Learning from our Ancestors
Learning from My Ancestors
We are in the process of moving to High Falls, NY, in the Mahikanitak (Hudson) Valley. We are on an acre of land that has become overgrown though mowed since the house has been vacant and remodeled by our son-in-law, so have much work is ahead of me. I’ve move up three compost bins, Lee Reich’s design, that I am ready to fill and hope to soon move our worm composting boxes. Outside my bedroom window is a massive arbor of kiwi-wisteria mix that needs to be trimmed way back while eliminating the invasive wisteria. The area is much hillier than what I have been used to the last 47 years in Penns Valley. Just got my computer working and it has a much better internet connection than in Penns Valley, but I am looking forward to getting out tomorrow to begin caring for the land around the house, including getting rid of the invasive bushes in the wooded section of the acre, especially the barberries that are magnets to ticks. Anyway, much work is ahead of me in this land of my ancestors who have something to teach us regarding their relationship with the Esopus Lenape.
My 9xgreat grandparents, Lambertse Huybertsen Brink and his wife Hendrickje Cornelisse of Wageningen in the Netherlands, settled here in 1660, a few miles from High Falls. They were among the original settlers of Wildwyck, now Kingston. Before it was Wildwyck it was Esopus, the name of a major creek in the area that flows into the Mahikanitak. The Esopus Lenape were the original inhabitants of the area and I am looking forward to learning about them and their way of life. During those early years there was considerable conflict between the Dutch invaders and the Esopus. The tension reached its first climax on September 20, 1659 when a group to soldiers encountered a party of four Esopus huddled around a campfire drunk from brandy provided them by one of the English settler in exchange for husking corn, one was killed, one taken captive and two escaped though injured. As a result the Esopus laid siege to the settlement and began destroying the livestock outside the fort. Five or six of the Dutch were wounded and one was killed. The troubles continued but by the following April a truce was finally reached and there was three years of peace.
In 1662 the New Village or Nieuwe Dorp was settled along the Esopus Creek two and one-half miles southwest of Wildwyck, to be later named Hurley, about ten miles north of High Falls. It was in Hurley that my 9xgreat grandparents built their home which still stands and was in the Brink family until I believe 1948. In June of 1663 the Esopus attacked the two villages, “The Second Esopus War.” The tensions between the Dutch and the Esopus had been again growing, again caused by the selling of liquor to the Esopus, but also because of the Dutch alliance with the Mohawks, resented by the Esopus because of their subservience to the powerful Mohawks. Roeloff Swartwout had been appointed the first sheriff of Wildwyck in 1660, and in a letter to Governor Stuyvesant who resided in New Amsterdam (New York City) Swartwout told of his fear of another Esopus uprising. Roeloff Swartwout’s daughter would married the son of Lambertse Brink, Huybertse Brink, thus Swartwout is also my 9xgreat grandfather. In this attack Nieuwe Dorp was burned and ten women and children were taken prisoner, including Hendrickje Brink and three of her children including Huybertse. They were held in a Lenape village near what is now Newburgh for three months until they were released as a result of a new treaty. As prisoners they were treated very well, incorporated in the village life as members of the village. Another of the captive women decided to remain in the village in which she was held because of how well she was treated, something we can learn in how to treat prisoners.
We are in the process of moving to High Falls, NY, in the Mahikanitak (Hudson) Valley. We are on an acre of land that has become overgrown though mowed since the house has been vacant and remodeled by our son-in-law, so have much work is ahead of me. I’ve move up three compost bins, Lee Reich’s design, that I am ready to fill and hope to soon move our worm composting boxes. Outside my bedroom window is a massive arbor of kiwi-wisteria mix that needs to be trimmed way back while eliminating the invasive wisteria. The area is much hillier than what I have been used to the last 47 years in Penns Valley. Just got my computer working and it has a much better internet connection than in Penns Valley, but I am looking forward to getting out tomorrow to begin caring for the land around the house, including getting rid of the invasive bushes in the wooded section of the acre, especially the barberries that are magnets to ticks. Anyway, much work is ahead of me in this land of my ancestors who have something to teach us regarding their relationship with the Esopus Lenape.
My 9xgreat grandparents, Lambertse Huybertsen Brink and his wife Hendrickje Cornelisse of Wageningen in the Netherlands, settled here in 1660, a few miles from High Falls. They were among the original settlers of Wildwyck, now Kingston. Before it was Wildwyck it was Esopus, the name of a major creek in the area that flows into the Mahikanitak. The Esopus Lenape were the original inhabitants of the area and I am looking forward to learning about them and their way of life. During those early years there was considerable conflict between the Dutch invaders and the Esopus. The tension reached its first climax on September 20, 1659 when a group to soldiers encountered a party of four Esopus huddled around a campfire drunk from brandy provided them by one of the English settler in exchange for husking corn, one was killed, one taken captive and two escaped though injured. As a result the Esopus laid siege to the settlement and began destroying the livestock outside the fort. Five or six of the Dutch were wounded and one was killed. The troubles continued but by the following April a truce was finally reached and there was three years of peace.
In 1662 the New Village or Nieuwe Dorp was settled along the Esopus Creek two and one-half miles southwest of Wildwyck, to be later named Hurley, about ten miles north of High Falls. It was in Hurley that my 9xgreat grandparents built their home which still stands and was in the Brink family until I believe 1948. In June of 1663 the Esopus attacked the two villages, “The Second Esopus War.” The tensions between the Dutch and the Esopus had been again growing, again caused by the selling of liquor to the Esopus, but also because of the Dutch alliance with the Mohawks, resented by the Esopus because of their subservience to the powerful Mohawks. Roeloff Swartwout had been appointed the first sheriff of Wildwyck in 1660, and in a letter to Governor Stuyvesant who resided in New Amsterdam (New York City) Swartwout told of his fear of another Esopus uprising. Roeloff Swartwout’s daughter would married the son of Lambertse Brink, Huybertse Brink, thus Swartwout is also my 9xgreat grandfather. In this attack Nieuwe Dorp was burned and ten women and children were taken prisoner, including Hendrickje Brink and three of her children including Huybertse. They were held in a Lenape village near what is now Newburgh for three months until they were released as a result of a new treaty. As prisoners they were treated very well, incorporated in the village life as members of the village. Another of the captive women decided to remain in the village in which she was held because of how well she was treated, something we can learn in how to treat prisoners.
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