Shekomeko, New York

Shekomeko was a historic hamlet in the southwest part of the town of North East, New York, United States in present-day Dutchess County. It was a village of the Mahican people. They lived by a stream which Anglo-Americans later named Shekomeko Creek, after their village.

In 1740, Moravians from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, founded a mission at Shekomeko. Slowly they began to convert the Mahican, and in 1743 built a chapel. With their conversions, the Mahican community became the first Native American Christian congregation in the present-day United States.^[1]

Some of the colonists resented the Moravians' work on behalf of the Mahican; others accused them of being secret Jesuits who were working to rouse the Mahican against the settlers on the side of the French. The New York colony had passed a law against the Roman Catholic Jesuits in 1700. The Moravians were called before colonial government officials in Poughkeepsie, but supporters also testified on their behalf. The colonial government finally expelled them from New York at the end of 1744, "under the pretense of being in league with the French".^[2] One of the missionaries died in early 1745 and was buried at Shekomeko. Disheartened, the Mahican left the settlement and went to other areas, and the English colonists took over the Mahican land.^[2]

Location is 41°55'41"N 73°35'58"W, by County Route 83. The hamlet of Bethel is now located there, in the town of Pine Plains, formed in 1823 from part of North East.

See also

• Moravian mission at Shekomeko
• American Provinces of the Moravian Church
• History of the Moravian Church

References

1. ↑ Newton Duel, Elizabeth Klare, James Mara, Helen Netter, Dyan Wapnick, Out of the Wilderness: A History of the Hamlet of Bethel in the Town of Pine Plains, New York (1996), Section 5: "The Moravian Mission".
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Smith, Philip H. (1877). General History of Duchess County: From 1609 to 1876, Inclusive, p. 311; self-published.

Municipalities and communities of Dutchess County, New York, United States County seat: Poughkeepsie Cities Beacon Poughkeepsie Towns Amenia Beekman Clinton Dover East Fishkill Fishkill Hyde Park LaGrange Milan North East Pawling Pine Plains Pleasant Valley Poughkeepsie Red Hook Rhinebeck Stanford Union Vale Wappinger Washington Villages Fishkill Millbrook Millerton Pawling Red Hook Rhinebeck Tivoli Wappingers Falls CDPs Amenia Arlington Brinckerhoff Crown Heights Dover Plains Fairview Freedom Plains Haviland Hillside Lake Hopewell Junction Hyde Park Merritt Park Myers Corner Pine Plains Pleasant Valley Red Oaks Mill Rhinecliff Salt Point Spackenkill Staatsburg Titusville Other hamlets Annandale-on-Hudson Barrytown Boston Corner‡ Chelsea LaGrangeville Linden Acres Lithgow Mabbettsville New Hamburg Pleasant Plains Quaker Hill Shekomeko Silvernails Sylvan Lake Van Keurens Verbank Wassaic Footnotes ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties

Coordinates: 41°55′41″N 73°35′56″W / 41.92806°N 73.59889°W / 41.92806; -73.59889