USA > New York > Genesee County > Our county and its people : a descriptive and biographical record of Genesee County, New York, v. 1 > Part 5
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During the succeeding winter a party of Huron Indians started for the fort at Niagara, intending to enter the Seneca country and kill or capture detached parties of trappers. On their way through Canada they fell in with a party of Iroquois and killed or made prisoners of the entire party of sixty. When they returned to Mackinaw some of the prisoners informed La Hontan that they were members of the band 3
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
which had intended to capture him and his command at Niagara Falls. When they left, they said, eight hundred Indians had besieged the fort at Niagara, and famine and disease were rapidly reducing the small French garrison there.
De Nonville's invasion, the most formidable which the French had yet undertaken, served to aggravate the strained relations between that nation and the English, the latter insisting that the French had entered territory belonging to England. But the French occupation of the post at Niagara was short lived. The Iroquois Indians, thoroughly enraged over the attacks made upon them by the white invaders, har- assed the fort constantly, until the French were compelled to sue for peace. In the summer of 1658 De Nonville ordered an armistice and invited five hundred Iroquois to meet him at Montreal to conclude peace negotiations. At the same time a band of twelve hundred warriors were ready to attack the French settlement there if the results of this convention should prove unsatisfactory. The Iroquois insisted upon the destruction of Fort Frontenae and Fort Niagara, the payment to the Senecas of a sufficient sum to reimburse them for the losses they had incurred by reason of the French invasion of their country, and the return of a number of their tribe who had been carried in captivity into Canada.
The French were willing to concede what the Iroquois asked and these stipulations were inserted in the treaty then and there made. But, un- fortunately, the peaceful intentions of this convention were foiled by an act of treachery on the part of the Hurons. A chief of that tribe. accompanied by a hundred braves, visited Fort Frontenac for the pur- pose of assuring the French of his friendship. Reaching the latter place he learned of the friendly negotiations then in progress between the French, his allies, and the Iroquois, his enemies; jealousy prompted him to ambush the band of Iroquois returning from their mission to Montreal, killing many of them and making prisoners of the remainder. His treacherous spirit prompted him to tell the prisoners that he had at- tacked them under directions of De Nonville. He then liberated the prisoners, who returned to their country and spread the story of French perfidy.
The consequence was inevitable. The enraged Iroquois immediately went upon the warpath for revenge. July 26 twelve hundred warriors attacked Montreal, slaughtered about a thousand of the French settlers and left the village in ruins. This left the French in desperate straits,
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1/52966
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH STRUGGLE.
and on the other hand strengthened the bonds of friendship between the Iroquois and the English. To this fact, more than any other single occurrence, the victory of the English in their contest against the French was due. The latter immediately abandoned Forts Frontenac and Niagara; and war between France and England having been de- clared, the allied forces of English and Iroquois wrought havoc among the French settlements in Canada. The enemies of the English dev- astated Schenectady and a portion of the Onondaga country ; but the victory lay with the English. The treaty of Ryswick, in 1697, again brought peace, but for a few years only.
The main point which produced the contest between these two nations-the conflicting territorial claims -- unfortunately was not settied by this treaty; and until the boundaries between the colonial posses- sions of the two countries should be settled hostile operations were in- evitable. The Jesuit priests in Canada continued actively to spread their religion among the Indians, giving offense to the English by establishing missions among the Iroquois. The result was casily fore- seen. The differences between the two nations grew wider until the conflict known as Queen Anne's War, which began in 1202 and con- tinued until 1:13. Before the inauguration of this war the French, gaining the friendship of the Western Indians through the offices of the Jesuit priests, had strengthened their position by the erection of numerous forts and the establishment of settlements. The French considered western New York-the territory subsequently becoming the original Genesee county-a great point of vantage to them ; but the English directed their attentions principally to other points. The details of this war are of little interest in this connection. Peace was concluded with the treaty of Utrecht April 11, 1:13, France ceding to England Nova Scotia and Port Royal, and agreeing to refrain in the future from molesting "the Five Nations subject to the dominion of Great Britain." Still the most important matter of all-the boundary question -- was left unsettled and made another war certain.
Little by little it became evident to the French that the English had determined to obtain control of Lake Ontario. In 1221 or 1223 the latter established a trading post at Irondequoit, and in 1226 one at Oswego. France still claimed the territory. To strengthen her posi- tion she erected, in 1726, a new fort at Niagara, on or very near the site of the present stone fort there. The French had objected to the mili- tary occupation of the two points on the lake by the English; the latter
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
contended that the French were going beyond their rights in erecting a fort at the mouth of the Niagara river. The positions at both ends of the lake were of the highest commercial and strategic importance to both parties, as the nation holding both could absolutely control Lake Ontario and the bulk of the great fur trade. Both intrigued with the Indians in the hope of securing their allegiance.
In 1712 the remnant of the Tuscarora tribe was adopted by the Iro- quois Confederacy, becoming the sixth nation of that republic. The Tuscaroras originally came from North Carolina, where they had in- habited the country of the Neuse and Tar rivers. In 1708 their twelve hundred warriors inhabited fifteen towns. In 1208 they had a rupture with the colonists, and soon after they were robbed of their lands. Hostilities followed, and many warriors were slain, while larger num- bers were made captives. Tired of their persecution and hopeless over their defeats, the remainder of the tribe who had not remained neutral migrated to New York.
In 1844 war was declared involving not only England and France. but Spain and Austria. During the summer of that year the okl stock- ades at Niagara were strengthened, but little else of direct interest in this connection transpired before the peace of October 18, 1:15. While there was peace on paper, the conflict in America in reality never ceased. Both nations struggled with intensity to secure the undivided allegiance of the powerful Iroquois. In 1151 the English, probably aware of the fact that their enemies were planning to capture Oswego, repaired the fortifications at that point. While Braddock's stubbornness was leading him into the greatest of mistakes, Governor Shirley of Massachusetts strengthened the post at Oswego, which was heavily garrisoned, built Fort Ontario on the east side of the river, and created a small navy on the lake. In the meantime the French were bettering the condition of Fort Niagara, which had been saved from Shirley's contemplated attack by reason of storms on Lake Ontario. These preparations were pro- gressing during the period of technical peace. The next, and final, struggle for supreme control was not inaugurated until the formal dec- laration of war on May 18, 1756.
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THE FINAL STRUGGLE.
CHAPTER IV.
The Final Struggle Between the French and English for Supremacy in North America-Capture of the Fort at Oswego-Bradstreet Takes Fort Frontenac-Gen- eral Prideaux's Expedition Against Fort Niagara-The Tragedy of Devil's Hole -- End of French Dominion in America.
Before the beginning of actual hostilities in 1256 it had become evi- dent to each party to the impending struggle that the other had been preparing with great energy to make a most desperate effort to main- tain its claims in America. At the beginning of the war the outlook for the cause of the English was far from flattering. It was, indeed, ominous. The French had been exceedingly active, and had secured many of the best points of vantage. Niagara had been placed in splendid condition by the French. Abercrombie's expedition against the post was unsuccessful. A few days after the declaration of war Commodore Bradley, commanding the little English fleet at Oswego, started for Niagara, but was soon compelled to return by reason of tempestuous weather on Lake Ontario. On his second expedition in June one of his vessels was captured by the French squadron.
In August, 1756, Montcalm, the successor of Dieskau, commanding the French army of Canada, led five thousand men, consisting of reg- ulars, militia and Indians, against the English fort at Oswego, which Governor Shirley of Massachusetts had left in charge of Colonel Mer. cer and a garrison of seven hundred men. Erecting trenches about the fort, he opened a terrific fire August 12. The English had but a small supply of ammunition, and were compelled to retreat across the river to Little Fort Oswego, spiking their guns before they left. Mont- calm at once occupied the deserted fort, and from it assaulted the lesser fort, killing Colonel Mercer and many of his men. On the 14th the disheartened English capitulated, and the French were for the time being practically masters of the Great Lakes, as well as Lake Cham. plain and Lake George.
Montcalm destroyed the fort at Oswego after he had captured it, principally for the purpose of showing the Iroquois that the French did
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
not intend to maintain a military station in their territory. This move caused many of the Indians to turn to the French, greatly to the ela- tion of the latter.
The campaign of 1657 was also disastrous to the English, leaving their enemies in control of the West. In 1258 the English, strength- ened by a better organization of the regular and colonial volunteer forces, succeeded in capturing Fort Frontenac.
Colonel Bradstreet, who first suggested the attempted capture of Fort Frontenac, was placed in commad of the army assigned to the great task. At the head of about three thousand men, with eight cannon and three mortars, he left Lake George and embarked at Oswego. On the evening of August 25 he landed about a mile from the fort. Within two days he had planted his batteries and opened fire. On the 27th the French commander surrendered one hundred and ten men, nine vessels, sixty cannon, sixteen mortars, many light arms and large quantities of military stores, provisions and merchandise. The fort was destroyed, as was everything else which could not be carried away by the victorious English army.
The tide had turned. and the French were now as despondent as they had been elated. Their anxiety was also greatly increased by the rapid development of the English colonies, whose population was increasing at an entirely unanticipated rate.
The spring of 1:59 found the French in a wretched condition. While their crops had failed and there had been no considerable accession to their forces, the numerical strength of the English had become greater and the internal ties between the colonies, fighting in a common cause, stronger. On Fort Niagara the French placed their greatest dependence. The Iroquois had now come out openly in favor of the English cause, and even the courageous Montcalm was discouraged.
Among the expeditions planned by the English was one against Niagara. Major-General Amherst had become commander of the Eng. lish forces in North America. So successful had the English been that they now planned the complete conquest of Canada. The three strong positions still held by France were to be attacked simultaneously. Quebec was to be besieged by General Wolfe. the hero of Louisburg. General Amherst was was to proceed against Crown Point and Ticon- deroga, and after taking those places, cross Lake Champlain and join Wolfe. General Prideaux, accompanied by Sir William Johnson, was to. have charge of the expedition against Fort Niagara. General Stan-
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THE END OF FRENCH DOMINION.
wix and his detachment was to guard Lake Ontario and reduce the re- maining French posts in the Ohio valley.
Early in the summer General Prideaux, at the head of an army of European and Provincial troops and Indians, proceeded to Oswego, coasted along the southern shore of Lake Ontario, and landed at the mouth of Four Mile creek July 6. When this army reached Niagara it consisted of two thousand whites and one thousand six hundred Indians. Despite the fact that it was broad daylight the French knew nothing of the approach of their enemy until the forces had passed the fort and entered the river.1
July ? seven English barges appeared near the shore. Scouts sent out by Captain Pouchot reported that fifteen or twenty barges, all told, lay near by, while numbers were flocking on the beach. The following day the English camp on the lake shore was assaulted and broken up. On the 9th the surrender of the position was demanded by the besieg- ers, but Pouchot sent word to Prideaux that he should defend the post. On the 15th the fort was shelled, wounding several French soldiers. All this time the English had been strengthening their position, from which the assault was continued each day. July 19 General Prideaux was accidently killed in the trenches by the carlessness of a gunner who was preparing to fire a shell.
. The English kept up a regular fire, doing great damage to the fort and killing and wounding many of the garrison. The French were running short of ammunition and many of their arms had become worthless. So desperate had their condition become that they were compelled to resort to the use of hay, straw, and even the mattresses and linen from their beds for wadding for their cannon. By the 24th the French had not more than a hundred muskets fit for use. Rein- forcements dispatched to the relief of the fort by Aubrey and Lignery, at Fort Machault and Presque Isle, were driven back by the English. Seeing that further resistance was useless Pouchot surrendered, upon the demand of Sir William Johnson, on July 25, when the victors took possession of the fort.
By this victory the Niagara river, which the French had controlled for more than a century, came under English domination. Quebec, falling before the magnificent assault under Wolfe, French dominion on the American continent was forever at an end. Still Canada was
The account of the ensuing operations in this campaign is taken in an the memory of Pouchot, commander of the French for esat Niagara.
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
not ceded to England until the signing of the treaty of 1763, so tena- ciously did France cling to her colonies.
Immediately after the surrender of Fort Niagara the English took possession of the frontier of Western New York, with the intention of keeping control of a means of communication with their western points. Of all these posts the most important to England, as it had been with France, was Niagara. In 1760 this carrying-place was place l in charge of John Steadman, who was instructed by Sir William Johnson to open and improve the road. This step was highly displeasing to the Senecas who, disregarding the authority of Johnson as superintendent of Indian affairs, united with western tribes in marauding expeditions, pursuing their depredations almost to the gates of Niagara. In these attacks several Englishmen were killed.
At this time the Senecas had no settlements between the Genesee and the Niagara. The English had erected a palisaded fort on the east bank of the Niagara near the east boundary of the present city of Niagara Falls, which they named Fort Schlosser, in honor of its first commander, Captain Joseph Schlosser. Fort Niagara, which had been greatly strengthened, was for the time used as a base of supplies for the West and the growing Indian trade. A few of the Senecas in- habited cabins on the present site of Lewiston, where they assisted the English in transporting goods across the river.
July 24, 1761, Johnson reached Niagara on his way to Detroit. Here he remained for four weeks inspecting the various points on the frontier. He also learned that attempts were being made by certain traders to cheat the Indians, a course well calculated to produce an uprising among them. In 1762 Johnson, learning of the murder by the Indians of two traders who were passing through the Seneca country, informed the natives that any future crimes of this character would be followed by summary punishment. But the Senecas, foreseeing their ultimate expulsion from their country and their extinction as a nation, seemed determined to retard, if not prevent, the encroachments of the whites. The portage between Lewiston and Fort Schlosser, passing most of the way through the woods, was a dangerous road, and soldiers were stationed at both ends to protect and accompany trading teams. Soon after this occurred the terrible massacre at Devil's Hole, a point on the east bank of the Niagara river a short distance north of the city of Niagara Falls. The following old account of what took place at that spot is considered authentic by historians ;
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THE DEVIL'S HOLE MASSACRE.
In 1760 Mr. Stedman, an Englishman, contracted with Sir William [ Johnson] to construct a portage road from Queenston Landing, now Lewiston, to Fort Schlosser, a distance of about eight miles. The road having been completed, on the morning of the 17th of September, 1763, fifteen wagons and teams, mostly oxen, under au escort of twenty-four men, commanded by a sergeant, and accompanied by the con- tractor. Stedman, and Captain Johnson, as a volunteer, set out from Fort Niagara, with stores, &e., intended for the garrison at Fort Schlosser. Arriving something over two miles from the top of the mountain above Lewiston, and, ten or twelve from Niagara, the escort and wagons halted about eleven o'clock, on a little savanna of green sward to rest and take refreshments, beside a gulf called in Indian and Eng- lish, the Devil's Hole. This is a semi-circular precipice or chasm of some two hun- dred feet in diameter up and down the river on the summit, but less at the bottom. A little distance from the brink of the hole is a kind of natural mound, several feet in height, also of crescent shape; and sixty feet from the top issues a fine spring. which dashes down through the underbrush to the river. A small brook in the neighborhood, called the bloody.run, now runs into the chasm. The Seneca Indians continued in the French interest at this period, and fearing a hostile movement on their part, a detachment of volunteers consisting of one hundred and thirty men under the command of Captain Campbell, marched from Queenston to strengthen the escort. Just as the troops under Capt. C. reached the spot where the escort halted, about five hundred Indians, who bad been concealed behind the mound, sprang from their covert with savage yells, and like so many tigers began an indiscriminate slaughter of the troops, who were thrown in the utmost confusion. Resistance against such odds did not long continne, and those of the party who were not killed or driven from the precipice with their teams, attempted their escape by flight. In the midst of the conflict, Stedman sprang upon a small horse, and giving the faithful animal a slap on the neck with his hand, it bore him over the dead and dying, and through the thick ranks of the foe, who discharged their rides, and hurled their tomahawks in vain at his head.
Of those who jumped directly down the precipice in front, some seventy or eighty feet, which has an uneven surface below, only one escaped with life. This was a soldier named Mathews, from whom these particulars were obtained by the tourist. He was then living on the Canada shore, near Niagara and familiarly called Old Brittania. Several trees were growing from the bottom of the hole, the tops of which reached near the surface of the ground. Into one of these trees Corporal Noble , leaped and hung, in which position eleven bullets riddled his body. Captain John- son, of the escort, was killed, and Lieut. Duncan, of the relief, a native of Long Is !- and, and a promising young officer, was wounded in the left arm, of which he died. The whole number of troops and teamsters was about one hundred and seventy-five. of this number only some twenty-five escaped with life, and all of them. except Sted- man and Mathews, did so below or near the north end of the hole, at a little sand ridge, which served to break the fall. Of Capt. Campbell's command, only eleven escaped with life. The loss of the enemy was inconsiderable compared with that of the British. A short time after this horrid affair, the Indians, who considered Sted- man a charmed man, gave him as a reward for his daring feat, a large trade of land, which embraced all that he rode over in bis previous flight. He returned to Eugland,
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
taking along this favorite horse, and never afterwards would he allow it to be sad- dled or harnessed. 1
Most other accounts of this treacherous and bloody attack agree with the one quoted in its essential points. Some state that it occurred September 11 instead of September 17, the date given by Mr. Simms; that the escort consisted of twenty-five men instead of twenty four, and that the train was bound for Detroit instead of Fort Schlosser. But these details are of minor importance. Some recent publications state that but eight men are believed to have escaped, whereas Mr. Simins's informant, who was one of those whose lives were spared, puts the number at about twenty-five.
In the meantime Pontine's war had broken out in the West, the cause being similar to that which resulted in the massacre at the Devil's Hole- the English encroachments upon Indian territory and their defeat of the French. In July, 1264, General John Bradstreet, at the head of eleven hundred provincial troops, started for the west to put down the up. rising inaugurated by the wily Ottawa chief. At Oswego his forces were augmented by five hundred Iroquois under Johnson, and at Niag- ara the army was nearly doubled, three hundred of the additional forces being Seneca Indians. While waiting in this vicinity the erection of Fort Erie was begun.
October 19, 1763, while six hundred English soldiers in command of Major Wilkins were on their way to Detroit in boats, the rear guard. consisting of one hundred and sixty men, were fired upon from the shore by a band of Senecas, who were concealed in the woods about on the site of Black Rock. At the first volley thirteen men were killed and wounded. Fifty men were sent ashore, where three more men were killed and twelve seriously wounded. This was the last serious attack on the part of the Senecas. In April, 1161, representatives of the nation signed a treaty of peace at the home of Sir William Johnson at Johnstown.
From that time to the Revolution comparative peace reigned throughout Genesee county. The trade with the Indians increased at a satisfactory rate, and the Niagara frontier was a scene of great activ- ity. Sir William Johnson devoted much of his attention toward se- curing a continuance and enlargement of the policy of peace and hon- esty toward the Indians on the part of the British government. Janu-
ITES centrum Jestha R Sempre . Border Warsof New York city The author
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THE REVOLUTIONARY WAAR.
ary 16, 1765, Rev. Samuel Kirkland, accompanied by two Seneca In- dians, ieft Johnstown on a mission through the Iroquois country. He remained some time at Kanadesaga, the chief village of the Senecas, spreading the principles of the Christian religion among them. For six years he labored assiduously among the Six Nations, and his serv- ices were most valuable in breaking down the feelings of animosity which these nations entertained toward the English.
During this period of peace, Tryon county, afterward Montgomery, was erected from Albany county in 1222. The new county comprised all New York State west of the present western boundaries of Saratoga and Schenectady counties, and of course included all the territory which subsequently was set apart to form Genesee county. Few other events of importance occurred before the Revolution. Little attempt was made to effect settlements at a distance from the trading posts, for the whites still felt insecure from the attacks of the Indians, whom all had learned to distrust. The condition of Western New York, then, was to all intents and purposes the same at the opening of the Revolution- ary war as at the close of the long series of conflicts which gave to England the supremacy over France on the American continent.
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