USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > History of Erie County, Pennsylvania, Volume One > Part 10
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One can easily picture the scenes along that forest highway as the French, scourged on by frequent reports reaching them that the English were coming with considerable force to attack them while strung out thus along the portage, and by their desire to hasten their journey before the cold of winter could put a stop to their activities, almost in a panic of zeal, urged their sick, tired and straining men to hasten on with their loads through the slippery, sticky, and persistent mud. We can vision the officers stationed all along the old "Road to Fort LeBoeuf" charging down upon the poor, broken men, and urging them by word and rod to greater
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exertions. We can see the burden-bearers along that road, slowly break- ing, sickening, enduring, and at last dying upon the road. By fall so many of their forces had died and become unfit for duty, that it was said the 2,300 men who had set out from Montreal had been reduced to 800 who were fairly well fit for service, and the expedition had but just accom- plished the journey to Fort LeBoeuf. It was now Oct. 1st, the com- mander Marin had taken sick at the fort and was so ill that Pean sought advice from the Governor at Montreal as to his course in the event of the death of the commander. The famed "River aux Boeufs" was so low that their pirogues and batteaux could not be floated down the stream. Know-
FORT LE BOEUF (1796) AT WATERFORD, PA.
ing that officialdom would not credit their report of an insufficient current in that noble stream, Pean took the precaution to have three different men examine and sound it, and make written report as to its lack of water. These three were the Sieur Drouillon, and after him the experienced offi- cers Portneuf and Carqueville. They were in consequence forced to delay their downward way until the spring rains would provide the necessary stream.
At this time a traveler with them mentions that they had a store- house somewhere along the portage road about mid-way between Presqu'- isle and Le Boeuf, probably for the temporary care of their goods in transit.
Taking advantage of this unexpected delay, Pean paid a visit to Montreal and Quebec. While there he received the news of the death
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of Marin at Fort LeBoeuf, which occurred on Oct. 29, 1753, at half past four in the evening "in the fort of the Riviere aux boeufs, under the title of St. Peter (meaning the little chapel within the fort which Washington reported). * * Captain of Infantry and Commander-in-Chief of the army of the Beautiful River, aged sixty-three years. *
* * His remains were interred in the cemetery of the same fort and during the campaign of the Beautiful River. There were present at his interment Monsieur Repentigny, commander of the above-mentioned army and cap- tain of infantry ; Messieurs du Muys, lieutenant of Infantry ; Benois, lieu- tenant of infantry ; de Simblim, Major at the above mentioned fort; La- force, keeper of stores".
The witnesses to this interesting document were, Le Gardeur De Re- pentigny, Laforce, Benois, Du Muys, J. Depre Simblim, and Fr. Denys Baron, P. R., Chaplain. Thus was recorded the death and burial of one of the personages of the French occupation of this county. No record has come to our notice of the removal of his remains, and we must conclude that the soil of Waterford still enfolds the ashes of the Commandant, Marin, as it does many other men of lesser note identified with the ex- ploration and occupation of Erie County. It is worth our while to reflect, too, upon the results of the toils and exhaustion which the men suffered upon the Waterford Portage in that memorable year, 1753. It is recorded that their toils, exposures, and urgent service during August and Septem- ber of that summer, encountering as they did the excessive rainfall which is unusual at that season, entailed upon them disease and debilitation which brought on deaths by the score. The men broke down and died along the forest trail by twos and threes; and they were buried where they died; shallow trenches and graves being dug just to one side or the other of that weary road, and one, two or three-perhaps sometimes more-were laid to final rest there in the woods in a single tomb. Their ashes still remain where they were buried, and the line of that trail has been hallowed over and over again by the burials of men, many of whom were devoted to the mission of the French in this county, who had strug- gled in the miry way with their heavy loads of provisions and military supplies, until their tired natures revolted, and refused longer to endure the unnatural demand upon them. The "Old French Road" stands now, therefore, as a line across our county where untold activity, accompanied with the groans and cries of suffering and dying heroes, in that year of 1753, disturbed the voices of the deep, deep woods; a strip of territory
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upon which untold suffering accompanied the efforts of white men to penetrate and learn the character of the country; where the devotion of white pioneers was of a character to warrant, yes, to demand, our rever- ence, our gratitude and our sympathy as well. Theirs it was to blaze the way into the wilderness; ours to follow after when peace and development had created pleasant surroundings in which to live. All honor, therefore, to those sturdy men, and women, too, who prepared the land by adven- turous discovery, by romantic although toilsome exploration; and those others, too, who built upon those first pioneers' hardships the improve- ments which followed in the wake of discovery and settlement.
What were undoubtedly the first deaths to occur in this county amongst white folks, where at Presque Isle. They were Jean Baptiste Texier, of Montreal, who died July 11, 1753, attended in his last moments by a Recollect Priest, Friar Gabriel Anheuser, Chaplain of the detachment. His religious services to this dying man, and presumably his services at the burial, are considered as being the first Christian devotional serv- ices in this county of which we have any record.
Shortly afterwards, on July 31, occurred the death at Presque Isle of Jean Francois Aubert, who was a soldier in Dumas' company; and the Friars Anheuser and Baron both certify to the death, and record that "he was interred with the customary ceremonies in that portion of the camp of Presque Isle set apart for a cemetery". At LeBoeuf the records speak of Etienne, called La Franchisse, a corporal in Fouville's company, dying there, and the same two priests officiating at his burial at Le Boeuf.
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CHAPTER VII
WASHINGTON'S HISTORIC MISSION.
WILD TURKEY HUNTING-ENGLISH SPY WITH THE FRENCH-WASHINGTON'S COMMISSION-HIS JOURNAL OF THE JOURNEY-FRENCH TAMPER WITH WASHINGTON'S INDIAN HELPERS-THE ALBANY CONFERENCE-FRANKLIN PROPOSES A BETTER UNION OF THE COLONIES-"JOIN OR DIE"-NOTED FRENCH OFFICERS AT PRESQUE ISLE.
The French king was much disappointed that Marin had been unable to continue on down the great River aux Boeufs, from Waterford that fall. He was much concerned when he learned the reason for the delay at Le Boeuf, and having gained the impression that the stream flowing from thence to the Beautiful River was one of considerable pretensions, instead of being the wide and shallow brook that it is, wrote complaining "What can one think of him (Marin) that he should all at once find him- self stopped by the impossibility of navigating the River aux Boeufs? Could he not foresee that it would lack water at this season? How did he neglect so simple and natural a precaution as to take soundings ?"
The English had been warily observant of the doings of the French; and when the warlike canoes of the French passed westward along Lake Ontario, Captain Benjamin Stoddart, commandant at Oswego sent the news eastward that "30 odd French Canoes" had passed there, and that this was "part of an army of 6,000" on their way to assert the French sovereignty over the great valley of the Beautiful River, the River Ohio. Lieutenant Holland, also at Oswego, at once despatched five men, amongst whom was Samuel Shattuck, whose story was printed in the Censor of Fredonia, N. Y., in Jan., 1891, to spy upon the French and to send back any word and all news of what was transpiring with that expedition.
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This was a most hazardous undertaking as they must needs avoid the eyes of both the French, and all Indian villagers and wandering hunters. At the mouth of the Genesee, they noted the continued westward progress of the flotilla, and turned southwest to cross to the shores of Lake Erie; but they misjudged their directions, and came out on Lake Erie near the mouth of the Cattaraugus Creek, where they observed the first part of Marin's expedition sailing westward. They saw it land at the mouth of Chautauqua Creek and start to build a fort; but the larger part of the expedition coming up, a halt was made, and presently the whole force went on westward to Presqu' Isle, where the little party watched them at work building the fort. One of the party was sent back in July to report their observations at Oswego, while the others tarried until Sep- tember, when they took their way back, traveling well to the south along the high hills where they could keep the lake in sight. At the south side of the present Westfield, they suddenly came upon a force of about 100 Frenchmen busily rolling logs into a deep ravine, and preparing the way over it for a road. They stayed about and observed the completion of the Portage Road from Barcelona to Mayville, and the embarkation of this force for the east. Mr. Shattuck later settled at Portland, Chautauqua County, N. Y., where he died in 1827.
With the expedition of the French in 1753, was an officer named J. C. Bonnefons, from whose journal, most admirably kept, much of his- torical value has been ascertained. His journal, in recording his voyage on Lake Erie, and his arrival at Presqu' Isle, is worthy of record here. "This lake is very fine, readily navigated, but the gusts are frequent and something to fear." He arrived at Presqu' Isle on April 24th, which is evidently the time of the arrival of the second division of the French party. "It is quite a deep bay, within which we enter, where has been laid out the plan of a fort, after having made an abattis of trees. This fort was built of squared timber with four bastions furnished with 12 cannon which we brought with us. They have given this fort the name of the place where it stands, that is, Presqu' Isle. The unhealthiness of the air which prevailed here during the felling of the trees, the clearing of the ground and the building of the fort, added to a diet of salt meat and sea biscuit-only food of the detachment, which moreover had noth- ing to drink but water-all this brought on the scurvy, which attacked 200 people. This made necessary a hospital where they could be secluded, to prevent the disease from spreading among the rest of the troops." He
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confides to his journal the further information that the vicinity of the fort is amply stocked with choice game, including "deer, roe-bucks, fallow- deer, bears, swans, bustards, ducks, geese, turkeys, herons, red-legged partridge and turtle-doves".
For the benefit of those who follow the lure of the game, we are impelled to quote again from his interesting journal:
"The most frequent and most curious hunting that I have seen here, is of the wild turkey, which is as amusing as it is abundant. It is usu- ally hunted by moonlight, by at least two or three persons; for these creatures have the habit of always perching in flocks in the tree-tops, in order the better to take flight in a long trajet, if surprised. Ordinarily they come down to drink, only at nightfall. They perch high up in the thick-branching trees, side by side on a branch, as much as it will bear, sometimes as many as 150 on the same tree.
When one has located them, he goes noiselessly as close as he can to the tree where they perch. Without speaking or stirring, the hunter fires, bringing down four or five turkeys at least. Those that remain, being roused by the noise, scream out, but hearing no more noise, settle again to sleep. Then another shot is fired and so on until all are killed or the hunter has enough. If several turkeys have fallen wounded, and would run away, the hunter must let them go, at the chance of losing them, lest those in the tree take fright and fly away, and the hunter lose the more.
At length, when enough are taken, those that are killed are piled up, the canoe is brought near, since they could not be carried without it, some of them weighing as much as 35 pounds.
It is only by surprise that one can shoot these animals in day time. If they are surprised or pursued on the ground, where they cannot take wing because of their weight, and lack of space, they have recourse to their legs to climb to an elevation with such speed that a dog can scarcely overtake them; then, from an eminence, they take wing and are soon far away."
From this it will be seen that the hardships of a soldier-pioneer's life in the beautiful, thick forests of this county were sometimes ameliora- ted by following the pleasures of the chase; although no inconvenient preliminaries in the way of securing a license for the purpose was re- quired.
On July 20 a force of 150 men was left to finish up the fort, while
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300 men, including our clerical friend Bonnefons, took canoes and paddled into the west, in due time arriving at Michillimackinac, from whence they journeyed through to Quebec by Oct. 3, by way of the Ottawa River route.
As an evidence of the interest of the English in securing dominance in this part of the country, they had been to the forks of the Ohio, later Fort Duquesne, and had licensed John Fraser to trade with the Indians in this region. John Fraser had found a suitable place for his trading post at the mouth of French Creek, now Franklin, where he had built him a substantial house as early as 1749. Hearing that the French were about to descend into the valley, he left his house and went down the river to the Monongehela; and therefore on or about Dec. 1, 1753, when the redoubtable Captain Joncaire came along with two other officers from the building of Forts Presqu' Isle and LeBoeuf, they found the house pleasant for their accommodation. The French flag was accordingly flung to the breeze, and everything had been made ready for the reception of the ambassadors of the English Governor, Dinwiddie of Virginia, who arrived on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 1753. This new delegation comprised the Indian sachem, Scarrooyady, who was well known to all explorers and hunters in this region, as well as to Captain Joncaire, by the name of the Half-King, so-called from his being subject to another tribe; Jeskakake, and White Thunder, both Indian Sachems, and Guyasuta, or Kiasutha, a young warrior; John Davison, an Indian interpreter; Van Braem, a re- tired soldier as well as a pioneer; and Christopher Gist, who had the year before led a company of 12 families-including himself-to what became known as Mount Braddock, in Fayette County, Pa., where they had the honor of constituting the first white settlement west of the mountains, on lands which was then presumed to be owned by the Ohio Company. This company was an association of 12 Virginia gentlemen, including Augustus Washington, which had been formed under king's grant to seek and secure a monopoly of the Indian trade of the Ohio Valley. The lands upon which this settlement was made was then believed to be within the territory of Virginia, and for a long time was claimed as such, until the boundaries were run when it was found to be well within the state of Pennsylvania.
The little delegation of Indians and frontiersmen who appeared at John Fraser's house on that December day, was commanded by a strip- ling, who had observed his 21st birthday on the 22d of the February be- fore, but had found confidence with the Virginia Governor, who then and
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there entrusted him with a delicate and important mission, which was couched in this commission: "I, reposing special trust and confidence in the ability, conduct, and fidelity of you, the said George Washington, have appointed you my express messenger; and you are hereby author- ized and empowered to proceed hence, with all convenient and possible dis- patch, to the part or place, on the river Ohio, where the French have lately erected a fort or forts, or where the commandant of the French forces resides, in order to deliver my letter and message to him; and after waiting not exceeding one week for an answer, you are to take your leave and return immediately back." This Commission was dated Oct. 30, Annoque Domini, 1753. From his journal of this journey and mission, we glean the following interesting and historical particulars of the visit of our "First American" to the soil of this county :
"I was commissioned and appointed by the Honorable Robert Din- widdie, Esquire, Governor, etc., of Virginia, to visit and deliver a letter to the commandant of the French forces at the Ohio, and set out on the in- tended journey on the same day; on the next I arrived at Fredericksburg, and engaged Mr. Jacob VanBraam to be my French interpreter, and pro- ceeded with him to Alexandria, where we provided necessaries. From thence we went to Winchester, and got baggage horses, etc., and from thence we pursued the new road to Will's Creek where we arrived on the 14th of November.
Here I engaged Mr. Gist (Christopher), to pilot us out, and also hired four others as servitors, Barnaby Curran, and John McQuire, Indian trad- ers, Henry Steward and William Jenkins; and in company with these persons left the inhabitants the next day.
The excessive rains and vast quantities of snow which had fallen prevented our reaching Mr. Frazier's, an Indian trader, at the mouth of Turtle Creek, on Monongehela river, till Thursday the 22d. We were informed here that expresses had been sent a few days before to the traders down the river, to acquaint them with the French general's death, and the return of the major part of the French army into winter quarters.
The waters were quite impassable without swimming our horses, which obliged us to get the loan of a canoe from Frazier, and to send Barnaby Currin and Henry Steward down the Monongehela with our bag- gage, to meet us at the forks of Ohio, about ten miles below; there to cross the Allegheny. * * * About two miles from this, on the south- east side of the river, at the place where the Ohio company intended to
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erect a fort, lives Shingiss, king of the Delawares. We called upon him to invite him to a council at Logstown.
Shingiss attended us to the Logstown, where we arrived between sun-setting and dark, the twenty-fifth day'after I left Williamsburg. We travelled over some extremely good and bad land to get to this place.
As soon as I came into town, I went to Monakatoocha (as the Half- king was out at his hunting cabin on Little Beaver Creek, about fifteen miles off) and informed him by John Davidson, my Indian interpreter, that I was sent a messenger to the French general; and was ordered to call upon the sachems of the Six Nations to acquaint them with it. I gave him a string of wampum and a twist of tobacco, and desired him to send for the Half-King, which he promised to do by a runner in the morn- ing, and for other sachems. I invited him and the other great men pres- ent, to my tent, where they stayed about an hour and returned.
25th .- Came to town, four of ten Frenchmen, who had deserted from a company at the Kuskuskas, which lies at the mouth of this river. I got the following account from them: They were sent from New Orleans with a hundred men, and eight canoe loads of provisions, to this place, where they expected to have met the same number of men from the forts on this side of Lake Erie, to convey them and the stores up, who were not arrived when they ran off.
About three o'clock this evening the Half-King came to town. ] went up and invited him with Davidson, privately to my tent; and de- sired him to relate some of the particulars of his journey to the French commandant, and of his reception there; also to give me an account of the ways and the distance. He told me, that the nearest and levellest way was now impassable, by reason of many large miry savannas; that we must be obliged to go by way of Venango, and should not get to the near fort in less than five or six nights sleep, good travelling. When he went to the fort, he said, he was received in a very stern manner by the late commander, who asked him very abruptly, what he had come about, and
to declare his business. * * * He informed me that they had built two forts, one on Lake Erie, and another on French Creek, near a small lake, about fifteen miles asunder; that on the lake the largest. He gave me a plan of them of his own drawing."
26th .- (This day was devoted to a pow-wow with the Indians at which Washington laid before them the business in hand and solicited their co-operation in accordance with the instructions and request of the
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governor. There was much delay and evident reluctance on the part of the Indians to comply, so that it was not until the 30th that the journey could be resumed, and then only four of the natives accompanied them. The journal continues under date of the 30th of November) :
"We set out about nine o'clock with the Half-King, Jeskakake, White Thunder and the Hunter, and traveled on the road to Venango, where we arrived the fourth of December, without anything remarkable happening but a continued series of bad weather.
"This is an old Indian town situated at the mouth of French Creek, on Ohio; and lies near north about sixty miles from the Logstown, but more than seventy the way we were obliged to go.
"We found the French colors hoisted at a house from which they had driven Mr. John Frazier, an English subject. I immediately repaired to it, to know where the commander resided. There were three officers, one of whom, Captain Joncaire, informed me that he had the command of the Ohio; but that there was a general officer at the near fort, where he advised me to apply for an answer. He invited me to sup with them, and treated us with great complaisance.
"The wine as they dosed themselves pretty plentifully with it soon banished the restraint which at first appeared in their conversation, and gave a license to their tongues to reveal their sentiments more freely.
"They told me that it was their absolute design to take possession of the Ohio, and by G-d they would do it; for that, although they were sensible, the English could raise two men for their one, yet they knew their motions were too slow and dilatory to prevent any undertaking of theirs. They pretend to have an undoubted right to the river from a discovery made by one La Salle 60 years ago; and the rise of this expedi- tion is, to prevent our settling on the rivers or waters of it, as they heard of some families moving out in order thereto. From the best intelligence I could get, there have been fifteen hundred men on this side Ontario Lake. But on the death of the General, all were recalled to about six or seven hundred, who were left to garrison four forts, one hundred and fifty or thereabouts in each. The first of them is on French Creek, near a small lake, about sixty miles from Venango, near north north-west; the next lies on Lake Erie, where the greater part of their stores are kept, about fifteen miles from the other; from this it is about one hundred and twenty miles to the carrying place, at the falls of Lake Erie, where there is a small fort at which they should lodge their
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goods in bringing them from Montreal, the place from whence all of their stores are brought. The next fort lies about twenty miles from this, on Ontario Lake. Between this fort and Montreal, there are three others, the first of which is nearly opposite to the English Fort Oswego. From the fort on Lake Erie to Montreal is about six hundred miles, which they say requires no more (if good weather), than four weeks' voyage, if they go in barks or large vessels so that they may cross the lake; but if they come in canoes, it will require five or six weeks, if they are obliged to come under the shore.
"December 5th-Rained excessively all day, which prevented our traveling." (He devotes considerable space here to detailing the efforts of Joncaire and the other French officers to divert the Indians from their attachment to Washington's business, lasting this, the next and into the following day, causing Washington no end of anxiety, trouble and delay.)
"7th-Monsier La Force, commissary of the French stores, and three other soldiers, came over to accompany us up. We found it extremely dif- ficult to get the Indians off today, as every strategem had been used to prevent their going up with me. I had last night left John Davidson (Indian interpreter) whom I brought with me from town, and strictly charged him not to be out of their company, as I could not get them over to my tent; for they had some business with Kustalago, chiefly to know why he did not deliver up the French speech-belt which he had in keep- ing; but I was obliged to send Mr. Gist over today to fetch them, which he did with great persuasion.
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