[Keessienwey's Hoeck,] a place so called, [FN-1] has not been located. It is presumed to have been in the vicinity of Kaniskek and to have taken its name from the noted "chief or sachem" of the Katskill Indians called Keessienwey, Keesiewey, Kesewig, Keeseway, etc. On the east side of the river, south of Stockport, Kesieway's Kil is of record. Mr. Bernard Fernow, in his translation of the Dutch text wrote, "Keessienweyshoeck (Mallows Meadow Hook)," but no meadow of that character is of local record. Kessiewey was a peace chief, or resident ruler, whose office it was to negotiate treaties of peace for his own people, or for other clans when requested, and in this capacity, with associates, announced himself at Fort Orange, in 1660, as coming, "in the name of the Esopus sachems, to ask for peace" with them. [FN-2] He was engaged in similar work in negotiating the Esopus treaty of 1664; signed the deed for Kaniskek in 1665, and disappears of record after that date. In "History of Greene County," he is confused with Aepjen, a peace chief of the Mahicans, and in some records is classed as a Mahican, which he no doubt was tribally, but not the less "a Katskil Indian." Beyond his footprints of record, nothing is known of the noted diplomat. His name is probably from Keeche, "Chief, principal, greatest." Keechewae, "He is chief." (See Schodac.)
[FN-1] ". . . We have, therefore, gathered information from the Mahicanders, who thought we knew of it, that more than fifteen days ago some Esopus [Indians] had been at Keessienwey's Hoeck who wanted to come up [to Fort Orange], but had been prevented until this time, and in order to get at the truth of the matter, we have concluded to send for two or three sachems of the Katskil Indians, especially Macsachneminanau and Safpagood, also Keesienwey, to come hither." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 309.)
[FN-2] "May 24, 1660. To-day appeared [at Fort Orange] three Mahican chiefs, namely, Eskuvius, alias Aepjen (Little Ape), Aupaumut, and Keessienway, alias Teunis, who answered that they came in the name of the Esopus sachems to ask for peace."
[Machawameck,] the south boundmark of Kaniskek, was not the name of Barrent's Island, as stated in French's Gazetteer. It was the name of a noted fishing place, now known as Black Rock, in the south part of Athens. The prefix Macha, is the equivalent of Massa (Natick Mogge), meaning "Great," and -ameck is an equivalent of -ameek (-amuk, Del.), "Fishing-place." As the root, -am, means "To take by the mouth," the place would seem to have been noted for fish of the smaller sort. The Dutch called the place Vlugt Hoek, "Flying corner," it is so entered in deed. Qr. "Flying," fishing with a hook in the form of a fly.
[Koghkehaeje,] Kachhachinge, Coghsacky, now Coxsackie, a very early place name where it is still retained, was translated by Dr. Schoolcraft from Kuxakee (Chip.), "The place of the cut banks," and by Dr. O'Callaghan, "A corruption of Algonquin Kaakaki, from Kaak, 'goose,' and -aki, 'place.'" In his translation of the Journal of Jasper Dankers and Peter Sluyter, in which the name is written Koch-ackie (German notation; Dutch, Kok, "cook"), the late Hon. Henry C. Murphy wrote: "The true orthography is probably Koek's-rackie (the Cook's Little Reach), to distinguish it from the Koek's Reach below the Highlands, near New York." Unfortunately there is no evidence that there was a reach called the Cook's north of the Highlands, while it is certain that the name is Algonquian. Dankers and Sluyter gave no description of the place in 1679-80, but their notice of it indicates that it was familiar at that date. In 1718 it was given as the name of a bound-mark of a tract described as "having on the east the land called Vlackte and Coxsackie." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 124.) Vlackte (Vlakte) is Dutch for "Plain or flat," and no doubt described the Great Nutten Hoek Flat which lies fronting Coxsackie Landing, and Coxackie described the clay bluff which skirts the river rising about one hundred feet. The bluff and flat bounded the tract on the east. From the locative the name may be translated from Mass. Koghksuhk-ohke, meaning "High land." The guttural ghks had the sound of Greek x, hence Kox or Cox.
[Stighcook,] a tract of land so called, now in Greene County, granted to Casparus Brunk and others in 1743, is located in patent as lying "to the westward of Koghsacky." In Indian deed to Edward Collins, in 1734, the description reads, "Westerly by the high woods known and called by the Indian name Sticktakook." Apparently from Mass. Mishuntugkook, "At a place of much wood." The district seems to have been famed for nut trees. It is noted on Van der Donck's map "Noten Hoeck," from which it was extended to Great Nutten Hook Island and Little Nutten Hook Island, on which there were nut trees. (See Wieskottine, Kiskatom, etc.)
[Siesk-assin,] a boundmark of the Coeymans Patent, is described as a point on the west side of the Hudson, "opposite the middle of the island called Sapanakock and by the Dutch called Barrent's Island." The suffix -assin, probably stands for Assin, "Stone," but the prefix is unintelligible. Sapanak-ock means, "Place of wild potatoes," or bulbous roots. (See Passapenoc.) Barrent's is from Barrent Coeymans, the founder of the village of Coeymans. The earlier Dutch name was Beerin Island, or "She-bear's Island," usually read Bear's Island.
[Achquetuck] is given as the name of the flat at Coeyman's Hollow. The suffix -tuck probably stands for "A tidal river or estuary," and Achque means "On this side," or before. The reference seems to have been to land before or on this side of the estuary, or the side toward the speaker.
[Oniskethau,] quoted as the name of Coeymans' Creek, is said to have been the name of a Sunk-squa, or sachem's wife. Authority not given. The stream descends in two falls at Coeymans' Village, covering seventy-five feet. The same name is met in Onisquathaw, now Niskata, of record as the name of a place in the town of New Scotland, Albany County.