Excerpt from The Herkimers and Schuylers: An Historical Sketch of the Two Families; With Genealogies of the Descendants of George Herkimer, the Palatine, Who Settled in the Mohawk Valley, N. Y., In 1721

It has required time and patience, but is a work I have thoroughly enjoyed, becoming more and more interested as time passed on.

I have found the state library at the capitol at Albany, N. Y., an interesting place in which to spend days and hours in poring over old books. This seems to be an era of backward looking, every one wanting to know something of their forefathers.

All who care for the glory of country, all who love to study the history of the events which have shaped our colonization, our government and our laws, can but look back with pride upon the story of our patriot ancestors.

The command that we honor our fathers, is not only a religious requirement but a great maxim of jurisprudence. Those who speak and think of patriotism and virtue, sow in their own minds, and those of others, these loyal traits, and this, in a great measure, goes toward shaping the characters of men, it renews the legends of the past, and stampsthem upon the memory of coming generations. It is a duty we owe our forefathers, that the tales of their prowess the dangers they incurred, and the wonderful lifting up out of it all into the nation we are today, should not be allowed to sink into the oblivion of forgetfulness.

Much has been written and much has been told of the troublous times of those olden days, but there is much still to be dug from the debris of the past, and duly commemorated in song and verse, there is history everywhere. The beautiful valley of the Mohawk abounds in it, the old churches and houses and homes still standing, built when Britons ruled the land, and oft desolated by the torch and tomahawk of the savage Indian, are sacred in our eyes. Let us then teach our children, and our childrens' children the traditions of our ancestors. Let the mother, with glowing pride, tell unto her offspring what those of their own blood and lineage suffered and dared for their country's welfare; let patriotism glow at every hearthstone.

The victory of Oriskany was the contribution of the German immigrants to American independence. Thomas Dunn English says: The battle was important not only in its immediate, but in its remote consequences, Herkimer and his men ploughed the field, Schuyler sowed, tended and ripened the crop which Gage garnered.

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