USA > New York > Erie County > Buffalo > An authentic and comprehensive history of Buffalo : with some account of its early inhabitants, both savage and civilized ; comprising historic notices of the Six Nations or Iroquois Indians, including a sketch of the life of Sir William Johnson, and of other prominent white men, long resident among the Senecas ; arranged in chronologial order > Part 5
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Efforts were still made to disaffect the Indians, in re- gard to this sale of their lands, and Cornplanter was made the instrument to excite dissatisfaction among them, par- ticularly the Senecas. But all the complaints were met, and satisfactorily explained, after a full examination into all the facts alleged by Cornplanter, by the Federal gov- ernment, completely exhonerating Mr. Phelps from the charges and complaints brought by the disaffected party among the Indians.
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HISTORY OF BUFFALO.
It was in 1789 that the first settlements were made upon the Phelps and Gorham tract, and the old residence of the Senecas at Boughton Hill was among the first localities settled by the whites. By the end of 1790, fifty townships had been sold, mostly by townships, to companies formed in New England for emigration and settlement, and in November, 1790, they sold nearly all the residue of their lands, amounting to upwards of a million and a quarter of acres, to Mr. Robert Morris, of Philadelphia ; who, in 1792, sold it to Sir William Pult- ney, an English gentleman, who appointed Capt. Charles Williamson his resident agent, to superintend the sale of his lands ; hence the name " Pultney Estate."
Capt. Williamson was a gentleman of education and culture, of large and liberal views. He located himself at Bath, Steuben county ; and by his enterprise, intelli- gence and liberality, contributed largely to the successful settlement and improvement of Western New York.
As the Indians had sold all their lands, except their reservations, at the treaty of Buffalo Creek in 1788, no further negotiation was necessary with them; and the State of Massachusetts, in 1791, sold to Samuel Ogden, who was acting as the agent of Robert Morris, all the lands ceded to said State by the State of New York, ex- cept that heretofore conveyed to Phelps and Gorham. Mr. Morris sold, in 1792-3, to Herman Leroy and others, for parties residing in Holland, (who, being aliens, could not hold real estate in their own names, under our laws) four different tracts of land, described in four separate deeds of conveyance, including the land upon which the city of Buffalo stands. This sale by Robert Morris to the Holland Land Company, being made before the Indian
59
HOLLAND LAND COMPANY'S PURCHASE.
title was extinguished, it was stipulated by Mr. Morris. to assist the Company to extinguish the Indian title as soon as practicable.
A council was accordingly held with the Senecas, at Geneseo, in 1797, and the Indian title extinguished to all the lands the pre-emption right of which had been. purchased of Massachusetts, except the following reser- vations : At Canawagus, two square miles ; Big Tree Reservation and Little Beard's Town, together containing four square miles ; Squawkie Hill Reservation, two square miles ; Gardeau Reservation, about twenty-eight square miles ; Canadea Reservation, containing sixteen miles square, lying upon both sides of the Genesee River, and extending eight miles along the Genesee River in the county of Alleghany ; the Oil Spring Res- ervation, containing one square mile, lying on the line between Alleghany and Cattaraugus counties ; the Alle- ghany Reservation, containing forty-two square miles ; the Cattaraugus Reservation, containing forty-two square miles ; the Tonawanda Reservation, containing seventy square miles ; and the Tuscarora Reservation, contain- ing one square mile, lying about one mile east of Lewis- ton, on the Mountain Ridge ; the Buffalo Creek Reser- vation, containing one hundred and thirty square miles -- these reservations containing in all three hundred and thirty-eight square miles, a liberal provision for the com- paratively small remnant of the Six Nations then re- maining in this State.
Mr. Joseph Ellicot had been appointed as principal sur- veyor of the Holland Company by Mr. Theophilus Caze- nove, the agent general of the Company, resident at Philadelphia, to survey their lands in Western New
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HISTORY OF BUFFALO.
York as soon as the title should be perfected, and to as- sist Messrs. Bayard and Linklaen, who were to attend at the treaty.
Mr. Ellicott accordingly attended the treaty, and ren- dered important service to the purchasers. After the treaty was perfected, Mr. Ellicott, as surveyor for the Holland Land Company, and Mr. Augustus Porter for Robert Morris, entered upon a survey of the tract, for the purpose of ascertaining the quantity of land it con- tained. This preliminary survey was completed before the winter set in of the same year.
The treaty of 1797, in which the Indian title to the Holland Purchase was extinguished, except to certain reservations, as before stated, prescribed the quantities contained in and general shape and location of each res- ervation, leaving the location of the precise boundary lines to be determined thereafter. The Indians reserved two hundred thousand acres, one indefinite portion of which was to be located on Buffalo Creek, at the east end of Lake Erie, and the remainder at the Tonawanda Creek.
As the New York Reservation excluded the Holland Company's land from the waters of Niagara River, and from the shore of Lake Erie one mile southerly from the river, it became very important to the Company to se- cure a landing place and harbor at the mouth of Buffalo Creek, and sufficient ground adjoining, whereon to es- tablish a commercial village or city.
Capt. William Johnston, and Indian agent and inter- preter, settled himself near the mouth of Buffalo Creek at an early period, under the auspices of the British gov- ernment, and remained here until the Holland Com.
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WILLIAM JOHNSTON.
pany had effected their purchase. ITis dwelling house stood north of Exchange and east of Washington streets. Capt. Johnston had procured of the Indians, by gift to his son, by a niece of Farmers Brother, of two square miles of land at the inouth of Buffalo Creek, including the territory on which now stands the city of Buffalo. He had also entered into an agreement with the Indians which amounted to a life lease of a certain mill site, and the timber land in its vicinity, on condition of supplying the Indians with all the boards and plank they wanted for building at, and near Buffalo Creek. This site was about. six miles from the mouth of the Creek. Although John- ston's title to this land was not considered to have the least validity in law, yet the Indians had the power, and they manifested an inclination to include it within their reservation, unless a compromise was made with John- ston ; and taking into consideration his influence with them, the agents of the Hodan . on any concluded to enter into the following agreement with him, which was afterwards fully complied with, and performed by both parties. Johnston agreed to surrender his right to the said two square miles of land, and use his influence with the Indians to have that tract and his mill site left out of their reservation ; in consideration of which, the Holland Company agreed to convey by deed to said Johnston, six hundred and forty acres, including the said mill site and adjacent timber lands ; together with forty-five and a half acres, being part of said two square miles, inclu- ding the buildings and improvements then owned by said Johnston, four acres of which was to be on the " point." These lands, as they were afterwards definitely located, were, a tract of forty-one and a half acres, bounded north
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HISTORY OF BUFFALO.
by Seneca street, west by Washington street, and south by the Little Buffalo Creek. The other tract was bound- ed east by main street, southwesterly by Buffalo Creek, and northwesterly by Little Buffalo Creek, containing about four acres."*
.
Johnston's house was located upon the forty acre lot called outer lot ninety-four in the original survey, near a spring. This spring was ultimately purchased by Mr. Le Couteulx, or a lot embracing the spring, the lot running diagonally across Exchange street to the Little Buffalo Creek, now the Hamburgh Canal.
*Turner's History of the Holland Purchase.
NOTE .- Since the publication of the first volume of this work, the au- thor has visited an aged lady, a sister of the late Col. Warren of Fort Erie, for the purpose of obtaining more authentic information in regard to Capt. William Johnston. She says he was a half brother of Col. Powell, who after the close of the Revolutionary war, resided on the Niagara River below Fort Erie. The mother of Col. Powell married a Col. John- ston, and William Johnston was a son by this connection, and was an officer under the British government. Col. Powell died at an advanced age, a few miles from Fort Erie. It is probable that the Capt. Powell ยท spoken of in the "Narrative of the Gilbert Family," who married Miss Jane Moore, and the Col. Powell spoken of by Mrs. Hardison, the aged sister of Col. Warren spoken of above, is the same individual, and the house of Capt. Powell mentioned in the journal of Col. Proctor in 1791, was at the place it is said by Mrs. Hardison Col. Powell resided.
CHAPTER IV.
ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF BUFFALO.
The following in regard to the origin of the name of "Buffalo," is the substance of a paper read before the Buffalo Historical Society in 1863, by the author, and it is believed contains the principal evidences upon which the theory of the origin of the name of Buffalo rests, and although at the time it was attempted to be assailed or controverted, those attempts failed to invalidate any of the testimony adduced, but served rather to strengthen the now generally received opinion that " Buffalo Creek " was so called from the fact of the visits of the buffalo to the well known salt spring, about three miles from the city, upon its border.
It is well known that when the agents of the "Holland Company " first surveyed the land upon which our city stands, into village lots in 1801-2, they gave it the name of "New Amsterdam." But there is no evidence that this name enjoyed popular favor, or was in general use. The Company continued to use it in their conveyances of lots until 1811 or 1812, when it was dropped, and the name of Buffalo substituted.
" Buffalo Creek " had been the name by which this lo- cality was known and designated from a period certainly as early as 1784, as it is used in the treaty made with the
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HISTORY OF BUFFALO.
"Six Nations " at Fort Stanwix in that year. It is prob- able it was known by that name mnuch earlier than this, perhaps from the first settlement by the Senecas, which it is likely did not take place until after Sullivan's expe- dition in 1779. The name is mentioned in the "Narra- tive of the Captivity of the Gilbert family," prisoners among the Senecas in 1780 or 1782. Besides the treaty of 1784, already named, it is called Buffalo Creek in a treaty held with the "Six Nations " in 1789, and again in the treaty at Canandaigua in 1794.
By an act of the Legislature of this State, passed March 19th, 1802, a treaty was authorized to be held with the Indians for the purchase of the " Mile Strip " on the Ni- agara river from " Buffaloes Creek " to the Steadman Farm-and in 1803 an act passed by the Legislature of this State, April 6th, guaranteeing to Indians of the Six Nations the right to pass and repass upon any turnpike road which may hereafter be established from the town of Canandaigua to Buffalo Creek or its vicinity.
In 1805 Congress established a Collection District, to be called the District of " Buffalo Creek," the Collector of said district to reside at "Buffalo Creek." Erastus Granger was the first resident Collector of Customs. Gen- eral Irvine, of Pennsylvania, had been appointed the first Surveyor of Customs when this place was included in the District of Presque Isle, now Erie.
The name of " Buffalo," which was evidently derived from the name of the Creek, was used to designate the settlement here quite early. In a letter of General Irvine to Gen. Washington in 1788, this place is spoken of as "Buffalo." I have found no other record of the name as early as this, and was led for that reason to doubt the cor-
65
ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF BUFFALO.
rectness of the copy of the letter as given in the Histori- cal Magazine of February, 1863, and I wrote Dr. W. H. Irvine, who furnished it for publication. The following is his answer :
"It is now some forty odd years since I made the copy of the letter to which you refer, and I cannot say that I committed no error in transcribing from the original, but think I must have made a literal copy. I certainly could not have manufactured the remarks in which the word " Buffalo " occurs.
"Gen. Irvine, from his having commanded the western department from 1781 to 1783, and engaged in the de- fence of the frontier, must have been familiar with all the names of localities in Western New York, you will note the expression is 'from Buffalo to Presque Isle,' the latter being the name of the present city of Erie. Presque Isle was then in the State of New York."
And Mr. Irvine adds :
"And to his (Gen. Irvine's) address, our State is indebt- ed for the acquisition of the triangle, or Erie county."
Mr. B. W. Pratt, now living, with whom I have re- cently conversed on the subject, and whose recollections seem to be very clear and distinct, says that when his father, Mr Samuel Pratt, returned to Vermont from a visit to this place, in 1803, he called it Buffalo. They were to remove to " Buffalo," and did so, arriving here in 1804.
Our Legislative records show that, as early as 1772, the State (then a Colony) was divided into counties, and the whole western part of the State was included in "Tryon county," after Governor Tryon the last of the Royal Governors.
5
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HISTORY OF BUFFALO.
In 1784 the name was changed to "Montgomery county," after General Richard Montgomery, and in 1801 the county of Ontario was organized. The boun- dary extended west to the State line, and all that part of the county west of the Genesee river was organized into a town, by the name of " Northampton," a pretty exten- sive town, truly.
In 1802 the county of Ontario was again divided, and the county of Genesee erected ; and in 1808 the county of Niagara was established, the court-house and jail to be built at " Buffalo or New Amsterdam."
By the same act, the village of Buffalo was included in the town of Willink, which bounded west on the Cattar- augus creek. In 1808 the town of Buffalo was erected, extending easterly to what is known as the " transit line," and in 1813 the village of Buffalo received its first char- ter.
I have been perhaps needlessly particular in mention- ing all these changes in the names and boundaries of the towns and counties in Western New York, as they are all matters of record. But as facts, they are not familiar even to those most conversant with our early history, and serve better than almost anything else, to show the great change and rapid improvment which has taken place within the recollection of some who are now living. I trust I shall be excused therefore for referring to them in this place, and at this time. Professor Timothy Dwight, who visited Buffalo in 1804, speaks of the then poulation thus :
"The inhabitants are a casual collection of adventu- rers, and have the usual character of such adventurers thus collected, when remote from regular society. We
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ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF BUFFALO.
saw about as many Indians in this village as white peo- ple."
A misapprehension prevails to some extent in regard to the Indian names as applied to this locality, which had better be explained before entering upon the main question, as it may serve to disencumber the subject be- fore us, of what has embarrassed the minds of some who have supposed they discovered what appeared to be mis- takes or contradictions.
The Indians applied the name "Te-osah-way," or in our language, "Place of Basswood," to their settlement or village, and "Tick-e-ack-gou-ga-haunda," or " Buffalo creek," to the the stream only.
The supposed discrepancy between "Te-osah-way " and "Te-hos-ororon " consists in the fact, that the former is the Seneca, and the latter the Mohawk pronunciation of the same word. So also in regard to what has been suggested to be a mistake of the scribe, or interpreter, in using the name " Buffalo creek " instead of "Beaver creek " in the treaty with the Six Nations at Fort Stan- wix in 1784, and in other public records, between that time and 1790, when Corn Planter is said to have on one occasion called it " Beaver creek." It is much more reasonable to suppose the mistake was made in the in- terpretation of Corn Planter's speech for this reason : The name of the Beaver and the Buffalo, in the Seneca tongue, have precisely the same termination, and might by an unskillful or inattentive interpreter, be mistaken, one for the other. Buffalo is " Tick-e-ack-gou," and Bea- ver is " Ack-gon-e-ack-gou." Here, undoubtedly was the mistake, and not in the treaties, and other public records, where the name "Buffalo creek " is uniformly
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HISTORY OF BUFFALO.
used. I never heard the name " Beaver creek " applied to this stream, in an intercourse of more than twenty five years with the Senecas.
In the opening address of the IIon. President of this Society last year, the origin of the name our city bears, was made the subject of discussion, and doubts were ex- pressed in regard to the theory entertained that it was derived from the supposed fact, that the Buffalo, or American Bison, formerly visited this locality. These doubts were expressed in the following language :
"I have never seen any reliable statement that the buffalo, in his wild state, was ever found in Western New York. I believe that his native haunt was in the great prairies of the West, and nowhere else on this continent."
An article which appeared in the Historical Magazine for December, 1862, remarking upon these observations, the writer cites a number of authorities to show that the buffalo not only once lived in the western part of this State, in Ohio, Kentucky and Virginia, but ranged over nearly the whole of the North American Continent. Another writer in the January number of the same mag- azine throws doubt upon all the authorities quoted by the December correspondent, and agrees with Mr. Fillmore, and says :
" From all my reading, I had concluded that the Bison was not found in the lake region, and never as far west (east) as (the State of ) New York."
It is, perhaps, not surprising that the general reader of the early " French Relations " should find very little to instruct or enlighten, either in matter of science or natu- ral history. The mission of the early Jesuit writers was of a different character, and embraced far different ob-
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ORIGIN OF THIE NAME OF BUFFALO.
jects, and if we find occasional errors of fact, and some- times more than discrepancies of statement in regard to their peculiar purposes and pursuits, it should not go to in- validate their statements in regard to matters of entire indifference. It will not escape the attentive reader of these early writers that there existed a feeling, to say the least of it, of rivalry between the Franciscans, who were the earliest missionaries to the new world, and the Jesuits, who followed them, and ultimately supplanted them altogether. Nor should it be forgotten that the self de- denying labors of these men were made available by the French Government, for political purposes, and their in- fluence was a real " power in the State."
The question as to the origin of the name of our city engaged the public attention at a foriner period of our history. Nearly twenty years ago, an annonymous com- munication appeared in the Commercial Advertiser, then edited by the late Dr. Foote. The following is a copy :
" MR. EDITOR :- I understand the Indian name of Buffalo creek is To-sa-o-way. Will some of your Indian philological correspondents give us the meaning of the word ? I should be happy also to know the origin of the present name of our city."
This inquiry thus made, called out several replies in the papers then published, all anonymous ; one in the Daily Pilot was as follows :
" The name of the Big Buffalo creek, and the point of land where our city is built, in the Seneca tongue, is Do- yo-wa, pronounced Do so-wa, signifying the place of Bass- wood, on account of the great quantity of that tree in the vicinity. Sometimes it is pronounced Do-sha-ho, d taking the sound of t. Yon are undoubtedly familiar with the
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HISTORY OF BUFFALO.
anecdote relating to the " Buffalo Meat," from which the name of the city arises.
"OGEMA."
Another communication, dated Buffalo Creek Reserva- tion, appeared in the Commercial Advertiser, at the same time, which is as follows :
"In reply to the inquiries of your correspondent Q, in your paper of June 26th, permit me to say that the old Indians tell us that the banks of Buffalo creek, for some distance from its mouth, were anciently lined with bass- wood trees, hence the name Ti-yu syo-wa, with the last vowel nasalized, which means, "at the place of bass- woods," or as our venerable ex-President Van Buren has it, at "Lindenwold." As to the origin of the name " Buffalo," I am as much in the dark as your correspond- ent.
"GA-I-WI-U."
Another communication to the Commercial Advertiser was published about the same date, from which the fol- lowing is an extract :
"Taking it for granted that the inquiry as to the origin and meaning of the name Tu-shu-way, was made with a desire for information, I cheerfully contribute what little I pos- sess to throw light , upon the early history of our city, connected as it is with history of a noble race, fast sink. ing into oblivion, and whose unwritten history lingers only in the recollection of a few survivors of the once powerful 'Six Nations.' Although the different tribes composing that great confederacy spoke different dialects, it is evident they sprang from the same original source.
" Hence it is not unlikely that the names of places giv- en by former tribes, may have been retained by the Sen- ecas, and thus their original signification lost.
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ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF BUFFALO.
"The occupation or settlement of Buffalo by the Sen- ecas, is of comparatively recent date. The Indian tradi- tion is that the Eries, a powerful and warlike nation who resided upon the south shore of our lakes, with other con- federate tribes here, and on the Eighteen Mile and perhaps Cattaraugus creeks were overthrown by a numerous war party of the Six Nations, in a great battle fought at, or near the outlet of the Honeyoye lake in (now) Ontario county. The flight of the Eries and their allies immedi- etely followed. They were pursued by the victorious warriors of the Six Nations, for five months, and were driven beyond the Mississippi.
" The occupation of this locality by the Senecas, fol- lowed these events.
" When they arrived here they found huts, or houses, covered with basswood bark. This tree has the peculiar- ity of being easily peeled at all seasons of the year, and the wood was used for canoes, and on these accounts it assumed an importance in the eyes of the aboriginal set- tler, equal to that of a stone quarry or an extensive pinery to the pioneers of our early settlements in more civilized life. This to them, important characteristic, was seized upon and probably stood prominent among the inducements to imigrate hither.
"The name Te-osah-way, is a compound word signifi- cant of this fact. It is not literally osah, basswood, nor cush-nah, bark, as some contend, but Te osah-way that is, where basswood is, or the place of basswood.1;
" The Senecas were conversant with" the fact, that the Buffalo formerly visited the "salt lick " or spring, on the bank of the creek in this vicinity, and hence they called Buffalo creek Tick-e-ack-gou-ga-haunda, and Buffalo vil-
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HISTORY OF BUFFALO ..
lage Tick-e-ack-gou-ga. But Te-osah-way was the earlier designation, and probably originated in the name I have suggested. KI-EU-WA-NA."
A communication from "Q," the author of the original inquiry, appeared in the Commercial Advertiser, soon after the publication of the foregoing, from which I make the following extracts :
"MR. EDITOR :- I have been much interested in the re- spective attempts of my brothers, Ogema, Ki eu-wa-na and Ga-i-wi-u to throw light in answer to my inquiry upon the meaning of the Indian name of Buffalo Creek, written by me To-se-o-way ; that being the designation upon Joseph and Benjamin Ellicott's map of the Hol- land purchase, published in 1800.
" Although my brothers do not quite agree in their orthography, there seems to be no essential difference between them. The word as written by Ga-i-wi-u is Ti- you-seo-wa which orthography I prefer to that of Tu-shu- way or Do-yo-wa. The former when properly pronounc- ed, has the sonorous and musical pronunciation of the Seneca tongue.
"Ogema and Ki-eu-wa-na who are independent wit- nesses, have undoubtedly arrived at the true meaning of the word which has reference to the basswood, which has formerly lined the banks of the creek. The primitive meaning is "among the basswoods."
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