USA > New York > The old New York frontier : its wars with Indians and Tories, its missionary schools, pioneers, and land titles, 1614-1800 > Part 14
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A committee from Tryon County, about the same time, reported to the Council of Safety :
We have lately had a scouting party to Unadilla, who gave us information that a number of disaffected people have collected at that place and from appearances they are making preparations for some expeditions. Some say it is meditated against the frontier of Ulster County, while others say it is intended against this county. Unadilla is a receptacle for all desertions from the army, runaway negroes, and other bad people. We therefore judge it extremely necessary to have that nest entirely eradicated, and until that is done, we can never enjoy our possessions in peace, for these villains carry off all the cattle they can find besides robbing the well affected inhabitants.
These warnings and others coming from diverse sources, and amply endorsed by General Philip
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Schuyler, continued well into the summer of 1778. Two friendly Indians had arrived in Cherry Valley in March, urging the inhabitants to abandon the place as "the enemy will be very soon in these parts." In the same month Josiah Parke made affidavit that in February a Tuscarora Indian had told him the Tories and Indians meant "to strike first on the Susquehanna near Wyoming and take that place with 4,000 men, and then come through to the North River." Thus early had the enemy planned the most awful tragedy in all the frontier war- fare-planned in February, a work that was not done until July ; while on May 25th, General Schuyler was informed that Brant was to collect his friends upon the Susquehanna and attack Cherry Valley .*
Some hope of securing Indian neutrality still re- mained. At a council held on March 9th at Johnstown, and attended by more than 700 Ind- ians, an attempt was made to quiet them. The Senecas alone failed to attend. With Oriskany so recent and bloody a memory, it was strange indeed that any Mohawks or Cayugas should have come. The Senecas sent a communication expressing their surprise (a surprise which is quite comprehensible) that "while our tomahawks were sticking in their heads, their wounds bleeding and their eyes stream- ing with tears for the loss of their friends at Oris- kany, the Commissioners should think of inviting us to a treaty." Stone notes as the result of the council that the commissioners were persuaded that from the Senecas, Cayugas, and nearly all the Mo- hawks, " nothing but revenge for their lost friends and tarnished glory at Oriskany and Fort Schuyler was to be anticipated."
* Clinton Papers, vol. ii.
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Lafayette had attended this council and at his in- stance, forts were now set up in Cherry Valley and on the Schoharie River. The Council of Safety undertook to raise a company under Colonel Harper, who was to have $1,000 advanced for his expenses. He was to be " cautious of making any attacks on the savages or pursuing any measures that would bring on an Indian war unless absolute- ly necessary for the defence of the inhabitants."
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Cobleskill, Springfield and Wyoming
1778
E ARLY in the year Brant had reached Ogh- waga and Unadilla. His main purpose was not to kill frontiersmen, but to obtain food- food for his own men and for those of Butler, who expected soon to follow him into the Susquehanna Valley, his destination being Wyoming. Brant also aimed to collect men who as Tories would serve under Butler, and was " not to fight or make any alarm if possible to avoid it." From Oghwaga he went first into the Delaware Valley * where he got about seventy head of cattle and some horses, while sixty or seventy inhabitants joined his forces and re- turned with him to Oghwaga. For Brant's assistance Butler had sent forward to Unadilla a man named John Young, and to Oghwaga one named McGin- nis, a former Susquehanna settler who had turned Tory.
On May 30th, Brant reached the settlement of Cobleskill + with 300 or 400 men. After burning nine houses, he was attacked by some Continental troops, a detachment from Colonel Ichabod Alden's
* Affidavit Barnabas Kelly, Clinton Papers, vol. iii.
t The stream from which this town derives its name was known to the Indians as Ascalege.
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regiment, which was going out to command the Cherry Valley fort, and by militiamen from Scho- harie. Brant forced the attacking party to retreat, after he had killed sixteen of them, and five or six others had perished in the houses which he burned. One of the killed was Captain Patrick and an- other Lieutenant Maynard. Abraham Wempel, a few days later, buried the dead and reported that " horses, cows, sheep, etc., lay dead all over the fields." The settlers escaped to Schoharie, but the Indians took away the cattle and all the provisions. On June 5th Patrick's clothing, says McKendry, was "sold at vendue in Albany: amount £64, 15s." The Cobleskill settlement lay on the creek of that name, ten miles west of Schoharie, and com- prised nineteen families, from whom a small com- pany of militia had been organized and provided with arms and ammunition.
Brant went on to Cherry Valley. From one of the hills back of the Campbell house he looked down on the place to observe its condition. He saw that the house was surrounded by an embank- ment of logs and earth and that on the green were soldiers. These soldiers, however, were small boys parading with paper caps and wooden swords. Brant took them for grown men and is understood to have abandoned his intended attack in conse- quence of his discovery. Before leaving the neigh- borhood he caused the death of one man, an old friend of his, Lieutenant Matthew Wormwood,* who had come over with a message from the Mohawk Valley. Seeing him ride past, Brant commanded him to halt, but Wormwood rode on, and one of Brant's men shot him, ignorant of his identity.
* Also written Warmouth.
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During this visit Brant approached a boy named William McKown, aged about fourteen, who was working alone in a hay-field. The boy raised his rake in defence, but Brant quietly remarked : " Do not be afraid, young man ; I shall not hurt you," and then made several inquiries, in the course of which he learned the boy's name. " You are a son of Mr. Mckown who lives in the north-east part of the town, I suppose," said he. "I know your father very well, and a fine fellow he is too." This friendly manner emboldened the boy to inquire the Indian's name. After a little hesitation came the reply : " My name is Brant." "What ! Captain Brant? " asked the startled boy. With a smile lighting up his dark face, Brant answered, calmly : " No ; I am a cousin of his." This story has come down through Campbell from the lips of both Mc- Kown and Grant.
Rapidly spread the sense of terror which these events caused. Colonel Jacob Klock reported to Governor Clinton that " Unadilla has always been, and still continues to be, a common receptacle for all rascally Tories and runaway negroes." Relief was prayed for, as " otherwise we shall be in one con- tinued alarm all the season." Colonel Samuel Clyde, of Cherry Valley, on June 5th, wrote to General Stark, the hero of Bennington, now commanding at Albany, sending the letter by Colonel Harper :
The inhabitants of Bowmans Creek have left their inhabi- tations ; Springfield likewise ; and the people of Newtown Martin [now called Middlefield] have come into our set- tlement, and joined with us to make a stand against the enemy. They have brought their cattle with them, and families, so that in all we may reckon, on a moderate com- putation, there is 600 or 700 head of cattle, and they all
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feeding within the circumference of about 34 of a mile, which must inevitably fall into the hands of the enemy, if some immediate help is not sent us; and our wives and children massacred by a savage enemy. We have made the utmost efforts to stand the enemy and protect our lives and liberty ; but cannot stand it much longer, without very timely assistance; and if we should be obliged to give up this settlement, consider what a quantity of provision is here for the enemy ; which would enable them to harass the other settlements continually, as they would have no provisions to look for.
Brant lies but about 20 miles from us upon Charlotte River, and as one party comes in, the other goes out, to the destruction of the smaller settlements. The militia that are with us are quite out of patience; and we are afraid they will leave us; and were we to be attacked in the place where we have made a stand-sorry we are to think so, but more to say it-there are not over 30 men that would stand their ground. This, Sir, is our present situa- tion.
On June 15th, James Dean, the Indian com- missioner, reported to General Schuyler, that Colonel Butler had " collected a considerable party of Indians of various tribes, with which, as he gives out, he is determined to join Joseph Brant upon the frontier of this country. It is supposed he is by this time as far on his way as Oghwaga." Citizens of Schenec- tady, on June 15th, wrote to Governor Clinton :
Your Excellency may depend on it, that it is no sham to frighten the people, but a thing in real existence, for the people are flying and crowding into this town in great num- bers, and by the best information the enemy are really round about there, and are determined to destroy, and burn up that whole county, and unless soon relieved, we undoubtedly be- lieve they will effect it, and the loss that will arise therefrom to the unhappy individuals of that part of the country will be
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nothing in comparison to the loss of the United States, as it is one of our principal wheat countrys.
Soon were these prophecies fulfilled. On June 18th, Brant reached Springfield and destroyed it. He then destroyed Andrustown, and other settle- ments near Otsego Lake. Colonel Klock sent the following report to Governor Clinton :
Houses, barns, even wagons, ploughs and the hay cocks in the meadows at Springfield were laid in ashes. Four- teen men were carried away prisoners, and eight killed. All the provisions were taken on horses, and carried off. Two hundred creatures (horses and chiefly cattle) were driven down the Susquehanna. Last Sunday morning the enemy set off with this booty from the house of one Tun- nicliff. All this has been done while the garrison at Cherry Valley did not know anything about an enemy; though Springfield is not above four miles distant from the said place.
Several people, who have been prisoners and did escape, affirm that Brant was the commander, and that his party consists of about five hundred. So much is certain, that his number encreaseth daily; many very lately did run off, moved by disaffection ; others join him, moved by fear, and several are forced to take up arms against us, or to swear allegiance to the King of Britain. We are informed and Brant boasted openly, that he will be joined at Unadilla by Butler, and that within eight days he will return and lay the whole county waste. The dreadful sight of Springfield and Andrustown, heightened with these reports, puts the people of the county into the greatest consternation ; they speak of nothing but flying off. Harvest time is at hand, and no prospect of a speedy assistance. The officers and the principal inhabitants meet with the greatest difficulties, to persuade the people to stand out only but a few days, until it should be in the power of the government to send us relief .*
* Clinton Papers, vol. iii.
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After the burning of Springfield, Captain Robert McKean with five men was sent out from Cherry Valley to observe Brant. They learned from Mr. Sleeper of Factory Creek, that Brant had been at his house the same day with fifty men. McKean concluded to abandon his intention of going on to Unadilla, but he left Brant a note inviting him to Cherry Valley and promising to " change him from a Brant to a goose." Brant was inclined to accept this invitation, but on learning that Mckean had returned to arouse the settlement, he abandoned his purpose.
One week after these events Barnabas Kelly, who had lived at a settlement called Brooks's on the Butternut Creek, reached Henry Herkimer's farm at the foot of Schuyler's Lake and there joined a scout from German Flatts with whom he returned to the latter place where he made a statement under oath in which appears the following : *
Soon after the Battle at Cobus Kill, he the said Kelly, was at the Butter nut. About 40 white men and two Indians bought about 17 head of horned cattle of Brooks, Garrett, Johnson & Knapp, and about seven hundred weight of cheese for which they gave them notes upon Butler. Of Capt. Service, Sir John Johnson's uncle, they got about 40 or 50 scipple of flour, and he says Capt. Ser- vice sent word to them, that they should come and fetch it. One Carr who lives at Major Edmeston's sent them word that he had 40 skipple of corn for them, but whether they got it or not he did not learn.
And further he heard that Joseph Brant had been with Butler at Skeemonk, f about two days' journey from Ocqua- goe, since the battle at Cobus Kill, to see what kept But- ler so long behind, and it was supposed to be occasioned
* Clinton Papers, vol. iii.
+ Chemung.
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by the country's being alarmed ; and he further declareth, that he heard John Young at the Butter nut, read a proc- lamation from Butler, desiring all the friends to govern- ment to join him, and to bring in all their cattle together with their wives and families, and they should be kindly received by the said Butler.
After the battle at Cobus Kill Brant heard that the militia was to slay him at Youghams * on the Susquehanna, on which Brant took 5 Indians with him, and went to Cherry Valley to know the truth, and that they met two men, one of whom was an express, and that they killed one and took the other prisoner; and the man they took prisoner was a blacksmith, and he heard say that Brant said he was sorry they had killed the other f for he was a good king's man.
Lieutenant-Colonel Jacob Ford, reporting on the burning of Springfield from Cherry Valley on July 18th, said he had only eighty men fit for duty be- sides the inhabitants. He had sent out a scouting party, but they found only the ruins of the settle- ments, with women and children and their effects crowded into the meeting-house, " and they are so thick it seems to me that they must die there." A few days later, a committee from German Flatts re- ported to Governor Clinton that since Springfield was destroyed, the Indians were "continually alarm- ing us with scalping parties who sometimes kill and scalp one and take another prisoner." From two old men whom Brant had released they learned that Brant expected to join Colonel Butler in about eight days, and then " fall in on the German Flatts and burn and destroy all that came before them." Brant went down to Unadilla with his prisoners, cattle and provisions, and in July wrote at that place the following letter to Percefer Carr at Ed-
* Joachim Van Valkenburg's.
t Wormwood.
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meston, showing that he contemplated another at- tack very soon :
I understand by the Indians that was at your house last week, that one Smith lives near you, has little more corn to spare. I should be much obliged to you if you would be so kind as to try to get as much corn as Smith can spared : he has sent five skipples already, of which I am much ob- liged to him, and will see him paid and would be very glad if you could spare one or two of your own men to join us, especially Elias. I would be glad to see him and I wish you could sent me as many guns you have, as I know you have no use for them, if you any : as I mean now to fight the cruel rebels as well as I can : Whatever you will able to sent'd me you must sent'd by the bearer.
P.S. I heard that Cherry Valley people is very bold and intended to make nothing of us : they called us wild geese, but I know the contrary.
About this time, Captain Alexander Harper, " a gentleman of veracity," reported that "the enemy are at Unadilla very strong, amounting to nigh 3,000 men," but a month later another estimate gave the number as only 1,500. Brant's forces had been rap- idly increasing in his absence and a reward was of- fered for information in regard to the fortifications he had erected.
Early in July a party of about 250 Indians and Tories invaded the Delaware as far down as Min- isink, killed several men and took prisoners, cattle, sheep and hogs back to Oghwaga. An affidavit made by Robert Jones at Minisink on July 10th contains the following interesting statement concern- ing this change in the scene of Brant's operations :
From Canajoharie I went to the Butternut or Old Eng- land District, and stayd there 10 or 11 days. Joseph Brant came there with six Indians and 2 or 3 Green Coat
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soldiers and stayd two days. He ordered the witness with nine famelies who liv'd at that place to go with him, if friends to government; if not to take their own risk. Himself and 4 families with S'd Brant went to Unadilla, the other five soon followed. Brant did not insist on their going, but would take their cattle. Neither would he pro- tect them unless they went with him. After that the wit- ness and one John Faalkner went with S'd Brant to Ogh- waga. After being there some time an express came from Butler to Brant ordering him to march immediately to Tioga, which orders Brant immediately obayd and stayd eight or nine days, saying when he returnd, that he had been at a treaty ; that the Indians refusd to join in an ex- pedition to the northward unless they first ware assisted to cut off the inhabetents of Susquehanna, at which treaty it was agreed that Butler should go to Wyoming and that Brant should stay at Anahquago. Brant in the mean time was to collect all the provision he could against the time Butler was to be at Anahquago. For that purpose Brant cald together all the old Indians who left the matter to him as to provision, &c.
Brant then formed an expedition against Laxawaxen for the purpose of collecting provision and went one day on his march, when an express was sent after him requiring him to return immediately, on account that a party from the northward was expected to attack Unadilla. Brant im- mediately returnd and dispatched all the white men he could to the assistance of Unadilla and 2 days after being last Sunday, S'd Brant followed after, with all the Indians at that place. The same day five indians arrived at Agh- quago and gave information of a large number of Sinckes [Senecas] on their march to the same place to joyn Brant. On Tuesday a small number collected who, under the command of Capt'n Jacobs (an Indian) followed after Brant. They left the examinent at Anahquago ; he made his escape the same day. On his march says he met about 20 Indians and white men with a number of prisoners, which they told him they got at Laxawaxen.
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The examinant also says that Butler is not to come down to Minisink (as he understood from Brant) but was to go from Wyoming on an expidition against Cherry Val- ley and to be joind by Brant, thinking it a favourable time for the purpose as he understood the time of the militia who guarded it is to expire next Fryday and he intends to attack it the Sunday following .*
An invasion of the Schoharie settlements was next undertaken. Some 300 Indians and Tories, led by one of the McDonalds, a family now con- spicuously active among the Tories who had fled from Johnstown at the outbreak of the conflict, killed several of the inhabitants, made others pris- oners and burned houses. Their work of destruc- tion did not end until Colonel Harper went to Al- bany and returned with a squadron of cavalry, who, with the militia in the fort, finally forced the in- vaders to depart.
Colonel Butler's descent on Wyoming + followed speedily upon the council held at Tioga Point with Brant, at which it was agreed that Brant, instead of going to Wyoming with Butler, should continue his work of collecting Tories and provisions " against the time " when Butler should reach Oghwaga after visiting Wyoming .¿ Brant's failure to take part in the expedition was consistent with his career in this war. His hostility and that of the Mohawks under him was not against Pennsylvania, but against the
* Clinton Papers, vol. iv.
t The meaning of this word is Broad Plains.
# This was the only act on the part of Brant that approached even to complicity in the Wyoming barbarities, and yet for more than a hundred years, writers have continually represented that Brant shared with Butler in the atrocities there committed. The poet Campbell gave the error wide publicity by putting it into his " Gertrude." It has never died out of the popular memory. Less than four years ago an eminent Ameri- can historian inserted it in one of his books.
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New York frontier, where lands, rightfully theirs, were theirs no more, and where lived the men who had overthrown them at Oriskany. That Butler should go to Wyoming, was also consistent with the work Butler had undertaken to do. Butler rep- resented the cause of England, not the cause of the Indians, and there in the Wyoming Valley, lay one of the most populous and defenceless settlements that existed remote from the seaboard. To attack and destroy it, was to invite detachments for its de- fence at the expense of the American army which Howe, Cornwallis, and Clinton sought to overthrow.
Wyoming had been settled from Connecticut, and under the charter granted by the king, was claimed as a township of that State, with the name of Westmoreland. But it was also claimed by the heirs of William Penn. For many years before the Revolution there had been bitter, and even armed, controversy over this disputed ownership. During those Pennamite wars the settlement on three occa- sions had virtually been destroyed. As early as 1750, men from Connecticut had visited this beauti- ful wilderness valley, and made report on its ex- traordinary fertility. But it was not until 1762 that any from that State arrived to cultivate its soil, and not until after the treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768, that they came in large numbers to establish homes upon it.
Of their interest in this territory, we have already had glimpses in the correspondence between Dr. Wheelock and Sir William Johnson, and of those who were pouring into the valley after the treaty of Fort Stanwix, notes are to be found in the Smith and Wells Journal. Many of these Wyoming pioneers followed the Susquehanna route from
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Otsego Lake and Cherry Valley, but others chose the course that had been employed by those who came as explorers in 1750. This route lay directly across the wilderness from the Hudson through the Minisink region to the Delaware, and thence over the hills to the Susquehanna.
Colonel Butler started from Tioga Point, late in June, with about 1,100 men, of whom 400 were British, some of them his own Rangers, others Sir John Johnson's Royal Greens, and companies of Tories, among the latter many men whom Brant had recruited along, and near the upper Susque- hanna, including Adam Crysler of Schoharie, and McGinnis of Unadilla. The 700 Indians were largely Senecas.
Thus far in the Revolution nothing serious had occurred to disturb the repose of Wyoming. In all its history it had not seen so long a period of tranquillity as the one now about to close in a frightful tragedy. Few parts of the country were more prosperous. The population of the entire re- gion is believed to have reached 5,000. Practically all its men capable of bearing arms had gone into the army, making only one stipulation-that they should not be employed at points too far distant from their own homes. In this precaution are seen the fears of an Indian attack that haunted them.
From the Pennamite Wars had survived at Wyoming a stockade called Forty Fort. The name is still perpetuated in the local geographical nomen- clature. Of Colonel Butler's presence at Tioga Point, advance word had reached Wyoming, and within the walls of this structure some 500 women and children assembled, with an improvised force under one of the settlers, Colonel Zebulon Butler, a
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veteran of the French war, and an officer in the Continental Army, now home on furlough. This force was an unorganized, inexperienced body, com- posed of old men and beardless boys, the only adult males who had not enlisted. Of Colonel John Butler's coming, word had been sent to Philadel- phia, and a Continental detachment, composed of many Wyoming men, had been sent for relief of the inhabitants. The inexperienced men who gath- ered in the fort, in the rashness of bravery, over- ruled the wishes of Colonel Zebulon Butler when the enemy appeared, and although there were only 300 of them, they rushed forward out of the fort to attack the motley and disciplined fighters from Tioga Point, outnumbering them nearly four to one.
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