[FN-1] It was at this place that the first Liberty Pole in the valley was reared, in the Spring of 1775. The sheriff of Tryon County, White, with whose subsequent history the reader is already acquainted, came up to the Flats with a large body of militia from Johnstown, and cut it down. White had been a captain in the French war.
[FN-2] The present site of the village of Herkimer, in the town of the same name, and one of the most beautiful localities in America. The name of German Flats was designed for this town, which would have been the most appropriate, as Herkimer would have been for the town on the south side of the river, now called German Flats, where the Flats are far less extensive, and where the Herkimer family resided. The mistake was made by the legislature when the towns were named. This explanation, together with the geographical description in the text, is necessary to prevent confusion in regard to the localities of Forts Dayton and Herkimer, in the record of subsequent events.
At the time of which we are writing, the settlement on the south side of the river numbered thirty-four dwelling-houses, and there were about an equal number upon the north side, together with as many barns and other out-buildings, and several mills. The population, for the number of houses, was numerous. The lands, rich by nature, and well cultivated, had that year brought forth by handfuls; so that the barns were amply stored with their products.
It was at the close of August, or early in the month of September, that this fine district was laid waste by the Indians under the direction of Brant. Most providentially, however, the invasion was attended with the loss of but two lives—one man being killed outright, and another, named McGinnis, perished in the flames. The particulars of this hostile irruption were these:—Entertaining some suspicions of Brant, who was at Unadilla, a scout of four men had been despatched into that vicinity for observation. Three of these men were killed at the Edmeston settlement. The fourth, John Helmer, succeeded in making his escape, and returned to the Flats at half an hour before sundown, just in time to announce that Brant, with a large body of Indians, was advancing, and would, in a few hours, be upon them. All was, of course, terror and alarm through the settlement; and the inhabitants—men, women, and children—were gathered into Forts Dayton and Herkimer for security. In flying to those defences, they gathered up the most valuable of their stuff, and by means of boats and canoes upon the river, succeeded, in the course of the evening, in collecting a large portion of their best articles of furniture. But they had no time to look after their flocks and herds.
Early in the evening Brant arrived at the edge of the settlement, but as the night came on excessively dark and rainy, he halted with his forces in a ravine, near the house of his Tory friend Shoemaker, where the younger Butler and his party were captured the preceding year. Here the chieftain lay with his warriors until the storm broke away toward morning—unconscious that his approach had been notified to the people by the scout in season to enable them to escape the blow of his uplifted arm. Before the dawn he was on foot, and his warriors were sweeping through the settlement; so that the torch might be almost simultaneously applied to every building it contained. Just as the day was breaking in the east, the fires were kindled, and the whole section of the valley was speedily illuminated by the flames of houses and barns, and all things else combustible. The spectacle, to the people in the forts, was one of melancholy grandeur. Every family saw the flames and smoke of its own domicile ascending to the skies, and every farmer the whole product of his labor for the season dissolving into ashes.
Having no fire-arms larger than their rifles, the Indians avoided even a demonstration against the forts, notwithstanding their chagrin that neither scalps nor prisoners were to grace their triumph. But as the light of day advanced, their warriors were seen singly, or in small groups, scouring the fields, and driving away all the horses, sheep, and black cattle that could be found. Nothing upon which they could lay their hands was left; and the settlement, which, but the day before, for ten miles had smiled in plenty and in beauty, was now houseless and destitute. [FN-1] Happily, however, of human life there was no greater sacrifice than has already been mentioned. After the Indians had decamped with their booty, a force of between three and four hundred militia-men collected, and went in pursuit—following as far as Edmeston's plantation on the Unadilla river, where the bodies of the three scouts were found and buried. But no other results attended this expedition. [FN-2] A party of the Oneida Indians was more successful. They penetrated into one of the Unadilla settlements, burnt several houses, retook some of the cattle driven from the German Flats, and brought off a number of prisoners. The results of this little expedition were communicated to Major Cochran, then in command at Fort Schuyler, on or about the 25th of September, by a deputation of about one hundred of the Oneida and Tuscarora warriors, in the following speech:—
[FN-1] The Remembrancer states that there were 63 dwelling-houses, 57 barns, 3 grist-mills, and two saw-mills burnt, with most of the furniture and grain kept therein; and 235 horses, 229 horned-cattle, 269 sheep, and 93 oxen, taken and carried away. Judge Frank informed the author that he was upon guard on the morning of the conflagration, standing upon the corner of the fort (Herkimer,) which afforded him the best view of the scene when the flames broke forth. He also saw the dusky swarms of savages rush down the hill-slopes into the meadows after the cattle, as soon as it was sufficiently light to discern objects with tolerable distinctness. The whole scene, he says, was picturesque and sublime.
[FN-2] "Captain Gilbert Tice came from Niagara a few days before Brant set out with his party to destroy the German Flats. He had 33 Indians with him, mostly Mohawks. Brant's whole party at the German Flats was 300 Tories, and 152 Indians. There were no regular troops amongst them."—MS. letter of Major Cochran to Colonel Gansevoort, Sept. 28, 1778.