Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 244, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 October 1910 — WHERE HISTORY-MAKING BATTLE WAS FOUGHT [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WHERE HISTORY-MAKING BATTLE WAS FOUGHT

SISTORIC associations cling about many places along the lower part of the Walloomsac valley Tn the region of Walloomsac and North Hoosick (the St. Croix of Revolutionary and despite the lapse of time many evt—v-- dences still remain to recall the battle fought there 133 years ago—a battle which has been described as fought by New Hampshire militia upon New York soil and named for Vermont—the battle of Bennington. True, the site of the old St. Croix bridge, destroyed by the retreating militiamen to check the advance of

Col. Frederick Baum and his detachment of British, Hessians and Indian allies, is now occupied by a modern iron structure, but just bilow it still stand the substantial foundation walls of the old mill, which housed part of the flour and stores the invaders came to seize, together with the old wooden flume and the wreckage of the mill dam; while on the highway just above them is the old story-and-a-half frame house occupied temporarily as headquarters by the enemy’s officers. It is nearly opposite the confluence of White Creek and the Walloomsac river, while a little farther up the valley, near the point now designated as “Battlefield Park,” is the hill upon which the invaders set the cannon which were subsequently captured by Gen. John Stark and his men. Scattered about elsewhere are the remains of redoubts and many other places which history or legend associates with the brief but decisive contest of August 16, 1777, which gave the first check to the invasion that ended in the battle of Saratoga. The well-preserved old Revolutionary house and the lands about it, located about a half-mile from the village of North Hoosick, on the road to Cambridge, are within the conveyance of 12,000 acres known as the Walloomsac Patent, dated June 15, 1739, in the thirteenth year of George ll.'s reign. In this patent “all trees of the diameter of 24 inches and upwards at 12 inches from the ground were esmepted” for masts for our Royal Navy, and also all such other trees as “may be fit to make planks, knees and other things necessary for the use of our said navy only.” The yearly rent of two shillings and sixpence for each hundred acres of the granted lands was to be paid at the

custom house in the city of New York on Lady Day, the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. While the residence has been somewhat modernized by the building of a veranda and other minor changes, the structure retains many reminders of the perilous times.. The hand-hewn timbers are visible, and there is preserved the strong door which opened into the south end N of the house, against the casing of which a British officer stood when a Yankee from the hill on the south bank of White Creek picked him off with his gun. The door is in a good start of preservation, and on it is the massive old lock which in early days would have proven an obstruction to a person seeking to unlawfully enter the building, but to the modern house breaker it would be as a toy. The lock is ten inches long by five and a half inches wide and one and a half inches thick. The original brass key, six inches in length, is still in position to shoot the bolt. In the days "which tried men’s souls” the building was used as a postoffice, and an inn, before it became the headquarters for the British officers under Colonel Baum. In those days each inn and tavern keeper was required to enter into recognizance to the people of the state of New York in the sum of £SO, not to keep a disorderly house or suffer any. cock-fighting, gaming or playing with cards or dice, or keep any billiard table or other gaming table or shuffleboard within it. In regard to the selling of strong liquors, exceptions were made for the sale of metheglin, currant wine, cherry wine and cider made by the inn-keepers. At each tavern at least two spare beds, with good and sufficient sheeting and covering, were

to be kept for guests, in accordance with the demands of the law. “Good and sufficient” stabling and provender had to be provided for four horses or cattle, and hay and pasturage in summer. No liquors were allowed to be sold to apprentices, servants and slaves. No innkeeper could collect a debt larger than ten shillings for liquors sold to travelers. In October, 1896, the old St. Croix (San Coik) grist mill, then owned by John G. Burke, was burned. On one of the timbers of the structure was to be seen the inscription: “A. D. 1776,” the suposed date of the erection of the building. It was in this mill, on the head of a barrel of flour, where this letter was written to General Burgoyne: “Sancoik, 14th August, 1777, 9 o’clock. Sir: I have the honor to inform your excellency that I arrived here at 8 o'clock in the morning, having had intelligence of a party of the enemy being in possession of a mill, which they abandoned at our approach, but, in their usual way, fired from the bushes and took their road to Bennington. A savage was slightly wounded; they broke down the bridge, which has retarded our march over an hour; they left in the mill about 78 barrels of very fine flour, 1,000 bushels of wheat, 20 barrels of salt, and about £ 1,0.00 worth of pearlash and potash. I have ordered 30 provincials and an officer to guard the provisions and the pass of the* bridge. By five prisoners taken here, they agree that from 1,500 to 1,800 are at Bennington, but are supposed to leave it on our approach. I will proceed so far today as to fall on the enemy early tomorrow, and make such dispositions as I may think necessary from the intelligence I may receive. People are flocking in hourly, but want to be armed. The savages cannot be controlled, and they ruin and take everything they please. I am your excel- 1 lency’s most humble servant, “F. BAUM. “P. S. —Beg Your Excellency to pardon the hurry of this letter, as it is written upon the head of a barrel.” The new steel bridge, known as the Dublin bridge, which spans White Creek near the old dam, was erected in October, 1903, to replace an old, covered, wooden structure.