USA > New York > Cattaraugus County > Historical review of Cattaraugus County > Part 2
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The Indians appear to have been divided in their attitude toward the educational efforts of the Quakers. One faction, led by Cornplanter and others, considered it a progressive step toward improving the status of their people. Others looked on it as a possible danger to losing their traditional customs, and perhaps suspected the Friends of entertaining selfish designs. While the first group was dominant, the Friends' efforts received hearty cooperation from the Seneca officials.
The present officials of the Friends' School at Quaker Bridge are in possession of a manuscript, written at an early date, which traces the vicissitudes of the Quakers in this region. This document, in referring to the opinion of the Indians on their efforts, says:
"At one of their councils, Cornplanter, their chief, said in an address : ' .. . Brothers, we can't say a word against you. It is the best way to call Quakers brothers. You never wished any part of our lands, therefore, we are determined to try to learn your ways, and these young men may stay here two years to try, and then if they like it, and we like it, your young men may stay longer'." The document then explains that this decision came about after the chiefs had gone into a conference to discuss the issue.
It appears that the suspicion of some of the Indians toward the Quakers was fostered partly by white people who had begun to settle near, or travel through the reservation, and expressed the opinion that the Quakers coveted Indian lands.
To dispel the Indians' fears on this subject, the Quakers decided to remove their quarters from "Old Town" to some other location nearby, far enough from the river to be off the reservation. Accord- ingly, a new tract of land was obtained in 1803, a short distance up Quaker Run, and the mission was moved there in 1804. When the . Quakers left "Old Town," they left behind blacksmith tools, farm im- plements, etc., for the benefit of the natives.
The new tract of land contained 692 acres, and, although all the land was off the reservation, it was probably more accessible to many of the Indian dwellings than the old location. After moving to their new quarters, the Friends repeated the process of building a black- smith shop, a mechanical work-shop and farm buildings. A saw-mill was put in operation in 1805.
The attempt to maintain a school for Indian children, like the attempts in other fields, found the Indians divided in their attitude. Joseph Elkington, a Friend who had come from the vicinity of Phila- delphia for the purpose, for sixteen years made an effort to keep a school open; at times he was threatened by the natives, while for long periods his school was highly successful. The above-mentioned manu- script states that in the year 1835 two schools were kept under the
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management of the Indians themselves, having Indian teachers; one school contained ten to sixteen students, the other, twenty-five to fifty. It is quite probable that these two schools were started by the Friends, after which their management was delegated to capable Senecas whom they had trained.
In the fall of 1835 and in the spring of 1836, the valley of the Allegany was ravaged by floods, bringing destruction and panic to the Allegany Reservation. The corn, wheat and other crops were com- pletely destroyed on most of the bottom lands, and danger of famine and pestilence was paramount. The Quakers met this crisis with energy, sending to Philadelphia for grain and other aid. Another flood devastated the region in 1842. Records fail, however, to men- tion figures of casualties from drownings or sickness.
Intervention by the Quakers aided greatly in breaking up the plan put forward by the Ogden Land Company in 1838, of purchasing the right of occupancy to the western New York Reservations and establishing the Senecas on new lands in the West.
The Quaker mission existed primarily for the purpose of aiding the natives socially and educationally, not attempting to make them converts to the Friends' religion. They did, however, desire and ex- hort them to embrace Christianity. A new religion, pagan in belief but embodying some degree of Christian ethics, was gaining consider- able ground at this time. The founder of this faith was Handsome Lake, Cornplanter's half-brother.
The entire movement must have been a severe strain on the patience of the benefactors. The Quakers found it expedient to loan, rather than give, tools to the natives, fearing that ownership might be followed by trading these tools for liquor. The Quakers strove energetically to persuade the Indians to reform on this point, and at times they were successful, but much of the time intemperance was a vice found so frequently that a group less gifted with patience might have abandoned the whole effort in disgust. Indolence likewise had to be reckoned with. The Quaker manuscript referred to above relates the incident of a prominent Seneca, holding a high rank in his tribe, who, upon being furnished with a bag of corn by the Friends, replied that he would go home and send his squaw for the corn. The woman at the Quaker quarters refused him the corn unless he carried it home himself. He took the viewpoint that a man in his official rank need not do hard work. The woman in charge, however, insistently refused the corn unless he carried it himself, which he did after an unsuccess- ful attempt to fool her by carrying it only part way.
The grist mill mentioned above was used for many years by the Indians and the white settlers from nearby communities. Records
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also indicate that some of the natives made earnest and energetic at- tempts at land-tilling, cattle-raising and swine-herding. Most of the efforts the Quakers made in mechanical and technical improvements, however, were disappointing in their results. The Indians were far too attached to their crude and simple manner of existence to arouse much ambition for this type of training. The chief importance of the Quaker enterprise to local history consists, first, in the fact that part of the Senecas saw the benefits which could accrue to them by adopt- ing the white man's educational methods. Thus the way was cleared for the subsequent establishment of public elementary schools by the state. Secondly, the whole-hearted Christian charity shown by the Friends went a long way toward establishing good-will between In- dians and white people.
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SECTION FOUR
LAND TENURE AND POLITICAL DIVISIONS
The early history of land-holdings in Cattaraugus County, as elsewhere in western New York, brings to light a series of claims, purchases, treaties and settlements, somewhat confusing and difficult to analyze. In order to have some point from which to proceed on this subject, identification should be made of three different phases of land-holdings :
1. Political Sovereignty.
2. Pre-emption right.
3. Right of Occupancy.
With regard to the first, both the French and British crowns held conflicting claims in western New York during Colonial times. The French claim was based largely on exploration, especially La Salle's expedition in the Mississippi Valley. The British claim to the region was based largely on treaties made with the Iroquois by which the Five Nations recognized the King as over-lord. The Treaty of Paris (1763) at the close of the French and Indian War left the terri- tory in the hands of Great Britain, by which power it was dominated until it was recognized as part of the United States. The close of the Revolutionary War left the areas of several states in uncertainty, and lively boundary quarrels took place, especially involving the jurisdic- tion over western lands.
The section of New York State west of a straight line drawn southward from the western bend of Lake Ontario was claimed by both New York and Massachusetts. Other areas along the eastern boundary of New York were also involved in the dispute. The differ- ences between the two states were settled at a convention held at Hartford in 1786. Regarding the area in western New York, it was provided that it be a part of New York State politically, but that pre- emption rights to the land be vested in Massachusetts.
Within a few years after the settlement of the Massachusetts dispute, the legislature slowly began the process of dividing western New York into counties and townships. The entire area was included in Ontario County when it was formed in 1789. Genesee County, formed in 1802, included all of New York State west of the Genesee. Allegany County, erected in 1806 at the request of the Holland Land Co., included considerable of what is now Cattaraugus County ; what afterwards became the towns of Olean, Portville, Allegany, Hinsdale, Ischua, Humphrey, Franklinville, Lyndon and Farmersville, was part of Allegany County at the time of its origin.
In 1808, the legislature passed an act creating the county of Cattaraugus. The above-mentioned townships were subtracted from
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Allegany County and joined with a part of Genesee County to form Cattaraugus, its boundaries being the same as at the present time. However, the population of the new county was deemed so sparse that the legislature provided that the part which had been subtracted from Genesee County should be "organized, and for all county purposes act in conjunction with, the County of Niagara, as a part thereof, and shall remain so organized until they contain five hundred taxable in- habitants qualified to vote for members of the assembly." A similar act, passed in 1812, provided that the part which had belonged to Allegany should act in conjunction with it, for judicial purposes, until Cattaraugus County was populous enough to establish its own govern- ment. The act which created the County of Cattaraugus in 1808 also provided that a commission should be appointed to locate a suitable place for a county-seat. This commission, consisting of Jonas Wil- liams, Isaac Sutherland and Asa Ransom, decided that Ellicottville was the proper place, and erected an iron-wood post as a marker.
By 1817, Cattaraugus County had passed the required number of taxable inhabitants, and proceeded to organize its county government. The entire county had been included in the township of Olean from 1808 to 1812. The township of Ischua, later called Franklinville, was formed from the northern part of the county in 1812, and two years later, the town of Perry was formed from the western part of the county. On July 1, 1817, the Court of Common Pleas was held at William Baker's house in Olean, and again met there in November of the same year.
On April 21, 1818, the state legislature passed an act which pro- vided that the next session of court be held at the home of Baker Leonard in Ellicottville until a court house be built. Consequently, on July 7, 1818, court was held at the above-mentioned home. In 1820 a new court house was completed and the practice of holding court in a dwelling-house became unnecessary. The first jail building in Elli- cottville is said to have been a log hut with stones wedged between the rails. This crude building evidently was in use for several years, for we are told that in 1829 it was destroyed by fire, throwing the prisoners into hysterical cries for their safety, but the fire was dis- covered soon enough to save any of the prisoners from injury or death.
The removal of the courts from Olean to Ellicottville so dissatis- fied some of the Olean people that when the first session was held in Ellicottville, several Oleanders are said to have provided themselves with tents and provisions, so as to avoid leaving their money in Elli- cottville. One or two cool nights of camping, however, satisfied their craving for out-door life and they were willing to pay for rooms at the inn.
The sub-division of Cattaraugus County into townships kept pace with its increase in population. The following list gives the date in
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which townships were established, going by the name by which they are known today rather than that by which they were known when first established :
Township
Date of Origin
Taken Chiefly From
Allegany
1831
Ashford
1824
Carrollton
1842
Cold Spring
1827
Connewango
1823
Dayton
1835
East Otto
1854
Ellicottville
1820
Elko
1890
Farmersville
1821
Franklinville
1812
Freedom
1820
Great Valley
1818
Olean
Hinsdale
1820
Olean
Humphrey
1826
Allegany Hinsdale
Leon
1832
Little Valley
1818
Lyndon
1829
Machias
1827
Mansfield
1830
Napoli
1823
Olean
1808
Otto
1823
Perrysburg
1814
Persia
1835
Portville
1837
Randolph
1826
Red House
1869
Connewango Salamanca Little Valley
Salamanca
1854
South Valley
1847
Yorkshire
1820
Cold Spring & Randolph Franklinville
Regarding the "pre-emption right" to the land, i. e., the right to purchase the "right of occupancy" from the Indians, British law recognized the King as having the privilege of granting it to an in- dividual or a company, after which it might be disposed of as any real estate, except that no practical use could be made of the land until the "right of occupancy" had been secured. The pre-emption right has been considered actual ownership of the land by some; by others it has been considered nothing more than a monopoly on the privilege of dealing with the Indians concerning the purchase of their
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Great Valley Ellicottville Great Valley Napoli Little Valley Perrysburg Otto Franklinville South Valley Franklinville
Olean Franklinville
Ischua
1846
Connewango Perrysburg Franklinville Yorkshire Little Valley Little Valley
Perrysburg Olean & Franklinville Perrysburg Olean
rights. It has been generally agreed, however, that the holder of the "pre-emption right" who afterwards purchased the "right of occu- pancy" was the holder of a clear title to the land.
King James the first granted the Pilgrims "pre-emption right" to a large tract of land in America, reaching from the Atlantic coast westward. The extent of this tract was vaguely defined, but it has been the opinion of many that it included a large part of the present New York State. Later Charles the second granted the Duke of York "pre-emption rights" to another vast tract, and if the first mentioned tract included what the Plymouth colony and its successors claimed, the last mentioned tract overlapped the Plymouth grant. This point was settled, as we have seen, at the Hartford Conference of 1798, when the "pre-emption right" was recognized as belonging to Massa- chusetts.
Regarding the "right of occupancy," the fact that the Indians were dwelling in the territory gave them a tenure which entitled them to hold it until their right was disposed of. It was in attempts to pur- chase the "right of occupancy" that a large part of the land trouble of western New York centered itself. It is well to remember, in con- sidering the Indian occupation, that their population was small, even before the Revolutionary War. The entire Iroquois Confederacy, while much has been said of their power, probably did not number eighteen thousand at that time. When the ravages of war and emigration to Canada are considered, the Indian population of western New York at the beginning of the nineteenth century must have been almost negligible. Moreover, the "right of occupancy" to most of western New York belonged, not to the Iroquois generally, but to one nation, the Senecas. This tribe, limited to a few thousand individuals found largely in the Cattaraugus and Allegany valleys, was thus well able to sell its rights without crowding its tribesmen. It appears, therefore, that the Senecas were thus in a position to improve themselves on sales of the "right of occupancy." However, it would seem that a gen- eral lack of unity, of business acumen, and perhaps a lack of honesty and unselfishness on the part of some, prevented the rank and file from receiving any great benefits from the sale of their rights to the land.
The "pre-emption right" was destined to change hands several times in the post-revolutionary period. In April of 1788, Massachu- etts sold "pre-emption rights" to the entire area to Phelps and Gor- man, who subsequently purchased the Indian "right of occupancy" to the part of it east of a line running north and south near the Genesee River. As to the area west of this line (i. e. all the land to which the Indian rights had not been purchased), Phelps and Gorman relin- quished their "pre-emption rights" to it, which again reverted to Massachusetts.
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A short time later, Robert Morris, the financier whose aid to Con- gress during the dark days of the Revolution is well known, became the possessor of "pre-emption rights" to all the territory west of the Phelps and Gorman purchase. Morris' title came by way of taking over a contract which his agent, David Ogden, had made with Massa- chusetts, also from an agreement which Morris had made with John Butler, who was believed to have certain claims on the land. Morris proceeded to purchase the "right of occupancy" to a small part of this area, and sold part of the land to which a clear title had thus been obtained in small parcels, chiefly to individual owners.
In December, 1792, Morris sold the "pre-emption rights" to the entire western New York domain (excepting the small parcels he had sold to small holders, and another area known as the Morris Reserve) to a group of capitalists who were residing in the Netherlands. One and a half million acres were involved. This deal was known as the Holland Purchase. The sum of seventy-five thousand pounds was agreed to as the price of one million acres; however, the Hollanders reserved the privilege of declaring this sum as a loan to Morris, if they so choose, which privilege would expire in three years. If the Hollanders choose this course, its repayment of the seventy-five thou- sand would fall due in annual installments, the first of which would be due six years after the contract was signed. A somewhat similar arrangement was made regarding the other half million acres.
At the time the Holland Purchase was made, a New York State law was in existence which made it illegal for foreigners to hold land. To circumvent this law, the Holland group made the purchase through a number of American citizens who subsequently became trustees for the company. This system was abandoned in 1798 after the above- mentioned law had been altered.
The formal beginning of the Holland Land Co. took place in the Netherlands in 1796 (over two years after the Holland Purchase) in which year it was duly authorized by the notary. The preliminary declaration had been made the previous year.
Previous to this formal act of organizing, the Holland Land Co. appears to have been simply an associated group of banking houses which held mutual interests.
The Holland Land Co. purchase was accompanied by an agree- ment on the part of Morris that the Indian "right of occupancy" would be extinguished. Accordingly, Morris met with representatives of the Seneca Nation and the Holland Land Co. at Big Tree, near Geneseo. It appeared that the Seneca sachems, after considerable dickering with Morris and his associates, were willing to disband the conference without the sale being made. According to Seneca law,
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however, the failure of the sachems to successfully conduct an agree- . ment of this kind left a second door open. The warriors of the tribe, as well as the women, had similar power of negotiation at such a time, and it was by this means that negotiations were resumed. The war- riors, of whom Cornplanter was the leader, and the women of the Senecas came to an agreement with Morris whereby the "right of occupancy" to all the land in the Holland Purchase was sold (Septem- ber 15, 1797), except as to certain Indian Reservations. The main con- sideration was one hundred thousand dollars which was to be invested in stock of the United States Bank, and to be held in the name of the President of the United States for the benefit of the Seneca Nation.
It has been asserted by competent authority that corruption played its role in the conference of Big Tree: Interpreters are said to have been given a "gratification," a similar donation is reported to have been extended to the agent of the Federal Government to the Six Nations, and some of the prominent Senecas have been accused of making individual gains through dishonesty. The system of deal- ing with Indians over land at that time appears to have countenanced irregular practices. The extinguishment of the Indian "right of occu- pancy" at Big Tree left the way clear for the parceling out of the Holland Purchase into individual holdings. Joseph Ellicott supervised the surveying of the Holland Purchase.
One of the areas which the Senecas reserved from the treaty was the Allegany Reservation. This area, which in general took in the bottom land along the Allegany River for thirty-five miles (from the vicinity of Vandalia to the state line), was surveyed in September and October, 1798, by Richard M. Stoddard. The width of the reserva- tion varies from one to two and one-half miles, except that, in the valley of Cold Spring Creek, the area extends to about three miles from the river. The reservation occupies 30,469 acres. The Catta- raugus Reservation, about one-fifth of which is in Cattaraugus County, was established in its present boundaries in 1802, Indian lands in this region having had their boundaries changed since the Treaty of Big Tree.
The Oil Spring Reservation, a small tract of land about equally divided between Allegany and Cattaraugus Counties, was not men- tioned in the Treaty of Big Tree and became the subject of a long legal controversy. It was definitely established as an Indian Reservation in 1859. The Allegany and Cattaraugus Reservations maintain the status of areas to which the "right of occupancy" has never been ex- tinguished. The "pre-emption right" passed from the Holland Land Co. to the Ogden Land Co. as the former organization withdrew from the scene. The Ogden Land Co. is now dormant, but it has never been
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formally disbanded. It is claimed that, should the Senecas decide to sell any of their Allegany or Cattaraugus Reservations, the sale must be made to the Ogden Co. or its heirs or assigns.
The willingness of Seneca sachems to agree to the sale of their occupation rights of their reservations to the Ogden Co. in 1838 sounded the death knell to the older form of Indian government.
It was succeeded by a more democratic system, with a popularly- elected president, council and other officers, a system which has en- dured since.
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SECTION FIVE
THE SETTLEMENT OF OLEAN
The first white settlement in Cattaraugus County made with the intention of developing it as a region of permanent residence was made in the eastern part of the present city of Olean. The township of Olean came into being simultaneously with that of the county, the act of the legislature which formed the new county of Cattaraugus also providing that the entire county should consist of the town of Olean. Divisions of townships were rapid, and by 1837 Olean was reduced to the size it maintained until the city of Olean was chartered.
The foremost pioneers in the early settlement of Olean were the Hoops brothers, Adam and Robert, and David Huston. In November, 1802, Adam Hoops and David Huston sent Benjamin van Campen to examine the region about the present city and make a report on its value. The report which their scout brought back must have been favorable, for Hoops and Huston negotiated a purchase of twenty thousand acres from the Holland Land Company. Enos Kelogg was sent to survey it.
The first white man to reside in Olean was Robert Hoops, who built a log house in 1803 in the vicinity of Olean Creek. Other settlers followed, and the completion of a saw-mill in the winter of 1806-1807, about three miles from the mouth of Olean Creek, aided in developing the little hamlet. The settlement was named Hamilton at an early date, in honor of Alexander Hamilton, but was often referred to as Olean Point. The change in designations came about gradually. The name Hamilton survives in the name of the country club of Olean, and in the name of one of the streets.
Foremost in the minds of David Huston and the Hoops brothers when contemplating their Olean venture was a conviction that the location was at the head of navigation on the Allegany River, and as such would develop into an important center of communication be- tween the East and West. Their belief was based on the tendency of their period, which was one of carrying on commerce by lakes and navigable rivers. Pittsburgh, Wheeling, Albany and other cities were being built up largely on their possibilities as river ports.
For several years Hamilton flourished on its position as head of navigation. Many emigrants, leaving New England or eastern New York for the less rocky and supposedly more fertile lands in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, came to Olean in the winter with the intention of making passage down the river after the winter thaw, while the waters were high. According to report, there were two thousand in Olean one winter waiting for the ice to go out. During the winter and spring, the inns and taverns prospered on this business, being pre- '
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