The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1895-04-05
HISTORIC WALLS.
Where the Old Song Yankee
Doodle" Was Written.
Greenbush Has Building That Is Being
Despoiled by the Hands of Curios-
ity seekers-No Efforts to
Preserve 1t.

Desp0tted by the Hands of Curios-
ity seekers-No Efforts to
Preserve 1t.
Though hundreds of people in that
vicinity know that near Fort Cralo,
which stands upon the eastern bank of
the Hudson in the little village of
Greenbush, the famous old song,
Yankee Doodle was written, yet not
an effort is being made to preserve its
historic walls.
After standing for over two centuries
and half, says the Troy Times, this
structure, which is the oldest house in
a state of preservation in America and
the last landmark of early colonization
near this city, has been abandoned,
and neglect and the despoiling hand of
the curiosity seeker are rapidly reduc-
ing it to state of dilapidation.
1t is an authentically established fact
that the erection of this old mansion
was begun in 1880, but the structure
was not completed until 1912. Con-
lecture places the causes for the delay
upon the Indians, but the real reason
is unknown.
The old mansion was built as much
for place of refuge and defense as for
dwelling purposes, and in its earliest
days was known as Fort Cralo. Sew
eral of the portfolios, through which
guns were protruded that sent many
an Indian to the happy hunting
ground" still remain in the walls.
That the place must have been repeat
edly attacked is proven by the marks
of arrow-heads and bullets that are
plainly to be seen about the portfolios.
While the Dutchmcn were on friend
ly terms with the Mohawlxs, the tribe
of Indians that lived in this vicinity,
the Mohegans, or river Indians, often
made raids upon them. When these
savages massacred the inhabitants of
Kingston (then Esopus) in 1863 the
people living along the Hudson from
that place to Fort Orange fled to Fort
Cralo for safety.
The place was always prepared for a
siege, and was capable of making a
thorough resistance. Six years after
the attack on Kingston, the combined
forces of the Mohegan and Massaehu-
setts Indians burned the villages about
Schenectady and murdered the inhab-
itants, but they did not come near the
fort, though refugees from all along
the river had again sought the protec-
ton of its walls.
When, in 1775, the British ministry
endeavored to reduce the French power
in Canada, the colonists were ordered
to enlist for an expedition against their
northern neighbors. Gen. Amherst
was ap pointed to command the Eng
lish army in northeastern America,
and in the summer of that year he
camped his regular troops on the
grounds of the PATRONS, in Greenbush,
and here the Yankees" from New
England joined them.
This motley crowd of farmers pre-
sented most ludicrous appearance to
the British soldiers, and they took
great delight in ridiculing their Ameri-
can allies, The raw recruits did pre-
sent most ludicrous appearance, hav-
ing gathered together with no attempt
at uniformity of dress and totally with
out discipline.
DR.. Shackburg, an army surgeon, eel
ebrated for his wit, composed song,
in which he satirized these farmer-sol-
diers, and called it Yankee Doodle" I"
The English soldiers began singing it
in ridicule, but it Immediately became
popular with the Yankees, and they
made the camp ring with the old jim
gle, even though its humor was at their
own expense. Little did the tailor
made soldiers think then that this was
the tune that they would be made to
dance to few years later.
Up to within thirty years the old
mansion was still owned by the de-
scendants of the PATRONS, DR.. Jere-
miah Van Rensselaer, being the last
member of the family to occupy it.
An idea of the antiquity of the house
can be most fully realized when the
events of its period are considered. It
was built only twenty-one years after
the landing Of the pilgrim fathers, and
John Washington, the grandfather of
the first president of the United States,
did not sail for Virginia until fifteen
years after the house was erected.
A structure of this kind should sure
ly be cared for. If allowed to remain
in its present neglected state it will
soon be in state of complete dilapida-
ton. A place round which history has
wound such wreath of famous Incl
dents, as it has about old Fort Cralo,
should be watched and treasured as
one of the dearest keepsakes of the ma
tion, and as a reminder of Americas s
infant civilization and struggles for
freedom. The present generation may
not appreciate its true historic value,
but the generations to come would look
upon it with far more interest and
feeling.
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