Vol. II. 



THE TOWN 



OF 



O S S I 2ST-1 1ST a- 



This township is bounded on the East and South by Mount Pleasant, 

 (of which it once formed a part, a ) on the West by the Hudson river, 

 and on the north by New Castle and the Croton river. Like the 

 neighboring townships, it was originally included within the honour and 

 fee of Philipsburgh. 



Ossin-ing, the proper Indian orthography of the word variously 

 written Sin-sing, Sing Sing, Sin Sinck and Sink Sink, is derived from 

 ossin, (a stone) and ing (a place) or "stone upon stone: " L — a name 

 exceedingly characteristic of this beautiful town, whose coast is guarded 

 by a vast munition of rocks and ancient boulders. At a very early 

 period Ossin-ing constituted a part of the possessions of a powerful 

 Mohegan clan called the Sint Sings. 



April the 2 2d, 1643, appeared before the Dutch Director General 

 Kieft in Fort Amsterdam, Oratatrim, sachem of Ack-kin-kas-hacky, 

 who declared he was deputed by those of Tappan, Reekgawanck, 

 Kicktawanc and Sint Sinck, to conclude a peace with the Dutch in 

 the following manner, viz. : that all the injustices committed by the 

 said nations against the Netherlander, or by the Netherlander against 

 said nations, shall be forgiven and forgotten for ever; reciprocally 

 promising one another to cause no trouble the one to the other; but 

 whenever the savages understand that any nation not mentioned in 



a This town wa3 separately organized, May 2d, 1S45. Laws of X. T., 1S45. Also 69 

 Session, 1&±6, chap, xxx., 26-5 section. 



b N. T. Hist. Soc. Pro- 1S44. 101. Ossin in the Chippeway denotes "a stone." and Ossineen 

 "stones." Trans. Amer. Antiq. Soc. vol. ii., 70. 



