USA > New York > Monroe County > Rochester > Settlement in the West : sketches of Rochester with incidental notices of western New-York > Part 40
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" This daring work, which reflected so much credit on the enterprise of the pro- jectors and the ingenuity of the builders, stood but about one year [one year and one day, which latter period saved the builders from the loss, as they guarantied that the structure would endure one year]. The immense weight of timber, pressing une- qually upon the arch, threw up the centre from its equilibrium, and the whole tum- bled into ruins," save a small portion of the framework on the eastern bank, which is represented in the engraving of the Lower Falls, but which has recently fallen to the eartlı, its few decayed timbers forming now the principal memorial on the spot of the existence of the remarkable fabric.
This bridge was of much importance to the settlements on the banks of the Gen- esee River, within a short distance of the celebrated Rridge Road-the two points of which, broken by the river, might be said to be connected by it.
The scenery around this place is picturesque and sublime-being within view of two waterfalls of the Genesee, which have upward of one hundred feet descent.
A view of this bridge, as It appeared at its aerial height apparently almost spanning the cataracts beside it, was sketched by Gen. John A. Dix, the present secretary of this state, while travelling in this region in 1819. The lateness of the period at which the view came into our possession prevented the preparation of an engraving from it for this work. The time is probably not far distant when the erection of a suspen- sion bridge at this romantic spot will form a more enduring (though not more re- markable) monument of enterprise than the original structure-when the traveller making the " fashionable tour" may note this scene as worthy of attention in common even with the projected bridge at Lewiston across the Niagara,
Irondequoit Bay-Historical Recollections, etc.
This bay, well known in the early history of the country, is now wholly unfitted for navigation, owing to the sandbar formed at its junction with Lake Ontario. It is now much frequented by parties from Rochester for gunning, fishing, &c. The ge- ologist also has many attractions for a visit thither ; for " on the borders of the bay, and of the creek of the same name which discharges itself there, the surface of the earth presents a most extraordinary and picturesque appearance-a multitude of con - ical or irregular mounds of sand and light earth, sometimes insulated and sometimes united, rising to an average height of 200 feet from a perfectly level meadow of the richest alluvial loam."
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SKETCHES OF ROCHESTER, ETC.
The history of Irondequoit is intimately connected with that of the Military and Tra- ding Posts of Western New-York. A station was established there in 1726, to aid the British in securing the trade with the Western Indians, to the exclusion of the French at the lower end of Lake Ontario.
In connexion with the fact that there was a city laid out at Irondequoit Bay, it might be mentioned that formerly supplies from New-York, destined for our western posts, were sent to the head of that bay (instead of the Genesee River), there freighted in batteaux, to proceed through Lake Ontario to Niagara River-thence to be taken across the portage to Fort Schlosser; and there re-enibarked to proceed up the Niag- ara River, through Lake Erie, &c. The city was laid out at the head of the bay, near the route of the present road between Canandaigua and Rochester.
It may amuse some readers to learn that Maude, a traveller in 1800, mentions that the cargo of a schooner which sailed from Genesee River for Kingston, Upper Canada, had " been sent from Canandarqua for Rundicut Bay, and from thence in boats round about to Genesee River Landing," for shipment in the above schooner. [The cargo thus circuitously forwarded from Canandaigua was potash-and " no potash was then made about Irondequoit or Genesee Landings for want of kettles" in 1800.]
The mouth of Irondequoit is about four miles eastward of Genesee River on Lake Ontario ; and the bay extends southwardly about five miles, nearly to the present main-travelled route through Brighton between Rochester and Canandaigua.
" The Teoronto Bay of Lake Ontario," says Spafferd, "merits more particular notice, if for no other purpose than to speak of Gerundegut, Irondeqnoit, and Rundi- cut-names by which it is also known. The Indians called it ' Teoronto'-a sono- rous and purely Indian name, too good to be supplanted by such vulgarisms as Gerun- degut or Irondequoit ! The bay is about five miles long and one mile wide, commu- nicating with the lake by a very narrow opening-or such it used to have-and Teo- ronto, or Tche-o-ron-tok, perhaps rather nearer the Indian pronunciation, is the place where the waves breathe and die, or gasp and expire. Let a person of as much dis- cernment as these savages watch the motion of the waves in this bay, and he will admire the aptitude of its name, and never again pronounce Gerundegut, Irondequoit, or Rundicut."
Irondequoit Embankment.
One of the greatest curiosities connected with the internal improvements of the state is the great embankment for conducting the Erie Canal across the valley of Irondequoit Creek, a few miles southward of the junction of that creek with the head of the bay of the same name. The embankment, under which the creek proceeds through a large culvert, is about 1500 feet long and about 80 feet high above the waters of the creek.
This great work, which will be rendered still more wonderful by the increased dimensions consequent on enlarging the canal, is about ten miles eastward of Ro- chester. The falls of the Irondequoit Creek afford some valuable hydraulic privileges here and at the village of Penfield.
First Oren used in the Genesee Valley-Tragical Circumstances connected with their Capture.
In connexion with these historical matters, we may notice some facts respecting the achievements of our Genesee Indians. The circumstances connected with the first oxen used in the Genesee Valley rank among the most tragical incidents in the history of the country. Singular as it may seem, the capture of those cattle from the British by the Senecas was one of the results of the conspiracy formed by the great Ottawa chief Pontiac for combining the northern and western tribes in a simultane- ous movement for destroying the power of the white man by suddenly capturing the British posts throughout the immense extent of inland frontier. This was in 1763, after the close of the war between the French and British, in which the former sur- rendered to the latter their Canadian possessions and various forts like those of Niagara, Detroit, Michillimackinac, &c. The sagacious and warlike spirit of Pontiac was eminently displayed in this wide-spread conspiracy, which embraced most of the northern and western tribes, including part of the Six Nations, whose partial temporary disaffection to the British was previously manifested by the junction of the Senecas par- ticularly as allies with the French. Most of the forts on the northwestern frontiers were captured by Indians of the various combined tribes ; Fort Pitt (now Pittsburg), Detroit, and Niagara alone being saved from the savages. Farmer's Brother, who was friendly to Phelps and others of our early settlers, was the chief of the Senecas that destroyed the British force at the Devil's Hole on the Niagara, where were cap- tured the oxen that were brought to the Genesee Flats, &c. The circumstances of this bloody tragedy were these : Sir William Johnson employed William Stedman to cut a portage road around Niagara Falls, from Fort Niagara at Lake Ontario to Fort Schlosser above the falls. The road was completed in June, 1763. Although this
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RIDGE ROAD AND BRADDOCK'S BAY.
was a little before the period fixed for surprising the British garrisons, the Senecas, under their chief, Farmer's Brother, seized the opportunity to cut off a detachment sent to convoy the military stores which Stedman had contracted to transport by teams from the vessels on Lake Ontario at Fort Niagara to the vessels at Schlosser which were to take those warlike munitions to the posts on Lake Erie and the upper lakes. The soldiers and teamsters were ninety-six in number ; and so unconscious were they of danger that the latter were gayly whistling and singing alongside their teams, when the warwhoop of the Senecas was instantaneously followed by a rush of savages, which suddenly swept into eternity all but four persons of the ninety-six who formed the convoy. Stedman escaped on horseback; and the other three jumped off the awful precipice, where so many of their comrades had been driven half mur- dered by the Indians. These three escaped, but were severely wounded; one of them having been caught by his drumstrap in a branch of a tree. The drum floating down the river, furnished the garrison of Fort Niagara with the first intelligence of the ca- lamity, and produced among them a degree of vigilance which preserved the fort from being surprised, as most of the garrisons on the frontier were immediately after. The Senecas became reconciled to the British soon after by a treaty with Sir William Johnson, and in the revolutionary war sided with the royalists. Farmer's Brother was highily esteemed by our early settlers, and was less unfriendly to the whites generally than his contemporary Red Jacket. Stedman had bestowed upon him by the Senecas a large piece of land at the scene of this awful tragedy ; the gratuity resulting from a superstitious belief of the Indians that he was a favourite of the Great Spirit, as other- wise he could not, they supposed, have escaped the balls which they sent whistling around him when they fired from their ambuscade. Such is an outline of the bloody scene from which the first oxen ever used on the Genesee Flats were borne off with other plunder by the Seneca warriors.
The Ridge Road.
The Ridge Road, which forms such an excellent highway on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, furnishes not merely an admirable convenience for the traveller, but a fruitful source of speculation to the geologist and antiquarian. It is probably the most remarkable natural road in the world; and its conformation and other circum- stances are important links in the chain of evidence respecting the ancient height of Lake Ontario and the mysterious people by whom this land was occupied before the present race of red men acquired possession.
As this ridge runs eastward and westward near the north line of the City of Ro- chester ; as it is travelled by multitudes particularly between Rochester and Niagara River, some information respecting it may not be considered irrelevant now. The acute perception and philosophic mind of DE WITT CLINTON have invested this ridge with a degree of interest usually imparted to all topics subjected to their scru- tiny. His remarks may be found in the Appendix, page 380-1; and, in connexion with them, we recommend the reader to examine the interesting remarks of Professor Dewey in the Geological Sketches, pages 81-2-3.
Braddock's Bay.
It is rather amusing in these times to notice how prominently Braddock's Bay figured as a landing-place before Rochester was known. " The nearest ports to the Genesee River," says a traveller who wrote in 1800, "are Rundicut Bay, five miles to the east, and Bradloe Bay, thirteen miles to the west. The first is situate on a creek, the channel of which is difficult to be discerned in the marsh through which it takes its tortuous course ; and from the shallowness of the water it is obliged to send its produce to the Genesee River in batteaux. Four or five families are settled at Rundicut, but Bradloe is a better situation, and a more flourishing settlement."
Braddock's Bay is the name now commonly used, but the place is designated in accounts of former years as Prideaux Bay, as well as Bradloe Bay. We imagine that Prideaux was the name, and that it was given by or in honour of that General Prideaux who was killed at the head of the British army when assailing the French at Fort Niagara in 1759, where he was succeeded in the command by Sir William Johnson, to whom the French surrendered that fort.
Like Irondequoit Bay, Braddock's is now much frequented by anglers and gunners from Rochester and the surrounding country, as fish and game are in considerable abundance.
Hanford's Landing.
This is the name of a small settlement between Rochester and Lake Ontario, on the west bank of the Genesee River. It is a short distance from the point where " the ridge," running eastward and westward, is broken through by the ravine formed by the course of the river running northwardly.
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· A settlement was formed here in 1796. In 1800 the English traveller Maude men- tions that, as he could not find any accommodations for refreshment-" not even a stable for his horse"-at the place where the City of Rochester has since sprung into existence, he " was obliged to proceed to Gideon King's, at the Genesee Landing, where [he] got a good breakfast on wild-pigeons. Mr. King is the only respectable settler in this township (No. 1, short range), in which there are at present twelve fami- lies, four of whom have established themselves at the Landing. King, though the pro- prietor of 3000 acres, lives in an indifferent loghouse : one reason for this is, that he has not been able to procure boards. The Landing is the port from whence all the shipments of the Genesee River must be made; but further improvements are much checked in consequence of the titles to the lands being in dispute. The circumstances are as follow : Mr. Phelps sold 3000 acres in this neighbourhood to Zadok Granger for about $10,000, the payment being secured by a mortgage on the land. Granger died soon after his removal here ; and having sold part of the land, the residue would not clear the mortgage, which prevented his heirs from administering on his estate. Phelps foreclosed the mortgage and entered on possession, even on that part which had been already sold and improved. Some settlers, in consequence, left their farms-oth- ers repaid the purchase money-and others, again, are endeavouring to make some accommodation with Mr. Phelps. A son of Mr. Granger resides here, and Mr. Greaves, his nephew, became also a settler, erected the frame of a good house, and died. The Landing is at present an unhealthy residence, but when the woods get more opened it will no doubt become as healthy as any other part of the Genesee country. I went to see the new store and wharf. It is very difficult to get goods conveyed to and from the wharf, in consequence of the great height and steepness of the bank."
As illustrative of the condition of things in the way of roads as well as navigable facilities, we may note a remark of the traveller, that "yesterday, Aug. 18, 1800, a schooner of forty tons sailed from this Landing for Kingston, U. C., laden with pot- ash, which had been sent from Canandarqua to Rundicut Bay, and from thence round about in boats to this (Genesee) Landing."
" This Landing," adds Maude, "is four miles from the month of the river, where two log-huts are built at its entrance into Lake Ontario. [See 'Charlotte,' as the village now at the junction of river and lake is called.] At this Landing the chan- nel runs close along shore, and has thirty feet depth ; but upon the bar at the month of the river the water shoals to sixteen or eighteen feet. [See account of the Har- bour of Rochester.] This place is about equally distant from the eastern and western limits of Lake Ontario, and opposite to its centre and widest parts, being here about eighty [sixty ] miles across."
"In January, 1810, Frederic Hanford opened a store of goods at what was called the Upper Landing or Falltown-the name of Genesee Landing was no longer strictly applicable, as another Landing had been established at the junction of the river and lake, at the village called Charlotte. Hanford's was the first merchant's store on the river between Avon and Lake Ontario-a distance of about twenty-five miles. Hence the place has since been termed " Hanford's Landing."
In the same year Silas O. Smith opened a store at Ilanford's Landing, but in 1813 removed to the new village of Rochester, where he built the first merchant's store ; the plat of Rochester having been planned only the previous season.
As at the present Steamboat-Landing on the river at the north part of the City of Rochester, railways were used to facilitate the transit of freight between the top of the bank at Hanford's Landing and the warehouses or vessels on the margin of the river. The railway, the warehouses, and the wharves at Hanford's were burned in 1835.
Charlotte.
This is the name of a village situate on the west bank of the Genesee River, at the junction of that stream with Lake Ontario. It is about five miles north of the nor- therly bounds of the City of Rochester. In 1810, pursuant to projects for connecting the trade of the lakes with that of the Susquehanna, &c., a state-road was laid out from Charlotte to Arkport. In that year, Jonathan Child and Benjamin II. Gardiner, who had a atore in Bloomfield, established another at Charlotte, but soon discontinued it.
Frederic Bushnell and Samuel Latta soon afterward commenced, and long continued mercantile business in Charlotte. In 1822 a lighthouse was built by the United States, and the entrance of the river has been much improved for navigation by the piers constructed under liberal appropriations from the same source. (See account of the Harbour of Rochester.) During the last war with Great Britain, Charlotte was not unfrequently visited by the British fleet-a notice of one of which visits is included in the article on the " Effects of the Last War upon the Prosperity of Ro- chester." The place was named after a daughter of Colonel Troup, former agent of the Pulteney Estate.
APPENDIX.
THE RECENT INDIAN OCCUPANTS OF WESTERN NEW-YORK.
THE frequent references in this work to the Iroquois or Six Nations may render some farther particulars acceptable to the generality of readers. The history of that remarkable confederacy is unsurpassed in interest by that of any similar people in any age or country. Those who might have been inclined to smile at the comparison in some respects between the Six Nations and the Greeks and Romans (p. 105), are referred to the testimony of Clinton and Dwight on the char- acteristics of the savages (as they are called) thus named in connexion with two of the most remarkable nations of an- tiquity. "The Iroquois have certainly been a very extraor- dinary people," said President Dwight. " Had they enjoyed the advantages possessed by the Greeks and Romans, there is no reason to believe they would be at all inferior to these celebrated nations. Their minds appear to have been equal to any efforts within the reach of man. Their conquests, if we consider their numbers and their circumstances, were little inferior to those of Rome itself. In their harmony, the unity of their operations, the energy of their character, the vastness, vigour, and success of their enterprises, and the strength and sublimity of their eloquence, they may be fairly compared with the Greeks. Both the Greeks and the Ro- mans, before they began to rise into distinction, had already reached the state of society in which men are able to improve. The Iroquois had not. The Greeks and Romans had ample means for improvement : the Iroquois had none."
As a knowledge of the history and character of the Six Nations will be found particularly interesting in connexion with the arrangements which we have noticed for the extinc- tion of their claims upon Western New-York, the discourse delivered by De Witt Clinton upon the subject is placed in this Appendix. We had partly prepared a sketch of the history of the confederacy, when this discourse met our
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APPENDIX.
view ; and as our examinations of the subject served but to increase our admiration of the manner in which it was handled by Mr. Clinton, we determined to present his essay in pref- erence to the briefer statement which we had contemplated. The account of Mr. Clinton, besides its intrinsic merits, will have for most readers the additional charm of novelty ; for, though dated in 1811, it has not been published in a manner accessible to the people generally of Western New- York-certainly not to the citizens of Rochester, anterior to the origin of whose city it was delivered. 'Though composed before Mr. Clinton attained much of that celebrity which forms an important item in the "moral property" of his countrymen, the discourse will be found nowise unworthy of his fame.
The recent treaty for the removal westward of the shat- tered fragments of the Six Nations will doubtless quicken the interest now awakening to the researches respecting the career of those tribes. The antiquarian may find in their history and in the ancient ruins indicating the preoccupancy of their country by other people, much food for contempla- tion in connexion with the wonderful discoveries in Central America.
" 'The parallel between the people of America and Asia affords this important conclusion," said Dr. Mitchill ; "that on both continents the hordes dwelling in higher latitudes have overpowered the more civilized, though feebler, inhab- itants of the countries situate towards the equator. As the Tartars have overrun China, so the Aztecs have subdued Mexico ; as the Huns and Alains desolated Italy, so the Chippewas and Iroquois destroyed the populous settlements on both banks of the Ohio, &c. The surviving race in these terrible conflicts between the different nations of the ancient residents of North America is evidently that of Tartars, from the similarity of features, language, customs, &c. Think," adds Dr. Mitchill, " what a memorable spot is our Onondaga, where men of the Malay race from the south- west, of the 'Tartar blood from the northwest, and of the Gothic stock from the northeast, have successively contended for the supremacy and rule, and which may be considered as having been possessed by each long enough before Co- lumbus made his world-seeking voyages."
The conquests of the Iroquois were not limited by the Ohio, as might be inferred from the foregoing ; for a Seneca
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THE SIX NATIONS.
warrior, whose ancient relict but recently expired, was in his youth engaged in expeditions against the Cherokees and other tribes as far south as Mobile River, in one of which forays the Catawba tribe was almost exterminated by the warlike tribes from Western New-York. (Vide note A.) How interesting such facts become when considered in con- nexion with the ancient condition of this continent, which, though commonly called the New World, bears in its cen- tral regions stupendous monuments of a people whose an- tiquity irresistibly impels us to comparisons with the Egyp- tians and the Israelites of old. Voluminous and splendid works are now issuing from the European press, displaying the interest awakened abroad with reference to this subject. Some of the prominent periodical publications of Europe, as well as this country, have embarked earnestly in the investi- gation. Criticising the theory ingeniously supported by a British antiquarian, the Foreign Quarterly Review declares that "Lord Kingsborough's startling supposition that the great temple of Palenque [in Central America] and the tem- ple of Solomon were built after the same model, has more truth in it than would at first sight appear. There exists, in fact, a strong resemblance between some of the details of both : and the resemblance arises from there being one Syr- iac model for both. If his lordship had merely argued for the similarity of the ground-plan of both, we should have been prompted to conenr with his inference. We will go further, and say that the model of the final Jewish temple which Ezekiel describes as a future point of reunion for the whole restored and united Jewish family-and which either imitates or supercedes that of Solomon-is almost precisely like the model of the temple of Palenque-as like, in many respects, as anticipative description can be supposed to coin- cide with an extant exhibition of the same model !" The foreign reviewer observes elsewhere-" The tradition of the Mexican or Azteque race (for their identity is seemingly es- tablished) is, that they came from the regions of North America-that, after an interrupted progress of many years, they reached the central district which they occupied at the time of the Spanish conquest, where they subdued the Tul- teques ; and all the evidences to be collected from their cu- rious records tend to substantiate the truth of their assertion. It is therefore extremely probable (and it exhibits a singular coincidence between the history of the New and the Old
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APPENDIX.
World) that savage tribes descending from the same nor- thern regions of Asiatic Scythia, whence all barbarian ir- ruptions have proceeded, and traversing Behring's Straits, pressed downward in America, as they did in Europe and Asia from time immemorial, upon the tempting seats of southern civilization, and, expelling the occupants by con- quest, established themselves in their room. The picture- writings of the Azteques exhibit the whole progress of this barbarous irruption, from the time when, like the present arctic savages, armed with fishbone spears and clothed in skins, they commenced the long vicissitudes of their aggres- sive march, down to the time when, invested with a more civilized costume and panoplied in complete suits of armour, with the dentated clubs and condor-visored helmets, pecu- liar to them, they are seen successively vanquishing the re- sistance, burning the temples, and storming the fortresses of the Central Americans."
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