History of Venango County, Pennsylvania : its past and present, including, Part 3

Author: Bell, Herbert C. (Herbert Charles), 1868-
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago : Brown, Runk & Co.
Number of Pages: 1323

USA > Pennsylvania > Venango County > History of Venango County, Pennsylvania : its past and present, including > Part 3

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Guyasutha (or Kiashuta) was one of the most trusted lieutenants of Pontiac in that great conspiracy that was designed in its effects to extermi- nate the white people all along the border, and he appears to have had charge of operations in western Pennsylvania. After the Revolution, al- though he had been on the side of Great Britain, he soon saw that his in- terests and those of his people were with the United States.

Mr. Craig in " The Olden Time," Volume I, pages 337-338, has located the place of Guyasutha's sepulture in Allegheny county, but there is very strong evidence that he died, and was buried at Custaloga's Town. There has been a uniform and consistent tradition to that effect in the neighbor- hood of Custaloga's Town time whereof the memory of the oldest resident runs not to the contrary, and during the same time a slight depression in the ground, occasioned by the settling of the earth, has been pointed out as "Guyasutha's grave " by people who had no possible motive for misrepre- sentation. Many residents of that part of the county heard the story of his death and burial circumstantially from the lips of John Martin, Jr., one of the first settlers in the valley of French creek, the greater part of whose life was spent on the farm immediately east of Custaloga's Town, where

:28

HISTORY OF VENANGO COUNTY.

he died at a great age in 1862. In respect to the location of Custaloga's Town, and the burial there of Guyasutha, the late Charles H. Heydrick, a few years before his death, wrote as follows:

My farm is one of a number of tracts purchased soon after the close of the Revo- lutionary war by my grandfather froin soldiers of the Pennsylvania Line, to whom they had been granted by the commonwealth in consideration of military services, and in pursuance of the act of March 12, 1783. Early in the present century, my father, the late Doctor Heydrick, made a tour of inspection of these lands and found evidences of occupation hy the Indians, some portions of the alluvial, "bottom " land-the hest on the creek, or, indeed, anywhere in the whole region-having been cultivated for many years, and other vestiges of the Indian village of Custaloga's Town being still visible. At that time there was living upon an adjoining tract a settler named Martin, who had settled there soon after the remnant of land north and west of the rivers Ohio and Allegheny and Conewango creek, not appropriated to Revolutionary soldiers, or in satisfaction of depreciation certificates, had been thrown open to settlement hy the act of April 3, 1792-certainly as early as 1798. One of Martin's sons, called John, Jr., was a hright, and for the time and under the circumstances, an intelligent young man, and claimed to have been intimate with the Indians, and spoke their language.

In 1819 I first visited the place, and stopped at Martin's house. While there I found many vestiges of the Indian village, and made many inquiries ahout it and its people. In answer to my inquiries John Martin, Jr., told me, among other things, that he had assisted in the hurial of three Indians on my farm, an idiot boy, "Chet's" squaw, and a chief whose name he pronounced "Guy-a-soo-ter." He said that he made the coffin for " Guyasooter." and after it was finished the Indians asked him to cut a hole in it in order that he ("Guyasooter ") might "sce out." He farther said that "they buried all his wealth with him; his tomahawk, gun and brass kettle." Martin pointed out to me the grave of the chief, and the spot was always recognized as such hy the other pioneers of the neighborhood, though I do not remember that any of them except Martin professed to have witnessed the burial. After I came to reside on this farm, on one occasion Martin repeated his statement about the burial of " Guyasooter's" gun, tomahawk and kettle, in the presence of another pioneer who felt unkindly toward him, and the latter made a remark aside, which, while unfavorable to Martin, impliedly corrohorated his statement. * *

* From all the evidence I had on the subject, much of which has doubtless escaped my recollection, and some of which was probably derived from other sources than Martin, I was so well satisfied that the chief named and others were buried at the place designated by Martin that I have to this day preserved a grove about the reputed graves, and have had it in mind to mark the spot by some permanent memorial.

James M. Daily, a pioneer of French Creek township, Mercer county, whose farm adjoined those of Heydrick and Martin and who was a resident of that locality from 1804 until his death, made the following statement regarding the burial of Guyasutha under date of June 15, 1878:

John Martin, Jr., who could converse in the Indian tongue, informed me that he made the coffin and assisted in hurying a chief. They placed in the coffin his camp kettle, filled with soup; his rifle, tomahawk, knife, trinkets, and trophies. I think they called him "Guyasooter."

Some tobacco plants were found growing near these graves by the early settlers, that seemed to be connected with this Indian retreat. Thousands of these plants have been carefully preserved and the plants perpetuated in memory of the quiet sleepers who rest beneath.

MOUND BUILDERS AND INDIANS.

Cornplanter might almost be called our second great man. Although he never had his home in this county, he was often here, and was quite an object of interest in the early days of our history. He was not as renowned a chief as Pontiac, nor did his influence extend as far, yet he was a great. chief amongst the Senecas. Like Logan, the Mingo, he was the friend of the white man and often stood between him and harm.

He was generally known as Cornplanter, but he had an Indian name that has been spelled in different ways." On his monument at Jennesadaga, it is spelled Gy-ant-wa-chia. He had still another name to which his moiety of white blood entitled him. This was John O'Bail, or Abeel. Cornplanter was but a half-breed, his father being a Dutch trader on the Mohawk. It. is probable, too, that his mother was of gentle blood, being a dusky Indian maiden and the daughter of a chief.

We do not know much of his early history. But evidently quite early in life he was trained to the life of a hunter and a warrior. He always alleged that he was born the same year with George Washington-1732. He was at Braddock's defeat in 1755, and fought on the side of the French. Like Washington, he was then quite a young man. We find him, after this,. active among the chiefs of the Senecas, and, later, making the upper Alle- gheny his home. At the time of the threatened outbreak in 1794 he noti- fied the surveyors in this region to leave the woods, as after a certain date they might expect to be attacked. He was the friend of George Power, Colonel McDowell, and Colonel Dale, of Franklin, and often came here to consult with them. On the promise of a certain amount of land secured to him, he became quite friendly to the white people. These lands consisted of a tract at the mouth of Oil creek, and a reservation on the Allegheny north of Warren. On the latter he made his home, and settled down to a quiet life.

During the war of 1812, when a regiment was forming in Crawford and Venango counties to go to the defense of Erie, he was anxious to join the- expedition. Colonel Dale, father of the late S. F. Dale, was lieutenant col- onel of this regiment, and the old chief came down to see him and proposed to bring two hundred braves to join him. The colonel, having no authority to receive them, told him that the war would not amount to much, and they would not be needed. "Well," the old chieftain replied, "the white men have been kind to me, and our corn is planted, and the young men want to go." He was then told that if wanted the colonel would send him word, and he returned to his home.

He never could understand the propriety of paying taxes to the white government. Colonel Dale said to him on this question: "We have bad. white men who require attention and we must have courts and prisons, and this requires money." "But," the chief replied, "there are bad Indians. too, but we attend to them and do not trouble you with them." Taxes were-

HISTORY OF VENANGO COUNTY.

levied, but not paid. A sheriff and posse went to levy on the property. They found any quantity of loaded rifles stacked up near the chief's cabin, and the old man seated in the midst, calm and dignified as a Roman senator. Occasionally the outline of a dusky form was seen in the bush, and on the whole the sheriff thought the circumstances not favorable for making a levy. He returned with his aides without the service. Soon after the legislature passed an act exempting the reservation from taxation, and so it continues to this day.

This grant of land was made in 1796, and his town is called Jen-ne-sa- da-ga, in the instrument.

Cornplanter died at his old home February 18, 1836. If his account of his birth is correct, he was about one hundred and four years of age.

The legislature of Pennsylvania erected a fine monument to his memory at his old home. This was put up under the direction of S. P. Johnson and an address delivered at its dedication October 18, 1866, by J. Ross Snowden. This monument can be seen from the railroad running from Warren to Olean.

As to his personal appearance, he was tall, over six feet, and lithe and active when in his prime. As one of our old citizens saw him here in old age, he was bent with years, blind of an eye, with a wounded hand, yet showing by that single eye much of the fire of an Indian warrior. His general appearance indicated, too, that in his earlier years his life had been a stormy one. Cornplanter was a grand man in his day, honest, temperate, and upright in all his dealings.

Venango county like other places has its traditions of wealth and secret mines that were known to the Indians. One of these is located near Oil City. It is from an old Indian chief of the Moncey tribe named Ross. The old brave always asserted that there were silver mines along the Allegheny. At one time he proposed pointing out one of these mines to an old citizen, then of Franklin. It was said to be situated in a ravine between Franklin and Oil City. After leading the white man up this ravine, where umbrage- ous trees and moss covered rocks made a gloomy and fearful shade, they came to a second ravine, cutting the first upon the right, where ragged rocks and irregular banks suggested the work of an earthquake; passing up the second for a short distance the chief suddenly paused, and with solemn emphasis, said: "I dare not go farther. The mine is within five rods of you; find it for yourself."

There were traditions also of valuable mines of silver and lead run- ning under Sugar creek, near Cooperstown, with which the Indians were familiar. But however poetical these traditions may be, there was no foundation for them in fact.

There is also a beautiful tradition relating to the Oil creek valley. The tradition is, that many moons ago-long before the recollection of the most

MOUND BUILDERS AND INDIANS.

aged chieftains of their tribes-one of their bravest chiefs was afflicted with a painful disease that was rapidly preparing him for the happy hunting grounds of the spirit land. For the good of the tribe he longed to live, and fasted and prayed to the Great Spirit to spare him until his tribe should be delivered from their difficulties. The neighboring tribes were on the warpath, and he feared that his people would fall before them and be scattered like the sere leaves of the forest.

The Great Spirit was propitious, and answered him kindly-

"Spake to him with voice majestic, As the sound of far-off waters Falling into deep abysses,"

telling him that in the valley that should be pointed out to him he would find a great medicine, bubbling up through the ground and mingling with the waters, that should heal him of his maladies and give him strengh to smite his enemies and overcome them. The voice of the Great Spirit, more- over, assured him that this medicine fountain would continue to yield its supply until his tribe should cease following the wilderness and the war- path, and be all gathered into the happy hunting grounds of their fathers; and that it should then be given to a tribe of strangers, with pale faces, who should come over the big waters, and be by them desecrated to com- mon and base uses.

The chieftain rose from the ground, and, although faint with fasting and weakened by disease, set out in quest of the medicine spring. The sun was setting, and the curtains of darkness were gathering around, but there was a light that glowed in the red chieftain's heart. From his lake- side home, he turned his back upon the North star, and faint and weary, he at last reached the place pointed out by the Great Spirit, just as the sun was rising in the East. The medicine was bubbling up with the water; the chief recognized the gift, and found healing and life in its powers. The fountain has continued to yield its supply. It is still the gift of the Great Spirit, and its supplies should be received with gratitude.

The Indian God rock has been an important land-mark no doubt for centuries, and attracted Céloron as a fitting place to locate one of his monu- ments. It is an immense bowlder that seems to have been riven asunder by some mighty force and presents a smooth, level face, inclined to the horizon at an angle of some fifty degrees. Its smooth face attracted the notice of. the Indian chronicler as a fit place on which to inscribe his annals. Its location is about nine miles below the mouth of French creek, and on the eastern bank of the river. At low water it does not touch the river, but at ordinary stage the lower end is in the water and at high flood it is entirely submerged.

We are indebted for a very faithful drawing of this rock to Captain Eastman of the United States army, who came here some sixty years ago to

HISTORY OF VENANGO COUNTY.

INDIAN GOD ROCK.

make a sketch of it for Schoolcraft's great work on the Indians. It was sketched by Captain Eastman while standing in the water up to his waist in order to get the best possible view.

The face of the rock is about twenty-two feet in length and fourteen in breadth. As to the inscription an I interpretation we cannot do better than to quote from Schoolcraft's work on the Indian tribes, Volume IV, page 173.

Of242

INSCRIPTION ON INDIAN GOD ROCK.

The inscription itself appears distinctly to record in symbols the triumphs of hunting and war. The bent bow and arrow are twice distinctly repeated. The arrow

ードッジ

(I GKervan AC^NY

John Wtalmont

MOUND BUILDERS AND INDIANS.

by itself is repeated several times, which denotes a date before the introduction of firearms. The animals captured, to which attention is called by the Indian picto- graphist, are not deer or common game, but objects of higher triumph. There are two large panthers or cougars, variously depicted; the lower one in the inscription de- noting the influence, agreeably to pictographs heretofore published, of medical magic. The figure of a female denotes without doubt a captive; various circles repre- senting human heads denote deaths. One of the subordinate figures depicts by his gorgets a chief. The symbolic sign of a raised hand, drawn before a person, repre- sented with a bird's head, denotes apparently the name of an individual or tribe.

At the foot of the large rock there is a smaller one with a single hieroglyphic.

Indian God is the name given by the boatmen of the early days, and will doubtless possess popular significance for all coming time. The great rock is there still, gazing up through the sunshine and the storm, speaking in an unknown language of the past, and appearing to recount the great- ness of some famous chieftain in the mysterious hieroglyphics of his time .. But the message is largely lost to us, and is but a dim echo of a voice that. may have been both potent and significant at the time it was uttered. Like all other work of man, this monument is fading and perishing. In times. of high water the great masses of ice dash over it; the driftwood infringes; on it; and the action of frost has nearly obliterated its inscription.

HISTORY OF VENANGO COUNTY.

CHAPTER III.

THE FRENCH POSSESSION.

THE JESUIT AND FRANCISCAN MISSIONARIES-EXTENT OF THE FRENCH CLAIMS -CELORON'S EXPEDITION-ROUTE AND PROGRESS-BURIAL OF THE LEADEN PLATES-TRANSLATION-THE RETURN TO CANADA- BONNECAMP'S MAP-ACTUAL OCCUPATION BEGUN-MIL- ITARY POSTS ESTABLISHED-JOHN FRAZIER.

I N the meantime stirring events were transpiring on the European conti- nent. A new world had been opened up; the old world was struggling for power, and the path of enterprise led across the ocean. The Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries of France were specially active, and many of them were soon buried in the wilderness of the great West. Under the peaceful guise of religion they passed among the savage tribes, until they had explored the continent from Lake Erie to the Rocky mountains, and south to the gulf of Mexico, preaching the gospel and establishing missions among the Indians, and everywhere taking possession of the country in the name of God and the king of France. Almost every stream and lake had been navigated and almost every prairie crossed, and the Cross planted and the land taken in possession for a Christian empire in the days to come. Prominent leaders of these intrepid men were Jogues, La Salle, Marquette, and Hennepin.

The time arrived at last for action. An expedition was organized by the French government in 1749 to go on the ground, make surveys, and in the line on which they proposed to claim the territory westward to lay down certain monuments that would prove that they had taken actual possession. The line that they now proposed to defend was that of the Ohio and Mis- sissippi rivers, meaning by the Ohio the Allegheny as well as the Ohio proper.

The expedition was fitted out in Canada by the Marquis de la Gallis- sonière, the governor. It was commanded by Captain Pierre Joseph Celoron, Sieur de Blainville, * a fearless and energetic officer, with eight subalterns, six cadets, an armorer, twenty soldiers, one hundred and eighty Canadians, thirty Iroquois and twenty-five Abenikas. A prominent member of the

*Several reputable historians have heretofore given this officer's name incorrectly. All accepted Canadian authorities and the parish register of Montreal, unanimously call him Pierre Joseph Celoron, Sieur de Blainville. He was horn at Montreal on the 29th of December, 1693, and played an important role during the last years of the French regime in Canada.

THE FRENCH POSSESSION.

party was Reverend Joseph Peter de Bonnecamp, who styles himself "Jesu- itte Mathematicien." He was the chaplain, journalist, scientist, and geog- rapher of the expedition.

Their route after entering Lake Erie was by boats of a light construc- tion to a point opposite Chautauqua lake, near where the village of Bar- celona, New York, now stands. The distance between Lakes Erie and Chau- tauqua is about eight miles, with an ascent of about one thousand feet to the water-shed that divides the lakes. Up this precipitous portage they car- ried their boats and all the impedimenta of the journey, and embarked on Chautauqua lake. L

They had with them a number of leaden plates, about eleven inches long, seven and one-half inches wide, and one-eighth of an inch thick, with the name of the artist, Paul de Brosse, stamped on the back. They were all alike, leaving blanks to insert the dates and names of places where they should be deposited. They were to be buried at certain points along the line, to be referred to as evidences of possession if that fact should be called in question. The inscription was as follows:

In the year 1749, in the reign of Louis XV, King of France, we, Celoron, com- mander of a detachment sent by Monsieur the Marquis de la Gallissonière, Governor General of New France, to re-establish tranquility in some Indian villages of these cantons, have buried this plate of lead at the confluence of the Ohio and Chautauqua, this 29th day of July, near the river Ohio, otherwise Beautiful river, as a monument of the renewal of the possession we have taken of the said river Ohio, and of all those which empty into it, and of all the lands on both sides as far as the sources of the said rivers, as enjoyed or ought to have been enjoyed by the Kings of France pre- ceding, and as they have there maintained themselves by arms and by treaties, es- pecially those of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix la Chapelle.

From Chautauqua lake they found their way into Conewango creek, and so entered the Allegheny at Warren, Pennsylvania, where the first plate was buried. Thence they floated down the river, passing Rivière aux Bœufs (French creek), and debarked at the Indian God rock, nine miles below Franklin. Here the second plate was buried with great pomp and ceremony, as described by Father Bonnecamp.' All the men and officers were drawn up in battle array; Celoron proclaimed with a loud voice, "Vive le Roi," and that possession was now taken of the place in the name of the King. Then a proces verbal was drawn up and signed by the officers wit- nessing the fact.

Celoron's record of the burying of the plates at the Indian God rock is as follows:

August 3, 1749, buricd a leaden plate on the south bank of the Ohio river, four leagues below the River Le Bœuf, opposite a bald mountain, and near a large rock on which are many figures rudely engraved.

The visitor to-day may see the whole scene reproduced in nature. There is the great rock, with its rude engraving, that has kept solemn

-- --

LAN I > 49

DV RECNE

LOVIS XV ROY+

FRANCE NOVS

CELORON

COMMANDANT DVN : -D.E

TACHEMENT

ENVOIE

PAR

MONSIEUR

D.E

CALISSONIERE

COMMANDANT

GENERAL DE LA

NOVVELLE

FRANCE

POVR

RETABLIR

LA TRANAVILLITE

DANS

qVELAVES

VILLAGES

SAUVAGES DE CES CANTONS

AVONS

EŃTERRE

CETTE .

PLAIVE A LENTREE DE LA.

RIVIERE CHINODANIICHETHA LE IS AOUST

PRES

LA RIVIERE. OYO AUTREMENT

BELLE

RIVIERE

POVR

MONVMENT DV RENOVVELLEMENT

DE.

POSSESSION AVE

NOVS AVONS PRIS DE LA DITTE

RIVIERE

OYO

DE TOVTES

CELLES

qVI Y TOMBNT

ET . DE

TOVES

LES

TERPES

DES

DEVX COTES ĮVSIVE

AVX SOVRCES DES

DITTES

RIVIES

VINSI AVER ONT

Jový

OV DV JOVIR

LES PRECEDENTS

ROY'S DE FRANCE

ET AVILS

SISONT

MAINTENVS PAR

LES :

ARMES FET

PAR LES

TRAITTES

SPECIALEMENT

PAR

CEVX

RISVVICK

DVTRCHT

ET DAIX

LA CHPELLE

FAC- SIMILE OF LEADEN PLATE.

THE FRENCH POSSESSION.

watch all the years. Across the river are the lofty hills, running in places into peaks, all covered with the grand forest trees, with the one exception- " a bald mountain"-that is to-day covered with rocks to the exclusion of all vegetation. It, too, has been the watcher of the buried plate all the years. These monuments have fixed the place of burial for all time.

After the discovery of Father Bonnecamp's map locating one of his leaden plates at its base, a party was formed at Franklin consisting of Doctor S. J. M. Eaton, Judge John Trunkey, R. L. Cochran, C. Heydrick, and others, to go down and make an effort to recover the plate. This was in August, 1878. But after diligent search and much excavation, no traces of the plate could be found. The rock bathes its feet in the river at an ordinary stage of water, which at high water rushes around its rim, and the very strong prob- abilities are that perhaps an hundred years ago the superincumbent earth was washed away and the plate swept into the river, or discovered by some Indian to whom its metal would be a most desirable prize. There is evi- dence, too, that since the sketch was made by Captain Eastman, the rock has settled down on its base so that it does not present the same angle to the horizon that it did sixty years ago, and the monument will probably never be recovered.

The expedition then moved onward down the Allegheny and Ohio rivers to the mouth of the Great Miami, depositing leaden plates at several places. Ascending the Miami and crossing a portage to the head waters of the Maumee, it descended that stream to Lake Erie, and thence returned to Canada, arriving at Montreal, November 10, 1749.

One of the most interesting documents extant relating to French explor- ation in the Ohio valley is the "Map of a Voyage made on the Beautiful River in New France, 1749; by the Reverend Father Bonnecamp, Jesuit Mathematician," which is given on the following page. Longitude occi- dentale (west longitude), reckoned from the meridian of Paris, is indicated upon the exterior margin at the top and bottom, and north latitude in a similar manner at the sides; the figures upon the inside margin at the top and bottom denote minutes of longitude, each interval including fifteen minutes, the fourth part of a degree; the figures upon the inside margin at the sides represent leagues in the scale of twenty to a degree, each interval including five leagues or fifteen miles. This mark (#) indicates where lati- tude and longitude were observed; and this (|) where the leaden plates were buried. The following list of French names as given on this map, with the corresponding American designations, will make it easily understood:

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Venango County, Pennsylvania : its past and present, including, Part 3

Author: Bell, Herbert C. (Herbert Charles), 1868- Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Chicago : Brown, Runk & Co. Number of Pages: 1323

Author: Bell, Herbert C. (Herbert Charles), 1868-
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago : Brown, Runk & Co.
Number of Pages: 1323