Schaghticoke, now so written as the name of a town in the northeast corner of Rensselaer County, and in other connections, is from _Pishgachtigok_ Mohegan, meaning "Land on the branch or division of a stream." The locative of the name was at the mouth of Hoosick River on the Hudson, in Washington County. The earliest record (1685) reads, "Land at _Schautecógue_" (-ohke). It is a generic name and appears in several forms and at several places. _Pishgachtigok_ is a form on the west side of the Housatonic at and near the mouth of Ten-Mile River. It was the site of an Indian village and the scene of labor by the Moravian missionaries. In some cases the name is written with locative, "at," etc., in others, with substantive meaning land or place, and in others without suffix. Writes Mr. Gerard, "The name would probably be correctly written _P'skaghtuk-uk,_" when with locative "at." [FN] Although first of record in 1685, its application was probably as early as 1675, when the Pennacooks of Connecticut, fleeing from the disastrous results of King Phillip's War in which they were allies, found refuge among their kindred Mahicans, and later were assigned lands at Schaghticoke by Governor Andros, where they were to serve as allies of the Mohawks. They seem to have spread widely over the district and to have left their footprints as far south as the Katskill. It is a tradition that conferences were held with them on a plain subsequently owned by Johannes Knickerbocker, some six miles east of the Hudson, and that a veritable treaty tree was planted there by Governor Andros in 1676-7, although "planting a tree" was a figurative expression. In later years the seat of the settlement seems to have been around Schaghticoke hill and point, where Mashakoes, their sachem, resided. (Annals of Albany, v, 149.) In the French and Indian war of 1756, the remnant of the tribe was carried away to Canada by the St. Francis Indians, an organization of kindred elements in the French service. At one time they are said to have numbered six hundred warriors. (See Shekomeko.) * * * * * [FN] The root of the name is _Peske_ or _Piske_ (_Paske,_ Zeisb.), meaning, primarily, "To split," "To divide forcibly or abruptly." (Trumbull.) In Abnaki, _Peskétekwa,_ a "divided tidal or broad river or estuary"--_Peskahakan_ (Rale), "branche." In the Delaware, Zeisberger wrote _Pasketiwi,_ "The division or branch of a stream." _Pascataway,_ Md., is an equivalent form. _Pasgatikook,_ Greene County, is from the Mohegan form. _Paghataghan_ and _Pachkataken,_ on the east branch of the Delaware, and _Paghatagkam_ on the Otterkill, Vt., are equivalent forms of _Peskahakan,_ Abnaki. The Hoosick is not only a principal branch, but it is divided at its mouth and at times presents the appearance of running north in the morning and south at night. (Fitch's Surv.)