USA > New York > Monroe County > History of Monroe county, New York with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, Palatial residences > Part 4
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Brandt led his Indians along the Viagara trail to Canada, while Butler with his rangers marched to the mouth of the Genesee river. and sent a runner to Niagara for boats. They remained in camp several days. kindled no fires, discharged oo guns, and kept close, in dread of discovery by the American scouts, and when the boats arrived were suffering for food.
The Indians never recovered from the blow, and, during the ensuing winter, hang about the British posts, from whose supplies sub-istence was scantily fur- nished. Handreda died, and in the spring the villages west of the Grenesce were re-occupied; those east lay as the army left thein till the time was come for white settlement. The revengefut feelings implanted by punishment found vent in the years following, and the life of many a settler was ruthlessly taken. Peace cum, and the Senecas, sullen and defiant, left the war-path upon which it way their delight to travel.
There had come west with Sullivan many a soldier whose eye quickly contra-ted the natural scenes of beauty and the numerems orchards and corn-fields planted upon the rich soil with the sterile and unpromising enstera lands. Irresistible in force, the mind was lett free to nherve the nature and resources of the country. The march through the Mohawk valley and along the interior lakes presented many a fine farm site; but when they entered the valley of the Gencxe, language
was incapable of denoting the hopes and anticipations excited. No wonder the maid of Sullivan became famous; it was the exploration of an uoknown land. and the discovery of its highest adaptation to cultivation. Many a soldier, as he lay at night by the bivonac fires, which cast their vermilion giare upon the huge trunks and massive branches of the deep forest, thon,;ht of the unavailing toil as tenant or owner of some barren little spot, while all around him were nu- bonnded tracts upon which like industry would result in wealth and independence. Little recked they of the labor. They saw the gradations of improvement, and when again at home, the tales of war with the Indians were blended with descrip- tions of the country they had seen, and the attention of others was turned to the distant field of promise.' In the army, and acting as an aid to General Sullivan, was Major Adam Hooper, a Philadelphian, and afterwards an intimate friend of Robert Morris, whose patriotism and financial ability had been so well shown during the war. Major Hooper brought back glowing accounts of the richness and beauty of the Genesee valley, and its desirability as a home, and others con- finining these assertions, the minds of specolators and others were turned to these lands as a safe investment, either for profit or settlement. But a bar existed to action; the ownership was to be decided prior to occupation.
There Lived in the Genesee country for many years a missionary known as Samuel Kirkland. He set ont to sojourn with the Iroquois on January 16, 1765, in company with two Seneca companions. Arrived at Onondaga, the influence of Sir William Johnson obtained a kindly reception. Proceeding to Kanadesaga, formalities ensued and were concluded by his adoption into the family of the sachem. All went well till the sachem sickened and died, wheo a portion of the villagers determined upon Kirkland's death ; a trial followed and he was aconitted. During the Revolution and later his influence restrained the Indians to some ez- tent from siding with the British, and was useful in the conduct of various sub- sequent treaties.
Among Seneca captives were IToratio Jones, taken in 1781, and Jasper Parrish, in 1777; both after a time remained with the Indians in preference to returning to civilization. A son, William W. Jones, boru at Geneva in December, 1786, was the first native white child in all the country west of Utica In the spring of 1790, Captain Jones with his family moved to the Genesee river, and resided in a hut left by the Indians. Ile was appointed interpreter, and held the office nearly forty years. His death took place in 1836, at his home on the Genesee.
Parrish was set free by the treaty of 1784; received the appointment of inter- preter and aub-agent, and settled at Canandaigua in 1790. His death occurred in 1836, at the age of sixty-nine. Ilis early life was one of hardship and terrible memories ; in later years his services were invaluable, and his standing, in the pioneer socicty and later, high aod respectable. White and Indian held him in estcem.
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Brief reference may be made to the " White Woman," Mary Jemison. Cap- tured when a child, during the summer of 1755. and all her father's family killed and scalped, ahe was taken to Fort Duquesne and adopted by two Indian girls to take the place of a brother killed in battle. In later years she married a Delaware, whom she regarded with affection. She set out with a child in 1739 and traveled nearly six hundred miles to the Genesee river, and fixed her home at Little Beard's town. The journey on foot.such a distance, through a forest swarming with wild beasts, of a woman and her child, thoughtfully considered, is little short of heroism . and excitative of admiration. Her first husband died, and she again married. The white soldiers destroyed her house and fields in 1779, and, with five children to support, she found an opportunity to husk corn, and thereby carning twenty- five hushels of shelled coru. placed herself above want. The " Gardean reserva- tion," a tract containing thirty square miles, was granted her, upon which she lived till 1-531, when she sold out and bought on the Buffalo reservation, and there among the Seueens closed her life on September 19, 1833.
Of Ebenezer Allen little need be said. Ile was a native of New York, a ranger under Brandt and Butler, and a Culigula in cruelty and wickedness. By strategy he prevented the Newecus from going to war in 1783, and was for mouths the object of vimlictive pursuit by the disappointed British. This redeeming aet was in consonance with others of like kind, and his efforts for peace were as cnerretio as they had been novel. Further notice of this renegade is found in the history of Wheatland and the carly history of Rochester. In 1791 the Seneca Indians deedled to Allen, in trust for his two daughters, four square miles of land, now the village site of Mount Morris. The deed was signed by Srueca sachems and by Timothy l'irkering, United States commissioner. In 1797, Allen went to Canada Wont : received from Governor Simone a grant of three thousand acres for the building of mills and a church; took on part iu the war of 18122, and died in 1814.
The garrison at Niagara were sopplied with beef by drovers from New Jersey. During the sunumer of' 1787 a party of a dozen young men, among whom was Silas Hopkins, later a resident of Lewiston, set out to see the country and to
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, NEW YORK.
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bring out from New Jersey a drove of cattle. They followed the track of Sulli- van'a army. The last white settler was seen at Newtown Point. At Geneva were two traders and several whites, who were talking of erecting a house. The Indiana in the several towns levied a tribute of a beeve from each drove. These droving expeditions were numerous, and a number who took part in them became later settlers. Seouts, traders, hunters, and a number of Butler's rangers traveled through the country, and inade temporary settlement as game was abundant er disposition impelled. At the mouth of the Genesee river there dwelt a ranger oamed Walker; whese cabiu in 170I was the sole indication of settlement along the coast now belonging to the county of Menroe.
CHAPTER IV.
EXTINCTION OF INDIAN TITLE-CONFLICTING CLAIMS-FIRST TREATY BE- 1WEEN THE UNITED STATES AND SIX NATIONS AFTER THE REVOLUTION -- FIRST LANDS ACQUIRED BY NEW YORK-NEW YORK AND MASSACHU- SETTS-A NEW STATE PROJECTED-LESSEE CONTRACTS.
ENGLAND concluded peace with her revolted colonies in 1783, with no pro- visions for the Six Nations, and, as a conquered people, these Indians were at the mercy of the republic. Many, starting under a sense of deadly injury, de- sired the territory of the Indians to be held forfeit ; but the influence of Schuyler and Washington prevailed in favor of purchase, and thereby prevented the recur- . rence of another war.
It is observable that, as the time for white occupation drew near, the elements seemed to have conspired to render the woods untenable to the Indians. The winter of 1779-80 is memorable as one of unprecedented seventy. Snow to the depth of full five feet lay like a blanket upon the surface of all westero New York. Game, a chief reliauce of the Indians, perished by thousands, and the dissolving .wow in spring showed the forests filled with the carcasses of the deer.
The various provinces erected into States, settled by different races, classes, and religions, and united to obtain their independence, had a reluctance to the dele- gation of power to the general government which well-nigh proved fatal to the republic, and in the State of New York produced a collision resulting in favor of the former. It was in good faith that the question of jurisdiction was claimed by New York, and as earnestly the United States asserted their prerogative.
The State legislature passed an act in April, 1784, by which the governor and a board of commissioners were made superintendents of Indian affairs. Governor George Clinton, as president of the commission, originally consisting with him of Abraham Cuyler, Peter Schuyler, and Henry Glen, was authorized to ally with them such others as were deemed necessary, and proceed to appoint a time and a place for a treaty. A partial arrangement was effected.
Pending proceedings, Congress had appointed Arthur Lee, Richard Butler, and Oliver Weleott commissioners to negotiate with the same parties; thus the " undefined powers of the United States opened ground for conflict of interest and authority between State and Confederation. The Indians were mere favorably disposed to the government, and although deputies met the State board at Fort Schuyler in September, no action was taken and the council broke up to await the coming of the United States commissioners. The first treaty between the United States, and the Iroquois was concluded en October 22, 1784, at Fort Stanwix. The terms were those of a conqueror, imposed as the penalty of warfare. All captives were to be restored and a limitation of boundary acknowledged. Peace- able possession was guaranteed the Indians of their territories, sad at the conclu- sion of the treaty goods in considerable quantities were distributed. Brandt was not present, and Coraplanter came into notice as a sachem who bowed to the . inevitable and obtained fer his nation whatever advantages were possible.
The first lands purchased of the Indians by New York included n tract lying between the Chenango and Unadilla rivers. The treaty, as such transactione have ever been designated, was made on June 28, 1755, by George Clinton and others with the Oncidus and Tuscuroras, and the sum paid way eleven thousand five hundred dollars. This was followed on September 22 by a cession ou the part of the Oneidas of all their lands excepting reservations, and interest centered westward.
New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, by their original charters, claimed jurisdiction to the same western territory, which was made to extend " from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean." The controversy between the first-named States was amicably settled,-in the first place by a cession to Congress of all lands west of the present New York boundary, and finally by a concession to Massachusetts of a pre-emptive right of the soil from the Indiaus of a truet west of' a meridian
line passing through Seneca lake te a point on the Pennsylvania line eighty-two miles west of the northeastern boundary of that State, with a reserve of a small tract a mile in width along Niagara river. New York retained sovereignty and jurisdiction. Other tracts were thus disposed of, but, however interesting, cannot here be noted. The immense traet, comprising.all the State west of Seneca lake, was in the possession of the Seneca nutien, whose old men were resolved to hold it, wbile, as later appears, the English laid claim to the entire grant.
Matters were rendered more complicated by the action of an association forined during the winter of 1787-88 by sume eighty wealthy and prominent resideuts of the Hudson. It was a law that the purchase of the fee in lands rested only with the State. These persons named organized what was termed the " New York Land Company," whose plan was, the lease from the Six Nations for a rental of two thousand dollars yearly, for nine hundred and ninety-nine years, of their entire lands. It was thought that from this territory a new State could be created, and the settlement allowed to progress would in time become independent of' In- dian or State. A branch company was organized in Canada, and the influence of the members over the Nations was such that a " lessee contract" was duly signed on November 30, 1787, by Red Jacket, Little Beard, Farmer's Brother, and others. The legislature took the alarm and, in March, 1788, enacted a law leveled at these illegal companies, and authorized the governer to punish by fine and to remove by force all persons settling without State authority on the Massachusetts lands. These unabashed lessees, balked in their plans, now sought a grant frem the State. They were so far successful that iu 1793 a tract ten miles square was appropriated from a part of the military tract io the northern part of the State. Later, the lessees nsed their influence in bringing about an agreement between the Phelps and Gorham Association and the Senecas, and received therefor several large allotments, including several townships. As a relic of the times and a rela- tion to the lands now partly included by Monroe, the early contruet of the lessees is here given : " An agreement made on November 30, 1787, between the chiefs or sachems of the Six Nations of Indians, of the one part, and John Living-tou. Caleb Benton, Peter Ryckman, John Stevenson, and Ezekiel Gilbert, for them- selves and their associates, of the county of Columbia and State of New York, of the other part," witnessed that the said chiefs or sachems of the Six Nations, on certain considerations afterwards mentioned, " leased to the suid Joha Living- ston, and his associates, for a period of nine hundred and ninety-nine years, all the lands commonly knowo as the lands of the Six Nations in the State of New York, and at the time in the actual possession of the said chief's or sachems." The chiefs or sachems were privileged to make such reservations for themselves er their heirs as they might choose, and " said reservations to revert to the lessees in case they should afterwards be relinquished by the Indians." The payments were specified as "a yearly rent of two thousand Spanish milled dollars," payable on the Fourth of July in each year of the nine hundred and ninety-eine for which the lease was drawn. The lessons taught by these efforts are fraught with the per- manence of the nation, the extent to which the general government shall have authority, and what rights shall vest in the sovereign State. The action of the government in its last treaty with the Sioux of the Black Hills, and the remon- strances of the tribes settled in the Indian territory, are a culmination of violated pledges, whose history, written in truth, by an Indian, would redound to American disgrace. The desire to exterminate the red race has its erigia in revenge for their reprisals, but the lessoes ef fraud and evil associations were net lost upon them, and their complaints were heavy with truthfuluess. It was held no dishoner to defraud the Indian, and the " mill tract" obtained by Oliver Phelps. while regarded as " cunning strategy," was a fraud, known as such by the Senecas, whose history so far as known presents no parallel. Yielding to the force of circumstances, the tribes which held sway over the lands of Monroe have been seeo to held a kingly position, to repel armies, to lay waste provinces, to hold the balance of power; hereafter, in their, connection with settlement, their place. is subordinate.
CHAPTER V.
THE PROGRESS OF SETTLEMENT WESTWARD-THE PHELPS AND GORHAM PURCHASE-THE ORGANIZATION OF ONTARIO-COLONIAL AND INDIVIDUAL MOVEMENTS -TEMPORARY AND PERMANENT RESIDENTS -- INCENTIVES TO SETTLEMENT-CHOICE OF LANDS-SITES OF VILLAGES-ROUTES OF TRAVEL: THEIR CONDITION AND USE-ADVERSE AND ADVANTAGEOU'S INFLUENCES.
FAMILIARITY lessons the sense of danger. Adventurous men advanced beyond the farthest limits of settlement, and took up their abode upon lands whereon they had determined to remain. Such was Flugh White, who moved from Mid-
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, NEW YORK.
dletowo, Connecticut, in 1784, with his family, and planted himself at what is now Whitestown. Erectiog a log habitation, und felling the trees in the vicinity, he began to clear himself a farm, and for relaxation and policy mingled with the Indians, and for society enjoyed the company of his wife and children. James Dean, having served the Indians as an interpreter, was rewarded by a gift of land near the present site of Rome. Here he located in the same year of White's emigration, and three years later Joseph Blackuier moved out and settled within a short distance of Dean, on the trail westward. Mr. Blackmer later again re- moved, and became a pioneer in the town of Wheatland, Monroe County. Asa Danforth and Comfort Tyler, the former accompanied by his family, came in May, 1788, to Onondaga Hollow. The journey was made by water to the mouth of Onondaga creek. To accommodate the traveler he opened his log house as a tavern. Joshua Fairbanks, who had married Sophia, daughter of Colonel Seth Reed, a settler at Geneva, in 1790. and had set out in a sleigh with his wife to join him, thus describes the termination of his journey from Whitestown to Ge- neva : " Half way from Whitesborough to Onondaga Hollow night came on, and gladly we sought shelter with a settler who had just got in, and had a log house not yet finished. Some Indians were in the house-a novel sight to Mrs. Fair- Panka. The next night we stayed at Onondaga Hollow with General Laufuith. The presence of other settlers in the neighborhood was inferred from there being a small dancing party at the tavern that night. The next night was passed at a camp-fire kindled by Fairbanks; supper was cooked, and the night was passed comfortably ; another night at Cayuga lake, with Harris, the ferryman." The two crossed ou the ice, and next day reached Colonel Reed's. We have named Com- fort Tyler as a companion of Asa Danforth. He was a school-teacher upon the Mohawk, and a surveyor, and one of the party with James Clinton when running the boundary line between NNew York and Pennsylvania. He felled the first tree for a clearing, built the first turnpike, and made the first hand-mill in Onondaga county. Tyler and Danforth manufactured the first salt made by whites at the works, and their enterprise was noted in the press of the day.
The next settlement westward was made by John L. Hardenburgh, npon the present site of Anburn, and in 1789 James Bennett and John Harris were en- gaged in running a ferry at Cayuga lake. Tryon connty was changed to Mont- gomery in 1784, and four years later all the region westward of Utica bore the name of Whitestown. The first town meeting was held in Aprd, 1739, in the barn of Daniel White, and at the third town meeting, in 1791, James Wads- worth, of Genesee, was chosen one of the path-masters, and was therefore the first of that innumerable body ef men under whose supervision the present system of bighways has been reached. It was under direction of the Wadsworths, in 1790, that the first attempt had been made to clear a pathway from Whitestown to Can- andaigue.
The particulars of the Phelps and Gorham purchase should be familiar to all the residents of the Genesce country. Journeys and transactions now comnion- place from celerity of movement and conveniences of execution, were then at- tended by delay and danger ; little known and less appreciated.
Oliver Phelps was a native of Connecticut. and took part in the war of the Revolution. With peace he settled at Suffield, Massachusetts. In business which brought him into association with Mr. Morris, acquaintance was made with Major . Adam, Hoops, and the favorable opinion formed of the western country was fully confirmed by the reports of this officer. Associating with him Judge Sullivan, William Walker, Mesers. Chapin, Skinner, and others, Mr. Phelps arranged to attempt the purchase from Massachusetts of one million aeres. While yet com- pleting their plan of action, Nathaniel Gorham made a proposal to the legislature to purchase one million acres at cighteen pence per acre, payable in State paper. It was not accepted. The matter lay dormant till April, 1788, when a ecmpany being formed of all who wished to purchase, Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham, as their representatives, bought the entire tract of nearly six million acres for one million dollars, to be paid in three equal instalments in the depreciated paper of Massachusetts. Preparations for purchase from the Indians, exploration, and survey were made. To Mr. Phelps was intrusted the business of holding the Indian treaty ; Israel Chapin was to explore the country ; William Walker was made local agent of surveys and sales, and Mr. Gorham assumed the agency to confer with the State authorities in reference to the pre-emption line. It was resolved to compromise with the lessees and secure their co-operation, which was favorably arranged, but no advance was made till Butler, Brandt, and Sweet, of the Niagara company, were included. When, in the summer of 1788. Oliver Phelps left Granville, Massachusetts, with men and means to fulfill his task, the entire neighborhood assembled to bid him farewell. It was regarded as a dangerous venture.
Having reached Kanadevagn, a journey to Niagara was requisite and successful. Returned to Kanadesym, he was visited by Red Jacket and others, who announced themselves as a deputation to conduct him to n couuci at Buffalo creek, where
the party arrived on the Fourth of July. The Indiaes were willing to sell a part of their lands, but for a time refused the sale of any land west of the Genere river, alleging that that stream was the final boundary between the races. Failing to obtain all, Mr. Phelps, who had already contracted with the Indians more than he could pay the State for, now represented that it was highly essential to obtain some land west of the river, at the falls, that mills might be built there for the advantage of white settlers, and which would be of great benefit to the Indians. When asked the quantity of land needed for the mill-seat, it was answered that a tract extending twelve miles west from the river, and from the village nf " Cana- wagus" parallel with the river northward to the lake, would be sufficient. Thus was obtained the mill-seat tract whose purchase was confirmed to the contractors by the Massachusetts legislature of November, 1788. The land acquired com- prised by estimate two million six hundred thousand acres, two hundred thousand of which was west of the Genesee. The work of Mr. Phelps being concluded. Canandaigua, at the foot of the lake of the same name, was designated for the central village, or capital, and he returned to make a satisfactory representation to the company. It now remained first to determine the pre-emption line, and then to survey the tract, in order to allotment and purchase. This labor was given to Colonel Hugh Maxwell, by Mr. Phelps; and as the lesseca hal formed a settle- ment at Geneva, they hoped that in a survey of the east boundary-line a trace including the village site would fall to them. Two Indian traders, Seth Reed and Peter Ryckman, in reality agents of the lessees, had made application to the State for the satisfaction of a claim presented for services rendered in negotiating with the Six Nations, and had made the proposition that a patent should be given them for a tract wliose limits should be defined as extending from a certain tree which stood on the bank of Seneca lake, southward along the bank until a strip of land, in area equal to sixteen thousand acres, should be included between the lake and the Massachusetts lands. The claim had been allowed, and a patent given. The traders proposed two surveyors, Maxwell for the Purchase Company, Jenkins fer themselves, and, this being acceded, these men proceeded to the initial point on the Pennsylvania line and began their work. When about twenty miles from Geneva, near the outlet of Crooked lake, provisions gave out. Maxwell went for a supply, while Jenkins, continuing the work, gave the line a westward diver- gence, which, being unknown to Maxwell, was by both continued, so that Geneva was passed on the east, as was the whole of Sodus bay on the north. The result of the survey was a disappointment to the purchasers, who, however, made com- plaint, and the " old pre-emption line" was made the basis of further surveys. A brief history of the " Gore," presenting a correction of this fraudulent error, is of the greater interest from the alleged variation and consequent uncertainty of the compass. As we shall see, Messrs. Phelps and Gorham sold their undisposed of lands to Robert Morris, and, influenced by their belief in an erroneous line, further strengthened by an "offer" by one of the lessees for " all the lands they owned EAST of the line that had been run," specified in their deed to Morris a tract in a gore between the line and the west bounda of the military tract. Morris was satisfied that the survey was not correct. and, having sold to Pulteney and other', articled to run n new line. Under the superintendence of Major Hoops, Andrew Ellicott and Augustus Porter performed the work. A body of axemen were set to work, and felled the timber a width of thirty feet; down this line the survey was continued to the head of Seneca lake, whence night-signals were employed to ruo down and over the lake. The great care taken to secure accuracy established credit in the survey, and the " new pre-emption line" became known as the true boundary between the military and the purchase tracts. The lessees were compelled to ahandon their claims; persons who had located land warrants on the di-puted territory were given other tracts, and the title became vested in the Pulteney estate.
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