Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894, Part 25

Author: Haddock, John A. 1823-
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Sherman
Number of Pages: 1094

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THE FRENCH SETTLEMENT THERE.

ERICANA

GNA

FRAN

COLONIA

SAL

PARENS FRUGUM

CASTOR LAND

1793

MEDAL ISSUED BY THE CHASSNAIS FRANCO-AMERICAN LAND COMPANY. [ Enlarged one-half, from an original in possession of the Jefferson County Historical Society.]

To the excellent article by Hon. Mr. Ingalls. upon the "Waterways of Jefferson County," (see pages 9-12,) we wish to add a few general remarks. It is a peculiar characteristic mark- ing all the rivers that flow in and around Northern New York, that, excepting only the Mohawk, all of them flow from and through larger or smaller chains of lakes. The noble St. Lawrence itself, which forms the natural

and intensely picturesque northwestern boun- dry of Jefferson county, seems to be the vast prototype and pattern for all the others, as it flows from its own great continental sys- tem of lakes. The Hudson, flowing eastward like the Mohawk, is fed by a system of forest branches which spread over the entire moun- tain belt of the Adirondack wilderness, the head waters of some of its tributaries being

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THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

over 5000 feet above the level of the sea. But, however interesting it may be to follow out this train of thought, our History's space con- strains as to confine our remarks to the streams which flow into and through Jefferson county, or relate to waterways touching that county. Their influence upon the early set- tlements of the northern wilderness of 1793, in drawing to the Black River country those in pursuit of water power to drive factories, can never be prized too highly, nor too patiently described. These waters attracted to this locality those whose minds were profoundly stirred by that intense activity which always precedes great discoveries and great move- ments of populations.

The Black River bounds the Great Wilder- ness plateau of Laurentian rocks, on the west, and its valley bounds the Lesser Wilderness on the east.

As related in Mr. Ingall's article, the princi . ple confluents that enter the Black River from the Great Wilderness, are the Moose, Otter Creek, the Independence, and the Beaver.

The Moose River rises near the Raquette lake in the center of the wilderness, and winds through and forms the celebrated Eight Lakes of the Fulton chain. The Moose passes in its course the hunting station known to all frequenters of the woods as Arnold's, or the Old Forge, on Brown's Tract. This secluded spot has long been famous in forest story as the scene of John Brown's fruitless attempt at settlement, of the failure and tragic death of his son-in-law Herreshoff, of the exploits of the hunter Foster and his victim the Indian Drid, and of the life long home of Otis Arnold, the hunter and guide.

The Independence river rises near the Eight Lakes of the Fulton chain and runs into Black river in the town of Watson, Lewis county, between the Moose river and the Beaver river, In its course, this river crosses the tract of wild land known to land speculators as Watson's West Triangle. The Indepen- dence river was so named in honor of our national holiday by Pierre Pharoux, the en- gineer and surveyor of Castorland. Near the south bank of the Independence, not far from the old Watson house, is Chase's lake. This lake has long been a favorite resort, and is one of the most accessible in the Wilderness for the invalid or pleasure seeker. The Beaver river rises in the heart of the wilderness to the north of Raquette lake, and running in its course through Smith's lake, Albany lake, and Beaver lake, waters the territory of ancient Castorland, the seat of French influence on the Black river. Beaver lake, an expansion of this river at Number Four, a famous summer resort, is one of the most charming lakes in the wilderness.

Among the problematical places of the olden times in Northern New York, whose names were once familar in European circles but are seldom heard in modern story, no one was once more famous than La Famine.

Two hundred years ago, La Famine was a well-known stopping-place upon the eastern shore of Lake Ontario for the weary hunter

and the bold explorer, and the spot where even armies encamped, and the ambas- sadors of hostile nations met in solemn coun- cil. To-day its name can only be found on the historic page, and in the old maps and musty records, while its locality is often a matter of controversy. The ancient Indian landing-place and camping-ground known to the French as La Famine, was situated on the shore of Famine Bay, now called Mexico Bay, in the southeast corner of Lake Ontario, at the mouth of La Famine river, now known as Salmon river.

The Salmon river, the ancient French La Famine, rises in the central part of the plateau of the Lesser Wilderness in the southwest corner of Lewis county, and runs westerly through the northern part of Oswego county into Lake Ontario. The Lesser Wilderness was one of the beaver-hunting countries of the Iroquois. The key to this hunting ground of the Lesser Wilderness from the west was the Salmon river. On their way to the hunting ground through Lake Ontario, the western Indians landed at the mouth of this river, and their trail then led up its banks.

La Famine then was the ancient seaport of this famous hunting ground of the Lesser Wilderness, and was situated near what is now the village of Mexico, Oswego county. Hence we find on a map of New France, pub- lished by Marco Vincenzo Coronelli, in 1688, this place put down at the mouth of what is now known as the Salmon river, but in his map it is called La Famine river. It bears the following inscription : "La Famine, lieu ou la plus part des Iroquois des barquet pour aller in traitte du Castor," which may be translated thus: "La Famine, the place where the greater part of the Iroquois embarked to go upon the trail of the beaver."

The Lesser Wilderness of Northern New York is situated upon the long narrow plateau which stretches first westerly and then north- erly from the Upper Mohawk valley and the Oneida lake almost to the village of Carthage. The rocky ground-work of this plateau is com- posed of level strata of limestone and slate, which rise in a series of terraces of a mile or two in width from its borders into a high level table land, which has an elevation of nearly 2000 feet above the level of the sea. Upon the cen- tral part of this table land are situated the forests, swamps, marshes and wild meadows of the Lesser Wilderness.

Down the more regular terraces of its west- ern slope, locally called Tug Hill, the streams which rise in the swamps of the Lesser Wil derness hurry in a series of falls and cascades into the Black river, wearing deep chasms in the yielding rocks along their courses. Among these streamns are the Deer river, the Silver- mine, the Martin, the Whetstone and other creeks.

This Lesser Wilderness was one of the most famous hunting grounds of the Indian. Its woods were literally filled with game, and its streams with fish. La Hontan says that there . were so many salmon in La Famine river that

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THE ADIRONDACK WILDERNESS AND CASTORLAND.

they often brought up a hundred at one cast of the net.

The deer came across the valley of the Black river from the Great Wilderness every spring in droves, to feed upon the luxuriant summer herbage, and returned every autumn to escape the deep snows of the Lesser Wil- derness. Their runways were along the valleys of the Deer river, the Sugar river and other streams, which as before stated run down the eastern slope of the Lesser Wilderness into the Black river. The deer were caught in great numbers by the early settlers of the Black River valley, during this half-yearly migration.

The forests of the Lesser Wilderness have always been favorite nesting places for wild pigeons. But lately these birds built their nests in these woods, in countless myriads, over miles in extent. The Lesser Wilderness has always been celebrated for its deep snows. The snow in March and April is sometimes over a foot deep. In 1876, the snow was three feet in depth over the Lesser Wilder- ness on the first day of May.

CASTORLAND.

The summer tourist, on his way from Tren- ton Falls to the Thousand Islands, may pass through the beautiful and flourishing valley of the Black river, over the Utica and Black River railroad. As the train draws near to the first station north of the village of Low- ville, he will hear the sharp voice of the brakeman crying out "Cas-tor-land." He will look out of the car window and see a wide level clearing of pasture-land and meadow, skirted by forests, one side of which is bound- ed by the river. In the middle of this clear- ing he will see only the small station house, and three or four scattered buildings sur- rounding it, and will doubtless wonder whence comes the high-sounding name for such mea- gre surroundings.

The story of Castorland is the often repeat- ed tale of frustrated settlements in the old wilderness-the story of an attempt of the exiled nobility and clergy of the old regime in France to found a settlement in the wilds of the New World, where they could find a secure retreat from the horrors of the Revolu- tion in the Old.

This attempt was made at the close of the last century in the valley of the Black river, on the western slope of the Great Wilderness. But, like the settlement of the first Catholics on the Patuxent, the Jacobites with Flora Mc- Donald at Cape Fear, the Huguenots with Jean Ribault at Port Royal ; like New Amster- dam on the Hudson, New Sweden on the Delaware ; like Acadie in Nova Scotia,-Cas- torland on the Black river lives now only in poetry and history. Its story is one of bril- liant promises all unfulfilled, of hopes defer- red, of man's tireless but fruitless endeavor, of woman's tears.

To rescue this name so fraught with histor- ical associations from oblivion, it was applied to the railroad station which is nearest to the

site of the largest projected city of ancient Castorland. That city was laid out on the Beaver river, which flows into the Black river from the wilderness nearly opposite this station.

For the purpose of effecting the settlement of Castorland a company was formed in Paris, under the laws of France, in the month of August, 1792, and styled La Campagnie de New York. On the 31st day of the same month the company, by its agent, Pierre Chassanis, bought a large tract of land lying in the valley of the Black river, of William Constable, who was the owner of Macomb's purchase. This tract lay along both sides of the Black river below the High Falls, and ex- tended westerly through the counties of Lewis and Jefferson to Lake Ontario, and easterly in- to the heart of the Great Wilderness. The Castorland purchase at first comprised the whole of great lot No. 5 of Macomb's pur- chase, and contained six hundred and ten thousand acres. But subsequently all south and west of the Black river, being the part which now constitutes the richest towns of Lewis and Jefferson counties, was given up, and only that lying to the north and east of the river retained. The portion so retained contained only two hundred and ten thousand acres. This was the Castorland of the olden times.

The name Castorland, that is to say, the Land of Beavers, is doubtless a literal transla- tion of the old Indian word, which means the "Beaver Hunting Country," Castorland being taken out of the western half of this old In- dian hunting ground.

During the negotiations between Constable and Chassanis for this tract, the Revolution, that had been so long smouldering, burst forth in all its savage fury, and the streets of Paris were slippery with human gore. Con- stable locked the door of the apartment in which they met, with the remark that "if they parted before the purchase was complet- ed they might never meet again." The palace of the Tuilleries was already surrounded by the bloodthirsty mob. The attendants of the royal family were butchered, and the feeble king cast into a dungeon. In comparison with such awful scenes as these in the very heart of the highest civilization the world had ever seen, the savage wildness of the old American forests was a scene of peaceful rest. To the fugitive noblesse of France, the former possessors of great titles, rank, wealth and cul- ture, the quiet shades of Castorland afforded a secure asylum from the horrors of the Reign of Terror.

SCHEME OF SETTLEMENT.

A romantic scheme was at once conceived and perfected by the company in Paris for the settlement of Castorland. In pursuance of this scheme a pamphlet was printed in Paris and issued by the company, containing a programme of colonization under its aus- pices. This pamphlet was entitled "Associa- tion for the purchase and settlement of six hundred thousand acres of land, granted by

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THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

the State of New York, and situated within that State, between the 43d and 44th degrees of latitude, upon Lake Ontario, and thirty- five leagues from the city and port of Albany, where vessels land from Europe." It set forth, among other things, in glowing colors, the wealth of agriculture presented by its fer- tile soil, the fine distribution of its waters, its facilities for an extended commerce on account of its location in the vicinity of a dense popu- lation, and above all the security afforded to its inhabitants by the laws of a people who were independent and rich with their own capital, thus extending to the immigrant all the benefits of liberty with none of its draw- backs. It was stated that the object of the proprietors was to form of the colony a sort of family, in some way united by common in- terests and common wants, and that to main- tain this union of interests a plan had been devised that rendered each member directly interested in the whole property. It was to be done by and in the name of Sieur Chas- sanis, in whose name they had purchased the estate, and who alone had power to issue cer- tificates of ownership.

There were six thousand certificates to be issued, each entitling the holder thereof to ownership in manner following : The whole tract at that time consisted of 630,000 acres. Of this 600,000 were divided into 12,000 lots of 50 acres each, and the price of each share fixed at 800 livres ($152.38.) In the beginning, 6,000 lots were set apart for individual pro- perties, and the other 6,000 lots were to belong to a common stock which was to be divided at some future time, after improvements had been made thereon by the company. Each holder of a certificate was to receive at once a deed for a separate lot of 50 acres, to be drawn by lot, and also a lot of 50 acres in the com- mon undivided stock.

Of the 30,000 remaining acres, 2,000 were set apart for a city to be formed on the great river in the interior, and 2,000 more for another city on Lake Ontario, at the mouth of the Black river, which was to form a port and entrepot of commerce. Among artizans 6,000 acres were to be divided and rented to them at 12 sous per acre. The proceeds of the 20,000 acres remaining were to be expend- ed by the company in the construction of roads, bridges and other improvements.

The two cities were divided into 14,000 lots each. Of these lots, 2,000 were set apart for churches, schools, markets, &c. The remain- ing 12,000 lots were to be divided among the 6,000 holders of certificates in the same manner as the large tract, -each holding one separate lot and one in common.

The affairs of the company were to be man- aged by five trustees, three to remain in Paris and two upon the tract.

Such was the scheme matured in the salons of Paris for the settlement of Castorland. Beautiful and promising beyond measure upon paper, as an ideal, but utterly impracticable and bitterly disappointing as a reality. Yet, many shares were eagerly taken.

ORGANIZATION.

On the 28th of June, 1793, it being the second year of the French Republic, the act- ual holders of certificates convertible into shares of La Compagnie de New York met in the rooms of citizen Chassanis, in Paris, to organize their society upon the basis already established, and to regulate the division, sur- vey and settlement of their lands. There were present at that meeting 41 shareholders in all, who represented 1880 shares. They per- fected and completed their organization ; they adopted a long and elaborate constitution; they chose a seal for their corporation, and ap- pointed five commissaries to manage its affairs, three for Paris and two for Castorland. In the meantime the tract had been re-conveyed, and the large part lying west and south of the Black river given up, the part retained being that lying east and north of the river, and containing only 210,000 acres. To accord with this fact the number of shares was reduced from 6,000 to 2,000. It was at this meeting that a silver piece was ordered to be struck, termed a "Jetton de presence," one of which was to be given at every meeting to each commis- sary as an attendance fee .*

The commissaries appointed for America were Simon Desjardines and Pierre Pharoux, who lost no time in proceeding to America to execute their important trust. Desjardines had been a Chamberlain of Louis XVI. He was middle age, an accomplished scholar and gentleman, but knew not a word of English when he arrived. He had with him his wife and three children, and his younger brother, Geoffry Desjardines, who shared his labors and trials. He also brought with him his library of 2,000 volumes. Pierre Pharoux, the surveyor who was afterwards drowned, was a distinguished young architect and engineer of Paris, of high scientific at- tainments and marked ability. He was earn- estly and faithfully devoted to his duties ; and his love of science, his honesty, his good sense, and genial and ardent friendship were manifested in all his doings. He left behind him in France an aged father to mourn his. untimely death.

They sailed from Havre on the 4th day of July, 1793, in the American ship Liberty, but did not arrive in New York until the 7th of September following. There came over in the

* These pieces occur in coin cabinets. and have been erroneously called "Castorland half-dollars." A jetton is a piece of metal struck with a device, and distributed to be kept in commemoration of some event, or to be used as a counter in games of chance. The one here noticed was termed a " jetton de pre- sence," or piece "given in certain societies or com- panies to each of the members at a session or meet- ing." It was engraved by one of the Duvivier brothers, eminent coin and metal artists of Paris. The design represents on the obverse the head of Cybele, who personified the earth as inhabited or cultivated, while on the reverse Ceres has just tap- ped a maple tree, in which will be observed a spout provided with a stop to withhold the sweet sap when it flowed too fast!

The Latin legend on the reverse is a quotation from Virgil, which, with its context, reads :

" Salve magna parens frugum, Saturnia tellus magna virum."

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THE ADIRONDACK WILDERNESS AND CASTORLAND.

same vessel with them a young French refugee named Mark Isambart Brunel, who afterward filled the world with his fame as an engineer in England. Brunel had been in the French navy, and was driven from home on account of his royalistic proclivities. He went with them in all their journeys through the wilder- ness, and shared in all their hardships during the first year, but does not seem to have been employed by them in Castorland.

THEIR FIRST EXPLORATION.

Soon after their arrival in this country, Desjardines and Pharoux, with their friend Brunel, set out on a voyage of exploration to their "promised land" in the wild valley of the Black River. To realize the difficulties of the undertaking, the reader must bear in mind that the country they were in quest of lay far from Albany in the depths of a howl- ing wilderness, which had then never been visited by white men, except around its bor- der, or when carried across it as prisoners in savage hands; that the only route to it was up the Mohawk, in batteaux, to Fort Stanwix, now the city of Rome ; thence by the way of Wood creek, the Oneida lake, and the Oswego river to Lake Ontario, and from Lake Ontario up the unexplored route of the Black river. It was over the old Indian trail, the savage warpath of the French and Indian and of the Revolutionary wars, and even then there, was threatend a general Indian war by all the tribes around our borders. But in the face of all these difficulties our explorers, in the autumn of 1793, set out for Castorland.

In describing their passage over the carry- ing place from Fort Stanwix to Wood creek, near where the four busy tracks of the New York Central Railroad now run, they write in their journal, under date of October 10th : "Upon taking a walk into the woods a short dis- tance we saw on every hand it was a fearful solitude. You are stopped sometimes by im- passable swamps, and at other times by heaps of trees that have fallen from age or have been overthrown by storms, and among which an infinite number of insects and many squirrels find a retreat. On every hand we see the skelctons of trees overgrown with moss and in every stage of decay. The capil- laire and other plants and shrubs spring out of these trunks, presenting at once the images of life and death."

The fort at Oswego was still held by a British garrison. Jealous of Frenchmen, the commander at first refused to allow them to pass into Lake Ontario, but it was finally arranged that Brunel should remain as a hostage for the good conduct and safe return of the others. Brunel, however, was refused access to the fort, and was ordered to encamp alone in the woods on the opposite side of the river. Considering that such treatment in- validated his parole, he escaped from Oswego disguised as a common sailor, and proceeded with his friends on their expedition. They proceeded cautiously along the shore of the lake over the route that had become historic by the presence of M. de la Barre and his

army in their visit to La Famine in 1684, and of Father Charlevoix in 1720, and which had so often been traversed by their countrymen in the palmy days of the old French occu- pancy, until their arrival at Niaoure bay, now called Black River bay. Here after a long search they discovered the mouth of the Black river, the great river that watered Cas- torland. But it was already so late in the season that they only explored the river up to the point some five or six miles above the falls at Watertown, and then returned to Albany to complete their preparations for the next year's journey.

In the autumn of 1855, the Hon. Amelia M. Murray, maid of honor to Queen Victoria, made a tour of the United States and Canada, through the lake belt of the Wilderness, over the route now so much traveled. Her com- panions were Gov. Horatio Seymour, the Governor's niece and other friends. On their way they stopped, of course, at Arnold's. But I will let the Lady Amelia tell the story in her own words, as written in her diary, under date of September 20, 1855 : " Mr. Seymour remained to make arrangements with the guides, while his niece and I walked on to Arnold's farm. There we found Mrs. Arnold and six daughters. These girls, aged from 12 to 20, were placed in a row against one wall of the shanty, with looks so expressive of astonishment, that I felt puzzled to account for their manner, till their mother informed us they had never before seen any other woman than herself ! I could not elicit a word from them, but, at last, when I begged for a little milk, the eldest went and brought me a glass (tin cup). Then I remembered that we had met a single hunter rowing himself on the Moose river, who called out, 'Where on 'arth do them women come from?' And our after experience fully explained why ladies are such rare birds in that locality."

THE SETTLEMENT OF CASTORLAND.

The next spring, being in the year 1794, the Desjardines brothers and Pharoux, with a large company of men, with their surveyors and assistants, took up their toilsome journey from Schenectady to their forest possessions, being this time fully equipped to begin their settlement. Their route this year was up the Mohawk in batteaux to Fort Schuyler, now Utica, thence overland across the Deerfield hills 16 miles, to the log house of Baron Steu- ben, who had then just commenced his im- provements upon his tract of 16,000 acres granted him by the State. Fron. Steuben's it was 24 miles further through the trackless forest to the High Falls on the Black river in Castorland.

The difficulties of the journey then still be- fore them can scarcely be imagined by the reader of to-day. At length they reached their tract on the welcome banks of the Black river, and began their labors. But there is no space in these pages to follow them in their operations, in their sore trials and their bitter disappointments, their final discom- fiture and utter failure.

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THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

Suffice it to say that they began a little set- tlement on the banks of the Black river, at the place now called Lyons Falls. That they surveyed their lands and laid out one of their cities, Castorville, on the Beaver river, at a place now called Beaverton, opposite the little station now called Castorland, in mem- ory of their enterprise. That they laid out their other city, the lake port, which they named "City of Basle," at what is now Dex- ter, below Watertown, and in 1795 they founded the present village of Carthage. That Pharoux was accidentally drowned in the river at Watertown in the fall of 1795. That Desjardines gave up the agency in des- pair in 1797, and was succeeded by Rudolphe Tillier, "Member of the Sovereign Council of Berne," who in turn gave place to Gouverneur Morris in 1800, and that the lands finally be- came the property of James Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont, his associates and grantees.

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Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894, Part 25

Author: Haddock, John A. 1823- Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Sherman Number of Pages: 1094

Author: Haddock, John A. 1823-
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Sherman
Number of Pages: 1094