History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I, Part 3

Author: Downs, John Phillips, 1853- ed. [from old catalog]; Hedley, Fenwick, Y., joint ed. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Boston, New York [etc.] American historical society, inc.
Number of Pages: 649

USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I > Part 3

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

also been brought to light. In the summer of 1870, a large grave was opened from which a great number of skeletons were exhumed. These were the bones of individuals of both sexes, and all ages from infancy to old age. They were indiscriminately mingled together, clearly indicating an unceremonions and pro- miscuous burial. Near the eastern boundary of the village of Fredonia, not far from the Cana- daway, extending from bank to bank a distance of about two hundred feet across the level sum- mit of an eminence, still known as "Fort Hill." was once an ancient intrenchment, in front of which was once the traces of a large pit. In the vicinity of these remains, human bones and the usual Indian relics have occasionally heen found. In the town of Westfield were extensive remains of earthworks, and in the town of Portland, besides a circular earthwork and other evidences of ancient occupation, there were also several ancient roadways-ex- cavations have shown that one of them was underlaid by a bed of large stone deeply cov- ered with earth and gravel.

Around the beautiful lakes and village of Cassadaga occur perhaps the most extensive remains of any in the county. At the ex- tremity of the cape which extends from the southwestern side far into the lower of these lakes, is a curious and conspicuous mound. Its longest diameter is about seven rods, its shortest five. Its summit is about twelve feet above the level of the lake, and is about eight feet above the low neck of land in its rear that connects it with the higher and wider part of the cape. Whether it is an arti- ficial structure or the work of nature, is open to conjecture ; it seems, however, to have been anciently occupied, for the usual relics have been found there in great abundance. Stretch- ing across this cape for a distance of perhaps twenty rods along the brink of the plateau that rises about twelve rods in the rear of this tumulus, was an earthenware breastwork. Still further to the rear, extending nearly from shore to shore, was another breastwork. Thus were several acres enclosed by these earthen works and the two shores of the lake. In the vicinity, large quantities of pottery and stone utensils have been found. Near the northern shore of the lake was a large mound ; although frequent plowing had reduced the dimensions, it is still four or five feet high and three or four rods in diameter. It is said to have been twelve feet high when first seen, with forest trees of cen- turies growth standing upon it. About 1822, this mound was excavated and a large number of human skeletons exhumed. Extending

CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

from an extensive fire bed in the neighborhood of the mound, in a northwesterly direction a distance of sixty rods or more, on the east side of the lake, was an elevated strip of land of the width of the track of an ordinary turnpike, bearing the appearance of having been once a graded way. The traces of this ancient road are still plainly visible. At various other places around Cassadaga and along the shore of the lake, were numerous caches and extensive fire beds or hearths with an abundance of coal and ashes buried deep in the ground. Skeletons have been exhumed in many places, and arrows, pottery and stone implements in great profusion.

Extensive remains were also found at Sin- clairville and in its vicinity. A distance of about one mile south of that village, in the town of Gerry, was a circular intrenchment in- closing several acres, within which numerous skeletons and rude implements of stone have been discovered. Northeast of this intrench- ment a distance of about one hundred and thirty rods, was an ancient cemetery in which the remains of many people seem to have been regularly interred. This old Indian burying ground was well known from the first settle- ment of the county, and was a subject of much speculation among the early inhabitants. Fifty years ago or more, as many as fifty skeletons were disinterred on one occasion. Some of them are said to have been of unusual size ; and within the last twenty years (written in 1875) twenty-five skeletons were disinterred on an- other occasion (the author being present). The bodies were regularly buried in a sitting position, in rows, alternating and facing each other. In the woods in Gerry, two miles south- east of Sinclairville, is still visible one of these circular fortifications with large forest trees growing from its ditch and wall. Close by Sin- clairville, upon the high bluff to the west that rises precipitously from Mill creek, was once an earthwork, circular in form, within which was a deep excavation. The excavation and intrenchment have long since disappeared, and

now from this commanding eminence so in- closed, a beautiful prospect may be had of the village and the surrounding hills.

Extending along the northern and southern boundary of the plateau, on which a principal part of the village is situated, were two earthen breastworks. Between these two embank- ments the main fortifications seem to have been situated. It was an extensive circular earthwork, having a trench without, and a gateway opening to a small stream that passed along its southern side. This work inclosed six or seven acres of what is now a central por- tion of the village. A part of the main street, portions of other streets and the village green, all were included within this old inclosure.

At other points within the town of Gerry and in the town of Stockton, were remains of similar earth works and other evidences of an early occupation. In the town of Ellington, at different places along the terrace of low hills that borders either side of the valley of Clear creek, there existed at the first settlement of the county the remains of many of these circu- lar inclosures, in the vicinity of which stone implements and other relics have been plenti- fully discovered. Along the shore and outlet of Chautauqua Lake were numerous mounds and other vestiges. Two of these and the traces of an old roadway are still visible near the eastern shore of Chautauqua Lake at Grif- fith's Point, in the town of Ellery. The descrip- tion given of the aboriginal monuments found in these localities will suffice for a further account of those that were found numerously distributed in other parts of the county, for they all bear the same general resemblance. They prove this region to have once been a favorite resort of an early race. Whence they came, how long they remained, and what for- tunes attended their existence, we have no 1 ccord of. There can be little doubt, however, that here were once rudely cultivated fields and perhaps populous villages, inhabited by strange and primitive people.

CHAPTER III. Origin of the Name Chautauqua.

The Indian names by which we know many of the places in Chautauqua county were words in the Seneca tongue. Chautauqua Lake in 1749 was known to the French as Tchadakoin, which, pronounced according to the rules of French orthoepy, is not unlike our word Chau-

tauqua. For over fifty years the name under- went in French and English, various spellings, receiving but a slightly different pronuncia- tion, until we find it spelled upon the maps of the Holland Company, made in 1804, Chau- taughque. After the settlement of the county

PREHISTORIC BONES

ORIGIN OF NAME CHAUTAUQUA

it was spelled Chautauque until 1859, when by a resolution by the board of supervisors, it was changed to Chautauqua. The pronunciation of the word by the Senecas was as if it was spelled Jahdahgwah, the first two vowels long and the last short.

Chautauqua creek was pronounced the same as the lake, and was spelled Chau-taugh-que on the map of the Holland Company inade in 1804. It is marked on Celoron's map as the river "Aux Pommes" (Apple river). The Chautauqua Outlet, now called the Chadakoin, and the Conewango creek were pronounced Ga-no-wun-go, meaning "in the rapids," prob- ably in allusion to the rapids above Warren, Pennsylvania, and at and below Jamestown. Cassadaga creek and lake were called Gus- da-go, and also Ze-car-ne-o-di, meaning. it is said, "under the rocks." Cattaraugus creek was called Ga-da-ges-ga-go and also Ga-nun-da from which evidently Gowanda is derived, and means "fetid" or "stinking banks." The Indian name for the Canadaway was Ga-na-da-wa-o, meaning "running through the hemlocks." Silver creek was called Ga-a-nun-da-ta, mean- ing "a mountain leveled down." On Harden- burgh's map made in 1787, the Indian town on Kiantone creek is spelled Kyenthono. Still- water creek is written Gaw-on-age-dock, and the Little Brokenstraw of Harmony, Cosh-not- e-a-go.

The name Ohio or La Belle Rievere was applied by the French to that portion of the Allegheny extending up from Pittsburgh as far at least as Franklin, as well as to the Ohio proper. It is probable that the Conewango, Chautauqua Lake and outlet, and perhaps that part of the Allegheny below the mouth of the Conewango to Franklin. were called by the French the "Tchadakoin." as inscribed upon the leaden plate they buried at important points, and that in process of time this appellation was retained only by the lake. The word under- went various changes in orthography until it came to be spelled Chautauqua. On a manit- script map of 1749, made by a Jesuit in the Department de la Marne in Paris, it is spelled Tjadakoin, and the Chautauqua creek that empties into Lake Erie in the town of West- field is called the Riviere Aux Pommes, or Apple river. In the translation of the letters of Di Quesne, governor-general of Canada in 1753. it is spelled "Chataconit." In Stephen Coffin's affidavit sworn to before Sir William Johnson in 1754, "Chadakoin." In Pouchot history and map accompanying it, "Shatacoin."

On Pownell's map of 1776 and Evans' map of 1755, it is written "Judaxque." General Wil- liam Irvine, who visited Chautauqua prior to 1788, writes it "Jadaqua."

The name in the Seneca traditions was said to mean "the place where one was lost," or "the place of easy death." Cornplanter, in his famous speech against the title of the Phelps and Gorham tracts, alluding to his tradition, said : "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 Chanddauk-wa, eat of the fatal root, and sleep with his fathers in peace."

Dr. Peter Wilson, an educated Cayuga chief, communicated this interesting Seneca tradi- tion : "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 crossing caught a fish of a kind with which they were not familiar, but threw into the canoe. Reaching the head of the lake, they made a portage across to 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 abun- dantly in the lake, having never been caught in it before. They concluded they all sprang from the Chautauqua Lake progenitor. hence they named that lake Ga-ja-dah-gwah, com- Pounded of the two Seneca words, Ga-jah, 'fish,' and ga-dah-gwah, 'taken out.' In course of time the word was contracted into 'Jah-dah- gwah'."

Other meanings have been assigned the word. Chautauqua has been said to mean "foggy place," in allusion to the mist arising from the lake; also to mean "high up," re- terring to the elevated situation of the lake ; while it is said that early Indian interpreters, 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.

A beautiful Seneca tradition lends an addi- tional charm to Chautauqua Lake. "A young squaw is said to have eaten of a root growing on its bank, which created tormenting thirst. To stake it, she stooped down to drink of its clear waters, and disappeared forever, hence the name of the lake, Ja-Da-Qua, or the place of easy death, where one disappears and is seen 110 more."

CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

CHAPTER IV.

The Destruction of the Eries.

This brief review of early history and con- quest reveals the fact that the French far out- stripped the English in exploring and settling this continent.

In 1615, before the landing of the Pilgrims, the French, led by Champlain, had penetrated hundreds of miles into the wilderness and reached the distant shores of Lake Huron. There he learned that the country southeast of Lake Erie, where lies Chautauqua county, was the home of the Je-go-sa-sa-as the Sene- cas called them-the Eries, or the nation of the Cat. The same year and before Miles Standish smote the heathen with his sword of Damas- cus, Ettiene Brule, Champlain's interpreter, guided by twelve Hurons, had traversed the wilderness of Western New York and visited the country of the Eries and Carantouan, their principal village.

In 1656, in a fierce war with the Iroquois, the Eries were destroyed and ceased to exist as a nation. Their warriors were mostly slain, their women and children, driven from their villages, perished in great numbers in the wil- derness. Their towns, of which we find such numerous remains in our county, were de- stroyed, or went to decay, and their rudely cul- tivated fields were covered with a forest growth again.

La Salle, the most remarkable explorer that ever visited this continent, on his voyage west- ward in the "Griffin," the first vessel to spread its sails to the breezes of Lake Erie, in 1679, passed in plain sight of the forest covered hills of Chautauqua. Two or three years later he journeyed westward from the Onondaga coun- try in New York to the headwaters of the Ohio. "After fifteen days' travel," says his ancient biographer, "he came to a little lake six or seven miles south of Lake Erie, the mouth of which opened southeastward." There is little doubt that this was Chautauqua Lake, and that La Salle and his companions were its first European visitors. At that time there must have remained many evidences of the great calamity that had then so recently befallen the Eries-abandoned cornfields grown up to briars and saplings, fallen palisades-the sites of their longhouses-overrun by nettles and fireweed, and now and then the bones of a mur- dered Erie. Now, nearly two and one-half centuries after the fires of the Eries have been put out, there remains in Chautauqua county abundant evidence of their ancient occupation. More than thirty entrenchments enclosing

from one-fourth of an acre to ten acres, are known to have existed within the limits of the county : At least ten along the country border- ing the Cassadaga creek ; as many more along the valley of Clear Creek in Ellington ; a half a dozen or more in the towns along Lake Erie; several around Chautauqua Lake and its out- let, and in other parts of the county. Six or seven of these earthworks are now in perfect preservation, and a few more but partly oblit- erated.

Sometimes the plow reveals the moulder- ing relics of an ancient burial place. Besides low mounds in which many were buried in confused masses, separate graves of many others have from time to time been discovered. About one mile south of Sinclairville, not far from an old intrenchment, there seems to have been an extensive cemetery. In a single mound, opened May 25, 1887, when the writer was present, were revealed more than fifty skeletons. Not many rods away, other mounds and graves had previously been opened, dis- closing the bones of many of their dead. Hearths of their longhouses, and ash heaps, some of them extensive, numerously exist in all parts of the county ; also caches for preserv- ing their corn. In and around these old in- trenchments and ash heaps, arrowheads, stone axes, ornaments of stone, pipes of clav and other implements, are still abundantly found, while flint arrowheads lost by the Indians in their hunting excursions are found on almost every farm.

Prior to and at the time of the destruction of the Eries, there dwelt around Lakes Erie and Ontario several nations of Indians who were of the same race, spoke a language much alike, practiced the same customs, and undoubtedly were once one people. The valley of the Mo- hawk and the country westward in the State of New York to the Genesee river, was the territory of the Iroquois or Six Nations. In Canada between Lake Simcoe and the Georgian Bay, were the homes of the Hurons. Along the northern shore of Lake Erie and extend- ing east of the Niagara river toward the Iro- quois, was the country of the Neutral nation. The Eries lived in Chautauqua county, and their territories extended a little eastward towards the Iroquois, and westward along the southern shore of Lake Erie.

North of the Eries and between Lake Erie and the dominions of the Iroquois, and not far from the borders of our own county, the pre-

CARTE de la LOUISIANE OU

DES VOYAGES DUS DE LASALLE despaysqu'il adceouverts depuisla Nouvella Francejulgue au Golfe Mexique les années 1679.80.816 82. Par Jean Baptiste Louis Franqueliu Jan. 1684 Paris

LacFrontenac.

Saut de

Niagar

Lac Erie

JoRekouaga

. na

Oniason

Antonaronons

Kental 12v. derrore i.v. detricit

I.v. destruit

Casa

ripMosagenzia mogu destrait.

DESTRUCTION OF THE ERIES

cise location of which is not certainly known, once dwelt a kindred people called the Wen- rohronons, or Ahouenrochrhonons, a small tribe allied to the Neutrals, and once the asso- ciate nation of that people. For some cause, enmity arose between them. The domain of the Iroquois, their common foe, and the fiercest and most warlike of these nations, extended near them. The Wenrohronons being weak in numbers, feared that they might be extermi- nated by one or the other of their enemies, so they sent a deputation of the most intelligent of their people to the Hurons, and asked to be taken into that nation. The Hurons, in their councils and assemblies, fully considered the matter, and decided to receive them, where- upon the Wenrohronons abandoned their old homes in Western New York and traveled through the wilderness to the land of the Hurons on Lake Simcoe. The Hurons sent a delegation to escort them through the terri- tories of their enemies, and to assist them in carrying their household goods and little chil- dren. There were over six hundred of the Wenrohronons, a majority of whom were women and children. So great was their fatigue that many of them died on their way, and nearly all were sick at the end of their journey. When news of their approach was received at the nearest Huron village, all of its inhabitants went out to meet them and re- ceived them with the greatest kindness. No civilized people could have displayed more sympathy and humanity than the Hurons. They gave these strangers, who in their ex- tremity had sought refuge among them, the best places in their cabins, they opened their granaries of corn, which the Wenrohronons were given the liberty to use as their own. Father Jerome Lalemant, the Jesuit, was pres- ent among the Hurons at the time, and wit- nessed these occurrences. This hegira of the Wenrohronons took place in 1639.

The Hurons and the Iroquois were implaca- ble foes. In 1642 they engaged in a fierce war which resulted in the annihilation of the Hurons, and the massacre of the French Jesuits living among them. In 1651, in another sav- age war, the Iroquois entirely wiped out the Neutrals. In 1656, between 1,000 and 2,000 warriors of the Iroquois entered the territory of the Eries, and with savage fury assaulted one of their towns, which was resolutely de- fended by the Eries, who fought with poisoned arrows. It was finally carried by the Iroquois with a slaughter so terrible as to wholly de- stroy that people. The Senecas, a nation of the Iroquois, have a tradition that on the night

after the battle, the forest was lighted up by a thousand fires, at each of which an Erie was burning at the stake. Chautauqua county was the scene of much of this savage strife, but where the final encounter occurred is not at this time precisely known.

Among the many evidences that the earth- works in Chautauqua county are the remains of the conquered Eries, is that furnished by the ancient French map of Frankuelin, dated 1684, less than thirty years after the overthrow of that people, upon which Lake Erie and the Allegheny river are represented. On the upper waters of that river, and towards Lake Erie, at a location corresponding with that of Chau- tanqua Lake, is noted in words of French "two villages destroyed." and east of this locality is noted "nineteen villages destroyed." This last reference is probably to the villages repre- sented by the numerous remains of the earth- works found in Eastern Chautauqua and Cat- taraugus counties. The people living south of Lake Erie are called Kentaientonga. Upon several old maps made by the French, Chau- tauqua Lake is called Oniasont or Oniassont, and the people who inhabit the region, Onta- rononas, and on one map Oniassontkeronons. A village is represented as having been located at Bemus Point. Oniasont is the first record we find of a name for Chautauqua Lake. The word is said to mean a lake with a narrow con- lecting strait ; Oniasa, a neck or throat.

From the destruction of the Eries until its settlement by the pioneers of the Holland Pur- chase, Chautauqua county continued the domain of the Senecas, the most western of the Iroquois nations. Sixty years after the death of La Salle, we find France and England en- gaged in an earnest contention respecting the boundary between their possessions in Amer- ica. France, in order more distinctly to assert her rights to the disputed territory, in 1749 sent Capt. Bienville De Celoron, a chevalier of the Order of St. Louis, from La Chine in Canada, with a force of two hundred fourteen soldiers and Canadians, and fifty-five Iroquois and Abenakies, in order to take a more formal possession. He coasted along the southern shore of Lake Erie, and arrived at the mouth of the Chautauqua creek (now Barcelona) on the 16th of July of that year, where he landed his motley retinue of French soldiers, Cana- dian frontiersmen, half-naked Indians, and here and there a priest, and some undoubtedly of those remarkable rangers, the Coureurs-de- bois, or Canadian voyagers. He then pushed over the difficult portage to the head of Chan- tauqua Lake, where he arrived on the 22d.

1.4

CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

On his arrival, he and his companions must have been impressed with the lovely and tranquil scene as it appeared on that summer day. He saw before him a placid and seques- tered lake, stretching away southeast into the primeval forest, its beauty enhanced by the dark and silent wilderness that surrounded it. Not long did he tarry there. The next day he embarked. His fleet of bark canoes manned by the French and their dusky allies, passed the maple groves of the Assembly ground at Fair Point-shades then unvisited save by the wild deer that strayed in from the forest depths to sniff the cool breezes of the lake. Watched from the shore by strange Indians, he passed Long and Bemus Points, into the broad expanse of the lower lake, and encamped for the night upon the shore three miles above the outlet. On the 24th he passed through the shadows of its narrow and winding channel, and encamped at night, it is believed, within the limits of what is now the city of James- town. The next day he proceeded on his voy- age down the Chadakoin, Cassadaga, Cone- wango, Allegheny and Ohio rivers, burying leaden plates on his way, as tokens of French dominion. When he reached the mouth of the Great Miami, he directed his course up that river and returned again to Canada. A leaden plate prepared for burial at Chautauqua was obtained by some artifice of the Senecas accom- panying Celoron, and sent to Sir William John- son at Jamestown on the Mohawk. Upon the leaden plate, with other French words, was engraved the word Tchadakoin-the name of the place of its intended burial. This is the earliest record that we have of the Indian word from which our name Chautauqua is derived.

A few years later the French asserted their claim to these regions in a still more decisive manner, and our county, although a deep soli- tude, far from the outmost line of settlement, became the scene of warlike demonstrations.

In April, 1753, while the Marquis du Quesne was governor-general of Canada, an advanced force of two hundred fifty Frenchmen under Barbeer arrived at the mouth of the Chan- tauqua creek and commenced the building of a log fort. A little later Sieur Marin, the chief commander of the expedition, arrived with five hundred more, and put a stop to the building. The French then advanced further to the west, and built a fort at Erie, Pennsylvania, then known as Presque Isle, and another at La Boeuf (now Waterford, Pa.), on French creek, and still another at Venango, at the mouth of French creek (now Franklin, Pa.).

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I, Part 3

Author: Downs, John Phillips, 1853- ed. [from old catalog]; Hedley, Fenwick, Y., joint ed. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1921 Publisher: Boston, New York [etc.] American historical society, inc. Number of Pages: 649

Author: Downs, John Phillips, 1853- ed. [from old catalog]; Hedley, Fenwick, Y., joint ed. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Boston, New York [etc.] American historical society, inc.
Number of Pages: 649