USA > New York > Steuben County > A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people, Vol. I > Part 8
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The next day General Sullivan resolved to push forward at all hazards, with all celerity possible, to attack the grand capital of the Indian country, where the stores and supplies of the enemy and their broadest fields were to be found. This place (Chinesse ) was an ambulatory capital, then said to be located at the junction of the Canaseraga creek with the Genesee river, then, and for years afterwards, noted as a famous landmark, place of beginning and boundary of numerous grants and treaties. It was marked by a gigantic elm tree, and near to the thereafter ancient and short-lived village of Williamsburg, built on great expectation and yielding only blasted hopes, to be again planted and re- established with renowned success at Bath, Steuben county.
At this capital it was reported all the Indians, assisted by a large force of Tories and British troops, had been engaged the preceding spring in planting the fields, that sufficient supplies might be raised to support the tribes while they were engaged in their depredations on the white settlers. It is said this operation was carried on under the direction of the infamous Walter Butler, making his headquarters at the Cabin of Mary Jemison, "the white woman of the Genesee." Sullivan was misled by the Guy Johnson map of 1771. Scouts sent out returned and informed General Sullivan that the capital he was seeking had been moved to the west side of the Genesee river, and was also known as Little Beard's Town, on the site of the present village of Cuyler- ville, four miles north of Mount Morris, Livingston county. Hav- ing located this capital, the army was ordered to its attack, after first burning and destroying all buildings, crops and property of the Indians. It crossed the Canaseraga creek, just below where it receives the Coshaqua creek, and, ascending a slight hill, entered on the flat beyond, which excited the wonder and admiration of the whole force. This plain contained not less than six thousand aeres of the richest soil, not having a bush standing, but filled with grass considerably higher than an ordinary man. A view of the whole plain, about three miles wide, could be had without change of position.
The army marched across these flats to the fording place of the Genesee river, at the foot of a series of rapids and cascades, within the present village of Mount Morris. Ascending the ris- ing ground beyond, a prospect was afforded of a plain far su-
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perior to the one just crossed; a view as far as the eye could reach. From this point the troops advanced northerly over rougher ground, and soon reached the far-famed, and much- sought-for Chinesse Castle, or Little Beard's Town. It was found deserted and abandoned. The fires were still burning in some of the huts, and in the woods.
A considerable number of Indians and Tories were found near the head of Conesus lake, apparently intending to give bat- tle. But they fled after a sharp skirmish, and Sullivan sent a strong detachment down the river to Canawaugus, an Indian vil- lage of some importance. The occupants had gone before the in- vaders arrived, who destroyed the buildings and large fields of corn, beans and other crops. This force returned to the main body of the army. Several scouting parties had been sent out by Sullivan before leaving the junction of the Canaseraga with the Genesee; one of these, which was commanded by Lieutenant Boyd, of the New York troops, was ambushed and captured. Boyd was taken to Little Beard's Town, where he underwent the most hor- rible tortures that savage revenge and cruelty could devise, leav- ing an abhorrent memory of Sullivan's invasion. The headless and disemboweled body of Boyd was found at Little Beard's Town by one of the Americans. It was, with others of his slain com- panions, buried near the highway leading from Cuylerville to Geneseo; the place is pointed out to this day. In 1841 the citizens of Livingston county consented that the remains of Boyd and his brave soldiers might be exhumed, taken to Rochester and reinterred in beautiful Mount Hope Cemetery in that city, in a spot called "Revolutionary Hill," and a suitable monument there erected. That part of the promise has not materialized. Says Col. Lock- wood L. Doty, in his most excellent and reliable "History of Liv- ingston County," and which the editor hereof most freely and gratefully acknowledges as a most reliable source of information in the preparation of this work: "Though these rites evince the reverence in which the patriot dead were held, yet a just feeling would dictate that their remains should have been allowed to sleep, uncoffined, in the rude graves beneath the sod moistened by their life-blood, where they had been placed two-thirds of a century before; and respect for their remains demands that they should be brought back and reinterred in the spot made doubly interesting from being the extremest point westward at which fighting took place during the Revolutionary War."
On the day following the arrival of the invading troops at Little Beard's Town, the work of destruction was continued. The crops here were in quantities immense, and unequalled in goodness. A moderate calculation placed two hundred acres of corn de- stroyed, the whole of which was pulled up, piled in large heaps mixed with dry wood taken from the houses, sct fire to, and con- sumed to ashes. Immense orchards of apples and peaches were found here, one of which it is said contained fifteen hundred trees. These were all destroyed. It was estimated by officers of the expedition that at least twenty thousand bushels of corn were destroyed in and about Little Beard's Town, besides vast quantities of vegetables and fruit.
On the seventeenth day of September, 1779, General Sul-
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livan issued a proclamation to the army complimenting them for their devotion, in carrying out the objects and aim of the expe- dition, and the complete destruction and subjection of the In- dian country; and announced "the army will this day commence its march for Tioga."
Butler and his rangers, with a force of British regulars, sent to join him, continued their flight westward from the Gene- see and reached Fort Niagara on the 18th of September. The Indian women and children, panie-stricken, followed in great dis- order. The accommodations and stores at the fort were not suf- ficient to supply their wants, their food became exhausted, the winter was of great inclemency, many died from starvation and exposure.
Terrible indeed had been the vengeance of the Americans. Homeless and hungry, they realized now the full force of the blow they had received from the retaliating hands of the settlers. They now understood how false, cruel and worthless were the hopes and promises of their British and Tory instigators. Of those who fled from their desolated and destroyed homes on the Genesee but few returned, and of these some settled at places and reserva- tions west of that river. Many joined other tribes in the west and were severely defeated by General Wayne on the Maumee river in-1794, which thoroughly humbled the Indians of western New York and gave peace and security to the settlers of the Gene- see country. Sullivan's army returned to the foot of Seneca lake, substantially by the route he had come on September 20th. Here several smaller expeditions were sent out, one under Colonel Smith up the entire west side of Seneca lake; one under Colonel Wil- liam Butler of Pennsylvania up the east shores of Cayuga lake. Their directions were to destroy all villages and houses of the Indians, and all of the corn, crops and fruit trees that could be found by these expeditions, kill and drive away all of the Indians living on the routes, and join the main army at Horseheads and Tioga. Both of these expeditions most successfully accomplished their objects.
THE CAMPAIGN "UP THE CHEMUNG."
On the 24th of September, 1779, General Sullivan arrived at Newtown, where he met Captain Reid with two hundred men, who had been sent forward with stores and cattle for the main army. From this point Colonel Spaulding, with a strong detach- ment, was sent up the Chemung river to drive out and kill the Indians found on that river and its tributaries, and destroy all the corn, erops, cattle and houses there found. He found numer- ous bodies of Indians, who fled from his approach and so escaped. At a place above Horseheads the Indians made a stand at a place called the Narrows, formed by high ledges of rocks, where they were attacked by the Americans, who killed them in great num- bers. The Indians threw their dead into the river and escaped the best way they could.
General John S. Clark, who has given much study and at- tention to Sullivan's campaigns, as well as to the Indian an- tiquities of this state, and is regarded as the superior authority, very thoroughly believes and is satisfied that there were three
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villages destroyed on the Chemung river above Elmira; one at or near Big Flatts, another within the present limits of the city of Corning, and the third at Painted Post. This last place, accord- ing to accounts, was a considerable village as early as 1764, a town called Assinnissink, at the confluence of the Canisteo and Tioga rivers. It was the residence of Jacheabus, the leader of the war party of the Senecas, who committed the massacre of the Mahoney in 1755. The exact location of this more ancient town is some- what uncertain. 'The Pennsylvania historical map places it in the forks of the two rivers in the town of Erwin, near the junc- tion of the Canisteo and Tioga rivers. On the Townsend farm here is an ancient Indian burying ground, which probably be- longed to the period of the Indian occupation above noted. We do not know of any other authority for the Tory settlement than above referred to. Such a collection of Indian and British traders and marauders of this sort may have existed here at the time of the Sullivan invasion, and been so completely destroyed as to leave no trace of it at the time of the first settlement. There can be no doubt but that some one or all of these detachments sent up the Chemung penetrated this county as far as the confluence of the three rivers-Tioga, Canisteo and Cohocton, which unite to form the Chemung-and completely destroyed everything in the shape of buildings, cornfields and orchards that was in the invaded territory. The only Indian orchard standing when the first settlers came was on an island near the small station on the Erie Railroad about two miles above Painted Post.
In the past few years somewhat acrimonious contentions have been had relating to the detachment of troops sent up the Che- mung river by Sullivan. Nothing can be found in the official re- ports or military records of the expedition of these affairs, except one which recites the destruction of an Indian village at or near Painted Post. Adolescent chroniclers and newspaper contributors have declared that no battle or engagement took place within the limits of this county during the Sullivan campaign, that the ex- peditions were but holiday excursions or a picnic function. Well attested tradition (what is history but recorded tradition ?) asserts that an engagement was had with the Indians by a detachment from Sullivan's force on the Chemung at the mouth of a little creek, since called Bloody run, two and a half miles below the city of Corning, on September 28, 1779. A well-known, reliable and credible resident of that vicinity says the place was indicated in the year 1814 by seven large oak trees that stood near the high- way. On three of these trees were the hieroglyphical representa- tions of Indians with tomahawks drawn. On four of the trees there was carved the representation of soldiers with guns in their hands. These were considered by the earliest settlers as a record of this engagement.
There is no doubt that links in the chain in the history of Sullivan's campaign, as of others, have been lost, and have re- mained unsupplied to this day; consequently we must rely on the statements of those old patriots who are gone, and much of the .story of the engagement is buried with them. They are gone but not forgotten. They need no statue or inscription to record their
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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
greatness; their deeds are living monuments more lasting than tablets of marble or bronze.
ENGAGEMENT AT BLOODY RUN.
Belonging to the detachment that Sullivan sent up the Che- mung river were Lieutenant Nathan Dascum, William Mapes and Abijah Ward, who have left a verbal history of the engagement that took place at Bloody run, and they all agree as to location and details of the fight. Lieutenant Dascum lived at Geneva and died at Big Flatts in 1840. In 1835, on a visit to his daughter at Painted Post, he expressed a wish to visit the field of battle of Bloody run, where he had met the Indians and Tories in deadly strife fifty-six years before. His grandson, Mr. Calvin Lovell, went with him and the old patriot and soldier of other days pointed out to this grandchild the position and exact ground oc- cupied by the Americans, as well as the location of the Indians and Tories, behind a swamp covered with bushes and small trees. Mr. Lovell told these facts to his listeners and the recital was of thrilling interest and information to all present.
The Lieutenant said the Americans fired over the bushes, the Indians falling back and taking a position on the side of the hill. After the battle the Americans crossed the river and followed up the west side until they came to a fording place, there recrossed and joined a detachment that went up the east side of the river. Uniting they went west as far as the Switch Flatts, near the Fox and Weston sawmills, the old veteran pointing out the identical spot where they encamped. Mapes, another of this detachment, corroborates Dascum's account of the battle and what took place subsequently, and their stories agree as closely as two relations of such an event could; and both are almost identical with Abijah Ward's statement, though each was made several months apart.
Abijah Ward was well known and respected at Painted Post, where he died about seventy years ago. William Mapes had served in the Continental army, and was an intelligent and truthful man. His memory relating to Revolutionary events was truly wonderful. Mr. Mapes states on his personal recollection, but is not in this corroborated, that one of the twelve Indians shot in the fight at Bloody run was a chief; that he had on a red calico shirt and was in the act of jumping over a log when hit by a rifle ball; that he was taken with other wounded Indians to Painted Post; that he died on the way; that he was buried at Painted Post, and that this chief was the halfbreed, Captain Andrew Mon- tour. This he learned from an Indian prisoner.
DEATH OF ANDREW MONTOUR.
One fact is well established, Captain Montour, the noted half- breed Indian chief, was killed, the result of wounds received in one of the numerous skirmishes during Sullivan's campaign; where, is unsettled, although the most reliable traditionary ac- counts say it was in the valley of the Chemung river. It could not have been on the west branch of the Susquehanna, because neither Sullivan's army nor any of its detached parties went into that region; so that legend must be dismissed. Had the northwest branch of the Susquehanna been named in the narrative much more
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attention would be given, because the Chemung river and its trib- utaries were, in early histories and other accounts, frequently called the Northwest branch. Montour's death did not result from wounds received at the battle of the Hog Back. That was fought before the engagement at Newtown, when Sullivan was advance- ing into the Indian country. Colonel Spaulding's force was sent up the Chemung to destroy the dwellings and crops there found. The affair at Bloody run occurred on the march of this expedition, and participants who took part in and who witnessed the events of that day are positive that an Indian chief was shot in that en- gagement. They tell how he was dressed, that the same chief was buried at Painted Post, and that he was Captain Montour.
New, interesting and unimpeached journals, letters and nar- ratives of the Revolutionary times are daily being brought to light, long thoughtlessly laid away and lost to memory, but of intense and unknown interest. American history is not a closed and sealed book. The centennial periods of Burgoyne's invasion, Sullivan's campaign, of Oriskany and Bennington have brought forth and exposed to modern investigation many new facts and incidents, somewhat blurring and making doubtful recorded statements. The chief value of centennial observances is to brush away the cob- webs of error, born of alleged respectability. No subject needs more overhauling, correction and revision than that of American history. We shall claim and assert as true and established facts, that a battle was fought in September, 1779, between the Ameri- can troops from Sullivan's army with the Indians and Tories at Bloody run, in the present town of Corning, Steuben county, New York, and that in the engagement named Captain Montour, a half- breed Indian chief, was so severely wounded that he died the next day and was buried at Painted Post. The fact that his warlike and martial career began in the expedition against and the de- struction of the ancient Ken-is-tio and that his burial occurred at Painted Post, both in Steuben county, added to the fact that he had the blood of the noblest, proudest and bravest of France in his veins, adds historic distinction to the territory and to the an- nals of Steuben county, and he should be honored as one who dis- charged his duty faithfully, as seemed to him right and just. Our love for and loyalty to tradition makes it our honor and duty to perpetuate the closing events of this memorable and far-reaching campaign.
Because Andrew Montour was a conspicuous person in his time and a type of his class he merits a passing notice. He was the reputed grandson of the ablest French governor of Canada and an Indian squaw. His halfbreed mother, Catherine Montour, was a native of Canada, where she was carried off by the Iroquois when a child and adopted. She lived in a village at the head of Seneca lake and always held the belief that Christ was a French- man crucified by the English-a belief inculcated by the guides of her youth. Her son, Andrew Montour, is thus described by the Moravian Zenzendorf, who knew him: "His face is like that of a European, but marked with a broad Indian ring of bear's grease and paint, drawn completely around it. He wears a coat of fine cloth of crimson color, a black necktie with silver spangles, a red satin waistcoat, trousers over which hangs his shirt, shoes Vol. I-4
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and stockings, a hat, with brass ornaments-something like the handle of a basket suspended from his ears. He is an excellent interpreter and held in high account by his Indian kinsmen."
The Indians fled by the trail up the Cohocton river and Can- andaigua lake to Fort Niagara, stopping at the head of Canan- daigua lake to pay their observances to the place of the birth of the Seneca Nation. On the 29th of September, 1779, the home- ward march of the whole of Sullivan's entire army was com- menced; it reached Easton, Pennsylvania, on the 15th of October and went into winter quarters.
FINALE OF THE SULLIVAN CAMPAIGN.
At the end of the campaign the intelligence of its success spread rapidly throughout the colonies and everywhere caused great rejoicing. The march through the enemy's country had been attended with great difficulties, and few armies have experienced a more fatiguing campaign. Yet the commander-in-chief was able to report that he had not suffered the loss of forty men during the whole time. He said that he felt much indebted to the officers of every rank for their unparalled exertions and to the soldiers for the unshaken firmness with which they endured the toils and difficulties attending the expedition; that it would have been very pleasing to the army to have drawn the enemy into a second engagement, but that so great was the panic which seized the In- dians after the Newtown battle he had found it impossible to do so.
FAR-REACHING RESULTS.
This expedition was the parent of great results in other ways than the subjection of the Indians. The fertile and rich country now forming the western part of the state of New York was then an unknown wilderness, and its value and attractiveness were first made known to the white people through this expedition. With Sullivan had come many who were resolved, when the war closed and opportunity would be given for the growth of new settle- ments in these beautiful and fertile regions, to make their future homes therein. At the first opportunity emigrants passed through the valleys of the Mohawk, of the Susquehanna and its tributaries, and of its interior lakes, delighted every mile with the beautiful prospects that surrounded, until arriving at the valleys of the Genesee they realized their highest hopes and expectations. Soon after the close of the war the tide of emigration commenced to flow westward. From all the eastern states, Pennsylvania and New Jersey came hardy pioneers, induced by the glowing ac- counts they had heard of the Indian country. The road which the troops had opened from the Susquehanna valley was followed by many settlers to the valley of the Genesee, of the Chemung, the Canisteo, the Cohocton, and of the many unsurpassed lakes. Un- der the hand of industry, enterprise and intelligence it has be- come literally the pride of the Union, where nature rewards abun- dantly the labors of the husbandman and provides happy and use- ful homes for the farmer and the denizens of scores of populous cities and villages.
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HOW STEUBEN COUNTY FIGURES.
Steuben county, during the period of Sullivan's invasion, was no neutral ground. First, its surface was an unbroken moun- tain forest, through which important trails followed its numerous rivers and creeks, affording the most direet route by trail or water to and from the north and south, from the east and west. Within its limits was the ineeption and gathering of the first murderous incursion of the Wyoming country by Indians and Tories; this was in the town of Hornellsville. The result was Sullivan's vie- torious march to the Genesee and the land of the Seneeas. Within this county, in the town of Corning, was fought the last battle of this campaign, at Bloody run; and within the town of Erwin, Painted Post, the last Indian village was burned and destroyed by the detachment commanded by Colonel Spaulding, the dis- mayed and surviving inhabitants fleeing to the only refuge for them-Fort Niagara -- by the nearest routes and trails. The space given to the early history is merited and deserved. -
Important and far-reaching events oeeurred within the bor- ders of this eounty, before and during the French war, that ended in the passing of Canada to the English, and were carefully watehed and well known at Niagara. During and until the elose of the American Revolution it was the theater of stirring events, which ought not to pass unnoticed or treated with dignified in- difference and contempt.
The faked march on and the battle of Dansville, the strikes at Hornellsville and the "anti-rent" outbreak and demonstrations in Fremont and Howard were not the only armed military events of this eounty worthy of a place in its alleged history.
CHAPTER III.
NATION RECOGNIZED AND ESTABLISHED.
AMERICAN INDIAN POLICY-NEW YORK AND THE SIX NATIONS COUNCIL- CLASH BETWEEN STATE AND NATION -- COUNCIL AT FORT HERKIMER-LAND COMPANIES COMPLICATE MATTERS- ... ATTEMPT TO. DISMEMBER STATE-FORT SCHUYLER TREATY- THE ALBANY: INDIAN COUNCIL .- FIRST ADVOCATE FOR AMERI- CAN WOMEN-THE INDIANS' PERPLEXITY-THE RED MAN'S CROWNING CURSE- FAIR LAND OPEN TO SETTLEMENT.
The provisional articles to perpetuate peace and harmony be- tween Great Britain and the United States were signed at Paris on November 30, 1782; formally closed the Revolution, and preceded the definitive treaty of peace between the two countries, concluded at Paris, September 3, 1783. It was ratified by congress and pro- claimed January 14, 1784, and made the United States one of the great family of nations of the earth. By this treaty Great Britain acknowledged the United States to be a free, sovereign and inde- pendent nation, treated with it as such, and forever relinquished all claim to the proprietory and territorial rights of the government and every part thereof.
AMERICAN INDIAN POLICY.
At the close of the Revolutionary war the Indian allies of the English were cruelly and ungratefully deserted, and left unprovided and uncared for by the power whom they had so long and faithfully obeyed and served. The United States and the several states, on the contrary, as a general rule were disposed to treat them with greater charity, leniency and kindness than the laws of war and the usages of civilized nations recognized or required; regarded them, in fact, as subjects to be treated with for the purchase of their lands, rec- ognizing and adhering to the position taken by the early English colonists, that the Indians were the possessors and owners of the country, subject to acquisition only by purchase or treaty. The country, and the world at large, has good reason to approve this policy, both on the score of economy and humanity; that wise and liberal policy was adhered to in the state of New York, in extin- guishing and acquiring the Indian title to lands within its borders. It was an example to foreign nations of an advanced step in civiliza- tion-a step truly American, which was carly adopted by the Federal government in acquiring the land of the Indians in the western
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