USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > The history of Erie County, Pennsylvania, from its first settlement > Part 2
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.
won the day. Thus does even a corrupt Christianity inspire its possessors, and thus may paganism ever fall before the gospel. 1
A semi-educated Tuscarora, David Cusic, published a pam- phlet of Indian traditions, in Western New York, in 1825. This writing, though crude, ill digested, and generally obscure, throws much light on the history of the Eries. In 1626, among the first efforts made by New France to civilize the Indians, the Eries were visited ; and the peculiarity for which they are most celebrated was first brought into notice, that of neutrality among fierce and powerful tribes. Hence they are called by the French the Neutral nation.
They were under the government of a queen, called Yago- wanea, or as called by the French and Senecas, Gegosasa. According to Cusic, she was a second Zenobia. The settle- ment of Canada by the French produced a division in the great Iroquois family-the Wyandots adhering to the Gallic side, and the Five Nations to the Dutch and English. In this feud of the Iroquois, the Algonquins or Adirondacks, who were at war with them formerly, were glad to make allies of the French and Wyandots. Between these the Eries occupied a geographical position on the banks of the Niagara, and' had already become closely allied to the Wyandots and Five Nations. Neutrality was their only salvation-they were in a delicate position, and great wisdom was indispensable to its preservation. Gegosasa was called the mother of nations, and her wampum and peace-pipe were held sacred. Pro- tected by the sanctity of Gegosasa's character and office as keeper of the symbolic house of peace, she received messen- gers and ambassadors from the Five Nations, Wyandots, Mississaques, and others. Her authority extended much farther than her territory, but one inconsiderate act brought destruction to her nation after long and bloody wars. Two Canandaigua warriors (Senecas) were announced at her lodge, and began to smoke the pipe of peace, when a deputation from the Mississaques was also announced. The object of
1 The name of Le Moyne is again found as a leader when Schenectady, in 1690, was destroyed, and the most inhuman cruelties were perpetrated by a party of Canadian French Indians, being one of the three parties fitted out by Count Frontenac to distress the British Colonies.
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their visit was soon made known, and their request, which was to demand vengeance for the murder of their chief's son, was immediately granted. Intelligence of this violation of neutrality on the part of Gegosasa spread in every direction. The queen dispatched messengers to explain her position to Ragnatha (Buffalo), where the principal commander of the Eries resided. She even undertook herself to execute the commission ; but a meddling woman also stepped off quietly, taking a canoe along the shore of Lake Ontario, and com- municated the death of the Canandaigua chief. Spies were sent by the Senecas to ascertain the truth of the rumors, who, without exciting suspicion, learned the facts from some boys found hunting squirrels, and an army was raised in hot haste. As a decoy, a man was dressed in bear-skin and directed to sit in the path, and when pursued, to lead the way into ambush. The plan succeeded, and the Eries were brought into the midst of crouching Senccas, who sounded the war-whoop most terrifically, but themselves, after a severe contest, were forced to flee. Afterward they rallied and fought with great desper- ation, and the Eries were compelled to yield, leaving 600 slain warriors on the battle-field.
In this first war of the Eries, which occurred in 1634, they proved themselves no despicable enemy. In 1653 they again engaged in war with the Iroquois. In this contest " Greek met Greek," and the event, otherwise doubtful, was decided by a pestilence which prevailed and swept off greater num- bers even than the club and arrow. After their defeat, according to Seneca tradition, they fled down the Ohio, and the once sacred peace-lodge of Yagowanea was demolished. They were compelled to leave the land where Niagara pours its echoes and animates to heroic deeds. The Iroquois they found the worst of conquerors-inordinate pride, thirst of blood and dominion were the mainspring of their warfare, and their victories were stained with every excess of passion. When their vengeance was glutted by the sacrifice of a sufficient number of captives, they adopted the survivors as members of their confederate tribes, separating wives from husbands and children from parents, and distributing them among different villages, in order that old ties and associa-
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tions might be more completely broken. This policy, as Schoolcraft informs us, was designated among them by a name which signified "flesh cut into pieces and scattered among the tribes." Jefferson says of them : "They fled to distant regions of the West and South, and wherever they fled they were followed by the undying hatred of the Iroquois. In accordance with the threat of the Onondagas, their council fire was put out, and their name and lineage as a tribe lost."
When the Jesuits visited the Onondagas, a Neuter was the first adult baptized. They were living then among them as helots, and bore their chains impatiently. They panted for freedom, their numbers giving them confidence. At one time they formed a plot to cut off their oppressors, but when aid was refused them by the French missionaries to whom they applied, they ceased to hope for deliverance. In 1674 the Eries are mentioned as constituting a part of the Christian village just then formed at La Prairie.
The various nations have long since fused into one, losing all distinctive trace of origin, and no clue of names can enable us to distinguish the Neutral element in the present Iroquois race. In the history of the Jesuit missions we find several of that order penetrated the country of the Eries or Neuters from the year 1626 to the year 1640. Among them are the names of Father Joseph De la Roche, D'Allyon, Brabœuf, Noue, Chaumount, and Sayard. They were received with coldness and distrust, in spite of which they remained some months preaching in ten of their villages and endeavoring to enter and obtain a knowledge of the country.
The efforts of De la Roche (who at first was quite a favorite) to find the mouth of the Niagara, excited their jealousy, and after they had robbed and beaten him severely, he was forced to depart.
The missionaries described the country as being finer than Canada, and producing an abundance of tobacco and grain. Brabœuf and Chaumount, by the aid of a charitable and intelligent native woman, compared the Huron and Neuter dialects. The result is lost, but Chaumount, in his manu- script, makes the Neuters, Hurons, and Iroquois use parts of the same language. They dressed in the most primitive
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style. In their manners they resembled the Hurons, but did not, like them, engage in commerce.
Brabœuf foresaw that the French must have a post among them in order to extend commerce and Christianity, but their jealousy prevented his taking out his astrolabe to find the lati- tude of the Niagara River, and he had to content himself with roughly estimating it at 42 degrees. The missionary, Sayard, suffered at the stake, and the cognizance of the Jesuits was from that time withdrawn from the Eries. When the valley was finally opened it was in possession of the Senecas, and a tradition was rife corresponding with that of Cusic, that the Eries had been expelled in a bloody war and exterminated.
And these traditions extend down almost to our own day. David Eddy, a resident of Hamburg, near Buffalo, and who settled there in 1804, relates that in early times there was an Indian living upon the reservation who probably was 115 years of age. He was a Christian, and had been a peace- maker through life, and related to Mr. Eddy the following : That a nation called the Eries once inhabited all that region- that they were a powerful, warlike people, dreaded and feared by all other tribes, but were finally warred upon and their country conquered by the Senecas.
Fortifications and mounds in Western New York indicate a race more skillful and persevering than the Senecas or the Indians known to the first white travelers. In many cases the mounds have trees growing upon them, the circles of which date them back a period of 300 years. Symbols of this extinct race have been found on Cunningham's or Kelly's Island, near Sandusky, Ohio. This island is about three miles long and two broad, and in consequence of the fine air, and its facilities for fishing and bathing, is a favorite summer resort. It is now, also, highly cultivated, and noted for pro- ducing an abundance of the finest grapes. The island is described as having a horizontal limestone basis like the main land, and rises fifteen feet above the water level. Where the rock is exposed, it appears to have been polished by diluvial or glacial action. The Indian remains discovered there consist of pictographic characters on the rocks, and earth-work em- bankments.
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A drawing of these was made upon strong paper in 1851, and transmitted to Mr. George Johnson, of Sault St. Marie, a gentleman well versed in Indian languages, and by him was submitted to the examination of Shingowank, or Little Pine. The result of his inquiries was, that the island was the strong- hold of the Eries during their fierce and unsuccessful contest with the Iroquois. On the south side of the island there is a crest-shaped and irregular earth-work, which has the general appearance of an embankment or circumvallation intended to inclose and defend a village. The embankment is 1246 feet around the crest-shaped part, and about 400 feet on the rock brink of the island. Another embankment on the western side is 614 feet front and 1243 feet around. Within these have been found stone axes, pipes, perforations, bone fish-hooks, fragments of pottery, arrow-heads, net-sinkers, and frag- ments of human bones. The arrow-heads were found in a fissure of the rock in large quantities, were evidently new, and had been concealed in this kind of rude armory ; with them was found the largest species of axe figured, which had been apparently used. Five small mounds or burrows were also found on the southern and western parts of the island. On the north shore, on a bay, there is a brief pictographic in- scription on a boulder, which has been reversed by the force of the waters in a tempest.
The interest of this, however, is inferior to that excited by a sculptured rock thirty feet by twenty-one, lying on the south shore of the island, about 200 feet from the west angle of the inclosure. The surface is smoothly polished, as well as the deeply-cut inscription, apparently by glacial attrition. According to Schoolcraft "it is the most extensive, and well- sculptured, and well-preserved inscription of the kind ever found in America." Its leading symbols are readily inter- preted, and tell a thrilling story, in which the European acts a part. There are many subordinate figures which require study. In some, the atmosphere and lake action have de- stroyed the connection, and others are of an anomalous char- acter. The whole inscription is manifestly connected with the occupation of the basin of the lake by the Eries, the coming of the Wyandots, and of the final flight of the people
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which have left their name upon the lake. There is an attempt to denote the position of Lake Erie ; pictures of two brothers surveying a scene of carnage-a pipe reversed, which indicates that they are despairing and agonized. They are wild forest Indians, being drawn without hats. The date of these inscriptions is placed at 1625.
The Eries were known to be in "the plenitude of their power and barbaric boast of strength and influence" at the period of the first discoveries of the French in the beginning of the seventeenth century. From the French they learned the use of firearms, and the Iroquois from the Dutch about the same time.
About five miles south of Franklin, Venango County, or nine by the river, on the left bank of the Allegheny, is a large rock covered with symbols or hieroglyphics, known by the present inhabitants as the "Indian God." Among the figures may be distinguished a turtle, a snake, an eye, an arrow, a sun, etc., symbols which undoubtedly record the exploits and illustrious actions of departed and forgotten nations. They have never been examined, that we are aware of, by any one capable of deciphering them. Many Indian graves are in the vicinity.
The only traces of an Indian village in Erie County are near Waterford, where there is a burying ground, plum orchard, and other evidences of the Indians having chosen the hills around Lake Le Bœuf, and the beautiful creeks which flow into and from it, for their homes and hunting-grounds. The Six Nations were found in this region by the first white travelers (in fact, it was purchased from them), and yet com- paratively few Indian remains are discovered. On the ridge a mile south and east of Erie, in making excavations, perhaps twenty years ago, a great number of human bones were found and graves opened, so that Mr. Colt, the owner of the land, considered it almost desecration to disturb them, and ordered the workmen to desist, feeling that it would be more appro- priate to place a monument there.
An Indian mound was opened near the mouth of Walnut Creek (in which vicinity many relics are found), and some fragments of decomposed human skeletons were all that could
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be discovered. Two miles west of this mound is an embank- ment covered with the ordinary forest growth, which is known as the Old Indian Fort. A small stream near by is called Fort Run.
There are also remains of an Indian fort between Girard and Springfield. From a grave in this vicinity, some years ago, a thigh bone was exhumed which measured four inches longer than that of a man with which it was compared, who was six feet and two inches in height. About a mile south of Girard, arrow-heads, pipes, pestles for pounding corn, etc., have been found. Near Mr. Gould's, in Springfield, four or five years since, more than fifty arrows, axes, etc., were found in one col- lection, just below the surface in the public road.
An ancient double fortification, inclosing about two acres, upon the Pomeroy farm, a mile or two northwest of Cranes- ville, has been pretty much farmed over. On the top of the bank, in 1830, oak trees four or five feet in diameter were growing. Skinning-stones, arrow-heads, an enormous skele- ton, and many other relics were found within the fort. A bed of coals a foot and a half below the surface appeared to be the remains of the fire of the occupants.
About one hundred yards above, on the opposite bank of the creek, was another fort, similar in appearance, and contain- ing about the same quantity of ground. They are supposed to have been the encampments of two opposing armies.
In Scouler's woods, east of Erie, is an Indian burying- ground. Mr. Fredrick Zimmerman described a very large skeleton which was found there; with it were two copper bowls perforated at the edges and laced together with a buck- skin thong, which fell to dust soon after being exposed to the air. The bowls, which would contain about a pint each, were found filled with beads.
A year or two since, on the farm of Judge Sterrett, four or five miles east of Erie, several skeletons were found in a sitting posture, facing the east, with drinking vessels near them. The same posture has been observed in other Indian graves in this vicinity. We are not aware that any antiqua- rian has particularly examined these relics, or whether they resemble in their general features those of New York and
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Ohio, which are said to give evidence of a race more skillful and persevering than the Iroquois. There is a tradition, as we have seen, that the Eries two hundred years ago possessed our soil ; and still another, that the Massassagues had their hunt- ing-grounds and lighted their council fires near the head waters of the Allegheny. It is difficult to realize that our fair lands were so recently under the dominion of the hideous, painted savages, and that but little more than two generations have passed since heathenish rites and ceremonies prevailed, and the bow and arrow gave place to the peaceful arts of civil- ized life.
CHAPTER II.
La Salle-The Griffon-Relics-Governor Shirley's Proposition- Braddock's Advice- Governor Delancy's Plan- Estimating Presqu'ile-Hudson's Bay Company.
AMONG the adventurers who sought fame and fortune in the American wilderness, stood conspicuously Robert Cavalier, Sieur de la Salle, a young man of eminence and learning. He had received from Louis XIV. the rank of nobleman, a large do- main, and an exclusive trading privilege with the Five Nations, but his ambition was far from being satisfied with these. To extend the bounds of New France and to open commerce with Europe seemed to be his great object, and to this end he pro- posed a plan which was carried out many years after-that of establishing military posts on the waters of the Mississippi.
August 7, 1679, he launched the first wooden vessel that ever floated upon Lake Erie and called it "The Griffon," in allusion to the arms of Count Frontenac, Governor-General of Canada, and who had honored La Salle with his friendship. 1
1 There has been a diversity of opinions as to the locality of the Griffon ship-yard. Schoolcraft says near Buffalo; General Cass, at Erie; Sparks, on the Canadian side of the Niagara ; Bancroft, in his first edition, at the mouth of Tonawanta Creek (see his letter). Others, who have carefully examined the subject, and have had the best opportunity for judging, are firm in the belief that the keel was laid at the mouth of Cayuga Creek, on the American side of the Niagara, about six miles above the Great Falls. In the vicinity, it has long been known by the name of the "Old Ship-yard." La Salle is now a railroad station there. Bancroft's state- ment is in the first edition only of the History of the United States. See Bancroft's note on the subject.
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'The Griffon was of sixty tons burden, and built at Cayuga Creek, six miles above the falls, on the American side. The Iroquois had gone to war beyond the lake while the Griffon was building ; the few that remained manifested their dissatis- faction, and one, affecting to be drunk, attempted to kill a blacksmith. They were advised that some Senecas intended setting fire to the vessel while on the stocks, but a very strict watch was kept constantly. The Senecas refused to sell them Indian corn, and they had many fears of a failure of pro- visions, but Sunday exhortations kept up the courage of the workmen. Two savages of the Wolf tribe were engaged to hunt the roebuck, and other species of deer, for their use. The workmen were stimulated by the impression that the enterprise had sole reference to the glory of God, and the wel- fare of the Christian colonies. When the vessel was launched, it was blessed according to the Church of Rome. It was a moving fort, causing the savages to tremble wherever it was known. The Griffon passed the violent rapids of Lake Erie almost by miracle, the pilot himself having fears. They spread all sail, the wind being stormy, and in the most diffi- cult places the sailors threw out lines which were drawn by ten or twelve men on the shore. After having chanted Te Deum, they fired all their cannon or arbesques in the presence of the Iroquois warriors and the captives they had brought from Tin-ton-ha, or people of the prairie.
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It was freighted with provisions, merchandise, and seven small cannon, and had on board thirty-two passengers, being mostly fur traders and priests. In twenty days this perilous voyage was accomplished, and the pioneer vessel cast anchor in Green Bay. On the passage they encountered a severe storm. Among other tarryings, they gathered fruits, and made wine of the wild grapes of Michigan, discussed the question of planting a colony at Detroit, and established a trading-house at Mackinaw. At Green Bay the vessel was loaded with the finest furs, and again set sail for Niagara, but was never afterward heard from with certainty. Hennepin says : "It came to anchor at the mouth of the Lake Illinois, where it was seen by some savages, who told us that they ad- vised our men to sail along the coast, and not toward the
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middle of the lake, because of the sands that make the lake dangerous when there are high winds. Our pilot, as I said before, was dissatisfied, and would steer as he pleased, without hearing to the advice of the savages, who, generally speaking, have more sense than the Europeans think at first. But the ship was hardly a league from the coast when it was tossed up by a violent storm in such a manner that our men were never heard from since ; and it is supposed that the ship struck upon a sand, and was there buried. This was a great loss, for the ship and cargo cost 60,000 livres. The rigging, anchors, and goods were brought by canoes from Quebec and Fort Frontinac, which is such a vast charge that the carriage of every hundredweight cost eleven livres." Another author says the Griffon was lost a few days after leaving the Bay of Fetid. This and other misfortunes completely disheartened the daring traveler, as evinced by the name "Crevecoeur," which he gave his fort built the same winter. After seven years of wanderings and adverse fortune, La Salle was basely robbed and murdered by one of his own men, and left with- out sepulture on the prairie, to be devoured by the wild beasts.
Parkman says of La Salle : " Ten years of his early life had passed in connection with the Jesuits, and his strong mind had hardened to iron under the discipline of that relentless school. To a sound judgment and penetrating sagacity, he joined a boundless enterprise and an adamantine constancy of purpose. But his nature was stern and austere-he was prone to rule by fear rather than love-he took counsel of no man, and chilled all who approached him by his cold reserve."
There was a tradition among the Jesuits that the Griffon was driven ashore in a gale, the crew murdered, and the vessel plundered. Judging from relics found at different times, this may have occurred near Buffalo. In the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, of January 26, 1848, a communication appears from James W. Peters, of East Evans, Erie County : "Some thirty- five or forty years ago, on the Ingersoll farm, in Hamburg, below the Eighteen-mile Creek, and on a high bank in the woods, was found by Mr. Ingersoll a large quantity of wrought-iron, supposed to be 700 or 800 weight. It was evidently taken off a vessel, was of superior quality, much
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eaten by rust, and sunken deep in the soil. A large tree had fallen across it which was rotted and mixed with the earth. There were trees growing over the iron from six to twelve inches in diameter, which had to be grubbed up before all the iron could be reached. About twenty-seven years since, a man by the name of Walker, after a heavy blow on the lake, found on the beach, near where the irons were found, a cannon, and immediately under it a second one. I was there not forty-eight hours after they were found; they were much defaced by age and rust, and filled up with sand. I cleared off enough from one to lay a number of the letters bare. The words were French, and so declared at the time. The horns or trunnions were knocked off."
The venerable D. Eddy, of Hamburg, says: "In 1805 there was found upon the lake shore, where a large body of sand and gravel had been removed during a violent gale, a beauti- ful anchor. It was taken to Buffalo and Black Rock, and ex- cited a good deal of curiosity ; but no one could determine to what vessel it belonged." A record of the loss of a vessel at a later period than that of La Salle would in all probability have been preserved, and we may reasonably conclude that the iron, cannon, and anchor were those of the Griffon.
In the Maryland Gazette, August 23, 1759, we find the fol- lowing : "By a letter from Niagara, of the 21st ult., we learn that by the assistance and influence of Sir William Johnson there were upwards of eleven hundred Indians convened there, who by their good behavior have justly gained the esteem of the whole army ; that Sir William being informed that the enemy had buried a quantity of goods on an island about twenty miles from the post, sent a number of Indians to search for them, who found to the value of eight thousand pounds, and were in hopes of finding more ; and that a French vessel, entirely laden with beaver, had foundered on the lake, where her crew, consisting of forty-one men, were all lost.". This vessel, lost eighty years after the Griffon, we have no ac- count of elsewhere. The relics found at Hamburg were but forty-six years after this time-not a sufficient period to cause the appearance those relics presented, the anchor deeply im- bedded in sand and gravel, the timber growth, etc.
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