USA > New York > Ontario County > A history of Ontario County, New York and its people, Volume I > Part 4
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In May of the same year, 1794, General Chapin wrote asking that 1200 or 1500 stand of arms be provided "for the inhabitants of the frontier." The State appointed commissioners to take necessary steps for defense. Governor Clinton recommended that a deposit be made at "Canadaqua in Ontario County," of one hundred weight of powder and a proper quantity of lead, etc., and the commissioners directed that a block house be erected here and furnished with a piece of cannon.
General Chapin represented the National Government in a council with the restless Indians at Buffalo, June 15, to consider vexed questions growing out of the controversy over the western boundary, and as a result he urged the negotiation of a general
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THE FIRST SETTLEMENT.
treaty as the only means which could keep the Six Nations from joining the dangerous Indian confederacy in the West.
GARYAN-WAH-GAH, OR "CORNPLANTER."
Cornplanter was a Seneca chief; born in Conewaugus, on the Genesee river, in 1732; died on the Cornplanter reservation in Pennsylvania, February 17, 1836; was a half breed, son of an Indian trader named John O'Bail. He was a warrior of undoubted prowess, and led the Seneca allies of the British in the War of the Revolution in forays upon the patriot settements in New York and Northern Pennsylvania, but after its close became the firm friend of the Americans and aided in securing the Fort Stanwix treaty of 1784; also took prominent part in the council at Au Glaize in 1792 and in that in Canandaigua in 1794; was often a jealous rival of Red Jacket.
To this letter from General Chapin, the Secretary of War replied : "Your ideas of a conference are adopted. It will be held at Canandaigua on the 8th of September. Colonel Pickering will be
30
HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
the commissioner, to be assisted by you in all respects. Notify the Six Nations that their father, the President of the United States, is deeply concerned to hear of any dissatisfaction existing in their minds against the United States, and therefore invites them to a conference, for the purpose of removing all causes of misunder- standing and establishing a permanent peace and friendship between the United States and the Six Nations."
General Chapin lost no time in spreading the news of the proposed council. He visited their villages in person and conferred with their chiefs, and he sent runners to Buffalo creek and to Canada to counteract British interference.
The council which was finally assembled in Canandaigua as the result of these efforts was one of the most important ever held in the country. It was certainly the most notable event in the earlier history of Ontario county, and as picturesque as it was notable. The Government made ample provision for the council. Great stores of food, trinkets, liquor and tobacco were gathered here. General Chapin spared no effort to fulfill his promise to the Indians that he would "hang on big kettles."
Colonel Timothy Pickering, selected by President Washington to act as the Commissioner in behalf of the Government, was one of the most distinguished men of the time. A graduate of Harvard College, he had studied law, and had been active in the exciting events preliminary to the Revolution. He led a Massachusetts regiment in that war. At its close he had risen to the position of Quartermaster General. In 1791 he became Postmaster General in President Washington's cabinet; the year following his service at the council in Canandaigua he was appointed Secretary of War, and in December of the same year he was transferred to the State Department. He also served several years in Congress.
The assembling of the Indians here was retarded by their desire to learn the outcome of the contest then waging between General Wayne and the hostiles in the West, but when the news came, as it did early in October, that Wayne had been successful, the business of the council progressed with reasonable speed.
Fortunately we have a graphic account of the proceedings of the Pickering Council by an eye witness, in the shape of the journal of William Savery, a member of the Society of Friends, present at the request of the Indians to see that they were fairly treated. The council, which was to have opened early in September, was not
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THE FIRST SETTLEMENT.
fully organized until the 18th of the following month, and it continued in almost daily session until the 12th of November, when
SA-GO-YE-WAT-HA, OR "RED JACKET."
Red Jacket, so named because of the richly embroidered scarlet jacket which he affected, was born about 1759, either near what is now Canega on the west bank of Cayuga Lake, where a monument commemorating the event has been erected, or at a Seneca village which was located on the west side of Lake Keuka, as stoutly maintained by some writers. Died at Seneca Village near Buffalo. January 20, 1830. His Seneca name, Sa-go-ye-wat-ha. being interpreted, means "He keeps them awake." In earlier life he was noted for his swiftness of foot and was called O-te-ti- ani, "Always ready." Was famed as an orator and participated in various Indian councils, includ- ing that held in Canandaigua in 1794. Went on the war-path for the British cause in 1779, and in the struggle of 1812 took the American side, but in neither gained fame as a warrior. Wore with pride a large silver medal presented to him by President Washington at Philadelphia in 1793. His remains now lie in Forest Lawn at Buffalo and above them stands a marble monument, which is surmounted by a bronze statue of "The Cicero of Indian Fame."
a treaty satisfactory to all parties was duly signed and the gathering dispersed.
The treaty thus concluded brightened the two rusty places in the chain of friendship, as picturesquely described by the Indian
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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
orators. It restored to the Senecas the land west of a line drawn due south from the mouth of Buffalo creek and now embraced in Chautauqua and portions of Cattaraugus and Erie counties. This made their western boundary the shore of Lake Erie and the Niagara river, the Government only reserving the use of a strip along that river for a road between the lakes. The Senecas on their part surrendered claim to the triangle at Presque Isle, which it.appeared their chief Cornplanter had disposed of without authority, and with- out accounting for the proceeds, to the State of Pennsylvania. They also had their annuity increased from $1,500 to $4,500, and there was distributed among them, at the conclusion of the council, goods valued at $10,000. The result, as we know, was entirely satisfactory. From that time on there was no serious disagreement between the whites and the people of the Six Nations.
Throughout the Pickering Council, General Chapin was an important figure. He occupied a seat of honor beside the Com- missioner at every session. His home was the center of abounding hospitality. He was the recognized almoner of the Government. It is not recorded that he made a single speech, but at every step his great influence over the Indians was exerted to bring their vacillation to an end. to keep them in good humor, to straighten out their grievances, and finally to secure their signatures to the treaty.
As an instance of what was constantly taking place in the Chapin door yard during the progress of this council, the following is quoted from Friend Savery's journal :
"14th of the Tenth month -- The party of Senecas, headed by the Farmer's Brother, Little Billy, etc., having arrived, last evening, within four miles, were expected this afternoon; but having to paint and ornament themselves before their public entry, they did not arrive till 3 o'clock this afternoon. The Oneidas, Cayugas, and Onondagas were drawn up, dressed, and painted, with their arms prepared for a salute, before General Chapin's door. The men able to bear arms marched in, assuming a good deal of importance, and drew up in a line facing the Oneidas, etc. Colonel Pickering, General Chapin, and many white people being present. The Indians fired three rounds which the other Indians answered by a like number, making a long and loud echo through the woods. Their commanders then ordered them to form a circle around the Commissioner and General Chapin; then, sitting down on the
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THE FIRST SETTLEMENT.
ground, they delivered a speech, through the Farmer's Brother, and returned the strings of wampum which were sent them when they were requested to come to the treaty. Colonel Pickering answered
GENE
COUNCIL OF THE UNITED STATES
S CONFEDERACY WAS HELD
ONIGUA AND THE RESULTANT TREATY
SIGNED NOVEMBER 11. 1794.BY
S AGENT TIMOTHY PICKERING
SACHEMS AND WARRIORS
COBYPLANTER. RED JACKET.
ISH CARRIER LITTLE BILLY,
TOCE MANDEDUE LAKE HALF TOWN
WITNESSES
S SMER YAUGUSTUS PORTER
LUAN ERING AND OTHERS
INTERPRETERS
JOSEPH SMITH, JASPER PARRISH
PICKERING TREATY MEMORIAL.
This boulder monument, commemorating the council held by Colonel Timothy Pickering and other representatives of the United States Government' with the Six Nations, at Canandaigua, in the summer of 1794, was erected in 1902 by Dr. Dwight R. Burrell, an officer of the Ontario County Historical Society. It is a granite boulder weighing approximately 30 tons, and is located on the Court House Square.
them in the usual complimentary manner, and ordered several kettles of rum to be brought, after drinking which they dispersed, and went to prepare their camp. Each chief delivered a bundle of sticks, answerable to the number of persons, men, women, and children, under his command, which amounted to 472. They made a truly terrific and warlike appearance." The following day 1.600 Indians had assembled, and this number was afterwards increased.
It was indeed a remarkable gathering of red men, including not only those noted, but also Red Jacket, the famous orator; Corn- planter, equally famous as a war chief; Little Beard, Fish Carrier, Clear Sky, and many others. Jemima Wilkinson was drawn to the settlement by the event, and with Colonel Pickering, William Savery and others, was entertained by young Thomas Morris. Jasper Parrish, as the official interpreter, was Superintendent Chapin's most efficient coadjutor.
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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
The conferences of the Indians, clad in all their savage finery, about the big council fires: the repeated adjournments made necessary by the drunkenness of the chiefs and sachems ; the denounc- ing by Colonel Pickering of a white man named Johnson as a British spy ; the bursts of eloquence by Red Jacket and other gifted sons of the forest; their visits of ceremony upon each other and upon the distinguished officers of the Government ; the busy life in the camps that were pitched in the woods surrounding the village and that consisted of rough tepees of bark and boughs : the horse racing, dancing, and other sports that filled in many of the leisure hours ; the meetings for worship and praise conducted in the forest by the Godly Quakers on every First day; the falling of seven or eight inches of snow on the 25th of October; the killing of a hundred deer in one day within a few miles of the village-these were some of the picturesque events of the great council.
The treaty was written on parchment and signed in duplicate by about fifty of the sachems and war chiefs.
In a letter to the Secretary of War in the month following the signing of the Pickering treaty, December, 1794, General Chapin wrote : "My journey to LeBoeuf, I shall ever believe, was the means of preventing the Six Nations from lending their assistance to their Western brothers, as they term them; and in which I got my present sickness, from which I am fearful I shall never recover. But, believe me, sir, to be useful to the frontier upon which I live and my country in general, has been the prevailing object of my pursuits."
The forebodings of the patriot in reference to his health proved too well founded. He continued to decline until the 7th of March, 1795, when he breathed his last. He was 54 years of age.
The news of his illness and death was received with profound sorrow, not only throughout the region to whose interests he had devoted six strenuous years of his life, but at the National Capital also, where his services to the country were known and appreciated. The Indians, too, grieved over his departure as that of a true friend. At a council held in Canandaigua soon after his death, Red Jacket made a speech, in the course of which, addressing Captain Israel Chapin, the General's son, and Captain Jasper Parrish, his inter- preter, he said :
"I wish you to pay attention to what I have to say. We have lost a good friend ; the loss is as great to us as to you. We consider
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THE FIRST SETTLEMENT.
that we of the Six Nations, as well as the United States, have met with a great loss. A person that we looked up to as a father, a person appointed to stand between us and the United States, we have lost, and it gives us great uneasiness. He has taken great pains to keep the chain of friendship bright between us and the United States ; now that he has gone, let us prevent that agreeable- ness and friendship, which he has held up between us and the United States, from failing.
"Brothers, it has been customary among the Six Nations, when they have lost a great chief, to throw a belt in his place after he is dead and gone. We have lost so many of late that we are destitute of a belt, and in its place present you with these strings of wampum.
"Brothers, as it is a custom handed down to us by our fathers, to keep up the good old ancient rules; now we visit the grave of our friend, we gather leaves and strew them over the grave, and endeavor to banish grief from our minds as much as we can."
The chiefs then directed that a message be sent to the Presi- dent informing him that the "person whom he had appointed for us to communicate our minds to, has left us and gone to another world. He with greatest care communicated our minds to the great council fire." The message also asked that the General's son. Captain Israel Chapin, be appointed to the office made vacant by the former's death. This was done, and the son faithfully carried on the work laid down by the father.
1537227
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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
IV.
"THE MOTHER OF COUNTIES."
The Organization of Ontario County Cotemporaneous with the Election of Washington as President of the United States- Its Original Princely Domain -- Unsuccessful Effort to Set It Off in a New State-Other Counties Erected from Its Original Territory-Rapid Settlement and Development.
The six hundred and forty square miles of territory now embraced in the county of Ontario has had a varied history. When first known to white men, it was, as we have seen, in the jealous and undisputed possession of the Seneca Indians. Then when the dis- putes growing out of the conflicting grants of the English kings had been settled, and the Indian title, by hook or crook, by sword or treaty, had been extinguished, which was cotemporaneous with the adoption of the Federal constitution, it found itself a part of the sovereign State of New York, but owned by a syndicate of Massa- chusetts capitalists, the Phelps and Gorham Company.
In 1789, within three weeks after the election of George Washington as the first President of the United States, the region referred to assumed the name Ontario and became the fifteenth county of the State of New York. Before that and since the adop- tion of the State constitution. it had been a part of Montgomery county, which, if Ontario is to be known as the Mother of Counties. should be hailed as the Grandmother of Counties, for it formerly constituted all the State west of the Delaware river and a line extending north through Schoharie and along the east lines of the present counties of Montgomery, Fulton and Hamilton, continued in a straight line to Canada. It included territory that is now comprised in not less than thirty-six counties. And to go back another generation. Albany was the great-grandmother of coun- ties. Up to 1772 it embraced everything within the colony of New
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THE ORIGINAL COUNTY OF ONTARIO, 1789-1796. (Indicated by Light Section of Map.)
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"THE MOTHER OF COUNTIES."
4
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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
York north and west of its present limits, and at one time also the whole of Vermont.
But to return to our subject. The Mother of Counties, Ontario, contained in 1789, all the State west of the Preemption line, including both the Phelps and Gorham and the Morris or Holland purchases. It had an estimated area of six million acres, and a year later, in 1790, the Federal census showed that it had a total white population of 1075, or something less than one five- thousandth of a man, woman and child to the acre.
The legislative act by which Ontario county was organized provided that "Whereas the County of Montgomery is so extensive as to be inconvenient to those who now are, or may hereafter settle, in the western part of the county," all that part described should thereafter be "one separate and distinct county, and be called and known by the name of Ontario."
Whether there were heartburnings over this division of Mont- gomery county, or whether the citizens in its more thickly populated eastern portion resented the presumption of the handful of pioneers who had settled in Canandaigua and other border towns and desired to set up by themselves, neither record nor tradition states. Prob- ably the easterners were quite content to let go a territory so remote, so difficult of access, and so much of a wilderness. But General Chapin and the other men who were directing the organi- zation of government in these border towns were soon holding elections, levying taxes, and erecting public buildings. Within three years after the organization of the new county, provision had been made for raising the sum of 600 pounds for building a court house and gaol at "Canadagua," with the additional sun of "one shilling in the pound for collecting the same."
One of the first and most threatening problems with which the organizers of the county of Ontario had to deal was that involved in the attempt to make it a part of a new and distinct common- wealth to be set off from New York State.
This ambitious project was involved, it is believed, in the original operations of the lessee companies alluded to in a preced- ing chapter. The parent of these companies, "The New York Genesee Land Company," organized by men of wealth residing in the eastern part of the State, first sought to nullify the agreement made at the Hartford convention of December 16, 1786, through long term leases made with the unsophisticated sons of the forest
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"THE MOTHER OF COUNTIES."
then acknowledged to be in actual possession of the land. On November 30, at a council held at Kanadesaga, the land company induced the sachems or chiefs of the Six Nations to lease to it all the land in the State west of the Preemption line, for a period of 999 years, for an annual rental of two thousand Spanish milled dollars. By means of this lease the company sought to acquire and hold possession of the lands to which Massachusetts had been accorded the preemption right of purchase from the Indians. But the scheme failed. The lease was at once pronounced null and void by Governor Clinton, and he was empowered to use the force of the State if necessary to prevent intrusion or settlement upon the lands claimed by the lessees.
It was following this miscarriage of their plot, and after they had thankfully accepted in compromise a ten mile square grant on the Military tract in the northern part of the State, that the gentle- men of the land company revealed or revived what from the start was probably their real purpose. Then agents of the company sought to enlist the residents in the Genesee tract, title to which in the meantime had been lawfully acquired by the Phelps and Gorham Company, in a movement to set up a new State. John Livingston and Caleb Benton, two of the intriguers, issued a circular calling upon the people to hold meetings and sign petitions for the erection of a new State to embrace the whole of central and western New York, including the then existing counties of Otsego, Tioga, Herkimer, and Ontario.
This attempt to organize a movement of secession met with no encouragement. At a meeting held at "Canandarqua," November 8, 1793, at which "all the Judges and Assistant Judges, and a large Majority of the Justices of the Peace, together with all the inhabi- tants, convened from different parts of the County on that Occasion," were present, and at which Hon. Timothy Hosmer, first judge of the county, acted as chairman and Nathaniel Gorham, Jr., as secretary, public sentiment found expression in the adoption of resolutions resenting "the ill timed and improper attempt." These resolutions set forth "the impossibility of the proposed State's defraying expenses of the most moderate government that can be devised," pointed out "the impolicy as well as injustice of raising by enormous taxes on uncultivated lands such a revenue or of devoting to those expenses property purchased under the faith of the States of New York and Massachusetts, and of drawing into
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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
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"THE MOTHER OF COUNTIES."
our flourishing county people that such iniquitous measures would attract," recommended to the promoters of the scheme "to persuade some more laudable mode of gratifying their ambition and to desist from proceedings altogether hostile to our interests and welfare," and urged those intrusted with the administration of the State to take "the most vigorous measures to suppress any of the attempts made to destroy the peace and quiet of this county."
The attempt miserably failed, but naturally was for the time the subject of the most excited discussion both at Geneva and Canandaigua, then the most important villages in the western part of the State.
As might be expected on the part of men of their temperament and their enterprise, the Ontario politicians opposed strenuously the attempts soon after made to subdivide the county, but despite their efforts to this end, carried into the Legislature itself, they were compelled to consent in 1796 to the setting off of Steuben county. in which Williamson, the enterprising agent of the Pulteney syndicate, had established his headquarters, and where he was laying the foundations of what he planned to make the Metropolis of Western New York. Steuben county had a population at that time of not much over 1,000, but doubled it within the next four years. Ontario's first born was a lusty youngster, and like her younger sisters has continued to grow in comeliness and strength to this day.
In March, 1802, Ontario was again deprived of a big slice of territory, it being then enacted that all that part of the State situated west of the main stream of the Genesee river and the western boundary of Steuben should constitute the county of Genesee. Neither the local histories nor the legislative journals, so far as examined, contain mention of opposition to this dismemberment, but opposition there must have been, in the market place where tradesmen and politicians congregated, if not in more formal public assemblage.
Here we may note the wonderful rapidity with which the western wilderness was being settled. Ontario had a population of only 1075 the year following her erection. Ten years later, in 1800. in spite of the loss of Steuben, she had 15,218. In 1802, as we have seen, Genesee was set off, but in 1810 what was left of Ontario's original territory bore a population of over 42,000 people, and
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CANANDA
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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
THE COUNTY OF ONTARIO, 1802-1821. (Indicated by Light Section of Map.)
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"THE MOTHER OF COUNTIES."
Genesee had 12,588. In ten years the territory embraced in the two counties had increased in population nearly 400 per cent.
The next successful attempt to deliver Ontario of a county was made in 1821, when both Livingston and Monroe were formed from territory theretofore embraced in Ontario and Genesee, but in the meantime there had been one or more abortive attempts. One in 1806 elicited much discussion in the newspapers and at public meetings, and presumably in the streets.
A correspondent who signed himself "Civis," in the Ontario Repository of December 16, that year, discussed a proposed organ- ization of a new county "to consist partly of territory which now belongs to this," referred to the fact that neighboring towns take different sides of the question, and stated that such discussions, especially when public, generally become "intemperate and result in bickerings and hatred." There was evidently discussion as to the most desirable shape for a county establishment, and "Civis" admitted that a square shape was the best, but argued that "circum- stances may exist in many cases of sufficient weight to render other shapes most convenient." It was proposed at this time that the western tier of towns of Ontario be separated and together with the eastern tier of Genesee be erected into a county, to contain it was estimated a population of 4,650. "Civis" referred to the fact that the year before a portion of the county applied to be incorpor- ated with Seneca, but he argued that it was "a misfortune to the peace of a free country to have those of its civil divisions small which demand the appointment of numerous officers who have considerable authority and salaries." "Civis" went on to intimate that those who advocated the change did so for the advantage of the section where the court house is to be erected and county offices established, and said: "One fights for it because the turnpike crosses his lands, another because it does not cross his ; one because he has a grudge against his neighbor who opposes it, and many on account of the affability and condescension of their superiors who are interested in it."
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