Chapter 8 - Revolution
Staring Escapes Certain Death
Heinrich Staring was a Captain in the Tryon County Militia during the Battle of Oriskany. A year or so after, he was captured near German Flatts by enemy Indians and taken to one of the abandoned Brothertown Indian dwellings on the upper reaches of Oriskany Creek to be burned alive. His escape is a MohawkValley legend.
Dale Janes recently discovered a battered and torn copy of, Annals And Recollections of Oneida County by Pomroy Jones. Much to my delight, he gave it to me. I’ve read portions of library copies of this book, but until now I haven't had the opportunity to read it at my leisure. Pomroy Jones wrote this book in 1851 and included many first and second hand accounts of events during the Revolutionary War. One of the most fascinating is the Heinrich Staring Story. I offer it here, in part, as yet another discovery in the Mohawk Valley.
"At the commencement of the Revolutionary War, we find him a militia officer, and regarded by the royal party as a most important and influential personage in his neighborhood. He was present at the battle of Oriskany, and from that period held the office of Colonel of the Tryon County militia during the remainder of the war. Possessing great shrewdness, strong common sense, and unflinching intrepidity, he enjoyed the unlimited confidence of the German and Dutch settlers on the Mohawk, and became a prominent object for seizure by the enemy. A great number of anecdotes illustrative of the extraordinary means that were used by the enemy he had to deal with to procure his person or destroy him, might be related. The story was from the lips of the old man several years after the war. The event took place some time late in November, and about the year 1778 or 1779. He had, for some purpose, gone into the woods at some distance from his home, and while there, by chance, came suddenly upon a party of hostile Indians, who, during those years, were frequently prowling about the settlements on the Mohawk, and occasionally making murderous incursions among the inhabitants. Before he became fully aware of their presence he had got so completely in their power that flight or resistance were out of the question. He was seized with every demonstration of hellish delight, and rapidly hurried away in a contrary direction from his home and southward of the Mohawk, until his captors supposed themselves out of the reach of pursuit, when they directed their march eastward, and at night reached a small uninhabited wigwam at a little more than a quarter of a mile from the right bank of the Oriskany Creek, above Clinton, in what is now called Brothertown. The wigwam consisted of two rooms, separated from each other by a partition of logs. Into the larger of these there opened an outside door which furnished the only entrance to the house. Another door communicated from the larger to the smaller room. The latter had one window, a small square hole of less than six feet above the floor. The whole structure was of logs, substantially built. The Indians examined the smaller room, and concluded that by securely fastening their prisoner hand and foot, they could safely keep him there until morning. They, therefore, bound his hands behind him with withes, and then fastened his ankles together in the same manner, and laid him thus bound in the small room, while they built a fire in the larger one, and commenced a consultation concerning the disposition of him. Staring, though unable to speak the Indian language, was sufficiently acquainted with it to understand their deliberations, and he lay listening intently to their conversation. The whole party were unanimous in the decision that he must be put to death, but the manner of doing this in the way best calculated to make the white warrior cry like a cowardly squaw, was a question of high importance, and one which it required a good deal of deliberation to settle satisfactorily to all his captors. At length, however it was agreed that he should be burned alive on the following morning, and preparations were accordingly made for the diabolical sports of a savage"auto da fe".
During the deliberation, the horrible fate that awaited him suggested to Colonel Staring the question of the possibility of an escape. As he lay on the ground in the wigwam, he could see the window I have spoken of, and he determined to make an effort to release himself from the withes which bound him, and endeavor to effect a passage through it without alarming his savage keepers. Before they had sunk to rest, he had so far succeeded as to release one of his hands from its fastenings, sufficiently to enable him to slip his wrist out. On finding that he could do this, he feigned sleep, and when the Indians came in to examine and see if all was safe, they retired, exulting with a fiend-like sneer, that their victim was sleeping his last sleep. They then all laid down on the ground in the larger room, to go to sleep. Staring waited until all had for a long time become quiet, when, slipping his hand from the withes, he was enabled silently to release his ankles, and by climbing up the side of the house by the aid of the logs, to escape from the window without creating an alarm. In the attempt and while releasing his ankles from the withes, he had necessarily taken off his shoes, and had forgotten to secure them with him. He was now outside of the wigwam, barefoot, at a distance of five and twenty miles from his home, without a guide or a path, hungry, and in a frost night in November, and with a band of enemies seeking his heart's blood, lying ready to spring upon him. But he was once more free from their clench, and his one thought was nerve, and strength, and food, - was all he needed to call into action his every power. He stole with cautious silence from the wigwam, directing his course towards the creek, and increasing his gait as he left his captors, and got beyond the danger of alarming them. He had got about half way to the creek, and had begun to flatter himself that his whole escape was accomplished, when he heard a shout from the wigwam, and immediately the bark of the Indian dogs in pursuit. He then plunged on at the top of his speed, and knowing that, while on the land, the dogs would follow on his track, in order to baffle their pursuit, as soon as he reached the creek, he jumped in, and ran down stream in the channel. For some time he heard the shouts of his late masters, and the baying of their hounds in the pursuit; and now that he had reached the water, where their dogs could not track him, he laughed out-right as he ran, in thinking of the disappointment they would feel when they arrived at the bank. The fear of the faggot, and all its accompanying tortures, furnished a stimulus to every muscle, and he urged on his flight until he heard no more of his enemies, and became satisfied that they had given up their pursuit.
He deemed it prudent, however, to continue his course in the bed of the creek, until he should reach a path which led from Oneida to Old Fort Schuyler, - a mud fort, built on the present site of Utica during the French war, and which was situated between Main street and the banks of the river, a little eastward of Second street. The path crossed the Oriskany about half a mile westward of where the village of Clinton now stands. He then took this path and pursued his course. I have mentioned that, in his haste to escape, he forgot his shoes. He had on a pair of wool stockings, but in running on the gravel in the creek, they soon became worn out, and the sharp pebbles cut his feet. In this difficulty, he bethought him of a substitute for shoes, in the coat he wore, which, fortunately was made of a thick heavy serge. He cut off the sleeves of this at his elbows, and drew them upon his feet, and thus protected them from injury. But he used to say he soon found this was robbing Peter to pay Paul, for in the severity of the night, his arms became chilled, and almost frozen. He reached the landing at Fort Schuyler just in the gray dawn of the morning, and cautiously reconnoitering, in order to ascertain whether any one was in the fort, which was frequently used as a camp ground, he satisfied himself that no one was in the neighborhood. In doing this, he fortunately discovered a canoe which had floated down the stream, and lodged in the willows which grew on the edge of the bank. He instantly took possession of it, and by a vigorous use of the paddles, with the aid of the current, succeeded in reaching his home with his little bark in the middle of the forenoon."
