USA > New York > Onondaga County > Past and present of Syracuse and Onondaga County, New York : from prehistoric times to the beginning of 1908 > Part 26
USA > New York > Onondaga County > Syracuse > Past and present of Syracuse and Onondaga County, New York : from prehistoric times to the beginning of 1908 > Part 26
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For that day, also, he was well off. He left, by his will dated July 21, 1821, his farm of two hundred aeres to his "beloved wife, Hannah Webster," for her natural life, together with all his personal property of about $2.000. In this were ineluded notes and cash amounting to $483.55, horses and colts $270, horned eattle $157.50, sheep $35, hogs $62, bees $60, beds, etc., $162.50, furniture $232.75, grain $228.13.
After his wife's death the land was to be divided between his and her five children. There were Amanda Adams, Alonzo, Lueius II .. Iantha, and Caro- line E. Webster. Besides this he gave his wife's mother. Luey Danks, sixty- two and a half aeres during her natural life, afterward to revert to his heirs.
The last note given to Webster was dated June 21, 1824, perhaps the day on which he went to Tonowanda. for a letter was written by him from that place which is now owned by the Onondaga Historical Association, a gift from Miss Charlotte Tyler. to whose father. Mr. Oren Tyler, it was addressed at On- ondaga Hollow where he had a store. After having been duly signed and sealed it seems to have occurred to him that Mr. Tyler might be away, so he added "Mr. Redfield, please forward this and oblig E. Webster." The letter fol- lows, as it may have been the last he wrote, and at least gives his style :
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY
"Tunawant Villig, 30th Augst, 1824.
Dea sir-
Your favor of the 22d of June was receted yesterday. It is now two late to think of giting roots at Catarages. I, however, hear the same story about that place as I did about this. I don't know how I shall make out hear. I have not more that one hundred bushels ou hand. I have bin three weeks a colecting them. The Indiens sais thair will be more by and by.
"I left Winan to coleet at onondago, but have not heard ennything about him. I wrote a few days ago to Docter Needham by his request & desired him to write to me, but I hear nothing from him. If Wiman is not colecting now and does not intend to try, then you might take that meehean and do what you could, and I would do what was right. Provided you let me have the roots we could settle well enough. I wish you wouldl write to me and let me kno what is going on at onondago respecting ginsang, little Thomas tells me that som person at Siracus oferd 20s pr bushel before he came away.
"I do not beleave him. A number of the Indiens talk of coming hear but they do not com. If you can find out ennything about it Pleas let me know. Heylin talkt of coming. if you know enny thing pertikaler respecting him or my famaly Pleas let me know. at all events write me by return of mail & direet a letter to me at Pembrook, ginase county, & oblige your ould frind.
EPHM. WEBSTER."
It may be that Tyler's letter was sent August 22, instead of June; other- wise, it was long on the road. Heylin Webster has his name usually spelled Halen. The Syracuse Ilerald in 1886 made special efforts to learn the farts about Webster's death and burial at Tonowanda, but mistook the year, his will having been proved December 10, 1824. Isaac Doxtator, of Tonowanda, spoke of him as Ne-ah-ton-gah (white man) called So-go-kon-is by the Onondagas. "He lived in a cabin near the Council house, right in the center of the Tono- wanda village. He was an old man and had gray hair and gray whiskers." He.was buried near the council house, but was removed to a cemetery on the Lewiston road, west of Alabama Centre in 1831. Gurney S. Strong dates nis death October 16, 1824, as in the family bible, and it could not have been far from that time; certainly between Angust and December. His old home on the three hundred acre tract, was burned May 3, 1891. The corrected date of his birth made him sixty-two years old when he died.
While passing through Oneida lake in 1791, Elkanah Watson wrote thus: "Near the west end of the lake are two small islands, on one of which resides a respectable Frenchman, who came from France a few years since. and has voluntarily sequestered himself from the world, and taken up his solitary abode upon this island, with no society but his dogs, guns and library. vet he appeared happy and contented."
James Cockburn passed through the lake in 1792, surveying the northern shore. He said: "There are two islands in the lake. the one about thirty, the other about twenty acres. On the westernmost lives a Frenchman and his
VIVUS W. SMITH.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY
family." Then came Francis A. Vanderkemp, a scholar and a gentleman, on an exploring trip with Baron De Zeng. He landed at the island, and in his delightful journal described what he saw. "Here was the residence of Mr. and Madame des Wattines, with their children. They live there without servants, without neighbors, without a cow; they lived, as it were, separated from the world." It was their second year there, and the youngest daughter, Camille, had been born in their island home. They were cultured people, and, in Society phrase, "entertained delightfully." In fact the French man was of the middle class, and had come to America in 1786, before the French revolution. Business had not prospered with him, and after various losses he had come to the island in 1791.
The travelers landed, and followed a path through the woods, admiring the Frenchman's taste and skill. "It seemed a Paradise, which happiness had chosen for her residence." They reached the garden. "A small cottage of a few feet square stood nearly in the center of this spot. It had a bark covering and to the left of it a similar one, three-fourth uncovered, an l ap- . propriated for a kitchen. Ilere was the residence of Mr. and Madame de Watines with their three children." He came forth to greet them. "The well educated man was easily recognized through his sloven dress. Ragged as he appeared, without a eoat or hat, his manners were those of a Gentleman; his address that of one who had seen the higher eireles of civilized life." His wife sat by the door, "dressed in white, in a short gown and petticoat, gar- nished with the same stuff; her chestnut brown hair flung back in ringlets over her shoulders." Her babe she held to her breast, while the two other chil- dren stood on either side. Details are given here, for the group may suggest a picture or tableau.
The furnishing was simple. "Few trunks, few chairs, an oval table, two neat beds, was the principal furniture; a double barreled gun, a pretty collection of Books, chiefly modern Literature in the French language, the chief ornaments of the cottage." A pretty garden lay behind this. Flowers of many kinds were in this, vegetables to tempt the epicure, but hardly a weed to be seen. Beyond these were young apple trees, potatoes, and a half eirele of wheat. All had been done with an axe and hoe. What a breakfast Madame served for them next morning! Vanderkemp said: "I was seldom better re- galed."
They ealled on their return, and their host went with them to Oneida ereek. Ilis wife eame to the shore to see them off, her boy and girl beside her, and so they left her. "There stood that lovely, deserted fair one! Not deserted as Ariadne-but nevertheless left alone-with three helpless child- ren-alone ! on an island on Oneyda Lake."
The Duke de Rochefoucauld met them in 1795, after they had removed to Constantia. There Des Vatines had the reputation of being a fine gardener, and he told his visitor his story. He once had a viscount's estate near Lisle, but his father spent part of the property and he was rather prodigal himself. So, before the French revolution he sold his small estate for twenty-four
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY
thousand livres, and came to America. He soon was rid of this, and turned to agriculture. For over three years he had lived near Oneida lake, and one year he spent with the Oneida Indians. On Frenchman's island he cleared twenty acres, but had now been at Rotterdam (Constantia) for fifteen months, where he had bought one hundred aeres of Mr. Seriba. "He is about thirty years old, sprightly, obliging, always merry, inured to labor, and never troublesome with complaints of his fate." Most of his books he had sold, and though fairly prosperous then, meant to return to France.
Madame Vatines (the Duke did not use the prefix) "is about twenty- four years of age, pretty and good : her eyes are beautiful; her look has much sweetness and expression, and it seems that she, like many other wives, loves her husband with more tenderness than he returns ..... She is mother of three children the oldest of whom is ten years old; she is of a mild and cheerful disposition, sensible and judicious. She makes hay, bakes bread, cooks, and yet her hands are very handsome."
It was before this, in 1793, that Baron De Zeng again visited his island friend, October 31; this time at Constantia. His house there was not yet cov- ered, and was as "open as a cage. We found his wife and three little children as jovial as Cupids. They made the most they could of their poor barrack, where they would be obliged to spend the winter, as from all appearance it could not be finished that season." That year, also, the Castorland party met them.
The subject interested M. Alexis de Tocqueville, author of Democracy in America, and he visited the island July 8, 1831, riding from Brewerton to South Bay through a dense forest. One house only he passed on the road. Ile said: "Lake Oneida stands in the midst of low hills and of still original forests. A belt of thick foliage surrounds it on every side; its waters bathe the roots of the trees, which are reflected in its calm, transparent face. Abont a mile from where we stood were two oval shaped islands of equal length. These islands are covered with trees; they look like two thickets floating quietly on the surface of the lake."
Many years before he had read a book called "Voyage an lae Oneida." which told the story of the young Frenchman and his wife in the most approved style of romance. It made a lasting impression on him. He and his companion often talked of it, and would end by saying. "The only happiness in this . world is on Lake Oneida." So, being in America, they "determined to visit the French pair, if they still lived, or at least to explore their dwelling."
They entered a fisherman's hut and questioned an old woman who had lived there twenty-one years. The island, when she came, was a beautiful spot, with fruits, flowers and vines, but the house was already falling to pieces. "The wife had died and the man had abandoned the island." No one knew what became of him.
They were soon on the spot, but it was an hour before they found any vestige of the forsaken dwelling. An old apple tree and a grape vine were the first indications. "Of the remains of her who had not feared to exchange
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the pleasures of a civilized life for a tomb on a desert island in the New World, we could not find a trace." And no wonder.
Then they imagined the unfortunate man, first as an exile and then as a widower, not suspecting what a jolly fellow he was. "He is no longer fit for solitude. nor for the world. He can live no longer alone, nor with other men." Like a dead forest tree, "He is still erect, but he lives no longer." With these parting reflections they returned to the mainland, never dreaming they had wasted their sympathy.
CHAPTER XX.
FROM THE CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTION TO THE OPENING AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE MILITARY TRACT.
Returning from this digression to the general course of events. we are reminded that in concluding peace Great Britain made no provision for her Indian allies. This caused great indignation among them and the Canadian authorities. Officers there called "His Majesty's speech the most humil- iating that ever came from the Throne." One wrote to Haldimand from Ni- agara, "With respect to the boundaries, alas! they were perfectly well known on the 23d April to every ranger in Butler's corps. Few of the Indians yet knew them. and he would endeavor to keep them in good humor." A few days later he added: "The Indians look upon our eonduet to them as treacherons and eruel ... . They were the faithful allies of the King of England, not his subjects; that he had no right whatever to grant away to the States of Amer- ica their rights or properties without a manifest breach of all justice and equity, and they would not submit to it."
In 1784 the treaty of Fort Stanwix was held. The Americans proposed having it at Albany, and the English thought the Indians should insist on having it still further west, but the place chosen was generally satisfactory. To a large portion of the Six Nations the treaty was not. The Onondagas were secured in the possession of their old home territory, though most of them were living at Buffalo ereek. In a treaty at the same place September 12, 1788, the Onondagas did "cede and grant all their lands to the people of the State of New York forever," except certain reservations. They were to have the "right of hunting in every part of said eeded lands and of fishing in all the waters of the same." Also, "The Salt Lake and the lands for one mile around the same shall forever remain for the common benefit of the people of the State of New York, and the Onondagas and their posterity for the purpose of making salt."
The Onondagas reserved a tract for their own use "beginning at the southerly end of the Salt Lake," where Onondaga ereek reached it, and run- ning easterly three miles; then southerly according to the general course
.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY
of the creek, till it intersected an east and west line three miles south of their village. This line ran west nine miles. Then the line ran north, parallel to the sceond line, till a line due east would reach the place of beginning, which would form part of the north line. For this they were to have a present pay- ment, and an annuity of five hundred dollars in silver. This was afterward confirmed and signed by twenty-eight Onondaga chiefs and warriors, as follows in the Indian Problem, June 16, 1790:
Tehonwaghskwenton
Annhiente
Joghahilen
Rononghsionne
Otkwentageghte
Sagoyenaghs
Takanaghkwaghsen
Aronghgowanengh
Karonghyatsigowa
Aonghwenjagehte
Kaghicktoton
Onaakaronton
alias Land Carrier
Onaghsadegeagh alias Flaming Arrow
Tehoghweakaronto
Skonawadigh alias One Rift
Skayendalben
Atthaghseranon
Rasseghstoghare
Agwirontongwaghs Anonghsighraghtha
Skayaness
Takeneghsate
Oniata Riyoo
Ayanoo
Aronghyeaghtha
Kaneyaagh
Oyadageghte
The Indian witnesses were Peter Otsieguette, Aghwistonisk, Oneyanha and Coll, IIonvery, Oneida chiefs; Onongaiekhon, Thoghnawayen, Seneeas. Of those who signed the first treaty, September 12, 1788, Clark gave quite a different list as follows:
BEAR.
DEER.
TURTLE.
Kahiktoton,
Kanaghssetegea.
Tehonwaghstoweaghte.
Tehojiskeaiyea,
Agogighkwayewa, by his cousin.
Kanadaes,
by the chief of the elan. Skawyadaliyo,
WOLF.
Tehoenagalaongh,
Kalonghyo, by his brother. EEL.
Shagohaasegh,
by the chief of the elan. Agwelondongwas,
Onoewileghte,
Thanehaaghkawa,
Sagoeyons, Sagosaiewas, by the chief of the clan. BEAVER. Kanadakeawaghte, Adahsweandaahsea,
by the chief of the_elan. by the chief of the clan. Waghshaine,
Hyanoenwe. by the chief of the clan.
GOVERNESSES, Tjeanoenikhe and Kaeghhewa-
The Indian witnesses were Louis Nyadeghhalongweah of the Oneidas; Kayendatsyona, chief governess of the Senecas; Shagodyadyeatha, Hanowean- tho, Joayhgwalet, Sheanooewa, Shagokanyos, Senecas; Kaneongwe and Hagh- gouthiyo, Cayugas. A chapter of the D. A. R., at Fulton, New York, is named after Kayendatsyona, which signifies a hewed log.
-
Shagoyenawaghskwe,
Waghselonyahhe,
Kaghnenrayen
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY
A treaty was held at Onondaga, November 18, 1793, by which the Ononda- gas ceded all the land east of the creek from a point seven miles south of the northeast angle of the original reservation, except the salt lands. They also sold a second tract, beginning in the south bounds, four miles west of the south- east corner running north till due west of the corner of the seven mile line; then east to a point half a mile west of the ereek, and northerly to the salt reservation. All west of this general line was sold. This was signed by twenty- four chiefs and warriors ; Clark said twenty-five.
At the treaty of Cayuga Ferry, July 28, 1795, the annuities were changed, and the salt lands and the half mile strip west of the ereek were sold. This treaty was signed by seventeen Onondagas. Clark said eighteen, probably reckoning again one who signed for another.
Another treaty was held at Albany. February 25, 1817, at which about four thousand acres were sold east of the present reservation, and the title to Webster's three hundred acre tract was confirmed. This was signed by ten Onondagas.
The last land treaty with the Onondagas was at Albany, February 11, 1822, when they sold a strip of eight hundred aeres off the south end of the present reservation. Five Onondagas signed this, Ossahinta appearing as Asahent.
There was no legal title to lands occupied by white settlers, in what is now Onondaga county, till 1791, yet settlers came, the first of these being Asa Danforth and his family. Ephraim Webster, hunting with two Onondagas in Montgomery county in February, 1788, stopped at his house in Mayfield, and asked a night's lodging in his barn. He took them into his house instead. and gave them a warm meal. Webster praised Onondaga, a much better place than Mayfield, and offered to ask permission for Danforth to settle there. His hos- pitality had won the hearts of all the party. If permission was given. an Indian messenger was to be sent, who in due time appeared, and Danforth pre- pared for the journey.
Mr. Danforth's son. Asa, with Comfort Tyler, was sent across the country with the necessary stock, arriving at Onondaga before his father, and meeting him at the mouth of the creek. Danforth himself came with two bateaux, in which were his family, furniture and farming utensils. They came up the Mohawk, through Oneida lake and river, and thenee through Onondaga lake. At the creek the boats were lightened and pushed up the stream to Danforth's Landing, where he disembarked and settled May 22, 1788. The site of his home has been recently marked by a flagstaff, east of the creek and near Mrs. Tolman's. At that time the Onondagas were hard drinkers, and the family had many alarms from this. Kahiktoton. Thorn tree with fruit on it, was then principal chief, and proved very kind. Tawhisquanta, Lying flat on his stomach, was also kind. He was commonly called Captain John, and had been a great warrior.
The Onondagas called Major Danforth Hateeolhotwas, The man who plows the ground, and some wished to drive him away, instigated by some
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY
traders who supplied them with rum. The chiefs took his part and he re- mained. However, he, his wife and child, did make a visit to their old home in December. They were on a sled, and spent the first night on this at Chitte- nango; the next night they were with Skenandoa at Oneida Castle; the third night they lodged with Judge White at Saugnoit. Thence they went to Brook- field, Massachusetts, leaving there on their return about the middle of March. In the spring their land and that of the Indians was prepared and planted.
Tennyson says: "In the spring a young man's faney lightly turns to thoughts of love." and this proved the case with young Danforth and Tyler. They made eastern trips and brought back wives. Thus Asa Danforth. Jr., and wife became the parents of the first white child born here. She was afterward Mrs. Amanda Phillips, wife of Colonel Phillips of Syracuse.
Of course living in the wilderness meant many privations. There was no mill nearer than Herkimer, sixty-seven miles away, and Danforth adopted the Indian mortar, adding to this a hand-mill a little later, in both eases sifting the corn and meal. It was the day of slavery in New York, too, and he soon had a stalwart negro "niggering corn." As soon as settlement was enough ad- vaneed Danforth built saw and grist mills, but under many difficulties. In fact he was a leader in almost every enterprise.
There was also a settlement at Salina before the opening of the Military Tract. Colonel Jeremiah Gould came there with his family in August, 1790. Beside his wife there were three sons and a daughter. He found there Deacon and Nathaniel Loomis, Hezekiah Olcott, Thomas Gaston, John and Asa Dan- forth, Jr., with their families.
Ryal Bingham was near Three River point in 1789; and in the same year Oliver Stevens was on the north side of the river at Brewerton, but with a garden opposite in Cicero. In the township of Manlius Mr. Benjamin More- honse settled in 1789, but of course had no title to land then. David Tripp was the first settler in the present town in 1790. Morehouse eame, April 26, 1789. with a wife and three small children. He built his log cabin on Kasoongkta Flats, afterward ealied Morehouse's Flats. Here he opened his tavern in 1790, a few rods west of where the old church stood, and it became a noted place at onee. His danghter Sarah, born February 16, 1790, is supposed to be the second white child born in the county. This was in the present town of De Witt.
John Wilcox came to the present town of La Fayette in the spring of 1789, settling at Indian Orehard, the site of an abandoned Onondaga town. So said Clark, but he afterward changed it to 1791. the more probable date.
Camillus is credited with Captain Isaac Lindsay as a settler in 1790; more likely a year or two later. These are the only two towns claimed to have had any white inhabitants before the opening of the Military Tract, as no one could buy a home till then. Onondaga and part of Salina were not parts of this. Inn keepers could settle any where almost at once, as they at tirst re- quired but little land, and needed not to buy. This general survey brings us to the time when nearly the whole of Onondaga was open for settlement.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY
The land had been purchased, surveyed, divided by lot, and now it was but a question between man and man who should have it. Some incidents of settlement ean appear under the headings of towns, but a brief general his- tory of the tract and county will be included in this chapter.
THE MILITARY TRACT AND ONONDAGA COUNTY.
On September 16, 1776, Congress provided bounties for eighty-eight battalions to serve through the war. Massachusetts was to raise fifteen of these and New York four, not being then the Empire state. Non-commissioned officers and privates were to have a bounty of twenty dollars, and a grant of land of one hundred aeres each. Ensigns were to have one hundred and fifty acres, lieutenants two hundred, captains three hundred, majors four hundred, lieutenant-colonels four hundred and fifty, and colonels five hundred. In 1780 the land bounty for a brigadier-general was to be eight hundred and fifty and that of a major general one thousand one hundred acres.
In 1783 New York made provision for these bounties, adding a quantity of state lands to New York troops. A major general was to have five thous- and five hundred aeres, a brigadier general four thousand two hundred and fifty. colonel two thousand five hundred, lieutenant colonel two thousand two hundred and fifty. major two thousand, captains and regimental surgeons one thousand five hundred. chaplains two thousand, subalterus and surgeon's mates one thousand, non-commissioned officers and privates five hundred. There were some later modifications.
Townships were to be laid out of one hundred lots each, cach lot to contain six hundred acres. These were to be settled within seven years from the first of January after the patent was issued. Fifty aeres in one corner of each lot were to be subject to charges of forty-eight shillings for surveying. In 1789 it was resolved that six lots in each township should be reserved. one for promoting the gospel and schools. one for the state literature fund, and four for possible claims. It was originally provided that if persons applying for these lands had received from Congress their bounty, or failed to give up claim to it, one hundred acres in each lot was to be reserved for the use of the state. Hence came the term. "State's Hundred."
When a map of twenty-five townships was presented in 1790 "the Board . designated them by the names of distinguished men." Simeon De Witt was not present. Of these townships Lysander, Camillus, Cicero, Manlins, Mareellus. Pompey. Tully and Fabius were wholly or partially within the present limits of Onondaga county. For a time a town might be composed of several townships.
The deed given for a military lot was as follows, changing the antiques, and using a deed as filled out. Some are yet preserved :
"The People of the State of New York by the grace of God, free and independent :- To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting :- Know ye, that, in pursuance of an act of our legislature, passed the sixth day of
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