History of Chautauqua County, New York : from its first settlement to the present time : with numerous biographical and family sketches, Part 4

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 4

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INDIAN OCCUPATION.

Near Irvinton, in Warren county, at the mouth of the Broken Straw,* was the Indian village of Buckaloons. About five miles above Kinjua, t extending several miles along the Allegany river, was a large Seneca town, called Yah-roon-wa-go. Near where once was the centre of this town, Cornplanter made his residence.

Mrs. Mary Jemison, before her faculties were impaired, imparted much information to the white men respecting the Indians and some of their settle- ments in Western New York. She was known by the early settlers as the " White Woman." She was captured by the Indians in her youth during the French and Indian wars, and lived with them the remainder of her days. She died in Buffalo, September 19th, 1833, at a very advanced age, much esteemed for her goodness and intelligence, by both whites and Indians. She was so kindly treated by the Indians after her captivity, that she adopted their customs, and married an Indian husband. In 1759, with her little son on her back and with her three adopted Indian brothers, she journeyed through the wilderness from Ohio to Little Beardstown, on the Genesee. In her account of their journey, she says :

"When we arrived at the mouth of French creek, we hunted two days, and thence came on to Connewango creek, where we staid eight or ten days, in consequence of our horses having left us and strayed into the woods. The horses, however, were found, and we again prepared to resume our journey. During our stay at that place, the rain fell fast, and had raised the creek to such a height, that it was seemingly impossible for us to cross it. A number of times we ventured in, but were compelled to return, barely escaping with our lives. At length we succeeded in swimming our horses, and reached the opposite shore, though I and my little boy but just escaped from being drowned. From Sandusky the path we traveled was crooked and obscure, but was tolerably well understood by my oldest brother, who had traveled it a number of times when going and returning from the Cherokee wars. The fall by this time was considerably advanced, and the rains, attended with cold winds, continued daily to increase the difficulties of traveling. From Connewango we came to a place called by the Indians Che-na-shun-ga-tan, on the Allegany river, at the mouth of what is now called Cold Spring creek in the town of Napoli [now Cold Spring], Cattaraugus county, and from that to Twa-wan-ne-gwan, or Tu-ne-un-gwan, [which means an eddy not strong], where the early frosts had destroyed the corn, so that the Indians were in danger of starving for want of bread. Having rested ourselves two days at that place, we came to Caneadea."

The Indian village of Tu-ne-un-gwan mentioned by Mrs. Jemison, was situated 18 miles further up the river than Che-na-shun-ga-tan in the town of Carrollton, Cattaraugus county. The Senecas also settled, at an early day, near the mouth of the Cattaraugus creek.

At the close of the last century, there were along the Allegany and French

* Its Indian name was Hosh-e-nuk-wa-gunk, signifying the place where much broken straw and other drift stuff are accumulated together .- Alden's Missions, 156. . + Signifying, in the Indian tongue, the place of many fishes.

HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

creek, scattered through north-western Pennsylvania and south-western New York, other Indian towns ; but none were then known to have certainly existed in Chautauqua county. The evidences remained, however, at the first settlement of the county, of its having not long previously been occu- pied at various points by Indians. In 1795, when Col. James McMahan passed through this county, upon the Judge Prendergast tract on Conne- wango creek, in the town of Kiantone, there was an Indian camping ground. There were also to be seen, at the first settlement of the county, near the mouth of the Kiantone, the forms of corn hills, upon lands that appeared to have once been cleared, and had since grown up to small shrub- bery of thorns and red plum .*

In November, 1805, when William Bemus first came to the town of Ellery, at Bemus Point, unmistakable evidences remained, that an Indian settle- ment had formerly existed there. Where the cemetery is situated, were the decayed remains and traces of some Indian dwellings, and the evidences that a large tract of land in the vicinity had formerly been improved. On Bemus creek were two clearings, each about ten acres in extent, a quarter of a mile apart. Where these improvements were, wild plum trees grew ; and there were the remains of brush inclosures, which Wm. Bemus had repaired, enabling him to secure a crop of grass the first years of his settle- ment there. Corn hills also were visible, and even potatoes of the lady finger variety, that had been perpetuated from year to year were there still growing ; some of which were gathered and planted by Wm. Bemus. Be- low Bemus', at Griffith's Point, were similar signs of Indian occupation.+

After the close of the Revolutionary war, that numerous portion or clan of the Seneca nation residing along the Allegany and its tributaries, were under the control of the very able and just war chief Cornplanter, sometimes called John O'Beel. The domain of this branch of the Senecas' property included Chautauqua county; and the rude improvements found here were the results, probably, of the occupation by these Indians, who undoubtedly, at some time during the last century, had at least temporary homes within the county. This clan were often referred to as the Seneca-Abeel; and in a map published by Reading Howell, 1792, the country of the upper waters of the Connewango, and of Chautauqua lake, is designated as "O'Beel's Cayentona." This map is among the Pennsylvania Historical Collections. In James Ross Snowden's Historical Sketch of Cornplanter, prepared for the occasion of the Cornplanter monument, is the following :

"A solitary traveler, after the close of the Revolutionary war, in 1783, wandering near the shores of Chautauqua lake, found himself benighted; and ignorant of the path which should lead him to his place of destination, he feared he would be compelled to pass the night in the forest, and without shelter. But when the darkness of the night gathered around him, he saw the light of a distant fire in the woods, to which he bent his steps. Then he

* Judge E. T. Foote. Warren's History of Chautauqua County.

+ J. L. Bugbee. See also his sketch of Wm. Bemus.

INDIAN OCCUPATION.

found an Indian wigwam, the habitation of a chief with his family. He was kindly received and hospitably entertained. After a supper of corn and venison, the traveler returned thanks to God, whose kind Providence had directed his way, and preserved him in the wilderness. He slept comfort- ably on the ample bear skins provided by his host.

" In the morning, the Indian invited the traveler to sit beside him on a large log in front of his cabin. They were seated, side by side. Presently the Indian told the traveler to move on a little, which he did; and, keeping by his side, again requested him to move. This was repeated several times. At length, when near the end of the log, the chief gave an energetic push, and requested his companion to move further. The traveler remon- strated, and said, 'I can go no further; if I do, I shall fall off the log.' 'That is the way' said the Indian in reply, 'you white people treat us. When the United People, the Six Nations, owned the whole land from the lakes to the great waters, they gave to Corlaer a seat on the Hudson, and to Ouas a town and land on the Delaware. We have been driven from our lands on the Mohawk, the Genesee, the Chemung, and the Unadilla. And from our western door, we have been pushed from the Susquehanna; then over the great mountains; then beyond the Ohio, the Allegany, and Connewango; and now we are here on the borders of the great lakes, and a further push will throw me and my people off the log.' *

* The chief, in conclu- sion, with a sad and anxious countenance asked the question, 'Where are we to go?' The only response that was made, was the sighing of the wind through the leaves of the forest; the traveler was silent."

The traveler above referred to was the Rev. Samuel Kirkland, who, for many years previous to the Revolutionary war, was a missionary among the Six Nations, and whose name and services are, during and after the Revolu- tion, recorded in connection with Indian history.

The Indian villages of North-western Pennsylvania and Western New York often contained houses sufficiently large to accommodate three or four families. Adjacent to them were frequently extensive cornfields. Between these villages, or leading from them to their favorite hunting grounds and fishing places, were well trodden pathways, several of which passed through the county of Chautauqua. A broad and well worn Indian trail led from the Cattaraugus creek, through the lake towns, to the Pennsylvania line. Another commenced near to the mouth of the Cattaraugus creek, and passed over the ridge in Arkwright and Charlotte, at the point of its lowest eleva- tion ; and through Charlotte Center and Sinclairville, and southerly in the direction of the Indian towns on the Allegany river. This trail had the appearance of much use ; the roots of the trees along its margin were marred. and calloused ; and at certain points it was worn deeply into the ground. It was used by the early settlers as a highway or bridle path, in going from the. center to the north-eastern part of the county, and also by the Indians sub- sequently to the settlement of the county. Still another Indian path com- menced at the Indian settlement, near the mouth of the Cattaraugus creek, and passed down the Connewango valley, through the eastern parts of the towns of Hanover, Villenova, Cherry Creek, and Ellington. This path was 3

HISTORY OF. CHAUTUAQUA COUNTY.

used by white men in the settlement of these towns, and by the Indians subsequently to the settlement of the county.

All the region lying west of Blue Ridge, and east of the Wabash, which included within its limits Chautauqua county, remained unexplored and almost unknown to Europeans, until nearly as late as the year 1750 ; for the outermost limits of the back settlements of the English colonies of Virginia and Pennsylvania only extended as far west as the Blue Ridge. Either the French had been excluded from here by the fierce and warlike Senecas, who were their implacable foes, or their enterprise had not yet led them in this direction ; and prior to this time, the points occupied by civilized men in the West were mostly mere trading posts, and the forests were only traversed by traders and missionaries. Chautauqua county, and the adjacent regions, not being in the route of their travel, were barely known, and were untrav- ersed except by bands of Indians in their hostile excursions. The French officer La Hontan says :

"The banks of this lake [Erie] are commonly frequented by none but warriors, whether the Iroquois, the Illinese, the Oumiamies, etc .; and it is very dangerous to stop there. By this means it comes to pass, that the stags, roebucks, and turkeys run in great bodies up and down the shore, all around the lake. In former times the Errionons and the Andastogueronons lived upon the confines of the lake ; but they were extirpated by the Iroquois, as well as the other nations marked on the map."*

EVENTS LEADING TO THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS.

The boundary line between the French and English possessions in America had long been a cause for earnest contention. The French claimed dominion to all the country lying west of the Allegany mountains. The English also claimed the territory westward of their colonies to the Pacific Ocean. The territory of Chautauqua county was included in these disputed regions ; and as a consequence of this controversy, it was soon brought nearer to the scene of prominent military operations, and in close proximity to important lines of communication, or rough military highways leading from distant military posts in this then interminable western wilder- ness. Communications between the French posts on the Mississippi river, and the French forts and settlements in Canada, were at first maintained by the long and circuitous route of the Mississippi, Green Bay, and the Ottawa, and afterwards by Lake Michigan and the Illinois ; and at a still later period by the way of the Maumee and the Wabash. The direct and easy commu- nication that could be had between Canada and the Mississippi, by the way of Lake Erie and the short portage of Chautauqua lake, or over that from Presque Isle [Erie] to French creek, and the upper waters of the Ohio, seems for a long time to have been unknown to the French ; but events of an important character as affecting this part of the world, and also the history of that of the two most powerful nations of Europe, were destined soon to

* La Hontan's Voyages.

ORIGIN OF THE NAME CHAUTAUQUA.

introduce this region to the notice both of the French and the English. The latter, in 1722, established a trading post at Oswego, and, a little later, built there a fort. The French, to enable them to command communication with the West, thereupon, in 1725, reoccupied and reconstructed Fort Niag- ara, which had been deserted for over thirty-five years, and made it a strong fortress, and which thereafter became the scene of exciting military events.

In 1749, the two rival countries proceeded still more directly to assert their rights to the territory lying west of the Alleganies. The English gov- ernment granted five hundred thousand acres of land on the Ohio to the Ohio Company, which included persons in London, Maryland and Virginia as its members, among whom were Lawrence and Augustine Washington. The objects of this company were the settlement of this territory, and to establish a trade with the Indians. The French, the same year, sent from Detroit Capt. De Celeron, with three hundred men to march east to the Allegany mountains, to take formal possession of this territory, and to warn the . English traders out of the country. He performed the task, and de- posited at important points leaden plates, with the arms of France engraved. Three of these have been found, we are told ; one at Marietta, one at the mouth of the Big Kanawha, and one at the mouth of French creek. The following is a translation of the inscription upon one of these plates, which was obtained by artifice from Joncaire, the French interpreter, by the Sene- cas, and delivered to Sir William Johnson, who forwarded it to Governor Clinton :

"In the year 1749, during the reign of Louis XV., King of France, we, Celoron, commander of a detachment sent by Monsieur the Marquis De la Galissonire, commander in chief of New France, for the restoration of tran- quillity in some villages of Indians of these districts, have buried this plate at the confluence of the Ohio and Tchadakoin, this 29th day of July, near the river Ohio, otherwise Beautiful River, as a monument of the renewal of possession which we have taken of the said river Ohio, and of all those that therein fall, and all the lands on both sides as far as the sources of the said rivers, as enjoyed or ought to be enjoyed by the preceding Kings of France, and as they therein have maintained themselves by arms, and by treaties, especially by those of Riswick, of Utrecht, and of Aix-la-chapelle."*

ORIGIN OF THE NAME CHAUTAUQUA.

The name Ohio, or La Belle Riviere, was applied by the French to that portion of the Allegany, extending up from Pittsburgh as far, at least, as Franklin, as well as to the Ohio proper. It is probable that the Connewango, Chautauqua lake and outlet, and perhaps that part of the Allegany below the mouth of the Connewango to Franklin, were called by the French the Tchad- akoin, as inscribed upon this leaden plate, and that, in process of time, this appellation was retained only by the lake. The word underwent various changes in its orthography also, until it came to be spelled Chautauqua. On a manuscript map of 1749, made by a Jesuit in the Department de la Marine

* 9 Doc. Colonial Hist. of N. Y., pp. 610-11.

HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

in Paris, it is spelled "Tjadakoin," and the Chautauqua creek that empties into Lake Erie in the town of Westfield, is called the Riviere Aux Pomes, or Apple river. In the translations of the letters of Du Quesne, [pronounced Du Kane], governor-general of Canada, to the French government in 1753, found in vol. 10 of Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York, it is spelled " Chataconit." In Stephen Coffin's affidavit, sworn to before Sir William Johnson in 1754, " Chadakoin." In the French of Capt. Pouchot, in his history of the French and English war in North America, written before the American Revolution, and in the map accom- panying it, the name of the lake is spelled "Shatacoin." On Pownell's map of 1775, and Lewis Evans' of 1755, it is written "Jadaxque." Gen. Wm. Irvine, who visited Chautauqua prior to 1788, writes it "Jadaqua." On the map made by the Holland Land Company in 1804, it is " Chatoughque." After the settlement of the county, until the year 1859, it was spelled "Chautauque," when, by a resolution of the Board of Supervisors, passed October 11th of that year, at the suggestion of Hon. E. T. Foote, it was changed to "Chautauqua," that its pronunciation might conform to the pro- nunciation of the word by the Indians, at the time of the first settlement of the county .*

Various significations have been attributed to the word Chautauqua. Among others, it is said to mean, "the place where one was lost," or the " place of easy death," in allusion to a tradition of the Senecas. Corn- planter, in his celebrated speech against the title of the Phelps and Gorham . tract, alluding to this tradition, says : "In this case one chief has said he would ask you to put him out of pain : another who will not think of dying by the hand of his father or his brother, has said he will retire to ' Chaud- dauk-wa,' eat of the fatal root, and sleep with his fathers in peace."t

Dr. Peter Wilson, an educated Cayuga chief, communicated to O. H. Marshall, Esq., the following Seneca tradition: "A party of Senecas returning from the Ohio in the spring of the year, ascended the outlet of Chautauqua lake, passed into the lake, and while paddling through it, caught a fish of a kind with which they were not familiar, and they threw it into the bottom of their canoe. Reaching the head of the lake, they made a portage across to the Chautauqua creek, then swollen with the spring freshets. Descending the creek into Lake Erie, they found, to their astonishment, the fish still alive. They threw it into the lake, and it disappeared. In process of time the same fish appeared abundantly in the lake, having never been caught in it before. They concluded they all sprang from the Chautauqua lake progenitor, and hence they named that Lake, " Ga-ja-dah'-gwah, com- pounded of two Seneca words Ga-jah, " fish," and Ga-dah'-gwah " taken

* No one now living has been longer or more prominently identified with this county during its early years, and consequently none more familiar with its early settlers and its history, than Judge Foote ; and no one has contributed so much in time and money, or has been more solicitous to preserve the facts connected with its early history than he.

+ See Alden's Missions, p. 169. Also Morgan's League of the Iroquois.

THE PORTAGE ROAD.

out." In process of time the word became contracted into Jah-dah-gwah ; the prefix Ga being dropped, as is often the case."*

Other meanings have been assigned to the word. Chautauqua has been said to signify " foggy place," in allusion to the mist arising from the lake ; also to mean "high up," referring to the elevated situation of the lake ; while it is said that Horatio Jones and Jasper Parrish, early Indian interpre- ters, well versed in the Seneca tongue, gave its meaning to be "a pack tied in the middle " or " two moccasins fastened together," from the resemblance of the lake to those objects.

The following lines and note are from the pen of Col. Wm. H. C. Hosmer, of Avon :

" Famous in the days of yore, Bright Ja-da-qua ! was thy shore, And the stranger treasures yet Pebbles that thy waves have wet ; For they catch an added glow From a tale of long ago. Ere the settler's flashing steel Rang the greenwood's funeral peal, Or the plow-share in the vale Blotted out the red man's trail.

" Deadly was the plant that grew Near thy sheet of glimmering blue, But the mystic leaves were known To our wandering tribe alone. Sweeter far than honeyed fruit Of the wild plum was its root ; But the smallest morsel cursed Those who tasted, with a thirst That impelled them to leap down In thy cooling depth, and drown.

"On thy banks, in other hours, Sat O-WA-NA wreathing flowers, And, with whortleberries sweet, Filled were baskets at her feet. Nature to a form of grace Had allied a faultless face ;

But the music of her tread Made the prophet shake his head, For the mark of early doom He had seen through beauty bloom.

" When a fragrant wreath was made, Round her brow she clasped the braid ; When her roving eye, alas ! Flowering in the summer grass, Did the fatal plant behold, And she plucked it from the mould ; Of the honeyed root she ate, And her peril learned too late, Flying fast her thirst to slake From thy wave, enchanting lake.

"Then was gained the treacherous brink, Stooped O-WA-NA down to drink ; Then the waters, calm before, Waking, burst upon the shore ; And the maid was seen no more. Azure glass ! in emeralds framed, Since that hour Ja-da-qua named, Or 'the place of easy death,' When I pant with failing breath, I will eat the root that grows On tby banks, and find repose With the loveliest of our daughters In thy blue engulfing waters."

"These lines allude to a beautiful Seneca tradition that lends an added charm to Chau- tauqua lake, in the state of New York. A young squaw is said to have eaten of a root growing on its banks, which created tormenting thirst. To slake it she stooped down to drink of its clear waters, and disappeared for ever. Hence the name of the lake JA-DA- QUA, or the place of easy death, where one disappears and is seen no more." [See I vol. Hosmer's Poems, 225, 373.]

THE PORTAGE ROAD.

The Marquis Du Quesne, having been appointed governor-general of Canada, arrived there in 1752. The measures taken by him in behalf of

* Dr. Wilson (now deceased) is regarded as good authority upon this subject. Of him Mr. Marshall says : "He had a great love for the traditional annals of his people, a very critical knowledge of the Seneca language, now reduced to a written system. Besides, he enjoyed the advantage of an English education, having graduated with honor at the Gene- see Medical College, and practiced medicine with success among the Indians.

" The word 'Shatacoin,' if properly pronounced in French would give the identical word given by Dr. Wilson in the tradition."

HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

the French to obtain possession of the disputed territory, were of a more open and decisive character than those of any officer who had preceded him. Soon after his arrival, he commenced preparations to construct the long line of frontier forts, which had been first suggested by La Salle, and which the French, for so many years, had in contemplation, that were to unite Canada with Louisiana, by the way of the Ohio. The first step taken towards this bold project, may be regarded as leading directly to one of the most memorable wars of modern times, known in this country as the French and Indian war ; which resulted in divesting the French of Canada, and of the greater part of their possessions in America. This war also extended, with great results, over continental Europe, and even to Asia and Africa.

The first act of Du Quesne was to open a portage road from Erie to La Boeuf, on French creek; and also the same season to open another road from the mouth of the Chautauqua creek, near Barcelona, to the head of Chautauqua lake, at Mayville; and thus open communication between Lake Erie and the head-waters of the Ohio. Du Quesnc, in the fall of 1752, rendered an account of the arrangements that he had made, in a letter to the French Minister of the Marine and Colonies, in Paris, in which he stated that he would begin his posts at a point near Barcelona in this county, and at the mouth of the Chautauqua creek, which he called Chat-a-co-nit. It is evident from this correspondence, that Du Quesne fully believed, from the information that he had, that the carrying place between this point and the head of Chautauqua lake, was the shortest and most practicable that could be found between the waters of the lakes and the Ohio, and that the carrying place between Erie and La Boeuf was discovered afterwards. The import- ance that Du Quesne attached to the selection of the best carrying place between these waters, is evident from the language used by him in his communications to the French government.

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