USA > Pennsylvania > Crawford County > Our country and its people. A historical and memorial record of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. > Part 24
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Judge Johnson records in his report to the Legislature: "Three of Cornplanter's children still survive, and were present, and by them I was solemnly charged to communicate to your honorable bodies their sincere and reiterated thanks for the distinguished honor thus rendered to their ancestor. I have seldom seen deeper gratitude in human hearts than swelled the bosoms of these now venerable children, and those of many grand- children of the hero whose virtues and memory it has delighted you to honor. Of the excellent music, by a native brass band, that enlivened the occasion, the picnic that followed and the exciting war dance that closed the exercises of the day I will not stop to speak."
The dedication of this monument was no ordinary occasion. So far as known no other Indian chieftain has ever been honored by a monument erected to his memory a quarter of a century after his death by authority of a great State like Pennsylvania.
The Six Nations were undoubtedly the most powerful of all the native tribes in North America at the time of the American Revolution. They held sway from the St. Croix to the Albemarle, which extended even to New
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England and Virginia. As early as 1684 the Governors of New York, Massachusetts and Virginia met in council with the representative chiefs, "to strengthen and burnish the covenant chain and plant the tree of peace, of which the top should reach the sun and the branches shelter the wide land."
Of the Six Nations the Senecas, to which Cornplanter belonged, and over whom for long years he held sway, was the most numerous and power- ful and by far the most exposed. The Senecas were charged with guarding the western door of "Long House," by which name their original possessions were designated, which embraced the entire State of New York. They were known as the Senecas, Oneidas, Mohawks, Onondagas and Cayugas. To these were added the Tuscaroras in 1712. These six tribes or nations formed a powerful confederacy. The Senecas, occupying the Niagara end of the State, were exposed to the influences and wiles of the French from Canada, and on the south from the English at Pittsburg and farther east. "Their principal seats," says Morgan's League of the Iroquois, "were in western New York and northwestern Pennsylvania. They were thus situ- ated between the advancing column of emigration and settlements of the English from the Hudson, the Delaware, the Susquehanna and the Poto- mac on the one hand, and the French from Canada, the St. Lawrence, and the great Lakes on the other. A territorial position alike perilous to their aboriginal habits, customs and means of subsistence, as to their existence as a free and independent nation. And yet. notwithstanding these adverse circumstances, they stood for nearly two centuries with an unshaken front against the devastations of war, the blighting influence of foreign inter- course and the still more fatal encroachments of a restless and advancing border population. United under their federal system they maintained their independence and their power of self protection long after the New England and Virginia races had surrendered their jurisdiction and fallen into the condition of conquered and dependent nations. And they now stand forth upon the canvas of Indian history prominent alike for the wis- dom of their civil institutions, their sagacity in the administration of the affairs of the League and their courage in its defense."
It will be seen, therefore, that Crawford County was a part of the terri- tory covered by the Indian government of Cornplanter. Indeed, it was by
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the authority of the Six Nations that Mason and Dixon were stopped in their survey at Dunkard Creek in Greene County.
The Seneca tribe was at an early day much under the influence of the French. Jesuits labored much among them, came to speak the Indian tongue, and even entered into tribal relations with them and became one of them. French officers, both civil and military, brought them "high piled-up presents," such as were useful and pleasing to these simple natives of the forest. On the other hand, the English did not reach them except to trade for their skins, and these English traders were often given to over- reaching these simple-minded sons of the forest before they had become schooled in the wiles of the white man. The consequence was that the . Senecas joined the French with their young braves in that terribly disas- trous battle of the Monongahela which cost the life of General Braddock and the lives of the large body of his troops. It was such a sweeping slaughter as is rarely recorded in the history of warfare, and, what is more remarkable. it was gained by Indians almost entirely, over the King's regulars aided by colonial volunteers. Among the leaders of the Indians were Pontiac and Cornplanter. This was Cornplanter's first battle, as it was Washington's. They were about the same age, having been born in 1832. The result of this battle was very injurious to the English, for it in- spired the savages with great confidence in themselves, as it was gained over superior numbers, and with the greatest ease. They ever after boasted that at any time that they would be thoroughly united they could sweep the pale faces from the face of the earth, and it was with that object in view and in full confidence in their power that Pontiac formed an alliance of all the tribes with the intent of breaking the power of the English. That victory was the seed which ripened into many a massacre of defenceless settlers.
Cornplanter was possessed of great native shrewdness, and it was not long till he became satisfied that the English were to become the masters and that the French would be compelled to withdraw from this side of the great lakes. There is naturally a vein of superstition in the nature of the Indian. Washington had been noted in that terrible day with Braddock. The report had been circulated among the natives that one of their Sachems had fired repeatedly at Washington and had called on the braves of his tribe to do the same, but not one could hit him, and the belief became preva- lent that he was under the special protection of the Great Spirit, and was
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proof against mortal strife. Cornplanter had become the firm friend of Washington, and through the Indian wars which followed he remained fırın in his adherence to the side of the English.
When, therefore, the Thirteen Colonies rebelled against the King of England, the Indians could not understand where their allegiance was due. Cornplanter was opposed to joining in the conflict, inasmuch as the Indians had nothing to do with the difficulties that existed between the two parties. If he had more clearly understood the points in dispute his opposition might have been more effective. The emissaries of the British in the Revolution- ary War made every exertion to secure the powerful Six Nations on their side. "The King," they said, "was rich and powerful both in money and subjects. His rum was as plenty as the water in Lake Ontario, and his men as numerous as the sands upon its shore, and the Indians were assured that if they would assist in the war and preserve their friendship for the King until its close they never should want for goods or money." In an inter- view with General Herkimer, of the Revolutionary army, Cornplanter said: "The Indians were in concert with their King of England, as their fathers had been. The King's belts of wampum are yet lodged with them, and they cannot violate their pledges. General Herkimer and his followers have joined the Boston people against their sovereign. And although the Bos- ton people were resolute, yet the King would humble them. That Gen- eral Schuyler was very smart on the Indians at the treaty of the German Flats, but, at the same time, was not able to afford the smallest article of clothing, and finally that the Indians had formerly made war on the white people when they were all united, and they were now divided the Indians were not frightened."
But when the representatives, Chiefs of the Confederacy, at Oswego, at a general council held in the summer of 1777, decided to take up the hatchet for the King of England, Cornplanter and his tribe considered themselves bound by the decision. His nation was at war, and he had to go with his nation. In his address to Washington, at Philadelphia, in 1790, he justifies, or at least palliates the conduct of his nation, in taking the side of the King, in the following eloquent and impressive words:
"Father, when you kindled your thirteen fires separately, the wise men assembled at them, told us you were all brothers-the children of one great Father, who regarded the red people as his children. They called 11s chil-
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dren and invited us to their protection. They told us that he resided be- yond the great water, where the sun first rises, and that he was a King, whose power no people eould resist, and that his goodness was as bright as the sun. What they said went to our hearts. We accepted the invita- tion and promised to obey him. What the Seneca nation promise they faithfully perform. When you, the thirteen fires, refused obedience to that King, he commanded us to assist his beloved men in making you sober. In obeying him we did no more than yourselves had led us to promise. We were deceived, but your people teaching us to confide in that King had helped to deceive us, and we now appeal to your heart. Is all the blame ours?"
Cornplanter had made out a list of grievances in this speech which he presented in an eloquent and well digested manner. To this speech Presi- dent Washington made a formal reply, taking up each item of the com- plaints and answering in their order. To this reply of the President the Sachem commences his reply in these words: "Father! Your speech, written on the great paper, is to us, like the first light of the morning to a sick man whose pulse beats too strongly in his temples and prevents him from sleep. He sees it and rejoiees, but is not cured." One of the com- plaints made in his original address he thus alludes to in his response to President Washington's reply: "Father! There are men that go from town to town and beget children, and leave them to perish, or, except better men take care of them, to grow up without instruction. Our nation has looked around for a father, but they found none that would own them for children until you tell us that the courts are open to his as to your own people. The joy which we feel at this great news so mixes with the sor- rows that are past that we cannot express our gladness, nor conceal the remembrance of our afflictions." And in concluding his response Corn- planter says: "Father! You give us leave to speak our minds concerning the tilling of the ground. We ask you to teach us to plough, and to grind corn; to assist us in building sawmills, and to supply us with broad axes, saws, augers and other tools, so as that we make our houses more com- fortable and more durable; that you will send smiths among us, and above all, that you will teach our children to read and write, and our women to spin and to weave. The manner of your doing these things for us we leave to you, who understand them; but we assure you we will follow your
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advice so far as we are able." This conference of Cornplanter with Presi- dent Washington was held at Philadelphia, then the seat of the General Government, in the year 1790, in the second year of the President's first term, and is remarkable as showing the mental acumen possessed by one of the red men of the forest who had none of the advantages of mental cul- ture. In lucidity of statement and subtlety of argument he showed himself the full equal of the President.
During the Revolutionary War the Six Nations at first favored the side of the King for the reason assigned in the opening of Cornplanter's ad- dress to Washington, though Cornplanter himself favored taking no part in the contest. He was, however, overruled and the red men were found contending with the King's forces. Their hostile temper against the colo- nies had become so forceful in 1779 that General Sullivan was sent with a sufficient force to check them. Cornplanter was present and took part in the battle of New Town, the present site of Elmira, N. Y., where the Indians and British troops, the latter under the command of Col. John Butler, were signally defeated. "The decisive action on the Chemiing was followed by the devastation of the Indian towns and settlements through- out the country of the Senecas and Cayugas. They had several towns and many large villages laid out with a considerable degree of regularity. They had framed houses, some of them well finished and painted, and having chimneys. They had broad and protected fields, and in addition an abundance of apples and orchards of peaches, pears and plums. But after the battle of New Town terror led the van of the invader, whose approach was heralded by watchmen stationed upon every height, and desolation followed weeping in his train. The Indians everywhere fled as Sullivan advanced, and the whole country was swept as with the besom of destruc- tion. Towns were burned, fields laid waste, cattle destroyed and the or- chards cut down. Cornplanter was a sad witness to the destruction of his own home and village and that of his people. He refers to these seasons most eloquently in his address to Washington in 1792. 'When your army entered the country of the Six Nations we called you the town destroyer, and to this day, when that name is heard, our women look behind them and turn pale and our children cling close to the necks of their mothers. Our councillors and warriors are men and cannot be afraid, but their hearts are grieved with the fears of women and children.'"
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The expedition of General Sullivan sobered the Indians and gave Cornplanter power over his people. He became convinced that it was fruit- less to attempt to combat the colonies, who were every year growing stronger and increasing in population. Accordingly, when the great gath- ering of the native chiefs assembled at Fort Stanwix, at the close of the Revolutionary War, Cornplanter favored the peace policy and the giving up their vast territories which they did not occupy rather than to attempt to hold them by force, which he plainly saw would result in disaster. By the treaty there concluded vast stretches of land were sold. In that treaty his voice was potential and by the position which he there took he lost the friendship of many of the braves of his tribe who were ambitious to fight for their ancient inheritance. It was by the treaty there concluded that Crawford County came into possession of the State of Pennsylvania. When the western Indians united in one grand conclave to fight and drive back the settlers in 1790-1 strenuous efforts were made to induce the Six Nations to join them, but Cornplanter, who was now in his full strength and influence, held back his people and succeeded in preventing them against the wishes of some of the most powerful chiefs of his nation. Great solici- tude was felt by the government of the young nation lest the Six Nations would be prevailed upon to unite with the western tribes in a general war which they had inaugurated. Had this been accomplished, Crawford County, and indeed the whole northwestern portion of Pennsylvania and New York, would have been swept with Indian warfare, and the torch and the scalping knife would have been the ready instruments of savage warfare.
Recognizing the necessity of prompt action, Washington employed Cornplanter, in 1791, to proceed in behalf of the government of the United States into the country of the northwestern Indians on an embassy of peace and reconciliation. He was unsuccessful in inducing the western Indians to make peace, but he held his own nation in check and prevented the war- like attitude which Brant and Red Jacket were intent upon assuming.
In 1802 Cornplanter visited President Jefferson and in reply to the Sachem's address the President said: "Go on then, brother, in the great reformation you have undertaken. Persuade our red men to be sober and to cultivate their lands, and their women to spin and weave for their families. It will be a great glory to you to have been the instrument of so happy a change, and your children's children, from generation to generation, will
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repeat your name with love and gratitude forever. In all your enterprises for the good of your people you may count with confidence on the aid and protection of the United States, and on the sincerity and zeal with which I am animated in the furthering of this humane work. You are our brethren of the same land; we wish you prosperity, as brethren should do."
When the war of 1812 broke out the patriotism of the old chieftain was aroused, and though he was now 80 years of age, he gathered together 200 of his young braves and marched to Franklin, Venango County, where Colonel Samuel Dale was about to march with his regiment to the frontier. Cornplanter offered his men, but Colonel Dale not having authority to ac- cept them, persuaded the old chieftain to return, promising him that if needed his braves would be called for. Before leaving he asked the Colonel to explain the causes and objects of the war, which was done, and Corn- planter made the following reply: "Many years ago a boy came over the great waters and settled among his people of the Six Nations; some time thereafter the father followed to keep him in subjection. The Indians helped the father, but the boy was too much for both, and drove the father home. And now, when the father had become an old man and the boy a strong man and a good neighbor to his nation, he wished to show his friendship for the Thirteen Fires by taking his two hundred warriors to assist to drive the old man across the great waters." Cornplanter insisted that his war- riors ought not to stay at home and live idly in their wigwams whilst their white friends and brothers were upon the war path. But upon the promise of the Colonel that they would be sent for he was pacified and returned home.
Thomas Struthers, Esq., of Warren, paid a visit to Cornplanter in 183I at his home on the banks of the Allegheny River and gave the follow- ing account of his interview: "I accompanied some gentlemen, residents of Pittsburg and Butler, who desired to pay their respects to him. It was a pleasant day in May when we called on him. He talked no English. I introduced the gentlemen through an interpreter, whom I had engaged, and informed him that they had called to pay their respects to him. He seemed much pleased that his white friends were inclined to pay him such attention. The introduction took place in front of his log cabin, on the bank of the Allegheny River. He gave orders to some young Indians, the import of which we soon ascertained, by the fact that they immediately collected some boards and placed them for seats around a log sled in the form of
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a hollow square. This done, the old chief pointed out to each of the party his seat, and all sat facing inward. He then took his seat in the center and announced that he was ready to hear any communications we had to make. I told him we had not come to buy lands or timber, nor to trade for furs and skins, but had called on him in the spirit of friendship, to pay our respects to the great Indian chief whom we had learned to admire as a warrior, and especially as the friend of the United States, who had inculcated the principles of peace and Christianity among the people. I referred briefly to the schools established among his people by the Friends of Philadelphia.
"The old chief replied in a speech which would compare well with many of our best State papers. His manner was dignified and eloquent and his eye lit up, as if by inspiration, so that it was very interesting to listen to what he said, although we could not understand it, until the interpreter rendered it to us. He spoke of the relations between the white men and the red men-the war and bloodshed caused by the former, to displace the latter from their hunting grounds-the peace effected with the Six Na- tions-dwelt particularly on the virtues of General Washington, the great and good white Father. He brought forth from a well covered valise, in which they were carefully wrapped in linen cloth, two or three 'talks,' as he termed them, on parchment, to which was appended the autograph of Washington. He said he had met Washington a number of times and treated with him. His single eye sparkled with animation when his name was mentioned. And in conclusion, he thanked the Great Spirit that there were now no wars or blood-shedding going on. but that peace and good will existed amongst all men and all nations, so far as he could hear. He spoke as a statesman and philanthropist whose mind was occupied with the weighty interests of mankind rather than with merely the affairs and con- cerns of a family or tribe. He thanked us for our call upon him, and in- vited us to dine with him, which we accepted. The bill of fare was jerked venison and corn mush: the latter was prepared in the Indian manner, each guest having a tin pan about half full of hot water, in which the Indian meal was mixed at the pleasure of the guest.
In 1822, when he was 90 years old, Cornplanter became possessed of a religious temper, and bringing out a sword and pistols and some other military accoutrements which had been presented to him by Washington broke them in pieces, and a gold laced hat which was given him by
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Governor Mifflin, also a French flag and superb belt of wampum, trophies of valor which he destroyed. It appears that under the influence of Chris- tianity, particularly as evinced in the teachings of the society of Friends, who had established schools in his nation, he became so firm an advocate of peace that he wished to remove from him all the memorials that recalled to luis recol- lection the scenes of war and blood through which he had passed.
Judge Thompson, of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, thus speaks: "I once saw the aged and venerable chief and had an interesting interview with him about a year and a half before his death. When I saw him he estimated his age to be over one hundred years. I think one hun- dred and three was about his reckoning of it. This would make him one hundred and five at his death. His person was much stooped and his stature was far short of what it once had been-not being over five feet six inches at the time I speak of. He was constitutionally sedate; was never observed to smile, much less to indulge in the luxury of a laugh. Mr. John Struthers. of Ohio, told me some years since that he had seen him nearly fifty years before, and at that period he was about his own height, viz .: six feet one inch. Time and hardship had made dreadful havoc upon that ancient form. The chest was sunken and his shoulders were drawn forward, making the upper part of his body resemble a trough. His limbs had lost their sym- metry and become crooked. His feet, too (for he had taken off his mocca- sins), were deformed and haggard by injury. I would say that most of his fingers on one hand were useless; the sinews had been severed by a blow of the tomahawk or scalping knife. How I longed to ask him what scene of blood and strife had thus stamped the enduring evidence of its existence upon his person. But to have done so would in all probability have put an end to all further conversation on any subject. The information de- sired would certainly not have been received and I had to forego mny curi- osity. He had but one eye and even the socket of the lost organ was hid by the overhanging brow resting upon the high cheek bone. His remain- ing eye was of the brightest and blackest hue. Never have I seen one, in young or old, that equaled it in brilliancy. Perhaps it had borrowed luster from the eternal darkness that had rested on its neighboring orbit. His ears had been dressed in the Indian mode, all but the outside had been cut away; on the one ear the ring had been torn assunder near the top, and hung down his neck like a useless rag. He had a full head of hair, white as
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the driven snow, which covered a head of ample dimensions and admirable shape. His face was not swarthy. He told me that he had been at Frank- lin more than eighty years before the period of conversation, on his passage down the Ohio and Mississippi with the warriors of his tribe, on some expe- dition against the Creeks or Osages. He had long been a man of peace, and I believe his great characteristics were humanity and truth. As he stood before me-the ancient chief in ruins-how forcibly was I struck with the truth of the beautiful figure of the old aboriginal chieftain, who, in describing himself, said, 'he was like an aged hemlock, dead at the top, and whose branches alone were green.' After more than one hundred years of most varied life-of strife-of danger-of peace-he at last slumbers in deep repose on the banks of his own beloved Allegheny." Dr. Irvine, of Broken- straw, son of Gen. C. Irvine, an intimate friend of the chief, in a letter says: "I frequently heard my father say that Cornplanter was one of the most honest and truthful men he ever knew, whether white or red." Judge John- son, under whose direction the monument was erected, states, "So far as Cornplanter was personally known to residents in this section of country he was regarded as a living example of integrity, truthfulness, purity, tem- perance, fatherly affection for his tribe and race and a generous hospitality to all. He possessed the universal affection and veneration of his tribe and of all men who knew him."
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