USA > New York > Chautauqua County > Portland > Historical sketches of the town of Portland : comprising also the pioneer history of Chautauqua County, with biographical sketches of the early settlers > Part 4
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF
This same scheme of a line of forts extending across the con- tinent, along the great lakes and following the course of the great rivers to the gulf of Mexico. was attempted by the French during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries : bnt the gigantic enterprise was brought to a sudden collapse by the fortunes of the conflict on the plains of Abraham between the French and English on he 13th of September. 1759. when the latter under Gen. Wolfe defeated the former under Gen. Montcalm and forced the cession of Canada and all the French possessions contiguous, to England by a definite treaty made in 1763.
Concerning the anthors of these old fortifications we have not the least account. Conjecture only is busy with the question. Their origin. their fortunes and the tremendous visitation that wrought their ruin have alike been consigned to oblivion.
But the evidence referred to as existing within the borders of Portland is the remains of an old fort on the west bank of Fay's creek, on the farm now owned by Mrs. Margaret D. Leach, on the central part of lot 38, T. 5. The main, or north Erie road, runs through the northern border, leaving but the ancient wall or breastwork at the side of the carriage way. the balance being on the south of the road and including the garden and a part of the dooryard of Mrs. Leach. It was evidently built on the border of some great inland sea, the waters of which then extended to the bluff' a short distance to the north of it, while a stream emptied into the sea within a few rods on the east. It was a heavy earthwork slightly ellip- tical in form and containing about one acre. The breast works have been so often subjected to the leveling influence of the plow and other implements of husbandry that it is now difficult . to determine anything definite respecting them beyond the fact of their existence. A large maple tree in the highway stands upon the northern wall. Varions and curious specimens of earthen and stone pipes and utensils of various forms have been found within and around the walls. It is to be -
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TIIE TOWN OF PORTLAND.
regretted that the fort and its surroundings were not more thoroughly studied before the almost desecrating and destroying hand of the pioneer had so nearly leveled its walls and blotted its existence from the face of the earth.
Old roadways are found in various places that evince a good degree of engineering¿skill. They are well thrown up, and no doubt were important thoroughfares leading to and from large" towns or centers of population. Two of these no doubt have an antiquity coeval with the old fort, whilst those nearer the lake are evidently of more recent origin. The road leading from the site of the old stone school house on the old Erie road, in S. Dist. No. 3, south to the foot of the hill, occupies the bed of an old road thrown up and occupied by a busy multitude, pos- ibly, two thousand years ago or more. Another roadway is found leading from near the residence of A. B. Post on lot 4, T. 5, in a westerly direction to the creek near the saw mill of Earl Bacon. Another is found crossing the road leading to the lake from the briek church in West Portland, on lot 41, T. 5. also in a westerly direction and intersecting one in the east border of the town of Westfield leading from the main or Erie road on lot £9, T. 4, R. 14. nearly to the lake. Excavations for the L. S. R. R. made it evident that these two were of artificial make. One of shorter extent is seen northwest of the village of Brocton, and between that village and Brocton station on the L. S. R. R. on a farm commonly known as the Budlong farm. Excavations in this have shown a bed of large stones covered deeply with earth and gravel. The course of this roadway was nearly due north and south. Another may be seen running from a point on the south road a few rods west of the former residence of Timothy Judson on lot 19, T. 5, in a northwesterly direction across the farm of William Becker and partly across the farm of J. L. Hatch. These two last named may be sections of the same road.
Of their origin and of the people who erected them, as with the origin of the old fort, we know nothing; but the mind runs back in wonder and amazement to the time when the town of
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF
Portland was perhaps even more densely populated than now. with an intelligent people engaged in the cultivation of the soil, in commerce and the arts and sciences, and with the means of an education for the masses as complete as at the present ; when towns and villas were interspersed here and there with a stir- ring population and the seat of many a happy home ; when perhaps the lake was dotted as now with the white sails of a large inland commerce ; its shores lined with marts of trade, and its promontories bristling with the means of defense.
" We are prone to speak of ourselves as the inhabitants of a new world, and yet we are confronted with such evidences of antiquity ! We clear away the forests and speak familiarly of subduing a 'virgin soil,' and yet the plow upturns the skulls of those whose history is lost ! We say that Columbus discovered a new world. Why not say he helped make two old ones acquainted with each other ? Our advent here is but one of the changes of time. We are consulting dumb signs, inanimate and unintelligible witnesses. gleaning but unsatisfactory know - ledge of races that have preceded us. Who, in view of earth's revolutions and the developments that are made by the 'rapidly progressive science of geology,' will fail to 'reflect that our own race may not be exempt from the operations of what may be regarded as general laws ?' Who shall say that the scholar, the antiquarian of another far off century may not be a Champol- lion deciphering the inscriptions upon our monuments,-or a Stevens wandering among the ruins of our cities to gather relics to identify our existence ?" 1
" Since first the sunlight spread itself o'er earth ; Since chaos gave a thousand systems birth ; Since first the morning stars together sung : Sincs first this globe was on its axis hung, Untiring change, with ever moving hand, Has waved o'er earth its more than magic wand."
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THE TOWN OF PORTLAND.
CHAPTER IX.
Title-Grant of James Ist to London Company in 1606-Extent of the Grant-Plymouth Company Grants to North and South Virginia-New England-Attempts made to Settle New England-Given up as a Failure-Attempts Renewed-New Charter and New Company-Extent of its Charter-The first Absolute Transfer-The Puritan Fathers-Their Claim under the the Council of Plymouth-Their Settlements, &c.
Before proceeding further, or giving an account of the first and subsequent settlements of the town of Portland, we propose to go back for a brief space and trace the title to the lands of the Holland Purchase, and of course of the town of Portland , it being a part of that purchase, its origin and changes, and under which we as citizens claim and hold the homes we and our ancestors have reclaimed from the wilderness.
James the first, King of England, claiming by right of discov- ery and otherwise a large proportion of the North American continent. granted letters patent in the year 1606 to the London Company, composed of "noblemen, gentlemen and merchants," and mostly residents in London : and to the Plymouth Com- pany. composed of " knights, gentlemen and merchants," and residing mostly in the west of England. all that portion of the continent extending on the south from the mouth of Cape Fear river, in North Carolina, to Halifax. the capital of Nova Scotia, embracing eleven degrees of latitude, from the thirty-fourth to the forty-fifth, inclusive, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. The operations proper of the London company were to be confined within the first four degrees of latitude, from the thirty-fourth to the thirty eighth : and the Plymouth company to the last four named degrees. or from the forty-first to the forty-fifth : and the intermediate territory was to be occupied
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF
by both companies, but each was prohibited from forming settlements or building forts within one hundred miles of each other. This was an immense transaction, sinking into insigni- ficance the land grants by congress for railroad purposes of which so much has been heard. It is not at all probable that King James or any member of either company had the remotest idea of its extent. The area was but little less than two millions six hundred and fifty-six thousand and five hundred square miles, or one billion seven hundred millions and one hundred and sixty thousand acres ; including extensive plains, vast mountains, mighty rivers, nearly the whole of our great inland seas, and the homes of hundreds of thousands of human beings.
The two portions of this grant were named respectively North and South Virginia. but the northern portion was subsequently named New England by Captain John Smith of early Virginia notoriety, who sailed along the coast in 1614 and penetrated some distance into the interior. For fourteen years after the date of the grant by King James in April, 1606, very little and in fact nothing was done toward settling the territory ceded to the Plymouth Company.
Several attempts were made by the company and by others acting by their permission to establish a colony, each resulting in failure, until the company became disheartened and refused to pursue further the thus far fruitless enterprise. Vast sums of money had been advanced and lost, and the company, as such, abandoned the scheme of colonizing the new world. But notwithstanding all this. and that the affairs of the company had come to a standstill. by the almost superhuman exertions of the indefatigable John Smith their attention was again excited and turned toward their western possessions, and on Nov. 13th, 1620. a new charter was obtained for the purpose of settling the country. "The original Plymouth Company was superceded by the Council of Plymouth, to which was conveyed in absolute property all the territory lying between the fortieth and forty-eighth degrees of north latitude, extending from the
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THE TOWN OF PORTLAND.
Atlantie to the Pacific ocean and comprising more than one million of square miles." That the extent of this grant may the better be understood by the reader, let him spread the map of the United States before him and examine carefully the various states and territories lying between the parallels named. It will be found to contain within its limits a large portion of Canada, New Brunswick, all of the New England states, New York, three-fourths of New Jersey, nearly the whole of Penn sylvania, one-half of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, all of Michigan, Iowa and Wisconsin, one-eighth of Missouri, seven-eighths of Minnesota, and then sweeping onward over vast plains and mountains to the Pacific, including one-fourth of California, three-fourths of Washington Territory and all of Oregon. This was the first absolute transfer of title in the new world north of the parallel of forty degrees, and the land titles within the state of New York and that portion known as the Holland Purchase, which includes the county of Chautauqua and of course the town of Portland, in a certain sense may be said to be derived from this patent.
The exclusiveness granted to this company or conneil ocea sioned many disputes, strong contentions and of course delays. until it seemed that this company also was doomed to be a failure and their acquired territories to remain as a sealed book for all time. But while the council and those to whom lands had been granted were engaged in disputes and conflicts, mostly ou account of conflicting or supposed conflicting claims, the Puritan Fathers, moving no doubt under the guidance of an allwise Providence, after various delays and being refused permission to emigrate to South Virginia, obtained the tacit consent of King James and some sort of privileges under the council, pecuniarily severe and exacting but liberal with respect to tolerance of opinion and rights and liberties of conscience. planted the colony of New Plymouth and the germ of an empire.
The Puritans having obtained a firm footing in the new world, an impetus was at once given to emigration. and in due
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time other colonies, from or on account of it were formed in various parts of New England and were rapidly pushed west ward until they reached the Hudson river, where they were intercepted by the Dutch operating from New Netherlands, now New York. Here the English settlements were perma- nently interrupted and stayed by the Dutch, who claimed the territory in opposition to the Plymouth Council until the year 1664, when they ceded their territory to the English crown. Charles II., who was then king, granted the same to his brother, the Duke of York, and it thereafter took the name of New York. This grant included also New Jersey. We will not stop to define the boundaries of this grant ; suffice it to say that they were sufficiently indefinite but included the territory known as the Holland Purchase. Here then were two con- flicting claims to the same territory : Massachusetts, by virtue of the grant to the Plymouth Council, still claimed title as against New York, and the result was a prolonged controversy respecting the rival claims which was not finally compromised until after the revolution.
In 1781 the state of New York. and in 1785 the state of Massachusetts, granted to the United States certain lands in this state .- a part of the lands in dispute .- but these grants. though they diminished the extent, did not cover the whole territory in dispute as between these states; there still remained about nineteen thousand square miles. The dispute was settled, however, very soon after the revolutionary war by a convention of commissioners appointed by the parties and held in the city of Hartford, Connecticut, December 16, 1786.
" According to the stipulations entered into by the conven- tion, Massachusetts ceded to the state of New York all her claims to the government, sovereignty and jurisdiction of all the territory lying west of the present east line of the state of New York : and New York ceded to Massachusetts the pre- emption right or fee of the land, subject to the title of the natives. of all that part of New York lying west of a line begin ning at a point on the north line of Pennsylvania eighty-two
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THE TOWN OF PORTLAND.
miles west of the northeast corner of said state, and running from thence due north through Seneca lake to lake Ontario : excepting and reserving to the state of New York a strip of land east of and adjoining the eastern bank of the Niagara river one mile wide and extending its whole length.
" The land the preemption right of which was thus ceded. amounted to about six millions of acres."
Tracing the origin, history and final settlement of the various differences and claims with reference to these earlier land titles, it appears that the title of nearly the whole of western New York never vested in this state, but in the state of Massachu- setts, and dating back to 1620.
Early in 1788 a company was formed of several gentlemen of wealth and eminence, for the purchase of these lands from the state of Massachusetts. Nathaniel Gorham of Charlestown, Middlesex county, and Oliver Phelps of Granville, Hampshire county. of that state, were members of that company and authorized to'aet as agents. In April of that year a contract was entered into by these agents, acting. however, in their own names, and a committee appointed by the general court or legislature of Massachusetts, by which that state conveyed its preemption right to all lands in western New York, amounting to over six millions of aeres, for one million of dollars. It should be borne in mind that the Indian title had not as yet been extinguished, but every conveyance up to this time con tained a proviso looking to the extinguishment of the aborig inal interests.
. After this purchase the proprietors proceeded at once to the fulfillment of this portion of their contract; and in July of that same year (1788), within three months from the date of their contract, they obtained by treaty with the Indians their title to two millions six hundred thousand acres of the eastern portion of the purchase from Massachusetts. This convention was held in Buffalo, then an inconsiderable town of two or three log houses. It was then called Buffalo Creek. Mr. Phelps, accompanied by Mr. Hugh Maxwell as surveyor. had
.
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF
made an attempt at negotiation with the Indians on the 12th of May previous at Kanadasaga, now Geneva. but as the Indians were not fully and in fact but in part represented, an adjourn- ment was agreed upon and the council above named was held in prusnance of such adjournment.
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THE TOWN OF PORTLAND.
CHAPTER X.
Title continued-Indians refuse to sell all their title-Purchase of Mill-site Tract -- Rochester built on that Tract-Indian Name of Mr. Phelps-Description of the Tract-Failure to meet Engagements by Phelps and Gorham --- Reconveyance to Massachusetts-Purchase of the same by Robert Morris.
Mr. Phelps proposed the purchase of all the lands of the Indians, conveyed by Massachusetts, but they were unwilling to sell their interest west of the Genesee River, giving as a reason that the Great Spirit had indicated to them that that river was forever to be a boundary line between them and the whites. Mr. Phelps resorted to every form of argument to induce them to withdraw their objections, but finding them immovable he pro posed that as he could not prevail on them to part with their lands west of the river as a whole; they should sell him a small tract on that side, at the great fall, large enough for a mill seat and the conveniences of such an establishment; representing that it would not only be convenient to the whites coming into the country, but to the Indians themselves. "The Indians then asked him how muchi land he wanted for his mill seat. He replied that he thought a piece about twelve miles wide, extending from Canawagus village on the west side of the river to its mouth (about twenty-eight miles) would answer his purpose. To this the Indians replied that it seemed to be a good deal of land for a mill seat, but as they supposed the Yankees knew best what was required, they would let him have it. After the treaty was concluded the Indians told Mr. Phelps that it being customary for them to give the man with whom they dealt. a name. they
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF
would give him one. They also said they should expect from him a "treat," and a walking staff, (meaning spirits) to help them home. The name they gave Mr. Phelps on this occasion was that by which he was afterward known among them, viz., Scaw-gun-se-ga, which translated is, the .Great Fall.' Upon this purchase is situated the city of Rochester." [Judge Porter.
The western boundary of this territory . to which the Indian claim was thus extinguished, was the Genesee River from the mouth to the mouth of the Cannaseraga Creek, thence by a line running due south to the Pennsylvania line. To this was to be added the mill seat tract. In consequence of a failure on the part of Mr. Phelps and Mr. Gorham in 1789 and 1790 to fulfill the terms of their contract with' the state of Massachusetts, for causes not necessary to mention here, that state com- menced a prosecution of the company of which Phelps and Gorham were agents, and their securities, which resulted in a compromise and a reconveyance March 10th 1791, by them to the state of Massachusetts of all the territories conveyed to them except that of which they had extin- guished the Indian title, which conveyance amounted to about two-thirds of the original purchase.
In the winter of 1791, Robert Morris, of the city of Philadelphia, being desirous of purchasing the interest of the state of Massachusetts in the lands in the state of New York that had been reconveyed to that state by Phelps and Gorham, engaged the services of Samuel Ogden as his agent in the matter of such a purchase, Mr. Ogden held a conference with a committee of the legislature of the state of Massachusetts, specially appointed for the purpose of such negotiation, and on the 12th day of March of the year 1791, the committee contracted to convey to the agent of Mr. Morris all their lands in the state of New York except the tract of about two millions six hundred thousand acres ceded by Massa-
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THE TOWN OF PORTLAND.
chusetts to Phelps and Gorham, and the mill seat tract before spoken of. This was simply a contract, and in conformity with its stipulations the state of Massachu- setts by its committee conveyed to Mr. Morris on the 11th day of May 1791, the whole of said tract of land. and the acts of the committee were, ratified by the Leg- islature on their assembling in the following June.
The conveyance of this land was by five separate deeds, and it will be well to give' a description of each tract, that a more definite idea may be obtained of the real extent of the original Holland Purchase in the state, and that a better understanding may be had of the trans- actions that followed.
The first of these deeds included all the land on the said tract east of a line running due north from the north line of Pennsylvania to Lake Ontario, commencing twelve miles west of the southwest corner of' the Phelps & Gorham tract. This tract contained or was supposed to contain about five hundred thousand acres.
The second deed included a strip of land from the north line of Pennsylvania to Lake Ontario, and west of the last named tract, sixteen miles wide.
The third deed included a strip of land from the north line of Pennsylvania to Lake Ontario, sixteen miles wide, and lying west of that included in deed number two.
The fourth deed included also a strip of land from the north line of Pennsylvania to Lake Ontario, sixteen miles wide, and lying next west of that included in deed number three.
The fifth and last deed included all the land west of that described in deed number four, in the state of New York and owned by Massachusetts. The number of acres included in the last four deeds was about three millions three hundred thousand. Massachusetts reserved of these one undivided sixteenth part, to satisfy a demand of Mr. John Butler, who had contracted for the whole tract pre-
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vious to the reconveyance by Phelps & Gorham to Massa- chusetts. Mr. Butler however assigned his right to Mr. Morris before the execution of the deeds, thus making the purchase of Mr. Morris complete. In the subsequent trans- sactions of Mr. Morris with the Holland Company he reserved all the lands embraced in the first of the five deeds before spoken of, as executed by Massachusetts to him, and it thereafter took the name of Morris' Reserve.
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THE TOWN OF PORTLAND.
CHAPTER XI.
Title continued --- Title in Mr. Morris --- Lands conveyed by Mr. Morris to the Ho- land Company --- Various changes referred to --- Another conveyance of the whole Tract --- Title again in the Original Company --- Four separate Interests --- The Extinguishment of the Indian Title --- Reservations --- Last transfer of Lands in Chautauqua County.
We have now come to a point where the preemption title of what is familiarly known as the Holland Company's lands in New York vested in Robert Morris. These lands were within the next two years conveyed by Mr. Morris and wife by four separate deeds to five distinct companies. The names of those named in the first conveyance were Herman Le Roy and John Linklaen; second, Herman Le Roy, John Linklaen and Gerrit Boon ; third, Herman Le Roy, John Liuklaen and Gerrit Boon; fourth, Herman Le Roy, William Bayard and Matthew Clarkson. These persons however were but trustees of the interests of certain cap- italists in Holland, Europe, who furnished the funds for the several purchases made. This was made a necessary proceeding, as they were aliens, and according to the laws of the state could not hold real estate in their own names.
After various changes of trustees and several transfers of portions of land of more or less magnitude, which it is not necessary to repeat, and all of which from time to time received the sanction of the legislature of the state ; another conveyance of the whole tract was made by the trustees by three separate and distinct deeds, to three companies or individuals who represented the three branches of the Holland Company. Again several conveyances, trans
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fers and assignments followed, until the title settled in Dec. 1798 into the five original Dutch trustees, by assignment of Paul Busti, who had acted for some time as general agent of the company. These gentlemen were ever afterward known as the Holland Company. Their names were as fol- lows: Wilhem Willink, Nicholaas Van Staphorst, Pieter Van Eeghen. Hendrick Vollenhoven, Rutger Jan Schimmel- penninck.
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