USA > New York > Steuben County > A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people, Vol. I > Part 5
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In this battle a noted chief of the Senecas was killed, and at the place, where he was buried, an excavation resembling a man's body was made, with arms extended, but much larger. An Indian trail leading from the Genesee to the Canisteo river and thence on to Pennsylvania may yet be partially traced, especially at a place about half way up the Big Hill, where the old trail intersects the highway leading from Dansville to Hornell; for many miles below the latter place its deeply-worn course was plainly visible a few years ago. The natives, in passing this grave, were in the habit of casting small stones upon it, brought from a hill a mile away, one by one, until a large pile accumulated to mark the spot. This chief's remains were later on disinterred, brought to Dansville vil- lage and reinterred, and, strange as it may seem, now rest beneath the altar of the Lutheran church, built on that ground. The stones cast on the grave were used by white men in making the founda- tion walls of that church.
During the period from the close of the French war until the Revolutionary period no events worthy of notice occurred in the territory under consideration. Its numerous trails were much fre- quented by hunters, trappers and fur traders, mostly Dutch from Albany and vicinity ; by travelers, by runners from the St. Law- rence to the Ohio, in the employ and confidence of the French : refu- gees from every place; and the faithful, self-sacrificing Jesuit, for his religion and for humanity. Events were maturing, long
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planned, slowly ripening by far-seeing and adroit men, impelled by selfish and covetous impulses, destined for the betterment of-the race, but at the expense of large fortunes, nobles lives, unimagined sorrows and hardships.
In the future of North America and the-history of the Anglo- Saxon destiny and civilization the year 1664. is important-the starting point of events to be burned into the history of all Chris- tendom and progress. Men of England under their own flag in that year began to exert an influence on Manhattan island, the future seat and dictation of all power and progress in the western world. Ten years confirmed these men in the possession and in- fluence on a territory now occupied by one of the most populous and opulent communities on the earth.
Two dates form a great and memorable chain of events in Eng- lish history, starting with 1588, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when the Spanish Armada was overthrown, and ending with 1759, when Quebec fell and Wolfe in attacking and Montcalm in defend- ing, each gave up his life, in spotless honor and glory; when French Canada was wiped from the map. The whole series be- tween these dates embraces succeeding events by which the North American continent was wrested by Englishmen from Spanish, Dutch and French control and possession. In view of all that fol- lowed, from the bloodless and peaceful surrender of New Amster- dam in 1664 until after the lapse of one hundred and twenty years, covered a period of the most far-reaching events in Ameri- can history. Fifteen years after the capitulation by the Dutch to the English of New York, the latter obtained from the Indians a promise of all of the valuable territory of the Susquehanna. As creating any actual title this promise had but little value-perhaps but the shadow of a title-but it is of value to know that, thus early, this valley had attracted the attention of the English, sur- passing in enterprise all the Dutch had done in forty years of knowledge and occupation. The Dutch, true to the instinct of their race, as fur traders and dealers in other commodities, simply sought routes of travel and communication. The English, following the Saxon desire, wanted not only routes and lines of travel, but land. It is without doubt that by the Susquehanna was then meant, not only the river as we know it, but all the streams that flow into it above the west branch, including the Unadilla and Charlotte, the ยท Chenango, Chemung and their tributaries in New York.
THE MOHAWK GRANT. . .
In the year 1708 a patent, known as the Kayaderosseras or Queensborough patent, containing four hundred thousand acres of land and embracing nearly all of what is now Saratoga county. and portions of the present Montgomery, Fulton and Warren counties north of the Mohawk river, was granted to Hermance, Beekman, Van Dam, Stevens and others. The rights and posses- sions of the native Indians had to be acquired by the patentees to make a valid grant and complete title to this large tract of land. The patentees represented to the Six Nations that they were the owners, by purchase from the heirs of William Penn, of land in the Susquehanna valley at Wyoming, about thirty miles in length and twenty miles in width, on both sides of the river, of great
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fertility and full of game. The Indians were well acquainted with the, attractions of this land, so that for the consideration of this Pennsylvania land they ratified, confirmed and gave their assent to the grant of this Mohawk traet. It is believed that the Six Nations were greatly influenced to this trade by the advice and desires of missionaries, among them Wheelock, Kirkland and Ash- bow, who wished to found Indian sehools, homes and churches. For this purpose Wyoming, or Broad Plain, was the ideal place.
CONNECTICUT IN WYOMING VALLEY.
This transaction was to result in one of the bloodiest tragedies recorded in American annals. Wyoming had been settled from Connectieut, under the charter granted by the King of England, and claimed as a township of that colony by the name of West- moreland. But it was also claimed by the heirs and grantees of William Penn. For many years before the Revolution there had been bitter and even armed controversy over this disputed owner- ship. These were then and have since been known as Pennamite wars and on these occasions the settlement had virtually been destroyed. A's early as 1750 men from Connecticut had visited this beautiful and attractive wilderness, and made report on its extraordinary fertility, but it was not until 1762 that any from Connecticut ar- rived to make it their homes and cultivate its soil, and not until after the treaty of Fort Stanwix, in 1768, that they came in large numbers to establish homes upon it. The Connecticut Yankees were "land grabbers" and this valley attracted them. It is said Connecticut is the "Mother of States." All the way across the continent may be found men whose roots may be traced to that state, especially to the counties west of its principal river. They were born levellers of the forests-the greatest wielders of the axe the world has ever known. They brought not only skill with the axe, but certain arts and refinements in domestic life before un- known to the frontier, and a spirit of enterprise and invention and courage which earried their own fortunes far and which more than all other human forees have made the western part of the state of New York what it now is.
After the exchange of the lands granted by the Queensbor- ough patent with the Iroquois for the Wyoming lands in Penn- sylvania, the grant made by the British crown to William Penn of these Pennsylvania lands was by the English courts annulled and set aside and the claim of Connecticut asserted. The Six Nations thereby became aware that they had been cheated out of their land on the Mohawk river. The Mohawks, deeply grieved by the fraudu- lent obtaining of their land, appealed to Sir William Johnson. He invited all of the sachems of the Six Nations and all of the other interested parties to assemble in council at his house in Johns- town. Sir William there heard all parties and both sides fully, and decided the Indian contention was correct and that the white man had done a wrong in giving the Pennsylvania land, to which he had not title that was substantial, though apparently good.
Sir William in a letter to Sir Jeffrey Amherst, then governor general of British North America, predicted the dangerous con- sequences which must inevitably attend the settlement of the Con- necticut people in the Wyoming valley. However, they persisted
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in this settlement. The Iroquois were so excited and alarmed that they sent a delegation of five chiefs to Hartford. They were led by Guy Johnson and bore a letter from Sir William. In the speech of the Onondaga orator at Hartford on that occasion, after re- hearsing the story of the covenant with Corlear and denouncing the men as "old rogues" who had fraudulently obtained the In- dians' land, he declared the Six Nations would resist, even unto blood, the loss of their Susquehanna lands. Governor Fitch of that state heartily agreed with the Iroquois so actively that the proposed settlement of the Susquehanna land by three hundred families was at least postponed.
The Susquehanna company, notwithstanding, persisted in their endeavors and active exertions to induce immigration, so that in the year 1769 forty families were induced to settle in Wyoming. This migration continued so rapid that in less than ten years five thou- sand of the best and most desirable people from Connecticut were settled there. It may with good reason now be asked how is the narrative relating to the Wyoming lands-so fraudulently ob- tained by intelligent, hypocritically pious cheats and rascals from the uncivilized and unsuspecting savage Indians-pertinent to a history of Steuben county. It will be endeavored to be shown how within the limits of this county occurred events most intimate- ly connected with the redressing and punishment of the wrongs inflicted upon the Indians, in the same way that the untamed lion would resist the robbery of his choicest food. It has always been, now is, and probably will be, his only remedy for the protection of his natural rights. In each case the acts of the savage man, at least, and consequences following are entitled to palliation.
The unsleeping vengeance of the Senecas did not find its op- portunity until 1778. British emissaries acting under instructions of Sir William Johnson and others in superior authority, supposing that the American forces along the Hudson river would be de- serted and weakened by the destruction of the settlements in New York and Pennsylvania, incited the Senecas to make an invasion into Wyoming in the Susquehanna valley, Pennsylvania, to avenge their wrongs, promising the aid of English troops and Tories.
THE WYOMING MASSACRE.
The Senecas gladly acceded to the undertaking. For this purpose a force of Senecas, British troops and Tories, variously estimated from five hundred to seven hundred, under the direction mainly of Colonels John Butler and Joseph Brant, assembled at Niagara in the early months of 1778 for a descent upon Wyoming by way of the Genesee river and the northwest branches of the Susquehanna river. Directions were sent to all the Indians living on or near these streams to send warriors to join the force at Painted Post, on the Chemung river.
Butler and Brant left Niagara by the lake in vessels sent for that purpose from Canada, and landed their forces at the mouth of the Genesee river, some four miles from the present site of the city of Rochester, New York, above the falls and rapids of the river. Canoes for transportation were furnished by the Senecas of the Genesee valley, up that river and its principal branch, the Canaseraga creek, until further navigation was impeded about
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seven miles above the site of the village of Dansville, Livingston county. Thenee a portage of ten miles was made to the Canisteo river, one of the northwest tributaries of the Susquehanna river, to a place in the present town of Hornellsville, this county, in sight of the Steuben Sanitarium, and a mile north of the boundary of the city of Hornell, nearly opposite the mouth of Big creek, contiguous to an immense forest of pine trees of large size. Here they encamped and made from these pine trees canoes of sufficient size and number to complete the savage undertaking. Many evi- dences of this work and encampment, such as stumps of trees, abandoned trunks unfit for their purposes, rude tools and imple- ments for eanoe building, iron kettles and fireplaces, were found here by travelers of a later day. Says a local writer of 1812: "Here are still to be seen the marks of the tracks of the invading foe that committed the savage butehery at Wyoming, a fine settle- ment; and its complete destruction, in 1778, will long be remem- bered. Here the ancient man showeth the stumps of trees from which the canoes were taken, and chilleth the soul with horror at the tale of woe."
The canoes were finished and the disembarkation completed in the month of June. As the river was bank-full (the "June flood" was on), the trip to Painted Post on the Chemung river, forty miles away, was made quickly. There other Indians and Tories were awaiting to join them. They came from the region about Senaca and Canandaigua lakes and along Mud creek, Co- hoeton river and Post creek, led by MeDonald, a Tory captain, formerly of Johnstown and a member of the "Johnson Greens" of Sir William Johnson's day. After the destruction of Wyoming McDonald, with a number of prisoners and his own wounded, re- turned by the same route. The invading force, now fully seven hundred, embarked on the Chemung river for Tioga Point, where a junction was made with the Indians and Tories from the upper Susquehanna, amounting in all to one thousand and one hundred Indians and Tories. Colonel Butler's descent speedily followed. Brant did not go. His failure was consistent with his career. The attack and barbarous slaughter that followed at Wyoming on July third was and is unparalleled in the annals of America. The ven- geance of the Seneeas was satisfied.
Colonel John Butler's infamous eonduet is believed to have received encouragement and active assistance from partisans of the Pennamite eause, who, during the Revolution, were mainly Tories. In them still survived an ancient bitterness toward the settlers from Connecticut that was now rendered more intense and bitter because almost to a man those settlers had become devoted sup- porters of the American cause. Events had greatly widened the breach, but the success of the Revolution gave to these Connectieut people double cause for rejoicing. It released them from two ene- mies at onee-the Pennamite partisans and England.
The massacres of the Wyoming, Mohawk and Susquehanna valleys were largely due to the negleet of the military authorities of the Americans. A large measure for this neglect must fall to General Horatio Gates, then in command of the northern depart- ment. The main reason for this neglect was that, in his opinion, the Hudson valley needed for its defense and safety the fullest
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force possible. General Gates has many blunders, if not worse ac- cusations at the door of his unfragrant and tarnished memory ; one of them is his neglect of the frontier.
Governor Clinton wrote: "It is much to be regretted that the operations which were intended by congress against the Indians have hitherto been so utterly neglected by the commanding officer of the northern department."
OTHER ATROCITIES.
The massacre at Wyoming, soon followed by like atrocities at Cherry valley, in the region bordering the Mohawk and the Seo- harie, aroused an unrestrained feeling of indignation, revenge and resentment against the perpetrators of these terrible and unheard of acts of savage warfare. That the habitations that sheltered and the fields that gave sustenance to these invaders should be destroyed was the universal demand and determination of all Americans, so that no further fear should be apprehended from these murderous Indians. Of the Six Nations the Senecas were the most savage and warlike, residing in a fertile country farthest away from the settled part of the state of New York, and most under the control and influence of English emissaries, who were always active in inciting redress for all injuries, real or fancied. They were provided with arms and ammunition for assault and defense ; bounties were paid for the scalps of American prisoners. The Oneidas were friendly to and in some instances aided the Americans. The Mohawks, though an ugly and warlike nation, were now so reduced in fighting men that they were not greatly feared. The Onondagas and Cayugas, because their domains were not so frequently invaded or despoiled by the white people, were not so aroused.
"DOOR KEEPERS" FOR THE SIX NATIONS.
But one nation remained, who had been and were during the Revolution, by reason of their proud spirit and uncontrollable and determined resentment, a source of constant fear and dread by the loyal Americans. These Indians, residing between Cayuga lake and the Genesee river and along that river, were known to the early Jesuits as the Senecas of the Genesee, and were noted for their thrift and good husbandry. (using that word for squaw labor), as well as for their warlike and savage deeds. The corn grown by them was of a superior quality. The first sweet corn ever seen in New England came from the Seneca country, and squashes, melons and beans were raised in great profusion. Orchards of apple, pear, peach and plum trees grew abundantly, producing good fruit in abundance. There was no lack of berries, grapes and cranberries, and tobaceo of the best quality was raised by the natives.
The Senecas were not only the most populous nation of the league, but the most thrifty. They were the foremost on the war- path and first in warlike deeds and acts of cruelty. They gloried in their nation and title of "door keeper," for, as guardians of the upper entrance, they stood interposed as a living barrier between the hostile nations of the unlimited west and the eastern, tribes of the Confederacy. In later times they proved a safeguard to
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the whites from the invasions of the French and their Indian allies.
The Senecas not only defended the western door, but often on their own account carried their arms and left the victims of their cruelties in the country of the southern and western nations, while other tribes sat on their mats quietly smoking. The league held that any warrior was at liberty to form a party, place him- self at its head and make war on his own account against foreign tribes, north, west or south.
A band of Seneca braves on the warpath presented nothing of display. Moving silently in single file, they threaded the all but limitless forests. Each carried a little sack of parched corn usually a pouch of smoked venison. In expeditions of danger at a distance from home, if the supply gave out, a tightening of the waist belt would often serve, instead of a scanty supper. In later times a flint and steel, with a handful of dried leaves, would produce a fire in some hidden and sheltered spot, where for a night, with feet to the smouldering embers, unguarded by sentinel, the entire party would sleep for a brief period. In 1630 they invaded the country of the Illini, on the Mississippi river. School- craft writes of the Senecas and other members of their league; they roved at will from Lake Champlain to the river Illinois, ex- tended their conquest from the Great Lakes across the Ohio river into the region of Kentucky and Tennessee. They made inroads into the Carolinas and elsewhere farther south.
FORTITUDE-BRAVERY - HOSPITALITY.
The chronicles of no age afford examples excelling the forti- tude and self-control with which these Iroquois braves suffered and endured the tortures inflicted by their captors: "When taken in battle they asked nothing and expected nothing. The whole history of martyrdom may be challenged for a parallel in the al- most superhuman courage, fortitude and constancy which these Iroquois braves, all Senecas, exhibited when put to the torture at Fort Frontenac. The captive warrior would often sing his song of defiance while being led, with blackened face, from the cabin of death or prison of doom, as the dark hut was called, where the doomed were kept, while preparations were made for torture, and boast in the faces of his remorseless captors even while the fatal flames were crisping and consuming his flesh, of how many of their number he had slain and how many scalps had been credited to him on the warpost."
Mary Jemison, the "white woman of the Genesee," is the authority, that to commemorate events and to preserve the chro- nology of them the war chief in each tribe kept a warpost, a painted stick of timber ten or twelve feet high, erected in his town near his house. For a campaign the chief made a perpendicular red mark about three inches long and one-half inch wide. On one side of this mark he made an (X); this represented a scalp. On the opposite side of this line he made a red cross with a mark over it like this (X), which indicated a prisoner taken alive. This made a record of his exploits. Her husband, Hiakatoo, had such a warpost.
The Senecas shared fully in the superstitions common to their
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race. Belief in witchcraft prevailed, and signs and omens had great influence in shaping their actions both in peace and war. On the gravest occasion a dream, particularly when related by a woman, would secure earnest and attentive listeners, and seldom went unheeded.
In his every-day life the Seneca was hospitable at his home, however relentless, cruel and savage on the warpath. His hut was always open. If a family or company of strangers came from a distance it was not an unusual incident to give them the best lodge in the village during their stay. In times of scarcity of food and supplies, because of their improvidence, such occasions often came, they shared with each other, even to the last morsel. Individual starvation was unknown; except where a whole tribe was brought to famine and want none suffered for want of food.
SENECAS' DOMESTIC LIFE.
Their lodges in ancient days were made of poles covered with bark or skins in the cone-like wigwam, but evolution came with the axe; with this tool they cut into required lengths poles and small logs and from them constructed a hut in a square or oblong shape, usually about ten feet by twelve on the ground and seven feet high on the sides. The door was always at the end. The roof was steep, covered with bark. There were no floors; fire was built on the ground in the center, the smoke finding exit through an opening in the roof over the fire. In place of tables, chairs and beds, but as a substitute, along each side and along the end op- posite the entrance place, a long wooden bunk about three feet wide, raised a foot or so from the ground, covered with evergreen boughs, bark and skins, served for beds and chairs. Four of five feet above were shelves, on which were thrown provisions and domestic uten- sils. A village contained from fifteen to fifty huts-not more than the larger number-located near large and never failing springs, or on the bank of a stream of considerable size and volume. The simple culinary art required a kettle for meat and vegetables; one or more wood platters, split from the basswood or chestnut log, and three or four hunting knives to a household. Wild game and fish were often spitted on a stick before the fire, and the loaf, made of pounded corn and beans, or of either, was baked or roasted in the hot ashes under the embers. The Indian woman's cooking offered slight temptation to the white man's taste. Her loaf was kneaded with unwashed hands in an uncleaned bark tray; the meats were prepared without attention to the most primitive clean- liness. If a deer was to be prepared for eating it was skinned, then cut up and cast into the kettle, flesh, bones, entrails and brains.
To the white man in the most abject circumstances the In- dians' home would not have been a place of comfort. Its single room, noxious with smoke, the members of the household lounging and sprawling indiscriminately on the ground, admitted of neither neatness, shame, delicacy or privacy. On poles overhead, well coated with soot, dust and smoke, hung a motley array of cloth- ing, corn, dried pumpkins and squashes, and skins of animals, with weapons, tools and ornaments. The huts were without win- dows; the inmates knew nothing of their value for comfort and
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convenience and therefore they were not missed. But the Seneca here passed his winter in contentment; his wants were few, his food was ample in quantity and to him palatable, sufficient and nourishing. If his hut was uncleanly it was preferable to the abodes of the idle and vicious in our great centers of population at the present day.
The squaw who had planted, hoed and harvested the corn, beans and other vegetables, prepared them for the winter's meal and cheerfully served it to her not-exacting husband. He was a happy man. Though taciturn in publie he was not unsocial within his own domicile, where his neighbors often met to smoke his tobacco, laugh at his jests, not the most refined, or listen to his stories of war and the chase.
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