EARLY SETTLEMENT
“In the year 1687,” continued my venerable friend, “the
French in Canada had seven hundred Indian warriors for the
purpose of instructing them in religion and to help them kill the
English! So Governor Dongan, to get these Indians away
from the French, gave them the land about Saratoga. This was
not a very generous act when we come to consider that the land
belonged to a gentleman in Albany. The Indians kept the land
till 1742, when Father Picquet, a French priest, with some French
troops, gobbled up the Indians and stole their corn and cattle.
The French fought better then than they do now-a-days, or else
there were not any Prussian Uhlans around. The French burnt
up the Indian huts and raised the devil generally. Peace came
between the French and English, and the French priest had to
leave in 1748. Then the Sovereign of Great Britain gave away
the Van Schaick patent, which included Saratoga. In 1783
Albany County was organized, including Stillwater, Saratoga,
and Ballston. In 1791 Saratoga was taken from Albany County
and divided into twenty townships, viz: Ballston, Halfmoon,
Saratoga, Stillwater, Charlton, Galway, Milton, Greenfield, Providence,
Northumberland, Edinburgh, Hadley, Malta, Moreau,
Waterford, Corinth, Wilton, Saratoga Springs, and Clifton Park.
