USA > New York > Livingston County > Nunda > Centennial history of the town of Nunda : with a preliminary recital of the winning of western New York, from the fort builders age to the last conquest by our Revolutionary forefathers > Part 5
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High above all arose the smoke of two battle grounds to the clear, blue heav- ens, and mingling there with the spray of the cataract was carried off by a gentle breeze ; and at the sun's decline, when the strife was ended, it canopied and spanned the deep blue waters-a bow of promise and a harbinger of peace.
One Turner was noted for the brilliancy of his coloring on canvass; an- other from Western New York dipped his pen in colors rivaling the hues of the rainbow. In imagination he saw it as it must have been, and what is more, he has bridged nearly two and a half centuries and made us see what he saw.
CHAPTER X.
1776-KOH-SKE-SIO: KING OF NUNDAO-THE FIRST COMPANY OF NUNDA WAR- RIORS RECORDED IN HISTORY FOUGHT FOR KING GEORGE-O-NONDA-O, THE WEST DOOR OF THE SENECAS -- THE KING IS KILLED -- THE STATEMENT OF MARY JEMISON ; AND OF KENJOCKETY
O NONDAO, two miles west of the village of Nunda, was at the time of the breaking out of the Revolution the largest village of the Sen- ecas on Nundawaos. as they called themselves at this time. Its Sachem may have won distinction in the battles that won the safety of the Tuscaroras in 1713 and made the "five fold cord" "sixfold" by the addition of the Sixth Nation. the Tuscarora or Potato Clan. The white people called all Sachems Kings and all lessor chiefs John.
King Hoh-ske-sao's name signified "he wields a tomahawk." A good name for the War Chief of the Senecas, for such he was. We have seen in the organization of the Confederacy or Five Nations that the Senecas' two princi- pal war chiefs were also war chiefs of the whole Confederacy. Though the greatest chief of all the very wisest man was at the central fire, O-non-da-ga, now called On-on-da-ga.
REVOLUTIONARY WAR TIMES-INDIAN NOTABLES FROM NUNDA-HOH-SQUE-SAH OH ( HE WIELDS A TOMAHAWK ), KING OF GREAT NUNDA.
Strange as it may sound in our day, the title of Sachem, wise man, or ruler meant to the Indian their highest conception of Ruler-only meant the possessor of
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a better cabin or wigwam, and better clothing, more beads on moccasins, more plumage on headgear, more territory, more warriors to control and lead, and more valor in leading them to battle. That this chief could "wield a toma- hawk" as others could not. that he wielded it successfully and won some great victory was the secret of his position. With such a leader what must his band of Nunda warriors have been when fighting hand to hand. It is probable ' he won his kingdom of Nunda by valor and that its winning moved the west door up the river, beyond the Chen-is-sio of former days, that was near the mouth of the Keshequa, and that the added territory was a new domain. When the Senecas extended their possessions westward and southward from Chenissio near the mouth of the Keshequa. up the valley, either after the influx of war- riors gained by the distribution of the Tuscaroras among the Five Nations in 1713 or after other additions from the maturing of the Kah Kwa youth and other adopted captives. It is evident that this chief of this new domain was one of the two great Confederate War Chiefs to which the Senecas were by their original compact entitled. Little Beard may have been the other but younger war chief or he might have succeeded the King. The name the Senior War Chief gave his stronghold denotes both a great village and a great Sachem Onondaho signifying both. The degree of emphasis placed on these O's sig- nify the measure of pride and supremacy felt. It was Great Nunda in a double sense, as before indicated. The "non" instead of "nun" has also a double sig-
Boucher.
nificance, the hills were chains of hills or mountains and the chieftain was the war chief not only of the Nundawaos but of the whole Confederacy, with its council fire at the Onondaga village. Over the Nunda Valley, or Nundawah-o Hohsquesaho (pronounced Ho-ske-sa-o) ruled, honored for his prowess and wisdom, and was beloved of all. Onondao was not the only village in his kingdom. Among the Indians any warrior of prowess was free to go singly or with his brothers, and any he could induce to go with him, and start a new village and so become a minor chief. A village was formed near Nunda Junc- tion and as there was a succession of small hills and depressions it was called "Nundey," which means hilly. Near Portage Station there was also a small village called De-o-wes-ta (where the river breaks through in the west) as this is near the spot where the Genesee breaks through the hills and forms a
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gorge and leaves its former well established valley ; and as the place where it leaves the gorge near MIt. Morris had originally a long name, De-o-nunda-gao. which signifies where the river breaks through the hills. We have here the only hint of Indian geological knowledge or tradition of what the white race have but recently discovered that the Genesee River Valley passed from Portageville through the Keshequa Valley.
Proud as Nunda has ever been of her soldiers, the first historic heroes of our soil, the first company of soldiers that went from here were enemies of the colonists, and our pride must be content with a knowledge of their valor. that they fought as heroes fight. and died as heroes die. This is all that history has left us of the story of Onondao and its Sachem King.
Onondao was said to be located near the modern village of Nunda, though Thomas Jemison thinks a couple of miles nearer the river than the latter town. In this other Indians agree but the precise spot is not mentioned. The Centenarian Indian, Philip Kenjockety, whose boyhood was spent here, told Colonel Doty that a large spring of very cold water supplied the village and as he recollected Onondao in early youth (i. e., in 1768 to 1770) it was larger than Beardstown then was. Previous to the battle of Fort Stanwix (now Rome, N. Y.) the warriors of Onondao and other Seneca villages had been invited by the British to come and see them "whip the Yankees."
Mary Jemison, the white woman who then lived at Beardstown, has said. "Our Indians went to a man, but instead of taking the part of spectators were forced to fight for their lives and in the end were completely beaten and that with great loss in killed and wounded." It is said that Beardstown lost 35 and that Onondao shared in the disaster, losing its great Chieftain, Hohsque- sah-o-she adds "his death was greatly deplored." After this Little Beard's town soon became the west door of the Long House, concentration being found essential to existence.
After the death of the great Sachem another chief would be chosen from the brothers or the sisters' sons. The Sachem's son would belong to his mother's clan and so would the sons of his brothers but his sisters may have married into the clan that the Sachem belonged to and so be eligible. How- ever, Onondao lost the "o" from its name, though his successor was called in 1780 by his captives King. but his name is not given.
Again in 1890 Turner says there were two small villages in Nunda, one probably Seneca. the other Tuscarora, and again in 1815 or 1816 the James Bennett family say there were two villages in Nunda and even locate them. Turner mentions Elk Hunter as one of the chiefs and Green Jacket the other. Other authorities says that Kenjockety's father was a Chief, and this would have been probably as early as 1780. Mary Jemison gives the loss in the battle near Fort Stanwix ( Rome. N. Y.) at 35 from her town-then Beardstown- and it is probable that the loss from Nundao was even greater. I can imagine the great possessor of the huge tomahawk fighting unavailingly, the men with guns, and finding his favorite weapon useless. Gallant Nunda Chieftain though you were in this battle a foe of the colonists, I am glad you were great enough to have a place in history for your valor : and doubly glad I can help perpetuate your fame as the greatest of Nunda's Indian warriors by restating your fast fading claim to greatness.
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CHAPTER XI.
KENJOCKETY AND OTHER INDIANS OF NUNDA.
H OHSQUE-SAH-O is not the only Indian whose name has come down to us as having lived in Nunda. There is one other, born before the Revolutionary War, whose boyhood was at O-non-dao.
KENJOCKETY ( Above the Multitude ).
The K's in this name suggest his origin. His grand sire was a captive youth of the Neuter or Kah Kwas race. This gigantic race of men probably held undisputed sway in a wide section of Western New York two hundred years ago. A few of their names clung for a time to the places they once occu- pied but have been changed. first by the Senecas and still more by their suc- cessors. The very stream that flows through our village and a former thriving hamlet near its source bore the name Kashawa for the stream, and also Hunts Hollow once bore the name Kishawa. The Senecas called it Cashaqua. This form was adopted by Judge Carroll in his deed. Coshaqua was the form in early Gazeteers which was Anglicized into Cashaqua and finally it drifted back to Kashaqua or Keshequa or Kishaqua until it is hard to know how it ought
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to be spelled. Doubtless Kenjockety would have pronounced it as if spelled with a K and Shongo would with a C. The word Connesus has passed its many changes. Kan-augsaws was the first of these, and is evidently pre- Columbian. Whether in this form it was of Kha Kwa origin I cannot say. Kienuka, their central town, near the present site of Lewiston, is one of their words. In many respects their language was similar to that of their neighbors, the Senecas. Ya-go-wa-neo was Queen of the Neutrals. Philip Kenjockety, whose father was a half-blood Kah Kwa, and his mother a Seneca, became a Seneca chief. Philip was born in Nunda probably about 140 years ago as he remembered the destruction under Sullivan in 1779 of the Seneca village. though only a large boy "big enough to shoot birds." He was a very large boy of his age as his first name indicates. Yi-ya-go-waah signified big dog, and tells us he was like a big, young Newfoundland dog, crowding and pushing aside all that came in his way. After the war of 1812, in which he probably participated, he lost his boy name and was called Gat-go-wah-dah which signi- fes "dressed deer skin." indicating that he excelled as a hunter and tanner and kept himself in new deer skin attire when others could not procure such. It is more than possible that he often returned to his native town to hunt for game on the Sunrise hill ( East Hill) where game was abundant, even after the first settlers helped to diminish their numbers. Be that as it may, he after- ward attained a greater name. one any man might be proud of, when duly interpreted-Ska-dyoh-gwa-dih, which means "Beyond the multitude." Whether this enviable distinction meant greater than the average, the ongue- hongwe (without an equal), or was only a recognition of his immense size or his great age or some traditional skill as a hunter, or whether in the War of 1812 he served the new Republic with valor begotten of his giant strength, we know this, he was physically, above the multitude, and in longevity he excelled his associates of both races.
He was the last survivor of the Indians of the Genesee River, whose birth antedated the Revolutionary War and whose personal recollections extended to the invasion of General Sullivan. His grandfather was a member of the almost mythological race known as Kah Kwas or Neutrals. It is to be regret- ted that the name of this grand sire and of his son, a chieftain of the kingdom of Nundah, has not been left on record. Philips' parents lived at Onondao when the war with the mother country broke out. and when the residents of that village went on the warpath after the calamity at Fort Stanwix Philips' family went also. Colonel Doty in his desire to know more of the one battle of the Revolution that reached the present Geneseo and several other towns of the present county of Livingston went to Versailes, Cattaraugus County, to interview this last survivor of those historic days. He found (this was in Sep- tember, 1865) Kenjockety vigorous for his years, with mind vivid and memory unimpaired. He claimed to be then 120 years of age. which was impossible. for if so he must have been born in 1745 and would have been 30 years of age instead of a youth at that time. and instead of a big boy "big enough to shoot birds" at the time of Sullivan's campaign would have been a warrior of 34 years He died a year after this visit of Colonel Doty and it is doubtful if he was much over 100 years old. "Yes, I recollect the Wah-ston-yans (i. e., the Bostonians, as the Senecas called the colonial troops). The Yankees got as
1
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far as Conesus Lake ; all was consternation at Beardstown ; it rained ; the war- riors went out : the air grew heavy with rumors ; even the birds brought tidings of the enemy's doings."
After the interview, reports Mr. Doty, as he was bidding good bye he took the hand of Colonel Doty's son and pointing to the clasped fingers said through the interpreter: "This bridges between three generations, between that long past and the generation under the new order." He died on the first of April, 1866, at least a centenarian, more fortunate than any other of his father's race. His name survives in a small stream called Conjockety Creek. where once Kenjockety had a cabin. The water from this creek formed Park Lake on the Pan-American grounds, where the Historical Society have a build- ing, and the Academy of Art in Buffalo has preserved a fine portrait in oil of this venerable Nunda KahKwa, who in this also is still "Beyond the Multi- tude" of his fellow citizens.
Last but not least of a pre-historic race, Their mighty past lives in this firm, strong face ; 'Twere sacrilege one furrow to erase. Judged by his time, his race, his habitude What shall we call thee, manly, true or good? The past knew best :- "Beyond the Multitude."
We would be glad to know more of the predecessors of the pioneers of Nunda, of the gallant band of warriors led by the King of Nunda, Hoh-sque- sah-o, who ruled from Caneadea to Sonyea, a Sachem of prowess, but whose early death before the first pioneer reached the Genesee County, has rendered his illustrious deeds almost illusory, the name of his successor is not told, unless Elk Hunter, then Kenjockety . and finally Killdeer, who was a chief at the southern part of the Caneadea reservation, which was called Nunda and occu- pied by Indians from Nunda, were his successors. It is more than possible that Elk Hunter may have been his successor and Kill Deer followed at a much later time, not as Sachem but simply as a Chief. Green Jacket was also a Nunda Indian.
Since writing the above, by the fact that two small villages have left evi- dence of their former existence on the south side of the Keshequa on the farm once owned (in this village by R. J. Bally, that there was also one or more Tuscarora villages with a different chief, two chiefs seldom lived in the same village. Each had his own village and his own followers.
I am surprised that so keen a historian as Colonel Doty failed to ask of Kenjockety the names of his father and grandfather and who succeeded Hoh- sque-sah-o as Sachem of Nunda.
However, I am glad that the information received, every word of which is of importance. helps locate the Onondao of 1775 and that this testimony is corroborated by Thomas Jemison, whose grandmother, the white woman of the Genesee, who lived afterward within a mile or two of the great village in the years after the war, and lived at the time at Breadstown near by, and doubt- less visited it often. tells the proximity of its location. Kenjockety said at Versailes to Colonel Doty that a large spring of very cold water supplied the village of Onondao and that the village previous to the battle at Fort Stanwix
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was larger than Beardstown then was: also that it was west of and two miles nearer the river than the present village of Nunda. Just over the ridge and not far from the trail leading up the east side of the Genesee River gorge this large spring is said to be. Several smaller springs exist on the farm of J. Mon- roe Cole, but while sufficient arrows of more than one color can be found along the trail there are not sufficient flint chips to indicate an Indian village at these springs.
Indian burying grounds were usually about two miles east of their princi- pal villages, and in harmony with this custom the burial ground of Nunda's first Indian village is now believed to have been found in front of the farm house of Jonathan Miller (the old Clark Brewer place) as large collections of linman bones have been taken from there and unusual and excellent specimens of Indian skulls have also been plowed up.
The writer farther believes that the King of Nunda was buried there, first, because it is the custom to bring away the body of a great chief and to have imposing ceremonies at his burial, as in the case of Sho-ri-ho-wane in 1640, as told by the Jesuit ; secondly, because the finest banner stone that has been found in Western New York was recently found there by L. C. Roberts and L. F. Willey. It has a place for a miniature war post, whose notches would tell of his many battles. The stone is owned by L. C. Roberts, who prizes it more highly than any specimen in his large collection.
After the death of the War Chief Hohsquesaho it is more than probable that Little Beard succeeded him in the honors of being one of the two great Iroquois War Chiefs. The war being mostly in the eastern part of the state it is probable that Brant. the Mohawk Chief, became the other Sachem of the Confederacy. Some other man succeeded the dead Sachem or King but only as a Seneca Chief-just who that chief was is not known, but it is known that the father of Kenjockety was a chief. The great size and strength of these half-blood Kah Kwas makes it more than a possibility that he became the chief of the Senecas at Nunda. In 1780 there was a chief there, and he is even called
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King, but he was not a War Chief of the whole Confederacy, as his predecessor had been, for Little Beard changed the west door to his own village, changed the name of his village to express that fact and even gave the Seneca Nation a new name, a variation from that it had when Onondao was at its greatest. He now called his village O-nnnda-gao and the Senecas, the Nunda-wa-gas- and even a great historian like Turner fails to notice the cause of the change. It is possible and even probable that there was a similar change in the national name when Onondao was west door of the nation. and "Nundawah-os" was the name after Chennusseo was no longer the west door. Nundawaho em- phasizes, its valley ; Nundawagas, the river.
But we are told by Mary Jemison that when next the warriors from Nunda went on the warpath they took their families to Little Beard's town for greater safety. General Sullivan, it appears. did not expect to find the chief village of the Genesee Indians at Little Beardstown but at Chennusseo near the old Williamsburg of a few years later where the west door was in the days of the Senecas' war with the Eries, Kah Kwas and Hurons. And here they all were cencentrated at Little Beardstown in the best built Indian village ex- tant in 1779, at the time of Sullivan's campaign, but back again to Nunda or Nun- dow (hill in front ) in 1780 went the Nundaos. Was their old village burned by Sullivan's men? As large as it was said to be in 1775 can it be possible that it escaped ; if so what became of it? One historian reports that the soldiers of Sullivan went up and down the river. How far could they follow the Gen- esee River south ; i. e., up the river, without coming to the former "west door" of the Senecas, the old village Onondao. The writer has been informed that in the town of Portage a few miles south of where Onondao was supposed to be there was found by the pioneers of Portage ( 1816 to 1820) a log bridge across the upper part of Spring Brook that was called while it lasted "Sulli- van's Bridge." As there was no pioneer by that name, it would appear that Sullivan's destructionists not only went up the river but went with a piece of artillery prepared to meet the Senecas if their retreat took the direction of the villages of the upper Genesee. This has never been in print but the late Mar- cus Wilner, a man of great information, whose father was a first settler in Port- age, called this Sullivan's Bridge. The road, the author has often seen, passed through a forest then, and now, and a small grist mill was located near it by Colonel Orcutt in the early pioneer days, who expected to there found a city. A few years later he moved his mill to the mouth of Spring Brook and again. afterward, a few rods farther northeast. on the Keshequa. A saw mill in after years was the only other building built on this well packed road that suggested to the visionary mill owner a city. Roads were scarce in 1817. The Indians however, retreated by the western trail leading past Silver Lake to Buffalo. As Captain George Wilner and Colonel Orcutt both became permanent settlers of the town of Portage. if Orcutt had made the road and the bridge this tradi- tion of. such a bridge so-called would not be still told by a member of the Wil- ner family. The author gives it as a possible suggestion of the Revolutionary War extending into Nunda and Portage.
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CHAPTER XII.
ISTAN VILLAGES IN OR NEAR THE ORIGINAL TOWN OF NUNDA-INDIAN CAP- TIVES-MARY JEMISON AND HER STRANGE, REMARKABLE EXPERIENCES- OTHER CAPTIVES.
. I' i- worthy of notice that the Indian Nundao and the original township of Nunda embrace nearly the same territory. The Indian domain included Cancadea and probably the ancient forts at Belvidere, and reached south- ward as far as Tuscarora and its small burial grounds near the Rock Spring Inni.c. I
These forts of the Fort-builders of at least five centuries ago,-probably eight or ten centuries-form an interesting study for the Indianologist of to- duy. Back of these Fort-builders' days there can, as far as New York State ; concerned, be no former race. Belvidere has three of these earthworks, Fort il:ll and Conesus, and so on to Oswego this line of forts extenu. There are evidences that the original Genesee River Valley, judged by its present river basin. and the trail that passed through it. was the narrow highway connecting these scattered forts and this adds interest to the Keshequa trail by which our fr-t settlers found their way into our present town. There were at Oak- land (at or near the Nunda boundary, and even farther up the Keshequa) indi- vations of such earthworks and abundant specimens of relics peculiar to the locations of these fortified places. Indications are that the occupants of these tort- at least partially defended themselves with something more primitive than the bow and arrow. So many oval stones ( suitable for the use of King David's favorite weapon, the sling), all with a little hand-made indentation on one side, indicate they were made for something more than amusement. So plentiful are these in places near the Rude-Rowell farm that it is no great stretch of the imagination to locate here a battle field, fought many centuries ago. Probably the Fort-builders were connected by conquest with the Mound- builders of Ohio, as they also came from there, and brought with them some of the utensils and ornaments of that pre-historic race. Such, however, were found by excavating Fort Hill.
The Senecas, who were in possession of the lands when Europeans first ioand their way into New York, had no use for these forts; it was not their ale of warfare. Their villages were in the valleys or by some large spring . : running brook seldom very far from a river or well known trail. The prin- espal trails leading to the villages of the Nundaos were the Genesee River. the he-hequa, and one from Chautauqua Hollow, a continuation of the Canisten and connecting with trails running up the river and to Onondao.
The great village of Onondao was once, previous to the Revolutionary War, one of the largest and best built of the Seneca villages, and but for the ak of chimneys in their log structures. they would compare favorably with : Have of the pioneers of a half a century later. The description given of Little Bardstown at the time of its destruction will furnish a fairly correct idea of "th villages. The Senecas had for centuries excelled other Indian nations building their habitations. They built cabins, not huts, nor ordinary wig- The name Onondao signifies "Great Nunda." It was great in its
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Sachem Chief, it was great in its extended valley, it was great in its domain, great in number of warriors, it was great in the high chain of hills that encir- cled it. "The meeting of the hills" is its description name. Kenjockety, Mary Jemison and Tom Jemison, her grandson, have located it two miles nearer the Genesee than the present village of Nunda. They obtained their water from a spring of very cold water. Shorn of its two O's (both prefix and suffix) we have "Nonda." The change from Nunda represents the difference between mountains or chains of high hills, and ordinary hills. It is the difference seen between the Onondagas or Great Mountain people and the Nundawahos or Great Hill people ; besides this Sachem was also one of the Great War Chiefs of the whole Confederacy.
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