A Brief History of Early Halfmoon

The Halfmoon story begins with the Native Americans who were important to the settlement of this area before the European exploration.

Natives of the Algonquin language group inhabited this part of North American from Canada to North Carolina and east to the Atlantic Ocean. A subgroup called Mohicans or River Indians lived in the area surrounding Albany from the Catskills to Lake Champlain.

The Mohicans lived in small groups with “castles” or fortified villages from Cohoes to Schodac. Their lifestyle included farming on cleared flats near the river and hunting over a vast forested area. Their small villages were moved as necessary to preserve their way of life.

When Henry Hudson sailed up the river named after him and anchored below Albany, the friendly Indians he encountered were Mohicans who lived on both sides of the river from the Catskills north to Washington County. These natives offered friendship and protection to the early traders who followed Hudson.

The second group of Native Americans important to this story, the Mohawks, an Iroquois tribe, traditional enemies of the Mohicans, lived to the west. At the time of contact the Mohawks were at war with the Hurons, an Algonquin group who lived to the north in Canada.

Mahican Village was located on what is today called Peebles Island. Early Fur traders met the natives here to trade and barter. The point and the islands where the Mohawk River entered the Hudson provided easy crossing places to access trails running both, east, west and north, south. This crossroads was a hub for native trade.

The shallow rivers with many riffs or rapids and Cohoes Falls on the Mohawk were natural barriers which blocked the free flow of river traffic. Batteans and canoes had to be unloaded and carried north to Stillwater or west around the falls and returned to the water.

Contact with the European Fur traders who offered trade goods and guns in exchange for Furs changed the peaceful balance that existed in this area at the time of contact.

Wars between the Mohawks and Mohicans plus disease brought by contact with Europeans greatly reduced the native population. As the Mohicans retreated east across the Hudson River they began to sell land to the Europeans. They did not understand the European concept of permanent ownership and the result was loss of area necessary to sustain their lifestyle.

The Hudson River corridor was a major route between Albany and Montreal, used by Indians, fur traders and military groups as the French and English struggled for control of the North American continent. This route followed the west bank of the Hudson River through Halfmoon. An early military road called the Kings Highway followed this route to transport military supplies and troops through Halfmoon then north to Saratoga. A military ferry, Loudons Ferry was built above Cohoes Falls to shorten the route from the Mohawk through Halfmoon to the Hudson.

Between the wars, British settlements expand north and west of Albany however in times of danger farmers deserted the outlying farms.

The last French and Indian War was fought in 1763, settlers began to purchase land in the interior. There was a general in flux of settlers from New England to this region. Many sought streams to use as power sources for small mills.

The Half Moon settlement on the Hudson River
The Town of Halfmoon had its beginnings in the ancient tract called Halve Maen by the Dutch. This large plain named for its shape was located on the west side of the Hudson River above its confluence with the Mohawk. Mohican Indians offered to sell the plain called the Halfmoon Moon in 1664. The tract was purchased by Philip Pietersz (Schuyler) and Goosen Gerritsz (Van Schaick) and confirmed in Albany March 24, 2667.

The Half Moon Patent extended along the west side of the Hudson River from the creek called Tenendahowa (Anthony’s Kill) south to the Northern boundary of the Manor of Rensselaerwyk; along the Mohawk River west to the rapids called the Wathojax (near today’s twin bridges on I87 North) then on a diagonal back to the beginning.

Where was the original settlement, called The Half Moon located? Dutch traders were the first settlers to purchase land in Half Moon. Early military maps drawn for the French and Indian wars and the Revolutionary war show a cluster of houses called Half Moon located above the present village of Waterford. The houses are situated on the large bulge of land through which the present boundary between the Town of Halfmoon and the Town of Waterford is located. Another house is shown above this settlement where the Leland Farm is located today.

The 1776 survey map by Nanning Vischer, which includes both the Van Schaick (Halfmoon) and Clifton Park Patents, shows long narrow strips or parcels of land perpendicular to the river – lots #6-11. The shapes of these lots along the Hudson River are a sharp contrast to the mostly square lots in the rest of the survey. Land documents show that Annatje Lievens, widow of Van Sshaick had alr4eady conveyed these lots to the first settlers. These lots predate the survey map.

The Issac Vrooman map of 1779 marks the trails and roads in use at the time of the Revolution. It also shows Widow Pebbles Tavern, which was located at the foot of Brookwood Road on lot #12 of the Nanning Vischer Map. The trail to this tavern extends from Cornelius Claes (Vandenburg) Ferry (known today as Dunsbach’s Ferry) on the Mohawk River across to Peebles Tavern on the Hudson River, by passing Cohoes Falls.