USA > New York > Livingston County > History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches > Part 103
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Accordingly, at the next meeting, Red Jacket rose and informed me that the
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Senecas had come to the determination to sell only one Township, or six square miles, to be located on the Pennsylvania line, and that for this tract, they would require a payment of one dollar per acre ; that, after purchasing it, I would make a Town of it, and sell it for six dollars per acre ; and that the difference between the purchase-money and that received from sales, would more than repay all the expenses of the Treaty.
I immediately arose, and told them that their proposal did not deserve a 110- ment's consideration ; that it was inadmissible ; and that, if they had no more reasonable offer to make, the sooner our conferences terminated the better, so that we might all go home.
Red Jacket immediately sprang up and said-"'We have now reached the point to which I wanted to bring you. You told us, when we first met, that we were free, either to sell or retain our lands: and that our refusal to sell would not disturb the friendship that has existed between us. I now tell you that we will not part with them. Here is my hand" stretching it ont to me; and after l liad taken it, he added, "I now cover up this Council-fire."
After this, the whooping and yelling of the Indians was such that a person less accustomed to them, would have imagined that they intended to tomahawk ns all. One of their drunken Warriors, in a most violent and abusive Speech, asked me liow I dared to come among them to cheat them out of their lands.
This result was galling beyond measure to Mr. Bayard, on account of the dis- appointment it would occasion to his principals. He bitterly lameuted that he had urged mne to take this step. I then told him that I thought it possible to bring on the business anew; that I would make the attempt, provided both lie and Colonel Wadsworth would engage not to interfere with me, by advice or otherwise. This he readily promised, both on his own and the Colonel's behalf. He begged me to make the effort, althoughi, as lie said, he could not anticipate a favorable result from it.
The following day, Farmer's Brother called on me, and expressed a hope that the failure of the Treaty, would not diminish the friendship that had so long subsisted between his Nation and myself. I told him that I had no right to com- plain of their not selling their lands; but that I had a right to complain of their behavior towards me, at our last meeting ; that they had permitted oue of their drunken Warriors to insult me; and that the rest of them joined in the yelling and whooping in such a manner as to show their approbation of this insult; that 1 had not deserved such treatment from them; that, for several years, I had never refused thiem either food or as much liquor as was good for them, when they came to Canandaigua ; that my father, when any of their Chiefs were in Philadelphia, had been kind to them; and that, during this Treaty, they had all been well fed and supplied with liquor. He replied that all this was true; that lie was sorry that we should part with any cause for dissatisfaction ou my mind. He also regretted that the Council-fire had been covered up, as there would be no oppor- tunity for us to meet again and smooth over and heal these difficulties.
I told him, that he was mistaken-that the Council-fire was not extinguished ; and I complained of it as another grievance tliat Red Jacket had declared tlie
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Council-fire to be covered up, when, according to their own usages, he who lit the Council-fire had alone the right to cover it up; that the council-fire had been kindled by me; and as I had not covered it up, it was still burning.
After a few moments reflection, he said that was true ; that it had not occurred to him before; and that he was glad it was so, as we might meet now and smooth over all our difficulties and causes for discontent.
It was accordingly agreed upon between us, that we should again meet in Council ; but I told him that it must be postponed for a few days, during which I should be occupied in examining the Accounts and paying for the provisions which had been consumed by them, collecting the cattle not slaughtered, etc.
The Indians are very tenacious of a strict adherence to those usages and customs. According to their usages, their Sachems have a right to transact all the business of the Nation, whether it relates to their lands or any other of their concerns. But when it relates to their lands, and they are dissatisfied with the management of the Sachems, the women and Warriors have a right to divest them of this power, and take it into their own hands-the maxims among them being, that the lands belong to the Warriors, because they form the strength of the Nation, and to the women, as the mothers of the Warriors. There are, therefore, in every town, head or chief women, who, when in Council, select some Warrior to speak for them.
Apprehensive that it would be difficult to induce the Sachems. to retrace their steps and accede to any arrangement widely different from the proposal they had made, I determined to try whether a negotiation with the women and Warriors would not be attended with a better result. I therefore caused all the chief women, with some of the Warriors, to meet me. I then addressed them, and informed them of the offers that had been made to their Sachems. I told them that the money that would proceed from the sale of their lands, would relieve the women from all the hardships that they then endured ; that now they had to till the earth and provide by their labor, food for themselves and their children; that when those children were without clothing and shivering with cold, they alone witnessed their sufferings; that their Sachems could always supply their own wants; that they fed on the game they killed, and procured clothing for them- selves by exchanging the skins of the animals they had killed for such clothing ; that therefore the Sachems were indifferent about exchanging for their lands money enough every year to lessen the labor of the women and enable them to procure for themselves and their children the food and clothing so necessary for their comfort. I finished by telling them that I had brought a number of presents from Philadelphia, which I had intended to have given to them only in the event of a sale of their lands ; but, as I had no cause of complaint against the women, I could cause their portion of those presents to be distributed among then.
For some days, the chief women and Warriors might be seen scattered about in little knots ; after which, I received a message, informing me that the women and Warriors would meet me in Council, and negotiate with me.
You will find among the Speeches, in the memorandums before alluded to, one made by a War chief called Little Beard. This was the Chief who made a prisoner
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of Lieutenant Boyd, an officer in General Sullivan's Army, at the time of the invasion of the Genesee Country, when Boyd was captured. Boyd was carried across the Genesee river to Beard's Town, of which Little Beard was the Chief, and was there tortured by him. I must refer you to the Speeches of Little Billy, a War chief, to that of a Cayuga Chief, to Colonel Wadsworth's explanation, and, finally, to Cornplanter's Speech, for the discussions while treating with the women and Warriors, -from whom the purchase was eventually made.
Here it may be proper to notice a difficulty which occurred during the negoti- ations that have been described.
The instructions of the President of the United States were, that the purchase- money to be paid to the Indians should be invested in the stock of the Bank of the United States, in the name of the President and lits successors in office, a> their Trustee. As no Indian can count over oue hundred, the first difficulty was to make them understand, how much one hundred thousand dollars was. The second was to account to them for the irregularity of their annual payments. To obviate the first, it became necessary to compute the number of kegs of a given size that one liundred thousand dollars would fill, and the number of horses that would be required to draw that sum in specie. As to a Bank, and the uncertainty of the dividends on its stock, they could not be made to comprehend anything about it. Their only conjecture in relation to it was, that the Bauk was a large place in Philadelphia where a large sum of money was planted and that some years it would produce a more abundant crop than others; and long after the sale of their lands on my return to Canandaigua from New York or Philadelphia, they would inquire of me what kind of crop they might expect in that year.
After the terms of the Treaty had been agreed upon, the next difficulty, and it was not a small one, was to restrict them as to the extent of their Reservations. I had agreed to give them one hundred thousand dollars for the whole of their lands, and to make uo deduction from that sum, if they would content themselves with moderate Reservations; but insisting on a proportionate reduction from that sum, if their Reservations were large. The first discussions were as to the mnode of fixing those Reservations. The Indians wanted them to be by natural bound- aries, such as the course of streams, etc. To this I objected, knowing their per- fect acquaintance and our ignorance of the quantity of land that such courses would embrace. For the sake of certainty, I insisted on, and with great difficulty got them to consent to, square miles. These being marked out on a map of their country, they could form an opinion of the quantity of land left to them. When we first met to allot to each of their village sites proportionate part of the two hundred thousand acres retained by them, the utmost jealousy appeared to exist among the different Chiefs, as to the portion that should be annexed to the place of his residence.
The importance of a Chief and his influence with his Nation are, in a great measure proportionate to the number of his followers ; and that number is either increased or diminished by extent of the land annexed to the Chief's residence. Hence the struggle on the part of every Sachem and chief Warrior, both to increase his own bounds and to lessen those of a rival Chief. This contest was
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more violent between Red Jacket and Cornplanter than any of the others-the first wanting the principal Reservation to be at Buffalo Creek, and the second at his residence, at tlie Alleghany. I found it impossible to come to any arrangement on this subject when more than a couple of the same tribe were together; and I therefore required that each of them should alternately send to me one or two Chiefs, with whom the arrangements were finally made.
You will perceive, among the Memorandums that were kept during the Treaty, the very large deductions they were desirons of making from the country which they liad agreed to sell-Red Jacket claiming for Buffalo alone, near one-fourth of it. In this they would have persisted had it not been for the apprehension of a proportionate reduction of the money to be paid to them.
After all these matters had been adjusted to the satisfaction of all parties, a young Indian, about twenty-four years of age, called Young King, who before had not attended the Treaty, made his appearance. He was, by the female line, a lineal descendant of Old Smoke, whose memory is revered as the greatest man that ever had ruled over the Six Nations. During his life, his power was unbounded. Young King was a heavy, dull, unambitious, but honest man. He seldom meddled with the business of the Nation; but when he did so, the influence which he derived from his birth was great. On the arrival of Young King, all further business was suspended, until that which had been done wa- explained to him. After this explanation had been made he expressed his disapprobation at the course that had been pursued. Farmer's Brother and other Chiefs then informed me that the Treaty could not be completed contrary to the wishes of Young King ; that, however unreasonable it might appear to be that one man should defeat the will of a whole Nation, it was a power which he derived from his birth, and which he could not be deprived of. Yonng King, at last, though not reconciled to the parting with their lands, acquiesced, saying that lie would no longer oppose the will of the Nation.
The night previons to the signing the Treaty, Red Jacket came to me privately, and told me that he would not sign the Treaty in the Council house, when the other Chiefs did so, because lie had pretended to them that he was opposed to it ; but that, after its execution by the others, he would come to me privately, and have his name affixed to it. He added, that it would not do for the Treaty to go to Philadelphia without his name, as General Washington when he examined it and found his signature wanting, might imagine that he had been degraded, and had lost his rank and influence among the Senecas. He desired, therefore, that a vacant place might be left on the parchment, near the top of the instrument, which he would, privately, come and have filled up with hi- name, and which he accordingly did.
In 1791, the County of Ontario (which then included all Western New York ), although not entitled to it from its population, became, by a Law of the State, authorized to elect a member of Assembly. It was not known in Canandaigua, Geneva, nor any or the settlements in the County, excepting a small one in the southern part of it, that such a Law had passed. Colonel Eleazer Lindley, who, with some of his relatives, had established themselves uear the Tioga river, had
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accidentally heard of its existence ; and on the day of the Election, he assembled them together, and got them to vote for him. These votes were never canvassed, but were carried to New York by Lindley himself, when the Legislature met. Notwithstanding this irregularity, he was admitted to hi- seat in the Assembly on the principle that every county entitled to a Representative ouglit to be represented. The following year, General Israel Chapin became it- Repre- sentative. In 1795, Ontario, for the first time, became divided, a portion of the southern part of it having been detached from it, and erected into a separate County by the name of Steuben.
I had not been in the western part of our State for thirty-two years, until last August, (1843) when I paid a visit to my friend Mr. Greig, at Canandaigua. I am at a loss to say whether my surprise or my delight was the greatest, at the improvements that I have found in every part of it, since I had seen it.
I was particularly struck with the city of Rochester. In June, 1797, Louis Philip, the present King of the French, and his two brothers, the Duke de Mont- pensier and Count Beaujolais, were my guests at Canandaigua. Being desirous of showing them the Falls of the Genesee river, we rode togetlier to where Rochester now is. There had not, at that time, a tree been cut down, nor was there a lint of any kind. The nearest habitation was at the house of a farmer named Perrin, where, after having viewed the Falls, we dined, on our return to Canandaigua.
Notwithstanding all that I had heard of the progress of Rochester, it was difficult for me to realize that a place that I had last seen, even at that distance of time, an uninhabited wilderness, should now be an active, busy city, containing elegant and costly buildings, and with a population, as I was informed there, of between twenty-five and thirty thousand inhabitants.
APPENDIX NO. XI.
TRANSACTION OF THE "OGDEN L,AND COMPANY. "
The right to buy the lands reserved in the treaty of Big Tree was sold by the representatives of the Holland Land company to David A. Ogden, the deed being dated September 12, 1810. On February 8, 1821, Ogden transferred his right to Robert Troup, Thomas Ludlow Ogden and Benjamin W. Rogers, as trustees. The trust is what is commonly called "The Ogden Land Company." On December 19, 1829, Robert Troup, Thomas L. Ogden and Benjamin W. Rogers, trustees, conveyed to Thomas L. Ogden, Charles G. Troup and Joseph Fellows, trustees. After the death of the first two, Joseph Fellows, trustee, conveyed to George R. Babcock and Charles E. Appleby, trustees. Babcock died in 1876 and Appleby is now the sole trustee.
There never was any corporation called "The Ogden Land Company." There i> no capital stock. There are twenty shares or interests in the trust estate. They have no face value, each share representing one-twentieth of whatever may be the value of the right to buy the lands. Charles E. Appleby owns one share. The others are owned by the estates of the following persons now dead : Joshua Wad-
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dington, four shares : Thomas Ludlow Ogden two shares : Abraham Ogden one share : Peter Schermerliorn one share : Duncan P. Campbell one share : Robert Bayard one share; Benjamin W. Rogers two shares; Louisa Troup one share : Charlotte Brinckeroff one share ; Robert L. Tillot-on one share ; James S. Wads- worth, one and one-half shares; Ogden F. Murray, one-half share, Shaw and Wilson, two shares, now held by the Bank of England.
By treaty at Buffalo Creek, August 21, 1826, the Senecas sold to Troup, Ogden, and Rogers the Caneadea reservation, containing sixteen square miles; the Canawaugus reservation, containing two square miles; the Big Tree reservation, containing two square miles ; the Squakie Hill reservation, containing two square miles ; two square miles of the Gardeau reservation ; 33,637 acres of the Buffalo Creek reservation ; 33,409 acres of the Tonawanda reservation; 640 acres in the Cattaraugus reservation, in the present town of Hanover, and "the mile -trip" and "mile square" in Erie county-in all 87,526 acres, for $48,216.
Of the total purchase price, $43,250 in the stock of the public debt of the United States was transferred to the Ontario bank at Canandaigua, and afterwards to the United States treasury, in trust for the Senecas, and in each year they have received $2, 162.50, being the interest at five per cent.
The greatest frauds were practiced on the Indians at the treaty of 1826. Of the purchase money $4,966 was never placed to their credit at all, but was used, with other funds of the Ogden Land Company. in bribing the leading chiefs and settling annuities upon them. Many of them received from eighty dollars to $120 a year so long as they lived.
After the sale of the Genesee river reservations and the other tracts of land which we have mentioned the Ogden Land Company continued to own the right to buy the Tonawanda and Allegany reservations and the remainder of the Cattar- augus reservation. Its right to buy the Tonawanda lands was purchased in 1857 by the Indians themselves and the title thereto is now held by the Comptrol- ler of the State of New York in trust for the Tonawanda Indians.
All the right that now remains to the Ogden Land Company, therefore, is to buy the Allegany reservation, containing 30,469 acres and the remaining 21,760 acres of the Cattaraugus reservation.
With an impudence, that, in view of the facts, is simply amazing, the Ogden Land Company claims now the right to buy out the actual ownership of the land, . and concedes to the Indians nothing more than the right to occupy it.
The only right which Massachusetts assumed to sell to Morris was the right to buy of the Indians, and this is the only right which the Ogden Land Company has now.
In speaking of this claim Goveronor DeWitt Clinton said to the Indian -: "All the right which the Ogden company have to your reservations is the right to pur- chase when you deem it expedient to sell them; that is, they can buy your lands, but no other person can."
The Committee of the General Council of Massachusetts, in their report of 1840, said in regard to the claim that under the agreement with New York "Massaclıu- setts held the sole and exclusive right to purchase the lands whenever the Indians
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should voluntarily dispose of them. The sole and exclusive right to purchase the land of the Indians gave no other title or interest in the land whatever. Such in- terest of title could be assigned only by a sale or conveyance thereof by the Indians."
The judiciary committee of the senate of the state of New York, in a report made in 1857, referring to the Ogden claim said: "It was simply the right to purchase of the Indians whenever they might choose to sell. " 1
The following speech made by Frank L. Patterson, a Seneca Indian, and presi- dent of the Seneca Nation, at a gathering of Senecas held at Irving, New York, July 9, 1904, relates to the subject of the "Ogden Land Company" claim and is interesting as showing in a general way the situation of the Seneca people :
"My Friends: Since I have been an officer of the Seneca nation I have had more or less to do with its affairs and have learned something of the situation our nation is in. Our reservations are free and clear of debt, and we have a large sum of money due ns from the government, from the Kansas fund. Our interest in that fund is probably three-quarters of a million dollars. The money became due in 1898 and was voted by congress in 1900 but there seems to be a good deal of difficulty in getting the money from the United States treasury, The United States owes us this money, and we hope after a time, to receive it.
"While the Senecas have a good many enemies on their borders, and in Wash- ington, we have some excellent friends. We have recently lost a good friend in Senator Matthew Stanley Quay. Senator Quay was always for doing justice to the Seneca Indians. We have also a most excellent friend, Bishop William D. Walker, who is with us today. Bishop Walker unselfishly, in season and out of season, bas stood up for us, and our rights.
"He is better acquainted with our condition than any other public man. Whenever we have been assailed by false charges, Bishop Walker has stood up in our defense. He is a member of the Board of Indian Commissioners, and almost the only member of the board who has any correct knowledge of our affairs and the only member of the board that has stood up boldly for our interests in that commission.
"We Senecas have great cause to hope for justice from the senate of the United States. Twice that senate has stopped the passage of that unjust and wicked bill known as the Vreeland bill, and I firmly believe that no bill wliich seeks to rob the Seneca nation of its property and rights can pass the senate of the United States.
"I wish I could say as much for the house of representatives, but truth will not permit me to do it. We are willing to sell to the lessees of the Seneca nation, in the villages on our reservations, the lands which they occupy, for a reasonable compensation. We are not willing that these lessees shall fix the price without consulting us. We think inasmuch as we own the title, and have to give the deeds, we should be consulted about the prices we receive.
"Our suit against the Ogden Land Company has been tried at Buffalo, before Judge Kenefick, and we hope for a favorable decision in the near future. It will
1 The foregoing statement i- from an article by Mr. Samson published in the Rochester "Post Express."
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
be a great relief to us to get rid of the shadow which the Ogden Land Company seeks to cast on our title to our reservations.
"Mr. Van Voorhis, of Rochester, and Mr. Moot, of Buffalo, tried the case for us and feel confident of success. Our population is increasing and not diminish- ing in numbers. In 1830 we had a population of about fifteen or sixteen hundred. Now we have more than 2,300. We feel that we are improving in civilization. We live much in the style in which our white neighbor- live.
"The government of our nation is republican in form. Our officers are elected by the people. There is not a vestige of tribal government among us and has not been in more than fifty years. Our children are being taught in the public schools maintained by the state. Our farms are better cultivated than ever before. Our lands have been allotted many years ago among the Indian families. We have courts to settle our legal matters, the same as the white people. Our council con- sists of sixteen members elected by the people, and consists of representative li- dians, all of whom are educated to a greater or less degree.
"Our people speak the English language, and almost all of them can read it and write it. We are fast getting on to the ways of civilization, and hope the time is not far distant when the only difference between the Senecas and the white people will be one of complexion.
"I want to thank Bishop Walker, in the name of the Seneca Indians, for liis courtesy in attending our picnic, and for the many ways in which he has shown his friendship for us.
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