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
Assawaghkemek, the name entered as that of the northeast boundmark of
the Swartwout-Coddebeck Patent, and described therein, "To a small run of
water called Assawaghkemek . . . and so along the same and the lands of
Mansjoor, the Indian," is known by settlement, to have been _at_ and
_below_ the junction of Basha's Kill and the Neversink, from which the
inference seems to be well sustained that "the lands of Mansjoor, the
Indian" were the lands or valley of Basha's Kill, which the name describes
as an enclosed or occupied place "beyond," or "on the other side" of the
small run of water. The prefix _Assaw,_ otherwise written _Accaw, Agaw,_
etc., means "Beyond," "On the other side." The termination _agh,_ or
_aug,_ indicates that the name is formed as a verb. _Kemek_ (Kamik) means
an enclosed, or occupied place, as already stated. The translation in
"History of Orange County," from _Waseleu,_ "Light, bright, foaming," is
erroneous, as is also the application of the name to Fall Brook, near the
modern village of Huguenot. In no case was the name that of a stream,
except by extension to it.
Peenpack, (Paan, Paen, Pien, Penn) is given, _traditionally,_ as the name
of a "Small knoll or rise of ground, some fifty or sixty rods long, ten
wide, and about twenty feet high above the level of" Neversink River,
"on and around which the settlers of the Maghaghkamik Patent first
located their cabins." It has been preserved for many generations as the
name of what is known as the Peen-pach Valley, the long narrow flats on
the Neversink. Apparently it is corrupt Dutch from _Paan-pacht,_ "Low,
soft land," or leased land. The same name is met in _Paan-paach,_ Troy,
N. Y., and in _Penpack,_ Somerset County, N. J. The places bearing it
were primary Dutch settlements on low lands. (See Paanpaach.) Doubtfully
a substitution for Algonquian from a root meaning, "To fall from a height"
(Abn., _Paⁿna;_ Len. _Pange_), as in Abn. _Panaⁿk'i,_ "Fall of land,"
the downward slope of a mountain, suggested by the slope of the Shawongunk
Mountain range, which here runs southwest to northeast and falls off on
the west until it meets the narrow flats spoken of. The same feature is
met at Troy.
Tehannek, traditionally the name of a small stream on the east side of
the Peenpack Knoll, probably means "Cold stream," from _Ta_ or _Te,_
"cold," and _-hannek,_ "stream." It is a mountain brook.
Sokapach, traditionally the name of a spring in Deerpark, means, "A
spring." It is an equivalent of _Sókapeék,_ "A spring or pool."
Neversink, the name quoted as that of the stream flowing to the Delaware
at Carpenter's Point, is not a river name. It is a corruption of Lenape
_Newás,_ "A promontory," and _-ink,_ locative, meaning "At the
promontory." The particular promontory referred to seems to have been
what is now known as Neversink Point, in Sullivan County, which rises
3,300 feet. The name is generic and is met in several places, notably in
Neversink, N. J. (See Maghaghkameck.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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