History of Jefferson County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 7

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 7

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Not long after Champlain again visited Franee, and had an interview with his patron, De Monts, who, deeply en- grossed in the cares of his office, gave up the management of his affairs in New France entirely to Champlain. On his way from Rochelle to Paris, Champlain was severely injured by a fall of his horse, but, recovering, he resumed his journey. Under his personal solicitation a young prince of the blood, Charles of Bourbon, Comte de Soissons, as- sumed the protectorate of New France, with the title of lieutenant-general and vice-regal powers. These powers lie in turn conferred upon Champlain, giving him entire con- trol of the fur trade, and unlimited rights of exploration and settlement.

Scarcely, however, had the articles been signed when the Comte de Soissons sickened and died, to the great joy of the Norman and Breton traders, who fondly believed the monopoly of the fur trade broken. But their joy was of short duration, for Henry of Bourbon, Prince of Conde, and first Prince of the Blood, assumed the protectorship.

Two great objects filled the mind of Champlain,-to find a route to the Indies and to convert the savages to Chris- tianity. He associated with himself. the refractory traders of St. Malo and Rouen, and tried to come to terms with those of other cities; but the men of Rochelle, who were zealous Protestauts, chose rather to take the chanees of illieit trade, and declined his offer.

Champlain did not again visit Canada until the spring of 1613. On May 27 of that year, in company with four Frenchmen (one of whom, Nicholas de Vignau, claimed to have made a journey to Hudson's bay while sojourning with the Indians), he left the island of St. Helen, opposite Mon- treal, in two canoes bound up the Ottawa. They penetrated as far as the sheet of water now known as Lake Coulange, which is a broadening of the Ottawa, where, finding that De Vignau was an impostor, Champlain ended his journey. In this wild region dwelt the ancestors of the modern Ottawa Indians. Returning to Montreal, he embarked the same autumn and returned once more to France.

Champlain now interested himself more especially witlı the spiritual affairs of his eolony, and resolved to turn his attention to the conversion of the natives, and to this great end he made arrangements to introduce representatives of the Catholic church into his dominions.

Near his native town was located a convent of Récollet Friars, a branch of the Franciscan order, founded early in the thirteenth century, by Saint Francis of Assisi. They were mendicants, vowed to perpetual beggary. Four of these friars were named by a convocation of the States Gen- eral, then assembled at Paris, for the missions of New France,-Denis Jamet, Jean Dolbeau, Joseph le Caron, and Pacific du Plessis.

"They packed their church ornaments," says Champlain, "and we our luggage." Embarking at Honfleur, they reached Quebee the last of May, 1615. These were the first representatives of the church who visited the St. Law- rence valley. Choosing the site for a convent, they erected an altar and celebrated the first mass ever said in Canada. Dolbeau officiated, New France knelt around him, and the guns of the ships responded to the ceremonies.

The friars divided the vast regions of New France among them, assigning to Le Caron the Huron country, and to Dolbeau that of the Montagnais, while Jamet and Du Plessis remained at Quebec. The former two at once set forth upon their missions, and the others proceeded to build a convent.

Champlain had entered into an agreement with the various Algonquin tribes and nations of New France to aid them in their wars against the formidable Iroquois, and a grand council of the principal chiefs and warriors assembled at Montreal, when it was stipulated that the confederated nations should furnish two thousand five hundred warriors for an expedition into the country of the Five Nations, and Champlain was to join them with as large a force of French as eould be collected. Descending to Quebee to make prep- arations, he returned as soon as possible, and found the whole encampment broken up. Impatient at Champlain's delay, the Indians had set out for their villages, and with them had gone Father Joseph Le Caron and twelve French soldiers well armed.

HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Champlain, with two canoes, ten Indians, Brulé, his in- terpreter, and one other Frenchman, pushed on after them. Following the Ottawa, they ascended to the mouth of the Mattawan, which latter stream they ascended more than forty miles, when they erossed a portage and launched their canoes upon the waters of Lake Nipissing. Spending two days here with a band of the Algonquin raec, called the Nipissings, Champlain again embarked, and followed the French river to its entrance into Mer Douce, the great fresh- water sea of the Hurons. Coasting along the eastern border of the broad expanse of Lake Huron, now known as Georgian bay, for more than a hundred miles, the party debarked at the inlet known as Thunder bay, which forms the southern extremity of Georgian bay, a little west of the present harbor of Penetanguishine.

From thence they passed on to the Huron town of Otouacha, which they found very strongly fortified. Here, within an area of sixty or seventy miles, dwelt the Huron nation. Their numbers were variously estimated by dif- ferent writers at from ten thousand to thirty thousand. Contiguous to them, on the south and east, dwelt the " Neutral Nation," and in western New York and north- western Pennsylvania dwelt the Andasties and Eries, two powerful kindred tribes or nations of the great Algonquin family, both afterwards, about 1649, destroyed by the Iro- quois. The destruction or subjugation of these people and the Hurons involved also that of all the Catholic missions among them, and the terrible privations and sufferings and horrible deaths of many of them were among the most dreadful of any age or country.

From Otouacha Champlain journeyed to the towns of Carmaron, Tonaguainchain, Tequinonquehaye, and Car- hagouha. The last-mentioned place was fortified with a triple row of palisades thirty-five feet high, and filled with a multitude of warriors. Here he found Le Caron living in a bark lodge built by the Indians, where he had erected a simple altar. On August 12, 1615, was celebrated the first mass in the country of the Hurons.

Wearying of the monotonous life of the Indian towns and the continuous feasting, Champlain and a few of his companions visited five other villages within three days, all of which were palisaded like the larger towns. He was de- lighted with the country, for it was full of game and wild fruits, and abounded in excellent timber and good water.

On the 17th of August they reached the capital city of the Hurons, called Cu-hai-gue, situated in the present township of Orilla, three leagues west of the Severn river, the outlet of Lake Simcoe. The capital was the chief rendezvous, and was full of the gathering warriors.

The Erics had promised to join the Hurons with five hundred of their best warriors.

After feasting and dancing for three days, the motley host set forth with their canoes and seanty baggage. At the outlet of Lake Simcoe they stopped, and laid in a sup- ply of fish, and thenee proceeded on their way towards their destination. From the fishing-ground Brulé, the in- terpreter, at his own request, pushed on with a few warriors to hasten the arrival of the five hundred warriors promised by the Eries. It was now the 8th of September, and al- ready the early frost had made its appearance. The

crowded fleet of canoes made its way along Lake Simeoe, up the river Talbot, through Balsam lake, and thence down the chain of lakes which form the sources of the river Trent. On the banks of this last-named stream they stopped and had a grand deer-hunt, and laid in a store of meat for the coming campaign. The Indians built a long line of fence, converging towards a point in the river, and several hundred warriors drove the animals in. The sport was wonderfully relished by Champlain and his men.

Issuing from the mouth of the Trent, the fleet boldly pushed out into the heaving waters of Lake Ontario .* It is altogether probable that the fleet passed to the north of Amherst island, from whenee the distance to the south- western extremity of Wolf island would be less than ten miles. This broad reach of open water safely passed, and the fleet could coast near the shore, past Cape Vincent and Peninsula point, and thence southeasterly across the open- ing of the present Black River bay, lying between Sacket's Harbor and Stony island, then without a name, but subse- quently known to the English as " Hungry bay."+ It is not certainly known where this Indian army landed, but the strong probabilities are in favor of Henderson bay, at its southern extremity, which is perfectly land-locked, and a most convenient place for secreting the great fleet of canoes which the army must have required in their passage. Champlain only indirectly states the number of the Indians at two thousand five hundred ; but there is no doubt it was a very large force, for the savages well knew it would be worse than .useless to venture into the " tiger's den" with less than an overwhelming force. Beyond peradventure the landing-place was either in Henderson or Ellisburg ; and thus, two hundred and sixty years ago,-five years be- fore the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth,-a French officer of high rank, with a dozen comrades of his own nation, and a great army of natives from the wilds of the Ottawa and Lake Huron, visited the region now included in Jefferson County. It is more than probable that Champlain and his few French followers were the first Europeans that ever visited the county.

This expedition probably passed through Jefferson County about the middle of September. From the landing-place they moved by land in a course parallel to the trend of the lake until they passed its southeastern angle, when they turned towards the southwest, crossed the Onondaga river, as the Oswego river was then called, and, marching cau- tiously four days' journey westward, fell upon a Seneca town, probably near the outlet of Canandaigua lake. Se- vere fighting ensued in front of the town, which was defended by an immensely strong stoekade, in four parallel lines, and prepared with every available implement of In- dian warfare for a stubborn defense.

After an unsuccessful attack, during which movable towers, after the manner of the feudal ages, were used by

# The name of this lake comes from the Algonquin word Eutonor- onons, or Ontouronons, the Huron name for the Senecas. The French named it Lae St. Louis. The Seneca name in the Iroquois langnage was Ho-nan-ne-ho-ant.

t The origin of this name is unknown, but it is suggested that it may have come from the French designation La Fan.ine, given to the conntry either on Black river or Salmon river.

HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

the besiegers, they withdrew from the contest and waited for five days for their Erie allies, who failing to come, the army, in spite of Champlain's remonstrances, drew off and made a rapid retreat, hotly pursued by the enemy.

The assailants had seventeen men wounded, and Cham- plain himself was twice struck by the arrows of the Iroquois. The wounded, including Champlain, were carried from the field in baskets slung on the shoulders of the warriors.

After a tedious mareh through the forest the retreating army reached the rendezvous in Jefferson County, and, launching their canoes, recrossed Lake Ontario and speedily returned to their own country. The Indians had promised an escort for Champlain on his return to Quebee; but the unsuccessful issue of the campaign had considerably reduced their ardor, and the prowess of their white allies being somewhat lessened in their estimation, they were not as ready to accommodate as in the beginning of the move- ment. The escort was not furnished, and the wounded Champlain was obliged to accompany the Hurons to their villages, where he passed the winter as the guest of a chief named Durantol, who kindly offered him the use of his lodge.

During the winter the Indians went on a great deer-hunt among the lakes and streams lying to the north of Lake Ontario, and Champlain accompanied them. At one time he lost his way in the forest and wandered several days be- fore he found the camp, and his chief would never after- wards allow him to go out in the forest alone. The hunt lasted thirty-eight days, during which they killed one hun- dred and twenty deer. The party was nineteen days re- turning with their game to their villages.

Upon his return from the hunt, Champlain visited Le Caron, at Curahagonha, where he found him praying, preaching, making catechisms, and learning the Huron tongue.

The two adventurers, the soldier and the friar, made a journey of exploration together, during which they visited a people called the Tobacco nation, a powerful tribe, akin to, and soon after incorporated with, the Hurons. Their country was situated south of the Great Georgian bay.

They also visited a tribe called by Champlain the Cheveux Relevés, who wore very little or no clothing, but were very cleanly in their habits.

In the early spring, Champlain, now exceeding anxious for the welfare of his colonies, left his hospitable entertainers and returned via Lake Huron, Lake Nipissing, and the Ottawa river to Montreal and Quebec. On his way he set- tled a dangerous and threatening feud between the Hurons and Algonquins. Le Caron had preceded him, and when Champlain, accompanied by Durantol, arrived at Quebec, he found all the friars together chanting hymns in their chapel. There was great rejoicing over the return of the wanderers, for they had long been given up as dead by the colonists. The chief, Durantol, after a short sojourn, re- turned to his country, well pleased with what he had seen.

Champlain now set himself to work strengthening the fortifications of Quebec, and endeavoring to organize some system among the motley crew of merchants, traders, Hugue- nots, and Catholics, in all amounting to not more than sixty or seventy, who constituted the citizens of Quebec.

The interpreter, Brulé, who had been sent forward of the great expedition of the previous fall, to hurry up the five hundred Eries, crossed Lake Ontario, probably near its western end, visited the Eries, and accompanied their con- tingent to the enemy's country, when, finding the Hurons had left, they soon returned to their own country. Brulé afterwards had many adventures among the savages. At one time he was captured by the Iroquois, and very roughly handled, but finally returned to his countrymen after an absence of three years.

Champlain used every effort to build up a prosperous colony at Quebec, and visited France annually to forward its interests and encourage emigration. In 1620 he brought his wife to the colony, where she remained four years. She was a beautiful woman and full of religious zeal, and during her stay worked among the savages with un- tiring assiduity. In the summer of 1622 the long smoth- ered wrath of the Iroquois broke forth and their war-parties fell savagely upon the inhabitants of Canada. They had two routes by which they approached the Canadian settle- ments : one by way of the Mohawk and Lake Champlain valleys, the other by way of the old route through Jeffer- son County and down the St. Lawrence; and no doubt many a daubed and befeathered band of these terrible dwellers in the wilderness passed and repassed through the territory now occupied by the thrifty people of Jefferson County. They penetrated even to the gates of Quebec, driving the frightened inhabitants within its strong fortifi- cations, and spreading death and desolation wherever they appeared.

Important changes now occurred in the condition and government of the colony. The viceroy, Montmorency, was succeeded by the Duc de Ventadour, who was wholly under the control of the Jesuits, which powerful order soon supplanted the Franciscans, and thenceforth controlled the spiritual affairs of the colony.

The advent of this famous order was about the years 1625-26, and its first representatives to arrive in New France were Charles Lalemant, Enemond Masse, and Jean de Brébeuf. But the colony of Quebec increased slowly. Twenty years after it was founded it could scarcely be con- sidered as more than a missionary and trading station.

In 1628 there were four principal trading points in the valley of the St. Lawrence, to wit : Quebec, Trois Rivières, Montreal, and Tadoussac; the latter, at the mouth of the Saguenay, being the most important. The fur trade was really the only business carried on, and this was so extensive tliat in 1628 it was estimated to amount to twenty thou- sand beaver skins alone, besides large numbers of the skins of other animals.

The Black river region of Jefferson and Lewis counties was a wonderful resort for the beaver,* and no doubt the venturesome courier des bois, and other agents of the fur- traders, annually visited the country. The mouth of the Rivière de la Famine, as the Black river is supposed to have been ealled, was exceedingly easy of access from the St. Lawrence, and where now stands the busy manufactur-

# It was called Cuxtorland by the French company who began set- tlements at the Long falls in 1794.

HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

ing city of Watertown, in all probability rose the cabin of the fur-trader and the bark lodge of the swarthy Indian.

Under the Cardinal Richelieu, a company, called "The Hundred Associates," was formed, with the great cardinal at its head. All other grants and monopolies were set aside, and about 1627 the whole of New France became subject to this association. They were granted a perpetual monop- oly of the fur trade, and of all other commerce for fifteen years. The trade of the colony was declared free for the same period from all duties and imports. As an evidence of his good will, the king, Louis XIII., furnished the company with two ships-of-war completely armed and equipped. The company, on their part, bound themselves to settle, during the year 1628, two or three hundred arti- sans, and before 1643 to increase the number to four thou- sand persons of both sexes, whom they were to support for three years, and furnish lands for settlement and mainte- nance. Every settler must be a Frenchman and a Catholic.

The capital stock was three hundred thousand livres. Champlain was a member of the association.

ENGLISH OCCUPATION.

In April, 1628, four armed vessels, with a fleet of trans- ports, under command of Roquemont, sailed from Dieppe for the St. Lawrence. At the same time an English squad- ron, under command of Sir David Kirk, a Calvinist refugee of Dieppe, who had taken service under the English, also sailed on the same destination. War had broken out be- tween the two governments and trouble awaited the Cana- dian colonies, who were already on the verge of starvation. The Huguenots were forbidden the privilege of settling in New France, and they gladly entered the service of Eng- land, and thus became enemies of the Catholic settlers on. the St. Lawrence.

The English squadron first arrived in the river, and Kirk sent a polite summons to Champlain to surrender, which was promptly declined, and the squadron disappeared down the St. Lawrence without making any demonstration against Quebec.

On his way down the river he encountered the vessels of Roquemont, which he cut to pieces, and captured the con- voy of supplies. Long and anxiously the dwellers of Quebec watched along the horizon for the expected fleet, but it came not, and the weary months of cold and snow that suc- ceeded reduced the place to the last extremity ; and when in July, 1629, Sir David Kirk again appeared and de- manded the surrender, the common people at least hailed him as a deliverer. Upon a second summons, Champlain, now reduced to the starvation point, readily surrendered, and for the first time, on the 20th of July, 1629, the English colors floated over Quebec.

Champlain and the Jesuits were taken to England, whence the chief soon returned to France,

In July, 1632, just three years after its surrender to Kirk, Quebec was in turn given up to a French squadron under the command of Emery de Caen, in accordance with the terms of the treaty of peace between the two nations.

Thomas Kirk, a brother of Sir David, who was in com- mand, struck his colors, embarked his followers, and returned to England.

In the spring of 1633, Champlain arrived, with a new commission from Cardinal Richelieu, and again assumed command of Quebec for the company of the " Hundred Associates."

The Jesuits had returned, and once more the banner of France and of absolutism floated over the forests of the St. Lawrence.

Champlain continued in command, taking up his perma- nent residence at Quebec, where he remained in the dis- charge of his duties until Christmas, 1635, when death took him from the scenes of his long and laborious career. In him New France lost her greatest benefactor, her wisest statesman, her most indomitable explorer, and her bravest soldier.

Champlain was emphatically the "Father of New France," in whose service he spent twenty-seven years of his life, during which he encountered every peril of the sea, every danger of the wilderness, laid the foundations of two of the greatest cities of Canada, and planted broad and deep the germs which have since developed into a flourishing empire.

It is reasonably certain that he was the first European who visited the region now comprised within the limits of Jefferson County. In that day the immense region south of the St. Lawrence and the great lakes was a wilderness, with only three or four settlements along the Atlantic coast. Where now spread the broad domains of twenty-seven sov- ereign States, inhabited by more than thirty millions of people, then stretched a vast region of forest and prairie, covered with myriads of noble game, and domineered over by a scanty population of wild savages, continually at war with one another.

By the middle of the seventeenth century, the relative conditions of the colonies of France and England had ma- terially changed. The former still clung to, and were thinly scattered along, the St. Lawrence, while the English colo- nists had advanced slowly, but surely, along the Merrimac, the Connecticut, the Hudson, and the James, planting, as they proceeded, the germs of those flourishing colonies that, a little more than a century later, became strong enough to - throw off the oppressive rule of the mother country, and consolidate into that remarkable confederation which has thus far triumphed over every foreign enemy, and emerged victorious from the greatest civil commotion recorded in history.

Its institutions are still on trial, and though the possi- bility of maintaining a republic, pure and simple, is not yet fully demonstrated, yet a government " by the people," it may be in a modified form, has become an established entity, and must eventually take the place of those cruder and more absolute forms of theocracy and monarchy, upon whose walls is plainly written " Mene, mene, tekel upharsin !"

LA SALLE.

The next adventurer who set foot upon the lands within the bounds of Jefferson County was possibly Robert Cave- lier de la Salle, who came to Canada in the spring of 1667, where he engaged in the fur trade. In the year 1669, it is claimed by some writers, La Salle crossed over from Lake Erie to the head-waters of the Allegheny, or some one of

HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

the streams which flow into the Ohio, and descended to the latter strcam, which he explored as far as the falls at Louis- ville, and thence returned by land to Cataraqui (Fort Fron- tenac) via of the eastern end of Lake Ontario ; this would probably carry him through Jefferson County. If true, he probably passed through this region in the spring of 1670. It is also possible that he passed through the county during his wonderful journey from his fort on the Illinois to Fron- tenae, in the winter of 1679-80.

The Iroquois had remained hostile to the French since Champlain's first expedition against them in 1609, and it had long been evident that a strong fortification was needed at the foot of Lake Ontario, both as a protection to the traders and a menace to the Indians. The construction of a fortification had been repeatedly recommended, and finally, in June, 1673, Frontenac, the governor of Canada, took possession of the spot where Kingston now stands, with an imposing force, and in the presence of sixty Iroquois chiefs, who had come on a peace mission. Fort Cutaraqui was commenced. It was a strong palisaded work, and mounted several light guns.

In 1675, La Salle was invested with the seigniory of this fort, and received a grant of the adjacent lands, extend- ing four leagues on the river front and half a league in depth, together with several of the neighboring islands. He was also raised to the rank of the untitled nobles. In 1676 and 1677 he rebuilt the fort entirely of stone, and rechristened it, in honor of the governor, " Fort Frontenac."

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Jefferson County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 7

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