USA > New York > Tioga County > Our county and its people : a memorial history of Tioga County, New York > Part 5
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The question whether a price was actually paid or promised for scalps has been widely debated. Mary Jemison, the celebrated "White Woman," then living among the Senecas on the Genesee, declares that at the treaty the British agents, after giving the Indians numerous presents, "promised a bounty on every scalp that should be brought in." Whether a bounty was paid or not, the Indians were certainly employed to assail the inhabitants with constant marauding parties, notwithstanding their well known and inveterate habit of slaughtering men, women and children whenever opportunity offered, or at least whenever the impulse to kill seized them. In fact they were good for very little else, their desultory method of warfare making them almost entirely useless in assisting the regular operations of an army.
The most active and most celebrated of the Iroquois chiefs in the British service during the revolution was Joseph Brant, or Thayendanegea, a Mohawk who had received a moderate English
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
education under the patronage of Sir William Johnson. Indeed, Molly Brant, sister to the chief, was for years the housekeeper for Sir William at Johnson Hall, while the chief himself was fre- quently one of the family. Brant was intrusted by British officers with the command of detached parties, but it does not appear that he had authority over all the tribes, and it is almost certain that the haughty Senecas would never have submitted to the com- mands of a Mohawk.
W. L. Stone, author of the "Life of Brant," says that at the battle of Wyoming in 1778, the leader of the Senecas, who formed the main part of the Indian force on that occasion, was Guieng- wahtoh, supposed to be the same as Guiyahgwahdoh, "the smoke bearer." That was the official title of the Seneca after- ward known as "Young King," he being a kind of hereditary embassador, the bearer of the smoking brand from the great council-fire of the confederacy to light that of the Senecas. He was too young to have been at Wyoming, but his predecessor in office (probably his maternal uncle) might have been there. Brant was certainly not there.
The last assertion from so well known an authority will be the occasion of no little surprise, and possibly some question, as the opinion has ever been current that Brant was the leader of the Indians on that occasion. That he was at Cherry Valley during the same year, there can be no doubt, but as the Senecas formed the chief contingent of Indian forces present at Wyoming it is fair to assume that the savages were commanded by a Seneca. Three of the leading chiefs of the Senecas during the revolution were "Farmer's Brother," "Cornplanter" and "Governor Black- snake," but who was in command is not certain. It is probable that the leader of each expedition received his orders direct from the English officers.
We have referred to the affair at Wyoming as a "battle" in- stead of a "massacre" as it has usually been termed. The facts seem to be that no quarter was given during the conflict, and that after the Americans were routed, the tories and Senecas pursued and killed all they could, but that those who reached the fort and afterward surrendered were not harmed, nor were any of the non-
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combatants. The whole valley, however, was devastated, and the houses burned. At Cherry Valley, the same year, the Senecas were also present in force, together with the Mohawks under Brant, and the tories under Capt. Walter Butler, son of Col. John Butler. Then there was an undoubted massacre. Nearly thirty women and children were killed, besides many men surprised help- less in their homes.
These events, together with others of less disastrous results, attracted the attention of Congress and General Washington to the Susquehanna valley, and they determined to set on foot an expedition in the spring of 1779, for the purpose of destroying all Indian villages and driving their troublesome inhabitants from the region. At this time the valley of the Susquehanna had become an important highway of travel for the Indians in passing between western Pennsylvania and the Mohawk country. Indeed, as Judge Avery's narrative says: "The old mode of communication between the valley of the Mohawk and Upper Canada, well known to the natives and used by them, namely: up the headwaters of that river to Wood creek ; thence to Oneida lake and Oswego river, was rendered unsafe for them by the establishment of Fort Schuyler. To reach within striking distance of his old home upon the Mohawk, Brant was forced to adopt another route, through the valley of the Susquehanna. Coming from the British posses- sions on Lake Ontario he landed his forces at Irondequoit Bay, near the mouth of the Genesee ; thence up that river to the mouth of one of its eastern tributaries ; thence up the tributary to a point near the headwaters of the Conhocton ; thence down that stream to Painted Post ; thence down the Tioga or Chemung, as formerly called, through Elmira (Skwe-do-wa) to Tioga Point (now Athens, Penna.,) his southern headquarters ; thence up the Susquehanna, through Owego (Ah-wa-ga), Binghamton (O-che-nang) and Oquaga (Onuh-huh-quan-geh) to Unadilla (De-u-na-dillo), his northern headquarters. From the latter place he sent forth those untiring scouting parties ; and also more formidable forces composed of English regulars, rangers, tories and Indians, keeping our settle- ments upon the Mohawk, Delaware, and on some of the tributaries of the Hudson, as well as those on the headwaters of the Susque- hanna, in constant alarm."
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"Between Unadilla and Tioga Point," continues the narrative, "free communication was maintained by the Iroquois throughout the war, interrupted only, for a brief interval in the summer of 1779, by the appearance of a well appointed American force of fif- teen hundred men under General Clinton. From Otsego Lake he and his army made a romantic descent of the river in batteaux, forming a junction with General Poor's brigade at Choconut (Chug-nut), fourteen miles above Owego, and with the main army under General Sullivan, at Tioga Point."
" Well beaten trails on both sides of our river, of considerable width, were the avenues of communication used by the natives, and over them bands of warriors passed and repassed without hin- derance, except the temporary one just alluded to. By the same trails our pioneer settlers, soon after the close of the war, made their way through our valley. They were found wide enough for the passage of pack-horses and cattle, and proved in after years, upon careful survey, the most direct and feasible routes from the east and north to this part of the state."
"From Tioga Point to Unadilla our valley was their stronghold and war-path ; unvisited by the colonists throughout our memor- able struggle, except as captives, or as officers or soldiers of our army of invasion. Here they drilled in martial exercise ; trained themselves to warlike feats, and prepared for those deadly incur- sions into our frontier settlements, and for those more formidable engagements where disciplined valor breasted their wild charge. To this valley they returned, as to a fastness, with their captives and streaming trophies."
The many Indian and tory depredations in various parts of New York during the period of the revolution were instigated chiefly by the malice and wantonness of Sir John Johnson. He at first sought to establish a British military post at Johnson Hall, which he fortified, and also armed the Scotch Highlanders who formed a strong contingent of his tenantry. But the spirit of patriotism was too strong in Tryon county to tolerate such a presence, and, becoming alarmed by the determined attitude of the whigs, the Johnsons resolved to abandon the state. Guy Johnson first de- parted, and with him were John and Walter Butler and Joseph
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Brant, the Mohawk chief, all of whom took up their abode upon the more friendly soil of Canada. The remaining, and by far the larger portion of the loyalists, placed themselves under the protec- tion of Sir John Johnson, who armed and equipped them in trne military style and sought to defend his vast estate against the Americans. The result was his arrest in January, 1776. He was released on parole, but violated this pledge of honor, and in May following, with his tenantry, proceeded stealthily by way of Sacan- daga to Canada, taking up his residence at Montreal. During the war Sir John commanded a troop known as " Johnson's Greens," but his worst acts were the schemes by which he instigated the sav- ages to destroy the frontier settlements and slaughter their inhab- itants. The affairs at Wyoming, Cherry Valley, and as well the several invasions of the Mohawk valley were planned by him and his associates, and occasions were not wanting in which he led his troops in an attack upon the Americans. For the purposes of their depredations the Butlers and Brant established headquarters south of Lake Ontario, in the very heart of the Seneca country, from which point marauding expeditions were constantly sent out.
Perhaps the most important events in connection with the In- dian history of the region which formed original Tioga county during the revolution were the affairs at Wyoming and Cherry Valley (neither, however, within the bounds of the county at any time), and the subsequent campaign of General Sullivan against all the offending Indians in the summer of 1779.
After the attack upon Wysockton, in May, 1778, " the captives," says Judge Avery, "were taken at once to Tioga Point and there given up to a British officer at the head of his rangers and Indians. They remained at that place during the whole of the preparation for the attack upon Wyoming, and were there, also, when the combined forces of the English under John Butler, and Indians under Gi-en-gwah-toh embarked in canoes and batteaux for that ill-fated place. Their destination was well known to the captives. Upon the return of the expedition from the massacre, with the booty, consisting of cattle, horses, etc., the captives were still there.
"In the latter part of July, all of the prisoners, inchiding the
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narrator (Mrs. Jane Whitaker), together with the Indians and other forces, came up to Owego, thence went to Bainbridge and Unadilla, in the vicinity of which points they remained several weeks. At the two last named places the captives had the privi- lege extended to them of cooking in a fire-place ; a novel luxury since their captivity."
"While the captives were at Bainbridge, two British soldiers deserted, making their way toward Tioga Point. A detachment was sent in pursuit, overtaking them upon the beautiful plain in the town of Nichols, now (1853) owned by General Westbrook and the descendants of Daniel Shoemaker, deceased, and then called Maugh-an-to-wa-no, which was a favorite corn ground of the na- tives. The forms of a court-martial were dispensed with, and the deserters were shot down at once. The bodies were left where they fell, without burial, until Queen Esther, of She-she-quin, a notable personage of that vicinity, superintended the digging of graves, in which they were placed a few days after the event."
Referring briefly to a preceding paragraph in which the author of the "Life of Brant" says that the chief was not at the massa- cre or battle of Wyoming, Judge Avery says : "Mr. Miner, in his excellent work, the history of that valley, inclines to the belief that he led in the battle and was responsible for the massacre. As the question now stands, the statement of Mrs. Whitaker is important. To feel its force fully, we must bear in mind that for more than a month prior to the massacre she was at Tioga Point when the whole expedition fitted out and started for Wyoming, and was there when the forces returned. She says : 'I saw Brant at Fort Niagara, often. I became well acquainted with his chil- dren and family. I saw him for the first time at the fort. I do not recollect of seeing him at Tioga Point when the expedition was fitting out for Wyoming, nor when it returned. I think I should have recognized him, if I had ever seen him before. I knew the English officers by sight, heard their names, and also saw the Indians in command at Tioga, but it was not the man whom they called Brant at Fort Niagara. I was young, but things that happened during our captivity, I remember with great dis- tinctness.'"
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This statement by Mrs. Whitaker would seem to confirm the fact mentioned in a preceding paragraph, that Brant was not at Wyoming. In fact it cannot be regarded a specially material point whether or not he was there, except as the opinion is cur- rent that the noted Mohawk led the attack. Judge Avery applied to every reliable source of information for light on this point and reached the conclusion that Brant may have been present, though not an active factor, on that occasion.
Be the truth as it may, Wyoming and Cherry Valley massacres determined Congress to visit condign punishment upon the Indians of southern and western New York. General Sullivan's famous campaign was its result, and by it the beauty and fertility of the Susquehanna Valley became known to the American colonists.
Sullivan's campaign against the hostile Six Nation Indians of New York, particularly against the Senecas, was one of the nota- ble events of the year 1779, and its effect was most salutary, for their villages and growing crops were destroyed and the natives themselves were forced to seek protection and maintenance from the British at Fort Niagara. In the order to General Sullivan, General Washington said : "The immediate objects are the total destruc- tion of the hostile tribes of the Six Nations, and the devastation of their settlements, and the capture of as many prisoners of every age and sex as possible." Furthermore, Sullivan was directed "to lay waste all the settlements around, so that the country may not only be overrun but destroyed," and subsequent events proved that the determined commander faithfully performed the important duty entrusted to his management.
According to the plan of this compaign, General Clinton was to proceed down the Susquehanna valley, destroying as he advanced, and join forces with the main body of troops under Sullivan at Tioga Point. On the 15th of June Clinton was with his force at Canajoharie, and reached Otsego lake during the latter part of that month, and on the 22d of August arrived at Fort Sullivan, having in the meantime devastated the Indian country through- out the upper Susquehanna valley. When he reached a point near Unadilla, Clinton's army was within the limits of original Tioga county, in view of which fact we may properly record some
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
of the principal events of the journey as a part of local history ; and for this purpose we extract from the journal of Lieut. Erk- uries Beatty, an officer in Clinton's division :
Thursday, August 12th, 1779. "Came to a small Scotch settle- ment called Albout, five miles from Unadilla, which we burnt." Albout was a tory settlement on the east bank of the Susquehanna.
On the following day the troops proceeded to the Indian village called Conihunto, fourteen miles below Unadilla. Another day's march brought them to the old Indian town of Onoquaga, located on both sides of the river in the present town of Colesville, Broome county. This is described as one of the "neatest " towns on the river, having good log houses with stone chimneys, and glass win- dows ; also mentions a church and burying ground, a great nun- ber of apple trees, and the ruins of an old fort. The Indians abandoned this village during the fall of 1778.
On Tuesday, the 17th, the troops proceeded down the river to the Tuscarora village called Shawhiangto, containing ten or twelve houses, all of which were burned or destroyed. On the same day Ingaren, another Tuscarora village, at or near the site of Great Bend, Penna., was reached and destroyed, as also were the corn fields and a primitive tannery, called by the officer a "tanfat farm."
At four o'clock in the afternoon of the next day the party reached the junction of the Chenango with the Susquehanna, the site of the city of Binghamton. From this point a detachment went up the Chenango to the Indian village of the same nanie, but found the houses already destroyed. The men camped this night two miles below the mouth of the Chenango. At Chugnut (Choconut), an important Indian town of about fifty or sixty houses, Clinton's army fell in with General Poor's detachment which had come up the river, destroying villages and crops as they advanced. Chugnut was on the site of the present village of Vestal, Broome county. It was burned August 19, 1779, by Poor's men.
The united forces marched on down the river, Clinton's men in the advance and Poor's in rear. On the 19th, a detachment went to the Indian village of Owagea (Owego), containing about twenty houses, all of which were burned. It was located on Owego creek,
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about one mile from the Susquehanna. On the 17th General Poor's detachment camped on the site of the present village, where was a small Indian hamlet. On the 20th another small village of about twenty houses was also destroyed. It was located about a mile lower down the river.
On the 15th of August, General Poor's regiment, comprising nine hundred men, was ordered to march up the Susquehanna river, destroying as they went, and meet General Clinton's command coming down. On the morning of the 16th the troops began the march, in two columns, and that night encamped near the ruins of the old Indian town called Macktowanuck (Maj. James Norris' Journal), and on the following day reached " Owagea, an Indian town which was Desterted last Spring, after planting. About the town is many Fruit Trees, and many Plants and Herbs that are common to our part of the Country. Heare is a Learge body of clear Intivale Covered with Grass."
On the 18th the troops proceeded to Chugnut, the remains of a large Indian town which had been abandoned during the summer. Here the men found about twenty houses, which they burned, and also found growing vegetables, cucumbers, squashes and turnips in abundance. The next day Poor and Clinton joined forces and returned down the river, camping at Owagea, where a large " bon- fire" was kindled at night "to grace our meeting," as the officer's journal states.
At four o'clock in the afternoon of the 21st, the troops encamped opposite the "Fitzgerald's Farm," on the north side of the river. "Manckatawangum, or Red Bank, here called Fitzgerald's Farm," appears to have been on the south side of the Susquehanna, in the town of Nichols, nearly opposite the village of Barton. Major Norris' Journal, in going up, says on the 16th the detachment en- caniped near the ruins of an old town called Macktowanuck. Lieut. Jenkins' Journal says "10 miles from Tioga, at the place called Manckatawangum, or Red Bank," and mentions encamping at the same point on the return march.
The point of historic interest in connection with this locality rests in the fact that in the early spring of 1779, two men named Sawyer and Cowley, the one an Irishman and the other a Scotch-
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man, were captured by four Indians near Harpersfield, and while on their journey to the British lines, encamped for a night at this place. During the night, by a previous arrangement, the prisoners arose and attempted to make their escape. They removed the prim- ing from the guns, secured a tomahawk and an ax, and at the given signal the weapons sunk deep into the brain of their captors. The noise awoke the others, one of whom received a disabling and the other a fatal blow. The wounded Indian escaped, but the mould- ering bones of the three who were killed were found by the troops when camping at the place several months afterward.
On the 22d of August, Clinton's and Poor's divisions reached Tioga Point, and went into camp for a few days, preparatory to the grand expedition which was to effectually drive the trouble- some Indians from the region of Central New York. Sullivan es- tablished a base of supplies at Wyoming, and with his army moved up the river to Tioga Point and there encamped at the most favor- ble point as a base of operations and built Fort Sullivan. After luis force had been augmented by the arrival of General Clinton's command, Sullivan at once made ready for the advance into the Indian country of New York, and on the 26th of August took up the line of march, arriving at the site of Old Chemung on the even- ing of the next day. On Sunday, the 29th, the army moved forward carefully, for the enemy were known to be directly in front, mak- ing preparations to resist any attack. Indeed, so near were the Americans to the British and Indian line that they could easily hear the latter in their work of erecting fortifications.
" The troops behind the ramparts," says Rev. David Craft, "con- sisted of a few British soldiers, the two battalions of Royal Greens, tories and Indians." Their several commanding officers were Col- onel John and Captain Walter Butler, Captain McDonald and Joseph Brant.
The battle of Newtown, as it has ever been known, was fought on the 29th, and waged with greater or less severity, but with al- most unvarying American success, for about seven hours. The British fought bravely, the Indians with their native shouting and whooping, but this had no terrors for the determined, avenging patriots under Sullivan and his worthy commanders. The Amer-
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icans lost five or six killed, and about fifty wounded, while the enemy lost heavily both in killed and wounded.
This was the first and indeed the only battle fought on original Tioga county soil during the revolutionary war, and it was through the events of this campaign against the Six Nation Indians that the fertility of the Susquehanna and Chemung valleys first became known to the whites. Within the next five or six years civilized white settlement was begun although twelve years passed before any civil jurisdiction was extended over the territory. These events, however, are reserved for a later chapter.
After a few days of rest and recuperation Sullivan's victorious army again moved forward, but nowhere did they encounter the Indians in force. On the 3d of September Catharinestown (Wat- kins), once the home of the somewhat noted Queen Catharine, was destroyed, and thence on both sides of Seneca lake the avenging troops marched forward, destroying and burning as they went all vestiges of Indian occupancy. On the 5th and 6th Kendaia and Kanadesaga were laid waste, and from the latter point detachments were sent out to destroy villages and crops in localities less prom- inent.
The army entered the heart of the Seneca territory, the center of the vast and fertile Genesee country, and after completing the work of destruction, reassembled at Fort Sullivan, (Tioga Point), and on the 15th of October returned to quarters at Easton. As the result of the campaign eighteen Indian villages had been annihi- lated, 150,000 bushels (estimated) of corn destroyed, besides vast quantities of other grain, crops of vegetables and orchards. Sul- livan's total loss amounted to about forty men. The best results of the expedition lay in the fact that the Indians were thoroughly subdued and disheartened and thenceforth sought protection from the posts at Fort Niagara and elsewhere within British lines ; nor could they be persuaded to any considerable extent to re-establish and occupy their former villages. The league which bound to- gether the Six Nations was now broken. Its form remained, but its force was destroyed, and the friendly Oneidas and Tuscaroras were encouraged to increase the separation from the other confed- erates.
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To the Indians this blow was a more serious matter than had been the destruction of their villages in earlier times, as they had adopted a more permanent mode of existence. They had learned to depend more on agriculture and less on the chase, and possessed not only corn fields, but gardens, orchards, and sometimes com- fortable houses. In fact they had adopted many of the customs of civilized life, though without relinquishing any of their primi- tive pleasures, such as tomahawking prisoners and scalping the dead.
Meanwhile, the war in other localities had gone forward with varying fortunes. Guy Johnson and Walter Butler kept the In- dians as busy as possible, marauding upon the frontier, but they had become so thoroughly broken in strength that they were un- able to produce such devastation as at Wyoming and Cherry Val- ley. In October, 1781, Cornwallis surrendered, and thenceforth there were no more active hostilities.
In the fall of 1783, peace was formally declared between Great Britain and the revolted colonies, the latter henceforth to be ac- knowledged by all men as the United States of America. By the treaty the boundary line was established along the center of Lake Ontario, Niagara river and Lake Erie. Although the forts held by the British on the American side of the line were not given up until several years afterward, and although they thus retained a strong influence over the Indians on this side, yet the legal title was admitted to be in the United States. Thus the unquestioned English authority over the territory of the state of New York lasted only from the treaty with France, in 1763, to that with the United States, in 1783, a little more than twenty years.
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