History of Ontario Co., New York, Part 2

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Setting sail on April 9, 1609, in the "Half-Moon," with a crew of eighteen men, half of whom were English and the rest Dutch, Hudson sought the northern passage amidst icebergs and frozen seas, skirted Greenland and New- foundland, and, reaching the promontory of Cape Cod, called this land, as its supposed discoverer, New Netherlands. The voyage of Verrazzani had been for- gotten, and the Indians, prepared by legendary tale, saw in Hudson a Manito and in the " Half-Moon" a palace, and watched the movement of the vessel in deep amazement as an apparition from the sea. On the 12th of September, Hudson entered the great river which bears his name, and sailed northward through the Highlands to the site of Albany. Opening a traffic with the natives, he obtained from them corn, beans, pumpkins, grapes, and tobacco,-products indigenous to the clime,-and to them imparted the baneful knowledge of the effects of rum. Years after the discovery of Manhattan, the Dutch and Indians supposed the " Half-Moon" the first ship seen by the natives on the continent; and Holland, basing her claim on these discoveries of Hudson, assumed ownership of land from Cape Cod to the southern shore of Delaware Bay. In this land of three-fold dis- covery, the Dutch, purchasing a piece of ground on the Hudson in 1614, erected a palisaded trading-house, and in 1623 made settlements at New Amsterdam and Fort Orange. The cause of emigration to New York originally was trade, not colonization, and the second race which mingled with them, from New England, and now forms so great a portion of the population of the State, were persons of education, claiming equality of right, and eminently fitted to be the founders of a republican government. Cordial to their English neighbors of the Plymouth colony, and on amicable terms with the Indians, the Dutch Company attempted . feudal authority. By contract, any one who within four years should plant a colony of fifty persons, all over fifteen years of age, within the limits of New Netherlands, were entitled to a grant of lands sixteen miles in length and extend- ing inland an indefinite distance. These leaders of colonies were called Patroons, of whom Samuel Godyn, Samuel Bluement, M. Pauw, and Kilian Van Rensse- laer were the first and most prominent. Van Rensselaer purchased from the Indian owners the lands extending along the Hudson from Fort Orange, or

Albany, to an island at the mouth of the Mohawk, and paid in goods. His colonists were poor dependents and ill adapted for the settlement of the country. Sir William Kieft arrived at New Amsterdam, or New York, in 1638, as director or governor of the colony. His administration is not marked with moderation, and his impolitic treatment of the Indians aroused their resentment and brought the colony to the verge of destruction. By his permission, many English families had settled on Long Island, and these soon imbued the minds of their neighbors with a love of untrammeled direction of their own affairs; and when, in 1664, the fleet of Admiral Nichols, sent out by the Duke of York, demanded the surrender of the Dutch province, the warlike Stuyvesant, unsupported by the people, reluo- tantly yielded to the English, and the right acquired by possession gave way to the power of arms. The province, in honor of James II., then Duke of York, received the name of New York. New Amsterdam was given the name New York, and Fort Orange was called Albany. Notwithstanding the change of masters, the Dutch and English colonists soon found themselves far from freedom in the rights of property and government. The moderation of Nichols was suo- ceeded by the tyranny of Francis Lovelace, who arbitrarily imposed duties, levied taxes, and controlled legislation. Defrauded of their means and denied their rights, the people raised revenues under officials appointed by themselves, and, while uniting upon measures of common benefit, never ceased to continue a jealous observance and timely resistance of tyrannical measures. Thirty years from the first demand of the colonists, the representatives of the people met in assembly. In October, 1683, the first colonial assembly for the province of New York held session. The charter of liberties asserted that " Supreme legislative power shall forever reside in the governour, council, and people, met in general assembly. Every freeholder and freeman shall vote for representatives without restraint. No freeman shall suffer but by judgment of his peers, and all trials shall be by a jury of twelve men. No tax shall be assessed on any pretence whatever but by consent of the assembly. No seaman or soldier shall be quar- tered on the inhabitants against their will. No martial law shall exist. No person professing faith in God by Jesus Christ shall at any time be any ways dis- quieted or questioned for any difference of opinion." Colonel Thomas Dongan was the royal governor at this time; he was supported by the council of ten ; and the assembly consisted of seventeen members, who, exercising a discretionary power over appropriations for the support of government, became a check upon extravagance and a protection to the people during the rule of the royal governors down to the Revolution. Controversy between governor and assembly delayed measures of protection from active French aggression on the north, brought the English into contempt with the fierce Iroquois on the west, and but for the saga- city of the Confederacy, who, nominally friendly to the English, and really at enmity with the French, desired only as neutrals to see these peoples destroy each other without a supremacy of either, would have brought the colony to the brink of ruin. Led by Peter Schuyler, Mayor of Albany in 1692-93, the Iroquois not only guarded the province of New York from the French, but checked their establishment of a chain of interior forts from the lakes to the Gulf.

Benjamin Fletcher, then governor, by prompt response to call for help to repel the French invasion of the Mohawk country, won credit from the people and the attachment of the Six Nations. As the changes and revolutions agitated England. their influence extended to the royal province, and occasioned an event heavily freighted with consequences as regarded the subsequent affairs of the community. The germ of popular power, as the warrant of our existence as a republic, was planted in the troubled days of May, 1691. The circumstance of the execution of Jacob Leisler, and Jacob Milbourne his son-in-law, so familiar to many, opened a chasm between the people, whose situation entitled them to consideration, and the representatives of kingly authority, who aimed at a complete usurpation of all power and privilege. The feelings of resentment and estrangement originated in that cruel and unjustifiable act kindled to a flame upon the breaking out of the Revolution. Even a name was obnoxious, and a county formed in 1772 as Tryon, after a colonial governor, was in 1784 changed to Montgomery, after Gene- ral Montgomery, a soldier of the Revolution. Jacob Leisler, as the opponent of tyranny, the champion of the free-holder of New York, and a martyr to the cause of liberty, was the founder of a party which is an indispensable prerogative to popu- lar government, and fully deserving a mention in a history connected with that early period. The war of the Revolution knew unwonted rigor in New York, owing to the division of feeling and interest, and as Whig and Tory the people were ranged in nearly equal numbers. In eastern New York were fought various important battles. The defeat of the Americans on Long Island opened a season of gloom and uncertainty, still further increased by the loss of forts upon the Hudson; but the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga gave rise to a buoyancy of hope and resolution which never faltered till the conclusion of the war. Con- tending with oppression, faction, and poverty, the thickly-settled regions along the Hudson were agitated upon the subject of renta. The feudal tenure was abol-

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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY, NEW YORK.

ished in 1787. In December, 1839, the people organised and resisted the civil processes for the collection of rent, but finally dispersed without collision with the authorities. In .1850, the "Quarter Sales," in which the landlord claimed a part of the purchase money at each transfer of a lease, was declared by the Supreme Court to be unconstitutional. This attempt to ingraft European custom upon American soil has not only proved a failure, but has entailed much of mischievous tendency upon descendants. It is pleasant to observe that the very inability to own lands along the Hudson contributed to send out westward the resolute settler to select himself a home at a cheap price and with a perfect title. By European law the region west of Albany was the property of the Eastern occupants, but long ere the " Mayflower" landed the pilgrims, the vicinity of Ontario had been the home of a people whose history as our predecessors is a subject of untiring in- terest. The strife with England ceased, and, as the people turned their thoughts to the west, we will anticipate their migration thither and study the character of the people whom it is their destiny to displace.

CHAPTER II.

THE ANTIQUITIES OF ONTARIO-TRADITIONS OF THE SIX NATIONS-THEIR CIVILIZATION, CHARACTER, TRIBAL RELATIONS, WARS, TREATIES, AND FATE.

THE plow has leveled the mound, the axe has felled the tree, and the monu- ments of former occupation within the present limits of Ontario are few in number. Upon a hill-slope overlooking Canandaigua Lake is the partially ob- literated embankment of an ancient work. The construction through it of the Geneva and Canandaigua turnpike disclosed quantities of human bones, and relics of Indian manufacture. On the Victor road, several miles west of Canandaigua, exists a long, narrow trench, extending for miles ; attributed to art, it is more "probably a work of nature, and indicates a subsidence of the earth along a fissure in the limestone formation. Occasional traces are found of defensive structures in the way of palisades; holes in the earth from which the wood had decayed indicate the outline and form of the defenses. The traces of Ganundasaga Castle, near Geneva, are well preserved and easily traceable. The preservation of this spot is the result of a special condition made by the Senecas when ceding their lands in this locality, that here the plow should never turn a furrow to disturb the sleep of their ancestors. The site of this old palisade slopes toward Ganun- dasaga Creek, from which the water supply was obtained. The work is rectangu- lar in form, with bastions at the northwest and southeast angles. A fragment of an oak picket removed in 1847 is now in the State cabinet at Albany. A short distance northward of this fort is a low, artificial, broad-based mound, some six feet in height. The insatiate curiosity of the antiquary will ultimately invade this receptacle and disclose the remains of early days.

This fort was destroyed in 1779, by Sullivan, the palisade burned, the crops destroyed, and the fruit-trees cut down. About four miles northwest of the work noted, and upon a high ridge, existed a work which has been obliterated by cul- tivation; evidences of storeplaces of supplies could be seen until recently. Frag- ments of pottery were found upon the site, which seems to have been of a more ancient date than others. Near Victor, upon the summit of a high hill, are traces of a palisaded fort, which recalls the expedition of De Nouville, in 1687. There is in these traces of a past age no indication of high antiquity, and, while we re- gard them all as the sites of Indian occupation, we may leave them to study briefly the traditions and legends of their builders.

The following, from Stone's " Life of Red Jacket," bears upon the romantic scenery about Canandaigua Lake, and, coming down to us through the sachems of the Senecas, lends additional interest to the landscape which it describes. It is a tradition of the Senecas that the original people of their nation broke forth from the crest of a mountain at the head of Canandaigua Lake. The mountain which gave them birth is called Ge-nun-de-wah-gauh, or the Great Hill. Hence the Senecas were called the Great Hill People, which was their original title. The base of the Genundewah Mountain, as it is usually called, they believe to have been encircled, when their nation was in its infancy, by a huge serpent, so vast in proportions as to coil himself entirely around the mountain. The head and tail of the monster united at the gateway of the path leading to and from the steep summit, and there were few who attempted to pass that escaped his vora- cious jaws. Thus environed, a long time elapsed, during which the people were not only besieged and reduced in numbers, but made to suffer from the poisonous breath of the reptile. Finally, their torment being beyond endurance, the Indians resolved to attempt a sally. Armed with such weapons as were at hand, they rushed down the hill towards the dreaded portal, where all were seized and swal- lowed with the exception of two children, who somehow contrived to overleap

this fearful line of circumvallation, and so avoid the terrible fate of the tribe. These children, thus spared and orphanized, were reserved for a high destiny,- the destruction of the serpent. Mysteriously the information was imparted how this object could be accomplished. Direction was given to form a bow from a specified kind of willow, and an arrow from the same material. The barb of the arrow was to be dipped in poison and shot obliquely, to allow of penetration be- neath the scales. Obeying divine injunction, the death of the serpent was effected. As the deadly arrow penetrated the skin, the huge monster was seized with violent convulsions. Uncoiled from around the mountain, and writhing in the most frightful contortions, the reptile threw up the heads of the people he had de- voured, and rolled down the steep into the lake, sweeping down the timber in his course. The disgorged heads of the Indians were petrified by the transparent waters, and may still be seen at the bottom of the lake in the shape and hardnees of stones. From the two survivors sprang the new race of Senecas. The hill is known to have been barren since the whites first came to the country, and still lies in a state of nature. Tradition affirms that the lake region was densely populated by a race of enterprising and industrious people, who were destroyed by serpents, and left their improvements to the Senecas. Originally of one language, an unknown influence confounded their speech, and caused the formation of na- tions, while the Seneca continued to speak in the original tongue.

Again it is related that during the wars of the Senecas and the northern Algon- quins, a chief of the latter tribe was captured and carried to the sacred mountain, where he was confined in a fortification consisting of a bastionless square, sur- rounded by palisades. Youthful, brave, and finely formed, the captive was re- garded with savage admiration, but the council, after brief debate, condemned him to death by the slow torture of impalement. To the lodge of death, where lay the condemned prisoner, came the daughter of the sachem, bringing food. Struck by his manly form and heroic bearing, the maiden resolved to save his life or share his fate. With silent tread she reached his side, out the binding throngs, and besought him to follow her. The descent of the hill along a forest-path was being rapidly effected, when, just before reaching the lake shore, a wild, shrill alarm-whoop reached their ears. The beach was reached, a canoe was entered, and, with vigorous paddle-stroke, urged towards the opposite shore. Savage yells rose upon the air, and eager braves bounded down the declivity in hot pur- suit. With undaunted spirit the young Algonquin sent back a defiant whoop, and soon, with plashing oars, a dozen canoes were following in his wake. On landing, the warrior, weakened by yet unhealed wounds, followed his active guide with flagging pace upon a trail leading westward over the hills, while ever nearer came pursuers, led by the grim old chief. Despairing of further flight, the Indian girl diverged from the trail and led the way to a table-crested rock projecting over a deep ravine, whose bottom lay thickly strewn with huge, misshapen rocks. Silently the hapless pair awaited the coming of the Senecas. With knit brow, tall form, and eagle plume, the daughter saw her father spring forward, view the chase, and halt abruptly. Notching an arrow to his bow, he drew with sinewy arm, but, ere the shaft could fly, Wun-nut-hay, the Beautiful, interposed her per- son. With wild and native eloquence she plead with the sachem for mercy to the Algonquin, and if denied asserted her resolve to leap with him the precipice to certain death. Her answer was an order for the warriors to advance and seize the fugitive. As they came leaping the devoted pair, with clasped hands, sprang from the cliff, and died. Their mangled bodies were buried where they fell, be- neath the shelter of the everlasting rocks.

There is an interesting tradition associated with the burial-ground near Ganun- dasaga. The Senecas had once a strong protector in the person of a great giant, in stature loftier than the highest forest-tree; his arms were a bow split from the largest hickory, his arrows, pine-trees. Upon his journeyings he traversed the plains beyond the Mississippi, and thence came eastward towards the sea. While upon the banks of the Hudson an immense bird came up its waters, and flapping its wings as if to get out, he walked in and carried it to land. Upon its back were many men, who, filled with terror, signed to be returned to the river. As he complied, they gave to him a sword, a musket, powder, and balls, explained their use, and then the great bird spread ita wings and swam away. Returning to the Senecas at Ganundasaga, the weapons of destruction were shown, and the firearm was discharged before them. With terror at the report, and reproaches for bringing such weapons among them, they asked that the arms should be taken away, and added that such would be the destruction of their race, and he who brought them was none other than an enemy. The giant, in grief at their re- proaches, withdrew with the strange gift from the council and lay down to rest in the field. Morning came, and the giant was found dead. The earth around was heaped upon the body where it lay, and it has been averred that he who opens this mound will find there a skeleton of supernatural size. One other legend, and from relic and tradition we will look upon the people which they commemorate. When, in the early day, the Indians dwelt near the present site of Geneva, about

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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY, NEW YORK.

the lower part of Seneca Lake, their principal occupation was in fishing. There were certain days, however, that, in their mythology, were considered sacred, and at those times it was sacrilege to engage in fishing. Upon one of the forbidden days . skeptical young warrior took his fishing tackle and rowed away in his canoe to the usual fishing-grounds. His friends, standing upon the shore, urgently called upon him to desist, but he continued obdurate, and was paddling slowly forward when a mighty storm arose, covering the lake with vapor and concealing him from their sight. Speedily it passed away, but terrible was its power; and, as the cloud lifted, the warrior and his canoe were seen to disappear beneath the surface, while a heavy explosion reverberated to the ears of those on shore. Ever since that day the spirit of the doubting warrior has been doomed to periodic appearance in his phantom canoe, and ever and again a deep booming sound attends his dis- appearance. Upon the calmest summer day, when not a ripple disturbs the glassy surface of that beautiful lake, there can be heard, at irregular intervals, a low, deep, solemn sound re-echoing along the waters and dying along the northern shore. The phantom canoe and the spectral occupant may not be seen, but the mysterious sound is no fantasy. While the history of Ontario aims at no detailed account of the Iroquois, yet, as immediate predecessors of the present white race, their record is instructive and essential. Of Indian nations, whose castles, forts, and fields are sites of the present city and village, the Iroquois are most conspicuous. Driven from the vicinity of Montreal, where, in subjection to the Adirondacks, they learned to till the soil and go upon the war-path, the Iroquois migrated to Central New York, and settled upon the Seneca River. Later, a band proceeding east- ward became known as Mohawks. Two other bands, united for a time, separated, -one, the Oneidas, established themselves east of Oneida Lake, the other, the Onondaga, located in the valleys and hills which commemorate their occupation. Two bands, living upon the Seneca River, became divided, the Cayugas dwelling upon the east bank of the lake bearing their name, and the Senecas, proceeding westward, settled at Nun-da-wa-o, at the head of Canandaigua Lake. The scat- tered bands became alienated, and mutually inimical, and so continued for an indefinite period. The idea of a league, suggested by the Onondagas, was followed by a general assembly of tribal chiefs upon the northern shores of Onondaga Lake. The institution of the league was upon the principle of family relationship. Fifty hereditary sachemships were created, each equal in rank, with joint and coextensive jurisdiction. Eight of these sachems were assigned to the Senecas, and, all united, formed an oligarchy known as the "Council of the League." Independent in local, domestic, and mainly political matters, the tribal sachems were to their nation as all assembled annually were to the confederacy. Duties were assigned to each nation, and to the Senecas fell the honor of doorkeepers of the Long House. The result of the confederacy was a growth of power and influence estab- lished permanently at home; their name became formidable abroad. With the knowledge of ability came the desire of conquest, and the confederates were not inaptly termed the " Romans of the West."

Their old oppressors the Adirondacks first felt their resentment in a warfare which terminated with little less than extirpation. During the struggle, Samuel Champlain, one of a French company formed at Rouen in 1603 for purposes of colonization, had founded colonies along the St. Lawrence, and built a fort upon the site of Quebec. Years previously, Cartier had kidnapped three chiefs of the Hurons and Algonquins and taken them to England. To win Algonquin favor, Champlain engaged in an expedition in 1609 against their enemies. Upon Lake Champlain the expedition fell in with the Iroquois, and both parties hastened with glad shouts to battle upon land. Near Ticonderoga, the allies, intrenched behind the fallen timber, sent a messenger to inquire respecting an engagement, which was deferred till next day. At daybreak, Champlain placed two French- men and a party of Indians in position to engage the Iroquois' flank. Each side, two hundred strong and armed with bows and arrows, hoped for easy con- quest,-the Iroquois from confidence in themselves, the Algonquins from trust in the fire arms of the French. Darting from their defenses, the allies advanced in front of their enemy, and parting in two bodies, right and left, disclosed the pres- ence of the white men, who, in the height of their astonishment, ordered a dia- charge of arquebuse, aimed at three chiefs, two of whom fell dead and the third was badly wounded. The allies, shouting, discharged ineffectual arrows, while the Frenchmen put the Iroquois to disordered flight. In pursuit, many were killed and some captured,-one of whom was being tortured on the return, when humanely shot by Champlain. Little did he consider that this rash sot would embitter a powerful race against his countrymen, cause the laying waste of French territory, bar the advance of the Jesuit, and raise up for the English an ally whose co-operation would result in French overthrow. From such light incidents origi- nate unforeseen resulta, and the fire-arm, a century later, was the potent agency by which the Indian was enabled to cope with the white and become a scourge to the settlements. Supplied with the new weapons by the Dutch and English, the Iro- quois azpelled the neuter nation from the Niagara peninsula in 1643, and founded

a permanent settlement at the mouth of the river. In 1653 a strife was in prog- ress between the Senecas and Eries, which resulted in the annihilation of the lat- ter. A fierce battle was fought, as some assert, near the Honeoye Outlet, midway between Canandaigua Lake and the Genesee River. With half their number alain, the Eries fled to an island of the Allegheny; but followed here, they went to other regions, and lost identity as a people. Active in many a foray and battle, the Indians were nowhere too distant to be safe from the attack of the confederates, who, by 1700, had assumed an soknowledged sway over all immediate races of Indian lineage. With the French, negotiation, armistice, and retaliation were successively employed, and one expedition after another was made into the vil- lages of the League,-from which the occupants temporarily withdrew to the forest, and so rendered the enterprise against them futile.

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History of Ontario Co., New York, Part 2

Author: Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages: 391

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 391