History of Jefferson County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 10

Author: Durant, Samuel W; Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.)
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 862

USA > New York > Jefferson County > History of Jefferson County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 10

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" A manuscript is preserved among the Paris documents in the archives of the State at Albany that throws some light upon the subject, if it does not solve the mystery en- tirely. From this it appears that, in November, 1758, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, governor of Canada, had drawn up a paper on the defenses of that country, which was then at war with the English, that was submitted to the Marquis de Montcalm for his revision, and met with his entire ap- proval. He proposed to send fifteen hundred men to de- fend the approaches of Canada on the side of Lake Ontario, by the erection of a post to be selected at the head of the St. Lawrence, and laid out after the plans of M. de Font- leroy, who was to be sent for that purpose. The station thus chosen and fortified would at the same time become the head of the frontier, and entrepot for every military opera- tion in that quarter, instead of Frontenac or the bay of Niahouré, which can never be regarded as such, as the Eng- lish might enter the St. Lawrence without exposing them- selves or giving any knowledge of their passage. He pro- posed to build xebecs instead of barks, as better fitted for the navigation of the lake and the transportation of sup-

plies. The place was to be made susceptible of defense by an army, and to have magazines for stores and barracks for the lodgment of troops in the winter. A quantity of sup- plies was to be sent to Lu Presentation,* consisting of tools and implements of all kinds necessary to be used against Oswego or in the erection of the works. Levasseur and Pellegrin, experienced shipwrights, were to be sent up from Quebec to advise upon all the details connected with the plan of establishing upon the lake an adequate system of defense. Canada presented at that time three frontiers,- the St. Lawrence, from the Atlantic, Lake Champlain, and the west,-each of which claimed a share of attention. It was intended that the proposed work should be adequate, with those lower down, for the defense of the latter, and it was designed to put in command an active, disinterested, and capable man to accelerate the work and render the op- erations complete. Such a man the Chevalier de Lery was considered to be, and he was accordingly named as the per- son to have chief command and direction of the work."

There is no documentary evidence that this arrangement was carried out; but for the fall of Quebec and the collapse of the French power in America there is little doubt but the plan herein outlined would have been carried to a suc- cessful conclusion. It is not altogether improbable that the ground-plan was laid out and work commenced, and afterwards adopted and completed by the English.

The following extract from a work entitled " Mémoires sur le Canada" shows that the French had a fortified post at or near the mouth of Saudy creek towards the last of the war of 1755-60:

" Meanwhile M. de Vaudreuil, not content with having destroyed the munitions of the enemy and disconcerting their projects upon the lake and their upper outposts, re- solved to capture Chouguen, t to the end that the colony might be tranquillized on this side and himself left easy on the defensive until succors might arrive from France. He sent in this direction a detachment of eight hundred men, to hold the enemy iu check and watch their movements, under the command of Sieur de Villiers, captain of the marine, and brother of M. de Jumonville. This officer was brave and prudent, capable of executing the most per- ilous enterprise, and had always given proof of courage. He took possession near a river named Aux Sables, where he built a small fort of upright stakes on a point where the river falls into Lake Ontario. The approach was diffi- cult, and concealed from view by bushes, which surrounded it, so that one could see but a short distance when on foot. He often appeared before the enemy, pillaged their muni- tions, and compelled them to take the greatest precaution in seuding to Chouguen their provisious aud troops:"#

In July, 1758, General Abercrombie made his unsne- ecssful attack, with an army of sixteen thousand men, upon Ticonderoga, which was defended by the Marquis de Mont- cahn. After the withdrawal of the army, Colonel Brad- street was detached, at his own request, with a force of about three thousand men, to attempt the capture of Fort

* Ogdensburg.

+ Oswego.

¿ In August, 1756, Montealin had a rendezrons or pust on Hender- son bay, previously established by De Villiers : here were the maga- zines of supplies for the expedition against Oswego.

HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Frontenac, in which he was eminently successful, the place being held only by a small garrison, and a great quantity of stores and ammunition, heavy guns and small arms, and nine armed vessels on the lake fell into the hands of the victors, who destroyed the works erected by Frontenac and La Salle, and rejoined the main army, with very little loss. Whether he passed by water from Oswego or marched by land to Cape Vineent does not appear, but he probably fol- lowed the former route. Nothing of importanee in the history of the county subsequently transpired until the French settlement in 1794.

CHAPTER IV.

HISTORY OF LAND TITLES.

The Oneida Territory-Treaty with the Oneidas-Peter Penet-Ma- comb's Purchase-Deeds, Transfers, and Sales-The Chassanis Purchase-Chassanis Tract Surveys-French Settlement-Great Tract No. IV .- The Antwerp Company's Purchase-Purchase of Count Survilliers-Joseph Bonaparte-Lands South of Black River -Wright's Remarks on the Eleven Towns-Title of the Islands.

IN Dr. Hough's excellent history of this eounty, pub- lished in 1854, there is an exhaustive article upon the various land titles connected with the northern portion of New York, and as it is entirely authentic, having been com- piled from official documents, we reproduce it, with the doctor's revision and annotations to the present time :

From time immemorial down to a few years after the elose of the Revolution the title of lands in this section of the State was shared in doubtful supremacy by savages and other denizens of the forest. At the earliest period of authentie history the Iroquois confederacy, and the Oneida nation in particular, were acknowledged to be the owners of the greater portion of our territory, which, according to Gautinonty, a chief of the Oswegatchie tribe, extended as far north as a line running from the mouth of French creek to Split rock, on Lake Champlain, while the Oswegutchies claimed the land north as far down the St. Lawrence as Cat island (Louisville), where a monument had been erected by Sir John Johnson .* The Oneidas, according to a map and survey by Arent Marselis, at the request of John Dunean, and by order of the surveyor-general, claimed "from the ' Line of Property' reversed, and continued from the Canada ereek till it comes to a certain mountain called Esoiade, or the Ice mountain, under which mountain that Canada creek, opposite to the old Fort Hendrick, heads; from thence run- ning westerly to an old fort which stood on the ereek, ealled Weteringhra Guentere, and which empties into the river St. Lawrence about twelve miles below Carlton or Buck's island, and which fort the Oneidas took from their enemies a long time ago; from thence running southerly to a rift upon the Onondaga river, ealled Ogoutenugea, or Aguegon- teneayea (a place remarkable for eels), about five miles from where the river empties out of the Oneida lake."+ Marselis

was doubtless the first surveyor in the county, and there is preserved a traverse of Hungry bay made by him in Sep- tember, 1789, which began " at a monument or red-painted post set up by the Indians as a division-line between the Onondaga and Oneida nation ;" from which it would seem that the former claimed some right on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario.

TREATY WITH THE ONEIDAS.

To extinguish these elaims a treaty was held at Fort Stanwix, October 22, 1784, with the Six Nations, by which all the country east of a line drawn from Johnson's landing- place on the Lake Ontario, and keeping four miles east of the carrying-path between that lake and Lake Erie to the mouth of Tehoseroron, or Buffalo ereck, and thence south to the north line of Pennsylvania, and down the Ohio, was ceded to the United States. The Oneidas were represented at this treaty by two chiefs. This tribe, by a definite treaty held in September, 1788, conveyed the greater part of their lands to the State by the following instrument, the original of which is preserved in the secretary's offiee ; it is on a sheet of parchment about two feet square, with thirty-five seals of the parties, and appended to it is a string of wam- pum, made of six rows of cylindrical white and blue beads, strung upon deer-skin cords. This belt is about two inches wide and nearly two feet long.

" At a treaty held at Fort Schuyler, formerly called Fort Stanwix, in the State of New York, by His Excellency George Clinton, governor of the said State, and William Floyd, Ezra L'Hommedieu, Richard Variek, Samuel Jones, Egbert Benson, and Peter Gansevoort, Junior (commissioners, authorized for that purpose hy and on behalf of the people of the State of New York), with the tribe or nation of Indians called the Oneidas. It is on the 22d day of September, 1788, cove- nanted and concluded as follows : First, the Oneidas do cede and grant all their lands to the people of the State of New York forever. Secondly, of the said ceded lands, the following tract, to wit : Begin- ning at the Wood creek, opposite to the month of the Canada creek, and where the line of property comes to the said Wood creek, and runs thence southerly to the northwest corner of the tract, to he granted to John Francis Pearche, thenee along the westerly bounds of the said tract to the southwest corner thereof, thence to the north- west corner of the traet granted to James Dean, thence along the westerly hounds thereof to the southwest corner of the last- mentioned tract, thence due south until it intersects a due west line from the head of the Tienadaha, or Unadilla river, thence from the said point of intersection due west until the Deep Spring bears due north, thence duc north to the Deep Spring, thence the nearest course to the Canescrage creek, and thence along the said creek, the Oneida lake, and the Wood ereck to the place of heginning, shall be reserved for the following uses, that is to say : The lands lying to the north- ward of a line parallel to the southern line of the said reserved lands, and four muiles distant from the said southern line, the Oneidas shall hold to themselves and their posterity forever, for their own use and cultivation, but not to be sold, leased, or iu any other manner aliened or disposed of to others. The Oneidas may from time to time for- ever make leascs of the lands between the said parallel line (being the residue of the said reserved lands) to such persons, and on such rents reserved, as they shall deem proper ; hut no lease shall be for a longer term than twenty-one years from the making thereof, and no new lease shall be made until the former lease of the same lands shall have expired. The rents shall be to the use of the Oneidas and their posterity forever. And the people of the State of New York shall, from time to time, make provision by law to compel the leasees to pay the rent, and in every other respect enable the Oneidas and their pos- terity to have the full benefit of their right so to make leases, and to prevent frauds on them respecting the same. And the Oneidas, and their posterity forever, shall enjoy the frec right of hunting in every part of the said eeded lands, and of fishing in all the waters within the same, and especially there shall forever remain ungranted by the

* Special message of Governor Lewis, Assem. Journal, 1804-5, p. 49. The relative claims of the different tribes to this traet are set forth in this message.

" The original survey bill aud map are filed in the State engineer's office.

HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

people of the State of New York one-half mile square at the distance of every six miles of the lands along the northern bounds of the Oneida lake, one-half mile in breadth. of the lands on each side of Fish creek,# and a convenient piece of land at the fishing place in the Onondaga river, about three miles from where it issues out of the Oneida lake, and to remain as well for the Oneidas and their poster- ity as for the inhabitants of said State to land and encamp on; but, notwithstanding any reservation to the Oneidas, the people of the State may erect publie works and edifices as they shall think proper at such place or places, at or near the confluence of Wood creek and the Oneida lake, as they shall elect, and may take or appropriate for such works or buildings lands to the extent of one square mile at each place. And further, notwithstanding any reservation of lands to the Oneidas for their own use, the New England Indians (now set- tled at Brotherton, under the Reverend Samson Occum), and their posterity forever, and the Stockbridge Indians, and their posterity forever, and to enjoy the settlements on the lands heretofore given to them by the Oneidas for that purpose,-that is to say, a tract of two miles in breadth and three iniles in length for the New England Indians, and a tract of six miles square for the Stockbridge Indians. Thirdly, in consideration of the said cession and grant, the people of the State of New York do at this treaty pay to the Oneidas two thou- sand dollars in money, two thousand dollars in clothing and other goods, and one thousand dollars iu provisions, and also five hundred dollars in money, to be paid towards building a grist-mill and a saw- inill at their village (the receipts of which moneys, clothing, goods, and provisions the Oneidas do now acknowledge) ; and the people of the State of New York shall annually pay to the Oneidas, and their posterity forever, on the first day of June in every year, at Fort Schuyler, afore- said, six hundred dollars in silver; but, if the Oneidas or their pos- terity shall at any time hereafter elect that the whole or any part of the said six hundred dollars shall be paid in clothing or provisions, and give six weeks' previous notice thereof to the governor of the said State for the time being, then so much of the annual payment shall for that time be in clothing or provisions as the Oneidas and their posterity shall elect, and at the price which the same shall cost the people of the State of New York at Fort Schuyler, aforesaid ; and as a further consideration to the Oncidas, the people of the State of New York shall grant to the said John Francis Pearche a tract of land : Beginning in the line of property, at a certain cedar-tree, near the road leading to Oneida, and runs from the said cedar-tree southerly along the line of property two miles ; then westerly at right angles to the said line of property two miles ; then northerly at right angles to the last course two miles ; and thence to the plaec of beginning ; which the said John Francis Pearchie hath consented to accept from the Oneidas in satisfaction for an injury done to him by one of their nation. And, further, the lands intended by the Oneidas for John T. Kirkland and for George W. Kirkland being now appropriated to the use of the Oneidas, the people of the State of New York shall therefore, by a grant of other lands, make compensation to the said John T. Kirkland and George W. Kirkland. And, further, that the people of the State of New York shall, as a benevolence from the Oneidas to Peter Penet, and in return for services rendered by him to their nation, grant to the same Peter Penet, of the said ceded lands, lying to the northward of the Oneida lake, a tract of land ten miles square, wherever he shall elect the same. Fourthly, the people of the State of New York may, in such manner as they shall deem proper, prevent any person, except the Oneidas, from residing or settling on the land so to be held by the Oneidas and their posterity for their own use and cultivation ; and if any person shall, without the con- sent of the people of the State of New York, come to reside or settle on the said lands or on any other of the lands so ceded as aforesaid, except the lands whereof the Oneidas may make leases, as aforesaid, the O, eidas and their posterity shall forthwith give notice of such intru- sions to the governor of the said State for the time being. And, further, the Oneidas and their posterity forever shall, at the request of the governor of the said State, be aiding to the people of the State of New York in the removing of all such intruders, and in appre-

# This reservation gave rise to mauy apprehensions on the part of the purchasers, as it was supposed to extend into the Boylston tract, in Lewis county. The author is not aware how this affair was set- tled. The reservation would, it is said, have covered forty thousand acres, if it extended to the sourco of that stream. The patent to Mateoinb made no reservations in this poiut, so that the difficulty lay between the State and the Indians.

hending not only such intruders, but also felons and all other offend- ers, who may happen to be on the said ceded land, to the end that such intruders, felons, and other offenders may be brought to justice.

" In testimony whereof, as well the sachems, chief warriors, and others of the said Oneidas, in behalf of their tribe, or nation, as the said governor and other commissioners of the people of the State of New York, have hereunto interchangeably set their hands and affixed their seals, the day and year first above written.

ODAGHISEGHTE, KANAGHIWEAGA, PETER UTSIQUETTE, TOYOHAG- WEANDA, SHONOUGHLEGO, alias ANTHONY, THAGHNIYONGO, TEKEAND- YAHKON, OTSETOGOU, ONEYANHA, alias BEECH-TREE, THAGHITAGH- GUISEA, GAGHISAWEDA, THOUGWEAGHSHALE, OJISTALALE, alias IlAN- QUARRY, THAGINEGHTOLIS, alias HENDRICK, KANAGHISALILGH, THAGH- SWEANGALOLIS, alias PAULUS, AGWELENTONGWAS, alias DOMINE PETER, KANIEKTOTAN; TEYOUGHNIHALK, KONWAGALOT JONEGH- FLISHEA, alias DANIEL, ALA WISTONIS, alias BLACKSMITH, SAGOYONTHIA, KASKONGIIGUKA, KANAWGALET, THANIYEANDAGAYON, KEANYOKO, alias DAVID, HANNAH SODOLK, HONONWAYELE.

" GEORGE CLINTON, RICH'D VARICK, PETER GANSEVOORT, JR., WM. FLOYD, SAMUEL. JONES, SKENONDONGA, EZRA L'HOMMEDIEU, EGBERT BENSON."

At a treaty held at Kon-on-daigua, New York, Novem- ber 11, 1794, the United States confirmed this treaty of the Oneidas.

PETER PENET.+

In this connection we give a short account of the opera- tions of Peter Penet at various periods, which, among other matters, explains how the Oneidas' eame to present him the ten miles square reservation in Jefferson County, and also gives the reader considerable insight into the character of the adventurer :

The history of our Indian tribes is diversified by many plans and projects in which schemes of ambition and profit were disguised under the plausible appearance of measures for the public good. The ignorance and credulity of the aboriginal race, vain of personal orna- ment, easily won by presents, and grateful for favors, presented an inviting opportunity for crafty and selfish men. The early and ea nest competition of the French and English colonists for the trade and friendship of the natives of North America should have made them quite familiar with these artifices; yet we find long afterwards, and among a tribe that had for nearly two centuries been familiar with Europeans, a successful attempt at imposition by a plausible stranger for purposes of gain or ambition. We refer to the schemes of Peter Penet, a Frenchman, among the Oneidas soon after the close of the Revolution.

Peter Penet, a merchant of Nantes, France, appears to have first . arrived in America, December 10, 1775. He came with his partner, De Plaisne, from Cape François, having letters and credentials of character, and proposed to undertake to supply arms and munitions to the colonies or to congress through their business connections in France. Having received orders for a large number of cannon and small arms, Mr. Penet left America in March, 1776, for France. lle was intrusted with letters to our agents abroad. He returned to Philadelphia without fulfilling his contract.

About two years later we find Mr. Penet petitioning congress for encouragement in the establishment of an armory ; and January 2, 1779, the committee to whom the petition of Messrs. Penet and Cou- loux proposing to establish a manufactory of firearms had been referred made a favorable report.

They proposed to contract for one hundred thousand muskets and bayonets, at twenty-six and a half livres each in specie, of which twenty thousand were to be delivered in two and a half years, and the rest in seven years. This arrangement was never carried iuto effect, probably from the inability of Penet to meet his part of the engagement. Penet is next heard from operating upon the confi- dence of the governors of New York and Pennsylvania, by offering for sale some new discoveries,-a cheap metal for sheathing ships and a mastic for preserving iron from rust,-but in neither instance did he succeed in his negotiation.

+ Kindly furnished by Dr. Hongh.

HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

At about this period Penet was employed by the State of Virginia to borrow money in Franee. We have met with no statement of the sueccss of this effort. The next trace we find of this adventurer is in 1783, when his name appears in the Albany county elerk's office records as a purchaser of " a certain messuage and lot (in his actual possession now being) in the city of Schenectady." In 1787 we find him mentioned as a trader with the Oneidas in their village near Oneida lake, and among a portion of these people he acquired a great ascendeney. He originated a plan of government for the tribe, and, having established himself as chief of the tribe, he pretended upon one occasion to have dreamed that the Indians had given him a tract of land ten miles square lying upon the north shore of Oneida lake.

Mr. Penet was one of the witnesses of the Onondaga treaty signed at Fort Sehuyler on the 12th of September, 1788. At this treaty the Oneidas agreed to cede all land north of Oneida lake and Wood creek, excepting certain reservations along the banks for fishing pur- poses, upon consideration "that the commissioners would agree to make a compensation to Mr. Penet out of it for his benevolence and services to them." The land chosen by Mr. Penet, through his attor- ney and agent, was located upon the St. Lawrence river at the pres- sent village of Clayton. The square is ineluded in the present towns of Clayton and Orleans, and was of course excepted from the great sale to Macomb in 1791. The land commissioners ordered a survey of the tract on Angust 8, 1789, and a return was made in November of that year. Penet, by an instrument dated January 23, 1789, having made Mr. Dunean his attorney, the latter, on the 19th day of November of that year, received a patent for the traet. On July 13, 1790, Dunean conveyed to James Watson and James Greenleaf, of New York, for the nominal sum of five shillings. We cannot here trace the chain of title by which it was confirmed to actual settlers. The greater part, after diverse trusts and conveyances, came into the hands of the late John La Farge, formerly of Havre, France, hut sub- sequently a prominent capitalist of New York city. For many years after the settlement of the surrounding lands there was no resident agent, and at length it eame to be regarded as the common property of whoever might choose to settle upon it. This belief attracted a large erowd of irresponsible squatters, who eut timber, cleared lands, and made potash, without regard for title other than that given by actual oceupation. Thus arose difficulties of no common magni- tude in the quiet assumption of title by those holding the legal right to the soil. But Mr. La Farge proved equal to the occasion, and did not hesitate to employ the legal remedies suited to his needs, and he at length succeeded in compelling the settlers to aeknowledge and respeet his title. A man less scrupulous or less artful would have certainly failed in his undertaking.

Of the subsequent history of Peter Penet little is known, excepting that he visited the island of St. Domingo, and there represented to the people that he was the owner of all the land lying north of Oneida lake in the State of New York. Ile exhibited maps, upon which a large fortified city was represented upon the northern hank of the lake, and indueed large numbers to invest in land. During the . winter of 1794 several of these unfortunate persons were met by members of the Castorland Company in the city of New York. They are spoken of in the journal kept by that company as disheart- ened, and many of them so poor as to be unable to return to their homes. One is said to have committed suicide.

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History of Jefferson County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 10

Author: Durant, Samuel W; Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.) Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 862

Author: Durant, Samuel W; Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.)
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 862