Today we spent a good deal of time trying to find space for all of the stuff we took aboard for a year-long journey without the boat looking like Little Naples or Snuffy Smith’s barn the whole time. In any event, we did take time to dig out the bikes and slip onto the Mohawk Hudson Bike-Hike Trail.
Mohawk Hudson Bike-Hike Trail
If you ever imagine an ideal bike path, this is it. Built along the former towpath of the Erie Canal (where the donkeys/horses used to pull canal long boats), the Trail is part of the New York State Canalway Trail - a network of paths that runs parallel to current or former sections of the Erie, Oswego, Cayuga-Seneca and Champlain canals and when completed will have 524 miles of trails following current and former sections of the canals. Get out those bikes!
Today the objective was to reach the Rotterdam NY site of the Mabee Farm Historic site – where the oldest house in the Mohawk Valley still stands – built in 1705 (according to dendrochronological analysis).
Although the genealogical details need further refining, the builder of that first house was Jan Pieterse Mabee – my eighth great-grandfather. He was the fourth great-grandfather of Sophia Mabb (the spellings are extraordinarly diverse for this name), the lady whose grave we paid our respects to in Schaghticoke (my fourth great-grandmother).
Mabee Farm Historic Site
Interior of the original single room house (middle structure)
The visit/tour was fascinating. The site appears to have been well-provided for by the last Mabee family member to have lived on the farm - and he only left in 2004, leaving the house and land to the local Historical Society as a museum. Three centuries of habitation by the same family with relatively little damage done to the original structures is remarkable. The interiors have been maintained as they would have been in the 18thcentury, that is, after the Mabees first came to the land in 1705 and lived in underground bunkers until the first one-room structure was erected (middle structure).
The site later incorporated an inn (the building on the right) to accommodate guests traveling along the river. The Mabees set themselves up to profit from Mohawk River traffic - as did Albany, and particularly Schenectady. Before the Erie Canal was built, the Cohoes Falls, where the Mohawk River originally emptied into the Hudson, prevented direct transport of goods to the outside world. The Albanians and Schenectadians recognized an opportunity to profit off of the overland portage of goods and services and a great deal of their wealth before the 19thcentury derived from that.
I learned today that the wife of Jan Pieterse – Annetje Borsbom (my 8th great grandmother) – was half-Mohawk. The Dutch were quite canny when it came to personal-business relations and had no taboos about marrying into the local Native American tribes. They did this in order to be the most culturally attuned trading partners to obtain furs and other resources and keep the peace. This genealogical revelation brings into question some of my personal assumptions about recent DNA-testing that indicated that I had a sixth great-grandfather/mother of pure Native American blood. I fear this may have been a false assumption and there may have been multiple native American women marrying into the Mabie/Mabb family over several generations to achieve a genetic mix that would give that result. Not clear then what happened here in my family – the records are opaque as most of the native women took on Dutch name when marrying into settler families. Perhaps this will always be somewhat of mystery – but the knowledge of this blood link no matter how diffuse does give one a sense of connection with not only the past but with the lands in this valley.
What was also fascinating about this “Dutch” family is that matrilineal inheritance was the norm for several generations – similar to the Mohawk traditions of mother/daughter inheritance of family goods. Here, Jans Pieterse's daughter-in-law Catrina Vrooman, inherited the farm/business from Jans Pieterse and ran the shop, not her husband/the son. It gives one pause to think that the assumptions one has of the past - the mix of peoples and races and gender roles just a few centuries ago just in my family tree is clear indication that things weren't always as we supposed them to be.
The Mohawk River silently flows by the farm. On the banks of the river, the local historical shipbuilders have supplied bateaux – shallow draft rowboats with high cargo capacity used for trade in the 17th & 18th centuries in the Mohawk Valley. Back on the river and back in time.
Mohawk River flowing by Mabee Farm
Tomorrow we head further up the canal (20 miles and 3 locks) to Amsterdam, to stay at the downtown docks.