USA > New York > Comley's history of the state of New York, embracing a general review of her agricultural and mineralogical resources, her manufacturing industries, trade and commerce, together with a description of her great metropolis, from its settlement by the Dutch, in 1609 > Part 2
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COMLEY'S HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
centre of the hill, in a north-westerly course, the country lies quite flat ; more imme- diately north, and inclining to the east, the land is also level for one hundred rods, where it rises nearly as high as the hill, and continues for several miles quite ele- vated. In approaching the hill from the north, it stands very prominently before you, rising rather abruptly but not perpendicularly, to the height of eighty or ninety feet, extending about forty rods on a line east and west, the corners being round or truncated, and continuing to the south on the west side for some fifty or sixty rods, and on the east side for about half a mile, maintaining about the same elevation on the sides as in front ; beyond which distance the line of the hill is that of the land around. There are undoubted evidences of its having been resorted to as a fortifi- cation, and of its having constituted a valuable point of defence to a rude and half civilized people. Forty years ago, an intrenchment ten feet deep, and some twelve or fifteen feet wide, extended from the west to the east end, along the north or front part, and continued up each side about twenty rods, where it crossed over, and join- ing, made the circuit of intrenchment complete. At this day a portion of the in- trenchment is easily perceived, for fifteen rods along the extreme western half of the north or front part, the cultivation of the soil and other causes having nearly obliter- ated all other portions. It would seem that this fortification was arranged more for protection against invasion from the north, this direction being evidently its most commanding position. Near the north-west corner, piles of rounded stones have, at different times, been collected of hard consistence, which are supposed to have been used as weapons of defence by the besieged against the besiegers. Such skele- tons as have been found in and about this locality, indicate a race of men averaging one third larger than the present race; so adjudged by anatomists. From the
fortification, a trench leads to a spring of water. Arrow-heads, pipes, beads,
gouges, pestles, stone hatchets, have been found upon the ground, and excavated, in and about these fortifications. The pipes were of both stone and earthen ware; there was one of baked clay, the bowl of which was in the form of a man's head and face, the nose, the eyes, and other features being depicted in a style resem- bling some of the figures in Mr. Stevens's plate of the ruins of Central America. Forest trees were standing in the trench and on its sides, in size and age not differing from those in the neighboring forests; and upon the ground, the heart-woods of black-cherry trees of large size, the remains undoubtedly of a growth of timber that preceded the present growth. They were in such a state of soundness as to be used for timber by the first settlers. This last circumstance would establish greater antiquity for these works than has been generally claimed from other evidences. The black cherry of this region attains usually the age of two hundred and seventy-five and three hundred years; the beech and maple groves of Western New York bear evidences of having existed at least two hundred and forty or fifty years. These aggregates would show that these works were over five hundred years old. But this, like other timber growth testimony that has been adduced-that seems to have been relied upon somewhat by Mr. Clinton and others-is far from being satisfactory. We can only determine by this species of evidence, that timber has been growing upon these mounds and fortifications at least a certain length of time-have no warrant for saying how much longer. Take, for instance, the case under immediate consideration : How is it to be determined that there were not more than the two growths, of cherry, and beech and maple ; that other growths did not precede or intervene? These relics are found in our dense and heaviest timbered wood lands, below a deep vegetable mould interspersed with evidences of a long succession of timber growths and decays. We can in truth form but a vague con-
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COMLEY'S HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
(option of the length of time since these works were constructed : while we are Authorized in saying they are of great antiquity, we are not authorized in limiting the period.
The following are among some reflections of Professor Dewey of Rochester, wik. has reviewed Fort Hill at Le Roy, and furnished Mr. Schoolcraft with his observations. They may aid the reader, who is an antiquarian, in his specula- tions :
" The forest has been removed. Not a tree remains on the quadrangle, and only a few on the edge of the ravine on the west. By cultivating the land, the trench is nearly filled in some places, though the line of it is clearly seen. On the north side the trench is considerable, and where the bridge crosses it, is three or four feet deep at the sides of the road. It will take only a few years more to obliterate it entirely, as not even a stump remains to mark out its line.
"From this view it may be seen, or inferred,
"1. That a real trench bounded three sides of the quadrangle. On the south side there was not found any trace of trench, palisadoes, blocks, etc.
" :. It was formed long before the whites came into the country. The large trees on the ground and in the trench carry us back to an early era.
"3. The workers must have had some convenient tools for excavation.
" 4. The direction of the sides may have had some reference to the four cardinal points, though the situation of the ravines naturally marked out the lines.
"5. It cannot have been designed merely to catch wild animals, to be driven into it from the south. The oblique line down to the spring is opposed to this sup- position, as well as the insufficiency of such a trench to confine the animals of the torest.
"6. The same reasons render it improbable that the quadrangle was designed to confine and protect domestic animals.
" 7. It was probably a sort of fortified place. There might have been a defence on the south side by a stockade, or some similar means which might have entirely disappeared.
"By what people was this work done ?
"The articles found in the burying ground here, offer no certain reply. The yes, chisels, etc., found on the Indian grounds in this part of the State, were evidently made of the green stone or trap of New England, like those found on the Connecticut River in Massachusetts. The pipe of limestone might be from that put of the country. The pipes seem to belong to different eras.
" 1. The limestone pipe indicates the work of the savage or aborigines.
" 2. The third indicates the age of French influence over the Indians. An intel- Agent French gentleman says such clay pipes are frequent among the town popula- ton in parts of France.
" 3. The second, and most curious, seems to indicate an earlier age and people. " The beads found at Fort Hill are long and coarse, made of baked clay, and may "we had the same origin as the third pipe.
" Fort Hill cannot have been formed by the French as one of their posts to aid tu the destruction of the English colony of New York; if the French had made Fort Hill a post as early as 1660, or 185 years ago, and then deserted it, the trees could that have grown to the size of the forest generally in 1810, or in 150 years after- words. The white settlements had extended only twelve miles west of Avon in Gos, and some years after ( 18oo), Fort Hill was covered with a dense forest. .
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COMLEY'S HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
chestnut tree, cut down in 1842, at Rochester, showed 254 concentric circles of wood, and must have been more than 200 years old in 1800. So opposed is the notion that this was a deserted French post.
" Must we not refer Fort Hill to that race which peopled this country before the Indians, who raised so many monuments greatly exceeding the power of the Indians, and who lived at a remote era ?"
Upon the upper end of Tonawanda Island, in the Niagara River, near the dwelling house of the late Stephen White, in full view of the village of Tonawanda, and the Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad, is an ancient mound, the elevation of which, within the recollection of the early settlers, was at least ten feet. It is now from six to eight feet-circular -- twenty-five feet diameter at the base. In the centre, a deep excavation has been made, at different periods, in search of relics. A large number of human bones have been taken from it -- arrows, beads, hatchets, etc. The mound occupies a prominent position in the pleasure grounds laid out by Mr. White. How distinctly are different ages marked upon this spot! Here are the mouldering remains of a primitive race-a race whose highest achievements in the arts was the fashioning from flint the rude weapons of war and the chase, the pipe and hatchet of stone; and here, upon the other hand, is a mansion presenting good specimens of modern architecture. Commerce has brought the materials for its chimney-pieces from the quarries of Italy, and skill and genius have chiselled and given to them a mirror-like polish. Here in the midst of relics of another age, and of occupants of whom we know nothing beyond these evidences of their existence, are choice fruits, ornamental shrubbery, and gravelled walks.
Directly opposite this mound upon the point formed by the junction of Tona- wanda Creek with the Niagara River there would seem to have been an ancient armory, and upon no small scale. There is intermingled with at least an acre of earth, chips of flint, refuse pieces, and imperfect arrows that were broken in process of manufacture. In the early cultivation of the ground, the plough would occa- sionally strike spots where these chips and pieces of arrows predominated over the natural soil.
On the north side of the Little Buffalo Creek, in the town of Lancaster, Erie County, there is an ancient work upon a bluff, about thirty feet above the level of the stream. A circular embankment incloses an acre. Thirty years ago, this embankment was nearly breast high to a man of ordinary height. There were five gate-ways distinctly marked. A pine tree of the largest class in our forest, grew directly in one of the gate-ways. It was adjudged (at the period named), by prac- tical lumbermen, to be FIVE HUNDRED YEARS OLD. Nearly opposite, a small stream puts into the Little Buffalo. Upon the point formed by the junction of the two streams, a mound extends across from one to the other, as if to inclose or fortify the point. In modern military practice, strong fortifications are invested sometimes by setting an army down before them and throwing up breast-works. May not this smaller work bear a similar relation to the larger one ?
About one and a half miles west of Shelby Centre, Orleans County, is an ancient work. A broad ditch incloses, in a form nearly circular, about three acres of land. The ditch is at this day well defined, several feet deep. Adjoining the spot on the south, is a swamp about one mile in width by two in length. This
NOTE .-- The title of this chapter would confine these notices to Holland Purchase. The author has gone a short distance beyond his bounds, to include a well-defined specimen of these ancient works.
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COMLEY'S HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
swamp was once, doubtless, if not a lake an impassable morass. From the interior of the inclosure made by the ditch, there is what appears to have been a passage- way on the side next to the swamp. No other breach occurs in the entire circuit of the embankment. There are accumulated within and near this fort large piles of small stones of a size convenient to be thrown by the hand or with a sling .* Ar- row-heads of flint are found in and near the inclosure, in great abundance, stone axes, etc. Trees of four hundred years' growth stand upon the embankment, and underneath them have been found earthen ware, pieces of plates or dishes, wrought with skill, presenting ornaments in relief, of various patterns. Some skeletons almost entire have been exhumed ; many of giant size, not less than seven to eight feet in length. The skulls are large and well developed in the anterior lobe, broad between the ears, and flattened in the coronal region. Half a mile west of the fort is a sand hill. Here a large number of human skeletons have been exhumed, in a perfect state. Great numbers appeared to have been buried in the same grave. Many of the skulls appear to have been broken in with clubs or stones. "This," says S. M. Burroughs, Esq., of Medina (to whom the author is indebted for the description), " was doubtless the spot where a great battle had been fought. Were not these people a branch of the Aztecs? The earthen ware found here seems to indicate a knowledge of the arts known to that once powerful nation."
The Rev. Samuel Kirkland | visited and described several of these remains west of the Genesee River, in the year 1788. At that early period, before they had been disturbed by the antiquarian, the plough, or the harrow, they must have been much more perfect and better defined than now. Mr. Kirkland says in his journal, that after leaving " Kanawageas," the travelled twenty-six miles and encamped for the night at a place called " Joaki,"§ on the river " Tonawanda." Six miles from the place of encampment, he rode to the " open fields." | Here he " walked out about half a mile with one of the Seneca chiefs to view" the remains which he thus describes :
" This place is called by the Senecas Tegatainasghque, which imports a doubly fortified town, or a town with a fort at each end. Here are the vestiges of two forts; the one contains about four acres of ground; the other, distant from this
* These piles of small stones are frequently spoken of in connection with these works, by those who saw them at an early period of white settlement.
+ Mr. K. was the pioneer Protestant Missionary among the Iroquois. The Rev. Dr. Wheelock, of Lebanon, Ct., who was his early tutor, in one of his letters to the Countess of Huntingdon, in 1765, says :--- " A young Englishman, whom I sent last fall to winter with the numerous and savage tribes of the Senecas, in order to learn their language. and fit him for a mission among them ; where no missionary has hitherto dared to venture. This bold adventure of his, which under all the cir- cumstances of it is the most extraordinary of the kind I have ever known, has been attended with abundant evidence of a divine blessing." Connected as was the subject of this eulogy with other branches of our local history, he will be frequently referred to in the course of this work. + Avon.
$ Batavia, or the " Great Bend of the Tonnewanta," as it was uniformly called by the early travellers on the trail from Tioga Point to Fort Niagara and Canada. C" See account of Indian Trails. Batavia was favored with several Indian names. In Seneca, the one used by Mr. K. would Ve Raccoon.
[ The openings, as they are termed, in the towns of Elba and Alabama ; lying on either side of dw Batavia and Lockport road. but chiefly between that road and the Tonawanda Creek. The antiquarian who goes in search of the ancient Tegatainasghque, will be likely to divide his attention ktiven old and new things. It was a part of Tonawanda Indian Reservation. About twenty-five ; cars since, it was sold to the Ogden Company ; and the ancient "open fields" now present a broad (; auch of wheat fields, interspersed with farm buildings that give evidence of the elements of wealth that have been found in the soil.
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COMLEY'S HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
about two miles, and situated at the other extremity of the ancient town, incloses twice that quantity. The ditch around the former (which I particularly examined) is about five or six feet deep. A small stream of living water, with a high bank, circumscribed nearly one third of the inclosed ground. There were traces of six gates, or avenues, around the ditch, and a dug-way near the works to the water. The ground on the opposite side of the water was in some places nearly as high as that on which they built the fort, which might make it necessary for this covered way to the water. A considerable number of large, thrifty oaks have grown up within the inclosed grounds, both in and upon the ditch ; some of them, at least, appeared to be two hundred years old, or more. The ground is of a hard gravelly kind, intermixed with loam, and more plentifully at the brow of the hill. In some places, at the bottom of the ditch, I could run my cane a foot or more into the ground; so that probably the ditch was much deeper in its original state than it appears to be now. Near the northern fortification, which is situated on high ground, are the remains of a funeral pile. The earth is raised about six feet above the common surface, and betwixt twenty and thirty feet in diameter. From the best information I can get of the Indian historians, these forts were made previous to the Senecas being admitted into the confederacy of the Mohawks, Onondagas, Oncidas, and Cayugas, and when the former were at war with the Mississaugas and other Indians around the great lakes. This must have been nearly three hundred years ago, if not more, by many concurring accounts which I have obtained from different Indians of several different tribes. Indian tradition says also that these works were raised, and a famous battle fought here, in the pure Indian style and with Indian weapons, long before their knowledge and use of fire-arms or any knowledge of the Europeans. These nations at that time used, in fighting, bows and arrows, the spear or javelin, pointed with bone, and the war-club or death-mall. When the former were expended, they came into close engagement in using the latter. Their warrior's dress or coat of mail for this method of fighting was a short jacket made of willow sticks, or moon wood, and laced tight around the body; the head covered with a cap of the same kind, but commonly worn double for the better security of that part against a stroke from the war-club. In the great battle fought at this place, between the Senecas and Western Indians, some affirm their ancestors have told them there were eight hundred of their enemies slain; others include the killed on both sides to make that number. All their historians agree in this, that the battle was fought here, where the heaps of slain are buried, before the arrival of the Europeans ; some say three, some say four, others five ages ago; they reckon an age one hundred winters or colds. I would further remark upon this subject that there are vestiges of ancient fortified towns in various parts, throughout the exten- sive territory of the Six Nations. I find also, by constant inquiry, that a tradition prevails among the Indians in general that all Indians came from the West. I have wished for an opportunity to pursue this inquiry with the more remote tribes of In- dians, to satisfy myself, at least, if it be their universal opinion.
"On the south side of Lake Erie are a series of old fortifications, from Catta- raugus Creek to the Pennsylvania line, a distance of fifty miles. Some are from two to four miles apart, others half a mile only. Some contain five acres. The walls or breastworks are of earth, and are generally on grounds where there are appearances
NOTE .- The traditions given to Mr. Kirkland at so early a period are added to his account of the old forts, to be taken in connection with adverse theories and conclusions upon the same point. As has before been observed, many of the Senecas who have since been consulted, do not pretend to any satisfactory knowledge upon the subjects.
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of creeks having flowed into the lake, or where there was a bay. Further south there is said to be another chain parallel with the first, about equi-distant from the lake."
" These remains of art may be viewed as connecting links of a great chain, which extends beyond the confines of our State, and becomes more magnificent and curious as we recede from the northern lakes, pass through Ohio into the great val- ley of the Mississippi, thence to the Gulf of Mexico through Texas into New Mexico and South America. In this vast range of more than three thousand miles these monuments of ancient skill gradually become more remarkable for their number, magnitude, and interesting variety, until we are lost in admiration and astonishment, to find, as Baron Humboldt informs us, in a world which we call new, ancient institu- tions, religious ideas, and forms of edifices similar to those of Asia, which there seem to go back to the dawn of civilization."
"Over the great secondary region of the Ohio are the ruins of what once were forts, cemeteries, temples, altars, camps, towns, villages, race-grounds and other places of amusement, habitations of chieftains, videttes, watch-towers, and monu- ments."
" It is," says Mr. Atwater," " nothing but one vast cemetery of the beings of past ages. Man and his works, the mammoth, tropical animals, the cassia tree and other tropical plants, are here reposing together in the same formation. By what catastro- phe they were overwhelmed and buried in the same strata it would be impossible to say, unless it was that of the general deluge."
"In the valley of the Mississippi the monuments of buried nations are unsur- passed in magnitude and melancholy grandeur by any in North America. Here cities have been traced similar to those of Ancient Mexico, once containing hun- dreds of thousands of souls. Here are to be seen thousands of tumuli, some a hun- dred feet high, others many hundred feet in circumference, the places of their wor- ship, their sepulchre, and perhaps of their defence. Similar mounds are scattered throughout the continent, from the shores of the Pacific into the interior of our State as far as Black River, and from the Lakes to South America." }
So much for all we can see or know of our ancient predecessors. The whole subject is but incidental to the main purposes of local history. The reader who wishes to pursue it further will be assisted in his inquiries by a perusal of Mr. Schoolcraft's Notes on the Iroquois. But the mystery of this pre-occupancy is far from being satisfactorily explained. It is an interesting, fruitful source of theories, inquiry, and speculation.
* Atwater's Antiquities of the West.
+ Yates and Moulton's History of New York.
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COMLEY'S HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
THE IROQUOIS, OR FIVE NATIONS .*
EMERGING from a region of doubt and conjecture, we arrive at another branch of local history, replete with interest-less obscure-though upon its threshold we feel the want of reliable data, the lights that guide us in tracing the history of those who have written records.
The Seneca Indians were our immediate predecessors-the pre-occupants from whom the title of the Holland Purchase was derived. They were the Fifth Nation of a CONFEDERACY, termed by themselves Mingoes, as inferred by Mr. Clinton, Ho- de-no-sau-nee,f as inferred by other writers; the Confederates, by the English; the Maquaws, by the Dutch; the Massowamacs, by the Southern Indians; the IRO- QUOIS, by the French, by which last name they are now usually designated, in speaking or writing of the distinct branches of the Aborigines of the United States.
The original Confederates were the Mohawks, having their principal abode upon that river ; the Oneidas, upon the southern shore of Oneida Lake ; the Cayu- gas, near Cayuga Lake; the Senecas, upon Seneca Lake and the Genesee River. Those localities were their principal seats, or the places of their council-fires. They may be said generally to have occupied in detached towns and villages the whole of this State, from the Hudson to the Niagara River, now embraced in the counties of Schenectady, Schoharie, Montgomery, Fulton, Herkimer, Oneida, Madison, Onon- daga, Cayuga, Seneca, Wayne, Ontario, Livingston, Genesee, Wyoming, Monroe, Orleans, Niagara, Erie, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Alleghany, Steuben, and Yates. A narrower limit of their dwelling places, the author is aware, has been usually designated; but in reference to the period of the first European advent among them-1678-it is to be inferred that their habitations were thus extended, not only from the traces of their dwellings, and the relics of their rude cultivation of the soil, but from the records of the early Jesuit Missionaries. Their missions were at differ- ent periods extended from the Hudson to the Niagara River, and each one of them would seem to have had several villages in its vicinity. Each of the Five Nations undoubtedly had a principal seat. They were as indicated by their names. And each had its tributary villages, extended as has been assumed. It was plainly a coming together from separate localities-a gathering of clansmen-to resist the in - vasion of De Nonville; and it is to be inferred from the journal of Father Henne- pin that there were villages of the " Iroquois Senecas" in the neighborhood of La Salle's ship-yard on the Niagara River, and the primitive garrison, or " palisade," at its mouth. The missionaries who went out from the "place of ship building," and from the "Fort at Niagara," from time to time, upon apparently short excursions, visited different villages. The Jesuit Missions upon the Mohawk, and at Onondaga, would seem to have been visited, each by the inhabitants of several villages. The author rejects the conclusion that the Tonawanda and the Buffalo Indian villages were not founded until after the expedition of General Sullivan ; and concludes that these and other settlements of the Iroquois existed prior to the European ad- vent, west of the Genesee River. While some of the Seneca Indians assume the first
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