Beverwyck

We stand in Albany, at the corner of Broadway and State Street—but no, those names are not yet in vogue.

We are in Beverwyck, at the point where the long rambling Handelaer Street, running parallel with Hudson's River, crosses the broad short Jonker Street, which climbs some little distance up the hill.

Before us is the old Dutch church.

It stands by itself at the intersection of the two streets, fronting south.

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here the magistrates administer justice this is for the time being the court-house of bevervic fort orange at the time of our visit is falling to decay fort willemstadt on the contrary the military post at the head of john care street is increasing in importance near fort orange is the great pasture or common where the cows of the burghers are grazing and there a short distance below the fort we see the ferry-boat travelling slowly across the river to greenbosch we have caught sight of several deer and wild turkeys on the outskirts of the town and we have passed several patriarchal negers as the magistrates of fort orange spell the word and here comes the special property of peter schuyler in the shape of a black boy of his own age who is followed by a troop of sturdy children some of whom are the brothers and sisters of our young guide there to be sure are guys bert and gertrude who is destined to wed stephanus von kort alida who will add to her own name of schuyler the name of von ranselier and afterwards livingston while toddling after these juvenile bells of fort orange come brant and arrant their brothers and still there are others to come these are the numerous children of philip peterson schuyler who came over in sixteen fifty and of his fair frau marguerite von schlichtenhorst this good couple were married with great formality before dominie schatz arrived by anthony de hooges the secretary of the colony whose nose has been immortalized in the highlands of the hudson their son peter our little guide is to be the first mayor of the city of albany while the distinguished philip of a later date will carry the name of schuyler to a height of glory that will linger round the shaft of the saratoga monument at schuylerville for ages to come and make it glow with an added beauty but while our thoughts are thus running away with us from fort orange a farmer toynus von vechten coming from greenbosch with supplies for the bevervic market offers the children a ride into the town which they accept with a shout this rouses us from our reverie and we follow the merry load as they jog along the country road from fort orange to the nearest gate in the stockade about where the street now called hudson avenue crosses hondelaire street or broadway with a crack of the farmer's whip they drive rapidly down into a sort of ravine cross the rutten kill on a bridge and ascend the opposite slope the farmer soon passes the door of the dutch reformed church where our ramble began and turning into john care street pulls up his horses at the market-place the children scamper back across the rutten kill to the schuyler's store on hondelaire street opposite beaver street and pass on down to the grassy riverside behind it where a sloop is moored their father is there overseeing the men who are loading it with beaver skins and other goods the day's work is nearly over the sunlight is fading from the hilltops across the river all will soon go into supper if we were not too tired we might in a few moments walk the whole length of hondelaire street towards the north gate in that case we would have a peep now and then through the half-open curtains of the scattered houses for see they are beginning to light up for the evening meal In passing along we would probably startle the dogs from their kennels in the gardens, and hasten the farewells of the lovers who linger on the front stoops in the gathering dusk.

Then issuing by the north gate, where Steuben Street comes into Broadway, we might go by moonlight to the Patroon's house, between which and Beverwyck are cornfields where the burghers grow corn for their slaves, and also for their horses, pigs, and poultry.

We would then be not far from the Patroon's mills, where all the settlers are in duty bound to go, and not elsewhere, to have their sawing and grinding done.

This trading house is outside the wall of stockades, or upright posts, encircling the town.

The traders of Beverwyck are all obliged to ride their stockades, that is to say, to furnish the pine posts, thirteen feet long and one foot in diameter, for repairing the wooden wall.

This duty falls alike on every inhabitant at the command of the burgomasters and scapens.

They are furthermore bound to take turns in drawing firewood to the trading house for the use of the Indians when they come there from the Macas country loaded with packs of furs.

He knows where all the cannon are placed and can tell us how they propose to improve the fort and barracks on John Kerr Street.

He takes us out by the Pearl Street gate to a road leading southward toward the hamlet of Bethlehem.

After the boy has shown us the mills on the Beverkill, Buttermilk Creek, from which the village of Beverwyck was named, he takes us down to Old Fort Orange by the riverside.

It has been a snug little fort in its day, built of logs with four bastions, each mounted by two guns for throwing stones, while in the enclosure stands a large cannon on wheels close to the old trading house of the West India Company.