Pioneer history of the Holland Purchase of western New York : embracing some account of the ancient remains, Part 3

Author: Turner, O. (Orsamus)
Publication date: 1850
Publisher: Buffalo : Jewett, Thomas & Co.
Number of Pages: 726

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"A great part of North America was then inhabited by populous nations, who had made considerable advances in civilization. These numerous works could never have been supplied with provisions without the aid of agriculture. Nor could they have been con- structed without the use of iron or copper, and without a persever- ance, labour, and design which demonstrate considerable, progress in the arts of civilized life. A learned writer has said, "I perceive no reason why the Asiatic North might not be an officina virorum. as well as the European. The overteeming country to the east of the Riphæan Mountains must find it necessary to discharge its inhab- itants. The first great wave of people was forced forward by the next to it, more tumid and more powerful than itself: successive and new impulses continually arriving, short rest was given to that which spread over a more eastern traet: disturbed again and again, it covered fresh regions. At length, reaching the farthest limits of the old world, it found a new one, with ample space to occupy, unmolested for ages."* After the north of Asia had thus exhausted its exuberant population by such a great migration, it would require a very long period of time to produce a co-operation of causes suffi- cient to effect another. The first mighty stream of people that flowed into America must have remained free from external pressure for ages. Availing themselves of this period of tranquility, they would devote themselves to the arts of peace, make rapid progress in civ- ilization, and acquire an immense population. In course of time discord and war would rage among them, and compel the establish- ment of places of security. At last, they became alarmed by the

* 1 Pennant's Arctic Zoology, 260.

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irruption of a horde of barbarians, who rushed like an overwhelming flood from the north of Asia-

" A Multitude, like which the populous North Poured from her frozen loins to pass Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons Came like a deluge on the South, and spread Beneath Gibraltar to the Lybian sands." *

"The great law of self-preservation compelled them to stand on their defence, to resist these ruthless invaders, and to construct numerous and extensive works for protection. And for a long series of time the scale of victory was suspended in doubt, and they firmly withstood the torrent; but, like the Romans in the decline of their empire, they were finally worn down and destroyed by successive inroads and renewed attacks. And the fortifications of which we have treated are the only remaining monuments of these ancient and exterminated nations. This is perhaps, the airy nothing of imagination, and may be reckoned the extravagant dream of a vis- ionary mind: but may we not, considering the wonderful events of the past and present times, and the inscrutable dispensations of an overruling Providence, may we not look forward into futurity, and without departing from the rigid laws of probability, predict the occurrence of similar scenes at some remote period of time? And, perhaps, in the decrepitude of our empire, some transcendant genius, whose powers of mind shall only be bounded by that impenetrable circle which prescribes the limits of human nature,t may rally the barbarous nations of Asia under the standard of a mighty empire. Following the track of the Russian colonies and commerce towards the northwest coast, and availing himself of the navigation, arms, and military skill of civilized nations, he may, after subverting the neighbouring despotisms of the Old World, bend his course towards European America. The destinies of our country may then be decided on the waters of the Missouri or on the banks of Lake Superior. And if Asia shall then revenge upon our posterity the injuries we have inflicted upon her sons, a new, a long, and a gloomy night of Gothic darkness will set in upon mankind. And when, after the efflux of ages, the returning effulgence of intellectual light shall again gladden the nations, then the widespread ruins of our cloud-capped towers, of our solemn temples, and of our magnificent cities, will, like the works of which we have treated, become the subject of curious research and elaborate investigation."

At the early period at which Mr. Clinton advanced the theory that the Ridge Road was once the southern shore of Lake Ontario-1811 -when settlement was but just begun, and a dense forest precluded a close observation, he was quite liable to fall into the error, that

* Milton's Paradise Lost.

t Roscoe's Lorenzo de Medicis, 241.

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time and better opportunities for investigation have corrected. The formation, composition, alluvial deposits, &c., of the Ridge Road, with reference to its two sides, present almost an entire uniformity. There is at least, not the distinction that would be apparent if there had been the action of water, depositing its mate- rials only upon its nothern side. By supposing the Mountain Ridge to have once been the southern shore of Lake Ontario, it would follow that the Ridge Road may have been a Sand bar. The nature of both, their relative positions, would render this a far more reasonable hypothesis than the other; and when we add the fact that the immediate slope, or falling off, is almost as much gene- rally, upon the south as the north side of the Ridge Road, we are under the necessity of abandoning the precedent theory. There is from the Niagara to the Genesee River, upon the Moun- tain Ridge, a line, or cordon, of these ancient fortifications-none, as the author concludes, from observation and enquiry, between the Ridge and Lake .*

But a few of the most prominent of these ancient fortifications, will be noticed, enough only to give the reader who has not had an opportunity of seeing them, a general idea of their structure, and relics which almost uniformly may be found in and about them.

Upon a slope or offset of the Mountain Ridge three and a half miles from the village of Lewiston, is a marked spot, that the Tus- carora Indians call Kienuka.t There is a burial ground, and two eliptic mounds or barrows that have a diameter of 20 feet, and an elevation of from 4 to 5 feet. A mass of detached works, with spaces intervening, seem to have been chosen as a rock citadel; and well chosen,-for the mountain fastnesses of Switzerland are but little better adapted to the purposes of a look-out and defence. The sites of habitations are marked by remains of pottery, pipes, and other evidences.

Eight miles east of this, upon one of the most elevated points of the mountain ridge in the town of Cambria, upon the farm until recently owned by Eliakim Hammond, now owned by John Gould,

* Upon an elevation, on the shore of Lake Ontario near the Eighteen-mile-Creek, there is a mound similar in appearance to some of those that have been termed ancient; though it is unquestionably incident to the early French and Indian wars of this region. And the same conclusion may be formed in reference to other similar ones along the shore of the lake.

tMeaning a fort, or strong hold, that has a commanding position, or from which there is a fine view.

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is an ancient fortification and burial place, possessing perhaps as great a degree of interest, and as distinct characteristics as any that have been discovered in Western New York. The author hav- ing been one of a party that made a thorough examination of the spot soon after its first discovery in 1823, he is enabled from memory and some published accounts of his at the time, to state the extent and character of the relics.

The location commands a view of Lake Ontario and the surround- ing country. An arca of about six acres of level ground appears to have been occupied; fronting which upon a circular verge of the mountain, were distinct remains of a wall. Nearly in the centre of the area was a depository of the dead. It was a pit excavated to the depth of four or five feet, filled with human bones, over which were slabs of sand stone. Hundreds seem to have been thrown in promiscuously, of both sexes and all ages. Extreme old age was distinctly identified by toothless jaws, and the complete absorption of the avcola processes; and extreme infancy, by the small skulls and incomplete ossification. Numerous barbs or arrow points were found among the bones, and in the vicinity. One skull retained the arrow that had pierced it, the aperture it had made on entering being distinctly visible. In the position of the skeletons, there was none of the signs of ordinary Indian burial; but evidences that the bodies were thrown in promiscuously, and at the same time. The conjec- ture might well be indulged that it had been the theatre of a san- guinary battle, terminating in favor of the assailants, and a general massacre. A thigh bone of unusual length, was preserved for a considerable period by a physician of Lockport, and excited much curiosity. It had been fractured obliquely. In the absence of any surgical skill, or at least any application of it, the bone had strongly re-united, though evidently so as to have left the foot turned out at nearly a right angle. Of course, the natural surfaces of the bone were in contact, and not the fractured surfaces; and yet spurs, or ligaments were thrown out by nature, in its healing process, and so firmly knit and interwoven, as to form, if not a perfect, a firm re-union! It was by no means a finished piece of surgery, but to all appearances had answered a very good purpose. The medical student will think the patient must have possessed all the fortitude and stoicism of his race, to have kept his fractured limb in a neces- sary fixed position, during the long months that the healing process must have been going on, in the absence of splints and gum elastic

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bands. A tree had been cut down growing directly over the mound, upon the stump of which could be counted 230 concentric circles. Remains of rude specimens of earthen ware, pieces of copper, and iron instruments of rude workmanship were ploughed up within the area ; also, charred wood, corn and cobs.

Soon after these ancient relics had begun to excite public atten- tion, the author received the following poetic contribution which he inserted in the columns of a newspaper of which he was the editor. Upon a review of it, he regards it as not unworthy to be preserved with the other reminiscences, in a more durable form. From a note made at the time, it would seem to have been anonymous :--

THE ARGUMENT.

The author's imagination, kindled by a description of the mouldering relics, the evi- dences of a sanguinary conflict of arms, aided by the then recently published tradi- tions of DAVID CUSICK, supposes the spirit of an Erie Chieftain, (whose skeleton is one of the congregated mass) to rise and address the gazing and enquiring anti- quarian :- He reminds him of their common origin and common destiny, notwith- standing the lapse of intervening ages; that his ancestors are the races which slumber in the vallies of the Caucassus, the Alps, and plains of Britain ; the relator assuming that this was the forest home of his fathers. He sketches the last battle, fatal to his nation and himself; from the shouts of the victors echoing amid his native scenery, he adverts to the disembodied repose of his fathers ;- and concludes with the pleasing anticipation of again meeting the disturber of his sleep of ages, in "happier regions undefined," when he too shall have finished the pilgrimage of mortality.

"Mortal of other age and clime,

Pilgrim not having reach'd the bourne, Know thou that kindred soul with thine, Once tenanted this mould'ring form.

Here once the warm blood freely flow'd, By the heart's active impulse press'd, And all the varied passions glow'd, That struggle in thy throbbing breast.

Though o'er this erumbling dust of mine, Full many a summer's sun has roll'd ; Yet equal destiny is thine, Though fairer cast of kindred mould.

E'en though afar thy sires may sleep, Beyond the Atlantic's rolling waves Where Caucassus' stupendous steep, O'er hangs the shores, the Caspian laves.

Or where the Alpine glaciers pile, lligh o'er thy Gothic fathers' graves, Or where Brittania's verdant isle Siniles in the hosom of the waves.

Deep in Columbia's wilds, afar Upon lake Erie's forest shores,

Where, glimm'ring 'neath the ev'ning star, Niagara's awful torrent roars.

Where the broad plain abrupt descends, To where Ontario's billows lave, Whence the delighted view extends Far o'er the blue and boundless wave;

There brightly hlaz'd my country's fires, While oft succeeding ages roll'd, And there the ashes of my sires Lie mingled with the forest mould.

There on the heights refulgent play'd Aurora's brightest, earliest ray ;

· And vesper's milder beams delay'd To lengthen the departing day.

There brightening with the shades of even, The hunter's scatter'd watch fires beam'd Respondent to the stars of Heaven, That o'er my native forests gleamed.

Gladly would memory restore That scenery from oblivion's night, Ere from those happy scenes of yore. My deathless spirit took its flight.

The vapours o'er the lake that lour, How bright the setting sun display'd, When mid those scenes in childhood's hour, The boyhood of the village stray'd.

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Or listen'd as our fathers taught To recognize the 'Manitou,' Eternal Power with wisdom fraught Throughout Creation's boundless view.

Or as some hoary chieftain told The wampum legend of his band, Chivalric scenery of old, On limpid lake or shaded land.

When youthful vigor nerv'd my prime, How oft I chas'd the bounding deer, Or o'er the mountain's height sublime, Or through the ravine dark and drear.

Till slowly forced at last to yield Unconquer'd in the arms of death,

Where sunk upon the leaf strown field, Her bravest sons resign'd their breath.

How the melodious echoes rang, Responsive through those awful groves,

When the returning hunter sang The ardor of his youthful loves.

Such were the happy scenes of yore, Ere from another world afar,

Thy fathers sought this western shore, Where ocean hides the morning star.

Those happy scenes, alas ! are o'er, Extinguished are my country's fires,

Where on lake Erie's forest shore, Crumble the ashes of my sires.

The foreign ploughshare rudely drives Where sunk in peace my fathers rest,

And a sad remnant scarce survives In the dark forests of the west.

In the great Haven of mankind, Where mingling generations meet.

Then we'll the broken tale renew, When we shall meet to part no more,

And all the murd'rous scenes renew That slumber on lake Erie's shores.

When from toward the morning light, Along the ocean's sounding strand, The ' Menque' poured their banded might Relentless o'er my native land :

Then proudly waved my Eagle plume, Amid the foeman's fiercest yell,

Where, on my struggling country's tomb The War Club's bloodiest effort fell.

As rising from Ontario's waves, Amid the tumult of the fight, Pale on the fainting warrior's grave The moon beams shed a glim'ring light.

And loudly broke the victor's yell Upon the distant torrent's roar, And my devoted country's knell Re-echoed from the sounding shore.

Calmly my buoyant spirit rose Iligh o'er the echoing scenery, To join my father's long repose In undisturb'd eternity.

In happier regions undefin'd, Where, stranger ! happy we may greet

Bid me not further to pursue The sad'ning theme that mercy stores,

Our mortal pilgrimage review And tell of joys and sorrows o'er."

At the head of a deep gorge, a mile west of Lockport, (similar to the one that forms the natural canal basin, from which the combined Locks ascend,) in the early settlement of the country, a circular raised work, or ring-fort, could be distinctly traced. Leading from the enclosed area, there had been a covered way to a spring of pure cold water that issues from a fissure in the rock, some 50 or 60 feet

NOTE .- The following passage appears in "Cusick's History of the Six Nations," the extraordinary production of a native Tuscarora, that it will be necessary to notice in another part of the work.

About this time the King of the Five Nations had ordered the Great War chief, Shorihawne, (a Mohawk, ) to march directly with an army of five thousand warriors to aid the Governor of Canandaigua against the Erians, to attack the Fort Kayquatkay and endeavor to extinguish the council fire of the enemy, which was becoming dange- rous to the neighboring nations ; but unfortunately during the siege, a shower of arrows was flying from the fort, the great war chief Shorihawne was killed, and his body was conveyed back to the woods and was buried in a solemn manner; but however, the siege continued for several days ; tho Erians sued for peace; the army immediately ceased from hostilities, and loft the Erians in entire possession of the country.

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down the declivity. Such covered paths, or rather the remains of them, lead from many of these ancient fortifications. Mr. School- craft concludes that they were intended for the emergency of a prolonged siege. They would seem now, to have been but a poor defence for the water carriers, against the weapons of modern war- fare; yet probably sufficient to protect them from arrows, and a foe that had no sappers or miners in their ranks.

There is an ancient battle field upon the Buffalo creek, six miles from Buffalo, near the Mission station. There are appearances of an enclosed area, a mound where human bones have been excavated, remains of pottery ware, &c. The Senecas have a tradition that here was a last decisive battle between their people and their invet- erate enemies the Kah-Kwahs; though there would seem to be no reason why the fortification should not be classed among those that existed long before the Senecas are supposed to have inhabited this region.

A mile north of Aurora village, in Erie county, there are several small lakes or ponds, around and between which, there are knobs or elevations, thickly covered with a tall growth of pine; upon them, are several mounds, where many human bones have been excavated. In fact, Aurora and its vicinity, seems to have been a favorite resort not only for the ancient people whose works and remains we are noticing, but for the other races that succeeded them. Relics abound there perhaps to a greater extent than in any other locality in Western New York. An area of from three to four miles in extent. embracing the village, the ponds, the fine springs of water at the foot of the bluffs to the north, and the level plain to the south, would seem to have been thickly populated. There are in the village and vicinity few gardens and fields where ancient and Indian relics are not found at each successive ploughing. Few cellars are excavated without discovering them. In digging a cellar a few years since upon the farm of Chas. P. Pierson, a skeleton was exhumed, the thigh bones of which would indicate great height; exceeding by several inches, that of the tallest of our own race. In digging another cellar, a large number of skeletons, or detached bones, were thrown out. Upon the farm of M. B. Crooks, two miles from the village, where a tree had been turned up, several hundred pounds of axes were found; a blacksmith who was working up some axes that were found in Aurora, told the author that most of them were without any steel, but that the iron was of a superior quality. He

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had one that was entirely of steel, out of which he was manufacturing some edge tools.

Near the village, principally upon the farm of the late HORACE S. TURNER, was an extensive Beaver Dam. It is but a few years since an aged Seneca strolled away from the road, visited the ponds, the springs, and coming to a field once overflowed by the dam, but then reclaimed and cultivated, said these were the haunts of his youth - upon the hills he had chased the deer, at the springs he had slaked his thirst, and in the field he had trapped the beaver.

The ancient works at Fort Hill, Le Roy, are especially worthy of observation in connection with this interesting branch of history, or rather enquiry. The author is principally indebted for an account of them to MR. SCHOOLCRAFT's "Notes on the Iroquois," for which it was communicated by F. FOLLETT, of Batavia. They are three miles north of Le Roy, on an elevated point of land, formed by the junction of a small stream called Fordham's Brook, with Allan's Creek. The better view of Fort Hill, is had to the north of it, about a quarter of a mile on the road leading from Bergen to Le Roy. From this point of observation it needs little aid of the imagination to conceive that it was erected as a fortifi- cation by a large and powerful army, looking for a permanent and inaccessible bulwark of defence. From the center of the hill, in a northwesterly course, the country lies quite flat ; more immediately north, and inclining to the east, the land is also level for one hun- dred rods, where it rises nearly as high as the hill, and continues for several miles quite elevated. In approaching the hill from the north it stands very prominently before you, rising rather abruptly but not perpendicularly, to the height of eighty or ninety feet, ex- tending about forty rods on a line east and west, the corners being round or truncated, and continuing to the south on the west side for some fifty or sixty rods, and on the east side for about half a mile, maintaining about the same elevation on the sides as in front; beyond which distance the line of the hill is that of the land around. There are undoubted evidences of its having been resorted to as a fortifi- cation, and of its having constituted a valuable point of defence to a rude and half civilized people. Forty years ago an entrenchment ten feet deep, and some twelve or fifteen feet wide, extended from the west to the east end, along the north or front part, and contin- ued up each side about twenty rods, where it crossed over, and joining, made the circuit of entrenchment complete. At this day a

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portion of the entrenchment is easily perceived, for fifteen rods along the extreme western half of the north or front part, the cul- tivation of the soil and other causes having nearly obliterated all other portions. It would seem that this fortification was arranged more for protection against invasion from the north, this direction being evidently its most commanding position. Near the northwest corner, piles of rounded stones, have, at different times, been col- lected of hard consistence, which are supposed to have been used as weapons of defence by the besieged against the besiegers. Such skeletons as have been found in and about this locality, indicate a race of men averaging one third larger than the present race; so adjudged by anatomists. From the fortification, a trench leads to a spring of water. Arrow heads, pipes, beads, gouges, pestles, stone hatch- ets, have been found upon the ground, and excavated, in and about these fortifications. The pipes were of both stone and earthen ware ; there was one of baked clay, the bowl of which was in the form of a man's head and face, the nose, eyes, and other features being depicted in a style resembling some of the figures in Mr. STEVEN's plate of the ruins of Central America. Forest trees were standing in the trench and on its sides, in size and age not differing from those in the neighboring forests ; and upon the ground, the heart-woods of black-cherry trees of large size, the remains undoubt- edly of a growth of timber that preceded the present growth. They were in such a state of soundness as to be used for timber by the first settlers. This last circumstance would establish greater antiquity for these works, than has been generally claimed from other evidences. The black-cherry of this region, attains usually the age of two hundred and seventy-five, and three hundred years ; the beech and maple groves of Western New York, bear evidences of having existed at least two hundred and forty or fifty years. These aggregates would shew that these works were over five hun- dred years old. But this, like other timber growth testimony that has been adduced - that seems to have been relied upon somewhat by Mr. CLINTON and others - is far from being satisfactory. We can only determine by this species of evidence that timber has been growing upon these mounds and fortifications at least a certain length of time ;- have no warrant for saying how much longer. Take for instance the case under immediate consideration :- How is it to be determined that there were not more than the two growths, of cherry, and beech and maple ; that other growths did not precede

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or intervene. These relics are found in our dense and heaviest timbered wood lands, below a deep vegetable mould interspersed with evidences of a long succession of timber growths and decays. We can in truth, form but a vague conception of the length of time since these works were constructed,-while we are authorized in saying they are of great antiquity, we are not authorized in lim- iting the period.

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Pioneer history of the Holland Purchase of western New York : embracing some account of the ancient remains, Part 3

Author: Turner, O. (Orsamus) Publication date: 1850 Publisher: Buffalo : Jewett, Thomas & Co. Number of Pages: 726

Author: Turner, O. (Orsamus)
Publication date: 1850
Publisher: Buffalo : Jewett, Thomas & Co.
Number of Pages: 726