USA > New York > Oswego County > History of Oswego County, New York, with illustrations and Biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 4
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116
After passing into the present county of Onondaga, the army proceeded more rapidly, landed on the south shore of Onondaga lake, and advanced to the village, but on their arrival found that the inhabitants had fled. The French and their allies destroyed the villages and the crops of growing corn, but their only captives were a lame girl and an old man, the latter of whom Count Frontenac with his usual cruelty allowed his Indian friends to burn at the stake. Monsieur de Vaudreuil with a light detachment also destroyed the villages of the Oneidas.
On the 11th of August the whole army returned, and encamped below the falls. By ten o'clock the morning of
19
HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.
the 12th the rapid Oswego had borne them to its mouth. A violent gale from the west detained them till the 14th. At noon of that day they set forth, raising sails over their bateaux, and by nightfall made twenty-five miles, as they computed, camping at the mouth of a small river. On the 15th the army returned to Fort Frontenac, and thenee pro- ceeded to the Canadian settlements.
About a hundred and twelve years later (1808 or 1809) one of the early settlers near Oswego falls on the east side cut down a large tree, deep within which was found an old "blaze," and beneath it a large number of musket-balls. The blaze was overlaid by a hundred and twelve cireles, and those who reckoned baek the years till 1696 coneluded that on returning from their raid some of Count Fronte- nae's musketeers had amused themselves by firing at a mark, leaving the bullet-searred tree as the only relic of their expedition in Oswego County.
The Onondagas and Oneidas were supplied with corn for the winter by the authorities of New York, and the ex- pedition had apparently had no other effect than to bind all the Iroquois more closely to their English friends. What vengeance they would have taken on the French can only be inferred, as the next year the peace of Ryswiek was concluded between the kings of France and England; the colonies of each were of course included, and their Indian allies accepted the arrangements of their white brethren.
CHAPTER VII.
FROM 1697 TO 1753.
General Quiet-King William's Projects-Expulsion of the Jesuits -English Supremacy-The Six Nations-The Fur Trade-Traders at Oswego-The French on the Watch-Chonequen-Ontario-A Dispute at the Falls-A Deed to King George-Meaning of Os- wego-The First Trading-Post-A French Protest-Punctilio in the Woods-Dutch Adventurers-Gov. Clarke's Opinion-A Wall at Oswego-Two Relies-Sir William Johnson in the Oswego Trade - War- Rumors-The Black Prince-Rumors without Fighting-Peace-Picquet's Opinion-Mutual Accusations-Buy- ing Oneida Lake-Oswego Rebuilt-Approach of War.
FOR the next twenty-five years after the peace of Rys- wiek there is very little to relate regarding the county of Oswego.
Eagle-eyed King William the Third saw the military importance of the locality, and ordered a fort to be built at the mouth of the river. The plate and furniture for the chapel of the intended post was sent to America, but the death of the vigilant king put an end to the projeet.
Notwithstanding the punishment inflicted by the French on the Iroquois, no sooner was that peace concluded than the adroit French Jesuits again began to make their way up the Oswego, the Oneida, and the Seneca, and establish themselves in the villages of the Five Nations. They were found there by the English and Dutch traders from New York, the jealousy of the English authorities was aroused, and in 1700 an act of the Colonial Assembly forbade any popish priest from coming into the colony, under penalty of death. The French would doubtless have denied that the
Jesuit missions among the Iroquois were in the colony of New York, but the act seems to have been effectual in frightening them away, and their efforts in this section were finally abandoned.
In 1702 the great European confliet known as " Queen Anne's war" broke out, but the Iroquois had made a treaty of peace with the Canadian Indians, and for many years both sides maintained it. Yet in 1708 we find them again engaged in hostilities against the French, but not of enough importance, nor having sufficient relation to Oswego County, to merit attention here.
, By the peace of Utrecht, in 1713, the supremaey over the Iroquois tribes was conceded to the English, but no definite boundaries were established. About the same time the Five Nations became the Six Nations. The Tuscaroras, a North Carolina tribe, defeated in war by the whites and the neighboring Indians, fled to New York, implored the protection of the Iroquois, and were received as members of that powerful confederaey. The Oneidas granted them a seat near to themselves. They are supposed to have been originally descended from the same stock as the other five tribes, and it is hardly probable that those haughty con- federates would otherwise have admitted them into their league.
After the peace of Utrecht the English and Dutch traders pushed their excursions farther and farther among the Indians, rivaling the French in the boldness and skillful- ness of their search for furs. Coming up the Mohawk to the site of Rome, they bore their light canoes over the por- tage to Wood creek, thence passed down that stream to and through Oneida lake, and skirted the southern bounds of our county along the Oneida river to Three Rivers point. Thence some of them pursued their way up the Seneca river to the lakes from which it springs, others went down the Oswego to Lake Ontario, and often passed through that lake and far beyond, even to the foaming straits of Michili- mackinac and the fertile prairies of Illinois. The French, being the first traders in all those regions, were naturally jealous of the new-comers, and the latter were obliged to exercise constant watchfulness against the hostile intrigues of the former with the native tribes ..
As early as 1721, William Burnet, governor of New York, made an effort to counteract the French by estab- lishing a post on Irondequoit bay, in the present county of Monroe. It does not, however, appear to have been sustained any considerable time. It is probably from this circumstance that several historians of the State of New York, followed by local writers, have stated that a trading-post or fort was built at Oswego in 1721 or 1722. No permanent establishment was really made until several years later ; but there appears to have been a considerable increase of the Indian trade at the month of the river. It became a point at which the " fur Indians," as they were called, congregated to market their furs, and very likely some temporary cabins were ereeted.
The direct trade of the English with the Indians was stimulated by a law passed by the provincial legislature of New York in 1721, forbidding the furnishing of Indian goods to the French in Canada. As the latter could not obtain those goods as cheap elsewhere as from the English,
20
HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.
they lost a large part of their trade. The New York im- porters were angry, but the small traders were delighted, and hurried to and through Oswego, sure of having the advan- tage over their French rivals.
As early as 1724 the French received information that the English had projected an establishment at the mouth of the river ; but in the following May Monsieur de Longueil, a French officer, after making a reconnoissance, reported to his superiors that there was as yet no trading-post at that point. This is the first mention we meet with the name " Choneguen" (or Chonaguen), which was ever after, as long as the French held possession of Canada, applied to the ground now covered by Oswego city, and sometimes to the river which there enters Lake Ontario. It had been adopted by them some time between 1696 and 1724; but the precise year and the meaning of the word are alike unknown.
In the French letters of 1725, too, we find for the first time the great lake which borders Oswego County on the north mentioned by its present euphonious appellation of Ontario, instead of those more or less outlandish ones, Skanadario, Cataracqui, Conty, Frontenac, etc., which it had previously borne. It is probably a contraction of Ske- nadario, and is supposed to mean beautiful water.
But though Monsieur de Longueil found no trading-post at the mouth of the river, he learned enough to alarm him in regard to English progress. At the portage around the falls he found no less than a hundred English and Dutch traders, with sixty canoes, who compelled him to exhibit his passport, and showed an order from Governor Burnet that no Frenchman should be allowed to go by without one. De Longueil reproached some Iroquois chiefs, who were pres- ent, with the insolence of the English, telling the sachems they were not masters of their own lands. According to his report the Indians "flew out" against the English, told them they would bear with them no longer, and that they had only permitted them to come there for the purpose of trade.
De Longueil then passed on to the Onondaga village, where he met chiefs of all the tribes in council. They gave him permission to place two small vessels on Lake Ontario, and to build a stone house at Niagara, a post which had long been abandoned by the French, though they had lately had a trading establishment at Lewiston. This house, or fort, was immediately begun and finished the next year, 1726, when the two vessels were also built.
That year the English and Dutch traders gathered at Choneguen (Oswego) to the number of three hundred, where they remained all summer, carrying on a thriving trade with the Indians both of the vicinity and of the far west. Monsieur de Longueil sent orders from Frontenac to his son, the Chevalier de Longueil, commanding at Ni- agara, not to return until the English should leave Chone- guen, and to plunder any of their canoes which he might find on the lake. In September the son replied there were no more English at Choneguen, nor on the lake, nor in the river, and promised that if he met any of their canoes he would piously fulfill the parental command.
The wrath of the Iroquois at the English, described by De Longueil, could not have been very strong nor very
general, for in this year (1726) seven of the principal sachems of the Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas made a deed of trust to the king of England and his successors of their lands, extending in a belt of sixty miles wide, and in length running from Caynnnghage (probably the same as Keyonanonague, La Famine, or Salmon river) all along Lake Ontario, the Niagara river, and the lake Oswego, to the creek called Canahogué, which we take to be the same as Cuyahoga. Besides this land, the deed included their " beaver hunting-grounds,"-a traet of undescribed bound- aries and indefinite extent.
It will be seen that at one time Lake Erie was called Os- wego (or " Okswego," as it is put down on an old map in Colden's History of the Five Nations). The name seems to have sprung up suddenly in two widely separate places, for it was not till the next year that it is known to have been used in regard to the point to which it is now ap- plied. The meaning of the word has been rendered many different ways, the most plausible being "flowing-water" and " boundless view." The latter appellation would apply to any of the great lakes, and would best account for the curious coincidence just mentioned. But it is very uncer- tain ; there is a great deal of indefiniteness about everything pertaining to an Indian except his tomahawk.
It may be doubted, for instance, whether the seven chiefs above mentioned had any authority to give a deed to George the First of the lands, the castles, the corn-fields, and the " beaver hunting-grounds" of these three nations. They were, however, only given in trust, to be protected by the king for the use of their red owners forever. In all proba- bility it was a scheme devised by the English officials to get an acknowledgment of the king's authority over the land in question, so as to " head off" the French in their cease- less efforts to extend their sway.
The eastern line of the tract in question, running south from Caynunghage or La Famine, traversed the county of Oswego nearly in the middle, leaving the eastern half in the possession of the Oneidas.
Early in the spring of the next year (1727) Governor Burnet sent a body of workmen to build a " stone house of strength" at Oswego, and they were soon followed by a detachment of sixty soldiers, with three officers, to defend them from any interruption by the French. The new fort, for such it might be called, was situated on the west bank of the river, close to its mouth, having walls of large stone four feet thick, which the governor declared capable of re- sisting any arms which the French were likely to bring against it.
A French account, written while the post was being built, states that there were then about seventy English and Dutch cabins on the river-shore, showing the rapidity with which the fur trade was developing.
In Governor Burnet's report to the English board of trade is found the first mention which we have seen of the name " Oswego" as applied to the point in question. Hence- forth it was invariably called by that name by the English, while the French just as invariably called it " Choueguen," a word which comes to light in French documents at the same time. The earlier French only spoke of the mouth of the "Onnontague" river. The French pronunciation,
21
HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.
as near as can be represented by English letters, would be " Shoo-ay-gwang." We are informed that the original pro- nunciation of Oswego, down to the beginning of this cen- tury was "Oswaygo," and it is quite probable that Oswego and Choueguen-alias Os-way-go and Shoo-ay-gwang- were derived from the same Indian word, modified by Gallic and Saxon lips. This view is strengthened by the faet that the place the English called Oswegatchie the French called Chouegachie.
Governor Burnet was quite proud of his achievement, declaring it to be the best thing that had ever been done to check the French, keep the Six Nations under English in- fluence, and promote trade with the remote Indians. He was most unquestionably correct. The position of Oswego at the outlet of the large and fertile territory drained by the Oswego river and its branches, in which all but one of the Six Nations dwelt, together with its accessibility from the Mohawk valley, made it altogether the most important post the English had west of the Hudson, and such it re- mained to the time of the capture of Canada. The only wonder is that the French, with their control of the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario, had not secured this important location in advance of their rivals. It is quite probable that, had they done so, it would have made a serious differ- ence in the subsequent contests between the English and the French.
The Marquis de Beauharnais, then governor-general of Canada, was much chagrined at Burnet's proceedings, and in July sent an officer to him with a protest, and another to the commandant at Oswego, demanding that he should forthwith abandon the place and destroy the fortification. The latter officer of course paid no attention to the request. The governor replied to Monsieur de Beauharnais, reproach- ing him with having first built Niagara, and declaring, truly enough, that according to the treaty of Utrecht the Five Nations were admitted to be subjects of Great Britain. This was a good answer to the French, but the Five Na- tions themselves might not have admired that clause of the treaty.
After the fortification was completed the garrison was reduced to a lieutenant and twenty men.
An incident that occurred in the summer of 1728 illus- trates the jealous ceremony with which the officials of the rival nations conducted themselves towards each other in the wilds of America, partly out of mere punctilio, and partly because every ceremony might involve the title to a large tract of land.
A French subordinate, bearing the formidable appellation of Monsieur de la Chauvignerie, was sent on a mission to the Iroquois. Coasting along the eastern and southern shores of Lake Ontario, he arrived at Oswego, having sent a messenger in advance to the Onondagas. At Oswego he landed and pitched his tent. Some Indians came to him from the commandant of the little fortress, to demand that he should salute with a salvo of musketry and lower his flag. This he would not do. The Indians who accompa- nied De la Chauvignerie visited the commandant and were presented with a supply of rum, whereupon they all got so drunk that the Frenchman was obliged to remain three days under the guns of the fort. In spite, however, of another
summons he would not strike his flag, but kept it flying night and day, though the usual custom was to lower it at sunset. On his departing up the river the summons was again repeated, and an Onondaga chief unfurled a British flag over one of De la Chauvignerie's boats. But the officer would not start until it was furled, and as neither side would salute first that important ceremony was entirely omitted. The Onondagas were at a loss what to say, as they claimed the land themselves, but felt constrained to acknowledge the supremacy of the fortress. The English would not go so far as to fire on the boats, and so the plucky Frenchman had his way.
Notwithstanding continued efforts on the part of both English and French to gain increased ascendeney over the Indians, and the occasional erection of a fortress on doubt- ful ground, there was substantial peace between the two nations for sixteen years more. During this time Oswego continued to be garrisoned by a lieutenant and from twenty to twenty-five men ; but the smallness of the force was no measure of the importance of the post. Every summer hundreds of traders from the banks of the Hudson assem- bled there, some remaining to trade with the Indians who came thither for that purpose, others pushing still farther on.
The Indian trade was the great field of adventure in which the young men of the colony of New York sought to lay the foundations of their fortunes. Mrs. Grant, in that pleasant sketch of ante-Revolutionary times in the vicinity of Albany entitled " Memoirs of an American Lady," says that as soon as a young Albanian fell in love, which he generally did at seventeen or eighteen years of age, he prepared to support a family by going on a trading expedition. He asked of his father only forty or fifty dollars in money, a canoc, and a young negro attendant. Loading his frail vessel with Indian goods, taking care to have a good supply of strong liquors, he and his dark assistant set forth on a voyage as perilous as that of Jason, amid the tears of his female friends, and especially of the damsel who knew herself to be the object of these laborious and dangerous exertions. There were several routes pur- sued, but the principal one was to Oswego, whence the adventurers scattered in every direction. The profits were large, and if the young lover saved his scalp, one or two trips would enable him to buy a farm or start a country store, and settle down into the placid life of a Dutch burgher with his chosen dulcinea. The more extensive traders used bateaux, a bateau being a light, flat-bottomed boat running to a point at each end, generally carrying about fifteen hundred pounds, and propelled by two men with paddles in deep water and setting-poles in shallow.
For several years the garrison of the little post was victualled by Albany contractors at about twelve hundred dollars per year. In 1733 nearly fifty traders sent a peti- tion to the then governor, Colonel Crosby, setting forth that the commandant of the garrison laid improper restrictions on trade, and the assembly requested the governor to ap- point some competent man, who understood the Indian trade and language, to live at Oswego as a superintendent.
The English do not appear to have claimed any jurisdic- tion over the waters of Lake Ontario, however near the shore, for in 1736 we find Monsieur de Beauharnais com-
22
HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.
plaining that a French canoe had been ordered ashore while passing under the guns of the post at Oswego, whereupon the governor of New York sharply reprimanded Captain Congreve, the commandant.
In time the little fort got out of repair, and the colonial assembly was slow in voting the necessary funds to renovate and strengthen it. Governor Clarke, in a communication to that body in 1740, said that. Oswego was the only mili- tary post on the northwestern frontier, and if well fortified would be a complete barrier against French invasions from that quarter. If it was captured, he declared that the French could hold everything from Canada to Georgia, and concluded with this impressive testimony to its value :
" The peace and happiness of the plantations, and the trade of England, if not the very being of his majesty's dominions on this continent, depend on the holding of Oswego."
The next year the assembly voted six hundred pounds (New York currency, equivalent to fifteen hundred dollars) to build a stone wall around the " trading-house at Oswego," at a proper distance from it, with a bastion or block-house. in each corner. Yet it seems that even in " good old colony times" there were officials and contractors disposed to de- fraud the government, for in 1742 we find the governor writing to the English board of trade that the post was in a very defenseless condition, not only because it was out of ammunition, but because the director of the works had built the new wall in clay instead of lime, under the pre- tense that the latter article was not to be obtained, which the governor did not believe. His excellency continued :
" It is, as it is managed, a jobb, calculated rather to put money in the pockets of those who have the management of the business than for any service to the publick."
And again he dilates on the fatal consequences to be apprehended from the loss of Oswego, declaring that it would be followed by the loss of the fur trade, and proba- bly by the defection of the Six Nations. All this time, it will be understood, the French and English were at peace ; but there were signs of war, and each was jealous of the other, and suspicious lest a sudden outbreak should put some important post into the enemy's hands.
At this time the French had two or three sailing-vessels on Lake Ontario, armed with light cannon, while the Eng- lish had nothing larger than the bateaux of their traders.
The only remaining relics of British occupancy at this period are two stones, now in the Oswego city library. One is a grave-stone, carefully lettered " Roger Corbett, 1742." On the other is rudely scrawled " Crannell, 1745." It is doubtless also a grave-stone, though it has been sup- posed by some to have marked the building of Fort Ontario. But that fort was certainly not built until 1755. The last-mentioned stone was taken from the fort and used in the construction of the first court-house at Oswego, and on the demolition of that building was placed in the library.
In the year 1743, William Johnson, afterwards the cele- brated Sir William Johnson, but then only a prosperous Indian trader in the Mohawk valley, became interested in the fur-trade at Oswego.
In March, 1744, war was declared between France and Great Britain. No sooner did the report of this event
reach Oswego than the traders there were filled with terror at the prospect of a French and Indian attack. Putting no trust in the dilapidated fort and scanty garrison, nor in their own valor, most of them prepared for instant flight. A few adventurous spirits remained ; to these the majority sold such goods as they could, and departed with the rest for Albany. Indians coming from the far west to trade at Oswego, as they had done for years, found little or nothing for which to exchange their furs, and departed in disgust.
George Clinton, then colonial governor of New York, but not a member of the Clinton family afterwards so cele- brated in State politics, immediately did what he could to strengthen Oswego. He sent six cannon thither, and called a council of the Six Nations at Albany to engage them to help defend the threatened post. They gave a half promise to that effect, but insinuated that Oswego was not as valu- able to them as formerly, because goods had not of late been as cheap as they once had. In truth, the Six Nations were very much (and very sensibly) disposed to remain neutral, and let the English and French fight their own battles.
Lieutenant John Lindsay, the founder of the Cherry Valley settlement, was appointed commander of the post at this time, and held the position for five years afterwards.
In the spring of 1745 one of the officers of the garrison, a young lieutenant named Butler, afterwards the too-cele- brated Colonel John Butler, of detested memory, wrote from that point that fifteen hundred men, besides Indians, were reported to be organizing in Canada for the purpose of attacking Oswego. If any such movement was contem- plated it was certainly abandoned.
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.