The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-04-19
Written for the BANNER.
RATTENKILL OR ONDAwA, AND
SAN UOIK.
BY GEORGE W. HARTMAN.

BY GEORGE W. HARTMAN.
In your issue of 9th June, 1887, is an
item headed Manchester" respecting
change from "Battenkill" to "Ondawa"
OF the name of the stream which, start
ing from its several heads in Dorset and
Peru near the summit of the water shea
between Lake Champlain and the Bay
Of New York, flows southerly and west
erly to the State of New York and then
northerly and westerly into the Hudson |
River near Schuylerville.
Appended to the item are comics, first
from the facie pen of Charles Hallock
that "Ondawa is the baptismal Indian
name" and "Battenkill from the name
"of Dutchman who once shantied on
"its banks;" second from a contribution
to the press 10y that distinguished arch
biologist, the Hon. James Gibson, of Sa-
lem, N. Y, in which he suggests the
Dutch word "baten, Simplifying fertiliz
ing, combined with kill" meaning a
stream, as the origin of the modern
name in Dutch; and the English word
"batten,' signifying to fatten, or to fer
tilize, as the origin of the same name IN
English. Judge Gibson also says that
the present name Of the stream is said to
have been derived from one Bart holo-
NEW who lived on its banks; and was
gradually shortened into Bats; and that
inI,
"the Bats Kill Church," but he thinks
the name could not have been derived
from Bartholomew.
should hesitate long before calling in
question the conclusions of my learned
friend. Still, Il must say that, the transi.
tion from Bartholomew through Bart to
Bait is quite easy and in harmony with
the shortening of numerous words by
eliminating the =. Every one, by lit
tie reflection, can call to mind instances
OF the kind; like that of well known
gentleman in this region whose christian
name being Marcus, is never, when both
syllables are not pronounced, called 9TH
erwise than Mac.
Judge Benson, in his work upon the
names of places, says that the stream in
question was named from the christian
name of Bartholomew Van Hogeboom,
first settler above Saltwater. On the
other hand it IS claimed that the stream
was named from one Bolts, who lived
somewhere in its neighborhood; and it
is true that the church before referred to
was called "Bottskill Church," and the
writing of its name attskill,' by
Judge Gibson was, as he says, mistake.
1t is probable that the Dutch bestowed
upon the stream which before had been
known as OnddlCd, the name, BdttenkH;
in the first syllable of which, the English
tongue, following the Dutch pronouncia.
tion, gave the broad sound of so nearly
like as to be mistaken for it-and so
Battskill became BottskiIl. l have
known several people who pronounced
the present name of the stream as il
written Bottenkill. do not think how.
ever, that the English had anything to
do with bestowing this name upon the
stream; bat took the name previously
given by the Dutch and pronounced it
as best they could. If they had searched
their dictionaries to find an appropriate
name and had decided to call it Batten,
hardly would they have compounded the
English verb with the Dutch noun, XII,
My theory of the nomenclature of this
stream is this -
The Indians, perhaps of the Mahican
nation, passing up the Mahicanituck,
(Hudson,) came to tributary stream of
no mean proportions, flowing between
hills and rocks, in allusion to which, they
called it Ti-On zen do-gah-e; and to the
falls upon it near the place now called
Galesville they gave the name Di on on.
dab ,ca, otherwise, Di on On-de no are
Following up the stream, or, perhaps,
approaching it at another time, from the
south, by a route lying nearer to the
mountains on their right, they found it
in the vicinity of what now is Cam
bridge, just emerged from the passes of
the loftyTaghkanick range, and bestowed
upon it the name On-da- ,ca, pronounced
On dd-tCah, or On-ddh- 1rdh; though l
think the former the correct mode F.;
meaning Glowing from the noun
tains;" near approach to the meaning
of the name first given.
So early as 1857, the site of the present
village of Schuylerville was called Ser.
dchtdgue, which by its more modern
name of Saratoga, is said to signify
Swift water" which exists in that To-
cality. Subsequently, the Saratoga Pa
tent was issued, comprising the present
towns of Saratoga and Saratoga Springs
west of the Hudson and Easton east OF
it. The stream whose name ia in ques-
tion constituted the northern boundary
OF that patent, east of the Hudson, and
came to be called Saratoga River. In
my judgment, this name was not applied
to this stream by the Indians, but by the
English, induced thereto by its proximi
ty to the Saratoga Patent. At what time
it was thus first applied, am unable tc
say.
In May, 174S, Capt. Eleazer Melven
returning from a scout to Lake Cham
plain, in passing from what is now North
Dorset village, southeasterly, over the
Green Mountain to the West River
crossed several streams which he, in hi,
journal says, he supposed to be the
head of the Saratoga river"
Judge Gibson tells US that, 1.-The colo
my of New York early granted the
Glands on the south bank of this stream
ito Dutch people exclusively. The pat
'entees, or their grantees of the samC
trace, and speaking the Dutch language
conferred upon the occupation of thes'
Glands before August, 1882" This being
so, there would seem to be no doubt tina
the Dutch, alone, bestowed upon thu
stream the name of BattenkH; but a
what precise time, may never be ascer.
tanned. This, its new name, had moi
reached Capt, Melven, in 174S.
In the State Library aG Montpelier i
an English atlas of the British posses
sions in America after the peace will
France, of 1868, and upon two of thu
maps this stream is called "Bdtten XII;
and am not aware of its having beer
otherwise designated, since then, unit