Fort Herkimer was a colonial fort located on the south side of the Mohawk River, opposite the mouth of its tributary West Canada Creek, in German Flatts, New York, United States.
It should not be confused with Fort Dayton , which was located on the north side of the Mohawk River, in what is now Herkimer, New York.
The fort was first built in 1740 around the homestead of the Hercheimer (Herkimer) family. In 1757 during the Seven Years' War, young Captain Nicholas Herkimer (later to be a heroic general in the Revolutionary War) had his first military command of colonial forces here when the French attacked German Flatts in 1757 and 1758. It has originally known as Fort Kaouri (Fort Bear).
During the American Revolutionary War, settlers rebuilt the fort as a defensive stone stockade around the Fort Herkimer Church. A joint British and Onondaga force attacked German Flatts and the forts on each side of the river in 1778. They captured some of the settlers who were outside the southern fort, including three children of the Demuth family: Catherine, George, and Samuel. After the two older children returned to their family during a prisoner exchange but Samuel, the youngest Demuth captive, had been adopted by the Onondaga and chose to stay with them, as he had become assimilated. He later settled with them on a reservation near Syracuse, from where he kept in touch with his family and acted as an interpreter for the Onondaga and settlers.
Both the old and new forts were destroyed in 1840 during expansion of the Erie Canal, as their stones were used for its construction. The Fort Herkimer Church still stands today. The church belongs to the regional Montgomery Classis of the Reformed Church in America. [1]
The former site of Fort Herkimer is located in the current town of German Flatts, on the south side of the Mohawk River in Herkimer County, New York. Fort Herkimer is sometimes confused with nearby Fort Dayton on the north side of the river, around which the Village of Herkimer developed.
Montgomery County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 49,532. The county seat is Fonda. The county was named in honor of Richard Montgomery, an American Revolutionary War general killed in 1775 at the Battle of Quebec. The county is part of the Mohawk Valley region of the state.
Herkimer County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 60,139. Its county seat is Herkimer. The county was created in 1791 north of the Mohawk River out of part of Montgomery County. It is named after General Nicholas Herkimer, who died from battle wounds in 1777 after taking part in the Battle of Oriskany during the Revolutionary War. The county is part of the Mohawk Valley region of the state.
Oneida County is a county in the state of New York, United States. As of February 26, 2024, the population was 226,654. The county seat is Utica. The name is in honor of the Oneida, one of the Five Nations of the Iroquois League or Haudenosaunee, which had long occupied this territory at the time of European encounter and colonization. The federally recognized Oneida Indian Nation has had a reservation in the region since the late 18th century, after the American Revolutionary War. The county is part of the Mohawk Valley region of the state.
Danube is a town in Herkimer County, New York, United States. The population was 801 at the 2020 census, down from 1,039 in 2010. Early Palatine German immigrants in the eighteenth century named the town after the Danube River in Europe.
German Flatts is a town in Herkimer County, New York, United States. The population was 12,263 at the 2020 census down from 13,258 at the 2010 census.
Mohawk is a village in Herkimer County, New York, United States. The population was 2,731 at the 2010 census. The village was named after the adjacent Mohawk River.
Town of Palatine is a town in Montgomery County, New York, United States. It is located on the north side of the Mohawk River in the northwestern part of the county. The population was 3,240 at the 2010 census, the highest since the 1820s. The name is derived from the Palatinate in the Rhineland, the homeland of the Germans who were the earliest European settlers of this region. Administrative offices of the town are located in Palatine Bridge
Thayendanegea or Joseph Brant was a Mohawk military and political leader, based in present-day New York and, later, Brantford, in what is today Ontario, who was closely associated with Great Britain during and after the American Revolution. Perhaps the best known Native American of his generation, he met many of the most significant American and British people of the age, including both United States President George Washington and King George III of Great Britain.
Herkimer is a village on the north side of the Mohawk River and the county seat of Herkimer County, New York, United States, about 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Utica. As of the 2020 Census, it had a population of 7,234, and a predicted population of 7,283 on July 1, 2022. It was part of the Burnetsfield Patent and the first colonial settlement this far west in the Mohawk Valley.
Herkimer is a town in Herkimer County, New York, United States, southeast of Utica. It is named after Nicholas Herkimer. The population was 9,566 at the 2020 census, down from 10,175 in 2010.
The Mohawk Valley region of the U.S. state of New York is the area surrounding the Mohawk River, sandwiched between the Adirondack Mountains and Catskill Mountains, northwest of the Capital District. As of the 2010 United States Census, the region's counties have a combined population of 622,133 people. In addition to the Mohawk River valley, the region contains portions of other major watersheds such as the Susquehanna River.
The Battle of Oriskany was a major engagement of the Saratoga campaign during the American Revolutionary War. On August 6, 1777, an American column of Tryon County militia and Oneidas marching to relieve the siege of Fort Stanwix was ambushed by a contingent of Britain's Indigenous allies and Loyalists. It was one of the few battles of the war in which most non-Indigenous participants were settlers born in the Thirteen Colonies. The Americans suffered heavy casualties during the battle.
Brigadier-General Nicholas Herkimer was an American military officer who fought during the French and Indian War and Revolutionary War. He died in 1777 from wounds suffered during the Battle of Oriskany.
Drums Along the Mohawk is a 1939 American historical drama film based upon a 1936 novel of the same name by American author Walter D. Edmonds. The film stars Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert, was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, and directed by John Ford.
Adam Frederick Helmer, also known as John Adam Frederick Helmer and Hans Adam Friedrich Helmer, was an American Revolutionary War soldier among those of the Mohawk Valley and surrounding regions of New York State. He was made nationally famous by Walter D. Edmonds' popular 1936 novel Drums Along the Mohawk with its depiction of "Adam Helmer's Run" of September 16, 1778, to warn the people of German Flatts of the approach of Joseph Brant and his company of Indians and Tories.
Fort Dayton was an American Revolutionary War fort located on the north side of the Mohawk River at West Canada Creek, in what is now Herkimer, New York. A fort had previously been built on the same site during the French and Indian War.
Johannes Justus Schuyler was a Tory with patriot roots, who was used by American General Benedict Arnold to repel the British and Indian forces of Colonel Barry St. Leger and Joseph Brant from their siege of Fort Stanwix following the Battle of Oriskany during the American Revolution.
The attack on German Flatts was the successful assault on the British North American settlement of German Flatts, New York by a combined French-Indian force on November 12, 1757 during the French and Indian War. Inhabited by Palatine colonists, the settlement's defenders were defeated by the 300-strong force of attackers, and German Flatts was captured and destroyed. Between 40 and 50 of the colonists were killed, and 150 were captured; in comparison, the French-Indian force only suffered 5 wounded.
The attack on German Flatts was a raid on the frontier settlement of German Flatts, New York during the American Revolutionary War. The attack was made by a mixed force of Loyalists and Iroquois under the overall command of Mohawk leader Joseph Brant, and resulted in the destruction of houses, barns, and crops, and the taking of livestock for the raiders' use. The settlers, warned by the heroic run of Adam Helmer, took refuge in local forts but were too militarily weak to stop the raiders.
Fort Hunter is a hamlet in the Town of Florida in Montgomery County, New York, United States, west of the capital at Albany, on the south bank of the Mohawk River and on the northeast bank of Schoharie Creek.
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