Fort Herkimer was a colonial fort located on the south side of the

Mohawk River The Mohawk River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 river in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson R ...

, opposite the mouth of its tributary

West Canada Creek The West Canada Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 river in upstate New York (state), New York, United States. West Canada Creek is an important w ...

, in

German Flatts, New York German Flatts is a town in Herkimer County, New York, United States. The population was 12,263 at the 2020 census down from 13,258 at the 2010 census. The town is in the southern part of Herkimer County, on the south side of the Mohawk River, ...

, United States. It should not be confused with

Fort Dayton Fort Dayton was an American Revolutionary War fort located on the north side of the Mohawk River at West Canada Creek, in what is now Herkimer, New York. A fort had previously been built on the same site during the French and Indian War. It shou ...

, which was located on the north side of the Mohawk River, in what is now

Herkimer, New York Herkimer is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Herkimer County, New York, United States, southeast of Utica, New York, Utica. It is named after Nicholas Herkimer. The population was 9,566 at the 2020 census, down from 10,175 in ...

History

The fort was first built in 1740 around the homestead of the Hercheimer (Herkimer) family. In 1757 during the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...

, young Captain

Nicholas Herkimer Brigadier-General Nicholas Herkimer (also known as Nikolaus Herchheimer; – August 16, 1777) was an American military officer who fought during the French and Indian War and Revolutionary War. He died in 1777 from wounds suffered during the ...

(later to be a heroic general in the Revolutionary War) had his first military command of colonial forces here when the French attacked German Flatts in 1757 and 1758. It has originally known as Fort ''Kaouri'' (Fort Bear). During the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

, settlers rebuilt the fort as a defensive stone stockade around the Fort Herkimer Church. A joint British and

Onondaga Onondaga may refer to: Native American/First Nations * Onondaga people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois League * Onondaga (village), Onondaga settlement and traditional Iroquois capit ...

force attacked German Flatts and the forts on each side of the river in 1778. They captured some of the settlers who were outside the southern fort, including three children of the Demuth family: Catherine, George, and Samuel. After the two older children returned to their family during a prisoner exchange but Samuel, the youngest Demuth captive, had been adopted by the Onondaga and chose to stay with them, as he had become assimilated. He later settled with them on a reservation near Syracuse, from where he kept in touch with his family and acted as an interpreter for the Onondaga and settlers. Both the old and new forts were destroyed in 1840 during expansion of the

Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east–west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigability, navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, ...

, as their stones were used for its construction. The Fort Herkimer Church still stands today. The church belongs to the regional Montgomery Classis of the

Reformed Church in America The Reformed Church in America (RCA) is a mainline Reformed Protestant denomination in Canada and the United States. It has about 82,865 members. From its beginning in 1628 until 1819, it was the North American branch of the Dutch Reformed ...

. W.N.P. Dailey, ''The History of Montgomery Classis, R.C.A.''/To which is added Sketches of Mohawk Valley Men...
Amsterdam, NY: Recorder Press, 1916; full text online at Internet Archive; accessed 31 January 2011 The former site of Fort Herkimer is located in the current town of German Flatts, on the south side of the Mohawk River in

Herkimer County, New York Herkimer County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 60,139. Its county seat is Herkimer (village), New York, Herkimer. The co ...

. Fort Herkimer is sometimes confused with nearby

on the north side of the river, around which the Village of Herkimer developed.

References

External links

Text of historical marker
on

New York State Route 5 New York State Route 5 (NY 5) is a state highway that extends for across the state of New York in the United States. It begins at the Pennsylvania state line in the Chautauqua County town of Ripley and passes through Buffalo, Sy ...

, Revolutionary Day website
Old Fort Herkimer
New York State Military Museum

which mentions the fort; New York History Buildings and structures demolished in 1840

Herkimer Herkimer may refer to: People: * Johan Jost Herkimer (1732–1795), United Empire Loyalist, brother of Nicholas Herkimer * John Herkimer (1773–1848), American lawyer and politician from New York * Lawrence Herkimer (1925–2015), American innov ...

Buildings and structures in Herkimer County, New York

{{HerkimerCountyNY-geo-stub