History of Ontario Co., New York, Part 3

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

USA > New York > Ontario County > History of Ontario Co., New York > Part 3

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

De la Barre was appointed governor-general of New France in 1684. The policy of intimidation had not been recognized as a failure, and the Frenchman resolved to gather an army, and, not succeeding by peaceful negotiation in alien- ating the Iroquois from the English, to advance and lay waste their country. A force of somewhat less than two thousand French and Indians was assembled in August on the borders of Ontario, and speedily the climate consigned a large por- tion of the former to the hospital. De la Barre now attempted a treaty, and sent for chiefs with whom to counsel. Garangula, a Seneca chief, with a band of war- riors, came back with the messenger. A speech which challenges admiration at this day was delivered by the Iroquois chief. Knowing the French weakness, he taunted them with it, and loftily asserted, " We are born freemen, and depend not on Yonnondio or Corlear. We go where we will, and traffic as we please. If you have slaves, command them. Our women, children, and old men would have entered your camp, had not the warriors disarmed and kept them back." The expedition begun in bravado, continued in weakness, ended in ridicule.

A more successful expedition was projected and executed in 1687, by the Mar- quis De Nouville, successor of De la Barre. The Iroquois were warring with French allies and introducing the English to the Niagara region claimed by both nations, and the new governor determined to strike the Senecas a crushing blow, and then erect a fort at Niagara. The battle-ground being upon Ontario soil, the record in de- tail belongs to her history. The marquis began to establish a magazine of supplies at Fort Frontenac, and assemble troops at Montreal. Commanders of posts were ordered to Niagara, and thither Indian allies were directed. The confederacy saw these preparations and notified Governor Dongan, of New York, who entered into controversy with. De Nouville while he supplied the Iroquois with arms and ammunition. On the 13th of June, the French army, composed of regulars, militia, and Indian warriors, some two thousand strong, embarked at Montreal in three hundred and fifty bateaux, and by the 30th had reached Fort Frontenac. Dispatching orders to the officer in command at Niagara to meet him at Irondequoit, De Nouville in six days arrived at that place, and was joined almost immediately by a reinforcement of nearly six hundred French and Indians. . During the 11th of July preparations for defense of the camp were made, and next day the line of march was begun towards the Seneca villages, leaving behind at the fortified land- ing a guard of four hundred men.

Proceeding up the east side of the bay, the camp was made for the night near Pittsford. Resuming the march on the 13th, the army advanced upon the Seneca village of Ga-o-sa-ga-o, which was located upon what is known as Boughton's Hill, in the town of Victor. Concealed in dense underbrush, beneath a thick growth of timber, at a distance of a mile and a quarter to the northwest of the Indian vil- lage, lay a body of some four hundred Seneca warriors. Passing the northeastern edge of a swamp, the French scouts went on towards the village, and unsuspect- ingly the main body were passing the defile when, with yells and well-aimed shots, the ambuscade opened the attack. The direst confusion followed, and the French were in danger of massacre, when their Indian allies, rallying, repulsed the Sen- ecas. Among the warriors contending against the invading host five women were seen vying with their husbands in deeds of heroism. Overcome by numbers, the Senecas fell back to a strong position and challenged a battle with equal numbers. Leader and men experienced such a terror from the assault that their allies vainly endeavored to induce a continuance of the advance.

Setting fire to their villages, the Senecas withdrew eastward to the Cayugas, while the French employed themselves for a number of days in slashing the In- dian corn. The Western Indians scoured the country in pursuit of straggling Iroquois, and gave no quarter to such as were overtaken. One large and two smaller villages were visited and found in ashes, while in their vicinity were seen horses, cattle, poultry, and swine, the latter in great numbers. The French now became alar med at rumors of a gathering force of the Iroquois, and retraced their steps to the landing. The Indians by runners soon collected a force and pursued the enemy, but reached the bay only to find themselves too late. The result of this march may be summarized as a moral defeat of the invaders, since they made . compelled retreat without inflicting loss of life. The site of the ancient fort is

Digitized by Google

HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY, NEW YORK.

known to-day as Fort Hill. Iron axes left by the French furnished material for the pioneer blacksmiths of the locality, relics have been unearthed by the plow in considerable numbers, while many graves near by attest a former large popula- tion. Retaliation followed in the fall of 1687, and the settlements near Montreal were laid waste and a number of captives taken.

In July, 1688, all parties desiring peace, De Nouville was met by a large dele- gation from the Iroquois at Montreal; a force of some twelve hundred warriors halted, not distant, to await results. A treaty was concluded, but frustrated by the wily action of a Huron chief, who, ambushing a party of the Iroquois on their homeward return, killed a part and captured the rest. He asserted that he knew nothing of peace, and was soting under De Nouville's orders. The fury of the Five Nations at the supposed treachery of the French was vented upon a people living in fancied security; a thousand French were slain, twenty-six burned alive, the settlement laid waste and improvements destroyed. The history of the Iroquois is a narrative of French and English effort-the one by the influence of the Jesuit, the other by that of commercial advantage-to secure their alliance and lay claim to their lands. In 1700, the French and Iroquois made peace and exchanged prisoners. The Tuscaroras of South Carolina numbered fifteen towns and twelve hundred warriors in 1708. Three years later, the encroachments of the colonists upon their lands drove them to arms. While a part were induced to re- main neutral, the remainder met no mercy, and migrated in 1715 to New York and made the sixth of the confederacy, which was thereafter known as the Six Nations. The Senecas, of all the nations, were at heart most hostile to the English colonists. They made known their enmity by an attack, June 20, 1767, upon a body of pro- vincials and regulars at the portage of Niagara, and followed it up by an assault upon a detachment of English marching from Niagara to Detroit. When the colonies began the war of Independence, none more eagerly embraced the British cause than the Senecas. The massacres of Wyoming and Cherry Valley are at- tributed to that tribe or nation, and, in alliance with renegade whites, the Senecas prowled along the border settlements and laid in ruins many a frontier cabin. Attention became attracted to the virulence of the Iroquois, and Congress sent out an expedition to break their power and lay waste their country. The com- mand was intrusted to General Sullivan, who was directed to march north ward along the Susquehanna to Tioga Point, where on August 22, 1779, he was joined by an Eastern force under command of General James Clinton. On August 26. the united divisions, consisting of Continental troops, fifteen hundred riflemen, and several pieces of light artillery,-in all a body of five thousand men,-began their march up the Tioga and Chemung, accompanied by a train loaded with sup- plies for a month. At what is now Elmira, Colonel John Butler, commanding tories, and Joseph Brandt, Indians, took position, with from six hundred to a thousand men, behind rude earthworks, and awaited the approach of Sullivan. That commander made cautious advances, destroying town and crop which lay on his course, and on August 29 attacked the British and Indians. A battle of two hours' duration followed, and a part of the Indians displayed great courage, while the shells thrown beyond them and exploding created a panic among others, who, fearful of being surrounded, abandoned the field and were pursued for nearly two miles.

The Americans pressed cautiously forward. Down the eastern shore of Seneca and across the outlet the army moved in three divisions, and September 7 reached Kanadasaega, then the chief Seneca town. The Indians had assembled here, but had no courage to encounter so heavy a force, and fell back as the troops advanced. A Mrs. Campbell and her four children, captured at Cherry Valley and adopted into an Indian family, were with the Indians in their flight from this village, and ultimately reaching their old homes were visited by General Washington and Gov- ernor Clinton in 1784. While traversing the Mohawk Valley, the soldiers burned the villages, ruined corn-fields, gardens, and orchards, and before them fled the women and children in crowds to Niagara, while the warriors vainly sought to make a stand. The main army reached Canandarque about the 11th of September, and destroyed twenty-three unusually well-built houses. Proceeding to the small village of Honeoye, at the foot of Honeoye Lake, its ten houses were set on fire, together with the " castle," which stood about one hundred rods from the foot of the lake. So unexpected was the approach of danger at this place that the In- dians sat boiling their beans and corn until the soldiers were seen coming over the hill near where Captain Pitts later built his house. A post was established here with heavy stores, strong guard, and a cannon. It is commonly reported that this field-piece was sunk in a morass when the guard was withdrawn on the return of Sullivan. The army advanced upon "Little Beard's Town," the capital of the western tribes of the confederacy, and the Indians, resolved to try the issue of a battle, took position between Honeoye Creek and .Conesus Lake, near what were known as " Henderson's Flats." While constructing . bridge near Little Beard's Town, Sullivan sent Lieutenant Boyd forward to reconnoitre the village. A long weary march brought the party late at night to the place, where they found fires

yet burning in the huts. Sending back two scouts to report, the detachment, some thirty strong, remained over night, and set out next morning to rejoin the main army. A mile and a half from Sullivan's camp they entered an ambuscade, and bravely endeavoured to cut their way through. A dozen men were shot down, Boyd and a man named Parker taken, and the rest escaped. Trusting to a mystic sympathy from Brandt, Boyd gave no reply to interrogations from Butler respecting the army of Sullivan, and was given to the torture. Parker was at once beheaded, but on Boyd the most cruel and fiendish malice was expended till, wearied, his death-stroke was received. The capture of Niagara was not effected, and the army, crossing the Genesee September 16, returned on their track and went into winter quarters in New Jersey. The total loss of their crops and the ruin of their villages drove the Indians to seek subsistence during the winter of 1779-80 with the British at Niagara. Sufficient food was with difficulty ob- tained for them, and hundreds died of disease. The campaign of Sullivan broke the power of the Six Nations, but the revengeful Senecas visited a terrible retri- bution upon many a defenseless frontier family during the years between 1783 and 1789. Farther on, the treaties conveying lands and the experience of the settlers will be noted, and here we conclude our chapter by a comparison of the Six Nations in later years with their prosperity in the past. It is a tradition of the Senecas that, when most powerful, a census of the nation was taken by placing a kernel of white flint corn for each Seneca in a corn-husk basket which would hold ten or more quarts. By this method an estimate of over seventeen thousand is reached. The census of 1850 gave the number of Senecas on their reservation in Western New York at two thousand seven hundred and twelve, whose income from land sales invested by the State and Government gives a semi-annual interest to the nation of nine thousand dollars. The treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States abandoned the Iroquois to their conquerors, whose policy towards them is humane and just, and seeks to promote their welfare, regard their interest, and stimulate them to social improvement. They have long tilled farms, raised cattle, and yet preserve a semblance of former organization. They raised their first wheat in 1809, some thirty bushels; and harvested the crop of one hun- dred acres but two years later.

CHAPTER III.

CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY-CONFLICT OF JURISDICTION-LAND TITLES- PHELPS AND GORHAM PURCHASE-INDIAN TREATIES.

THE settlement of America at isolated points by different nations, the transient character of aboriginal occupation and their rapid disappearance on the approach of white men, the conjoined effects of mutual wars of extinction, famine, and pestilence, the migratory spirit of the coast population, their energy and persist- ence, the terms of ownership of lands, are all so many circumstances which indi- cate a providential supervision of our origin as a free people. There are those who deem it a wrong that the Indian has not been allowed his broad lands for the chase, and suffer a rich soil to run to waste. The landed estates of Great Britain and the hunting-grounds of the Indians illustrate in common the evil of. a large ownership with limited cultivation. It is regarded as an indisputable fact that the smaller the farms the greater aggregate wealth and production, and hence one source of the prosperity of the Ontario agriculturist. The campaign of General Sullivan, so notable among pioneers and their descendants, was more potent than all else in creating an interest in the Genesee country.

The valley of the Genesee, its beauty and fertility, its lakes and rivers, its up- lands and rich plains, were viewed by the soldiers with wonder and pleasure. Ac- customed to see the Indians disperse in bands as numbers multiplied and game decreased, the unwonted spectacle of fields long cultivated and yielding a rich har- vest to aboriginal owners was at once novel and suggestive. Many districts of country in their orchards, farms, and gardens conveyed the impression of a civil- ised life. The corn-fields were extensive, and a single orchard contained fifteen hundred trees. To those who had looked only upon rugged New England scenery, its mountains, rocky hills, sterile soil, and scanty vegetation, the famous march presented a succession of inviting landscapes. Many of these men, rotracing their steps from this new country of rich, easily-cultivated soil, began to anticipate the time when they might return thither, not on a mission of destruction, but of im- provement, occupancy, and permanent development. Again at their Eastern homes, their tales of burning towns and ravaged fields were blended with descriptions of a very paradise.

The war of the Revolution was ended, but ten years elapsed ere the lands could be thrown open to settlement. Recognizing the Senecas as owners of this do- main, their sotivity in warfare implied a loss of right, and individuals, companies,

Digitized by Google

HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY, NEW YORK.

State, and Government, concerned themselves in efforts to secure from the Indian a title to possession. It has been remarked that the seasons seemed to conspire to render the woods untenable to the Indians as the time drew near for the advance of the pioneers of settlement. The severity of the winter of 1779-80 was un- precedented." All Western New York lay covered by successive falls of snow to a depth of five feet. Wild animals, hitherto innumerable, died by thousands. As spring came the dissolving snow revealed the carcasses of many deer, and still in vain the haughty Senecas longed to resume their station at the portal. The con- clusion of that peace by which American Independence was acknowledged made no provisions for the Six Nations, although thereby their ancient possessions passed by the treaty of 1783 into the hands of the United States. A double motive in- fluenced the State and General Government to recognize the Indians as proprietors of lands,-the feelings of justice and humanity, and of peace and economy. Many who had suffered desired to have their rights declared forfeit, and the Legislature was not wholly averse to such action, but the influence of Washington and Schuy- ler induced a just policy. The undefined power of the United States opened ground for a conflict of interest between State and Confederation. The New York Legislature in April, 1784, passed an act making Governor George Clinton Presi- dent of a Board of Commissioners to superintend Indian affairs. The commis- sioners were Henry Glen, Abraham Cuyler, and Peter Schuyler, who, being au- thorized to ally with them other persons deemed necessary, chose eight persons, and still further augmented their force by securing the services of Rev. Kirkland, a missionary, and of Peter Ryckman, James Deane, Jacob Reed, Major Fonda, Major Fry, and Colonels Wemple and Van Dyke, men who, from being traders or captives, were seen to have considerable influence. Ryckman was very active as an ambassador, and visited Oneida, Kanadesaga, Niagara, and then Albany, and a partial agreement upon a treaty was arranged. Pending these proceedings, Clin- ton learned that Congress, in arranging for a general treaty with the Indians of ·New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, had appointed Oliver Wolcott, Richard But- ler, and Arthur Lee as its commissioners. The question of right was plainly pre- sented. The State Commissioners on the ground found the Indians averse to treat with them, and plainly expressing a preference for the " Thirteen Fires." A council of the Six Nations was secured in September, 1784, at Fort Schuyler, and Clinton, addressing the Oneidas and Tuscaroras, spoke of peace, settlement of boundaries, and the readiness of New York to treat with them for their lands. The chiefs of the Cayugas and Tuscaroras presented a letter from the Congres sional Commissioner, wherein it was recited that New York had no authority from Congress to treat with them, and invitation was given to all the Indians to meet at Fort Stanwix on the 20th of September. Clinton spoke to the deputies of the Mohawks, Senecas, Cayugas, and Onondagas, with an eloquence remarkable, and asserted the right of New York to deal with the Indians within her bounda- ries. Brandt, Cornplanter, and others replied for the Indians. The council was harmonious, a treaty was desirable, and presents' and provisions being given, the council was dissolved. The General Government concluded a treaty at Fort Stan- wix on October 22, 1784. Peace was made, the limits of the Six Nations de- fined, captives surrendered, and quiet possession of their lands guaranteed. Among the speakers at this treaty was Red Jacket, who eloquently advocated a renewal of the war which he did not ardently promote during the passage of Sullivan through his territory. It is known that in the council the young chief, by his fiery oratory, won a strong hold upon his people, while Cornplanter, more ready in the field when success was possible, lost standing by his sage counsels of peace when hostility would have brought inevitable ruin. At a council held in June, 1786, at Fort Herkimer, the New York commissioners bought of the Oneidas and Tuscaroras a body of land lying north of Pennsylvania line, between the Che- nango and Unadilla Rivers, and so began the acquisition of lands, which ceased not till all were taken.

Not only was there a mooted question of jurisdiction between State and Government,' but between States, which question originated in the charters granted by English kings. The Plymouth Company, in 1620, received a charter from the British sovereign of . tract of country having a specified width, and extending westward to the Pacific. A second charter was given in 1691, which defined the eastern line as extending from 42º 2', to 44º 15', north latitude, and from ocean to ocean. The province of New York was bestowed, in 1663, by Charles I., upon the Duke of York, and embraced a region which ex- tended from a line twenty miles east of the Hudson, westward, and from the At- lantic north, to the south line of Canada. The result of these conflicting grants was a claim by each colony of the same lands.

The cession by New York in 1781, and by Massachusetts in 1785, to the United States of all their rights to territory lying west of a meridian line run south from the west bend of Lake Ontario, diminished the amount of land in dispute to an area of about nineteen thousand square miles. A convention was held and the difficulty adjusted at Hartford, Connecticut, on December 16, 1786,

where and when it was mutually agreed between commissioners from each State, that Massachusetts cede to New York her rights to all land lying west of the present east line of the latter State. New York, in turn, ceded to Massachusetts the pre- emption right, subject to native title, of all land in the State west of a line running north from the eighty-second mile stone, on the north boundary of Pennsylvania, through Seneca Lake to Lake Ontario, except a reserved tract, one mile in width, along the east bank of Niagara River. By this act Massachusetts became pos- sessed of fee in about six million acres of land.

Pending State and national negotiation, companies of active and infinential men were formed to evade the law forbidding other than State purchases from the In- dians, and to obtain for themselves a lease of land equivalent to an actual owner- ship. Two of these lessee companies were organised. One, the "New York Genesee Land Company," originated in 1787-88, at Hudson, with John Living- ston, Jared Coffin, and Dr. Caleb Benton as managers, and a membership of over eighty wealthy men. By forming a branch company in Canada, under the man- agement of Samuel Street, John Butler, John Powell, and others, the influence of these men with the Six Nations was secured. Connected with the Canadian branch was Benjamin Barton, who, as a drover from New Jersey to Niagara, and as an Indian trader, had become well known to the Senecas, had been adopted by them, and had sent Henry O'Bail, son of Cornplanter, to an Eastern school. In the main company were a number of influential Indian traders. The plan was comprehensive, and resulted November, 1787, in a lease for nine hundred and ninety-nine years, to the company, of nearly all the Iroquois lands in New York, in consideration of an annual rentage of $2000, and a promised gift of $20,000. The State was not ignorant of these measures, and Governor Clinton, in a proclama- tion, warned all purchasers from the company that their title would be null, sent messengers to the Indians with a statement of fraudulent design, and appointed John Taylor, in March, 1788, as Indian Agent, to counteract the proceedings of the lessees. The Legislature passed an act to dispossees all persons holding title from the company to Indian lands, and to burn their dwellings. William Col- braith, Sheriff of Herkimer, was ordered to attend to its enforcement. Military aid was furnished, and the orders fully executed. Restricted from open action, the lessees maintained a powerful influence against the State upon treaty grounds. Various treaties were made, until the lessees, despairing of success, asked a settle- ment from the Legislature, and in 1793 received a district equal to ten miles square in the Military Tract. A grand council was fixed for September, 1788, at Fort Schuyler, and the arrangements for the embassy to the Indian country were on an extended scale. Indians, traders, lessees, and visitors from curiosity, made the gathering remarkable. While Clinton endeavored to unravel the intrigues of the " Lease," Livingston was insidiously opposing him, and being discovered, was ordered to depart. Dr. Benton had gathered the Senecas and others at Kanadesaga and plied them with liquor, goods, and dissuasive speech, to keep them from the council. Messengers from Clinton undeceived and brought many to Fort Schuyler. Encamping at Scauyes, a French trader, named Debartzch, by rum, presenta, and intimidation, turned them back. It is saddening to observe the covetousness and selfishness shown by the whites in their transactions with the Indians. On the 12th of September the deed of cession to the State was made, by the Onondagas, of their lands, excepting some reservations. Negotiations with the Oneidas resulted in a like conveyance of their lands, excepting reserva- tions at their principal village and other localities, and, after a wearisome nego- tiation, the Cayugas, on February 25, ceded all their lands, except a tract of one hundred square miles, to the State, in consideration of present sums paid, and a perpetual annuity. At later periods the reservations were ceded or reduced to present limits. It was stipulated, by the Cayugas, that a tract of sixteen thousand acres, located on the west side of Seneca Lake, should be conveyed to Peter Ryck- man. This land, lying between the lake and the old pre-emption line, and includ- ing the greater part of the present site of Geneva, was found to be the property of the Senecas, yet a patent was issued to "Reed and Ryckman," which parties were then residing at Kanadesaga, Seth Reed being at the Old Castle, and Ryck- man at the lake.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Ontario Co., New York, Part 3

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

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