USA > New York > Monroe County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 2
USA > New York > Allegany County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming > Part 2
USA > New York > Livingston County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 2
USA > New York > Yates County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 2
USA > New York > Ontario County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 2
USA > New York > Wyoming County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 2
USA > New York > Steuben County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 2
USA > New York > Genesee County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 2
USA > New York > Wayne County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 2
USA > New York > Orleans County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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When colonization, such as contemplated permanent occupation finally commenced, it was in a measure, simultaneous, upon our northern coasts. Two powerful competitors started in the race
* The intrepid La Salle, with a spirit of daring enterprize that was never excelled, had no sooner seen the " avalanche of waters" at Niagara, than he determined to fol- low them to their source. He had no sooner seen the upper waters of the Mississippi, than he had determined to see the great basin into which they flowed. Leaving be- hind him detachments of his followers to maintain the posts he established, and carry on Incrative trade, he was himself absorbed in the great objects of his mission, a new route to the Indies and the discovery of gold. The extent of his wandering's is sup- posed to have been Chihuahua, in New Mexico. He was almost upon the right track with reference to both objects. Others beside him, seem to have been prepossessed with the idea that there was gold iu that direction. Shall we conclude that through some unknown medium, some indistinct idea had been promulgated of what in our day is actual discovery and acquisition?
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for possession and dominion in America ; and a third was awakened ar I became a competitor. While as vet the Pilgrim Fathers were refugees in Germany, deliberating as to where should be their assyltm. appalled by all the dangers of the ocean and an inhospita- ble c'fine, and at times half resolving to go back and brave the per- secution from which they had died : - while as yet there was but one Reble colony, upon all our southern coast, and the rambling De Soto and the romantic Ponce de Leon had been but disappointed aiventurers in the south-west: the adventurous Frenchmen had entered the St. Lawrence and planted a colony upon its banks: houd erected rude pallisades at Quebec and Montreal. ant were making their way by slow stages in this direction. Halting at Kingston. (Frontenac) they struck off' across Canada by river and inland lake navigation -- carrying their bark cannes over portages - and reached Lake Huron : then on, amidt hostile tribes. until they bad explored and me le missionary and trading statens unon Lakes Michigan and Superior, the upper waters of the Mississippi, and the Drys nivers
In all the French expeditions to the St. Lawrence, previous to that of Cham Vain, there is little interest sare in those of Jaques Cartier. In his seeuni one. in 1535, with three shins, and a large number po decompanying adventurers he entered the S :. Lowrence and gave it its name : giving also, as he proceedled upthe river. names porother bealities which timmy vet bear. Arrived at the Island of Orleans, he had a frier The therrien with the natives In a previ- bus voyage ke liad seized and carmel to France. tmn natives. wiro. returnir with bit son amithe instructed in the Frotich Ihnenare. How detai as Is interpreters, and save a fimorolle account to the .: poeple of those they had been with bnd the country they had see: Proceeding on Ne anchored fer the williter. ht " Stolucone." after- manis called Quebec. Herecomes miet br an Indian che: D :.- cope with'a train of five hundred natives who welcomed Lis arri- val. The Indians giving Cartier Di mission that a lors : chan theirs hoy farther up the river With a picked crew. se thirty- Eve armed mien Le ascended the river, bad friendly interviews tvill che natives upon its banks. Arriving at the present site of Moz- treah be found an Indien village called Hochelami. which . stood in the midst of a great Geld of Indian corn. was of a circular form coat ding about fifty large huts, enel ffty paces long and from
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fourten to fifteen wide, all built in the shape of tunnels, forced of wood, and covered with birch bark ; the dwellings were divided into several rooms, surrounding an open court in the centre, where the fires burned. Three rows of pallisales encircled the town, with only one entrance; above the gate and over the whole length of the outer ring of defence, there wasn gilery. approached by flights of steps, and plentifully provided with etones and other missiles t) re-ist attack." * The strangers were entertained with fetes and danc-s, and in their turn, made presents. The sick and infirm came to Jaques Cartier, who in the simple minds of the natives, pusmessed some supernatural power over disease, which he disclaimed: but the pivus adventurer "read aloud part of the Gospel of St. John, and made the sign of the cross over the sufferers."
Jaques Cartier returned to his colony at St. Croix, after a friendiy parting with his newly acquired acquaintances at Hochelam. In his absence, the intense cold had come upon his people unprepared, the scurry had attacked them. twenty-five were dead, and all were more or less affected. The kind natives gave him a remedy that checked the disease.t The expedition prepared to return to France. As if all of the first interviews of our race with the natives were to be signally marked by acts of wrong and outrage, as an earnest of the whole catalogue that was to follow, under pretence that he had seen some manifestations of hostilities, Cartier signalized his depart- ure, and his ingratitude, by seizing the chief, Donacona, the former captives. and two others ; and conveying them on board his vesse's, took them to France. The act was mitigated, it has been said, by a kind treatment that reconciled them to their fate.
The expedition had found no "gold nor silver" and for that rea- son disappointed their patron, the King, and the people of France ; added to which, were tales of suffering in a rigorous climate. Ja- ques Cartier, however, made favorable reports of all he had seen and heard; and the Indian chief, Donacona, as soon as he had acquired enough of French to be intelligible, " confirmed all that had been said of the beauty, richness and salubrity of his native country." The chief, however, sickered and died.
The next commission to visit the new dominions of France, was
* C. Lques cf Canada.
- A dec ction of the leaf and the bark of the fir tree.
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granted to Jean Francois de la Roche, with Jaques Cartier as his second in command. It was formidable in its organization and equipment : after a series of disasters :- the arrival of Cartier. upon his old grounds : a reconciling of the Indians to his outrage . a winter of disease and death among his men: a failure of de la Roche to arrive in season : it returned to France to add to a war in which she had just then engaged, reasons for suspending colonial enterprises. Almost a half century succeeded for French advents to become but a tradition upon the banks of the St. Lawrence.
How like a vision, in all this time. must those advents have seemed with the simple natives! A strange people. with all that could excite their wonder : - their huge ships. their loud mouthed cannon, whose sounds had reverberated upon the summits of their mountains. in their vallies. and been re-echoed from the deep recesses of their forests : with their gay banners, and music. and all the imposing at- tendants of fleets sent out by the proud monarch of a showy and ostentatious nation of Europe : who had addressed them in an un- known tongue. and by signs and symbols awed them to a contempla- tion of a Great Spirit. other than the terrible Manitou of their sim- ple creed ; who had showed them a " book" in which were revela- tions they had neither " seen in the clouds nor heard in the winds :" whose advent had been a mixed one of conciliation and perfidy : - who had given them a taste of " strong water." that had steeped their senses in forgetfulness. or aroused their fiercest passions. All this had come and gone, began and ended. and left behind it a vacu- um. of mingled wonder. amazement and curiosity ; and of dark fore- bodings of evil. if there was some kind spirit. caring for their future destiny. to foreshadow to them the sequel of all they had witnessed. Would the pale faced strangers come again ? - Would their lost ones be restored to reveal to them the mysteries of those wondrous advents : and tell them of all things they had seen in that far off land, the home of the strangers ? These were the anxious enquiries. the themes around their council fires. in their wigwams. when they held communion with their pagan deities, or asked the moon and the stars to be the revelators of hidden things. One generation passed away and another succeeded. before the mysterious strangers came.
NOTE-Toward the close of the period between the advents of Cartier and Chan- plain, small expedities of French Eshemen and traders, generally coasting of New Foundland. occasionally entered the St. Lawrence and traded with the natives
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first to conciliate their favor by offering themselves as allies ; then to wrest from them empire and dominion.
The first expedition of Champlain was in 1603 and 4. The ac- counts of them possess but little interest. In 1605, equipped by his · patrons for an expedition, having principally in view the fur trade. he extended his own views to the addition of permanent colonization. and missionary enterprize. Arriving at Quebec. he erected the first European tenements upon the banks of the St. Lawrence. The In- dians, with whom Cartier had cultivated an acquaintance, were re- duced to a few in number, by removal, famine and disease. Re- maining at Quebec through a severe winter. relieving the neccessi- ties of the Indians, his own people suffering under an attack of the scurvy, Champlain in 1609, accompanied by two Frenchmen and a war party of the natives, went up the St. Lawrence, and struck off to the Lake that still bears his name. The war party that accom- panied him, were of the Algonquins and Hurons, of Canada, who were then at war with the Iroquois. Their object was invasion of the Ir- oquois country, and Champlain, from motives of policy had become their ally. Upon the shores of a lake to which he gave the name of St. Sacrament-afterwards called Lake George-the party met a war party of two hundred Iroquois ; a battle ensued, the tide of it was as uusual, turning in favor of the warlike and almost every where conquering Iroquois, when Champlain suddenly made his appearance, with his two Frenchmen, and the first fire from their arquabuses, kil- led two of the Iroquois chiefs, and wounded a third. The Iroquois, dismayed, as well by the report and terrible effect of new weapons of war, as by the appearance of those who bore them, held out but little longer ; fled in disorder ; were pursued, and many of them killed and taken prisoners. This was the first battle of which history gives us any account, in a region where armies have since often met .-- And it marks another era, the introduction of fire arms in battle, to the natives, in all the northern portion of this continent. They had now been made acquainted with the two elements that were destined to work out principally their decline and gradual extermination. They had tasted French brandy upon the St. Lawrence, English rum upon the shores of the Chesapeake, and Dutch gin, upon the banks of the Hudson. They had seen the mighty engines, one of which was to conquer them in battle and the other was to conquer them in peace councils, where cessions of their domains were involved.
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Champlain returned to France, leaving a small colony at Quebec ; was invited to an audience, and had favor with the King, who be- stowed upon all this region, the name of New France. * Cham- plain visited his infant colony again in 1610, and 1613, recruiting it, and upon each occasion going himself to battle with his neighbors ' and allies against the Iroquois. In 1615 a company of merchants in France, having procured a charter from the King, which embraced all of French interests in New France, gave to Champlain the prin- cipal direction of their affairs. Having attended to the temporal affairs of the colony, the conversion of the natives, by Catholic missionaries, engaged his attention. Four missionaries of the order of Recollets were enlisted. These were the first missionaries in Canada, and the first upon all our Atlantic coast, with the exception of some Jesuit missionaries that had before reached Nova Scotia. Leaving the large recruit of colonists he brought out at Quebec, where he found all things had gone well in his absence, the intrepid ad- venturer, and soldier as he had made himself, pushed on to Montreal, and joined again a war party of his Indian allies, against the Iroquois. The Iroquois were this time conquerors. Defeat had lessened the importance of Champlain in the eyes of his Indian allies, and they even refused him and his few followers, a guide back to Quebec, although he had been wounded. Remaining for the winter an unwilling guest of his Indian allies, he improved his time, as soon as his wounds would allow of it, in visiting more of the wild region of Canada. In the spring he returned to Quebec, and in July, to France.
For several succeeding years, Champlain visited and revisited the colony, extending and strengthening it ; encountering vicissitudes in France consequent upon the breaking up and change of proprietor- ships ; his colony subjected to attacks from the Iroquois whom he
* Charlevoix.
NOTE .- It has remained for an indefatiguable researcher in the history of the carly French occupancy of this region -O. H. Marshall, Esq. of Buffalo -to ascertain where Champlain and his Indian allies invaded the territory of the Iroquois. They came across the lower end of Lake Ontario, and passing through what is now Jefferson and Oswego counties, crossed the Oneide Lake and attacked the Onondagas at their prin- cipal settlement and Fort on the banks of the Onondaga Lake, when a battle ensued which lasted three hours, the invaders gained no advantage ; and Champlain who expected a reinforcement endeavored in vain to induce his Indiau alliesto remain and continue the seige. He had received two severe wounds, and was carried in a basket of "wicker-work" to the shores of lake Ontario. He spent a dreary winter among the Hurons on the north shore of the Lake.
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had injudiciously made his implacable enemies. Still, French colo- nization in New France slowly progressed, and trading establish- ments were multiplied. In 1623 a stone Fort was erected at Quebec to protect the colonists against the Iroquois, and a threatened end of amicable relations with the Hurons and Algonquins. In 1625, '6, the first Jesuit missionaries came out from France, among them were names with which we become familiar in tracing the first advents of our race in Western New York and the region of the Western Lakes.
In 1627 the colonization of New France was placed upon a new footing, by the organization of the "Company of One Hundred Asso- ciates." Their charter gave them a monopoly in New France, and attempted to promote christianization and colonization, both of which had been neglected by making the fur trade a principal object. The 'Company" engaged to introduce 16,000 settlers before 1643. - Before the advent of this new association, the colony had become but a feeble one ; the Indians had become hostile and kept the French confined to their small settlements, at times, to their fortifications.
Hostilities having commenced between France and England, the first vessel sent out by the Associates fell into the hands of the English. An English expedition after destroying the French trading establishment at Tadoussac, on the Sagenay, sent a demand for the surrender of Quebec. Champlain replied in a manner so spirited and determined as to delay the attack, until the English force was increased. In July 1629 an English fleet appeared, and demanded a surrender which Champlain with his reduced and feeble means of resistance was obliged to obey. The terms of capitulation se- cured all private rights of the French colonists, and most of them remained. Champlain, however, returned to France. It was a `siege and capitulation in miniature, that after the lapse of more than a century, was destined to be the work of concentrated armies and navies, and weeks of fierce contest.
English possession was surrendered by treaty in 1632. At the period of this small conquest :- "the Fort of Quebec, surrounded by a score of hastily built dwellings and barracks, some poor huts on the Island of Montreal, the like at Three Rivers and Tadoussac, and a few fishermen's log houses and huts on the St. Lawrence, were the only fruits of the discoveries of Verrazano, Jaques Cartier, Roberval and Champlain, and the great outlay of La Roche and
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De Monts, and the toils and sufferings of their followers, for nearly a century."
Champlain returned in 1633, having been re-appointed Governor of New France, bringing with him recruits of Missionary and other colonists, and gave a new impulse to colonial enterprize ; settle- ments began to be extended, and a college, with rich endowments was formed at Quebec, for the "education of youth, and the conver- sion of the Indians." While all this was in progress, Champlain, the founder of French colonization in New France, to whose perse- verance, courage, and fortitude, France was indebted for the foot- hold she had gained upon this continent, died, and was "buried in the city of which he was the founder." t
Montmagny succeeded Champlain. Deprived of much of the patronage from the Associates that he had reason to expect, the work of colonization progressed but slowly during his administration, which continued until 1647. Trade, advanced settlements, agricul- ture, made but little progress, but missionary and educational enter- prises, had a powerful impetus. At Sillery, near Quebec, a college was founded. The Dutchess de Arguillon founded the Hotel Dieu, and Madame de la Peltrie, the convent of the Ursulines. The last named liberal patron was young, high born; a devotee to her reli- gious faith, and a zealous propagator of it. She came herself to the New World, with a vessel of her own, accompanied by Ursulines, who blended their names and services conspicuously with the history of Lower Canada. Such was the eclat that attended the advent of the noble patron and her followers, who had left all the refinements, gaities, and luxuries of France, to take up their abode upon the wild and inhospitable shores of the St. Lawrence, that their arrival was signalized by a public reception, with military and religious observan- ces.
The other principal events under the administration of Mont- magny, were the founding of Montreal, and the building of a Fort there and at the mouth of the Richlieu, as out-posts against the Iroquois, who since they had become exasperated by Champlain, made frequent attacks upon the French settlements. A threat reach-
* Conquest of Canada.
t He was one of the extraordinary men of his age and nation. History finds in him a marked character, and poetry and romance the model of an heroic adventurer.
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ed the ears of Montmagny that they would " drive the white man into the sea," and becoming convinced of the powers of the wild warriors, whose strength he had no means of estimating, he sought the means of establishing a peace with them, in which he was encouraged by his neighbors the Hurons, who were worn out, and their numbers re- duced, by long wars with their indefatiguable adversaries. The gov- ernor and the Huron chiefs met deputies of the Iroquois at Three Rivers, and concluded a peace.
M. d' Ailleboust who had held a command at Three Rivers, was the successor of Montmagny, and continued as Governor until 1650. The peace with the Iroquois gave a spur to missionary enterprise and trade, both of which were extended.
During the administration of Montmagny, missionaries and traders had followed the water courses of Canada, and reached Lake Hu- ron, where they had established a post. From that distant point, in 1640, came the first of our race that ever trod upon the soil of Western New York, and left behind them any record of their ad- vent. * On the 2d day of November, 1610, two Jesuit Fathers, Brebeauf and Chaumonot, left their mission station at St. Marie, on the river Severn, near Lake Huron, and came upon the Niagara river, both sides of which were occupied by the Neuter Nation. + They found this nation to consist of 12,000 souls, having 4,000 warriors, and inhabiting forty villages, eighteen of which the mis- sionaries visited. They were, say these Fathers : - " Larger, stronger, and better formed than our Hurons." " The men, like all savages, cover their naked flesh with skins, but are less particu-
* In a letter from Father L'Allemant to the Provincial of the Jesuits in France. it is mentioned that the Recollet Father Daillon passed the winter of 1626 among the Neuter Nation. If this is so, he was the first white man who saw Western New York. The period is earlier than we can well suppose there could have been any Frenchman so far away from the settlements upon the St. Lawrence, especially when we consider the then utter hostility of the Iroquois. Still, the Seneca branch of them may as early as this have tolerated a few missionaries and traders.
t This Neuter Nation, then, were occupants of all the region between the Niagara and the Genesee rivers, Lake Ontario and the foot of Lake Erie, and a wide strip on the west side of the Niagara river. It was NEUTRAL ground, while surrounding nations were at war, and they were neutrals. But three years only after the visit of Brebeauf and Chaumorot, they were dispossessed by the Iroquois. Thus the region became --- as we found it - a part of the domains of the Seneca. Says Charlevoix : - " To avoid the fury of the Iroquois, they finally joined themselves against the Hurons, but gained nothing by the union. The Iroquois, that like lions that have tasted blood, can not be satiated, destroyed all that came in their way ; and at this day there remains no trauc of the Neuter Nation."
×
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lar than the Hurons in concealing what should not appear." " The Squaws are ordinarily clothed, at least from the waist to the knees ; but are more shameless in their immodesty than our Hurons." " They have Indian corn, beans, and gourds in equal abundance ; also, plenty of fish. They are much employed in hunting deer, buf- falo, wild cats, wolves, wild boars, beaver, and other animals. It is rare to see snow in the country more than half a foot deep. But this year, it is more than three fect." The Rev. Fathers found our remote predecessors here upon the soil of Western New York, with the exception of one village, unfavorable to the mission they were upon, and intent upon which they had braved all the rigors of the season, and a long forest path which they soon retraced.
If those Rev. Fathers were admirers of nature's almost undis- turbed works, fresh, as it were, from the Creator, and bearing the impress of His hands - and we may well suppose they were, for they had come from cloistered halls and high seats of learning, and refinement - how must their eyes have been satiated in view of the panorama of lakes and forests, hills and plains, rushing tor- rents, water-falls, and the climax in their midst - the mighty cata- ract of Niagara, thundering in its solitude! Who would not wish that he had been among them - or what is perhaps more rational - that he could enjoy such a scene as Western New York then was ?
The treaty with the Iroquois had but suspended their hostilities. In 1618, they were again out upon their war-paths upon the banks of the St. Lawrence. Father Antoine Daniel had made a mission station of the small settlement of St. Joseph. When the Huron warriors had gone out upon the chase, while the missionary had the old men, the women and children, collected for religions service. a party of Iroquois stole upon them and massacred the whole. This was probably the first of a series of martyrdoms that awaited the Jesuit missionaries. In the early part of 1649, a thousand Iroquois fell upon two villages of the Hurons, and nearly exterminated the whole population ; the missionary in cach place meeting the fate of Father Daniel. This was followed up in the same year by an at- tack upon the Huron village of St. Johns, where nearly three thou- sand, with their missionary, were massacred ! Disease, as well as the war-club, had visited the Hurons. "Most of the remnant of this unhappy tribe then took the resolution of presenting themselves to their conquerors, and were received into their nation. The few
+
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who still remained wandering in the forests, were hunted down like wolves, and soon exterminated." *
In 1650, M. de Lauson became the Governor of New France. During his administration, the colony made but slow advances ; flushed with their victories over their own race, the Iroquois grew bolder and more determined to expel another race whom they regarded as intruders : and who had been the allies of their foes. They almost continually hung upon the French settlements, and paralized their efforts. In 1653, however, the Onondaga branch of the Confederacy petitioned the French Governor for the location of a missionary and trading establishment among them. The propo- sition was acceded to, but it served to exasperate the other nations. and was finally withdrawn by stealth, to avoid a massacre.
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