USA > Pennsylvania > A pioneer outline history of northwestern Pennsylvania > Part 5
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
great men of this State and of the United States so friendly to us. We are much pleased with what has been done.
"'The Great Spirit first made the world, and next the flying animals, and found all things good and prosperous. He is immortal and everlasting. After finishing the flying animals, he came down on earth and there stood. Then he made different kinds of trees and weeds of all sort, and people of every kind. He made the spring and other seasons and the weather suitable for planting. These he did make. But stills to make whiskey to be given to the Indians he did not make. The Great Spirit bids me tell the white people not to give Indians this kind of liquor. When the Great Spirit had made the earth and its animals, he went into the great lakes, where he breathed as easily as anywhere else, and then made all the different kinds of fish. The Great Spirit looked back on all that he had made. The different kinds he had made to be separate and not to mix with or disturb each other. But the white people have broken his command by mixing their color with the Indians. The Indians have done better by not doing so. The Great Spirit wishes that all wars and fightings should cease.
"' He next told us that there were three things for our people to attend to. First, we ought to take care of our wives and children. Secondly, the white people ought to attend to their farms and cattle. Thirdly, the Great Spirit has given the bears and deers to the Indians. He is the cause of all things that exist, and it is very wicked to go against his will. The Great Spirit wishes me to inform the people that they should quit drinking intoxi- cating drink, as being the cause of disease and death. He told us not to sell any more of our lands, for he never sold lands to any one. Some of us now keep the seventh day, but I wish to quit it, for the Great Spirit made it for others, but not for the Indians, who ought every day to attend to their business. He has ordered me to quit drinking intoxicating drink, and not to lust after any woman but my own, and informs me that by doing so I should live the longer. He made known to me that it is very wicked to tell lies. Let no one suppose. that I have said now is not true.
"' I have now to thank the governor for what he has done. I have informed him what the Great Spirit has ordered me to cease from, and I wish the governor to inform others what I have communicated. This is all I have at present to say.'"-Day's Collections.
The old chief appears after this again to have fallen into entire seclusion, taking no part even in the politics of his people. He died at his residence on the 7th of March, 1836, at the age of one hundred and four years. " Whether at the time of his death he expected to go to the fair hunting-grounds of his own people or to the heaven of the Christian is not known."
" Notwithstanding his profession of Christianity, Cornplanter was very superstitious. 'Not long since,' says Mr. Foote, of Chautauqua County, ' he said the Good Spirit had told him not to have anything to do with the white
5I
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
people, or even to preserve any mementos or relics that had been given to him from time to time by the pale-faces, whereupon, among other things, he burnt up his belt and broke his elegant sword.'"
In reference to the personal appearance of Cornplanter at the close of his life, a writer in the Democratic Arch (Venango County) says,-
" I once saw the aged and venerable chief, and had an interesting inter- view with him about a year and a half before his death. I thought of many things when seated near him, beneath the wide-spreading shade of an old sycamore, on the banks of the Allegheny,-many things to ask him, the scenes of the Revolution, the generals that fought its battles and conquered, the Indians, his tribe, the Six Nations, and himself. He was constitutionally sedate, was never observed to smile, much less to indulge in the luxury of a laugh. When I saw him he estimated his age to be over one hundred; I think one hundred and three was about his reckoning of it. This would make him near one hundred and five years old at the time of his decease. His person was stooped, and his stature was far short of what it once had been, not being over five feet six inches at the time I speak of. Mr. John Struthers, of Ohio, told me, some years since, that he had seen him near fifty years ago, and at that period he was at his height,-viz., six feet one inch. Time and hardship had made dreadful impressions upon that ancient form. The chest was sunken and his shoulders were drawn forward, making the upper part of his body resemble a trough. His limbs had lost size and become crooked. His feet (for he had taken off his moccasins) were deformed and haggard by injury. I would say that most of the fingers on one hand were useless ; the sinews had been severed by the blow of a tomahawk or scalping-knife. How I longed to ask him what scene of blood and strife had thus stamped the enduring evidence of its existence upon his person! But to have done so would, in all probability, have put an end to all further conversation on any subject. The information desired would certainly not have been received, and I had to forego my curiosity. He had but one eye, and even the socket of the lost organ was hid by the overhanging brow resting upon the high cheek-bone. His remaining eye was of the brightest and blackest hue. Never have I seen one, in young or old, that equalled it in brilliancy. Perhaps it had borrowed lustre from the eternal darkness that rested on its neighboring orbit. His ears had been dressed in the Indian mode, all but the outside ring had been cut away. On the one ear this ring had been torn asunder near the top, and hung down his neck like a useless rag. He had a full head of hair, white as the driven snow, which covered a head of ample dimensions and admirable shape. His face was not swarthy, but this may be accounted for from the fact, also, that he was but half Indian. He told me he had been at Franklin more than eighty years before the period of our conversation, on his passage down the Ohio and Mississippi with the warriors of his tribe, in some expe- dition against the Creeks or Osages. He had long been a man of peace, and
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
I believe his great characteristics were humanity and truth. It is said that Brandt and Cornplanter were never friends after the massacre of Cherry Valley. Some have alleged, because the Wyoming massacre was perpetrated by Senecas, that Cornplanter was there. Of the justice of this suspicion there are many reasons for doubt. It is certain that he was not the chief of the Senecas at that time. The name of the chief in that expedition was Ge-en- quah-toh, or He-goes-in-the-smoke. As he stood before me-the ancient chief in ruins-how forcibly was I struck with the truth of that beautiful figure of the old aboriginal chieftain, who, in describing himself, said he was 'like an aged hemlock, dead at the top, and whose branches alone were green'! After more than one hundred years of most varied life,-of strife, of danger, of peace,-he at last slumbers in deep repose on the banks of his own beloved Allegheny.
" Cornplanter was born at Conewongus, on the Genesee River, in 1732, being a half-breed, the son of a white man named John O'Bail, a trader from the Mohawk Valley. In a letter written in later years to the governor of Penn- sylvania he thus speaks of his early youth: 'When I was a child I played with the butterfly, the grasshopper, and the frogs; and as I grew up I began to pay some attention and play with the Indian boys in the neighborhood, and they took notice of my skin being of a different color from theirs, and spoke about it. I inquired from my mother the cause, and she told me my father was a resident of Albany. I still ate my victuals out of a bark dish. I grew up to be a young man and married a wife, and I had no kettle or gun. I then knew where my father lived, and went to see him, and found he was a white man and spoke the English language. He gave me victuals while I was at his house, but when I started to return home he gave me no provisions to eat on the way. He gave me neither kettle nor gun.'
" Little further is known of his early life beyond the fact that he was allied with the French in the engagement against General Braddock in July, 1755. He was probably at that time at least twenty years old. During the Revolution he was a war chief of high rank, in the full vigor of manhood, active, sagacious, brave, and he most probably participated in the principal Indian engagements against the United States during the war. He is sup- posed to have been present at the cruelties of Wyoming and Cherry Valley, in which the Senecas took a prominent part. He was on the war-path with Brandt during General Sullivan's campaign in 1779, and in the following year, under Brandt and Sir John Johnson, he led the Senecas in sweeping through the Schoharie and Mohawk Valleys. On this occasion he took his father a prisoner, but with such caution as to avoid an immediate recognition. After marching the old man some ten or twelve miles, he stepped before him, faced about, and addressed him in the following terms :
"' My name is John O'Bail, commonly called Cornplanter. I am your son. You are my father. You are now my prisoner, and subject to the custom
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
of Indian warfare; but you shall not be harmed. You need not fear. I am a warrior. Many are the scalps which I have taken. Many prisoners have I tortured to death. I am your son. I was anxious to see you and greet you in friendship. I went to your cabin and took you by force; but your life shall be spared. Indians love their friends and their kindred, and treat them with kindness. If you now choose to follow the fortunes of your yellow son and to live with our people, I will cherish your old age with plenty of venison, and you shall live easy. But if it is your choice to return to your fields and live with your white children, I will send a party of trusty young men to conduct you back in safety. I respect you, my father. You have been friendly to Indians, and they are your friends.' The elder O'Bail preferred his white children and green fields to his yellow offspring and the wild woods, and chose to return.
" Cornplanter was the greatest warrior the Senecas, the untamable people of the hills, ever had, and it was his wish that when he died his grave would remain unmarked, but the Legislature of Pennsylvania willed otherwise, and erected a monument to him with this beautiful inscription :
"' GY-ANT-WA-CHIA, THE CORNPLANTER, JOHN O'BAIL, ALIAS CORNPLANTER, DIED AT CORNPLANTER TOWN, FEB. 18, A.D. 1836, AGED ABOUT 100 YEARS.'
" Upon the west side is the following inscription :
"'Chief of the Seneca tribe, and a principal chief of the Six Nations from the period of the Revolutionary War to the time of his death. Distinguished for talent, courage, eloquence, sobriety, and love for tribe and race, to whose welfare he devoted his time, his energy, and his means during a long and eventful life.'"
CHAPTER IV
THE PURCHASE OF 1784 AT FORT STANWIX (NOW ROME), NEW YORK
I REPRODUCE from McKnight's "Pioneer History of Jefferson County" the following :
" At the close of the war of the Revolution, in the year 1783, the owner- ship of a large area of the territory within the charter boundaries of Pennsylva- nia was still claimed by the Indians of the several tribes that were commonly known as the Six Nations. The last purchase of lands from the Six Nations by the proprietary government of the province was made at Fort Stanwix in November, 1768, and the limit of this purchase may be described as extending to lines beginning where the northeast branch of the Susquehanna River crosses the northern line of the State, in the present county of Bradford ; thence down the river to the mouth of Towanda Creek, and up the same to its head-waters; thence by a range of hills to the head-waters of Pine Creek, and down the same to the west branch of the Susquehanna; thence up the same to Cherry Tree; thence by a straight line, across the present counties of Indiana and Armstrong, to Kittanning,* on the Allegheny River, and thence down the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers to the western boundary line of the province. The Indian claim, therefore, embraced all that part of the State lying to the northwest of the purchase lines of 1768, as they are here de- scribed. With the close of the Revolutionary struggle, the authorities of the new Commonwealth, anxiously looking to its future stability and prosperity, soon found themselves confronted with duties and responsibilities different in many respects from those that had engaged their serious attention and earnest effort during the previous seven years of war. They were to enact just and equitable laws for the government of a new State, and to devise
* " Canoe Place," so-called in the old maps of the State to designate the head of navigation on the west branch of the Susquehanna River, is the point at which the pur- chase line of 1768 from that river to Kittanning, on the Allegheny River, begins. A survey of that line was made by Robert Galbraith in the year 1786, and a cherry-tree standing on the west bank of the river was marked by him as the beginning of his sur- vey. The same cherry-tree was marked by William. P. Brady as the southeast cor- ner of a tract surveyed by him "at Canoe Place," in 1794, on warrant No. 3744, in the name of John Nicolson, Esq. The town of Cherry Tree now covers part of this ground. The old tree disappeared years ago. Its site, however, was regarded as of some historic importance, and under an appropriation of fifteen hundred dollars, granted by the Legislature in 1893, a substantial granite monument has been erected to mark the spot where it stood.
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
such measures as would stimulate its growth in wealth and population and promote the development, settlement, and improvement of its great domain. " As early as the 12th of March, 1783, the General Assembly had passed an act setting apart certain lands lying north and west of the Ohio and Alle- gheny Rivers and Conewango Creek to be sold for the purpose of redeeming the depreciation certificates given to the officers and soldiers of the Penn- sylvania Line who had served in the war of the Revolution, and also for the purpose of making donations of land to the same officers and soldiers in compliance with a promise made to them by a resolution passed in 1780. It will be observed that when this act was passed the Indian claim of title to the lands mentioned was still in force; but the State authorities, though seem- ingly slow and deliberate in their actions, were no doubt fully alive to the necessity of securing as speedily as possible the right to all the lands within the State-about five-sixteenths of its area-that remained unpurchased after the treaty at Fort Stanwix in 1768. With that purpose in view, the first movement made by the General Assembly to be found on record was on the 25th day of September, 1783. This action is in the form of a resolution passed on that day by the recommendation of the report of a committee that had been previously appointed ' to digest such plans as they might conceive necessary to facilitate and expedite the laying off and surveying of the lands' set apart by the act of the previous March. The resolution reads,-
"' Resolved, unanimously, That the supreme executive council be, and they are hereby authorized and empowered to appoint commissioners to hold a meeting with the Indians claiming the unpurchased territory within the acknowledged limits of the State, for the purpose of purchasing the same, agreeable to ancient usage, and that all the expenses accruing from the said meeting and purchase be defrayed out of the Treasury of the State.'-Penn- sylvania Archives, vol. x. p. III.
" It next appears by a minute of the Supreme Executive Council, of Feb- ruary 23, 1784, that Samuel John Atlee, William Maclay, and Francis John- ston were on that day chosen commissioners to treat with the Indians as proposed in the resolution of the General Assembly. The gentlemen named- all of them prominent citizens-were informed on the 29th of the same month of their appointment, but they did not acknowledge the receipt of President Dickinson's letter until the 17th of May following. On that day Messrs. Atlee and Johnston reply in a letter of thanks for the honor conferred upon them, and explain the delay as having been caused by circumstances that required Mr. Maclay and Colonel Atlee to visit their families, the first named still remaining absent. The letter also contains a statement of their views upon various matters pertaining to the mission upon which they are about to enter. They suggest Samuel Weiser, a son of Conrad Weiser, the noted Indian mis- sionary, as a proper person to notify the Indians of the desire to treat with them, and, from his familiarity with their language and customs, to act as
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
interpreter. The time and place for holding the treaty are mentioned, but nothing definite suggested, owing to the fact that the Continental Congress had likewise appointed commissioners to meet the Six Nations for the purpose of treating with them in relation to the lands of the Northwest, beyond the limits of Pennsylvania, and it was deemed proper to permit the representatives of Congress to arrange for the meeting .* Fort Stanwix, in the State of New York, was finally agreed upon as the place where the meeting should be held, and thither the commissioners on the part of Pennsylvania were directed to proceed. On the 25th of August, 1784, a committee of the General Assembly, having Indian affairs under consideration, made the following report:
"' That weighty reasons have occurred in favor of the design for hold- ing a conference with the Indians on the part of this State, and if under the present situation of Continental affairs that measure can be conducted on sure ground and without too unlimited an expense, it ought to take place and be rendered as effective as this House can make it, under whose auspices a foun- dation would thus be laid of essential and durable advantage to the public, by extending population, satisfying our officers and soldiers in regard to their donation lands and depreciation certificates, restoring that ancient, friendly, and profitable intercourse with the Indians, and guarding against all occasions of war with them.'-Pennsylvania Archives, vol. x. p. 316.
" To aid the commissioners in their efforts to attain objects so worthy and laudable, the above report was accompanied by a resolution that authorized the Supreme Executive Council to expend nine thousand dollars in the pur- chase of ' such goods, merchandise, and trinkets' as would be acceptable to the Indians, to be given them as part of the consideration in the event of a pur- chase being made. In pursuance of this resolution the council promptly ordered a warrant to be issued by the treasurer in favor of the commissioners for the sum of £3375 (equivalent in Pennsylvania currency to nine thousand one hundred dollars), to be expended by them in purchasing the necessary articles.+
" After a tedious and fatiguing journey, in which they met with a number of unexpected delays, the commissioners reached Fort Stanwix early in the month of October, where they found some of the tribes already assembled, and with them the commissioners of the Continental Congress. In a letter to President Dickinson, dated October 4, 1784, they announce their arrival, and state that the negotiations had already commenced, and while they would not venture an opinion as to the final issue, they say the disposition of the Indians appeared to be favorable. The negotiations continued until the 23d of
* Pennsylvania Archives, vol. x. p. 265.
+ For a list of the articles designated in the order see Colonial Records, vol. xiv. p. 186. After the negotiations at Fort Stanwix had been concluded the commissioners gave an obligation for an additional thousand dollars in goods, to be delivered at Tioga. For this list see Pennsylvania Archives, vol. x. p. 496.
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the same month, and on that day ended in an agreement by which the Indian title to all the lands within the boundaries of the State that remained after the treaty of 1768 was extinguished. The Indians represented at the con- ference were the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Senecas, the Cayugas, and the Tuscaroras. The consideration fixed for the surrender of their rights was five thousand dollars. The deed is dated October 23, 1784, is signed by all the chiefs of the Six Nations and by the Continental commis- sioners as witnesses. The boundaries of the territory ceded are thus de- scribed : 'Beginning on the south side of the river Ohio, where the western boundary of the State of Pennsylvania crosses the said river, near Shingo's old town, at the mouth of Beaver Creek, and thence by a due north line to the end of the forty-second and the beginning of the forty-third degrees of north latitude, thence by a due east line separating the forty-second and the forty-third degree of north latitude, to the east side of the east branch of the Susquehanna River, thence by the bounds of the late purchase made at Fort Stanwix, the fifth day of November, Anno Domini one thousand seven hun- dred and sixty-eight, as follows: Down the said east branch of Susquehanna, on the east side thereof, till it comes opposite to the mouth of a creek called by the Indians Awandac, and across the river, and up the said creek on the south side thereof, all along the range of hills called Burnet's Hills by the English and by the Indians -, on the north side of them, to the head of a creek which runs into the west branch of Susquehanna, which creek is by the Indians called Tyadaghton, but by the Pennsylvanians Pine Creek, and down the said creek on the south side thereof to the said west branch of Susque- hanna, thence crossing the said river, and running up the south side thereof, the several courses thereof to the forks of the same river, which lies nearest to a place on the river Ohio called Kittanning, and from the fork by a straight line to Kittanning aforesaid, and thence down the said river Ohio by the several courses thereof to where said State of Pennsylvania crosses the same river at the place of beginning.' After the commissioners had accomplished in so satisfactory a manner the object for which they had journeyed to Fort Stanwix, it became necessary to appease the Western Indians, the Wyandots and the Delawares, who also claimed rights in the same lands. The same commissioners were therefore sent to Fort McIntosh, on the Ohio River, at the site of the present town of Beaver, where, in January, 1785, they were suc- cessful in reaching an agreement with those Indians for the same lands. This deed, signed by the chiefs of both tribes, is dated January 21, 1785, and is in the same words (except as to the consideration money, which is two thousand dollars) and recites the same boundaries as the deed signed at Fort Stanwix in the previous month of October .*
* The conference of the commissioners at Fort Stanwix and Fort McIntosh with the deeds signed at those places are published in the Appendix to the General Assembly for the session of February to April, 1785.
58
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LAKE ERIE
Fur From Ih! United States
MAP SHOWING THE VARIOUS PURCHASES FROM THE INDIANS.
E RIE1192.
WARREN
MISKEAN
POTTER OF
TIOGA 17 84
BRADFORD
SUSQUEHANNA
CRAWFORD
HASE
CAMERON
SULLIVAN
WYOMING
WAYNE
VEMANGO
ELK
CLINTON
LYCOMING
MERCER
1
LUZERNE
OF
LAWRENCE
CLEARY ELD
Sa
UNION
BUTLER
ARMSTRONG
INDIANA
H
C.
SNYDER
ORTHAMPTON
RIVER
C
CAMBRIA
BLAIR
JUNIATA
JUNITA
BERKS
ALLEGHENY
LEBANON
WASHINGTON
REYER
LANCASTER OF
CHESTER
AVENTTIN
FRANKLIN
PURCHASE ADAN'S
YORK
GREENE
SOMERSET
BEDFORD
PURCHASE
HUNTING2
368 PRIOR
WALKING, PUR
YD
PERRY
CUMBERLAND
ONTGOMBRY
PHILADELPHIA
Wyant
LACKAWANNA
G8
PIKE
CLARION
JEFFERSON
FORTYSTA TROME
CENTREE
NORTHUMBERLAND
VIEWATOS
MONROE
BRAYER
SELBARONP
LEHIGH
PURCHASE OF 10! SCHUYLKILL
CARBON
₹1758
MIFFLIN
FULTON
FOREST
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
" After the purchase of 1768 a disagreement arose between the proprie- tary government and the Indians as to whether the creek flowing into the west branch of the river Susquehanna, and called in the deed 'Tyadaghton,' was intended for Lycoming Creek or Pine Creek. The Indians said it was the former, and that the purchase only extended that far ; the proprietaries claimed the latter stream to be the extent of the purchase, but, in order to avoid any trouble that might arise from the dispute, it was wisely determined that no rights should be granted for lands west of Lycoming Creek. This deter- mination, however, did not deter or prevent adventurous pioneers from enter- ing upon and making settlements within the disputed territory, and from their persistency in so doing arose an interesting, not to say serious, condition of affairs, to which reference will again be made. The commissioners at Fort Stanwix were instructed to ascertain definitely from the Indians which of the two streams they meant by 'Tyadaghton.' They then admitted that it was Pine Creek, being the largest emptying into the west branch of the Sus- quehanna.
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