USA > New York > Cayuga County > History of Cayuga County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 6
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* Condensed from Clark's Onondaga,
31
MEDICAL FEASTS- WIZARDS AND WITCHES.
The foregoing is an accurate description of the war dance of the Onondagas, which is the same as that of all the five nations. These dances are intended to represent actual events relating to peace or war, generally the latter, and are said to be such perfect representations of the scenes depicted as to give the beholder a knowledge of them, merely by the pantomime, though ignorant of the language. If they are going to war, the dance delineates the preparations for it and all the common incidents attending it, their arming, departure, arrival in the enemies' country, the encampment, the attack, the struggle, the victory and the torture of captives ; and so vivid and natural are all the personations, that the beholder believes them real transactions, shuddering at the horrible and life-like representations.
PRODIGALITY OF FEASTS. - Some of their feasts were extremely profuse, in which the whole village, or even several villages were entertained. Cases are cited by the early missionaries where twenty deer and four bears were served up. The invitation was concise, " come and eat," and the guests, furnished with dish and spoon, responded. Songs preceded the repast, the host announcing the contents of each kettle, which were served by the squaws.
MEDICAL FEASTS .- These were for the cure of the sick, and every guest must eat all that was set before him. If he did not, the host was offended, the community in great peril, for the vengeance of the spirits would be aroused, and death to the invalid and disaster to the nation be likely to follow.
OTHER MEDICAL PRACTICES .- The Indians believed diseases resulted from supernatural agencies, and the curative means which they employed were mainly spiritual and extremely nonsensical. They beat, shook, pinched and bit their patients, and sought to expel the evil spir- its by deafening noises and various incantations. Their physical remedies were limited mainly to the process of sweating, which was a general and very efficacious resort. The reputed skill with which the Indians are credited in the use of ยท herbs for the cure of diseases, is a mere fable. Dances, feasts, games, and unearthly din in the cabin of the invalid, kept up for hours, sufficient to make the well sick, strewing ashes about the hut, rolling one of the number in skins, and nu- merous other superstitious mummeries. These were their chief remedies.
DREAMS .- These were the great oracles of the Indians, and were implicitly obeyed. They believed them to be direct emanations from the Great Spirit, and as such, were immutable laws to them. From this source many of their evils and miseries arose. In them were revealed their destiny, and their duty clearly pointed out, war and peace, health and sickness, rain and drouth, all were revealed by a class of professional dreamers.
WIZARDS AND WITCHES. - These were the great bane of the Iroquois. Murderers were in- nocents compared to them, for murder could be atoned for by presents. Witchcraft was punish- able with death in all cases. Any one might kill a witch on sight. They believed that witches could transform themselves at will into any one of the wild animals or birds, or even assume the shape of logs, trees, rocks, etc., and, in forms in- visible, visit public assemblies or private houses and inflict all manner of evils. The delusion was at one time so prevalent and the destruction of wizards and witches so great as to seriously lessen the population.
RATTLESNAKES .- These the Indians never destroyed, because they believed them to be the offspring of the devil, and their destruction would so anger the evil spirit that he would destroy their success in hunting.
BURIALS .- The Indian corpse was fully clad, including a fur cap, deer skin leggings and moc- casins, and was thus well prepared for his long journey. The graves were about three feet deep, lined with polished bark, into which the body was laid. An Indian woman brought a kettle of provisions, deer skin and sinews of the deer to sew patches on his moccasins which would, they believed, be worn out in his long journey to the spirit land. These the squaws carefully laid in the grave ; an Indian followed, laying his weapons and often other valuables in the coffin, when it was covered with a large piece of bark and the grave filled with earth. For twelve successive days the grave was visited by friends twice daily, before sunrise and after sunset, and great lamen- tations made and mournful songs chanted.
Among the Hurons, once in ten to twelve years, the skeletons and bodies of their dead of the entire people, were gathered together in one immense sepulcher embracing several acres in extent, for which cleared areas were chosen. At
32
MILITARY LAND TITLES.
such times might be seen the mournful processions from every village of the Hurons, bearing the skeletons or bodies of their dead relatives to a common burial place. The ceremonies attending the event lasted for days, and were very im- posing. The subsequent discovery of these immense deposits of bones has elicted much curious inquiry on the part of those not familiar with the old French Relations. Father Brebeuf saw and fully explained one of these burials in 1636.
THE IROQUOIS' SUPERIORITY .- When com- pared with any other of the savage tribes of the country, the Iroquois stand at the head. He was said to be " the Indian of Indians," by whom were systematized and unified the elements that among the other nations were crude and disjointed. They had larger brains than any others of the race, the internal capacity of which were larger than that of the Mexicans or Peru- vians, an average of five heads giving a capacity of eighty-eight cubic inches, only one forty- fourth less than the Caucasian men. *
CHAPTER V.
LAND TITLES-MILITARY TRACT.
UNCERTAINTY OF MILITARY LAND TITLES- CONGRESSIONAL LAND BOUNTIES-BOUNTIES TO HIGHER OFFICERS-STATE BOUNTIES -- CONDITIONS OF THE GRANT-SURVEY OF THE MILITARY TRACT - ITS LOCATION AND EX- TENT-NAMES OF THE ORIGINAL TOWNSHIPS -DISTRIBUTION OF THE GRANTS-CONFLICT OF CLAIMANTS-LITIGATION-DEEDS TO BE RECORDED IN ALBANY - COMMISSION OF AWARDS - REPORTS ON FILE IN CLERK'S OFFICE.
A S the first settlers of this County and of this part of the State suffered greatly from the uncertainty of their land titles, being frequently ousted from their possessions by pre- vious claimants, a brief history of the tenure by which the first lands were held, becomes neces- sary.
Cayuga County formed a part of what was called the " Onondaga Military Tract," embracing the present counties of Cayuga, Seneca, Onon- daga, Cortland and parts of Wayne, Steuben and Oswego, which was set apart for the pay- ment of land bounties to the soldiers of the Revo- lution under the laws of Congress and of this . State.
The Congress of the United States, on Sept. 16th, 1776, enacted :
" That Congress make provision for granting lands in the following proportions to the officers and soldiers who shall engage in the military service of the United States and continue therein to the close of the war, or until discharged by Congress, and to the representatives of such officers and soldiers as shall be slain by the enemy.
" Such lands to be provided by the United States ; and whatever expense shall be neces- sary to procure such lands, the said expense shall be paid and borne by the United States, viz :
" To a Colonel, 500 acres.
"To a Lieutenant-Colonel, 450 acres.
"To a Major, 400 acres.
" To a Captain, 300 acres.
" To an Ensign, 200 acres.
" To each non-commissioned officer and pri- vate, 100 acres."
By an Act of August 12th, 1780, Congress made the following provisions for the higher officers, viz :
" To a Major-General, 1,100 acres.
" To a Brigadier-General, 850 acres."
The Legislature of this State, on March 27, 1783, after referring to the above action of Con- gress, resolved as follows :
" And, whereas, the Legislature of this State are willing to take upon themselves the said en- gagement of Congress, so far as it relates to the line of this State, but likewise as a gratuity to the said line, and to evince the just sense this Legislature entertains of the patriotism and vir- tue of the troops of the State serving in the army of the United States :
"Resolved, therefore, that besides the bounty of land so provided as aforesaid, the Legislature will, by law, provide that the Major-Generals and Brigadier-Generals now serving in the line of the army of the United States, and being citizens of this State ; and the officers, non-commissioned officers and privates of the two regiments of infantry, commanded by Colonels Van Schaick and Van Cortlandt, such officers of the regiment of artillery commanded by Colonel Lamb, and of the corps of sappers and miners as were, when
* Crania Americana,
33
LAND BOUNTIES GRANTED TO SOLDIERS.
they entered the service, inhabitants of this State ; such of the non-commissioned officers and privates of the said last mentioned two corps, as are credited to this State as parts of the troops thereof ; all officers designated by any acts of Congress subsequent to the 16th of Sept. 1776 ; all officers recommended by Congress as persons whose depreciation of pay ought to be made good by this State, and who may hold com- missions in the line of the army at the close of the war ; and the Rev. John Mason and John Gano shall severally have granted to them the following quantities of land, to wit :
" To a Major-General, 5,500 acres.
" To a Brigadier-General, 4,250 acres.
" To a Colonel, 2,500 acres.
" To a Lieutenant-Colonel, 2,250 acres.
" To a Major, 2,000 acres.
" To a Captain and Surgeon, 1,500 acres.
" To a Chaplain, 2,000 acres.
"To every Subaltern and Surgeon's Mate, 1,000 acres.
"To every non-commissioned officer and pri- vate, 500 acres."
On the 20th of March, 1781, the Legislature of this State authorized the raising of two regi- ments for the defense of the frontiers and of- fered a bounty to the officers and men equal to five times the grant of the United States.
The Act of March 28th, 1783, further pro- vided :
" That these lands so to be granted as bounty from the United States, and as a gratuity from this State, shall be laid out in townships of six miles square ; that each township shall be divided into one hundred and fifty-six lots of one hundred and fifty acres each, two lots whereof shall be reserved for the use of a minister or ministers of the gospel, and two lots for the use of a school or schools; that each of the persons above de- scribed shall be entitled to as many such lots as his bounty and gratuity lands as aforesaid, will admit of ; that one half of the lots each person shall be entitled to shall be improved at the rate of five acres for every hundred acres within five years next after the grant, if such lots are sold by the original grantee, or within ten years from such grant, if the grantee shall retain possession of such lots ; and that the said bounty and gra- tuity lands be located in the district of this State reserved for the use of the troops by an act en- titled 'An Act to prevent grants or locations of the lands therein mentioned,' passed the 25th day of July, 1782."
Delay ensued in surveying the land and in awarding the grants, and the soldiers became clamorous for the promised bounties. After various modifications of the law, the act of Feb. 28th, 1789, finally directed :
"That the Commissioners of the Land Office shall be, and they are hereby authorized, to direct the Surveyor-General to lay out as many town- ships in tracts of land set apart for such pur- poses as will contain lands sufficient to satisfy the claims of all such persons, who are or shall be entitled to grants of land by certain concur- rent resolutions, and by the eleventh clause of the act entitled 'An Act for granting certain lands promised to be given as bounty lands by the laws of the State and for other purposes therein mentioned,' passed the eleventh day of May, 1784, which townships shall respectively contain 60,000 acres of land, and be laid out as nearly in squares as local circumstances will per- mit, and be numbered from one progressively to the last inclusive ; and the commissioners of the land office shall designate every township by such name as they shall deem proper."
The several townships were to be mapped, subdivided into six hundred acre lots, and con- secutively numbered from one upward. The quantity of fifty acres in one of the corners of each lot was made subject to a charge of forty- eight shillings to meet the cost of survey, and if not paid within two years, the same was to be sold.
By the Act of February 28th, 1789, six lots were reserved in each township, one for pro- moting the gospel and public schools ; another for promoting literature ; and the four others to equalize fractional divisions, and to meet the cases of such as drew lands covered with water.
One million eight hundred thousand acres were set apart for this purpose on the Indian lands in the western part of the State, their title to which had previously been extinguished. It was sur- veyed and mapped as speedily as possible, and on the third day of July, 1790, the following . twenty-six towns were reported as surveyed, mapped and numbered, and they were desig- nated by the following names :
" Township No. one, Lysander.
No. two, Hannibal.
= No. three, Cato.
= No. four, Brutus.
No. five, Camillus.
No. six, Cicero.
No. seven, Manlius.
No. eight, Aurelius.
" No. nine, Marcellus.
No. ten, Pompey.
No. eleven, Romulus.
No. twelve, Scipio.
No. thirteen, Sempronius.
= No. fourteen, Tully.
5
34
COMMISSION OF AWARDS.
" Township No. fifteen, Fabius. No. sixteen, Ovid.
" No. seventeen, Milton.
No. eighteen, Locke.
= No. nineteen, Homer.
No. twenty, Solon. No. twenty-one, Hector. No. twenty-two, Ulysses.
No. twenty-three, Dryden.
No. twenty-four, Virgil.
No. twenty-five, Cincinnatus.
No. twenty-six, Junius."
" Galen " was added in 1792, to comply with the law requiring grants to hospitals, and " Ster- ling " in 1795, to meet the still unsatisfied claims for bounty lands, so that the military townships reached the aggregate number of twenty-eigbt.
On the first of February, 1791, the commis- sioners began to draw the lots for the claimants. There were ninety-four in each town. One lot was drawn for the support of literature ; one, near the center of the town, was set aside for the support of the gospel and common schools. The balance went to compensate the officers and to those who drew lots covered with water. This distribution extended at intervals over two years, and great embarrassments arose from conflicting claimants. The soldiers, in some cases, had sold their claims to different parties, and a large amount of litigation resulted, extending over many years. In January, 1794, an act was passed to prevent in the future the frauds, by which so many titles to the military lands had been decided to be illegal. It required all the existing deeds, conveyances and contracts for the military lands, to be deposited with the clerk of the county at Albany, and those not so de- posited, after a specified date, were declared fraudulent. The names of the claimants were posted in the clerk's offices in Albany and Her- kimer counties.
So general and widespread was the confusion and uncertainty as to the titles to lands, that the courts could not dispose of the accumulated cases, and a commission was appointed by the Legislature consisting of Robert Yates, James Kent and Vincent Matthews, to hear and finally determine all cases of disputed military land titles. After years of tedious and laborious in- vestigation, the docket was cleared and the mili- tary land titles finally settled.
The " balloting book " in which are entered . the names and lots respectively drawn by the
several claimants in the entire military tract ; the "book of awards," in which are entered the awards of the commissioners and the "dissents" therefrom, are all filed in the county clerk's office of this County, and date back to 1798.
CHAPTER VI.
FORMATION AND TOPOGRAPHY.
EARLY CIVIL DIVISIONS-FORMATION OF THE COUNTY-SIZE OF THE FIRST TOWNS-FIRST TOWN MEETINGS AND ELECTIONS - RAPID SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTY -- FIRST SET- TLER-SITUATION -- GENERAL TOPOGRAPHY- LAKES, RIVERS AND STREAMS-FORMATION OF THE SEVERAL TOWNS -- TOPOGRAPHY OF THE SOUTHERN TOWNS-OF THE NORTHERN TOWNS.
F ORMATION OF THE COUNTY .- The earliest civil division in this part of the State was Tryon county, formed in 1772, and changed to Montgomery in 1784. It included the entire State west of a north and south line drawn through the center of Schoharie county. Ontario county was next formed, January 27, 1789, and included all that part of Montgomery county lying west of a north and south line drawn through Seneca Lake, two miles east of Geneva. Herkimer county was formed in 1791, extending from Ontario county to Montgomery. Onondaga was formed from Herkimer, March 5th, 1794, and included the original military tract, the present counties of Cayuga, Seneca, and Cortland, and parts of Tompkins, Wayne and Oswego. Cayuga was formed March 8th, 1799, and then embraced Seneca and a part of Tompkins county.
The early towns were very large. Whitestown, formed in 1788, embraced the entire State west of Utica, and there were in it when formed, less than two hundred inhabitants. The town officers were scattered from Geneseo on the west to Utica on the east. This large town was after- wards divided into Mexico, Peru and Whites- town, Mexico embracing the eastern half of the military tract. The first town meeting in Mexico, was held at the house of Seth Phelps, in the
35
FIRST SETTLEMENTS-GENERAL TOPOGRAPHY.
town of Ledyard, and the first general election in the town of Whitestown, was held at the Cayuga Ferry. If the voters residing as far east as Utica came to Cayuga to vote, traversing over eighty miles of forest roads, they paid a full equivalent for the right.
The first settlement* within the present limits of Cayuga County was made in 1789, and the subsequent influx of emigrants into the County was very rapid. In 1800, twelve years after the first settler had fixed his home here, Cayuga County had 15,097 inhabitants, the accessions thus averaging for eleven years, over 1, 200 per year ; while Onondaga had then but 7,698.
The tendency of early emigration was, there- fore, to the "lake region," the reputation of which for health and fertility, had been widely circulated by the officers and soldiers of Sulli- van's army,t whose reports were confirmed by the subsequent surveyors and land seekers.
SITUATION .- Geographically this County lies about equi-distant from Albany on the east and Buffalo on the west. It is the easternmost of the lake counties, having Skaneateles Lake on its eastern boundary, Owasco Lake in the interior, and Cayuga Lake upon the west, with Lake On- tario on its northern boundary; the counties of Oswego, Onondaga and Cortland, bound it on the east, Tompkins on the south, and Seneca and Wayne on the west. It extends from north to south a distance of 55 miles, with an average breadth of about 14 miles, embracing an area of 760 square miles, exclusive of 160 square miles of the waters of Lake Ontario, or 486,400 acres.
GENERAL TOPOGRAPHY OF THE COUNTY .- The inclination and drainage of the County is in a general northerly direction ; the table lands near the center of the town of Scipio, being the source of the principal streams which flow south- erly through the towns of Venice and Genoa ;
but, with this exception, and a part of Sempro- nius and Summer Hill, the waters of the county are discharged into Lake Ontario.
SURFACE .- The surface of the county is, gen- erally, susceptible of easy cultivation, being either flat, or its ascents gradual. The hills that border the valleys of the Salmon creeks in the towns of Venice and Genoa, and those in Niles, Moravia, Locke, Summer Hill and Sempronius, form the principal exceptions, the comparative elevations of which will be given in the " topog- raphy of the towns." 1135624
LAKES .- Lake Ontario, lying on the extreme northern boundary of the County, is 130 miles long and 55 miles wide. It is 232 feet above tide-water, and its greatest depth is 600 feet. The only harbor on this lake in the county, is Little Sodus, elsewhere fully described .*
The surface of this lake, as also of our other great lakes, is subject to variations of level, that of Lake Ontario varying about four and three- fourths feet between the extremes, and the period of variation extends through several years, caused, it is believed,by long prevailing winds and unequal amounts of rain and evaporation. Sudden and unaccountable variations of several feet in the level of the surface of this lake, have, at different times occurred and given rise to much specula- tion as to the cause.
.
Cayuga Lake, on the south-western border of the County is 387 feet above tide, 40 miles long, and at and, above Aurora, exceeds three miles in width. Owasco is 770 feet above tide, has an extreme width of one and one-fourth miles and a length of ten and three-fourths miles. This lake receives the drainage of the eastern parts of the towns of Fleming, Scipio, Venice and Genoa, the whole of the surface of Moravia and Locke, the north-western part of Summer Hill, nearly two-thirds of Sempronius, and fully three- fourths of the town of Niles, the entire surface drained into the lake, being over 100,000 acres.
Cross Lake, about five miles in length by one mile in breadth, is formed by the discharge of Seneca river into a shallow basin, out of which it flows, the lake receiving little other drainage. A large swamp borders this lake on the west, and another on the north.
Besides these larger lakes, there are Duck Lake and Mud Pond in the north-western part of Con-
* Roswell Franklin, from Wyoming, was the first settler, locating at Aurora, in 1789. He had been in the battle of Wyoming, in which his wife was killed and one of his children taken captive by the Indians. He is said to have been so much depressed by his mis- fortunes, as to lead him to self-destruction.
t In the first address upon the subject of agriculture delivered in this County before an Agricultural Society, by Humphrey Howland, he stated that Sullivan's soldiers, in 1779, while destroying the im- mense mass of corn which they found growing and ripened, or ripening, in the Genesee Valley, were so impressed by the size and perfection of the ears, that they carried samples of them to their homes in their knapsacks, and thus widely advertised the fertility of the region.
* See History of the town of Sterling,
36
FORMATION OF THE TOWNS.
quest, Otter Lake and Parker's Pond in Cato, and Summer Hill Lake, in the town of that name.
RIVERS .- Seneca is the principal river of the County. It receives the entire drainage of the immense water-sheds that drain into Canan- daigua, Seneca, Cayuga and Skaneateles Lakes, and hence bears a large and, with the seasons, a greatly varying body of water. Besides the out- lets of these lakes it receives, as has been shown, the principal drainage of Cayuga County in a multitude of streams, of which the larger are the Owasco Outlet, Cold Spring, Cayuga, Crane's, and Bread Creeks. The principal streams in the south part of the County are the Cayuga In- let, having its source in the hills of Locke and Moravia, and the Big and Little Salmon Creeks, rising in the hills of Venice and Genoa, and flow- ing southerly.
FORMATION OF THE TOWNS .- A town of Aure- lius was formed in the county of Ontario, by the Court of General Sessions of that county, Jan- uary 27, 1789. This town, it should be remem- bered, was outside of the territorial limits of what afterwards became Onondaga and Cayuga Counties, and should not be confounded with the Aurelius in Cayuga County, which was one of the " Military Townships," formed January 27, 1789, but was enlarged by an act passed March 5th, 1794, " to divide the State into counties and towns," and described as containing "all the townships of Cato, Brutus and Aurelius and all of the reservation north of the town of Scipio and west to the center of Cayuga Lake. Auburn was formed from Aurelius, March 28th, 1823. Brutus and Cato, original military townships, but merged in Aurelius by the act of March 5, 1794, were detached and formed into separate town- ships on March 30, 1802 ; Conquest,* from Cato, March 16, 1821 ; Fleming, from Aurelius, March 28, 1823 ; Genoa, from the "Military Tract," as "Milton," January 27, 1789, name changed Apil 6, 1808; Ira, from Cato, March 16, 1821 ; Ledyard, from Scipio, January 30, 1823 ; Locke, from Mil- ton, now Genoa, February 20, 1802 ; Mentz, from Aurelius, as Jefferson, March 30, 1802, name changed April 6, 1808; Montezuma, from Mentz, April 8, 1859 ; Moravia, from Sempronius, March 20, 1833 ; Niles, from Sempronius, March 20, 1833 ; Owasco, from Aurelius, March 30, 1802 ;
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