esquatak

Updated: May 18, 2025

This rolling country was once the council seat of the Mohicans, this fact being commemorated in the name of Schodack, a Dutch rendering of the Indian word Esquatak, "the fireplace of the nation." The Mohicans had been pretty thoroughly "pacified" by the Mohawks about the time that Hudson ascended the river, and this region is full of legends of fights and ambuscades.

C. G. (Charles Gilbert) Hine - The New York and Albany Post Road: From Kings Bridge to "The Ferry at Crawlier, over against: Albany," Being an Account of a Jaunt on Foot Made at Sundry: Convenient Times between May and November, Nineteen Hundred: and Five