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. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson River. The Mohawk f ...

, 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, United States. West Canada Creek is an important water way in Hamilt ...

, in

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

, United States. It should not be confused with

Fort Dayton {{coord, 43, 01, 45, N, 74, 59, 24, W, region:US_type:landmark, display=title 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 prev ...

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

Herkimer, New York Herkimer is a town in Herkimer County, New York, United States, southeast of Utica. It is named after Nicholas Herkimer. The population was 10,175 at the 2010 census. The town contains a village also called Herkimer. Herkimer County Community ...

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 (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (175 ...

, young Captain Nicholas Herkimer (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 a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, settlers rebuilt the fort as a defensive stone stockade around the Fort Herkimer Church. A joint British and Onondaga 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 navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing t ...

, 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. 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 in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 60,139. Its county seat is Herkimer. The county was created in 1791 north of the Mohawk River out of part of Montgomery County. It is named ...

. 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, 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 Herkimer Buildings and structures in Herkimer County, New York Herkimer {{HerkimerCountyNY-geo-stub