A history of old Tioga Point and early Athens, Pennsylvania, Part 7

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

USA > Pennsylvania > Bradford County > Athens > A history of old Tioga Point and early Athens, Pennsylvania > Part 7

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In 1757 a map was made by the Surveyor General of the Province, Nicholas Scull, for the Penns. There are also later maps of his in the collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, one of 1770 having "Tioga" on it. This map, and some of Evans', shows Indian trails or paths of travel.

In 1776 was published in London a "Topographical Description of such parts of North America by T. Pownall," which seems to be a new edition of the map of Lewis Evans.

In 1790 a map was made by Adlum and Wallis, on which is given "New Athens" and "Tyoga Point."

In 1779 Lieutenant Lodge, the surveyor accompanying Sullivan's expedition, depicted Tioga Point and surroundings, making the Point as symmetrical as an arrow point, from which may have originated the name of "Indian Arrow."

In 1795 was published an atlas by Reading Howell, a copy of which is in the Tioga Point Museum, from which the accompanying portion was copied. This map, with the exception of the name of this town, is correct as to all its features. Ulster is called "Sheshequin

31 Of course, there are other old maps including this region, those only having been given, parts of which were made as results of visits to Tioga Point region. An interest- ing series is given in the New York State Museum Bulletin, No. 78, showing various explora- tions as far south as this. The three Andastes towns are given in Creuxius' map of 1660; Theaggen or Tioga, on Pouchot's map of 1758; Tiaoga, on Col. Guy Johnson's map of 1771; but we do not know how these maps came to be made, as with the earlier ones. In this Bulletin Champlain's map does not show the town of Carantouan as a fortified parallelogram.

32 This map was published by order of Parliament, and has various descriptive notes of great interest, as, for instance: "Where Indian Corn, Tobacco, Squashes & Pompkins were first found"; another, a lake between Oscegonge and Onondoga, apparently the head of the Chenango River, has this legend, "Canoes may come from this lake with a fresh to Penna."

OLD TIOGA POINT AND EARLY ATHENS

Flats"; Sheshequin "Gores"; and "Shepard's" is at the mouth of Shepard's or Cayuta Creek. Indian trails were given on this map. In 1810 Howell published a new edition, on which Lockhartsburg is changed to "Tyoga Town."

Branch

E&St

Lockalets burg

Sugare

Nysa

singer.

Tawandeec

Wylusing Falls

Mention should be made of a historical map prepared for and published by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 1875. This map is interesting as giving Indian names for streams and villages, also their trails, though somewhat in error as to this locality. Enough maps have been given or noted to fully illustrate the progress of the discovery of the Susquehanna.

CORALLANA

A POEM BY MINOR

A theme, As long, as wild, as winding as thy stream.

CANTO I

The august Queen of Night rode high in heav'n, And shed afar the dewy beams of even : O'er hills and vales and cliffs, fantastic, wild, Forests and fields and streams. serenely smiled :- Sportively dancing, hung her silver beam On the broad breast of Corallana's stream, Where on the flow'ry bank the bard reclined, And thrill'd his plaintive measures to the wind. No sounds assailed the ear of midnight, save The broken lay, and dashing of the wave ;- When burst to view, on swelling billows roll'd, An icy car, inlaid with virgin gold. In watery robe, where moonlight rainbows hung, And gelid pearls, on threads of silver strung, Where icy diamonds eyed the midnight beam, Arose the lovely Goddess of the stream. She spake, and hush'd were all the rushing waves,

CORALLANA, DESCRIPTIVE POEM

And nereids listened from their crystal caves: "Have not the nymphs of muddy Thames and Seine Been covered o'er with wreaths of laurel green? Shall my praise warble from no poet's tongue When Ayr, and Doon, and Tyne, and Ouse are sung? Hast not thou often bathed amid my floods, And roved delighted thro' my shadowy woods? Am I not worthy? view my craggy walls, My murmuring ripples, and my thundering falls : Green are my meadows, and my hills are high, Rich are my fields, and pleasing to the eye; Unrivalled flowers deck the banks I lave, And wide my forests, tall, unequall'd wave." Again the surges dash'd the rugged shore, And the sweet silver notes were heard no more. "Thy charms, O Goddess, ask a sweeter tongue Than e'er of Ayr or Windsor Forest sung : Rough is my harp, unequal to the lays, A worthier bard shall sweep the notes of praise: For distant lands shall bend a list'ning ear, And ages yet unborn admiring hear." "Thou art my bard," she said, "be thine the task; Sing as thou canst; no other boon I ask ;- To thy pleas'd ear my waves shall sweeter sound, My posies brighter bloom thy steps around ;- The native choir shall hail their youthful bard, And these wide vales shall smile a sweet reward." A white-wing'd mist enwrapped her gelid car, And flying billows roll'd and foam'd afar ; The icy portals of her ample dome Wide oped, and took the goddess to her home: The tumbled wave sank weary to its rest. And the wide waters smoothed their troubled breast : No more rude billows dashed night's placid ray, But on their face the broad reflections lay. Silence arose upon the flow'ry shore, And stretch'd her wings the world of midnight o'er.

No more the nymphs sung vespers on the waves, And Echo slumbered in her thousand caves.

CANTO II

To sing the beauties of my fav'rite stream, Its winding banks, wild scenes, shall be my theme. Columbian muse ! O native warbler wild ! Be near with heav'nly smile, and guide thy child! Give to my song like that lov'd stream to flow, Now nobly rolling, now serenely slow ;- Give me to sweetly sing the scenes I love, Blue waving stream, high hill, and shady grove; The flow'ry valleys, and ambrosial dells, Where the thrush warbles, and the rabbit dwells ; Of lonely forests, far from mortal way, Where the dread panther crouches for his prey; Where meagre wolves together herd, and where 'Mid the dark oaklimbs sits the growling bear ;- Or where the whistling deer, with matchless bound, In terror flees the hunter and his hound. Here once sole lord the native Indian reigned, Unsmoothed by art, and by its crimes unstained :

OLD TIOGA POINT AND EARLY ATHENS

To shape the arrow and to bend the bow Was all the son of nature wish'd to know :

With these rude arms he roamed the endless wood, And the chase brought him pleasure, health and food. Strong were his limbs, his heart unknown to fear, His vengeance dreadful, and his love sincere. Thus were the happy natives of these vales,

When first loud cannons shook the frighted gales :- When first shrill fife and rolling drum afar, Proclaimed the coming of relentless war.

'Twas then the Indian found that all was prey- 'Twas then he learned to torture, scalp and slay. E'en now old camps and ditches oft are seen, And bones lie bleaching on the fatal green :- Oft rusty spears and arrow-heads are found, And broken skulls half buried in the ground.

Soon thro' the woods the echoing axe was heard, Green meadows spread where once dark vales appeared : Where tall pines rose was seen the furrow'd plain- Where thickets stood, wide wav'd the golden grain :

Where late the wolf and rugged bear had slept,

Where elks had herded and fierce panthers crept, Now social white men's chimney'd roofs were seen, And flocks domestic grazed the new-born green.

Thy nymph, O river, who had seen before

But bark canoes, now heard the dashing oar : She saw rich-laden vessels stem the tide,

And winged boats upon thy surface glide :

Long bridges o'er thy infant arms were reared,

And where the Indian whooped, the boatman's song was heard.

ALONG THE SUSQUEHANNA

CHAPTER IV

THE ANDASTES

The Car-an-tou-ans and their Towns on the Upper Susquehanna; Car- an-tou-an, Os-co-lu-i, Go-hon-to-to, O-noch-sa-e, Tenk-gha-nack-e and Others-Spanish Hill; Location, Description, Origin, Occupa- tion, Name and Traditions-Some Curious Relics Found on Tioga Point and Nearby

As has already been seen in the chapter previous, the Carantouans were the first inhabitants of this valley of whom there are any written records. General Clark says of them :

"They were Andastes, that much is certain, but this term was a dragnet that gathered in a great number of tribes and nations."

The origin and disappearance of the Andastes is shrouded in mystery, further than that they seemed to belong to the same race as the Iroquois ; although, like the Hurons, they were their deadly ene- mies, and were probably only conquered because of the expert use of fire-arms by the Iroquois. They may have previously migrated to the west branch of the Susquehanna to avoid defeat.

Name. Gen. Clark says:

"Andastes is a term generically used by the French, and applied to several distinct Indian tribes located south of the Five Nations in present territory of Pennsylvania. They were of kindred blood with Iroquois, and spoke a dialect of the same language. The most northerly were the Carantouans; the most southerly were located at Great Falls between Columbia and Harrisburg. Less is known of their tribes than of some others. No Jesuit mission was among them, though there is frequent reference to them in the Jesuit Relations."

"The French call them Gandastogues or Conestogas, the English Susque- hannocks, the Dutch Minquas. Their own tribal name was Andastes, meaning cabin-pole men from Andasta, a cabin pole." They were also called Arontaen.1

In 1608 Capt. John Smith explored the lower Susquehanna and made the first report of that gigantic race of warriors, called by him, Sasquesahannocks, but generally acknowledged to be the same as the Andastes. Captain Smith said they were the finest specimens of men he ever saw, often seven feet tall, "and their language sounding from them as a voice in a vault."2 He told of one who measured three- quarters of a yard around the calf of the leg. This great size would suggest the origin of the name Andastes. The greater part of their history is derived from Captain Smith's writings and the Jesuit Re- lations, in which the name has at least twenty different forms, as An- dastoé, Andastoéhonons, etc. Schoolcraft3 gives the name, from va- rious sources, as Andastoé, Andastogué, Gandastogué, Conestogoe,

1 "Hist. Ready Reference," Vol. I, p. 105, Larned. Prof. A. L. Guss gave an inter- esting critical analysis of the word Sasquehannock in "Hist. Register," Vol. I, No. IV.

2 A number of huge skeletons found in the various Indian burial grounds of Tioga have suggested, by the size, that they were Andastes.

3 "Hist. Indian Tribes," Part VI, p. 137.

OLD TIOGA POINT AND EARLY ATHENS

Andastaka, etc. Charlevoix, Colden, Proud, De Vries, Hazard and other early authors all mention Andastes. Of more recent authors Parkman, no doubt, gives the fullest account. Other names are said to belong to them, as Capitanesses and Gachoos, seen on the early Dutch maps, but this is disputed.

Cammerhoff, the Moravian missionary, says, in 1750, the Cayugas called them Te-ho-ti-ta-chse. Dr Beauchamp says, "The Algonquins of New Jersey and Pennsylvania termed the Andastes Minquas. After the Iroquois had subjugated them the whole family (of kindred, in- cluding Iroquois) was termed Mingo. Thus Logan, the Cayuga, is often called a Mingo."

The names of the towns are said to have the following meanings : Car-an-tou-an means Big Tree, although we do not understand the significance. Onontioga would seem more significant.

Oscolui seems to be the same as Spangenberg's Osgochgo or Weiser's Osealui, meaning the fierce.

Gahontoto, Dr. Beauchamp says, is an Iroquois word meaning to lift the canoe. (There are rapids in the river formerly called "falls," at Wyalusing.)

The later name, Wyalusing, is said to mean the home of the old warrior. The original M'chwilusing is a Delaware word, therefore of later date. Probably the Andaste word was Gahontoto. Doubtless, there was an Andastes town on the bluff at the north side of the creek at Meshoppen. Cammerhoff, or Zeisberger, writes in his journal :

"Came to 3 Delaware huts, the site of a very old Indian Town called Onochsae, because immediately opposite there is a mountain near the river which is hollow and looks like a vaulted cellar, and the creek and the whole region have received this name." This was at Meshoppen (from Craft Collections). Beauchamp says this name meant hollow mountain or cave in the rock.

Tenkghanache, or Tunkhannock, means Little Creek, an appro- priate name, as the town site was in the angle between the mouth of the creek and the river. Little is known about this town.

Location.

As has already been noted, Smith found these Indians near the mouth of the Susquehanna in 1608, and reported that they had many implements of French manufacture, obtained in trade. At the begin- ning of the seventeenth century they are said to have held the Susque- hanna River as far north, at least, as the present New York State Line. Previous to 1600 they had waged a destructive war against the Mo- hawks for ten years. And nearly ten years later Captain Smith men- tions that the Sasquehannocks were great enemies of the Massawo- mekes, as he called the Mohawks. Bressani, one of the Jesuits, de- scribes their dwelling place, in 1647, as "Andastoe, a country beyond the Neuter Nation," 150 leagues southeast by south of the Hurons in a straight line, and 200 leagues by trail. Clark thinks this would bring them in the vicinity of Columbia, Pa. Clark says :

"Bancroft was mistaken in placing them near Lake Erie. Gallatin's and La Houton's maps of 1683 thus place them, they may have emigrated there to escape destruction."

4 See also J. G. Shea's notes in Alsop's "Maryland," and Parkman's "Jesuits."

CARANTOUAN AND THE CARANTOUANNAI

Early in the seventeenth century it is said the Andastes towns were thickly planted from Tioga to Virginia, forty palisaded. The Jesuit Ragueneau, in 1648,5 speaks of them as the allies of New Sweden.6 Proud locates the Andastakes on Christiana Creek;7 Campanius tells of their town near New Sweden in 1638.

Creuxius, on his very imperfect map of 1660, seems to locate them between the Susquehanna and the Delaware, in southeastern Pennsylvania. But, as has been said, Champlain was the first author to mention the Carantouannai, and their three villages, and to place them on a map. Accompanying this map was a table of explanation, in which he says (literal translation) :

"Carantounnai is a nation which is retired to the south of the Antouhon- orons,8 in a very beautiful and good country where they are strongly lodged, and are friends of all the other nations except the said Antouhonorons from whom they are only three days distant. They formerly took prisonners from the Dutch whom they sent back without doing them harm, believing that they were French.'

An accompanying footnote by his editor says: "There is every reason to believe that these were Andastes." In the text, Champlain gives the country as "only seven days' journey from where the Dutch go to trade at the fortieth degree." He also mentions an incident of their encounter with the Mohawks in the previous year, 1614, and again (see Chapter III) he says Brulé found them having three towns, which Champlain so locates on his map that one would seem to be on the Chenango River, one east of Athens, and one below Milan. There is no way to-day of locating such towns at such points, although there are many evidences that there was an earlier village on the site of Queen Esther's town, and also across the river at the mouth of Spald- ing Creek; in each place the ground having formerly been so thickly strewn with arrow points as to suggest great battles before the Indians knew the use of firearms, which would be prior to 1640. However, General Clark and Rev. David Craft, having taken up this matter, decided some years ago that these three towns were Carantouan, on Spanish Hill; Oscolui, at the mouth of Sugar Creek, just above To- wanda, and Gohontoto, at the mouth of Wyalusing Creek. In very recent years Dr. Craft has discovered every evidence of an Andaste town at the mouth of Tunkhannock, or Tenkghanake, Creek, also one at Meshoppen. In all these there is a striking similarity of situation, etc. Spanish Hill will be fully discussed in a later part of this chapter. The other three towns were in an exactly similar situation, on a high bluff, in the forks of a creek and a river, well situated for fortification and defense.º Yet at Oscolui there is evidence of an early Indian town on the plain below, as also at Carantouan, though they may have been later than Andastes. It seems, therefore, perfectly reasonable to as- sume that the Carantouans lived in the river towns where they could cultivate maize, and used the fortified towns as places of refuge when their enemies appeared. For from 1590 to 1675, or thereabouts, it is

5 See Vol. 35, p. 193, "Relations." 7 On the Delaware River.

6 Vol. II, Chap. III, p. 294.

8 The western division of the Iroquois.

9 Also of strategic importance, being located where important trails crossed the river.

OLD TIOGA POINT AND EARLY ATHENS

known that they controlled the Susquehanna Valley only by continued fierce and bitter warfare with the New York Iroquois. No doubt their chief stronghold, because the largest, was on Spanish Hill. A very great battle must have been fought at Wyalusing, as is evidenced by the great number of arrow heads found on the river plain just below the present bridge after the great flood of 1865 (many of which are in the Bixby collection in the Tioga Point Museum, and were found in one week after the flood). It was of the town Gahontoto that Zeis- berger and Cammerhoff say :

"Here the Indians tell us there was a war in early times, against an Indian town, traces of which are yet visible, cornpits, etc. This was inhabited by a distinct nation, neither Iroquois nor Delawares, who spoke a peculiar language, and were called Tehotitachse, Against them the Five Nations warred and routed them out; the Cayugas for a time held a number captive, but the nation and the language are now exterminated and extinct. This war, said the Indian fell in the time when the Indians fought in battle with bows and arrows before they had guns and rifles.'

This must have been prior to 1640 as Plowden's New Albion says : "The Swedes hired out three of their soldiers to the Susquehannocks, and have taught them the use of our arms and fights." It was about this same time that the Dutch sold firearms to the Iroquois, indeed, Egle writes :

"From 1640 the Five Nations were supplied with firearms, and soon devastated the tribes on the upper Susquehanna, thus opening the way to lower tribes on river on whom they commenced in 1652."

These two statements, taken in conjunction, lead us to suppose it possible that the Carantouans were routed from their upper fortified towns prior to 1640, which led them to apply to the Swedes, so that they might compete with their enemies in the use of firearms.

Wars.

Toward the end of the seventeenth century the Mohawks, after a great struggle, seem to have overcome their enemies. "Then the Andas- tes harassed them and they were in great fear, but the Dutch came and gave the Mohawks guns, and they were again victors." It was during an encounter with the Mohawks that the three Dutchmen were taken prisoners by the Carantouans in 1614 (see Jesuit Relations of 1660).

In 1633 De Vries found the Andastes at war with the Algonquin tribes on the Delaware. They were friendly to the Dutch, and also to the Swedes, who came in 1638, but there is little definite history of them from 1618 to 1640. The following accounts of these wars are from the writings of Parkman and Dr. Egle, drawn from the earlier writers, which have also been examined by the author, De Vries, Schoolcraft, Hazard and others, although the most fruitful source of information unquestionably is the Jesuit Relations.

"1645-48 marked the period of the fiercest struggle between the Hurons and the Iroquois. The ancient country of the Hurons is now the northern and eastern portion of Simcoe County, Canada West on the shores of Lake Huron. The area was small its population comparatively large; by Jesuit computation in 1639 a total estimate was twenty thousand. Their populous towns, rude but effective fortifications, and extensive tillage indicated a people far in advance of the Indians on the Saquenay, and in New England. They were allies of the

THE CONQUESTS OF THE IROQUOIS

Algonquins but not of them. They utterly disappeared, but the Jesuits gave a faithful picture of them in every respect." See Lalemant and Ragueneau.

How this quarrel began no man can tell; the first white men who came to the region having found it in full force, and seeing it increase in fury. In the winter of 1647 the Hurons felt themselves on the verge of ruin, having been ravaged by pestilence (fever and small- pox) as well as war. Remembering their ancient friendship with the Andastes, a kindred nation, they sent an embassy to ask of them aid in war, or intervention to obtain peace, asking them as kinsmen to hear "the voice of their dying fatherland." The way was long, having to make the wide circuit about the Iroquois. The embassy, bearing the usual wampum belts and gifts, started the 13th of April, 1647, and reached the great town of the Andastes in June. It contained, as the Jesuits were told, no less than 1,300 warriors, trained by Swedish sol- diers as aforesaid. The council assembled, and the chief ambassador addressed them, according to Ragueneau, as follows:

"We come from the country of the Souls, where war and terror of enemies has desolated everything; where the fields are covered only with blood, and the cabins are filled only with corpses, and life is only left to ourselves, because there is a need to come and speak to our friends, that they will have pity on a country which draws near its end." 10

He then presented wampum and other gifts, saying they were the voice of a dying country. The Andastes returned a favorable answer, but were disposed to try diplomacy, which should help themselves as well as the Hurons. After a series of councils they decided to send ambassadors to the three central tribes only of Iroquois; as they had with the eastern tribe of Mohawks a mortal quarrel, and evidently felt uncertain about the Senecas. Their plan then was that the Hurons could concentrate their force against the Mohawks, whom the Andastes would attack at the same time, unless they humbled themselves and offered to make peace. It will be seen that the Andastes knew or as- sumed that the league of the Iroquois was not a unit in action or coun- cil. It is unnecessary here to explain how this plan failed, suffice it

to say that the Hurons were exterminated.11 In 1648 the Mohawks were aiding the upper Iroquois (against the Petuns), having their promise to fight against the Andastes as soon as the western warfare was over. By 1656 one enemy of the Iroquois alone remained, the Andastes, who, though inferior in numbers to all other tribes con- quered by the Iroquois, yet cost their assailants more trouble than all these united.

The Mohawks seem at first to have borne the brunt of the Andaste war, being so roughly handled by these stubborn adversaries between 1650 and 1660 that they were, according to the Jesuits, reduced to depths of dejection. It is said that in 1660 the Mohawks invited these Indians to be friends with them, and accompanied them to the south to attempt a reconciliation with the Minquas. They seem to have been unsuccessful, as about this time the four other nations took up the Andastes quarrel, and for a time they fared scarcely better.

10 Literal translation from the French of Ragueneau, according to Parkman.

11 See Beauchamp's "Hist. N. Y. Iroquois," p. 194, for full account of the destruction of the Hurons.

OLD TIOGA POINT AND EARLY ATHENS

"In 1651, the Iroquois, grown insolent by their success in almost annihilating their kindred north and south of Lake Erie, provoked a war with the Susque- hannas, plundering their hunters on Lake Ontario. During that year the small- pox, that terrible scourge of the aborigines, broke out in their town, sweeping off many and seriously enfeebling the nation. War had not begun in earnest with the Five Nations, and though the Susquehannas had some of their people killed near their town, they pressed the Cayugas so hard that they retreated across Lake Ontario to Canada. They also kept the Senecas in such alarm that they no longer ventured to carry their peltries to New York, except in caravans escorted by 600 men, who even took a most circuitous route. A law of Mary- land, passed May 1, 1661, authorized the Governor of that Province to aid the Susquehannas.

"Smarting under constant defeat, the Five Nations solicited French aid, but in April, 1662, the Senecas and Cayugas raised an army of 800 men to storm the fort of the Susquehannas. This fort was located about fifty miles from the mouth of the river, says Egle. (?) The enemy embarked on Lake Ontario, ac- cording to the French account, and then went overland to the Susquehanna. On reaching the fort, they found it well defended on the river side, and on the land side with two bastions in European style with cannon mounted, and connected by a double curtain of large trees. After some trifling skirmishes the Iroquois had recourse to strategem. They sent in a party of twenty-five men to treat of peace, and ask provisions to enable them to return. The Susquehannas admitted them, but immediately burned them all alive on scaffolds before the eyes of their helpless countrymen, and the Andastes told the Iroquois this was but a circumstance to what they would do when they came among them. The force of the Iroquois, according to Proud and Hazard, consisted of 1,600 war- riors ( Parkman says 800), while that of the Susquehannas was only 100, although it is said they had 50 white men in the fort to assist them. On the retreat of the Iroquois, the Susquehannas persued them with considerable slaughter. About this time the small pox raged in the Iroquois towns and prevented any serious attempt at revenge.

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A history of old Tioga Point and early Athens, Pennsylvania, Part 7

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