DELAWARE COUNTY. 105 of Captain Alexander Harper, consisting, in all, of fourteen persons, was sent by Col. Peter Vrooman from Schoharie into Harpersfield, for the purpose of making a quantity of maple- sugar, and watching the movements of certain disaffected per- sons residing in that vicinity. The names of the scout were Alexander Harper, captain, Freegift* and Isaac Patchin, brothers, J ames Hendry, and his two sons, Thomas and John, William Lamb, and son, Ezra Thorp, lieutenant, Henry Thorp, Cornelius Teabout, James Stevens, and two others, whose names I have been unable to learn. Shortly after the party had arrived at the place of rendez- vous, a block-housef near the present village of Harpersfield Centre, and distant from the Schoharie forts about thirty miles, where they deposited their provisions, a heavy snow- storm came on, during which the snow fell about three feet in addition to what was already on the ground. After completing the ^^camp,'^ as it was commonly termed, and seeing the men fairly engaged in the merry business of making sugar at the different bushes, five in number. Harper returned to Schoharie on some business, and did not come back to them till the 8 th. Among the early settlers in Harpersville was one Samuel Cloughston, a tory, who resided on lot No. 13, now owned by James Smith, and situated on the road called Smith street. He had purchased the same of Col. John Harper, sometime in 1776, and had continued to harbor the Indians and tories ever since the commencement of hostilities in that quarter ; indeed, so noted had this place
- Freegift Patchin settled apart at Patchin Hollow, Schoharie
County, after whom the place took its name. He was a worthy man, and once represented the county in the State Legislature. He was familiarly known in his latter days as (reweraZ Patchin. He died in 1830. f This block-house was erected as soon as 1118] but the precise time I have been unable to learn.
