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GEN
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J ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 02885 1506
Gc 974.701 C42c Chemung County (N.Y. ) Historical Society. Chemung County, its history
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Chemting County
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.. its History
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James b. Stowell /61
The American Association for State and Loral History
presenta an
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Chemung County Historical Society
Hoted at the annual meeting of the Association in Buffalo, Nem Bork
August 24, 1962
Prestdent of the Asmartattan
Chatrman. Committer ou Amarda
This certificate of merit was awarded to the Chemung County Historical Society in 1962 for the publication of Chemung County-Its History. The award was based on the fact that the history was written by an amateur, voluntary group and pushed to completion. Chemung County's society was one of nine in the U.S.A. and Canada to win the national awards.
Allen County Public Library 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
C 1961 BY CHEMUNG COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, INC.
Third Printing, April 1975
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.
Typographical design, layout and original printing by Commercial Press of Elmira, New York, Inc.
Third printing by Elmira Quality Printers, Inc.
4
This history of Chemung County and its communities was prepared and written by the History Writers Group of the Chemung County Historical Society in 1961 for publication in September, 1961. In charge of publication were Joseph C. Boyd, president of the Writers Group; Thomas E. Byrne, editorial coordinator, and Robert D. Jerome, business manager. The cover was designed by James Vinton Stowell. Historical sketches were loaned by the Chemung Canal Trust Company. Layout was designed by Russell Frey of of the Commercial Press. Historical photographs are from the files of the Chemung County Historical Society, or were loaned by members of the Society, The Star-Gazette, Fred Loomis, Charles Elliott, Elmira College and by industries.
This history was prepared primarily as a local history text for junior high school students. The advice of school superintendents was obtained for the planning stage, and Miss Laura O'Donnell, a long- time teacher of Social Studies in the Elmira public schools, assisted in the selection of topics.
Following is a list of the men and women and young people who engaged in research, writing and production of this history.
HARRY B. KELSEY MISS CATHARINE CONNELLY LAWRENCE E. EYRES W. CHARLES BARBER SHELDON S. KING
MISS MARIE MACNAMARA
MISS LAURA O'DONNELL
MRS. ARTHEMESE DENNY
MRS. FRANCES A. BRAYTON
MRS. HELEN SAMSON
MISS LOIS TOMLINSON
MRS. EVA C. TAYLOR MRS. FRANCES MYERS
ROBERT D. JEROME JAMES VINTON STOWELL
JOSEPH C. BOYD
CLARK WILCOX
THOMAS E. BYRNE
MRS. MARGARET HAPEMAN
RUTH MAC DOWELL SHEROLYN RAMSDELL
BARBARA SPENCE
MARIE BRIGHT
JAMES L. SMITH
MARJORIE CHERKIS
HARRY E. BUTTERS
DAVID SHEEN
GEORGE L. VETTER JACOB VETTER DONALD BREMNER MRS. ELEANOR HARRIS MRS. LUCILE ROUNDS
N
CHEMUNG COUNTY ITS HISTORY
Prepared by the Writers' Group of the Chemung County Historical Society
Published September 1961, at Elmira, New York
CHAPTERS
Page
Page
Indian Occupation 1
Education
31
Sullivan Expedition
3
Industries 36
Early Settlement
9
The Arts and Recreation 40
The Chemung Canal 13
The World Wars 4.8
Transportation 18
Our Community Today 52
Civil War
28
Lore of Chemung County 57
Important Dates
.............. 60
THE CITY, TOWNS AND VILLAGES
Page
Page
Page
City of Elmira 64
Breesport 78
Southport 102
Town of Elmira 72
Erin
79
Elmira Heights 100
Chemung 97
Catlin
81
Van Etten 70
Baldwin
94
Horseheads 84
Ashland 91
Big Flats 75
Veteran 88
INDIAN OCCUPATION
Arrowheads and other Indian relics found in the Chemung re- gion indicate that people have lived here for many hundred years, but the factual or real history of this valley and its early inhabitants began in 1615. That year, a Frenchman named Stephen Brule (or, more properly, Etien'ne Brule) visited an Indian village located in this area. The name of the village was Car-ant-ou-an. It stood on a ridge or small flat-topped hill just west of what is now Waverly, N. Y. It was a chief town of the An-das te Indian Nation. A history marker on Route 17, near the foot of Waverly Hill, designates the spot.
Brule was a young and adventurous fellow and is believed to be the first white man ever to see our valley. He was an inter- preter and Indian emissary (or secret agent) for the French explorer Samuel Champlain. He was sent here by Champlain to enlist the aid of 500 Andaste warriors to assist in a war the French were waging against the confederated Five Nations of the Iroquois. The Five Nations were opposing the French in their southward push for territorial claims. The Andastes' assistance proved of no consequence to Champlain, but Brule's report on his trip, his explorations, and some 20 Indian villages he visited here and on the Susquehanna River, did furnish valuable information about the area and its people.
Fifty or sixty years later, after a long and bitter Indian war, the Five Nations defeated and drove off the Andastes. The Chemung region then became the property of the Senecas and Cayugas who were principals in the victory. It was set aside by them as a hunting ground.
Another 75 or 80 years went by, then, about the time of the French and Indian War (1755-1760), the Chemung Valley be- came a sort of refuge for several small bands of Indian tribes who had, over the years, sold their lands to the white people. There were Mahicans (sometimes called Mohegans) from the the Hudson River; Shawnees from the south; a small band of the Eastern Sioux, called Tuteloes, from Virginia; and a large number of Delawares (or Len-a-pe) from Pennsylvania and New Jersey. They built their villages all along the Chemung River and its principal tributaries. None of these bands owned land in this area but were allowed to settle by permission of the Five Nations Confederacy. They were under the supervision of the Cayugas and the Senecas.
During this war between the French and the English, the Senecas and Cayugas fell pretty much under the influence of the French. The Delawares, especially those of the Wolf clan, joined forces with the French and their imported Canadian In- dians spreading death and destruction in frontier raids against Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In those days, white traders, missionaries, and travelers were forbidden to enter or pass through the Chemung region under penalty of death. Later,
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during the Indian uprising of 1763-1765, often referred to as Pontiac's War, these same Delawares again went on the war- path causing more horror and devastation.
Finally, Sir William Johnson, Colonial Indian Commissioner who lived up on the Mohawk River at what is now Johnstown, N. Y., concluded that the Delawares were trouble-makers and basically responsible for the uprising. In the early spring of 1764, Johnson prevailed upon his loyal Mohawk and Oneida tribes to send down a task force of 200 warriors to punish the unruly Chemung River Delawares. The Delawares fled west- ward and all their villages were burned to the ground. This action brought not only the Delawares but all the other warring tribes to their senses. Peace was effected within a year.
From the time of the Mohawk-Oneida Expedition of 1764, until the days of the Revolutionary War, most of the Chemung re- gion was uninhabited. Then, after the Five Nations sided with the English against the Americans, new Indian villages were established along the river. Their purpose was to serve as an outpost for Indian raids against American frontier settlements. Their destiny is told in the chapter on the Sullivan Military Expedition of 1779.
INDIAN OCCUPATION
References
The Chemung Historical Journal
Vol. 1-No. 1 Sept. 1955 Indian Trails
Vol. 1-No. 3
Mar. 1956 Demons of Chemung Valley
Vol. 2 - No. 1 Sept. 1956 The Red Man Won His Point
Vol. 2-No. 3 Mar. 1957 Chemung and the Big Horn
Vol. 5 - No. 1
Sept. 1957 The Squawkies
Vol. 5-No. 3
Mar. 1960 Sioux on the Chemung
Vol. 6 - No. 3
Mar. 1961 The Happy Hunting Ground
Suggested readings for more detail :
Stowell, James Vinton, DIGGING INTO THE PAST, No. 2 booklet, Chemung County Historical Society (1954).
Cowles, Ellsworth C., THE ANDASTE TRAIL TO PAINTED POST, Painted Post Dedication booklet, (1950).
Cranston, J. Herbert, ETIENNE BRULE - IMMORTAL SCOUNDREL, Ryerson Press, Toronto, Canada, (1949).
Murray, Elsie, CARANTOUAN - ETIENNE BRULE, a booklet published by the Tioga Point Museum, Athens, Pa., (1948).
How Indian trails preceded today's highway routes.
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The Indians of western New York and northern Pennsylvania had forcibly prevented the settlement of their domain. So thor- ough were they that only a few explorers, traders and mission- aries had ever been in this section of the country.
Within their protected homelands, these Keepers of the Western Gate of the Longhouse of the Iroquois lived in comfortable, well-built log cabins equal to those of the colonial settlers of the time. The Indian villages were surrounded by large gardens in which corn, melons, squash, beans and other vegetables grew in abundance and the shores of their beautiful lakes were cov- ered with fruit orchards.
When the Revolutionary War broke out, the Indians were neutral. The Colonies urged them to remain so, but the British tried to obtain their services through lavish gifts and promises. A great Indian council was held near Syracuse to decide what to do and the Oneida Indians, influenced by their beloved Mis- sionary, the Rev. Samuel Kirkland, vetoed the participation of the Iroquois Nation in the war as an organized group. As a result of this council, some of the Iroquois sided with the Colonists but the majority of them furnished food and warriors to help the British.
It did not take long for the dark shadow of war to cover our Chemung River Valley. The bark canoes of the Indians, paddled by warriors wearing the paint of war, floated down the river (then known as the Tioga Branch) on their way to raid the settlements of the Colonists. These raids, especially the ones at Cherry Valley, N.Y., and Wyoming, Pa. shocked the country. In the meantime, the harvests from the fields and orchards were shared with the British army. Well within the protected Indian Lands, the British at Fort Niagara were planning a major mili- tary thrust to split the Colonial Army in two. For these reasons; the raids, the food being supplied to the armies, and the im- pending invasion from Fort Niagara, General George Washing- ton saw the need for an expedition into these protected Indian lands. He also realized that it would be necessary for the Colonies to moves their armies as far westward as possible to stake a claim for these lands when the war ended.
General Washington's plan, drawn up at Valley Forge during the bitter winter of 1778, called for a three way invasion of the Indian territory. One general leading the main army would start from Easton, Pa. and move northward to Wyoming, thence up the Susquehanna River to Tioga Point (now Athens, Pa.). A second force would leave the Albany, New York area and proceed westward along the Mohawk River, thence south to join the main army. A third force would leave Fort Pitt (now Pittsburgh, Pa.) and proceed north to join the combined forces near the present Geneseo, N. Y.
THE SULLIVAN EXPEDITION OF 1779
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CANADA
LAKE ONTARIO
ST. NIAGARA
0
LAKE ERIE
OTSEGO LAKE
7 POI VT
FORT PITT
WYOMING
Plan of action for Sullivan-Clinton Campaign- Clinton from Mohawk Valley; Sullivan from Easton; Brodhead from Fort Pitt.
Due to seniority a General Gates was offered the command of the expedition but he refused stating that it should be handled by a younger man who could stand the rigors of a compaign into In- dian territory. After General Gates' refusal, the command was offered to Major General John Sullivan.
General Sullivan immediately be- gan to plan his campaign. He studied the reports of the three preliminary actions. In Septem- ber of 1778 Colonel Thomas Hart- ley with 200 men from Sunbury, Pa., proceeded northward as far PA. N.Y. as Tioga Point, destroying sev- N.J. eral Indian towns and returning to Wyoming, Pa. In October 1778 Col. William Butler with a small force from Fort Defiance in the Schoharie Valley of New EASTON York penetrated the region about the headwaters of the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers destroying several Indian towns and returning to the Schoharie Valley before winter. In April 1779 Col. Van Schaick and Lt. Col. Marinus Willett with 558 men in- vaded the Onondaga Indian settlements near the present Syra- cuse and destroyed several Indian towns.
General Sullivan arrived at Easton, Pa· on May 7, 1779, estab- lished his headquarters and began collecting supplies for his expedition. On June 18 he gave the order for his army to move to Wyoming. Despite the labors of two regiments in making a road to Wyoming, the journey of 65 miles took 6 days of tortuous travel !
At Wyoming General Sullivan was discouraged to find that most of the meat stores had spoiled from being packed in kegs made of green wood. Then too, many of his other supplies of cloth- ing, ammunition and other needed materials had not arrived at Wyoming. After spending more than a month at Wyoming getting the necessary men and supplies, he gave the order to move northward up the Susquehanna River to Tioga Point. The artillery and heavy supplies were loaded into 214 boats to be poled up the river. The remaining supplies were loaded onto 1200 pack-horses. At noon on July 31 the army began to move up the river. They followed the Indian trail and formed a line about six miles in length. The Indians watching from the hills likened the advancing army to a long blue snake, and for
4
years the Indians referred to the Sullivan Expedition as "The Long Blue Snake." On August 11 after having covered about 80 miles of winding river and rough terrain, the army arrived at Tioga Point.
After arriving at Tioga Point, the entire army moved north- ward the following day to destroy the Indian Town of Chemung where a large number of Indians were reported to be. The In- dians fled before the army arrived and a small force was sent after them. This force was ambushed just north of Chemung and seven Colonial soldiers were killed. This was known as the Chemung Ambush and an historical marker stands on the spot today to commemorate this battle.
The remainder of the force returned to Tioga Point and in the days that followed the men were kept busy erecting a fortifica- tion which they named Fort Sullivan in honor of their com- mander. This was built on the spot where the waters of the present Chemung River and the Susquehanna River flow but a hundred yards from each other. This spot had been known by the Indians as the "carrying place" where they took their canoes out of one river and carried them the short distance to the other river, thus avoiding the long trip around the Tioga Point. This also made an excellent place for a fort, since it commanded an excellent view of both rivers, thus controlling them.
In the meantime, the army from the Albany area under Com- mand of Brigadier General James Clinton left Schenectady early in June, moving up the Mohawk River in 212 boats built especially for the campaign. At Canajoharie, the boats were taken out of the river and loaded onto wagons and carried 20 miles overland to Otsego Lake. Near the present Cooperstown on Otsego Lake, the army built a dam across the outlet of the lake in order to raise the level of the lake and make certain that there would be enough water to float the boats downstream. On August 9 the boats were placed into position and the dam was broken. The Indians who had been amazed to have the river so low during the past few weeks were bewildered when it suddenly rose to flood levels. Being a superstitious people, they took the mysterious behavior of the river as a bad omen, and fled before the armies arrived. The boats floated down- stream and the army of 1500 men marched along the winding river, destroying several Indian towns along the route. Near the present town of Winsor in Broome County, the army waited three days for a group that was supposed to meet them there after having come overland from Kingston, N. Y. When this group did not arrive, the army proceeded on down the river and formed a junction on August 19 with a strong force sent up the river by General Sullivan. This meeting took place at Union (Endicott), named after the "union" of the forces. At noon on August 22 Clinton's army arrived at Tioga Point. This made
WELLSBURG
CHEMUNG
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MONUMENT ON THIS HILL
Map of the Battle of Newtown, Aug. 29, 1779.
5
Joseph Brant - Thayendanegea - Captain of the Six Nations.
a total of over 5,000 colonial soldiers, one-third of the total Colonial Army of that day, which shows the importance General Washington placed upon this expedition.
On August 26, the combined forces left Tioga Point and headed north. Their progress was slowed down by the treacherous terrain and the swollen river and it was three days later, on August 29, when they reached the Indian Village of Newtown, located just north of the present village of Lowman.
It was at this point that the enemy forces had thrown up a breastworks concealed by freshly cut saplings. In front flowed Baldwin Creek and on their left was an extensive swamp. At their rear was a hill (the present location of the Sullivan's Monu- ment) and on their right passed the old Indian trail over which it was expected the expedition would advance. Some 200 yards beyond this trail lay a wooded ridge where a large detachment of British soldiers were hidden. Thus the trap was set!
Sullivan's scouts discovered the ambush by noticing that the saplings had begun to wither. (Had Sullivan's army covered the distance in the one day the British had planned on, the saplings might have been fresh and the trap might have been more successful.) Having been notified of the trap, General Sullivan made his battle plan. He sent Colonel Ogden to the far left and Generals Clinton and Poor to the right. Colonel Proctor's ar- tillery was moved up to within 300 yards of the breastworks and at a prearranged signal, the cannon opened up a heavy fire and the battle plan went into action. Poor and Clinton's armies were delayed by the swamp, but eventually gained high ground and engaged in fierce combat with the enemy. For a while it was a hotly contested battle, but eventually the vigorous artil- lery fire had a telling effect on the Indians and the signal for retreat was given and the defeated British and Indians fled northward up the river valley and over the hills. Thus the Battle of Newtown ended in victory for the Colonists. While only a few men were killed in the battle, this was due mainly to the fact that the weapons of the day could not shoot as rapidly as today's weapons and often tended to wound, rather than kill. The fact that over 7,000 men met in fierce combat should em- phasize the size of the Battle of Newtown. This was the key engagement of the whole Sullivan Campaign and did much to help the cause of the Revolutionary War.
After burying the three men killed in the battle and sending the wounded back to Fort Sullivan, the army moved northward and began a systematic destruction of the Indian towns, gardens and orchards in its path. After reaching the town of Canaweola near the juncture of Newtown Creek and the present Chemung River, the army left the river bank and proceeded north towards Seneca Lake. Just north of the present Horseheads they entered a thick swamp which caused them a great deal of difficulty.
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Emerging from the swamp near the present Montour Falls, they destroyed a large Indian settlement known as Queen Catharine's Town. They then proceeded up along the eastern shoreline of Seneca Lake to the present Geneva. A small group was sent down the western side of Seneca Lake to a point near the present Dresden, where a village was destroyed. Another small group destroyed a village at the site of the present Waterloo, just east of Geneva.
The route of the army then led to the present Canandaigua and thence westward towards the present Geneseo, where it was re- ported a very large Indian settlement was located. When the army reached the head of Conesus Lake, General Sullivan sent a scouting party out under command of Lt. Thomas Boyd to get information on the large village at Genesee Castle. On their way back from a successful scouting trip, this small group of 29 men was ambushed by a large number of Indians, in an action now known as the Groveland Ambuscade. Of the 29 men, fif- teen were slain, two were captured and twelve escaped. The two who were captured, Lt. Boyd and a Sgt. Parker, were tor- tured by the Indians and died.
When the scouts who had escaped returned to the main army, General Sullivan ordered the army to march with all speed to Genesee Castle and destroyed the 128 houses in this, the largest Indian village they had seen on the whole expedition. They also burned an estimated 20,000 bushels of corn at this town.
At this point, General Sullivan made the decision not to go on to attack Fort Niagara. It was late in the season and his men were not equipped for the colder weather which was soon to come. The expedition from Fort Pitt under Colonel Brodhead had not met them, and Sullivan did not feel that his tired, poorly equipped army could successfully storm the heavily fortified and well-armed Fort Niagara. He felt it more important to return the 5,000 man army intact to General Washington for further use in the course of the war. Accordingly, General Sullivan issued an order complimenting his men on a successful expedition and ordering the return march.
The main army retraced its trail to Geneva where General Sulli- van sent one group on to Albany, another under Colonel William Butler was sent down the east side of Cayuga lake and still an- other under Colonel Henry Dearborn was sent down the western shore of Cayuga lake. The main army then returned down the eastern shore of Seneca Lake and moved on to the present loca- tion of Elmira. At this point the forces from Fort Sullivan had constructed a fort which they named Fort Reed after their de- tachment commander. (This fort was located where Newtown Creek flows into the Chemung River.) While waiting for the forces sent to destroy the Indian towns along Cayuga Lake, General Sullivan sent a detachment up the Chemung River to
Major General John Sullivan.
7
destroy any Indian settlements. This group went up the river to a point just beyond the present Painted Post.
On the morning of September 29, Fort Reed was destroyed and the army followed the river downstream to Fort Sullivan at Tioga Point. On October 3, Fort Sullivan was also destroyed and the army followed the Susquehanna river south to Wyoming and then went overland to Easton, the starting point of the ex- pedition.
Thus ended the Sullivan Expedition. The lands formerly held by the Indians were opened up for settlement. The six nations of the Iroquois were so crushed that they never again made war as an organized group and their confidence in their British allies was shattered. An impending attack by the British from Fort Niagara was thwarted and their entire war effort was hampered by the destruction of their food supplies from the Indian country. The success of this expedition gave the war new vigor on all fronts and won for the Colonies a great western territory.
Truly, the Sullivan Expedition was of great importance to our country, and did much to influence the history of the Chemung Valley.
SULLIVAN EXPEDITION
References The Chemung Historical Journal
Vol. 5-No. 2
Dec. 1959 The Sullivan Expedition
Vol. 5 - No. 3
Маг. 1960 Sullivan's Monument in 1912
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1
EARLY SETTLEMENT
Before the Revolutionary War the Chemung River Valley was not known to white settlers. There were no early maps of the area; it being considered a swampy, undesirable region. There had been, earlier, some trading with the Indians by white men, and Jesuit missionaries who traveled through here, but until the soldiers returned to civilian life after the Sullivan Expedi- tion in 1779, no one attempted to make a permanent settlement.
The returning soldiers were enthused over the beauty of the lakes and hills; the flourishing orchards which the Indians had successfully cultivated; the fertile soil. The first settlers came fron Connecticut, Orange County, New York, and the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania.
They came either by way of the river, poling their way in Dur- ham boats loaded with family possessions, or they traveled overland in wagons drawn by oxen, on roads cut through the wilderness by Sullivan's army, (and already beginning to be over-grown.) They drove their cattle along the banks of the river so they could forage for water and food.
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