USA > New York > Onondaga County > Past and present of Syracuse and Onondaga County, New York : from prehistoric times to the beginning of 1908 > Part 4
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 4
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The lower Green lake is the one of which Dr. Beck. wrote: "Water drawn from the depth of one hundred and sixty-eight feet was found to be highly charged with sulphurated hydrogen. Its specific gravity was scarcely above distilled water. and contained not even a trace of oxide of iron." Its shores are winding, and it is of a generally triangular form and about half a mile long. Altogether it is a pretty and pleasant spot. Hooker's and the showy orchis are found near by. There are paths which connect the lakes.
Evergreen lake is the name of a small but picturesque pond half a mile south of High Bridge, not far from Fayetteville and the outlet of White and Green lakes, which are accessible from Jamesville also. White lake is the larger but less picturesque of the two. They are connected by a small stream flowing from Green lake, which has eliffs on three sides about two hundred feet high and seven hundred feet above tide. There are several caves east of Jamesville, but they have few attractive features.
West of Jamesville is another of these ponds which is much like Green lake. having cliffs two hundred feet high on three sides, and an area of about ten acres. Its depth is sixty feet, giving a total depth of about two hundred and sixty feet from the top of the cliff. On the east side is low land through which the water oozes till it forms a stream. The place has many points of interest and many visitors. Various theories have been given for these curious lakes,
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the most recent and probable being that here were great water-falls in the mighty rivers connected with the glacial period, the falling water excavating deep holes in the well known way. The Jamesville reservoir is a beautiful lake.
The old reservoir forms a pretty artificial lake at Onondaga park in Syracuse and Onondaga lake is three hundred and sixty-four feet above the sea. It is nearly five miles long and has mneh to interest the scientists, many rare birds visiting it, and several marine plants growing there. Its geological features have arrested attention, and its history is of the most striking kind. For over two and a half centuries has it been familiar to the white man, and here of old came missionaries and traders, statesmen and soldiers. Drainage has changed it much, and there will be steady encroachments at the south end. The con- taet of a great city is also affecting its fauna and flora, but these are inevitable things. The lowering of its surface and straightening of its outlet in 1822 were blessings indeed, and any possible raising of the bed will be vigorously opposed for sanitary reasons.
Oneida lake, three hundred and seventy feet above the sea, is not more than sixty feet deep, giving favorable fishing conditions, familiar to its earliest visitors. It will soon be reached by trolley at South Bay, as it is now by the Rome and Watertown railroad at Brewerton. Much of the shore is marshy and difficult of access. It was an early route for travel, and large armies have traversed its waters, as well as innumerable boats of traders and pioneers. Two beautiful islands lie off South Bay and belong to Oswego county, though much nearer the Onondaga shore. One of these is Frenchman's island, for a short time the residence of a Frenchman of the middle class, whom fancy has transformed into one of illustrious birth and romantie fortunes. Father Dablon crossed this lake on the ice in March, 1656, and Brewerton had noted visitors in the old French war, and in yet earlier days. Hiawatha is said to have given the lake one of its Indian names while passing through it on his great mission.
Otiseo lake was made seven hundred and seventy-two feet above the sea by Geddes before the dam was built, but the topographieal map makes it seven hundred and eighty-four, increasing the figures in most cases. It is recovering its early beauty. somewhat marred by the raising of its waters. It is not deep. and was originally three and three-fourths miles long, being now five miles in length. There is a plan to inerease its capacity and elevation still more. The hills on its west side rise from ten to twelve hundred feet above it, producing striking views. Perch and piekerel are said to have been introduced here.
Skaneateles lake has an altitude of eight hundred and sixty feet according to Geddes, of eight hundred and sixty-seven on the topographieal map. Its length is about fifteen miles and it gradually inereases in depth from the foot till near the head. Early soundings gave two hundred and seventy-five feet ten miles from the outlet, with a bottom of elean white sand. Its shores are generally bold, often rocky, and these are favorite resorts for summer visitors and campers. Every stream makes a little point or delta, of which there are five of considerable size. Most of these streams have beautiful easeades, vary- ing with the dryness of the season. The rocky exposures aid the studies of the geologist or artist, and are rich in fossils. A century ago the waters were
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raised several feet by a dam, and these now form a water supply for the Erie canal and the city of Syracuse. They are of unsurpassed purity. The lake appears on early maps, but the earliest record of a visit there is that of the Moravians in 1750. The land gradually rises on either side till the hills lack but little of two thousand feet on the east at the head, and somewhat less on the west. From their summits grand views are obtained, Owasco lake, seven hundred and ten feet high, is a few miles west, but not in the county, though draining part of it.
There are small and shallow mud lakes at some miles distance east and west of Marcellus village, but they have no remarkable features.
Cross lake is an expansion of Seneca river, on the northwest line of the county, the river crossing the lake, which is about five miles from north to south, and about a mile from east to west. It is shallow and abounds with fish of many kinds. While much of the shore is marsby, there are many attractive spots, and it is a favorite resort of sportsmen. Its altitude is four hundred feet.
Half way between this and Baldwinsville, and half a mile north of Seneca river is Beaver, or Mud lake. It is shallow, and its waters flow northeast. reaching Oswego river, a mile north of the county line. Most of its shore line is marshy, becoming a sphagnous bog on the east side, which is a favorite resort for botanists. Two rocky points may onee have been islands.
The earliest distinct account of such a thing here was when Sir William period passed away, there came many changes. Thus it is supposed there was a lake at South Onondaga, whose waters flowed into another lake in the Otisco valley. This discharged into another lake in the Skaneateles valley, a larger lake than now. This flower into Lake Warren, through a conspicuous depres- sion at Mandana. Indeed, it would take little digging to turn the waters that way now. A probable lake at Cardiff would have had its outlet southward. Similar lakes may have oeeupied parts of others valleys, or have been parts of the early Lake Warren. This onee included the southern basin of Lake Huron, all of Lake Erie, and all of the Ontario basin not covered by the glacier. During the Lake Warren period, while the waters flowed through the Mohawk and Chicago outlets, the cross valleys were formed.
Of course, most of these valleys were beds of rivers of varying depths and strength. causing waterfalls and great depressions, where hard rocks made a sufficient obstacle. In some cases high cliffs may have risen from broad ex- panses of water, but apparently not in all. There are many eurious questions to be solved before we can speak decidedly on all the phenomena of our lakes. In 1882 a remarkable tidal wave eame in at Cleveland on Lake Erie, and this ealled forth a statement on the subject from an old skipper. He had seen several and knew of more. Another remarkable wave occurred on Lake On- tario in 1895. It may be well to speak of some in Onondaga county of early and recent times.
The earliest distinet account of such a thing here was when Sir William Johnson stopped with Lieutenant Brown at Fort Brewerton, October 23, 1761. These are his words: "Yesterday at 12 o'clock there was such a storm as
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emptied the river at this point, of water, so that several salmon and other fish were left dry for awhile." John Bartram, when at Oswego in 1743, may have alluded to something of this kind. "These lakes are said to have a kind of flux and reflux peculiar, since it is affirmed to be sensibly ebb and flood several times in a quarter of an hour, though it be perfectly smooth, and scarce any wind." This refers to what Charlevoix saw in 1721.
In the present writer's local experience on Skaneateles lake, these waves have come in the calm immediately after a storm. One was May 5, 1836. when, after a sudden gale, the water, otherwise still, rose from one and one- half to two feet every sixteen minutes all the afternoon, nor did the ebb and flow cease till the next day. This record the writer takes from his father's journal, but the next two he witnessed. The first was on June 26, 1842, which lasted about the same time, and also followed a sudden and severe blow. The one occurring in March, 1852. however, attracted the most general attention, and full accounts were published of what was seen at various points. At Geneva, on Seneca lake, the ebb and flow ereated a great commotion along the doeks, and continued for several hours. At Ithaca, on Cayuga lake, a great wave swept in, and in its retreat brought up a canal boat, which lay sub- merged off the steamboat pier.
At Skaneateles the writer's attention was first attraeted by the strange anties of a snag which usually came just through the ice. It would rise several feet in the air and then gradually drop and disappear, only to come up in the same way again. Then it was observed that the whole field of ice was alternately approaching and reeeding from the shore as the water rose and fell. Where free from ice the lake was unruffled after the storm, but the water rose and fell about two feet, commencing early in the morning and continuing till night. The last phenomenon of this kind, of which he per- sonally knew there. was October 20, 1870, but with this there was an earth- quake shock. It followed a gale.
CHAPTER IV.
BOTANY AND BOTANISTS IN ONONDAGA.
The first writers on the flora of Onondaga and the country of the Five Nations were the Jesuits, in 1657. They wrote of most things with more French vivacity than critical care, so that allowance must always be made . for this. Read this, for instance: "Besides the grapes, the plums and many other fruits which are common to it, with the beautiful provinces of Europe, it possesses a number of others which surpass ours in beauty, in scent and in taste. The forests are almost all composed of chestnut and walnut trees. There are two kinds of nuts, some of which are as sweet and agreeable to the taste as the others are bitter; but their bitterness does not prevent one's ex- tracting excellent oil from them by making them pass through the ashes,
SYRACUSE IN THE LAST YEAR OF VILLAGE, AND FIRST YEAR OF ITS CITY LIFE. (FROM THE ORPHIAN ASYLUM.)
BY P. M. OSTRANDER, FROM HIS ETCHING OF THAT DATE.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY
through the mill, through the fire and through the water, in the same way in which the savages extraet the oil of the sunflower. One sees there cherries with- out a stone, fruits which have the color and the size of an apricot, the flower of the white lily, and the odor and taste of the lemon; apples of the shape of a goose egg, the seed of which, brought from the country of the cats (Erie's), is similar to beans, the fruit of it is delicate and of an odor very suave, and the trunk of the tree, of the size and height of our dwarf trees, is pleasing in marshy places and good soil. But the most common plant and the most mar- velous of these countries is that which we call the universal plant, because its leaves, bruised. close up in a short time all kinds of wounds ; these leaves, of the size of the hand, have the figure of the lily pointed on armor, and its roots have the odor of the laurel tree. The most vivid scarlet, the most brilliant green, and the yellow and orange most common in Europe, are inferior to the different colors which our savages extract from the roots. I do not speak at all of trees as high as oaks, the leaves of which are large and open as those of cabbages. no more than of the quantity of other plants peculiar to this country, because we are yet ignorant of their properties." If the Onondaga botanist of to-day can not exactly identify all these wonderful plants, he yet exults in thinking that there are some peculiar to the place, and some yet to be found.
John Bartram, of Philadelphia, our earliest native botanist, was the first one who came here with eritieal knowledge. His trip was made in 1743, in company with Conrad Weiser, Sheekalamy and Lewis Evans. At Onondaga and Oswego he made few notes of plants and trees, except of the white cedar on the east side of Onondaga, at a spring which has been called after him.
Peter Kalm made a trip through the Iroquois country a few years later, and made interesting notes there and elsewhere, some of which follow: The broad plantain may have been introduced. the Indians "pretending that this plant never grew here before the arrival of the Europeans. They therefore gave it a name which signifies the Englishman's foot, for they saw that where an European had walked, there this plant grew in his footsteps."
Arum virginieum. Mr. Bartram told me the savages boiled the spadix and the berries of this plant, and devoured it as a great dainty.
Sassafras was a large tree in Pennsylvania ; at Oswego he saw it but two to four feet high. A recent grove near Baldwinsville, however, had a height of sixty. feet. Tulip trees were as high as oaks in Pennsylvania; at Oswego he found them not over twelve feet high. In Onondaga they are lofty trees. Sugar maples were three or four times higher in Canada than in Pennsylvania.
"Squashes are a kind of gourds, which the Europeans got from the In- dians."
"Gonrds are a considerable part of the Indians' food; however, they plant more squashes than common gourds. They declare that the Indians had gourds long before the Europeans discovered America."
"Pumpions are prepared for eating in various ways. The Indians boil them whole, or roast them in ashes, and eat them then, or go to sell them when thus prepared. in the towns, and they have, indeed, a very fine flavor
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when roasted. The Indians, in order to preserve the pumpions for a very long time, cut them in long slices, which they fasten or twist together, and dry them either by the sun, or by the fire in a room. When they are thus dried they will keep for years together, and when boiled they taste very well. The Indians prepare them thus at home and on their journies, and from them the Europeans have adopted this method."
"The Indians plant great quantities of watermelons at present, but whether they have done it of old is not easily determined. For an old Onidoe Indian (one of the six Iroquese nations) assured me that the Indians did not know watermelons before the Europeans came into the country, and communicated them to the Indians. The French, on the other hand. have assured me that the Illinois Indians have had abundance of this fruit when the French first came to them, and that they declared they had planted them since times immemorial."
"The Iroquese or Five (Six) Nations eall the ginseng root garangtoging. which, it is said, signifies a child, the roots bearing a fair resemblance to it; but others are of opinion that they mean the thigh and leg by it, and the roots look pretty much like it." There are full accounts of gathering and caring for this. The Onondaga name is Da-kyen-too-keh.
A tea was made from the maiden-hair fern for colds, consumption and peetoral disorders by the colonists. "This they have learnt from the Indians. who have made use of this plant for these purposes from time immemorial. This American maiden-hair is reckoned preferable in surgery to that which we have in Europe, and therefore they send a great quantity of it to France every year."
"The chief remedy of the Iroquois, or Troquese, against the toothache. occasioned by hollow teeth. I heard of Captain Lindsey's lady at Oswego, and she assured me that she knew, from her own experience, that the remedy was effectual. They take the seed capsules of the Virginia anemone as soon as the seed is ripe, and rub them in pieces. It will then be rough and loose, like cotton. This cotton-like substance is dipped into strong brandy, and then put into the hollow tooth, which commonly eeases to ache soon after."
In some places apoeynnm eannabium is still abundant. "The Swedes have given it the name of Indian hemp, because the Indians formerly, and even now, apply it to the same purposes as the Europeans do hemp, for the stalk may be divided into filaments, and is easily prepared. When the Indians . were vet settled among the Swedes in Pennsylvnia and New Jersey, they made ropes of this apoeynum, which the Swedes bought, and employed them as bridles, and for nets. These ropes were stronger and kept longer in water than such as were made of common hemp. The Swedes commonly got fourteen yards of these ropes for one piece of bread. Many of the Europeans still buy sueh ropes beeanse they last so well. The Indians likewise made some other stuffs of this hemp. On my journey through the country of the Iroquese I saw the women employed in manufacturing the hemp. They made use neither of spinning wheels nor distaffs, but rolled the filaments upon their bare thighs, and made thread and strings of them, which they
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dyed red, yellow, black, etc., and afterwards worked them into stuff's with a great deal of ingenuity." Quite recently the Onondagas thus made a strong and fine thread.
More than half a century after Kahm another foreign botanist came here. This was Frederick Push, who came to America in 1799, dying at Montreal in 1820. 1fe was sent to Onondaga by Dr. Barton in 1807. His route was through the Delaware Water Gap. Great Bend, Binghampton, Oswego, Tioga Point and Cayuga lake to Onondaga. His quaint journal of this trip was published in 1869, and is quite rare. July 7 he was. at Sapony Hollow, eight miles from "Cayuga city," or as it is called sometimes, "Ithaca." There he noticed magnolia acuminata, or the cucumber tree. This "is very scarce about here, and the trees here in this place and two or three others I have seen, are of a creeply, small and old growth, nothing like to what they are in Virginia." Onondaga county is rather far north for this tree, and but two groups have been described, one near Baldwinsville, and the other at the mile point, Skaneateles lake. In both these the trees were of good size.
July 10 he rode from Hardenberg Corners (Auburn) to Onondaga Hollow, and took up his quarters with John Adams, nearly opposite the postoffice. July 12 he visited the salt springs and observed samphire (salicornia) there. Only an occasional note will be made on what he found. July 17 Captain Ephraim Webster guided him to the Indian reservation. "Cicuta maculata grows in great abundance throughout Onondaga; the Indians use it to poison themselves when they have an inclination in going out of this world; it is a most powerful poison, as Captain Webster tells me, who has seen the case on some Indians who had eaten the root and were lost, without being able to get anything as a remedy against it 1628-ogasions lockjaw, and the patient is soon done."
July 20 he went to Squire Geddes's. He took him to Split Rock, which is graphically described. There he made a great find. Among other plants, "what I thought the most of, asplenium scolopendrimm-this fern, which 1 don't find mentioned by any one to grow in America, I always had a notion to be here; and indeed I was quite enjoyed to find my prejudice so well founded in truth. It appears to be the same as the European. only smaller." Some early botanists supposed that he discovered this at Chittenango falls, where it ocenrs, but he did not go there. The principal localities now are at the Green lakes of De Witt.
"July 25. Made another excursion to salt point. As I observed nothing new through the swamp and marsh, I went on to a place called Little Ireland, or Liverpool. Here they have salt springs on the edge of the lake, most of them covered by the fresh water of the lake; there are about one hundred and fifty kettles at work here." The lake was higher then.
July 29 he found gerardia flava in bloom north of Liverpool, as he went to Oswego. It is rare here now, but oerurs near Syracuse. "After a tedious jour- ney I came to Three Rivers point. This is a beautiful place -- but only one house, whose owner keeps tavern near it." Near Oswego he found hydrocotyle um- bellata, known in the interior of New York only on Seneca and Oswego rivers.
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On his return, in a cove on the river, he "found a field of nymphaea odora, beautifully in bloom. It is astonishing in how deep water some of them grow. I pulled up flower stems eleven feet long, which did not seem to be entire neither." This is his only record of the water lily.
August 3d he was on a boat. "Observed nothing new except a long-leaved grass which was floating on the water, the boatmen called it wild rice, and said I would see plenty higher up, which was the case; it covers here the shore, and is. when in flower, quite upright." August 4. "When we came to the outlet of Onondaga lake the ereek was covered at its bottom with ehara. which the boatmen call feather beds." Later, in Pompey, he said: "A sonchus, common almost everywhere, grew here to the astonishing height of ten feet and more." Speaking of height, in 1904 an evening primrose in a ravine near South Onondaga, measured nine and one-half feet.
Pursh's account of Pratt's falls is interesting, but need not be repeated here. On the 18th he was at Salt Point again. He "had not before observed the gymnocladus eonadensis grow on the banks of this lake, but I did not see one large tree of it. all being very eriply and small." In 1897 Dr. W. Il. Munson of Otisco wrote thus: "I am sure that you will be glad to know that two or three miles from here, in Christian Hollow, south of Cardiff and in the town of Tully, there still stands a solitary and veteran Kentucky coffee tree (gymnoceladus canadensis). It is a large tree, over two feet through all the way up to eight or ten feet from the ground, tall and symmetrical. It blossoms in full every July, and is then a glorious sight, standing in the center of a valuable field. The owner allows the tree to remain, at much loss to him- self, for sentiment's sake. I do not know of another tree of that species in this part of the country."
Sentiment like this is much to be desired. In Syraense the late Carroll C. Smith had several of these trees of moderate size. In the marsh Mr. Pursh found the small bladderwort and the purple gerardia, the former not reported by others here. North of Three River Point he found the pawpaw tree.
Apropos to notable trees and plants, another extract may be given from Dr. Munson's letter: "Last summer I was informed that a strange tree. with leaves as big as a horse, grew 'over in the Diggins,' in the east part of this town. They told me that it was covered with thorns, and that the leaves all dropped off in the fall. My friend and neighbor, Mr. Cowles, accompanied me .on the quest in July. This find proved to be Hercules' elub, aralia spinosa. We found the tree thoroughly acelimatized. growing in large numbers (for a limited section) along a roeky hillside. We thought that the largest of the specimens were twenty or twenty-five, and perhaps more. years old. The wide spreading leaves, with their great petioles. were as big as a horse, too: and when the people saw them drop in the autumn they thought the boughs had fallen off. We have neither of us seen this aralia growing in Central New York, except in 'the Diggins.'" This shrub, or tree, was introduced in 1848. and has escaped and become naturalized.
In Hough's report on New York forestry at the World's Fair, he says of the hackberry, or nettle tree, otherwise Celtis occidentalis, that it is "uncom-
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY
mon generally, and looked upon as a stranger wherever found. Some trees have quite a local reputation in that way." He mentions two; one at Spra- ker's Basin, locally termed "the unknown tree," and one at Schuylerville, hav- ing a circumference of fourteen feet. One on the bank of Crooked brook, Baldwinsville. near the electric road, is nine feet nine inches around, three fret from the ground, and is sixty feet high. One between Syracuse and Jamesville has been destroyed, and another in the vicinity of Fayetteville, was cut down long ago. This "unknown tree." as Miss Gage called it, was about forty feet high and one and one-half feet through. The Baldwinsville tree, if not the only one now in the country, may be the finest which ever grew here.
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