USA > New York > Genesee County > History of the Genesee country (western New York) comprising the counties of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Ontario, Orleans, Schuyler, Steuben, Wayne, Wyoming and Yates, Volume I > Part 27
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Added to discouragement at their hard lot, with lands to clear, fields to fence and cultivate, and shelters for their stock and grow- ing families to erect, was the irritation that arose from the con- sciousness that the men to whom they were beholden for the lands belonged to the so-called capitalistic class, from dependency on whom many of them had fled Europe to escape. With a change of policy following a change in local agents came a recall of the leniency the company had formerly shown delinquent creditors and attempts were made to enforce contracts.
This gave opportunity for malcontents to pose as defenders of American democracy and to exploit the dangers to free institu- tions of a vast landed monopoly under control of a company of wealthy foreigners. Then came appeals to the legislature for relief and, finally, under yet another and better informed local agent, David E. Evans, a nephew of Joseph Ellicott, adoption of reforms in the management that were accepted as fair and generous by most of the settlers.
Following this, all was peace on the purchase, until its people were disturbed by an agitation that grew out of the abduction of
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Morgan from the Canandaigua jail, when ambitious politicians, seeking to combat for purposes of their own the powerful anti- Masonic movement, tried to found an opposition party through renewal of feeling against the Holland Company and its alleged extortions and its impositions on downtrodden settlers. But that was as late as 1830, a period beyond that to which this chapter of Genesee Country history is limited.
Joseph Ellicott, who came of Welsh ancestry, was one of four brothers who attained eminence as men of affairs. The oldest brother, Andrew, was a surveyor general of the United States and the other three served as surveyors in the Holland Purchase, Joseph having engaged in this work at the time of the Geneseo council, when the Indian releases were negotiated. He had acted as assistant to his brother Andrew in the original survey of the city of Washington and had had other important government assignments along the line of his profession.
Some idea of the generalship required of Mr. Ellicott, to pre- pare for the work of the survey, may be obtained by the orders he placed, while in Philadelphia in the interval between the treaty and the start on the work for which he had been engaged. Ritten- house and Potts, the famous mathematical and astronomical in- strument makers of that time, were to provide compasses, chains and staffs for surveyors' use. Augustus Porter, at Canandaigua, was directed to get ready such provisions, pack horses, axemen and chainmen as ordered. Thomas Morris at the same place was asked to attend to the prompt performance of agencies entrusted to him. Different persons at New York, Albany, Fort Schuyler and Queenstown had orders to facilitate transportation of sup- plies and to aid the surveyors in getting into the woods. Clark and Street, at Chippewa, were ordered to have ready two yoke of oxen, tent poles, and stout lumber wagons and axhelves, and the thousand and one things needed for the enterprise were thought of, and explicit directions were sent to the heads of the several parties as to what routes to pursue, where to rendezvous, where to start operations.
The "General" in charge of all this arrived in Canandaigua June 12, 1798, but Mr. Ellicott's time that season was spent prin- cipally at Buffalo Creek, Williamsburgh and on the eastern transit line, which could only be made accurate by cutting a vista three or four rods wide through the woods to enable the surveyors
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to run a true meridian line north from the corner monument. This was only deviated from when, on arriving at the south line of the Hundred Thousand Acre tract, later called the Connecticut tract, the conveyance of which from Morris claimed seniority over that to the Holland Company, Mr. Ellicott moved the necessary distance to the west, from which point he ran his line due north to Lake Ontario. Other clashings of lines were adjusted so as to protect the rights of all parties and generally to the satisfaction of all.
Following the survey of the Holland Purchase lands, of which he was in charge as business agent as well as engineer in chief, a task which included the laying out of townships and the subdivi- sion into sections and lots, the laying out of roads, the defining of the Indian reservations and the adjustment of differences arising from the clashing of boundary lines of the different tracts, Mr. Ellicott devoted himself to the administration of the great prop- erty. This was in 1800. His subsequent life history, until his resignation of the agency in 1821 on account of failing health, is inextricably identified with the development of the Holland Pur- chase. He had carried a tremendous load in the interim. In the extended journeyings necessitated, in the settlement of intricate questions affecting the interests alike of settlers and proprietors, in his initiation and execution of enterprises for the development of the region, in exercise of his ability as a writer and corre- spondent, he carried a load that finally broke his constitution. In 1824, under the advice of physicians, he removed to New York, and there, his mind having become affected, he made an end to his own life.
By the treaty of 1797 the Indians surrendered to the Hol- landers the title to all western New York lands not included in the Phelps and Gorham Purchase and certain tracts which they reserved for their own use. One of the indefinite parts of the reservation of 200,000 acres they held was to be located on Buffalo Creek, at the east end of Lake Erie, and the remainder on Tona- wanda Creek. As this excluded the Holland Company from access to the river and from the lake, it was exceedingly important that they devise a way to secure a harbor or landing place at the mouth of Buffalo Creek, with sufficient ground adjoining on which to found a prospective city. This they obtained through negotiation with a trader named Captain William Johnston, who, previous
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to the purchase by the company, held, by virtue of gift, sale or lease from the Indians, two square miles and a mill-site at that point. As the Indians had the power to include this tract within their reservation, it was manifestly good policy for the Holland people to obtain, as they did, in exchange for a deed, of 640 acres, his surrender of all his "rights," including the mill-site referred to and adjacent timbered land, together with a plot of forty-five and a half acres on which he had erected buildings and other im- provements.
On the land thus obtained on the west boundary of the Genesee Country was founded in 1801 a settlement first known as Buffalo Village, and destined, after its destruction by British and Indians in the War of 1812, to develop with amazing rapidity into a city ranking second only to the metropolis of New York, a story that well deserves separate treatment. The crossing of the Genesee Country by the Erie Canal in 1825 and the construction of the net- work of steam and electric railways, improved highways, and tele- graph and telephone lines, with which the whole Genesee Country is threaded, constitutes no part of its early history, but may be referred to here as evidences of the solidity of the foundations laid by the pioneers, whose trials and achievements we have tried to outline, and as the splendid realization of the vision which in- spired their adventure and strengthened their arms in entering and subduing its fastnesses.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE BIG TREE TREATY.
The most concise and accurate, as well as interesting, account of the Big Tree Treaty is that prepared by W. H. Samson for the Livingston County Historical Society and published in its pam- phlet for 1895. It is given complete herewith :
"After the close of the Revolutionary war and the successful establishment of the independence of the colonies, there was a serious dispute between New York and Massachusetts regarding the lands in what is western New York. Massachusetts claimed the title by virtue of a grant from King James I to the Plymouth company, made November 3, 1620, and New York claimed it by virtue of the grant of Charles II to the Duke of York, dated March 12, 1664, and the voluntary submission of the Iroquois to the crown in 1684.
"Happily this dispute was amicably adjusted. By a compact dated December 16, 1786, signed by commissioners representing the two states, New York secured the sovereignty and jurisdic- tion and Massachusetts the right to buy from the native Indians.
"There were no reasons why Massachusetts should delay the sale of its rights, and on April 1, 1788, the legislature of that state agreed to convey to Nathaniel Gorham and Oliver Phelps, who were acting for themselves and others, all its right and title for 300,000 pounds in the consolidated securities of the common- wealth, or about one million dollars, provided that these specu- lators would extinguish the Indian title.
"On the 8th of July, 1788, a treaty was concluded at Buffalo Creek. It was attended by leading sachems, warriors and chiefs of the Five Nations. At this treaty the Indians sold to Phelps and Gorham for 2,100 pounds and an annuity of $500, all their land east of the Genesee and a small portion west of it. The whole tract being described as follows:
" 'Beginning in the north boundary line of the State of Penn-
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sylvania in the parallel of forty-two degrees north latitude, at a point distant eighty-two miles west from the northeast corner of Pennsylvania, on the Delaware River, as the said boundary line hath been run, and marked by the commissioners appointed by the states of New York and Pennsylvania respectively; and from said point or place of beginning, running west upon said line to a meridian which will pass through that corner or point of land made by the confluence of the Shanahasgwaikon Creek, so-called, with the waters of the Genesee River; thence running north along the said meridian to the corner or point last mentioned; thence northwardly along the waters of the said Genesee River to a point two miles north of the Shanawageras village, so-called; thence running in a direction due west twelve miles; thence running a direction northwardly, so as to be twelve miles distant from the most westward bends of said Genesee River to the shore of the Ontario Lake; thence eastwardly along the shores of said lake to a meridian which will pass through the first point or place of be- ginning above mentioned; thence south along said meridian to the first point or place of beginning aforesaid; together with all and singular the woods, houses, streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, upon, within, and in any wise appertaining to said territory.'
"This tract embraced a little over two and a half million acres, measuring about eighty-five miles on the east line and nearly forty-five miles on the south line. Within its bounds are the counties of Ontario, Steuben and Yates, and portions of the counties of Monroe, Livingston, Wayne, Allegany and Schuyler. On November 21, 1788, the legislature of Massachusetts passed an act conveying this land to Phelps and Gorham.
"The advance in the value of the consolidated securities of Massachusetts, due to the assumption by the general government of the debts of the several states, brought ruin to Phelps and Gorham. They reserved to themselves two townships, but sold the remainder of the land to Robert Morris, who in turn disposed of it to Sir William Pulteney and his associates in England.
"Not only were Phelps and Gorham compelled to part with the lands purchased from the Indians, but they were obliged to sur- render to Massachusetts the preemptive right to the lands west of the Genesee River, embracing about 3,750,000 acres, to which they had been unable to extinguish the Indian title.
"Robert Morris, who had made a profit of something like
COBBLESTONE HOUSE
NEAR SITE OF WADSWORTH DWELLING, LIVINGSTON COUNTY, OCCUPIED BY THOSE PARTICIPATING IN BIG TREE TREATY IN 1797.
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$160,000 on his sale to the Englishmen, was ready to embark in further speculations, and on May 11, 1791, purchased from Mas- sachusetts the preemptive right to the lands west of the Genesee. He paid 100,000 pounds, equal to $333,333.33 in Massachusetts currency. In 1792 and 1793 he sold this land, except the eastern portion, since known as the Morris Reserve, to certain capitalists in Holland, and it now became his duty to extinguish the Indian title. Until this should be done, the Hollanders reserved 37,500 pounds of the purchase price.
"Soon after making the purchase from Massachusetts, Mr. Morris resolved to settle his son Thomas in the Genesee Country 'as an evidence of his faith in its value and prospects.' Thomas Morris was twenty years of age. He had been educated at Geneva and Leipsic and was then reading law. In obedience to the wishes of his father, he left Philadelphia in the early summer of 1791 and coming by way of Wilkesbarre and what was called 'Sulli- van's path,' reached Newtown, where he attended Pickering's council and received from the Indians the name of O-te-ti-ana, which Red Jacket had borne in his younger days. Proceeding on his journey, Mr. Morris visited Niagara Falls. On his return, he passed through Canandaigua. The aspect of the little frontier village pleased him and he resolved to make the place his home. Arranging his affairs in the East, he left New York in March, 1792, and went to Canandaigua. In 1793 he built a frame house, filled in with brick-one of the two frame houses in the state west of Whitesboro. Mr. Morris was admitted to the bar, and in 1794 attended the first court held in Canandaigua. He devoted much of his time to the care of his father's property and the settlement and development of western New York, and was honored and esteemed by the pioneers. In 1794, 1795 and 1796 he was a mem- ber of assembly from Ontario County. For five years beginning with 1796 he was a senator of the State of New York, and from December, 1801, till March, 1803, he was a member of Congress -the first representative in Congress from that portion of the State of New York lying west of Seneca Lake. He shared in the financial reverses of his father and in 1804 appointed John Greig his attorney and removed to New York City, where he practiced law until his death in 1848.
"Though Robert Morris desired a speedy settlement of his speculations with the Hollanders, it was not until 1796 that he
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asked President Washington to order a treaty and appoint a com- missioner to represent the United States. The delay in the appli- cation was very creditable, for it was due entirely to motives of public consideration. Morris' letter was as follows:
" 'Philadelphia, August 25, 1796.
" 'Sir-In the year 1791 I purchased from the state of Massa- chusetts a tract of country lying within the boundaries of the state of New York, which had been ceded by the latter to the former state under the sanction and with the concurrence of the congress of the United States. This tract of land is bounded to the east by the Genesee River, to the north by Lake Ontario, to the west partly by Lake Erie and partly by the boundary line of the Penn- sylvania triangle, and to the south by the north boundary line of the state of Pennsylvania. A printed brief of the title I take the liberty to transmit herewith. To perfect this title it is necessary to purchase of the Seneca nation of Indians their native right, which I should have done soon after the purchase was made of the state of Massachusetts, but that I felt myself restrained from doing so by motives of public consideration. The war between the western Indian nations and the United States did not extend to the Six Nations, of which the Seneca nation is one; and as I apprehended that, if this nation should sell its right during the existence of that war, they might the more readily be induced to join the enemies of our country, I was determined not to make the purchase whilst that war lasted.
" 'When peace was made with the Indian nations I turned my thoughts towards the purchase, which is to me an object very interesting; but upon it being represented that a little longer patience, until the western posts should be delivered up by the British government, might be public utility, I concluded to wait for that event also, which is now happily accomplished, and there seems no obstacle to restrain me from making the purchase, especially as I have reason to believe the Indians are desirous to make the sale.
" 'The delays which have already taken place and that arose solely from the considerations above mentioned have been ex- tremely detrimental to my private affairs; but, still being desirous to comply with formalities prescribed by certain laws of the United States, although those laws probably do not reach my case, I now make application to the President of the United States
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and request that he will nominate and appoint a commissioner to be present and preside at a treaty, which he will be pleased to authorize to be held with the Seneca nation, for the purpose of enabling me to make a purchase in conformity with the formali- ties required by law, of the tract of country for which I have already paid a very large sum of money. My right to preemption is unequivocal, and the land is become so necessary to the growing population and surrounding settlements that it is with difficulty that the white people can be restrained from squattering or set- tling down upon these lands, which if they should do, it may probably bring on contentions with the Six Nations. This will be prevented by a timely, fair, and honorable purchase.
" 'This proposed treaty ought to be held immediately before the hunting season or another year will be lost, as the Indians cannot be collected during that season. The loss of another year, under the payments thus made for these lands, would be ruinous to my affairs; and as I have paid so great deference to public considerations whilst they did exist, I expect and hope that my request will be readily granted now, when there can be no cause for delay, especially if the Indians are willing to sell, which will be tested by the offer to buy.
" 'With the most perfect esteem and respect, I am, sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,
" 'Robert Morris.
" 'George Washington, Esq., President of the United States.'
"President Washington appointed a member of Congress from New Jersey, named Isaac Smith, as the commissioner. But hav- ing been subsequently appointed judge of the supreme court of his state, Mr. Smith found that his judicial duties would prevent his attendance at the treaty; accordingly he declined, and Colonel Jeremiah Wadsworth, who had been a distinguished member of Congress from Connecticut, was appointed in his place.
"Unable himself to take part in the treaty, Robert Morris appointed his son Thomas and Charles Williamson as his attor- neys; but Captain Williamson, busy with his affairs at Bath, de- clined to act, and so the responsibility for conducting the difficult and delicate negotiations fell entirely upon the younger Morris.
"It was resolved to hold the treaty at Big Tree, near the settlement which afterward became Geneseo.
"In meadow lands within the corporate limits of the village of
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Geneseo, southwest from the park, about a quarter of a mile above the Erie railroad and about the same distance west of the Mt. Morris road, is a cobblestone house; on the site of this building there stood, 100 years ago, a small dwelling erected by William and James Wadsworth. This was rented by Thomas Morris for the entertainment of the principal persons at the treaty. He also caused a large council house to be erected, covered with boughs and branches of trees. Doty's History of Livingston County says that the Indian village of Big Tree was west of the Genesee River and that the big tree itself stood on the eastern bank. Some Gene- seo antiquarians of today declare that the village was east of the Genesee. Both are correct, the explanation being that the vil- lage was moved. At the time of the treaty, however, the village was west of the Genesee. It not only appears so on the first map of the region made from actual surveys, but the treaty as agreed upon declared that the reservation of Big Tree should embrace the village, and Ellicott's map of 1804 shows the reservation to be west of the river. In 1805 the village was moved and on the map showing the Phelps and Gorham Purchase in 1806 Big Tree village appears east of the Genesee. The probability is that the council house was erected on the eastern bank and Charles Jones, who derived his information from his father, Horatio Jones, who attended the treaty and took a prominent part in the negotiations, thinks it stood 500 feet northwest of the Wadsworth dwelling.
"The Indians began to arrive at Big Tree late in August, not the Senecas alone, but groups from the other nations-attracted, doubtless, by the hope of presents and the possibility of good liv- ing. Fifty-two Indians signed the treaty. Many of them were famous in Indian annals. Young King, Chief Warrior, Hand- some Lake, the Prophet, Farmer's Brother, Red Jacket, Little Billy, Pollard, the Infant, Cornplanter, Destroy Town, Little Beard, Black Snake -- these were the leaders of the Senecas at Big Tree, interesting men all of them. Time will not permit me to give biographies. It seems necessary, however, to explain that there were two Indians known to the whites as Big Tree.
"Ga-on-dah-go-waah, called sometimes Big Tree and some- times Great Tree, was a full-blooded Seneca of the Hawk clan and resided for many years at Big Tree village. He attended the Buffalo treaty of July 8, 1788, when Phelps and Gorham made
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their purchase, and went to Philadelphia in the winter of 1790 with Cornplanter and Half Town to protest against what they regarded an unjust treatment from Phelps and his associates. He was there again with Red Jacket in 1792 and died in that city in April of that year. Consequently he did not attend the Big Tree treaty. This chief's daughter had a son whose father was a Niagara trader named Pollard. The boy grew up in the Indian village and became in time a famous chief. His name was Ga-on- do-wau-na, which also meant Big Tree. He made himself con- spicuous in border warfare and was at the massacre of Wyoming. He it was who signed the Big Tree treaty. As an orator he was but little inferior to Red Jacket and his character was finer. After the death of Cornplanter he was, perhaps, the noblest of the Sen- ecas. He was among the first Indians on the Buffalo Creek reser- vation to embrace the truths of Christianity and thereafter his life was singularly blameless and beneficent. He was sometimes called Colonel John Pollard. He died on the reservation April 10, 1841, and was buried in the old Mission cemetery.
"Thomas Morris reached the Genesee on August 22d. The commissioners arrived four days later, Colonel Jeremiah Wads- worth to represent the United States and General William Shep- herd to represent the commonwealth of Massachusetts. Captain Israel Chapin, who had succeeded his father, General Israel Chapin, as superintendent of Indian affairs, attended; James Rees, subsequently of Geneva, was there and acted as secretary, and among other white men who attended, and were greatly in- terested in the negotiations, were William Bayard of New York, the agent of the Holland Land Company; two young gentlemen from Holland named Van Staphorst, near relatives of the Van Staphorst who was one of the principal members of the Holland Company; Nathaniel W. Howell, Jasper Parrish, and Horatio Jones.
"Turner's two histories, Stone's Life of Red Jacket, and Doty's History of Livingston County, contain accounts of the treaty of Big Tree which are practically the same, for they were based upon the careful, but not in all respects, accurate statement which Thomas Morris prepared in 1844 for the use of our local histo- rians. But while I have condensed this narrative greatly in some respects, I have supplemented and corrected it, with the aid of
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several documents, of considerable historical importance, which have been carefully preserved for nearly a hundred years.
"Through the kindness of the New York Historical Society I have been able to procure a copy of Robert Morris' Letter of Instructions to Thomas Morris and Charles Williamson, his agents, for the management of the treaty, and also a copy of Thomas Morris' Rough Memoranda of the proceedings at the treaty. Both are unpublished manuscripts. The letter shows what Robert Morris wanted done and how his agents were to go about it. The memoranda are valuable because they contain copies of all the principal speeches delivered at the treaty. These documents are very long and the reading of them would occupy too much of your time. I will give a condensation of the Letter of Instructions.
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