USA > New York > Tioga County > Historical gazetter of Tioga County, New York, 1785-1888. Pt. 1 > Part 1
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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01152 2551
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/historicalgazett01gayw
840
PART FIRST.
HISTORICAL
GAZETTEER -OF- ,21
Tioga County, New York,
1785-ISSS. pt. 1
COMPILED AND EDITED
+-BY- W. B. GAY,
EDITOR OF SIMILAR WORKS FOR RUTLAND, ADDISON, CHITTENDEN, FRANKLIN .. GRAND ISLE. LAMOILLE, ORLEANS, WINDSOR, ESSEX, CALEDONIA, AND WINDHAM COUNTIES. IN VERMONT, BERKSHIRE AND HAMPSHIRE COUNTIES. IN MASSACHUSETTS, AND CHESHIRE. AND GRAFTON COUN- TIEN, IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.
FERMANENT OFFICE -
- - SYRACUSE, N. Y.
" Hle that hath much to do, will do something wrong, and of that wrong must suffer the wapiences : and if it were possible that he should always act rightly, yet when such num- are to jadge of his conduct, the bad will censure and obstruct him by malevolence, and the good sometimes by mistake. " -- SAMUEL JOHNSON.
840
PUBLISHED BY W. B. GAY & CO., SYRACUSE, N. Y.
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RD South Iorford LAPEER
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MAP OF TIOGA COUNTY N.Y. TO ACCOMPANY W. B. GAY & CO'S. GAZETTEER AND DIRECTORY. SCALE OF MILES. CEME
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1755111
MAR 23 75
Gay, William: Burton, comp. and od.
F 85184 .3 ... Historical gazetteer of Tioga County, New York, 17-5- 1888. Comp. and ed. by W. B. Gray ... Syracuse, N. Y., W. 1. Gay & co. ; etc., 1887 5
2 v. in 1. 21 port .. fold. map. 2FF.
Map attached to back cover ..
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Part 2 has title and haprint : ... Directory of Tioga County ... 17- 'S8. Comp. and youth, by W. B. Gay & co. ... Syracuse, N. Y., The Syr- cuse journal company, pruners and binders, fest.
1. Tinga Co., N. Y .--- Hist. 2. Tioga Co., N. Y .-- Direct.
G -- 15-55
Library of Congress
F127.7002
40130
THE SYRACUSE JOURNAL COMPANY. PRINTERS AND BINDERS. SYRACUSE, N. Y.
INTRODUCTION.
In presenting to the public the "Historical Gazetteer and Directory" of Tioga county, we desire to return our sincere thanks to all who have kindly aided in obtaining the information it contains, and rendered it possible to present it in the brief space of time in which it is essential such works should be com- pleted. Especially are our thanks due to the editors and man- agers of the county papers for the uniform kindness they have evinced in calling public attention to our efforts, and for essential aid in furnishing material for the work. We have also found valuable aid in the following: Judge Avery's "Susquehanna Valley " papers ; Everts' "History of Four Counties; " French's " Gazetteer of New York;" Child's "Gazetteer of Broome and Tioga Counties ; " Wilkinson's " Annals of Binghamton ;" Hon. W. F. Warner's "Centennial History ; " and in various pamphlets and manuscripts, while those who have aided us by extended per- sonal effort we have credited in the pages where their work occurs.
That errors have occurred in so great a number of names is probable, and that names have been omitted which should have been inserted is quite certain. We can only say that we have exercised more than ordinary diligence and care in this difficult and complicated feature of book-making. Of such as feelaggrieved in consequence of errors or omissions, we beg pardon, and ask the indulgence of the reader in noting such as have been observed in the subsequent reading of the proofs and which are found cor- rected in the Errata.
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INTRODUCTION.
It was designed to give a brief account of all the church and other societies in the county, but owing in some cases to the neg- ligence of those who were able to give the necessary information, and in others to the inability of any one to do so, we have been obliged to omit special notices of a few.
We would suggest that our patrons observe and become famil- iar with the explanations at the commencement of the Directory on page 3, Part Second. The names it embraces, and the inform- ation connected therewith, were obtained by actual canvass, and are as correct and reliable as the judgment of those from whom they were solicited renders possible. Each agent is furnished with a map of the town he is expected to canvass, and he is required to pass over every road and call at every dwelling and place of business in the town in order to obtain the facts from the individuals concerned, whenever possible.
The margins have been left broad to enable anyone to note changes opposite the names.
While thanking our patrons and friends generally for the cor- diality with which our efforts have been seconded, we leave the work to secure that favor which earnest endeavor ever wins from a discriminating public, hoping they will bear in mind, should errors be noted, that "he who expects a perfect work to see, expects what ne'er was, is, nor yet shall be."
W. B. GAY. M. F. ROBERTS.
------
.
GAZETTEER
OF
TIOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
*CHAPTER I.
"Tribes of the solemn League ! from ancient seats Swept by the whites like autumn leaves away, Faint are your records of heroic feats And few the traces of your former sway."-HOSMER.t
ABORIGINES, ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF-THE CARANTOUANNAIS -- THE ONNON-TIOGAS-THE IROQUOIS-INDIAN WARS-LAND TITLES-INDIAN VILLAGE AT OWEGO-TIOGA POINT -- SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON'S EXPEDI- TION-THE REVOLUTION-SULLIVAN'S EXPEDITION-CLOSE OF INDIAN DOMINION.
E THNOLOGY has no more inviting and yet more difficult field of inquiry than that pertaining to the origin and his- tory of those aboriginal races, which for unknown ages prior to the advent of the European, had occupied, and swayed the destinies of the American continent. A puzzle to the scholar and antiquary for nearly four centuries, and giving rise to various theories which have generally proved far more ingenious than Convincing ; nevertheless it has been by no means a fruitless
* Prepared by Prof. James Riker, of Waverly, member of the historical societies of New York, Long Island, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the N. E. Hist. and fen. Soc., and N. Y. Gen. and Biog. Soc. ; and author of Annals of Newtown, History of Haarlem, St. Bartholomew, 1572, Capt. Van Arsdale and Evacuation Day, 1783, etc.
" These lines, which head a chapter of the late Judge Charles P. Avery's, The Susque- Ann: l'alley, (page 244, St. Nicholas magazine), are from a poem by Col. William Howe or Hosmer, who married a sister of Judge Avery. He was born at Avon, N. Y., in 1:13, and was well known as the " Bard of Avon."
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TIOGA COUNTY.
study. By the reflex light of Indian tradition and history, and the concurrent testimony of the mounds, defensive works, war weapons, domestic utensils, tumuli, and other surviving relics of those races, we read, in faint but pathetic outline, the strange story of nations once numerous and powerful, but long since dis- possessed or exterminated.
A statement of some general conclusions arrived at by eminent students of Indian archeology will be found to have a bearing upon the special inquiry before us. Wilson, in his work entitled Prehistoric Man, concurring in an opinion advanced long before his time, observes: "Some analogies confirm the probability of a portion of the North American stock having entered the conti- nent from Asia by Behring's straits or the Aleutian islands, and more probably by the latter than the former." But Morgan, in his Indian Migrations, emphasizes this opinion, by cogent argu- ments, which tend to prove that the aboriginal peopling of North America began at the northwest coast and spread by degrees southward and eastward, till, in process of time, the remotest portions of the continent were occupied. That this race was of Tartar origin, many analogies and evidences seem to prove,- " physical considerations, and the types of man in northeastern Asia point to this section of Asia as the source, and to the Aleu- tian islands as the probable avenue, of this antecedent migration." But again, " the systems of consanguinity and affinity of several Asiatic stocks agree with that of the American aborigines." This remarkable fact bears with equal force upon the original identity of the North American tribes, affording, says Morgan, " the strong. est evidence yet obtained of the unity of origin of the Indian nations within the region we have defined." And this is further strengthened by the uniform agreement in the structure of their languages, and their stage of development,-though the lan- guages themselves form many dialects, of which the Algonquin and the Iroquois are taken as the two principal representative groups.
The multiplication of tribes, the differences of dialect and loca- tion, the division and subdivision into the roving Indians, who subsisted by fishing, hunting and war, and the village tribes, whose maintenance was chiefly from agriculture, were but the results of time. and the struggle for supremacy inseparable from the barbaric state. The former of these two classes were neces- sarily the more numerous and warlike, the latter more advanced in the knowledge of useful arts. From a variety of considera-
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tions we may conclude that for ages before its discovery by Columbus, the American continent was the scene of sanguinary wars, a perpetual and fierce struggle for the mastery, which could only result in the subjugation, expulsion, or extinction of the weaker, and in the temporary elevation of the stronger race. A natural result was to render these nations unstable in their possessions, which were theirs only so long as they could hold them per force of numbers and arms. It has been argued with much probability, that the Indians found in central New York, when first known to Europeans, were only the successors of other peoples of more ancient date, and farther advanced than they in the arts of civilized life. But at what era, or by what agency, the more cultured race had been made to succumb to the ruder tribes sub- sequently found here, is unknown to history.
It is this reign of barbarism, and deadly strife for supremacy, which at once confronts us upon our earliest introduction to this immediate locality, whose history we are now considering. At the dawn of the sixteenth century, it was within the domain of a tribe of savages, whom Champlain, # with his imperfect knowl- edge of this people, denominates the Carantouannais, and which, from its French suffix, would mean, the people of Carantouan ; but we strongly suspect the term to be nothing else than an attempt at the name Susquehanna.
They were reputed to be a very warlike clan, and able to keep at bay the numerous foes who dwelt around them, though, accord- ing to Champlain, they composed but three villages. These were quite distant from each other, along the Susquehanna and Chemung rivers, but were all fortified towns. The principal one, their chief stronghold, occupied that singular eminence near Waverly, familiarly known as " Spanish Hill." Another of these towns was located, according to a reliable authority, tat the north- ern angle of the junction of Sugar creek with the Susquehanna river, in the borough of North Towanda; the third town, prob- ably, being the well known work on the south side of the Che- mung river, near Elmira. They thus commanded the stretch of country now comprising the three adjoining counties, -Tioga and Chemung, and Bradford, in Pennsylvania. Their principal seat, before mentioned, bore the Indian name of Onnon-tioga, sig-
* Les Voyages de la Nouvelle France, Paris, 1632. See extracts, translated, in Documen- Liry History of New York, vol. 3, p. I.
.
+ Gen. John S. Clark, of Auburn, N. Y., to whom we are indebted for having first indicated the sites occupied by these Indian villages. See Waverly Advocate, May 17, 1878.
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TIOGA COUNTY.
nifying the village on the hill between the rivers; the intervale below, where Athens is now situated, being simply called Tioga, --- pronounced te-yoge-gak,-and meaning between the rivers, or at the forks. These three villages, says Champlain, lay in the midst of more than twenty others, against which they waged war. Among these he no doubt includes the Iroquois, who were hostile to the Onnon-tiogas, from whom their nearest castles were only about thirty miles distant.
To the northward of the Onnon-tiogas was a large country, then famous for "the deer and beaver hunting,"-its limits the shores of Lake Ontario, but reaching westward to the Genesee river, and eastward down the Mohawk. Here lay the scattered castles and settlements of the Iroquois, otherwise called the Five Nations, who at no remote period anterior to this date, had been driven from the northern side of the lake and the north bank of the St. Lawrence, by the then more warlike Adirondacks, of Canada, a branch of the Algonquin race.
The Iroquois, with their congeners, the Hurons, Eries, Susque- hannas, etc., were marked by language and personal traits suffi- cient to distinguish them from the numerous other tribes classed under the generic term of Algonquins; but it has been ably argued that they too were of Tartar or Asiatic extraction. The rough handling they had received from the Adirondacks produced a mortal enmity, and wrought a marvelous change in the Iroquois, who by giving themselves to a regular course of training, from being simple cornplanters, became brave and ex- pert wariors. Supplied with firearms, through their traffic with the Dutch traders on the Hudson, the skill they acquired in the use of this new weapon, soon made them more than a match for their enemies, and wholly diverted them to war and conquest. Among the first to feel the weight of their arms were the adja- cent Shaouonons (whom Schoolcraft makes the same as the Shawnees), within whose limits, as would appear, they had tres- passed when they fled thither from the Adirondacks. These were no insignificant foe, -so warlike, haughty and cruel, that the Dutch called them Satanas! Victory, however, turned in favor of the invincible Iroquois, who drove the Satanas from their lands, and forced them to retire westward, save a portion of the tribe which submitted to the conquerors and became tributary. This conquest, which dated about the year 1620, extended the area of the Iroquois country (beginning with the Onondagas), to a dis- tance of "sixty miles" southward from Lake Ontario, and west-
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TIOGA COUNTY.
ward to Niagara.# Fired by success, the Iroquois, and especi- ally the Mohawks, thirsted to avenge themselves upon the Adi- rondacks, and in a series of encounters the latter were finally van- quished and almost annihilated. The Mohawks also subdued the Mohicans, on the upper Hudson, subsequently completing their subjugation by pursuing them down that river nearly to Manhattan, and destroying their castles at Wickquaskeek, in West- chester .. Meanwhile the other four tribes, -the Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga and Seneca,-turned their arıns, in 1653, against a tribe occupying the southeastern boader of Lake Erie, and hence called the Eries, or otherwise (from Erie which signifies cat), the Cat Indians. This name is given by the Canadians to the Shawnees, and which favors the belief that the Eries were no other than the expelled Satanas, still unsubdued, and whom the relentless Iroquois were bound to extirpate. Two years com- pleted this conquest ; and it would appear that it was immediately followed by the final war upon, and overthrow of the Onnon- tiogas, seated as before stated, upon the Susquehanna and Che- mung rivers.
If the Onnon-tiogas were of Algonquin stock, it would account for the enmity the Iroquois had shown toward this tribe for at least a half century ; but if they were Susquehannas, as we think they were, and who, according to Morgan, were congener to the Iroquois, then we probably find the reason for this hostility in a family feud ; and what wars have been more bitter and more deadly than those waged between kindred? However, it happened that Champlain, governor of Canada, unwisely took up the quarrel of the Adirondacks with the Iroquois, as early as 1609. Entering the Mohawk country, by way of the Sorel river, he met and defeated a party of Mohawks, on the bank of Lake Cham- plain, who fled in dismay at the discharge of muskets, it being their first introduction to this deadly weapon, afterwards made so efficient in their hands. Six years later (1615), Champlain, with a force of French, Adirondacks and Hurons, made a descent . by way of Lake Ontario, upon the castle of the Onondagas. The invaders had an offer from the Onnon-tiogas to assist them with five hundred of their wariors, and when Champlain was ready, he dispatched messengers to inform that distant tribe that he had
* By referring to a map of the state, it will be seen that this conquest must have reached a line nearly identical with the northern limits of the southern tier of counties. At that date, therefore, Tioga county was not yet a part of the Iroquois country. See a deed in Doc. Hist. of N. Y., I : 773.
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TIOGA COUNTY.
begun his march, so they might meet at the same time before the enemy's fort. The party, consisting of twelve of the most reso- lute Indians and a French interpeter named Stephen Brule, pro- ceeded in canoes across the lake and reached Onnon-tioga by a circuitous route, which they took for fear of being intercepted by the Chouatouarouon, or otherwise the Cayugas. The Onnon- tiogas gave them a warm greeting, entertaining them with feast- ing and dancing, as was their custom. But so much time was thus wasted, that the reinforcement did not reach the fort until two days after Champlain had abandoned the siege. The party therefore returned to Onnon-tioga, accompanied by Brule, who spent the winter with them, and in visiting neighboring tribes ; during which he descended the Susquehanna to the sea, return- ing again to his new-made friends, the Onnon-tiogas, and of all which he afterwards gave Champlain a full account. He described the castle at Onnon-tioga as situated in a beautiful and rich country, in a commanding position, well fortified by earthworks and pallisades, after the manner of the Hurons, and containing more than eight hundred warriors.
This attempt of the Onnon-tiogas to aid the Adirondacks against the Iroquois only aroused the latter to new acts of hos- tility, and the former were soon after assailed by a party of Mohawks and their Mohican allies, who had descended the north branch of the Susquehanna, and with whom were several adven- turous Dutchmen from the trading post on the Hudson. But the assailants were repulsed, and three Dutchmen were taken prison- ers. The Onnon-tiogas, never having seen any of this nation, took them for Frenchmen, and therefore spared their lives, and con- veyed them to the coast, by the Susquehanna and Delaware rivers, where falling in with a Dutch explorer, Capt. Hendrick- sen, he procured their ransom.
It only remained for the Iroquois to effectually arm himself with the resistless musket, in order to deal the final blow to the hated Onnon-tiogas. Of the details of this tragic event, history is silent. It is only intimated that they " were conquered and incorporated with the Five Nations." Doubtless they were driven from their position with slaughter, and their strong works demolished, of which some of the debris was visible long after this section was settled by the whites, and parts of the earthworks being even yet plainly traceable.# It may be inferred that the
*SPANISH HILL .- The earliest mention of this name [ have found, is in Gordon's Gazetteer, IS36, though his predecessor Stafford, in 1813, speaks of the hill, as from 100 to
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TIOGA COUNTY.
Onondagas and Cayugas were the chief instruments in their sub- jugation, as these two tribes, a little later, claim the land along the Susquehanna ; saying that it belongs to them alone, and that " the other three nations, viz : the Senecas, Oneidas and Maquaas, have nothing to do with it."
Flushed with victory, the Iroquois led their devastating war parties down the Susquehanna, scattering the nations on its banks, till in 1676, their conquests here culminated in the overthrow of the Andastes, a part of the Susquehannas, and then "the sole enemies remaining on their hands," and by the destruction of their castles. The neighboring Delawares had also submitted to the conquerors, being stripped of all rights in their lands, forbid- den to use arms. and reduced to the condition of " women." Subsequently, however, their " uncles," the Six Nations, assigned them a home at Tioga, "and lighted a council fire there."
But we have no need longer to follow the fierce Iroquois in the bloody war-path, which was kept well trodden till their insatiate greed of conquest had subjugated the most distant tribes; it is enough for our purpose to have shown in what manner this sec- tion of country whose history we are reviewing, came to pass under their iron domination.
Another contest now opened, bloodless but obstinate, waged to settle the question, which of the English colonies should reap
Ito feet high, "and which correspondents describe as apparently a work of art." But in neither of his two editions does Stafford give its name ; an omission calculated to cast doubt upon its supposed antiquity. Yet with a knowledge of the fact that Spanish adven- turers, in the sixteenth century, explored many parts of our country in search of gold, and actually pushed their search to the shores o Lake Ontario, one can scarcely resist the conviction that the name of Spanish Hill has some association with those old gold seekers. Gordon states that at that date (1336), on the summit of the hill were " vestiges of fortifica- tions, displaying much skill in the art of defense, having regular intrenchments, which per- fectly commanded the bend of the river." And. says Hon. W. F. Warner, "this breastwork is still easily and distinctly traceable around the entire brow of the hill, even now, after fifty years of cultivation of the surface. It was of considerable height before the plateau was denuded of its trees, and must have been a formidable work. Well defined remains of an inner fortitica- tion may also be seen at the center of the hill, extending from the steeper part on the east side, to the steeper part on the west side." General Clark finds by actual survey " that the area enclosed by the embankment contains abont ten acres. " At the west side of the hill, upon a plateau near its base, are also remains of an Indian burying ground. "That a frightful contest took place at or near Spanish Hill," says Mr. Warner, " is more than prob- able ; * * it is also a well established fact, that the Indians had a superstitious fear about the hill, so strong that they would not go upon it. So sanguinary a contest, while it would have added to the glory and courage of the Iroquois, still would have left in the savage mind a horror of the spot where so many of their braves had fallen." Mr. Warner here refers to a supposed battle between the savages and Spaniards, and whence the hill may have taken its name. But leaving the derivation of the name out of the question, as too uncer- tain ; would not the slaughter by the Iroquois of their own kinsmen; the Onnon-tiogas. better account for that peculiar dread, which, we are told, the sight of the hill always inspired in the Indians ? We suggest this with much deference to our esteemed townsman, whose views upon our local antiquities are not to be lightly set aside.
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TIOGA COUNTY.
the most advantage from the Iroquois conquests ; New York and Pennsylvania were the chief contestants. It was argued that if the latter province got control of the Susquehanna river, she would also control the trade with the Iroquois, and divert it from Albany to Philadelphia. As the fur trade was a mine of wealth to the Albanians, and told upon the prosperity of the whole province, it was of great consequence to secure it. New York had greatly the advantage from the length of time she had enjoyed this trade; and from having kept unbroken the " cove- nants of friendship " made with the Iroquois tribes as early as 1623, when Albany was first colonized. The Cayugas, who with the Onondagas claimed the conquered lands on the Susquehanna, were at first willing and urgent to have some white men settle upon that river, for their greater convenience in trading ; but the Albanians, for obvious reasons, brought every influence to bear to prevent it, and were successful. In the year 1679, the Cayugas and Onondagas, in virtue of their sole ownership, pro- ceeded to make over these conquered lands to the government of New York; and four years later, while William Haig, agent for Penn, was at Albany, trying to effect a purchase of those lands, these tribes formally ratified "the gift and conveyance" to New York, by an instrument dated September 26, 1683. It included all the conquered country upon the Susquehanna, as far down as the Washinta, or Falls, and therefore covered the present Tioga county.# The Indians "accepted in full satisfac- tion : a half piece of duffels cloth ; two blankets; two guns; three kettles : four coats ; fifty pounds of lead ; twenty-five pounds of powder." To which was added the promise: "the Governor will compensate you therefor, when occasion permits."
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