USA > New York > Chautauqua County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York : with a historical sketch of the county > Part 88
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of the year to build two forts at Chadakoin,- one of them by Lake Erie, and the other at the end of the carrying-place at Lake Chadakoin, which carrying-place is fifteen miles from one lake to the other. He said chevalier brought for Mons. Morang a cross of St. Louis, which the rest of the officers would not allow him to take until the governor was acquainted with his conduct and behavior. The chevalier re- turned immediately to Canada, after which the deponent saith, when the fort of River Le Bœuf was finished (which is built of wood stockaded triangular-wise, and has two log- houses inside), Monsieur Morang ordered the party to return to Canada for the winter season, except three hundred men, which he kept to garrison both forts and prepare ma- terials against the spring for the building of other forts. He also sent Jean Cœur, an officer and interpreter, to stay the winter among the Indians at Ohio, in order to pre- vail with them not to allow the building of forts on their lands, but also persuade them, if possible, to join the French interest against the English.
The deponent further saith, that on the 28th of October last, lie set off for Canada, under the command of Captain Deman, who had command of twenty-two batteauxs, with twenty men in each batteaux; the remainder being seven hundred and sixty men, followed in a few days, during which time Mons. Peon with two hundred men, cut a wagon road over the carrying place from Lake Erie to Lake Chada- koin (Chautauqua) being fifteen miles, viewed the situation which proved to their liking, so set off November 3d for Niagara, where we arrived, the 6th, it is a very poor rotten old wooden fort, with twenty-five men in it, they talked of rebuilding it next summer. We left fifty men here to build batteaux for the army again this spring, also a store house for the provisions stores, &c., and staid here two days,
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then set off for Canada ; all hands being fa- tigned with rowing all night ordered to put ashore to breakfast, within a mile of Oswego garrison, at which time the deponent saith, that he with a Frenchiman slipped off, and got to the fort, where they both were concealed, until the army passed ; from thence he came here. The deponent further saith, that besides the three hundred men with which he went up first, under the command of Monsieur Barbeen, and the five hundred men Morang brought up afterwards, there came at different times with stores, &c., seven hundred more, which made in all one thousand five hundred men ; three hundred of which remained to garrison the two forts, fifty at Niagara, the rest all returned to Canada, and talked of going up again this winter, so, as to be there the beginning of April ; they had two six pounders and seven four pounders, which they intended to have planted in the fort at Ganagarah, which was to have been called the Governor's Fort, but as that was not built, they left the guns in the Fort Le Bœuff, where Morang commands. Further deponent saith not."
!
"Sworn before me this 10th day of January, 1754. WM. JOHNSON."
his
"STEPHEN X COFFIN mark."
This Portage road was cut by the French from Lake Erie to Chautauqua lake, more than twenty years before the battle of Lexington, and was the first work performed by civilized hands within the limits of Chautauqua connty, of which we are informed. It was known by the early settlers of the county, as the old Port- age or French road, and was one of the first highways of the eounty over which, in early days,much merchandise, including large amounts of salt from Onondago county, were annually transported to Pittsburgh, and places on the river below.
The Portage road, commenced on the west
bank of the Chautauqua creek, a little distance from its mouth, in the town of Westfield. Thence it passed up, on the west side of the creek, crossing the present Erie road at the old McHenry tavern, where thic historical monu- ment stands, to a point above the woolen factory, about a mile from Westfield, here the road crossed the creek ; still further on it crossed the present road leading from Mayville to West- field, and continued most of the distance for the remainder of the way, on the east side of the present road, and terminated at the foot of Main street in Mayville. The original traek and remains of the old log bridges were plainly to be seen as late as the year 1817, and even traces of this road remain to this day. He informed the writer of this sketch, that he passed over this Port- age road as early as July, 1800, that he followed it from the mouth of Chantauqna creek, three miles up its west bank, and thence over the hills to Chautauqua Lake. That the road then liad the appearance of having been nsed in former times. That the under brush had been cut out ; and where this road crossed the Chautauqua creek, about three miles from its mouth, the banks upon each side had been dug away, to admit a passage aeross the stream. Towards Mayville, and near the summit of the hills, at a low wet place, a causeway had been constructed of logs. Over this point the present highway from Mayville to Westfield now passes. At the foot of Main street in Mayville, where the Portage road terminated, was a circular piece of mason work of stone, laid in sand and mortar, three or four feet high, and three or four fect in diameter. It was constructed as Judge Pca- eock conjectured, for the purpose of cooking food. A piece of mason work, precisely like this in every respect, he saw standing at the other end of the Portage, at the mouth of the Chau- tauqua creek, opposite Barcelona. The mason work was seen as late as 1802 by William Bell, who, for over seventy years resided in Westfield.
Sir William Johnson, in 1861, journeyed to
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Detroit by the command of Gen. Amherst, to establish a treaty with the Ottawa Confederacy, to regulate the trade at the several posts in the Indian country. On his return, he coasted along the south shore of Lake Erie. In his journal of this journey is the following refer- ence to this Portage, with other interesting par- ticulars :
"Wednesday, October 1st, (1761), embarked . (at Presque Isle) at 7 o'clock, with the wind strong ahead-continued so all day, notwith- standing it improved all day, and got to Jad- aghue creek and Carrying place, which is a finc harbor and encampment. It is very dangerous from Presque Isle here, being a prodigious steep, rocky bank all the way, except two or three creeks and small beaches, where are very beau- tiful streams of water or springs which tumble down the rocks. We came about forty miles this day. The fire was burning where Captain Cochran (the officer who commanded at Presque Isle) I suppose encamped last night. Here the French had a baking place, and here they had meetings, and assembled the Indians when first going to Ohio, and bought this place of them. - Toonadawanusky, the river we stopped yester- day as is so called.
"Friday 2d. A very stormy morning, wind not fair; however sent off my two baggage boats, and ordered them to stop about thirty miles off in a river (probably Cattaraugus creek). The Seneca Indian tells me we may get this day to the end of the lake. I embarked at eight o'clock with all the rest and got about thirty miles, when a very great storm of wind and rain arose, and obliged us to put into a little creek (probably Eighteen Mile creek) between the high rocky banks. The wind turned north- west, and it rained very hard. We passed the Mohawks in a bay about four miles from here. Some of our boats are put into other places as well as they can. My bedding is on board the birch canoe of mine, with the Indian somewhere ahead. The lake turns very greatly to the
north-east, and looks like a low land. From Presque Isle here it is all high land, except a very few spots where boats may land. In the evening sent Oneida to the Mohawk encamp- ment, to learn what news here."
When information reached Governor Din- widdie, of Virginia, of these proceedings by the French, he determined to ascertain their purpose, and to induce them to abandon their claim upon the valley of the Ohio. He accord- ingly dispatched George Washington, then but twenty-two years of age, who set out from Williamsburgh, in Virginia, on the 30th day of October, 1753, and arrived at the place where Pittsburgh now stands, about three weeks afterwards. He then proceeded to Venango, where he arrived on the 4th of December, and had an interview with the celebrated Capt. Joucaire, but ;obtained no satisfaction. From Venango he pushed on up the French Creek, to the post the French had established at Le Bœuf, now Waterford, where he arrived on the 11th of December, 1753. The fort he found situated on the west fork of French Creek. It consisted of four houses, forming a square, de- fended by bastions made of palisades twelve feet high, pierced by cannon and small arms. Within the bastions were a guard house and other buildings. Outside were stables, a smith forge, and a log house for soldiers. The Indian name for the place was Casawago. Washington found that the French were preparing at this place many pine boats and bark canoes to be ready in the spring, to descend and destroy the English posts on the Ohio river. Here Wash- ington, over one hundred and twenty years ago, spent five anxious days, within but fourteen miles from the town of French Creek, in Chau- tauqua county, negotiating with the French commandant, St. Pierre. Having finished his business with the French, Washington set out on the 16th of December to return. His long journey through the wilderness was beset by many difficulties and dangers. French Creek and
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the Allegheny river were swollen and full of floating ice; the snows were deep, and the cold intense. He arrived at Williamsburgh, Jann- ary 16, 1754, having performed a toilsome and perilous journey of eight hundred miles, in two and one-half months.
The same year occurred the first bloodshed of the war. Washington, in command of a few colonists, defeated the French under Monsieur Jummonvill in a small battle in the forests of Pennsylvania, and was himself defeated a little later at Fort Necessity. The next year, in July, oeeurred the memorable defeat of the well- disciplined English army under Braddock by the Indians and little band of gallant Frenchi- men. The French forces engaged in this affair passed over Lake Erie along the shore of Chau- tanqua county, on their march from Canada to Fort Duquesne (now Pittsburgh). The train of artillery taken from Braddock was transported back along this route, and used in August of the sueeeeding year by Montcalm in the siege of Oswego. D'Aubrey, in 1759, also conducted from the posts of Venango and Presque Isle a large force of French soldiers to relieve Fort Niagara, then besieged by the English under Sir William Johnson, Prideaux, the general in command, having been killed early in the siegc. A little later the French, under D'Aubrey, and the Indians who joined him, were defeated in Niagara county, New York, and five hundred of their number slain. Charles Lee, who after- wards became a prominent American general, was at the siege of Niagara, and after the siege passed along the shores of Chautauqua on a military errand down the Allegheny to Fort Dn Quesne.
The first military expedition of the English over Lake Erie was made immediately after the surrender by the French of their possessions in America. It was dispatched to take possession of Detroit, Michillimackinack, and other French posts that had been surrendered. Major Rogers, long celebrated for his skill in border war, led
the expedition. He embarked in November, 1760, at the foot of Lake Erie, with two hun- dred rangers in fifteen whale boats, and coasted along the southern shore of the lake. On arriving at Erie, Rogers set out for Pittsburgh. He descended French creek and the Allegheny river in a canoe. Having obtained reinforce- ments, he proceeded on his way to Detroit, which was surrendered to him immediately on his arrival.
PONTIAC'S WAR .- At the close of the French and Indian war, as soon as the English had possessed themselves of the forts and posts that had been built and established by the French, a conspiracy was formed by the Indian tribes of the West to seize these outposts and dispos- sess the English. The moving spirit of this confederation of Indian tribes was Pontiac, an Ottawa chief of great abilities. The Delawares, Shawnees, Wyandots, Ojibways and other tribes of the West joined the League. It taxed the great influence of Sir William Johnson to the utmost to prevent the Six Nations from also joining in the conspiracy. The English posts were all to be attacked on the same day, their garrisons to be massaercd, and also all the people of the border settlements. So well planned was the attack, that nine posts in the west were surprised and captured in a single day, and the most of the garrisons tomahawked and sealped.
It may be interesting to know that this contest between the Indians and white men brought scenes of savage warfare close to the borders of this county. At Presque Isle (now Erie, Pa.) in the shadows of the forest, and less than twenty miles away from the limits of this county, occurred one of those desperate strug- gles between Indians and white men, which so frequently occurred in the pioneer history of this country. In June, 1763, Ensign Christie was the commanding officer at Presque Isle. On the third day of that month, Lieutenant Cuyler, of the Queen's company of Rangers, arrived
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there on his way to Fort Niagara, with the remnant of his force, which had been surprised and defeated by the Indians while coasting along the north shore of Lake Erie on their way with provisions and ammunition for the English garrison at Detroit. Ensign Christie kept six of Cuyler's men to astist in defending an anticipated attack by the Indians upon his post, which increased his garrison to twenty- seven men. Fort Presque Isle stood on the shore of Lake Erie, where is now the site of the present city of Erie. A strong block house built of large logs stood in the angle of the fort.
Early in the morning of the 15th of June two hundred Indians from those assembled at Detroit appeared and commenced the assault. The garrison, when the attack commenced, with- drew into the block house. The Indians, from under cover of the bank of the lake and a ridge that extended along a small stream that ran into the lake near the fort, continued the attack all day, firing into every loop-hole of the bastion, and endeavoring to set it on fire by shooting burning arrows against its roof and sides, which the garrison would extinguish with water kept in barrels within the works. Some of the In- dians managed to get into the fort, which en- abled them to carry on a more effectual fire against the block house, while others attempted to undermine it. The garrison made a stubborn defence, either killing or wounding such of the Indians as exposed themselves. The water in the bastion being nearly exhausted, the soldiers commenced to dig a passage under- ground to the well, which stood in an exposed place. Darkness came at last, but the Indians kept up a fire all night from intrenchments which they had constructed.
The next day the Indians set fire to the com- manding officer's house, which stood near the block house. The flames soon reached the bas- tion of the block house, which at last took fire. The garrison, however, succeeded in extinguish- ing it with water from the well, which they had
reached by means of the underground passage. The firing continued until midnight of the second day, when the garrison was warned that preparations had been completed to set the block house on fire from above and below and their surrender was demanded, and it was promised that if they yielded their lives would be spared. Christie being satisfied that he and his men could not prevent the burning of the block house, surrendered with the understand- ing that the lives of the garrison should be spared, and that they might retire unmolested to the nearest post. The Indians kept them for awhile near Presque Isle and adopted some of their prisoners into their tribe, shaving off their hair, painting and bedecking them as Indian warriors. They finally carried their prisoners to Detroit. Christie, however, succeeded in making his escape. One soldier, Benjamin Gray, also made his escape at the time of the surrender, and made his way to Fort Pitt and first told the story of the siege of Fort Presque Isle. It is said that another soldier also made his escape.
The Indians, late in the morning of the 18th of June, next appeared before the post at Le Bœuf (now Waterford, Pa.), distant fourteen miles west of the town of French Creek, in Chautauqua county. Its garrison consisted of eleven privates, two corporals and its com- mander, Ensign Price, a gallant young officer. The Indians at first endeavored to gain admit- tance by artifice, but failed. Late in the day they commenced the attack, shooting burning arrows against the sides and roof of the block- house. The men several times succeeded in ex- tinguishing the fire. At length the flames so spread that they could not master them. They all got out through a narrow window in the rear of the block-house, unobserved by the In- dians ; covered by the darkness of the night, they managed to escape into the forest, where they wandered several days half-starved. Finally all but two reached Fort Pitt. These two prob-
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ably perished in the woods. On their way Price and his men passed Venango (now Franklin), where they found only smoking fires, in which lay the half-burned bodies of its murdered gar- rison. The Indians, who in this ease were Sen- eeas, had suceecded in gaining admittance into the fort at Venango, when they burned it to the ground and massacred all its garrison, leav- ing none to tell the story of its fall. The few facts known respecting the destruction of this post were afterwards gathered from an Indian who was present at its capture, and narrated them to Sir William Johnson. Lieutenant Gordon, its commanding offieer, was tortured over a slow fire for several nights, until he died.
While the Indians were prosecuting their campaign along this frontier, they murdered many scattered settlers of western Pennsylvania, and other settlers only saved themselves by flee- ing to the nearest forts. Meantime Pontiae was proseeuting with great energy the siege of De- troit. For more than a year was it besieged, during which time the garrison suffered greatly. On the 10th day of August, 1764, General Bradstreet, at the head of three thousand men, set ont in boats from the foot of Lake Erie, on their way to relieve Detroit. Their route was along the southern shore of Lake Erie. On the 10th and 11th of Angust, 1764, they rowed along the coast of Chautauqua county. Israel Putnam aeeompanicd the expedition as a coloncl of a regiment of Connectieut troops. Arriving at Detroit, Bradstreet raised the siege, and on the 10th of October set out on his return. Eight or ten miles west of Cleveland a portion of the boats were wrecked, and about one hundred and fifty of his force, provincials and Indians, werc compelled to make their way to Fort Niagara, along the southern shore of Lake Erie, on foot. Their route led through the lake towns of the county of Chautauqua. After many days of hardship, fording creeks and rivers, suffering from eold and hunger, they reached the end of
their journey. Many of the provincials per- ished in the woods.
Pontiac's war was the last great attempt made by the Indians to redeem this country from the dominion of the white man, and at its close comparative peace for many years prevailed, and no event of importance occurred in these regions until the Revolution.
REVOLUTIONARY WAR .- No event oceurred during the early years of the war of the Revo- lution relating to Chautauqua county of suffi- cient importance which would entitle it to be re- corded. The scene of the contest during those years was far distant from the then remote re- gions in which this county is situated. In 1779, however, the 11th of August, Colonel Daniel Broadhead set out from Pittsburgh at the head of six hundred and five militia and volunteers, and advanced up the Allegheny river to destroy the Seneca towns situated upon its upper waters, and to act in conjunction with General Sullivan, who was marching from the east against thic Indian towns on the Genesce. About five miles below the mouth of the Broken Straw, an ad- vance party of his command, consisting of fif- teen white men and eight Delaware Indians, under the command of Lieut. Harding, fell in with thirty or forty Indian warriors coming down the river in seven canoes. The Indians landed and stripped off their shirts; a sharp contest ensued ; the Indians were defeated, and five of their number were killed, and several wounded ; and all their canocs and contents fell into the hands of Col. Broadhead. Lient. Hard- ing had three men wounded, including one of the Delaware Indians. Colonel Broadhead's command continued to march up the river as far as the Indian village of Buck-a-loons, on the flats near Irvineton, at the mouth of the Broken Straw, in Warren county. The Indians were driven from their village, and retreated to the hills in the rear. The town was destroyed, and a breastwork of trees thrown up. A gar- rison of forty men was left to guard the provi-
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sions, and the remainder of the force proceeded to the Indian town of Conewago, which was found to have been deserted eighteen months before. Conewago was burnt, and the troops marched still further up the river, past Kinjua to Gohroonwago, a place about four miles below the southern boundary of the State of New York. Here they found a painted image or war-post, clothed in dog-skin. The troops re- mained there three days, burning this and other towns in the vicinity, destroying the extensive cornfields they found there. Col. Broadhead believed, from the great quantity of corn found, and from the number of new houses which were built, and being built by square and round logs, and of framed timbers, that the whole Seneca and Munsey nations intended to collect there. Gohroonwago was situated where, some years afterwards, Cornplanter made his resi- dence, and where an Indian village grew up, called De-o-no-sa-da-ga, meaning in English burnt houses.
Colonel Broadhead makes no mention of having advanced beyond these Indian towns. Mrs. Mary Jammison, who is usually accurate, states, in her narrative, that he ascended to Olean Point, destroying all the Indian villages on the Allegheny river. In Cattaraugus coun- ty there was at this time, at the mouth of Cold Spring creek, the village of Che-na-shun-ga- tau ; at the mouth of Little Valley creek, the village of Buck-tooth ; at the mouth of Great Valley creek, Killbuckstown ; and in the town of Carrollton, Tu-ne-nu-gwan, all of which were destroyed, if any detachment of Colonel Broadhead's command reached Olean Point. The latter place is situated upon the Allegheny river, in the southeast part of Cattarangus county, New York, and is distant less than thirty miles from Canada, an Indian town of the Genesee river, and less than sixty miles from the larger Indian towns destroyed by General Sullivan. Colonel Broadhead arrived at Fort Pitt, on his return, September 14, 1779,
having burned ten Indian villages, containing one hundred and sixty-five houses, having de- stroyed more than five hundred acres of Indian corn and taken three thousand dollars worth of furs and other plunder, and having himself lost neither man nor beast.
The last hostile expedition of the Revolu- tion in the north was planned to revenge the injuries inflicted by Broadhead and Sullivan. A large force of British and Indians left Nia- agara in 1782, to attack Pittsburgh, and pro- cecded as far as Chautauqua Lake, upon which they embarked in canoes. The expedition was abandoned on account of the reputed repairs and strength of Fort Pitt. A portion of this force, led, it is believed, by the Chief Kyasret- tea, in July of that year besieged Hannastown, once a famous but now almost forgotten place in western Pennsylvania. They killed and carried many of its inhabitants into captivity, and burned the place to the ground, and now not a stone or mound of earth marks the spot where it stood. There occurred many thrilling incidents, and almost the last blood shed of the war of the Revolution. In 1822 the remains of a row of piles were discovered, extending across the bed of the outlet of Chautauqua Lake, placed there, it is believed, by this war party to raise the water of the lake sufficiently to create a flood, to waft their boats down the river against Pittsburgh, or by some previous expe- dition of the French in the year before.
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