Settlement in the West : sketches of Rochester with incidental notices of western New-York, Part 12

Author: O'Reilly, Henry, 1806-1886. cn
Publication date: 1838
Publisher: Rochester : W. Alling
Number of Pages: 570


USA > New York > Monroe County > Rochester > Settlement in the West : sketches of Rochester with incidental notices of western New-York > Part 12


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" The other reservations are, one at 'Tonawanda, one at Cattaraugus, and one at Allegany.


" The tract which the Indians obtain lies directly west of and adjoining the State of Missouri, being 27 miles wide, and about 106 deep. It is watered by the Little Osage, Marmaton, Neosho, and branches of the two Verdigris and Turkey-foot Rivers. 'These are all clear, rapid streams, abounding in fish. The country is healthy and fertile, with sufficient timber along the borders of the rivers for all practical uses. Besides this, on the tract are found coal, fine stone quarries, and, in the immediate vicinity, salt in abun- dance."


Thus faded away the power of the Iroquois or Six Na- tions in the State of New-York.


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THE LANDS OF THE SIX NATIONS.


[NOTE .- Opportunity is here taken to insert a notice of the good-will manifested by the national government towards certain Indians who were friendly, while the great body of the Confederacy were hostile through the revolutionary war. The notice was accidentally omitted from the proper order of dates ; and the omission is here supplied particularly to corroborate the remark made at the commencement of this article, touching the feelings manifested by the government towards the Six Nations, &c. The treaty made on the 2d of December, 1794, in the Oneida country, Timothy Pick- ering agent for the United States, ran thus :


" Whereas, in the late war between Great Britain and the United States of America, a body of the Oneida, and Tusca- rora, and the Stockbridge Indians adhered faithfully to the United States, and assisted them with their warriors ; and, in consequence of this adherence and assistance, the Oneidas and Tuscaroras, at an unfortunate period of the war, were driven from their homes, and their houses were burnt, and their property destroyed : and as the United States, in the time of their distress, acknowledged their obligations to these faithful friends, and promised to reward them ; and the Uni- ted States being now in a condition to fulfil the promises then made, the following articles are stipulated by the re- spective parties for that purpose, to be in force when rati- fied by the President and Senate :


Art. 1. The United States will pay the sum of five thou- sand dollars, to be distributed among individuals of the Oneida and Tuscarora nations, as a compensation for their individual losses and services during the late war between Great Britain and the United States. The only man of the Kaughnawaugas now remaining in the Oneida country, as well as some few very meritorious persons of the Stock- bridge Indians, will be considered in the distribution."


The other articles provided for the erection of grist and saw mills, with the employment of men to teach the Indians the use of them, and for the erection of a church for the Oneidas instead of the edifice burnt by the British.] 11*


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SKETCHES OF ROCHESTER, ETC.


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A NEW STATE . PROJECTED-THE LESSEES, ETC. (Referred to in the Notices of Treaties.) .


1787. The unsettled condition of affairs about the close of the revolutionary war furnished opportunity for the par- tial execution of a daring project with reference to the lands of the Six Nations. The scheme of erecting a new state from this western portion of the territory of New-York was probably suggested or encouraged by the successful efforts of the Green Mountain Boys, in forming a new state called Vermont from our then northeastern counties of Cumberland and Gloucester. After a long contest with New-York, Ver- mont was, in 1777, declared independent of this state, as well as of Great Britain, by a solemn act of its inhabitants, who `nevertheless joined heartily in the common cause of freedom against the British crown.


It was during the years 1787-8 that the project with reference to the Indian lands of Western New-York was partially executed by an association of citizens,' among whose names may be recognised some that became. promi- nent in the subsequent history of the state .*


This scheme for the creation of a new state was partially developed by the contracts made with the Six Nations for leasing most of their territories at an insignificant annuity ($2000 per annumn) for a twelvemonth short of a thousand years !- the calculation obviously being that, before many of the nine hundred and ninety-nine years should have elapsed, the whites would have so multiplied in the Indian land as to bid defiance to the State of New-York, as well as to the Red Men upon whose territories they were encroach- ing under the specious pretext of a lease. (The law for- bade any purchase from the Indians without leave of the lawful authorities.) -


* Remonstrances from Poughkeepsie, Hudson, and other places, ex- press " surprise, anxiety, and concern at the efforts making by certain individuals to procure from the Legislature a recognition of their claims to that vast and valuable tract of country to the westward, now in pos- session of the Indian natives, and within and subject to the jurisdiction of the state." Fears were expressed that the objects of those Lessees tended to a dismemberment of that portion of the state from the juris- diction of New-York, &c. It is asserted in the Hudson memorial that secret and unwarrantable means had been employed by the Lessees in making their arrangements with some of the Indians.


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THE LANDS OF THE SIX NATIONS.


But the Legislature promptly responded to the warning of Governor George Clinton and the motion of Senator Eg- bert Benson, by adopting measures for counteracting these schemes. The law of March, 1788, strengthening the for- mer enactments against intruders on Indian lands, to, which the jurisdictional and pre-emptive rights were claimed by this state, was particularly levelled at these Lessees ; and the resolute course adopted against them, the Governor being authorized to use fire and sword if needful, at once crushed the adventurous project and destroyed the embryo state.


The new law recited the importance of preserving amity with the Indians-of preventing frauds upon them, and of remedying the evils often occasioned by white men making contracts with the Indians, " which had in divers instances been productive of dangerous frauds and animosities." With these views, all contracts made with the Indians before October, 1775, and all contracts afterward, unless by au- thority of the state, were pronounced void ; and all persons were forbidden to buy or sell lands under such unlawful contracts with the Indians, under penalty of fine and impris- onment. Persons offending against this law, by settling on waste or ungranted lands of the state between the eastern line of lands ceded to Massachusetts and the Property Line, were to be considered as holding by a foreign title against the right and sovereignty of the state; and it was made the duty of the Governor to cause all such persons to be driven off and their buildings to be destroyed, by calling out any portion of the military force of the state.


The Lessees, thus precluded from the prosecution of their plans, beset the Legislature for a grant of land; and, about five years after the passage of the severe act by which their ambitious or avaricious hopes were effectually crushed, they succeeded (1793) in obtaining an appropriation of ten miles square, to be located at the discretion of the surveyor- general. Many of the prominent persons in this business are named in the appropriation law ; and the tract selected for their use by the surveyor-general was a part of the old Military Tract in the northern part of the state.


The Lessees were likewise rewarded with some townships by Phelps and Gorham for services rendered in facilitating the arrangement between the latter and the Indians respect- ing the purchase of the right of soil in the land for which the pre-emptive right had been bought from Massachusetts.


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SKETCHES OF ROCHESTER, ETC.


Some information derived from Gen. Vincent Matthews, of Rochester, who resided in Tioga at the date of some of these transactions, induced us to examine the records in the public offices at Albany for the leases, which, as they have long lain unheeded, may be quoted here as curiosities con- nected with the early history of Western New-York, and not altogether irrelevant here, seeing that they covered the tract whereon the City of Rochester has recently sprung into existence.


It will be seen that, after " consenting" to the sale made by the Indians to Phelps and Gorham, the Lessees modified their first lease (dated 30th November, 1787) by causing another to be made near the close of 1788, to preserve the appearance of a claim to the Indian lands extending east- ward from the "Pre-emption Line" (the east boundary of the Massachusetts lands) to the " Property Line," as the boundary was termed, which then marked the eastern limit of the " Six Nations" in this state.


The Lessee Contracts .- No. 1.


1787. An agreement made on the 30th November, 1787, " between the chiefs or sachems of the Six Nations of In- dians of the one part, and John Livingston, Caleb Benton, Peter Ryckman, John Stevenson, and Ezekiel Gilbert, for themselves and their associates, of the County of Colum- bia and State of New-York, of the other part," witnessed that the said chiefs or sachems of the Six Nations, on certain considerations afterward mentioned, leased to the said John Livingston and his associates, for a period of 999 years, " all the land commonly known as the lands of the Six Nations in the State of New-York, and at the time in the actual possession of the said chiefs or sachems." From this lease was excepted any tract of land which the chiefs or sachems might choose to reserve for themselves and their heirs-" said reservations to revert to the Lessees in case they should afterward be relinquished by the Indians," &c. The payments to be made by the Lessees and their suc- cessors were designated as " a yearly rent of two thousand Spanish milled dollars, payable on the 4th of July in each year of the 999 for which the lease was drawn." Among the signatures of Indians attached to this lease are the marks of Anayawas, or Farmer's Brother, Kyantwaka, or John


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THIE LANDS OF THE SIX NATIONS.


Abeel, Sigowaka, or Red Jacket, Little Beard, &c. N. Rosecrantz, George Stimson, Joseph Smith, and Peter Bor- til, Jr., are names subscribed as witnesses.


The Lessee Contracts .- No. 2.


1788. Whereas, the Six Nations of Indians, by their sachems and warriors, did, by a certain deed bearing date Nov. 30th, 1787, lease to John Livingston and his associates all the tract known as the lands of the Six Nations within the State of New-York, for a period of 999 years, at an an- nual rent of $2000 : And whereas, at a treaty held at Buf- falo Creek with all the aforesaid Six Nations, in presence of their superintendents, the said Six Nations, by their chiefs, sachems, and warriors, by and with the consent and agree- ment of the said John Livingston and his associates, granted and sold to Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham, of Massa- chusetts, a certain seat of land contained within the afore- said demise or lease, comprehended within that part of the territory of the said Six Nations whereof the right of pre-emp- tion had been ceded by the said State of New-York to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts : And whereas the said Six Nations have reserved to their own use the residue of all the land contained within the said part whereof the right of pre-emption hath been ceded as aforesaid : And whereas, from the aforementioned sale and reservation, there remains subject to the aforementioned lease all the other lands men- tioned and contained in the aforesaid lease, the right of pre- emption whereof hath not been ceded to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as aforesaid, excepting and reserving what is hereinafter excepted and reserved, and to be made upon the condition hereinafter mentioned, to wit : First excepting and reserving one mile square near the outlet of the Cayuga Lake, and one of the Onondaga salt-springs, with 100 acres of land adjacent to the same, to accommodate the same with firewood and other conveniences ; also excepting and re- serving to the aforesaid Indians one half of the Falls, and convenient places for wiers for the purpose of catching fish and eels from the Cross Lake to the Three Rivers: also reserving an exclusive right to one of the salt-springs near Onondaga, with fifty or one hundred acres of land around the same for firewood and other conveniences for boiling salt, together with an equal right in common for eeling and fishing so far as to the Oneida Lake. All which reserva-


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tions, as well as the annual rent itself hereafter mentioned and reserved to be paid to the said Indians, are made and given upon this express condition, that whenever the afore- said Indians shall part or dispose of the same or any of them, then, in that case, the New-York Geneva Company shall have the right of acquiring the same. Wherefore know ye, That, in consideration of the several matters above mentioned, and of the sales, exceptions, and reservations abovementioned, whereby the lands in the aforesaid indenture contained now remaining subject to the aforesaid lease are greatly reduced in quantity-We, the sachems, chiefs, and warriors of the said Six Nations, lessors in the aforesaid demise, have exonerated the Lessees and their assigns for ever from the payment of $1000, or one equal half of the annual rent or sum of money in the aforesaid indenture re- served and made payable to the Six Nations. (The 4th of July, 1791, was fixed as the day for the commencement of the annual payments of rent under the lease as now modified -payable in cattle, at reasonable prices, to be delivered at Canadasago [near Geneva] each year during the period of the lease.)


With these alterations, we, the same sachems, chiefs, and warriors, do, by these presents, hold good and valid, and con- firm to the Lessees the aforesaid demise heretofore made, to all intents and purposes, during the term and continuance thereof, &c.


This lease is signed by several chiefs of the Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, as well as Mohawks. Among the Mohawks appears the signature of "Jos. Brant Thayendanegea ;" and the names attached to the marks X of the other chiefs appear to be in the handwriting of that noted Mohawk. The name of Red Jacket is spelt Shago- yeghwatha. There are also attached the names of seven of the " chief women." The witnesses were Samuel Kirk- land the missionary, Jas. Dean the interpreter, Jos. Brant, David Smith, Ben. Barton, M. Hollenback, Elisha Lee, and Ez. Scott.


Treaty between Phelps and Gorham and the Six Nations. (Referred to in the previous Notices.)


1788. The conflicting interests of New-York and Massa- chusetts having been reconciled by the amicable arrange- ment between the commissioners of both states at the close


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THE LANDS OF THIE SIX NATIONS.


of 1786-the pre-emptive right, or right of purchasing the right of soil from the Indian occupants, being vested in Mas- sachusetts, while the sovereignty was conceded to New- York-the Legislature of Massachusetts, in 1787, sold the tract, containing about six millions of acres, to Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham, for one million of dollars, payable in three instalments.


'The pre-emptive right being thus secured, Phelps and Gor- ham made energetic preparations that year for exploring and surveying their great purchase.


Accordingly, in the summer of 1788, Oliver Phelps left Granville, Massachusetts, with men and means adequate to the arduous enterprise. It may seem strange to many of the million who are now revelling in the comforts and pros- perity which the last half-century has diffused through all Western New-York, that the course of Phelps and his asso- ciates should have been then considered so hazardous, that the whole neighbourhood assembled to bid them adieu-a final adieu ! as many thought ; for it seemed a desperate chance that any of that intrepid band should ever return from their enterprise through a region to which the Indian title had not been extinguished, and which was hardly yet tranquillized from the shocking atrocities that marked the savage warfare in our revolutionary strife. But the enter- prise was in truth of a character which measurably justified such fears in his neighbours, as the reflecting reader may imagine, and as the history of the times will show.


The wilderness was successfully penetrated as far as Canandaigua, about 130 miles west of the German Flats in Herkimer county, the thien sparsely-settled frontier of civi- lization. In connexion with the Rev. Samuel Kirkland, the well-known missionary among the Six Nations, and a com- missioner in behalf of the State of Massachusetts, Mr. Phelps succeeded speedily in collecting the chiefs and war- riors of those tribes, whose warlike spirit still rankled with the chastisement inflicted a few years previously by the avenging arms of Sullivan. A conference was held with the Red Men on a beautiful acclivity overlooking Canandaigua Lake-where the romantic scenery, combined with the in- teresting subject of deliberation, and the warmth with which that subject was discussed by such chiefs as Red Jacket and Farmer's Brother, rendered the whole scene one of thrilling interest.


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The great object of this remarkable council was happily accomplished. The Indian title to more than two millions of acres (in which the site of the present City of Rochester was included in an amusing manner)* was extinguished, though not without opposition from Red Jacket, which threat- ened defeat to the hopes, if not destruction to the lives, of Phelps and his associates. The critical scene may be ap- propriately delineated here, in the language of one conversant with the subject, as quoted from an article printed some years ago in the New-York American.


" Two days had passed away in negotiation with the In- dians for a cession of their lands. The contract was sup- posed to be nearly completed, when Red Jacket arose. With the grace and dignity of a Roman senator, he drew his blanket around him, and with a piercing eye surveyed the multitude. All was hushed. Nothing interposed to break the silence, save the rustling of the tree-tops under whose shade they were gathered. After a long and solemn, but not unmeaning pause, he commenced his speech in a low voice and sententious style. Rising gradually with his sub- ject, he depicted the primitive simplicity and happiness of his nation, and the wrongs they had sustained from the usurpations of the white man, with such a bold but faithful pencil, that the Indian auditors were soon roused to ven- geance or melted into tears.


" The effect was inexpressible. But, ere the emotions of admiration and sympathy had subsided, the white men be- came alarmed. They were in the heart of an Indian coun- try, surrounded by more than ten times their number, who were inflamed by the remembrance of their injuries, and ex- cited to indignation by the eloquence of a favourite chief. Appalled and terrified, the white men cast a cheerless gaze upon the hordes around them. A nod from the chiefs might be the onset of destruction. At that portentous moment, Farmer's Brother interposed. He replied not to his brother chief; but, with a sagacity truly aboriginal, he caused a ces- sation of the council, introduced good cheer, commended the eloquence of Red Jacket, and, before the meeting had re- assembled, with the aid of other prudent chiefs, he had mod-


* The site of Rochester, forming part of the tract of twelve by twenty- four miles bestowed for a millyard ! (See notices of the "Early Millers of the Genesee," &c. in this work.)


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THE LANDS OF THE SIX NATIONS.


erated the fury of his nation to a more salutary review of the question before them."


'The reassemblage of the council in cooler blood was fol- lowed by the satisfactory arrangement of the treaty. The inveterate antipathy of Red Jacket to the white man-a feel- ing which characterized his whole life, albeit he faithfully observed treaties when once formed, however much he op- posed their formation-was fortunately neutralized on this occasion by Farmer's Brother, the grand sachem, to whose integrity and wisdom, as well as to the same qualities some- what differently displayed in Red Jacket, strong testimony is borne by those most conversant with the transactions of the Six Nations.


When we consider the present condition of Western New- York, with its magnificent improvements, its cities and towns, and canals and railroads, and immense agricultural riches, improved by a thrifty and enlightened people-and when we reflect on what might have been the results had the settle- ment of this region been retarded by the influence of Red Jacket with the Indian Confederacy which then ranged these regions as their hunting-grounds, we may well consider this council at Canandaigua, with reference not merely to the improvement of this state, but to the whole of the great West, to which this region is now the principal thoroughfare, as one of the most important events in our Indian history.


Some interesting facts connected with the operations of Phelps and Gorham are annexed, from the sketches prefixed to the Rochester Directory for 1827 (published by Everard Peck and Elisha Ely).


" After the treaty, Mr. Phelps surveyed the land into tracts, denominated Ranges, running north and south, and subdivided the ranges into tracts of six miles square, denom- inated Townships, and designated each by numbers, begin- ning to number both ranges and townships at the 82d mile- stone, in the southeast corner of the tract [now the southeast corner of Steuben county], numbering the townships north- wardly to the lake from one to fourteen, and the ranges westwardly from one to seven. Thus, Bath is designated as township number four, in the third range; Canandaigua as township number ten, in the third range; Pittsford as number twelve, in the fifth range; and Brighton as number


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thirteen, in the seventh range of townships, in Gorham and Phelps's Purchase.


" As the Genesee River runs about 24° east of north be- low Avon, and Mr. Phelps continued his seventh range of townships to the lake, the fifth range was left to contain but twelve, and the sixth range but ten townships ; and, in order to square the tract lying west of Genesee River, he set off two townships near the lake, which he called the Short Range, now comprising the towns of Gates and Greece [and part of Rochester] ; and the present towns of Caledonia, Wheatland, Chili, Riga, Ogden, and Parma, being then four townships, he called the first range of townships west of Genesee River, in Gorham and Phelps's Purchase.


" This tract formed the counties of Ontario and Steuben for many years, until 1821, when Monroe and Livingston counties were formed, except that part of it lying west of the river, which was annexed to the county of Genesee at its organization in 1802, and the south part of the seventh range set off from Steuben to Allegany.


" In 1789, Oliver Phelps opened a land-office in Canan- daigua-this was the first land-office in America for the sale of her forest-lands to settlers; and the system which he adopted for the survey of his lands, by townships and ranges, became a model for the manner of surveying all the new lands in the United States ; and the method of making his retail sales to settlers by articles has also been adopted by all the other land-offices of individual proprietorships that have followed after him.


" The Article was a new device, of American origin, un- known in the English system of conveyancing ; granting the possession, but not the fee of the land ; facilitating the fre- quent changes among new settlers, enabling them to sell out their improvements and transfer their possession by assign- ment, and securing the reversion of the possession to the proprietor where they abandoned the premises. His land- sales were allodial ; and the other land-offices following his example, have rendered the Genesee farmers all fee-simple landholders, which has increased the value of the soil and the enterprise of the people.


" 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."


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THE LANDS OF THE SIX NATIONS.


In connexion with the foregoing remarks upon the lands of Western New-York, it may be well to notice


The Controversy with Connecticut.


Between Connecticut and New-York, as between Massa- chusetts and New-York, disputes respecting boundary arose at an early period. These disputes were arranged in 1733, as was generally supposed, by an agreement for running be- tween the colonies a line parallel with and twenty miles eastward of the Hudson River. But this arrangement does not appear to have been considered by Connecticut as inval- idating a claim to lands extending westward within a prolon- gation of the latitudinal lines which form her northern and southern boundaries. The charter of Connecticut, like that of Massachusetts, included territory from sea to sea-from Atlantic to Pacific. The map will show how such claims would have swept through New-York, Pennsylvania, &c. As the arrangement with Massachusetts has been fully allu- ded to, it may not be thought irrelevant to notice the trans- actions between New-York and Connecticut on the subject.




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