A history of old Tioga Point and early Athens, Pennsylvania, Part 5

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 Lenni-Lenape and Mengwe in emigrating eastward first met at the Mississippi ; together they conquered the Alligewi, who fled down the Mississippi and never returned. The Mengwe then took the lake region and the Lenni-Lenape the south, and for many hundred years lived peaceably and increased very fast; the latter gradually worked east until they discovered and settled on the four great rivers, the Del- aware, Hudson, Susquehanna and Potomac. Soon the Mengwe became jealous and laid the deep scheme of asking the Lenape to be women, which would keep peace, preserve honor, etc. Later the Iroquois denied this and said they conquered in battle, but there is no written record. They betrayed the confidence of the Lenape in every way. The Shaw- nees were originally in Savannah, Georgia, and Florida. The Nanti- cokes were at Chemung and Chenango in 1730. He gives the names of the Iroquois, with their meanings: "Mohawks-Fire striking people (they had first firearms) ; Oneidas-Stone pipe makers ; Cayuga, named for lake ; Onondago-On top a hill (their chief town so situated) ; Sen- eca-Mountaineers (lived in hilly country)." Heckewelder says they were five tribes or sections, not nations; also that the Lenape never acknowledged the sixth tribe. Of the clans the Turtle took lead in the government of every nation. Heckewelder tells of many interesting customs and exploits of the early Indians.

In 1821 Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell, Professor of Natural History, in a lecture before a New York society, suggests that the northern nations "appear to have descended from the Tartars of Asia, and by gradual approaches from the shores of Alaska, to have reached the country south of the Great Lakes. They brought the complexion, features and manners of their ancestors, and even their dogs are of the Siberian breed."

The same speaker suggests that the southern tribes were tinctured with Malay blood. In the early part of the nineteenth century there

OLD TIOGA POINT AND EARLY ATHENS

were many antiquarian societies whose researches are partially em- bodied in a curious book printed in 1833, "American Antiquities," by Josiah Priest. There is much of value to be found in this work, also many foolish conjectures. Mitchell is often quoted by Priest, and again there are suggestions that the southern tribes were of Australasian or Malay origin, Dr. Mitchell observing that in both continents the north- ern hordes always overcome the more civilized though feebler inhabit- ants toward the equator. Cusick's "Chronology of the Origuy In- dians" is also intensely interesting, dating from 2005 before Columbus discovered America. This may be found in Priest's "Antiquities," page 346, and tells of "a great tirant who arose on the Susquehanna river about the time of Mahomet, 602, who waged war with the surrounding nations."

Indian traditions are unreliable, being handed down by word of mouth or recorded in wampum belts. Yet why may we not hope to have their hieroglyphics some day translated? Many of them are to be found in Pennsylvania, especially along the Susquehanna River. For instance, the Indian rock pictures at Millsboro, the Indian God Rock in Venango County, the Algonkien (?) Rock pictures at Safe Harbor, at the mouth of Conestoga Creek. There is also a great rock carving of the Turtle tribe or clan at Smith's Ferry, in the bed of the Ohio River. The "Annals of Binghamton" tell of both rock carvings and paintings along the upper Susquehanna, of which the Indians contem- porary with the first whites could tell nothing.

On the upper Susquehanna,6 two miles above Great Bend, high on a cliff, was the painted figure of an Indian chief, full length, done by skilful hand in an apparently inaccessible place; this has gradually faded with age. Who can tell its meanings? There was also below Sheshequin an Indian face on a round stone on the mountain nearly opposite the mouth of Sugar Creek, originally colored.

The Indians also made many clever so-called tree pictures ; they cut bark from side of tree, and some wood, and on the flat surface they then drew their pictures, which could be easily read by the next party passing. These were much used by war parties. In Col. Hubley's journal are some pen and ink sketches of tree pictures found between Cayuga and Seneca Lakes, also some found by Clinton's and Sullivan's men at Choconut (now Vestal). These were painted by the Indians under Brant and Butler. Hubley's memorandum says: "The trees painted by the Indians between Owegy & Chukunnut on the head waters of the Susquehanna." They were five in number. The first in- dicated a death, the second the number of scalps taken, the third the Onondaga Nation, represented by its totems, fourth not understood, the fifth an Indian returning successful from his expedition. For a recent study of the aborigines the reader is referred to the writings of Rev. W. M. Beauchamp, published by the State of New York as Mu- seum Bulletins.

How long have Indians lived in this region? who were they? whence did they come? are the natural questions that come to mind.

6 See Blackman's "History of Susquehanna County," p. 52.

INDIAN NAMES FOR TIOGA POINT

It sounded startling when General Clark (who has been a great student of the Indians of the upper Susquehanna ) said :

"Tioga Point has been occupied or frequented by the aborigines as long as Indians have lived on the Alleghany range. Remains have been and will be found reaching back a thousand, if not thousands of years, of all nations and languages, friends and enemies."

The disclosures of the last ten years lead us to agree with him; nay more, to acquiesce in the statement of an inhabitant of Tioga Point, that the Indian occupation seems to date back to as remote ages as the geology. Who shall say when the foot of the Indian first trod Tioga Point ? As burial place after burial place is discovered the words of the poet come to mind :

"All that tread the earth Are but a handful to the tribes That slumber in its bosom."

Were they Al-li-ge-wi, Algonquins, Lenni-Lenape, Andastes or some tribe antedating all these?

But 200 years ago the tribes below New York State were distinct from those above in habits and language. The southern tribes were designated as At-ta-wan-de-rons, "wanda" meaning voice or speech, and the whole term being interpreted as "people who speak an intelli- gent language." From this word, doubtless, came the name Towanda (according to General Clark).

"If archaic remains are to be used as evidence to determine human con- ditions, then the Stone Age of Britain, France and Western Europe had its counterpart in Indian life in America less than four centuries ago."

The implements of the lake dwellers of Switzerland are duplicated in the implements of Tioga Point.

Whoever the first inhabitants were, undoubtedly, the name was ever the same, Te-o-ka, meaning forks of any kind, as of a road or a river, or more exactly the space or point in the forks. Thus it is seen that the word "Point" was an unnecessary addition.

While there are writers who scoff at the Indian names, and deplore the use of them by the white man; they are, as a rule, far more signifi- cant than the senseless or inappropriate names often bestowed by Americans on towns, lakes and rivers; and often, as Hosmer says, "Sweeter than flute notes on the air." To properly appreciate the beauty of an Indian name it should be written and pronounced in sep- arate syllables. The softest form of the name here used is Te-a-o-ga, although Mrs. Whittaker, who was a captive among the Indians here for a long time, gives Taw-e-o-gah. We are inclined to the former, because in the many variations of the name found in archives, records, journals, etc., the first syllable was almost invariably Te or Di, having much the same sound.

Mr. Herrick made many careful notes from various sources, from which the following different forms or synonyms are taken. Whether these differences were due to the varying dialects of the Indians or the pronunciation of the white men the reader may judge.

Conrad Weiser wrote it Diadagdon and Diaogon. The Moravian missionaries very generally wrote it Diahoga or Diahogo. In 1765

OLD TIOGA POINT AND EARLY ATHENS

the governor called it, in a proclamation, Diahoga or Tohiccon. Some of his envoys call it Tiaogon; however, in the colonial records it is more often Diahoga. Sir William Johnson writes it Tioaga or Tiaogo. The Governor of New York, Tiaoga; Indians in council, Tihogan, Tia- hogan or Diohoga. Morgan, in his "League of the Iroquois," says:

"The various tribes of the Iroquois each had a different pronunciation of the name. In Oneida dialect, Te-ah-o-ge; in Mohawk, Te-yo-ge-ga; in Cayuga, Da-o-ga; in Seneca, Da-yo-o-geh-all meaning 'at the forks.' Red Jacket pro- nounced it Ta-hiho-gah, discarding 'Point,' the white man's suffix, saying the Indian word conveyed the full meaning."

On Pouchot's map of 1758 it was called Theaggen; on Col. Guy Johnson's map of 1771, Tiaoga; on Morgan's map, Ta-yo-ga. General John S. Clark, whose opinion we greatly value, says the word had its origin in the Indian word TEKENI, meaning two; and that there were two derivatives, TE-U-KA and TE-O-KA, one meaning a point between two meeting streams or forking trails, the other a space between forks, as between fingers. Gen. Clark added that the word might be written in fifty or even two hundred ways. Dr. Beauchamp says: "This is from teyogen, anything between two others, or as commonly used, teehohogen, forks of a river." He also says that it was an Iroquois word, as did Heckewelder, though the latter is said to have given an erroneous meaning. But, if this is an Iroquois word, what was the name before the coming of the Iroquois? To this query we have found no answer ; though the Andastes were a kindred tribe, with sim- ilar language, so that the name may have always been the same.

But whatever the name, or its meaning, the Point was the key or gateway to the upper Susquehanna and the Chemung valleys (the Chemung being also called the North Branch, the Cayuga Branch and the Tioga Branch). Being the key, it seems always to have been a place of importance. One has but to examine the State archives and colonial records to discover that next to Shamokin7 scarcely any place is more frequently mentioned than Tioga. In spite of the possibility of occupation for unknown ages, there are no records earlier than 1614.8

The earliest records of the tribes along the Susquehanna are from the writings of Captain John Smith and the Jesuit Relations, with, of course, some general allusions by the earlier French writers. Parkman tells us that at the opening of the seventeenth century the whole coun- try east of the Mississippi was occupied by two great families of tribes distinguished by a radical difference of language, to wit, the Algonquins and the Iroquois. Of these tribes information is most often found in the Jesuit Relations ; those almost daily journals, written by the heroic and devoted Jesuit missionaries between 1632 and 1693, which being always sent to France, were annually printed and bound in Paris. In recent years these musty, worm-eaten volumes have been carefully translated, and may now be found in the great public libraries of America in seventy large volumes.

7 Shamokin (now Sunbury), at the forks of the branches of the Susquehanna, was long the most important Indian town in Pennsylvania.

8 The late Harriet Maxwell Converse, the Indianologist, long ago promised to visit Tioga Point and interpret the decorations on local pottery, pipes, etc., every one of which she asserted was an Indian hieroglyphic with meaning. But she never came, though deeply interested in the photographs sent to her.

INDIAN CUSTOMS, MODES OF LIVING

Despite many minor divisions for various reasons, and some dif- ferences of language and habits, all Indian tribes were much alike in their modes of living, their chief aim being seeking food and making war. On account of the necessity of former occupation all were more or less migratory ; while there were some localities where fields were long cultivated and fruit trees grown, they were rather the exception. Except for the trophies of the chase, food and fire were always pro- vided by the squaws, and it was amazing how successful was their agriculture with only the rude hoes or spades made from stone, or the shoulder blades of the elk and buffalo.9 Even as early as when Cartier came (1535) they were cultivating the ground. He says :

"They dig their ground with certain pieces of wood as big as half a sword."

Some of both vegetables and fruits were new to Champlain, who not only described them as follows, but made many interesting draw- ings to be seen in the original or complete editions. He says :

"We saw their Indian corn10 which they raise in gardens, planting 3 or 4 kernels in 1 place, then heap about the earth with shells or the tail of a fish; 3 feet distant they plant as much more; with it they put in each hill 3 or 4 Brazil- ian beans (indigenous to America) ; when they grow up they interlace with the corn and keep the ground moist ; they also grow squashes, pumpkins and tobacco, also a great many nuts, grapes and berries. The esculents are all American sub- tropical, and must have been transmitted from tribe to tribe from the south. The Indian tradition says the crow brought them at first a grain of Indian corn in one ear, and an Indian bean in another, from the great God Kantautouwit's field in the Southwest, from whence they hold came all their corn and beans."

The squash, pumpkins and beans were dried for winter use, as were also meats and fish. The corn was cached as already described, or kept in the huts in chests or "drums of bark." Capt. Smith told of a pap made from it by the Virginian Indians called "pone" or "omini," which words are still in use. "Corn was planted when the leaves of the white oak were the size of a mouse ear; often year after year in the same hills, the ground being scratched or loosened by the rude hoe." -Heckewelder. When the ground became too exhausted to raise further crops, or the ever widening circle of timber was too distant for the squaws to carry firewood sufficient for their needs, the tribe migrated, first, however, burning over the ground. Timber never grew here again, but always tall grass like that of the prairies, giving the name of "Indian Meadows" to many places along the Susquehanna. There were also special migrations in the hunting season. The Algon- quins did not mind migrations, as they lived in wigwams made of poles and carelessly covered ; the Iroquois, less migratory, always had cabins.

Champlain also mentioned cherries, plums, raspberries, straw- berries, currants and several other small fruits, and that the people dry the fruits and small berries for winter, also dry and store away fish. Indeed, he met one band of savages who had migrated to a certain region professedly to dry blueberries to serve for manna in winter. They also, he said, raised sunflowers and used the oil to anoint their heads; also little wild apples and mandrakes. In speaking of other

9 See Heckewelder.

10 Indian corn was first introduced to the whites of New England by one of Sullivan's soldiers, who reported it as found in a country bordering on the Susquehanna.

OLD TIOGA POINT AND EARLY ATHENS

customs he told that they paint their faces black for mourning and burn everything belonging to the dead, even their dogs. "They beat their game into the water and then kill it with spear heads." Describ- ing canoe-making he says :

"They cut down with much labor and time the largest and tallest trees by means of stone hatchets, remove the bark and round off the tree except on one side, where they generally apply fire along the entire length, and sometimes they put red hot pebble stones on top. When the fire is too fierce they extinguish it with a little water, not entirely, but so the edge of the boat may not be burnt. It being hollowed out as much as they wish, they scrape it all over with stones, which they use instead of knives. These stones resemble our musket flints."

So many sinker stones have been found around Tioga Point that it seems worth while to describe Indian methods of fishing. They fished with a hand line, the sinker stone, like the small ones in mu- seum, was fastened to the end of a main line, to which short lines with bone hooks were attached. The sinker was then thrown far out into deep water, the main line hauled taut, and the least motion on the short lines was conveyed to the hand of the fisherman speedily. They also fished with nets made of willow withes, using many sinker stones around edge. Here the larger stones must have been used ; there are a number of very large ones in museum. One of the Moravian journals tells of seeing shad-fishing at Ahquahgo thus :

"They tie bushes together so as to reach across the river, sink them with stones, and haul them around by canoes. When net was drawn all present, in- cluding strangers, had an equal division of fish."

The willow nets were very generally used by the pioneers for catching shad. Much more might be written on Indian customs ; but there are to-day many sources of information.

CHAPTER III

EARLY EXPLORATIONS

The Results as Shown in Old Maps-First Visits of White Men to the Vicinity of Tioga Point-The Susquehanna and Its Discoverers

The historian Winsor has well said :

"When Anaxagoras said that man was born to contemplate the heavens, etc., he might have added the earth; and have enjoined upon his disciples the necessity of representing the result of such contemplations by maps and charts. We require a map fully to understand the geography of a country, hence a study of maps becomes the duty of writers of history."

While many people scorn the early maps because of their inac- curacy, the thoughtful student of history finds an indescribable interest in what may be termed the evolution of the map, or the geographical evolution of a locality. Our interest in this subject was awakened some years since by Gen. John S. Clark, of Auburn, N. Y.,1 who, like many civil engineers, early became interested in history and topography. The results of his years of observation and painstaking research are embodied in various unpublished Mss. which, however, he kindly shares with others ; imparting also much helpful information to all who seem really interested in these subjects.

While feeling very inadequate to the task, we cannot do justice to the history of Tioga Point without considering the early maps which include this territory. Indeed, it will be seen that the earliest known maps of the Eastern States not only show the meeting of the . waters, but seem to have been made as the results of the first visits of white men to this region. This study, even with such enlightening assistance as given by General Clark, leads to many perplexing ques- tions ; the chief ones being the various forms of Indian names given, and the errors of the map-makers as to location of rivers, lakes and bays. While it has generally been said that Conrad Weiser was the first white man to visit Te-a-o-ga (date 1737), this is an error. It is a recorded fact, in Weiser's own journals, that a large body of Palatine emigrants from the Mohawk Valley passed down the Sus- quehanna ; some in canoes and some by land, in 1723 and 1728.2 While they apparently made no record, unquestionably they halted at Te-a-o-ga.

But, more than a hundred years before, the early map-makers evi- dently had reports from white men who tarried in this vicinity.

The earliest map including this locality is undoubtedly the Adrian Block or Figurative Map, though these may be two separate ones, the latter made by Hendricksen. It is due to the research of Brodhead,

1 Shea, the historian, gave Gen. Clark great praise for research concerning Champlain's expedition of 1614, and believed, with Clark, that Champlain's map was original.

2 See Cobb's "Story of the Palatines," p. 282.

OLD TIOGA POINT AND EARLY ATHENS

the historian, to state that these maps were discovered by him at The Hague in 1841.3 Brodhead says of the larger :

"It is the most ancient map of the State of New York, and the neighbor- ing territory to the north and east, and is probably the one to which the Dutch voyager and historian De Laet4 refers as the 'chart of this quarter, made some years since.' The original map was annexed to a memorial to the States General by the Directors of New Netherland in 1616. I think, however, it was prepared two years before (from data furnished by Block just after his return to Hol- land) and exhibited in 1614 (October 11th), as the charter granted that day to Directors of New Netherland, expressly refers to a 'Figurative Map pre- pared by them,' which describes the same coasts as parchment map. For, besides this map on parchment, I found one on paper with no date or name. I think this first was presented to the States General when Captain Hendricksen ap- peared before them to solicit a new grant of trading privileges for the Directors of New Netherlands (claiming the discovery of a bay and three new rivers southwest of the mouth of the Hudson). *

* * Adrian Block was a worthy mariner of Holland who first came to this country in 1611, looking up the fur trade at the suggestion of Hudson, returning home the same year."

In 1612 he was sent again by influential merchants, with a com- rade. Their ship was accidentally burned at Manhattan; but, with the aid of Indians, Block built a small yacht in the winter of 1613, which he named the Onrust, or Restless, in which he explored bays and rivers to the eastward. Upon Block's arrival in Amsterdam with de- tails of these explorations, apparently the stolid Holland merchants for once became excited. They hastened to form a company, and engaged a skilled draughtsman to make an elaborate map, probably under Block's supervision, or at least from his data." With this they appeared before the States General asking for a charter, which was granted October 11, 1614,7 giving the title of New Netherlands to unoccupied lands lying between Virginia and Canada. The Fig- urative Map was referred to in this charter,8 after the procuration of which Block's connection with discoveries in America ceased.

This Figurative Map (which, by the courtesy of Houghton & Mifflin, is here copied from Winsor's "Narrative and Critical His- tory") shows the inclination of early map-makers to consider the Sus- quehanna and the Delaware as the same river, the Susquehanna flow- ing into Delaware Bay, or the Delaware into Chesapeake Bay; an error which was uncorrected for about seventy-five years. The "Min- quas" indicated were on the west side of the Susquehanna, General Clark thinks "apparently at North Towanda." General Clark has reduced the Hendricksen and the Block map to the same, scale, thus greatly simplifying the matter of locations.

Near the top of the original map is a memorandum written in the court hand of the time, which is here given complete, as it indicates

3 Facsimiles of both are in the office of the Secretary of State, at Albany, N. Y.

4 In his "Novum Orbis," with map, of 1630, first printed map of New Netherland.

5 About this time, according to Griffis' "Romance of Discovery," "The Dutch Congress issued a general charter to all who discovered new passages, havens, countries or places. Each discoverer to be rewarded by being given a monopoly of trade to country discovered, during at least four voyages, being required within fourteen days of return from first voyage to give his report, with exact details.'

6 Brodhead, Vol. I, p. 60.

7 The very same day on which, in England, Capt. John Smith first showed his journal and maps to Prince Charles.

8 See Holland Documents, Vol. I, p. 47.

EARLY EXPLORATIONS

not only the first definite information concerning the upper Susque- hanna ; but is reported probably by the first white men known to have visited Tioga Point.

"Of what Kleynties and his comrades have communicated to me respecting the locality of the rivers, and the places of the tribes which they found in their expedition from the Maquas into the interior, and along the New River? down- ward to the Ogehage10 (to wit, the enemies of the aforesaid northern tribes), I cannot at present find anything at hand except two rough drafts of maps relating thereto, accurately drawn in parts. And in deliberating how I can best reconcile this one with the rough drafts of the information, I find that the places of the tribes of Senecas, Gachoos, Capitanesses and Jotticas should be marked down considerably farther west in the country."11

MARYAA

SENNECAS

GACH 01

MAHALO

ANS

CAPITAN NASSES

MINQUADAS 100

FIGURATIVE MAP-BLOCK AND HENDRICKSEN-1614

Brodhead says the author of this memorandum is unknown, also the identity of Kleynties and comrades; but, on searching for informa- tion in "Holland Documents,"12 he concluded that the latter were the three Dutch traders who, in 1614, left their employment among the Maquas (Mohawks) at Fort Nassau and set out on an expedition into the interior, and along the New River (Susquehanna) downward to the Minquas (Andastes), by whom they were taken prisoners (near Tioga Point). These three Dutchmen, Hendricksen, in his report to

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A history of old Tioga Point and early Athens, Pennsylvania, Part 5

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