[FN] "I think your reading of Muchattoos as an orthography of original Matchatchu's, is very plausible. I think Massachusetts is the same word, plus a locative suffix and English sign of the plural. It was formerly spelled in many ways: Mattachusetts, Massutchet, Matetusses, etc. Dr. Trumbull read it as standing for Mass-adchu-set, 'At the big hills'; but I learn from history that Massachusetts was originally the name of a hillock situated in the midst of a salt marsh. It was a locality selected by the sachem of his tribe as one of his places of residence. He stood in fear of his enemies, the Penobscotts, and this hillock, from its situation was a 'bad,' or difficult place to reach. So Massachsat for Matsadchuset or Mat-adchu-set plainly means, 'On the bad hillock.'" (Wm. R. Gerard.)
[Cronomer's Hill] and Cronomer's Valley, about three miles west of the city of Newburgh, take their names from a traditionary Indian called Cronomer, the location of whose wigwam is said to be still known as "The hut lot." The name is probably a corruption of the original, which may have been Dutch Jeronimo.
[Murderer's Creek,] so called in English records for many years, and by the Dutch "den Moordenaars' Kil," is entered on map of 1666, "R. Tans Kamer," or River of the Dance Chamber, and the point immediately south of its mouth, "de Bedrieghlyke Hoek" (Dutch, Bedrieglijk), meaning "a deceitful, fraudulent hook," or corner, cape, or angle. Presumably the Dutch navigator was deceived by the pleasant appearance of the bay, sailed into it and found his vessel in the mouth of the Warrelgat. Tradition affirms in explanation of the Dutch Moordenaars that an early company of traders entered their vessel in the mouth of the stream; that they were enticed on shore at Sloop Hill and there murdered. Paulding, in his beautiful story, "Naoman," related the massacre of a pioneer family at the same place. The event, however, which probably gave the name to the stream occurred in August, 1643, when boats passing down the river from Fort Orange, laden with furs, were attacked by the Indians "above the Highlands" and "nine Christians, including two women were murdered, and one woman and two children carried away prisoners," (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv, 12), the narrative locating the occurrence by the name "den Moordenaars' Kil," i. e. the kill from which the attacking party issued forth or on which the murderers resided. The first appearance of the name in English records is in a deed to Governor Dongan, in 1685, in which the lands purchased by him included "the lands of the Murderers' Creek Indians," the stream being then well known by the name. The present name, Moodna, was converted to that form, by N. P. Willis from the Dutch "Moordenaar," by dropping letters, an inexcusable emasculation from a historic standpoint, but made poetical by his interpretation, "Meeting of the waters."
[Schunnemunk,] now so written, the name of a detached hill in the town of Cornwall, Orange County, appears of record in that connection, first, in the Wilson and Aske Patent of 1709, in which the tract granted is described as lying "Between the hills at Scoonemoke." Skoonnemoghky, Skonanaky, Schunnemock, Schonmack Clove, Schunnemock Hill, are other forms. In 1750 Schunnamunk appears, and in 1774, on Sauthier's map (1776) Schunnamank is applied to the range of hills which have been described as "The High Hills to the west of the Highlands." 'In a legal brief in the controversy to determine finally the northwest line of the Evans Patent, the name is written Skonanake, and the claim made that it was the hill named Skoonnemoghky in the deed from the Indians to Governor Dongan, in 1685, and therein given as the southeast boundmark of the lands of "The Murderer's Creek Indians," and, later, the hill along which the northwest line of the Evans Patent ran, which it certainly was not, although the name is probably from the same generic. (See Schoonnenoghky.) The hill forms the west shoulder of Woodbury Valley. It is a somewhat remarkable elevation in geological formation and bears on its summit many glacial scratches. On its north spur stood the castle of Maringoman, one of the grantors of the deed to Governor Dongan, and who later removed to the north side of the Otter Kill where his wigwam became a boundmark in two patents. [FN] The traditionary word "castle," in early days of Indian history, was employed as the equivalent of town, whether palisaded or not. In this case we may read the name, "Maringoman's Town," which may or may not have been palisaded. It seems to have been the seat of the "Murderer's Creek Indians." The burial ground of the clan is marked on a map of the Wilson and Aske Patent, and has been located by Surveyor Fred J. McKnight (1898) on the north side of the Cornwall and Monroe line and very near the present road past the Houghton farm, near which the castle stood. The later "cabin" of the early sachem is plainly located.
[FN] Van Dam Patent (1709) and Mompesson Patent (1709-12). The late Hon. George W. Tuthill wrote me in 1858: "On the northwestern bank of Murderers' Creek, about half a mile below Washingtonville, stands the dwelling-house of Henry Page (a colored man), said to be the site of Maringoman's wigman, referred to in the Van Dam Patent of 1709. The southwesterly corner of that patent is in a southwesterly direction from said Page's house."
In the controversy in regard to the northwest line of the Evans Patent, one of the counsel said: "It is also remarkable that the Murderers' Creek extends to the hill Skonanaky, and that the Indian, Maringoman, who sold the lands, did live on the south side of Murderers' Creek, opposite the house where John McLean now (1756) dwells, near the said hill, and also lived on the north bank of Murderers' Creek, where Colonel Mathews lives. The first station of his boundaries is a stone set in the ground at Maringoman's castle."
[Winegtekonck,] 1709—Wenighkonck, 1726; Wienackonck, 1739—is quoted as the name of what is now known as Woodcock Mountain, in the town of Blooming-Grove, It is not so connected, however, in the record of 1709, which reads: "A certain tract of land by the Indians called Wineghtek-onck and parts adjacent, lying on both sides of Murderers' Kill" (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 91), in which connection it seems to be another form of Mahican Wanun-ketukok, "At the winding of the river"—"A bend-of-the-river-place." Presumably the reference is to a place where the stream bends in the vicinity of the hill. The name appears in an abstract of an Indian deed to Sir Henry Ashurst, in 1709, for a tract of land of about sixteen square miles. The purchase was not patented, the place being included in the Governor Dongan purchase of 1685, and in the Evans Patent.
[Sugar Loaf,] the name of a conical hill in the town of Chester, Orange County, is not an Indian name of course, but it enters into an enumeration of Indian places, as in its vicinity were found by Charles Clinton, in his survey of the Cheesec-ock Patent in 1738, the unmistakable evidences of the site of an Indian village, then probably not long abandoned, and Mr. Eager (Hist. Orange Co.) quoted evidences showing that on a farm then (1846) owned by Jonathan Archer, was an Indian burying ground, the marks of which were still distinct prior to the Revolution.