USA > New York > Wayne County > Landmarks of Wayne County, New York, Pt. 1 > Part 2
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Wayne county contains 356,513 acres of land, of which about 275,000 acres are improved.
At the time of the first settlement of this locality by white men, the streams of the county abounded with fish. Salmon ran up Salmon Creek and other streams in great numbers, and they added much to the food supply of the pioneers. The land was covered with a thick forest, principally of hard wood trees, such as oak, hickory, beech, birch and maple, with some soft woods on the low lands. The cutting away of these forests by the pioneers was a task of great magnitude; but it gave them a source of cash income at a time when there was almost no other, through the manufacture of potash from the ashes of the burned logs, and in later years from the timber and fire-wood. The forests were filled with wild animals-deer, bears, wolves, all of which were
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numerous, with such smaller animals as the beaver in very early years, the raccoon, hedgehog, squirrels, etc. While the bears and wolves were destructive of domestic animals, they with the numerous deer furnished an ever-ready source of food to the settlers.
CHAPTER II.
Indian Occupation of Western New York-Treatment of Indians by White Men- Relation of the Indians to Wayne County-The Jesuits and their Work-Local Operations in the War of the Revolution-Indian Remains.
The first white man who penetrated the wilderness which once covered what is now the State of New York, found its northern and western parts inhabited and dominated by nations of that remarkable race of copper-colored people whom we call Indians-in reality the native Americans. The question whence they originated is shrouded in mystery and so must remain; but we well know whither they are going. Unnumbered ages hence their disappearance from the earth may be enveloped in the deep oblivion that now hides their origin.
The detailed history of this race cannot be followed in this volume, nor is it desirable that it should be; for it is writ upon the glowing pages of the past by many gifted pens. As to the right or wrong of their conquest and rapidly approaching extinction, wise men differ. At the foundation of the question is the fact that in the world's history, civilization must advance at whatever cost to the uncivilized; the ignorant must go down before the educated; the weak before the strong; might, if not always right, will triumph. If the Indians with their undisciplined passions fired by the white man's rum, armed with the guns placed in their hands in exchange for valuable furs at a ten- fold profit, driven from their hunting grounds when no longer a source of gain to the invaders-if they finally retaliated and committed bar_ barities, the record of which fills the pages of history with horror, what else should have been expected? The fact remains that there is not an instance on record where the natives did not receive the first visit of the white man with hospitality and kindness. We may well, there- fore, give a thought to what it was that produced the great change in 2
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the attitude of the Indian towards his Caucasian superior. The former never desired to part with his lands; and the latter stole what he could not buy. 1 The Indians retaliated by murdering the thieves. With Champlain shooting with his terrorizing gunpowder upon the guileless Iroquois in 1609 on the lake that bears his name ;? with the sancti- monious Jesuits beguiling the natives to secure their allegiance-and their furs-for France; with the sagacious Dutch following Hendrick Hudson up the great river that bears his name, within a year or two after Champlain killed his first Indian a little farther north; and with the English landing on the Atlantic shores a few years later, to hood- wink the natives out of their lands-with all this going on it is scarcely a marvel that the gradually aroused Indians became revengful. The correspondence of that lifelong friend of the Indians, Sir William Johnson, with his superiors, is one long catalogue of remonstrances against the wrongs of every kind to which the natives were subjected.
The Iroquois Indians, as they were first called by the French, known as the Five Nations (subsequently the Six Nations) by the English, were established across the State of New York beginning with the Mohawks on the east, with the Oneidas (with whom the Tuscaroras were subsequently practically amalgamated), the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas next, in the order named. What is now Erie county, and contiguous territory on the west and north, was oc- cupied by a nation called by the French the Neuter Nation, from the fact that they endeavored to and generally did, remain at peace with
' As late as July. 1755, an Iroquois chief, in addressing Sir William Johnson, said: "Brother you desire us to unite and live together and draw all our allies near us; but we shall have no land left either for ourselves or them, for your people when they buy a small piece of land of us, by stealing make it large. We desire such things may not be done, and that your people may not be suffered to buy any more of our lands. Sometimes it is sought of two men who are not the proper owners of it. The land which reaches down from Oswego to Schanandowana (Wyoming) we beg may not be settled by Christians. The governor of Pennsylvania bought a whole tract and only paid for half, and we desire that you will let him know that we will not part with the other half, but keep it." This seems a reasonable speech for a savage, regarding what he believed to be his own property; and even an Indian is likely to fight when he is robbed.
2 The moment they saw me they halted, gazing at me and I at them. I raised my arquebus, and aiming directly at one of the three chiefs, two of them fell to the ground by this shot; one of their companions received a wound of which he died afterwards. I had put four balls in my arquebus. The Iroquois were greatly aston- ished seeing two men killed so instantaneously. - From Champlain's Journal.
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the warlike Eries, still farther west, and the Iroquois on the east, until they were all finally subdued by the latter, long before the coming of white men. From that time onward until the natives were conquered by the new comers the Iroquois roamed over a large part of the country, conquering and triumphant, lords of the soil that bore them.
As far as relates to the territory of which this work is to treat, it was shared alike by the Cayugas in its eastern part, and by the Senecas in the western part. "The Cayugas possessed the country between the Onondagas and the Senecas. It was laved on the north by Lake On- tario, and stretched southward about ninety miles. It contained all of the county of Seneca, the easterly half of Wayne, and western parts of Cayuga and Tompkins. Their main stations were on the east and west sides of Cayuga Lake a little south of the outlet. Canoga, their chief town, was on the east side of the lake. Here they had a castle."1 The Senecas possessed the whole country to the westward indefinitely.
Among these nations of Indians came that remarkable order of French religious enthusiasts to convert them to Catholicism and secure their fealty to the French crown. From 1611 to towards the close of that century, priests of that order came over to Montreal and from there penetrated all sections of what is now Northern and Central New York, enduring almost unparalleled privations and often suffering death in the cause. They were the discoverers of the Onondaga Salt Springs and taught the natives how to boil the water to obtain the coveted article .: In some instances they appear to have made religious impres- sions upon the Indians, but with little permanent results toward civiliz- ing them. . With La Salle, in 1669, came two of the Jesuit missionaries, De Casson and De Galinee. The party landed on the 10th of August at the mouth of Irondequoit Bay. Father Chaumonot, who labored among the Onondagas, had been in this region thirteen years earlier. In November, 1668, the Senecas sent to Montreal a request that a mission be established among them. Father Fremin came on promptly and found a pestilence raging among the nation, and called Father Garnier from the Onondagas to his aid. Fremin established himself in what is now Ontario county four miles southeast from Victor, and there founded the Mission of St. Michael. He labored there until 1671, while Garnier founded the Mission of St. James, also in what is now Victor, and remained until 1683.
! History of the State of New York, James Macauley, 1829, Vol. II, p. 300.
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It is not known that the Jesuits had a mission or a station in what is now Wayne county. It is extremely probable that they did not. But it is just as probable that their boats often landed on the shores of Sodus Bay, and possibly at other points along the present shore line of the county. With the decline of the French power and its final extinc- tion, the Jesuits were driven from the country, and were succeeded throughout the State by English missionaries, chief among whom was the Rev. Samuel Kirkland, who labored long among the Senecas and Cayugas. But it cannot be said that all the religious labor and sacri- fice that has been expended upon the Indians of the country has accom- plished much good. The Indian had his religion and his deity, the "Great Spirit," and it has been easier for the white man to exterminate, than to convert him.
As far as relates to the immediate territory of which this work treats, it almost or quite wholly escaped the effects of the wars which at various times during more than one hundred and fifty years, were pros- ecuted between the French, the English and the Indians. Here the Senecas and the Cayugas trod the deep forest in quest of game, or followed the trails to and from the great lake; but as far as known no conflict occurred in this immediate region. While the Mohawks and other eastern nations of the Iroquious were, as a rule, loyal to the English, or neutral, in the long struggle with France, the power of the French constantly increased for many years among the Senecas; but in spite of this the French never obtained a firm foothold in what is now New York State. The English arms, allied with the greater part of the Iroquois, prevented such a result. With equal facility had France, England, and Spain as well, parceled out vast provinces in the new world. The French established a fortified trading post on the Niagara River in 1683-4, but it was captured for the English under Sir William Johnson in 1759, and surrendered to the United States in 1796, several years after the close of the Revolutionary War. In 1729 a trading post was built on the site of Oswego, under the administration of the colo- nial government of New York, and five years later it was strengthened into a considerable fortification. The place was captured by the French in 1756, and destroyed. The works were rebuilt in 1758 by the English, and continued in their possession until 1799. Bloody wars continued until the final extinction of French power in 1763. There was strife from the beginning to gain the fealty of the Indians. They were not only extremely useful as fighters for either power, but their friendship
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was equally desirable for purposes of trade. (Of course they were regularly swindled by either party towards which they leaned. )
When the Revolutionary War broke out and England was to be taught that there were some small portions of the earth whose people would not submit to practical slavery, the provincials held a council with chiefs of the Six Nations at German Flats (now in Herkimer county) and secured from the Indians a promise that they would remain neutral through that struggle. But through the influence of the Johnsons and other prominent tories the Iroquois, with the exception of the Oneidas and Tuscaroras, violated their pledge and adhered to the English cause through the war. The barbarities of the tories and Indians in the Mohawk Valley and elsewhere in this State, are too familiar to need attention here. To punish the Indians, and especially the Senecas, and to capture Fort Niagara, Sullivan's expedition was organized in 1779. Under that general a large force met the enemy near the site of Elmira and defeated them with great loss. Thence northward through the country of the Senecas the victorious Americans marched, destroying villages by the score and all other property belonging to the natives. Although not many of the Senecas were killed after the first battle, they were thoroughly humbled and frightened into submission. Abandoning from that time their villages east of the Genesee River, they settled down near Geneseo, Mount Morris and other points in Western New York.
Indian relies and remains have been found in various parts of Central and Western New York, many of them merely indicating the former presence of the natives, while others of more permanent character, point to a very remote period of antiquity and to the possession of characteristics by their former owners differing in considerable degree from those of the Indians with whom the white men first became familiar. An account of these remains would be out of place in these pages, and the reader is referred to the various works on that and allied subjects which are to be found in every library. As far as relates to the territory of Wayne county, nothing has been found to lead to the belief that it was more than a part of the transient hunting grounds of the Cayugas and the Senecas, or that it was ever the site of a permanent Indian village.
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CHAPTER III.
Early Conditions in Western New York-Sketches of the "Genesee Country" and the Phelps and Gorham Purchase-The Pre-emption Lines-Organization of Com- panies to Secure Lands in Western New York-A Very Extensive "Mill Yard"-The Morris Reserve-The Military Tract as Related to Wayne County.
As we have before pointed out, the larger part of what is now Wayne county, formerly constituted the northeastern corner of the great county of Ontario; while the larger part of the remainder of the county's territory lay in the northwest corner of the military tract. The territory of the county also formed a small part of that compara- tively vast and largely undefined section of the State long popularly known as "The Genesee Country," celebrated alike for its beauty and its fertility. Moreover, that part of the present county west of the new pre-emption line (see outline map) was the northeastern corner of the great Phelps and Gorham purchase. A brief description of these several divisions becomes pertinent to our purpose.
Previous to the Revolution little was known in Eastern New York and New England, of the western part of the State. During the twenty-four years while it was in possession of the English, communi- cation had been kept open between western posts and the east by water via Niagara and Oswego. Through this channel and, possibly, from reports of the missionary, Samuel Kirkland, some slight knowl- edge of the afterwards famous locality reached eastward.
Sullivan's campaign in 1779, directly into the heart of the Genesee country, gave it a wider fame. There were many soldiers and officers in his army who were eagerly watching for a desirable locality in which to settle when their services in the field were ended; and they were quick to discover the attractions of Central New York. "Returning to the firesides of Eastern New York and New England, they relieved the dark picture of retaliatory warfare-the route, the fighting, smouldering cabins, pillage and spoliation --- with the lighter shades- descriptions of the lakes and rivers, the rolling uplands and rich val-
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leys -- the Canaan of the wilderness they had seen."1 Less than four years after Sullivan's expedition, the war closed and the restive and ambitious American spirit began its westward progress.
In the rather reckless division and gathering of the new world by European powers before their claims to it were fully established, the English king granted to the Massachusetts Colony a section of territory larger, propably, than his entire landed possessions, the boundaries of which grant neither he nor the colonists were then able to define. In brief, the territory chartered extended from the southern bounds of the colony to the northern, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean ; but what the distance was between the two oceans no one then knew. To further complicate the situation, the king afterwards chartered to New York a section of the same territory previously granted to Mas- sachusetts. When the Revolutionary War ended and it became there- by wholly unimportant to the English monarch what should be the destiny of the country which he had claimed, abused, and lost, the thrifty Massachusetts colonists urged the validity of their rights as against New York; but a compromise was effected by a Board of Com- missioners on the 16th of December, 1786, which gave to New York the sovereignty of all the disputed territory within her chartered limits, at the same time giving Massachusetts title in the soil, or the right to buy the soil from the Indians, who were then in actual possession (the pre-emption right), embracing all the territory lying west of a line be- ginning at a point in the north line of the State of Pennsylvania, eighty- two miles west from the northeast corner of that State, and running due north through Seneca Lake, and on the north to Lake Ontario, excepting a strip one mile wide along Niagara River. Massachusetts was given also the pre-emption right to a tract of 230, 400 acres between the Owego and the Chenango Rivers; this was equal to ten townships, each six miles square, and became known as "The Massachusetts Ten Towns." The north and south line above mentioned was nearly identi- cal with the cast lines of Steuben and Ontario counties, and its north- ern continuation is shown on the outline map herein as "The Old Pre- emption Line." The following account of the two "pre-emption lines," shown on the accompanying map, we transcribe from Turner's Phelps and Gorham's Purchase :
Of course it was mere conjecture where this pre-emption line would fall as far . north as Seneca Lake, and parties were interested to have the line fall west of
1 'Turner.
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OUTLINE MAP OF WAYNE COUNTY, SHOWING THE OLD AND THE NEW PRE-EMPTION LINES.
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Geneva, leaving that place and a considerable tract of land between the military tract and the Massachusetts lands. Seth Reed and Peter Ryckman, both of whom had been Indian traders, applied to the State of New York for remuneration for ser- vices rendered in some previous negotiations, with the eastern portion of the Six Nations, and proposed to take a patent for a tract the boundaries of which should be- gin at a tree on the bank of Seneca Lake and run along the bank of the lake to the south until they should have 16,000 acres between the lake and the east bounds of the lands ceded to Massachusetts. Their request was acceded to and a patent issued. Thus situated they proposed to Messrs. Phelps and Gorham to join them in running the pre-emption line, each party furnishing a surveyor. The line was run which is known as the old pre-emption line. Messrs. Phelps and Gorham were much disap- pointed in the result-suspected error or fraud, but made no movement to a resurvey before they had sold to the English association. Their suspicions had at first been excited by an offer from a prominent member of the lessee company for "all the lands they owned east of the line that had been run." They were so well assured of the fact that in their deed to Mr. Morris they specified a tract in a gore between the line then run, and the west bounds of the counties of Montgomery and Tioga, those counties then embracing all of the military tract. Being fully convinced of the inac- curacy of the first survey, Morris, in his sale to the English company, agreed to run it anew. They new survey was performed under the superintendence of Major Hoops, who employed Andrew Ellicott and Augustus Porter to perform the labor. A corps of axe-men were employed, and a vista thirty feet wide opened before the transit instrument until the line had reached the head of Seneca Lake, when night signals were employed to run down and over the lake. So much pains were taken to insure correctness that the survey was never disputed; and thus the "new pre- emption line" was established as the true division line between the lands of the State of New York and those that had been ceded to Massachusetts. The old pre- emption line terminated on Lake Ontario, three miles west of Sodus Bay, and the new line very near the center of the head of the bay. The strip of land be- tween the two lines was called "The Gore." In addition to the patent granted to Reed and Ryckman, the State had presumed the original survey to be correct, and made other grants, and allowed the location of military land warrants upon what had been made disputed territory. As an equivalent to the purchasers of this tract, com- pensation lands were granted by the State in the present towns of Wolcott and Galen, in Wayne county.
The foregoing interesting description of the two pre-emption lines has taken us a little out of the chronological order of events. Previous to the establishment of the second pre-emption line, a com- bination, or a syndicate, as it would now be termed, was formed in New York and Canada to obtain control of the Indian lands in this State. Two companies were organized-"The New York and and Genesee Land Company," of which John Livingston was manager; 'and the "Niagara Genesee Company," composed chiefly of Canadians, with Col. John Butler at his head. As the State Constitution forbade 3
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the sale of Indian lands to individuals, these companies, working in harmony, sought to evade the provision by a lease. So great was the influence of Butler and his friends that in 1787 representatives of the Indians gave the New York and Genesee Company a lease of all their lands (excepting some small reservations) for a period of 999 years. The consideration was $20,000 and an annual rental of $2,000. Who can say what would have been the effect of this stupendous deal, if it had been consummated! But when the lessees applied to the Legis- lature in the following winter for recognition of their lease, it was promptly declared void. The next scheme of these magnanimous pro- moters of early settlements in the Genesee country was to procure a conveyance by the Indians of all their lands in the State, provided the State would reimburse Livingston and his comrades for all their expenses, and convey to them one-half of all the land! As an example of unblushing business impudence, this proposition stands unrivaled, for by it Livingston, Butler and company would have secured a prac- tically free gift of four or five million acres of the best land in America! The proposition was promptly rejected.
Oliver Phelps was a native of Windsor, Connecticut, and had been a contractor in the Revolutionary Army. He was a man of prominence and ability, and from Major Adam Hoops, who had been one of General Sullivan's aids, learned of the prospective value of the Genesee country. He determined to secure an interest in the lands over which Massa- chusetts held the right of pre-emption; but before he matured his plans, Nathaniel Gorham had made proposals to the Legislature for the purchase of a portion of the Genesee lands. The two men met and after a conference, Mr. Gorham joined with Mr. Phelps and a few others to consummate the desired purchase. The first proposal was made in 1787 for the purchase of 1,000,000 acres, at one and sixpence currency per acre. The Senate refused to concur in the sale, and the matter was postponed until the session of 1788. Other persons had taken steps to secure tracts, and a compromise was therefore made admitting all such to the association, with Messrs. Phelps and Gorham as representatives. They made proposals for all the lands embraced in the cession to Massachusetts, which were accepted, the consideration being $1,000,000, payment to be made in a sort of scrip issued by Massachusetts and called " Consolidated Securities," which were worth at the time of the sale about fifty cents on the dollar. As this sale was, of course, made subject to the Indian rights, Phelps arranged with
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