USA > New York > Tioga County > Our county and its people : a memorial history of Tioga County, New York > Part 3
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Williams, E., 426.
Williams, R., 484.
Williston, S., 415, 430, 439.
Wilson, E., 396, 401, 408, 489, 490, 491.
Wilson, P., 398, 401, 498.
Willsey, J., 66, 441. 468.
Wiswell, L. O., 68, 277.
Witter, Asa, 793.
Witter, D. P., 64, 520, 793.
Witter, F. A., 504.
Witter, F. W., 785.
Wright F. A., 648.
Wright, W. A., 739.
Yates, Arthur, 308, 336, 347, 618. Yates, Mary L, 232.
Yearsley, John, 774. Yearsley, Wm. P., 487, 774.
Yontz, J. 11., 65, 451.
Young, George, 584. Young, Henry, 583. Young, W. H., 217.
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
A HISTORY
OF
TIOGA COUNTY,
New York.
CHAPTER I.
European Discoveries and Explorations-The French in Canada-The Puritans in New England-The Dutch in New York-Champlain Invades the Territory of the Mohawks-The First Battle-Dutch Troubles with the Indians -- Grant of the Pro- vinee of New York-Conquest and Overthrow of the Dutch in the New Nether- lands.
F OUR hundred years ago the first Spanish adventurers landed on the shores of the American continent. Sailing under the patronage of Spain, Christopher Columbus, the daring Genoese, in 1492, made his wonderful discoveries. This event has generally been designated as the discovery of America, but it is evident that the first Europeans to visit the western hemisphere were Scandinavians, who colonized Iceland in A. D. 875, Green- land in 983, and about the year 1000 had cruised southward as far as the Massachusetts coast.
OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
During all the ages that preceded these events, no grander coun- try in every point of view ever awaited the approach of civiliza- tion. With climate and soil diversified between the most remote extremes ; with thousands of miles of ocean shore, indented by magnificent harbors to welcome the world's commerce ; with many of the largest rivers of the globe draining its territory and forming natural highways for commerce ; with a system of lakes so im- mense in area as to entitle them to the name of inland seas; with mountains, hills and valleys laden with the richest minerals and almost exhaustless fuel ; and with scenery unsurpassed for grand- eur, it needed only the Caucasian to transform a wilderness inhab- ited only by savages, into the free, enlightened republic which is to-day the wonder and glory of the civilized world.
Following close upon the discoveries of Columbus, and other early explorers, various foreign powers fitted out fleets and com- missioned navigators to establish colonies in the vast but unknown continent. It is not within the proper scope of the present work to detail the results of those bold navigators, and yet they natur- ally led to others of greater importance, eventually rendering the great Susquehanna valley the scene of operations of contending powers. These events, however, will be but briefly mentioned, and only those will be noted which had at least an indirect bearing upon our subject.
In 1508, Aubert discovered the St. Lawrence river : and in 1524, Francis I,, King of France, sent Jean Verrazzani on a voyage of exploration to the new world. He entered a harbor, supposed to have been that of New York, where he remained fifteen days ; and it is believed that his crew were the first Europeans to land on the soil of what is now the state of New York. The Gallic explorer cruised along the coast about 2100 miles, sailing as far north as Labrador, and giving to the whole region the name of "New France"-a name by which the French possessions in America were ever known during the dominion of that power. In 1534 the same king sent Jacques Cartier to the new country. He made two voyages and ascended the St. Lawrence as far as Montreal. The next year he visited the same region with a fleet which brought a number of French nobility. all of whom were filled with
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EARLY DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS.
high hopes, bearing the blessings of the church. This party deter- mined upon the colonization of the country, but, after passing a winter at the Isle of Orleans and suffering much from the rigors of the climate, they abandoned their scheme and returned to France. As a beginning of the long list of needless and shameful betrayals, treacheries and other abuses to which the too confiding natives were subjected, Cartier inveigled into his vessel the Indian chief Donnegana, who had been his generous host, and bore him with several others into hopeless captivity and final death.
The real discoverer and founder of a permanent colony in New France was Samuel de Champlain, a man born with that un- controllable instinct of investigation and desire for knowledge of distant regions which has always so strongly characterized all great explorers. His earlier adventures in this country have no connection with this work, and it is therefore sufficient to merely mention that in 1608 he founded Quebec. To satisfy his love for, exploration, Champlain united with the Canadian Indians and marched into the unknown country to the southward. The result was the discovery of the lake that bears his name ; the invasion of the lands of the Mohawks in the country of the Iroquois ; a con- flict between the Algonquins (aided by Champlain) and a portion of the Iroquois confederacy, in which the latter were defeated with the loss of two of their chiefs, who fell by the hands of Champlain himself.
Thus was signalized the first hostile meeting between the white man and the Indian. Low as the latter was found in the scale of intelligence and humanity, and terrible as were many of the sub- sequent deeds of the Iroquois, it cannot be denied that their early treatment could foster in the savage breast other feeling than that of bitterest hostility. It seems like a pathetic page of romance to read Champlain's statement that "The Iroquois are greatly astonished, seeing two men killed so instantaneously," one of whom was their chief ; while the ingenuous acknowledgment of the Frenchman, "I had put four balls into iny arquebus," is a vivid testimony of how little mercy the Iroquois were thenceforth to receive froni their northern enemies and the pale-faced race which was eventually to drive them from their domain. It was
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
an age, however, in which might was appealed to more frequently than in later years, and the planting of the lowly banner of the Cross was often preceded by bloody conquest. It is in the light of the prevailing custom in the old world in Champlain's time that we must view his ready hostility to the Indian.
Now, let us turn briefly to other events which had an important bearing on the early settlement of this state. A few weeks after the battle between Champlain and the Indians, Henry Hudson, a navigator in the service of the Dutch East-India Company, an- chored his ship ( The Halfmoon) at the mouth of the river which now bears his name. This took place September 5, 1609. He met the savages and was hospitably received by them ; but before his departure he subjected them to an experimental knowledge of the effects of intoxicating liquor -- an experience perhaps more bane- ful in its results than that inflicted by Champlain with his new and murderous weapon.
Hudson ascended the river to a point less than a hundred miles from that reached by Champlain, then returned to Europe, and, through information he had gained, soon afterward established a Dutch colony, for which a charter was granted in 1614, naming the region "New Netherlands." In 1621 the Dutch West India Com- pany was formed and took possession of the Netherlands, and five years later the territory was made a province of Holland.
Meanwhile, in 1607, the English had made their first permanent settlement at Jamestown, Va., and in 1620 planted their historic colony at Plymouth Rock. These two colonies became the suc- cessful rivals of all others in that strife which finally left them masters of the country.
On the discoveries and colonizations thus briefly noted, three great European powers based claims to at least a part of the terri- tory embraced in the state of New York ; first, England, by rea- son of the discovery of John Cabot, who sailed under commission from Henry VIL., and on the 24th day of June, 1497, reached the sterile coast of Labrador, also that made in the following year by his son, Sebastian, who explored the same coast from Newfound- land to Florida, claiming a territory eleven degrees in width and indefinitely extending westward; second, France, which, from
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EARLY DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS.
the discoveries of Verrazzani, claimed a portion of the Atlantic coast, and also (under the title of New France) an almost bound- less region westward ; third, Holland, which based on Hudson's discoveries, a claini to the entire country from Cape Cod to the southern shore of Delaware Bay.
The Dutch became the temporary occupants of the region under consideration, but their dominion was of brief duration. Indian hostilities were provoked through the ill-considered action of Gov- ernor Kieft, whose official career continued for about ten years, he being superseded by Peter Stuyvesant in May, 1647. Stuyvesant was the last of the Dutch governors, and his firm and equitable policy had the effect of harmonizing the discontent existing among the Indians.
However, on the 12th day of March, 1664, Charles II., of Eng- land, granted by letters patent to his brother James, the Duke of York, all the country from the River St. Croix to the Kennebec in Maine, together with all the land from the west bank of the Con- necticut river to the east side of Delaware Bay. The Duke sent an English squadron to secure the gift, and on the 8th of Septem- ber following Governor Stuyvesant capitulated, being constrained to that course by the Dutch colonists, who preferred peace with the same privileges and liberties accorded to the English settlers to a prolonged and perhaps fruitless contest. The English changed the name of New Amsterdam to New York, and thus ended the Dutch dominion in America.
The Dutch, during their period of peace with the Iroquois, had become thrifty and prosperous by trading guns and rum to the Indians for furs, thus supplying them with doubly destructive weapons. The peaceful relations existing between the Dutch and the Indians at the time of the English accession were maintained by the latter, but the strife and jealousy between the English and the French was continued, the former steadily gaining ground both through their success in forming and maintaining an alliance with the Iroquois and also through the more permanent character of their settlements. The final surrender of the Dutch to the English power did not result in the withdrawal of the former from the territory. It made no great difference to the settlers from
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
Holland whether they were under their own or English jurisdic- tion, but had their preferences been consulted they would of course have preferred their mother country. Their settlements extended from New Amsterdam on the south, to Albany on the north, and thence were advanced westward through the valley of the Mohawk toward the region of old Tryon county. Beyond Schenectady their outposts were infrequent, while the western and southern portions of the province were uninhabited by the whites, and was aptly styled "terra incognito." Even thus early civiliza- tion gradually advanced toward the Susquehanna valley, although more than another century passed before any permanent white settlement was attempted in the region.
CHAPTER II.
The Indian Occupation-The Iroquois Confederacy-Remarkable Civil and Warlike Organization-Manner of Life-The Lenni Lenapes, or Delawares of Pennsylvania -Iroquois conquests-Extracts from Local Historians Relating to Indian Tribes Inhabiting the Susquehanna Valley-The Tuscaroras, Susquehannas, Nanticokes, Shawnese.
A FTER the overthrow of the Dutch in the New Netherlands, the region now embraced within the State of New York was still held by three powers-one native and two foreign. The main colonies of the French (one of the powers referred to) were in the Canadas, but through the zeal of the Jesuit missionaries their line of possessions had been extended south and west to the St. Lawrence river, and some attempts at colonization had been made, but as yet with only partial success. Early French accounts indicate the occasional presence of Jesuit missionaries in the vicin- ity of original Tioga county, but the debatable character of this region, lying between the possessions of the Iroquois and their old enemies the Lenni Lenapes, made this an unsafe place of abode even by the red man previous to about the middle of the seven- teenth century.
THIE IROQUOIS AND OTHER INDIANS.
In the southern and eastern portion of the province of New York were the English, who, with steady yet sure advance, were pressing settlement and civilization westward and gradually near- ing the French possessions. The French and English were at this time, and also for many years afterwards, conflicting powers, each studying for the mastery on both sides of the Atlantic ; and with each succeeding outbreak of war in the mother countries, so there were renewed hostilities between their American colonies.
Directly between the possessions of the French and the territory of the English lay the lands of the famous Iroquois confederacy. then more commonly known as the "Five Nations" of Indians. By the French they were called "Iroquois," but by the Dutch they were known as the "Maquas," while the English called them " Mingoes." The men of the confederacy called themselves Hedo- nosaunee," which means literally, "They form a cabin," describ- ing in this manner the close union existing among them.
The Indian name just above quoted is more commonly and liberally rendered " The People of the Long House," which is more full in description though not so accurate in translation. But, however variously they may have been designated, they were savages whose peculiar organization, prowess on the field of battle, loyalty to friends, as well as barbarous revenge upon enemies, to- gether with eloquence of speech and stoical endurance of torture, have made them the wonder of the world.
When, during the latter part of the fifteenth and the early part of the sixteenth century, the foreign navigators visited the Amer- ican continent, they found it in possession of two formidable races of savages, between whom there was no unity; and yet, while open hostility was suppressed, they were nevertheless in a constant state of disquiet, each being jealous of the other and at the same time doubtful of its own strength and fearful of the results of a general war.
One of these nations occupied, principally, the territory which afterward formed the State of New York, and is known in history as the "Iroquois Confederacy," or the Five (and subsequently) the Six Nations. The Iroquois originally comprised five nations which were located from east to west across the territory now forming
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
our state, beginning with the Mohawks on the extreme east, the Oneidas next, and the Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas following in the order named. Each nation was divided into five tribes, and all were united in common league. Parkman says : "Both reason and tradition point to the conclusion that the Iroquois orig- inally formed one individual people. Sundered, like countless other tribes, by dissensions, caprice, or the necessities of a hunter's life, they separated into five distinct nations."
The central council fire of the confederacy was with the Onon- dagas, while the Mohawks, according to Clark, were always ac- corded "the high consideration of furnishing the war captain (Chief Tckarahogea), which distinguishing title was retained so late as 1814."
In their peculiar blending of the individual, the tribal and the national interests, lay the secret of the immense power which for more than a century resisted the hostile efforts of the French. which caused them for nearly a century to be alike courted and feared by the contending French and English colonies, and which enabled them to subdue the neighboring Indian tribes, until they became really the dictators of the continent, gaining indeed the title of "The Romans of the New World."
DeWitt Clinton, speaking on this subject, said : "They re- duced war to a science, and their movements were directed by system and policy. They never attacked a hostile country until they had sent out spies to explore and designate its vulnerable points, and when they encamped they observed the greatest cir- cumspection to guard against surprise. Whatever superiority of force they might have, they never neglected the use of strategem, employing all the crafty wiles of the Carthagenians."
However, there is a difference in the opinion of authorities as to the true military status of the Iroquois. In the forest they were a terrible foe, while in an open country they could not successfully contend against disciplined soldiery ; but they made up for this deficiency, to a large degree, by their self-confidence, vindictive- ness and insatiable desire for ascendency and triumph.
While the Iroquois were undoubtedly superior in mental capaci- ty and more provident than their Canadian and southern enemies,
THIE IROQUOIS AND OTHER INDIANS.
and than other tribes, there is little indication that they were ever inclined to improve the condition in which they were found by Europeans. They were closely attached to their warrior and hunter life, and devoted their energies to the lower forms of en- joyment and gratification. Their dwellings, even among the more stationary tribes, were rude, their food coarse and poor, and their domestic habits and surroundings unclean and barbarous. Their dress was ordinarily the skins of animals until the advent of the whites, and was primitive in character. Their women were gen- erally degraded into mere beasts of burden, and, while they be- lieved in a Supreme Being, they were powerfully swayed by super- stition, by incantations, by " medicine men," dreams and visions, and their feasts were exhibitions of debauchery and gluttony.
Such, according to the present writer's sincere belief, were some of the more prominent characteristics of the race encountered by Champlain when he came into the Iroquois country near three centuries ago and welcomed them with the first fatal volley of bullets, a policy that was pursued by all his civilized succes- sors. It is not denied that the Indians possessed a few redeeming characteristics, but they were so strongly dominated by their barbarous manner of life and their savage traits, that years of faithful missionary labor by the Jesuits and others were pro- ductive of but little real benefit. It may be added that whatever 'is true of the Iroquois is equally true of the other nations or tribes, whether of New York, Canada or Pennsylvania. One was perhaps as peaceful and domestic as another, yet all the early efforts for their civilization and conversion to Christianity were un- certain and discouraging. Nostrong, controlling influence for good was ever obtained among them previous to the time of Sir William Johnson, and even then it is doubtful whether they were not inoved more by the power of purchase than by love of right.
In the southeast part of the province of New York and as well in the province of Pennsylvania, as subsequently known, were the possessions of the second race of savages referred to in a preceding paragraph ; the Delawares, descendants of the Lenni Lenapes, styling themselves by the latter name, the meaning of which is " Original People." When first visited by the Europeans
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
their seat of government was on the Delaware river, from which fact they became known as Delawares. Their possessions, how- ever, extended from the Hudson river on the east to Chesapeake Bay on the south, thence westward, on the Delaware, the Susque- hanna, the Allegany, the Ohio and the Potomac rivers. That portion of the Lenapes who dwelt along the Atlantic coast became divided into three tribes, the Unamis or Turtle, the Unalachtgo or Turkey, and the Minsi or Wolf, the latter being otherwise known as Monsey or Muncy. The Wolf tribe was the most fierce and warlike of the Lenapes and occupied the western extremity of their possessions, that they, like the Senecas or the Iroquois, might defend the border against invasion.
The three tribes above mentioned at length became divided into smaller bodies and each assumed a separate name suited to the locality in which it lived. In the Susquehanna valley dwelt the Shawnees, or Shawnese, the Susquehannas, the Nanticokes and the Neshaminies. The Susquehannas and the Nanticokes were in part at least within the boundaries of Tioga county, and the name of each is still preserved in the region. Reliable authorities on Pennsylvania colonial and Indian history state that these tribes were allied to the Delawares, and like them were descendants of the Lenni Lenapes ; and, at the time of the conquest of the latter by the Iroquois, they, too, were subjugated and made subservient to the direction of the conquerors.
However, so good an authority as the late Charles P. Avery in- forms us through his historical contributions to St. Nicholas, in 1853, that the Susquehannas and Nanticokes were branches of the Iroquois, and were allied to the latter during the period of the later French and Indian wars and also during the revolution. Both authorities are undoubtedly correct, for the conquest of the Delawares by the Iroquois took place about the middle of the seventeenth century, after which the tribes of the vanquished nation were permitted to live in the Iroquois country, or in regions previously in dispute. Judge Avery describes the tribes and their location just preceding and during the revolutionary war, at which period they inhabited the localities now known as Athens (Tioga Point), and the vicinity of Nanticoke creek, fourteen miles
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THE IROQUOIS AND OTHER INDIANS.
above Owego. This subject, however, will be further treated in a later chapter.
The dates furnished by various historians differ materially as to the time of the several conquests over other nations by the Five Nations. French accounts tend to show that the Kahquahs were first conquered, and the Eries after them, while others reverse the order of conquest. Be that as it may, both were subjugated, and the Neuter Nation, too, in turn, fell an easy prey to their relent- less masters, and all between the years 1640 and 1655.
After spreading destruction among their enemies nearer home, and bringing them into a state of complete subjection, the Iroquois went forth " conquering and to conquer." They first turned their attention to the tribes inhabiting the rivers of Pennsylvania, on the Allegany, the Susquehanna, and the Delaware; on the Ohio and even as far west as the Mississippi ; on the Potomac and the Savannah in the south, the Iroquois bore their conquering arms, filling with terror the dwellers alike on the plains of Illinois and in the glades of the Carolinas. They passed ruthlessly over the mouldering bones of the slaughtered Kahquahs to further con- quests on the shores of the great lakes beyond. They fought and vanquished the Hurons, the allies of the French, and forced theni to flee for safety to the frozen regions of Hudson's Bay. They con- quered as they went, destroying as a mighty whirlwind villages and inhabitants alike, and stayed only before the steady approach of the sturdy white-faced pioneer, and even he for a time was held at bay by these fierce confederates.
In 1712 the Tuscaroras, who had become involved in a war with the Powhattans and white settlers in the Carolinas, were defeated, fled north and were received into the confederacy of the Iroquois. Thenceforth the Five Nations became the Six Nations.
After the conquest of other Indian nations by the Iroquois, the latter were regarded both as masters and owners of the country, although they never exacted tribute nor in any manner oppressed their conquered enemies, other than to demand that their authori- ty be recognized. Indeed, these considerate masters even per- mitted the Delawares to sell their lands in Pennsylvania to the proprietary under the Penn charter, but at the same time the
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
treaties were held under the supervision of the Iroquois, and gen- erally at Fort Stanwix or some other important point well within the conceded territory of the Six Nations. The adjoining counties of Bradford and Susquehanna, in Pennsylvania, were a part of a vast purchase made by the Penn proprietary on the 5th of No- vember, 1768, at a treaty held at Fort Stanwix, where now stands the city of Rome, N. Y. The home lands of the Shawnese, and the hunting-grounds of the Nanticokes were purchased in 1753. However, in all conveyances by the Delawares to the agents of William Penn the chiefs or sachems of the Six Nations joined in the deeds as grantors.
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