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 42
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 42
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 42
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 42
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 42
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 42
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 42
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 42
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 42
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 42
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The Shaeffers became the purchasers of his fine tract of land, paying him the then high price of $2,50 per acre ; though it must
" And "thereby hangs a tale :" - These goods were obtained of John Butler, Brit- ish superintendent of Indian affairs at Niagara. They were taken from the King's store house, and were evidently intended for Indian presents upon the Genesee river ; to keep the Indians favorable to the British interests, and strengthen the British claim to dominion over the whole of the western portion of this State. But the agent mis- applied his trusts ; he bought furs with the goods; - they became oftener gifts of gal- lantry than those of diplomacy. Butler made a business matter of it ; demanded pay for the goods ; Allan contested the claim, but it was finally compromised by the interven- tion of James Wadsworth, Esq.
t After coming upon the Genesee river, he had become a grazer and drover. But- ler's Rangers and the Indians would steal cattle from the Mohawk and the Susquehan- nah, and drive them to him. After keeping them upon the river, until they became good beef, they would command a ready sale at high prices, at Fort Niagara and in Canada,
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be considered that sixty acres of improvement was then a valuable acquisition. Allan included in the sale, one acre of wheat upon the ground and a sow pig .* The father and sons added to Allan' house- hold for the winter, subsisting upon the milk of two cows they brought in, and Indian pudding that Mrs. Dugan cooked for them.
Allan had erected the saw mill at the Falls, (now Rochester) in the summer previous, and had his timber out for the grist mill. The money that he realized for his farm, enabled him to push forward his enterprise. The grist mill was raised the forepart of winter. The frame was 26 by 30, of heavy timber. All the able bodied white men in the Genesee valley were invited to the raising - and they numbered fourteen, all told. It took them two days. A trading boat happening to enter the mouth of the river, while they were raising, some rum was procured, and the backwoodsmen had a dance in the mill, and a rejoicing at the prospect of something better to prepare meal for their bread than the stump mortar.
The Shaeffers brought apple seeds with them from Pennsylvania, and planted them in December, 1799. These were the first apple seeds, (other than the old French orchard at Schlosser,) planted in the Genesee country, west of the river.
After Allan had sold his farm to the Shaeffers, he went back to Mt. Morris, purchased goods at Philadelphia, bringing them in from the back settlements of Pennsylvania, on horseback. In the season of '90, he sowed 100 acres of wheat, besides raising considerable corn. Like Alexander Selkirk, he was " lord of all he surveyed ;" commanded the services of the Indians to work his fields for rum and trinkets, occasionally pressing into his service the Butler Ran- gers, who had stopped in the valley, in their flight from the Mohawk and the Susquehannah ; paying them sometimes, but often arbitrarily adjusting their services to suit himself, as there was then no au- thority superior to his own. His gallantries, truthfully related, would equal the tales of eastern romance ; the " turbaned turk might have yielded to him supremacy ; it extended even to the employment of a purveyor, in the person of a Dutchman, Andrews. About this time, alternating in his tastes between his own and another race,
* That same sow pig cost a night's lodging in the woods. She took to the woods early in the spring, and had to be looked up when winter came again. In the search, the present Peter Shaeffer got benighted and slept in a hollow log through a winter night.
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he took another white wife, the daughter of a Ranger, named Greg- ory, who lived upon the Canascraga flats, near Dansville .*
Mr. Shaeffer contradicts the story of Allan's murder of the Dutchman, Andrews,t but he says that he murdered a boy that lived with him, and points out the grave, near the site of Allan's residence, on the Shaeffer flats. The boy was sent for a bucket of water, and playing by the way, Allan met him, took the bucket from him, and beat him to death with it.
He was, says Mr. Shaeffer, mild and conciliating, when he had a selfish end to accomplish ; but always severe and harsh with his dependents. A refugee, a negro slave, had during the Revolution, come from the Mohawk to the Genesee river, and domiciled with the Indians. He was called "Captain Sun Fish." He was shrewd, intelligent, became a trader in cattle, selling in Canada, and at Fort Niagara, took a squaw wife, and acquired considerable money. At one time he was settled at the mouth of Tonawanda creek. Cov- eting his money, and wishing, perhaps, in the way of matrimony to try a third race, Allan married one of his daughters. Getting pos- session of the money, however, he discarded the mixed negro and Indian wife ; but as if there were some redeeming traits in his char- acter, he pensioned the old negro, and allowed him a hut upon his Allan's creek farm. Sun Fish finally went to Tonawanda, where his descendants now reside.
Jacob Schoonover and his family had preceded the Shaeffers a few months, and settled near the mouth of Dugan's creek. Peter Shaeffer married his daughter, in 1790. He and his wife died in 1838, '9, at the ages of 93 and 94. Mrs. Shaeffer died in 1835, aged 63 years.
The whole valley of the river below Mr. Shaeffer's, was slow in settling. The first settler was Joseph Morgan, his farm adjoining the Shaeffer farm, in '92; a daughter of his, Mrs. Early, now occu- pies the place. His son, Joseph Morgan, resides on the river, a short
* When he emigrated to Canada, he undertook to lessen the number of his white wives, by procuring the drowning of this last one. Two men that were hired for the purpose, took her down in a canoe, and purposely ran over the falls near the present aqueduct ; swimming ashore themselves, but leaving her to go over the main falls. She, however, disappointed them, saving herself, and soon appearing in the presence of her faithless lord, at the mouth of the river, a dripping water nymph. She follow- ed him to Canada, and became one of his new household there.
t He went over the Genesee Falls, when taking mill irons down for the old Allan mill ; the boat and irons were found below the Falls.
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distance below. In some of the earliest years, - Peabody erected a distillery, first at Handford's Landing, and afterwards, on the Joseph Morgan place ; Wm. Peabody, of Scottsville, is a son of his. Andrew Wortman was a settler upon the river, as early as '94 or '5, occupying the farm that belonged to Samuel Street, of Chippewa, who was his brother-in-law. Caleb Aspinwall, Peter Conkle, Frederick and Nicholas Hetzteller, were early in the Shaef- fer neighborhood. Reuben Heth, a Vermonter, stopping first at Bloomfield, came upon the river, in early years, worked for Mr. Shæffer, without a change of his buckskin breeches and buckskin coat, until he had earned enough to pay for a farm. He died about twenty years since, a man of wealth, and the founder of a highly respectable family. Eldridge Heth, of Wheatland, is a son ; Mrs. Hyde, Mrs. Nettleton, and Mrs. Halsted, are his daughters.
The two story, venerable looking farm house, near which is the old apple orchard, on the Genesee Valley canal, a short distance below Scottsville, is the residence of Peter Shaeffer. The fine flats spread out before it, in a high state of cultivation, with long lines of wire fence, are those he purchased from " Indian Allan." In a romantic spot, at the end of the ridge, that will be observed rising upon the flats, and terminating near the river and creek, stood the log dwelling, which served the purposes of a farm house, a store, and a harem, for this singular man, who fled from civilization, first to become the scourge of his own race and kindred, and afterwards to repay the confidence and hospitality of another race, by a career among them, marked throughout by selfishness and sensuality.
It will hardly do to talk of antiquity, in a country where our race , have been occupants but. sixty years, in allusion to any relic of their advent. But the old Shaeffer home, with all its historical as- sociations, may be said to look antiquated. It was built in 1789, be- fore the new discovery, the cut nail, was in use, and all the doors had to be made consequently with wrought nails. Its strap door hinges, its locks, handles and latches were made by a blacksmith, who had come into the country ; none other could then be procured. It was the first framed farm dwelling, in all the region between Genesee river and Lake Erie. When it was building, the surveyors were making the preliminary surveys of most of all the territory now comprised in the counties of Orleans, Niagara, Erie, Genesee, Wyoming, Allega- ny, Cattaraugus, and Chautauque ; Buffalo contained three log
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dwellings, and Mr. Ellicot was making an opening to erect the first log dwelling at Batavia. For ten years after that house was com- pleted, and twenty years after its venerable surviving occupant was cultivating large fields ; when those apple trees had become bear- ers, from the seeds he had planted, the site of a city of 40,000 in- habitants, was a rugged and forbidding wilderness! The orchard was planted six years before the British gave up all claim to W. N. York, and surrendered Fort Niagara, and the house built but two years afterwards.
The father and brother of Peter Shaeffer died in early years. The fine start which the improvements gave him - the ready mar- ket he found for his early large crops of corn - the facilities he en- joyed for exchanging provisions for labor, with the new comers that dropped in around him, were advantages he well improved ; and to which he soon added grazing and droving ; his market, Fort Niag- ara and Canada. He added to his original land purchase, by degrees, until he had a large possession ; and a competence of wealth has rewarded his early enterprise. He is now in his 88th year; his faculties not materially impaired, his memory of early events reten- tive and intelligent ; and with the exception of a diseased ankle, his physical constitution holds out remarkably for one of his age. In his younger days, he used spirituous liquors moderately ; none for the last twenty years ; and as an example to old tobacco chewers, it may be added, that he was one of them for half a century, but is not of them now. He has been the occupant of different town offices, and has always enjoyed the esteem of his fellow citizens. The Scotch settlers who became his neighbors, in indigent circumstances, and the pioneers of different neighborhoods, in the western part of Monroe county, many of them speak of his kindness in early years, in furnishing them with grain and pork, upon credit ; and in return the old gentleman pays a high compliment to the honesty of the primitive settlers, by saying that of the numerous debts thus con- tracted, he recollects no instance where he ultimately failed to re- ceive his pay. He speaks of the gratification it used to give him, to supply with a few bushels of grain, some potatoes, or pork, perhaps, settlers in the backwoods, (to be carried off, generally, upon their backs,) who he has lived to see become the owner of broad fields and crowded granaries. The surviving sons of Peter Shaeffer, are : - Peter, Levi, Daniel, George; the last of whom is the owner and
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occupant of the old homestead, and one of the best farmers and stock breeders in the Genesee valley. Mrs. Philip Garbut and Mrs. Caleb Allen, are his daughters. His children all reside in Wheat- land and Chili.
REMINISCENCES OF PETER SHAEFFER.
It was several years after settlement commenced upon the river, before the Ridge Road was known; an Indian trail went from the mouth of the River to Fort Niagara, keeping near the Lake shore; and another trail was along the west bank of the river from Canawagus to mouth of river. Peter and Jacob Shaeffer laid out a road from Allan's creek to the Falls, in '92; had no compass; took ranges from trees; but the road as it now exists, is mainly on the old route. It was improved, the streams bridged with logs, so that teams could pass in the winter of '93, '4.
Deer were plenty ; bears and wolves made it troublesome to keep sheep or hogs; but the raccoon was the most troublesome animal we had to contend with. To save their corn, the new settlers were obliged to hunt them, but their fur sold readily, and paid for the hunting. At some seasons the pigeons were very abundant; they could be taken in large numbers, by the use of nets; the breasts were cut out, salted, and they made very good eating. Trout were so plenty in Allan's creek, that a string of an hundred and an hundred and fifty, could be taken without changing ground. At Dumplin Hill, on one occasion, a panther was a victim to his voracious appetite. Killing a deer, he gorged himself, became stupid, an Indian found him helpless, and shot him.
Up to 1794, there was a constant intercourse kept up between the British at Fort Niagara, and in Canada, and the Indians upon the river. A large proportion of the Indians inclined to the British interests, and by means of runners, and speeches sent from Gov. Simcoe and Lord Dorchester, the idea was constantly inculcated that the British would soon want their aid against the United States. Just before the victory of Gen. Wayne, believing as they were made to believe, from some source, that he would be defeated, they were menacing and insolent. When a large party of them were encamped on the flats of Allan's creek, on their way to become allies against Wayne, some of the painted warriors gave out that they would return with help enough to drive off the whites. The victory created a better state of things, but there was not a feeling of perfect security until the surrender of Fort Niagara, in 1796.
" I have been the commissary of an army," said Mr. Shaeffer, and he ex- plained : - When the American troops were on their way up the Lake to take possession of Fort Niagara, in batteaux, they met with head winds, put back into the Genesee river, where their provisions failed. Hearing of Mr. Shaeffer, they came up the river, quartered in his barn, and he supplied them with pork and Indian meal, taking the officer's note. When they broke up their quarters, Mr. Shaeffer piloted them to Caledonia Springs, put them upon the
26
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trail, and arriving at Tonawanda, Poudry piloted them to Fort Niagara, where they were the first to raise the American flag. The next winter, Mr. Shaeffer drove cattle to Canada, visited Fort Niagara, and received his pay.
Mary Jemison once staid at Mr. Shaeffer's over night, on her way with a hunting party, to the mouth of the river. She related the story of her cap- tivity, and said she was happy in her Indian relations, and preferred to remain rather than to rejoin her friends.
William Hencher was a native of Brookfield, Mass., a soldier of the Revolution, he afterwards became a partizan of Shay, in the Massachusetts rebellion. While transporting some provisions to the insurgents, he was overtaken by some of the opposing military, fled, leaving his teams, and sought refuge in the then wild regions of western New York. He came first to Newtown Point, remained there one year, was joined by his family, and located in the neigh- borhood of Col. Sterrett, on Big Flats. In August, 1791, he and his son William, then eleven years of age, went to the mouth of the Genesee river, where they found Walker, the Ranger, located in a log hut on the east side of the river, near its mouth, the solitary oc- cupant, short of Irondequoit Bay, Orange Stones, and Peter Shaeffers. Determining upon a settlement, Mr. Hencher, with the help of his son, went up to Long Pond, cut wild grass for the stock they intended to bring on, erected a hut on the west side of the river, and returned to Big Flats ; carrying with them, however, a sufficient amount of the fever and ague to last them nearly through the winter.
In February, '92, he moved in by the way of Seneca Lake and Catherine's Town, upon ox-sleds. At Irondequoit, was the end of any road. Mr. Hencher cut his road before his teams, striking the river above the Falls, and then down on the east side to Walker's, where the family remained until the last of March, when they crossed the river and occupied the hut they had erected in the fall, the roof of which was dry wild grass. This was the first hut of a white man erected on the shores of Lake Ontario, between the Genesee river and Fort Niagara. The family consisted of the father, mother, one son, and seven daughters. Clearing a few acres the first season, and planting a few acres that Walker had cleared, they got some summer crops ; and also erected a comfortable log house. The place was much frequented by emigrants and boat- men, who came to camp on shore. Mr. Hencher soon commenced
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traffic with boatmen, emigrants and Indians, to which business he soon added a brisk trade in fish. He and his son, having procured a boat, would cross Lake Ontario to the river Credit, and purchase fresh salmon, and sometimes catch them in the Oak Orchard and the Irondequoit. These he would carry back into the settlements, and exchange for butter and cheese, which he would market in Canada, making large profits. Purchasing six hundred acres of land, he supported a large family, and paid for the land twice, the first title proving defective. The old gentleman died soon after the war of 1812, his wife surviving until 1843, when she died at the age of 93 years. The eldest daughter married Thomas Lee; she survives, and is a resident at Pittsford. Hers was the first marriage that took place upon the west side of the river, except that of Peter Shaeffer. Another sister married Bartholomew Maybee, and is yet living in Ohio ; another, Stephen Lusk, of Pittsford, and is yet living ; another, Jonathan Leonard, of Parma, and is yet living; another. Donald M'Kenzie, of Caledonia, and is yet living. Two others, Mrs. Clement, of Cleveland, and Mrs. Abel Rowe, of Parma, are dead. Seven Pioneer wives and mothers came from under one roof! Of the eight children, six are living; and yet, they have passed through the most rugged scenes of pioneer life, and their location was, in early years, deemed the most unhealthy of all the new settlements ! The eldest is 80, and the youngest 65. The old gentleman lived to see all of his children married and settled. The only son, William Hencher, is 71 years of age ; resides in Andover, Allegany county, with faculties unimpaired, his memory enabling him to relate early events with minuteness and accuracy.
REMINISCENCES OF WM. HENCHER, 2d.
For two years after we came to the mouth of the Genesee river, many of the Indians were ugly, threatening and quarrelsome. Pending the victory of Wayne, my father had made up his mind to leave the country, if the re- sult had been adverse; but his courage was renewed when the Senecas came back from the fight, tame and spiritless, complaining of the conduct of their British allies in shutting themselves up in a fort, and not coming to their res- cue, as they had been made to believe they would. We all expected that if Wayne was defeated, the western Indians would come down and aid the Senecas in a war upon the whites in this region. The mouth of the Genesee River, Braddock's Bay, and Irondequoit Bay, were hunting, trapping, and
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fishing grounds of the Senecas, and at times, the Mississaguas from Canada would be eneamped about them in large numbers.
Some of the first hog's that my father brought in became wild; a boar, es- pecially, became almost the lord of the forest. Huddling his flock together, he would alone fight and conquer bears who attempted to attack them; and he was more than a match, with his long tusks, for all the dogs of the coun- try. On one occasion, he treed an Indian, and kept him up until he was re- lieved by others.
Indian Allan came down and staid with us for several days, when he moved to Canada, awaiting the arrival of a boat from Niagara, which he had chartered. He had a boat load of effects, one Squaw and two white wives.
When the British held Fort Niagara and Oswego, a mail used to be carried between them by water in summer, and by a runner in winter, travelling on snow shoes. Elisha Scudder, who lived at Irondequoit, was crossing the Bay in a canoe - saw a bear swimming - struck at him - missed, the axe going out of his hands into the water. The bear, tired of swimming, mounted into the canoe, and remained in it till it reached the shore; stepping out, and marching off deliberately, without even thanking the ferryman. John Parks, the hunter, made my father's house his head quarters. Near Ironde- quoit Bay, wounding a bear, the animal turned and attacked him; bear and hunter clenched, an I a desperate fight ensued. Parks conquered, killing the bear with his knife, but was dreadfully bitten and lacerated. He crawled to our house, several miles, on his hands and knees. Dr. Hosmer came down and dressed his wounds.
Parks and the mulatto Dunbar, who lived at Irondequoit, were out after coons upon the Lake shore. Their dogs treed one, as they supposed. It was dark; Dunbar climbed the tree, until he discovered a pair of oyes larger than coons usually have, and backed down. They built up fires, remained until morning, when they found their game a large panther, which they shot.
The dens of the rattle snakes were all along in the banks of the river be- low the Falls. In the first warm days in the spring, they would come out, roll and entwine themselves in large coils, with their heads sticking out; so torpid, you could kill them easily. This would continue until the weather was settled ; then they would go out upon their summer rambles, not returning to their dens until cold weather came again. I have killed forty in a day. On one occasion, in the spring of the year, we got together all we could raise, went up the river in canoes, and killed 300 in one day. I have no doubt of the snake's power of charming his victim. I have killed rattle snakes that had swallowed chipmucks and birds, and have often seen birds fluttering over black snakes, with apparently no power to get away until I had disturbed the snake, when they would quickly take the wing.
The next summer after we came in, John Love, who had married a daugh- ter of Dr. Adams of Geneva, came and lived with us. Dr. Adams had pur- chased land upon the Lake shore, of Mr. Williamson. My father and Love went up to Esq. Shaeffers and bought some corn, took it down to the Allan mill in a canoe, ground it themselves, backed it over the portage down to a point a little above Handford's Landing, where they made ropes of bark and let it down in a canoe.
Deer were abundant. I have killed six in one hour. Braddock's Bay was a famous place for trapping otters, muskrats and minks. Geese and ducks
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bred in the Bay, in the pond, in Irondequoit Bay. We could procure their eggs in any desired quantity.
Our early route up the river was an old Indian trail that bore off from the river to avoid Deep Hollow, and came upon it again at Scottsville; and it was many years before we had any thing but a wood's road through the pre- sent city of Rochester.
A very likely Indian - Tuscarora Charles - and his Squaw, were almost constantly encamped at the mouth of the river and Braddock's Bay. When Walker went to Canada in '93, Charles went with me to drive his cattle. On our return, arriving at a camping ground, where the village of Cary- ville, Genesce county, now is, we found Joseph Brant, with a white waiter, on his way to Canada. He was well dressed, after the fashion of white men; but before we parted, he changed his dress entirely, putting on an Indian dress, and getting Charles to paint him like an Indian warrior. This was be- fore reaching Tonawanda, and I fancied that he preferred appearing among his own people like one of them.
There was a great change when the British gave up Oswego and Niagara: navigation of the Lake was brisk ; surveyors and emigrants on their way to New Connecticut, often put into the mouth of the river.
We had but little sickness in our family ; called Dr. Hosmer on one or two occasions. He used but little medicine; he recommended to my mother the use of the extract of butternut root, as an ordinary cathartic, and she was well convinced of its effiacy.
During the Revolution, Butler's Rangers that did not go to Canada, were scattered along among the Indians, on the Susquehannah and Tioga rivers, Seneca Lake, and Genesee river. To arrest the march of Sullivan, Butler and Brant came from Canada, Butler to head the Rangers, and Brant to head the Indians. When they were defeated and driven before Sullivan's army, Brant with his Indian allies, took the Niagara trail for Canada; and Butler and his Rangers went down to the mouth of the Genesee river, after sending Walker as a runner to Niagara to have boats sent down. They en- camped, made no fires for fear the smoke would betray them, fired no guns, kept as quiet as possible, fearing that Sullivan's scouts would discover their retreat. There were several days delay of the boats, and when Walker ar- rived with them, Butler and his men were nearly famished for the want of food.
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