USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York > Part 14
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So far as this question of dominion relates to Chautauqua lake and the outlying regions, there is the strongest reason for believing that it rightfully belonged to the French, subject to the superior claims of the Indians ; for La Salle, who was its undoubted discoverer about 1681 or 1682, gave the first knowledge of its existence to Europeans. Celoron in 1749 with an armed force voyaged over its waters, taking possession of the adjacent country in the name of France in a most formal mamer, and Pean in 1753 constructed a road from Lake Erie to its head waters in order to appropriate the lake to the military and commercial nses of the French, all of which occurred before the English had ever penetrated into this region. The validity of the French claim to the region which includes Chautauqua county and the greater part of the west however is now only a subject of interesting speculation and of 110 practical importance, for the disasters that befel the French-the fall of Quebec and the loss of all Canada and of the greater part of their possessions in America as the result of the French and Indian war, compelled the treaty of peace, signed in 1763 by the French and English at Paris, by which France ceded to Great Britain all her northern settlements in America. This treaty disposed forever of the claims that France might otherwise have asserted to the region inchided within the limits of Chautauqua county. So that the right of England to this part of the continent based upon the discoveries made by the Cabots, is the source from whence the people of this county ulti- mately derive their title to the soil.
The boundaries of grants of lands in America that had been made by the kings of England at different times to their subjects were often so indefinite as to lead to much dispute between the colonies before, and the states after, the Revolution. James I of England, Nov. 3, 1620, by letters patent granted to the Plymouth Company all that part of America lying between the 40°
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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
of north latitude, or about the latitude of Philadelphia, and the 48º north latitude, or that of Newfoundland, and extending west to the Pacific ocean, excepting such lands as were possessed by other Christian princes or states. In 1628 the Plymouth company conveyed to Sir Henry Rosewell and others all that part of New England lying between the Merrimac river and a river emptying into the Massachusetts bay, and extending west to the Pacific ocean. In 1629 Charles I granted the Massachusetts charter which covered the lands conveyed to the Plymouth Company, the south boundary of which was afterwards found to be in latitude 420 2', the same as the north boundary of Connecticut, a line of latitude 2' north of the boundary line between New York and Pennsylvania. This grant excepted lands " possessed or inhabited by any other Christian prince or state."
In :631 the Plymouth Company conveyed to Lord Say and Seal and others all that part of New England which now substantially constitutes Connecticut, and all the lands extending westward in that latitude to the Pacific ocean. King Charles IL granted a charter incorporating the colony of Connecticut, which included the last mentioned land which was bounded east by the Narragansett bay, north by the Massachusetts Plantation, sonth by a line which was concluded to be in latitude 41 and all the lands west to the Pacific ocean. This grant did not except any part "actually possessed by any Christian prince or state." The English at that time evidently did not acknowledge the right of the Dutch who then held the Hudson river country.
In 1684 the Massachusetts charter of 1629 was adjudged void by the High Court of Chancery of England. In 1691 a new charter incorporated the New England colonies and Nova Scotia into the province of Massachusetts Bay. Its boundary was described as extending westward from the Atlantic ocean " as far as our colonies of Rhode Island, Connecticut and the Narra- gansett country."
In 1614 New York was settled by the Dutch. In 1621 Holland granted to the Dutch West India Company territory on both sides of the Hudson. The boundaries were not definitely defined. In 1664 Charles II denying the right of Holland to any portion of the country, granted to his brother the duke of York and Albany certain lands in New England, also the river " called Hudson river," and all of the land extending from the west side of Connecticut river to the east side of Delaware bay. It was intended by this charter to convey to the duke all the lands claimed by the Dutch. The Duke of York the same year conveyed of this land what now forms New Jersey to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Cartaret. Col. Richard Nicholas in August to64 appeared before New York, then called New Amsterdam, to take possession in the name of the king. As the fort was in no condition for defence, old Peter Stuyvesant, the governor, reluctantly surrendered to
SOURCES OF TITLE.
the English, and New York became thereafter an English province. The boundaries of New York under the charter were very indefinite. Its terri- tory extended north to Canada and west at least to the Delaware river. The Dutch seemed to have claimed territory to the northwest as far as the lakes and the St. Lawrence.
By virtue of these varions grants and conveyances relating to Massachu- setts and Connecticut those colonies claimed at first all the lands extending west of the boundaries allotted to them to the Pacific ocean, excepting how- ever the territory granted to the duke of York and Albany. As the comity of Chautauqua lies party north and partly south of the 429 2' of latitude, besides being within the limits claimed by the Dutch, it was partly within the territory claimed by Massachusetts, and partly within that chimed by Connectiont. The claim of the former state included all of the county, except a narrow strip of land about two miles in width extending along its southern border, the right to which was asserted by Connecticut.
The colony of Pennsylvania for nearly a century also claimed a large portion of New York to be within its limits including the territory of Chan- tauqua county. This claim was based upon an apparent ambiguity in the description of the boundaries of the province of Pennsylvania in the original charter to William Penn granted March 4, 1681. The charter described the eastern boundary of Pennsylvania as " the Delaware river as far northward as the 'three and fortieth degree of northern latitude ' and if the Delaware river did not extend so far northward, then by a meridian line extending from the head of the river to ' said three and fortieth degree.' " The charter further stated " the said lands to be bounded on the north by the beginning of the three and fortieth degree." Pennsylvania claimed that the charter made the forty-third parallel of north latitude the north line of Pennsylvania. This claim would have included within the limits of Pennsylvania all of the state of New York as far cast as the Delaware river, and so far north as to include Buffalo and nearly a score of its western counties. Soit would seem that between the claims made by their pious Puritan and Quaker neighbors, our Knickerbocker progenitors were threatened with the loss of nearly all their territories but the valley of the Hudson, the land of Rip Van Winkle. New York, however, strongly maintained that the north boundary was at the beginning of the forty-third degree, by which it was claimed that it was meant the forty-second parallel of north latitude. It was not until nearly a century had elapsed after the charter was granted to Pennsylvania, before that province abandoned her claim to the territory north of the forty-second parallel.
The English, who succeeded the Dutch, not only claimed for New York the territory within its present limits, but asserted the right to lands extend- ing far into the West basing it upon the charter granted to the duke of York ;
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to the claims made by the Dutch ; and also upon acknowledgements of title by the Six Nations. Other states made extensive claims to lands in the West. Virginia and the Carolinas asserted the right under their charters to territory westward to the Pacific. Georgia to the Mississippi. These claims to western lands created jealousy that threatened great injury to the confeder- ation. The states having no special western claims maintained that the vast unsettled territories in the heart of the continent were wrested from the English by the joint efforts of all the states and should be the joint property of all. New York took the first step recognizing the justice of this view. To remove these difficulties in the way of harmony she executed a deed March 1, 1871, to the United States of all her territory west of a meridian line drawn through the western extremity of Lake Ontario. The other states making claims to western lands followed. Massachusetts in 1785 executed a deed of cession to the United States of all her territories west of the western boundary of New York. Connecticut offered to cede to the United States all of her terri- tory west of Pennsylvania reserving a tract south of Lake Erie and adjoining Pennsylvania, known as the Connecticut Reserve. It consisted of 3,000,000 acres in the northeast part of Ohio. Notwithstanding this reservation the cession was accepted by Congress. It will be observed however that neither Massachusetts or Connecticut by their deeds of cession conveyed any terri- tories within the limits of New York and both continued to assert their title to the lands in that state. Massachusetts, under her paper title, the Ply- mouth Charter, claimed nearly 20,000 square miles of lands extending west between the parallels of latitude that form her northern and southern bounds in the western part of the state.
The controversy was amicably settled by six commissioners appointed by New York and four appointed by Massachusetts, who met at Hartford, Dec- ember 16, 1786, a short time after the first go miles of the northern boundary of New York had been surveyed. New York granted to Massachusetts the right of preemption of the soil from the Indians of 230,400 acres of land lying between the Chenango and Owego rivers, and also all the land in the state west of a meridian line running due north from a point in the south bound- ary of New York, 82 miles west from the northeast corner of Pennsylvania (partly through Seneca Lake and Sodas Bay on Lake Ontario) to the bound- ary line between the United States and Canada. New York however reserved a strip a mile wide extending along the east side of the Niagara river from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. Massachusetts ceded to New York' all claims to the government, sovereignty, jurisdiction and right of preemp- tion to all other lands in New York.
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BOUNDARY SURVEYS.
CHAPTER XIII.
BOUNDARY SURVEYS.
P ENNSYLVANIA having tacitly yielded her claim to territory north of the forty-second parallel of latitude, the two provinces appointed commissioners to ascertain where the forty-second parallel of north latitude intersected the Delaware river, and to proceed westward as far as the season would admit along the line of said parallel. Captain Holland, an offi- cer in the British army who was surveyor general of lands in the northern district of America, was chosen commissioner for New York. Dr. David Rittenhouse, one of the ablest astronomers and mathematicians of his time was chosen commissioner for Pennsylvania. They at once commenced the work, and, in December, 1774, erected a stone monument on the forty-second parallel of latitude on a small island in the Delaware river near Hale's Eddy, as the northeast corner of Pennsylvania. The Revolution soon after com- menced and the work was postponed. In 1786 the survey was resumed and prosecuted as far as the west side of the south branch of Tioga river to the goth milestone. Dr. Rittenhouse, Andrew Ellicott, James Clark and Simon De Witt were the commissioners, In 1787 Andrew Ellicott and Andrew Porter acted as commissioners for Pennsylvania and Abraham Hardenburg and William W. Morris for New York. The survey was continued from the goth milestone to Lake Erie and marked with milestones, or posts surrounded by mounds of carth where stones could not be procured. The corrections of the line were determined at points by astronomical observations and stones erected and numbered as latitude stones.
'The portion of the line that bounds Chautauqua county on the south was run during August and September 1787. From the Tuma valley in Catta- raugus county near Bradford, when the 7th latitude stone had been erected, the commissioners run west to the banks of Kiantone creek, in Kiantone, Chautauqua county, where they arrived August 25, 1787. Here, a short dis- tance from " Kyenthono," a small Indian village situate on the same creek, in Kiantone they fixed their observatory, and remained 15 days making astronomical observations and computations to determine their latitude and longitude, and preparing an Sth latitude stone to mark the latitude and dis- tance at this point from the beginning of the boundary line at the Delaware river. They found that from the 7th latitude stone they had run 2,156 feet too far north. They measured off this distance to the south, and set the 8th
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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
latitude stone upon a bluff southeast of the creek 9,600 feet west of the Con- ewango river where it still stands. The village of Kyenthono was on the farm of Alexander T. Prendergast. While at Kyenthono, Messrs. Ellicott and Porter made a report to the Pennsylvania Council, dating it "Observatory on the west side of Conewango, August 29, 1787." This report is the first writ- ten communication of which we have knowledge addressed from Chautauqua county.
Gentlemen : We now take the earliest opportunity we have had of acquainting you with the progress we have made in the business which you have intrusted to us. We arrived at the Cawwaniskee Plats on the 11th day of June, where the goth milestone was set up last season. The Susquehannali was remarkably low, which prevented our boats making the necessary expe- dition. From the goth milestone we sent our instruments up the Thyesa (now called Cowanesqna river) in canoes about ro miles to Elkland, Pa .; our water-carriage then failed, and we had recourse to our pack-horses, but the ruggedness of the country at the heads of the Susquehannah, Geneseco and Allegany rivers, soon killed and rendered useless about two thirds of them, but fortunately for our business when the horses failed we found ourselves on a small branch of the Allegany river ; necessity then pointed out the pro- priety of using water-carriage as much as possible ; we immediately set about making canoes, and by the spirited exertions of our men, with no other implements than three falling axes, two or three tomahawks, and a chisel one and one half inch wide, we had completed in six days for the use of our Pennsylvania party five excellent canoes, two of which are between forty and fifty feet in length. These canoes with our stores, instruments and baggage, we hanled ten miles down a shallow stream to the main Allegany river. Our progress now began to appear less difficult, and we prepared to proceed down the river to a proper place for correcting the random line by astronomical observation, but the day preceding our intended movement we were ordered by the Indians to discontinue the line 'till after a treaty should be held. We met them at the time and place appointed, explained the nature and propriety of the business we were about, and were finally permitted to proceed. We have, notwithstanding these difficulties, completed the line to the 16" milestone from the Delaware, and expect to have 28 miles more finished in a few days, and the fullest expectation of finishing the business this season in good time, if not impeded by some uncommon difficulty or accident.
Judge E. T. Foote, in a communication to the Regents of the University about 1876, says, that from Esq. Isaiah Jones and other pioneer settlers of Warren county Pa., he derived these facts :
" Andrew Ellicott, Esq., one of the boundary commissioners, laid out the present beautiful town of Warren on west (north) shore of the Allegany river, at the month of the Conewango river abont ten miles from the state line, and about fifteen miles from Seneca Chief Cornplanter's residence. This was about eight years after the state line had been surveyed. Mr. Ellicott and his assistants related to the pioneer settlers many incidents rela- tive to making the state-line survey and the erection of the 195th mile stone and other monuments in 1787. The commissioners were detained at the
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BOUNDARY SURVEYS.
location of that stone in August, 1787, over one week by cloudy and rainy weather, before they could make astronomical observations, during which they prepared the monumental stone, more elaborately engraved than any other on the line for a long distance.
"It appeared from their statement that while the Seneca chief Corn- planter, who resided on the west shore of the Allegany river near the state line, was friendly and peacefully disposed to the surveyors, yet many of his young warriors evidently had strong sympathy with the western tribes, and boldly objected to the survey as an intrusion on their lands. They would not permit the commissioners to proceed, and demanded a council relative to the survey on their lands. They assembled and the commissioners met them. Cornplanter, while he tenaciously claimed that the land belonged to the Indians, favored the peaceful object of the commissioners which was merely to mark a boundary line of jurisdiction between two states friendly to them, and which in no manner changed the title to the lands. The Indian warriors dissented, and the commissioners became convinced they could not peaceably proceed without obtaining their assent, and resorted to giving them a present of riun, which led to a peaceful assent to their proceeding with the survey. The concurrence of the Indians was not only necessary to protect the surveying party from danger, but to prevent the destruction of the line monuments by them. The provi- sions the commissioners brought with them were mostly hard bread, flour, and salted or dried meats. Their appetites and their health required fresh provi- sions, which the Indians would furnish for rum when they would not for silver. They were thus able to obtain from the Indians fresh venison and other wild meats, turkeys and other wild fowl, fresh fish, honey, green corn and beans. And for like compensation the Indians would transport heavy loads of bag- gage on their backs, greatly relieving the surveyors, as their pack-horses had failed."
Upon a map protracted by Abraham Hardenburgh, one of the commission ers, dated October 29, 1787, the boundary line is delineated. Chautauqua lake is quite accurately mapped upon it, although no traverse of the lake so far as known had at that time been made. The lake is there spelled " Chatt- ankque." The Conewango is spelled "Connowango." Stillwater creek is written the "Gawougaedock " branch of the Conewango. The little Broken- Straw. of Harmony is written as the " Coshnoteago." The Old Portage Road is mapped as running upon the west side of Chautangna creek and is called "an old wagon road made by the French." The Indian town " Kyenthono" is clearly marked as situated on the left bank of Kiantone creek near its month, and is designated " a small Indian town ;" the camp of the surveyors is distinctly marked, and is called "observatory," and is situated above and on the same side of Kiantone creek. About the 9th of September, the com- missioners left Kiantone and continued their survey westward. About the 2Ist they had reached the French creek flats about three miles west of the southwest corner of New York. They reached the shore of Lake Erie about October 9th and completed the survey. Considering the difficulties that the
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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
commissioners had to encounter in a dense and extensive wilderness, over so rough a country with the imperfect instruments of that day and in the time allotted them, the survey is regarded as perfect as could have been made. It is thought, however, that the too active interest taken in these operations by the sons of the forest acted as an incentive to more haste than was conducive to accuracy along some portions of the line.
Since the original survey, several examinations of that portion of the line that bounds Chautauqua county have been made. Deputy Surveyor John Cochran, 1802, by direction of the surveyor general of Pennsylvania, retraced the line between the donation lands in Pennsylvania and Clymer and French Creek. Hon. O. D. Hinckley of Clymer, under authority of the board of supervisors of Chautauqua, and at the request of the Regents of the Univer- sity in 1870 made a reconnoissance of the boundary line along the south and west lines of the county in 1870. He found and identified by means of wit- ness trees a number of points fixed by the Holland Land Company in 1798, and also the Sth latitude stone above mentioned, and several milestones which were placed during the original boundary survey and rendered valu- able aid to the commissioners appointed by the Regents in their later exam- inations of the boundary line.
These and many other observations made along other parts of the bound- ary line gave reason to believe that many of the monuments marking the boundary were lost, and that great uncertainty existed respecting the location of the line in many places. Accordingly the Regents of the University, by authority of the legislature of New York, jointly with commissioners appoint- ed by Pennsylvania, in 1877 commenced an examination as to the location of the monuments with a view to replacing such as were lost. Dr. Daniel J. Pratt, a citizen of Chautauqua county and for many years principal of Fre- donia Academy and assistant secretary of the Board of Regents, proved to be a useful officer in connection with the commission. The part of the line bounding the south part of Chautauqua county was examined during the year 1879 ; many of the milestones were lost, and those found were not in line, but few stood upon the 42nd parallel of latitude. The measurements between those found were very inaccurate. The commissioners erected gran- ite monuments at each mile-station and marked the southwest corner of the state, that being identical with the southwest corner of French Creek, by a small monument of granite, set with its top flush with the surface of the ground, in the wagon track of the state-line road. 98 feet north of it is a large: monument at the meridian boundary. The commissioners also placed milestones along the south boundary of the county where the original ones were missing. At the state-line, where the old stage road between James- town and Warren crossed it, once stood a whiteoak tree, marked and scarred with blazes. It was a prominent object, was known as the " State-line tree,"
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BOUNDARY SURVEYS.
and was supposed to stand at or near the 194th milestone of the survey. In days before imprisomnent for debt was abolished, this old tree was often regarded with the same lively interest that Tam O'Shanter did the keystone of the bridge at Kirk Alloway. Many an early Chautauqua county delin- quent, pursued by the officers of the law, has done his " speedy utmost" to pass this tree and gain a haven of rest beyond it. In 1871 Alexander T. Prender- gast erected a fine monument of sandstone at the side of this highway. The point where it stands has reference to this old tree.
Pennsylvania was disappointed in the boundary survey. The distorted maps of that period gave an incorrect view of the topographical features of the country. Instead of thirty or forty miles of coast along Lake Erie, the survey gave that state but two or three miles of shore line, and placed the valuable harbor of Presque Isle (now Erie) entirely without her territory. The territory known as the " Erie Triangle," which is bounded cast by New York, south by the extension of the southern boundary of New York, westward to Lake Erie and northwest by that lake, containing 207, 187 acres, was included in the territory ceded by New York and Massachusetts to the United States, and as soon as the boundary survey was completed, Pennsylvania took meas- ures to purchase the Erie Triangle, and thus to secure the valable harbor of Presque Isle and a considerable shore line along Lake Erie. September 4th, 1788, in consideration of the sum of $151,640 Congress transferred the title and jurisdiction to the Erie Triangle to Pennsylvania.
That state made a treaty with the Indians at Fort Harmer where this agreement was signed :
" BE IT REMEMBERED BY ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN : " That on the ninth day of January, in the year of our Lord, 1789, in open and public con- cil, we the undersigned chief, warriors and others, representing the following named tribes of the Six Nations, to wit-the Ondwagas, or Senecas, Cayngas, Tuscaroras, Onondagas, and Oneidas: for and in behalf of ourselves, our tribes, our and their heirs and successors, on the one part, and Richard But- ler and John Gibson, Esquires, commissioners for and in behalf of the state of Pennsylvania (Onas) on the other part, did make and concluide upon the following articles, viz .:
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