History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches, Part 7

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 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).

1. The names are given in the Mohawk dialect.

2. Pronounced as though written De-o-don-sote, literally " at the spring." O. H. Marshall, Esq .. in a letter respecting this village, refers to the puzzling orthography of Indian proper names when conveyed through different languages. The name of Dyu-doosot. for instance. is given by DeNon- ville, a> Gannounnata: in the proces verbal of taking possession of the village by the French, it is written Gannondata; Belmont, in his history, calls it Ounenaba; Greenhalgh, in his journal (1677). gives it Keinthe: La Hontan calls it Danonearitaoni, and Ackes Cornelius Viele writes it Kaunonada.

3. The spot was visited by Colonel Doty in Angust, 1869, One of the then owners of the farm, Mr. ('aton, was, at the moment, engaged in harvesting barley in the field, containing about 20 acres, where the grave-yard was located. He said that stone hammers, axes amd beads were from time to time found in plowing. The graveyard, a small one, was then no longer inneh used, and was grown up with shrubbery. Members of the Chappell and Whaley families, and a few others, repose there over the dust of the long forgotten Seueen warrior and counciflor.

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

village, distant two leagues from To-ti-ak-to, and remarks that one would hardly credit the quantity of old and new corn found by him in store there, all of which perished by fire, 1 as likewise did a "vast quantity of hogs." As he entered this village, he found the symbol of British sovereignty, the coat of arms of England, placed there three years before by Governor Dongan, though the arms were ante-dated as of 1683. While De Nonville lay here, a Huron belonging to his force, brought in the scalps of a Seneca man and woman, whom he had found in an excursion to the eastward. The Huron, in reporting, speaks of the "multitude of paths by which the enemy had fled." In 1677, Greenhalgh counted the houses in the four Seneca towns. Dyu-do'o-sot' was found to contain twenty-four.2 Influenced by a supersitition, never a solitary hut was rebuilt, but the Senecas sought now the banks of the Genesee, along which they reared their villages, and for ninety years remained undisputed masters of the region.

On the western shore of the Genesee nearly opposite the sulphur springs at Avon, lay Can-a-wau-gus," the northernmost of the river towns. Its site was a few rods south of the old toll bridge, on land formerly owned by heirs of Simon Mckenzie. Both the great central trail between the Hudson and the Niagara rivers, and the principal pathway leading from the falls at Rochester to the homes of tribesmen on the upper Genesee, passed through it. The population of Canawatt- gus at the period of its greatest importance, has been estimated at one thousand souls.+ It was the birth place of Cornplanter, and of his scarcely less noted half brother, Handsome Lake, the Peace Prophet.

1. On the basis afforded by DeNonville, the corn destroyed at Dyu-do'o-sot' was not less than a quarter of n million bushels. He says, "We had the curiosity to estimate the whole quantity. green as well as ripe corn, which we have destroyed in the four villages, and we found that it would amount to 350,000 minots of green, and 50,000 minots of old corn." He adds, "There was no less corn in (Dyu- do'o-sot' or) Gannonata than at any of the other villages." A minot is a French measure of three bushels; making the total of corn destroyed by the Expedition, 1,200,000 bushels! [Ser note to Mar- shall's trans. p. 37.]

2. Greenhalgh says "Keint-he contains about 24 houses, well furnished with corn." fee Col. Docs. N. Y., Vol. III.]

3. Ca-no-wa-gas, also Ga-no-wa-gas, literally "stinking water;" or, "it has the smell of the seum." Col. Hosmer's orthography of the name is followed in the text.

4. Col. Hosmer is authority for this statement. Previous thereto, according to tradition, the popu- lation was much grenter. Col. Hosmer said in 1×69: "My cousin James Hosmer, now over 70, thinks iu his boyhood the Canawaugus Indians numbered only 500 or 600." These estimates appear quite too large.

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

Here, the latter received his revelation, and here often came the wise men of the Senecas to counsel with these and other noted residents. The Indian medicine-man often resorted to the healing waters of the neighboring spring, making his temporary home at this village, which thus acquired consequence in the minds of the natives. Their burial place, situated a score of rods to the north of the town, has often yielded up its bones to the plowman, and relics such as stone hammers, flint arrow heads, iron axes and other aboriginal weapons, have, from time to time, been found in the vicinity. "Often," says Colonel Hosmer, speaking in 1869, "I pay visits to the old Indian orchard, lying two miles away, as the crow flies, in southwest direction from the old bridge. Two apple trees have been spared by the axe, and I regret to say that their windbowed and mossy trunks will soon share the fate of the race who planted them. The early settlers of Avon discovered peach trees growing in the forest on the site of an ancient corn field of the Indians, the fruit of which was of good flavor. Many years since the council house at Canawaugus was standing. When last visited by me, a quarter of a century ago, it was in a state of decay-the roof, overlaid with bark, was falling in, and the storms had partly beaten down the walls. The building was low and about sixty feet in length. In the centre of the roof, which was bark bent to a rounded form over the ridge pole, was an open place for the escape of smoke, when the elders of the tribe convened."

Mrs. Berry1 was heard to say that in olden times there wasan Indian village on the east side of the river, not far from the red bridge (built in 1817) ; and that many huts were burned on that side of the river by a scouting party from Sullivan's army.

Dyu'-ne-ga-nooh'? was situated near the northwestern margin of the great spring at Caledonia. To the east and south of the Indian town lay oak openings, where the Senecas pastured their rough coated ponies. To the southwest, a grove of wild plum trees and grape vines, on forest grown trellises, opened before the natives, supplying them with fruit, while the waters of the spring afforded trout and other fine fish in abundance. Standing near the westerly border of the spring

1. Wife of the Indian trader, Gilbert R. Berry.

2. It is often written De-ov-ne-gau-no, and means "clear cold water."Gan-e-o-de-ya, was the name given by the Senecas to the Caledonia spring, and signifies "clear small lake."

6,9

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

was the fatal post to which the condemned prisoner was fastened for torture; and hither, from other Seneca towns, were brought captives of consequence, the prisoners of state. Horatio Jones pointed out to John MeKay, the precise spot where the post stood, as the two strolled one evening along the Spring creek. "John." said the former, "do you ever see ghosts after nightfall wandering through these woods? If Indian hunters are to be credited, sights are often seen here that would make your hair rise." The Indian burial place was located about twenty rods northeast of the spring, where in digging wells and cellars, bones in abundance have been disinterred. A young woman, 1 while in pursuit of her cows in an early day, passing near the burial- place observed a grass grown hillock by the footpath. Thrusting in her walking stick, she disturbed a quantity of bones from their slight covering, doubtless those of poor captives who had suffered torture at the stake. Articles of pottery, bearing curious devices, copper kettles similar in style to those in use among Spanish colonists, and rudely formed hatchets and arrowheads, have been met with here. Long after the permanent occupancy of the village ceased, it continued to be a noted stopping place for bands of natives and parties of pioneers, or travelers passing to and fro along the central trail leading from Albany to Niagara river. Turner cites the remark of an old Canadian emigrant, who, after the Revolution, often passed over this route. He said that camping here was so frequent that the fires of one party would be burning when another arrived. At this village rested for a few hours the fugitive families from Beardstown as they fled before Sullivan; and here, too, halted, next day. the force under Butler as it retreated toward Niagara. In 1796, a detachment of regulars on their way up lake Ontario to take possession of Fort Niagara in batteaux, were driven by stress of weather from the lake to the mouth of the Genesee. They came thence to the mouth of Allen's creek and quar- tered on the farm of Peter Shaeffer When they broke up their quar- ters there, Mr. Shaeffer piloted them to Caledonia springs where they bivouacked for the night. 2

The village of the Tuscarora Indians, O-ha-gi & lay a mile

I. Later Mrs. John McKay.

2. Turner's Phelps & Gorham's Pur .- p. 409

3. A few steps south of the old canal culvert. Mr. Wright thinks the true orthography may be Dyu-hah-gaih, meaning "the current bites the bank, " or, "eats it away "

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

north of the Big Tree town on the same side of the river. Its site was a gentle swell of land rising westward from a marshy flat, some thirty rods south of the old Spencer warehouse. The canal passed through the old Indian town, on the easterly border of which there were standing until quite recently two apple trees planted by the natives. A spring of slightly brackish water which supplied the vil- lage, and around which the houses clustered, is still in existence. Richard Osbon, whose farm now owned by Hon. James W. Wadsworth, lies just south of the site, came to this country in 1806. He said that then plain traces of several huts were yet to be

SITE OF TUSCARORA BURIAL PLACE NEAR MAJOR SPENCER'S.

seen; but all external evidences of aboriginal occupancy have since disappeared. The Indian burial place which lay to the northeast of the village, from which it was divided by a little stream, is well represented in the engraving. Two or three great oaks stood, until recently, among the graves. In the season of fall shooting, pigeons in great numbers flocked to these trees, attracted by the peculiar water of the spring, a fact well known to hunters, who seldom went away from the spot with empty game bags.

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

Within seventy years the Indian graves, scattered here and there, indicated by slight grassy knolls, could be distinctly traced. Major Spencer protected the spot with much care, the plow not being suf- fered to invade the red man's resting place. Some years ago it became necessary to cut a ditch along the northern edge of the old burial ground. Major Spencer visited the spot while the work was going on. and, seeing one of the workmen opening his tools over the graves, he

SITE OF BIG TREE VILLAGE, MONTOUR'S GRAVE IN FOREGROUND.

said with emphasis to the ditcher, "Hi, hi, you are standing on the bones of Indians! have a care, sir. have a care !"'

Ga'-on-do-wa-nuh, located on the westerly side of the river near the great bend, was long known as the village of the wise and influential Seneca chieftain, Big Tree.1 A mile above on the opposite side of the river, stood the great oak?, and directly to the east, distant two miles, is the present village of Geneseo. The reservation embraced two

1. Ga-on-do-wa-nuh, was located on the farm lot of Eason P. Slocum, in Leicester. The name signifies "Big Tree's village," but the tree is supposed to he lying prostrate.

2. This great oak, which has become popularly known as the "Big Tree." and to which it has been erroneously supposed Genesen is indebted for its ancient name of Big Tree, was not remarkable for its height, being probably in the neighborhood of seventy feet, but it was a very broad spreading tree. the bole measured twenty-right feet in circumference, four feet from the ground.

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

square miles, uniting with that of Beardstown on the south. The vil- lage occupied an area of about thirty acres, divided by a small brook, now dry, the present highway leading to Cuylerville, crossing the bed of the stream at right angles. One of the apple trees, planted by the Indians, yet remains. It stands across the gully at the northeast, and points the spot where the orchard was located. Before the canal was dug, Colonel Lyman occupied a storehouse on the river just east of Big Tree village. The river for some distance is very crooked here. In an air line Gilmore's mill is but a mile and a half below, but mea- sured by the river's channel, it is quite seven miles. The graves of John Montour and four other Indians occupy a spot a couple of rods east of the highway. Sugar maple trees were plentiful about Big Tree vil- lage while the Indians occupied it, and in the sugar season the Senecas from other towns were in the habit of visiting their tribesmen here. In 1820 the village had become reduced to eight or nine bark roofed huts, and was among the last of the towns west of the river to . be va- cated. Descendants of its former occupants still venerate its site. About forty years ago a band of Senecas visited the spot, and spent some hours in mourning over the graves. Their lamentations were plainly heard by Mr. Slocum's family, who resided a half mile distant.

Dyu-non-day-ga'-eeh, 1 or Beardstown, long held the principal rank among the Seneca villages. When Mary Jemison reached there in 1761, she found the Beardstown warriors preparing to assist the French in retaking Fort Niagara, whence they soon returned in triumph, bringing white prisoners and driving a number of oxen, the first meat cattle, by the way, ever brought to the Genesee flats. AAgainst this town Washington especially directed the expedition under Sullivan in 1779. The tribal council fire lay elsewhere, but here lived the noted chieftain Little Beard, and about him had gathered the wise and brave of his tribesmen. Here were planned their forays and here they met for consultation, and whenever the Senecas were summoned to the warpath, the Beardstown braves were always among the foremost. Quartered for security at this village for months, perhaps for years. after the Revolution began, were families from Nunda, and other out- lying towns, while their natural protectors were absent harassing the eastern settlements; and from this spot went out Brant and the Butlers

1. Or "steep hill creek." or "where the hill is for liest upon it " The Indian, William Jones, said that Beardstown was called Ga-nak-da-out-high. The place is often called Little Beardstown.

Old Apple Tree Planted by Indians on Big Tree Reservation.

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

to the massacre of Wyoming, and to engage in other bloody work. From this spot, too, in the rain of an autumn day, fled the panic- stricken women, children and old men of the Senecas, and others who had sought its asylum, to escape the "Yankee army" when it broke camp at Conesus Lake. Sullivan calls Beardstown the capital of the western Indians, and adds, "we reached the castle or village, which consisted of one hundred and twenty-eight houses, mostly very large and elegant. The town was beautifully situated, almost encircled with a clear flat which extends for a number of miles where the most exten- sive fields of corn were, and every kind of vegetable that can be con- ceived." The diaries of other expeditionary officers dilate upon the beauty and relative importance of the village. It occupied the eastern part of the site of Cuylerville, extending eastward toward the river for

several rods beyond the canal. Russell Beebe, while in the employ of Oliver Phelps, cleared the land on which Beardstown was situated. He found the ruins of many huts, and here and there a straggling house near the river, showing that at one time the village extended well in that direction. The Indian orchard stood near John Perkins's barn on the road from Cuylerville to the bridge, and a single apple tree, which survived the destruction by Sullivan's soldiers might, in recent years. still be seen there. When planted, this tree was close to the ferry, as the river then ran. In excavating for the canal a few Indian bones were discovered, and fifty years ago Jacob Clute, on preparing to build a brick blacksmith shop near the distillery, dug up the skeletons of half a dozen natives. Tomahawks and knives, stone arrow heads and other relics, are still found about the old village. The Indian burial ground was situ ated a mile south of Cuylerville, on the farm of the late Hiram Jones. where a partial examination of the mounds, about seventy five years ago, discovered a large quantity of human bones. Soon after the death of Little Beard, the families began to leave the village for Tonawanda, the number of occupants gradually lessening until Beardstown was depopulated.

De yu'-it-ga'-oh, 1 known to the whites as Squakie Hill, was situated on the westerly side of the river, opposite Mount Morris, and not far from the brow of the northern bluff terminating with the narrows of

1. Meaning. "where the valley begins to expand or widen out " John shanks and other Indiat . say that squakie Hill was also called Gia-auch-de-out-herah, which means, "the hemlock was posted out." meaning the fine lenves.

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

the Genesee. It had ready access to the river, between which and the hill, lay a broad Hat, whose exhaustless soil, even under the scanty tillage of the Indians, yielded them corn and other vegetables in pro- fusion. The reservation embraced two square miles. By 1816 its population had become reduced to about eighty souls occupying a dozen bark roofed houses of small logs, scattered here and there as best suited the owner's notion, though all clustered about the council house. The latter, located on a level spot of two or three acres west of the present highway, and a few rods north of John F. White's residence building, was a log building about 25 feet by 40. Inside, a row of rough seats extended around the walls for spectators, the center being reserved for the council fire. The burial place lay to the northwest of the village, a few rods beyond the marsh or flat. Bones and weapons are yet found, and a few years since a silver earring was picked up on the old burial ground site. There were two houses half way between the village and the corn grounds, and at the latter place each family had a smaller hut in which they often lodged while planting and har- vesting their crops. Few traces remain of Indian occupancy at Squakie Hill. A part of Thomas Jemison's log house, located east of the highway, is yet standing and is still occupied as a dwelling. The orchard, to the south of the Jemison house, contains several apple trees planted by the Senecas, as likewise were a number of the venerable trees still standing on the flats to the east of Squakie Ilill, and on the hill to the south, where the Peer residence, now occupied by John F. White, Esq., stands.

A knoll just across the stream, south of where the cheese factory stood and east of the highway, was the spot where John Jemison was killed. The Senecas believed that this medicine man's ghost haunted the place. "Friends, " said the Tall Chief, "you have killed an Indian in time of peace and made the wind hear his groans and the earth drink his blood. If you go into the woods to live alone, the ghost of Jemison will follow you, crying, Blood! blood! and will give you no peace. "1

Samuel Magee was at the village in 1802. Before entering, he met a score of bareheaded squaws, each shouldering a hoe, on their way to the corn patch, under the lead of one of their number, who, according to the habit, usually laid out the day's work. On reaching the village

1. Hosmer's notes.

Apple Tree at Squakie Hill, Planted by the Senecas.

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

Magee found a number of young Indians playing ball, an older set were pitching quoits, and a group of venerable natives were gravely watching the games. The shouting and boisterous laughing of the players obliged Magee to dismount, to the great mirth of the Indians, and to lead his scared horse through the town. Squakie Hill kept its population longer than any of the other river villages, and was the scene of their farewell dance, when the natives were about to quit the Genesee country.

()'-non-da'-oh! was located near the modern village of Nunda, though Thomas Jemison thinks a couple of miles nearer the river than the latter town. In this other Indians agree, but the precise spot is not determined. Philip Kenjockety told Colonel Doty at Versailles, that a large spring of very cold water supplied the village, and as he recol- lected O'-non-da'-oh in early youth, a hundred and thirty-five years ago, it was larger than Beardstown then was. Previous to the battle of Fort Stanwix the warriors of (Y'-non-da'-oh and other Seneca villages had been invited by the British to come and see them whip the Yan- kees. The Indians were not asked to take part in the fight but to sit down and smoke their pipes and look on. "Our Indians," said Mary Jemison, "went, to a man, but instead of taking the part of spectators were forced to fight for their lives, and, in the end. were completely beaten, and that with great loss in killed and wounded. "" (Y'-non-da'- oh shared in the disaster, losing among others its chieftain. Hoh-sque- sah-oh. 3 His death was much deplored. The distress following their losses begot a feeling of insecurity and when the warriors again took the war-path the families composing the town removed to Beardstown. Kenjockety, who dimly recollected the exodus, followed with his par- ents. We find the village again occupied in 1780. In the spring of that year Joseph Gilbert, a Quaker, with his parents and family had been taken captives by a band of Senecas and Mohawks in Northum- berland county, Pennsylvania, and carried, with another pioncer, named Thomas Peart, to Caracadera where they were treated some- what roughly. Gilbert was soon separated from Peart "and removed

1. Meaning "where many hills come together." It will be observed that the Gilbert Narrative gives the orthography Mundow. It is also given in early documents Sunday.

2. The Beardstown Indians had 36 killed and a number wounded. It is not known just how many were lost from O-non-da-oh village.

3. Signitying "a man who carries a tomahawk."

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

to Nundow, almost seven miles distant, where, soon after his arrival, the chief himself brought Joseph some hominy and otherwise treated him with much civility and kindness, intending to adopt him into his family." For several weeks he resided with the chief, whose wigwam was superior to the buts of the other Indians. Ile was then taken back to Caracadera, his weakness of body from scanty nourishment being so great that he was two days in accomplishing the journey of seven miles.

Peart was also taken to Nundow where he spent the fall and winter. Gilbert occasionally visited him there. Gilbert finally escaped - to Niagara, and Peart was carried to the same place by his Indian mother. where the two captives rejoined their friends.

Ga-da'-oh1 was situated on the Genesee river, near the great land slide. The reservation originally embraced 28 square miles, lying on both sides of the river, the village being on the westerly shore. On the return of the Senecas to the Genesee, after Sullivan's invasion. Mary Jemison went with others to Beardstown. Food was scarce there, and the weather by this time had become cold and stormy. As the houses had all been burned, she resolved to look out for herself elsewhere. Taking two of her children upon her back and the three others following, she traveled on foot to Gardeau flats. "At that time, two negroes, who had run away from their masters, were the only inhabitants of those flats. They lived in a small cabin and had planted and raised a large field of corn, as yet unharvested. They were in want of help to secure their crop, and I hired to them. I have laughed a thousand times to myself when I have thought of the good old negro who, fearing that I should be injured by the Indians, stood by me con- stantly with a loaded gun, and thereby lost as much labor of his own as he received from me. " She thus secured a supply of samp and cakes for the fearfully cold winter that followed. Deciding to take up her residence here, she occupied a part of the negro's cabin and the next season built a but for herself. The lands at Gardeau subsequently became hers by formal grant at the Big Tree treaty of 1797. She remained here until 1831, when she removed to the Buffalo reser- vation.

The senecas name was Kan- Tam, meaning "down and if." or a valley and hillside, in a word a bluff. The word is now spelled Gardeau and Gardor.

2. lafe of Mary Jemison.

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

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History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches, Part 7

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