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 8
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Mr. Kirkland made another journey to Buffalo creek the next fall, seeking to pacify those Indians who were discontented re- garding the sale just made by the Senecas, and also about those · made by other tribes to the State of lands farther east. He mentions seeking the aid of the second man of influence among the Senecas on Buffalo creek, "Skendyoughwatti." This fearful-looking name I understand to be the same as that called " Conjockety " by the early settlers, and which their descendants have transmuted into Scajaquada.
In returning, Kirkland says he lodged at " the Governor's. vil- lage," on the Genesee, and adds : "The Governess had set out for Niagara near a week before. I had not ler aid in the coun- cil." This "Governess" is mentioned in other accounts, and seems to have been a very important personage, but who she was, or what her functions, is among the mysteries of local history.
In 1789 the county of Ontario was erected from Montgomery, (to which name that of Tryon county has been changed,) in- cluding the whole of the Massachusetts land, or substantially all west of Seneca Lake; a territory now comprising thirteen counties and two parts of counties.
About this time, certainly before 1791, and probably in 1789, the first white man took up his permanent residence in Erie county. This was Cornelius Winne, or Winney, a Hudson river Dutchman, who established a little log store for trading with the Indians on the site of Buffalo, at the foot of the hill which old residents still remember as existing at the Mansion House. This was four miles from the main Seneca village, but there were
S.4
THE HOLLAND PURCHASE.
scattered huts all the way down the creek to Farmer's Point, where Farmer's Brother lived. Captain Powell had an interest in Winney's store.
I call Winney the first resident, for though William Johnston had spent much time among the Senecas, as a kind of British agent, and had taken a Seneca wife, there is no evidence that he had made his permanent abode among them.
Almost as soon as the earliest white man-possibly preceding him-the irrepressible African made his advent in our county ; for in 1792 I find " Black Joe," alias Joseph Hodge, established as an Indian trader on Cattaraugus creek, and from the way in which he is mentioned I infer that he had already been there a considerable time.
Meanwhile the adoption of the Federal Constitution had caused a great rise in Massachusetts stocks, so that Phelps and Gorham were unable to make the payments they had agreed on. After much negotiation, Massachusetts released them from their contract as to all the land except that to which they had extinguished the Indian title, to wit, "Phelps and Gorham's Purchase." Of that the State gave them a deed in full.
Massachusetts at once sold the released land in five tracts to Robert Morris, the merchant prince of Philadelphia, and the celebrated financier of the Revolution. The easternmost of these tracts Mr. Morris sold out in small parcels. The remaining four constituted the "Holland Purchase." Mr. Morris sold it by four conveyances (not corresponding, however, to the four given by Massachusetts) made in 1792 and '93, to several Americans who held it in trust for a number of Hollanders, who being aliens could not hold it in their own name. As they did not begin the settlement of the county until several years later, it is unneces- sary to say more of them here.
In 1791 there was great uneasinesss among the Indians, even in this vicinity, and in the West they were constantly committing depredations. The British still held all the forts on the Ameri- can side of the boundary line, in open violation of the treaty of peace, alleging that the Americans had also failed to comply with its provisions. To what extent they encouraged the In- dians to hostilities is not known, but in view of the protecto- rate which they openly assumed over the savages, and which the
85
PROCTOR'S VISIT.
latter acknowledged, it cannot well be doubted that the English. influence was hostile to the United States.
In April, 1791, Col. Thomas Proctor, a commissioner ap- pointed by the War Department, came from Philadelphia to Cornplanter's villages on the Allegany, thence, accompanied by that chief and many of his warriors, to the Cattaraugus settle- ment, and then down the beach of the lake to Buffalo creek. Horatio Jones, the celebrated captive and interpreter, was also of the party. Proctor's object was to persuade the Senecas to use their influence to stop the hostilities of the western Indians, (against whom Gen. St. Clair was then preparing to move,) and to that end to send a delegation of chiefs along with him on a mission to the Miamis. His journal is published by Ketchum, and gives much information regarding the condition of affairs in Erie county in 1791.
He found the English influence very strong, the Indians ob- taining supplies not only of clothing but of provisions from Forts Erie and Niagara. On the commissioner's arrival "Young King," who could not have been over twenty-two or three years old, met him, apparelled in the full uniform of a British colonel, red, with blue facings and gold epaulets. The Senecas were also in possession of a two-pound swivel, which they fired in honor of the occasion, the gunner wisely standing inside the council house while he touched it off with a long pole passed be- tween the logs. The charge was so heavy that it upset the gun and its carriage.
At this time Red Jacket had risen to a high position, being mentioned by Proctor as "the great speaker, and a prince of the Turtle tribe." In fact, however, he belonged to the Wolf clan.
On Proctor's stating his object in the council, Red Jacket ques- tioned his authority. This, as the colonel was informed by a - French trader, was the result of the insinuations of Butler and Brant, who had been there a week before and had advised the Indians not to send a delegation to the Miamis. Proctor offered to present his credentials to any one in whom they had confi- dence, and they at once sent for the commandant at Fort Eric. The latter sent back Capt. Powell, who seems to have acted as a kind of guardian to the Indians during the proceedings. These were very deliberate, and were adjourned from day to day.
S6
DINING WITH BIG SKY.
Red Jacket was the spokesman of the Indians, and declared their determination to move the council to Niagara, insisting on the commissioner's accompanying them the next day as far as Capt. Powell's house below Fort Erie. Proctor peremptorily de- clined. Then Red Jacket and Farmer's Brother addressed the council by turns, the result being that a runner was at once sent to Niagara to summon Col. Butler to the council. After two or three days delay Butler came to Winney's store-house, and re- quested the sachems and head men to meet him there, but said nothing about Proctor.
While waiting, the commissioner dined with "Big Sky," head chief of the Onondagas, whose "castle" he describes as being three miles east from "Buffalo" meaning from the Seneca vil- lage. . There were twenty-eight good cabins near it, and the inhabitants were well clothed, especially the women, some of whom, according to Col. P., were richly dressed, "with silken stroud" and silver trappings worth not less than thirty pounds ($150) per suit ! It seems, too, that they had advanced so far in civilization that the ladies were invited to the feast of the warri- ors, which consisted principally of young pigeons boiled and stewed. These were served up in hanks of six, tied around the necks with deer's sinews, and were ornamented with pin feathers. However, the colonel made a good meal.
On the 4th of May the Indians repaired to the store-house to hold council with Butler. The latter invited Proctor to dine with him and his officers, including Capts. Powell and Johnston. They talked Indian fluently, and advised the chiefs not to go with the commissioner then, but to wait for Brant, who had gone west. Red Jacket and Young King appear to have been work- ing for Proctor. The latter at length resented the interference . of the British and insisted on a speedy answer from the Indi- ans. Every paper delivered to the chiefs was handed over to Butler, who went back to Fort Erie next day.
On the 6th of May, Ambassador Red Jacket announced that there would be no council, as the honorable councilors were going out to hunt pigeons. Proctor makes special mention of the immense number of pigeons found-over a hundred nests on a tree, with a pair of pigeons in each.
On the 7th a private council was held, at which land was
87
WOMAN'S RIGHTS.
assigned to Indians of other tribes who had fled from the Shaw- nees and Miamis. "Capt. Smoke" and the Delawares under his charge were assigned to Cattaraugus, where their descendants dwell at the present day. Several Missisauga families had plant- ing-grounds given them near the village of Buffalo creek.
On the 11th, Proctor declares there was a universal drunk ; "Cornplanter and some of the elder women excepted," from which the natural inference is that the young women indulged with the rest.
Finally, on the 15th of May, the elders of the women repaired to the commissioner's hut, and declared that they had taken the matter into consideration, and that they should be listened too, for, said they: "We are the owners of this land, and it is ours;" adding, as an excellent reason for the claim, "for it is we that plant it." They then requested Colonel Proctor to listen to a formal address from "the women's speaker," they having ap- pointed Red Jacket for that purpose.
The alarm-gun was fired, and the chiefs came together, the elder women being seated near them. Red Jacket arose, and after many florid preliminaries, announced that the women had decided that the sachems and warriors must help the commis- sioner, and that a number of them would accompany him to the West.
Col. Proctor was overjoyed at this happy exemplification of woman's rights, and seems to have thought there would be no further difficulty. He forthwith dispatched a letter by the trusty hands of Horatio Jones to Col. Gordon, the commandant at Niagara-who was located opposite the fort of that name- asking that himself and the Indians might take passage on some British merchant-vessel running up Lake Erie, since the chiefs refused to go in an open boat. (It is worth no- ticing that even so late as 1791, Proctor spoke of Jones' crossing the " St. Lawrence " instead of the Niagara.)
Gordon, in the usual spirit of English officials on the frontier at that time, refused the permission, and so the whole scheme fell through. It was just what was to have been expected, though Proctor does not seem to have expected it, and it is very likely the whole thing was well understood between the British and Indians.
PLENTY OF SPIRITS.
While it was supposed that Red Jacket and others would go with Proctor, that worthy had several requests to make. Firstly, the colonel was informed that his friends expected something to drink, as they were going to have a dance before leaving their women. This the commissioner responded to with a present of "eight gallons of the best spirits." Then Red Jacket remarked that his house needed a floor, and Proctor offered to have one made. Then he preferred a claim for a special allowance of rum for his wife and mother, and in fact-well-he wanted a little rum himself. So the colonel provided a gallon for the great orator and his wife and mother. Young King was not less importunate, but Cornplanter was modest and dignified, as became a veteran warrior. But the worthy commissioner made due provision for them all.
The projected expedition having thus fallen through, Young King made a farewell speech, being aided by "Fish Carrier," a Cayuga chief, whose "keen gravity" put Proctor in mind of a Roman senator, and who seems to have been a man of great importance, though never putting himself forward as a speech- maker.
The Indians must have had a pretty good time during Proc- tor's stay, as his liquor bill at Cornelius Winney's was over a hundred and thirty dollars.
A very curious item in the commissioner's diary is this : " Gave a white prisoner that lived with said Winney nine pounds four and a half pence." Who he was, or to whom he could have been prisoner, is a mystery, since the Indians certainly held no prisoners at that time, and Cornelius, the Dutch trader, could hardly have captured a white man, though the law would have allowed him to own a black one.
All this counciling having come to naught, Col. Proctor set out for Pittsburg on the 21st of May, having spent nearly a month in the very highest society of Erie county.
A little later, the successive defeats of Harmer and St. Clair, by the western Indians, aroused all the worst passions of the Iroquois. Their manners toward the Americans became inso- lent in the extreme, and it is positively asserted that some of their warriors united with the hostile bands. There is little doubt that another severe disaster would have disposed a large
89
WAYNE'S VICTORY.
part of them to rise in arms, and take revenge for the unforgot- ten though well-merited punishment inflicted by Sullivan. Yet they kept up negotiations with the United States ; in fact nothing delighted the chiefs more than holding councils, making treatics, and performing diplomatic pilgrimages. They felt that at such times they were indeed "big Indians."
In 1792, Red Jacket and Farmer's Brother were two of fifty chiefs who visited the seat of government, then at Philadelphia.
The former then claimed to be in favor of civilization, and it was at this time that Washington gave him the celebrated medal which he afterwards wore on all great occasions. It was of sil- ver, oval in form, about seven inches long by five wide, and rep- resented a white man in a general's uniform, presenting the pipe of peace to an Indian scantily attired in palm leaves. The latter has flung down his tomahawk, which lies at his feet. Be- hind them is shown a house, a field, and a man ploughing.
A characteristic anecdote is told of Red Jacket, by his biog- rapher, regarding one of these visits. On his arrival at the seat of government, Gen. Knox, then Secretary of War, presented the distinguished Sencca with the full uniform of a military offi- cer, with cocked hat and all equipments complete. Red Jacket requested the bearer to tell Knox that he could not well wear military clothes, he being a civil sachem, not a war chief. If any such present was to be made him, he would prefer a suit of civilian's clothes, but would keep the first gift till the other was sent. In due time a handsome suit of citizen's clothes was brought to his lodging. The unsophisticated savage accepted it, and then remarked to the bearer that in time of war the sa- chems went out on the war-path with the rest, and he would keep the military suit for such an occasion. And keep it he did.
In 1794, Mad Anthony Wayne went out to Ohio. He did not allow himself to be surprised, and when he met the hordes of the Northwest he struck them down with canister and bayonet, until they thought the angel of death himself was on their track. Said Joshua Fairbanks, of Lewiston, to a Miami Indian who had fled from that terrible onslaught :
" What made you run away ?" With gestures corresponding to his words, and endeavoring to represent the effect of the can- non, he replied :
7
90
JOHNSTON, MIDDAUGH AND LANE.
" Pop, pop, pop-boo, woo, woo-whish, whish-boo, woo- kill twenty Indians one time-no good, by dam."
The Scnecas had runners stationed near the scene of conflict, and when they brought back the news of the tremendous pun- ishment inflicted on their western friends, all the Iroquois in Western New York resolved to be "good Indians ;" and from that time forth they transgressed only by occasional ebullitions of passion or drunkenness.
In September of that year (1794), another treaty was made at Canandaigua, by which the United States agreed to give the New York Iroquois $10,000 worth of goods, and an annuity of $4,000 annually in clothing, domestic animals, etc. It was also fully agreed that the Senecas should have all the land in New York west of Phelps and Gorham's Purchase, except the reser- vation a mile wide along the Niagara.
This council at Canandaigua was the last one at which the United States treated with the Iroquois as a confederacy. Wil- liam Johnston, so often mentioned before, came there, and was discovered haranguing some of the chiefs. It was believed that he was acting in behalf of the British, to prevent a treaty, and Col. Pickering, the United States commissioner, compelled ·him to leave.
About this time, or a little earlier, Johnston took up his per- manent residence in a block-house which he built near Winney's store, at the mouth of Buffalo creek. His Indian friends gave him two square miles of land in the heart of the present city of Buffalo. His title would doubtless have been considered void in the courts of the pale-faces, but so long as the Senecas should retain their land Johnston would be allowed to use his magnifi- cent domain at will.
About the same time as Johnston, perhaps a little later, one Martin Middaugh, a Hudson river Dutchman, though re- cently from Canada, and his son-in-law, Ezekiel Lane, were allowed by Johnston to build a log house on his land, near his own residence. Middaugh was a cooper, and perhaps made some barrels for the Indians, but both he and Lane seem to have been dependents of Johnston.
There had begun to be considerable travel through Erie county. There was emigration to Canada, which was rapidly
91
THE FIRST TAVERN.
settling up, and also to Ohio, which was open for purchase. There were no roads but Indian trails, but some way or other people managed to flounder through. In 1794 or '95 the first tavern was opened in the county.
In the latter year there came hither a French duke, bearing the ancient and stately name of De La Rochefoucauld Liaincourt, probably driven from France by the revolution, who was desir- ous of seeing the red man in his native wilds. On his way to the Seneca village he and his companions passed the night at " Lake Erie," the name applied to the cluster of log houses on Johnston's land. When men spoke of " Buffalo," they referred to the village of the Senecas.
There was then something in the shape of an inn, but if the landlord " kept tavern " he kept nothing else; "for," says the duke in his travels, "there was literally nothing in the house, neither furniture, rum, candles, nor milk." The absence of rum was certainly astonishing. Milk was at length procured "from the neighbors," and rum and candles from across the river. The name of this frugal pioneer landlord is supposed to have been Skinner, as a man of that name certainly kept there only a little later.
On the 4th of July, 1796, Fort Niagara and the other posts so long withheld were surrendered by the British to the United States. This strengthened the impression made on the Indians by Wayne's victory, and confirmed them in the disposition to cultivate friendly relations with the Americans.
In that year, too, the little settlement of "Lake Erie" was in- creased by the arrival from Geneva of Mr. Asa Ransom, a reso- lute and intelligent young, man, a silversmith by trade, who built a log house near the site of the liberty pole, established him- self there with his delicate young wife and infant daughter, and went to work making silver brooches, ear-rings, and other orna- ments in which the soul of the red man and the red man's wife so greatly delighted. This was the first family that brought into Erie county the habits and refinements of civilized life.
At this time, the few settlers who wanted to get corn ground were obliged to take it over the river, and down to Niagara, forty miles distant. On one occasion, some little time after the arri- val of Mr. Ransom, he and all the other men of the settlement,
92
THE MOTHER'S STRATEGY.
(three or four in number.) had gone to Canada to mill, except Cornelius Winney and Black Joc, who had left the Cattaraugus Indians and was living with Winney. While they were gone several Indians came to Ransom's house and demanded "rum." about the only English word they knew. Mrs. Ransom told them she had none, but they insisted she had. On her con- tinued refusal one of them suddenly seized her only child, a little girl of two years old, which was toddling about the floor, and with uplifted tomahawk threatened its life. Probably this was only done to scare, but the mother did not understand such a jest.
Though frightened beyond measure she had sufficient pres- ence of mind to try strategy on the evil-minded crew. She im- mediately promised them rum, (partly by words and partly by signs,) if they would allow her to go up stairs to get it. They assented, but insisted on retaining her infant as a hostage for the appearance of the stimulant.
Taking her niece, a girl of twelve, Mrs. Ransom went up- stairs into the low chamber of their log house, and immediately fastened the door behind her. Then snatching a pair of sheets from the bed she hastily knotted them together, and with this improvised rope she lowered the girl to the ground, directing her to hasten at once to Mr. Winney, whose influence was sup- posed to be sufficient to pacify the angry savages.
Then with wildly-beating heart the mother waited, fearing every moment lest she should hear the screams of her child, sac- rificed in a sudden freak of barbaric rage. Ere long the In- dians were heard beating on the door with their tomahawks, but it was a stout one, and before it could be broken down Winney arrived. By some means he managed to control them, and in- duced them to withdraw. But to the end of her life the mother never told the tale, without betraying by her faltering voice and paling cheek how deeply she had felt the terrors of that day.
The infant heroine of this exciting scene bore the dramatic name of Portia, but was afterwards better known as Mrs. Chris- topher M. Harvey.
In the fall of 1797 the "Lake Erie" settlement received an- other addition by the arrival of a daughter in the Ransom fami-
93
THIE INDIANS SELL OUT.
ly, being the first white child born in Erie county, so far as known, and the first in New York west of the Genesee river, outside of Fort Niagara. Some twenty-two years later this little stranger became Mrs. Frederick B. Merrill.
I mentioned some pages back the sale by Robert Morris to certain Holland gentlemen, (through their American friends,) of nearly all the land west of the Genesee ; the seller agreeing to extinguish the Indian title. It was not until 1797 that this could be accomplished. In September of that year a council was held at Geneseo, at which Morris bought the whole of the remaining Seneca lands in New York, except eleven reservations of various sizes, comprising in all about three hundred and thir- ty-eight square miles.
Of these the Buffalo creek reservation, the largest of all, lay wholly in Erie county. By the terms of the treaty it was to contain a hundred and thirty square miles, lying on both sides of Buffalo creek, about seven miles wide from north to south, and extending eastward from Lake Erie. The Cattaraugus reservation was to contain forty-two square miles; on both sides of Cattaraugus creek near its mouth, being in the present coun- ties of Erie, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua. As finally surveyed about thirty-four square miles were in Erie county.
The Tonawanda reservation was to contain seventy square miles, lying on both sides of Tonawanda creek, beginning "about twenty-five miles" from its mouth, and running east "about seven miles wide." Of this, as surveyed, some fifteen square miles were in Erie county. The other reservations, which were all small, were entirely outside of the county.
As will have been seen, the amounts reserved were all definite, but the precise lines were left to be located afterwards, in order not to crowd any of the Indian villages. The tract bought, aside from the reservations, contained about three million three hundred thousand acres, for which Morris paid ten thousand dollars, or less than a third of a cent per acre.
Considering the complaints which Indians are all the time making about the loss of their lands, it certainly seems strange that they should throw them away by the million acres for a merely nominal price, as they have usually done. The sale to Phelps and Gorham was not so excesssively strange because it
04
FOLLY OF THE INDIANS.
involved no change in their mode of life. They still had vast hunting grounds west of the Genesee. But that to Morris at once destroyed all hope of living by the chase, and necessitated their adopting to a considerable extent the habits of the white man. They appear to have forgotten all about the Great Spirit's fixing the Genesee as their eastern boundary. Yet they showed no inclination to demand white men's prices for their land.
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