A history of old Tioga Point and early Athens, Pennsylvania, Part 4

Author: Murray, Louise Welles, 1854-1931. 4n
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Athens, Penna. [i.e., Pa.] : [s.n.]
Number of Pages: 726

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The beautiful granite boulder erected to mark Fort Sullivan pos- sibly once rested in the St. Lawrence Valley.

The presence of the conglomerate with the carbonate cement is as yet unexplained, but will doubtless yield more readily to careful inves- tigation than it has to the pick and the drill.

Lower Athens a True Flood Plain.

When a stream flows over a level area with a moderate slope, so that in time of flood all the water cannot be carried in the natural chan- nels, it overflows its banks and spreads out as a great sheet of water, as has been often seen in Athens in days now past. The current is so reduced that sediment is deposited and a flood plain is gradually built up, often becoming very extensive. It is unnecessary to go to the Mississippi Valley to understand this, for, without doubt, on such a flood plain do we live to-day. It has been observed that the plain above "Mile Hill" has a coarse, gravelly soil, containing somewhat more fine earth than ordinary creek gravel, but on the whole showing that it was deposited by flowing water. The kinds of rocks composing the gravel and small stones would indicate that this is an "overwash plain,"16 often found below the terminal moraine of a glacier. But at the foot of "Mile Hill" the character of surface soil suddenly changes. Exca- vations show from four to six feet of fine silt, with scarcely a rock frag- ment or stone present over most of lower Athens. Below this silt gravel similar to that on the surface above "Mile Hill" is found.

14 An interesting change in the Chemung Valley above Elmira is fully described on page 168, Phys. Geog., N. Y., and the numerous illustrations in this book go far to assist to an understanding of the influences of the glacial period.

15 Tarr's Phys. Geog., N. Y.

16 This differs slightly from the theory already assumed by the author.

OLD TIOGA POINT AND EARLY ATHENS

Probably the gravel was first deposited over this lower plain to at least the level of "Mile Hill." Afterwards repeated overflows of both rivers washed away the surface of the peninsula to the present level of the. gravel. (Quite possibly during some extensive flood the Chemung took a swift turn across the plain, making the steep slope now known as "Mile Hill.") Since that time the overflows have deposited the fine soil now above the gravel, leaving the conditions we now find. The elevation which was formerly the border of "Herrick's Meadow" was probably left in a similar manner.17

Minerals.

Some time in the fifties two men, a physician and a Methodist elder (who had formerly lived in this locality), came here from Ohio to pros- pect for ore. They had made the acquaintance of a very old Indian whose carly home was in this valley. He had told of a vein of silver near the meeting of the waters, and the two men had made a rough map under his instructions. They hunted in vain on the hills east of Athens. Some years later they came again, with delicate magnetic in- struments, and located the mineral somewhere near Milan. A large hole was dug and a minute quantity of ore found, but as it was evi- dently not in paying quantities the project was abandoned. In recent years similar experiments have been made, but Mother Earth seems to guard her secrets well.

Fossils of the Mammalian Era Found Along the Chemung.

At various times since the settlement of this region large teeth and tusks have been found, evidently belonging to the Mammoth or Mastodon of the Cenozoic age (many periods later than the Devonian), during which age the glacial period is supposed to have existed. We have made inquiry in many places, hoping to find some one of these tusks or teeth which could be reproduced, but it seems impossible to trace them. It is a well-known fact that the Indians gave the name Chemung to the river also known as the Tioga, because of the "big horns" found along its banks.

The earliest use of the name which we have found is in 1757, when the French spoke of the Delaware Indians living here as the "Loups of Chaamonaqué or Theaoga."18 This indicates the find by Indians at an earlier date. Zeisberger mentions "Wschumno," a horn; but we have not learned the date, nor if Weiser ever mentioned "Chemung." Spafford says,19 "Chemung is said to mean big horn or great horn in the dialect of the Indian tribes that anciently possessed the country ; and that a very large horn was found in the Chemung or Tioga River was well ascertained." Thomas Maxwell (a native of Tioga Point) gave the definition to Schoolcraft as "a large horn or tusk."20

17 For information, advice and correction the author is greatly indebted not only to Mr. I. P. Shepard; but to Prof. G. E. Rogers and Miss Elsie Murray, students under Prof. Tarr, the author being purely an amateur observer.

18 See N. Y. Col., Doc. X, p. 589.

19 Gazetteer, 1834, p. 106.

20 Dr. Beauchamp, in his "Aboriginal Place Names," pp. 42 and 43, gives both Chemung and Willewana as Delaware words meaning horn, or big horn. Gallatin gives Konnongah, horn, as a Seneca word.

FOSSIL REMAINS OF MAMMOTH

Probably the first one found by the white settlers is that described in the American Museum, published at Philadelphia by Matthew Cary :21

"Description of a horn or bone lately found in the river Chemung or Tyoga, a western branch of the Susquehanna, about twelve miles from Tyoga point.

"It is six feet nine inches long, twenty-one inches round, at the large end, and fifteen inches at the small end. In the large end is a cavity two and a half inches in diameter, much like the hollow which is filled with the pith of the horn of the ox. This is only six inches deep-every other part is or appears to have been solid. The exterior part, where entire or not perished, is smooth, and in one spot, of a dark color. The interior parts are of a clear white, and have the resemblance of well burnt unslacked limestone; but these can be seen only where it is perished, tender and broken. From one end to the other, it appears to have been nearly round, and on it there have been no prongs or branches. It is incurvated nearly into an arch of a large circle. By the present state of both the ends, much of it must have perished; probably two or three feet from each end. From a general view of it, there is reason to believe, that in its natural state, it was nearly a semi-circle of ten or twelve feet. The unde- cayed parts, particularly the outside, send forth a stench like a burning horn or bone, and what is become of the animal, are questions worthy of the curious and learned.

"This curiosity is in the possession of the Hon. Timothy Edwards, Esq., of Stockbridge, Mass."

It is regrettable that no mention is made of the name of the dis- coverer of this curiosity.

The next recorded find was by Judge Caleb Baker, who settled at Southport in 1788 or '89. Judge Baker related that "a few years after his settlement (Maxwell said 1791) he was on the river in a canoe with one or two other men, and at the shore near the so-called Second Narrows, where the brook comes down, they observed under water something protruding out of the bank looking like a curious root." At Judge Baker's request one of the men got into the water to examine and draw it out or break it off. It was soon found to be no root, and all got into the water and succeeded in wresting it from the bank, when it was found to be a perfect though immense horn, measuring nine feet in the curve and six feet in a straight line. It was somewhat eroded, though not enough to affect its form or coherency. It was left at a neighboring blacksmith's to have a band put around it to preserve it from a split. As not much attention was then paid to curiosities it was negligently left for a long time, although Judge Baker intended to have it examined by some naturalist. But when he went after it the blacksmith had sold it for a paltry sum to a New England peddler, and it was lost sight of. Daniel McDowell saw this horn and thought it similar to pieces of one shown him in Canada, when a prisoner among the Indians (in 1782). They told him their fathers had found it in this river, and therefore gave it the name of Chemung, which sig- nifies big horn.

In his notes for Schoolcraft, Thomas Maxwell says: "The early settlers found a similar one in the stream in 1799. It was sent to Eng- land and an eminent scientist called it the tusk of an elephant or some similar animal. About 1843, says G. W. Kinney, "A tusk was washed out of the river bank on the premises of Isaac Horton in lower She-

21 See Aboriginal Archives, Vol. 4, p. 42, July, 1788.

OLD TIOGA POINT AND EARLY ATHENS

shequin, below the point where Horn Brook empties into the Susque- hanna, where the bank is high and gravelly ; the tusk was found near the water's edge when the river was low. It was mutilated by time. Its dimensions were about nine feet in length, diameter at base six to twelve inches, at smaller end four inches." This tusk was in the pos- session of C. L. Ward, and is supposed to have been burned with other valued relics in a fire at Lafayette College. (Mr. Ward's daughter described it to the writer.)

In 1855 Thomas Maxwell tells of a similar large tusk found on an island below Elmira which he personally examined, saying, "It is about four feet in length, of the crescent form, perhaps three to four inches in diameter. * * Others who have seen it pronounced it to be ivory. * * This is the third horn or tusk that has been found in the Chemung." This tusk is said to have been sent to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, but they have no record of it. One of these tusks was long among the collection of curiosities gathered from the Indians at the Red Jacket Garden in Elmira. Galatian says : "It was dug out of the river near Bydleman's by the Indians, and was long in the possession of William Lee. The horn was called 'Conongue,' which, in the dialect of the Muncies and Delawares, means Horn in Water." (This seems to be a third Delaware word with the same meaning.)

The last recorded find was October 28, 1872, when some men, slipping down the north bank of the river about three miles above Chemung village, found two double teeth and a section of jaw bone in the caving earth, and subsequently some bones were dug out at the same spot, which was about two miles from the locality where Judge Baker found the tusk. These teeth (which were seen by many now living) were very heavy, one weighing nine pounds,22 the grinding sur- face being nine inches long and twenty-eight inches in circumference. This discovery was made on the farm of Henry Beidleman. Dr. E. Geer took them in charge. Dr. E. P. Allen gave considerable study to this find,23 embodying the result of his conclusions in a paper read before the Bradford County Historical Society, which was published in pamph- let form. He decided they were the teeth of the Mammoth rather than the Mastodon, and said of it :

"The mammoth has never been found living; it is thought they were over- whelmed by some sudden catastrophe during the long drifts of the glacial period. Many skeletons or parts of them have been found in various parts of the tem- perate zone in North America. They are supposed to have lived in what is called the Tertiary Period."

To this it may be added that remains have been found in New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania; it would seem along the line of the terminal moraine. This would suggest that they may never have lived in the present temperate zone, but that the animals, or their skeletons, were carried before the glaciers, as were the rocks and other material. A few other finds in this region may be recorded, the farthest

22 An idea of size may be obtained from considering that a horse's tooth weighs about one ounce.

23 The tooth is reputed to have been sent to the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, but there is no record of it there.

TUSKS OF MAMMOTH OR MASTODON

south in Kelly Township, Union County, on the West Branch of the Susquehanna.24 While digging the Junction Canal on Chemung flats, near Wilawana, in 1853, two tusks were exhumed which appeared like chalk, and were destroyed by the picks of the workmen. Doubtless the Indians had found some at this very spot, as "Wilawan" is said to be a Delaware word meaning "Big Horn."

McMaster, in his History of Steuben County, N. Y., reports a similar tooth "dug from a bed of blue clay in the Gulf Road, between Bath and Wheeler ; also a large bone which crumbled on exposure to air. This bed of clay25 is of unusual depth and tenacity, and it is guessed that the animal was mired."

The Indians had some interesting traditions concerning these ani- mals and their destruction by the Great Spirit (to be found in the Athens Gleaner, December 21, 1871), but we have already given suf- ficient space to the subject, and hope the young people may make fur- ther investigations.

24 In 1871 this tusk was in a cabinet of the University at Lewisburg.

25 Doubtless the boulder clay or till of glacial formation.

"During the excavations for the South Branch Canal, through a gravel plain at Wya- lusing, in 1852, portions of an ivory tusk were found, in a condition similar to those men- tioned above. On shaving the chalky substance with a sharp knife, the peculiar radial cross- curves of the ivory were unmistakable throughout.

"A few years later, a finely preserved mastodon tooth was taken from the bed of the Laurel Run, opposite Wyalusing; in the sharp depressions of which, between the conical pro- jections, were plainly to be seen remains of the vegetable fibre composing the food of the animal. This tooth is believed to be in the possession of G. H. Welles, Esq."

THE CHEMUNG NEAR WILAWANA

CHAPTER II

THE AMERICAN INDIAN

The Aborigines of the Upper Susquehanna Before the Coming of the White Men-Indian Names for Tioga Point-Its Importance as Key of Valley-Indian Customs and Modes of Living

"Tribes of the solemn League from ancient seats, Swept by the whites like autumn leaves away. Faint are your records of historic feats, And few the traces of your former sway."-Hosmer.

The origin of the American Indian is, and probably ever will be, wrapped in mystery. Theories and theorists are plentiful, but that their theories are based largely on conjecture is evidenced by the some- what amazing and amusing fact that the theorists, as a rule, have different theories.

Drake,1 one of the first American Indian historians, gives various citations supposed to allude to America and its indigenes. The earliest is from Theopompus, an historian of the time of Alexander the Great, who alludes to a continent beyond Europe, Asia and Africa. Hanno, Diodorus, Plato, Aristotle and Seneca are also mentioned by Drake as having made allusions to our continent. Modern writers have more to say about the people and their origin. Quite general is the sentiment in favor of a Tartar origin, and an entrance via Behring Straits and Alaska. There are also numerous writers who believe the Indians to be descendants of the lost tribe of Israel. The eminent Canadian philol- ogist, Horatio Hale, says :

"Philologists are well aware that there is nothing in the language of the Amerinds to favor the coming of the race from Eastern Asia, but the Basques of Northern Spain and Southern France speak a similar language."

Many of these early writers have, in their own opinion, set at rest the question "How and by whom was America peopled ?" But, of them all, surely Dr. Cotton Mather is the most amusing. He says :

"It should not pass without remark that three most memorable things, which have borne a very great aspect on human affairs, did near the same time, namely, at the conclusion of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries, arise into the world; the first was the resurrection of literature; the second was the opening of America! the third was the reformation of religion. But, as probably, the Devil, seeking the first inhabitants of America into it, therein aimed at the having of them out of the sound of the gospel. Though we know not how these Indians became inhabitants of this mighty continent, yet we may guess that probably the Devil decoyed them hither in hopes that the gospel would never come here to destroy his absolute empire over them."

1 "History of the North American Indian."-Drake.

THE AMERICAN INDIAN

In 1683 William Penn wrote to a Friend2 certain ideas of his con- cerning the Indians, in which is this passage :

"For their origin I am ready to believe them of the Jewish race; I Inean of the stock of the ten tribes, for following reasons: First, they were to go to a land not planted or known, which, to be sure, Asia and Africa were, and He that extended that extraordinary judgment upon them might make the passage not uneasy from the eastermost parts of Asia to the westermost of America. In the next place I find them of the like countenance, that a man would think himself in Duke Place or Berry Street, London, where he seeth them. But this is not all; they agree in rites, they reckon by moneys, they offer their first fruits, they have a kind of feast of tabernacles, they are said to lay their altars on twelve stones, their mourning a year, customs of women, with many other things, that do not now occur.

As to Indian customs very interesting modern accounts are given by Francis Parkman, who drew his information largely from the Jesuit Relations. While the Jesuit missionaries have given most of the re- corded history of the Northern tribes, for the Indians of Pennsylvania, and especially those along the Susquehanna, we are greatly indebted to those earnest and faithful men, the Moravian Brethren. Indeed, it may well be said that but for the archives at Bethlehem (those precious old Mss. translated only in recent years) there would be no written history of the Susquehanna Indians.

In 1741 that well-known Moravian enthusiast, Count Zinzendorf, came to Pennsylvania and began the active mission work carried on later by less illustrious but equally faithful Brethren. In 1742 he began to record observations on the Indians, or as he puts it, "the Savages in Canada," Canada being a general European term for all the Northern British Colonies in America. He gives many reasons for believing with Penn that the Indians were of Jewish descent. He divides them first under four heads, A, B, C and D. Continuing, to speak of A, the Iroquois (which he says is a French name) :

"They call themselves Aquanuskion, or ye Covenant People." Of the five tribes he says: "A. I. The Maquas (Mohawks), whose language is nearest the Ebrew, the chieftest of their nations according to dignity; yet in Reuben's way, despised, because of their levity and paid off with the title. Yet their language goes throughout. II. The Onondogas are ye chief nation in reality ; ye Judah among their brethren. III. The Senecas are ye most in numbers. These three nations are called ye Fathers. IV. The Oneidas and V. Cayugus are their chil- dren. They must respect them (the Fathers), and have also children's rights.

"B. The Gibeonites, or water-bearers, are People gathered on ye rivers as ye Gypsies, and a good part of them are Europeans. I. Canistokas (Cones- togas). II. Mahikans (Algonquins), of whom our congregation consists. III. Hurons, or Delaware Indians. These must call ye others Uncles, are called Cousins.

"C. The Floridans (Shawanese) are Confederates, and the Tuscaroras are called Brothers. (They became the sixth tribe in the federation.)

"D. The Captives are kept well, and become in time Cousins."3

Zinzendorf further says the Maquas have become hopelessly in- dolent from the use of strong drink, and that the Mohicans are suscepti- ble of good impressions, though naturally fierce. He always avoided the Maquas who "had guzzled away all their land to the whites" and

2 "Memorials of the Moravian Church," p. 18.

3 These observations are a copy of an old translation in the Bethlehem Archives, now to be found in Reichel's "Memorials of the Moravian Church."

OLD TIOGA POINT AND EARLY ATHENS

professed to be Christians, converted by English or Presbyterian preachers. Zinzendorf seems not to have visited Tioga Point, although he traveled extensively up and down the Susquehanna, and was often at Wyoming.

In a discourse before the New York Historical Society in 1811, Governor Clinton, speaking of the Five Nations, said :

"The Virginian Indians gave them the name of Massawomekes; the Dutch called them Maquas or Makakuase, and the Friends, Iroquois.4 Their appella- tion at home was the Mingoes, and sometimes the Aganuschian."

The readers of Cooper's tales will remember them best as the Min- goes. They have also been called the Romans of America ; for in their great conquests and clever methods of dividing and weakening other tribes they stand unexcelled.

Loskiel5 says :

"The first Europeans who came to North America found this immense continent inhabited by numerous nations, all of whom are comprehended under the general name of Indians. Their numbers have often been overrated, owing to the different names frequently given to one nation.

"As to their origin, there is no certainty. The investigations even of the most learned have produced nothing but conjectures more or less probable, nor will I detain my readers with a repetition, much less enter into a review of them.

"Those seem to be nearest the truth who join the celebrated Dr. Robert- son in supposing Tartary in Asia to be the native country of all American Indian nations. But it is my intention to confine myself to an account of only two of these nations, namely, the Delawares and Iroquois.

"The Delawares are divided into three tribes. The Unami are considered as the head of the nation, the Wunalachtikos are next in rank, and then follow the Monsys.

"The name Delawares was undoubtedly first given to them by the Euro- peans, for they call themselves Lenni-Lenape, that is, Indian men; or Woapa- nachky, that is, a people, living towards the rising of the sun, having formerly inhabited the eastern coast of North America. This name is likewise given to them by other Indian nations.

"The Iroquois have received their name from the French, and most his- torians, who have written of them, make use of it. But the English call them the Six Nations, as they now consist of six nations in league with each other. Formerly they were called the Five Nations, five only being joined in that alli- ance. But as we shall speak of them, both in their former and present state, I shall, for the sake of perspicuity, confine myself to the name of Iroquois. They call themselves Aquanuschioni, that is, United People, always to remind each other that their safety and power consists in a mutual strict adherence to their alliance. Others call them Mingos, and some Maquais. These six confederate nations are the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondago, Cajuga, Senneka and Tuscarora. The latter joined the confederacy about seventy years ago.

"The rest of the nations, either in league with the Delawares and Iroquois, or connected with them by some means or other, are the Mahikans, Shawanose, Cherokees, Twichtwees, Wawiachtanos, Kikapus, Moshkos, Tukashas, Chipawas, Ottawas, Putewoatamen, Nantikoks, Wyondats or Hurons, Chaktawas, Chika- saws and Creek Indians, with some others whose names are occasionally men- tioned in history.

"All these Indian nations live to the west of New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia. But it is difficult exactly to determine the boundaries of the different

4 Modern ethnologists give the general name of Iroquois to all eastern tribes. Indeed, General Clark says that the much disputed meaning of "Iroquois" is simply "East." Prof. A. L. Guss says Shawanese originally meant only "South."

5 George Henry Loskiel, who wrote the "History of the United Brethren among the Indians," first published in German in 1788, republished in 1794.

ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN

countries they inhabit, partly for want of good surveys, and partly on account of the unsettled state of some of the nations, and therefore their territories can only be described in a general way. The Delawares live about half way between Lake Erie and the river Ohio. The Iroquois possess the country behind New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland, about the Lakes Erie and Ontario, extending westward to the Mississippi and southward to the Ohio. The Mohawks live more to the eastward, are much mixed with the white people, and not numerous. Their neighbors are the Oneida and Tuscarora. Then follow in a line from east to west the Onondago, Cajuga and Senneka tribes. The Mahikans are neighbors of the Iroquois. The Shawanose live below the Delaware, towards the river Ohio. The Wiondats and Hurons partly inhabit the country on the west coast of Lake Erie, near Sandusky Creek, partly about Fort Detroit, between the Lakes Huron and Michigan."

The Moravian, Rev, John Heckewelder, published in 1818 a "His- tory of the Indians," and in 1820, a "Narrative of Missions Among Them," two most interesting books, while they have been severely crit- icised. Some of his observations here seem of interest. He says the proper national name of the Delaware is Lenni-Lenape, and that they called the Iroquois "Mengwe or Mingo." That both of these tribes lived many hundred years ago in the very distant West, and that all east of the Mississippi was inhabited by the Alligewi, who had very large towns built on great rivers.

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A history of old Tioga Point and early Athens, Pennsylvania, Part 4

Author: Murray, Louise Welles, 1854-1931. 4n Publication date: 1908 Publisher: Athens, Penna. [i.e., Pa.] : [s.n.] Number of Pages: 726

Author: Murray, Louise Welles, 1854-1931. 4n
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Athens, Penna. [i.e., Pa.] : [s.n.]
Number of Pages: 726