History of Cattaraugus County, New York, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, Part 12

Author: Franklin Ellis and Eugene Arns Nash
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The reason why these rebellious demonstrations produced, at that time, comparatively little effect in Cattaraugus County is said to have been because of the almost unbounded con- fidence reposed by all in the honesty and justice of the Hon. Staley N. Clarke, first the agent for the Holland Com- pany, and afterwards for the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, at Ellicottville.

THE DUTCH HILL WAR.

The unreasoning agrarian spirit, which had received its first check in the result of the test suits prosecuted by the Holland Company, remained comparatively dormant for a time after the suppression of the disturbances at Mayville and Batavia.

The fire, however, was not extinguished, but only smould- ering; and when, about the year 1840, the anti-rent insur- rection broke out in the eastern counties of the State some- thing of the old feeling of hostility reasserted itself. This renewal of disaffection seemed to be sympathetic with the lawless movements in the valley of the Hudson; and at that time, and afterwards, the refractory ones who were disposed to resist the enforcement of the proprietors' rights, or to advise and countenance such resistance, were often termed " anti-renters," though there were few points of re- semblance between the conditions and purposes of the dis-

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HISTORY OF CATTARAUGUS COUNTY, NEW YORK.

satisfied people in those two opposite sections of the State. The rebellious tenants upon the eastern manors argued that they and their ancestors had already paid in rents much more than the value of the lands they occupied, even in- cluding the buildings and improvements which themselves (and not the landlords) had put upon them ; that the de- grading and perpetual nature of the tenure was inconsistent, not only with the principles of republican government, but with all feelings of self-respect; and that their condition was little, if any, better than that of vassals, and was there- fore unendurable. They asked upon what principle their fathers left the oppressive government of the Old World to find here in the New a system of land tenure which had been overthrown long before in the aristocratic countries from which they came? Such things, they said, were wrong and illegal, and they would never, by their submis- sion, allow them to become permanent. But the settlers upon the Holland Purchase could bring no such argument to excuse or palliate resistance. The lands which they oc- cupied had not been leased by their fathers and grandfathers as tenants to a manorial lord, but had been purchased by themselves in fair bargain at a reasonable price, and on ex- ceedingly favorable terms of payment, from a company (or its successors) who had acquired the lands legitimately, whose title was perfect and unquestionable, and whose treatment of its debtors admitted but the sole complaint, that by undue mildness and indulgence it had induced carelessness and improvidence in those who, under sterner and more exacting creditors, would have been compelled to become thrifty and independent. Under such circum- stances as these it would seem that even the most censo- rious debtor could hardly have found a reasonable pretext for complaint.

At the time of which we write,-that is, the period in- cluding and immediately preceding the year 1844,-the people of Cattaraugus generally held themselves aloof from the agitation which was prevailing in neighboring counties, as they had done during the years of the earlier excitement. The spirit of disaffection in this county showed itself only in a few of the eastern towns, particularly in that of Hins- dale, and had its focus near the present boundary line between the towns of Hinsdale and Ischua, in an agricul- tural neighborhood, sparsely scattered along a broad-topped ridge, known as " Dutch Hill." This historic eminence became the theatre of a disturbance which took from the locality the name of " The Dutch Hill War," and was the first and last agrarian collision occuring within the county of Cattaraugus.

Among the small farmers who inhabited these highlands in 1844 were two brothers, named Jacob and George Learn. It does not appear that they were distinguished above their neighbors for any of the qualities of leadership, yet circumstances made them the central figures of the " war" which rescued the name of their hill from obscu- rity. They had settled here in the year 1823, upon a tract of something more than three hundred acres, for which they had taken a single contract from the Holland Com- pany at two dollars per acre, with a credit of ten years, paying a nominal sum in hand. For fourteen years from that time they occupied the land without further payment,

and on the 29th of July, 1837, took from the Devereux Land Company (who had in the mean time purchased the title from the Holland Company) two new contracts, cover- ing the tract taken in 1823, and paying fifty dollars on each. Afterwards, the lands of the Devereux Company were divided among the different proprietors, in which di- vision the contract of Jacob Learn fell to the share of Goold Hoyt, and that of George Learn became the property of Russell H. Nevins.

The contracts had six years to run, and, soon after their expiration, the agents of the proprietors called on the brothers Learn, requesting settlement, or at least a partial payment on the lands, but were met (as they said soon after in a published statement of the affair) by pretended doubts of the company's title, refusal to pay, and open de- fiance. Upon this, the proprietors, Messrs. Hoyt and Nevins, not having abandoned the hope that the Learns would recede from their position, make small payments, and take new contracts, waited until the following March, -a period of eight months from the expiration of the con- tracts,-and then, finding that further hope of accommoda- tion was futile, reluctantly commenced suits of ejectment. No defense was made, and judgments by default were en- tered for the owners. The writs were issued, and placed in the hands of the sheriff, George W. White, who, on the 12th of June, 1844, proceeded to Dutch Hill for the pur- pose of removing the occupants and placing the owners in possession ; but, in order to avoid every pretext or ground of complaint, he was directed not to disturb the Learns in case they would agree to come to the land-office and enter into new contracts, as before proposed. This proposition was made to Jacob Learn, who seemed inclined to accede to it, but was afterwards dissuaded by evil counselors. Finding all concessions unavailing, Mr. White proceeded to the execution of his duty, the result of which action was told in the Cuttaraugus Republican of that time, as fol- lows: . .. " The sheriff, who had only some six or seven unarmed persons as assistants in removing the furniture from the house, was surrounded by a mob, numbering from a hundred to a hundred and fifty men, many of them armed and disguised as Indians. The rioters commanded the sheriff to leave the premises, but he resolutely perse- vered in the performance of his duty until his person was violently assaulted and seriously injured. Finding the contest hopeless against such overpowering force, he was compelled to leave the premises in the possession of the mob." It was afterwards asserted that this account of the transaction was an exaggeration, especially as in regard to the numbers and disguises of the rioters. In substance, however, it was doubtless true; and it is certain that in the performance of this duty the sheriff received serious injury, which was believed to have hastened his death.

Immediately after this collision a public meeting in sym- pathy with the malcontents was held in Hinsdale, at which the land-holders were unsparingly denounced, their titles discredited, and resistance to their claims recommended. Similar gatherings followed in several of the adjoining towns, all of which were represented as being " large and enthusiastic." One of the most noticeable of these was held on the 13th of July following, at the house of Lyman

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Twomley, in Machias; Heman G. Button being called to the chair, and Rensselaer Lamb appointed secretary.

Without discussion, and by unanimous voice, resolutions were adopted expressing the sense of the meeting that, whereas they had assembled for the purpose of considering the relations existing between themselves and " certain persons claiming to own a large share of the real estate in this county," and that, whereas it was the opinion of a large portion of the inhabitants of the eastern part of the county that those certain persons had no legal title to the lands in question, but were engaged in selling and receiving pay therefor without having it in their power to give any good title to purchasers, notwithstanding which, they had instituted criminal proceedings against a large number of persons under pretense of protecting their property from trespassers, thereby causing the innocent to suffer equally with the guilty, and increasing the burdens of the people, by making the expense of all such proceedings chargeable upon the county, when, if they had a good title to the lands, they should in their own names prosecute each individual trespasser, and protect the lands at their own expense ; there- fore it was the opinion of the meeting that the course thus pursued by "these pretended land-owners " was unjust, tyrannical, and oppressive ; showing clearly that they had no feelings in common with the purchasers of their lands, but were determined to force occupants to pay the expense of protecting the property which their own labor alone had made valuable. Finally, it was by the meeting,

" Resolved, That we ask a good title and reasonable prices, and we seek not to obtain these by force, but by fair and honorable negotia- tion. We highly scorn and repudiate the idea of setting the laws of our country at defiance, or of violating them in any case whatever, unless we should be driven to that extremity where we should be morally justifiable in violating the letter of the law in defense of our natural rights, in protecting ourselves and our families from the iron grasp of aggression."

Associations were formed for the avowed purpose of resisting the execution of the laws, especially " in certain cases" (which cases were understood to be those of persons who were anxious to be left unmolested in taking pine timber from lands to which they had no shadow of claim) ; pledges of mutual protection were given; threats were made of vengeance to be taken on any who should give information against those taking timber from the company's lands, and warnings that in case the officers should succeed in making any arrests of such the land-offices and jail would be demolished.

Soon after the defeat of the sheriff in his attempt to serve the writs of ejectment, eleven of the participators in that outrage were indicted, and bench-warrants issued for their arrest. But so great was the excitement then exist- ing among a portion of the inhabitants of three or four towns, that the sheriff, under the advice of the authorities, postponed the execution of the laws in the hope that better counsels might prevail in the disaffected district. It is proper, however, to state that it was charged by some that the service was postponed until after the election, for purely political reasons. But whatever may have been the cause of this temporizing, its obvious effect was to create a gen- eral suspicion of timidity on the part of the authorities, and

to produce a corresponding feeling of boldness and defiance on the part of the insurgents.

On or about the 20th of February, 1845, Sheriff White, carrying the warrants of arrest and accompanied by the First Judge, the Hon. Benjamin Chamberlain, repaired to Hinsdale, and saw several of the indicted persons, whom he urged to submit quietly to arrest. Failing in this, he commanded them to follow his party to the village, where they would find the judge prepared to accept bail in their cases. But, after waiting for a considerable time at the tav- ern in East Hinsdale, during which no prisoners reported themselves, the sheriff and Judge Chamberlain set out for Ellicottville. Soon after their departure the Dutch Hill people appeared, to the number of about thirty (as they afterwards alleged), and prepared to give bail for the in- dicted persons, in accordance with the invitation of the sheriff. But at the time their number was represented as much greater, it being then reported in Ellicottville that " the mob, to the number of from seventy-five to one hun- dred and fifty, collected and followed the sheriff and the judge to the village of East Hinsdale, where they expected to have found them, but fortunately they had left before the arrival of their pursuers."

The time had at length arrived when the law must be executed, or its supremacy set at naught at the discretion of a mob; and so, on Friday night, the 24th of January, 1845, Alexander Chambers, William Gallagher, and Henry Smith left Ellicottville armed with the necessary authority to make the desired arrests. How they accomplished their mission was told in one of the newspapers of that time as follows :

"The next morning they found the rebels ready on Dutch Hill to receive them, but in separate squads, as guards to the several indicted persons. They attacked one squad of eight men, and had a parley, struggle, and fight of about half an hour, when, finding themselves likely to be overpowered, they drew their pistols, scattered the enemy, and secured their prisoners. The ' Indian' alarm- signal was soon given, and the arresting-party had not proceeded far before they found their road filled with men to oppose their progress and rescue the prisoners ; but the speed of their horses and the determination of the party, seconded by their display of arms, broke the ranks of the enemy." The arresting-party returned to Ellicottville, reaching that village at about one o'clock on Sunday morning, and having in their custody Thomas Mc Williams, who is represented to have been " one of the most malicious and reckless of the rioters."

Meanwhile the sheriff had been active in preparation for the security of the prisoners which the Chambers party were expected to bring in, and for the safety and defense of Ellicottville. It was known that the insurgents were combined for mutual defense, and that they had sworn, in case arrests were made, to destroy the public buildings and to burn the village; and in the highly-excited state of the public mind which resulted from the armed resistance to the sheriff at Dutch Hill these dangers were magnified tenfold, and it was even reported that the Indians on the Allegany Reservation had been employed by the Dutch Hill people to join them as allies. One of the public prints, in speak-

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ing of the formidable proportions of the hostile organiza- tion, said, " This combination has been variously estimated as numbering from three hundred to one thousand men, boasting a determination to resist the law and its officers at every hazard."

Such being the state of affairs at the time when Deputy Chambers and his assistants departed for Dutch Hill on Friday night, the sheriff promptly and energetically set about the work of collecting an adequate force to guard the village of Ellicottville. Mounted messengers were dis- patched to various points in the loyal portions of the county to summon assistance, and although the demand was not made until about daybreak on Staturday morning, yet it was obeyed with so much of alacrity and promptitude that by ten o'clock in the morning of the same day nearly three hundred men had reported at Ellicottville, " animated with a spirit of determined firmness to vindicate the majesty of the law."

A request was sent to Col. Cook, of Springville, Erie Co., for assistance, and this was at once responded to by an efficient force of more than fifty armed men. "Sentinels were stationed on the various roads leading to the village, three pieces of cannon were ranged in front of the court- house, and every necessary preparation for the warm recep- tion of the threatening invaders was duly attended to by the sheriff."* His call for assistance had reached the hearts of the law-abiding citizens of cold Cattaraugus, as the summons of Donuil Dhu had thrilled through Clan- Conuil :

" Leave the deer, leave the steer, Leave nets and barges; Come with your fighting gear, Broadswords and targes."

And their response was hearty and immediate. All day and until late at night they came, singly, by twos and threes, and in squads, all hurrying in towards the muster-place at Ellicottville, so that by midnight a force of about eight hundred men guarded the county-seat and its southeastern approaches. Soon after, Chambers, Gallagher, and Smith returned from their foray; and now, as the territory of the insurgents had been invaded, and McWilliams, one of their leaders, was actually in durance, there existed every provo- cation to the execution of their threat to fire and sack the devoted village.

The situation was thought to be exceedingly alarming, but it cannot be denied that the sheriff's preparations were fully equal to the emergency. The infantry force was strong in numbers and advantageously posted ; the artillery pieces, loaded to their throats, stood grimly ready to hurl destruction against an advancing foe ; and although there was not a corresponding strength in the cavalry arm, yet there were the rough riders, Chambers, Gallagher, and Smith, who had charged through the Dutch Hill phalanx on Saturday, and these would afford ample protection to the flanks. But more reassuring than all was the conscious- ness that this warlike array was armed and panoplied with the majesty of the law, that it was standing guard to the temple of justice and in its very shadow, and that the

ermine itself, in the person of Judge Benjamin Chamber- lain, was present in the midst of the embattled host.

When the Sabbath morning broke, cold and gray, many an eye was turned in expectancy and dread towards the snow-covered valley below the village, but neither scouts nor skirmishers were seen; and as the hours wore on, bringing no alarm of an approaching enemy, confidence grew into enthusiasm, and before night closed in it had been definitely decided to stand no longer on the defensive, but to move forward at once with a strong detachment, enter the hostile territory, and to capture, vi et armis, such of the indicted persons as were still at large.

" During Saturday and Sunday," says an account of the affair written immediately after its occurrence, "many of the insurgents and their sympathizers visited the village for the purpose of observation, to avail themselves of the first opportunity to make demonstrations of hostility. But se- dition wore a cautious front in the face of the imposing force and energetic action of the sheriff. A few imprudent brawlers were promptly arrested, and the more wary sought security in the suppression of all feclings of hostility."

It might be supposed that the unannounced arrival of so large a body of men would go far towards creating famine in a small village like Ellicottville, and such would probably have been the case but for the fortunate circum- stance that a large number of smoked mutton hams had been stored there for sale or shipment. These were appro- priated for the use of the forces, and it is difficult to see how the campaign could have been prosecuted without this almost providential accession to their commissariat.

The forces at Ellicottville had been augmented during Sunday, so that in the evening of that day they numbered about eleven hundred men. From the elite of these the commander detached an expeditionary corps of about three hundred for service at the front ; and as it was well under- stood that in this, as in most military operations, celerity of movement was a prime element of success, it was determined to adopt the method so successfully employed by the Empe- ror Napoleon in the campaign of Ulm, when he transported his legions in diligences and other vehicles half-way across Europe,-from Boulogne to the shores of the Danube. This plan could now be adopted with great facility ; for the roads were in fair condition for the passage of sleighs, and, there- fore, about fifty of these were collected, the men properly disposed in them, and at ten o'clock P.M. the force moved rapidly out towards their objective point, twenty miles away.

In the van rode Chambers, Gallagher, and Smith ; not on horseback, as on the occasion of their previous incursion, but occupying, with six others, a large sleigh which led the line. Following these came the main body, and then the rear-guard, or reserve. "The night was intensely cold, but there was no disposition in any one to hang baek. All were determined to stand by the sheriff in any emergency, and anxious to demonstrate the supremacy of the laws over the assumed jurisdiction of the mob. This force of the sheriff, more immediately under the command of Gen. Huntley and Col. Eldridge, arrived at the point of destination about daylight on Monday morning." Chambers' party, who formed the advance, had been deputized to make the ar- rests, and, being anxious for distinction, had pushed ahead,

* Cattaraugus Republican, February 3, 1845.

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determined to accomplish the work before the arrival of the sheriff with the main body. " He arrested three of the men, but while securing his prisoners, one of whom made a hard fight, the sheriff came up with his guard, one of whom fired a gun by accident or design. This alarmed the coun- try, and the rest of the men sought for ran away and could not be found."

Differing accounts have been given of what occurred at Dutch Hill on that eventful Sabbath. One is to the effect Learn's house was surrounded by the troops, four ranks deep, and that when the officers entered, they found only an old man sick in bed and a young girl engaged in house- hold duties. This is undoubtedly an exaggeration. What is certain in regard to it is, that the troops encountered no armed resistance; that the premises of the Learns were quietly surrendered to the land-agents, who humanely per- mitted the occupants to remain upon them ; and that, as the condition on which this indulgence was granted, both Jacob and George Learn signed an agreement to take new con- tracts from the proprietors within ten days, and to add to the amount of indebtedness the costs of the cjectment suits. Great emphasis was laid on this circumstance by the Dutch Hill sympathizers, who charged that the land-agents had been permitted to use the power of the county to compel tenants to sign contracts at the point of the bayonet; and it was confidently asserted that had the sheriff attempted to proceed to violent measures with the military force under him he would have failed ignominiously, as fully two-thirds of the troops would, under such circumstances, have joined the insurgents.

When nothing more remained to be accomplished on the hill, the battalion faced towards the northwest on the home- ward march to the county-seat. If the manner of their advance had been like that in which the great emperor moved towards the Danube, their return was more in the style of another French sovereign, whose masterly retro- grade movement, with twice ten thousand men, has so often been celebrated in story.

The long and weary route was at length passed over, and the victorious corps re-entered Ellicottville, fatigued, half frozen, and almost in a famishing condition ; but found, to their dismay, that during their absence the supply of mut- ton hams had been entirely exhausted by the troops left to garrison the village. These were the most trying circum- stances in which they had been placed during the campaign ; but the conduct of the men was excellent, and there was no attempt at mutiny. A few hours later they had all returned in safety to their homes.

On Tuesday the remainder of the indicted persons came in and gave surety for their appearance at the June term of the Oyer and Terminer, and so ended the Dutch Hill war.

When the excitement caused by the military gathering had passed, there ensued a war of fault-finding and recrim- ination upon the subject of the expense incurred in conse- quence of the sheriff's preparations for defense. Application was made to the Legislature to authorize the payment of these expenses out of the State treasury ; but this was re- fused on the ground that it was not a proper charge against the State, and that the same request made by other counties

(the eastern counties, in which the anti-rent troubles had then recently occurred) had been denied where the amount had reached thousands of dollars. A law was passed, how- ever, authorizing the comptroller to advance the necessary amount on the credit of the county of Cattaraugus, as had been done in some of the other counties alluded to.

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History of Cattaraugus County, New York, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, Part 12

Author: Franklin Ellis and Eugene Arns Nash Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: Franklin Ellis and Eugene Arns Nash
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: