Keator's Rift
While cruising around the New York State Museum web site looking for something else, I came across an interesting reference to KEATOR'S RIFT, a gravelly rapid in the Mohawk River which was one of the most feared navigational hazards on this vital transportation route before the construction of the Mohawk Barge Canal.
Can anyone shed any light on the origins of the name of this geological feature? I can only guess that it is named for (or by) either Jacob Keator (great-grandson of the "founding father" Melchior Claessen Keator), who migrated to Montgomerie County from Marbletown some time between 1750 and 1800; or alternatively, Adam Keator (1743 - aft.1790), also a great-grandson of Melchior.
These are the only 2 Keators I can identify who moved anywhere close to Canajoharie before 1800. If anyone has any information to support (or deflate) this speculation, I'd appreciate hearing about it.
The site of Keator's Rift, incidentally, was rediscovered by State Museum archeologists in 1982 as part of an environmental impact study for a canal dredging project. It lies on state-owned land between the Canal and the NY Thruway, and is now protected as a visible landmark of this historic era.