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 7
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In the north there is the Caledonia group; at Lima is another where fine celts, gouges and pestles have been found; another is along the river at Avon and Canawagus, and another at East Avon. At Lakeville, near Conesus Lake, is still another group of sites, and to the east several important localities just north of Livonia. Going back to the Genesee, we find camps, villages and burial places southwest of Geneseo and east of Cuylerville and Moscow, thence south to the Groveland town line. Here this group merges with another south of East Groveland, and follow- ing up Canaseraga Creek to the Spartas. In Nunda interesting relics have been discovered. In Dansville are sites about the Seneca town of Ganasegago. Here clay vessels, pipes, stone articles and bone implements have been found in large numbers. The very general occupation of Livingston County makes it dif- ficult to describe, for there are so many highly important and interesting sites here that only an extended description would suffice. The county will well repay special investigation, and even a superficial survey of its sites reveals more than one hun- dred and fifty localities where the red man has written into the soil the evidence of his one time presence.
Still pursuing a southerly course up the Genesee, we enter Allegany County, where we discover most of the definite sites along the river, few, with the exception of a small group at Alfred, straying more than a mile or two from the Genesee. In this county are several historic Seneca villages, including Canoa- dea, Gaoyadeo and Owaista. There are evidences of an older Iroquoian people also, especially between Transit bridge and Bel- mont. This region was explored by George L. Tucker, of Buffalo and Belmont, resulting in a collection of many thousands of fine artifacts. Mr. Tucker reports a conspicuous fort site a mile and a half below Belvidere, with two others nearby, from one of which he procured an unusual stone pipe having the affigy of a human face with the mouth wide open forming the bowl. The stem per- foration was so near the top or upper side of the stem that time or accident had caused it to break in. If the owner had stopped the original hole with a bit of wax, it would have been difficult to discover how the pipe was smoked. There are several Indian burial places along the river ; one is connected with a village site near Fillmore, another is near Houghton. The latter was exam-
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ined by John S. Minard of Cuba. Traces of occupation are found all along the river to the state line and sites are reported near Wellsville.
We are now to push our way northward again over the Dans- ville trail into Livingston County, thence northeast through Springwater over the hills into Ontario County. Here we reach the picturesque Bristol Hills, where there are several very old Seneca sites. It looks as if the ancestors of the Senecas had done just what we have done and come from over the highlands be- tween the Allegany and the Genesee and entered the hills of southwest Ontario County. At any rate, we find here on the Sears, Jackson and Andrews farms three prehistoric Seneca vil- lage sites. Not far away are many other sites of major import- ance. From this point the swing of settlement, in one direction at least, was a bit westward to the south side of the outlet of Hemlock Lake, in the town of Richmond. Here upon an imposing hill on the George Reed farm is the location of the most im- portant pre-colonial Seneca site known at the present time. It has been locally described for many years as "The Old Fort," but its real significance was not known until it was examined by the State Museum in 1905, and ten years later by the Morgan Chap- ter of the State Archeological Association. Chapter members, headed by Alvin H. Dewey, Harrison C. Follett, Walter Cassabeer and Rodman C. Mills, spent much time in excavating the refuse deposits along the edge of the ravines that bound the site, secur- ing more than two thousand fine specimens, including pipes and bone implements. So important were the results of this explora- tion that the first bulletin published by the Chapter related to this prehistoric site.2
Another site farther down the outlet near Factory Hollow, in the town of West Bloomfield, has received considerable atten- tion from collectors. It seems to have been a later settlement of the Richmond Mills people, and here we discover evidence of contact with the white man, for there are many articles of glass, brass and iron from the graves. A little farther down the valley, in the flats near West Bloomfield station, is the Augustus Warren site, excavated for its relics by R. Marvin Peck. Many wonder- ful terra-cotta pipes and pottery jars were found here, but the
2 Researches and Transactions of the N. Y. State Archeological Association, Mor- gan Chapter, Vol. 1, No. 1, A Prehistoric Iroquoian Village Site, by Arthur C. Parker.
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unmistakable traces of European influence are evident in the quantities of colored beads and brass trade kettles discovered.
It is quite apparent that the Seneca Indians were living in Ontario County and the adjacent territory when the French ex- plorers first came through the region. Indeed, French records definitely describe and enumerate the Seneca towns here. This fact makes possible a sure means of identifying specimens of Seneca art. We are enabled to trace the Senecas both backward into history and forward well into the Colonial period, just as positively as we might trace the progress of the English language, as revealed in a collection of books, from the time of Chaucer to Robert Louis Stevenson. Ontario County has within it the keys to Seneca archeology.
With the destruction of the Erie and Neutral nations by the Senecas and their allies, they had little need of fortified towns, for their great aim had been attained,-namely, the establish- ment of peace whereby their villages were secure from attack by other Indian tribes. Thus, when Greenhalgh visited the land of the Senecas in 1667, he wrote: "The Senecques have four towns, viz., Canagora, Tiotehatton, Canoenda and Keint-he. None of their towns are stockaded." Note that the explorer men- tions Canagora, which is only another name for Gandagora, a French attempt to spell the Seneca name Ga-o-sa-eh-ga-aah as pronounced by the Mohawks. Canagora or Gandagora is situated on the northward slope of the present Boughton Hill. It is one of the most sightly of the later Seneca strongholds and has excited the interest of numerous students of antiquity. For many years the iron refuse of this site furnished material for hinges and nails in the village of Victor, a mile and a half away. This great town of the Senecas was the objective of Denonville when he set forth on his expedition against the Indians. It was destroyed together with a neighboring fortification to the westward. Graves and refuse heaps of this site have been excavated by William B. Moore, of Victor, on whose farm the most important portion of the site lies, by G. R. Vail, also of Victor; by Alvin H. Dewey, Fred H. Hamlin, H. C. Follett and Samuel P. Moulthrop, all of Rochester; by Frederick Houghton, for the Buffalo Society of Natural Sci- ences, and by the writer, for the New York State Museum. The State Museum expedition, covering portions of two years, was highly successful and many interesting articles were discovered.
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including native terra-cotta pipes, shell and bone implements and ornaments and a series of unique antler combs.
South of the Boughton Hill site is another of major impor- tance, but in reaching it we must pass the Fox, Appleton and Beal sites. Then moving eastward we come to the banks of Mud Creek. Here, on the farm of George and Jesse Marsh, is a site of par- ticular interest. It is the location of the village of Gardougarae, destroyed in 1687. Here dwelt the captive Hurons and Neutrals, victims of the Seneca wars of 1651-54. Many unusual objects, somewhat different from the normal Seneca types, have been dis- covered in excavations here. Frederick Houghton describes some of the specimens found, in his monograph on the "Seneca Nation From 1655 to 1687".3
We have scarcely touched upon the sites of western Ontario County or done more than suggest their significance, for we must pass on to another group near Canandaigua. Here are many camp sites and two fortifications, one known as Fort Hill, just outside the city, and the other a mile east on a hillside overlooking the lake. Schoolcraft and Squier both paused to describe these works and to give maps of them. The original site of the Seneca village of Canandaigua has not been exactly determined, but we may be reasonably sure that it was not far from the present city of the same name. It may have been the site above described, for it has a walled enclosure, oval in shape. It is likely, however, that the village known as Onaghee was one of the Canandaiguas. This we find located on lot 20 in Hopewell. Alvin H. Dewey has many fine specimens from this site. The cemetery was discovered a few years ago and excavated by amateurs, there being no record made of the work. The site is late and of the Sullivan period. Not all sites in this region are Seneca; we find many evidences of an earlier people of the mound culture, of Eskimoan characteristics and of unmistakable Algonkian stamp. One of the most im- portant of the non-Iroquoian sites is at the south end of Canan- daigua Lake. Here, covering more than one hundred acres, is an extensive Algonkian site that has yielded several thousand speci- mens. D. D. Luther, of Naples, presented nearly three thousand to the State Museum. A Seneca cemetery at Naples became a part of the cemetery of the whites as they came in, and frequently
3 Publications of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences.
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in digging graves there now Indian relics are discovered. Another site of mound culture is on the Rose farm, a mile north of Man- chester. Graves opened here by Follett yielded polished stone im- plements and copper articles; he found a copper axe of unusual type on this site. In the vicinity of Geneva and southward along the lake are many interesting sites, ranging from early to recent periods. Here we find the sites of Kashong, seven miles south of Geneva, destroyed in 1779; Canaenda, on Burrell Creek, and Kanadesaga, or Seneca Castle, just west of the city of Geneva. This last named site is one of the most important and historic in the group burned by General Sullivan in 1779.
North of Ontario County is the county of Wayne, in which is situated Sodus Bay, marking the starting point of the Preemption Line that sets off the Genesee Country from the rest of the state. With more than a dozen large brooks and creeks flowing into Lake Ontario, one would expect to find traces of the Indian occupations along the shore, but this is not the case, for the only marked evi- dences are upon the west side of Sodus Bay. There is a village and burial site near Walworth and two villages near Marion. All along Wolcott Creek there are traces, and at Wolcott village there is a village and burial site. Farther up the creek, at Butler Center, is a large camp site at a point where a smaller stream joins the larger. A trail must have led over the hills through South Butler to Savannah, for there are traces along the stream all the way to Crusoe Lake, and a large cluster of sites around the lake and southward through the southern portion of Savannah Township, culminating in a conspicuous earthwork on Fort Hill, south of Savannah. Just to the west, on Howland Island, are other sites of interest. W. C. Soule, of Savannah, has given con- siderable attention to the antiquities of this region and assisted in reporting them. An examination of these sites definitely proves that various peoples have lived on them and that some of the sites represent a very early culture.
Southward of Ontario County lies Yates County, closely hugged like some fair prize between three beautiful lakes. To the west is Canandaigua, to the east Seneca, and to the south is the forked Keuka. These lakes all mark the presence of interest- ing and highly important Indian sites. At Penn Yan is a village and burial site and to the west is a mound. Several circular earth- works have been reported in this neighborhood, and Cleveland in
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his history of Yates County mentions stoned-up fortifications. On lot 43, in the town of Milo, is a village and burial site where many arrowheads have been picked up. An earthwork is reported on lot 34, a mile east of the lake, which is said to enclose six acres. Bluff Point must have been an inviting spot for the Indians, and exploration reveals that it has a number of archeological features. Here is an interesting mound with relics in the fields about it. Places called "graded ways" have been described by Dr. H. S. Wright, and visitors have frequently inspected them. Eastward of Penn Yan, at the mouth of the outlet on Seneca Lake at Dres- den, is a village and burial site. At least two occupations have been mentioned here. Farther south at Glenora and at Rock Stream are other small village sites, and near Bellona is the site of the historic Seneca village of Kashong. A village and burial place has been reported at Crystal Spring, a fort at Benton Cen- ter, and a village and earthwork at Friend. On Italy Hill is a large village site, and in the valley of Flint Creek to the westward are two village locations. South of Canandaigua Lake, are other sites adjoining the considerable group just over the county line in Naples.
It is at Vine Valley, however, that the archeologist must pause to examine the evidences of antiquity. Here, just east of Bare Hill, are several sites of the old Algonkian occupation. The hill itself, though reputed to be the mother mountain of the Senecas, does not show the slightest trace of anything of Seneca origin. It is to be doubted that this is the sacred hill at all, while it may have been a place where beacon fires and sacrifices were made. We must spoil a pretty legend, but in doing so we are to reckon with the tradi- tional sagacity of the red man. Bare Hill was the abode of the mound culture Indians and their village covered the flats of Vine Valley Creek. Relics may be found even now in the plowed land on the McComb, Robinson, and Boat Company properties. Dur- ing 1922 the writer made a detailed examination of this section and excavated the burial site on the south slope of Bare Hill. The graves were pocketed in the steep hillside, and all the relics were similar to the mound-building types of Ohio. Gorgets, banner stones, copper articles and large notched points were the rule. There was nothing whatever Senecan. Where then is the sacred hill ?
Through the kindness of W. A. Rozitsky, we made an exam-
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ination of Genundewa or South Hill and there found what seemed to be a Seneca site worth while. It is this long rugged South Hill, with its deep gullies and forested slopes, that hides the secret of the sacred hill. The Senecas who visited the region up to twenty years ago went up the West River valley and turned south over South Hill for their real visitation, though their fires on Bare Hill sent up columns of smoke to confuse the unsuspecting. This con- clusion is further substantiated by the story told the writer by Edward Cornplanter, in his version of the legend of the great serpent that rolled down the hill and made it bare,-whence its name.
The western border of Schuyler County lies within the Pre- emption Line, and thus the county must be included in the Gene- see Country. Geographically this is legitimate enough, for the trails of the Senecas lay southward and along the Cayuta thence to Elmira and on to Tioga Point. There is a village and burial site in Watkins, south of Seneca Lake, and others along the inlet five miles south of the lake. Camp sites are to be found in Hector along the streams that enter the lake. Professor Crosby, of Cornell, reports some unusual sites south of Perry City and an- other south of Mecklenburg, near the creek. Another important group of fishing camps is located along the east shores of Lamoka and Little lakes, between Wayne and Tyrone. Some most inter- esting sites are reported near Havana Glen and Montour Falls. The latter seems to be on the site of the historic Seneca town of Sheoquaga.
And here ends our tour of the archeological sites of the Gene- see Country. We have touched some of the high spots only, and have but faintly hinted at the archeological importance of what we have described. Enough has been said, however, to indicate that this is one of the richest fields of antiquity in the United States. Numerous collectors, many of them inexperienced, have dug into mounds and burial sites seeking but one thing,-relics. As a result, this important source of knowledge concerning abor- iginal man in America has been all but destroyed. We now seek not the relic, but the information that goes with it. This informa- tion systematically collated forms the foundation upon which the trained archeologist rears the science of archeology, a science by which the culture of ancient man is made known. What a vast
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storehouse of knowledge we might have had if each collector had known how to collect and why, and then have sent his carefully recorded notes to some central bureau, such as the State Museum or the State Archeological Association! If this had been done, we should have been able to sift out the various cultures repre- sented and charted each locality and site with a degree of cer- tainty. Each site is a chapter in the story of aboriginal man; each specimen is a word, each pit or grave a sentence. Only a few have understood this; others lacking guidance have torn to pieces a vast library of pre-history and scattered its pages and its indi- vidual letters to the four winds.
The student who finds the remains and artifacts of the abor- igines scattered through the soil of this region will find it of help to know just how to identify the things he has discovered. Indeed, a specimen without information is of little value, and unless the collector records his information, he might better leave it in the ground. We have mentioned four specialized cultures in the Gene- see Valley and the contiguous territory. Beginning with the latest we shall endeavor to describe each briefly. The Iroquoian occupa- tion, of which the Seneca is a part, may be recognized chiefly by four things. Hilltop strongholds with or without walls and ditches; compact pottery with the edges decorated by parallel lines in triangular plats; pottery pipes with ringed bowls, square topped bowls or effigy bowls, and triangular arrowheads, to the exclusion of notched forms. Iroquois pottery is seldom marked over its entire surface, but has either a flaring lip which is ser- rated or notched, or it has a wide collar decorated with lines drawn on with a stick or bone marker. The pull of the marker can generally be plainly seen. Iroquois sites almost always have refuse heaps upon them or on the edge of the hills on which they stand. These refuse dumps or pits leave a dark stain in the soil and are frequently filled with broken pottery, cracked animal bones and bone implements, like awls and beads. Sometimes pot- tery articles, such as pipes, are found in them.
Later Iroquoian sites which were occupied after the white man had appeared, have upon them scraps of metal, such as brass, iron and copper. Beads of glass, bullets, triangular brass arrow points and parts of guns are frequently found. On such sites innumerable shell beads have been picked up. Many are small disks perforated in the center, others are effigies of flying birds
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with long bills, and still others are crescents. Most of these are of European manufacture. Burials of this period generally have objects with them, as brass kettles, antler combs, quantities of wampum beads, shell ornaments, iron knives and other articles made and traded to the Senecas by Europeans. Earlier burials have only aboriginal artifacts, but the earliest, as at Richmond Mills, have nothing with them. All Seneca burials of the purely aboriginal period were made directly in the ground without a wooden box or coffin. The body was enclosed in skins and blankets and sometimes wrapped in bark. All such burials are in the flexed position, that is to say, the body is on one side with the knees drawn up, as if the person were sleeping. Generally the hands rest under the cheeks. It has not been the fortune of any scientific observer to find any Iroquoian skeleton "sitting up," that is, with the head erect and the feet far below in the soil. The flexed position has often been described as "the sitting posture," but this is a grievous error. Unless the body is placed in the soil as if sitting in a chair, the position is not the sitting posture.
Common Seneca implements found on sites are, discoidal ham- mers, flat mealing stones, celts (ungrooved hatched heads), net sinkers, anvil stones, drilled teeth (of animals, such as bears and wolves), and disks made of broken pottery (rarely). Some articles are not found on Iroquoian sites. Of these the following may be mentioned: Polished slate articles, such as two-holed gorgets, banner stones, bird stones, grooved axes, gouges and implements of hammered native copper. Such articles indicate another culture. Roller pestles are not found on Seneca sites save on some of the very earliest. They did not use the bell pestle.
The Algonkian occupation, which preceded the Iroquoian here, may be recognized generally by the lack of fortifications. Their sites were most frequently along the streams and upon lowlands. Algonkian pottery is often inferior to the Iroquoian. It is stamped all over with marks that look like cords or fabric, and sometimes these marks go well down inside the lip of the pot. The Iroquoian pot on the contrary has generally a very smooth outer surface. Algonkian sites are characterized by grooved axes, notched arrow points and large spear heads. The Iroquois did not use spears. On such sites are found gorgets and other articles of polished slate, together with implements of copper (native) and, on early sites, soapstone (steatite) vessels or frag-
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ments of them. Pipes are rare and when found generally have a sharp "elbow bend" where the bowl starts from the stem. Stone mortars and long "roller pestles" are Algonkian. Algonkian sites are usually scattered, or, when concentrated, are small compared with the Iroquoian. Probably every Algonkian site in the Genesee Country is prehistoric, that is, older than the coming of the white man by perhaps seven hundred years and even more. Some may be many thousands of years old.
The Mound Builder culture as represented in the Genesee Country indicates an influence from middle or southern Ohio. Like the higher Algonkian, it is characterized by polished slates, as the bird stone, banner stone and gorget. Its arrow and spear points are symmetrical and have notches. Copper implements are found in this cultural range and also articles of mica and of fresh water pearl. One of the peculiar characteristics is the monitor pipe. Sites of this culture are not numerous, but here and there throughout western New York they are to be discovered. One im- portant site in this classification is on the White farm on Squawkie Hill, near Mount Morris. But there are also evidences here of an Algonkian and a later Iroquoian (Seneca) occupation. Mr. White found two large mounds south of his house. In one of them was a remarkable grave containing copper ornaments, pearl beads and a beautiful monitor pipe. Fred H. Crofoot, of Sonyea, opened another mound grave near it and found similar articles. Erie and Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties have been particularly rich in mound culture artifacts. It should be noted that mounds are not always associated with sites of the mound builder culture, and if not found, it may be suspected that they once existed but were torn down by the leveling process of agriculture, for in this state mounds are often as low as eighteen inches, though they may be a hundred feet around, and even larger. Earth walls protecting fortifications are not mounds, and graves must not be called mounds, unless, indeed, they are in true mounds. If the amateur archeologist is careful with his descriptions, he will assist ma- terially in helping the professional scientist, who has often been confused and led to erroneous conclusions by trusting to the de- scriptions of untrained observers.
The Eskimoan occupation is the most elusive of all, but it may be recognized by the presence of semi-lunar knives and by rubbed slate arrow points and knives. These are similar to those used
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