USA > New York > Pioneer history of the Holland Purchase of western New York : embracing some account of the ancient remains > Part 34
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The late Jesse Hawley, has left upon record the following tribute to the memory of the subject of our necessarily limited memoir :-
" Oliver Phelps may be considered the Cecrops of the Genesee Country. Its inhabitants owe a Mausoleum to his memory, in gratitude for his having pioneered for them the wilderness of this CANAAN of the West."
NATHANIEL GORHAM, Esq., the partner of Mr. Phelps, in the land purchase, was a citizen of Boston, Massachusetts, was never a resident upon the purchase, and had but little to do with the details of its management. His son, NATHANIEL GORHAM, became an early resident of Canandaigua, and died there in 1826, leaving a widow, son and daughter.
CHARLES WILLIAMSON.
Soon after the purchase of Sir William Pultney, [in 1792,] Captain CHARLES WILLIAMSON Was appointed his agent, and came upon the purchase. He came by the way of Williamsport, Penn- sylvania, and located at Bath, Steuben county. He was an Eng- lishman, (or a Scotchman,) well educated, with liberal views; though as it proved perhaps, not as well calculated to lead the way as the patroon of new settlements, as if he had seen more of back- woods life.
In his first advent, he was accompanied by his wife, his friend and relative, Mr. Johnstone, a servant, and one laborer. Mr. Maude, an English traveller in this region, in '99, and 1800, says :-
"On Capt. Williamson's first arrival, he built a small hut where now is Bath. If a stranger came to visit him, he built up a little nook for him to put his bed in. In a little time, a boarded or framed house was built to the left of the hut; this was also intended as but a temporary residence, though it then appeared a palace. His present residence, a very commodious, roomy, and well planned house, is situated on the right of where stood the log
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hut, long since consigned to the kitchen fire. * * On the first settlement of the country, these mountainous districts were thought so unfavorably of when compared with the rich flats of Ontario county, (or the Genesee country, ) that none of the settlers could be prevailed upon to establish themselves here till Capt. Williamson himself set the example, saying :- ' As nature has done so much for the northern plains, I will do something for these southern mountains;' though the truth of it was, that Capt. Williamson saw very clearly, on his first visit to this country, that the Susquehannah, and not the Mohawk, would be its best friend. Even now, it has proved so, for at this day (1800) a bushel of wheat is better worth one dollar at Bath, than sixty cents at Geneva. This difference will grow wider every year; for little, if any improvement can be made with the water communication from New York, while that to Baltimore, will admit of extensive and advantageous one."*
Few agents in the sale and settlement of a new country, have manifested more enterprise and liberality than Capt. Williamson. In addition to his early expenditures at Bath, he built a large hotel at Geneva, contributed to the opening of roads, and other primi- tive beginnings in the wilderness. He was a useful helper in time of need. The author knows little of his personal biography, yet a separate notice of one so early and prominently identified with pioneer history, has been deemed requisite. He left Western New York; was appointed by the British government, governor of one of the West India Islands, and died on his passage.
There are many reminiscences that associate his memory with early times in Western New York; not the least of which are a series of letters which he wrote in 1799, published at the time in a pamphlet form :- "Description of the settlement of the Genesee country, in the State of New York, in a series of letters from a gentleman to his friend." The intention of the pamphlet was evi- dently, to circulate in the older portions of this country, and in England, - to attract public attention to the region where his prin-
* The reader will smile at the prophecies of this early tourist; and yet his conclu- sions were quite natural ones at the time. For all the region he speaks of, the Susque- hannah then seemed the prospective avenue to the Atlantic; Baltimore, the commer- cial mart. But how changed the whole course of trade, by the achievments of our state, in the works of internal improvement ! Millions have been, and are now expending, to enable the district of country of which Mr. Maude was speaking, to reach the great artery of internal commerce-the Erie Canal. A prosperous and wealthy valley,- its beautiful young city, planted among the hills, almost in the imme- diate neighborhood of Bath, extends an arm to reach it, and fall in with the great current of trade through the valley of the " Mohawk."
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cipal had become so largely interested; yet it was ably and truth- fully written, with the ken of prophecy it would almost seem; "visions of glory" were indulged in, but not a tithe hardly, of the splendid consummations that have been realized.
Such was the rapidity of the settlement of this wilderness, isola- ted as it was, from contiguous territory occupied by civilized com- munities, that by a census taken in December, 1790, recorded in "Imlay's Topographical description of the western territory of North America, London edition," it appears that thirty-four of the townships were then more or less settled; that it contained one hun- dred and ninety families, consisting of five hundred and five (white) males over sixteen years old; one hundred and eighty of that age and under; two hundred and ninety seven females; two free negroes; eleven slaves, and one Indian, making in the whole nine hundred and ninety six inhabitants; of these inhabitants, township No. 10, range 2, (Hopewell) contained six families, thirteen males and no females; T. 10, R. 3, (Canandaigua) contained eighteen families, seventy-eight males and twenty females; T. 8, R. 4, (Bristol) contained four fami- lies, twenty males and no females; T. 10, R. 4, (Bloomfield) con- tained ten families, forty-four males and twenty females; and T. 11, R. 4, (Boughton Hill or Victor) contained four families, fifteen males and four females.
The foregoing enumeration does not include the settlement of "Friends" the adherents of Jemima Wilkeson, consisting of about two hundred and sixty persons, who had established themselves near the outlet of Crooked lake, nor does it include the settlement at Geneva, supposed to consist of one hundred inhabitants, nor the inhabitants from thence, north to lake Ontario, as they were on what has been since called the "Gore," and was not then supposed to be included in Phelps and Gorham's purchase. The same census notes, that there were west of the Genesee river on the Indian lands, eleven families, (one of which was that of Hon. John H. Jones at old Leicester) composed of fifty-one individuals.
Thus rapidly progressed the settlement of this tract, notwith- standing it had more than the ordinary difficulties in settling a new country to overcome; such as reports of the unusual unhealthiness of the elimate, want of provisions to support life, and deficiency of title, set afloat by persons interested in the settlement of rival
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districts of country; the absolute attack of the Indian chiefs, on the validity of the title, supported or rather assisted by an attack of the British authorities in Canada. One of the usual and almost universal difficulties in settling all new countries, is the prevalence of diseases engendered by change of climate, extra fatigue and unusual exposures, of which this settlement had at least a moderate share-as well as the fear of Indian incursions.
In a letter written by Mr. Phelps to his co-proprietor, Mr. Gor- ham, dated, Canandaigua, August 7, 1790, from which the follow- ing are extracts, the situation of the settlement is more truly des- cribed, and better depicted, than the most vivid description written at the present time could portray. Mr. Phelps writes :-
"I arrived at this place the 29th ult. and found the people in this settlement very sickly, but the most of them are getting better, a bilious fever has been the prevailing distemper. Capt. Walker, my nearest neighbor, is now supposed to be dying with the bilious cholic. He will be much lamented as he was one of the most thorough farmers on the ground. We have suffered much for the want of a physician. Dr. Atwater has not been in the country. We have now a gentleman from Pennsylvania attending on the sick, who appears to understand his business. The two Wads- worths [Messrs. William and James Wadsworth who settled at Geneseo,] who brought a large property into the country, have been very sick, and are now on the recovery, but are low-spirited. They like the country, but their sickness has discouraged them. The settlement goes on as well as could be expected, there is a great number of people settled in the country. English grain is good, and we are now in the midst of our harvest."
"The Indians are now in great confusion on account of some Indians being inhumanly killed by the white people; I am this moment setting out with an agent from Pennsylvania, to make them satisfaction for the two Indians murdered. I hope to be able to settle the matter, if I should not succeed, they will retaliate; I never saw them more enraged than they are at this time."
It appears, however, that the mission of Mr. Phelps and the Pennsylvania agent, had no other effeet than to induce the Indians to issue a kind of summons, dated August 12, 1790, directed to the Governor and Council of Pennsylvania, signed by Little Beard, (Beaver Tribe) Sangoyeawatau, Gisseharke, (Wolf Tribe) and Caunhisongo, of which the following is an extract :-
"Now we take you by the hand and lead you to the Painted Post, or as far as your canoes can come up the creek, where you will meet the whole of the tribe of the deceased, and all the chiefs,
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and a number of the warriors of our nation, when we expect you will wash away the blood of your brothers and bury the hatchet, and put it out of memory, as it is yet sticking in our head.
"Brothers, it is our great brother, your Governor, who must come to see us, as we will never bury the hatchet until our great brother himself comes and brightens the chain of friendship, as it is very rusty. - Brothers, you must bring the property of your brothers, you have murdered, and all the property of the murderers, as it will be great satisfaction to the families of the deceased. Brothers, the sooner you meet us the better, for our young warriors are very uneasy, and it may prevent great trouble."
What the sequel of this transaction proved to be, we have not data to determine, although it undoubtedly was brought to an amicable termination; but that such a state of things must strike consternation over a new settlement, where the healthy inhabitants, have a sufficient task to provide for and take care of the sick, may well be conceived. As an instance of the assassin-like attacks made on this settlement, especially when it is considered that of all the privations incident to a new settlement, the want of provisions was less felt in this district than in any other as remote from old settlements; attacks made, it must be presumed, by men having rival interests to subserve, the following will suffice :--
From the Maryland Journal, July 31st, 1789.
" Extract of a letter from Northumberland County, dated July 2d:"-' The people of the Genesee and Niagara country are crowding in upon us every day, owing to the great scarcity of provisions; the most of them who have gone there lately are starving to death, and it is shocking to humanity to hear of the number of the families that are dying daily for the want of suste- nance. Since I wrote the above, I have heard from the Genesee and Niagara country, that the scarcity of provisions has increased since the last accounts, so much, that flour was sold for £4 per hundred, and it is a fact that a cow, valued at £7 10s., was given by a man for a bushel of rye, to keep a wife and children from the jaws of death. The wild roots and herbs that the country affords, boiled and without salt, constitute the whole food of most of the un- happy people, who have been decoved there, through the flat- tering accounts of the quality of the lands. You have my per- mission to publish this, in order to deter others from going, and it is thought that unless they get supplies from this and the neigh- boring counties, they will be compelled to quit the place, as their crops have universally failed. Several boat loads of flour that were carried from here, have been seized by force by the people."
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A more infamous libel on the character of the Genesee country and its inhabitants could not have been penned. At the time the printer issued this paper there was not to exceed fifteen families on the whole tract, who had come on within three months previous to that time, and those were mostly wealthy farmers who had emigra- ted from Massachusetts and Connecticut into the country, bringing with them, what was estimated to be a year's provision. They had not been in the country long enough to try the success or fail- are of crops; but had it been otherwise, who that has ever entered into a log cabin in the Genesee country does not know that in times of scarcity of provisions, every man of the New England pioneers who would not divide with his necessitous neighbors without money and without price, would be considered as an outlaw in society.
The attack of Cornplanter and other Indian chiefs, on the title of Phelps and Gorham to this tract was well calculated to arrest the sale of lands and the progress of the settlement. In 1790 and 1791, Cornplanter, Half Town, and Great Tree, or Big Trec, sent serious complaints against Mr. Phelps contained in several memorials to the President of the United States, which if truc might operate to invalidate the title of Phelps and Gorham to their purchase. The first memorial usually called "Cornplanter's speech," the following extract from which, contains most of the charges against Mr. Phelps and his transactions during the treaty for the lands set forth in the whole. To these charges Mr. Phelps was cited to answer, by the President. Mr. Phelps, as soon as they could be obtained, which however took him some time to effect, produced depositions, certificates, letters and other docu- mentary testimony, signed by such persons as Timothy Pickering, Judge Hollenbeck, Rev. Samuel Kirkland, Joseph Brant, and others which clearly proved that the charges contained in the memorials against him where untrue, as appears from the report of a com- mittec of the United States Senate made January 27, 1792, in the following words :-
"Mr. Butler from the Committee on Indian affairs, to whom was referred the speeches of Cornplanter, of the 9th, of Decem- ber, 1790; 10th, of January, 7th, of February, and 17th, of March, 1791; made the following report :-
" That Oliver Phelps of whom Cornplanter makes mention, pro- duced some affidavits and other papers, relating to the purchase of lands made by him of the Indians, which your Committee have examined, and are of opinion, that the said affidavits and other
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papers should be filed in the Secretary's office; and that your Com- mittee be discharged from the further consideration of this subject."
Extracts from Cornplanter's Speech.
"The voice of the Seneca Nation speaks to you, the great counsellor, in whose heart the wise men of all the Thirteen Fires have placed their wisdom. It may be very small in your ears, and we therefore entreat you to hearken with attention; for we are about to speak of things which are to us very great. When your army entered the country of the Six Nations, we called you the Town Destroyer, and to this day, when that name is heard, our women look behind them and turn pale, and our children cling close to the necks of their mother's. Our counsellors and warriors are men, and cannot be afraid; but their hearts are grieved with the fears of our women and children, and desire that it may be buried so deep as to be heard no more. When you gave us peace, we called you father, because you promised to secure us in the posses- sion of our lands. Do this, and, so long as lands shall remain, that beloved name will live in the heart of every Seneca.
"FATHER: our nation empowered John Livingston to let out part of our lands on rent, to be paid to us. He told us, that he was sent by Congress to do this for us, and we fear he has deceived us in the writing he obtained from us; for since the time of our giving that power, a man of the name of Phelps has come among us, and claimed our whole country northward of the line of Penn- sylvania, under purchase of that Livingston, to whom he said he had paid twenty thousand dollars for it. He said, also, that he had bought, likewise, from the council of the Thirteen Fires, and paid them twenty thousand dollars more for the same. And he said, also, that it did not belong to us, for that the great King had ceded the whole of it, when you made peace with him. Thus he claimed the whole country north of Pennsylvania, and west of the lands belonging to the Cayugas. He demanded it; he insisted on his demand, and declared that he would have it all. It was impossible for us to grant him this, and we immediately refused it. After some days he proposed to run a line, at a small distance eastward of our western boundary, which we also refused to agree to. He then threatenedus with immediate war, if we did not comply.
"Upon this threat our chiefs held a council, and they agreed that no event of war could be worse than to be driven, with their wives and children, from the only country which we had a right to, and, therefore, weak as our nation was, they determined to take the chance of war, rather than submit to such unjust demands, which seemed to have no bounds. Street, the great trader at Niagara, was then with us, having come at the request of Phelps, and as he always professed to be our great friend, we consulted him on this
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subject. He also told us, that our lands had been ceded by the King, and that we must give them up.
"Astonished at what we heard from every quarter, with hearts aching with compassion for our wives and children, we were thus compelled to give up all our country north of the line of Penn- sylvania, and east of the Genesee river, up to the fork, and east of a south line drawn from that fork to the Pennsylvania line. For this land Phelps agreed to pay us ten thousand dollars in hand, and one thousand dollars a year for ever. He paid us two thousand and five hundred dollars in hand, part of the ten thousand, and he sent for us to come last spring, to receive our money; but instead of paying us the remainder of the ten thousand dollars, and the one thousand dollars due for the first year, he offered us no more than five hundred dollars, and insisted that he had agreed with us for that sum to be paid yearly. We debated with him for six days, during all which time he persisted in refusing to pay us our just demand, and he insisted that we should receive the five hun- dred dollars; and Street, from Niagara, also insisted on our recieving the money as it was offered to us. The last reason he assigned for continuing to refuse paying us, was, that the King had ceded the lands to the Thirteen Fires, and that he had bought them from you and paid you for them.
"We could bear this confusion no longer, and determined to force through every difficulty and lift up our voice that you might hear us, and to claim that security in the possession of our lands, which your commissioners so solemnly promised us. And we now entreat you to enquire into our complaints and redress our wrongs.
"FATHIER: Our writings were lodged in the hands of Street, of Niagara, as we supposed him to be our friend; but when we saw Phelps consulting with Street, on every occasion, we doubted of his honesty towards us, and we have since heard, that he was to receive for his endeavors to deceive us, a piece of land two miles in width, west of the Genesee river, and near forty miles in length, extending to lake Ontario; and the lines of this tract have been run accordingly, although no part of it is within the bounds which limit his purchase. No doubt he meant to deceive us.
" FATHER: You have said that we are in your hand, and that, by closing it, you could crush us to nothing. Are you determined to crush us ? If you are, tell us so, that those of our nation who have become your children, and have determined to die so, may know what to do. In this case. one chief has said he would ask you to put him out of pain. Another, who will not think of dying by the hand of his father, or of his brother, has said he will retire to Chatauque, eat off the fatal root. and sleep with his fathers in peace."*
* The translator of this speech has taken the liberty to give the English orthography to the name of the lake. In Seneca, it was Jadaqueh; i. e. the place where a body
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And there was rivalry and misrepresentation to contend with in another quarter. The Upper Province of Canada had commenced settling-there were land dealers there too, who wished to divert settlers from Western New York, and promote the interests of themselves and their localities. John Gould, Esq., who has already been cited, says, that at the period of his earliest residence in Can- ada, reports were spread prejudicial to the settlements then just commencing in Western New York. It was said that the country was sickly, the Livingston claim and others, were named as adverse titles. He observes, that on leaving Canada in 1804 to settle in the States, Esq. - told him he would not give his farm in Canada for "all the land between Niagara and the Cayuga lake." And now, said the old gentleman to the author, as he looked out upon the broad well cultivated acres he and his children possess :- "I would not give my farm for Esq. - 's, and half a dozen more like it."
The new settlers were threatened with even more formidable difficulties than those that have so far been enumerated. Although the treaty of peace in 1783, between the United States and Great Britain, caused an immediate suspension of hostilities, and a with- drawal from all the posts held by the British in the Eastern States, there were still many delicate and difficult questions that remained to be settled, and which were a source of continual irritation and embarrassment. The posts at Oswego and Niagara, and all the western posts were not surrendered until 1796. The singular spectacle was presented here in Western New York, of surveys and settlement going on under the auspices of one government, while the battlements of fortified places, occupied by the troops of
ascended, or was taken up. Cornplanter had allusion to a Seneca tradition :- A hunting party of Indians was once encamped upon the shores of this lake; a young squaw of the party, dug and eat a root that created thirst; to slake it, she went to the lake, and disappeared forever. Thence it was inferred, that a root grew there, which produced an easy death - a vanishing away from the afflictions of life. The author is aware that the name of the lake has been ascribed to another tradition, and that other derivations have been given. His authority is information derived from a native Seneca.
NOTE .- The Livingston claim, otherwise called the Lessee claim was founded on the circuinstance, that John Livingston and others had leased from the Indians, for 999 years on a rent of two thousand dollars per annum, a large tract of land which was alledged to include the whole of the Massachusetts pre-emption tract: but as the whole transaction has been declared to be illegal by the legislation and judicial authorities of the State, and is now abandoned, although it has afforded a pretext for the Lesees, to receive donations from the state and from Phelps and Gorham; but with the Holland Company, their application, although commenced by a suit in ejectment, was less successful.
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another, were frowning upon the peaceable operations of enterprise and industry.
The pretext for withholding these posts, was, that the United States had not fulfilled some of its treaty stipulations; the one that guarantied the payment of debts due from American to British subjects, being a special subject of complaint. But while such were the avowed reasons for not surrendering them, it is quite apparent, that they were not the real ones. A peace-a surrender of an empire such as this was, had been as we well know, a saeri- fice to necessity, humbling to the pride of England. A suspension of hostilities had been reluctantly consented to, with the lingering hope and expectation, that something might occur, to prevent the final consummation of separation and independence. The holding of this line of posts afforded a feeble prospect of a successful renewal of the struggle, through a continued alliance with the Indians, and the placing of obstacles in the way of the peaceable overtures made to them by our government. And perhaps England entertained hopes that free government was a thing to talk about, and pretty successfully fight for-but would not admit of final consummation. There were differences of opinion they well knew, -radical ones -among those who were to frame the new system; the whole matter looked to them, as it really was, surrounded with difficulties and embarrassments. There might be a failure. Should it be so, here, in the possession of these posts-an alliance with the Indians- was a prospective nucleus for renewing the war and recovering the lost colonies; restoring the precious jewel that had dropped from England's crown. And here it may be remarked, upon the authority of circumstances, too strong to admit of much doubt, that the last vestige of such hopes with England, was not obliterated until the treaty of Ghent, that closed the war of 1812.
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