USA > Pennsylvania > Warren County > History of Warren County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of some of its Prominent Men and Pioneers > Part 7
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His plans of government and settlement were now fairly in operation, but
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
there was another matter which caused him unceasing anxiety. As we have seen, the visit of Penn to Lord Baltimore, soon after his arrival in America, for the purpose of settling the boundaries of the two provinces, after two days' conference proved fruitless, and an adjournment was had for the winter, when the efforts for a settlement were to be resumed. Accordingly in May, 1683, the proprietors again met at New Castle. Penn proposed to confer by the aid of counselors and in writing. But to this Baltimore objected, and, complain- ing of the sultriness of the weather, the conference was broken up. In the mean time it had come to the knowledge of Penn that Lord Baltimore had issued a proclamation offering settlers more land, and at cheaper rates than Penn had done, in portions of the lower counties which Penn had purchased from the Duke of York, but which Baltimore now claimed. Besides, it was ascertained that an agent of his had taken an observation and determined the latitude with- out the knowledge of Penn, and had secretly made an ex parte statement of the case before the Lords of the Committee of Plantations in England, and was pressing for arbitrament. This condition of affairs caused much uneasiness in the mind of Penn, especially as the proclamation of Lord Baltimore was likely to bring the two governments into conflict on territory mutually claimed.
Lord Baltimore, it appears, was not disposed to be content even with di- plomacy. He determined to pursue an aggressive policy. He accordingly commissioned his agent, Colonel George Talbot, under date of September 17, 1683, to go to Schuylkill, at Delaware, and demand of William Penn “ all that part of the land on the west side of the said river, that lyeth to the southward of the fortieth degree." This bold demand would have embraced the entire colony, both the lower counties, and the three counties in the province, as the fortieth degree reaches a considerable distance north of Philadelphia. Penn was in New York at the time Talbot arrived, and the latter made his demand upon Nicholas Moore, Penn's deputy. Upon his return, the proprietor made a dignified but carnest rejoinder. While he felt that the demand could not be justly sustained, yet the fact that a controversy for the settlement of the bound- ary was likely to arise gave him disquietude, and he plainly foresaw that his skill and tact would be taxed to the utmost to defend and hold his claim before the English court. If the demand of Lord Baltimore was to prevail, all that he had done would be lost, as his entire colony would be swallowed up by Maryland.
Penn's anxiety to hold from the beginning of the fortieth degree of latitude was not founded upon a desire for a vast amount of territory, for the two de- grees which he held unquestioned, so far as amount of land was concerned, would have entirely satisfied him; but he wanted this degree chicfly that he might have the free navigation of Delaware Bay and River, and thus have un- trammeled communication with the ocean. He desired also to hold the lower counties, which were now well settled, as well as his own counties rapidly be-
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PENN IN PENNSYLVANIA.
ing peopled, and his new city of Philadelphia, which he regarded with especial fondness. So anxious was he to settle the controversy, and to hold the land on the right bank of the Delaware to the open ocean, that at the second meet- ing he asked Lord Baltimore to set a price per square mile on this disputed ground ; and, though he had purchased it once of the crown and held the king's charter for it and the Duke of York's deed, yet rather than have any further wrangle over it he was willing to pay for it again. But this Lord Baltimore refused to do.
The year 1684 opened favorably for the continued prosperity of the young colony. The cultivation of the soil was being prosecuted with grand success. Goodly flocks and herds gladdencd the eyes of the settlers. An intelligent, moral, and industrious yeomanry was 'rapidly being welded as a symmetrical body or community, where all were warmly interested in the welfare of each other. Emigrants were pouring in from different European countries. The government was becoming settled in its operations and popular with the people, and the proprietor had leisure to attend to the interests of his religious society, not only in his own province, but in the Jerseys and New York.
Baltimore, however, was bent upon bringing matters to a crisis; hence, early in the same year (1684), a party of his adherents from Maryland made forcible entry upon the plantations in the lower counties and drove off the owners. Thereupon the Governor and Council at Philadelphia sent thither a copy of the answer of Penn to Baltimore's demand for the land south of the Delaware, with orders to William Welch, sheriff at New Castle, to use his authority to rein- state the lawful owners, and issued a declaration plainly stating the claim of Penn, for the purpose of preventing such unlawful incursions in the future.
Feeling assured, nevertheless, that the controversy between himself and Lord Baltimore could be settled only by the crown, Penn decided to return to England and defend his imperiled interests. Without a doubt he took this step with much regret, as he was contented and happy in his new country and was most usefully employed. He empowered the Provincial Council, of which Thomas Lloyd was president, to act in his stead; commissioned Nicholas Moore, William Welch, William Wood, Robert Turner, and John Eckley pro- vincial judges for two years; appointed Thomas Lloyd, James Claypole, and Robert Turner to sign land patents and warrants, and William Clark as justice of the peace for all the counties, and on the 6th of June, 1684, sailed for En- gland.
His feelings on leaving his colony are exhibited by a farewell address which he issued from on board the vessel to his people, of which the following are brief extracts : " My love and my life is to you, and with you, and no water can quench it, nor distance wear it out, nor bring it to an end. I have been with you, cared over you and served over you with unfeigned love, and you are beloved of me, and near me beyond utterance. I bless you in the name and
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
power of the Lord, and may God bless you with His righteousness, peace and plenty all the land over. Oh! now you are come to a quiet land ; provoke not the Lord to trouble it. And now liberty and authority are with you, and in your hands. Let the government be upon Ilis shoulders, in all your spirits, that you may rule for him under whom the princes of this world will, one day, esteem it their honor to govern and serve in their places.
And thou, Philadelphia, the virgin settlement of this province, named before thou wert born, what love, what care, what service, and what travail has there been to bring thee forth, and preserve thee from such as would abuse and defile thee ! . So, dear friends, my love again salutes you all, wishing that grace, mercy, and peace, with all temporal blessings, may abound richly among you-so says, so prays, your friend and lover in the truth,
" WILLIAM PENN."
Having thus shown in this and the preceding chapter how and when the province of Pennsylvania was granted and settled, its extent, natural advan- tages, etc., besides the narration of many other interesting incidents connected with its early history, the reader's attention is again directed in the following chapters to the operations of the French, the Iroquois, and the English in their struggle for control in Canada and New York, in the lake region, and finally in that part of Penn's province lying west of the Allegheny Mountains, including the Conewango and Allegheny valleys.
CHAPTER VIII.
FRENCH DOMINION.
A Slight Ascendency - De Nonville Attacks the Senceas -- Origin of Fort Niagara-Count Frontenac in the Field - Treaty of Ryswick - Queen Anne's War - The Iroquois Neutral- The Tuscaroras - Joncaire - Fort Niagara Rebuilt - French Power Increasing - Conflicting Claims -- Secret Instructions - De Celeron Takes Possession of the Allegheny Valley - Buries a Lead Plate at Mouth of the Concwango - The Six Nations Alarmed - French Establish a Line of Forts - The Ohio Company -- Virginia's Claim - Washington as an Envoy - French Build Fort Du Quesne -- Washington and his Virginians Captured - Braddock's Disastrous Campaign - The Final Struggle - French Defeated all Along the Line - Their Surrender of Power in the New World.
FOR many years after the adventures of La Salle, the French maintained a general but not very substantial ascendency in the lake region. Their voya- geurs traded, their missionaries labored, and their soldiers sometimes made in- cursions, but they had no permanent fortress beyond or west of Fort Fronte- nac (Kingston, Canada), and they were constantly in danger from their enemies
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FRENCH DOMINION.
the Iroquois. Yet the French sovereigns and ministers considered the whole lake region, besides the territory drained by the Allegheny, the Ohio, and the Mississippi, as being unquestionably a part of "New France." Their maps so described it, and they looked forward with entire assurance to the time when French troops and French colonists should hold undisputed possession of all that vast domain.
In 1687 the Marquis de Nonville, governor of New France, arrived at Iron- dequoit Bay, a few miles east of the site of the city of Rochester, N. Y., with nearly two thousand French soldiers and some five hundred Indians, and marched at once against the Seneca villages, situated, as has been stated, in the vicinity of Victor and Avon, N. Y., or from ten to twenty miles south of Roch- ester's site. The Senecas attacked him on his way and were defeated, as well they might be, considering that the largest estimate gives them but eight hun- dred warriors, the rest of the confederates not having arrived.
The Senecas hastened back to their villages, burned them, and with their women and children fled to the Cayugas. De Nonville destroyed their stores of corn, etc., and retired, after going through the ceremony of taking posses- sion of the country. The supplies thus destroyed were immediately replen- ished by the other confederates, and the French accomplished little except still further to enrage the Iroquois. The Senecas, however, determined to seek a home less accessible from the waters of Lake Ontario, and accordingly located their principal village at the foot of Seneca Lake, and others on the Genesee River above Avon.
The French commander, after defeating the Senecas, sailed to the mouth of the Niagara River, where he erected a small fort on the east side. This was the origin of Fort Niagara, one of the most celebrated strongholds in America, which, though for a time abandoned, was afterwards during more than half a century considered the key of the whole upper lake country, and the vast domain stretching southward to the head waters of the Ohio. From the new fortress De Nonville sent the Baron La Hontan with a small detach- ment of French to escort the Indian allies to their northwestern homes. They made the necessary portage around the falls, rowed up the Niagara to Lake Erie, and thence coasted along the northern shore of the lake in their canoes All along the river they were closely watched by the enraged Iroquois, but were too strong and too vigilant to be attacked. Ere long the governor re- turned to Montreal, leaving a small garrison at Fort Niagara. These suffered so severely from sickness that the fort was soon abandoned, and it does not appear to have been again occupied for nearly forty years.
In fact, at this period the fortunes of France in North America were brought very low. The Iroquois ravaged a part of the island of Montreal, compelled the abandonment of Forts Frontenac and Niagara, and alone proved almost sufficient to overthrow the French dominion in Canada.
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
The English revolution of 1688, by which James II was driven from the throne, chiefly on account of his friendship for William Penn and his liberal views regarding all religious sects, was speedily followed by open war with France. In 1689 the Count de Frontenac, the same energetic old peer who had encouraged La Salle in his brilliant discoveries, and whose name was for a while borne by Lake Ontario, was sent out as governor of New France. This vigorous but cruel leader partially retrieved the desperate condition of the French. He, too, by way of retaliation, invaded the Iroquois country, but ac- complished no more than De Nonville. This war continued with varying for- tunes until 1697, the Five Nations being all that while the friends of the Eng- lish, and most of the time engaged in active hostilities against the French. Their authority over the whole west bank of the Niagara and far up the south side of Lake Erie was unbroken, save when a detachment of French troops was actually marching along the shore.
At the treaty of Ryswick in 1697, while the ownership of certain lands in America was definitely conceded to France and England respectively, those formerly occupied by the exterminated tribes-the Eries and Kahquahs-were left undecided. The English claimed sovereignty over all the lands of the Five Nations, the French with equal energy asserted the authority of King Louis over territory discovered by their explorers, while the Iroquois them- selves, whenever they heard of the controversy, repudiated alike the pretensions of Yonnondio and Corlear, as they denominated the governors respectively of Canada and New York.
So far as Warren county was concerned, they could base their claim on the good old plea that they had killed or driven away all its previous occupants ; and as neither the English nor the French had succeeded in killing the Iro- quois, the title of the latter still held good.
However, scarcely had the echoes of battle died away after the treaty of Ryswick, when, in 1702, the rival nations plunged into the long, desolating conflict known as "Queen Anne's War." But by this time the Iroquois had grown wiser, and prudently maintained their neutrality, thus commanding the respect of both French and English. The former were wary of again provok- ing the powerful confederates, and the governments of the colonies of New York and Pennsylvania were very willing that the Five Nations should remain neutral, as they thus furnished a shield against French and Canadian Indian attacks along their frontiers.
Meanwhile, through all the western country the French extended their in- fluence. Detroit was founded in 1701, and other posts were established far and wide. Notwithstanding their alliance with the Hurons and other focs of the Iroquois, and notwithstanding the enmity aroused by the invasions of Cham- plain, De Nonville, and Frontenac, such was the subtle skill of the French that they rapidly acquired a strong influence among the western tribes of the con-
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FRENCH DOMINION.
federacy, especially with the Senecas. Even the powerful socio-political sys- tem of the Hedonosaunee weakened under the influence of European intrigue, and while the eastern Iroquois, though preserving their neutrality, were friendly to the English, the Senecas, and perhaps the Cayugas, were almost ready to take up arms for the French.
Another important event in the history of the Hedonosaunee occurred about the year 1712, when the Five Nations became the Six Nations. The Tuscaroras, a powerful tribe of North Carolina, had become involved in a war with the whites, originating, as usual, in a dispute about land. The colonists being aided by several other tribes, the Tuscaroras were soon defeated, many of them were killed, and many others were captured and sold as slaves. The greater part of the remainder fled northward to the Iroquois, who immediately adopted them as one of the tribes of the confederacy, assigning them a loca- tion near the Oneidas. The readiness of those haughty warriors to extend the valuable shelter of the Long House over a band of fleeing exiles is prob- ably due to the fact that the latter had been the allies of the Iroquois against other southern Indians, which would also account for the eagerness of the lat- ter to join the whites in the overthrow of the Tuscaroras.
Not long after this one Chabert Joncaire, otherwise known as Jean Cœur, a Frenchman who had been captured in youth by the Senecas, who had been adopted into their tribe, and had married a Seneca wife, but who had been released at the treaty of peace, was employed by the French authorities to promote their influence among the Iroquois. Pleading his claims as an adopted child of the nations, he was allowed by the Seneca chiefs to build a cabin and establish a trading-post on the site of Lewiston, on the Niagara, which soon became a center of French influence and activity.
All the efforts of the English were impotent either to dislodge him or to obtain a similar privilege for any of their own people. "He is one of our children ; he may build where he will," was the sole reply vouchsafed to every complaint. "Among the public officers of the French," says Bancroft, "who gained influence over the red men by adapting themselves with happy facility to life in the wilderness, was the Indian agent Joncaire. For twenty years he had been successfully negotiating with the Senecas. He had become by adoption one of their own citizens and sons, and to the culture of the French- man added the fluent eloquence of an Iroquois warrior." Though Fort Niag- ara was for the time abandoned, and no regular fort was built at Lewiston, yet Joncaire's trading-post embraced a considerable group of cabins, and at least a part of the time a detachment of French soldiers was stationed there. Jon- caire and his trappers and voyageurs frequently visited Chautauqua Lake, the Conewango River, and the Allegheny, and thus the French maintained at least a slight ascendency over the territory which is the subject of this history.
About 1725 they began rebuilding Fort Niagara on the site where De Non-
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
ville had erected his fortress. They did so without opposition; Joncaire's influ- ence was now potent among the Senecas; besides, the fact of the French being such poor colonizers worked to their advantage in establishing a certain kind of influence and confidence among the Indians. Few of them being desirous of engaging in agriculture, they made little effort to obtain land, while the English were constantly arousing the jealousy of the natives by obtaining enormous grants from some of the chiefs, often, doubtless, by very dubious meth- ods. Moreover, the French have always possessed a peculiar facility for assim- ilating with savage and half-civilized races, and thus gaining an influence over them.
Whatever the cause, the power of the French constantly increased among the Senecas. Fort Niagara became a noted stronghold, and Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania were almost wholly given over to their domin- ion. They established small trading-posts along the streams and did a large trade with the Indians by exchanging beads, brooches, guns, ammunition, and tomahawks for furs, which were shipped to Europe and sold at an immense profit. However, although their possession was as yet undisturbed, it must not be inferred that it was quietly acquiesced in by the English. The latter viewed the projects of the French with mingled jealousy and alarm, sent out numerous agents,1 and succeeded in some quarters in estranging the Indians from their rivals, but not to any extended degree. The influence of Joncaire, aided by that of his sons Chabert and Clauzonne Joncaire, in the interests of the French, was maintained and increased all through the second quarter of the eighteenth century.
In the war between England and France, begun in 1744 and closed by the treaty of Aix-la-chapelle in 1748, the Six Nations generally maintained their neutrality, though the Mohawks gave some aid to the English. During the eight years of nominal peace which succeeded that treaty, both the French and English made numerous efforts to extend their dominion beyond their frontier settlements, the former with most success. To Niagara and Detroit they added other posts, and finally determined to establish a line of forts from the lakes to the Ohio, and thence down that river to the Mississippi.
The French claimed that their discovery of the St. Lawrence and the Mis- sissippi entitled them to the ownership of the territory bordering upon those streams and their tributaries. The English claim was based upon a grant by King James 1, in 1606, to "divers of his subjects, of all the countries between north latitude 48° and 34°, and westward from the Atlantic Ocean to the South Sea," and also upon purchases of western lands made from the Six Na-
1 English agents or traders were located at Venango (now Franklin) and Le Boeuf (now Waterford), when the advance of the French army reached those points in 1753. John Frazier, a Scotchman, had established himself at the former place about 1745, where he carried on a gunsmith shop, and traded with the Indians until driven away by Joncaire, who also captured at Venango the traders John Trotter and James Mclaughlin, and sent them as prisoners to Montreal.
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FRENCH DOMINION.
tions by commissioners from the provinces of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Vir- ginia, representing the mother country. Hence, although the treaty of Aix- la-Chapelle was supposed to have settled all difficulties between the courts of England and France, it appears that it did not settle anything in the New World, nor had either party relinquished its claims. Therefore, when it was ascertained that the French were actively pushing forward their enterprises with a view of permanently occupying the great territory beyond the Alleghenies, the British embassador at Paris entered complaint before the French court that encroachments were being made by the French upon English soil in America. These charges were politely heard, and promises made of restraining the French in Canada from encroaching upon English territory. Formal orders were sent out by the home government to this effect ; but at the same time secret intima- tions were conveyed to the French Canadians that their conduct in endeavoring to secure and hold the territory in dispute was not displeasing to the govern- ment, and that disobedience of these orders would not incur its displeasure.
In the execution of these secret instructions the French deemed it neces- sary, in order to establish a legal claim to the country, to take formal posses- sion of it. Accordingly the Marquis de la Galissonnière, who was at this time captain-general of Canada, dispatched Captain Bienville de Céleron with a party of two hundred and fifteen French and fifty-five Indians, to publicly proclaim possession, and bury at prominent points plates of lead bearing inscrip- tions declaring occupation in the name of the French king. Celeron started on the 15th of June, 1749, from La Chine. He followed the southern shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie until he reached a point opposite Lake Chautau- qua, where the boats were drawn up and taken bodily over the dividing ridge, a distance of ten miles, with all the impedimenta of the expedition, the pioneers having first opened a road. Following on down the lake and the Conewango Creek, they arrived on the site of the present town of Warren. Here the first plate was buried. These plates were eleven inches long, seven and a half inches wide, and one-eighth of an inch thick. A translated account of De Céleron's procedure at this point reads as follows:
"In the year one thousand seven hundred and forty-nine, We, Céleron, Knight of the Royal and Military Order of St. Louis, captain commanding a detachment sent by order of the Marquis de la Galissonnière, Captain General in Canada, and the Beautiful River, otherwise called the Ohio, accompanied by the principal officers of our detachment, have buried at the foot of a red oak tree, on the south bank of the River Ohio,I and opposite the point of a little island where the two rivers, Ohio and Kanaougou2 unite, a leaden plate, with the following inscription engraved thereon:
1 During their occupation of this region the French always termed the Allegheny the River Ohio, and it is so printed upon all their early maps.
2 Upon Captain Pouchot's French map, published in 1758, for the purpose of showing the French and English frontiers in America, from the French stand-point, an Indian village called " Kanoagoa"
5
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
"In the year one thousand seven hundred and forty-nine, in the reign of Louis XV, King of France.
" We, Céleron, commanding officer of a detachment sent by the Marquis de la Galissonnière, Captain General of New France, to re-establish peace in some Indian villages of these Cantons, have buried this plate at the confluence of the Rivers Ohio and Kanaougou this 29th day of July, as a monument of the renewal of the possession which we have taken of the said River Ohio, and of all the lands on both sides, up to the source of the said rivers, as the pre- ceding Kings of France have enjoyed or ought to enjoy the same, and have maintained themselves there by arms and treaties, and especially by those of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix-la-Chappelle. We have, moreover, affixed the King's arms at the same place to a tree. In testimony whereof, we have signed and drawn up this procès verbal.
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