USA > New York > Madison County > History of Madison County, state of New York > Part 8
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they regarded it their imperative duty to take up arms in defence of their friends, against the savage hordes of Butler and Brant.
Rev. Samuel Kirkland, and the great Chief, Skenandoah, had ever exerted a wise influence for peace, but the latter seeing the emergency, gave his influence, in favor of the Oneidas turning to the rescue of the Colonies.
The Oneidas rendered signal services as scouts and spies. There is an anecdote related concerning the siege of Fort Stanwix, in which these spies were very useful. Arnold, with his command, was approaching Fort Stanwix to relieve Col. Gansevoort. On his way he captured a notorious tory spy, Han Yost Schuyler, whom he sentenced to be hung. The friends of the tory applied to Arnold to spare his life. He was inexorable, but was prevailed upon by Major Brooks to use the tory for their advantage. The plan was, to allow Han Yost to escape the guard house, and his life be spared on condition that he should repair to the Indian and tory camps, in the vicinity of Fort Stanwix, and by an ex- aggerated report of Arnold's force, induce them to desert their leader, in sufficient numbers to cause St. Leger to raise the siege. If he failed, his brother, who had consented to remain as a hostage, was to " grace the same noose which had been prepared for Han Yost." The commander then communicated the plan to the sentinel, who secretly let the tory out. The life of his brother held Han Yost true to his pledge. An Oneida embarked in the enterprise, and fol- lowing Han Yost at a distance, fell in with two or three other Oneidas of his acquaintance, who readily engaged in furthering his design. Han Yost was acquainted with many of St. Leger's Indians, and on arriving at their camp, told a sad story of his having been taken by the rebels and sentenced to be hung-how he had escaped, and showed them several bullet holes in his coat where he had been fired upon when he fled. When asked as to the number of men Arnold had, he shook his head mysteriously and pointed
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to the leaves of the trees ; and upon being further questioned, he said the number could not be less than ten thousand. This news soon spread through the camp. At this junc- ture the Oneida arrived, and with a belt confirmed Han Yost's statement. Presently, one after another of the Onei- das in the secret, dropping into the camp as if by accident, spoke of the great numbers of warriors marching against them. They gave the Indians to understand that the Americans did not wish to injure the Indians, but if they continued with the British they must all share one common fate. Alarm and consternation pervaded the whole body of Indians and they resolved on immediate flight. Says Jones in his Oneida History : "St. Leger used every effort to detain them in this critical juncture, but in vain. As a last resort he tried to get them drunk, but the dram bottle had lost its charms and they refused to drink. After he had failed in every attempt to induce them to remain, he tried to pur- suade them to fall in the rear and form a covering party to his army, but this only increased their dissatisfaction, and they charged him with designs of sacrificing his red allies to the safety of the whites. In a mixture of rage and des- pair, St. Leger immediately ordered the siege to be raised, and with his entire force of regulars, tories and Indians, he left in such haste as to leave his tents standing, abandoning all his artillery, and some accounts state that they left their dinners cooking over the camp fires. The Oneida Indian it seems had a spice of the wag in his composition, for he followed in the rear and occasionally raised the cry, 'They ยท are coming ! they are coming !' for his own diversion in seeing the red coats take a foot race, and the retreating army never felt entirely safe until fairly embarked on the Oneida Lake.
" Han Yost kept with St. Leger's army on the retreat until it arrived at the mouth of Wood Creek, when he re- turned to Fort Stanwix, and gave Col. Gansevoort the first intelligence of the approach of Gen. Arnold's command.
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From thence he returned to Fort Dayton, and having ful- filled his contract, his brother was at once discharged."
The Oneidas were at the battle of Oriskany, where they lost their beloved interpreter, Thomas Spencer. They were at the battle of Johnstown, where Col. Walter Butler fell by the hands of an Oneida Chief, it is said. [By others it is said to have been a Mohawk Chief who killed Butler. See Jones' Oneida, p. 856.]
At the conclusion of the Revolutionary war, the Ameri- can Congress appointed commissioners to hold conventions with the Indians, who arranged amicable treaties with those nations in regard to their rights, lands, &c. Notwithstand- ing that most of the nations had been hostile to the United States during the war, yet the policy of Congress was hu- mane. The resolutions of this body respecting them, were adopted October 15th, 1783. The following was the reso- lution respecting the Oneidas and Tuscaroras :-
" Sixthly,-And whereas the Oneida and Tuscarora tribes have adhered to the cause of America, and joined her armies in the course of the late war, and Congress has frequently assured them of peculiar marks of favor and friendship, the said Commissioners are therefore instructed to reassure the said tribes of the friendship of the United States, and that they may rely that the land which they claim as their in- heritance will be reserved for their sole use and benefit, until they may think it for their advantage to dispose of the same."
The Commissioners were Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee. A grand Council of the Six Nations was called at Fort Stanwix in 1784, and a treaty made, by which the Six Nations, except the Mohawks, had reserva- tions assigned them, which established the line between this State and the Oneidas, upon the " old line of property," as fixed by the treaty of 1768 .*
HOMES OF THE ONEIDAS.
Their earliest location, according to all statements, was at
* See page 78.
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Stockbridge. Maps, of the centuries past, trace a trail from Fort Schuyler to this place, which, said maps desig- nate with the name " Old Oneida Castle," and the trail to our present Oneida Castle, had also a route far to the north- ward of this. The present Oneida Castle is given on those maps as "New Oneyda Castle." From the Old Oneida Castle, far to the southward of the trail through Lenox, is traced a trail to Canaseraga, which must have passed through Smithfield and Fenner. The Oneidas also had a village at the Lake side, where they dwelt in considerable numbers, and where they fortified themselves. Schoolcraft speaks of this as the second village they inhabited, and of one afterwards built at Conowaloa (present Oneida Castle).
Speaking of their first Castle-in Stockbridge-School- craft says : " The eminence where the Stone was located, was formerly a butternut grove. The ancient town extended in a transverse valley south of this ridge of land, covered as it was by nut wood trees, and was com- pletely sheltered by it from the north winds. A copious, clean spring of water issued out at the spot selected for their wigwams. This Stone became the na- tional altar. When it was necessary to light their pipes and assemble to discuss national matters, they had only to ascend the hill through its richly wooded groves to its extreme summit, at the site of the Oneida Stone. * *
" The Stone is a large, but not enormous boulder of sye- nite of the erratic block group, and consequently geologically foreign to the location. There are no rocks * like this till we reach the Adirondacks. The White Stone which stood near the spring, and which has been removed to make a part of Mr. Francis' fence, is a carbonate of lime, and is not the true Oneida Stone."
[A boulder of gneiss, which tradition identified as this palladium of the Oneidas, a few years since was taken from the farm of James H. Gregg, in the town of Stockbridge, and placed in a prominent position near the entrance of the
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Utica Cemetery, on the Bridgewater Plank road, about a mile south of Utica.]
The Oneidas affirm that they sprung from the Stone. At the time the Oneidas came to fix their location at the Stone, the Konoshioni had not confederated. At the time of the confederation, the delegate from the Oneidas was Osatschechte. He lived at the Stone.
Although trees have grown upon the ancient settlement, yet a few years since the cornhills could be distinctly seen. This is accounted for, by the fact that in ancient times the cornhills were made so large, that three clusters of stalks, or sub-hills, were raised on each circle or hill. There being no plough or other general means of turning up the earth, the same hill was used year after year, and thus its outlines became large and well defined.
One individual, writing to Schoolcraft, states that "the syenite stone on the hill was the true Oneida Stone, and not the White Stone at the spring [as many have claimed] ; was so pronounced by Moses Schuyler, son of Hon Yost, who knew it forty years ago, [written in 1846,] that the elevation gave a view of the whole valley, so that they could descry their enemies at a distance by the smoke of their fires; no smoke, he said, without fire. They could notify also from this elevation by a beacon fire. The name of the Stone is One-a-ta ; auk, added to render it personal, -people of the Stone."
Joncaire, a French writer before the middle of the eighteenth century, says, that "the Oneidas who are neigh- bors to the Mohawks, are one hundred warriors, and whose village has the device of a stone in the forks of a tree, or a tree notched with some blows of an ax."
The following account of the ancient council ground of the Oneidas was taken in 1845, from the lips of an aged person, Mrs. Daniel Warren, one of the pioneers of that vicinity. We give it from the manuscript, word for word, as the writer penned it at that date.
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OCTOBER 2, 1845.
"Forty years ago the hill known as 'Primes Hill,' and celebrated as the great council ground of the 'Six Na- tions,' was covered with a dense wilderness, save a small spot on the summit, comprising an area of about an half acre, and in shape a complete circle, bordered all around with a thick growth of shrubs, consisting of alders, wild plums and hazels. On the east was a narrow place of en- trance of barely sufficient width to admit two persons abreast. Not far from this entrance place, and within the area, was a circle of earth of some 20 feet in diameter, which was raised about two feet above the general level, and cov- ered over with fine coals-having the appearance of a coal- pit bottom of the present day. The remainder of this oasis in the wilderness was overgrown in summer with wild grass, wild flowers and weeds, and appeared as if a tree had never encumbered it since the dawn of creation. When, or by whom this spot was cleared, is not known, nor will it ever be known. In all probability hundreds of years have rolled over it and found it the same, save that different races have been born and swept away successively around the same spot. The face of the earth around, indeed, indicates that it has once been peopled with a race considerably advanced in civilization. Within a radius of three miles from this spot, are found graves, with trees growing over them, so that the roots spread from the head to the foot. A great many of these graves were some years since excavated, and found to contain various bones, and in some cases entire skele- tons of a people of giant proportions, the skulls and jaw- bones of which would cover the head and face of the most fleshy person of our day. In these graves were also found hatchets of very symmetrical shape, brass vessels somewhat in the form of our brass kettles, smoking pipes of various shapes, small metal bells, beads of all shapes and sizes, and various other articles of use and ornament, some of them bearing letters, characters, or devices in an unknown lan- guage. The trees found growing upon these ancient graves count from two to four hundred grains-making (according to the usual way of reckoning the age of trees) the same number of years. Not many years since a skull was dug up which contained a bullet of common size ; the skull bone was a sound one, and had a hole in it of the size of the ball. From this, and other like circumstances, it is inferred that
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this race, or those who made war upon them, knew the use of fire-arms. There is no one among the oldest of the In- dians who are now or have been residents anywhere in this region of country, who can give any traditionary account reaching so far back as to tell the fate of these people. Such traditions as we do get come orally, and go no further back than about one hundred years, though there is a tradition, that a long time ago there was a very destructive war waged between some tribes in this section of country and those of Canada. A great battle was fought between them upon this very ground, and with such fury and determination on both sides, that each were nearly all slaughtered. So runs the tradition."
The writer goes on further to say of his own personal view of the spot at that date (1845), and the thoughts sug- gested thereby :
" I passed over 'Primes Hill' on my way home, and paused upon the spot to let my thoughts dwell for a moment upon scenes that had been in years long since past, upon the very earth I trod. It seemed like holy ground ! Here was the 'Council Rock,' which had often been the seat of the head Chief in grand council, when the ancient trees of the forest spread their sheltering arms over it, and the free, unsophisticated Indians were the only pos- sessors of the soil it stood on ; and yonder, and all around in every direction, were the graves of an unknown race, with the bones of their aboriginal successors mingling with theirs in one common dust! But the magic hand of civil- ized man has waved over the sacred spot-the wilderness has disappeared, and the plough of the farmer has traced and retraced over it for years-but Nature yet claims her own in many respects ; the lofty hill still lifts its proud sum- mit far above any around it, and 'Council Rock' yet bares its iron bosom to the blasts of winter, and remains un- scathed.
With the help of a stone as heavy as I could swing with both hands, I succeeded in crumbling off a few small pieces from this natural monument of other days, for the purpose of carrying them home to keep as curiosities. I then sat myself down a few feet from it, and took out my pencil, and on a blank leaf of a volume of 'Rollins' Ancient History,' which I happened to have in my pocket, I sketched the
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Rock and the scenery about it, with a piece of woods and the little village of Durhamville in the distance. Whilst I was doing this, wife had the kindness to keep the sun- shine off my work with her bonnet. We then proceeded a few rods south, and crossed a piece of ground where are yet found a great variety of old Indian ornaments, such as have been mentioned. These are turned up by the plough every time it passes over it -- and as the ground had lately been ploughed we succeeded in finding several little relics to bring away with us."
This hill and these famous grounds, here so graphically described, were some years since owned by the Gregg and Francis families.
There is a burial ground about a mile southeast of Munnsville, on the hillside. In excavations here, iron and steel axes, gun barrels and fragments of gun locks, brass kettles, and a small bone image of a woman, have been found. The axes are hatchet shaped, and marked under the eyes with three stars.
After the destruction of the Oneida village (Canawaloa) by Mons. De Vaudreuil, in 1696, they rebuilt at the same place. This is the present Oneida Castle, situated on Oneida Creek, in Vernon and Lenox, of Oneida and Madison counties. When the Tuscaroras came they placed some of them at the old Oneida Castle in Stockbridge, where the latter set out an orchard which had many trees standing and bearing fruit, when the first settlers came to this country. The Oneidas also had a village at Canaseraga, where many Tuscaroras also settled, and they had another village on the Susquehanna, the inhabitants of which, how- ever, they gathered home when the Revolutionary war broke out. After the country was at peace, settlers who came in were witnesses to the frequent migrations of the Indians to the Susquehanna, for the purpose of hunting and fishing. Sir William Johnson speaks of building forts in 1756, in the Oneida Castle, also at Onondaga, Seneca and Sco-
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harie .* Whether they were built, and if so, when they were destroyed, we have no data to inform us.
Schoolcraft describes the ruins of a fort which he dis- covered in Lenox, Madison County, in the neighborhood of the " Lenox Furnace." It was situated within the junction of two branches of a stream. He describes the indication of a picketed work and excavations, which he says "are now but mere indentations." Mons. De Belletre, in 1757, who came in to the country with his detachment of 300 men, says the route from Canaseraga "goes to the Great Oneida village. A picket fort with four bastions was once constructed in this village by the English. It was de- stroyed by the Oneidas in observance of promises given to De Vaudreuil. Each of its sides might have been 100 paces. There is a second Oneida village, called the little village, situated on the bank of the lake. There is no fort in the latter. From this large village is a path to Forts Bull and William, also one to Fort Kouari, which can be traveled without being obliged to pass the said two forts."
The traversing armies of the ancient time used oftener to go by water than otherwise. In coming from the west- ward they came up the Oswego River into Oneida Lake ; from the lake they entered Vilcrick (Wood Creek) and as- cended to Fort Bull. From this Fort there is a carrying place across the height of land to Fort William, [Rome,] about one league and a quarter, from where the boats take the Mohawk River.
After this country was open for white settlements, Capt. Charles Williamson, a traveler through there, in 1792, thus
*Among Sir William's papers is found a memorandum which is supposed to be the plan of his forts, viz :
" 100 ft square the stockads P. or Ok 15 ft long 3 of wch at least to be sunk in the ground well pounded & rammed & ye 2 touching sides square so as to lay close. Loop holes to be made 4 ft dist ; 2 Bl H'ses 20 ft sq. below and above to project I 1-2 foot overye Beams well roofed & shingled and a good sentry Box on the top of each, a good Gate of 3 Inc oak Pl. & iron hinges & a small Gate of Oak Plank of same thick's Endorsed
Fort Johnson May 28th, 1756."
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remarks on the route, and the taverns and distances between them, from Fort Schuyler to Onondaga Hollow :-
"From Fort Schuyler to Lairds on the Great Genesee Road, -
IO miles.
" Lairds to Van Epps near Oneida Reservation, 6
"Van Epps to Wemps on Oneida Reservation, 6
" Wemps to Sills at the Deep Spring, II
"Sills to Keelers Junior, - 12
" Keelers to Tylers Onondaga Hollow, - IO
"
The Flats of Canaseraga were cleared, and Louis Dennie was the head Chief of the village. Deep Spring, always famous on this road, was regarded by the Iroquois as the location of the eastern door of the Onondagas. The peculiarity of this spring is, that it comes out of the ground and a few rods farther on goes into the hill again. It is surrounded on all sides by trees carved with the initials of visitors.
MISSIONS.
The Missions among the Oneidas, after the Jesuits, were not for a century perhaps very successful. In 1712, Rev. William Andrews was appointed missionary among the Mohawks and Oneidas, and after a residence of six years among the Mohawks, visiting the Oneidas often, he became discouraged and asked to be recalled, saying " there is no hope of making them better-heathen they are and heathen they still must be." Rev. Mr. Barclay, Rev. Mr. Andrews, Rev. Mr. Ogilvie, and Rev. Gideon Hawley from Stockbridge, Mass., were missionaries to these nations, visiting the Oneidas occasionally.
In 1753, Rev. Mr. Hawley, Deacon Timothy Woodbridge, and Rev. Mr. Ashley and wife, the latter a remarkable in- terpreter, went to Oquago to re-establish the mission there, where they arrived after many hardships and troubles. Mrs. Hawley laid her bones at Onohoghgwaga in August, 1757. She was much lamented by the Indians, many of whom were Oneidas. Her Indian name was Wausaunia.
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REV. SAMUEL KIRKLAND, commenced his missionary la- bors among the Oneidas in 1766, with whom he lived and labored many years and with great success. He was the son of Rev. Daniel Kirkland, of Norwich, Connecticut, and was born December Ist, 1741. He was the tenth child of a family of twelve children. At the age of twenty-three he undertook a mission to the Senecas, and spent two years among them. Returning to his native country a short time he was commissioned to the work among the Oneidas. In the summer of 1769, he again went to Connecticut and there married Jerusha Bingham, an excellent woman, " well fitted by her good sense and devout heart to become the wife of a missionary." He soon returned to his post, ac- companied by his wife, and the two shared the cares, trials and labors in their chosen field. They felt repaid in the consciousness of having accomplished some good, when they saw the progress of the nation in acquiring the habits, arts and Christianity of civilized life. Mr. Kirkland's in- fluence was remarkable among the Oneidas, and his counsel was sought in every emergency. Upon the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, his influence, chiefly, deterred the Oneidas from taking part with the British. He was obliged to remove his family from the Castle, but he continued his labors among them. During a portion of the war he officiated as chaplain to the American forces in the vicinity ; he also accompanied the expedition of Gen. Sullivan in 1779, through the western part of the State.
Mr. Kirkland received a present from the Oneidas of a tract of land, and the State of New York in consideration of valuable services during the war, granted him also an ad- ditional tract, lying in the town of Kirkland, known as " Kirkland's Patent," upon a portion of which Hamilton College stands. To these lands he removed his family in 1792, and fixed his residence near the village of Clinton, where he continued till his death, March 28th, 1808, in the 67th year of his age.
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Mr. Kirkland's labors among the Oneidas were in many instances attended with happy results ; a large portion of the nation espoused the Christian religion while he was with them, among whom was the Great Chief, Skenandoah. Through the influence of the Christian faith he taught, in time the whole nation gave up their pagan ceremonies and professed themselves Christians. About 1791, Mr. Kirk- land conceived the project of establishing a seminary for the education of Indian youths, as well as the whites. Through his exertions a charter was obtained in 1793 for the school he had planted, and it bore the name of " Hamilton Oneida Academy." In 1794, a building was erected which for many years afterwards continued to be known as "Oneida Hall," till the seminary was raised to the rank of a college. Mr. Kirkland was a generous benefactor of this institution, and expended much of his time and means in promoting its interests.
SKENANDOAH .- "But the name which stands more prom- inently upon the page of history, and which will be remem- bered until the original inhabitants of this continent are forgotten, is that of Skenandoah, 'the white man's friend.' He was born about the year 1706, but of his younger days little or nothing is known. It has been stated, but upon what authority the writer does not know, that he was not an Oneida by birth, but was a native of a tribe living a long distance to the northwest, and was adopted by the Oneidas when a young man. *
* In his youth and early manhood, Skenandoah was very savage and intem- perate. In 1755, while attending upon a treaty in Albany, he became excessively drunk at night, and in the morning found himself divested of all his ornaments and clothing. His pride revolting at his self-degradation, he resolved never again to place himself under the power of fire water, a resolution which it is believed he kept to the end of his life. In appearance he was noble, dignified and commanding. be- ing in height much over six feet, and the tallest Indian in his nation. He possessed a powerful frame, for at the age of eighty-five he was a full match for any member of his tribe, either as to strength, or speed on foot ; his powers of endu-
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rance were equal to his size and physical power. But it was to his eloquence and mental powers, he owed his repu- tation and influence. His person was tattoed, or marked in a peculiar manner. There were nine lines arranged by threes extending downward from each shoulder, and meet- ing upon the chest, made by introducing some dark color- ing matter under the skin. He was, in his riper years, one of the noblest counsellors among the North American tribes ; he possessed a vigorous mind, and was alike saga- cious, active, and persevering. As an enemy he was terrible-as a friend and ally he was mild and gentle in his disposition, and faithful to his engagements. His vigilance, once preserved from massacre the inhabitants of the little settlement of German Flats ; and in the revolutionary war his influence induced the Oneidas to take up arms in favor of the Americans. Soon after Mr. Kirkland established his mission at Oneida, Skenandoah embraced the doctrines of the Gospel, and for the rest of his life he lived a consist- ent Christian. He often repeated the wish that he might be buried by the side of his old teacher and spiritual father, that he might 'go up with him at the great resurrection ;' and several times in the latter years of his life he made the journey from Oneida to Clinton, hoping to die there. Although he could speak but little English, and in his extreme old age was blind, yet his company was sought. In conversation he was highly decorous, evincing that he had profited by seeing civilized and polished society in his better days. He evinced constant care not to give pain by * any remark or reply. To a friend who called upon him a short time before his decease, he thus expressed himself by an interpreter : 'I am an aged hemlock ; the winds of an hundred winters have whistled through my branches ; I am dead at the top. The generation to which I belonged has run away and left me; why I live the Great Good Spirit only knows ; pray to my Jesus that I may have patience to wait for my appointed time to die.' * * *
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