History of Oneida County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 21

Author: Durant, Samuel W
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Fariss
Number of Pages: 920

USA > New York > Oneida County > History of Oneida County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 21

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# The city was occupied by them about the 15th of September. 11

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverance, employ for the preservation of our liberties, being with one mind resolved to die FREEMEN rather than live SLAVES.' They protested that they would lay down their arms when hostilities should cease on the part of the aggressors, and not before. Reposing their confidence in the mercy of the Impartial Judge and Ruler of the Universe, and imploring His goodness to protect and carry them through the con- fliet, they appointed the 20th day of July to be observed as a day of public humiliation, fasting, and prayer. It was generally observed, and was the first national fast ever pro- claimed in the New World."*

There was another subject demanding immediate atten- tion, and it was not forgotten : this was the Indian ques- tion, and measures were at once taken by Congress to con- ciliate the Six Nations, and, if possible, prevail upon them to remain neutral in the contest. In order to a more sys- tematic administration of Indian affairs, a general depart- ment, with three subdivisions, was created on the 12th of July, and commissioners were appointed for each, " with power to treat with the Indians in their respective depart- ments, to preserve peace and friendship, and to prevent their taking any part in the present commotions." The departments were named the Northern, Middle, and South- ern ; and the Commissioners for the Northern Department were Major-General Philip Schuyler, Major Joseph Haw- ley, Mr. Turbot Francis, Mr. Oliver Wolcott, and Mr. Volkert P. Douw.

An address (to be used according to local necessities) was drawn up, and copies sent to the various nations, setting forth the history of the colonies, recapitulating their services to the mother-country and their grievances, and closing with an cxhortation to the Indians to remain neu- tral in the contest, and to cultivate friendly relations with one another.

With a view to making permanent and satisfactory ar- rangements with the Indians, a treaty was arranged to be held at Albany, and Colonel Francis and Mr. Douw held a preliminary conference with a portion of the Six Nations at the German Flatts, on the 15th and 16th of August, 1775. This conference was very thinly attended, and the commissioners urged upon the Indians the great necessity of a full attendance at the treaty to be held at Albany. All the Six Nations were expected to send delegates, and Colo- nel Francis requested that messengers be sent to them, and also to the "Seven Nations" of Canada. Colonel Francis, Little Abraham, the Mohawk, and Kanaghquaesa, an Oneida sachem, made speeches at this preliminary meeting.

The Board of Commissioners (with the single exception of Major Hawley, who had declined the appointment on account of ill health) met at Albany on the 23d of August. On the 24th the committee and a delegation of gentlemen from the civil authorities and others, of Albany, paid the Indian sachems and warriors a complimentary visit. An address was delivered to them, and replied to by Scaghna- gerat, an Oneida chief.

The council opened for regular business on the 25th,

with a speech from the Oneida chief who spoke the even- ing before. On the 26th, an address from the Congress was presented, and interpreted by Rev. Mr. Kirkland, which the Indians pronounced "pleasant and good." After a deliberation of several days, an answer to the address was delivered by Little Abraham, the Mohawk sachem, on the 31st. It was an able effort and thoroughly pacific in its tone. One singular feature of the specch was the rehearsal of the advice given the Indians by Colonel Guy Johnson, to remain neutral and let the white men settle their own difficulties. The chief declared a strong attach- ment for Sir John Johnson, and carnestly desired that whatever might be the result of the war, he might remain unmolested. He also desired that the same favors be shown their missionary, Rev. Mr. Stewart, for, said he, " he never meddles with civil affairs, but is intent only on instructing us in the way to heaven." He also alluded to the subject of some domestic trouble which his people had experienced with the inhabitants of Albany, and charged them with taking lands which they had no right to. He requested the " Twelve Colonies" to restore these lands to the Indians, and said, in the words of a true prophet, " If you refuse to do this, we shall look upon the prospect as bad; for if you conquer, you will take us by the arm and pull us all off." In view of the treatment which this band of Mohawks re- ceived from General Sullivan in 1779, the utterances of the chief seemed an intuitive anticipation of the future, which in the days of Jeremiah would have been called the " spirit of prophecy."

Tiahogwando, an Oneida chief, made a speech upon the bitter controversy then existing between the States of Pennsylvania and Connecticut, respecting the lands on the Susquehanna, claiming that the lands in controversy were originally the property of the Indians which they had con- veyed as a free gift to William Penn, because the Great Spirit would not allow them to be sold.

The commissioners replied, on the 1st of September, in a conciliatory spirit, and acceding to most of the requests of the Indians. To the desire of the Indians that some one be appointed to keep the council-fire burning at Albany, they replied that General Schuyler and Mr. Donw had been selected for that purpose. This finished the council so far as the colonies were concerned. Some unfinished business with the Albany committee was arranged on the 2d of Sep- tember, at which time the subjects of Colonel Guy John- son's council at Oswego, and some matters touching the title to certain lands in the vicinity of Ticonderoga, were discussed ; Little Abraham being the speaker on behalf of the Indians. The council (which was the last general one ever held at Albany) closed with the distribution of presents among the Indians, who departed well pleased with their treatment:+

The good feelings with which the Indians separated for their several homes were most unfortunately turned to the " gall of bitterness" by a malignant fever, which soon after appeared among them, and became a destructive epidemic. A large number died, and the Schoharie canton, in par-

# Stono's Life of Brant.

t For the full text of this treaty see appendix to vol. i. of Colonel Stone's Life of Brant.

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

tieular, was almost depopulated. Those who survived ae- cepted the only explanation which the savages eould invent, and which, even among the enlightened white population of to-day, is still a current belief, that the Great Spirit was angry with them for not taking up arms for the king, and the Schoharie tribe soon after followed their brethren to Canada. In the subsequent invasions of the Mohawk and other valleys, these Schoharie Indians were the most cruel and revengeful of all the savage bands.

After all that could be done to make a success of the Albany council it was substantially a failure, for only the Oneidas and the lower clan of the Mohawks attended. The attempt to keep the savages quiet in the midst of war, even if desired by both belligerents, proved abortive, as must always be the case where they are sufficiently strong to have any weight in the contest.

During the year 1775, matters were so evenly balanced between the " Whigs" and "Tories" of New York, that it was by no means certain upon which side the colony would range itself.

William Tryon, the Royal Governor, had been first ap- pointed Governor of the colony July 9, 1771, and had served until April, 1774, when he was succeeded by Cad- wallader Colden, the Lieutenant-Governor, who filled the office until June 28, 1775, when Tryon was recalled from North Carolina, whither he had been ordered, and a second time appointed Governor of New York. He was very pop- ular in the colony, and used every endeavor to hold it in the interests of the home government. Aiding and abet- ting him was the commander of the " Asia," a powerful ship- of-war, which was anchored in the stream with her broad- side on the city. The commander had threatened to de- stroy the town if any attempt was made by the provincials under General Charles Lee, who was approaching from the east at the head of an army, to take possession of it. Dis- affection and toryism were everywhere rife, and even the halls of Congress were not exempt from their influence. Intrigue was at work, and it was discovered by a secret correspondence that the British Government was preparing to send a formidable fleet and armny up the Hudson, with the design to occupy both New York and Albany.

Sir John Johnson, at the Baronial Hall, was a constant object of suspicion, and it was quite probable that a definite knowledge of the plans of the British commanders had caused him to remain, while his brother-in-law and so many others had fled to Canada. He also had a numerous ten- antry, and they were kept armed and held in readiness in case of any emergeney. These tenantry were mostly Scotch Catholies, and all Loyalists, notwithstanding their attempt thirty years before to revolutionize Scotland under Charles Edward.

The Dutch and German inhabitants were mostly Whigs, and their committee executed their authority vigorously and diligently. The inhabitants were organized and en- rolled as militia, and every preparation was made to meet any emergency which might arise.

Among thie Tory inhabitants was Alexander White, the sheriff, by appointment of the Governor, who had rendered himself obnoxious by dispersing a band of Whigs, and cut- ting down their liberty pole at German Flatts. Like nearly

all the Crown officers, he was bitterly loyal, and the com- mittee finally deposed him and procured the appointment of Colonel John Frey, a stanch Whig, in his place.

White, upon one occasion, had arrested a Whig, by the name of John Fonda, and thrown him into prison ; where- upon Sampson Sammons had rallied about fifty of his friends and taken him out by force. From the prison they then proceeded to the dwelling of the sheriff, and demanded his instant surrender. White put his head out from a second-story window, while the crowd were standing at his front door, and recognizing the leader, said, " Is that you, Sammons ?" " Yes," was the prompt reply ; whereupon White fired his pistol at Sammons, but happily missed his aim, the ball lodging in the door-sill. This is said to have heen the first hostile shot fired in the war of the Revolu- tion west of the Hudson. The men accompanying Sam- mons were all armed, and they immediately returned the fire, but without any further damage to the sheriff than a slight graze across the breast. The doors of the dwelling were at onee assaulted and burst iu, and White would have been a prisoner in a few minutes, when the report of a gun at Johnson Hall arrested the party's attention, and knowing well that Sir John could bring several hundred men at onee against them, they desisted and left the ground. They assembled soon after at Caughnawaga, from whence they sent a deputation to wait on Sir John Johnson and demand the surrender of the sheriff, which demand was, of course, not acceded to.

After White's dismissal by the committee he was re- commissioned by Governor Tryon, but the committee would not allow him to enter upon the duties of his office. The popular indignation ran so high against him that he fled towards Canada, but was pursued and brought back to Albany and imprisoned. He was soon after released on parole, and very prudently left the country.

In regard to Sir John Johnson, matters were rapidly approaching a erisis. On the 7th of September the com- mittee wrote the following letter to the Provincial Congress of New York :

" There is a great number of proved enemies against our associa- tion and regulations thereof, proceeding in and about Johnstown and Kingsborough, under the direction and order of Sir John Johnson, being Highlanders, amounting to 200 men, according to intelligence. We are daily scandalized by them, provoked aud threatened, and we inust surely expect a havoc of them upon our families if we should be required and called elsewhere for the defense of our country's cause. The people on our side are not willing that the Committee should proceed so in lulgently any longer. We have great suspicions, and are almost assured that Sir John has a continual correspondence with Colonel Guy Johnson and his party."

It was afterwards ascertained that a correspondence was kept up by means of Indian runners, who conveyed letters in the heads of their tomahawks and in their personal orna- ments.

On the 26th of October the committee wrote the following letter to Sir John :

TRYON COUNTY COMMITTEE CHAMBER, Oct. 26, 1775.

" HONORABLE SIR,-As we find particular reason to be convinced of your opinion in the questions hereafter expressed, we request that you'll oblige us with your sentiments thereupon in a few lines by our messengers the bearers hereof,-Messrs. Ebenezer Cox, James MeMas- ter, and John J. Klock, members of our Committee. We wish to know

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

whether you will allow the inhabitants of Johnstown and Kings- borough to forin themselves into companies, according to the regula- tions of our Continental Congress, for the defense of our country's cause; and whether your Honour would be ready himself to give his personal assistance to the same purpose : also, whether you pretend a prerogative to our County Court-house and gaol, and would hinder or interrupt the Committee making use of the same to our want and service in the common cause.

" We do not doubt you will comply with our reasonable request, and thereby oblige." etc.

To this letter Sir John replied :

" That, as to embodying his tenants, he never did or should forbid them ; but they might save themselves further trouble, as he knew his tenants would not consent. Concerning himself, sooner than lift his hand against his king, or sign any association, he would suffer his head to be cut off. As to the court-house and gaol, he would not deny the use of it for the purpose for which it was built, but that they were his property until he should be refunded £700. He further said he had been informed that two-thirds of Canajoharrie aud Ger- man Flatts people had been forced to sigu the association."#

Copies of the committee's proceedings were forwarded to Congress, and by that body in the main approved ; but it was recommended that to avoid difficulty, the committee should procure some other building for the purpose of hold- ing meetings, and for jail purposes. The advice was fol- lowed, and some of the prisoners were sent to Albany and Hartford for safe keeping.

During the winter of 1775-76 the fears of the people were again excited by the preparations which Sir John made to fortify " Jolinson Hall." The report was circulated that when the fortifications should be completed, they would be garrisoned by 300 Indians, in addition to his own men, and from thence they would sally out and ravage the surrounding country.

" General Schuyler had been kept informed of these opera- tions, and it was finally determined to take active measures to prevent their consummation. Accordingly, in January, 1776, the general, accompanied by General Ten Broeck, Colonel Varick, and others, with a small detachment of soldiers, visited Tryon County. General Herkimer imme- diately called out the militia, who were paraded on the ice

in the Mohawk River. The rendezvous was at Major Fonda's, a few miles from Johnson Hall. Major Fonda was dispatched as a messenger to Sir John. Correspondence was opened, and Sir John finally surrendered himself a prisoner, and his tenants and dependents were disarmed. Sir John was sent to Fishkill, where he was liberated on parole. These proceedings relieved the fears of the inhabi- tants during the remainder of the winter."

In the May following, however, Sir John violated his parole and removed to Canada with a large number of his tenants. "Sir William would have frowned with indigna- tion upon this unmanly and disgraceful conduct of his son."; A correspondence succeeded this movement of Sir John, between the New York Congress and General Washington, touching the advisability of an exchange for the baronet, but there is no evidence that any further steps were taken in the matter. His property, which was val- able, was confiscated by Congress and sold under direction of the committee. During the war he commanded a regi- ment of refugees, or royalists, known along the border as

"Johnson's Greens," probably from the color of their uni- form. This body of men and their degenerate leader will again appear on the stage of action in the course of this work.

The first delegates from Tryon County to the Provincial Congress of New York were John Morlett and John Moore. Afterwards William Wills, Benjamin Newkirk, Volkert Veeder, and William Harper were appointed. The latter two were for a long time members of the State Com- mittee of Safety. In the spring of 1776 a new committee was elected, of which John Frey was chosen chairman.

" At a meeting held in May, it was unanimously resolved to instruct the delegates from Tryon Connty in the Pro- vincial Congress to vote for the entire independence of the colonies. The Declaration of Independence which soon followed was hailed by them with great joy, and they were willing to maintain it 'with their lives and fortunes.'"

The opening events of the war had been propitions for the Americans. Immediately after the collision between the king's troops and the Massachusetts militia, at Lexington and Concord, various military operations were set on foot. Colonel Ethan Allen, acting under the authority of the New Hampshire Grants, as the State of Vermont was then called, and Colonel Benedict Arnold, commissioned by the Provincial Assembly of Connecticut; had, taken possession of Ticonderoga on the IOth of May, 1775; Colonel Seth Warner captured Crown Point, and Arnold had proceeded down the lake as far as St. Jolm's, where he captured a sloop-of-war by surprise. Skenesborough, now Whitehall, had been taken, and thus in a few weeks, without the loss of a man on the side of the colonists, Lake Champlain, with all its fortresses and immense stores, fell into the hands of the Americans.

General Schuyler had been assigned to the command of the northern army, which was moving against the Canadas, but was obliged by sickness to resign it to General Richard Montgomery, who prosecuted the campaign with great vigor and astonishing success. St. John's, Chambly, and Montreal were taken in rapid succession, and Sir Guy Carleton was forced to flee down the St. Lawrence in an open boat with muffled oars. Montgomery followed to Quebec, where his small army was reinforced by the half-starved column of 900 men which Arnold had led from the head-waters of the Kennebec through an unbroken wilderness over the mountains and down the Chaudiere to the banks of the St. Lawrence. Sir Guy Carleton was fortifying Quebec to the utmost of his ability, and preparing for the worst. But sickness had decimated the little army of Montgomery, and his light guns were not able to make any impression on the strong walls of the great fortress. A council of war was called, and an assault determined upon, which was made on the 31st day of December, 1775, and terminated disastrously to the American arms, who lost their gallant commander, and many killed and taken prisoners.

In June, 1775, occurred the battle of Bunker Hill, and soon after Washington had taken command of the hastily- collected army and closely besieged the British in Boston, which Sir William Howe was compelled to evacuate on the 17th of March, 1776. The British army and 2000 refu- gees at first proceeded to Halifax, N. S., but subsequently

# Campbell's Aunals of Tryon County.

t Stone.

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

the army was concentrated against the city of New York, where Washington also established his headquarters.

With the opening of spring Sir Guy Carleton was rein- forced by a British squadron and a large land force, and immediately took the offensive against Arnold, who had remained in front of Quebec through the winter, but who was now obliged to retreat before the greatly superior num- bers of the enemy. Sickness and disaster forced the Amer- icans to give up all their conquests of the preceding year, and the approach of winter found everything again in pos- session of the British army. Arnold had battled manfully on Lake Champlain, but the fortunes of war were against him, and all hope of holding the Canadas was abandoned. Arnold had been relieved of the chief command at Quebec by General Thomas, who had subsequently died of smallpox at the mouth of the Sorel River. This loathsome disease continued its ravages until the army was completely deci- mated, and its destructive effects were greatly increased by a villainous Dr. Barker, who, it is said, purposely propa- gated it.

In June, 1776, Gates was assigned to the command of the northern army, greatly to the injury of General Schuyler and to the disgust of many of the officers and men. Colonel Peter Gansevoort, then a lieutenant-colonel in Colonel Van Schaick's regiment, felt himself so much aggrieved by the general's haughty and imperious conduct towards him that he wrote Gates a most spirited letter, threatening to resign the command of Fort George, with General Schuyler's permission.

At the close of 1776 matters were gloomy in the extreme, and the generous treatment of those Americans who fell into the hands of Sir Guy Carleton not only prevented any aid or assistance from the Canadians, but caused many of the Americans to take a discouraging view of the situation, and even induced numbers to desert the cause. General Schuyler repeatedly complained of the frequent desertions, which threatened to break up the arioy.

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

The great event of the year 1776, and indeed of the eighteenth century, was the American Declaration of In- dependence, which was solemnly adopted by the Continental Congress on the 4th of July. This bold measure at once settled the question. The colonies were no longer fighting for their rights under the British Crown, but contending for a place among the nations of the earth. By this dec- laration they severed themselves from the mother-country, and established a definite line of policy. The soundness of their reasoning, and the masterly manner in which their claims to recognition were set forth, produced a profound impression among the courts of Europe, and they one after another recognized their rights as belligerents, and France, in 1778, concluded a treaty offensive and defensive with the gallant people, which materially aided in establishing their independence. Having thus, like Cortez, burned their ships behind them, there was no alternative but to gird them- selves for the dubious conflict and defend their principles henceforth to a successful issue.

At this very time Great Britain was making herculcan efforts to crush the colonies at one powerful blow. Not

content with the use of the blood and treasure of their own kingdom, the government entered into negotiations with some of the minor princes of the German States to furnish 17,000 troops for a stipulated sum per head. To these were added 25,000 British troops, under competent commanders, the whole supplemented and supported by the most powerful navy in the world. But this formidable dis- play did not discourage the colonists. They gathered strength and filled up their armies, though destitute of almost everything which the prosecution of a great war requires, except patriotism. The clergy, almost to a man, gave their voices for the cause, and sermons were preached all over the broad land, from Maine to Georgia, urging the people to continued and determined resistance; and not a few cast aside their vestments and donned the "buff and blue," like Muhlenburg and Trumbull and Gano, and did heroic battle in the ranks.

During the summer of 1776 Tryon County was com- paratively quiet. The inhabitants were, to some extent, organized, armed, and drilled, and scouts and parties of rangers were kept on the borders to give timely notice of the approach of an enemy. Among the commanders of ranger companies were Captains Robert Mckean and Winn, the latter of whom was stationed for some time with his company at Cherry Valley.

FORTIFICATIONS IN THE MOHAWK VALLEY.

At the beginning of the war there were the following fortifications in the valley of the Mohawk, all more or less dilapidated, and some entirely in ruins : Fort Stanwix, at the carrying-place, which had been built near the former sites of Forts Craven and Williams, by General John Stanwix, in the year 1758, and named in his honor; old Fort Schuyler, on the present site of Utica, an inferior work, and never regularly garrisoned ; Fort Dayton, prob- ably erected by Colonel Dayton, near the site of the present court-house in Herkimer village ; Fort Herkimer, on the south bank of the Mohawk, opposite the mouth of West Canada Creek ; Fort Canajoharie ;* old Fort Plain, in the town of Minden, Montgomery County, built by a French engineer during the war of 1755-60, which was an im- mense three-story block-house, each story overlapping the one below; and Fort Hunter, at the mouth of Schoharie Creek, built in 1711, and abandoned after the French war. There were also three fortifications, most likely block-houses, built in the town of Minden during the Revolution, and named Fort Plank, Fort Clyde, and Fort Willett, in honor of prominent men. Schenectady was also fortified and garrisoned. " Johnson Hall" was fortified by Sir John Johnson, but abandoned in 1775. The islands at the mouth of the Mohawk were fortified during Burgoyne's campaign, and Queen Anne's Chapel, in the town of Florida, was inclosed with a stockade, which had a few light guns mounted. There were probably in addition to these quite a number of the mansions of the wealthy class also fortified to resist the savages.

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History of Oneida County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 21

Author: Durant, Samuel W Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Fariss Number of Pages: 920

Author: Durant, Samuel W
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Fariss
Number of Pages: 920