USA > New York > Orleans County > Landmarks of Orleans County, New York > Part 4
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De Witt Clinton argued as follows for the prehistoric earthworks. " On the south side of the great ridge (the ridge road) in its vicinity, and in all directions through the country, the remains of numerous forts are to be seen ; but on the north side, that is the side toward the lake, not a single one has been discovered, although the whole ground has been carefully explored. Considering the distance to be, say seventy miles in length and eight in breadth and that the border of the lake is the very place that would be selected for a habitation, and con- sequently for works of defense, on account of the facilities it would afford for subsistence, for safety, and all domestic accommodations and
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military purposes, and that on the south shore of Lake Erie these ancient fortresses exist in great numbers, there can be no doubt that these works were erected when this ridge was the southern boundary of Lake Ontario, and, consequently, that their origin must be sought in a very remote age."
The weight of evidence is largely in favor of the theory that such remains and relics as have been found were the work of the same race that occupied the territory at the first coming of white men, though that race may have undergone important changes in character, habits, and even in physical respects between the time when such works as that described were made, and the beginning of the present century. Indian relics have been found, also, in the town of Yates in large num- bers, as well as to some extent in other towns of the county, but none of so much significance as the one above described. All these indica- tions point unmistakably to the fact before noted, that the Indians roamed over the territory of this county, defended it against their enemies, and possibly lived here in homes more or less transient ; but it is not probable that any permanent Indian village was ever located within the county limits. In early years they came over from Canada and wintered in Carlton for hunting purposes ; but as game became scarce, their visits were discontinued. Families or single Indians often traveled about among the pioneers, begging or selling various articles ; but they were generally harmless, their once proud spirits broken. Various Indian trails led across the territory of the county, which will be sufficiently described in another chapter.
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ORLEANS COUNTY.
CHAPTER IV.1
Original Claims and Titles-Boundaries of the Province of New York-Gradual En- croachment of White Men upon Indian Territory-Conflicting Claims of New York and Massachusetts -- The Dispute Setttled at Hartford-The Phelps and Gorham Purchase -- The Morris Reserve -- The Transit Line-The Connecticut Tract -- The Holland Land Company -- Indian Title Extinguished -- Survey of Orleans County-Policy of the Hol- land Land Company.
As we have already intimated in a preceeding chapter the early white settlers on the western continent set up their territorial claims and parceled out the country without much regard to the rights which the laws of civilization would ascribe to the original occupants of the soil. The foreign adventurer went through the form of taking posses- sion of the country in the name of his soverign, set up the emblems of foreign authority and invoked divine blessing on the robbery. Under the pretense of civilizing and christianizing the savage, the native was contaminated with all the vices of civilization, debased by strong drink, artfully despoiled of his possessions, hunted from his home and is now fast being swept from the earth.
The title thus acquired was conveyed by charters to royal favorites, or to companies by the soverigns who had usurped them. In the case of a large portion of North America, these charters came from the crown of England, and thus was laid the foundation of the title to the soil here. It is true that in many instances the show of a purchase from the Indians was made ; but such purchase was often effected by meth- ods that would not bear scrutiny, and for trifling considerations. The acquisition and succession of title to the land in Western New York is shown by what follows :
In 1664 the province of New York was granted by charter to the Duke of York, although, as will be seen hereafter, the same territory
1 The description of the title to the soil of Western New York, the various great purchases con- tained in this chapter, was prepared by Dr. Thomas Cushing, of Barre Center, for a work pub- lished some years since and, as it cannot be improved upon, is reproduced in these pages under his authority, and without material change.
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had been previously granted to others. This was the domain of the Iroquois Indians.
"A memorial prepared by the Commissioners of Trade and Planta- tations, in 1697, relating to the rights of the crown of Great Britain to soveriegnty over the five nations of Indians bordering on the Province of New York," recites that those nations had "by many acknowledg- ments, submissions, leagues, and agreements been united to or depend- ent on that colony ;" that they, "being the most warlike in those parts of the world, held all their neighboring Indians in a manner of tribu- tary subjection ;" that in prospect of an invasion of their territory in 1684 by De Le Barre, governor of Canada, Governor Dongan of New York warned that French official, "that those Indians are the king of England's subjects, and also sent the Duke of York's (to whom the pro- vince had been granted by the crown) arms to be set up in every one of the Indians' castles as far as Oneygra (Niagara), which was accord- ingly done and Mons. De Le Barre retired."
Governor Tryon in 1774, in a "Report on the Province of New York," said :
The boundaries of the Province of New York are derived from two sources: first, the grants from King Charles the Second to his brother, James, Duke of York; secondly, from the submission and subjection of the Five Nations to the crown of Eng- land. . It is uncertain to this day to what extent the Five Nations carried their claim to the westward and northward, but there is no doubt that it went to the north beyond the forty-fifth degree of latitude, and westward to Lake Huron, their beaver hunting country being bounded to the west by that lake, which country the Five Na- tions, by treaty with the governor of their province at Albany, in 1701, surrendered to the crown, to be protected and defended for them.
Such was the English claim to soverignty over the territory of the Iroquois. They, themselves, never recognized the claim in the sense in which it was put forth, and the French always denied it and scoffed at it, but the British government had the power to maintain it, and up to the Revolution continued to assert it.
The encroachment of the white people on the territory of the Iro- quois gave the latter great uneasiness, to allay which, a very numerously attended council was held with them at Fort Stanwix (Rome) in 1768, to agree on a line beyond which settlements should not be permitted. The line decided on in the State of New York, " ran along the eastern
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ORLEANS COUNTY.
border of Broome and Chenango counties, and thence northwestward to a point seven miles west of Rome." . The close of the Revo- lution left the hostile Iroquois unprovided for by their British employers, and at the mercy of the United States. Conquered after waging a long, bloody, and destructive warfare against the patriots of New York, they had forfeited their territory and had little cause of complaint.
Every reader of English colonial history knows how ignorantly or how carelessly grants of American territory were made by the crown to individuals and companies, the same tracts being in some instances given at different times to different parties, laying the foundation of conflicting claims. Thus the province of New York when granted to to the Duke of York, in 1664, covered part of Massachusetts as defined by the charter given to the Plymouth Company in 1620. The terri - tory of both provinces under their charters also extended indefinitely westward; but New York in 1781, and Massachusetts four years later, relinquished to the United States their claims beyond the present west- ern boundary of this State, and Massachusetts contented herself with claiming that portion of New York west of the meridian which now forms the eastern line of Ontario and Steuben counties-some 19,000 square miles. New York of course also asserted jurisdiction and owner- ship of this vast tract.
The dispute was compromised by a convention of commissioners from the two States, held at Hartford in December, 1786. It was agreed that the sovereignty of the disputed region should remain with New York, and the ownership with Massachusetts, subject to the Indian proprietorship, which had been recognized by the general government. "That is to say, the Indians could hold the land as long as they pleased, but were only allowed to sell to the State of Massachusetts or her assigns." The meridian bounding the Massachusetts claim on the east was called the " pre-emption line," because it was decided to allow that State the right of pre-emption, or first purchase, of the land west of it. There was one exception: New York retained the ownership as well as the sovereignty of a strip a mile wide along the Niagara River.
In 1788 the State of Massachusetts sold to Oliver Phelps and Nathan- iel Gorham, two of its citizens, and to others for whom they acted, its pre- emption right to Western New York for $1,000,000, to be paid in 5
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three annual installments, in certain securities of the State which were then worth about one fifth of their face. The next thing with these gentlemen was to complete the title by buying the Indian interest. For this purpose Phelps had a conference with the Iroquois at Buffalo early in July, 1788, and bought, for $5,000 down and a perpetual annuity of $500, about 2,600,000 acres, bounded on the east by the pre-emption line. Part of the western boundary was a meridian from Pennsylvania to the junction of Canaseraga Creek with the Genesee River. Thence northward the line followed the course of the Genesee, " to a point two miles north of Cannawagus village; thence running due west twelve miles ; thence running northwardly so as to be twelve miles distant from the western bounds of said river, to the shores of Lake Ontario." The tract thus defined constituted the famous " Phelps and Gorham's Purchase."
In securing their vast estate Phelps, Gorham and company encoun- tered the opposition of another set of land sharks who also had a covetous eye upon this magnificent domain. These were the capital- ists forming the New York and Genesee Land Company, engineered by one John Livingston ; and its branch the Niagara- Genesee Company, headed by Colonel John Butler, and consisting almost entirely of Cana- dians. As we have seen, the Indians were barred from selling their lands except to Massachusetts or her assigns. Butler, Livingston and their associates proposed to get possession of them by a long lease ; hence they are spoken of as the "lessee companies." Chiefly through the influence of Butler they obtained from part of the Iroquois chiefs and sachems a nine-hundred-and ninety-nine years' lease of most of their territory for $20,000 and an annual rent of $2,000. Their scheme fell through, the Legislatures of New York and Massachusetts declaring a lease of that length equivalent to a purchase, and as such null and void. Butler, however, profited by the purchase of Phelps and Gorham. He was one of the three to whom the Indians referred the question of the price they should charge those gentlemen, and is said to have had 20,000 acres placed at his disposal by the purchasers in consideration of the advice he gave the confiding red men. The " lessees " continued their intrigues until they succeeded. in 1793, in getting from the Legislature a grant of one hundred square miles east of the pre-emption
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ORLEANS COUNTY.
1206109
line, instead of obtaining twenty thousand miles and founding a new State, as there is reason to suppose the Niagara-Genesee Company, at least, intended, with the co-operation of the Senecas, whom Butler and other Canadian officials were always embittering against the people of New York.
Before Phelps and Gorham had half paid for the entire pre- emption right they had bought of Massachusetts, the securities of that State, in consequence of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, had risen nearly to par; and finding that they should be unable to fulfill their contract, they induced the State to resume its right to the portion of its original New York claim which they had not yet bought of the Indians, and release them from their contract as to that part, leaving on their hands the tract since called Phelps and Gorham's Purchase and bounded as above described. This agreement was reached on the 10th of March, 1791.
Two days later Robert Morris, the illustrious financier, whose services were of such vital importance to the nation during the Revolution, con- tracted with Massachusetts for the pre-emption right to all of New York west of Phelps and Gorham's Purchase. About this time he also bought 1,264,000 acres of Phelps and Gorham (paying £30,000 in New York currency), which he soon sold to three English gentlemen, Sir William Pultney, John Hornby, and Patrick Colquhoun for £35,000 sterling. It was only after much difficulty and delay that Mr. Morris completed his title to the tract of which he had purchased the pre- emption right from Massachusetts. It was necessary to buy the interest of the Indians, and this was accomplished by a council at Geneseo in Septem- ber, 1797, when he was enabled to purchase all of the State west of Phelps and Gorham's Purchase, except that the Indians retained eleven reservations, amounting to about three hundred and thirty eight square miles.
It was by his speeches in the councils affecting the title to the lands of Western New York that the Seneca chief Red Jacket came into prominence. He figures in history as a crafty demagogue, vain. ambitious and dishonest, a coward in war and a sot in peace ; chiefly noted for his harangues against parting with the lands of the Seneca nation and the bitterness he usually manifested against the power by the grace of which the nation had any lands after the Revolution.
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The conveyance from Massachusetts to Mr. Morris was made May II, 1791, by five deeds. The first conveyed the land between the Phelps and Gorham Purchase and a line beginning twelve miles west of theirs, on the Pennsylvania border, and running due north to Lake Ontario. The next three embraced as many sixteen mile strips crossing the State north and south, and the fifth what remained to the westward of these.
The tract covered by the first deed was what has been called "Mor- ris' Reserve," from the fact that he retained the disposition of this sec- tion in his own hands when he sold all west of it. He sold it in large tracts, though small compared with his purchase.
To Le Roy, Bayard and McEvers he conveyed the triangular tract bounded on the north by Lake Ontario, on the southeast by so much of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase as lay west of the Genesee River, and on the west by a north and south line between the southwest corner of Phelps and Gorham Purchase and Lake Ontario.
He next sold to Watson, Cragie and Greenleaf 100,000 acres bounded on the east by the west line of the triangular tract, on the north by Lake Ontario, on the west by a line six miles west from the west line of the triangular tract and parallel with it, and on the south by an east and west line far enough south from Lake Ontario to include, with the other boundaries, 100.000 acres.
It was supposed, when this sale was made, that all the land conveyed was included in the Morris Reserve, but when, afterward, the transit line was run this supposition was found to be erroneous.
This tract was several times transferred, and finally in 1801, it was purchased by the State of Connecticut and Sir William Pultney, each becoming the owner of an undivided half. In 1811 it was divided be- tween them, each having portions in different parts of the tract, and these were called respectively Connecticut lands and Pultney estate lands. The whole tract is known either as the Connecticut Tract or the Hundred Thousand Acre Tract.
The next sale from the Morris Reserve was to Andrew Cragie, and it comprised sixty thousand acres next south from the Connecticut Tract and lying between the eastern boundary of the Holland Land Com- pany's land and a line running due south from the southern angle of the
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37
ORLEANS COUNTY.
the triangular tract. This sale was made after that to the Holland Land Company. The land thus conveyed has been known as the Cragie Tract. South of this were the Ogden and Cotringer Tracts.
Mr. Morris subsequently sold to Wilhelm and Jan Willink a tract bounded on the east by the Genesee River, west by a line running due south from the southern point of the triangular tract, north by Phelps and Gorham Tract west of the Genesee River, and south by an east and west line at a sufficient distance from the last named boundary to in- clude 40,000 acres ; hence known as the Forty Thousand Acre Tract.
These sales and others, as well as that to the Holland Land Company, were made before the Indian title to the land was extinguished, and Mr. Morris agreed to effect that object, which he did at the treaty of Big Tree, in 1797.
The western boundary of the Morris Reserve, separating it from the Holland Purchase, was the "east transit" line, so called because it was run with a transit instrument in connection with astronomical observa - tions, the variation of the magnetic needle disqualifying the surveyor's compass for running a meridian line. It is called the "east" transit to distinguish it from a similarly surveyed meridian passing through Lockport, which is called the "west" transit. The laying down of this line was a slow and laborious operation. It involved nothing less than felling a strip of timber three or four rods wide most of the way across the State, to give unobstructed range to the small telescope of the transit. This required, besides three surveyors, a considerable force of axe- men. On most of the line all hands camped where night overtook them in the unbroken wilderness. All of the summer and autumn of 1798 was consumed in running the first eighty miles of the transit meridian, there being about thirteen miles remaining undone on the twenty-second of November.
The starting point for this line was carefully established in accord- ance with the first conveyance to the Holland Land Company, at a point in the line between Pennsylvania and New York twelve miles west from the eighty-second mile stone. Running north from that point the line was found to pass through the Cotringer, Ogden, and Cragie tracts about two miles east from their west boundaries as de- scribed in their deeds ; but their titles were of a later date than the con -
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LANDMARKS OF
veyance to the Holland Company, and no deviation from the meridian was made.
At the south line of the Hundred Thousand Acre or Connecticut Tract, the title to which was prior to that of the Holland Land Com- pany's land, the meridian was found to cross that line at a point 166 chains and thirty links east from the southwest corner of the tract. It was necessary, therefore, to remove the position of the meridian that distance to the west, which was done, and the line was continued to Lake Ontario. The point in the transit line where this removal was made is in the twelfth township and first range, in the present town of Stafford.
The celebrated "Holland Land Company," which has been blessed and cursed, besought for favors and denounced for refusal, as much perhaps as any other institution in America, had its origin in the pur- chase before mentioned from Robert Morris of all the land lying west of the transit line, excepting the Indian reservations, amounting to about 3,600,000 acres. The purchase was made in 1792 and 1793, by agents of the following persons, merchants and capitalists of Amster- dam, Holland : Wilhelm Willink, Jan Willink, Nicholas Van Staphorst, Jacob Van Staphorst, Nicholas Hubbard, Pieter Van Eeghen, Christian Van Eeghen, Isaac Ten Cate, Hendrick Vollenhoven, Christiana Cos- ter (a widow), Jan Stadnetski, and Rutger Jan Schimmelpennick. In a legal sense there was never a Holland Company or a Holland Land Company. It was simply an association of individuals for business purposes.
The Indian title to the land in question was extinguished in 1797, and early in 1798 the New York Legislature authorized those aliens to hold land within the State, and in the latter part of that year the American trustees conveyed the Holland Purchase to the real owners. It was transferred, however, to two sets of proprietors, and one of these sets was soon divided into two, making three in all. Each set held its tract as joint tenants; that is, the survivors took the whole. The shares could not be the subject of will nor sale, and did not pass by in- heritance except in case of the last survivor. But there was no incor- poration and no legal company. All deeds were made in the name of the individual proprietors. The three sets of owners appointed the same
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