History of Chautauqua County, New York : from its first settlement to the present time : with numerous biographical and family sketches, Part 6

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 6

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diately dispatched a formidable expedition, which was in fact the first war- like demonstration made in the French war. Monsieur Contrecoeur, then the commander in chief of the French on the Beautiful River, at the head of 1,000 French and Indians, with 18 pieces of cannon, in 60 batteaux and 200 canoes, descended the Allegany, and arrived at Pittsburgh on the 16th of April, 1754, and summoned the English commandant Ward to surrender. He having but forty men to defend his unfinished stockade, was obliged to comply with the demand .* This affair is memorable, from the fact that it was the first blow struck in the great wars that followed in Europe and America.

The Portage road from Barcelona to Mayville, it has been seen, was cut late in the preceding fall, with a distinct view to its future use. This expe- dition was the first movement made by the French in the spring following ; and it is probable, as but few French remained at Le Boeuf and Presque Isle during the winter, that a large part of this force had to be drawn that season from Canada ; and that a portion of it may have passed over Chau- tauqua lake. This portage may have been used by the French and Indians in other warlike expeditions. Pouchot, the officer who commanded the French at Fort Niagara when it surrendered to Sir William Johnson, wrote a history of the French and Indian war in North America, in which he says : "The river of Chatacoin is the first that communicates from Lake Erie to the Ohio ; and it was by this that they [the French] went in early times when they made a journey to that part. The navigation is always made in a canoe, on account of the small amount of water in this river. It is only, in fact, when there is a freshet, that they can pass, and then with difficulty, which makes them prefer the navigation of the river Aux Boeuf, of which the entrepôt is the fort of Presque Isle."t

Sir William Johnson, in 1761, journeyed to Detroit by the command of Gen. Amherst, to establish a treaty with the Ottawa confederacy, to regulate the trade at the several posts in the Indian country. On his return, he coasted along the south shore of Lake Erie. In his journal of this journey is the following reference to this portage, with other interesting particulars :

"Wednesday, October Ist [1761], embarked [at Presque Isle], at 7 o'clock, with the wind strong ahead-continued so all the day, notwithstanding it improved all day, and got to Jadaghque creek and carrying place, which is a fine harbor and encampment. It is very dangerous from Presque Isle here, being a prodigious steep, rocky bank all the way, except two or three creeks and small beaches, where are very beautiful streams of water or springs which tumble down the rocks. We came about forty miles this day. The fire was burning where Captain Cochran [the officer who commanded at Presque Isle] I suppose encamped last night. Here the French had a baking place, and here they had meetings, and assembled the Indians when first going to Ohio, and

*Craig's Hist. of Pittsburgh, 23. 6 Col. Doc. Hist. of New York, 840. 2 Doc. Hist. of New York.

+ Pouchot French and English Wars in North America, Vol. II., 160 (Hough's trans- lation).

THE FRENCH WAR.

bought this place of them. Toonadawanusky, the river we stopped yesterday at, is so called.

"Friday, 2d. A very stormy morning, wind not fair ; however, sent off my two baggage boats, and ordered them to stop about thirty miles off in a river [probably Cattaraugus creek]. The Seneca Indian tells me we may get this day to the end of the lake. I embarked at eight o'clock with all the rest, and got about thirty miles, when a very great storm of wind and rain arose, and obliged us to put into a little creek [probably Eighteen Mile creek], between the high rocky banks. The wind turned north-west, and it rained very hard. We passed the Mohawks in a bay about four miles from here. Some of our boats are put into other places as well as they can. My bedding is on board the birch canoe of mine, with the Indian somewhere ahead. The lake turns very greatly to the north-east, and looks like low land. From Presque Isle here is all high land, except a very few spots where boats may land. In the evening, sent Oneida to the Mohawk encampment, to learn what news here."*

Although the French may have very early used this route by Chautauqua lake to some extent, when passing from Lake Erie to the Allegany and Ohio, it is clear that the route by Presque Isle and French creek was finally adopted and principally used by them. The French were masters in wood craft, and wonderfully familiar with the geography of this remote wilderness ; yet it is not strange that they should be in doubt as to which was the better route, for it would be difficult for us, even at this day, familiar as we are with the premises, to determine which would have been the better communication for them.

In 1754, and soon after the fall of Pittsburgh, Washington being in com- mand of a force of English colonists, fought with the French, in the forests of Pennsylvania, his two first battles; in one of which he defeated Mon- sieur Jummonville, and in the other [the battle of Fort Necessity], the French having been reinforced from Canada, he himself was defeated. July 9th, 1755, Braddock's large and well disciplined army was defeated by a small force of Indians and a little band of gallant Frenchmen, who had the year before passed along this county. The train of artillery taken from Braddock was transported back, and used in August of the succeeding year, by Mont- calm, in the siege of Oswego. Fort Du Quesne was taken from the French on the 25th of November, 1758, by an army of about 6,000 men under Gen. Forbes ; the French in possession there, upon their approach, having fled, some up the Allegany and some down the Ohio. The English under Prideaux, in July of the succeeding year, invested Fort Niagara. Prideaux having been killed, the siege was continued by the English under Sir William Johnson. The Indians from the West, and from along the Allegany, were collected together by the French. They, with French soldiers from the posts of Venango and Presque Isle, formed a large force. This army was conducted along Lake Erie to its outlet, led by D'Aubry, a French officer, for the purpose of reinforcing Niagara. They were met by the English in

* Stone's Life and Times of Sir William Johnson.

HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

the town of Lewiston, in this state, on the 24th of July, 1759, where a bloody battle was fought, and the French and Indians defeated, and 500 of their number slain. Niagara immediately after surrendered to the English. Gen. Charles Lee, who became afterwards one of the most distinguished officers of the American Revolution, was present at the siege of Niagara, and after its surrender passed by Chautauqua county, on a military errand down the Allegany, to Fort Du Quesne .* Quebec having been taken by the English under Wolf, the French, in November, 1760, surrendered all their posts in this part of the continent to the crown of England ; and the French, who had for so many years known these western regions, thereafter ceased to be seen in company with their red allies along the borders of this county.

The first military expedition of the English over Lake Erie, was made immediately after the surrender, by the French, of their possessions in Amer- ica. It was dispatched to take possession of Detroit, Michillimackinack, and other French posts that had been surrendered. Major Rogers, long celebrated for his skill in border war, led the expedition. He embarked in November, 1760, at the foot of Lake Erie, with 200 rangers in fifteen whale boats, and coasted along the southern shore of the lake. On arriving at Erie Rogers set out for Pittsburgh. He descended French creek and the Allegany river in a canoe. Having obtained reinforcements, he proceeded on his way to Detroit, which was surrendered to him immediately on his arrival.+

PONTIAC'S WAR.

The English having become possessed of the chain of forts extending from Lake Erie to the Monongahela, now occupied them as outposts. They had, however, never purchased the lands upon which they stood of the Indi- ans. Pontiac, an Ottawa chief of great abilities, resolved to rescue them and all the forts in the West, from English possession. He effected a union of the Western tribes for that purpose. The posts were all to be attacked in a single day, their garrisons massacred, and also all the people of the bor- der settlements. So well planned was the attack, that nine English posts in the West were surprised and captured in a single day, in the month of May, 1763. Most of the officers and men of these garrisons were tomahawked and scalped. Among the posts taken were Presque Isle, Le Boeuf, and Venango. Various accounts have been given of the capture of Presque Isle ; one, that it was taken through an ingenious stratagem of the Indians ; and another, that it was taken after a vigorous assault and firm defense. Nearly all the accounts agree that the garrison was destroyed. A few only of the garrison at Le Boeuf escaped, through an underground passage having its outlet in the swamp adjoining Le Boeuf lake. Only one, it is said, of those who escaped survived to reach a civilized settlement.# The scattered

* Irving's Washington, 377, 378.

+ See Pontiac, or the Siege of Detroit ; also Rogers' Journal.

+ Penn. Hist. Coll.

PONTIAC'S WAR.

settlers in Western Pennsylvania were either murdered or obliged to flee to the nearest forts. Pontiac, with great energy, led the attack upon Detroit in person, and for more than a year it was besieged, during which time the garrison greatly suffered.

During the siege of Detroit, the Indians prosecuted the war at other points. There is no doubt that the Seneca Indians cooperated with Pontiac. They, on the 14th of September, 1763, attacked a party of over fifty Eng- lish soldiers at Devil's Hole, near Niagara Falls, and all were killed, except- ing two or three. They also, on the 19th of October of the same year, somewhere near the foot of Lake Erie, attacked 160 English soldiers under Major Wilkins, on their way to relieve Detroit, who were there in their boats. A battle ensued, in which nearly thirty English were killed and wounded. Other calamities befel Major Wilkins. A storm overtook him on Lake Erie ; his boats were wrecked; his ammunition was lost; and seventy of his men perished.

On the roth of August, 1764, Gen. Bradstreet, at the head of 3,000 men, departed from Fort Erie for Detroit. He passed along the southern shore of Lake Erie. At Sandusky and along the Maumee he burned the Indian cornfields and villages ; and when he arrived at Detroit, raised the siege, and compelled the Indians to lay down their arms. Israel Putnam accompanied Bradstreet as colonel of a Connecticut regiment, and passed with him along the shore of this county. On the 18th of October, Gen. Bradstreet, with I, roo men and several cannon, set out for Fort Niagara. No detailed account of his return march has been preserved. A portion of his batteaux are supposed to have been wrecked west of Cleveland. Muskets, swords, wrecks of boats and other relics have been found for several miles along the coast ; a mound also, filled with human skeletons, supposed to have been of his party. As there remained an insufficient number of boats to carry his men, the volunteers are said to have marched by land along the south shore of the lake, passing Chautauqua county, sustaining themselves on their way by hunting. They did not arrive at Fort Niagara until winter, and came very near perishing by hunger on the way .*

Pontiac's war was the last great attempt made by the Indians to redeem this country from the dominion of the white man ; and at its close, compara- tive peace for many years prevailed ; and no event of importance occurred in these regions until the Revolutionary war.

In November, 1768, a boundary line was established between the whites and Indians, at a treaty held at Fort Stanwix, on the Mohawk river. This line ascended the Ohio and Allegany rivers to Kittanning ; it then extended in an easterly direction to the Susquehanna; thence northerly to Lake Ontario. North-westerly of this line were the lands of the Indians, which. included Chautauqua county. South-east of this line was the territory of the whites. Chautauqua lake was delineated upon the map executed at the

* Am. Hist. Record, Vol. III., p. 155. Whittlesey's Hist. Account of Ohio, p. 20.

HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

time of this treaty. Its outlet into the Allegany river was spelled " Cana- wagan;" and one of the streams from our county emptying into Lake Erie was spelled "Jadahque."*

COL. BROADHEAD'S EXPEDITION.

At the breaking out of the Revolution, the limits of settlement and civili- zation had extended somewhat nearer to Chautauqua county ; but no event of great importance affecting these regions transpired until near the close of the war. Long prior to 1779, the hostile Indians and tories had desolated the frontier settlements of New York and Pennsylvania ; to punish them, Washington planned two expeditions. One was to march by the north branch of the Susquehanna, against the Indian villages of the Six Nations in New York ; the other was, at the same time, to proceed up the Allegany, under the command of Col. Daniel Broadhead, a gallant and enterprising officer, who then commanded at Pittsburgh, and to destroy the villages of the Seneca and Munsey Indians, who dwelt along that river and its tributaries, and afterwards to unite with the army of Gen. Sullivan in a combined attack upon Fort Niagara. On account of the difficulty of providing Col. Broad- head with supplies in time, and the want of satisfactory information concern- ing the country along the Allegany, the idea of the two expeditions cooper- rating with each other was abandoned by Gen. Washington.+ Col. Broadhead, however, on the 11th of August, 1779, at the head of 605 militia and volunteers, and with one month's provisions, set out from Pittsburgh, and advanced up the Allegany river to the mouth of the Mahoning. Here their provisions were transferred from the boats to pack-horses; and the army proceeded on to Brady's Bend, in Clarion county, Pennsylvania. Here an advanced party of Col. Broadhead's force, consisting of fifteen white men and eight Delaware Indians, under the command of Lieut. Harding, fell in with thirty or forty Indian warriors coming down the river in seven canoes. The Indians landed and stripped off their shirts ; a sharp contest ensued ; the Indians were defeated, and five of their number were killed and several wounded ; and all their canoes and contents fell into the hands of Col. Broadhead. Lieut. Harding had three men wounded, including one of the Delaware Indians.

Capt. Samuel Brady, who was in this encounter, and whose name has been given to this locality, was born at Shippensburgh, Penn., 1758. He was at the siege of Boston, and a lieutenant at the massacre of Paoli. Having lost both his father and brother by the hands of Indians, lie took an oath of vengeance against the race. Having been ordered to Fet Pitt with the rest of his regiment under General Broadhead, it gave him an oppor- tunity to fulfill his vow. He was generally placed in command of scouting parties sent into the Indian country from Fort Pitt ; and being an athletic, active and courageous man, familiar with the woods and Indian warfare, he

* Doc. Hist. N. Y., pp. 587-91.

t Letter from Washington to Col. Broadhead, April 21, 1779.

BRITISH AND INDIAN EXPEDITION.

became the hero of many bold exploits in the north-east part of the valley of the Ohio, and a serious trouble to his Indian foes in those parts. An account of his daring adventures and hair-breadth escapes would fill a book. They gave his name permanently to many localities in Western Pennsylvania . and Ohio. Jonathan Zane was also in this engagement, and was wounded. He was a celebrated scout and great hunter, and piloted many expeditions against the Indians .*

Colonel Broadhead's command continued to march up the river, as far as the Indian village of Buckaloons, on the flats near Irvineton, at the mouth of the Broken Straw, in Warren county. The Indians were driven from their village, and retreated to the hills in the rear. The town was destroyed, and a breastwork of trees thrown up.+ A garrison of forty men was left to guard the provisions; and the remainder of the force proceeded to the Indian town of Conawago, which was found to have been deserted eighteen months before. Conawago was burnt, and the troops marched still further up the river, past Kinjua to Yohroonwago, a place about four miles below the southern boundary of the state of New York. Here they found a painted image, or war post, clothed in dog skin. The troops remained there three days, burning this and other towns in the vicinity and destroying the exten- sive cornfields that they found there. Col. Broadhead believed, from the great quantity of corn found, and from the number of new houses which were built, and being built of square and round logs and of framed timbers, that the whole Seneca and Munsey nations intended to collect there. Yoh- roonwago was situated where, some years afterwards, Cornplanter made his residence, and where an Indian village grew up, called De-o-no-sa-da-ga, meaning, in English, burned houses. According to Mrs. Jemison, Colonel Broadhead's troops ascended the Allegany as far as Olean Point, and burnt other Indian towns on French creek, including Maghinquechahocking, a village of thirty-five large houses. Col. Broadhead arrived at Fort Pitt, on his return, September 14th, 1779; having burned ten Indian villages, con- taining one hundred and sixty-five houses, having destroyed more than five hundred acres of Indian corn, and taken three thousand dollars' worth of furs and other plunder, and having himself lost neither man nor beast.#

BRITISH AND INDIAN EXPEDITION OVER CHAUTAUQUA LAKE IN 1782.

The expedition of Sullivan and Broadhead, and the destruction of the In- dian towns and cornfields, had the effect to throw the Indians upon the

* Butterfield's Hist. of Crawford's Expedition, 128, 129.

+ Sometime afterwards, Major Morrison, who became a distinguished citizen of Lexing- ton, Ky., returned to the mouth of the Broken Straw to reconnoiter, and narrowly escaped with his life. He had stooped to drink from the creek, when a rifle ball from an Indian's gun splashed the water into his face .- Pa. Hist. Collection, 653. The remains of this stockade were very plainly to be seen a few years ago. They were sitnate about half a mile above the crossing of the Broken Straw, on the road to Warren, on a high bluff on the Alle- gany river, and commanded an extensive view up and down the river .- Dr. Wm. A. Irvine. # Broadhead's Rep. to T. Pickering, Sept. 16, 1799.

HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

hands of their British employés for support. During the succeeding winter, want and disease followed, and swept many of them away; yet it did not put a stop to their inroads. Exasperated by their misfortunes, maurauding . parties of Indians, led by Brant and Cornplanter* and other chiefs, supported by their allies, the tories, during the remainder of the war, visited the front- ier settlements of New York and Pennsylvania, from the Mohawk to the Wyoming Valley ; burning the houses of the settlers, killing many, and car- rying others into captivity. Fort Niagara had usually been the winter

* Gy-ant-wa-chia, the Cornplanter, who exercised his rude anthority in these regions, was a celebrated Seneca warrior and chieftain, and the rival of the Indian orator Red Jacket. His sagacity, eloquence and courage, for a long time justly gave him great influ- ence with his tribe. He was born about the year 1732, at Conawaugus, on the Genesee river. His father was a white man named John O'Bail, or Abeel ; his mother was a Seneca woman. Ga-ne-odi-yo, or Handsome Lake, the Prophet, and Ta-wan-ne-ars, or Blacksnake, were his half-brothers. When about twenty-three years of age, he first appeared as a warrior with the army of French and Indians which defeated Braddock in 1755 ; and he probably afterwards participated in the principal Indian engagements during the Revolution, fighting against the colonies. He is said to have been present at Wyoming and Cherry Valley, and was with Brant at the head of his tribe in opposing Sullivan's expedition. He also afterwards led the Senecas in the invasion of the Mohawk Valley, when, it is said, he made his father, John O'Bail, a prisoner, and after marching him several miles with the usual Indian stoicism, without disclosing himself, he abruptly, and in the sententious manner of the Indian, announced his relationship, and gave O'Bail his choice, to live with him and his red followers, where he would support him at ease in his old age, or to return to his home on the Mohawk. He chose the latter, and Cornplanter sent his young men who conducted him back in safety. Cornplanter was an able man, and also honest and truthful ; he acted a most conspicuous part in the treaties and transac- tions between the Indians and the United States, subsequent to the Revolutionary war, and he saw, at its close, that the true policy of the Indian was to recognize the growing power of the United States, and bury the hatchet. He advised his tribe to this course, in opposition to the counsels of Brant and Red Jacket, and during the Indian wars that followed, he remained the true and steadfast friend of the United States. In the last war with England, when about eighty-four years old, accompanied by 200 warriors of his nation, he called upon Col. Samuel Drake, at Franklin, and offered his services to the United States, which were declined for the want of authority to muster Indians into the service. A considerable number of his tribe, however, led by his son Henry Abeel, who held a commission as major, acted during the war as scouts, and did good service to the United States. Cornplanter, in his life-time, often visited Chautauqua county ; and years before its settlement by the first white man, he thoroughly understood the geography of its lakes and streams. After the Revolution he resided principally at Jen-nes-a-da-ga, his village, on the Allegany river, in Warren county, and, for the remainder of his life, a period of fifty years; became thoroughly identified with this region of country. Corn- planter died at Jennesadaga, aged about 105 years. A monument was erected in 1866, with appropriate ceremonies, under the superintendence of Judge Samuel . Johnson, of Warren, Pa., and at the expense of the state of Pennsylvania, over his remains ; upon which the following inscriptions were lettered : "John O' Bail, alias Cornplanter, died at Cornplanter town, February 18, 1836, aged about 100 years, chief of the Seneca tribe, and principal chief of the Six Nations, from the period of the Revolutionary war to the time of his death. Distinguished for talents, courage, eloquence, sobriety and love of his tribe and race, to whose welfare he devoted his time, his energies and his means, during a long and eventful life."

BRITISH AND INDIAN EXPEDITION.

quarters of Brant, Guy Johnson and the Butlers and other tories who had taken refuge in Canada. It now became the headquarters of the Indians also, who had been driven from the Genesee and Allegany, and the point at which all of these maurauding parties of Indians and tories were accustomed to assemble, and from which they took their departure upon these hostile incursions ; and to which they returned, laden with spoil and scalps, and with such men, women and children as they had made prisoners, compelling them in some instances to run the gauntlet, and subjecting them to other cruelties.

In the fall of 1781, Col. Broadhead was superseded in the command at Pittsburgh by Col. William Irvine, who continued to be the commanding officer there until the close of the Revolution.

Col. Irvine demands more than a passing notice. He was born in Ireland. Having studied medicine and surgery, he received the appointment of surgeon of a British ship of war. During his service in the French and Quebec wars, having acquired a knowledge of this country, he resolved to remove hither. After the close of the war, in 1764, he became a citizen of Carlisle, Pennsyl- vania. At the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, he was appointed colonel of the sixth Pennsylvania regiment, and soon after was made a pris- oner while serving with the American forces in Canada, and was not exchanged until about two years afterwards. In 1779, he was commissioned a brigadier- general. After having distinguished himself at the battle of Monmouth, he was appointed commander of the Western Department, with his headquarters at Fort Pitt. He continued in this command until the close of the Revolu- tion ; and during the time he strengthened and repaired Fort Pitt, and placed this exposed frontier in a state of defense ; and, by his vigilance and ability, preserved it, in a great measure, from the ravages of the Indians. His name is inseparably connected with all the important military events occurring in the North-west. After his appointment, he acquired much knowledge of the country drained by the Allegany and its tributaries, and also of the whole North-west. He stood high in the esteem of Gen. Washington, and was greatly respected for his integrity, ability, and his faithful performance of the public trusts confided to him. After the Revolution, he held many positions of importance and honor. It was through his advice and influence that the state of Pennsylvania acquired dominion of the tract of land known as the Triangle, which gave to that state a considerable lake coast, including the harbor of Erie. The legislature of that state, as an acknowledgment of the many valuable services rendered by Gen. Irvine, presented him with a tract of land in the county of Warren, at the mouth of the Broken Straw, where Irvineton is now situated, and where his esteemed grandson, Dr. Wm. A. Irvine, now resides. Gen. Irvine died in Philadelphia the 29th of July, 1804.

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