USA > Pennsylvania > Warren County > History of Warren County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of some of its Prominent Men and Pioneers > Part 13
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" There are, however, two points on which we may with propriety now decide.
"The first, the grant to the Cornplanter of one thousand five hundred acres of land by the General Assembly, on the twenty-fourth day of March, 1789.
" We would long ago have ordered the survey of the land for the Corn- planter, but being willing to gratify him in his choice of a tract, we instructed General Butler to consult with him on that subject, and have waited to this time for his determination. If he will inform us in what part of the unlocated lands of the State he wishes his survey to be made, we will order the Surveyor General to have the tract laid out without further delay.
IO5
CORNPLANTER AND OTHER INDIANS-1790-91.
" The second point on which we shall decide, is the Cornplanter's request, that Half-Town and Mr. Nicholson may remain with him in Philadelphia untill the meeting of the Legislature of the United States, or untill the President shall arrive here. We cheerfully comply with that request, and approve of his sending back the other Chiefs and Warriors.
" And in order to make the residence of the Cornplanter, Half-Town and Mr. Nicholson in Philadelphia, as convenient and agreeable as possible, Coun- cil will instruct their Secretary to provide suitable lodgings for them in a pri- vate family.
" Chiefs and Warriors who are to return to the Seneca Nation :- We desire you to inform the Seneca Nation that the Government of Pennsylvania enter- tains sentiments of the most sincere friendship for them, and are anxious to pre- vent injuries being done by its citizens to their persons and property.
" But as evil disposed men exist in every society, and as violence may sometimes be committed by such men upon the persons and property of the Indians, the Government will think it their duty upon complaint being made of such violence having been committed, to endeavor to have the offenders apprehended and brought to Justice.
" In the instance of the Walkers and Doyle,1 this Council has done every thing in their power to have them secured and brought to tryal. They have succeeded only with respect to Doyle, but will continue their exertions for the securing of the Walkers.
" Doyle will be conveyed next week to Sunbury under a strong guard, to stand his trial ; should he be convicted, there is little doubt of his being capi- tally punished.
" We wish you may arrive at your own homes in good health, and find your families in the possession of the same blessings.
" THOMAS MIFFLIN."
Cornplanter's companions, nevertheless, did not return to their country as early as anticipated. In some way the Chief Big Tree while viewing the sights in the Quaker City received a gun-shot wound in his leg. Thereupon Corn- planter and Half Town, with their interpreter, Joseph Nicholson, attended a subsequent meeting of the Council, and requested that, on account of the wound received by the Big Tree, the chiefs and warriors who were to have returned to the Indian country be permitted to stay in the city until the arrival of the president of the United States. This request was complied with. Subse- quently, after Cornplanter and his friends had met President Washington, and had a "big talk" with him, all returned via Pittsburgh together, well loaded with good substantial presents. Indeed, the supplies, gifts, etc., received by Cornplanter at Philadelphia and sent by wagons to Pittsburgh, filled a large
1 Doyle and two or three brothers by the name of Walker had killed two of the Seneca tribe on Pine Creek, then in the township of Lycoming, Northumberland county, in June, 1790. These were the murders referred to by Cornplanter when he first arrived in Philadelphia.
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
bateau or keel boat, which, after the voyage up the Allegheny had been com- menced, unprincipled white wretches from Pittsburgh attempted to steal - both boat and cargo.
It appears, however, that a certain class of residents of the latter town were only maintaining their former unenviable reputation when they endeavored to steal Cornplanter's boat and contents, since Colonel Brodhead in a letter dated at Pittsburgh, June 27, 1779, says : " The inhabitants of this place are continu- ally encroaching on what I conceive to be the rights of the Garrison and which was always considered as such when the Fort was occupied by the King of Britain's Troops. They have now the assurance to erect their fences within a few yards of the Bastion. I have mentioned the impropriety of their Conduct but without effect, The Block-houses, likewise, which are part of the strength of the place, are occupied and claimed by private persons to the injury of the service." Again on the 9th of July following the worried Colonel made another complaint as follows: "Whilst I am writing, I am tor- mented by at least a dozen drunken Indians, and I shall be obliged to remove my Quarters from hence on account of a cursed villainous set of inhabitants, who, in spite of every exertion continue to rob the soldiers, or cheat them and the Indians out of everything they are possessed of."
Soon after Cornplanter's return to his old home on the upper waters of the Allegheny, he made choice of the lands which suited him best (which, by the way, proved to be at or near the place where he was then living), and promptly notified Governor Mifflin by letter of the location, etc., coupled with the request that a survey of the same be made as early as practicable. In direct- ing the attention of the Senate and House of Representatives of the Common- wealth to this matter the governor said : "Gentlemen: 1 have directed the Secretary to lay before you a Copy of a Letter from Cornplanter, in which that Chief requests that orders of survey may be issued for three tracts of Land, amounting in quantity to the 1500 acres which were granted to him by a reso- lution of the General Assembly of the 24th March, 1789, but differing in point of situation.I From the Information, however, contained in a Letter from the officers of the Land Office, a copy of which will likewise be transmitted to you, I find that the proposed tracts are unappropriated ; and as the resolution referred to describes Lands within the Tract of Country lately purchased from the United States, which Country has not yet been the subject of any Legislative provision, in respect to grants, and confirmations by Patent, permit me to sug- gest the propriety of complying with Cornplanter's request, and of authorizing the officers in the Land office to grant the Warrants, direct the surveys and issue the Patent which may be necessary upon the occasion." This communica- tion properly signed and indorsed was dated Philadelphia, January 22, 1791.
1 It was supposed by General Butler, when he recommended that a grant of land be made to Corn- planter, that the latter would make choice of lands in the " late purchase," meaning the territory bor- dering on Lake Erie.
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CORNPLANTER AND OTHER INDIANS-1790-91.
The preliminary matters of granting warrants, making surveys, etc., having been attended to early in the year last mentioned, Cornplanter, with his two wives, his children, and a following of many others of his band,1 including men, women and children, soon after became permanently established upon the site of one of his former towns (that is, the first village destroyed by Colonel Brod- head in 1779, after proceeding up the river above "Canawago"), where, as- sisted by white men sent to him for that purpose, he began the erection of log cabins. Thus he with his followers became the first permanent residents in the county after the acquisition of its territory by Pennsylvania. His grant, or patent, embraced about six hundred and forty acres of land on the west bank of the Allegheny River, sixteen miles above Warren, together with two large adjacent islands, or, in other words, tracts, aggregating about fifteen hundred acres in extent, situated in the present township of Elk. Here he resided until his death, which did not take place until nearly a half century later.
According to Rev. Timothy Alden, the founder of Allegheny College, the village established by Cornplanter on the lands granted to him was named Jen-ne-sa-de-go, or Tin-nes-hau-ta-go, which means "burnt houses, since one of the Seneca towns destroyed by Colonel Brodhead in the summer of 1779 was located here." The same gentleman also said that Cornplanter's Indian names were as follows: Ki-end-twoh-ke, or The Planter, and No-nuh, or The Contemplative; but they (the Indians) usually addressed him as Shin- ne-wau-nah, or The Gentleman.
From Day's " Historical Collections of Pennsylvania " we select the follow- ing sketch of the distinguished chieftain, whose life was so closely associated with the Indian history of Northwestern Pennsylvania, and particularly that of Warren county :
" Few names are more distinguished in the frontier history of Pennsylvania than that of Cornplanter. He was born at Conewaugus, on the Genesee River, 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 1822 [of course by an interpreter] to the Governor of Pennsylvania 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
1 Soon after the Meads and other pioneers settled at Meadville, Crawford county, Pa., Cornplanter and his band paid them a friendly visit, and such visits were frequently repeated during subsequent years. It was then that these white settlers noticed that a number of white men were living with the Indians, among whom were Lashley Malone, who was captured in the Bald Eagle valley, Pa .; Peter Krause, a German by birth, who was taken on Duncan's ('reek, near the head of the Monongahela, in Virginia; Elijah Mathews, who was captured on Graves's Creek, Ohio: Nicholas Rosencrantz, the son of a minister, and Nicholas Tanewood, who were taken in the Mohawk valley, New York. Krause, Mathews, and Rosencrantz were married to Indian women. These men having lived from boyhood with their captors, were thoroughly weaned from the habits of civilization, and preferred to remain with the Indians. Rev. Timothy Alden, of Meadville, while on a visit to Cornplanter in the fall of 1816, stayed over night at the cabin of Peter Krause, on the Allegheny, where he was then living with his Indian wife and family.
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
neighborhood, and they took notice of my skin being of a different color from theirs, and spoke about it; I inquired of my mother the cause, and she told me that my father was a resident of Albany, N. Y. I still ate my victuals out of a bark dish. I grew up to be a young man and married me a wife, but 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 provision to eat on the way. He gave me neither kettle nor gun, neither did he tell me that the United States were about to rebel against the government of England.'
" Little further is known of his early life beyond the fact that he was allied with the French in the engagement against Gen. 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, eloquent, brave, and he most probably participated in the principal Indian engagements against the United States during the war. He is supposed 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 Gen. 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 Kill and the Mohawk. On this occasion he took his father a pris- oner, 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 customs 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 I have 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 will be sparcd. 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 my trusty young men to con- duct 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.
" Notwithstanding his bitter hostility while the war continued, he became the fast friend of the United States when once the hatchet was buried. His sagacious intellect comprehended at a glance the growing power of this coun-
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CORNPLANTER AND OTHER INDIANS-1790-91.
try and the abandonment with which England had requited the fidelity of the Senecas. He therefore threw all his influence at the treaties of Fort Stanwix and Fort McIntosh in favor of peace; and notwithstanding the vast conces- sions which he saw his people were necessitated to make, still, by his energy and prudence in the negotiation, he retained for them an ample and beautiful reservation. For the course which he took on those occasions, the State of Pennsylvania granted him the fine reservation upon which he resided on the Allegheny. The Senecas, however, were never well satisfied with his course in relation to these treaties; and Red Jacket, more artful and eloquent than his older rival, but less frank and honest, seized upon this circumstance to pro- mote his own popularity at the expense of Cornplanter.
"Having buried the hatchet, Cornplanter sought to make his talents useful to his people by conciliating the good will of the whites, and securing from further encroachments the little remnant of his national domain. On more than one occasion, when some reckless and bloodthirsty whites on the frontier had massacred unoffending Indians in cold blood, did Cornplanter interfere to restrain the vengeance of his people. During all the Indian wars from 1790 to 1794, which terminated with Wayne's victory over the northwestern tribes, Cornplanter1 pledged himself that the Senecas should remain friendly to the United States. He often gave notice to the garrison at Fort Franklin of intended attacks from hostile parties, and even hazarded his life on a media- torial mission to the Western tribes. He ever entertained a high respect and personal friendship for Washington, 'the great councillor of the Thirteen Fires,' and often visited him during his presidency on the business of his tribe. His speeches on these occasions exhibit both his talent in composition and his adroitness in diplomacy. Washington fully reciprocated his respect and friend- ship. They had fought against each other on the disastrous day of Braddock's field. Both were then young men. More than forty years afterwards, when Washington was about to retire from the presidency, Cornplanter made a special visit to Philadelphia to take an affectionate leave of the great benefactor of the white man and the red.
"After peace was permanently established between the Indians and the United States, Cornplanter retired from public life and devoted his labors to his own people. He deplored the evils of intemperance, and exerted himself to suppress it. The benevolent efforts of missionaries among his tribe always received his encouragement, and at one time his own heart seemed to be softened by the words of truth; yet he preserved in his later years many of the peculiar notions of the Indian faith."
1 This statement is incorrect. Cornplanter was unfriendly in 1794, and, without a doubt, if Wayne had been defeated the Senecas would have become generally hostile, with Cornplanter's approval. See next chapter.
8
IIO
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
CHAPTER XII.
FROM 1791 TO 1800.
Troublous Times on the Border-Baneful British Influence-Uneasy Iroquois-Colonel Proctor Visits Them-Interesting Details Gathered From Ilis Journal-His Mission a Failure- St. Clair Defeated-The Iroquois Become Insolent-Their Arrogant Demands-Cornplanter Joins the Malcontents-Extracts from Letters Written by Andrew Ellicott, Brant the Mo- hawk, and John Adlum-Wayne's Victory-Salutary Effects-Iroquois Ardor Cooled-The Treaty at Canandaigua-The British Retire from American Territory-Cornplanter's Speech at Franklin-The Holland Land Company-Town of Warren Laid Out by State Commission- ers-Survey of Lands West of the Allegheny River-Advent of the First Settlers-A Block- house at Warren-Navigable Waters-Origin of the Reserve Tracts and Academy Lands.
F OR more than a decade of years after England had been forced to acknowl- edge the independence of the United States, British troops held all the forts on the American side of the boundary line, in open violation of the treaty of peace, alleging that the Americans had also failed to comply with its provisions. Embittered by defeat and not without hopes of again becoming masters of the ambitious, yet weak and poverty-stricken, confederated States, their influence over the Six Nations and the Western Indians was most bane- ful. They openly assumed a protectorate over the Iroquois and advised them to resist by force the occupation of lands which had already been ceded by the Indians to the Americans. Hence, as a result of such advice, and the intrigues of the Tory Colonel Butler, and the detestable Mohawk chieftain, Brant, the majority of the Senecas, eight years after the close of the Revolu- tionary War, were almost at the point of marching into Ohio to join the West- ern tribes in their operations against the military forces of the United States. At this critical moment Cornplanter, alone almost, of all those high in author- ity in his nation, remained true to his pledges as the friend of the Americans. For a time he stood as firm as the tall pines which cast their shadows over the waters of his beloved Allegheny. For three or four years after his visit to Philadelphia he counseled peace and moderation ; but before the troubles were over-i. c., just before General Wayne administered such signal and deserved punishment to the Indians-he, too, was forced to bend before the popular clamor of his people, to join the majority in their avowed hostility to the Americans, to make unjust demands, and declare that the terms of former treaties must be abrogated, and to threaten violence unless such demands were acceded to.
To counteract the evil influence of the British officers and their emissaries, as well as the bad effects resulting from Harmer's defeat by the Western Indians during the preceding fall, early in 1791 Colonel Thomas Proctor, who had won distinction in the Pennsylvania Line during the Revolution, was instructed to visit the Seneca Indians, and use his utmost endeavors to gain
III
FROM 1791 TO 1800.
their confidence, and to persuade them to use their influence to stop the hos- tilities of the Western Indians (against whom General St. Clair was then pre- paring to move), and to that end to send a delegation of chiefs along with him on a mission to the Miamis.
Proctor's commission was signed by General Knox, secretary of war, March 10, 1791, and two days later, accompanied by Captain M. G. Houdin, he started forth on horseback from Philadelphia. He journeyed via Reading, Wilkesbarre, Tioga Point, Chemung, Newtown (now Elmira, N. Y.), to an Indian town a considerable distance beyond Painted Post, with the intention of proceeding direct to Buffalo, where he expected to meet the Seneca chiefs in council. But having learned at the last-mentioned place that Captain O'Beal, the Cornplanter, had not yet returned to his towns on the Allegheny from his visit to Philadelphia, and deeming it of the utmost importance that this chieftain should be present at the council, Proctor herc secured the serv- ices of Horatio Jones, an interpreter, and determined to turn aside, and on reaching the Allegheny to proceed down that stream until Cornplanter should be met. He arrived at Cornplanter's "upper town " on the night of April 6.
This town, Proctor informs us, was located on the north side of the Alle- gheny River, and was called " New Arrow's1 town," or " Tenachshegonchton- gee, or the burnt house." It contained twenty-eight "tolerably well built houses," one of which, new, neat and clean, was set apart for the use of Proc- tor and his party. At this place it was ascertained that Cornplanter was at Fort Franklin, at the mouth of French Creek, which point, said Proctor, was distant about one hundred and thirty iniles down the river from New Arrow's town. This would indicate that the latter was located in the vicinity of the site of Olean, N. Y., which, by actual measurement of a United State's officer of topographical engineers, is one hundred and thirty-two miles by river, above the mouth of French Creek. Still, since Proctor's estimate was based on con- jecture alone, there might have been a variation in his calculation of fifteen or twenty miles from the true distance. Proctor's journal, however, establishes one or two interesting facts - that Cornplanter's immediate followers were then located in at least three different villages, widely separated one from another, i. c., at Tenachshegouchtongee, on the Allegheny, in New York; at Cayantha, on the Conewango, just over the State line in New York, and at Jennesadaga, the "lower town," situated on the lands now known as the " Cornplanter Res- ervation," in Warren county. Also that Cornplanter was then living on the lands granted him by the State of Pennsylvania, that is, Jennesadaga, where, by the way, he had resided for years before the grant was made.
From Tenachshegouchtongee Colonel Proctor proceeded in a canoe, guided by young Indians, to Fort Franklin, where he met Cornplanter, and where he
' The chief, New Arrow, one of Cornplanter's subordinates and one of his warmest supporters, resided here.
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
was warmly received by the commandant, Ensign John Jeffers, of the Con- neeticut Line, or First U. S. Regiment of Infantry. Cornplanter was calm and bore himself with becoming dignity, but those of his tribe with him were highly excited. They had just heard of the seizure of their boats and stores by certain people near Pittsburgh (see preceding chapter), but upon being assured by Colonel Proctor that he would see to it that all should be restored to them (and it was done a few days later), they became quiet and friendly. A day or so later, accompanied by Cornplanter and a large number of his band, Proctor moved up the Allegheny in canoes en route to Buffalo. They passed the night of April 14 at the mouth of "Casyonding Creek," i. e., the Brokenstraw. On the following day, Proctor being ill and almost helpless from rheumatism, he urged his eanoe-men to push forward in advance of the fleet in order to reach Cornplanter's "lower town " at the earliest moment; but he says the current was so swift and strong against them, slow progress was made, and the town was not reached until in the night. Here he applied to an Indian doctor for treatment, but the poultice of bruised roots and herbs applied to his foot to relicve the pain in the upper part of his leg was so effective in increasing his agony, that he became seriously alarmed and quickly dispensed with the poul- tice, compounded with so much patience and care by the native practitioner. He had passed the mouth of the " Canawaugo " during the last day's journey, where, he noted in his journal, " the Government of Pennsylvania has laid out a manor of 3000 acres, and up the said river (Canawaugo) to an Indian town called Cayantha, or the Cornfields, are extraordinary rich lands, of which sur- vey was made by David Rittenhouse, Esq"., of Philadelphia some time since."
After a brief rest at Jennesadaga, the journey up the river was contin- ued to the upper town, or the Cattaraugus settlement, where Poctor had left his horse, also Captain Houdin, who was quite ill from exposure, and from thence across the country to Buffalo, Houdin, Cornplanter, and quite a follow- ing of Senecas accompanying him. At Buffalo he found the English influence very strong, the Indians obtaining supplies not only of clothing, but of provi- sions, from Forts Erie and Niagara. On the commissioner's arrival, "Young King," who could not have been over twenty-two or three years old, met him, appareled in the full uniform of a British colonel - red, with blue facings and gold cpaulettes. The Senecas were also in possession of a two-pound swivel, which they fired in honor of the occasion, the gunner wisely standing inside the council-house, while he touched it off with a long pole passed between the logs. The charge was so heavy that it upset the gun and its carriage.
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