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M. L.
Gc 974.7 H160 1223473
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
CARDS FROM POCKET DO NOT REMOVE
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01067 8222
JOSEPH BRANT- THAYENDANEGEA ( His age, thirty-four. )
( From a mezzotint of 17-9, now in the Lenox Library, after a portrait by Romney, painted in London, in 1 -- 6.
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER®
ITS WARS WITH INDIANS AND TORIES, ITS MISSIONARY SCHOOLS, PIONEERS AND LAND TITLES
1614-1800
BY
FRANCIS WHITING HALSEY
WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
974.7
HI60
NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1901
COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
TROW DIRECTORY PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY NEW YORK
1222473
THESE ANNALS OF MY BIRTHLAND ARE INSCRIBED TO THE MEMORY OF
VIRGINIA ISABEL FORBES
MY CONSTANT COMPANION IN THEIR PREPARATION THROUGH MANY YEARS; WHOSE HAND WROTE AND REWROTE MORE THAN HALF THESE PAGES.
"BUT THY ETERNAL SUMMER SHALL NOT FADE."
Naven Heute Alap 6.75 V
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
PAGE
Why this History 3
PART I
INDIANS AND FUR TRADERS
I. The Iroquois and the Susquehanna
II
II. Indian Villages in the Upper Valley 21
III. The Coming of White Men (1614-1740) . 32
PART II
MISSIONARIES AND THE FRENCH WAR 1650-1769
I. Jesuits and Church of England Men 43
II. Missionaries from New England . 52
III. Gideon Hawley's Coming . 56
IV. War Interrupts Mr. Hawley's Work 63
V. New Men at Oghwaga 69
VI. Pontiac's War and After It 73
VII. Last of the Indian Missions 80
vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART III LAND TITLES AND PIONEERS 1679-1774 PAGE
I. William Penn and Sir William Johnson . 87
II. The Fort Stanwix Deed, and Patents that Followed It 99
III. The Patent Called Wallace's . . 106
IV. The First Settlers 116 .
V. Journal of a Tour in 1769 138 .
PART IV
THE BORDER WARS BEGUN 1776-1777
I. Causes that Led to the Wars . . 147
II. Why Brant Came to the Susquehanna . · I57
III. Brant's Arrival in Unadilla . 168
IV. General Herkimer's Conference with Brant . 176
V. The Battle of Oriskany . 185
PART V
OVERTHROW OF THE FRONTIER
1777-1778
I. Alarm Among the Settlements
201
II. Cobleskill, Springfield, and Wyoming 207
Vili
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
III. German Flatts Destroyed . . 223 IV. The Burning of Unadilla and Oghwaga . 229 V. The Cherry Valley Massacre 238
PART VI
THE SULLIVAN EXPEDITION
1779
I. General Clinton at Otsego Lake . 255
II. Brant's Return and the Battle of Minisink . . 263 III. General Clinton's Descent of the Susquehanna 271 IV. Iroquois Civilization Overturned . 278
PART VII
LAST YEARS OF THE WAR
1780-1783
I. Schoharie and the Mohawk Laid Waste . 287
II. Sir John and Brant Return . 295
III. Colonel Willett Expels the Invaders . 301 IV. Final War Scenes . . 308
V. The Iroquois After the War . 317
ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART VIII
THE RESTORATION OF THE FRONTIER 1782-1800 PAGE
I. Return of the Former Settlers . 331
II. Men Who Came from New England · 337
III. Pioneers by Way of Wattles's Ferry . · 347
IV. William Cooper, of Cooperstown . 357
V. Jacob Morris and Talleyrand's Visit . 365
VI. Churches-Father Nash and Others Founded ·
373
VII. A Great Highway . 379
VIII. Economic Facts in Pioneer Life
· 392
BIBLIOGRAPHY, ETC. :
Material in Print . · 403
Manuscripts · 410
A Few of the Many . 4II
A Personal Note .
. 413
INDEX . 415
X
Illustrations
Portrait of JOSEPH BRANT, Thayendanegea, Frontispiece
From a large and rare mezzotint of 1779, in the Lenox Li- brary, made from a portrait painted in London by ROMNEY, in 1776. FACING PAGE
An Iroquois Fort, .
12
Believed to have stood on the shore of Onondaga Lake and be- sieged by CHAMPLAIN in 1615. From Vol. III. of " The Documentary History of the State of New York." The orig- inal in CHAMPLAIN'S " Voyages." Paris, 1619.
Council Rock, Otsego Lake, 22 An ancient Indian rendezvous. From a recent photograph.
Portrait of Sir WILLIAM JOHNSON, . 40
From a copy in the State Library, at Albany, of an original, formerly owned by Sir JOHN JOHNSON, Sir WILLIAM'S son.
Looking up the Unadilla at its confluence with the Susquehanna, · . IO2
Being part of the Fort Stanwix Treaty line of 1768. From a recent photograph.
Four Eminent New York Indians, . 158
SA GA YEAN QUA RESH TOW, King of the Mohawks, in 1710, alias King BRANT, JOSEPH'S grandfather. From a rare mezzotint of the period in the Lenox Library. TEE VEE NEEN HO GA ROW. Emperor of the Six Nations, in 1710. From a rare mezzotint in the Lenox Library. E. Tow O KOAM, King of the River Indians, in 1710. From a rare mezzotint in the Lenox Library. JOSEPH BRANT, Thayendanegea, his age 63. From a por- trait painted in Albany by EZRA AMES in 1805.
xi
ILLUSTRATIONS
Fort Oswego,
FACING PAGE
186
The principal rendezvous of Indians, Tories and British regulars in the Revolution. From a large print in Vol. I of " The Documentary History of the State of New York." The original in Smith's " History of New York." Quarto. London, 1767.
Monument on the Hillside, Overlooking the Ravine at Oriskany, . . 196
From a recent photograph.
Monument at Cherry Valley to those who
Perished in the Massacre,
·
.
. 238
On the site of the Revolutionary Fort. From a recent photo-
graph.
General JAMES CLINTON, . 272 From a portrait in " The Journals of the Sullivan Expedi- tion."
Colonel MARINUS WILLETT, .
. 302
From the frontispiece to " A Narrative of the Military Ac-
tions of Colonel MARINUS WILLETT."
The Susquehanna at Unadilla Village,
.
. 348
Site of Wattles's Ferry in the middle distance. From a re-
cent photograph.
Portrait of J. FENIMORE COOPER,
·
.
358
From an Engraving by J. B. FORREST of a miniature by
H. CHILTON.
Otsego Hall, Cooperstown, 362 The home of J. FENIMORE COOPER. Built by Cooper's father in 1797-99. Improved by Cooper in 1824. Destroyed by fire in 1853. The grounds now a village park. From an old print.
The Seal of the Dongan Charter,
Stamped on the Cover
See foot-note, page 92.
xii
Maps
The Frontier of New York, in the Revolu- tion, .
FACING PAGE
Compiled by the author.
I
Early Land Titles on the Frontier with dates and owners' names, End of Volume
Reduced from a map compiled about 1770 by SIMEON DEWITT and printed in Volume I of "The Documentary History of the State of New York."
X111
LAKE ONTARIO
*Ft. Oswego
River
Onond
I
N
D
I
A
Skoiyose
Tichero
Kanandaigua º
· Onoi
Kanadesaga.
Little Beard's Town
Honeoye
Canandaigua w
0
Kanaghsaws
Lake
seneca
Kendaia
Lake o
Troughnevy~
Creek
T
E
R
R
I
T
0
Catherine Town
Kanawaholla
Ochena
Chemung
o Newtown
Choconut c
Chu;
o Chemung
Rue
Present Boundary of Pennsylvania
Butler's
I
A
S
Cr.
Torraada
1763
of
Wyalusing
Treaty
Susquehanna
Ft. Stanwix
Wy01
THE FRONTIER OF NEV
( Present C
(Compil
C
Cayuga Castle
Orusco Lake
Gathtsegyvaroliare n
Chonodote
Genesee
Canuseruga
.Condawhaw
Owegoo
Tioga Point
Ft. Stanyvi
P
E N
N
Line
Skeneuteles Lake
L EWIS
WARREN
Lake
George
H
A MAI
L T
0
N E
1 D A
Fi.Stanwix
Oriskany
SARATOGA
Canada
FULGT
ON
Butler's Ford
Schuylerville
F
Johnstown!
Oneida Castle
Tribes Hill
Stone Arabia
Amsterdam
· Pa
Ft.Hunter
Stillwater
Unadilla Fork:
Richtielch-
Springfield
Schenectady
Otseg
Cherry Valley C Sharon Center
Albany c
. Edmeston
Lake
Cherry
Cobleskill
O T
G
Schoharie
Rirer
E
G
L
I
Creek
S
II
Middleburg o
/ALBANY
Laurens
SCHOHARIE
Scheneras
Oneonta
Creek
Summit Lake
Y
Charlotte
Wauteghe
Harpersfield
Old Unadilla'l
Kortright
Carr's Cr. Franklin
CATSKILL
TURNPIKE
GREE Windham
IN
E
nahunta
T F
R I
R
iugo
D
E
Á
W ARE
hwaga
Cookose
Delaware
o Ingaren
Creek
Kingston
ULSTER
River
A
Delaware
SULLIVAN
Rond nuit
Newburgho
Creek
Lackawaxen
River
ORANGE
West Point
Port Jervis
Minisink
Stony Point ,
K IN THE REVOLUTION
s inserted. )
author.)
y Line of 1768
I
Wawarsing
0
Poughkeepsie
Lackawaren
wanna Creek
West
Branch
Hudson
arora
Susquehanna
~
Butternut
Unadilla Villase
Hartwick
River
Line
OLD ENGLAND DISTRICT
Crick
Cooperstown S
· Middlefield
SCHENECTADY
Treaty
uc%
German Flatts
EMine Auricisville (Canajoharie
Ft. Stanwix
HERKIMER
Rver
River
Kirer
River't
Sch iharie
Albout Ouleuut Cr.
Johnston Settlement
Delaware
. Catskill
1768
Branch
ENGRAVE 1 2ORMAY & CJ , N.Y
Hudson
INTRODUCTION
Why this History
Why this History
R EASONS for writing this history may in some numbers be cited. About one hun- dred and sixty years before the Revolution -earlier, in fact, than the landing of the Pilgrims- these lands had been visited by white men. Traders had travelled along the Indian trails of the Mohawk and Susquehanna valleys periodically all through that century and a half, while for at least a quarter of a century before the Revolution, missionaries had engaged in constant labor on the Susquehanna. By the missionaries, schools and churches were founded, and a beneficent and fruitful work was well under way when the war put a sudden end to peaceful activities. The lands on the Susquehanna for a con- siderable time were the frontier of the province of New York, the Unadilla River, one of the tributa- ries of the larger stream, forming another part of that boundary line between the Indians and the English, which was established by the treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768. Beyond this line no settlements were made until after the war, when the white man secured his first titles in that fertile region of Cen- tral and Western New York.
During the Revolution the upper Susquehanna became a base of operations from which the Indians and Tories, who had fled from the Mohawk and Schoharie valleys, found their way back into the settled parts of New York, and under Joseph Brant, Colonel John Butler, Walter H. Butler, and Sir John Johnson wrought their destruction. After peace returned, the history of these Susquehanna
3
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
lands is the history of a chain of prosperous settle- ments founded mainly by men from New England States on sites where Scotch-Irish, German, and other pioneers had taken up lands before the con- flict. Thus it becomes a history, furnishing a type of the settlement of Central New York.
In the history of the upper Susquehanna Valley as a highway, three distinct periods might be named. First come the trails of the Indian era, dating from immemorial times and including the years of the fur traders and the Protestant missions. Second is the time from 1770 to 1783, when by turns the valley was a road for pioneers coming into the country, to be driven out by fire and the toma- hawk; a road for Indians bent on spoliation or massacre; a route by land and water for the sol- diers of General Clinton; and, finally, a route along which the Indians, stirred to bitter revenge by Gen- eral Sullivan's ravages, penetrated and laid waste all that remained of the Mohawk and Schoharie settle- ments. Third comes the period after the peace, when the valley was the road for settlers bound for the " Southern Tier " and Pennsylvania by way of Wattles's Ferry, from 1784 on for many years, and when from about 1800 it became at Unadilla the terminus of two great turnpikes, the Catskill and the Ithaca, which were the railroads of their time and along which for a quarter of a century ran the main course of trade and travel for a large inland territory.
This history has long waited for consecutive and full narration. More than half a century ago sev- eral writers dealt with certain interesting parts of it. Campbell, with an able and gentle hand, wrote the story of the settlement of Cherry Valley, and of
4
WHY THIS HISTORY
stirring events in Tryon County during the Revo- lution. Stone wrote the biography of Brant as might one who loved Brant and honored his memory. Simms gathered into his several publi- cations an extensive and curious array of material. Jay Gould, when still under age, revived much that Campbell and Simms had brought to light, and added other valuable information. Cooper, with accuracy and fulness, recorded the annals of the settlement developed by his father on Otsego Lake, all of which Cooper himself may be said to have seen and a large part of which he afterward was.
Some of these and other chronicles were printed sixty or more years ago. They all long since had passed out of print and out of the convenient reach of purchasers, some of them being now very scarce books. At the time of their publication, moreover, a large store of important material, printed and unprinted, which is now to be found in State archives and in libraries, was either inacces- sible, or for other reasons was not drawn upon .*
* Noteworthy material of this kind includes The Documentary His- tory of the State of New York, 4 vols., 8vo; The New York Colon- ial Documents, 15 vols., quarto; The New York Colonial and Land Papers, 63 Ms. vols., fol .; The Public Papers of Governor George Clin- ton, edited by Hugh Hastings, State Historian, 4 vols., 8vo, the same being the part thus far published of the Clinton Manuscripts in the State Library, comprising 48 large folio volumes, these manuscripts hav- ing been largely used in the preparation of this work through permis- sion from the State Library; The Journals of the Legislative Coun- cil and Provincial Congress, 4 vols., quarto; The New York Rev- olutionary Papers, 2 vols., quarto; The New York State Archives, I vol., quarto; The Journals of the Sullivan Expedition; The Draper Collection of Brant Manuscripts in the library of the Wisconsin His- torical Society at Madison, 23 vols., large octavo; The Sir William Johnson Manuscripts, in the State Library, 25 vols., large folio, and all of Parkman's writings. Most important of all this material, in so far as relates to the Border Wars, are the Clinton Papers and Man- uscripts. The intelligence shown by Mr. Hastings in initiating and carrying forward the publication of these papers deserves special recog- nition. Only in the light of this correspondence can the whole story of
5
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
This is true in eminent degree of the missionaries, of whom very little has been heretofore written, and by the above-mentioned writers, nothing. It is true in large degree of the Border Wars, the real origin and motives of which, especially on the side of Brant and his Indian followers, as well as the full details affecting this frontier, the author believes he has here more clearly set forth. In fact, by com- bining the new material with the old, it has now become possible to prepare a continuous historical record of the valley, covering the period from our day back to the years when the feet of white men first followed the Indian trails of the Susquehanna, almost three centuries ago.
But there are limitations which seem destined al- ways to exist. Beyond certain dates, those of about two hundred years ago, the historical explorer has at times little more to guide him than isolated facts, and his imagination, as he seeks to find a way about in the dim twilight of Indian legend and scattered lore. It is not until the close of the seventeenth century that he is well assisted by illuminating records.
Previous to the Revolution, the growth and spread of settlements in America had been extremely slow everywhere. More than a century elapsed after Columbus found the New World, before Hendrick Hudson discovered the stream that bears his name. A still longer period passed away before the Pilgrims disembarked from the Mayflower. When permanent settlements were first planted in
this frontier in the Revolution be clearly understood. Stone saw some of the papers, but many others seem never to have passed under his eyes. A fuller list of authorities, the majority of which were unknown to earlier writers, will be found in the bibliography at the end of this volume.
6
WHY THIS HISTORY
the Susquehanna Valley, two and a half centuries had come and gone since that memorable voyage from the Port of Palos.
Those centuries, so barren of history here, had witnessed events of great pith and moment elsewhere. England had gone forward from the Wars of the Roses almost to the reign of George III. Shake- speare, Milton, Bacon, Dryden, and Pope are among those gifted men of genius by whom her intellect- ual greatness had been advanced. Her political destiny meanwhile had been broadened and deepened under Henry VIII., Elizabeth, and Cromwell. In France had lived Richelieu and Louis XIV., while under Charles V. and Philip II. a vast Spanish empire had come into existence and decayed. On the banks of the Hellespont, only forty years before the voyage of Columbus, expired the last remnant of the Empire of Rome, which embraced at one time, as Gibbon said, " the fairest part of the earth and the most civilized portion of mankind."
On American soil we can point to little of strik- ing renown during those generations. Near the end of them Washington had become a name asso- ciated honorably with the French War. Jonathan Edwards had astonished men in Europe, as well as here, with the vigor and subtlety of his mind. Frank- lin had made contributions to human knowledge of great worth and potency. But of other eminent names the records are bare. For the most part men had been born, had lived, toiled, and died ab- sorbed in the simple pursuits of trade and domestic life.
In the province of New York the first successful men were fur traders who exchanged Dutch goods for beaver skins. During more than half a century
7
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
after Hudson's arrival these Dutchmen did scarcely anything more. Villages grew up on Manhattan Island and in the Hudson and Mohawk valleys. The trader's boat penetrated down the head-waters of the Susquehanna. But wherever villages were founded, they were not so much permanent settle- ments as trading - posts. Theodore Roosevelt has justly observed that while the Dutch aspired to secure large wealth for the mother-country, they were devoid of ambition to found on these shores a free Dutch nation.
As traders, the Dutch never promised to open a way to great national wealth. For the eleven years between 1624 and 1635 the beaver skins received in Holland numbered only 80,182, and the otter and other skins, 9,447, or about 8,000 skins of all kinds per year. Albany, the fur depot for the whole interior, was described by Father Jogues, in 1644, as " a miserable little fort called Fort Orange, built of logs with four or five pieces of Breteuil cannon and as many swivels, with some twenty-five or thirty houses built of boards with thatched roofs." Except in the chimneys, "no mason's work had been used."
Scarcely more enterprise marked the first years of English rule. As late as 1695 the trade amounted to only £10,000, while in 1678 Governor Andros re- ported that a merchant worth $2,500 or $5,000 was " accounted a good, substantial merchant," and a planter " worth half that in movables " was a pros- perous citizen. The value of all estates in the prov- ince was only $750,000. Clearly, that was a time of very small things, but they were among the fruitful beginnings of a land and people from which was to grow the greatest of all the States, and in them this frontier had an ample share.
8
PART I
Indians and Fur Traders
-
I
The Iroquois and the Susquehanna
W E cannot understand the Indians of New York if we judge them only by what is seen to-day of Indian life in the Far West, among tribes who roam the mountains and plains, and who have emerged so little from the nomad state ; or if we judge the Iroquois by their descend- ants now living on reservations. Not alone has their territorial dominion passed away, but their genius also-at least, in its manifestations. They have remained silent witnesses of the progress of civilized life on American soil -stolid, unimpas- sioned, proud. Before the white man came was their time of splendor; after that began their de- cadence.
The Iroquois, in their best days, were the noblest and most interesting of all Indians who have lived on this continent north of Mexico. They were truly the men whom a name they bore described, a word signifying men who surpassed all others. They alone founded political institutions and gained political supremacy. With European civilization unknown to them, they had given birth to self- government in America. They founded independ- ence ; effected a union of States ; carried their arms far beyond their own borders ; made their conquests permanent ; conquered peoples becoming tributary
II
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
States much after the manner of those which Rome conquered two thousand years ago, or those which England subdues in our day. In diplomacy they matched the white man from Europe: they had self-control, knowledge of human nature, tact and sagacity, and they often became the arbiters in disputes between other peoples. Universal testi- mony has been borne to their oratory, of which the merit was its naturalness, and which bears the su- preme test of translation. Convinced that they were born free, they bore themselves always with the pride which sprang from that consciousness. Sov- ereigns they were, and the only accountability they acknowledged was an accountability to the Great Spirit.
In war genius they have been equalled by no race of red men. The forts which they erected around their villages were essentially impregnable. An overwhelming force alone could enter them ; artil- lery alone could destroy them. It was virtually an empire that they reared, and this empire of the sword, like the Empire of Rome, meant peace with- in its borders. Before the Europeans came, there had, unquestionably, for some generations, been peace among them. It was an ideal and an idyllic state of aboriginal life, all of which was to be over- thrown by the white man when he arrived, bearing in one hand fire-arms, and in the other fire-water.
The period for which the province of New York had been occupied by the Iroquois," or Five Na- tions, at the time of the Dutch discovery, is not known. Morgan | cites circumstances which show
* The origin of this word has been long discussed. Horatio Hale re- fers it to a native Huron word, ierokwa, indicating those who smoke.
t Lewis H. Morgan, author of "The League of the Iroquois," the best of all books relating to the institutions and customs of that people,
I2
AN IROQUOIS FORT
( Believed to have stood on the shore of Onondaga Lake. Besieged by Champlain in 1615. )
IROQUOIS AND SUSQUEHANNA
that the Iroquois League had existed for about a century when the Dutch landed, thus carrying its formation back almost to the coming of Columbus. Indian tradition pointed to a much older date, but Indian tradition is a very uncertain guide for dates. We know that before the League was formed, the Iroquois had long been in possession of these New York lands. They came originally from the St. Lawrence Valley and had lived near the site of Montreal, at which point some of their descendants now reside. But when their first migration into Central New York took place, we do not know. Five nations originally composed the League, the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas ; but the Tuscaroras, who had long lived in North Carolina, early in the eighteenth century, were permitted to settle in New York and become members of the federation. Thenceforth these Indians were known as the Six Nations.
Writers have been fond of dwelling upon the masterly statesmanship which directed the formation of the League. So far from being a compact de- signed to promote war, its avowed purpose, as un- derstood by Hale, was " to abolish war altogether." Dr. Brinton is quoted by Grinnell as pronouncing the scheme " one of the most far-sighted and, in its aims, the most beneficent" that ever statesman de- signed for mankind. After its formation the Iro-
was born in Aurora, N. Y., in 1818, and died in Rochester in 1881. He was a graduate of Union College, a lawyer for many years, and served several terms in the State Legislature. He often visited the New York Indians on their reservations and was adopted by the Senecas. He wrote other books on aboriginal life in America, the scientific nature of which has been much esteemed. But "The League of the Iroquois " is the best known. It has long been out of print and scarce. Hardly more than one copy a year turns up in the auction sales. A reprint is much needed.
13
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
quois rose rapidly in power and eventually made their influence felt all over the eastern part of the continent. They are known to have carried their arms westward to the Mississippi and southward to the Carolinas. They entered Mexico, and La Salle found them in Illinois. Captain John Smith, while exploring Chesapeake Bay, encountered there a small fleet of their canoes. Other Indians assured him that the Mohawks " made war upon all the world."
Everywhere these New York Indians were con- querors. They gained at last a recognized mastery over territory that now forms States and might make an empire, their influence reaching its height at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Morgan de- clares that in point of sway they had reared the most powerful empire that ever existed in America north of the Aztec monarchy. Miss Yawger quotes a re- mark, that their authority at one time extended over a larger domain than was embraced in the Empire of Rome, and Ellis H. Roberts has said they " ran in conquest farther than the Greek arms were ever car- ried, and to distances which Rome surpassed only in the days of its culminating glory." As for the ultimate purpose of the League being the abolition of war, this undoubtedly was its tendency, once con- quest had been achieved. As with the Empire of Rome, so with the Empire of the Iroquois ; within the borders of the empire there was peace. Morgan believes the Iroquois might have achieved still greater eminence. Parkman says they afford "per- haps an example of the highest elevation which man can reach without emerging from the primitive condition of the hunter." But deadly enemies ar- rived when the white man came with his ambitions and his fire-water.
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