USA > New York > Livingston County > A history of Livingston County, New York: > Part 13
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51
140
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
the Fathers count two or three thousand souls at these three stations.
Father Fremin addressed letters to the general of the order of the Jesuits at Rome, giving an account of the progress of spiritual things among the rude converts here, thus opening communication between this land of forest and wigwam and that ecclesiastical centre which, for so many centuries, swayed the polit- ical, as it sought to sway the religious destinies of the civilized world. Garnier writes to Dablon in July, 1672, of the Senecas, who had threatened his life. He says their minds being ill-disposed, the devil uses every occasion to make them speak against the faith and those who preach it. An old man, he adds, who, some years before, came from the country of the Cay- ugas, a pragmatical fellow of big words, does what he likes with the Senecas, and passes among them for a prodigy of talent, has persuaded some of them that our religion causes them to die, and cites instances. Breviaries, ink horns and manuscripts were consid- ered as so many instruments of sorcery, and their prayers as magical incantations. A niece of one of the chiefs was sickly, and the chief was suspicious that the missionary, who spent much time in the rude chapel, was plotting with some demon for the death of the girl.
2
Bishop Kip says, "there is no page in our country's history more touching and romantic than that which records the labors and sufferings of the Jesuit mission- aries. In these western wilds they were the earliest pioneers of civilization and faith. The wild hunter or the adventurous traveller, who, penetrating the for- ests, came to new and strange tribes, often found that, years before, the disciples of Loyola had preceded him in the wilderness. Traditions of the 'Black robes' still lingered among the Indians. On 'some moss-
-
1
141
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
grown trees they pointed out the traces of their work, and in wonder he deciphered, carved side by side on its trunk, the emblem of our salvation and the lilies of the Bourbons."
Without arms or other compulsory means, but simply by kindness, the Jesuits sought to secure the desired end. Music, knowledge of the healing art, assimilation to the peculiarities of the strange people among whom they labored, and curiosity, too, had its influence. Father Fremin says: "I neither see, nor hear, nor speak to any but the Indians. My food is very simple and light. I have never been able to con- form my taste to the meal or the smoked fish of the savages, and my nourishment is only composed of corn which they pound, and of which I make each day a kind of hominy, which I boil in water." Sometimes he was compelled to live on acorns.
Father Fenelon, afterward famous as the Archbishop of Cambray, and author of Telemachus, was engaged for a short period at St. Michaels.
One of the good Father's letters to Rome gives this incident: "A woman being surprised by the falling sickness, cast herself into the middle of a large fire. Before they could extricate her she was so badly burnt that the bones of her hands and her arms fell from her one after the other. As I was not then in the village, a young Frenchman whom I have with me, and who performs worthily the functions of Dogique, hastened to her, and finding her in possession of her senses, spoke to her of God and His salvation, instructed her, caused her to perform all the religious offices necessary upon such an occasion, and baptised her. The poor creature passed the eight or ten days of life which remained to her in prayer. This was her only con- solation in her grievous sufferings. In an entire hopelessness of all human succor, she suffered with
142
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
admirable patience in the faith of eternal life. Such works of grace make the most sensible impression in these barbarous regions, and greatly assuage the anxieties, the fatigues and the afflictions of a mission- ary."
Though wedded to the interests of their order, the missionaries were not unmindful of the spirit of con- quest then prevalent in their beloved France. Indeed, it has been said that the Seneca missions were sug- gested by the Grand Monarch, Louis XIV. himself, the splendor of whose reign encouraged adventurous spirits to undertake distant enterprises, prompted by a desire to add to the glory of that proud ruler. Cer- tain it is that to the missionaries were the French indebted for their knowledge of the Genesee country.
The command of Lake Ontario, and control of a certain valuable fur trade, were, late in the seventeenth century, matters of contention between the French- and English ; and especially were the rich lands of western New York a coveted object by the French Canadian authorities. M. de La Bar, an infirm old man, had long held the office of Governor-general of those provinces, but, being signally over-matched by the shrewd and eloquent Seneca Garangula, in an expedition he had undertaken against the Iroquois, his government recalled him in 1685, and, in his stead, appointed the Marquis De Nonville, a colonel in the French dragoons, an officer equally esteemed for his valor, wisdom and piety.
The Iroquois had of late grown defiant toward Can- ada, and the new governor, to curb their pride, resolved upon an expedition to destroy the villages and fields of the Senecas, then located near the Gen- esee, and to construct a fort at the mouth of the Niagara, which, in connection with Fort Cadaracqui, would not only hold that warlike tribe in check, but
. ..
143
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
protect, as well, the savage allies of the French, who, in small detachments, could then make predatory war upon the Senecas, distance hitherto and want of a place of refuge having prevented them from doing, as well as to accomplish other favorite objects of French desire.
The watchful Iroquois, penetrating these hostile designs, lost no time in notifying Colonel Dongan, the English governor of New York. The latter at once informed De Nonville that the Indians were persuaded an attack was meditated against them; and that, as they were subjects of the crown of England, any injury done them would be an open infraction of the peace existing between their two kings. De Nonville replied, that the Iroquois feared because they deserved the chastisement ; that the provisions collecting were necessary for the large garrison at Fort Cadaracqui, and that England's pretensions to the Indian lands were baseless.
Dongan seems to have taken no measures to avert the blow ; and as it could not be known upon which tribe the evil would fall, due provision could not well be made for protection. The Senecas were destined to feel its exclusive force. The first open act of hos- tility was the seizure of some Iroquois chief, who had been lured within French power, near Kingston, Can- ada, by the Jesuit Father Lamberville, under the pre- text of preventing them from conveying intelligence . to their tribes.
De Nonville's plans were wisely made, his army was commanded by able officers; and so perfectly were his orders obeyed, that his own army and the reinforcements from Niagara, which he had directed to meet him, arrived simultaneously at the outlet of Irondequoit bay, a coincidence considered ominous of success by his savage allies.
144
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
On the afternoon of the 12th of July, 1687, the army set out from Irondequoit bay for the four villages of the Senecas, guided thitherward by the trail along the eastern side of the river, and carrying thirteen days provisions. They numbered two thousand French regulars and militia and nine hundred and eighty- three Indians. Advancing in three columns through the oak openings, after a nine miles march they encamped for the night. Next morning they moved early, with the design of approaching as near as pos- sible the Indian village which held the tribal fire, before the enemy could seize upon two difficult defiles necessary to be crossed, but which were undefended. The heat was sultry, and the men were fatigued. There yet remained a third defile near the entrance of the village, where it was intended to halt for the night, and the army still advanced. The scouts discovered the fresh trail of the enemy, and warned the troops to keep together. About three o'clock in the afternoon three companies of the French, together with the French Indians, fell into an ambuscade prepared by the Senecas, who were posted in the vicinity of the third defile. A smart but brief action ensued, with heavy firing on both sides. The Senecas were in turn thrown into confusion, and most of them flung away their guns and clothing and escaped to a dense woods and across a brook bordered by thickets. Ignorance of the paths and fatigue of the army, left the invaders in no condition for immediate pursuit. The Senecas had eight hundred men under arms in the action and in the village close at hand. They left twenty-seven dead on the field, and had a much larger number wounded, judging from the traces of blood. The French had about half the number killed and wounded. The battle occurred a short distance west of the present village of Victor, near the northeastern
145
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
edge of a large swamp, on the northerly side of a stream now called Great Brook.
Some writers claim that the action took place on the eastern bank of the Genesee, near the modern village of West Avon. De Witt Clinton located the battle ground on a farm purchased by Judge Porter in 1795, situated about six miles northeast of Avon, and half a mile east of Honeoye Falls. On plowing this land, three hundred hatchets, gun-barrels and locks, lead, and pieces of brass kettles, weighing upward of one thousand pounds, were there found, being more than sufficient in value to pay for clearing it. Beds of ashes and small mounds of black earth, formed from chips, were also dug up. On the first settlement of this country unmistakable evidences of its having been the site of a large Indian village were numerous. So uneven was the ground, occasioned by the numberless graves, that the pioneers were compelled to level it with spades before teams could pass over it. But John Blacksmith, who, in his youth had hunted over the country embraced within the limits of Monroe, Living- ston and Ontario counties, and thus acquired an intimate knowledge of the old Indian localities, on attentively examining a map of the country overrun by the French, on which lakes, rivers and creeks were correctly delineated, placed his finger on a point a short distance west of the village of Victor, as the place of conflict.
.
After the battle, the troops being fatigued, the night was spent on the spot where the ambuscade occurred. The following morning it rained heavily, but slackened about noon, when the army set out in battle array to find the enemy. Moving forward, they found that the old village had been burned, and the entrenchments of the new village deserted. Encamping on the height near the plain, nothing more for the day was done
.
146
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
beyond protecting themselves from the severe rain which had again set in.
On the 15th the savages brought in two old men, whom the enemy, in their retreat, had left in the woods. Two or three women came to surrender them- selves, and informed us, says the Marquis, that for the space of four days all the old men, women and children had been fleeing in great haste, being able to carry with them only the best of their effects. Their flight was toward the Cayugas. One of the old men, who had been of note in the village, and was father or uncle of the chief, told us the ambuscade consisted of two hundred and twenty men, stationed on the hill-side, to attack us in the rear, and of five hundred and thirty in front. The former force directed a part of their efforts against our rear battalion, where they did not expect such strong resistance, as those bat- talions drove them back more rapidly than they came.
In addition to the above, there were also about three hundred in their fort, situated on a very advantageous height, into which they all pretend to withdraw, having carried there a quantity of Indian corn. There were none but Senecas. After obtaining from the aged Seneca all the information he could impart, Father Bruyas, a Jesuit priest, baptised him. The French Indians then desired to burn the old man, but, on the solicitation of the white French, "they contented themselves with knocking him on the head with a tomahawk."
The first act of the day was to burn the fort. It was eight hundred paces in circumference, flanked by an intrenchment, advanced for the purpose of com- munication with a spring on the declivity of a hill, it being the only one where water could be obtained. ' The remainder of the day was employed in destroying Indian corn, beans and other produce.
1 i
I i !
1 i I
! İ ! i
147
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
This fort, although the plow has leveled its trenches, and nearly obliterated the evidences of its former occupancy, is still an object of much interest. The same solitary spring referred to by De Nonville, yet oozes from the declivity of the hill. Its site has long been known as Fort Hill among the inhabitants in the vicinity. Its summit is perfectly level, embracing an area of about forty acres. Marshall, to whom history is indebted for a clear and reliable account of the expedition, has preserved, in an interesting paper, facts to which we are here indebted.
On the afternoon of the 16th, the camp was moved to approach those places where there was corn to destroy. A party of our savages, says De Nonville, arrived in the evening with considerable booty, which they had captured in the great village of Totiakton, four leagues distant. That village was found aban- doned by the enemy, who, in returning, had set it on fire, but only three or four cabins were consumed.
The 17th, continues the Marquis, was occupied in destroying the grain of the small village of St. Mich- ael, or Gonnogarae, distant a short league from the large village, and prosecuted the work the 18th, after having moved camp in order to approach those fields which were concealed and scattered in the recesses of the forest. On the night of 19th, had a slight alarm, from a shot fired by a sentinel at an Illinois woman, a captive for nine years among the Senecas. She escaped from the enemy, and was wounded in the thigh. She said the Senecas had fled to the Ononda- gas, and that forty were killed, and fifty or more severely wounded in the late attack. The morning of 19th, camp was moved to near village of St. James, or Gannagaro, after having destroyed a great quantity of fine large corn, beans and other vegetables, of which there remained not a single field; "and, after having.
148
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
burned so large a quantity of old corn that I dare not tell the amount, and encamped before Totiakto, called the Great village, or village of Conception, dis- tant four leagues from the former. We found there a still greater number of cultivated fields, with which to occupy ourselves for many days. Three captives arrived this day-a young girl and two women of the Illinois natives." In the sanguinary wars which long raged between the Senecas and Illinois, many persons had been taken by the former, who profited by their recent defeat to escape, though it should appear that many of the prisoners had been put to death by the Senecas.
"The 20th we occupied ourselves in cutting down and destroying the new corn, and burning the old. On the 21st we went to the small village of Gannounata,* dis- tant two leagues from the larger, where we caused the destruction, the same day, of all the old and new corn, although the quantity was no less than in the other villages. It was at the entrance to this village that we found the arms of England, which the Sieur Dongan, Governor of New York, had placed there, contrary to all right and reason, in the year 1684, having ante- dated the arms as of the year 1683; although it is beyond question that we first discovered and took possession of that country, and for twenty consecu- tive years have had Father Fremin, Garnier and others as stationary missionaries in all their villages. One would hardly credit the quantity of grain which we found in store in this place and destroyed by fire.
"This same day a Huron came in with two scalps of a man and woman, whom he had knocked on the head, having found them near the Cayugas. He had noticed a multitude of paths by which the enemy fled.
* Or Dyu-do o-sot, on the little Conesus, near East Avon.
149
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
We left the above-mentioned village on 22d, to return to Totiakto, to continue there the devastation we had commenced. Notwithstanding the bad weather and incessant rain, we continued all day to make diligent preparations for a departure, which was the more urgent, because the sickness increased in the army," occasioned by the great number of hogs killed by the French army, and our food and fresh provisions diminished rapidly.
On 23d a large detachment of almost all the army, was sent to complete the destruction of all the corn still standing in the distant woods. By noon the corn was all destroyed. "We had curiosity to estimate the whole quantity, green as well as ripe, which we have destroyed in the four Seneca villages, which we found would amount to 1,050,000 bushels of green, and 150,000 bushels of old corn, by which we could esti- mate the multitude of people in these four villages.
"Having nothing further to accomplish, and seeing no enemy, we left camp on afternoon of the 23d of July, to rejoin our beatteaux, advancing only two leagues. We reached beatteaux on the 24th.
"On 26th we set out for Niagara, resolved to garrison that port as a protection for all our savage allies, and thus afford them the means of continuing in small detachments the war against the enemy, whom they have not been able to harrass, being too distant from them, and having no place of refuge. Although only thirty leagues from Irondequoit Bay to Niagara, con- trary winds so delayed that it took four days and a half to accomplish the distance, arriving on the morn- ing of 30th, and immediately set to work choosing a place and collecting stakes for construction of a fort."
By the 2d of August the temporary fort was com- pleted, and the militia set out at noon for their quarters at Montreal. The following day De Nonville em-
150
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
barked to join the militia, and reached Montreal on 13th of August, leaving the regular troops to complete some details, with orders that M. de Troyes,.a veteran officer, captain of one of the companies, should winter there with one hundred men. A sickness, caused by climate and unwholesome food, soon after broke out in the garrison, by which nearly all perished, including the commander. For so closely were they besieged by the Iroquois that they were unable to supply themselves with fresh provisions. The for- tress was soon after abandoned and destroyed, much to De Nonville's regret.
"The French gained little honor and no advantage in their expedition. Their inefficiency disgusted their Indian allies, one of whom, an Ottawa, said they were only fit to make war on Indian corn and bark canoes." Such is the just conclusion of Marshall.
The Jesuit missionaries retired with the French army, and their missions among the Senecas were never revived.
CHAPTER VII.
SULLIVAN'S EXPEDITION.
The Western Expedition under General Sullivan, was the leading military event of the Revolution in 1779. It constituted the principal exception to Wash- ington's defensive policy of that year; and its influence upon the after settlement of this region gives the enterprise the importance of an epoch in our local history. While therefore, we briefly present its gen-". eral features, attention may properly be claimed to full details of the operations and results of the expedition in the Genesee country.
The measure, too long delayed, was provoked by the insolence of the Senecas and other Indian tribes, and their sanguinary allies, the tories. With the exception of a portion of the Oneidas and a few of the Mohawks, it will be recollected that the Six Nations were all in arms against the colonists, and to the last- ing disgrace of the cabinet of Lord North, they were urged on by British emissaries to the commission of atrocities which have no parallel in modern history. Their remarkable organization and great numbers enabled them to keep the borders in a continual state of alarm, as well as to inflict upon the inhabitants a long series of injuries. The cry for protection against
152
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
these predatory wrongs had gone up to the Continen- tal Congress from many a hardy frontier-man, who found himself threatened with dangers through hourly multiplying savageries. The settlers besought their Government to interpose its power and secure them protection for their homes and families against the inroads of a barbarous foe emboldened by the long impunity that had attended his successive deeds of rapine. But delay followed delay as the aspect of public affairs became less threatening, and Congress busied itself with other subjects than those of Indian atrocities which had grown unhappily too familiar. They indeed appeared content to resolve, to rescind, to postpone all decision. Meanwhile the western forest poured forth its savage hordes, and their spreading ravages compelled the border population to invoke aid from a nearer power. Their appeal, unheard at Philadelphia, found its way to Pough- keepsie, then temporarily the state capital, where it awakened an interest beseeming its importance. The. Legislature of New York at once initiated a remedy, and made it practical by enacting a law which directed the Governor to draw from the militia of the State a certain quota, and send them against the Senecas. Thus it was that the first step was taken in the famous expedition of 1779. Formal notice of this action was at once transmitted to Congress, and, on the morning of the first of April, the letter of the Legislature of New York, bearing date the thirtieth of March, was laid before that august body. This letter referred in forcible terms to the Indian ravages on the great fron- tier, and the distresses they had occasioned ; to the extreme difficulty, as well as the large expense, of covering the extended border by military posts ; and closed by declaring that an expedition against the Senecas would be the cheapest and most practicable
153
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
mode of defending the households and settlements suffering from exposure, and that the Legislature had empowered the Governor to raise a thousand men by drafts from the State militia for that object.
For months before, at intervals, the subject of Indian outrages had been considered in Congress. In truth, twice in the previous year that body had resolved to fit out an expedition against the Senecas and other western tribes. In October preceding, the subject had been referred to Governor George Clinton and Generals Schuyler and Hand, who conceived it too late in the season to prepare for an enterprise of such magnitude. The massacre of Wyoming had, indeed, called forth special resolutions. But other matters were suffered to interfere, and no action resulted from such well worded sympathy. Now, however, New York, a leading member of the Feder- ation, had taken a decisive step toward protecting the outlying districts ; and Congress, feeling the justice of the demand, listened to the communication with an attention which presaged good result. Bold George Clinton was Governor of New York. He had held a seat in the Continental Congress, and its members were aware that he would yield to no tardy policy, indeed, he intended to conduct the expedition in per- son. And the Legislature, it was known, contained members equally earnest, who, when once enlisted in such a work, would be content with nothing savoring of procrastination.
The Congress, therefore, without further delay, applauded the "spirited exertions of the New York Legislature to facilitate such enterprise," and directed that the State's militia contingent raised for this pur- pose, be allowed rations and continental pay. Proper measures were also taken to collect an army of ample strength to effect the object. Washington, no doubt,
·
154
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
was quite ready to approve this action. He had passed the previous winter in Philadelphia, where Congress was sitting, to deliberate with the Board of war about the campaign of 1779, and especially to urge action in respect to Indian outrages along the frontier. Correspondence with General Hand, who
ppears to have devoted particular attention to the subject of a western expedition, shows that he had been carefully examining the routes best to be taken and securing information having particular regard to the distance and face of the country, and kind of navigation. But the result of these deliberations could not have been encouraging to the chief at that session : for our continental council did not partake of his anxiety in respect to the situation of public affairs. To him the period was a momentous one. The country, exhausted by years of war, needed rest. Bread was scarce, wages were high, and employment abundant, while the pay of the soldier was small and uncertain, and the terms of many were about expir- ing. The army, indeed, had begun to melt away. The alliance with France had produced a baneful feeling of security, which, it appeared to him, was paralyzing the energies of the country. England, it was thought, would now be too much occupied in securing her position in Europe to increase her force, or extend her operations in America. Many, there- fore, considered the war as virtually at an end, and were unwilling to make the sacrifices or supply the means necessary for important military operations. "Dissensions and party feuds were breaking out in Congress, owing to the relaxation of that external pressure of a common and imminent danger which had heretofore produced a unity of sentiment and action." Congress had, in fact, greatly deteriorated "since the commencement of the war. Many of those
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.