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Footprints of the Red Men: Indian Geographical Names — Passage 61

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[Edward Manning Ruttenber (1906)] County. The tract to which the name was extended in Rockland County is described, "Commonly called by the Indians _Kackyachteweke,_ on a neck of land which runs under a great hill, bounded on the north by a creek called Sheamaweck or Peasqua." Hackyackawack is another orthography. The name seems to be from _Schach-achgeu-ackey,_ meaning "Straight land," "Straight along," (Zeisb.); _i. e._ direct, as "A neck of land"--"A pass between mountains," or, as the description reads, "A neck of land which runs under a great hill." Compare Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 48, 183, etc. Torne, the name of a high hill which forms a conspicuous object in the Ramapo Valley, is from Dutch _Torenherg,_ "A tower or turret, a high pointed hill, a pinnacle." (Prov. Eng.) The hill is claimed to have been the northwest boundmark of the Haverstraw Patent. In recent times it has been applied to two elevations, the Little Torne, west of the Hudson, and the Great Torne, near the Hudson, south of Haverstraw. (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 46.) Cheesek-ook, Cheesek-okes, Cheesec-oks, Cheesquaki, are forms of the name given as that of a tract of "Upland and meadow," so described in Indian deed, 1702, and included in the Cheesek-ook Patent, covering parts of the present counties of Rockland and Orange. It is now preserved as the name of a hill, to which it was assigned at an early date, and is also quoted as the name of adjacent lands in New Jersey.