History of Rochester and Monroe county, New York, from the earliest historic times to the beginning of 1907, Part 4

Author: Peck, William F. (William Farley), 1840-1908
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Pioneer publishing company
Number of Pages: 648

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Shortly after this began the Seven Years' war --- the Old French war, as we denominate that part of it which was fought in this country-and in July, 1759, an army passed this way, comprising British troops, New York militia and Iroquois nearly four thousand in all, under the command of General Prideaux. Having encamped one night at Irondequoit and another at Braddock's bay* they proceeded on their way to Fort Niagara. They soon reduced that little stronghold of the French and on their return march, this time under the command of Sir William Johnson, in place of their former leader, who had fallen in the siege, they brought with them six hundred prisoners, among whom was Captain Pouchot, the command- er of the fort, who, after he got back to his native land, wrote out his reminiscences of the war, to- gether with quite a full account of this immediate region, in which the topographical features are described very accurately. His narrative is illus- trated with several maps, and the translation of it, made in 1866, is further embellished with two en- gravings of the Genesee falls, executed after draw- ings made on the spot by Captain Davies, of the English regiment of artillery, who was on that march. Those are the earliest representations that we have of our cataracts, and they show that con- siderable change must have taken place in the natural features of the landscape since the draw- ings were made. Pouchot follows quite closely the nomenclature of Father Charlevoix, who came along here in 1721, not as a missionary, not ex- actly as an explorer, but as a traveler, and who in a series of most interesting letters describing his journeyings in North America gives us quite a full account of the Genesee river (thie Cascon-

"The difference between this name and that of the general is so great that they might not be supposed to be the same, which they are. The name of the commander was probably pronounced in some barbarous manner, and after it had been given to the body of water where han camp lay it was grad- ually transformed into its present shape, perhaps through some supposed connection with the unfortunate General Braddock.

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HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.

chiagon, as he calls it) with its four falls, the last being at Portage. Charlevoix's is the earliest ac- count that we have of our watercourse, and it is by no means the least valuable. Two months after Prideanx's expedition Quebee fell before the con- quering arms of Wolfe, by the treaty which fol- lowed the French abandoned all claims to sor- ereignty on this continent and the English suprem- acy was complete.

SULLIVAN'S CAMPAIGN.

Monroe county saw none of the warfare of the American Revolution, but it has close relations with one of the episodes in that great struggle. Strenuous efforts were made by the English to in- once the Iroquois to enter the war upon their side, and the arguments in favor of that course were strengthened by the ferocious disposition of the Mohawks, who saw an alluring opportunity to wash their hands in the blood of their white neighbors. The Senecas, at this end of the line, were but little less vindictive than the Mohawks, while the Oneidas, for some reason, were more in- clined to the colonists, and the other tribes were opposed to committing themselves to either party. The result was that, at a great council held in the "long house," it was decided that the con- federacy, as such, should not enter the war, but that any of the tribes, and even individuale, might do as they pleased. Consequently the whole Mo- hawk nation took up the hatchet for the British, while the Senecas, though not so unanimous, pu! n much larger force into the field. The colonists suffered frightfully at the hands of the Mohawks, but it seemed impossible to make reprisals direct- ly against them, so it was determined by General Washington to chastise the western tribe. Being fully authorized by Congress to undertake this he dispatched General John Sullivan in the summer of 1729 with the following instructions: "The immediate objects are the total destruction and devastation of the settlements and the capture of as many prisoners, of every age and sex, as pos- sible. It will be essential to ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent them planting more. Parties should be detached to lay waste all the settlementa, with instructions to do it in the most effectual manner, that the country be not merely overrun but destroyed."

To carry out these wholesome directions Sui- livan advanced up the Chemung river with an army of about four thousand men. At Newton, near the present city of Elmira, he encounteredl a anall force composed of Indians, British regu- lars and loyalists, but they were easily dispersed with small loss on either side. After this engage- ment, which was the only encounter aproaching to a battle during the campaign, Sullivan kept on and carried out his instructions by destroying hun- dreds of acres of corn, beans and potatoes, and a prodigious number of fruit trees, besides obliterat- ing forty-one villages, which doubtless consisted of but a few houses each. Reaching the Geneses river and fording it at Little Beard's Town, now Cuylerville, in Livingston county, Sullivan came to a halt and dispatched Captain Thomas Boyd with a detachment of twenty-six men, besides au Oneida named Hanyerry, who acted as guide, to serve as a scouting party and discover whether or not there was any force of Indians in the vicinity. Boyd fell into an ambush and was taken prisoner, together with a sergeant named Michael Parker, the rest being killed at onee, except four who es- caped. After a vain attempt to extort informa- tion from the captives Parker was beheaded, while Boyd was subjected to the most inhuman tortures till death relieved him. After this tragedy Sulli- van took his homeward way, his work accom- plished, but with little permanent good result- ing from it, for but very few of the Senecas had been killed and the tribe was practically as strong as ever, in spite of all the misery inflicted upon it.

The bodies of Boyd and his men, having been buried where they fell, remained there till 1841 when they were disinterred,, the bones of Boyd and Parker being placed in a white urn, while those of the others were deposited in a large box. The next day, August. 21st, the remains were brought to Rochester with much pomp and cere- mony and the two receptacles were placed on an eminence in Mt. Hope cemetery, which was called Patriot hill, or Revolutionary hill, for it was in- tended to devote it in perpetuity to those who had fallen for their country. The addresses at Cuylerville were made by Judge Samuel Treat and Major Moses Van Campen; the oration at Mt. Hope was delivered by William H. Seward, then governor of the state, who came on here for the purpose. A few years later the urn was over-

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HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.

turned in a violent storm and the bones were scac- tered, after which they were buried in the earth, together with the other remains.

Unfortunately no one had the foresight to pro- vide a legal conveyance of this ground, and so it was that in 1864, when the Civil war was raging, and lots were scarce and the city felt too poor to buy any more land for the cemetery, the com- mon council, to its lasting disgrace, ordered the hill to be leveled, sold the lots to purchasers and removed the remains to the public burying-place. There they remained, unhonored, unmarked, for- gotten till a few years ago, when the Irondequoit chapter of the Daughters of the American Revo- lution took up the matter. The bones were found, were fully identified and were conveyed to a lot in another part of the cemetery, which had been deeded by the commissioners for the purpose. There, for what is undoubtedly the last time, they were laid in the ground on the 1st of November, 1903, in the midst of a large concourse, with an address by Rev. Murray Bartlett, of St. Paul's church, followed by the beautiful committal serv- ice of the Grand Army of the Republic, closing with three volleys from the Eighth Separate com- pany and the sounding of "taps" by the bugler ?. A granite bonlder has recently been placed npon the spot, with a suitable inscription.

THE PHELPS AND GORHAM PURCHASE.

The Stuart family had many unpleasant characteristics, and among them was their utter indifference to their own promises or to the en- gagements of their predecessors, King James the First granted in 1606 to the London company and the Virginia company, two English corporations, about all the land on this continent between Can- ada and the Spanish possessions in the far south. To be sure, one grant overlapped the other by three degrees, but that did not seem to worry anybody. In 1620 James gave to the council in Plymouth. England, a grant of land "extending from sea to sea," taken directly out of the property belonging to the London company. The Plymouth comeil then gave u subgrant to the Mayflower people and another to the Boston colony. The Stuart kings ignored entirely the Mayflower colony, which for seventy years was practically independent, but Charles the First gave a charter to the Boston

colony, calling it "the governor and company of the Massachusetts bay in New England." These charters were eventually superseded by that of William and Mary, in 1691, which united all the colonies of New England and New York under one government.

Before that time Charles the Second had taken a hand in the business. The Dutch had come over and settled New Amsterdam in 1614 without cpposition on the part of the English government and, although there was a good deal of friction between them and their Yankee neighbors after the colonies of Rhode Island and Connecticut had been established, the right of Holland over this domain was never seriously questioned. The only uncertainty was as to how far west their claim reached, and that the Dutch never cared much about, as they were in this country mainly for trading purposes and did not intend to settle far away from the line of the Hudson river. Their influence, however, extended among all' the Im. quois nation and was recognized by the Indians. In 1664 Charles the Second gave to his brother, then duke of York, in England, and of Albany, in Scotland, all the land held by the Dutch on this continent. This presentation would have been simply ridiculous if it had not been reinforced by the capture, a year later, of New Amsterdam and Fort Orange, the names of which were promptly changed to New York and Albany. Some time afterward Holland reconquered the province, but held it for only one year, when it was finally turned over to England and the deed to the royal duke, who subsequently became King James the Second, was re-issued and delivered to him.

It then became a question, even if only an academic one, as to which colony could claim this western part, which then meant not only what is now this portion of the state but a vast territory still further west; if it had really been a part of the Dutch possessions it was a part of New York:, which had succeeded to the title of Holland; if it had never been Dutch at all it belonged to Massa- chusetts by reason of the grant of 1620. The matter did not become of importance till the close of the Revolutionary war, but then it hecaine one of momentous consequence. lu the last year of that conflict the scope of the disputed traet was greatly lessened by the magnanimous action of New York in ceding to the general government

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THE MAIN FALLS OF THE GENESEE.

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HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.

all its claims to lands west of Lake Ontario, which patriotie example was somewhat reluctantly fol- lowed by Massachusetts four years later. That left what is now called Western New York as the bone of contention. After much wrangling over it, which at one time threatened to take the form of an armed conflict, the two states appointed commissioners, who met at Hartford, Conn., in 1786, and agreed upon a compromise, as might have been expected. It was determined that New York should have the government, sovereignty and jurisdiction over all the lands claimed by it, but that Massachusetts should have the right of pre- emption (which really meant the title and owner- ship) of all the land between a north and south line running from the Pennsylvania boundary and passing by the western edge. of Seneca lake and a north and south line one mile east of the Ni- agara river. In the following year this immense tract of six and a quarter million acres was soll by Massachusetts to Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham with the condition that they should ex- tinguish the Indian title by compensating the savages for the loss of their rights in the prem- ises. The price to be paid was £300,000 in con- solidated securities of the commonwealth, which at the current value of those honds made it a little more than three cents an acre, of which one-third was to be paid at once, the remainder in two an- nual installments.

THE PURCHASE FROM THE INDIANS.

Oliver Phelps was a man of boundless activity, consummately adroit, not overburdened with con- science and more than a match for the Iroquois, with all the cunning which they had used so ef- fectively in former times against those of their own color. Putting his surveyors at once into the. field and brushing aside all obstacles that were interposed by rival companies he proceeded to ob- tain verbal agreements from the Indians and found little difficulty in inducing them to consent to the alienation of their ancestral territory, until the Genesee river was reached as a line of considera- tion. Beyond that they refused to go, for all west of it must be kept by them as a hunting-ground of "the great spirit" would be displeased. Then Phelps's peculiar abilities came into play. He would not give up his idea of getting possession

of the land on both sides of the Genesee falls, and by some means which need not be inquired into too closely he induced them to agree that he might have a strip on the west side twelve miles wide by twenty miles long, beginning near Avon and extending to Lake Ontario. In consideration for this particular gift he was to build for their benc- fit a saw-mill and a grist-mill near the falls, though how those adjuncts of civilization would be of any particular advantage to them no one but Phelps couldl explain.

As the land was not held in severalty hy the Indians, so there was no individual ownership, and even the tribal distinctions were rather vague. it was necessary to call a council of the confed- eracy for the purpose of making a formal eon- veyanee of the whole territory. This document, surrendering the aboriginal right to all the land be- tween Seneca lake and the western line just men- tioned, was signed on July 8th, 1788, by Red Jacket, Little Beard, Farmer's Brother and twenty other Senecas, twenty-two Cayugas, eight Onon- dagas, three Mohawks and seven squawr, who were styled "governesses." It might be supposed that the price to be paid for a tract of land larger than many European states would be explicitly stated, but, o' the contrary, it seems to have been omitted, with the result that might have been expected. When the first payment came to be made, at Canan- daigua, the Indians insisted that they were being cheated. that they were to receive in all $10,000, wbile Phelps claimed that he had agreed to pay $5.000 in two installments, besides a continuous annuity of $500, half in cash, half in cattle. And that was all that he ever did pay to them, though they complained in vain to the superintendent of Indian affairs and even to President Washington himself.

Before he had got rid of the Indians Phelps be- gan to sell off his property, but he could not find individual purchasers rapidly enough to suit hin, so he sold to Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution, all that he had not previously dis- posed of, besides reserving for himself and Got- ham two townships- one including the site of Can- andaigua, the other that of Genesco-receiving therefor, as far as can be ascertained. $150,000. That transfer embraced about one half of the territory to which he had acquired the title. He then turned his attention to settling up with

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HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.

Massachusetts. For some reason payment of the hall sold it all-with the exception of a strip on the first installment had never been made, and now the cast, mainly twelve miles wide, known as the "Morris Reserve"-to a syndicate of Dutchmen in Amsterdam, generally called the Holland Land company. Morris agreed, in passing the title to the American agents of these new owners, to ex- tinguish the Indian claim, and a part of the pur- chase price was to be withheld till that was done. That part of the contract was not carried out till four years later, the delay being caused by Morris's unwillingness to take any steps while Fort Niagara was occupied by British troops, the officers of which would be likely to interfere with his opera- tions, and, although that obstacle was withdrawn by the Jay treaty of 1795, it was August, 1797, when the various parties in interest were assem- bled at Big Tree, near the present site of Geneseo securities of the commonwealth hud increased four- fold in value by reason of the United States gov- ernment having assumed the debts of all the states. Phelps used that as an argument in plead- ing for a lowering of his obligations, and after prolonged negotiations he induced Massnehusetty to confirm his title to what he had obtained from the Indians, to take back the remainder, whiel: amounted to about two-thirds of the whole, and to accept $100,000 in full payınent, so that he made a good profit ont of it. Massachusetts soon afterward sold to Robert Morris the tract that had been relinquished by Phelps, for $333,000, and that speculator succeeded in extinguishing the In- dian title. As to the land that he bought from Phelps, which included Monroe county, he sold 1+ within a year for $350,000 to an English syndi- THE TREATY OF BIG TREE. cate, at the head of which was Sir William Pult- eney. As foreigners could not at time hold the title to land in the United States, Charles Wil- liamson, a Scotchman, came over as manager of the "Pulteney estate," as it has always been called, which had been deeded to him in trust for the real owners. He established the office at Bath and it has been located there ever since. Robert Troup succeeding Williamson in the agency, then Joseph Fellows, then Benjamin F. Young, then H. J. Wynkoop, who recently closed up the es- tate, there remaining then unsold only two thoa- sand acres, the owner of which at the time was Sir Frederick Johnstone. The tract embraced originally seven million acres, from the successive sales of which, many of thein in small pieces, some six million dollars in all had been received.

SALE TO THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY.

Though not directly connected with Monroe county, the transactions covering the ownership of the western end of the state, to which Oliver Phelps abandoned all claim, are of sufficient im- portance to warrant some description here, the more especially as they involve the subsequent ca- reer of our old friends, the Senecas. Almost imme- diately on its reversion to Massachusetts that state sold the land to Robert Morris-nearly four million acres-for $333,000, the conveyance being made May 11th, 1791, and within two years the owner

On one side were the principal chiefs and sachems of the Seneca nation-Red Jacket, Hand- some Lake, Farmer's Brother, Blacksnake, Little Beard, Cornplanter and the others-who realized that the ground was slipping away from beneath their feet and that this was the last chance of ob- taining any compensation for it. Opposing them were the whites, Thomas Morris (afterward mem- ber of Congress from this district while it was still a part of Ontario county), who appeared with full authority as the representative of his father; Colonel Jeremiah Wadsworth and General Shep- herd, representing the United States and Massa- chusetts, respectively ; Israel Chapin, superintend- ent of Indian affairs; representatives of the Hol- Iand company, surveyors and interpreters. After the council fire had been lighted, the pipe smoked and the credentials examined, Thomas Morris de- livered to the Indians a carefully prepared speech. setting forth the great benefits that they would derive from the sale of the land. Then followed the customary negotiations, each side trying to force a proposal from the other, until finally Morris. after several days of evasion, offered $100,000, to be invested in stock of the United States bank, sc that they would receive six thousand dollars an- nually for all time: if that offer were refused his father would have nothing more to do with them. Instantly Red Jacket seized the opportunity for a display of his oratorical powers; springing to his

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HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.

feet he poured forth an eloquent harangue fille l with a recital of the wrongs of the red men and ending with the declaration that they would never sell their land; then, with impressive gestures, he scattered the burning brands, stamped out the glowing embers and raked together the ashes; the council was closed. But there was a way to re- open it; the next day presents were showered upon the Seneca squaws, who insisted upon a resumption of the negotiations, and it was decided that Corn- planter, who had lighted the fire, had the right to rekindle it as he had not himself extinguished it. This was done and the deed of sale was signed September 17th, 1797, the consideration being the same that Morris had previously offered. While this was all that appeared upon the record there is written evidence which shows conclusively that two hundred and fifty dollars a year was paid to Cornplanter for the rest of his life, one hundred to Red Jacket and smaller annuities to other chiefs and sachems, who were thus bribed to sell their country-a shameful transaction, in which the blame falls equally on both sides.

Out of all the land eleven reservations were excepted, three hundred and eighty-seven square miles in all, some of which had been already given or sold, but the most of which was to serve as the future home of the Senecas and such others of the Iroquois as might choose to live among them. Since that time the Indian title has been extin- guished in all but four reservations-the Tusca- rora, the Tonawanda, the Allegany and the Ca :- taraugus-on the last two of which, comprising 52,000 acres, the surviving Senecas still reside to the number of twenty-seven hundred, according to the census of 1901. They are the wards of the state and of the nation ; New York distributes an nuities among them of a few hundred dollars, be- sides supporting their fifteen schools at an ex- pense of several thousand dollars, and the state board of charities disburses on their behalf almost as much as is paid for their education ; the United States has hitherto distributed among them every year nearly twelve thousand dollars in cash, be- sides a quarter of that amount in goods. Besides these reservations in this state a large tract of land in what is now Kansas was set apart by the fed-

eral government for the New York Indians, but only a few of them were willing to go so far from their ancestral homes. That land was sold some years ago and the proceeds, amounting to nearly two million dollars, are still in the United States treasury, awaiting distribution, which will give about three hundred dollars to each of the Senecas.

THE OGDEN LAND COMPANY.

One cloud still hangs heavy over these unfor- tunate people. It is the Ogden Land company. That association, which is practically the successor of the Holland Land company, has the same right of pre-emption to those reservations that was ob- tained by Robert Morris over the whole traet. A few years ago the Indians on the Allegany reser- vation parted with the occupancy of a portion of their land to settlers on ninety-nine year leases, the result being that the city of Salamanca and several thriving villages have sprung up on land really owned by the Senecas. A few years ago the Vreeland bill, so-called, was introduced in Con- gress, which proposed to compel the Indians to pay to the Ogden Land company $200,000 for the extinguishment of its claim. That provision was so iniquitons that the bill was finally defeated, partly through the efforts of the Rochester His- torical society and the arguments of the late John Van Voorhis, then the representative from this district. Another provision, which was not so bad as it had for its object the welfare of Salamanca by preventing it from falling into the hands of speculators, was that the land should be divided in severalty among the Indians and that all who held leases of them should acquire a perfect title by the payment of a small amount of money. This claim seems to be in danger of being enforced with- out any bill on the subject, for Justice Kenefick, of the Supreme court of this state, has recently given a decision, in a suit brought to decide this ques. tion, to the effect that a right of pre-emption is equivalent to a title in fee simple, subject to the right of occupancy as long as the Indians main- tained their tribal relations. An appeal will doubt- less be taken from this decision, with what result is purely conjectural.

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History of Rochester and Monroe county, New York, from the earliest historic times to the beginning of 1907, Part 4

Author: Peck, William F. (William Farley), 1840-1908 Publication date: 1908 Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Pioneer publishing company Number of Pages: 648

Author: Peck, William F. (William Farley), 1840-1908
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Pioneer publishing company
Number of Pages: 648