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 5
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31. Kame areas in western New York south of Irondequoit and Sodus bays. Jour. of Geol., Vol. 4, 1896, pp. 129-159.
32. Glacial Genesee lakes. Bull., Geol. Soc. Amer., Vol. 7, 1896, pp. 423-452.
33. Lake Warren shore lines in western New York, and the Geneva beach. Bull., Geol. Soc. Amer., Vol. 8, 1897, pp. 269-286.
34. Glacial geology of western New York. Geol. Mag. (London), Vol. 4, 1897, pp. 529-537.
35. Kettles in glacial lake deltas. Jour. of Geol., Vol. 6, 1898, pp. 589-596.
36. Glacial lake waters in the Finger Lakes region of New York. Bull., Geol. Soc. Amer., Vol. 10, 1899, pp. 27-68.
37. -. Glacial lakes Newberry, Warren and Dana, in central New York. Amer. Jour. Science, Vol. 7, 1899, pp. 249-263.
38. The Pinnacle peat marsh (with E. G. BAR- NUM). Proc., Roch. Acad. Science, Vol. 3, 1900, pp. 201- 204.
39. Ice erosion theory a fallacy. Bull., Geol. Soc. Amer., Vol. 16, 1905, pp. 13-74.
40. The geology of Irondequoit Bay. Proc., Roch. Acad. Science, Vol. 3, 1906, pp. 236-239.
41. Glacial waters in the Lake Erie basin. N. Y. State Museum, Bull. 106, 1907.
42.
Drumlin structure and origin. Bull., Geol. Soc. Amer., Vol. 17, 1907, pp. 702-706.
43. Gilbert Gulf (marine waters in Ontario basin). Bull., Geol. Soc. Amer., Vol. 17, 1907, pp. 712-718.
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44. Drumlins of central and western New York. N. Y. State Museum, Bull. 111, 1907.
45. Pleistocene history of the Genesee Valley in the Portage district. N. Y. State Museum, Bull. 118, 1907, pp. 70-84.
46. Glacial waters in central New York. N. Y. State Museum, Bull. 127, 1909.
47. -. The geology of the Pinnacle Hills (three articles). The Pinnacle (Rochester). Dec. 18-25, 1909. Jan. 1, 1910.
48. Pleistocene geology of New York State. Bull., Geol. Soc. Amer., Vol. 24, 1913, pp. 133-162; Science, Vol. 37, 1913, pp. 237-249, 290-299.
49.
Pleistocene uplift of New York and adjacent territory. Bull., Geol. Soc. Amer., Vol. 27, pp. 235-262.
50. Drumlins, kames and eskers of western New York. Rochester Post-Express, June 14, 1918.
51. Postglacial uplift of northeastern America. Bull., Geol. Soc. Amer., Vol. 29, 1918, pp. 187-238. Also in Science, Vol. 47, 1918, pp. 615-617.
52. The Rochester Canyon and the Genesee River base levels. Proc., Roch. Acad. Science, Vol. 6, 1919, pp. 1-55.
53. A nature drama. Scientific Monthly, Vol. 10, 1920, pp. 404-417.
54. Pleistocene submergence of the Hudson, Cham- plain and St. Lawrence valleys. N. Y. State Museum, Bull. 209-210, 1920.
55. The Pinnacle Hills, or the Rochester kame- moraine. Proc., Roch. Acad. Science, Vol. 6, 1923, pp. 141-194.
56.
G. H. CHADWICK. Lake deposits and evolution of the lower Irondequoit Valley. Proc., Roch. Acad. Science, Vol. 5, 1917, pp. 123-160.
57. A. W. GILES. Eskers in vicinity of Rochester, N. Y. Proc., Roch. Acad. Science, Vol. 5, 1918, pp. 161-240.
CHAPTER II. ANCIENT LAND OF THE GENESEE.
BY ARTHUR CASWELL PARKER, M. S.
West of a line drawn from Sodus Bay to Tioga Point, on the Susquehanna, lies the fair country known to the aborigines as Nun-da-wah-ga-geh. It is the land of the People of the Great Hill, the Senecas. When the white man came with his compass and transit, he drew the line straight southward from Sodus Bay to the Pennsylvania line and called the region the Genesee Country,-and in all the world there is not a place like unto it for human habitation.
Here lies an empire of opportunity, which, for its intrinsic excellence, is unrivaled. It is not a land in whose sterile rocks are found gold and silver, the values of which are largely man-made, but a country of fertile soil, of natural waterways, of delightful waterfalls, of wondrous scenery and of salubrious climate. It is to possess these things, and the advantages that flow from them, that men toil and sweat.
Climatically the Genesee Country lies within the isothermal belt characterized by the world's most virile people. The con- trasts between heat and cold, due to seasonal changes, have schooled the blood of those who live here and produced a people whose mental energy is abundant and eager; physically able to cope with the rigors of any clime; with nerves and muscles which thrive on the stimulation of a climate that pulsates with vibrant life.
This land attracts those races of men who are keen for con- quest and find joy in striving. It is not a land for the enervated denizen of the tropics, but for those brave races whose ancestors have been born of like climes in Nordic Europe. It is a land that keeps alive those racial qualities that make men seek the fullness of life and holds them responsive to its opportunities. The his- torian who seeks statistics will find an abundance of evidence to prove this assertion, if he but looks.
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The superiority of the Genesee Country rests largely upon its lakes and waterways, for these contribute to its fertility and modify its climate. All along the north lies Lake Ontario, while to the westward is the wide Niagara, and the heel of Lake Erie. They flank the country with a water-shield and give it pleasant shores, wide beaches and convenient harbors. A part of the chain of Great Lakes, they afford the means of reaching the very heart of the continent and, by the northeastern route, of reach- ing the Atlantic. Then, as if to cause men to pause, that they might establish a midway stopping place, the most famous water- fall in all America breaks the link between Erie and Ontario, and gives us an unrivalled spectacle, matchless Niagara !
Bisecting the land is the Genesee River, whose cliffs and can- yons have inspired many a poet to pen undying lines. For ninety miles the river flows northward and, dropping again and again, affords beautiful falls and the promise of useful power. The lower reaches of the Genesee are bordered by wide and extensive plains of amazing fertility. These are capable of sustaining great fields of food plants and of grazing countless herds of cattle. On either side of the river are numerous streams that feed it and water the surrounding country. It is a peculiar fact that the Genesee Country is so situated that it is possible to follow a stream to its source and then, by going over a watershed a mile or two, to find another stream flowing in exactly the opposite direction. Thus, by following the Genesee to Black Creek, and westward up this stream, one may portage over a low ridge to the headwaters of the Tonawanda and follow it westward, down stream, to the Niagara River. From portages near the head- waters of the Genesee the explorer will find trails to the Cat- taraugus, flowing westward, or to the Allegany, flowing south- ward. On the east side he can follow the Caneseraga trail up the creek that flows northwestward, and discover an overland route that goes down the Canisteo or the Coshocton to the Tioga River and the Chemung, flowing to the southeast into the Susque- hanna. From the Irondequoit one may go eastward to the Seneca River, and thence, if he desires, to the portage on Wood Creek, leading to the Mohawk, after which there is an unbroken water- way to the Atlantic.
All these water trails are natural routes for travel. Indeed, each lake and stream seems to reach out in invitation, calling
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man to the enjoyments of the Land of the Genesee. Our high- ways and our railroad routes have been predetermined for us by the very nature of stream and valley. We merely follow and improve for our use what we have found. But, lake and stream, hill and escarpment, plain and plateau, all had their beginnings in mighty geological movements. These things the geologist will describe in a detailed way, and show how nature foreordained that this land should be a paradise for man. We are told of the great ice age during which the ice sheet, in places two miles high, moved slowly over western New York, planed down its moun- tains, scoured its hills, filled up its old stream beds, dammed up the lakes, deposited hills where there were none before, changed the flow of rivers, and then, melting, built great dams of boulder- clay and gravel, created new lakes and rivers, creeks and ravines, and swelled the waters of the Great Lakes so that they washed shore lines and beaches far from their present levels.
The glacial period did much for the Genesee Country, for it gave it a new beginning. When the ice melted, the climate moderated, and wind-borne seed again made the land green with trees and verdure. Ponds and lakes filled with sphagnum and water plants, building up as the ages went on great bogs that eventually dried, or when drained quickly did so, making a soil of incomparable richness. Trees grew in rich profusion so that there were great stretches of forest. Here thrived oak, chestnut, hickory, black walnut, butternut, beech, elm, maple, cherry, birch and other hardwood trees. Here grew the linden, the sassafrass, the tulip, the sweet gum, the sour gum, the poplar, the aspen and the ash. Here, too, were boundless areas of pine, hemlock, cedar and spruce. Wild fruit could be found upon the black wood cherry, the juneberry, the pawpaw, and upon many shrubs and bushes. The land was blessed by its trees and bushes.
Nature had been kind in providing immense clearings where tall grasses grew, while along the swamps and streams were natural beds of food plants whose roots were edible. The Genesee Country was not a land of milk, but its trees were filled with honey made by swarms of wild bees. Berries grew in wild pro- fusion in their season, and we discover that there were straw- berries, raspberries, blackberries, huckleberries, blueberries, cranberries, and others almost as palatable. Wild rice grew along the western streams, as at the mouth of the Cattaraugus; Jeru-
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salem artichokes grew on every open flat; mushrooms sprang up in profusion from spring to autumn; food was everywhere. To this great source of sustenance came every form of animal, bird and fish life that could withstand the climate and the onslaughts of natural foes. The forest teemed with elk and deer, bears, wolves, panthers, wildcats, martins, beavers, and many other furbearing creatures Hither came the buffalo in search of salt, for there were salt-licks here and there; but the buffalo preferred to range farther west, and sought here only salt or fresh feeding grounds when the prairies were sunburned or winter-killed. The trees were filled with birds; grouse and quail fed through the underbrush; ducks and geese were upon the waters; fish of many kinds were in stream and lake. The Genesee Country did not lack for life in great abundance. Only a few animals were to be feared, and only one variety of serpent, the rattlesnake, which fortunately warned before it struck.
During the spring months, when the lakes and larger streams abounded with waterfowl, wild pigeons came in mighty flocks, so thick that they darkened the sky like a cloud, and alighting upon the trees, broke the branches by their very weight. They were here by millions, and here they reared their young in suitable nesting places. Hawks, falcons, eagles and great horned owls found them tender morsels, but there were never enough birds of prey seriously to diminish their number. It remained for another animal, a white-skinned biped, who came in later years, to do this. It was he also who made the buffalo retreat.
In our appraisal of the blessings of the land of the Genesee we must never forget the part played by the beasts before man appeared upon the scene. To the great game animals, the deer, the moose, the elk and the buffalo, we are indebted for the first roads. They were the first highway engineers. In their migra- tions from one feeding ground to another, they followed the waterways, and their nimble feet cut paths which others might follow. When it became necessary to strike inland they found the best routes, and quickly discovered the overland line between stream heads. Their paths were safe and direct, and led to clearings where grew succulent grasses. It is not difficult to conjecture that the first men who came into the Genesee Country did so by following deer and elk paths, either in search of game or because they were pure explorers. Once they found the trails,
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they appropriated them, and as they built huts and villages they made other trails that were peculiarly those of human kind. Who these first men were we shall tell in another chapter. Suffice to say they were red men, of what stock we know not.
For thousands of years, how many we dare not say, the red people held this region. Tribes came and went, some stayed and some merely roamed over the land, but at length strong tribes of sedentary people came here to dwell. Others came and coveted the land; they fought and conquered it, and when history dawns we find the Genesee Country the home of the Senecas and called Sonnontouan. So the French writers tell us, but if you ask a Seneca he will say that his people knew it as Nun-da-wah-ga-geh.
If we are to credit French accounts, the first white man who penetrated the heart of the Genesee Country was Etienne Brulé, Champlain's interpreter. His mission was to go from Canada to Tioga Point (at the confluence of the Chemung and the Susque- hanna), and there solicit the help of the Andastes in a raid which the Hurons had projected against the Oneidas and their allies. This was in 1615. The Hurons, assisted by Champlain, were to attack the Oneida village, in the present town of Fenner, Madi- son County. Brulé and the twelve Hurons who were with him encountered a small band of Indians, without much doubt Senecas, and killed several. He then pressed on to the great stronghold of Carantouan and mustered the Andastes, but they did not arrive at the Oneida capital in time to support the attack. Instead, they found that Champlain and his Hurons had been defeated and put to rout. The Andastes returned without giving battle, and Brulé for a long time wandered in the forest, at length seeking refuge in an Indian town, where, discovering his nation- ality, he was tortured and sent on. For three years he wandered, and at length returned to Champlain to tell his doleful story. Our interest in Brulé lies chiefly in the fact that he must have gone up the Genesee and taken the Canaseraga trail to the Sus- quehanna. His sojourn in the Neutral Nation of the Niagara peninsula led him to give a glowing description of the land and the people. This induced Father Joseph de la Roche, a Fran- ciscan priest, to visit the Neutrals in 1626-27, and his description of his mission is contained in a letter to one of his friends in Angiers, France. As the Neutrals had villages and hunting grounds on both sides of the Niagara, we may consider De la
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Roche's account to be the first portrayal of the Genesee Country. Later he came into the very heart of the Seneca domain and established a mission among his Huron converts at Gandougarae (near East Bloomfield, Ontario County).
Many years passed before white men wrote descriptions of the country, though its frontiers were sometimes mentioned. We have the accounts of La Salle along the Niagara in 1669 and at Irondequoit Bay. But even earlier than this, Father Chaumonot (1656) had visited the Seneca villages in the hope of establishing missions. Twelve years later Father Fremin, schooled by his experience among the Mohawks, came to the Seneca town of Gandougarae, four miles south of Gandagaro (on Boughton Hill, Victor, Ontario County). Because of an epidemic, he summoned Father Garnier from the Onondaga mission, and Garnier settled at Gandagaro, where he established the Mission of St. James.
Father Galinee came in 1669, when La Salle visited the great town on Boughton Hill. His description of Sonnontouan, the land of the Senecas, is one of the most satisfactory which we have of the earlier accounts. "The Seneca Nation," he writes, "is the most populous of all the Iroquois. It comprises four villages, of which two embrace about a hundred cabins each, and the other two about thirty each, containing in all perhaps one thousand or twelve hundred men capable of bearing arms. The two larger are about six or seven leagues apart, and each six or seven leagues from the shore of the lake, and the easternmost of the larger vil- lages to which I went consists for the most part of fine large meadows, in which the grass is as tall as myself, and in places where there are woods, the oaks predominate. They are so scat- tered that one can ride among them on horseback. We were told that this open country extends toward the east more than one hundred leagues. The Indians who have visited those localities say that they produce very good fruit and Indian corn extremely fine." Galinee continues his account and then tells of a trip "to see a very extraordinary spring. Issuing from a moderately high rock, it forms a small brook. The water is very clear, but has a bad odor, like that of the mineral marshes of Paris, when the mud on the bottom is stirred with the foot. I applied a torch and the water immediately took fire, and burned like brandy, and was not extinguished until it rained. The flame among the Indians is a sign of abundance or sterility, according as it exhibits
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the contrary qualities." This is without doubt the same "burn- ing spring" which the Earl of Belmont ordered Colonel Romer to examine in 1700. We thus catch a glimpse of the first experi- ence of white men with a gas fissure, producing a "burning spring". There were others not far away, one of them at the Indian village site near Richmond Mills, about seven miles directly west of Bristol Center.
Two years before Father Galinee visited Gandougarae, a Dutch trader had visited all the important towns of the Senecas, and described them. He was Wentworth Greenhalgh, from Albany. His statements are substantially borne out by the Jesuit accounts, but one came to pray and preach, and the other to trade and observe political conditions, and for these reasons both accounts are scanty in their references to the type of country in which they found themselves.
It is only when we find the records of later comers, who were home hungry, as Sullivan's soldiers were, that we get geograph- ical descriptions of the Genesee paradise. The priest and the trader were to blaze the trail and not to settle, but to them we must offer up our tributes of gratitude. The fear of God and the love of his precepts point the way to the universal brotherhood of man, and this was the mission of the priest; the love of gain, and the need of industry to secure the advantages of gain, make men tolerate their fellow men and work with them, thus stimu- lating cooperation and civilization, and this was the result of the trader's influence. It was this joint work that helped the Senecas to understand the white man when he came among them. It was not until the closing years of the eventful eighteenth cen- tury, however, that many white men ventured among the abor- igines of the Genesee Country, for it had been agreed that this was to remain in the undisturbed possession of the Senecas.
Rumors of the beauty of the lands west of Seneca Lake had spread slowly through the English and Dutch settlements of New York, but it was not until the returned soldiers of Sullivan's expedition extolled the country that pioneers began clamoring for settlement. This necessarily had to follow the extinguish- ment of the Indian title, and to effect this measures were at once taken. These were complex proceedings, involving several treaties, but at length they were consummated, and in 1790 the legislature of New York formed the county of Ontario, taking
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in all the lands of the state lying west of the eighty-second mile- stone on the Pennsylvania line. Following this came other Indian treaties, particularly that of Canandaigua during the closing months of 1794. The Genesee Country now was within the grasp of the white settler.
By 1798 hundreds of enterprising families from New Eng- land, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey had treked over the muddy wagon trails to the new settlements, and soon flourish- ing frontier towns sprang into existence. Enthusiastic observers began to print their sketches of the region, and one of these, Charles Williamson, whose book, A Description of the Genesee Country,1 appeared in 1798, says, "The success of every indi- vidual who has emigrated to the Genesee Country has stamped a greater value on the lands than ever was known in any country so recently settled and so distant from the old settled country ; but this has in a great measure been owing to the convenience and security afforded to the settlers at the earliest period of settlement. In most instances, roads, mills, stores and black- smith shops preceded the settlement, and the best mechanics in America have been employed. By the efforts of men of property and information, the latent powers of the country, which by the ordinary process of improving new countries, might have lain dormant these twenty years, have at an early period been brought into view, and in many instances into actual operation."
Earlier, in this same letter, Williamson describes the topog- raphy of the Genesee Country and says that it is not entirely flat land, full of swamps and stagnant pools, but that the opposite is the case. He describes the fertile uplands covered with hard- wood timber and then mentions the enormous tracts of naturally open land which the settlers at first thought to be unproductive. Oddly enough, this land, though absolutely clear, was shunned, and the settler with his axe preferred to clear his own farmstead. Necessity, however, compelled certain pioneers to plant on the open land, and, to their agreeable surprise, they found it most fertile and productive. This brought about a land boom, and farms on the open advanced from twenty-five cents an acre to ten dollars an acre, and even more.
1 Description of the Genesee Country, its Rapidly Progressive Population and Improvements : in a series of letters, From a Gentleman to his Friend. Albany, Printed by Loring Andrews & Co., 1798.
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"It is difficult," writes Williamson, "to account for these open- ings, or the open flats on the Genesee River, where ten thousand acres may be found in one body, not even encumbered with a bush but covered with grass of such height that the largest bul- locks at thirty feet from the path will be completely hid from the view.
"Through all this country there are not only signs of ex- tensive cultivations having been made at some early period, but there are found the remains of old forts, where ditches and gates are still visible; they appear to me in general to be well chosen for defense; from the circumstance of swords being found in them, with French inscriptions, it is concluded that they are of French origin. I do not recollect that the French had ever so great a force in this part of America at so early a period; for these forts, from very large decayed timbers lying in them, and large timbers growing over, the others falling down, must be at least two hundred years old; the forts are, besides, too numerous for mere stations, and great collections of human bones are found in them, which shows that they have been occupied for many years. An examination of this part of the country by men of observation and science might throw some light on the history of this part of America so little known."
We have italicized these last lines, for we have here one of the first references to the antiquities of the region. Williamson must have seen some of the ruined towns of the Senecas, destroyed by Denonville more than a century before. Concerning these things we shall speak in the chapters that follow.
CHAPTER III. THE FIELD OF ARCHEOLOGY IN THE GENESEE COUNTRY.
BY ARTHUR CASWELL PARKER, M. S.
When the first white settlers made their way over the military roads and branched off upon the uncertain by-paths of the Gene- see turnpike they found everywhere about them evidences that races of men had lived here before them. Indeed, early travelers recorded their interest in these things and described some of them.
Rev. Samuel Kirkland, who had long lived with the 'Oneidas, and who had some knowledge of Indian antiquities, was par- ticularly interested in the earthworks and ancient tumuli of the Genesee Country and took occasion to visit a number of the most important of these. During his journey to the Senecas in 1788, he penetrated the forest and with Seneca guides found the earth-works along the Genesee River and traced them westward from Canawaugus over the watershed to the valley of the Tona- wanda. The Seneca Indians for the most part professed ignor- ance as to the origin and antiquity of these tumuli. They had known of the mounds and the walled enclosures for many years, but could not, or would not, tell who built them. They appeared to be very ancient, for both walls and areas within were covered with great forest trees and huge stumps, green with moss, which proclaimed that several centuries at least had elapsed since these walled fortifications had been finally abandoned.
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