History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches, Part 12

Author: Doty, Lockwood R., 1858- [from old catalog] ed; Van Deusen, W. J., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Jackson, Mich., W. J. Van Deusen
Number of Pages: 1422

USA > New York > Livingston County > History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches > Part 12

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John Montour, Do-noh-do-ga, ' was of mixed blood, a descendant of Queen Catharine, a half-blood of great beauty, whose father was said to have been a French governor of Canada, and whose mother was a squaw. Catharine became the wife of a noted chief, and allied herself with the Cayugas, establishing a village at the head of Seneca Lake. 2 Here John was living at the opening of the Revolution. He removed to the Genesee country, and after the peace of 1783, settled at Big Tree village. He appears in the Gilbert narrative as one of the lead- ers of a band of natives, who, in the spring of 1780, took several pris- oners in eastern Pennsylvania, among them the Gilbert family; and it would seem that his zeal kept him on the warpath during the whole struggle with the Colonies. He was acting with the force under Butler, between the Genesee and Conesus Lake, when Sullivan lay at the inlet, and retreated to Fort Niagara when the American army advanced toward the river towns. While at Fort Niagara, it is said, the British gave the Indians some flour which contained a poisonous element. Many died. Montour lived, but the poison re- sulted in an ulceration of his upper lip, which was quite eaten away, leaving both teeth and jaw exposed. This gave him a fierce look though he was quiet and good natured. "At first thought, " a pioneer

1. Meaning "Between burs." It might also be translated "Between the combs." The English name is spelled also Monture.

2. At Catharine's Town, or Gus-he-a-gwah-geh, named after Queen Catharine, as she is gener- ally called. This noted aboriginal village was burned by Sullivan. The town of Catharine and Montour in Schuyler County, perpetuate the name of Queen Catharine.

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said, "one would be led to expect him to take a scalp at a moment's notice." He was sometimes called "No-nose," and an impression prevails that a cancer ate away his lip. Ile knew something of med- icine, and, with remedies self applied, had stopped the progress of the ulcer. His imperfect lip made it difficult for him to drink. Once Colonel Lyman met him at the river in midsummer. Montour was thirsty and lay down on the bank to quench his thirst. He drank and drank, got up and lay down again, and drank as though he would never get his fill. As he rose, he said, "Lyman, the river is very low, very dry time." "Low," said the Colonel, "you have drunk all the water." The Indian laughed heartily. His probity was well known. Coming into Colonel Lyman's store one day, Mon- tour saw a pair of shag mittens hanging overhead. "Ah, Lyman, said he, "those are mine." "But stop"-the merchant was about to take them down-"let me describe mine first. I was at a certain place, a little drunk, staggered and fell, the hand covered by this mitten struck a burning log, which scorched it in such a part. Pull them down and see." The Indian got the mittens. A quarrel had long existed between Quawwa and Montour. The latter was quite athletic and very active, and always came out best, but in 1830 the pair got into a brawl at Squakie Hill. Montour had been drinking and Quawwa proved too much for him. He was knocked down and carried insensible to Big Tree. Here Doctor Bissell attended him, but he died in a week's time. He was buried in a blue broadcloth coat, white collar and silk cravat. His rifle, a noted piece, his toma- hawk, belt and several other articles, lie beside him. His grave is a couple of rods east of the road, still marked by a grassy hillock. Four other natives, Stump Foot's wife, Westfall, and two others sleep be- side him. It is recollected that Montour's wife was an estimable woman, and that his two children, Judy and Bill, possessed more than ordinary comeliness of person.

Quawwa, whose Indian name was Deo-dyah-do-oh-hoh, and whose correct English name was James Brewer, disappeared as soon as he learned that Montour was fatally injured. Horatio Jones and Jellis Clute entered a complaint, and an officer was sent to the Buffalo reservation in search of him. The officer was advised to call on Thomas Jemison and Kennedy, who would assist him. They took hold promptly, and found the fugitive at his sister's, aiding her in

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making maple sugar. Ile was brought to Moscow and examined be- fore a justice of the peace, and committed to jail. As he was leaving for Geneseo, his squaw, standing near Lyman's store, called out to him very piteously, "Quawwa!"' "Quawwa!" and kept it up long after he had disappeared from sight. He was indicted for murder and tried at the March term of 1831, Judge Addison Gardiner 'presid- ing; he was convicted of manslaughter in the second degree and sen- tenced to four years in Auburn prison. I Ile was troubled with the King's evil or scrofula. The disease developed'very rapidly after his incarceration. His death was regarded as imminent, and, on the representation of friends, Governor Throop pardoned him in Febru- ary, 1832. He was taken to Buffalo reservation, where he died in two or three days. Quawwa had many friends among the whites, especially among the younger men, who regarded him as faithful to the last degree. Captain Jones and Jellis Clute, although they entered the formal complaint, became bail for Quawwa's appearance at the trial, the Captain stating "I have no fear but that Quawwa will be on hand just as he promises, even though his own neck's in danger," and he was not disappointed.

De-gi'-wa-nahs, 2 or Mary Jemison, more commonly known as the White Woman, was born of honorable and well-to-do Scotch-Irish parents, about the year 1743, on the ocean voyage to this country in the ship "William and Mary." Her father, Thomas Jemison, a man of Christian character, settled upon an excellent tract of land lying on Marsh Creek in the frontier portion of Pennsylvania, soon after their arrival at Philadelphia. For a period of ten years or more, he led a busy and contented life in this home along the foot of South Moun- tain. In the autumn of 1754 he moved a short distance from his former abode, into what is now known as Buchanan Valley. One day, in the spring of 1755, Mary was sent to a neighbor's for a horse. On her way thither she appears to have had a presentiment. A white sheet seemed to descend and catch her up and save her from a danger that impended over others. Returning early the next morning, she found her father shaving an axe-helve near the door. Her two older

1. George Hosmer and Orlando Hastings appeared for the People: Judge Mason and A. A. Bennett for the prisoner. Horatio Jones was sworn as interpreter. Widow Rough-head, widow Johnny John- and Tom Cayuga were among the Indian witnesses.

2. Meaning "Two females let word- fall." Her Indian name is often given thus, De-he'd. mas.

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brothers were at the barn, and her mother and three children and a soldier's wife, who was on a visit with her three children, were in the house preparing breakfast. On Mary's arrival, the soldier took the horse to bring a bag of grain, but in a short time the discharge of guns alarmed the household, and the man and horse were presently seen lying dead near the door. A band of six Shawnee Indians and four Frenchmen soon entered the house, made captives of all. 1 and hastened the breakfastless group with blows, into the woods. The father lost heart at the outset, but the mother preserved a cheerful spirit and spoke words of hope to the forlorn family. Mary's shoes and those of the soldier's little son were soon removed and replaced with moccasins. From this the mother concluded that the others would be put to death, and addressed words of advice, never to be forgotten, to her poor child. In an hour's time Mary was torn from her mother and carried into the bushes with the boy, who begged her to attempt escape with him, but she refused, as she knew the effort would be fruitless. Mary never more saw aught of her parents, save

their bloody scalps strung on a pole. The band went down the Ohio. to a small Seneca Indian town at the mouth of a small river, called in Seneca She-nan-jee, about eighty miles by water from Pittsburg, where Mary was adopted by two sisters, Seneca squaws, who had lost a brother in the war. The ceremony of adoption that took place frightened the little captive that, for a time, she was deprived of speech. Her clothing, torn to rags in the journey, was thrown into the river and replaced with Indian raiment. Light work was assigned her and she was treated with great kindness. Iler adopted sisters would not allow her to speak English in their hearing; but, remember- ing the injunction of her mother, whenever she chanced to be alone she made a business of repeating her prayer, catechism or something she had learned, in order that she might not forget her own language. By practicing in that way, she retained it until she came to Genesee flats, where she soon became acquainted with English people, with whom she was thereafter thrown in almost daily intercourse and so preserved her native tongue to the last. Two years passed away, some measure of contentment with her surroundings having been acquired, when a young Delaware, of goodly person and approved

I. The two boys, who were at the barn, escaped into Virginia, as Mary learned after the Revolutionary War.

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courage, named She-nin-jee, came to the village and her foster sisters told her she must marry him. A child was born to her "at the time that the kernels of corn first appeared on the cob," but it lived only two days. Its loss occasioned the keenest grief to the youthful mother. Sickness, which proved well-nigh fatal followed, but "by the time the corn was ripe," she recovered. In the fourth year of her captivity, she became the mother of a son, whom, in honor of her father, she named Thomas Jemison. Her Indian mother lived on the Gene- see, and hither, with her foster sisters, she now repaired. Her husband was to pass the winter down the river in fur hunting and join her in the spring. Various mishaps attended the journey hitherward, which involved a trip of six hundred miles through the wilderness, carrying her child every step of the way; but late in the fall they arrived at Beardstown, where a friendly welcome awaited the white girl from her Indian mother, whose friendship never relaxed. But her husband did not return, and at length the news was brought that She-nin-jee had sickened and died. About this period the British authorities offered a bounty for the surrender of prisoners taken during the French war. A Dutchman, John Van Sice, who often visited the Indian villages, proposed to Mary to carry her to Niagara, but she had now become attached to the Indians, and she knew nothing of the where- abouts of her relatives, if, indeed, any survived. So she determined not to go. The Dutchman, with the bounty in view, sought to take her by force. While in her corn patch one day, she saw him running toward her. Dropping her hoe, she made for the village at full speed and escaped him. Some months later, the principal Chief of the village resolved to carry Mary to Niagara. Her Indian brother de- termined that she should not go against her will, and high words en- sued. He told the Chief that she should die by his hand sooner than be surrendered. Mary's sisters, in great consternation, hid her and her child in some high weeds that grew near by, agreeing that if the decision should be unfavorable, the fact should be indicated by placing a small cake on the door-step of her hut. A few hours after, Mary crept to the place, and, to her great distress, found the cake. Creep- ing back, she placed her three year old boy on her back and ran for a certain spring, as agreed, which she reached, greatly exhausted. 1

1. The spring was located on the farm of John F. White, in Leicester, but is now covered up hy a railroad switch.

Clump of Apple trees on The John Perkins farm in Leicester, near site of Mary Jemison Cobin. The tree from which these sprang was planted by the "White Woman."

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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

Here she remained, anxious and fearful, until the Chief started for Niagara, when her Indian brother sought her and brought her to the village, where she was received with joy. Soon after this she married ITio-ka-too, commonly called Gardeau, who was a warrior of note. By him she had four daughters and two sons, all of whom she named after her relatives. The girls were called Jane, Nancy, Betsy and Polly, and the boys John and Jesse. Jane died just before the Big Tree treaty, aged twenty-nine years. The other daughters married and had families. More than a dozen years of peace had come and gone, after her second marriage, when her quiet was rudely broken by the Indians taking up arms for the British in the war of the Revolution. Mary's hut became the stopping place of Butler and Brant whenever they chanced at Beardstown. She often pounded corn from sunset to sunrise for her warrior guests. When the Beardstown families re- treated before Sullivan, Mary, with her children, accompanied them to Fort Niagara, and was among the first to return to the Genesee. But destitution prevailed at Beardstown. She, therefore, took her children, carrying two on her back, the others following, and, on foot, went to Gardeau, where she engaged to two negroes, who alone occu- pied the place, to husk their corn on shares. After the war was over she was again offered her liberty. Thomas was anxious for her to accept it, but she had Indian children; should she have the fortune to find her relatives, they might be received with coldness; hence she resolved to spend her days among the Senecas. At the Big Tree treaty in 1797 the Gardeau lands, embracing 17,927 acres, were re- served in the grant from the Senecas to Robert Morris, and by a treaty made at the same time and place the Gardeau reservation was , granted to Mary.1 Red Jacket opposed the grant with great earnest- ness, and, even after it was made, he delayed moneys due her. Farmer's Brother was her friend and successful champion.

Family troubles gathered around the White Woman. Thomas and John had long disagreed. The former charged the latter with practicing witchcraft. He married two wives, and this greatly offended Thomas, who urged that bigamy was a violation of whole- some laws. Early in July, 1811, Thomas, who had been drinking, came to his mother's house in her absence, and there found John.

1. See appendix No. 6 for copy of grant of Gardean Reservation, and other matter relating to the Gardean lands.

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whom he began to pound. The latter, in a moment of anger, seized Thomas, dragged him to the door and killed him by a blow of his tomahawk. Grief overwhelmed the mother. The chiefs met, heard the case, and acquitted the murderer. In November of the same year, Hio-ka-too died of consumption at the age of more than a hun- dred years, during fifty of which he had lived with Mary. He was a leading warrior, taking part in the expedition to Wyoming, and was noted for strength, and, in his younger days, for fleetness. In May following. John's hands were again imbrued in a brother's blood. This time Jesse, the youngest and favorite son, was the victim. The two, with a brother-in-law, had spent the day in sliding a quantity of boards into the river for a raft. Some difficulty arose between John and a workman. Both had been drinking. Jesse had started home- ward. His brother's delay caused him to turn back, and he too be- came involved in the quarrel. John threw him, and, drawing his knife, plunged it several times into his heart. Either stab would have been fatal. The mother never recovered from the shock. A rude inquest was held, and John escaped punishment. He continued to reside at Gardeau, devoting himself to the practice of medicine, in which he had skill. Five years after Jesse's death, he was sent for to a distant Seneca village. During his absence, the great land slide occurred, near his house.1 On his return he became impressed with the belief that it was ominous of his end. He told his sisters he should live but a few days. A week or two later, in visiting Squakie Hill, he quarrelled with two Indians, who followed him a short dis- tance, dragged him from his horse into the bushes, and dashed his brains out with a stone. He was essentially a man of violence. Turner mentions seeing him on his way to the Buffalo reservation. at the head of a small band of Senecas, to kill the blacksmith, Reese, who had cut off Young King's arm with a scythe in an altercation. Jemison was armed with a war club and tomahawk, his face covered with red paint, and long bunches of horse hair dyed red hung from his arms.

1. In the month of May, 1817, a portion of the land on the west side of the river at the upper end of Gardean Flats, thickly covered with heavy timber, suddenly gave away, and with a tre- mnendou- crash slid into the bed of the river which it so completely filled as to form a new chan- nel on the east side, where it has since continued to run. The slide as it now lies contains twenty- two acres and has a considerable share of the timber that formerly covered it still standing erect and growing, although it has suffered the shock produced by a fall of some two hundred feet be. low its former elevation. This is called the "Great Slide."

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Mary continued to reside on the portion of the Gardeau reserva- tion in the County of Genesee, now Wyoming, retained by her until her removal in 1831 to the Buffalo reservation. She was held in high esteem by the Indians, and during a large portion of her life . she formed the principal medium of communication between the whites and the Senecas. According to Indian ideas she always con- ducted herself virtuously, and was discreet in the observance of native customs. She never spoke the Indian language with entire Auency. The use of the English tongue was so far retained by her, that she conversed with much freedom with Yankees, as she always styled the whites.

The following interesting picture of Mary Jemison was furnished by Dr. William B. Munson, of Independence, Ohio, in response to an inquiry made by Mr. Letchworth, who at the time had under con- sideration the erection of a statue of her at Glen Iris:

"According to the picture which I have in my mind of her, she had the shape, form, and figure of an active, lively little old woman seventy-five or eighty years of age, about four and a half feet in height, exhibiting the remains of a fair complexion and regular fea- tures that had been in youth extremely beautiful. The cheek bones were not prominent, nor was the chin, and the nose was not large; but, considering her age, all these features were quite symmetrical. The head was of medium size, covered with gray hair smoothed back- ward; the neck was not long, but in due proportion to the size of her head and body, the shoulders were rounded and stooping forward or bent, a position which might have been acquired, or have been brought about by the manner of bearing burdens customary with Indian women, and from age and the effects of hardships encountered throughout her eventful life. The eyesight had become dim, but the features had not become wrinkled as much as might have been ex- pected from the many troubles and sorrows endured by her.

"The 'White Woman' was quite intelligent, sociable, and commun- icative, but grave and serious after the manner of the Indians with whom her life from early childhood had been spent, With familiar acquaintances she would join in lively conversation and brisk repartee. Mentioning to her upon one occasion that I had read the history of her life, and that it had interested me very much, 'Ah, yes! she replied, 'but I did not tell them who wrote it down half of what it was.' It was thought at that time that she withheld infor- mation which the Indians feared might stir up against them the prej- udices of the white people.

"In making visits to the 'White Woman' we were in the habit of

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taking along some trifling presents for her. At one time we carried along a bottle of the best Madeira wine. She manifested her grateful acknowledgment of the gift, and, taking the bottle of wine, went and hid it carefully away from the Indians.

"She was residing in her own blockhouse, superintending prepar- ations of provisions for a journey to Buffalo, about the last time 1 saw her, shortly before the final departure of the Indians from the Genesee country. She was assisted in the work by her daughter Polly and a number of young papooses. They had a large brass kettle swung over an open fire of wood upon the hearth. The kettle was filled with boiling luid. Sitting, standing, and squatting around a large wooden trough filled with hominy made into dough, the mother, daughter, and grandchildren were busily engaged in making up balls of dough from the kneading-trough and incorpo- rating therein plenty of dried apples and pumpkin which lay beside the trough. As the balls were made up they were tossed into the boiling kettle, and when deemed thoroughly cooked, were taken out and laid upon boards or pieces of bark. Iremember the food had a savory odor and appeared to be very good; but we could not vouch for the palatableness of the delectable dumplings, as they offered none of them to us. In viewing the preparation of this food, however, we saw most beautifully and satisfactorily solved the problem which so long muddled and belabored the brains of King George the Third, namely, the mystery of how the apple got into the dumpling.

"The last time I remember seeing her was late in the fall season. She was habited in woollen petticoat and short gown that came mid- leg below the knees, buckskin leggings and moccasins, and, over all, a white, common woolen Indian blanket. It was just at night, and she was going in search of a stray Indian pony, and was led by a young Indian, one of her grandchildren. She went spatting through the rivulet of ice-cold water just north of the house, and although her sight was so dim she could scarcely see, to all appearance, to discern in twilight twice the length of a horse, on she went, in spite of every obstacle, with the same energy and determined purpose that had characterized her whole life."

Mr. Bryant says that immediately after going to Buffalo, she pur- chased the cabin and the small piece of ground which belonged to an Indian known as "Little Johnson," situated a short distance south of the old Indian burial ground. Her household consisted of herselt, her daughter Polly and son-in-law, George Shongo, and five little grandchildren, three of whom were boys and two were girls. She brought with her the proceeds of the sale of the Genesee River lands, a sum not more than sufficient, with prudent management, to render

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her last days comfortable, and to make a reasonable provision for her grandchildren, of whom she was very fond. It must be added, with regret, although the circumstance harmonizes with the mournful tenor of her whole life, that this little fortune was, soon after her removal to Buffalo, lost through an unfortunate speculation on the part of a white man to whose custody she had confided it. Mary Jemison was a rich landed proprietress on the Genesee, and it must have been a hard blow, the discovery that her few remaining days were to be spent in poverty and dependence. It is known, however, that her simple wants were supplied by her daughter and son-in- law, who were not wanting in filial love and attention to this aged and sorrow-stricken woman. 1 Amid these surroundings, this pathetic figure passed away on September 19th, 1833.

She was buried in the cemetery near the Sencca Mission Church, on the Buffalo Creek Reservation, and a marble slab was erected to mark the spot. This stone, in course of time, was hacked away by relic seekers, until only a small portion of it was visible above the ground, and all traces of the last resting place of this remarkable character would probably soon have disappeared, had it not been for certain leading members of the Buffalo Historical Society, in co-operation with Hon. William P. Letchworth, of Portage. In 1872 Mr. Letchworth had removed to his grounds at Glen Iris, of which an account is given in another place, the veritable Indian council house2 in which the White Woman rested on the first night after she came into the Genesee country, at the end of her long journey from Ohio, and it was thought by these gentlemen, to which suggestion Mr. Letchworth at last yielded, that it would be most ap- propriate that her remains should find a last resting place near the council house and by the Genesee, on which she had spent so many years of her life. Accordingly, the remains were removed from Buffalo by James Shongo, a favorite grandson. the son of her daughter Polly, and taken to the grave at Glen Iris, located a few feet northerly of the council house, and here they were reinterred on the 7th day of March, 1874, with appropriate ceremonies. Soon after, a marble monument was erected at the grave by Mr. Letchworth. One of its sides bears the inscription of the original tombstone

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History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches, Part 12

Author: Doty, Lockwood R., 1858- [from old catalog] ed; Van Deusen, W. J., pub. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Jackson, Mich., W. J. Van Deusen Number of Pages: 1422

Author: Doty, Lockwood R., 1858- [from old catalog] ed; Van Deusen, W. J., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Jackson, Mich., W. J. Van Deusen
Number of Pages: 1422