USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York > Part 18
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When you arrive at this corner with the line you are now upon I directed you to run cast through Mr. Stoddard's range, until you struck the lake, but as I find it is a greater distance from here than I expected, you will please not run it but continue your own range. I am respectfully your friend,
MR. AMZI ATWATER .. JNO. THOMPSON."
The impatience that Mr. Thompson expressed in this letter, was undoubt- edly due to the fatigue incident to his two days tramp in the woods, and his casual disappointment. The solicitude that he showed that the work be cor- rectly done, and the close attention to the performances of his subordinates at this time, when he had been two days without food and was suffering from
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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
great fatigue, indicates that he was a man sensitive to the responsibilities of his place, and one proper to intrust with a work of this kind .. It appears that a storehouse was established for the benefit of the surveyors at the head of Chautauqua lake.
In a letter dated July 11, 1798, Mr. Thompson directs Mr. Atwater to go to the Pennsylvania boundary where the line between the 10 and II ranges begins, and then measure east six miles, and then run due north by observa- tion to Lake Erie, giving him particular instructions how to mark his line, and directing him to measure his chain every night ; to note where he crosses the Presque Isle path, and to set up and mark a post at Lake Erie. This line was run by Mr. Atwater and the greater portion of it is the boundary line between the counties of Chautauqua and Cattaraugus. In a letter bear- ing date at Chautauqua creek, July 25, 1798, Mr. Thompson directs Mr. Atwater, when he has continued this line between the ro and HI ranges 42 miles, to set up a stake, and mark it as a town corner, and then come to camp, and adds : " This meridian is not to be run any further. When you come past Joe's, (Black Joe, alias Joseph Hodge, a negro trader) Katarangus creek, I would thank you to ask if he has any martin skins for me, and if he has not, tell him I wish to have a dozen. I suppose I shall return that way in the course of a month or six weeks."
In a letter dated Chautauqua lake, August 10, 1798, Mr. Thompson directs Mr. Atwater to " proceed with all convenient speed to the meridian run by Mr. Stoddard between the 12th and 13th ranges, and commence the 5th parallel, which you will continue east until you intersect the meridian between the 9th and roth ranges. You will then follow that meridian north to the 6th parallel, and run it west to the next meridian, and, when that is completed, return and continue your meridian between the 9th and roth ranges to the distance of 42 miles, which will constitute the 7th parallel, which you will run west to Lake Erie. By this time there will be a supply of provisions at Cattaraugus creek, when you will then return." Then fol- lows directions about firmly setting corner stakes for which a spade must be used.
The following letter from Mr. Thompson to Mr. Atwater is dated August 24, 1798 :
SIR :- You will proceed from this place along the Presque Isle path, until you arrive at the meridian run by Mr. Elliott, thence down that meridian to the parallel between the 4th and 5th lines, and from that corner (north- west corner of Charlotte,) measure west across the 12th range, (north line of Stockton.) In this line you will find two lakes, at the intersection of the first (Cassadaga lake) you will then measure to a large hemlock standing on the bank of the lake, teast shore of the middle lake, near Lily Dale.) On the west side you will begin about So links from the water. At the second lake ( Bear lake) you will probably see the end of the measure; if not, it is
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about 150 from the water. The shore being miry that distance on the west side, you will begin at a willow, standing as near the water as you can get. This lake you may easily cross round the north end. At the east lake it will be best to cross at the south end. You will please to observe the several distances. You will then measure the 12th meridian between the 4th and 5th parallels, and if you find an error, note particularly where it is. After completing this business you will proceed to the 13th meridian which you run yourself, and down that meridian until you arrive at the 2nd parallel east, (north line of Harmony) until you intersect Chautauqua lake, and in like manner, if you find an error, note where it is, and in both the last cases bring the whole distances. On your way to the last line, I would thank you to stop at Chantauqua lake storehouse, and if my brother has not left it, tell him to take Charles with him, but bring the tent that is there. Yours,
TO AMZI ATWATER. JNO. THOMPSON. In a letter dated August 26, 1798, Mr. Thompson writes Mr. Atwater :
"SIR :- Independent of those lines you were directed to measure, I wish you to measure the 3rd parallel in the 13th range, and the 12th meridian between the 3rd and 4th parallels ; you will observe that in finishing the parallel, you just turn at right angles on the meridian. In doing this, it will be as well to send off the horse, with the person who attends him, to meet you when the path intersects Mr. Stoddard's meridian, which is the one you measure upon. He will take Peter Clark along with him."
This was probably the last work preformed by Mr. Atwater in Chautau- qua county, for, in a letter dated at " Katarangus" Creek, August 30th, 1798, Mr. Thompson assigns to him the task of running the 3rd meridian, extend- ing from the Pennsylvania line to Lake Ontario, a distance of 90 miles. He directs him to take along a week's provision, to proceed along an Indian path until he reaches the ist parallel, thence along that parallel eastward until he reaches a path leading up the Allegany river, which is to be pursued until he arrives at the camp established there. He cantions Mr. Atwater that after he shall have passed " the height of land, and arrive at a fence erected for the purpose of shooting deer, that you must not continue along the fence southeasterly, but take the path that leads nearly south, afterwards there will be no danger of losing your way." This fence was probably the one known to the early settlers of Carroll and Cattaraugus county, the remains of which could been seen as late as the year 1840.
While surveying the third meridian, in answer to a letter from Mr. Atwater, asking him to send some candles, Mr. Thompson wrote from the Transit storehouse : " There are no candles here of any consequence. You must endeavor to make out with the piece I have sent. You can make shift with the rhines of pork. Among Mr. Atwater's papers is a rough map of the western part of the Holland Purchase, probably made by him for his own use, upon which Cattaraugus creek is written " Kataraugus creek." Silver and Walnut " Connendawagee creek." The Canadaway is called the Twenty-
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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
"vo Mile creek. The principal stream in Portland, Devil creek, (now :. nowi as Slippery Rock creek.) Chautauqua creek is spelled Chadauque. This account of the manner in which the original surveys of township lines were made by Mr. Atwater will sufficiently serve to show how the work was one in the remainder of the county. The townships were subdivided into etions early in the next century. The lot lines of the northern were gen- orally run before those of the southern townships.
CHAPTER XVII.
PREPARING FOR SETTLEMENT.
" Through the deep wilderness, where scarce the sun Can cast his darts, along the winding. path The pioneer is treading. In his grasp Is his keen axe, that wondrous instrument That, like the talisman, transforms Deserts to fields, and cities." -Alfred B. Street.
W E HAVE now arrived at that period in the history of western New York when the long and savage reign of wild beast and Indian is brought to an end, when the silence of the forest is broken by the axe of the settler, and the shadows of the wilderness lifted from its streams end lakes. The treaty made by Wayne with the Indians at Greenville, Ohio, ia 1795, had given peace and security to the frontier. The emigrant could bring his wife and children into the forest with safety, and now that the Holland land company had acquired the ownership and was offering for sale the wild traet which included western New York, he could obtain a valid title to his land. The fame of the Holland purchase had reached him in his eastern home. He had heard wonderful stories of its genial climate and rich soil, of its luxurious herbage and majestic forests. Hardly had the urveys been made when settlers appeared at different parts of the Purchase. But, prior to the coming of the settlers who purchased lands, explorers and travellers from the east visited the settlements in western Pemisylvania and Ohio and sometimes they passed through this region. Indeed an actual and substantial settlement had been made in Chautauqua county by the Indians of the Six Nations which was as permanent as that made by the white set- tlers.
The result of Sullivan's and Brodhead's expeditions against the Indians in 1779, the destruction of their towns and of the products of their fields just
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PREPARING FOR SETTLEMENT.
when their harvests were ripening, was that the Indians of the Genesee and Allegany rivers were without shelter and food. The winter of 1779 and 1780 was of unexampled severity. Such deep snows and such ice had not been known in the memory of the oldest natives. Deer and turkeys died in the woods by hundreds for want of food. Great numbers of Indians perished of cold and starvation, and to escape general destruction, they fled to Fort Niagara for shelter and relief. There, to add to their desolation, a fatal disease induced by unusual exposure, swept them off in great numbers. As the . Indians had freely shed their blood during the war, and had now suffered almost annihilation for their faithful adherence to the cause of the king, the British authorities could not withont gross ingratitude omit to provide for their relief. Large numbers had gathered around the fort and along Niagara river, and during the winter had fed from the British stores. To relieve themselves from this burden the British government encouraged the Indians to establish theinselves at convenient places, and obtain support by cultivat- ing the land. In May or June, 1780, they first permanently located upon Buffalo creek, near Buffalo, under the leadership of Siangarochti or Guay-en- guah-doh, an aged but influential chief called "Old King," head-sachem of the Senecas. They brought with them members of the celebrated Gilbert family of Quakers who had been captured a short time previous, and in the spring of this year, while the Revolution was still in progress, they made the first settlement upon Cattaurangus creek.
When the Indian title was extinguished in 1797 by the treaty made at Big Tree on the Genesee a reservation was made to the Indians of lands lying on both sides of Cattaraugus creek. It embraced however quite differ- ent territory from the Cattarangus reservation as now constituted. Judge Daniel Sherman in an address says : "The Cattaraugus reservation, as. reserved by the treaty at Big Tree in 1797, embraced a strip of land about one inile wide extending westerly from Eighteen-mile creek, or Kough-gauw- gie creek (distant about 14 miles southwesterly from Buffalo, )along the south shore of Lake Erie, through North Evans and Brant, in Erie county, and Hanover, Sheridan, and Dunkirk, in this county, to a point one mile east of Con-non-dua-we-ga (Canadaway) creek ; thence up said creek one mile par- allel thereto ; thence on a direct line to said creek ; thence down the same to Lake Erie ; thence along the lake to the mouth of the Eighteen-mile creek. It also embraced a strip of land adjoining the above lands, one mile wide, on the north bank of Cattaraugus creek, between the present villages of Irving and Gowanda. This reservation, therefore, originally covered the sites of the villages of Angola and Farnham in Erie county, and of Irving, Silver Creek, Fredonia, and the city of Dunkirk in this county, and contained about fifty square miles. By the treaty at Buffalo creek, June 30, 1802, the Sene- cas exchanged the above lands with the Holland land company for the present
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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
Cattaraugus reservation, including the "mile strip " and the "mile square," in Erie, and the "mile square " in Chautauqua, in all about 42 square miles, situated upon both sides of Cattaraugus creek, of very rich and fertile land. The preemption right was reserved in the treaty, and is now owned by the Ogden land company. This exchange of land was a good one for the Sene- cas in securing a reservation in compact form, of far superior quality of land although only about three-fourths the size of the original reserve. It was an especially fortimate exchange for the people of this county in giving them a frontage on Lake Erie, and free access to the then important harbors at Irv- ing, Silver Creek and Dunkirk.
The boundary lines of the Cattaraugus reservation (in Chautauqua county) as now constituted were surveyed by Augustus Porter in 1793. A part of this reservation is included in Hannover, in this county. The establishment of these Indians there along the borders and within the limits of the county was an approach to its settlement. The Indians of New York were further. advanced-in civilization than has been generally understood. Before they were expelled from the Genesee and Upper Allegany, they lived by the cul- tivation of the soil as well as by the chase. They dwelt in permanent vil- lages, had comfortable houses, some of them framed and painted, and well- furnished. They had extensive cornfields, gardens and orchards of apples, pears, and even peaches ; and one of them destroyed by General Sullivan contained 1,500 trees. After the destruction of their villages and crops by Sullivan and Brodhead, they built log houses and made a few clearings for their crops. Deacon Hinds Chamberlain, an early pioneer of Genesee county, visited one of their villages on Cattarangus creek in 1792, and passed through this county to Erie. As his narrative particularly relates to the then unfre- quented, solitary region now Chautauqua county, we insert it :
"In 1792 I started from Scottsville with Jesse Beach and Renben Heath ; went up Allen's creek, striking the Indian trail from Conawagns, where LeRoy now is. There was a beautiful Indian camping ground-tame grass had got in ; we staid all night. Pursuing the trail the next morning, we passed the Great Bend of the Tonawanda, and encamped at night at Dun- ham's Grove, and the next night near Buffalo. We saw one white man Poudery, at Tonawanda village. We arrived at the mouth of Buffalo creek the next morning. There was but one white man there, I think ; his name was Winne, an Indian trader .* His building stood first as you descend from the high ground. He had rum, whiskey, Indian knives, trinkets, etc. His house was full of Indians ; they looked at us with a great deal of curiosity. We had but a poor nights rest ; the Indians were in and ont all night getting liquor. Next day we went up the beach of the lake to the month of the Cat- taraugus creek, where we encamped ; a wolf came down near our camp. We had seen many deer on our route during the day. The next morning we went up to the Indian village, found Black Joe's house, but he was *Cornelius Winne, a Hudson river Dutchman, the first white resident of Buffalo. He came there about Ing. His log house stood near the corner of Exchange and Main street where now is the Mansion House.
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PREPARING FOR SETTLEMENT.
absent ; he had, however, seen our track upon the beach of the lake, and hurried home to see white people who were traversing the wilderness. The Indians stared at us ; Joe gave us room where we should not be annoyed by Indian curiosity, and we staid with him over night. All he had to spare us in the way of food was some dried venison. He had liquor, Indian goods and bought furs. Joe treated us with so much civility that we staid with him till near noon. There was at least 1oo Indians and squaws gathered to see us. Among the rest, there was sitting in Joe's house an old squaw and a young, delicate looking white girl with her, dressed like a squaw. I endeav- ored to find out something about her history, but could not. I think she had lost the use of our language. She seemed not inclined to be noticed.
With an Indian guide that Joe selected for us, we started upon the Indian trail for Presque Isle (Erie.) Wayne was then fighting the Indians. Our Indian guide often pointed to the west, saying, bad Indians there. Between Cattaraugus and Erie, I shot a black snake, a racer, with a white ring around his neck. He was in a tree 12 feet from the ground, his body wound around the tree. He measured seven feet and three inches. At Presque Isle, we found neither whites nor Indians ; all was solitary. There were some old French brick buildings, wells, blockhouses, etc., going to decay ; eight or ten acres cleared land. On the peninsula, there was an old brick house, 40 or 50 feet square ; the peninsula was covered with cranberries. After stay- ing there one night we went over to Le Boeuf, about 16 miles distant, pursu- ing an old French road. Trees had grown up in it, but the track was dis- tinct. Near Le Bœuf, we came upon a company of men who were cutting out the road to Presque Isle ; a part of them were soldiers and a part Penn- sylvanians. At Le Bœuf there was a garrison of soldiers-about 100, there were several white families there and a store of goods.
Myself and companions were in pursuit of land. By a law of Pennsyl- vania, such as built a log house, and cleared a few acres of land acquired a pre-emptive right ; the right to purchase at five pounds per 100 acres. We each of us made a location near Presque Isle. On our return to Presque Isle, from Le Bœuf, we found there Col. Seth Reed and his family. They had just arrived. We stopped and helped him build some huts ; set up crotches ; laid poles across and covered with bark of the cucumber tree. At first the colonel had no floors ; afterwards he indulged in the luxury of floors made by laying down strips of bark. James Baggs and Giles Sission came on with Col. Reed. I remained for a considerable of time in his employ. It was not long before eight or ten other families came in. On our return we staid at Buffalo over night with Winne. There was at the time a great gathering of hunting parties of Indians there. Wine took from them all their knives and tomahawks, and then selling them liquors, they had a great carousal."
Among the residents of the log villages of the Cattarangus Indians were often persons with white blood in their veins. During the French and Indian wars, and the Revolution white men and occasionally white women had been made prisoners by the Indians. These, except some reserved for torture, were usually well treated. The great kindness of the Indian captors led these white persons to accommodate themselves to their new situation, and they often became greatly attached to Indian life. They would learn
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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
the Indian language, conform to the habits, and adopt their tribe. Notable instances of this kind were Horatio Jones, Jasper Parish and Mary Jemison who were captured in their youth. By their prudent behavior and upright conduct they gained the respect of their Indian associates and exercised great influence over them, which they always exerted upon the side of humanity. These captives became important persons in the border history of western New York immediately previous to the settlement of the Holland Purchase. The white girl that Deacon Chamberlain saw at the mouth of Cattaraugus creek was undoubtedly a captive. These prisoners usually intermarried with the Indians, and often left worthy and respectable descendants, but some- times their children would inherit the least creditable traits of both white and red ancestors and were either shiftless vagabonds or desperate characters the terror of both Indian and white men. Besides captives and their descendants it often happened that traders and men of uncivilized tastes, to whom hunt- ing and fishing and the careless life of the Indians was attractive, sought the woods for its freedom from want and care and voluntarily took up their resi- dence among them. These were not usually vicious, but were generally kind hearted and hospitable men of vagabond tendencies. Such was Joseph Hodge, alias " Black Joe," a negro whom Deacon Chamberlain found at Cat- taraugus creek in 1792. He bought furs, kept liquors and sold Indian goods, and was established here probably several years prior to 1792. He was well known to the few early visitors and to the first surveyors of the Holland company's land and we find his name often mentioned. He had removed fromt Cattaraugus as early as 1803 and was living in Buffalo in 1806. His wife was either a squaw or a white woman.
Among those forerunners of settlement and civilization was Amos Saw- tel, usually called Sottle. It appears that he was born in Vermont ; in early life he moved to Chenango county where it is said he became disappointed in love, left his friends and his home and travelled on foot through the wilder- ness by way of Painted Post on the Chemung and Big Tree on the Genesee to Buffalo. In the fall of 1796 when about 23 years of age it is said he went with a herd of cattle for some person in Buffalo to Cattaraugus bottoms where they were sent to winter and to browse along the rich lands on the south side of Cattaraugus creek .* It was a time of scarcity, the snow was deep, and there was little forage. Settle built a small hut or cabin of poles upon land, later laid out by the Holland land company as lot 61 of Cattaraugus village, on the west side of the creek about one and one-half miles from its mouth. There He lived for a while " with a very dark squaw whom he had induced to share his cot." Whether he intended to remain and become a permanent settler is not certainly known. Elcazer Flagg, an intelligent and reliable citizen, late of Stockton, informed Judge L. Bugbee that " in June
*Statements made by Dr. H. C. Taylor, Mr. Mack, and Mr. Barr.
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PREPARING FOR SETTLEMENT.
1798, he was in the employ of Rufus L. Reed in transporting goods and pro- visions in bateaux from Oswego over the lakes by way of Niagara river and around the falls to Presque Isle (Erie) where he had established a trading post. The following August the company returned to the East along the shore of Lake Erie, halting at the mouth of Cattaraugus creek. At this place three or four acres had been cleared and planted to corn, beans, pota- toes, pumpkins, squashes and melons." It is not stated upon which side of the Cattaraugus this clearing had been made. It may have been Sottle's improve- ments. It seems that Sottle was not there in 1798. Joel Loomis, afterwards a settler of the county, and two other young men that year travelled with packs on their backs from Buffalo, then a village of seven shanties, along the Indian path to Pennsylvania. No signs of a white man's habitation was seen along the route. At a ford at Cattaraugus creek lived a black man (Black Joe) and his wife, quiet, peaceful people, well disposed to travelers. Under their hospitable cabin roof the three adventurers passed the night, and were guided safely across the ferry by the black man in the morning .*
A different account has been given of the circumstances of Sottle's settling at Cattaraugus. One early resident of the county states that Sottle informed him that he lived at first with the Indians. Another old settler confirmed this statement and added that Sottle said he left the Indians and settled on Cattarangus that he might accumulate property. When the surveying parties were organized for the survey of the range lines in 1798 Sottle enlisted as an axeman and his name appears in the list of assistants, "Amos Sawtel, Chenango, N. Y." In a written account of charges made by Atwater to Joseph Ellicott for expenditures in the course of surveys, is an item of " one dollar paid Amos Sottle Dec. 4, 1798." Sawtel's name also appears as one of the surveying party of Stephen Benton, Jr., where his name is written "Amos Sawtel, Buffalo Creek, N. Y.t. There are circumstances showing that before Sottle was employed in the survey of the Holland Purchase he was engaged in the same service on the Western Reserve. We find an Amos Sawten or Sawtel one of the 52 persons who composed the first surveying party of the Western Reserve, which landed at Coneant, Ohio, July 4, 1796, which is celebrated in the history of that region as the party who made the first settlement of northern Ohio. Coneaut is sometimes called the Plymouth of the Western Reserve. Among others of this party was Amzi Atwater, under whom Sottle afterwards served as axeman in Chautauqua county, also Augustus Porter, Seth Pease, Wareham Shepard, all of whom were principal surveyors in the original surveys here. Sottle continued in the employ of the Holland land company during 1798 and 1799. In the fall of 1799 he went to the Western Reserve and remained away from this county at least during the year 1800.
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