Johannes Alexander Glen and Anna Peek - my 7th Great Grandparents

Story found in the book:  "MORE COLONIAL HOMESTEADS AND THEIR STORIES", Bv Marion Harland, pages 160-165

The homestead and the surrounding plantation were inherited by John Alexander, the third and youngest son of Alexander Lindsay Glen. As a rule, the colonists married early. At nineteen, John Alexander had espoused Anna Peek, the daughter of the settler from whom Peekskill takes its name, and was now the father of six living children. The site of the " mansion of stone " on the
north bank of the Mohawk was nearer the water's edge than the present house. Little by little, the channel encroached upon grounds and foundations for half a century, until the lower courses of stone — all that remain to mark the spot — are now under water. When John Alexander Glen became,
in the thirty-seventh year of his age, master of the estate, he was the richest man for many miles around. The family gift of winning popularity was his in large measure. With the Indians and French he was " Major Coudre," a nickname bestowed for some reason that has not been transmitted to us.

Says his historian-descendant, in mock seriousness: "The Mohawks of Scotia's early days were always devoted friends of the Dutch, but they were barbarous after all, and the white population was too sparse, weak, and timid to interfere with the chivalric customs of those noble knights of the tomahawk, blunderbuss, bow, and arrow."   In pursuance of the politic tolerance exercised toward the chivalric customs of the soil, the Mohawks had been allowed to retain the right to torture and burn alive such prisoners as they willed to hale to a hillock within the precincts of the Scotia plantation. The spot had been set aside for that purpose through untold generations of blood-loving warriors. Where their fathers butchered, they would slay and burn. Nothing the Glens — father and sons — could say had abated the horrible practice.

When a large body of Mohawks, just returned from an expedition northward, swarmed down upon their " reserve " one summer afternoon, soon after Alexander Glen's death, the hubbub of savage rejoicing, distinctly audible at the house, was nothing novel or alarming. What was to be, would be. If John Glen and Anna, his wife, had not seen with their own eyes the frightful ceremonies set for the next day, they had heard stories of them from their babyhood, and comprehended the futility of meddling with wild beasts ravenous for blood.

The complexion of the present case was changed when a party of the savages brought to their house for safe-keeping a French Jesuit priest, the destined victim of the morrow's sacrifice.

I quote from a descendant's letter : "The reason of their peculiar dislike to priests was this : The Mohawks were Protestants after their own fashion, — ''because the Dutch were, — and this priest, with others, had proselyted among them, and caused some, as a Catholic party, to remove to Canada. Now, these rejoicing, victorious Christians soon announced to Mr. Glen and his wife that they intended a special roast of their captive on the following morning. So they brought the unfortunate priest along for Glen to lock up in his cellar until they should want him for their pious sacrifice."

With the blanched face and quivering limbs of the doomed man before them, the husband and wife were coolly composed. They raised no objection to the pious roast aforesaid. As a matter of ordinary prudence, they declined to take the responsibility of becoming the captor's jailers. They knew the tricks and manners of these priests. Wizards they were, to a man, and the Jesuits the wiliest wizards of all. If the Mohawks, at all times and everywhere their very good friends, insisted upon putting the prisoner into their cellar, he must be locked up by the Mohawks' own hands and the key be taken away by them. In Mr. Glen's opinion, they would find, in the morning, that the magician had slipped out through the keyhole. This " one thing he proposed with wise solemnity, and this just proposition Mrs. Glen seconded."

After the cellar was securely locked and the key safe in the keeping of the captors, Mr. Glen strolled down to the encampment with them, and led the conversation to a journey his mules and a trusty negro or two were to make to Albany the next day. Scotia was out of salt, and there was not enough in Schenectady to supply the plantation. Team and negroes would set out before sunrise. The roads were deep with sand, and the noonday sun hot.

The savages listened indifferently. A keg of rum had been ordered from Schenectady, and they made a night of it. Had the Glens been inclined to sleep they could not have closed their eyes for the hellish screeching and chants that could be heard all the way to the town. It was after two o'clock when the
Protestant participants in the orgies fell into a drunken slumber. By four, a wagon drove from the back door of the house, laden with what assumed to be empty hogsheads. One, in the center of the load, was open at the bottom, and there were holes bored here and there to admit the air.

When Mr. Glen, awakened by the howls of rage and disappointment arising from the cellar, made his appearance next morning, he reminded the Indians of his caution : " I told you so ! Priests are wizards."

And they reluctantly replied : " Coudre was right."

"Nor," concludes the narrative, "was it ever known that any Mohawk of that generation discovered the deception. Major Glen was always a great favorite with the Mohawks. His sayings and doings were ex cathedral

The possibility that he had a duplicate key to his cellar never occurred to their noble minds.

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(Below is from the book The Abridged Compendium of American Genealogy, Genealogies of the First Settlers of Schenectady, Virkus & Company, Chicago, Illinois.)

JOHANNES ALEXANDER GLEN
BORN 11/05/1648
DIED 11/06/1731

Johannes Alexander Glen was born on November 5, 1648 in Bererwyck, Albany, New York. Johannes is referred to in some of the records as Capt. Glen. He married Annatie Peek on May 2, 1667.

Annatie was the daughter of Jan Peek and she died December 19, 1690. Prior to her death they had a daughter by the name of Maria Glen.

Johannes remarried on June 21, 1691 in Albany, New York. He married Diwer, daughter of Evert Janse Wendel and she was the widow of Myndert Wemp. She died April 10, 1724. He built the Sanders mansion in Scotia, New York in 1713 and occupied the house until his death.

The mansion is shown in an 1800’s photograph printed in “Glen Sanders Mansion, An Historical Overview” Copyright 1995 by Donna Masi. Johannes Glen’s property was spared when Schenectady was burned, by the order of the Governor of Canada, for kindness shown to French prisoners captured by the Mohawks.

“Glen Sanders Mansion, An Historical Overview” Copyright 1995 by Donna Masi.

He died November 6, 1731.