USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > History of Erie County, Pennsylvania, Volume One > Part 14
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tious husbandry and mercantile industry, were pierced by the bullets and the arrows of a rude and savage people animated by sentiments of extreme primordial conditions, and further stimulated by a fierce resentment and desire for revenge. It was right here, and not in some far distant place, that white blood poured out into the native soil of Erie, and white men suffered the tortures of the damned, to withstand the purposes of the savages to drive the whites from the country. Is not that spot a sacred one, dedicated to a high and noble purpose by the good, rich blood of heroes, as surely and as worthily as are the fields of Gettysburg, York- town and many other shrines associated with the struggles of an enter- prising people to make a land which would be fit for themselves and their posterity to live in? This region, notwithstanding the frantic and ruth- less opposition of the savage, has been subdued and developed into a land "flowing with milk and honey"; in which the sound of productive industry and the beneficial activity of countless humans throbs with worth-while purpose.
And yet one asks, was it necessary that those others should have been .sacrificed as they were, or have been sacrificed at all, that this gratifying condition should have been produced ? Could not some far better way have been found that would have led to the desired end, and without the sacrifice of such numbers of heroic men and women with thousands of innocent little children, to attain that which ought to have been accom- plished in peace, and with the hand of fellowship instead of in blood and carnage? And yet it has been ever thus. Human ambition has ever been ruthless, and largely destructive, in the course of its progress to- wards its goal. Had the red men been rightly met, and rightly dealt with, no more loyal or neighborly people could have been found on the face of the globe. It was only when jealousy and rival ambitions sought to employ the basic passions and impulses of the primitive natives, that trouble for the white race was encountered. It was very largely the fruit of a policy of employing unscrupulous political hirelings which then, and much later in our history, caused misunderstandings, blood-thirsty re- venge, and uncalled for sacrifice of innocent lives.
But, although the Indians came very near to accomplishing their pur- poses, the English forces under the Swiss commander, Colonel Boquet, who was then in the English service, by forced marches raised the seige of Fort Ligonier, and shortly afterward that of Fort Pitt. The Indians were driven west of the Ohio, and for a time it seemed that this border
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warfare might have come to an end. But although suffering a disastrous defeat at Bushy Run, in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, at the hands of Boquet and his men in August, 1763, and forced to flee the country, yet in February of 1764 their efforts to clear the land of the whites were resumed. But they now kept away from the forts and con- centrated their carnage upon the helpless settlers along the frontiers. No family or traveler was then for a time safe in all western Pennsyl- vania. Hundreds of settlers had either to flee their settlements or suffer torture and merciless deaths at the hands of those bent upon recovering the lands of their forefathers from the hands of the foreigner.
Colonel Bradstreet, the hero of Fort Frontenac, was selected to lead one expedition against the Indians, while Colonel Boquet with his forces was to attack along another route. With Colonel Bradstreet was a column of New England men under the future hero of Bunker Hill, Lieutenant Colonel Israel Putnam, 500 strong. Colonel Bradstreet with his own and Putnam's men, proceeded west along the south shore of Lake Erie headed for Detroit. They arrived at Presque Isle, and while awaiting weather conditions to improve, received a delegation of Delaware and Shawnee Indians on Aug. 12, 1764, who represented that they were authorized to meet the colonel and treat with him for a peace on behalf of their nations. Bradstreet believed in their sincerity; but his officers, including Colonel Putnam, represented that many little things about them and their dele- gation indicated that their mission was of some other character. And here at Erie, on the ground which so lately had been drenched with good heroic blood by those same Indian nations, other savages sought to dupe the race they so much despised. The English officers pointed out that an Indian delegation properly authorized for such a mission would have brought certain credentials which these did not have. They brought with them but a single, and insignificant, belt of wampum; and yet protested that they had come to discuss and arrange a treaty of peace for the savage nations they pretended had sent them. Bradstreet, however, being some- what conceited and having an overly good opinion of his own abilities and judgment, overruled the judgment of his officers, and concluded with them the empty formality of terms of peace. But Colonel Boquet, to whom Bradstreet at once communicated the news of his action, under- stood the Indian character, and the whole Indian situation, far better than did Colonel Bradstreet. He realized that it was a scheme to lull Bradstreet's activities while they endeavored to use this fact to their
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own advantage. So he at once injected a larger measure of activity and energy into his own campaign, with the result that Bradstreet was soon undeceived, and the troops shortly achieved a wholesome and victorious close to the war. Therefore, the last Indian battle to be fought on Erie County soil, was that sanguinary one in which Ensign Christie and his men suffered such an heroic disaster in the historic old primitive en- closure, with its big, log blockhouse, at the foot of Parade Street. There- after no considerable Indian uprising occurred in this county. But for more than 30 years thereafter, it was wholly unsafe for any white person to enter this county for any purpose. It is not recorded that Colonel Bradstreet made any effort to repair, or to rebuild the old fortress during his stay here in August of 1764. It is very unlikely that he did. It is more likely that the ruins of the old fort were permitted to fall more and more into decay, for there was no force stationed here or at Le Boeuf, for many years. The English relied wholly upon their post at Fort Pitt, now becoming called Pittsburgh, to sustain their authority in western Pennsylvania; while Detroit was strengthened for the same purpose in the west. Practically the only evidences of the location of the old fort at Presque Isle were the old French wells, some lines of earthen banks and the little stone magazine, on a small flat plateau at a little elevation above the shore of the bay.
The later years, which brought so much of strife and warfare be- tween the American Colonies along the Atlantic seacoast, and the Mother Country because England felt that the great amount of treasure which she had spent in America for the protection of the settlers here against the French, and later the Indians as well, should be, in some measure at least, made up to her. And it does seem that she was right in principle. However, her manner of approaching the demand for it produced resent- ment instead of co-operation on the part of the colonies.
There can be no doubt but that the experiences of the colonists dur- ing those agonizing years of battling against the French, and the Indian uprisings on their frontiers, had much, very much indeed, to do with showing the colonists that the Mother Country considered them as very much a part of the empire. That they were considered at home as being liable to military duty, to taxation, and many other duties normally owing by a citizen to his government. It did not require a very keen eyesight to note that other citizens of the same empire who lived, by a happy circumstance, within the limits of "the tight little isle" at home
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were accorded certain rights and privileges which were withheld from the citizens who were out on the firing line of the empire; and this very naturally caused, first a mild wonder at the anomaly, and later a very distinct perception of the injustice of such a course. As time went on, this perception became clearer, and the conviction that it was not right in principle became firmly grounded. Those who were leaders in America were fully the equal of any of His Majesty's counselors and prime min- isters, and showed themselves fully capable of arriving at sane and prac- tical conclusions where matters of government and public policy were at stake. And so now, when the home government somewhat arrogantly demanded that the colonists pay the piper who had played in America for their profit and benefit, they wished to know whether or no they them- selves were not to have a voice, some slight voice, in the matter, even though it should be determined that the colonists themselves should conclude that the tax was a just demand. The War of the French and Indians, as it was called in this country, although it went by other names in other parts of the world, had served to mature the American Colonies. During that struggle it was learned that the colonies had many rights, and purposes, and privileges, which were wholly common to them all. They at first were so isolated that each developed a spirit of self-inde- pendence, and even in matters where for their own good a union of forces and of effort was essential, yet such union of effort was usually declined through a narrow feeling of jealousy and of aloofness. The common danger of border warfare, and of savage reprisal upon all the colonies, was the agency which forced them to join forces and fight together for a common self preservation. Thus was the ice of their former cool and indifferent attitude broken, and the idea of creating a firm and effective union of the colonies for their mutual defense, protection, and future well-being, well grounded. Once suggested to such men as Adams, Frank- lin and others, that basic principle in human experience, that all men are born equal, and that they have equal rights in life and in government, it did not take very long for them to regard it as an eminently practical principle of human experience, as well as a purely academical proposition. Those men were good preachers of doctrines affecting the colonies. Their sturdy, self-denying manhood had much to do with bringing about a new era in the affairs of men. And in this our county is interested, although it took no part in the great struggle for American Liberty. Our interest in that period covered by the Revolution is in what it enabled the pioneer
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settlers to bring with them into the county when once the tide of settle- ment turned this way. Those great principles which had become so surely established by the struggles along the eastern seaboard, spread out and over this county when the time for its settlement came, as a significant part of the framework of its organization. But during all of that great struggle which had such a significant bearing upon the future condition and status of our county, not one white person resided within the limits of this county-and indeed for a good many miles beyond. No white person had the temerity to attempt a settlement here for a good many years after the treaty of peace was signed which established the terms of settlement of that disastrous war in which our fortress played so tragic a part. This county was too much of a wilderness, too much subject to the predatory bands of savages, and too far from military protection, for families to attempt to make settlements here. And so it happened, that Erie County sent no volunteers to the War of the Revolution, and no one from here served in that war. But many of its heroes afterwards found prosperous homes here, and their sepulchers may be found in almost every burying ground in the county.
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CHAPTER X
ERIE COUNTY "A WILDERNESS."
"THE INDIAN COUNTRY"-ITS FIT NAME-ENGLISH SURRENDER HERE RE- LUCTANTLY-BIRDS AND BEASTS HERE-SPECIES OF FOREST TREES- INDIAN OWNERSHIP AND OTHER TITLE CLAIMS.
Our county, from the time that Ensign Christie and his band of de- voted soldiers which defended Fort Presque Isle surrendered to the forces of Pontiac on June 24, 1763, until June 1795, was a part of a great region commonly and very properly called "The Indian Country". It embraced all of the territory west of the Allegheny River and north and west of the Ohio. On the Canada side of Lake Erie, towards Niagara, a few white families had made settlements. At Cherry Valley, in New York state, some English families formed the most western white settle- ment at the northeast; while Pittsburg was the outpost of the white folks in that direction.
So late as 1782, Seneca Indians under Guyasutha, their chief, burned the town of Hannastown, the seat of justice of Westmoreland County, Pa., and they and other predatory bands kept up a reign of terror all along that border of the settlements.
There must have been some sort of a military post renewed and main- tained here at Presque Isle by the British after 1763, for we learn that our Minister at London, Mr. Adams, in 1785, addresses the English gov- ernment through its Secretary of State, Mr. Lord Carmarthan, as follows:
"Although a period of three years has elapsed since the signature of the preliminary treaty, and more than two years since the definitive treaty, the posts of Oswegatchy, Oswego, Niagara, Presqu'Isle, Sandusky, Detroit, Mackinaw, with others not necessary particularly to enumerate, and a considerable territory around each of them, all within the incon-
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testable limits of the United States, are still held by British garrisons to the loss and injury of the United States," etc.
But, as we can discover no other reference to this fact, it is possible that physical possession of Presque Isle had never been renewed by the English, and that it was indicated in the list merely as one of several points of military significance, some of which were still physically occu- pied by the English troops in right of all of the posts. Just when the technical transfer of the English possession under the Treaty of Paris, signed Sept. 3, 1783, occurred, we have been unable to ascertain. Corn- wallis had surrendered to the allied armies of France and the United States at Yorktown, Va., on Oct. 18, 1781; Savannah was evacuated by the British on July 11, 1782; Charleston, Dec. 14, 1782; the provisional treaty acknowledging the independence of the United States was signed at Ver- sailles in November, 1782; on April 17, 1783, Washington was ordered to disband his troops and proclaim a cessation of hostilities; being two days short of eight years from the day the British opened fire upon American citizens at Lexington ; and on Nov. 25, 1783, the last of the British troops · on our soil sailed out of the harbor of New York. The fact that our government uttered its remonstrance to the delay in surrendering up the northern and western posts so late as 1785, causes us a certain amount of reflection as to whether or no the British had a force here up to that time. But it is our belief that the post was, and had been for some years, unoccupied by them.
And so it is that we of this age must try to conceive the state of our county as it existed between the years of 1763 and 1795, not as a portion of the half settled frontier of the country, not even as the environ- ment of a fortified post upon the country's border line ; but as a section of the country far removed from the haunts of white men, covered with a dense growth of noble forests, interspersed here and there with openings through which flowed small creeks and covered with luscious meadow grass. The great spaces where now speeds the automobile, were pos- sessed by the utmost solitude. Much of the forest was too dense for even the wild birds and beasts, which preferred the more open spaces, or lived in the great woods close to them where they had easy access to free air and sunshine. It is said that even the song birds were not to be found here in those early days, but came with the civilization of the white folks. The forest noises of the night were those of the frog, the howl of the wolf, the cry of the panther, the hoot of the owl, and the cheerful chirp- (13)
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ings of the crickets. By day might be heard the tap of the busy wood- pecker, the call of the crows, the chatter of the squirrels, or the wild- turkey's gobble. No sound of industry disturbed the silences of the vast aisles and retreats of that ancient forest. The sounds familiar to the haunts of the white man were not to be heard in all of that great wilder- ness which reached from the lake to the Ohio River and the Allegheny Mountains. The only humans to be found within the whole region were occasional parties of red men passing through it to reach some distant place which had been selected for a savage attack, or to secure game for the food of the women and children of the home village. Even those Indians seemed to be imbued with the silence of the great woods. They had been for so many generations part and parcel of the great silent spaces, that they customarily moved through the woods with caution and silence. The discharge of their arrows was practically without noise, and the twang of the bow could be heard but a short distance away. The beasts which he hunted were in consequence seldom alarmed by his pas- sage, and compared with their ways in later years, were practically tame.
Nature had been profuse in her gifts to this county. The forests in- cluded some of the most valuable of timber species. Here were the great oaks of red, white, black and yellow; the hemlocks and the pines; beeches both red and white; while the nut trees of black and white walnut, hickory and chestnut abounded and throve as almost nowhere else in all the world. Then, too, could be found the useful sassafras, gum-wood, cedar, bass- wood, white and yellow poplar, ash both white and black, and the univer- sally present maples both hard and soft, which furnished the settlers with a wonderful supply of the essential sugar and syrup. Along the edges of the open spaces were the great vines of the wild-grapes crowning the tops of the forest trees with their mantling canopies, and furnishing the pioneers with fruit which they used for both relishes and drink.
It was noteworthy, and must be recorded, that the great flights of wild pigeons occurred all through this region in those days, and continued unabated in multitudes until the latter part of the 19th century, say about 1870 or 1873 to -5. These birds were of good size and exceedingly plenti- ful, furnishing a staple article of most delicious flesh for the larders of the settlers. Not one of this species has been in existence for over fifty years, so far as can be learned; and a rich reward is said to await the fortunate finder of even one specimen. But in the boyhood days of the writer, the great flights of these birds extended for many miles in every
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direction, and so dense were the flocks that the earth was very much darkened by their passing on even the brightest day. The wild-turkeys, too, were plentiful, and are said to have attained the weight of 50 pounds in many instances. An account of hunting this fowl by a French officer stationed at Fort Presque Isle will be found in another place in this narra- tive. American red deer, as well as elk and bison, also abounded, although the bison had retired from this county very soon after the French came upon its soil. The beaver, the raccoon, mink, opossum, red fox, and many varieties of squirrels afforded both pelts and flesh for the pioneer flint- lock. The streams abounded in fine fish; and from the waters of the great lake were taken excellent fish of large size, embracing sturgeon, pike, perch, lake trout, white-fish, bass both black and white, rock bass, and other varieties. Yes, nature had provided lavishly in stocking this county for the needs of mankind.
And so it came to pass that the day of the French exploration and adventurer had passed; so, too, had passed the day of the British who had succeeded them. And it came to pass that this region became known · as "The Indian's Country", and as such was fully respected by the Yankees for many years. The Indians came to be the recognized owners of the soil of western Pennsylvania. They had been treated as such by William Penn when he acquired his charter from the English King on March 4, 1681, and during his early conduct of the colony of Pennsylvania. Some of his successors as governor tried to ignore this view of the ownership, and brought down upon the devoted heads of the colonists a vast amount of trouble, suffering, death and blood-shed. In this county no tragedies occurred over the settlement of any land because the Indian title had not been faithfully settled for. True it is, that the battle at the foot of Parade Street, and the one at Waterford when the old forts were captured and destroyed by Pontiac's Indians, occurred because the red men wished to drive the hated whites out of their hunting grounds; but no attempts at that time had as yet been made at settlements, nor to deprive the Indians of their legitimate rights in this territory.
There was altogether far more land to be acquired and reduced to agricultural purposes east of the mountains up to that time, than could be fairly well handled by the white pioneers, to cause any severe yearnings for the lands up this way for some time to come. The policy of the state had been to make additional purchases of lands from the Indians as fast as the requirements of the settlers made it advisable. To this end numer-
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ous bargains with the Indians had been made, and section after section of the vast wilderness had passed from Indian to Colonial ownership. It is true that the price paid for such territories might be a question of modern debate, but when we consider that the Indian tribes from whom the sections were purchased had once appeared upon them from tradi- tional places in the far west, or south, and had merely used them for the purpose of nomadic hunting, with only occasional locations of a limited area for their habitations, the real value to the Indians of the remainder of the tracts would be, even now, problematical.
The titles with which our county has been involved at one time or another, have been many and intricate. Much trouble and conflicting claims have been taken up from time to time and disposed of. French titles by claims of prior discovery and military possession; English claims by reason of discoveries along the Atlantic coast, by virtue of which all of the land extending westward therefrom was claimed; English claims by virtue of the conquest of the French pretensions to title west of the English settlements; Indian titles in many tribes and nations of the na- tives; and lastly, the titles of the Penn family under their charter from King Charles II of England. All of these were finally merged into, and secured by the State of Pennsylvania, and it has been well said "Thus we have for the Triangle, settlements and considerations made by the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Virginia, and by direct conveyance from the United States to the state of Pennsylvania, reinforced by a deed relinquishing all rights and claims, except for hunt- ing, from the Six Nations of Indians, and subsequently by another quit- claim deed representing Indians who appear to allege dissatisfaction and bad treatment. The title of Pennsylvania to the Triangle seems to have been acquiesced in and regarded as complete and sufficient as a basis of all subsequent titles." (Dept. Int. Aff. Report 1906.)
The rectangular portion of Erie County south of the Triangle, did not experience all of the vexatious claims encountered in clearing the title to the Triangle. It was, of course, involved in the French claims, and also in the same Indian Titles (as well as others), which required liquida- tion and adjustment. But the English title passing to William Penn, and thence by the Divesting Act of the Pennsylvania Legislature to the Com- monwealth itself, coupled with the acquisition of the various Indian Titles and the conquest of the French dominion, constituted a satisfactory basis upon which to rest all subsequent titles. In consequence of this it is rare
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indeed that any recitation of a real estate title prior to the patent deed from the state is made in the searches for land titles in any portion of the county. The state title is accepted as sound and unquestionable.
Hence we have the foundation of our titles resting in two sources: the one in the Indians who were found in possession when the white race entered the land, and which has been purchased pursuant to treaty agree- ments with the red men, sometimes twice or thrice over; the other based on the claims of discovery by Englishmen, granted by their King Charles II to William Penn by his charter of March 4, 1681, his titles divested in favor of the state by the Divestiture Act of 1779; all converging into the state which by various Acts of Assembly authorized the surveys, sub- divisions, reservations, and sales, which resulted in the ultimate migra- tions of great numbers of settlers to the county. These pioneer settlers came from older settlements of staunch, reliable folk who have created a most progressive and desirable population. They brought with them the patriotic principles for which they and their fathers fought in the years of struggle to establish their rights to liberty and the pursuit of happi- ness. And here they established themselves and their religious and edu- cational institutions upon the sanest and safest foundations. They made their schools and churches the sheet anchors of their neighborhood and county governments. As soon as they could establish their homes to shelter their families, they at once set about the erection of their churches and their schools. It is to the credit of our pioneer ancestors that the educational and religious advantages which they provided for themselves and their children, were as advanced and progressive as any community in the country enjoyed. We of today are building, through modern en- lightenment, no more surely and sanely than did those simple, sturdy settlers.
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