USA > New York > Niagara County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Niagara County, New York > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71
"The Sieur de La Salle informed us that he had been among the Iroquois Senecas, before the loss of his vessel; that he had succeeded so well in conciliating them, that they mentioned with pleasure our embassy, which I shall describe in another place, and even consented to the prosecution of our undertaking. This agreement was of short duration, for certain persons opposed our designs, in every possible way, and instilled jealousies into the minds of the Iroquois. The fort, nevertheless, which we were build- ing at Niagara, continued to advance. But finally, the secret influences against us were so great, that the fort became an object of suspicion to the savages, and we were com- pelled to abandon its construction for a time, and content ourselves with building a habi- tation surrounded with palisades."
"On the 22d we went two leagues above the great falls of Niagara and built sonie stocks, on which to erect the vessel needed for our voyage. We could not have built it in a more convenient place, being near a river which empties into the strait, which is between Lake Erie and the great falls. In all my travels back and forth, I always car- ried my portable chapel upon my shoulders.
"On the 26th, the keel of the vessel and other pieces being ready, the Sieur de La Salle sent the master carpenter, named Moyse, to request me to drive the first bolt. But the modesty appropriate to my religious profession induced me to decline the honor.
He then promised ten Louis d'or for that first bolt, to stimulate the master carpenter to advance the work.
"During the whole winter, which is not half as severe in this country as Canada, we employed in building bark huts one of the two savages of the Wolf tribe, whom we had engaged for hunting deer. I had one hut especially designed for observing prayers on holidays and Sundays. Many of our peo- ple knew the Gregorian chant, and the rest had some parts of it by note.
"The Sieur de La Salle left in command of our ship-yard one Touti, an Italian by birth, who had come to France after the revolution in Naples, in which his father was engaged. Pressing business compelled the foreman to return to Fort Frontenac, and I conducted him to the borders of Lake Ontario, at the mouth of the river Ircajara. While there he pretended to mark out a house for the blacksmith, which had been promised for the convenience of the Niagara. I cannot blame the Iroquois for not be- lieving all that had been promised them at the embarking of the Sieur de La Motte.
"Finally the Sicur de La Salle undertook his expedition on foot over snow, and this accomplished more than eighty leagues. He had no food except a small bag of roasted corn, and even that failed him two days' journey from the fort. Nevertheless he ar- rived safely with two men and a dog which drew his baggage on the icc.
" Returning to our ship-yard, we learned that the most of the Iroquois had gone to war beyond Lake Erie, while our vessel was being built. Although those that remained were less violent, by reason of their dimin- ished numbers, still they did not cease from coming often to our ship-yard, and testify- ing their dissatisfaction at our doings.
85
OF NIAGARA COUNTY.
Some time after, one of them, pretending to be drunk, attempted to kill our black- smith. But the resistance he met with from the smith, who was named La Forge, and who wielded a red hot bar of iron, repulsed him, and together with a reprimand which I gave the villain, compelled him to desist. Some days after, a squaw advised us that the Senecas were about to set fire to our vessels on the stocks, and they would, with- out doubt, have effected their object had not a very strict watch been kept.
" These frequent alarms, the fear of the failure of provisions, on account of the large vessel from Fort Frontenac, and the refusal of the Senecas to sell us corn, discouraged our carpenters. They were moreover en- ticed by a worthless fellow, who often at- tempted to desert to New York (Nouvelle Jorck), a place which is inhabited by the Dutch, who have succeeded the Swedes. This dishonest fellow would have undoubt- edly been successful with our workmen, had I not encouraged them by exhortations on holidays and Sundays after divine service. I told them that our enterprise had sole reference to the promotion of the glory of God, and the welfare of our Christian col- onies. Thus I stimulated them to work more diligently in order to deliver us from all these apprehensions.
" In the meantime the two savages of the Wolf tribe, whom we had engaged in our service, followed the chase, and furnished us with roe-buck, and other kinds of deer, for our sustenance. By reason of which our workmen took courage and applied themselves to their business with more assiduity. Our vessel was consequently soon in a condition to be launched, which was done, after having been blessed according to our church of Rome. We were in haste
to get it afloat, although not finished, that we might guard it more securely from the threatened fire. This vessel was named the Griffin (La Griffin), in allusion to the arms of the Count de Frontenac, which have two Griffins for their supports. For the Sieur de La Salle had often said of this vessel, that he would make the Griffin fly above the crows. We fired three guns, and sung the Te Deum, which was followed by many cries of joy."
The Griffin passed through Lake Erie and ended her first voyage in Green Bay, Michigan, where she was freighted with furs and started back to Niagara with a crew of six men. The Griffin and its crew were never heard of after its departure out of Green Bay.
127 5
After the loss of the Griffin La Salle crossed Lake Michigan in canoes, and with a small party traversed the lower peninsula of Michigan. Several times after this he passed over the territory of Niagara county, but never stopped, as his life work was ex- ploration and the extension of the terri- torial limits of France in the new world.
It may not be inappropriate here to give a brief review of the life of La Salle, the celebrated explorer of the lower Mississippi, and his wonderful dream of French empire in the great valley of the " Father of waters."
Robert Cavalier de La Salle was born in Rouen, France, in 1643. He was educated for the priesthood, and joined the Jesuits, of whose severe discipline he tired, and soon left the order. At twenty-three years of age he came to Canada, where he soon be- came ambitious to add his own name to the list of the world's great explorers, while his love of country inspired him to lay broad and deep the foundations of French dominion, in the wonderful stretch of coun-
36
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
try to the south and west of Canada. Hearing from the Indians of the great river of the west, the Miche Sepe, he conjectured that it must flow into the Pacific ocean, and that if he could find an outlet from the great lakes into its waters, he would have a short route to China. From the expres- sion of this view, the place where he resided was named in derision La Chine. After his explorations of the great lakes he as- cended the St. Joseph river, made a portage to the Kankakee, and through this stream reached the Illinois, where just below the present site of Peoria, he built Fort Cre- vacour. In 1680 he left this fort on the Illinois and floated down to the Mississippi, which he did not descend until two years later. On the 9th of April, 1682, he planted a stone pillar at the mouth of the Mississ- ippi, on which he cut the arms of "Louis le Grand," and claimed the vast stretch of territory from the lakes to the gulf, and from the Alleghenies to the Rocky moun- tains as the domain of France. He named this great country Louisiana, in honor of his monarch, and in 1684, he sailed with three hundred colonists from France for the mouth of the Mississippi, where he pur- posed to plant a mighty city. He missed the mouth of the Mississippi and cast an- chor in Matagorda Bay, Texas, where he built a fort. Two years later, in 1687, he sought to reach Montreal by an overland trip, but was assassinated by two of his discontented followers on the banks of the Trinity river in Texas. He was the first to. advocate the establishment of a line of mil- itary forts from the lakes to the Mississippi, to hem in the English east of the Allegheny mountains, and when his route to China by the Mississippi was demonstrated to be a failure, his ready mind perceived the
advantage of the river as a means of com- munication with New France and Canada during that portion of the year during which the St. Lawrence was ice bound. His physical endurance was wonderful, as he had repeatedly in mid winter journeyed over hundreds of miles through trackless American forests to Montreal, and had en- dured every conceivable hardship to which a pioneer could be exposed. Parkman, the historian, says: "America owes La Salle an enduring memory ; for in his mas- culine figure, cast in iron, she sees the heroic pioneer who guided her to the possession of her richest heritage."
Indian Trade at Niagara. - The fortified house at Niagara gave the French command of a large fur trade with several of the Algonquin tribes about the upper lakes. The English had built up a large trade with the Iroquois, or Five Nations, but the main sup- ply of furs, and especially beaver skins, came from the wilds of the great northwest, and to possess themselves of this source of wealth, the Five Nations, in 1684, sent a strong war party of Senecas and Cayugas into the Illinois country, where they cap- tured one of the posts established by La Salle, and found seven canoe-loads of val- uable goods, intended by the French for the lower Mississippi river. The seizure of these goods led to war with the French, who, under de La Barre, made an ineffective cam- paign into the country of the Five Nations, where they entered into an unsatisfactory truce with the Indians, who promised rep- aration for the seven canoes of goods, but utterly refused to make peace with the Illi- nois tribes.
The Marquis Denonville succeeded La Barre as governor of Canada, and, in 1686. recommended the erection of a strong fort
37
OF NIAGARA COUNTY.
on the site of the fortified house at Niagara, and the conquest of the Iroquois, as the only way to secure complete command of the western fur trade.
In 1687, Denonville assembled three thousand French and Algonquin Indians at Irondequoit bay, and on the 12th of July set out for the Seneca village of Ganagaro, twenty-two miles inland, which he reached and destroyed on the 13th, after having de- feated eight hundred Iroquois, who had at- tempted to ambuscade him. The Iroquois lost nearly one hundred warriors, while the French and Algonquin loss amounted to eleven killed and twenty-two wounded. The Algonquins were for immediate pursuit, but Denonville returned and erected Fort Niagara at the mouth of Niagara river. This fort was besieged by the Iroquois, and Parkman says : " The fort was first a prison, then a hospital, then a charnel-house, till before spring (1688), the garrison of one hundred men were reduced to ten or twelve." Governor Dongon, of New York, demanded the demolition of the fort, claim- ing that it was on English territory, and De- nonville, seeing that disease and the Senecas would compel its abandonment, made a vir- tue of necessity, and destroyed the fort on the 15th of September. Thus, after a period of ten years, the first occupation of Niagara county by the French ended, and the Five Nations again became sole masters of its soil, and so remained for thirty-two years.
Inter-colonial Wars. - Four distinct wars were waged between the French and En- glish colonies in North America, and are known as the Inter-colonial wars :
King William's war, 1689-1697.
Queen Anne's war, 1702-1713.
King George's war, 1744-1763.
French and Indian war, 1754-1763.
These wars were terminated in Europe by treaties of peace, but fighting between the colonies never totally ceased at any time within the seventy-four years, from 1689 until 1763, when New France passed from the map of the new world.
During King William's and Queen Anne's wars the territory of Niagara county was under the sway of the Five Nations, and no white came on its soil except the French fur traders. In one of the Seneca raids into Canada, during King William's war, they captured a Frenchman by the name of Chadbert Joncaire, and when a Seneca chief applied the burning contents of his pipe to the captive's fingers, Joncaire instantly knocked him down. This exhibition of manly independence so pleased the Indians that they let Joncaire live and adopted him as a member of their tribe. He married a young squaw, by whom he had two sons, Chadbert and Clauzonne. He was soon made a sachem of the tribe, and returned, in 1700, to Canada, where he entered the French service. On the blow which saved Joncaire from the stake hinged the second occupation of Niagara county by the French.
In 1720 Joncaire obtained the consent of the Seneca tribe that the French might again erect a trading post on the east bank of the Niagara river. This trading house was built the same year by Joncaire, at the foot of the Niagara portage, where Lewiston now stands. This house, which was but a cabin, was named Magazine Royal by Jon- caire, who successfully resisted several efforts of the English to induce the Indians to order its demolition. The French were now slowly moving toward the accomplishment of La Salle's great design, and five years after Joncaire built Magazine Royal trading house they obtained permission of the Sen-
38
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
ecas to erect a store-house at the mouth of the Niagara river, in place of the one which they had abandoned in 1688. The French intended for this store-house to be a strong fortification, in the line of military posts they proposed now to erect from the lakes to the gulf, by the way of the Ohio river. The Seneca Indians were unaware of the military character which the French in- tended to give to the store-house at Niagara when they granted permission for its erec- tion to M. de Longueil, governor of Montreal. The Indians also granted him permission to build two barks for the transporta- tion of material. Tradition states that the French induced the Indians to go on a hunt with some of their officers, and while the warriors were thus absent, erected a strong mess-house, sufficient to repel any Indian attack. From that time the build- ing and strengthening of Fort Niagara was continued, until "its ravines, its ditches, and pickets; its curtain and counter scarp; its covered way, draw-bridge, and raking bat- teries; its stone towers, laboratory, and magazine; its mess-house, barracks and bakery, and blacksmith and chapel, was a little city of itself." In 1736 the fort mounted thirty-six cannon, and was the most important place south of Montreal and west of Albany.
During King George's war the French re- . mained in undisturbed possession of the Niagara frontier; and in 1750 they built Fort du Portage, or Fort Little Niagara, above the falls, on the point now occupied by the Stedman house, to command the portage at its upper end.
In the same year England made her first advance into the Ohio country, in Fayette county, in southwestern Pennsylvania,
where Christopher Gist planted the first English settlement west of the Allegheny mountains.
In the era of English colonization in what is now the United States, the Appalachian mountains stood for many years as a great bar against the westward tide of emigration, and the planting of the line. of settlement along the western mountain slopes and in western New York was a herculean task. The period of its complete establishment spanned the years of half a century, from 1750 to 1800, and from Gist's first settle- ment until Mad Anthony Wayne broke the Indian sway forever in the Ohio valley, at the battle of the Fallen Timbers. The story of many of the founders of this line has been quaintly, but truthfully, told by Pritts, Withers, Doddridge, Kercheval, MeClurg, Day, De Hass, McDonald, Turner, and others. The accounts of some of its di- visions and founders has formed the theme of the volumes of MeKnight, Draper, Irvine, and Butterfield. A limited history of its establishment, and the bloody struggles over portions of it, are topics in the later and more comprehensive efforts of Triplett in "Conquering the Wilderness;" Kelsey in " Pioneer Heroes;" and Mason and Rid- path in "Conquering the Ohio Valley." But none have traced this great frontier line of wooded mountain ridges, or even yet outlined its full history; whereby some actors and events that should be general, remain as local. Much of its full and inter- esting history has only within the past five years been secured from State archives and governmental papers, and presented by Roosevelt, in " Winning the West," and by some others, who have made careful and conscientious research among authentic
39
OF NIAGARA COUNTY.
records, which, in many cases, were beyond the reach of the early, and many of the later historians.
The movement of population in the At- lantic colonies of his Britannic Majesty, George II., was pushing the great frontier line west by settlement; westward to the Appalachian mountains, then called White and Green mountains, in New Hampshire and Vermont, and the Adirondacks in New York, and was known as the Allegheny mountains in Pennsylvania and Virginia, and the Cumberland mountains in North Carolina. At the opening of the French and Indian war, in New England, the great frontier line extended along the southern coasts of Maine; then sweeping north to- wards Lake Champlain with a great curve, only included about one-half of Vermont and New Hampshire. With another great curve it came down to the mouth of the Mohawk, in New York; next following a straight line south, at some distance west of the Hudson river, to the Delaware river, and with that stream to the Alleghenies, and with these mountains, with a great curve, it fell away toward the northwest corner of Maryland, from where, with an- other inward curve, it swept on to the Kanawha river; and thence along the Alle- gheny and Cumberland mountains to the southern termination of the Appalachian sys- tem in Alabama, round which it bent, and sweeping with another inward curve nortli- ward, it followed the Savannah river to the Atlantic ocean. This great frontier line, with ins and outs, from where it left the coast of Maine until it fell back on the Atlantic sea- board at Georgia, was nearly 2,000 miles in length. Over a million and a half of En- glish were inclosed within its limits, while a few thousand Spaniards were south of it,
in Florida, and one hundred thousand French were in Canada, and with a feeble line of settlements they stretched along the Mississippi on the west.
Between the French and English were the Indians, principally occupying the east Mississippi valley. Careful estimates place the fighting strength of these red lords of the forest at ten thousand warriors. In New York were the celebrated Five Nations ; west of the Alleghenies were the Shaw- nees, Delawares, Wyandottes, and several other warlike tribes, while along the south- ern part of the line were Creeks, Cherokees, Catawbas, and some other tribes. On the south were the noted Seminoles, and in New England were the remnants of several once powerful tribes, who were in sympathy and daily communication with the Indians of Canada.
The unreasonable policy pursued by the English officers serving in America, and some unjust measures on the part of the colonial authorities, alienated nearly all of the Indians in the Ohio valley, New York, and New England, and made them allies of the French.
The French in Canada, by the freezing of the St. Lawrence, were shut up from inter- course with Europe during a portion of the year, and French statesmen now proposed to carry out a grand idea of opening com- munication between Canada and their settle- ments on the Mississippi by way of the lakes and the Illinois river. The successful completion of this project would have given them uninterrupted intercourse with Europe by the gulf and the Mississippi and Illinois rivers; secured all the territory west of these rivers, and placed them in possession of nearly all the coveted Indian fur trade. But instead of establishing this great water-
40
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
line boundary, and protecting it with a chain of forts, the French were dazzled with the brilliant but rash idea of La Salle of a line of forts from Lake Erie to the Allegheny, and down the Ohio, virtually making the Appalachian mountains a boundary to Anglo-American power, and hemming the English in to the Atlantic sea-board. "Out of the nettle danger they hoped to pluck the flower safety, but grasping for a little more, they lost all that they had already."
The French and Indian fur traders were in constant rivalry on this disputed terri- tory from the lakes of central New York to the westward running streams of Virginia, for the Indian trade.
In 1749 the French sent from La Chine, in Canada, Captain Bienville de Celoron, with two hundred and fourteen soldiers and fifty-five Indians, to take possession of the Ohio country. He passed up the river Niagara on his journey, and buried leaden plates in what is now Chautauqua county, and along the Allegheny river, claiming the country for France.
The following is the original inscription on the leaden plates sunk in Chautauqua county :
"Lan 1749 du regne de Louis XV Rov de France, Nous Celoron, commandant d'vre detachment en voie pav Monsieur le Mis. de la Galeissoniere, Commandant General de la Nouvelle France, pour retablirl a tranquil- lite dans quelques sauvages de ces cantons, a vous enterre cette placqua, at confluent De L'Ohio et de Ichadakom ce 29 Junillet, pres de la riviere Oyo autrement belle riviere, pour monument du reu on vellement de possession que nous avons pris de la ditte riviere Oyo, ct de toutes celtes quiv tom- bent, et de toutes les terres de deua cotes jusque aux sources des dittes rivieres ainsi
qu'en out jovi on du jovir les precedents rois de France, et qu'ils s'y sout maintenvs par les arms et par les traittes, specialement pav ceox de Restwick a Vtrecht et d'Aux la Chapelle."
The following is a translation of the writing upon the plate :
"In the year 1749, of the reign of Louis the 15th, King of France, we, Celoron, com- mander of a detachment sent by Monsier the Marquis de la Galeissoniere, Governor General of New France, to re-establish tranquility in some Indian villages of these cantons, have buried this plate of lead at the confluence of the Ohio and the Chau- tauqua, this 29th of July, near the river Ohio, otherwise Belle Riviere, as a monu- ment of the renewal of the possession we have taken of the said river Ohio, and all those which empty into it, and of all the lands on both sides as far as the sources of the said rivers as enjoyed or ought to have been enjoyed by the kings of France preceding, and as they have then maintained themselves by arms and by treaties, es- pecially those of Reswick, Utrecht and Aix la Chapelle."
Fort Niagara .- The Joncaires had held the Seneca Indians well to French interests, although the remainder of the Five Nations were hostile to France and promised aid to the English in 1755, when they dispatched an expedition against the French settle- ment and forts on the Niagara. This ex- pedition was sent by the way of Oswego, but upon arriving at the point its command- er did not deem it prudent to attack on ac- count of the desertion of his Indian allies and the defeat of Braddock, and returned with his force to Oswego. This threatened attack led Montcalm to have the menaced fortress thoroughly reconstructed and put
41
OF NIAGARA COUNTY.
in shape to resist a future attack. In 1756 he wrote to France that : "M. de Vaudreuil employed M. Pouchot, captain in the regi- ment of Bearn, who has erected a good for- tification at Niagara. It consists of a horn- work with its half moon, covert-way, lu- nettes at the places d' armes re-entering from the covert-way. The front of this work is 120 toises. It is fortified according to M. de Vauban's method."
Pouchot, its rebuilder and commander, in his description of Fort Niagara, says : "It is situate on the east point of the river of that name, which terminates in a triangle, whose base is the head of a horn-work, one hun- dred and fourteen toises on its exterior side, all of earth, sodded interiorly and exteriorly ; with a ditch eleven toises wide by nine feet deep, one-half moon and two small lunettes or intrenched places of arms, with a covert- way and glacis proportioned to the works. The ditches have no revertment. The fort (place) and one-half moon are palisaded on the berm. The other two sides are a sim- ple intrenchment, also in earth, sodded within and without, seven fect high inside and six feet thick on the summit of the parapet, with a fraise on the berm. These two sides of the intrenchment are on broken ground forty feet in height. The river side would be accessible, although with difficulty. That of the lake is more perpendicular."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.