CHAPTER IV.
WAR STORIES AT HOME.
Pages 27-35
There seemed to be peace and security in the gambrel-roofed parsonage in the country, yet even here there was reason for caution. No silver or pewter were used on the parsonage table after nightfall for fear of both Indians and Tories looking in through the windows and discovering it. The latter felt such a deep hatred for their Whig neighbors, that some of them hesitated at no crime upon opportunity. It became a custom of the times to build triangular passage ways in the houses, with three doors, one on either side, allowing of hiding and escape in different directions. Silver was thrown hastily under heaps of rags upon the unexpected visits of Tories, and in some cases the rags were pierced by bayonets without the silver being discovered.
There was alternate gloom and rejoicing in the country all about, which could not but be deeply felt by [page 27] both the pastor and his wife. In New York and Philadelphia they had left friends whose welfare in these turbulent times was an anxiety to them. Philip Livingston the brother of their neighbor of the near-by Livingston Manor, had been one of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. Lewis Morris, the brother of Richard Morris, a member of the Claverack congregation, was another Signer. Every set-back of the war put these brave men's lives in jeopardy. The Dominie and his wife had left the Signers in Philadelphia and New York only to find them again, or their families, in this fair country place.
The Committee of Safety established and maintained a night-watch during the most troublesome times, consisting of twelve men each night, serving two by two for two hours and a half. Companies of Claverack men were engaged in the war, and many fears were entertained that the British might sail up the Hudson, and find even this retired settlement. [Picture of the Court Marital House]
In 1777 this fear seemed about to be realized when General Vaughan landed at Clermont, and fired the residence of Chancellor Livingston and the Manor House occupied by his mother, in revenge for the [page 29] prominent part The Chancellor had taken in the Revolution. The burning of Kingston had fallen heavily on the hearts of the little family at the parsonage, who remembered with gratitude the kindness they had received while tarrying there for a time without home or near friends. It also seemed to them that the destruction of war followed hard after them. The Livingstons of Clermont were in close touch with the Van Rensselaers of Claverack. Colonel Johannes Van Rensselaer the Patroon of the Lower Van Rensselaer Manor had married Angelica Livingston, a cousin of Robert Livingston 2nd, the first proprietor of the Lower Manor of Clermont, and many of the members of the Claverack congregation were Palatines from the neighboring Livingston Manor.
Like the weaving of a shuttle the news was carried from farm house to farm house, and from Manor to Manor along the Hudson. When it was known that every vessel in the river was burned or otherwise destroyed, that small parties landing from the British ships had desolated neighborhoods with fire and sword, and that a Clermont the family had hastily buried silver and other articles of value [page 30] in the woods, placed books in a dry fountain and covered them with rubbish, piled carts high with articles necessary for immediate use, as well as preservation, and had seen the smoke already rising from their homes before they had ridden out of sight, the consternation of the countryside knew no bounds. Not even the Committee of Safety seemed sufficient under these circumstances to protect homes and property.
But had on the track of the evil tidings came the news of General Burgoyne's surrender to General Gates at Saratoga, and the hasty retreat of Vaughan's forces; and trickling like a silver stream through a turbid current of misfortune, came a bit of gossip more pleasing to Claverack maidens than war and rumors of war. It seemed that Margaret Livingston, second daughter of Judge Robert R. Livingston of Clermont, afterward Mrs. Tillotson, had been knitting a long stocking for an old servant. There had been a wager connected with it that she should finish it in one day, and she had kept on with with her work till near midnight, with a laughing perseverance determined to complete it and win the wager. She was nearing the end, when black Scipio rushed in with the joyful news [page 31] of Burgoyne's surrender. In a transport of joy, she patriotic young lady threw down the stocking, and the wager was lost.
There was great rejoicing in Claverack also, and from this time on the war interest settled in more distant parts of the country. There is a tradition that Washington once encamped with a division of his army at Claverack on his march northward, but the story has never been proven.
The Tories continued to be troublesome neighbors. Captain Casperus Conyn, who held a commission in the Continental army, had leave to visit his family one night. The fact became known, and they awoke about midnight to find the house surrounded. Every window had a sentinel. The robbers, or Tories, carried away everything available, and destroyed what they could not move. They emptied cream pots upon the floor and feathers from the beds and mixed them together, and helped themselves to all they could find in the way of jewelry and money.
At last they took Captain Conyn and with a cord from a drum hung him to a beam, but in jerking the chair from under him the cord broke, and his life was [page 32] saved. The family were all locked in the cellar after that, where they were guarded till near morning, when hearing a horse passing, the Captain broke open a door, and ran out to find a neighbor near. At breakfast the following morning Captain Conyn gathered his family around him, and offered thanks to God that their barns were still full, but it was not long after this that they were also burned by the Tories.
In the light of such experiences, and others already past, it would seem that the young pastor of the church showed both courage and daring, in taking from the pulpit once more a public stand for the Colonies against Great Britain. It is said that on this occasion one half of the men of the congregation arose and left the church.
Captain Conyn's experience had not been the only one in the neighborhood which had incensed the patriots. The Tories through this section of the Hudson river were collecting themselves together in 1777 to join Burgoyne's army. One division was composed of men who lived in the neighborhood of John Van Ness, between the villages of Malden Bridge and Chatham. A party from the Kline Kill neighborhood discovered [page 33] that Abraham Van Ness, the old man's son, was home on a furlough, and watched their opportunity to make him their prisoner. The Tories at this time considered the patriots as rebels and outlaws, and organized bands to rob and arrest any active Revolutionist. Whole neighborhoods of patriots united to work each other's fields, leaving a small guard at the house. It was at a time like this that Abraham Van Ness was overpowered and captured. The Tories at first suggested that he be taken with them to Burgoyne's army, but eventually he was shot. In both the attempted murder of Captain Conyn, and the accomplished fact with Abraham Van Ness, the perpetrators were discovered and treated to summary vengeance at the hands of the outraged Whigs.
"Proclaim Liberty throughout the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof," as the inscription on the old bell in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and when the boy who waited for the last name to be signed to the Declaration of Independence, ran into the street and called out "Ring, Ring," to the old bell ringer, the bell rang, not only for the brave "Signers," but for the men on the outposts, the men in battle, the committees [page 34] of safety who guarded the homes, and the men in the pulpits who risked their lives as well, standing publicly for liberty and right, swaying public sentiment, counting themselves bound by the their calling and their leadership to "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof."
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