"Most Wretchedly Spelled" ~ Variants of Maghagh-kamieck

One cannot approach the history of the Minisink region without happening upon the works of Edward Manning Ruttenber (1825-1907), a passionate amateur linguist, ethnographer, and historian. He worked throughout his life as a newspaper editor and would publish The Newburgh Gazette and Daily News.

This excerpt from Ruttenber's last book, Indian Geographical Names, serves well as an introduction to the compilation of Maghagh-kamieck variants drawn from 18th century sources which follow.

Footprints of the Red Man, Indian Geographical Names, p 223 & 224

18th Century Variants of Maghagh-kamieck

• Deed of Conveyance Maugaukemeck, c 1700, Ulster County Clerk Archives, keyword search: Tetsoord.

• Neighbourhood of Wagachkemeck, 1716, Tax Assessment List for the County of Ulster [present day Orange County NY].

•  Mackaghkamack, 1721, Petition to His Excellency William Burnet, Esq. Captain General and Governeur in Chief of the Provinces of New York, New Jersey.

• Will of Paiere [Pierre] Guimard, 1726, of Wagachkemeck, Ulster County [present day Orange County NY].

• Mohocamac, 1755, A general map of the middle British colonies, in America.

• Mahakamack, 1756, Newspaper account of an Indian raid which killed Gerardus Swartwout, Samuel Finch and Peter Westphalen [Westfall] The Pennsylvania Gazette, Issue 1444, Page 2.

• Mehoccomick, 1769, Rittenhouse & Montresor, surveyors, letter to the Commissioners for settling the boundary line between the colonies of New York and New Jersey.
  

• Mahacamack or Neversink River, 1769, Three maps of northern New Jersey.

• "...the Fork at the Mouth of the Mahakamack River," 1769, Newspaper article on the colonial NY NJ Boundary Partition Line, The New-York Gazette or the Weekly Post-Boy, Issue 1398, Page 3.

• Mah a g kamack River, 1775, A map of the Province of New York.

• Mahagkasmack R, 1776, The Provinces of New, and New Jersey; with part of Pensilvania [sic].

• Mohockamack Fork & Mohockamack Creek, 1779, A chorographical map of the Province of New-York in North America.

• Mohocamac and Mohoccamac, 1779, Letter from George Washington to Maj. Gen. John Sullivan also Mohocamac, 1779, letter from George Washington to Maj. Gen. Alexander McDougall, see also Washington's Questions & Answers Regarding a Proposed Expedition Against the Six Nations, 1779.

• Mahakamack River, 1781, A map containing part of the Provinces of New York and New Jersey.

"The Fork or Branch at the Mouth of Mahacamack...1769"

Robert Grumet, in Manhatten to Minisink: American Indian Place Names in Greater New York and Vicinity, 2013, notes under the heading Machackemeck:  Mechagachkamic (1649), Magagamieck (1694), and Magagkamack (recent). Royden Woodward Vosburgh's Machackemeck in Minisink Valley Reformed Dutch Church Records also appears in his work Machackemeck Gravestone Inscriptions, both published in 1913.

Maghaghkamik Church sign, 1938

Machackemech Burying Ground, Port Jervis NY