History of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Part 3

Author: Johnson, Crisfield
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.B. Lippincott & Co.
Number of Pages: 716

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THE ERIES AND THEIR DESTRUCTION.

old sachem foreboded the accomplishment of the prophesy.

When the news reached the Iroquois, the whole confederacy was in a fury of rage. Mohawks, Onei- das and Cayugas were as eager for revenge as the Senecas; and the Onondagas, whose chief had suffered the last punishment of savage hate, were even more so. The approach of winter prevented an immediate movement against the Eries, but in the spring of 1654 nearly all the Iroquois warriors were summoned to the field. An army was fitted ont which Le Moine, a Jesuit missionary then among the Onondagas, esti- mated at eighteen hundred men-an immense num- ber when compared with an ordinary Indian war party ..

The Eries, sensible of their danger, had retreated to the western part of their territory-probably to the vicinity of Cleveland-and had there fortitied themselves with palisades, strengthened by an abattis of forked trees. The Iroquois estimated the number of the Erie warriors at two thousand, but this was probably one of the usual exaggerations of an enemy. The Sonecas, by far the most powerful of the Five Nations, could only muster a thousand warriors, and there is no reason to suppose the Eries were stronger. Probably they were weaker.

After a long march through the forest, the Iroquois approached the stronghold of their enemies. A few carried muskets or arquebuses, and ammunition, either purchased from the Dutch or captured from the French. Two wore French costumes, doubtless stripped from the bodies of slain enemies. At length the long column of the confederates arrived in front of the fortress of the Eries, and spread themselves out in line. Other armies have been larger and better disciplined, but few have made a more terrifying appearance than that which now stood awaiting the signal for the onslaught.

The war costume of an Indian in the olden time consisted of a small breech-elout of deerskin, and a crest of as many bright colored feathers as he could obtain. His face and naked body were painted with pigments of red, yellow and black, arranged in the mnost fantastic and hideons designs that the artist could invent. A thousand or more savages, thus ar- rayed and decorated, and known to be filled with the most furious hatred, must have presented an appal- ling appearance to any but the hardiest foes. Nearly every man carried the bow, the arrows and the war elab which had been the weapons of his fathers, but a few, as has been said, were provided with fire-arms, and many had substituted iron hatchets and knives for the stone tomahawks aud flint scalpers of their ancestors. The war-chiefs, of whom there was a large proportionate number, took their positions a few yards ahead of the line, each one in front of his own band.

When all was ready the two Iroquois, before men- tioned as being dressed in French costume, advanced close to the walls and demanded the surrender of the Eries. One of them, who had been baptized by the

Jesuits, declared that the " Master of Life" was on their side.

" Ho, ho!" eried the scornful Eries, "our hatchets and our arrows are the masters of life; come and see what they will do!"

The heralds retired, the head chiefs gave the signal, and with terrific yells the Iroquois advanced to the attack. They were met with tlights of poisoned arrows, and were compelled to fall back. They then brought forward the canoes in which they had made the trip up the lake, and each crew bore its own bark above their heads so as to protect them from the arrows of the Eries. Thus shielded, they again moved forward. The poisoned missiles rattled on the frail bark vessels, but only occasionally hit the ex- posed part of some careless warrior.

At length the assaulting line reached the front of the palisade. This lofty barrier might well appear an insurmountable obstacle to men unprovided with ladders, but the Iroquois placed their canoes against the wooden walls, and, in spite of the resistance of the Eries, speedily climbed over into the fort. Then began a scene of frightful butchery. Probably largely outnumbered by their confederated foes-per- haps hardly equal to them in warlike prowess-the Eries gave way on all sides. The Iroquois rushed forward, Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Queidas and Mohawks all eager to be the first in the race for ven- geance. The forest resounded with the fearful yells of the victims, as in swift succession they struck down their foes with war-club or tomahawk, tore off their scalps, and waved the recking trophies above their heads in demoniac triumph.

As was generally the case when one savage nation was completely successful over another, the conquered people was almost completely annihilated. Men, women and children were slaughtered with equal ruthlessness, and all their villages were burned to the ground. Some escaped to join the tribes of the Far West. Some, especially children, were reserved for adoption by the conquerors, in accordance with wide- spread Indian custom. Many of the warriors, too, were taken alive, but these were generally devoted to the most terrible fate which savage malignity could invent.

When night came on, the vietors prepared for a grand illumination. The captured warriors were bound, naked, one by one, to the trees of the forest. Piles of light fuel were heaped around them and then the torch was applied. A Cayuga told Mr. Parkman that, according to the tradition in his tribe, a thou- sand Eries were thus enveloped in flames at once. As the Indians couldn't count over ten, and as there were probably not over a thousand Erie warriors in all, if so many, it is best to take this statement with much allowance. But even if there were a hundred thus subjected to torture, they must have formed the most soul-curdling sight that can well be imagined. Those who admire the romance of Indian life might have enjoyed their till of it could they have stood in

GENERAL HISTORY OF CUYAHOGAA COUNTY.

the forest on the shore of Lake Erie, two hundred and twenty-five years ago, and have seen the darkness lighted up by fire after fire, extending in every direc- tion, in the midst of each of which a naked warrior writhed in the agonies of death, his voice, however, rising in the death-song, defiant and contemptuous toward his foes, who danced and howled around him in all the ecstasy of diabolical glee.

The Iroquois remained in the country of the Eries for two months, nursing their own wounded, and hunting out, and capturing or slaying, any of that un- fortunate people who might still be lingering near the homes of their ancestors. Then the conquerors re-entered their canoes, proceeded down the lake and made their way to their own homes, where they were doubtless received with universal admiration as heroes who had deserved well of their country.

CHAPTER IV. DISPUTED DOMINION.

Iroquois Power-Its Boundary on the Cuyahoga-Ownership of the Western Part of the County-French Skill-La Salle's Supposed Visit -His Great Exploration-The First Vessel on Lake Erie-Tonti and llennepin-Brilliant Prospects for the French-Fate of the Griffin- Subsequent career of La Salle-Pretensions of the French and English

-The Jealous Iroquois- Ohio a Part of Louisiana- Building of Fort Niagara-An Extensive Trust Deed-Lake Erie called "Oswego "- Meaning of the Word -- The War of 1744-The Ohio Company -De Bien- ville's Expedition-New French Posts- The First European Establish ment in Cuyahoga county-Washington in the Field-The First Amer- ican Congress-Franklin's Proposition-Beginning of the Great War- Western Indians aid the French-Defeat of Braddock-French For- tunes wane-Loss of Niagara and Quebec-Surrender of Canada- Eud of French Power in the Lake Region.

FROM that time forward northwestern Ohio became a part of the domain of the all-conquering Iroquois. They fixed their western boundary at the Cuyahoga river, and there were none to dispute it with them. They continued, however, to reside in central New York, using this region only as a hunting ground. That remarkable confederacy was then at the hight of its power. From the Atlantic to the Mississippi, from Hudson's bay to the Gulf of Mexico, no nation nor league of their own race was able to withstand them, and the feeble colonies of Europeans alternate- ly courted their friendship or shrank from their en- mity.

Though claiming no farther west than the Cuya- hoga, their war parties made frequent excursions far beyond that boundary, coasting up Lake Erie in their canoes, passing by those who propitiated their friend- ship, but executing vengeance on those who awakened their wrath, even to the distant shores of the Missis- sippi and the far northern waters of Lake Superior.

That part of Cuyahoga county west of the river which bears its name was not permanently occupied by any tribe, but appears to have been claimed by another confederacy, much less powerful than the Iroquois, which had its principal seat in Michigan, and was composed of the Ottawas, Chippewas and

the Pottawattamies. The Shawnees, who resided in the southwest, in the present State of Indiana, also frequently hunted along the shore of Lake Erie. In fact, the boundaries of Indian possessions were sel- dom delined with the accuracy of farm-lines in a deed, and were constantly varying according to the power or caprice of their owners,

Notwithstanding the old grudge of the Iroquois against them, the French, whose skill in managing savages was unequaled by that of any other European nation, succeeded in the intervals of active warfare in insinuating themselves among those fierce warriors, and securing a foothold for their fur-traders and even for their missionaries. It is highly probable that some of those classes, intent on the interests of com- merce or religion, made their way to the south shore of Lake Erie soon after, if not before, the destruction of the unfortunate people who resided there; for the Jesuit map of 1660 proves that the members of that order had at least traced the chain of waters from Lake Erie to Lake Superior.

Very little is known, however, of the locality nn- der consideration. According to a biography of the celebrated La Salle, by an anonymous anthor, yet bearing many evidences of credibility, that remarka- ble adventurer came into the country south of Lake Erie in 1669, discovered the Ohio and descended it to the rapids where Louisville now stands, where he was abandoned by his men and compelled to return alone. What La Salle was doing at this period is not posi- tively known, and such an exploit would be in perfect harmony not only with his dauntless courage and boundless love of adventure but with his uniform lack of tact in managing his subordinates.

A map attributed to La Salle, issued in 1672, calls the great body of water which bounds Cuyahoga county on the north, "Lake Tejocharonting, com- monly called Lake Erie."

But it was not until 1679 that Lake Erie was fully explored by European eyes and its waters plowed by a vessel built by European hands. The leader in this important enterprise was the brilliant adventurer al- ready named, Robert Cavelier de la Salle. This gen- tleman, a Frenchman of good family, then thirty-tive years old, was the boldest and most successful of all the gallant men who attempted to explore the interior of North America. Some adventurers had made short excursions inland from the coast, others had trodden the shores of the St. Lawrence, others still had traced the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and discov- ered the mouth of its principal river; it was given to La Salle to glide from the northeast to the southwest over three thousand unknown miles of land and wa- ter, to unravel the great enigma of the Mississippi, and to span the whole eastern portion of the conti- nent with the bow of triumphant discovery.

Having left his native Rouen at the age of twenty- two, La Salle had for thirteen years been leading a life of varied adventure in America, and had in 1678 received a commission from Louis the Fourteenth to

DISPUTED DOMINION.

discover the western part of New France. In the winter and spring of 1678 and 1679 he built a vessel of sixty tons on the Niagara river, above the falls, to which he gave the name of the "Gritlin." After long waiting, to perfect his preparations, La Salle sailed up Lake Erie from the head of the Niagara on the seventh day of August, 1678.

It is not certain on which side of Lake Erie the " Griffin " sailed, nor whether it crossed the watery portion of Cuyahoga county; the presumption, how- ever, is that it went on the north side, which was not only the shortest but was least likely to be infested by the hostile Iroquois. Nevertheless, the opening of the great inland sea, on which the county borders, to the knowledge and the commerce of Europe is an event of such importance to all who live on its shores as to merit more than a passing notice.

La Salle occupied four days in making the voyage from the site of Buffalo to the head of the lake, where he entered into the straits which lead to Lake Iluron. There were thirty-four men on board the " Griffin, " all Frenchmen with two or three exceptions. La Salle himself is represented as a handsome, bluc-eyed cavalier, with smooth checks and abundant ringlets, apparently better fitted to grace the salons of Paris than to dare the dangers of the American wilderness, yet in reality standing in the foremost rank of all those who opened the new world to the knowledge of the old.

The second in command was Henry de Tonti, an Italian by birth, son of the inventor of the "Tontine" plan of insurance, who had served valiantly as a sol- d'er in the Sicilian wars, who had been exiled from his native land by revolution, and who showed, throughout his career under La Salle, the most un- wavering contempt of danger and the most devoted loyalty to his chief.

Another distinguished voyager on the "Griffin" was the celebrated Father Hennepin, a Franciscan friar of Flemish birth, but Freuch by education and lan- guage, who was at once the priest and the historian of the expedition. "With sandaled feet, a course, gray capote, and peaked hood, the cord of St. Francis about his waist, and a rosary and crucifix hanging at his side, the father set forth on his memorable jour- ney."* He was attended by two coadjutors, and they carried with them a light portable altar, which could be strapped on the back like a knapsack or set up in the wilderness at a moment's notice. Father lleunepin was destined, in the course of the wide wanderings on which he was then entering, to display the most unswerving courage, and the most devoted zeal in the conversion of the savages to Christianity, but was also to acquire the less enviable reputation of being one of the most mendacious of the many un- trustworthy European travelers in America.

As the little bark with its gallant commander, its zealons priests and its swarthy crew, swept westward

before the favoring breezes, all doubtless believed that they were opening the new lake to the com- merce of France, and that its fertile shores would in time be occupied by the subjects of Louis le Grand or his successors. To all appearances the French had obtained the complete dominion of all the waters of the St. Lawrence, and the career of La Salle was to extend still farther the sway of their magnificent monarch. The most vivid and prophetic imagination could not have pictured the shores of the great lakes passing from the dominion of France to that of Eng- land, (whose king, Charles the Second, was then the mere vassal of Louis the Fourteenth), and again, after a brief interval, becoming a part of an independent conutry, whose power was to rival that of either of the great nations which had preceded it in the path of empire.

La Salle named the waters over which he was pass- ing the " Lac de Conti," in honor of one of his pat- rons, the Prince de Conti, but Father Hennepin called it Erie, mentioning at the same time that the Indians termed it " Erie Tejocharonting."

The "Griffin," though the pioneer of all the immense commerce of Lake Erie, was itself the sport of disas- trous fate. It went to Green Bay, where La Salle, Tonti and Hennepin left it; started on its return with a cargo of furs, and was never heard of more. Whether it sauk with all on board amid the storm- tossed waters of Lake Michigan or Huron, or was driven upon the shore of Lake Erie and its crew mur- dered by the revengeful Iroquois, has been a subject of frequent but unavailing investigation. Numerous relies of shipwreck have been Found near the month of Rocky river, in Cuyahoga county, and it is posi- ble, not probable, that some of them came from the long lost "Griffin." With greater probability it has been deemed that the scene of the " Griffin's " ship- wreck was discovered, near the beginning of this centu- ry, by the settlers in the southwest part of Erie county, New York; for there were cannon found there with French mottoes upon them, which certainly gives cofor to the theory that that was the theater of the . Griffin's " disaster. There are, however, other ways of accounting for those relies, and it is quite likely, as before stated, that the pioneer vessel of the upper lakes sank amid their turbulent waters with all of its unfor- tunate crew.

After the "Griffin" had sailed, La Salle, with the majority of his companions, went into the Illinois country. There they built two trading posts, but as, after long waiting, the "Gritlin" did not return, the indomitable chief, with three comrades, performed the extraordinary feat of returning on foot to the shores of the St. Lawrence, subsisting entirely upon the game they procured with their muskets. It has generally been supposed that La Salle and his com- panions went on the southern side of Lake Erie across the territory of Cuyahoga county, but there are good reasons for believing that they crossed the Detroit river and skirted the northern shore of the lake.

* Parkman.

GENERAL HISTORY OF CUYAHOGA COUNTY.

where they would be in less danger from the ever- dreaded Iroquois.

La Salle afterwards returned to the Illinois region, and in 1682, with a handful of men, descended the Mississippi to the sea, thus achieving the greatest feat of discovery over accomplished in the interior of America, and adding the vast territory of Louisiana to the dominions of France. While endeavoring, however, to colonize these newly discovered lands, he met with continual disasters, and was at length mur- dered by some of his own followers, in what is now the State of Texas.

For a long period afterwards there is very little to relate regarding the county of Cuyahoga. The French waged long wars with the English under King William and Queen Anne, and the Iroquois were generally in alliance with the latter people. Nevertheless the French, whose powers of insinuation anong savages were unrivaled, obtained considerable influence among the Senecas, and were enabled to make many protitable voyages after furs upon Lake Erie. Fort Ponchartrain was built on the site of Detroit in 1701. By the peace of Utrecht, concluded at the end of " Queen Anne's War " in 1713, the Fice Vations (or the Six Nations, as they became about that time by the admission of the Tuscaroras into the confederacy), were acknowledged to be subjects of the crown of Great Britain, but no detinite boundaries were assigned them. From that time forth the Eng- lish claimed to own as far west as the Cuyahoga, on the ground that the Six Nations had long been the proprietors to that point, while the French, by right of discovery and possession, claimed both shores of the great lakes, together with the whole valley of the Mississippi.

As for the Iroquois, they repudiated the pretensions of the English as seornfully as they did those of the French, and asserted their own ownership by virtue of their conquest of the Kahquahs and Eries. In fact they were becoming, perhaps, more jealous of the English than of the French, since the former were continually obtaining large tracts of Indian lands for the purpose of colonization, while the latter only wanted posts for their for-traders and stations for their missionaries. Freuch traders from Canada scoured the whole West in search of furs, as did also the Dutch and English of New York.

At the period in question the French considered Ohio as a part of Louisiana. That province was di- vided into four parts, each in charge of a military commandant; all being subject to the council-general of Louisiana. One of these subdivisions nominally included all the territory northwest of the Ohio. In fact, however, the would-be rulers exercised very little authority outside the walls of their rude fortresses.

In 1725, the French obtained permission of the Iroquois chiefs to build a " stone house " at the mouth of the Niagara, on the east side, where the Marquis de Denonville had previously planted a French post,

which had been speedily abandoned. The "stone house" was at once begun, and finished the next year; assuming, by the time it was completed, the propor- tions of a strong frontier fortress. This was a very important proceeding, as it gave the French, to a great extent, the command of the whole upper lake region. There was a great deal of intriguing among the Iroquois chiefs on the part of both the French and the English, and it is sometimes difficult to learn which was in the ascendency ; though, as a general rule, the English influence was predominant. The French were most successful with the Senecas and one or two other western tribes of the confederacy, while the Mohawks and Oneidas, who lived on the English frontier, were usually faithful to their inter- est. The ancient bond of the " Ifedonosaunee," or People of the Long House, as the Iroquois called themselves, was evidently weakening under the stress of foreign intrigue.

But the French did not have it all their own way even with the western tribes. The same year that Fort Niagara was completed seven of the principal sachems of the Senecas, Cayugas and Onondagas made a deed of trust to the King of Great Britain and his successors, of their lands, extending in a belt sixty miles wide from the foot of Lake Ontario, all along that lake, the Niagara river and the " Lake Oswego," [ Erie] to the "creek called Canahogue," which was the original form of Cuyahoga. The deed also included the " beaver hunting-grounds " of those nations, the boundaries of which were not described, but which are supposed to have been on the Canadian peninsula. The king was to hold the lands forever, but solely in trust for the tribes above named; the ob- ject being evidently to give the English an excuse for withstanding the pretensions of the French to the same territory.

It is doubtful whether the seven chiefs had any authority to deed away the lands of their people, even "in trust," and it is probable that they represented only the English faction, while it was the French faction which had given that nation authority to build Fort Niagara. The officers of King Louis and King George now maintained the conflicting claims of their respective masters to the country east of the Cuyahoga with more pertinacity than ever before.

It will have been observed that in the above deed Lake Erie is called " Oswego," that being the same name which abont the same time was applied to the locality on Lake Ontario, at the mouth of the Onon- daga, now Oswego. On a map in Colden's History of the Five Nations Lake Erie is called "Okswego," and this appellation is also used in Washington's jour- nal, in 1753, and on Pownal's map, as late as 1777. This name, like most Indian names, has received many different explanations. The most plausible, considering that the expression was used in regard to two such widely separated localities, is that of " boundless view," or, as the Indians express it, " look everywhere-see nothing." Such an appellation

DISPUTED DOMINION.

would be applicable to almost any point along the lakes, or to either of the lakes itself. The lake on which Cuyahoga county borders was, however, more often called by its old name of "Eric," and this finally superseded all others.

Notwithstanding the intrigues of the French and English, that part of Cuyahoga county cast of the river continued in peaceable possession of the Six Nations, who used it only as a hunting ground. while the western part was occupied for the same purpose by the Oltawas, Chippewas and Pottawattamies. The only white men seen within its bounds were occasional French fur-traders, or, less often, an extremely daring English one, and perchance, now and then, a dark- gowned Jesuit, abandoning ease and risking life to spread the faith of his church among the savages of the Far West.

In the war between France and England, begun in 1744, and concluded by the treaty of Aix la Chapelle in 1:48. the Six Nations generally maintained their neutrality, and the contest had no effect this far west. In the last named year, however, an association called the Ohio Company was organized under the authority of the government of Virginia. for the purpose of settling the lands which that colony claimed west of the Alleganies. It numbered fourteen members, all Virginians except one, (a Londoner), among whom were Lawrence and Augustine, elder brothers of George Washington. The Virginia authorities gave it a grant of half a million acres west of the Allega- nies, but without any definite location of boundaries; if the owners could maintain themselves on the Ohio or the shores of Lake Erie, they were welcome to do SO.

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History of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Part 3

Author: Johnson, Crisfield Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.B. Lippincott & Co. Number of Pages: 716

Author: Johnson, Crisfield
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.B. Lippincott & Co.
Number of Pages: 716