USA > New York > Erie County > Centennial history of Erie County, New York : being its annals from the earliest recorded events to the hundredth year of American independence > Part 15
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All fur was bought by weight ; so they sometimes brought beaver-skins with the claws filled with lead. It would not do to discover it openly ; that would give mortal offence and drive away a valuable customer. So "Negurriyu" would clip off the claws with a hatchet and toss them in a corner, saying at the same time that he would make proper allowance in the weight. If the Indian murmured Pratt would offer to pick up the claws and weigh them separately, but as this would expose the cheat the red man would vigorously demur, and the affair would pass over without further trouble.
A still more disreputable aborigine came near involving Capt. P. in serious difficulty. While he was building his house Mrs. Pratt had some meat boiling in a kettle out of doors. An In- dian commonly known as "Peter Gimlet" was lounging about, and the savory smell of the boiling meat was too much for his feeble conscience. When he thought himself unobserved he suddenly snatched the largest picce from the pot, hid it beneath his blanket and started for the reservation. But little Esther happened to be playing near and saw the felonious transac- tion. Immediately she ran to her father in the store, crying out, "Peter Gimlet has stolen the meat ! Peter Gimlet has stolen the meat!"
Pratt sent his son Asa after the offender, who caught him and brought him back. The captain opened Peter's blanket, exposed the theft and then proceeded to administer summary punishment by laying a horsewhip around the back and legs of the thief. The latter stood astonished for a minute, and then,
165
AN INDIAN COURT.
as the blows continued, he bounded away toward the Indian village, making the forest ring with his howls.
The captain replaced his whip and returned to his business. A few hours after, Indians began to arrive in front of the store. Without a word they seated themselves on their haunches in the street. Presently came more Indians and assumed the same position ; then squaws with their papooses. Then more In- dians, including chiefs of high degree, all squatting down in a semi-circle before the store door. Matters began to look de- cidedly serious.
And still the Indians kept coming, until 2 o'clock in the after- noon, when there were two or three hundred of them. Then they sent for Pratt, who duly appeared, when, with the utmost decorum, the proceedings began. Farmer's Brother stood up and told the story as he had heard it from Peter Gimlet, de- scribing how he had been flogged, without cause, by the pale- face, and claiming redress in the name of his insulted honor.
Captain Pratt, in reply, made his statement, relating the theft, and calling on his daughter as a witness. Little Esther told her story in an artless way that confounded the thief, and carried conviction to the hearts of the numerous judges.
A solemn consultation was had among the chiefs. Then Farmer's Brother again upraised his gigantic form, and with all the impressiveness of his seventy years delivered judgment. It was to the effect that Peter Gimlet (calling him by his Indian name) was a bad Indian. Peter Gimlet had stolen Negurriyu's meat, and Negurriyu had inflicted deserved punishment, and if Negurriyu wished he might whip him again. He also pro- nounced a formal sentence against Peter of banishment from the Buffalo reservation. Then the council broke up, and l'eter slunk away into the forest and was not heard of in that vicinity for two or three years.
It detracts a little from the stern justice of these proceedings that Capt. Pratt thought it incumbent on him, in accordance with Indian custom, to make a present to the members of this curious court. Accordingly he rolled out a barrel of salt for them, of which every one took a portion until all was gone.
At another time Esther Pratt had taken her infant sister, Lucy Ann, into the store and seated her on the counter. Suddenly a
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" THE DEVIL'S RAMROD."
Seneca squaw caught up the child and sprang away toward the forest. She was pursued and caught, and the infant was rescued. When questioned as to her motive, the squaw said that she had lately lost a child and desired to obtain one in its place.
The most startling event, however, in the Indian experience of the Pratts was when they were interrupted at the dinner table by one of the boys, Benjamin, rushing into the room, closely pursued by a warrior generally known as "The Devil's Ramrod," who was brandishing his knife and threatening to kill him. The boy had been teasing him, and it was with much difficulty that he could be appeased. At length he exclaimed, "Me no kill Hodanidaoh's boy," stuck his knife with savage emphasis into the door-post, and strode haughtily away.
Generally, however, the Indians were peaceable and well be- haved. Farmer's Brother resided at Farmer's Point, the first cabin from the village line, on the reservation. Farther up, and just above Seneca street, was the old council house, a block building where the Indians were very fond of meeting in legis- lative session. Near it lived "White Sencca," his son "Seneca White" and others. Still farther out was the main Indian vil- lage, where Red Jacket resided, and which was scattered over a considerable space on both sides of the Aurora road, west of the present village of Ebenezer, and on the flats south of that village.
At this time the usual Indian residences were log cabins, of various dimensions and pretensions, but not differing greatly from those of the pioneers.
Apropos of Indians and log-cabins, a story is told of Farmer's Brother in Stone's Life of Red Jacket, which illustrates the difficulty of expressing a new idea in the Indian dialects, except by the most elaborate description. At a very early day, he with other chiefs went from Buffalo creek to (I think) Elmira, to meet some white commissioners. On their way they stopped one night at a log-tavern, newly erected in the wilderness. In describing their journey to the whites, he said they stayed at "a house put together with parts of trees piled on each other, to which a pole was attached, to which a board was tied, on which was written 'rum is sold here.'"
In 1808 Farmer's Brother was recognized as the principal man among the Indians, all things considered, though Red Jacket
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OLD SMOKE AND YOUNG SMOKE.
was put forward whenever they wanted to make a display in the eyes of the whites. He seems, too, to have been accorded by general consent the rank, so far as there was any such rank, of principal sachem, or civil chief, of the Senecas. Farmer's Brother was a war-chief.
Many of the whites attributed a supremacy of some kind to Guienguatoh, commonly called "Young King," and sometimes "Young Smoke." He was said to be the son of Sayengeraghta, otherwise "Old King," otherwise "Old Smoke," who was un- doubtedly up to the time of his death principal civil sachem of the Senecas.
Rev. Asher Wright, of the Cattaraugus mission, explained while living that Guienguatoh meant in substance "the Smoke Bearer," that is, the hereditary bearer of the smoking brand from the central council-fire of the Iroquois confederacy to that of the Seneca nation. As near as I can make out, the whites got the two names intermingled, by thinking that father and son must both have the same name or title ; whereas the only thing certain about Indian nomenclature was that they would not have the same name or title.
I imagine that the true designations were "Old King " and "Young Smoke." That is to say, Sayengeraghta, being an aged head-sachem, might fairly be called " Old King," while his son, who inherited from his maternal uncle the position of brand- bearer, could properly be termed "Young Smoke." But the whites, thinking that the son of "Old King" must certainly be "Young King," applied that title to the younger man, which he was not unwilling to wear. They also gave the son's appellation to the father, sometimes calling him "Old Smoke," and I under- stand that it was from the old man that Smoke's creek derived its name.
If Red Jacket was sincere when he professed to Washington his desire for improvement, he soon changed his mind, and from early in this century to the time of his death was the inveterate enemy of civilization, Christianity and education. Although he understood English when he heard it, he generally pretended to the contrary, and would pay no attention to what was said to him in that language. He could only speak a few words of English, and would not learn it, though he could easily have
168
" MOVE ALONG, JO."
done so. He was never weary of holding councils with the whites, and rarely failed to repeat the story of the wrongs their countrymen had done to the Indians.
Numerous are the anecdotes told of his' opposition to his peo- ple's learning anything from the whites. More than once he said to the missionaries who sought to convert him :
"Go, preach to the people of Buffalo; if you can make them decent and sober, and learn them not to cheat the Indians and each other, we will believe in your religion."
He declared that the educated Indians learned useless art and artificial wants. Said he :
"They become discouraged and dissipated ; despised by the Indians, neglected by the whites, and without value to either ; less honest than the former and perhaps more knavish than the latter."
Again, he said to some missionaries, in sarcastic rejection of their offers :
"We pity you, and wish you to bear to our good friends in the East our best wishes. Inform them that, in compassion toward them, we are willing to send them missionaries to teach them our religion, habits and customs."
He was sarcastic, too, on another point :
" Before the whites came," said he, "the papooses were all black-eyed and dark-skinned ; now their eyes are turning blue and their skins are fading out."
Professor Ellicott Evans, grand-nephew of Joseph Ellicott, relates an anecdote which he says he had from the lips of his grand-uncle, concerning himself and Red Jacket. It is sub- stantially as follows :
The two having met in Tonawanda swamp, they sat down on a log which happened to be convenient, both being near the middle. Presently Red Jacket said, in his almost unintelligible English :
" Move along, Jo." Ellicott did so and the sachem moved up to him. In a few minutes came another request :
" Move along, Jo"; and again the agent complied, and the chieftain followed. Scarcely had this been done . when Red Jacket again said :
" Move along, Jo!" Much annoyed, but willing to humor
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RED JACKET'S TOMAHAWK.
him, and not seeing what he was driving at, Ellicott complied, this time reaching the end of the log. But that was not suffi- cient, and presently the request was repeated for the third time: " Move along, Jo !"
"Why, man," angrily replied the agent, "I can't move any farther without getting off from the log into the mud."
"Ugh! Just so white man. Want Indian move along-move along. Can't go no farther, but he say-' move along !'"
The sachem had become extremely dissipated, and his Wash- ington medal was frequently pawned in Buffalo for whisky. He always managed to recover it, however, for, though he op- posed all white teachings, his vanity led him to cherish this memento of the great white chieftain's favor.
He was disposed to stand much on his dignity, and some- times to be very captious. He once went, attended by his in- terpreter, Major Jack Berry, and requested David Reese, the blacksmith for the Indians, to make him a tomahawk, at the same time giving directions as to the kind of weapon he wanted. Reese made it, as near as he could, according to order, but when Red Jacket returned he was much dissatisfied.
·Again he gave his orders, and again Reese strove to fulfill them, but the sachem was more dissatisfied than before. So he went to work and with much labor whittled out a wooden pat- tern of a tomahawk, declaring that if the blacksmith would make one exactly like that he would be satisfied.
"All right," said Reese, who had by this time got out of pa- tience with what he considered the chieftain's whims.
In due time Red Jacket came to get his tomahawk. It was ready, and was precisely like the model. But, after looking at it and then at the model for a moment, he flung it down with an angry " Ugh," and left the shop. It was exactly like the model, but the model had no hole in it for a handle.
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CIVIL AND MILITARY OFFICERS.
CHAPTER XXI.
1808 AND 1809.
First County Officers .- County Buildings .- First Indictment. - Organization of Clarence .- Settlement of Cheektowaga .- Settlement on Caynga Creek. - Progress in the South Towns .- A Pioneer Funeral. - Springville. - Sardinia. -Further Progress. - Glezen Fillmore. - Buffalo in 1809 .- Origin of " Black Rock."-Porter, Barton & Co .- "The Horn Breeze. "-Straightening Main Street. - The First Buffalo Church.
The governor appointed Augustus Porter, living near Niagara Falls, as "first judge" of the new Court of Common Pleas, having jurisdiction over Niagara, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua coun- ties. His four associates were probably Samuel Tupper and Erastus Granger of Buffalo, James Brooks of Cattaraugus county, and Zattu Cushing of Chautauqua county. Asa Ran- som was appointed sheriff, Louis Le Couteulx county clerk, and Archibald S. Clarke surrogate. The latter gentleman was also elected the same year as member of assembly from the district composed of the three new counties.
The appointment of Ransom as sheriff compelled him to re- sign his lieutenant-colonelcy, and Timothy S. Hopkins was appointed in his place. This, with the cashiering of Maybee, left both majors' positions vacant. Capt. Warren, not yet twen- ty-four, was made first major, and Asa Chapman second major.
In July, 1808, there were but four attorneys in Niagara county. as we learn from a letter of Juba Storrs, a young man bred to the law, who was preparing to go into practice at Buffalo, but soon abandoned the intention. Of these Walden was one, and the others were probably Bates Cooke of Lewiston, John Root and Jonas Harrison. In this letter Storrs prophesied that Buf- falo would "eventually be the Utica, and more than the Utica, of this western country."
Immediately after the formation of the new counties, the Holland Company began the erection of a frame court-house in the middle of Onondaga (Washington) street, directly in front
171
THE FIRST INDICTMENT.
of the site of what this generation has known as the "Old Court House." They gave half an acre of land, lying in a circle around it, to the county. It was finished in 1809.
The first court was held at Landon's, in June, 1808. No rec- ord of the proceedings remains, but at the session in November. 1808, an indictment was presented which has survived all the accidents of war and time, and is still on file in Erie county clerk's office, or was previous to the latest removal of the rec- ords. It charged five men, described as "labourers of the town of Erie," with stealing a cow in 1806. As the "town of Erie" had ceased to exist when the indictment was found, the de- scription must have referred to the time when the crime was committed.
The document was commendably brief, containing only a hun- dred and one words. Peter Vandeventer was foreman of the grand jury. The district attorney was William Stewart, of one of the eastern counties, for the territory in charge of a single district attorney then extended more than half way to Albany.
The selection of Buffalo as county-seat of course gave an impetus to immigration, and there were more lots bought in 1808 than in any previous year. Jabez Goodell, Elisha Ensign, A. C. Fox, Gilman Folsom, Henry Ketchum, Zebulon Ketchum and Joshua Lovejoy all came about this time.
Henry Anguish made the first settlement in the vicinity of Tonawanda village, in 1808. Among the new comers to Am- herst was John Long, whose son, Christian Long, then thirteen years old, still resides at the west end of Williamsville. He says that, when he came, Williams had two saw-mills running, showing that settlement in that vicinity had increased so that one could not supply the demand for lumber. For grinding, however, all that part of the country still depended on Ran- som's mill. There were then but two or three houses about Williamsville, and Samuel McConnell kept a log tavern on the west side of the creek.
The first town-meeting in Clarence, which it will be remem- bered included the whole north part of Erie county, was held in the spring of 1808 at Elias Ransom's tavern, two miles west of Williamsville, in the present town of Amherst. The town- book has been preserved from that time to this, and is now in
172
CLARENCE AND CHEEKTOWAGA.
the town clerk's office at Clarence Center, being the oldest rec- ord in the county pertaining to any town now in existence. The officers then elected (aside from postmasters) were the following :
Jonas Williams, supervisor ; Samuel Hill, Jr., town clerk ; Timothy S. Hopkins, Aaron Beard and Levi Felton, assessors ; Otis R. Hopkins, collector ; Otis R. Hopkins, Francis B. Drake and Henry B. Annabill, constables ; Samuel Hill, Jr., Asa Harris and Asa Chapman, commissioners of highways, and James Cronk, poormaster.
There must have been a combination against the Buffalonians, for not one of those above named resided in the new county-seat, except, possibly, constable Annabill. One of the town-ordinan- ces of that year offered a bounty of five dollars for wolves, and another declared that fences should be five feet high, and not more than two inches between the rails. They must have made very small rails in Clarence.
Licenses to sell liquor were granted to Joseph Landon, Zenas Barker, Frederick Miller, Elias Ransom, Samuel McConnell, Asa Harris, Levi Felton, Peter Vandeventer and Asa Chapman.
In this year, (1808) the first permanent settlement was made in what is now Cheektowaga (except possibly on the northern edge) by Apollos Hitchcock, on the land still occupied by his descend- ants. His son, Alexander, (with whom I conversed a year ago, but who has since met his death by accident,) was then eighteen. He told me that the first grain they raised was car- ried on horseback across the reservation to Stephens' mill. Ran- som's was a little nearer, but was sometimes scant of water.
The Indian trail ran between his father's residence and Cay- uga creek, and he said the only trouble they ever received from the red men was when the latter found the white man's fences built across their favorite track ; then they were apt to fling them down and stalk on, careless of the endangered crop. The wolves howled their nightly serenade around the shecp-fold, and the bears were, as the old gentleman expressed it, "sufficiently numerous," but deer were comparatively scarce, owing doubtless to the industry of the Indian hunters.
In 1808, Benjamin Clark, Pardon Peckham and Capt. Elias Bissell settled about a mile east of the center of the present
I73
LANCASTER AND HAMBURG.
town of Lancaster. Mr. Clark's son, James, then twelve years old, now an active old gentleman of eighty, informs me that there were then just twelve houses on that road between Buffalo and the east line of the county. All the south part of what is now Lancaster was then known as the Cayuga Creek settlement, or simply as "Cayuga Creek." About the same time Calvin Fillmore, afterwards known as Colonel Fillmore, built a saw- mill at what is now called Bowmansville, probably the first in Lancaster.
On the north side of Little Buffalo creek, in Lancaster, is an ancient fortification enclosing an acre of ground, and said by Turner to have been when first discovered as high as a man's breast. There were five gateways, in one of which grew a pine tree, believed by lumbermen to be five hundred years old. There is ample evidence that a long time ago men who built breastworks dwelt in Erie county, but very little evidence that they were radically different from the American Indians.
Among other settlers in Hamburg was Jacob Wright, who, about 1808, located himself and opened a tavern near what is now called Abbott's Corners, which ere long became known as Wright's Corners. Among the illustrations of the enterprise and invention of those days, may be noted the operations of Daniel Smith with his little corn-mill. Thinking that he could do more business in the valley of the Eighteen-Mile, he moved it over there, just above the site of White's Corners. But the building of a dam was beyond his resources, and needless for that size of mill. So he felled a big hemlock across the stream, fastened some more logs to it, and thus created an obstruction which threw enough water around the end of the tree to run his mill.
Obadiah and Reuben Newton settled in the Smith neighbor- hood in 1808, and later it has generally been called the Newton settlement.
The Quakers had increased so that in 1808 they held "month- ly meetings" at their meeting-house at East Hamburg.
In Aurora, settlement had progressed so that in 1808 the in- habitants erected a frame school-house, one of the first in the county. Before it was finished school was kept in a log school- house by Miss Phebe Turner, daughter of Jacob Turner, of
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A PIONEER FUNERAL.
Wales, then a young lady of twenty, now the venerable but still active widow of Judge Paine.
Ethan Allen, who had purchased land in Wales before, bought a large tract near Hall's Hollow in 1808 and moved on to it, making it his home through a long and active life. Besides the Holmeses, mentioned in chapter 23, Charles Blackmar, Benja- min Earl, James Morrison, Samuel Searls and others were purchasers (and mostly settlers) of this year.
Among the new comers in Boston was Asa Cary, a brother of Richard. With him came his son, Truman Cary, then a youth of sixteen, now a hale old man of eighty-four, engaged in the active superintendence of his farm, to whom I am very largely indebted for facts regarding the early history of the south towns.
During that summer Deacon Richard Cary was called on to go ten miles through the forest to lead in the funeral ceremonies over the body of Mrs. Albro, wife of one of the only two set- tlers at Springville. There was no minister anywhere in that part of the country, and all that could be done to give Christian burial to the departed was to send for sympathising neighbors ten or twelve miles distant, and ask the good deacon to repeat a prayer and read a sermon over her inanimate form.
Mr. Albro went away after the death of his wife, leaving Stone alone. In October, however, Mr. Samuel Cochran came, made a small clearing, put up a log house and went after his family. In November, John Russell, afterwards long and well known as Deacon Russell, brought his family to the same locality.
In the forepart of the winter Cochran returned with his wife and infant child. The only route to Springville from the East, then, was first to Buffalo, then up the beach to the Titus stand, then up the Eighteen-Mile to the farthest settlements in its val- ley, and then across the ridge. The last part of the way Coch- ran followed blazed trees, and some of the time had to cut his own road. The three families of Stone, Russell and Cochran were all there were in that vicinity in the winter of 1808-9.
Stone left in the summer of 1809, but Albro returned. James Vaughan and Samuel Cooper bought near there in 1809, and soon became permanent residents, and several other settlers came in.
175
COLLINS, SARDINIA AND HOLLAND.
Jacob Taylor, as chief of the Quaker mission, built a saw-mill at Taylor's Hollow, in Collins, and a grist-mill also about 1809. Perhaps it was this that induced Abraham Tucker and others, with their families, to settle near there in that year. Tucker lo- cated in the edge of North Collins, where he built him a cabin, covered it with bark and remained with his family. Stephen Sisson came the same year. Sylvanus Hussey, Isaac Hatha- way and Thomas Bills purchased land the same year, and some of them were probably among the companions of Tucker. Settlements were made close to the line between North Collins and Collins ; perhaps some in the latter town.
In that year, too, George Richmond, with his sons, George and Frederick, located himself three miles east of Springville, near the southeast corner of the present town of Sardinia, where he soon opened a tavern. That same year young Frederick Richmond taught the first school in the present town of Boston.
The same summer, (1809,) Ezra Nott settled between what is now called Rice's Corners and Colegrove's Corners, becoming the pioneer of all the eastern part of Sardinia. He was a nephew of Jabez Warren, and in company with his cousins, Asa and Sumner Warren, built and burned the first brush-heap in that township-a fact to which, when he had become a general and a prominent citizen, he often referred with the pride of a true pioneer.
Emigration began to roll into the future town of Holland. Ezekiel Colby settled in the valley, and soon after came Jona- than Colby, who still survives, being well-known as " Old Col- onel Colby." Nathan Colby located on the north part of Ver- mont Hill, and about the same time Jacob Farrington settled on the south part, east of the site of Holland village, where there was not as yet a single house-another instance of the curious readiness of many of the first comers to neglect the valleys for the hill-tops.
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