Landmarks of Oswego County, New York, Part 6

Author: Churchill, John Charles, 1821-1905; Smith, H. P. (Henry Perry), 1839-1925; Child, W. Stanley
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1410

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DE FRONTENAC AGAIN GOVERNOR.

The vengeance of the Iroquois was swift, the other nations joining the Senecas for the purpose. In the next year a large body of warriors started for the Canadian settlements, probably by the usual route down the Oswego, along the lake and down the St. Lawrence. They fell upon the Island of Montreal like demons, destroyed everything of value in their way, and reached the very gates of the city. The French were forced to abandon Forts Frontenac and Niagara, and it seemed as if their day of power was at an end.

During all of these operations of De la Barre and De Nonville, the animosity between the French and the English was constantly gaining strength, as shown by the reports. In the year under consideration (1688) a revolution placed William of Orange on the English throne, and war promptly followed with France. The Indian allies of the lat- ter were almost powerless against the dreaded Iroquois, who harassed the settlements of Canada until the French realized that if more thorough measures were not adopted they were lost.

In 1689 Count de Frontenac, whose former management of the colony had been so effective, was again sent over as governor of New France. He was an old man, but vigorous, brave and capable, and the flagging spirits of the people soon revived. Failing in his first efforts to negotiate peace with the Iroquois, he opened a vigorous campaign ; burned Schenectady on the night of February 9, 1690; defended Mon- treal against attack by Major Peter Schuyler, of New York ; and at all points vigorously served his country's interests. But it was a losing cause ; the French were prevented from tilling their ground, and from reaping what was sown; the fur trade was stopped by the Indians, who took possession of the passes between them and their allies in the west ; famine came on, and in June, 1692, the Iroquois entered into a formal treaty of alliance and friendship with Governor Ingoldsby, of

fly. All our troops were so overpowered by the extreme heat and the hard day's work that we were obliged to bivouac on the field until the morrow. On the next day we marched to one of the large villages where we encamped. We found it burned and a fort which was very advan- tageously situated on a hill quite nigh, abandoned. . . We learned from the prisoners who had deserted, that the Senecas had gone to the English, where they will not be allowed to want for anything necessary to make war upon us. Since that time I have had no news of the enemy .- [De Nonville's letter, Col. History, vol. III, p. 338.

The destruction in 1687 of the Indian corn belonging to the Senecas, subjected them to but a small amount of inconvenience. Not one of them perished of hunger, as two arrows are sufficient to enable a Savage to procure meat enough for a year's support, and as fishing never fails .- [Capt. Duplessis' Plan for the Defence of Canada, Col. History, vol. III, p. 447.

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

New York. In his desperation, Frontenac organized a raid against the Mohawks in January, 1693, but its cost to him outweighed its ad- vantages. After nearly two years spent in vain efforts to negotiate peace with the Iroquois, Frontenac saw that his only safety lay in war, and he prepared to act accordingly. In 1695 he sent a strong force to repair and garrison the fort at the outlet of Lake Ontario, which bore his name, and which had been abandoned and destroyed by the order De Nonville ; it was a work of great importance for the protection of the fur trade. In the summer of 1696 the veteran soldier made exten- sive preparations to invade the Onondagas, the central nation of the Iroquois, where he hoped to strike a blow that would humble the spirits of the red men and serve as the opening wedge to rend the con- federacy in pieces. Assembling all the regular troops and the militia of the colony under the banners of France, together with the Indians near the settlements and all the western Indians he could muster, he embarked from the south end of the Island of Montreal, July 4, 1696, with his force and two large bateaux carrying two small cannon, with mortars, grenades, ammunition, etc. Twelve days took the army to Fort Frontenac, 180 miles from Montreal, and twelve more brought them to the mouth of the Oswego River. There they encamped over night and then began their slow ascent of the turbulent stream. Fifty scouts threaded the forest on either side of the river, close by the banks of which the main body marched. It was tedious work pushing the large bateaux up the current, and it was the second day before Oswego Falls was reached. Here a pathway was cut out around the falls and the portage was made. When Count de Frontenac was about to disembark to walk around the falls the enthusiastic Indians seized his canoe and with him sitting in it bore it over the portage, while the forest resounded with their yells Some of the battalions did not pass the portage till the next day, after which ten miles were made. When near Three Rivers they found a rude representation of the army made on bark, probably left by some of the Iroquois as a warning to others, and accompanied by two bundles of rushes, to signify that the invading army was a numerous one. Coming on up the stream, the whole flotilla finally entered Onondaga Lake, whence they advanced to the village.1

1 It must have been a gallant sight to behold this warlike pageant floating on that lovely water, surrounded by the lofty hills and unbroken forest which for the first time had now displayed

CHIEF RESULT OF FRONTENAC'S FORAY.

Scouts now reported that trails had been discovered leading towards the country of the Oneidas, and it was inferred that the Onondagas had sent away their women and children. The fact was, the whole nation almost had fled, leaving the French a barren victory. The capture of prisoners was confined to a "lame" girl, "found under a tree, and her life was spared. An old man, also taken prisoner, did not experience the same fate." Count Frontenac, with his accustomed cruelty, permitted his Indians to torture the old man to death. M. de Vaudreuil, with a detachment, continued to the Oneida village, near which they met deputies from the nation, who sued for peace; but their village was burned and their crops destroyed, and the same fate awaited the village and crops of the Onondagas.

On the IIth of August the entire army started on their return and encamped below the Falls: by ten o'clock of the next day the rapid current of the river had taken them to its mouth. Here they were detained until the 14th by a gale, and on the 15th continued to Fort Frontenac.

It would seem to have been a part of the plan of the Almighty that this country should not pass under French dominion, but should be preserved for the descendants of the Pilgrims and the English immi- grants who came after them; for the principal consequence of this attempt by the French to conquer the Indians and thus to greatly extend their own domain and influence, was to more closely bind the Indians to the English, who took prompt steps to supply them with corn and other necessaries for the succeeding winter. The only known relic of the invaders' march through Oswego county, found by the set- tlers, was a tree which was cut down near Oswego Falls about 1809, deep down in the body of which was found an old " blaze " into which had been fired a number of musket balls. The blaze was overlaid by 112

their beauty and grandeur to an invading army. It must have been sublime to see the veterans who had served under Turenne, Vauban, and the great Conde, marshaled with pike and cuirass, side by side with the half naked Hurons and Abenaquis ; while gay and youthful cavaliers, in the tawdry garb of the court of the magnificent Louis, moved with towering plume and flowing mantle amid the dusky files of the wampum-decked Utowas and Algonquins. Banners were there which had been unfolded at Steenkirk and Louden, and rustled above the troopers that Luxem- burgh's trumpets had guided to glory, when Prince Waldeck's legions were borne down beneath his furious charge. Nor was the enemy which this gallant host was seeking, unworthy those whose swords had been tried in some of the hardest fought fields of Europe .- [Hoffman, 7

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

circles, indicating that it was cut in the year of Frontenac's invasion, and had been used by the soldiers as a target.

The peace under the treaty of Ryswick (1697) succeeded the opera- tions we have described, and the French king, who had espoused the cause of James II, acknowledged William of Orange king of Great Brit- ain and Ireland. Inter-colonial war ceased for a long time in this coun- try, and during the following twenty-five years, little occurred in which Oswego county was intimately concerned. By the terms of the treaty, the English were not to afford the Iroquois any aid to make war on the French, and the French hoped and expected that the latter would sue for peace. A treaty of neutrality was negotiated by Chevalier de Cal- lières August 4, 1701, at Montreal, between the Iroquois and the north- ern allies, which gave great satisfaction to the French king.1 The Jes- uits promptly took advantage of the peaceful conditions, and the waters of the Oswego and the Seneca often bore their canoes southward, while the forests echoed their prayers and hymns. They were very active in establishing and promoting missions among the Five Nations, a course which gave such offense to the government of the province, that an act was passed by the Colonial Assembly in 1700, requiring every " ecclesiastical person receiving his ordination from the Pope or See of Rome," then residing in the province, to depart from it before the 15th of November, under penalty of death.

What is known as Queen Anne's war broke out in Europe in 1702, and continued until 1713, when it ended with the treaty of Utrecht, which conceded the control of the Iroquois to the English. But not- withstanding this treaty, and the treaty made by the French between the northern Indians and the Iroquois which we have mentioned, the latter nation soon began encroaching on the French and provoking hostility, in which conduct they were stimulated to some extent, with- out a doubt, by the English. Peace under the then existing conditions was impossible. But for several years little occurred with which these pages need be cumbered.

Meanwhile the English and the Dutch, with renewed energy, push-

1 I have learned with great joy that his Majesty has been satisfied with the peace I concluded last year with the Five Iroquois Nations, and with that I have procured for our Indian allies .- [Letter from Chevalier de Callieres to the French court, November 4, 1702 .- Doc. Col. Hist., vol. IX, p. 736.

. FRENCH AND ENGLISH BICKERINGS.

ed their trade farther and farther into the Indian country north of the lakes. The important question of boundaries had been left by the Utrecht treaty largely undefined, a circumstance that led to endless cor- respondence, complaints and recriminations from both sides, and ere long it began to be apparent that harmony between the French and the English would never be permanent. In 1720 the French established a post at Niagara, which is spoken of in a report of Messrs. De Vaudreuil and Begon (October 26, 1720,) as "required to prevent the English in- troducing themselves into the Upper country, and to increase the trade at Fort Frontenac; "1 and they sent a delegate to Niagara with a store of goods for trade. Gov. William Burnet, of New York, protested against this action, and complained that "the French flag has been hoisted in one of the Seneca castles." He considered this an " ill ob- servance of the articles of the Peace of Utrecht." 2

To counteract the encroachments of the French, Governor Burnet established some kind of a temporary trading station on Irondequoit Bay in 1721, but it probably remained but a short time.3 Meanwhile the New York Provincial Legislature passed a law forbiding the supply of Indian goods to the French. This act seriously affected the New York importers, as well as crippled the French, who could not obtain their goods so cheaply from any other source. In retaliation the French incited the northern Indians to drive the English from their country. "Since the close of October, 1723," wrote De Vaudreuil (November, 1724), " the Abenakis did not cease harassing the English with a view to force them to quit their country." 4

We come now to the establishment of a post at Chouaguen (Oswego), information concerning which reached De Vaudreuil and was by him conveyed to France in May, 1725. In his letter he said: "That he he had received the advice the 8th of December (1724) that the Eng- lish and the Dutch had projected an establishment at the mouth of the

1 Doc. Col. Hist., vol. IX. p. 897.

2 Letter 24th August, to M. Vaudreuil, Doc. Col. Hist., vol. IX, p. 901.

3 That I might improve their [the Indians] present good humor to the best advantage I have employed the five hundred pounds granted this year by the Assembly chiefly to the erecting and encouraging a settlement at Tirandaquet, a creek on the Lake Ontario about sixty miles on this side of Niagara whither there have actually gone a company of ten persons with the approbation of our Indians .- [Burnet to the Board of Trade, Oct. 16, 1721.

4 Doc. Col. Hist., vol. IX, p. 936.

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY. .

River Chouaguen, . . on soil always considered as belonging to France." This news appeared more important to him as he "felt the difficulty of preserving the post of Niagara where there is no fort, should the English once fortify Chouaguen; and that in losing Niagara the colony is lost, and at the same time all the trade with the upper coun- try Indians."1

M. de Vaudreuil proceeded to Montreal in March, where the report of the intentions of the English was confirmed. He then made an abortive attempt to induce the Iroquois to threaten war if the post was established, sending for this purpose M. de Longueuil among the Indians and thence to Oswego, as we may properly hereafter call this place. De Longueuil was instructed, " should he find them [the English] set- tled at Chouaguen, to summon them to retire on their own territory until their limits should be settled, failing which he should adopt proper measures to constrain them."2 De Longueuil wrote M. Begon, May 9, 1725, from Fort Frontenac, that "there was no trading post as yet at Chouaguen ;3 but on October 31, M. Begon reported that De Longueuil had by that time 4 " found 100 English at the portage of the river, four leagues from Lake Ontario,5 with more than sixty canoes ; that they made him show his passport, and showed him an order from the gov- ernor of New York not to allow any Frenchman to go by without a passport." De Longueuil reproached the Iroquois chiefs who were present, and so stirred their feelings against the English that they promised to remain neutral in case of another war. Going on to the Onondaga village, De Longueuil obtained the consent of the Indians to the construction of a stone house at Niagara and two barks, all of which were built and finished in 1726. in the course of his voyage to Niagara, De Longueuil met more than 100 canoes loaded with peltry going to the English.

On the 25th of July, 1726, M. de Longueuil wrote that he had given orders to his son, then in command at Niagara, " not to return until

' Doc. Col. Hist., vol. IX, p. 950.

2 Doc. Col. Hist., vol. IX, p. 950.

3 Doc. Col. Hist., vol. IX, p. 951.

4 Doc. Col. Hist., vol. IX, p. 952.

5 This is about the first mention of the name of "Ontario" as applied to the lake, it having previously been called variously-Skanadario, Cataracqui, Conty, and Frontenac. The word On- tario is supposed to signify " beautiful water."

ERECTION OF FORT BY BURNET.

the English and Dutch retire from Chouaguen, where they have been all summer to the number of 300 men, and should he meet their canoes on the lake, to plunder them." In September the younger De Lon- gueuil reported that there were then no more English at Oswego, along the lake nor in the river.

The vacillations in fealty of the Iroquois between the French and the English is indicated by the pledge made to the French mentioned above, and by the cession to the latter, in 1726, by sachems of the Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas, in a deed of trust, of lands ex- tending in a belt sixty miles wide and in length from Caynunghage (Salmon River) all along Lake Ontario, the Niagara River, and " the Lake Oswego,"1 to the creek called Canahogué, (probably Cuyahoga). The eastern line of this enormous tract passed southward from Salmon Creek about through the middle of Oswego county, leaving its eastern half in possession of the Oneidas.

From this time onward Oswego was the theatre of events the record of which occupies a conspicuous place in the history of the country. On the 9th of May, 1726, Governor Burnet wrote the Board of Trade :

I have this spring sent up workmen to build a stone house of strength at a place called Oswego, at the mouth of the Onnondage river where our principal Trade with the far Nations is carried on. I have obtained the consent of the Six Nations [the Tus- caroras had been taken into the Confederacy several years before] to build it, and having intelligence that a party of French of ninety men were going up towards Niagara I suspected that they might have orders to interrupt this work, and therefore I have sent up a detachment of sixty Souldiers with a Captain and two Lieutenants, to protect the building from any disturbance that any French or Indians may offer to it. There are besides about two hundred traders now at the same place, who are all armed as militia, and ready to join in defense of the Building and their Trade, in case they are attacked. . My Lord Bellomont formerly intended to build a Fort by King William's order near this place, and it went so far that even plate and furniture for a chappel there, were sent over from England, but the design was laid by upon his death, and has never been resumed since 'till now.2

The building of this structure and consequent rapid development of the

1 Lake Erie seems to have been called "Oswego" at one period (given as "Okswego" on Colden's map in the History of the Five Nations). Whether the name sprang up simultaneously, or nearly so, in the different localities, or whether it was applied to the mouth of Oswego River, from one of its attributed meanings, " flowing water," and to the lake from another, " boundless water," is very uncertain.

2 This latter statement may account for the first publication and various repetitions of the statement that the fort at Oswego was begun in 1722, which is an error, as clearly shown.

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

fur trade displeased the French exceedingly. The trading cabins of the Dutch and English multiplied along the river, and the great importance of the post in relation to its situation as an outlet for all the Iroquois nations became more and more apparent. Speaking of this fort, Gov- ernor Burnet wrote the Board of Trade: "I depend upon its being of the best use of anything that has ever been undertaken on that side, either to preserve our own Indians in our Interest, or to promote and fix a constant Trade with the remote Indians."

The Marquis de Beauharnois, who was then governor general of Canada, took Governor Burnet to task for his work at Oswego. Under date of July 20, 1727, he wrote:

I cannot avoid observing to you my surprise at the permission which you have given to the English merchants to carry on a trade at the River of Oswego, and that you have ordered a Redoubt with Galleries and full of Loop holes and other works belonging to fortifications, to be built at the Mouth of that River, in which you have placed a Garri- son of Regular troops. I look, Sir, upon the Settlements you are beginning and pretending to make at the Entrance of the Lake Ontario into the River of Oswego, the fortifications that you have made there, and the Garrison that you have posted there, as a manifest infraction of the Treaty of Utrecht.1

The letter from which we are quoting was sent by a messenger, and the marquis further adds:

I send away at the same time a Major to summon the Officer who commands at Oswego, to retire with his Garrison and other persons who are there, to demolish the fortifications and other works, and to evacuate entirely that post and to retire home.

In a letter to Beauharnois and Dupuy, Louis XV wrote; " Sieur de Beauharnois must always have in view the expulsion of the English from their fort on the River Choueguen."2

The old question of boundaries was not yet settled and it was the source of all this difficulty. The place was now seen to be of such vast importance that each side determined to possess it. In reply to the fore- going Burnet reproached the Frenchman for not awaiting a reply before sending a summons to Oswego demanding evacuation. He also asserted that the English had carried on unmolested trade for five years at and near the disputed ground, and therefore he had a right

1 Doc. Hist., vol. IX, p. 969.

2 Letter May 14, 1726, Doc. Hist., vol. IX, p. 958.

CHARGES OF MISMANAGEMENT.

to protect and continue the business. "I think myself obliged," he wrote, "to maintain the Post of Oswego, till I receive new orders from the King my Master." And the post was maintained.

Meanwhile Beauharnois had submitted proposals, early in 1727, to the French government to build "a house and fort at the mouth of the River Chouaguen, so as to prevent ingress and egress into Lake Ontario." 1 Concerning these proposals Louis XV wrote his min- ister April 29, 1727: "The attempts of the English to form an estab- lishment at that point, and the considerable amount of trade they have driven there these last years, to the prejudice of the com- merce of the Colony and that of Niagara and Fort Frontenac, renders it necessary to anticipate them," continuing with his reasons for such action. He then adds: "All these reasons would have determined his Majesty, from the moment, to order the erection of this fort and house, were he not convinced of the impropriety of undertaking so many things at once." 2

Still, though several times on the apparent verge of actual hostilities, the two powers remained in nominal peace until 1744. During all this period of sixteen years the post at Oswego was kept up by the English with a small garrison, and some improvements were made in the works. The Journal of the Assembly, of May 23, 1741, contains the following:

Resolved, That there be allowed a sum not exceeding the sum of six hundred pounds, to and for erecting a sufficient stone Wall, at a proper distance, round the Trading House at Oswego, either in a Triangular or Quadrangular Form, as the Ground will best admit of, with a Bastion or Block House in each Corner, to flank the Curtains, which are to be single for the Accommodation of Men, if need be.3

As in public affairs in these later days of ours, there were frequent complaints of mismanagement, extravagance, etc., at the post. In 1733 a petition signed by nearly fifty traders was sent to the governor, claim- ing that the commander of the garrison had laid improper restrictions on trade, and the Assembly requested the governor to appoint a com- petent man, who was conversant with the Indian trade and language, to live at Oswego as superintendent. Moreover, on November 1, 1736, Governor Clarke wrote the commander at Oswego as follows:

1 Letter of Louis XV to Beauharnois, Doc. Col. Hist., vol. IX, p. 955.

2 Ibid.

3 Doc. Hist , vol. I, p 463.

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

Sir-I am sorry to hear so many complaints of your conduct at Oswego. I hope for better things, but am now in fear, if some better care be not taken, that the Garrison will all desert or perish for want of provision of which I am told there is no manner of Economy ; it behooves you, sir, to be very circumspect, and I earnestly recommend to you, to keep good dissipline, and to take care of the provisions and of the security of the house and garrison.1

And again, August 20, 1742, the governor wrote the Board of Trade:

My Lords-If the loss of Oswego (which I much fear will fall into the hands of the French on the first rupture) does not stagger the best resolutions of the Six Nations, who at present fear more than they love the French; that Fortress, or rather Trading house, for it is no better, is in a very defenceless condition, the Garrison consists of but a Lieutenant, Serjeant, Corporal and 20 men. It is and has been without ammunition, the Assembly refusing to be at the expense, as well as to make provision for victualling a larger Garrison.2

He then complains of the character of the work on the wall before mentioned, saying : "As it is managed it is a jobb calculated rather to put money in the Pockets of those who have the management of the business, than any real service to the publick."

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Landmarks of Oswego County, New York, Part 6

Author: Churchill, John Charles, 1821-1905; Smith, H. P. (Henry Perry), 1839-1925; Child, W. Stanley Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason Number of Pages: 1410

Author: Churchill, John Charles, 1821-1905; Smith, H. P. (Henry Perry), 1839-1925; Child, W. Stanley
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1410