USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > The history of Erie County, Pennsylvania, from its first settlement > Part 7
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At Buffalo Creek, June 18th, at a council of the Six Nations, Gen. Chapin was addressed by O'Beil, or Cornplanter, in sub- stance as follows :- " That they depended upon the Americans to do all in their power to assist them ; they wished Col. Johnson, British agent (who slyly prompted them), and Gen. Chapin to remove back over the line which they had laid out. This line began at O'Beil's town, and in a direct line crossed French Creek, just below Meade's, and on the head of the Cuyahoga ; from thence to the Muskingum, and down the Ohio and to its mouth, and up the Mississippi ; leaving a small square for a trading house at the mouth of the rivers, and one where Clarksville now stands. If this removal was attended to immediately, they should consider them friends ; if not, they must be considered enemies." Mr. Ellicot and Capt. Denny desired an interval of an hour to prepare an answer ; at the expiration of which they replied as follows : "By the peace of 1782 the king of Great Britain ceded all the lands of Pennsylvania which they claim, but from regard to justice they desired to fairly purchase it from the Six Nations-the real owners of the soil. The purchase north of the north boundary of Pennsylvania, west of the Conawango River, Lake Chautauqua, and the path leading from thence to Lake Erie, and south of said lake, was made of your chiefs at Fort Harmer (by Gens. Butler and Gibson,) and the money and goods punctually paid them. They had also sold those lands to such people as chose to settle and work them, and it was
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their duty to protect them from depredations. Their military preparations were intended as a defense from hostile Western Indians, not supposing they needed any from the Six Nations, whom they considered their friends and allies. They could not consistently with their duty remove from the lands they had purchased, unless directed to do so by the great council of the people, to whom they would immediately send their message. They had been ordered by the great council of Pennsylvania to their present post, and they could not move from thence until orders came for that purpose."
At another conference, held at the same place, the Indians maintained that "they had decided upon their boundaries, and wished for nothing but justice (forgetting their former contract) ; they wanted room for their children ; it would be hard for them not to have a country to live in when they were gone. Congress and their commissioners had often deceived them, and if these difficulties were not removed, the consequences would be bad. A number of their warriors were missing, and they supposed they had been killed by the Americans. Big Tree was one of the number, and a nephew of theirs (a Delaware) ; and it had been customary to make satisfaction (to pay a sum of money), which had not been done. If a garrison were established at Presqu'ile, the Southern Indians might do injury, and the Six Nations be blamed for it." Gen. Chapin replied that he was bound to look to the interests of both the Indians and the United States, and would accede to their wish, which was to accom- pany ten of their warriors and two chiefs to Presqu'ile, and to send their message immediately to the President.
They made the journey to Presqu'ile by water, and finding no one there (from fear of the Indians), they proceeded on foot to Le Bœuf, where they made known their business, which was to see the surveyors and forbid their running lines. They were informed that they had shortly before left the country by way of the river, and assurances were given them that the whole matter should be laid before the President. On their return to Buffalo Creek another council was held, when Cornplanter again insisted that their former request should be granted; they were determined the line should
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remain. Capt. Brandt, a Seneca, the year before, at a council, claimed the same line, the Muskingum. Where lands were actually settled and improved they were to be circumscribed by a line drawn around them, and no claim admitted beyond such line. He added : "They must not suspect that any other nation corrupted their minds ; the only thing that cor- rupted their minds was not to grant their request. There was but one word said that they liked at Le Boeuf, that was the gift of some land to O'Beil; and to complete his wishes, he desired they would give all the Six Nations land."
This refers to Mr. Ellicot, relating the particulars concern- ing the treaty at Fort Harmer, and informing the Indians that the State of Pennsylvania had made these grants of land to Capt. O'Beil. This present to Cornplanter was at the sug- gestion of Gen. Richard Butler, who had been witness to his 'usefulness in all the treaties since 1784. [He mentions that it would be good policy to secure the chief's attachment; and that his ideas of civilization would make the present grate- ful-that it could be made in such a manner as not to excite the jealousy of his own people, and wishes for the quiet and interest of the State, as well as the merit of the man, had prompted him in the liberty he was assuming.]
Gen. Chapin replied to Brandt that he hoped the Indians would " sit easy on their seats until they heard Gen. Washing- ton's voice," and that he would forward their speech to him immediately.
In reply to this, the President appointed a conference at Canandaigua in October, for the purpose of establishing a firm and permanent friendship with the Six Nations, and appointed Timothy Pickering sole agent for this purpose. Cornplanter was charged by his people at their council "with having been bribed in the sale of Presqu'ile, and that he and little Billy received $2,000 at Fort Harmer, and a like sum at Philadelphia" ; but these and all other difficulties were amicably settled. A large tract of land west of the Phelps and Gorham purchase in New York was reserved to them, with $14,500 in goods ; and fifty-nine sachems signed a treaty of perpetual peace and friendship with the United States.
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CHAPTER VII.
An Act to lay out the Towns of Erie, Waterford, Franklin, and Warren-To Protract the Enlistment of Troops at Le Bœuf- Deposition of Tho. Rees, Esq .- Actual Settlers-Memorial to the Population Company-Deacon Chamberlain's Story-Capt. Mar- tin Strong to Wm. Nicholson, Esq .- Louis Philippe at Mr. Rees's - Murder of Rutledge and his Son-Mr. Augustus Porter's Visit -Mr. Judah Colt's MS. Autobiography-Number of White Set- tlers on the Lakes west of Genesee River-Gen. Wayne's Death at Presqu'ile, 1796.
ALL difficulties being removed, April 18th, 1795, an act passed the Legislature to lay out a town at Presqu'ile, at the mouth of French Creek, at the mouth of Conewango Creek, and at Le Bœuf-being the towns of Erie, Franklin, Warren, and Waterford.
Two commissioners were appointed by the Governor to survey at Presqu'ile sixteen hundred acres for town lots, and thirty-four hundred adjoining for out lots (the three sections of about a mile each, only one half of which is now occupied), to be laid out into town lots and out lots ; the streets not less than sixty feet in width, nor more than one hundred ; no town lots to contain more than one third of an acre ; no out lot more than five acres; and the reservation for public uses not to exceed in the whole twenty acres. After the com- missioners had returned the surveys into the office of the secretary, the governor was to offer at auction one third of the town lots and one third of the out lots, upon the following con- ditions : that within two years one house be built at least sixteen feet square, with at least one stone or brick chimney. Patents were not to be issued till the same was performed, and all payments to be forfeited to the commonwealth in case of failure. (This condition was afterward repealed.) Exclusive of the survey of in lots and out lots, sixty acres were reserved on the southern side of the harbor of Presqu'ile for the accom-
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modation of the United States, in the erection of necessary forts, magazines, dock-yards, etc .; thirty acres to be on the bank, and the remainder below, comprehending the point at the entrance of the harbor; and upon the peninsula thirty acres at the entrance of the harbor, and one other lot of one hundred acres. The situation and forms of these lots were to be fixed by the commissioners and an engineer employed by the United States. Andrew Ellicot had previously surveyed and laid out Waterford, and an act was now passed to survey these five hundred acres for out lots, to reserve for public uses not more than ten acres, and to give actual settlers the right of pre-emption.
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At this time, also, provision was made to protract the enlist- ment of troops at Le Boeuf, not to exceed one hundred and thirty for the term of eight months. These were to protect and assist the commissioners, surveyors, etc .; and if occur- rences should take place which, in the opinion of the Gover- nor, should make a greater force requisite than the aforesaid, or Indian hostilities continue, and a defense be requisite for the western frontier, a complete company of expert riflemen might be raised.
Thomas Rees, Esq., for more than half a century a citizen of Erie County, made a deposition in 1806, which contains much information in a concise form. It is as follows: "Thomas Rees, of Harbor Creek Township, in Erie County, farmer, being sworn according to law, doth depose and say, as follows : I was appointed deputy surveyor of District No. 1, north and west of the Rivers Ohio, Allegheny, and Connewango Creek, now Erie County, in May, 1792, and opened an office in Northumberland County, which was the adjoining. The reason of this was, all accounts from the country north and west of the Rivers Ohio, Allegheny, and Connewango Creek, represented it as dangerous to go into that country. In the latter part of said year I received 390 warrants, the property of the Penn. Population Company, for land situated in the Triangle, and entered them the same year in my book of entries. In 1793 I made an attempt to go ; went to the mouth of Buffalo Creek to inquire of the Indians there whether they would permit me to go into my district to make surveys.
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They refused, and added that if I went into the country I would be killed. At the same time I received information from different quarters which prevented me from going that year. In 1794 I went into District No. 1, now Erie County, and made surveys on the 390 warrants mentioned above, in the Triangle, except one or two for which no lands could be found. Among the surveys made on the warrants above men- tioned, was that on the warrant in the name of John Mc- Cullough. Before I had completed I was frequently alarmed by hearing of the Indians killing persons on the Allegheny River, in consequence of which, as soon as the surveys were completed, I removed from the country and went to Franklin, where I was informed that there were a number of Indians belonging to the Six Nations going to Le Bœuf, to order the troops off that ground. I immediately returned to Le Bœuf. The Indians had left that place one day before I arrived there. I was told by Major Denny, then commanding at that place, that the Indians had brought Gen. Chapin, the Indian agent, with them to Le Bœuf ; that they were very much displeased, and told him not to build a garrison at Presqu'ile.
"There were no improvements made, nor any persons living on any tract of land within my district during the year 1794. In the year 1795, I went into the country and took a number of men with me. We kept in a body, as there appeared to be great danger, and continued so for that season. There was no work done of any consequence, nor was any person, to my knowledge, residing on any tract within my district. In the course of the summer the commissioners came on to lay out the town of Erie, with a company of men to guard them. There were two persons killed within one mile of Presqu'ile, and others in different parts of the country ; such were the fears that though some did occasionally venture out to view the lands, many would not. We all laid under the protection of the troops.
" I sold, as agent of the Pennsylvania Population Company, during that season, 79,700 acres of land, of which 7,150 acres were a gratuity. The above quantity of land was applied for and sold to two hundred persons. That fall we left the country. In the spring of 1796 a considerable number of
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people came out into the country, and numbers went to the farms that they had purchased from the Population Company. The settlements during this year were very small.
"The latter part of this year, the opposition commenced against the Population Company on the waters of Elk and Conneaut Creeks, by an association under the title of
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which impeded considerably the progress of the settlements under the Population Company. In the latter part of the month of May or the beginning of June, 1797, a second asso- ciation made its appearance in opposition to the title of the Population Company on the waters of French Creek, near the New York State line, under the title of --; and another on the northeast corner of the Triangle ; and were active in their opposition to the claims of the Population Company, and to the exertions of its agents for the improvement and settlement of the country. They took great pains to impress upon the minds of persons who came into the country with the intention of settling in it, that the Popula- tion Company had no title to the lands which they claimed, and induced all over whom they could gain any influence to settle and claim in opposition to the Population Company."
Compromises were afterward effected with many of the actual settlers, and their course was not unjustifiable until after the decisions of the courts. To show the ground taken by them I have inserted the following article : "Memorial of - to the Pennsylvania Population Company, March 4, 1799. Agreeable to the encouragement held out to settlers in the western part of the County of Allegheny, I moved in the year 1795 within sixteen miles of Presqu'ile, on Lake Erie. I entered into an article of agreement with a number of persons in Northumberland County, previous to my moving to Presqu'ile ; the purport of the article was that I was to go and purchase or improve lands in that county, and that they were to share equal with me in all purchases or improvements that I should make.
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"One very great encouragement to my going there was that the Pennsylvania Population Company published in different parts of Pennsylvania, offering, as an encouragement to the first settlers that would go, one hundred and fifty acres of
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land, valued at one dollar per acre, to each of the first settlers, with the remainder to make up a tract of four hundred acres ; which remaining part was to be bought. And in order to give greater encouragement to settlers, the State of Pennsyl- vania offered, in a law passed in the year 1792, land at seven pounds ten shillings per one hundred acres, and ten years to pay it. Under these prospects I moved to that county, being one of the first settlers. The law then existing provided that an office would be opened in each district, which was not the case when I moved there ; but I went and applied to Thomas Rees, who was agent for the Pennsylvania Population Com- pany, and district surveyor, as I had the land improved. Before my applying to Rees, I mentioned if the land belonged to the company I would comply with their terms, and if the land belonged to the State of Pennsylvania I would comply with the terms the State held out to settlers. Finding no surveys made I believed the land belonged to the State, and improved upon it with these intentions, as being the proper person who should hold it by virtue of my improvements. I applied to Mr. Rees, distriet surveyor, and he entered my name in a book kept for that purpose as a claimant for so much land, and gave me a certifieate for those lands, and had them surveyed, and I paid him five dollars for each tract, for surveying.
"After I had lived two years peaceably upon the land, without meeting with any opposition whatever, the agent for the company came out and requested of me to know how I wished or intended to hold the land. I answered, that I in- tended holding it upon the same principles that I made my applications in 1795. He then asked me for the privilege of building a vessel and storehouse upon my tract of land. I told him that there were more persons coneerned in this land than myself, and if I granted any privilege of that kind, he must consider that I did not intend him to hold any right of any kind to the traet of land by making these improvements ; and upon these conditions I granted him liberty to build the vessel and storehouse. Afterward in my absenee he took possession of a mill-seat upon the same tract, and engaged the millwright I had verbally engaged to build a mill upon the
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same seat, and gave them possession. On my return, finding he had abused those privileges I had granted him, I went and discharged the millwrights and ship carpenters."
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. Deacon Hinds Chamberlain, of Le Roy, New York, in com- pany with Jesse Beach and Reuben Heath, journeyed to Presqu'ile in 1795. Deacon Chamberlain describes the tour as follows : "We saw one white man, named Poudery, at Tona- wanda village. At the mouth of Buffalo Creek there was but one white man, named Winne, an Indian trader. His build- ing stood just as you descend from the high ground (near where the Mansion House now stands, corner of Main and Exchange Streets). He had rum, whisky, Indian knives, trinkets, etc. His house was full of Indians, and they looked at us with a good deal of curiosity. We had but a poor night's rest-the Indians were in and out all night getting liquor. The next day we went up the beach of the lake to the mouth of Cattaraugus Creek, where we encamped ; a wolf came down near our camp, and deer were quite abundant. In the morning went up to the Indian village ; found 'Black Joe's' house, but he was absent. He had, however, seen our tracks upon the beach of the lake, and hurried home to see what white people were traversing the wilderness. The Indians stared at us ; Joe gave us a room where we should not be annoyed by Indian curiosity, and we stayed with him over night. All he had to spare us in the way of food was some dried venison ; he had liquor, Indian goods, and bought furs. Joe treated us with so much civility that we remained until near noon. There were at least one hundred Indians and squaws gathered to see us. Among the rest there were sitting in Joe's house, an old squaw and a young, delicate- looking white girl dressed like a squaw. I endeavored to find out something about her history, but could not. She seemed inclined not to be noticed, and had apparently lost the use of our language. With an Indian guide provided by Joe we started upon the Indian trail for Presqu'ile.
"Wayne was then fighting the Indians, and our guide often pointed to the West, saying, 'bad Indians there.' Between Cattaraugus and Erie I shot a black snake, a racer, with a white ring around his neck. He was in a tree twelve feet
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from the ground, his body wound around it, and measured seven feet and three inches.
"At Presqu'ile (Erie) we found neither whites nor Indians- all was solitary. There were some old French brick buildings, (why did they make bricks, surrounded as they were by stone and timber ?) wells, block-houses, ete., going to decay, and eight or ten acres of eleared land. On the peninsula there was an old brick house forty or fifty feet square. The penin- sula was covered with cranberries.
" After staying there one night we went over to Le Bœuf, about sixteen miles distant, pursuing an old French road. Trees had grown up in it, but the traek was distinct. Near Le Bœuf we came upon a company of men who were cutting out the road to Presqu'ile-a part of them were soldiers and a part Pennsylvanians. At Le Bœuf there was a garrison of soldiers-about one hundred. There were several white fami- lies there, and a store of goods. Myself and companions were in pursuit of land. By a law of Pennsylvania, such as built a log-house and cleared a few acres acquired a presump- tive right-the right to purchase at five dollars per hundred acres. We each of us made a location near Presqu'ile. On our return to Presqu'ile from Le Boeuf, we 'found there Col. Seth Reed and his family. They had just arrived. We stopped and helped him build some huts; set up. crotches, laid poles aeross, and covered them with the bark of the cucumber-tree. At first the Colonel had no floors ; afterward he indulged in the luxury of floors made by laying down strips of bark. James Baggs and Giles Sisson came on with Col. Reed. I remained for a considerable time in his employ. It was not long before eight or ten other families came in.1
"On our return we again stayed at Buffalo over night with Winne. There was at the time a great gathering of hunting parties of Indians there. Winne took from them all their knives and tomahawks, and then selling them liquor, they had a great carousal."
Capt. Martin Strong, in a letter to William Nieholson, Esq., dated Waterford, January 8, 1855, says : "I came to Presqu'-
1 Tbis is double the number given in the article by Capt. Strong, whose testimony from the circumstances ought to have the preference.
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ile the last of July, 1795. A few days previous to this, a com- pany of United States troops had commenced felling the timber on Garrison Hill, for the purpose of erecting a stock- ade garrison ; also a corps of engineers had arrived, headed by Gen. Ellicot, escorted by a company of Pennsylvania militia commanded by Capt. John Grubb, to lay out the town of Erie.
"We all were in some degree under martial law, the two Rutledges having been shot a few days before (as was reported by the Indians) near the site of the present Lake Shore rail- road depot. Thomas Rees, Esq., and Col. Seth Reed and family (the only family in the Triangle) were living in tents and booths of bark, with plenty of good refreshment for all itinerants that chose to call, many of whom were drawn here from motives of curiosity and speculation. Most of the land along the lake was sold this summer at one dollar per acre, subject to actual settlement. We were then in Allegheny County. . . Le Bœuf had a small stockade garrison of forty men, located on the site of the old French fort ; a few remains of the old entrenchment were then visible. In 1795 there were but four families residing in what is now Erie County. These were of the names of Reed, Talmage, Miles, and Baird. The first mill built in the Triangle was at the mouth of Walnut Creek ; there were two others built about the same time in what is now Erie County : one by William Miles, on the north branch of French Creek, now Union ; the other by William Culbertson, at the inlet of Conneauttee Lake, near Edinboro.
" Half a century ago the winters were more regular, and snows deeper than in late years, and I think are become more favorable for vegetation."
When Mr. Rees was living in his tent on the bank of the lake, "with plenty of good refreshment for all itinerants that chose to call," he was honored with a royal visitor. Louis Philippe, his younger brother, and an attendant, spent a day or two with him, to refresh and rest themselves in their travels. After expressing themselves delighted with the lake scenery, they proceeded on their journey, Mr. Rees pro- viding them with an Indian guide to Canandaigua. The
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brother, who was delicate and engrossed much of the care of the others, was suspected of being the Dauphin, but it proved otherwise.
The two persons spoken of by Esquire Rees and Capt. Strong, "as having been killed by the Indians, as was reported," were a father and son, who were rather prominent actual settlers. The site of the City Mills, near the "Lake Shore Depot," was for a long time known as "Rutledge's grave," and was the terror of the ignorant and superstitious. The elder Rutledge was dead when found, the son scalped and also shot, but still alive, and placed against a tree. He was attended by Dr. Kennedy, a skillful physician, of Meadville, but survived only a short time. A rumor was current at the time that these murders were committed by white men dis- guised as Indians ; but no evidence admissible in a court of justice was adduced. Several suits brought by the Population Company against the actual settlers turned upon this point, namely, that the company had been prevented from settling their lands by the enemies of the United States, the purchas- ers considering it unsafe to bring their families out, or even themselves to be away from the protection of the fort. The murders were certainly fortunate, financially, for the Popul- ation Company, as under the most favorable circumstances they could not have brought out fifty thousand families in the two years alloted them. Had it not been for these depreda- tions, the company must have forfeited their lands.
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