the mind, as were afforded by a country residence in the colony of New-York, during the early part of the last century. His father, however, was a man of great sagacity and strength of mind, and of marked energy and decision of character, whose personal appearance is represented to have been very dignified and commanding, and such as to inspire those in his presence with awe, and to have secured their respect and attention. His mother was a woman of good sense, simple and unostentatious in her manners, of marked piety, and of great sensibility of feeling; which latter quality was transmitted to her children.
The subject of this sketch was born at Kinderhook, in March, 1747, and was the youngest of seven children. Henry, the oldest, who died in 1823, at the advanced age of ninety years and upwards, was an extraordinary man, and exhibited in his life and actions, how early disadvantages may be overcome by attention and perseverance. Although he had not even studied the rudiments of English grammar, his letters and other productions are remarkable, not only for profundity of thought, but for their grammatical correctness, and frequently for classic beauty. His knowledge of grammar was acquired solely by the ear, and by paying strict attention to the conversation of gentlemen of education, into whose company accident or business might cast him. He was a man of great enterprise and fearlessness of character; and was engaged, at an early period, in the fur trade, being interested in establishments for that purpose, at Niagara and Detroit, at which latter place he resided for several years previous to the Indian wars of 1761.
Henry Van Schaack was an officer in the last French war. In a conversation, in 1816, with an eminent civilian still upon the stage, he communicated the following particulars in regard to the three sanguinary conflicts which took place on one and the same day, at Fort George and French Mountain. He was a lieutenant in a company of which the late General Schuyler was captain, in the New-York levies, at Fort George and Fort Edward, in August, 1755; when Baron Dieskau was defeated by General, afterwards the humane and generous Sir William Johnson, of Montgomery county. His description of the battle was essentially the same as it is detailed by Smollett, who has related it very correctly. He was in Fort Edward, when Baron