USA > New York > Niagara County > Outpost of empires; a short history of Niagara County > Part 7
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Lenski, Lois, Indian Captive. Story of Mary Jemison. Grades 7-9. Orton, Helen, The Gold-Laced Coat. Story of a boy who went to old Fort Niagara. Grades 7-9.
Richards Atlas of New York State
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Part 2b
Part III
AMERICANS BUILD UP NIAGARA COUNTY
5. Early American settlement begins 6. War strikes the Niagara Frontier
7. Settlements take root along lake, river, and creek
8. Settlements spring up along canal and escarpment.
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5. Early American settlement begins
The 1790's find few white men in Niagara
What was the country like?
The strip along the river showed few signs of life A traveler, riding into Niagara County in the 1790's, found it largely a wilderness untouched by white men except for a nar- row strip along the Niagara River. At the beginning of this strip, Fort Niagara guarded the river mouth. South of the fort, a narrow road passed through oak forests to Lower Landing, now Lewiston. Below the escarpment, Lower Landing was a small clearing, facing the river and walled in by forests on three sides. Only a log tavern, a ship dock, and a few Indian lodges showed that men lived there.
At Lower Landing, Indians toiled on Montressor's railway, loading and unloading goods. Above the escarpment, trade carts rumbled over the portage road southward to Fort Schlosser. Here, in a clearing by the river, some shacks tied together by well-beaten footpaths clustered near the fort.
People sought companionship in Middaugh's Tavern At Lower Landing our traveler headed for Middaugh's tavern. He swung down from the saddle, tied his horse to the hitching post, and strode into the crude log building. Inside, his boots tamped the dirt floor as he made his way to the bar. He noticed the usual rough crowd of dirty frontiersmen. Traders, trappers, soldiers, and Indians crowded the place laugh- ing, swearing, and drinking. Since it was summertime, the trav- eler saw a group of young cattle drovers among the others. Laugh- ing and pushing each other playfully, these drovers were enjoying a well-earned rest after the long trail drive from the east.
Niagara region wel- comed trail drivers Summer cattle drives to Niagara began soon after the Revolution ended in 1783. Drives started from Maryland and New Jersey and followed the invasion path General Sullivan had marched over in 1779. Young drovers herded noisy, bawling cattle to the Susquehanna River and then moved north to the Chemung River. Once in New York, they followed the east shore of Seneca Lake and then swung west to the Genesee River. From here they
continued west, pushing through the great Tonawanda Swamp to Fort Niagara, where they sold their herds.
These drovers pushed their herds across rivers and creeks and over hills and through swamps. Day after day they plodded on, halting only to rest at night, or to let the cattle graze in clearings along the trail. Always the cattle were in danger. Wolves and bears crouched in the underbrush and struck them down if the drovers were not careful. Sometimes wolves trailed a herd for days, waiting for a chance to strike. Nighttime, of course, was especially dangerous and drovers built great log fires to keep the wolves and bears away.
But wild animals were not the only danger the drovers faced on the trail. Indian villages dotted the way to the Niagara area and Indians always made the drovers fearful. And for good reason. The closest large white settlement was at least a hundred miles away. This meant that the drovers had to depend on themselves.
When drovers moved their cattle into an Indian village, an uproar followed. Barking dogs, hooting children, and pushing and shoving Indians crowded the herd to a stop. There was little the drovers could do, so they sat in their saddles and waited. Finally silence gradually settled over the crowd and a chief stepped for- ward and demanded cattle for passage through his village. Drovers considered themselves lucky if they could get away with giving the Indians only one of their cows. This was the usual price. Once they had handed over the cow, the drovers wasted no time pushing the rest of the herd through the village. There was always a chance that the Indians would change their minds and take the whole herd.
But the worst danger on a trail drive came from rustlers. Drovers feared these outlaws more than Indians. And with good cause. Rustlers hid in thickets near clearings, or by creeks and campsites, and waited to ambush unwary drovers. They struck by day or night and drovers toppled from saddles or died in blankets. Then the rustlers robbed the dead, stole their cows, and melted off into the forest. They left the bodies of the dead for the wolves.
Drovers sold their herds at Fort Niagara and then galloped off to Middaugh's tavern for a wild party. Sometimes they invited Indians who lived nearby. At one such frolic over two hundred Senecas and Tuscaroras whooped it up for days, dancing and drinking. Exhaustion finally ended that wild spree.
Before trailing home the drovers spent a few days looking at the sights and buying furs and cranberries. No trip was complete without a view of Niagara Falls and the gorge. The furs they
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later sold for high prices back home in New Jersey or Maryland. The homeward trail was the most dangerous part of the trip. Robbers in even greater numbers infested the trail. Furs were more valuable than cattle and easier to sell.
But the trip home also had lighter moments. The gay and care- free drovers were always ready to give a willing hand to pioneers raising cabins or clearing land. At such times a few young drovers could accomplish -a great deal for overworked frontier settlers. Then they moved on, reaching home in the autumn.
Some drovers remained in the Niagara area and became settlers. But settlement really began only after the Holland Land Company bought Western New York.
Indians sell Western New York
Massachusetts claimed Western New York for a long time and sold it to Robert Morris, the man who had helped finance the American Revolution. Morris then sold it to a group of Dutch bankers who had formed the Holland Land Company. Thus the land the company bought became known as the Holland Land Pur- chase. This purchase did not include a mile-wide strip along the Niagara River. This Mile Strip with its valuable Niagara Portage belonged to New York State.
How was the sale brought about?
Before Robert Morris could complete the A council was called at Big Tree sale to the Holland Land Company he had to buy Western New York from the Sen- ecas. With this in mind he called them to a council in 1797 at Big Tree, near Geneseo, New York.
Messengers sped over the forest trails carrying the call to every Seneca and Tuscarora village in Western New York. In village after village council fires burned long into the night, as Indians decided on attending the Big Tree Council. Finally the decision was made and the Indians prepared to leave. In some cases whole villages packed their belongings and headed for the Genesee River. From valley and hill and plain Senecas and Tusca- roras, and other Iroquois as well, moved slowly on Big Tree.
Big Tree swarmed with activity. Day by day the people poured in, men, women, children, and infants, and filled the clearing. At one time over three thousand Indians gathered at Big Tree. While Indians trod the trails leading to Big Tree, Thomas Morris, son of Robert Morris, had cattle herded into the clearing to feed them. And pack-horse after pack-horse loaded with tents, rum, blankets,
tobacco, and trinkets picked its way down the hills into the clear- ing. Seneca warriors paraded around or gathered in groups to talk and smoke. Squaws set up shelters and lugged firewood for the cooking fires that dotted the clearing. And all the while naked children darted about, playing amid the crowds or in the tall grass.
The camp of the white men was off to one side of the clearing. Here armed men guarded supplies and the herds of cattle and horses that grazed nearby. Most white agents mixed with the Indians only to hand out gifts and beef or to talk business with them.
Men important to Western New York attended the council- Thomas Morris, council leader; Joseph Ellicott, future Holland Land Company agent; Red Jacket and Cornplanter, Seneca chiefs; and many others. The United States Government as well as the Holland Land Company sent agents to the Big Tree Council. Land buyers and traders also gathered at Big Tree.
Finally, in the muggy August heat the council fires flared and the council began. Squatting chiefs, agents, and interpreters ringed the fire. Squaws and young braves crowded behind the circle, eager to watch. One by one, agents and chiefs stood solemnly before the council and spoke for or against selling land.
Red Jacket's objec- tions to Treaty of Big Tree were overcome The council went on for weeks. Each chief repeated the arguments of those who spoke before him and then gave his own views. This was tribal custom. Every move by Morris and the Holland Land Company agents to hasten the land sale was blocked by Red Jacket. This great Seneca orator attacked the land sale and tried to wreck the council. He argued that white men only respected the Indians because they owned land. Once the land was sold his people would become beggars. His sharp words cut deeply into his listener's hearts. And finally Red Jacket pushed the council to a point where it was ready to break up. He stood erect and slowly spread his hands over the fire, signaling that the council fire was out and the council was over.
But Thomas Morris and company agents did not give up easily. They outwitted Red Jacket. They did this by bribing the squaws with gifts. The scheme worked. The squaws decided to continue the council. This was their tribal right. In the end, the Indians signed the Treaty of Big Tree.
Red Jacket also signed the Treaty of Big Tree. He was paid to sign it but he also wanted to appear important to George Washing- ton by signing such an important treaty. He and other Iroquois chiefs had met Washington in Philadelphia in 1792. He had re-
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NFT
Red Jacket signals that the council fire is out. Big Tree 1797.
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ceived a large silver medal from President Washington. And like his red jacket, he wore his medal proudly wherever he went.
With the Indians' rights extinguished, Morris completed the sale of Western New York to the Holland Land Company. The Indians got $100,000 for their land and agreed to move onto reservations. Although the treaty did not require it, the company gave two square miles of the reservation land in what is now Niagara County to the Tuscaroras. In 1780 the Senecas had given them one square mile.
And so the Council of Big Tree ended. Indians broke camp and drifted homeward, leaving a clearing scattered with unwanted belongings and trash. In time the littered clearing near Geneseo was overgrown. Grass again bent before the wind, weeds grew up among the dead ashes of the council fire, and empty lean-tos rotted and collapsed, becoming dens for wandering animals.
What effect did the treaty have upon the Senecas?
Signs of the council vanished from the land; and in a way, so did the Senecas. White men nibbled at their reservations until little remained. Senecas lost their Buffalo Creek reservation in 1845 and much of the Tonawanda Creek reservation. Now they hold only a small reservation in the Niagara area. Red Jacket's words rang true. Without land, the Senecas did for a time become beggars. And as they wandered about looking for a lasting home and trying to adopt the ways of the white man, his words returned to haunt them.
The Holland Land Company opens Western New York to settlement
How was the purchase made ready for settlers?
It was surveyed by Joseph Ellicott With the Indians removed, the Holland Company turned its energies toward set- tlement. Company agents chose Joseph Ellicott to survey the Purchase. It was a wise choice. Ellicott was one of the best surveyors in the United States. He and his brother Andrew had surveyed the Western New York boundary in 1789. Later, the Ellicott brothers laid out the site of Washington, D. C.
Ellicott was also an expert woodsman. As a boy he had played among the forested hills in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. When his family moved to Maryland, he continued an outdoor life as a surveyor. He lived all but a few years of his life on the frontier.
At the time of the Big Tree Treaty, the six-foot tall Ellicott, in his mid thirties, was already familiar with Western New York.
In September, 1797, shortly after Big Tree, Ellicott began preparing a boundary survey of the Holland Land Purchase. Pushing into the autumn forests near the mouth of the Genesee River, teams of surveyors headed west to Fort Niagara. Then they turned south to Lower Landing, and went on to Fort Schlosser and Buffalo. Stumbling through underbrush, they cut, measured, and marked boundaries until winter.
For two years surveying teams worked in the forests and swamps of Western New York laying out townships. In the spring of 1798, they laid out Lewiston and the Mile Strip. Then trouble hit the surveying teams. Mosquitoes from swamps brought men and horses down with malaria. Work almost stopped. Ellicott, however, brought in fresh men and horses and surveying teams worked into late autumn to complete the year's work. In 1799, they finished surveying Indian reservations and Ellicott was care- ful to see that the company got the best lands. By 1800, most of Western New York had been divided into ranges, townships, and lots.
The building of roads Although much surveying remained to be and mills encouraged settlement done, Joseph Ellicott became chief land agent for the Company. From his head- quarters in Batavia he directed land sales in Western New York. He sponsored the building of taverns, roads, and mills to encourage settlement and advertised land sales in eastern cities, offering easy terms to land buyers. For twenty years Ellicott labored to carve settlements from the wilderness. He retired in 1820 and died six years later. Ellicott had left Niagara County well on the road to settlement. Few men have done more to develop Western New York.
What routes did pioneers follow to Niagara County?
Early settlers trickled into Niagara County by two main routes. The earliest pioneers used the water route. From Albany they poled and portaged up the Mohawk River to a point near Rome. Portaging to Wood Creek, they followed the creek to Lake Oneida. After crossing the lake, they drifted down the Oneida and Oswego Rivers to Lake Ontario, and then sailed west to Fort Niagara. From here they pushed on to Lewiston. Some struggled up the escarpment and trod the portage road southward to Fort Schlosser and then went on to Buffalo.
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The land route was much the same as Route 5 today. Leaving Albany in canvas-topped wagons, pioneers bumped along the Mo- hawk River to Utica and on to Syracuse. Just beyond Auburn, they waded swamps north of Cayuga Lake and struggled into Geneva. Their route led west to Canandaigua. At the Avon ferry landing, they crossed the Genesee and went on to Batavia where they plunged through the Tonawanda Swamp and finally reached Lewiston.
Traveling these roads was heart-breaking toil. In the spring, wagon wheels and rain formed mudholes that reached the un- believable depth of five feet or more. Pioneers had to fill these mammoth holes with logs and stones before their wagons could move west again. Spring rains also washed out whole sections of the road. These sections had to be repaired. Trees often blew down across the road and had to be cut and moved. Sometimes pioneers were lucky to travel a mile in a day.
Traveling conditions improved little in the summer. Wolves were still a constant threat. At night pioneers fed roaring fires to frighten them off. And day and night they slapped endlessly at whining mosquitoes that swarmed about in black clouds, bringing fever and sometimes death. Sometimes bloodsucking flies left ex- posed skin a bloody mass and drove horses into a blind panic. Rearing horses broke their harnesses and tipped wagons and scattered belongings along the trail.
Pioneers struggle to make a living
What was frontier life like?
Niagara County was opportunity
Many settlers, mostly young people, who came to Niagara left Massachusetts, Con- necticut, and Vermont because of high taxes, rocky soil, and a general agricultural depression. Unable to sell goods, they gave up their farms and headed west for a new start. Others flocked to Niagara County for the abundant cheap and fertile land.
Settlers first bought land Land cost a pioneer one to five dollars an acre. He usually bought his land from Joseph Ellicott at the Holland Land Com- pany office in Batavia. The company asked a ten percent down payment but often took less. And if a pioneer failed to make payments, the company let him stay on the land because he raised land values by clearing the forest. Sometimes, though, the company waited years for its money.
Ellicott usually gave a pioneer a rough map after the sale. The pioneer then built his log cabin and returned home. Later the whole family piled into the wagon and headed for their land. They dreamed perhaps of rolling pastures, fertile fields, good crops, and a fine comfortable home. But in spite of their eagerness, the dark, cool forest looked foreboding; and the black flies and mosquitoes took some of the magic from their dreams.
When the wagon jolted to a halt in the forest where the map showed their land to be located, they climbed out and the children's happy voices echoed in the woods. If the father had not already erected a cabin on the site, the family immediately started to work on a shelter. In an hour or so they had a three-sided framework of poles built and covered with canvas. The first few nights they kept fires roaring to protect the cow, hog, and oxen from wolves and bears. Not until they had built a sturdy shed were their animals safe.
Next they built cabins
With the lean-to up and the household goods stored, the work of raising a cabin began. From morning 'til night, axes rang in the forest and trees crashed to earth. And in spite of the cool winds, father and son sweated at their task. Trimming branches from the tree trunks, they chained the oxen to them and snaked the logs to the cabin site. Then the pioneer family held a log-raising bee. With the aid of neighboring settlers, they raised the log walls. Next they built a pole framework for a roof, shingling it with long strips of elm bark and tying saplings across the shingles to hold them in place.
Once the roof was on, pioneers breathed easier because they had shelter from storms. But the cabin was not finished. They still had to fill cracks in the log walls with wood chips and mud and then tamp the dirt floor flat and hard. Later, with the adz, they shaped logs into beams and planks for the floor. They had no glass, so they covered the windows with oiled paper. Their first log house seldom had a fireplace or chimney. For heating and cooking they dug a firepit in the dirt floor. Smoke escaped through a hole in the roof. In time they wove a fireplace of sticks and plastered it with mud.
Pioneers usually furnished their cabins with the iron kettle, bedding, and eating utensils they had brought in their wagons. They made tables, benches, buckets, plates, spoons, and other neces- sary things from the wood of the surrounding trees.
=
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A pioneer farm on land purchased from the Holland Land Company.
Then they cleared land and planted crops With the cabin up, the whole family turned out to clear land. Hour after hour father and son swung axes, and tree after tree toppled to the ground to be cut, piled, and burned. Day and night flames and smoke poured skyward from the clearing. And for weeks scorched hair and eyes red from smoke were common sights among the family.
Finally they cleared enough land for the first crops. Among tree stumps they planted corn, beans, pumpkins, squash, and potatoes. The sight of the first green shoots pushing from the earth drew the eager pioneer family running to the garden plot. All through the growing season they guarded crops against deer, rabbits, and other plant eaters and scanned the skies for rain. A crop failure meant hunger and possible starvation.
Getting enough food was always a problem on the frontier. Pioneers rarely brought enough food with them. They planned to live off the land until the following spring. In the summer this was fairly easy because the woods teemed with game, berries, and plants and creeks and lakes swarmed with fish. But in the hunger months of February and March it was a different story. Only the skillful hunters and woodsmen could live off the land then. Many early settlers had to eat roots and bark to keep alive, and many sickened and died in lonely snowbound cabins.
Food was plain
The pioneer family had little change in diet even when food was plentiful. Sitting on benches around their rough table they ate the same foods everyday -eornmeal mush, pork, beans, and potatoes. Only in season did they have fresh foods from garden or forest. What food they had was usually enough to keep the wise family alive and working hard.
Pioneers worked long and hard
Pioneers had to make or raise almost every- thing they ate, wore, or used. Everyone had to work. Young and old alike toiled from
dawn to dusk.
Women and girls sewed, washed and scrubbed; they made candles from animal fat or hunted pineknots to burn; they made soap by mixing boiling fat with homemade lye. They churned cream into butter and ground corn into meal; they made cloth from wool -washing and combing wool fibers straight, they twisted them into thread and wove cloth. They dried beans, squash, and pumpkins for winter, and in season gathered berries and plants in the forest. They tended the sick and cared for children.
Men and boys milked cows and chopped firewood. They trimmed and squared logs into planks and beams. They plowed, planted, and harvested; they fished, hunted, and trapped. They cut wool from sheep and slaughtered hogs for food and they built animal sheds and cared for livestock.
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But even a skillful and hardworking family could not make everything it needed. Some things had to be bought. Pioneers some- times bartered their crops to get the things they needed. They did however have three main sources of money-black salts, animal bounties, and brandy.
Wolves and bears caused widespread damage among livestock on the frontier. They even slaughtered stock near the cabin during daylight hours. In winter hungry wolf packs sometimes hunted men. So the town government paid bounty money to get rid of the wolves. The bounty for a wolf scalp was high, usually three to ten dollars, but sometimes it was as high as fifty dollars. Bounties on bears, foxes and wildcats however were not so high. Some families lived through the first year on bounty money.
Black salts was a product settlers made from wood ashes. After cutting and burning trees they gathered wood ashes in wooden tubs with holes in the bottom. They poured water on the ashes and col- lected the ash-water in large kettles. After boiling the water out, the hard, black, salt-like material left was black salts. We know it as potash or lye, and use it to make soaps and dyes.
Another important source of money was whiskey. Rye and corn are bulky crops and cost a great deal to ship hundreds of miles to eastern markets. After paying shipping costs pioneers had little money left. So they made their corn and rye into whiskey. Some- times they built stills of their own. Whiskey was easy to ship and brought good prices.
Sickness and death were common on the frontier Pioneers drank much of the whiskey they made. They did this partly because they believed that alcohol in the blood prevented sickness. In some places drunkenness was a serious problem. But in spite of whiskey, sickness was common, especially during the hunger months of February and March. Lung fever (tuberculosis) and small-pox killed many, especially children.
But the most common sickness was "shakes" or "ague," today known as malaria. Swamps in Niagara County bred malaria-carry- ing mosquitoes. People weakened by hunger lacked strength to fight the disease. The old remedy of gunpowder mixed with whiskey did not help much, nor did sulphur and molasses. From time to time other diseases such as typhoid fever and cholera swept through the frontier and wiped out whole families. Sooner or later epidemics hit every frontier settlement. Children suffered more than adults. Only one in two ever reached the age of five.
Frontier families had little medical help. Doctors were scarce
and they knew little about medicines and diseases. The best a pio- neer family could do was to make the sick comfortable and attempt to ease their suffering. With whiskey, sulphur, and a damp cloth, and perhaps Indian herbs, the frontier family sat out the sick watch, taking turns throughout the night. But the main burden of caring for the sick fell upon the mother. Worried and tired, she watched the final hours of the sick.
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