USA > New York > Madison County > Our county and its people : a descriptive and biographical record of Madison County, New York > Part 3
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In 1756 forts were built at Onawaroghhare2 (Oneida Castle in the town of Vernon) and at Onondaga, and a block house at Canaseraga. The fort at Oneida was 120 feet square, built of sixteen feet logs set four feet in the ground. It had two block houses at opposite corners, each of which was twenty four feet square below, while the upper part projected to allow its occupants to fire down upon an enemy. The block house at Canaseraga was similar to this.
It was during this conflict also and on May 18, 1759, that General
1In 1763 their principal village was at Canaseraga, in the town of Sullivan, Madison county. They had " several others about the Susquehanna," and numbered 140 .- Sir William Johnson's enumeration of Indians, Col. Hist.
2 Colonial History.
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INDIAN OCCUPATION AND EARLY WARS.
Amherst issued orders for the construction of "3 Posts to be made as follows: At the northeast end of Oneyda Lake-50 men; at the west end of Oneyda Lake, 50 do; at Oswego Falls, 100 do. The above Posts to be retrenched with a ditch, and a block-house in the center, with flankers at each opposite angle on which swivel guns are mounted."
These orders resulted in the construction of what was called the Royal Block House, which was on the south side of Wood Creek, near its junction with Fish Creek, and the fort at Brewerton, the sites of both of which are still recognizable. The location and form of these works is shown on the accompanying diagram.
Woods
Woods
WOOD CREEK
Woods
Woods
ONONDAGA
RIVER
At a council held by Sir William Johnson at Onondaga, June 19, 1756, where permission was given Johnson to build a fort or magazine at Oswego Falls, an Onondaga sachem promised him the aid of the Tus- caroras and Oneidas in building a road from the German Flats to "Canaghsaragy," and of the Onondagas in building one thence to Os- wego. 1
The war which for many years threatened to overthrow the English
1 Colonial History.
2
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
finally resulted in their favor, and the treaty of Paris was signed in 1763, leaving England in possession of Canada and the trans Missis- sippi territory. It was to settle the territorial disputes arising after this peace between the various Indian tribes and the colonies, that the so-called Line of Property was established in 1768 and ratified by Sir William Johnson in 1770. But the fixing of this line did not perma- nently protect the Indians in the enjoyment of the territory set apart for them. As settlement increased, the greed of traders led to en- croachments that soon created trouble and prepared the way for hostil- ity by the natives towards the colonists in the approaching revolution. The Indians made bitter complaint of their treatment at a congress of the Six Nations held at Johnson Hall (Johnstown) in the summer of 1774. At the same time the Six Nations agreed to a proposition made by the Montauk Indians to settle on their lands at Conawaroghere, which Johnson speaks of in November, 1762, as being "a new village of the Oneidas."
As the time approached when the fires of the Revolution were to be lighted, it was clearly seen that the colonists could hope for little aid from the Iroquois as a whole; indeed they had every reason to fear their enmity, with the exception of the Oneidas and Tuscaroras. Upon the outbreak of the conflict, about 1,800 allied themselves with the British, leaving only about 200 who were friendly to the colonists. The terri- ble atrocities of the former, under the leadership of Brant and stimu- lated by many tories, whose deeds were scarcely less barbarous than those of their red friends, can never be forgotten. At a council held at Onondaga the whole Six Nations at first resolved to remain neutral, but the inducements offered by the mother country were too strong to be resisted. Joseph Brant, then one of the most prominent of the young men of the Confederacy, was sent to England, where he was set up as a hero and made the recipient of many honors and gifts. He was closely affiliated with the Johnsons also, and when he returned in the winter of 1776 he at once began organizing a force of Indians to aid the English. In the spring of 1777 he appeared at Oquaga (now Windsor, Broome county) with a large body of warriors, and in June he ascended the Susquehanna to Unadilla. There he demanded food for his followers, drove off cattle, sheep and swine, and so frightened the inhabitants that they retired to Cherry Valley and other settled points.
The attitude of the Indians under Brant was clearly exposed by that
19
INDIAN OCCUPATION AND EARLY WARS.
chief in an interview which was sought by General Herkimer at Una- dilla. He was told that "the Indians were in concert with the King, as their fathers had been; that the King's belts were yet lodged with them, and they could not violate their pledge; " and, finally, that they had "made war on the white people when they were all united, and as they were now divided the Indians were not frightened." The Indians were simply sharing the universal belief that the war would end with the defeat of the colonists. A few days after this interview Brant withdrew his forces from the Susquehanna and joined Sir John John- son and Col. John Butler, who had gathered at Oswego a body of tories and refugees preparatory to an attack on the Mohawk and Schoharie settlements. This motley army joined the troops of St. Leger, who were co-operating with Burgoyne, and attacked Fort Schuyler in Au- gust, 1777; the bloody battle of Oriskany was fought, in which General Herkimer fell, and the colonists under Colonel Gansevoort snatched victory from defeat and put the enemy to a disgraceful flight.
After that battle Brant chastised the Oneidas for their neutrality by destroying their upper and lower castles, their crops and their wig- wams, and driving off their cattle; but the Oneidas retaliated by aiding in the subsequent destruction of the castles and villages of the Mo- hawks, which preceded the final extinction of the power of the great Confederacy. The siege of Fort Schuyler was raised on the 22d of August, 1777.
A long series of Indian and tory atrocities on the New York and Pennsylvania borders followed these events, including the terrible mas- sacres at Cherry Valley, Wyoming and Minnisink, at length impelling Congress to strike a blow for the prompt and permanent overthrow of the Indian power. To this end was organized the historical expedition of General Sullivan in 1779 against the Senecas, in which he was or- dered "to cut off their settlements, destroy their crops, and inflict upon them every other injury which time and circumstances would permit." One of the three divisions composing Sullivan's army was commanded by Gen. James Clinton and was collected at Canajoharie. He endeav- ored to induce the Oneidas and Tuscaroras to join him, and would doubtless have been successful, but for an address sent them by the British general, Haldimand, governor of Canada; it was written in the Iroquois language and was so effective that with few exceptions those Indians remained at their homes. Before departing on this expedition Clinton and his forces ravaged the Mohawk country, burning villages
20
OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
and crops and sparing only those of the Oneidas and Tuscaroras. Sul- livan's forces met near Athens, Pa., started promptly on their mission and fought their first battle on or near the site of Elmira. Proceeding northward the victorious army swept over the rich Genesee country, where the powerful Senecas had made extensive improvements, leaving desolation and ruin in their track. The other hostile nations shared the same fate. Catharinestown, the home of Catharine Montour, the inhuman figure in the Wyoming massacre; Kendaia, Kanadaseagea, the capital of the Senecas at the head of Seneca Lake, with its sixty well- built houses and fine orchards; Kanandaigua, with its "twenty-three very elegant houses, mostly framed, and, in general, large; " and its fields of corn and orchards of fruit; Genesee Castle, "with one hun- dred and twenty-eight houses, mostly large and elegant," all were de- stroyed. Forty Indian towns were burned, thousands of bushels of grain in fields and buildings, large and fruitful orchards, gardens filled with vegetables, and much other property were wiped out of existence. The purposes of the expedition were amply effected. The Iroquois power was broken; but before their final and complete submission they made one more effort to gratify their revenge. Crippled and humil- iated, they still turned a deaf ear to the pleas of Red Jacket, the great Seneca chief, to yield to their white conquerors, and in the ensuing winter organized an expedition under Cornplanter, fell upon the Onei- das and Tuscaroras, burned their castle, church and village, and drove them to seek safety among the white settlements farther east, where they remained until the close of the war, in active alliance with the colonists.
In further retaliation for Sullivan's invasion of the Iroquois country, Sir John Johnson in the fall of 1780, gathered at La Chine Island in the St. Lawrence, a body of tories, Canadians and Indians, the latter under Brant, and on the 15th of October descended upon the Schoharie valley, burned buildings, destroyed other property, took many prisoners and laid the whole region waste. Gen. Robert Van Rensselaer hastily gathered the militia and pursued the invaders, who fled to their boats, which had been left with their stores under a strong guard in a stock- ade fort previously built by the French on the east bank of Chittenango Creek, about a mile above the mouth of Black Creek. Van Rensselaer followed his enemy to Herkimer and from there sent a messenger to Fort Stanwix with orders for Capt. Walter Vrooman to take a strong detachment and proceed to Chittenango Creek and destroy the boats
21
INDIAN OCCUPATION AND EARLY WARS.
and stores of the enemy. This mission the young captain accomplished, but his command of fifty men was surprised on the 23d of October by a body of Butler's Rangers, sent by Johnson to intercept them. All but two or three of the party were killed or captured, some of the captives being mercilessly tortured by the exasperated Indians. Captain Vroo- man and the other survivors were taken to Montreal and held prisoners two years. These captives, or a part of them, returned to the scene of this event in 1790 and squatted on lands of the Oneida Reservation and later became the pioneers of the town of Sullivan.
In the succeeding operations in the Mohawk valley and vicinity, the Oneidas performed valuable services for the colonial cause. In the battle at Fort Plain they were opposed to the forces of Brant and John- son and aided in their defeat. In the ranks with Col. Marinus Willett, for the defense of the valley in 1781, were many Oneidas battling faith- fully for their friends. Indeed, on every occasion where they could serve the colonists, this friendly nation of Indians never failed in loy- alty or bravery.
With the declaration of peace in 1783, the New York authorities showed a disposition to drive from the State all the Indians of the Six Nations, the larger part of whom had been foremost in the bloody border wais; but the Federal government took a different view of the matter. Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee were appointed commissioners to adjust their claims and rights, and at a council held at Fort Stanwix in 1784, reservations were assigned to each of the nations excepting the Mohawks. Special legislation had previously been enacted for the Oneidas and Tuscaroras. On the 15th of October, 1783, a series of resolutions was adopted by Congress relating to the Indians, one of which was as follows:
WHEREAS, the Oneida and Tuscarora tribes have adhered to the cause of Amer- ica, and joined her armies in the course of the late war, and Congress has repeatedly assured them of peculiar marks of favor and friendship, the said Commissioners are therefore instructed to reassure the said tribes of the friendship of the United States, and that they may rely that the land which they claim as their inheritance will be reserved for their sole use and benefit, until they may think it for their advantage to dispose of the same.
The first known place of dwelling of the Oneidas was on an eminence in the present town of Stockbridge.1 The time when this village was abandoned for the later Oneida Castle is unknown. The latter was
1Schoolcraft.
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
spoken of in 1762 as "a new village of the Oneidas." When the Tus- caroras became the Sixth Nation of the Confederacy, a portion of them were settled at the old village in Stockbridge, and others at Canaseraga. At the close of the war the Senecas gave them lands in the present county of Niagara, where they still remain. Their removal thither was made in 1784, in which year the Stockbridge tribe took possession of their village, which was called the "Upper Oneida Castle." When the first white settlers came their cabins dotted the whole valley of the Oneida. In 1792 the Oneidas numbered about 550 and were described as being "very friendly." In 1875 they numbered 150, all excepting eleven living on the reservation. Several removals of portions of the nation to Green Bay, Wisconsin, have been made, the last of which took place in 1844. There are now not more than a score left at their old home.
The long and arduous efforts made to civilize and educate the Indians, as described in the "Relations" of the Jesuits and the jour- nals of missionaries, are well known to all intelligent persons. As a whole those efforts were unsuccessful, though much good was accom- plished in certain localities. Among the most distinguished Indian missionaries, and one whose work was most productive of good results, was Rev. Samuel Kirkland,1 who labored long among the Oneidas and acquired almost unbounded influence, which he exercised to the great benefit of the colonists during the Revolutionary war.
In July, 1751, David Zeisberger and Gottfried Rundt held a council
1 Rev. Samuel Kirkland was born in Norwich, Conn., December 1, 1741, and received his edu- cation in Dr. Wheelock's Indian school. In 1761 he was sent among the Mohawks to learn their language. He entered Princeton College in 1762, and in 1764 returned to the Mohawk Indians to teach school and further study their language and customs. He received his collegiate degree in 1765, and in that and the following year labored among the Senecas. On July 19, 1766, he was ordained at Lebanon as an Indian missionary, and in the following July took up his residence at Oneida Castle. For forty years thereafter he labored among that nation of Indians, acquiring almost unbounded influence over them, and exerting it successfully in preventing them from joining the enemies of the colonists during the Revolutionary war. During that struggle he acted as chaplain in the United States service, and was brigade chaplain in Sullivan's campaign against the Senecas in 1779. At the close of the war he remained with the Oneidas, and in 1788 assisted at the great Council for the extinction of the Indian title to the Genesee country The Oneidas gave him a tract of land, and the State regarded the value of his services so highly that it granted him in 1789 a section of land in the town of Kirkland, Oneida county, two miles square, to which he removed. In 1792 he made a liberal endowment of land for the founding of a school which was originally called the Hamilton Oneida Academy, and in 1812 became Hamilton College by incor- poration. Mr. Kirkland married in the summer of 1799, Jerusha Bingham, in Connecticut, an excellent woman, who returned westward with her husband and shared in his after labors. Mr. Kirkland died February 28, 1808. He was a man of the noblest qualities of mind and heart, a true friend of both the red man and the white, and one of the few missionaries whose labors among the Indians resulted in, to some extent, Christianizing and educating them.
1
23
INDIAN OCCUPATION AND EARLY WARS.
with the Oneidas, who had stopped them on their way to the Onondagas and opposed their proceeding further. In the council Brother Zeis- berger addressed them with such effect that the Indians relinquished their opposition, saying, "We are convinced that your business is not a bad one, and that your words are true."
A mission was established at Oneida Castle in 1816 by Bishop Hobart, and Rev. Eleazer Williams, the putative son of Thomas Williams, a distinguished chief of the St. Regis Indians, was placed in charge. He was well educated and officiated as lay reader, catechist and school teacher. His labors resulted in converting a large number of the Oneidas to Christianity who had before belonged to the so called Pagan party. These converts in January, 1817, sent to Gov. De Witt Clinton an address, signed by eleven of the head men of the nation, express- ing their desire to be known as the "Second Christian Party of the Oneida Nation." In 1818 this party sold a piece of land for the erec- tion of a chapel, which was dedicated as St. Peter's Church on Septem- ber 21, 1819, by Bishop Hobart, who confirmed in all 500 persons con- nected with this mission. Mr. Williams removed to Green Bay, Wis., with a part of the Oneidas and was succeeded in the mission by Solomon Davis, who removed to the same place with another portion of the nation. The chapel was removed to Vernon in 1840.
A Methodist mission was established among the Oneidas in 1829 by Rev. Dan Barnes, who remained three years and labored very effect- ually for the conversion and moral improvement of the natives. A chapel was built in the southwest corner of the town of Vernon; it was sold with its site in 1833 by the body of Indians that left in that year for Green Bay. Another house was soon afterward built in the same locality.
A Methodist Indian church and school building is still standing on the west road from Oneida near the Lawrence farm, which was used for services many years, but has not been occupied, excepting on occa- sional Sabbaths for some ten years.
The Stockbridge Indians, who took their name from their native place in Massachusetts, were ministered to by Rev. John Sergeant, who came with them and founded a church immediately after their settle- ment at Stockbridge. The tribe then comprised 420 members, sixteen of whom constituted the original church. Mr. Sergeant served as missionary there for thirty-six years, and received from the Legislature a patent for a mile square of land adjoining Stockbridge, which was
24
OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
presented to him by the Indians. Mr. Sergeant died September 7, 1824. In 1822 a large part of this tribe removed to Wisconsin and there made considerable advancement in civilized customs.
The Brotherton Indians were adopted by the Oneidas in the latter half of the eighteenth century. They were made up of a union of several tribes, or brothers, whence their name. They located mostly in the town of Marshall, Oneida county, and adopted the English language.
As before intimated, the Oneida Indians remained friendly to the white settlers during the greater part of the early wars. Their great chieftain, Skenandoah, was then in power; he was a man possessed of a vigorous mind, sagacious, wise and persevering, noble and command- ing in person and manner. He was at all times the white man's friend. His watchfulness once prevented the massacre of the inhabitants of German Flats, and in the Revolution it was his influence that induced the Oneidas to take up arms for the colonists. Soon after Rev. Mr. Kirkland established his mission, Skenandoah became a Christian and lived in that faith to the close of his life. He died March 11, 1816, and was believed to have been about 110 years old. His remains were buried in the garden of Mr. Kirkland and a monument to his memory has been erected by the Northern Missionary Society.
Whatever may be our preconceived theories of the right of conquest, the onward march of civilization, etc., with which we Anglo-Saxons are prone to minister to our own self-esteem, it is still pitiful to con- template the present condition and circumstances of the once numerous and powerful Indian nations of New York State. Their immense domain shorn down to a few insignificant reservations, their numbers reduced to a fraction of what they once were, their haughty and aggressive spirit subdued, the American Indians form an interesting, if saddening, example of the passing of a great nation.
Of the Oneidas there are now living in this State about 250; there are about 400 of the Tuscaroras, while at Green Bay there is a remnant of the Stockbridges. Of the other New York Indians there are accord- ing to a late census about 3,800 remaining.
It is interesting to note here that these Indians and others of the same nations on the western reservations have recently gained a claim against the government of about $2,000,000, largely through the long continued efforts of James B. Jenkins, of Oneida Castle. This claim arose through the exchange by the government of lands in Indian
25
FIRST SETTLEMENT-TRAILS AND ROADS.
Territory for other and more valuable lands now lying within the State of Kansas, and a promise to pay to the Indians a large sum of money representing the difference in value of the two tracts. After about forty years of contest the Court of Claims found in December, 1890, that about $2,000,000 was due the New York Indians. Further delays carried the case along to the latter part of 1898 when judgment was entered by the Court of Claims; this was subsequently affirmed by the United States Supreme Court.
CHAPTER III.
FIRST SETTLEMENT-TRAILS AND ROADS.
At the close of the Revolutionary war the territory of Chenango county, which then included the present Madison county, was without a permanent white settler. It was a beautiful, forest-covered region, trackless and unmarked by man, except for the devious Indian trails and the red men's rude improvements. Chenango county was erected on March 15, 1798, with eight towns, of which Brookfield, Cazenovia and Hamilton, now all in Madison county, were three. Brookfield then included what is now Columbus, Chenango county; Cazenovia included the present towns of De Ruyter, Georgetown, Nelson, Fenner, Smith- field, Lenox, and Sullivan; Hamilton included the present towns of Lebanon, Eaton, and Madison.
The first permanent settlement in Chenango county was not made until 1784, the year following the close of the war, when Elnathan Bush came in a canoe down the Susquehanna from Cooperstown and located in what is now Afton, in the extreme southeast part of the county. It was two years later before further settlement was made by the pioneers of Bainbridge. A few squatters had lived transiently on the Oneida Reservation earlier than this. Settlement in this favored region, how- ever, was rapid when once begun. In 1800, two years after Chenango county was organized and six years after the first arrival, the county had a population of 16,087. By that time the pioneers of Madison county had penetrated almost to its remotest parts and were striking sturdy blows around their rude hearthstones. There was not a road
26
OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
across the territory of either Chenango or Madison county when the first white settler arrived in 1784, with the exception of one in the south- ern part extending from Bainbridge to the mouth of Page Brook, sev- eral miles south of Chenango Forks in Broome county. This was called the Chenango Road and many of the pioneers settled along its course. It was probably constructed by some part of Sullivan's army attached to Clinton's command in 1789.
There were two principal routes by which the early settlers came in, known as the north and south water routes; the north by the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers, and the south by the Susquehanna. Many, how- ever, came over the long distance from New England on foot, carrying almost nothing but an ax. Others came with their families and small belongings on an ox sled or in covered wagons. The majority made the journey in winter, as it was easier in that season to reach remote points in the wilderness. Many who came in by the northern route, made their way from Whitestown through an almost unbroken wilder- ness, following such Indian trails as led them towards their destination. Clark's map of the Five Nations and mission sites, Sauthier's map of 1779, and Guy Johnson's map of 1771, indicate a number of the Indian trails, a few of which had direct bearing upon the settlement of this immediate region. One of these left the Mohawk near the site of Utica and passed southwest through Oneida and on westward through Onon- daga. This crossed two trails within the limits of Madison county- one extending from the south of Salmon River along the westerly branch of Fish Creek, passing the east end of Oneida Lake and thence in a southwesterly direction to a point about midway between Ithaca and Elmira; the other passed in a northwesterly direction across the northern part of the county, passing near the point where Chittenango Creek becomes the west boundary of the county and thence to the foot of Oneida Lake, where it intersected another trail starting from the one above described. A trail also started from about the site of Utica, as shown on Sauthier's map, extended through "Old Oneyda Castle,"
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