Although I’m not from Pine Plains, I was born and raised in Dutchess County – Hyde Park, mostly – and have lived in Pine Plains for over 35 years. It’s taken a while, but I think I’m finally starting to feel like a Pine Plains native.
Two things drew me to Pine Plains: the beauty of the area and its history. I came here to look at a house and the realtor took me on a scenic drive. When we passed the historical marker and monument for the Moravian mission and Mahican village of Shekomeko on Strever Farm Road, I was sold – and I hadn’t even seen the house yet!
Even though I have a Bachelor of Arts in history, at that time I had only the faintest idea who the Moravians were. But before I knew it, I was president of the Little Nine Partners Historical Society, helping to write a booklet about the hamlet of Bethel and the mission.
Courtesy of the Little Nine Partners Historical Society
When it came to planning the history programs for the Pine Plains Bicentennial, the historical society wanted to make sure we included the people, places, and events that had an impact on the formation and development of the town. Although the Bicentennial marks 1823 as the beginning of Pine Plains, what came after that date only tells a part of our story. It was important to include what came before, as well.
For starters, this meant acknowledging our Indigenous past. The historical society partnered with Sachem Robert Hawk Storm of the Schaghticoke First Nations, descendants of the Shekomeko Mahican Peoples, on two Bicentennial programs. (The Mahican Peoples are Indigenous Peoples of Pine Plains and surrounding regions and were historically represented by many autonomous bands and communities, including Mahican, Schaghticoke, and others.) The first collaboration was a kids’ program to introduce young people to Native American culture. The second program was a roundtable discussion that focused on the mission and village of Shekomeko, during which Town Supervisor Brian Walsh read a proclamation honoring Sachem Shabash of Shekomeko and the Moravian missionary Christian Henry Rauch, and recognizing Shekomeko as the traditional territory of the Mahican people. A commemorative plaque was then presented to the Town of Pine Plains and the historical society by the Schaghticoke First Nations.
Credit: R. A. Hermans
To understand how we got here, we need to go back to 1706 when the Little Nine Partners Patent was granted by the English Crown. The idea behind these patents was to promote European settlement of the colony by granting large tracts of land to individuals, partners, or companies, mostly of the merchant class. To these men (because, of course, they were all men), the Little Nine Partners Patent was 18,000 acres of wilderness waiting to be exploited. However, before any grant could be finalized, the tract had to be “unappropriated,” that is, clear of Indian claims – usually by purchase, but there were also misunderstandings over what constituted vacant land. Although Shekomeko was at times vacant, it was still Mahican land.
The first real influx of white settlers on the Little Nine Partners Patent came around 1712 with the arrival of Palatine Germans. The Palatines had been brought over to the colony to work on naval stores in the area that is now Germantown and Saugerties. After the failure of that venture, they dispersed throughout the region.
Since the patent had not yet been surveyed, no title could be given to the land and any settlers at this point were squatters. The Shekomeko Mahicans became sufficiently alarmed by people illegally encroaching on their land that, in 1738, they sent a delegation to New York City to air their grievances before the governor, who assured them it would be addressed when the patent was surveyed. A second delegation of Sachem Shabash and his owl, or advisor, Tschoop, was sent in 1740. This time by chance they met a Moravian missionary, Christian Henry Rauch, who returned to Shekomeko with them and established the mission. More Moravian missionaries soon followed and, in April of 1742, the first five Shekomeko Mahicans were baptized. In August of that same year, Count Nicolaus Zinzendorf, Bishop of the Moravian Church, visited Shekomeko and formed the first Christian congregation of Native Americans in present-day United States, consisting of ten individuals.
The Moravians were the first large-scale Protestant missionary movement, and the first to send lay people rather than clergy as missionaries. Not much was known about them at the time, so they were treated with suspicion by the settlers and authorities. This set the stage for problems later on.
What made the Mahicans so receptive to the Moravians? The Moravians were unique in that they lived among the Mahicans and adopted their lifestyle, which allowed for mutual trust to develop between the two groups. The Moravians also offered the down-trodden Mahicans hope of a better life. This carried an element of risk because many of the settlers profited from the Mahicans’ misfortune. It’s important to note that some settlers supported the Mahicans and Moravians. The Palatine Johannes Rau, who lived near Shekomeko, was a good friend of the Moravians and his daughter, Jeannette, knew the native languages and married missionary Martin Mack.
After the patent was finally surveyed in 1743, allowing the settlers to take legal possession of the land, things really began to fall apart. When the Moravians tried to help the Mahicans with their ongoing land disputes, resentful settlers turned against them. This coincided with repeated harassment of the Moravians by the local authorities, with the governor taking the drastic step, in 1744, of banning them from the province. The Moravians made the difficult decision to leave, with some of the Mahicans accompanying them, and the mission closed in 1746.
The story of Shekomeko is a testament of the strength of the human spirit in the face of adversity, and we can all learn something from the cross-cultural understanding and cooperation between the Moravians and Mahicans. But there is definitely a tragic side to this story, and it was in the spirit of reconciliation that the Schaghticoke First Nations reached out to Pine Plains during the Bicentennial.
This article was adapted from a keynote address given by Little Nine Partners Historical Society President Dyan Wapnick during the Pine Plains Central School’s Superintendent’s Conference Day on Nov. 7.