History of Chautauqua County, New York : from its first settlement to the present time : with numerous biographical and family sketches, Part 3

Author: Young, Andrew W. (Andrew White), 1802-1877; Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. fmo; Huntington Free Library. fmo
Publication date: 1875
Publisher: Buffalo, N.Y. : Printing House of Matthews & Warren
Number of Pages: 948

USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York : from its first settlement to the present time : with numerous biographical and family sketches > Part 3

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THE NEUTRAL AND OTHER HURON-IROQUOIS NATIONS. 23

since been obtained, has resulted in a clear distinction between the tribes. Our French, who first discovered this people, named them the 'Neuter nation;' and not without reason; for their country being the ordinary passage by land between some of the Iroquois nations and the Hurons, who are sworn enemies, they remained at peace with both; so that in times past, the Hurons and Iroquois, meeting in the same wigwam or village of that nation, were both in safety while they remained. Recently their enmity against each other is so great, that there is no safety for either party in any place, particu- larly for the Hurons, for whom the Neuter nation entertains the least good will.

" There is every reason for believing, that not long since, the Hurons, Iroquois, and Neuter nation, formed one people, and originally came from the same family, but have, in the lapse of time, become separated from each other, more or less, in distance, interest and affection, so that some are now enemies, others neutral, and others still live in intimate friendship and inter- course.

" The food and clothing of the Neuter nation seem little different from that of our Hurons. They have Indian corn, beans and gourds in equal abundance. Also plenty of fish, some kinds of which abound in particular places only.

" They are much employed in hunting deer, buffalo, wild cats, wolves, wild boars, beaver and other animals. Meat is very abundant this year, on account of the heavy snow which has aided the hunters. It is rare to see snow in this country more than half a foot deep. But this year it is more than three feet. There is also abundance of wild turkeys, which go in flocks in the fields and woods.

"Their fruits are the same as with the Hurons, except chestnuts, which are more abundant, and crab apples, which are somewhat larger.

"The men, like all savages, cover their naked flesh with skins, but are less particular than the Hurons in concealing what should not appear. The squaws are ordinarily clothed, at least from the waist to the knees, but are more free and shameless in their immodesty than the Hurons. As for their remaining customs and manners, they are almost entirely similar to the other savage tribes of the country.

" There are some things in which they differ from our Hurons. They are larger, stronger, and better formed. They also entertain a great affection for the dead, and have a greater number of fools and jugglers.

" The Sonontonhernonos [Senecas], one of the Iroquois nations, the near- est to, and most dreaded by the Hurons, are not more than a day's journey distant from the easterniost village of the Neuter nation, named Onguia- ahra [Niagara], of the same name as the river.

"Our Fathers returned from the mission in safety, not having found in all the eighteen villages which they visited but one, named Klee-o-e-to-a, or St. Michael, which gave them the reception which their embassy deserved. In this village, a certain foreign nation, which lived beyond Lake Erie, or the nation of the Cat, nanied A-onen-re-ro-non, has taken refuge for many years for fear of their enemies ; and they seem to have been brought here by a good Providence to hear the word of God."

The Andastes dwelt upon the lower Susquehanna .* To the south of Lake Erie, and west of the Neuter nation, dwelt a warlike nation of the Huron-

* Shea. See Hist. Mag. ii. 294.

HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

Iroquois family, named the Eries or Nation of the Cat, so called from the great number of wild cats infesting their country .* They are referred to in the foregoing letter of Father L'Allemant. The Eries were valiant warriors, and for a long time were a terror to the Iroquois ; they had no fire-arms, but fought with poisoned arrows, which they discharged, it is said, with surpris- ing rapidity. t

The most intelligent and advanced of this great Wyandot family of nations, and likewise the most terrible and ferocious, were the Five Nations, or Iro- quois proper. About 1539, they became bound together by an extraordi- nary league, and resided in the middle and eastern part of the state of New York, where, dwelling in numerous villages, they remained during the long and terrible wars that they subsequently waged against both savages and Europeans. The tribes composing this nation extended through the state of New York, from east to west, in the following order, viz. : Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca. The fiercest and most numerous of these tribes was the Seneca ; it occupied as far west as the Genesee river.

The first knowledge had by Europeans of the regions about Lake Erie, and of the people who inhabited them, was obtained by the French in Can- ada. French enterprise outstripped the English, in effecting a permanent settlement of this continent north of the state of Virginia. James Cartier, a French navigator, as early as the year 1534, sailed up the river St. Law- rence, as far as Montreal, then the site of the ancient Indian village of Hochelaga. Here he learned from the Indians, for the first time, of the exist- ence of the great lakes and the Mississippi river. He erected a cross and a shield, and named the country New France, and returned. Afterwards the French made repeated attempts to settle Canada. In the year 1608, Quebec was founded by Champlain. In 1615, Champlain, who was fond of adven- turous exploits, with a party of his countrymen, ascended the upper waters of the Ottawa river in Canada, crossed over, and discovered Lake Huron. Here he was joined by large bands of Hurons who dwelt there, and with these allies he traversed the wilderness of Upper Canada, crossed Lake Ontario, entered the territory of the Iroquois, who were the mortal foes of the Hurons, and fought a battle with the Senecas, which is supposed to have occurred in Onondaga county in this state.

THE JESUITS.

In 1615, five years before the May Flower left Plymouth, in England, there came over with Champlain from France, to bear the cross through pathless wilds, and among the savage tribes of America, missionaries of the order of St. Francis ; and previous to the year 1625, three of their number, Le Caron, Viel, and Sagard, had reached the Neutral nation. These perhaps were the first Europeans who visited Western New York ; and the winter of 1626 was passed by De La Roche Dallion, a Franciscan, among this people. In 1625, the Franciscans were followed by the Jesuits, who

* Le Mercier Relation, 1654, IO. + Jesuits in North America, xlvi.

WARS OF THE HURON-IROQUOIS NATIONS. .

soon commenced instructing the tribes of the North and West, and who, for one hundred and fifty years thereafter, labored among them with unbounded zeal and self-devotion. The most of the knowledge that we have concerning these remote regions, and the events transpiring here in that early day, was obtained from the very full and careful reports that these ancient mission- aries annually transmitted to their superiors in France, which have been pre- served in Paris, and which are called the Relations of the Jesuits. Two of these missionaries, Jean De Brebeuf and Joseph Marie Chaumonot, as appears by the letter of Father L'Allemant, in November, 1640, visited the Neutral nation, to preach to them the gospel, but it is not certain that they crossed the Niagara river. At this time, no Englishman of whom we have any account, had reached the basin of the St. Lawrence. Before this time, besides these priests, many Frenchmen had visited the Neutral nation, to purchase of them furs and other commodities: These constituted the near- est approaches that at that time any Europeans had made to Chautauqua county that we have any account of. Bancroft says : "Previous to 1640, by continued warfare with the Mohawks, the French had been excluded from the navigation of Lake Ontario, and had never launched a canoe upon Lake Erie ; their avenue to the West was by the way of the Ottawa and French rivers, so that the whole coast of Ohio and South Michigan remained unknown, except as seen by missionaries from their stations in Canada."

WARS OF THE HURON-IROQUOIS NATIONS.

When, in 1634, the first mission was established by the Jesuits among the Hurons, they found them and their kinsmen, the Iroquois, implacable foes, and engaged in a fierce war that had then been waged between them for many years. This war continued during the residence of the Jesuits among the Hurons, with success oftenest, but not always, in favor of the Iroquois, until the year 1648, when a war party of the Iroquois surprised and burned two fortified Huron towns, taking prisoners or massacring all their inhabi- tants. The next year, one thousand Iroquois warriors entered the heart of the Huron country undiscovered, and inflicted a terrible blow upon their enemies. They burned two more fortified towns of the Hurons, massacred their inhabitants, and the French missionaries residing there. They were, however, finally driven back by the fierce valor of the Hurons, but not until they had inflicted a fatal blow upon them. The Hurons, fearing other attacks, now abandoned their villages, scattered themselves in many direc- tions, and thereafter ceased to exist as a nation .*

Although the Neutral nation waged a fierce war against the Nation of Fire, who dwelt in Michigan in thirty villages, it maintained a strict neutrality between the Hurons and Iroquois during these wars.t This did not save

* Jesuits in North America, 361 to 402.

+ "Last summer two thousand warriors of the Neutral nation attacked a town of the Nation of Fire well fortified with a palisade, and defended by 900 warriors. They took it after a siege of ten days ; killed many on the spot, and made.800 prisoners, men, women,

HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

it, however, from the fierce Iroquois. In the year 1650, the latter commenced a savage war upon them ; and in the autumn of that year, they assaulted and took one of their chief towns, in which were sixteen hundred men, besides women and children. In the spring of 1651, they captured another of these towns, butchering and leading into captivity great numbers of the Neutrals, and driving the remainder from their villages and corn fields into the forests, where thousands of them perished. The destruction of the Neutrals was so great, in this cruel war, as to wholly wipe them out as a nation ; and now no trace remains of this warlike and powerful tribe who once possessed the territory of this county but their name .* The scene of their final overthrow is believed to have occurred near the city of Buffalo.

With the destruction of their kinsmen of the Huron and Neutral nations, the Iroquois did not rest. The Eries, whose dominions extended along the south shore of Lake Erie, next fell victims to their savage fury. In 1655, from one thousand two hundred to one thousand eight hundred Iroquois warriors moved into the territory of the Eries, who withdrew at their approach with their women and children. The whole force of the Iroquois embarked in canoes upon Lake Erie; and it is probable that this fierce horde coasted along the shores of Chautauqua county ; and a more wild and savage scene cannot well be imagined than this ferocious gathering of bar- barians presented, when on this bloody expedition of revenge. They found the Eries gathered in a position, the location of which is not now known. An assault was made with such savage fury by the Iroquois, as to enable them to carry the fort; and a slaughter so terrible ensued, as to wholly destroy the Eries.t The Iroquois next made war upon the Andastes, who resided upon the Susquehanna, and who were the last of the Huron-Iroquois or Wyandot family that remained unconquered. The Andastes made a brave and stubborn resistance, but were obliged to yield, in 1675, to the superior numbers of the Iroquois.#

The accounts of the destruction of these ancient Indian nations, we have mostly from the written narratives of the Jesuits residing at that time with the Indians of Canada and New York ; and various traditions are extant respecting these occurrences. From the extirpation of the Neutral nation to its settlement by the pioneers of the Holland Purchase, the territory com- prising Chautauqua county continued to be the home of the Senecas, the fiercest and most numerous of the Iroquois nation.

LA SALLE.

The missionaries who came from France were most excellent and able men. In their zeal to christianize the Indian, they became the pioneers of the North-west. One of their number, Allouez, in 1665, explored the

and children. After burning 70 of the best warriors, they put out the eyes of the old men, and cut away their lips, and left them to drag out a miserable existence. Behold the scourge that is depopulating all this country."-Relation des Hurons, 1644, 98.

* Jesuits in North America, 436. t Jesuits in North America, 438. # Relation, 1676, 2.

LA SALLE.

country about Lake Superior, and taught the Indians there. He first discov- ered the Pictured Rocks, and learned of the copper mines .* Robert Cave- lier de La Salle, a resolute and talented young Frenchman, who afterwards became the proprietor of Fort Frontenac in Canada, and the wilderness around about it, resolved to explore these regions and the vast prairies of the West, and to reach the Ohio and Mississippi, of which the Indians had informed him. July 6, 1669, he left La Chine in Canada, ascended the St. Lawrence, coasted along the southern shore of Lake Ontario to the Irondequoit Bay, and thence penetrated into the state of New York, to the Indian villages of the Senecas, near the Genesee river, with a view of traveling farther in that direction, until he should reach the head waters of the Allegany and Ohio. After remaining here awhile, he abandoned this design, and with his com- panions from thence traveled west, crossed the Niagara river into Upper Canada, and passed the winter of 1669 and 1670 on Grand river, near to the shore of Lake Erie. In the spring following, he coasted along the northern shore of the lake, west, to the east side of Long Point ; and thence he returned to Montreal by the circuitous route of the Sault de St. Marie and the Ontario river, where he arrived June 18, 1670.t

In 1673, "Marquette, a missionary, and Joliet, a French citizen of Quebec, with a few companions, explored the Mississippi, between the mouths of the Wisconsin and Arkansas ; but before that year La Salle, it is said, made other wonderful journeys in the West; that he reached the Ohio, and visited the falls at Louisville, and had even descended the Illinois to its confluence with the Mississippi. He possessed a most adventurous and enterprising spirit ; and these journeys aroused in him a desire to make new discoveries and more extended explorations. He first conceived the design of uniting the French possessions in Canada with the valley of the Mississippi, by a line of military posts, to secure its commerce to his country, and at the same time completely encircle the British colonies in North America. Having obtained the sanction of Louis XIV. to his projects, in the fall of the year 1678, he, with a party of Frenchmen, in a large canoe, entered the Niagara river, and established at its mouth, on its eastern bank, a trading post, which he inclosed with palisades. This constituted the first occupation of Western New York by civilized men, and the founding of Fort Niagara-a fortress which, for nearly a century and a half, filled an important place in the history of Canada, the northern portion of the United States, and of the Indian tribes dwelling in that region.

* 2 Hildreth, IIO.

+ O. H. Marshall, Esq., to whom the anthor is indebted for the facts respecting this expedition of La Salle, on a recent visit to France, examined the valuable collections of unpublished manuscripts relating to early French explorations in America, now in the possession of M. Pierre Margry, of Paris, and was permitted to make copious extracts from a copy of the journal of this expedition of La Salle. An appropriation of $10,000 has been made by Congress for the publication of these recently discovered mannscripts and maps in M. Margry's possession, which, when issued, will contain many volumes of great interest to students of American history.

HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

In January, 1679, La Salle commenced building a vessel at the mouth of the Cayuga creek, a stream that empties into the Niagara river, at the village of La Salle, in Niagara county, in the state of New York, a few miles above the falls. By August it was finished, and completely equipped with sails, masts, and everything needful, and launched upon the waters of the upper Niagara river. It was a bark of sixty tons burthen, and was armed with seven small cannon, and named the Griffin. It was the first vessel that ever spread its sails to the breezes of Lake Erie.

On the 7th day of August, 1679, La Salle, Tonti, his Italian lieutenant, and Father Louis Hennepin, and twenty-nine others, in the presence of many Iroquois warriors, fired all their cannon and arquebuses, and set sail for the foot of Lake Erie, steering west-south-west ; on that day they made many leagues, passing Chautauqua county. Hennepin, in his narrative, states that he saw, on this voyage, the two distant shores of the lake, fifteen or sixteen leagues apart. They were the first Europeans of whom we have any account, that beheld the rugged and forest covered hills of Chautauqua. La Salle continued his voyage until the Griffin cast anchor in Green Bay, on the north-western coast of Lake Michigan. She was loaded with a cargo of furs, and sent upon her return voyage, but was never heard of more. After the departure of the Griffin, La Salle for awhile awaited her return with a portion of his party, at the mouth of the St. Joseph's river. Cruelly disappointed, but undismayed, he pushed on into the state of Illinois, where he built a fort which he called Creve Coeur, in token of his grief. He sent Hennepin, with two companions, to the Mississippi, which they ascended to the Falls of St. Anthony. In March, 1680, La Salle, with three campanions, set out from his fort in Illinois for Fort Frontenac, at the foot of Lake Onta- rio. Depending upon his gun alone for his supplies, he chose for his route the ridge of high lands which divide the basin of the Ohio from that of the Lakes.

This long journey of nearly one thousand miles through the wilderness, he and his companions accomplished on foot. La Salle returned to his fort in Illinois from Fort Frontenac, with recruits and supplies .. He then descended the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, and again journeyed back to Canada, and crossed the sea to France, where his government furnished him with four vessels, with which he again crossed the ocean, and landed at the Bay of Matagorda, in the state of Texas. With a few companions he traversed Texas, and penetrated as far as New Mexico, where he spent much of the year 1686, with twenty others. While on his way from New Mexico to Canada, he was assassinated by a treacherous companion. Thus perished this bold pioneer, who will long be remembered as one of the most remarkable explorers that ever visited the American continent. To follow La Salle in his wanderings at this day, with all the modern facilities of travel, would be regarded as no small achievement .*

* History of the Holland Purchase, 116.

BARON LA HONTAN.

In 1687, Denonville, governor of Canada, with a large party of French and Indians, landed upon the shore of Lake Ontario, and penetrated into the territory of the Senecas. He fought a battle with them near the site of the village of Victor, in the county of Ontario. He afterwards, in the same year, arrived at Niagara, which, from a trading post, he changed to a sanitary station, by erecting there a fort of four bastions. But the French were compelled, the following year, to abandon Niagara, by the hostile Iroquois, who were then waging a terrible and successful war against them .* Among the French officers who accompanied Denonville on this expedition, was Baron La Hontan. This officer, with some Frenchmen, and the returning western Indian allies of Denonville, departed from Fort Niagara, coasted along the northern shore of Lake Erie, and arrived at the French post of St. Joseph. He afterwards joined a party of the western Indians, and invaded the territory of the Iroquois, south of Lake Erie ; but did not come within the limits of Chautauqua county. He, however, in his travels obtained sufficient information to give a very interesting description of Lake Erie and the country around it, which he saw in 1688. In the course of this account of the lake, he says :

"Lake Erie is justly dignified with the illustrious name of Conti; for assuredly it is the finest upon earth. You may judge of the goodness of the climate from the latitude of the countries which surround it. Its circum- ference extends 230 leagues, but it affords everywhere a charming prospect ; and its shores are decked with oak trees, elms, chestnuts, walnut, apple, plum trees, and vines which bear their fine clusters up to the very tops of the trees, upon a sort of ground that lies as smooth as one's hand. Such ornaments as these are sufficient to give rise to the most agreeable idea of a landscape in the world. I can not express what quantities of deer and turkeys are to be found in these woods, and in the vast meadows that lie upon the south side of the lake. At the foot of the lake we find wild beeves [buffaloes], on the banks of two pleasant streams that disembogue into it, without cataracts or rapid currents. It abounds with sturgeon and whitefish, but trouts are very scarce in it, as well as the other fish that we take in the Lakes Hurons [Huron] and Illinese [Michigan]. It is clear of shelves, rocks, and banks of sand, and has fourteen or fifteen fathoms water. The savages assure us that it is never disturbed by high winds except in the months of December, January, and February, and even then but seldom, which I am very apt to believe, for we had very few storms when I wintered in my fort, in 1688, though the fort lay open to the Lake of Hurons."

There is no doubt, as appears from this extract, that the American bison, or buffalo, once inhabited these regions. They once ranged in some parts of the United States, nearly to the Atlantic seaboard. Charlevoix, the French traveler, says, that in 1720, "there were on the south side of Lake Erie, a prodigious quantity of buffaloes."t But we at this day must seek

* I Doc. History of New York.

+ I Irving's Life of Washington, 335. The River Aux Boeuf, a tributary of French creek, was so named from the great number of buffaloes there found .- Pa. Hist. Collections.

HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

the buffalo two thousand miles away in the Far West ! They and their red brother, the Indian, are fast disappearing. Surely and rapidly are these lords of the forest and the plain yielding up their once wide domain to the advance of the encroaching white man, and making their home each year nearer, and still nearer, to the setting sun.

INDIAN OCCUPATION.

At first, the Allegany and Ohio were regarded by the French and Indians as one stream; Belle Riviere being the name given to it in French ; Alle- gany in the Delaware tongue ; and Oheeo in the Seneca ; all meaning, when translated, "fair or beautiful water." The territory lying west of the Alle- gany mountains, traversed by this river from the southern boundary of New York to the eastern limits of Ohio, after the destruction of the Neutrals and the Andastes, fell into the possession of the conquerors, the Iroquois ; and the Seneca tribe of that nation thereafter planted many colonies there. As early as 1724, the Monsey or Wolf tribe of the Delawares, who had previ- ously dwelt in the north-eastern part of Pennsylvania, but had been crowded out by the encroachments of the whites, were allowed by the Iroquois to settle along the Allegany. Between the years 1724 and 1728, by their per- mission, the Shawnees, a restless and warlike people, also located along the lower Allegany and upper Ohio.

When the first white man reached those wild regions, numerous Indian villages were found along the Allegany river and its tributaries. At Kittan- ning was an old Indian town called Cattanyan, which, in September, 1756, at day break, was surprised by Col. John Armstrong, and burned. The Dela- ware Indians who occupied it, made a desperate resistance, and thirty or forty of their number were slain, including their resolute chief, Capt. Jacobs. Hugh Mercer, who became afterwards a distinguished American general, and who fell at the battle of Princeton, accompanied Col. Armstrong on this expedition.

At the mouth of the Mahoning was another Indian village. Where Franklin is situated, at the mouth of French creek, was the Indian town of Venango. It was here that the French built a fort which they called Machault ; and where afterwards Washington, when on his journey to La Boeuf, had the interview with the celebrated Frenchman, Capt. Joncaire. Near the mouth of the Tionesta were three Monsey villages, called Gosh- gosh-unk [Cuscusing], where, in 1767, Rev. David Zeisberger, a Moravian missionary, commenced preaching the gospel to the Indians. He and his coadjutor, Br. Gotlob Senseman, daily preached to their wild hearers, who came in great numbers to listen, with faces painted black and vermillion, and heads decorated with fox tails and feathers. Zeisberger afterwards retired fifteen miles further up the river, to a place called Lawanakana, near where Hickory town in Venango county now stands. Here he gathered around him a little settlement, and built a chapel, and placed in it a bell, the first ever heard in Venango county, and for two years prosecuted his pious efforts.

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