USA > New York > Franklin County > A history of St. Lawrence and Franklin counties, New York : from the earliest period to the present time > Part 24
USA > New York > St Lawrence County > A history of St. Lawrence and Franklin counties, New York : from the earliest period to the present time > Part 24
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 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84
This petition produced the passage of an act in his relief.
The 16th section of an act passed February 28, 1789, directed: "That it shall and may be lawful for the commissioners of the land office, to grant letters patent, to Louis Cook, alias Hadaquetoghrongwen, for such tract of land lying on the Niconsiaga River, beginning on the first falls on said river, and extending up the same on both sides thereof, as they shall find to be his distinct property; provided the same has not been otherwise appropriated."
It is not known to the author whether this tract was ever confirmed to him as his individual property, or what was the result of the action directed in the act for his relief. .
It is probable, that Colonel Louis was induced to return to St. Regis,
1
194
HISTORY OF ST. LAWRENCE
by those people, who were solicitous of securing his influenee in settling the claim which they had against the state of New York, for lands, and in seeing that justice was done them in the matter of running the boundary between the two governments, which passed through their village.
He was not at first safe in his residence at St. Regis, being on several occasions in danger of his life, from the violence of the Mohawks. His friends, however, promptly informed him of the plots laid against him, in time for him to avoid them.
There is said to have been an especial feeling of ill will between Brant and Louis, arising from the active partizan course which they had pursued on opposite sides in the previous contest.
Colonel Louis took a leading part in the negotiations which finally resulted in the treaty of May 31, 1796, at the city of New York, by which the claims of the St. Regis Indians to the lands in the northern part of the state were extinguished, with the exception of the reserva- tions then made. A history of the negotiations which preceded and attended this treaty, we have given in the foregoing pages. It will be seen that the terms offered by the agents of the state, bore no compari- son with the demands of the deputies of the Indians, but here, as else- where, and ever, the latter found themselves at the mercy of those whose will was law, and were constrained to accept the terms offered, or none at all, having no tribunal of arbitration or appeal, by which to sus- tain their claims.
In sustaining his claims, Colonel Louis was seconded by Captain Thomas Williams, a chief of the tribe, and a descendant of the Rev. John Williams, of Deerfield, and by William Gray, a chief and interpre- ter, who, although a white by birth, had in every respect become an Indian in tastes and habits.
After the conclusion of the treaty, Colonel Louis had an opportunity of attending to his own private affairs, and he continued to be occupied with these, and with business connected with the internal management of matters connected with the tribes with whom the St. Regis people were associated, until the breaking out of the war in 1812.
By an act of the legislature, passed in 1802, he was, with Loren Tar- bell and William Gray, made the trustee of his tribe, for the purpose of leasing a ferry, and a tract of land, and of establishing a school among the Indians.
Although without education himself, yet he was, for this reason, the more desirous that his people should acquire it; but the prejudices of the tribe were against it, and so far as we can learn, there was none established until a very recent period.
195
AND FRANKLIN COUNTIES.
Louis was ever opposed to the leases and sales, by which the Indians, from time to time, alienated their lands in the vicinity of Salmon river, insisting most strenuously, that they belonged not to them, but to their children.
It is not our purpose to investigate the motives which were brought to operate in producing a contrary course, or the propriety of it.
On the declaration of war, Colonel Louis, although borne down by the weight of more than seventy years, and passed that time of life, when one would scarcely be expected to encounter the rugged toils of war; yet he felt rising within him the ancient martial spirit which had inspired him in former times, and he felt his age renewed, when he thought on the perils and the victories in which he had participated, and longed again to serve that cause which, in the prime of life, and vigor of youth, he had made his own.
The British early endeavored to secure the St. Regis people in their interests, and their agent, who had come up from Montreal, with the customary presents, which that government annually distributed in the payment of their annuities, returned without making the distribution, because they would not agree to take up arms for them.
The residence of Colonel Louis, in consequence of his engaging in the American cause, having become unpleasant, if not unsafe, at St. Regis, he repaired to Plattsburgh, where he spent a considerable portion of the summer. We notice the following in Niles's Weekly Register, of that period :
Oct. 17, 1812. " Gen. Louis, of the St. Regis Indians, a firm and undeviating friend of the United States, and his son, have been in this village (Plattsburgh), for several weeks. The St. Regis Indians are dis- posed to remain neutral, in the present contest; but what effect the British influence and British success may have upon them, we know not," &c.
We have noticed, in the foregoing pages, the miserable condition to which the St. Regis people were reduced by the war; as they could scarcely go out of sight of their village, without exciting alarm among the whites, and they had nothing to subsist upon at home.
Colonel Louis represented this condition of things to the governor, who directed, in consequence, that five hundred rations should be deliv- ered daily to them, and they were thus enabled to avoid giving alarm to their white brethren.
During the summer of 1812, he visited General Brown, at Ogdens- burgh, where he was received with attention : a new commission was pre- sented him, and through the liberality of Mr. David Parisleof that place, he was furnished with a new and elegant military dress and equipage corresponding with the rank which his commissions conferred. On his eturn to his family, his appearance was so changed, that they did not
13
196
HISTORY OF ST. LAWRENCE
know him, and his children fled from the proffered caresses of their father, as if he had been the spirit of evil.
His age and infirmities prevented him from active duty, but his influ- ence with the Indian tribes, gave him an importance in the army, which was of signal service to the American cause.
On the arrival of General Wilkinson, at French Mills, he joined that army, and accompanied General Brown from thence to Sacketts Harbor, in February, 1814.
In June following, he repaired to Buffalo, with his sons, and several St. Regis warriors, and was present and actively engaged in the several engagements that took place on the Niagara frontier.
In August, 1813, an affair had taken place near Fort George, in which several Caughnawagas and British were taken prisoners; and colonel Louis was induced, from motives of humanity, to undertake a mission to Niagara for their release.
To excite a prejudice against him, some of his enemies wrote to an officer in the American army, that he was on a visit to their camp, on a secret mission, which reaching its destination before his arrival, led to his arrest, and he was held a prisoner eight days, when some officers from Plattsburgh arriving, he was recognized, and set at liberty. A fur- ther investigation was desired, and instituted, and he appeared before the commission, and answered, with great modesty, the several questions that were put to him, by the young officers: but the impertinence of some of them aroused his spirit, and he replied : "You see that I am old, and worn out, and you are young, and know little of the service. You seem to doubt what I have been, and what I am now. It is right that you should watch the interests of your country in time of war. My history you can have." He then gave them the names of several prominent officers of the northern frontier, as refer- ences, and with a heavy hand, laid a large black pocket book upon the table, and bid them examine its contents. It contained his commissions as lieutenant colonel; general Washington's recommendatory letters, and those of generals Schuyler, Gates, Knox, Mooers, and governor Tomp- kins, and a parchment certificate of membership, in a military masonic lodge of the revolution.
These abundantly satisfied them, but he further insisted, that they should write to Plattsburgh, which they did, more to gratify him, than to satisfy themselves. The result was, of course, his complete exonera- tion from any motives but those entirely consistent with honor and prin- ciple.
But time was having its work upon the frame of this worthy Indian chief, and an injury which he sustained, by a fall from this horse, at the
197
AND FRANKLIN COUNTIES.
head of a party of Tuscaroras, in one of the skirmishes of the campaign, was found to have seriously affected him, and he desired to be carried to the Indian settlements, to yield his last advice, and give up his parting breath among the people whose interests he had so long and so faithfully served.
Colonel Biddle, of the 11th regiment, the son of his former old friend, in Coos county, often sent to enquire after his welfare. Louis at length sent for the colonel, who hastened to his wigwam, and found him in a dying condition, but able to speak. He spoke at some length, on the interest he ever felt for the American cause, and the gratification he experienced in being able to die near their camp. He bid him remember him to his family at St. Regis, to colonel Williams, of that place, and to his friends, whom he named, at Plattsburgh.
To his son, he gave his two commissions which he had cherished as a treasure, and bid him carry them to his family at St. Regis, but this worthless fellow on returning pawned them at an inn for grog!
Colonel Louis died in October 1814, and was buried near Buffalo. His death was announced by the discharge of cannon, as was due to his rank in the army.
He was twice married, the first time at Caughnawaga, and the second at Onondaga, where he is said to have lived a short time after the revo- lution.
He had three sons, of whom one died at Caughnawaga, one at St. Regis, in 1832, and the third near Brasher Falls in 1833, while on a hunting ex- cursion.
He had several daughters, one or two of whom still reside at St. Regis.
Colonel Louis was tall and athletic, broad shouldered and strongly built, with a very dark complexion, and somewhat curly hair, which in old age became gray.
He was very reserved in his speech, and by most people would be called taciturn. He seldom spoke without having something to say, and what he said, was received with deference, for it always had a mean- ing, and in all his deportment he strongly evinced possession of pru- dence, discretion and sense, and when once enlisted in any pursuit, he followed it with a constantcy and perseverance seldom equalled in the Indian character. He was prompt and generally correct in arriving at conclusions, and hisjudgment was relied upon, and his opinions sought by the officers of the army, with whom he was associated, with much confidence, and he possessed in a high degree the control of the affairs of his tribe, by whom he was beloved, respected, and obeyed.
He was illiterate, but spoke several languages with freedom, His
.
198
HISTORY OF ST. LAWRENCE
portrait was taken while at Albany, but we have been unable to ascertian whether it be still reserved.
WILLIAM GRAY .- Probably no white person has had more influence with the Indian tribe of St. Regis, in their negociations than William Gray, and his name is constantly found as interpreter, or agent on the old treaties and other papers which were executed by these people. He was born at Cambridge, N. Y., joined the revolutionary army, at the age of seventeen. With a few others he was taken by surprise near White Hall, and carried to Quebec, where he remained till the peace. He then repaired to Caughnawaga, and resided for some time, from whence he removed to St. Regis, and married an Indian woman, and raised a family. He adopted the language, and customs of the tribe and become their chief interpreter. While there, returned to Cam- bridge, and induced a large number of his father's family to remove to St. Regis, where they remained some time, but never inter married with the natives. His parents died on the Indian reservation.
He had acquired the rudiments of an education, which was subse- quently of much advantage to him in his capacity of interpreter and chief.
Possessing considerable native enterprise, he acquired an ascendency with the Indians, and his advice was received with attention. At a very early period he erected a saw mill at what is now the village of Hogans- burgh, and engaged in mercantile business at the Indian village.
He acted as interpreter at most of the treaties held previous to his death; and his conduct at that which occurred at New York in 1796, was such as secured him the following recommendation from the gover- nor to the legislature.
Gentlemen :
"The agents who on the part of this state, coucluded the agreement which has been laid before you, with the Indians called the Seven Na- tions of Canada, at the treaty held at New York in May last, have repre- sented to me, that William Gray, one of the deputies from these Indians at that treaty, was during the late war captivated in this state by the In- dians of St. Regis, that they adopted him into that tribe, and on the 21st of March, 1781, gave him the tract of land specified in the copy of the deed from them to him; with which a copy of the proceedings of that treaty, accompanies this message, and which he left with the said agents for your information.
That they have no reason to suppose otherwise, than that the said transaction was at the time intended, did take place between him, and the said Indians in good faith ; that during the negotiations at the treaty, his conduct was fair and proper, and rather than that the treaty should be in the least impeded by his claims, he readily consented to waive the making of any stipulations in his favor, and to rely entirely on the state
199
AND FRANKLIN COUNTIES
for such compensation or gratuity as the legislature should think reason- able."
JOHN JAY.
ALBANY, 28th February, 1797.
This however, failed to secure him the justice which he claimed, and he accordingly presented at a subsequent session, the following memo- rial, in which his claims are set forth.
" To the Honorable, the Legislature of the State of New York.
The petition of William Gray, respectfully sheweth :
That your petitioner was born in the county of Washington, in this state; that when a boy he was taken prisoner in the year eighty, in the late war, by the Indians of the Seven Nations of Canada, among whom he has ever since continued to reside ; that by adoption and marriage, he has become entitled to all the rights and privileges of one of that people, and consequently is with them a proprietor of the lands secured to them by treaty with the state ; that he now has a family of children whom he wishes to educate in the manner of their civilized ancestors, and leave some property to make them respectable and useful in society; that ac- cording to the customs of the tribe at St. Regis, the place where he re- sides, individuals have lands assigned to them for cultivation in severalty, yet the laws of the state can not take cognizance of it; that the nation of which he is a member, have set apart to him and wish to have confirmed to him a tract, as his exclusive proportion of the lands 257 acres, bounded on the north by the Salmon river mill tract, on the east by the east boun- daries of the large reservation, on the west by a line parallel thereto, and on the south by the south bounds of said reservation, now held in com- mon in their reservation, near the village of St. Regis. Your petitioner therefore, in consideration of all these circumstances, prays that it may be lawful for him to receive such a grant from the nation, and that it may receive the sanction of government, and your petitioner as in duty bound, shall ever pray."
WILLIAM GRAY.
ALBANY, the 19th February, 1800.
This petition secured him the advantages which he sought, in the pas- sage of the following act, April 4, 1801, during the session next follow- ing :
" And whereas, William Gray of the village of St. Regis, having been early in life taken prisoner by the Indians calling themselves the Seven Nations of Canada, and since continued to reside among them, and being in consequence of adoption and marriage, considered as entitled to all rights and privileges as one of their nation, whereby he is equally and with others of them interested in the lands secured by the people of this state to the Indians residing at the village of St. Regis;
And whereas, it appears that the said Indians are disposed to give to the said William Gray, his proportion of their common property to be held in severalty by him and his heirs: therefore,
Be it further enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for the governor to direct the said agent to obtain from the said Indians, their grant to the people of this state, and to issue letters patent under the great seal of this state, to the said William Gray, his heirs and assigns, forever, for two hundred and fifty-seven acres, bounded on the north by the tract reserved
200
HISTORY OF ST. LAWRENCE
and surveyed for the said Indians, and which includes the mill on Salmon river, on the south by the south bounds of the tract equal to six miles square, reserved to the said Indians, on the east by the east bounds of the said reservation, and on the west by a line parellel thereto, run from the eleventh mile mark, made by the surveyor general, in the south bounds of the said reservation, being in length north and south, one hundred and sixty-four chains and seventy links, and in width east and west, fifteen chains and sixty links."
A further history of the tract thus conveyed, will be given in our ac- count of Fort Covington.
His residence during a few years previous to the war, was in what is now the village of Hogansburgh, west of the river; and this place at that period bore the name of Gray's Mills.
In the war of 1812, he took part with the Americans, and was em- ployed by Colonel Young to conduct the party through the woods from French Mills, which surprised and captured a company of British at St. Regis, in the fall of 1812. Being considered a dangerous partizan, he was surprised and taken by a party of the enemy, on the east side of the St. Regis river, near the village, in December, 1813, and taken to Quebec, where he was confined in prison, and where he died in April or May fol- lowing.
In his death the tribe lost a true friend and faithful servant. His de- scendants still reside at St. Regis.
-
TE-HO-RA-GWA-NE-GEN, alias Thomas Williams, whose name we have so often had occasion to mention in connection with the St. Regis tribe, was born about 1758 or 1759, at Caughnawaga, and was the third in descent from the Rev. John Williams of Deerfield. A daughter of this person by the name of Eunice, who was taken prisoner with him in 1704, became assimilated with the Indians, and afterwards married a young chief by the name of De Roguers, to whom she bore three children, viz : Catharine, Mary, and John. Mary was the mother of Thomas Williams, the subject of this notice. She died when her son was an infant, and he was reared by his aunt Catharine, whom he ever regarded as his mother. Having no cousin, he was the sole object of affection by his kind protector, and grew up an active and sprightly lad, in every respect of language and habits an Indian.
In 1772, the Rev. Levi Frisbee, was sent into Canada by the Rev. Dr. Wheelock, of Dartmouth College, who visited Caughnawaga, and took especial notice of Thomas, whose New England parentage was known to him and he obtained with some difficulty, the consent of his adopted parents to take him to Hanover, and place him in the Moore Charity School at that place, but sickness prevented him from attending. His adopted father often took him into the forest with him, on hunting excur-
-
201
AND FRANKLIN COUNTIES.
sions, and he became attached to his kind of life, often visiting in his rambles, Crown Point, Lake George, and vicinity of Fort Edward.
On the outbreak of the revolution, he is said to have participated in several of the expeditions against the colonies, but the lessons he had received from his grandmother Eunice, led him to exert his influence in favor of protecting defenceless women and children.
In 1777, he became a chief, and gradually acquired the esteem of the British officers. In the same year he was called upon with others of his tribe, to join General Burgoyne, but his feelings had begun to be enlisted in favor of the Americans, and he accompanied rather with the hope of being able to spare the effusion of blood, than of promoting the cause of his army, which he joined at Cumberland Head. On the retreat of the provincials from Ticonderoga, he was directed to pursue them, but un- der the pretense of falling upon their flanks, he is said to have purposely led his party by a too circuitous route to effect their object.
He was also sent with the detachment of the enemy against Benning- ton, but did little for the service in which he was engaged, and in the event almost came in collision with some of the British officers engaged on that expedition.
It is said that on the occasion of the death of Miss Jane McCrea, which formed so striking a tragedy in that campaign, that Thomas was solicited to undertake to bring her to the camp, but that he refused.
This service was according to the Rev. E. Williams, our informant afterwards accepted by some of the Indians of the Western tribes, who in two parties, each ignorant of the designs of the other, started on the expedition.
One of them had persuaded the girl to attend them to the British camp, and they were on their way thither, when they were met by the other; an altercation arose between them, and in the strife that ensued the girl was brutally tomahawked by one party, that the other might not be able draw the reward which had been offered by the young lady's lover, for bringing her in.
Our informant received this from a Winnebago chief, at Green Bay, who acknowledged having a hand in the murder, which some have attributed to St. Regis Indians.
This shocking barbarity, so abhorrent to human nature, led to a rebuke from Burgoyne, which is said to have weakened the attachment of the Indians for his course, and they afterwards left him.
Williams, among the rest of the Indians, abandoned the camp and re- turned home. In 1778, he joined an expedition to Oswego, with the view of invading some of the frontier settlements, but returned, and in the fol-
ยท
202
HISTORY OF ST. LAWRENCE
lowing year was one of the party who ravaged Royalton in Vermont, and afterwards participated in expeditions to Penobscot, Schoharie, &c.
In 1783 he visited for the first time his relatives in New England, and at Stockbridge met with the Rev. Samuel Kirkland, the Indian missionary, who served him as an interpreter. Among those whom he wished to visit, was the Rev. Dr. Stephen Williams, the brother of his grandmother Eu- nice, but he found him dead.
He subsequently visited repeatedly the friends of his grandmother, both in Massachusetts and Vermont, and always evinced a commendable re- gard for their welfare.
After the war, he resumed his hunting, and often visited Albany, and had a friendly intercourse with General Schuyler.
When the question of settlement of claims against the state came to be discussed, Thomas Williams was entrusted, in company with Gray and Cook, with the negotiation, the history of which we have given. In January, 1800, he visited his relatives in New England, and took with him his two boys, whom he left to be educated at Long Meadow, Mass. The names of these lads were John and Eleazer.
In 1801, with a party of Caughnawagas, in the service of the North- west Company, he made a journey to the remote western prairies, and nearly to the Rocky mountains. In 1805, with his wife, he visited his sons, and the mother insisted on having John return, which he did, much to the regret of the benevolent gentlemen, who on account of their ancestry, felt a peculiar interest in the welfare of the youths.
The other remained some time longer at the school, and acquired a good English education, and subsequently became an episcopal clergy- man, and was employed as a missionary for many years among the Oneidas and Onondagas, and also with the St. Regis Indians. For several years he was engaged in the settlements of the Green Bay emi- grants, from the New York tribes, and is at present living near St. Regis, engaged in endeavoring to establish a school among the natives.
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.