History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 4

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1216

USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 4

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In the following year, on the 25th of August, at a council held at Philadelphia with several chiefs of the Six Nations,1 further information was gained con- cerning the movements of a certain Frenchman among the Shawanese on the Allegheny River. At this convention with the Six Nation chiefs, Hetaquan- tagetchty, the principal speaker, said, "That last Fall the French Interpreter, Cahictodo, came to Ohio River (or Alleganey) to build houses there, and to supply the Indians with goods, which they no sooner understood than they went out to forbid him, telling him that the lands on the Ohio belonged to the Six Nations, that the French had nothing to do with them, and advised him to go home; but he not re- garding their advice proceeded, upon which they sent to the French Governour to complain, but their Messengers were not returned when they came from home. That they know nothing certainly of what passed between Cahictodo and the Shawanese at Ohio."

The speaker was then asked, " Were not the French angry with those People for passing them and bring- ing their Peltry to trade with the English, and did they not endeavour to hinder them ?" To which he replied, " The French are angry, and not only en- deavour to stop them, but threaten them, and some of those nations expect the French will fall on them; but they regard it not; they find better usage from the English, and will have no more dealings with the French."

The Frenchman whom the Iroquois speaker called Cahichtodo was doubtless the same one who was men- tioned in the proceedings of the Provincial Council in August of the previous year as above quoted; but it does not appear from the account that he came to the Allegheny in any other capacity than that of a trader desirous of furnishing the Shawanese with goods in exchange for their peltry.

The first attempt on the part of either government to enforce their claims by taking actual possession of the region west of the Alleghenies in what is now the State of Pennsylvania was made by the French in 1749, in which year the commandant-general of Canada sent out an expedition under command of Louis Bienville de Celeron, with orders to proceed to the head of the Ohio,2 and thence down that stream, taking formal possession of its valley and the con- tiguous country ; not, however, according to the En- glish method, by establishing military posts and buildings and garrisoning forts, but by planting crosses and posts bearing devices representing the royal arms and insignia of France, and burying me- tallic plates duly inscribed with a record of the event, as evidences of actual occupation. The commander of the expedition performed the duty assigned to him, and in the manner indicated, erecting monuments and burying plates of lead at various points along the Allegheny and Ohio. Some of the Indians in the Seneca country (which embraced all the val- ley of the Upper Allegheny) obtained possession of one of these plates by some artifice (probably by digging it up after it had been buried by Celeron), and it was taken by a Cayuga sachem and delivered to Col. (afterwards Sir William) Johnson, as will be more fully mentioned hereafter. The plate was of lead, three-eighths of an inch in thickness, and about eleven by seven and one-half inches on the face, upon which was stamped and cut3 in rude capitals the fol- lowing inscription in old French, viz. :

L'AN 1740, DV REGNE DE LOVIS XV. ROY DE FRANCE NOVS CELERON COMMANDANT D VN DE- TACHMENT ENVOI PAR MONSIEUR LE MARQUIS DE LA GALISSONIERE COMMANDANT GENERAL DE LA NOUVELLE FRANCE POVR RETABLIR LA TRANQUIL-

2 Meaning the head of the river since known as the Allegheny, which having been discovered by the French explorers many years before any- thing was known of the Monongahela, was in those early times regarded as the main stream. The Iroquois name of the Allegheny was O-hee-go, and the French adventurers who passed down its current to the present city of Pittsburgh rendered the name Ohio (or sometimes Oyo), in con- formity with the orthography of their language. In the English the pronunciation only is changed. It was not the French alone who re- garded the Allegheny as the main Ohio, for we find that Washington in his journal and dispatches mentioned Venango as being situated "on the Ohio." Another name which the French gave to the Ohio, and ap- plied to the stream even to the head of the Allegheny, was " La Belle Rivière,"-The Beautiful River.

3 The whole inscription was stamped except the date and place of inter- ment. These were cut with a knife or other sharp instrument in spaces which had been left blank for the purpose. The name " Paul de Brosse" was stamped on the back of the plate.

1 Colonial Records, vol. iii. pp. 439-40.

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

LITE DANS QUELQUES VILLAGES SAUVAGES DE CES CANTONS, AVONS ENTERRE CE PLAQVE AU CONFLU- ENT DE L'OHIO ET DE TCHADAKOIN CE 29 JUILLET PRES DE LA RIVIERE OYO, AUTREMENT BELLE RIVIERE, POUR MONUMENT DE RENOUVELLEMENT DE POSSESSION QVE NOVS AVONS PRIS DE LA DITTE RIVIERE OYO ET DE TOVTES CELLES QVI Y TOM- BENT, ET DE TOUTES LES TERRES DES DEUX COTES JVSQVE AUX SOURCES DES DITTES RIVIERES AINSI QV'EN ONT JOVI OU DV JOVIR LES PRECEDENTS ROIS DE FRANCE ET QVILS S'Y SONT MAINTENVS PAR LES ARMES, ET PAR LES TRAITES SPECIALEMENT PAR CEVS DE RISVICK D'VTRECHT ET D'AIX-LA- CHAPELLE.1

The expedition, sent out by command of the Mar- quis de la Galissoniere, as indicated by the inscrip- tions on the plates, was composed of the commandant, De Celeron (who was a captain in the French service and a chevalier of the Order of St. Louis), the Rev. Father Bonnecamps, a Jesuit, who was chaplain, " mathematicien," navigator, and astronomer for the party, Messieurs Contrecœur, de Saussaye, Le Borgne, Philip and Chabert Joncaire,2 and Coulon de Villiers (the last mentioned of whom, as also Contrecœur, afterwards took prominent parts in the campaigns against Washington and Braddock), two other officers and six cadets of the French service, twenty-four French soldiers, including petty officers and a gun- smith, fifty Indians of the Canadian tribes friendly to the French, and nearly two hundred voyageurs, who were to perform the severe labor of the expe- dition,-the paddling of the canoes, the transporta- tion at the portages, and other kinds of heavy work. The detachment was abundantly supplied with arms, military equipments, and ammunition. The embarras of the campaign consisted of the necessary camp equipage, tools, and implements, leaden slabs to be / buried at prominent points, provisions, and a large amount of merchandise intended for presents to the Indians of the Ohio Valley. A journal of the expe- dition was kept by Celeron. Father Bonnecamps also kept a journal, and made a map of the route, or what purported to be one, but which was very incor- rect with regard to the rivers and smaller streams.

The officers and men of the expedition, having em- barked in canoes, with their equipment and material, at La Chine, on the St. Lawrence, a few miles above

Montreal, left the former place on the 15th of June, 1749, and proceeded up the great river to Lake On- tario, thence along the southern shore of that lake to Fort Niagara, where they arrived on the 6th of July. They made no halt here, but moved at once to the portage, and commenced the work of trans- porting their material and stores by land around the cataract. This labor occupied a week, and on the 13th they were again afloat on the waters of Niagara River above the rapids. From the river they entered Lake Erie, and pulled along its southeastern shore towards the landing-place of the portage over which they were to pass to reach the lake now called Chau- tauqua. Twice they were compelled by strong head winds to disembark and encamp on the shore, waiting for a favorable change of weather, but finally in the afternoon of the 16th they reached the landing-place, where the company disembarked, and the commander sent out two of his officers with a party of men to mark and clear the first part of the portage route.

They had heavy work before them,-to carry the canoes, laden with all their impedimenta, tons in weight, to be relaunched on the waters of an inland lake more than seven hundred feet higher than those of Erie," and with an intervening ridge of fully two hundred feet additional altitude to be crossed in the portage of nearly ten miles in length. But it appears that Celeron took little account of the obstacles con- fronting him, and here, as at other stages of his long and difficult journey, he pushed on without hesitation and with remarkable energy. At dawn in the morn- ing of the 17th he put his men in motion, and although the way was rugged, steep, and in many places appar- ently impassable, and a serious delay was caused by a heavy rain-storm, they traversed the portage, heavily laden as they were, in less than six full days, arriving on the shore of the highland lake on the 22d. It is not improbable that the small stream since known as Chautauqua Creek afforded them some little facility for water carriage, but if so it could only have been for a very small proportion of the distance between the two lakes.

At the end of the portage they halted a while to repair the canoes and give the wearied voyageurs an opportunity for a little rest after their fatiguing march from the shore of Lake Erie, but early in the day on the 23d the flotilla moved briskly on through the bright waters of Chautauqua, and in the same even- ing the men bivouacked on its shore within a league of the outlet through which the surplus waters of the lake flow to Conewango Creek, and with the current of the latter stream to the Allegheny. At this camp- ground some of the Iroquois warriors of Celeron's party came on and reported that while fishing during the afternoon they had seen Indians, apparently

1 Translation : In the year 1749, of the reign of Louis XV., king of France, we, Celeron, commandant of a detachment sent by Monsieur the Marquis de la Galissoniere, commandant-general of New France, to re- store tranquillity in certain Indian villages of these districts, have buried this plate at the confluence of the Ohio and Tchadakoin [Chautauqua], this 29th of July, near the River Ohio, otherwise Beautiful River, as a monument of renewal of possession that we have taken of the said river Ohio and of all those which fall into it, and of all the lands on both sides as far as to the sources of said rivers, which the preceding kings of France have rightfully enjoyed and maintained by arms and by trea- ties, especially by those of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix-la-chapelle.

2 Sons of Chabert Joncaire, who lived among the Iroquois for many years, and died at Niagara in 1740.

3 Chautauqua Lake is seven hundred and twenty-four and a half feet above the level of Lake Erie. The distance, as now traveled, between the two lakes is about eight and a half miles, but there is no reason to suppose Celeron made it in less than ten.

THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH CLAIMS TO THE TRANS-ALLEGHENY REGION. 25

scouts, watching the movements of the canoe fleet, the date on the tablet was the same as that on which Celeron buried the plate opposite the mouth of the Conewango, and, second, that the inscription is to the effect that it was buried on the bank of the Ohio (Allegheny) at its confluence with another stream, the only discrepancy being that the name of that other stream as cut upon the plate differs from that which Celeron in his journal gives to the Conewango. But this fact is by no means fatal to the supposition that the plate brought to Col. Johnson was the same which Celeron buried at that place, for at that time i among the Indians a stream was frequently known by as many as four or five different names. The name of the stream in question (the Conewango) was spelled by Celeron in his journal in one place Kanaaiagon. and in another place Chanougon, while his "mathe- maticien," Bonnecamps, spelled it Kananouangon. It seems very reasonable to suppose that the stream down which the French came from the lake, Tchada- koin (Chautauqua), should have been called by them and that these had immediately disappeared when they found they were discovered. This circumstance gave Celeron no little concern, and at the end of the next day's journey he convened a council, by which it was decided to send out an officer with a party of the Canadian Iroquois who accompanied the expedi- tion, taking belts of wampum and some presents, to find the scouts who had caused the alarm, accompany them to their villages, and there use all means to con- ciliate the people and allay their fears with regard to the objects of the advancing French column. In ac- cordance with this decision, a party of the Canadian Indians was sent out under command of one of the Joncaires, who, failing to find the scouts on the path, proceeded to the Indian village of Broken Straw (called by the French Paille Coupée), where, as it appears, he was known, as had also been his father (Chabert Joncaire) before him. There he made some friendly and conciliatory speeches, to which the In- dians in turn replied in equally friendly terms, yet ! by the same name, and that they should have that still remained distrustful of the French and of the objects of the expedition.

The progress made by Celeron's force on the 24th of July was small. Embarking in the morning of that day, they soon reached and entered the outlet- stream, but the water was so low that it was found ! stream and their village by the same name, which, as necessary to lighten the canoes, and carry a part of it appears, was then adopted by Celeron in place of the other name, Tchadakoin. But these are mere speculations, the facts can never be certainly known. their loads overland to the deeper water below, so that at night the canoes had not advanced more than two miles down the stream. During the five days next succeeding their progress was but little more rapid, on account of low water, shoals, and tortuous chan- nel, so that it was not until midday of the 29th that they debouched into the broad current of the Alle- gheny, which they called La Belle Rivière.

At the place where Celeron entered the Allegheny from the Conewango, "at the foot of a red-oak on the south bank of the Ohio River, and opposite a little island at the confluence of the two rivers, Ohio and Kanaugon" 1 (Conewango), he buried one of his leaden plates in token of French occupation and dominion. The arms of the king of France were affixed to a tree near by the place, and the other ceremonies usual among the French when taking pretended possession of new countries in the name of their sovereign were observed on this occasion.

Every movement of the French was seen and noted by the Indian scouts who were constantly lurking along their flanks, and who, of course, knew the spot where Celeron buried the metallic tablet. It is there- fore probable that the plate which was buried oppo- site the mouth of the Conewango on the 29th of July was afterwards disinterred by the Indians, and that it was the same which was carried by the Cayuga sa- chem to Col. Johnson. The principal reasons for supposing this to have been the case are, first, that

name on the slab, with the date, at the time they buried it. There was an Indian village on the Cone- wango near its mouth called Kanaouagon, which the French visited after the ceremony of burying the plate. The Indian residents of this place called the

On the last day of July the expedition left the Indian settlement at the mouth of the Conewango and proceeded down the Allegheny, passing several Indian villages. At night the canoes were made fast to the shore, and the company encamped on the bank of the river, with sentinels regularly posted in accord- ance with military usage. This precaution was ob- served by Celeron during all the journey, partly, however, for the purpose of enforcing and preserving discipline among the reckless Canadian voyageurs. In the forenoon of the 3d of August they came to the mouth of the Rivière aux Bœufs, now known as French Creek, which enters the Allegheny from the northwest. Here they found a small Indian village, at which they made but a brief stop, and passed on down the river to a point about nine miles below, where the expeditionary forces landed, and a second plate was buried "on the south bank of the Ohio [Allegheny] River, four leagues below the river Aux Bœufs, opposite a bald mountain, and near a large stone on which are many figures rudely cut." The stone referred to was an immense bowlder, upon which, on the side facing the river, were some Indian hieroglyphics, which caused the savages to regard the rock with superstitious awe.2

1 Description given in Celeron's Journal of the Expedition.

2 This rock is described, and a view of it, including the hieroglyphics on its face, given in Schoolcraft's " Indian Tribes in the United States," vol. vi.

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

On the 4th of August the fleet of Celeron left the rock and moved on down the river. Two days later they passed a deserted Shawanese village called "Chartier's Old Town," where Peter Chartier had resided with the Indians some five years previously. Paddling on down the stream, they passed the site of the present city of Pittsburgh, but nothing is found to show that any plate was buried, or even a halt made there. On the 6th the expedition reached the old Indian village of Chiningue, or Logstown, some twelve miles below the mouth of the Monongahela. Here they found a great number of Indians of several different nations, and among them several English- speaking traders. This last-named fact roused the ire of Celeron, who promptly expelled the traders. warning them that if they dared to return they would do so at their peril; and by one of them he sent the following letter to Governor Hamilton of Pennsyl- vania, viz .:

"From our camp on La Belle Rivière, at an ancient village of Chaoua- . nonB, Aug. 6, 1749.

"SIR,-Having been sent with a. detachment into these quarters by Monsieur the Marquis de la Galissoniere, commandant-general of New France, to reconcile among themselves certain savage nations who are ever at variance on account of the war just terminated, I have been much surprised to find some traders of your government in a country to which England never had any pretensions. It even appears that the same opinion is entertained in New England, since'in many of the vil- lages I have passed through the English who were trading there have mostly taken flight. Those whom I first fell in with, and by whom I write you, I have treated with all mildness possible, although I would have been justified in treating them as interlopers and men without de- sign, their enterprise being contrary to the preliminaries of peace signed five months ago. I hope, sir, for the future you will carefully prohibit this trade, which is contrary to treaties, and give notice to your traders that they will expose themselves to great risks in returning to these countries, and that they must impute only to themselves the misfortunes they may meet with. I know that our commandant-general would be very sorry to have recourse to violence, but he has orders not to permit foreign traders in his government.

" I have the honor to be with great respect, "Sir, your humble and obedient servant, " CELERON."

Celeron found the Indians at Logstown wholly dis- inclined to form an alliance with the French or to yield the possession of the country to them, and they were too well disposed towards the English traders to relish their summary expulsion. The French commandant made a speech to them which they thought insulting, telling them that all the valley of the Beautiful River was owned by his master, the king of France; that Frenchmen would supply them with goods, and that none others would be permitted to do so; that he was then on his way down the river to reprimand the Wyandots and other Western Indians, and to whip them to their homes for having traded with the Eng- lish. All this had the effect to incense the savages against the French. There were at Logstown a con- siderable number of Iroquois and Abenakis, and the dissatisfaction felt by these being communicated to their Canadian kinsmen who were with Celeron, caused them to refuse to go farther with the expedi- tion. They returned to their homes in the north, passing up the Allegheny River, over the route by

which the expedition came, and tearing off the cop- per plates blazoned with the royal arms of France from the trees to which they had been affixed by Cel- eron's orders. Whether they also dug up the leaden slabs which had been buried on the shores of the Allegheny is not known, but it is not unlikely that they did so.

On the voyage down the Ohio from Logstown (or Chiningue) Celeron caused plates to be buried at four different points, viz .: at Kanououara or Wheeling Creek, on the 13th of August; at the mouth of the river Muskingum,1 on the 15th of the same month; at the mouth of Chinondaista (now known as the Great Kanawha), on the 18th; and at the mouth of the Big Miami, on the 31st of August. This was the end of Celeron's voyage down the Ohio. From this point the expedition passed up the Miami to the head of canoe navigation, then marched through the wil- derness to the Miami of the Lake (now the Maumee), and floated down that stream to Lake Erie. Thence, by way of that lake, the Niagara River (portaging round the falls as before), Lake Ontario, and the St. Lawrence River, Celeron and his party returned to Montreal, where they arrived Nov. 10, 1749. In theory they had taken actual and permanent possession of the Upper Ohio Valley, and those of its tributaries (the lower river to the Gulf of Mexico being already in French occupation), but in fact they had accom- plished nothing, for instead of securing the friend- ship and alliance of the Indians living on the Alle- gheny and Ohio Rivers, they had intensified the distrust and enmity of those savages. The Pennsyl- vania and Virginia traders, too, who had been driven away by Celeron returned to Logstown immediately after his departure,2 and were made welcome by the Indians, who made haste to renew their assur- ances of undiminished friendship for their brethren, the English.

In reference to the expedition of Celeron and his planting of the leaden plates, intended as a memorial and proof of the French occupation of the valley of the Ohio River, some extracts are here given from the minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania,8 viz. :

1 The plates buried at the Muskingum and Kanawha were afterwards discovered, the former in the year 1798 by some boys who were bathing in the stream. Seeing a part of it protruding from the bank they dug it out, and knowing nothing of its historical value, cut off a part of it and melted the lead for bullets. The other part, however, was obtained from the boys by a gentleman, who sent it to Governor De Witt Clinton, of New York, and it is still in existence in Boston, Mass. The plate which was buried at the mouth of the Kanawha was found in March, 1846, by a boy (a son of J. W. Beale, of Point Pleasant, Va.), who in playing along the river-bank saw the edge of the plate a few feet below the surface. It was dug out and preserved, with the inscription, entire.

" George Croghan, who was sent out by the Governor of Pennsylvania in August, 1749, with presents and belts to the Ohio Indians, reached Logstown soon after the French left, and in his report to the Governor he mentioned that "Monsieur Calderon with two hundred French soldiers" had left the village and gone down the river a short time pre- vious to his arrival there.

3 See Colonial Records, vol. v. p. 507, et seq.

THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH CLAIMS TO THE TRANS-ALLEGHENY REGION. 27

" 2d February, 1750.

" The Governor having received by the last Post a Letter from Governor Clinton [of New York] with some Papers relating to Indian Affairs, the same were read and sent to the Assembly, and are as follows :

"A Letter from Governor Clinton to Governor Hamilton.

"Sir,-Your Favour of the 22d instant I have re- ceived, and am glad that you are of the same opinion with me in relation to Indian Affairs. I send you a copy of an Inscription on a leaden Plate stolen from Jean Cœur [Joncaire] some months since in the Sen- ecas' Country as he was going to the River Ohio, which plainly demonstrates the French Scheme by the ex- orbitant claims therein mentioned ; also a copy of a Cajuga Sachim's Speech to Colo. Johnson, with his Reply, on the subject matter of the plate, which I hope will come time enough to communicate to your Assembly."

This letter of Governor Clinton was dated "Fort George, 29th January, 1750." The speech of the Ca- yuga sachem, who, with a number of other Indians of the Five Nations, was at the house of Col. John- son, is given in the minutes, as follows :

" Brother Corlear and Warraghiyagee [Gray Eyes]. I am sent here by the Five Nations (with a Piece of writing which the Senecas, our Brethren, got by some Artifice from Jean Cœur) to you Earnestly beseeching you will let us know what it means, and, as we put all our confidence in you our Brother, hope you will explain it ingeniously to us. [The speaker here de- livered the square leaden plate and a wampum belt, and proceeded.] I am ordered further to acquaint you that Jean Cœur, the French Interpreter, when on his Journey (this last summer) to Ohio River, Spoke thus to the Five Nations & Others in our Alliance :

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History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 4

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 1216

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1216