A brief history of old Fort Niagara, Part 1

Author: Porter, Peter A. (Peter Augustus), 1853-1925
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Niagara Falls, N.Y., : [s.n.]
Number of Pages: 120


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HISTORY OF OLD FORT NIAGARA NIAGARA REGION IN HISTORY


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OLD FORT NIAGARA, FROM CANADA, 1814.


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A BRIEF HISTORY


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OLD FORT NIAGARA


BY


PETER A. PORTER.


PHOTOGRAPHS BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP.


NIAGARA FALLS 1896.


303327 12.3. 34


LONI COM PETER A. PORTER.


MADE IN


1 - 1


THIS SKETCH OF THE


HISTORY OF OLD FORT NIAGARA IS INSCRIBED TO THE MEMORY OF ORSAMUS H. MARSHALL, THE HISTORIAN OF THE NIAGARA FRONTIER.


AT WHOSE SUGGESTION


THE AUTHOR COMMENCED THE STUDY


MI THE


HISTORY OF THIS LOCALIEY


OLD FORT NIAGARA, FROM LAKE ONTARIO, 1896.


OLD FORT NIAGARA, FROM CANADA, 1896.


INTRODUCTION.


T HE TITLE of this pamphlet read literally_ correctly states the aim of the author. His desire has been to write a "BRIEF" history of our Fort Niagarz


Of the history of "modern Fort Magara that is from 1525 since which time It Was not been confirmed defensive work, no attempt has been made to treat


Numerous authorities have been quoted in support of historical facts ; many more might have been quoted To those who read this article from a desire to stany the history of Fort Nlagara these references will be valuable It has also Been thought desirable to make liberal quotations from documents and books referred to


OLD FORT NIAGARA, FROM THE LIGHT HOUSE.


A BRIEF HISTORY OF OLD FORT NIAGARA.


IAGARA is without exception the most important post in America and secures a greater number of communications, through a more extensive coun try, than perhaps any other pass in the world " So wrote Mr. Wynne in 1770,' and he undoubtedly expressed the opinion which both the French and the English then held and had held for the preced ing hundred years.


For probably no one spot of land in North America, the Heights of Quebec and the lower end of Manhattan Island alone excepted. had played so important a part, been so coveted and exerted so great an influence, both in peace and war, on the control, on the growth. on the settlement and on the civilization of the country, as this little point of land at the mouth of and on the eastern shore of the Nay ara River, bounded on one side by that river and on the other side by Lake Ontario.


And both Quebec and Manhattan Island had been settled for hend a century before La Salle first saw this spot, whose importance as a stragetic point, in peace, in war, and in the interest of the for trad he at once recognized ; and as from La Salle came the first suggestion of a fort here, with his name must its earliest history be forever linked.


And for nearly one hundred years after La Sille's first visit, the ministers and statesmen of both France and England, backed by al the power of their respective kingdoms, aided by their armies, then great generals and all their experienced colonial officers from the highest to the lowest, made the possession and fortification of this small piece of land one of the main objective points of their respec tive policies regarding their American possessions.


The Niagara River " Onguiaahra, the famous river of the Neuter Nation," had been well known to the Jesuit missionaries as early as British Empire in America, vol. II, page 102 Note


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OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY ..


1640,1 and by hearsay since at least 1626; and the fact that a great fall interrupted the passage of the Indians on their westward journeys had been announced by Lescarbot in his " Histoire de la Nouvelle France," published in 1609,2 in his description of Cartier's second voyage to America, made in 1535.


And it was the knowledge of a carrying place around these falls that pointed out to those engaged in, and ambitious to control, the fur trade with the Western Indians, in which list La Salle stands out prominently, that a fortified store house at or near the end of this portage would be a priceless advantage to its possessors.


And during the long period above referred to when France and England were making every effort to gain control of this locality, the fur traders rendered valuable services in furtherance of the ambitions of their respective nations, although, of course, these fur traders' object was a purely mercenary one.


But the Indians, prompted thereto partly by the always enduring feuds between the Huron and Iroquois stocks, but mainly by their keen insight into the real ambitions of the white men - faithful and friendly to the French and the English alternately, but only as fear of their strength or benefits to be derived from them impelled - clearly foresaw the danger to their race if a stronghold was ever obtained at the portage, and persistently refused to allow one to be erected ; and it was only after a struggle of 50 years that France succeeded in getting near this spot a fortified structure, that prom- ised to be, and though soon after removed seven miles distant to the mouth of the river, proved to be, a permanency.


THE INDIAN TITLE TO THE LAND.


In tracing the history of Fort Niagara, it is desirable for us, es- pecially so far as the earliest claims of ownership of the territory in which it is located by France and England, are concerned, to look first at the Indian title to the land and their disposition thereof.


As far back as we can get any authentic knowledge whatsoever the Neuter Nation owned and occupied this spot. They were prob- ably a powerful offshoot from the great Huron-Iroquois stock, and occupied all the territory north of Lake Erie from near the Detroit River eastward until their lands met those of the Iroquois near the Genesee River.


1 Jesuit Relation, published 1642, page 49. 2 Page 382.


OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY


The Neuters derived their name from the fact that, while often at war with other tribes, they never warred with either the Iroquois or Hurons, between whom they were located. They counted 36 villages west of the Niagara River and four east of it,' and were a well-built and populous nation.


Such a neutrality could not last, and while we do not know when the Neuters first became recognized as an independent nation (cer- tainly before 1600, for in 1615 Champlain refers to them as an estab- lished tribe), we do know that it was in 1651 that the Senecas, the most westerly, the strongest numerically, as well as the most blood thirsty of the Iroquois, attacked them on a slight pretext, and in a short and bloody campaign wiped them out of existence as a nation, the remnant that was spared being incorporated among their captors.


The Senecas thenceforth, although it was over a hundred years before they occupied the Neuters' territory, claimed title to it by reason of this conquest, and among the Indian tribes the Senecas claim seems to have been fully recognized.


For, as we shall see later on, the Senecas granted La Salle im- portant rights on the Niagara River in 1679


In 1719 they gave Joncaire, a Frenchman who had been adopted into their nation, certain rights on this river, which were of direct benefit to the French, and refused equal rights to the English ; and, in 1,25, they consented to the French building a stone fort at the mouth of theriver.


The Senecas, in common with all other Indian tribes. seem to have regarded their land deeds and their treaties as binding only so long as it suited their convenience. Again, some of their deeds embrace huge tracts of land, occupied by several tribes, the sachems or chiefs of which all joined in the deed of the whole territory, not specifying what portion each tribe owned.


Those deeds that embrace the locality we are treating of, of course, bear on the subject in hand.


CONFLICTING CLAIMS.


Both France and England at an early date set up and steadily claimed title among other territory to this special locality.


France, by reason generally of early discoveries and occupation by Champlain (who never was on the Niagara River), by Coureurs de Bois, by Jesuit missionaries and later by La Salle.


1 Jesuit relation, published 1642, pages 48 and 49


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OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.


England claiming the whole continent by reason of its discovery by her early navigators, (who were not the first discoverers of the con- tinent,) maintaining a claim by the grant from James I. to Gorges, in 1620, of the land from ocean to ocean, and from 40 to 48 degrees of latitude, and by other, though conflicting grants, none of them made good by occupation or actual sovereignty, and by her conquest of the Dutch at Manhattan.


Parkman, writing of the period (1687) when French and English came in contact in the Senecas' territory, and set up their rival claims, says, " It is clear that the claim of prior discovery and occupation was on the side of the French."'


Both the French and English claimed the Iroquois as subjects, but the Senecas especially always claimed independence.


DEEDS FROM THE SENECAS.


In 1684, the five nations gave England a protectorate over their lands,2 and in 1686 the English governor at New York set up the Duke of York's arms in all the castles of the Five Nations "as far as Oneigra."3 In 1687 the Five Nations assented, when James II. of England agreed to accept them as his subjects.'


In 1701, the Senecas and other tribes deeded to William III., King of England, in trust a territory 800 miles by and 400 miles broad, "including, likewise, the Great Falls Oakinagaro." 5 The deed is signed by the totems of sachems of all the Five Nations.


In 1726, the Senecas again deeded in trust to the English king a large tract of territory, including "all along the River of Oniagara.""


But all these deeds seem to have been regarded even by the Eng- lish grantees as of little value, and it was not till 1764, as noted later on, that a specific deed of a comparatively small area of country, being that along both banks of the Niagara River, was regarded as perfect, and was recognized as finally transferring to the English the Indian title to this famous region.


While Parkman, as above quoted, may be right as to the superior- ity of the French claims, by reason of prior discovery and occupation, if there was any right of title to this land in the Senecas, (and I believe there was,) by conquest, the English certainly seem to have acquired at an early date, by deeds from the Indians, what they after-


1 Parkman, Frontenac and New France, page 161. 2 Col. Docs. N. Y., vol. III, page 508. 3 Col. Docs. N. Y , vol. III, page 396. 4 Col. Docs. N. Y., vol. III, page 503 E Col. Docs. N. Y., vol IV, page 909. 6 Col. Docs. N. Y., vol. V, page 800.


OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.


wards acquired by arms from the French, namely, the title to the land where Fort Niagara now stands.


HISTORIC PERIODS.


Recognizing, therefore, the title to the spot where Fort Niagara stands as vested in the Senecas after their conquest of the Neuters in 1651, we may divide its history into the following periods :


Indian ownership, 1651-1669; Indian ownership, French influence predominating, 1669-1725 : Indian ownership, French occupation. 1725-1759; Indian ownership, English occupation, 1759 1764; Eng- lish ownership and occupation, 1759-1783; American ownership. English occupation, the " Hold-over Period," 1783 1,06; American ownership and occupation, (excepting December 19, 1813, to March 27, 1815.) 1796-1896.


Let us now take up this history in chronological order.


LA SALLE'S FIRST VISIT.


In 1669, La Salle, in company with Dollier de Casson and Rene de Gallinee, set out from Quebec for the Mississippi, and in his journal Gallinee tells of their passing near the mouth of the Niagara River and speaks of the Falls whose roar they heard,' this being the earliest known description of our Cataract. This date is generally accepted as that of La Salle's first visit to this section.


Opposed to this, however, is the official statement of the Marquis de Nonville, dated July 31, 1687, that " La Salle had erected quarters at Niagara in 1668, which quarters were burnt by the Senecas 12 years ago," " that is in 1675.


To my mind De Nonville, writing 18 years after La Salle's visit, made an error of one year, and should have written 1669. We know that La Salle was here in 1669, and a few days later was with his two companions above named at an Indian village near the present city of Hamilton, Canada, and here he met Joliet, who was on his way back to Quebec from Lake Superior.'


Separating from his two companions at this village September 30, 1669. we next hear of La Salle "continuing his way on a river which goes from east to west, and passes to Onondaga, then to six or seven leagues below Lake Erie," ' conceded to be the Ohio.


1 O. H. Marshall's writings, page 219, he quotes Gallinees Journal. Doc Hist. .N. Y. vol. I. pages 150-1. O. H Marshall's writings, page 223. " J G Shea, Bursting of Margry's Bubble, page 16, he refers to Margry.


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OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.


In order to reach the Ohio La Salle must have retraced his steps eastward, and thus either crossed or passed the mouth of the Niag- ara River.


He had several men with him; he may have tarried on the Niagara; he may have visited the Falls ; he probably built the quarters of which De Nonville tells. If he did build them, there is no reason why the Senecas should not have burnt them as stated.


Certain it is that when La Salle returned to this locality in January, 1679, as described later on, he knew the country thoroughly ; he knew just where to land ; he intended to build a fort here ; he knew about the Falls, and he came with the intention, and fully prepared to build a vessel above them. It is, therefore, I submit, possible, and even probable, that in this unrecorded interval above referred to La Salle made a careful study of the surroundings here, and built the house to which De Nonville refers.


LA SALLE'S SECOND VISIT.


In 1678, La Salle projected an expedition to the far West, and on November 18th, of that year, La Motte, Hennepin and fourteen others started from Fort Frontenac in a brigantine of 10 tons for Niagara, and on the 6th of December they rounded the point where Fort Niagara now stands, and anchored their vessel in " the beauti- ful River Niagara, which no bark had ever yet entered." 1


On this point of land was a fishing village of the Senecas, white fish then, as now, being abundant in the river at this spot." All the land was covered with a dense thicket. On this point of land, on December 11, 1678, Hennepin said the first mass that had ever been celebrated in this territory.3 In a letter written by him to the Prince de Conti, dated October 31, 1678, just before Hennepin and his com- rades sailed, La Salle wrote that Tonti, who was to accompany him. was setting out to build a new fort 200 leagues away, near Niagara Falls, to which he (La Salle) had taken the liberty to give the name of Fort Conti.4


The vessel and crew remained at this spot from the 6th to the 15th of December, and the carpenters were at work."


" It is at the mouth of Lake Frontenac (Ontario) that a fort was begun," wrote Hennepin,6 "but the Iroquois took umbrage, so that, as


1 Hennepin, Louisiana, 1683, page 23. 2 Hennepin. Louisiana, 1683, page 32. 3 Henne- pin, Louisiana, 1683, page 24. 4 P'arkman. Discovery of the Great West, page 118. 5 Hennepin, New Discovery, 1698. page 50. 6 Hennepin, Louisiana, 1683, page 30.


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OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.


we were not in a position to resist them, we contented themselves with building there a house defended by palisades, which is called Fort Conti, and the place is naturally defensive, and beside it there is a very fine harbor for barks to retire to in security."" In a later work he adds that it was built on the east side of the Niagari River at its mouth." Prevented from erecting a regular fort at the mouth of the River. La Motte, acting probably under explicit instructions from La Salle, took his vessel and crew up the river, to where Lewiston now stands, where he wanted to erect a store-house His orders evidently were to try and build a fort at the mouth of the river ; failing in that - as he had - to build a store-house at the foot of the port ige, which would aid him in the fur trade, which the Indians might permit, and which would give a foothold, and could be used as trading-post, and gradually fortified, till such time as a real fort could be built and main tained at the river's mouth. If these were La Salle's plans, and I believe they were, he only anticipated history by som : fifty years, for. as will be seen later, it was by this very plan and on this very spot that the French ultimately built a fortified store house of some pie tentions, which served all their purposes, military and commercial. till they obtained permission to build a stone fort on the coveted ponte of land.


On the site of Lewiston La Motte's men built their enbin, fortified with palisades,3 using hot water to thaw the frozen ground. Here La Salle soon joined them. He had left Fort Frontenac some tim after La Motte's departure, for the site of his projected Fort Contrat the mouth of the Niagara River, but, narrowly escaping shipwreck landed at the mouth of the Genesee River. He visited the chief Seneca village, met the chiefs, and obtained from thein their consent, (which, but a few days before, they had refused to La Motte and Henne- pin,) to the building of a vessel above the cataract and the etab lishing of a fortified warehouse at the mouth of the river.


His first work was the building of his vessel above the Falls, and after having located the place of building, and having seen the kee laid, he led a sergeant and a number of men to the mouth of the river, in order at once to take advantage of the Senecis' consent to


1 Hennepin, Louisiana, 1633. page 31 Hennepin, Nouv de Dechverte, feny pige 4" " Parkman. La Salle and Discovery of Great West, page 126, Le quieres Tony, Relativo 1684, Margry, vol. 1. page 573 Tonti. La Salle's Last Discoveries, 19: pige 2 4 Parkman, La Salle and Discovery of the Great West page 125 he qu les l.etter de La Salle, Margry, vol. 11, page 32


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OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.


his building a fortified warehouse there- a project specially dear to his heart.


Here on the famous point of land, in February, 1679, La Salle marked out the foundations of two block-houses,1 set his men to work, and started on foot for Fort Frontenac.


In accordance with his promise to that Prince, he called these block- houses Fort Conti. They seemed to have been finished and occu- pied, but after a few months-probably about July, - through the carelessness of the sergeant in command, were destroyed by fire.2


Let us note the date, December, 1678, when La Motte commenced a fort and January, 1679, when La Salle himself started the work on his block-houses on this historic spot.


When La Salle arrived again at Niagara, in August, 1679, his fort was in ashes; his creditors and his enemies had well nigh ruined him. His vessel, the Griffin, however, was ready to sail west- ward. In the money he hoped to get through trading for furs on her voyage, lay his only immediate hope of financial aid. He aban- doned everything else in order not to delay this enterprise. Under such circumstances even his much-cherished plan of a fort at the mouth of the Niagara River was forgotten, for he had neither the heart nor the means to rebuild the burnt block-houses.


For the next few years, Niagara, meaning both the point at the mouth of the river and the store-house at Lewiston, the two being closely connected in the plans of the French for their ownership, often appears in the official correspondence of both France and Eng- land, the former being much the more closely identified with the locality.


DE NONVILLE'S FORT.


In 1685 the Marquis de Nonville became governor of New France. In an official letter from Quebec, dated May 6, 1686, urging the hum- bling of the Iroquois, he says: " What I should consider most effect- ual to accomplish this would be the establishment of a right good post at Niagara.


"The manner in which the English have managed with the Iro- quois hitherto, when desirous to establish themselves in their neigh- borhood, has been to make them presents for the purchase of the soil


1 Parkman, La Salle and Discovery of the Great West, page 135, he quotes Letter of La Salle, Margry, vol. II, page 229, and Relation de Tonty, 1684. Margry, vol. I, page 577. Winsor Nar. and Crit. History of Am , vol. IV, page 223. 2 Parkman, LaSalle and Dis- covery of the Great West, page 135. Note.


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OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.


and the property of the land they wish to occupy. What I see most certain is, whether we act so by them, or have peace or war with them, they will submit with considerable impatience to see a fort at Niagara."1


He wanted a " fort sufficiently large to contain a force of four or five hundred men to make war on them ; enclosed by a simple ordi- nary picket fence to place it beyond all insult,'"? but to this suggestion he received from France no favorable reply.


Early in 1686 Dongan, the English Governor at New York, had also suggested to his government the erection of an English fort at the spot.3


During the winter of 1686-7 De Nonville made his preparations to attack the Senecas, partly to punish them for having burnt La Salle's house at Niagara in 1675,4 and generally because of their unceasing hostility to all French plans. He sent word to the western Indian allies of France and the French troops in the West to meet him at Niagara in July, 1687.


It is not within the scope of our title to treat of that part of this expedition that chastised the Senecas in the Genesee Valley. After that he assembled his French forces and Indian allies at Irondequot Bay, and on July 24, 1687, he embarked for Niagara, reaching there on July 30th ; and he at once set his troops to work to build that fort which he had so strongly advocated. The fact that France and Eng- land were at peace, and that England claimed the Senecas under her protection, counted for nothing with De Nonville.


He selected for the location of the fort "the angle of the lake on the Seneca side of the river ; it is the most beautiful, the most pleas- ing and the most advantageous site that is on the whole of this lake." 5


He also states in an official letter, "The post I have fortified at Niagara is not a novelty, since Sieur de La Salle had a house there which is in ruins since a year." So De Nonville's fort must have been on the site of La Salle's block-houses, and it was the first real defen- sive work erected here.


Baron La Hontan was among the officers of De Nonville's com- mand, and he describes the work as " a fort of pales, with four bas- tions," and says it " stands on the south side of the Streights of Herrie


1 Doc. Hist. N. Y, vol. I, p. 127. 2 Doc. Hist N. Y., vol. I., page 127. 3 Col Docs. N. Y., vol III , page 394. 4 Doc. Hist. of N. Y., vol. I., page 150. 5 Doc. Hist of N. Y . vol. I., page 147. 6 Col Docs. of N. Y , vol. IX , page 349.


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Lake, upon a hill, at the foot of which that lake falls into the Lake of Frontenac."1


De Nonville, in his report, says: "The inconvenience of this post is that timber is at a distance from it."2 So the pales had to be cut some ways off, floated to the point and drawn up the steep banks, all involving much labor, and as it took but three days to complete the entire fort it must have been a rather weak affair.3


On July 31, 1687, De Nonville, in presence of his army, took for- mal possession of the fort in the name of the French king, and issued a proclamation, signed by himself and officers, to that effect.4


This fort was called after its builder, Fort De Nonville, but the earlier name, Niagara, clung to it. " De Nonville " had no designa- tion of locality attached to it, "Niagara " had, and Fort Niagara it has been ever since. De Nonville started for Quebec on the com- pletion of the fort, leaving a garrison of 100 men, under command of De Troyes, with an eight months' supply of provisions.


Misfortune brooded over the fort from its completion. No sooner had the main body of the French departed, and their Indian allies scattered, than the Senecas, more angered than crippled by De Nonville's crusade against them in the Genesee Valley, appeared before the fort in large numbers and vented their rage on the unhappy garrison. Eight hundred of them laid siege to the place and no Frenchman " dared venture out for hunting, fishing or fire- wood." 5


Besides the misery of being thus cooped up in a small fort, and always on the alert for assaults, scurvy set in among the French. The provisions, though plentiful, were of a bad quality ; many of the men died. "The fort was first a prison, then a hospital, then a charnel house,"6 till by spring but 12 men out of the 100 sur- vived.


No sooner did Dongan, the English Governor at New York, hear that De Nonville had built a fort at Niagara than he entered a most vigorous protest against such a step, and demanded its destruction." A long and spirited correspondence between these two representatives of France and England followed, in which the claims of priority of discovery, the ownership of this particular




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