USA > New York > Oneida County > Annals and recollections of Oneida County > Part 54
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On the 20th of June, 1818, a council from the Baptist churches of Whitestown, Westmoreland, Western and Vero- na, gave this body fellowship as a church in gospel order. It consisted of forty-eight members, twenty-two males and twen- ty-six females. In 1819, they erected a small but convenient house for public worship. The church was prosperous and united for the first seventeen years after its formation. In 1836, an unfortunate division occurred, from a difference in theological views. The division was mutual, the aggrieved members retiring and organizing the Old School Baptist church. Since then, this body has enjoyed a good degree of harmony and unanimity of sentiment. Since its organization 437 members have been connected with this church, 261 by baptism and 176 by letter. It now numbers about 100 com- municants. For the first eight years and a half it had no pas- tor, but was supplied with preaching, a part of the time, by Elders Philco, Douglass, and Hearsey. Elder Caleb Read took the pastoral charge in the spring of 1826, and remained
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seven years. He was succeeded in the spring of 1833, by Elder Amos P. Draper, who preached three years. In the fall of 1836, Elder John Ormsby took the charge and con- tinued until the spring of 1838. In the spring of 1838, El- der C. Read resumed the pastorate, and continued two years. In the spring of 1840, Elder Denison Alcott assum- ed the charge, and continued for nine years. John M. Shot- well, a licentiate, preached from the spring of 1849 until the spring of 1850. Four members of this church have been licensed preachers, two of whom, James Bicknell and Amos P. Draper, were ordained.
Old School Baptist Church .- As mentioned in the histo- ry of the Second Baptist Church, a portion of that body, by mutual consent, retired, and formed this church, March 5th, 1836. It numbered at that time about seventy members. Elder James Bicknell, who had been previously ordained, left with them, and became their pastor. In 1838, the church and society built a house for public worship, forty by fifty-six feet. It is finished in a neat, plain, yet substantial manner. Elder Bicknell still continues their pastor. The point in doctrine distinguishing them from the church they left is "particular atonement," and it is still all that severs them from the great body of the Baptist denomination. This church has ever been flourishing, receiving considerable additions, still the removals to other parts have been such, that in numbers it is but little larger than when first formed, it has now between seventy and eighty members. Their house of worship is about one and a half miles north of the second church. These bodies have had considerable addi- tions this winter (1850 and 1851).
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BIOGRAPHIY.
James Dean, the first settler of Westmoreland, was born at Groton, Connecticut, in the month of August, 1748. Of his early youth nothing is known, excepting that he was destined as a missionary to the Indians, and at the age of twelve years was sent to reside at Oquago on the Susquehanna, with an Indian missionary, named Mosely, who was then laboring with a branch of the Oneida tribe, located at that place. He soon became master of the Oneida tongue, and was adopted by a female native as her son. To this mother he ever man- ifested an ardent attachment. His acquisition of this lan- guage was of great use to him and his country in after life. Learning it when thus young, while the organs of speech were flexible. he was enabled to speak the language most. fluently. The Oneidas said he was the only white person whom they had ever known, who could speak their language so perfectly that they could not at once detect him, although he might be hid from view, but him they could not detect. How long he resided in Oquago is unknown, but in those few years, under the instruction of Mr. Mosely, he fitted himself to enter college. He was a member of the first class which formed and graduated at Dartmouth. His freshman year in that institution, was before the completion of a building for the use of the students, and the class used to study and re- cite in a rude shelter, formed by placing slabs against the trunk of a large prostrate pine. In this poor apology for a college dormitory, young Mr. Dean studied and slept the first summer he spent in his collegiate course. He graduated just previously to the commencement of the war of the Rev- olution.
In 1774, the leading citizens of each colony were endeav- oring to ascertain the sentiments of all classes of people, rela-
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tive to the portending contest; and the peculiar fitness and qualifications of Mr. Dean, recommended him to the conti- mental Congress, then just assembled, as a suitable person to ascertain those of the Indians in New York and Canada, and the part they would probably take in the event of a war with the mother country. In order to disguise the object of his mission, it was arranged that he should assume the character of an Indian trader, and he was accordingly furnished with such goods as were then carried into the Indian country for ยท the purposes of trade. IIe was also for that purpose furnish- ed with letters, invoices and other papers from a well known house in Boston, then engaged in the Indian trade. Thus fitted out, he commenced his expedition to the six nations, and their branches, and the tribes connected with them, living in Canada. In the course of his travels in Lower Canada, he was arrested by the British authorities as a spy, and taken to Quebec, where he underwent a most rigid examination. His self possession was equal to the crisis, and, aided by his pa- pers, he was enabled perfectly to quiet their sus picions, and was dismissed, they having been successfully overreached by but an inexperienced hand in the art of honorable dissimula- tion. It was during this expedition, thatthe subject of this notice first visited Oneida Castle, and for the first time trod upon the soil of Oneida County.
At the commencement of the war of the Revolution, Mr. Dean was retained in the public service, with the rank of ma- jor in the staff, as agent for Indian affairs and interpreter. The selection was most fortunate. He was stationed during most of the war at Fort Stanwix and Oncida Castle. His position was often a most trying one, although entirely de- void of opportunities for distinguishing himself or gathering laurels on the battle-field. This to the soldier is a cheerless position ; but as a true patriot, he remained at his post during
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the whole contest, rendering the most important services to his country. The New York Historical Society have ob- tained all of General Gates' papers, public and private, and among them are a number of manuscript letters from Mr. Dean, written during the eventful campaign of 1777, at Sar- atoga.
To give a specimen of his duties the following is related. Nicholas Sharp, long known to the early settlers of the coun- ty as " Saucy Nick," and as the worst Indian in the Oneida tribe, was during the whole contest true to the cause of the colonies, and one of the most active and reliable scouts in his nation. Shortly before the burning of Cherry Valley by the Indians and Tories, November 11th, 1778, Mr. Dean dis- patched Nicholas to Canada, to learn what he could of the designs and plans against the frontiers. By means now un- known, the scout ferreted out the whole plan of the expedi- tion against that devoted settlement, from the Canadian In- dians. The day fixed for the attack was so near, that it was necessary to make all haste to give the warning in time to save the place, and such was the celerity of Nicholas in re- turning to Oneida, that upon his arrival he was entirely ex- hausted, and for two or three days unable to walk. As no time was to be lost, Mr. Dean immediately dispatched Scan- andoa to give the timely warning to Col. Alden, the com- mandant at Cherry Valley. That officer unfitted by intem- perance for liis responsible position, heeded not the warning, believing that the severity of the season precluded the possi- bility of an attack. The inhabitants were therefore suffered to remain in their houses, and the gate of the fort left unfas- tened. On the very night named by Nicholas, Cherry Val- ley was burned, and the few of its inhabitants who escaped the tomahawk and scalping knife were carried into captivity. C'ol. Alden was among the slain.
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The great body of the Oneida tribe were induced by Mr. Dean, aided by Mr. Kirkland, to remain neutral, at least as far as appearances were concerned. In feeling, with a few exceptions, they were with the Americans, and some of them did good service at Oriskany, Stone Arabia and some other places.
The siege of Fort Stanwix, and the battle of Oriskany, oc- curred during an absence of Mr. Dean down the Mohawk. On his return with the command of General Arnold, intend- ed for the relief of the garrison, he passed the battle ground still strewn with the corpses of those who had fallen in the conflict, unburied where they fell. Such was the terrible ef- fluvia, the wind being in the west, that when he arrived at the eastern border of the field he held his handkerchief to his face, and put his horse to its utmost speed to gain the wind- ward side of that dreadful field, "where friend and foeman undistinguished lay festering."
At the close of the war, Mr. Dean was present at a feast given the Stockbridge Indians in Massachusetts. General Washington gave orders to one of the contractors at West Point to furnish the provisions. An ox weighing 1,100 pounds was barbacued for the occasion. The principal men in the vicinity were present. Mr. Dean and the Rev. Mr. Sergeant (missionary to the Stockbridge Indians, in this county) presided at the table. After the feast, the Indians performed the ceremony of burying the hatchet, as a token that war was past, also some other of their national ceremo- nies, for the gratification of their guests.
Mr. Dean, ever after the war enjoyed the confidence of the Oneida tribe. On the 30th of December, 1783, he sent letters, and an address from them, to the board of the mission- ary society in Scotland, asking that Mr. Kirkland should be continued as a missionary.
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In 1785, he was at Oneida, and received an address from the celebrated Brant, which he forwarded to Congress, re- questing among other things, that Col. James Monroe, Major Peter Schuyler and Mr. James Dean, would be present at a council and conference with the Shawnees and Cherokees, to be held at Buffalo Creek.
For his services, the Oneidas gave Mr. Dean a tract of land two miles square, the title to be confirmed and ratified by the state. This was probably in 1783. He chose for its location a tract upon the north side of Wood Creek, in the present town of Vienna. In the spring of 1784, he left Connecticut with Jedediah Phelps and Andrew Blanchard, in company, to commence the settlement of his land. The day of starting is not known, but they left Schenectady the 3d of May, and arrived at Wood Creek the 13th. Without knowing it, they undoubtedly passed Judge White, while he and his sons were engaged, upon the Shoemaker farm, in planting their erop of
corn. After Mr. Dean and his party arrived at Wood Creek, they built a log house and a shop for Mr. Phelps, who was a brass-founder and silver-smith, and intended to work for the Indians. During the summer they made a small clearing, and although now covered with a second growth of timber, it still retains its name of "Dean's place." In the spring of 1785, the place became inundated to such an extent, that for three weeks they were obliged to live in the garret of their log cabin, and for the purpose of cooking their meals, they de- seended from their loft into a canoe by a ladder, and then rowing to the shop, used the forge as their only fire-place above high water mark. On the subsiding of the water, the party were fully satisfied that the selection was an unfortu- nate one, and unfit for the commencement of a settlement. Mr. Dean stating this to the Indians, they agreed he might change the location to any point upon the west side of the
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"line of property " between Brothertown upon the Oriskany and Wood Creek. He selected his land so as to include the falls of the ercek, since known as Dean's Creek. To render such location certain, the survey, as appears from the descrip- tion of his patent, of the east line of the patent commenced in the creek, and thence run north and south, to the north and south bounds of the traet. He located his patent in the fall of 1785, and, as before stated, settled upon it in February, 1786. At this time he was unmarried, but in the fall of that year he visited Connecticut, and was married to Miss Lydia Camp on the 11th of October.
Mr. Dean's energies were now directed to clearing a farm, inducing settlers to remove to his patent, and in building mills for their accommodation. Success crowned his efforts, and it was but a few years before every lot offered for sale was " taken up " by an actual settler.
The incidents contained in the three following chapters oc- curred at about this period, and they are here transcribed as they were written out by the author and published a few years since in most of the papers of the county.
AN INCIDENT IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY.
Fifty years since the settlement of Dean's Patent, in the town of Westmoreland (then a significant name), was the "far west." Where is it now ? Almost at the foot of the Rocky Mountains ! Wonderful people these Yankees-these Americans ! What in the old world took almost as many centuries, has been accomplished in this brief space of time.
As every thing that tends to preserve from oblivion any
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traits of the savage character, as exhibited in the noble Oneidas, then the lords of this and the adjoining county of Madison, or the "hair-breadth escapes " of our first settlers, will be read with interest by the present, if not the rising generation, the writer has attempted to preserve one of those thrilling in- cidents with which those times were replete. "Truth is strange, stranger than fiction." The facts set forth in the fol- lowing incident can be vouched for, by a few living in this vicinity.
The Hon. James Dean was the pioneer settler of Oneida County ; he was the first Yankee who had the hardibood to commence a settlement west of the German Flats, on the Mo- hawk. While but a lad nine years old, he was sent by his father to reside with a branch of the Oneida tribe of Indians, then living at Oquago, on the Susquehanna. He soon learned their language, and became a favorite with the Indians. He was adopted as a son by a squaw, in the place of one she had lost in battle, and to this woman he ever afterwards gave the endearing appellation of inother. After a few years' resi- dence, his father took him home and finished his education at Dartmouth College.
About this time, the Oneidas broke up their settlement on the Susquehanna, and joined the main body of their tribc at Oneida Castle. The war of the Revolution now broke out, carrying with it many of the horrors of a civil war, added to the cruelty of the tomahawk and scalping knife of the savage, so freely used by the British on our defenceless frontier. Judge Dean was stationed, during the whole of the war, at the Oneida Castle and Fort Stanwix (now Rome), with the rank of Major, on account of the influence he possessed over the Indians. He succeeded in keeping most of the Oneidas from any acts of hostility. He was very useful in ferreting out and giving useful information of many plots of the less
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friendly tribes. After the peace of 1783, the Oneidas gave him his patent of two miles square, which was subsequently ratified by the State. In 1784, he removed from Connecticut and commenced the settlement of Oneida County.
Two or three years after this, a party of the Oneidas went to the Cahoes, on their annual fishing expedition. The fishery belonged to the Mohawk tribe, yet they gave their neighbors the privilege once in each year of repairing thither to catch what fish they chose-this privilege having been handed down from time immemorial. The party had the means of procu- ring the fire-water of the white man, of which they made too free a use. On their return, some where in the valley of the Mohawk, they took possession of a blacksmith's shop, in the absence of the owner, using the fire for the purpose of cook- ing. On the return of the owner, he sat about dispossessing his noisy tenants. They objected and refused. A scuffle and fight ensued, in which our son of Vulcan plied his ham- mer so freely as to cause the death of one of the party. They then took their dead comrade, brought him to the Oneida, and he was buried in the same ground where the grass had for ages grown on the graves of his fathers. A council fire was now lit up, the well-known conch sounded, and the tribe were soon collected in council. By an ancient law of the Oneidas, if any of their tribe were murdered by a member of another tribe with whom they were at peace, the first person of the tribe passing through their territory was to be execu- ted. to appease the relatives in the tribe of the murdered.
The council, after a full consultation and mature delibera- tion. in which their order and decorum should ever put to blush some of the late legislative proceedings of the less civ- ilized (in this respect) white man, it was decreed that said. law should be enforced on the whites.
Ignorant of the murder, or doings of the council, Judge
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Dean, having business to transact in the vicinity, was the first white who passed through Oncida Village. Again the smoke arose over the council cabin, and the tribe again assembled in council. After a lengthy sitting, in which the friendship of Judge Dean to the Indian, and his having been adopted by their tribe, had been duly considered, and after the coun- cil had expressed their regret that he should be so unfortu- nate as to bring himself within their law, it was resolved that their ancient law must be enforced. In pursuance of their resolution, Powlis, one of their bravest warriors, and long known as the personal friend of the Judge, was selected as the executioner, together with the requisite assistants, and was instructed to do his duty faithfully. Soon after this last council, some friendly Indian conveyed to Judge Dean the circumstances which I have detailed, and he without men- tioning it to his wife, or any friend, proceeded to settle and arrange his business, under a strong conviction, that, at best, the tenure of his life was very precarious. Fleeing from the executioner of the law, is an act of meanness and cowardice. of which in the opinion of the savage, none but the pale faces or women would ever be guilty.
Judge Dean was therefore determined to convince them he could meet death like a Christian, which religion he profess- ed. But a few days intervened, when, after he had retired to rest with his wife and infant child, he was startled from his slumber by the well known death whoop, near his dwel- ling. He then briefly stated the case to his dearly beloved wife, exhorting her to fortitude, in the trying scene he was confident would soon commence. The space was brief, ere his accustomed ear caught the soft and stealthy step of the Indian, at the door ; the door opened, and Powlis, with his tomahawk, as his badge of office, entered, followed by three or four assistants. The Judge met them on the threshold. and
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calmly, without the relaxation of a muscle, invited them into another room.
He then commenced in the Indian tongue, and told them he had been informed, and well knew their errand. He told them it was wrong to put him to death for the crime of an- other, a person he did not know, and over whom he had no control ; that it would displease the Great Spirit for them to visit on the innocent, the punishment due the guilty, that he had ever been the friend of the red man. He then made a pause. Powlis and his assistants went apart and held a con- sultation. Powlis then informed him, as the result of their deliberations, that he must die, that his face was pale, that the murder was committed by a pale face, they belonged to one nation, and of course came within their law. Judge Dean told them their words were all wrong, that the murderer was a Dutchman, and did not speak the same language he did, that he could not understand their talk on the Mohawk, that he. Powlis, might as well be called a Seneca or Tuscarora, be- cause his face was red, that they must not make him respon- sible for the doings of all bad white men. Furthermore, he told them he belonged to the Oneida tribe, that his adoption had been sanctioned at the council of their chiefs and braves, and of course he could not be responsible, nor come within the rule. Another consultation was then held by the Indi- ans, when Powlis informed the Judge that his arguments had all been thought of, and considered by their council, and his words were like the bark of the beech tree, very smooth, yet they did not heal their wounded nation, the blood stain was on their tribe, and it must be washed away-die he must.
As a last resort, the Judge appealed to Powlis on account of the friendship that had long subsisted between them, that they had warmed at the same fire and eat of the same venison, and would he now raise his hand to take his life ?
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Powlis here interrupted him, and said that when he thought of his friendship, his heart was soft, it was like a child's. But shall it ever be said of Powlis, that he will not do his duty to his tribe, because it is his friend that stands in the way. No brave will enter the door of Powlis, if he does not do his duty, but will point to his dwelling and say, that is the wigwam of a woman, and as he spake his black basilisk eyes began to light up with excitement ; already had the tomahawk began to raise for the performn- anec of its work; already had the Judge reckoned his course on earth as run, and his mind bade farewell to all he held dear on earth-when the quick and almost noiseless tread of the moccasin caught his ear, the door opened and in rushed his adopted mother, with a friend, and stood between him and Powlis. After observing the Judge for a moment. . she commenced-" my son, I am in time, I am not too late, the tomahawk is not yet red with your blood." She then turned to Powlis, and after cycing him closely, if possible to scan hi- feelings, she again commenced, and said that, "soon after he and his assistants had left the Oneida, she got information of the doings of the council, and of their departure to execute its decree, that she immediately summoned her friend and followed with the swiftness of the deer, that she had come to claim her son, that she had adopted him to fill the place of her young brave who died in battle, that his adoption had been sanctioned by the council, that the law would not take a son from her for the crime of a white." She was calm, she quailed not at the fierce look of Powlis, when he told her to be away., to be gone, that she was a squaw, that the decisions of the council should not be defeated by a woman, that she had better be at home pounding corn, and waiting upon her hus- band, and again began to brandish his tomahawk as if impa- tient of this new dolay in the sacrifice of their victim. The
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mother and her friend now each produced a knife, bared their bosoms, when the mother said, " if you are determined to take his life, you can only do it by passing over our dead bodies; if the floor is to be stained with his blood, it shall be mingled with ours ; his blood shall not run alone." When Powlis saw the determined and courageous bearing of the women, he beckoned his companions one side, and the result was to de- fer proceedings for that night, and refer the matter again to the tribe in council, when the mother should have an. oppor- tunity to be heard, and as the subject was never again heard from, it was presumed the mother's entreaties prevailed. While the name of Pocahontas has been handed down to pos- terity, and is familiar to every school boy, for her noble daring, in preserving the life of Capt. Smith, the name of this heroic mother, who saved a life equally valuable and dear, Has been lost. The part which Powlis took in the transac- tion never caused any interruption to the friendship alluded to. for during the remainder of his life, he made the Judge an annual visit, enjoying without restraint his hospitality for three or four days at a time.
CHAPTER II
In this chapter I shall notice an incident in which Judge Dean's life was jeopardized, not by a tribunal acting under the Indian code of laws, yet from the violence of individual resentment none the less dangerous.
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