History of Warren County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of some of its Prominent Men and Pioneers, Part 14

Author: Schenck, J. S., [from old catalog] ed; Rann, William S., [from old catalog] joint ed; Mason, D., & co., Syracuse, N.Y., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & co.
Number of Pages: 1020


USA > Pennsylvania > Warren County > History of Warren County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of some of its Prominent Men and Pioneers > Part 14


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At this time the celebrated Red Jacket had risen to a high position as an orator (though in war he was known to be cowardly, and was frequently spoken of in derision, by Cornplanter and other chiefs, as the " cow-killer "), being mentioned by Proctor as "the great speaker and a prince of the Turtle tribe." In fact, however, he belonged to the Wolf elan.


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FROM 1791 TO 1800.


On Proctor's stating his object in the council, Red Jacket questioned his authority. This, as the colonel was informed by a French trader, was the result of the insinuations of Butter and Brant, who had been there a week before and had advised the Indians not to send a delegation to the Miamis. Proctor offered to present his credentials to any one in whom they had confidence, and they at once sent for the commandant at Fort Erie. The latter sent back Captain Powell, who seems to have acted as a kind of guardian to the Indians during the proceedings. These were very deliberate, and were adjourned from day to day.


Red Jacket was the chief speaker for the Indians, and declared their deter- mination to move the council to Niagara, insisting on the commissioner accom- panying them the next day as far as Captain Powell's house, below Fort Erie. Proctor peremptorily declined. Then Red Jacket and Farmer's Brother ad- dressed the council by turns, the result being that a runner was at once sent to Niagara to summon Colonel Butler to the council. After two or three days' delay Butler came to Winne's trading-house (which was on the site of Buffalo, and four miles from the main Seneca village) and requested the sachems and head men to meet him there, but said nothing about Proctor.


While waiting the commissioner dined with "Clear Sky," head chief of the Onondagas, whose " castle " he describes as being three miles east from " Buf- faloe," meaning from the Seneca village. There were twenty-eight good cabins near it, and the inhabitants were well clothed, especially the women, some of whom, according to Colonel Proctor, were richly dressed, " with silken stroud " and silver trappings worth not less than £30 per suit. It seems, too, that they had advanced so far in civilization that the women were invited to the feast of the warriors, which consisted principally of young pigeons boiled and stewed. These were served up in hanks of six, tied around the necks with deer's sin- ews, and were ornamented with pin feathers. However, the colonel managed to make a good meal.


On the 4th of May the Indians went to Winne's store, to hold council with Butler. The latter invited Proctor to dine with him and his officers, including Captains Powell and Johnston. They (the English officers) spoke the Seneca language fluently, and advised the chiefs not to go with the commissioner then, but to wait for Brant, who had gone West. Red Jacket and Cornplanter used their influence in favor of Proctor, but Young King, Farmer's Brother, and the " Fish Carrier," a Cayuga chieftain, strongly opposed him. Every paper delivered to the chiefs was handed over to Butler for his inspection, who went back to Fort Erie next day.


On the 6th of May Red Jacket announced to the commissioner that there would be no council held, as the honorable councilors were going out to hunt pigeons. Proctor makes special mention of the immense number of pigeons found-over a hundred nests on a tree, with a pair of pigeons in each.


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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.


On the 7th a private council was held, at which lands were granted to Indi- ans of other tribes, who had fled from the Shawanese and Miamis. "Captain Smoke," and the Delawares under his charge were assigned to the Cattaraugus settlement, where their descendants dwell at the present time. Several Mas- sasauga families at the same time had planting-grounds given them near the village of Buffalo Creek.


On the 11th Proctor declares that there was a universal drunk; "Corn- planter, and some of the elder women excepted," from which it is to be pre- sumed that the young women indulged with the rest.


Finally on the 15th of May the oldest women visited the commissioner and declared that they had taken the matter into consideration, and that they should be listened to, for, said they : "We are the owners of this land, and it is ours;" adding, as an excellent reason for the claim, "for it is we that plant it." They then requested Colonel Proctor to listen to a formal address from the "women's speaker," they having appointed Red Jacket for that purpose.


The alarm gun was fired and the chiefs came together, the elder women being seated near them. Red Jacket arose, and after many florid prelimina- ries announced that the women had decided that the sachems and warriors must help the commissioner, and that a number of them would accompany him to the West.


Colonel Proctor was overjoyed at this happy exemplification of women's rights, and seems to have thought there would be no further difficulty. He forthwith dispatched a letter by the trusty hand of his interpreter, Horatio Jones, to Colonel Gordon, the English commandant at Niagara, asking that himself and the Indians might take passage on some British merchant-vessel running up Lake Erie, since the chiefs refused to make the journey by land or to go in an open boat. But Gordon, in the usual spirit of English officials on the frontier at that time, refused the permission, and so the whole scheme fell through. It was just what was to have been expected, though l'roctor does not seem to have anticipated it, and it is very likely the whole thing was well understood between the British and Indians.


While it was supposed that Red Jacket and others would go West with Proctor, that worthy had several requests to make. Firstly, the colonel was informed that his friends expected something to drink, as they were going to have a dance before leaving their women. This the commissioner responded to with a present of "eight gallons of the best spirits." Then Red Jacket remarked that his house needed a new floor, and Proctor offered to have one made. Then he preferred a claim for a special allowance of rum for his wife and mother, and in fact-well, he wanted a little rum for himself. So the colonel provided a gallon for the great orator and his wife and mother. Young King was not less importunate, but Cornplanter was modest and dignified, as became a veteran warrior. But the worthy commissioner made due provision for them all.


115


FROM 1791 TO 1800.


The projected expedition having thus fallen through, Young King made a farewell speech, being aided by "Fish Carrier," the Cayuga, whose "keen gravity" reminded Proctor of a Roman senator, and who seems to have been a man of great importance, though never putting himself forward as a speech- maker.


The Indians must have had a pretty good time during Proctor's stay among them, since his liquor bill at Cornelius Winne's was over a hundred and thirty dollars.


All this counciling having come to naught, Proctor set out for Pittsburgh on the 21st of May. He was accompanied as far as the New Arrow's town, a distance of eighty miles, by Cornplanter, Half Town, and others of the Alle- gheny River Indians. There he hired a canoe and two Indians to paddle him to Fort Franklin, where he arrived on the next morning in time to take break- fast with Lieutenant Jeffers. At Fort Franklin he hired another canoe and four Indians and pushed off for Pittsburgh, which place he says was distant one hundred and fifty-six miles1 by river from Fort Franklin, and was reached in twenty-five hours. Thus the journey from Buffalo to Pittsburgh, a distance of four hundred and eleven miles, according to Proctor's computation, was accomplished in five days and two nights of travel.


In November of that year (1791) General St. Clair's army met with a crushing defeat at the hands of the combined Northwestern tribes, and this disaster, together with the pernicious influence of the British, aroused all the worst pas- sions of the Iroquois. Their manners toward the Americans became insolent in the extreme, and some of their warriors joined the hostile savages. There is little doubt that another severe disaster would have disposed a large part of them to rise in arms, and take revenge for the unforgotten though well-mer- ited punishment inflicted upon them by Sullivan and Brodhead. Yet they kept up negotiations with the United States; in fact, nothing delighted the chiefs more than holding councils, making treaties, and performing diplomatic pilgrimages. They felt that at such times they were indeed "big Indians."


The years 1792-93 were passed in fear and trepidation by the few Amer- ican families living northwest of the Allegheny River in Pennsylvania. Many depredations and a few murders were committed by small bands of savages, by many believed to be Senecas; but when Cornplanter was questioned con- cerning these outrages, he declared that the Senecas were yet at peace with the Americans, and that the hostiles came from the West. In 1794, however, affairs in Northwestern Pennsylvania assumed a most threatening aspect. Gar- risons of American troops were, and had been for years, maintained at Forts Franklin 2 and Le Bœuf, but when it was proposed to establish a fort and lay


1 By actual measurement the distance from Franklin, then known as Fort Franklin, to Pittsburgh by river, is only 1211/2 miles.


2 The first military occupation of Northwestern Pennsylvania by the Americans was in the spring


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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.


out a town at Presque Isle, the Senecas, including the Cornplanter, declared that it should not be done. They flatly repudiated the treaties of 1784 and 1789, and demanded that a new boundary line should be drawn. Indeed, some of them threatened that unless all the lands lying west of the Allegheny were relinquished, war would surely take place.


Baneful British influence was now in the ascendency, and Cornplanter finally yielded to it, and to the clamor of his people in their demands for a new treaty, new stipulations, or war. In speeches in councils held at Buffalo and Le Bœuf, in June, 1794, and at each of which British officers were present, this chief was bold in his demands for a new treaty, and threatened that unless a vast tract should be restored to the Indians (which territory would have in- cluded the greater portion of the county of Warren), dire would be the consequences.


At this time Colonel Andrew Ellicott, the surveyor, was at Fort Le Bœuf, and in a letter describing the condition of affairs he said: "The Indians con- sider themselves as our enemies and that we are theirs. From this considera- tion they never come near the garrison except as spies, and then escape as soon as discovered."


Although the Cornplanter and other Seneca chiefs strenuously denied that they were then acting under British advice and influence, the following extract from a letter written by Brant, the Mohawk, clearly proves that they were not telling the truth. Possessed of a fair English education, the protégé of Sir William Johnson of colonial fame-hence thoroughly British in his instincts and sympathies and bitterly hostile through life to the Americans-Brant then cherished the idea, originated by Pontiac, of building up a great Indian confed- eracy, of which he was to be the principal chief, and restricting the control of the Americans to the country east of the Allegheny River. The letter referred to was dated July 19, 1794, and was addressed to Governor Simcoe, of Upper Canada, wherein he says:


"In regard to the Presque Isle business, should we not get an answer at the time limited, it is our business to push those fellows hard. Should those fellows (the Americans) not go off, and O'Bail, (Cornplanter) continue in the same opinion [meaning his recently avowed hostility to the Americans], an expedition against those Yankees must of consequence take place. Ilis Excellency has been so good as to furnish us with a 100 weight of powder, and ball in proportion, which is now at Fort Eric, opposite Buffalo ; but in the event of an attack upon Le Bœuf people, I could wish, if consistent, that his Excellency in addition would order a like quantity in addition, to be


of 1787, when a company of United States troops, eighty-seven strong, under the command of Captain Jonathan Hart, marched from Pittsburgh to the mouth of French Creck. There be built Fort Frank- lin, and there a garrison was maintained (sometimes by State troops) until 1803. During the Indian troubles from 1791 to 1794 the troops stationed there rendered important service in protecting the early settlers at Meadville, or, as it was then termed, the " C'ussewago Settlement."


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FROM 1791 TO 1800.


at Fort Erie in order to be in readiness ; likewise, I would hope for a little as- sistance in provisions."


Again, to further illustrate the position occupied by Cornplanter, and the condition of affairs on the Pennsylvania border at that time, the following letter from John Adlum (the surveyor of many tracts in Northwestern Pennsylvania) to Governor Mifflin is appended :


"FORT FRANKLIN, August 31^1, 1794.


" DEAR SIR: I returned yesterday from a second trip I had to the Corn Planter's Town-having been sent for by him to go to the treaty said to be held at Buffaloe Creek, near Lake Erie.


" When I arrived at his Town, which was the 23rd of this Inst., informa- tion came that it would not be held until about the Ioth day of Sept. I, there- fore, concluded it best to return to this place.


" The next day after I got to his town, a party of nineteen Chiefs & war- riors arrived from the Grand River, on the North Side of Lake Erie.


" The Corn Planter had given me notice that such a party were on their way to protect their women and children while their chiefs were at council.


" I told the Corn Planter that such a guard was unnecessary, as the Amer- icans wished to live at peace with the Indians.


" He answered, that we could not know who were our enemies, and it was well to be prepared, and insinuated as much as if they feared the Western Indians. But, says he, they are wholly under my direction, and nothing is to be feared from them; for they will hunt with my warriors until I know the result of Gen1 Washington's answer, for they will behave themselves soberly and orderly until then. If the answer is favourable to us, they will return to their homes; if not, times will be very bad and troublesome immediately ; though, says he, we mean not to make war on women and children, but on men, and with the men we mean to fight, and hope the white flesh, as he calls us, will not set us any bad examples; and the way that these men came to be sent here is this : Capt. Brandt sent to us, and desired us to move off the land, for that times would soon be dangerous. I answered, we are not afraid to live here, and as our corn &c. is planted, we intend to stay and enjoy the fruits of our labour. But Brandt sent again, and said that the regard he had for us made him very uneasy for our safety. I returned him the same answer as before, and added, if you have the regard for us you say you have, send us some people to protect us ; and in consequence of this, he sent us these men.


" There was a Mr Rosencranz with me at the Town-an Interpreter-and we staid at the Corn Planter's house while we were at Town, and the General conversation of the Indians was about the times, and were very anxious to have our opinion whether their request or demand would be granted or not ; and the Chiefs concluded their conversation that nothing but the Lands required would do, and that they wished to know whether Gen1 Washington


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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.


would grant their request or not. I told them to wait patiently, and the per- sons whom the Gen' had appointed would inform them when they met them at the treaty. I enquired if money would not do, provided they received an annual sum. The Cornplanter answered, it might have done some time ago, but at present nothing but the lands would do to make the minds of the Six Nations easy.


" I told him that possibly when he had seen the Commissioners, and con- sidered better, that the minds of the Indians might be made easy, and then dropped the subject.


" He laughs at the Idea of our keeping the posts, either at Le Bœuf or the Mouth of French Creek, should there be a war, for, he says, it is not possible for us to supply them with provisions, as they will constantly have parties along the River and path to cut off all supplies, and that we soon would be obliged to run away from them.


" I don't know how far it may operate in our favour should Gen1 Waine be successful, to the Westward ; but it appears to me that War is inevitable, and, I think, Capt Brandt has a very great hand in it, and his policy is to get the whole of the Six Nations on the North Side of the Lakes, as it will make him the more consequential, for, at present, there is but a small number of them there.


" I have wrote to General Wilson of Northumberland on the subject, a copy of which I enclose, and intend writing to Gen1 Wilkins and Col. Campbell on the same subject.


"The posts along the Allegheny River, kept by the eight months' men,1 are a burlesque on the Military art, at least those that I have seen of them, (for the officers and men are generally Jack fellow alike), and I have passed them when the men have been lolling about without either guard or Centry, and from Enquiry find it to be too generally the case, and I am certain that they might be surprised any day or night by an Inferior number.


"Capt. Denny has endeavoured to keep up Military discipline at Le Bœuf, and has got the ill will of the men generally; they say he is too severe, but from enquiry I cannot find he has punished any of them, although some of them deserve death, having been found asleep on their posts.


"Some of his men mutinied some days ago, and I enclose copies of his and Mr. Ellicott's letters on the subject to the commanding officers of this post.


" The Cornplanter desired Mr. Ellicott should attend the treaty and I sent a runner to Le Bœuf for that purpose.


" This post is commanded by an active and vigilant officer, who keeps up the strictest discipline, and has made great improvements in the works. It is wrongly situated, for should a war take place, fleets of Canoes may pass and repass up and down the Allegheny River, without any person being the wiser


1 These troops were Pennsylvania volunteers.


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FROM 1791 TO 1800.


for it; and the ground is of such a nature that the bank of the Creek on which it is situated caves in very much; and a few days ago, after a rain, a great piece of the bank fell in with a part of the picketts. The Block-house is in a bad condition, as the logs near the foundation are nearly rotted, and the place is supplied with cattle instead of salt provisions; and the cattle will only sup- ply the enemy, should they attack the post, and the garrison be obliged to live on flour alone.


" The Cornplanter desired me to give notice that it was unnecessary to send any more provisions to Le Bœuf, as the garrison would soon have to leave it.


" The son of the Black Chief at the Cornplanter's town made me a present of a hog while I was there, and the morning before I came away Half Town informed me he had dreamed that I made a feast and dance with it; and as it is a general custom to give the Indians what they dream for, (provided they are not too extravagant), and I wished for an opportunity to get the senti- ments of the Indians generally, I told him that he must have it, and superin- tend the feast, and that I would buy another, that the whole Town might par- take.


" It is the custom of the Indians, at such times, to set up a post and strike it, and brag of the feats they have done, or those they intend. Some of the old chiefs were very delicate, and only told of their feats against the Chero- kees, as they said they might injure my feelings if they mentioned any thing concerning the whites; others wished General Washington would not grant their request, that they might have one more opportunity of shewing their bravery and expertness in war against us.


" The Cornplanter bragged often, and appeared to speak as if war was cer- tain. In one of his brags he gave me a pair of Moccasins, saying, as he addressed himself to me: 'It is probable we shall have war very soon. I wish every person to do their duty to their Country, and expect you will act your . part as becomes a man ; and I see your moccasins are nearly worn out. I give you this pair to put on when you come out to fight us.' I took them and thanked him, and said I would reserve them for that purpose. Du Quania, who headed the party of Indians from the North Side of the Lakes, in one of his brags, said, That he was always an enemy to the Americans; that he served the King last war, and when peace was concluded he moved over the Lakes, which some said was through fear. 'But,' says he, 'you see it is not so, for I still love the King and hate the Americans, and now that there is like to be danger, you see me here to face it.' The Indians in General seemed to wish me to suppose that the British had no hand in the present business, but from several things they related to me, it appeared plain that they are at the bottom of it.


" I think it would be but prudent to cover the frontier of this state (until


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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.


the event is known) with some light companies from the Counties adjoining the frontier Counties, and those companies of the frontier Counties that are not immediately on the frontier, for where attacks may be made the people will be obliged to turn out and defend themselves. If the Indians are not sat- isfied they will, I think, certainly make a stroke some time between the 25th Sept and the Middle of October; and if they do not go to war the troops may return home, otherwise they will be ready to meet them; and the settlements ought not to be broke up if possible to prevent it, which, I think, may be done. I expected to hear, with General Washington's answer to the Indians, of the whole frontier being covered with troops from this State, New York, &c, and if the Indians would not put up with reasonable terms, to march into their country immediately, and destroy their corn and provisions, and probably drive them over the Lakes, as every avenue into their country is well known, and we could go into it with every advantage that any people can have in such an enemy's Country.


" I am, Dear Sir, Respectfully, " Your Most Hbl Serv', "JOHN ADLUM."


But it was destined that the treaty proposed by the Senecas should not take place, nor their sanguinary threats be enforced in case of a refusal to accede to their demands, for, eleven days prior to the date of Adlum's letter, a battle had been fought in the West, which, when its results became known, entirely changed the current of thought and conversation among those chiefly inter- ested - the Americans, the British on the frontier, and the Indians, including the Six Nations.


It appears that during the spring and summer of 1794 an American army was assembled at Greenville, in the present State of Ohio, under the command of General Anthony Wayne, a bold, energetic, and experienced commander of Pennsylvania troops during the Revolutionary War. His force consisted of about two thousand regulars, and fifteen hundred mounted volunteers from Kentucky. To oppose him the Northwestern tribes had collected their fighting men, amounting to nearly three thousand warriors, near a British fort crected since the treaty of 1783, and in violation of its obligations, at the foot of the Maumee Rapids. They were well supplied with arms and ammunition obtained at the British posts at Detroit and on the Maumee, and felt confident of defeat- ing Wayne. But " Mad Anthony " was a different kind of general from those who had previously commanded in the West, and when, on the 20th of Au- gust, the opposing forces of white men and red men met in conflict at the Mau- mec Rapids, or in the " Battle of the Fallen Timbers," the savages were quickly defeated and fled with the utmost precipitation from the field.


Not long afterward a white trader met a Miami warrior who had fled before the terrible onslaught of Wayne's soldiers, and asked him :


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FROM 1791 TO 1800.


"Why did you run away ?"


With gestures corresponding to his words, and endeavoring to represent the effect of the cannon, he replied :


"Pop, pop, pop - boo, woo, woo - whish, whish, boo, woo - kill twenty Indians one time - no good, by damn !"


Robinson, a young half-breed Pottawatomie, afterwards one of the princi- pal war chiefs of his tribe, was also engaged in the battle against Wayne, and in late years was in the habit of describing it very clearly. It appears that the chiefs of the allied tribes had selected a swamp for the battle-ground. They formed, however, half a mile in front of it, on the summit of a gentle elevation, covered with an open growth of timber, with no underbrush, intending, when Wayne attacked them, to fall back slowly, thus inducing the Americans to fol- low them into the swamp, where the Indians would have every advantage, and where they expected to gain certain victory. But " Mad Anthony " soon dis- arranged their plans. As explained, a large part of his little army was com- posed of mounted Kentuckians, and these were formed in front of his infantry. After a few rounds from his artillery, always very trying to the nerves of the red men, he ordered the mounted men to advance. The Indians had never seen men fight on horseback, and supposed they would dismount before reach- ing the top of the ridge. But instead of that they began to trot, then drew their sabres - those terrible " long knives " which always inspired the Indians with dread, then broke into a gallop, and the next moment were charging at the top of their horses' speed, "yelling like hell," as Robinson expressed it, swinging their swords, and looking like demons of wrath, as they truly were to the astonished red men.




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