USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York > Part 6
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On lands of B. F. Dennison a little north of the middle of lot 46 in Gerry, and about 22 rods east of the road from Sinclairville to Jamestown, not far from a little rivulet was an oval earthwork fifteen or twenty rods in diameter containing about one acre. Forty years ago five or six rods of the wall was very distinct and the remainder easily traced. When the writer saw it about five rods only of the work was traceable. On lots 45 and 46 in Gerry are large ashheaps, hearths or cinder beds. One was fully examined by the
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ABORIGINAL REMAINS.
writer, W. W. Henderson, John F. Phelps and others in May 1887. It is on the easterly side of a small rivulet of cold water supplied by springs and formerly filled with trout which runs from lot 46 to lot 45. This ashheap is sixty feet south of the center of the road running between these lots. The north and south diameter is 44 feet. Its west side has been worn away. Its present diameter is 35 feet east and west. Its original diameter was probably 51 feet. It is composed of dark silicious carth thickly mixed with fragments of granite boulders, sometimes almost forming a solid mass of broken stone. Most of these stones were covered with thick lampblack. They would sometimes crumble when crushed in the hand, showing the effect of fire. Mingled with these stones was the natural soil which is very sandy and black. There were no ashes, only sooty stones and sand. The soil around this cinder-bed was yellow sandy loam upon which thickly grew large whitepine trees. The cinder-bed was grassed over, and was of darker material than the adjacent land. Its form was rounded and higher than the land around it, and it was from one to two feet deep. Upon it stood a very large whitepine stump much decayed, of a tree probably five feet in diameter three feet from the ground. That this pine commenced its growth after the cinder-bed was formed was evident. The deepest part of the bed was under its roots, and the best specimens of burned stones were found beneath it. About thirty rods above this was a smaller but similar hearth. Twenty-five rods farther up the rivulet was another cinder-bed about one rod in diameter. Many arrows have been found of or in the vicinity of these ashheaps.
There was formerly an earthwork partly on lands formerly owned by H. D. Gates, and partly on lands of Hiram Sears, ou lot 35 and 43. The northern boundary was abont forty rods south of the north line of these lots. In May 1878 no part of it was visible. It is said to have been oval and to have encompassed seven acres. It included four springs within its circuit. When first seen the embankment was said to have been in places four or five feet high with pines and large oak trees on it. An ornamental Indian pestle with a carved head upon the end and other Indian implements have been found here.
At the village of Gerry at different times ancient skeletons have been exhumed, particularly near the house and lot of Simcon Steadman. Mr. Henderson and myself witnessed the disinterment of one of these in 1878. It was apparently buried in a sitting posture.
The relics in Gerry were all in the uplands that face the Cassadaga valley upon its eastern side. But few have been found upon its western border except on lot 60 at and near the hamlet of Towerville in Gerry. A spur of elevated land here puts out from the Ellery hills eastwardly into the Cassadaga valley .. To the south of this lies a pleasant valley through which flows a tributary of the Cassadaga, and from its base the plain that borders Cassadaga
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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
creek extends eastward. At the verge of this promontory are some of the most distinct and interesting evidences of former occupation to be found in the county. These relics are about two miles directly southeast from the ashheaps. They are in a pleasant grove of maple trees upon lands now owned by J. E. Almy, and during his ownership they will not be obliterated or destroyed. They were surveyed by the writer and Mr. Richard Reed of Sin- clairville in 1891. At least fifty feet above the valley and enclosing one- fourth of an acre of the extreme point of this elevated spur is an earthwork in the form of the letter C, the open side being towards the east brink of the promontory and facing the valley of the Cassadaga. This steep high bank seems to have been thought sufficient to afford protecttion for that side of this fortified space, as there are no signs of an earthwork along this brow of the eminence. A depression on the land extends along the south side, and a ravine along the north side to the face of the declivity. To the west the land gently rises for a long distance. The embankment extending along the depression at the south side as viewed from the high land across the depression is a conspicuous object. Here for zo feet it is four or five feet high. The remainder of the way along. the west side for 150 feet, with the exception of 30 feet recently worn away by the plow, it has a height of from two to four feet. Thus far a well-marked ditch extends around the outside at some points three feet deep. At places on the inside there are slight appearances of a ditch. For 64 feet along the north side of the enclosure the ditch and wall have disappeared. The remainder of the way to the east bank of the enclosure (70 feet) the ditch is plain to be seen. A cross section at one point showed the bank to have been 13 feet wide and three feet high, and the ditch there to be five feet wide and two feet deep. The embank- ment is usually much less in width. The enclosure is in a grove of maple trees among which some pines formerly grew. A pine 512 feet in diameter and over 200 in height grew a few years ago without the enclosure but partly within the ditch near its southeastern termination. Trees and some old pine stumps stand upon the bank and in the ditch. One old decayed stump was 412 feet in diameter. At one point within the enclosure a quantity of red earth, burned stone and small fragments of pottery were found indi- cating that fires had been kept there. At ancther point was found a compact and solid bed of ancient ashes several feet across and several inches in thickness. The lapse of time since these ashes were made has deprived them of all alkaline qualities. Pieces of pottery were found at this point as well as others within the earthwork. The pottery is made of clay or marl and is of a dark reddish color smooth within. The outside is sometimes nicely orna- mented and apparently moulded in some kind of coarse cloth, for the reliefs run in somewhat regular lines with cross depressions upon the specimens found.
One hundred and seventy feet to the southwest across the depression at the
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ABORIGINAL REMAINS.
south of this earthiwork, upon ground twelve feet higher and close to the southern brink of the promontory, is a small perfectly preserved earthwork. Its form is an irregular circle. It is distinct and plain the whole distance except for eighteen feet in the northwest part which is plainly the gateway. The ditch upon the outside is well-marked and in places deep. The embank- ment is very distinct and in some places nearly four feet high. Trees and large decayed stumps stand on the bank and in the ditch.
A little over 100 rods south of this fort, upon a level place partly on the farm of Halsey Moon, but principally on that of S. M. Tower, was an exten- sive circular earthwork 22 rods in diameter east and west and 18 north and south. When the locality was first settled it was distinct and plain in its whole circumference. As Mr. Tower saw it about 1850, the walls in some places were two feet high. When the writer visited the place in October 1891 there were a few faint traces of it. An apple tree had been planted upon one small remnant of the wall which remained nnobliterated. Extend- ing to the west of this earthwork from the wet springy and higher land across the highway to the west in Ellery was a ditch about 45 rods long. When Mr. Tower first saw this ditch it was 18 inches or two feet deep and visible the whole distance. Now there is visible only a few feet of the ditch. Proba- bly this ditch was used to carry water into this fort.
Between the two forts and nearest to the largest is a singular and isolated knoll of oval and symmetrical shape 20 rods long, 15 wide and 30 feet high. It is a natural formation. Around it and in and around these earthworks have been found relics of stone and pottery also caches and hearths. Mr. Tower has a variety of interesting Indian relics, and a hard, finely-shaped and finished stone or gorget perforated at the ends, perhaps intended for a neck ornament.
In July 1887, W. W. Henderson, Prof. S. G. Love and the writer exam- ined an artificial mound on the farm of L. B. Warner in Harmony west of the road leading from Stowe to Ashiville. It was 40 feet long, 35 feet wide, and five feet high. Not far from this mound, upon the farm of A. C. Green in Harmony, a flint knife, a very fine piece of Indian workmanship, was found a few years ago. It was lance-shaped at both ends, 12 inches long, 3 inches wide, and 112 inches thick. It is now in the museum of the Jamestown Union School.
On the east side of Chautauqua lake are many aboriginal relics which were examined by the writer and J. L. Bugbee of Stockton in October 1875. At Long Point an abundance of arrows and Indian implements were found in former years. At Bemus Point near the cleared fields and improvements that were undoubtedly made by the Senecas before the settlement of the county were more ancient relics. At the line between the Felton and Hazel- tine farmns and east of the lake road was an artificial mound which we
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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
found to be 30 or 40 feet across and four or five feet high. Eighty feet east of this was another mound fully as large.
At Griffith's Point there was a mound in a level meadow about 60 rods east of the Griffith House and 80 rods from the lake. We found this mound 35 feet in diameter and four feet higher than the grassy ground around it. In the meadow land southwest of this mound and distant about 100 feet there had been a larger mound which had been quite recently removed. A few bones were found, among them the probable skull of a bear. The circular place that apparently was occupied by the mound was sixty feet in diameter when Mr. Bugbee saw it a few years before 1875, and was twice as high as the first mound. West of the most westerly of these mounds a drive way then extended north and south from the lake road to the Griffith House. Ten feet west of this drive way and parallel with it extended a belt of land distinctly higher than the land on each side of it, and about the width of the ordinary travelled part of a country turnpike. It extended unbroken for abont 25 rods towards the lake road. For about ten rods it was obscure or indistinet when it appeared again extending as before towards the higher land easterly of the lake. In the vicinity of these mounds and along the shore of the lake many arrows have been found.
A little distance west of Fluvana, about one-half mile from the lake within the bonnds of the highway running north and south on the town line between Ellery and Ellicott, and about 60 rods north of the lake road, on the top of a ridge of land is an aboriginal mound. Part of it has been moved away to improve the road. There many human bones have been found. It was large and conspicuous. When examined in 1875 by Mr. Bugbee and the writer it was 55 feet in diameter at the base, ten feet high, and quite flat on top where it was 25 feet in diameter. Before it was disturbed its dimensions were greater. The evidences show that it has been used by three races : First by the aborigines who constructed it. A human skeleton and two knives bearing French inscriptions which had been buried there, show that it was used by the French ; and the bones of a white person show that it was the burial place of some family subsequent to the settlement.
In Ellington at different places along the terrace of low hills bordering either side of the valley of Clear creek there existed at the first settlement of the county, and still exists but less distinct, the remains of many of these circular enclosures, near which human bones, stone implements, and other relies have been plentifully discovered. About a fourth of a mile from the village of Ellington, upon a hill a hundred feet high is an extensive earth- work which has been often visited and often described. Dr. Frederick Lar- kin has fully described it in his book entitled " Ancient Man in Amerian." In this fortification and its vicinity an abundance of human bones and rude implements and instruments of war have been found.
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ABORIGINAL REMAINS.
At Frewsburg in Carroll on the south side of Frew's run near where John Frew located his sawmill, Mr. Ruel Jones when grading ground for his dwell- ing uncovered the bones of several persons, which seemed to be interred in a sitting position ; with them were found flint arrowheads, stone pipes, and two stone axes.
In Stockton, in Mina, in Arkwright, in French Creek, in Poland, in Jamestown, along the Cattaraugus creek in Hanover, at Dewittville and Fen- tonville are evidences of ancient occupation. Their character indicates that their authors were a rude and uncultivated people. Their few simple imple- ments hardly exceeded in variety the munber of the fingers of the hand. The manner in which they buried their dead, generally in cavities or pits so shallow that the plow would disturb them in their resting places, shows that they had not passed beyond the savage state ; much less had they reached the dignity that would entitle them to be called barbarians. Vet a study of their character as evidenced by their remains is even more interesting than that of a civilized people. In the neglected study of the savage races more is to be learned of the real nature of man and the laws that have governed his ascent from a primeval brute condition than the consideration of his conventional character acquired through civilization.
Although the ancient remains found so plentifully in this county are but . humble memorials of the past compared with the more imposing ruins of other countries, still they are genuine relics of olden times, relics of the labors of human hands done centuries ago. We can not but feel a deep and pleasing interest in the race who anciently made this their abiding place. The lakes and hills of our county we must remember were as familiar and as dear to them as they are now to us. Whence they came, how long they remained, what fortunes attended their existence, we may not surely know. Yet we can not doubt that here were once villages, rudely cultivated fields, and the burial places of a strange and primitive people.
" But they are gone With their old forest wide and deep, And we have built our homes upon Fields where their generations sleep.
Their fountains slake our thirst at noon Upon their fields our harvest wave ; Our lovers woo beneath their moon Then let us spare at least their graves."
.
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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
CHAPTER V.
ERIES.
"Gather him to his grave again, And solemnly and softly lay Beneath the verdure of the plain, The warriors' scattered bones away."
T HE question who were the authors of these ancient remains found so numerously in this county presses upon us for an answer. Many of the bones so well preserved in their shallow sepulchres lead us to believe that not many centuries have passed since they were buried, and often the con- dition of the hearths and ashheaps indicate that it was not long since their fires have been put out, while other remains indicate a much greater antiquity. Some of the arrows, stone axes and other articles have a ruder finish, and seem the implements of an older and less accomplished race. These relics are not necessarily the creations of contemporaneous people. It is not impossible that man was here when the great glacier that once overspread this region was retiring before the warmth that followed the Ice period, and it is not wholly improbable that he may at some future time be proved to have existed in our county at the close of the Glacial and during the Champlain periods along with the mastodon and elephant, and that the rude implements that man used at that early period may sometime be found beneath the great terminal moraine bounding the lower limits of the great glacier which extended near the southern border of our county. It is not improbable that the relies found here are not the work of the same people, but of succeeding generations who inhabited this soil. Who were the authors of the greater portion and more recent of these works we are able to determine to a reason- able certainty by the light of records preserved by the Jesuits, who, 250 years ago, traversed the wilds bordering the great lakes, and knowledge obtained from other sources.
Before considering this question we will briefly describe the location of the various tribes that composed the Huron-Iroquois family which inhabited the interior part of this continent when it first became known to Europeans. This family was composed of the most warlike tribes that lived in North America. They possessed Ontario, northern Ohio, nearly all of New York, the greater part of Pennsylvania, and a portion of Quebec, a compact region of which Chautauqua county formed a part. They spoke the same generic
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ERIES.
tongue called the Wyandot. The affinity between their languages, their traditions, and the light which history has thrown upon the subject, prove their ancestors to have been the same people; that, later, as their members increased, dissensions arose, the hive swarmed, and in time independent nations were the result, between whom bitter feuds existed and savage wars were waged. The Huron-Iroquois were greatly superior in intellect, courage and military skill to all other Indians of North America. They dwelt in permanent villages situated in defensible positions, and rudely fortified with a ditch and rows of palisades. They practised agriculture to a limited extent, frequently by a long and laborious process of burning and hacking with axes of stone, cleared extensive tracts of land, which they rudely cultivated with hoes of wood and bone. They raised corn, beans, gourds, pumpkins, sun- flowers, hemp and tobacco. From their relative superiority and having fixed places of abode they became more advanced in the arts of life than the wandering tribes of North America.
Entirely surrounding this family of warlike nations, but always shrinking 'before their fierce valor, were a greater number of independent tribes speak- ing in languages bearing close affinity but radically different from the Wyan- .dot. This affinity of languages, and the general resemblance existing in their practices and customs, has caused them to be classed under the general name Algonquin. They were usually nomadic in their habits, subsisted more by hunting and fishing and less by cultivating the soil than the Huron- Iroquois people. To this race belonged the Pequots, Narragansetts and Mohicans of New England, the Delawares of Pennsylvania, the Miamis, Illi- nois, and Chippewas of the West, and a great number of other tribes in the .United States and Canada. The Shawnees are an extreme type of this race, representing their wandering propensities in a marked degree. Beyond the territory of the Algonquins, in the southern and western portions of the United States, were other tribes and races speaking languages radically differ- .ent from those of the Algonquins or Wyandot.
The Huron-Iroquois family were sub-divided into several independent and formidable nations. The Hurons dwelt in many villages upon the small peninsula lying between the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron and Lake Simcoe in Ontario. Near to and south of the Hurons among the Blue mountains of . Canada dwelt the Tobacco nation. South of these nations was the Neutral nation or Kahkwas as called by the Senecas. Their territory extended 120 miles along the northern shore of Lake Erie, and across Niagara river into New York as far east as the western limits of the Iroquois. They dwelt in forty villages, three or four of which were east of Niagara river and Lake Erie. One was located, it is believed, on a branch of Eighteen-mile creek near White's Corners in Erie county. The Andastes dwelt upon the Lower .Susquehanna. But the most famous of the Huron-Iroquois family were the
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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
Iroquois proper or Six Nations who dwelt in New York. The remaining member of the family, and to us the most interesting, was the Eries or the Nation of the Cat. They dwelt east and south of Lake Erie, and occupied northern Ohio, northwestern Pennsylvania and southwestern New York as far east as Genesee river the frontier of the Senecas. But little is known concerning them. They were however the first occupants of Chautauqua county of which we have account.
We will now endeavor to throw some light upon the authors of the more recent earthworks and other remains found in Chautauqua county. In 1615, five years before the Mayflower landed at Plymonth, the French led by Champlain, had traversed the wilderness of Ontario to the country of the Hurons on Lake Huron. With Champlain there came from France mission- aries of the order of St. Francis, to bear the cross through pathless wilds among the savage tribes of America. In 1625 the Franciscaus were followed by the Jesuits who soon commenced instructing the tribes of the North and West, and for 150 years labored among them with unbounded zeal. The Jesuits annually transmitted to their superiors in France full and careful reports of their doings, minute descriptions of the Indians, their manners and customs, and of events transpiring in these remote regions. The stained and wormeaten books containing these reports are preserved in Paris, and were originally contained in forty volumes called the " Relations of the Jesuits." They hold a high place among historians as authority, and are regarded as authentic and trustworthy.
From the " Relations" we learn that the Hurons, with whom the Jesuits first labored, and who inhabited the little peninsula in Ontario between the Georgian bay, Lake Simcoe, and Severn river, from an actual enumeration made by the Jesuits in 1639 had 32 villages and hamlets, 700 dwellings, 4,000 families, and a population of 20,000. We may form some idea of the density with which their territory was populated when we understand that it was less in extent than Chautauqua county. In 1660 LaMercier, DuQuen, and other Jesuits inform us that their population had increased to 30,000 or 35,000. Dr. Tache, who closely inspected the Huron country, says " That the greater part of it seems to have been cleared at former periods, and almost the only places bearing the character of primitive forests are the low grounds." Some of the villages were fortified, most of them were not. The Jesuits inform us that the fortified ones were located in that part of their territory inost exposed to the attacks of the Iroquois, their mortal foes, and they usually selected as a site for their villages some commanding position favorable for defence, as the shore of a lake or a point of land embraced between a stream and its branch. Their villages consisted of long houses in which many families resided and usually occupied from one to ten acres, and around them they would dig a ditch, throwing the earth inside, in which they would plant
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ERIES.
palisades (made of a proper length by burning and hacking) a little distance apart, sometimes in two to three concentric rows, and line the inside to a man's height with strong bark. Above the bark they often constructed standing places for the defenders, and gutters to carry water to stifle fires kindled by their assailants. What remains of the old earthworks in Chau- tauqua county, in their construction, situation, form and size conform to the description given of these fortified villages. The remains of palisades have not been discovered in these old earthworks of this county which is undoubt- edly due to the perishable character of the timber and the long time passed since they were constructed.
As we proceed we will discover other evidences that the authors of these ancient remains in all respects were a similar people to the Hurons. Park- man informs us that the Huron women made earthen pots for cooking until they obtained copper kettles from the French. They wove rush mats and spun twine from hemp of which they made nets by rolling it on their thighs. They extracted oil from fish and sunflowers, they pounded their corn with stone pestles in wooden mortars, used stone axes, spears and arrowheads, and bone fishhooks. Their pipes, which were regarded of great importance, were made, some of baked clay, and others of various kinds of stone sometimes carved with skill. All of these articles that are not perishable we find in this county precisely as described wherever these remains are found.
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