History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I, Part 6

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 6

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held by their heirs. The portion of the county north of this strip was claimed by the State of Massachusetts. The title of the territory of the county was also claimed by the State of New York under the grant from Holland to the Dutch West India Company, and by the grant of Charles the Second of England to the Duke of York and Albany, and also under the acknowledgment of title by the Six Nations. Pennsylvania also claimed the title to the terri- tory including Chautauqua county, under the original charter of William Penn, in 1681. So that between the claims of their pious Puritan and Quaker neighbors, our staid and honest Knickerbocker ancestors were once threatened with and came near losing a principal part of the State, including our county. It was nearly a century after the charter before Pennsylvania abandoned her claim. Connecticut never aban- doned hers. The claim of the State of Massa- chusetts was settled in 1786, by a grant of mil- lions of acres of land in Western New York, including Chautauqua county.

The boundary line between New York and Pennsylvania having been surveyed in 1787, it was found that the 42nd parallel of latitude ex- tended south of the valuable harbor of Presque Isle (now Erie) and that harbor was entirely within the boundary of the State of New York, leaving Pennsylvania but two or three miles of shore line on Lake Erie. The territory known as the "Erie Triangle," which bounds Chau- tauqua county on the west, was afterwards purchased by Pennsylvania to give her a lake port.

On May 11th, 1791, Massachusetts conveyed to Robert Morris all of her lands in the State west of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase. By deeds executed between that year and the year 1799, Morris conveyed these lands in trust for certain persons in Holland, subsequently be- came known as the Holland Land Company. These lands were bounded on the east by a line passing from the Pennsylvania line through the county of Allegany, a little west of its cen- ter, to Lake Ontario. Chautauqua county was included in this purchase, as were nearly all lands west of this line in the State of New York. This territory has since been known as the Holland Purchase.

There was still another claimant whose rights remained to be disposed of. The Indians of New York possessed a substantial claim to the soil, measured by the legal rules and prin- ciples of equity recognized by English courts. Towards the close of the eighteenth century, in Western New York and Pennsylvania there were many Indian towns. In Chautauqua

LATER INDIAN WARS AND TREATIES

county, in the town of Kiantone, upon the left bank of the Kiantone creek, near its mouth, there was the Indian village of Kyenthono. As late as 1795, when James McMahan came up the Conewango on his way to the north part of the county, at this place he found fields of corn, and wigwams occupied by the Indians. The surveyors of the boundary line between the States of New York and Pennsylvania fixed their observatory a short distance above this town, on the same side of the creek, and re- mained there fifteen days in the months of August and September, 1787, making astro- nomical observations and computations to de- termine the latitude and longitude of the local- ity and in preparing the eighth latitude bound. ary stone. Upon Abraham Hardenburgh's inap of this survey, Kyenthono was designated as "a small Indian town." When the first set- tlers eame to Kiantone, the forms of cornhills were visible upon lands which since had grown up to small shrubbery of thorns and red plums.

At Bemus Point, when William Bemus first came there in 1806, the unmistakable evidences remained that an Indian settlement had re- cently existed there. More than fifty acres along the creek embracing the site of the pres . ent cemetery, and the woods adjoining, showed plain marks of previous cultivation. The more elevated parts appeared to have been aban- doned and grown up to brush, with here and there a large tree. Where the cemetery is situ - ated were decayed remains and traces of In- dian dwellings. On Bemus creek were two fields, each about ten acres in extent. The lower one was at the point, and mostly east of the lake road ; the other was half a mile up the creek. Where these improvements had been made, wild plum trees grew; and there were remains of brush enclosures which William Bemus repaired. Cornhills were visible, and potatoes of the lady finger variety, that had been perpetuated from year to year, were growing, some of which were gathered and planted by William Bemus. The site of this Indian village and field, it is not unlikely, may have been more anciently occupied by the Fries.

Below Bemus at Griffiths Point were similar signs of Indian occupation. About four acres had been cleared, but grown up to a thick growth of oak, chestnut, soft maple and hick- ory, none more than six inches in diameter. Cornhills were visible over the entire tract. The remains of what appeared to have been a wigwam were found upon a mound; another field of about one acre existed at the foot of Bear Lake in Stockton.

Between the Indian villages of Western New York and from them to their favorite hunting grounds and fishing places, were well trodden pathways. Of these in Chautauqua county, a broad and well worn Indian trail led from Cat- taraugus creek through the lake towns to the Pennsylvania line. Another commenced near the mouth of Cattaraugus creek and passed over the ridge in Arkwright and Charlotte at its lowest point, thence through Charlotte Cen- ter and Sinelairville, southerly in the direction of the Indian towns on the Allegheny 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 to and from the central to the north- castern parts of the county, and by the Indians subsequent to the settlement of the county. Another important Indian path commenced at the Indian settlement near the mouth of the Cattaraugus creek, and passed down the Con- ewango valley through the eastern parts of Hanover, Villenova, Cherry Creek, and Elling- ton.

This path was used by the white men during the settlement of these towns, and by the In- dians afterwards. In Carroll there was a well worn path that led from the Conewango east- erly up Case run, and through Covey Gap, and Bone run to the Allegheny river, near Onoville in Cattaraugus county. An Indian path led along the east shore of Chautauqua Lake, and from the head of the lake by way of the Chau- tanqua creek to Lake Erie, another from Cana- daway by the way of Bear Lake to Bemus Point. There were still other trails leading through the county.

The Indian settlements in Chautauqua county were probably made in the eighteenth century by the Senecas, who were under the control of Cornplanter, sometimes called Abeel. In a map published by Reading Howell, 1792, the country of the upper waters of the Con- ewango and Chautauqua Lake is designated as ('Beel's Cayentona.

At length more permanent settlement was made by the Indians within the limits of the county and along the Cattaraugus creek. Large numbers of those who fled before the march of Sullivan in 1779, gathered around Fort Niagara and fed from the British stores. To relieve themselves from this burden, the British gov- ernment encouraged the Indians to establish themselves at convenient places and obtain support by cultivating the land. In May or

que

CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

June, 1780, they first permanently settled upon Buffalo creek, near Buffalo, under the leader- ship of an aged but influential chief called "Old King," the head sachem of the Senecas. In the spring of the same year, 1780, while the Revo- lution was still in progress, they made the first settlement upon Cattaraugus creek.

By a treaty at Big Tree, on the Genesee river, Sept. 15, 1797, between Robert Morris and Red Jacket, Cornplanter, Governor Blacksnake and forty chiefs and sachems, the Senecas for the sum of $100,000 sold all their interest in the Robert Morris Purchase, reserving only 337 square miles of land contained in eleven In- dian Reservations, one of which lies partly in the county of Chautauqua, consisting of about one square mile of land in the town of Han- over upon which six Indian families resided in

1894, and which had thirty-one inhabitants, according to the census of 1890.

By a treaty made with Ogden Land Com- pany, August 31, 1826, the Indians sold to them a preemption right in these reservations, by which the Ogden Company claimed the fee to the land, when the tribal relations of the In- dians should cease. The Senecas, however, claimed that the Ogden Company had only the first right to purchase when the Indians should choose to sell. The claim of the Ogden Com- pany was at that time a source of great uneasi- ness to the Indians.

The Indian title having been extinguished, the Holland Land Company commenced to sur- vey the lands, and to offer them for sale and settlement, the history of which is contained in a special chapter.

CHAPTER VII.

The Frontier Period-1802-1805.

The first white man to sojourn within the limits of Chautauqua county, Amos Sawtel, usually called Sottle, has been regarded by some as its first actual settler. He was born in Vermont. In early life he removed to Chenango county, New York. There he be came disappointed in love, left friends and home, and traveled on foot to New Amster- dam, now Buffalo, where he may have lived for a while with the Indians. In the fall of 1796, when about twenty-three years of age, he went with a herd of cattle for some person in New Amsterdam to the Cattaraugus Bottonis, where they were sent to winter. Sottle built a small cabin of poles upon land later laid out by the Holland Land Company as lot 61 of the Cattaraugus village, on the west side of the creek, about one and one-half miles from its inouth. There he lived for a while, "with a very dark squaw or negress, whom he had in- duced to share his lot." Whether he intended to remain and become a permanent settler is not known.

When the surveying parties were organized by the Holland Land Company, for the survey of the range lines in 1798, Sottle enlisted as axman, and continued in the employ of the company during 1798-99. In the fall of the latter year he went to the Western Reserve, and remained out of the county at least during the year 1800. He returned (it has been claimed in 1801, of which there is doubt) and went into possession of the improvements that he had made, and resided there until his death in 1849. His relatives are said to have moved

in respectable circles, and he, notwithstand- ing his somewhat dissolute and intemperate habits and vagrant life among Indians and bordermen, was a man of considerable natural ability and information, and in early life not without native dignity and politeness.

The survey and commencement of the salc of land upon the "Western" or "Connecticut Reserve," in Northwestern Ohio, was another event that foreshadowed and hastened the set- tlement of the county. On the 4th of July, 1796, a party of surveyors and others, consist- ing of fifty-two persons, among them the dis- tinguished surveyors Augustus Porter, Seth ; Pease, Wareham Shepard, who afterwards en- gaged in the early surveys of Chautauqua county, and one Amos Sawtel, and also Moses Cleveland, who gave his name to the city of Cleveland, landed from Lake Erie at Conneaut, in Ashtabula county, Ohio, afterwards called the Plymouth of the Western Reserve. These persons constituted the advanced guard of more than a million of people, that subse- quently found homes in the State of Ohio. And now emigrants on their way from Connecticut, to reach the Western or Connecticut Reserve, began to journey on foot through the wilder- ness of Chautauqua county, following the In- dian path that traversed the lake towns.

Rufus S. Reed, of Presque Isle, in 1798 was engaged in transporting goods and provisions through the county along its shore, on bat- teaux, or over the Indian trail, from New Ams. terdam to Presque Isle. Eleazer Flagg, after-

JAMES MCMAHAN. FIRST WHITE SETTLER

MRS. JAMES MCMAHAN, WIFE OF THE FIRST SETTLER OF CHAUTAUQUA

THE FRONTIER PERIOD

wards a citizen of Stockton, was in his employ in the former enterprise.

About 1800, one Skinner came with his fam- ily from Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, and opened a "house of entertainment," for emigrants and other travelers on the Catta- 1augus creek, near which was afterwards built the tavern of John Mack. He was living there in 1801. Joseph Badger, an early missionary, recorded in his journal that October 29th of that year, while on his way to the east, he put up with Skinner, who was living there a little Above the Indian habits. Skinner probably re- mained there three or four years in all, enter- taining travelers. Skinner had no title to the soil that he occupied, yet his right to be re- garded as a bona fide settler is at least as valid as that of Sottle. The recognition of either as a real settler would establish the first settle- ment of the county to have been as far back as in the last years of the eighteenth century.

As a preparation for the tide of emigration, a rude road was opened between the Cattarau- gus and Chautauqua creeks by Gen. Edward Paine, founder of Painesville, Ohio, to enable emigrants to reach the Western Reserve. He cut away the fallen trees and underbrush, and marked the route over the firmest ground, and at the best places to cross the streams, but built no bridges. He probably followed sub- stantially the line of the Indian trail, where the Erie or main road is now much of the way located. His work was commenced in 1801, and completed in 1802 to Westfield. It was the only road used by the settlers from the East for two or three years, and was known as I'aine's road.

In 1801 beginning of settlement was also made at Westfield. Andrew Straub from Pennsylvania, under the auspices of Col. James NicMahan, selected land east of the site of the village, upon what was known as Straub's creek, and although he had no title, he built a og house and occupied it in 1801. He lived :here alone, for he had no family. A few years ater he received a deed of his land, and lived here many years.

To James McMahan the credit is due of being the first real permanent settler, he being he first to hold title to the soil which he occu- Died and cultivated. He was born in North- umberland county, Pennsylvania, in March, 1768. Prior to 1795, he surveyed two seasons n Western Pennsylvania, and for six months it a time saw no white persons except his as- sistants. On July 3, 1795, he married Mary Mc- Cord, and about the same year and before Sottle had built his pole cabin at the mouth of

the Cattaraugus creek, he explored Chautauqua county, with a view to a residence there. Hle however lived for a while at Harbor Creek, Pennsylvania. In 1801 he again visited Chau- tauqua county and made a contract for his brother, John McMahan, to purchase township four, range fourteen, consisting of 22,012 acres of unsurveyed land in the towns of Westfield and Chautauqua. He also purchased for him- self 4,074 acres of unsurveyed land in the town of Ripley. The price to be paid was $2.50 per acre. James McMahan selected for himself, out of his brother's purchase, lot 13, which ex- tended east to the "Old Cross Road," so called from its being the point where the rude road, or trail between Buffalo and Erie was crossed by the French or Portage road. Early in the spring of 1802, Col. James McMahan cleared and planted to corn ten acres of this last men- tioned land in Westfield, and built upon it a log house, in which he installed his family in the fall. This was the first land cleared and cultivated by a white man having the right to the soil within the limits of Chautauqua county.

Edward McHenry, also of Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, at the solicitation of James McMahan came in the spring of 1802 to the Cross Roads, a little later than McMahan, and built a log house upon lands adjoining McMahan, and moved his family into it before McMahan's family arrived at the Cross Roads. Although Sottle, Skinner, Straub and Mc- Henry were the first persons domiciled within the county, Col. James McMahan was the first to fully consummate a settlement by acquir- ing an ownership to the soil and making real. substantial and permanent improvements.

However, settlement once commenced in this western solitude continued rapidly. Charles Avery settled in the town of Hanover, on lot 3, near the mouth of the Cattaraugus creek, in 1803, possibly in 1802, and a little later became a small trader in Indian goods. William H. Sydnor, a person of some education, although his life had been spent on the borders, came and purchased lots 1 and 2, where the creek empties into the lake. At the June court held in Batavia in 1804, he was licensed to keep a ferry at the mouth of the creek. His daughter Caroline was the first white child born at Cat- taraugus Village, and William Sydnor was the first person to die there. Ezekiel Lane early built a shanty on lot 48 near the Cattaraugus creek. He and his father-in-law, Marstin Mid- daugh, had been among the earliest settlers of Buffalo.

John McMahan, brother of James McMahan,

CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

in 1803 set ont from Chelisquaque, Pennsyl- vania, with his family, and settled near the mouth of Chautauqua creek, upon its west side, near Barcelona. He built there the first saw and grist mill in the county. Other families, influenced by the McMahans, came from Penn- sylvania, and settled at the Cross Roads the same year : Arthur Bell, Christopher Dull, James Montgomery, William Culbertson, George and John Degeer and Jeremiah George.

The log house built by McHenry was made a house of entertainment, this tavern was famous in its day. Here the first town meet- ings, militia trainings, and early public gather- ings, were held. In this log house August 28th, 1802, was born John McHenry, the first white child native of the county of whom we have any account. Here also for the first time Christian rites were observed within the county, in the burial of the dead. Edward Mc- Henry with two companions embarked on Lake Erie, in a small boat with a pole for a mast, and a blanket for a sail, to obtain sup- plies. A flaw of wind capsized the boat, and McHenry was drowned. His was the first death of a white person residing in the county. Sep- tember 2, 1803, Rev. Joseph Badger, the mis- sionary, preached his funeral sermon from the text: "Man knoweth not his time." At the Cross Roads in 1805, the first marriage was celebrated in the county, that of James Mont- gomery to Sarah Taylor. The names of early settlers of Westfield are inscribed upon the stone monument erected at the Cross Roads in 1866.

The year 1804 saw many new comers. David Dickenson, Abel Cleveland and John E. How- ard from Berkshire county, Massachusetts, built log houses and settled at Silver Creek with their families. Howard's log dwelling was on the south bank of the creek near where Howard street crosses it. Dickenson and Cleveland's dwelling was farther down near Newberry street. Dickenson and Cleveland soon erected a saw mill, and also constructed a mortar, by cutting a cavity in the end of a maple log, into which grists of corn brought to their mill were placed, and converted into meal by the action of a heavy pestle, worked up and down by the wheel of the saw mill.

During this year settlement was also miade in the town of Sheridan by Francis Webber, from Massachusetts. He settled upon the Erie road, southwest of Silver Creek, on lot 17, about one mile west of the east line of Sheri- dan. Hazadiah Stebbins also settled upon the same lot the same year. Orsamus Holmes, a soldier of the Revolution, and his family with

other families, settled in the town the next | year.

William and Gerard Griswold, Abner and Alanson Holmes, Joel Lee, John Walker, John Holister, Thomas Stebbins, Jonathan, John and Haven Brigham, and Jonathan Griswold were early settlers of Sheridan. Isaac Bald- win early located in the southwest part of the town. Deacon Bethel Willoughby was the first to settle back on the hills in the south part.

In 1804, settlement was commenced at Fre- donia, at first called Canadaway, from the stream upon which it was situated. This stream on the maps of the early surveyors was written "Cascade." The Canadaway has its source among the hills of Arkwright and Char- lotte, and flows at first over waterfalls, and in rapids through wild gorges, and at last, less roughly to Lake Erie. The Indians gave it the beautiful name Ga-na-da-wa-o, meaning "run- ning through the hemlocks," in allusion to the evergreens, which grew so thickly upon its banks.

At Ganadawao, or Canadaway, as the white man pronounced it, the settlement of Pomfret was commenced by Thomas McClintock, David Eason and Low Minegar, all from Eastern and Central Pennsylvania. The first house was built in the summer of 1803, by David Eason, on the bank of the Canadaway, near where Gen. Risley afterwards resided. It was of logs, not a nail used in its construction. In the spring of 1805, Eason married Margaret Woodside, in .Northumberland county, Penn- sylvania. In April he set out with his bride, accompanied by Low Minegar and others, and their families; they journeyed through the wilderness of Pennsylvania to Olean, on the Allegheny river. They were six weeks on the way. At Olean they found the advanced guard of pioneers that first settled Cattarau- gus county. There they built canoes, de- scended the Allegheny to Warren, ascended the Conewango, passed over Chautauqua Lake, and reached Canadaway by the way of the Cross Roads. When he arrived there, Eason had ten dollars in his pocket, with which he paid for a barrel of flour.

About the same time that Eason reached Canadaway, Zattu Cushing brought to an end a remarkable journey. In February, 1805, he started from Eastern New York, conveying his family and goods by means of two yoke of oxen drawing a sled. They were three weeks in making the journey, and drove four cows. They brought one-half bushel of apple seeds, from which the first orchard of the county was

THE FRONTIER PERIOD

grown. On Mr. Cushing's arrival at Canada- way, the snow was deep and the weather was cold. They moved into the partly completed log cabin of Low Minegar. It had no doors, no chinking between the logs, and no floor. They covered the ground with hemlock boughs, and remained until Mr. Eason got an article for his land, and built a log house.

The rough frontier experience of Eason and Cushing was similar to that of all the early settlers. Eason and Cushing were leading citizens of the county. Eason was chosen the first sheriff, and afterwards State Senator. Cushing was appointed the first judge of the county, and held that position for thirteen years. He was the grandfather of the intrepid Alonzo H. Cushing, who fell at Gettysburg, and of William B. Cushing, the hero of many exploits, chief of which was the destruction of the "Albemarle."

Hezekiah Baker came to Canadaway in 1806. He gave the land that forms the beauti- ful village park in Fredonia. Elijah Risley 'came in 1807. His son, Elijah, Jr., opened the first store in the county. Dr. Squire White came in 1808 or 1800, and was the first edu- cated and licensed physician of the county. He was also its first surrogate. Among other early Isettlers of Pomfret may be named Benjamin Barrett, Samuel Geer, Benjamin Barnes, Eli- phalet Burnham, Philo Orton, Leverett Barker 'and Richard Williams.

In 1804 settlement was commenced at Rip- ley. Alexander Cochran, from the North of Ireland, settled about one mile west of the vil- lage formerly known as Quincy. He bought his land of the Holland Land Company, and paid for it in gold. He was the first person in 'the county to receive a deed for his farm. 'Josiah Farnsworth, from Eastern New York, settled at Quincy the same year. Perry C. Ellsworth, from Otsego county, settled one mile west of Quincy, and in 1804-05 kept a tavern in the town. Thomas Prendergast, of the well-known Prendergast family, settled in 1805. Among other early settlers were Wil- liam Alexander, William Crossgrove, Basil Burgess, Asa, William and Andrew Spear, Na- than Wisner, Charles Forsythe, Samuel Trues- dell and Jonathan Parsons.

In 1804 settlement was also made at May- ville. Dr. Alexander McIntyre built there a log dwelling near the steamboat landing. around which he erected a stockade of tall palisades. His fort was called by the old jokers of those days Fort Deborah or Debby, in illusion to his wife by adoption. In early life McIntyre was captured by the Indians,

who cut off the veins of his cars. He resided with them many years. He claimed to have acquired their knowledge of the medical prop . erties of roots and herbs, and in the estima- tion of many people was profoundly skilled in the healing art. In 1805 Jonathan Smith, a man of rare eccentricities, settled on the west side of Chautauqua Lake, and the same year Peter Barnhart, a soldier of the Revolution. on the east side. In 1806 William Prender- gast, Sr., and his well-known sons and daugh- ters, settled on the west side of the lake. Among other early settlers of the town were John Scott, Filer Sackett, Darius Scofield, Na- than and David Cheney, Darius Dexter, Arte- mus Herrick, Dr. John E. Marshall and Zacheus Hanchett.

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History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I, Part 6

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