A history of Lewis County, in the state of New York, from the beginning of its settlement to the present time, Part 7

Author: Hough, Franklin Benjamin, 1822-1885. dn
Publication date: 1860
Publisher: Albany : Munsell & Rowland
Number of Pages: 422


USA > New York > Lewis County > A history of Lewis County, in the state of New York, from the beginning of its settlement to the present time > Part 7


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Early in 1794, Desjardines and Pharoux petitioned for an act to allow Chassanis to hold lands in New York. They stated that from the political relations then existing, he was unable to change his residence, that he was well affected to


1 Memoir of Brunel, by Edouard Frere, read July 5, 1850, before the acade- my of Rouen, and published in the Precis Analitique des Travaux de l' Acade- mie des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Rouen, 1849-50, p. 67, Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, XV, 38.


The route of these explorers probably led from the Mohawk across to Moose river, and down that stream to the High falls. Many years since, a silver spoon marked M. I. B., was found above Lyonsdale, which, doubtless, once belonged to Brunel.


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Company of New York.


the freedom and government of the country, and with his associates was desirous of promoting its welfare. They also asked for themselves the same benefit, and stated that they had determined upon permanent residence as the agents of Chassanis. The petitioners were by an act of March 27, 1794, allowed the privilege asked, but not their principal.


Pharoux was soon after employed to survey a canal route from the Hudson to lake Champlain, with Brunel, and in the course of the summer of 1794, began the survey of Cas- torland.


The extraordinary deviation of the river from its sup- posed course occasioned much complaint, especially since the river cut up their lands into several detached parcels, so that they could only pass from one to another by tres- passing upon their neighbors. Desjardines and Pharoux, in a letter of June 7, 1795, to Constable, insisted that the lines should be run with reference to the true, and not the magnetic meridan, and that any deficiency should be made up from the south side of the river. They also urged the speedy execution of release of dower of Mrs. Constable, and the completion of surveys which he was to have made, con- cluding with the assurance that the equity of their case could not fail to arrest his attention, and that their quality as strangers, would give them farther claims to exact just- ice from an upright man. Mr. Constable replied that he would do every thing consistent with the rights of others, and cheerfully yield in whatever affected himself only. He could not alter the course of the river, any more than he could prevent the British from stopping his surveyors. Pharoux was drowned soon after with seven of his com- panions, in attempting to cross the Black river near the Long falls in 1795, and his body was found on an island in Black River bay.1 Many years after, Le Ray caused a mar- ble tablet to be prepared to be set into the rock, bearing this inscription :


"TO THE MEMORY OF PETER PHAROUX. THIS ISLAND IS CONSECRATED."


The first survey as finished by Charles C. Brodhead and assistants in this and subsequent years, was made with re- ference to two cardinal lines at right angles to each other, from which the lots were reckoned in numbers and ranges.


The line from the High falls, running north to great tract No. IV. was assumed as the principal cardinal, and an east


1 See History of Jefferson Co., p. 50, for details of this accident.


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Company of New York.


and west line, crossing this nine miles from the falls was fixed as a second cardinal. The ranges extended to 19 east, 51 west, 27 north and about 9 south. Except on the margin, the lots measured 450 acres each, and were subdivided into nine lots of 50 acres each, which were numbered from 1 to 4,828. Lower Castorland, or Beaverland, west of the Great bend, measured 964 lots of 40,522. 1 acres and upper Castor- land, 3864 lots of 182,895 acres, making a fraction over 223,417 acres. No part of the tract crossed Black river, although the principal cardinal crossed the river several times. The isolated tracts thus left, were numbered from the south northward, and of these No. 4 was much larger than all the rest together, including the large triangular area in the northeast part of this county and the adjacent part of Jefferson.


In this survey the principal streams were named, but most of these have since been changed. The following are the principal ones that can be identified :


Old names.


Present names.


Deer Creek.


Crystal Creek.


Siren Creek.


Blake Creek.


Swan Creek.


Indian River.


Pelican Creek.


Swiss Creek.


French River. Linnet Creek.


Oswegatchee River.


Blake Creek.


The name of Independence creek, Beaver river and Murmer creek are still retained.


The first settlers found their way upon the tract in June, 1794, cutting their way as they came from fort Stanwix ; it is generally believed that they mistook the High falls, for the Long falls, and they settled at the former, upon a tract scarcely wide enough for a garden, and remote from the great body of their lands. The death of Pharoux checked the growth of the colony, and its history during the first three years is nearly blank. Desjardines acted a short time as agent.


On the 11th of April, 1797, Chassanis appointed Rodolphe Tiller, " member of the Soevereign Council of Bern,"1 his agent, with power to superintend surveys and improvements, form useful establishments, give titles in tracts of 100 or at most 200 acres to settlers and artisans, receive moneys, and solicit of the state the opening of roads and canals, and of


1 This council consisted of not less than 200, nor more than 299 members. It had power to make war, peace and alliances, raise moneys and provide for expenditures. It appointed the Lesser Council.


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Company of New York.


the general government, the same privileges to French citizens as were enjoyed by Americans. This privilege of selling lands was limited to 10,000 acres.


The managers in Paris prescribed minutely from their maps, the divisions that were to be made, and the roads that were to be opened, having no reference to the surface, or the local difficulties that might be encountered. Mr. V. Le Ray, in writing to the author from Paris, Nov. 16, 1859, says :


"I would hardly dare state such a fact, if a sample of this folly was not known in the country, where the traces of a road once opened, but of course never traveled, were visible a few years ago in the south part of the tract, which among other obstacles, was to cross an almost impassable precipice ; but orders were imperative, and the road was made on both sides, leaving them to be connected when the thing became feasible." The road here noticed was known as the " Old French Road " from the High falls to Beaver river and thence westward to the St. Lawrence.


Tiller appears to have been in America in the service of the company the year previous, and was allowed $6001 per annum from July 1, 1796, with the privilege of spending four months in the winter in N. Y. on his own business. He was to have his expenses paid, the use of four or five acres for a garden, two horses, two cows, and commissions on specific objects. The whole tract was reconveyed to Chassanis by Constable, Feb. 15, 1797, from more accurate surveys. This deed recited the former misunderstandings, by which among other things, Chassanis had no use of the waters of Black river to the centre of the channel, and stipulated that if upon subdivision it should be found to overrun, the surplus should be conveyed back.


[ In Feb., 1797, Tillier, in behalf of Chassanis, petitioned the legislature for a law giving confidence to their title, stating that the company had expended large sums in sur- veys, roads, and other improvements, and were willing to do much more, but that they experienced embarrassment in the doubts that were entertained of the validity of their title, by reason of the general law of alienism. He expressed his confidence in the privileges of French citizens as assured by the treaty of 1778, and hoped the legislature would remove the doubts which had arisen in such a manner as


1 Increased May 10, to $800 and two rations of food from July 1, 1797. A few days after his appointment, the company resolved that he should devote himself entirely to their business, and be allowed 20 p. c. of net proceeds of stores, potasheries and saw mills.


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Company of New York.


in their wisdom might be determined. As a motive, he intimated that the legislature " might find in the act, grati- fication to its benevolence, by doing good to many unfortu- tunate persons, who, in embarking in this enterprise, had expected to find some relief to great misfortunes." He further asked some provision for authenticating instruments executed in Paris, to the end that they might be recorded in this state, as had been done with Great Britain. The committee reported that the question of alienism belonged to the federal government, and that the other request was too important to be settled at that late period of the ses- sion.


Jacob Oboussier was appointed with a salary of $40 per month, to take charge of the store which was opened near the High falls in the little village built by the French on the flat east of the river, in front of Judge Seger's present residence. The road opened from fort Stanwix, terminated on the west side below the falls, and the river was crossed in small boats. A large stock of farming implements, tools, and goods, was brought on, and about twenty French fami- lies, several of them possessing considerable wealth, libe- rally educated, and accustomed to Parisian society, began the life of frontier woodsmen among the hemlock forests east of Black river. The imagination must delineate the probable results that would have followed the settlement of great numbers of these people upon the fertile limestone and slate lands west of the river, and the differences that would have now appeared in the social aspect of our coun- try, had the first emigrants been followed by crowds of their countrymen, after the usual custom of New England emigration.


Settled as they were, nine miles away from a part of their tract, wide enough for a single farm, history has only to record the speedy and utter failure of their scheme of colo- nization. Tillier is remembered as a man somewhat ad- vanced in years, fond of display, vain, visionary, and as the sequel indicated, unworthy of confidence, if not a down- right villian. No sooner was he away from immediate direction of the company in Paris, than their director began to meet difficulties, and it is not entirely certain that the latter was blameless. In November, 1798, Chassanis wrote to Gouverneur Morris, who had been minister from the United States, and with whom he was well acquainted, asking him to accept the supervision of the company's affairs in America. There were certain items in Tillier's accounts of which he could not see the aim and object, and


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Company of New York.


the returns were so mixed up and confused, that he could not make out their meaning.


Mr. Morris replied that he would prefer not to undertake it, as it was difficult to find a proper man for taking Til- lier's place, and the latter had, perhaps, left an impression unfavorable to Chassanis, in his first conversation with Morris, in which he complained that his drafts had been dishonored, and means of efficient service withheld, adding, that " if this want of success should reach the ears of his enemies they would persecute him." In August, 1799, Morris, however, submitted to the company a plan, in which a person was to be appointed to take charge of the store, upon inventory, keep it supplied with goods needed by the colonists at moderate prices, and each year improve a farm of 40 acres in the environs of Castorville, on the undivided lands. A tract which had been sold to a Swiss company, was to be put in their possession, and efforts were to be made to get actual settlers upon the lands.


In September, 1799, Morris appointed Richard Coxe for four years, at $4,000, who immediately came on to make inquiries, and arrange for more active operations next year. To give Tillier no pretext for further charges, the company on the 26th of Feb., 1800, resolved that no expense should be ordered, or new establishment begun by their agency in America. On the 7th of April, they formally declared their rights and powers fully vested in Chassanis, the share- holders being regarded as dormant partners. They appro- priated 9,750 acres to to pay expenses, upon sale at not less than $3 per acre, vesting in G. Morris, powers of attorney for selling these lands, and resolved to continue the company seven years longer.


Although stripped of his agency, Tillier was not deprived of the power of mischief, and in an advertisement dated Jan. 8, 1800, and inserted in the Albany papers, he cau- tioned the public "not to trust to the invidious reports of Gouverneur Morris or Pierre Joulin, or their substitutes Richard Coxe, Jacob Brown, Patrick Blake, or any other acting under their authority, derogatory to the powers, rights, and title of the subscriber as agent for the Company of New York, in Paris, and James Le Ray, as no sales, acts or deeds of the said persons, or any others claiming author- ity under them, in regard to the lands of the said company in the state of New York, or for James Le Ray, as it re- gards the lands known by description [as] No. 4, in Ma- comb's purchase can be valid, being held as a lien and security for the act and demand of the subscriber as their


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Company of New York.


agent, and will be so held until a decision is made of the suit in chancery, now depending and instituted against the subscribers by Gouverneur Morris, the assuming agent of Pierre Chassanis, and Pierre Joulin, the assuming agent of James Le Ray."1


Mr. Cox took forcible possession of the store at the falls, the saw mill at Castorville, on the Beaver river, and the property generally, in June, 1800, and on the 12th of that month Morris wrote, advising the erection of another saw mill, and a grist mill, upon a free lease of 20 or 30 years, to some one who might engage to build them. He noticed the flourishing settlement west of the river, and attributed the difference to the mal-administration of Castorland, upon which immense sums had been squandered or embezzled. He advised a road from the High falls direct to Ford's set- tlement at the mouth of the Oswegatchie.


In October, 1800, Tillier published French and English edi ions of a memorial justifying his administration of Cas- torland. He stated that upon his arrival in the United States, he had undertaken, with the counsels of Alexander Hamilton, to perfect the titles and procure their record, and that errors in the first deed from Constable had ren- dered that instrument invalid, and required another based upon a new survey. He then proceeds with his narrative as follows :2


"R. Tillier afterwards directed all his attention to the buildings, only rough hewed upon the lands of Castorland, not finding any of those which had been announced to him; no ground being cleared; no cultivation established in the ideal town of Castor; no practi- cable road; no established communication; only one or two bar- racks honored with the name of houses; a yard sowed rather than a garden; in a word, nothing which evinced the former settlement of the pretended establishments, still less the expense which had been made thereon. What afflicted him most at first was, the repugnance strongly impressed on the Americans of the neighboring places, to establish themselves upon the lands of the company, where they perceived nothing enticing.


1 Joulin had been the cure of Chaumont, and refusing to take the consti- tutional oath, was sent off by Le Ray to save his life. Accustomed to the refinements of Europe, he was little prepared to endure the privations of a pioneer life, and in the lonely solitudes of the Black river pined for the comforts of which through his whole life he had never before known the want. In conversing with Jacob Brown, whom he met when about to com- mence his improvement at Brownville, he said : " Ah ! the French revolu- tion came too soon or too late for me !" Had it come sooner he might have cast his energies into the struggle, and shared the fortunes of the civil war : if later, he would not have witnessed its horrors, and felt its disasters.


2 Taken from the English edition printed at Rome, N. Y., by Thomas Walker.


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Company of New York.


" R. Tillier struggled some time against these obstacles, but by conciliatory conduct and fair dealing (his situation not per- mitting any liberality, in such cases so necessary), he was able to procure some workmen, who all seemed desirous to purchase some lands, which he sold them in small portions, in hopes of very soon selling a greater quantity, and to unite a certain number of cultivators which would give a permanent footing to the new colony. This was the object of his ambition. He felt the consequence of a progressive increase to the holders of shares in the Company of New York. R. Tillier was unani- mously elected and named a justice of the peace for the county of Oneida, which mark of confidence and esteem from the inha- bitants, fortified his hopes of reaping the fruits of all his cares, and justifying the trust which the company had given him;1 he rendered an exact statement of all that related to his ma- nagement; his correspondence, journals and accounts, prove his constant attention to conform himself to the act of the constitu- tion. These different papers show his exertions, and how he was employed, and the manner in which the sums have been expended under his administration; and it can not be doubted that the company were sensible of his zeal and care, as he then received, as well as at different other times, acknowledgements of their satisfaction.


" The affairs were in this condition, when the company sent new French settlers to establish themselves upon the lands of Castorland. Their presence only occasioned considerable ex- penses without being of any utility, and they occasioned a great expense upon the land, consuming the provisions, introducing the spirit of discord and discontent, and finally they went away, threatening to make their complaints known in France, and to impeach those who had deceived them at Paris, by sending them into a desert. Much mildness and moderation were neces- sary to disperse them, but on going from Castorland they made bitter complaint against the place and persons, by which means they left traces very disadvantageous to Castorland and those interested in the said company. That these circumstances took place at a time when war appeared inevitable between France and the United States, and the greatest prejudices existing against the French, have also tended to destroy these rising settlements, and to injure the concerns of the company very much.


"At the same time Mr. Blake arrived, calling himself the son- in-law of Mr. Lambot, one of the company, and particularly charged with his interests. Coming into the United States without any resource, R. Tillier received him with kindness, and in such an hospitable manner that any other person would


1 This " extraordinary trust," was conferred upon him by the council of appointment, April 12, 1798. It is impossible to tell what office he might not have been promoted to, had he been appointed or elected !


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Company of New York.


have thought he merited some acknowledgment. Mr. Blake on the contrary, became his calumniator, as well in the United States as in Europe, but it appears the company were not de- ceived by his calumnies; they did justice to Tillier, and they wrote to him through their director Chassanis, that they were well satisfied with his services.


"In the mean time one Pierre Joulin, also arrived at New York, appearing to be secretly charged with the interests of the company; it is at least presumable, and what we are authorized to believe from the mystery which has enveloped his conduct. This man did all he could to conceal it without showing his powers. He insinuated to Tillier that he desired to see his accounts, who answered him with a frankness that character- izes him, that he had sent to Paris a faithful copy of all his accounts; that those of his current expenses were at Castorland, kept by a secretary who made his residence there, according to the intention expressed in the act of the constitution; that he was besides ready to render them all, having no reason to delay a settlement.


" R. Tillier saw that Mr. Joulin did not treat him with the same good faith and candor that he used towards the said Jou- lin. He obtained information indirectly, that he was bound by close and secret ties with Mr. Blake, and he was convinced of it by some letters which were sent him from Castorland. Finally he no longer doubted their employing deceit to divert him of his administration in the capacity of agent to the company, without his, however, receiving any direct or indirect advice either from that company or M. Chassanis, his agent or director at Paris.


" The indignation of an honest man in such a case must be great, and Tillier can not refrain from expressing his feelings. It is without doubt right to dispossess an agent when he is not faithful, but before such a step is taken, some proof should be obtained of his bad conduct, and they ought to take suitable measures that he is reimbursed all the expenses he has been at for the concern, and that he should be discharged from all the engagements which he has made by virtue of his powers to- wards the different persons employed, for supplies, wages and work. To act as they have done toward an honest citizen, who is invested with a public function, who has held in his country a place at the Council of Berne, is being deficient of all respect and good manners. But finally, if they admit that he is irre- proachable in his conduct; that he has managed the affairs of the company ably and with honor, and that there is nothing but calumny against him, they must then admit that he has been treated with great injustice without reason. Their conduct must nevertheless appear very contemptible to a reflecting and discerning nation, whose confidence it was the interest of the company to have cultivated.


"Finally the plot of which these gentlemen were the agents is unveiled. Gouverneur Morris, late ambassador of the United


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Company of New York.


States in France, has appeared to be the only bearer of the powers of the Company of New York, or rather of P. Chassanis. He has filed in the name of Chassanis, a bill against Tillier, in the court of chancery of this state, and claims as his property the 220,500 acres of land, when by the constitution of the com- pany, he has conveyed them in the most formal manner to the holders of shares. He moreover pretends to annul all the choice made of divided lots, all the sales to divers settlers by R. Tillier who has acted only in conformity to, and in virtue of sufficient powers, and agreeable to the instructions given him; and this suit having been very generally promulgated, it has resulted therefrom, there are doubts as well as the validity of the original bill as the partial sales of the powers and rights of Chassanis and of the old and new agents.


" These scandalous reports have given rise to every kind of mistrust and suspicion on the minds of the Americans,-dis- gusted the new settlers, and occasioned the land of the company to be absolutely deserted. Thus the imprudence of Director Chassanis, has produced the unfortunate effect of ruining the holders of shares who are the true proprietors,-of depreciating the land and the titles,-has caused the new settlements to be abandoned which will of course go to ruin, and all the expenses to this time will be useless and lost. It is difficult to conceive how the Company of New York has been induced to adopt such a conduct, so contrary to its interests. If from all these mea- sures, there was only one that had any appearance of utility, it might perhaps be some palliation for the others ; but they are all equally contrary and destructive to the prosperity and success of the undertaking. , " The object of R. Tillier in addressing the present observa- tions to the holders of shares, is, Ist to justify himself in their opinions and prove that his administration has been faithful and free from reproach. 2d, to exhibit all the operations of the company, or of the director Chassanis, and to call their attention to the damages which threaten them, if after having done what he thinks his duty concerning it, the holders of shares remain indolent and careless of their interests, they are perfectly their own masters, but at least they will recollect, when their eyes are opened, the advice which R. Tillier gave them, and they can only blame themselves for the losses they may experience.


" The best method, and it may be said the only one to be convinced whether Tillier's administration has been good and able, is to examine what he has done, and the means he had for doing it. When he came to take possession of the lands of Castorland, every thing was to be done; the land itself was not ascertained, and there was a deficiency of title to assure the property. When one considers a man in such a situation, in a strange country, at a great distance from any inhabited place, with very small funds, to put in order an immense tract of land, the difficulty of success must be evident. But it is very




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