USA > Pennsylvania > Bradford County > Athens > A history of old Tioga Point and early Athens, Pennsylvania > Part 9
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4 See "The Ice Age of North America." 5 Personal letter, 1906.
6 If in standing water the hill would be stratified, which it is not, where cut into.
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OLD TIOGA POINT AND EARLY ATHENS
valley. (But the knob of rock above Spanish Hill stops the current, protects the debris below it from the force of denudation and the hill remains, a sym- metrical and wonderful record of its own origin.")
The part in brackets we are inclined to question, the protecting rock formation seeming to have been farther north beyond the present railroad tracks. Another theory of a trained geological student is as follows, and is evidently the same as McFarlane's and some present theorists :
"Stand on one of the overlooking hills and picture to yourself the two great valleys full of water rushing down from the melting ice. Where the two currents struck each other full force, it would require little to set a whirlpool in motion. In this the debris carried by the water would be caught and finally deposited. This would form a nucleus around which material would gradually be built up to a hundred feet or more. Then as the waters gradually subsided, this would be left high and dry between the two rivers. Symmetrical it was probably from the first, and the washing down of streams along its sides would have scooped out its regular scallops. Man doubtless leveled the top,-and there you have the hill as it is to-day."-E. M.
The irregular portions at the north of Spanish Hill are probably eskers, and the gullies, according to the geologist, may be the beds of glacial streams which probably often formed under the ice, since so near the ice front much of the drainage must have been sub- glacial. Naturally there was often more sediment than the streams could carry away, which was deposited in these irregular shapes. The accompanying plate gives an idea of the so-called eskers of Spanish Hill, and indicates that there was once a good sized stream on the north side of the hill. Mr. Shepard says :
"Spanish Hill is probably the most recent geological formation in the valley, yet it was old when the pyramids were new. The rude spade of the Mound- builders did not help in its construction, though it was a Gibraltar to the red man and their villages clustered around it. Now it no longer looks down upon the forest, but upon the railroad, the trolley, and the homes of man. The Tioga Point Historical Society should act as its guardian, and use every means to pre- serve its earthworks."
SPANISH HILL, FROM NORTHEAST
In an essay by E. G. Squier on "Ancient Monuments of the United States," which was published in Harper's in 1860,7 are many
7 After writing this chapter we found in Cornell Library a volume entitled "Antiqui- ties of the State of New York," by E. G. Squier. Investigations undertaken under the New York Historical Society and Smithsonian Institute in 1851. This volume has many illustra- tions, among which, on page 53, is an excellent cut of Fort Hill at Elmira.
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FORT HILLS
illustrations showing how such eminences as Spanish Hill were forti- fied. It seems somewhat peculiar that this hill was neglected by this writer, as he worked all around it. According to him the said mon- uments are "Works of Defense, Religious Structures or Sepulchral Monuments." The former, generally called Indian forts, were most fre- quent in districts remarkable for fertility of soil, abounding in fish and game, and possessing the greatest number of requisites for easy sub- sistence, and, therefore, favorable for permanent establishments. Span- ish Hill was, no doubt, such a point, and if the glacial age passed away, as is estimated, ten thousand years ago, who shall say how long Spanish Hill has been fortified and occupied ?
"The defensive works of all primitive people," says Squier, "con- sist of a simple embankment and a ditch ; sometimes a palisade of up- right logs on top of embankments. It is impossible at this late day to decide if the breastwork on Spanish Hill was or was not capped by a palisade, although it is very probable." The einbankments, according to Squier, were seldom more than four feet high, with an exterior ditch of equal depth. It will be noted, Mr. Shepard says, "a ditch behind," which we would infer meant on interior. Such defensive structures, erected by primitive peoples, have been found in many parts of the world, but the time of occupancy can seldom be deter- mined.8
This had been carefully examined by Squier some years before the publication of the above. He says: "Across the neck of land con- necting with adjacent tablelands are carried two lines of ditches and embankments, the latter about three feet high." Rising along the crest of each embankment was a depression which, on careful examination, proved to be holes left by decay of palisades. Squier thought this good evidence that all earthworks might have been crowned by palisades, but he gave no decision as to builders or time of occupancy.
8 Galatian, in his "History of the Chemung Valley," thus describes the similar hill near Elmira. He says: "On the eminence about two miles west of this city, known as Fort Hill, is probably one of these land-marks of the distant past, or at least of the earliest wars between the French and Iroquois. But the Indian traditions (according to Col. Hendy, the first white settler in the valley) could not account for its purpose or inform at what period the work was built. This would lead one to suppose that its existence dates back, anterior to the incursions of the French from Canada into the Iroquois country. This emi- nence is on the south side of the Chemung River, while the opposite side is bordered by a deep ravine, forming quite a precipitous hill. In modern times, a mill dam across the river just below expanded it into a broad, deep bay front, which swept gracefully around the bold, outjutting headland, and the silvery sheen of the waters formed a marked contrast with the deep, umbrageous green of the thick forest and underwood which covered the hill. Just near at hand was the long occupied residence of DAVE ROORIC, who brought up a large family of sons and daughters on the spot, and with a considerable industry subdued and cultivated the soil round about. The old earthwork is an embankment, about fourteen or fifteen feet wide at its base, and three feet in elevation, extends from the brow of the ravine in a north- ern direction, to the summit of the bank, resting on the river, and is some two hundred feet in length. This artificial wall of earth has an outer ditch, together with two slight trenches running parallel with the ancient bastion across the entire width of this bold eminence. There can be no doubt that the construction was made for warlike purposes, but indicates a more recent period than similar 'Ancient Works of Western New York.' It occupies an admirable position for defense, and can only be approached in one direction, and evinces quite a knowl- edge of strategic art in the erection of a defensive earthwork. This is only one of a series of ancient earthworks located on the tributary streams of the Susquehanna and Delaware. Coincident with these are, probably, the Indian mounds found in other portions of the State. "It is to be regretted that some competent and zealous archaeologist does not devote investigations to these fast-perishing memorials of a once powerful, ancient empire, and resue from oblivion the only traces which can conduct to the occupancy of a former race which held possession of the soil."
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OLD TIOGA POINT AND EARLY ATHENS
As to the Occupation of Spanish Hill.
Here, again, conjecture has been rife for many years, especially on account of the remains of fortifications well-remembered by the early settlers, which were plainly visible until very recent years, indeed, they are now clearly traceable. The accompanying diagrams were
made by Mr. I. P. Shepard, of Waverly, to illustrate the paper on Spanish Hill, written for the Tioga Point Historical Society, and read before it in April, 1898. Their use has been kindly permitted for this work. The line sketch represents outline of side view of the hill. The diagram of the top was made with the advice and assistance of Mr. Charles Henry Shepard, whose residence, throughout a long life of eighty-seven years, was close to the hill, and who remembered dis- tinctly the "Spanish Ramparts" before the plow of an overzealous farmer nearly leveled them to the ground. It will be seen by the dia- gram that except on the northern side the earthwork was continuous around the very brow of the hill.
Mr. C. H. Shepard described these fortifications as consisting of an embankment with a trench behind, giving a height of four or five feet on the inside. When he was a boy and first visited them, about 1820 or '25, large trees were growing in the trenches, showing that a long time had elapsed since they were used.9
The double lines in the diagram indicate the portions still clearly defined, and were evidently made much higher to protect those por- tions of the hill which were easily assailable, the point at the west being
9 James Hanna, who settled in the locality of the hill in 1816, said that at the bottom of the embankment were pitch pine logs, which he claimed had been shaped by the use of axes; also that leading from the north side was a trail easily traced to a spring near the north base of the hill.
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FORTIFICATIONS ON SPANISH HILL
on a small eminence easily holding twenty to fifty men, who could here make a rush up the sides. At the north, doubtless, both to prevent attack and to cover the way to the water, the embankment drops below the brow of the hill, until at the sharp angle it is fully forty feet lower.
The dotted line inside this angle, Mr. Shepard thinks, indicated a palisade for greater security, or possibly to protect a covered way to the spring half way down the northern slope, or to the stream which once encircled the northern base of hills. A covered way or tunnel was not infrequent in such fortified towns, and at the north of the hill, leading directly toward the spring, is a deep cut which certainly seems artificial, as compared with other depressions in the irregular esker formation. Many have contended that this hill could ·not have been permanently occupied because of the lack of water ; but with a covered way to the spring and brook, and the proximity of the river, this seems a foolish objection. Mr. Shepard calls attention to the fact that the breastwork having been placed at the very brow of the hill, subsequent plowing has produced a sharp edge which gives to an observer in the valley below the impression of a perfectly level top. This, he says, "is absolutely the only particular in which we find the hill artificial."
Not far from the angle of earthwork is a very large depression, supposed by many to have been an ossuary. Dr. Beauchamp, however, pronounced it a corn cache, one of the large pits which, when lined with sticks, leaves or grass, was used to preserve dried corn for winter use. Enormous quantities of corn were thus preserved and concealed from enemies. De Nonville claims to have destroyed, in 1687, over 1,000,000 bushels.
General Clark, after careful examination, decided that the top of the hill was levelled off by the occupants and used to fill a gully, which false work was walled up with stones to prevent washing by storms. Evidence of such work is seen at several points. Judge Avery, in his sketch, says :
"Around the top, a few feet in from the brow, a fosse or trench extends, plainly discernible in 1835, except on northerly side, where its traces were but faint. It is undoubtedly the remains of a French enclosure or Fort Hill, several of which have been found in western New York and in Oswego and Jefferson counties."
Judge Avery goes on at length, assuming that this was an Iro- quois fortification,10 erected to protect them against the Susquehan- nocks. It does not seem necessary to digress here and enter into con- sideration of theories as to the so-called Fort Hills.11
10 It may be said that the fortifications on Spanish Hill seemed to differ from the pal- isaded towns of the Iroquois.
11 De Witt Clinton, in an early discourse before New York Historical Society, related that he was told in 1810 by one Lewis Dennie, a Frenchman, aged seventy, that according to the traditions of ancient Indians, all the forts throughout New York State were made by Spaniards, who came before the French, and were in the country two years searching for precious metals. Clinton, however, believed that the fort-hills antedated European occupa- tion or exploration. Iroquois traditions, gathered from Cayuga Indians by Hon. Benj. F. Hall, of Auburn, N. Y., in 1853, indicate that very far back the Mingoes were engaged in protracted wars with Indians from the southwest, who had built mounds for sepulture, and embankments for defense along the valley of the Ohio, and into New York State, where they had lived about 300 years, when routed by the Iroquois. These Indians were sun-worship- pers, and doubtless the same mentioned by the Shawnees as having preceded them in occupa- tion of Florida.
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OLD TIOGA POINT AND EARLY ATHENS
It remained for General Clark to locate the Carantouan of Cham- plain on the hill, as well as to make it identical with the site of the Capitanesses of the Dutch maps. Possibly, had Champlain's map been more carefully copied, this decision might have been made earlier. An examination of the copy of a portion of this map in a preceding chap- ter shows "the village Carantouan of a quadrangular form, with the longest axis north and south, precisely as the ancient work on Spanish Hill now appears." General Clark made a careful survey of this town, and the one at North Towanda, some twenty-five years ago. Caran- touan has an extent of eleven acres, Oscolui of three. He said :
"The size of this work (Carantouan) would accommodate the number of warriors and their families as given by Brulé, and no other fortified work in all that section of the country approaches anywhere near the requirements of Brulé's estimate."
General Clark's identification of the site of Carantouan has been generally accepted by thoughtful historians as correct, though there may have been earlier occupants. Dr. Beauchamp is inclined to think, as have some others, that the town was on the plain, and the hill only used as a refuge. While this seems to have been the case in the later occupation of the region by the Cayugas, Champlain states that Brulé found the Carantouannai "living in the fortified town," and Mr. C. H. Shepard in early days found quantities of shells of the common fresh water clam (mussel) strewn upon the ground; always an indica- tion of an Indian town site of prolonged duration. No definite burial place has been located on the hill, although a nameless writer for the local press about thirty years ago remarked :
"An early saying in this country was that the graves on Spanish Hill were those of Indians, but the fortifications were the work of other hands."
The old settlers said that a few white people, mostly children, were buried on the hill in early times.
General Clark has always believed that an ossuary,12 or bone pit (such as used by the Hurons), and, according to Squier, found in many such hills, would be discovered. The various owners of the hill having been somewhat averse to archæological investigations, this mat- ter, unfortunately, is undecided. As to Indian implements, compar- atively few have ever been found on the hill, although Mr. Lang has a pipe and some flints; the most noticeable was a deer of stone, no doubt an Iroquois totem. Such relics as had been found forty or fifty years ago were sent to Barnum's first museum in New York City, long since destroyed by fire. In the light of all these investigations it may be said that the first known occupants were the Carantouans or Car- antouannai; possibly, later, the Cayugas, who occupied Ganatocherat, the town evidently lying between the hill and the river, visited by Moravian missionaries in 1745. The very latest occupation of interest
12 The ossuaries were usually somewhat depressed from the adjacent land surface, some six to ten inches; and from ten to fifteen feet across, on high and dry ground. It was the custom to exhume the bodies after several years burial, generally at periods of two years; scrape off any remaining flesh, and bury large quantities of the skeletons in these pits. The reason for this disgusting custom does not seem to be known, although it prevailed with many tribes. Clark thinks the discovery of a burial place the most important work con- nected with Spanish Hill. No ossuary is known to exist at the other town sites mentioned, although no great research has been made.
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SPANISH HILL, TRADITIONS
was in 1786 when the Commissioners, who were engaged in resurvey- ing the State line, erected (according to Mr. Sidney Hayden) a tem- porary observatory to enable them to make astronomical observations. As to the antiquity of occupation there can be no positive asser- tion. Squier says the early explorers all speak of the aboriginal de- fenses as composed of palisades set in the ground, or, possibly, more elaborately arranged as pictured by Champlain, and copied in many histories. Yet it is generally supposed that the palisades were set in the embankments. As for Hanna's pitch pine logs, he did not, unfor- tunately, state whether they were upright or laid up like a barricade. Squier says the Indians on the New York reservations professed total ignorance of the origin of the earthworks, but too much importance should not be attached to this.
Name and Traditions.
Even with the assistance of able historians, and in spite of ten years' investigations, we must admit that the derivation of the name "Spanish Hill"' is still shrouded in mystery. As to its earlier names, Carantouan is said, by Dr. Beauchamp, to mean "big tree."13 He ac- cents it thus, Ca-rant'-ouan. General Clark seems to favor Car-an- tou'-an ; the reader may make his own choice. There is another name, On-on-ti-o'-ga, which Beauchamp says "would mean great hill at the river forks, otherwise great hill at Tioga." Jesuit Relations say the Onontiogas were subdued by the Iroquois and placed in the Seneca country. Gen. J. S. Clark thought they originally lived at Spanish Hill. This name seems to be found only in the Relations of 1670, Chapter IX. This surely is a very appropriate name.
The late O. H. P. Kinney made the Indians call the hill Ne pauwin in his poem written in 1867; this is a perfectly unfamiliar name, as is also one given by an Owego writer of 1843, Swan-za-gash-kin. Doubt- less, these were fanciful names. Judge Avery, in his paper already alluded to, says :
"The prefix 'Spanish' seems entirely arbitrary, and without significance- It is to be hoped that this storied hill is not destined to continue stripped in name of its American identity .- If the genus of America does not interpose a shield the spirit of Pericles-or other departed Grecian sage may insist through some medium and with some show of significance that the Iroquois fort be called 'the Acropolis of Athens,' although it boasts no Parthenon on its summit."
As to the name "Spanish" General Clark thinks it entirely tradi- tionary, saying the early settlers were wont to apply Spanish terms to many things for which they could not otherwise account.
Conjectures about Spanish Hill have been many, and, if woven together, prose and poem, would make an interesting volume of fiction. Conjecture has no place in authentic history, but, as facts are scarce about the name bestowed upon the hill by the red men, a few will be given. Let the reader bear in mind that there is no corroboration, per- haps not even circumstantial evidence.
There is, however, undisputed evidence from the earliest settlers (Shepards, Hannas and others) that when they came the Indians re-
13 See Aboriginal Place Names of N. Y., 1907.
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OLD TIOGA POINT AND EARLY ATHENS
maining in this locality called the hill "Espana" or "Hispan." Not only that, but that they stood in awe of the hill, and avoided ascending it. As the first whites and, apparently, the Indians of that period (end of eighteenth century) were ignorant of the early history of Carantouan, the fortifications were very quickly ascribed to white men; why , not the Spaniards? It was easy to weave a tale of battle, etc., of these tiny threads. Yet, no doubt, the conjectures were founded on the reputed Spanish expeditions of De Soto's time. W. F. Warner based his theory14 on the reputed expedition that landed in Chesapeake Bay, and came up the Susquehanna about 1554. Yet, even granted that the casque15 of apparent Spanish manufacture was dropped at that period, and granted that the old boat washed out of the bank at Sheshequin16 far antedated Sullivan's Expedition, Warner's tale is manifestly im- probable, because the hill was doubtless an Andastes fortified town sixty years later; and it was not until a hundred years later that the Six Nations had dominion over Tioga Point. As for the bayonet found by James Hanna at the base of the hill, which was made into a fishing spear by irreverent youths, it would be necessary to see the "Spanish inscription" before giving credence to that tale.
There was another story of early settlers recorded by Dr. Bullock in the Athens Gleaner of 1871 of a Spanish expedition led by an old priest. We would like to believe this, for might not the crucifix lately found buried on the plains have belonged to this very priest; but alas for evidence! Although perhaps Prof. A. L. Guss was right in the suggestion that the Susquehanna was explored by Spaniards in 1570. As to a possible Spanish expedition, indeed, one might almost say probable, why not give credence to the suggestions and observations of Justin Winsor, the historian,17 in connection with the Figurative and de Laet's Maps ?18 The names given on these maps to some Indian tribes are so unmistakably of Spanish origin that it is hard to believe they were not first applied by the Spaniards and repeated by the In- dians to the Dutch prisoners among the Mohawks. We find one tribe called "Capitanesses," while in colloquial Spanish capitanázo means a great warrior; another, whom the Dutch later knew as Black Min- quas, is designated by the name of "Gachoos," the Spanish word gacho being applied to black cattle. Still another is called the "Canoomakers," canoa being a word of the Indian tongues of South America, the North American Indians could only have learned it from the Spaniards. Con- tinuing his observations, Winsor concludes that Danckers, and other writers, had some foundation for the tradition that the Spaniards ante- dated the Dutch in the discovery of the Hudson River.
14 Hist. Gazetteer Tioga Co., 1785.
15 This casque is in the Museum of Pennsylvania Historical Society and was found in the river bank near Chickies. See "Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal," the author of which, the late Mr. Jenkins, was in the midst of research concerning a Spanish expedition up the Susquehanna at his untimely death.
16 The old boat was washed out of the river bank near Sheshequin, and while many ascribe it to the Sullivan Expedition, scarcely enough time had elapsed since that to make it the color of ebony.
17 See "Narrative and Critical History of America," Vol. IV, p. 434.
18 See cut of same in preceding chapter.
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SPANISH TRADITIONS
When Danckers visited the New Netherlands in 1679 the Indians told him the first white men seen there were Spaniards, but that they did not remain long. Winsor calls the Pompey Stone19 an evident Spanish relic. The historian Stone20 gives various traditions. One, related by Brant, told of a white race who had lived here in ages past, reputed to have built the tumuli from the St. Lawrence to the Mis- sissippi. DeWitt Clinton, in his memoirs (collected from Iroquois sachems and from Jesuits' Journals), tells of a French colony at or near Jamesville, New York, founded by request of the Indians in 1666 ; and that in 1669 a party of twenty-three Spaniards arrived in the vil- lage, guided by Iroquois, who had been the captors of the southern tribes. It appears evident that this party came up the Mississippi (and Ohio), as they had passed through Pittsburg on to Olean by water, where, leaving their canoes, they traveled by land. They had been attracted by the Iroquois stories of a lake with the bottom covered with a shining white substance, which they assumed was silver ; but finding, to their dismay and anger, that there was none (the shiny substance was salt crystals) they accused the French of concealing the truth, and finally with the aid of the Indians, utterly destroyed the French colony.
Stone also quotes from Rev. Mr. Adams, of Syracuse, various traditions and conjectures, attempting to prove that the Spaniards' visit was much earlier than Clinton averred, and Adams uses the Pom- pey Stone as evidence.
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