USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York > Part 28
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killed, and many more made houseless by the torch of the enemy. News of these barbarities spread like wild fire, carrying consternation over the Hol- land Purchase. It became known that the British to further retaliate for the burning of Newark contemplated the destruction of Black Rock and Buffalo. General McClure after the evacuation of Fort George had established him- self at Buffalo and Black Rock. Soon afterwards he repaired to Batavia, 28 miles east of Buffalo, with all the regulars, consisting of about 80 men under lieutenant Riddle, ostensibly to prepare a defence for the public arsenals at that place. General Hall as soon as he heard of the invasion of Niagara county below the Falls, began to assemble militia and volunteers at Batavia and to organize and arm them. December 28th he marched from Batavia with his force and arrived at Buffalo on the 26th, where he found a body of irregular disorganized troops. About the middle of December the militia of Chautauqua county had been called out by Governor Tompkins to assist in repelling the attack upon Buffalo, that it was feared was to be made. They numbered about 400 effective men, constituting the 162 regiment, under the command of Col. John McMahan, Majors William Prendergast and Isaac Barnes. They were required to rendezvous at the Cross Roads and thence march to Buffalo. The regiment promptly obeyed the call. It contained a greater portion of the able-bodied men of the county, for it had not then a population equal to that of Pomfret at the present time. The soldiers gen- erally had families and were all poor men. They lived in log houses in small clearings in various parts of the county. They had but a little surplus of of food for their families, or forage for their stock. The short notice that they received gave them little time to prepare for departure, and they left often only the wife and children to prepare the firewood and cut browse for their cattle. Their poverty and the inclement season were even more formidable foes to them than those they were going out to meet. They marched in that winter month without blankets, knapsacks, tents, rations or camp-equipage, and suffered much from hunger and cold. They arrived at Buffalo on the 29th, increasing the force of General Hall to 2,011 men. The Chautauqua troops were quartered in log huts a little easterly of the village of Buffalo.
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Near midnight on the 30th of December information was received at Buf- falo that British troops had crossed the Niagara at the head of Grand Island, landed, and taken possession of the battery ot Lower Black Rock. Gen. Hall immediately paraded his troops and ordered a force to dislodge them. The attack was made under great disadvantages and failed, and the entire attack- ing party dispersed. A second attempt made soon after by a small corps led by Col. Chapin and Adams had a like result. The efforts to stay the advance of the enemy were not made by Gen. Hall's command in force, but by small parties of militia, and all without success.
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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
The force landed at Black Rock constituted the enemy's left wing, and consisted, it is claimed, of about 1,000 regulars, militia and Indians. Mean- time the Chautauqua regiment was paraded under arms as a reserve in front of Pomeroy's tavern, where they distinctly heard the firing during the night. So deficient were the supplies of ammunition, that the greater part of the cartridges were distributed to Col. McMahan's regiment after it was paraded. About four o'clock in the morning of the 31st, the regiment marched toward the scene of action. On its way, it is said, it was met by Gen. Hall and his staff, who were returning to Buffalo from Black Rock. The regiment halted and a hurried consultation in an undertone occurred between Gen. Hall and Col. McMahan. The General upon leaving said sufficiently loud to be heard by the regiment : "Colonel, do your duty, but if you must retreat rendez- vous at Miller's." This was construed by the men to mean that the contest was helpless. The regiment, which had been previously marching with a good degree of enthusiasm, lost faith in the result and consequently their ardor. The regiment marched to Black Rock and were stationed opposite the ferry in the rear of the battery. As the day dawned a detachment of the enemy's boats filled with soldiers were seen to leave the Canadian shore, and bend their course to a point near the house of Gen. Peter B. Porter. This constituted the enemy's center, and consisted, it was supposed, of about 400 regular soldiers, principally Royal Scots under Col. Gordon. The right wing, composed of a small force, was landed at the main battery, and was designed merely as a diversion. The whole force of the British was under the com- mand of Lieut. Col. Drummond, and led by Major General Rial. The land- ing of the boats and the advance of the enemy upon Buffalo was opposed by a battery of four pieces and a force of militia under Gen. Blakeslee. The enemy's battery on the other side of the river opened a heavy fire of shells, hot shot and balls. One of the enemy's boats it is said was struck by a can- non ball, and sunk with the hostile freight. They however effected a land- ing.
About daybreak the Chautauqua regiment had proceeded down the river nearly a half a mile, near to the residence of General Porter, where, after a sharp contest with the enemy in force, they broke as the body of the militia had done before. Some fled disgracefully, while others behaved well and tried to rally the men. A retreat by the road by which they had come from Buf- falo to the ferry having been cut off by a British force posted along the route, they were compelled by the advance of the enemy in their front to fly to the woods in their rear. Through the woods a portion of the Chautauqua regi- ment, as well as other portions of the American force, fled precipitately, closely followed by the Indians who filled the woods and killed and scalped many of the flying troops. The militia continued their flight until they reached the main road, some at Buffalo, and others at various points for a
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distance of several miles eastward towards Batavia. The greater part of the retreating force, including a principal portion of the Chautauqua militia, did not stop, but continned their flight until they reached their homes. The citi- zens of Buffalo early in the morning had learned that the ill managed defence promised to be a failure. In terror and dismay they hastily abandoned their dwellings and fled in the greatest confusion. The Buffalo road was crowded with fugitives. Half-clad women and children, the aged, infirm and wounded, sometimes in sleighs or oxsleds, but more often on foot, wading weary miles through the snow to seek a place of safety. Batavia was a prin- cipal haven of rest east of Buffalo. Other roads leading from Buffalo away from the enemy presented like scenes of confusion, and were filled with crowds of terror-stricken people fleeing from the rifle and tomahawk. Towards noon on the 31st the invaders entered Buffalo and set fire to the village ; all the houses were burned that day except five. Mrs. St. John remained in her house and was allowed protection to herself and her property. Mrs. Lovejoy attempted to occupy her's also, but imprudently fell into some altercation with the Indianis, was stabbed, and her body thrown into the street. At three o'clock the village was evacuated by the British who moved down the river to Black Rock, and thence crossed into Canada. January first, 1814, no enemy remained and all was quiet. The site of Buffalo was but a scene of desolation. Jannary 2nd, a small party of the enemy returned and burned all the remaining houses but Mrs. St. John's and Reeve's blacksmith shop.
It is true that the battle of Buffalo was disgraceful to the militia called out in its defence. But to their personal cowardice is not to be ascribed its disastrous results. The character of the inen forbids such a supposition. They were as a whole resolute men, accustomed to the perils of frontier life, and their conduct for fortitude and courage compared favorably with other people of pioneer communities. Their timidity on this occasion was undoubt- edly partly due to the circumstance that their lives had been spent in peace- ful pursuits, but was chiefly owing to the fact that they were without military instruction except such as they had received at back-woods musters. They had never been subjected to military discipline, were imperfectly organized and armed, and actually suffering from cold and want of food. They were hurried into battle, almost as soon as they reached the scene of action, against a well-drilled and well-officered enemy. Their officers were without military knowledge or experience, which was apparent at the beginning to the rank and file. Conscious of these imperfections, the men had no faith, in the abil- ity of the officers to lead them, or in themselves to successfully resist the enemy ; they saw nothing that they could accomplish but to secure their safety in flight.
The conduct of the militia from Chautauqua county on this occasion is not justly subject to more censure than is that from other parts of the Holland
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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
Purchase. A portion did not return to their homes, as nearly all of the militia from other counties did. They remained quartered for several weeks at Miller's tavern about two miles east of Buffalo. Colonel McMahan did all in his power to reassemble the remainder ; he sent out men to bring them back to headquarters with some degree of success. The presence at home of those who did not return was actually necessary to keep their families from starvation. The loss that Chautauqua county sustained was also severe com- pared with that of the whole force engaged.
James Brackett, one of the earliest members of the bar in the comity, was killed and scalped by the Indians during the retreat from Black Rock. Joseph Frank of Busti was shot through the head and scalped, and his body buried in a common grave with others and never brought home. "William Smiley from Ellery, Pease and Lewis from Pomfret, Aaron Nash and Mr. Bover and Hubbard from Hanover, with several others shared the same fate. Major Prendergast had several balls shot through his hat and clothes and narrowly . escaped with his life. Captain Silsby was severely wounded in the shoulder, and Lieutenant Forbes had one man killed and five wounded of the 21 men under his command. Of the killed the bodies of those which were found were buried in a common grave near the road leading from Buffalo to Black Rock into which So were promisctionsly thrown. They were afterwards dis- interred, and many of them claimed by their relatives and taken away to be buried near their homes they had laid down their lives to protect. The bod- ies of several others, killed on their retreat through the woods and scalped by the Indians, were found during the winter and spring, and committed to the earth." (Warren.) These residents of Chautauqua county were made prisoners. Friend Johnson and Oliver Stetson of Chantangna, Ensign Wil- liam Martin of Ellicott, Daniel C. Gonld and Daniel S. Cole of Pomfret.
Although Chautauqua county was not invaded and desolated like the county bordering on the Niagara, its people made great sacrifices in the meantime. An extract from a letter written to Judge Foote by William Rus- sell, a sergeant in Captain Silsby's company, will serve to show the priva- tions and hardships the settlers in Chantauqua in many instances suffered in assisting in this futile effort to defend the frontier. He says that upon his return home after the battle of Buffalo :
"My wife and children met me at the gate to welcome me in, and said, ' von will not go back again?' I told her I should, the day after to-morrow (the 3rd of January) and that I had the promise of being discharged in a few days. On the oth day I returned to Buffalo with what deserters I could find, about ten. We were in season to help gather and bury the dead. I returned home the last week in February or the first in March. I found two of my cows lying dead, having died of starvation. Isaac Young had brought my wife a peck of musty meal. She boiled a quait into mush and fed it to one cow at night, and another quart the next morning ; but it did not save her life.
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Young promised her a peck of corn per week until I returned home -- a small allowance for her and six children. She proceeded to get supper. There was a little meat, but no bread except a little piece of johnny-cake. I said 'boil some potatoes ; ' but there was not one left : all had been fed to the cows to save their lives, but they died. Bed time came ; when she said, 'we will fix for bed ; I suppose you have got seasoned to lying on the floor.' 'Yes' I replied, and on the ground too.' She swept the floor, and brought on the bed. I told her to bring on the straw bed. She said there had been no straw in the tick for three weeks ; it had all been fed to the cows."
Mr. Russell returned and assisted in burying the dead. He says: "We dug two holes, in one we put 20 of the dead, in the other 22. Among those I knew was Dennis Brackett, young Smiley and young Frank. Friends of the slain would take something home to their relatives as a memento. Some would cut off a lock of hair, some would take a bosom pin and some a button. Amos Bird took young Frank's neck handkerchief to his friends."
It is difficult to realize what a scene of ruin the frontier presented after the invasion. The settlements of a country 40 miles square with more than 12,000 inhabitants were practically broken np. This graphic description of the desolation of this region is from Turner's History of the Holland Pur- clase.
" Days and weeks of desertion, stillness and desolation 'succeeded. The villages of Buffalo, Black Rock, Niagara Falls, Lewiston and Youngstown, and the farm houses and other tenements that intervened, presented but one extended scene of ruin and devastation. Mr. James Sloan, a resident of Black Rock, an active participator in many of the stirring scenes of the war of 1812, says, that a few days after the evacuation of Buffalo, himself. and Judge Wilkeson, passed down the lake from the Barker stand, and through the main street of the site of Buffalo, to the cold Springs. That between the Pratt ferry and the Cold Springs, a cat that was wandering about its former home, was all that they saw of any living thing. Throughont all the back settlements, there were the half deserted neighborhoods ; the solitary loghouse, no smoke rising from its stick chimney ; cattle, sheep, and swine, hovering around, and looking in vain for some one to deal out their acens- tomed food .. Upon the immediate frontier, stretching out in a long contin- nous line, from a strong fortress, Fort Niagara, where the invaders were entrenched, were the blackened remains of once happy homes, scathed and desolated ; a gloomy stillness brooding over the scene, so profound, that the gaunt wolf, usually stealthy and prowling, came out of his forest hants at midday, and lapped the clotted snow, or snatched the dismembered limb of a human corpse that in haste and flight had been denied the right of sepulture."
Whatever discredit attaches to the militia of Chantauqua county and other parts of the Holland Purchase for their failure at the Battle of Buffalo, the conduct of the volunteers from this part of the state during the remain- der of the war along the Niagara frontier redeemed them.
Notwithstanding the war deterred emigration to the county, and caused the more timid settlers to abandon their clearings and seek a safe retreat east
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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
of the Genesee, yet settlement did not entirely cease. A few who were more resolute, undismayed by the dangers that threatened the frontier, took up land, built loghouses, and moved their families into them. Joshua Bentley Jr., the first settler of Ellington was one of this number. A dark wilderness of pine, hemlock and black ash, spread over more than 12 miles square of . land in Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties, between the Kent settlement in Villenova and Kennedy's Mills in Poland. It extended both sides of the Conewango, and covered what in process of time is destined to become the most beautiful valley in western New York. Prior to 1813 this region had been the exclusive haunt of the wolf and the wildcat. In that year Mr. Bentley assisted by his wife erected a rude log cabin in the heart of the wilder- ness just west of the village of Conewango Valley in Ellington, close to the eastern borders of the county and near the middle of its eastern boundary. His father, two years later, settled near him on lot 16, and kept the first tav- ern in the town. In 1815, Wyman Bugbee settled near the present village . of Ellington. James Bates came next, followed in 1816 by Samuel McCon- nell and Simon Lawrence. April 9th, 1813, by an act of the legislature, the town of Portland was erected. It included the present towns of Portland, Westfield and Ripley. The first town meeting was held at the house of Jon- athan Cass in Westfield. Thomas Prendergast was elected its first supervi- sor and Asa Hall town clerk. Mr. Prendergast lived at the time within the limits of the present town of Ripley. He was the second son of William Prendergast, Sr., and came to Chautauqua county in 1805. He was a leading citizen until his death in 1842.
CHAPTER XXVI.
CLOSE OF THE WAR-SCHOOLS.
". What boots the oft repeated tale of strife The feast of vultures and the waste of life ? " -Byron. Now comes the teacher to the tangled wild To throw the charm of culture round each child.
T HE mortifying failure of the campaigns of 1812 and 1813 along the Niagara frontier aroused the American Government to more rigorous efforts. July 3rd, 1814, General Brown at the head of 3,000 men in two brigades of regulars under Genera's Scott and Ripley and one brigade of militia volunteers and Indians under Gen. Peter B. Porter crossed to the
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Canada shore from Buffalo and Black Rock and captured Fort Erie without resistance. General Brown then marched down the river, and July 5th he attacked an equal number of British at Chippeway under General Rial and after a bloody and closely contested battle gained a decisive victory, driving the British into their entrenchments. Rial retreated down the river. He was re-enforced by Lieutenant Gen. Drummond who took command of the British forces. July 25th the enemy were attacked by the Americans at Lundy's Lane near the falls of Niagara. From sunset to midnight the roar of cannon and sounds of the conflict mingled with the awful voice of the great cataract. This was perhaps the most desperately contested and bloody battle of the war ; at its close the Americans remained in possession of the battle field. In June 1814, a company from this county under Capt. John Silsby, had volunteered for one month's service. It joined the American forces under General Brown, and as a part of the brigade of Gen. Peter B. Porter participated in all of these memorable engagements.
Generals Scott and Brown having been severely wounded the chief com- mand devolved on General Ripley who found his force so much weakened by the recent battles, and the enemy so superior in numbers that he deemed it prudent to retire to Fort Erie. August 4th, General Drummond invested Fort Erie with 4,000 men. On the night of the 14th and 15th of August he made a desperate attempt to storm it, but was repulsed with the loss of nearly 1,000 me11. After a most bloody encounter the battle was ended about day light on the 15th, by a dreadful explosion which destroyed a bastion of the fort, killing many soldiers of both armies then engaged in a desperate hand to hand conflict. The din of this combat in the depths of the night was plainly heard upon the opposite shore, and when the explosion occurred " the night was lighted by a vast column of flame, the earth shook and the ear was deafened by fearful sound which reached far over the river." The light of the explosion was so intense that reflected by the clouds it was visible a great distance in the dim light of the early morning. Its brilliant flash was seen and the faint sound of the explosion heard by Major Samuel Sinclear at Sinclairville, and he was able to predict the hearing of some catastrophe of the war, before information of the occurrence reached there by the ordinary methods.
The siege of Fort Erie, however, continued mitil the 17th of September, when a sortie was made from the fort under Gen. Peter B. Porter and Gen- eral Miller and the siege was successfully raised. In this brilliant sortie the British again suffered a loss of 1,000 men including HI officers and 374 non- commissioned officers and privates (385) prisoners who were removed to the American shore. In July, two full. companies of the 164th regiment of Chautauqua county troops had marched under Col. John McMahan to Black Rock, but were in no engagement during their service. They were stationed
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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
a few miles below Black Rock, in an unhealthy locality where they suffered much sickness, between the 4th of August and 17th of September. A por- tion of the regiment occasionally crossed to Fort Erie to assist in the pre- paration for its defence but none of the regiment were present at the attempt to storm the fort on the night of the 15th of August, or at the sortie of the 17th of September. The 385 prisoners taken at Fort Erie were placed in the charge of the Chautauqua regiment and marched to the vicinity of Albany. In November the troops returned home. These were the last events in which the Chantanqua troops participated during the war. A few months later a treaty of peace was signed and the Battle of New Orleans was fought which closed hostilities. The war upon the water had been glorious to the American canse throughont. Upon land whatever discredit attaches to its commencement, the honor of the American army was fully redeemed near its close.
SCHOOLS-June 18th, 1812, the day after the war was declared with England, a law was passed by the legislature of New York which was of far greater consequence, and more lasting in its effects upon the future of the state than any victory of the war. It was entitled " an act for the establish- ment of common schools." It did not, however, take actual effect in Chan- tanqua county until 1814. No measure so radical had ever before been taken for the advancement of learning. The people at that time were com- paratively illiterate ; they were intelligent, however, and observing. They had lately established a new and remarkable form of government. Their plans were broad and comprehensive and they were willing to risk further innovations in support of their experiment in self-goverment. The doc- trines of Jefferson were in the ascendant. The statesmen at that time had faith that the people could be so educated morally and intellectually as to be a safer and wiser depository of power than a chosen few. They had the courage of their convictions and proceeded to institute a general system of schools for the education of the people to be supported and controlled by the state. At once by a single act of the legislature a most radical innova- tion was made, new and unusual functions were given to government. . 1 school fund was provided and distributed among the towns. The state was divided into districts which are now its smallest political divisions; minia- tunte republies, whose province it is to foster the germ of free institutions. The people of each district anumnally gathered at their little capital, the schoolhouse, to legislate upon the important subject of schools and the education of their children.
Prior to 18:4, the time when the common school system went into effect, the few schools that existed in Chautauqua county were mostly maintained by individual enterprise. No person was compelled to pay for the services of a teacher. Schools were supported by voluntary contributions of its patrons.
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The teachers were paid a small sum for their services often in corn or other produce which was apportioned among the patrons according to the number of scholars sent. Usually a neighborhood would join together and erect a rude building of logs for a schoolhouse or a settler more able or liberal than the rest, who prized the benefits of knowledge, would devote some building which was always constructed of logs to the uses of learning.
The first school of the county was taught in the log honse erected at the Cross Roads in the spring of 1802 by James McMahan. William Murray during his leisure hours in 1803 is said to have given instruction to the child- ren in this log house. But no regular school can be said to have been acti- ally established for the instruction of pupils until 1807. A school was then opened in this same log building by a young women whose name cannot be . ascertained. We find woman ever at the side of man in all undertakings dividing his toils and sharing the dangers. Here upon the frontier we find her aiding the pioneer as be struggled with the forest and in his rough way striving to do his duty. She refining him by her presence, and by ways of which she is the consummate master leading him to higher duties. To her belongs the honor of having first unfurled the standard of learning in this wilderness. But little am I able to tell of this school and its teacher for she and her pupils have long since been gathered to their rest. Whilst this out- post of learning was established on this distant frontier, an alnost unbroken wilderness spread over Chautauqua county. Not a blow of the axe had been struck where now is the city of Dunkirk. Tall pines densely grew over the site of the city of Jamestown, and it was only the winter before that a school was taught in Buffalo. The first schoolhouse erected there was commenced in April of that year, but was not completed until the winter of 1808 and 1809, a year or more after the school was opened at the Cross Roads.
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