USA > New York > Yates County > History of Yates County, N.Y. : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of the prominent men and pioneers > Part 2
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But before leaving this branch of the subject we feel constrained to give place to the observations and discoveries of Dr. Samuel Hart Wright, which assuredly tend to show a prehistoric occupation of some character. The results of Dr. Wright's investigations, as taken from a recent publication, are as follows :
"In Torrey and in Barrington are to be found relics of those earlier,
EVIDENCES OF ABORIGINAL OCCUPANCY. 25
mysterious races of whom but little but their death is known. Archæol- ogists have called them Mound Builders, from the remains of their ancient life that lie scattered from New York to the Gulf of Mexico, and have attributed to them civilized customs and fabulous ancestry ; but later investigations show that they were races similar to the Indians. Whence they came will forever be unknown. Their arts and crafts par- took of a modern civilization. Stone and copper implements, rough pottery, and coarse cloth evidence their progress in the mechanical arts. Their remains dot the southwestern part of New York. Around Lake Lamoka and on the boundaries of Barrington their mounds appear, while on the summit of Bluff Point they built an earthwork whose coun- terpart is unknown within the limits of the State. It is located in lots five and six, now cut by a public highway, and is seven acres in ex- tent. The elements have nearly obliterated all trace of it and the plow has completed the destructive work. What was the purpose of this singular construction is shrouded in mystery. It could neither have been a defensive work nor a place of burial. From the spot where it stands the western branch of Lake Keuka is seen, and but a few rods dis- tant the eastern branch, with Penn Yan in the distance, looms in view. No more sightly position could have been selected.
"The construction of the parallel ridges is peculiar. They were raised but twelve or eighteen inches above the surface, were eight feet in width, level on the top, and faced along the sides with flat stones. The only conjecture with the likelihood of truth is that the strange erec- tion was connected with the religion of that long gone race, the Mound Builders. How cannot be told. Who knows what god they wor- shiped or can tell the tenets of their faith! Their history has long departed. Centuries ago it vanished from the earth. All things are fleeting, and gods, like men, soon pass away.
" This ancient earthwork, like others of its class, was as inexplicable to the Senecas as to us. Their traditions ran not back of their own his- tory. In winter evenings, when gathered around the lodge fire, youths and warriors listened with bated breath to legends and myths that the ancients told, stories of wizards and flying heads,-for the Indians were a superstitious race,-but they heard nought of any people that pre- ceded them. In their opinion they were the first that had lived within 4
1
26
HISTORY OF YATES COUNTY.
their territories ; they were the autochthones; at Bare Hill, in Middle- sex, they came out of the ground and thence spread northward and eastward to the positions where the French first found them ; they were Ongwe Honwe, the real men. So far as they could remember no change had ever occurred in their social and political institutions, save only their adherence to the League. The same sachems governed them as in the earliest dawn of their history, and their language and religion saw no change."
So far as authentic history goes to show the first and original occu- pants of the region of this part of Western New York were the North American Indians. When the first Spanish adventurers set foot on the soil of this country they found its territory to be inhabited by a race of people who called themselves Lenni Lenapes, meaning " original peo- ple." They occupied the region of country that bordered on the coast and along the valleys of the great rivers in the States now known as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, New Jersey, and others even to the ex- treme South. They styled themselves original people from the fact that they were then the most powerful Indian nation in this broad land ; but they were not a warlike race of savages and were content to dwell at peace among themselves and with others, notwithstanding the claim that they had a grievance against the people who were originally called the Mengwe, but afterward the Five Nations of Indians-the all- pow- erful Iroquois Confederacy.
According to the ancient Indian tradition, and it is a story so often told that it seems to be an assured fact, there once journeyed from the country far west of the Mississippi River two nations of Indians, and that they by mere accident met one another. After meeting they joined together and traveled in common. On approaching the Missis- sippi they were told by their runners that the banks of the river were in possession of a warlike people, and from whom they should obtain permission to cross. For this purpose messengers were sent forward with the request that the pilgrim tribes be allowed to pass the river and settle on the other side. Permission was given to cross the stream, but the travelers were ordered not to take up their abode in the country of the Allegwi, they who were in possession, but to journey to the far East beyond the region of the Mississippi. Then commenced the crossing
27
AN INDIAN TRADITION.
of the river, which required much time, as there were thousands of the emigrants. When a portion had crossed the Allegwi, fearing treach- ery or from pure wantonness, fell upon those who were on the east side, slew many of them, and scattered the others in the boundless forests. After a time all were gathered together, a council was held, and it was determined to return and make war upon the cruel and merciless Al- legwi. It was done and a long and bloody battle followed, with the re- sult that the Allegwi were beaten and driven from the region to the far South. The eastward journey was again resumed, but the Lenni Le- napes claimed that through the acts of their companions, the Mengwe, the brunt of the battle fell upon them, while the Mengwe hung in the rear and fought but little. Thereafter, though they traveled together, they had but little in common. And when the pilgrimage was ended the nations parted, the Lenni Lenapes occupying the country on the coast and along the great interior rivers, while the Mengwe settled in the region of the lakes and through the interior of New York State (as it afterward became) between the Hudson River and the western part of Lake Erie. The seat of government of the former people was on the Delaware River, from which fact the Lenape in after years became known as the "Delaware," but the numerous tribe branches took names suited to the locality in which they severally lived, all, however, paying allegiance to the same parental head. Among the descendants of the Lenni Lenapes there was formed a crude system of government, and by firmly adhering to it they maintained for many years a suprem- acy over other Indian nations, in a numerical sense at least, but at length the so-called Iroquois Confederacy became of such strength that they waged a war against all other Indian nations, overcame them, and were for many years the acknowledged rulers of the whole country.
As early as the year 1620 the Jesuit missionaries first visited the region of Western New York. They came to instruct the Indians, and if possible to extend the power and influence of the Romish Church. They found the extreme western part of this State, bordering on Lake Erie, to be in possession of a tribe of Indians whom they called the Neuter Nation. Their Indian name has been given by some writers as Kahquahs and by others as Attiwondaronk. The French called them the Neuter Nation because they lived at peace with the fierce tribes
28
HISTORY OF YATES COUNTY.
which dwelt on either side of them. They were reported by their first European visitors to number 12,000 souls, but that was beyond doubt a very great exaggeration, as the Iroquois in the days of their greatest glory did not number so many souls as that. However the Neuters were undoubtedly a strong people and were scattered over a consider- able region of country. The Eries also lived along the lake that now bears their name.
Northwest of the Neuter Nation dwelt the Algonquins or Hurons, reaching to the shores of the great lake which bears their name, while to the eastward was the home of those powerful confederates whose fame has extended throughout the world, whose civil policy has been the wonder of sages, whose warlike achievements have compelled the admiration of soldiers, whose eloquence has thrilled the hearts of the most cultivated hearers,- the brave, sagacious, and far-dreaded Iroquois. They then consisted of but five nations, and their "Long House," as they termed their confederacy, extended from east to west through all the rich central portion of the present State of New York. The Mohawks were in the fertile valley of the Mohawk River ; the Oneidas, the most peaceful of the Confederates, were beside the lake that still bears their name; the Onon- dagas were in the region of the lake so called, and in their territory, near the site of the present city of Syracuse, were lighted the council fires of the Confederacy ; the Cayugas lived in and guarded the region of the lake called Cayuga ; while westward from Seneca Lake ranged the fierce, untamable Sonnonthonans, better known as Senecas, the warriors par excellence of the Confederacy. Their villages reached westward to within thirty or forty miles of the Niagara, or to the vicinity of the pres- ent village of Batavia.
From what has already been narrated, and from what has otherwise been conceded as an established fact, the territory now embraced in this county was a part of the lands of the Senecas. In fact here was their favorite hunting and fishing resorts, but not within the region of the county is there understood to have been any extensive villages. To be sure during General Sullivan's campaign against the Senecas a detach- ment of his army was sent to destroy the village near the mouth of Kashong Creek, but the village there was then of but recent establish- ment and was the trading post of Debartzch and Poudre. These ad-
29
INDIAN STRUCTURES.
venturous tradesmen had located some miles away from Kanandesaga (Geneva), where their operations would be less obstructed and where they might find less opposition. At the time of its destruction the village at Kashong was small, but there had been made some effort at improve- ment, as corn and vegetables had been planted about the place.
It has been said that the Indians never built breastworks, and that such defences were beyond their patience and skill. But they certainly did build palisades, frequently requiring much labor and ingenuity. When the French first visited Montreal they discovered an Indian town of fifty huts which was encompassed by three lines of palisades some thirty feet high, with one well secured entrance. On the inside was a rampart of timber, ascended by ladders, and supplied with heaps of stones ready to cast at an enemy. When Champlain with his allied Hurons, or Algonquins, and St. Francis Indians attacked the principal village of the Onondagas in October, 1615, he found it defended by four rows of interlaced palisades so strong that, notwithstanding the number of his force, he was unable to overcome the resistance of the Onondagas, and was compelled to retreat. Also, in Genesee County, in the town of Le Roy, was one of the largest fortresses in Western New York, which contained when first discovered great piles of round stones, evidently intended for use against assailants, and showing about the same progress in the art of war as was evinced by the palisade builders.
There are evidences, too, of fort or palisade constructions in Yates County, which were unquestionably the work of the Senecas. On the farm of Lewis Swarthout, in the town of Milo, on a slightly elevated piece of ground, there has been discovered the remnants of an old structure of some sort, but of what particular character there is no evi- dence to determine. Some of the older people of the town have a distinct recollection of hearing some talk of the " old fort " at or near that place, but all traces of its existence have long since disappeared. It is said also that an Indian burial ground was in the same vicinity ; and Mr. Swarthout, the present owner of the property, says that in ex - cavating for his barn foundation he found the skeleton of a buried human being. From these things we may fairly infer that there was probably an Indian fortification of some sort at this place, but to inquire concern- ing the necessity of such a structure in this interior land of the Senecas
30
HISTORY OF YATES COUNTY.
would be putting forth a question unanswerable. In the town of Jeru- salem, too, there is said to have been an ancient Indian structure of some sort, but all inquiries concerning its true character have produced no substantial or satisfactory results.
The land of the Senecas included an immense area, and throughout its whole extent they traveled and dwelt sometimes in one locality and again in another, as best suited the Indian fancy. Their principal vil- lages in this locality were at Ganundagwa and Kanandesaga (Canan- daigua and Geneva), the one at the foot of Canandaigua and the other at the foot of Seneca Lake. Between these points ran the principal trail used by the Iroquois in traversing their " Long House." Up and down Seneca Lake on both sides were other principal trails, while another of lesser importance led from Kanandesaga to the foot of Keuka Lake, known to the Indians as Ogoyaga.
Between the Iroquois and the Hurons there prevailed a deadly en- mity, while the hostility between the former and the Eries was scarcely less fervent. Betwixt these contending foemen the peaceful Kahquahs long maintained their neutrality, and the warriors of the East, of the Northwest, and of the Southwest suppressed their hatred for the time as they met by the council fires of these aboriginal peacemakers. Down to about the year 1641 the Kahquahs succeeded in maintaining their neutrality between the fierce belligerants on either side, though the Jesuit missionaries reported them as being more friendly to the Senecas of the Iroquois than to the Hurons. What cause of quarrel arose be- tween the peaceful possessors of the lake shore and their whilom friends, the Confederates, is entirely unknown, but some time during the next fifteen years the Iroquois fell upon both the Kahquahs and Eries and ex- terminated them as a nation from the face of the earth. The precise years in which these events occurred are uncertain, nor is it known which of the tribes first felt the deadly anger of the Five Nations. French accounts favor the view that the Neuter Nation was first de - stroyed, while according to Senaca tradition the Kahquahs still dwelt on their land when the Iroquois annihilated the Eries.
The Senaca tradition just referred to runs somewhat as follows : The Eries had been jealous of the Iroquois from the time the latter formed their confederacy. About the time under consideration the Eries chal-
3I
VICTORIES OF THE IROQUOIS.
lenged their rivals to a grand game of ball, a hundred men on a side, for a heavy stake of furs and wampum. After two years the challenge, being thus often repeated, was accepted with result in the Eries' defeat. The vanquished then proposed a foot-race between ten of the fleetest young men on each side, and again the Iroquois were successful. Still later, at the home of the Kahquahs, the Eries proposed a wrestling match between ten champions on each side, the victor in each match to have the privilege of knocking out his adversary's brains with a toma- hawk. In the first bout the Iroquois was successful, but declined to play the part of executioner. The chief of the Eries, infuriated by his champion's defeat, himself struck the unfortunate wrestler dead as he lay supine where his victor had flung him. Another and another of the Eries was in the same way conquered by the Iroquois and in the same way was dispatched by his wrathful chief. The jealousy and ha- tred of the Eries was still more inflamed by defeat, and they soon laid a plan to surprise and if possible destroy the Iroquois, but a Seneca woman, who had married among the Eries and was then a widow, fled to her own people and gave notice of thé attack. At once the men of the Confederacy were assembled and led forth to meet the invaders. The two bodies met near Honeoye Lake, half way between Canandai- gua and the Genesee. After a terrible conflict the Eries were totally routed, the flying remnants pursued to their homes, and the whole nation almost completely destroyed. It was five months before the Iroquois warriors returned from their deadly pursuit. Afterward a powerful party of the descendants of the Eries came from the far West to attack the Iroquois, but were utterly defeated and slain to a man. Such is the tradition. It is a very pretty story-for the Iroquois. According to their own account their opponents were the aggressors throughout, the young men of the Five Nations were invariably victorious in the ath- letic games, and nothing but self-preservation induced them to destroy their enemies.
From the destruction of the unfortunate Kahquahs and Eries down to the time of the last great sale of land by the Iroquois those Confed- erates were the actual possessors of the territory that now includes Yates County and as well the major portion of all that is now the State of New York. For all these 230 years the Iroquois have been closely
32
HISTORY OF YATES COUNTY.
identified with the history of this county, and the beginning of this com- munity of record forms a proper point at which to introduce an account of the interior structure of that remarkable Confederacy at which we have before taken but an outside glance.
It should be said here that the name " Iroquois " was never applied by the Confederates to themselves. It was first used by the French and its true meaning is veiled in obscurity. In the province of Ontario an old map showed a tribe of Indians called " Couis," living near the site of Kingston, while another map designated the territory then occupied by the Iroquois as belonging to the "Hiro Couis." Plainly this is the deri- vation of Iroquois, but as to the meaning of "Hiro " or "Couis " there remains great doubt. The men of the Five Nations (afterward the Six Nations) called themselves " Hedonosaunee," 1 which means literally " They form a cabin," describing in this expressive manner the close union existing among them. The Indian name just above quoted is more liberally and commonly rendered "The People of the Long House," which ismore fully descriptive of the Confederacy, though not quite so accurate a translation.
The central and unique characteristic of the Iroquois League was not the mere fact of five separate tribes being confederated together, for such unions have been frequent among civilized and half civilized peoples, though little known among the savages of America. The feature that distinguished the people of the Long House from all other confedera- cies, and which at the same time bound together all these ferocious war- riors as with a living chain, was the system of clans extending through all the different tribes. Although this clan system has been treated of in many works there are doubtless thousands of readers who have often heard of the warlike success and outward greatness of the Iroquois Confederacy, but are unacquainted with the inner league, which was its distinguishing characteristic, and without which it would in all proba- bility have met at an early day with the fate of numerous similar alli- ances. The word clan has been adopted as the most convenient one to designate the peculiar artificial families about to be described, but the Iroquois clan was entirely different from the Scottish one, all the members of which owed undivided allegiance to a single chief, for whom they
1 Morgan's map of the Iroquois country gives the name thus : Ho-de-no-sau-nee-ga.
33
LAWS OF THE CONFEDERACY.
were ready to fight against all the world. Yet "clan " is a much better word than " tribe," which is sometimes used, since that is a designation ordinarily applied to a separate Indian nation.
The people of the Iroquois Confederacy were divided into eight clans, the names of which were as follows: Wolf, Bear, Beaver, Turtle, Deer, Snipe, Heron, and Hawk. Accounts differ, some declaring that every clan extended through all the tribes, and others that only the Wolf, Bear, and Turtle clans did so, the rest being restricted to a lesser num - ber of tribes. It is certain, however, that each tribe, Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, or Senecas, contained parts of the three clans named and of several of the others. Each clan formed a large artificial family, modeled on the natural family. All the members of the clan, no matter how widely separated among the other tribes, were considered as brothers and sisters to each other, and were forbidden to intermarry. This prohibition was strictly enforced by public opinion. All the clans being thus taught from earliest infancy that they belonged to the same family, a bond of the strongest kind was thus created throughout the Confederacy. The Oneida of the Wolf clan had no sooner appeared among the Cayugas than those of the same clan claimed him as their special guest, and admitted him to the most confidential intimacy. The Senecas of the Turtle clan might wander to the country of the Mohawks, at the farthest extremity of the Long House, and he had a claim upon his brother Turtle which they did not dream of repudiating.
Thus the whole Confederacy was linked together. If at any time there appeared a tendency toward conflict between the different tribes it was instantly checked by the thought that if persisted in the hand of the Heron must be lifted against his brother Heron; the hatchet of the Bear might be buried in the brain of his kinsman Bear. And so potent was the feeling that for at least 200 years, and until the power of the League was broken by overwhelming outside force, there was no serious dissension between the tribes of the Iroquois.
Iroquois tradition ascribes the founding of the league to an Onondaga chieftain named Tadodahoh. Such traditions, however, are of very little value. A person of that name may or may not have founded the Confederacy. It is extremely probable that the League began with the union of two or three tribes, being subsequently increased by the addi-
5
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HISTORY OF YATES COUNTY.
tion of others. That such additions might have been made may be seen by the case of the Tuscaroras, whose union with the Confederacy in 1712, long after the advent of the Europeans, changed the Five Nations into the Six Nations. Whether the Hedonosaunee were originally su- perior in valor and eloquence to their neighbors cannot now be ascer- tained. Probably not; but their talent for practical statesmanship gave them the advantage in war and success made them self-confident and fearless. The business of the League was necessarily transacted in a con- gress of sachems, and this fostered oratorical powers until at length the Iroquois were famous among a hundred rivals for wisdom, courage, and eloquence, and were justly denominated by Volney the " Romans of the New World."
Aside from the clan system just described, which was entirely unique, the Iroquois League had some resemblance to the great American Union which succeeded and overwhelmed it. The central authority was supreme on questions of peace and war and on all others relating to the general welfare of the Confederacy, while tribes, like the States, re- served to themselves the management of their ordinary affairs. In peace all power was confided to "sachems "; in war to "chiefs." The sachems of each tribe acted as its rulers in the few matters which re- quired the exercise of civil authority. The same rulers also met in congress to direct the affairs of the Confederacy. There were fifty in all, of whom the Mohawks had nine, the Oneidas nine, the Onondagas fourteen, the Cayugas ten, and the Senecas eight. These numbers, however, did not give the proportionate representation in the congress of the League, for all the nations were equal there.
There was in each tribe the same number of war chiefs as sachems, and these had absolute authority in time of war. When a council as- sembled each sachem had a war chief standing behind him to execute his orders. But in a war party the war chief commanded and the sachem took his place in the ranks. This was the system in its simplicity. Some time after the arrival of the Europeans they seem to have fallen into the habit of electing chiefs (not war chiefs) as counselors to the sachems, who in time acquired equality of power with them and were considered as their equals by the whites in the making of treaties.
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