Footprints of the Red Men: Indian geographical names in the valley of Hudson's river, the valley of the Mohawk, and on the Delaware: their location and the probable meaning of some of them.Ruttenber, Edward Manning
History
Footprints of the Red Men: Indian geographical names in the valley of Hudson's river, the valley of the Mohawk, and on the Delaware: their location and the probable meaning of some of them.
Ruttenber, Edward Manning
Indians of North America -- New York (State); Names, Geographical -- New York (State); Names, Indian -- North America
Moggonck, Maggonck, Moggonick, Moggoneck, Mohonk, etc., are forms of the
name given as that of the "high hill" which forms the southwest boundmark
of the Paltz Patent, so known, now generally called locally, Paltz Point,
and widely known as Mohunk. The hill is a point of rock formation on the
Shawongunk range. It rises about 1,000 feet above the plain below and
is crowned by an apex which rises as a battlement about 400 feet above
the brow of the hill, now called Sky Top. _Moggonck_ and _Maggonck_ are
interchangeable orthographies. The former appears in the Indian deed from
_Matseyay,_ and other owners, to Louis Du Bois, and others, May 26, 1677,
and is carried forward in the patent issued to them in September of the
same year. _Moggoneck_ appears in Mr. Berthold Fernow's translation of
the Indian deed in Colonial History of N. Y., xiii, 506. _Moggonick_ was
written by Surveyor Aug. Graham on his map of survey in 1709, and
_Mohunk_ is a modern pronunciation. The boundary description of the
tract, as translated by the late Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan, from the Dutch
deed (N. Y. Land Papers, 15), reads: "Beginning at the high hill called
Moggonck, then southeast to Juffrouw's Hook in the Long Reach, on the
Great River (called in Indian Magaat Ramis), thence north to the island
called Raphoos, lying in the Kromme Elbow at the commencement of the
Long Reach, thence west to the high hill to a place [called] Warachaes
and Tawarataque, along the high hill to Moggonck." The translation in
Colonial History is substantially the same except in the forms of the
names. "Beginning from the high hill, at a place called Moggonck," is a
translation of the deed by Rev. Ame Vaneme, in "History of New Paltz."
It seems to be based on a recognition of the locative of the name as
established by Surveyor Graham in 1709, rather than on the original
manuscript. In the patent the reading is: "Beginning at the high mountain
called Moggonck," and the southwest line is described as extending from
Tawarataque "To Moggonck, formerly so called," indicating that the
patentees had not located the name as they would like to have it located;
certainly, that they had discovered that a line drawn from the apex of
the hill on a southeast course to Juffrouw's Hook, would divide a certain
fine piece of land, which they called the Groot Stuk (great piece), lying
between the hill and the Wallkill and fertilized by that stream, which
they wished to have included in the grant as a whole. So it came about
that they hurried to Governor Andros and secured an amended wording in
the patent of the deed description, and Surveyor-General Graham, when he
came upon the scene in 1709, to run the patent lines, found the locatives
"fixed," and wrote in his description, "Beginning at a certain point on
the hill called Moggonick, . . . thence south, thirty-six degrees
easterly, to a certain small creek called Moggonck, at the south end of
the great piece of land, and from thence south, fifty-five degrees
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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