MONTGOMERY COUNTY
Many of my Nellis family
members lived in the Town of
Palatine,
namesake of the early
German settlers
from the Palatinate. Palatine was formed in 1788 from a large part of the Palatine District of old was
formed in 1788 from a large part of the Palatine District of old Montgomery County. The area was called
Tryon County at one time. In 1790 Tryon County was the largest county in New York State.
Information about Tryon County is found in a link listed below.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nytryon/tryon.html
The following is from: http://montgomery.nygenweb.net/palatine/stonearhistory.html
It is Paper read By Andrew L. Dillenbeck before the New York State Historical Association at
Canajoharie on the historical tour of September 24, 1931.
The Mohawk Valley
The Stone
Arabia,
itself, variously spelled and pronounced, has long been a matter of curiosity, conjecture
and myth - and may always remain so. In the Old Testament and later times, Arabia
carried the idea of blessedness, happiness and security. This connotation has
passed down the centuries in many lands and languages. The name Stone Arabia,
in its Dutch spelling, is found in Dutch writings long before its use in America.
Thus it may be that Steen Rabi
was the land of promise to various groups settling in America
in the 17th and 18th centuries. At least we find the name applied to a region
on the west side of the Hudson
near Kingston,
to the site of the present North Troy,
and later to our Stone Arabia
in the Mohawk
Valley.
One story of the derivation of the name
still current locally is the name "Steen Raby
"came to be the name of the section when certain travelers passing through
the territory saw a Dutch girl aiding in clearing the land from stone, and
seeking to have sport with her, said, "What are you doing my pretty
maid?" and received the reply, "Steen Raby,
you fools," which being translated was "Picking stones." The
words do not fit themselves very well into the Dutch dialect, and the story can
hardly be harmonized with considerations already mentioned. Moreover, Stone Arabia
is not particularly stony in the part first settled. The fact that the name is
in use elsewhere 50 years before the Stone Arabia
Patent is granted renders the old story highly improbable.
But perhaps we have a clue that comes
from the Hudson
Valley.
Under patent dated 19 October 1668, Robert Sanders and Harmen
Vedder bought of the Mahican
Indians land called by the Indians "Taescameasich"
lying on the east side of the North River and stretching along the River from
the second to the third spring which runs over to the west side of the river
straight into the woods up to the high hills. On 21 August 1670
Harmen Vedder conveyed his
interest to Robert Sanders. Reference to this land is made in a lease given by
Robert Sanders to Hendrick Meussen
Vrooman, 3 May 1670, wherein it is described
as "lying over against the long island" and named Steen Raby. In 1680 Robert Sanders sold his farm on the east
side of the Hudson's
river, obliquely over against the farm of Anthony van Shayk,
commonly called Steen Arabia. Captain John Schuyler in his report of
his journey to Canada
in 1698, says, "we went from Albany and came to Stony Arabia
8 miles up the river, where we lodged that night". All these references
are to Stony Arabia
on the site of modern Lansingburg or North
Troy. This is also the Stein Raby at which an outpost of 10 men was stationed as early
as 1710.
It is possible that the name was
transferred to the Mohawk Valley location through Robert Sanders, an Albany merchant
who was interested in the Lansingburg Stone Arabia
and acted as Indian interpreter for the governor, and who may have assisted the
Stone Arabia patentees in their purchase from the Indians.
The name is still applied to the
central and southeastern portion of the original patent. For a few years just before
the Revolution, Stone Arabia was given as a name to that section later to be
called the Palatine District extending from the Nose to the Falls and northward
to Canada, but on March 8, 1773, it lost this wider application and from that
time was confined to the patent.
It is probable that a number of
families from the Hudson
Valley
Palatine Camps never settled in Schoharie at all but went directly to Stone Arabia
in 1712-15. Some families drop out of the Kocherthal-Berkenmeyer
Records of the Camp and Schoharie for about nine years appearing later in Stone
Arabia. Research made in Switzerland
recently by one of the Palatine families reveals relationship by marriage with
the Frey family several generations before 1710. If Hendrick
Frey was in this immediate section before 1712-13 it is fair to assume that the
relationship established in Europe before coming to America would still hold
and he probably was the cause of several families coming directly to Stone
Arabia from the Hudson. Indeed Simms says some of the party had relatives or
friends there [Stone Arabia]
who located at the time the Schoharie settlements were begun, which induced
them to remove thither. Frothingham says they were on
the ground before 1723.
The original patentees were, with one
or two exceptions, of German ancestry coming from the Rhine Valley
in Switzerland
and Germany.
My Nellis family is from Sitters in the parish of Obermoschel
near Meisenheim in the Pfalz.
Much more history may be found on the referenced website. My Klock and Smith
families were intermarried with the Nellis family.
If
you are interested in WHO WERE THE PALATINES
go to this website:
Top
Other Links
Political Graveyard of
Montgomery County http://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/NY/MN.html
Montgomery County
GenWeb http://montgomery.nygenweb.net/
Nellis Website http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~nelliswebsite/
Fort
Klock
and Indian Castle
Church http://www.threerivershms.com/
Tryon
County
History http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nytryon/intro1.html
St. Johnsville
Reformed Church Baptism and Marriage Records http://stjchurch.com/TOC.htm
1840 Census Records
for Revolutionary War Pensioners http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/colonial/census/1840/
1790
New York Census http://www.familyhistory.com/censusyear.asp?y=1790
Finding US Naturalization Records http://home.att.net/~wee-monster/naturalizationrecords.html
Montgomery
County
Vital Records http://www.vitalrec.com/nycounties2.html#Montgomery
Reformed
Dutch Church in America http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12710a.htm
Palatine Settlements in
New York http://www.fortklock.com/Psettlements.htm
Early
Mohawk Valley
Wills http://www.herkimer.nygenweb.net/wills5.html
Montgomery County Department of History & Archives http://www.co.montgomery.ny.us/historian/
Other
Montgomery
County
Links http://www.northern-nys.com/montgomery_county.htm
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PLACES
OTHER ANCESTORS LIVED
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Dutchess County
Fulton County
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Rensselaer County
Saratoga County
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Schoharie County
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This page was last revised on 17 August 2010