Thomas Grassmann

Thomas Grassmann, OFM Conv, (born Frederick Francis Grassmann) (December 18, 1890 – October 1, 1970) was a Conventual Franciscan friar, historian and archaeologist of Colonial New York, who discovered the site of the Mohawk American Village of Caughnawaga near Fonda, New York.

Born in Elizabeth NJ, he was the son of German immigrants Edward and Anna Hirt Grassmann.

He was professed in 1917, and then studied at the seminary of St. Anthony's on the Hudson in Rensselaer, NY, where he completed his theological training.

This was in the vicinity of the Mohawk settlement Caughnawaga, where Catholic convert Kateri Tekakwitha had lived part of her life (1656-1680) and been baptized.

Excavation revealed a fortified, gated wooden double stockade, called a “castle,” and 12 long houses, covered with elm bark, inhabited by the Turtle Clan of the Mohawk from 1666 to 1693.