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In 1614
A.D., the VIC of the United Nederlandt (Netherlands) Company built this
fortified trading outpost house, Algic Speaking Peoples, commonly
known as the Mahicans, Mohicans, Mohegans, Pequot, Mohawk, Kanienkehaka,
Iroquois, Alogonquian, Iroquois, Haudenosaunee. The Kanienkehaka
(Mohawk) of the Onkwehon:we (Iroquois-Haudenosaunee) occupied the west
bank of the river, called North River by the Dutch, and Hudson River by
the English. The Mahican (Mohican-Mohegan-Pequot) of the Algic
(Algonquian) speaking people occupied the east bank of the river opposite
the trading house.
The Trading
House
The first recorded
European structure in New York State, built in 1614, known to the Dutch as
Fort Nassau.
Giclée Edition ~ Signed and Numbered Prints
image size 15 x
19 in. $175.00
From
http://www.lftantillo.com/trading_house.htm
Castle Island
from
http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/na/castle.html#map
Variously
called Castle Island, Martin Gerritse's Island, Patroon's Island, and
Westerlo Island, the large landform on the west side of the Hudson River
was separated from the mainland by the passage of the Normanskill (Creek)
behind it as it wound its way into the Hudson.
The island
has a rich history and many traditions! Inhabited by both Mohawk and
Mohicans, it was said to be the site of a French
trading post built during the sixteenth century.
 The
first documented inhabitation probably occurred in 1614 when a trading
outpost known as Fort Nassau was erected by the Dutch West India Company.
Located on the Hudson River flood plain, the rudimentary "fort" was washed
away by flooding in 1617.
Fort Nassau
was replaced by the building of
Fort Orange
in 1624. Then, the island was divided into farms and leased to tenants.
The first farm on Castle Island was called "Rensselaersburgh" and was
established in 1630.
Early
tenants included Brant Peelen, Adrian Vanderdonck,
Cornelis Segerse, and
Marte
Gerritse Van Bergen.
Marte Gerritse held a lease on
the island from before 1664 until about 1690. During that time, it was
among the most productive farms in
Rensselaerswyck. Gerritse tried to purchase the island but was rebuffed by
the Van Rensselaers and finally was displaced and replaced by members of
the Staats
family.
The Albany
city charter
of 1686 fixed Albany's southeastern boundary as the "tip of Marte
Gerritse's island."
Throughout the balance of the
colonial period, the island was included in the manor of
Rensselaerswyck and was leased to a succession of advantaged area
residents. In 1744,
John Milne,
former rector of
St. Peters Anglican church, was its resident farmer.
Then, British retainer
Hitchen
Holland held the lease until his death in 1762. In 1767, it was called
"Patroon's Island" and was leased to
John
Bradstreet. On patroon
Stephen
Van Rensselaer's death in 1769, the island passed to his widow,
Catherine Livingston Van Rensselaer. Perhaps it was known as "Westerlo
Island" because the patroon's widow married Dominie
Eilardus
Westerlo in 1775.
By the
1880s, the island had about 160 acres of "fertile land . . producing fine
crops in favorable seasons." It also had two ironworks on its northern
end. At that time, it belonged to the town of
Bethlehem.
From 1909 to 1927/8, the island
was used as an airfield called "Quenton Roosevelt Field." Famed aviators
Glenn Curtis and Charles A. Lindbergh landed on the airstrip - the
predecessor of the
Albany Airport.
New York State created the
Albany Port District in 1931 which encompassed 200 acres (including the
island) within the city of Albany and another 35 acres across the river in
Rensselaer. Dredging and construction followed. In 1932, the island had
been transformed and officially opened as the Port of
Albany.
notes
The best work on
the Mohicans has been produced by historian
Shirley Dunn.
Painting
entitled "The Trading House - 1615," by Len Tantillo is the only
representation of Fort Nassau. The
painting is
described and reproduced in
Visions
of New York State, 40-43.
Detail showing
Castle Island. Enlarged from a seventeenth-century map in the Library
of Congress. The map detail and discussion are from
Visions
of New York State, 46, 40-44.
See "Westerlo Island: the First Settlement,"
in Bethlehem Revisited: A Bicentennial Story, 1793-1993, edited by
Floyd Brewer (Bethlehem, 1993), 34-37, 41-43, 45, 57-58, 83.
Cornelis Segerse took up the farm formerly occupied by Brant Peelen,
deceased, which was one of the two farms on Castle Island, near Albany. In
1646, he took over from Adrian Vanderdonck the other farm for the
remaining 3 years of its lease, and thus came into possession of the
entire island. In 1651, an inventory of the farm of Cornelis Segers showed
that he was the owner of 13 horses and 22 cows, and that the farm
contained 70 morgens, and the rent was 1210 guilders. This farm was called
Welysburgh.
In 1744, the island was visited and
described by Marylander Dr. Alexander Hamilton.
Detail showing Castle/Patroon's
Island from an engraved print of the "Map of the Manor Renselaerswick"
surveyed by John R. Bleecker in 1767. Print in the
Graphics Archive
of the Colonial Albany Project.
The only
statement in print on the Port of Albany is in Mc Eneny,
Albany:
Capital City on the Hudson, 172.
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New York State Museum
first posted: 11/30/01;
last revised 12/11/01
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