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 6
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59
APPROACH OF THE REVOLUTION.
Sir William's nephew and son-in-law, was the earliest "first judge" of the common pleas, with the afterward celebrated John Butler as one of his associates.
As the danger of hostilities increased, the Johnsons showed themselves more and more clearly on behalf of the King. Sir William said little and seemed greatly disturbed by the gather- ing troubles. There is little doubt, however, that, had he lived, he would have used his power in behalf of his royal master. But in 1774 he suddenly died. Much of his influence over the Six Nations descended to his son, Sir John Johnson, and his nephew, Col. Guy Johnson. The latter became his successor in the office of superintendent of Indian affairs.
60
THE HOSTILE IROQUOIS.
CHAPTER IX.
THE REVOLUTION.
Four Iroquois Tribes hostile .- The Oswego Treaty .- Scalps .- Brant .- Guienguah- toh .- Wyoming .- Cherry Valley .- Sullivan's Expedition .- Senecas settle in Erie County .- Gilbert Family .- Peace.
In 1775 the storm burst. The Revolution began. The new superintendent persuaded the Mohawks to remove westward with him, and made good his influence over all of the Six Na- tions except the Oneidas and Tuscaroras, though it was near two years from the breaking out of the war before they com- mitted any serious hostilities. John Butler, however, estab- lished himself at Fort Niagara, and organized a regiment of tories known as Butler's Rangers, and he and the Johnsons used all their influence to induce the Indians to attack the Americans.
The Senecas held off for awhile, but the prospect of both blood and pay was too much for them to withstand, and in 1777 they, in common with the Cayugas, Onondagas and Mohawks, made a treaty with the British at Oswego, agreeing to serve the king throughout the war. Mary Jemison, the celebrated "White Woman," then living among the Senecas on the Genesec, de- clares that at that treaty the British agents, after giving the In- dians numerous presents, "promised a bounty on every scalp that should be brought in."
The question whether a price was actually paid or promised for scalps has been widely debated. There is not sufficient evi- dence to prove that it was done, and the probabilities are that it was not. Mary Jemison was usually considered truthful, and had good means of knowing what the Indians understood on the subject, but the latter were very ready to understand that they would be paid for taking scalps. An incident on the American side, which will be narrated in the account of the war of 1812, will illustrate this propensity of the savages.
As formerly the Senecas, though favorable to the French, hesitated about attacking their brethren of the Long House, so
61
THE SENECAS AT WYOMING.
now the Oneidas, who were friendly to the Americans, did not go out to battle against the other Iroquois, but remained neutral throughout the contest. The league of the Hedonosaunee was weakened but not destroyed.
From the autumn of 1777 forward, the Senecas, Cayugas, On- ondagas and Mohawks were active in the British interest. Fort Niagara again became, as it had been during the French war, the key of all this region, and to it the Iroquois constantly looked for support and guidance. Their raids kept the whole frontier for hundreds of miles in a state of terror, and were at- tended by the usual horrors of savage warfare.
Whether a bounty was paid for scalps or not, the Indians were certainly employed to assail the inhabitants with constant marauding parties, notwithstanding their well-known and invet- erate habit of slaughtering men, women and children whenever opportunity offered, or at least whenever the freak happened to take them. In fact they were good for very little else, their de- sultory method of warfare making them almost entirely useless in assisting the regular operations of an army.
The most active and the most celebrated of the Iroquois chiefs in the Revolution was Joseph Brant, or Thayendenegea, a Mohawk who had received a moderate English education under the patronage of Sir William Johnson. He was most frequently intrusted with the command of detached parties by the British officers, but it does not appear that he had authority over all the tribes, and it is almost certain that the haughty Senecas, the most powerful tribe of the confederacy, to whom by ancient law belonged both the principal war-chiefs of the league, would not and did not submit to the control of a Mohawk.
Three of the chiefs of the Senecas in that conflict are well' known-" Farmer's Brother," "Cornplanter," and "Governor Blacksnake"; but who was their chief-in-chief, if I may be allowed to coin the expression, is not certain. I do not myself think there was any, but am of the opinion that the leader of each expedition received his orders directly from the English officers.
W. L. Stone, author of the life of Brant, says that at the battle of Wyoming, in 1778, the leader of the Senecas, who formed the main part of the Indian force on that occasion, was
62
SULLIVAN'S EXPEDITION.
Guiengwahtoh, supposed to be same as Guiyahgwahdoh, "the smoke-bearer." That was the official title of the Seneca after- wards known as "Young King," he being a kind of hereditary ambassador, the bearer of the smoking brand from the great council-fire of the confederacy to light that of the Senecas. He was too young to have been at Wyoming, but his predeces- sor in office, (probably his maternal uncle,) might have been there. Brant was certainly not present.
I have called that affair the "battle" instead of the "massacre" of Wyoming, as it is usually termed. The facts seem to be that no quarter was given during the conflict, and that after the Americans were routed the tories and Senecas pursued, and killed .all they could, but that those who reached the fort and afterwards surrendered were not harmed, nor were any of the non-combatants. The whole valley, however, was devastated, and the houses burned.
At Cherry Valley, the same year, the Senecas were present in force, together with a body of Mohawks, under Brant, and of tories, under Capt. Walter Butler, son of Col. John Butler, and there then was an undoubted massacre. Nearly thirty women and children were killed, besides many men surprised helpless in their homes.
These events, and other similar ones on a smaller scale, in- duced congress and General Washington to set on foot an expe- dition in the spring of 1779, which, though carried on outside the bounds of Erie county, had a very strong influence on that county's subsequent history. I refer to the celebrated expedi- tion of General Sullivan against the Six Nations.
Having marched up the Susquehanna to Tioga Point, where "he was joined by a brigade under General James Clinton, (father of De Witt Clinton,) Sullivan, with a total force of some four thousand men, moved up the Chemung to the site of Elmira. There Col. Butler, with a small body of Indians and tories, variously estimated at from six hundred to fifteen hundred men, had thrown up intrenchments, and a battle was fought. Butler was speedily defeated, retired with considerable loss, and made no further opposition.
Sullivan advanced and destroyed all the Seneca villages on the Genesee and about Geneva, burning wigwams and cabins,
63
SENECAS IN ERIE COUNTY.
cutting down orchards, cutting up growing corn, and utterly de- vastating the country. The Senccas fled in great dismay to Fort Niagara. The Onondaga villages had in the meantime been destroyed by another force, but it is plain that the Senecas were the ones who were chiefly feared, and against whom the vengeance of the Americans was chiefly directed. After thor- oughly laying waste their country, the Americans returned to the East.
Sullivan's expedition substantially destroyed the league which bound the Six Nations together. Its form remained, but it had lost its binding power. The Oneidas and Tuscaroras were encouraged to increase their separation from the other confeder- ates. Those tribes whose possessions had been destroyed were thrown into more complete subservience to the British power, thereby weakening their inter-tribal relations, and the spirits of the Senecas, the most powerful and warlike of them all, were much broken by this disaster.
It was a more serious matter than had been the destruction of their villages in earlier times. They had adopted a more permanent mode of existence. They had learned to depend more on agriculture and less on the chase. They had not only corn-fields, but gardens, orchards, and sometimes comfortable houses. In fact they had adopted many of the customs of civil- ized life, though without relinquishing their primitive pleasures, such as tomakawking prisoners and scalping the dead.
They fled en masse to Fort Niagara, and during the winter of 1779-80, which was one of extraordinary severity, were scantily sustained by rations which the British authorities with difficulty procured. As spring approached the English made earnest efforts to reduce the expense, by persuading the Indians to make new settlements and plant crops. The red men were naturally anxious to keep as far as practicable from the dreaded foes who had inflicted such heavy punishment the year before, and were unwilling to risk their families again at their ancient seats.
At this time a considerable body of the Senecas, with proba- bly some Cayugas and Onondagas, came up from Niagara and established themselves near Buffalo creek, about four miles above its mouth. This was, so far as known, the first permanent settlement of the Senecas in Erie county. They had probably
64
LIEUTENANT JOHNSTON.
had huts here to use while hunting and fishing, but no regular villages. In fact this settlement of the Senecas, in the spring of 1780, was probably the first permanent occupation of the county, since the destruction of the Neuter Nation a hundred and thirty-five years before.
The same spring another band located themselves at the mouth of the Cattaraugus.
Those who settled on Buffalo creek were under the leadership of Siangarochti, or Sayengaraghta, an aged but influential chief, sometimes called Old King, and said to be the head sachem of the Senecas. They brought with them two or more more mem- bers of the Gilbert family, quakers who had been captured on the borders of Pennsylvania, a month or two previous. After the war the family published a narrative of their captivity, which gives much valuable information regarding this period of our history.
Immediately on their arrival, the squaws began to clear the ground and prepare it for corn, while the men built some log huts and then went out hunting. That summer the family of Siangarochti alone raised seventy-five bushels of corn.
In the beginning of the winter of 1780-SI, two British offi- cers, Capt. Powell and Lieutenant Johnson, or Johnston, came to the settlement on Buffalo creek, and remained until toward spring. They were probably sent by the British authorities at Fort Niagara, to aid in putting the new settlement on a solid foundation. Possibly they were also doing some fur-trading on their own account. They made strenuous efforts to obtain the release of Rebecca and Benjamin, two of the younger men- bers of the Gilbert family, but the Indians were unwilling to give them up.
Captain Powell had married Jane Moore, a girl who, with her mother and others of the family, had been captured at Cherry Valley. The "Lieutenant Johnson " who accompanied him to Buffalo creek was most likely his half-brother, who afterwards located at Buffalo, and was known to the early settlers as Cap- tain William Johnston. There seems to have been no ground whatever for the supposition which has been entertained by some that he was the half-breed son of Sir William Johnson. All the circumstances show that he was not.
65
THE GILBERT FAMILY.
Lieutenant Johnston, who was probably an officer in Butler's Rangers, was said by Mrs. Jemison to have robbed Jane Moore of a ring at Cherry Valley, which he afterwards used to marry the lady he had despoiled. As Jane Moore married Captain Powell instead of Lieutenant Johnston, this romantic story has been entirely discredited ; but since it has been ascertained that Johnston was a half-brother of Powell, it is easy to see how Mrs. Jemison might have confounded the two, and that John- ston might really have furnished the "confiscated " ring for his brother's wedding instead of his own. Captain (afterwards Col- onel) Powell is frequently and honorably mentioned in several accounts, as doing everything in his power to ameliorate the con- dition of the captives among the Indians.
It must have been about this time that Johnston took unto himself a Seneca wife; for his son, John Johnston, was a young man when Buffalo was laid out in 1803.
Elizabeth Peart, wife of Thomas Peart, son of the elder Mrs. Gilbert by a former husband, was another of the Gilbert family captives who was brought to Buffalo creek. She had been adopted by a Seneca family, but that did not induce much kindness on their part, for they allowed her child, less than a year old, to be taken from her, and adopted by another family, living near Fort Niagara. She was permitted to keep it awhile after its "adoption," but when they went to the fort for provis- ions, they took her and her infant along, and compelled her to give it up.
Near the close of the winter of 1780-81, they were again compelled to go to Fort Niagara for provisions, and there she found her child, which had been bought by a white family from the Indians who had adopted it. By many artifices, and by the connivance of Captain Powell, she finally escaped to Montreal with her husband and children.
Others of the Gilbert family still remained in captivity. Thomas Peart, brother of Benjamin, obtained his liberty in the spring of 1781, and was allowed to go to Buffalo creek with Capt. Powell, who was sent to distribute provisions, hoes, and other implements, among the Indians. At the distribution, the chiefs of every band came for shares, each having as many sticks as there were persons in his band, in order to insure a fair division.
66
PEACE.
That spring, still another body of Indians came to Buffalo creek, having with them Abner and Elizabeth Gilbert, the two youngest children of the family. But this band settled some distance from the main body, and the children were not allowed to visit each other.
In July of that year, the family in which Abner Gilbert was went to " Butlersburg," a little village opposite Fort Niagara, named after Colonel Butler. The colonel negotiated with the woman who was the head of the family for Abner, and she agreed to give him up on receiving some presents. But he was only to be delivered after twenty days' time. She took him back to Buffalo creek, but finally returned with him before the stip- ulated day, and they were sent to Montreal by the first ship.
Meanwhile, the war had gone forward with varying fortunes. Guy Johnson and Col. Butler kept the Indians at work as busily as possible, marauding upon the frontier, but they had been so thoroughly broken up that they were unable to produce such devastation as at Wyoming and Cherry Valley.
In October, 1781. Cornwallis surrendered, and thenceforth there were no more active hostilities.
Rebecca Gilbert and Benjamin Gilbert, Jr., were released the next year. This appears to have been managed by Col. Butler, who, to give him his due, always seemed willing to befriend the captives, though constantly sending out his savages to make new ones. Not until the arrangements were all made did the Indians inform Rebecca of her approaching freedom. With joyful heart she prepared for the journey, making bread and doing other needful work for her captors. Then, by canoe and on foot, she and her brother were taken to Niagara, and, after a conference, the last two of the ill-fated Gilbert family were released from captivity in June, 1782.
In the fall of 1783. peace was formally declared between Great Britain and the revolted colonies, henceforth to be ac- knowledged by all men as the United States of America. By the treaty the boundary line was established along the center of Lake Ontario, Niagara River and Lake Erie. Al- though the forts held by the British on the American side of the line were not given up for many years afterwards, and though they thus retained a strong influence over the Indians located
67
LENGTH OF ENGLISH DOMINION.
on this side, yet the legal title was admitted to be in the United States. Thus the unquestioned English authority over the ter- ritory of Erie county lasted only from the treaty with France, in 1763, to that with the United States in 1783, a little over twenty years.
68
TREATY OF FORT STANWIX.
CHAPTER X.
FROM 1783 TO 1788.
Treatment of the Six Nations .- The Treaty of Fort Stanwix. - The Western Bound- ary .- Origin of the Name of Buffalo .-- Miss Powell's Visit. - " Captain David."-Claims of New York and Massachusetts .- How Settled .- Sale to Phelps and Gorham .- The Land Rings .- A Council Called.
No provision whatever was made in the treaty of peace for the Indian allies of Great Britain. The English authorities, however, offered them land in Canada, but all except the Mo- hawks preferred to remain in New York.
The United States treated them with unexampled modera- tion. Although the Iroquois had twice violated their pledges, and without provocation had plunged into the war against the colonies, they were readily admited to the benefits of peace, and were even recognized as the owners of all the land over which they had ranged before the Revolution. The property line, as it was called, previously drawn between the whites and Indians, ran along the eastern border of Broome and Chenango counties, and thence northwestward to a point seven miles west of Rome.
In October, 1784, a treaty was made at Fort Stanwix (Rome) between three commissioners of the United States and the sachems of the Six Nations. The Marquis de la Fayette was present and made a speech, though not one of the commissioners. It is almost certain, however, that Red Jacket, then a young man, who afterwards claimed to have been there, did not really take any part in the council. Brant was not present, though he had been active in a council with Governor Clinton, only a short time before. Cornplanter spoke on behalf of the Senecas, but Sayengeraghta or "Old King," was recognized as the principal Seneca sachem.
The eastern boundary of the Indian lands does not seem to have been in dispute, but the United States wanted to extin- guish whatever claim the Six Nations might have to the west- ern territory, and also to keep open the right of way around the
69
AN OLD BOUNDARY.
Falls, which Sir William Johnson had obtained for the British. It was accordingly agreed that the western line of their lands should begin on Lake Ontario, four miles east of the Niagara, running thence southerly, in a direction always four miles east of the carrying path, to the mouth of Tehoseroron (or Buffalo) creek, on Lake Erie ; thence south to the north boundary of the State of Pennsylvania; "thence west to the end of said north boundary ; thence south along the west boundary of the State to the river Ohio."
This agreement (if it is correctly given above, and I think it is) would have left the whole of Chautauqua county and a large part of Erie and Cattaraugus west of the line. It could hardly be called a treaty, as the Indians only agreed to it because they thought they were obliged to, and afterwards made so much com- plaint that its provisions were somewhat modified.
The treaty of Fort Stanwix was the first public document containing the name of Buffalo creek, as applied to the stream which empties at the foot of Lake Erie. The narrative of the Gilbert family published just after the war was the first appear- ance of the name in writing or printing.
This is a proper time, therefore, to consider a question which has been often debated, viz., whether the original Indian name was " Buffalo" creek. This almost of necessity involves the further question whether the buffalo ever ranged on its banks; for it is not to be presumed that the Indians would, in the first place, have adopted that name unless such had been the case.
It is conceded that the Seneca name for the locality at the mouth of the creek was "To-se-o-way," otherwise rendered De- dyo-syo-oh, meaning "the place of basswoods." Te-ho-se-ro-ron is supposed to be the same word in the Mohawk dialect. It is therefore believed by some that the interpreter made a mistake in calling the stream "Buffalo creek " in the treaty of Fort Stan- wix, and that the Senecas afterwards adopted the name, calling the creek "Tick-e-ack-gou" or Buffalo.
In the second chapter the writer briefly indicated his reasons for believing that the buffalo once visited, at least occasionally, the shores of Buffalo creek. The first fact to be considered is the unquestioned existence in Erie county of open plains of considerable extent, only seventy-five years ago. As they were
70
THE BUFFALO QUESTION.
then growing up with small timber, the presumption is that they were much larger previously, and old accounts coincide with the presumption.
Numerous early travelers and later hunters mention the ex- istence of the buffalo in this vicinity or not far away. The strongest instance, is the account of Chaumonot and Brebœuf, referred to in the sixth chapter, which declares that the Neuter Nation, who occupied this very county of Erie, were in the habit of hunting the buffalo, together with other animals.
Mr. Ketchum, in his history of "Buffalo and the Senecas," says that all the oldest Senecas in IS20 declared that buffalo bones had been found within their recollection at the salt licks, near Sulphur Springs. The same author produces evidence that white men had killed buffaloes within the last hundred and twenty years, not only in Ohio but in Western Pennsylvania.
Albert Gallatin, who was a surveyor in Western Virginia in 1784, declared, in a paper published by the American Ethnolo- gical Society, that they were at that time abundant in the Ke- nawha valley, and that he had for eight months lived principally on their flesh. This is positive proof, and the Kenawha valley is only three hundred miles from here, and only one hundred miles further west, and in as well wooded a country as this. Mr. Gallatin adds authentic evidence of their having previously penetrated west of the Alleganies.
The narrative of the Gilbert family is very strong evidence that from the first the Senecas applied the name of Buffalo to the stream in question. Although the book was not published until after the war, yet the knowledge then given to the public was acquired in 17So, 'Si and 'S2. At least six of the Gilberts and Pearts were among the Senecas on Buffalo creek. Some of them were captives for over two years, and must have ac- quired considerable knowledge of the language. It is utterly out of the question that they could all have been mistaken as to the name of the stream on which they lived, which must have been constantly referred to by all the Senecas in talking about their people domiciled there, as well as by the scores of British officers and soldiers with whom the Gilberts came in contact.
If, then, the Neuter Nation hunted buffaloes in Canada in 1640, if they were killed by the whites in Ohio and Pennsylvania
71
MISS POWELL'S VISIT.
within the last century and a quarter, if Albert Gallatin found them abundant on the Kenawha in 1784, if the old Senecas of 1820 declared they had found his bones at the salt lick, and if the Indians called the stream on which they settled in 1780 "Buffalo" creek, there can be no reasonable doubt that they knew what they were about, and did so because that name came down from former times, when the monarch of the western prai- rie strayed over the plains of the county of Erie.
The same year of the Fort Stanwix treaty (1784) the name of Tryon county, of which Erie was nominally a part, was changed to Montgomery, in honor of the slain hero of Quebec.
In May, 1785, Miss Powell, probably a sister of the Captain Powell before mentioned, visited an Indian council on Buffalo creek, and has left an interesting description, which I find in Mr. Ketchum's valuable repertory. After admiring the Falls, of which she writes in glowing terms, her party went in boats to Fort Erie. Thence they crossed to this side. She was accom- panied by Mrs. Powell (Jane Moore), and by several British officers.
One of her companions, (who had also been an officer, though I am not certain that he was then one,) was a young Irish no- bleman, whose name was soon to be raised to a mournful prom- inence, and whose fruitless valor and tragic fate are still the theme of ballad and story among the people of his native land. This was Lord Edward Fitzgerald, who manifested a great fond- ness for visiting among the Indians, and who found an especial charm in the society of Brant.
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