Transcription
Clay: Hi, this is Clay Edmunds here. I am, a Site Interpreter at the Old Stone Fort Museum right here in Schoharie, and I am here to share the history of the Old Stone Fort. So, the old stone fort was originally built in 1772 as a Dutch Reformed Church. If you go outside, you’ll see the names of people who were crucial to its funding and construction carved in. And there’s also a few names that have been chiseled out as well. And so we were thinking that they were either loyalists or did not pay what they owed towards the construction of this church.
Now, in 1777, this church along with two houses which are further down south in the valley, were turned into forts. And the reason why was because it was during the Revolutionary War. Now this church was still active. It just basically became a place where people could take refuge during an attack. And sure enough, an attack happened when the British Colonel John Johnson, and the Mohawk Captain Joseph Brant, came in with a force of over 700 people and burned the valley to the ground.
The Upper Fort, which was in present day Fultonham, was bypassed. But people in the militia at the fort discovered the troops. And so they fired a cannon to warn the others. And then fighting occurred at the Middle Fort, which was now in present day Middleburgh, where the defenders suffered a few casualties. And then finally, at around 4:00 in the afternoon, the Lower Fort, which is now known as the Old Stone Fort, was attacked.
The British, they had a three-pounder grasshopper cannon with them, and it was likely that they fired upon the the Old Stone Fort as a way to cover a retreat, because at that point it was towards the end of day and they probably just wanted to leave the area. So three shots were fired at the building, first two hit parts of the wall, but left no permanent mark. The third shot actually struck just below the roof and it remained there until 1830, 50 years later.
The Old Stone Fort had fulfilled its purpose as a fort and a place of refuge because no one was killed in or just outside the building. A few people were killed further down south in the valley, but no one in the Old Stone Fort itself. And so that cannonball hole that is in the Old Stone Fort building still remains to this day. And eventually the wooden stockade that had been put up was removed in 1785. And of course, after the war, this building returned to being a church. That is the end of part one, and I’ll see you in part two. Thank you.