawekah, given, in the Livingston Patent, as the name of Claverack Creek, is described as a place that was below Shaukook, The root is Tawa, an "open space," and the name apparently an equivalent of Lenape Tawatawikunk, "At an open place," or an uninhabited place, a wilderness. Tauwata-wique-ak, "A place in the wilderness." (Gerard.)
[Sahkaqua,] "the south end of a small piece of land called Sahkaqua and Nakawaewick"; "to a run of water on ye east end of a certain flat or piece of land called in ye Indian tongue, Sahkahka; then south . . . one hundred and forty rods to . . . where two runs of water come together on the south side of the said flat; then west . . . to a rock or great stone on the south corner of another flat or piece of low land called by the Indians Nakaowasick." (Doc. Hist., iii, 697.) On the surveyor's map Nakaowasick, the place last named, is changed to Acawanuk. From the text, Sahkaqua described "Land or place at the outlet or mouth of a stream," from Sóhk, "outlet," and -ohke, "land" or place. The second name Nakawaewick (Nakaouaewik, Nakawasick, Acawasik) is probably from Nashauewasuck, "At (or on) a place between," i. e. between the streams spoken of.
[Minnischtanock,] in the Indian deed to Livingston, 1685, located the end of a course described as "Beginning on the northwest side of Roelof Jansen's Kill," and in the patent, "Beginning on the other side of the creek that runs along the flat or plain land over against Minnisichtanock, and from thence along a small hill to a valley," etc. The name has been interpreted "Huckleberry-hill place," from Min, "Small fruit or grain of any kind"; -achtenne, "hill"; -ûk, locative.
[Kackkawanick,] written also Kachtawagick, Kachkawyick, and Kachtawayick, is described in the deed, as "A high place to the westward of a high mountain." Location has not been ascertained. From the map it seems to have been a long, narrow piece of land between the hills.
[Quissichkook,] Quassighkook, etc., one of the two places reserved by the Indians "to plant upon" when they sold Tachkanik, is described in the deed as a place "lying upon this (i. e. the west) side of Roelof Jansen's Kill" and "near Tachanik," the course running "thence along a small hill to a valley that leads to a small creek called by the Indians Quissichkook, and over the creek to a high place to the westward of a high mountain called by the natives Kachtawagick." In a petition by Philip Schuyler, 1686, the description reads: "Quassichkook, . . . lying on the east side of Roelof Jansen's Kill," and the place as a tract of woodland. The name was probably that of a wooded bluff on the east side of the creek. It seems to be from Kussuhkoc (Moh.), "high," and -ook, locative—"At, to or on a high place"—from which the stream and the plantation was located. (See Quassaick.)
[Pattkoke,] a place so called, also written Pot-koke, gave name to a large tract of land patented to Johannes Van Rensselaer in 1649. In general terms the tract was described as lying "South of Kinder-hook, [FN-1] east of Claverack, [FN-2] and west of Taghkanick" (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 617), and also as "Lying to the east of Major Abraham's patent of Claverack." [FN-3] Specifically, in a caveat filed by John Van Rensselaer, in 1761, "From the mouth of Major Staats, or Kinderhook Kill, south along the river to a point opposite the south end of Vastrix Island, thence easterly twenty-four English miles," etc. (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 307. See also, Wachanekasaik.) It was an immense tract, covering about eight miles on the Hudson by twenty-four miles deep, and became known as "The Lower Manor of Rensselaerswyck," but locally as Claverack, from its frontage on the river-reach so called. The name was that of a particular place which was well known from which it was extended to the tract. In "History of Columbia County" this particular place is claimed to have been the site of an Indian village situate "about three (Dutch, or nine English) miles inland from Claverack." (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv, 84.) The record does not give the name, nor does it say "village," but place. The local story is, therefore, largely conjectural. The orthographies of the name are imperfect. Presumably, they may be read from Mass. Pautuckoke, meaning "Land or country around the falls of a stream," and the reference to some one of the several falls on Claverack Creek, or on Eastern Creek, its principal tributary. Both streams were included in the patent, and both are marked by falls and rifts, but on the latter there are several "cataracts and falls of great height and surpassing beauty." "Nothing but a greater volume of water is required to distinguish them as being among the grandest in the world," adds the local historian. The special reference by the writer was to the falls at the manufacturing village known as Philmont, nine miles east of the Hudson, corresponding with the record of the "place" where the Indians assembled in 1663-4. Pautuck is met in many forms. It means, "The falls of a stream." With the suffix, -oke (Mass. -auke), "Land, ground, place, unlimited"—"the country around the falls," or the falls country. (See Potick.)