580 Agricultural Manual 



an annual rental, payble in grain, beeves, and wampum, or a share 

 of the products of the land. The average rate of rent demanded 

 was ten bushels of wheat for a hundred acres. 



Ilendrick Hudson was undoubtedly the first white man to step 

 foot within the present limits of Rensselaer County, even before ho 

 sailed up to Albany. At that time this section was occupied by a 

 tribe of friendly Indians, the Mohicans, or Mohegans, since made 

 famous by the writings of James Fenimore Cooper. Two years* 

 before the founding of Rensselaerwyck, the Mohicans were driven 

 by the Mohawks into the Connecticut valley, and for many years 

 the territory now comprising the city of Troy probably remained 

 part of the hunting ground of the Mohawk Indians. Tn 

 1720, a grant of 490 acres, comprehending the original allotments 

 on which the city was erected, was made by the proprietor of the 

 manor of Rensselaerwyck to Derrick Vanderheyden, at the small 

 rent of 3% bushels of wheat and four fat fowls annually. After 

 the Revolution, emigrants from New England, seeing the advan- 

 tageous situation of Vanderheyden, as Troy was then called, 

 induced the owners to lay it out into town lots. The completion of 

 the Erie Canal gave an impulse to enterprise that developed the 

 village into an important city. 



The northern border of the county suffered repeated ravages by 

 the enemy during the French wars, and many settlements were 

 broken up. 



In the lower part of the city of Rensselaer stands Fort Cralo, 

 where the well-known song of Yankee Doodle was written by Dr. 

 Shackburg, a surgeon in the British army, during the last of tho 

 French and Indian wars. It was intended as a satire on the Con- 

 tinental regiments, whose general appearance greatly amused the 

 well-drilled and well-uniformed British soldiers. 



Within the limits of the town of Hoosick the battle of Benning- 

 ton was fought, August 16, 1777, the result of which contributed 

 more than did any other event to the final surrender of Burgoyne 

 at Saratoga. A portion of the battlefield is now the property of the 

 state. 



In the long struggle between landlords and tenants, known as 

 the " anti-rent war/' many exciting events occurred in the county. 



