History of Oswego County, New York, with illustrations and Biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 2

Author: Johnson, Crisfield. cn
Publication date: 1877
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & co.
Number of Pages: 798

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Feeling in constant danger of attack from the vengeful Iroquois, the retreat of the Hurons was more rapid than their advance, and on the 18th of October they reached Lake Ontario at the point where they had concealed their canoes. Though Champlain was anxious to return directly down the St. Lawrence to Montreal, the Hurons insisted on taking him back to their own country, where he remained during the winter ; returning in the spring to his friends, who had for months mourned him as dead.

Such was the first appearance of the white man within the present borders of the county of Oswego, and, so far as that county is concerned, the month of October, 1615, marks the line between history and tradition. Standing at this divisional point betwixt the known and the un- known, let us employ a little time in peering amid the mists of earlier ages and dubious systems ere we go for- ward on firm ground along the ever-broadening historie pathway from 1615 to 1877.

CHAPTER III.

THE IROQUOIS.

Their Various Names-Their Origin-Curious Traditions -- The Prob- able Truth-Formation of the Confederacy-Atotarho-The Sys- tem of Clans, Sachems, and Chiefs-Prowess and Eloquenec- General Characteristics-Three Tribes in Oswego County.

AT the time our history begins, the territory of the present county of Oswego was unquestionably in the pos- session of that celebrated confederacy, whose renown has far surpassed that of any other North American Indians, and who were variously known as the Five Nations, the Iroquois, the Hedonosannee, and the People of the Long House. The term " Five Nations" explains itself. The appellation Iroquois was given them by the French, but is not a French word. Old maps show a tribe of Indians called "Couis," located near the site of Kingston, Canada ; also " Isles des Couis" and " Bay des Couis," iu that vicinity. Another map designates the country of the Six Nations as that of the "Hiro Couis." It would seem, therefore, that the name "Couis" first belonged, or was given, to the Canadian Indians, and that the French, sup- posing the Five Nations to be of the same tribe, gave them the specific designatiou "Hiro," though what that means

is unknown. From " Hiro Couis" to " Iroquois," the change is easily seen.

The Five Nations called themselves Hedonosannce, liter- ally, " We form one cabin," thereby denoting that they were all of one political household ; and this name has been translated, with substantial correctness, "The People of the Long House." They also called themselves " Ongwe Honwe," meaning Superior Men, but this appellation has never been adopted by the whites, though it is in some sort continued by the proud motto of the Empire State,- " Excelsior."

When first discovered by the whites, each of the Five Na- tions was on the ground which it continued to occupy down to the outbreak of the American Revolution, and their names have been perpetuated by the waters whereon they dwelt,- that of the Mohawks by the Mohawk river, those of the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas by the lakes bearing the same appellations. These tribes, or nations, were linked together in a kind of federal union, which decided all questions of war and peace, and perhaps other matters affecting the general welfare, if any such there were. The origin of this league, the origin of the tribes which composed it, are alike uncertain. Where they were when found by the Europeans they might have been a thousand years, for aught that is positively known. But there were several traditions among the Iroquois regarding their origin, all pointing in the same direction, and all link- ing the history of the confederacy in au especial manner with the county of Oswego.

One account is simply that the Iroquois once resided in Canada, being neighbors and rivals of the Hurons ; that they were defeated by the latter, fled across Lake Ontario, passed up the Oswego river, and settled on the lakes and rivers of central New York. A more remarkable tradition, given by David Cusick, the Tuscarora chief, is that their ancestors were called from the bowels of a mountain near Oswego falls, by Tarenyawayon, " the Holder of the Heavens," under whose direction they went eastward to the Hudson, and thence back to Seneca lake, the several tribes dropping off on their way. Still another legend, related in Clark's " Onondaga," is that at one time, when the Iroquois were in great affliction on account of the blighting of their corn, the obstruction of their rivers by monsters, etc., two Onondagas, sauntering on the beach at Oswego, saw a white canoe coming over the lake, from which, when it landed, stepped a venerable personage, who announced himself as the Spirit-man, Taounyawatha, come to extricate the people from their troubles. He went up the Oswego river and removed the obstructions at the falls, so that canoes could pass without portage, though the cataract has been replaced, on account of the wickedness of succeeding generations. Then he continued his course up the Oswego and Sencca, cut in twain with one blow of his paddle a serpent several miles in length, which lay across the stream a little above Three Rivers point, destroyed numerous other monsters, more terrible than those which fell under the wrath of Hercules, and, finally, laying aside his spiritual attributes, lived for a long time as a mere man, the father and adviser of the Iroquois, under the well- known name of Hiawatha.

HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.

All these traditions go to show that the Iroquois origi- nally came from the north, and that they made their advent in central New York by way of the Oswego river. Similar shadowy authority indicates that while there was a general resemblance and a kind of connection between the five tribes, yet that they were politically independent for a long time after their establishment in central New York, and were often engaged in deadly conflict with each other. At length, a wise old sachem named Daganawada, perceiving that all the tribes were likely to be destroyed by each other and by their common enemies, advised a confederation be- tween them, and proposed Atotarho, otherwise called Tado- daho, an Onondaga chief of extraordinary valor, as the head of the new league. His suggestion was agreed to, and a humble deputation of sachems sought out the renowned Onondaga in the midst of one of his swampy fastnesses, and persuaded him to accept the honors of leadership. One of the few pictorial representations of Indian origin repre- sents the terrible Atotarho, seated and smoking, with scores of living serpents curled around his legs and hissing from his hair, while two meek-looking ambassadors approach to offer him the presidency of the proposed confederacy.

After the formation of the league, it is said that the snakes were combed out of Atotarho's head by a Mohawk chieftain, thenceforward called Ha-yo-went-ha, " The Man who Combs." Perhaps this symbolizes the fact that the authority of the Atotarho, or head chief of the confederacy, was reduced to an almost nominal rank, involving little more than the privilege of presiding over the general council of the league; but Indian symbolism, like Indian tradition, is of too shadowy a nature to admit of elaborate discussion in a work of this character.

Not only the early history of the Indian tribes, but their policy, laws, and organization, as they were before, or even since, the advent of the whites, cannot be delineated with any certainty of correctness. When the writer first began to consult authorities regarding the Five Nations, for the purpose of writing the history of another county, he sup- posed, after a short research, that he had mastered not indeed the minutiæ, but the general outlines of the Iroquois policy, for the first book he read laid down the whole politi- cal and social system of those tribes with a clearness which could not be misunderstood and a positiveness which left nothing in doubt. But further investigation, instead of increasing, has sadly diminished his stock of knowledge on that subject, for other authorities give widely different views not merely as to details, but in regard to the most essential points in the organization of the Medonosannec. He is now fully satisfied that their whole system was far less definite than is usually supposed, and that the precise and positive language which might properly be used by the historian to describe the constitution of a civilized people is entirely out of place in delineating the shadowy outlines of aborigi- nal customs.

Yet, as Oswego County was, from its first discovery to the close of the Revolution, acknowledged by French, Dutch, English, and Americans to be the property of the Iroquois, as it was constantly used by them as a hunting- ground, and as its fortunes during all that time were closely interwoven with those of that celebrated tribe, it would

seem as if an Oswego County history should give at least an outline sketch of their character and policy.

The most remarkable characteristic of the Iroquois was the system of clans, which extended through all the tribes of the confederacy. Although these associations were far different from the Scottish clans, which were almost inde- pendent nations (and, indeed, from any other societies in the world), yet the word " clan" is used by the best writers, as more nearly suiting the case than any other in our language.

There were, in all, eight of these clans, each named after something in the animal kingdom, viz. : Wolf, Bear, Beaver, Turtle, Deer, Snipe, Heron, and Hawk. Even in regard to this important matter we are met with the usual uncer- tainty which hangs over Indian affairs ; while some au- thorities declare that all the clans extended to all the tribes, others say that only the first three were thus widely spread, and that the other five clans only extended through two or three tribes each. The latter seems the more probable statement.

Each clan was a large family, all the members of which, however widely separated among the various tribes of the confederacy, were bound to each other by peculiar ties, and were under obligations to aid each other with fraternal care. The idea of family relationship was strengthened by pro- hibiting all intermarriage between members of the same clan. This was strictly enforced by public opinion, and those who violated it, if any such there were, were visited with the deepest disgrace. The Mohawk of the Beaver clau, whom the chase or war had led among the Senecas, living three hundred miles from his own castle, was at once made at home among his brother Beavers, though he might never have seen one of them before; but he was bound to treat them as brothers and sisters, and marriage was not to be thought of.

Whether the clan system was the fortunate outgrowth of fortuitous circumstances, or the splendid invention of some forest-born genius, there seems to be no doubt that it was the vital principle of the Iroquois confederacy. The feel- ing of brotherhood between the clans, carefully preserved by the prohibition of intermarriage, was a better preventive of war between the tribes than the most solemn compact which could have been formed among that barbarous people. The Onondagas could not go to war with the Cuyugas, for in that case the Heron would have been compelled to do battle with his brother Heron. There must be no strife between the Oneidas and the distant Senecas, for if there were it would sunder the fraternal bonds uniting the Bear which reposed on the shore of Oneida lake to the fiercer Bear which roamed through the wilderness west of the Genesee.

In each tribe there were several sachems, having some kind of authority. This much is certain; but having ascer- tained so much, the unfortunate investigator is again sur- rounded by the clouds of doubt. The general belief is that the sachems were civil chiefs, having no authority in war. But Sir William Johnson, who ought to have had as good a knowledge of the Iroquois as any other white man in North America, said the sachems were elected chiefly on account of their warlike prowess. The latter view is much

HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.

more consistent with the usual customs of savages than the former, but the Iroquois were a peculiar people, and. we are inclined to believe, from all the testimony, that there was more or less distinction between civil chiefs and war chiefs. Morgan, the able author of the " League of the Iroquois," says that there was no distinct class of war chiefs among the Five Nations, but every renowned warrior could beat up for volunteers, and obtain the leadership of a band of his countrymen. Certainly in some cases the fighting men of the Six Nations have been known to choose a leader for a particular battle only the day before it was to take place. The truth probably is that in regard to both civil sachems and war chiefs there was a tendency, so to say, to take them from particular families, but there were no definite regula- tions, and personal prowess, acknowledged wisdom, or oratorical skill frequently gained the day over the rights of primogeniture.

All admit that the Onondagas had a certain pre-emi- nence, and that the principal civil chief was always from that tribe, but the Senecas and the Mohawks both claim to have had the honor of furnishing the principal war chief. As these two last-named tribes were located one at cach end of the " Long House," they were necessarily more often assailed by sudden attacks than the others, and their prin- cipal chiefs would naturally be accorded a certain suprem- acy in warlike affairs.

There was an annual congress of the confederacy held at the council-fire of the Onondagas, composed of six mem- bers, according to Schoolcraft, but of fifty, according to Morgan, and perhaps of some other number according to the next investigator. Probably the larger figure is more nearly correct, for the Iroquois were not accustomed to trust much power to a single person; but Morgan's careful allot- ment of nine to the Oneidas, nine to the Mohawks, four- teen to the Onondugas, ten to the Cayugas, and eight to the Senecas, is not in accordance with the miscellaneous manner in which the Indians generally transacted business.

But whatever the number or the power of their chiefs, whatever the details of their organization, the Iroquois had already, at the advent of the white man, made themselves the dread of all the nations round about, battling fiercely with the Hurons of Canada, with the Eries on the shores of Lake Erie, and with the Cherokees of the far south, while they had reduced to abject submission the Mohicans of New England, the Delawares of Pennsylvania, and many other feeble or timorous tribes.

Their republican system of government, too, and their frequent attendance on councils and congresses, had de- veloped their rude eloquence, in which they always took great delight, until in all North America there were none who could so stir the hearts of their hearers as the orators of the Hedonosannee.

Aside from their political skill, their valor in war, and their eloquence in council, the People of the Long House closely resembled the savages who surrounded them. Like them, they were not quarrelsome towards those of their own tribe or league, but were apt to look on all others as their enemies, and to visit them with the most terrible cruelty. Like them, they lived in rude wigwams, skimmed over the wave in fragile bark canoes, went very scantily clad in the

skins of the animals they had slain, and subsisted on the flesh of those animals, save for the corn and beans raised by the labor of their squaws.

Such were the owners of Oswego County when Champlain made his unfortunate raid, in 1615. There were, so far as we are aware, no permanent villages of the Iroquois within the county limits, but parties of them frequently erected temporary wigwams for the purpose of fishing in its rivers or hunting in its forests. The greater portion of the county was considered as belonging to the Onondagas, but the Oneidas possessed all the borders of the lake which bears their name.

According to Morgan, no less than three of the Iroquois tribes were owners of the territory now forming Oswego County, and their boundaries were as clearly defined as those of a modern township. The line between the Cayugas and Onondagus began on the shore of Lake Ontario, a little west of the mouth of the Oswego, and ran nearly due south to the Susquehanna, leaving part of the present towns of Oswego and Hannibal in the territory of the Cayugas. The line between the Onondagas and the Oneidas, according to the same authority, ran north and south through " Deep Spring," in the present town of Manlius, Onondaga county ; north of that point it bore westward so as to include the whole circuit of Oneida lake in the Oneidas' territory, then returning eastward to the longitude of Deep Spring, in the present town of Constantia, and thence running north through Watertown to the St. Lawrence, giving to the Oneidas, in Oswego County, the present town of Redfield and the eastern part of the towns of Boylston, Orwell, Williamstown, Amboy, and Constantia. We have not much faith in the precise accuracy of Indian boundaries, but, doubtless, the line between these tribes was substan- tially as above laid down.

CHAPTER IV.

JESUITS AND COLONISTS.

Freneh, Dutch, and English Colonization-Father Le Moine in Oswego County-Crossing Oneida River-Laboring among the Ouondagas -Le Moine's Return-Coming of Chaumont and Dablon-Du Puys and his Colony going up the Oswego-Their Returning Flight -- Their Mysteriuns Story-Another Strange Tale-End of Coloniza- tion in Central New York.

Fon forty years after the visit of Champlain, naught of especial interest is known to have happened in the county of Oswego. We use, and shall use, that term for conve- nience, meaning the territory now composing the county of Oswego, though that county had no legal existence until two hundred years after the beginning of its own history. In like manner towns will be referred to by their present names long before their municipal existence began, in order to designate without cumbersome repetition the territory afterwards comprised within their limits.

During those forty years the eastern shore of North America, and the banks of its rivers, were the scenes of

HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.

numerous discoveries, and of frequent efforts at colonization by the most enterprising nations of Europe. The sturdy Holland Dutchmen planted themselves all along the Hud- son to the month of the Mohawk, and their bold traders penetrated far into the territory of the Iroquois, buying their furs and selling them the fire-arms and ammunition which that fierce people were only too eager to obtain. With these they not only wreaked vengeance on all their enemies of their own race, far and near, but were even ready to do battle with the hated French, who had so fool- ishly provoked their wrath,-the wrath of those whom Vol- ney afterwards called the " Romans of North America."

Though the French, by their situation on the St. Law- rence, had the advantage over other European colonists in regard to water communication with the interior of the continent, and though they established numerous missions and posts on the upper lakes, their respect for the Iroquois warriors was such that they rarely ventured on the southern shore of Lake Ontario.

Meanwhile a little band of resolute men and women had come from old England to New England, and had begun on Plymouth rock to develop a foree which was eventually to overwhelm Dutch, and French, and Iroquois, and all other rivals, foes, and obstructionists.

Though in 1648 the Jesuit father, Jogues, was sent on a mission to the Mohawks, falling at length a martyr to his zeal, there is no evidence that any attempt was made to convert the Onondagas until the summer of 1655. In July of that year Father Simon Le Moine, another of the indefatigable followers of Loyola, passed through Oswego County on that perilous undertaking. Having made a toilsome journey in a canoe up the St. Lawrence, Father Le Moine, with one companion, landed at a hamlet of fish- ermen on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario on the first day of August. The precise point is not designated, but it was probably not far from the mouth of Sahnon river, or per- haps at that of Salmon creek. There seem to have been one or more trails running from that locality to the principal Onondaga villages, crossing Oneida river below the lake. Many French parties, at different times, are described as pursuing substantially this route.

Le Moine and his companion were warmly received by the Indians whom he met, especially by Huron squaws held as prisoners among the Iroquois, and who in their own country had been favorably impressed by the religion of the French missionaries. All the second day of August, and until noon of the third, the three devoted men tramped southward through the forests and over the hills of the present towns of Mexico and Hastings, traversing a dis- tance which Le Moine estimated at from forty to fifty miles, but which was probably much less. At noon of the third day they reached the Oneida river, across which they were ferried by an Iroquois warrior whom Le Moine had treated kindly at Montreal, and who even carried the reverend father on his shoulders through the shallow water.

Thence the visitors went to the Onondaga villages, where Father Le Moine spent a fortnight in praying, exhorting, holding councils, and otherwise seeking to gain the hearts of the Onondagas. So well did he succeed that the chiefs begged that more missionaries might be sent, and that a

French settlement might be planted on the shore of Onon- daga lake. Delighted with these evidences of friendship, Le Moine started for home on the 15th of August, by way of. the Oswego river. On the 17th he passed the mouth of the Oneida, and two or three miles below, near the present village of Phoenix, he found a hamlet of fishermen. Such hamlets for fishing and hunting were evidently scattered here and there throughout the present county of Oswego, and doubtless elsewhere in the immense country claimed by the Iroquois. Remaining there a day, Le Moine and his comrade proceeded very leisurely down the Oswego to Lake Ontario, which they reached on the 20th of August. Thence they coasted along the lake-shore, and went down the St. Lawrence to Montreal, where they arrived on the 11th of September.

No sooner did Father Le Moine report the desire of the Onondagas than Fathers Chaumont and Dablon responded to it. They set forth on the 19th of September, arrived at the Onondaga village on the 5th of November, and re- mained there through the winter. They, too, ingratiated themselves so thoroughly with the Iroquois that the latter renewed their request for the planting of a French settle- ment, and even the building of a French fort, in their midst. It has been supposed by some that this friendship was entirely feigned by the Onondagas for the purpose of getting the French into their power, but the Jesuit fathers, with more probability, assigned it to a desire to obtain French arms, ammunition, and assistance against the dreaded Cat nation, living on the shores of Lake Erie, and other tribes with which the Iroquois were at war.

At all events, when Father Dablon returned to Montreal in April, 1656, bearing the Iroquois' request for a French colony, it was gladly complied with by the authorities of New France. On the 17th of May, fifty Frenchmen, under an officer named Dn Pnys, accompanied by Dablon and three other Jesuit fathers, and two brothers of the society, set forth in bateaux to establish, as they doubtless hoped, the dominion of France over the fertile fields of central New York. It was the forepart of July before Du Puys and his companions reached the mouth of the Oswego. Their provisions were exhausted, but they had managed to send a messenger in advance, and ere long they were met by a number of canoes, sent out by the expectant Onondagas to their French brethren.

This was the first considerable body of white men who had ever passed up the Oswego, and Du Pays expected to make a powerful impression on the simple-minded natives. All his men were thoroughly armed, and no less than five small cannon were carried in his bateaux, ready to wake the wilderness with awe-inspiring reverberations. Making the necessary portage around Oswego falls, Du Puys pro- ceeded to Lake Gannentaha (Onondaga) where a great coneourse of the Onondagas awaited him. There he marshaled his men so as to make the fullest possible dis- play of his strength, fired all his cannon, and then passed on to take possession of the ground allotted to him in the vicinity of the Onondaga village.

A curious mystery hangs over the whole history of the French efforts to colonize central New York. It is strange that a people so jealous of their independence as the Iro-

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History of Oswego County, New York, with illustrations and Biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 2

Author: Johnson, Crisfield. cn Publication date: 1877 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & co. Number of Pages: 798

Author: Johnson, Crisfield. cn
Publication date: 1877
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & co.
Number of Pages: 798