USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > The history of Erie County, Pennsylvania > Part 7
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At this time, also, provision was made to protract the en- listment of troops at Le Bœuf, 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 occurrences should take place which, in the opinion of the Governor, 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 citi- zen 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 Sur- veyor 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 ac- counts from the country north and west of the Rivers Ohio, Allegheny, and Connewango Creek, represented it as danger- ous to go into that country. In the latter part of said year I received 390 warrants, the property of the Penn. Popula-
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tion 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. 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 mentioned, was that on the warrant in the name of John McCullough. Before I had completed I was fre- quently 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 immedi- ately 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 General 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 num- ber 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
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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 Com- pany, during that season, 79,700 acres of land, of which 7150 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 considera- ble number of people came out into the country, and num- bers 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 Conneant Creeks, by an association under the title of
-, which impeded considerably the progress of the settle- ments under the Population Company. In the latter part of the month of May or the beginning of June, 1797, a second association 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 Tri- angle; 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 Population 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
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of -to the Pennsylvania Population Company, March 4th, 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.
"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 land, valued at one dollar per acre, to each of the first set- tlers, 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 Pennsylvania 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 exist- ing 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 Pennsyl- vania Population Company, and district surveyor, as I had the land improved. Before my applying to Rees, I men- tioned 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, dis- trict surveyor, and he entered my name in a book kept for that purpose as a claimant for so much land, and gave me a
8
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certificate 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, with- out 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 intended holding it upon the same principles that I made my applications in 1795. He then asked me for the privi- lege of building a vessel and storehouse upon my tract of land. I told him that there were more persons concerned 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 tract of land by making these improvements; and upon these conditions I granted him liberty to build the vessel and storehouse. Afterward in my absence 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 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."
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- wanta village. At the mouth of Buffalo Creek there was but one white man, named Winne, an Indian trader. His building stood just as you descend from the high ground (near where the Mansion House 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 abund-
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ant. 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 wilder- ness. 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 from the ground, his body wound around it, and measured seven feet and three inches.
" At Presqu'ile (Erie) we found neither whites nor In- dians-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, etc. going to decay, and eight or ten acres of cleared land. On the pen- insula there was an old brick house forty or fifty feet square. The peninsula 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 track 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
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a part Pennsylvanians. At Le Bœuf there was a garrison of soldiers-about one hundred. There were several white families there, and a store of goods. Myself and compan- ions were in pursuit of land. By a law of Pennsylvania, such as built a log-house and cleared a few acres acquired a presumptive 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 Bœuf, we found there Colonel Seth Reed and his family. They had just arrived. We stopped and helped him build some huts; set up crotches, laid poles across, 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 lay- ing down strips of bark. James Baggs and Giles Sisson came on with Colonel Reed. I remained for a considerable time in his employ. It was not long before eight or ten other families came in .*
"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."
Captain Martin Strong, in a letter to William Nicholson, Esq., dated Waterford, January 8, 1855, says : "I came to Presqu'ile the last of July, 1795. A few days previons to this, a company of United States troops had commenced felling the timber on Garrison Hill, for the purpose of erect- ing a stockade garrison; also a corps of engineers had arrived, headed by General Ellicot, escorted by a company of Pennsylvania militia commanded by Captain John Grubb, to lay out the town of Erie.
"We all were in some degree under martial law, the two Rutleges having been shot a few days before (as was reported by the Indians) near the site of the present railroad depot.
* This is double the number given in the article by Captain Strong, whose testimony from the circumstances ought to have the preference.
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Thomas Rees, Esq., and Colonel 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 mo- tives 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 Wal- nut 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 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 Captain 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
8*
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Shore Depot," was for a long time known as "Rutlege's grave," and the terror of the ignorant and superstitions. 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 Mead- ville, but survived only a short time. A rumor was current at the time that these murders were committed by white men in disguise ; 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 purchasers 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 Population Company, as under the most favorable cir- cumstances they could not have brought out fifty thousand families in the two years allotted them. Had it not been for these depredations, the company must have forfeited their lands.
The respectability of the managers would not allow us for a moment to entertain such thoughts ; and when we consider the strong inducements the actual settlers had for ferreting out the iniquity, their whole property in many cases being at stake, we must conclude that the murderers were what they appeared to be-Indians.
In the " Holland Purchase" we find an account of a visit of Augustus Porter, of Niagara Falls, made to Presqu'- ile with Judah Colt, in 1795. He says : "At that time, all that part of the State lying west of Phelps and Gorham's purchase was occupied by Indians, their title not yet be- ing extinguished. There was of course no road leading from Buffalo eastward except an Indian trail, and no settle- ment whatever on that trail. We traveled on horseback from Canawagas (Avon) to Buffalo, and were two days in performing the journey. At Buffalo there lived a man of
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the name of Johnstone, the British Indian interpreter, also a Dutchman and his family by the name of Middaugh, and an Indian trader by the name of Winne.
"From Buffalo we proceeded to Chippewa, Upper Canada, where we found Captain William Lee with a small row-boat, about to start for Presqu'ile, and waiting only for assistance to row the boat. Mr. Colt, Mr. Joshua Fairbanks, now of Lewiston, and myself joined him. Two days of hard rowing brought us to that place, where we found surveyors engaged in laying out the village now called Erie. Also a military company under the command of General Irvine, ordered there by the Governor of the State to protect the surveyors against the Indians. Colonel Seth Reed (father of Rufus S. Reed) was there with his family, living in a marquée, having just arrived. A Mr. Rees was also there, acting as agent for the Population Company. We returned in the same boat to Chippewa, and from thence on horseback by way of Queenston, on the Indian trail through Tonawanda Indian village to Canandaigua.
"During this expedition from Buffalo to Erie, a very remarkable circumstance presented itself, the like of which I had never before seen, nor have I since witnessed. Before starting from Buffalo we had been detained there two days by a heavy fall of rain, accompanied by a strong northeast gale. When off Cattaragus Creek on our upward passage, about one or two miles from land, we discovered, some dis- tance ahead, a white strip on the surface of the lake, extend- ing out from the shore as far as we could see. On approach- ing this white strip, we found it to be some five or six rods wide, its whole surface covered with fish of all the varieties common to the lake, lying on their sides as if dead. On touching them, however, they would dart below the surface, but immediately rise again to their former position. We commenced taking them by hand, making our selection of the best; and finding them perfectly sound, we took in a good number. On reaching Erie we had some of them
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cooked, and found them excellent. The position of these fishes on their sides in the water placed their mouths partly above and partly below the surface, so that they seemed to be inhaling both water and air; for at such effort at inhal- ing, bubbles would rise and float on the water. It was these bubbles that caused the white appearance on the lake's sur- face. I have supposed that these fish had, from some cause growing out of the extraordinary agitation of the lake by the gale from the eastward, and the sudden reflux of water from west to east after it had subsided, been thrown together in this way, and from some unknown natural cause had lost the power of regulating their specific gravity, which it is said they do by means of an air bladder furnished them by nature. I leave others, however, to explain this phenomenon."
Mr. Judah Colt, in a manuscript autobiography, says : "In August, 1795, Augustus Porter and myself set out from Canandaigua for Presqu'ile, for the purpose of purchasing lands-went on horseback to Niagara, where we left our horses and took passage with Captain Wm. Lee in a small shallop to Presqu'ile. On our arrival there we found a num- ber of men encamped in that quarter. The United States troops were erecting a fort. General William Irvine and Andrew Ellicot, State Commissioners, were laying out the town of Erie, and had in their service about one hundred militia troops. We purchased and took certificates of four hundred acres of land each-made but a short stay, and returned the way we came. The season was extremely dry and warm. We suffered much from heat, drought, and mus- quitoes. Shortly after my return I was taken sick with bilious fever, which reduced me very low."
The next March, Mr. Colt being in Philadelphia, made an offer to the Population Company of one dollar per acre for thirty thousand acres of land off the east end of the Triangle; they declined selling in so large a body, but contracted with him to be their agent at a salary of fifteen hundred dollars per year, and all expenses paid
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by them. Powers of attorney and letters were made out, maps of the country were furnished, and money advanced to purchase provisions, hire laborers, etc. In the month of April he set out for the Geneseo country; at New York laid in stores of provisions, sundry kinds of goods, farm- ing and cooking utensils such as are generally wanted in a new country. They were shipped to Albany, thence · across the portage in wagons, from thence in batteaux up the Mohawk River and through the lakes to Presqu'ile. On their arrival at Oswego, they were stopped by the British garrison there, and only an empty boat allowed to pass to Niagara and obtain of Governor Simcoe permission to proceed with their loading. Shortly after this they were informed of the treaty being ratified by Congress, which was made by Mr. Jay with the British Government, and which had been for some time under consideration.
Mr. Colt says : "I arrived myself at the town of Erie on the twenty-second of June, and my boats with the provisions the first of July following, and shortly after proceeded to business. I erected my tent or marquée near the old French garrison, and continued to reside there through the summer. There was a captain's command stationed at this village, in a garrison laid out and builded in the summer of 1795. In August rode down to Pittsburg, and attended a vendue for the sale of parts of the Erie Reserve; visited the agent who had the superintendence of a portion of the company's lands on the waters of the Beaver; found the country new, with but few inhabitants; roads bad, and accommodations poor ; encamped at night, and tied my horse hand and foot. The journey was very fatiguing, owing to the dry and warm sea- son. Returned to Erie in safety, and in September went on horseback, principally alone, through the wilderness to Can- andaigua. After making a short visit to my family, returned to Erie, where I continued the business of my agency until the first of November. During the season met with consid- erable opposition from adverse settlers. After arranging
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the affairs of the company for the winter, and leaving the agency in the care of Elisha and Enoch Marvin, we set out again for Philadelphia (by way of Canandaigua) on the fourth of November, and after about two weeks of hard labor, and running much danger of losing ourselves, we arrived with our boat at the mouth of Genesee River," etc.
It is said all the white inhabitants west of this river, on the lakes, were those in the garrison of Niagara; two fami- lies at Lewiston; a British Indian interpreter, two Indian traders and one family at Buffalo; a few settlers and a garri- son at Presqu'ile ; a party of New England surveyors with two families at Conneaut, Ohio; one family at Cleveland; a French trader at Sandusky, and the settlement at Detroit.
The first settlers in Erie County were mostly, as in the case of the Reeds, Colts, Strongs, Judsons, etc., from moral, thrifty, intelligent New England ; or, like the Mileses, Vin- cents, Kings, Hamiltons, etc., perhaps a more numerous class, of the illustrious, historic race of Scotch-Irish -- "memorable for their devotion to liberty and religion, and ever ready to die upon the battle-field in the defense of the one, or to burn at the stake as a testimony for the other."
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