MOHAWK, a river whose head-waters rise in Mohawk Hill in the southern part of Lewis County, N. Y. It flows south to Rome, where east by south, with many curves, it con tinues to the Hudson River, which it enters at Cohoes, nine miles above Albany. It is about 160 miles long, and is the largest tribu tary of the Hudson. In several places along the route there are rapids and falls, as at Little Falls in Herkimer County, Oriskany in Oneida County, and several other places, all of which are noted for manufacturing. The falls of the Mohawk River (Cohoes Falls) 70 feet high are near Cohoes, where in a glacial pot hole the complete skeleton of a mas todon was discovered in 1883. The bed of the Mohawk River was once much wider than the present channel through which the water passes; in some places the distances between the old banks are from a mile to nearly three miles. The Mohawk Valley is noted for its beauty and the fertility of its soil. The Erie Canal (q.v.) is parallel with the river to Rome. Two railroads parallel the river to Rome, the New York Central and Hudson River and the West Shore. The manufacturing industries of the valley, which depend largely for motive power upon the water power of the Mohawk, are extensive. A number of pretty villages and thriving manufacturing towns are on its banks, chief of which from west to east are Rome and Utica in Oneida County; Ilion, Herkimer and Little Falls in Herkimer County; Fort Plain, Canajoharie, Fonda and Amsterdam in Mont gomery County; Schenectady in Schenectady County and Mechanicville in Saratoga County.
In the ((Settlement Period" of the United States, this valley was the main highway from the ((East Colonies)" to the Great Lakes. It was the home of the most warlike tribes of Indians, the headquarters of the Five Nations. The first missionaries and the first explorers who left the Hudson River in this part of the United States journeyed along the country through which flowed the Mohawk. In this valley, near
the Mohawk, Goupil was killed by the Indians, and later Father Jogues (q.v.) was martyred at the place now called Auriesville, on the south side of the river a little east of Fonda. Sir William Johnson built two homes in this valley, one at Fort Johnson about one mile west of Amsterdam, now the railroad station of Akin, the other, Johnson Hall, near the present Johnstown in Fulton County. Much of the early history of the river and valley as re lated to the whites is connected with the rule of Sir William Johnson and his power over the Five Nations. The centre of wealth and power, in the valley before the war, was at Johnson's home. At the breaking out of the Revolution ary War, an effort was made by both parties to hold possession of the Mohawk. The death of Sir William Johnson, just at the beginning of the war, removed a strong power from the council. His sons and their friends lacked his humanity and wisdom. The union between the British and the Indians resulted in many ter rible scenes, among others the massacres of Cherry Creek and Schoharie, the burning of homes and the taking of many lives in the valley. Burgoyne (q.v.) realized the value of having possession of this valley, and some of the important battles of the Revolution took place along the Mohawk. There were many Tories in the valley; but a large number of the settlers were always patriots. When the news of Concord and Lexington reached the inhabitants along the Mohawk, many of them loaded into wagons all the grain they could spare and sent the precious cargoes over the rough roads to Boston. When the British de termined to end the war the Mohawk Valley, the gateway to the West, was the site chosen.
Here the Tories outnumbered the patriots, and the Indians were the allies of the British; but Saint Leger's defeat at Oriskany by men under Nicholas Herkimer filled Burgoyne with de spair and fired the enthusiasm and enlivened the hope of the patriots.