Click on this MP3 player below to listen to what Peeks kill means:
(click above images to read contents)
The first image is that of >"Mahican Chief Etow Oh
Koam, known as Nicholas", the only known portrait of an 18th century Mahican chief
and comes from the Print Collection, Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints
& Photographs, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenow and Tilden Foundations
The second image is of Jan Peek, Peekskill founder . The third image is of The Blue Rock, the beginning of Peekskill. ,
Pages taken from"
PEEKSKILL, A FRIENDLY TOWN: ITS HISTORIC SITES AND SHRINES; A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE CITY FROM 1654 TO 1952. by Chester A. Smith, Enterprise Press, 1952. They are in the thumbnail mode for easy loading. By
clicking on each small image above, you will be able to view the entire
image page including the text.
The Native Americans - The First
Inhabitants of Peekskill.
At the time of the discovery of the Hudson River in
1609, Capt. Henry Hudson and the men of the Half Moon anchored off what is now Verplanck.
He was met by the Kitchawanks, a subtribe of the Mahican Tribe, part of the
Algonquin nation. Peekskill was known to the Kitchawanks as Sackhoes.
The Kitchawanks spent the kinder months along with river, and moved inland to hunt
and winter near Blue Mountain (Appamagpogh). The Peekskill Museum has a
collection of flint arrowheads that were found throughout the area. The Dutch and
early English settlers, including Jan Peek reported the shores of the bay of Sackhoes
(Peekskill Bay) was piled high with oyster and clam shells that were harvested by the
Kitchawanks.
The Kitchawanks remained in some numbers in the area
until the end of the 17th century. We know that Jan Peek began a very
successful trading venture in 1654 up the Acquesinnick, Annsville Creek -part of what is now the
Northern border of the City of Peekskill. Following the sale of their lands to Stephanus Van Cortlandt, the
Kitchawanks began to move away ending up in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts.
Kitchawanc Indian information from "Wampum Strings of the Kitchawancs:
Indians of Croton and Vicinity." by
Marian F. Graves (Croton-on-Hudson, NY, May 1, 1952 2nd ed., Jan 15, 1988)
Historical Room of the Croton Free Library.
