USA > New York > Franklin County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 4
USA > New York > Jefferson County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 4
USA > New York > Lewis County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 4
USA > New York > Oswego County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 4
USA > New York > St Lawrence County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 4
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Eskimo, Red Paint people, Algonkians and all the rest of these early races almost invariably established their homes along the coast. Only in rare instances did they go inland. Unlike them the Iroquois built their palisaded fortresses on high ground many miles removed from lake and river. There was a time when the Onondagas, or, if one prefers, their immediate ancestors, ruled the present Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties. Apparently their supremacy was not attained without bloodshed. One finds often in the Jesuit Relations references to the great war between the Iroquois and the Algonkians
FIRST BATTLE OF SACKETS HARBOR (FROM A PAINTING)
SACKETS HARBOR DURING THE WAR OF 1812
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HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
which finally resulted in the expulsion of the Algonkians from the present Northern New York. There is a tradition of a terrible battle fought near the site of the present village of Clayton which resulted in the capture of a strong Algonkian fort at that point. Ever after the Iroquois spoke of that spot as the Fallen Fort and it was long used in marking the boundaries of land.
The Iroquois probably started to filter into the North Country from across the St. Lawrence River a century or more before Colum- bus discovered America. Here they resided certainly for two cen- turies. When Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence and found a Mo- hawk village on the site of Montreal, the Onondagas must surely have been residing in the walled villages in the Rutland hills and on the sandy plains of Ellisburg, traces of which we find to this day. But by the time Champlain landed on the shores of the present Hender- son Bay a century later, they had all departed southward. Why they went is not clear. Were their enemies pressing them too closely? Did they desire a more sheltered location further from the lake and the St. Lawrence? Whatever the reason, it must have been important. One can picture the grave council assembling, the reluctance of the warriors to leave their old homes and the graves of their ancestors; then the deliberate resolution and the long trek southward of a nation seeking a new home. So it must have been when the Onon- dagas departed from the North Country. They abandoned their fortresses, their corn fields and the bones of their fathers. Never did they return save as hunters or as warriors. From the time the Onondagas marched southward to the beginning of the period of settlement, the North Country was a great "No Man's Land," a place of war and of peace conferences, a place for hunting and fishing, but never a place of permanent habitation.
The Iroquois still retain many race memories of their residence in Northern New York. They have an old tradition, one that the Jesuits knew well, that it was in the vicinity of Sandy Creek that "they emerged from the ground." But as a matter of fact the Iroquois had reached a comparatively high degree of development at the time they resided in the lands to the south of the St. Lawrence. The pipes which they manufactured while they lived in Northern New York, literally thousands of which have been recovered from their fire pits and refuge piles, show a degree of craftsmanship never
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HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
before or after equaled. The movement of the race which later became the Iroquois was from the westward. Modern scholars think the migration divided at either the Detroit or the Niagara rivers, one section sweeping over the northern shores of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, and the other continuing along the southern shores. The early homes of the Oneidas seem to have been on either side of the St. Lawrence River and later on the Oswegatchie. The Onondagas, too, seem to have come from the north along the St. Lawrence, but at some undetermined period, possibly in the fourteenth century, established themselves along the Rutland Hills in the present Jeffer- son County and in the Sandy Creek region where they must have lived for about two centuries before moving southward into the present Oswego County and later into their Onondaga county homes, where they resided through much of the historic era.
The Iroquois were a warlike race, even during their residence in Northern New York, but they had not attained that prestige which came later when the five Iroquoian nations united in the great con- federacy which extended its sway as far south as Mexico. In the hill country of the north they built the walled towns, the remains of which were later to puzzle the pioneers. But later they were to estab- lish an empire as large as Rome in her greatest glory. They were to form a confederacy which was to become the most powerful gov- ernment in America north of the Aztec monarchy in Mexico. La Salle was to encounter them in Illinois and Captain John Smith in Chesapeake Bay. They were to enter Mexico and their war cry was to be heard in the Carolinas. This was the race which 500 years ago in Northern New York was being slowly welded into a powerful nation.
INDIAN PLACE NAMES.
The Indians left their place names all over the present Northern New York. Only in two or three instances are these names pre- served to this day. Adirondacks is of course an ancient Indian name and so is Oswegatchie, a name which has remained unchanged for centuries save for a brief period when the French sought to change it to La Presentation. Below are given some of the more important place names in Northern New York, arranged by counties for greater convenience :
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HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
JEFFERSON COUNTY.
Present Name Indian Name
French Creek At-en-ha-ra-kweh-ta-re
Sandy Creek
Cat-ar-ga-ren-re
Wolfe Island
De-a-wone-da-ga-han-da
Stony Creek Ga-nen-tou-ta
Chaumont Bay Ka-hen-gouet-ta
Black River
Ka-hu-ah-go
St. Lawrence
Ga-na-wa-ga
Little Sandy
Te-ca-nan-ouar-on-e-si
Indian River O-je-quack
Sackets Harbor
Ga-hu-ag-o-jet-war-a-lo-te
Meaning Place where the wall fell down.
Sloping banks, referring to the ancient forts in that section.
Pine trees standing up. Where they smoked to- bacco. Great or wide river. Great or wide river. A long time ago this swamp divided. Nut river.
ST. LAWRENCE COUNTY.
St. Regis River Ak-wis-sas-ne
Tupper Lake
A-re-yu-na
Black Lake Che-gwa-ga
Massena Springs Ka-na-saw-stak-e-ras
Waddington
Ka-na-ta-ra-ken
Norfolk Ka-na-ta-seke
Yellow Lake
Kat-sen-e-kwar
Racket River Ni-ha-wa-na-te
Grass River Ni-ken-tsi-a-ke
Oswegatchie Oswegatchie
Potsdam
Te-wa-ten-e-ta-ren-ies
Where the partridge drums. Green rocks. In the hip. Where the mud smells bad. Wet village.
New village. Lake covered with yel- low lilies. Noisy river. Place of fishes. Black river. Place where the gravel settles under the feet in dragging a canoe.
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HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
ST. LAWRENCE COUNTY-Continued.
Brasher Falls
Ti-o-hi-on-ho-ken
Raymondville
Tsi-ia-ko-on-tie-ta
Place where the river di- vides.
Where they leave the canoes.
LEWIS COUNTY.
Otter Creek
Da-ween-net
An otter.
Deer River
Ga-ne-ga-to-do
Corn pounder.
Moose River
Te-ka-hund-i-an-do
A moose.
Beaver River
Ne-ha-se-ne
Crossing on a stick of timber.
FRANKLIN COUNTY.
Lower Saranac Con-gam-muck
Long lake.
Lake St. Francis Ga-na-sa-da-go
Side hill.
Salmon River
Gau-je-ah-go-na-ne
Sturgeon river.
Chateaugay O-sar-he-han
Mt. Seward
O-kor-lah
The great eye.
Middle Saranac
Pat-tou-gam-muck Sa-ko-ron-ta-keh-tas
Round lake.
Where small trees are carried on the shoul- ders.
Large or beautiful lake. Village crossing a river.
OSWEGO COUNTY.
Little Salmon Ga-hen-wa-ga
Oswego Falls Gal-kon-thi-a-ge
Scriba Creek
Ga-so-te-na
Phoenix
Kuh-na-ta-ha
High grass Where pine trees grow.
Mouth of Sal- mon River
Ot-i-hat-an-gue
Oneida Lake
Se-u-ka
Bay Creek
Te-qua-no-ta-go-wa
Oswego
Swa-geh
Big marsh. Flowing out.
Upper Saranac
Malone
Sin-ha-lo-nen-ne-pus Te-ka-nota-ron-we
Narrow gorge.
Moira
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HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
THE FIRST WHITE MEN.
One day in early October, 1615, a great fleet of bark canoes might have been seen gliding over the waters of that estuary composed of Chaumont, Black River and Henderson Bays. Years before the Iroquois had departed southward. No watchful Onondaga or Oneida scout was on hand to spy out the approaching flotilla. Only the crumbling walls of the old Iroquoian fortresses remained, silently keeping vigil in the deserted forests. Nearer the shore came the canoes, filled with Hurons, their naked bodies glistening with grease and bright with war paint, because this was a war party on its way to the Iroquois country to the south of the lake. It was no unusual thing for war parties to follow this route. But this party was differ- ent from any that had gone before because in the bows of a dozen of the larger canoes sat white men. The October sun reflected from breast plate and steel hat. Each man bore an arquebus and sword. In the foremost sat a man of commanding mien. He was Samuel de Champlain, whom we know as the Father of New France. So the first white men came to the North Country, five years before the Pilgrim fathers landed on the shores of Plymouth Bay.
What a sight must have met the eyes of these Frenchmen, as, after hiding their canoes, they marched warily along the beach south- ward to where the Salmon River empties itself into the lake. All about them were great trees, blazing forth in autumnal color. "I observed a very pleasing and fine country," notes Champlain in his account of the expedition, "watered by numerous small streams, and two little rivers which empty into said lake, and a number of pools and prairies, where there was an infinite quantity of game, a great many vines and fine trees, vast numbers of chestnuts, the fruit of which was yet in the shell." Thus Champlain, the first white man to visit it, describes Northern New York.
It is probable that the party followed the coast down to the mouth of the Salmon River and then struck inland. Champlain's narrative says the party followed along the shore for four leagues. The Sal- mon River is almost exactly four French leagues from Henderson Bay. That was a common route from Lake Ontario to the Iroquois country. The early Jesuit maps show the trails which radiated from there. For four days they threaded their way through the forests,
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HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
crossing the outlet of Oneida Lake, until they were deep in the Iro- quois country. Huron scouts brought in eleven prisoners, four women, three boys, one girl and three men, on their way to the lake for fishing. A Huron chief promptly cut off the finger of one of the women. Champlain's indignation amazed the chief, who pointed out that their enemies treated them in the same manner when they had the opportunity, but he finally agreed to suspend torture of the women, promising that henceforth he would cut off only the fingers of the men. A day or so later Champlain and his red and white followers found themselves before the Oneida fortress they had set out to capture.
It was not the first time that Champlain had participated in an expedition against the Iroquois. Seven years before he and his red- skin allies had met the Iroquois on the shores of the lake which now bears his name and the firearms of the Frenchmen had won the day. Since then Champlain had been more than willing to make common cause with the Hurons against the Iroquois. He felt that the fur trade of the French and the missions the Recollect friars were estab- lishing in the Huron country would never be safe until the Iroquois, that warlike race to the southward, were vanished. He had promised his Huron allies to accompany their warriors on another campaign against the Iroquois, so a few days before he and his motley army had glided forth from the Trent River into Lake Ontario, 500 naked arms swinging as many paddles. Skirting the shores of the lake they had pressed southward, following the age-old canoe route, until the shores of the present Henderson Bay were reached.
Could Champlain have realized that his alliance with the Hurons was to eventually cost the French a great colonial empire he might not have embarked so enthusiastically on this expedition into an unknown country. Could he have foreseen the torture fires, the long period of war and disaster, the practical obliteration of nation after nation of Indians with whom the French were allied, he might have hesitated before again giving battle to the Iroquois. But probably none of these things was in his mind as he stood before the Oneida fort, the white plume of Navarre on his steel hat waving to the breeze and the frenzied warriors milling about him.
It was a typical Iroquoian fortified town which the French and Indians hoped to capture, a town not unlike those which a century
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HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
or so before had stood on many a North Country hill. Most his- torians, including Dr. Erl Bates, now think it was located at Nichol's Pond in the present Madison County. A triple row of palisades, per- haps fifteen or twenty feet high, mounted on a low, earthen wall, defended the village. On high galleries the defenders stood, bran- dishing their bows and taunting the Hurons. Had the attackers listened to Champlain's advice, undoubtedly the town would have fallen. But the Hurons were accustomed to fighting as they pleased. They had no discipline of any kind, but they did have a wholesome fear of the Iroquois. The first shower of Iroquoian arrows drove them back and Champlain was forced to express himself in "rude and angry words," as he puts it. A tower was constructed, from the top of which the French could pour shot into the village below but even that proved ineffective. The Hurons, who, if the truth were known, had probably expected the French to do most of the fighting, were discouraged with the courageous defense of the foe.
Expected reinforcements failed to arrive. Champlain, himself, had received two arrow wounds. He was anxious to resume the attack on the fort but he could not enthuse the Indians, who seemed to have had all the fight taken out of them. The Hurons decided to retreat, having accomplished nothing, as Champlain expresses it, but a "disorderly sputter." Bundling their wounded into improvised litters they started for Henderson Bay, their only fear being that the Iroquois would pursue them. Champlain was carried with the rest of the wounded on the backs of the Indians. It was a painful march for him and as soon as he could bear his weight on his wounded leg he insisted upon walking. Snow fell, powdering the North Country woods with white for a brief period, only to melt quickly. A cold wind blew in from the lake and added to the annoyance of the marchers. Eventually they reached the bay and found their canoes undisturbed. Crestfallen, they departed for Canada.
THE JESUIT MISSIONARIES.
After Champlain's expedition we have no other record of visits of white men to what is now Northern New York for nearly forty years. It is highly probable that some of the half-wild French fur traders, the coureurs de bois whose perseverance and daring almost
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HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
won France an empire, skirted the coast line of the North Country and possibly penetrated the interior, but, if so, they left no record behind. In the meantime the black-gowned Jesuits had replaced the gray-garbed Recollects in the Huron missions. One after another they had suffered their martyrdom-Joques, Brebeuf and the rest. The Iroquois grew bolder. No longer did they fear the French. Armed with muskets and iron hatchets by the Dutch traders at Fort Orange, they started on that terrible series of wars that practically blotted out the Hurons, the Neuter People, the Cat Nation and all but drove the French from Canada. Their warriors hung about the forests near Montreal and Quebec until only the boldest of the French dared venture out. Smaller settlements were wiped out. Indian allies of the French were driven from place to place until they had no place where they could lay their heads. Captives were tortured unmercifully until they died and then their bodies were mutilated. Such was the penalty the French paid because Champlain had allied himself with the enemies of the Iroquois.
But the Jesuits, many of them of tender birth and breeding, re- fused to give up. They traveled hundreds of miles in bark canoes where no white man had gone before. In ragged cassocks, they fol- lowed Indian trails into the heart of the enemy country. They lived uncomplainingly month in and month out in the unspeakable filth of Indian villages, half blinded from the hours spent in smoky lodges, and when captured they suffered without a murmur all the tortures that the fiendish Iroquois could devise. Today we read spellbound of the bravery and the simple devotion of these zealous missionaries. In 1645 Father Joseph Bressanti wrote from the Iroquois country to the general of the Jesuits in Rome :
"I do not know if your Paternity will recognize the handwriting of one whom you once knew very well. The letter is soiled and ill- written ; because the writer has only one finger of his right hand left entire, and cannot prevent the blood from his wounds, which are still open, from staining the paper. His ink is gunpowder mixed with water, and his table is the earth."
On an October day in 1653, a strangely assorted group pushed its way through the forests of what is now Lewis County, heading north- ward. The leader was an Iroquoian chieftain, richly attired as an ambassador, his sturdy body hung with belts of wampum and
CAROLINE BONAPARTE BENTON, DAUGH- TER OF JOSEPH BONAPARTE
MADAM MARIA HELENA AMERIGO VESPUCCI
"ADMIRAL BILL" JOHNSON, SO-CALLED "PIRATE OF THE THOUSAND ISLANDS" DURING THE PATRIOT WAR
SIR JOHN JOHNSON, WHOSE ROYAL
YORKERS WERE
STATIONED AT CARLETON ISLAND DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
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HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
weighed down with many fine beaver pelts. With him was a hunting party of Iroquois, bound for the beaver hunting grounds near Indian River. But there was one other, a gaunt, weakened white man, clad only in the rags which had been given him out of pity by the Dutch at Fort Orange. The naked trees reared themselves high above the shivering man who staggered along in the wake of his companions. The breath of winter was in the north woods and chilled to the bone him who had once graced the halls of the College of Orleans in France. So Father Antoine Poncet of the Jesuits, a captive of the Iroquois, trod the trail that led to the Oswegatchie and Quebec. So far as we know he was the first white man to navigate the Indian and Oswegatchie rivers, the first to see Black Lake and the first to pass through the interior of what we now call Northern New York.
But it is safe to say there was none of the thrill of the pathfinder in Father Poncet's heart that day. The garb of his calling long since stolen by the Indians, one of his fingers cut off by a clam shell in the hands of an Indian squaw, he marveled that he still lived, so intense was his pain and so extreme his weakness. In France Antoine Poncet had been an instructor in the College of Orleans. He had come to Canada in 1639, serving his apprenticeship in the Huron mission on the shores of Georgian Bay, where he remained until put in charge of the Montreal Parish. Captured near Sillery, a mission station not far from Quebec, in August with another Frenchman, he had been conveyed by way of the Richelieu River and Lake Champlain to the Mohawk towns. The two captives were stripped of their clothing and taunted. One of Father Poncet's fingers was cut off and two of his companion. His companion was burned but Father Poncet was permitted to live practically as a slave.
But finally came the time when the Iroquois desired to make peace with the French and secure the release of some of their war- riors held prisoners in Quebec. What better way to start negotia- tions, they reasoned, than release their Jesuit slave? He was given some discarded clothing by the Dutch and soon afterwards started on his long trip homeward, accompanied by the Mohawk ambassador. The Oswegatchie trail was the route taken. Undoubtedly the party ascended the Mohawk River for a considerable distance, then left it, traveling in a northwesterly direction, probably up West Canada Creek. The trail from then on led through the forests, crossing the
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HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
Black River and striking the Indian River at a point near where Theresa now stands. From then on it was practically an all-water route to Montreal and Quebec, through Black Lake to the Oswe- gatchie, down the Oswegatchie to the St. Lawrence and thence down the St. Lawrence to the French settlements.
How trying that journey was to Father Poncet may be best under- stood from his own narrative. "I was told the captain who had escorted me to the Dutch would be my conductor to the country of the French," he writes, "not by water because of the storms which ordinarily prevail at this time of the year upon Lake Champlain, over which we must have passed; but over another route which was very fatiguing to me, as we had to proceed by foot through those great forests for seven or eight days, and I had neither strength or legs for such a great undertaking. At the end of these eight days is found a river upon which we proceed by boat for about two days and then we come to the great river, St. Lawrence, into which the first empties its waters, sixty leagues or thereabouts above the island of Montreal and not far from the lake called Ontario.
"At length on the third of October I left behind me the village of the Iroquois to return to Quebec. My conductor having taken charge of the presents we pursued our journey, accomplishing only four leagues on that first day.
"I began and completed this journey by land with inconceivable fatigues. We started upon a Friday, the third of October, and we arrived at the first river which I mentioned above on Saturday, the eleventh of the month. We proceeded in company with several Iro- quois who were going to hunt the beaver about Lake Ontario. The rains and the mountains and the valleys; the mountain streams and the brooks; and four rivers of considerable size which we had to cross by fording, wetting ourselves thereby up to the waist; another larger one which had to be crossed on rafts, insecure and badly put together, very short rations consisting of Indian corn just picked, without bread, without wine, without meat and without game, those regions having been hunted bare-all these things I say formed a cross for me so formidable and unceasing that it seemed to me a per- petual miracle that I was able to bear it, suffering, as I was, such intense pain and extreme weakness."
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HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
Father Poncet's journey through the North Woods and down the Oswegatchie gave the French their first idea of the geography of that section we now know as Northern New York. Maps published soon afterwards showed for the first time the Oswegatchie River, without a name, it is true, but charted reasonably accurately and designated as the "river which comes from the direction of the Mo- hawks." But now a period of temporary peace was at hand. The Iroquois, influenced by their Huron slaves, invited the Jesuits to plant a colony in their midst. They were about to wage war on the powerful Cat Nation and desired peace on their northern frontiers. And so the next year after that in which the captive, Poncet, had been led through the forests of the North to Montreal and freedom, an- other Jesuit came paddling up the St. Lawrence to pay a voluntary visit to the Iroquois.
That missionary was Simon Le Moyne. Born in 1604 he had en- tered the Jesuit novitiate at the age of eighteen. When thirty-four years of age he came to Canada and was assigned to a mission among the Hurons. Here he put in his time well, not only being successful in bringing spiritual light to the Indians, but also perfecting himself in their language and customs. It was on July 17, 1654, that Father Le Moyne started up the St. Lawrence. He and his companion carried their canoe around the rapids. Not until the last of July did they arrive at Chippewa Bay, the entrance to the Lake of Thousand Islands. Now for the first time in recorded history a white man gazed upon the beauties of the upper St. Lawrence. We can picture the Jesuit and his companion, their paddles poised, as they marveled at the myriad, wooded islands that 250 years later were to become one of the most noted resort sections of the world.
Le Moyne, in his account of the expedition in the Jesuit Relations, says that he and his companion landed in the locality of the Thousand Islands and started overland. It was undoubtedly the "long carry" across Point Peninsula which they took, even then a well known Indian trail. They were fortunate to meet some Iroquois fishermen who took them to their camp where food was offered them. Several Huron captives, slaves of the Iroquois, were met-Christians, who flocked about the black-garbed father praying him to comfort them in their misfortune. The first two days of August found Father Le
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