Schoharie County NYGenWeb Site
Schoharie County NYGenWeb Site
The Foxes Creek Raid
I have been researching the surname ZIMMER at the Schoharie
website.
The year of 1781 versus 1782 has become significant to me in that there is a
discrepancy in the telling of the Foxes Creek Raid that has come to light in my
research. One or two of my ZIMMER clan were tomahawked, scalped and otherwise
killed during this July 1781 raid in the Mohawk Valley; having a correct year of
death is appreciated.
You have posted excellent resources from the authors SIMMS
& ROSCOE that I found very helpful. But, the
discrepancy over the YEAR of the raid comes to light from details presented by
Mark Sullivan in his article “The Foxes Creek Raid.” (Bibliography:
Sullivan, Mark. "The Foxes Creek Raid," Schoharie County Historical Review.
Central Bridge, New York: Spring-Summer 1983, Pages 30-31.)
On a foggy Thursday morning of July 26, 1781, a party of Tories
and Indians appeared at the house of Jacob Zimmer, sen., a stone house not far
from the present day village of Gallupville. The house was occupied at the time
by Mrs. Zimmer and Jacob Zimmer, Jr; Mr. Zimmer and his other son, Peter, were
not at home. The enemy party was led by the Schoharie Tory, Adam Crysler, a
Lieutenant in Butler's Rangers and the Six Nations Indian Department; also along
were William Crysler, Peter Eckert and about 25 Indians, most of them formerly
from Schoharie. Their mission: destruction. . . .
. . . Jeptha R. Simms in his History of Schoharie and in
The Frontiersmen, the author states that Crysler's raid occurred in 1782. And
every historian since has dated the raid in 1782. (There is even a historical
marker near Major Becker's house listing the date as July 26, 1782.) But, on
this occasion, Simms is mistaken. The raid took place in 1781.
Bibliography:
Primary Sources
Lauber, Almon, W., comp., Orderly Books of the Fourth and Second New York
Regiment, by Samuel Tallmadge and others with diaries of Samuel Tallmadge.
Albany: The University of New York, 1932.
Loyalist Claim of Adam Crysler in Report of Bureau of Archives, by Alexander
Fraser. Toronto: Lk. Cameron, Printer, 1904.
Warfare in the Mohawk Valley, transcriptions from the Pennsylvania Gazette,
1780, 1781, 1782, 1783. From the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
Warner, George. Revolutionary War Pension Application, number S28932. National
Archives, Washington, D.C.
Willet, Marinus, letter to Gov. George Clinton, July 29, 1781.
New York State Library, Albany, New York. Document number 4414.
Secondary Sources
Hagan, Edward, A., War in Schoharry. Middleburgh, New York: The Middleburgh News
Press, 1980.
Simms, Jeptha, R., The Frontiersmen of New York, Albany, New York: Geo C. Riggs,
publisher, 1883.
Simms, Jeptha, R., The History of Schoharie County and
Border Wars. Albany, New York: Munsell and Tanner, printers, 1845.
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I found it interesting that in the journal of Adam Crysler
posted at the Schoharie County NYGenWeb Site: … evidence in Chapter 3 the
information that Mark Sullivan refers to; then in Chapter 4, which in
researching, seems to me to be details of what occurred in Chapter 3 (1781), but
is marked as July 1782. This does not make sense based on the evidence presented
by Mark Sullivan.
Submitted by Gloria (Odom) Trommler, Descendant of: Jacob ZIMMER (Sr) married Catarina BATER
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