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 2
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Before narrating events, I will give a brief description of the theater on which those events occurred, and endeavor to answer the question : What manner of territory was it, the history of which began two hundred and twenty-six years ago ?
To begin at the foundation. It is known that beneath the surface accumulations of various kinds of soil the earth is divided into rocky strata, of widely different natures, to which various names have been given by scientific observers. These strata are usually more or less inclined upward, and in common parlance they "crop out" at the surface, one above the other, somewhat like a number of boards, which have stood on edge side by side, and have then fallen down. Lay the clapboarded side of a house flat on the ground, and it will give some idea of the manner in which the geological strata overlap each other ; only they run back under each other for an unknown distance, instead of merely far enough to drive a nail.
The strata which come to or near the surface in Erie county incline upward to the north. They all belong to what is called by our State geologists the "New York system," the rocks being analogous to the Silurian and Devonian systems of European scientists. The lowest of the Erie county strata belongs to what is termed the "Onondaga salt group," and underlies all that part of the county north of the ledge described in the next sentence.
Next above this comes the hydraulic (or water lime). Onondaga and corniferous limestones, which crop out in a ledge from thirty to sixty feet high, which extends in a direction somewhat north of east from Black Rock, in the city of Buffalo, through the south-
13
TOPOGRAPHY.
ern part of the towns of Amherst, Clarence and Newstead, to the Genesee county line, and thence for a long distance castward. In this stratum the water limestone and the common limestone are closely intermingled.
Overlapping these limestones, what are called the Marcellus and Hamilton shales crop out in the central parts of the county, while still further south the rocks of the " Portage group " appear on the tops of the hills. The Portage stratum, like all the rest, dips to the southward, and in Pennsylvania forms the bottom of the vast coal basins of that State; so that geologists declare that the whole of Erie County is too low in the geological sys- tem for any possible mines of that article.
It is needless to observe that in 1620 geology was an unknown science, and even if the best educated of Europeans had found his way to the wilds of Erie county he would have understood naught of "strata," or "dips," or "Silurian systems." The other natural characteristics of the county would, however, have been visible to the naked eye, and the geological descrip- tion seemed a proper foundation for the rest.
As to the topography, or configuration of the surface, of the county, it is extremely diversified. North of the limestone ledge it is almost a perfect level, and near the Tonawanda was origi- nally swampy. The soil is a deep alluvial loam, and the appear- ance of the country at the present time reminds the traveler of the broad, rich bottoms of western rivers.
South of the ledge, for ten or twelve miles, the land, though more uneven than north of it, is not so much so as is usual east- of the Alleganies, and in its cleared state bears a considerable resemblance to the upland prairies of the West. The soil is a clayey loam interspersed with gravel.
A little farther south the surface becomes moderately broken and the soil gravelly. These are the characteristics of the cen- tral parts of the county.
Still farther south the ground, except near the lake shore, begins to rise in hills, which at length attain a height of from seven to nine hundred feet above the lake. Between these hills run deep valleys, bearing northwestward toward the lake, and varying from a few rods to nearly a mile in width. The tops of the hills generally form level table-lands, covered with a stiff
14
RIVERS AND CREEKS.
clayey soil, while a fertile alluvial loam is found in the valleys. Along the lake shore, however, and for several miles back, the land is as level and rich as in the northern portions of the county.
As one passes from the table-lands just mentioned toward the northern boundary of the county, the surface descends, and a fertile, rolling territory again spreads out before him. Just before reaching Cattaraugus creek there is a range of steep declivities and rugged bluffs, now known as the "Cattaraugus breakers," which extend the whole width of the county. Below these is only a narrow flat, portions of which are often overflowed by the turbulent waters of the Cattaraugus.
West of the northern part of this territory, the Niagara river runs in a very rapid current for a mile after it leaves Lake Erie, then subsides to a velocity of two and a half miles per hour, and divides into two streams about five miles below the lake, enclos- ing Grand Island, ten miles long and nearly as wide. Buckhorn Island, lying off the farthest point of Grand Island, continues the county's jurisdiction about a mile farther down, bringing it within three miles of the world-renowned cataract of Niagara.
South of the head of the river, for six or seven miles, the nar- row foot of the lake crowds still farther eastward upon the land ; thence the shore trends away to the southwest, far beyond the limits of Erie county.
Across the county run numerous creeks, the general course of all of them being westward or northwestward, and all finally mingling their waters with Lake Erie or the Niagara river. Tonawanda creek, as has been said, is the northern boundary of the county. Its length, according to the general course of its val- ley and aside from its lesser windings, is near sixty miles, thirty of which it has run in Genesee county when it strikes the north- western corner of Erie. On its way to the Niagara, which it reaches opposite the middle of Grand Island, it receives Murder creek, a stream about ten miles long, some four miles from the Genesee county line ; Ransom creek, about fifteen miles long, empties some twelve miles farther down, and just above its mouth the Tonawanda is joined by Ellicott or Eleven-Mile creek, which is not less than twenty-five miles in length. All, including the Tonawanda, head south of the limestone terrace,
15
RIVERS AND CREEKS.
Murder creek breaking through it at the village of Akron, Ran- som's creek at Clarence Hollow, and Ellicott creck at Williams- ville.
Scajaquada creek enters the Niagara two miles below its exit from the lake, having flowed about fifteen miles in a westerly direction,
About a mile and a half above the head of the river the prin- cipal stream of the county flows into Lake Erie. This is Buf- falo creek, or Buffalo river as it is now called. It is composed of three branches. The main one, commonly called the Big Buf- falo, heads in Wyoming county, crosses into Erie after a course of a few miles, then runs northwestward about fifteen miles, and then westward fifteen or cighteen miles more to its mouth. Six miles from the lake it receives Cayuga creek from the north- east, that stream having followed a general westward course of about twenty miles. Two or three miles lower down it is joined on the other side by Cazenove creek, which heads in the extreme southeast corner of the county, and flows thirty miles northwest, receiving, about half-way down, the waters of the west branch, which have run in a generally northern direction for fifteen miles.
All these distances are merely approximate, and relate to the general course of the respective streams, and not to their minor curves.
Five miles south from the mouth of the Buffalo, Smoke's creek, a twelve-mile stream, enters the lake, and a mile or two farther up is Rush creek, which is still smaller.
The north branch of the Eighteen-Mile creek heads near the south bounds of the county, not far from the head of the west branch of the Cazenove, runs northwesterly twelve miles, then nearly west about five miles, where it is joined by the south. branch, a stream about twelve miles long, and then the whole flows five miles westerly, and enters the lake about eighteen miles from the mouth of the Buffalo.
Eight miles above its mouth is that of the Big Sister, a stream some fifteen miles long.
The Cattaraugus forms the southern boundary of the county for thirty miles, and it heads some ten miles cast of the county line. Though it makes a considerable bend to the southward, its
16
TIMBER AND PRAIRIE LANDS.
mouth is nearly due west of its head. Its tributaries in this county are all small, the largest being Clear creek, a twelve-mile stream, entering the Cattaraugus eight miles from its mouth. There are of course innumerable small streams, which cannot be mentioned in a mere cursory topographical sketch.
Thus far the natural characteristics of Erie county are the same now that they were in 1620, and had been for unknown ages before, save that less water flows along the streams than when their banks were shaded by the primeval forests. Some new names have been applied by the white man, but in many cases even the names remain unchanged.
The outward dress, however, of these hills and valleys is widely different from what it was two centuries and a half ago. In the southern part of the county the valleys were covered with beech and maple, the hills with oak and elm and occasional bodies of pine, and a little farther north with large quantities of hemlock. In the center the pine increased in quantity, the land on both sides of Buffalo creek and its branches being largely occupied by towering pines of the finest quality. It will be understood, of course, that these remarks refer only to the prin- cipal growths in the different sections, all the kinds of timber named being more or less intermingled, and numerous other kinds being found in smaller quantities.
In the northern part of the county hardwood trees again predominated, the low grounds north of the limestone ledge be- ing thickly covered. Birch appeared in large quantities on the Tonawanda.
But the tract running east and west through the county, for some ten miles, south of the limestone ledge, was the most pecu- liar. Here the timber was principally oak, but a great part of the territory consisted of openings, or prairies, entirely bare of trees. It is difficult to ascertain their original extent, but there is no doubt that when the country was first settled, seventy-five years ago, there were numerous prairies of from fifty acres apiece down to five. Taking this fact in connection with the accounts of early travelers, it is almost certain that their extent had been gradually decreasing, and that a hundred and fifty years earlier nearly the whole of the tract in question was an open prairie.
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WILD ANIMALS-THE BUFFALO.
This chapter may fitly be closed by a glance at the animals which originally inhabited the county of Eric, though possibly they ought to be described in the next one, under the head of "occupants."
The deer strayed in great numbers through the forest and darted across the prairies. In the thickest retreats the gray wolf made his lair. The black bear often rolled his unwieldly form beneath the nut-bearing trees, and occasionally the wild scream of the panther, fiercest of American beasts, startled the Indian hunter into even more than his usual vigilance. The hedgehog and the raccoon were common, and squirrels of vari- ous kinds leaped gaily on the trees. To include the whole ani- mal kingdom, here the wild turkey and the partridge oft furnished food for the family of the red hunter, pigeons in enormous quan- tities yearly made their home within our boundaries, numerous smaller birds fluttered among the trees, the eagle occasionally swept overhead from his eyric by the great cataract, and, besides some harmless varieties of reptiles, thousands of deadly rattle- snakes hissed and writhed among the rocks in the northern por- tion of the county.
Of all these there is no question. But there has been much dispute whether the lordliest of American beasts ever honored with his presence the localities which bear his name; whether the buffalo ever drank from the waters of Buffalo creek, or rested on the site of Buffalo city. The question will be dis- cussed some chapters further on ; at present I will only say that judging from the prairie-like nature of a portion of the ground, from the fact that the animal in question certainly roamed over territory but a little way west of us, from the accounts of carly travelers, from relics which have been discovered, and from the name which I believe the Indians bestowed on the principal stream of this vicinity, I have little doubt that the county - of Eric was, in 1620, at least occasionally visited by the pride of the western plains, the unwieldly but majestic buffalo.
For buffalo, not " bison," is now his true name, and by it he will invariably be called in this volume. If his name was ever bison, it has been changed by the sovereign people of America, (all names may be changed by the law-making power,) and it is but hopeless pedantry to attempt to revive that appellation.
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TIIE NEUTER NATION.
CHAPTER III.
OCCUPANTS, NEIGHBORS, ETC.
Early Missionaries .- The Neuter Nation .- The Eries .- The Hurons. - The Iroquois. Former Occupants. - Fortifications .- Weapons .- Inferences .- The French in Canada. - The Puritans in New England. - The Dutch in New York.
As was said in the beginning, it was about the year 1620 that the first knowledge of this region began to reach the ears of Europeans. In that year three French Catholic missionaries came to instruct the Indians living in Canada, northwestward of this locality. It does not appear that they visited the shores of the Niagara, but they obtained some information regarding the dwellers there, and that knowledge was eked out by the hardy French hunters and trappers who explored the shores of the great lakes in search of furs, preceding even the devoted missionaries of the Catholic faith.
At that time the county of Erie was in the possession of a tribe of Indians whom the French called the Neuter Nation. Their Indian name was sometimes given as the Kahquahs and sometimes as the Attiwondaronks. The former is the one by which they are generally known.
The French called them the Neuter Nation because they lived at peace with the fierce tribes which dwelt on either side of them. They were reported by their first European visitors to number twelve thousand souls. . This, however, was doubtless a very great exaggeration, as that number was greater than was to be found among all the six nations of the Iroquois in the day of their greatest glory. It is a universal habit to exaggerate the numbers of barbarians, who cover much ground and make a large show in comparison with their real strength.
They were undoubtedly, however, a large and powerful nation, as size and power were estimated among Indian tribes. Their villages lay on both sides of the Niagara, chiefly the western. There was also a Kahquah village near the mouth of Eighteen- Mile creek, and perhaps one or two others on the south shore of Lake Erie.
19
" NATION OF TIIE CAT."
The greater part, however, of that shore was occupied by the tribe from which the lake derives its name, the Eries. These were termed by the French the "Nation of the Cat," whence many have inferred that "Erie" means cat; the further inference being that the city of Buffalo is situated at the foot of Cat lake, and that this is the Centennial History of the County of Cat.
The old accounts, however, rather tend to show that the name of " Cat " was applied by the French to both the tribe and the lake on their own responsibility, on account of the many wild- cats and panthers found in that locality. "Erie " may possibly mean wild-cat or panther, but I believe there is no authentic ac- count of a separate Indian nation calling themselves by the name of an animal.
Northwest of the Neuter Nation dwelt the Algonquins or Hurons, reaching to the shores of the great lake which bears their name, while to the eastward was the home of those power- ful confederates whose fame has extended throughout the world, whose civil polity has been the wonder of sages, whose warlike achievements have compelled the admiration of soldiers, whose eloquence has thrilled the hearts of the most cultivated hearers, the brave, sagacious and far-dreaded Iroquois. They then consisted of but five nations, and their "Long House," as they themselves termed their confederacy, extended from east. to west, through all the rich central portion of the present State of New York. The Mohawks were in the fertile valley of the Mohawk river ; the Oncidas, the most peaceful of the confeder- ates, were beside the lake, the name of which still keeps their memory green ; then as now the territory of the Onondagas was the gathering place of leaders, though State conventions have taken the place of the council fires which once blazed near the site of Syracuse ; the Cayugas kept guard over the beauti- ful lake which now bears their name, while westward from Seneca lake ranged the fierce, untamable Sonnonthouans, better known as Senccas, the warriors par excellence of the confederacy. Their villages reached westward to within thirty or forty miles of the Niagara, or to the vicinity of the present village of Batavia.
Deadly war prevailed between the Iroquois and the Hurons, and the hostility between the former and the Eries was scarcely
20
EARLY OCCUPANTS.
less fervent. Betwixt these contending foemen the peaceful Kahquahs long maintained their neutrality, and the warriors of the East, of the Northwest and of the Southwest suppressed their hatred for the time, as they met by the council fires of these aboriginal peace-makers. When first discovered, Erie county was the land of quiet, while tempests raged around.
Like other Indian tribes, the Kahquahs guarded against sur- prise by placing their villages a short distance back from any navigable water ; in this case, from the Niagara river and Lake Erie. One of those villages was named Onguiaahra, after the mighty torrent which they designated by that name-a name which has since been shortened into Niagara.
In dress, food and customs, the Kahquahs do not appear to have differed much from the other savages around them ; wear- ing the same scanty covering of skins, living principally on meat killed in the chase, but raising patches of Indian corn, beans and gourds.
Such were the inhabitants of Erie county, and such their sur- roundings, at the beginning of its history.
As for the still earlier occupants of the county, I shall dilate very little upon them, for there is really very little from which one can draw a reasonable inference. The Iroquois and the Hurons had been in New York and Canada for at least twenty years before the opening of this history, and probably for a hun- dred years more. Their earliest European visitors heard no story of their having recently migrated from other lands, and they certainly would have heard it had any such fact existed. The Kahquahs must also have been for a goodly time in this locality, or they could not have acquired the influence necessary to maintain their neutrality between such fierce neighbors.
All or any of these tribes might have been on the ground they occupied in 1620 any time from a hundred to a thousand years, for all that can be learned from any reliable source. Much has been written of mounds, fortifications, bones, relics, etc., usually supposed to have belonged to some half-civilized people of gigantic size, who lived here before the Indians, but there is very little evidence to justify the supposition.
It is true that numerous earthworks, evidently intended for fortifications, have been found in Erie county, as in other parts
21
EARTHWORKS AND PALISADES.
of Western New York, enclosing from two to ten acres each, and covered with forest trees, the concentric circles of which indicate an age of from two hundred to five hundred years, with other evidences of a still carlier growth. Some of these will be mentioned in describing the settlement of the various towns. They prove with reasonable certainty that there were human inhabitants here several hundred years ago, and that they found it necessary thus to defend themselves against their enemies, but it does not prove that they were of an essentially different race from the Indians who were discovered here by the earliest Europeans.
It has been suggested that the Indians never built breast- works, and that these fortifications were beyond their patience and skill. But they certainly did build palisades, frequently re- quiring much labor and ingenuity. When the French first came to Montreal, they discovered an Indian town of fifty huts, which was encompassed by three lines of palisades some thirty feet high, with one well-secured entrance. On the inside was a ram- part of timber, ascended by ladders, and supplied with heaps of stones ready to cast at an enemy.
Certainly, those who had the necessary patience, skill and in- dustry to build such a work as that were quite capable of build- ing intrenchments of earth. In fact, one of the largest fortresses of Western New York, known as Fort Hill, in the town of Le Roy, Genesee county, contained, when first discovered, great piles of round stones, evidently intended for use against assail- ants, and showing about the same progress in the art of war as was evinced by the palisade-builders.
True, the Iroquois, when first discovered, did not build forts of earth, but it is much more likely that they had abandoned them in the course of improvement for the more convenient palisade, than that a whole race of half-civilized men had disappeared from the country, leaving no other trace than these earthworks. Considering the light weapons then in vogue, the palisade was an improvement on the earthwork, offering equal resistance to missiles and much greater resistance to escalade.
Men are apt to display a superfluity of wisdom in dealing with such problems, and to reject simple explanations mercly because they are simple. The Indians were here when the
22
THE FRENCH IN CANADA.
country was discovered, and so were the earthworks, and I be- lieve the former constructed the latter.
It has been claimed that human bones of gigantic size have been discovered, but when the evidence is sifted, and the con- stant tendency to exaggerate is taken into account, there will be found no reason to believe that they were relics of any other race than the American Indians.
The numerous small axes or hatchets which have been found throughout Western New York were unquestionably of French origin, and so, too, doubtless, were the few other utensils of metal which have been discovered in this vicinity.
On the whole, we may safely conclude that, while it is by no means impossible that some race altogether different from the Indians existed here before them, there is no good evidence that such was the case, and the strong probabilities are that if there was any such race it was inferior rather than superior to the people discovered here by the Europeans.
The relations of this section of country to the European pow- ers was of a very indefinite description. James the First was on the throne of England, and Louis the Thirteenth was on that of France, with the great Richelieu as his prime minister.
In 1534, nearly a century before the opening of this history, and only forty-two years after the discovery of America, the French explorer, George Cartier, had sailed up the St. Law- rence to Montreal, and taken possession of all the country round about on behalf of King Francis the First, by the name of New France. He made some attempts at colonization, but in 1543 they were all abandoned, and for more than half a century the disturbed condition of France prevented further progress in America.
In 1603, the celebrated French mariner, Samuel Champlain, led an expedition to Quebec, made a permanent settlement there, and in fact founded the colony of Canada. From Que- bec and Montreal, which was soon after founded, communica- tion was comparatively easy along the course of the St. Law- rence and Lake Ontario, and even up Lake Erie after a por- tage around the Falls. Thus it was that the French fur-traders and missionaries reached the borders of Erie county far in ad- vance of any other explorers.
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THE ENGLISH AND DUTCHI.
In 1606, King James had granted to an association of English- men called the Plymouth Company the territory of New Eng- land, but no permanent settlement was made until the 9th day of November, 1620, when from the historic Mayflower the Pil- grim Fathers landed on Plymouth Rock. The English settle- ments were expected to stretch westward to the Pacific or Great South Sea, and patents were granted to accommodate this lib- eral expansion.
In 1609, the English navigator, Henry Hudson, while in the employ of the Dutch, had discovered the river which bears his name, and since then the latter people had established fortified trading posts at its mouth and at Albany, and had opened a commerce in furs. They, too, made an indefinite claim of· ter- ritory westward. It will be understood that in speaking of "the Dutch" I do not refer to the Germans, sometimes mistakenly called by that name, but to the real Dutch, or people of Holland.
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