Speaking American' in 1712
To the editor Recently while looking through the archive at the Historical Society I came upon what may be the first documented case of an immigrant from another country coming to Warwick and taking the time to “learn the language of the land” - which most of his contemporaries didn’t bother with, actually! I thought this would be interesting to your readers; and it also confirms the old story told about Lawrence Decker’s skill as an interpreter: Testimony regarding Maratanza Pond in Ulster County on August 27, 1765: “David Davis being Duely Sworn Deposeth and Saith that he is 75 years of age that in the Year 1712 he Lived at Warwick in Orange County With Captain Aske that at that time a Great Number of Indians Lived there that some time after being in Company with Lawrance Decker who understood the Indian Language and Some Indians & mentioning the Name of the Pond the Indians & Decker Laugh’d upon which this Deponan(t) asked Decker what they Laugh’d when Decker said it was at the Name of the Pond which Signify a Place where Young Indians & their Wives Mett & made Merry that in Perticular an Indian Called George who Could talk English told this Deponant there was a Pond on the Mountain where the squaw(s) went for Rushes Called Camallo and that was when this Deponent had lived about two years with Captain Aske .” So what does this little story tell us? From this brief account we can confirm that: There were still a “large number” of Native Americans in residence in 1712. That sometimes, even at this early date, they adopted European names. That Benjamin Aske and others were in residence here at least part of the time, a year or two earlier than the arrival of the Wisner pioneers. That already our area was being called Warwick. For those who want to read the entire deposition, this is from the Cadwallader Colden Papers, Vol. 7, published as part of “Collections of the New York Historical Society for the Year 1923”, p. 55-56; a full transcription (most of which does not concern Warwick) of Davis’ brief testimony is now in the Warwick Heritage Database, go to www.albertwisnerlibrary.org and click on “local history” or e-mail sgardner@rcls.org. Sue Gardner Local History Librarian Albert Wisner Public Library