Peter VanSlyke-Part I

Peter VanSlyke is remembered today in Greene County history as the man who donated land for the site of the new county seat of Greene County, later named Bloomfield.

VanSlyke has an interesting history. Peter Cornelius VanSlyke was born on April 5, 1766, near the Mohawk River in Schenectady, New York, the son of Cornelius VanSlyke and Catrina Veeder.

According to Dutch Reformed Church records in New York, Peter was baptized on April 12, 1767, when he was one year old and he married Margarieta Lighthall in Schenectady on February 28, 1790, when he was 22. They had 10 children, all born before Peter came to Indiana.

According to a later description of Peter VanSlyke given by his granddaughter, Johanna Eveleigh of Bloomfield, Peter was a soldier in the War of 1812, and was a fine-looking man with his “regimentals on.” He was six feet and four inches tall and weighed 250 pounds--the same height and weight as George Washington. He sometimes dressed in knee breeches, knee buckles, shoe buckles and stockings in the fashion of the time. But he is also described as often wearing buckskin shirt and pants with fringes around his hunting shirt, similar to the Mohawk Indians of New York. A New York neighbor once described him as wearing a “splendid buckskin dress with a dressed deerskin sack of ground parched corn, which sack was slim and laid round the body inside the hunting shirt above the belt, dried venison ham in another sack, tin cup to the belt outside (this to mix the meal in with water), tomahawk and butcher knife, perfect knowledge of how to camp in the woods.”

In 1816 Peter VanSlyke came to Indiana and to the area we now know as Greene County, although it was then a part of Daviess County. He bought 1,000 acres of land, paying $2 per acre in gold. The country was then uninhabited, the abode of panthers, wolves and other wild animals. He left his eldest daughter Catherina with her husband, John VanVorst, in Indiana on the newly-purchased land and VanSlyke returned to New York.

In 1818 Peter VanSlyke returned to Indiana, bringing with him his wife and his two sons James and Cornelius, his daughter Sarah, and the wife and children of Cornelius. On March 11, 1881, the Bloomfield News reported the memories of the trip made by the VanSlyke family, as related by Ann Wines, the remarried widow of Cornelius VanSlyke, who died in 1834. The following is her account of the journey of the VanSlykes from New York to Indiana:

“Our party left Schenectady on the third of October 1818. Our outfit consisted of two wagons, the beds of which were made watertight. All our clothing and articles not needed on the way were packed closely on the bottom, and over them another floor was laid, on which were placed our beds, provisions, and cooking utensils. The trip was uneventful until we reached Buffalo, New York, the road up to that city being macadamized and easily traveled. At Buffalo, we struck the Lake Shore Road, about 2 o’clock in the afternoon. The sand was so deep the horses could go but a few yards at a time and were soon covered with foam so thick that it could be scraped off by handfuls. There was about 14 miles of this sand road and night overtook us long before we were out of it. We camped for the night, the women in the wagons, the men under them. Soon indications of a storm arose. It thundered fearfully, but we did not know the extent of our danger. Fortunately, a teamster came along about midnight. He hailed us with ‘Hallo, my friends, do you know you are in danger of being wiped out into the lake by the waves?’ Being acquainted with the road, he drove along in the water’s edge guiding and assisting us so that by the time the storm broke we were safely past the shore. When our baked provisions gave out, we bought flour in sufficient quantities to last two or three days and raised our yeast in a tin bucket as we traveled and baked when we camped at night. Usually, the women and children of our party slept in houses on the way and as occasion required, washed and dried our clothing by fire. The first log cabin I ever saw was in Ohio. It was a novelty then, but became a familiar object in a few years. Arriving where Washington, Daviess county, is now situated, we purchased some flour which proved to have been made of sick wheat. Washington then consisted of a few cabins, a mill and a fort which had been used in the war of 1812, that closed only four years previous to this time. The fort was still exactly as it had been originally–a rough block house. Leaving Washington early in the morning, we stopped at John Bradford’s, a short distance this side of the settlement. We were urged by our hospitable host to remain until the next morning as they were to have a corn-husking that evening and we would have the opportunity of making the acquaintance of some parties who had entered land and expected to become neighbors to us the following spring. We accepted the invitation and met our future neighbors, Billy Scott and Billy Robinson, for many years favorably known throughout the county. Coming on the next day as far as McHyatt’s mill, afterwards known as Slinkard’s, on Slinkard creek, about twelve miles south of this place, we camped for the night. There we ate the bread from Washington Mill and were all made sick by it, but consoled ourselves by thinking we would soon arrive at our destination, and as it was Saturday, we would find our friend Catharina VanVorst with a supply of fresh bread and pumpkin pies. No other kind could be obtained here then. The last half of our journey from Washington, we were mostly guided by compass, there being no indications of a road. When we got to the little stream near where the depot now stands, Father VanSlyke remarked that he remembered that branch. We were then on his land. Coming on to where the planing mill now stands, we came to a cabin with a very high fence around it. This was the home of our tenant, Mr. Carlow. A little boy dressed in a single garment of leather was playing outside. We inquired of him the way to Mr. VanVorst’s; we found them beating and sifting corn for meal, being out of flour. They had expected us earlier in the fall and delayed going to mill, expecting us to bring flour with us. We soon had a delicious supper of pumpkin, bread, potatoes and fresh game. We arrived here about the 15th of Nov., having been on the road six weeks, the only rest taken in the daytime being the one at Mr. Bradford’s.”

The next column of Footprints will continue the story of the early Bloomfield settlement and the memories of Ann Wines.

“Footprints” is a series of stories about the people, places and circumstances that make up the history of the Town of Bloomfield on the occasion of Bloomfield’s coming bicentennial. David Holt has researched extensively to write these stories we share with you, and we thank him for that.