History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I, Part 4

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 4

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October 30th, the French assembled twelve hundred men at or near Barcelona, where they remained encamped four days, while two hun- dred of their number under Hughs Pean, after- wards a knight of St. Louis, cut a wagon road from the mouth of Chautauqua creek to the head of Chautauqua Lake. All the French then returned to Canada.

Samuel Shattuck, afterwards a resident of Chautauqua county, when a mere lad, accom- panied an officer and five men detailed by Lieut. Hitchen Holland, the commanding offi- cer of the English post at Oswego, in the month of April, 1753, to watch the French while they were engaged in these expeditions. Shattuck and his party traversed the wilder- ness from Oswego to a point on Lake Erie, a few miles from the mouth of the Cattaraugus creek, and soon after had the good fortune to witness the French flotilla bearing the forces of Barbeer on their way westward. Lake Erie was then a sailless waste of waters, bordered on every side by primeval forests. The scene as witnessed from within the depths of this great western solitude, on that fine April after- noon, is described as beautiful, and animated, as the fleet of barges and canoes rowed rapidly up the lake.

This scouting party continued to watch the French from the recesses of the woods. They encamped on the banks of a stream that Shat- tuck afterwards knew to be the Canadaway, and the place of encampment to have been a few miles west of Dunkirk. The next day, after some narrow escapes from the Indian allies of the French who were scattered through the woods, Shattuck and his party reached the Chautauqua creek, where they discovered the French had landed and were felling trees on its west side. Soon they saw a larger force of French arrive, undoubtedly the same that was commanded by Marin, who put a stop to the work, and embarked the whole force in boats and moved westward. The English party moved westward also, and for four months hovered near the French, cautiously watching them while they were building forts at Erie and on French creek. The English party was all of this time obliged to conduct operations with the utmost caution, on account of the red- skins skulking about in the woods. Their escape from discovery and capture was due to the experience of their leader, an old leather stocking and Indian fighter from Onondaga. They made use of the dark coverts of the for- est for concealment, while not watching the foe, and at no time used their firearms, but de-

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pended upon bows and arrows, traps and snares, to secure game for food.

In September they returned to Oswego and made a report of their operations. They were sent back in October to further watch the pro- ceedings of the French. This time their course while in Chautauqua county led along the crest of the ridge of highlands south of Lake Erie, where they could keep the lake in sight, and be free from danger from Indian scouting parties ; when they arrived at Chautauqua creek, near the south border of the village of Westfield, they suddenly came upon the French, engaged in rolling logs into the bottom of a deep gulf, and digging into the steep sides of this ravine tor a road. The scouting party watched the completion of the road, which extended from Lake Erie to Chautauqua Lake; they wit- nessed also the embarkation of the French on Lake Erie on their return to Canada. The English scouting party then returned to Oswego. Shattuck afterward served as a sol- dier of the Revolution. In 1823, when he was an old man, he came to reside with his kins- men in Portland, in Chautauqua county, once the scene of his experiences in Indian warfare. He lived there until he died in 1827.

In the year in which these events occurred, Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia sent Wash- ington, then a youth but twenty-two years of age, to learn the purpose of the French. Wash- ington spent five days negotiating with the French commandant, St. Pierre, at La Boeuf, now Waterford, Pennsylvania, which is situ- ated but fourteen miles from the town of French Creek.

The operations of the French led to most important results. They were the immediate cause of the Old French War, which being be- gun, finally extended into Europe, where it was waged on a grand scale. There it was known as the "Seven Years War." It involved nearly all the great powers of Europe. One of its later results was the creation of the German Empire. It even extended to Asia. There the French and English contended for empire in India. The discovery of Chautauqua Lake by La Salle; the voyage of De Celoron over its waters in 1749; the arrival of the French forces under Barbeer and Marin at the mouth of the Chautauqua creek, and the building of the Portage road, all of which we have related, and all of which transpired within the borders of our county, if they cannot be strictly said to have been the cause, stand at the very be- ginning of a series of events among the most

momentous that have occurred in modern times. During this time, Chautauqua county was the scene of other military movements and warlike expeditions. In one of these excursions the French left a four-pounder upon the shore of Chautauqua Lake, which was seen by the early explorers of this region. The gallantry of the French won them victories early in the contest, but the English prevailed in the end.

Notwithstanding the close of the Old French and Indian War, Chautauqua county continued to be the scene of military operations. Major Rogers, long celebrated for his skill in border war, at the head of two hundred rangers coasted along the shore of the county on his way west to take possession of Detroit. A little later the Indians formed a conspiracy to dispossess the English of all their forts and posts in the west. Their leading spirit was Pontiac, an Ottawa chief whose lofty character and great abilities fitted him for a nobler des- tiny than the leader of savages. Pontiac's War again brought the scene of savage warfare close to the borders of our county. The In- dians made a desperate assault on the English garrison at Presque Isle (now Erie), compelled them to surrender, and carried them into cap- tivity. They attacked the blockhouses at Le Boeuf, but the few soldiers there managed to escape into the forest. At Venango (now Franklin) the Indians gained admittance into the fort, burned it to the ground, and murdered the garrison, leaving none to tell the story of its fall. In August, 1764, Gen. Bradstreet, with three thousand men in small boats, coasted along the shore of our county on his way west to raise the siege of Detroit, commenced by Pontiac. Bradstreet raised the siege, and in October set out on his return ; his boats were wrecked, and about 150 of his men made their way on foot along the southern shore of Lake Erie. through the forests of Chautauqua county, to Fort Niagara. They suffered great hardships, and many perished in the woods. Among the Indian chiefs who took an active part in the contest was Guyasutha, a Seneca. Like Pontiac, he was a leader among his peo- ple, and endowed with the stern virtues of his race. Guyasutha, and afterwards Cornplanter, aiso a Sencca chief, were lords of the forest along the Allegheny. They were familiar with the region, including our county, and often visited our beautiful lake. They be- longed to these regions, as Robin Hood to Sherwood Forest.

CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

CHAPTER V.

Brodhead's Expedition.

Among important events of the War of the Revolution which occurred along the then western border, was the expedition of Col. Brodhead sent up from Fort Pitt against the Indians of the Upper Allegheny, in 1779. Obed Edson, of blessed memory, wrote the following history of that expedition as never before written, and in it gives an account of Chau- tauqua's history from the destruction of the Eries to the close of the Revolutionary War. A century had elapsed since the council fire of the Six Nations was extinguished, and their longhouse destroyed. The firmness and tact of this little confederacy, enabled it for more than an hundred years to maintain its ancient seats along the rivers and lakes of Central New York against powerful neighbors. With the French close on one side, and the English upon the other, a less vigorous people would have been crushed as between two millstones. Al- though these Indians were of a barbarous race and few in numbers, their story will not be soon forgotten. Their military enterprise and conquests justly gained for them the title of "Romans of the West," and their practical wisdom enabled them to frame a perfect repre- sentative Federal Republic, which a trial during a period longer than the existence of our own Republic has proved to have been as efficient in practice as it was perfect in theory ; an achieve- ment that had long baffled the skill of enlight- ened statesmen, and which is alone sufficient to render the name of the Iroquois illustrious.

At the commencement of the Revolution, the Six Nations held friendly relations with all their white neighbors, whether adherents to Congress or the Crown. But the wanton mas- sacre of Logan's family, and other enormities committed by the whites during Cresap's war, had weakened their friendship for the colonies. The authority that Col. Guy and Sir John Johnson, and Col. Daniel Claus, who succeeded to the power that Sir William Johnson pos- sessed with the Indians, and the influence of Col. John Butler and his son Walter, were exerted to attach the Confederacy to the King. Joseph Brant and his sister Molly strived also to embitter the Mohawks against the colonies. On the other hand, the patriots of Tryon county, the Rev. Samuel Kirkland and the Oneida chief Shennandoah, endeavored to per- suade the Indians to pursue a neutral policy. The Indians hesitated. Councils were held with thein by patriots and by loyalists, with the result that the Oneidas, a large portion of

the Tuscaroras, a portion of the Onondagas, and a few of the Mohawks, favored the Ameri- cans. But the greater number, of whom the Senecas and Mohawks were foremost, under the lead of Brant and the Seneca chiefs, be- came their bitter and active foes.

The first hostilities were committed in May, 1776, by Brant and the Mohawks, at the battle of the Cedars, about forty miles above Mon- treal, on the River St. Lawrence. The hostile Indians next joined the forces of St. Leger, participated in the siege of Fort Stanwix, and in the battle of Oriskany. Then followed the massacre of Wyoming, and raids into the Mo- hawk Valley ; and finally, November, 1778, the burning and massacre of Cherry Valley. The barbarities committed in these bloody forays have been in some instances exaggerated. Too much perhaps has been charged upon the In- dians, and too little upon the Tories and refu- gees who accompanied them. The inhabitants on the border, however, suffered greatly from these incursions, and Congress on February 25, 1779, directed Washington to take effective measures to protect the settlers and chastise the Indians. Accordingly he planned two ex- peditions ; one to proceed from the east, pene- trate into the Seneca country, and devastate the fields of the Indians, destroy their villages, and drive their inhabitants into the woods ; the other to advance up the Allegheny river, de- stroy the Indian towns and fields there, and join the expedition from the east in a com- bined attack upon Fort Niagara.

The expedition from the east moved in two divisions. One under Gen. Sullivan left Wyo- ming, ascended the Susquehanna, and arrived at Tioga, August 11th, 1779. The other, under Gen. James Clinton, marched from Canajo- harie on the Mohawk, passed over Otsego Lake, descended the Susquehanna, and joined Gen. Sullivan, August 22d. A part of Clinton's torce, under Col. Van Schaick had previously destroyed the fields and towns of the Onon- dagas. The two divisions, five thousand men, under the command of Sullivan, moved from Tioga up the Chemung river. They defeated the British and Indians at Elmira on August 29, in the battle of Newton, advanced to the head of Seneca Lake and thence along its shores, destroying the Indian towns on the way, including the large Indian village of Kanadaseagea at its outlet. They then pro- ceeded to the Genesee river and destroyed the large villages and extensive cornfields there.

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The original design of advancing on Fort Niagara having been abandoned, Sullivan com- menced his return march. On his way he caused the towns and fields of the Cayugas, which were situated on the eastern and south- western shores of Cayuga Lake, to be de- stroyed. He arrived at Tioga on September 30, and at Easton, Pennsylvania, on October 15, having destroyed forty Indian towns and one hundred sixty thousand bushels of Indian corn, besides a large amount of other prop- erty.

As a less full history has been written of the expedition moving from the south, it is the design of this article to supply some account of it. When the Iroquois first became known to Europeans, their villages and hunting grounds were confined to Central New York. The fierce wars which they subsequently waged, and by which kindred nations were successively vanquished, secured to them an extensive territory to the west and south, in- cluding the mountainous region of New York and Pennsylvania which was traversed by the Allegheny river. Their enterprise soon led them to new hunting grounds and finally to establish villages in this conquered territory. The Senecas, in the western limits of the Con- federacy, were its most numerous and warlike uation. The greater number of their villages were situated along the Genesee. They ulti- mately became the chief colonizers of the Con- federacy. They did not extend their settle- ments directly westward or along the shore of Lake Erie until near the close of the Revo- lution, excepting only in the immediate vicinity of Fort Niagara. They extended their towns ap the Genesee to Caneadea. A broad Indian trail joined this settlement with the Upper Allegheny at Olean, in New York. They then planted their villages along the Allegheny and ts tributaries to its mouth, and thence down he Ohio. The Seneca villages were the most numerous along the Upper Allegheny. As arly as 1724 the Munsey or Wolf tribe of the Delawares, who had previously dwelt in Northeastern Pennsylvania, but had been crowded out by the whites, were allowed by he Six Nations to settle along the Lower Alle- heny ; and between 1724 and 1728, the Shaw- lees, a restless and warlike people, located long the Lower Allegheny and Upper Ohio. These different tribes were strangely mingled. iving peaceably together in one village, at the same time observing different customs and obeying different laws.

The first accurate knowledge acquired by Europeans concerning the Indian settlements

along the Allegheny was obtained during the expedition under Capt. Bienville de Celoron, which was sent in the summer of 1749 by the governor of Canada, to take formal possession in the name of France, of the territory lying west of the Allegheny mountains. From the records kept by the expedition we learn that it ascended the St. Lawrence, coasted along the shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie, and arrived at "Chatakouin" portage the 16th of June, 1749. It passed over the portage to the head of Chautauqua, traversed this lake, descended its outlet and the Conewango creek in canoes, and entered the Allegheny ten miles south of the boundary line between the States of New York and Pennsylvania, just above the village of Warren. On the south bank of the Allegheny, opposite the mouth of the Conewango, Celoron buried a leaden plate inscribed with the date and place of deposit, as a token of his posses- sion of the country in the name of the King of France. On the right bank of the Allegheny, occupying the site of the present village of Warren, there was an Indian village called "Kanaougon," inhabited by Senecas and Loups, or Munseys. This village was called Cona- wago by Col. Brodhead when he visited the place thirty years later. Celoron descended the river and on its right bank, about six miles below this town, on a beautiful prairie, and just below the mouth of the Broken Straw creek, he found a Seneca village which he called Paille Coupee, or Cut Straw. Its Seneca name was De-ga-syo-ush-dy-ah-goh, meaning "broken straw," referring, it is said by Alden, to the accumulation of straw and driftwood in the creek ; but more likely, as we are informed by Gen. Callender Irvine (who preempted the land at the confluence of the Broken Straw and the Allegheny in 1795 and was familiar with the Indians and early traditions of that region ), to the broken straws and drooping plumes of the tall wild grass that stood thickly on the meadows there after the storms of autumn had swept over them. This Indian village was called Buckaloons by Col. Brodhead. Four French leagues below this town the expedition came to a village of ten houses on the left bank of the river, inhabited by Delawares and Ren- ards. Four or five leagues further down they passed a village of six houses on the right bank of the river. This may have been near the present site of Hickory Town, in Venango county, and identical with the Indian village familiar to the Moravians as Lawanakana, meaning middle branch or stream, or where the waters meet. They next passed a village of ten houses, probably the same that was

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CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

afterwards known to the Moravians as Gosh- gosh-unk. or Place of Hogs. The expedition then came to an Indian village of ten houses. subsequently called Venango by the English, a corruption of the Indian word In-nun-gah. alluding to a rude and indecent figure that the Senecas found carved upon a tree when they first came to this region. This town was situ- ated near the site of the present enterprising town of Franklin. at the mouth of the Riviere Aux Boeufs. now called French creek. Nine miles below Franklin there long remained, close to the water's edge. on the eastern side of the river. a large rock covered with curious Indian carvings, called the "Indian God." and near it Celoron buried his second leaden plate. Passing a river having on its upper waters some villages of Loups and Iroquois. the ex- pedition came to Attique. a village of twenty- two houses. on or near the Kiskiminitas river. Below this, they passed an old Shawneese vil- lage upon the right bank of the river. and came finally to a village of Delawares, the finest seen, and which is supposed to have been situ- ated at or near the present site of Pittsburgh. From this place. the expedition proceeded down the Ohio. There had undoubtedly occurred some changes in the situation and population of the Indian towns along this river during the thirty years that elapsed between Celoron's and Brodhead's expeditions.

When Washington in November. 1753. on his journey to French creek, arrived at the junction of the Allegheny with the Mononga- hela. where Pittsburgh is situated. no white man was living there. During the succeeding February the English commenced to lay the foundation of a fort there, which was taken from them by the French the April following. The French held Pittsburgh. then called Du Quesne. until 1758. when it was retaken by the English under Gen. Forbes. It remained in their possession until the Revolution. when a party of Virginians under Capt. Neville took possession and held it until they were super- seded by the Continentals under Brig .- Gen. Hand. Hand was in turn succeeded by Brig .- Gens. Lochlan and McIntosh. and he by Col. Daniel Brodhead. whom we find in command early in 1779. It was during this year. while Brodhead was in command of the Western De- partment. with his headquarters at Fort Pitt. that the campaign was planned and prosecuted against the Indians of the Upper Allegheny. Gen. Washington, as it has been stated. de- sired that the expedition sent north from Pitts- burgh should cooperate with the expedition from the east under Sullivan. With this object

in view. he directed Col. Rawlings to march with three companies from Fort Frederick in Maryland to Pittsburgh. He also directed Col. Brodhead, upon his arrival there, to in- crease Rawlings' force to one hundred men and send them up the river to Kittanning, and there throw up a stockade fort for the security of convoys ; and when completed. to leave a small garrison. proceed still further up the river to Venango, and there establish another post for the same purpose. and to direct Col. Gibson, of the Seventh Virginia Regiment, who was sta- tioned at Tuscarawas. to hold himself in readi- ness to join the forces at Pittsburgh. Also. to prepare water craft and engage good guides, "who know the way from the head of naviga- tion of the Allegheny to the nearest Indian towns. and to Niagara." Also. to report by express "when he would be ready to begin his movement : when he would be at Kittanning, Venango. and the head of navigation. and how far it would be to the nearest Indian towns. and to Niagara :" and to keep all a profound secret until the proper time should arrive. He also gave Col. Brodhead careful directions how in the meantime to pacify the Western Indians. so that they would not interfere with his suc- cess.

Notwithstanding these careful plans. further consideration induced Washington a month later to relinquish the idea of concert of action between the two expeditions. He however directed Col. Brodhead to make preparations and as soon as it was in his power. to chastise the Indians by an expedition into their coun- try : also to make inquiries with a view to ar attempt against Detroit. An enterprise agains that post. whence marauding parties of British and Indians had proceeded against the extreme western settlements. had been a favorite schem with Col. Brodhead's predecessor. Col. McIn tosh. as it afterwards became with Brodhead himself.

The government had been able to place a the disposal of Col. Brodhead only a disperse and feeble force by which to protect the wid borders of Pennsylvania against the crueltie of the Indians. On the 15th of April his regi ment. the Eighth Pennsylvania, was much scattered. Besides a portion at Fort Pitt. ther were one hundred men at Fort Laurens on th Tuscarawa. twenty-five at Wheeling. Virginia twenty-five at Holliday's Cove. some at For McIntosh in Beaver county, some employed a artificers, and some as boatmen and wagoner: Col. Brodhead was energetic. active and am bitious to serve his country, but he found hi duties arduous and disagreeable. The popula

BRODHEAD'S EXPEDITION

tion of this thinly settled frontier from which he was to draw recruits and obtain supplies, harrassed by incursions of the Indians and wearied by the long continuance of the war, was in a destitute condition ; and it was with the greatest difficulty that he could keep his soldiers clad and fed. Yet during the summer of 1779 he made vigorous preparations to strike a blow that would prove a diversion in favor of Gen. Sullivan. Profiting by the suggestions of Washington, made when cooperation between the two expeditions was contemplated, he com- menced constructing canoes and batteaux at Fort Pitt and at other posts. He had as many as one hundred fifty boatbuilders employed at one time. On the 31st of July he had about sixty boats nearly finished. Some of the canoes made of poplar would carry two tons. About the middle of June, Lieut .- Col. Bayard, by his command, commenced the construction of a fort at Kittanning, which was completed dur- 'ing the last of July, and called Fort Armstrong, 'in commemoration of the exploit of Col. John "Armstrong in September, 1756, when he sur- prised and burned the old Indian town of Cat- tauvan, which then stood there, killing thirty or forty of its Indian defenders, including their resolute chief. Captain Jacobs. Hugh Mercer, afterwards a distinguished American general. who fell at the battle of Princeton. accompanied Armstrong on this expedition. Col. Brodhead exerted himself also to secure the friendship of the Delawares. and to excite them to war against the Six Nations. He secured the ad- hesian of Killbuck and other warriors, and also that of the young Delaware Chief Nanoland. While making preparations early in the sum- ner, he received private intelligence that But- er and two hundred rangers and a number of Indians designed making an attack upon the rontier west of Laurel Hills, and during all he spring and summer prowling parties of In- lians committed murders in Western Penn- ylvania. These dangers required constant igilance upon the part of Col. Brodhead, and bliged him to keep parties of rangers travers- ng the wilderness to protect the inhabitants n June, Lieut. Hardian, a brave partisan offi- er. was sent with eleven men towards the seneca country. Lieut. Peterson and Ensigns Morrison and Wood led other parties towards he Indian towns. In June, three men who had been sent to reconnoitre in the Seneca coun- ry, returning from Venango were pursued by party of Indian warriors some distance be- "bw Kittanning, and narrowly escaped. These ndians proceeded to the Sewickley settlement, 'n their way killed a soldier, and upon their

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History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I, Part 4

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